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IN SENATE,

April 29, 1833.

ANSWER

Of Henry Yates, A. M'Intyre, and J. B. Yates, to the resolution of the Senate.

To the Honorable the Senate of the State of New-York; The subscribers having received a copy of a resolution from your honorable body, passed the 25th April instant, requiring them to furnish to the Senate, "on or before Monday the 29th instant, a statement showing the number of schemes or classes of a lottery or lotteries drawn within this State, and when and where drawn, by the firm of Yates & M'Intyre, since the 30th August, 1826; showing also the number of tickets contained or purported to be con tained in each scheme, so drawn; the scheme price of the tickets in each class or scheme, and the amount thereof, estimating the tickets therein at their original or scheme price: and also a statement showing the number of tickets sold by them in each of the schemes of any lottery or lotteries drawn within this State, by the said firm, since the 30th August, 1826, and the amount of the same, estimating the tickets sold at their scheme price. That said firm also inform this House what schemes were schemes of mixed land and money prizes, and what the amount of the land prizes in those schemes, respectively; that the statement or returns now required, be made from the books of the firm of Yates & M'Intyre, in which entries of sales as above were originally made, and that said statement or returns be made by the said Henry Yates and the said Archibald M'Intyre, verified by oath,"

RESPECTFULLY REPRESENT:

That they have at various times, when required, made representations to the Legislature, exhibiting their rights as citizens [Senate No. 119.]

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ander the laws of the State, and their contracts with the public. That the law officer of the State, and the different committees appointed, have, on examination, been satisfied of the existence of those rights, and that there had been no violation of the franchise under which the subscribers have acted. A number of printed copies of these statements being still in the hands of the subscribers, they will be furnished to each Senator. In addition to which they further respectfully represent, that the call now made for information is wholly unexpected; because, since 1826 they have acted on an arrangement or contract with the public of an entirely different character from the one previously existing. The classes have been adopted, and the drawings multiplied, more with the view to the exclusion of foreign tickets from the market of this State, than any expectation or hope of profit from the rapidity of drawing. It is well known, and has without hesitation been so stated by the subscribers, that a small portion only of the tickets in each class within this State have been sold; it would therefore, have been very unwise on the part of the subscribers, with the limitation theretofore existing, to have adopted the course they subsequently found it expedient and proper to take.

The attacks made upon the subscribers, and the attempts to invalidate and destroy their contracts, have occasioned many losses, and often proved exceedingly perplexing. They have acted in good faith, and are wholly unconscious of meriting these attacks, and therefore, while they admit that many persons in their opposition have been actuated by correct moral feeling, they cannot fail to ascribe some of the attacks, in part at least, to a demoniacal malignity, which has been laboring for years without a known motive, to do them injury by misrepresentation. In order to be assured of some time of quiet in which they might close their affairs, and collect their dues without the hazard of great losses, they have stipulated on certain conditions to surrender a large portion of the time to which they are legally entitled. This contract ard the bill founded on it, were both drawn up by the AttorneyGeneral, at the request of the chairman of the committee, in the Assembly, to whom the subject was referred; and the subscribers have executed the contract precisely as prepared by that officer and presented to them. To this contract the subscribers refer with confidence as the best evidence of their wishes to aid and surrender so great a portion of their rights as a regard to their safety will allow, in order to terminate the lottery operations as speedily as possible.

The return required by the resolutions, even if attempted to be made, would require a much longer time than is given, or than the present session would allow. But they beg leave to say that such return, if made, could be of no use in establishing the rights of the parties, or accomplishing any object consistent with those rights. It has been repeatedly acknowledged that the number of those classes exceeed the limit of the act of 1822, and have been drawn under the contract with the city of Albany, authorised by the law of 1826. The naked law point is then presented by the question on the validity of the law of 1826, which has been submitted to the Attorney-General, and his opinion, together with his full examination of the whole subject last year, has been before the Legislature a long time. If doubts as to the legality of the conduct of the subscribers existed, they had reason, as citizens confidently resting upon their rights, to believe that proper judicial inquiry by "quo-warranto" would have been instituted, and the vexed question properly settled, rather than a continual and vexatious resort to extra judicial proceedings and ex-parte investigations, which decide nothing.

The subscribers have seen a petition of Palmer Canfield, presented to your honorable body, in which there is great variety of misstatement, most of which they have not time now to answer or notice. There is, however, a charge of such a nature made in one part of his petition, that it is requisite to refute it; which is, unfairness in the permutation lotteries heretofore used on a few occasions by the subscribers in this State.

This charge, so serious in its nature, they will not attempt to refute by any declarations of theirs, but refer to explanations contained in one of the pamphlets, of this mode of forming and drawing, by several disinterested and eminent mathematicians, by which it will be seen that incorrectness or unfairness in that mode of lottery, as well as in the combination plan, is impossible.

Palmer Canfield has also asserted that a distinct grant from any of those under which we have yet acted, called the Fever Hospital grant, had been pledged to the late William James, Esquire, leaving it to be inferred that the subscribers had assumed to relinquish a right with which they had parted; and he asserts further, that the bond to the State for the payment of prizes, required by the law of 1826, had not been given, and thus the condition precedent in that act not having been complied with, the contract was

not complete, and therefore no rights had accrued under it. The subscribers are informed that the necessary proof has been furnished to the chairman of the committee to show the incorrectness of both these allegations.

Desirous not to trouble the Senate with a more detailed examination of their rights, and with a confident reliance that no desire is entertained unnecessarily to violate them, they submit the above answer to the call made by the resolution of the Senate.

New-York, April 27th, 1833,

A. M'INTYRE.

H. YATES,

J. B. YATES,

IN SENATE,

April 29, 1833.

MEMORIAL

On the subject of the public health, by James R. Manley, resident physician.

To the committee of the Senate on the public health :

GENTLEMEN,

As the resident physician of this city, the public have a right to expect that I will from time to time make such communications on the subject of the public health, particularly in relation to epidemic diseases, as may serve to direct the constituted authorities in the choice of the most probable means to arrest them, or to mitigate their severity. Such communications the board of health of this city may claim of me of right, but as the experience of the last year has sufficiently shewn that the right may be waived at will, without assigning a reason, I have thought proper to tender the following papers to you. The responsibility of my offi cial station I trust that I fully appreciate; I am willing to assume it under all circumstances, and certainly cannot consent to acknowledge any measure of obligation to those who, without presenting a motive, would wish to relieve me from any part of its weight.

Our experience of the last summer has been severe beyond all former example, but it must be admitted also, that our instruction has borne no reasonable proportion to the measure of the chastisement; and if, in the judgment of Almighty God, we should be again visited by a like pestilence, it is scarcely too much to fear that our appliances to meet it will be found as inadequate as during the last season.

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