I wish, indeed, with regard to the latter, I could conscientiously assert that the Liberal faction had decreed its extinction from any conviction of the degradation and corruption inflicted by it upon their country.

I fear, however, from the extent to which lotteries are still encouraged by the Tuscan Government, that such is not the case.

The reason of the movement is, indeed, a very simple and material one.

From the lotteries and the tobacco monopoly the government derives a very large part of its revenues, and a part, too, which does not excite unpopularity in the same way as direct taxation.
Any extinction, therefore, or indeed any serious diminution of these sources of revenue, would place the Holy See in great difficulties.

The profits on the lottery go directly into the pockets of the Government, who are also supplied with very extensive and important patronage by the vast number of petty posts which the system employed for collecting tickets places at their disposal.