By a Member of Parliament. 1784.'

`About thirty years ago,' says this writer, `there was but
one club in the metropolis. It was regulated and respectable.
There were few of the members who betted high. Such stakes at
present would be reckoned very low indeed. There were then
assemblies once a week in most of the great houses. An agreeable
society met at seven o'clock; they played for crowns or half-
crowns; and reached their own houses about eleven.

`There was but one lady who gamed deeply, and she was viewed in
the light of a phenomenon. Were she now to be asked her real
opinion of those friends who were her former _PLAY_-fellows,
there can be no doubt but that they rank very low in her
esteem.

`In the present era of vice and dissipation, how many females
attend the card-tables! What is the consequence? The effects
are too clearly to be traced to the frequent _DIVORCES_ which
have lately disgraced our country, and they are too visible in
the shameful conduct of many ladies of fashion, since gambling
became their chief amusement.

`There is now no society. The routs begin at midnight.
They are painful and troublesome to the lady who receives
company, and they are absolutely a nuisance to those who are
honoured with a card of invitation. It is in vain to attempt
conversation. The social pleasures are entirely banished, and
those who have any relish for them, or who are fond of early
hours, are necessarily excluded. Such are the companies of