A ROMANTIC HISTORY.

Kumara Times, Issue 1077, 13 March 1880, Page 3

A ROMANTIC HISTORY.

Sixty years ago a young Italian was condemned to death for a political offence, The scaffold was erected, when he found means of escape. He finally landed in England. A stranger, and unable to speak the language, he began to teach his own. For tea years he lived a life of penury. One day ha found a friend in Roscoe, author of The Life of Lorenzo the Magnificent, who gave him letters which obtained him employment at University College, One of the letters was to Sir Henry Ellis, who was then Chief Librarian of the British Museum. Tw® years afterwards, when Brougham interested himself in the young Italian, this letter to Sir Henry no doubt helped to obtain for him the position of Assistant librarian. He was tbiity-four when he entered the Museum, and at forty be was appointed keeper of the printed books. He instituted wise reforms, administered his department with great skill,.and showed a marvellous knowledge of books; and, with a liberality which is creditable to the Government of the time, when death once more made the higher place vacant, he was elevated to the post, and, being naturalised, be was knighted. This, in a nut-shell, is the brief history of Sir Antonio Panizzi, Librarian of the British Museum, who lately died at the ripe age of eighty.