394 HARVARD LAW REVIEW. the legality of a number of transactions connected with the sale of lottery bonds, which we sum up under our four heads as follows: 1st. Sale of divided bonds. 2d. Sale of lottery bonds by in- stalments. 3d. Sales of lottery bonds on approval (i option). 4th. Sales before the prizes are drawn, with permission to the purchaser to resell the instrument after the drawing if desired. (i) Sale of divided bonds. — About 1865 certain bankers con- ceived the plan of dividing lottery bonds and of selling separately the parts thus obtained. The division was arranged in two differ- ent ways. The first arrangement separated the chances by lottery from the right to the interest and payment of the principal, and then divided these chances in halves, fifths, tenths, twentieths, even for- tieths, and fixed the price of the chances thus prepared at pleasure. The second divided the deeds into parts of a total value inferior to the sum of the parts provided for by the law of authorization, and sold these parts, each insuring a fraction of the interest, of the payment, and of the chances by lottery. Both methods were condemned under the law of 1836 by the courts appealed to by the public prosecutor.^ This was in fact " forbidden lottery," as stated by the law of 1836, since the public were invited to take part in a lot- tery differing from the one authorized, inasmuch as the bonds on sale differed from those stamped by the public authorities. The sentence pronounced by the courts cut short this manner of specu- lation in France. (2) Sale of lottery bonds by instalments. — The sale by instal- ments is one kind of a sale on credit, and has nothing in it peculiar to the lottery bond. It is a sale where there is a stipulation that the price is to be paid in successive deposits, usually monthly, within a certain period of time. The sale by instalments is usually employed for certain objects of personal property of use or com- fort, at times for articles indispensable to some classes of persons. The price to be paid is relatively high, and if paid at one time would require a great expenditure, much beyond the means of the working classes, — pianos, bicyles, sewing machines, etc. It was about 1880 that bankers began to apply the system of sale by instalments to the transfer of lottery bonds. The experi- ment was crowned with immediate success. At first the legality of the process was questioned with regard to the law of 1836. The division of the price, it was said, constituted a violation of the 1 Decisions cited in notes 3 and 4 of page 393, supra.
