CHAPTER XVII _Cardinal Alberoni; Panizzi and Lord Shrewsbury; Correspondence arising from Gladstone’s Visit to Naples._ There now arose, mainly out of the great subject treated by the Gladstone letters, an important correspondence between Panizzi and Lord Shrewsbury, who died at Naples, Nov. 9th, 1852. In 1850, his Lordship went to reside in quiet retirement at his villa near Palermo, from whence he visited Switzerland, and returned in Oct., 1852, but spent the Autumn at Rome. In politics he was a Whig. In the Catholic Directory we read ‘that the angelic purity of Lord Shrewsbury was the theme of every one’s admiration, and never did he allow a light or indelicate word, or the slightest allusion contrary to modesty to be made before him.’ In order that the reader may rightly understand the first few lines of this chapter, it must be stated _en passant_, that Panizzi had written in the British and Foreign Review for October, 1844, an article on the Republic of San Marino, in which he attempted a vindication of that brilliant example of a self-made man and dexterous (we may say unscrupulous) politician, Cardinal Alberoni. Let it also be said that the dark as well as the bright side of Alberoni’s character is therein treated with perfect impartiality. His intention was to write a full biography of the eminent Cardinal, and had requested Lord Shrewsbury to procure him some documents at Rome, as material for the work. The commencement of Lord Shrewsbury’s first letter contains the answer to this commission:— “Palermo, April 5th, 1851. “Dear Mr. Panizzi,