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.*

Spectator, No. 191.

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 for tunate 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 66 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 thein.

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.*

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, 1698, 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 'Changealley."

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

* The Times, November 3, 1826.

have their seal of office with this inscrip tion Meliora Designavi.

In 1688, 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 1008. 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

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 count ing 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 de scribe 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, whos 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 cen tury.*

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; deer was not received on a given day, the seven, a loin, &e. If the full price of 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.t

HARBURGH LOTTERY.

In 1723, the resentment of the house

will probably, tomorrow, in the Banquetting-house, see all the blanks told over,

Mr. Smeeton in the Examiner. + Malcolm,

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 bili 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.*

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 lot"her majesty presented his royal tery highness the duke with ten tickets."+

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 prov

Smollett.

↑ Gentleman's Magazine,

ing 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 goodhumour, and Grace behaves herself, she shall sit down with me. To bed about twelve."*

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 keeperMr. 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.

Lounger's Common Place Book.