Page:Archaeologia volume 38 part 1.djvu/277

 237 XVI. Observations on a MS. Relation of the Proceedings in the last Session of the Parliament holden in the Fourth year of King Charles, A.D. 1628, belonging to the Earl of Verulam. By JOHN BRUCE, Esq., V.P.S.A. Read 31 March, 1859. BY permission of the Earl of Verulam, conveyed to me through V. J. Thorns, Esq., F.S.A., I am enabled to exhibit to the Society a Manuscript from the collection at Gorhambury, which has some peculiar claims upon the attention of historical antiquaries. It is entitled, " A True Relation of the proceedings in the last Session of Parliament houlden in the Fourth year of King Charles, A" Dui. 1628," and is a nearly contemporary MS. plainly written upon ninety-two leaves of paper of a small folio size. Manuscript accounts of the proceedings of this Session of Parliament arc not uncommon ; I am aware of nine in the British Museum. A similar manuscript is in my possession, which formerly belonged to Mr Bindley. There are two in the State Paper Office ; others occur in various collections ; and, I may add, that some extremely brief notes are preserved in the Library of this Society. After considering all those to which I have had ace-ess, it will appear, 1 think, that Lord Verulam's MS., although in some slight respects incomplete, is pro- bably the most important of them all. All the narratives of the proceedings of the House of Commons during tin- session alluded to, which are known to me, seem to have been originally derived from that one of the before-mentioned manuscripts which is ordinarily entitled, very nearly in the words of Lord Verulam's manuscript, " A True Relation of every dayes proceedings in Parliament from the beginning thereof, being the 20th January, 1028." This manuscript was probably compiled from time to time, perhaps even, as the title may indicate, from day to day, during the sitting of the Parliament, by some person who had access to peculiar sources of information, although without being directly authorised as a reporter. The manuscripts of the "True Relation" exhibit it in three several forms, or, as I take it, in three degrees of completeness. The Harleian manuscripts, 2,234, 4,619, 4,702, 6,056, and 6,255, and the two