_Original Royal Letters to the Grand Masters of Malta_ (Vol. viii., p. 99.).--When making out the list of English Royal Letters, which has already appeared in "N. & Q.," we were not aware that any others besides those which we recorded at the time were to be found in the Record Office. Since then Dr. Vella has examined other manuscript volumes, and, fortunately, brought to light nine more autograph letters, to which, according to their dates, we hope to call your attention hereafter. They are as follows: +-------------+-------------------------+-----------------------------+ |Writer. |Date. |In what |To whom addressed. | | | |Language | | | | |written. | | +-------------+-------------------------+-----------------------------+ |Charles II. |28th November, 1670. |Latin. |Nicholas Cotoner. | |Ditto |12th February, 1674. |Ditto. |Ditto. | |Ditto |19th May, 1675. |Ditto. |Ditto. | |Ditto |28th October, 1676. |Ditto. |Ditto. | |Ditto |2nd November, 1678. |Ditto. |Ditto. | |James II.* |24th August, 1685. |Ditto. |Gregory Caraffa. | |Ditto |10th day of Jan. 1686-7. |Ditto. |Ditto. | |Ditto |9th April, 1687. |Ditto. |Ditto. | |George I. |5th May, 1715. |Ditto. |Raymond Perellos. | +-------------+-------------------------+-----------------------------+ * The letters of James II. are countersigned "Comes de Sunderland,"[7] and that of George I. "I. Stanhope." In our previous list an error occurred, which we would wish to correct. The last letter of Henry VIII. was addressed to the Grand Master Pierre Du Pont, and not to Nicholas Cotoner, who ascended the Maltese throne in 1663. The translation of H. M.'s congratulatory letter to Du Pont, on his election, we trust you have already received. We referred in our former Note to a letter of Charles II., under date of "the last day of November, 1674," and since that came to our observation we have seen an _exact copy_ bearing the autograph of the king. This circumstance leads us to inquire at what period, and with what English monarch, the custom of sending duplicate letters originated? In the time of James II. it would appear to have been followed, as one of H. M.'s letters is thus marked in his own handwriting. We would state, before closing this Note, that the letters of James II. are the earliest in date of any English royal letters filed away at this island which are _countersigned, or bear the address_ of the Grand Master at the foot of the first page, on the left-hand side, as is customary in writing official letters to government officers at the present time.