BOOK I. Chapter IV. graphy and Pub diately upon publication." This report was an unanimPublic Historio- ous one; was the result of an elaborate inquiry in which lic Printing. competent witnesses from all parts of the United Kingdom were examined; and was backed by nearly 300 petitions numerously signed; but, as yet, more engrossing questions have precluded that action upon it which might fairly have been expected to ensue. for the Public The papers of Parliament, however, form but a portion of the printed documents, the distribution of which will have to be systematized, when the subject shall be finally dealt with. Almost all the State departments Works printed print works, at the public expense, which-under present Departments. circumstances-are distributed in a most unmethodical manner, and are consequently little known. Many of these works embody researches and contain information of great value, and have been produced at a cost to the nation which is wholly disproportionate to the circulation they attain, even amongst that portion of the Public which is most directly interested in the subjects they relate to. I proceed to specify very briefly some of the more important of these documents: Works of the Record Commission. I. WORKS OF THE RECORD COMMISSIONS.Here, as in the case of the "blue books," occasional blunders of the old Commission or of its Editors, resulting in the production of some works in which a few grains of good corn were buried in a vast heap of chaff, have led to a very general but very unjust depreciation of the worth of the series as a whole. Such a series, however, is indispensable to a Library in which it is sought to bring together a good body of British WORKS OE THE RECORD COMMISSIONS. 615 BOOK I. Chapter IV. graphy and Pub history, and will reward the pains-now not inconsiderable--which are necessary to its obtainment. At one Public Historiotime the late Record Commission was anything rather lie Printing. than penurious in the distribution of its productions, but the distribution was always an unsystematic, and sometimes, an indiscriminate one, so that it is by no means unusual to find in Libraries very broken sets of these publications, some of which it is now scarcely possible to complete. This remark holds good of some of the best and most recent of the Record Books-of Sir Harris Nicolas' 'Proceedings of the Privy Council,' for instance-as well as of those of earlier date. the State Papers. II. WORKS OF THE STATE PAPER COMMISSION. The most important work which has been hitherto Publication of produced by this Commission is the Collection of State Papers of the reign of K. Henry VIII. which has already extended to eleven volumes, quarto, and contains papers of the highest interest for the students of English history. In 1838, when the fourth and fifth volumes of the work appeared, the Commissioners made an extensive gratuitous distribution of two volumes out of five "to various foundation schools, scientific societies, public Libraries, and literary institutions," most of which did not possess the preceding volumes, and then on the subsequent publication of six more volumes (to 11) gravely signified by circular that "on the present occasion their Lordships, after mature consideration, have found reason to alter that course, and instead of making presentations on so extensive a scale, they are of opinion it will be much more beneficial to BOOK I. Chapter IV. the Public at large that the work should be offered for Public Historio- sale at a price so moderate.. as to be within the reach of all scientific institutions" &c.' graphy and Pub lic Printing. Monumenta Historica Britannica. Astronomical observations; covery, etc.; trol of the There is another work of great value to inquirers into our national history-the Monumenta Historica Britannica. This, too, has been distributed to very few Libraries, and to those few with extraordinary caprice. It was, for example, applied for on behalf of two ratesupported Libraries in adjacent towns; both, of course, open to all comers, but the one having an average yearly delivery of 150,000 volumes, and the other an average yearly delivery of only 35,000. To the Library with the smaller number of readers, it was granted but to that having the greater number it was refused. Closely akin to these publications are those which are now rapidly issuing from the Press under the superintendence of the present Master of the Rolls, and which bid fair to comprise a body of materials for British History of sterling value. III. WORKS OF THE BOARD OF ADMIRALTY. The Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty print, or Voyages of dis- have the control of, a very considerable number of under the con- scientific works. Amongst them are Astronomical Observations, Manuals of Navigation, Narrations of Voyages of Discovery, and many other publications, some of which are of interest to a small class of persons only, but others of which possess utility and attractions for a wide circle of readers. For some of the more volum Admiralty. Letter of Mr. Lemon, Secretary to the Commission, quoted in Min. of Evidence on Distribution of Parl. Papers, 73. WORKS OF THE PATENT OFFICE. 617 inous and costly of these works grants have been made IV. WORKS OF THE PATENT OFFICE. The publications of "Her Majesty's Commissioners of Patents under the Great Seal" date only from the 1st of October 1852, but are already very voluminous. They comprise (1.) The specification and the accompanying drawings, if any, of every sealed patent of invention granted subsequently to the date above mentioned, and also of every application for a patent which may have reached one or other of the preliminary stages, but may have failed to pass the seal. (2.) Chronological indexes of all patents of Invention which have been granted from the time of James I. to the present date. (3.) Subject-matter indexes of the same, arranged in classes. (4.) Reference indexes of the same, in which are entered under the short title of every patent, references to such periodical and other works as contain either its specification or an abstract thereof. (5.) Alphabetical Indexes of Patentees from the time of James I. to the present date. (6.) A collection of the original specifications and illustrative diagrams of all Patents of Invention, from the first issue of such Privileges down to the passing BOOK I. Chapter IV. Public Historio graphy and Pub lic Printing. Specifications and Indexes of Patents. BOOK I. Chapter IV. graphy and Pub lic Printing. of the New Patent Law in 1852. This series is now Public Historio (1858) rapidly advancing towards completion. And (7) the Journal of the Commissioners of Patents,' published twice a week, which contains the names of applicants for patents, the titles of all the specifications filed, and of all patents sealed during the intervals of publication. The total number of Specifications already printed, it may be added, exceeds 17,000. Ordnance Surveys. By a clause in the Act of Parliament which constituted this Commission it was expressly enjoined on the Commissioners that they should take measures for the due promulgation of the Specifications and Indexes, but nothing was done, or done efficiently, in this direction until the spring of 1855. Since that period, however, a liberal distribution has been organized and all the publications of the Commission are forwarded to most of the great towns in the Kingdom. V. PUBLICATIONS OF THE BOARD OF ORDNANCE. Of the value of the Ordnance Surveys of the United Kingdom it would be superfluous to say anything. But as to their distribution it needs to be said that the arrangements on that head correspond neither with the cost to the Public of those Surveys, nor with the interests of science in their application; and precisely the same statement may be made as to the "Geological Survey of Great Britain," and the "Records of the School of Mines." VI. OTHER WORKS PRINTED-WHOLLY OR PARTIALLY AT THE PUBLIC CHARGE. There are many minor publications-minor as to their extent, but of considerable intrinsic value-which ap |