Sayfadaki görseller
PDF
ePub

indeed a cruel, a mischievous tax, of which two poor widows were made the victims. Among the names cited in the little record which he had described were those of two tradesmen. On that point, seeing in their places a worthy alderman who had paid much attention to the subject of insolvent debtors, and an honourable friend of his who had devoted much of his time to the consideration of the bankrupt laws, he would at once refer to them whether adventuring in the lottery was not that step which but too frequently led to bankrupts and insolvencies? A case of that kind had very lately come under his inspection. From particular circumstances it became necessary for him to look into the affairs of a person who had become embarrass

the House to whom he was bound to apologize for having so long detained it, he would read. It was the prospectus of a lottery issued some time ago, and pub. lished by the editor of a paper who he believed was a man of strict integrity, and whose account might therefore be depended on. The grand total of the scheme was 10,400 tickets. There were 54 prizes, some of a larger and others of a smaller amount; and there were 10,200 blanks, including some prizes of a very low denomination. The fact appeared to be, that of those 10,200 blanks, 10,000 were, on a fair calculation, held by about 100,000 persons. He would here remark, that it was a most important question, who were the principal sufferers in a lottery. The editor of the paper in ques-ed; and he found that what by postponing tion gave a description of the shares sold by him in that lottery of a particular number; and the station, employment and address of those who bought them. That single ticket was held by 28 persons, an important fact; because it showed that the lowest persons were those who most generally became the dupes of the lottery; and a fact to which he particularly adverted, because it was lately proved in the evidence given before a committee of the House, that in the workhouse of the parish of Spitalfields; that was, in the very poorest spot in London, the poor actually subscribed to buy a lottery ticket. The money was raised by those unfortu nate people after some time and with some difficulty, by instalments of from one halfpenny to sixpence each, was so expended; and was lost. Returning, however, to the paper, he there found it stated, that one sixteenth of the ticket in question was sold to a young woman in servitude residing at Camberwell, formerly in better circumstances; one to the female servant of a tobacconist where another servant had resided to whom not long before a share of a 20,000l. prize had been sold; another sixteenth to the servant of a gentleman in Mark-lane; two others to two poor widows; and two more to other persons in situations equally inferior. Now, all this went to show that it was exactly the most poor and the most ignorant who were the dupes of lotteries. It was most cruel, by such a system of delusion, to make a poor female, said to be born to better expectations, only the more miserable, in consequence of the distraction of mind caused by the disappointment of unfounded promises. It was §

payment to some of his creditors, paying others in part, and borrowing of his friends, he had raised a sum of 400l. all of which was lost in the lottery. Then as to confidential clerks, it was notorious that they were often the greatest speculators in the lottery. A friend of his a banker (than whom the kingdom did not produce a more experienced banker, or a more res pectable man), had told him that he never knew an instance of fraud among his clerks, without finding that the parties by whom it was committed had had some previous concern with the lottery. Inshort, the system was productive of the greatest evils. Lotteries absorbed the earnings of the poor; and what was worse they absorb ed their principles of honest industry; for it was well known, that when a man once engaged in gambling speculations, he be came averse to the performance of his ordinary duties, and indifferent to the petty earnings of his original avocation. The whole of the lottery system was one of fraud, seduction, and specious robbery, intended to intoxicate the minds of the poor and ignorant, to inflame their pas sions, and to excite their cupidity. He had no doubt himself that gambling was a passion which when once excited could not be destroyed. It must find a vent; he had as little doubt that, of the thou sands and tens of thousands of instances wherein the tradesman had defrauded his creditor, the servant robbed his master, and the clerk embezzled the property of his employer, the greater number had been the result of the delusion thus held out by government. It was singular that the right hon. gentleman had asserted that the lottery put an end to little-goes,

and had nevertheless stated that 55 detections of persons engaged in the latter practice had taken place during the present year. The right hon. gentleman had also said that the lottery brought in yearly 300,000l. Now, for the seven or eight hundred thousand pounds extracted by the lottery from the pockets of the public, only 300,000l. reached the right hon. gentleman; and from that sum certain very material deductions were to be made. The direct tendency of the lottery was to produce paupers, and to make rogues. He would therefore call on the right honourable gentleman to deduct from his estimate the money necessary for the support of those paupers and rogues. Whether the sum was large or small that government derived from lotteries might perhaps make a difference to some honourable gentlemen. To him it made none. No one-not even the right honourable gentleman could deny that the lottery was a system of gambling; and therefore a financial expedient altogether unworthy of a great nation.

[ocr errors]

Mr. William Parnell thought the chancellor of the exchequer could have no difficulty in giving up this tax, and substituting some other in its stead; in the mean time, if the money remained in the people's pockets, it was as much as was necessary according to the good old maxim of queen Elizabeth, who considered it, when there, as secure as if it were in her own keeping. The right hon. gentleman would only have to exercise a little of his accustomed ingenuity in devising new plans. The right hon. gentleman had defended the establishment of a large lottery as necessary to catch small lotteries; he had often heard the maxim, "set a thief to catch a thief;" and improving upon this maxim, the right hon. gentleman thought the only way to catch little-goes was, to establish great-goes. The chancellor of the exchequer had a great quantity of public and private integrity; he was in the possession of such a degree of character as would allow him to change his mind without being ridiculed. His character stood high for integrity in the largest sense of the word. The perceiving in such a character, a blot like that of encouraging gambling and immorality struck one with a harsh and disagreeable surprise. It was something like a moral tooth-ach. It was a surprise like that felt by the readers of a well-known novel of Fielding, his Amelia, who, after taking a warm

interest in the heroine, finds out in the middle of the novel that she had lost her nose. It was astonishing to see what things could be done by the best characters with a good conscience. The conscientious opposition of many to the Catholic claims, and the encouragement of the lottery by the right hon. gentleman might be illustrated by a circumstance mentioned in a work with which the right hon. gentleman might perhaps be acquainted-it was the Life of a Mr. Newton, who he believed was a Methodist preacher, written by himself. This religious man had afterwards a better sense of these things, but he went on with the Slave Trade for three years, before he found out that he was wrong. When he found out that he was wrong, he gave up his slave ship, and anathematized the trade. Such, he had no doubt, would be the case with the chancellor of the exchequer. The most extraordinary argument in favour of lotteries adduced by that right hon. gentleman was, as to the relative quantity of vice resulting from lotteries and little-goes; thus turning vice to account, as was done in Holland, where certain establishments were licensed by government which he dared not name. Seriously speaking, he did not think the character of the chancellor of the exchequer was worth more to the country than the 300,000l. raised by the system he supported. But that right hon. gentleman he observed, always connected the character of administration with the moral and political character of the whole coun. try. The system was one that was absolutely an anomaly. He had often been surprised why religion should be regarded with something like indifference by large classes of the people. He accounted for it by supposing the existence of some such inconsistencies as these. He did not often pry into the secrets of government, but he should like to ask the right hon. gentleman whether he ever bought a lottery-ticket himself? If not, why would he recommend to others that which he himself rejected?

Mr. Alderman Wood considered it very extraordinary that the chancellor of the exchequer should have talked of the suppression of little-goes, when his own statement had shown a large increase of them during the last three years. He was prepared to show, on the contrary, that littlegoes were encouraged in consequence of lotteries. The worthy alderman proceed

ed to detail the manner in which fraudu- | the subject was one which only related to lent insurances of numbers were effected; the manner in which the avenues to those the infatuation being so great, that in the gaols were filled. He concurred with his house of one of those wretches who exist- hon. friend in the drawback that ought to ed by these nefarious means and who had be made from the nominal amount of reaccumulated, from the credulity of his venue, which the lottery was said to produpes, 100 guineas in gold, 754. in silver, duce. The system itself was a great evil and a large hoard of copper, which were discovered at the same time, a paper was found, containing a list of the names of the insurers: they were of various classes -clerks in public offices, merchants, and tradesmen. The wife of a servant of his, an industrious man who earned at his employment two guineas a week, had carried her conviction of the efficacy of those insurances and the certainty of her obtaining a prize so far, that she completely ruined him, and he died amidst want, disease, and wretchedness, of a broken heart. There were various ways in which the money of the lower classes might be applied with much more benefit to their interests than by dealing in lotteries. The saving banks, for instance, were calculated to promote a moral and virtuous feeling among them. He himself had used his utmost efforts to have a saving bank established in his ward, and he hoped ultimately to do so; but, where lotteries were established, littlegoes were to be found in abundance, in consequence of which the lower classes were induced rather to speculate with, than lay by the surplus of their earnings. It was extraordinary that the chancellor of the exchequer, who was found the first to support all public institutions, should support this system; that he should advocate the expenditure of immense sums for the building of churches, and at the same time support a measure which was calculated to keep a great portion of the public from approaching them. He felt himself bound, on every view of the subject, to give the motion his support.

Mr. Wilberforce could not help congratulating the House on finding that no gentleman on the other side, save the chancellor of the exchequer, had attempted to stand up in support of the lottery system. He considered this system as a fraud which was carried on to the injury of the country, and which ought to be put an end to as soon as possible. When he saw his hon. friend (Mr. Buxton) upon his legs, he really thought (not having been in the House at the opening of the discussion) that the question related to the state of gaols; but when he had listened a little to his hon. friend, he found that (VOL. XL.)

it was at variance with the principles of the best system of public economy-it went to paralyze the vigour of industryit went to attack the social independence which a statesman ought to cherish in a free state. A calculation had been made of the sum which was to be raised by this system, and it appeared that it amounted to about 300,000l.; but what was this sum compared to the virtue, morality, and industry of the people? How was it to be valued by those who considered how much the one tended to lower, and the other to raise the grandeur and independence of society? Much argument had been used against the poor laws, as tending to demoralize and destroy the independent feelings of the lower classes; but how could any argument be used against those laws, by those who supported the lottery system? If the principle of the argument against the poor laws was to be followed to its conclusion, where could a sacrifice be made with more propriety than in the present instance? If the necessities of the state required that the deficiencies should be made up, let it be done by the public. In whatever manner it was done, it must be a much less exceptionable mode than the present. Why should they, acting like the foolish man, who, though accustomed to give away large sums of money, when he saw a treasure put out on his table intended for a friend, could not persuade himself to part with it-why should they hesitate to give up 300,000l. because it was not perhaps convenient? At the same time, he thought it but fair, when they demanded a sacrifice of the minister for the public good, to substitute some other measure of fair principle in its stead. There was now, he thought, a reasonable prospect of the lottery being abolished; since it had been long almost entirely supported by his right hon. friend the chancellor of the exchequer.

Mr. Canning thought, the question had been taken up on most unfair grounds, and treated in a manner quite foreign to the subject. The object of this motion was, to deprive government of 300,000. yearly, and to abolish one of the oldest (H)

taxes existing in this country. His hon. friend had said, that if the chancellor of the exchequer gave up the tax, it was their duty to provide him with a substiture; that if this tax were given up on moral grounds, they were to provide an unexceptionable one in its place; but it should seem now, that the burthen of finding a substitute was to fall, not upon those who took away the old tax, but upon those who were to lose it. But his hon. friend well knew, for among all the transcendent abilities which he possessed, he thought his tactic in debate one of his greatest his hon. friend knew as well, and better than he did, that lately they were asked to repeal the salt tax, because it was injurious to agriculture, commerce, and the morality of the people. They were asked also to repeal the leather tax, because it was highly injurious to the agriculture, commerce, and morals of the country. Nay, among other immoral taxes, very lately they had been applied to, to abolish the spirit tax in Ireland, as exceedingly injurious to the agriculture, commerce, and the morals of the people. Even the window tax was thought to be equally hostile to the morals of the people. Now, he wished those gentlemen who were for repealing all these immoral taxes, would take the trouble of putting their amount together, and to see whether, having done so, they eould suggest a pro rata for the quota furnished by immoral statutes; for, in spite of all the declamations they had heard about the life and adventures of a servant maid, every body well knew that taxes always bore hard on the people. To abolish those taxes now, one by one, without at the time providing sufficient substitutes for each, and without waiting for the period at which a general remission of the taxes might take place, would be to wander in the dark, and uselessly to incur the risk of discovering that they had parted with means which were indispensable to the safety of the country. Now, did the hon. gentleman suppose, that he had said one word about the tax in question, which he (Mr. Canning) could not say, mutatis mutandis, of the spirit tax? His hon. friend, no doubt, well knew Hogarth's two celebrated prints, in which the effects of gin are so strikingly pourtrayed, possibly with the view of inducing a severe tax upon that article. But what ought to be done? If they followed up their reasonings against the mischief of spirits, let them abolish under penalty the

use of them. He was not quite sure that he was correct, for he spoke without book, but he believed the lottery had existed ever since the revolution. The whole industry of late times had been employed to reform, as fast as possible, the abuses growing out of old statutes; and if any body could, he wished he would find out the practicability of correcting the abuses and excrescences growing out of this and other taxes. Supposing those excrescences taken away, he could not conceive one, as to the manner, amount, or time of payment, less exceptionable than the lottery. The evils which had been adverted to, arose either from insurance, or from the small division of the tickets. Now, in former times, he recollected tickets being divided into 32 parts: and he believed they had even been subdivided into 64 portions. The number of shares had since been contracted to 16, and the temptation which had been held out to the lower orders to purchase was thus considerably narrowed. If the hon. mover thought it would ameliorate the system to withdraw 16ths, he believed his right hon. friend would not be unwilling to adopt the suggestion. But, if they wished to remove the source of a tax that existed in all countries, and which had been tolerated here for a hundred years, gentlemen must make use of stronger arguments than those they had adduced. Throughout the debate a personal appeal had been made to his right hon. friend; and, because his right hon. friend was known to possess a strong sense of moral duty, ridicule was attempted to be cast on him, for maintaining a tax which he had not created, but which he found long formed and established when he came into office. The feelings of the man were assailed, in order to make him morbidly sensible of the difficulties which intervened in the performance of his duty as a minister. Those who knew him not might ridicule him for that which was, in truth, the ornament of his character-for that which gave an assurance to the country of his honour and integrity-for that which might stand in the stead of qualities, that he might not be supposed by some to possess in an eminent degree. He hoped, however, that no taunts addressed to him, as an individual, would lead him to forget that he had great public duties to perform, one of which was to provide for the exigencies of the state-and that he would feel that

[ocr errors]

his conduct was not open to blame because he adopted the inherited expedients of the greatest men in this country, who had filled the situation before him.

Mr. Wodehouse declared, that after all he had heard, and anxious as he was to support the finances of the country, he could not give his vote in favour of a tax, which added to the revenue only in proportion as it spread immorality and crime amongst the people. Amongst the lower orders, the spirit of gambling sometimes led to robbery, and in some cases to suicide. It destroyed the only source of a poor man's character and happiness. In the present situation of the country, he was ready to support the continuance and imposition of any taxes which, without corrupting the morals, might be necessary to enable the government to meet the difficulties with which it had to contend. But the right hon. gentleman's comparison of this mode of raising money to the duties on spirits, appeared extraordinary when proceeding from a person of his talents and acuteness of mind. The lottery was not so much a tax as an invitation to crime; the tax on spirits had, in fact, an opposite tendency, and served to discourage the abuse of them. With regard to the observation, that lotteries were resorted to in other countries, it might be said, that so were expedients, at which it was impossible for Englishmen not to be shocked. Both at Paris and Spa considerable revenue was derived to the state from licensed gambling tables: but this system, bad as it was, appeared to him less disgraceful and pernicious than that of our own lottery, because it affected only the higher orders, whilst the lottery operated chiefly on the lower.

Mr. Plunkett wished to offer but a very few observations, after the able manner in which the subject had been discussed by several of his hon. friends. He found it impossible to sit silent on hearing the doctrine avowed by his right hon. friend, and finding what the ground was on which the lottery was defended by his majesty's ministers. It was not denied-that it produced crime, and that by such production it contributed to the revenue. He admired the talents of his right hon. friend, if he would allow him so to call him, and he knew it must be foreign to his sentiments to overlook the eternal distinction between right and wrong; but the truth was, that the whole of this argument resolved itself into a question of moral feel

ing. The question was, whether the House could be induced to foster the propagation of misery and crime, for the sake of an apparent benefit to the revenue? They had been told of the long continuance of this system; but the age made no impressions on his mind in its favour: if it were as old as the foundations of the world, this was no reason for protracting its existence. He was sorry to hear the right hon. gentleman attempt to treat with levity the allusion which had been made to female servants, as if that class of society were unworthy of regard, and their morals or happiness not the objects of legislative protection. It was not easy to discover the analogy between a lottery and the taxes on salt, windows, or spirits. These were not the direct causes of immorality; and although impoverishment must always tend to weaken moral principles, it could not be said of those taxes that they created a vice, in order to make a revenue out of it. Of all the duties incumbent on a government, there was none more sacred or pre-eminent than to act as the guardian of public morality; but the system which he now deprecated served only to undermine it, and to introduce every species of misery and disorder amongst the humbler classes of society.

Lord Castlereagh thought he had some right to complain of the mode in which the hon. and learned gentleman had treated the argument of his right hon. friend, whose observations must be fresh in the recollection of the House. It was quite a misconception to suppose that his right hon. friend had defended the lottery, on the principle of its being productive of crime, and that its mere advantage to the revenue was notwithstanding a sufficient justification of its continuance. All that had been urged by his right hon. friend was, that evils might grow out of the lottery as well as from the use of spirituous liquors, which when taken in moderate quantity might conduce to health. Ireland spirits had been found extremely beneficial in the fever which had lately prevailed; but when an indulgence in them was pushed to excess, and became connected with perjury, conspiracy, and other offences attendant on illicit distillation, what would otherwise be a wholesome beverage, or innocent recreation, was changed into a source of mischief. Gambling was no doubt not a thing to be approved, but it afforded a resource which all nations had adopted, and the adoption

In

« ÖncekiDevam »