class of records--the ecclesiastical,
parochial, and testamentary records--may be said to be in great danger
of gradually but certainly perishing, partly from mere disuse, partly
from the want of any adequate provision for their safe keeping, partly
from the actual uncertainty that attaches to their ownership. One and
all they are national records, the preservation of which ought to be
assured to the nation by very different precautions from any which now
are provided. Whom do the parish registers belong to? What guarantee
have we that X or Y or Z may not sell “his” registers to the highest
bidder? In point of fact, parish registers have been bought and sold
again and again. Who are the owners of such a splendid collection of
historic MSS. as is to be found in the archives of St. Lawrence’s
Church, Reading? What is to prevent the churchwardens from selling them
to a “collector” and appropriating the proceeds towards the expense of
a new organ? Where are the records of Barchester now that the Venerable
Archdeacon Grantley has ceased to edify us with his eloquent charges?
In how many instances is there to be found anything remotely resembling
a catalogue of such archidiaconal records? How many living men have
ever consulted such as there are or would know where to look for them?

Let me not be misunderstood. I have received so much kindness,
hospitality, and cordial assistance at the hands of so many who have
laid open their muniments to my inspection, I have found and made among
these gentlemen such warm friends that I can only think of them and
speak of them with gratitude and esteem. But who knows better than
the most learned and most entirely loyal among the custodians of our
ecclesiastical and parochial muniments that the state of things as they
are is not the state of things that ought to be?

And yet there can surely be no insuperable difficulty in grouping
together our ecclesiastical, testamentary, and parochial muniments,
forming them into one homogeneous collection, and bringing them
together in