diminishing the amount of their retiring allowances. On the contrary, he used to say, it would be good policy to bribe men to retire, as age and infirmities advanced.*

SIX CLERKS' OFFICE, AND COMPENSATION.

Speaking of the abolition of this office, he said, "When Lord Lyndhurst became Chancellor he requested four persons, of whom I was one,† to make to him such suggestion as we thought proper for the improvement of the Court of Chancery: certain suggestions were made, and produced, amongst other things, two great fruits, the abolition of the Six Clerks' Office, and the set of orders that was made in May, 1845."

A friend who called on Lord Langdale about Christmas, 1843, has informed me that he found him labouring under indisposition, and complaining that he invariably drooped when the spur of business was removed for a few days. Talking about the enormous compensations on the abolition of the Six Clerks' Office, his Lordship said, that during his late sleepless nights, he turned over in his mind a plan for having the compensations valued, and purchasing Government Annuities for them, and for that purpose transferring sufficient stock belonging to the Suitors' Fund to the Commissioners of the National Debt, Government undertaking to make good the amount transferred, to the suitors, if it should ever be

* See Lord St. Leonard's speech on this subject in the Times of March 6th, 1852..

The others were Vice-Chancellor Wigram, Mr. Pemberton Leigh, and Mr. Sutton Sharpe; on the death of the latter, Mr. Turner succeeded him.

found necessary to do so; but he felt pretty well assured that out of the forty millions standing in the Suitors' Fund two millions at least would never be wanted.

WE AND I.

Lord Langdale very much objected to the use of the word we in writing, except in reviews, or in the leading articles of newspapers; "there," he said, "the editors and writers of the articles are generally different persons; the former revise and adopt the contributions of the latter, and consequently may without impropriety speak of we; but when an individual is addressing the world, whether in fiction or in fact, it is improper to deluge his work with the pompous we, when the proud English I adds double force to the phrase, and shows that the writer does not shrink from his responsibility and individuality. If I look more dictatorial, it always seems more earnest and straightforward than we." On the same ground, he used to say, "I do not like to see a man cramming his page with, the Author, or the Editor, thinks or says so and so; why not boldly say I, at once? it is much better to be accused of self-consciousness than indif

ference."

T

CHAPTER VIII.

THE PUBLIC RECORDS.-THEIR ANTIQUITY, IMPORTANCE AND NUMBERS. -APPOINTMENT OF VARIOUS RECORD COMMISSIONS. -THEIR MISMANAGEMENT.-HOUSE OF COMMONS COMMITTEE ON THE SUBJECT.LORD LANGDALE TAKES TEMPORARY CHARGE OF THE RECORD BUSINESS. THE COMMISSION SUFFERED TO EXPIRE. THE PUBLIC RECORDS ACT PASSED.

MANY pages of this work have necessarily been devoted to the subject of Chancery Reform, in connexion with that part of Lord Langdale's career as a law reformer. I am now about to consider him as the parent of Record Reform, certainly not the most inviting or entertaining subject to the general reader, yet one that cannot be lightly passed over, as not only is the present generation deeply indebted to him for increased facilities in consulting the national muniments, but those which are to come will be benefited by his exertions and his care for their better preservation.

The Records of this country exceed those of any other kingdom in antiquity, importance, and numbers. They begin with Domesday Books, and (with the exception of those which have been lost or destroyed in the turbulent reigns of the kings of the Norman line) have been continued to the present time.

They afford not only the most pure and ample sources

of history, and the best evidences of the progress of civilization, of the growth of our institutions, and of the manners and customs of our country, but they are of great and indispensable value in the administration of justice, and the determination of all rights of property.

They are divided into several classes, such as those of the High Court of Chancery, the King's Bench, the Common Pleas, the Exchequer, the Admiralty, the State Papers, the Privy Council, &c., and, until the passing of the Public Records Act, 1 and 2 Victoria, cap. 94, which will be more particularly referred to hereafter, were dispersed in various repositories-at the Tower of London, the Rolls Chapel in Chancery Lane, the Chapter House, Westminster, the Lord Treasurer's Remembrancer's Office, and the Pipe Office, in Somerset House, the Treasuries of the King's Bench and Common Pleas at Westminster, the Rolls House, and in the Temple; the King's Remembrancer's Office, the Augmentation Office, the Exchequer of Pleas Office in Whitehall Yard, &c. in all, more than sixty places of deposit.

The Sovereigns, the Houses of Parliament, and the Government of this country have, from very early periods, manifested a solicitude for the safety of the public records: and, at various successive periods, have prosecuted inquiries, and instituted various measures respecting them.

A royal commission was issued in July, 1800, pursuant to an address of the House of Commons, "to provide for the better arrangement, preservation, and more convenient use of the public records, which were in many offices unarranged, undescribed, and unascer

tained; and as many of them are exposed to erasure, alteration, and embezzlement, and are lodged in buildings incommodious and insecure, it would be beneficial for the public service that the records and papers contained in many of the principal offices and repositories should be methodized, and that certain of the more ancient and valuable amongst them should be printed."

This commission printed and published several useful works, though very carelessly edited; but having neglected the most important object for which it was established, that of arranging the Records, and rendering them useful to the public, it was dissolved, and another appointed in its stead.

Without going into the subject of the mismanagement of this commission and the others which followed it, or of the vast sums of the public money which were spent by them, or of the inquiry by the Committee of the House of Commons in 1836, which took place in consequence of the misdoings of the Commission which issued in 1831, it will be necessary for the purpose of this work to state, that the Committee of the House of Commons before alluded to, recommended that the Commission should be replaced by one constituted on an entirely different principle, viz., by three paid commissioners; that all the records of the country, deposited in different and widely-scattered buildings, and entrusted to a multitude of imperfectly responsible keepers, should be collected into one large edifice, or general Record Office, and intimated that the spot known as the Rolls Estate was the most eligible site for such a building to be erected on, it being one particularly recommended by

VOL. II.

I