"Such are the coat cards of this Republican pack. The numeral cards are the same as the old ones, with the exception of the Aces, which are surrounded by four fasces placed lozenge-wise, with these words: '_La Loi. Rép. Franç._;' the whole coloured blue. It is scarcely necessary to say that those ridiculous cards had not even a momentary vogue."[300] The coat cards of a Republican pack, of recent American manufacture, have been forwarded to me by a friend, resident at New York. From the name of the maker,--R. SAUZADE,--which occurs on the Ace of Spades, I am inclined to think that their invention is to be ascribed rather to a Frenchman than to an American. For the Kings we have: _Hearts_, WASHINGTON; _Diamonds_, JOHN ADAMS, the second President of the United States; _Clubs_, FRANKLIN; _Spades_, LA FAYETTE. For the Queens: _Hearts_, VENUS,--modestly concealing her charms with a mantle, in accordance with American notions of delicacy. _Diamonds_, FORTUNE; _Clubs_, CERES; _Spades_, MINERVA. The Knaves are represented by Four Indian chiefs. The figures appear to be engraved on copper, and are coloured. The marks of the suits are the same as those on the cards in common use in England. Those cards, I am informed, are held in no estimation by the card-players of America, who continue to prefer those of the old pattern.--The chief town in America for the manufacture of cards is Boston; whose discreet, meeting-going people seem to have no objection to make a profit by supplying the profane with the instruments of perdition. No cards of an "instructive" character have ever obtained popularity amongst regular card-players; for when people sit down to play at cards they do not like to have their attention withdrawn from the game by the historical or biographical reminiscences suggested by Coat cards, either containing portraits of distinguished characters, or commemorating remarkable events; and least of all can they bear that the heads of a sermon or moral lecture should be presented to them in the shape of the four cardinal virtues; which are just as appropriate in a pack of cards as they would be on the proscenium of her Majesty's Theatre. The best of the costume cards that I have seen are those designed by Armand Houbigant, a French artist, who named them "Cartes Royales," and obtained from Louis XVIII, a license to manufacture them for general use, in 1818. They did not, however, acquire any vogue, and are now seldom to be met with, except in the collections of amateurs of prints. The coat cards, which are etched, and delicately coloured by hand, display the costume of the French Court at four different periods. The characters represented are as follows.