an equal wager that the ace lies single, either in your adversary's hand or partner's; in either of which cases it is bad play to put on your king; but if the queen of trumps is led, and you have the king, with only two or three trumps, it is then best to put on the king, because it is good play to lead from the queen and one small trump only: and should your partner have the knave, and your left-hand adversary hold the ace, you neglecting to put on the king lose a trick.

THE TEN OR NINE BEING TURNED UP ON YOUR RIGHT HAND.

1. SUPPOSE the ten turned up, and that you have king, knave, nine, and two small trumps, with eight other cards of no value, and that it is proper to lead trumps; in that case, begin with the knave, in order to prevent the ten from making a trick; and though it is but about 5 to 4 that your partner holds an honour, yet if that should fail, by finessing the nine on the return of trumps from your partner, you have the ten in your power.

2. The nine being turned up, and you have ten, eight, and two small trumps, by leading the ten, it answers the like purpose.

3. Make a wide difference between a lead of choice, and a forced lead of your partner's; because, in, the first case, he is supposed to lead. from his best suit, and finding you deficient in that, and not being strong enough in trumps, and not daring to force you, he then plays his next best suit; which demonstrates that he is weak in trumps; but should he persevere, by playing off his first lead, judge him strong in trumps, and play your game accordingly.

4. Nothing is more pernicious than to change often, because in every new suit you run the risk of giving your adversary the tenace; and, therefore, though you lead from a suit of which you have the queen, ten, and three small ones, and your partner puts on the nine only, in that case, if you should happen to be weak in trumps, and have no tolerable suit to lead from, it is best to pursue the lead of that suit by playing your queen, which leaves it in your partner's option whether he will trump or not, in case he has no more of that suit; but in your second lead, in case you should happen to have the queen or knave with one small card only of any other suit, it would be better to lead from your queen or knave, it being 5 to 2 that your partner has one honour at least in the same.

5. When you have ace, king, and one small card of any suit, with four trumps; if your righthand adversary leads that suit, pass it, because it is an equal wager that your partner has a better card in the same than the third hand; if so, you gain a trick; if otherwise, as you have four trumps, you may not lose, because you probably will have the long trump.

CAUTIONS NOT TO PART WITH THE COMMAND OF

YOUR ADVERSARY's great suit, &c.

1. In case vou are weak in trumps, and it does not appear your partner is strong in them, be cautious how you part with the command of your adversary's great suit; for suppose your adversary plays the ace of a suit of which you have the king, queen, and one small card only, and upon

playing the same suit again you put on your queen, which makes it almost certain to your partner that you have the king, and your partner refuses to that suit, do not play the king, because if the leader of that suit, or his partner, has the long trump, you risk losing three tricks to get one.

2. Suppose your partner has ten cards remaining, and it appears to you that they consist of trumps and one suit only; and you should have king, ten, and one small card of his strong suit, with queen and two small trumps; in this case, judge he has five cards of each, and therefore you ought to play out the king of his strong suit; and if you win that trick, next throw out the queen trumps; if that likewise comes home, proceed to play trumps: this method may be made use of at any score of the game, except at 4 and 9.

of

3. The Trump turned up to be remembered. It is necessary that the trump turned up should be remembered, both by the dealer and his partner. The dealer should always so place that card, as to be certain; for suppose it to be only a five, and that the dealer has two more, viz. the six and nine, if his partner trumps out with ace and king, he ought to play his six and nine; bè, cause supposing your partner had ace, king, and four small trumps, by knowing you have the five remaining, you may win many tricks.

4. Your right-hand adversary leads a suit of which you have the ten and two small ones; the third hand puts on the knave, your partner wins it with the king; when your adversary leads that suit again, and plays a small one, put on your ten, because it may save your partner's ace, upon supposition that your right-hand adversary led from the queen.

5. Suppose you have the best trump, and the

adversary A has one trump only remaining, and that it appears your adversary B has a great suit; in this case, though you permit A to make his trump, yet by keeping the trump in your hand, you prevent B from making his great suit; whereas, if you had taken out A's trump, it had made only one trick difference; but by this method you probably save three or four tricks.

VI. The following Case happens frequently.

That you have two trumps remaining when your adversaries have only one, and it appears your partner has one great suit; in this case always play a trump, because by removing the trump out of your adversary's hand, there can be no obstruction to your partner's suit.

7. Suppose you have three trumps when no one else has any, and have only four cards of any certain suit remaining; in this case play a trump, which shews your partner that you have all, and also gives a fair chance for one of your adversaries to throw away one card of the aforesaid suit; by which means, supposing that suit to have been once led, and one thrown away, makes five, four remaining in your hand makes nine, there being only four remaining between three hands, and your partner having an equal chance to hold a better card in that suit than the last player, it therefore follows that you have an equal chance to make three tricks, which probably could not otherwise have been done. 8. Suppose you have five trumps, and six small cards of any suit, and are to lead; then lead from that of which you have six, because, as you are deficient in two suits, your adversary will probably trump out, which is playing your own game; whereas, had you begun with playing trumps, they would force you, and consequently destroy your game.

1. IN trumps play the highest, unless you have ace, king, and queen; then play the lowest, in order to let your partner into the state of you game.

2. In suits not trumps, if you have sequence O1 king, queen, and knave, and two small ones; whether you are strong in trumps or not, it is best to begin with the knave, because, by getting the ace out of any hand, you make room for the whole suit.

3. In case you are strong in trumps, supposing you have sequence of queen, knave, ten; or knave, ten, nine, and two small cards of any suit; play the highest of the sequence, because, if either of the adversaries should trump that suit in the second round, you, by being strong, may fetch out their trumps, and make the remainder of that suit.

4. If you have a sequence of king, queen, knave, and one small card of any suit, whether you are strong in trumps or otherwise, play your king, and do the like by any inferior sequences, if you have only four of that suit in number.

5. But if you are weak in trumps, always begin with the lowest of the sequence, in case you have five in number; for, suppose your partner to have the ace of that suit, he then makes it; and if you have the ace and four small cards of any suit, and are weak in trumps, and led from that suit, play the ace; and if you are very strong in trumps, you may play your game as backward as you please; but if you are weak in trumps, you must play the reverse.

6. Being strong or weak in trumps means, if you