RESULTS OF THE RECOUD COMMISSIONS. 453 



seems to have been well understood by the Commons: for in the 

 address for the appointment of a commission, not a \vord is said about 

 the printing of Irish records, which occurs obscurely and incidentally 

 only in the commission itself. 



The ordinary publications of both the Irish and the English 

 commissioners, are, from their nature, exempt from comment, except 

 as regards their utility in proportion to their enormous expense ; but 

 a work which is fully amenable to criticism by its size and pre- 

 tensions, the comprehensive though vague nature of its " scope 

 and intent/' and the importance of some of the objects which it 

 undertakes to effect, is the " Liber Munerum Publicorum HiberniaB, 

 ab An. 1152 usque ad 1827, or The Establishments of Ireland from 

 the nineteenth of King Stephen, to the seventh of George IV., 

 during a period of six hundred and seventy-five years, being the 

 report of Rowley Lascelles, of the Middle Temple, Barrister at law, 

 extracted from the records and other authorities, by special command ; 

 pursuant to an address, An. 1810, of the Commons of the United 

 Kingdom : ordered to be printed in 1824 ;" two vols. journal size, 

 folio. The history of this work will exhibit in a light peculiarly 

 gratifying, the mode in which national undertakings are sometimes 

 commenced and completed. 



Mr. Rowley Lascelles was employed by the Record Board of 

 Ireland, in 1813, to edit Lodge's List of Patentee Officers ; but, about 

 the year 1820, he quarrelled with the board, and came over to 

 England ; and in 1822, presented to Parliament a petition, stating 

 the vicious manner in which the powers of the commissioners were 

 delegated to and executed by the committee of observation, under 

 the controul of the then secretary to the commission, and exposing 

 its extravagance. The following is an abstract from this virtuous 

 and indignant patriot's examination before the committee of the 

 House of Commons, on the Irish Miscellaneous Estimates, in 1829 :* 



" Q. What was that personal grievance you had to complain of which you 

 have referred to ? A. One was this ; it was but one of many : I was paid 

 300/. a year only, when the implied, if not express agreement had been, 

 that I was to receive 400.f ******* Besides, I had been 

 promised a statute sub-commissionership cumulatively ; but on the plea, 

 real or pretended, of retrenchment, or public economy, that appointment 

 when it became vacant, was suppressed instead of being given to me accord- 

 ing to promise. However, relying upon obtaining amends from government 

 some time or other, 1 had long since put up with this wrong. 



Q. Under what authority were you paid 300/. a year when you expected 

 400/? A. The arrangement was made with the board, through the medium 

 or agency of its secertary, with all the sub-commissioners ; but there arose 

 a higher ground of irritation between the secretary and me. As I was 

 informed by the late Lord Frankfort, one of the Privy Council, and Mrs. 

 Lascelles's uncle, my returns to government, on an important reference, 



* Parliamentary Paper, No. 342 of Session of 1829, ordered by the House of 

 Commons to be printed, June 19th, 1829. 



t Mr. Lascelles, according to his answer to another question, did receive 

 400/. per annum, from March 1814, forward. 



