144] 
these blessings, however, he doubted 
not the long permanency. He con- 
cluded, by an earnest recommenda- 
tion to the care and vigilance of 
those of whom it was the duty to 
preserve them. 
Aftersomestrictureson Mr. Pitt’s 
speech, by Mr. Sheridan and Mr. 
Fox, partly sarcastic and partly seri- 
ous, the House coincided with Mr. 
Pitt’s proposal for a repeal of those 
taxes on some articles that were the 
most unpopular. 
Among the various measures ob- 
jected to, or censured by membersin 
opposition, during this session, the 
long standing practice of raising part 
of the supplies by meansof a lottery, 
underwenttheseverest rebrobation. 
In the committee of supply on 
the 8th of March, Mr. Pitt having 
proposed the raising of 812,000), 
by means of a lottery, he was vigor- 
ously opposed by Mr. A. Taylor; 
who highly blamed him for having 
recourse, in aseason of public tran- 
quillity at home and abroad, to a 
method of levying money which 
nothing could justify but the ex- 
tremest necessity and distress of the 
state. It was notoriously inimical 
to the private welfare and morals 
of all individuals, by instilling in- 
to them a spirit of gaming, which 
had unhappily diffused itself among 
all classes, and occasioned a variety 
of fatal accidentstoo well knownand 
ascertained to suffer a denial. Per- 
sons in affluent circumstances had, 
by indulging in this pernicious 
practice, acquired ruinous habits of 
venturing more than either discre- 
tion could warrant, or the interest 
of their families reasonably permit ; 
andthe lower classes, by the delusive 
prospects of bettering their condi- 
tions, were oftentimes reduced to 
the worst extremes of miseries, and 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 1792. 
driven by their sufferings to the 
commission of crimes to extricate 
themselves, for which they became 
amenable to courts of justice. 
Suicide also was sometimes the con- 
sequence of the imprudences to 
which this odious practice gave 
birth, especially among the lower 
classes; who possess but little to ven- 
ture and to lose, and who, when 
stripped by unpropitious fortune of 
their scanty lot, often gave way to 
despair, and rushed into the most de- 
plorable extremities. In proofof the 
justness of these allegations, several 
instances of general notoriety were 
laid before the House. Mr. Taylor 
concluded thisinvective against lot- 
teries, by representing the minister 
so resolutely bent to add to the re- 
venue by every possible method, as 
to consider such addition, however 
repugnant to good policy, as of more 
importance than the preservation of 
public or private morality. 
Other members inveighed with 
equal warmth against the use of lot- 
teries. Mr. Mainwaring present- 
ed, on the 3d of April, a formal pe- 
tition against them from the grand 
jury of Middlesex, stating the divers 
mischiefs arising from them, and re- 
commending to the serious consi- 
deration of the House, the propriety 
of obviating such evils, by a sup- 
pression of the cause from whence 
they originated. 
This remonstrance of the grand 
jury was seconded with great vi- 
gour. The regulations that had 
been made by parliament to prevent 
the evils attending a lottery, were 
described as totally insufficient. 
Evasion and subterfuges were al- 
ways found to elude them; as such 
was the rage for gaming, excited 
by lotteries, that they had from 
their first institution gradually per- 
verted 
