RESULTS THE RECORD COMMISSIONS. 455 



he was to render for the salary, so considerably greater than that 

 of any other sub-commissioner, were wholly removed from their con- 

 troul or inspection. 



In answer to questions put by the above-mentioned committee, 

 Mr. Lascelles stated that he had no written appointment, but a verbal 

 authority, granted in 1822, and confirmed in 1824 ; all in conse- 

 quence of the petition above noticed, the matter of which, being 

 referred to Lord Redesdale, this nobleman " recommended to the 

 government an instant arrangement." How creditable to all the 

 honourable parties concerned ! Either Mr. Lascelles or the record 

 board are guilty, the one of making an unlawful delegation of their 

 power, and a waste of the public money, or the other of slanders for 

 which his dismissal would in common course, have been indispensable; 

 but, by an instant arrangement, the complainant, to silence him, gets a 

 snug five hundred per annum without the least responsibility to any one ! 



Mr. Lascelles, with eye-sight improved by ' ' long provocation and 

 imagined disparagement," could perceive the illegality of the appoint- 

 ment of the Committee of Observation ; but 500/. a year, with no 

 responsibility, cast over his eyes so grievous a film, that he could not 

 discover the unsoundness of his own. " Will you explain under 

 what authority you are at present acting ?" Inquire the committee 

 of 1829. " Under the authority of the chief secretary to the lord 

 lieutenant of Ireland, who is ex-qfficio one of the commissioners of the 

 board of records," answers Mr, Lascelles. But who it may be asked 

 gave to Mr. Goulburn (the secretary who made this appointment), 

 and continued to his successors in office, the whole power of the 

 Irish record commission, every act of which was to be performed by 

 three or more of the commissioners ? 



The works of Lodge, which Mr. Lascelles was employed ( by the 

 record board in editing, are embodied in the Liber Hibernias, which 

 was completed about the end of the year 1830, and therefore presents 

 the labour of eighteen years of this gentleman's highly valued time: 

 we give his own statement concerning it to the committee of the 

 House of Commons in 1829 : 



" Q. Will you state the nature of the work? A, That is already done in 

 my return to this committee. The nucleus of the work was the list of patent 

 officers. I was commissioned by the board of records in Ireland to edit 

 " The Patentee Officers of Lodge/' a work which commences in the reign of 

 Edward II., and terminates nearly about the commencement of the late 

 reign [that of George III.] ; and it was necessary to make a continuation and 

 supplement thereto. I soon saw that he [Lodge] had omitted one entire 

 department of the patentee officers ; for I consider the royal beneficiaries and 

 bishops, who are, in Ireland, all created by letters patent, to be patentee 

 officers of government for the ecclesiastical department/' 



Not deeming this sufficient to impress on the minds of the com- 

 mittee the vast importance to the public service of his labours, Mr. 

 Lascelles presented himself before them, without being sent for, to 

 give vent, among other pompous things, to the following inflated puff 

 of his veiled work: 



" As I have kept the key of it myself, and there is no index to it yet, there 

 are but two persons who understand the real nature, object, and principle of 



