The mendicants and obscure people, thus politely alluded to by the great gambler, were the Treasury and Bank clerks, to whom a portion of the loan was usually presented as a compliment for their services. It is curious to notice the increase of applications for the loans so constantly required. Thus, in 1778 only 240 persons applied; in 1779 the number increased to 600; in 1780, to 1,100; and in 1781 it reached 1,600. In 1785, Mr. Atkinson, said to be an adventurer from the North, was a great speculator. That he acted with judgment may be gathered from the fact of his dying possessed of half a million. A curious, but not a parsimonious man, he occasionally performed eccentric actions. During one of the pauses in a dinner conversation, he suddenly turned to a lady by whom he sat, and said, “If you, madam, will trust me with £1,000 for three years, I will employ it advantageously.” The character of the speaker was known; the offer so frankly made was as frankly accepted; and in three years, to the very day, Mr. Atkinson waited on the lady with £10,000, to which amount the sagacity of the citizen had increased the sum intrusted to him. It is probable, although the fact is difficult of attainment, that the lives of the members of the Stock Exchange are, at the present day, less valuable than the ordinary average of human life. The constant thought, the change from hope to fear, the nights broken by expresses, the days excited by changes, must necessarily produce an unfavorable effect upon the frame. Instances, however, of great longevity are not wanting; and one John Riva, who, after an active life in ’Change Alley, had retired to Venice, died there at the patriarchal age of one hundred and eighteen. FOOTNOTES: [2] “The stocks have got wind of this secret,” said Horace Walpole, “and their heart is fallen into their breeches, where the heart of the stocks is apt to lie.” [3] Sir Thomas Halifax had not a high reputation for liberality. During a severe winter, when requested to join his neighbours in a subscription for the poor, and told that “he who giveth to the poor lendeth to the Lord,” he replied, “He did not lend on such slight security”; and it is curious, that, when he afterwards applied to a rich neighbour for assistance, a similar reply, couched in similar language, was given to his application. CHAPTER VIII. _Invention of Lotteries.—The First Lottery.—Employed by the State.—Great Increase.—Eagerness to subscribe.—Evils of Lotteries.—Suicide through them.—Superstition.—Insurances.—Spread of Gambling.—Promises of Lotteries.—Humorous Episodes.—Legal Interference.—Parliamentary Report.—Lottery Drawing.—Picture of Morocco Men.—Their Great Evil.—Lottery Puffing.—Epitaph on a Chancellor.—Abolition of Lotteries._