e duke had believed that Mr
Adolphus could have entertained such an intention he would not have
addressed him. The duke troubles Mr Adolphus again upon this subject,
as, in consequence of the editor of the "Morning Chronicle" having
thought proper to advert to this subject in a paragraph published on the
18th instant, the duke has referred the paper of that date and that of
the 12th to the Attorney and Solicitor-general, his counsel, to consider
whether the editor ought not to be prosecuted.

'The duke requests, therefore, that Mr Adolphus will not notice the
subject in the way he proposes until the gentlemen above mentioned will
have decided upon the advice which they will give the duke.'(135)

(135) 'Dispatches,' vol. ii. part i.

The result was, however, that the matter was allowed to drop, as the
duke was advised by his counsel that the paragraph in the "Morning
Chronicle," though vile, was not actionable. The positive declaration of
the duke, 'that in the whole course of his life he never won or lost L20
at any game, and that he never played at Hazard, or any game of chance,
in any public place or club, nor been for some years at all at any such
place,' should set the matter at rest. Certainly the duke was afterwards
an original member of Crockford's Club, founded in 1827, but, unlike
Blucher, who repeatedly lost everything at play, 'The Great Captain,' as
Mr Timbs puts it, 'was never known to play deep at any game but war or
politics.'(136)

(136) Club Life in London.

This remarkable deference to private character and public opinion, on
the part of the Duke of Wellington, is in wonderful contrast with the
easy morality of the Old Bailey advocate, Mr Adolphus, who did not
hesitate to declare gambling 'an act in itself indifferent--and which,
until the times had assumed a character of _AFFECTED_ rigour, was
considered rather as a proof of good society than as an offence against
good order.' This averment of so distinguished a man may, perhaps,
mitigate the horror we now feel of the gambling propensities of our
ancestors; and it is a proof of some sort of advancement in morals, or
good taste, to know that no modern advocate would dare to utter such a
sentiment.

Other great names have been associated with gambling; thus Mr T. H.
Duncombe says, speaking of Crockford's soon after its foundation:--'Sir
St Vincent Cotton (Lord Combermere), Lord Fitzroy Somerset (Raglan),
the Marquis of Anglesey, Sir Husse