Extract from the Regulations made by the Right Honourable the Master of the Rolls, concerning the gratuitous admission of literary inquirers to the Public Records, including the State Papers.—July 5, 1858.
That the individuals seeking to avail themselves of the permission, shall address a letter to the deputy keeper, stating generally their objects of research, and that the applicant shall also, If needful, attend the deputy keeper personally thereon, and give such further explana tion as may be required; and that thereupon the deputy keeper shall, if satisfied with the statement and explanation, issue a permission empowering the applicant or any trustworthy agent or transcriber on his behalf, to inspect all indexes of records, and original records, and also to make copies or extracts, without payment of fees. It will be necessary also to explain to applicants that the literary inquirer will have free access to the documents ; hut this being done, he will have to conduct the inquiry in such manner as his own knowledge and experience may best enable him to do.
We can only find apace to glance at the particular classes of the public records, noticing in the fewest words the more ancient and valuable. No enumeration we could give would enable the reader to dispense with reference to the inventories, repositories, calendars, catalogues, and indexes which are printed, or these existing in manu script in the various branches of the record office. The best work of general reference is the Report of the Select Committee in 1800,' from which we have taken a brief analytical list of the subjects to which the public records relate. Though this list is not altogether what is to bo desired, it is the best within moderate limits that we know of, and is sufficient to prove that there is perhaps no branch of the public adminis tration of our country which is destitute of its authentic memorials. It was compiled by Mr. Luders, and is printed in the above Report,