On Tuesday leave was refused for the introduction of a
Hospital Lotteries Bill. We dislike interference with liberty ; we distrust efforts to legislate in moral matters ; but having watched the change in our country as its national vice has ceased to be the more generous one of drinking and become the meaner one of trying to get something for nothing by gambling, we are glad that Parliament would not take action that would encourage gambling at a moment when the country is obsessed by the unwholesome Irish gamble for huge stakes. We also rejoice that the British hospitals and their supporters should still base their work on Christian charity and benevolence rather than on the shifting sands of the gambler's excitement. The House turned from this to consider the proposed national gamble of the Land Values Taxation on the motion for the second reading of the Finance Bill.
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