LORD LANGDALE'S EXERTIONS TO PROCURE THE ERECTION OF A GENERAL

RECORD REPOSITORY. THE VICTORIA TOWER PLAN. FOUND TO BE

UNSUITABLE.

ON the 6th of May, 1839, Lord John Russell forwarded a Treasury minute to Lord Langdale, in which the Lords of the Treasury state that "they cannot approach this subject without expressing the deep obligations which they consider the public to owe to Lord Langdale for the attention and labour which his Lordship has been pleased to bestow on a subject in which many important interests are involved, but which is not directly connected with the judicial functions of the Master of the Rolls, though zealously and most efficiently performed by Lord Langdale."

The suggestions of Lord Langdale were generally approved of on matters of detail, but on the point on which he was most of all anxious, the erection of a suitable General Record Office, their Lordships had their doubts, and they even in some measure appear to have preferred a plan of " an adaptation of the Victoria Tower, connected with the new Houses of Parliament." The steps that Lord Langdale took to show the unsuitableness of this scheme, and in which he at last succeeded, are well described by himself in a letter addressed in

1845, to Sir Robert Peel, then First Lord of the Treasury, which will preclude the necessity of printing any of the numerous letters written by him on the subject in theintervening six years.

"SIR,

Rolls House, May 20th, 1845.

"I have the honour to address you on the subject of the Public Records, which, under the statute 1 & 2 Vict. c. 94, are placed under the charge, superintendence, and custody of the Master of the Rolls, on behalf of her Majesty.

By the seventh section of the act it was enacted, 'that the Lord High Treasurer, or any three or more of the Commissioners of her Majesty's Treasury, shall provide such suitable and proper, or additional building or buildings, as may be required for the reception and safe custody of all the Public Records which, under the provisions of this act, shall be in the legal custody of the Master of the Rolls.'

This enactment, together with the need which there seems to be of your interposition, and my confidence that you will not think any application connected with the public service of the Treasury improperly made to you, are my reasons, and must, if necessary, be my excuse for troubling you on this occasion.

One great cause of the disorder which has taken place in the management of the Records, and of the irreparable losses which have been sustained, has arisen from their being placed in the custody of several independent authorities, in various places of deposit, and

being commonly left in the entire charge of inferior officers, whose interests were, sometimes, opposed to the interests of the persons requiring the use of the Records.

The inconveniences arising from the dispersion of the Records have long been the subject of observation and regret, and a general repository has been occasionally hinted at as the remedy for those inconveniences; but I am not aware that the subject was seriously considered, with a view to any practical remedial measures, till the year 1831, when the matter was brought under the consideration of the late Record Commission.

In the year 1832, a proposal for the erection of a General Record Office, Judges' Hall and Chambers, and other buildings, on the site of the Rolls Estate, was printed, with the sanction and at the expense of the Commissioners, and the subject having been for some time under consideration, a bill for empowering the Commissioners of Woods, &c., to erect a General Record Office was prepared, and was approved of, and is said to have been settled by Sir John Leach, Master of the Rolls, in communication with the Treasury and the Commissioners of Woods, &c.; notice of motion for leave to bring in the bill was given by Lord Duncannon in July, 1834, but the motion was not made.

This proposal was objectea to by Mr. Adams, the Accountant-General of the Court of Chancery, by reason of its being connected with a proposal to provide for the expenses out of the suitors' fund. He very properly considered it to be most unjust and unreasonable to take the property of the suitors in Chancery, to provide for the care of the Records of the other Courts of Justice,

VOL. II.

M

and of the National Records in the Augmentation Office and Chapter House. The failure of a scheme, the expense of which was intended to be so defrayed, is not to be regretted.

On the 15th of August, 1836, the Select Committee of the House of Commons on the Record Commission, p. 39, express themselves thus: The witnesses, whose opinion is entitled to the greatest respect, acknowledge the feasibility and the importance of erecting a General Record Office, into which all the Records of the country might be collected, and your Committee do not hesitate to recommend the erection of such an edifice, as the first and most essential step for the improvement of the present system' of managing Records.

In February, 1837, the Commissioners of the Public Records, in their observations made on the Report of the Select Committee, state as follows, p. 3:- The opinion of the Commissioners has long been, that the present buildings ought to give way to a general repository for Records.' And about the same time the same Commissioners, in their Report to the late King, pp. 10-12, stated their reasons for the opinion they held of the propriety of erecting a general repository for the Records.

On the 24th of February, 1837, a Bill to provide for the safe custody, &c., of the Public Records was introduced into the House of Commons by Mr. Charles Buller, Mr. Hawes, and Sir C. Lemon; and in the first clause of that Bill it was proposed to make an enactment for providing a general repository for the Records in London or Westminster.

The Record Commission expired six months after the death of the late King. With my consent, Lord John Russell committed to me the temporary charge of the business and property of the Commission, and on the 14th August, 1838, the Public Records Act, 1 & 2 Vict. c. 94, to which I have before referred, was passed.

On the 7th of January, 1839, I submitted to Lord John Russell my view of the necessity of providing a Public Record Office, and also a plan for the management of the Records. A copy of this letter is printed in the Appendix to the First Report of the Deputy Keeper of Records, p. 67, paragraphs 4 and 5. The fifth paragraph suggests the expediency of providing the general repository for the Records on the Rolls Estate, near the courts of justice and the law offices.

The Treasury Minute on the subject is printed in the same Appendix, p. 71.

It appears by the Minute that one General Record Office, under efficient management and responsibility, was considered to be essential to the introduction of a perfect system; but it was observed, that it had been determined by Parliament that the Victoria Tower should be erected, and if that building could be adapted for the safe custody of the Records, the expense to the public for a second building would be altogether avoided, and on those grounds the Lords of the Treasury were unwilling, without a more accurate knowledge of the facts, and more precise information before them, to determine in favour of building a new Record Office on the Rolls Estate.

Under these circumstances the Commissioners of