lodgings.

`The question is, they being determined, and the accommodation
being not less certainly ready for them than the sea is for the
tribute of a river, will the reform designed be a really
progressive step in the civilization of Europe? Prussia says--
decidedly so; because it will demolish an infamous privilege.
She affirms that an institution which might have been excusable
under a landgrave, with a few thousand acres of territory, is
inconsistent with the dignity and, to quote continental
phraseology, the mission of a first-class state. Here again the
reasoning is incontrovertible. Of one other thing, moreover, we
may feel perfectly sure, that Prussia having determined to
suppress these centres and sources of corruption, they will
gradually disappear from Europe. Concede to them a temporary
breathing-time at Monaco; the time left for even a nominally
independent existence to Monaco is short: imagine that they
find a fresh outlet at Geneva; Prussia will have represented the
public opinion of the age, against which not even the
Republicanism of Switzerland can long make a successful stand.
Upon the whole, history can never blame Prussia for such a use
either of her conquests or her influence. Say what you will,
gambling is an indulgence blushed over in England; abroad,
practised as a little luxury in dissipation, it may be pardoned
as venial; habitually, however, it is a leprosy. And as it is by
habitual gamblers that these haunts are made to flourish, this
alone should reconcile the world of tourists to a deprivation
which for them must be slight; while to the class they imitate,
without equalling, it will be the prohibition of an abominable
habit.'[84]