Lord Mont eagle, in laying before the House, pursuant to address copies of all communications between the Treasury and the Controller of the Exchequer, on the subject of certain papers and documents removed from the vaults at Somerset-house to the office at Whitehall-yard, said, that none of the Exchequer records which had been destroyed by order of the late Controller of the Exchequer were of the least importance. They were all examined before they were destroyed, and those that were condemned were, he believed, utterly worthless. The main records of that department had, for a long time, been in a state of great dilapidation, and were kept in a building adjoining their Lordships' House, where they remained until certain alterations rendered their removal necessary. They had then been examined, and many of them had been placed before the public in a printed shape. Those that were destroyed were of a class that had been used as temporary records, and had formerly been sold as waste paper. That practice had been put an end to, and it was considered preferable to destroy the documents when they were no longer useful.
§ Lord Redesdalewas sorry that the papers were destroyed, because, although they might be of little value to the Controller of the Exchequer, many persons of an antiquarian turn would be desirous of possessing them at a higher price than that of waste paper. He conceived that there was a very proper and just ground for inquiry when documents were destroyed which might be connected with questions of property.
§ Lord Monteaglesaid, that before any one single paper was destroyed, a due examination was made by persons considered to be most competent to judge of their worth and value. Of those persons one had been in the public service for forty- 1201 two years, and others ten and twelve years. No papers had been destroyed, except under their authority; and it was deemed proper that they should be destroyed, lest they might fall into the hands of improper persons.
§ Papers ordered to be printed.