pilffiiPlilill ili^ieiiiliiiiiiiiil'i'H; ^ UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT LOS ANGELES I^ccorti d. per sheet of 25 lines, containing about ' 300 words, and most of them only 35. Ad. for that quantity.* "To the first statement, I assert, from long experience, there is no Record Office, excepting the Rolls' Chapel, to which such continual resort is had for Searches and Copies of Re- cords ; and these on subjects of the greatest importance, as connected with Tithe Suits, and where Parties derive their titles, through the Crown, to possessions parcel of a dissolved religious House, or an attainted Person. " Impediments. — The Officer, not having (as he alleges) any G " contains the largest and most miscellaneous col- " lection in the Kingdom, but one third of the " whole of which are unprovided with any de- " tailed Calendar or Index ;" upon the " limited " hours of attendance, which, in fact, are only " from ten to one o'clock, and every holiday in the " calendar, amounting to six weeks in the year, is " strictly kept," the Committee made no comment ; but proceed to observe that, besides these sine- cures of £1400 per annum, it was agreed that Mr. particular days or hours of attendance, the mode of searching is as follows : — The Applicant is compelled, first, to go to Mr. Caley's private house, situate in Spa Fields (a place far remote from the Inns of Court), where, having stated the object of his Search, he is informed Mr. Caley will search, and give the result in a few days ; never allowing any Applicant, without exception, to look into his Indexes, public or private. The party calls again at the given day, when he is told Mr. Caley has not had time to make the Search, and a further day is frequently given. Whereas, if the Applicant could go down to his Office at Westminster, and at once make the Search, or have it made for him, great loss of time, trouble, anxiety, and expense would be saved. "There are hundreds of bags in this Office, containing many thousand ancient Grants and Donations to Monasteries, Hos- pitals, Free Chapels, and other Religious Establishments, En- dowments of Vicarages, considera- " tion * the very heavy and unavoidable expenses " * to which he was subjected.' ' All the various " ' items,' he said, ' of the expenditure of an office, " ' such as firing, stationary, &c. &c., fall upon me, " ' (the bill for paper only being repaid by the " ' Commissioners,) and my boat and coach-hire " ' with the portfolios and papers which are carried " ' to and from the Tower, amount to upwards of " * £35 per annum." He also named several works " which he had been compelled to purchase, and " submitted as ' current expenses,' salaries for two " clerks, £160 ; for fire, attendance, and small arti- " cles of stationary, £15 ; and for boat and coach- " hire, £35. In August following, Mr. Palgrave " renewed the subject in another application to " the Secretary. After stating that his salary was " * intended as a remuneration for the mental la- " * bour, the time, the attendance, and the exertion " ' required for the execution of the task,' as if the " payments, before specified for every description " of ' mental labour' which the work required were " not enough, he submitted that he ought, ' there- 71 " ' fore, to be relieved from any incidental charges " ' which he incurred, arising from circumstances " ' which he could not control.' These expenses " are again, and with the same gravity, stated to " consist of boat and coach-hire from his house to " the Tower, amounting to £30 per annum, and " for a few historical works purchased for his li- " brary ; and he actually seemed to take credit to " himself for not charging the Commission for the " assistance which ' three members of his family' " afforded him in * sorting the Digests.' "* " The liberality of the Commissioners, however, " proved equal to Mr. Palgrave's wishes ; and not- " withstanding the repeated and urgent requests of " the Treasury to confine the expenses of the Com- " mission within the narrowest possible limits,"!" " they found funds to satisfy the most material, if " not all, of his importunate demands. They re- " lieved him at once from the salaries of his clerks, " and seem to have permitted him to include in his " bills the costs he incurred for * small articles of " * stationary, portfolios, and other disbursements,' * " The individuals, three in number, who assisted in sorting " the Digests, &c. form a part of my family, and their help " was therefore gratuitous." t See various Letters entered on the Minutes of the Com- mission, from the Secretary to the Treasury. 7^ " for these items regularly occur in the Return " made to Parliament, in 1830. Nor is it by any " means certain, that the Commissioners did not " likewise repay the cost of ' coach and boat-hire " to the Tower,' as well as for ' firing,' because the " amount included under the term * other disburse- " * ments,' is fully sufficient to justify such an in- " ference : and they perhaps also generously in- " eluded the guinea which occurs in many of Mr. " Palgrave's annual estimates, as having been paid " by him to the ' messenger at the office in the " Tower.' " * Such charges as these, by an individual whose profits under the Commission were very much greater than those of any other person, and at least three times as much as they ought to have been, reflect but little credit upon his motives or feelings ; and fortunately for the reputation of the eighteen other Editors or Co-Editors of works published by the Commission, they are without a precedent or a parallel. Mr. Palgrave stands therefore in the un- enviable position of having evinced the most sordid and avaricious disposition, and of being by far the best paid of all the numerous persons employed by the late Record Commission, inadequate as were * In Mr. Palgrave's account for March, 1831, this item is thus entered : " Luxmore, Messenger at the Tower, £1. Is." 73 the services of many of those persons to the remu- neration which they received : and yet a leading member of the Commission, who must have been cognizant of these facts, and who knew the weight which could be attached to his opinion, has ven- tured to laud Mr. Palgrave's "conscientious forbear- " ance and frugality in lightening the public bur- " dens ! ! !" Other proofs of that exemplary " for- bearance and frugality" might have been adduced by Sir James Mackintosh, but as he omitted to state them, I shall. " Conscientious forbearance and frugality' with respect to the " public burdens/' were no doubt exhibited in that part of the plan of the " Parliamentary Writs" which contemplated that every line which has been printed should be u re-printed in the general collection, together with " the Rolls and Proceedings of the Parliaments to " which they belong."* They were, questionless, still more strongly manifested by his having, as Mr. Cooper remarks, " from a want of system, or " negligence, or caprice, or these causes combined," produced an expenditure of one thousand sue hun- dred pounds, in two volumes of " Parliamentary- Writs," for cancels and corrections of proofs only. It is gratifying to notice the liberality with which * Mr. Palgrave's Report of March, 1825. L 74 the late Commission rewarded these invaluable qualities of " consciencious frugality and forbear- ance'' in its disinterested servant. Immense as the profits which Mr. Palgrave derived from the Com- mission were, and obvious as it must have been that he was receiving £500 per annum above what was intended, yet, on the completion of the first volume of the " Parliamentary Writs," a Board, which met on the 31st March, 1828, came to the following resolution : " That a further reward of £200 be granted to " Mr. Palgrave on account of the peculiar " difficulties of the work, and of his uncom- " mon industry in the preparation of this " volume, by which the undertaking has been " accelerated, and expense has been spared " to the public, but that the payment be post- " poned till next year." The Board did not point out where the " pecu- " liar difficulties" of the work lay, still less did it specify in what manner any " uncommon industry" was evinced ; and the peculiar mode in which, by the exertion of that " industry," or indeed by any other part of Mr. Palgrave's conduct, " ejcpense " was spared to the public,'' has not even yet been discovered. When it is remembered that the re- 75 solution related to a single volume of about 11 GO pages, that only 4 1 of those pages contained Re- cords, one hu7idredand twenty pages of which were reprints, and that it has cost the country nearly six' thousand pounds, it may be asked what sum the Board expected it would have cost had not such " uncommon industry" been exercised? The members of that Board were the Speaker, the Lord Clerk Register of Scotland, Lord Aberdeen, the present Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Redesdale, the Right Hon. C. W. W. Wymi, and Sir James Mackintosh, all of whom (excepting Lord Redes- dale, who died in 1830,) have been reappointed on the present Commission, — a mark of confidence in their fitness for the duties of Record Commis- sioners, which their conduct on that occasion in appreciating " consciencious forbearance and fru- *' galityin lightening the public burdens," no doubt, most fully merited ! With these facts before them, what, my Lord, has been the conduct of the two Committees se- lected from the present Commissioners to report on Mr. Palgrave's labours and remuneration ? In substance this : they recommend that the Parlia- mentary Writs shall be continued on the present plan and at the present rate of remuneration ; that is, they advise the Commission to expend for an 76 unlimited number of years four thousand pounds per annum out of ten, upon one volume of a work which neither of the Committees, nor even Mr. Palgrave himself, ventures to deny might be pro- duced for fifteen hundred pounds a year for three or four years. The situation of the Secretary was rendered by these Reports extremely disagreeable, and most men would have quietly succumbed to circum- stances. Mr. Cooper appears however to have been actuated by a determination to perform his duty ; and, as your Lordship must be aware, drew up, at the request of Mr. Ker and Mr. William Brougham, the Statement of facts respecting the " Parliamentary Writs," and the " Calendar of the " Proceedings in Chancery," from which many of the preceding observations have been gleaned. These gentlemen requested him to print them, and they observe in a letter prefixed to the pamphlet, that in their opinion the other Commissioners should be in possession of the facts which he had collected. From Mr. Bougham and Mr. Ker's letter it would seem that they doubt if the execu- tion of Mr. Palgrave's work is " within the scope " of the Commission," adding very justly, " that *' supposing it is so considered, yet it will be for " the Board to determine whether from the present 77 ** state of the Public Records there are not many " more important matters requiring immediate at- " tention." "Hitherto" they proceed to observe, " very little has been done by the Commission to- " wards facilitating the access to, and search of the " Public Records more immediately relating to " title to Property. The difficulty of access to " these Records, and the imperfection of the In- " dexes and Calendars, render it almost useless for " any person, except a professed antiquary, to at- " tempt the making searches ; and the result has " been, that when searches are made, an antiquary " is employed at great expense. In many cases " the searches with respect to the title to Tithes *' cost more than the whole value of the tithes in " question/' Mr. Palgrave has since printed a reply to Mr. Cooper's Statement in defence of his work and of his remuneration, which has produced a rejoinder from the Secretary, so that instead of the time and talents of that Officer being devoted to the princi- pal object of the Commission, — in comparison with which any works which it may publish are no- thing, namely, — " inquiring whether any beneficial *' alterations or reforms can be introduced into the *' Offices or Repositories of Public Records," into " the Duties of their Keepers and Clerks," and above all " into the rules, usages, and regulations" of those Offices he is compelled into a literary controversy for the purpose of effecting an alter- ation which a proper and efficient Commission would have made at its first meeting, and have thus saved two thirds of the year's allowance, which has just been voted to the Editor of the " Parliamentary Writs." Mr. Palgrave's Reply leaves t\iQ. facts of the case very nearly where he found them : argu- ment is not his forte, or at least he has not em- ployed it against Mr. Cooper's assertions ; and although he has said much which is u?itruey slan- dered divers meritorious persons, and with some ingenuity endeavoured to lead the reader away from the real points at issue, there is not a word or a line which can justify the exorbitant expense of his work, or its unprecedented and extravagant plan. As one proof of the way in which the interests of the public have been attended to in the conduct of the " Parliamentary Writs," its editor meets the statement of Mr. Cooper, that many documents have been printed therein from tra)iscripts though the originals exist in the Tower, by asserting that he was not allowed free access to the Records in that establishment, and that a dislike of coming into *' collision" with the keeper and his chief clerk 79 restrained him from complaining to the Commis- sion ; so that the country has paid about eighteen thousand pounds for a small part of an imperfect work for no better reason than that two highly paid servants of the public might not by possibility come into ''collision !" Some of Mr. Cooper's observations in his Re- marks on Mr. Palgrave's Reply to his Statement are too important to allow me to omit this oppor- tunity of giving them publicity, they having been printed for the use of the Commissioners only. " Mr. Palgrave has not succeeded in removing " the impression, that it was never intended he " should receive a salary of £500 per annum, be- " sides a payment per sheet. It is therefore un- " necessary to comment upon his observations on " the subject, but it is material to remark, that he " considers ' any remuneration which the Commis- " ' sioners can make is so imperfectly compensated " ' by the hazard of depending upon an annual " ' Parliamentary grant, that, were it not for the " * reluctance that he naturally feels to abandon a " ' great work, in the prosecution of which he had " ' been enabled to surmount many difficulties ; and " * were he not equally anxious to continue his " ' History of the Rise and Progress of the En- " ' glish Commonwealth, he should long since have ' abandoned the employment of a Sub-Commis' ' sioner.' " Thus, one of the inducements to employ his time in the service of the Commission, for which he claims about £1400 per annum, is, he says, to write a private work, which, notwithstanding all he has urged to the contrary, must necessa- rily consume much of that time which ought, according to his own showing, as well as his^ro- mises, to be wholly given to his duties as a Sub- Commissioner. Mr. Palgrave seems to imagine, that if any private work which he may publish, or any professional business on which he may be engaged, be at all connected with Parliamentary or Constitutional History, he is to a certain ex- tent justified in so occupying his time. His words are, ' Now, although I was not employing ' myself for the Commission, in the strict sense ' of the term, yet it appeared to me that I was in ' some measure doing the work of the Commis- ' sioners, by exerting myself, however feebly, in * attempting to render the information which I ' gained accessible to the general reader.' And ' with respect to the ' voluminous Berkeley ' Cases,' they are,' he observes, * treatises and ' essays upon Tenure by Barony, containing mat- ' ters rendered familiar to me by my employment ; 81 " ' and the progress of the Parliamentary Writs " ' was in no respect impeded thereby.' " If he has taken an erroneous view of this point, " perhaps the Commissioners may think it right " to correct it, by informing him that they do not " deem him to be in ayiy ' measure' * doing their *' work' when he is employed in a7ii/ other manner " than upon the work to which he has pledged him- " self to devote his ' whole time' " It is not a little extraordinary that although Mr. Palgrave's " Reply" extends only to four sheets, yet it has produced no less than four pamphlets* from persons whom, to use Mr. Cooper's expression, " Mr. Palgrave's daring misrepresentations have " aroused to the vindication of their own honour " and integrity," denying in unqualified terms the truth of most of his assertions, and " demon- strating," still to use Mr. Cooper's words, that "his material assertions are mendacious T It is no less extraordinary that great as is Mr. Palgrave's literary influence, (some of his partizans among the * One from Mr. Cooper ; a second from Mr. Hardy, which is distinguished for its sound argument and gentlemanly spirit, no less than for its overwhelming facts : a third from Mr. Cole, Mr. Palgrave's own clerk ; and a fourth from Mr. Devon of the Chapter House, who charges Mr. Palgrave with " one of " the basest attacks that ever was made upon an unoffending " individual." M 82 Commissioners being contributors to the Quarterly and Edinburgh Reviews,) yet that his conduct has never been defended i7i prmt by any one excepting himself. Perhaps it is safer to support jobbery in a secret Commission than to justify it through the press ; and it may be easier to excite the sym- pathy of colleagues, than to make the vain attempt of enlisting the public on its behalf. The principal questions, in relation to the " Par- liamentary Writs," which the Commission ought to consider are whether the plan should not be mate- rially altered, and whether £500 per annum and an allowance for two clerks is not a sufficient re- muneration for the labour of editing any collection of Records, which labour, in Mr. Palgrave's case, has been wittily termed " Record Millinery."* If it * " See a Letter addressed to the Secretary to the Commission on the subject of certain works published by authority of the Commissioners, by William Lynch, Esq." After complaining that " too much of a selective and discretionary authority" was given to the Editors of the Foedera, he says " Such, however, I pass *' over, and proceed to a publication which offers the strongest " proofs of that class now under consideration. The work I al- " lude to is the new edition of the * Parliamentary Writs ;' a " work which, from its extent and extraordinary cost, is deserv- " ing of peculiar attention. I must premise that some gentle- " men, not having means of official knowledge, who heretofore " looked to the printed Peerage Reports as an elaborate com- " pilation of the learning and research of the most competent 83 can be demonstrated that persons of the necessary attainments may be found for the purpose, it is a criminal waste of money to pay more. One year and a half have elapsed since the formation of the ** persons, (of every class and opinion,) that ample public funds " could procure, have of late felt extremely chagrined to find it " stated in print, and under official authority, as it were, that " these Reports were ' wholly the Reports of one noble " Lord, and that he, unfortunately, happened to be one whom " it was utterly impossible to induce to change any plan, " however defective, which he had once adopted ! Now, *' great as must be the mortification experienced by those " gentlemen on such an announcement, it did not exceed the " astonishment and regret which I felt, when lately seeing it " stated also in print, that the Parliamentary Records of " England do not begin until the reign of Edward the First ! " that this fact is clearly expressed in the Peerage Report ! ! " that this Peerage Report was handed as his instructions to " the Editor of the Parliamentary Writs when appointed ! ! ! " and that he, as Editor, adopted the views and opinions of " the Committee, who prepared that Report, and recommended " the publication of certain documents accordingly ! ! ! ! This " declaration, it must be confessed, has chilled and disap- " pointed several as well as me. I, for my own part, expected ** that something deserving of the character of a National " Work would be formed, to contain every authentic docu- *' ment relating to British Parliaments from at least the year •' 1199, when the principal Legal Evidences in the Tower. " commence ; and further, that whatever diversity of opinion " existed amongst Politicians (properly so called) as to the " history of the Legislature, the Editors would not be permit- " ted to select or reject, merely that documents should square 84 present Board, and excepting the suspension of some of the works in progress, and the eifort to make a newph in favour of Mr. Caley, and to continue the old one in favour of Mr. Palgrave, nothing whatever " with any individual theories or fancies, but that as collectors " and printers of accurate copies of Legal Records, their " duty would bind them to print all evidences undoubted and " extant bearing on the subject. These were my expectations, " and I must declare, that I cannot still believe that any Com- " mittee or Commissioners ever intended in this, the 19th cen- " tury, to withhold from the public mind any portion of our " limited stock of ancient Legislative Documents — to set " limits to the extent of public information — or force doubt- ** ful opinions upon the Country ; yet it must be admitted, ** that from misapprehension, or otherwise, this has been the " case in effect Parliamentary Writs have been printed at " an exceedingly large expenditure of money, and no Parlia- " mentary documents before the reign of Edward L have been '* given to the public! what must literary men therefore think, " but that no Parliaments were held, or at least that we have " no records of Parliaments held, before that King's reign ? " Yet Parliamentary records do exist before the reign of " Edward I. and this is now asserted, and with confidence, *' by an individual who has made some research into Parlia- *' mentary history, and may have perused Parliamentary Re- " cords, perhaps not seen by the Editors of the Parliamentary *' Writs ; but at all events such certainly as are not published " in that work. In consequence of this oversight, or misap- " prehension, however, in the executive department of the " Record Commission, or elsewhere, the public, for whose " 17,000Z. all the Records relating to Parliafnentary history " from the reign of John to that of Richard II. might have 85 has been done. The contents of the Offices are in the same disgraceful state, the same impediments to access exist, and the public are still plundered " been printed in a proper manner, namely, without omissions, " selections, notes, or comments, must rest content (notwith- " standing so enormous an outlay) with certain Parliamentary " records of two particular reigns, which, as well at public as " individual cost, have already so frequently been brought to " our knowledge. " Thus we have sad proofs of the consequences flowing from " vesting in Editors of Record works an injudicious power of " rejection and selection, something, in fact, approaching to " authorship ! But how much are these circumstances ag- " gravated by the quantity of matter neither necessary nor '* authentic, which is inserted in the new edition of the " Parliamentary Writs V Would it be believed, that while " scarcely more than one third of a volume is occupied with " Records, the remaining two thirds are devoted to unauthen- " tic matter? Or is it credible that the Commissioners ever " intended such a recognition of ' book-making,' as that their " readers now must purchase two pages of scissors work and " Record millinery, for every one page of original genuine " matter printed under the Board's authority ? No ! I feel *' convinced it was not originally the Board's intention ; and " that it was never contemplated any individual should as- " sume the right of authorship — should dictate the period at " which public information may be allowed to commence — " should fix all future epocha in our Parliamentary and Con- *' stitutional history — or, above all, should attempt to render " the Commissioners' works unprofitable and unsaleable, by " overloading them with hundreds of pages of matter unau- " thentic and unnecessary." 86 by the same fees. In the same state too I confidently predicate will they remain so long as the present Commission exists. It has been shewn how im- possible it is for any real practical benefit to result from such an incompetent and inefficient Board, on which nearly every individual, including even the Secretary himself, has other duties either offi- cial or professional to perform ; and as if nothing might be wanting to clog the effi)rts of that officer, a Board cannot meet unless one of six high official personages attend, every moment of whose time must be more importantly occupied in the ser- vice of the public. If the Secretary ventures to do any thing in the name of the Board without its express directions, he is taunted with having acted without authority ;* and when he seeks for information respecting Record Offices from those who alone are competent to give it — the Clerks belonging to them, — he is accused of tampering with the " Keeper's Clerks," as the Keepers term them, though the salaries of the said Clerks are paid by the public. Under the present Commis- sion no Secretary can properly perform his duty ; for he must either assume too much discretionary power, or he must leave things to take their course. * See Mr. Palgrave's " Reply" to the Secretary's " State- ments." 87 If the Commission was properly organized no discussion could arise about the duties of the Se- cretary. Although it has been hitherto usual for that officer to exercise great discretionary powers, those powers are not conferred by the Commis- sion, and are therefore a usurpation. He is a mere ministerial officer, and ought not to perform even the most trifling act in the name of the Board without its express sanction. The Commission calls him a " Clerk or Secretary :" he is to be a person of " ability, care, and diligence," and is to be appointed by the Commissioners, "to aid in the " execution" of the objects specified. It was never intended that he should exercise any authority whatever ; but, in consequence of the injudicious selection of Commissioners, if the Secretary had not assumed the power which he has done, the business of the Commission could not possibly proceed. With the Secretary, in fact, almost every thing has originated, and on him the entire respon- sibility, not merely of business but of payments also, has rested. He is the Treasurer of the Commis- sion : from the moment the Parliamentary grant is paid, it is entrusted to him ; and instead of the sig- nature of one or more Commissioners being neces- sary to the drafts on the bankers of the Commis- sion, the Secretary alone signs them. The high 88 character of the present Secretary is a sufficient guarantee at this moment against an improper appropriation of the money ; but the system is nevertheless dangerous and improper. The most important part of the duties now performed by the Secretary ought to be transferred to the two managing Commissioners, whose appointments, I contend, are indispensable to the accomplishment of the objects of a Record Commission. Every payment should be authorized by them, and the Secretary ought not to have any control over the funds of the Commission. If the Secretary is to manage the Commission, of what use are the Com- missioners ? If the Commissioners, or any two of them, really perform their duties, of what use is a Secretary on the present plan ? A considerable saving of expense would be effected by an al- teration in the duties of the " Clerk or Secre- tary." Mr. Caley s salary, though nominally £210, was in fact £525 per annum. Mr. Cooper's present salary would seem to be unsettled ;* but it is not probable that he will, or ought to, accept less than Mr. Caley, or than any person who is employed as a Sub-Commissioner, so that it may * In the " Notes of Business for the Board," it is said that " the Secretary has received no salary or other emolu- " ment." 89 be rated at £525 ; whereas if tliere were two paid Commissioners who did their duty, a Clerk or Secretary need not be paid more than £150 a year, because the only services which would be required from him would consist in taking minutes of the proceedings of the Boards, and entering on the minute books such letters and papers as the managing Commissioners or the Board might di- rect. From these remarks it will be seen that, in my judgment^ the virtual delegation of the powers of the Commissioners to their Secretary is a vicious part of the existing system ; and though I admit that it may work better than it did under Mr. Caley, still the objections to it are extremely weighty ; for nothing can be more likely to im- pede the business of the Commission than the exercise of disputed and uncertain powers by any officer nominated by it. Should two managing Commissioners be appointed, the zeal and ability of the present Secretary render him a most fit person to be one of them ; but as his professional engagements do not admit of his devoting his entire time to the business of the Commission, his salary need not be so high as that of his colleague, from whom constant attention to the subject would be expected. Another injurious effect of there not being at N 90 least two or three efficient Commissioners, is, that the only members of the Board who are intimately acquainted with the minute details of Mr. Pal- grave's work — that incubus upon the business and resources of the Commission — receive their infor- mation from Mr. Palgrave himself. When a Board or a Committee meets to consider the subject, his friends never fail to be present ; and having just been prompted by him with his specious, and often most fallacious statements, they produce a tempo- rary impression on their colleagues, who not having the same interest in the question, do not suffici- ently investigate the points at issue to be able to adduce facts in reply to the argiimejits which are urged upon them. Moreover, the Commissioners who are not " tied and bound by the chains" of friendship for any employe of the Commission, do not always make a point of attending on these occasions. The Speaker, Mr. Wynn, Mr. Allen, Sir Robert Inglis, Mr. Hallam, and Mr. Utterson are rarely absent when the interests of their protege are discussed ; but your Lordship, Mr. Ker, Mr. Protheroe, and Mr. Brougham are not, and per- haps cannot be, equally assiduous. The Bishop of Llandaff and Mr. Petit, who are it is said generally present, may therefore sometimes be the only Com- missioners (for I take no notice of the Honorable, 91 and Right Honorable, body of auxiliaries whose names decorate the Commission) to oppose the well trained band of Palgravian forces ; and creditably as those two gentlemen have hitherto stood their ground on these occasions, they must ultimately be defeated without a constant reinforcement from your Lordship's company ; supposing that the whole regiment of Record Commission Volunteers, whose total inaptitude for actual service is on a par with that of volunteer regiments in general, is not im- mediately disbanded. Whilst alluding to the extraordinary influence which Mr. Palgrave possesses over certain of the Commissioners, it is impossible to refrain from de- nouncing in terms of indignant reprobation, one mode by which that influence is acquired. He has been for some time in the habit of circulating among those Commissioners in the most secret and surrep- titious manner, printed statements in answer to the remarks that have been publicly made upon his work, which statements contain strictures on the motives and conduct of various individuals. These papers are rigidly concealed from the parties upon whom he comments, so that they have no means whatever of knowing what he may assert respecting them. In my own case, he positively refused to send 92 me an entire copy of a printed letter respecting me, which he addressed to the Speaker, even two years after he had circulated it among the Commission^ ers.* His "Reply" to Mr. Cooper's '* Statement" could not be procured without the greatest difficulty even by Mr. Cooper himself; and notwithstanding that he therein brought charges calculated to ruin their professional prospects, against two other gen- tlemen — Mr. Hardy of the Record Office in the Tower, and Mr. Frederick Devon of the Chapter House, — they heard of the circumstance only by accicle?it, as he had not the common candour to send them the pamphlet, and thus enable them to meet his accusations. Nor is this all ; for it is said, and I believe with truth, that his " Reply" in its entire state consists of upwards of eighty pages, though no more than siccty-seven pages are permitted to be seen by any one besides those Commissioners who have espoused his cause. What those pages may contain it is impossible for me to guess ; but can there be a doubt that he is conscious he dare not, with any regard to his personal safety, publish their contents? To Mr. Cooper's * See the " Refutation of Mr. Palgrave's Remarks in Re- ply to the Observations on the State of Historical Literature," pp. 14, 15, 16, 63, 64, 77-8. 93 answer to his " Reply," it is also said, that he has printed a Rejoinder, of which no more than one copy has been struck off; and neither the Secretary nor any other person besides the said Commis- sioners has been able to obtain a sight of it. I will not, my Lord, condescend to comment upon such base and dishonest conduct in reference to its author, because nothing which he may do would surprise me ; but I address myself to Sir Robert Inglis, to Mr. Wynn, to Mr. Allen, to Mr. Hallam, and to Mr. Utterson, and I ask them how they can possibly reconcile it with their sense of honor to eulogize — openly and fulsomely eulo- gize, at the meetings of the Board and elsewhere — the private and public character of a man whom they know to be guilty of such acts, to say no- thing of the mendacity and meanness with which he has been publicly charged by Mr. Cooper, Mr. Hardy, Mr. Devon, and myself, and which he has in no one instance disproved. The devo- tion to an individual which is proof against facts like these does not arise from friendship, because that feeling depends upon estecrn ; and this de- fence of conduct which excites the contempt of the rest of the world must therefore arise from that obstinacy of purpose, and furious party spirit, 94 against which neither considerations for their own honor, nor for their duty as protectors of the public interests and guardians of the public money are allowed to have the slightest weight. To use a vulgar phrase " they are resolved to bring Mr. Palgrave through" — that is, they are resolved, per fas aut nefas, that he shall continue to derive the exorbitant remuneration, and to execute those preposterous plans, which the late Commission thought proper to authorize. I shall not now inquire whether they are likely to succeed ; but I take the liberty of saying, that if instead of reprobating these cowardly and assassin like at- tacks on individuals, the Commissioners whose names I have mentioned, continue to sanction them by their perusal, and conceal the existence of them from their colleagues and from the parties calumniated, they will not only be guilty of a breach of their duty as Public Commissioners, but they will identify themselves with the slan- derer, and must share the odium which would otherwise fall on him alone. By a recent order of the Board, notes of the business to be transacted are now printed, which, from the Secretary's observations, are important memoranda. The subjects for consideration at 95 the next Board are no less than fifteen^ the first of which, to be properly executed, would require the entire labour and 'peculiar information of two per- sons for at least twelve months : namely, to inquire into the duties of the Keepers and Clerks of Re- cord Offices, their fees and emoluments, the rules and regulations of the Offices, and to ascertain what Reforms are necessary, &c. For this purpose it is proposed to form a Committee ; and another Com- mittee is to inquire into the state of the Calendars and Records in the Tower, and into the best means of perfecting the Indexes. How far the proceed- ings of the two Committees which have been already appointed by the Commission justify a hope of the slightest advantage arising from any Committee of the present Commissioners, your Lordship may determine ; but can it be imagined that unpaid amateur Commissioners, consisting of Ministers of State, the Speaker of the House of Commons, Peers, Judges, Members of Parliament, and Barristers in extensive practice will perform these laborious tasks efficiently or properly ? Such a thing might happen in Utopia or in Lilliput, but ^ assuredly not in England. The Secretary, with his usual candour, says he thinks he does quite enough by devoting mo7'e than half his time to the m Commission, and frankly adds that he can afford little assistance to these Committees.* Will not the public, my Lord, inquire whether ten thousand per annum ought to be entrusted to a Board of which neither the Secretary nor any one of the Commissioners will devote his whole time to its expenditure ? How many Boards have met during the last and present year, what business was transacted, and how many hours have been wasted by discussing Mr. Palgrave's job ? are questions which are de- serving of your Lordship's consideration. What the Commission has done, I repeat, is nothings — what it has wished to do I have shown to be infi- nitely worse than nothing. The country demands either 7io Commission or an efficient Commission. A perpetuation of abuses is bad enough, but a perpetuation of abuses and an annual expense of £10,000 is very much worse. Is not the beacon formed by the three hundred and forty thousand pounds which have been already lavished by Re- cord Commissions sufficiently conspicuous, or must it be rendered still more so by another sum of equal amount ? There is scarcely a single Com- * " Notes of Business for the Board." 97 mission in existence constituted of such elements as the Record Commission. The Law Commission, and the Commission for Public Charities,* for ex- ample, are not entirely formed of amateur noblemen and gentlemen ; and on no occasion when the Go- vernment really requires services and results does it entrust the execution of its plans to a body of individuals who are wholly new to the subject, and who cannot possibly give their attention to it. On the contrary, it selects a few persons whose zeal and acquirements peculiarly fit them for the task, and whom it pays for their services. Unless the words of the Commission by which the present Board is constituted mean nothing ; unless the Government desire to perpetuate instead of abolishing abuses ; * It would seem that Public Commissions are destined to be the nursery gardens of jobbery, even in the hands of those who profess to be the greatest enemies to it. The recent dis- graceful job of promoting Mr. Nicholas Carlisle, the late Se- cretary to the Charity Commission — a man of whose fitness or capacity for public business of any kind it would be a cruel satire to speak- — to the situation of one of the Commissioners, in order to make room for an efficient Secretary, is another flagrant instance of the fact. Was your Lordship aware of the total incompetency of the person who has thus obtained a large salary as Commissioner for Public Charities, and who also holds another salaried if not sinecure situation as one of the King's librarians, and a third salary, with perquisites, as Secretary to the Society of Antiquaries ? O 98 and unless it is intended that £10,000 per annuni shall be consumed in jobs, a new Commission ought immediately to be issued, from which at least half of the present members should be excluded, and two able and active persons appointed, with a sufficient salary to ensure their zealous exertions for the accomplishment of those objects which the present Commission professes to have in view. Had this been done in 1801, when the first Com- mission issued, at least two hundred thousand pounds would have been saved, and every reform effected in the Record Offices. Without the in- fluence which a seat on the Board would give to the persons whose appointments I suggest, they could not properly perform their duties, because it is necessary that they should be able to state and support their opinions to the other Com- missioners ; and because, as members of the Board, they would have much greater influence with Record Keepers and their clerks. If they have not this power, I know enough of the feelings and conduct of the present Keepers and other Officers to be assured that they would be so impeded at every step, as to be rendered incapable of making the proper investigations. Your Lordship must have perceived that I have frequently adopted Mr. Cooper's statements 99 throughout this Letter, and you will not be at a loss for my motive. When I originally brought the state of Record Offices and the conduct of the Re- cord Commission before the public, I was assailed by the wrath of every individual connected with those Offices, from the keepers to the porters ; and my statements were called " false and slanderous," and the emanations of " envy, spite, and ma- lice." Mr. Cooper, in pursuance of his duty, made elaborate inquiries into the same subjects, from offi- cial documents and authentic sources, long before I had the honor of his acquaintance, or had the slightest communication with him ; and what has been the result ? He has corroborated every thing which I have asserted; he has confirmed the jus- tice of my opinions ; * and, instead of finding my statements overcharged or exaggerated, much less " false and slanderous," he has detected and exposed greater abuses than I presumed even to hint at. It is impossible, under these cir- cumstances, to deny myself the gratification of citing a few passages from his " Account of the • My statements on the abuses in the present system of keeping the PubHc Records have also been powerfully corro- borated in a pamphlet by Mr. lllingworth, lately printed by order of the Board, extracts from which will be found in the Appendix to this Letter. 100 Public Records," which express the opinions be- fore urged, because your Lordship will be more willing to defer to his authority than to mine. Nor can I, injustice to myself, refrain from referring your Lordship to Mr. Cooper for information whe- ther my statements are likely to be the emanations of " envy, spite, or malice," or whether in his opi- nion I have any interested motive, or am actuated by any personal feeling whatever in the conduct I have pursued respecting the public muniments. It has long been my conviction that a correct and complete history of England cannot be written, in the present state of Historical knowledge, and that the condition and regulations of Record Offices render it impossible to seek for information from the only genuine and authentic sources.* A total change in the present system of keeping the public archives is therefore "Schedule A" of Record Reform; and it gives me sincere satisfaction to find that Mr. Cooper's views are similar to my own. It was, he says, his intention to prefix to his work a statement of the various facts and circumstances con- nected with the Public Records, under the different heads of ' Access,' ' Calendars,' ' Employment of " Clerks,' &c., which are scattered through the nu- * Observations on the State of Historical Literature, pages 1 — 14. 101 '* merous and unwieldy volumes, both printed and " manuscript, that owe their birth to the Parlia- " mentary Inquiries, instituted during the last cen- " tury, into the state of the Archives of the King- " dom. The utility of such a statement is evident ; " and it is probable that it would prove not less *' instructive than useful, as it would shew that " abuses are as inveterate in the subordinate, as in " the superior departments of the government, and, " when concealed from the public eye, are often pro- " pagated and increased by the very measures that " were designed for their diminution or destruction. *' Every passage of the Report of 1800 exhibits *' evils, to which the lapse of thirty years has only " served to give a more luxuriant and vigorous " growth; and even the ancient Reports of 1719 " and 1732, indicate many corrupt practices, that " still exist, in despite of ' Recommendations' and " * Orders' made and reiterated by Committees and " by Boards, and with which, notwithstanding the " long continued efforts of their predecessors, the *' present Commissioners on the Public Records are *' counselled now to grapple." It is his " conviction that the genuine materials " for the History of this country lie buried in the " sepulchral vaults and chambers of the Tower, " the Chapter House, the Pipe Office, and the 102 " Rolls' Chapel ; that the dark cloud that has so " long rested on those repositories conceals the " origin and early progress of our judicial institu- " tions and our parliament, and that the most " esteemed general and local Histories, that we pos- " sess, abound with numberless and the grossest " errors, and as little resemble the truth as the " pleasing but fanciful theories of Montesquieu, " Blackstone, and De Lolme, represent our actual " constitution. " The two great objects, without the attainment " of which, the labour of the Commissioners must " be unprofitable and useless, are, 1., more ready "access to the Records: 2. Reservation of the *' contents, by the means of the press, or transcrip- " tion. " I. More ready access to the Records. That " the mouldering obscurity, in which the most pre- " cious archives of the kingdom have so long re- *' posed, has not been favourable to their preserva- " tion, is obvious from a comparison of the present " contents of the principal Offices with the nu- " merous Calendars framed during the course of " the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Many " thousands have decayed and perished in the *' catacombs in which they were entombed ; and " no inconsiderable number have been purloined. 103 " Early measures, then, sliould be taken for carry- " ing- into eflbct the recommendation, so often, *' and, hitherto, so uselessly made, for the demo- " lition of the barrier, which the necessities or " the avarice, of the keepers or their clerks, has *' interposed between the Records and the public." " It should be remembered, that the arrange- " ment of Records, the compilation of Calendars, " the investigation of the duties and emoluments of *' the officers, and the reform of some notorious but " deeply rooted abuses, constitute the great and " primary object of the Commission ; and that the ^' printing of certain of the more ancient and va- " luable amongst the Records is enjoined only as a " secondary work." The only justification which the most ingenious defender of the existing absurd restrictions on ac- cess to Records can suggest, is an imaginary secu- rity of them from mutilation or abstraction. My own experience makes me fully sensible of the truth of the following remarks : " That many valuable Records enumerated in " the printed indexes carutot now be discovered in " the repositories in which they formerly existed is " well known to persons but slightly acquainted " with Record Offices ; and it has been ascertained " that many of these have disappeared within living 104 " memory : indeed there are not wanting recent " instances of some having been openly sold as the '■'■private effects of functionaries sworn, in vain, to ^^ preserve them for the public use. This loss of " documents, occasioned partly by neglect, and " partly by depredation, would appear immea- " surably greater, were the present contents of the " Offices compared with the numerous manuscript " Calendars which we owe to the laudable, but " rarely imitated, zeal and industry of ancietit " keepers, their deputies, and clerks." In the library of the British Museum, such " de- predations " are unknown ; and this fact proves how useless are " oaths" and " restrictions" as measures of security, when the public have not the means of immediately detecting malversation. A com- parison between the regulations of that splendid establishment and the vexatious and contemptible rules of Record Offices speaks volumes in favor of the former, which ought to, and must soon, become the model for every repository of information in the empire, not even excepting the libraries of the Colleges in the Universities of Oxford and Cam- bridge. Since the publication of his " Account of Re- cords," Mr. Cooper has printed a tract* on the pro- * 8vo. Baldwin and Cradock. 105 priety of establisliing' a General Repository of Re- cords on the site of the Rolls' Estate, and points out in what manner it may be effected without expense to the country. Of the suggestion for one General Record Office I cordially approve ; but it is right to add, that objections are made by many individuals to a concentration of Records, on the ground of the chance of fire, or of a popular tumult causing the en- tire destruction of all the National archives. To the first objection the answer is conclusive : let the build- ing hejire proof ; and to the second, that there can no longer be just apprehension of a mob being animated by such a feeling of vandalism, as to destroy sources of intelligence on any subject. The Bank and Go- vernment offices might, indeed, be destroyed in a po- pular commotion ; but no fear need now be enter- tained for the safety of the British Museum, or of any other library in the metropolis, public or private. By affording gratuitous access to libraries, even the " lower orders," as an intelligent part of the com- munity are contemptuously termed, would speedily learn the value of such institutions, and would in- fallibly respect them, however much their feelings might be excited ; but if the public are always to be excluded from the use of their own property, then I admit that such fears are not irrational ; and I confess that I see little difference in the 106 effect, so far as the public are concerned, between allowing manuscripts to be ruined by damp or de- voured by reptiles, and making one general confla- gration of them, excepting that in the latter case, the country would be spared the expense of salaries to keepers and their clerks, and the cost often thou- sand per annum for an inefficient and jnischievous Commission for the " better preservation'''' ! of the Public! Records. Before I conclude I must not omit calling your Lordship's attention to " a Reversionary Job" which, through the influence of that coterie, from whence so many new members of the present Re- cord Commission have been taken, has, it is said, just been effected. The office of " Keeper of the Chapter House" is a complete sinecure of £400 a year,* besides the usual fees ; and on the death of its aged possessor, Mr. Caley, it ought either to be abolished^ or it should be the reward of a life spent in historical or legal inquiries, by some eminent person whose reputation is established by his works, and who, so far from having ever been very much overpaid by the Government for his literary la- bours, has enriched our literature without any pecuniary reward whatever. I allude more parti- cularly to such men as Dr. Lingard, Mr. Sharon * See Appendix, No. I. 107 Turner, Mr. Disraeli, and to some County histo- rians, many of whom have lost considerable sums by works which are far more valuable than any which either of the editors or co-editors employed by the Record Commission have produced. These men are however suffered to remain unnoticed and unrewarded, whilst the reversion of this complete sinecure has, it is said, been obtained for Mr. Pal- grave — an individual who has been receiving up- wards of thirteen hundred per annum for ten years, for editing a work which ought by this time to be complete ; who objects to proceed at a lower rate of remuneration than fourteen or fifteen hundred a year; and by whose " carelessness or negligence" sijcteen hundred 'pounds have been thrown away in cancels and corrections ! As, however, this ap- pointment must, I presume, be sanctioned by the Record Commission, and as you, my Lord, have placed yourself at the head of that Commission, the odium of the nomination, and the injustice done to the historical, legal, and antiquarian writers of this country, must fall upon your Lordship. But it would be a libel on your public character to sup- pose that you will not interfere, and either cause the office to be abolished, or confer it upon some literar}'^ man, whose claims do not alone rest upon having for ten years been much overpaid for his 108 services, and who proposes to unite this sinecure of £400 with the £1400 or £1500 which he de- mands for editing the " Parliamentary Writs" upon so extensive a plan as must ensure its continuance for the rest of his life ! It only remains for me to apologize to your Lord- ship for so long a trespass upon your time, and for the personal remarks which I have been obliged to make on certain individuals. The subject is of great importance, and I am sure of the approbation of your Lordship, and of the majority of my coun- trymen, for striving to break down those barriers to knowledge, which ignorance, neglect, and cupidity have combined to erect; but as the rights of indi- viduals to property, especially in disputes with Corporations and the Church depend, in many cases, upon their being able to inspect and copy Records without being compelled to pay the scan- dalous fees which are now demanded, the impedi- ments against which I have long and repeatedly directed my best energies become in truth a denial of justice; and every Englishman may more or less be a sufferer by the present system. The ^^ personal observations" have been made with great regret ; but I cannot consent to weaken my efforts in accomplishing a measure which I have warmly at heart, from a fastidious feeling of 109 delicacy towards individuals who, as public ser- vants, are fairly obnoxious to criticism ; or allow considerations of politeness and urbanity to weigh for a single moment against the public interests. It is the duty of the Government to remedy the evils and abuses which have been pointed out, the existence of which is admitted by the appointment of a Commission for their abate- ment ; but when I find that the laudable inten- tions of the Government are likely to be frustrated by the conduct of several of the Commissioners ; when there is a moral certainty that in consequence of that conduct, a large portion of the people's money will be again devoted to the support of gross jobs ; when I feel assured that the Commissioners are injudiciously selected, and that no one object of general utility will be accomplished by them, no other alternative remains but to lay before your Lordship those facts, which because they relate to the motives, qualifications, and conduct of indi- viduals will be termed ^personal,'' or to be a quies- cent spectator of the perpetuation of abuses which I have so strenuously endeavoured to remove. A sense of duty alone has induced me to adopt the less amiable, and perhaps less prudent course ; but no considerations for my own interests shall induce me to desist from commenting upon the Record no Commission, Mitil an efficient Board be formed, and the necessary measures are adopted for render- ing the public muniments available to the public. So long as your Lordship continues in office there is a hope that abuses inimical to the commu- nity, and producing an improper expenditure, will be abolished, and that a Commission formed of use- less, if not of many mischievous individuals, will be speedily superseded. Should, however, this hope prove fallacious ; should your Lordship be insensible to the facts to which I have presumed to invite your attention, and permit large sums to be thrown away, and the wishes and interests of the people to be neglected, for no better reason than that a certain person may be paid three times as much as he ought, and that half a dozen hoary Cerberi may be allowed to sell the only genuine materials for English history to their legitimate proprietors^ there is fortunately another source of hope which will NOT fail me. A Reformed House of Com- mons, my Lord, will not allow any Administration to tolerate such flagrant abuses. It will not entrust £10,000 per annum, or even the same number of farthings, to a Commission constituted like the present Record Commission. It will not be influ- enced by the interested or prejudiced representa- tions of any coterie, and sanctioii the principle Ill that zeal, labour, and heavy sacrifices of time and expense in obtaining information by which the public are benefited, are disqual'ifications for effecting the changes which that information may prove to be desirable. Still less will a Reformed House of Commons place any confidence in a Commission which contains among its members those persons to whom the profligate and scan- dalous waste of great part of three hwicbxd and forty thousand pounds is to be attributed ; and who, instead of being allowed the opportunity, as they have shewn they have the inclination, again to throw the people's money away in a similar manner, ought rather to have attracted the notice of his Majesty's Attorney-General. With the highest respect, I have the honour to remain. My Lord, Your Lordship's obedient humble Servant, N. HARRIS NICOLAS. July25tk, 1832. APPENDIX. APPENDIX. No. I. At a Board of Commissioners held on the 26th April, 1831, the Secretary was ordered to ** request " Mr. Illingworth to communicate to the Board " his opinions upon the best means to be adopted " for the conservation and arrangement of the " Public Records." Mr. Illingworth accordingly communicated his opinions on the subject in writing ; and on the 20th May following a Board ordered his observations '* to be printed for the use " of the Commissioners'' It is much to be regretted that the Commis- sioners did not order this valuable tract to be printed for the " use of the public'' instead of rigidly confining, as they have done, its circulation to their own body. These secret measures cast a suspicion on the intentions, as well as on the pro- ceedings of the Commission ; and are repugnant to the taste and feelings of the age. What could possibly be the motive for withholding an expo- 116 APPENDIX. sition of those Abuses which the Commission is instituted to remedy ? Was it the fear of allowing the public to perceive what they have a right to expect from the Commission ; or were the Com- missioners desirous of preventing the world from having new evidence of the gross manner in which their predecessors neglected their duty, and in what a scandalous manner nearly three hundred and jifty thousand pounds have been expended? If the Board, which determined that the Commis- sioners only should be aware of the facts which Mr. Illingworth has exposed, were actuated by a conviction of their inco?npetency to fulfill, the expectations which that gentleman's statement must excite, I admit that their conduct was 7^a- tional and consistent, and few will dispute their PRUDENCE. Many of the facts adduced by Mr. Illingworth are, however, too important to be con- cealed from the public ; and as they powerfully corroborate the arguments urged in this Letter, I gladly avail myself of a copy of his tract, which, by singular good fortune, has fallen into my hands to re-print various passages. No apology can, I submit, be necessary for doing this, inasmuch as the statement relates to the public property, and has become a public document by its having been printed at the public expense for the use of a APPENDIX. J 17 public Board. If, however, I here subjected my- self to an injunction at the suit of the Commission, under the copy-right act, no doubt the Secretary will be instructed to apply for it : but I am content to abide the issue. " That the Public Records are the Records of the King and Kingdom, and the Evidence of every Man's particular Right, is asserted by a Parliamentary Provi- sion, as far back as the 46th year of Edward III., whereby it is ordained that they shall be accessible to all the King's Subjects.* " The Sovereign alone, in subsequent ages, and some- times the Legislature, imposed provisions and regulations for their preservation and arrangement. In 1800 a Se- lect Committee of the House of Commons was appointed, to inquire into the state of the Public Records of the Kingdom, and to report to the House the nature and condition thereof, together with what they should judge fit to be done for the better arrangement, preservation, and more convenient use of them. * See Rot. Pari. 46 Edw. III. j9.314.— " Item priela Coihune, q come Recordes, & qeconq' chose en la Court le Roi, de reson devoient demurer illeoqes pur perpetuel Evidence &. Eide de touz parties a ycely &. de touz ceuz a qeux en nul manere ils atteignent, quant mestier lour fuist ; et ja de novel refusent en la Court lire dit Sr de Serche ou Exemplification faire des nulles riens q purra chier en Evidence encontr' le Roi ou desavantage de ly. Qe pleise ordeiner par Estatut q Serche & Exemplifica- tion soient faitz as tout gentz de qeconq' Recorde q les touche en ascun manere, auxi bien de ce q chiet encontre le Roi come autres gentz. Le Roi le voet." 118 APPENDIX. " This Committee reported thereon to the House ac- cordingly, and advised numerous measures to be adopted ; and among others, they recommended that such Ca- lendars and Indexes, which were the private property of the respective offices, should be purchased for the public use, and appropriated to the Office." The Committee recommended various indexes and other works to be printed, but many of their suggestions " and numerous other important re- commendations have," Mr. Illingworth says, " been wholly disregarded " by the Record Commissions. " The neglect to print all the Indexes recommended by the Committee seems strange ; the omission has, how- ever, proceeded from another cause than neglect in the Commissioners. The Noble Persons and officers of State named as Commissioners were generally persons unac- quainted with the subject entrusted to them; and there- fore they naturally looked to the Secretary alone for in- formation and advice, who ought from time to time to have advised the making and printing of such Indexes, as would have best tended to render the Records acces- sible. " It must, however, be noticed, that as the Records are the People's Evidences, every measure essential for the laying open to the Public a full knowledge of the con- tents of these Repositories, containing a series of Records for upwards of 700 years, ought to have been resorted to. The printing of every Calendar and Index, public and private, which can afford information, where the object is to elucidate the titles of Individuals or Corporations to estates, liberties, and franchises, or to trace the descents of Peers and Families, or where it is to illustrate points of History, Topography, or General Law, appears to be APPENDIX. 119 the most essential of all the measures recommended or contemplated by the Committee of the House of Com- mons. Without the publication of such Indexes, the in- formation locked up in ancient Records is valuable only to few, except to the Record Keepers or possessors of such Indexes, and only to them as regards their Fees or love of research ; but such information, as is circulated by means of the Press, would be useful to all, who are in- clined to avail themselves of it. " Under the present want of copious Public Indexes in many of the Record Offices, not only the People at large, but even Solicitors are, in general, at a loss, how or where to obtain information, so constantly required in Tithe and other Suits, and in deducing Titles through the Crown, without calling in the assistance of persons, termed Record Agents or Antiquaries, who have made this branch of the Law their more peculiar study ; of these there are not above eight, and of whom only four are regular Professional Men. Whereas, if proper In- dexes were made in every office, and circulated by means of the Press, great labour and expense would be saved to Suitors and others : who, by themselves or their im- mediate Attornies, would be enabled to gain the required information, without the intervention of such Middle Men of Antiquaries. " Whilst on this subject, it may not be irrelevant to notice the practice (grown up within these ten years) of Clerks in the Record Office at the Tower and at the Chapter House, who are paid ample Salaries by Govern- ment for a daily attendance to make Indexes and tran- scribe Office Copies, acting as Record Agents, and at- tending the Courts and Committees on Election Cases and at the Assizes, instead of doing their duty at the se- veral offices. This will be more particularly animad- verted upon, when I come to allude to the Abuses at the Tower. 120 APPENDIX. " One great and serious inconvenience is continually felt by the Profession, and declaimed against, namely, that the Records of the Courts in general, but particu- larly of the Chanceiy, are dispersed in such various Re- positories, and situated so remote from each other,namely, the Tower, Rolls' Chapel, Petty Bag Office, Crown Office, Examiner's Office, Six Clerks', Enrolment, and Register's Offices ; at which different parts of the Proceedings in the same Cause are dispersed. If the whole of the Re-^ cords of the Court were concentrated in one entire (fire- proof) building, nearer to the Rolls, or the Inns of Court, much time, inconvenience, and expense would be saved to the Suitors and to the Public. " Wherever there is an establishment of a Record Office, and the Salaries are paid by the Government, as at the Tower, the Fees paid for Searches and Copies ought to be answered for upon Oath to the Treasury, and to go towards defraying the expenses of such estab- lishment. The Keepers, having Salaries, ought not to pocket the Fees. This is the practice in the Record Offices in Dublin; a measure adopted within these few years, and found to be very salutary. " It is impossible to conclude these Remarks witliou* noticing the improper practice, in many offices, of car- rying Records from their Repositories to the Officers' Houses, and to the Exchequer Office in the Temple, to be there examined and transcribed ; nay, I have fre- quently seen many Records in a Law Stationer's shop in the act of being copied : a practice which renders them liable to loss, damage, and spoliation. Nor is it unim- portant to animadvert against frequent attempts to carry down Records to the Assizes, or from one Court to an- other, when there has not been time to copy the Instru- ment wanted to be given in evidence. " Having made these general and preliminary observa- tions, I am now to consider, in detail, the situation and APPENDIX. 121 arrangement of the Records of the four respective Courts at Westminster ; but more especially those of the Courts of Chancery and Exchequer; the measures that have been adopted by the Commissioners on the Public Re- cords to render them more accessible for the public use ; the measures which they have omitted, and ouj^lit yet to pursue, for the affording still greater access and uti- lity ; and the impediments which have been thrown in the way, by the conduct of interested and sordid officers, of giving that publicity and ready access, which the en- lightened Committee of the House of Commons, in 1800, so forcibly recommended in their elaborate Report." After pointing out the want of perfect Indexes to various important Records in the Tower, Mr. Illingworth thus speaks of the Inquisitiones Post Mortem : " These Records, considering their vast importance, not only in evidencing the descents of Peerages, and of families of distinction, but as regards Manorial Rights in general, are in such a state, from the manner in which the bundles are squeezed and folded up in wrinkles, as to be in very many instances totally illegible ; nay, in a state, considering this expensive establishment, that re- flects great disgrace on the memory of the Officers, who have preceded the present Keeper ; and even during the ten years he has held the Office, nothing has been done by him and six Clerks to place these Records in a better condition ; which ought to have been affected by cleans- ing, pressing, and laying them flat in books or portfolios. Calendars have been published to these Records, but they afford little information." Of the Bills, Answers, and Depositions in Chan- cery, he says, — R 122 APPENDIX. " The whole of the Proceedings to the year 17 14 were many years since most admirably arranged by Mr. Ro- bert Lemon, and placed on racks in Caesar's Tower, so that, on referring to the Indexes, which are contained in 48 volumes, any Proceeding may be readily resorted to. And it is but a just tribute to the memory of this laborious, honest, and faithful servant of the public to say, that during a period of 45 years of his being clerk he alone, with a salary of £80 per annum, made all the Searches and Office Copies, the Indexes to the Close Rolls, and arranged numerous Records, attended Com- mittees of both houses of Parliament, and executed, with a punctuality and dispatch, all the various duties, now performed by six or seven persons, viz. the Keeper, at £500 per annum; 1st Clerk, £250; 2d ditto, £200; 3d ditto, £150; 4th ditto, £120; and two Supernu- meraries, at £120 each ; and a Messenger at £40 or £50 a year, with allowances for Coals, Candles, useless Stationery, and other incidents. " N.B. It is understood that the Supernumerary Clerks have been recently discharged." Under the head of" impediments and abuses,"; Mr. Illino-vvrorth has made the following- remarks. As that gentleman has passed nearly the v^^hole of a long life in Record Offices, it was not to be expected that he should advocate the total ex- tinction of the Fee system ; and, indeed, considering that he was brought up in the old school, his opi- nions are extremely liberal : " The principal Impediments and Abuses, in making Researches at the Record Office in the Tower, arise from the following causes, namely : APPENDIX. 123 " 1st. The imperfect Indexes to the Charter, Patent and Close Rolls. " 2d. The total want of Indexes or Calendars to the Fine, Liberate, Redisseisin, Parliament, Welsh, and Ro- man Rolls, and to the Forest Proceedings, and the nu- merous bundles and files of Writs of Certiorari and Returns, classed in Counties, and also to the multitude of Private Petitions to Parliament. " 3d. Fees for Searches and Inspections. " Considering that the Keeper, who is rarely a smecwre officer, has a salary paid by Government of £500 per annum, clear, besides nearly £1000 per annum for Clerks, &c. and Coals, Stationery, &c. the Charges for Searches and Inspections of Records are infinitely too high, namely : — " Every Search, the time known, lOs. — should he only Is. " Inspecting the Record, 6s. 8c?. — should he 2s. Qd. " Copy of every folio of 72 words, \s.—pi^oper. " The Master or Deputy's hand, 2s. — should be aho- lished. " These high charges originated before any Salary was allowed to the Keeper or his Clerks, at a time when there were few, if any Indexes, so that much time and labour were consumed in a search. " The Salary of £500 per annum arose in this man- ner. When Sir John Shelley was Keeper, Mr. Astle was his Deputy Keeper (as I was to Mr. Lysons) ! the principal officer then being a mere sinecurist, having a Salary of £300 per annum, and his Deputy £200 a year, exclusive of two Clerks, the senior of whom had £80, and the junior £40 per annum. On the death of Sir John Shelley, Mr. Astle, having considerable interest, stated to the Treasury that he was an efficient officer, and wanted no Deputy, as he meant to execute the duties in 124 APPENDIX. person. The two Salaries of £300 and £200 were then consolidated, and Mr. Astle received annually, for nearly thirty years, till his death, the £500 per annum, besides fees and incidental expenses. " 4th. The charge of Five Guineas for a General Search through all the Indexes to the Charter, Patent, Close Rolls, and Inquisitions post mortem, and ad quod damnum, exclusive of 6s. Sd. for the inspection of each Record, ought no longer to be made ; the Fee of One Guinea would be ample, and more general Searches would be made. The 6s. Sd., as before stated, for each inspection, should be 2s. 6d. only, as at the Rolls' Chapel, where the Keeper has no Salary. " 5th. The charge of 25. for the Keeper's or his De- puty's hand to each copy, is an improper charge ; inas- much as such signature is useless and unavailing; it affords no degree of evidence or authenticity in any Court, because the party, producing such copy in evi- dence, must swear that he examined it with, and that it is a true copy of the original Record. " 6th. The hours of attendance are too limited, and should be extended from ten to four o'clock ; the Office now closincr at three. " 7th. The Holidays are not confined to fifteen days, as in Mr. Astle's Return ; the Office being closed every Red Letter or Saint's day, without any authority from the Court. " 8th. The refusal to allow any extract to be taken, without ordering an entire copy of the whole instrument. An extract can never be given in evidence ; therefore the officer is not injured, when a transcript very fre- quently afterwards becomes necessary. " 9th. The Delay occasioned very frequently in pro- curing Office Copies, after they are ordered, considering there are so many Clerks employed. APPENDIX. 125 " 10th. When the Clerks are not occupied in making Searches or Copies, they ought to be employed either in arranging unsorted Records, or in making complete Ca- lendars or Indexes. " 11th. The Clerks at this Office ought not to be allowed by the Keeper to absent themselves in Office hours for the purpose of acting as Record Agents or An- tiquaries, or in making Searches either at the Tower or elsewhere in any causes, or in election cases, or to attend the Courts or Assizes ; whilst they are receiving Salaries from Government for their daily attendance. There are two reasons against this practice : — " 1st. The neglect of their public Duty at the Tower. " 2d. It is in their power, in the present state of the Indexes, to withhold from a party, adverse to the side, for whom they themselves are searching in a cause, information not publicly stated in the In- dexes, as well as to give to their own party a know- ledge of what his adversary has procured to sup- port his case. Instances of this kind have oc- curred at Record Offices. " Mr. Kipling of the Rolls Chapel, during the fifty- four years he was the Keeper of that Repository, never allowed any Clerk under him to make a search for his private emolument, or to attend the Courts at West- minster or the Assizes, on pain of instant dismissal ; and this for the second reason above stated ; he said, the principle was bad, and fraught with great temptation to act dishonourably. Besides which he would not allow — even if one party asked whether any other person had searched in the same matter — any other answer than this, * We never say what another person has been * searching for.' " " 12th. The charge of one Guinea per day for each 126 APPENDIX. Record, on attending either House of Parliament, when perhaps twenty or thirty Records are attended with for successive days, is a gross imposition. Five Guineas would be very fair, so far as five Records, but if more are produced no higher fee than five Guineas should be demanded. " 13th. A still greater imposition is practised here, as also at the Rolls, i. e. if twenty Rolls, or other Records, are produced, besides the one Guinea per Roll, the party is compelled to pay for twenty Office Copies, or as many as produced, however long; even though the Record was sent for by the House itself, for its own information and guidance. " 14th. The refusal, at this office in particular, as well as at other offices, where searches have been made on the part of His Majesty, to allow them to be made with- out paying the fees for the same, (although Office Copies were offered to be paid for), in a case where the officer receives a salary from Government, is an instance of a most flagrant and impudent abuse. Such however was the fact in the cause of Rowe v. Brenton, respecting the Copper Mines in Cornwall ; notwithstanding I had offi- cial orders not to pay, which I produced to the Keeper; yet he gave directions to prohibit my searching in future at the Tower, until I discharged the fees for these searches : I was consequently obliged to comply, and paid the fees on behalf of His Majesty, under a pro- test." Of the Indexes to the Records in the Rolls Chapel, he says : — " With regard to the public Indexes and Calendars to the Records, in this repository, it is remarkable that out of 134 Indexes belonging to the office, whereof 107 APPENDIX. 127 are those of the Patent and Close Rolls, there are not more than two containing an alphabetical Index of the names of the places or subject-matter granted ; the public Indexes being confined almost exclusively to the Names of the Grantees, Barganees, or Releasees : so that, were it not for other sources of information, his Ma- jesty's subjects would be nearly excluded from all in- formation contained in this immense body of Records ; the Rolls themselves being upwards of 20,000 in num- ber." " The requisite information to be obtained from these Records can, therefore, be derived but by two modes, namely, by searches in Mr. Kipling's private Indexes, or by an application, in some cases, to the Keeper of the Aug-mentation Office." " For a General Search into these Indexes, always made in private by the officer himself, who furnished the result, a fee of Five Guineas has ever been paid." " 2n(lly. The other mode of obtaining the desired information, is by application at the Augmentation Office: where the Records relating to the Monastic possessions, and those of attainted persons are preserved; the Keeper whereof is Mr. Caley, also the Keeper of the Records in the Chapter House at Westminster." " For these Searches at the Augmentation Office, an ad libitum fee is charged by the Keeper; having, as he alleges, no set Table of Fees, and claiming nearly all the Indexes as his own private property." " The impediments to researches in this Office are, in point of expense, very considerable ; but as the Keeper has no establishment or salary for himself or his Clerks, whom he pays out of the Fees, and has a great trust committed to his care in the preservation of an immense body of most important Records, he is entitled to have all the Fees allowed by the Orders of 128 APPENDIX. the Court; and there is some little excuse for the high charges made by the late Keeper, Mr. Kipling, for searches ; though certainly in direct violation of the Order of my Lord Hardwicke and Sir John Fortescue, Master of the Rolls in 1743. Abating, however, the enormous expense of searches, which, in many instances, amounts nearly to a prohibition, it is due to the late Mr. Kipling to say, that the arrangement of the Records, the expedition in making searches and office copies, and the systematic, punctual, and business-like manner of conducting this Office, are such as exceed every other Record Office in the Metropolis." Mr. Illingworth's suggestions for improvement in the Rolls' Office are not in my opinion judicious ; for although he proposes that the Keeper should have a salary of £800 per annum, the Senior Clerk £300, and the Junior £150 with an allow- ance for coals, candles, &c., he still thinks that the public should pay Fees for access, which Fees he, however, says should go to the payment of these salaries. Among the present abuses which he proposes to remove are the following : " A like practice prevails here as at the Tower, namely, if twenty Records are attended with in either House of Parliament, for which Twenty Guineas would be demanded, the Petitioner or Suitor is com- pelled also to pay for so many Office Copies, however long and expensive, although the House itself shall have sent for the Originals. " Where numerous Manors, Lands, Tithes, Rectories, &c. are granted under one Patent, it frequently occurs APPEXUJX. 129 that a purchaser's Counsel requires Evidence of the Title being- derived through the Crown; and, therefore, it becomes necessary to produce the Grant, at least a Copy or full Extract, the latter whereof Conveyancers would ye generally satisfied with. In such Cases, if an Office Copy does not exceed about £12, the Vendor is obliged to have an Office Copy of the whole Record ; should it exceed that sum, he is indulged with a Parcel Copy, that is, of so much as relates to the property in question, for Five Guineas. " In no case is a Parcel Copy or Extract allowed of an Inquisition post mortem, which should be permitted. " As at the Tower, a party, in a general way, is not allowed to take any Extract, on his inspecting a Re- cord, without ordering a Copy of the whole. " The 2s. paid for the Keeper's signing the Office Copy, certifying the same to be a true Copy, ouglit to be abolished as useless ; the Keeper never examining the Copy himself; nor does such signature give any authority or stamp of Evidence thereto, as before ob- served, under the head of the Records in the Tower." Under the head of " Records of the Court OF King's Bench," these truly edifying facts appear : " Impediments. — At present there is not a single Index, of any description, to the immense Body of Rolls on the Plea or Crown side ; but what is more surprising, there is no Officer belongino; to either the Outer or Inner Treasury who can read, much less copy, a re- cord of sixty years back. " Gross Abuse. — If an applicant is desirous of an Office Copy, he must either transcribe it himself, or provide a person who can do so ; and yet the Clerk to the two noble Lords, who are the joint * Custodes Bre- S 130 APPENDIX. vium et Recordorum' in the Upper Treasury, demands 2*. per law folio for a Copy, when in strictness he is only entitled to Is. 6d. A similar circumstance is stated of the Records op^ THE Court of Common Pleas. " Impediment. — At this Office, as in the King's Bench, the Officer and Clerk are both incompetent to the reading or transcribing any Latin Record ; the same means, therefore, of transcribing such must be resorted to as in the King's Bench Treasury. It is, however, but justice to say, that every readiness and civility is shown at this Office." After adverting to the miscellaneous and valu- able nature of the muniments in the King's Re- membrancer's Office of the Exchequer, the Com- missioners are told, and the Public w^il] now learti^ (though not with astonishment, for the facts w^hich have been adduced respecting the Public Records must prepare them to expect any thing) that, " The present situation and condition of the numerous Records in this Repository, which are kept in the long wooden shed on the side of Westminster Hall, to which place they were removed on the erection of the New -Courts, are too shameful to pass unnoticed. The loss, spoliation, and disarrangement of them, in consequence of their sudden removal in wheelbarrows and baskets by soldiers and common labourers, is a most serious and lamentable evil. Of their being heretifter removed to a place of permanent deposit more damage will un- avoidably ensue; and their ultimate arrangement will be a labour not easily overcome." APPENDIX. 131 These Records have since been removed to the King's Mews in the manner described in the above extract ; and yet the present Commission for the better preservation of the Public Records was then in existence, with an allowance of ten thousand pounds per annum for the purpose ! " As a proof of the importance of many unsorted Records in this Court of Exchequer, the Cases of Roe V. Brenton, and the Mayor and Corpoi'ation of Bristol against Bush, may be adduced as examples. In the former case I produced an important Extent of the Assessionable Manors of the Duchy of Cornwall in the reign of Edward the Second, and in the latter case, Rolls of the reign of Henry the Sixtli, containing minute accounts of the Receipts of Import and Export Dues at Bristol; these Documents Mr. Foxton, jun. and myself discovered in Bags of musty Records ; and in the Bristol Case, the present Corporation are mainly indebted to the discovery of these Rolls for the verdict establishing their present Town-dues. " The situation in which the Records of this Reposi- tory and of the Pipe are preserved is one, of all others the least suited for their preservation, and the best calculated for their decay and destruction ; being kept in damp vaults under the eastern wing of Somerset House. These vaults were originally deemed by Go- vernment too damp, dark, and improper for their reception ; in consequence whereof, air and fire-flues were introduced under the floor and round the walls, for the purpose of keeping the Records dry, and pre- venting the damp from tiie ground. Instead of re- medying the evil, I can say, from long experience, that tiic situation has become still nu)re objectionable, the 132 APPENDIX. Records being alternately damp and dry; damp when the flues are unlighted, and dry again when air is ad- mitted and the fires lighted. Further than this, the rooms are so dark, (especially since the erection of the King's College,) it is impossible to read a Record, or even its label : the cold is also so great, that in winter or summer no person could remain therein half an hour without the risk of losing his life. Records should, in order to be dry, be always kept on a first or second floor, not on the basement or attic story." At the Pipe Office Mr. Illingworth asserts that " The Fees exacted at this Office are five times the amount in the return of the late Mr. Lowten, Deputy Clerk of the Pipe, in the year 1800; and the Attornies demanding these Fees are unable to read any of the Rolls ; so that if a transcript, from a Roll of 60 years past, is required, the applicant must copy it himself, or procure a Clerk from the Lord Treasurer's to do so." " The Officers of the Lord Treasurer's Remembrancer are all old men, upwards of 70 years, and infirm ; those in the Pipe Office are four Attornies, who, with the Deputy Clerk of the Pipe, are unable, as before stated, to read a single line of any Roll of 60 years date." Mr. lUingworth's statement respecting the Aug- mentation Office has been introduced as a note to page 40 ; but in relation to Mr. Caley's duties as Keeper of the Chapter House, he says, — " Mr. Caley, Keeper of the Records in the Augmen- tation Office, and late Secretary to the Commissioners, succeeded Mr. Rose as Keeper of this Repository. He has under him Three Clerks — Mr. Clarke, Mr. Charles Devon, and Mr. Frederick Devon; seldom more than APPENDIX. 133 two at a time ever attend the Office, and that for three hours each day. Mr. Caley never atends. The few hours of attendance, therefore, afford httle time to make Indexes. In fact these Officers may be said to be nearly all Sinecurists." These facts will enable the public to judge of the flagrant abuses which prevail in Record Offices, as well as of the nature of the duties which a Record Commission ought to perform. What the probability is that the present Commission will remove the one, or ejcecute the other may be ascer- tained from the preceding pages. 134 APPENDIX. No. II. EXTRACT FROM THE REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON THE MODE OF REMUNERATING THE SUB- COMMISSIONERS, MAY, 1831. [Referred to in page 47.] " Mr. Palgrave states, that he is a Sub-Com- missioner at £500 per annum, and that he is paid a fixed sum for each sheet prepared and printed. He adds, that this mode of remuneration was, in his case, fixed at a Board, of which the then Speaker was Chairman, and at which Mr. Wil- liams Wynn took a leading part. The salary was taken at the sum, which was paid jointly to the two other gentlemen, who together edit the Fcedera. The per sheetage varies from £2 to £3, according to the nature of the work ; and was settled at the same Board, the rule being taken, as was under- stood, upon the precedent adopted in paying the Clerks of the Journals and other Officers engaged in the preparation of printing work for the Houses of Parliament. The ground upon which a par- tition of the remuneration into salary and into pay APPENDIX. 135 for piece-work was adopted, was this, viz. that the searches of Mr. Palgrave might be continued for months, or even for years, without his being able to produce any work as an evidence of the dedica- tion of his thue to the public service. In consider- ation of such a possibility the sum of £500 was allowed to him as salary. On the other hand, lest the possession of a fixed salary should induce him to look less to the objects of the Record Commis- sion, and more to direct professional engagements as a barrister, which however he has almost relin- quished, there is a regular encouragement to him to proceed steadily in the prosecution of the works committed to him by the Board, because upon every sheet he receives a certain fixed sum. Thus he receives, for every sheet of the Writs, £2 2^. ; of the Calendars, £2 12*. 6(1. ; of the Chronological Abstract, £3 ; and for correcting, £1 1,?. " Thouofh we have reason to know that tliis last item is charged by other gentlemen under the Com- mission,* yet, as the attention of the Board was called to it on a late occasion, we thought it right to notice it specially. Mr. Palgrave stated that it was settled by the late Commissioners, in conse- * " Mr. Caley's Charges in p. 19, of No. 331 of Sessional Paper of 1830. Mr. Bayley's ditto ditto. Mr. Raithby's charge of £2 25, per sheet for correcting the press in ditto." 136 APPENDIX. quence of the very great attention required by the nature of the work ; some of the sheets, tlie Town- ship Returns of the 9 Edw. 11. , having to go through six or seven revises. The proofs are always collated three times by the Editor himself with the original records ; and it has frequently happened, that when one portion of a sheet has been taken from originals in the Tower, other por- tions have been taken from originals in the Chapter House, or in the Museum, or in Lambeth Library. In consequence of this dispersion of his materials, which imposes great additional labour upon him, this mode of paying him in part has been adopted. We think it right to suggest, that if the materials, of which Mr. Palgrave has been the collector, had been placed in the hands of another person for the purpose of being printed, this charge would of course have been made by such person ; and it is right, also, to repeat, that a similar charge has been made by other parties under the Commission. " We think it right also here to state, that every gentleman employed as principal editor of any work under the Commission, with the exception of Mr. Palgrave, is in the receipt of a fixed salary attached to a distinct office in connexion with some deposi- tory of the Records of Great Britain. Mr. Palgrave in the only Sub-Commissioner in England who is APPENDIX. 137 singly responsible for the execution of any one work ; the labour and the responsibility of the Par- liamentary Writs are upon him exclusively ; and he has dedicated himself to the completion of that work with undeviating regularity. His receipts therefore, which, to the extent of two-thirds, de- pend not upon salary, but upon work done, ought, if considered large, to be compared with the re- ceipts not of any other single Sub-Commissioner, but with the aggregate expense of some other work published under the authority of the Board by the joint labours of three or four Sub-Commissioners. Thus the F(£clera has employed four gentlemen ; the Valor Ecclesiasticus, two at least ; the History of Britain, four. The receipts of Mr. Palgrave ap- pear from a Paper presented to the House of Com- mons * to have amounted from the 25th March, 1822, to the 25th March, 1829, to the sum of £9008 186'. 8^/., including therein the disbursements made by him to his clerks, and leaving a gross average of some thing less than £1300 per annum. His gross receipts for the two last years, including corres- ponding disbursements, have been £3330 8s. 4d., or £1665 4^. 2d. per annum. The average of the whole period of nine years, from 1822 to 1831, * " No. 33], ordered to be printed 29th April, 1830." T 138 APPENDIX. is, including" disbursements, £1371 Os. 9(/. per an- num. It is scarcely necessary to add, that the work, when undertaken by Mr. Palgrave under the direc- tions of the Commissioners, was intended to extend to the close of the reign of Henry VII. That pe- riod was selected, because we then enter the era of State Papers and Parliamentary Journals. Mr. Palgrave has made large collections in preparation for the work ; in some departments to its intended close, in others to the reign of Edward IV., in others to Henry VI., as stated by him fully in his last Re- port. He calculates that he can produce a volume of 1000 pages every year, and that the expense of the Editorial part, including the expenses of his Clerks, will be about £1650 per annum. " The receipts of the other gentlemen are scat- tered over the accounts, the same gentlemen being employed on different works ; and thus the aggre- gate receipts of any one attract less notice. Those of Mr. Palgrave are aggregated in one spot. Without any invidious comparison as to receipts, amount of work done, or character of that work, we think that there is no work published by the Commission which has cost less in comparison of labour done. Under these circumstances we do not recommend any alteration in the mode of pay- ment adopted in this case."' APPENDIX. 139 No. III. REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON THE " REPORT," " ADDITIONAL STATEMENT," AND " LETTEr" OF MR. PALGRAVE, MAY, 1831. [Referred to in page 56]. " I. As to the utility and expediency of collect- ing- and publishing the Constitutional Records from the Conquest to the reign of Edward I. " Of this class Mr. Palgrave pointed out to our inspection the ancient Rolls of the Curia Regis, now preserved in the Chapter House, some of which are obviously in the last state of decay, and most in a condition which requires instant atten- tion. Mr. Palgrave further stated, that these Rolls have never been printed, and that the Ab- breviatio Placitorum, which was printed under the authority of the Record Commission in 1811, contains only the abstracts and selections made by Agarde in the reign of Elizabeth, which are ex- tremely defective ; and in proof thereof he pro- duces the Roll of the 10th Ric. I. which is wholly unnoticed in that volume. Another Roll, that of 7th and 8th of John, was casually selected for 140 APPENDIX. inspection by the Committee, and on examination the first membrane of that Roll appeared to con- tain 29 entries on the face, 1 1 on the back. Of the first 29, one only is noticed in the Abbreviatio, and that in an abridged form: of the other 11, one is given verbatim, and the others wholly omitted. It is stated in the Appendix to the Report of the Committee on Public Records in 1800, that these proceedings are not sufficiently perfect for publication, and that many complete specimens of them are contained in the notes to Madox's History of the Exchequer. The outer membranes of these Rolls are undoubtedly in se- veral instances much damaged and decayed, but far the greater part of them are in a state which will admit of repair and transcription. The spe- cimens above alluded to as published by Madox are only two entries, and would not together amount to a single page. " Your Committee considering the value of these Records, and of the others particularized by Mr. Palgrave under the same class, whether in a con- stitutional, historical, or political view, their high antiquity, their present decay, and the danger of their sustaining further and irreparable injury ; considering also that of the documents of this de- scription known to exist, a small proportion only V APPENDIX. 141 has in any form been made public, or even au- thentically transcribed ; — recommend that Mr. Pal- grave be forthwith authorized to proceed in the transcription, collation, and preparation for the press, of all such documents ; and that he be di- rected to submit annually to the Board a statement of the Records and other documents thus tran- scribed, collated, and prepared for the press, spe- cifying such as may have been heretofore pub- lished either in part, in abstract, or entirely. It will be then for the Board to determine, according to the pecuniary means which may be placed at their disposal, the extent to which it may be ex- pedient to print them, and the time which shoidd be taken for that purpose. If these authentic transcripts are in the mean time lodged in the British Museum, they will there be open to the use of all persons who may have occasion to con- sult them, and their contents will be placed be- yond the probability of destruction either by decay or accident. " II. As to the utility and expediency of con- tinuing the publication of the Parliamentary Writs. " Doubts having recently been stated as to the propriety of the determination adopted by the Board on the 27th April 1822, to reprint the Rolls of Parliament, Pleas in Parliament, and H2 APPENDIX. Petitions, and it having- been suggested, that it would have been sufficient to have published a Supplement, Index, and list of the Errata to the Edition formerly printed under the authority of the House of Lords, the Committee examined spe- cimens of the errors in that Edition. They first inspected part of the 6th Volume containing 107 pages, viz. from p. 277 to p. 384, 22 of which purport to have been collated with the originals, by Mr. Caley, Mr. Richards, and Mr. Illingworth, and bear the initials of their names, and the re- mainder are marked as " Examined." Mr. Pal- grave afterwards produced to them a copy of the Third Volume, different parts of which he had himself collated. " These specimens are herewith submitted to the Board, from which it will be perceived, that the Errors are numerous and material, affecting the names, dates, and sense, that in some single pages they exceed 60, and that in others several lines together are omitted. Upon the whole, the Com- mittee are satisfied, that it is impossible to regard the former Edition as in any degree sufficiently accurate to supersede the necessity of reference to the original documents, or, if the publication of the Rolls was originally expedient, that of a new and more correct Edition. APPENDIX. 143 " With respect to the other parts of Mr. Pal- grave's publication. The Committee having fully considered the value of the materials discovered, by him, the accuracy with which they have al- ready in part been printed, and the importance of completing the Parliamentary Writs to the accession of Henry VII. are desirous of stating their entire concurrence in the opinion of the merit of this work, which has been expressed by one of their members, Sir James Mackintosh, in a Letter annexed to this Report,* and they recommend to * " It appears to me that the publication of a complete " series of all accessible documents which throw light on the " history of the Constitution, is the most important work in " which Commissioners of Public Records can be engaged. " All the materials for such a design, and all the aids in the " execution of it, appear to be rightly stated. I have at- " tended at the meetings of the late Commissioners, where " various parts of the plan were adopted or altered since " 1821 or 1822, when I was appointed a member of the " Commission. The only materiul changes or new measures " within that time, are the edition of the Historians by Mr. " Petrie, and the works which Mr, Palgrave undertook. " Though I was on each particular occasion satisfied by the " reasons for every special measure, I do not now distinctly '' recollect them all; nor should I think it proper to state " them to the Commissioners at length, unless called upon " by them. " The case of Mr. Petrie is not before the Commission at " present. 144 APPENDIX. the Board that Mr, Palgrave be authorized to proceed without delay towards its completion, on the plan already adopted, omitting after Edward III. Writs for the performance of Military Service, Rolls of the Constable and Marshal of the Host, and Commissions and other documents of a similar nature. " The Committee recommend that Mr. Palgrave be authorized, under the sanction of the Board, to proceed in the examination, transcription, and preparation for the press, of the materials particu- " I was, and continue to be, of opinion, that Mr. Palgrave's " Parliamentary Writs are as much worth the cost required " by them as any materials of Constitutional History can be. " I now think, as I did before, that the present work should " be complete in itself, though that will occasion the reprint- " ing from the originals, of many documents already printed " by Prynne incorrectly, and with the mixture of much useless " matter. " The matters to be excluded appear to me distinctly and " judiciously stated, and the condition of printing nothing '■'■from printed books, to obviate very much of the objection " to printing what is in them. The completeness of the col- " lection, and the exclusion of matter either insignificant or " impertinent to the purpose of the publication, will most ma- " terially relieve the historical student in point of time and " money. " I must add, that from long and close observation of Mr. " Palgrave's discharge of his duties, I place the greatest re- " liance on his accurate and extensive knowledge, on his APPENDIX. 145 larized in class 18th of the Synopsis contained in his Letter of the 13th May, 1831, being the Char- ters, Customs, and Guild Regulations of ancient Boroughs; also of those mentioned in class 19th, being the post mortem Inquisitions of persons sum- moned by writ, or returned as knights of the shire to Parliament, till the end of the reig^n of Edward IT. " The Committee, adverting to the inconvenience experienced by Mr. Palgrave from the want of any fixed place for the prosecution of his work, " acute discrimination, and his possession in a singular degree " of every quality which fit him for his works, and particu- " larly on his conscientious forbearance and frugality in light- " ening, as much as he can, the burden which any of his un- " dertakings bring upon the public. I think that Mr. Wynn, " whom I never knew to be absent from a meeting, (which, " indeed, I very seldom was myself,) will join his more weighty "judgment to the testimony which I most sincerely bear to " Mr. Palgrave's merits. " I hope to be in London within the first week in June. I *' have heard that the meeting of the Sub-commissioners is " fixed for the first of June. If there be any difficulties on *' the continuation of Mr. Palgrave's undertakings, I might, " perhaps, contribute some useful explanation, as Mr. Wynn " and I are, I believe, the only two members of the old Com- " mission who are also members of the meeting fixed for the " 1st of June. J. Mackintosh." Harrowgate, 23c/ May. 146 APPENDIX. recommend that if possible accommodation may be allowed for him and his Clerks in any intended repository of Records, where the work may be carried on. " Finally, the Committee particularly request the attention of the Board to Mr. Palgrave's Letter of the 13th May, 1831, annexed to this Report, as exhibiting fully and satisfactorily the materials which he has already collected and those which he has in view to procure. C. W. Williams Wynn, John Allen, J. Mackintosh, H. Hallam, Robert Harry Inglis.' C. WHITTINOHAM, TOOKS COURT, CHANCBRT LANK. 9 d 8 2 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT LOS ANGELES THE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY This book is DUE on the last date stamped below Form L-9 20m -12, '39(3386) dum ■OBNU lOS AN( LIBRA. CD 10.43 Nicolas - A3 Record "cammiybion.- E = CD 1043 A3 1832 UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACIUTy AA 001211430 2