Volume 8, 1955 - The Arctic Circle - Home

VOL. VIn NO.3THE ARCTIC CIRCULAR5Some of these have found their ways into libraries unnumbered andothers have been numbered in manuscript without reference to theofficial pagination which is given at the front of each volume. 1Where charts and maps have been inserted, they may in one instancehave been included in the pagination, and in another omitted.Although reference to the sessional year and volume may lead tothe discovery of the paper sought, the pages of a paper withindifferent copies of the same numbered volume may vary somewhat.Consequently, reference to pages of Sessional Papers numberedin manuscript may be only approximate. However, each paperhas its own printed pagination, which is a much more reliable oneto use than that1Jf the Sessional Papers.There are occasional discrepancies in pagination even betweenpapers which have printed page numbers. In 1852, theHouse of Commons issued the "Additional papers Relative to theArctic Expedition under the Orders of Captain Austin and Mr.William Penny" / No. 143f[. which was numbered to page 368. Anearlier edition of the same paper was dated 1851, and numbered370 pages, yet the contents are apparently the same in both papers(see 1852b).Command PapersCommand Papers are those Sessional Papers which werepresented by command of Her Majesty the Queen, in order to conveyto Parliament and to the public, information which the governmentof the day considered should be widely disseminated. Untilcomparatively recent years, presentation to Parliament was thesole method of publication possessed by the government, with theexception of the Gazette. This channel became increasingly usedwith the growing influence of public opinion, in order to inform andguide the opinions by which it existed.1. e.g., The table of contents of the Sessional Papers of the Houseof Commons, 1834, Vol. XVIII, is headed with a note whichreads in part as follows: " ••• t he Figures at the end of the line,refer to the MS. Paging of theVOlumes arranged for The House• of Commons." Usually, this manuscript pagination was donein ink, and On the odd-numbered pages only.I