The Royal Mail: Its Curiosities and Romance

"SWITZERLAND. "You will excuse me of the liberty which I take to write to you, but as I know nobody in your town, I have not found an other way for find relations with some body honourable. I will ask you if you can procure me a place in the English Colonies or plantations as teacher in an institution or tutor in a good family. I am old of 22 years. I have gone a good course of study in the college and gymnasium in ----, and I have held during a 1-1/2 year in the pensionnat ---- an place as teacher of French language and Mathematics. I can give you some good Certificates; I speak French, German, and a little English. I should wish for be entirely defrayed of the charges of lodging, nourishment, &c., to have a good salary and the voyage paid. These are my conditions; perhaps will you found something for satisfy them. I will give you a commission proportionably to the importance of the place. I hope Sir a favorible answer, and it is in this expectation that I am," &c. The next letter is of another kind, and is not a bad effort for a schoolboy:-- "Not having received the live bullfinch mentioned by you as having arrived at the Returned-letter office two days ago, having been posted as a letter contrary to the regulations of the postal system, I now write to ask you to have the bird fed and forwarded at once to ----; and to apply for all fines and expenses to ----. If this is not done and I do not receive the bird before the end of the week, I shall write to the Postmaster-General, who is a very intimate friend of my father's, and ask him to see that measures are taken against you for neglect. This is not an idle threat, so you will oblige by following the above instructions."