At what time and in what manner the acquaintance between Panizzi and Mérimée began, we are unable to determine. It would be passing strange, considering the position of the two men and their frequent opportunities of meeting, the similarity of their tastes and opinions, and the numerous attractions which the character of each must have had for the other, if such acquaintance had never been formed, and stranger still if it had failed to ripen into that intimate and lasting friendship which afterwards subsisted between them. Panizzi’s affection for his friend was intense, and he used often to say (though we do not allege this as any proof of the intensity of his friendship) that he was the best Frenchman for whom he had ever formed a liking. Mérimée, who was a master of the English language, an accomplishment which in his country ought to be less remarkable than it is, was in the habit of spending a month or so yearly in London. On these visits he always stayed at Panizzi’s house. As regards his external characteristics, he was tall of stature, upright in figure, and his eyes shone with remarkable brilliancy; in manner the most pleasing of men. One of his minor peculiarities was an extreme nicety in the matter of dress, which, though not an unfailing sign of genius and culture, may be put down to the credit of his good taste. And, indeed, what more can be said in laudation of a finished gentleman’s taste than that he had all his clothes made in London, and not only in London, but at Poole’s, of which great artist Mérimée was the constant patron. This fastidiousness of his was the cause of much facetiousness on the part of Panizzi, to which, however, the other seems to have been not altogether without means and opportunity of retort, that is to say, if we rightly construe the following passage in one of his letters containing a reflection on an article of Panizzi’s ordinary costume, Mérimée in asking some information as to a picture of Lord Spencer’s, says:— “Cannes, 5, Décembre 1857. “1^o. Dans le tableau que possède Lord Spencer, Julie d’Angennes, Duchesse de Montausier, est-elle en buste ou jusqu’à la ceinture? “2^o. Est-elle maigre, ou a-t-elle de l’embonpoint? “3^o. A-t-elle les cheveux noirs ou blonds, les yeux noirs ou bleus? “4^o. Peut-on discerner si elle a une belle taille et si elle est grande? “Si vous pouvez obtenir ce signalement avec l’exactitude d’un gendarme Autrichien (dont vous avez la robe de chambre), vous m’obligerez infiniment de me l’envoyer ici où je pense que M. Cousin ne tardera pas à venir.”