INTRODUCTORY. English Society and Camden Parker, Shake speare Societies. led to the formation, in 1837, of the ENGLISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY,' and in the following year to that of the CAMDEN SOCIETY2 (so named from the Elizabethan historian), the object of the latter being 'to perpetuate and render accessible whatever is valuable, but at present little known, amongst the materials for the civil, ecclesiastical or literary history of the United Kingdom.' The success of the Camden Society has been considerable, and most of its publications will be found referred to in the following pages. As, however, the publications of the Rolls Series have, to a great extent, forestalled further services of the kind in connexion with medieval literature, the labours of the society have for some time past been mainly devoted to 'unpublished material illustrating our national history in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries.' To the example set by the Camden Society may be Percy, and referred the foundation in 1840 of the PARKER SOCIETY, the PERCY SOCIETY,3 and the SHAKESPEARE SOCIETY. Of these, the first had for its main object 'the reprinting, without abridgment, alteration, and omission, of the best works of the Fathers and early Writers of the Reformed English Church, published in the period between the accession of king Edward VI. and the death of queen Elizabeth '; the labours of the second were to be bestowed on the collection and printing of our ancient ballads; those of the third, on the publication of literature illustrative of the works of our great dramatist. Spalding In the following year was founded the SPALDING CLUB, for the printing of the historical, ecclesiastical, See ibid. i. 780. See A Descriptive Catalogue of the First Series of the Works of the Camden Society. By John Gough Nichols, 2nd edit. (This supplies a brief account of all the publication; of the Society down to the year See Hardy, D. C. i. 860-3. genealogical, topographical, and literary remains of the north-eastern counties of Scotland."1 INTRODUCTORY. Aelfric Society and In 1842 were founded the AELFRIC SOCIETY and the CHETHAM SOCIETY;3 the former 'for the publication Chetham of Anglo-Saxon and other literary monuments, both Society. civil and ecclesiastical, tending to illustrate the early state of England;' the latter, for the printing of ' remains, historical and literary, connected with the Palatine Counties of Lancaster and Chester.' The CAXTON SOCIETY, founded in 1844, was de- Caxton Society. signed for the wider sphere of labour involved in bringing out works 'illustrative of the history and miscellaneous literature of the Middle Ages.' Its publications, though nuinerous, have been indifferently edited, and are wanting in typographical correctness. The scheme of the ANGLIA CHRISTIANA SOCIETY," put forth in the following year, has proved almost abortive. The EARLY ENGLISH TEXT SOCIETY, founded in 1864, has issued yearly a series of carefully printed texts of early English authors. Of these a large proportion have been printed for the first time, and not a few possess considerable value for the historical student. Early English Text Society. PAPERS. It now remains briefly to notice the measures that STATE have been taken to render what may be termed the documentary evidence' for our history more accessible to the general public. Before the Restoration of Charles II, the accepted theory with respect to state negotiations with other countries entirely debarred the ordinary man of letters from access to the original documents. The reserve maintained in this respect by the English Government was, indeed, to some extent exceptional, and we find it See ibid. i. 743-5. Humphrey Chetham was a distinguished benefactor of learning at Manchester in the seventeenth century. 4 See ibid. i. 741-2. See ibid. i. 691. INTRO DUCTORY. Rvmer's Foedera. unfavourably contrasted by a political writer in the year 1655, with the conduct of the French and the Italians.1 The very name of 'Treasury,' as applied to the offices in which the state papers were deposited, is expressive of this exclusiveness. The first treaty committed to the press and published by royal authority was that with Spain, in the reign of James I., dated August 18, 1604. The theory, however, may be said to have received its death-blow in the course of the Civil War, when the interest which both the contending parties claimed to take in the highest matters of state made the former secrecy no longer possible. The four treaties of Breda were printed by the order of Charles II. in 1667, and between the Restoration and the Revolution of 1688 all the public treaties to which Great Britain was a party were published by royal authority. At last, in the year 1693, mainly, it would appear, at the suggestion of the eminent statesmen, Somers and Halifax, THOMAS RYMER, in his capacity of historiographer royal, was appointed to transcribe and publish all the leagues, treaties, alliances, capitulations, and confederacies which had, at any time, been made between the Crown of England and other kingdoms. As the result of these instructions there successively appeared, in the early part of the eighteenth century, the volumes of his well-known Foedera, the series being continued by his assistant, Robert Sanderson, in the year 1735. The work, as it issued from the press, attracted considerable attention both at home and on the Continent, and, though severely criticised, has generally been admitted to be a collection of the highest value and authority. It commences with the reign of Henry I. (ann. 1134), and extends to 1654. A new edition, published at the Hague, 1737-45, is of greatly superior typo 'Sec preface to Sir Dudley Digges' Complete Ambassador (1655). graphical accuracy; while the utility of the collection to students has been much enhanced by the Syllabus of the work by the late Sir T. D. Hardy.' INTRO DUCTORY. Parlia ment. The Rolls of Parliament, extending from the reign Rolls of of Edward I. to the first year of the reign of Henry VII., are comprised in six volumes folio, and were published at the expense of the nation pursuant to the order of the House of Peers, March 9, 1767. A general Index to the six volumes was issued in 1832, after sixty-five years had been employed in its formation. There can be no doubt,' says Sir T. D. Hardy, 'that these Rolls are a most valuable and authentic source of parliamentary and constitutional history,-indeed, it is questionable whether any nation in Europe possesses any materials for a history of its legislative assemblies at all comparable with these muniments.' tions of sion. In consequence of representations made to the Crown Publicaof the great value and importance of many of the papers Record and documents in the office of the Keeper of the CommisRecords, a Commission was appointed in 1825, and again in 1830, to consider what portions of this invaluable collection might be fitly printed and published with advantage to the public. As the direct result of their decision, eleven quarto volumes were published (1830 1 Vol. i. A.D. 1066-1377; vol. ii. 1377-1654. A third edition of the Foedera, undertaken by Dr. Clarke, and subsequently by Messrs. Caley and Holbrooke, for the Record Commission, remains incomplete, having been carried no further than the year 1383. Hardy's Syllabus gives the references to three editions-the original edition, the so-called Dutch edition published at the Hague, and the Record edition. Students should note in the Syllabus (vol. i. pp. i-xiv, vol. ii. pp. Iv-lxvii) the useful Chronological Tables, giving the Legal, Civil, and Ecclesiastical Years, along with the regnal year of each English sovereign. The term Records, taken in its most general sense, includes: (1) Inrolments which are intended to be official and authentic records of lawful acts made by the proper officer of any court upon rolls, or, in some cases, in official entry-books of the same court; (2) Memoranda of acts or Q INTRODUCTORY. Correspon Calendars of State Papers. 1852) of the Correspondence of Henry VIII.' The plan of arrangement was, however, unfortunate, the chronological order being, in the first instance, discarded with the design of grouping the different materials under the respective subjects,-a method which proved so unsatisfactory that it was materially modified in the latter volumes. Of all these letters an abstract (often sufficient for the student's purpose) will be found in the volumes of the Calendar Series edited by the late Prof. Brewer under the title of Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, of the Reign of Henry VIII., &c.-a collection which also includes abstracts of a vast number of letters not included in the volumes published by the Commissioners. Respecting the series of which the volumes edited by Mr. Brewer form a part, a few words may be of service. In the year 1855 the State Paper Office was incorporated with the Public Record Office, and the Master of the Rolls then suggested to the Lords of the Treasury that, notwithstanding the great value, in an historical and constitutional point of view, of the documents thus brought together, their contents were rendered almost useless to the public from the want of proper calendars and indexes. As the result of this representation, instruments brought into the proper office of any court by parties interested therein (or by their agents) either in the form of rolls or otherwise, and preserved in bundles or on files; (3) Books of entries, containing memoranda of acts, &c., entered by officers of the court; (4) State papers, which form a distinct branch of the records. These originally sprang from the Privy Council and Chancery, and now form various branches -the corre spondence and other records of the Privy Council, Secretaries of State, and all other public departments. See Handbook to the Public Records, by Mr. F. S. Thomas, 1853. 'State Papers, during the Reign of Henry the Eighth: with Indices of Persons and Places. Other publications of the Record Commissioners, such as Domesday Book, Catalogues of the Rolls, &c., have appeared at different times during the present century; of these a complete list can be obtained on application to Messrs. Longmans & Co., or Macmillan & Co. |