Money is
wanting for an useful undertaking, as a school, &c. for which a direct
tax would be disapproved. It is raised therefore by a lottery, wherein
the tax is laid on the willing only, that is to say, on those who can
risk the price of a ticket without sensible injury, for the possibility
of a higher prize. An article of property, insusceptible of division at
all, or not without great diminution of its worth, is sometimes of so
large value as that no purchaser can be found, while the owner owes
debts, has no other means of payment, and his creditors no other chance
of obtaining it, but by its sale at a full and fair price. The lottery
is here a salutary instrument for disposing of it, where many run small
risks for the chance of obtaining a high prize. In this way, the great
estate of the late Colonel Byrd (in 1756) was made competent to pay his
debts, which, had the whole been brought into the market at once, would
have overdone the demand, would have sold at half or quarter the value,
and sacrificed the creditors, half or three fourths of whom would have
lost their debts. This method of selling was formerly very much resorted
to, until it was thought to nourish too much a spirit of hazard. The
legislature Were therefore induced, not to suppress it altogether, but
to take it under their own special regulation. This they did, for the
first time, by their act of 1769, c.17., before which time, every person
exercised the right freely; and since which time, it is made unlawful
but when approved and authorized by a special act of the legislature.
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