The Romans had lotteries, particularly whilst they were under the government of the emperors. The tickets were distributed gratis among those guests who attended their entertainments, and all of them gained some prize. Heliogabalus took pleasure in making the prizes of very disproportionate value. Some of the prizes were ten camels, others ten flies, some ten pounds of gold, ten eggs, and the like. The plays which Nero gave, were concluded by lotteries, consisting of prizes of wheat, wine, stuffs, gold, silver, slaves, ships, houses, and lands.
In England, lotteries certainly took place in the reign of queen Elizabeth. According to Raynal, the two American companies in her reign, were favoured with the first lottery that ever was drawn in her dominions. The first however, of which we have any regular account was drawn in the year 1569. It consisted of 400,000 lots, at ten shillings each; the prizes were plate, and the profits were to go towards repairing the havens of this kingdom. It was drawn at the west door of St. Paul’s Cathedral. The drawing began on the 11th of January, 1569, and continued incessantly, day and night, until the sixth of May, following. There were then only three lottery offices in London. It was at first intended to have been drawn at the house of Mr. Derricke, the queen’s jeweller, but was afterwards drawn as above mentioned.
The proposals for this lottery were published in the years 1567 and 1568. Dr. Rawlinson shewed the Society of Antiquaries in 1748, “A proposal for a very rich lottery, general, without any blanks, containing a great number of good prizes, as well of ready money as of plate and certain sorts of merchandizes, having been valued and prized by the commandment of the queen’s most excellent majesty’s order, to the intent 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 realm, and towards such other public good works. The number of lots shall be 400,000 and no more, and every lot shall be the sum of ten shillings sterling and no more. To be filled by the feast of St. Bartholomew. The shew of prizes are to be seen in Cheapside, at the sign of the Queen’s Arms, the house of Mr. Derricke, goldsmith, servant to the queen.”
In the year 1612, king James 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 tailor of London, had the chief prize, which was 4000 crowns in plate.
Lotteries were revived in the reign of William the third, and as all our evils were then attributed to Dutch counsels, the blame of lotteries, those banes of industry, frugality, and virtue, was ascribed to an imitation of the example of Holland, and a wish in the natives of that country to ruin our morals, as well as to cramp our trade.
In the reign of queen Anne it was thought necessary to suppress lotteries as nuisances to the public. They have, however, been revived of late years, and are now carried forward in a more extensive manner than at any former period.
HERCULANEUM MANUSCRIPTS.
The following account of the ancient rolls of Papyrus, discovered at Herculaneum, and the method employed to unroll them, is extracted from a letter written in 1802, by the Hon. Henry Grey Bennett, addressed to the late Rev. Samuel Henley, D. D.
“The papyrus of the Greeks and Romans was the inside coating of a plant of the same name; which was formerly common in various parts of Sicily; a small river now choaked up near Palermo was called the Papyrus, probably from the number of that species of plant which grew in its bed; the same name was also given to various rivulets in the island. It is however most common in the neighbourhood of Syracuse, where a Sicilian a few years ago established a manufactory of that article, more indeed to gratify the wishes of the curious, than to reap any immediate profit. The texture is not so fine as in the Egyptian or eastern manuscripts, which exist in the libraries of Paris. This may be owing probably to the method of preparation, and not to any difference in the plant.
“The papyri are joined together, and form one roll, on each sheet of which, the characters are painted, standing out in a species of bas relief, and singly to be read with the greatest ease. As there are no stops, a difficulty is found in joining the letters, in making out the words, and in discovering the sense of the phrase. The manuscripts were found in a chamber of an excavated house, in the ancient Herculaneum, to the number of about 1800, a considerable part of which were in a state to be unrolled. That city was buried for the most part under a shower of hot ashes, and the manuscripts were reduced by the heat to a state of tinder, or to speak more properly, resembled paper which has been burnt. Where the baking has not been complete, and where any part of the vegetable juice has remained it is almost impossible to unroll them, the sheets towards the centre, being so closely united. In the others as you approach to the centre, or conclusion, the manuscripts become smoother, and the work proceeds with greater rapidity. A manuscript, by Epicurus, was unrolled in March, 1802, twenty seven sheets of which were taken off, not indeed so well as could have been hoped, but a great part sufficiently intelligible, to judge of the style of the author, and the nature of its contents. It unfortunately fell to the lot of a young beginner, who in his hurry to conclude, spoiled much more than he saved.