Northern Star, And Warren And Bristol Gazette

Effects of Gambling.—Another instance has just occurred. The son of a respectable merchant in Liverpool, was sent hither by his father, with a power of attorney to receive a very considerable sum of money. Having accomplished the object of his journey, the young man was induced to prolong his stay in the metropolis, as it was his first visit and all was new to him, and imprudently formed an acquaintance with one of those well dressed swindlers who are ever on the watch to entrap the ignorant and unwary. The natural consequences followed, dissipation and pleasure led to expense, and the money he had received was broken in upon; then the gaming house was proposed to restore the sum wasted. The first night success attended the unhappy victim, but the second left him without a shilling. In despair, he tried to enlist for India, but was rejected as under size, then he retired to an obscure lodging on Oxford-road, where he subsisted by selling his clothes, &c. and at last in destitution and sickness; was supported by the kindness and charity of his landlord. He refused to tell his father's name, till at length, won by the benevolent attentions of some religious persons belonging to the missionary institutions, he informed them respecting his friends. The father was written to and he instantly started from Liverpool having already suffered greatly from anxiety at the unaccountable absence of his son and his total silence, and merely arrived in time to see him expire: for the sudden shock, and the effort the unhappy man made to raise himself in bed and throw himself before his father, were too much for his exhausted frame. The grieved and afflicted father, overcome by the loss and cruel fate of his beloved son, sunk under the blow, and was himself a corpse, and consigned to the narrow house a few weeks afterwards.