CHAP. 1786. Highly ap Burke. of the whole volume (for they amounted to nearly three thousand in number), should pass, without being particularly pressed on the attention of the committee. The plan had been referred to the boards of revenue, and received their perfect approbation; the trading interest had used great diligence in circulating its results; and, he was happy to say, that it was received by all with the highest satisfaction. He moved, “That "all duties of customs, excise, and certain stamps, do cease, and others be substituted." There were certain specific exceptions, as malt, mum, cyder, and perry. 66 Mr. Burke immediately observed, that the measure proved by Mr. was in itself so obviously necessary, beneficial, and desirable, and the right honourable gentleman had opened it with such extraordinary clearness and perspicuity, that he thought it did not become him, or those who, like him, unfortunately felt it their duty frequently to oppose the measures of government, to content themselves with a sullen acquiescence; but it behoved them to rise up manfully, and, doing justice to the right honourable gentleman's merit, return him thanks on behalf of themselves and the country, for having, in a manner so masterly and intelligible, brought forth a plan which promised ease and accommodation to all who were concerned in the commerce of the country and increase of the revenue. Sir Grey Bill passed. Farming of post-horse duties. Sir Grey Cooper justly claimed a portion of the applause due to the plan for that administration of which he formed a part, under Lord North; it had made, he said, considerable progress in 1780 and 1781. To the further progress of this truly beneficial measure, no general opposition was made; but debates were entered into, and divisions took place in both Houses, on proposals to divide the bill into two, allotting to one those duties which would be created or altered by the commercial treaty with France*. It passed as originally framed. As no new taxes were required, the consolidation * March 7, 21; April 4, 19. СНАР. LX. 1786 of duties was the principal operation of finance; the next measure was the farming of the duty on post horses, as a mode of preventing the frauds which had hitherto prevailed. The island was divided into dis- 25th April. tricts, each of which, a few instances excepted, would contain a county. The post-horse duties in each were to be put up to auction; and, that the public might at least be sure of not losing, the bidders were to begin from that sum which the district, at its highest rate, had ever produced. The agreement was to continue three years, the lessee to keep a regular account of his receipts for the inspection of the treasury. Some opposition was made, and the House divided twice; but the debates contain no observations of importance or general interest. lotteries. Regulations were effected relative to the lottery; Regulations of but they rather regarded the morals of the peple than the interests of the revenue. A lottery was a financial resource, recommended by its imposing no burthen except on those who willingly offered to bear it. The argument, that it encouraged a spirit of gaming, was met by the observation that such a spirit could never be totally suppressed; and, therefore, if it could be turned to the advantage of the state, it required only that, by the vigilance of the legislature, it should be judiciously restrained and regulated. In fact, the desire of gaining wealth without the aid of patience, industry, or parsimony, is so much the matter of man's daily wish and contemplation, that it may almost be considered a part of his nature; and fortune is looked up to as a power to whom it is pleasant and desirable to consign a considerable sway in human affairs. Gaming, if it becomes the business of life, is the destroyer, not of substance alone, but of every social and manly feeling; but this is only true when much time is spent in the pursuit, and when it subjects its votary to degrading and dangerous associations. In the purchase of an entire lottery ticket, or of a share in one, none of this evil is incurred. The purchaser must await the determination of a chance which no effort of his own can promote, accelerate, or retard. CHAP. 1786. Yet lotteries had, at different times, been variously viewed. Lord Thurlow observed they had obtained as far back as the time of Elizabeth. In the reign of William and Mary, they had been voted nuisances; in that of Queen Anne, they had been revived, and had been used as instruments of state necessity till the present period. But the question was not whether there should be lotteries or not; no one seemed to think of abolishing them the object was to suppress a most pernicious mode of adventure, called insuring. According to the number of tickets of which a state lottery was composed, the days of drawing were extended or compressed; but they generally exceeded thirty. It was fairly within the scope of commercial dealing, that they who purchased tickets for sale, but might be obliged to hold them during several days of the drawing, should seek to protect themselves against loss by giving a regulated premium to receive the value of their tickets, if drawn before they could dispose of them. This fair and reasonable practice generated a most alarming and wide-spreading abuse. As the premiums, especially in the early days of drawing, were small, offices were opened in all parts of the town for receiving them, on the condition of paying considerable sums if the number proposed was drawn within the day. The deluded adventurer, who began by risquing a mere trifle, was not aware that the benefits were so calculated in favour of the office-keeper, that if the hope of better success, after a first disappointment, led him to persevere in his speculation, he would become involved in an expense which would surely terminate in ruin. Opulent individuals, engaging in this species of play, diminished their fortunes and impaired their position in society; but small tradesmen, clerks, and servants of both sexes, were led to dishonesty, felony, and frequently to suicide. Against this practice, an enactment was levelled which greatly diminished, if it could not wholly eradicate, the evil. It was provided, under severe penalties, that no man should receive or issue a policy, unless the party effect ing the engagement were in possession of the ticket issued. In debating this measure, the efficacy alone came in question; the propriety was never doubted. CHAP. LX. 1786. Debts of the Prince of It became necessary, in the course of the session, to take into consideration the pecuniary affairs of his Wales. Royal Highness the Prince of Wales; the effects of their disorder were humiliating and even disgraceful. In the prime of life, with a person endowed with State of the every charm of beauty and grace, and embellished Prince. with every elegant accomplishment, the Prince of Wales became, by the lapse of time, a free agent, and the head of his own household and concerns, while his father was yet in the vigour of his years, and while the prospect of attaining supreme power was, in all probability, very remote. From the employments of active life, the heir apparent was properly precluded. In fact, the army alone was open to him; and the jealousy of British patriotism must have been alarmed, had His Royal Highness, by assuming active command, appeared to make himself the centre of a body of officers. Doomed, then, to a life void of employment, youth, health, and the ability to please and to charm wherever he appeared, threw him, a spirited and eager votary, into the court of pleasure. Carlton House was the centre in which genius, taste, and wit, were to be found, and to which elegance, beauty, and refinement, in the the fair sex, most amply resorted. Never, perhaps, had society in England boasted such an union of the most brilliant qualities of the human mind as was assembled at the table of His Royal Highness; never had female charms shone with more dazzling lustre, than at the parties where ladies were admitted. But it was soon discovered that, on the verge of the dominions of pleasure, vice and folly have established their empire. The practice, at that time general, of indulging in the joys of the bottle, led to frolics by which, if youth could afford an excuse, dignity was severely wounded. Gaming formed a resource of this joyous band, and the Prince was soon made to understand and to feel the dangerous uncertainties of the dice-box, and the still more fatal certainties of the turf. CHAP. 1787. It has already been seen that His Royal Highness bestowed his favour on the opposition party. From them were his companions selected; and when it is remembered how much family dignity, as well as personal talent, was included in that class, it cannot be matter of astonishment, that a man of his age, taste, and temperament, should love to associate with the lofty peers, and able commanders, naval and military, who by this tie were attached to a body, in which were also to be found Lord North, Fox, Burke, Sheridan, Windham, Erskine, Fitzpatrick, and so many others whose names, separately taken, would each be deemed, for talent, knowledge, and wit, a sufficient ornament to any society*. The danger to his Royal Highness's popularity did not arise from the choice of his bosom friends and daily associates; the nation had long been used to view, in an heir apparent, the adherent of the party opposed to the court, or personally at variance with the Sovereign. From the revolution, this had constantly been the case; it is only necessary to intimate how the Princess, afterward Queen Anne, lived with King William and Queen Mary; how the family predilections of Anne prevented George the First from being known to the British people until he was called to govern them; the constant state of dispute in which George the Second lived with his father, which was but a precedent for that which afterward subsisted between himself and Prince Frederick. It might be maintained that an attachment of the heir apparent to the opposition party is beneficial both to the throne and to liberty. A King thus informed before his accession, is less likely than another to be swayed by the suggestions which lead to the desire of arbitrary power, or the delusions which are created by temporary and clamorous popularity; he is not likely to believe that all who support the crown and constitution are oppres On this subject, see an anonymous work, in three volumes, intitled Memoirs of his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales; J. F. Hughes; 1808, vol. i. and iii. It is not to be denied, that with these and many other illustrious names, some of an exceptionable description were mixed; but these persons seem to have been received more as affording a whimsical specimen of a class which his Royal Highness could not personally inspect, than as selected companions; they had no influence whatever in the company to which they were admitted. |
