Gazette

Gazette, a name given to news-sheets or newspapers having an abstract of current events (see Newspapers). The London Gazette is the title of the English official organ for announcements by the government, and is published every Tuesday and Friday. It contains all proclamations, orders of council, promotions and appointments to commissions in the army and navy, all appointments to offices of state, and such other orders, rules and regulations as are directed by act of parliament to be published therein. It also contains notices of proceedings in bankruptcy, dissolutions of partnership, &c. By the Documentary Evidence Act 1868 the production of a copy of the Gazette is prima facie evidence of royal proclamations and government orders and regulations. Similar gazettes are also published in Edinburgh and Dublin. Most countries (the United States excepted) have official journals containing information more or less similar to that of the London Gazette, as the French Journal officiel, the German Deutscher Reichs-und Kgl. Preuss. Staats-Anzeiger, &c. The word “gazetteer” was originally applied to one who wrote for “gazettes,” but is now only used for a geographical dictionary arranged on an alphabetical plan.