Ir was a good inspiration that suggested the little volume whose title we have placed above. Cases were continually occurring in which men disputed certain points, on the assumption that the rules which applied to the old game of Long Whist were not applicable to the new game; and others were disposed to quote the practice of particular clubs as an authority; so that some standard was really necessary, to which all great Whist-playing communities might conform, and to whose dicta all should subscribe.

The present volume has fulfilled this requisite, and we have no doubt that it will be accepted, not only by the long list of clubs which have already given in their adhesion, but largely wherever this delightful game is played and enjoyed.

Nothing is more common in the world than the censure which indiscriminately and unjustly classes all manner of "Games" under one head, and distributes the same measure of condemnation to each. It would be good service to etymology, as well as to ethics, if people would distinguish between gamester and gambler-between the man who plays for the pleasure imparted by an intellectual pastime, and him who sits down to play as a pecuniary speculation.

The non-playing community will make no difference between these, and are prone to confound the Chess and the Whist player with the votary of Rouge-et-noir and the follower of Roulette. This is illiberal, and it is unwise.

Now, a game of skill and address is to a game of pure hazard pretty much as the legitimate pleasures of life are to the unlicensed excesses of the debauchee. In the one case there are laws to which you must conform-obligations to

fulfil-limits to observe penalties to submit to. There is, in fact, a little code to which you must yield obedience, instilling in all its details those lessons which in the larger affairs of life are no mean aids to civilisation. Besides there are the necessities for a mental effort, for watchfulness, caution, memory, promptitude, and readi ness. In the game of chance none of these are called for. He who can go through the manual exploit of depositing his stake is the equal of the best around the table.

Whist, in a pre-eminent degree, exacts the exercise of a large range of faculties and faculties, too, of a very varied and dissimilar order. It is very common to hear a preference accorded to Chess over Whist, on the ground that in Chess no element of chance enters, and that the whole conduct of the game is resolvable to mathematical certainty. Now, it is precisely for this very difference that we claim the superiority for Whist. It is in this same element of chance that Whist so closely resembles real life. It is in this same element of what may or may not be, that we have a field for the exercise of those powers which calculate probabilities, and argue from the likely or unlikely, and draw conclusions from premises not absolutely certain, but still as probable as are the greater number of the unaccomplished events in our actual lives. If there be a game which sets the fine edge on the reasoning powers of the man of the world-of him who is to be conversant with the daily incidents of life, and those who set them in motion-it is Whist. Show me a first-rate Whist-player, and I will engage to show you a man, to whose knowledge of the world, to whose tact, to whose

powers of computing the cost of any action, and striking the balance of advantage or disservice it might entail, you may apply in a moment of doubt or difficulty. Show me a first-rate Whist-player, and you show me one who combines patient powers of a judicial order with the energetic rapidity of a man of action; who has the keenest appreciation of the laws of evidence, along with the steady courage of the soldier; and in whose balanced intellect no undue prominence is ever accorded to one class of faculties at the expense of another.

I know that a great many people excellent people, estimable in every way-will regard what I say here as exaggeration, and will exclaim, "What absurdity it is to talk of such qualities as these being enlisted in a mere game!" A mere game! And what, may I ask, are the daily-recurring difficulties of life but mere games? Is not every operation of commerce, every speculation, every lawsuit, a game? Is not every occasion in which man is pitted against man, and intelligence pitted against intelligence, a game? Does not Fortune deal out cards to us every day we live? and are we not triumphant in our trumps or manfully struggling under the difficulties of a bad hand?

Don't despise the faculties employed upon a mere game, unless you be prepared to disparage the qualities which are daily exercised in the great affairs of life. They are precisely the self-same forces, though they be swayed with differ

ent intentions.

Games are, I insist, far more intellectual as pastimes, better as stimulants, better as reliefs to the actual drudgery of life, than the great majority of those " conversations" which people assume to be the acmé of social culture, and which are for the most part made up of repetitions and reiterations. It is often of great consequence to relieve an overworked brain-to relax the tension of over-strained

faculties. Absolute rest will not suffice. There is a certain amount of intellectual activity required; and just as we see that a man can sit longer without fatigue in a spring-carriage than he could rest in the best-stuffed arm-chair, so it is there is more real rest imparted by moderate occupation than by total inertness. A game will do this-a game will call for a certain activity of mind stimulated by a constant interest; and it is in the alternate play of occupation and amusement a really active mind will take its most pleasurable repose. The rapid results keep the faculties awake and in the interest of the play; a man learns to forget what all the solicitude of friends, and all the blandishments of beauty, were not able to banish from his brooding imagination.

Of the little Treatise on Whist,' by J. C., included in the volume, I have not much to say; but it is almost all praise. The hints he gives as to leads and the call for trumps are good, and will be valuable to young players. I do not completely agree in his comparative estimate of French and English play, and I opine that the Jockey Club in Paris has players of a certainly more brilliant order than any we can match against them in our country. In the Dummy Game the Germans are unquestionably our superiors. Both French and German are bolder than we are, more prone to play out trumps, and start earlier in "stride," so to say, than we do, who usually keep the "rush" for the end of the game, and are satisfied with scoring the trickwinning the "heat" where we ought to have won the "race."

The notion of "first saving the game before you think of winning it" is totally subversive of all that combination by which a really good player manages to play out in imagination two or three different issues to his "hand" before he deposits a card on the table. He who cannot do this, and who cannot do

it as rapidly, as instinctively, as he arranges his cards in his hand, is no Whist-player.

Nor is the dashing character of the French game so hazardous as men deem it generally. The frank lead of trumps is just as often security as rashness; and particularly is this the case when the player, perceiving that his own share of the combat must be that of a subordinate, at once devotes his whole strength to the support of his stronger partner. In this quick, almost instinctive appreciation of the part assigned to him by fortune, the French player is vastly superior to the English. Your French partner's lead is a candid declaration of what amount of strength he can contribute to the struggle. He says-" Count upon me for this; do not depend on me for that." Your own fault must it be if you have to complain afterwards of disappointment.

Since Deschapelles there has been no such player in Europe, except perhaps a Greek-a M. Kalergi, the brother of the Minister of that name. His play, I am convinced, has no equal amongst the present race of Whisters. It combined every quality of intrepidity and caution, and had, besides, a recuperative power, by which, when he discovered a particular line of attack or defence impracticable, he adopted another with instantaneous rapidity, and often with such adroitness, too, as to mislead the adversary, who still believed him in pursuit of his former intention.

Another great gift was his which was to measure-and almost in a moment—the capacity of his partner; to divine all his peculiarities, and to note all the prejudices he possessed. His power of adapting himself to the ever-varying caprices of his partners was an exhibition of mental dexterity that resembled the skill of an Indian juggler with his balls. This, how ever amusing to witness, conveyed no teaching to the Whist-player

who looked over him-no more than the skill of a particular physician in his detection of disease advances the science of medicine: these things belong to the individual; they are not a portion of the art.

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C. very justly observes that there is a wide difference between the English and French schools of whist; but I am disposed to think that he has not accorded its full meed of praise to the latter, and I protest strongly against that middle course he would adopt between the two systems. The French game is unquestionably bold-it is bold in attack and bold in defence; but there is this to be said for the system of playing out trumps, that, as no amount of foresight will enable a man to say when a suit may not be ruffed," the exhaustion of trumps, in removing that difficulty, enables a skilful player to make more and more daring finesses" than he could possibly have attempted were trumps still held in hand. This of course is a subordinate reason for the trump game, but it constitutes a mode of play which I have seen a French whister employ with immense success. Leading trumps, too, from a weak trump hand, is in some cases an admirable game. Your highest trump, a knave or even a ten, will frequently prove the "complement" of your partner's hand; for, as every one who has played much will acknowledge, your weak suit will, in three cases out of five at least, be the strong one of your partner. It is essential, too, that your partner, with a strong suit, should not be left to lead up to you with a weak one. By the avowal made in your lead of a ten or a nine, he will understand this at once, and immediately measure his ambition in the game by the amount of his own strength.

C. says nothing on a line of play that French and Russian players frequently practise, which is to induce the adversary to attack by some simulated weakness. In this

way, for instance, with a strong hand in trumps and a long suit, I have seen a Singleton played, which being followed by a ruff, the adversary at once led trumps, and in this way fell into an ambuscade. Kalergi practised this; but I suspect he did it chiefly to vary his game, so that he defeated all the efforts of those who would try to learn his peculiar mode of play.

C., however, insists so much on the clear understanding that should subsist between partners, that it is highly probable he would reject whatever seemed to invalidate this great precept. It is well, however, to bear in mind, that every indication you convey to your partner of your strength or of your intentions, is at once understood by your adversaries, who are as two to one against you in the mystery; and there are times-I will not say that they occur in every game but there are moments when your partner is so palpably unable to assist you, it would be a mere waste of candour on your part to take him into your confidence, at the cost of exposing yourself to the adversary. I do not wish to occupy space by an illustration, but every whistplayer will be able to supply one. I wish C. had devoted a chapter, or part of one, to an enumeration of the most glaring faults which bad players commit. I am certain it would go further to correct the ordinary transgressions than all the precepts that ever were given for good play. In fact, laws are always denunciatory. Men are not advised to be virtuous; they are not warned not to be wicked.

I am confident I should not have had a grey hair in my head these ten years to come, if it were not for that wretch who refused to lead back my trump in order that he might make one miserable trick by a ruff. The "second murderer," too, who never will lead twice for the same suit, has aged me more than all my gout.

As to the fatuous imbecile that,

when he plays a card, always looks at his partner, and never once at the board, there is not a club in Europe without some dozens of them. And are they not a heavy infliction! There are others who cannot be taught the manual part of the game, but are constantly dropping cards, playing out of turn, or, heresy of heresies, mistaking the trump! The defaulter is posted who merely defrauds you of your money; and here is a fellow who impairs your digestion, sets your nerves ajar, and actually curdles the whole milk of your existence, suffered to go free and unpunished!

There is a moral obliquity in certain whist-players far more significant than all the elevations on the frontal bone, or the bumps on the occiput. How I wish I could draw attention to this point—how I wish I could make men alive to the fact that whist has its ethical side; and that, as an indication of a man's nature, of his tendencies to hope or to despair of his self-reliance, of his boldness, of his timidity, or dependence, there never yet was invented a gauge to be compared to this game. Don't sneer at this, and say, Pshaw! it is a mere pastime : so it is, but it is a pastime every step of which unfolds a trait; and as an episode, a man's rubber is as complete as any incident that ever befell him.

There is no better remark in C.'s whole book than "The Americans rarely play the right card, if they have one to play which is likely to deceive everybody." O that Messrs Lincoln and Seward would meditate over this, and see that the little sport in trumps they tried in the Trent affair, and the false attempt to score honours where they had not held them, have so shown their hands that nothing they do hereafter will give them a character for fair-dealing and frankness!

It is not so easy to answer those who object to Whist on the score of its gambling tendencies, and that men occasionally convert it into a

positive career. But let us be candid: was there ever anything mortal which could not be abused? Do all men marry for love, or are there not three or four every year who basely sacrifice themselves for money? Have there not been soldiers who liked "loot"? and is not, generally speaking, a war in China more favourably regarded by the service than a campaign in New Zealand? I am afraid we should even find the sons of letters-ay, poets themselves—a little given to lucre if we pushed our inquiries in this direction; and neither husband, soldier, nor author should be set down as unworthy seekers after riches. Money was but an element in their temptation. Money, in short, typified success. When a man won -wife or odd trick as it might behe was paid; and very little confusion of mind was needed to mix up two pleasurable events and imagine them to be one. For myself I can honestly say, and I call upon my friends to corroborate me, that I scold my partner as virulently, and I invoke as many misfortunes on his head for his shortcomings, at sixpenny points, as if we were playing pounds, and twenty on the rubber.

ingenious, but certainly not difficult of solution. At the same time, one might demur to the fact as set down in the text, that as soon as the cards were exposed the player exclaimed, "Why, I shall make in all thirteen tricks!" It is hard to believe that any coup d'oeil should go thus far, though it is not by any means difficult to suppose that, after a brief computation, the result might be arrived at. Had the author given this problem as an illustration of the " pressure of the discard," instead of placing it at the end of his remarks on the Grand Coup, it would be perhaps more easy of solution by his readers.

Deschapelles's Grand Coup was an adaptation derived from his Chess-playing. It was the Gambit transposed into Whist.

I have for years been meditating a great book on Whist,-Whist treated, as a German would say, in all its many-sidedness. To accomplish this worthily, however, would require so many conditions of time, peace, tranquillity, retirement, with occasional intercourse with the world, that I half fear my span will run out without my being able to bequeath to posterity this testimony of my affectionate interest in their culture and in their enjoyment.

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