Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1883-07-20
A MONOMANIAC.
The Proper Explanation of Queen vic.
torta's Illness

New YORK, July IA London letter to
the Sun, dated July Sd, says: "The statement
long expressed 10 hypocritical sighs, uplifi-
ed, meurnful eyes, suppressed interjecIions,
Inuendos whispered with bated breath, yelled
in metaphor or clad in wary disguise, is now
coldly, calmly, openly, dispassienately dis
cussed by partisans as we'll as foes, by falter-
ers and ~scoffers. The mind of the Queen,
not her body, is affected. Her eccenirIcities
have taken unto themselves a name which is
only a synonym for insanity. TIE lurking
faint of the Hauoverian blood, the dementia
traceable in the line of the Georges, bursting
out ever and afresh in some wild and wicked
break, now seems to lave Enthusiastically
overtsken the Queen. The more or lees
harmless manias- in which, during a long
reign, Queen Victoria has allowed herself to
indulge unchalleDged and unbalanced, the
cratic ~fancies, sudden c~aprices, unreasoning
dislikes, unconquerable obstinscy Of which
so many testimonies exist, seem to have cul-
minated at last in a sudden, serious, pre-
tracted, undisguisable attack Of melancholy,
a monomania of ~seclusion, sadness and fear,
which 1t is idle now to color with any other
motive. 1t is not in disrespect or with coarse
insinuation that one is justified in attributipg
this last aud painful ouGburst 10 the death Of
the ~favoTite gillie. To one go selfish, the
smallest alteration in daily habits at once
OcCOUcS luDOEldul. omdll CAUSES nave ~
times great effects, and a subordinate incl
lent will precipitate events which far more
serious casualties have left unchanged. Still
when a woman, a widow and q queen, has
been known TO advocate the doctrine of the
TRANSPORTATION of souls in support of her
sympathies, when she is credited with the
belief that the soul of the prince consort
had elected its domicile in the body of John
Brown, 1t is not ungenerous or unnatural 10
conclude that her mind had already to
some extent lost its equilibrium. History
has already registered in it's pages the
authenticated fact that Queen Victoria
gszsd with favor upon the face of
her servant in the fond delusion that
she could trace upon his Scotch, square,
broad lineaments some resemblance 10 the
| outlines Of Prince Albert's features. The
| disruption OF this second, all but wifely,
| communion was a cruel shock, and the con-
| sequences Of it were 30 alarming that the
| effects OF a very slight, almost illusory acct
dent, were magni6ed into a serious and dan
| gerous spraip, 80 as to account to the public
for the complete withdrawal of the sovereign
from all intercourse, and her absolute seclu-
sion from any eyes save those OF her imme.
diate encourage, aud abstention from public
duties, except the compulsory snd mechan-
zeal wholesale signing Of State papers. The
| Queen has been conveyed from Windsor to
Osborne, thence to Bslmoral and back again
TO Windsor, in profound and mysterious iso'
lation. Her movements are shrouded in i'm.
p~ervious secrecy. All precautions against
intrusion of any kind are strictly and jeal
ousIy taken, and the stringent necessity of 9
perfect change OF scene, air and surround.
lngs are urgently impressed upon the nation