Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 1.djvu/447

 UNITED STATES V. NOELKE. 439 �tickets;" "An act to authorize the sale of stampa to vendora •of lottery tickets, " passed Pebruary 28, 1860 ; and an act to amend the last named act, passed Maroh 22, 1866, and "ail other laws, or parts of laws, inconsistent with or contrary to the provisions of this act." �The acts thus expressly repealed are general statutes. The act of February 17, 1866, was an act creating offences and imposing penalties. We have no doabt that this statute read in evidence is to be regarded as a general statute or public act, and not as a private act. It is largely made up of provisions in the nature of general legislation, and the fact that, incidentally, and as a means towards making such general legislation effectuai, it grants corporate powers to certain persons, does not make it the less a general law. Laws are either public or private, and this is clearly public. Other objections that it was not proved as a private law have no force. �11. The prosecution having rested again, defendant's coun- sel renewed his motion to direct a verdict of acquittai upon the ground specified in the former motion, that there was no evidence of the existence of a lottery of and concerning which ihe papers in question could bave been written or made, or that they are letters and circulars concerning any lottery; also on the further ground, that, be the act what it may, there is no evidence of any action or acceptance of the charter there tendered, or that any organization under that act was ever effected by the corporators named therein, or that the corpo- ration, if it ever existed, had not been dissolved by some one of the varions methods known for the dissolution of corpora- tions at the time the indictment was found, or that the char- ter had not been forfeited or withdrawn by subsequent legisla- tion. This motion was denied and defendant excepted. This exception is based upon the theory that it was necessary for the goverument to prove that the lottery was one established by law, having a legal existence ; that it was necessary to prove that the party or parties who issued the tickets enclosed in the «nvelope, which purported to be issued by the Louisiana State ��� �