accumulation? Has he sold anything, or bought anything, or manufactured anything? Nothing of the kind. It has been simply a matter of gambling-as much so as if he had made the money at rouge-et-noir, a French hazard.

We are a moral people. We put down state lotteries long ago. We have tried (and to a great extent with success) to put down gaming houses. Once detected, we show these places no mercy. Even on the bare suspicion of dice and cards, roulette boxes and croupiers, we empower a file of policemen to break into any house, seize everything and everybody they find in it, and carry them before the nearest magistrate. Should the offence be proved, dire are the fines and pains and penaltie imposed on the criminals; and even if some unlucky flaw in the evidence leaves the offence legally in doubt, and the suspected ones escape the arm of the law, woe betide them when next day's "Times" blazon forth all their names to the world, and some Sunday paper points out; which are assumed ones, and describes the assumers so graphically as to leave no doubt on the minds of all who know them as to their identity! Even if these measures fail to annihilate gambling-houses, they at least render them so disreputable that no one who has any care for his charac ter will venture inside one.

It is on the grounds of public morality that we do all this, and we are right, for the money lost in gambling enriches the most worthless members of society, and impoverishes the wives and children, the parents, brothers or sisters of men who might otherwise live in plenty and honour. On similar grounds we destroyed the racing sweep-stakes with which London was inundated a year or two ago. They came within the legal signification of lotteries, were therefore illegal, and were effectually abolished. From their ashes sprung the present betting offices, which by one of those wonderful inconsistencies of our legal code appear to be not only not illegal, but to a certain extent to be supported by law. This assertion may stagger many a general reader; but we beg to assure him that a bet "not exceeding £10" is a perfectly legal contract, and that it is recover. able at law. Anything more monstrously absurd than making a tenpound bet legal, and one hundred-pound one illegal, we cannot well conceive. We would rather even see it reversed, for the heavy bets are ordinarily made by persons of large means, who, if they cannot welį afford to lose the money, are at all events not reduced to beggary by the loss. The small bets, on the other hand, are risked by servants, mechanics, artizans, clerks, and petty tradesmen, and are the source of more want, dishonesty, and crime among such people, than can well be imagined.

The increase of these places is perfectly wonderful. We doubt whether there is a street of any importance in London without one or more of them. In some parts they swarm. Jermyn Street, and the neighbour- ! hood of Leicester Square, the Strand, and the City, are crowded with them, and even the stronghold of lawyers, Chancery Lane, has one or two. It requires no capital to start one; we have shown that the chances of loss are infinitesimally small, the gains often enormous. We have known of one of these gentry clearing above £20,000 in one race. They are generally the property of men of no character, ruined gamblers and blacklegs, or the proprietors of night-houses or "hells."

Probably not one in twenty would be able to pay if he lost, and not 1 one in fifty would have the honesty to do so. Many of those whe

patronize them know this, but they choose to run the risk, thus incurring the double chance of losing their money if their horse is beaten, and of not getting paid if he is the winner.

We really think that every respectable person in this metropolis is interested in the destruction of these betting offices. Is he a father? Let him ask how he would like to find his son's money devoted to the enrichment of these vagabond places? Is he a master? Let him take a walk down Jermyn Street some day about noon, and he will chance to see his own livery in one or other of the offices; or if not his own, certainly some of his friends', be his acquaintance ever so limited. Let him reflect, that the passion of gambling (and this betting is gambling in one of its worst forms) is a growing and an engrossing one. No man stops gambling for want of funds, so long as he can literally beg, borrow, or steal a shilling for the purpose. How long does he think his confidential servant will retain his integrity of character, when this hideous passion has once bitten him? We have ourselves been asked by a lady, to whom we were giving the character of a man-servant, "Does he gamble? for my last servant was an excellent one till he became a frequenter of those horrible betting offices, and then he was never away from them." Has he any clerks or assistants in his business or profession? Let him look to them well, or these plague-shops will taint one or other of them ere long; and then a hand in the cash-box, or a well-imitated signature to a cheque, will bring annoyance and disgust to himself, and a voyage to Norfolk Island to the confidential clerk. Above all, let him reflect on this little piece of financial statement, which we pledge our word to be within the truth,-that above £300,000 a year is lost by individuals otherwise respectable, and goes into the pockets of the blacklegs we have described the worthy fraternity of proprietors of the London betting offices. Think of the same sum expended in charity! Nay even think of the same sum expended on the ordinary wants of the spenders and their families, or laid by and invested for their future benefit!

And now we ask, are not these places fit subjects for legislation? It is often a matter of complaint that we make too many laws, and interfere in too many things that should be left to regulate themselves, or be controlled by public opinion. The charge is, perhaps, a just one, and we are no advocates for striving to make people virtuous by Act of Parliament. But surely it is the duty of every wise and great nation to prevent public immorality, and to remove public temptations to crime or vice. If this be so, we unhesitatingly point to the places we have described as calling loudly for the legislator's notice. The difficulties of repressing them fully, effectually, and permanently, are not great. We would undertake to draw an Act of Parliament that would accomplish the object within the limits of the sheet of paper on which we write. That it will be done sooner or later we doubt not, but we advocate all speed in the matter. The brothel and the gambling house are doomed. In the name of decency and virtue, let the "betting office" follow.

• While these pages are passing through the press we observe, with pleasure, that the Corporation of the City of London has taken up the matter in earnest. One more fact.-We have just seen the "book" of a Betting-Office keeper on this year's "Derby." It contains 8000 bets. Reckoning the average amount of each at 47. (which is within the truth) it follows that 32,000l. have been staked with him alone on one race!

HUNGARY IN 1851.

BY CHARLES LORING BRACE.

My route from Pesth into the interior of the country was, at first by the railroad to Szolnok, a town on the Theiss, and then afterwards by steamer on the Theiss, up into the great central plain of Hungary. This road, from Pesth to Szolnok, is the only line of railroad east of the capital, in a part of the land which, above all others, needs a railroad, and where it could be built most cheaply. It is only about sixty miles in length, but does a very fair business. The great curse and drawback upon the Hungarian trade or commerce, has always been the want of good roads. From Pesth to Debreczin, a town of 55,000 inhabitants, to Gross wardein of perhaps 22,000, and to Szegedin, another large and important agricultural town, there is not a road which could be called even a moderately good highway. Much of the road to Debreczin is only a prairie track, with some half dozen different paths frequently straggling about the plain. In the season in which I travelled these roads, afterwards, everything about them was very comfortable and pleasant. In fact, nothing can be more agreeable than riding over meadow-roads in the late spring; but in the autumn or winter, when the rains come, all these pleasant fields become immense morasses; the roads are cut with huge ruts and filled with holes; and it is said, that it takes often as long to go from Grosswardein to Pesth in that season, as from Pesth to Paris!

In a land, the population of which is nearly two-thirds that of the United States, with an area of some 100,000 square miles, there are not more than three or four regular lines of stage-coaches, and only some two thousand miles of roads! I found, on inquiring in Pesth, that the public conveyances in the interior could not be depended upon, but the traveller must trust to chance, or the procuring a "vorsepann," as it is called, that is, a waggon with four horses, which the peasants are obliged, under certain circumstances, to furnish for one stage, or ten miles. However, the universal courtesy and hospitality of the people saved me all trouble on that score, and I did not use a public vehicle once after getting into the interior.

The most important part of Hungary, where the densest population dwells, and where is the greatest wealth,-Central Hungary,—is admirably adapted for railroads; universally level, with tracts of firm ground, and easy to be connected with all other important points of the country. Stone might be brought without any vast difficulty down the Theiss, from the mountainous regions, and the very considerable trade and travel between the capital and all this region, would insure business enough. Before the Revolution, the whole nation had become aroused to the importance of this matter. One road was built to Szolnok, and the line surveyed beyond to Debreczin, Grosswardein, and planned even to Klausenburg in the mountainous Siebenbürgen, from whence it was hoped it might connect ultimately with Constantinople, and bring with it the whole trade of the East to Europe. A branch line, too, was laid out through Kecskemet to Szegedin, and another, on the north, to con

nect Debreczin with the region of the precious Tokay wine, and perhaps with the rich mining region in the Carpathians. Another very important line was much discussed, which should connect Pesth, on the south, with Fiume, and the harbours on the Adriatic, and thus at length open the long-hemmed-in commerce of Hungary to the world.

The storm of the Revolution, however, swept away everything; and not one of these lines, except that to Szolnok, was even commenced. Since the war, the Austrian Government has done a little on them, but very little. Much is said about the practical improvements which the Austrian Administration is introducing in Hungary-which improvements, in my opinion, are very generally humbugs. It is true, they are repairing fortifications everywhere, and "improving" everything which can be used in enslaving the people. It is also true, that they are constructing a highway from Szolnok to Grosswardein and Klausenburg, and are working on the railroad to Szegedin. The first two of these towns are, however, the central military stations of the Austrian army in Hungary, and Szegedin is filled with the most independent " insurrectionary" population of the country. The great object is, undoubtedly, to have the means of transporting forces rapidly to any point in the land, where a rebellion may arise.

I found no "improvements" going on out of the military routes. And it should be remembered that even these public works demand no great self-denial from the Austrian Government, the means being wrung from the impoverished people, and the work forced from the peasantry, in as extortionate a manner as ever the old feudal exaction of the "Robot" was.

The neglect in former times of these means of communication no doubt has been of infinite evil to the land. From this defect, Hungary, a land rich enough in grain to supply all Europe, with all the best products of a temperate climate, with countless herds of cattle, with wines superior in purity and flavour even to those of Spain and France, with valuable mines, and above all, a vigorous, industrious population, has never yet had a foreign trade of any importance whatever. Her harbours on the Adriatic are shut off from the interior, her valleys in the north are separated from the capital. The overflowing harvests of the central plains will scarcely pay the freight to the borders.

Such was the difficulty of communication and the little enterprise in consequence a few years ago, that it proved cheaper, when the suspension bridge at Pesth was built, to bring the iron from England and carry it overland to the city, than to obtain it from the iron mines of North Hungary, though these furnish the best iron in Europe.

The whole value of the exports of Hungary, of every article, raw and manufactured, in 1845, did not amount to 9,000,000l. and in 1847 did not probably exceed 9,500,000l.

The fault of this most injurious neglect seems to lie on several sides; but, first and foremost, on the shoulders of the Austrian Government. They never wanted any "improvements" which might make Fiume a rival to Trieste; and their great object in all their legislation was "to keep Hungary down." The Austrians talk a great deal of "the fatherly of the Government over Hungary in former years; but it is evident at a glance that it is a care which is altogether devoted to one side of the family. For instance, in the export of Hungarian wine, the paternal regulation made it necessary to pay 2 florins, 4 kreutzers (or

care

124 kreutzers), on the eimer; but on the import of Austrian only 27 kreutzers-that is, not one-fourth as much. Or again, on cloth, the Austrian import into Hungary paid a duty of 5 florins; the Hunge rian export 8 florins for the centner. Many of the Hungarian expers paid an export duty of 60 per cent., and nearly all imports wer burdened with a duty as great. Carpenters' work, for instance, a ported, paid 100 per cent., and the export of wrought iron was altoge ther forbidden. The same principle was carried out in all matters d internal improvements-encourage all which can aid Austria, discourage | everything else.

Besides, it should be borne in mind, that Hungary is a country where it would be very difficult to build roads, except by some aid from th State. There is scarcely any wood or stone in Central Hungary, ani building a highway is a matter of no small expense. It was the gre principle, too, of the Hungarian Constitution that every little tom district, county (Comitat), should have its own municipal governme and manage its own affairs. It was very unusual for the Centri Government to interfere; and great enterprises, naturally demandi much capital, were neglected. However, with all this, very much of the blame lay also on the old Hungarian feudal constitution. A syster under which one class must build the roads which another class uses and under which the men who could most afford to ride were neve obliged to pay toll, could never expect any great progress in the in provements of highways and bridges. Within the last twenty year these exactions on the Bauer were much changed, and the noblema has his own taxes, heavy enough, which he must pay. Still no cape man can avoid confessing, that such an inequality as the above, ES have its natural ill effects on the country.

The country through which the railroad passes from Pesth to Szoln is remarkably pleasant; much more diversified than the land east of th Theiss, and with fine groves, seldom to be seen on the other side z Szolnok. Everywhere, as far as the eye could reach, it was green rich fields of wheat, or with long rows of vines, giving the impression which even the peasants always seem to feel with pride about the Fatherland, that it is a rich and fruitful country with abundance of con and wine.

Szolnok itself is a genuine Hungarian village, forming a singuli contrast to the modern European Pesth. It always has seemed to in walking through Hungarian villages, as if one could see in them, in a thousand other things in the land, the signs of their Orient nomadic origin. The houses seemed placed exactly as a company Huns or Tartars might have pitched their tents; each house, in t most populous village, separate, with its yard and trees about it, bearing no particular relation in its position to any other house. T streets consequently wind about in the most entangling manner.

Every house, too, is not much higher than a tent, never more the one story, though of course much longer than our rustic dwellings. : give room for the inmates. The consequence is, that their ville occupy an area about four times the extent which our own do, w the same population. The town of Debreczin with 55,000 inhabita and much more city-like than most of the interior towns, is spre around over a space of ground greater than that of Boston, in United States, with its 136,000 inhabitants. In a Hungarian villag