JUVENILE GAMBLING AND BORROWING.

Marlborough Express, Volume XXVII, Issue 125, 10 June 1891, Page 3

JUVENILE GAMBLING AND BORROWING.

Lobd Hebschelii has introduced into the House of Lords a Bill which is exciting terror among the betting touts and usurers of Great Britain and Ireland. The former are estimated to number at least 10,000, and the latter are also very numerous. Their most profitable prey is found amongst youths at public schools and college. By means of circulars they induce unfortunate lads, under age, to bet or borrow, and then proceed to bleed them unmercifully. Under Lord Herschell's Bill, any person inviting a minor, especially if m statu pupillari at school or college, to bet or borrow, is to be guilty of a misdemeanour punishable by a fine not exceeding £100, and imprisonment with or without hard labour for Ihree months. Not only is punishment, however, to be inflicted, but all negotiable instruments made by persons under age, or m consideration of debts contracted while under age, are to be absolutely void, even m the hands of oona fide holders. As it is a common occurrence to obtain from a minor when lending him money, a statutory declaration or affidavit that he is of age, which document is afterwards held interrorem over him to extract blackmail, the Bill renders any loan advanced on such declaration irrecoverable. This *is certainly drastic but, no doubt, salutary legislation.— Post.