should be apt to construe it as an affront, and demand an explanation. As to the ladies, I would desire them to reflect how much they would suffer if their own weapons were turned against them, and the gentlemen should attack them with the same arts of laughing and whispering. But, however free they may be from our resentment, they are still open to ill-natured suspicions. They do not consider what strange constructions may be put on these laughs and whispers. It were, indeed, of little consequence if we only imagined, that they were taking the reputations of their acquaintance to pieces, or abusing the company round; but when they indulge themselves in this behaviour, some may, perhaps, be led to conclude, that they are discoursing upon topics which they are ashamed to speak of in a less private manner.

Some excuse may, perhaps, be framed for this ill-timed merriment in the fair sex. Venus, the goddess of beauty, is frequently called the laughter-loving dame; and, by laughing, our modern ladies may possibly imagine that they render themselves like Venus. I have, indeed, remarked that the ladies commonly adjust their laugh to their persons, and are merry in proportion as it sets off their particular charms. One lady is never further moved than to a smile or a simper, because nothing else shows her dimples to so much advantage; another, who has a very fine set of teeth, runs into the broad grin; while a third, who is admired for a well-turned neck and graceful chest, calls up all her beauties to view, by breaking into violent and repeated peals of laughter.

"I would not be understood to impose gravity or too great a reserve on the fair sex. Let them laugh at a feather; but let them declare openly, that it is a feather which occasions their mirth. I

must confess that laughter becomes the young, the gay, and the handsome; but a whisper is unbecoming at all ages, and in both sexes; nor ought it ever to be practised, except in the round gallery at St. Paul's, or in the famous whispering place in Gloucester cathedral, where two whisperers hear each other at the distance of five and twenty yards. "I am, SIR,

"Your most humble servant,

"K. L."

No. 15. THURSDAY, MAY 9, 1754.

-Tu dic, mecum quo pignore certes.

Name your bet.

VIRG. ECL. iii. 31.

A FRIEND of mine, who belongs to the StampOffice, acquaints me, that the revenue arising from the duty on cards and dice continues to increase every year, and that it now brings in near six times more than it did at first. This will not appear very wonderful, when we consider, that gaming is now become rather the business than amusement of our persons of quality and that they are more concerned about the transactions of the two clubs at White's, than the proceedings of both houses of parliament. Thus it happens that estates are now almost as frequently made over by whist and hazard as by deeds and settlements; and the chariots of many of our nobility may be said, like count Basset's in the play, ' to roll upon the four aces.'

This love of gaming has taken such entire possession of their ideas, that it infects their common conversation. The management of a dispute was formerly attempted by reason and argument; but the new way of adjusting all difference in opinion is by the sword or a wager: so that the only genteel method of dissenting, is to risk a thousand pounds, or take your chance of being run through the body. The strange custom of deciding every thing by a wager is so universal, that if, in imitation of Swift, any body was to publish a specimen of polite conversation, instead of old sayings and trite repartees, he would, in all probability, fill his dialogues with little more than bet after bet, and now or then a calculation of the odds.

White's, the present grand scene of these transactions, was formerly distinguished by gallantry and intrigue. During the publication of the Tatler, Sir Richard Steele thought proper to date all lovenews from that quarter: but it would now be as absurd to pretend to gather any such intelligence from White's, as to send to Batson's for a lawyer, or to the Roll's coffee-house for a man-midwife.

The gentlemen, who now frequent this place, profess a kind of universal scepticism; and as they look upon every thing as dubious, put the issue upon a wager. There is nothing, however trivial or ridiculous, which is not capable of producing a bet. Many pounds have been lost upon the colour of a coach-horse, an article in the news, or the change of the weather. The birth of a child has brought great advantages to persons not in the least related to the family it was born in; and the breaking off a match has affected many in their fortunes, besides the parties immediately concerned.

But the most extraordinary part of this fashionable practice is, what, in the gaming dialect, is called

pitting one man against another; that is, in plain English, wagering which of the two will live longest. In this manner people of the most opposite characters make up the subject of a bet. A player, perhaps, is pitted against a duke, an alderman against a bishop, or a pimp with a privy-counsellor. There is scarce one remarkable person upon whose life there are not many thousand pounds depending; or one person of quality whose death will not leave several of these kind of mortgages upon his estate. The various changes in the health of one who is the subject of many bets, occasion very serious reflections in those who have ventured large sums on his life or death Those who would be gainers by his decease, upon every slight indisposition, watch all the stages of his illness, and are as impatient for his death as the undertaker who expects to have the care of his funeral; while the other side are very solicitous about his recovery, send every hour to know how he does, and take as much care of him as a clergyman's wife does of her husband, who has no other fortune than his living. I remember a man with the constitution of a porter, upon whose life very great odds were laid; but when the person he was pitted against was expected to die every week, this man shot himself through the head, and the knowing ones were taken in.

Though most of our follies are imported from France, this has had its rise and progress entirely in England. In the last illness of Louis the Fourteenth, Lord Stair laid a wager on his death; and we may guess what the French thought of it, from the manner in which Voltaire mentions it in his Siècle de Louis XIV.: Le Roi fut attaqué vers le milieu du mois d' Août. Le Compte de Stair, ambassadeur d'Angleterre, paria, selon le génie de sa nation, que le Roi ne passeroit pas le mois de Sep

tembre.' The King,' says he,' was taken ill about the middle of August; when Lord Stair, the ambassador from England, betted, according to the genius of his nation, that the King would not live beyond September.'

I am in some pain, lest this custom should get among the ladies. They are at present very deep in cards and dice; and while my lord is gaming abroad, her ladyship has her rout at home. I am inclined to suspect, that our women of fashion will also learn to divert themselves with this polite practice of laying wagers. A birth-day suit, the age of a beauty who invented a particular fashion, or who were supposed to be together at the last masquerade, would frequently give occasion for bets. This would also afford them a new method for the ready propagation of scandal; as the truth of several stories, which are continually flying about the town, would naturally be brought to the same test. Should they proceed further to stake the lives of their acquaintance against each other, they would doubtless bet with the same fearless spirit as they are known to do at brag: the husband of one would, perhaps, be pitted against the gallant of another, or a woman of the town against maid of honour. And, perhaps, if this practice should once become fashionable among the ladies, we may soon see the time, when an allowance for bet-money will be stipulated in the marriage-articles.

As the vices and follies of persons of distinction are very apt to spread, I am also much afraid, lest this branch of gaming should descend to the common people. Indeed, it seems already to have got among them. We have frequent accounts in the daily papers of tradesmen riding, walking, eating, and drinking, for a wager. The contested election in the city has occasioned several extraordinary