o distribute, and
then casting them to the crowd to be scrambled for.[A] On some of these
shells and billets were inscribed the names of slaves, precious vases,
costly dresses, articles of silver and gold, valuable beasts, etc.,
which became the property of the fortunate persons who secured the
billets and shells. On others were written absurd and useless articles,
which turned the laugh against the unfortunate finder. Some, for
instance, had inscribed upon them ten pieces of gold, and some ten
cabbages. Some were for one hundred bears, and some for one egg. Some
for five camels, and some for ten flies. In one sense, these were
lotteries, and the Emperors deserve all due credit for their invention.
But the lottery, according to its modern signification, is of Italian
origin, and had its birth in Upper Italy as early as the fourteenth or
fifteenth century. Here it was principally practised by the Venetians
and Genoese, under the name of _Borsa di Ventura_,--the prizes
consisting originally, not of money, but of merchandise of every
kind,--precious stones, pictures, gold and silver work, and similar
articles. The great difference between them and the ancient lotteries of
Heliogabalus and Nero was, that tickets were bought and prizes drawn.
The lottery soon came to be played, however, for money, and was
considered so admirable an invention, that it was early imported into
France, where Francis I., in 1539, granted letters-patent for the
establishment of one. In the seventeenth century, this "_infezione_," as
an old Italian writer calls it, was introduced into Holland and England,
and at a still later date into Germany. Those who invented it still
retain it; but those who adopted it have rejected it. After nearly three
centuries' existence in France, it was abolished on the 31st of
December, 1835. The last drawing was at Paris on the 27th of the same
month, when the number of players was so great that it became necessary
to close the offices before the appointed time, and one Englishman is
said to have gained a _quaterno_ of the sum of one million two hundred
thousand francs. When abolished in France, the government was drawing
from it a net revenue of twenty million francs.

In Italy the lottery was proscribed by Innocent XII., Benedict XIII.,
and Clement XII. But it was soon revived. It was not without vehement
opposers then as now, as may be seen by a little work published at Pisa
in the early part of the last century, e