418 On the Mate of Criminal Justice in France. [APRIL, 



which we have endeavoured to point out some of the defects. Cusimir 

 Perier comprehends not the wants of his country he misunderstands 

 the revolution of 1830, which he would fain degrade to a modified 

 restoration of the Bourbons ; and he, perhaps, finds use for such an 

 engine as the Code d' Instruction Criminelle, whenever he would smother 

 the cry of popular discontent. How much longer a system so hostile 

 to the institutions of a free people may be tolerated, is beyond the scan 

 of human foresight ; but from the manner in which it bears upon the 

 French community, they who sanction its oppressive operation may, 

 perchance, in the end, " draw the string a little too tight." 



C. 



THE DIAMOND DISTRICT OF THE SERIIO DO FRIO. 



WHEN the ex-emperor, Don Pedro, raised the standard of Brazilian 

 Independence at the Villa de Piranga, in Minas Geraes, I was residing 

 at Villa Rica, the capital of that province. Foreseeing that the tide of 

 political events would soon oblige me to return to the Rio de Janeiro, 

 I resolved previously to leaving the interior provinces, to visit the 

 Diamond District of the Serro do Frio. The prodigious value which, 

 in every age and country, has been attached to diamonds, and, perhaps, 

 too, some old nursery recollections, powerfully excited in my mind an 

 ardent desire to see this far-famed district though when I tell the 

 reader that I am but an indifferent mineralogist, he will probably think 

 that the feeling which actuated me was very similar to that which in- 

 duced the celebrated Tom Sheridan to descend into a coal-pit, merely 

 for the pleasure of being able to say he had been there. At any other 

 period I should not have been able to procure the necessary permission 

 for my journey from the official authorities, so studiously was all access 

 to the Diamond District prohibited by the Portuguese government, to 

 whom belonged every diamond found throughout the country. Even 

 in Brazil itself little was known of this region beyond the immediate 

 sphere of the few individuals officially employed there by the govern- 

 ment. It was governed by a code of regulations, drawn up by the 

 hand of the celebrated Pombal himself. On leaving the Comarca, all 

 persons were subjected on the frontiers to a rigorous examination, both 

 of person and property. But liberalism had become the fashion of the 

 times ; to depart from every regulation enacted by the old government 

 was now political " bon ton." Pombal, formerly the object of their 

 admiration, was declared a despot ; and thus did I obtain my passport 

 from the same cause which, only a few months earlier, would have in- 

 duced the authorities to have haughtily refused it. 



Having made the necessary preparations for the journey, I left Villa 

 Rica on the 9th of October, accompanied by a trusty guide and two 

 negro servants. The whole party was well mounted, and moved in 

 light marching order. Francisco, the guide, was a shrewd, intelligent 

 fellow, well acquainted with the country ; he knew, moreover, every 

 page of the Chronique Scandaleuse du Pays for several hundred miles ; 

 it was his invariable custom to divert the tedium of our day's journey, 

 by relating some anecdote of the family with whom we were to take 

 up our quarters for the night. If one twentieth part of the Senhor 



