Yours sincerely,
Palmerston.”
And Mr. Gladstone wrote on Poerio’s behalf as follows:—
“April 12th.
“My dear Panizzi,
Lady Charlotte Egerton asks, through me, Baron Poerio and any one of his friends to her party to-night. Pray let them appear if possible. They will find me there at 10.15.
Yours, &c., &c.,
W. E. Gladstone.”
This continued dissipation, and the cold of the English climate, from which he suffered intensely, began to weigh heavily on Poerio. He was forced by his state of health to refuse many invitations, and the only other amusement of which we have any record is a visit to the House of Commons on the 18th of April, under the auspices of Lord Shaftesbury.
It would be too much to expect that amongst the large number of sixty-six prisoners, however exalted the political creed which they might profess, there should not be at least one or two black sheep. There were certainly some amongst the lower order of these exiles, with whom Panizzi had a good deal of trouble. Notwithstanding all his rigid justice in apportioning the money of which he had the charge, they vexed him much by claiming more than their share, by accusations of unfairness, and, in some cases, even by the vilest ingratitude and abuse. Nor did they confine their annoyance to him alone. Poerio, writing subsequently (3rd of June, 1859,) from Turin, gives anything but a pleasing account of these gentry who had accompanied him to Italy:—“I have had a great deal of trouble here on account of the English subscription in favour of the exiles. One of them who was destined to receive 250 francs told a great many in secret that this terrible injustice of classification was all my work,” with a good deal more to the same effect, on which it is needless to expend time and space.