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During the session, they must write a good deal, with great expedition; the copying of the journals during the vacation tends to restore the regularity of their style, and puts about 20l. or 30l. in the pockets of each of them. The committee also received evidence as to the best mode of preserving the records, upon which point the witnesses were divided in their opinions, some thinking that they would be best preserved in the form of rolls, and others in that of books.

Mr. David Jones, chief engrossing clerk to the House of Commons, thought that the best mode of preserving records, was in rolls, because they were less likely to be injured than any thing having sharp edges. The leaves of parchment pucker upon every change of weather, which would, in his opinion, cause great injury in books.

Mr. Strachan, a clerk in the Chancery Rolls-office, being asked whether he saw any reason why parchments in plain books little handled, would not be as good a record as in rolls, replied, "I should think that in the way we roll them up, they are better preserved; they are rolled up so very tight that no air can get into them. If they were in books, it is likely that the air would penetrate, and books would take up almost as much room as rolls."

It will be seen that these two gentlemen consider the exclusion of air an advantage; it is therefore a little surprising to find Mr. Hewlett, to whose evidence we have before referred, attribute to that very circumstance the partial decay of some records.

Mr. Hewlett says "The mode of keeping those records (of the

King's-bench, Common Pleas, and Exchequer), and the manner in which they are bound together, has, within my experience, very frequently been found to be fatal to the record itself. When any damp has got hold of a bundle of rolls (some bundles contain 2,000), it has eaten every roll away; it has formed a sort of crescent in the rolls, so that, in fact, half of the contents of the rolls is obliterated. If they had been otherwise kept or arranged, so that they might have been opened, and the air have had communication with them, this consequence might not have happened. Parchment is a glutinous thing, and for want of air, when the damp gets to it, it actually becomes glue." The records in the court of King's-bench, containing the rolls of the court upon which all the proceedings are entered, are kept upon rolls, numbered alphabetically, and at the end of every term are tied up and put into the King's-bench treasury, where they have been kept, and have been so from the earliest periods. Mr. Hewlett stated, that the most important records of the court of Chancery, namely, the decrees, are kept bound in immensely large books, and written on paper. The decrees in the court of Exchequer and the records at Doctors' Commons are kept in the same manner. Mr. Hewlett considered the mode of keeping records in books as preferable to that of rolls. In a book it would be easy to turn at once to the particular part of the record which it might be necessary to examine; but perhaps some hundred yards of parchment must be unrolled before one would be able to see what was wanted in a roll. Mr. Caley, keeper of records in the Chapter-house, Westminster, preferred the system

of keeping records in books rather than in rolls. Being asked whether there would be more danger of losing leaves of books than of losing part of a roll, he answered, "I do not think there is any great danger of that; I have frequently observed the threading of the rolls give way, and I have found half of a roll at one end of the office, and some time afterwards the other half at the other end." This evidence again is opposed to that of Mr. Bailey, who says, "For security, I think the roll would be preferable; but for facility of reference, I think the book is preferable. You are liable to lose part of a book, when you cannot of a roll; you may have a leaf torn out of a book, supposing it was for the advantage of the party to destroy the record; but they could not take a part of a roll." Being reminded of what Mr. Hewlett had said, respecting the injury arising from damp in rolls, he observed, "There is the same likelihood in regard to a book; and, besides, it would be more liable to damp, particularly if it were bound. Mr. Hewlett recommended binding in boards; but that would subject them to worms. I have books, in boards, which have introduced the worms: I would rather use a strong pasteboard, in which there are various substances which a worm could not get into." He added, that he thought it almost impossible to carry away a roll clandestinely. To show, however, that this feat was not so difficult as Mr. Bailey seemed to imagine, Mr. Hewlett related the following anecdote to the committee:-The master of Christ's-hospital once came to me in the Prothonotary's office, in the Temple, with a very large roll, and said that his tailor's

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boy had bought it of a man in the street for 4d.; the tailor was about to cut it up for measures, when he (the master) saw it; and not being able to read the hand, brought it to me to know what it was. It turned out to be an escheator's roll, stolen out of the office, of very large bulk indeed." Thus much respecting the mode of keeping the records. A large portion of the evidence relates to the ink and parchment at present employed in the public offices. It appears that the ink has been deteriorating from the period of Henry 8th, and that it is now extremely bad. But it really appears that sufficient pains are not taken to procure the best that could be had: for instance, it was stated in evidence that very good ink used to be furnished to some of the public offices by an old man, who had lately died and left a wife and family. It is very natural to suppose that this man imparted the secret of the manufacture of this ink to his family. The committee, therefore, asked one of the witnesses, who appeared to have employed the old man, whether his family knew how to make the ink; the answer was, "I never inquired." And this, indeed, is the fact. The ink is now supplied to all the public offices and the Houses of Parliament, by the Stationery office. Mr. Ca ley in his evidence said—“I understand there is now a carelessness about the use of ink (in the public offices), and consequently docu ments up to a hundred years ago cannot be read so well as those of an earlier date." Mr. Caley considers the ink used in the time of Elizabeth extremely bad; the par liamentary rolls of that date are much faded. Some of George 3rd's have faded already. Mr.

Bailey said "The ink has been of a glutinous nature, which peels off, from the time of Henry 8th. As to the earlier records a piece of parchment might be put into water, and left for two or three days, and it would not be injured: that has been tried. For several years there have been attempts made to wash them with soap and water; it has not had the least effect, but the ink remains brighter and firmer than it was. There was more iron used in the ink in former times than there is now, which has eaten more firmly into the substance." Mr. Hewlett attributed the fading of the ink in some degree to the bad quality of the parchment now used: "It is," he observed, spongy, oily, greasy, and not sufficiently dressed in my opinion, we do not find that in ancient times; we find the parchment as smooth and as capable of taking writing as it can be. The parch ment of ancient times is much thinner than it is now; I have seen it almost as fine as paper, and yet good parchment." He added, that

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he did not think sufficient care was taken to procure good parchment for the records; he thought that good stout paper would be better than the parchment now used.

Mr. Cohen thought that the badness of the parchment was occasioned by there being put on it too much calcareous matter, to give it what was called a face. He had observed in modern books printed on vellum, that some preparation of lime had been put on the skin to make them look handsome. The ink in consequence looks black at first, but after a time it scales off. But bad as the parchment is, Mr. Cohen said he should prefer it to the best paper.

There are some paper bills preserved in the parliament office; the earliest are of the date of 1600; the paper is very brown, but the writing is legible. The rapid fading of the ink employed in writing public records is a matter which ought to attract the most serious attention of those whose duty it is to endeavour to obviate the mischief.

ABSTRACT of the REPORT of the COMMISSIONERS of INQUIRY on the State of AGRICULTURE and TRADE in NEW SOUTH WALES and VAN DIEMAN'S LAND.

The "Report of the Commismissioners of Inquiry on the State of Agriculture and Trade in the Colony of New South Wales," was ordered by the House of Commons to be printed on 13th March, 1823, and is numbered 136 among the parliamentary papers of the present year. The report is prefaced by Mr. John Thomas Bigge (who some time back reported upon the laws and judicial establishment of this colony), and is addressed to earl Bathurst.

1. "Of the State of Agriculture, and Regulations for Granting Lands in New South Wales and Van Dieman's Land." This portion of the report sets out with assigning the limits of the counties named Cumberland, Argyle, and Camden. The first of these includes part of the Cow-pastures, and is watered by the two rivers, the Hawkesbury and the Nepean, of which the former empties itself into Broker-bay. The country lying between Shoal-harbour river

and the Nepean, and extending inland to the river Warragumba, has received the appellation of Camden County, and takes in the larger part of the Cow-pastures, the hills of Nattai, and the Bargo tract. Argyle joins Camden on the southwest, and its other boundaries are defined by rivers which are thus oddly denominated-the Wingee, Caribbee, Shoal Haven, Cockbundon, and Wallondilly. Cumberland, which is about 53 miles in length, and 46 in breadth (mea suring the breadth from the sea to the base of the Blue Mountains), has been divided into 31 districts. These comprehend the principal town, Sydney, and the towns of Paramatta, Windsor, and Liverpool, and the townships of Richmond, Castlereagh, and Campbell town. The geological aspect of this county must be singular; for it is described as presenting from the coast inland a succession of ridges of stratified sand-stone, gradually decreasing in height until they are lost at some distance from the shore, under the soil, which is itself nothing more than a thin decomposition of sand-stone, strongly coloured with iron. The external appearance of the coast and the adjacent country is extremely steril and forbidding; and, excepting on the spot memorable for the first landing of captain Cook and sir Joseph Banks, the natural grasses of the country are poor, stunted and meagre. But in the interior of the country, the soil is thin and light, lying on a red, yellow, or blue clay, resting upon a substratum of slate, which, as well as the clay, is aluninous. It is generally called forest land, and is more fertile in proportion to the hilliness of the country. The alluvial land of Cumberland is distinguished by

"its depth and inexhaustible fertility." Land of this kind lies on both sides of the Nepean and Hawkesbury Rivers. West of Paramatta, there is a tract, forming the base of a hill called Prospect-hill, and consisting of a deep red loam, resting upon whinstone, which is most remarkable for its fertility. Limestone, though it has not yet been quarried, is very generally diffused over this county; the great physical defect of which is its want of water. Between the sea-coast and the Nepean, there have been found hardly any natural springs; and from the slight elevation of the country, the tides flow to a very considerable distance up all the rivers, rendering the waters brackish and unserviceable, during the summer season, both at Liverpool and Paramatta. In the same season, the various rivulets are nearly dry; but their beds being very broken, the water lodges in deep hollows, forming chains of natural ponds, the contents of which are much affected by the aluminous nature of the soil. water found by penetrating the stratified sand-stone is generally free from this taint. Camden contains "the extensive tracts known by the name of the Cow-pastures; to which five of the cattle that were landed from his majesty's ship Sirius, soon after the arrival of governor Phillips, had strayed from their place of confinement. They were discovered in these tracts in the year 1795 by a convict; and appeared to have been attracted to the spot, and to have continued there, from the superior quality of the herbage. Since that period, their numbers have been greatly increased; and they have lately occupied the hilly ranges by which the Cow-pastures are backed on

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the south, and have been found in the deeper ravines of the hills. of Nattai, and on the banks of the Bargo River. It does not appear, however, that they have ever penetrated beyond the Blue Mountains, or the barren tract called the Bargo Brush. The Cow-pastures extend northwards from the river Bargo, to the junction of the rivers Warragumba and Nepean. To the west they are bounded by some of the branches of the latter river, and the hills of the Nattai. They contain, by computation, about 60,000 acres; the soil, though varying in fertility, but always deepening and improving on the banks and margin of the Nepean, consists of a light sandy loam, resting upon a substratum of clay."

It is impossible to peruse this passage, without being struck by the apparently humble and inadequate origin of those numerous herds of cattle, which are destined to form a principal part of the subsistence of a people, as new to these immense regions as their own race: for New Holland furnishes a striking exception, in the paucity of its quadrupeds, to that general rule which nature seems to have prescribed to herself that where the soil and the climate are favourable to the production of food, the production of animals is in proportion. The report proceeds to describe the general character of the soil of Camden county, in other parts; particularly of Illawarra; where it is said to be rich and alluvial, and tolerably well supplied with water. In 1821, there remained 10,000 acres, only, ungranted in this district. The county of Westmorland designates the tracts that have been discovered and occupied to the west of the Blue Mountains, including the settle

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ment at Bathurst: but at the date of the report, no boundaries were settled as to this county. The county of Argyle appears to be, for the most part, favoured by peculiar fertility and richness. It is a deep red loam, bearing a thick and vigorous vegetation of the natural grasses of the colony, and abundance of the shrub called the Daviesia and the wild indigo." The trees here are of large dimensions, and there are open spaces of forest, on the same rich soil. This tract, called Sutton Forest, contains about 15,000 acres of fertile land. Eden Forest, lying between the Cockbundon and Wallondilly rivers, contains also 15,000 acres, and is said to be not more wooded than is barely sufficient for shelter and ornament to the land. Goulburn Plains, extending from the Cockbundon. range of hills, 10 miles south-west, includes a space of 35,000 acres; and still further to the south-west are the Bredalbane Plains, an open tract of flat land. But these plains, though not en-` cumbered with wood, have a poor and swampy soil, saturated with water in the winter season, and bearing a very coarse and tufted grass. Between this tract and Bathurst lake, the country becomes more hilly and woody, and the swamps more extensive. circumference of Bathurst lake is about 12 miles; and Mr. Mechan, the Deputy Surveyor-General, who had visited it for the first time in the year 1818, was of opinion that it had much increased in size in the interval. Several trees and shrubs on the margin of the lake appeared to have been very lately surrounded with water." Between lake Bathurst and lake George, the land is covered with stunted trees and rocks of various kinds-granite,

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