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and only a very few are known to be in existence whose weight exceeds 100 carats. They are found chiefly in India, but also in Borneo, Siberia, and Brazil. By far the greater number found are small, and it has been calculated that the numerical proportion of those of larger size is not very different from the relative value they possess in the market.

"The cutting of diamonds is an art formerly practised in England, and the old English-cut diamonds of size that we occasionally meet with are highly valued; but, for some time past, almost the whole business of this kind has been transacted at Amsterdam. The work is effected by simple machinery, the grinding and cutting material being diamond-powder, either obtained by crushing stones of inferior quality or by rubbing one stone against another.

"Diamonds are generally set in silver, and with as little to distract the attention

from the lustre of the gem as the nature of the ornament will admit. Set in gold the effect is much diminished; but with rubies and sapphires there is generally nothing that can injure the lustre of the finer brilliants. Mr. Hope's diamond is set surrounded with smaller brilliants, and the effect is good.

"The shape of the Koh-i-noor diamond is that of a pear, or rather more oblong; and it would be much reduced in size if cut by a European diamond merchant. Its marketable value would, however, be increased, for the reason already given. It would probably become, if properly treated, one of the finest diamonds now in Europe. The Sea of Light, in the Indian collection, is a comparatively flat stone, and could be properly set only as a rose or table diamond. The surface exposed is, however, very large.

"Mr. Hope's blue diamond is most superb as well for form as color. Its color, especially, is unrivalled, and is that of the finest and most delicate sapphire. Its form is nearly square, and its depth considerable; but its lustre and brilliancy are beyond all description."

Among home topics of most interest, we have again to designate the closing concerts of JENNY LIND. She does not seem to lose with the lapse of time, or with the multiplicity of concerts. Enthusiasm is perhaps tranquillizing into a more steady and sober appreciation; yet even now her name and figure will call up a shout.

It appears that in virtue of the contract between herself and Mr. BARNUM, the concerts were to be discontinued after the number of sixty, one hundred, or one hundred and fifty, as the parties might determine. JENNY has decided upon the hundred, and

her labors, by the time this meets the eye of our readers, will be at an end.

It were a thankless and needless task to recapitulate what has been said in honor of the art, the bounty, and the attractiveness of this Swedish woman. Her triumphs are in the hearts of all who have listened, and in the ears of all who have heard mention of her.

"God bless her!" is the voice of the nation; and in our humble way we echo it here.

A word or two, however, of Mr. BARNUM. He has, it appears, organized a travelling menagerie, to follow in the wake of this pecuniary triumph with JENNY LIND. He has, furthermore, introduced the name of the modest, yet wonderful singer, in most shameless contact with his wax imagery, and men without arms; and, to complete the absurdity, has topped his flaming placards, with a portrait of

Himself!

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Alas for us, the result has falsified all our hopes! We could have tolerated his return to the Museum, and Toм THUMB ;-but to find him linking the name of the admired Swede into his list of shows, as if she were only one of his money-making puppets ;and to find his own picture adorning (?) the tale of the elephants and the monkeys, leaves us no room to hope for a reform, and demands of us more pity than our Christian spirit can find.

We should be gratified to learn that it was without Mr. BARNUM's cognizance that these things had been done.

But let us not forget the worthier matters with which we begun. JENNY LIND is to leave us; who will not bid her God speed 4 and remember long and warmly the charity which has touched our hearts, and the minstrelsy which has lifted our souls-to heaven.

THE BOOK WORLD.

We have marked for insertion in the Miscellany, some notice of the Guild of Art and

Literature, recently established in Great | (should any such arise) where an individual

Britain. Mr. BULWER has written a comedy in aid of the project; MACLISE has promised a picture; and numerous other prominent

artists and litterateurs have volunteered their aid. That our readers may have a more distinct idea of what is to be done, we extract for them a fragment from the prospectus issued by the manager.

"It is proposed to open, at a Life Office of acknowledged respectability and capital, a Branch Insurance and Provident Society, solely for the Professors of Literature and of Art.

"Within the former term are understood to be comprehended all writers, of either sex, of original works or dramas, or of not less than twenty original papers in Periodicals.* Within the latter, all Painters and Sculptors who make the Fine Arts their profession, and all Students of the Royal Academy of England, Scotland, or Ireland.

"This Society will embrace the several objects which the Members of a Profession may be most disposed to secure-such as life insurances, at rates of premium calculated as payable either for the whole term of life, or as altogether ceasing to be payable at a certain age; annuities to commence at a certain age; pensions to widows; payments destined to the education or provision of children, &c.

can prove that he has made every effort to insure his life, but cannot find acceptance at any Life Office, by reason of impaired health, or of advanced age, at the date of this prospectus.

"Each MEMBER will be required to give, either personally or by a proxy selected from Warden, three Lectures in each year-one the ASSOCIATES, with the approval of the in London, the other at the Mechanics' Institutes, or some public building suited for the purpose, in the principal provincial Towns, Considering the many duties, exacting time and attention that will devolve on the WARDEN, he will not be required to give more than one Lecture annually, (which if delivered by a proxy, he will, health permitting, be expected to compose himself,) and that in the Metropolis.

direction and control of the managing body "These Lectures will be subject to the of the Endowment. They will usually relate to Letters or Art, and will invariably avoid all debatable ground of Politics or Theology. It will be the endeavor of the Committee to address them on points on which the public may be presumed to be interested, and to require dispassionate and reliable information-to make them, in short, an educational and improving feature of the time.

"The originators and promoters of the scheme, thus briefly detailed, are themselves either Authors or Artists, familiarly ac"In connection with this Society, by which quainted with the wants and feelings of the it is intended to commend and enforce the great mass of their fellow-laborers, anxiously duties of prudence and foresight, especially desirous to aid those distinguished in purincumbent on those whose income is wholly, suits similar to their own; whose youth they or mainly, derived from the precarious pro- have seen prematurely broken by noble fit of a profession, it is proposed to estab- struggles for independence, or whose age lish and endow an Institute, having at its they have witnessed a suppliant for bounty, disposal certain salaries, to which certain so administered as to embitter every memduties will be attached; together with a limit-ory of service, and humiliate every honest ed number of free residences, which, though sufficiently small to be adapted to a very moderate income, will be completed with due regard to the ordinary habits and necessary comforts of gentlemen. The offices of Endowment will consist:

1st.-Of a WARDEN, with a house and a salary of 2001. a year;

2d. Of MEMBERS, with a house and 1707., or, without a house, 2007. a year;

3d.-Of ASSOCIATES, with a salary of 100l. a year.

For these offices all who are insurers in the Society above mentioned are qualified to offer themselves as Candidates. Such Insurance is to be considered an indispensable qualification, saving in exceptional cases

This limitation is intended to exclude accidental contributors to periodicals, who may not be attached to literature as a profession.

sentiment of pride. But they desire to extend whatever aid they may have the power to proffer or suggest, in the mode which seems to them most respectful to the members of those professions that give to all nations in which they flourish the least disputable title to respect. They desire that the aid should necessitate no degrading plea of poverty-no painful exposition of calamity and want; but that it should bear the character of a tribute to merit, not of an alms to destitution."

We are obliged to leave out much that we are disposed to reprint in reference to this new design of British Authors and Artists. We feel sure that our readers will read with interest of a plan so benevolent in its purpose and so novel in its execution.

Of American books and literary affairs we defer mentioning until the coming week.

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We continue this week our illustrations | offered by Mr. MORANT, one of the oldest and of the most beautiful objects at the World's Fair.

best known house-decorators of London. The top is of plate-glass, painted to imitate Flor

The first is a table richly elaborated and entine Mosaic.

VOL. II.-22

The following engraving is after a Cameo | the well-known story of MAZEPPA upon the cutting by a Flemish artist. It illustrates Wild Horse.

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As a specimen of the rich work in iron | Tazza in chased iron, by M. MANTIFAT, of which graces the Exhibition, we give a Paris.

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WE relieve our matter-of-fact selections this week by reprinting an old and very passionate story, published twenty years ago, by LEITCH RITCHIE.

THE main road from the Lago Maggiore to the western parts of Switzerland at one time ran through the Valley of Anzasca; and it was once my fortune to be detained all night at a cottage in one of its wildest

defiles, by a storm which rendered my horse ungovernable. While leaning upon a bench, and looking with drowsy curiosity towards the window-for there was no bed except my host's, of which I did not choose to de

prive him-I saw a small, faint light among the rocks in the distance. I at first conceived that it might proceed from a cottagewindow; but, remembering that that part of the mountain was wholly uninhabited, and indeed uninhabitable, I roused myself, and calling one of the family, inquired what it meant. While I spoke, the light suddenly vanished; but in about a minute reappeared in another place, as if the bearer had gone round some intervening rock. The storm at that time raged with a fury which threatened to blow our hut, with its men and horses, over the mountains; and the night was so intensely dark that the edges of the horizon were wholly undistinguishable from the sky.

"There it is again!" said I. that, in the name of God?"

product of their labor; ranking in this respect with gamesters, authors, and other vagabonds.

They are, notwithstanding, a fine race of men-brave, hardy, and often handsome. They spend freely what they win lightly; and if one day they sleep off their hunger, lying like wild animals basking in the sun, the next, if fortune has been propitious, they swagger about, gallant and gay, the lords of the valley. Like the sons of God, the minerali sometimes make love to the daughters of men; and, although they seldom possess the hand, they occasionally touch the heart, of the gentle maidens of Anzasca. If their wooing is unsuccessful, there are comrades still wilder than their own, whose arms are "What is always open to receive the desperate and the brave. They change the scene, and betake themselves to the highways when nights are dark and travellers unwary; or they enlist under the banner of those regular banditti, who rob in thousands, and whose booty is a province or a kingdom.

"It is Lelia's lamp!" cried the young man eagerly, who was a son of our host. "Awake, father Ho, Batista!-Vittorio! Lelia is on the mountains !" At these cries the whole family sprung up from their lair at once, and, crowding round the window, fixed their Francesco Martelli was the handsomest eyes upon the light, which continued to ap-gold-seeker in the valley. He was wild, it pear, although at long intervals, for a con- is true, but that was the badge of his tribe; siderable part of the night. When interro- and he made up for this by so many good gated as to the nature of this mystic lamp qualities, that the farmers themselves-at the cottagers made no scruple of telling me least such of them as had not marriageable all they knew, on the sole condition that I daughters-delighted in his company. Franshould be silent when it appeared, and leave cesco could sing ballads so sweetly and mournthem to mark uninterruptedly the spot where fully, that the old dames leant back in the it rested. chimney-corner to weep while he sung. He had that deep and melancholy voice which, when once heard, lingers in the ear, and when heard again, however unexpectedly, seems like a longing realized.

To render my story intelligible, it is necessary to say that the minerali and farmers form two distinct classes in the valley of Anzasca.* The occupation of the former, when pursued as a profession, is reckoned disreputable by the other inhabitants, who obtain their living by regular industry; and indeed the manners of the minerali offer some excuse for what might otherwise be reckoned an illiberal prejudice. They are addicted to drinking, quarrelsome, overbearing-at one moment rich, and at another starving; and in short they are subject to all the calamities, both moral and physical, which beset men who can have no dependence on the

The Valley of Anzasca has been for many centuries known for its gold mines. The minerali are those whose occupation it is to look for ore. In stormy nights small lights are to be seen upon the hills, which are supposed to indicate the presence of gold.

There was only one young lass in the valley who had never heard the songs of Francesco. All the others, seen or unseen, on some pretext or other, had gratified their curiosity. The exception was Lelia, the daughter of one of the richest farmers in Anzasca. Lelia was very young, being scarcely sixteen; but in her quality of an only daughter, with a dowry in expectancy equal to more than one thousand Austrian liras,* she attracted considerable observation. Her face, on minute inspection, was beautiful to absolute perfection, but her figure, although symmetrical, was so petite,

The Austrian lira is equal to about eightpence halfpenny English.

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