gaming house in our exquisitely moral British dominions.
This was in that remarkably "tight little island" at the mouth
of the Elbe, Heligoland, which we so queerly possess--Puffendorf,
Grotius, and Vattel, or any other writers on the _Jus gentium_,
would be puzzled to tell why, or by what right. I was at Hamburg
in the autumn of 1856, crossed over to Heligoland one day on a
pleasure trip, and lost some money there, at a miniature
_Roulette_ table, much frequented by joyous Israelites from the
mainland, and English "soldier officers" in mufti. I did not
lose much of my temper, however, for the odd, quaint little place
pleased me. Not so another Roman citizen, or English travelling
gent., who losing, perhaps, seven-and-sixpence, wrote a furious
letter to the "Times," complaining of such horrors existing
under the British flag, desecration of the English name, and so
forth. Next week the lieutenant-governor, by "order," put an
end to _Roulette_ at Heligoland; but play on a diminutive scale
has since, I have been given to understand, recommenced there
without molestation.


[71] Mr Sala is here in error. Colton was a prosperous gambler
throughout, and committed suicide to avoid a surgical operation.
A notice of the Rev. C. Colton will be found in the sequel.


`We gamble in England at the Stock Exchange, we gamble on horse-
races all the year round; but there is something more than the
mere eventuality of a chance that prompts us to the _enjeu;_
there is mixed up with our eagerness for the stakes the most
varied elements of business and pleasure; cash-books, ledgers,