The appointment of Mr. Wood to the office of Inspector of Lotteries, was an event that created the astonishment of every man who knew his previous character; but his continuing the situation after all that has appeared before the magistrates, that has been exhibited in the courts of law, before the commissioners of the stamp office, together with all that is within the knowledge of every person concerned in lottery transactions, is certainly one of those extraordinary events which confounds the understanding, benumbs the explanatory faculties, and soars above the reach of reason to explain, or philosophy to reconcile to any principle of public advantage: however, there has been so much written and said upon this man’s conduct, that I shall for the present enter no further into his probity and praise-worthy service, than recalling to the recollection of the Magistrates at Bow-street, the amiable portrait I drew of him in their presence, in November last, some faint likeness of which appeared in the public prints of the day: the Magistrates upon that occasion, as well as a great number of other persons present, must do me the justice to say that the ground of my accusation was not the effect of a distempered brain or malignant invention; for every syllable I uttered respecting him or his friend, Mr. Holland, of “Little-Go,” notoriety has been legally substantiated upon the clearest of all evidences, and now remains matter of woeful record, at least to Mr. Holland, who has had six months leisure to ruminate on its efficacy in Cold-Bath-Fields Prison. In fine, every seeming effort that has sprung out of Mr. Wood’s fertile brain to suppress the ruinous practice of insuring in lotteries, has augmented the calamity to a preposterous magnitude, and instead of curing the evils we already felt, raised up innumerable others we knew not of. However, I must check my inclination to furnish matter for a volume, and confine myself to the brevity of a letter; and, from what I have stated, few men will suspect me to be a favourer of any species of gaming; perhaps, less so, when I protest, my abhorrence of it has ever been such, that in my existence I never won or lost £5. at any description of game.