A History of English Lotteries by John Ashton

procession -- Alteration of date -- Advertising car -- "A Ballad, 1826" -- Drawing of the last lottery.

But the lamp was to flicker once more before it finally died out, and a "last lottery" was decreed to be drawn in 1826. In the spring, and for three weeks after midsummer of that year, the lottery-office keepers incessantly plied every man, woman, and child, in the United Kingdom and its dependencies, with petitions to make a fortune in "the last lottery that can be drawn. " Men paraded the streets with large printed placards on poles, or pasted on their backs, announcing "All Lotteries End for Ever! 18th of July. " The walls were plastered all over with posters, and handbills thrust into the hands of street-passengers, besides being left at every house, containing the same heart-rending announcement, and with the solemn assurance that the demand for tickets and shares was immense! The prices had so risen, were so rising, and would be so far beyond all calculation, that, to get shares, or tickets at all, they must be instantly purchased! As the time approached, a show was got up to proclaim that the deplorable "Death of the Lottery" would certainly take place on the appointed day; but, on some account or other, the pathetic appeal of the benevolent contractors was disregarded. At length, finding that it could not be floated by the 18th of July, the stony-hearted public were "respectfully" informed that "the Lords of the Treasury had issued a _reprieve_," and that the "drawing" and "quartering," etc., was postponed till some day in October, "when lotteries will finish for ever. " Here is a handbill relating to the 18th of July: --