On the 24th of February, 1853, Panizzi wrote to Sir Henry Ellis, requesting that, whenever the subject of the re-enforcement of the Copyright Act was again brought before the Trustees, he would “respectfully represent to them his strong wish of being excused from performing a duty which, in conformity with the arrangement of 1837, under which he holds office, was expressly assigned to the Secretary.”
The great remedy for getting rid of all difficulties, now-a-days, seems to be the taking up by Government of important schemes, and the biographer has seen it widely suggested:—“Let Government be the only publisher, because alone having perfect means of publicity—publishing for all alike (at their own expense) and giving all alike an equal chance.”
The Law of Copyright is about to come again under the consideration of Parliament, when, we cannot tell, but it would have delighted him whose “Memoirs” we write to have listened to, and advised fresh suggestions on, a subject with which he was so intimately acquainted, and where his disinterestedness (so far as he himself was concerned) led to so much mortification and such undeserved opprobrium.
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_Lord Vernon’s Dante; Sir G. Cornewall Lewis on Milton and Dante; Chi era Francesco da Bologna? John Harris._
During 1848, Europe was greatly disturbed by internal commotions, calculated to unsettle thinking men, and more especially those who took an active interest in politics. It is a matter for astonishment, therefore, that Panizzi, whose share in such agitation was by no means inconsiderable, should have found time and inclination to devote himself to literary productions. Nevertheless, indulging in the aspirations for freedom which were then moving nations he yet was able to dedicate much of his time to literature.
Indeed, it is almost incredible how he could, with so much on his brain, have given himself up to the editing of Dante. Of the great Italian poet so much might be written that it would be but irrelevant to this biography to leave the principal mover in it, even temporarily, to dilate on so exalted a subject. We must, therefore, merely observe that Panizzi was deeply impressed with the importance of Dante’s poetry, which excelled all that had preceded it, and was written in the _lingua vulgare_, only that it might be understood by the people, who delighted in its inexhaustible treasures. Five centuries have elapsed since the great Florentine wrote his _Divina Commedia_, which has now become the property and admiration of the whole civilized world.