BRITAIN : Queen Says No to Early Retirement : Some have suggested that she step down while Prince Charles is in his prime. But she insists the monarchy is a ‘job for life.’

LONDON —  Until this week, only two British monarchs since Queen Elizabeth I had lived to see a 40th anniversary--George III and Queen Victoria. Now there is another, Elizabeth II, and she shows no sign of ending her reign soon, calling it a “job for life.”

There are increasing suggestions that Elizabeth should consider abdicating in favor of her 43-year-old son and heir, Prince Charles. But the queen, who was crowned at the age of 25 and who will be 66 in April, first indicated in her Christmas speech that she had no plans for handing her royal duties over to him, telling her subjects, “I shall try to serve you in the years to come.”

As Britain observed her 40th year on the throne Thursday, she repeated that position, saying: “I think continuity is very important. It is a job for life. Most people have a job, then they go home. In this existence, the job and the life go together. You can’t really divide it up.”

Her comments were part of an unusual television documentary called “Elizabeth R” (for Regina, Latin for queen), in which she spoke of the responsibilities of ruling and how the extreme public visibility has affected members of her family.

At a time when criticism of British royalty has become commonplace, the queen admitted that some of the “royals” find it “difficult” to cope with the constant scrutiny of their private lives.

“If you live in this sort of life, which people don’t very much, you live very much by tradition and by continuity,” the queen said. “I find that’s one of the sad things, that people don’t take on jobs for life. They try different things all the time.”

On the subject of continuity, she said: “As far as I am concerned, you know exactly what you are going to do two months hence, even beginning to know about next year.

“I think that this is what the younger members (of the Royal Family) find difficult, the regimented side of it.”

Some experts on the monarchy have suggested that the queen step down while Charles is in his prime, as is the custom for some other European royal families.

But the Windsor dynasty was badly scarred by the abdication of King Edward VIII, who gave up the throne to marry a divorced American woman, Wallis Simpson. And Elizabeth has indicated privately that abdication by a British monarch could seriously damage the institution.

The TV documentary indicated the range of the monarch’s tasks: She was filmed sitting for the latest of 100 portraits, answering some of the hundreds of letters Buckingham Palace receives each day, bestowing some of 3,000 honors she hands out to people annually, traveling around the country and making state trips abroad.

In private, she doubtless reads some of the daily stories, often critical, written about her extended family. In the past, her husband, Prince Philip, sister Princess Margaret and daughter Princess Anne have come under fire for what was called their dour personalities.

More recently, her daughter-in-law, the Duchess of York, has appeared in the tabloid headlines because of her friendship with an American playboy, Steve Wyatt. Even Princess Diana, Charles’ wife, was criticized this week for leasing a German-made Mercedes-Benz convertible rather than a British car.

Finally, Elizabeth herself--the world’s wealthiest woman--has been criticized for not paying income tax.

Still, she has managed to retain a sense of humor. In the documentary, she relates that during a conversation at a major state function here last year, former Prime Minister Edward Heath criticized U.S. Secretary of State James A. Baker III for not following his lead in visiting Baghdad before the Persian Gulf War.

“I know you went,” the queen responded to Heath, “but you’re expendable now.”