Lord Anglesey, whose affairs have recently been in the Bankruptcy
Court, died on March 14th at the age of twenty-nine. He was an effeminate person, who interested the public because he betrayed in an extraordinary degree that passion for jewels and for personal adornment which many doctors believe to indicate a form of latent insanity. The opinion is often expressed in Court in cases where persons under no pecuniary pressure have stolen gems, silks, or other shining objects. A semi-mania of this kind is well known in India, where the Government has again and again been obliged to warn native Princes rather severely of the consequences of indulging a passion for precious stones. An Indian Prince, not necessarily a fool, who has once seen a brilliant stone of exceptional beauty, sometimes appears literally unable to go without it, and will give any price or run any risk for its possession. Runjeet Singh, for example, one of the ablest men in Asia, was, so to speak, mastered by his desire for the Koh-i-noor. The passion, which has shown itself for thousands of years, is one of the arcana of human nature, and is not altogether explained by assuming egregious vanity. There is to some natures a physical attraction in jewels which they are almost powerless to resist.
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