The Sun.
London, England, 1801-08-22 00:00:00

PROCEEDINGS OF THIS COMMITTEE.

71rouit Committee, therefore, in'Tesuming 'these
inquiyies, have-endeavoured to proceed, with a due
regard to the traniaio.ns-of former tiines, and an
earnest desire to Itaii the views and corapleat the
plans which the wisdomof their AnCegtors had
pointild our, adverting, at the same. time, to 'the
itlecessity of varying and extending those plans, ac-
ord!ng to
_the c,irctunstances which now present
theinsetves for consideration.

first proceeding, as the necessary four..
.elation of all the rest, was to prepare a List of all
.the Public Repositories. in England, in Which any
Records, -Rolls, Boob, or papers,. of Royal, Par-
lianientarl'; Judicial, or other Public Authority,
havebeen usually kept ; comprehending those for-
:rne'rlY inquired into by Parliament, and those hi-
yhcrto unexamined by it, classing them' under. the
Ileitis of General Repositories, , Houses of Parlia-
ment, Oj&es of State, Courts of Justice, Cithe-
,,drals and Universities, I.nns of Court, and PubliC
Libraries ; and also, •including the Corresponding
pescrip,tion of Rcposio,ries in Scotland.
'A. In the next place, your Committee framed
~and transmitted to the proper Officer ofeaCh Repo-
sitory such snestions as 2pvcared to them, •to be
most proper for ascertaining the particular nature
.0f its contents,' the state of the Building as to se_
~aFiry and accoMmbdation, the degree in which
its—Catalogues, Calendars, and Indexes were corn-
pleat ; the Number, D'uties,, and remuneration of
.the Offices belonging to it, distinguishing in. the
form of their Qestions, between those•Oflices which
are open of right to all His Majesty's Subjedi, and
those vliich are. only-established for the-safe cus-
tody of matters belonging-to some particular branch
•of Gm:et-Mr-mit, or some peculiar Institution : ne-
.vertheless, not extending their inquiries into the
_nature
,or condition of those Public Document's and
Papers,.
,which are immediately conneeted . with the
current business of any of the Great Offices of Go-
vernment; in matters of Revenue or War and in
all cases, forbearing to 'inquire into. the exi6tencc
of any PulilieDociiments contained in Private Col_
lemons, the local' situation of which must always
be uncertain, and the.possession transitory.
The Returns which have been made to your
•Committee from the different Offices, comprehend.:
eel within this range of inquiry, greatly exceed in
number..tboSe of any former &ite. 'The whole num_
ber received by the Committee in 173 i, was
Eighteen, whereas, those received and annexed to
this Report,•are betM'een three and four Hundred ;
piny of which, besides. the detailed Account Of the
Records and Instruments •to which they relate, will
be-found to exhibit a very correct view of several.
,important. branches of ,PuNic B"u"siness, never be-
fore so distinctly and aUthoritatively.explained..—,
Striking-instances of This remark will be -found in
the Returns from the Exchequer of Receipt in Eng-
-1.1.nd, and from the Exchequer, in Scotland in ail
its branches.

• 3. Vpur Committee,' after's'ettling their,Plan of
Inquiry, proceeded.ini the. next place to view the
principal Repositories in London. At the Chapter
_J-
the and the 'Tower, and. some of the Offices of
:the Courts of Justice, which had been visited by
former cc,mmittees. they had the means of observ-
sng•the in,deri changes which had- taken place, by
-.&)inparing their present state with the deseription
given in forulcr Reports. • And your Committee'
also, at, the same time, visited other Offices 'be-
.
longing to Courts of Chancery and Common
Law, the Con.rts,Ecclesia“leal and Maritime, the
College of Heralds,• -some of the Inns .14. Court, and
the British Museum.

4.. From This ocylar Suivey, compared with the
Returns as they were successively received, your
•
Committee perceived the necessity of directing
4 special searches, to he made in some of the princi.
pal Repositories, w_llere the coi,fusion was So great,
nd had so long preyailed, as to. render it imprae-
icable for the present Ofiicers to give even a gene-
•, .
rid account of their contents.

&large mass of Books. and Papers had long been
eposited 'in the apartments immediately. under the
*roof of this. Ijouse, w;lich; according to the Report
of 1732, wets.; supposed to he Records
of the Court King's'Bonch. These. however
.
bpon a -,.par'tkular cr_anination,' lippear to relate
±.tvholly to proceedings. of tteis'House, about the
dose of the last Ccryury, tr to Mhos=.ofille Com-
niissioners of Account:,; in the reigns of King. Wil-
liam and Queen /Vine i with thern.-%re many 'sealed
bags, referring to _Dors.,. Secret 'cor:esponclences,
ndilrish,Affairs in those timeS.-,.` ' -

) '

• In the Cll;o.,,ter House 4 search .was made to as-
certain the.existenet, nature,- and number of the
liunaredßollS of- I nquisitionS'taken iu the reign of
Edward' the First,. in addition to those for the four
Coutitics Ltr,ely discovered at .the Towers and'ilie
*original' Ino%.lu;sit'icns for fifteen Counties,' haveac-
,
cordinglY been discOered thep, besides' he recorded
EktraCts of Ingtiisitjons fo:. twenty-si:x 'Counties.
In the. 'l,:hcquer, yotir Coininittee2,found• it neces-
sary to set on ?Jet it spee:a! inquiry into the state
and nature of tl:;je untairangOlßecOrdsortheKing's
.11emembranect's Office, cont-erning which no return,
ap:ear,s _to have ben made (won any former occa-
:tion./ 'They' fdinO tenon their visitation, a large
part of th'eni lying in !I-A• tr:Ost evident-confusitin in
the Steno Tower, adjoin:lT to the Great Gate of
Wcstininstcf-haH, and in otner apartinents.cOntigu-
()LlS to it, without any Calendar-or Index whatever,
por -was tic re any t raditionaraceoUnt: of the Parti-
:ularS' slit} related. In the 'progress' of
this search inany yalrable R...cords tiave been since
oriiongSt the rest,' Ingitisi-
tinus- taken Inevery C:unry in Engianti,
tinder w'hat is ustT:illy • called the Statute of„.l.*:stenta
Nlanexii, ¢ VdWaftl the Firitl'Anno 1276, ja .Law
-
which,. it :hrts.beensaid; oretviedi, and
ilia important -ItoM',of Y;Alitatidit o Ecclesitotical

Benefices, called the No-nx .12011 s .of Edward the
. Third, A-nno 134. t, which are
,nquisitions'resurn-
ecl to a Commission for assessing a nintk.part of the
value 'Of the Corn, Fleece, and Lambs of each
Ci,urch, to - the King, in aid of his wars'- these
Rolls specify the 'value of every Benefice, distin-
guishing how.far it exceeded, or fell short of the
valuation of Pope Nieholas the Fourth, in 1291,
and stating the particular causes of such variation.
in Glebe; Tythe, EndOwment, Appropriation, and
every.other circumstance cOnneCted with it.
..,
In another branch of the Exchequer, the Office of
the Auditors of the Land Revenge, which
..was
noticed by Lord Oxford, in 17 1 3,as requiring ar-
rangement ; and noticed'also in 1732, by the then
Auditor, as being in extreme. confusion,
has been done from that time till. the present Officer
very meritoriously undertook to methodize one part'
of it, and this lie appears to have executed very
'eTfeCtually : upon the present occasion, therefore,
your Committee have caused a thorough examina.
tion to be made of the remaining parts of this Re-
pository,..in the course of which many very valua.
We Records of , every denomination, respecting the
Possessions of the Crown,., have been discovered,
and amongst the rest, several important Surveys
and Accounts of The 'Estates in jointure•to Cathe-
rine, Dowager Queen of Charles the Second, which
• having been granted out by reversionhry Leases for
99 years from her death, will fall into the posses.
sion of the Crown in the year 1804.
5. Your Committee being informed, in the pro-
secution
.of their inquiries, that many Records of
Attainder, and other proceedings under Special
Commissions for the Trial of High Treasons, in
the .years 1715, x7+6,-- 178 o; 1794, 1795, and
798,. were still remaining in the custody of per-
'sons' no' longer 'authorized to keep them and con-
ceiving that the Rights of the CrOwn and of- the
Subject were, in many instances, concerned in their
preservation, thought •it their duty, according to
the precedents in such cases, to receive these. Re-
cords and Proceedings, from the Parties who were
desirous of delivering them up, and they have de.
posited them amongst. the Papers of this Committee,
where they are now in readiness to be delivered
into the Baga
.de Secretis of the Court of King's,
Bench, .witiqe such Records have been usually
lodged, or into any other repository which His
Meoestiiiinay-be :pleased to appoint for the purpose.
6. TiiiimpOrtancenfa regular transmission of the.
Copies of-Parish Registers, in every Diocese to the
DioCesanior hi'S Chancellor, which,, by the Canons
-.Of 1603, ought to takeplace annually,- having en.
.gaged the attention • of your Committee, they di-
rected inquiries to be made upon this head, and,al-
. ,thougli they have the satisfaClion to find, that upon
an average of the, last ten years these Copies have
heen regularly transmitted annually by neatly all
the
.Parishes in sixteen of the twenty-six Dio6eses
in England, and triennally iq two or three
ceses, - yet it appears that a very large proportion
of the Parishes in each of the remaining Dioceses,
have
.negleEled to comply witit this salutary regu-
lation ; which, considering the great utility. that
may be derived from fit, in guarding the evidences
:of. title and pedigree from spoliation or confusion,
ought, in all instances, to be completely And punc-
tually enforced. •

_ 7.'ln Viewing the Repositories assigned to the
preservation of the Public Records in7London,
Committe, hive seen with-satisfaion the' state of
many of the buildings, and the regularity* of
their internal .arrangement,,particUlarly the Tower,
the Chapter House, the Rolls Chapel, the build-
ing allotted to the Six Clerks,' the Inrol-
ment, and the Report Office in ClyancerY. Other
Offices, ,however, belonging. sci -that Court, and
most of those belonging xo tye. Courts of CoMmon
Law, are inconveniently dreumstaneed, many of
them belonging to private owners,. who may _re-
move them at pleasure from-place to place, and many
of them (though-containing Docquets of Judgments
and other Records of great moment% as afFeCting.the
Titles to Landed Property,) .are exposed to the
most imminent risk of destruaion by fire;. and se-
veral of
.the principal Offices are, also too small for.
the present scale, of bosiness, a circumstance
.preju-
dicial to the Suitors, as-well as inconvenient td the
Officers. The an tient buildings adjoining to Wes t-
rninster-Ha)l,containing all the Offices belonging to.
the Exchequer
_.of Receipt? are not only too.imictr
straightened in space, but. they are also construaed
.tn'aterials which render them wholly unsafe for
the f;iirposes to which they were allotted. And
your Committee, having found that the Paper's,iii
the Office'of the Cornmissyoners for auditing the Pub. •
lie Accounts,,were perishing 'daily, by damp in the
vaults Und'er, the, buildings in spincrset-Place.; and
that lfany accident of fire happened to that Office, or
to the Pipe Office, the originals and dup:icates of the
Public Accounts. must be cc-insert-led together,, and
that the Records of the Lord Treasurer's Reinem-
'braneer's Office, in the some place, :Were exposed
equally to all these complicated risks, and were, in
the mean time :Absolutely inacceSsible- for' 'want of
space ; they thought' it their duty' in this instance
to inquire
-into the best means for providing an im-
mediate remedy i ,and they have the satigfaOion to.
State, that Means, apparently elrettual, • have •beeir,
proposed„.and are aliout to 'be :tarried into-exccu-
".

• f 3. According to the Returns made from-the prin-
cipal Repositories', it. appeals that their Calendars.
and Indexes are in- general sucienttly complete,
with 'some few exceptions, •which.,,vill • be -noticed
mor particularly when your CoMinitree • come to
point our what remains to be clone on this head.
9. The Official EstabEsliments of some of the
great Repositories want regulation, either-where the
Fees are fixed at too high, a rate, or are wholly no-
ascertained ; these also. will be particularly notic.Cd
amongst the further measures which yoy(c.:onunit,teei
will have to propose. . - .
to. In the course. of this investigation, it 'has'
.appeared to your Corninittee to be not inconsistent
with their duty upon this occasion to suggest,; that.
it "nay •be propeetO destroy • those documents, which•
it is useless and inconvenient io 'preserVe.! Of the
first sort, a striking . example occurs in the in-
stance of the Exchequer Port Books, which were
established in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth ; they
Were aftervilirds superseded,
.by a change of system
in the Customs, condemned as impede ' and'useles,
by the eonunisiip4et4 of Accounts in 4 24p, an 4

fiFolfr,stopped under the recommendation of the
Finance Committee in i 799. The former impel--
feec and uSeless Returns, nevertheless, continue to
incumber the Ding's Reinembrancer's Office, the
Office of the Auditors oldie Land Revericie, and
other Offices.

It. is undoobtedly, right to proceed with the ut-
most caption• in destroying any Public Books' or
Papers whatever :.but it seems evident, that in all
branches of the°Exchequeromd in many other Of-
fices, the Books of temporary usc, whereof the con.
tents are °afterwards, entered of Record, right be
destroyed much to the convenience-of the Office, and
without any. detriment to the . • •
• In the same ?ight your Committee have had oc-
, casiOn to notice at the Pell Office, 'in the Exche.
I quer of Receipt, a most useless waste of time and
money, by engrossing on parchment the copies •of
the paper books in which all the transadions.of the
Office have been -regularly entered ; and also by,
making up declarations of Accounts at. Easter and
Michaelmas annually, which, according' to the mo-
dern course of the Exchequer, are utterly unservice-
able. It is computed that not less than sO,OOOl.
has been expended in• this article unnecessarily dur-
ing the present century. On the other hand, for
the purpose of collecting the best ioformation on
the methods to be observed in making up and pre_.
serving the useful Records, and rendering them
more serviceable to the Public, • your Committee
have not only called :upon- each separate Officer- for
his opinion on what concerned, • his. own particular
department, but they have also obtained, from per..
'sons most eminent for their, skill and experience
(whose general 'assistance they have used 'through-
out this Inquiry), a distinct and derailed explana-
_tion of the modes which, according to their obser-
vation and judgment, it would be most 44 yir&able
to adcipt in future for writing and preserving ;he
Public Records, Books, and Papers, in all Offices
and RepOsitories.
. •
It is with confidence that your Committee re-
fer to these opinions, as containing much pritdi-
cal detail of real utility to those on whom the
execution of these services may rest, respeding
the' different charaders of hand-writing in diffe-
• rent ages, the most durable ink ta subject which
,well deserves a • chemical investigation), and the
diffrent modes of restoring its appearance when,
faded, or nearly obliterated ; the 'materials for, form-
ing tolls or books, the circumstances of reference
belonging to each ; and the advantages. or disad-
vantages attending the structure and distribution of
the buildings destined for their preservation.
it. Lastly, that the House may have the fullest'
proof of the desire entertained by this Committee,
to render their Inquiries profitable to. the Public,-
they-have analysed the contents of all the returns
Which they have received ; and they have drawn up
a systematic, view of them all arranged under the
leading divisions of our Constitution, Government,
-and Jurisprudence. In addition to which they have
Caused two Tables to be prepared by very, learned
and able persons;
.which they shall present to the
House in a subsequent Repcut ; the first of these
Tables exhibiting under this systematic arrange-
ment, all the dates of the several instruments, and
the places in which they are deposited ; the second
exhibitingan alphabetical enumeration of the same
articles-in a more detailed inanner with additional
'explanations of their nature, and references to, the -
particular contents of some of, the: most important
records ; such as the Close Rolls at the Tower, as
well as to all the authentic copies-and catalogues. of
public Records and l apers; which are known to ex-
ist in'print or manuscript; distinguishing England
from Scotland throughout, for the sake of perspi-
cuity and prataical convenience.
With resped to the materials from which these
Tables are- compiled; it is necessary to observe,
that some of the Repositories have confined their
returns to those MSS-of which no catalogue has
been hitherto printed, and hare omitted all the
Articles in their possession.. which have been enume-
rated in catalogues already printed. • Such, for in-
stance, are the returns from.the Bodleian Library at
'Oxford, and
.for the greater part of the Mdseum.
I,lle limits- necessarily assigned to an inquiry .like
the present have not alloWed your Committee to in_.
stiture a re-examination of these ,articles; and it
seems enough., for public use
.that they should be
here 'pointed,
:Our. , The same obserVation
.applies
also to the nOmberlesi copies and transcripts of Re.
cords and other Public Documents colleded by Lord
Hale, Sir W. Dugdale, TAshmble, PepyS,..and MCi
dox ; .some.ot the most remarkable.of them are 'r6.
(erred to under the.original.artiCles to Which they
belong : but it must be always considered, that as
well with regard to originals as transcripts, further,
recourse is to be had to these printed catalogues
which' are .already ire the Toss:.ssicm of the Public.

(To be conthtuesi.j

TII E SU N.

60 L ENI SZUI6 DICILRE fni.SUM AUDIAT