COLLECTIONS RESPECTING LOTTERIES
1569.—The First Lottery.
Dr. Rawlinson, a distinguished antiquary, produced to the Antiquarian society, in 1748, “A Proposal for a very rich Lottery, general without any Blankes, contayning a great No of good prices, as well of redy money as of Plate and certain sorts of Merchandizes, having been valued and prised by the Commandment of the Queenes most excellent Majesties order, to the entent that such Commodities as may chance to arise thereof, after the charges borne, may be converted towards the reparations of the Havens and Strength of the realme, and towards such other public good workes. The No of lotts shall be foure hundred thousand, and no more; and every lott shall be the summe of tenne shillings sterling only, and no more. To be filled by the feast of St. Bartholomew. The shew of Prises ar to be seen in Cheapside, at the sign of the Queenes armes, the house of Mr. Dericke, Goldsmith, Servant to the Queen. Some other Orders about it in 1567-8. Printed by Hen. Bynneman.”
This is the earliest lottery of which we have any account. According to Stow, it was begun to be drawn at the west door of St. Paul’s cathedral, on the 11th of January, 1569, (11th of Elizabeth,) and continued incessantly drawing, day and night, till the 6th of May following.[431] It was at first intended to have been drawn “at the house of Mr. Dericke,” who was the queen’s jeweller.[432] “Whether,” says Maitland, “this lottery was on account of the public, or the selfish views of private persons, my author[433] does not mention; but ’tis evident, by the time it took up in drawing, it must have been of great concern. This I have remarked as being the first of the kind I read in England.” Maitland does not seem to have been acquainted with Dr. Rawlinson’s communication of the printed “Proposal” for it to the society of Antiquaries, which, as it states that the “commodities,” or profits, arising therefrom were to be appropriated to the “reparations of the havens and strength of the realme,” obviates all doubt as to its being “on account of the public.”
In 1586, 28th of the reign of Elizabeth, “A Lotterie, for marvellous rich and beautifull armor, was begunne to be drawn at London, in S. Paules churchyard, at the great west gate, (an house of timber and boord being there erected for that purpose,) on St. Peter’s day in the morning, which lotterie continued in drawing day and night for the space of two or three daies.”[434] Of this lottery it is said, in lord Burghley’s Diary, at the end of Murden’s State papers, “June, 1586, the lottery of armour under the charge of John Calthorp determined.”[435] This is the second English lottery of which mention has been made.
In 1619, 16th of James I., it appears, from the following entry in the register of charitable gifts to the corporation of Reading, that a lottery was held in that town. “Whereas at a Lottery held within the Borough of Reading, in the Year of our Ld. God 1619, Gabriel Barber Gent. Agent in the sd. Lottery for the Councell & Company of Virginia of his own good Will & Charity towarde poor Tradesmen ffreemen & Inhabitants of the sd. Borough of Reading, & for the better enabling such poor Tradesmen to support & bear their Charges in their several Places & Callings in the sd. Corporation from time to time for ever freely gave & delivered to the Mayor & Burgesses of this Corporation the Sum of forty Pounds of lawfull Money of England Upon Special Trust & Confidence, that the sd. Mayor & Burgesses & their Successors shall from time to time for ever dispose & lend these 40l. to & amongst Six poor Tradesmen after the rate of 06l. 13s. 4d. to each Man for the Term of five Years gratis And after those five Years ended to dispose & lend the sd. 40l. by Such Soms to Six other poor Tradesmen for other five Years & so from five years to five years Successively upon good Security for ever Neverthelesse provided & upon Condition that none of those to whom the sd. Summs of mony shall be lent during that Term of five years shall keep either Inn or Tavern or dwell forth of the sd. Borough, but there during that time and terme, shall as other Inhabitants of the sd. Borough reside & dwell.
“Memorand. that the sd. Sum of 40l. came not into the hands & charge of the Mayor & Burgesses until April 1626.”
This extract was communicated to the “Gentleman’s Magazine” in 1778, by a correspondent, who, referring to this gift of “Gabriel Barber, gent., agent in the said lottery,” says, “If it be asked what is become of it now? gone, it is supposed, where the chickens went before during the pious protectorship of Cromwell.”
In 1630, 6th Charles I., there was a project “for the conveying of certain springs of water into London and Westminster, from within a mile and a half of Hodsdon, in Hertfordshire, by the undertakers, Sir Edward Stradling and John Lyde.” The author of this project was one Michael Parker. “For defraying the expences whereof, king Charles grants them a special license to erect and publish a lottery or lotteries; according” says the record, “to the course of other lotteries heretofore used or practised.” This is the first mention of lotteries either in the Fœdera or Statute-book. “And, for the sole privilege of bringing the said waters in aqueducts to London, they were to pay four thousand pounds per annum into the king’s exchequer: and, the better to enable them to make the said large annual payment, the king grants them leave to bring their aqueducts through any of his parks, chases, lands, &c., and to dig up the same gratis.”[436]
In 1653, during the commonwealth, there was a lottery at Grocers’ Hall, which appears to have escaped the observation of the inquirers concerning this species of adventure. It is noticed in an old weekly newspaper, called “Perfect Account of the Daily Intelligence 16-23 November 1653,” by the following
Advertisement.
At the Committee for Claims for Lands in Ireland,
Ordered, That a Lottery be at Grocers-Hall London, on Thursday 15 Decem. 1653, both for Provinces and Counties, to begin at 8 of the clock in the forenoon of the same day; and all persons concerned therein are to take notice thereof.
W. Tibbs.
Under Charles II., the crown, with a view to reward its adherents who resided within the bills of mortality, and had served it with fidelity during the interregnum, granted “Plate Lotteries;” by which is to be understood a gift of plate from the crown, to be disposed of in that manner as prizes, with permission to sell tickets. According to the Gazette, in April 1669, Charles II., the duke of York, (afterwards James II.,) and many of the nobility were present “at the grand plate lottery, which, by his majesty’s command, was then opened at the sign of the Mermaid over against the mews.” This was the origin of endless schemes, under the titles of “Royal Oak,” “Twelve-penny Lotteries,” &c., which will be adverted to presently. They may be further understood by an intimation, published soon after the drawing sanctioned by the royal visitors, in these words, “This is to give notice, that any persons who are desirous to farm any of the counties within the kingdom of England or dominion of Wales, in order to the setting up of a plate lottery, or any other lottery whatsoever, may repair to the lottery office, at Mr. Philips’s house, in Mermaid-court over against the mews; where they may contract with the trustees commissioned by his majesty’s letters patent for the management of the said patent, on the behalf of the truly loyal, indigent officers.”[437] In those times, the crown exceeded its prerogative by issuing these patents, and the law was not put in motion to question them.
Book Lotteries.
During the reign of Charles II. lotteries were drawn at the theatres. At Vere-street theatre, which stood in Bear-yard, to which there is an entrance through a passage at the south-west corner of Lincolns’-inn-fields, another from Vere-street, and a third from Clare-market, Killigrew’s company performed during the seasons of 1661 and 1662, and part of 1663, when they removed to the new built theatre in Drury-lane; and the Vere-street theatre was probably unoccupied until Mr. Ogilby, the author of the now useless, though then useful “Itinerarium Angliæ, or Book of Roads,” adopted it, as standing in a popular neighbourhood, for the temporary purpose of drawing a lottery of books, which took place in 1668.
Books were often the species of property held out as a lure to adventurers, by way of lottery, for the benefit of the suffering loyalists. Among these, Blome’s Recreations, and Gwillim’s Heraldry, first edition, may be mentioned. In the Gazette of May 18, 1668, is the following advertisement: “Mr. Ogilby’s lottery of books opens on Monday the 25th instant, at the old Theatre between Lincoln’s-inn-fields and Vere-street; where all persons concerned may repair on Monday, May 18, and see the volumes, and put in their money.” On May 25th is announced, “Mr. Ogilby’s lottery of books (adventurers coming in so fast that they cannot in so short time be methodically registered) opens not till Tuesday the 2d of June; then not failing to draw; at the old Theatre between Lincoln’s-inn-fields and Vere-street.”
A correspondent, under the signature of “A Bibliographer,” communicates to the “Gentleman’s Magazine,” from whence the notice respecting these book lotteries is extracted, one of Ogilby’s Proposals as a curiosity, in which light it is certainly to be regarded, and therefore it has a place here, as follows:—
A Second Proposal, by the author, for the better and more speedy vendition of several volumes, (his own works,) by the way of a standing Lottery, licensed by his royal highness the duke of York, and assistants of the corporation of the royal fishing.
Whereas John Ogilby, esq., erected a standing lottery of books, and completely furnished the same with very large, fair, and special volumes, all of his own designment and composure, at vast expense, labour, and study of twenty years; the like impressions never before exhibited in the English tongue. Which, according to the appointed time, on the 10th of May, 1665, opened; and to the general satisfaction of the adventurers, with no less hopes of a clear despatch and fair advantage to the author, was several days in drawing: when its proceedings were stopt by the then growing sickness, and lay discontinued under the arrest of that common calamity, till the next year’s more violent and sudden visitation, the late dreadful and surprising conflagration, swallowed the remainder, being two parts of three, to the value of three thousand pounds and upward, in that unimaginable deluge. Therefore, to repair in some manner his so much commiserated losses, by the advice of many his patrons, friends, and especially by the incitations of his former adventurers, he resolves, and hath already prepared, not only to reprint all his own former editions, but others that are new, of equal value, and like estimation by their embellishments, and never yet published; with some remains of the first impressions, relics preserved in several hands from the fire; to set up a second standing lottery, where such the discrimination of fortune shall be, that few or none shall return with a dissatisfying chance. The whole draught being of greater advantage by much (to the adventurers) than the former. And accordingly, after publication, the author opened his office, where they might put in their first encouragements, (viz.) twenty shillings, and twenty more at the reception of their fortune, and also see those several magnificent volumes, which their varied fortune (none being bad) should present them.
[438]But, the author now finding more difficulty than he expected, since many of his promisers (who also received great store of tickets to dispose of, towards promotion of his business) though seeming well resolved and very willing, yet straining courtesy not to go foremost in paying their monies, linger out, driving it off till near the time appointed for drawing; which dilatoriness: (since despatch is the soul and life to his proposal, his only advantage a speedy vendition:) and also observing how that a money dearth, a silver famine, slackens and cools the courage of adventurers; through which hazy humours magnifying medium shillings loome like crowns, and each forty shillings a ten pound heap. Therefore, according to the present humour now reigning, he intends to adequate his design; and this seeming too large-roomed, standing lottery, new modelled into many less and more likely to be taken tenements, which shall not open only a larger prospect of pleasing hopes, but more real advantage to the adventurer. Which are now to be disposed of thus: the whole mass of books or volumes, being the same without addition or diminution, amounting according to their known value (being the prices they have been usually disposed at) to thirteen thousand seven hundred pounds; so that the adventurers will have the above said volumes (if all are drawn) for less than two thirds of what they would yield in process of time, book by book. He now resolves to attemper, or mingle each prize with four allaying blanks; so bringing down, by this means, the market from double pounds to single crowns.
The Propositions.—First, whosoever will be pleased to put in five shillings shall draw a lot, his fortune to receive the greatest or meanest prize, or throw away his intended spending money on a blank. Secondly, whoever will adventure deeper, putting in twenty-five shillings, shall receive, if such his bad fortune be that he draws all blanks, a prize presented to him by the author of more value than his money (if offered to be sold) though proffered ware, &c. Thirdly, who thinks fit to put in for eight lots forty shillings shall receive nine, and the advantage of their free choice (if all blanks) of either of the works complete, viz. Homer’s Iliads and Odysses, or Æsop the first and second volumes, the China book, or Virgil. Of which,
The whole number of the lots three thousand, three hundred, and sixty-eight. The number of the blanks as above ordered; so that the total received is but four thousand, one hundred, and ten pounds.
The office where their monies are to be paid in, and they receive their tickets, and where the several volumes or prizes may be daily seen, (by which visual speculation understanding their real worth better than by the ear or a printed paper,) is kept at the Black Boy, over against St. Dunstan’s church, Fleet-street. The adventurers may also repair, for their better convenience, to pay in their monies, to Mr. Peter Cleyton, over against the Dutch church, in Austin-friars, and to Mr. Baker, near Broad-street, entering the South-door of the Exchange, and to Mr. Roycroft, in Bartholomew-close.
The certain day of drawing, the author promiseth (though but half full) to be the twenty-third of May next. Therefore all persons that are willing to adventure, are desired to bring or send in their monies with their names, or what other inscription or motto they will, by which to know their own, by the ninth of May next, it being Whitson-eve, that the author may have time to put up the lots and inscriptions into their respective boxes.
D. H., one of Mr. Urban’s contributors, mentions that he had seen an undated “Address to the Learned: or, an advantageous lottery for Books in quires; wherein each adventurer of a guinea is sure of a prize of two pound value; and it is but four to one that he has a prize of three, six, eight, twelve, or fifty pounds, as appears by the following proposals:” one thousand five hundred lots, at 1l. 1s. each, to be drawn with the lots out of two glasses, superintended by John Lilly and Edward Darrel, esqrs., Mr. Deputy Collins, and Mr. William Proctor, stationer, two lots of 50l., ten of 12l., twenty of 8l., sixty-eight of 6l., two hundred of 3l., one thousand two hundred of 3l. The undertakers were: Thomas Leigh, and D. Midwinter, at the Rose and Crown, in St. Paul’s Church-yard; Mr. Aylmer, at the Three Pigeons, and Mr. Richard Parker, under the Piazza of the Royal Exchange; Mr. Nicholson, in Little Britain; Mr. Took, at the Middle Temple gate, Fleet-street; Mr. Brown, at the Black Swan, without Temple-bar; Mr. Sare, at Gray’s-inn gate; Mr. Lownds, at the Savoy gate; Mr. Castle, near Scotland-yard gate; and Mr. Gillyflower, in Westminster-hall, booksellers.
Letters patent in behalf of the loyalists were from time to time renewed, and, from the Gazette of October 11, 1675, it appears by those dated June 19, and December 17, 1674, there were granted for thirteen years to come, “all lotteries whatsoever, invented or to be invented, to several truly loyal and indigent officers, in consideration of their many faithful services and sufferings, with prohibition to all others to use or set up the said lotteries,” unless deputations were obtained from those officers.
A Penny Lottery.
The most popular of all the schemes was that drawn at the Dorset-garden theatre, near Salisbury-square, Fleet-street, with the capital prize of a thousand pound for a penny. The drawing began October 19, 1698; and, in the Protestant Mercury of the following day, “its fairness (was said) to give universal content to all that were concerned.” In the next paper is found an inconsistent and frivolous story, as to the possessor of the prize: “Some time since, a boy near Branford, going to school one morning, met an old woman, who asked his charity; the boy replied, he had nothing to give her but a piece of bread and butter, which she accepted. Some time after, she met the boy again, and told him she had good luck after his bread and butter, and therefore would give him a penny, which, after some years’ keeping, would produce many pounds: he accordingly kept it a great while; and at last, with some friend’s advice, put it into the penny lottery, and we are informed that on Tuesday last the said lot came up with 1000l. prize.” However absurd this relation appears, it must be recollected those to whom it was principally addressed had given proof of having sufficient credulity for such a tale, in believing that two hundred and forty thousand shares could be disposed of and appropriated to a single number, independent of other prizes. The scheme of the “Penny Lottery” was assailed in a tract, intituled “The Wheel of Fortune, or Nothing for a Penny; being remarks on the drawing of the Penny Lottery at the Theatre Royal, in Dorset-Garden,” 1698, 4to. Afterwards at this theatre there was a short exhibition of prize-fighters; and the building was totally deserted in 1703.
In 1698-9, schemes were started, called “The Lucky Adventure; or, Fortunate Chance, being 2000l. for a groat, or 3000l. for a shilling:” and “Fortunatus, or another adventure of 1000l. for a penny:” but purchasers were more wary, and the money returned in both cases.—The patentees also advertised against the “Marble-board, alias the Woollich-board lotteries; the Figure-board, alias the Whimsey-board, and the Wyreboard lotteries.”[439]
These patents of the Restoration seem to have occasioned considerable strife between the parties who worked under them. The following verses from “The Post Boy, January 3, 1698,” afford some insight to their estimation among sensible people:—
A Dialogue betwixt the New
Lotteries and the Royal Oak.
New Lott. To you, the mother of our schools,
Where knaves by licence manage fools,
Finding fit juncture and occasion,
To pick the pockets of the nation;
We come to know how we must treat ’em,
And to their heart’s content may cheat ’em.
Oak. It cheers my aged heart to see
So numerous a progeny;
I find by you, that ’tis heaven’s will
That knavery should flourish still.
You have docility and wit,
And fools were never wanting yet.
Observe the crafty auctioneer,
His art to sell waste paper dear;
When he for salmon baits his hooks,
That cormorant of offal books,
Who bites, as sure as maggots breed,
Or carrion crows on horse-flesh feed;
Fair specious titles him deceive,
To sweep what Sl—— and T——n leave.
If greedy gulls you wou’d ensnare,
Make ’em proposals wondrous fair;
Tell him strange golden show’rs shall fall,
And promise mountains to ’em all.
New Lott. That craft we’ve already taught,
And by that trick have millions caught;
Books, bawbles, toys, all sorts of stuff,
Have gone off this way well enough.
Nay, music, too, invades our art,
And to some tune wou’d play her part.
I’ll show you now what we are doing,
For we have divers wheels agoing.
We now have found out richer lands
Than Asia’s hills, or Afric’s sands,
And to vast treasures must give birth,
Deep hid in bowels of the earth;
In fertile Wales, and God knows where,
Rich mines of gold and silver are,
From whence we drain prodigious store
Of silver coin’d, tho’ none in ore,
Which down our throats rich coxcombs pour,
In hopes to make us vomit more.
Oak. This project surely must be good,
Because not eas’ly understood:
Besides, it gives a mighty scope
To the fool’s argument—vain hope.
No eagle’s eye the cheat can see,
Thro’ hope thus back’d by mystery.
New Lott. We have, besides, a thousand more,
For great and small, for rich and poor,
From him that can his thousands spare,
Down to the penny customer.
Oak. The silly mob in crowds will run,
To be at easy rates undone.
A gimcrack-show draws in the rout,
Thousands their all by pence lay out.
New Lott. We, by experience, find it true,
But we have methods wholly new,
Strange late-invented ways to thrive,
To make men pay for what they give,
To get the rents into our hands
Of their hereditary lands,
And out of what does thence arise,
To make ’em buy annuities.
We’ve mathematic combination,
To cheat folks by plain demonstration,
Which shall be fairly manag’d too,
The undertaker knows not how.
Besides ——
Oak. Pray, hold a little, here’s enough,
To beggar Europe of this stuff.
Go on, and prosper, and be great,
I am to you a puny cheat.[440]
The “Royal-Oak Lottery,” as the rival if not the parent of the various other demoralizing schemes, obtained the largest share of public odium. The evils it had created are popularly set forth in a remarkable tract, entitled “The Arraignment, Trial, and Condemnation of Squire Lottery, alias Royal-Oak Lottery, London, 1699,” 8vo. The charges against the offender are arrayed under the forms imported by the title-page. The following extracts are in some respects curious, as exemplifying the manners of the times:—
Die Lunæ vicesimo die Martii 1698/9. Anno Regni, &c.
At the Time and Place appointed, came on the Trial of Squire Lottery, alias Royal-Oak Lottery, for abundance of intolerable Tricks, Cheats, and high Misdemeanours, upon an Indictment lately found against him, in order to a National Delivery.
About ten of the Clock, the day and year abovesaid, the Managers came into the Court, where, in the presence of a vast confluence of People of all Ranks, the Prisoner was ordered to the Bar.
Proclamation being made, and a Jury of good Cits which were to try the Prisoner being sworn, the Indictment against Squire Lottery alias Royal-Oak Lottery, was read.
The Jurors’ Names.
Mr. Positive, a Draper in Covent Garden.
Mr. Squander, an Oilman in Fleet-street.
Mr. Pert, a Tobacconist, ditto.
Mr. Captious, a Milliner in Paternoster-Row.
Mr. Feeble, a Coffeeman near the Change.
Mr. Altrick, a Merchant in Gracechurch-street.
Mr. Haughty, a Vintner by Grays-Inn, Holborn.
Mr. Jealous, a Cutler at Charing-Cross.
Mr. Peevish, a Bookseller in St. Paul’s Church-yard.
Mr. Spilbook, near Fleet-bridge.
Mr. Noysie, a Silkman upon Ludgate-hill.
Mr. Finical, a Barber in Cheapside.
Cl. of Ma. Squire Lottery, alias Royal-Oak Lottery, you stand Indicted by the Name of Squire Lottery, alias Royal-Oak Lottery, for that you the said Squire Lottery, not having the Fear of God in your Heart; nor weighing the Regard and Duty you owe, and of right ought to pay to the Interest, Safety, and Satisfaction of your Fellow-Subjects; have from time to time, and at several times, and in several places, contrary to the known Laws of this Kingdom, under the shadow and coverture of a Royal Oak, propagated, continued, and carried on a most unequal, intricate, and insinuating Game, to the utter ruin and destruction of many thousand Families: And that you the said Squire Lottery, alias Royal-Oak Lottery, as a common Enemy to all young People, and an inveterate Hater of all good Conversation and Diversion, have, for many years last past, and do still continue, by certain cunning Tricks and Stratagems, insidiously, falsely, and impiously, to trepan, deceive, cheat, decoy, and entice divers Ladies, Gentlemen, Citizens, Apprentices, and others, to play away their Money at manifest Odds and Disadvantage. And that you the said Squire Lottery, alias Royal-Oak Lottery, the more secretly and effectually to carry on and propagate your base, malicious, and covetous Designs and Practices, did, and do still encourage several lewd and disorderly Persons, to meet, propose, treat, consult, consent, and agree upon several unjust and illegal Methods, how to ensnare and entangle People into your delusive Game; by which means you have, for many years last past, utterly, intirely, and irrecoverably, contrary to all manner of Justice, Humanity, or good Nature, despoiled, depraved, and defrauded, an incredible number of Persons of every Rank, Age, Sex, and Condition, of all their Lands, Goods, and Effects; and from the Ruins of multitudes built fine Houses, and purchased large Estates, to the great scandal and reflection on the Wisdom of the Nation, for suffering such an intolerable Impostor to pass so long unpunished. What say’st thou, Squire Lottery, art thou guilty of the aforesaid Crimes, Cheats, Tricks, and Misdemeanours thou standest Indicted of, or not Guilty?
Lottery. Not Guilty. But, before I proceed to make my Defence, I beg I may be permitted the assistance of three or four learned Sharpers to plead for me, in case any Matter of Law arise.
This being assented to, the Managers of the Prosecution made their speeches in support of the Charge, and called Captain Pasthope.
1st Man. Sir, Do you know Squire Lottery, the Prisoner at the Bar?
Pasthope. Yes, I have known him intimately for near forty years; ever since the Restoration of King Charles.
1st Man. Pray will you give the Bench and Jury an Account what you know of him; how he came into England, and how he has behaved himself ever since.
Pasthope. In order to make my Evidence more plain, I hope it will not be judg’d much out of form, to premise two or three things.
1st Man. Mr. Pasthope, Take your own method to explain yourself; we must not abridge or direct you in any respect.
Pasthope. In the years 60 and 61, among a great many poor Cavaliers, ’twas my hard fate to be driven to Court for a Subsistence, where I continued in a neglected state, painfully waiting the moving of the Waters for several months; when at last a Rumour was spread, that a certain Stranger was landed in England, that in all probability, if we could get him the Sanction of a Patent, would be a good Friend to us all.
Man. You seem to intimate as if he was a Stranger; pray, do you know what Countryman he was?
Pasthope. The report of his Country was very different; some would have him a Walloon, some a Dutchman, some a Venetian, and others a Frenchman; indeed by his Policy, cunning Design, Forethought, &c. I am very well satisfied he could be no Englishman.
Man. What kind of Credentials did he bring with him to recommend him with so much advantage?
Pasthope. Why, he cunningly took upon him the Character of a Royal-Oak Lottery, and pretended a mighty Friendship to antiquated Loyalists: but for all that, there were those at Court that knew he had been banish’d out of several Countries for disorderly Practices, till at last he pitch’d upon poor easy credulous England for his Refuge.
Man. You say then, he was a Foreigner, that he came in with the Restoration, usurp’d the Title of a Royal Oak, was establish’d in Friendship to the Cavaliers, and that for disorderly Practices he had been banish’d out of several Countries; till at last he was forc’d to fix upon England as the fittest Asylum. But pray, Sir, how came you so intimately acquainted with him at first?
Pasthope. I was about to tell you. In order to manage his Affairs, it was thought requisite he should be provided with several Coadjutors, which were to be dignify’d with the Character of Patentees; amongst which number, by the help of a friendly Courtier, I was admitted for one.
Man. Oh! then I find you was a Patentee. Pray, how long did you continue in your Patentee’s Post? and what were the Reasons that urg’d you to quit it at last?
Pasthope. I kept my Patentee’s Station nine years, in which time I had clear’d 4000l., and then, upon some Uneasiness and Dislike, I sold it for 700l.
Man. Pray, Captain, tell the Court more fully what was the Reason that prevail’d with you to relinquish such a profitable place.
Pasthope. I had two very strong Reasons for quitting my Post; viz. Remorse of Conscience, and Apprehension of consequent Danger. To tell you the truth, I saw so many bad Practices encourag’d and supported, and so many persons of both Sexes ruin’d; I saw so much Villany perfected and projected, and so many other intolerable Mischiefs within the compass of every day’s Proceeding, that partly through the stings of my Mind and the apprehensions I was under of the Mob, with a great deal of Reluctancy I quitted my Post.
Man. Captain, I find you’re nicely qualify’d for an Evidence, pray, therefore, give the Court an Account what Methods the Prisoner us’d to take to advance his business.
Pasthope. The way in my time, and I suppose ’tis the same still, was to send out Sharpers and Setters into all parts of the Town, and to give ’em direction to magnify the Advantage, Equality, and Justice of his Game, in order to decoy Women and Fools to come and play away their Money.
Man. Well, but sure he had no Women or Fools of Quality, Rank, or Reputation, that came to him? According to the common Report that passes upon him, there’s none but the very Scoundrels and Rabble, the very Dregs and Refuse of Fools, will think him worth their Conversation.
Pasthope. Truly, he had ’em of all sorts, as well Lord-fools and Lady-fools, Knight-fools and Esquire-fools, or any other sort of Fools: and, indeed, he made no difference between ’em neither; a Cobler-fool had as much respect as a Lord-fool, in proportion to the money he had in his Pocket; and pro hac vice had as extensive a Qualification to command, domineer, and hector, as the best Fool of ’em all.
Man. Did you never observe any of these Fools to get any money of him? I can’t imagine what it could be that could influence ’em to embark with him, if there was nothing to be got.
Pasthope. There was never any body that ever got any thing of him in the main: now and then one by chance might carry off a small matter; and so ’twas necessary they should, for otherwise his Constitution must dissolve in course.
Man. ’Tis a great mystery to me, that so many People should pursue a Game where every body’s a Loser at last; but pray, Captain, then, what are the odds the Prisoner is reputed to have against those that play with him?
Pasthope. No body can tell you their Advantage; ’tis a cunning intricate Contexture, and truly I very much question whether the original Projector himself had a perfect Idea of the Odds: at a full Table and deep Play, I have seen him clear 600l. in less than an hour.
Man. What are the Odds he owns himself?
Pasthope. Only 32 Figures against 27, which indeed is Odds enough to insure all the money at length. But this, it seems, was an Advantage that was allow’d him, that he might be able to keep a good House, relieve the Poor, and pay an annual Pension to the Crown or the Courtiers.
Man. You say, by his original Agreement he’s to keep a good House: pray after all, what sort of House is it he does keep?
Past. Why, he dines at the Tavern, where any body that has 40 or 50l. to play away with him the Afternoon, may be admitted into his Company.
Man. What, does he entertain none but those that have 40 or 50l. to lose?
Past. He never converses with any Person that has no money: if they have no money, their Company’s burdensom and ungrateful, and the Waiters have Directions to keep ’em out.
Man. Does he do this to the very Persons he has ruin’d, and won all they have? That, methinks, is a pitch of Barbarity beyond the common degree: I hardly ever read or heard of any thing so exaltedly cruel and brutish, in all the Accounts of my Life.
Past. I have seen abundance of Examples of this nature, one, in particular, which I shall never forget; a poor Lady, that had lost 350l. per annum to him, beside two or three thousand pounds in ready money, basely and inhumanly hal’d out of doors, but for asking for a glass of Sack.
Man. You were mentioning his Charity to the Poor too; is there any thing of reality in that?
Past. For my part, I never heard of one good Act he has done in the whole course of his Life: secret Charity is the most meritorious, ’tis true; and perhaps it may be that way he may communicate his, for indeed I never heard of any he did in publick.
Man. You were mentioning too an annual Pension to the Crown; what is it he pays to the Crown?
Past. Indeed I cannot be positive in that: to the best of my remembrance ’tis four thousand pounds per annum: in compensation for which, beside the general liberty he has to cheat and abuse the World, he has the sole Privilege of Licensing all other Cheats and Impostors, commonly known by the Name of Lotteries.
2d Man. You were speaking something, Captain Pasthope, just now, as if the Prisoner was intrusted with these Advantages for the benefit of some poor Cavaliers, which were to be the Patentees, as you call ’em. Pray tell the Jury what kind of Cavaliers these Patentees were.
Past. That was all but a Blind, a pure Trick to deceive the World: the Patentees, in the main, were either Sharpers or broken Tradesman, or some such sort or Vermin, that had cunningly twisted themselves into the business under the shadow of Cavaliers.
Man. Pray, what Opinion had the World of the Prisoner when he first came to be known in England?
Pasthope. The same that it has of him now: all wise men look’d upon him as a Cheat, and a dangerous Spark to be let loose in publick among our English Youth: and indeed I have heard a great many sober men pass very sharp Censures upon the Wisdom of the Court for intrusting him with a Royal Authority.
Man. What kind of Censures were they that they past? do you remember any of them particularly?
Past. Yes, I remember several things that I am almost ashamed to mention. I have heard ’em often reflecting what an intolerable Shame and Scandal it was, that a whole Kingdom should be sacrificed to the Interest of two or three Courtiers, and three or four scurvy mercenary Patentees; that so many thousand Families should be ruin’d, and no notice taken of it; that so many Wives should be seduc’d to rob and betray their Husbands, so many Children and Servants their Parents and Masters, and so many horrid Mischiefs transacted daily under the shadow of this pretended Royal-Oak Lottery, and no manner of means used to suppress it.
2d Man. But, Captain, did you never hear of any Person that got money of the Prisoner in the main?
Past. Not one. I defy him to produce one single person that’s a Gainer, against a hundred thousand he has ruin’d. I’m confident I have a Catalogue by me of several thousands that have been utterly undone by him, within the compass of my own Experience.
Man. What does the Town in general say of him?
Past. The town, here-a-late, is grown so inveterate and incens’d against him, that I am very well assur’d that if he had not been call’d to account in the very nick, the Mob would have speedily taken him into their correction.
Man. Well, Sir, you hear what the Witness has said against you; will you ask him any Questions?
Lottery. Only one; and leave the rest till I come to make my general Defence. Sir, I desire to know whether you was not one that was turn’d out upon the last Renewal of the Patent?
Past. No, Sir, I was not. You might have remember’d that I told you I saw so much of your Falshood and Tricks, and so many innocent People daily sacrific’d, to support a Society of lewd, debauch’d, impertinent, and withal imperious Cannibals, that I thought it my best way to quit your Fraternity, and pack off with that little I had got, and leave you to manage your mathematical Balls, &c. by your self.
Man. I suppose, Sir, you will ask him no more Questions, and so we’ll call another Witness.
Lottery. No, Sir, I have done with him.
Man. Call Squire Frivolous, the Counsellor: Sir, do you know Squire Lottery, the Prisoner?
Frivolous. I have been acquainted with him several years, to my great Cost and Damage. The first time I had the misfortune to know him, was at an Act at Oxford about twenty years ago; where among abundance of other young Fools that he entic’d to sell their Books for Money to play with him, &c. I was one.
Man. What, I hope, he was not so barbarous as to decoy the poor young Gentlemen out of their Books?
Frivolous. Yes, out of every thing they had, and out of the College to boot: For my own part I have reason to curse him, I’m sure; He flatter’d me up with so many Shams and false Pretences, and deluded me with so many chimerical Notions and cunning Assurances, and urg’d me so long from one deceitful Project to another, till at last he had trickt me out of all I had in the world, and then turn’d me over to the scorn and laughter of my Friends and Acquaintance.
Man. Can you give the Bench any particular Names of Persons he has ruin’d?
Frivolous. I have a Collection of Names in my Pocket, which I’m sure he can’t object against, that have lost fourteen or fifteen thousand Pound per Annum, within my own Knowledg and Acquaintance.
Man. That’s a round Sum: But, pray, Mr. Frivolous, for the satisfaction of the Jury, mention a few of their Names.
Frivolous. I suppose, Squire Lottery, you must remember the Kentish Squire in the Blue Coat, that you won the six hundred Pound per Annum of, in less than five months. You remember the Lord’ Steward that lost an Estate of his own of three hundred Pound per Annum, and run four thousand Pound in Arrears to his Lord beside. You remember, I suppose, the West-India Widow, that lost the Cargo of two Ships, valued at fifteen hundred Pound, in less than a month. I know you can’t forget the honest Lady at St. James’s, that sold all her Goods, Plate, and China, for about seven hundred Pound, and paid it all away to you, as near as I remember, in three mornings. I know you can’t forget the three Merchants’ Daughters that play’d away their whole Fortunes, viz. fifteen hundred Pounds apiece in less than two months. You remember the Silkman from Ludgate-hill; the young Draper in Cornhil; the Country Parson; the Doctor of Physick’s Daughter; the Lady’s Woman; the Merchant’s Apprentice; the Marine Captain; the Ensign of the Guards; the Coffeeman’s Neece; the old Justice’s Nephew; and abundance of others, which I have in my Catalogue, that you have cheated out of large Sums, and utterly ruin’d.
Lottery. I desire that he may be ask’d, what it was that influenc’d him at first to make such a Catalogue?
Man. He desires to know upon what account it was that you made this Collection of Names?
Frivolous. I had once a design to have him call’d to an Account, and forc’d to a Restitution; in which case I thought the Names of these Persons might be of some use to me.
Man. What Method did you propose to your self to bring him to a Restitution?
Frivolous. I had a Notion, that if I drew up the Case, and got it recommended to the Honourable House of Commons, they would have thought the Prisoner worth their correction: But this he got intelligence of, and employ’d one of his Agents to make up the matter with me.
Man. What, I suppose you mean he brib’d you with a Sum of Money to decline the Prosecution?
Frivolous. Truly you have hit of the very thing; he knew that I was poor, and he was guilty, and so compounded with me for a few Guineas to let the thing fall: And indeed, if I am not misinform’d, his Art of Bribing, &c. has guarded him so long from the Punishments which the Laws of the Land, and common Justice, have provided for such notorious Offenders.
Other witnesses having been called, the arraigned defended himself as follows:—
Lottery. Sir, I intend to spend as little of your time as I can: I perceive, that, let me say what I will, you are prepar’d to over-rule it, and so I’ll only say a few words, and call three or four Witnesses to prove my reputation, and then leave the good Men and true of the Jury, upon whose Verdict I must stand or fall, to use me as they shall best judg the nature of my Case deserves.
I know, Gentlemen, the tide of Prejudice runs very fierce against me; so that let me say what I will, I’m satisfy’d it will be all to very little purpose; an ill Name to a Person in my condition is certain Death, which indeed makes me a little more indifferent in making my defence.
But, Gentlemen, look upon me, I am the very Image of some of you, a married Protestant; upon which account I’m confident I may rely upon a little of your Justice, if not your Favour.
The Crimes I am charged with are indeed very great, and, what’s worse, there’s some of ’em I can never expect to evince. But then, Gentlemen, I hope you’l consider, that whatever I did, was purely in the prosecution of my occupation; and you know withal what Authority I had for it; so that if by chance, in this long tract of time, every thing should not be so nicely conformable as you expect, I hope you’l take care to lay the Saddle upon the right Horse.
You all know that Covetousness and Cheating are the inseparable Companions of a Gamester; divide him from them, and he’s the most insignificant Creature in Nature. And, Gentlemen, I appeal to your selves, if a little useful lying and falshood be not (in some cases) not only tolerable, but commendable. I dare say you will agree with me in this, that if all the Knaves and Cheats of the Nation were call’d to the Bar and executed, there would only be a few Fools left to defend the Commonwealth.
But, Gentlemen, as I told you before, I won’t spend your time, and therefore I’ll call my Witnesses. Call Captain Quondam.
Cryer. Call Capt. Quondam.
Lottery. Sir, I desire you would give the Court an account what you know of me, as to Life and Conversation.
Quondam. I have known the Prisoner for several years, and have been often in his company upon particular occasions and never saw any thing that was rude or unhandsome by him.
Man. Pray, noble Captain, what Countryman are you?
Quondam. Sir, I am a West-Countryman.
Man. An English West-Country, or a West-India Man? or what?
Quondam. I am a West-Countryman of his Majesty’s own Dominions, of the Kingdom of Ireland, in the County of Cork, and Parish of Durrus in the Barony of West-Carbury, near the great Bogg of Longuar, Gent.
Man. You’re a West-Countryman with a Witness. And, pray, how long have you been in England?
Quondam. Ever since the last year of my Soveraign Lord King James.
Man. And, pray, how long have you been a Captain?
Quondam. I was born so; my Father, my Grandfather, great Grandfather, and most of my Kin, were all Captains before me.
Man. You say you have been often in the Prisoner’s Company; pray where have you been in his Company, and upon what account?
Quondam. I have been in his Company at Epsom, Tunbridge, Lambeth, Islington, and at several other places both in Town and Country.
Man. Well, but you ha’n’t told what was the occasion that brought you so oft into his Company.
Quondam. He desired me to go along with him to help him to divert and entertain his Guests, especially the Ladies that us’d to visit him.
Man. I suppose you’re one of his Dependents: had you never no salary from him?
Quondam. I have had several Favours from him, and I must own I love him very well; and, by my Shoul, I believe he’s a very honest Man, and a good Christian.
Man. Who’s your next evidence?
Lottery. I desire Mr. Scamper may be call’d.
Cry. Call Mr. Scamper.
Lottery. Pray, Mr. Scamper, give the Court an Account what you know of me, as to my manner of living and behaviour in the World.
Scamper. You know, Squire Lottery, your Acquaintance and mine is but of a late Date; I never saw you till last May at Lambeth Wells, and then ’twas but by accident too.
After other witnesses called in his behalf, whose testimony, however, tended to inculpate Squire “Royal Oak,” the evidence was summed up.
“Then the jury withdrew to consider of their verdict, and afterwards they returned into the court, and the prisoner was brought again to the bar and found guilty, according to the indictment, and afterwards received sentence, together with Mr. Auction and Dr. Land-Bank, who were both tryed, convicted, and condemned; and their trials will be published with all possible speed. Finis.”
There is no reason to doubt, that the representations in the preceding satire are substantially correct. Private and fallacious lotteries were at this time become so general, not only in London, but in most other great cities and towns of England, whereby the lower people and the servants and children of good families were defrauded, that an act of parliament was therefore passed 10 and 11 William III. c. 17, for suppressing such lotteries; “even although they might be set up under colour of patents or grants under the great seal. Which said grants or patents,” says the preamble “are against the common good, welfare, and peace of the kingdom, and are void and against law.” A penalty therefore of five hundred pounds was laid on the proprietors of any such lotteries, and of twenty pounds on every adventurer in them. Notwithstanding this, the like disposition to fraud and gaining prevailed again, till fresh laws were enacted for their suppression.[441]
It is observed, that if the lottery office keepers of the present century could be credited, their adventurers enjoyed greater gaming privileges than the world ever produced; and yet it is an indubitable fact, that in the early state lotteries the advantages offered were eminently superior to those of recent times.
The Post Boy of December 27 says, “We are informed that the parliamentary lottery will be fixed in this manner:—150,000 tickets will be delivered out at 10l. each ticket, making in all the sum of 1,500,000l. sterling; the principal whereof is to be sunk, the parliament allowing nine per cent. interest for the whole during the term of thirty-two years, which interest is to be divided as follows: 3750 tickets will be prizes from 1000l. to 5l. per annum during the said thirty-two years; all the other tickets will be blanks, so that there will be thirty-nine of these to one prize, but then each blank ticket will be entitled to fourteen shillings a year for the term of thirty-two years, which is better than an annuity for life at ten per cent. over and above the chance of getting a prize.” Such was the eagerness of the public in subscribing to the above profitable scheme, that Mercers-hall was literally crowded, and the clerks were found incompetent to receive the influx of names. 600,000l. was subscribed January 21; and on the 28th of February the sum of 1,500,000l. was completed.
The rage for lotteries reigned uncontrolled; and the newspapers of the day teemed with proposals issued by every ravenous adventurer who could collect a few valuable articles; and from those, shopkeepers took the hint, and goods of every description were converted into prizes, even neckcloths, snuff-boxes, toothpick-cases, linen, muslin, and plate. The prices of tickets were generally sixpence, a shilling, half a crown, &c. At the latter end of the year just mentioned, the magistrates, being alarmed, declared their intention of putting the act of William and Mary in force, which levied a penalty of 500l. on the proprietor, and 20l. on each purchaser.
Matthew West, a goldsmith, of Clare-street, Clare-market, appears to have been the man who first divided lottery tickets into shares. He advertised, in 1712, that he had sold 100 tickets in the million and an half lottery in twentieths, and purposed pursuing his plan, which was well received.
The lottery for 1714 contained 50,000 tickets at 10l. each, with 6982 prizes and 43,018 blanks; two of the former were 10,000l., with one of 5, another of 4000l., a third of 3000l., and a fourth of 2000l., five of 1000l., ten of 500l., twenty of 200l., fifty of 100l., four hundred of 50l., and six thousand, four hundred, and ninety-one of 20l.
Besides the drawing for prizes and blanks, there was another for the course of payment, and each 1000 tickets was called a course. The payments to the receivers were on the 10th of November and 10th of December, 1713. When the tickets were drawn, they were exchanged for standing orders, and thus rendered assignable by endorsement; all the blanks were repaid the 10l. per ticket at one payment, in the order their course of payment happened to fall, and they bore an interest of four per cent. from Michaelmas 1713. The prizes were payable in the same manner: the first drawn ticket had 500l.; the last 1000l. besides the general chance; 35,000l. per annum was payable weekly from the Exchequer to the paymaster for the discharge of the principal and interest, and the whole funds of the civil list were chargeable for thirty-two years for 35,000l. per annum.[442]
One of the schemes which preceded the bubbles of 1720 was an insurance-office for lottery tickets, opened at Mercers-hall; and 120,000l. was actually subscribed on the following terms: for every ninety-six tickets insured, the proprietors agreed to allow to the company (after the tickets were drawn) 16s. per ticket, and five per cent. on such prizes as occurred to the ninety-six tickets, the company returning the tickets, and in case the prizes did not amount to 288l. valuing the prizes at par; the company to make up the money 3l. for every ticket. For every forty-eight tickets the proprietors agreed to allow 19s. per ticket, and five per cent. on the prizes as above; the company making up the tickets 144l. or 3l. per ticket, and so on down to twelve tickets. The proprietors of the tickets to advance no money for this security; but, when drawn, to allow as above; the tickets to be deposited with the company, and placed by them under seal in the bank of England; if not called for in ninety days after the drawing, to be forfeited.[443]
In 1712, gambling prevailed in smaller private and unlawful lotteries, under the denomination of sales of gloves, fans, cards, plate, &c.; also offices were opened for insurances on marriages, births, christenings, services, &c. and daily advertisements thereof were published in the newspapers. By an act of the tenth of queen Anne, keepers of these lotteries and offices were subjected to a penalty of 500l. In 1716, the spirit of adventure was excited by the sale of chances and parts of chances of tickets, which occasioned parliament again to interfere: all such practices, and all undertakings resembling lotteries, or founded on the state lottery, were declared illegal, and prohibited under a penalty of 100l. beyond the penalties previously enacted against private lotteries.[444]
Lucky Numbers.
The attention of “the Spectator” was directed to the lottery mania prevailing at this period. One of its writers observing, on the predilection for particular numbers, ranks it among the pastimes and extravagancies of human reason, which is of so busy a nature, that it will exert itself on the meanest trifles, and work even when it wants materials. He instances, that when a man has a mind to adventure his money in a lottery, every figure of it appears equally alluring, and as likely to succeed as any of its fellows. They all of them have the same pretensions to goodluck, stand upon the same foot of competition; and no manner of reason can be given, why a man should prefer one to the other, before the lottery is drawn. In this case therefore, caprice very often acts in the place of reason, and forms to itself some groundless imaginary motive, where real and substantial ones are wanting. I know a well-meaning man that is very well pleased to risk his good fortune upon the number 1711, because it is the year of our Lord. I am acquainted with a tacker that would give a good deal for the number 134. On the contrary, I have been told of a certain zealous dissenter, who being a great enemy to popery, and believing that bad men are the most fortunate in this world, will lay two to one on the number 666 against any other number; because, says he, it is the number of the beast. Several would prefer the number 12000 before any other, as it is the number of the pounds in the great prize. In short, some are pleased to find their own age in their number; some that they have got a number which makes a pretty appearance in the cyphers; and others, because it is the same number that succeeded in the last lottery. Each of these, upon no other grounds, thinks he stands fairest for the great lot, and that he is possessed of what may not be improperly called the golden number.
I remember among the advertisements in the “Post Boy” of September the 27th, I was surprised to see the following one:
This is to give notice, that ten shillings over and above the market-price will be given for the ticket in the 1500000l. Lottery, No 132, by Nath. Cliff, at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheapside.
This advertisement has given great matter of speculation to coffee-house theorists. Mr. Cliff’s principles and conversation have been canvassed upon this occasion, and various conjectures made, why he should thus set his heart upon No 132. I have examined all the powers in those numbers, broken them into fractions, extracted the square and cube root, divided and multiplied them all ways, but could not arrive at the secret till about three days’ ago, when I received the following letter from an unknown hand, by which I find that Mr. Nathaniel Cliff is only the agent, and not the principal, in this advertisement.
“Mr. Spectator,
“I am the person that lately advertised I would give ten shillings more than the current price for the ticket No 132 in the lottery now drawing; which is a secret I have communicated to some friends, who rally me incessantly upon that account. You must know I have but one ticket, for which reason, and a certain dream I have lately had more than once, I was resolved it should be the number I most approved. I am so positive I have pitched upon the great lot, that I could almost lay all I am worth of it. My visions are so frequent and strong upon this occasion, that I have not only possessed the lot, but disposed of the money which in all probability it will sell for. This morning, in particular, I set up an equipage which I look upon to be the gayest in the town; the liveries are very rich, but not gaudy. I should be very glad to see a speculation or two upon lottery subjects, in which you would oblige all people concerned, and in particular
“Your most humble servant,
“George Gosling.”
“P.S. Dear Spec, if I get the 12000l. I’ll make thee a handsome present.”
After having wished my correspondent good luck, and thanked him for his intended kindness, I shall for this time dismiss the subject of the lottery, and only observe, that the greatest part of mankind are in some degree guilty of my friend Gosling’s extravagance. We are apt to rely upon future prospects, and become really expensive while we are only rich in possibility. We live up to our expectations, not to our possessions, and make a figure proportionable to what we may be, not what we are. We outrun our present income, as not doubting to disburse ourselves out of the profits of some future place, project, or reversion that we have in view. It is through this temper of mind, which is so common among us, that we see tradesmen break, who have met with no misfortunes in their business; and men of estates reduced to poverty, who have never suffered from losses or repairs, tenants, taxes, or law-suits. In short, it is this foolish sanguine temper, this depending upon contingent futurities, that occasions romantic generosity, chimerical grandeur, senseless ostentation, and generally ends in beggary and ruin. The man who will live above his present circumstances is in great danger of living in a little time much beneath them, or, as the Italian proverb runs, the man who lives by hope will die by hunger.
It should be an indispensable rule in life, to contract our desires to our present condition, and whatever may be our expectations, to live within the compass of what we actually possess. It will be time enough to enjoy an estate when it comes into our hands; but if we anticipate our good fortune, we shall lose the pleasure of it when it arrives, and may possibly never possess what we have so foolishly counted upon.[445]
The Lottery Wheel, 1826.
The Lottery Wheel, 1826.
This [engraving] is slipped on here for the sake of readers who are fond of cuts, rather than as an illustration of any thing immediately preceding. An [explanation] of it will occur in the ensuing sheet, with several amusing prints relating to the present subject.
Drawing Prizes.
Drawing Prizes.
In “The Examiner”[446] there is an article on Lotteries by Mr. George Smeeton, of Bermondsey: wherein he says, “I am glad to see that Mr. Hone has taken up the subject in his Every-Day Book, by giving us a view of the drawing of the lottery, 1751; and this month (October) I hope he will treat us with a continuation of it. The print by N. Parr, in six compartments, entitled Les Divertissements de la Loterie, is worthy of his attention: it is a lively and true picture of the folly, infatuation, and roguery of the times. If he has not the print (which is rather scarce) I can furnish him with it out of my portfolio.” Mr. Smeeton has obligingly communicated the loan of his engraving, from whence the [representation] on this page has been selected. The original print, designed by J. Marchant, drawn by H. Gravelot, and engraved by Parr, was “published by E. Ryland, in Ave Mary-lane,” in the year 17— hundred odd; the scissars having snipped away from this copy of the engraving the two figures which particularized the year, it cannot be specified, though from the costume it appears to have been in the reign of George II.
Parr’s print is in six compartments: the four corner ones represent, 1. “Good Luck—£1000 prize;” a scene of rejoicing at the news. 2. “Bad Luck—what, all blanks?” a scene of social disturbance. 3. “Oh—let Fortune be kind;” the desires of a female party in conference with an old woman, who divines by coffee-grounds. 4. “Dear Doctor! consult the stars;” another female party waiting on a fortune-teller for a cast of his office. The middle compartment at the bottom has a view of “Exchange-alley,” with its frequenters, in high business. The middle compartment, above it, is the drawing of the lottery in the [view] now placed before the reader, wherein it may be perceived that the female visitants are pewed off on one side and the men on the other; and that the pickpockets dextrously exercise their vocation among the promiscuous crowd at the moment when the drawing of a thousand pound prize excites a strong interest, and a female attracts attention by proclaiming herself the holder of the lucky “No. 765.”
To this eager display of the ticket by the fortunate lady, a representation of a scene at the drawing of “the very last lottery that will ever be drawn in England” might be a collateral illustration.
The Unfortunate Lady.
On the 2d of November, 1826, a lady named Free, who had come up from the country to try her fortune in the lottery, complained to the Lord Mayor, at the Mansion-house, that she had been deprived of her property, the sixteenth share of a 30,000l. prize, by the misconduct of those engaged in conducting the drawing. She stated, that she chose the ticket No. 17,092.
The Lord Mayor.—You had some particular reason, then, for selecting that number?
The Complainant replied, it was true, she had; she wished to have a ticket with the number of the year in which she was born, and finding that she could not get that precise number, she took one of 17,000, instead of 1700, as the most fortunate approach. So indeed it turned out to be; for she was sitting in the hall where the lottery was drawn, and heard her number distinctly cried out as one of the 30,000l. prizes, and with her own eyes she distinctly saw the officer stamp it. Nevertheless, another ticket had been returned as the prize.
The Lord Mayor doubted, from the manner in which the tickets were well known to be drawn, whether the complainant’s anxiety had not made her mistake a similar number for her own.
The Complainant.—“Oh no, my lord; it is impossible that I can be mistaken, though other people say I am. I shall not give up my claim, on the word of lottery-office clerks. If there’s any mistake, it is on their part; I trust to my own senses.”
The Lord Mayor observed, that there was scarcely any trusting even to the “senses” on such occasions; and asked her, whether she did not almost feel the money in her pockets at the very time she fancied she heard her number announced?
The Complainant assured his lordship, that she heard the announcement as calmly as could be expected, and that she by no means fainted away. She certainly made sure of having the property; she sat in the hall, and went out when the other expectants came away.
Mr. Cope, the marshal, who stated that he was in attendance officially at the drawing, to keep the peace, declared that he heard all the fortunate numbers announced, and he was sorry to be compelled to state his conviction that this belonging to the lady was not one of them.
The Lord Mayor said, he was afraid the complainant had deceived herself. He dismissed the application, recommending her to go to the stamp-office, and apply to the commissioners, who would do any thing except pay the money to satisfy her.[447]
In allusion to the lady’s name, and his decision on her case, his lordship is said to have observed on her departure, “not Free and Easy.”
Reverting to a former period, for the sake of including some remarkable notices of lotteries adduced by Mr. Smeeton, we find him saying, on the authority of the “London Gazette,” May 17, 1688, that, besides the lottery at the Vere-street theatre, “Ogilby, the better to carry on his Britannia, had a lottery of books at Garraway’s Coffee-house, in ‘Change-alley.”
Mr. Smeeton has the following three paragraphs:—
Lotteries of various kinds seem to have been very general about this period; indeed so much so, that government, issued a notice in the London Gazette, Sept. 27, 1683, to prevent the drawing of any lotteries (and especially a newly-invented lottery, under the name of the riffling, or raffling lottery) except those under his majesty’s letters patent for thirteen years, granted to persons for their sufferings, and have their seal of office with this inscription—‘Meliora Designavi.’
In 1683, prince Rupert dying rather poor, a plan was devised to “raise the wind” by disposing of all his jewels; but as the public were not satisfied with the mode of drawing the lotteries, on account of the many cheats practised on them, they would not listen to any proposals, until the king himself guaranteed to see that all was fair, and also, that Mr. Francis Child, the goldsmith, at Temple-bar, London, would be answerable for their several adventures; as appears by the London Gazette, Oct. 1, 1683:—“These are to give notice, that the jewels of his late royal highness prince Rupert have been particularly valued and appraised by Mr. Isaac Legouch, Mr. Christopher Rosse, and Mr. Richard Beauvoir, jewellers, the whole amounting to twenty thousand pounds, and will be sold by way of lottery, each lot to be five pounds. The biggest prize will be a great pearl necklace, valued at 8,000l., and none less than 100l. A printed particular of the said appraisement, with their divisions into lots, will be delivered gratis, by Mr. Francis Child, at Temple-bar, London, into whose hands such as are willing to be adventurers are desired to pay their money, on or before the first day of November next. As soon as the whole sum is paid in, a short day will be appointed (which, it is hoped, will be before Christmas) and notified in the Gazette, for the drawing thereof, which will be done in his majesty’s presence, who is pleased to declare, that he himself will see all the prizes put in amongst the blanks, and that the whole will be managed with equity and fairness, nothing being intended but the sale of the said jewels at a moderate value. And it is further notified, for the satisfaction of all as shall be adventurers, that the said Mr. Child shall and will stand obliged to each of them for their several adventures. And that each adventurer shall receive their money back if the said lottery be not drawn and finished before the first day of February next.”—Mr. Child was the first regular banker: he began business soon after the Restoration, and received the honour of knighthood. He lived in Fleet-street, where the shop still continues in a state of the highest respectability. A subsequent notice says, “that the king will probably, tomorrow, in the Banquetting-house, see all the blanks told over, that they may not exceed their number; and that the papers on which the prizes are to be written shall be rolled up in his presence; and that a child, appointed either by his majesty or the adventurers, shall draw the prizes.”—What would be said now, if his present majesty were to be employed in sorting, folding, and counting the blanks and prizes in the present lottery?
About 1709, there was the Greenwich Hospital Adventure, sanctioned by an act of parliament, which the managers describe as “liable to none of the objections made against other lotteries, as to the fairness of the drawing, it not being possible there should be any deceit in it, as it has been suspected in others.”—Likewise there was Mr. Sydenham’s Land Lottery, who declared it was “found very difficult and troublesome for the adventurers for to search and find out what prizes they have come up in their number-tickets, from the badness of the print, the many errors in them, and the great quantity of prizes.”—The Twelve-penny, or Nonsuch, and the Fortunatus lotteries, also flourished at the commencement of the eighteenth century.[448]
Lottery of Deer.
In May, 1715, the proprietors of Sion gardens advertised the following singular method of selling deer from their park. They appointed the afternoons of Mondays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, for killing those animals; when the public were admitted at one shilling each to see the operation, or they might purchase tickets from four to ten shillings, which entitled them, it is supposed, by way of lottery, to different parts of the beast,—as they say the quantity killed was to be divided into sixteen lots, and the first choice to be governed by the numbers on the tickets: a ten shilling ticket was entitled to a fillet; eight, a shoulder; seven, a loin, &c. If the full price of the deer was not received on a given day, the keeper held the money till that sum was obtained. They offered to sell whole deer, and to purchase as many as might be offered.[449]
Harburgh Lottery.
In 1723, the resentment of the house of commons was directed against the scheme of a lottery to be drawn at Harburgh, a town of Hanover on the Elbe, opposite Hamburgh, in the king’s German dominions. A committee inquired into this and other lotteries at that time on foot in London. The scheme pretended to raise a subscription for maintaining a trade between Great Britain and the king’s territories on the Elbe. It was a mysterious scene of iniquity, which the committee, with all their penetration, could not fully discover; but they reported, that it was an infamous, fraudulent undertaking, whereby many unwary persons had been drawn in, to their great loss: that the manner of carrying it on had been a manifest violation of the laws of the kingdom: that the managers and agents of this lottery had, without any authority, made use of his majesty’s royal name to countenance the infamous project, and induce his majesty’s subjects to engage or be concerned therein. A bill was brought in to suppress this lottery, and to oblige its managers to make restitution of the money they had received from the contributors. At the same time the house resolved, That John lord viscount Barrington had been notoriously guilty of promoting, abetting, and carrying on the fraudulent undertaking; for which offence he should be expelled the house.[450]
Bank Clerks’ Finesse.
On the 31st of August, 1731, a scene was presented which strongly marks the infatuation and ignorance of lottery adventurers. The tickets for the State Lottery were delivered out to the subscribers at the Bank of England; when the crowd becoming so great as to obstruct the clerks, they told them, “We deliver blanks to-day, but to-morrow we shall deliver prizes;” upon which many, who were by no means for blanks, retired, and by this bold stratagem the clerks obtained room to proceed in their business. In this lottery “her majesty presented his royal highness the duke with ten tickets.”[451]
Love, Death, and the Lottery.
Early in the reign of George II., the footman of a lady of quality, under the absurd infatuation of a dream, disposed of the savings of the last twenty years of his life in two lottery tickets, which proving blanks, after a few melancholy days, he put an end to his life. In his box was found the following plan of the manner in which he should spend the five thousand pound prize, which his mistress preserved as a curiosity:—
“As soon as I have received the money, I will marry Grace Towers; but, as she has been cross and coy, I will use her as a servant. Every morning she shall get me a mug of strong beer, with a toast, nutmeg, and sugar in it; then I will sleep till ten, after which I will have a large sack posset. My dinner shall be on table by one, and never without a good pudding. I will have a stock of wine and brandy laid in. About five in the afternoon I will have tarts and jellies, and a gallon bowl of punch; at ten, a hot supper of two dishes. If I am in a good-humour, and Grace behaves herself, she shall sit down with me. To bed about twelve.”[452]
Fielding’s Farce.
In 1731, Henry Fielding wrote a farce for Drury-lane Theatre, called “The Lottery,” to which, in 1732, he added a new scene. This pleasant representation of characters usually influenced to speculate in such schemes, was acted with considerable success, especially about the time when the lottery was drawn at Guildhall, and may well be conceived as calculated to abate the popular furor. It opens with a lottery-office keeper—
Mr. Stocks, alone.
AIR.
A Lottery is a Taxation,
Upon all the Fools in Creation;
And, Heaven be prais’d,
It is easily rais’d,
Credulity’s always in Fashion:
For Folly’s a Fund
Will never lose Ground,
While Fools are so rife in the Nation.
[Knocking without.
Enter 1 Buyer.
1 Buy. Is not this a House where People buy Lottery Tickets?
Stoc. Yes, Sir—I believe I can furnish you with as good Tickets as any one.
1 Buy. I suppose, Sir, ’tis all one to you what Number a Man fixes on.
Stoc. Any of my Numbers.
1 Buy. Because I would be glad to have it, Sir, the Number of my own Years, or my Wife’s; or, if I cou’d not have either of those, I wou’d be glad to have it the Number of my Mother’s.
Stoc. Ay, or suppose, now, it was the Number [1449, 1450] of your Grandmother’s?
1 Buy. No, no! She has no Luck in Lotteries: She had a whole Ticket once, and got but fifty Pounds by it.
Stoc. A very unfortunate Person, truly. Sir, my Clerk will furnish you, if you’ll walk that way up to the office. Ha, ha, ha!—There’s one 10,000l. got!—What an abundance of imaginary rich men will one month reduce to their former Poverty. [Knocking without.] Come in.
Enter 2 Buyer.
2 Buy. Does not your Worship let Horses, Sir?
Stoc. Ay, Friend.
2 Buy. I have got a little Money by driving a Hackney-Coach, and I intend to ride it out in the Lottery.
Stoc. You are in the right, it is the way to drive your own Coach.
2 Buy. I don’t know, Sir, that—but I am willing to be in Fortune’s way, as the saying is.
Stoc. You are a wise Man, and it is not impossible but you may be a rich one—’tis not above—no matter, how many to one, but that you are this Night worth 10,000l.
2 Buy. An belike you, Sir, I wou’d willingly ride upon the Number of my Coach.
Stoc. Mr. Trick, let that Gentleman the Number of his Coach—[Aside.] No matter whether we have it, or no.—As the Gentleman is riding to a Castle in the Air, an airy Horse is the properest to carry him. [Knocking hard without.] Heyday! this is some Person of Quality, by the Impudence of the Footman.
Enter Lady.
Lady. Your Servant, Mr. Stocks.
Stoc. I am your Ladyship’s most obedient Servant.
Lady. I am come to buy some Tickets, and hire some Horses, Mr. Stocks—I intend to have twenty Tickets, and ten Horses every Day.
Stoc. By which, if your Ladyship has any Luck, you may very easily get 30 or 40,000l.
Lady. Please to look at those Jewels, Sir—they cost my Lord upwards of 6000l.—I intend to lay out what you will lend upon ’em.
[Knocking without.
Stoc. If your Ladyship pleases to walk up into the Dining-Room, I’ll wait on you in a Moment.
[Chloe, a lady, holding an undrawn Lottery Ticket, which, from what a fortune-teller told her, what she saw in a coffee dish, and what she dreamt every night, she is confident would come up a prize of ten thousand pounds, desires to consult Mr. Stocks as to how she should lay out the money.]
Enter Stocks.
Stoc. I had the Honour of receiving your Commands, Madam.
Chloe. Sir, your humble Servant—Your Name is Mr. Stocks, I suppose.
Stoc. So I am call’d in the Alley, Madam; a Name, tho’ I say it, which wou’d be as well receiv’d at the Bottom of a Piece of Paper, as any He’s in the Kingdom. But if I mistake not, Madam, you wou’d be instructed how to dispose of 10,000l.
Chloe. I wou’d so, Sir.
Stoc. Why, Madam, you know, at present, Publick Interest is very low, and private Securities very difficult to get—and I am sorry to say, I am afraid there are some in the Alley who are not the honestest Men in the Kingdom. In short, there is one way to dispose of Money with Safety and Advantage, and that is—to put it into the Charitable Corporation.
Chloe. The Charitable Corporation! pray what is that?
Stoc. That is, Madam, a method, invented by some very wise Men, by which the Rich may be charitable to the Poor, and be Money in Pocket by it.
The Charitable Corporation.
This company, erected in 1707, professed to lend money at legal interest to the poor upon small pledges; and to persons of better rank upon security of goods impawned. Their capital, at first limited to £30,000, was by licenses from the crown increased to £600,000, though their charter was never confirmed by act of parliament. In 1731, George Robinson, esquire, member for Marlow, the cashier, and John Thompson, warehouse-keeper of the corporation, disappeared in one day. The alarmed proprietors held several general courts, and appointed a committee to inspect their affairs, who reported, that for a capital of above £500,000 no equivalent was found; inasmuch as their effects did not amount to the value of £30,000, the remainder having been embezzled. The proprietors, in a petition to the house of commons, represented that, by a notorious breach of trust, the corporation had been defrauded of the greatest part of their capital; and that many of the petitioners were reduced to the utmost misery and distress: they therefore prayed parliament to inquire into the state of the corporation, and the conduct of their managers, and extend relief to the petitioners. On this petition a secret committee was appointed, who soon discovered a most iniquitous scene of fraud, perpetrated by Robinson and Thompson, in concert with some of the directors, for embezzling the capital, and cheating the proprietors. Many persons of rank and quality were concerned in this infamous conspiracy. Sir Robert Sutton and sir Archibald Grant were expelled the house of commons, as having had a considerable share in those fraudulent practices, and a bill was brought in to restrain them and other delinquents from leaving the kingdom, or alienating their effects.[453] In 1733, parliament granted a lottery in behalf of the sufferers. On the 1st of August in that year, books were opened at the bank to receive, from those who had given in their names, the first payment of one pound per ticket in the “Lottery for the relief of the Charitable Corporation;”[454] and in 1734 “it was distributed among them, amounting to nine shillings and ninepence in the pound on their loss.”[455]
The “London Journal” of October 30, 1731, observing on the general disposition to adventure says:—
The natural life of man is labour or business; riches is an unnatural state; and therefore generally a state of misery. Life, which is a drug in the hands of idle men, never hangs heavily on the hands of merchants and tradesmen, who judiciously divide their time between the city and country.
This is so true, that a wise man would never leave his children so much money as to put them beyond industry; for that is too often putting them beyond happiness. The heaping up riches for posterity is, generally speaking, heaping up destruction; and entailing of large estates, entailing vice and misery.
These thoughts were occasioned by the present state lottery; which plainly discovers that the people would run into the excesses of the South Sea year, had they the same opportunities. The spring and source of this unreasonable passion, is the luxury of the age. Tradesmen commence gentlemen and men of pleasure, when they should be men of business; and begin where they should end. This sets them a madding after lotteries; business is neglected, and poverty, vice, and misery spread among the people. It is hoped that the Parliament will never come into another lottery. All other gaming should be also discouraged. Who but laments that unfortunate young lady at the Bath, who was ruined by gaming, and rather than submit to a mean dependance, thought it best to resign her life?[456]
The tone of dissuasion from lotteries and gambling in the year 1731, prevails through the writings of the different persons who opposed such schemes and practices. The story of the “unfortunate young lady at the Bath, who was ruined by gaming,” referred to in the last paragraph, and already related in this work, is exceedingly affecting.
Westminster Bridge Lottery.
In the 9th year of George II. parliament passed an act for building this bridge by a lottery, and the following scheme was issued to the public:—
LOTTERY 1736, for raising 100000l. for building a Bridge at Westminster, consisting of 125000 Tickets, at 5l. each.
| Prizes 1 | — of — | 20000 | l. | — is — | 20000 | l. |
| 2 | 10000 | 20000 | ||||
| 3 | 5000 | 15000 | ||||
| 10 | 3000 | 30000 | ||||
| 40 | 1000 | 40000 | ||||
| 60 | 500 | 30000 | ||||
| 100 | 200 | 20000 | ||||
| 200 | 100 | 20000 | ||||
| 400 | 50 | 20000 | ||||
| 1000 | 20 | 20000 | ||||
| 28800 | 10 | 288000 | ||||
| 30616 | Prizes, amounting to | 523000 | ||||
| 94384 | Blanks. | |||||
| First Drawn | 1000 | |||||
| Last Drawn | 1000 | |||||
| 125000 | 525000 | |||||
The Prizes to be paid at the Bank in 40 Days after Drawing, without Deduction. N.B. There is little more than Three Blanks to a Prize.[457]
Parliament granted successive lotteries for the building and completion of Westminster-bridge.
An Organ Lottery.
In 1737, Horace Walpole (Lord Orford) says, “I am now in pursuit of getting the finest piece of music that ever was heard; it is a thing that will play eight tunes. Handel and all the great musicians say, that it is beyond any thing they can do; and this may be performed by the most ignorant person; and when you are weary of those eight tunes, you may have them changed for any other that you like. This I think much better than going to an Italian opera, or an assembly. This performance has been lately put into a Lottery, and all the royal family chose to have a great many tickets, rather than to buy it, the price being I think 1000l., infinitely a less sum than some bishopricks have been sold for. And a gentleman won it, who I am in hopes will sell it, and if he will, I will buy it, for I cannot live to have another made, and I will carry it into the country with me.”
In the State Lottery of 1739, tickets, chances, and shares were “bought and sold by Richard Shergold, printer to the honourable the commissioners of the Lottery, at his office at the Union Coffee-house over and against the Royal Exchange, Cornhill.” He advertised, that he kept numerical books during the drawing, and a book wherein buyers might register their numbers at sixpence each; that 15 per cent. was to be deducted out of the prizes, which were to be paid at the bank in fifty days after the drawing was finished; and that “schemes in French and English” were given gratis.[458]
The per centage to be deducted from the prizes in this lottery occasioned the following
Epigram.
This lottery can never thrive,
Was broker heard to say,
For who but fools will ever give
Fifteen per cent to play.
A sage, with his accustomed grin,
Replies, I’ll stake my doom,
That if but half the fools come in
The wise will find no room.[459]
Lottery at Stationers’ Hall.
On the 23d of November, 1741, “the drawing of the Bridge Lottery began at Stationers’ Hall.—The Craftsman of the 28th says, that every 100,000l. laid out in a lottery puts a stop to the circulation of at least 300,000l., and occasions almost a total suppression of trade.”[460]
In June, 1743, “the price of lottery tickets having risen from 10l. to 11l. 10s. some persons, who probably wanted to purchase, published a hint to the unwary adventurers, that they gamed at 50 per cent. loss; paying, at that price, 2s. 6d. to play for 5s.; the money played for being only three pound, besides discount and deductions.”[461]
Ticket stuck in the Wheel.
On the 5th of January, 1774, at the conclusion of drawing the State Lottery at Guildhall, No. 11,053, as the last drawn ticket, was declared to be entitled to the 1000l., and was so printed in the paper of benefits by order of the commissioners. It was besides a prize of 100l. But after the wheels were carried back to Whitehall and there opened, the ticket No. 72,248 was found sticking in a crevice of the wheel. And, being the next drawn ticket after all the prizes were drawn, was advertised by the commissioners’ order as entitled to the 1000l., as the last drawn ticket: “which affair made a great deal of noise.”[462]
A Peer’s Substitute for Lotteries.
On the bill, for a lottery to succeed the preceding, being brought into the house of lords, a peer said, that such measures always were censured by those that saw their nature and their tendency. “They have been considered as legal cheats, by which the ignorant and the rash are defrauded, and the subtle and avaricious often enriched. They have been allowed to divert the people from trade, and to alienate them from useful industry. A man who is uneasy in his circumstances, and idle in his disposition, collects the remains of his fortune, and buys tickets in a lottery, retires from business, indulges himself in laziness, and waits, in some obscure place, the event of his adventure. Another, instead of employing his stock in a shop or a warehouse, rents a garret in a private street, and make it his business, by false intelligence, and chimerical alarms, to raise and sink the price of tickets alternately, and takes advantage of the lies which he has himself invented. If I, my lords, might presume to recommend to our ministers the most probable method of raising a large sum for the payment of the troops of the electorate, I should, instead of the tax and lottery now proposed, advise them to establish a certain number of licensed wheel-barrows, on which the laudable trade of thimble and button might be carried on for the support of the war, and shoe-boys might contribute to the defence of the house of Austria, by raffling for apples.”
Chances of Tickets.
The State Lottery of 1751 seems to have encountered considerable opposition. There is a discouraging notice in the “Gentleman’s Magazine” on the 4th of July in that year, that “those inclined to become adventurers in the present lottery were cautioned in the papers to wait some time before they purchased tickets, whereby the jobbers would be disappointed of their market, and obliged to sell at a lower price. At the present rate of tickets the adventurer plays at 35 per cent. loss.”
In the next month, August, the “London Magazine” exhibited the following computation.
IN THE LOTTERY 1751, IT IS
| 69998 | to | 2 | or | 34999 | to | 1 | against a | £10000 | prize. |
| 69994 | to | 6 | or | 11665 | to | 1 | against a | 5000 | or upwards. |
| 69989 | to | 11 | or | 6363 | to | 1 | against a | 3000 | |
| 69981 | to | 19 | or | 3683 | to | 1 | against a | 2000 | |
| 69961 | to | 39 | or | 1794 | to | 1 | against a | 1000 | |
| 69920 | to | 80 | or | 874 | to | 1 | against a | 500 | |
| 69720 | to | 280 | or | 249 | to | 1 | against a | 100 | |
| 69300 | to | 700 | or | 99 | to | 1 | against a | 50 | |
| 60000 | to | 10000 | or | 6 | to | 1 | against a | 20 | or any prize. |
The writer says, I would beg the favour of all gentlemen, tradesmen, and others, to take the pains to explain to such as any way depend upon their judgment, that one must buy no less than seven tickets to have an even chance for any prize at all; that with only one ticket, it is six to one, and with half a ticket, twelve to one against any prize; and ninety-nine or a hundred to one that the prize, if it comes, will not be above fifty pounds; and no less than thirty-five thousand to one that the owner of a single ticket will not obtain one of the greatest prizes. No lottery is proper for persons of very small fortunes, to whom the loss of five or six pounds is of great consequence, besides the disturbance of their minds; much less is it advisable or desirable for either poor or rich to contribute to the exorbitant tax of more than two hundred thousand pounds, which the first engrossers of lottery tickets, and the brokers and dealers strive to raise, out of the pockets of the poor chiefly, and the silly rich partly, by artfully enhancing the price of tickets above the original cost.
The prices of tickets in this lottery was ten pounds. On their rise a Mr. Holland publicly offered to lay four hundred guineas, that four hundred tickets, when drawn, did not amount to nine pounds fifteen shillings on an average, prizes and blanks; his advertisement was never answered.
These animadversions on the scheme, and the resistance offered to the endeavours of the brokers and dealers to effect a rise in the price of tickets, appear, from the following lines published in October, to have been to a certain degree successful—
A New Song
From ‘Change-alley, occasioned by a stagnation
of the sale of Lottery Tickets.
While guineas were plenty, we thought we might rise,
Nor dreamt of a magpye to pick out our eyes;
’Twas twelve would have satisfy’d all our desire,
Tho’ perhaps without pain we might see them mount higher.
Derry down, down, down derry, &c.
How sweet were the pickings we formerly gain’d,
From whence our fine daughters their fortunes obtain’d!
In our coaches can roll, at the public can smile,
Whose follies reward all our labour and toil.
Derry down, &c.
Then let them spin out their fine scheme as they will,
No horseshoe nor magpye shall baffle our skill;
In triumph we’ll ride, and, in spite of the rout,
Our point we’ll obtain without wheeling about.
Derry down, &c.
Tho’ sturdy these beggars, yet weak are their brains;
Who offer to check us, must smart for their pains;
In concert united, we’ll laugh at the tribe,
Who play off their engines to damp all our pride.
Derry down, &c.
Let Holland no longer appear with his brags,
His four hundred guineas keep safe in his bags,
Nor think we’re such fools to risque any thing down,
By way of a wager to humour the town.
Derry down, &c.[463]
On the 11th of the next month, November, the drawing of the State Lottery began, when, notwithstanding the united efforts of several societies and public-spirited gentlemen to check the exorbitancy of the ticket-mongers, the price rose to sixteen guineas just before drawing. All means were tried to cure this infatuation by writing and advertising; particularly on the first day of drawing, it was publicly averred, that near eight thousand tickets were in the South Sea House, and upwards of thirty thousand pawned at bankers, &c. that nine out of ten of the ticket-holders were not able to go into the wheel; and that not one of them durst stand the drawing above six days. It was also demonstrated in the clearest manner, that to have an even chance for any prize a person must have seven tickets; that with only one ticket it was six to one; and ninety-nine to one that the prize, if it came, would not be above fifty pounds, and no less than thirty-five thousand to one that the owner of a single ticket would not obtain one of the greatest prizes.—Yet, notwithstanding these and other precautions, people still suffered themselves to be deluded, and the monied men arrogantly triumphed.[464]
A Lottery Job in Ireland.
In August, 1752, a lottery was set on foot at Dublin, under the pretext of raising 13,700l. for rebuilding Essex-bridge, and other public and charitable uses. There were to be 100,000 tickets, at a guinea each. The lords justices of Ireland issued an order to suppress this lottery. The measure occasioned a great uproar in Dublin; for it appears, that the tickets bore a premium, and that though the original subscribers were to have their money returned, the buyers at the advanced price would lose the advance. Every purchaser of a single ticket in this illegal lottery incurred a penalty of 50l. for each offence, and the seller 500l., one third of which went to the informer, a third to the king, and the other third to the poor of the parish; besides which, the offenders were subject to a year’s close imprisonment in the county gaol.[465]
Leheup’s Fraud.
To prevent the monopoly of tickets in the State Lottery, it had been enacted, that persons charged with the delivery of tickets should not sell more than twenty to one person. This provision was evaded by pretended lists, which defeated the object of parliament and injured public credit, insomuch that, in 1754, more tickets were subscribed for than the holders of the lists had cash to purchase, and there was a deficiency in the first payment. The mischief and notoriety of these practices occasioned the house of commons to prosecute an inquiry into the circumstances, which, though opposed by a scandalous cabal, who endeavoured to screen the delinquents, ended in a report by the committee, that Peter Leheup, esq. had privately disposed of a great number of tickets before the office was opened to which the public were directed by an advertisement to apply; that he also delivered great numbers to particular persons, upon lists of names which he knew to be fictitious; and that, in particular, Sampson Gideon became proprietor of more than six thousand, which he sold at a premium. Upon report of these and other illegal acts, the house resolved that Leheup was guilty of a violation of the act, and a breach of trust, and presented an address to his majesty, praying that he would direct the attorney-general to prosecute him in the most effectual manner for his offences.
An information was accordingly filed, and, on a trial at bar in the court of king’s bench, Leheup, as one of the receivers of the last lottery of 300,000l., was found guilty: 1. Of receiving subscriptions before the day and hour advertised; 2. Of permitting the subscribers to use different names to cover an excess of twenty tickets; and 3. Of disposing of the tickets which had been bespoke and not claimed, or were double charged, instead of returning them to the managers. In Trinity term, Leheup was brought up for judgment, and fined 1000l., which he paid in court. As he had amassed forty times that sum by his frauds, the lenity of the sentence was the subject of severe remark.[466]
Lottery Insanity.
November 5, 1757, Mr. Keys, late clerk to Cotton and Co., who had absented himself ever since the 7th of October, the day the 10,000l. was drawn in the lottery, (supposed to be his property,) was found in the streets raving mad, having been robbed of his pocket-book and ticket.[467]
The subjoined verses appeared in 1761:[468]—
A few Thoughts on Lotteries.
A Lottery, like a magic spell,
All ranks of men bewitches,
Whose beating bosoms vainly swell
With hopes of sudden riches:
With hope to gain Ten Thousand Pound
How many post to ruin,
And for an empty, airy sound
Contrive their own undoing!
Those on whom wealth her stores had shed,
May firmly bear their crosses;
But they who earn their daily bread,
Oft sink beneath their losses.
’Tis strange, so many fools we find,
By tickets thus deluded,
And, by a trifling turn of mind,
From life’s blest bliss excluded.
For life’s best blessing, calm content,
Attends no more his slumbers,
Who dreams of profit, cent. per cent.
And sets his heart on numbers.
Thro’ all life’s various stages, care
Our peace will oft disquiet;
Like a free-gift it comes, we ne’er
Need be in haste to buy it.
He who, intent on shadowy schemes,
By them is deeply bubbled,
Deserves to wake from golden dreams,
With disappointment doubled.
Unmoved by Fortune’s fickle wheel,
The wise man chance despises;
And Prudence courts with fervent zeal—
She gives the highest prizes.
Large Division of Tickets.
In some of the old lotteries tickets were divided into a much greater number of shares than of late years. There is an example of this in the following
Advertisement, November, 1766.
Dame Fortune presents her respects to the public, and assures them that she has fixed her residence for the present at Corbett’s, State Lottery-office, opposite St. Dunstan’s-church, Fleet-street; and, to enable many families to partake of her favours, she has ordered not only the tickets to be sold at the lowest prices, but also that they be divided into shares at the following low rates, viz:—
| £ | s. | d. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| A sixty-fourth | 0 | 4 | 0 |
| Thirty-second | 0 | 7 | 6 |
| Sixteenth | 0 | 15 | 0 |
| An eighth | 1 | 10 | 0 |
| A Fourth | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| A half | 6 | 0 | 0 |
By which may be gained from upwards of one hundred and fifty to upwards of five thousand guineas, at her said office No. 30.
A Number twice sold.
The lottery of 1766 was unfortunate to a lottery-office keeper. The ticket No. 20,99 was purchased in the alley for Pagen Hale, esq. of Hertfordshire; and the same number was also divided into shares at a lottery-office near Charing-cross, and some of the shares actually sold. The number purchased in the alley was the real number, but that divided by the office-keeper was done by mistake, for which he paid a proportionable sum.
During the lottery of 1767, the stockbrokers fell among thieves. Mr. Hugnes, a stock-broker, had his pocket picked in Jonathan’s coffee-house of fifty lottery tickets, the value of which (at the price then sold) was 800l. The same evening three other brokers had their pockets picked of their purses, one containing sixty-two guineas, another seven, and the third five. One of the pick-pockets was afterwards apprehended, on whom thirty-five of the tickets were found, and recovered; the other fifteen he said were carried to Holland by his accomplices.
The preceding anecdotes are in the newspapers of the time, together with the following, which strongly marks the perversion of a weak mind. “A gentlewoman in Holborn, whose husband had presented her with a ticket, put up prayers in the church, the day before drawing, in the following manner: The prayers of the congregation are desired for the success of a person engaged in a new undertaking.”
A Fraudulent Insurer.
In January, 1768, an insurer of tickets was summoned before a magistrate, for refusing to pay thirty guineas to an adventurer, upon the coming up of a certain number a blank, for which he had paid a premium of three guineas. The insurer was ordered immediately to pay thirty guineas, which he was obliged to comply with to prevent worse consequences.[469] In other words, the magistrate was too weak to exert the power he was armed with, by law, against both the insurer and the insured.
Love Tickets.
Mr. Charles Holland, the actor, who died on the 7th of December, 1769, received many letters of passionate admiration from a lady who fell in love with him from his appearance on the stage; and she accompanied one of her declarations of attachment by four lottery tickets as a present.[470]
Good and ill Luck.
In the lottery of 1770, the holder of the ticket entitled to the capital prize or 20,000l. was captain Towry of Isleworth. A very remarkable circumstance put it in his possession: Mr. Barnes, a grocer in Cheapside, purchased four following numbers, one of which this was; but thinking the chance not so great in so many following ones, he carried this very ticket back to the office, and changed it for another.
A Little Go.
October 14, 1770, a case was determined at the general quarter session of the peace for the county of Wilts, held at Marlborough. A quack doctor had been convicted before Thomas Johnson, esq. of Bradford, in the penalty of 200l. for disposing of plate, &c. by means of a device or lottery; and by a second information convicted of the same offence before Joseph Mortimer, esq. of Trowbridge. To both these convictions he appealed to the justices at the general quarter session of the peace, when, after a trial of near ten hours, the bench unanimously confirmed the conviction on both informations, by which the appellant was subjected to the penalties of 200l. on each, and costs.[471]
Insurance Cause.
On the 1st of March, 1773, a cause of great public concern came on to be tried before lord Mansfield, at Guildhall, wherein the lord mayor was plaintiff, and Messrs. Barnes and Golightly were defendants, in order to determine the legality of insuring lottery tickets; but on account of an error in the declaration the plaintiff was nonsuited.
On the 17th of the same month, “Mr. Sheriff Lewes presented a petition from the city of London, against the frequent toleration of lotteries in the time of peace; but the petition was ordered to lie upon the table.—No government can long subsist, that is reduced to the necessity of supporting itself by fraudulent gaming.”[472]
Tricks of an Insurer.
June 26, 1775, a cause came on in the court of common pleas, Guildhall, between a gentleman, plaintiff, and a lottery-office keeper of this city, defendant; the cause of this action was as follows: the gentleman, passing by the lottery-office, observed a woman and boy crying, on which he asked the reason of their tears; they informed him, that they had insured a number in the lottery on the over night, and, upon inquiry at another office, found it to have been drawn five days before, and therefore wanted their money returned; the gentleman, taking their part, was assaulted and beat by the office-keeper, for which the jury gave a verdict in favour of the gentleman with five pounds damages.[473]
Proceedings respecting a Blue-coat Boy.
In 1775, some of the boys of Christ’s Hospital, appointed to draw numbers and chances from the wheel, were tampered with, for the purpose of inducing them to commit a fraud. These attempts were successful in one instance, and led to certain [regulations], which will presently be stated.
On the 1st of June, a man was carried before the lord mayor for attempting to bribe the two blue-coat boys who drew the Museum Lottery at Guildhall to conceal a ticket, and to bring it to him, promising that he would next day return it to them. His intention was to insure it in all the offices, with a view to defraud the office-keepers. The boys were honest, gave notice of the intended fraud, and pointed out the delinquent, who, however, was discharged, as there existed no law to punish the offence.
On the 5th of December, one of the blue-coat boys who drew the numbers in the State Lottery at Guildhall was examined before sir Charles Asgill, relative to a number that had been drawn out the Friday before, on which an insurance had been made in almost every office in London. The boy confessed, that he was prevailed upon to conceal the ticket No. 21,481, by a man who gave him money for so doing; that the man copied the number; and that the next day he followed the man’s instructions, and put his hand into the wheel as usual, with the ticket in it, and then pretended to draw it out. The instigator of the offence had actually received 400l. of the insurance-office keepers; had all of them paid him, the whole sum would have amounted to 3000l. but some of them suspected a fraud had been committed, and caused the inquiry, which obtained the boy’s confession.
On the following day, the person who insured the ticket was examined. He was clerk to a hop-factor in Goodman’s-fields, but not being the person who seduced the boy to secrete the ticket, and no evidence appearing to prove his connection with the person who did, the prisoner was discharged, though it was ascertained that he had insured the number already mentioned ninety-one times in one day.[474]
In consequence of the circumstances discovered by this examination, the lords of the treasury inquired further, and deliberated on the means of preventing similar practices; the result of their conferences was the following “Orders,” which are extracted from the original minutes of the proceedings, and are now for the first time published.
COPY, No. I.
Order of December 12, 1775.
A Discovery having been made, that William Tramplet, one of the boys employed in drawing the lottery, had, at the instigation of one Charles Lowndes, (since absconded,) at different times, in former rolls taken out of the number wheel three numbered tickets, which were at three several times returned by him into the said wheel, and drawn without his parting with them, so as to give them the appearance of being fairly drawn, to answer the purpose of defrauding by insurance:
It is therefore ordered, for preventing the like wicked practices in future, that every boy before he is suffered to put his hand into either wheel, be brought by the proclaimer to the managers on duty, for them to see that the bosoms and sleeves of his coat be closely buttoned, his pockets sewed up, and his hands examined; and that during the time of his being on duty, he shall keep his left hand in his girdle behind him, and his right hand open, with his fingers extended; and the proclaimer is not to suffer him at any time to leave the wheel without being first examined by the manager nearest him.
The observance of the foregoing order is recommended by the managers on this roll to those on the succeeding rolls, till the matter shall be more fully discussed at a general meeting.
COPY, No. II.
Order at General Meeting.
A Plan of Rules and Regulations to be observed, in order to prevent the boys committing frauds, &c., in the drawing of the lottery, agreeable to directions received by Mr. Johnson, on Tuesday the 16th of January, 1776, from the LORDS OF THE TREASURY.
That ten managers be always on the roll at Guildhall, two of whom are to be conveniently placed opposite the two boys at the wheels, in order to observe that they strictly conform themselves to the rules and orders directed by the committee at Guildhall, on Tuesday, December 12, 1775.
That it be requested of the treasurer of Christ’s Hospital not to make known who are the twelve boys nominated for drawing the lottery till the morning the drawing begins; which said boys are all to attend every day, and the two who are to go on duty at the wheels are to be taken promiscuously from amongst the whole number by either of the secretaries, without observing any regular course or order; so that no boy shall know when it will be his turn to go to either wheel.
This method, though attended with considerable additional expense, by the extra attendance of two managers and six boys, will, it is presumed, effectually prevent any attempt being made to corrupt or bribe any of the boys to commit the fraud practised in the last lottery.
It is imagined, that to future inquirers concerning lotteries, with a view to its history, the publication of the preceding documents may be acceptable. So long a time has elapsed since the fraud they relate to was perpetrated, that any motive which existed for keeping them private has ceased. The blue-coat boy who secretly abstracted the tickets from the wheel, and afterwards appeared to draw them fairly and openly, will be regarded as having been pitiably exposed to seductions, which might have been prevented if these regulations had been adopted on the complaint of the lad who was tampered with in June. Perhaps it was prudent, though not “quite correct,” to conceal that three tickets had been improperly taken from the wheel: until now, it has not been publicly made known that there was more than one; and though, if the point had been tried, that one might have been sufficient to have vitiated the legality of the drawing of the lottery of 1775 altogether, it was not enough, in a popular view, to raise a hue-and-cry among the unfortunate holders against the disturbance of their chances. The concealment of three might have congregated the unsuccessful adventurers of the three kingdoms into an uproar, “one and indivisible,” which, with the law on their side, would have exceedingly puzzled the then lords of the treasury to subdue, without ordering the lottery to have been drawn over again, and raising a fresh clamour among the holders of tickets that had been declared prizes.
Lottery Suicide.
On the 10th of January, 1777, “a young man, clerk to a merchant in the city, was found in the river below bridge drowned: he had been dabbling in the lottery with his master’s money, and chose this way of settling his accounts.”[475]
A Blank made a Prize.
In January, 1777, Joseph Arones and Samuel Noah, two jews, were examined at Guildhall before the lord mayor, charged with counterfeiting the lottery ticket No. 25,590, a prize of 2000l., with intent to defraud Mr. Keyser, an office-keeper, knowing the same to have been false and counterfeit. Mr. Keyser had examined the ticket carefully, and had taken it into the Stock-exchange to sell, when Mr. Shewell came into the same box, and desired to look at the ticket, having, as he recollected, purchased one of the same number a day or two before. This fortunate discovery laid open the fraud, and the two jews were committed to take their trial for their ingenuity. It was so artfully altered from 23,590, that not the least erasure could be discerned. Arones was but just come to England, and Noah was thought to be a man of property.
In February following, Arones and Noah were tried at the Old Bailey for the forgery and fraud. Their defence was, that the prisoner Arones found it, and persons were brought to swear it; on which they were acquitted. The figure altered was so totally obliterated by a certain liquid, that not the least trace of it could be perceived.
At the same sessions, Daniel Denny was tried for forging, counterfeiting, and altering a lottery ticket, with intent to defraud; and, being found guilty, was condemned.[476]
Insuring.
In July, 1778, came on to be tried at Guildhall, before lord Mansfield, a cause, wherein a merchant was plaintiff and a lottery-office keeper defendant. The action was brought for suffering a young man, the plaintiff’s apprentice, to insure with the defendant during the drawing of the last lottery, contrary to the statute; whereby the youth lost a considerable sum, the property of the merchant. The jury without going out of court gave a verdict for the plaintiff, thereby subjecting the defendant to pay 500l. penalty, and to three months’ imprisonment.[477]
During the same year, parliament having discussed the evil of insuring, and the mischievous subdivision of the shares of tickets, passed an act “for the regulation of Lottery offices,” in which the principal clauses were as follows—
“To oblige every lottery-office keeper to take out a licence, at the expense of 50l., and give security not to infringe any part of the act.
“That no person shall dispose of any part of a ticket in any smaller share or proportion than a sixteenth, on 50l. penalty.
“That any person selling goods, wares, or other merchandise, or who shall offer any sum or sums of money, upon any chance or event whatsoever, relating to the drawing of any ticket, shall be liable to a penalty of 20l.
“To enable the commissioners of his majesty’s treasury to establish an office;—all shares to be stamped at that office;—the original tickets from which such shares are to be taken, to be kept at that office till a certain time after drawing;—books of entry to be regularly kept;—persons carrying shares to be stamped to pay a small sum specified in the act;—penalties for persons selling shares not stamped; and a clause for punishing persons who shall forge the stamp of any ticket.”
In 1779, the drawing of the lottery and the conduct of lottery-office keepers was further regulated by act of parliament.[478]
Evasions of the Insurers.
The provisions of parliament against the ruinous practice of insurance were evaded by the dexterity of the lottery-office keepers. In 1781, the following proposals were issued by the cunning, and greedily accepted by the credulous.
I.
November 7, 1781
Mode of Insurance,
Which continues the whole time of drawing the lottery, at Carrick’s State Lottery Office, King’s Arms, 72, Threadneedle-street. At one guinea each numbers are taken, to return three twenty pound prizes, value sixty pounds, for every given number that shall be drawn any prize whatever above twenty pounds during the whole drawing.
⁂ Numbers at half a guinea to receive half the above.
II.
J. Cook respectfully solicits the public will favour the following incomparably advantageous plan with attention, by which upwards of thirty-two thousand chances for obtaining a prize (out of the forty-eight thousand tickets) are given in one policy.
Policies of Five Guineas with three numbers, with the first number will gain
| 20000 | if a prize of | £20000 |
| 10000 | £10000 | |
| 5000 | £5000 |
with the second number will gain
| 6000 | guineas if | 20000 |
| 3000 | 10000 | |
| 1500 | 5000 |
with the third number will gain
| 3000 | guineas if | 20000 |
| 1500 | 10000 | |
| 1200 | 5000 |
In the lottery act of 1782 there was a clause designed to prevent the insurance of tickets by any method. The lottery-office keepers persisted in their devices, and the magistrates enforced the law.
About the beginning of January 1785 several lottery-office keepers were convicted, before the lord mayor and aldermen, in penalties of fifty pounds each for insuring numbers contrary to law; and in Trinity term the following cause was tried at Westminster, before lord Loughborough.
A lottery-office keeper near Charing-cross was plaintiff, and the sheriff of Middlesex defendant. The action was to recover one thousand five hundred and sixty-six pounds, levied by the sheriff, about a year past, on the plaintiff’s goods, by virtue of three writs of fieri facias, issued from the court of King’s-bench. It seems that the above plaintiff was convicted in three penalties of five hundred pounds each, for insuring lottery tickets; but previous to the trial’s coming on, for some indulgence, he had, by himself or agents, consented not to bring any writ of error, and an order of nisi prius was drawn up, and served upon his attorney; notwithstanding which, three writs of error were sued out. The court of King’s-bench being then moved, made an order that the executions should be levied according to the original rule of court: the sheriff made the levy, and the money being paid and impounded in his hands, the above action was brought to get the same returned. The novelty of the action caused much laughter among the counsel, and, after a few minutes’ hearing, his lordship ordered the plaintiff to be nonsuited.[479]
Lottery Wood Cuts.
It is to be remarked, that at this period engravings on their printed addresses do not seem to have been resorted to by the lottery-schemers as they have been since, for the purpose of stimulating attention to their plans. No subject of the kind therefore can be given, to illustrate their proceedings at the time now under review; but on arriving, as we shall presently, at days nearer our own, they crowd upon us, and several will be given in the next sheet as [specimens] of their ingenuity and taste.
Charles Price, alias Patch, &c.
This man was a lottery-office keeper. His notoriety and his fate render him one of the most remarkable characters of the age wherein he lived; it is therefore proposed to give a brief outline of his life.
His father, Charles Price, was “by trade a tailor.” He came from South Wales, about the year 1702, and worked at several places in London, till in 1710 he got into Monmouth-street, as journeyman to a salesman there. By strict application he was, in a few years, enabled to set up as a master, and kept a saleshop the corner of Earl-street and West-street, Seven Dials. Some time previous to this he had married a woman who bore a very good character. He was very clever in his business, but illiterate; yet exceedingly artful, and the flower of Monmouth-street for oratory in the sale of his goods: at the same time, he was sincere in his friendships, despised downright knavery, and had a regard to reputation. His eldest son, Thomas, was bred to his father’s business. One Creed, a salesman in Rosemary-lane, used to send him with a cart loaded with goods round the country; and Creed dying, Thomas decamped with the produce of one journey, about 200l. For this, and for similar acts of knavery in his brother Charles, he left them only a shilling each, and bequeathed the rest of his property to his daughter. Thomas died young.
Charles, the hero of our history, when about six years of age, was sent to school, where he acquired the rudiments of the French language, and was so neglected in his own, that he was complete in neither. At about twelve years’ old he was taken home to assist his father, where he soon gave proofs of address similar to the following.
A sailor who had staggered to Monmouth-street to buy some clothes, was caught by Charles at the corner, and introduced by him into a room, where, in a summer’s noon, it was hardly possible to distinguish blue from black, or green from blue. The honest tar was shown a coat and waistcoat, the real value of which was about two guineas. Though they were considerably too little, Charles squeezed him up, and persuaded him they fitted exactly. The price being demanded, Charles declared upon his honour the lowest farthing he could take was five guineas. The sailor put his hand in his pocket, and laid down the money. Charles stepped down to his father’s journeyman, under pretence of getting something to put the clothes in, and told him the customer he met with, and that he might as well have had six guineas as five. “Do you,” said he, “follow me up stairs, inquire what I have done, pretend to be very angry, swear they cost you six guineas, give me two or three kicks or cuffs, and I dare swear we shall get more money out of him, and then, as my father is not at home, you shall go halves in all we get above the five guineas.” The scheme was readily acquiesced in by the journeyman. Charles slipped up stairs; the journeyman followed, inquiry, blame, and sham blows ensued; the journeyman declared the clothes cost him six guineas out of his pocket, and was going to beat Charles again, when the sailor cried, “Avast, master, don’t beat the boy, if he has made a mistake in a guinea, why here it is;” and laying it down, departed well pleased with his bargain, and that he had saved the lad a drubbing by the insignificant trifle of an additional guinea. Charles gave his father two guineas, the journeyman half a one, and kept three guineas and a half to himself.
The father soon experienced the effects of his son’s knavery, and put him apprentice to a hatter and hosier in St. James’s-street, with a considerable premium, hoping that his conduct would be quite different from what it had been at home; but his master had almost as much reason to complain of him as his father. Among his other frauds was the following: he robbed his father of an elegant suit of clothes, in which he dressed himself and went to his master, of whom he purchased about ten pounds’ worth of silk stockings, leaving his address, Benjamin Bolingbroke, esq., Hanover-square, and ordering them to be sent in an hour’s time, when he would pay the person who brought them. Incredible as it may appear, his master did not know him; to complete the cheat, he came back in half an hour, in his usual dress, and was ordered to take the goods home, which he actually pretended to do, and thus robbed his master. Having been detected in his villainies, he ran away; and his father, in detestation of his principles, disinherited him, soon afterwards died, and was buried at Lambeth. It may be remarked, that he was the first corpse carried over Westminster-bridge, which was on the first day it was free for carriages, when multitudes flocked to see the opening of the new structure.
Before his father’s death, Charles Price became a gentleman’s servant, and in that capacity lived some years, till he got into the service of sir Francis Blake Delaval, went with him the tour of Europe, returned to England, and through sir Francis, who was the companion of the celebrated Samuel Foote, became comedian. He acted a principal part in the scheme by which sir Francis obtained his lady, with a very large fortune. She went to consult a conjuror, and Foote performed the character to the satisfaction of his friend. Price afterwards contrived to conjure Foote out of 500l. in a sham scheme in a brewery, wherein that gentleman and Price were concerned. Price was made a bankrupt, and afterwards set up in a distillery, defrauded the revenue, was sent to the King’s-bench, released by an insolvent act, again turned brewer, and defrauded a gentleman out of 6000l. through one of his disguises. He then became a lottery-office keeper and stockbroker, gambled in the alley, was ruined, again set up lottery-office keeper, courted a Mrs. Pounteney, and ran away with her niece, who was the daughter of justice Wood, in the Borough. He practised innumerable frauds, became an adept in swindling, and had the effrontery to avow his depredations, and laugh at those he injured.
Price was intimate with a Mr. R——s, a grocer retired from business, with whom he had for a long time passed as a stockbroker. Price, who then lived at Knightsbridge, frequently used to request the favour of Mr. R. to take a bank-note or two into the city, and get them changed into small ones. In this he had a two-fold plot. He informed his friend that he was intimately acquainted with a very old gentleman, exceedingly rich, who had been an eminent broker in the alley, but had long retired; that his monies in the funds were immense; that the only relation he had in the world was one sister, to whom he intended to bequeath the best part of his property; and that his sister was near fifty years of age, had never been married, and determined never to marry; and that it was impossible the old gentleman could live long, as he was very old, very infirm, and almost incapable of going out of doors. This old gentleman, Price said, had often asked him to become his executor; and besought him to recommend another person, in whose fidelity, character, and integrity, he could repose an entire confidence, and that he would make it well worth their while, if they would undertake so friendly and solemn an office.—“Now,” said Price to Mr. R., “here is an opportunity for us to make a considerable sum in a short time, and, in all probability, a very capital fortune in a few years; for the sister being determined not to marry, and having no relations in the world, there is no doubt but she will leave us the whole of the estate; and, after his decease, she will become totally dependent upon us.—I shall see the old gentleman, Mr. Bond, to-day, and if you will join in the trust, the will shall be immediately made.”
Charles Price, the Arch-Imposter,
In his usual Dress—and in Disguise.
To this proposal Mr. R. consented. In the evening Price returned to Knightsbridge. He told Mr. R. that he had visited Mr. Bond, who expressed great happiness and easiness of mind on such a recommendation, and desired to see Mr. R. the next day. Price appointed to meet him at twelve o’clock at Mr. Bond’s. At the appointed hour, Mr. R. knocked at the door. He was shown up stairs by the aforementioned sister-lady, and introduced to Mr. Bond, seated in a great chair, his legs in another, and covered with a night-cap. The poor, infirm, weak, debilitated, old gentleman regretted the absence of his ever-dear friend Mr. Price, the most worthy man in the world, and rang a peal on his friendship, honour, honesty, integrity, &c., &c., accompanied with emaciated coughs—was obliged to go to the city coffee-house—a punctual man—never failed an appointment—it was the soul of business—and then he told Mr. R. that his dear friend desired to meet Mr. R. there exactly at one o’clock—he approved highly of Mr. Price’s recommendation, and was now happy in his mind—it wanted but a quarter to one, he believed, and he hoped Mr. R. would not fail, as his dear friend was very exact indeed. The usual compliments passed; the sister conducted Mr. R. to the door, who posted away to the city coffee-house, and left old Mr. Bond, the rich brother, who was in reality no other than Mr. Price, and the brother’s maiden sister, who was a Mrs. Pounteney, to laugh at Mr. R.’s credulity. Mr. R. had not been five minutes in the coffee-house before he was joined by his friend Price, to whom Mr. R. recapitulated what passed, and as soon as Price had despatched some pretended business, he proposed calling on Mr. Bond. This was readily acquiesced in by Mr. R. and away they drove to Leather-lane. When they came there, they were informed by the lady, that her brother was just gone out in a coach, on an airing, to Highgate. In short, Price carried on the scheme completely for several days, during which time Mr. R. had twice or thrice seen the old gentleman. The will was made, and, on the strength of the joint executorship and expectancy, Mr. R. was swindled out of very near a thousand pounds in cash, and bonds to the amount of two hundred pounds.
Another anecdote, though it does not exhibit him in his Proteus-like character, exemplifies his cunning and selfishness. He had formed a connection with Mr. W——, a brewer, a man of character. Price, who was then in the brewery, proposed a project, which was assented to, for purchasing hops to the amount of two thousand pounds, and he actually went into the country, contracted for hops to that amount with hop-growers in Kent, and then applied to Mr. W. for the two thousand pounds, alledging that there would be a sudden rise of hops, and they could not be delivered too soon; and that Mr. W. should have his share of the profit. From some undisclosed motive, Mr. W. refused to advance the money. An unexpected rise, however, did soon after take place, Price went into Kent to demand delivery, the growers were shy in delivering, especially as they found they had made a bad bargain, and he gained two hundred pounds for releasing them.
Price was servile to extreme meanness, where his servility could be recompensed by a shilling. He was master of consummate effrontery, when principle called upon him for that shilling, if it was unsupported by law. He never paid but with an eye to further plunder; and then he abounded in that species of flattery distinguished under the word palaver. He possessed an extensive knowledge of men and manners, and to superficial observers appeared a very sensible person. He knew something of most of the living languages; had travelled all over France and Holland, and been at most of the German courts. He was at Copenhagen during the crisis in the fate of the unhappy Matilda queen of Denmark, sister to George III.; and he wrote a pamphlet in her behalf, tending to prove that the true motive for the degrading attack on her character, was to effect a revolution in favour of the queen dowager’s son. It proved him to have an eye directed to the cabals of the court, and an understanding capable of developing its intrigues.
Price’s character about the ’Change in London was well-known—he was a keen, intriguing speculator, well versed in the mystery of the bulls and bears: his head enabled him to make the most accurate calculations, but his heart would not permit him to enjoy the fruit of even his honest labours; for he never would comply with the demands of a fortunate customer, unless terrified into it,—and to terrify him required no small portion of ingenuity and resolution. His dishonesty was the spring of all his misfortunes; it made him shift from place to place to avoid the abuse of the vulgar, and the clamorous calls of the few fortunate adventurers in the lottery. His last office was the corner of King-street, Covent-garden, from whence he was driven, by a run of ill-luck, into a private decampment.
From that period, Price lived in obscurity. Though a perfect sycophant abroad, at home he was an absolute tyrant; nor could a prudent, virtuous woman, endowed with every qualification to render the marriage state happy, soften his brutal disposition, when the ample fortune he obtained with her had been squandered. Having a family of eight children to support, he turned his thoughts to fatal devices, and commenced to forge on the bank of England. His first attack on the bank was about the year 1780, when one of his notes had been taken there, so complete in the engraving, the signature, the water-marks, and all its parts, that it passed through various hands unsuspected, and was not discovered till it came to a certain department, through which no forgery whatever can pass undiscovered. The appearance of this note occasioned a considerable alarm among the directors; and forgery upon forgery flowed in, about the lottery and Christmas times, without the least probability of discovering the first negociators. Various consultations were held, innumerable plans were laid for detection, and they were traced in every quarter to have proceeded from one man, always disguised, and always inaccessible.
Had Price permitted a partner in his proceedings—had he employed an engraver—had he procured paper to be made for him, with water-marks upon it, he must soon have been discovered—but he “was himself alone.” He engraved his own plates, made his own paper with the water-marks, and, as much as possible, he was his own negociator. He thereby confined a secret to himself, which he deemed not safe in the breast of another; even Mrs. Price had not the least knowledge or suspicion of his proceedings. Having practised engraving till he had made himself sufficient master of it, he then made his own ink to prove his own works. He next purchased implements, and manufactured the water-mark, and began to counterfeit hand-writings. Private attempts to discover him proved thoroughly abortive, and the bank came to the resolution of describing the offender by the following public advertisement, which was continued in all the newspapers for a considerable time to no purpose. It is a very curious document, from the minuteness with which his disguise is particularized.
Public-office, Bow-street, Dec. 5, 1780.
A Forgery.
Whereas a person, answering the following description, stands charged with forging two notes, purporting to be bank-notes, one for forty pounds and the other for twenty pounds, whoever will apprehend him, or give such immediate notice at this office as may be the means of apprehending him, shall receive one hundred pounds’ reward on his commitment.
Or, if any person concerned in the above forgery, (except the person here-under described,) will surrender and discover his or her accomplices, he or she will be admitted an evidence for the crown, and, on conviction of any one offender therein, receive two hundred pounds’ reward.
And if any engraver, paper-maker, mould-maker or printer, can give information of the engraving any plate, making any mould or paper, or printing any note resembling bank-notes, shall receive two hundred pounds’ reward, on conviction of any of the offenders in the above forgery.
He appears about fifty years of age, about five feet six inches high, stout made, very sallow complexion, dark eyes and eye-brows, speaks in general very deliberately, with a foreign accent; has worn a black patch over his left eye, tied with a string round his head, sometimes wears a white wig, his hat flapped before, and nearly so at the sides, a brown camblet great coat, buttons of the same, with a large cape, which he always wears so as to cover the lower part of his face; appears to have very thick legs, which hang over his shoes, as if swelled, his shoes are very broad at the toes, and little narrow old-fashioned silver buckles, black stocking breeches, walks with a short crutch stick with an ivory head, stoops, or affects to stoop very much, and walks slow as if infirm; he has lately hired many hackney-coaches in different parts of the town, and been frequently set down in or near Portland-place, in which neighbourhood it is supposed he lodges.
He is connected with a woman who answers the following description:—She is rather tall, and genteel, thin face and person, about thirty years of age, light hair, rather a yellow cast on her face, and pitted with the small pox, a down-cast look, speaks very slow, sometimes wears a coloured linen jacket and petticoat, and sometimes a white one, a small black bonnet, and a black cloak, and assumes the character of a lady’s maid.
N. B. It is said, that about fifteen months since he lodged at Mrs. Parker’s, No. 40, in Great Titchfield-street, (who is since dead,) at which time he went by the name of Wigmore.
This advertisement drove Price to extremities:—it forced him to refrain from the circulation of his forgeries, and for some months put a total stop to them. It was posted on the walls, and printed as hand-bills, and delivered from house to house throughout the whole of the quarter where he was most suspected to reside; at the very house which he daily resorted to, and where all his implements were fixed; in the neighbourhood of Marybone, Portland-place, Oxford-street, and Tottenham-court-road. One of them was thrown down an area to the only person in whom he placed any confidence, a female whom the reader will be better acquainted with. By these means Price was informed of his immediate danger, and took his measures accordingly. Eagerness to secure banished the foresight and caution which are necessary in the pursuit of artful villany. The animal whose sagacity is a proverb, can never be secured in haste; he must be entrapped by superior patience and caution.
Though Price had no partner in any branch of the forgery of a bank-note, yet he had a confidante in his wife’s aunt, by the mother’s side, whom he had known previous to his marriage. Her name was Pounteney; and, unknown to Mrs. Price, he was daily with her. He divided his dinner-times equally between the two, and Mrs. Price had for ten years’ past, through the impositions of her husband, considered her aunt either as dead, or residing abroad. His wife had too little art, or understanding in the ways of the world, to be what is commonly called cunning. In short, her character was that of perfect simplicity. Price therefore thought her not fit to be trusted. Her aunt, on the contrary, was wily, crafty and capable of executing any plan Price would chalk out for her. She was a woman after his own heart; and having made choice of this woman as an assistant, and his apparatus being ready, he began his operations. He lived then at Paddington with his wife, whom he went to nightly; and at lodgings, near Portland-place, he daily visited her aunt, where the implements for his undertakings were concealed. His next and chief object was a negociator, and he procured one in the following manner.
Previous to the drawing of the lottery for the year 1780, Price put an advertisement into the “Daily Advertiser” for a servant who had been used to live with a single gentleman, and the direction was to “C. C. Marlborough-street coffee-house, Broad-street, Carnaby-market.” An honest young man, who at that time lived with a musical instrument-maker in the Strand, read this advertisement, and sent a letter to the specified address. At the end of a week, one evening, about dusk, a coachman inquired for the person who had answered the advertisement, saying there was a gentleman over the way, in a coach, wanted to speak with him. The young man went to the coach, was desired to step in, and there saw an apparently aged foreigner, gouty, wrapped up with five or six yards of flannel about his legs, a camblet surtout buttoned up over his chin, close to his mouth, a large patch over his left eye, and every part of his face concealed except his nose, right eye, and a small part of that cheek. This person was Price, who caused the young man to sit at his left side, on which eye the patch was; so that Price could take an askance look at him with his right eye, and discover only a small portion of his own face. Thus disguised, he seemed between sixty and seventy years of age, and afterwards, when the man saw him standing, he appeared nearly six feet high, owing to boots or shoes with heels little less than four inches high. To aid the deception, he was so buttoned up and straightened as to appear perfectly lank. Price’s real height was about five feet six inches; he was a compact, neat made man, rather square shouldered, and somewhat inclined to corpulency; his legs were firm and well set. His features assisted his design to look considerably older than he really was; his nose was aquiline, his eyes were small and grey, his mouth stood very much inwards, his lips were very thin, his chin was pointed and prominent, he had a pale complexion, and loss of teeth favoured his disguise of speech. His natural form was exceedingly upright; he was active and quick in his walk, and was what is usually described “a dapper made man.” To the young man, whose christian name was Samuel, Price affected great age, with a faint hectic cough, and so much bodily infirmity as almost to disable him from getting out of the coach. Price told him he was not wanted by himself, but as under servant to a young nobleman of fortune, under age, and then in Bedfordshire, to whom he was, and had been some years, guardian. He inquired into the particulars of Samuel’s life, and thinking him honest and ingenuous, and therefore unsuspicious, and suitable to his purpose, he talked to him about wages. Samuel inquired whether he was to be in livery or not: Price replied, that he could not really tell, for the young nobleman was a very whimsical character, but that was a circumstance which might be settled hereafter. To carry on the farce, he desired Samuel to call his master to the coach to give him a character, and his master came and gave him such an one as Price pretended to approve; he then hired Samuel at eighteen shillings per week, and gave him a direction to himself, as Mr. Brank, at No. 39, Titchfield-street, Oxford-street.
Pursuant to appointment, on the second or third evening afterwards, Samuel went to Titchfield-street, and there entered on the service of the minor nobleman, by waiting on Mr. Brank. Price resumed his discourse respecting his ward, the eccentricity and prodigality of his manners, and his own hard task in endeavouring to prevent him from squandering his money, especially in those deceitful allurances called lottery tickets. He said, although he was his guardian, he was still obliged to comply with some of those whims, in opposition to his own advice and remonstrance. Old Mr. Brank talked of the happy prospects for Samuel by serving such a master, and Samuel talked of his wages and clothes, and whether he was to be in livery or not. It was concluded, that for the present he should procure a drab coat, turned up with red, till the nobleman’s pleasure was known, or he came to town: he was ordered to get the clothes at his own charge, and make out his bill; which he did, but was never repaid. This circumstance corresponded with Price’s usual conduct: he never was known to part with a shilling from one hand, till he had more than double its value in the other. It should be observed, that Samuel was so placed on the left side of the pretended Mr. Brank, on which side the patch was, that during the whole of the conversation he could never see the right side of Price’s face.
Before Samuel took leave of the old gentleman, he was ordered to come again in the evening of the first day of the drawing of the lottery. Price pretended, that he seldom went to the nobleman’s town house of an evening, and therefore, to avoid giving him unnecessary trouble, he was to attend in Titchfield-street. On that evening he pulled out a variety of papers, letters, &c., and told Samuel he had received orders from the thoughtless young nobleman to purchase lottery tickets, as a venture against his coming to town, and for that purpose he meant to employ Samuel. He produced some seeming bank-notes, and gave Samuel two, one of twenty pounds, the other of forty pounds. He directed him to take their numbers and dates on a piece of paper, for fear of losing them, and to go to a lottery office in the Hay-market, and with the one of twenty pounds to purchase “an eight guinea chance:” from thence he was to go to the corner of Bridge-street, Westminster, to buy another out of the forty pound note, and wait at the door of the Parliament-street coffee-house till he came to him. With these notes Samuel bought each of the chances, and was on his way to the Parliament-street coffee-house when, from the opposite side of the way, he was hailed by Mr. Brank, who complimented him on his speed, and said he had been so quick, that he, Brank, had not had time to get to the coffee-house. He was then interrogated, if he had made the purchases, and, replying in the affirmative, was again commended for his diligence: Brank also inquired, if any mistake had happened; and all this with a deal of coughing, imbecility of speech, and feigned accent.
When Samuel received the notes, he received as many canvass bags as he was ordered to buy shares, and to put each distinct share, and the balance of each note, into a separate bag, for fear, as Brank said, the chance of one office might be confused with the chance of another, and Samuel be thereby puzzled to know where he had bought the different chances; and by such confusion, or forgetfulness, it might not be recollected where to apply in case of a fortunate number.
Mr. Brank having secured the chances and balances, ordered Samuel to go to Goodluck’s at Charing-cross, from thence to King-street, Covent-garden, and York-street, Covent-garden, and purchase some other small shares and chances, and then meet him at the city coffee-house, Cheapside. To these places the young man went, and having bought his numbers and changed his notes, as he was going along York-street, his master called to him from a coach, pretended he was fortunate in thus seeing him, made Samuel step in, got the produce of the forgery, and away they drove to the city.
In their way thither, Brank applauded his servant’s despatch; gave him more notes, to the amount of four hundred pounds, with instructions to purchase shares and chances, at offices about the Exchange; and directed him, as before, to put the chances and money received at each office in a separate bag. For this purpose Samuel was set down from the coach in Cheapside, and having executed his commissions returned, agreeable to his orders, to the city coffee-house, where he waited a few minutes and then Mr. Brank came hobbling up to him, and took him into a coach, that was waiting hard by. Brank resumed complaints of his health and infirmities, and observed, that the fatigues of business had kept him longer than he expected; but he warned Samuel to be always exceedingly punctual. His reason for urging punctuality was the dread of a discovery, and to prevent consultations, by which he might be detected. On their way to Long-acre, where the coachman was ordered to drive, Brank amused his servant with flattering promises for his attention and fidelity; and at parting put a guinea into his hand, and gave him orders to be in waiting, for a few days, at his old master’s in the Strand.
It afterwards appeared, that whenever Samuel went to an office a woman, unobserved by him, always walked in at the same time, and looked about her as if accompanying some one else in the shop; and as soon as Samuel had done his business she also walked away. This woman was Mrs. Pounteney, the aunt of Price’s wife, described in the advertisement and hand-bill issued by the bank. She constantly accompanied Price in a coach whenever he went out, watched Samuel at every office, as soon as he had safely got out stepped across the way to Price, who was in the coach, informed him of the success, and then Samuel was hailed, and Price secured the property while she kept out of sight; nor did Samuel ever see her during his servitude. During his residence at Titchfield-street, which was but a week, Price always appeared and went out as Brank, accompanied by Mrs. Pounteney. In case of any accidental discovery, she was ready to receive the disguise, so that Brank might be instantly shifted to Price, and Price to Brank, and Samuel thereby be rendered incapable of identifying the man that had employed him.
On the Sunday morning after Price’s last adventure, a coachman inquired for Samuel at his old master’s, by whom the coachman was informed, that though Sam worked he did not lodge there, and that he should not see him till the next morning. The coachman held a parcel in his hand, which he said was for Samuel, and which the master desired him to leave, and he should have it the next day; the coachman replied, he was ordered not to leave it, but to take it back in case he could not see the man, and accordingly went across the way with it; there the master saw the elderly gentleman, with whom he had conversed on Samuel’s character a few days before, to whom the coachman delivered the parcel. Samuel’s master saw this old gentleman get into a coach; but in a minute the coachman returned and left the parcel, which contained notes to the amount of three hundred pounds, with a letter directing Samuel to buy, on the next morning, a sixteenth, an eight guinea chance, and a whole ticket, to repeat his purchases as before, till the whole were changed, and to meet his master, Mr. Brank, at Mill’s coffee-house, Gerrard-street, Soho, at twelve o’clock the next day. Samuel duly executed these orders, but, on inquiry at the coffee-house, he found no such person as Mr. Brank had been there; in a few minutes, however, as he was standing at the coffee-house door, a coachman summoned him to Mr. Brank, who was waiting in a coach at the corner of Macclesfield-street. He desired Samuel to come in, and made him sit on the left hand, as before described, and having received the tickets, shares, and balances, ordered him to bid the coachman drive towards Hampstead. On the way, he gave Samuel three sixteenths as a reward for his diligence, and talked much of his ward, who, he said, would be in town in a day or two, when he would speak highly of Samuel’s industry. He discoursed on these subjects till they reached Mother Black-cap’s at Kentish-town, and then Samuel received orders to bid the coachman turn round; and, on their way back, Samuel had notes for five hundred pounds given to him, with directions to lay them out in the same manner about the ’Change, and meet his master at the same place in the evening, where he said he should dine; but, for reasons easily imagined, Samuel was ordered not to make his purchases at the offices he had been to before.
Samuel, having performed this task also, went to the coffee-house, where a porter accosted him, and conducted him to his master in a coach as usual. He was now blamed for his delay, and an appearance of anger assumed, with a declaration, that he would not do if not punctual, for that the nobleman was very particular in time, even to a minute. Samuel apologized, and Brank received the cash and shares, and ordered him to go to the New Inn Westminster-bridge and hire a post-chaise to carry them to Greenwich to meet the nobleman’s steward, who was also his banker, to whom he was going for money to purchase more tickets; observing, at the same time, on the imprudence and prodigality of his ward.
At Greenwich, Samuel was desired to go to the Ship and order a dinner, while Brank was engaged, as he pretended, in negociating his business; he instructed him not to wait longer than three o’clock, but go to dinner at that time, if he, Brank, did not return. It was not till half past four that Brank came hobbling, coughing, and seemingly quite out of breath with fatigue. They then drank tea together, and afterwards returned in the chaise to Lombard-street, where it was discharged. There Sam received more notes to the amount of 350l., which he got rid of in the usual way; and at the city coffee-house was again fortunate enough to meet his master before he got to the door. Brank ordered him to attend the next evening at his lodgings, which he accordingly did, and afterwards at three or four other times, in the course of which attendance he negociated 500l. more of the forged notes.
We now arrive at the close of Samuel’s services. In negociating the last sum he had received, he went to Brooksbank’s and Ruddle’s, where he was interrogated as to whom he lived with; Samuel said he was servant to a very rich nobleman’s guardian, that he was at board-wages, and gave his address to his old master, the musical instrument-maker. Having delivered Brank the cash, &c. in the usual way, he was told, that perhaps he might not be wanted again for a week, and that he might wait till sent for. Before the expiration of that time, however, Samuel was apprehended, and taken to Bow-street, where he was examined by the magistrates and gentlemen from the bank; and telling his artless tale, which was not believed, he was committed to Tothillfields-bridewell, on suspicion of forgery.
The surprise of the poor lad on his apprehension, his horror on being confined in a prison, and his dread of being executed as a forger of counterfeit bank-notes, were only equalled by the astonishment of the directors of the bank and the magistrates, at the sagacity of the manufacturer, who had hitherto evaded every possibility of detection. Nor did they appear at all persuaded of Sam’s innocence, though his story was, in part, confirmed by his former master, the musical instrument-maker. The forged note he had passed at Brooksbank’s and Ruddle’s, where he had been interrogated, was the means of his apprehension. In a day or two it was paid into the bank, traced back to Brooksbank’s and Ruddle’s office, and, immediate application being made to Bow-street, the lad was taken into custody.
Samuel’s examinations were frequent and long, and in the end the following scheme was laid to secure the fabricator. Samuel having been ordered by Brank to stay till he was sent for, an inferior officer of Bow-street was stationed at the musical instrument-maker’s in the Strand, where Samuel worked, in case Brank should call in the mean time. After the lapse of a few days, Price sent Samuel a message to meet him the next day at Mill’s coffee-house, exactly at eleven o’clock. This was communicated to Mr. Bond, a clerk at Bow-street office, who ordered Samuel to comply, but not to go till five minutes past the time. The above inferior officer attended at a distance, disguised as a porter, with a knot on his shoulder, and Bond, dressed as a “lady,” followed at a small distance. When Samuel arrived at the coffee-house he found that a real porter had that instant been there and inquired for him, and could have been hardly got out of the door. This information Samuel directly communicated to the “lady,” (Bond of Bow-street,) and Samuel was sent back to wait; but Brank, in a hackney-coach hard by, had discovered the momentary conversation between Samuel and the disguised officers, and took immediate flight. An instant rush was made at Titchfield-street, but in vain; Blank had not been there since Samuel and he had left it together, and the police were entirely at fault. The advertisements were again issued, and hand-bills were showered around to no purpose. Poor Samuel, however, having tolerably established his innocence, was, after suffering eleven months’ imprisonment, discharged with a present of twenty pounds.
In the ensuing lottery, Price played the same artful game with notes of higher value; those of 20l. and 40l. were grown too suspicious, another lad had been taken into custody, another rush made, and Price was missed again by a moment.
Price’s next scheme was an advertisement for a person in the linen drapery business; and with notes of from 50l. to 100l. two young men, his agents, purchased linen drapery at different shops. They were detected by having passed an 100l. note to Mr. Wollerton, a linen-draper in Oxford-street, who recovered the whole of his property through Bond the officer, by whom it was seized at No. 3, on the Terrace, in Tottenham-court-road.
To follow Price through all his proceedings would be impossible: in November 1782, Mr. Spilsbury of Soho-square, the proprietor of some medicinal “drops,” received a card bearing the name of Wilmott, which had been left by a person who had called at his house in his absence. The next evening the following note was delivered at Mr. Spilsbury’s.
“Mr. Wilmott’s complits to Mr. Spilsbur. wishes to converse with him 10 minutes. having an Order for His drops, at half past five o’clock this evening.
“No. 17, Gresse-street, Rathbone-place.”
At the time mentioned in the note Mr. Spilsbury went to Gresse-street, where he was shown into a parlour by a foot-boy, and waited until Mr. Wilmott made his appearance. He appeared to be a very infirm old man, in a great coat and a slouched hat, with a piece of red flannel round the lower part of his face, a large bush-wig on, and his legs wrapped over with flannel; he wore green spectacles, and a green silk shade hanging from his hat, but no patch on his eye: this was Price. He and Mr. Spilsbury had frequently met at Percy-street coffee-house, Rathbone-place, and often conversed together; but on this occasion Mr. Spilsbury had no idea or recollection of his old acquaintance. As soon as Price entered the parlour, he observed on his own dress; and said he had exceedingly suffered from the drawing of a tooth by an unskilful dentist, and wore the flannel on his face in order to avoid catching cold. He then familiarly conversed with Mr. Spilsbury, extolled the merits of his “drops,” recounted great cures which he knew they had performed, styled himself a dealer in diamonds, and dismissed Mr. Spilsbury with the promise of an order in a few days. It was evidently postponed to strengthen Mr. Spilsbury’s opinion of him, but at last it arrived in the following note:—
“Mr. Wilmott’s compliments to Mr. Spilsbur, desires he will put up twelve bottles of drops at 3s. 6d. against Friday three o’clock. the boy will call and pay for them. also, Mr. Spilsbur will send a copy or form of an Advertisement—and attestation, leaving a blank for the names. the case was—the man was violently broke out in legs, body and face, and he actually had no other physic than two of the bottles. and it is really astonishing how much He is recovered.—when Mr. Wilmott comes to town to-morrow week He will send the voucher authenticated by 6 people of consequence.
“Gresse-street, No. 17.”
The boy did not call on the Friday mentioned; but on the Friday week he brought a letter, in which Mr. Wilmott desired Mr. Spilsbury to send two guineas’ worth of the drops, and change for a 10l. bank-note, and to be particular in sending guineas of good weight. The bank-note appeared to be a new one, change was got in the neighbourhood, and the drops sent; and the next note Mr. Spilsbury received was from Sir Sampson Wright, desiring his attendance at Bow-street, where, to his astonishment, he was informed of the forgery. He related the preceding particulars to the magistrate, and produced the two letters. The officers paid an immediate visit to Gresse-street, but old Mr. Wilmott had previously departed.
Not long after this, Mr. Spilsbury met his acquaintance, Mr. Price, at the Percy-street coffee-house; and there, drinking his chocolate, and talking over the occurrences of the day, Mr. Spilsbury told the foregoing story to his coffee-house acquaintance, while Price every now and then called out “Lack a day! Good God! who could conceive such knavery could exist! What, and did the bank refuse payment, sir?” “O yes,” said Mr. Spilsbury, with some degree of acrimony; “though it is on the faith of the bank of England that I and a great many others have taken them, and they are so inimitably executed, that the nicest judges cannot detect them.” “Good God!” said Price, “he must have been an ingenious villain!—What a complete old scoundrel!”
It is related, that when the celebrated artist William Wynn Ryland was to be executed for forging an East-india bond, Price intreated the use of a dining-room window in Oxford-street, at the house of a gentleman whom he had defrauded in the same manner he had done Mr. Spilsbury; and Price was present when Ryland passed to Tyburn, and on that occasion pointed to Ryland, saying “There goes one of the most ingenious men in the world, but as wicked as he is ingenious—he is the identical man who has done all the mischief in the character of Patch: he deserves his fate, and he would confess the fact, if he was not in hopes of a respite; which he would have obtained, perhaps, had not the directors been certain that it was charity to the public to let him suffer.”
Mention has already been made of the fraud practised by Price on Mr. R. of Knightsbridge. One in a family was not enough for him, and Mr. R’s brother, who lived in Oxford-street, experienced the effect of Price’s ingenuity in crime. Price had been often there, and bought a variety of things, and was perfectly well known in his real person, and by his proper name. One day, however, a hackney-coach carried him thither disguised as an old man, and in that character he made some purchases. In a day or two he repeated his visit, and on a third day, when he knew Mr. R. was from home, he went again with his face so coloured that he seemed in a deep jaundice. The shopman, to whom he was full of complaints, told him that he had a receipt for that disorder, which had cured his father of it, and offered him the prescription. Price accepted it, and promised that if it succeeded he would liberally reward him. In a few days, he again appeared before the shopman perfectly freed from the complaint, and acknowledging his great obligations to him, said he had but a short time to live in the world, and having very few relations to leave any thing to, he begged his acceptance of a 50l. bank-note, at the same time, he said, he wanted cash for another. Mr. R. not being in the way, the grateful shopman stepped out, and got change for it. The next day Price having watched Mr. R’s going out, prevailed on the lad to take five other 50l. notes to his master’s banker, and there get them changed for smaller ones. Price’s notes soon got to the bank, and of course were stopped. They were traced to Mr. R’s. His lad was interrogated, and as Mr. R. positively refused to pay the 250l. to his bankers, they brought an action against him, which was tried in the court of common pleas, before Lord Loughborough, and the bankers obtained a verdict. The most extraordinary circumstances pending the suit were, that Mr. R. communicated the story to Price, who offered him all the assistance in his power, and became a principal agent in the defence. He was, of all others, the most active in procuring witnesses for Mr. R., and actually attended the trial, without the least suspicion, on the part of any individual concerned, that he was the perpetrator of the mischief.
It is an extraordinary and almost incredible fact, that during a period of six years, five of which had elapsed after the remarkable advertisement issued at the instance of the bank in December 1780, Price committed depredations of this nature on the public with impunity. The deceptions by which he circulated his forged notes through so long a period, were as varied as the nature of each new circumstance required. At last he turned another species of forgery, equally artful, and, for a time, equally successful. He went to the coffee-houses near the Royal Exchange in a new disguise, and there was accustomed to get a boy to take a sum of 10l. to the bank, with directions to receive from the teller the customary ticket to the cashier who pays; but the lad had his especial orders not to go to the cashier for the money, as the teller is accustomed to direct, but as soon as the boy was out of the teller’s sight he was to turn another way, and bring the ticket to Price at the coffee-house. There Price used to alter the teller’s tickets from 10l. to 100l. by adding an 0, or by placing a 1 before any other sum where the addition was easy, so as to make 50 into 150, &c., and then send the tickets by other hands to the cashiers, who paid the increased sums unsuspectedly.
This scheme was his last. One of the notes he had received at the bank, on a forged ticket, he had passed at Mr. Aldous’s, a pawn-broker in Berwick-street, where he was known by the name of Powel, and went two or three times a week to pledge things of value. An officer was placed at Mr. Aldous’s till his next call, which was the next day but one, when he was secured and carried to Bow-street. His behaviour there was exceedingly insolent. Mr. Bond, who, when Price kept a lottery-office in King-street, Covent-garden, was clerk at Bow-street, had visited him on account of some money due to Sir John Fielding’s maid servant, gained by insuring with Price, which he had refused to pay her; but when informed by Mr. Bond who her master was, he waited on Sir John, and satisfied her claim. He now taxed Mr. Bond, who had been made a magistrate, with prejudice against him on account of the insurance affair, and complained that he should not have justice done him. He also urged against Mr. Abraham Newland, esq., principal cashier of the bank, that he could expect nothing from him but every possible injury, on account of some former antipathy that gentleman had conceived towards him; and he imputed desire of revenge to every individual whose duty it was to render him amenable to justice.
When under examination, the chief magistrate, Sir Sampson Wright, suddenly called out “Sam;” the young man immediately answered, and at the same moment appeared before his old master, who started as at a ghost; but, recollecting himself, made a polite bow to his former servant, with a view either to awaken his sympathy, or to hint at what he might expect if he disclaimed him. Samuel, however, could only swear to his voice, for he had not the least idea of his person or features. Price was committed to Tothillfields-bridewell, where he turned his thoughts to the destruction of the implements. Well knowing that nothing could be extracted from Mrs. Price, or any of his family, to affect him, he had declared, when under examination, that he lived with them at a cheesemonger’s in the neighbourhood of Tottenham-court-road; and he was equally secure that nothing could be found there to afford the least suspicion of his being the forger described under the character of Patch. His next step was to obtain an interview with Mrs. Price and his eldest son, a youth about fifteen years of age. To his wife’s great surprise, he communicated to her the secret of his lodgings, and the circumstances respecting her aunt. He wrote a letter to Mrs. Pounteney, informing her of his situation, and desiring her instantly to destroy every atom of the apparatus, clothes, &c.; he tore up the inner sole of his son’s shoe, and putting the letter under, it passed safe.
When Mrs. Pounteney received the letter, she burnt every article of clothes in which Price had disguised himself, and sent for a carpenter, to whom he had never been visible, to take down the wood frame, presses, and other instruments with which Price had made his paper, and printed off his notes. While the maid was gone for the carpenter, her mistress put the copper-plates into the fire, and, rendering them pliable, reduced them to small pieces. These, with a large bundle of small wires, used in the manufacture of the paper and water-marks, she desired Price’s son to take to the adjacent fields, and there distribute them beneath the dust heaps; and the pieces lay there till, by a stratagem, they were discovered and brought to Bow-street. The carpenter took down the apparatus, and being paid and despatched, every thing was brought down and reduced to ashes.
Throughout Price’s examinations, his assurance was the most remarkable feature in his conduct; but the audacity by which he sought to baffle his accusers was so reckless, as to disclose a circumstance which largely added to the grounds for believing him to be the criminal who had so long eluded justice. From the extreme art he had adopted to effectually disguise his person, while committing his enormous frauds, there was no connected proof of his identity. Long before his apprehension, he had hazarded experiments to discover whether his disguises were effectual. He would go to the coffee-houses about the ’Change, where he was thoroughly well known as Mr. Price, and in his real character inquire for Mr. Norton, write a letter, and leave it at the bar. In ten minutes he would return as Mr. Norton, receive the letter, and drink his coffee. While in Tothillfields-bridewell, a boy who had more than once taken cash for him to the tellers at the bank, together with the boy’s mother, who had also seen him, were conveyed to the prison to view him. The boy could not at all identify him: the mother was more positive, but still the proof was deemed scarcely sufficient to convict him. He had pledged things of value several times, under the name of Powel, with Mr. Aldous. Mrs. Pounteney had done the same in the character of Mrs. Powel. They had talked of each other, and each of them had at different times pledged the same article; yet Price on his examination denied the least knowledge of her; impudently threatened to bring actions for false imprisonment; and ridiculing the officers for not finding a ten pound note in his fob, under his watch, when he was searched, he heedlessly produced it—this identical note was one of the notes delivered by the cashier upon a teller’s ticket which Price had forged!
Price had been brought up three times for the purpose of being viewed, and his sagacity perceived the impossibility of his escaping the hand of justice. He told the keeper he had been “betrayed,” but this was not the fact. Meditating to avoid a public execution, he informed his son that the people of the prison came into his room sooner than he wished; and that he had something secret to write, which they might get at by suddenly coming upon him, which he wished to prevent. On this pretence he gave his son money to purchase two gimblets and a sixpenny cord, pointing out to him how he would fasten the gimblets in the post, and tie the cord across the door, which opened inwards. The poor youth obtained the implements, and Price having fastened the gimblets under two hat screws, was discovered hanging in his room, without coat or shoes, on the 25th of January, 1786.
Under his waistcoat were found three papers. One was a petition to the king, praying protection for his wife and eight children; all of whom, he said, had never offended; and stating, that he had written a pamphlet with a view to prevent a war between the crowns of England and Denmark, and to rescue the character of queen Matilda from the aspersions of the queen dowager’s party. The second was a letter of thanks to Mr. Fenwick, the keeper of the prison, for his indulgence and favours. The third was a letter to his wife, wherein he begged her forgiveness for the injuries he had done her, and intreated her attention to their offspring. In these papers, written with his dying hand, the guilty man solemnly denied every thing laid to his charge!
Immediately upon Price’s self-destruction, his unhappy wife, who had been innocent of his iniquities, was urged to discover the woman with whom he had been connected. She was assured, that though the verdict of a coroner’s inquest must be formally complied with, yet, if she rendered this act of justice to the country, his remains might afterwards receive christian burial. Her son was present and added his intreaties that she would tell, or suffer him to tell, who and where the woman was; the feelings of the widow and the mother prevailed, and she communicated the residence of her depraved aunt, who, on being taken into custody, disclosed several of the circumstances attending the destruction and concealment of the presses and implements. What remained of them were destroyed by the police, and she was delivered out of custody to the punishment of her own thoughts. It was afterwards ascertained, on a second search, that she had not discovered all the machinery. The frame with which Price had made his paper was produced to her, and she was asked what it was: “It is an instrument,” she said, “I use for mangling.” An answer which may be taken as evidence, that notwithstanding the example of Price might have taught her the folly of wickedness, and though she herself had escaped by the sufferance of extreme mercy, her mind was still disposed to evil.
Price was buried in the cross-roads, but, in about a week, his body was privately removed by night.
These particulars of Price are more numerous, and the account of him is more diffuse, than might be expected in connection with the lottery; but as he was too remarkable to have been omitted among its incidents, so his criminal career was too flagitious and notorious to be lightly passed over when he was mentioned at all.
Price’s lottery-office, in King-street, Covent-garden, was the house now (in 1826) occupied by Mr. Setchell, the bookseller. On part of the wall where Mr. Setchell’s shutters are placed, there are remains of Price’s lottery-bills still visible.
Lottery Suicide and Heartbreaking.
The “Gentleman’s Magazine” of 1787 inserts what is called “a copy of a paper left by the unhappy young gentleman who lately shot himself with two pistols in Queen-street, Westminster,” wherein he execrates “the head that planned, and the heart that executed, the baneful, destructive plan of a Lottery.”
The same year, in a debate in the house of commons on a bill then passing to prevent insurance, Mr. Francis said his own family furnished a striking instance of the dreadful effects of a passion for this ruinous practice. He had given, at different times, to a female servant sums of money to the amount of two hundred pounds, to discharge tradesmen’s bills; and, to his great surprise, he found afterwards that, regardless of his character, or her own, she had risked the entire sum in insuring in the lottery, and had lost it. He would have been glad had the loss of money been the only one, for he would have taken it upon himself; but the poor woman lost her life within a week after this discovery had been made, dying broken-hearted and distracted.
Sharing a Prize.
In the Lottery of 1788 a guinea share of a ticket drawn a 20,000l. prize had been duly registered by Shergold and Co. who sold it, and acquainted the holder by letter that it entitled him to 1500l. This lucky man, who lived in the country, attended his club the same evening, and imparted the good news he had received. His joy, however, was considerably damped by a person present, who assured him that he never would be paid—that his prize was not worth a groat, and that he himself knew one who at the beginning of the lottery had a half guinea share a prize of 20,000l. and was entitled to 700l., but was glad to compromise it for 50l. After reciting a variety of circumstances to the same effect, and cunningly working up alarm to the highest pitch, he at length told the owner of the prize, that he knew some of the proprietors in Shergold’s house, and he believed he might be able to get some money where another could get none; he would therefore venture to give 100l. for the prize. This proposal being rejected, he advanced to 200l. from thence to 300l. and at last to 600l., which was accepted. He accordingly paid the money to the unfortunate fortunate adventurer, got possession of the prize, and immediately set off for London, and received the 1500l. without difficulty. Several eminent lawyers, on considering the misrepresentations used in this transaction, were of opinion, that it was what is termed a catching bargain, and advised the owner, who was cozened out of 900l., to apply to equity for relief.[480] He seems to have been afraid of the remedy; for, though he took counsel’s opinion, it does not appear that he followed it into chancery.
At the Haymarket theatre, in 1791, a comedy, called the “School for Arrogance,” was produced with a prologue spoken in the character of a news-hawker, with the Lottery as one of the topics of intelligence.
After sounding, and calling “Great News!” without; he enters with a postman’s horn, newspapers, cap and livery.
Great news! here’s money lent on bond, rare news!
By honest, tender-hearted, christian jews!
Here are promotions, dividends, rewards,
A list of bankrupts, and of new made lords.
Here the debates at length are, for the week;
And here the deaf and dumb are taught to speak.
Here Hazard, Goodluck, Shergold, and a band
Of gen’rous gentlemen, whose hearts expand
With honour, rectitude, and public spirit,
Equal in high desert, with equal merit,
Divide their tickets into shares and quarters;
And here’s a servant-maid found hanging in her garters!
Here! here’s the fifty thousand, sold at ev’ry shop!
And here’s the “Newgate Calendar”—and drop.
Rare news! strange news! extraordinary news!
Who would not give three halfpence to peruse?
Shergolds seem to have persisted in a course of attempts to evade the law, by a peculiar mode of dividing and insuring tickets; but in Michaelmas term, 1791, the question was argued in the court of King’s-bench on a special verdict, whether the sellers of their receipts were liable to be apprehended and committed as vagrants under the Lottery act, and the court determined, that they were vagrants within the true intent of the act.
Insuring.
In February, 1793, the commissioners of the Lottery, in order to abate insuring, determined that no persons should be suffered to take down numbers, except the clerks of licensed offices known to the commissioners: no slips were to be sent out; but the numbers were to be taken down by one clerk in one book; Steel’s list of lottery numbers was to be abolished, and a recompence made for it; and the magistrates resolved to apprehend all suspicious persons who should be seen taking early numbers.[481]
Yet, in 1796, we find “a class of sharpers, who take Lottery Insurances,” and that this gambling, among the higher and middling ranks, was carried on to an extent exceeding all credibility, producing consequences to many private families, of great worth and respectability, of the most distressing nature.—Mr. Colquhoun represents them as “a class, in general, of very depraved or distressed characters, who keep unlicensed insurance offices, during the drawing of the English and Irish Lotteries;” many of whom, during the intervals of such lotteries, had recently invented and set up private lotteries, or wheels, called little goes, containing blanks and prizes, which were drawn for the purpose of establishing a ground for insurance, and producing incalculable mischiefs, inasmuch as the rage and mania were so rooted, from habit and a spirit of gaming, that no domestic pressure, and no consideration, connected either with the frauds that were practised, or the number of chances against them, would operate as a check upon the minds of the infatuated. The criminal agents felt no want of customers. The houses and offices were not only extremely numerous all over the metropolis, but in general high rented, exhibiting the appearance of considerable expense, and barricadoed in such a manner with iron doors and other contrivances as, in many instances, to defy the arm of the law. A considerable portion of their emoluments was traced to have been derived from menial servants in general; but particularly the male and female domestics in the houses of men of fashion and fortune, who were said, almost without a single exception, to be in the constant habit of insuring in the English and Irish Lotteries.
Such persons, with a spirit of gambling rendered more ardent than prevails in common life, from the example of their superiors, and from their idle and dissipated habits, entered keenly into the Lottery business; and when ill luck attended them were often led, step by step, to that point where they lost sight of moral principle, and were impelled, by desire of regaining what they had lost, to sell or pawn the property of their masters, whenever it could be pilfered so as to elude detection; and this species of peculation sometimes terminated in more atrocious crimes.
The insurance offices in the metropolis exceeded four hundred in number. To many of them persons were attached, called Morocco Men, who went from house to house among their customers, or attended in the back parlours of public-houses, where they were met by them to make insurances.
It was calculated, that at these offices (exclusive of what was done at the licensed offices) insurances were made to the extent of eight hundred thousand pounds, in premiums during the Irish Lottery, and above one million during the English; upon which it was calculated that they made from fifteen to twenty-five per cent. profit. This confederacy, during the English Lottery of the year 1796, supported about 2000 agents and clerks, and nearly 7500 Morocco men, including a considerable number of ruffians and bludgeon men, paid by a general association of the principal proprietors of the establishments, who regularly met in committee, in a well-known public-house in Oxford-market, twice or thrice a week, during the drawing of the lottery, for the purpose of concerting measures to defeat the exertions of the magistrates, by forcibly resisting or bribing the officers of justice.
The Lottery was declared to be inseparable from illegal insurances, by the parliamentary reports of 1807; and they further state, that “the Lottery is so radically vicious, that under no system of regulations which can be devised will it be possible for parliament to adopt it as an efficient source of revenue, and at the same time divest it of all the evils and calamities of which it has hitherto been so baneful a source.” Among these evils and calamities, the committees of parliament enumerate that “idleness, dissipation, and poverty, were increased,—the most sacred and confidential trusts were betrayed—domestic comfort was destroyed—madness was often created—suicide itself was produced—and crimes subjecting the perpetrators of them to death were committed.”
Little Goes.
These were little Lotteries on the same plan as the great State Lotteries, and drawn in the same manner. There were generally five or six “little goes” in the year, and they were actually set up and conducted by two or three of the licensed lottery-office keepers. The State Lottery was the parent of these “little goes.” Persons who had not patience to wait till another State Lottery gambled during the vacations in a “little go.” A “little go” was never heard of during the State Lotteries.[482]
The Great Go.
Sir Nathaniel Conant, who in 1816 was chief magistrate of the police establishment at Bow-street, stated in that year to a committee of the house of commons, that the Lottery was one of the predisposing causes by which the people of the metropolis were vitiated; that it led to theft, to supply losses and disappointments, occasioned by speculating on its chances; and that illegal insurances continued to be effected:—“there are,” he says, “people in the back ground who having got 40, or 50,000l. by that, employ people of the lowest order, and give them a commission for what they bring; there is a wheel within a wheel.” Another magistrate, giving evidence before the same committee, said, “it is a scandal to the government thus to excite people to practice the vice of gaming, for the purpose of drawing a revenue from their ruin: it is an anomalous proceeding by law to declare gambling infamous, to hunt out petty gamblers in their recesses, and cast them into prison, and by law also to set up the giant gambling of the State Lottery, and encourage persons to resort to it by the most captivating devices which ingenuity, uncontrolled by moral rectitude, can invent.”[483]
Conclusion.
Incredible efforts were made in the summer of 1826 to keep the “last lottery” on its legs. The price of tickets was arbitrarily raised, to induce a belief that they were in great demand at the very moment when their sale was notoriously at a stand; and the lagging attention of the public of the metropolis was endeavoured to be quickened, by all sorts of stratagems, to the 18th of July, as the very last chance that would occur in England of gaining “Six 30,000l. besides other Capitals,” which it was positively affirmed were “all to be drawn” on that fatal day. Besides the dispersion of innumerable bills, and the aspersions on government relative to the approaching extinction of the Lottery, the parties interested in its preservation caused London and its environs to be paraded by the following
Procession.
1. Three men in liveries, scarlet and gold.
2. Six men bearing boards at their backs and on their breasts, with inscriptions in blue and gold, “All Lotteries end Tuesday next, six 30,000l.”
3. Band of trumpets, clarionets, horns, &c.
4. A large purple silk banner carried by six men, inscribed in large gold letters “All Lotteries end for ever on Tuesday next, six 30,000l.”
5. A painted carriage, representing the Lottery wheel, drawn by two dappled grey horses, tandem fashion; the fore horse rode by a postillion in scarlet and gold, with a black velvet cap, and a boy seated in a dickey behind the machine, turning the handle and setting the wheel in motion.
6. Six men with other Lottery labels.
7. A square Lottery carriage, surmounted by a gilt imperial crown; the carriage covered by labels, with “All Lotteries end on Tuesday next;” drawn by two horses, tandem, and a postillion.
8. Six men with labels.
9. Twelve men in blue and gold, with boards or poles with “Lotteries end for ever on Tuesday next.”
10. A large purple silk flag, with “all Lotteries end on Tuesday next.”
This procession with its music drew the heads of the servant maids from the windows in every suburb of the metropolis, and was followed by troops of boys, till they tired on its frequency. It sometimes stopped, and a man with a bell cried “O yes!” and “God save the king!” and, between the two, proclaimed, in set words, the “death of the Lottery on Tuesday next!” The event was likewise announced as certain in all the newspapers, and by cart-loads of bills showered down areas, and thrust under knockers; when, behold, “the Lords of the Treasury were pleased to order” the final drawing to be postponed to Thursday the 18th of October; but all the good people so informed were wisely uninformed, that this “order” was obtained by the lottery-office folks, to give them a long day to get rid of their unsold tickets.
After this, the streets were cavalcaded by men, whose bodies were concealed between long boards on each side of their horses (as represented in the [engraving] on [page 1407]) to announce the next “last of the Lottery on the 18th of October” aforesaid; and men on foot walked with labels on their breasts and backs, with the same never-dying intelligence, according to the further figure in the [engraving] of the lottery wheel (on [page 1439],) which cut, it may be here observed, represents one of the government wheels, and the sledge it was drawn upon from Somerset-house to Coopers’-hall, at the commencement of the drawing of every Lottery; on which occasion there were four horses to each wheel, and about a dozen horse-guards to protect the instruments of Miss-Fortune.
But the most pageant-like machine was an octagon frame work, covered by printed Lottery placards (as exhibited in the [engraving] on [page 1405]) with a single horse, and a driver, and a guard-like seat at the back. When drawn along the streets, as it was at a most funereal pace, it overtopped the sills of the first-floor windows. Its slow motion, and the route it chiefly took, evidenced the low hopes of the proprietors. St. Giles’s and the purlieus of that neighbourhood seem to have been selected as the favoured spots from whence favours were mostly to be expected. An opportunity offered to sketch it, while it was pelted with mud and stones, and torn and disfigured by the unappreciating offspring of the sons of fortune whose regards it courted. The artist’s letter describes the scene: “As I was walking up Holborn on Monday the 9th instant, I saw a strange vehicle moving slowly on, and when I came up to it, found a machine, perhaps from twenty to thirty feet high, of an octagon shape, covered all over with Lottery papers of various colours. It had a broad brass band round the bottom, and moved on a pivot; it had a very imposing effect. The driver and the horse seemed as dull as though they were attending a solemn funeral, whilst the different shopkeepers came to the doors and laughed; some of the people passing and repassing read the bills that were pasted on it, as if they had never read one before, others stationed themselves to look at it as long as it was in sight. It entered Monmouth-street, that den of filth and rags, where so great a number of young urchins gathered together in a few minutes as to be astonishing. There being an empty chair behind, one of them seated himself in it, and rode backwards; another said, “let’s have a stone through it,” and a third cried “let’s sludge it.” This was no sooner proposed than they threw stones, oyster shells, and dirt, and burst several of the sheets; this attack brought the driver from his seat, and he was obliged to walk by the side of his machine up this foul street, which his show canvassed, halting now and then to threaten the boys, who still followed and threw. I made a sketch, and left the scene. It was not an every-day occurrence, and I accompany it with these remarks.”
This was the fag-end of the last struggle of the speculators on public credulity for popularity to their “last, dying Lottery.”
At last, on Wednesday the 18th of October, 1826, the State Lottery expired, and its decease was announced in the newspapers of the next day by the following article:—
State Lottery.
Yesterday afternoon, at about half past six o’clock, that old servant of the state, the Lottery, breathed its last, having for a long period of years, ever since the days of queen Anne, contributed largely towards the public revenue of the country. This event took place at Coopers’-hall, Basinghall-street; and such was the anxiety on the part of the public to witness the last drawing of the Lottery, that great numbers of persons were attracted to the spot, independently of those who had an interest in the proceedings. The gallery of Coopers’-hall was crowded to excess long before the period fixed for the drawing, (five o’clock,) and the utmost anxiety was felt by those who had shares in the Lottery for the arrival of the appointed hour. The annihilation of Lotteries, it will be recollected, was determined on in the session of parliament before last; and thus a source of revenue bringing into the treasury the sums of 250,000l. and 300,000l. per annum will be dried up. This determination on the part of the legislature is hailed by far the greatest portion of the public with joy, as it will put an end to a system which many believe to have fostered and encouraged the late speculations, the effects of which have been and are still severely felt. A deficiency in the public revenue to the extent of 250,000l. annually, will, however, be the consequence of the annihilation of Lotteries, and it must remain for those who have strenuously supported the putting a stop to Lotteries to provide for the deficiency.
Although that which ended yesterday was the last, if we are informed correctly, the lottery-office keepers have been left with a great number of tickets remaining on their hands—a pretty strong proof that the public in general have now no relish for these schemes.
The concourse of persons in Basinghall-street was very great; indeed the street was almost impassable, and everybody seemed desirous of ascertaining the fortunate numbers. In the gallery the greatest interest was excited, as the various prizes were drawn from the wheel; and as soon as a number-ticket was drawn from the number-wheel every one looked with anxiety to his share, in order to ascertain if Fortune smiled on him. Only one instance occurred where a prize was drawn and a number held by any individual present. The fortunate person was a little man, who, no sooner had learned that his number was a grand prize, then he buttoned up his coat and coolly walked off without uttering a word. As the drawing proceeded, disappointment began to succeed the hopes indulged by those who were present. On their entrance to the hall every face wore a cheerful appearance; but on the termination of the drawing a strong contrast was exhibited, and the features of each were strongly marked with dissatisfaction.
The drawing commenced shortly after five o’clock, and ended at twenty minutes past six.
The doors of the various Lottery-offices were also surrounded by persons awaiting the issue of the drawing.
Lottery Puffs.
It is not possible to go into the Literature of the Lottery without occupying more room than can be spared, but young readers and posterity may be amused and surprised by some figures, from among many hundreds of wood-cuts on the bills of schemes, and invitations to buy.
“T. BISH, 4 Cornhill, and 9 Charing-cross, London, and by all his agents in the country,” put forth the following.
Kitchen Maid.
Mistress Molly, the Cook,
At the Scheme only look,
In wealth we may both of us roll,
If we brush for a Prize
In the world we may rise,
And our skuttles have plenty of cole.
Cook Maid.
If what you say is true,
I am all in a stew,
Lest we miss what we so much desire;
Should we lose this good plan,
For a sup in the pan,
All the fat will be soon in the fire!
Except the verses which were placed in the bill beneath the preceding [cut], it contained nothing but an announcement of the day when the Lottery was to draw, and the number of capital prizes, subjoined by this information, “Tickets and shares are selling by T. Bish;” who seems to have imagined he could propitiate the “kitchen maid” and “cook maid” in his behalf, as a lottery-office keeper, by exhibiting a tea-kettle and fire implements to personify the one, and certain culinary utensils to personify the other.
“Delightful cut to rear the tender mind”
from the basement to the capital story.
Run, Neighbours, run, the Lottery’s expiring,
When Fortune’s merry wheel, it will never turn more;
She now supplies all Numbers, you’re desiring,
All Prizes, No Blanks, and Twenty Thousands Four.
Haste, Neighbours, haste, the Chance will never come again,
When, without pain, for little Cash—you’ll all be rich;
Prizes a plenty of—and such a certain source of gain,
That young and old, and all the world, it must bewitch.
Then run, neighbours, run, &c.
This versified address and the [engraving] are from another bill. The verses may be presumed as sung by the footman, to excite his fellows of the party-coloured cloth to speculate in the never-enough-to-be-sufficiently-magnified-number of chances in favour of their gaining “Four of £20,000, and—Thirty other Capitals! No Blanks!—All in One Day!” Yet if the words, adapted from a popular duet, were regarded as an easy vehicle to effect that benevolent purpose, they could only be so to those who, with the contractors, forgot, or perhaps, with them, did not know, that the original tells of
“a day of jubilee cajolery.”
Surely this must have been a “word of fear” to all except the contractors themselves, who alone would be the gainers by what the body of adventurers hazarded in the “grand scheme” of “cajolery.”
One of the bills of a former Lottery begins as follows:—
BISH
The Last Man.
In reminding his best friends, the public, that the State Lottery will be drawn this day, 3d May, Bish acquaints them that it is the very last but one that will ever take place in this kingdom, and he is THE LAST CONTRACTOR whose name will appear singly before the public, as the very last will be a coalition of all the usual contractors. Bish, being “the last man” who appears singly, has been particularly anxious to make an excellent scheme, and flatters himself the one he has the honour to submit must meet universal approbation.
At the back of this bill are the following verses, derived from the “cajolery” duet:—
TO-DAY! OR NOT AT ALL
Run, Neighbours, Run!
Run, neighbours, run! To-day it is the Lott’ry draws,
You still may be in time if your purse be low;
Rhino we all know will stop, of poverty, the flaws,
Possess’d of that you’ll find no one to serve you slow:
The ministers in parliament of Lotteries have toll’d the knell,
And have declar’d from Coopers’-hall dame Fortune soon they will expel.
The blue-coat boys no more will shout that they have drawn a capital!
Nor run, as tho’ their necks they’d break, to Lucky Bish the news to tell.
Run, neighbours, run! &c.
Run, neighbours, run! this is you know the third of May,
’Tis the day dame Fortune doth her levee hold;
In the scheme, as you may see, are rang’d along in proud array,
Of one and twenty thousands six, in notes or gold!
A sov’reign cure e’en one of these would be for a consumption, sir,
If such disease your pocket has, so if you’ve any gumption, sir,
You’ll lose no time, but haste away, and buy a share or ticket, sir,
For who can tell but this may be the very hour to nick it, sir?
Run, neighbours, run! &c.
Run, neighbours, run! the times they say are not the best,
And cash ’tis own’d is falling short with high and low;
Bankers retire now, while Notaries have little rest,
And what may happen next no one pretends to know.
Dame Fortune (on whom thousands drew) is going now to shut up shop,
So if you’d cash a draft on her, make haste for soon her bank will stop;
This very day her wheel goes round, when thousands with her gifts she’ll cheer,
For those who can her smiles obtain may gaily laugh throughout the year.
Run, neighbours, run! &c.
“Bish,” as the contractor is pleased to call himself, who, after he was “the last man,” dilated into a member of parliament, employed the greatest number of Lottery-laureates of any office keeper of his time; and he and the schemes wherein he engaged were lauded, in prose as well as verse, by his “ready writers.” One of their productions says:—
JOHN BULL’s
Wonder
At monsieur Nong-tong-paw’s ubiquity could not be greater than the astonishment of a French gentleman, who popped into BISH’s office the other day to inquire after the capitals.—“You vill be so good to tell me de nombre of de capital you tiré—you draw yesterday?”—“Why, sir, there were....”—“Restez un peu, stay a littel moment.—You will tell me de capital more big dan two hundred pounds.”—“Why, sir, there were four drawn above 200l.: there was No. 7849 30,000l.”—“Ah! ma foi! dat is good dat is de grande chose. Vel, and by whom was it sel?”—“Bish sold it, sir.” “Bish, ha, ha! von lucky dog! vel, allons!”—“There was No. 602, 1000l., sir.”—“Ah, indeed! vel, who was sel dat?”—“Bish, sir.”—“Eh, ma foi! Bish encore? Vel.”—“There was No. 2032, 300l.”—“And who was sel?”—“Bish, sir.”—“Eh, mon dieu! ’tis very grand fortune. Now den de last, and who vas sel dat?”—“Why, sir, the last was No. 6275, 300l., also sold by Bish.”—“Eh, de diable! ’tis von chose impossible, Bish sell all de four?”—“Yes, sir, and in a former lottery he sold all the three thirty thousands.”—“Den he is von golden philosopher. I vill buy, I vill—let me see. Yes, I vill buy your shop.”—His ambition was at last, however, contented with three tickets; so that he has three chances of gaining the two thirty thousands yet in the wheel; and we have no doubt Bish will have the good luck of selling them.
“Bish” is the subject of versified praise, in another bill.
How to be Happy.
Let misers hug their worship’d hoards,
And lock their chests with care;
Whilst we enjoy what life affords,
With spirits light as air.
For our days shall haily gaily be,
Prizes in store before us,
We’ll spend our ev’nings merrily.
And BISH we’ll toast in chorus.
Let lovers droop for sparkling eyes,
And heave the tender sigh:
Whilst we embrace the glittering prize,
And meagre care defy.
For our days shall haily gaily be,
Plenty in store before us;
Our cash we’ll jingle merrily,
And BISH we’ll toast in chorus.
Let glory call the sons of war
To dare the crimson’d field;
Sweet Fortune’s charms are brighter far,
Her golden arms we’ll wield.
Then our days will haily gaily be,
Riches in store before us;
We’ll dance through life most merrily,
And BISH we’ll toast in chorus.
“Bish” on another occasion steps in with:—
PERMIT ME TO ASK
Have you seen the scheme of the present Lottery?
Do you know that it contains More Prizes than Blanks?
Have you heard how very cheap the tickets are?
Are you aware, that Lotteries are about to be discontinued, the chancellor of the exchequer having said that the Lottery bill, introduced last session of parliament, should be the last?
I need not direct you to Bish’s, as being the luckiest offices in the kingdom, &c.
“Bish” adventured in the “City Lottery,” a scheme devised for getting rid of the houses in Picket-street, Temple-bar, and Skinner-street, Snow-hill; and on that occasion he favoured the world with the following:—
Freeholds and Fortunes.
By Peter Pun.
Tune.—“Drops of Brandy.”
Dame Fortune is full of her tricks,
And blind, as her portraits reveal, sir;
Then the best way the goddess to fix,
Is by putting a spoke in her wheel, sir:
Her favours the Lott’ry unfolds,
Then the summons to BISH don’t scorn sir;
For, as her cornucopia he holds,
He’s the lad for exalting your horn, sir.
Rum ti iddity, &c.
With poverty who would be known,
And live upon orts in a garret, sir,
Who could get a good house of his own,
And fatten on roast beef and claret, sir!
In the city scheme this you’ll obtain,
At Bish’s, where all folks pell-mell come,
By a ticket a free-hold you’ll gain,
And it cannot be more free than welcome.
Rum ti iddity, &c.
This house, when you once realize it,
Upholders will look sharp as lynxes,
For an order to Egyptianize it,
With catacomb fal lals and sphynxes;
Chairs and tables, a mummy-like crew,
With crocodile grooms of the stole, sir,
Sarcophagus coal-skuttles too,
And at Bish’s you’ll fill them with cole, sir.
Rum ti iddity, &c.
For when you’re thus furnish’d in state,
And a pretty establishment got, sir,
Ten to one but it pops in your pate,
You’ll want sticks to be boiling the pot, sir;
Then to Bish’s away for supplies,
For mopusses they are so plenty,
You may choose a ten thousand pound prize,
And if you don’t like it a twenty.
Rum ti iddity, &c.
Then Bish for my money, I say,
The like of him never was known, sir;
As Brulgruddery says in the play,
“That man’s the philosopher’s stone, sir.”
Then what shall we do for this man,
Who makes all your fortunes so handy?
Buy his tickets as fast as you can,
And drink him in drops of brandy.
Rum ti iddity, &c.
“Bish” seems to have deemed “the Philosopher’s stone,” which never existed but in silly imaginations, to be a proper device for drawing customers. It is repeated in
PADDY’S PURSUIT,
A NEW SONG.
From the county of Cork in dear Ireland I came,
To England’s swate Island a fortune to gain;
Where I heard that the strates were all paved with gold,
And the hedges grew Guineas! so Paddy was told!
I jump’d on dry land to my neck up in water,
Which to some spalpeens gave subject for laughter;
But, says I, with a grin, as I dragg’d myself out,
“I’m not come to England to be food for a trout.”
Fal de ral, de ral lal, O whack!
Then to London I came, that monstracious city,
Where the lads dress so gay, and the ladies look pratty;
But, Och! blood-and-ouns! only mark my surprise,
When only great stones in the strates met my eyes!
No Guineas at all on the bushes there grew;
Not a word that they told me, I found, sirs, was true:
“Och! why wa’n’t I drown’d, and made food for the fish!”
Thus I growled, ’till I lighted on one Master Bish.
Fal de ral, &c.
Master Bish had found out the Philosopher’s stone,
And a Thousand yellow Guineas he gave me for One!
Thus Fortune to Pat was monstraciously kind,
Tho’ no gold on the bushes or strates I could find!
Then honeys attend, and pursue my advice;
Och! to 9, Charing-cross, be off in a trice;
Buy a Lottery Chance, for the Drawing Day’s near,
And perhaps, like friend Paddy, a Fortune you’ll clear.
Fal de ral, &c.
“Bish” we find again attempting to attract, with the following:—
THE
PHILOSOPHER’S STONE.
———————————— That stone,
Philosophers in vain so long have sought,
Says Milton, would not prove more valuable to its possessor than an absolute knowledge of certain numbers which lie hidden in the Wheel of Fortune till Fate declares to the enraptured ears of the adventurer, who has founded his hopes of success on them, their union with certain large sums of money, viz. Twenty, Ten, or Five Thousand Pounds; for there are many such sums yet in the wheel, yet to be determined, yet to be gained by hazarding a mere trifle.
He, who life’s sea successfully would sail,
Must often throw a sprat to catch a whale.
Apply this proverb then; think, ere too late,
What fortune, honour, and what wealth await
The very trifling sum[484] of one pound eight.
“Bish,” of course, imagined, or wished, the public to be amazingly surprised at his popularity, and therefore indulged them with this song:
WHAT’S THE MATTER?
By Quintin Query, Esq.
Tune.—“O Dear, what can the Matter be?”
“O dear, what can the matter be?”
To tell, who can be at a loss?
The people are running by dozens to Bish’s,
To make out their dreams, and fulfil all their wishes,
And try to come in for the loaves and the fishes,
At 4, Cornhill, and 9, Charing-cross.
“O dear, what can the matter be?”
I’ll tell you, good friend, if you wish;
The people are trying dame Fortune to cozen,
And the old women’s tongues are eternally buzzing,
About lucky numbers, 19 to the dozen,
And all they can talk of is Bish.
“O dear, what can the matter be?”
I dare say you’re dying to know;
The horns blow about, be it rainy or sunny,
The walls they are cover’d with bills all so funny,
To shew you the way how to finger the money,
And you all know that “makes the mare go.”
“O dear, what can the matter be?”
The bellman he rings such a peal?
To tell those whose fortunes are rusted with rickets,
To call at good luck’s (that is, Bish’s) two wickets,
And a transfer obtain for 500 Whole Tickets;
How conceited they’d make a man feel!
“O dear, what can the matter be?”
For joy you’ll be dancing a jig;
For good luck most folks are delighted to choose a day,
And a lucky day surely must be a good news day,
Then the day of all days is the very next Tuesday;
Then, Misfortune’s black Monday a fig!
“Bish,” on another occasion, treated the “gentle public,” like so many children, with another optical delusion.
FORTUNE’S GALANTY SHOW.
Tune.—“GALANTY SHOW.”
O pretty show, O raree show, O finey galanty show, O pretty galanty show!
Chaunt.
Come, all my merry customers, of high, middling, and low degree,
Look in at one of these little glasses, and you shall see what you shall see;
My fine galanty show you great wonders shall view in,
You shall see the high road to Fortune, and that’s better than the road to Ruin.
O pretty show, O raree show, O finey galanty show, O pretty galanty show!
There you see the New Lott’ry Scheme, such as never was plann’d before!
Fewer Tickets, and fewer Blanks, and yet the Prizes are more;
And besides the usual 5’s, 10’s, and 20 Thousands (Peep thro’ one of these wickets,)
You shall see such a Prize as was never yet known, neither more nor less than 1000 whole Tickets!
O pretty show, &c.
And there you shall see, (Look a little to the right) Mr. BISH’s Shop on Cornhill:
(Now a little to the left) And there’s his other Shop at Charing-cross, where buy Shares if you will;
You’ll get a part of the 1000 whole Tickets, I’ll be bound,
And that’s very much like getting a part of more than a Hundred Thousand Pounds!
O pretty show, &c.
Then look straight forward, and there you see Coopers’ Hall, (Isn’t it a fine building?) there the Tickets they draw;
And there you see the pretty little Blue-coat Boys, and nicer little fellows you never saw;
There you’ll see ’em pulling the Numbers and Prizes out of the very Grand Wheels
And when one has a Ticket in the Lottery, and sees such a sight, how narvous one feels!
O pretty show, &c.
And there—(Rub the glass a little cleaner) there’s a sight I’d not have you miss fora pound,
The little Boy draws out a Number (Let me see what Number you have got) aye, that’s it, I’ll be bound;
There don’t the Clerk (On the left hand) look exactly as if he was calling it, don’t you see how he cries?
And the other little Boy draws, and the other Clerk looks as if he bawl’d out a £20,000 Prize.
O pretty show, &c.
There you see (’tis no Dream of Castles in the Air, called Utopia)
There you see Fortune pouring the Guineas out of—what the deuce is it? a great long hard name—Oh! her Cornucopia!
That’s a fine Golden Horn, that holds all the Prizes, I declare,
And to get its Contents would be a pretty Horn Fair!
O pretty show, &c.
“Bish” was pleased to devise the scheme of a Lottery to be drawn on St. Swithin’s day, wherein wine was added to the prizes, and therefore, and because its novelty was deemed alluring, we find one of his bills beginning with an apostrophising and prophetic couplet:—
Hail, famed St. Swithin! who, with pow’r benign,
Instead of rain pour showers of gold and wine!
Another in the same Lottery, beneath a wood-cut of a bunch of grapes, breaks out:—
On the 15th of July what a golden supply
Of wine given gratis by BISH,
If you can get but a share, you’ll have plenty to spare,
And can treat all your friends as you wish.
“Bish,” on the same occasion, throws the “leer of invitation,” with
TRY IN TIME.
Och! Judy, my jewel, come here when I call;
We may now get wine gratis, for nothing at all;
And gold like paratees pil’d up in a heap,
Which is offer’d us too, honey, almost as cheap.
But there’s no time to lose if we’re meaning to try,
For ’tis all in one day, on the 15th July.
And since the grand scheme is beyond all compare,
He’s a spalpeen who won’t buy a fortunate share.
“Bish,” in another bill, oddly enough, put an old, one-legged smoker, with a patch over one eye, a carbuncled nose, and his only foot flannelled up for the gout, the effects of drinking, in an arm chair, with the following lines below:—
“Laid up in Port.”
Od’s blood! what a time for a seaman to skulk,
Like a lazy land-lubber ashore;
If I’m laid up at all, I’ll be laid up in port,
And surrounded by prizes galore.
Tommy Bish shall fill my glass,
And the puppies, as they pass,
Sha’n’t run down the old commodore,
The rich old commodore, the cosey old commodore,
The boozing old commodore he;
While I’m friends with mighty Bish,
He will crown my ev’ry wish,
Tho’ I’ll never more be fit for sea.
Then also, “Bish” favoured his “friends” with the opportunity of singing,
Bacchus and Plutus, or the Union.
Tune.—“Derry Down.”
A ROW was kick’d up in the regions above,
For Plutus and Bacchus for precedence strove;
And in words such as these did their anger express,
Till Jove swore he’d kick them both out of the mess.
Derry down.
First Bacchus advanc’d, tho’ he scarcely could stand,
Determin’d, he swore, to have the whip hand;
And thus he began.—“Why, you sordid old elf,
All your thoughts are employ’d in the scraping of pelf.
“Can gold, I would ask, e’er enliven the soul
Like the juice of the grape, or a full flowing bowl?
Can the glittering bauble such pleasure impart,
Or make the blood circle so warm round the heart?
“That gold is an evil, there’s many will say,
As my vot’ries oft find when the reck’ning’s to pay;
Had gold ne’er existed, the true jolly fellow
For ever might tipple, and always get mellow.
“I swear by old Styx!—that this truth it will stand:”
But the wine in his noddle usurp’d the command,—
A knock-’em-down argument Bacchus soon found,
For quickly he measur’d his length on the ground.
“As Bacchus is down,” then says Plutus, “I’ll rise;”
And this speech he address’d to the knobs of the skies:—
“That gold is a blessing, I’m sure I can prove:
The soother of cares, and cementer of love!
“You know the old proverb, of poverty, sure,
’Tis something about—‘when she enters the door,
That love, through the window, soon toddles away;’
But if there were gold, I’m sure that he’d stay.
“I’ll own that my bounties are sometimes misus’d:
But pray why should I, sirs, for that be abus’d?”
Here Jove stopp’d him short, and with positive air,
Insisted that they should their quarrel forbear.
“Your claims I admit, sir, and Bacchus’ too;
But a plan to unite you, I now have in view;
You know Tommy Bish?”—“To be sure!” exclaim all,
“’Tis on him, that dame Fortune her bounty lets fall!”
“Well,—a Lottery he’s plann’d, with an union rare,
Where money and wine each come in for a share;
There are three thirty thousands to gratify you;
And the twelve pipes of wine, sirs, for Bacchus will do.”
Says Bacchus to Plutus—“Then give us your hand,
I’ll tipple his wine, till no more I can stand;
And as Jove has inform’d us there’s money enough,
Why you, Mister Plutus, can finger the stuff.
“Besides, I have heard, or my memory’s fail’d,
How greatly last Lott’ry his luck has prevail’d;
The three twenty thousands, he sold (the rum fish!)
Then let us be off, and buy tickets of BISH!”
Derry down.
“Bish,” who in the former bill had subjoined, in plain prose, that “lotteries must end for ever,” likewise issued the following—
Duties on wines.
The minister in reducing the duty, so that wines may be sold at one shilling per bottle cheaper, has done much to increase the spirits of the people; at the same time he has adopted another measure that will in a few months DESTROY THE FREE TRADE of every person in the kingdom to obtain for a small sum a great fortune in a few weeks, by having determined to abolish Lotteries, which must soon end for ever; therefore, the present is one of the last opportunities to buy, &c.
“Bish,” according to the old plan, “ever ready to serve his friends,” issued
THE AMBULATOR’S GUIDE
to the Land of Plenty.
By purchasing a TICKET,
In the present Lottery,
You may reap a golden harvest in Cornhill, and pick up the bullion in Silver-street; have an interest in Bank-buildings; possess a Mansion-house in Golden-square, and an estate like a Little Britain; pour red wine down Gutter-lane; never be in Hungerford-market; but all your life continue a May-fair.
By purchasing a HALF,
You need never be confined within London-wall, but become the proprietor of many a Long-acre; represent a Borough, or an Aldermanbury; and have a snug share in Threadneedle-street.
By purchasing a QUARTER,
Your affairs need never be in Crooked-lane, nor your legs in Fetter-lane; you may avoid Paper-buildings; steer clear of the King’s-bench, and defy the Marshalsea; if your heart is in Love-lane, you may soon get into Sweetings-alley, obtain your lover’s consent for Matrimony-place, and always live in a High-street.
By purchasing an EIGHTH,
You may ensure plenty of provision for Swallow-street; finger the Cole in Coleman-street; and may never be troubled with Chancery-lane; you may cast anchor in Cable-street; set up business in a Fore-street, or a Noble-street; and need never be confined within a Narrow-wall.
By purchasing a SIXTEENTH,
You may live frugal in Cheapside; get merry in Liquorpond-street; soak your hide in Leather-lane; be a wet sole in Shoe-lane; turn maltster in Beer-lane, or hammer away in Smithfield.
In short, life must indeed be a Long-lane, if it’s without a turning. Therefore if you are wise, without Mincing the matter, be Fleet and go Pall-mall to Cornhill or Charing-cross, and enroll your name in the Temple of Fortune, BISH’s.
Lottery for Women in India.
Advertisement.
“BE IT KNOWN, that Six Fair Pretty Young Ladies, with two sweet and engaging young children, lately Imported from Europe, having roses of health blooming on their cheeks, and joy sparkling in their eyes, possessing amiable manners, and highly accomplished, whom the most indifferent cannot behold without expressions of rapture, are to be RAFFLED FOR next door to the British gallery. Scheme: twelve tickets, at twelve rupees each; the highest of the three throws, doubtless, takes the most fascinating, &c.”[485]
The four engravings on this page, with the lines beneath them, are from other Lottery bills.
“Throw Physic to the Dogs,” for me
The best composing draught’s a Fee;
For sinking Chest, low pulse, or cold,
There’s no Specific equals Gold.
“My Dancing Days are over!”
Though the lotteries soon will be over, I’m told,
That now is the time to get pailsful of gold;
And if there is any real truth in a dream,
I myself shall come in for a share of the cream.
We hail, ere the Sun, the first breath of the morn,
And ’tis said “early birds get the best of the corn,”
Of the Four Twenty Thousands perhaps fortune may
Have in store one for me, as they’re drawn in One Day!
For the gay fruits of nature what wish can you feel,
When compar’d with the fruits of the lottery wheel;
My basket of fruit I’d exchange with great glee,
If one golden pippin they’d only give me.
“Bish, contractor for another Lottery,” during the proceedings in parliament respecting the queen, availed himself of a celebrated answer by one of the witnesses at the bar of the house of lords, and issued the following:—
NON MI RICORDO!
OR,
A few Questions on a new Subject.
QUESTION.
Good Signor, if your memory serves,
A question I would ask or two;
Then pray may I the favour beg,
That you will answer, if I do?
ANSWER.
Non mi ricordo, I can’t say,
Whether my mem’ry serves or no;
But let me hear them first, I pray;
What I remember you shall know.
QUESTION.
Since Lotteries in this realm began,
And many good ones there have been,
Do you suppose the oldest man,
So good a Scheme at this has seen?
ANSWER.
Non mi ricordo, surely no;
Comparisons are idle tales,
For such a Lottery Scheme as this,
I must confess my memory fails.
QUESTION.
Now what peculiar features, pray,
Distinguish this from all the rest?
And why do all the people say,
“Unquestionably this is best?”
ANSWER.
Non mi ricordo, ’tis in vain
For me its merits now to say;
To tell them all ’twould take, ’tis plain,
From now until the Drawing Day.
QUESTION.
Its merits I will gladly own,
But folks will questions ask, and pray
If your opinion is requir’d,
Just tell me, sir, what you would say?
ANSWER.
Non mi ricordo: read the Scheme,
One word will answer all your wish
’Tis BISH’s plan, ’tis BISH’s theme,
It must be good, ’tis plann’d by BISH.
“Bish,” in the [annexed], puffs at Queen Anne’s prize of “5000 pounds,” as “so small.” This may be imagined to have been asserted under poetical licence; for, in fact, 5000l. in those days was almost equal to the largest prize in modern Lotteries.
THE
Bonne Bouche of Lotteries.
Tune.—“Moderation and alteration.”
In the reign of Queen Anne, when first Lott’ries were invented,
With very few Prizes Advent’rers were contented;
The largest of which, (so small were Fortune’s bounds,)
“Paid in faire Plate,” was but 5000 Pounds.
Moderation! Moderation!
O, what a wonderful Moderation!
Soon 5000l. was deem’d but a small Bait,
And 10,000 then was the Great Prize of State:
Twenty follow’d soon after, then Thirty—bold push!
And at last 40,000 was made the Bonne Bouche!
Alteration! Alteration! &c.
Now the Lott’ry Contractors a New Plan pursue,
All former outdoings resolv’d to outdo;
And have struck out a Plan to increase Public Gain,
By which, One Hundred Thousand Pounds you may obtain.
Temptation! Temptation! &c.
If two Numbers are drawn in a specifi’d way,
1000 Whole Tickets the Holders repay;
And a 1000 Whole Tickets a Chance may reveal,
Of all the Great Prizes contain’d in the Wheel.
Admiration! Admiration! &c.
O, what a subject for Admiration!
Now if you could get them, and ’twouldn’t be strange,
For the rest of your life, how your fortune would change!
A Coach, a Town-House, and a Country-House, too!
Leading Man in the County!—O, wou’dn’t that do?
Fascination! Fascination! &c.
Then of Loans, and such fat things, such slices you’d gain!
Then a Member of Parliament’s Seat you’d obtain!
Next Knighthood—then Baronet—and in a short space,
A Peerage—“My Lord!” and at last, “Please your Grace!”
Exaltation! Exaltation! &c.
Such things are quite flattering, and surely such are,
But a Pleasure far greater remains to declare;
Consider, what Power Wealth and Honour procure,
To relieve the Oppress’d, and to succour the Poor.
Exultation! Exultation! &c.
Then with Patriot Ardour your Country to serve,
For Riches are Curses, from[486] these if you swerve;
And all this may be gain’d, if your Fortune you try,
And of BISH, Fortune’s Favorite, a Ticket you buy.
Expectation! Expectation! &c.
“Bish,” whose bills may be taken as a specimen of such kind of Lottery advertisements by whomever issued, will be observed to have constantly addressed them to the lowest minds and the meanest capacities. One more may further exemplify the remark:—
THE AGE OF WONDERS.
Tune.—“Bang up.”
This is a Wonder working age, by all it is agreed on,
And Wonders rise up ev’ry day, for public gaze to feed on;
To sketch a few ’tis my intent, while now I’m in the mind, sir,
And crown them all with one you’ll own, will leave them far behind, sir.
Then push along; for something new, the public taste will dash on:
For Wonders now are all the rage, and novelty’s the fashion.
The juggling Indians show such feats, a lady’s taste ’twould shock it,
They swallow swords, and swallow too the money from our pocket,
A gentle fair, by fear unmov’d, with courage she so fraught is,
On red-hot iron skips a dance, and bathes in aqua-fortis.
Then push along; for something new, the public taste will dash on,
For Wonders now are all the rage, and novelty’s the fashion.
The greatest Wonder yet to tell, which all the world surprizes,
Is BISH’s famous Lottery, and BISH’s wondrous prizes,
Three fifty thousands grace the scheme, which yet remain undrawn, sir,
A wonder which was never known since any man was born, sir.
Then push along, to BISH’s go! of fortune he’s the man, sir,
A vote of thanks, nem. con. we’ll pass for such a noble plan, sir.[487]
“Bish” when, what he called, “The Last Lottery of All!” had arrived, very cavalierly turned round on the government; and, on the eve of becoming a candidate for a seat in the house of commons, paid his compliments to his future colleagues in the following address:—
To the Public.
At the present moment, when so many articles, necessary to the comforts of the poorer classes, are more or less liable to taxation, it may surely be a question, whether the abolition of Lotteries, by which the state was a gainer of nearly half a million per annum, be, or be not, a wise measure!
’Tis true, that, as they were formerly conducted, the system was fraught with some evil. Insurances were allowed upon the fate of numbers through protracted drawings, and as the insurances could be effected for very small sums, those who could ill afford loss, imbibed a spirit for gambling, which the legislature very wisely most effectually prevented, by adopting, in the year 1809, the present improved mode of deciding the whole Lottery in one day.
As it is at present conducted, the Lottery is a voluntary tax, contributed to only by those who can afford it, and collected without trouble or expense; one, by which many branches of the revenue are considerably aided, and by means of which hundreds of persons find employment. The wisdom of those who at this time resign the income produced by it, and add to the number of the unemployed, may, as I have observed in a former address, surely be questioned.
Mr. Pitt, whose ability, in matters of financial arrangement, few will question, and whose morality was proverbial, would not, I am bold to say, have yielded to an outcry against a tax, the continuing of which would have enabled him to let the labourer drink his humble beverage at a reduced price, or the industrious artisan to pursue his occupation by a cheaper light. But we live in other times—in the age of improvement!—To stake patrimonial estates at hazard or écarte in the purlieus of St. James’s is merely amusement, but to purchase a ticket in the Lottery, by means of which a man may gain an estate at a trifling risk, is—immoral! nay, within a few hours of the time I write, were not many of our nobility and senators, some of whom, I dare say, voted against Lotteries, assembled betting thousand upon a horse race?
In saying so much, it may be thought that I am somewhat presumptuous, or that I take a partial view of the case. It is, however, my honest opinion, abstracted from personal considerations, that the measure of abolishing Lotteries is an unwise one, and as such I give it to that public, of whom I have been for many years the highly favoured servant, and for whose patronage, though Lotteries cease, my gratitude will ever continue.
As one of the last contractors, I have assisted in arranging a scheme, &c.! &c.!! &c.!!!
After this, perhaps, the reader may exclaim “I am satisfied!” and therefore, as we have the assurance of Mr. Bish that there will “never be another Lottery” to be lamented, the time has arrived for subjoining the following
Epitaph.
In Memory of
THE STATE LOTTERY,
the last of a long line
whose origin in England commenced
in the year 1569,[488]
which, after a series of tedious complaints,
Expired
on the
18th day of October, 1826.
During a period of 257 years, the family
flourished under the powerful protection
of the
British Parliament;
the minister of the day continuing to
give them his support for the improvement
of the revenue.
As they increased, it was found that their
continuance corrupted the morals,
and encouraged a spirit
of Speculation and Gambling among the
lower classes of the people;
thousands of whom fell victims to their
insinuating and tempting allurements.
Many philanthropic individuals
in the Senate,
at various times for a series of years,
pointed out their baneful influence
without effect,
His Majesty’s Ministers
still affording them their countenance
and protection.
The British Parliament
being at length convinced of their
mischievous tendency,
His Majesty GEORGE IV.,
on the 9th July, 1823,[489]
pronounced sentence of condemnation
on the whole race;
from which time they were almost
neglected by the British Public.
Very great efforts were made by the
Partisans and friends of the family to
excite
the public feeling in favour of the last
of the race, in vain:
It continued to linger out the few
remaining
moments of its existence without attention
or sympathy, and finally terminated
its career unregretted by any
virtuous mind.
W. P.
Interesting Addenda.
A few remarkable facts, which were omitted in the proper order of narration, are now inserted.
Ancient Lottery.
About 1612 king James I., “in special favour for the plantation of English colonies in Virginia, granted a Lottery to be held at the west end of St. Paul’s; whereof one Thomas Sharplys, a taylor of London, had the chief prize, which was four thousand crowns in fair plate.”[490]
A Double Mistake.
Old Baron d’Aguilar, the Islington miser, was requested by a relation to purchase a particular ticket, No. 14,068, in the Lottery to be drawn in the year 1802, (but which was sold some few days before). The baron died on the 16th of March following, and the number was the first-drawn ticket on the 24th, and, as such, entitled to twenty thousand pounds. The baron’s representatives, under these circumstances, therefore published an advertisement, offering a reward of 1000l. to any person who might have found the said ticket, and would deliver it up. Payment was stopped. A wholesale linen-draper, in Cornhill, who had ordered his broker to buy him ten tickets, which he deposited in his chest, on copying the numbers, for the purpose of examining them, made a mistake of one figure, and called it 14,168 instead of 14,068, which was the 20,000l. prize. The lottery being finished, he sent ten tickets to be examined and marked. To his utter astonishment, he then found the error of the number copied on his paper. On his demanding payment at the lottery office, a caveat was entered by old d’Aguilar’s executors; but an explanation taking place, the 20,000l. was immediately paid him.
Christopher Bartholomew.
This person, who inherited a good fortune from his parents, was prosperous in his business, and had every prospect of success and eminence in life, fell a victim to an unconquerable itch for gambling in the Lottery. At one time, the White-conduit-house, with its tea-gardens and other premises, as also the Angel-inn, now the best tavern in Islington, were his freeholds: and he rented land to the amount of 2000l. a year, in the neighbourhood of that place, and Holloway. He was remarkable for having the greatest quantity of haystacks of any grower in the neighbourhood of London. He kept his carriage and servants in livery, and was believed to have been worth 50,000l. He was not only the proprietor, but the landlord of White-conduit-house, to which, by his taste in laying out its grounds, and the manner of conducting his business, he attracted great custom. On one occasion, having been unusually successful in the Lottery, he gave a public breakfast at his tea-gardens, “to commemorate the smiles of Fortune,” as he so expressed himself upon the tickets of admission at this fête champêtre.
At times he was very fortunate in the Lottery, and this tended to increase the mania which hurried him to his ruin. He was known to have spent upwards of 2000 guineas in a day for insurance, to raise which, stack after stack of his immense crops of hay were cut down and hurried to market, as the readiest way to obtain the supplies for these extraordinary outgoings; and at last he was obliged to part with his freehold, from accumulated difficulties and embarrassments, and he passed the remaining thirteen years of his life in great poverty, subsisting by the charity of those who knew him in “better days,” and by the paltry emolument he derived from serving as a juryman in the sheriff’s court for the county. His propensity to the Lottery, even under these degrading difficulties, never forsook him. Meeting one day, in the year 1807, with an old acquaintance, he told him he had a strong presentiment, that if he could purchase a particular number in the ensuing Lottery it would prove successful. His friend, after remonstrating with him on the impropriety of persevering in a practice that had been already attended with such evil consequences, was at last persuaded to advance the money to purchase a sixteenth, and go halves with him in the adventure. It was drawn a prize of 20,000l., and from the proceeds from this extraordinary turn of fortune, he was prevailed upon to purchase an annuity of 60l. per annum. Totally addicted, however, to the pernicious habit of insurance, he disposed of his annuity, and lost every shilling of the money; yet such was the meanness of his mind and circumstances, that he frequently applied to persons who had been served by him in his prosperity, for an old coat, or some other article of cast apparel; and not many days before he died, he begged a few shillings to purchase necessaries.
Bartholomew in intellect and manners was superior to the generality of men, and at one time possessed the esteem of all who knew him. His fate may be a warning to all ranks, particularly to those who are in trade, not to engage in hazardous pursuits. He died in a two pair of stairs room, in Angel-court, Windmill-street, in the Haymarket, in March, 1809, aged 68.[491]
A correspondent refers to Rees’s Cyclopædia as containing a good account of Lotteries, with table of chances relative to their schemes; and he adds, that Dr. Kelly, the well-known calculator, assured him he had ascertained that the chances of obtaining certain prizes were even more against the adventurer than would appear by those tables.
When the tickets were publicly drawn in Guildhall, and the drawing was protracted for several weeks, it was a curious sight for an indifferent spectator to go and behold the visages of the anxious crowd; to mark the hopes and the fears that seemed to agitate them, as their numbers or numbers near to theirs were announced. It is a fact, that poor medical practitioners used constantly to attend in the hall, to be ready to let blood, in cases where the sudden proclaiming of the fate of tickets in the hearing of the holders of them, was found to have an overpowering effect upon their spirits. The late Mr. Dalmahoy, of Ludgate-hill, was accustomed to affirm, that he owed his first establishment in a business which afterwards proved so prosperous, to the gratitude of a person, to whose assistance, when a young man, he had stept in, upon one of those critical emergencies.[492]
Origin of Lotteries.
The historian of “Inventions” says, that if, as some had done, he were to “reckon among the first traces of Lotteries every division of property made by lot, it might be said that Joshua partitioned the promised land into Lottery prizes before it was conquered.” In his opinion, the peculiarity of Lotteries consists in their numbers being distributed gratuitously, or, as in public Lotteries, for a certain price; it being left to chance to determine what numbers were to obtain the prizes, the value of which had been previously settled. He speaks of the “conditions and changes invented by ingenuity to entice people to purchase shares, and to conceal and increase the gain of the undertakers;” and, of the “delusion they occasion to credulous and ignorant people, by exciting hopes that have little probability in their favour.” He deems that the hint of modern Lottery was derived from the Romans. The rich persons at Rome, and particularly the emperors, endeavoured to attach the people by distributing among them presents consisting of eatables and other expensive articles, which were named congiaria. Tokens, or tickets, called tesseræ (in Greek συμζολα,) were generally given out, and the possessors, on presenting them at the store or magazine of the donor, received those things which they announced. In many cases, these tickets were distributed to every person who applied for them, and then these donations resembled our distribution of bread, but not our Lotteries, in which chance must determine the number of those who were to participate in the number of things distributed. In the course of time, the Roman populace was called together, and the articles distributed thrown to them from a stage. Such things were called missilia, and belonged to those who had the good fortune to catch them; but as oil, wine, corn, and such like articles, could not be distributed in this manner, and as other articles were injured by the too great eagerness of the people, tokens or tickets were thrown in their stead. These were square pieces of wood or metal, and sometimes balls of wood, inscribed with the names of the articles. Those who had obtained these tesseræ were allowed to transfer or sell them.[493]
Under “Lottery,” an antiquary refers to the pittacia of Petronius. The Romans issued gratis, to their visitors in the Saturnalia, tickets which were all prizes, and marked with inscriptions called apophoreta. The Lotteries of Augustus were mere bagatelles for sport; Nero’s were very costly; those of Heliogabalus ridiculous; as, a ticket for six slaves, another for six flies, &c. these were handed round in vases.[494]
Imitations, on a reduced scale, of the Roman congiaria have amused the continental princes and princesses of modern times. They distribute small presents to their courtiers, by causing trinkets or toys to be marked with numbers; the numbers being written on separate tickets, which are rolled up and put into a small basket or basin.[495]
In Italy, during the middle ages, the merchants or shop-keepers, in order to sell their wares more speedily and advantageously, converted their shops into offices of luck, where each person, for a small sum, was allowed to draw a number from the jar of fortune, which entitled the holder to the article written upon it; but as these shop-keepers gained excessive profits, and cheated the credulous people, by setting on their wares an extravagant price, which was concealed by the blanks, these practices were prohibited, or permitted only under strict inspection, and on paying a certain sum to the poor, or the sovereign.
From hence was derived the modern Lottery of the continent, when articles of merchandise were no longer employed as prizes, but certain sums of money instead, the amount of which was determined by the amount of money received, after the expenses and gain of the conductors were deducted. In these Lotteries, the tickets were publicly drawn by the charity boys, blindfolded. As they could not be conducted without defrauding the adventurers, it was at first believed, through old-fashioned conscientiousness, that it was unlawful to take advantage of the folly and credulity of the people, except for pious or charitable purposes. The gains were sometimes applied to the portioning of poor young women, the redemption of captives, or the formation of funds for the indigent, and other benificent objects. It was vainly imagined, that these public games of hazard would banish others still more dangerous; nor was it foreseen, that the exposure of tickets for sale, and their division into shares, would maintain and diffuse a spirit of gambling. This, however, was the result, and the profit from Lotteries became so great, that princes and ministers were induced to employ them as operations of finance: the people were forbidden to purchase tickets in foreign Lotteries, and, in order that the tickets of the state might be disposed of sooner, and with more certainty, many rulers were so shameless as to pay part of the salaries of their servants in tickets, and to compel guild companies and societies to expend in Lotteries what money they had saved. In 1764, this abuse was mentioned by the states of Wirtemburg among the public grievances, and in 1770 the duke promised that it should be abolished.
So early as 1521, the council of Osnaburg, in Germany, established a Lottery with wearing articles of merchandise for the prizes. In 1615, the magistrates of Hamburgh sanctioned a Lottery for building a house of correction in that city. An engraving is mentioned with the following title, “Representation of the Loto Publico, which was drawn in the large hall of the council-house at Nuremburg, anno 1715.” This is supposed to have been the first Lottery in that city. The first Lottery at Berlin was drawn in July, 1740; it contained 20,000 tickets at five dollars each; there were 4028 prizes; and the capital one was a house worth 24,000 dollars.
In 1549, a Lottery was drawn at Amsterdam for the building a church steeple; and another at Delft in 1595. In the hospital for old men, at Amsterdam, there is a beautiful painting by Daniel Vinckenbooms, which represents the drawing of a Lottery in the night time. He was born about 1578, and died in 1629.
In France, whither the Lottery was introduced from Italy, it was set on foot by merchants, and the only prizes were articles of merchandise: but, in 1539, Francis I. endeavoured to turn them to his own advantage. He permitted them under the inspection of certain members of the government, with a view, as was pretended, of banishing deceptive and pernicious games of chance; but on condition that he should receive for every ticket a teston de dix sols six deniers. It appears, however, from a royal order of recommendation, in February, 1541, that this Lottery was not then completed, and it is not known whether it ever was.
In 1572 and 1588, Louis de Gonzague duc de Nivernois established a Lottery at Paris, for the purpose of giving marriage portions to poor virtuous young women on his estates. The prize tickets were inscribed Dieu vous a élue, or, Dieu vous console; the former insured to the young woman who drew it 500 francs on her wedding-day; the latter, inscribed on the blanks, suggested the hope of better fortune the year following. No Lottery was ever drawn with so much ceremony and parade. Pope Sextus V. promised those who promoted it the remission of their sins: and, before the drawing, which began every year on Palm Sunday, mass was said.
Ladies of quality were induced by this example to establish similar Lotteries for the building or repairing of churches or convents, and other religious or benevolent purposes. Three ladies set on foot a Lottery with tickets at 40 sous each, for redeeming persons who had fallen into slavery among the Turks. Some other ladies instituted a Lottery in behalf of their confessor, who had been made a bishop, that they might buy him a carriage and horses, with other requisites, to support his episcopal dignity.
French history records the institution of many Lotteries as the means employed to make valuable presents to ladies, and other persons of distinction. It is supposed the largest of the kind was one designed by cardinal Mazarine, to increase his splendour and popularity among the courtiers. The tickets were distributed as presents.[496]
Louis XIV., on the days which were not fast days, went to dine at Marly with madame de Maintenon and other ladies. After dinner, the minister who wished to converse with him arrived, and when his business was finished, if they did not walk, he conversed, listened to music, played at cards, or helped to draw Lotteries, the tickets of which cost nothing, but were all prizes. They were composed of trinkets, jewels, and silks; but there were never any snuff-boxes, because he could not endure snuff, or suffer those who used it to approach him.[497]
In the seventeenth century these games of chance grew into Lotteries, in the proper sense of the word. During a scarcity of money which prevailed in 1644, Lawrence Tonti came from Naples to Paris, and proposed that kind of life-rents, or annuities, which are named after him Tontines; though they were used in Italy long before his time. After tedious disputes, his proposal was rejected; for which, in 1556, he substituted, with the royal approbation, a large Lottery in order to raise funds for building a stone bridge and an aqueduct. This Lottery was never completed, and consequently never drawn; and a wooden bridge was constructed, instead of that which had been burnt. The first Lottery on the plan of Tonti was set on foot at Paris in 1660, when the conclusion of peace, and the marriage of Louis XIV., were celebrated. It was drawn publicly, under the inspection of the police. The price of each ticket was a Louis d’or, which at that time was only eleven livres; and the highest prize was a hundred thousand livres. This was gained by the king himself, but he would not receive it, and left it to the next Lottery, in which he had no ticket. In 1661, all private Lotteries were prohibited under severe penalties, and from that time there were no other Lotteries than the Loteries royales.[498]
The ill-famed Italian or Genoese Lottery in Germany was, as its name shows, an invention of the Genoese, and arose from the mode in which the members of the senate were elected; for when that republic existed in a state of freedom, the names of the eligible candidates were thrown into a vessel called seminario, or, in modern times, into a wheel of fortune; and during the drawings of them it was customary for people to lay bets in regard to those who might be successful. That is to say, one chose the name of two or three nobili, for these only could be elected, and ventured upon them, according to pleasure, a piece of money; while, on the other hand, the opposite party, or the undertaker of the bank, who had the means of forming a pretty accurate conjecture in regard to names that would be drawn, doubled the stakes several times. Afterwards the state itself undertook the bank for these bets, which was attended with so much advantage; and the drawing of the names was performed with great ceremony. The venerabile was exposed, and high mass was celebrated, at which all the candidates were obliged to be present.
A member of the senate, named Benedetto Gentile, is said to have first introduced this Lottery, in the year 1620; and it is added, that the name of Gentile having never been drawn, the people took it into their heads that he, and his names, had been carried away by the devil. But at length, the wheel being taken to pieces in order to be mended, the name, which by some accident had never been drawn was found concealed in it.
This mode of Lottery is presumed to have been peculiar to the Genoese, who, for their own benefit established in many continental towns commissioners, to dispose of tickets, and to pay the prizes to those who had been fortunate.
These pernicious Lotteries continued till the end of the eighteenth century, when they were almost every where abolished and forbidden. To the honour of the Hanoverian government, no Lotto was ever introduced into it, though many foreigners offered large sums for permission to cheat the people in this manner. Those who wish to see the prohibitions issued against the Lotto, after making a great part of the people lazy, indigent, and thievish, may find them in Schlozer’s Staats-Anzeigen,
Si son exécrable mémoire
Parvient à la postérité,
C’est que le crime, aussi bien que la gloire,
Conduit à l’immortalité.[499]
The Last Lottery in England.
Elia says, in the “New Monthly Magazine,”—“The true mental epicure always purchased his ticket early, and postponed inquiry into its fate to the last possible moment, during the whole of which intervening period he had an imaginary twenty thousand locked up in his desk—and was not this well worth all the money? Who would scruple to give twenty pounds interest for even the ideal enjoyment of as many thousands during two or three months? ‘Crede quod habes, et habes,’ and the usufruct of such a capital is surely not dear at such a price. Some years ago, a gentleman in passing along Cheapside saw the figures 1069, of which number he was the sole proprietor, flaming on the window of a Lottery office as a capital prize. Somewhat flurried by this discovery, not less welcome than unexpected, he resolved to walk round St. Paul’s, that he might consider in what way to communicate the happy tidings to his wife and family; out upon repassing the shop, he observed that the number was altered to 10,069; and, upon inquiry, had the mortification to learn that his ticket was blank, and had only been stuck up in the window by a mistake of the clerk. This effectually calmed his agitation; but he always speaks of himself as having once possessed twenty thousand pounds, and maintains that his ten minutes’ walk round St. Paul’s was worth ten times the purchase-money of the ticket. A prize thus obtained has moreover this special advantage;—it is beyond the reach of fate, it cannot be squandered, bankruptcy cannot lay siege to it, friends cannot pull it down, nor enemies blow it up; it bears a charmed life, and none of woman-born can break its integrity, even by the dissipation of a single fraction. Show me the property in these perilous times that is equally compact and impregnable. We can no longer become enriched for a quarter of an hour; we can no longer succeed in such splendid failures; all our chances of making such a miss have vanished with the Last of the Lotteries.
“Life will now become a flat, prosaic routine of matter-of-fact; and sleep itself, erst so prolific of numerical configurations and mysterious stimulants to Lottery adventure, will be disfurnished of its figures and figments. People will cease to harp upon the one lucky number suggested in a dream, and which forms the exception, while they are scrupulously silent upon the ten thousand falsified dreams which constitute the rule. Morpheus will stifle Cocker with a handful of poppies, and our pillows will be no longer haunted by the book of numbers.
“And who, too, shall maintain the art and mystery of puffing in all its pristine glory when the Lottery professors shall have abandoned its cultivation? They were the first, as they will assuredly be the last, who fully developed the resources of that ingenious art; who cajoled and decoyed the most suspicious and wary reader into a perusal of their advertisements, by devices of endless variety and cunning; who baited their lurking schemes with midnight murders, ghost stories, crim-cons, bon-mots, balloons, dreadful catastrophes, and every diversity of joy and sorrow to catch newspaper-gudgeons. Ought not such talents to be encouraged? Verily, the abolitionists have much to answer for!”
Here, at last, ends the notices respecting the Lottery, of which much has been said, because of all depraving institutions it had the largest share in debasing society while it existed: and because, after all, perhaps, the monster is “only scotched, not killed.”
[429] See vol. i. col. 1486.
[430] Morning Herald, Sept. 3, 1817.
[431] Maitland’s London.
[432] Gentleman’s Magazine, 1778.
[433] Stow, in his Annals.
[434] Ibid.
[435] Gentleman’s Magazine, 1798.
[436] Anderson’s History of Commerce.
[437] Malcolm’s Manners.
[438] “Whereas some give out that they could never receive their books after they were drawn in the first lottery, the author declares, and it will be attested, that of seven hundred prizes that were drawn, there were not six remaining Prizes that suffered with his in the fire; for the drawing being on the 10th of May, 1665, the office did then continue open for the delivery of the same (though the contagion much raged) until the latter end of July following; and opened again, to attend the delivery, in April, 1666, whither persons repaired daily for their prizes, and continued open until the fire.”
[439] Gentleman’s Magazine.
[440] Malcolm’s Manners.
[441] Anderson.
[442] Malcolm.
[443] Ibid.
[444] Anderson.
[445] Spectator, No. 191.
[446] Sunday, October 22, 1826.
[447] The Times, November 3, 1826.
[448] Mr. Smeeton in the Examiner.
[449] Malcolm.
[450] Smollett.
[451] Gentleman’s Magazine.
[452] Lounger’s Common Place Book.
[453] Smollett.
[454] Gentleman’s Magazine.
[455] Anderson.
[456] Gentleman’s Magazine, 1731.
[457] Gentleman’s Magazine.
[458] Gentleman’s Magazine, 1739.
[459] The Champion, January 10, 1740.
[460] Gentleman’s Magazine.
[461] Ibid.
[462] Maitland. Gentleman’s Magazine.
[463] Universal Magazine.
[464] Gentleman’s Magazine.
[465] Ibid.
[466] Smollett. Gentleman’s Magazine.
[467] Gentleman’s Magazine.
[468] In the Universal Magazine for December.
[469] Universal Magazine.
[470] Memoir of Holland in Universal Magazine.
[471] Gentleman’s Magazine.
[472] Ibid.
[473] Universal Magazine.
[474] Gentleman’s Magazine.
[475] Ibid.
[476] Ibid.
[477] Ibid.
[478] Anderson.
[479] Universal Magazine.
[480] Town and Country Magazine.
[481] Universal Magazine.
[482] Report of Committee of House of Commons on Lotteries, 1808.
[483] Report of Police Committee of House of Commons 1816.
[484] The price of a Sixteenth in the present Lottery.
[485] Communicated by J. J. A. F. from a Calcutta newspaper of Sept. 3, 1818.
[486] Charity and Patriotism.
[487] This and other of the bills quoted are lent by our correspondent, J. J. A. F. from his Lottery Collections.
[489] The day the royal assent was given to the last Lottery act.
[490] Baker’s Chronicle.
[491] Mr. Nelson’s History of Islington.
[492] A few interesting Anecdotes, &c. 18mo. 1810.
[493] Beckmann.
[494] Fosbroke, Ency. of Antiquities.
[495] Beckmann.
[496] Ibid.
[497] Private Life of Louis XIV.
[498] Beckmann.
[499] Ibid.