Chronicles and characters of the stock exchange

by of the Bank of England John Francis

“First,” said Mr. Sheridan, “they pawned ornaments and superfluities, then their beds, the very clasps of their children’s shoes, the very clothes of the cradle. The pawnbroker grew ashamed of his profession.”

A walk near the spot where the prizes were announced painfully evinced the progress this terrible delusion had made, and the classes to which it had extended.

Hundreds of wretched persons, the refuse of society, the very dregs of the people, might be seen waiting with frightful eagerness until their fate was decided. The courtesan was there, forgetting for a time her avowed pursuit; the man who the night before had committed some great crime; the pale artisan with his attenuated wife; the girl just verging upon womanhood; the maid-servant, who had procured a holiday to watch her fortune; weary forms and haggard faces, mingling with the more robust and ruffianly aspects,—yet all bearing one peculiarity, that of intense anxiety,—marked the purlieus of the place where the lottery was drawn. The oath which shocked the ear, the act which shocked the eye, the scurrilous language of the boy ripe in mature iniquity, the scream of the child dragged from its rest, to mingle in scenes it could not comprehend, formed a pictorial group which Hogarth alone could have given to posterity, as an evidence of civilization in the nineteenth century.

But it has been said, that the mischief was not confined to the poorer classes. Persons of the first consequence entered into insurances for a great amount. Instances are not wanting, in which gentlemen of large landed property, guilty of no other extravagance, lost all their cash, sold their estates, and died in the poor-house.

The “Morocco men,” so called from the red morocco pocketbooks which they carried, were remarkable features in the lottery, half a century ago. They began their lives as pigeons, they closed them as rooks. They had lost their own fortunes in their youth, they lost those of others in their age. Generally educated, and of bland manners, a mixture of the gentleman and the debauchee, they easily penetrated into the society they sought to destroy. They were seen in the deepest alleys of Saint Giles, and were met in the fairest scenes of England. In the old hall of the country gentleman, in the mansion of the city merchant, in the butlery of the rural squire, in the homestead of the farmer, among the reapers as they worked on the hill-side, with the peasant as he rested from his daily toil, addressing all with specious promises, and telling lies like truth, was the morocco man found, treading alike the finest and the foulest scenes of society. They whispered temptation to the innocent; they hinted at fraud to the novice; they lured the youthful; they excited the aged; and no place was so pure, and no spot so degraded, but, for love of 7½ per cent., did the morocco man mark it with his pestilential presence. No valley was so lonely, but what it found some victim; no hill so remote, but what it offered some chance; and so enticing were their manners, that their presence was sought, and their appearance welcomed, with all the eagerness of avarice.

And little were they who dealt with these persons aware of the characters with whom they trafficked. Of bland behaviour, but gross habits, the nature of their influence on the unpolluted minds with which they had to deal may be judged from the fact, that some of the morocco men ended their days at Tyburn; that transportation was the doom of others; and that the pillory was the frequent occupation of many. To such men as these were the morals of the people exposed through the lottery. Nor, if the opinion of a member of the senate can be trusted, was the lottery-office keeper much better. “I know of no class of persons in the country,” said Mr. Littleton, “excepting hangmen and informers, on whom I should be less disposed to bestow one word of commendation.”

The wonder is, not that the public was tempted so much, but that it was seduced so little. Puffing, by the side of which the power of a Mechi and a Moses waxes dim, was employed to assist the contractor. Myriads of advertisements were circulated in the streets. The newspapers, under all forms and phases, contained stories of wonderful prizes. Horns were sounded; huge placards displayed; false and seductive lures held out; houses hired for the sole purpose of displaying bills; falsehoods fresh every day; and fortunes to be had for nothing. Puffs, paragraphs, and papers circulated wherever the ingenuity of man could contrive. The public thoroughfares were blazoned by day and lighted by night with advertisements.

With such a picture of crime as has been presented to the reader, he may not think the quiet satire of Mr. Parnell on the Chancellor unmerited. He said that the following epitaph ought to be placed on his grave:—

“Here lies the Right Honorable Nicholas Vansittart, once Chancellor of the Exchequer, who patronized Bible Societies, built churches, encouraged savings’ banks, and supported lotteries.”

The attention bestowed on the subject, the mass of intelligence collected, the evidence given by competent parties, produced considerable notice, and the report condemned the evil the committee had examined.