The Government's Newspaper.
By Arthur Hill.
HERE are thousands of newspapers published and sold in England, but the most important of them all is the one we most rarely see. It is the oldest and least read of any newspaper. Every taxpayer has a proprietary interest in it, but the vast majority of English people have never had it in their hands. It is at once the biggest and the least of all our papers, for it is the only paper in the land which changes its size from one page to a hundred, according to the pressure of news.
It is the only newspaper whose word is law and whose authority is accepted in the witness-box. It can make and unmake bankrupts. If it appoints you a field-marshal, a field-marshal you are, unless this wonderful paper contradicts itself and says it was all a mistake. It is the only paper in which certain persons are compelled to advertise, and in which certain other persons cannot advertise for love or money. It is the only public print in England which would refuse to advertise The Strand Magazine, though the price to be paid were ten thousand pounds an inch. Its advertisements are regulated by law; over and over again Acts of Parliument have been passed, and Cabinet Council discussions have been held, concerning this newspaper. Its "copy" is written by Cabinet Ministers; the Cabinet Council is its editorial staff, the Lord Chamberlain its descriptive reporter. It counts its age by centuries, but it has never stopped; it has prospered exceedingly and suffered heavy loss, but its news has never failed. Kings and Queens write for it, but its circulation is the smallest in the world. A single copy often contains more reading than the "Pilgrim's Progress," but it is sold for a shilling and the price never varies. It yields a profit of twenty thousand pounds a year, but it has never reported a police case or a political speech. It has never been sold at a railway bookstall, and no newsboy has ever cried its name in the street. It is never in a hurry, whatever the news; and, though edited by politicians, it leaves politics severely alone. You can buy this wonderful paper at 45, St. Martin's Lane. Its name is the London Gazette, and it is the organ of the British Government.
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Messrs. Harrison and Sons' printing works in St. Martin's Lane, where the "London Gazette" has been printed for one hundred and thirty years.
The London Gazette is a part of that venerable old lady, the British Constitution. Nobody has ever read the British Constitution, because it has never been written, but the London Gazette is as vital a part of it as the Union Jack. It is the channel of communication between Government and people. Before newspapers were, the Gazette was; before the telegraph, it gathered the news from the ends of the earth. Cradled under Cromwell, it lived through the Stuart era and
