Page:Harvard Law Review Volume 9.djvu/419

391 LOTTERY BONDS, 391 Prussia, since the time of Frederick II. The issue of lottery- bonds, which was very frequent about i860, was disapproved by the economists at the Congress of Hanover in 1864, and a re- strictive law was the result of this condemnation. The law of the Empire of the 8th of June, 1871, forbade the issue of lottery bonds payable to bearer throughout the Empire, except Imperial loans, or loans of one of the confederate states authorized by a law of the Empire. In England, by the act of 10 & 11 Will. III. c. 17, all lotteries were declared a public nuisance, and suppressed. This prohibition was renewed by frequent statutes.^ Lottery bonds fall under this restriction, and an issue of these obligations has never been authorized by Parliament. In Austria the issue of lottery- bonds, which was formerly possible by a simple official sanction, is restrained to-day by the law of the 9th of March, 1889. This law provides that the state alone shall issue lottery bonds, and then only by means of a special law, when it is required to promote public interests. A Hungarian law of the 21st of April, 1889, lays down the same restriction in Hungary. In Belgium the law of the 31st of December, 185 1, drafted in almost the same terms as the French law of 1836, forbids lotteries. Lottery bonds fell under this pro- hibition. Corporations, however, whose existence was contingent on the authorization of government, still preserved the right to issue them. When government control of corporations ceased, the necessity of controlling the issue of lottery bonds arose, and the practice was forbidden by Article 68 of the law of the i8th of May, 1873. In Greece a law of the 4-16 of January, 1888, on lotteries, forbids the issue of lottery bonds, unless they shall be specially authorized by the government. In Italy the royal decree of the 2 1st of November, 1880, on lotteries, giving a decision under the law of the 19th of July, 1880, forbids, in its Article 3, " every transactioti in which gain, or the drawing of a prize in money, depends npojt the drawing of a lot.'' The issue of lottery bonds falls within this prohibition. Finally, in Sweden and Russia a similar prohibition may be found, and official sanction is required preceding each issue of lottery bonds. in. We have just seen under what restrictions the right to issue lottery bonds is placed in most countries of Europe ; we have also ^ 12 Geo. II. c. 28; 13 Geo. II. c. 19; 18 Geo. II. c. 34; 42 Geo. II. c. 119; and finally 4 Geo. IV. c. 60.