“These Italian affairs have, as you may suppose, made me feverish. First of all, I think the Austrians are not quite done for yet, although I think they will be. Even in these times of wonder I don’t believe they can have lost Vicenza and Mantua, and if the whole country is not really up, the King of Piedmont will find these two very hard bits. That they are yet in the Austrians’ hands I argue from the fact of Radetzky’s troops retiring in two columns towards them—what is more, taking with him political prisoners, which shows he is not quite defeated. Even when Mantua and Piacenza are taken, there is the pass of Caldiero, fortified in an awful manner, as I have seen myself, and such fortresses as Legnano, Peschiera, and Verona, in which fifty thousand men can defy three times the number.” “If the Tyrolese are up to the whole of the Venetian territory, the Austrians may find it awkward, as they are out of favour here, and they may not have either time or the means of victualling their forces. But between us I do not very much like the peasants to take up arms in earnest, even if they join in a popular movement at first. They must enrol themselves, and that I do not think they will do. I foresee, therefore, great difficulties, and at all events great fighting. Yes, and depend upon it the French, if they last as a republic, or even have a Bonaparte, will interfere. As to myself, what can I do? I am more than fifty, and not a soldier, and what they want now are young men ready to shoulder a musket or to command.” “In the second place, I am almost certain that the Italians will differ among themselves (not as to the Austrians, or as to being dismayed, but as to the form of Government.) The King of Sardinia had no chance to keep his crown but by acting as he has done, as they would have proclaimed a republic in Lombardy with the help of the Swiss, and he would have had a revolution in the same sense at home. But the spirit of the ‘Giovine Italia’ is at work there, and I think there will be yet a great deal of trouble before the form of government is settled. My views you know, and I fear I should have no one listening to me, and the utmost I could expect would be to be looked upon as a crazy Angloman. In the third place, I have hardly any friend alive who would care for me, or on whom I could have influence. I am a greater stranger in Italy than here.” Towards the middle of the year, Panizzi himself visited the scene of action, whence he wrote a graphic account of affairs in the North of Italy to Mr. Gladstone, in a far more cheerful tone than that of the last letter quoted:— “San Maurizio, near Reggio, September 4th, 1859. “My dear Sir,—