Leaves from a Madeira Garden 



in full swing. It is called euphemistically the 

 " Strangers' Club," a name less rich in poetic 

 fancy than the " Sea-bathino- Establishment " of 

 Monte Carlo, but appropriately suggesting to 

 the reflective mind that the taking-in of 

 strangers is its business. Its very modest 

 subscription is naturally inadequate to keep up 

 the house and gardens, or to pay for its excel- 

 lent music, and its frequent balls and entertain- 

 ments. The deficiency is very comfortably 

 provided by the game of Roulette. Such games 

 are, I understand, as illegal in Portugal as in 

 England ; but in this delightfully easy-going 

 country it seems the business of no one to 

 enforce an inconsiderate law, and if such a 

 functionary exists he is easily convinced that it 

 is best to leave things alone. It is not for us 

 English to throw stones. We have a beautiful 

 system of laws intended to repress betting, and 

 we know the result. And does not " the 

 City" exist that, under the skilfully designed 

 semblance of a real transaction, we may be 

 enabled to satisfy our gambling propensities in 

 buying stocks and shares and wheat and cotton 

 without paying for them, or in selling such 

 things without possessing them, and indeed 



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