such proceedings in that court as are carried on to final

sentence.

4. TRANSFERS. By an act of Parliament of Scotland in the year 1685, it is ordained, " that all clerks within the Kingdom who keep such Registers as are or have been in use to be delivered into the Lord Clerk Register, to be preserved in his Majesty's General Register House, shall keep only ten years records in their own hands, for the use of the Lieges." The great increase of business and the consequent increase of records which has arisen since the time of passing this act, renders it proper now to provide that they should be brought in annually for every fifth year preceding, unless otherwise directed in special cases.

All the Warrants of the Great Seal, together with the duplicates and index above recommended, should also be carried annually to the general repository.

The Records of the Privy Council, and all the Records of the Court of Justiciary, should also be transferred thither.

The Records of Teinds, and of Tailzies, and Inventories, in like manner should be carried in annually, if possible, or within such period as the Court of Session may direct.

And, it is obviously proper that the proceedings upon special commissions for the trial of High Treason in Scotland, and all other records now lodged in his Majesty's offices of Record in England, which exclusively regard the internal policy and laws of that part of the United Kingdom should be transferred to the General Register House at Edinburgh.

5. Many representations have been made to the committee respecting the nature, amount, and inadequacy of the FEES and EMOLUMENTS assigned to the officers einployed in the record offices of Scotland, and particularly in the Courts of Justiciary and Admiralty, and in the

Sheriff's Court. But these and other considerations re-. specting the mode of making extracts of decreets in the Court of Session, appearing to involve many questions of material importance to his Majesty's subjects in Scotland, the Committee forbear to offer any decided opinion upon the subject; especially as they have the satisfaction to be informed, that it has engaged the attention of those persons whose stations at the head of the courts of justice there, will enable them to form the most correct judgment upon all its parts, and that they have it in contemplation to submit some measures to Parliament in the ensuing session. for amending what they may find to require redress.

6.-The RECORDS of the PARLIAMENT of SCOTLAND, which commence in the thirteenth century, and are complete to the time of the Union, appear to deserve publication. The present Lord Clerk Register has had this great work in view for many years, and some of the earliest volumes have been by his order prepared for the press. Together with these, it might also be expedient to print the earliest of the royal Charters.

Such have been the proceedings of the Committee, and such are the measures which they have thought it adviseable to submit to the House, with respect to the Public Records of the realm.

How these measures may be carried into execution, if they should receive the sanction of the House, is also a consideration to which they have not failed to direct their at→ tention. The precedents of former times point out the propriety of addressing his Majesty, that he will be graciously pleased to give directions for the purpose. These directions have not unfrequently been given to commissioners, specially appointed to execute them accordingly; a method very desirable in itself, as it insures dispatch, and unifor

mity in the result. If such a proceeding should be adopted on the present occasion,, it is obvious, that a plan so extensive in its compass will require a considerable expense to accomplish it in all its parts; but, nevertheless, there will be no need of any large advances at any one time, as the work must necessarily be slow and gradual; and for the purpose of insuring a constant attention to its progress, it may not be inexpedient that an annual account of it should be laid before Parliament. Such was the proceeding recommended by the Lords Committees in the reign of his late Majesty ; and by reference to the same authority it appears not to have been unusual to appoint Committees, to make occasional inquiries as to what hath been done in pursuance of such addresses.

That measures of the nature suggested by the Committee, or other measures to the same effect, ought to be executed, the Committee cannot entertain any reasonable doubt; and whilst they are recommending them for adoption, they wish the House to bear in mind the following considerations; namely, the acknowledgment of all times that our general histories shew abundant marks of ignorance and incorrectness with regard to the existence and contents of our Public Records ;* a fact to which there is

LORD BACON says, "Versatur infelicitas quædam inter historicos vel optimos, ut legibus et actis judicialibus non satis immorentur; aut si forte diligentiam quandam adhibuerint, tamen ab authenticis longe varient.-De Augmentis Scientiarum, Lib. VIII. c. 3. Aphorism XXIX.

LORD COKE, in the Preface to his third Report, has this passage: "I pray thee beware of Chronicle Law reported in our Annals, for that will undoubtedly lead thee to error; for example, they say that William the Conqueror decreed that there should be Sheriffs in every shire, and Justices of Peace to keep the counties quiet, and to see offenders punished; whereas the learned know, &c."

« In

BLACKSTONE, in his Introduction to the Great Charter, says, consequence of those Facts and Records, (appealed to) he hath been obliged to differ very frequently, not only from the monastic writers, and such as have implicitly followed them, but also from later histo

uniform testimony, from the days of Lord Bacon and Lord Coke, to our own times; and to this we may add the manifest importance of our having the most ready knowledge of the records of the country, in the daily concerns of Government, Legislation and Jurisprudence.

With respect to legislation, it is clear that many of our public statutes and parliamentary forms were unknown to the most learned men of former times, as we now find by reference to the parliament rolls;* and many of those laws are even now not engrafted into the ordinary collections in the printed stat ute Books. Upon the celebrated conferences of this House with the House of Peers in the last Century, when the exclusive privilege of the Commons respecting money bills was discussed and established, the important uses to be derived from a knowledge of parliamentary records were signally and successfully displayed on the part of the Commons by Sir Heneage Finch (then Attorney General, and afterwards Lord Nottingham), for which he received their unanimous thanks: So when

rians of a very different character, who were endued with more learn ́ing and industry, and wrote from more authentic materials." He adds afterwards, that a general and complete History of England is still wanting.

LORD COKE says, that the two Houses of Parliament sat together till late in the reign of Edward III, and till the Commons had a perpetual Speaker. See 4 Inst. C. 1. p. 2. and C. 51. p. 255; but it appears by the Rolls of Parliament, that they sat, or at least acted, separately long before that period, 9 Edward 2. Rot. Parl. Vol. 1. p. 351.-13 Edward 3. Rot. Parl. vol. 2. p. 104. 107.-14 Edward S. p. 112.-15 Edward 3. p. 127.-17 Edward 3. p. 136-18 Edward 3. P. 150, &c. The LORDS are directed to meet, 66 en la Chambre Blanche," and the COMMONS" en la Chambre de Peinte," 40 Edward 3. p. 289. On the opening of the Parliament, the COMMONS were directed by the King to return to their ancient place," en la Maison du Chapitre de l' Abbeye de Westm." 51 Edward 3. Rot. Parl, vol. 2. p. 363. See also Prynne, 4 Inst. P. 9.

the Constitution of the Exchequer came into question upon the Banker's case, in the reign of King William, it was by the test of Public Records alone, that Lord Somers was enabled to settle its limits: and again, when the right of manning the navy by pressing was disputed, the legality of that practice was established by Sir Michael Foster, on the authority of recorded precedents; and to this same standard of authority have both Houses of Parliament found it expedient to resort at no very distant period, and upon occasions of the most solemn concern, for the safest guide to their joint proceedings.

In concluding this report, the Committee feel it also to be their duty to call the attention of the House to the policy of establishing hereafter some system of general registration for all Public Records and Instruments whatever, or at least for such as affect landed property. The whole details of such a system, its structure, and its operations, are exemplified in the returns collected in the progress of these inquiries. And the Committee desire to suggest, for the future consideration of Parliament, whether it may not be a measure of the soundest wisdom, to extend throughout all ENGLAND,that plan which has been tried so satisfactorily in the populous Counties of Middlesex and York, for nearly a century past; tried also with signal advantage for an equal period throughout the whole kingdom of IRELAND, with whose laws, on this point at least, it must be peculiarly desirable to establish a similarity; and tried for ages, upon a still more perfect and extensive plan, throughout SCOTLAND, with the most complete success, and the most salutary consequences,