Excepting some reparation and binding of records at the Augmentation and Chapter House offices (Mr. Caley, the secretary, being the keeper of those offices), the Duchy of Lancaster and at the Rolls, executed in the rudest and most careless manner, these Commissions did nothing but print enormous folio volumes. Most of them were imperfect, or rather incomplete, because the contents of the offices were unknown; but of this we shall speak hereafter. Most of them were produced with reckless indifference to accuracy,' on which the chief value depended, and most in a size requiring two men to lift them. Mr. Justice Littledale (Ev. 8300) complains that the Statutes are printed upon enormously large paper, and extremely "inconvenient for any body to have in their library. It is an "immense folio; it is a great deal too large and cumbrous.” Mr. Parkes (Ev. 4412) thinks it a "matter of great regret "that the statutes were not printed in a more convenient and "less expensive form; it would have been extremely useful " to the profession." Of the cost at which they were produced we select a few examples:-2 vols. of Originalia cost 56051.;-2 vols. of Hundred Rolls, 9251l. ;-1 vol. of Placita

5. Do you know what the book was ?—No, I do not; I believe I heard it was some book of Elizabeth.

The above questions and answers were read over by Mr. Cooper to Mr. Thomp son, who afterwards signed the same as above in my presence. August 3, 1832.

GEO. SMITH."

We learn that reading and copying MSS. is a science subject to progressive improvement. "The progress," says the secretary (1833), "made in the science "of records has enabled the present Commissioners to detect many errors." It is singular that the most accurate record publication ever executed is Domesday. This work was printed without the superintendence of any Record Commission ; but perhaps the theory of progression is intended to apply only to Record SubCommissioners. " Relying too much on the judgment of the keepers of the records, "the old Commission printed calendars to some records in the Tower, so defective that, as appears from the copy of the most perfect of them, which is daily used in "the Tower, and which was produced before your Committee by Mr. Hardy, half "the requisite information had been omitted or inaccurately given."--Report, p. xxiii.) "It seems to be admitted on all sides that great errors and defects are to be found in almost all the other works. The copy of one of the printed calen"dars of the Tower Records, which has been before mentioned as having been ex"hibited by Mr. Hardy, affords a lamentable instance of the errors to be discovered "by the necessity of a careful collation for practical purposes."-(Report, p. xxx.)

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de quo Warranto, 41787.;-3 vols. of Rymer's Fadera (chiefly a reprint), 30,3887. ;--11 vols. of the Statutes, 59,392l. ;-2 vols. of Parliamentary Writs and Returns, 27,221. To be brief, the present secretary states that " 360,000l. passed through "the late Commissioners' hands, and there is no trace of it "whatever." (Ev. 2268.)

The present Commissioners have placed beyond a doubt the exact value at which they estimated the printed works of their predecessors. Soon after Lord Brougham's Commission was appointed, sixteen tons weight of the publications were first mutilated, and afterwards sold at 4d. per pound as waste paper. The Vicar of Holbeach (Rev. James Morton) received some goods from his grocer at Holbeach wrapped up in sheets of the before-mentioned Originalia, which had cost 5,6051.; and of the Valor Ecclesiasticus, which had cost above 15,6351. This looks so fabulous that we must quote the words of the Evidence.

5240. (Chairman.)—" Did these works appear to have been "used?—They had not been soiled or fingered in any way; "they appeared perfectly new."

5241. "Had they been bound ?-No; they had been in "boards, but the boards were torn off."

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5242. "They did not look as if used at all?-No; and the maps were in the Valor Ecclesiasticus."

5243. "Where did he say they came from?-From a sta"tioner in Aldgate, whose name he told me, but I have forgotten it."

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5245. "You heard from the grocer he had a hundred "weight of them?-I believe he had several hundred weight; they were used in his shop for a long while afterwards, and "I do not know that they are yet exhausted; I think I saw some not long ago."

5246. "This is the way in which these documents are diffusing historical information all over the country?—It appears so, and I was very sorry to see it."

Sir Thomas Phillipps purchased "two hackney-coach "loads." (Mr. Hardy's Ev. 3684.) Sir Thomas Phillipps is asked, (7541,) "Do you know how many tons of Record

'These sums are taken from Parliamentary Returns, analyzed in Sir H. Nicolas' "Refutation."

publications have been destroyed by the present Commis"sion, by selling them as waste paper ?—I understand about "sixteen tons."

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7542. "How was this done?-I saw some of them after

they were in the shop of the person to whom, I presume, they were delivered; the covers were torn off, and I believe "the two first sheets, and the two last, in order to call them "imperfect copies."

7543. "Do you suppose that this had been done in order "to make them imperfect?—I apprehend so, from the vio"lence used."

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7544. "Do you know whether among those that were sold as waste paper any perfect copies were got?-Of the Testa "de Neville; that is to say, it was perfect before the leaves were torn off, but the leaves were torn off from all which I "saw."

This feat, which the secretary describes as "selling the surplus copies of the publications at certain reduced prices” (Ev. 7702), was accomplished, he says, by Lord Brougham and Mr. Bellenden Ker.

We shall now proceed to see how the present Commission, under the auspices of the self-constituted law reformer of modern times, improved the system of operations.

A new Commission was required at the accession of the present King, and Lord Brougham, big with good intention, and burthened with plenty of spare time, set up for a Record Reformer, in addition to his thousand and one other schemes. Mr. Bellenden Ker (the conveyancing member of the criminallaw commission) is reported to have been Lord Brougham's agent in framing the new Commission. Be this as it may, the first sentence contains an equivocation, intended to serve the purposes of his Lordship.

Lord Brougham desired to be an official Commissioner quà Lord Chancellor, in order to sit as a chairman, and to hold a commissionership on a securer footing than as Chancellor. See then how it was to be effected. The Speaker (Lord Canterbury), Sir John Leach, and others, were nominated as Commissioners "for the time being," in respect of their offices. Lord Brougham omitted the words "for the time

being," and nominated himself " Henry Lord Brougham and Vaux, our Chancellor of Great Britain." And when reciting himself in other clauses in the capacity of a quorum Commissioner, as he could not with propriety say "Henry Lord Brougham, &c.," he employed the terms "our said Chancellor." There may be a doubt, therefore, whether Lord Brougham be any Commissioner at all, although there can be none that he is not a quorum Commissioner, as he was given to understand pretty plainly, once, when he offered to take the chair in preference to a gentleman, about whose title to the office not a shadow of a doubt existed.

The old strain is sung in the present Commission: twentyfive unpaid "dearly-beloved cousins," &c., are employed for the sixth, and, we hope, the last time, " to methodize records, &c." In addition, they are directed (and this is the only difference between the present and past Commissions) to "make "full and diligent inquiry into the duties of the several officers, "&c., the salaries, fees, &c., and regulations of the offices, " &c."

A short epitome of the performances of the present Commission will be an appropriate introduction to some exhibition of the present condition of the records, and the state of the records will furnish the best means of judging of the Commission's efficacy and utility.

It

The first act of the Commission was an act of tyranny. "forced" on" the reluctant acceptance" of Mr. Cooper, as he tells us in a preface to an "Account of Public Records," p. vii., "the troublesome and most unprofitable office of Secretary." But he comforted himself with the assurance of " an express understanding with Lord Brougham, that the record business "was to yield to his private law avocations, and, to use his own words, that the condition on which he accepted the "'office of Secretary, was, that its duties should be made in "all respects secondary and subordinate to his professional avocations1.'" (Mr. Protheroe's Ev. 1318. 1329.)

Mr. Cooper measures the exact quantity of the time he bestows on the Record Commission. He says he has "devoted more than half his whole time to the business of the Commission." (Agenda, p. 17.) "Elsewhere," he says, "I use part of the house in Boswell Court as my chambers, (being the same he used before he "was Secretary,) to enable me with less loss and inconvenience to attend to the "affairs of the Poard. Under any other circumstances than those in which I am

Mr. Cooper" believes (Ev. 2777) it was the circumstance "that he did not possess a knowledge of the ancient records "that induced the Board to force upon him (for Lord Brougham forced upon him) the office of Secretary, rather "than upon a record man.”

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The whole business and management of the Commission was left to Mr. Cooper and Lord Brougham, the latter being consulted when Mr. Cooper needed his Lordship's aid. Mr. Cooper writes to Mr. Bellenden Ker1-" The Chancellor upon my appointment gave me particular instructions as to the "direction to be given to my labours, and desired me in any "matter of difficulty to consult him; and this I have invariably done, and no one measure of any importance has been “taken, which was not previously communicated to him, and "his written or verbal approbation obtained: amongst those measures of course are included the publication of the two "volumes by myself."

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The advice of the Board appears to have been sought only on those occasions when "there is any disagreement." I go "to the Board," says Mr. Cooper, (Ev. 7796,) for the sake of "relieving myself from any unpleasant responsibility." "It

appears," states the Report, p. xxxi., "from a return laid "before your Committee, that in a period of nearly five years, thirty-eight Boards were held, and only seven of the 25 Com"missioners attended at more than half of these. The Boards "were called by the Secretary at his direction. They sat "rarely more than two or three hours, their duration depend

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ing on the time at which some of the leading official mem"bers could conveniently come, and that at which they were

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placed by my connection with the Commission, I should of course have chambers in Lincoln's Inn, Old or New Sqnare, or in the Stone Buildings. There is, "I believe, no example of a Chancery barrister, with a practice equal to mine, carrying on business out of the Inn; and there can be no doubt that much preju"dice has accrued to me from that circumstance within the last five years." Indeed he avows, in a printed letter (dated August, 1835,) that he has lost his recollection of some official transaction, "apparently from the great increase of my profes"sional avocations." Being asked by the Committee (Ev. 3096) how a man could write a book at two years of age, as Mr. Cooper has somewhere or other made it appear, he says-" With my multitudinous occupations I cannot answer these questions now.' ." He writes to Mr. Holbrooke (Ev. 1270), "I find so little grati"tude for my exertions, that I am half disposed to throw up my office, which has "been to me the source of no small loss in my profession." [The salary is certainly small in proportion to the services required, and Mr. C. does not appear to have derived any other pecuniary advantage from the office.--Edit]

1 Letter on Office of Secretary, printed 1832.