“PIQZ. on lotteries. tog 
_ Lotteries, fatal to those whom they ruin, are equally so 
to those whom they enrich, or only when they are propi- 
tious for the moment. Money got without trouble, is ex- 
pended without care; it gives a taste for difsipation and 
pleasure ;, it inspires. an invincible disgust te work, to the 
detriment of individuals and of society. If they are large 
prizes, lotteries take away irom commerce,—from the clafs 
of artificers and workmen, a useful body, to place them 
among idle people, and increase the supporters of vice. 
It is not conceivable how pernicious it is in a state, to op- 
en any other road to fortune than that of industry, labour, 
and merit. These unexpected fortunes, which fall all at 
' once te indigente, occasion drunkennefs, disorder, vice, 
and extravagance. ‘These are great evils. They present 
a fatal example, an irresistible and deceitful attraction to 
the multitude, of whom they become the ruin. 
Besides, these fortunate prizes irritate still farther the des, 
sire of the player; he believes himself born for a frotune 
_ without bounds ; and in his delirium he gives back, suc- 
_ cefsively, to the lottery, what difsipation has not yet deyour- 
ed. His fall is only retarded a few moments, 
Experience has but too well proved that lotteries influ- 
ence predigiously the moral character of a people. Can 
it be denied that this insidious game, after having robted 
the people of the fruit of their labour, delivers them every 
"moment to the temptations of recovering it, by every kind 
_ of means? They openthe doer to crimes, They excite 
_ desire; and when desire is irritated and deceived, despair ; 
grief, and misery, know no bounds! Every day the allure- 
ment of the lottery provokes the infidelity of the son to- 
wards his father ; it provokes the infidelity of the wife, be- 
come deaf to the cries of her children ; it provokes the in= 
fidelity of servants to their masters; -and the lotteries dift 
~ solve the domestic tyes, as they do those of society. They 
