All the great series of our records, ex cept those of parliament, are written in Latin, the spelling of which is much ab breviated, and in contractions, there can be little doubt, derived from Latin manuscripts.
During the Commonwealth, English was substituted ; but soon after the Restoration, Latin was restored, and the records of the courts continued to be kept in Latin until abolished by Act of Parliament in the reign of George II. In certain branches of the Ex chequer, Latin continued in use until the abolition of the offices in very recent times. Many of our statutes from Ed ward I. to Henry V-, and the principal part of the rolls of parliament, are writ ten in Norman French. Petitions to parliament continued to be presented in Norman French until the reign of Richard II., whose renunciation of the crown is said to have been read before the estates of the realm at Westminster first in Latin and then in English. After this period we find English, which had doubtless always remained in use among the lower classes, often used in transactions between the people and go vernment.
At the present time, besides the offices for modern records attached to each court, we may enumerate the following repositories, with their different locali ties, as containing the public records:— The Tower, in Thames-street; Chap ter-House, Westminster Abbey ; Rolls Chapel, Chancery-lane ; Rolls House, Chancery-lane ; Duchy of Lancaster, Lancaster-place, Strand ; Duchy of Cornwall, Somerset House ; Common Pleas, Carlton Ride and Whitehall yard ; Queen's Remembrancer's Records, in Carlton Ride and tower of Westmin ster Hall ; Augmentation-Office, Palace yard. Westminster - Pipe-Office, Somer set House ; Lord:Treasurer s Remem brancer, Somerstt House ; Land Re venue, Carlton Ride; Pelt-Office, 1, Whitehall-yard; Exchequer of Pleas, 3, Whitehall-yard ; First-Fruits Office, Temple.
The fullest examination into the state of the public records which has been made in recent times was effected by a Committee of the House of Commons, in 1800, conducted by Lord Colchester, then Mr. Abbot, and the report of that Committee presents the most comprehen sive account which has yet appeared of our public records, to which a period of forty years has added very little. This
Report originated a commission for car rying on the work which its authors had begun. The Record Commission was renewed six several times between the years 1800 and 1831, and altogether sus pended at the accession of the present queen. All the several record commis sions during thirty years recited, one after another, that " the public records of the kingdom were in many offices un arranged, undescribed, and unascer Leaned ;" that they were exposed " to era sure, alteration, and embezzlement,' and " were lodged in buildings incommodious and insecure." The commissioners were directed to cause the records to be me thodised, regulated, and digested," bound and to cause "calendars and indexes" to be made and " original papers" to be printed. The present state of the Record Offices affords abundant evidence, that the record commissioners interpreted their directions in an inverse order; they expended the funds intrusted to them rather in printing records than in arranging or calendariug them. And it is an undoubted fact that not withstand ing these commissions, records were "embezzled "—and are still lodged in most " insecure " buildings. A fall in vestigation into the proceedings of the record commission was made by a Com mittee of the House of Commons in 1835, and the Report of the Committee was printed. During the last half-century there has been no niggard expenditure in respect of the public records. It is not easy to ascertain its total amount or the precise appropriation of it ; but the fol lowing may be received as an approxi mation to correctness :— Parliamentary Papers show that grants were made on behalf of the Record Com mission between 1800 and 1831, to the amount of . £362,400 Between 1831 and 1839 in clusive . . . 125,700 Salaries, &c., for the custody of Records . . . 120,000 Fees, estimated on an average of the years 1829,1830, and 1831, at least . . 120,000 Removals of Records, esti mated at . . . 30,000 758,100 Irish Record Commission, estimated at . . . 120,000 £878,100 Of the grants made to the record com mission, by far the greater part was spent in printing and the expenses connected therewith.