1886 Letter to Aimé Giron Seeking His Appeal to President Jules Grévy and Minister Édouard Lockroy for Naturalization and Government Advancement

On offer is a remarkable private letter revealing French author and journalist Aimé Giron (1836-1907) acting as a political and administrative intermediary at the highest levels of the Third Republic. Written at Le Puy on January 17, 1886, and signed “A. Devoucoux,” the letter combines family financial affairs with urgent requests that Giron use his connections to influence a naturalization case and a delayed government advancement.

The principal beneficiary was Giron’s brother-in-law, Alphonse-Hubert-Lucien de Romiszowski, a recently qualified physician of Polish family background who required French naturalization before he could establish himself professionally.

Devoucoux instructs Giron to enlist his friend “Mézière” (very likely writer, parliamentarian, and future Académie française member Alfred Mézières) and accompany Hubert directly to President Jules Grévy. The forceful wording conveys both the urgency of the case and the writer’s confidence in Giron’s access: “Emparez-vous de gré ou de force de votre ami Mézière et allez avec lui et Hubert trouver le vieux Grévy” [“Take possession, willingly or by force, of your friend Mézière and go with him and Hubert to see old Grévy”].

The letter then directs Giron toward Édouard Lockroy, identified as the “new Minister of Commerce,” concerning the delayed fourth-class advancement of a man named Léon. This provides an unusually precise historical marker: Lockroy had entered Charles de Freycinet’s government as Minister of Commerce and Industry only ten days earlier, on January 7, 1886.

Giron is also encouraged to use the influence of Abbé Louis Roussel, founder of the Orphelins-Apprentis d’Auteuil and director of La France illustrée, a publication with which Giron was closely associated. Devoucoux summarizes the strategy bluntly: “En un mot frappez à toutes les portes et frappez fort pour réussir” [“In a word, knock on every door and knock hard to succeed”].

Beyond its political content, the letter illuminates the financial and familial relationships surrounding Giron. Topics include securities held at 65 Rue Saint-Lazare, retaining  shares in the Crédit Général Français and returning others. A postscript records the repayment money Giron had lent to Hubert. The closing refers affectionately to Giron’s wife, Lucie de Romiszowski, and their young son Noël.

This letter provides unusually direct evidence that Aime Giron’s usefulness to his family and associates extended beyond literature and journalism: his network was understood to reach parliamentarians, cabinet ministers, influential clerics, and potentially the President of France himself.

An exceptional manuscript for collectors and researchers interested in Aimé Giron, Third Republic patronage, French naturalization, political networking, the history of medicine, Franco-Polish families, government administration, or the relationship between journalism and political influence in nineteenth-century France.

Biographical Notes

Aimé Giron (1836–1907) was a French novelist, poet, journalist, and lawyer born at Le Puy-en-Velay. He began publishing while practising law in his native city and served as secretary of the Société académique du Puy-en-Velay et de la Haute-Loire. His early works included Le Sabot de Noël (1863), Les Amours étranges, Trois jeunes filles (1864), and Mystérieuses nouvelles (1866). After the Franco-Prussian War, Giron settled at Bois-Colombes and contributed to Le Figaro, Le Gaulois, Le Clairon, and other periodicals. He was closely associated with La France illustrée, serving as its editor-in-chief for approximately twenty-five years. A prolific author whose fiction frequently drew upon the history and legends of the Velay, Giron received recognition from the Académie des Jeux floraux and the Académie française. The present letter shows that his usefulness to relatives and associates extended beyond literature: he was expected to mobilize contacts in journalism, politics, government, and the Catholic charitable world.

Marie Lucie de Romiszowski (born 1852) is called “Lucy” in the letter, and was Aimé Giron’s wife and the sister of Alphonse-Hubert-Lucien de Romiszowski. She married Giron at Marseille on June 5, 1882. The couple’s son, Noël, was born in 1884. Devoucoux’s affectionate inquiry about Lucy and the progress of the child’s “famous weaning” places the political and financial requests within an intimate family correspondence.

Noël Joseph Antoine Justin Giron (1884–1941), generally published as Noël Aimé-Giron, was the son of Aimé Giron and Marie Lucie de Romiszowski. He became a scholar of Egypt and ancient Near Eastern texts, with particular expertise in Aramaic documents. His publications included Textes araméens d’Égypte, issued at Cairo by the Institut français d’archéologie orientale in 1931. The Noël mentioned as a recently weaned child in this 1886 letter would therefore later establish a scholarly reputation quite distinct from his father’s literary and journalistic career. 

Alphonse-Hubert-Lucien de Romiszowski (1856–1891) is featured in the letter as the “Hubert” whose future is in question. He was Giron’s brother-in-law and a doctor of medicine. Born at Philippeville in French Algeria, now Skikda, on July 10, 1856, he was the son of a Polish father whose unresolved nationality appears to have complicated Hubert’s own professional establishment in France. In 1886, a relative who signs their name A. Devoucoux urged Giron to use his political connections to obtain the required naturalization so Hubert could begin working with “a tranquil mind.” The request was evidently not resolved immediately: Hubert’s father was naturalized by decree on September 1, 1888. Hubert was subsequently authorized in 1890 to add Devoucoux to his patronymic name and became de Romiszowski-Devoucoux. He married Marie Amélie Alphonsine de Néry that year but died in Paris on January 24, 1891, aged only thirty-four.

Marie Amélie Alphonsine de Néry (1866–1926), Hubert’s wife, later became known under the literary name Marylie Markovitch. She developed a career as a journalist, lecturer, poet, and author, travelling widely and writing about political and social conditions. Although she did not marry Hubert until four years after this letter, her later career adds another literary and journalistic connection to the extended Giron–Romiszowski family circle.

Jules Grévy (1807–1891) was President of the French Republic from 1879 to 1887. A lawyer and longtime republican politician, he became the Fourth President of the Third Republic. Devoucoux’s instruction that Giron, Hubert, and “Mézière” should approach “le vieux Grévy” directly is one of the letter’s most striking passages. It suggests either genuine confidence in Giron’s political access or a determined belief that his network could carry a private naturalization request to the presidential level.

Alfred Mézières (1826–1915) is the probable identity of Giron’s friend “Mézière.” Mézières was a professor of foreign literature, journalist, literary historian, politician, and member of the Académie française. He served as a deputy from 1881 and therefore occupied precisely the kind of literary-political position that could make him valuable in approaching the Grévy administration. Because the letter gives only the singular form “Mézière,” this identification should be presented as highly plausible rather than certain.

Édouard Lockroy (1838–1913) was a journalist, republican politician, and cabinet minister. He became Minister of Commerce and Industry on January 7, 1886, only ten days before this letter was written. Devoucoux’s description of him as “the new Minister of Commerce” therefore supplies an exceptionally precise historical marker. Giron was instructed to consult Lockroy concerning the file of a man named Léon and secure a delayed “fourth-class” designation or advancement to which the writer believed Léon had been entitled since March 1884.

Abbé Louis Roussel (1825–1897) was a Catholic priest and social reformer who founded the institution that became the Orphelins-Apprentis d’Auteuil. His organization provided disadvantaged young people with shelter, religious instruction, and vocational training. Its printing operation produced the illustrated Catholic weekly La France illustrée, launched in 1874, with which both Roussel and Giron were closely associated. Devoucoux’s suggestion that Giron employ Roussel’s influence demonstrates how Giron’s journalistic work connected him to a broader Catholic charitable and publishing network. 

A. Devoucoux, the writer of the letter, has not yet been securely identified. The writer was evidently close to Giron and the Romiszowski and Devoucoux families. Hubert’s later authorization to incorporate “Devoucoux” into his surname indicates a significant connection, but the precise relationship should not be stated

The identities of Monsieur Bernard, Léon, and Pagen likewise remain unresolved.