In the Court of COMMON PLEAS, alphabetical Indexes to the Docket Rolls of the Records in the Treasury of that court are much wanted, but it would require a great length of time, and very considerable assistance, to supply this defect.

In the EXCHEQUER OF RECEIPT, the Pell Office Records contained in the two upper apartments of the Pell Office Tower, cannot be examined or arranged without much help, and no catalogue has yet been made of the Records formerly found there, and removed in the year 1770 from the custody of the House of Lords to the old State Paper Office, but this latter defect may be now supplied by the persons employed upon the establishment which has been recently created for that department.

In the KING'S REMEMBRANCER'S OFFICE there is a total want of the necessary Calendars and Indexes to those Records which are arranged; there are none of any sort which are complete; and the general account which the committee have caused to be drawn up respecting the unarranged Records, will demonstrate the utility of taking further steps for their thorough examination.

In the LORD TREASURER'S REMEMBRANCER'S OFFICE, no regular and complete Repertory or Index has been made since the Restoration, although some particular Indexes have been compiled by the industry of individuals, and of course much extraordinary assistance will be wanted for that object. Arrangements have been suggested to the committee for the proper execution of such a work, in which the present officers express a very laudable desire to contribute their services to the utmost; but there are at present some disputed questions between the Remembrancer and Sworn Clerks, respecting the custody of these Records, which may impede the business, unless there be some interposition, or adjudication upon their differ

ences.

4.

In the Office of the Auditors of the LAND REVENUE, notwithstanding the zeal and assiduity with which the present Deputy Auditor for England has laboured, and notwithstanding much has also been effected by the persons employed by the committee under the authority of the House, some further assistance will nevertheless be still wanting to render these preparatory labours completely useful to the public; and amongst the rest it is represented, that great utility would result from having a General Index made for each division of the inrolments.

In the AUGMENTATION OFFICE, there are about 200 bags of Records, of which the general contents are known to the Officer; but there is no Calendar to them, nor any Index whatever. These however, it is apprehended, may be examined and methodized by the officer himself, without any special assistance.

In the Office of SURVEYOR GENERAL OF THE CROWN LANDS, some further Indexes to the Surveys, and other documents concerning the Property of the Crown, would be useful, but no extra assistance beyond the present establishment of the office is deemed necessary for the purpose of preparing them.

The CLERKS OF THE PEACE in general have no Calendars or Indexes, and most of them think it unnecessary; but others strongly recommend the measure; and it appears to the committee, that it must be desirable to have them completed, as to all matters concerning Inclosures, Roads, Bridges, Gaols, and other county works or buildings; and in every case it would be expedient to have one general Schedule lodged, together with the Records themselves, in a public building, and a duplicate thereof left with the Clerk of the Peace, for the daily use of the office.

In the BRITISH MUSEUM, it would be desirable to have a revision and correction of the printed Catalogue of the Har leian Manuscripts, which is extremely defective in the enu

meration of many articles belonging to the peculiar object of this inquiry; and it is submitted by the principal Librarian, that much convenience would be derived from the formation of a separate catalogue digested under proper heads, comprising all the Public Records and Papers of State dispersed throughout the different collections which constitute that repository. This work also would necessarily demand much time and labour.

Thirdly, of TRANSFERS.-These may be either partial or general.

Some partial transfers have been proposed by the Officers who have made their returns to the committee for the purpose of collecting into the same repository, the entire series of particular sorts of Records. But on balancing the advantages of this sort of local convenience against the disadvantages which might follow from confounding the known references in printed books, and destroying in some respects the use of the present Catalogues, the committee are of opinion, that such transfers are not advisable in the present state of the Record Offices; except for the purpose of consolidating any of them, as in the case of the office of the Auditors of the Land Revenue and the Augmentation Office, where their records are in many instances of a similar description, and where the Ministers' accounts for alternate years happen to be divided between them; from which circumstance such a junction might be useful; and except in cases where there may exist an actual necessity for removing the records from their present repositories, as did happen in part to the Lord Treasurer's Remembrancer's Office, in the year 1793 ; and as must happen at no great distance of time, whenever the other offices of the Exchequer of Receipt and Account are taken down to be rebuilt or removed. An occasional transfer of some of the proceedings in Chancery is made from the Six Clerks' Office to the Tower, and similar transfers are inade

from the Treasurers of the King's Bench and Common Pleas to the Chapter House, whenever the places of primary deposit overflow; but there is no reason to apprehend any such necessity will arise for many years in either of the preceding instances.

that

No general transfer of the Records of these several repositories from their present local situations could be desirable, unless it were for the purpose of establishing a general repository, either for those public papers and Records which cease gradually to be in use for the current business of Public Offices, or for the registration of private conveyances; in either of which cases, the general Register House for Scotland would be a useful model for imitation. The learned and perspicuous account of that Institution, contained in the Returns from the office of the Lord Clerk Register, together with the drawings which he has annexed to it, furnish a very valuable body of information respecting the details of the system, and the construction of the present edifice, which is admirably contrived for the purposes to which it is appropriated.

Fourthly, of the ESTABLISHMENT AND DUTIES OF OFFICE.

It seems to the Committee, that where no person is specifically entrusted with the custody and arrangement of the records which belong to any office of great public concern, such an officer should be appointed: and an instance of this defect of establishment occurs in the Lord Treasurer's Remembrancer's Office, since the removal of that office to Somerset Place, from under the care of the chief Usher of the Court of Exchequer at Westminster, to whom that duty specially belonged. The Committee are also of opinion, that where there is an officer, but he has no salary, and his whole compensation is derived from fees, he should be remunerated, in part by salary, and in part by fees, to be regulated upon a moderate and fixed scale, so

that he may receive an annual equivalent for the present average anfount of his profits and emoluments, and his Majesty's subjects may have access to the Records with less cost than at present. These observations have suggested themselves to the Committee, from considering the situation of the Keeper of the Records in the Rolls Chapel, who has no salary; and of the Keeper of the Records of the Augmentation Office, whose fees are not fixed by any standard whatever. An additional reason for such an arrangement will occur whenever the private Indexes of these officers are purchased by the public, and especially if either those which are public or private should be printed, as this circumstance may tend to diminish their future emoluments, by rendering their assistance less necessary.

[To be continued.]

MANUSCRIPTS.

Account of the Manuscripts in the Library of the Society of Antiquaries of London. By the Rev. JOHN BRAND, Secretary and Librarian.

[From the Appendix to the Report on the Public Records of Great Britain.]

Among the Manuscripts in the Library of this Society, which chiefly relate to subjects of British Topography, there are remaining:

A folio Manuscript, on vellum, intituled, "Liber Cotidianus Contrarotulatoris de Recepta,et Expensis Garderobe, de Anno Regni Regis Edwardi, filiis Regis Henrici 28mo." containing the receipt and payments of the Wardrobe for that year; a department which then comprised the payments of the Military and Naval expenses, as well as

VOL. I.