'I cannot say that I like losing you from home at so important a crisis, and I fear the good ship _Wimpole_ will have cause to regret the absence of the padrone, and all the world will say that this is proving the love of the profession with a Vengeance. But seriously,... if dear Lady Hardwicke not only does not object, but becomes the accomplice and partner of your exile, no one else has anything to object, not even political friends, as you can leave a proxy. It may also be an advantage to all the children, for it will perfect the young ones and indeed all in the languages, and the two elder young ladies will have opportunities of seeing what all the world desires to see. Whatever you do, and wherever you go, you will be followed by the affectionate solicitude of your old constant and most attached friend, 'J. W. CROKER.' * * * * * Lord Hardwicke sailed early in 1849 to join the Mediterranean Fleet under Sir William Parker who was in command at that station. Lady Hardwicke and her family were installed at Malta, where a hotel in the Strada Forni was engaged for them. In order to understand the insurrection at Genoa in April 1849, in the quelling of which H.M.S. _Vengeance_ and its captain, the Earl of Hardwicke, took so notable a part, it is necessary to take a short retrospect of the history of Italy. At the end of the Napoleonic Wars the opinion of Prince Metternich that Italy is only a geographical expression was true enough. This cynical minister of the Austrian Empire was the embodiment of the reaction which set in after the fall of Napoleon. Europe, worn out by the struggles first of the Revolution and then of its conquering offspring, had one idea only--the reorganisation of the different States and the suppression of all revolutionary movements. The Powers therefore stood aloof from all interference in Italy and Austria had a free hand.