Page:The Statutes of the Realm Vol 1 (1101-1377).pdf/7

 

E, Your Majesty’s most dutiful and loyal Subjects, the Commons of Great Britain in Parliament assembled, having taken into out Consideration the State of the Public Records of the Kingdom, and the Necessity of providing for the better Arrangement, Preservation, and more convenient Use of the same, humbly beg leave to lay before Your Majesty the Report of our Proceedings thereon; and to represent to Your Majesty, that in several of the Principal Offices we have found the Public Records preserved with great Order and Regularity, and in some few, with a Method and Care which are exemplary; but that, in many of the most important Offices, they are wholly unarranged, undescribed, and unascertained; that some of them are exposed to Erasure, Alteration, and Embezzlement, and others are lodged in Places where they are daily perishing by Damp, or incurring a continual Risk of Destruction by Fire.

of nearly Seventy Years has elapsed since the last General Parliamentary Inquiry upon this Subject; and, during this Interval of Time, the Change which has taken place in the Language and written Character of Judicial Proceedings, as well as the large Accumulation of Materials which has been progressively superadded in every Department, have increased the Difficulties of methodizing the several Repositories, or applying their Contents to Purposes of practical Use.