mode of living is moderate; I take medicine, but the pain on my left side has returned. How it will end I do not know, for work I must, and work hard too; and now that I have reached the summit of the mountain I feel as if I should like to descend, but I fear it is impossible. I am treated by every one like a Benjamin, amply paid and much honoured, and they will not listen to my retiring. I have sent you a selfish letter, such a one as I should not have written to any one else, but only to a friend like you. Your affectionate friend, A. PANIZZI. To continue the thread of our narrative, a trifling but pleasant incident occurred, two months before Panizzi left London for the Continent, which we cannot do better than narrate in his own words:— “B. M., June 30th, 1857. “My dear Haywood, A week ago the Archduke Maximilian, who is going as Viceroy in Lombardy, after his marriage with the Princess Charlotte of Belgium, came to visit the Museum, and I received him. In the course of conversation it came out that I was an Italian, and that I intended going to Renaro at the beginning of August, returning in September. The Archduke then began to urge me that I should on my return (for he would not be there on my going) pay him a visit, that is, _to go and stay with him_. Of course I said _Domine non sum dignus_, but he pressed me repeatedly. I thought when he learnt who I was he would not press me again, but on Saturday last I unexpectedly received a despatch from the Austrian Minister here, Apponyi, sending me, in the Archduke’s name, a very fine diamond ring with the Archduke’s initials, and a reminder that he expects I will pay him a visit at Milan. Now this is very embarrassing. If I go to Milan, and he is there, I _must_ present myself, and be his guest if he insists; if I do so all the Italians who do not know me, more especially in Piedmont, will accuse me of treachery, of playing false to my country, and what not; and, on the other hand, if I had the moral courage to despise such an outcry I might do some little good—very little, if any, I know. Yours, &c., &c., A. PANIZZI.” But to return to the Museum. The process of accumulation continued, and the influx of works of art and other antiquities was filling the National Institution to such an extent that it was deemed necessary to decide whether the Natural History Departments should be retained at Bloomsbury. The various heads of Departments were invited to send in their reports and opinions on the subject, and a few of their remarks may not appear superfluous:—