Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 1.djvu/153

 ON THE PRESERVATION OF MONUMENTAL INSCRIPTIONS.

the course of my pursuits connected with genealogy it has occurred to me that, amongst the various means of "perpetuating" evidence, sufficient attention has not hitherto been given to the preservation of Monumental Inscriptions; either by legislative enactment, or by some collateral authority in the shape of government interference. We owe much to the latter species of semi-legislation in the origin of our parish registers; and, although the earlier parochial records exhibit little else than lists of names and dates without immediate personal identity, yet the progressive improvement in their character by the wholesome interference of the legislature has rendered them more useful, and more applicable to the purposes of genealogy, than in earlier times. The evidence of the Inquisitiones post mortem, and of court rolls; of funeral certificates taken under the authority of the earl marshal of England; and of the periodical visitations made by the heralds in virtue of commissions from the crown, has been acknowledged to be of signal and lasting importance. The testimony afforded by wills, and other instruments of legal transfer of property, is unimpeachable from the very nature of such documents, so as to be beyond controversy or suspicion. The genuine, and if I may use the term, unsophisticated, domestic records preserved in many families of genealogical occurrences, have been solemnly admitted in the highest courts of judicature as evidences of family pedigree; hallowed by their insertion on the fly-leaves of that holy Record, which it is presumed no man would listlessly employ to give a colouring or sanction to falsehood, while he conscientiously believes the sacred volume to contain the revealed will of his Maker, and to exhibit the means of his own eternal salvation. Monumental inscriptions too, which seem also to partake of the same sacred character as that of registering events in the family Bible, have received the sanction of judicial functionaries, as records of truth, by admitting their testimony to have the weight of legal evidence. On this branch of evidence I presume to offer a few