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none of the regularity of other newspapers; the printers rarely know the size of the paper until shortly before they go to press. Yet the Gazette appears with almost automatic regularity, and the big editions, containing often half a million words, and involving the handling of millions of pieces of movable type, are rarely much later than usual.

Queen Victoria's letter to the people after the illness of the Prince of Wales.

November is the month of big Gazettes, there being hundreds of pages of special advertisements for that month. Ninety per cent. of its pages are often nothing but advertisements, all of which must appear by Act of Parliament. How grateful many another editor would be for such Acts of Parliament! The advertisements are sober and staid enough now, but there were many glimpses of humour in them in the old days, when lost cows were advertised for in the Government newspaper, and quaint announcements appeared offering rewards for the identity of highwaymen who attacked post-boys.

The year 1847, the railway year, was an exciting time for the Gazette. On the day when the period for depositing railway notices expired—which happened to be a Sunday—Whitehall was besieged by an enormous crowd, so heavily laden with notices that they were literally thrown into the Board of Trade from the street. All these had to appear three times in the Gazette, at so much a line, and for one week the Gazette was published every day, the size for the week being something like three thousand pages. In those early days, when every sheet bore a penny stamp, a Gazette bearing thirty-seven stamps was frequently sold for two shillings and eightpence—a curious sidelight on the sham obedience of the Government to its own law, for is it not obvious that the stamps must have been bogus? The Gazette—of which, by the way, French editions were published in the days when the Court was in France—is the only existing paper which shows the change in the calendar adopted by this country in 1752.

To put Father Time right the Government turned on the hands of the clock eleven days in September of that year, the day after September 2nd, 1752, being reckoned as September 14th, 1752. In those days the Gazette was dated "from —— to ——," and the front page for the first week in September shows the date, including the missing eleven days. From the printed date it would seem that a fortnight elapsed between the two issues, whereas the period was actually three days.

Such is the Government's newspaper. It issues no contents-bills, false or true. It knows no politics and never gets excited. It never trades on sensationalism. On the negative side, indeed, it is largely what Mr. Sheldon would have a newspaper be. Nobody buys it unless they must—unless it brings them joy or sorrow. If you are made a bankrupt, you may buy the Gazette in sorrow to see your doom in black and white; if you are made an earl, you may buy it in joy to see how the King tells the people of your good fortune. But unless you want it badly you will probably never buy it at all. Nobody cares whether you buy it or not. The Government does not boast nor does it crave for million circulations. It is satisfied if its newspaper comes out twice a week and pays its way, and as long as it pays the salary of the Queen's Prime Minister four times over it is not likely to be stopped. Kings and Queens may pass away, Governments may come and go, but the London Gazette, unless some great calamity befalls it, will go on as long as London flies the Union Jack.