The Sun.
London, England, 1862-03-15 00:00:00

1,485,966,019 54

LE27ER OF THE EMPEROR OF THE

F.REA CH TO THE SING OF _ITALY.

In the course of the debate on the address in the
Corps Legislatif on Wednesday, M. Billault read
the following letter, addressed in 1861 by the Em-
peror Napoleon 111. to King Victor Emmanuel.
It is dated some days after the official recognition of
the Italian kingdom by France :
" Vichy, July 12, 1861.

"Monsieur mon Frere—l was happy to be able
to recognise the new kingdom of Italy at the mo-
ment when your Majesty lost the man who had
contributed the most to the regeneration of his
country. By so doing I wished to give a fresh
proof of my sympathy in a cause for which we had
fought together. In resuming our official relations,
however, I am compelled to make some reserves for
the future. A government is always bound by its
antecedents.

It is now 11 years that I have supported the
power of the Holy Father at Rome ; in spite of my
desire not to occupy militarily any portion of the
Italian soil, circumstances have always been such
that it has been impossible for me to evacuate
Rome. In doing so without weighty guarantees, I
should have forfeited the confidence which the chief
of religion had placed in the protection of France.
The position is still the same.

I must therefore frankly declare to your Majesty
that while recognising the new kingdom of Italy,
I shall leave my troops at Rome so long as it shall
not be reconciled with the Pope, or as long as the
Holy Father shall be threatened with seeing the
States still remaining to him invaded by a force
regular or irregular.
In this circumstance your Majesty may be well
persuaded that I am influenced solely by a feeling
of duty. I may entertain opinions in opposition to
those of your Majesty. I may think that political
transformations are the work of time, and that a
complete aggregation cannot be durable except in-
asmuch as it shall have been prepared by the assi-
milation of interests, ideas, and customs—in a word,
I think that unity ought to have followed, and not
preceded, union ; but that conviction has not in any
way influenced my conduct. The Italians are the
best judges of what suits them ; and it is not for
me, the issue of popular election, to pretend to
weigh on the decisions of a free people.
I therefore hope that your Majesty will unite
your efforts to mine, in order that for the future
nothing shall happen to disturb the good harmony so
happily re-established between the two governments.

EXTRAORDINARY ROBBERIES AT
IHE GENERAL POST-OFFIC.E.

During the last few days considerable anxiety has
been created amongst the bankers and merchants in
the City by the discovery of the robbery of a regis•
tered letter, containing notes and cheques of the
value, it is reported, of £5,000, the whole of which
has been realised in gold at the Bank of England.
Upon waiting on the Secretary of the Post-office at
St. Martin's-le-Grand, our reporter was informed of
the following facts :—On Friday, the 7th inst., a
letter was registered at Waterford, addressed to
Messrs. Leaf and Co., Old Change, London, and
duly forwarded to the metropolis. It is known to
have safely reached St. Martin's-le-Grand, as the
authorities have adopted a plan of requiring the
postmen to sign a receipt when registered letters
are handed over to them for delivery to the
parties to whom they are addressed. On the
occasion in question the clerk of the registered
letter department called the postman by name to

the pigeon hole of the office. Somebody answered,
who at the time was believed to be the proper per-
son, and after signing the usual form of receipt the
registered letter in question was given him to deli-
ver. Nothing more was heard of the matter until
the middle of the week, when a communication was
received from Messrs. Leaf inquiring the reason why
the registered letter in question had not been de.
livered. The clerk of the registered letter depart-
ment was at once referred to, and he produced the
postman's receipt to show that he had duly handed