As a private opportunity offers for England, I take advantage of it to say that I have by no means neglected your commission, yet I can only say in general terms that I have not succeeded in all your desire, for just now I cannot lay my hand on the correspondence, but the papers are where no one can get at them without a great deal of fuss, and without the intervention of some influential person on the spot, and who will undertake to examine them at the same time; and now that Cardinal Wiseman has, to our great surprise, left the position he was destined for, and taken up another where we did not expect to see him, the scheme you had so honourably intended for the vindication of an injured Prelate, and calumniated diplomatist and statesman, must fall to the ground for the present. Of course you have “Istoria del Cardinale Alberoni, Seconda Edizione, &c, &c., Amsterdam, 1720.” This appears, by the notice of it, to be an authentic and able defence of the Cardinal, containing four letters written by _himself_ from Sestri, _in reply to the accusations brought against him_. If you can suggest anything I shall be happy to attend to it, but things at Rome are so perplexed and troublesome that it is difficult to get anyone to take an interest in matters that do not immediately concern their own duties. Had our friend Cardinal Wiseman remained, the thing could have been done no doubt, but he too has other questions to occupy him just at present....” The following brilliant passage in the same letter commences the controversy between the correspondents on the affairs of the Neapolitan Government—_Risum teneatis?_ “We enjoy the peace and quiet—_both civil and religious_—of this place amazingly: and begin to feel that we are safer and happier under the absolutism of Ferdinand II., and the Martial Law of our Good Prince Satriano, than under the boasted sway of the ‘Glorious Principles!!’ For, under your good friend Ferdinand, and his worthy representative, we are sure of safety and protection, as long as we observe the law, as becomes a peaceful member of society. But, under the ‘Glorious Principles‘ we violate no law, and fancy ourselves safe, when, lo and behold, we are arraigned as criminals, and condemned to be mulct to the last farthing by an _ex post facto_ arrangement of the collective wisdom (?) of the freest and most enlightened nation under the sun! But I shall shock your sensitive nerves, and scandalize your constitutional orthodoxy, so I must bid you good-bye, and beg of you to believe me, dear Mr. Panizzi, your very obedient and obliged friend and servant, SHREWSBURY.” Thus Panizzi replied to the first of these passages:— “British Museum, April 24th, 1851. “My dear Lord,