2'><» S. No 64., Mae. 21. '57.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



221 



LONDON, SATURDAY, MARCH 81, 1867. 



THE NEW SCHEME FOR THE PUBLICATION OP MA- 

 TERIALS FOR OUR NATIONAL HISTORY. 



The Chancellor of the Exchequer, true to his well- 

 known love of literature, has found an opportunity, even 

 in the midst of the present busy din of politics, to lay 

 before Parliament the particulars of the Scheme " for the 

 publication of Materials for the History of Great Britain 

 previously to the Reign of Henry VIII.," submitted by the 

 Master of the Rolls to the Treasury, and to which the 

 Treasury has given a ready assent.* 



As the papers are too long to be transferred bodily to 

 our columns, we must content ourselves with extracting, 

 for the information of our readei's, the more important 

 portion of them. 



The correspondence opens with a letter from the Rev. 

 Joseph Stevenson to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, 

 dated Leighton Buzzard, Nov. 29, 1856, in which — after 

 alluding to the proposal made by Mr. Hardy, the Rev. 

 J. S. Brewer, and himself to the Government, in 1848, 

 for the continuation" of the series of our early historians, of 

 which the first volume entitled Monumenta Historica 

 Britannica, commenced by Mr. Petrie, had been finished 

 by Mr. Hardy, — Mr. Stevenson states : 



" The experience of twenty years devoted to the critical 

 study of our early chronicles, convinces me that the 

 sources of our national history are imperfectly known ; 

 that many of them are yet unprinted, and exist only in 

 MSS. which are difflcuft of access ; that of those which 

 have been printed, the texts are often based upon imper- 

 fect and inaccurate copies ; and that no satisfactory his- 

 tory of England can be written until the materials upon 

 which it must be founded shall have been collected, 

 systeraatised and published. 



" Moreover, I would venture to call attention to the 

 efforts which are now being made, not only in France 

 and Germany, but even in the lesser states, for the publi- 

 cation of their respective historians. The French collec- 

 tion has now reached its 21st volume, and the German its 

 13th. Judging from the fact that 600 out of the 750 

 copies of the Monumenta Historica Britannica have al- 

 ready been disposed of, and that the publications of the 

 English Historical Society (now dissolved) have met 

 with such a rapid sale that many of them are now un- 

 attainable, it is probably not too much to assume that 

 the undertaking, for which the aid of Her Majesty's 

 Government is now solicited, would obtain from the public 

 such encouragement as would repay a considerable por- 

 tion of its expenses." 



Mr. Stevenson then proposes that as Mr. Hardy and 

 Mr. Brewer are now otherwise engaged, the work should 

 be entrusted to his hands, and that, after the completion 

 of the Monumenta-, the work should be carried on in octavo 

 volumes similar to those published by the English His- 

 torical Society, 



This communication was by Treasury Minute of Dec. 2, 

 1856, referred to the Master of the Rolls for any observa- 



* "Copies of Correspondence between the Master of the 

 Rolls and the Treasury respecting the Publication of 

 Materials for the History of Great Britain previously to 

 the Reign of Henry VIII. Ordered by the House of 

 Commons to be Printed, 9 March, 1857." 



tions he might have to offer; and it is in Sir John 

 Romilly's reply to Sir Charles Trevelyan, dated the 26th 

 January, 1857, that the particulars of the important step 

 now resolved upon by the Government are to be found. 



After remarking that " the Government of this country 

 alone, amongst the Governments of modem civilised na- 

 tions, has taken no steps to produce their early historical 

 treasures, and render them known to the world," — Sir 

 John Romilly proceeds to consider, I. What materials 

 shall be published. II. In what manner they shall be 

 published ; and III. By whom, and under whose authority 

 or responsibility, they shall be published. 



As to the materials. Sir John Romilly speaks as follows : 



" They may be described to consist of general and 

 particular Histories, of Chronicles and Annals, of Con- 

 temporary Biographies, of Political Poems, of State 

 Papers and Records, Proceedings of Councils and Synods, 

 Private Letters and Charters, and the Public and Parlia- 

 mentary Records. All these vary in degree of import- 

 ance and authority. Some of these are originals, some 

 partly original and partly compiled, and many are tran- 

 scripts from originals, with occasional interpolations and 

 additions. Of these various documents many are printed, 

 but a still greater number, and particularly of the later 

 and most stirring periods, such as the revolutionary era 

 of Richard II. and the contests of the Houses of York and 

 Lancaster, are still in MS. ; and many of them in places 

 little thought of, and rarely investigated by the historical 

 student, such, for instance, as the office of the Town Clerk 

 of the City of London. Such of these materials as are of 

 the greatest value and of the greatest rarity should be 

 first selected for publication. For this purpose, and 

 having regard in the first instance only to this quality of 

 raritj' or accessibility for study, and their difi"usion amongst 

 those who are or may be qualified to make good use of 

 them, the historical materials may be divided Into two 

 classes, the second of which may be subdivided into many 

 divisions. In the first degree of rarity are works exist- 

 ing only in MS., which are not purchaseable, and only, if 

 at all, to be consulted in public repositories and in public 

 libraries, or libraries of a ^uasi-public character; such as 

 the MSS. in the British Museum, in the University and 

 College Libraries, in the Lambeth Library, and in the 

 office of the Town Clerk of the City of London. These 

 documents are practically wholly lost to the world." 



After noticing the printed works of various degrees 

 of rarity — such, for instance, as Hearne's publications, 

 which are extremely difficult to complete — next the 

 ancient Standard Collections, as those of Gale, Fell, 

 Savile, Wharton, Camden, Twysden, &c. ; the Chronicles 

 and other Documents published by the English Historical, 

 the Camden, and other Societies, and occasionally by a 

 few spirited individuals, but which are obtainable only 

 with difficulty — Sir John Romilly recommends " as tend- 

 ing much to the improvement of the knowledge of the 

 early history of the country, and highly creditable to 

 the Government, the publication of a selection of the 

 most valuable of these materials." 



When considering the mode and form in which these 

 historical documents should be published, we are glad to 

 see that the Master of the Rolls is decidedly opposed to 

 that which is generally known as the plan of Dom Bou- 

 quet, which is, to divide the history into chronological 

 periods, and to collect together all the documenta which. 



