19 SEPTEMBER 1840, Page 13

RECORD REFORM.

ONE of the most useful and complete improvements effected under the present 'Ministry is their Record Reform ; but not being a party question, or a means of' losing or gaining place, it has es- cited no totention. As the subject, however, is one of consider- able public importance, and very curious in itself, we will endeavour to present its character and history to our readers, as fully as is necessary to a general exposition. In matters of fact we shall state nothing from ourselves; but, as it would inconveniently over- load our columns to refer to every line of evidence, we will say at once that our autherities are the Report of the Select Commit- tee on the Record Commission, the First. Report of the Deputy- Keeper of the Public Records, and sonic writers °fest ablished credit.

The general notion which most people entertain of Records is, that they may be very valuable and " all that to antiquaries, but that they are useless and incomprehensible to every one else. Such is far from being the ease. In a lit;_rary sense they are both im- portant and interesting. for the picture they present of the manners of the age, the insight they give into its opinions and practices, and their continuous impress of the changes and progress of society. To a constitutional lawyer they are of the last importance; en- abling him to discover, in every period, the poa ars of the Crown and its cxecutive offices—the jealous care with which every excess in these powers was provided against—the constant struggle of our sturdy ancestors to set bounds to what is called the prerogative, to establish the principle of public responsibility for every public act, and a government of law instead of a govern:writ of will. To the historian they are equally necessary ; for though tradition and the chronicles may enable a great genius to seize the sp:rit and poetry of history, the !-4..neral character of leading men. teal the results of great events, it is from records only that the truth of partieular facts can be ascertained. One so:1,:eg exam;-le will suffice. Ilesny the Seventh was th.F.c..'ntic:1 Jolts of Gaunt by his mistress ICArnmaxr. his grandson

was legitimized by act of Parliament. Ha. es all our his-

torians assert, a right to the crow'. 0: the printed patents contain the precise words 4 es.., • But on referring to the original records. it 'see% eees' t.let tie tZolls of that when lInsny the Fourth asese . ..‘ it was id!.r/1/0,./: whence it is intim .1 ' v S:r : Parliament did a. s contain the C'Net . feel on the siiion of Root %El) Ira fees, ::: upon

his h:dt'-hrothea a tose right to the %. evn .-c have dashed with his own.

In it practise:I sense our Records , they cont.:hi ilia bast :eat ot'nse tee , rights and properties both of Fit a :ies.ta , In many cases Of descent. it will reaki

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Chester were found on a late rapid survey to be nearly twenty-eight at all; neither clerks nor keepers know the number or nature of thousand in number, amounting in bulk to upwards of 700 cubic all the documents in their charge; in many places there is neither feet ; the existing records of the Exchequer atone tilled 751 sacks. classification nor approach to it, the records being placed pro. At a very early period these documents were jealously regarded. miscuously in sacks or chests. "In the Pell Office," says Mr. In the .16th year of EDWARD the Third, (13710 Parliament re- CoopER, "I found an issue roll of John alongside of Lord Den- solved that the public records are the records of the King and man's patent of peerage." Like the deaths by shipwreck in the kingdom, and should be held secure for and rendered acres- temple of Neptune, the instances where justice has been denied Bible to 1111 the King's subjects—" parr perpelncl evidence et aide de by the expenses of the offices, or their want of proper relerence, tons parties"; end since then the attention of the Crown and the arc not specifically recorded, but frequent instances are mentioned Legislature has been occasionally drawn to the subject, but with- of lawsuits decided by accident. In a case respecting the right out checking the inevitable abuses which arise from the lapse of of the Corporation of Bristol to certain import and export time, till at length every thing connected with our national re- dues, Mr. ImArsowonrit, a record-agent of extensive antiquarian cords was in a state of the greatest corruption. knowledge, conceiving (from that knowledge) that it' the claim was Although the people's property, and held by the people's servants, wen-eel/Idea a particular kind of accounts lutist have once existed, in many cases paid with the people's money, these records were paid an " agency-fee" to the Record-office clerk, and got the un- inaccessible to the public without a very heavy tax. The cost of usual flivour of a permission to look over some bags-full of " un- the Record-office in the 'rower was 1,200/. a year; the Keeper re- sorted records," and there found documents that completely es- ceiving 400/., and being allowed 4201. for four clerks, but only en- . tablishcd the case. In a proposed trial fbr a public right offishery, gaging two. Yet if any one wished to examine a record, and knew Mr. IInwr.nrr made many searches, and procured a mass of con- the reign when the document containing his evidence was granted, jectural evidence, but nothing conclusive : it happened, however, he was charged ten eldllings for the ti search" of the index, and six that a gentleman living near the place, fbund in a chartelary of the shillings and eightpence for "taking down the record." If a copy monastery to which the property had formerly belonged, a reference was ordered, the six and eightpence was deducted, and one shilling to a trial in the reign of HENRY the Sixth on the very point ; and the folio of seventy-two words was charged, with two shillings for the time being thus known, Mr. Hewheee, after great trouble examining and signing such copy. If the reign was unknown, 'and from the want of indexes and the state of the records, procured a it was desired to ascertain if the deed existed, the officer graciously copy of the verdict. Ina great tithe case where the saute gentle- made a composition, and charged ten guineas for a general search man was concerned, the question, after heavy expenses, was cow-

through the indexes: viz. promised, from the want of conclusive evidence: afterwards it

produce X5 5 0 Consulting the Im. 4.x of the Depositions in Chancery 2 2 0 to 10 0 There were other evils connected with these Record-offices of as For the production of every separate record in a court of justice gross a nature. The dirty and neglected state of the documents, one guinea each was charged, whatever the number; and, as if this the unsafe places in which they arc deposited, and the havoc were not enough, the unlucky litigant was compelled to pay for as going on amongst them, will be more fitly described in connexion many office-copies besides, however long the records alight be. At with the misdoings of the various Record Commissions. From the Rolls, and most of the other offices, the fees were very similar-- the abuses of the offices, and partly front the nature of the dom. with this peculiar abuse at the Rolls, that no extract from a docu- ments themselves, solicitors were at a loss how or where to obtain ment could be given; so that if the copy of a record amounted to the information constantly required in tithes and other suits, and in ten pounds, it must be had, though a few lines aright answer thededucing titles through the Crown. Thi3 necessity gave rise to a inquirer's object. At the Rolls, and seine other offices, however, the . , particular profession, termed antiquaries, record-agents, or record- income of the keepers arose from their fees. : solicitors ; and of late years several clerks in Record-offices were But the mere scale of fees demanded, cons-eye a very inadee . in the habit of acting in this capacity, not merely postponing the quate idea of the costs to persons seeking to defend or establish public duties of their office to their private tiff:ill's, but having the a right, frills the nmeher of searches rentered to be made. power (end sespeete(l. on ie,ing it.) to throw obstacles in t'1.• way of sometimes in one ance sometimes in several. .1 We often pay," an opponent's search and to acquaint their own clients with his said Mr. PeeKes, " the tics of two or three offices, fbr want of prciceeding,s,-11 line of conduct titvoured by the rules of the offices. knov.ledge of the real ie pository of' the ree,:nls." .:1 )Jr. BAYLEY, The searcher rarely was allowed to inspect the indexes, especially of the Irecord Office is the Tower, charged the Corporation of the more recondite ones ; which, though made by the public ser- Liverpool between :_le sq. and 4,0001. for - scr.ru!-:• :,- : .w,.1 though vauts, in the public tunic, were claimed as the private property of it tuna:el out that ti: was an imposition, ieseleeh es he had time officials. Nor was the searcher g.enerally allowed any access to charged deeli(. e . s. : et tin.: deduction woulii I. :es. an outlay of the records : be gave in such particulars of his ca.e as he could from 1.0001. to .2., ,•■ '. A number of (locum( 1..., are frequently procure—after an interval the record was shown hint, or he was I required to c.e. s]:rele claim, In the Bray case, in 1b37, told that no such document could be found. Nevertheless, it up- the bill f.r s, .ed oilier Record expen:es was 1101.; of to to have been almost impossible to bring home to a clerk a w!,1(.:: 44 _ ,.. A, f:r carrying down eleven small records to - ca,:e of suppreion or negligent search.

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pay no A general search for all the information the Office could was accidentally discovered that the question had been decided

3 3 0 on several occasions by the courts of law in early times. Had Consulting the l;!.x to the Bills and Answers there been an " Index locorum to the Verdict Rolle," an expense

--- of 1,500/. might have been saved to the parties.

the II 1. . , e eeir days. In lee:). 861. was charged for , All these were practical mile pressing upon persons reeorting to produc. r, (1 , f records on three ilays. In the A,' aux tin, tr:tional records for the dailv btoiness of life. In cases of case. ;: • it, C: t,) prove the le,11-e:A.:t ;:,-e ,,;' a patent 1 literary inquiry, the majom ity ofwituu:,es f ia•ak Well ofthe accommo- bete ( i i i ef HENRY tic I.Ighth. ".• - f(q.; two t dathir4 spirit of time gentlemen of the Record-offices at the Rolls litig,:a• , . establish the sa:::e 1.,,h.'.. Hnd each and the Toe-'r; but admit that a recommendation or introduction

being ,•. =(•arelm• was required—that time person applying receiv.r,l a personal favour,

In • • i'l--', much exi'•"r'" ".:'s e'."-!' '.,sly in- . and could only carry on his examination during the pleasure curre . " I s011■01111(::•," r't''' :'. Ir. I IL" I.F.TTI . and kisure of the clerks, with the knoxvledge that every thing " pa.. : ..'-c, tll'd get u*I'.. IRO" h.f"r""H.n• Th% he did was imposing at trouble upon them. Still the !heresy Gnu %:.1,, - •i:citOr to tla: Wood-. :,!,d l:ore - t -. ,'t ,;--- antiquary or historian WaS entirely in the bends of the. " I e :z:,. records for a tr:::: f::.-', .\ - '7.,: - : I Record-officers; who, from caprice or Im.allity, might thwart look,:. A to r,,y lit:: ti, . . ;'1, I' :. ,, little hii ohj;,...t.s. And Sir HARRIS Nicol..‘s, in his 01,,,,,,,,III!,,,, la tl.!,!,,.- c:t-.., -, : Ilk 11,rical ..1.1P.17,1,10,, status two flirts which sh ,,,,.. that pen e .,1 attempting to ie. :s!.;. i'"- this ',ewer wits seueeleies exercised. An assosiiitien haviee malls , slthy. Mr. t;e1,1 %1.1.i ; ‘i last formed 11,1- the esuellent purpose of priutine documents illu,Uatite In 1 listory, time trial Itt:tween Lord Seueen of lednei and Sir Roemer (;aosvrNr,u, in a coldest for armorild bi the reign of Rico tau the Secimil, was selected for that pesp,,se. 'rile ohjen:t inn vif:w was explained to the Keeper of the ,.!,,rd-office in the 'l'ow'er, and it was obviously inyossilde that the in-trument cold(' be reiedred for it lee,si purimse soil he in- isted upi.11 his ff•;•:-.,; loot It,,,: mu'i rim r •,1 pvtrwls v; at; pAid or a tram:::eript of fhb; document, being at the rata of lice pound,.

pry-flit. A count} hi....tojatm obtained " mo consult time l'ipe Itolls: he rein ono morning in lino' vamills of :•;o-

mmmer .ut I Irmse, and, tirter orunim; s:,riomm, soli.; and so,n( temalered the p I- on a sovereign es 0 a/, but v.;LS till leul eight vmit, to pug. For the ta•%! ,i;ty'r,":, IL he coin-