LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
SIGNOR CRISPI AND THE CONTEMPORARY ARTICLE.
[To THE EDITOR OP THE " BIlacTXTOII."
Sin,—In your notice of the article in the June Contemporary, "Italy and France," you speak of it as avowedly by Signor Crispi, because the author uses the first ;personal pronoun in
speaking of the predecessor of Marquis di Rudini, that this is an avowal of authorship. This calls for an ex- planation from me as translator of the article. It was brought to me for translation by a friend who is in the Crispi group, and as I had heard that Crispi had been urged to reply to a former article, and had agreed to do so, I took it for granted. that it was by him, and in translating it took the liberty of translating "Signor Crispi" into "I" in the two. places where the pronoun occurs, as more in accordance with the English usage in an article I supposed was by, and to be recognised as by, him. The original in Italian.
had simply Signor Crispi " in both cases. As the manuscript came to me in parts, and was translated and sent back as it came, trusting to the revision of the author, I gave myself no trouble about the corrections; but I alone am responsible for the personal pronoun, which was overlooked in the revision. The work was done in great haste, very late in the month, and it was only when the last part reached me that I perceived that it was not signed by Signor Crispi. I make no question it is by him, and I do not know whether he acknowledges it or not, or see why he should not, if his, as. the internal evidence indicates it to be ; but it was not in his handwriting, and was accompanied by no communication from him, so I had no right to assume that it was his, and it was gross carelessness on my part to translate it as I did; but these are the facts. I may add that this explanation is not. given from any suggestion of any party concerned, or in con- sequence of any remark made to me on the subject, and I am writing without the knowledge of any other person concerned, having only to-day read the notice in the Spectator, the only English notice I have seen.—I am, Sir,
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