THE MARQUESS OF CLANRICARDErose to call attention to a subject of con- 742 siderable importance in connection with Irish history. By the exertions of the Master of the Rolls in England, a large mass of most valuable State Papers belonging to this country had been calendared and rendered accessible to the student of history. Very little had been done in that respect in Ireland. As far back as July, 1862, he had called attention to this subject, and had communicated with the Master of the Rolls, who concurred in thinking that some steps should be taken to arrange the records relating to Ireland. In the great fire which occurred at Dublin Castle in 1711 all the Government State Papers were destroyed, but a most valuable collection of documents had been made by Sir George Carew, afterwards Earl of Totness, which collection was now in Lambeth Palace. A smaller collection, known as "the Carte Manuscripts," was in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, and it would be of the utmost importance if those papers were calendared and rendered available for the purpose of throwing light upon the many obscure passages in Irish history. Finding no steps were being taken to that end he had again communicated with the Government, who admitted the importance of the subject; and ultimately, in July, 1863, the Master of the Rolls deputed the Deputy Keeper of the Rolls and Mr. Brewer to examine and report upon the papers in the Carew Collection at Lambeth and in the Carte Collection at Oxford. Those gentlemen presented a report to the Master of the Rolls. That Report was made at the end of 1863, but was only made public at the end of last Session. As the subject was one of great interest, he wished to know whether anything was to be done to render these papers available for public information. He desired to ask, Whether it is the intention of Her Majesty's Government to act upon the Report of Mr. Hardy, Deputy Keeper of the Rolls, and Professor Brewer, respecting the Carew and Carte Manuscripts in the Lambeth and Bodleian Libraries?
§ EARL GRANVILLEsaid, he was pleased to be able to give the noble Marquess a stronger assurance of the intentions of the Government than he seemed to anticipate. It had been decided by Her Majesty's Government that the recommendations of Mr. Hardy and Mr. Brewer should be carried out—namely, that the papers referred to should be indexed and calendared, and that copies of such as related to Ireland should be made and forwarded to the proper offices 743 in that country. It had also been arranged that Mr. Brewer, who had had great practice in calendaring State documents, and Mr. Bullen, who had been specially recommended for the purpose, should undertake the necessary duties in relation to those papers. He hoped that when the work was completed the noble Marquess would enter the lists with the noble Earl on the cross benches (Earl Stanhope) as a historian and author of a new and more perfect history of Ireland.