We deeply regret to record the death, at the age
of eighty- one, of Sir James Lacaita, the most accomplished of Anglicised Italians, who knew English better than most Englishmen know it, and spoke it as correctly, though with a certain foreign accent. He was also the most patriotic of wise and moderate Italians. He was a naturalised British subject, and accompanied Mr. Gladstone as secretary in the mission to the Ionian Islands, which ended in their cession to Greece, a service which gained him his title of K.C.M.G. He became a Member first of the Italian Chamber of Deputies, and later of the Senate, but his nature was too retiring to allow of his taking any great part in Italian politics. His son was for a time M.P. for Dundee, but broke off from his support of the Home-rule movement when he found how Mr. Gladstone's party excused and apologised for the boycotting and terrorism which went on in Ireland, and he very honourably resigned his seat. To Englishmen, Sir James Lacaita himself was the very ideal of the impartial foreigner; for, unlike most impartial foreigners, he thoroughly understood the country concerning which he talked, and though warmly attached to Mr. Gladstone, whose friendship he kept to the last, he deeply regretted and disapproved the Irish Home-rule policy to which Mr. Gladstone committed himself nine years ago. His death is deeply mourned by the large circle of English friends to whom his great knowledge, his charming manners, and his fine tastes had cordially endeared him.
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