teboard wheels, heated plates, and heated rollers;
in such a way that the polish on the back may differ from that on the
face--since it is found that too equally polished surfaces do not slide
quite so readily over each other. Formerly, every pack of cards made in
England for home use paid a duty of one shilling, which duty was levied
on the ace of spades.

The maker engraved a plate for twenty aces of spades; the printing was
done by the government at Somerset House, and L1 was paid by the maker
for every sheet of aces so printed. The law is now altered. Card sellers
pay an annual license of 2s. 6d., and to each pack of cards is affixed a
three-pence stamp, across which the seller must write or stamp his name,
under a penalty of L5 for the omission.

The cardboard, when all the printing is finished, is cut up into
cards; every card is minutely examined, and placed among the 'Moguls,'
'Harrys,' or 'Highlanders,' as they are technically called, according to
the degree in which they may be faultless or slightly specked; and the
cards are finally made up into packs.'(64)

(64) Chambers's Cyclopaedia.

Machinery has been called into requisition in card-playing. In 1815 a
case was tried in which part of the debt claimed was for an instrument
to cut cards so as to give an unfair advantage to the person using it.
The alleged debtor had been most fortunate in play, winning at one time
L11,000 from an officer in India. For an exactly opposite reason another
machine was used in 1818 by the Bennet Street Club. It consisted of
a box curiously constructed for dealing cards, and was invented by an
American officer.

Another curious fact relating to cards is the duty derived from them.
In the year 1775 the number of packs stamped was 167,000, amounting to
between L3000 and L4000 duty. Lord North put on another sixpence. Of
course, a vast number of packs were smuggled in, paying no duty, as in
the case of tobacco, in all times since its fiscal regulations. In the
time of Pitt, 1789, L9000 were to be raised by an additional duty of
sixpence on cards and dice, consequently there must have been no less
than 360,000 packs of cards and pairs of dice stamped in the year 1788,
to justify the calculation--a proof that gaming in England was not on
the decline. In the year 1790, the duty on cards was two shillings per
pack, and on dice thirteen shillings per pair.

This duty on cards went on increasing its annual addition to the
revenue