PROCEEDINGS FOR 1895 LXXIII 
national records, a dog was employed in hunting the live rats which were 
thus disturbed from their nests.” ? 
The only exception to the “shocking state” of the documents is in 
the case of Scotland, of the record office of which the committee spoke in 
these terms : “Collected together, in one central, ample, commodious and 
safe building in Edinburgh, placed under the custody of most competent 
and responsible keepers, they appear to be kept in a state of perfect ar- 
rangement and ample information supplied by full calendars and indexes.” 
The systematic arrangement of records, the facility of access thereto, 
the ample information as to contents supplied by full calendars and 
indexes, Outlined in old Embro, one is happy to find, has guided the canny 
hand of her industrious son, Douglas Brymner, in the formation of our 
own public record office at Ottawa. 
It has been previously stated that the Historical Society of Montreal, 
and her older sister, the Literary and Historical Society of Quebec, had 
repeatedly urged on successive administrations the propriety of collecting, 
preserving and publishing documents of an important historical char- 
acter. Both associations deserve a good word, but the share of the 
Quebec institution in this progressive work, ever since its foundation, on 
the 6th January, 1824, by the Earl of Dalhousie,then governor-general 
of Canada, is so marked as to warrant special notice. In a circular given 
to the public the purposes of the society were thus declared : “To discover 
“and rescue from the unsparing hand of time, the records which yet 
“remain of the earliest history of Canada. To preserve, whilst in its 
“power, such documents as may be found amid the dust of yet unexplored 
“depositories, and which may prove important to general history and to 
“the particular history of the province.” 
A glance at its Transactions and publications will show that it has not 
been recreant to its trust. 
The origin of the archives office at Ottawa dates back, as previously 
stated, to the year 1872 ; it was the outcome of the petition presented to 
parliament in 1871, setting forth that authors and literary inquirers were 
placed in a very disadvantageous position in Canada, in comparison with 
persons of the same class in Great Britain, France and the United States, 
in consequence of being practically debarred from facilities of access to 
the public records, documents and official papers in manuscript, illustra- 
tive of the history and progress of society in Canada, and praying that 
steps be taken to have the archives of Canada collected. Parliament then 
voted a sum for the purpose of making preliminary inquiry into the 
subject. Further sums have been voted from year to year. 
Mr. Douglas Brymner was charged to inquire into the state of the 
archives in the several provinces of the Dominion. 

1 Report of Dominion archivist, 1881. p. 6. 
Al 
