The Statutes of the Realm/Volume 1/Introduction/Appendix/G/2
II. 1. Extract from the Preface to an Edition of the Irish Statutes printed at London by R. Tottell, 1572; with the following Title:
“In this Volume are contained all the Statutes from the tenthe yere of King Henrie the Sixt, to the xiii. yere of our moste gracious and soueraygne lady Queene Elysabeth; made and established in her Hignes Realme of Ireland,”
The Preface begins with Reflections on the State of Ireland, and the Necessity of Laws to restrain Licentiousness and prevent Ignorance, &c.
“Which things the Right Honorable Sr Henry Sidney, Knight of the Honorable Order, Lord President of Wales & late Lord Deputie of the said Realm of Ireland, well perceiving & finding that the Remedying of this Mischief, which is the cause and worker of al the rest, would take away the Effect thereof, caused all the Justices of both the Benches with the Chief Baron of the Escheker & the Master of the Rolles of the said Launde to confer together for the Coppying out and examining of all such Statutes as then were of Record & not published, which at his comandement they did, and delivered the same perfectly written & examined with all their hands subscribed to every one of them: And then he (ever mindful to further the good state of the said Commonwelth) brought those Statutes over into England, and conferred with the Right Honorable Sr W. Cecill Knight of the Order of the Garter, Lorde Burligh, & Lorde Hyghe Treasorer of Englande for the imprinting of them, with whose advyse & assent they were committed to the printe & now for thy benefite [the Reader’s] finished & set forth.”
2. Extract from the Preface to Sir Richard Bolton’s Edition of the Irish Statutes, printed in Dublin 1621; with the following Title:
The Preface is addressed to “Sr Oliver St John Knight Lord Deputie General of Ireland:” After some introductory Sentences respecting the Necessity of Laws and Statutes in general, it proceeds thus:
“And now, Right Honourable, considering that many good Statute Lawes of force in this kingdome were neuer hitherto imprinted, and (upon search) finding that, for want of imprinting, many others are perished and lost, in those troublesom and miserable times of rebellion, which have beene in this kingdome, and finding also by experience that the printed Books of those Statutes which were formerly printed are so few that there be not sufficient to furnish only the practisers and Judges of the Law; so as both the cōmon people and some of the Professors of the Law, yea the Judges themselves, did want the ordinarie means to attaine to the knowledge of the Statute Lawes, and were constrained verie often to have recourse to the Parliament Rolls; and finding also by daily experiences that Justices of Peace, Sheriffs, Constables, and other Officers fall short in the execution of their Offices to the great Detriment of the Common wealth, which defects I suppose to be chiefly occasioned by want of knowledge of the Statutes: &c. &c. - - - I resolued with my selfe (for the generall good of this Kingdome) to peruse all the Parliament Rolls which are extant, and to extract out of them all such Statute Laws as were generall or concerned the general good of the Common wealth, which I did accordingly: And, after your Lordships perusall of them, the same were (by your Lordships direction) againe perused by the Chiefe Judges and Master of the Rolls & by them allowed & thought fit to be imprinted, together with so many of the Statutes formerly printed as were not by express Words repealed in the last Parliamēt. Howbeit some few of those Statutes which were formerly printed are by the Alteration of Times growen out vse; and although the same be not in expresse Wordes repealed by any later Act, yet (in mine own opinion) many of those Statutes & especially those concerning Marchiors, and all Statutes that make markes of differences bewteen the English and Irish, as that of shaving the beard upon the upper lippe, and the distinctions betweene Irish Enemies and English Rebells, and of persons amesnable and not amesnable to the Lawe, are by implication & good construction of the Statutes of 33 Hen. VIII. 3 & 4 Ph. & Ma. & 11 Eliz. repealed as absolutely as if the same had been by plaine and expresse words. For now Irish are no Enemies but have the absolute freedome of Subjects, and the full benefite of the lawes; and all Ireland is now devided into Counties, and the King’s Writ doth now runne into all the parts thereof, so as now every Man is amesnable to the Law & may be punished for any Offence whatsoever by the ordinarie course of cōmon Justice; Yet neverthelesse the said Judges & Master of the Rolls thought fit, that those Statutes that had been formerly printed, and were not expressly repealed should be printed againe, and that for two reasons; the one lest peradventure any should unadvisedly taxe me of partialitie that matters of great moment were omitted, and matters of lesse consequence published; and the other was that although the said Statutes be out of use or determined at this day, yet the same may well serve for an historical use; whereby the Judicious Reader may partly discerne both the State of the Church and Common Wealth in those times.”
3. From the Journals of the House of Lords in Ireland.
Die Martis, 20° Aprilis 1762°.
RESOLVED, That an humble Address be presented to his Excellency the Lord Lieutenant, to desire His Excellency will be pleased to give Directions, that the Statutes at Large of this Kingdom be forthwith printed and published under the Inspection of the Lord Chancellor and Judges; and that, as an Encouragement to the Printer, a Copy thereof be given to each Member of both Houses of Parliament.
Ordered, That the Lord Viscount Jocelyn do attend His Excellency the Lord Lieutenant with the said Address.
Die Martis, 27° Aprilis 1762°.
The Lord Viscount Jocelyn acquainted the House, That in Obedience to their Lordships’ Order he had attended His Excellency the Lord Lieutenant with their Address of the 20th Instant; to which Address His Excellency was pleased to give this Answer: “I will not fail to give the proper Orders, that the Resolutions of the House of Lords may be carried into Effect.”
4. Address to the Reader, prefixed to the Edition of the Statutes of Ireland: Published by Authority in 1765.
As this Editions of the Acts, passed in the several Parliaments held in this Kingdom, may be considered as a Public Work, in part obtained at their Expence, and which could not have been executed without such Assistance; it may be proper to shew the Necessity of this Undertaking, from the present State of the Printed Statutes in Ireland; and also the Advantages proposed by what is now done, in attempting to supply former Defects, and to render this Impression useful and commodious to the Reader.
The Irish Statutes now in Print, consist of those collected by Sir Richard Bolton, in one Volume in Folio, printed in 1621, by the Society of Stationers, then Printers to His Majesty; reprinted by Benjamin Tooke, [Printer to His Majesty] in 1678, with the Addition of the subsequent Acts to the Session of the 17th and 18th of King Charles the Second inclusive: from which Time to the Revolution no Parliament was held in Ireland. To this Impression was annexed a thin and incompleat Index, and it has been since reprinted in 1723, without any Additions.
The several Acts which passed in the Reigns of King William and Queen Mary, and those of Queen Anne and the succeeding Kings, were printed by the King’s Printers, at the Close of each respective Session, in different Volumes, of different Sizes, and in different Types, without Indexes or any Aid to find the Contents or even the Titles, but by inspecting the Volumes of the Sessions in which they passed; which Volumes were become too numerous for Use, and even those so dispersed, that at present compleat Sets are with Difficulty to be procured to answer the Purposes of Justice, especially at the Assizes held in the several Counties.
These Considerations, it is presumed, induced the House of Lords to address his Excellency the Earl of Hallifax, then Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, by their Resolutions of the 20th April 1762, to give Directions “That the Statutes at Large of this Kingdom be forthwith printed and published, under the Inspection of the Lord Chancellor and Judges; and that as an Encouragement to the Printer, a Copy thereof be given to each Member of both Houses of Parliament.” In consequence whereof his Excellency, by his Order, dated the 27th of April 1762, directed Hugh Boulter Primrose Grierson, His Majesty’s Printer General in this Kingdom, to print and publish the said Statutes at Large, under the Inspection of the Lord Chancellor and Judges; and to cause a Copy thereof to be given to each Member of both Houses of Parliament.
Which Order being signified to the Lord Chancellor and Judges, they were pleased to approve of a Specimen of the Paper, Size, and Type to be made use of on the occasion; and their Lordships were farther pleased to honour the Editor with their Appointment to carry their Directions into Execution.
The Acts as before printed by the King’s Printers, having received the Sanction of the Courts of Justice as the Statute Law of Ireland, the Editor considered them as Authentic, and made them the Copy from which he printed, without Variation, save that where he, on reading, apprehended Errors of the Press, he had recourse occasionally to the Records now in the Office of the Rolls, and from thence rectified those Errors; the collating them at large being thought needless, and rather a matter of curiosity, which would have been attended with very great Expence.
The Statutes in this Collection are ranged in order of Time, including all whose Titles are mentioned in any of the former printed Statutes though not there printed at large, distinguishing, however, the Acts or Parts of Acts expired or repealed, by a smaller sized Type; except in some few Instances where Acts have been repealed in part, of which due Notice is given in the Margin.
The Acts whereof the Titles only were mentioned in the Statutes of former Impressions, have been copied at large for this Work, from the Original Records; some Instances there may be of Rolls, before the Reign of Queen Elizabeth (but not since) with the Titles of Acts of Parliament not before printed, which the Editor did not think himself authorized to insert as Part of the Statutes of Ireland; they never having received the Sanction of being printed by Authority, or even mentioned in any Statute so printed, nor authenticated by judicial Determinations.
The Editor was aware, that the inserting expired or repealed Acts at large, would increase the Bulk of this Collection; but it is hoped the Public will dispense with that Inconvenience, as they may afford light, and be useful for the construction of subsisting Laws; and will remain curious and authentic Documents in the Public History of this Kingdom.
It has been usual, especially of late Years, to insert in the same Act different matters not expressed in the Title of such Act; this has been the Case particularly in those intitled “Acts for Amendment of the Law”; which has rendered it difficult to find the several Clauses when wanted. To remedy such Inconvenience, the Editor has, besides the general Index, added, but in a different Character, to the Table of the Titles of those Acts, the different Matters therein contained.
Indexes are absolutely necessary to Works of this kind; the Editor has therefore endeavoured to make his general Index to this Collection useful and complete.
The Acts of Settlement and Explanation though relating to a great part of the Landed Property in Ireland, may be considered as a separate Code of Laws, and as such rather to be consulted on particular Occasions, than as Part of the general Statute Law. The Editor has therefore added a separate Index for the Reader, turning to the several Matters contained in those Acts.
The short Abstracts and References in the Margin, will, it is hoped, be found accurate; and upon the Whole, the Editor is not conscious of having omitted any Care or Pains in discharge of the Trust he has been honoured with; and hopes this will, upon Perusal, be found a correct and useful Edition of the Statutes at Large, agreeable to the Intention of that respectable Authority, at whose Desire this Work was ordered and undertaken.