In this his search, he continues, he found ninety-seven parcels of original Parliamentary Writs, which he marshalled into distinct bundles, in an alphabetical and chronological order, for public use and ready search; and the abstracts constitute his well-known work, in which, however, he has committed many errors. Anthony a'Wood has informed us that when Prynne studied, his custom was to put on a long quilted cap, which came an inch over his eyes, serving as an umbrella to defend them from too much light, and seldom eating any dinner. He would be every three hours munching a roll of bread, and now and then refresh his exhausted spirits with ale.' We have the greatest respect and veneration for his memory. None but those who have travelled the same rugged road can sufficiently appreciate his worth as a pioneer. But there are many strange inaccuracies to be detected in his labours, and we suspect that, under the genial and gentle influence of the nappy ale and the night cap, the acute antiquary very frequently sunk into a comfortable dose. No effectual arrangement of the historical records took place until the institution of the Record Commission; a measure origihating in the zeal and exertions of Lord Colchester, and to whom the public are primarily indebted for whatever improvements have since been effected in the system. In the meanwhile, the Parliamentary Writs, and other documents of a similar description, had suffered greatly from damp and decay. Many have been tied up in small bundles, and the parchment has been so cankered, by the combined effects of damp and pressure, that when the writ is touched it not unfrequently crumbles into dust; but even greater mischief has ensued from the injudicious application of tincture of galls. This deleterious nostrum bestows a temporary distinctness upon the faded writing, but, after a few years have elapsed, it covers the whole surface with a deep and indelible brown, in which every vestige of the writing disappears. We have enlarged rather upon the history of our ancient records than upon those of more recent date, though the latter would afford ample scope for disquisition. It may be remarked, however, that their present dispersion throughout the metropolis is a serious grievance to the professional man, who may be compelled to range between the latitudes of Westminster and Whitechapel before he can collect the evidences which he may require; and to the client, who must pay for the lengthened and repeated journeys. A central depository, which should contain all the records of the Legislature, and the proceedings of all the Courts of Justice, the evidences of our history, and the sources of our Law, together with those important muniments by which the various rights of property are sustained, would be still more beneficial beneficial than ornamental to the metropolis. The expense of the building, and the difficulty of reconciling various conflicting interests, may be a sufficient reason for delaying the execution of this plan, but it is surely time to alter the rule which declares that office copies of judicial records, that is to say, copies made by known officers of the Court, are not admissible in other Courts.'* In other words, that when it is necessary to prove before the Chief Justice of the Court of King's Bench, sitting at Nisi Prius, that a judgment was given in the Court of Common Pleas, the production of the formal office copy,' made out upon stamped paper, and duly signed and certified as a true copy by Mr. Richard Brembridge, the Clerk of the Judgments,' is in itself of no avail whatever, unless some person is present who can swear that he examined the copy with the original roll, the official signature and attestation being considered as mere nullities. This, with some inconsiderable exceptions, (as to documents exemplified under seal) which hardly ever occur in practice, is the case with every species of public record. Now there can really be no valid reason why his Majesty's several tribunals should look upon one another with so much extreme distrust and jealousy, nor why Lord Tenterden should be under the legal necessity of declaring, that the known, public, and authorized deputy of Sir William Best is not to be trusted until his transcript be verified by the oath of the Clerk of the Attorney. According to the law of every other country, except that of England, full faith is given to an official signature, and to the document which it attests. Upon what ground the present practice is to be justified we know not, except the apprehension that the agent of the party may falsify the office copy after he has obtained it for the use of his client; but putting the penalties of the law out of the question, it is very obvious that a knave, bold enough to practise such a fraud, would not feel much difficulty in effecting it by means of perjury. The records relating to real property are perhaps more defective in their present arrangement and system than any other class of public muniments; and the attempts which have been made by the Legislature to give greater security to titles, have proved singularly inefficient and perplexed. Our readers are probably aware that a judgment recovered against an individual, attaches upon the freehold lands which he possesses, and that if a purchaser acquires the property so bound, the lien obtained by the creditor is not affected by the transfer made by the defendant. As the law originally stood, all judgments were supposed to be judgments of the first day of the term in which they were obtained, and not of *Starkie on Evidence, vol. i. the the natural day upon which they were really signed; and therefore a purchaser might have been rendered liable to a judgment acknowledged subsequently to his purchase: for instance, he might pay his money and enter into possession on the 24th day of Jan. ; and on the 12th day of Feb. the fraudulent vendor might acknowledge a judgment to a creditor, which would take effect as from the 23d of Jan., being the first day of Hilary Term. To obviate this injustice it was enacted that the officer should mark the real day of signing the judgment, and from which day only it should take effect; so far was reasonable, but, according to the irJegular practice which then prevailed, it did not compel the plaintiff to carry in the judgment roll,' so that, in the words of Mr. Sugden, purchasers and others were rendered almost incapable of discerning what judgments were recovered.' al To remedy this defect, a second statute was passed, which directed that the proper officers should make and put into an phabetical dogget' by the defendants names' a particular' of all the judgments entered in the respective courts, and which are to be fairly put and kept in books of parchment, and the sum of fourpence is to be taken for every term during which the search extends. Such is the law, and we must now state how it has operated. As the dockets are directed by the acts to be made up in pairs of terms, viz., for Michaelmas and Hilary, and for Easter and Trinity, each year produces two fair parchment books' in each court, so that when a search is to be made for the moderate period of ten years, it is needful to turn over the SIXTY volumes entrusted to the Clerk of the Essoyns of the Court of Common Pleas, the Clerk of the Doggets in the Court of King's Bench, and the Master of the Office of Pleas of the Court of the Exchequer,' before it can be ascertained whether the estate is clear. The difficulties, however, do not end with the bulk of this array, for the officers of the courts interpreting the word alphabetical' in its strictest sense, arrange the names simply according to their initial letters, and not according to their initial syllables. Thus a page is opened for A, and all the names beginning with A, are therein entered, not in A B C order, but indiscriminately and promiscuously, as the judgments come into the office, and therefore if a purchase is made (e. g.) from Mr. Abel, the attorney must continue his researches to the very end of the letter A. This occasions an enormous increase of labour, and, therefore, of uncertainty; for every circumstance which lengthens a search in a registry, diminishes its efficacy by increasing the chances of error, all of which might be saved by adhering to the rules of the spelling book. All the calendars belonging to the record offices are upon the same defective plan, which we find pursued in the indexes to the the earliest specimens of typography, and which has been retained without variation, from the time of Henry VIII., when such calendars first began to be made. According to the common law, every transfer of land was public and notorious. In addition to the formality of giving' seisin' or possession of the premises, all the tenants were required to' attorn' or to place themselves beneath their new liege lord; and if the land was conveyed by 'fine,' the transaction took place in open court, and was recorded upon its rolls. In Scotland, the old feudal forms are retained, and earth and stone,' 'clap and hopper,'' net and coble,' the emblematical symbols of the field, the mill, or the fishery, must be delivered, with due solemnity, to the proxy of the purchaser. To these forms, however, our neighbours have added the precaution of registration. The original instrument is deposited in the general Register Office at Edinburgh, and also recorded at full length upon the books; and the office copy which is delivered to the parties is considered as their title-deed, somewhat according to the practice of the English ecclesiastical courts, where the will is retained in the registry, and entered upon the lieger books, and a probate copy issued to the executors. Upon the Scotch system of registration we shall simply observe, that it affords entire security to the incumbrancer, the creditor, and the purchaser--to the landed and commercial interest-and that when the calendars are completed according to the plan suggested by Mr. Thomson, any search, however extensive or complicated, will be effected in the course of a morning. The feudal forms of conveyance in England lost their efficacy in great measure by the subtle contrivances which enabled the owner to deal with the beneficial interest in the land as a kind of metaphysical ens distinct from the freehold. The celebrated Act of Henry VIII.* commonly called the Statute of Uses, was intended to destroy the foundation of these secret conveyances; and concurrently with this law, another was enacted which would have enabled the parties to choose between the notoriety afforded by the act of seisin on the land, and the publicity of registration. For it enacted, in substance, that no manors, lands, tenements, or other hereditaments, should be transferred by any bargain and sale, except the same should be made by writing indented, sealed, and inrolled in one of the King's Courts of Record at Westminster, or before the Custos Rotulorum and two justices of the peace, and the clerk of the peace of the county in which the lands lie (27 Henry VIII., cap. 16.) The act contains a saving clause, excepting lands, &c., in corporate towns, the officers whereof had been used to enrol evidences, &c. 27th Henry VIII., c. 10. But it was held not to extend to the counties palatine of Lancaster and Cheshire, nor to the Bishopric of Durham, and therefore by 5th Elizabeth, cap. 26, it was enacted, that bargains and sales, &c., of lands in those jurisdictions should be enrolled in the Exchequer of Chester, and in the Courts of Chancery of Lancaster and Durham or before the justices of assize within the respective franchises. The statutes do not direct the mode of enrolment, but, according to the practice of the Courts of Record (grounded upon very ancient anterior usage) the deed must be first acknowledged by some one of the parties before a judge of the Common Law Courts, or a Master in Chancery. In practice, the enrolments before the Custos Rotulorum have been discontinued. Those in the corporation courts continue in force, particularly in London; and in some private statutes, for improvements and analogous purposes, the enrolment of the bargains and sales in the Court of Husting has been made equivalent to a fine. If the laws of Henry VIII. had retained their full effect, conveyances of land would either have received publicity from the ceremony of delivering possession on the land, or from their registration on the rolls of the courts when they were acknowledged; but the ingenious inventions which enabled the lawyers to resort to secret conveyances destroyed the effects of the statute of enrolments; and, except in some few cases directed by particular statutes, no deeds are enrolled, except where the purchaser wishes to obtain a greater security against accidents than can be afforded by a tin box deposited with his banker: for, if the original be destroyed, an office copy of the enrolment would supply its place to all intents and purposes. This cause is sufficiently operative to render the enrolments tolerably numerous, and they constitute a class of partial and disorderly registers, disposed in different offices, and with no other indexes excepting calendars on the plan of those in the judgment offices. During the Commonwealth, it was proposed to establish county registers, in which all instruments affecting real property should be recorded. The bill, which was skilfully drawn, never became a law, but the idea was not forgotten; and though the attempts which were subsequently made to accomplish the scheme failed, as to the kingdom at large, yet registers, nearly upon the plan suggested by the Commonwealth bill, were established in those districts in which they are now in force. In the Bedford Level, (a tract containing upwards of ninety-five thousand acres,) in the counties of Northampton, Norfolk, Suffolk, Lincoln, Cambridge, and Huntingdon, conveyances of lands have no force but from the time when they are entered in a book or register kept for that purpose, pursuant to the Act for settling the draining of the |