LEAVE. (Hansard, 14 May 1867)

LORD NAAS

, in moving for leave to bring in a Bill to provide for keeping safely the Public Records of Ireland, said, the necessity for a Record Office in Ireland had been felt for a great many years, and so far back as 1739 a Resolution was passed by the Irish House of Commons in favour of the establishment of a general 563 Record Office in Dublin. Nothing, however, had been done until a Commission was appointed by the late Government to inquire into the state of the public Records in Ireland. In consequence of the Report of that Commission a public Record Office had been established at considerable expense in Dublin, and the building, which was large, was now ready for the reception of the documents. Much credit was due to the late Government for the steps they had taken in this subject, and what the House had now to do was to complete the arrangements made by the late Government by establishing in Dublin a department to take charge of these important documents. Mr. Duffus Hardy, the Deputy Keeper of the Records in London, and Mr. Brewer, at the instance of the late Government, undertook the necessary inquiries, and after inspecting alt the places in Dublin where these valuable documents are deposited — the Rolls, the Customs' House, the Bermingham Tower, the Prerogative Office, and the Rolls' Offices connected with the Courts of Exchequer, Queen's Bench, and Common Pleas—reported in October, 1864, that all these repositories were unfit for the deposit of these important documents, and insufficient for their proper arrangement. All those offices were crowded to overflowing. The Bill which he was now asking leave to introduce was intended to carry out the recommendations of the Commission. The Bill proposed that all legal documents of the age of twenty years, except those that were in the Birmingham Tower, should be placed in the new Record Office, and that all State papers should be placed in the Bermingham Tower, under the care of Ulster King of Arms, till they were fifty years old; after which, at the discretion of the Government, they also should be placed in the Record Office. Among other provisions the Bill contemplated the appointment of a Deputy Keeper of the Rolls at a salary of £600 a year, rising to £800; the appointment of an Assistant Deputy Keeper and other officers, and the employment, as far as was possible, of all persons at present engaged in the keeping of the records. £200 a year would be added to the salary of the Ulster King of Arms, in consequence of the extra duty which this measure would impose upon him, and the Master of the Rolls was to be ex officio at the head of the Department, and all the business of the office would be under his management. The result of this proposal 564 would, he believed, provide for the safety of a large mass of valuable documents, and would afford great facilities not only to those engaged in legal pursuits, but also to those collecting materials for historical and literary works. The noble Lord concluded by moving for leave to bring in the Bill.