The life and correspondence of Sir Anthony Panizzi, K.C.B., Vol. 1 (of 2): Late principal librarian of the British museum, senator of Italy, etc.Fagan, Louis
History
The life and correspondence of Sir Anthony Panizzi, K.C.B., Vol. 1 (of 2): Late principal librarian of the British museum, senator of Italy, etc.
Fagan, Louis
Panizzi, Anthony, Sir, 1797-1879
I have only once more to repeat that my former letter had no other
object than that of doing what might be gratifying to you, and that I
wish you to do about it whatever is most agreeable to yourself, and
that you may be assured that in all events I shall be highly honoured
and gratified by your inscribing the book to me.—I am, &c.,
THOMAS GRENVILLE.”
“Brit. Mus., Sept. 22nd, 1834.
“Dear Sir,
Your letter of the 19th inst., which I have just had the honour
of receiving, by granting the request I made on my own terms, and
granting it in such a manner renders me still more deeply indebted to
you. **** I can fully enter into the motives which dictated both your
letters, and I see in both of them a fresh proof of that delicate
kindness to me which I have so often experienced, which I appreciate
to its extent, and which I shall never forget.—Believe me, yours, &c.,
&c.
A. PANIZZI.”
In returning from our dissertation on Panizzi’s works to his life, we
bring the narrative back to the date 1830-1831, it may be observed, when
Europe was in a state of revolution. In Italy fresh disturbances
indicated that the spirit of discontent was unallayed—especially in
Modena—where Francis IV. continued his oppressive government; while in
Piedmont, a more earnest and conscientious people founded an association
under the name of _Giovine Italia_; amongst them was the Genoese
Giuseppe Mazzini, who forwarded an address (1831) to the King of
Sardinia, praying for a Constitutional Statute.
For this act Mazzini was forced into exile, and from that time may be
said to date the end of Carbonarism, which, overpowered by the new
scheme of not only uniting Italy, but of establishing a Republican form
of government, seemed to have alienated those that were left of the
older patriots who had sacrificed life and property ten years
previously.
The King, Charles Felix, died, leaving behind him the reputation of
having ruled his kingdom after the fashion most worthy of the “_rois
fainéants_”, and as an unworthy nephew of Emanuel Philibert and Charles
Emanuel. His death, by a strange coincidence, happened on the very day,
in the same year that one of His Majesty’s most bitter enemies, Antonio
Panizzi, entered the Institution which afterwards he so much honoured.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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