When Her Majesty Queen Victoria paid her first visit to the City of London after her accession, the _Observer_ came out with larger engravings than it had ever before produced. Two large views of the interior of Guildhall were given, together with a panoramic sketch of the royal and civic procession, and a portrait of the youthful Queen, 'surrounded by a beautiful Emblematic Design, in which innocence and strength are happily portrayed by the playfulness of the Doves and the fearless defiance of the Lion.' Such was the flowery language of the _Observer_ in those days. The _Observer_ of July 2, 1838, was a double number, price tenpence, and contained several illustrations of the coronation of Queen Victoria, which were also printed in _Bell's Life_. I have copied one of them, not because it is particularly good, but simply to mark an important historical event, which ought to have some record in an account of illustrated journalism. [Illustration: THE CORONATION OF QUEEN VICTORIA. FROM THE 'OBSERVER,' JULY 2, 1838.] On the occasion of Her Majesty's marriage, the _Observer_ published a wedding number, containing several engravings, which were introduced to the reader thus:--'Little in the way of explanation is necessary to render the sketches in the opposite page, with which we have illustrated our account of the splendid ceremonials of Her Majesty's Nuptials on Monday last, intelligible. Our readers will no doubt make due allowance for any imperfections which may be discovered, when they reflect on the fact that the whole of the labours of the artists and the engravers have been accomplished in less than a week, and this under circumstances of difficulty, in obtaining admission to the scenes to be sketched, almost insurmountable. We should not be doing justice to our engraver were we not to state that it is to Mr. Orrin Smith we owe the consummation of our desire to gratify our patrons.'