Chap. IV.]

THE LOTTERY SYSTEM.

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ally suicide, seem to be the natural consequences of the courseof life, which is incident to every species of gaming, and espe-cially to gaming by the lottery system. For what is more likelyto be resorted to as a cure for the tedium of idleness, or the dis-appointment of successive losses, than the excitement or insensi-bility to be found in the intoxicating cup ? And, when that idle-ness at last terminates in despondency, and those losses in de-spair, where can the infatuated and unhappy victim find refugebut in the embraces of death ? His sense of religion, his morals,and his courage have been dissipated with his money, and hishardened conscience feels no horror at the crime of self-destruc-tion. Having ruined all his prospects in this world, he madlyrushes upon his final destiny. Dupin ascribes a hundred casesof suicide annually to the lottery system, in the single city ofParis. Many years ago, a lottery scheme was formed in Lon-don, displaying several magnificent prizes of £50,000 and£100,000, which tempted to adventures of very large amount,and the night of the drawing was signalized by fifty cases ofsuicide.

4. The effects of drawing prizes have almost always been dis-astrous upon those who have drawn them. It is, perhaps, pecu-liar to the lottery system, that success and failure alike tend toruin the victim of its allurements. The drawing of a prize hasoften tended to accelerate a downfall, which, without such suc-cess, might have been delayed. The actual cases are numerous,in which the drawing of a prize is the epoch of the adventurer’sdestruction, and may be considered as the knell of his earthlyhopes and prospects. The cases before me show, that the few,who have been successful in drawing considerable prizes, havegenerally been led, by their success, to launch forth into new andstill more extravagant adventures, by which they have eventuallybeen involved in equally certain, and still more overwhelmingruin.

5. It may be well to institute a brief comparison between thelottery system and ordinary gaming. It admits of the most con-vincing proof, that the lottery system is more extensively preju-dicial than other kinds of gaming, by holding out enticementswhich affect more or less every class in society. It is accom-

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