Rensselaer Union, Volume 11, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 May 1879 — How Queen Victoria Receives Her Mail. [ARTICLE]

How Queen Victoria Receives Her Mail.

Edmund Yates, writing in a London magazine, says: “The train, which we may assume is bound due north, and which contains the royal messenger and his precious freight of mail boxes, has crossed the border, and before it has arrived at Perth day has broken over the tops of the Scotch mountains. Balmoral is reached at last. It is a sweet summer day, and the Queen is seated in the tent oh the lawn, where she frequently breakfasts in the warm weather, and remains for hours by herself or with her ladies. The sorting of the contents of the colossal mail-bags will take upward of an hour, and then Her Majesty will be informed that all is ready. Many letters are left for the Royal hands to open. Thus a foreign Sovereign, or one of the Queen’s children,.or it may even be one of her subjects whom she honors with her friendship, has addressed an epistle to Her Majesty, in the same way that friends, acquaintances and connections write to each other in ordinary life. But even this communication only reaches its proud destination by a slightly circuitous route. The autograph communication of the Czar or Kaiser would first go to the Russian or German Embassy m London, would then be sent to the Foreign Office in Whitehall, and would travel from the Foreign Office to Balmoral in one of the above-mentioned boxes. Ip the same way will be treated the letters of those members of the Royal family who may from time to time be abroad, or for the mtftter of that at home. The Prince of Wales may employ the penny post in writing to an acquaintance. His Royal Highness has resort to the State boxes when he addresses his august mother, and -the-letter - is,. usually: inclosed .uMac cover to the Queen’s Secretary. There is not one paper in these boxes which the Queen will fail to examine. On many she will ask for more information; on some she will give definite opinions whicli cannot be confined within the. limits o| a sheet of notepaper,