THE SMALLEST KINGDOM IN THE WORLD.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5444, 7 September 1878, Page 3

THE SMALLEST KINGDOM IN THE WORLD.

(From a correspondent o£ the New York Observer.) This gambling establishment at Monaco is about the last that is left. I believe one is still licensed in an obscure canton in Switzerland. And if you ask why it flourishes here, in the midst of civilisation and Christianity, I will tell you. Monaco is ■ a kingdom, the smallest and moat contemptible in the world. It is also one of the oldest, and perhaps the very oldest, in Europe. It dates from the tenth century. On the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, at tho foot of the Maritime Alps, three or four fishing and trading villages managed, with infinite and foolish sacrifices, to make themselves into a separate state, over which the Grimaldi family has held precarious sway for a thousand years. In the chances and changes that have modified the map of Europe (in which Nice has been at one time in France, and then in Italy, and now in France again), the insignificance of Monaco has been its shield. Two of the towns that once belonged to it have managed to get out, and Monaco now stands alone in its glory, the least and meanest of kingdoms. Its entire population is less than 10,000. In consists of a small town on a remarkable promontory, inaccessible from the sea-side, but ranking a snug harbor which separates the town from Monte Carlo.' On this hill a splendid hotel is built, and beautiful villas are springing up. The prince of this pretty domain has a royal palace with splendid gardens around it; he has his castle, and guns, and soldiers, and is the equal in position with any of the crowned heads of Europe. To keep up this style and state he must have money ; the taxes, that his subjects had to pay were so heavy as to lead to the revolt and succession of Mentone and Rucca Brun. There was every reason to fear the Monocans would follow the lead of their neighbors, and that some fine morning they might pitch the Prince into the sea so invitingly near. In this crisis the famous man Blano, who was harvesting tho gold of all the fools at Homburg and Baden, obtained a license to set up his tables at Monaco for the accommodation of the silly sheep that would come to Nice, Mentone, and Monaco to bo fleeced in winter. Mr. Blanc and his partners agreed, in consideration of their- license, to pay the Prince an annual sum _of $75,000, and also to keep his city lighted with gas, streets in order, drainage perfect, and to mhke the place more and more attractive for tho fashionable world. Tho climate ia delightful, tho king lives in Paris most of the time, and a reign of peace and plenty is enjoyed under the general auspices of a neat of gamblers, who make vast sums of money out of their contract with tho king. I am told that their expenditures in city improvements and taxes amount to a thousand dollars a day, and this will help you to some idea of tho money that must bo lost by the visitors. There are five or six largo tables, with ns many games of various kinds, at which an indefinite number of people may play, and these games go on steadily day

and night, and the stream flowing, almost without a turn, into the bank or the bag of the company. Women and men, young and old, English and American, French, Italians, Germans, and Russians, Orientals swarth and passionless in their looks, all play, all lose, all play again, for it is the nature of this vice all vices) that indulgence stimulates the passion, blunts the edge of reason, and like the horseleech, cries, “ More, more/’ and never says it is enough, . :