THE VENETIAN DESPATCHES.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
SIR,—In your impression of last Saturday, I have read an article which is headed " England in Venetian Despatches," and which contains the following passage :—
" The despatches of Giovanni Michiel, Venetian Ambassador in Eng- land from 1554 to 1557, were lately noticed among the State papers in Venice by Mr. Daffus Hardy, who recommended them to the attention of the Master of the Rolls, as probably containing passages of historical interest on certain topics, though in a cipher which had hitherto baffled investigation. Photographs of the documents were thereupon brought to England, and Mr. Paul Friedmann seems to have worked out this tough problem by mere skill and patience, a little while before another inquirer, Mr. Pasini, had the better luck to find in the same Venetian library (in which he is an employe`) what schoolboys would call a crib to the subject."
The allegation in the above paragraph to the effect that Mr. Luigi Pasini found in the Venetian Archives at the Fran a " crib" or " key " to the cipher in question is simply false. The facts of the case are accurately stated in the report to the Queen by the Deputy-Keeper of the Public Records, laid before Parliament and printed for sale since April last ; and I must express my surprise that your critic should have ventured to pub- lish so gross an imputation without due inquiry. I have by this poet forwarded your review to Mr. Pasini, and in the meanwhile, in justice towards that gentleman, I must request the insertion of this letter in your next number.—I am, Sir, &c.,
48 Charles Street, Berkeley Square. G. C. BENTINCK.
[We can see no imputation in the sentence referred to. The statement may be erroneous, and Mr. Bentinck's letter arrives too late in the week for us to ascertain that it is so. But even if erro- neous, the statement certainly involved no imputation on any one. —ED. Spectator.]
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