The Sun.
London, England, 1801-08-26 00:00:00

E NC LAND:

The heads olobservation which have occurred
your Committee upon this part'Of the subjea- are—
Buildings. 2d. Calendars and Indexes.. 3d.
Transfers. 4th. Establishinetiti Of Office.• sth. The
SeleCtion of such Records as it may be expedient to
print under the authority of Parliainent.
Ist. Of Buildings.---These are in many instrees
public, but in .many they are private property.
Some of the Public Buildings require additional
accommodations-or repairs, and others to.be rebuilt.

The Chapter House requires to have • a building
added to it, which may serve as an office for afrbrd.
ing a more\convenient inspefticn of the Records
there, to "all who-have:occasion to Consult them, and
at the same time
_that it furnishes a better accom.
modation for. trai)scribing them when required, it
will enable the several Clerks upon this establish-
ment to proceed more diligently and constantly in
completirg their Indexes and-Repertories, than can
be exirae4 of them during the_greafer. part of the
yearin the present state of the apartMents allotted
for this business. Your-Committee recommend this
measure with the more Confidence, inasmuch as they
find 'that • this House .presented •an 'Address to His
present Majesty for ereaing a' b'uilding contiguous
to the Roll's 'Chapel
,for similar purposeS, Which has
been since eretted accordingly, and found to be pro-
duetive of great convenience to'the Public.

At the, Tower, nothing is wanting to its corn-
,plete'repair, except some additional, support. to the
frame work and stages in the.large apartment ad_
Joining to what is commonly called Cxsar's Chapel.

Tile. Paper Office of the House of Commons stands
in need, of additional' spilce and accominodation for
receis, ing the daily accumulation of Papers belong-
ing to the louse, and connected with its pro-
ceedings,

Tlie— Exchequer of Receipt adjoining to West-
minster Hall, including 'the Office of the Auditor,
Tellers, Tally Court, and Pells, according to the
Report made to this House in 1789, and according
to the unanimous opinion' of all the present ,Officers,
ought to, be speedily rebuilt, and secured from the
hazards of fire. •

The Exchequer of Account, which is situated on
they; other side of Westminster Hall, and compre-
hends Offices belonging to the King's Retnemb•ran-
cer, the Clerk of the Pleas, and the Auditors of the
Land Revenue for England and Wales, is in need of
the same degree of attention.

And frOni'Vvhat has been already noticed respeet-
in the Offices of the Commissioners for auditing
the Public Accounts, the Pipe Office, and the Lord
Treasurer's Remembrancer's Office in Somerset
Place, it.is evident that the measures already pro-
posed, or such others .as may be more effeEtual for
the same purpose,.Sholild be adopted withoui delay,
inasmuch as "the con Sequences of their destrudion
ivciuld be irretrievable, and must involve the Public
and its Accountants in the most inextricable. dif-
ficulties.

Such buildings as are private property should. be
purchased on behalf of the Public, in all cases where
their preent situation and struCture are convenient
for,the uses to which they are applied, or their con,
tent should be transferied to some othier buildings
Which are or may be made the property of the
Ptiblic,

Of this description is the State Paper Office in
Scotland yard, which should unquestionably be
transferred . from th'e daMp and ruinous tenement
where it now is, and lddged in.some public build-
ing;' fire proof, gontiguous, if .possible, to the Of-
fices of the Secretaries of Sta`te.

The Offices, of the. Clerk of the Crown, Pet'
.Bag, and Examiners in Chancery, should be. placed
in some building., to be constructed at the public.
,expence, either in the Rolls. Yard, or elsewhere,
near to the other chancery Offices,: 'and the like
observation May be applied to the Office of Register
of Affidavits, Clerk.of the Custodies, Clerk of the
Dispensations and Faculties, and to. the Offices for
the execution of Bankrupt Lawp., •

The Courts of,Common Law stand in peed of the
same accommodation and security for the Records
intrusted ro the custody of their Officers, -This is
;non, apparent from the returns made by all the- Of-
ficers of the Coui'ts of Kink's Bench and Common
Pleas ; and it is confirmed to the fullest extenit by
the ocular observation of your'Carrnittee in' their
visitation of the principal Offices, Besides which
it is necessary to ;AI, that—the Suitors of all His
Majesty's Courts would be much benefited if the
Chambers of the Judges were situated in some
public building, with accommodations suitable to
their rank, and at the same time tted for the pre-
servation of these Documents ancPAffidavits which
belong to their own separate proceedings, until they
are transferred in due course to their proper repo-
sitories, Great .praaical inconveniencies to the
Public have gtually arisen from the present want of
these arrang-einents,

The-Clerks of Assize, except for the Northern
Circuit, keep all their Records in their private
Houses. The consequence is obvious, that in many
instances they have been dispersed from time to
time, and finally lost. Recent experience bas allo
shewn, that although they may be useless after a
certain period of time in most cases, yet it is abso-
lutely necessary that they should not be destroyed
or suffered to perish indiscriminately ; and some
public building, .Of no great extent or charge, should
be proVided in London for preserving all their Re-
cords antecedent to a certain period, so as not to
render their removal out of the hands of the Qfficer
inconvenient to the current business of his Office.

The Clerks of the Peace, are provided with Of,
fices, construfted at the public expence in twenty
out of the fifty-two Counties of England and
Wales. This should be the case in all of. them.

The 'County Registry for' Middlesex should be
placed in some Repository more effectually secured
from fire, and this circumstance shoUld 12c particu-
larly attended to in all the others, •

The Herald's Office requires to be removed into
some publie building, or to be secured against the
extreme peril of fire; to which it is now" exposed.
It is also most important to the establishment of
Private Rights, that the Wills and Proceedings in•
the *custody, of the Ecelesiastical Courts, should
every where be placed in perfel safety. The Re.
cord Office, for .the Prerogative Court of Canter.,
bury, construed at a very considerable expcnce
by the, liberality of his Grace the present 'Arch.
bishop of Canterbury, is a perfeft model of its kind
for this purpose.

Nor are these precautions, whieh, your Committee
have suggested with - respe6t . td 'Bdilditigc, to be
deemed superfluous. Repeated instances of Public
Instruments having been -destroyed •by fire, occur
throughout these Returns, of which we -haVe• a
memorable example, -in the Office of •the ' Lord
Treasurer's Remernbrencer of the Court of Exche-
quer, twice burnt,_.with the loss of -many of the
most valuable Records of the Crown, add among
them, die Original Returns of the Aromil; a I/Warn/it
Of all England. • - . .
. ,
. . .

(To be Continued.)

THE SU N.

301,1:14. ;LUIS DICI.RE.FaLSVAL AtInZAT