A. Thiers.”
“Je cherche une voie pour vous faire arriver mes 50 exemplaires. Si je ne la trouve pas, vous feriez bien de me l’indiquer courrier par courrier.”
In another epistle Thiers makes amusing allusion to Panizzi’s patriotism, and suggests means of liberating his country from tyranny and oppression which were more desirable than practicable, and which, to say the least, were not likely to come to pass just at that time, even with the patriot’s most earnest aspirations.
Happily the Italians have succeeded in achieving their own liberty, not only without the aid of foreign support, but in the teeth of very formidable and determined foreign opposition:—
“9 Novembre, 1847.
“Mon cher Panizzi,
Je n’ai rien à ajouter à la lettre ci-jointe; je dis là tout ce que je dirais ici, car je n’ai qu’une manière de penser et de sentir. Je vous ajoute ces quelques mots pour vous dire que vous ferez de ma lettre tout ce que vous voudrez: si vous la trouvez de tout point convenable, et bonne à être envoyée à Lord Clarendon, vous pouvez la lui envoyer; il s’en servira comme il jugera à propos. J’ai bien le projet de vous aller revoir, et le plus tôt possible. Adieu; embrassez Ellice sur le front, comme s’il était jeune, joli et pur autant que ses charmantes nièces. Adieu; n’excluez pas Cromwell du Parlement, et faites décréter une expédition Britannique contre les petits tyrans Italiens. La belle Comtesse Taverna est malade, et seule à Paris; venez nous aider à la consoler.
A. T.”
Lastly, we add a letter to Rutherfurd, written by Panizzi while staying at Lord Clarendon’s. This letter seems to treat almost entirely of English politics, and furnishes an excellent specimen of the acuteness of the writer’s judgment on this subject, and, as it contains references to Thiers, this has been thought a not unfit place for its introduction. It is without date, but the contents show it to have been written early in January, 1846; and certain passages in it may possibly, after such a lapse of time, require a few words of explanation. In the previous year, it will be remembered, the Government of Sir Robert Peel had become involved in extreme difficulty, and an attempt had been made by Lord John Russell to form a ministry capable of settling the vexed question of the Corn Laws. This attempt proved signally unsuccessful, owing to an unhappy difference, which it is not too much to designate as a quarrel, that had sprung up between Lord Palmerston and Lord Grey. On the conduct of the latter in the affair, Lord Macaulay had written to a correspondent in Edinburgh a letter containing severe animadversions, which he wished to be strictly private.
Unfortunately, his correspondent, unaware, probably, of the writer’s wishes, and taking upon himself to think that so decided an expression of opinion on the part of so important a person was the legitimate property of the political world at large, sent the letter for publication to a leading Edinburgh newspaper, wherein it forthwith appeared, much to the disgust of Macaulay, and the displeasure of all right-thinking men. Panizzi’s remarks on this gentleman’s course of action are such as to be fully permissible under the circumstances:—