at once a very Croesus, and the worldly-minded parent bestowed his
daughter and his blessing on the successful gambler, who, by the way,
never purchased his own ticket, but always had it bequeathed to him as a
legacy. Alas, lottery-tickets, like wealthy uncles and places under
government, have gone out of date. The fond glance of memory turns in
vain towards the good old times, when the lottery was in its glory. It
is, however, some comfort to reflect, that if, as devout Catholics
assert, the Papacy is eternal, then in Rome, at least, lotteries are
eternal also. In truth, the lottery is a great, I might almost say _the_
great Pontifical institution. It is a trade not only sanctioned, but
actively supported, by the Government. Partly, therefore, as a matter of
literary interest, and partly as a curious feature in the economics of
the Papal States, I have made various personal researches into the
working of the lottery-system, and shall endeavour to give the
theoretical not the practical result of my investigations; the latter
result being, I am afraid, of a negative description.

Murray, who knows everything, states that in Rome alone fifty-five
millions of lottery-tickets are taken annually. Now though I would much
sooner doubt the infallibility of the Pope than that of the author of the
most invaluable of hand-books, I cannot help thinking there is some
strange error in this calculation. The whole population of Rome is under
180,000, and therefore, according to this statement, every living soul in
the city, man, woman, priest and child, must, on an average, take one
ticket a day, to make up the amount stated. If, however, without
examining the strict arithmetical correctness of this statement, you take
it, just as the old Romans used "sex centi" for an indefinite number, as
an expression of the fact, that the number of the lottery-tickets taken
annually in Rome is quite incredible, you will not be far wrong. During
the year 1858 the receipts of the lottery (by which I suppose are meant
the net, not the gross receipts) are officially stated to have been
1,181,000 scudi, or about an eleventh of the whole Pontifical revenue. It
is true the expenses of the Lottery are charged amidst the state
expenditure for the year at 788,987 scudi, but then a large portion of
this expense is directly repaid to the Government, and the remainder is
paid to the lottery-holders, who all have to pay heavily for the
privilege of ke