22 JANUARY 1870, Page 3

We have received from Mr. Friedmann, the author of the

work on the " Venetian Despatches," which we reviewed in December, and which has given rise to some controversy on the part of Signor Pasini and Mr. G. C. Bentinck in our columns, a short letter, too late for insertion in our correspondence columns to-day, to the effect that he absolutely denies that " in the year 1867 cipher-keys collected and classed by Signor Pasini were placed at his disposal, and that he studied them for several weeks." Nothing of the kind, according to Mr. Friedmann, really occurred. "Except a general knowledge of cyphers," he writes, " which, however, I possessed long before I went to Venice, not the slightest aid was derived by me from any other paper than the Michiel despatches themselves."