6S0 LOT 
father than in the purchafe of neceflaries, or of luxuries 
which are the great l'upport of trade. That they are not 
ungrateful to the people of this country is evident, from 
the price the tickets have borne of late years above their 
intrinfic value : for it is to be obferved, that, whatever 
may be the nature of the fcheme, the exaft fum of iol. 
per ticket is allotted for prizes. Ten pounds therefore is 
the precife value of a ticket, though at prefent they do 
pot come into the hands of the public under 21I. or 22I. a- 
ticket, and in (hares not under the rate of 24I. The con- 
traftors are allowed (with fome fmall reltrictions) to form 
the fcheme, that is, to difpofe of this iol. a-ticket as 
they pleafe. Every fcheme, and there are at prefent fix 
in a year, is trumpeted forth as being, like Caflio’s fong, 
“ more excellent than the laftand it requires no fmall 
(hare of ingenuity to vary them. Sometimes the variation 
is in the mode of drawing, fometimes in the diftribution 
of the prizes. A very Ihort time has been lately allowed 
for drawing, in order to prevent infuring, becaufe the go¬ 
vernment get nothing by that, and the people pleafe them¬ 
felves to their own injury. No lottery can be let on foot 
by private perfons without the fanftion of an aft of par¬ 
liament. If people have a mind to rifque their money 
foolilbly or wifely, it mult be for the benefit of the go¬ 
vernment, not of each other. 
Some perfons are apt to fuppofe, that, as the riling ge¬ 
neration becomes wifer, and better inftrufted, the evils 
of lotteries will ceafe of themfelves, becaufe nobody will 
engage in fuch unprofitable fpeculations. But, as the 
Edinburgh Review very jultly obferves, “ the whole mif- 
chief and hazard of fuch practices is juft as thoroughly 
known at prelent as it will be when the world is five thou¬ 
sand years older; and as much pains are taken to imprefs 
the ardent fpirits of youth with the belief of thofe hazards 
as can well be taken by the monitors who may difcharge 
that office in the moll remote futurity. The truth is, that 
the offenders do not offend fo much in ignorance as in 
prefumption. They know very well, that men are oftener 
ruined than enriched by lotteries and the gaming-table; 
but they know too, that this is not always the cafe; and 
they flatter themfelves that their good luck, and good 
judgment, will clafs them among the exceptions, and not 
among the ordinary examples of the rule. They are told 
well enough, for the molt part, of the exceflive folly of 
afting upon fuch a prefumption, in matters of ferious im¬ 
portance : but it is the nature of youth, to defpife much 
of the wifdom that is prefled upon them, and to think 
well of their fortune and fagacity, till they have aftually 
had experience of their llipperinefs. We really have no 
idea that their future teachers will be able to change this 
nature, or to deftroy the external diftinftion between the 
•character of early and mature life ; and therefore it is, that 
we defpair of the cure of the manifold evils that fpring 
from this fource ; and remain perfuaded, that young men 
will be nearly as foolilh, and as incapable of profiting by 
the experience of their feniors, ten thoufand years hence, 
as they are at this moment.” 
But let us not fuppofe that this fpecies of folly is more 
grateful to Englilhmen than to the inhabitants of other 
countries. Games of chance are fafcinating every-where : 
“ Hope follow s through.” We (hall quote but one inflance, 
from Mr. Proftflor Martyn’s Tour through Italy, of the 
popular fondnefs of the modern Romans for this gambling 
fpecies of taxation : “The common people of Rome are 
in a ferment during all the time of the lottery, which-is 
drawn eight timesVyear. Such is the rage tor it, that 
the quantity of bread baked in the city is atthele fealons 
confiderably lefs than ulual s in Ihort, it is the loculi 
which conlurnes what the caterpillar had left.” By the 
.caterpillar, Mr. M. no doubt alludes to the miferable go¬ 
vernment of that country, once the miltrefs, now the con¬ 
tempt, of the world. 
LOT'TI (Antonio,) principal organift of St. Mark’s 
at Venice, and afterward maeftro di capella of the fame ca¬ 
thedral, was one of the greateft men of his profeflion, In 
LOT 
his compofitions, he combined with the learning of the 
old fchool all the grace, rich harmony, and brilliancy, of 
the new. He was long at the head of the Venetian fchool. 
His ecclefiaftical compofitions were only ufed at St. Mark’s 
on great and folemn occafions: they aretruly fublime. The 
kind of pathos in his Ityle elevates the lbu), and expreffes 
all the grandeur and reverence of devotion. EJfais fur la 
Muf. tom. iii. Lotti was the difciple of Legrenzi, th* 
model of Haffe, one of the mailers of Marcello, Galuppi, 
and Pefcetti. His name is chiefly known in England by 
the difpute in the Academy of Ancient Mufic, at the 
Crown and Anchor, in 1732, concerning a madrigal which 
Bononcini was accufed of having llolen from him. Lotti 
compofed for the Venetian theatres, between the years 
1698 and 1717, fifteen operas. His cantatas furnifin fpeci-* 
mens of recitatives that do honour to his fenfibility. Ha 
was opera-compofer at the court of Drefden, when the 
Santa Stelli, his wife, performed the part of fir it woman 
there, in 1718 ; and in 1720 he returned to Venice, where 
he was living in 1733. The time of his death is not known, 
LO'TUL, a town of Bengal: fixteen miles well of Toree. 
LO'TUS,/ [from Xwto;, fweet.J Bird’s-foot Tre¬ 
foil ; in botany, a genus of the clafs diadelphia, order 
decandria, natural order of papilionaceae, or leguminofae. 
The generic characters are—Calyx : umbel Ample ; pe- 
rianthium one-leafed, tubular, half-five-cleft; teeth acute, 
equal, ereft ; permanent. Corolla: papilionaceous; ban¬ 
ner roundilh, bent down; claw oblong, concave; wings 
roundilh, (horter than the banner, broad, converging 
upwards ; keel gibbous below, clofed above, acuminate, 
alcending, Ihort. Stamina : filaments diadelphous, Am¬ 
ple and nine-cleft, afcending, with broadilh tips; antheras 
fmall, Ample. Pillillum : germ columnar, oblong ; ftyle 
Ample, alcending; itigma an inflefted point. Pericar- 
piurn : legume cylindric, ftiff and ftraight, Huffed, longer 
than the calyx, many-celled, tv.o-valved ; feeds feveral, 
cylindric.— EJfential Charader. Calyx tubular; wings 
converging longitudinally upwards; legume cylindric, 
ftraight. 
The name Tvw-ros, or lotus , is given by the ancients 
both to an herb and a tree, each dilferent from the plants 
contained in this genus. The herb is a fpecies of Nym- 
phaea; and the tree-lotus is now fuppofed to be the Rham- 
nus lotus, which fee. 
Species. I. With few' legumes, not forming a head, 
1. Lotus maritimus, or fea bird’s-foot trefoil: legumes 
folitary, membranaceous, quadrangular ; leaves fmooth, 
braftes lanceolate. Root perennial. Stems feveral, de¬ 
cumbent, (lender, a foot and a half long, round, Ample, 
or with a few branches at the bafe, having Itiffilh hairs 
fcattered over them, prelfed clofe to the Hein. Leaves ter- 
nate ; leaflets obovate, flelhy, leflile, even, the edge towards 
the top having hairs fcattered over it. Stipules ovate, 
acute, even, longer than the petioles, the fame fize witli 
the leaves. Peduncles axillary, folitary, twice as long as 
the leaves, round, commonly one-flowered, feldom two- 
flowered. Bracle three-leaved, a little (horter than the 
calyx, the middle one longer than the others. Calyx ob¬ 
long, even, hairy at the edge : corolla large, yellow, wfith 
flefh-coloured veins on the middle of the banner underneath, 
the wings of a deeper yellow ; keel Ihort, with a greenilh 
tip. The legume has four longitudinal wings. It differs 
from the third fpecies, by its perennial root, by the fmooth- 
nefs and greater flelhinefs of the leaves, by the floral leaf¬ 
lets being lanceolate and not like thofe on the Hem, and 
by the calyxes being lefs deeply cut. Native of many 
parts of Europe, on the fea-coalt, as Sweden, Denmark, 
Silefia, the fouth of France, the county of Nice, See. Ray 
found it at the mouth of the Tiber. Cultivated by Mr, 
Miller in 1759. It flowers from May to Oftober. 
2. Lotus filiquofus, or fquare-podded bird’s-foot trefoil; 
legumes folitary, membranaceous-quadrangular; Hems 
procumbent, leaves pubefeent, underneath. This is dif- 
tinguilhed from the preceding, to which it is very nearly 
allied, by its procumbent items, white pubefeent, a foot 
long j 
