THE SMALLEST KINGDOM IN THE WORLD.

Temuka Leader, Volume I, Issue 78, 14 September 1878, Page 3

THE SMALLEST KINGDOM IN THE WORLD.

(From a correspondent of (lie ‘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 wi'l tell you. Monaco is a kingdom, the smallest and most comtemptible 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 the 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 Grimalci 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 Prance 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 ©f kingdoms. Its entire population is less than 10,000. It consists of a small town on a remarkable promontory, inaccessible from the sea-side, but making a snug harbor which separates the town from Monte Carlo. On this hill a splendid hotel Is built, ami beautiful villas are springing up. The prince of this .pretty domain has a royal palace: with splendid gardens around it; he has his ckstle, 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 bad to pay were so heavy as to lead to the revolt and seccession of Mentone and Eucca Brun, There was every reason to fear the Monocans would follow the lead of their neighbors, and that some fine morning they might pitcli the Prince into the sea so invitingly near. In this crisis the famous man Blanc, who was harvesting the gold of all the fools at Hamburg, 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 be fleeced in winter. Mr Blanc and bis partners agreed, in consideration of their license, to pay the Prince an annual sum of 75,000 dols., and also to keep his city lighted with gas, streets in order, drainage perfect, and to make the place more and more 1 attractive for the fashionable world. The climate is delightful, the king lives in Paris most of the time, and a reign of peace aiifl plenty is enjoyed under the genial auspices of a nest of gamblers,

who make vast sums of money out of their contract with the kin,”'. I am told that their expenditure in city improvements and taxes amount to a thousand dollars a day, and tin’s will help you to some idea of the money that must be lost by the visitors. Then? are five or six large tables, with as many games of variou.s kinds, at which an indefinite number of people may play, and these games go on steadily clay 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 thisA’ice (of all vices) that indulgence stimulates the passion, blunts the edge of reason, and like the horse-leech cries, “More, more,” and never says it is enough.