Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 1.djvu/450

112 FSDEBAL BBPOSTEB. �relafed to a lottery, if, in their judgment, they threw any light on the meaning of the letter, in case its meaning was doubtful, which it does not seem to us to have been, ve think there can be no question. A party's acts and declarationa may always be resorted to to show the meaning of bis writ- ings, and obscure or doubtful expressions can often be only elucidated by a reference to surrounding cireumstances. �There was no ground of exception in that part of the charge which, upon this question, whether the letter was concerning a lottery, allowed the jury to consider the fact that there was such an act on the statute-book of Louisiana. In determin- ing whether or not there was such a lottery as that named upon the papers enclosed with the letter, the fact that such an act had been passed was a eircumstance that was compe- tent evidence. The tickets and papers enclosed were such as would be likely to follow and resuit from the passage and acceptance of such an act, and altbough there was no other evidence that the statute had ever been acted upon, these papers were, we think, some evidence of that fact; and there was a correspondence and apparent connection betweeu the act and the tickets and papers which made the act, without further evidence of any action taken under it, which are cireum- stances tending to show that there was in fact such a lottery. As we bave held above, the regularity of the organization of the Company, or the legality of the acceptance of the charter, or its combined legal existence, were wholly immaterial and aside from the question in this case. In the particulars thus excepted to we think the defendant bas no just ground of complaint. �13. The judge also charged the jury as follows: "If you find that the accused received an order for two half tickets, such as were in the letter, Exhibit No. 1, together with two dollars enclosed theref or, sent to Mm under a fictitious name ; and if you iind that Exhibit No. 1 was thereafter deposited in the post-office for mailing, and was a compliance with the order which the accused had received, those cireumstances, together with the undisputed fact that the accused was engaged in selling lottery tickets ; that the name used in the ��� �