PARLIAMENTARY  REcoRns.—The proceedings of

parliament were recorded either on a roll prepared for each session, or on detached documents and petitions made up into sessional files . The files have now disappeared, although transcripts of some still exist, and in many cases their constituents can be traced among the Ancient Petitions (see below under SPECIAL COLLECTIONS) . The rolls known as Parliament Rolls form a broken series, 18 Edward I. to 48–49 Victoria . The tolls for Edward I. and Edward II. are among the Exchequer records, and the remainder are in the chancery . Of these rolls and files, and of certain pleadings found in the records of the King's Remembrancer, the Record Commission published what was meant to be a complete reprint . But the editors relied partly upon transcripts and partly upon original documents, and it is often difficult to determine the sources from which they drew . So prepared, the Rolls of Parliament (6 vols.) cover the period from 6 Edward I. to I Mary . The roll for 33 Edward I., unknown to them, has been edited (Rolls Series, vol . 98) by F . W . Maitland, with a valuable introduction and appendices; rolls for 18 Edward I. and 12 Edward II. are printed in H . Coles' Documents Illustrative of English History .

The Parliament Roll includes enrolments of statutes among its contents . But from Edward I. to Edward IV. the statutes after receiving the royal assent were also enrolled upon the

Statute Roll (chancery), of which only six rolls now remain . From these rolls and other sources the Record Commission prepared the volumes known as Statutes of the Realm on principles described in the introduction to that work . Unfortunately the editors made use of early printed texts, and translations based upon the inferior texts contained in Exchequer K.R . Miscellaneous Books 9, 10 and ii, and so diminished the value of their work . The Statutes of the Realm extend to the end of the reign of Queen Anne . Since then public general acts have been pub, lished in many forms; private acts ceased to be enrolled upon the Parliament Rolls during the 16th century; the originals are preserved in the House of Lords . The Record Office contains detached documents relating to parliamentary proceeding known as Exchequer Parliamentary and Chancery Parliamentary, but neither class has yet taken a final form .