an important river of Western Africa, flowing westward through Senegambia, and falling into the ocean at Bathurst, in N. Lat. 13° 30', W. Long. 16° 40'. Its sources have never been explored by Europeans, but it has been ascertained to take its rise among the lofty range of mountains which form the eastern front of Fouta falls, and is estimated to have a course of upwards of 1000 miles. It is about 9 miles in width at its mouth, between Cape St Mary on the S. and the Bird's Island on the N. It is navigable for vessels of 300 tons for 60 leagues, and for smaller vessels to the falls of Barraconda 250 leagues from its mouth. In the beginning of 1851 Governor Macdonnell Gambling proceeded with a party in open boats accompanied by a canoe, 160 miles above Barraconda. He says, "We passed a long way beyond the Nyarico, a river which flows into the Gambia from the northward, and is mentioned by me in a former report. Near it I was waited on by the inhabitants of a town called Jallacoota, who expressed a strong desire that some of our traders would penetrate to their country, as they had more corn and ground nuts than they could use, but had no means of bartering them for goods which they wanted. We did not find near the banks of the river any, or at least but few, signs of cultivation or inhabitants. Nevertheless, apart from the possibility of extending our commerce, the mere geographical question of the direction and extent of the course of the Gambia is one replete with interest, and which I hope may ere long be set at rest. It does not appear that much expense or danger would attend such an expedition if undertaken at the proper season, viz., the end of December or beginning of January. I and my party bivouacked fifteen nights in the woods after leaving the 'Dover,' and returned in perfect health. The abundance of game to be found in the country would ensure provisions, the carriage of which is in all such undertakings a great difficulty."

The British colony of Gambia consists of several trading stations on this river, and in 1851 contained 5693 inhabitants, as follow:

| Island | Whites | Coloured | |-----------------|--------|----------| | St Mary's | 167 | 2192 | | McCarthy's Island| 8 | 637 | | Barra Point | 1 | 131 | | Cape St Mary | 1 | 36 |

Total: 177 2996 2506

St Mary's Island lies at the mouth of the river, on the S. side, close to the continent, and is about 15 miles in length from N. to S., but of very considerable breadth. The surface is a slightly elevated plain. The soil is sandy, with a small admixture of loam. Bathurst Town stands on the E. side of the island, about 12 or 14 feet above high-water mark, and is nearly surrounded on three sides by a tolerably deep and rapid river. A public hospital, church, courthouse, and public offices, are in course of construction, or have lately been finished.

McCarthy's Island is generally said to be about 250 or 300 miles above St Mary's, and according to the Admiralty charts it is 235 miles above Bathurst, but Dr Madden says it is not more than 175 miles above it. It is about 5½ miles in length, by 1 in breadth. Like St Mary's, it is little raised above the river, and both are in a great measure covered with water during the rainy season.

In 1852 the total value of the exports from this colony was L217,856; of imports, L110,174. The chief exports are ground nuts, wax, hides, ivory, timber, gold dust, palm-oil, gum-arabic, and beeswax.

**GAMBLING or GAMING.** The most important games are considered under their several heads, and therefore do not require particular notice in this place. It is here intended to treat of the department of jurisprudence and legislation, which deals with gambling as a vice. None of the practices which merge from harmless enjoyment to vice has perhaps afforded so difficult a problem to the moralist and legislator. The danger of encountering the gambling propensity with inflexible penal prohibitions has been too amply exemplified, and at the present day gambling is perhaps nowhere so rife and dangerous as in those parts of the United States where the laws for its suppression are the most peremptory and severe. Legislation encounters the double danger of suppressing harmless and genial amusements because they are offensive to morbidly austere minds, and of aggravating vicious propensities by violent suppression instead of judicious discouragement. That much evil has been done by ill-devised laws against gambling is too clear, but at the same time the most zealous advocate of civil freedom and non-intervention will hardly venture to say that penal laws against so desolating and so infectious a propensity as gambling are not necessary.

In Rome gambling was a conspicuous vice under the empire, but the civil law contains only a limited amount of legislation on this subject. Of the tenor of the few vestiges in the corpus juris, a succinct account is found in the Report of the Select Committee on Gaming, in 1844, where it is said that "All games of chance, with the exception of certain manly sports, five in number, were absolutely prohibited; and the lawful amount of the stakes were in all cases restricted to a certain sum. The loser could never be sued in case of non-payment; and an action was given for monies lost, during the space of fifty years to himself and his heirs, or, in their default, to any person who chose to prosecute. The municipal body in the town where the loss took place was specially enjoined to do so, and was to spend recovered money towards public purposes."—(P. 193.)

We have here the valuable principle of refusing legal remedy for obligations tainted with a gambling character, which has generally been tacitly adopted throughout the other countries of Europe, but was reluctantly, and as it were by force, dragged into the English law. One of the pervading technicalities of the English common law, which makes a "consideration" the most essential element of a sufficient contract, made it be "agreed that a person who wins money at gaming may establish a special indebitatus assumpsit for it; for the contract is not unlawful in itself; and the winner's venturing his money is a sufficient consideration to entitle him to the action."—(Bacon. Abridg.) In Scotland the position taken from the beginning, as founded on the civil law, was, that the courts of law were created to do substantial justice in the serious business of life between man and man, and were not to be occupied with the enforcement of the fanciful and capricious, if not vicious, obligations of the gaming table and the betting stand. In England, by a laborious application of specialties, the protection of the law was by slow degrees removed from this class of obligations. Wagers, however, continued to be very troublesome, and somewhat scandalous to the courts of law; and in 1844 Mr Starkie, Q.C., stated to the committee of inquiry on gaming that "The general rule of the common law is that a wager is a valid contract; but there are many exceptions to it, founded upon the principle that the wagers so excepted are against sound policy and convenience." And he says further, "In modern times the courts have gone farther than formerly in making exceptions on grounds of policy; and it is probable that several cases of wagers which formerly were held to be valid, as within the general rule, would now be deemed to fall within the principle of exception." The committee recommended the adoption in England of the broad principle followed in Scotland; and accordingly the gambling act of 1845 provided that "all contracts or agreements, whether by parole or in writing, by way of gaming or wagering, shall be null and void; and that no suit shall be brought or maintained in any court of law or equity for recovering any sum of money or valuable thing alleged to be won upon any wager, or which shall have been deposited in the hands of any person to abide the event on which any wager shall have been made" (§ 17.)

From the reign of Henry VIII. downwards, several statutes were passed for the forcible suppression of gaming in England. The earlier acts in general applied only to artificers and humble people, but subsequently legislation was professedly levelled against all classes alike. It would be difficult to say whether the rich or the poor most effectually baffled and evaded these enactments. One incident in 1844 showed how little they were respected. By the statute of the 9th of Queen Anne, when any person gained in a wager a sum