On January 12, the Prussian bank director, Koes, received permission to establish a royal Danish lottery for a term of six years. For the privilege, an annual sum of 25,000 dollars was to be paid into the king's private exchequer. The farmer and his partners published a plan of subscription, containing two hundred and fifty shares of 500 dollars each; and ten per cent. profit was guaranteed the shareholders. The directors of the lottery appointed two thousand collectors all over the country; and a drawing took place every three weeks.
The introduction of the lottery justly aroused great public reproach. For all that, the following Danish governments found this institution so profitable, that they undertook the direction of it, and it was not until public opinion began to become very decided about this corruption offered to the poorer classes, that it was entirely abolished in the reign of Christian VIII. Struensee only authorised the establishment of the lottery, it is urged, because at that time the country swarmed with pedlars, who sold tickets of foreign lotteries, by which a great deal of money was drawn out of the country, and he tried to prevent this by starting a home lottery for gamblers. A number of pamphlets at once appeared in Copenhagen and other towns of the kingdom, in which the ruinous results of lottery gambling were shown, though without any effect. When the lottery was established at Copenhagen and Wandsbeck, the people were attacked by a perfect mania for gambling, and while formerly the conversation in the houses of citizens turned on the weather and town scandal, they now talked about the best way of playing, about ambos, ternes, and quaterns, &c.
The king's birthday, January 29, was employed by the new government as a favourable opportunity for gaining the favour of the populace. For this purpose, an antique fountain was erected in the manège behind the Christiansborg Palace, from which red and white wine flowed. Everybody was allowed to fetch it away, except the sailors of the navy. From the balcony over the fountain a herald threw gold and silver medals among the crowd, bearing on the obverse the king's bust, and on the reverse the date, "January 29, 1771," with the king's motto, "Gloria ex amore patriæ." At the same time, a roast ox and sundry roast sheep were cut up and distributed. It seems as if the intention were to throw some lustre upon the throne, which would compensate for the nimbus with which the now removed high-born ministers and great gentlemen had formerly invested it in the eyes of the populace.
The king's birthday was, however, glorified in another manner. The reigning queen established on this day a new order, called the Order of Matilda. The statutes, which were drawn up in French, were to the following effect:
Art. I.—The order shall be called the Order of Matilda.
Art. II.—It shall be conferred on both ladies and gentlemen; but the number must never exceed twenty-four, the queen, its founder, included.
Art. III.—It shall only be conferred on persons who have deserved the particular attention of the queen, independently of merit or services rendered.
Art. IV.—It is forbidden to ask for the order; and those ladies and gentlemen who act contrary to this rule, will deprive themselves for ever of the hope of obtaining it.
Art. V.—Those ladies or gentlemen who, on receiving the Order of Matilda, may possess that of the Perfect Union of the late queen, Sophia Magdalena, shall deliver the insignia of the latter to the queen.