The famous crown of St. Stephen of Hungary, which disappeared during the Revolution of 1848, is said not to have any diamonds among its gems. Whether the absence of this stone is due to the extreme antiquity or to the whims of the constructors of the crown, we are unable to state. The late Duke of Brunswick had before his death a marvellous collection of diamonds, partly acquired in gratification of his eccentric tastes and partly obtained by inheritance. Among the latter was the famous Cumberland diamond of thirty-two karats, which had descended to the heir of the House of Hanover. We have not been able to obtain a description of these treasures, nor can we learn of their disposition by the remarkable will of their late possessor. Among the church regalia of Catholic Europe, and the offerings presented in past times to the various shrines of the saints of their religion, are yet preserved many gems of great beauty and value, and among them a great number of diamonds. Some of them have been stripped during the ravages of war, or by the iconoclastic fury of civil disturbances; and the pious monks have, in instances, restored their loss by the substitution of paste, which has pleased the pilgrim’s eye quite as well. For instance, the celebrated shrine of the Three Magi at Cologne has been despoiled of a great part of its vast treasures. And the skulls of the kings, inscribed with their names--Gaspar, Melchior, and Balthazar--written in rubies, were once crowned with gold diadems, resplendent with brilliant gems, now replaced by silver, gilt, and paste, or imitations. The custodians of the relics and jewels still assert, through pious fraud or a convenient ignorance, that their value amounts to 6,000,000 francs. Catholicism, when it had the means, spared no expense in decorating its shrines and beautifying its relics. It well understood the effect of the glitter of gold and the brilliancy of gems upon the human imagination. The examples of this barbaric and yet cultivated taste are to be seen in all parts of Europe. Relics and insignia were not only lavishly adorned, like the Remonstrance at Prague with its 6,666 diamonds, but the bones of their saints were committed to the earth ornamented with costly gems, like those of Cardinal Borromeo interred at Milan two hundred years ago. The shrine of Loretto in Italy has been the most favored of all in Europe in attracting gifts from the rich and powerful as well as from the sick and the conscience-stricken. If reports are true, it has been and now is the receptacle of many of the most beautiful treasures of the mineral kingdom. As its history is not generally known, we will briefly allude to it, and give a still briefer description of its jewels.