A scamp of an attorney who thrust himself into some trifling employment in Sir Francis Burdett’s celebrated contest for Middlesex, on sending him his bill, after charging for a journey to Acton and another to Ealing, &c., &c., &c., closed with the following item:—‘To extraordinary mental anxiety on your account, £500,’ After this precedent I have a good mind to charge you a good round sum for mental anxiety on your account, which I suffered when, some weeks ago, I heard a vague report that you were on your way to Modena, for I have such a horror of the petty Italian despots that I could not persuade myself that you were safe when in the power of the Duke. Lord Brougham, however, set my mind at rest when I arrived at his Cumberland château, on the 23rd ultimo, by informing me that he had, on his late visit to London, learnt at the Museum that you were on your return to England, having kept your neck out of the noose; and Mr. Charles Preston, who called here yesterday, tells me that you are well and hearty, and very busy in doing the hospitalities to M. Thiers. By the bye, there is much truth in the critique on Thiers’ great work in the last Quarterly, but the article is written in a tone and spirit of which, as an Englishman, I am ashamed. Pray oblige me by giving me a full and particular account of your interview with the Duke of Modena, and tell me how far you penetrated into Lombardy. I presume you ran no risk in the Austrian territories.... Truly yours, WM. SHEPHERD.” Before closing this interesting portion of our narrative, a letter from Vienna, October 17th, must be quoted; it will be read with interest:— “I availed myself of a late conversation with Prince Metternich to express to him your gratification and thanks for the kindness and civility which you have met with during your recent tour in Lombardy, in consequence of the recommendation from the authorities here, and he appeared pleased that you had had all facilities. I am convinced that, as the ice has been broken, the same facilities would again be afforded to you should business or pleasure induce you to return.—Yours, &c., &c., A. C. MAGENIS.” A few facts relating to Signor Libri must not be omitted. Inclination might lead us to suppress them, but our duty as faithful recorders of truth points to another direction. A biographer who has the heart and the will to introduce into his narrative the events of the life he is depicting, fearless of comment, is to be commended; and as such we do not intend to pass without notice the Libri case—a case which indeed, next to Panizzi’s sentence of death, was the most anxious event of his life.