§ MR. WHALLEYsaid, with reference to a Lottery publicly advertised to be drawn for on Saturday the 12th instant at Edinburgh, for the benefit of St. Vincent Roman Catholic School, to ask the Lord Advocate, Whether his attention has been drawn thereto, as being a violation of the Law respecting Lotteries; and what, if any, steps have been or will be taken by him to give effect to the Law in that behalf?
THE LORD ADVOCATE, in reply, stated that the statute under which such lotteries were punishable was one that permitted proceedings by a common informer. The course he had generally adopted in regard to these matters was to prosecute in cases where the lotteries were got up for private gain, but not in cases where they were promoted for charitable purposes. Whether that was a right distinction or not was a matter of opinion; but if it was not thought a proper course a common informer might at all times prosecute. It was right to say further that he did not think the law regarding lotteries should be made the subject of sectarian complaints. Lotteries, or at least what were said to be lotteries, wore resorted to by persons of all denominations; but most of the complaints within his knowledge had been mainly directed against those for Roman Catholic purposes.