CHAP. IX - THE “GAZETTE”

Summary

Of all printed information upon India, there is none which, either for value or interest, can be ranked with that contained in the Government Gazette, which during my stay at Simla was published at that town, the Viceroy's Council having moved there for the hot weather. Not only are the records of the mere routine business interesting from their variety, but almost every week there is printed along with the Gazette a supplement, which contains memoranda from leading natives or from the representatives of the local governments upon the operations of certain customs, or on the probable effects of a proposed law, or similar communications. Sometimes the circulars issued by the Government are alone reprinted, “with a view to elicit opinions,” but more generally the whole of the replies are given.

It is difficult for English readers to conceive the number and variety of subjects upon which a single number of the Gazette will give information of some kind. The paragraphs are strung together in the order in which they are received, without arrangement or connexion. “A copy of a treaty with his Highness the Maharajah of Cashmere” stands side by side with a grant of three months' leave to a lieutenant of Bombay Native Foot; while above is an account of the suppression of the late murderous outrages in the Punjaub, and below a narrative of the upsetting of the Calcutta mails into a river near Jubbelpore.