London, Volume 4
Knight, Charles
1843
XCIII.-Somerset House.
XCIII.-Somerset House.
If the splendour of royalty only now illumines the City at rare and uncertain intervals, there was once a time when the citizens were more familiar with regal movements and processions, and when the numerous city mansions of the nobility attested the empire of the court over its narrow and crowded streets. The Tower, as the eastern seat of royalty, held the palatial pride of in check. In the century, when the great nobles visited London, they came not to their mansions with the unobtrusiveness of private citizens. In the Earl of Salisbury rode with horsemen, all wearing his livery, to his house in the Herber, or Erber. And where was the mansion fit for the reception of so ostentatious and princely a retinue? The exclusive who affects ignorance of the locality of will blush to hear that it was by Dowgate. It was successively held by John Neville, Lord of Raby, Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, then by Neville, the Earl of Salisbury above mentioned, and afterwards passed into the possession of George, Duke of Clarence, by gift from Edward IV. When Stow wrote, the old mansion had been recently pulled down, and the house erected on | |
274 | its site was the residence of Sir Francis Drake. In the same year of Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, rode with men in his livery to his house in . Strange sights these would be for the citizens of the present day. Up to the commencement of the century the nobility not only lived in the City, but even at that time built houses for themselves in this part of the town. In the reign of Henry VIII. the Marquis of Winchester erected a large mansion on the spot now known as . Here the Augustine Friars had a house, cloisters, and gardens, the site of which the Marquis appropriated, converting a part of their church into places for storing corn and coal, and for other household purposes. Some of the old city churches contained numerous monuments of the nobility, and we are told that the Marquis's heir sold the monuments of many noblemen who had been interied in the Friars' Church. At the end of the century the more ancient mansions of the nobility were either pulled down or in a state of rdecay, and occupied by very different tenants. The house of Earl Ferrers, in , had become a common hostelry, called the , near , which had been a town residence of the Percies in the century, had for some time been deserted by them, and its gardens were converted into bowling-alleys, and other parts into dicing-houses, The town-house of the Earls of Worcester, in Vintry ward, was in Stow's time divided into many tenements; and a great house built of stone, called , in Knightriders Street, and which had belonged to the Earls of Ormond, had, he tells us, lately been pulled down. Another great house, for the most part built of stone, on , where, in the century, the Black Prince was accustomed to lodge, had become a hostelry at the end of the century, and was called the The history of the tavern on puzzled our city antiquary. The place, with other houses adjoining, strongly built of stone, had evidently formed tenement at some remote period. The royal arms, as they were quartered before the reign of Edward III., showed that it was erected before the century. remarks Stow, but he could find no proof of the fact. The nobility gradually removed from the Cityto the west end of the town. , at the western extremity of , is the only noble mansion which now stands so far eastward. It possesses a different character from most of the houses of the nobility, and its and solid front give it something of the appearance of a mansion of the olden time. But even in Evelyn's time, now nearly centuries ago, when manufactories were less numerous along the banks of the river, it was often wrapped in a murky veil of smoke. he says,
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Besides the royal residence at the , the Kings of England had other places, in the heart of the city, at which they were accustomed to | |
275 | lodge occasionally, or to take up their temporary abode. of these places was Baynard's Castle, a very ancient edifice, which gives its name to of the City wards. It was repaired in by Henry VII., or rather he rebuilt it, During his reign he frequently lodged there. He received at this place the ambassadors from the King of the Romans; and the King of Castile lodged here while on a visit to this country. The council at which it was resolved to proclaim Queen Mary, during the brief reign of Lady Jane Grey, was Held at Baynard's Castle. , in Vintry ward, was another royal residence, and at an earlier period. During his contests with the Empress Maude, King Stephen lodged here, In the reign of Richard II. this place was called the Queen's Wardrobe. During Wat Tyler's rebellion Richard's mother fled hither from the Tower, so that it must have been a place of some strength. As soon as the heat of the rebels was quenched, he visited his mother, who had been in a state of alarm during days and nights, and bid her thank God, said he, In Stow's time this place was converted into separate tenements. In the century Henry VI. had an ancient mansion which he styled his and which a century afterwards was known by the name of the Old Wardrobe. It was a large stone building, very ancient, and when Stow wrote the outer stone walls had been gradually taken down and good houses built upon the site. No notice occurs of its having been used as a royal residence. The Palace of , just without the city walls, the site of which is well known, was occasionally much used by Henry VIII., especially during the discussions respecting his divorce from his wife, which were carried on at the Black Friars. In the next reign this palace was converted into a . In its further migration westward, royalty rested for a time at , of which place we will now give a brief history. |
In the rising fortunes of Edward Seymour were crowned by the marriage of his sister to Henry VIII. He was immediately created a peer by the title of Viscount Beauchamp. On his sister giving birth to a prince in the following year, Seymour was elevated to the earldom of Hertford; and, years afterwards, was elected a Knight of the Garter, and next appointed Lord Chamberlain for life. The attainders in former reigns had so thinned the ranks of the nobility, that, a little before his death, Henry proposed creating new peers and elevating in rank those who were already in his favour. On this occasion the Earl of Hertford was nominated for a dukedom, and the extinct titles of Somerset, Exeter, or Hertford, were offered for his choice; but the King died before the new patent could be made out, and he left instructions in his will for carrying his intentions into effect, so far at least as the Earl of Hertford was concerned. On the , days after the King's death, he was elected by the Privy Council Governor of the young King Edward VI., his nephew, and Protector of his realms, until he should attain the age of eighteen. On the he was appointed Lord High Treasurer; on the created Duke of Somerset; and on the he was made Earl Marshal. It seems probable | |
276 | that he already possessed property on the site of . The whole of Covent Garden and its neighbourhood, and , comprising acres of valuable ground, belonged to him. The desire to possess a residence suitable to his high station was natural, and he determined to build a palace on the site of the present . To obtain space and building materials he was guilty of some infringements of public and private rights, which were urged against him in the hour of his adversity. An inn of Chancery, called Strand Inn or Chester's Inn, the Episcopal houses of the Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, and of the Bishops of Worcester and Llandaff, and the church and churchyard of , were demolished for the site of his new house. The common mode of building was still with timber and rubble, bricks not being generally used, and only the mansions of the nobility were built of stone, which was necessarily brought by sea, so that the most expeditious plan of obtaining the materials for new buildings of stone was to pull down old ones. With this object he caused the charnel-house of Old , and the chapel over it, to be demolished; also a large cloister on the north of , called Pardon Churchyard, which contained a greater number and more curious monuments than the church itself. The or commonly called, says Stow, the was painted in a part of this cloister. Nothing was left of it but a bare plot of ground. He also pulled down the steeple and part of the church of the Priory of St. John of Jerusalem. Burnet, alluding to the Protector's rapacity, admits that though he adds, Bishop. Babington, appointed in to the see of Llandaff, which had suffered from the spoliations of his predecessor in Somerset's time, said that he was only Bishop of as had been dissevered from his see. Burnet also accuses the Protector of selling chantry lands to his friends at easy rates, for which it was concluded he had great presents. The flagrant proceedings of the previous reign had, however, blinded men to the sacredness of this species of property; and this consideration, though it does not excuse the Protector's acts, is in some sort a palliation of them. But the rise of exposed its owner to the reflection, While he was--thus pursuing these false means of aggrandisement, now sending his brother to the block for caballing against him, and, within or weeks afterwards, ordering the demolition of Pardon Churchyard, which--was commenced on the , his own downfall was rapidly approaching, and, on the following, he was committed to the Tower. of the grounds of dissatisfaction exhibited against him was his ambition and seeking of his own glory, He did not fall with much dignity; and his private appeal to Warwick, his great rival, to save him, was treated with neglect. Warwick, though without the title, succeeded to the real power of the Protectorate, and Somerset was reduced to such insignificance that he was released from the Tower, and even allowed to sit at the |
277 | Council. Whether he attempted to regain his former position, or Warwick, now become Duke of Northumberland, felt uneasy so long as Somerset lived, does not appear; but, in , the ex-Protector was again placed in confinement in the Tower on treasonable charges, and in , he was beheaded. The marriage of his daughter to Warwick's eldest son did not save him. His nephew, Edward VI., mentions his uncle's death in the following laconic manner in his Diary:-- The people who witnessed the execution were more accessible to feelings of pity. A circumstance occurred during the preparations which led them to believe that Edward had granted his uncle a pardon, and a general shout arose of and many persons throwing up their caps. They were exempt from the feelings of ambitious rivalry which had hurried him to the scaffold. |
It is very probable that was never inhabited by the Protector. He commenced the building in -, and in , up to which period it was in constant progress, his political life may be said to have terminated. According to the scale of a print in Strype's the site occupied an area of feet from east to west by north and south. The principal architect is believed to have been John of Padua, an Italian, who was appointed in . Old was the building of Italian architecture executed in this country. The engraving shows the general appearance of the river front of the old edifice. | |
On the death of Somerset his palace came into the possession of the Crown, and Edward appears to have assigned it to his sister, the Princess Elizabeth, for her use when she visited the court. It is spoken of at this period as When she came to the throne she seems always to have given the preference to and St. James's. In | |
278 | the year of her reign some partial restoration of Somerset's property was probably made, as the Dowager Duchess lived in . When the Queen visited the new Bourse in , and gave it the name of the , she is described as coming In the reign of her successor it became the residence of Anne of Denmark, queen of James I. He kept up palaces at period-White- |
hall for himself, for the Queen, and St. James's for his son, Prince Henry; and each on an expensive scale. In , when the Queen's brother, Christian IV. of Denmark, visited England, her Majesty expended a considerable sum in preparing her residence for his reception, and after his return she affected to call it Denmark House, under which name it is frequently alluded to about this time. James was so lavish in his expenditure during the visit of his brotherin-law, that he expended in feasting and entertainments nearly the whole of a subsidy of granted by Parliament for the necessary and urgent demands of his household. The royal Dane was so well pleased with his visit, that he repeated it rather unexpectedly in , and this time about was squandered in feasting and riotous living. Both kings were addicted to intemperance, and even drunkenness; and in his cups Christian acted with gross indignity to some of the ladies of the court, of whom, the Countess of Nottingham, addressed the Danish ambassador on the subject. Her letter to him may be seen in Harris's Anne of Denmark died in , and her body laid in state for some time at which she is stated to have by for which Inigo Jones furnished the designs. The principal state apartments were in the central part of the edifice. She also caused a supply of water to be brought to it | |
279 | from . James I. died in , and his body laid in state at from the to the . |
Denmark House, or, as we shall now call it, , was settled for life on Henrietta Maria, Queen of Charles I., and was fitted up for the reception of herself and household in . According to the terms of her marriage-settlement, she was allowed pretty nearly the free exercise of her own religion, and soon formed a little ecclesiastical establishment within the walls of the Palace, and built a chapel for herself from designs by Inigo Jones. The subsequent events of her husband's reign drove her out of England for a time. During the Protectorate an Act was passed for selling the money being wanted for the payment of the army. The Restoration brought Queen Henrietta to England again. She was now Queen Dowager, or Queen Mother, as she was then called. | |
Granger says that on re-entering her Palace, she exclaimed that if she had known the temper of the English some years ago as well as she now did, she need never to have left that house. Her marriage-jointure was a-year, to which her son, now Charles II., added an equal yearly sum. Much as she had formerly disliked the country, she now began to enjoy herself in England. of her objects was to put her palace in a state of repair. Cowley wrote some verses On the Queen's repairing , The rest are a continuation of the conceit (the Palace ), with courtly compliments to Henrietta. Evelyn mentions that the Queen Mother made considerable additions to , and here she brought into use, for the time in England, the mode of inlaying floors with different coloured woods. Pepys, the contemporary gossip of the time, frequently mentions Henrietta's Court. On the , he was taken into her Majesty's Presence Chamber, and here he saw for the time the Queen Consort, Catherine of Braganza, of whom he says,
Castlemain, the King's mistress, and Mr. Crofts, of his illegitimate children, were present. By and bye the King arrived. He tells the Queen Mother that his wife is with child, which she denies. The only English words that Pepys heard her utter were, in answer to his Majesty's badinage. Charles tried to teach her the words, which she would not repeat. Such were the humours of the In December of the same year, Pepys met with who, he says, and Pepys adds, In -, he hears that On the , being Ash-Wednesday, l-e makes the following notes in his Diary:-- In October he again visited , and saw the Queen's new rooms, In January following (-) he was again there, and was shown the Queen Mother's chamber and closet, from thence he In June both the Court at and were preparing to leave town in consequence of the plague. Queen Henrietta went to France, and did not again return to this country, but died in . In the body of Monk, Duke of Albemarle, laid in great state at for several weeks. On the death of Charles II. in , it became the sole residence of Catherine of Braganza, now Queen Dowager, and she lived here until her return to Portugal in . It had previously belonged to her as Queen Consort, and during the ultra-Protestant furor, which exhibited itself for some years prior to the Revolution, attempts were made to implicate her household in the pretended Popish plot of the time, and to connect the mysterious murder of Sir Edmondbury Godfrey in with persons in her service. In September, Titus Oates had made depositions concerning his to Sir Edmondbury, who was an active justice of the peace. He deposed that the Pope had taken measures for assuming the ecclesiastical sovereignty of these kingdoms; that Sir George Wakeman, the Queen's physician, had engaged to poison the King, the Queen being privy to the design. Many persons suffered imprisonment and death through the accusations of Oates; and though it is now placed beyond a doubt that the plot which he pretended to reveal was an infamous fabrication, yet events contributed to its apparent corroboration. of these was the sudden and violent death of Sir Edmondbury Godfrey, the magistrate who had taken Oates's depositions. The general conviction at the time was, that he had been murdered by the Catholic party out of revenge, and partly to aid the escape of the conspirators. The body was discovered on the day after he had been missing, in a ditch near old Church: it was pierced through and through with his own sword, but there was a mark around his neck showing that he had been strangled. His shoes were clean, as if he had not walked to that country spot, and his money was in his pocket. The funeral was attended by Protestant divines, and medals were struck to commemorate the murder. A Catholic and silversmith named Prance, who, it was alleged, had absented himself about the time of the murder, was apprehended and charged with being privy to it, though it was proved that he had gone from home a week before. It is said that he was put to the torture, and in a few days he confessed his knowledge of the murder, and charged obscure persons employed about the Queen's clhpel at with being accomplices. He stated that Sir Edmondbury had been decoyed into and there strangled, and his body was afterwards taken at night to the place where it was found. As a writer of the time, Ralph, observes, The consequence was, that the pretended accomplices were executed at Tyburn, and died with solemn asseverations of their innocence. Cruelly neglected by her husband, and an object of the popular prejudice in of its worst moods, the childless Catherine of Braganza must have left behind her few endearing ties in a country in which she had occupied so high a station for more than years. | |
282 | |
From the period of Catherine's departure, ceases to possess any interest in its palatial character. It still continued to be an appurtenance of successive queens, until, on the , Parliament was recommended, in a message from the Crown, to settle upon Queen Charlotte the house in which she then resided, formerly called Buckingham House, but then known by the name of the Queen's House, in which case , already settled upon her, should be given up and appropriated The demolition of the old buildings was commenced as soon as an act could be passed to carry into effect the royal message. Soon afterwards the street aspect of the old house is alluded to in the following terms:-- Sir William Chambers was appointed architect of the new building, and in of the fronts was completed. From a Parliamentary return printed in , it appears that a sum of had been then expended, and a further sum of was still required. The site occupies an area of feet by , being a few feet less than the area of . The front towards consists of a rustic basement of arches supporting Corinthian columns, and an attic in the centre with a balustrade at each extremity. Emblematic figures of Ocean and the principal rivers of England in alto-relievo adorn the key-stones of the arches. Over the central windows of the firstfloorwere once medallions in basso-relievo of George III., Queen Charlotte, and the Prince of Wales. Statues of Justice, Truth, Valour, and Moderation, divide the attic into separate portions; the summit being crowned by the British arms supported by Fame and the Genius of England. Opposite the entrance, in the court, is a bronze statue of George III., and at the foot of the pedestal a bronze figure emblematic of the Thames, by Bacon. towards the river is raised on rustic arches, and again we have an emblematic figure of the Thames, of colossal size. The view from this terrace is perhaps the finest on the banks of the river, the grand features being and , on hand, and, on the other, and the Abbey; and over the opposite bank may be seen the Surrey Hills. The scenery of the river itself is full of interest and animation; and the eye is gratified with variety of motion. The crowded steamers pass rapidly up and down the stream in quick succession, the light wherry skimming the water, and the cumbrous river-barge moving sluggishly along; and there are keels from the up-country, and even from the Humber and places on the coast, which hoist their sails to catch the favouring breeze. It is rather a matter of surprise that so few noble mansions, and not royal palace, overlook the broad stream which is of the principal sources of London's greatness. From either Blackfriars or , but particularly from the latter, is seen to great advantage, and appears truly a magnificent pile. | |
of the earliest purposes to which the present was appropriated was for the annual exhibition of paintings by the Royal Academy. The | |
283 | Exhibition was opened on the , and continued annually until the erection of the . The use of apartments for the meetings of the Royal Society was also granted in the same year, and the Fellows met here for the time on the . The Society of Antiquaries, having obtained a similar privilege, met for the time at in . other learned bodies, the Royal Astronomical and the Geological Societies, have also had apartments assigned to them: a great public building could scarcely be appropriated to a better purpose. The entrance on the western side of the vestibule leads to the apartments used by the Board constituting the University of London; and by the same staircase we ascend to the rooms appropriated to the School of Design, instituted by the Government within the last few years, for elementary instruction in drawing, modelling from the antique and from nature, and in the use of oil and water colours. Another section of the course comprises instruction in the historical principles and practice of ornamental art, embracing the antique styles, the styles of the middle ages, and of modern times. There is also an important division of instruction which is intended to improve the arts of design as applied to manufactures. In this department the student has the opportunity of studying practically the processes of several branches of manufacture, as silk and carpet weaving, calico-printing, paper-staining, &c. The morning school is open hours daily, for a payment of only a month; and the evening school for about half this time for a fee of a month. In connection with the School of Design there is a female drawingschool under the same superintendence, chief object of which is to instruct females in drawing and designing patterns for those branches of manufacture which seem best adapted to their tastes and pursuits, as the lace manufacture, embroidery, &c. Drawing on wood and wood engraving, lithography, porcelainpainting, the manufacture of artificial flowers, with other descriptions of ornamental work, are also taught. The merit of suggesting popular schools of instruction in this country in the art of design, particularly as applied to manufactures, seems to be due to the Bishop of St. Asaph, who strongly recommended them to be established, in a note to a sermon which he preached in . The whole of the left wing of was left incomplete by Sir W. Chambers: but in this part of the edifice was completed from the designs of Sir R. Smirke, and it now forms .- About students in medicine, natural philosophy, and general literature attend the courses of instruction, and in the junior school nearly pupils are instructed. The collegian's cap and gown, seen within sound of the traffic of , may fail to inspire the place with the air of study and retirement, but they indicate in some measure that in our time the highest attainments are cultivated for the active business of life. |
We have only at- present pointed out the parts of which are appropriated to science, learning, and the arts. Next come the uses to which it is applied for several departments of the Government. Passing by the offices belonging to the Duchy of Cornwall, there are those connected with the Navy, which are subordinate to the central Board of Admiralty in . is the Admiralty Civil Department, the Transport Office, the , | |
284 | and the Sick and Maimed Seamen's Office. In of these departments is the Model Room, where most of the articles used in the naval service are kept for inspection by those who undertake the naval contracts. The Audit Office for the Public Accounts and the Civil List Audit Office are also at . The only Board of Revenue which has its seat here is that of Stamps and Taxes. Its offices are chiefly in the southern front. The probate and legacy duties, the land tax and assessed taxes, and now the income tax, are collected under the management of this Board. persons are employed in this branch of the public service, and the amount of revenue collected in was nearly , or between a and of the total public revenue. The land and assessed taxes produced , and the stamp and stage carriage duties Of the latter sum the probate and legacy duties amounted to more than , collected on a capital exceeding The other principal items of this department of revenue produced in Great Britain in the following sums :--Bills of exchange, ; receipts, ; bankers' notes, /.; fire insurances, ; marine insurances, ; newspapers, ; advertisements, ; gold and silver plate, ; medicines, ; stage carriages, ; hackney carriages, ; licences and certificates, ; deeds not included under the foregoing heads, In several of these cases, as in advertisements, the revenue is not obtained by the use of a stamp being enforced. The salaries of officers on the establishment do not amount to a-year, and less than is paid as poundage to the stamp-distributors in the country. No other branch of the revenue is collected at so small a per centage, being only , while the Excise costs There is little or no opportunity for fraud and collusion, though in the Customs and Excise there can be little doubt that large sums are lost to the revenue by these practices. The assessed taxes are not of course so cheaply collected, but they are obtained at a cost not exceeding per cent. The salaries to the officers of this department are a-year; is allowed as poundage to the collectors; and in , the sum of was charged for travelling expenses. The great items of receipt in this branch are, the land tax, , and the window tax, The remainder is chiefly collected on servants, carriages, horses, dogs, and game certificates. The hair-powder still contributes a sum amounting to nearly a-year. The number of persons charged with this duty in was , and in only . The business of each of the different departments of the Stamp Office is transacted in separate rooms. Thus there is'the Hair-Powder Office, the Medicine Licence and Stamp Office, the Pawnbrokers' Licence Office, the Stage Coach Duty Office, the Receipt Stamp Office, the Dice Stamp Office, the Hawkers' and Pedlars' Office, the Allowance Office for Spoiled Stamps, the Attorneys' Certificate Office, &c. &c.; and each is frequented by a distinct class of persons. Some of these rooms are stories below the level of the court, and here the mechanical operations are conducted. The legal and commercial stamps are impressed by hand-presses, and the newspaper stamps by hand without any mechanical aid. In , when the stamp was , the number of sheets stamped for newspapers in England and Wales was under millions; and in , with the penny stamp, nearly millions. The inking-box is close to the right hand, in which the operator holds |
285 | the stamp, and his left is employed in turning up the corner of each sheet as soon as it has received an impression. The movement of the hand from the ink to the paper is a simple operation, performed with great rapidity, and a single person can stamp or sheets a-day. The name of each newspaper has been inserted in the die, in moveable type, since the reduction of duty in , and by this means a register is obtained of the circulation of every newspaper in the kingdom. In the basement story are presses moved by steam, of which is employed in printing medicine labels, another for printing the stamp on country bank-notes, and or are employed in stamping the embossed medallion of the Queen on the postage envelopes. The former are compound pressesthat is, they produce an impression in different coloured inks. The plate is engraved as if it were intended only to receive colour, and that part of the plate which is to give an impression in a colour is then cut out. When the press is in operation, each receives its particular colour from a separate inking apparatus; and, this being done, the is brought by the action of the machine into that part of the plate from which it had been cut out, and when thus placed on a level, so as again to appear plate, the impression is taken. Of course great ingenuity is required to produce these complicated operations, and to render them rapid and successful. But by far the most interesting display of the beauties of mechanism is to be seen in the machinery for stamping the postage envelopes. The space occupied by a single press is not more than feet square, and the manner in which it performs the operations assigned to it is so elegant and perfect, that it seems almost possible to forget that we are watching an inanimate body, but seem impelled to the idea that its exquisite performance is the result of its own intelligence. The inventor is Mr. Edwin Hill, of that class of minds to whom this country is indebted for its superiority in automatic machinery. Somewhat similar to the machinery for coining at the Mint, these presses nevertheless differ from them in consequence of the necessity of providing for the working of an inking-table before a coloured impression can be taken, and the power exerted is, of course, much less. The paper for the intended envelope has a thin thread running through it, introduced during the manufacture at the mill, and the contractor sends it already cut up into a diagonal form, a certain number of sheets being assorted together. These are counted over in a room adjoining the presses. The boy who counts the sheets spreads them in a fan-like form, and, holding them up to the light to see that they are separate from each other, he tells them rapidly off into parcels, containing each a uniform number. These parcels are then taken to the press-room, and delivered to a boy who feeds the press, another boy, on the other side of the press,--taking them off the instant the impression is given. The working of the press is so regular that no hurried movements are required from those who attend upon it, but merely vigilance and quickness, and yet the number of impressions is per minute. When the experiment was tried, not so many as were produced. The sheets are made up into envelopes by the contractor on his own premises. |
In another part of this mass of public offices are departments which have been organised within the last few years, and whose functions are of a very important character. These are the Poor Law Commission, the Registrar-General's | |
286 | office, and the Tithe Commission. centuries ago the gates of bountiful men in London were thronged with poor persons, and those who were charitably disposed fed them out of their abundance. Stow mentions the names of several of the nobility who, in his youth, were accustomed to observe the The late Earl of Derby, he says, fed above aged persons twice a-day, and all comers thrice a-week; and every Good Friday he gave meat, drink, and money to persons. At the gate of Thomas Lord Cromwell, Earl of Essex, he had often seen persons fed twice a-day, The Marquis of Winchester gave In the Bishop of Ely Such were the means practised in London and elsewhere in the century for diminishing the sufferings of poverty. Unhappily the growth of pauperism and its attendant evils soon became too great to be relieved by the hand of charity, and then compulsory alms-giving was enforced, and each parish was compelled to provide for its own poor. The evils which grew up under this system at length became so intolerable, that all parties united in promoting measures for diminishing them, and, with this view, the Poor Law Commission was appointed in as a Central Board for regulating the mode of administering relief to the poor. Local administrative boards of representatives were created in place of irresponsible and generally inefficient bodies. [n.286.1] |
Adjoining the offices of the Poor Law Commission is the Registrar-General's office, a department created in by the passing of an act for registering all births, marriages, and deaths in England and Wales, after the . In the year ending , there were registered births, deaths, and marriages; altogether cases. It is the business of the Registrar-General to see that every arrangement connected with the business of registration is strictly carried into effect by the different persons on whom it devolves. The whole of England and Wales is divided into convenient districts, over which there is a Superintendant Registrar, to whom the clergy of the Establishment and other ministers of religion, and the subordinate registrars, transmit quarterly returns of all the births, marriages, and deaths which have occurred during the preceding, months. These returns are collected from upwards of persons, and are finally transmitted to the central office at . Here they are examined and arranged, and indexes are formed of the names. Erasures, interpolations, informalities, omissions, errors, or defects of any kind are detected, and the person who registered the defective | |
287 | entry is immediately referred to, and his explanatory letter is filed for reference in connection with such entry. Separate alphabetical indexes are made for reference to the births, marriages, and deaths of each-quarter, being separate indexes for each year. To each entry there is a reference to the district from which the certified copy was made. Various other means are adopted to render the registration complete and easy of reference. Already these indexes contain the names of nearly million persons who have been born, married, or have died, since . The information collected by the Registration Office will throw light on a variety of questions relating to public health and the social condition of the people, and will be the means of preventing much future litigation. Cases have occurred where the register of a birth, marriage, or burial being required for legal purposes, it has been impossible to ascertain, , whether the registration had ever been made, and, next, in which of the parishes of England it was to be found. It has happened that, after hunting through registers, the search has been given up in despair. At the Registration Office a few minutes only would be required to find the name sought after. Parish registers were ordered to be kept in , on the dissolution of monasteries. Cromwell's injunction to the clergy to this effect created great excitement at the time, as it was surmised that the registry was preliminary to a new levy of taxes. The ancestor of the Earl of Mount Edgcurmbe to Cromwell, telling him that the king's subjects in Cornwall and Devonshire Mr. Rickman[n.287.1] says that -half of the registers anterior to A.D. have disappeared. Previous to the Census of there existed no official returns of the population of this country; and the only plan of obtaining the movement of the population was by ascertaining the difference between the births and deaths. But as many persons neglected to avail themselves of the system of voluntary registration, the data thus obtained were imperfect. Instead of conjecture we now possess full information as to the ages and number of the population, its annual rate of increase, the influence of occupations and local causes upon the rate of mortality; and a number of important facts are indicated which cannot be passed over with neglect, as might have been the case when all these points were undetermined. The Registration Office may be regarded as an instrument which enables the statesman to take a wide survey of the condition of the great mass of interests whose welfare it is his duty to promote. The Population Returns under the Census of are now preparing for publication at this office. |
The Tithe Commission has its offices in the same line of building as the Registration Office, and it likewise has been created to work out a valuable legislative improvement, which has placed property in tithes on an unobjectionable basis. The process which the Tithe Commissioners were appointed to superintend is the commutation of tithe into a rent-charge, fluctuating in value with the | |
288 | septennial price of wheat, barley, and oats. For example, if the tithe of a parish be settled by agreement or award at a-year, the mode of ascertaining its subsequent annual value is by supposing - of this sum invested in wheat, - in barley, and - in oats, at the prices of these commodities for the preceding years, and the result gives the amount due in money to the titheowner. By this means, the objection which Paley urged--that the titheowner stepped in to participate in profits realised by the outlay of capital he had never advanced--is completely obviated. The Commission has completed about -half of its work. |
Footnotes: [n.286.1] Evidence of Edwin Chadwick, Esq., before a Select Committee of the House of Commons, 1838. [n.287.1] Preface to Population Returns, 1831. |
