Louis Fagan

“ Ce sont ces discours qui feront son opinion; il faut même réduire la question au vrai; Les deux personnages en action, M. Guizot et Lord Palmerston, décideront l’opinion, plus que personne, par leurs discours. Celui qui mettra le mieux les faits au clair aura le plus d’influence: peut-être Lord Aberdeen, comme arbitre entre les deux, sera-t-il aussi fort écouté.
Il se passe ici, dans l’opposition, un fait qui a peu d’importance en lui-même, mais qui fournit beaucoup de bavardages. Il y a dans tous les partis, mais surtout en France, des seconds qui veulent être les premiers. ”

“ Though your dear and beloved England may in some measure have slackened your chain, I will nevertheless tell you that I still prefer the Duke d’Angoulême, open enemy as he is, to that vile and infamous Sir William A’Court, who has betrayed the rights of hospitality by supporting a Government which, if unable to save itself, ought at least to have saved others. I can make a distinction between the generous people of England, whose hearts beat with noble enthusiasm at the war-cry of the liberal Spaniards, as well as the aspiration for Greek independence and self-government. ”

“ As this generation has passed away other aspects of the Italian question have come into greater prominence; the stately tree of Italian unity has covered the soil in which it originally took root. Even more as a picture of contemporary national feeling, than as an exposure of the fraud and cruelty of an extinct tyranny, is Panizzi’s youthful work, worthy of being rescued from the oblivion to which he for so long condemned it. ”

“ Reform succeeds reform; revolution, revolution; all is labour in vain, spent only on forming material for fresh change. Not that we should blame the race for declining to accept even good government from any alien authority had it either the wisdom or the power to construct for itself a stable administration, or the foresight to submit to the necessary control of the authority so created.
The Spanish Marriages affair, though of itself the meanest and most miserable of plots, nevertheless left results behind, the ultimate effect of which has, perhaps, not even yet been felt. ”

“ In a letter to a mutual friend, Panizzi describes Linati, as a man of turbulent spirit, on whom nature had bestowed a robust constitution, proof against all changes of climate; full of energy, though without any decided aim, an adept at all employments, and well versed in literature; a painter and a poet, a writer of plays, too, both comic and tragic, many of which he delighted to read to his friend. ”

“ Le texte vrai répondra à tout. J’ai dit que les Whigs étaient détestés de l’Europe. Cela est vrai; c’est le motif qui doit nous porter à nous unir les uns et les autres. J’ai dit cela pour faire sentir à la France que les Whigs et nous étions des frères en Jésus-Christ, c’est-à-dire en révolution. J’ai laissé échapper un mot que j’ai repris: c’est que Lord Palmerston était odieux à l’Europe, c’est-à-dire aux trois Cabinets signataires de l’acte de Cracovie. Veillez à ce qu’on n’abuse pas de ce mot. ”

“ Mais quand le Roi croira la question aussi grave qu’elle l’est, il abandonnera M. Guizot. Le Roi est un empirique en politique: l’une de ses idées favorites, c’est que, moyennant qu’on sache attendre, surtout dans les pays libres où tout est mobile, on a cause gagnée. Il emploie cette recette comme les médecins voués à l’eau chaude et à la saignée; il l’emploie pour toutes les maladies. Il ne croit pas à la solidité des Whigs; il croit que l’un de ces jours naîtra une question qui emportera celle des mariages, et qu’il aura acquis une Infante sans perdre M. Guizot. ”

“ It has been, and doubtless for some centuries to come will be, a matter of regret that the unrivalled collection called the British Museum has not, after the incalculable labour bestowed, and the vast sums of money spent upon it, found a home more worthy of its invaluable contents than the present building. Of this huge pile—an irregular oblong—but little appeals to the eye, less to the power of discussion. The Eastern and Western Wings still remain partially exposed to view in all their normal hideousness of yellow brick, unadorned by aught save a few meagre mouldings. ”

“ The issue was eagerly awaited, when, on the evening of May 14th, 1822, Besini perished by an unknown hand. Besini was taken home, surgeons sent for, and the blow declared mortal. Quick as lightning the welcome news spread through Modena, and the people heard with joy that there was a man in the town who had been bold enough to rid the land of a miscreant. With his dying breath he denounced a certain Gaetano Ponzoni, who, he said, had cause to be his enemy, “as if,” observes Panizzi, “Ponzoni were the only such person in the duchy.” ”

“ But liberty in Italy, as elsewhere, must have taken time to grow; even under the most patriotic of leaders a nation does not become suddenly ripe for the blessings of freedom. Nor can it be doubted that by the spirit that moved in 1820-1822, and which burst forth so brightly in aftertime, were laid the first foundations of that structure of Italian unity finally completed by politicians more skilled but not more patriotic than the revolutionists. ”

“ I am acquainted with a man of the highest excellence, and very famous in his art, his name is Francesco da Bologna, otherwise Franza; he forms or engraves on a diminutive orb or plate of silver, so many men and animals, so many mountains, trees, and castles, and in so many various shapes and positions that it is wonderful to behold or describe.’”
“And here I might stop,” continues Panizzi, “were it not that the direct testimony of Leonardi is corroborated irrefragably by a very remarkable circumstance.... ”

“ La Reine d’Espagne est libre; elle fera bien, dans l’intérêt de ses relations avec la France, de choisir l’un des deux Princes Espagnols, et, entre les deux, l’Infant Don Henri.
Lorsque la dépêche de Lord Palmerston, du 19 Juillet, a été communiquée à M. Guizot, on l’a envoyée à Madrid, et on a décidé la Reine Christine en faveur de l’Infant Don François, par la crainte d’avoir l’Infant Don Henri et les Progressistes. Je crois que c’est la Reine Christine qui a proposé le mariage Montpensier, pour n’avoir pas l’Infant Don Henri comme gendre de sa seconde fille. ”

“ Confront the British Museum for one moment with the Madeleine of Paris, and how great is the difference! In the latter is seen the nearest approach to true Grecian architecture, combined with admirable proportions, and tasteful and correct ornamentation; by admission of light from the roof, the unsightliness of windows inserted in the walls is avoided, and, in its entirety, the building fairly represents that which it purports to be. ”

“ Le sentiment de tout le monde c’est que tout est fini; on va jusqu’à dire que vous n’aurez pas de discussion à votre tribune sur l’affaire des mariages. Je vous prie de me dire ce qui en est, et de me le dire par le retour du courrier. Nous passerions pour des boute-feux, et, ce qui est pire, nous le serions, si la querelle s’apaisant nous venions la ranimer. Quant à moi, je reprochais surtout à nos ministres d’avoir rompu l’alliance avec les Whigs, pour la misérable affaire des mariages. ”

“ The proportions of the room are admirable, and the lines of architecture full of grace and beauty. The lighting is based on the most scientific principles, and the dome itself (only inferior in dimensions to one other in existence) maintains its own appearance as to actual size, and is of grandeur proportionate to its general lightness and elegance. ”

“ Quant à moi, j’ai goût à braver les passions de cour et les passions de rue; je me crois dans le vrai quand j’entends crier contre moi les laquais de la royauté et les laquais de la canaille, les uns disant que nous sommes les ennemis du Roi, parce que nous blâmons des mariages imprudents; les autres disant que nous sommes livrés a l’Angleterre, parce que nous soutenons que la brouille de la France et de l’Angleterre est le triomphe du despotisme en Europe. ”

“ We may be permitted in closing this necessarily very short sketch of the two revolutions, to quote a passage from that most amusing but slightly erratic writer, Lady Morgan, on the subject of the Piedmontese Revolution:—“Had this revolution not been disturbed by the unprincipled interference of foreign nations it would have led to the happiest consequences. What is to be said of a Government which reduces the great majority of the people to a slavish insensibility to national degradation, to a perfect indifference to national honour?” ”

“ Panizzi possessed no more power of ubiquity than other men; still such was his energy that only a close observer could follow his movements, and his wonderful activity often made him appear to be in many places at the same time, and induced the belief that he was, at all events, performing a dual character. ”

“ Happily, in the latest addition to the great building—an addition that owes alike its origin, position, and form of construction to the enterprise and genius of Panizzi—the ponderous and unsuccessful imitation of the Greek style has been laid aside, and a light and graceful form of the Italian order adopted. ”

“ We cannot wonder; but by Your Royal Highness, who has the honour to fill the chair once occupied by that immortal man, and by those Fellows of the Royal Society who are not unworthy of the distinction, something like sorrow must be felt, when they see in the catalogue of their Library that work classed among pure Mathematics, as if Mechanics had nothing to do with it. ”

“ As I have said a thousand times, the Britishers are the devil and all when they mix up together their religion and their politics, and if Lord John will not have His Satanic Majesty about his ears, he will interfere with religion of all sorts as little as he can, but let the gentlemen of each party fight it out among themselves, and be damned. We say in Italian that ‘chi lava la coda all’asino consuma l’acqua e il sapone,’ and he throws away his pains who tries in England, Scotland, and Ireland to conciliate religious sects. ”

“ Interesting and important as is the subject of the present chapter—viz, the gradual development of the resources of the National Institution, and the energy displayed by those whose duty it was to use every endeavour to raise the Museum in grandeur and extent—no great digression is admissible, inasmuch as there is on our hands so great a press of matter that nothing should induce us to lose the thread of our biography, or forget that we have the life of Panizzi under treatment, and the history of the British Museum only so far as it bears on his doings and his labours on its behalf. ”

“ To substantiate the charges brought by Foscolo against men of acknowledged worth is against our inclination, nor have we the opportunity of clearly knowing their nature. In writing a memoir of Panizzi it is but just to remark that, so far as the worthy publisher is concerned, he entertained the highest opinion of Pickering up to the last, as a man of taste, of great knowledge, and of indisputable private worth. ”

“ In politics, though Panizzi’s opinions (albeit somewhat modified by lapse of time, and by his intercourse with the greater English statesmen) were probably still of a deeper revolutionary tinge than his friend’s, the two men were in the main of one mind. The prominent question of the day was that tissue of petty chicanery commonly known as The Spanish Marriages—a miserable intrigue—which caused considerable commotion at the time, and in due course produced consequences of a gravity out of all proportion to its intrinsic importance. ”

“ There is a great deal of avenir in Thiers, and he is still destined to exercise much influence upon the opinions of his countrymen, and if he could make himself personally cognizant of the feelings of the English towards France, and become sure that there is not among us a germ even of hostility or jealousy with respect either to the greatness or the prosperity of France, I think he might do much to allay that spirit of hatred towards us which his own works and a portion of the press under his control have already done much to excite. ”

“ I have always been truly sensible to the kindness with which you have satisfied the occasional literary enquiries with which you have allowed me to trouble you, and with which you have taken so friendly an interest in the details of my small collection of books, and in its gradual improvement, but to permit, if I may use such a word, or to encourage you to incur the expense of printing a work of 300 pages for me without any intention of remunerating yourself by the sale of the work, is what upon no consideration I ought or could be brought, as far as I am concerned, to consent to. ”

“ A domed building possessing beauty of appearance is by no means easy of construction, and some of the most celebrated in the world are conspicuously deficient in grace and elegance, especially as regards the exterior. ”

“ Veillons bien à une chose, c’est à rapprocher les deux peuples, autant que les deux Gouvernements. N’allons pas leur créer des sujets de brouille qui au fond ne sont pas sérieux: un prince de plus ou de moins sur le trône d’Espagne ne fera rien quant aux influences. Le Duc de Montpensier, ou le Prince de Cobourg, n’aurait pas, j’en suis sûr, en devenant propre mari de la Reine, sensiblement changé la politique ingouvernable de l’Espagne. ”

“ For ourselves, as true lovers of our country, we are too well content with the eulogy at the beginning, to take exception to the blame of one of our institutions implied in the concluding part of the sentence.
In November, 1824, Santa-Rosa left England for Napoli di Romania to fight for the cause of Greek independence, and was killed in battle on the 19th of May, 1825. His death was a sad blow to the band of Italian patriots in London, but especially to Panizzi, who had looked up to him as a father and a counsellor, and had kept up a constant correspondence with him. ”

“ My dear Panizzi,
I have read your note of the 28th of May with much interest. I have since sent you an official letter sanctioning the gilding of the dome. That, however, need not be considered to preclude the consideration of the painting of the ceiling, should the Trustees be disposed to entertain it. As the matter appears to me it is thus:—The British Museum is certainly the best public building we have of modern times, and is one of the few things we have to be proud of. ”

“ There is nothing capable of being construed to the writer’s own disadvantage, unless an adversary were sufficiently malicious or prejudiced to discover an incentive to political assassination, in his report of a matter of fact, that Modena rejoiced at hearing the news that a tyrannical official could persecute his fellow-townsmen no more. This moderation of tone certainly cannot have arisen from any vacillation on Panizzi’s part. ”

“ A man alone in the world, a foreigner, without any other ties of affection or blood, concentrates all his feelings in his friends, and to lose one of them is a greater loss to him than it is to others, whose heart is filled by other objects.”
The circumstances of the gift of Mr. Grenville to the Museum having been fully considered, brief allusion has here to be made to that which threatened to become magnified into a national commotion, imperilling the safety of our Public Institutions, and foremost amongst their number, the British Museum. ”

“ Forshall enjoyed the fullest confidence of the Archbishop of Canterbury, in whose hands, by a tacit understanding which had become traditional, almost all administrative arrangements were left by the Principal Trustees. He was entirely opposed to all innovation tending to impart a more popular character to the Institution; and was, in fine, as thoroughly the representative of the principles on which the Museum had hitherto been administered as Panizzi was of those destined to supersede them. ”

“ It may be considered that we are open to the impeachment of plagiarism, greater even than could be ascribed to Panizzi, inasmuch as we have taken our statistics from a penny book—that most accurate one sold at the Museum at this very moderate price—and having borrowed from this valuable little publication, we can but claim as our excuse the worth of its contents, and the consideration of those readers into whose hands the small publication may never have fallen. ”

“ As Panizzi was one of those who felt sincerely that “whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing well,” and as he was blessed with ability and decision of character to carry out whatever he had in hand, it is pleasant to remark how thoroughly and efficiently he applied his talents to the benefit of the National Institution ”

“ Mr. Major, the present Keeper of Maps, in the British Museum, was at the time sitting in the same room with Panizzi, and seeing him point out the mistake committed by Sir Henry Ellis, in order to court enquiry exclaimed: “How do you account, Sir, for the words “in propria” being used instead of “ad suos” which might have been the version, had the English translation, the only one with which he was then acquainted been correct. Panizzi was amazed at the question, and turning round to his friend, exclaimed, “Goodness, he knows all about it, I had never noticed the difference.” ”