Page:The Statutes of the Realm Vol 1 (1101-1377).pdf/37

Rh 4. Original Acts.—These, from the 12th Year of Henry. to the present Time, with some Interruption, particularly in 14 & 15 Hen. . and 21 Hen. . are preserved in the Parliament Office. Some Petitions and Bills previous to 12 Hen. . are in the Tower of London, but in no regular Series. The Original Ats in the Parliament Office consist of the Bills as ingrossed after being brought into Parliament, and in the State in which, after such Ingrossment, they passed both Houses, and received the Royal Assent. Each Act is on a separate Roll numbered; and Reference is made to them from a Calendar kept of the Acts of each Session in the Parliament Office. These are the Materials from which the Clerk of the Parliaments makes up the Inrollments of Public Acts sent by him into Chancery, and preserved there; or certifies Acts into Chancery, when required so to do.

As to the comparative Authority of the Original Acts and the Inrollments in Chancery, it is to be observed, that all the Original Acts are separate from each other; and that they are frequently interlined, defaced, erased, and in many Instances, with great Difficulty intelligible: The Inrollment in Chancery is always fair and distinct; and the Acts are entered in a regular Series, on one Roll or subsequent Rolls, as Part of the Proceedings of a Parliament, the Time of the holding of which is stated at the Beginning of the Roll. In modern Practice, if any Doubt arises as to the Correctness of the Inrollment in Chancery, Application is made to the Clerk of the Parliaments; and the original Act is thereupon produced, and compared with the Inrollment, and an Amendment, if requisite, is made in the Inrollment accordingly.

5. Rolls of Parliament.—These contain Entries of the several Transactions in Parliament; when complete they include the Adjournments, and all other common and daily Occurrences and Proceedings from the opening to the close of each Parliament, with the several Petitions or Bills, and the Answers given thereto, not only on public Matters, on which the Statute was afterwards framed, but also on private Concerns. In some few Instances the Statute as drawn up in Form is entered on the Parliament Roll: but in general the Petition and Answer only, are found entered; and in such Case the Entry, of itself, furnishes no certain Evidence, that the Petition and Answer were at any Time put into the Form of a Statute.

Copies of Petitions in Parliament and Answers thereto, as early as 6 Edw. . and in various Years of Edw. . and Edw. . are among Lord Hale’s Manuscripts in the Library of Lincoln’s Inn. Rolls containing Pleas, Petitions and Answers, and other Proceedings in Parliament, from 18 to 35 Edw. . and one of Petitions in Parliament 7 Hen. ., are in the Chapter House at Westminster. A Book of Inrollment, called Vetus Codex, in which are entered Proceedings in Parliament, from 18 Edw. . to 35 Edw. . and in 14 Edw. , is in the Tower of London. In that Repository also are preserved Rolls containing Pleas and other Proceedings in Parliament, between 5 Edw. . and 13 Edw. ; Rolls of Parliament of 9 Edw. ; 4, 5, and 6 Edw. ; and 13 Edw. ; and from thence, to the End of the Reign of Edward, in a regular, and nearly uninterrupted, Series. After that Time the Rolls of Parliament are, for a certain Period, supplied by the Inrollments of Acts preserved in the Chapel of the Rolls, and finally by the Journals of the Two Houses of Parliament.