Page:The Statutes of the Realm Vol 1 (1101-1377).pdf/35

the Editors of Statutes, Pulton, Hawkins, Cay, &c. There is Evidence also that Statute Rolls have existed of a subsequent Time; for the Statutes after 8 Edward IV, until 4 Henry VII. inclusive, are inserted in the early Printed Editions in a Form manifestly copied from complete Statute Rolls; and they are found in the like Form in Lib. XI. in the Exchequer at Westminster, MS. Cott. Nero C. I, in the British Museum, and in several other Manuscript Collections. But there is reason to conclude, that the making up of the Statute Roll entirely ceased with the Session 4 Hen. VII, as no such Roll of a later Date, nor any Evidence thereof has been discovered; and it is observable that in the next Session, 7 Hen. VII, Public Acts were, for the first time, printed from the several Bills passed in Parliament, and not as part of one general Statute drawn up in the antient Form.

2. Inrollments of Acts of Parliament.—These are Records, containing the Acts of Parliament certified and delivered into Chancery. They are preserved in the Chapel of the Rolls, in an uninterrupted Series from 1 Ric. III. to the present Time; except only during the Usurpation. By the Officers of Chancery they are commonly termed “Parliament Rolls;” and they are variously endorsed, some with the Phrase “Inrollments of Acts.”^[1] From 1 Ric. III. to 3 Car. I. inclusive, they comprehend several other Proceedings of Parliament besides the Acts inrolled; (sometimes for Instance, the Commissions for giving the Royal Assent to Bills are found entered on them;^[2]) thus partaking of the Qualities of Rolls of Parliament, and including nearly the same Contents: until, the miscellaneous Matters disappearing by Degrees, the Acts inrolled only occur: After 5 Hen. VII. they may be considered in Effect, as coming in the Place of the Statute Roll.^[3] To 25 Hen. VIII. they contain all Acts, Public and Private, which were passed in every Session, each with an introductory and concluding Form of their being presented and assented to: From 25 Hen. VIII, to 35 Eliz. several of the Private Acts, and afterwards to 3 Car. I. all the Private Acts, are omitted, their Titles only being noticed. From 16 Car. I. to 31 George II. the Inrollments contain nothing but the Public Acts, and the Titles of the Private Acts, with the several Forms of Assent, without any other Parliamentary Matter. And from 32 George II. their Contents are the same, with the Omission of the Titles of the Private Acts.

At present, after all the Public-General Acts of the Session have received the Royal Assent, a Transcript of the Whole is certified by the Clerk of the Parliaments, and deposited in the Rolls Chapel: On that Occasion the Clerk of the Parliaments sends the Roll, or Rolls, containing such Transcript, apparently in a complete State, engrossed on Parchment, signed, and certified by him as Clerk of the Parliaments; and it is thereupon arranged with the other Records; and thus becomes the Inrollment of the Statutes of that Session of Parliament. For this Transcript the Clerk of the Parliaments is paid every Session out of the Hanaper, on a Receipt by the Clerk of the Records in the Rolls Chapel, stating that the Roll is delivered there.

It may be further observed upon this Subject, that the Proceedings which took Place in the House of Lords in Ireland in 1758,^[4] for the better Preservation of the Records of Parliament in that Kingdom, where the Constitution and Law of Parliament were in all essential Points conformable to those of England, afford a strong Illustration of the Practice of certifying Statutes and recording them in Chancery.^[5]

---

1. See Appendix E. subjoined to this Introduction; as also the First Report of the Select Committee of the House of Commons on the Public Records, Ordered to be printed 4 July 1800, and the Appendix thereto D. i. a. page 84. And further as to Rolls of Parliament, see post pa. xxxvii.
2. No Notice is taken, at the present Day, on the Inrollment of Acts in Chancery, of any Commission by which Acts are passed: It is believed that no Instance of the Entry of any such Commission on that Inrollment has occurred since the Time of Charles I. See in Appendix F. subjoined to this Introduction, a further Account of these Inrollments, and a Copy of the earliest Commission for giving the Royal Assent.
3. See ante page xxxiii. and Appendix E. subjoined to this Introduction.
4. See an Account of these Proceedings in Appendix E.
5. The following Minute respecting the Mode of framing Statutes is extracted from the Treatise intituled, ‘Expeditionis Billarum Antiquitas’ quoted in Page xxxii, Note 5.

   The Statute was made by the King and a Council of Judges and others, who were called to assist herein.—“the usual Time for making a Statute was after the end of every Parliament; and after the Parliament Roll was engrossed, except on some extraordinary Occasions.”—“The Statute was drawn out of the Petition and Answer, and penned in the form of a Law, into several Chapters, or Articles, as they were originally termed.”—“The Statute being thus drawn up into divers Heads or Articles, now called Chapters, it was shewn to the King; and upon his Majesty’s Approbation thereof, it was engrossed (sometimes with a Preamble to it, and a Clause of ‘Observari Volumus’ at the Conclusion, and sometimes without any Preamble at all,) and then by Writs sent into every County to be proclaimed.” See Rot. Parl. 14 Edw. III. nu. 7: 15 Edw. III. nu. 42: 17 Edw. III. nu. 19, 23: 18 Edw. III. nu. 12, 23, 24: 22 Edw. III. nu. 4, 30: 25 Edw. III. m. 5. nu. 12, 13; m. 4. nu. 43: 27 Edw. III. nu. 42: 28 Edw. III. nu. 16: 37 Edw. III. nu. 39: 1 Ric II. nu. 56: 2 Ric II. nu. 28: 3 Ric. II. nu. 46, 50: 6 Ric. II. nu. 34, 52: 7 Ric. II. nu. 40: 2 Hen. IV. nu. 21: 7 & 8 Hen. IV. nu. 31, 37, 48, 60, 65: 13 Hen. IV. nu. 17: 2 Hen. V. P. 1. nu. 22: 8 Hen. V. nu. xvi: 9 Hen. IV. nu. 17: 2 Hen. VI. nu. 46: 10 Hen. VI. nu. 17: 15 Hen. VI. nu. 33: Hale H. C. L. ch. 1. and 3 Keble’s Rep. 587.

   “Many Inconveniencies happened to the Subject by the antient Form, in framing and publishing of the Statutes, viz. Sometimes no Statute hath been made, though agreed on; many Things have been omitted; many Things have been added in the Statute; a Statute hath been made, to which the Commons did not assent, and even to which neither Lords nor Commons assented.” See 1 Hale P.C. 394; 3 Inst. 40, 41; 12 Rep. 57; Rot. Parl. 18 Edw. III. nu. 32—39: 3 Ric. II. nu. 38: 6 Ric. II. nu. 53.

   “Les ditz cões prierent a nr̃e s le Roy, q̃ les bosoignes faites & affaires en cest ꝑlement soient enactez & engrossez dev^ant le deꝑtir des Justices tantcome ils les aient en leur memoire; a quoi leur feust responduz q̃ le Clerk du ꝑlement ferroit son devoir pur enacter & engrosser la substance du ꝑlement ꝑ advis des Justices, & puis le monstrer au Roy & as s en ꝑlement pur savoir leur advis.”—Rot. Parl. 2 Hen. IV. nu. 21.

   As to the inrolling of the Statute in Chancery, See Rot. Claus. 12 Edw. II. m. 22 d. where the Proceeding is thus explicitly stated. “Le Roi voet & g^aunt - - - q̃ tutes les choses desusescrites soient enroullez en roulle de parlement, & de illoesq̃s envoie en sa Chauncellerie, & illuesq̃s enroullez, & de illusqes per bref de son g^ant seal envoiez a les places del Escheker & de lun Baunk & del autre, od comandement de enrouller les illoeq̃s & a tenir les & a garder en la fourme avantdite.”

   And in conformity with this proceeding, Statutes made in England and required to be proclaimed and observed in Ireland, were sent to the Chancellor there, to be inrolled in the Chancery of that Kingdom, and thence exemplified and sent to the Courts of Justice, &c.—See Stat. 12 Edw. II. and the Writs at the End thereof, page 179, of the Statutes in this Volume; and