ee ee ee oe 
OLD AND NEW WAYS OF TREATING HISTORY II 
comprised within them.”' Yet for nearly two cen- 
turies after this appeal the priceless records went on 
accumulating in such places as the White Tower, the 
basement of which was long used for storing gun- 
powder, or in the Temple and Lincoln’s Inn, where 
many documents perished in flames as late as 1849. 
It was not until 1859 that a suitable building was 
completed in which the national archives of Great 
Britain at last found a worthy home. 
At the same time there came a sudden end to the 
jealousy with which these materials for history were 
withheld from public inspection. Occasionally, in 
former days, some eminent scholar would be allowed 
access to such as were accessible. Thus, in 1679, 
Gilbert Barnet was permitted to use such papers as 
might be of help in completing his “ History of the 
Reformation.” For such permission a warrant from 
the lord chamberlain or one of the secretaries of state 
was required, and there was red tape enough to deter 
all but the most persistent seekers. About 1850 the 
wise master of rolls, Lord Romilly, put an end to all 
this privacy, and now you can go to the Record Office 
and read the despatches of Oliver Cromwell or the 
letters of Mary Stuart as easily as you would go toa 
public library and look over the new books. 
But this is not all. As fast as is practicable the state 
papers, chronicles, charters, court rolls,and other archives 
of Great Britain are published in handsome volumes 
carefully edited, so that the whole world may read them. 
Year by year enlarges the ability of the American 
scholar to inspect the sources of British history by 
visiting some large library on this side of the Atlantic. 
1“ Paper and Parchment,” p. 256. 
