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Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow MR. LYTTELTON'S MOTION RESPECTING STATE LOTTERIES 4 May 1819 - The Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo, Vol. 5 Speeches and Evidence

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MR. LYTTELTON’S MOTION RESPECTING STATE LOTTERIES 4 May 1819 - David Ricardo, The Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo, Vol. 5 Speeches and Evidence [1819]

Edition used:

The Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo, ed. Piero Sraffa with the Collaboration of M.H. Dobb (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2005). Vol. 5 Speeches and Evidence 1815-1823.

Part of: The Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo, 11 vols (Sraffa ed.)

About Liberty Fund:

Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.


MR. LYTTELTON’S MOTION RESPECTING STATE LOTTERIES
4 May 1819

Mr. Lyttelton moved a series of resolutions for the abolition of State Lotteries.

Mr. Ricardo supported the motion, and pointed out the evils which arose from the drawings of the lottery so often in the year. He quoted the resolutions of a society to which many of the ministers belonged, deprecating the lottery; and observed, that they were thus condemning, as individuals, the law which they came to support by their votes.1

The House divided: for the motion, 84; against it, 133. Ricardo voted for the motion.

[1 ]The New Times reports: ‘Mr. Ricardo arose amidst loud cries of Question! and partly from that circumstance, as well as from the very low tone of voice in which he spoke was almost entirely inaudible in the gallery during the few observations which he made. We understood the Hon. Member to say, that by the operation of the Lottery System, vices were thrown in the way of the people as a lure. The morality of the people was sacrificed for the sake of the tax raised from the Lottery, which was a consideration of far less importance than that which was sacrificed for it. The Hon. Member proceeded to trace the frequency of suicide in England to the operation of this tax, but his voice here became quite drowned amidst loud calls of Question! and coughing.’