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To perhaps a barge note across his counter,
that a Licensed House where a similar attempt had been frustrated, should be closed on that account.
I may say that I never remember Mr Smale urging any moral objection to Licensing of Gambling Houses in the special circumstances of this Colony. I only recollect that he sent me a communication on one occasion as to gaming being contrary to some old English Statutes, and that therefore gaming was a misdemeanor. I also remember that he talked a good deal to the same effect.
I replied by suggesting that although strangling a man was contrary to The Common law, yet that under certain circumstances, in the case of the Public Executioner it might be legalized, and that in the same way even gaming might become legal if it were made so, whether by Ordinance or Regulations made in accordance with Ordinance.
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The Chief Justice did not appear to have at hand a reply to that argument, and I never heard anything more from him on the subject till receipt of the remarkable document which in compliance with his special wish I now forward to Your Lordships with a fuller commentary however thereon than I shall probably think necessary for the illustration of future...