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lations and conditions as may be deemed expedient for the total "suppression, or in the meantime, for the better limitation and "control of Gambling in this Colony,"
5.-The Ordinance of last year, like that of the present, con- templated if possible the suppression, and failing that, the limita- tion and control of Gambling. The Governor had then hopes that by incressed exertions, Gambling could be put down, bopes which, after the greatest personal efforts, aided by equal exertions on the part of several Othcers of the Police, he has been obliged to aban- don, as he foun! the attempt only led to the continued corruption of the Police ou whose efficiency the security of the lives and property of the community mainly depends.
6.These efforts moreover drove the incorrigible and numerous Chinese Gamblers of the Colony to resort to secret lairs, to lira in a perpetual defiance of the law, and thus established numerous rendezvous of the worst classes, where nine-tenths of the bur- glarles and daring crimes perpetrated were planned.
7. His Excellency might of course have left matters in that state, which he presumes is what you would advise, or he might resort to the other alternative of the Ordinance for "the better limitation and control of Gambling," which is the policy that he considers most consistent with his duty to maintain "Order.”
8.--Last month the Colonial Press gave extensive publicity to the Governor's declaration in Council of his opinion that it would be wise to regulate what we could not suppress, and if publicity be un-English, and "calculated to blind fold the Public," you will And it extenso in the reported proceedings of the Legislative Council of the 17th ultimo.
9. His Excellency would have expected from the deep interest which you feel in the question that you would then have avowed your opinions. It may be a satisfaction to you however to know that Members of Council, at least all the non-official Members, s far back as the passing of the Ordinance last year, were well acquainted with and entirely approved of the alternative given to the Executive, if the suppression of Gaming proved impossible. Such also is the opinion of the most experienced residents here, men whose opinions are entitled to equal weight with yours, for His Excelleney presumes that you do not claim a monopoly ef either sagacity or virtue.
10.-You allude to the "large Revenue" which Gambling licenses will bring in, and some of your number have published letters imputing to the Government the most sordid motives, Your imputing such motives, when disavowed by the Government, gives them neither truth nor even increased probability.
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11.-The Governor simply wishes to free Gambling from its present illegality so far as to break up the gangs of illegal Gam- blers, whose cliques are now the schools and nurseries of crime, the continuance of which you advoente. He would do so if he saw his way to such a result, without adding a cent to the Public Treasury.
12. He cannot however make the Chinese aid in putting down flegal Gambling otherwise than by rendering it essentially their interest to do so, nor can this be effected unless they have a large interest at stake with which illegal operatious would interfere. The larger that interest, the greater and more effective must be their co-operation with the Government, and the more stringent the power of the latter to enforce obedience to its Regulations, because that co-operation and obedience must be proportioned to the sums invested, and risked by waut of co-operation and by disobedience.
13. Nevertheless, when the amount paid is sufficient for the above purpose, a point that can only be settled by experience, it is not desirable to increase it for mere purposes of Revenue, and for that reason His Excellency has refused offers exceeding the amount accepted by more than $100,000. He will even be glad to find hereafter that a less sum than thai now tendered will enable the Government to attain the principal legitimate objects sought, as above stated.
14. In this small Colony, situated within a mile of the main- land, there has been between the latter and this Island an inter- change to and fro of 200,000 persons in the last Six Months, and His Excellency despairs of producing a moral impression against Gawing on a community formed of such changing elements, and the individuals composing which are, in the aggregate, notoriously addicted to Gaming.
He
15. He prefers addressing himself to the practical question of protecting property by suppressing meetings of illegal Gamblers and retrieving the efficiency of the now corrupted Police. does not believe that vice censea to exist when he shuts his eyes and refuses to see it--and if that, which is a sin of deeper dye, is, from the necessity of the case, submitted to regulated sanction with the approval of the wise and good in England, for the pre- vention of disease, His Excellency cannot admit the distinctiou without a difference, which would forbid his endeavouring, with a view to the suppression of crime, to control that which was not illegal by English Common Law, and is not denounced as a sin by the Sacred Law.
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