of light literature to learn that, with the exception of the Napiers, scarcely any family has produced so continuous a series of remarkable men as that to which Richard Brinsley Sheridan owed his descent. For five generations-each succeeding each in the inalienable heritage of intelligence the Sheridans are noted in the biography of their country; Richard Brinsley only becoming more known than others because his career was more in the eye of the world. Did these five generations of men-poor, uninfluential, and, till lately, only remotely connected with titled races-owe to their own natural superiority, or not, the public mention thus accorded them?

It will, perhaps, seem trivial to mix with remarks on these greater lives any deprecation of attacks on myself; but, in one of the three abusive works which called forth this letter, the author has not even had patience to wait for the death of those she would assail, but presents us with scenes and interviews with the living; which, if all resemble the one she professes to have shared with me, might take their place among the "imaginary conversations of Walter Savage Landor." I have no recollection whatever of the author, or of hearing the stories she professes to have told me.

I could of my own knowledge contradict and disprove many of the assertions she makes respecting other persons, and many of the cruel anecdotes told of them. And I know not whether to smile or sigh when, after mentioning sundry reports to my prejudice, and then describing how she found me different from those reports, and how I received her "with frank and simple courtesy" (a painful lesson not to receive such persons at all), she nevertheless persists in believing the account she had heard to be correct, and my dissimilarity from that account to be a mere temporary suspension of evil!

This is the secret of all such biographies. "I MISJUDGED" is not the language possible to these greedy censors of their fellow-creatures. Rather, their language would be,-"Give us back our gross-painted wooden images; this

"marble sculpture is too pale for us; we know not what it means; it does "not embody life to our eyes. Give us "back our gilt, grinning, waggle-headed "Joss, with flags and beating of drums; we know not him you would present "to us, the ideal god of the hushed "and shadowy temple of genius. Give "us back (among the rest) our drunken, "swindling, drivelling SHERIDAN; we "will not consent to be contradicted, re“buked, and informed that the man we "have libelled as mean and monstrous in "all his actions, had common faults, like "common men,-but, shooting beyond "them in many great and noble qualities, "and in a surpassing ability of brain, "left a name to be remembered, and a "history which, if fairly written, would, "in spite of his misfortunes, be as just a 66 source of pride to his descendants, as the memory was to him of the usefully'occupied, intelligent, active-minded ge"nerations of men whom he happily "claimed as forefathers. We will not be "told this, even by those who belong "to him, and to whom both his faults "and his merits must be better known "than to strangers."

Such a history, nevertheless, I— Sheridan's grand-daughter-hope to supply. Not taken, like these poorly-concocted sketches, from sources whose "veracity" the authors have "never examined," but from sifted evidence and real matter. Not from repeated extracts copied out of one bookseller's preface into another; nor including such foolish forgeries as the "epistle from Miss Linley to a female friend," which is quoted by "Grace and Philip Wharton" but from family papers and royal and other letters in the actual possession · of the living representative of the Sheridans, the present member for Dorchester, a portion of which papers were in the hands of Tom Moore, for extract and guidance, while working (so unwil lingly as it now appears) at the Life he

undertook to execute.

I will conclude this protest in better words than my own; in words quoted from the remarks of that very old-fashioned biographer, Sir Robert Naunton, at the

close of his "Fragmenta Regalia," or "Notices of the Lives and Characters of Queen Elizabeth's Courtiers." And I quote him for the benefit of those authors who impudently affirm of a dead servant of the State, that he merited a felon's destiny, and of the Publisher who has thought fit to give so discreditable a memoir to the world.

Sir Robert Naunton speaks thus: "I have delivered up my poor essay. "I cannot say I have finished it, "for I know how defective and im"perfect it is. I took it in con"sideration how easily I might have “dashed into it much of the staine of pollution, and thereby have defaced "that little which is done; I professe I "have taken care to master my pen, "that I might not erre animo; or of set purpose discolour each or any of the parts thereof. . . that modesty in me forbids the defacements in men de"parted; their posterity yet remaining; ".. and I had rather incur the cen"sure of abruption, than to be conscious and taken in the manner, sinning by eruption, or trampling on the graves of “persons at rest, which, living, we durst

14

"not looke in their face, nor make our "addresses unto them, otherwise than "with due regard to their honour, and "with reverence to their vertues.”

So spake Sir Robert Naunton; writing of the reign of Queen Elizabeth: and I copy his true sentences as a rebuking lesson in this reign of Queen Victoria. The good old man has found his

66

place among the graves of persons at

rest;" but his noble rules survive : warning those who attempt the biographies of their superiors in intellect and fame, not to dash into such histories the easy "stain of pollution;" to master their 66 pen, so as not to err animo, or of set purpose,"-to avoid the "defacement of men departed, their posterity yet remaining," and to beware how they trample on the graves of those whom living they never would have dared to address, save with courtesy and due obeisance. Wishing his words what weight they may obtain among minds so inferior to his own,

I am, dear Sir,
Yours obliged,

CAROLINE NORTON.

The

WHO does not love diamonds? Where is there a mind in which the bare mention of them does not excite a pleasant emotion? Is there any one of rank too exalted to care for such baubles? highest potentates of the earth esteem them as their choicest treasures, and kingdoms have been at war for their possession; while there is none so low or so poor as to be unable to find pleasure in the admiration of their splendour. Shall we turn to the domain of intellect, where surely the gewgaws of ornament should be lightly esteemed? The diamond offers to the philosopher one of the most recondite and subtle problems that have ever engaged the human

mind; while the merest tyro in science may find in it the most instructive topics of study. Shall we look at it in an artistic point of view? The diamond is one of the most beautiful things in nature. No painter, were he ten times a Turner, could do justice to its effulgence; no poet, were he ten times a Shakspeare, could put its lustre into words. Light was the first and fairest gift of heaven to man; the diamond is fairer than light itself; it is light, only seven times beautified and refined. For one half the human race diamonds are delirium-the true eyes of the basilisk: their power over the sex we dare not do more than hint at, and the

As

woman who would profess herself indifferent to their fascination simply belies her feminine nature. One of the most extraordinary romances in the history of the world was all about a diamond necklace; and who would venture to number the true romances occurring every year of our lives in which diamonds take part? regards the less decorative sex, the diamond forms altogether an exception to the usual idea of the propriety of ornament. A man who bedizens himself with gold or jewels in general is rightly pronounced an empty fop; but the wearing of a fine diamond will only mark its possessor as having a superior taste for what is most admirable and beautiful among the productions of nature. The minerals we call gems, jewels, "precious" stones, par excellence, are the most noble objects of inorganic creation; and the diamond is the queen of them all.

Let us then have a chat about Diamonds, which will interest everybody.

The localities where diamonds have hitherto been found, are Central India, Sumatra, Borneo, the Ural mountains, Australia, some parts of North America, and the Brazils; but the first and last sources only have been of any great extent. Down to a comparatively late period the continent of India was the only district of any importance, whence diamonds were obtained. The principal regions producing them were the high valleys of the Pennar near Cuddapah, and of the Kistna near Ellora (and not far from the hill fort of Golconda, the name usually associated with these ancient and rich mines), as also a rude, little known, mountainous district, containing the sources of Nerbudda and Sone; and a range of hills in Bundelkund, between the latter river and the Sonar. The produce of these mines was enormous, both in regard to number and size. One of the Mohammedan Emperors, who died at the end of the twelfth century, after a long reign of plunder, is stated to have amassed in his treasury 400lbs. weight of diamonds alone. In later times, however, the pro

duce from this part of the world has gradually fallen off, and is now entirely superseded by the more recently discovered mines of the Brazils.

The existence of these was revealed to the eastern world by an accident in the year 1727. A Portuguese of the name of Bernardino Fonseca Lobo, when at the gold mines of Minas Geraes, saw the miners using, as card counters, small stones which they said were found in the gold washings, and which he, having seen similar ones in the East Indies, conjectured to be rough diamonds. He brought a quantity to Lisbon, where his suspicion was confirmed, and public attention was at once drawn to the rich discovery. The European dealers, who had hitherto obtained their stones from India, fearing that they would be depreciated in value, spread the report that the pretended Brazilian diamonds had been surreptitiously sent from Goa to South America; but the Portuguese soon demonstrated their authenticity, and turned the tables upon the merchants, by actually sending them to Goa, and selling them in India as native produce. The discovery once made, the sources of supply were soon found, and worked extensively, and proved very productive. The stones abound more or less on the great north and south ranges of the country between 13 and 21 south latitude; but the principal working, so long known as the diamond district, and in which the town of Diamantina lies, is a high, mountainous, and sterile tract of country, situated between the heads of the rivers Doce, Arassuahy, Jequetinhonha, and the great river of San Francisco. The ancient province of Bahia has also more lately become one of the principal sources. In 1843 a mulatto miner, who had gone alone into the interior to search for new washings, was working up to his ankles in water, in the bed of a stream at Sincora, in this province, when, dropping the end of his crowbar, to rest himself, on the ground below, he was somewhat surprised at hearing it sound hollow. He repeated the blow a second and a third time,

when the bar fell through. He put his hand into the hole, and pulled out a handful of diamonds. Elated with his discovery he returned home, and offered the stones for sale to some of the parties with whom he had been formerly engaged. As the diamonds were of a different quality and shape from any they had seen before, they taxed him with having discovered a new mine, which for some time he strongly denied; but, on being thrown into prison on the charge of stealing the diamonds, he confessed his discovery, and, on promise of making it known, was released. The hole he had broken into produced alone ten pounds of superior stones, worth probably more than 100,000l. in their rough state; and, on the neighbourhood being searched, the produce was so abundant, that six or eight months afterwards, from 10,000 to 15,000 people had collected on the spot, and in the first two years it is supposed nearly 600,000 carats were extracted, to the value of above half a million of money an influx into the market, which for a time very seriously depreciated the value. This circumstance, however, combined with the increased difficulty of extraction, the unhealthiness of the climate, and the high prices of provivisions, soon checked the production, and brought matters again to a more normal state. Since this time another new mine has been discovered, producing good stones, and the diamondbearing district is so extensive as to remove any fear of speedy exhaustion.

The total production of diamonds from the Brazilian mines has been estimated up to the year 1850 at upwards of 10,000,000 carats, or above two tons; and valued at 16,000,000l. sterling. At some seasons the general richness of the ground has been marvellous; after a rain the children would seek gold in the gutters, and often find large quantities; diamonds have been found in the vegetable roots in the gardens, and in stones carelessly thrown about the road; even the fowls would pick up diamonds.

The prevailing rocks in the diamond districts are the same as the usual au

riferous strata, i.e., chiefly varieties of metamorphic mica schist, occasionally intersected with irregular quartz veins. The matrix in which the stones actually lie is a mineral called Itacolumite, from the mountain Itacolumi, in Brazil, where it was first discovered. It is a silicious conglomerate, cemented together with ferruginous matter, and appears to have undergone plutonic action. The diamonds lie often imbedded in flaky portions of this material, like the well-known specimens of garnets in mica schist. In some parts of the Brazils the stones have been sought to some small extent by working the original vein in the rocks; but this has been troublesome and expensive, and recourse is had in preference to the alluvial beds of streams and rivers, where the diamonds are brought down with the detritus from the hills above. These water-courses have been always considered the most productive in fine stones, as well as the most profitable in working. Gold dust, and some few other stones, are found along with the diamonds, but the latter always form the principal object. The colour, crystallization, and quality of the stones, are generally much alike in the same district, but the size varies considerably, large and small being found all together. The great majority of stones found are of small size; it is said that only about one in ten thousand will exceed, when cut, ten carats in weight, and hence the disproportionate increase in value of large sized stones.

The Brazilian mines were formerly worked by government; but bad management and the extensive system of robberies practised by all classes concerned, caused this plan to fail, and they are now farmed out to private individuals, who carry on the workings at their own risk and profit. Slave labour is still employed, but all possible precautions are taken to prevent dishonesty. Thefts are severely punished, and rewards are offered for integrity and success in working. The slave who finds a diamond of 17 carats, is crowned with a wreath of flowers, and led in procession to the overseer, who gives him his freedom

accompanied with a new suit of clothes, and permission to work for his own profit; minor rewards are given for smaller stones.

The method of working for the stones is very simple. The streams are diverted, and the water exhausted as much as possible from the beds by pumping; the gravel and alluvial soil are then excavated and washed in troughs by means of currents of water; the earthy particles being first carried away, the remaining gravel is carefully searched for diamonds, which are easily recognised by those acquainted with them. The process of working is carried on as long as the dry weather lasts, namely, from April to the middle of October, all vestiges of the diggings being soon destroyed by the succeeding heavy rains. All the work is done by hand, no machinery having been hitherto found to answer.

Diamonds are usually found in crystalline forms-principally six, eight, and twelve sided, called by mineralogists the cube, the octohedron, and the rhombic dodecahedron; the two latter forms being the most common. In the rough state the stones are semi-transparent, but quite devoid of brilliancy; much resembling small pieces of gum-arabic. Experienced persons can, however, in this stage, easily judge of what their future quality and value will be.

The rough diamonds are transmitted by the owner to the coast, and shipped, generally, at Rio Janeiro, to merchants in Europe; by far the greater part coming to London. These merchants again sell them to other houses, whose business it is to get them cut, and so to give them the precious brilliancy which is their principal characteristic.

The art of cutting diamonds into a regular shape is of comparatively modern invention; they were long worn in their natural state, or only cleaned and polished. It appears, during the fourteenth century, some attempts were made to cut them into regular forms, but without any view to the improvement of their brilliancy; and it was only in the year 1456, that a certain Louis van Berquen, of Bruges, discovered the principle of

cutting facets upon them, on which their lustre, as now known, so much depends. Cardinal Mazarin, about 1650, invented the perfect form of the brilliant, and had twelve large diamonds of the French crown cut into this shape, which has ever since been acknowledged the best possible for exhibiting the beautiful optical properties of the stone.

Diamond cutting, in the present day, is almost exclusively done by Jews at Amsterdam, where large diamond mills have been established; and it is calcu lated that 10,000 out of the 28,000 persons of the Jewish persuasion living in that city are dependent directly or indirectly on this branch of industry.* One of the largest establishments is that of Messrs. Coster, in the Zwanenburg Straat, who use steam-power to drive their machines, and employ from 200 to 300 hands.

The process of cutting the diamonds is as follows:-The rough stone is first given into the hands of an experienced workman, who examines its natural form, and determines what general shape and size it can most advantageously be made to assume. Having settled this in regard to two diamonds, he beds each of them in a mass of cement placed at the end of a piece of wood of a convenient size for handling, and then proceeds to rub the two stones one against the other, on the principle of "diamond cut diamond," changing from time to time the parts acted on, and so bringing both stones gradually into the form he desires. The mutual abrasion of the two stones produces diamond powder, which is carefully preserved for the subsequent operations. When the diamond has received its general shape, it is sent into the mill to be finished, by cutting upon it the numerous small angular "facets," as they are termed, which make up the surface. This is done by exposing the stone to the action of diamond powder

The writer had lately the advantage of visiting the Amsterdam diamond works, along with Professor Tennant, one of our best English connoisseurs in precious stones, and to whose kindness he is indebted for much of the information in the present paper. See also Kluge's "Handbuch der Edelsteinkunde."