( THE WASTE PAPER OFFICE.
Any one: who penetrates the crowded b.uildings near Chancery Lane will find, bursting from among some of the back-courts and alums, a,fine building in an ancient style. It might be intended as the.eopy of some old cathedral, where the object is to procure great strength without for defence against an invading and im- pious soldiery, and within a " dim religious light" that can shut out the prying eyes of public opinion, hateful to " black, white, and grey, and all their trumpery." If you ask what the build- ing is, you are told that it is the new depository for the Public Records. Like some other buildings, it has grown into full de- velopment before certain important questions arise respecting the very foundation, not only of the edifice, but of the plan for having it and using it, imve been considered. Thus we have a continuation of the same kind of inquiry that we carried on last week in re- ference to the Bridges. How is it that we are afflicted with public buildings, imposed upon us before the public has been able to consider the whole moral as well as physical foundation for the design F
How far, for example, is the Master of the Rolls tampering with his own title in sanctioning the transfer of records, from the Rolls Chapel say, to the new repository ? The Rolls Chapel and the Rolls House were part of the Domus Conversorum, or refuge for the converted Jews, awarded by the Crown gift in 1337 to Wil- liam Burstall, the Keeper of the Rolls in Chancery, " since which time this house hath been called the Rolls in Chancery." How far will the Master of the Rolls cease to be the Master of the Rolls when he has handed over these ancient deposits from the old build- ing to the new ?
The question is more important as it affects the records in the Tower. May not the transit diminish the peculiarly authentic character which those records derive not only from their having been attested by the recognized authorities, but from their being the identical documents which have existed in that very place for five or six hundred years or more ? They are the papers which are quoted by historians and lawyers—men like Coke, Bacon, Prynne, Sir Matthew Hale ; and they are quoted as being part and parcel of " the King's treasures of the Tower "—such and such a record "in the Tower." From the earliest ages, records, when preserved at all, have been regarded as the most precious portion of the public property. To lodge any document " among the archives," was to give to it the most important and permanent cha- racter. The rulers of the Jews, the Greeks, the Romans, the Eastern nations, as well AS the kingdoms Of modern Europe, have imparted a certain sacredness to these records by keeping them in royal palaces or consecrated buildings. Frequently since the Christian aim they have been deposited by public consent in the chapel of the royal palace. Any advantage of their preserva- tion depends on their historical and attested validity. Taken cumulatively, the records in the Tower may be considered as the title-deeds of the people. A nobleman is asked by what right he holds his title to his seat in the House of Lords : he refers to the record in the Tower. The squire is asked by what right he holds his manor, his fair, or his other territorial privileges: he cites the record in the Tower. A gentleman wants to trace his descent from his ancestors who have been ennobled in the annals of England : he finds links of his pedigree among the records in the Tower. It is possible that in some eases, perhaps in not a few, legal instru- ments confirm ftights and titles by citing records " in the Tower" ; and it is a question which ought to be well pondered, how far citations of this kind may be disturbed by a removal of those records, constituting them no longer the records "in the Tower," but a portion of the papers which have been accumulated from various places into the new building at Chancery Lane. A second question, which ought to have been more thoroughly understood before we advanced so far as the mere foundation of the present building, is, whether the character of the edifice is suited to its destination ? Its structure points to a guiding prin- ciple in its original design, the avoidance of danger by fire. Now the public records have been exposed to various kinds of destruc- tion. They have been exposed to rats and mice ; they have been carried away as rubbish ; they have mouldered .away in damp cellars ; they have been lost, pilfered, mutilated by antiquarians, destroyed by historians anxious to expunge evidence against their notions. Also they have been destroyed by fire ; but let us see in what instances. They have been used by the maid-servants of gentlemen having charge of records in some provincial places, to light the household fire withal : but we believe there is no. in- stance of public records having been destroyed by fire in any of the great public buildings appropriated to their custody. It would appear, therefore, that fire is by no means the danger which has rust to be oared for. Nevertheless, it is evident from the very plan of the building in Chancery Lane that the fear of fire was the bugbear of those who originally planned it. If Mr. Braidwood had been con- sulted on the subject, he would probably have suggested just such a place. Now to Mr. Braidwood the beau ideal of a safe place would probably be the natural caves in the Peak of Derby, where the walls are not combustible, and where a damp spontaneously distils, anticipating and superseding the office of the fireman. The building in Chancery Lane is sonic approximation to an imitation of the caves in the Peak of Derby. It is a build- ing. composed entirely of stone and iron—damp, through the ma- terial, which holds wet and ill conducts heat ; cold, through the facility with which iron parts with its heat in our cold climate. The papers repose, in great part at least, upon slabs of slate ; slate being one of the materials which is most cold and most facilitates the accumulation of mildew. Here, then, the documents are ex- posed to a danger which it is not likely that Mr. Braidwood would apprehend. It would not occur to that estimable and useful pub- lic servant, that the most indispensable element for parchment and papers, to preserve them from the slow destruction which moat menaces them, are light and air—thorough ventilation, free cir- culation and reflection of light ; such materials and such atmo- sphere as would evaporate moisture and extinguish mildew. Curiously enough, this imitation of the natural eaves of the Peak of Derby had not long been brought into use before its un- suitableness in this respect showed itself. Originally, under this fear of fire, there were to have been no fire-places in the building. The coldness, however, was soon found to be detrimental to paper as well as men ; and then it was to be warmed with hot water. But hot-water-pipes, while they will set fire to combustibles as readily as any other agent, do not conduce to ventilation ; and fire-places have been introduced into many if not all the rooms of the building. The very element most dreaded has been brought into these dark secluded artificial caverns, where the ordi- nary machinery of the firemen would find most diffioulty in pene- trating. So different are the actual necessities of the building from those which presented themselves to the imagination on its first design ; so different are the actual arrangements from the essentials of the first plan. In fact, the building is not by any means suited to be the repository of those records which perhaps ought not to be removed from their present depositories. It has been reported that the building has already been applied to one important use, to which perhaps it is best suited. The War Department, we remember to have heard, has demanded it as a place of safe custody for regimental books and the other scribbled lumber of the Army at large. Every military man knows the bales of this literature which accumulate annually. This use of the building in Chancery Lane distinctly points it out as a new department of the Government, for which indeed it is most particularly suited—the Waste Paper Office.
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