College and Research Libraries The Sessional Papers: Last Phase By E D G A R L. E R I C K S O N TH E B R I T I S H H O U S E OF C O M M O N S S e s -sional Papers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries are, as I wrote seven y e a r s a g o i n t h e Library Journal ( J a n . 1, 1953), "the richest and most i m p o r t a n t collection of p r i n t e d government records in existence in any country." W i t h n o complete set of these documents in exist- ence anywhere, the program of republica- tion, which I as editor had undertaken, presented problems of locating, identify- ing, collating, reassembling, editing, and manually foliating the more than eighty thousand separate publications, totaling 4,600,000 pages, which developed into a . task of extraordinary proportions and involved complexity. T h e unusual editorial b u r d e n imposed by this program developed from the sheer mass of the documents, the lack of a master list and of a master collection fully collated, and the limited informa- tion concerning individual papers in the J o u r n a l s a n d Votes of the House, about the only sources from which one may learn of official action on a paper. Ques- tions such as these presented the ever recurring problems that had to be re- solved: Does the table of contents of each volume list all of the papers of the vol- ume? Do papers listed in the composite a n n u a l a n d period indexes b u t not in the tables of contents of volumes belong in the collections? Do papers b o u n d in the volumes a n d listed in the tables of contents thereof or in the indexes or in both b u t which are not recorded in the Journals and Votes as having been or- dered to be printed belong in the collec- tions? Do papers recorded as ordered to be printed in the J o u r n a l s and Votes which are not listed in the tables of con- tents or in the indexes or both belong in Dr. Erickson is Professor of History, Uni- versity of Illinois. the collections? W h e n the allotment of pages for a paper in the volume table of contents exceeds the actual n u m b e r of pages of the paper b o u n d in the volume is the table of contents incorrect or the paper incomplete? W h e n the title p r i n t e d on a paper differs from the title in the table of contents or in the indexes or in the Journals and Votes is the error in the title or in the paper? How can eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century papers on which the numbers are not printed be positively identified? How are nineteenth- century papers whose numbers are pre- ceded by a zero a n d decimal point to be regarded? How can the Irish papers be distinguished from those of the British government in the early years of the nine- teenth century? W h a t should be done about papers ordered to be printed b u t which are reported to have been with- drawn? How can the complete text of a paper be ascertained when it contains plates, plans, charts, maps, designs, etc. for which pagination was not allowed in either the paper or in the collection vol- ume tables of contents, and which, if listed at all, are listed obscurely in the index or table of contents of the paper? And so on ad infinitum might the list be continued. As the slow, and at times agonizing, drudgery of moving the m o u n t a i n pro- ceeded, a point was finally reached when the end was actually in sight, except for a few elusive items which one suspected might be lost to posterity. In the case of the republication of the House of Com- mons Sessional Papers, 1731-1800, Second Series, commonly known as the Abbot Collection, and the nineteenth-century a n n u a l series, 1801-1900, this beginning of the end was reached when all except 128 out of approximately 2,200 papers in the Abbot Collection and 17 out of ap- proximately 80,000 papers of the nine- teenth-century collection had been col- lated and processed for republication. In England d u r i n g the summer of 1959 the editor was able to locate the missing items. As a result it is now possible to complete the publication of these parlia- mentary collections. Done at a cost of nearly one-half million dollars u n d e r the editorship of the a u t h o r of this article, the Readex microprint edition now for the first time makes available complete c o l l e c t i o n s of t h e Second Series, 1731- 1800, Abbot Collection, and of the an- nual series, 1801-1900, of the British House of Commons Sessional Papers, col- lections which heretofore have not existed complete in any library in the world. T h e move to r e p r i n t the Sessional Papers was initiated by the editor in 1938. O n the strength of data gathered in sup- port of a publication plan, the Executive Council of the American Historical As- sociation endorsed the program and es- tablished a special Committee on the British Sessional Papers—an affiliate of the Committee on Historical Source Ma- terials—to carry it out. T h e special committee, in turn, entered into an agree- ment with the Readex Microprint Corpo- ration for the publication of the Sessional Papers in microprint, a then revolution- ary m e d i u m of printing-press p r i n t i n g at high reduction. 1 T h e papers were to be p r i n t e d on six-by-nine inch cards of per- m a n e n t record quality, and, insofar as possible, the format was to follow the decimal arrangement of one h u n d r e d micropages on each card. T h e Readex company agreed to finance the program 1 The process was developed by Albert Boni, New York, during more than twenty years of research. See Edgar L. Erickson, "Microprint: A Revolution in Print- ing," The Journal of Documentation, V I I (1951), 184-87. 344 on a self-liquidating basis u p o n being assured an initial m i n i m u m of twenty- five prepublication subscribers. T h e work proceeded rapidly at first, for in 1942 the papers for the years 1821-25 inclusive were published and released.2 T h e n came the war with its stifling shortages of materials. Unfore- seen technical difficulties and legal and financial troubles added f u r t h e r to the complications, all of which caused a stale- mate in operations for several years. Meanwhile the work of collating and editing continued at the central base of operations in the New York Public Li- brary, and, once the Readex company had cleared u p its problems, the bulk of the Sessional Papers was published and distributed in the relatively short period extending from 1951 to 1957.3 By 1958, consequently, only those pa- pers that could not be located in reposi- tories in the U n i t e d States and Canada, or which foreign agents had not suc- ceeded in finding for us in England, re- mained to be published. As time elapsed it became evident that the work of find- ing the missing papers could not be dele- gated successfully to agents abroad, and that if the program were to be completed the editor would have to go to England and perform the necessary search, re- search, and leg-work of beating the bushes for the missing items. T h i s he did while on sabbatical leave from the Uni- versity of Illinois in the spring and sum- mer of 1959. T H E A B B O T C O L L E C T I O N T h e Abbot Collection of eighteenth- century papers was assembled by Luke Hansard, p r i n t e r for the House of Com- mons, u n d e r the direction of Charles 3 Subsequently, after World War II, the first micro- print edition for the years 1821-25 was withdrawn from circulation and reissued so as to give the subscribers benefit of improved technical advances in printing. 3 The bulk of the load of locating the papers in the United States and Canada and of preparing the papers for microprinting was done under the supervision of Mrs. Albert Boni, managing editor, without whose tire- less and gigantic efforts this program never could have been completed. Credit is also due Dr. Erica Muller, who was responsible for preparing the papers for the years 1821-44 for microcopying. C O L L E G E A N D R E S E A R C H L I B R A R I E S Abbot (Lord Colchester), Speaker of the House, 1802-17,4 as p a r t of a broad pro- gram of collation and r e p r i n t i n g with the view to making the papers readily avail- able for members of the Commons.5 Un- til that time the papers had not been numbered, collated, and b o u n d for gen- eral use.6 T h e papers had been, and con- tinued to be, published in small-folio size and the surplus copies were stored in government warehouses.7 As time elapsed members of Commons had f o u n d it in- creasingly difficult to obtain the papers of previous years. Mr. Hansard had a considerable stock of eighteenth-century papers in his warehouses, and f r o m these stocks he assembled for the period 1731- 1800 four sets of the original papers, one each for the Speaker's Gallery, for the Clerk of the J o u r n a l to be kept in his office, and for the Clerk of the J o u r n a l for use by the members of Commons, and for the British Museum.8 Mr. H a n s a r d also assembled in a n n u a l series the origi- nal papers for the nineteenth century. T h i s series began in 1801 and was b o u n d according to a subject classification and grouping that was considered most ad- vantageous for use by Commons and the government departments. T h e decision to b i n d the eighteenth-century papers in a composite arrangement covering the century and the nineteenth-century pa- p e r s in a n a n n u a l c o m p o s i t e series * Second. Report from' the Select Committee on Com- mittee Rooms and Printed Papers, H. C. Sess. Paps., 1825 (515): 3-4, V:13-14. 5 Report of Lord Glenbervie from the Committee Ap- pointed to Enquire into the State and Condition of Printed Journals of the House, and General Indexes thereto, and also Volumes of Printed Reports, &c.; Jour. H. C., 1802-3, L V I I I , 638, 653-58. Third Report from the Select Committee on Committee Rooms and Printed Papers, H. C. Sess. Paps., 1825 (516), 3ff, V:23ff. Classification of the Parliamentary Papers and a Breifiate of Their Contents, &C., H. C. Sess. Paps., 1830 (81), 1-171, V:143-314. 0 The papers published by order of the House of Com- mons in the eighteenth century were grouped and num- bered by groups when the Abbot Collection was collated under the direction Charles Abbot, Speaker of the House. See Catalogue of Papers Printed by Order of the House of Commons from the years 1731-1800 (1807) and H. C. Sess. Paps., 1825 (515), 4, V:14. 7 H. C. Sess. Paps., 1825 (515), 4, V:14 and (516), 4, V :24. 8 App. N. I: Memoir on a Selection of Parliamentary Reports and Papers, in Continuation of Fifteen Volumes, H. C. Sess. Paps., 1825 (516), 9ff, V:29ff; (515), 2-7, V : 12-17; and Catalogue of Books of the Library of the House of Commons, H. C. Sess. Paps., 1830 (80), Iff, IV:142ff. S E P T E M B E R 1 9 6 0 stemmed not only from the fact that 1801 marked the beginning of a new century b u t that it also was the year that Ireland entered into a legislative u n i o n with Great Britain, thereby making a new ses- sional papers series essential.9 T h e resulting Second Series (110 vols.) of the eighteenth-century papers was ar- ranged chronologically for the century into three serial groups. T h e r e are 963 Bills, 174 Reports, and 1,032 Accounts and Papers. T h e Bills comprise Vols. I to X X X of the Second Series; the Reports, Vols. X X X I to L X V I I I ; a n d the Ac- counts and Papers, Vols. L I X to CX.10 In assembling the f o u r sets of the Abbot Collection Mr. Hansard prepared hand- written tables of contents for each of the volumes of the series and then proceeded to collect the papers for binding. I n this endeavor he was not able to realize com- plete fulfillment of his expectations, for in each of the Abbot Collections there are quite a large n u m b e r of the papers listed in the tables of contents of the vol- umes as being out of p r i n t . A careful examination of the Abbot Collections held by the House of Commons, the British Museum, and the University Col- lege of L o n d o n will supply anyone in- terested with convincing evidence that when in the final gathering of the papers for binding, as directed by the Speaker of the House, Mr. H a n s a r d f o u n d only one original copy of a particular paper, he placed it in the collection for the Speaker's Gallery. As a consequence, the Abbot Collection in the Speaker's Gal- lery became the most complete of the f o u r sets of original papers collated by Mr. Hansard, for there were quite a large n u m b e r of papers of which b u t single copies could be found. 1 1 On the other hand, from the standpoint of complete- ness there is little to choose between the Abbot Collections at the House of Com- 9 H. C. Sess. Paps., 1825 (515), 7, V:17 and (516), 1-11, 12ff, V:20-31, 3Iff. 10 See the Cataloaue of Papers Printed by the Order of the House of Commons from the Years 1731-1800 (1807). 11 See below in section on Bills. 345 mons and at the British Museum. W h i l e the Commons collection is probably a little more complete in original papers, the British Museum has endeavored to fill the gaps in its collection with micro- film copies of the missing papers. T h e Abbot Collection in the Com- mon's library today probably represents a combination of the two original sets that Mr. H a n s a r d prepared for the Clerk of the Journals: one set to be retained in the J o u r n a l Office and the other to be for use by the members of the Commons. T h e latter went into the Commons li- brary when space was allotted for a li- brary in 1818;12 the former also seems to have been transferred from the J o u r n a l Office to the Commons library u p o n the recommendation of the Select Committee on Printed Papers in 1825. T h e commit- tee f o u n d that since the set of p r i n t e d papers then in the custody of the Clerk of the J o u r n a l s was more complete t h a n the set in the care of the librarian of the House, it (the former) should be "trans- ferred to the library of the House as a place of more convenient access and ref- erence." 1 3 T h u s on the eve of the burn- ing of the parliament on 16 October 1834, there were two of the Abbot Collections in the Commons Library. But the official reports of the books destroyed in and saved from the fire are strangely lacking in i n f o r m a t i o n concerning what hap- pened to the two Abbot Collections in the Commons library, though these re- ports do enumerate the other House of Commons and Lords Papers and Jour- nals that were lost in and salvaged f r o m the fire.14 Fortunately, Professor H . H a l e Bellot, as a result of his extensive re- search in parliamentary printing, has concluded that one of the f o u r original 13 Report from Select Committee on the Present State of the Library of the House of Commons, H. C. Sess. Paps., 1830 (496), 10-11, IV:44-45 (Evidence of Henry Ley). Until 1818 a small library under the custodianship of the Clerk of the Journals was available to members of Commons; the great increase in parliamentary papers caused a much larger library under a full time librarian to be established in that year. 13 H. C. Sess. Paps., 1825 (516), 4, V:24. u Report from the Standing Committee on the Library Abbot Collections was destroyed in the 1834 fire.15 I n the light of this informa- tion one may conclude that the Abbot Collection in the House of Commons li- brary today is one or the other of the two original collections assembled by Mr. H a n s a r d for the Clerk of the Journals, or, possibly is a part of both, for it is improbable that one was entirely de- stroyed and the other escaped completely intact f r o m the conflagration.1 6 SPEAKER'S G A L L E R Y A B B O T C O L L E C T I O N It is not likely that library circles in L o n d o n were aware that the Abbot Col- lection in the Speaker's Gallery was the most complete of these original collec- tions. If that fact h a d been known it is improbable that the Speaker of the House would have consented to the loan of the Speaker's Gallery set to the University College library early in the present cen- tury.1 7 It is not q u i t e fitting that either the House of Commons or, for that mat- ter, the British Museum should be placed in the position of second best in the mat- ter of parliamentary papers holdings. T h e discovery, or rediscovery, of the superiority of the Speaker's Gallery Ab- bot Collection over the other original sets resulted from a train of thought in- s p i r e d by p a r l i a m e n t a r y p a g e a n t r y . W h e n the editor made his first visit to parliament for the purpose of discussing with the librarian of the House of Com- mons the problem of locating the mis- sing papers, he arrived at the river end of the lobby between the two houses b u t a few moments before the passing of the Speaker on his way to convene Commons. of the House of Commons, together with the Minutes of Evidence and Appendices, H. C. Sess. Paps., 1835 (104), 16-22 (Apps. A , B, C ) , XVIII:121-28. 16 H. Hale Bellot, "Parliamentary Printing. 1660- 1837," Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research (London), XT (1933-34), 94. 19 The books in the lower library that were saved were thrown out the windows into Cotten Garden and sal- vaged after the fire. H. C. Sess. Paps., 1835 (104) :3, XVTIT:107. 17 The present staff of the University College Library was not aware that the library had the Speaker's Gal- lery Abbot Collection; nor do they have the records that show how the collection was obtained by University College. 346 C O L L E G E A N D R E S E A R C H L I B R A R I E S I n respectful silence he took position along the wall and in wonderment ob- served the guard close by rise up on his toes a n d in f u l l resonant voice shout, " T h e Speaker!" T h e people in the lobby stepped to the sides of the passageway and froze at attention; the area became strangely quiet as the Speaker, preceded by a guard a n d a mace-bearer, each at- tired in the medieval regalia of his office, debouched from a doorway at the end of the lobby and in measured steps moved like ghosts along the corridor to the House of Commons. T h i s brief act of pantomimic medieval pageantry brought home to the editor a new appreciation of the majestic sovereignty of the Speaker over his domain in parliament. Unaware at the time that the episode of the pass- ing of the Speaker was to become a clue to the locating of missing sessional pa- pers, the editor was then ushered to the office of the librarian. Before seeking the assistance of the librarian of Commons, the editor had carefully checked the list of missing pa- pers against the Abbot Collection at the British Museum. T h i s check had yielded f r u i t f u l , b u t by n o means complete, re- sults. In the British Museum collection a n u m b e r of the missing items were noted as being located in the Speaker's Gallery set. T h e editor supposed, naturally, that the Speaker's Gallery set would be in the House of Commons, and that it would most likely be the one used by the mem- bers. H o l d i n g this view he began his sur- vey of the Commons Abbot Collection which the librarian graciously made avail- able to him, only to discover that the papers noted at the British Museum as being in the Speaker's Gallery set were usually missing in the Commons set as well. It therefore became obvious that the Speaker's Gallery set was not the one in the Commons library. Meanwhile it had finally dawned u p o n the editor that the same Speaker who commanded the awesome respect of the House would also have h a d assembled for his use the most complete Abbot Collection that it was possible for Mr. Hansard to arrange. Where then was the Speaker's set? T h i s query addressed to a staff member of the Commons library elicited an equivocal reply: " T r y the University College of L o n d o n . " At University College the edi- tor f o u n d the Speaker's Gallery Abbot Collection, and in it were a large ma- jority of the missing papers that were not in either the British Museum or Com- mons sets.18 T h e discovery of both the location and the superior completeness of the Speaker's Gallery set was surpris- ing news to the libraries holding original Abbot Collections. A B B O T C O L L E C T I O N : B I L L S Of the 963 Bills in the Abbot Collec- tion, sixty-three were needed to complete the Readex microprint edition. Of this n u m b e r all except twenty-one were f o u n d in the British Museum and Commons sets; the twenty-one were f o u n d only in the Speaker's Gallery set. By short title they are: No. 26 (1745): A bill to obviate difficulties in the laws touching p o o r removals, over- seers accounts, 8cc., 12p. No. 105a (1758): A bill obliging parishes to keep registers of births, &c., and to raise a fund for the foundling hospital, 16p. No. I l l (1759): A bill amending acts for the preservation of highways and roads, 28p. No. 120b (1760): A bill better ordering the militia forces in Scotland, 36p. No. 128b (1762/3): A bill concerning West- minster paving (with amendments), 26p. No. 135a (1764/5): A bill for allowing the exchanges of real estates by ecclesiastical persons, corporations, and trustees for char- itable uses, 8p. No. 135b (1764/5): A bill to encourage and facilitate marriages, 8p. 18 Notwithstanding the excellence of the University College Speaker's Gallery Abbot Collection, vols. 31, 40, 56, 57, 58 (all Reports vols.), and 94 and 95 (Accounts and Papers vols.) are missing. It may be that these were withdrawn from the Collection to complete the House of Commons Abbot Collection losses suffered in the 1834 fire. S E P T E M B E R 1 9 6 0 347 No. 135c (1764/5): A bill to explain Act 12 of William III, for preventing inconven- iences that may happen by the privilege of parliament, 4p. No. 135d (1764/5): A bill for the better relief and employment of the poor, 36p. No. 135e (1764/5): A bill for additional duties on silk, See., 8p. No. 135f (1764/5): A bill for regulating the currency of notes and bills issued by Scotch banks, 8p. No. 135g (1765): A bill enabling ecclesiasti- cal persons to exchange their lands (with amendments), 6p. No. 135h (1765): A bill enforcing uniformity to the standards of weights and measures, 22p. No. 135i (1765): A bill to enlarge the power of Westminster paving acts, 24p. No. 135k (1765): A bill to amend laws touch- ing elections, 32p. No. 136 (1765): A bill to restrain the ill prac- tice of brokers, 6p. No. 138 (1765): A bill to continue Act 30 of Geo[rge] II for the more effectual amend- ment of highways and roads, 7p. No. 140 (1765): A bill to quiet the present possession of leases from ecclesiastical per- sons, 4p. No. 143 (1765): A bill for the better relief and employment of the p o o r (with amend- ments), 38p. No. 149 (1766): A bill to explain acts for the amendment and preservation of highways, 8p. # # # T w o papers in the Bills group, nos. 421a and 421b of 1782, present an enigma that has not been entirely cleared up. No. 421a is listed in the Catalogue of Papers . . . 1731 to 1800 (1807), and its full title is "A bill inflicting pains and penalties on Sir T h o m a s R u m b o l d , Baronet, and P e t e r P e r r i n g , E s q u i r e , f o r c e r t a i n breaches of public trust, and high crimes and misdemeanors, committed by them whilst they respectively held offices of governor a n d president, counsellors and members of the select committee, of the settlement of Fort Saint George, on the coast of Coromandel, in the East In- dies."1 9 In the same Catalogue paper no. 421b is entered as being "the same" as no. 421a, and in the three Abbot Collec- tions in L o n d o n the texts of the two pa- pers are identical, both being forty-one pages. Since the J o u r n a l s of the House of Commons for 1782 contain no record of an order for a second printing, there is no a p p a r e n t reason why a duplicate of the original bill should be included in the collection, aside f r o m the fact that Mr. H a n s a r d p u t it there. For that rea- son alone, no. 421b as produced in the Readex microprint edition is a duplicate of no. 421a.20 Logic dictates that at least two other papers might better have been used by H a n s a r d as no. 421b than the one se- lected. T h e first is a bill introduced 3 J u n e a n d given royal assent on 1 July 1782, entitled "A bill to provide that the proceedings on the bill now p e n d i n g in parliament for inflicting certain pains and penalties on Sir T h o m a s R u m b o l d , Baronet, and Peter Perring, Esquire, for certain breaches of public trust, and high crimes and misdemeanors . . . , shall not be discontinued by any prorogation or dissolution of p a r l i a m e n t . " 2 1 T h e pur- pose of this bill was to prevent discontin- uance of action against Sir T h o m a s R u m b o l d and Peter Perring by reason of a prorogation or dissolution of parlia- ment. I n a series of resolutions embodied in the original bill, no. 421a, these offi- cials, formerly at Fort St. George, were charged with acquiring f u n d s not prop- erly accounted for to the East India Company, and with failure to act offi- 19 A bill for inflicting1 pains and penalties on Sir Thomas Rumbold, &c. was ordered 29 April, 1782; pre- sented and read for the first time 7 May; and ordered to be printed on 8 May. See Jour. H. C „ X X X V I I I , 961, 987, and 991, respectively. 20 For papers no. 421a and 421b see H. C. Sess. Paps., 1731-1800 (2nd Series), X I I . « Jour. H. C., X X X V I I I , 1030, 1042, 1046, 1050-51, 1054-55, 1130 and Public General Acts, 22 Geo. I l l , Cap. L I X , 947-48. 348 C O L L E G E A N D R E S E A R C H L I B R A R I E S cially so as to prevent the incursions of Hyder Ali in the Carnatic in 1780.22 Parliament at this particular time was extremely sensitive about the corruption in I n d i a and was of n o m i n d to let the officials involved by the bill escape pun- ishment by reason of prorogation or dis- solution. T h e bill insuring the continu- ance of action in the next session, though passed and approved, was never ordered printed, and, consequently, was not in- cluded in the Abbot Collection,2 3 though it logically could be considered more ap- propriate as no. 421b than the one so designated by Mr. Hansard. In the nine- teenth century such a bill would have b e e n o r d e r e d p r i n t e d a n d i n c l u d e d among the parliamentary papers of the session. A second paper that might well have become no. 421b was also one that grew out of the original bill, no. 421a in the Abbot Collection. T h e original bill, as may be noted from the title, was a bill of pains and penalties involving Sir T h o m a s R u m b o l d and Peter Perring.2 4 Each of the accused in separate petitions protested against the irregular action and demanded representation by counsel at the bar of the House 2 5 T h i s request was granted, for at the second reading of the bill in J a n u a r y 1783 there began a series of hearings on the bill that continued until J u n e . On 2 J u n e 1783 it was 23 For an exposition of the affairs in India that led to the action in Commons against Sir Thomas Rumbold, Baronet, and Peter Perring, Esquire, see the resolutions of 29 April 1782 of the "Committee on Secrecy Relat- ing to the Affairs of the East India Company," George Howard, Chairman; Jour. H. C., X X X V I I I , 956-61. 23 See n. 21. 24 A bill of pains and penalties resembles a bill of attainder in purpose and procedure, but imposes a lesser punishment than death. These bills had become rare by the late eighteenth century. Notable cases in which such a bill was passed are those involving the Bishop of Atterbury in 1722, and Queen Caroline, wife of George I V in 1820. This bill against Sir T. Rumbold and Peter Perring is unusual in that it is introduced in the House of Commons instead of the House of Lords. It did not pass. 25 For the petitions of Rumbold and Perring request- ing separate hearings and counsel on the charges in the bill, and for the granting of the petitions see Jour. H. C., X X X V I I I , 963-64, 1003-4, 1005, 1039; and X X X I X , 31-32, 82, 119-20, 143, 171, 178, 194, 237, 255, 261, 272, 346, 354, 369, 371, 398, 400, 405, 411, 419-20, 422, 427, 430, 448, 454. See also petitions of Sir T. Rumbold and Peter Perring, 15 May and 17 May 1782, respectively; Jour, of the House of Lords, X X X V I , 498, 503. S E P T E M B E R 1 9 6 0 "ordered that such a n u m b e r of minutes of evidence taken at the bar of the House and of the proceedings of the House on second reading of the bill for inflicting c e r t a i n p a i n s a n d p e n a l t i e s o n Sir T h o m a s R u m b o l d and Peter Perring . . . , be printed as shall be sufficient for use of the members of the house." 2 6 Not- withstanding the p r i n t i n g order, Mr. Hansard did not include this paper among either the Bills or the Accounts and Papers of the collection.27 A B B O T C O L L E C T I O N : R E P O R T S U n d e r the Reports only those papers of the collection that were reports of committees a n d that were ordered p r i n t e d by Commons are included. Of the total of 174 reports, sixty-five re- mained to be located in England. Only after considerable searching were the missing reports f o u n d , for the three orig- inal Abbot Collections, as in the case of the bills, did not supply all of the re- ports. All told, five m a j o r snags were en- countered to complicate this phase of the collation, and a discussion of these diffi- culties will be useful to others who may attempt to assemble Abbot Collections. Probems one and two may be taken together. T h e y embraced the locating, the identifying, and the establishing of the correct text, of the reports of two committees on India that took evidence and reported in the years 1772 and 1773. T h e first of the committees was ap- pointed "to enquire into the nature, state, and condition of the East India Company, and the British affairs in the East Indies," for the period from the be- ginning of the company to 1772. T h e in- 28 Jour. H. C., X X X I X , 456. 2T Technically, the minutes of evidence taken in con- nection with the hearings on the bill to impose pains and penalties on Sir Thomas Rumbold and Mr. Peter Perring would have appeared in the Accounts and Papers group of the Abbot Collection, had they been included in the Collection by Mr. Hansard. It can be argued, therefore, that the minutes of evidence taken on the bill have no place among the Bills. The fact is, however, that the minutes were not included among the Accounts and Papers, and that being the case a paper containing these minutes more appropriately should have been put in the Collection as no. 421b rather than a duplicate of the bill which appears as both no. 421a and no. 421b. 349 vestigations, roughly, were to cover the activities of the company with the native powers a n d foreign powers, the activities of the company's servants, the conduct of the directors in the keeping of accounts a n d in the control of servants, and the abuses arising f r o m the constitution of the company.2 8 T h e findings of the com- mittee were published in five reports designated as papers nos. 15 to 19 in the Abbot Collection.2 9 T h e First Report (No. 15) was made to Commons on 26 May 1772, and it dealt with conditions in Bengal u n d e r Clive. T h e motion for the p r i n t i n g of the report "passed in the negative," b u t the report, together with its fifteen appendixes, was printed in the Journals of the House of Commons as part of the proceedings of the day.30 I n 1773, h o w e v e r , t h e First Report w a s p u b - lished separately (apparently by the gov- e r n m e n t printer, because it was done in small-folio) for private sale by " T . Evans, at No. 54, in Pater-Noster Row, and W . Davis, the Corner of Sackville Street, Piccadilly."3 1 T h e text of the 1773 edi- tion is identical to that in the Journals, b u t not to the text of the "First R e p o r t of the Committee to E n q u i r e into the Nature, State and Condition of the East I n d i a Company and the British Affairs in the East Indies," p r i n t e d in the House of Commons Sessional Rapers, 1715-1801 (First Series) III, 135-262, which is an abridgement of the original text, in that the A p p e n d i x 15 of forty-one pages has been omitted. W h e n Mr. H a n s a r d pre- pared the Abbot Collections, he included the First Report of the above committee in the collection as paper no. 15, b u t he did not succeed in locating any copies of the 1773 edition. I n each of the original Abbot Collections the entry, " O u t of P r i n t , " appears in the table of contents of Vol. II, Reports, for paper no. 15.32 28 26 May 1772, Jour. H. C., X X X I I I , 792. 29 Catalogue of Papers . . . 1731-1800, Reports, II. so Tour. H. C., X X X I I I , 792, 792-913. 81 The 1773 edition of the First Report of the Com- mittee to Enquire into the Nature, State and Condition of the East India Company, &c. consisted of forty-seven pages of report and 153 pages of appendixes. sa The original sets are at University College, the Also missing f r o m the original Abbot Collections in L o n d o n , is paper no. 16, t h e Second Report of the Committee on the Nature, State and Condition of the East India Company and the British Af- fairs in the East Indies. A l t h o u g h t h e p a - p e r is r e f e r r e d t o as t h e Second Report of the committee, it is really a special re- port that the committee was called u p o n to make on a "petition of Gregoire Co- jamaul, late of Bengal, in behalf of him- self and other A r m e n i a n merchants," to- gether with the letters referred to in the report.3 3 T h i s Second Report was made to Commons also on 26 May 1772; it was not ordered to be p r i n t e d ; b u t it was printed in the J o u r n a l s as p a r t of the proceedings of the day.34 I n the same year, however, this Second Report was p r i n t e d separately in q u a r t o for private sale by S. Blandon, Pater-Noster Row.35 Aside f r o m faulty p r i n t i n g in col. 2, p. 104, the 1772 q u a r t o edition is identical in text to the Second Report in the Jour- nals. T h e illegible lines read: . . Cap- tain H a r p e r took two parties of sepoys, and they to took me Prisoner, and carried me to Captain Harper's tent. H e sent his M u n t h y to know the Reason why we came at such an i m p r o p e r h o u r . " Aside from the text of the Second Report p r i n t e d in the Journals, the q u a r t o edi- tion printed privately in 1772 seems to have been the only edition u n t i l the re- port was reprinted in Vol. I l l of the First Series of e i g h t e e n t h - c e n t u r y Ses- sional Papers in 1803. Mr. Hansard failed to find copies of the 1772 edition of Second Report for the Abbot Collec- tions, a n d in the table of contents of Re- ports Vol. II, paper no. 16, Second Re- port ibrc., is recorded as " O u t of P r i n t . " T h e editor was about ready to conclude that the original 1773 and 1772 editions of t h e First and Second Reports of the British Museum, and the House of Commons Library. 33 Tour. H. C „ X X X I I I . 792. 34 26 May 1772, Jour. H. C., X X X I I I , 914-44. 35 This Second Report of the Committee to Enquire into the Nature, . . . of the East India Company, &c. consisted of Minutes, pp. 1-77, Report, pp. 77-124. 350 C O L L E G E A N D R E S E A R C H L I B R A R I E S Committee on the Nature, State and Condition of the East India Company, ire., respectively, were no longer extant, when he located a copy of each report in the Goldsmiths' Library of the Univer- sity of London. 3 6 These have been used for duplication in the microprint edi- tion. T h e " T h i r d , F o u r t h and F i f t h Reports of the Committee on the Nature, State and Condition of the East India Com- pany" are papers nos. 17, 18, and 19, re- spectively, of the Abbot Collection, and they are all to be f o u n d in the original collections, though they were not all cor- rectly collated.37 T h e second of the two committees on I n d i a was known as the "Committee on Secrecy appointed to enquire into the State of the East India Company." T h e purpose of this committee was to inspect the books and accounts of the company and to report to the House of Commons what they f o u n d in respect to debts, credits, and management of the com- pany.3 8 T h i s committee issued nine re- ports which became papers nos. 20 to 29 of the Abbot Collection. Paper no. 24 consists of an Appendix to the Fourth Report (no. 23).39 Of this group of reports the original edition of only no. 20, the First Report of the committee on secrecy, seems to have disappeared. T h a t a small-folio official edition of this report was published may be ascertained from the Journals. On 7 December 1772 the committee on secrecy made its first report. T h e report was not printed in the J o u r n a l s as part of the proceedings, and it was not ordered to 38 For "First Report of the Committee on the Nature, State and Condition of the East India Company, 26 May 1772," see Report from the Select Committee Ap- pointed by the House of Commons . . . Fifth Session of the Thirteenth Parliament, to enquire into East India Company, etc. (1773), Goldsmiths' Library, 1773 fol. For the "Second Report of the Committee on the Na- ture, State and Condition of the East India Company, &c.," see Report from the Select Committee . . . to enquire into the Nature, State and Condition of the East India Company (1772), Goldsmiths' Library, 1772 fol. 37 Catalogue of Papers . . . 1731-1800, Reports sec- tion; and H. C. Sess. Paps., 1731-1800, (Second Series), Reports, Vol. II. 38 7 Dec. 1772, Jour. H. C., X X X I V , 27, col. 1. » See n. 37. S E P T E M B E R 1 9 6 0 be printed as a separate paper u n t i l 28 J u n e 1773, at which time the other re- ports of the committee were similarly or- dered to be printed. 4 0 Presumably, the First Report from the Committee of Se- crecy was p r i n t e d by Mr. H a n s a r d as or- dered by the House, b u t copies were not available for the original Abbot Collec- tions. T h e editor did not succeed in lo- cating an original 1773 edition of the re- port for the Readex microprint edition; in this one case he h a d to settle for the reprinted edition of the First Report that is i n V o l . I V , p p . 1-14, of t h e House of Commons Sessional Papers, 1715-1800, (First Series).41 Notwithstanding the fact that the re- ports of the two committees on India, namely, "the committee to enquire into the Nature, state and condition of the East India Company," and "the Commit- tee on secrecy to enquire into the state of the East India Company," were re- printed in the First Series in 1803-1804, and that the reports of the two commit- tees were correctly listed in the Cata- logue of Papers . . . 1731-1800 p u b l i s h e d in 1807, Mr. Hansard, or the party work- ing u n d e r his direction, failed to get the reports of these two committees properly collated in the three original Abbot Col- lections. T h e Speaker's Gallery set at University College not only lacks reports nos. 15, 16, and 20, b u t in the table of contents of the Reports, Vol. II, no. 16, the Second Report of the first of above committees on India, is incorrectly listed as n o . 21, t h e Second Report of t h e sec- ond of the above committees on India; a n d n o . 18, t h e Fourth Report of t h e first committee, as no. 23, the Fourth Re- port of the second committee. I n the Commons set reports nos. 15, 16, 20, 21, 22, 23, and 24 are missing, and no. 19 is b o u n d in Vol. I l l instead of II. T h e Brit- ish Museum set lacks nos. 15, 16 and 20. 40 7 Dec. 1772, Jour. H. C., X X X I V , 27, col. 1. This paper was copied for the micronrint edition from the H. C. Sess. Raps., 1715-1801 (First Series), IV, held by the Institute of Historical Research, Senate House, University of London. 351 T h e reasons for the confusion in the identification of the reports of the two committees on I n d i a may be a t t r i b u t e d to the fact that the committees were cov- ering approximately the same g r o u n d at the same time in their investigations; that there was delay in the publication of some of the reports; that the titles of some of the reports were incorrect in their initial printing; a n d that the fail- u r e of Mr. H a n s a r d to obtain origiijal editions of some of the reports made dif- ficult the task of identifying correctly the reports he did locate. T h e puzzling ques- tion that arises is why did not the colla- tors refer to the reprinted reports in the First Series, which appear to have been published before or simultaneously with the collation of the Abbot Collections, for the correct identification of the re- ports? A third m a j o r problem encountered in the collation of the Reports pertains t o p a p e r n o . 112, Seditious Societies (1794). T h i s is a report f r o m a committee of secrecy, composed of twenty-one mem- bers of the House, elected by ballot and headed by William Pitt, a p p o i n t e d to ex- amine books a n d papers primarily of the Society for Constitutional R e f o r m and of the L o n d o n Corresponding Society.42 T h e committee made its first r e p o r t to the House on 16 May 1794 and on the basis of its findings introduced bills that became laws empowering the govern- m e n t to secure and detail persons sus- pected of conspiracy against His Majesty a n d his government.4 3 T h e report was published in the J o u r n a l s as p a r t of the proceedings of the day, and on the fol- lowing day the House ordered that it be p r i n t e d "in such n u m b e r as shall be suf- ficient for use of the members." 4 4 If this p r i n t i n g for the members was done, copies were not f o u n d by Mr. H a n s a r d for the Abbot Collections, for the copy of the report in the Commons collection is « Jour. H. C., X L I X , 589-90, 594, 600. 43 Ibid., 600-610. 44 Ibid., 613. of q u a r t o size rather than of the official small-folio. T h e q u a r t o edition of the report is a forty-six-page p a p e r published privately for sale by J . DeBrett in 1794.45 Only the Commons set contains a copy of r e p o r t n o . 112, Seditious Societies, a n d this a q u a r t o 1794 edition. Even though there is some d o u b t concerning the offi- cial character of the q u a r t o edition of no. 112, for want of a more official copy it is being duplicated for the Readex micro- p r i n t edition. T h e f o u r t h and fifth m a j o r problems concerning the collation of the Reports involved the locating of the supplement- ary plans that were missing from the re- ports f r o m committees for the improve- ment of the Port of L o n d o n , a n d what to do with evidence taken by one of these committees, which though ordered to be p r i n t e d had not been included in the Ab- bot Collection. Beginning in 1796 and c o n t i n u i n g into the nineteenth century there were several bills introduced in Commons that had for their purpose the improvement of the Port of L o n d o n . Committees held hearings on these bills, gathered evi- dence, and submitted reports that were p r i n t e d u p o n the order of the House in small-folio. T h e report no. 129 of 1796 of the Abbot Collection, was that of a "committee appointed to enquire into the best mode of providing sufficient accom- modation for the increased trade and shipping of the Port of L o n d o n . " 4 6 T h e report consists of 216 pages of minutes of evidence, together with Appendixes A-Z, Aa-Zz, a n d Aaa-Ppp. I n the Appendixes are Plates I to X I X (Plans nos. 1 to 19). T h r e e years later another committee was appointed "to consider the evidence taken on the bills for the improvement of the Port of L o n d o n . " 4 7 T h i s commit- 45 See H. C. Sess. Paps., 1731-1800 (Second Series), X L I V (Reports, X I V ) , no. 112. 48 For report no. 129, 13 May 1796 see H. C. Sess. Paps., 1731-1800 (Second Series), X L V I I (Reports, Vol. X V I I ) . 4T 7 May 1799, Jour. H. C., LIV, 517-18. See also H. C. Sess. Paps., 1731-1800 (Second Series), X L V I I , (Reports, X V I I ) . 352 C O L L E G E A N D R E S E A R C H L I B R A R I E S t e e m a d e its First Report ( n o . 153), 1 J u n e 1799, consisting of six pages and forty pages of appendixes. I n this report there were no plates or plans. T h e same committee made its Second Report on 11 July 1799; it consists of two papers (nos. 154 and 155), totaling 166 pages. No. 154 is a brief report of sixteen pages, and no. 155 is appendixes, a part of which are Plates Nos. I to XIV (Plans nos. 20 to 37) 48 T h e Third Report of t h e c o m m i t - tee is n o 167, 28 July 1800, of 149 pages, the first twenty pages being report proper and the remainder appendixes.4 9 I n the appendixes are Plates Nos. I to X X I (Plans nos. 38 to 62). A f u r t h e r report was made in 1801 b u t that report is part of the nineteenth-century Sessional Pa- pers.50 Of the above reports it may be noted that no. 129 of 1796, no. 155 of 1799, and no. 167 of 1800 each has plates or plans as part of the appendixes. T h e plates or plans for no. 129 are complete in the original Abbot Collections; b u t for nos. 155 and 167 the plates or plans are nearly all missing. I n each of the above reports the numbered plates have also been as- signed plan numbers coinciding with the numbers of the plans in a Book of Plans. These plan numbers have been added by h a n d in black ink at all places in the re- ports a n d appendixes where references are made to the n u m b e r e d plates. T h e repeated references to a Book of Plans indicated that such a book must exist, b u t there was no such book with the Ab- bot Collections at either the University College or at the British Museum. T h e House of Commons Abbot Collection, like the other two original collections, contained only a limited n u m b e r of the plates or plans of the Port of L o n d o n re- ports. It began to look as though the 48 For reports no. 153, 1 June 1799; nos. 154-155, 11 July 1799, see H. C. Sess. Paps., 1731-1800 (Second Series), LIII (Reports, X X I I I ) . 49 For report no. 167, 28 July 1800 see ibid., L V I I (Reports, X X V I I ) . 50 See Report from the Select Committee for the Im- provement of the Port of London, H. C. Sess. Paps., 1801 (102), III. S E P T E M B E R 1 9 6 0 missing original plates or plans would not be obtainable, when an inquiry by the editor addressed to a staff member of the Commons library t u r n e d u p the m y s t e r i o u s Book of Plans. I t is a n ex- tra-large master-volume containing the plans, n u m b e r e d consecutively f r o m one to sixty-five, of the reports on the im- provement of the Port of L o n d o n for the period 1796 to 1801.51 Plans twenty to sixty-two, inclusive, missing in the re- ports nos. 155 and 167 of the original Ab- bot Collections, will be supplied for the Readex microprint edition f r o m the Book of Plans. W h a t to do with the two supplements of evidence taken in 1799 in connection with bills relating to the improvement of the Port of L o n d o n is the fifth prob- lem bearing on the collation of the re- ports. T h e first supplement is entitled Minutes of Evidence Taken at the Com- mittee on the Bill for Rendering More Commodius, and for Better Regulating the Port of London, 11 February to 25 April 1799: Evidence, p p . 1-46; A p p e n - dixes (A-C), pp. 47-58; Further 'Minutes, pp. 59-80. T h e second of the supplements is e n t i t l e d Minutes of Evidence Taken at the Committee on the Bill for Making Wet Docks, Basons, Ceels, and Other Works, for the Greater Accommodation and Security of Shipping, Commerce, and Revenue within the Port of London, 11 February to 25 April 1799 (Including the Plan of the London Docks produced and explained by Captain Shields), p p . 1-112. Also part of the supplement are Further Minutes,