Your letter of the 19th inst., which I have just had the honour of receiving, by granting the request I made on my own terms, and granting it in such a manner renders me still more deeply indebted to you. **** I can fully enter into the motives which dictated both your letters, and I see in both of them a fresh proof of that delicate kindness to me which I have so often experienced, which I appreciate to its extent, and which I shall never forget.—Believe me, yours, &c., &c.
A. Panizzi.”
In returning from our dissertation on Panizzi’s works to his life, we bring the narrative back to the date 1830-1831, it may be observed, when Europe was in a state of revolution. In Italy fresh disturbances indicated that the spirit of discontent was unallayed—especially in Modena—where Francis IV. continued his oppressive government; while in Piedmont, a more earnest and conscientious people founded an association under the name of Giovine Italia; amongst them was the Genoese Giuseppe Mazzini, who forwarded an address (1831) to the King of Sardinia, praying for a Constitutional Statute.
For this act Mazzini was forced into exile, and from that time may be said to date the end of Carbonarism, which, overpowered by the new scheme of not only uniting Italy, but of establishing a Republican form of government, seemed to have alienated those that were left of the older patriots who had sacrificed life and property ten years previously.
The King, Charles Felix, died, leaving behind him the reputation of having ruled his kingdom after the fashion most worthy of the “rois fainéants”, and as an unworthy nephew of Emanuel Philibert and Charles Emanuel. His death, by a strange coincidence, happened on the very day, in the same year that one of His Majesty’s most bitter enemies, Antonio Panizzi, entered the Institution which afterwards he so much honoured.
In England the death of George IV. (1830), and the unpopularity of the Duke of Wellington, largely contributed to the overthrow of the Tory party. In France, too, the expulsion of Charles X. (in consequence of his attempts on the constitution and the press), had its influence on the masses in this country; the elections greatly favoured the Whig party, and Mr. Brougham, raised to the Peerage on the 22nd of November, 1830, took the earliest opportunity, as an ex-officio Trustee of the British Museum, to place his Italian friend in that noble establishment, under the title of Extra-Assistant Librarian.
On the 27th of April, 1831, his appointment was signed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Howley, and by the Lord Chancellor, Brougham; the House of Commons having been dissolved, there was no Speaker at the time. Panizzi had to give, according to usage, two securities of £500 each, which were promptly forthcoming in the persons of his two earliest friends of Liverpool, Mr. Ewart and Mr. Haywood.
Thus far have we drawn from the materials at hand, a sketch of that early career which was to lead to the achievement of a lasting literary reputation, and the exercise of an energetic administrative[administrative] faculty. We have glanced at the struggles of the incipient jurisconsult, the patriotic agitator, the outlaw, the homeless fugitive, the indigent teacher, the literary aspirant, and, in every vicissitude, the man of many warmly-attached friends. We have traced his progress until he attained the position wherein his abilities had extended scope, wherein his influence was to be beneficially felt, and his success consummated. The record of his life to this period is of itself the most valuable testimonial to his character and conduct; but while we lay sufficient stress on his own exertions, let us not forget to award the share of honour due to Lord Brougham, who, discarding national prejudice, recognised the capacity, and gave ample sphere to the energy and genius of Antonio Panizzi.
