The President’s Address. 263 
because a vast quantity of old documents lying safely put away in 
the chests of their proprietors have been aired by exhibition to the 
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rapid glances of a Commissioner, that there is to burst all at once 
upon the world a flood of light as to the Past. Such things require 
minute inspection before any, if any, importance can be attached to 
them. Rare historical documents may, or may not, be found. But 
speaking generally, it is impossible to say what is really of impor- 
tance and what is not, until some accidental circumstance arises to 
create its importance. Nobody would ever have dreamt that in 
1877 a passage in Czxsar’s Commentaries (one of the few literary 
fragments of Roman occupation in Britain), would be of any use in 
settling a dispute involving money in 1877. Yet only the other 
day, in our courts of law, there was a cause about a certain bridge- 
way on the banks of the Thames, near Oatlands, in Surrey—the 
question being whether Kent or Surrey was to repair it. The legal 
dispute was enlivened by bringing into court Czesar’s Commentaries; 
_ the roadway by which Cesar advanced to cross the Thames being in 
“some way connected with the subject. After such an example 
it is impossible to say of what importance any old stone or bit of 
_ parchment may not be under some circumstances. Some years ago 
avery large property was at stake (that of the Earl of Shrewsbury) 
and the adjudication depended, I do not say wholly, but very ma- 
_terially, upon evidence of a very ordinary kind, a half-effaced in- 
scription upon an old monument in a village Church. Of what 
| importance parish registers may be, the Berkeley Peerage case 
is an example. Those who have the custody of such documents 
_ eannot be too careful of them. 
| I have so far spoken of Archzology as a science which has 
3 made great progress in our country. Let me; for a few mo- 
_ ments, ask your attention to what has been done with respect 
|= to it in other countries. Denmark and Sweden are rich in 
| eollections, a fact which shows the study was appreciated in modern 
| _ Scandinavia. Switzerland has for some time interested the world 
with her lake dwellings. At Rome English archeologists are pro- 
minent in clearing out the old city. The result will be to correct a 
great deal of imperfect description that has hitherto been given of 
* 
