he always prefaces in the most eloquent and appropriate manner; and his enthusiasm is so great, that he frequently mounts his chair, or the table, to propose them. Although the cigar is almost universally used in South America, Bolivar never smokes, nor does he permit smoking in his presence. He is never without proper officers in waiting, and keeps up a considerable degree of etiquette. Disinterested in the extreme with regard to pecuniary affairs, he is insatiably covetous of fame. Bolivar invariably speaks of England, of her institutions, and of her great men, in terms of admiration. He often dwells with great warmth upon the constancy, fidelity, and sterling merit of the English officers who have served in the cause of independence, under every varying event of the war. A further proof of his predilection towards England is that he has always had upon his personal staff a number of British subjects. --_Memoirs of General Miller_. * * * * * Fine Arts. * * * * * EXHIBITIONS AT THE BAZAAR, _Oxford Street_. THE BRITISH DIORAMA. On Saturday, the 11th, there was a private view of four new pictures, by Stanfield and Roberts, at this very interesting lounge. They consist of 1. _The City of York, with the Minster on fire_--a picturesque view of the cathedral, with a mimic display of the conflagration, the accuracy of which will make the property-man of the Opera tremble. 2. _The Temple of Apollinopolis, in Egypt_, a magnificent picture of Egyptian architecture--"noble in decay." The splendid leaved capitals of the pillars reminded us of the following, which we had that morning read in the _Journal of a Naturalist_:--"No portion of creation," says the author, "has been resorted to by mankind with more success for the ornament and decoration of their labours, than the vegetable world. The rites, emblems, and mysteries of religion; national achievements, eccentric marks, and the capricious visions of fancy, have all been wrought by the hand of the sculptor, on the temple, the altar, or the tomb; but plants, their foliage, flowers, or fruits, as the most graceful, varied, and pleasing objects that meet our view, have been more universally the object of design, and have supplied the most beautiful, and perhaps the earliest, embellishments of art. The pomegranate, the almond, and flowers, were selected even in the wilderness, and by divine appointment, to give form to the sacred utensils; the rewards of merit, the wreath of the victor, were arboraceous; in later periods, the acanthus, the ivy, the lotus, the vine, the palm, and the oak, flourished under the chisel, or beneath the loom of the artist; and in modern days, the vegetable world affords the almost exclusive decorations of ingenuity and art."