Page:Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (IA journalofstra23241891roya).pdf/207

 have won their money, but also that they are incited to acts of fraud and robbery in order to obtain the means of amusement or of attempting to retrieve their losses; it is therefore the duty of Government to suppress both gaming and cock-fighting as far as possible without trespassing on the free will of private conduct. No man should be allowed to receive any money either directly or indirectly for conducting a gaming table or cock-pit, and winners of money at such places should be compelled to restore the amount to the losers, and should on no account be permitted to enforce payment from those with whom they have gambled on credit.

Intoxication being a source of personal danger to the community, and the indulgence in that vice being a frequent cause of betraying those who are addicted to it to the commission of acts of dishonesty, it is the duty of a good Magistracy to throw every obstacle in the way. In the first place, the Officers of Police should be required to place in constraint any person seen in public in a state of intoxication until he becomes sober, and in the next place the vender of intoxicating articles who supplied him with the means of inebriety, should be visited with proof and fined, and be liable to make good the amount of any loss which the person so intoxicated can prove he suffered during his inebriety from being unable to take care of himself; the extent of this fine must necessarily be discretionary on the part of the Magistrate, depending principally on the degree of inebriety produced; it should always be of such an amount that the fear of being subject to it may be sufficient to outweigh in the mind of the vender the temptation of profit in the sale of his goods, of course if it should appear in evidence that the individual was supplied with the means of intoxication for the purpose of taking advantage of him in that state, the object converts the simple misdemeanour into a crime according to the particular purpose contemplated, and further punishment to the guilty as well as redress to the individual injured must be awarded accordingly. The use of spirituous liquors, though innocent in moderation, becomes vicious when indulged in to