Page:Harvard Law Review Volume 9.djvu/417

389 LOTTERY BONDS. 389 prohibition of private lotteries appears as a measure intended to protect a state monopoly. In those, on the other hand, where the state lottery has disappeared or has never existed, the interdiction of lotteries is based on high moral feeling. Such, then, is the double character which the unanimous suppression of lotteries in Europe presents. Lotteries are forbidden. Do lottery bonds fall within the range of this prohibition? The practical interest of the question is great. If the decision be that the issue of lottery bonds is an act contrary to the laws which forbid lotteries, then the logical consequence is that this act should not lawfully be attempted except by virtue of a special law. Otherwise, those who avail themselves of an issue of bonds of this nature would be liable to the penalties exacted by these laws, and the holders would have no right to demand the promised prizes. In France the question is considered in the text of the law of the 2ist of May, 1836; the first two articles read as follows: — "Art. I. Lotteries of all kinds are forbidden. '•Art. 2. The following are considered lotteries, and as such for- bidden : the sale of landed property, of personal property, or of mer- chandise, effected by the means of lot, or of any property to which may have been attached either premiums or other benefits due to lot, and, in general, all transactions offered to the public to arouse the hope of gain procured by lot. " It was the last words of Article 2 which gave rise to a vehe- ment controversy in regard to the issue of lottery bonds. This controversy started in 1868. At this time the Imperial government presented the Legislative Body with a bill which had been already considered in the Council of State. The object was to authorize the Maritime Company of the Suez Canal to issue bonds payable with prizes drawn by lot. This was the first time that the legisla- tive power had been directly required to give a decision on such a question. Among the many lottery-bonds which were negotiated at this time in the market of transferable securities, none had been issued in this manner. A parliamentary incident in 1865, moreover, had impelled the Imperial government to take a position on this point, and the Minister of State, M. Rouher, had then declared that the law concerning lotteries was not to affect lottery bonds. ^ At ^ Discussion of the Legislative Body, Session of 9th June, 1865, — On the issue in France of the Mexican loan effected through lottery bonds.