wonted activity, and extended their pernicious effects. The
numerous suicides and bankruptcies which they occasioned
attracted the attention of the _Parlement_, who drew up
regulations for their observance, and threatened those who
violated them with the pillory and whipping. The licensed
houses, as well as those recognized, however, still continued
their former practices, and breaches of the regulations were
merely visited with trivial punishment.

At length, the passion for play prevailing in the societies
established in the Palais Royal, under the title of _clubs_ or
_salons_, a police ordinance was issued in 1785, prohibiting them
from gaming. In 1786, fresh disorder having arisen in the
unlicensed establishments, additional prohibiting measures were
enforced. During the Revolution the gaming-houses were
frequently prosecuted, and licenses withheld; but notwithstanding
the rigour of the laws and the vigilance of the police, they
still contrived to exist.

LOUIS XVI. TILL THE PRESENT TIME.--In the general corruption of
morals, which rose to its height during the reign of Louis XVI.,
gambling kept pace with, if it did not outstrip, every other
licentiousness of that dismal epoch.[61] Indeed, the
universal excitement of the nation naturally tended to develope
every desperate passion of our nature; and that the revolutionary
troubles and agitation of the empire helped to increase the
gambling propensity of the French, is evident from the magnitude
of the results on record.