There was a Lottery, in which the subscription was a penny, and the Capital prize was One Thousand Pounds, drawn on 19th Oct. 1698, at the Dorset Garden Theatre, near Salisbury Square, Fleet Street, but when William III. came to the throne, it was seen that the Lottery was a very profitable thing, and the Government took it unto itself for its own purposes. In 1694, £1,000,000 was raised by Lottery, and in 1697, £1,400,000—but in 1699, by 10 and 11 Will. III., c. 17, lotteries were suppressed, the preamble to the Act stating, “That all such Lotteries, and all other Lotteries, are common and publick nuisances, and that all grants, patents, and licences for such Lotteries, or any other Lotteries, are void and against Law.” It must have been about this time (for in 1698-9 three expeditions sailed from Scotland to Darien) that Ward wrote in _The London Spy_ a description of the Lottery fever in London: “The _Gazette_ and _Post-Papers_ lay by Neglected, and nothing was Pur’d over in the _Coffee Houses_, but the _Ticket-Catalogues_; No talking of the _Jubilee_, the want of Current Trade with _France_, or the _Scotch_ Settlement at _Darien_; Nothing Buz’d about by the Purblind _Trumpeters_ of _State News_, but _Blank_ and _Benefit_. _My Son had Five Pound in such a Lottery, but got nothing; my Daughter_, says another, _had but Five Shillings, and got the Twenty Pound Prize_. People running up and down the Streets in Crowds and Numbers, as if one end of the Town was on Fire, and the other were running to help ‘em off with their Goods. One Stream of _Coachmen_, _Footmen_, _Prentice Boys_, and _Servant Wenches_ flowing one way, with wonderful hopes of getting an estate for three pence. _Knights_, _Esquires_, _Gentlemen_ and _Traders_, _Marry’d Ladies_, _Virgin Madams_, _Jilts_, etc.; moving on _Foot_, in _Sedans_, _Chariots_, and _Coaches_, another way; with a pleasing Expectancy of getting Six Hundred a Year for a Crown.