Hubert said 'do "something similar" to this'... The syntax was incorrect for sure. If you wish to be able to do ORDER BY and LIMIT in UNION queries, you need to make them sub-queries "something similar" to this: select * from ( select * from (select * from only table_a order by number desc limit 25) as A union select * from (select * from only table_b order by number desc limit 25) as B union select * from (select * from only table_c order by number desc limit 25) as C ) x order by number desc limit 25; Again, this query and the syntax is totally untested (I don't have access to a PG right now); and I don't know much about the history of this thread!!! But I think it will allow you to do a LIMIT 25 alright.
And of course 'select *' isn't going to work in the subqueries, the base table contains less columns than the inherited tables.
I don't think you have much of an option in that case...