LOTTERY, 



the tickets off tl:eir hands, without rfforting to a variety of 

 expedients for attrailing the public attention, which were 

 carri-jd to fuch a length as to become a public nuifance. 



This and many ftrious evils which were known to exid 

 relating to lotteries, particularly that of illegal inlurances, 

 gave rife, in 1 80S, to a committee of the houfe of common?, 

 which was appointed in order to enquire " how far the evilj 

 attending lotteri-.-s had been remedied by the laws pa.Ted 

 refpedling the fame." In the report of this committee, 

 various inftai.'ces were adduced of the moft ferious evils, at- 

 teiled by the m >ll refpeclable witneffes, fome of which are 

 fu linking, that we cannot refill the mention of them in the 

 prefent article. One cafe, which was attefted by the Rev. 

 Mr. Gurney, is particularly interefting, as it (hews to what 

 an amazing ext nit this kind of gambling will carry perfcmj, 

 who, had it not been for the temptations held out by lot- 

 teries, might have lived with comfort and refpeiiabillty, but 

 who, from thefe kinds of fpeculations, have been reduced to 

 the mod abjeift (late of poverty and diltrels. " I knew," 

 fays Mr. Gurney, " a widow in a good line of bufincfs, as 

 a filk dyer, which, I fuppofe, brought her in about 400/. 

 a-year clear. She kept a very good houle, and I was in 

 habits of intimacy with the fami y. The foreman fhe had 

 was in the habit of infuring in the lottery ; he was led allray 

 by an acquaintance, and he and his miilrefs infured to the 

 amount of from 300/ to 4C0/. in a night, although the fore- 

 man had only 30/. a-year wages. It appeared, on his^e- . 

 ceale, he had inlured immen'e fums of money within the 

 lail year of his life. I found that he had expended upwards 

 of roo guineas in the lottery, purchaGng one ticket at 16/. 

 and infuring away the reft. It came up a blank at laft, and 

 I verily believe the difappointment was the caufe of his 

 death. He died infolvent, and I adled as his executor, and 

 paid three or four fhiUtngs in the pound to his creditor?. He 

 had received a great many bills for his miltrefs, which he 

 had never accounted for, and was the ruin of her alfu ; (he 

 was not able to pay three (hillings in the jjound. She was 

 obliged to go ir.to an alms-huufe, and died there in four or 

 five months. They would fend all the plate (he polTefTed to 

 raife money to carry on an inlurance, which had begun per- 

 haps at a low rate. The gentleman who drew the foreman 

 into this practice was hi.x.felf alio ruined by it. His wife 

 Iiad an annuity of 400/. per annum fettled upon her, he fold 

 her life intereit, and (he was obliged to live afteryards upon 

 charity, rvhile her hufband, who had formerly kept his car- 

 riage, and lived in a good houfe in Q jeen-fquare, fpeiit the 

 lail hours of his miferable exiilcnce within the rules of the 

 Fleet prifon." V^arious other inftances of a fimilar kind 

 were mentioned in the appendix to the report of the com- 

 mittee, where the parties formerly in refpcftable circum- 

 llances were reduced to mifery and dillrefs. But what 

 ferves to mark the evils of 1 )tteri<?s the Itronger is, that it 

 is not only the unfuccefsf^il adventurer that is ruined by 

 the failure of his fpeculation, but there are as many cafes 

 where a fuccefsfnl fpecula'or has had equal reafon to oeplore 

 liis firil connexion with this fpecies of gambling. Robert 

 Baker, efq. d-pofed, that "he remembered one very llrong 

 inilajice of dillrefs arifing out of the tranfaftions in the lot- 

 tery four or five years ago. It was the cafe of a journey- 

 man who belonged to a clnb, which club purchafed a 

 ticket that came up the great prize. The (hare of this man 

 was ICC.', or thereabouts ; he had been an induftrious work- 

 ing man bef .re, and he was perfuaded by his friends to in- 

 ve!l the money in the Hocks, in the joint name of himfelf 

 and wife, :n order to prevent his making away with it. He 

 did fo, but fooii got into habits of idlenefs after he was 

 poifefltid of the money ; acd he wanted his wile to join in 

 3 



the transfer of it. This occafionrJ quaiTeh, wliich pro- 

 ceeded to adauits; he chan /cd his habits of indullry to 

 thofe of drunkennefs and idlenefs, he dedroycd ad his do- 

 mellic cotrforts, and was the ruin of his family." Many 

 other cafes of a fimilar defcriplion are given in the appendix 

 to this report ; in fome of them mothers have ne.^le<9:td their 

 children, and left them dclhtute of the common necelfjiries 

 of life, while the money by which thof ■ nccelfaries (hould 

 have been purchafed has been gambled away in the infur- 

 aiice of certain numbers in the lottery. In other cafes the 

 wife has robbed an indiillrions and careful hulband and father 

 of the fmall and hard-earned favings of many months, 

 and even of many years ; and who, inllead of finding his 

 little trcafure in the drawer, in which it was depof.ted, and 

 which he was about to increafe by another fmall addition, 

 found that the whole had been gambled away in lottery 

 fptculations, and every article of his i lothes, which were 

 not likely to be immediately wanted, had been pawned in 

 order to recover the former lofs. 



In other cales, children have robbed their parents ; fcr- 

 van*s their mailers ; fnicides have been committed, and 

 almod every crime that can be imagined has been occa- 

 fioned, either directly or indireclly, through the baneful in- 

 fluence of lotteries. Thefe evils are the more to be re- 

 gretted, as they receive a fort of fanttion from the govern- 

 ment itftlf, and whatever lav.s may be enadted to check 

 them they will always cxill, in a greater or lefs degree, while 

 lotteries arc emp oyed as a means of increafing the revenue 

 oi the country, and certainly in no other cafe would they 

 be permitted to exift. The objeft of government is the 

 happinefs of the people, and every means that c?n be em- 

 ployed to attain this object it is the duty of government 

 to employ ; but this can never be accomplKhed without 

 ftricl and conltant attention to morals as well private as 

 public ; but how little are lotteries calculated fa produce 

 this citect, wh'oh, inllead of improving the morals, liold 

 out the moll dehifive fchemes to attraiSt the attention of the 

 ignorant and unwary, and draw them afrde from the paths 

 of indullry and contentment, to embark in a gambling con- 

 c'.'rn, which generally terminates in poverty and wretched- 

 uefs. 



The committee before which the ab«ve mentioned facls 

 W£re dilclofed, were fully aware of all the evils we have re- 

 counted, and in the courfe of their report, declared, that 

 " the foundation of the lottery, fyftem is fo radically vicious, 

 that your committee fetl convinced, that under no fyftem 

 of regulations which can be devifed, will it be polfibie for 

 parliament to adopt it as an efficacious fource of revenue, 

 and at the fame time diveft it of all the evils of which it has 

 hitherto proved fo baneful a fource. 



" But, ^in cafe it (liould be thought expedient to continue 

 (late lotteries,) the number, therefore, in each year, (hould. 

 be limited to two lotteries, of not more than ;c,coo tickets 

 each; that the number of days allowed for drawing, inilead . 

 of ten, (hould be brought down to eight for each lottery, , 

 the number fixed in 1S02 ; that the number of tickets to be 

 drawn rath day (hould be uncertain, and left to the direitioa 

 ol the commilTioners of (lamp-duties, and kept fecrettiU the 

 clofe of the drawing each day ; care being taken, as the lot- 

 tery proceeds, not to leave too great a number undrawn on 

 the latter days of drawing ; but that one moiety, or upwards, . 

 be drawn on the four firit days thereof; that every lottery- 

 office keeper (hould, in addition to his own licence, take otit: 

 a limited number of licences for his agents ; that the limi-. 

 tation of hours during which lottery-oiSccs may be open 

 for the traifaclion of bufuiefs, f/=. from eight, o'clock in 

 the morning till eight o'clock la the evemiig, enaded by 



2i Geo. 



