states, the
singular rules and regulations regarding the gaming-table? If so, you
will have found how the entire property of the "_rouge et noir_" and
"_roulette_" is vested in certain individuals in return for very
considerable sums of money, paid by them to the government, for the
privilege of robbing the public. These honourable and estimable people
farm out iniquity as you would do your demesne, selling the cheatable
features of mankind, like the new corn law, on the principle of "a
general average." The government of these states, finding--no uncommon
thing in Germany--a deficiency in their exchequer, have hit upon this
ready method of supplying the gap, by a system which has all the
regularity of a tax, with the advantage of a voluntary contribution.
These little kingdoms, therefore, of some half-dozen miles in
circumference, are nothing more than _rouge et noir_ tables, where the
grand duke performs the part of croupier, and gathers in the gold.
Now, I am convinced that something of this kind was intended by our
lawgivers in the act of parliament to which I have alluded, and that
its programme might run thus--that "as the office of Lord Lieutenant
in Ireland is one of great responsibility, high trust, and necessarily
demanding profuse expenditure; and that, as it may so happen that the
same should, in the course of events, be filled by some Whig-Radical
viceroy of great pretension and little property; and that as the
ordinary sum for maintaining his dignity may be deemed insufficient,
we hereby give him the exclusive liberty and privilege of all games of
chance, skill, or address, in the kingdom of Ireland, whether the same
may be chicken-hazard, blind hookey, head and tail, &c.--thimble-rigging
was only known later--to be enjoyed by himself only, or by persons
deputed by him; such privilege in nowise to extend to the lords
justices, but only to exist during the actual residence and presence
of the Lord Lieutenant himself."--_See the Act._

I cannot but admire the admirable tact that dictated this portion of
legislation; at the same time, it does seem a little hard that the
chancellor, the archbishop, and the other high functionaries, who
administer the law in the absence of the viceroy, should not have been
permitted the small privilege of a little unlimited loo, or even
beggar-my-neighbour, particularly as the latter game is the popular
one in Ireland.

There would seem, too, something like an appreciation of