RECORDS OF PARLIAMENT

Greymouth Evening Star, 9 November 1935, Page 4

RECORDS OF PARLIAMENT

BRITISH MUSEUM DISCOVERIES. Discoveries in the British Museum, by Professor Wallace Notestein, of Yale University, have brought to light the earliest known Journals of Parliament. These give hitherto unknown information of conditions m Parliaments during the dynastic change from the House of Lancaster to the House of York, 1461. The degree of importance attached to the discovery by Parliamentary historians was emphasised.recently to .>. “Sunday Times’’ representative by the Right Hon. Josiah Wedgwood, M.P., one of the honorary secretaries of the Committee on the History of Parliament. Colonel Wedgwood and his colleagues have for years, been engaged in research work so that the history of all British Parliaments between 1264 and 191 S might, in due course, bo compiled. While the Rolls of Parliament, giv--1 ing little beyond the Acts passed, are practically complete through the centuries, the Journals of Parliament, reporting the day-to-day work, were assumed to date from 1510 so far as the House of. Lord's was concerned, and 1547 in tho case of the House of Commons. But Professor Notestein’s researches -in the papers of the Fane collection at. the British Museum do show that there was very detailed and accurate reporting of proceedings in Parliament in 1461, the year that Edward the Fourth, first representative of the House of York, came to the throne. ‘These records are of extraordinary importance for a number of reasons,” Colonel Wedgwood said. “They throw the first light we have on the working of Parliament, such as the readings of Bills, attendance, committees, and even the opinion of some peers. “Professor Notestein was actually hunting at the time for reports of speeches made in the House of Commons during the seventeenth century. He was going through some fairly recently acquired documents when he suddenly discovered these much earlier Journals of *he House of Lords, eight days on eight pages. It makes one wonder what else is hidden in the British Museum. For all we know we might yet find a missing book of Livy or a copy of a Fifth Gospel. “A page a day is devoted' in this journal to the proceedings in the Lords, and my theory is that, if, they were being kept so methodically in 1461, they were probably being kept in 1400, or even earlier. In fact, we can have no idea how far they go back. We have, always thought that the Journals of' Parliament began in the days of Henry VIII or perhaps Henry VII., but here is definite evidence that they go back much earlier. What they reveal is extraordinarily interesting.

THE KING IN PARLIAMENT. ‘The King was present at every sitting, and the Journal gives lists of all present on each day. They show that peers were present who were not summoned to Parliament. They show also that the ecclesiastics attended better than their lay brothers. In fact, the House of Lords was overwhelmingly clerical. “We can see by the Journals the gathering of the Lanacastrian peers at the opening of Edward the Fourth’s Parliament —at least, all those Lancastrian peers who were not in prison or ‘on tho run.’ Obviously they came to show how loyal they were to the new dynasty. They wished to secure the favour of the new Government, and most of those who turned up received pardons. / “The composition of tho committees, the remarks ma.de toy the Lord Audley, the stages of the-Bills passed —all this is given in the Journal, The King brought in a Bill of Trade with liis own hand. * “And one really interesting thing about this Journal is that it was written in English, although the list of tho peers is given in Latin. It is, therefore curious that the Lords Journal in the time of Henry VIII. was in Latin. “Professor Notestein’s discovery is a copy made perhaps 100 years after the sittings in 1461. It is a controversial point whether tho original records were not actually in Latin, and later translated into English. My hope rather than theory is that they were taken down in English in 1461. Obviously, the peers would speak in English. We' have, however, to remember that the Rolls of Parliament were written in Latin, and that the proceedings in the Law Courts were taken down in Norman-French.

THE FIRST REPORTER? “In connection with Professor Notestein’s discovery I have found, from researches at Rye, that the UnderClerk to Parliament at this time was one Thomas Bayen, of Rye. He was so appointed in 1461. I was •goingthrough records at Rye, and found that Thomas Bayen was paid one mark a year by the Rye Corporation 'as a retaining fee as long as he was Under-Clerk to Parliament. He had sat as member for Rye and otherplaces. “I am wondering if this appointment of an Under-Clerk to Parliament means that the Journal started in that year, and' that we have, in fact, stumbled on the very first reports of Parliament, taken down and transcribed by the first Parliamentary reporter, Thomas Bayen.” Professor Notestein’s discovery- is dealt with by Professor William Huso Dunham, jun., also of Yale, in a book, “The Fane Fragment of the 1461 L< rds’ Journal,” issued in America by the Yale University Press and in this country by the Oxford University Press. But Professor Dunham indulges in , speculation concerning them which is likely to arouse controversy. Colonel Wedgwood, who believes that the discoveries will aid considerably in the compilation of the official history of Parliament, is hopeful that the first two volumes will be in the hands of subscribers in the early si ring of. 1936. They are now ready for the Stationery Office printers, but actual printing is being delayed until every reputable library and institution in the world has been circularised. These two volumes, on which Colonel Wedgwood and his co-hono-rary secretary, Miss Anne Holt, have J worked for four years—he himself has. indeed, spent nearly 30 years on I'arliamentary historical researchdeal with the period 1439-1509, which included the War of the Roses, and cover the ground from the eclipse of Humphrey Duke -f Gloucester to the peaceable accession of Henry VIII. It is of interest to know that the period 1603-1689 in charge of Professor Notestein, who, according to Colonel Wedgwood, knows more about this p er i 0( i of Parliamentary

- history than any man living. Miss Veronica Wedgwood, whose Life of Stafford has recently appeared, is engaged in writing 1640-1660. The. monumental nature of the work will be appreciated when it is stated that ultimately it will consist of 40 volumes, bringing to date the history . of Parliament and British democracy up to the end of the Great War. But the most optimistic estimate places ■ the publication of the last volume at 20 years from now, by which time the ; task will have cost at least .£ 10,000.