in their highest application, are institutions for raising the revenue of a country by granting to those who voluntarily contribute the chance of obtaining a reversion of part of the money collected. This reversion is determined by lot. The practice may be traced back to the Romans, who were accustomed, at least in the days of the empire, to enliven their festivals with the distribution of tickets uniform in appearance, but entitling the holders to receive articles of various value. Instead of granting largesses to the leaders of the Plebs, the Emperor Augustus frequently distributed his gifts on the same principle; and Heliogabalus has the merit of devising in sport a plan, frequently resorted to in fraud to avoid the penalties against lotteries in England, of making prizes really worthless take the place of blanks. In the middle ages the same practice prevailed at the banquets of feudal princes, who distributed their presents economically, and without the fear of jealousy, by granting lottery tickets indiscriminately to their friends. The practice soon descended to the merchants; and in Italy, in the sixteenth century, this became a favourite mode of disposing of their wares. In 1530 the "Lotto" of Florence was established for the necessities of the state, and the example was quickly followed throughout Europe. The first lotteries with numbered tickets were instituted at Genoa. Mercantile lotteries were established in France under Francis I. in 1539, and a tax levied on each ticket; but these were supplanted in 1660 by lotteries of money, under the direct control of the king. The first lottery established in England was drawn in 1659. It consisted of 40,000 lots, which were sold at 10s. each. The prizes were pieces of plate; and the profits were devoted to the repair of certain harbours in the kingdom. The printed plan of this scheme is still in possession of the Antiquarian Society of London. In 1612 a lottery was granted in behalf of the Virginia Company; and in 1680 the same privilege was accorded to a contractor who undertook to supply London with water. From this time forward the spirit of gambling increased so rapidly, and grew so strong, that in the reign of Queen Anne, private lotteries had to be suppressed as public nuisances. The first parliamentary lottery was instituted in 1709; and from this period till 1824, the passing of a lottery bill was in the programme of every session. Up till about the close of the eighteenth century, the prizes were generally paid in the form of terminable, and sometimes of perpetual, annuities. Loans were also raised by granting a bonus of lottery tickets to all who subscribed a certain amount. This gambling in annuities, however, despite the restrictions of an act passed in 1793, soon led to an appalling amount of vice and misery; and in 1808 a committee of the House of Commons urged the suppression of this ravenous mode of filling the national exchequer. In October 1826 the last public lottery was drawn in Britain. In France state lotteries have been abolished, but they still exist in most of the continental states; and although demonstrably a source of loss to those who embark in them, they are upheld as a very ready mode of procuring money from the poor, the miserly, and the adventurous. The Hamburg lottery affords the most favourable representation of the system, as in it all the money raised by the sale of tickets is redistributed in the drawing of the lots, with the exception of 10 per cent. deducted in expenses and otherwise. In the United States lotteries were established by congress in 1776, but, with the exception of the southern states, heavy penalties are now imposed on persons attempting to establish them. Private lotteries are now illegal at common law in Great Britain and Ireland; and penalties are also incurred by the advertisers of foreign lotteries. Some years ago, it became common in Scotland to dispose of merchandise by means of lotteries; but this is specially condemned in the statute 42d Geo. III., c. 119. An evasion of the law has been attempted by affixing a prize to every ticket, so as to make the transaction resemble a legal sale; but this has been punished as a fraud, even where it could be proved that the prize equalled in value the price of the ticket. This decision rested upon the plea that in such a transaction there was no definite sale of a specific article.

In 1844 art-unions began to be established in Britain; and as the principle on which they are founded involves that of the lottery, their operations, which are in reality illegal, were immediately suspended by order of government. In the following year, however, an act was passed to indemnify those who had embarked in them for the losses which they had incurred by the arrest of their proceedings; and since that time, they have been tolerated under the eye of the law without any express statute being framed for their exemption.