GOTHA, ALMANACH DE, a universal political register, is published annually fit Gotha (q.v.). • The publication of this almanac commenced in 1764, in the German language, in which it was continued until Napoleon I. became emperor, when it was changed to the French language; it has recently been published in both tongues. The almanac is a small pocket volume containing at present nearly one thousand pages of small type, and recording the sovereigns and royal families of every civilized country, with the civil, diplomatic, military, and naval officers, a great amount of statistical a compact summary of historical events, obituary notices of the most distinguished persons, and other matters of political interest. No book ever printed contains so much political and statistical information in so small a compass. The boundaries of states are given according to the latest treaties, with their' extent. population, arid revenues. The annuaire dz:plomatique contains the name of every diplomatic representative and attache and America. The pay of officers of governments, national expenditures and debts, with the interest, the number of representatives, tinder representative govern ments, and their proportion to the population, are carefully given. As a work of such an extent cannot be brought down to the end of the year, the date of publication is stated, antrin sonic instances a date has been given to each page, as completed, to show that the editor is not answerable for subsequent changes. When the A1manac1r de Gotha
was commenced, there was but one republic in existence—that of Switzerland. It was then little more than a register of the crowned heads and royal families of Europe. It has heen slow to recognize political changes, and for years after the French revolution, continued to print under the head of "France," Louis XVII. as the reigning monarch. It was not until Napoleon became emperor that his name found a place in its pages, and then his whole family was given, as with the other royal houses. During the empire, Napoleon I. considered this little publication so important, that he exercised over it a rigid supervision, and in 1808 an entire edition, which had just been worked off, was seized because Ainhalt took precedence of Napoleon. To secure this re-arrangement of the alphabet, the edition of that year was printed at Paris. It is probable that a similar supervision of the press kept out of the historic pages the successes of the allies against the empire in the succeeding numbers, in which there was no mention of the campaigns of the peninsula and the victory of Trafalgar. On the restoration of the Bourbons, however, these events were recorded in a resume.