23 



Their relationship to Mr. Jones, or their connection witF 

 him, stands them in better stead than learning and ability. 

 Let us take, for instance, the romantic case of Mr. Fagan, 

 which involves an interesting story, and at the same time 

 gives a curious instance of the way in which promotion 

 goes in the British Museum. 



Besides being Librarian of the Museum, Signor Panizzi 

 was occasionally employed by Lord Palmerston on diplo- 

 matic secret service of a kind in which Englishmen do 

 not shine, and for which they have little taste. In the 

 course of his many visits to Italy he became the owner — 

 by adoption it is said, — of three children, who were sub- 

 sequently brought up by the name of Fagan, the proprietor 

 of this name being a clerk who was for a long time 

 at the Naples Legation, but who, by favour of Signor 

 Panizzi, got from Lord Palmerston various appointments 

 in South America, where he died in 1869. The second 

 son — the first with whom we have to deal — came at once 

 to London, It was not his first visit. He had passed 

 through before when Mr. Fagan, the diplomatist, crossed 

 the Atlantic, and at that time Signor Panizzi desired 

 to make him his private secretary ! This the Trustees 

 would not allow, so he had gone South. On his return, a 

 partial orphan, he found in Mr. Jones a third father. At 

 once an attempt was made to place him as a junior assis- 

 tant in the British Museum. The only obstacle was that 

 he failed in the preliminary examination. The Foreign 

 Office was by some means induced to afford him a shelter 

 for a few months, after which time Mr. Jones had matured 

 another scheme. Said Mr. Jones to the Trustees, " There 

 is great need of a man in the Secretary's Office, who can 

 speak Italian." The Trustees approved the creation of a 

 new post, and then, of course,, Mr. Jones came across Mr. 



