It is the editor's habit, of a Sunday morning, to count the files on his desk and to leave the paper to the reporters. This Sunday the count is three, and the habit must give way.

The first file is the Council's preliminary report on the two Estrellas, expected this evening; the second is the Cardenal's emergency session on the eastern basin, held yesterday with a destroyer placed on standby readiness in the approaches; the third is Monday's vote on the fuel stabilisation reserve, which has now been previewed by every front bench in the Kingdom and by this paper's Proprietor besides. Each is a serious matter. Together they are the unusual condition of a small country being asked to perform competence at scale, on a weekend, in spring.

What one notices, reading them side by side, is that they are not three files but one. The corridor surcharges that drive the reserve are produced by the same eastern instability that drew the Cardenal to the Residència; the quarantine at berth seven sits at the same pier through which any reserve, were it constituted, would have to pass. The Chamber will treat them separately on Monday because procedure requires it. The Kingdom will not have that luxury.

This paper has, in recent days, declined to print certain pieces in full and summarised others. The reasoning has been recorded against each decision and is not the reader's concern, except in this: a Sunday on which three files are open is not a Sunday for theatre, on any bench. The Proprietor has asked for clarity. The Cardenal has asked, in his Friday essay, for charity. The Opposition has asked for a hearing. These are not incompatible requests, though they are easier to make than to grant.

The gout is bad in spring, and London writes that the daffodils are out. One reads the file, one writes the column, one waits for the report. The Council sits this evening; the Chamber sits tomorrow. The paper goes to bed at eleven, as it has since 1882.