Page:A treatise on diamonds and precious stones including their history Natural and commercial.djvu/52

 its arrival in England, belonging to the East India Company, weighs seventy-nine and a half carats, and if it were a well-proportioned stone, and cut in brilliant, it would doubtless be much more valuable. This example may serve to shew, that it is not merely because the substance is a diamond that it commands a high price; but because, as a diamond, it must have all the qualities that art can bestow, and be faultless.

is an extensive traffic in these precious substances, exclusive of the regular trade between the jeweller and the merchant. A person possessing a suit of brilliants may be inclined to part with them from necessity, or other causes. This occurs so frequently, that diamonds to a great amount are continually disposed of in a private way. If, as it frequently happens, necessity be the motive, a degree of caution and delicacy is to be observed, which renders any competition of pur-