HELPING POSTERITY

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 23, 27 January 1923, Page 12

HELPING POSTERITY

HOW LONDON WAS BUILT BY

LOTTERIES.

"Win £7500." "£3OOO for 2s 6d." "£SOOO for 55." , So run current advertisements. Fortunes for nothing—is it great wonder, then, that the , Dublin sweepstake, the "Golden," the "Sporting," and other ballots have taken such a hold? In these days the Home Office keeps a/very sharp eye on all such competitions, Says the "Daily Express," but in the eighteenth century the Government actually encouraged gambling by means of State lotteries, which helped it at a time when rates were hardly known.

Even that "temple of learning," the British Museum', came into existence as the outcome of a lottery. By means of, an. Act of Parliament passed in 1753 authorising a lottery the nation purchased and housed the library and collections of Sir Hans Sloane, Sir Robert Cotton^ and the Harleian Library, thus forming; the nucleus of that wonderful collection. The' managers and trustees of this lottery were, singularly'enough, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Lord Chancellor, and the Speaker,-each of whom was to have £100 for his trouble. One hundred thousand tickets at £3 each were-sold, and the prizes varied from £10,000 to £10.

Another instance of how Londoners have benefited by the lotteries of their forebears is that of Westminster Bridge. In 1736 an Act of Parliament was procured to raise £700,000 by means of a lottery for "building a bridge across the River Thames, from New Palace-yard in the City of Westminster to the pppo'site shore in the county of Surrey."" Up to. that time. the only communication between the two shores above LondonBridge, was by a ferry (still commemorated in Harseferry-road), which was the property of the Archbishop of Cantorbury, with a landing place on the Surrey side close, to the. episcopal palace. Naturally this ferry, was inconvenient, and in spite of much opposition on the part of the City of London, the money was obtained and the bridge was built.

'The Adelphi Lottery Act of 1775 was passed to enable the brothers Adajn (John, Robert, James, and William, who found themselves in debt) to complete their wonderful work of "erecting many great and expensive-buildings, with commodious wharfs and warehouses, and by means of subterranean 'streets, pointing out a new and effectual method of keeping the access to the houses distinct from the traffic of the wharfs and warehouses, thereby connecting grandeur and magnificence with utility and commerce."

The^ present-day ballot always has some charitable aim, but surely these bygone lotteries have also benefited, and will long continue, to benefit posterity.