Chap. IV.]

THE LOTTERY SYSTEM.

421

vidual to buy all the tickets in a lottery, his loss would be im-mense ; and, on every principle of calculation, his loss will beproportionate for as many tickets as he may venture to buy.There are other aspects equally striking in which this calculationmight be presented, if my limits did not admonish me, that Ihave already gone quite far enough.

Nor, when viewed as a measure of finance, or as the meansof raising money with which to accomplish any object deemeddesirable, is the lottery system more promising, than when, testedby calculation, it holds out the prospect of enriching individuals.

In the amount specified to be raised by any given lottery, theentire sum actually to be drained from the pockets of the peoplenever appears. It is a striking feature of the system, that all iswrapped in concealment and obscurity. The proposal, for instance,to raise by lottery, $10,000 or $15,000, to be expended inpublic charity, or internal improvements, from the smallness ofthe sum is not supposed to be worthy of serious remonstranceor opposition. As the grant, too, confers only the power tooffer a few tickets for sale, the purchase of which is free fromconstraint, and rests entirely upon the volition of the buyers,there can be, it is thought, no just objection against it. Andwhen the destination of the money is considered, it appears tobe so meritorious on the ground of benevolence or public spirit,that the measure, from meeting at first with acquiescence, ishailed at length with the voice of popular favor.

But it is not taken into the account, that the raising of sotrivial a sum sometimes requires the issuing of schemes ap-proaching to a million of dollars. Two lotteries in the State ofMaine, granted in 1831, left a surplus in the treasury, beyondthe expenses, of no more than $14-21, after having issuedschemes to the amount of $60,000. A lottery was granted bythe Legislature of Massachusetts, in 1812, to the town ofPlymouth, for the purpose of raising $16,000, to be expended incompleting certain repairs in the Plymouth beach. At the endof nine years, it was ascertained, that only $9,876-17 had beenraised for the object, notwithstanding classes had been drawn,amounting in the aggregate to $886,439-75. Again; in 1811,the Legislature of Pennsylvania granted to a company the privi-