“My dear Panizzi,
“As one of the contributors to the fund which you raised, I will beg you to retain my contribution, to be appropriated in the manner you think best for Settembrini and his family. The first object would, of course, be his liberation; but if that cannot be effected, I am quite satisfied to leave it to your judgment how to appropriate it to the best advantage for him and his family.
Yours, &c., &c.,
Zetland.”
Here we may pause for an instant to reflect on the steadiness of Panizzi’s character. With an aim in view he was never faint-hearted or desponding, even when the victim of constantly repeated rebuffs; it is well to note this ever-recurring trait in his character, for the recollection may serve as an encouragement to others who might be inclined to despair instead of imitating his example.
The “Settembrini Fund,” amounting to about £1,000, was finally entrusted to the charge and management of Mr. Gladstone, and by him securely invested in England.
Meantime, a new influence had been brought to bear at Naples on the fortunes of Settembrini and the rest. The King had concluded with the Government of the Argentine Republic a Convention, whereby he was to be at liberty to deport to that State such political offenders (including, as it would appear, others of a different and more criminal caste) detained at this time in the Neapolitan prisons, as should choose to avail themselves of the commutation for exile proffered them. It is not clear whether this alternative was actually offered to Settembrini, Poerio, and their immediate companions; but it is evident, not only that they would have been at perfect liberty to avail themselves of it, but that the King would have been delighted to rid himself of them by the means proposed. The question whether or not they would be adopting a judicious course of action in agreeing to the terms offered by the Convention, and accepting the modicum of liberty they could purchase at the price of expatriation, divided their friends and benefactors into two factions.
On one side, Panizzi himself was strongly opposed to their taking such steps, and vehemently supported a different course, viz., that they should petition the King directly for their pardon and release. He appears, and, to judge from his own words, not unreasonably, to have suspected something latent in the Convention which might prove an insurmountable obstacle to the voluntary return of the exiles from their new country to the old, or, indeed, to Europe in general. In a letter to Lacaita (February 17th, 1857) he thus expressed himself strongly on the subject:—
“I wish you would try to dissuade any Neapolitan prisoners to accept the alternative of going to the Argentine Republic. They have no guarantee or protection whatever that the conditions under which they consent to go will be observed. They will be made slaves. I know very well the agent who has set this going: he is a most clever Alsatian Jew, who has several times put together enormous fortunes by schemes and speculations of an adventurer, and who has been as many times reduced to beggary. I know that some of the prisoners, among others Poerio and Settembrini, have been offered by the Neapolitan Government a free pardon, if they will petition the King, and they have refused! This is not firmness, but foolhardiness. There is nothing disparaging for a man who is bound hand and foot, and has a dagger put to his throat, to ask to be released. Any man, however brave, will run away from a mad dog. If they were asked to acknowledge themselves guilty, would be right to refuse, and rather die in prison; but it is sheer folly to refuse to ask to be let out. This is the opinion of all their friends here. It seems that Fagan urges them to go to America.
Ever yours,