A. Panizzi.
To continue the thread of our narrative, a trifling but pleasant incident occurred, two months before Panizzi left London for the Continent, which we cannot do better than narrate in his own words:—
“B. M., June 30th, 1857.
“My dear Haywood,
A week ago the Archduke Maximilian, who is going as Viceroy in Lombardy, after his marriage with the Princess Charlotte of Belgium, came to visit the Museum, and I received him. In the course of conversation it came out that I was an Italian, and that I intended going to Renaro at the beginning of August, returning in September. The Archduke then began to urge me that I should on my return (for he would not be there on my going) pay him a visit, that is, to go and stay with him. Of course I said Domine non sum dignus, but he pressed me repeatedly. I thought when he learnt who I was he would not press me again, but on Saturday last I unexpectedly received a despatch from the Austrian Minister here, Apponyi, sending me, in the Archduke’s name, a very fine diamond ring with the Archduke’s initials, and a reminder that he expects I will pay him a visit at Milan. Now this is very embarrassing. If I go to Milan, and he is there, I must present myself, and be his guest if he insists; if I do so all the Italians who do not know me, more especially in Piedmont, will accuse me of treachery, of playing false to my country, and what not; and, on the other hand, if I had the moral courage to despise such an outcry I might do some little good—very little, if any, I know.
Yours, &c., &c.,
A. Panizzi.”
But to return to the Museum. The process of accumulation continued, and the influx of works of art and other antiquities was filling the National Institution to such an extent that it was deemed necessary to decide whether the Natural History Departments should be retained at Bloomsbury.
The various heads of Departments were invited to send in their reports and opinions on the subject, and a few of their remarks may not appear superfluous:—
Mr. Hawkins, the Keeper of Antiquities, reported that he could find no room for the cases of Assyrian Sculptures which had arrived. Sir Charles Fellows complained that Ionic Trophy Monuments and other works of art found at Xanthus had been placed in an unbefitting position. Dr. Gray, of the Natural History Department, conveyed the pleasing intelligence that if the Zoological Collection in the basement were not speedily removed to a dryer place it would be utterly destroyed. Mr. Brown applied for additional room, as that occupied by the Botanical Department in the basement was quite inadequate to its demands. Professor Owen, in a report to the Trustees on the same subject, January, 1857, approved of all the statements of Dr. Gray, who, eight months later, came forward again with a demand for his gallery and series of glass cases, and the enlargement of the Insect-Room; and two months afterwards he laid before the Trustees a fuller statement. Many more examples might be adduced, but the reader who desires to push his investigations further should consult a lengthy Parliamentary paper on the subject, ordered by the House of Commons to be printed, 1st of July, 1858.