“... What will you think of my having turned protector of monks and nuns? Yet such is the fact. I have been so disgusted with the harsh proceedings of the President of the Commission appointed to take possession of the property of religious corporations that I could not help doing my best to get the fellow removed from his office; and I am glad to say he has been recalled to Turin by telegraph, and another person appointed, of whom everybody speaks well. The illegalities which are committed are innumerable....” Similar sentiments are expressed in another letter to Mr. Gladstone, from which the following is an extract: “Naples, January 18, 1863. “... So soon as I arrived here I found that the person who was at the head of the Commission for the suppression of convents, monasteries, &c., behaved with unjustifiable harshness and rudeness: the dissatisfaction and discontent his conduct caused cannot be exaggerated. I backed the representations made to the Ministers to put an end to this abuse of authority, and the fellow was recalled by telegraph.” These honourable protests against oppression, and possibly others more openly made in language equally forcible, caused an abundance of silly surmises and talk of the conversion of Panizzi, and of his having become an adherent of the Pope and of the Bourbons, &c., &c. Utterly unworthy as were these of being repeated, we should leave the subject unmentioned, did it not afford the opportunity of introducing a letter, dated Turin, the 2nd of April, 1863, too important to be omitted, from that distinguished diplomatist and most amiable of men, Sir James Hudson:— “This is the first quiet moment I have had since I received yours of the 25th. “How can you seriously pay attention to the chatterboxes of Naples, who had written here that you had gone over to the enemy? But, my dear friend, you don’t suppose that in Upper Italy anybody would believe such ridiculous gossip! “I knew very well that you would have come here at once had I asked you to do so. But the necessity, the strait we were in, was not sufficiently great to require that sacrifice. I will tell you what it is when we meet. “And now about meeting. I still say, ‘Don’t put yourself out,’ don’t come to Genoa merely to see Giacomino. If you come to Genoa, you _must_ come here. It’s all very well to say, ‘I don’t want to see anybody but you.’ Well, that’s like _you_; but it won’t do. _You_ cannot come so near Turin, and not come to Turin. You occupy too large a space in the Italian and European eye. Many people want to see you especially Minghetti and Amari, and doubtless Peruzzi.