The Sun.
London, England, 1861-09-04 00:00:00

M. BENEDE2TL

A letter from Paris says :—You will have re-
ceived by telegraph the news of the reception of M.
Benedetti by the King of Italy. He is one of the
rising men, and, if one judges by the past, it is diffi-
cult to say where his flight is to stop. Eleven years
ago he was an eleve eonsulaire and Acting Consul at
Alexandria, obscure and ignored, except by the
then Consul-General, Lavalette. When the latter
was appointed Ambassador at Constantinople he took
with him as his secretary M. Benedetti, who had
been in the meantime appointed Consul at Malta.
His services rendered there in the beginning of the
Eastern question were so much appreciated that
he was transferred to the diplomatic service and
appointed secretary. The departure of Baraguay
d'Hilliers left him as Charge d'Affaires, and
during this time an event occurred which will give
you an idea of the man. Redschid Pasha was in
office, and Lord Stratford was commissioned to take
the Order of the Bath to Lord Raglan and others.
Before two days had passed after his departure
Redschid Pasha was out of office. When Thouvenel
was appointed Ambassador, in 1856, Benedetti took
his place as Directeur des Affaires Etrangeres, cor-
responding to the Under-Secretary for Foreign
Affairs, in which capacity he acted as Secretary to
the subsequent Congress. It was he, as you will re-
member, who was commissioned in the spring of 1860
to conclude the convention about Nice and Savoy.
We will hope that after all the denials there.is
no analogy between his last and present mission,
but the choice made of him just at this moment,
coupled, as it is, with other symptoms tending
that way, cannot but suggest the idea that another
intricate question needs a solution. He is supposed
to be favourable to the Italian cause, but not so
are, it is said, the instructions which he took with
him. However, even if true, little importance is to be
attached to the instructions of the Affaires Etran-
geres, especially in Italy. Since the rise of the
Italian question French Ambassadors in Turin have
found themselves more than once in an awkward
position by following too closely their instructions,
if they had not now and then the expedient of
double instructions. There is no danger of misin-
terpretation on the part of M. Benedetti, who has
been so long near the source of inspiration as to
divine the meaning of the words of the oracle.
I am therefore rather inclined to attribute some
importance to the sending of M. Benedetti at this
moment to Turin. It looks like earnest. While the
aim was to lie by and see how events turned, a little
confusion between apparent and real meaning was
rather advantageous, as calculated to bewilder, but
now that perhaps the time for acting is looked for,
it is important to avoid mistakes.

lAt last the silence of the papers about the pam-
phlet is broken. Yesterday several of them pub-
lished the telegraphic extract which I sent you on
Friday last, expressing more or less belief in its
official character, and one of them, the Temps (Libe
ral), gives several extracts from the pamphlet itself
and calls upon the If foniteur to divulge its opinion
on the facts it contains and the opinions it ex-
presses. At the same time, this journal makes bitter
reflections on the state of interloping publicity
which exists in France. A pamphlet is published,
together with others, and remains almost unper-
ceived until the news of its appearance comes back
in a foreign paper, and every one runs to get it.
Certainly it sounds almost like a hoax, this re-
vealing of the existence of so great a literary
curiosity by foreign hands. The Librairie Dentu
is the great pamphlet-shop ; every day there is
something or other to which no one pays any
attention, but one fine morning another of a score
appears, of the existence of which no one dreams
till it is pointed out. Every one runs to get it;
the more or less independent papers do not know
what to make of it, and the semi-official ones know
even less what to make of it, for they who grudged
the Siecle its mysterious note pass over in affected
silence that of which every one is talking. This is
the bane of a pretension to infallibility, which,
when applied to politics at any rate, is equally
awkward for Popes and papers.