seated in a happy
unconsciousness that all the company about her are rogues and
swindlers, so _he_ might afford some good sport, and assist to
replenish the famished exchequer. Generally speaking, however, the
play would not have kept the tables; and his lordship would have been
_in_ for the wax-lights, without the slightest chance of return.

As for his successor, "patience" would have been his only game; and
indeed it was one he had to practise whilst he remained amongst us.
Better days have now come: let us, therefore, inquire if a slight
modification of the act might not be effected with benefit, and an
amendment, somewhat thus, be introduced into the bill:--"That the
words 'Lord Mayor' be substituted for the words 'Lord Lieutenant;' and
that all the privileges, rights, immunities, &c., aforesaid, be
enjoyed by him to his sole use and benefit; and also that, in place of
the word 'Castle,' the word 'Mansion-house' stand part of this
bill"--thus reserving to his lordship all monopoly in games of chance
and address, without in anywise interfering with such practices of the
like nature exercised by him elsewhere, and always permitted and
conceded by whatever government in power.

Here, my dear countrymen, is no common suggestion. I am no prophet,
like Sir Harcourt Lees; but still I venture to predict, that this
system once legalised at the Mayoralty, the tribute is totally
unnecessary. The little town of Spa, with scarce 10,000 inhabitants,
pays the Belgian government 200,000 francs per annum for the liberty:
what would Dublin--a city so populous and so idle? only think of the
tail!--how admirably they could employ their little talent as
"bonnets," and the various other functionaries so essential to the
well-being of a gambling-house; and, lastly, think of great Dan
himself, with his burly look, seated in civic dignity at the green
cloth, with a rake instead of a mace before him, calling out, "Make
your game, gentlemen, make your game"--"Never venture, never
win"--"Faint heart," &c., &c.

How suitable would the eloquence that has now grown tiresome, even at
the Corn Exchange, be at the head of a gaming-table; and how well
would the Liberator conduct a business whose motto is so admirably
expressed by the phrase, "Heads, _I_ win; tails, _you_ lose." Besides,
after all, nothing could form so efficient a bond of union between the
two contending parties in the country as some little mutual territory
of wickedness, wher