uence me to a tame resignation of the
privileges of our own house; nor shall I willingly allow any force to
arguments which are intended only to operate upon our fear; and,
therefore, unless there shall appear some better plea in favour of
this bill, I shall think it my duty to oppose it.

The other plea is the difficulty, or, in the style of the noble lord
who spoke last, the impossibility of raising supplies by any other
method. That it is not easy to raise supplies by any new tax, in a
nation where almost all the necessaries of life are loaded with
imposts, must be readily allowed; but that it is impossible, the folly
of the people, which is at least equal to their poverty, will not
suffer me to grant.

One other expedient, at least, has been already discovered by the
wonderful sagacity of our new ministers; an expedient which they
cannot, indeed, claim the honour of inventing, but which appears so
conformable to the rest of their conduct, and so agreeable to their
principles, that I doubt not but they will very often practise it, if
the continuance of their power be long enough to admit of a full
display of their abilities.

Amidst their tenderness for our manufactures, and their regard for
commerce, they have established a lottery for eight hundred thousand
pounds, by which they not only take advantage of an inclination too
predominant, an inclination to grow rich rather by a lucky hazard,
than successful industry; but give up the people a prey to
stockjobbers, usurers, and brokers of tickets, who will plunder them
without mercy, by the encouragement of those by whom it might be hoped
that they would be protected from plunderers.

All lotteries, my lords, are games, which are not more honest or more
useful for being legal; and the objection which has been made to all
other games, and which has never yet been answered, will be found
equally valid when applied to them. They engross that attention which
might be employed in improving or extending our manufactures; they
swallow that money which might circulate in useful trade; they give
the idle and the diligent an equal prospect of riches; and by
conferring unexpected wealth upon those who never deserved it, and
know not how to use it, they promote extravagance and luxury,
insolence and dissoluteness.

But these consequences, my lords, and a thousand others equally
important, equally formidable, may be objected without effect, against
any scheme by which money