his hellish trade is what they call
setting of young gentlemen, apprentices, and others; this ought to be
deemed felony without benefit of clergy; for it is the worst of
thievery. Under pretence of taking a bottle, or spending an evening
gaily, they draw their cull to the tavern, where they sit not long
before the devil's bones or books are found accidentally on purpose, by
the help of which they strip my gentleman in an instant, and then
generously lend him his own money, to lose afresh, and create a debt
which is but too often more justly paid than those more justly due.

If we look into some late bankruptcies we shall find some noted
gamesters the principal creditors; I think, in such cases it would be
but justice to make void the gamester's debt, and subject his estate to
make good the deficiencies of the bankrupt's effects. If traders have no
more wit, the public should have pity on them; and make it as penal to
lose as to win; and, in truth, if cards, dice, &c., were totally
suppressed, industry and arts would increase the more; gaming may make a
man crafty, but not polite; one may understand cards and dice perfectly
well, and be a blockhead in everything else.

I am sorry to see it so prevalent in the city among the trading part of
mankind, who have introduced it into their clubs, and play so high of
late that many bankrupts have been made by this pernicious practice.

It is the bane of all conversation; and those who can't sit an hour
without gaming, should never go into a club to spoil company. In a word,
it is mere madness, and a most stupid thing to hazard one's fortune, and
perplex one's mind; nay, to sit up whole nights, poring over toys of
pipped ivory and painted pasteboard, making ourselves worse than little
children, whose innocent sports we so much ridicule.

To sum up all, I think it would be a noble retribution, to subject
gamesters' estates to the use and support of the poor widows and orphans
of their unfortunate bubbles.

Sunday debauches are abuses that call loud for amendment; it is in this
pernicious soil the seeds of ruin are first sown. Instead of a day of
rest, we make it a day of labour, by toiling in the devil's vineyard;
and but too many surfeit themselves with the fruits of gluttony,
drunkenness, and uncleanness.

Not that I am so superciliously strict, to have the sabbath kept as
rigidly here as in Scotland, but then there ought to be a medium between
the severity of a fast, and t