17^ PKOCEEDIKUS AT MKliTlNGS OF

Many Mumiineiital Iiiseriiitiuns iiieiitioiiod by the Topo2;niphor Lysons, in his well known works on London and the adjacent pari.-ilies, as existing about sixty or seventy years since, have disappeared. Even in AVest- uiinster Abbey several inscribed memorials are actually concealed under the pavement of the choir. Numerous other instances might be adduced not only of the destruction of ^Monumental Inscriptions in Tiondon and in the country, through the recklessness of individuals, but also of the sacri- fice of churches and churchyards, to the alleged requirements of local convenience. In none of these eases, as your Memorialists believe, has any authenti- cated record been preserved of the inscriptions thus destroyed or concealed from view ; and even if in any of them copies have been preserved, it is apprehended they may be of no avail in a court of justice. A further destruction of such memorials is actually threatened by the Bill, about to be brought before Parliament by the Metro])olitan Railway Comj)any, with the object of obtaining the power of purchasing several churches and churchyards, and no provision appears to be contemplated for tlie preservation of the monumental memorials. Your Memorialists are of opinion that the destruction of these Monumental Inscriptions must greatly facilitate the fabrication of fictitious and falsified memorials, such as have been adduced as evidence even in courts of justice on more than one occasion in recent times. Your Memorialists beg therefore to request your Lordship's consideration of a matter in which, in common with a large class of Iler Majesty's subjects, they feel deeply interested. They would submit to your Lord- ship's juilgment whether a remedy for the alleged evils may not be found in tiie establishment of some system by which the preservation of sacred editices and the Monumental Memorials themselves might be as far as possible ensured. And also whether carefully authenticated copies of the inscrij)tions on such memorials, more especially on those threatened with injury or destruction through re(|uiremcnts of public convenience, might not be preserved and registered under Government authority, and made by Act of Parliament legal evidence in all cases when the originals would have been admissible. And your Memorialists will ever pray, itc. The Uev. Josi;rii IIintkic expressed his cordial interest in the object under consideration. He considered it highly desirable that some system should be brought into o]teratioM throughout the kingdom to preserve sepul- chral inscriptions, a class of evidence constantly liable to be lost through the decay of time or wanton injury. Some persons uiight entertain a doubt as regarded the value of such memorials in a legal point of view, but they were on varioun grounds well deserving of preservation, and he thought that the charge of registration might well be intrusted to the incundients of parishes. It was tlu-n moved by Mr. J. II. Mattiikws, seconded by Mr. W. S. WaI.KokI), aiid carried unanimously that the Memorial ])ropo8cd by Mr. Hawkins be adiq)ted, ami that the noble President of the Institute hbould be requested to athl his signature thereto, on behalf of the Society.