ments, known to be lodged there, but which could not be produced, or selected from the general mass of confusion. In the Pipe-office, another branch of the Exchequer, where by law every public accountant ought to have his quietus recorded, it had been represented three years ago to a committee of this House (the Finance Committee) that no person, however deeply interested in the affairs of any public accountant, either as principal or surety, could obtain a certificate of the state of his final balance or discharge. An evil of a still different sort occurred in the instance of special commissions for the trials of treasons; and however strange it might appear, it was strictly true, that the proceedings under the commission executed in the north after the rebellion in 1745, and those in London in 1794, and at Maidstone in 1798, remained now in the unauthenticated custody of private persons without any blame whatever being imputable to them, but for want of proper process to remove them to their proper place of deposit. And that as to the affairs of Scotland or Ireland, so broken and disjoined were all the documents relating to those countries, that there was no place in which any man might not search for them with some expectation of success, and no place where he could be certain that his search would be successful.

"He next stated, that although this was the real condition of the public records, he was by no means confident that some persons might not be of opinion, that no great harm would ensue if all these parchments and papers were left to perish in their dust, or were fairly disposed of by one general conflagration; and he was disposed to apprehend this the more, because it was well known that the levellers in the last century had actually proposed that expedient, and there might be some men now, who not unwisely for the same ends, might hold the same opinions. But this was perfectly clear, that there could be no rational medium whatever between adopting that summary expedient, or taking the most effectual means for their arrangement and preservation. Many strong reasons of personal interest and public policy must prove this to every man who had either landed property to defend, or who felt a value for the constitution under which he lived. And whatever might be the indifference with which those things were regarded in the abstract, he would ask any land-owner, either in the house

or

of out of it—whether, if his title came to be litigated, he would not resort to those repositories with the greatest anxiety, and think himself most secure if he found it was warranted by some royal grant, some antient perambulation, or public survey? That corporate franchises, and many of the most valuable rights of the church, had no other solid foundation; and that in parliament itself, besides the periodical discussions which arise before committees upon election rights, which are often deeply involved in these researches, whenever the two houses unhappily differ, it is by the recorded transactions of their ancestors that their conferences must be guided; for they have no other umpire to which they can resort; and even parliament, in its entire capacity, has at no very distant period, and upon occasions of the most solemn concern, looked to those repositories for the most certain standard of its proceedings, in times and upon questions the most arduous. He trusted, therefore, that it was not too much to assert, in the language of Lord Halifax's Report, that it will be a public damage, and dishonour to the kingdom, to suffer such monuments of antiquity to perish.'

"He then proceeded to state the leading points, to which he proposed that the present inquiry should be directed. In the first place he proposed to call upon the proper officer of every principal repository in England, which was entrusted with any records or instruments in which the public has a concern, requiring him to state the sorts of instruments in his possession, and the periods of time to which they relate; extending this inquiry also to Scotland, where matters of this nature had been in all times regulated with the most exemplary care; and meaning that the contents of all these returns should be afterwards methodized and digested by competent and experienced persons, to be authorized and employed for the express purpose of furnishing the House with the most correct information in the most convenient form. In the next place, he should propose to ascertain the state of the buildings in which the public records are lodged, as to their security and accommodation; with a view to have those public buildings repaired which may require it, and in some instances possibly to render other buildings public property, which are at present inconveniently holden by private tenure; but in no case to disturb

any

any possession, or change the custody of any records, except perhaps in some very few instances of most evident right, and upon the most cogent reasons of unquestionable utility. And, in the last place, for the purpose of rendering the access to these repositories most complete, to call for an explanation of the state of their catalogues and calendars, and also of their establishments and regulations for conducting searches, with a view on this head to provide more effectually for the security of the records themselves, at the same time that the use of them might be rendered more convenient to his Majesty's subjects.

"From this course of proceeding, beyond the execution of these particular details, there were also other consequences likely to follow, and which ought not to be wholly unnoticed. The very event of a parliamentary visitation would impress the officers of each department with a stronger sense of their duty, knowing that their conduct, if meritorious, would not be unobserved, and that any culpable negligence might not escape animadversion; and this salutary impression would endure long after the event of this particular inquiry, because the period when a similar visitation might be expected to occur must always be indefinite. Another consequence which might probably follow, would be the discovery of many valuable monuments of the policy of our ancestors, which it might not be unprofitable to keep in view hereafter: and if the survey of this country, contained in the books of Domesday, has been always truly accounted a work of great public importance, it would be gratifying to the House to know that other surveys may be found, which were executed in the reign of Edward I. II. and III. (for some of them the honourable member had seen) which would be of infinitely greater value than Domesday itself, if they should be found complete, inasmuch as they come two or three centuries nearer to our own times, and contain more curious and comprehensive views of the civil and ecclesiastical state of this country, at the periods to which they relate. But there was still one object beyond all these, upon which he could not but entertain a sanguine hope; that every new light thrown upon this subject would convince Parliament at last of the necessity and facility of establishing a general registration of all instruments affecting landed property.

perty. In Scotland this system has already prevailed for ages, with the happiest consequences to those who belong to that part of the united kingdom; in Ireland the same system has obtained for near a century, with the same beneficial consequences: and in the two most populous districts of England, namely, Middlesex, and Yorkshire, where the same plan has been established for the same length of time, though upon a narrower scale, it has been found to add a distinct and specific value to the property which it secures. Many recent events have contributed to dissipate the prejudices which once hung upon this question, and it now remains only by transcribing one short and approved law to extend the same benefits throughout the rest of England. This considered merely as an improvement of our juridical system would be one of the greatest which could be devised. But as a measure of state policy, it was demonstrably clear, that whatever establishes security and good faith between man and man in transactions respecting landed property, tends to facilitate the reciprocal exchange and conversion of the landed and monied capital; and the giving to capital an increased activity, will necessarily increase its total amount. Nor was it altogether to be disregarded as offering a new and reasonable source of revenue: for no man would have to pay for recording his title, without receiving at the same time a specific and corresponding benefit, by the additional security given to his possession; and the produce of such a revenue would be continually rising with the multiplied population and increasing prosperity of the country.

"He concluded with stating, that although he had dwelt upon these latter topics, because they made part of his general view of the subject, it was not his intention to propose any examination of what might be politic for the House to adopt, in respect of any new institution, or any extension of former systems, but only to ascertain the state of those already established. He therefore moved

"For a committee to inquire into the public records of this kingdom, and of such other public instruments, rolls, books, and papers, as they shall think proper; and to report to the House the nature and condition thereof, together with what they shall judge

fit to be done for the better arrangement, preservation, and more convenient use of the same."

The Master of the Rolls seconded the motion; and it was carried unanimously.

Having thus proved himself a man of business, Mr. Abbot was found extremely useful, and at length entrusted with situations of equal delicacy and responsibility.

Previously to his obtaining the high office now occupied by him, we find Mr. Abbot acting as Principal Secretary of State in Ireland, under the administration of the Earl of Hardwicke; he was also one of the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury, and a privy counsellor of that kingdom. After distinguishing himself in these important stations, during a very critical period, a still more brilliant prospect opened to him in his native country. Sir John Mitford, the successor of Mr. Addington, having been nominated Chancellor of Ireland by the title of Lord Redesdale, the chair of the House of Commons thus once more became vacant.

To the honour of the representative body, the candidates for this high and important situation are but few; for in addition to an unblemished character, and a marked reputation for talents, much learning, great dignity, uncommon patience, and conspicuous impartiality, added to an extraordinary degree of research, are all required. Besides these qualifications, that of a good constitution ought not to be forgotten; for however honourable, the office must at the same time be allowed to be laborious and

fatiguing