The Gaming Table: Its Votaries and Victims Volume 1 Part 21

(118) Edward, twelfth Earl of Derby, was born September 12, 1752, and died October 21, 1834. He married first, Elizabeth, daughter of James, sixth Duke of Hamilton, who died in 1799, and secondly, the celebrated actress, Miss Farren, who died April 23, 1829.

_The Earl of Derby to George Selwyn_.

'Nothing could equal what I feel at troubling you with this disagreeable note; but having lost a very monstrous sum of money last night, I find myself under the necessity of entreating your goodness to excuse the liberty I am taking of applying to you for a.s.sistance. If it is not very inconvenient to you, I should be glad of the money you owe me. If it is, I must pay what I can, and desire Brookes to trust me for the remainder.

I repeat again my apologies, to which I shall beg leave to add how very sincerely I have the honour to be, my dear sir,

'Your most obedient humble servant, 'DEBBY.

This is the very model of a dun, and proves how handsomely such ugly things can be done when one has to deal with a n.o.ble instead of a plebeian creditor.

But Selwyn had not only to endure such indignities, but also to inflict them, as appears by the following letter to him from the Honourable General Fitzpatrick, in answer to a dun, which, we are a.s.sured, was 'gentle and moderate.'

'I am very sorry to hear the night ended so ill; but to give you some idea of the utter impossibility of my being useful on the occasion, I will inform you of the state of my affairs. I won L400 last night, which was immediately appropriated by Mr _Martindale_, to whom I still owe L300, and I am in Brookes' book for thrice that sum. Add to all this, that at Christmas I expect an inundation of clamorous creditors, who, unless I somehow or other sc.r.a.pe together some money to satisfy them, will overwhelm me entirely. What can be done? If I could coin my heart, or drop my blood into drachms, I would do it, though by this time I should probably have neither heart nor blood left. I am afraid you will find Stephen in the same state of insolvency. Adieu! I am obliged to you for the gentleness and moderation of your dun, considering how long I have been your debtor.

'Yours most sincerely, 'R. F.'(119)

(119) Apud _Selwyn and his Contemporaries_ by Jesse.

Selwyn is said to have been a loser on the whole, and often pillaged.

Latterly he appears to have got the better of his propensity for play, if we may judge from the following wise sentiment:--'It was too great a consumer,' he said, 'of four things--time, health, fortune, and thinking.' But a writer in the _Edinburgh Review_ seems to doubt Selwyn's reformation; for his initiation of Wilberforce occurred in 1782, when he was 63; and previously, in 1776, he underwent the process of dunning from Lord Derby, before-mentioned, and in 1779 from Mr Crawford ('Fish Crawford,' as he was called), each of whom, like Mr Shafto, 'had a sum to make up'--in the infernal style so horridly provoking, even when we are able and willing to pay. However, as Selwyn died comparatively rich, it may be presumed that his fortune suffered to no great extent by his indulgence in the vice of gaming.

The following are some of George Selwyn's jokes relating to gambling:--

One night, at White's, observing the Postmaster-General, Sir Everard Fawkener, losing a large sum of money at Piquet, Selwyn, pointing to the successful player, remarked--'See now, he is robbing the _MAIL!_'

On another occasion, in 1756, observing Mr Ponsonby, the Speaker of the Irish House of Commons, tossing about bank-bills at a Hazard table at Newmarket--'Look,' he said, 'how easily the Speaker pa.s.ses the money-bills!'

A few months afterwards (when the public journals were daily containing an account of some fresh town which had conferred the freedom of its corporation in a gold box on Mr Pitt, afterwards Earl of Chatham, and the Right Honourable Henry Bilson Legge, his fellow-patriot and colleague), Selwyn, who neither admired their politics nor respected their principles, proposed to the old and new club at Arthur's, that he should be deputed to present to them the freedom of each club in a _dice-box_.

On one of the waiters at Arthur's club having been committed to prison for a felony--'What a horrid idea,' said Selwyn, 'he will give of us to the people in Newgate!'

When the affairs of Charles Fox were in a more than usually embarra.s.sed state, chiefly through his gambling, his friends raised a subscription among themselves for his relief. One of them remarking that it would require some delicacy in breaking the matter to him, and adding that 'he wondered how Fox would take it.' 'Take it?' interrupted Selwyn, 'why, _QUARTERLY_, to be sure.'(120)

(120) Jesse, _George Selwyn and his Contemporaries._

LORD CARLISLE.

This eminent statesman was regarded by his contemporaries as an able, an influential, and occasionally a powerful speaker.

Though married to a lady for whom in his letters he ever expresses the warmest feelings of admiration and esteem; and surrounded by a young and increasing family, who were evidently the objects of his deepest affection, Lord Carlisle, nevertheless, at times appears to have been unable to extricate himself from the dangerous enticements to play to which he was exposed. His fatal pa.s.sion for play--the source of advent.i.tious excitement at night, and of deep distress in the morning--seems to have led to frequent and inconvenient losses, and eventually to have plunged him into comparative distress.

'In recording these failings of a man of otherwise strong sense, of a high sense of honour, and of kindly affections, we have said the worst that can be adduced to his disadvantage. Attached, indeed, as Lord Carlisle may have been to the pleasures of society, and unfortunate as may have been his pa.s.sion for the gaming table, it is difficult to peruse those pa.s.sages in his letters in which he deeply reproaches himself for yielding to the fatal fascination of play, and accuses himself of having diminished the inheritance of his children, without a feeling of commiseration for the sensations of a man of strong sense and deep feeling, while reflecting on his moral degradation. It is sufficient, however, to observe of Lord Carlisle, that the deep sense which he entertained of his own folly; the almost maddening moments to which he refers in his letters of self-condemnation and bitter regret; and subsequently his n.o.ble victory over the siren enticements of pleasure, and his thorough emanc.i.p.ation from the trammels of a domineering pa.s.sion, make adequate amends for his previous unhappy career.'(121)

(121) Jesse, _George Selwyn and his Contemporaries_, ii.

Brave conquerors, for so ye are, Who war against your own affections, And the huge army of the world's desires.

Lady Sarah Bunbury, writing to George Selwyn, in 1767, says:--'If you are now at Paris with poor C. (evidently Carlisle), who I dare say is now swearing at the French people, give my compliments to him. I call him poor C. because I hope he is only miserable at having been such a _PIGEON_ to Colonel Scott. I never can pity him for losing at play, and I think of it as little as I can, because I cannot bear to be obliged to abate the least of the good opinion I have always had of him.'

Oddly enough the writer had no better account to give of her own husband; she says, in the letter:--'Sir Charles games from morning till night, but he has never yet lost L100 in one day.'(122)

(122) This Lady Sarah Bunbury was the wife of Sir Charles Bunbury, after having had a chance of being Queen of England, as the wife of George III., who was pa.s.sionately in love with her, and would have married her had it not been for the const.i.tutional opposition of his privy council.

This charming and beautiful woman died in 1826, at the age of 82.

She was probably the last surviving great-granddaughter of Charles II.--Jesse, _Ubi supra_.

About the year 1776 Lord Carlisle wrote the following letter to George Selwyn:--

'MY DEAR GEORGE, 'I have undone myself, and it is to no purpose to conceal from you my abominable madness and folly, though perhaps the particulars may not be known to the rest of the world. I never lost so much in five times as I have done to-night, and am in debt to the house for the whole. You may be sure I do not tell you this with an idea that you can be of the least a.s.sistance to me; it is a great deal more than your abilities are equal to. Let me see you--though I shall be ashamed to look at you after your goodness to me.'

This letter is endorsed by George Selwyn--'After the loss of L10,000.'

He tells Selwyn of a set which, at one point of the game, stood to win L50,000.

'Lord Byron, it is almost needless to remark, was nearly related to Lord Carlisle. The mother of Lord Carlisle was sister to John, fourth Lord Byron, the grandfather of the poet; Lord Carlisle and Lord Byron were consequently first cousins once removed. Had they happened to have been contemporaries, it would be difficult to form an idea of two individuals who, alike from tastes, feelings, and habits of life, were more likely to form a lasting and suitable intimacy. Both were men of high rank; both united an intimate knowledge of society and the world with the ardent temperament of a poet; and both in youth mingled a love of frolic and pleasure with a graver taste for literary pursuits.'

CHARLES JAMES FOX.

In the midst of the infatuated votaries of the gaming G.o.d in England, towers the mighty intellectual giant Charles James Fox. Nature had fas.h.i.+oned him to be equally an object of admiration and love. In addition to powerful eloquence, he was distinguished by the refinement of his taste in all matters connected with literature and art; he was deeply read in history; had some claims to be regarded as a poet; and possessed a thorough knowledge of the cla.s.sical authors of antiquity, a knowledge of which he so often and so happily availed himself in his seat in the House of Commons. To these qualities was added a good-humour which was seldom ruffled,--a peculiar fascination of manner and address,--the most delightful powers of conversation,--a heart perfectly free from vindictiveness, ostentation, and deceit,--a strong sense of justice,--a thorough detestation of tyranny and oppression,--and an almost feminine tenderness of feeling for the sufferings of others.

Unfortunately, however, his great talents and delightful qualities in private life rendered his defects the more glaring and lamentable; indeed, it is difficult to think or speak with common patience of those injurious practices and habits--that abandonment to self-gratification, and that criminal waste of the most transcendent abilities which exhausted in social conviviality and the gaming table what were formed to confer blessings on mankind.

So much for the character of Fox, as I have gathered from Mr Jesse;(123) and I continue the extremely interesting subject by quoting from that delightful book, 'The Queens of Society.'(124) 'With a father who had made an enormous fortune, with little principle, out of a public office--for Lord Holland owed the bulk of his wealth to his appointment of paymaster to the forces,--and who spoiled him, in his boyhood, Charles James Fox had begun life _AS A FOP OF THE FIRST WATER_, and squandered L50,000 in debt before he became of age. Afterwards he indulged recklessly and extravagantly in every course of licentiousness which the profligate society of the day opened to him. At Brookes' and the Thatched House Fox ate and drank to excess, threw thousands upon the Faro table, mingled with blacklegs, and made himself notorious for his shameless vices. Newmarket supplied another excitement. His back room was so incessantly filled with Jew money-lenders that he called it his Jerusalem Chamber. It was impossible that such a life should not destroy every principle of honour; and there is nothing improbable in the story that he appropriated to himself money which belonged to his dear friend Mrs Crewe, as before related.

(123) George Selwyn and his Contemporaries, ii.

(124) By Grace and Philip Wharton.

'Of his talents, which were certainly great, he made an affected display. Of his learning he was proud--but rather as adding l.u.s.tre to his celebrity for universal tastes. He was not at all ashamed, but rather gloried in being able to describe himself as a fool, as he does in his verses to Mrs Crewe:--

"Is't reason? No; that my whole life will belie; For, who so at variance as reason and I? Is't ambition that fills up each c.h.i.n.k in my heart, Nor allows any softer sensation a part? Oh! no; for in this all the world must agree, _ONE FOLLY WAS NEVER SUFFICIENT FOR ME_."

'Sensual and self-indulgent--with a grossness that is even patent on his very portrait (and bust), Fox had nevertheless a manner which enchanted the s.e.x, and he was the only politician of the day who thoroughly enlisted the personal sympathies of women of mind and character, as well as of those who might be captivated by his profusion. When he visited Paris in later days, even Madame Recamier, noted for her refinement, and of whom he himself said, with his usual coa.r.s.e ideas of the sphere of woman, that "she was the only woman who united the attractions of pleasure to those of modesty," delighted to be seen with him! At the time of which we are speaking the most celebrated beauties of England were his most ardent supporters.

'The election of 1784, in which he stood and was returned for Westminster, was one of the most famous of the old riotous political demonstrations..... Loving _hazard_ of all kinds for its own sake, Fox had made party hostility a new sphere of gambling, had adopted the character of a demagogue, and at a time when the whole of Europe was undergoing, a great revolution in principles, was welcomed gladly as "The Man of the People." In the beginning, of the year he had been convicted of bribery, but in spite of this his popularity increased....