for
the purpose, have been received and answered.* To Her Majesty the Queen
for reading our manuscript notes on the " Koh-i-Nur " we owe our
special and humble thanks. Her Imperial Majesty the Empress of the
French has been most gracious in revising and correcting several
material points in connection with certain gems that belong to the
history of the illustrious house that is adorned by her virtues, and
made doubly memorable by her sorrows. It was said of the cerulean
throne of Koolburga that every prince of the house of Bhamenee made a
point of adding to it some rich gems. In these modern days it is
considered a greater honour to decorate the history of a blameless life
with the jewels of self-sacrifice and duty well performed, than to sit
on thrones built up of priceless treasures. It is not in the stories of
jewels that the names of Victoria and Eugenie will go down to
posterity, but in the record of a great Queen whose heart went out to
the widowed and childless guest, and made her sorrows her own.
Respect
for the illustrious personages whom we have had occasion to mention,
does not permit us to say more in regard to the honour they have
conferred upon us; nor would our loyal duty to her Majesty the Queen,
as it seems to us, be fairly represented without this acknowledgment,
however inadequately expressed, of her gracious condescension. It has
been' one of the great objects of the life of the undersigned to
publish a history of the world's famous diamonds. He owes it to the
object he has in view, and not to any personal merit, that he has met
with so much courteous encouragement on all hands.
