These pernicious lotteries continued till the end of the eighteenth century, when they were almost everywhere abolished and forbidden. They are now permitted only in a very few states, which are not able to give up the paltry income derived from them. To the honour of the Hanoverian government, no Lotto was ever introduced into it, though many foreigners have offered large sums for permission to cheat the people in this manner. Those who wish to see the prohibitions issued against the Lotto, after making a great part of the people lazy, indigent and thievish, may find them by the help of the index in Schlötzer’s Staats-Anzeigen.
Si son exécrable mémoire
Parvient à la posterité,
C’est que le crime, aussi bien que la gloire,
Conduit à l’immortalité.
[The only lottery at present existing in England under the sanction of the government is the art-union of London. The first institution of this kind in Great Britain originated at Edinburgh in 1836, from the models existing in Prussia, formed under the patronage of the king and his minister Von Humboldt, about the year 1825. The money annually subscribed is expended in pictures, sculptures, &c. It is divided by the committee into several portions or prizes, from £10 to £400, and on a certain day the prizes are distributed among the subscribers in the ordinary way. The prize-holders are then allowed to select works of art to the value of their respective prizes from any of the five annual exhibitions of works of art in the metropolis for the current year. A portion of the total sum subscribed is set aside and applied to the purpose of engraving and printing some work of art, a copy of which is given to each subscriber. Hence, by the combination of a very large number of persons to subscribe for this one work of art, and the avoidance of risk, incidental expenses, and publisher’s profits, the print, though at least equal to what would be charged a guinea (the amount of subscription) in the ordinary course of trade, is supplied to the subscribers at so small a cost as to leave by far the greater part of the subscribed sum as a fund applicable to the purchase of prizes. Several similar associations have been since formed on a smaller scale in other parts of Great Britain.]
FOOTNOTES
[1023] And in Greek σύμβολα.
[1024] Many have written at considerable length on the congiaria, yet the difference between the missilia and tesseræ has not been sufficiently explained. The first, or at least the best account, is in Turnebi Adversaria, xxix. 9, p. 637. In a passage in the Life of Nero by Suetonius, xi. 11, p. 21, the articles which were thrown among the people are called missilia; but in regard to corn, the term tesseræ is expressly named.
The passages where a description is given of the manner in which the tesseræ were thrown out, are to be found in Dio Cassius. The wooden balls, like those of the Lotto, appear to have been hollow, and to have contained the ticket or written order. Those desirous of knowing how these tesseræ were formed, and of what they were made, may consult Hugo de Prima Scribendi Origine, Traj. 1738, 8vo, cap. 15, p. 229.
[1025] Juven. Sat. vii. 174.
[1026] This abuse of lotteries was mentioned by the states of Wirtemberg, in the year 1764, among the public grievances; and in 1770 the duke promised that it should be abolished. I must here mention, to the honour of our prince and government (the author alludes to Hanover), that since lotteries were found necessary in this country, not a farthing of the profit has gone to the treasury of the prince, but the whole has been employed for pious or charitable purposes.
[1027] Recherches de la France. Paris, 1665, fol. viii. 49, p. 729.