BEGGING LETTERS SENT TO ROYALTY.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 53, 17 October 1911, Page 6

BEGGING LETTERS SENT TO ROYALTY.

In the first of a series of articles, “Guarding Queens while on their Holidays,'’' in the “Gill’s Own Paper and Woman’s Magazine,” M. Paoli, whoso special office it was to watch over the safety of foreign sovereigns visiting France, speaks of_ the larger 'iviiiouht •of correspondence ’ Queen Victoria received while in France, “among which,” he says “she received daily an innumerable quantity of begging letters, which were banded to me in case they needed looking into. Most of these missives eventually found their way into the waste-paper basket. I have, however, kept a few. They display many tricks, ingenious or ingenuous as the case might lie, and especially an amazing amount of imagination. Some had their appeals written by children, hoping thereby to produce a more melting mood in the recipient; others employed threats or sarcasm. The latter reflected the most complete confidence in the success of their enterprise, as, for instance, an old man of 82, who wrote : How painful and repulsive it would be to me, who am so near the grave, to have to alter my high opinion of the royal magnanimity, generosity, and benevolence ! “Others made a display of pessimism :

If your Majesty does not lend an ear to my entreaty, there will ho no resource loft to me hut to put au end to my life! “I say nothing of the constant appeals for subscriptions to charitable institutions and to enterprises of the most diverse and sometimes fantastic kinds. Nevertheless, special mentibn must be made of the madmen. A certain Comte do C invited the Queen to order her Government to replace him in possession of ‘his Egyptian crown.’ Another lunatic believed himself simply to lie the sou of the Queen of England, and suddenly took it into his head to assert his rights, 1 am bound to say, in exceedingly respectful terms: — Madam and Dear Mother, —I hear that you are in France at present, and 1 therefore hasten ip write and ask yon to give a little thought to me, your son, whom you abandoned in India. I cannot go on living in Africa, where 1 sillier all sorts of wretchedness. Please send me some financial assistance, to enable me to live as i ought to live, that is to say as the son of tile Queen of England ought to live. Hoping, clear mother, that you will have the kindness to satisfy my request, I send you a thousand kisses.—Your son, who still loves you, I) ben. A , Oran (Algeria).”