ppy result of
his carefulness and ability is now before the world.

"I will now conclude by asserting, that I had nothing to do with
what has been said or written at Florence of this recovery, either
in the _Strenna_, or at the meeting of the Scienziati, which was
held in 1841, I believe, and at which the fresco of Giotto was
naturally a great object of interest. I left Florence in May 1840,
before the portrait of Dante was actually uncovered, so that I only
saw a portion of the fresco. I have never heard, or read, or said,
or written, anything tending to disparage the real cooeperation of
Mr. Kirkup, or of my late lamented friend Mr. Wilde, or of anybody
else in this matter,--nay, that it was at my request that the
editor of the English translation of Kugler's Handbook of the
History of Painting, published in 1842, has in the preface of that
book mentioned Mr. Kirkup as having assisted materially in the
recovery. Besides the Marchese Feroni and the artist Signor Marini,
there are many disinterested witnesses who have stated, and if
called upon will repeat again, all the material points of my
narrative; but, better than all, there is now in London an English
gentleman, whom I am happy to be allowed to call my friend, who was
in Florence part of the time, and saw with his own eyes the share I
had in this laborious undertaking, which ought not to have brought
this bitter contention upon me: he was an intimate friend of Mr.
Wilde, with whom he had a long correspondence on this very subject,
after Mr. Wilde's return to America."

We believe Mr. Bezzi is in error as to the incompleteness of Mr. Wilde's
Life of Dante. Mr. Wilde, more than a year before his death, informed us
that his work was nearly ready for the printer; and at the same time he
confided to us for perusal his admirable translations of specimens of
Italian Lyric Poets. We hope the descendants of our learned and
ingenious friend will place these works, so creditable to his temper,
scholarship, and genius, before the world.

GEORGE CORNEWALL LEWIS.

A work on _The Influence of Authority in Matters of Opinion_ has lately
attracted much and apparently well-deserved attention in England. It is
by George Cornewall Lewis, M.P. for Herefordshire, and Under Secretary
of State for the Home Department. He is the eldest son of the Right
Honor