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BENEDEK — BENEDETTI
1863, and a city in 1871. Its water supply is excellent, and the street mains have a total length of 100 miles. Altitude, 758 feet. Mean temperature for the year, 58-7° F.; for January, 72-3°; for July, 46-1°; rainfall (16 years), 23-85 inches. Population (1881), 28,153; (1891), 26,774; (1901), 31,020. Benedek, Ludwig (1804-1881), Austrian general, was born at Odenburg in Hungary on 14th July 1804, his father being a medical man. He received his commission in the army as ensign in 1822. In 1846 he was engaged in suppressing the rising of Polish peasants in Galicia ; he fought with great distinction during the Italian campaigns of 1848-49; was advanced to the rank of major-general, and took a leading part in the campaign of 1849 in Hungary, during which he was wounded. In the war of 1859 he commanded the eighth army corps, and in the battle of Solferino, where he held the right of the Austrian position, he succeeded in repulsing the attack of the Piedmontese. This success had little effect on the general course of the battle, but it confirmed his reputation as a fighting general and won him great popularity, which, owing to the prevailing discontent with the reactionary and clerical government of previous years, was increased by the fact that he was a Protestant and not of noble birth. He was made Feldzeugmeister and commander-in-chief of the Austrian army in Yenetia. When war with Prussia was imminent he was with general approbation appointed to command the northern army which was to be concentrated in Bohemia. It was a post he did not himself desire, as he had no intimate knowledge of the country, and did not feel confidence in his capacity to direct operations on so large a scale. Though an admirable leader in battle, he had no scientific military education. It was, however, impossible for him to refuse the personal commands of the emperor and the requests of the Archduke Albrecht. The Austrian concentration was, however, not completed when war broke out, and during the first few days, instead of using the advantage which otherwise they might have secured by the possession of the inner lines, the Austrian armies were defeated in detail in a number of engagements fought between 24th June and 1st July; at Miinchengratz, Gitschin, Nachod, Trautenau, and Kalitz. Benedek, therefore, telegraphed to the emperor advising him to make peace; the emperor refused on the ground that no decisive battle had been fought; Benedek, thereupon, instead of retreating across the Elbe, determined to bring on a decisive engagement, and took up a position with the whole of his forces (210,000 men) near Koniggratz with the Elbe in his rear. Here he was completely defeated by the Prussians on 3rd July, but he succeeded in effecting his retreat on the evening of the battle across the river. He was at once suspended from his command and a court-martial ordered; the emperor, however, in December determined that the inquiry should be suspended. Benedek from this time lived in absolute retirement, and in obedience to the emperor’s orders made no attempt to defend himself. While the indecision which he showed during the first few days of the war to a great extent caused him to lose the confidence of the army and prepared the way for the catastrophe of 3rd July, he was undoubtedly much impeded by the defects of the Austrian organization, as well as by the reluctance with which the representatives of the greatest Austrian families saw themselves placed under the command of a man who belonged to the middle class. The official account of the campaign, Oesterreich’s Kdmpfe 1867 (French translation Les luttes d'Autriche), probably for this reason leaves much to be explained as to the conduct of the war. The fullest account of Benedek’s life and of the campaign of 1866
will be found in Friedjung, Der Kampf um die Vorherrschaft in Deutschland, Stuttgart, 1897. (j. w. He.) Benedetti, Vincent, Count (1817-1900), French diplomatist, was born at Bastia, in the island of Corsica, on 29th April 1817. In the year 1840 he entered the service of the French Foreign Office, and was appointed to a post under the marquis de la Yalette, who was consul-general at Cairo. He spent eight years in Egypt, being appointed consul in 1845 ; in 1848 he was made consul at Palermo, and in 1851 he accompanied the marquis, who had been appointed ambassador at Constantinople, as first secretary. For fifteen months during the progress of the Crimean war he acted as charge d’affaires. In the second volume of his essays he gives some recollections of his experiences in the East, including an account of Mehemet Ali, and a (not very friendly) sketch of Lord Stratford de Redcliffe. In 1855, after refusing the post of minister at Teheran, he was employed in the Foreign Office at Paris, and acted as secretary to the Congress at Paris (1855-56). During the next few years he was chiefly occupied with Italian affairs, in which he was much interested, and Cavour said of him he was an Italian at heart. He was chosen in 1861 to be the first envoy of France to the king of Italy, but he resigned his post next year on the retirement of Thouvenel, who had been his patron, when the anti-Italian party began to gain the ascendancy at Paris. In 1864 he was appointed ambassador at the court of Prussia. Benedetti remained in Berlin till the outbreak of war in 1870, and during these years he played an important part in the diplomatic history of Europe. His position was a difficult one, for Napoleon did not keep him fully informed as to the course of French policy. In 1866, during the critical weeks which followed the attempt of Napoleon to intervene between Prussia and Austria, he accompanied the Prussian headquarters in the advance on Yienna, and during a visit to Vienna he helped to arrange the preliminaries of the armistice signed at Nikolsburg. It was after this that he was instructed to present to Bismarck French demands for “compensation,” and in August, after his return to Berlin, as a result of his discussions with Bismarck a draft treaty was drawn up, in which Prussia promised France her support in the annexation of Belgium. This treaty was never concluded, but the draft, which was in Benedetti’s handwriting, was kept by Bismarck and published in 1870. During 1867 he was much occupied with the affair of Luxemburg. In July 1870, when the candidature of the prince of Hohenzollern for the throne of Spain became known, Benedetti was instructed by the due de Gramont to present to the king of Prussia, who was then at Ems, the French demands, that the king should order the prince to withdraw, and afterwards that the king should promise that the candidature would never be renewed. This last demand Benedetti submitted to the king in an informal meeting on the promenade at Ems, and the misleading reports of the conversation which were circulated were the immediate cause of the war which followed, for the Germans were led to believe that Benedetti had insulted the king, and the French that the king had insulted the ambassador. Benedetti was severely attacked in his own country for his conduct as ambassador, and the due de Gramont attempted to throw upon him the blame for the failures of French diplomacy. He answered the charges brought against him in a book, Ma Mission en Prusse, Paris, 1871, which still remains one of the most valuable authorities for the study of Bismarck’s diplomacy. In this Benedetti successfully defends himself, and shows that he had kept his Government well informed; he had even
