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participating in its profits; let us honestly resolve to renounce those professions, and ingenuously appear as we are, without taking credit for virtues of which we possess no more than the theory.

With respect to the nature of the remedy, it might appear only presurnptuous in me to suggest any thing on that head. The obvious mode, however, of suppressing this evil, would be to impose such a duty on spirits, at should operate as a prohibition to their use, except in actual necessity, as was formerly the case when the chemists and apothecaries alone were permitted to sell them as cordials and medicines, which indeed is their only proper and legitimate use; and at the same time either to abolish the duties on the ingredients of which our old English beer is composed, or else to reduce them in such a degree, as that the people may revert to that wholesome and valuable beverage to which they were formerly accustomed. That objections might be found against this or any other mode of meeting such an evil as is deplored, I am well aware. The interested will tell us that no remedy can be adopted; for, like the Ephesian silversmiths of old, their "craft is in danger ;" and the thoughtless and careless of every class will affirm that no remedy is necessary to be adopted. I write however for neither of these objectors, although the reasonable arguments of both are entitled to fair and full consideration. I rather choose to place my foot upon higher ground, and to say with the ancient Roman, "Agitur de Republica." This is no affair of a party or a trade, and I must despair of convincing such persons as will confine their views to any such subordinate and secondary objects. If this vice is destructive to the best interests of society at large, if it inculcates habits of insubordination, instigates to crime, depraves the morals, injures the health, and destroys the peace of the subject, it will be worthy of a wise and humane Government to interpose, and to stand between the living and the dead, and stay the plague.' At all events it will be the duty of an honest Government to desist from receiving the wages of iniquity, and to renounce all further participation in the advantages which are derived from such a political source. Even if the evil must continue, (the necessity for which, however, remains to be proved,) let the Government at least hasten to wash its hands of any share in the destruction and misery of its subjects. I am, Sir, yours, &c.

LAICUS.

On the baneful Effect of Lotteries.

To the EDITOR of THE PHILANTHROPIST.

SIR, THE eye of the stranger in this great metropolis being almost at every turning arrested by brilliant displays of the thousands and tens of thousands of pounds said by each lottery-office to have been distributed therein, pray permit an humble individual who loves

his species, to remark through your valuable miscellany, that it would be greatly serving the cause of humanity, were these baneful and fascinating temptations to crime, so infinitely dangerous to the unin. structed and unreflecting vulgar, substituted by exhibitions equally distinguishable, representing (as far as can be ascertained) the numbers of unha py victims to this demoralizing system of raising money, whom it annually sends to the Hulks, Botany Bay, and the Gallows! as well as the total number of wretched families thereby plunged in all the agonies of the deepest and most irreparable distress.

Such an estimate would be well worth the attention of any virtuous individual possessing the power of contributing in any degree (however small) to suppress so enormous and so dreadful an evil; an evil so pre-eminently subversive of public morals; and so replete with effects at which humanity shudders. I am, Sir, Your most humble servant, OBSERVATOR.

London, 27th May, 1815.

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P. S. It may be observed, most of the ablest writers of the present day admit that the science of political economy is yet in its infancy; all commercial and political writers of reputation have condemned lotteries as impolitic, and highly detrimental to trade. On the other hand, fraudulent insurances' can never be effectually suppressed whilst lotteries exist: they alone constitute the source of a frightful mass of crime :—and how few of the poor deluded creatures are aware that the intrinsic value of a ticket, or share, is not actually worth half its price!

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Mendicity. Remarkable facts, | Schools, Canterbury, 147.

317.

causes and remedies, 328.

Guildford, 363.
Wandsworth, 149.

Westminster, 150.

Secondaries, 98.
Servants. 21.

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ALERE

FLAMMAN:

Printed by Richard and Arthur Taylor, Shoe-Lane.

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