The Sun.
London, England, 1801-08-21 00:00:00

FIRST RIPORT..

The SClC&Ciininifitee am-oil-11R to inquire into the
state. of the Ktblic"Records of this.Kingclorn, and
of-such other Public Instruments, Rolls, Boolesrand
Papers, as they shall. think proper i and to report
to the House the nature and 'condition thereof;
together With what thc), shall jucige.ift to be done
fot the better arrangement, preservation, and
-•,more cOpvenient use (f the s-a:ne, have, pursupnt
to the o;:der of the House," iO-oceeded to inquire
„ into the several. matters referred to them ; and
have agreed upon thefollowing Report

:* In entering upon' this important inquir-y, your
CommittA. have thought proper to begin with an
examination of such measures asliave been taken
'under the authority of 'the Crown 'and Parliament,
in former times, for preserving and arranging the
an
Records of the Realm, conceiving that such
an examination might best.serve to explain the, pre:
sent state of the several Establishments and Rep&i-
tories provided for ibis purpose, and furnish your
Committee with th...,most useful lights for dire;.l-
- the, course of their own proceedings.
_ In the first place, therefore, :yogi. 'Committee
propose tO state, what they find to have been
done upon this sqbjeet in former times ; in the next•
place, to relate w hat has been their own course of
proeee,ling the prosecution of the present inquiry,
a'na finally to submit to the judgment: of the Rouse;
those measures which, in their opinion, it may be
adviseable to adopt hereafter, for the better preser-.
vation, arrangement, and more convenient use of
the contents of tiles:: several repositories. 'Each of
these points.they shall endeavour'_; to state with as
much corretiness.as their nature and importance re-
quire, .and, at the same time, 'via' as much bret;i-
ty, las may be consistent with
.s.o, great an:extent
land Variety of considerations, comprehending all the
recorded memorials of our history, laws, and go-
vernment, froln the period of the Conquest of Eng-
land by the No'rinaiis, to the Union of Great Britain
and Ireland.

MEASURES OF FORM'E'R TIMES.

The greater' part of the eublic Records,;begin-
ning with the Books, of Doomsday;. have been pre
servekt to gstfar.more than se'yen, hundred ye.ars, al-
though 'many have undoubtedly been lost. or de-
stroyed, and particularly during the reigns-of king
Stephen, king John,' and Henry. the Third, and 'the
Wars between the Houses of York and Lancaster;
and it is also probable, that, during those tinie§ of
Turbulence, the persons whose duty it was to have
recorded 'public trantiaions, ,may have negleaect
so to do. • - ,

The attention of Parliament appears to have been
direaed yety 'early to this, object. In some of the
very first Petitions upon the rolls of Parliament,.
the public recOrd's are considered to be the Peo-
ple's evidences, OrtLined, -that they shall
be accessible to all the\ King's subjeas. Ire sobse_
quesit ages, sometimes -the Sovereign alone, and-
,sometimes the King and Parliaynent "Onjointly,
t.trptised to in.llce special provisions" and regulations
for' their tine. preseriratiort and arrangement, Lithe
reign of. Elizabeth an, inquiry u;as.iiistitut.ed con.
cerning the,' recordS of Pa rl iamen t,• and of the Courts
of Chancery • and Exchequer. Tarries; I.
a State Paper Office,. and an • Office -6,f Geneial..Re.
_ -

membnince for Of Nl4rters, of Record,; and a Coin.

rni,sion was issued riy Chatlesj. for searching after
all .I<ecords belonging' to. the Crown.- Statutes also
' were patted at various times, to proted them from
falsification;•.era3llrc, and en'Abezzlemenr.r
. .
Unfortunate;) ;however, almost-all the provisions'
•
established 'by the vigilance of
,preceding reigns,
were broken down by the civil wart of the last cen-
tury, and .ialthough some useful- steps were taken in
the' reign of Charles 'the Second, by founding the
present 'offiCe fOr State.' Papers, 'and' reforming the'
Tteaturies' of the- Commun. 'JAW Courist yet' no
effeaual measures were adopted to- retrieve-the ge-
neral- Mischiefs pr'Oduced by thOse times of-confusion
until the reign of Queen . _ -
At that aera, under :the san&ion of. the- Royal An:
thority, and by, the advice of- Lord HalifaX, and
the then Speaker of this House, Mr. Harley, after_
terwards Earl of Oxford, the design was formed
and executed of publishing that magnificent cotri.
pilatio'n of State Pqers and'Records which the Pub_
tic now possess under the mune. of Rymer's Fcedera—
, And as that great national work chiefly related to
the foreign-trantaftions *OT this country, the House
of Lords afterwards, at the instance of Lord Halifax
and Lord Somers, set on: foottan inquiry into the •
state of • our domestic Records, as conpeaed with
'its internal laws and government. That inquiry
was prosecuted without intermission and With-many
salutary consequences, through the reigns of-Qucen
Anne and George the First, down to the commence-
ii cnt of the
,reign of his late Majesty• • •
BA`, aye event which look place' in 173 r, namely,
the Fire which 'happened at the Cottonian Library,
'this liduse was- induced to set on foot another in-

gutty, by itsown authority, still more extensive

•
and effe&pal,than thd former ; zind'a very elaborate
ample 'in:tde at the conclusion of that
proceeding, together %viill'an earneit and unanimous
Address of this flouse,, in support of the Measures
ctiicli it recommended, %%as laid at the foot Of the
, .
throne..

'The.seile these several inquiries, made by
the tut of .the two.flousesi.cOmrtehended some
of -rhe,prilleipal gepositories Of thekingd'om, and in
the IZeport.madc tr 3 this House by the Committee; in
after stati,:tgetat- undt.:r. their .diredien,
some of the'princieill .aceth.cl Officers had compiled a
Table of the 'lt4:-Co:'(16 of the lk...:inp-clout; digested in
a' regular serie's oCiitne, 'and. disArtiguilling the re-
poiitories in which the several Reeoftis are contain-
eti, they proceeded' 'to state (sijitli'''great truth,
as -appears to yotiiponl(piliet:), !‘. Th',4 they had
laid the foundation 'fo.r. • very necessary 414 noble
Work, which must b cif singular adviitqagetp par-

411
111.,111JUip/ tuc 1411.1U11, anti Orlilg
td light many valuable remains of antiquity, wbicli,
for want of an easy and proper access to thern, had
long been concealed from public no*e.!'
Since that transa4ioni being the last great Pat.
liamentary Proceeding upon this, subje#, a period
has now elapsed of nearly 70 years, during which,
some of the rneasures.recomtner:ded thaVßepotti
7. ,
have becn'adopted 0-el-tually,,; others however, have
not been fully-executed ; oind theiterrnediate lapse
of time has progressively suceradded a Urge ac-
cumulation of materials in -every' department he.
sicics' which the change which has taken pine in the
language,-and written e,haraaer of Judicial Pro;
ceedings_has increased
.the difficulties of inetod-
izing -.these Repositories, or 'applying- their con.
tents to .purposes of pra4i.Cal use. It is appa.
rent also, that ,no Parliamentary Inquiries have-been
hitherto.extended to the Courts Maritime or .Ecle:
siastical,snor to any of the cathedral 9r Universi-
ty Libraries ; that the Royal, Sloanion, Harleian,
and other Colledions, which - now.-constitute 'the
British MuseurP, have never been subjetted to such
a ,visitation, and that, no such proceeding- lias ever
been extended to any of the Public Repositories in
Scotland. •

(To be cnitinued.

S U
T H

SOLENT Q,UIS DiClitE FALSUM -AUDLAT