TMI Blog1931 (4) TMI 19X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e authorized by this or some other Act of Parliament to be sold,............such person or persons shall, for every such offence, forfeit and pay the sum of fifty pounds,..........'. Two persons apparently desired to sell tickets in an Irish lottery. For some reason they do not propose to do it themselves; they propose to form a private company to do it, namely, the Irish Hospital (Sweeps), Ltd. It is merely a conjecture, but, as the punishment for being a rogue and vagabond does not apply to a company, I expect they do not want to run the risk themselves of being prosecuted as rogues and vagabonds, and think they can escape that by forming a company. They go to the Registrar of Joint Stock Companies with their memorandum and articles of as ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... nt." That appears to me to be an epigrammatic and correct way of putting the reasons which I have expressed in slightly longer language; and while I listened with the greatest interest to counsel's historical researches into lotteries between the year 1780 and 1823, it seems to me that they have nothing to do with the construction of the plain words of this Act of Parliament which is still in force. The appeal, therefore, must be dismissed with costs. Greer, L.J. I agree. The question involved in this appeal is whether the persons who are proposing to register this company are persons associated for a lawful purpose, and that question involves an interpretation of section 41 of the Lotteries Act, 1823. At one time I thought there might ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... argument, notwithstanding its length and the many researches into which it has gone, has not satisfied me that there is anything to put an interpretation on the section in question other than that which is apparent by reason of its words. I agree that this appeal should be dismissed with costs. Slesser, L.J. I agree. The interpretation which has been placed upon the Companies Act shows that companies cannot be formed for any purpose the carrying out of which necessarily involves an offence against the general law. That matter has been discussed in the case of R. v. Registrar of Joint Stock Companies; Bowen, Ex-parte [1914] 3 K.B. 1161; 84 L.J. K.B. 229; 112 L.T. 38; 30 T.L.R. 707, and in Bowman v. Secular Society [1917] A.C. 40 ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... y or under, and in accord with this Constitution." The Irish Free State has set up a Constitution, and the result of the working of the Constitution, among other matters, has been the passing of the Public Charitable Hospitals (Temporary Provisions) Act, 1930, which, by section 3, enables the Minister to sanction schemes for lotteries or sweepstakes, as they are called, in Ireland, which, notwithstanding anything to the contrary contained in any other Act of Parliament, he may say shall be lawful in Ireland. That has been done, but it still remains for counsel to satisfy the Court that the prohibition contained in section 41 of the Lotteries Act of 1823, which forbids the sale of tickets in lotteries in England, has been in any way legalise ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... reafter the phrase "Act of Parliament" means the Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom. Now, therefore, looking at the Act of 1823, section 41, it is clear to my mind that the words "Act of Parliament" there mean the Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom, and although it is true that in 1922 an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom set up a Legislature under the Irish Free State Constitution Act in Ireland, yet it did nothing to alter the meaning of the words "Act of Parliament" contained in the Act of 1823, section 41. I think, therefore, it is impossible to argue that the Irish Act of Parliament is an Act of Parliament within the meaning of that section and it therefore follows that no Act of Parliament within the meaning of that se ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
|
