Many of our readers will remember a Captain Negroni, who
some time since exhibited a remarkable collection of jewels plun- dered by him from the Winter Palace near Pekin. He has come to grief. He pledged some of his jewels for 4,500/., and the public prosecutor declared he did so knowing that they were worth little or nothing. The defence was that Captain Negroni, whose -character has hitherto stood exceptionally high, was himself deceived, really thought he had obtained Aladdin's treasures, and disbelieved experts who told him the contrary. The case has repeatedly happened—witness the recent legacy of pictures and bronzes to Liverpool—and Captain Negroni, who had repaid the -borrowed money, seems, even in a sentence of a month's imprison- ment, to have had hard measure. The exhibition, if we mistake not, took in the reporters of the London journals, and the jewels do not appear to have been paste.
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