§ MR. CHARLEYsaid, he would beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether he is aware that the illegal Lottery for the Homer Row Poor Schools, which by a Letter, dated the 14th February last, he informed the Secretary of the Scottish Reformation Society that "the Solicitor to the Treasury had been instructed to take steps to prevent," is now publicly announced to take place on Thursday next, the 7th instant; and whether he is prepared to put the Law, thus openly defied, in force against the promoters of the Lottery?
MR. BRUCE,in reply, said, it had been the practice of the Home Office, for a long time past, whenever notice was given of any illegal lottery, whether its object was innocent or demoralizing, to give notice to the parties that such lottery was illegal, and that they were liable to prosecution. With respect to 1284 those lotteries for religious purposes, which were very like the raffles that took place at every bazaar for religious purposes, no prosecution had taken place; and it would be his duty, on receiving notice as to what had taken place, to consider whether that was a case for the institution of a prosecution at the expense of the Government, He was hardly inclined to think it would be.