During this part of his career—as indeed so long as he could himself write—Panizzi’s general correspondence was too voluminous to allow of much selection; for the notes and explanations thereon, when at hand or to be obtained, would inordinately increase the bulk of this work. We, therefore, subjoin but a few specimens, which mostly speak for themselves:—
What a d—— fellow you are; a man of taste and accomplishment to write such a cursed illegible hand, that only the devil himself could decipher you. The truth is that when you spoke to me about your note, I really did not see the point of its contents. I opened it in my office full of angry Jew creditors of a client. I just ran through it, could not decipher half, and seeing it was on literature, no business, I interred it alive in a box—the mausoleum of my merely private correspondence—waiting leisure to peruse it. It so happened that I never opened the said box till to-night, when I took up your body. Really an illegible handwriting ought to be a statutory crime, and shall be when I get into Parliament. I can’t now decipher _two_ of your words till daylight in the morning. The next time you send me an illegible note I will return it to you, not prepaid, to be copied by your secretary.
So good night, and I could not sleep without giving you this cat-o’-nine-tails. I never was so put to it in my life as when you accosted me in the club, for thought I to myself, I will be hanged if I know the subject matter of his note; what can I feign?
Joseph Parkes, Lawyer and Politician, died 1865.
The next is to the Editor of the _Edinburgh Review_, and relates to certain articles written therein by Panizzi:—
I direct to Edinburgh, as I suppose you either are or will soon be back there. I am glad we agree about the ‘Jesuits.’ The ‘Post-Office’ article will be longer than I thought; there is a great deal important unsaid that we must say. The Jesuits shall follow; both by the middle of September shall be ready.... There is no article on any subject of immediate, striking, and now exciting interest. For instance the ‘Post-Office Espionage’ is one of them; Algiers and French ambition is another. The Jesuits is a third, and that is why I chose them. Any article on Ireland, or sugar and free trade, or the slave trade, or Puseyism, &c., &c., would be welcome to general readers. Puseyism, I know, you have touched upon, but, with the _Dublin Review_ on the one hand and Newman’s publication on the other, you might pay off these two inveterate enemies of yours most capitally. Then, although I know your difficulties about it, as it is a _serious_ review, you want light, amusing articles, anecdotes of shooting, fishing, and of old Highlanders and robbers (or gentlemen who took what they wanted), travels, &c. As I put down at random what, I think, may illustrate what I mean, the number is, in fact, too good for this age of light reading; we are impatient if we don’t get on in reading, as we do travelling by steam.