I can wish Italy no greater good than the possession of many children like Pasquale Villari.

Our great diplomat George P.Marsh had an unbounded admiration for him--he used to say, "Villari is an angel;" and he certainly stands at the head of the list of noble Italians I have known for the personal and intellectual virtues and subtlety of appreciation, not rare amongst Italians, but unfortunately to be sought for in their politics in vain.

In Italy as in America men of that type are pushed to the wall and crowded out of the conflicts of political life.
I was finally, after five years of residence, obliged to abandon our home at Florence by the constant recurrence of fevers, which gave us perpetual anxiety as well as perplexity, for there is no malaria in that part of Tuscany.

After an attack which nearly proved fatal to one of the children, my courage gave out, and we broke up housekeeping, and the family, with the exception of myself and my eldest daughter, went back to England.

It was only subsequently that I discovered that the secret of the fevers was in the water drawn from the wells of Florence.