1806,] Remedy for the DifficuUies in Jcarchingfor IVills. 



in 



whom tliey had fparcd only on account 

 of his witr, at liberty but on contlition 

 tjiat he fhijuld yield up to thcni KiVox, 

 ^iilicx, and Middli-fex (462), which coan- 

 tics had not, however, then thole names. 

 They next took London, and carried de- 

 vastation before them every v.herc. 

 (To he continued.) 



To the Editor of the Montldy Magazine. 

 srn, 



HA\'ING occafion, the other day, to 

 make a fearch for a will in the ro- 

 poiitory at Doctors' Commons, I found, 

 ti) my great vexation, that tlie operation 

 was attended with much greater labour 

 tlian I had been led to cxi)eCt. As the 

 fort of inconvenience that 1 myfelf expe- 

 rienced is of fuch a nature as mav extend 

 itfelf to any member of the community, 

 I would beg leave, throuaih the mediun) 

 of yom- excellent and w idely-circulating 

 Mii'ccllany, to jiropofo a remedy, by 

 wiiich the condition of fuch as may have 

 occalion to refort to this rcpolitory would 

 be materially ameliorated, for the chance 

 of its meeting the eyes of fuch as may 

 have inclination and power to carry fuch 

 remedy into ctfeot. 



Taking the operations in the fearch for 

 a will in the order in which they are to 

 be performed, the firft tlung that is to be 

 done is the fearching out the name of the 

 perfon whole will you are defnous of look- 

 ing at in a book, of which there is a fe- 

 p,arat€ one for each year, containing tiie 

 names of all the perfons wliofe wills were 

 made in that year ; and having found the 

 name, you find, in a line with it, a refe- 

 rence to the folio that contains the copy 

 of the will. Tlie na\nes in this book, or 

 index, are placed in alphalA.'ticar, order, 

 but it is only by the initial letter. Thus 

 you have all the A's, Ws, and C's toge- 

 ther. But the cmbarraft'mcnt arifcs from 

 tiK; letters fnbfequent to th.c fall in each 

 name not being alfo put in alphabetical 

 order, as is done in a dictionary, as well 

 as the initial letter. The confeqnence i?, 

 that if the date of. the will be not exactly 

 known, tlie fearch for the name mav oc- 

 cupy fevcral hours, particularly if it com- 

 mence witli a copious letter, fuch as B, 

 or .S, for example. To remedy this in- 

 convenience, ail that is neceiVary to be 

 done is, to put the names in tlie Index in 

 regular alphabetical order, as in a dic- 

 tionary ; and it would be a Ibill further, 

 and very material convenience, if, in ad- 

 dition tlieretij, were made a general in- 

 dex of all the names, placed in fuch or- 

 ^t, to wiiich pcrfuns who could not pre- 



cifely afcertain the date of the will of 

 which they were in fearch might have re- 

 courfe. 



Another pbllacle to the fiicility of re- 

 fearch, though not, perhitjis, ib vc-xatious 

 as the former, yet liill of conliderablc im- 

 portance, particularly to the unlkilful, and 

 w hich admits of a more fnnple remedy, 

 is the micouth and illegible hand in vvhich 

 tlie wills arc copied into the books. The 

 time was, t.is e\cry body knous, when 

 the fort of hand-writing now ufcd for this 

 purpofe was the only one in ufe ; and 

 then, of conrfe, no inconvenience re- 

 fulted from the employment of it : but 

 why the ufe of it Ihould Itill be pcrfevered 

 in, when the readmg of it has become a 

 fort of Icience, from its diftering as much 

 from the fort of hand-writing ordinarily 

 in u!c, is a matter that completely fur- 

 pafl'es my conception. If the perfcvcring 

 in the employment of it, be m any way 

 ufeful, at Icaft the onus prohandi of its 

 utility lies with thole who are advocates 

 for its continuance. It is clearly produc- 

 tive of great practical inconvenience ; its 

 advantages are not altogether fo obi ions. 



The above two reforms, viz. the ])ut- 

 ting the names in the indexes in regular 

 alphabetical order, and copying the wills 

 in the ordinary hand-writing, ha^e the 

 advantage of being of fuch a nature as 

 not to interfere, at leaft fo far as I can 

 fee, with anj- private individual intereft : 

 and if they did, I iliould have little ex- 

 pectation of feeing them adopted ; for 

 we all of us mult have felt, from fad ex- 

 perience, how mimite a particle of pri- 

 vate interell, contrary to the phylical" 

 rules of the coinpolltion and refolation of 

 forces, is fuificient to llern the progrefs 

 of any uieafure, however great the inafs 

 of public benefit that it might proraife to 

 produce. If the perfons who may have 

 occalion to fearch for a will paid in pro- 

 portion to the time they were occupied in 

 the fearch, the introduction of fuch faci- 

 lity to the puriuit of the above might not 

 imreulbnably bo refilled : but the fee is 

 fixed ; fo that vexation in abundance is 

 thus heaped upon innocent perfons, and 

 that too protitlefs vexation ; unlefs it b« 

 cxpetlfj, what perhaps is too remote a 

 probability to be Icrioutly calculated up- 

 on, that perfons may abandon, tiicir re- 

 fcarch indcfpair one day, and hope hav- 

 ing regenerated a fulficicnJ; flock of cou- 

 jago, may return to the r talk at fcver'al 

 recurring periods, and thus the fee would 

 be to be renewed each time. This, how- 

 ever, would Icarccly be an avowable ob- 

 jeclion to the propofed reformation, or 



fuch 



