But as such incidents must be common to many of your readers who have visited the French metropolis, I shall desist from further recital.  The following outline of those receptacles of vice, French Gaming Houses, from facts which I collected on the spot, aided by authenticated resources, may not prove uninteresting.

Gaming-houses in Paris were first licensed in 1775, by the lieutenant of police, who, to diminish the odium of such establishments, decreed that the profit resulting from them should be applied to the foundation of hospitals.  The gamesters might therefore be said to resemble watermen, looking one way and rowing another.  Their number soon amounted to twelve, and women were permitted to resort to them two days in the week.  Besides the licensed establishments, several illegal ones were tolerated.  In 1778, gaming was prohibited in France; but not at the court or in the hotels of ambassadors, where police-officers could not enter.  By degrees the public establishments resumed their 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 should violate them with the pillory and whipping.  At length, the passion for gambling 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, and in the following year, additional prohibitory measures were enforced.  During the revolution the gaming-houses were frequently prevented and licenses withheld; but notwithstanding the rigour of the laws, and the vigilance of the police, they still contrived to exist; and they are now regularly licensed by the police, and are under its immediate inspection.  The following items of twenty tables distributed about Paris (the established stake varying from a Napoleon to a sous) are from the most authentic documents:—­

Current expenses 1,551,480 Francs. Bail to Government 6,000,000 Francs.  Bonus for the bail 166,666 Francs.  Making together 7,716,146 Francs, or about L321,589 English.  Gain of the tables, per annum 9,600,000 Francs.  Expenses as above 7,718,146 Francs.  Leaving a clear profit of 1,881,854 Francs,

or about L78,244 English!  And yet, in spite of this unanswerable logic of figures and facts, there are every day fresh victims who are infatuated enough to believe that it is possible to counterbalance the advantages which the bank possesses, by a judicious management of the power the player has of altering his stake!  The revenue formerly paid to the government for licenses, has recently been transferred to the city of Paris.