A Lottery, in the common Form, is
subject to these Inconveniencies. If the Price of each Ticket be
high, many who would have been Purchasers are discouraged and
excluded. If low, the Number of Tickets must be great, and that
occasions the Drawing to take up more Time, which increases the
Expence, and is an Injury to many, who neglect other Business to
attend it. If the Capital of the Lottery is large, ’tis an
Inconveniency that so much Money as is necessary to fill it, should
be damm’d up, and restrained from being current in Trade, till the
whole is compleated, and all the Lottery drawn.
The present Scheme is calculated to remedy
these Inconveniencies. It divides the Lottery into four distinct
Classes, to be drawn at four different Times, and is so contrived,
as that all the four Drawings will take but little more Time than
one Drawing would do in the common Way. The Price of a Ticket is
also divided into four gradual payments, to be made, if the Buyer
pleases, at four different and distant Times. The first Entry is
low and easy, and if the Adventurer is successful in the first
Class, he is enabled as well as encouraged to go on. And a very
great Part of the Money is to return several times into the Hands
of the People before the Conclusion.
The four Billets into which each Ticket is
divided, are all of the same Number, but of different Prices,
according to the several Classes to which they belong.
Every Adventurer in the first Class receives a
Billet for each Piece of Eight he pays, entitling the Bearer to
such Prize in that Class as may be drawn against its Number,
subject to no Deduction, unless the Prize be Twenty Pieces of
Eight, or upwards. For a like Billet in the second Class he pays
two Pieces of Eight. For a Billet in the third Class three Pieces
of Eight; and four for a Billet in the fourth Class: So that the
Price of a whole Ticket to go through the Lottery is Ten Pieces of
Eight.
Adventurers in the first Class have a Right to
go thro’ the subsequent Classes, but are not obliged to do it. If
any neglect or decline taking out, or paying the Price of their
Billets for a subsequent Class, till within three Days of the
Drawing of such Class, the common Stock is to have the Benefit of
it to the End; unless such Adventurers have left equivalent Prizes
for that Purpose in the Hands of the Managers, which is the same
Thing as paying: And the greatest Number of Prizes in the first,
second, and third Classes, are made just the Price of a Billet in
the Class next succeeding, that such Prizes may defray the Charge
of new Billets, without the Trouble of paying Money.
A Sum equal to Twelve and a Half per Cent. on
the whole, is to be deducted from the fortunate Tickets for the
publick Use: But as it would occasion Trouble in making Change, and
be otherwise inconvenient, if such Deduction were to be made from
the smaller Prizes (which indeed cannot so well afford it)
therefore nothing is deducted from any Prize that is under Twenty
Pieces of Eight. And the Prizes are so calculated and order’d, that
15 per Cent. which is to be deducted from such as are Twenty Pieces
of Eight and upwards, is equal to Twelve and a Half per Cent. on
the Whole, and no more. Thus this Lottery is Two and a Half per
Cent. more advantageous to Adventurers, than any that have hitherto
been made on this Continent. And there are yet several other
Advantages, for, in the first Place, the Adventurer’s whole Ticket
cannot be struck dead at a Blow, as in common Lotteries. If he has
a Blank in the first Class, ’tis a Blank only of One Tenth of his
Ticket, and he has still three good Chances left for the remaining
nine Tenths, every Chance better than the preceding One, and the
last best of all. Then he is under no Necessity of paying the whole
Ten Pieces of Eight for each Ticket at once; and, if fortunate in
the first Class, may have Occasion to advance no more than the
first. In our former Lottery, the Price of a Ticket was Forty
Shillings, the whole to be paid at once, and yet its best
Chance was to be doubled but 250 times: In this Lottery one Piece
of Eight may possibly gain several Thousands. And lastly, the
Number of Prizes is more than Half the Number of Tickets.
Publick Notice is to be given before each
Drawing, of the Time and Place when and where the Numbers and
Prizes are to be put into the Wheels, that such Adventurers as
think fit may be present if they please.
The Manner of Drawing is this: All the 7500
Numbers are to be put into one Wheel, and well mixed, the Wheel to
be frequently turn’d during the Drawing. In the other Wheel are put
the Prizes of the first Class, without any Blanks among them. Then
a Number is drawn out of one Wheel, and a Prize against it out of
the other, till the Prizes are all drawn; so ends the Drawing of
the first Class, which may be finished in one Day.
The rest of the Numbers remain in their Wheel,
seal’d up, till the Drawing of the second Class.
The Prizes drawn in each Class may be demanded
within three Days after the Drawing of that Class is finished.
Six Weeks Time to be allowed between the
Drawings, to take out Billets for the succeeding Class, prepare for
drawing it, &c.
Before drawing the second Class, all the
Numbers drawn out in the first Class are again to be roll’d up and
tied, put into the Wheel to the rest, and well mixed among
them.
Then the Prizes of the second Class being put
into the other Wheel, without Blanks, the drawing proceeds as in
the first Class.
In the same Manner is the third Class
managed.
In drawing the fourth and last Class, Blanks
are to be mixed with the Prizes, so many as to draw out all the
Numbers in the Number Wheel, and complete the whole.
The drawing of the first Class is to begin on
the first Monday in September next, without postponing or Delay, or
sooner if sooner full; if any Tickets should then remain unsold,
they are to be drawn on Account of the Stock.
The following Persons are appointed Managers of
this Lottery, viz. Joseph Turner, Abraham Taylor, Tench Francis,
John Inglis, Samuel Hazard, John Sober, William Plumsted, Patrick
Baird, Philip Syng, Evan Morgan, jun., Jacob Duche, Austin Hicks,
Samuel M’Call, jun., Joseph Sims, and Richard Nixon; who are to
give Bond, and be on Oath for the faithful Performance of their
Trust, and to lay out the Money arising, for such Uses, as to them,
in Conjunction with William Allen, Joshua Maddox, William Masters,
Samuel M’Call, senior, Edward Shippen, Thomas Leech, Charles
Willing, John Kearsley, William Clymer, senior, Thomas Lawrence,
junior, William Coleman, Thomas Hopkinson, William Wallace, John
Stamper, John Mifflin, James Coultas, William Branson, Rees
Meredith, Thomas Lloyd, and Benjamin Franklin, Managers and
Assistants of the former Lottery, or to the Majority of the whole,
shall seem most for the publick Benefit.
Prizes not demanded within six Months after the
last Drawing, to be deem’d as generously given to the common Stock,
for the same Use as the Twelve and a Half per Ct. and not to be
demanded afterwards, but applied accordingly.
The Managers are to adjust their Accounts, and
publish them within twelve Months after the Drawing is
finished.
The Tickets will begin to be sold by the
Managers at their respective Houses, on Thursday, the 16th
Instant.