Volume II Part 77 (1/2)
I took the book and read, Lottery consisting of ninety tickets, to be drawn every ave him back the book and said, with the utmost calmness,
”I confess, sir, that is exactly my idea”
”You have been anticipated, then; the project is by M de Calsabigi here”
”I a anticipated, but to find that we think alike; but may I ask you why you have not carried out the plan?”
”Several very plausible reasons have been given against it, which have had no decisive answers”
”I can only conceive one reason against it,” said I, coolly; ”perhaps the king would not allow his subjects to ga will let his subjects gaamble?”
”I wonder how anyone can have any doubt on that score, as the winners are certain of being paid”
”Let us grant, then, that they will gamble: how is the money to be found?”
”How is thein the world All you want is a decree in council authorizing you to draw on the treasury All I want is for the nation to believe that the king can afford to pay a hundred millions”
”A hundred millions!”
”Yes, a hundred millions, sir We must dazzle people”
”But if France is to believe that the Crown can afford to pay a hundred millions, it must believe that the Crown can afford to lose a hundredto believe that? Do you?”
”To be sure I do, for the Crown, before it could lose a hundred millions, would have received at least a hundred and fifty millions, and so there need be no anxiety on that score”
”I am not the only person who has doubts on the subject Youan enor?”
”Certainly, sir, but between possibility and reality is all the region of the infinite Indeed, I ood fortune if the Croere to lose largely on the first drawing”
”A piece of bad fortune, you mean, surely?”
”A bad fortune to be desired You know that all the insurance companies are rich I will undertake to prove before all the ain one in five in this lottery That is the secret You will confess that the reason ought to yield to a mathematical proof?”
”Yes, of course; but how is it that the Castelletto cannot guarantee the Crown a certain gain?”
”Neither the Castelletto nor anybody in the world can guarantee absolutely that the king shall alin What guarantees us against any suspicion of sharp practice is the drawing once a month, as then the public is sure that the holder of the lottery h to express your sentiments on the subject before the council?”
”I will do so with much pleasure”
”You will answer all objections?”
”I think I can proive uaranteed a reasonable profit”