HISTORY OF EUROPE. 



85 



some future occasion, after that 

 night, if the lottery should ever 

 again form part of tiie ways and 

 means of the year. It should not, 

 however, be taken for granted, be- 

 cause the guards against improper 

 practices in the lottery had once 

 failed, that they must always fail. He 

 was satisfied, it was not to the lot- 

 teries, but to the insurance that 

 the objection lay. He did not say, 

 that for a revenue of 300,000/. a 

 year, the house ought to give their 

 sanction to any thing immoral, or 

 productive of evil ; but, at the 

 same time, he was not for aban- 

 doning a financial resource of this 

 kind, without trying whether some 

 measure might not be devised for 

 remedying the evils resulting from 

 it. — Mr. Wilberforce said, that he 

 was sure his right honourable friend 

 persuaded himself that he should 

 put a stop to the mischiefs of lot- 

 teries by abolishing insurances : or 

 he would not for much more thaa 

 300,000/. sacrifice the victims it 

 occasioned. But after the ineftec- 

 tual efforts of the great men, who 

 had preceded his right honourable 

 friend in the administration of the 

 country, to abolish the practice of 

 insurance, he thought him too san- 

 guine in supposing that he should 

 be able to do it effectually. In- 

 surance, however, was not the only 

 evil of lotteries. By dividing tick- 

 ets into small shares a spirit of 

 gambling was disseminated, which 

 was attended with the most serious 

 evils to the lower classes. As to 

 the productiveness of the lottery, 

 it had dwindled from 600,000/. 

 to 300,000/. ; and there was never 

 any thing more true, than that the 

 sum whicii appeared to be sacri- 

 iiccd to morality, would be far more 



than repaired otherwise. By sup- 

 pressing lotteries, many would re- 

 main to enrich the country with 

 their labours, whom the lottery 

 would reduce into habits of idle- 

 ness and extrp.vagance. — Sir T. 

 Turton desired the house not to do 

 any thing in a moment of heat 

 respecting lotteries. He wished to 

 know if the same scale of exemp- 

 tions and contributions on the in- 

 come tax were to remain aslast year. 



The Chancellor of the Exche- 

 quer said, there were to be no new- 

 statutes this year respecting the 

 income tax. They would act upon 

 old laws. 



Sir Samuel Romllly was ex- 

 tremely sorry to hear his right hon. 

 friend, the Chancellor of the Exche- 

 quer, treating the case of the lottery 

 as a matter falling of course, to form 

 part of the service of the year. 

 Sir T. T. had talked of not doing 

 any thing in a moment of heat: 

 did the honourable baronet not 

 know that a committee had been 

 appointed to inquire into this very 

 subject ; that that committee had 

 reported during the last session; 

 and that their report had lain on 

 the table from that time without 

 any thing having been done upon 

 it ? The house was now situated, 

 as to this subject, much in the 

 same way as that in which they 

 stood with regard to the slave 

 trade some years ago. The house 

 did allow that trade to continue for 

 years after they had evidence of 

 the abuses practised in it : which 

 added infinitely to the iniquity of 

 suffering the continuance of the 

 practice. On the same principle, 

 if the house, with the knowledge 

 they now had of the evils attend- 

 ing lotteries, allowed the practice 



to 



