A Will Case in Parliament.

Te Aroha News, Volume 1, Issue 45, 12 April 1884, Page 5

A Will Case in Parliament.

Those who are not conversant with the social life of England during the last century would be slow to credit some of the stories that are told of the gambling proclivities of the higher classes. During the reign of George 111. that social evil was at its worst ; and there were times and occasions when the demon of the gaming-table influenced, to a greater or less degree, acts of parliament ! Here is a story to the point— and it may be relied upon as true in every particular : Lord Foley, who died near the close of the last century, having found his two sons inordinately addicted to gambling, sought by all the persuasions of an earnest, loving father, to reform them j but they paid no attention. They had become companions of the most notorious and most reckless gamblers of the day— Charles James Fox among the number— and they would not amend. In consequence of this, the aggrieved father, by his will, left the bulk of his large property to the son of his eldest son, giving only a fixed income for life (amply sufficient for their proper sustenance) to the two brothers — his sons. The sons, who had counted on their father's death to clear them from their gambling debts, were audacious enough to attempt to get an Act of Parliament passed to set aside the will j and so strong was the pressure exercised by those in high places who thought it very hard that two fine and promising young men should be forcibly restrained from the pleasures of the gamingtable, that the bill came within j very few votes— only two or three — of passing the House of Lords ; and Lord Mansfield and Lord Camden acknowledged that they retired, as the vote was about to be taken, rather than vote against it ! It was, even for them, too outrageous to receive their recorded sanction. Fox, then high in power, for whom the two brothers were bound to the extent of £40,000, did not hesitate to use all his great social and parliamentary influence towards accomplishing this outrageous infraction of law and right.