Seals of Office

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXIV, Issue 6, 8 February 1906, Page 2

Seals of Office

We have recently heard much of the Seals of Office in connection with the change. of Government in Great Britain. These Seals (says the Dublin ' Freeman ') 'are small metal discs, each engraved with an image or device more or less appropriate to the office of which it is a symbol. The new Minister receives the Seals of his office, which consist ol a set of these Seals, from the King, in a velvet case. The- Seals are known as the Signet which is affixed to Treaties, the smaller Seal used for Royal Warrants countersigned by the Secretary, and the Cachet used for the purpose of sealing letters addressed by the King to Foreign Powers on matters of business. At the Foreign Office each of the three Seals is in use, at the Colonial

Office the Signet and the smaller Seal, and at the Home Office and the War Office the smaller Seal alone. Constitutionally there is but one Secretary of State'; for the five Ministers, who divide amongst them departmentally the functions of the heads of the Foreign, Home, Colonial, War, and Indian Offices are all of coequal and co-ordinate authority, all fully authorised to transact, if need be, each other's business.'