Page:Harvard Law Review Volume 9.djvu/423

LOTTERY BONDS. 395 essential conditions of the authorization, since it allowed a small capitalist, by spending an insignificant sum, to take part in the drawings by lot, a privilege for which the Legislative Body had imposed the necessity of a serious outlay. But this opinion is now abandoned, and it is absolutely estabhshed by the courts and by text-writers, that the sale of lottery bonds by instalments is not forbidden by law. The division made infringes no essential con- dition. It in no way tampers with the value of the bond. The price alone is divided, and contracting parties are always at liberty to arrange the manner of payment. The sale of lottery bonds by instalments is never lawful unless genuine and straightforward. If this manner of sale is valid under the penal law, it is simply because it does not, a priori, infringe the essential conditions of the law of authorization. It is usually vitiated, however, by the insertion of certain accessory clauses which have the effect of changing the legality of the transaction. The limits of this present essay do not permit us to give a sketch" of these different clauses, which have occasioned heated polemics in theoretical discussions and provoked innumerable judicial deci- sions. It must now suffice to say that such abuses have arisen in the course of sales of lottery bonds by instalments, that the French Parliament is considering a statement of law upon the subject, which is to appear soon, and will cover sales of this kind with a strict legal regulation, — too strict to suit many. (3) Sales of lottery bonds 071 approval (a optiori). — The sale of lottery bonds on approval is a special kind of transfer which appeared in France about 1883, and which is frequently employed there, especially at Paris and Marseilles. By virtue of this sale, effected a few days before a drawing of lots takes place, the pur- chaser can at his pleasure in the five or ten days which follow the drawing either keep the bond by paying the price agreed upon, or renounce his purchase. At the same time he abandons to the seller as forfeit the small sum originally paid on the face price of the bond when the bargain was arranged. The option thus left to the buyer has given the name to the contract. Certain writers have asserted that this is a transaction falling under the prohibi- tion of the law of 1836. This contract, they say, simply disguises the sale of the lottery chance alone, separated from the interest and repayment of the capital. We however entertain the con- trary opinion. It is merely a fair and open sale of the integral title without impairment. The purchaser becomes the owner of 52