1871. ] Proceedings of the Asiatic Scevety. 89 
general resort. ‘The insecurity of such custody may perhaps best 
be-illustrated by a very brief description of the method of custody 
which is found necessary even in England, where the climate is 
much less injurious, and the fear of mutilation smaller. As soon 
as any sets of Records have been taken into the custody of the Mas- 
ter of the Rolls (who is ex-officio head of the English Record De- 
partment), they are cleaned, sorted, bound or mended as far as may 
be necessary and practicable, and placed in boxes for subsequent 
arrangement. Then a catalogue or general descriptive list is 
drawn up ; and afterwards the more important documents are in- 
dexed, and the most important are ultimately calendared. When 
the work of arrangement is complete, they are placed in iron 
presses in the room assigned to their class. Every room in the 
building is separately fire-proof, being cased with iron and furnish- 
ed with an iron-door which is thief-proof. Water can be turned 
on at a moment’s notice in any room for the extinction of fire. 
Hot-air pipes are placed around every room, so that an equal tem- 
perature is preserved throughout the year; and by this means 
damp is excluded and rot arrested. Every part of the building 
being thus protected by every means that science can devise, the 
whole is constantly watched night and day, both by the Depart- 
ment (an Officer and an office-keeper being resident in an adjacent 
house) and by the Police ; a police patrol is on duty throughout 
the night in the building. The perfect accessibility of all records is 
also well provided for. 
Appendix. 
List of Dutch Records likely to be of any historical value. 
No. 1. 1 packet of papers or documents of Dutch Government, 
during the administration of C. Van Citter, Governor of Chinsura, 
dated the 29th April, 1795. 
2. 1 packet of papers, dated the Sth July, 1771, in Dutch and 
Persian respecting the right of the Dutch Authorities at Peply in 
some parcels of ground at Balasore. 
3. 1 packet of original documents in Persian, and copies of 
grants relating to the Peply Factory at Balasore, dated in 1084, 
Hidgree, 
