REGENT OF THE UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND,
IN COUNCIL.
We, The Commissioners constituted and appointed by His Majesty’s Royal Commission, bearing Date the Twenty-third Day of May 1806, in the Forty-sixth Year of His Majesty’s Reign, for carrying into Execution the Measures recommended in the Report made by the Select Committee of the House of Commons, in the Year 1800, with respect to the State of the Public Records of the Kingdom, and the Necessity of providing for the better Arrangement, Preservation, and more convenient Use of the same, and the printing of certain of the more antient and valuable amongst them, Do most humbly beg leave to certify to Your Royal Highness;
That, in the Execution of our Commission We have, among the other Matters referred to Us, proceeded to carry into Effect so much of the Measures recommended by His Majesty’s Faithful Commons, as related to the preparing and printing A Complete and Authentic Collection of The Statutes of the Realm;
And, Having, by virtue of the said Commission, nominated and appointed several learned Persons, of Ability, Care, and Diligence, upon whose Fidelity we could sufficiently rely, to be our Sub-Commissioners, and under our Direction and Controul to be assisting to Us in the Premises; and having also, upon the Reports of the said Sub-Commissioners, made to Us from Time to Time, fully considered as well of the Mode of preparing and completing the said Collection, as of the several Matters to be included therein, We have directed the said Sub-Commissioners to methodize and arrange all such Materials, as appeared to Us to be necessary for completing and duly setting forth the said Collection, and to distribute them under the following Heads:— First, An Introduction; containing An Account of all former printed Collections, Translations, and Abridgements of the Statutes, and of the Plans heretofore proposed for an Authentic Publication, or for the Revision, of the Statutes; together with An Account of The Charters prefixed to this Collection; The Matters inserted therein, and their Arrangement; The Nature of the several Records, and other Sources from whence the said Collection has been made, and the Mode adopted in making and printing the same; The Original Language of the Charters and Statutes, and the Translation annexed to this Collection of the Statutes; and also An Account of the
