The annals of mankind explore, Shrouded Divinity confest, What prodigies the Lord attest! The firm earth trembled at the view; Lord, It is finished:' here we meet Promise and prophecy complete." (P. 63-65.) We will give one more passage, from which we may deduce no very faint impression of the consolation and corroboration which faith imparts to the soul, when no earthly solace remains. 66 Thy triumphs, Faith, we need not take In scenes obscure, no less we see That faith is a reality. An evidence of things not seen, A substance firm whereon to lean. Go search the cottager's lone room, The day scarce piercing through the gloom; Save in the book of life, his name No voice to soothe, no friend to cheer. He loves, believes, adores, and dies. (P. 85, 86.) Such is the productive energy of the mind of Mrs. Hannah More, amidst declining years, sufferings, and bereavements. She now pursues the remainder of her journey alone, after losses which have left the world almost a wilderness for her. But she treads the valley not companionless; her thoughts are cheerful company, faith supports her steps, hope illumines her path, and charity cheers her progress. She has still a large family that stand spiritually related to her among the mothers, and wives, and daughters of Britain, and at this moment there does not live the woman connected with society by so many gentle ties and endearing affinities. When we consider her long and laborious service in the cause of humanity; the diffusive good wrought by the various productions of her intellect; her tracts, which have opened the prospect of another world in the darkest corners of that in which we live; her treatises, which have forced their way among the highest ranks, and gained for truth, and conscience, and the claims of the soul, a short hearing amidst the revelry and riot of tumultuary pleasure; when we think of those personal labours of love, that once filled a wide circuit of visitation round her happy residence, when her presence carried joy, and consolation, and instruction, to the scenes of want, and woe, and brutal ignorance, we feel a sort of kindred cord that binds us to her, together with the whole human race; and when we think of the contrast in which those stand opposed to her, who, in their accursed publications, labour to ensnare the soul, and to intercept the hopes of the rising generation, or who, as politicians, or lawyers, or pseudo-philanthropists, contend for the diabolical influence of the press, under pretence of upholding its freedom, we can hardly look upon such beings as partaking with her of a common nature;-the distance between them is so immeasurably vast, that we can scarcely do justice to it without either exalting this lady above human praise, or sinking those men below human charity. ART. VII. RECORDS OF THE REALM. Reports from the Commissioners appointed by his Majesty to execute the Measures, recommended by a Select Committee of the House of Commons, respecting the Public Records of the Kingdom, &c. 1800-1819. In two volumes, folio. THESE splendid volumes, which have just issued from the press of his Majesty's printers, do not in strictness fall under the cognizance of our tribunal, having been executed by royal command, for the use and information of the House of Peers. But as they contain matters of the highest importance to our national history, and also to the security of freehold property, together with a satisfactory account of the annual expenditure of very considerable parliamentary grants, which (we happen to know) has been conducted with the most scrupulous regard to economy, and to the actual value of the labour performed; we gladly seize the opportunity thus presented to us, of redeeming the pledge given in a former volume of our journal*, and of offering to our readers an outline of the proceedings of the Right Hon. the Commissioners on the Public Records of the Realm. In pursuance of an address to his late Majesty from the House of Commons, in 1800, a commission was issued, empowering certain Right Honourable and learned persons therein mentioned, to investigate the state of the national records in Great Britain. The result of their inquiries was communicated to Parliament in an elaborate Report, of which we gave a notice in the volume above referred to. The royal commission was renewed in 1806, and again in 1817; and the details of the Commissioners' proceedings are comprised in the volumes, of which we are now to present an outline to our readers. After appointing sub-commissioners and other officers to assist them in the execution of their important duties, and establishing a system of monthly and annual returns from all persons employed by them, (by which fraud or imposition was effectually prevented,) the commissioners directed their attention to the investigation of the state of the buildings in which our national records are deposited; the formation of catalogues, calendars, and indexes for facilitating reference to them; the transfers of certain records to other offices to which they most suitably belonged, and the selection of original records and documents for publication. British Review, vol. xiv. p. 376. J. With respect to the state of the depositories of our national records, it is sufficient to remark, that measures have been taken towards providing a more secure repository for the state papers in London, and also towards rendering the arrangement of the State-Paper Office more complete, and more suitable to the dignity and importance of their nature, and their utility to the public service: objects for which no adequate provision had been made prior to the constitution of the Record Commission. Increased accommodation has also been provided for the Journal and Paper-Office of the House of Commons, for the Record-Offices in the Chapter-House at Westminster, and at the Tower of London, and for certain offices belonging to the Court of Chancery. There remain, however, a few repositories in London, the insecurity of which has often, but as yet to little purpose, been brought before the consideration of Parliament. In Scotland, the case is widely different. A General Register House was erected many years since at Edinburgh, the arrangements of which are admirable. Under the direction of the Commissioners for Scotland, that edifice has undergone very material repairs, and the disposition of the multifarious, national, and local documents, which are there deposited, has been greatly improved. II. To those, who are interested in the transmission of freehold property, or in the exercise of particular feudal franchises, rights, or emoluments, which were originally granted by the sovereigns of England or Scotland; it is of the utmost importance that there should be accurate catalogues, calendars, and indexes to the Records, by which such estates, franchises, or rights were conferred; and in this department, the labours of the commissioners and of the officers employed by them have been eminently successful. In the State-Paper Office, great exertions have been made since the year 1802, in compiling calendars to the royal letters, books of the Council of State during the interregnum, papers relating to trade, fisheries, foreign plantations, lawmatters, &c. &c. Thirteen calendars of this description_have been already completed, and five others are in progress. Much useful labour has also been bestowed in arranging and binding more than 400 volumes of various papers and documents, relating to public affairs between the years 1516 and 1780. The Records, transmitted in 1770 from the House of Lords to the old State-Paper Office in the Treasury, have been examined and distributed into two classes: one relating to civil affairs from Henry III. to Henry VIII.; and the other to military matters from Edward III. to Henry VIII.; and two chronological calendars of these articles have been formed. In the Chapter House at Westminster, the arrangement of the Records sha been completed, and an entire general catalogue of its contents, has been formed, copies of which are deposited in that office, in the Tower of London, and in the British Museum. In the Chapter-House also, the indexes and calendars to particular series of Records have been revised and enlarged, and various new indexes to others have been made or are in progress; and the numerous treaties between England and foreign countries, with other state-papers and documents, have been newly arranged. At the Tower, considerable progress has been made in arranging the State Papers, from the reign of Henry III, to that of Edward III, and in arranging and indexing the proceedings of the Court of Chancery, during the reigns of Queen Elizabeth and King James I. Similar progress has been made in the Lord Treasurer's Remembrancer's Office (which is under the controul of the Court of Exchequer); and in the RegisterHouse at Edinburgh. Various catalogues are in progress, adapted to the improved arrangement of the Records of that part of the United Kingdom. In prosecuting the researches necessary for these various purposes, different instruments were discovered in one office which might with advantage to the public service be more appropriately transferred to others. In such cases the requisite transfers have been made. But what is yet more important is, that in the course of these inquiries many valuable records have been found, which had been supposed to be no longer in existence, or which had been lost in the confused heaps of unarranged materials. Some of these discoveries have been made in the progress of arranging the unsorted records of different offices, and others during the course of a search for charters and statutes in the cathedrals, universities, and other public repositories of records throughout England and Ireland. The curious and interesting details of these discoveries fill many pages of the Reports under our consideration, which we have not room to specify; we pass therefore to III. The Works printed by order of the Commissioners.These are of two classes, viz. 1. Calendars, Catalogues, and Indexes; and 2. Original Records, which have been selected and published either entire, or in abstracts, according to their apparent utility. FIRST, among the Calendars, Catalogues, &c. of English Records, the consolidated Index to the two celebrated volumes preserved in the Chapter-House at Westminster, and known by Libri Censualis vocati Domesday-Book Indices. London, 1811, folio. |
