“4. That the royal assent shall be indorsed in the usual form on such fair print so authenticated, which shall be deposited in the Record Tower, in lieu of the present engrossment.
“5. That the copies promulgated in the first instance by the Queen’s printer shall be impressions from the same form as the deposited copy.
“6. That for the present session this arrangement shall not apply to private bills, nor to local and personal bills, which last mentioned bills, intended to be brought in this session, have been for the most part already printed, in pursuance of the standing orders of the House of Commons.
“7. That the Master of the Rolls shall, upon being duly authorized in that behalf, receive, in lieu of the copies of public general acts as now enrolled, the herein before-mentioned duplicate fair print of each public general bill, to be held for the same purposes and subject to the same conditions for and upon which the enrolled acts are now received and held by him.
“8. That it is expedient, with a view to economy, convenience, and dispatch, and to the diminution of the chance of errors, that one printer should print the public general bills for both Houses; and that, inasmuch as the Queen’s printer is, by virtue of his office, bound to print the acts, it would be advisable, for the attainment of the before-mentioned objects, that the Queen’s printer should be employed by both Houses to print the public general bills.”[324]
Later in the same session of Parliament, the House of Commons passed the following resolution, which was agreed to by the House of Lords on the 31st of July, 1849.
“That the arrangement contained in the resolutions agreed to by both Houses of Parliament on the 12th day of February last, relative to the engrossing and enrolling of bills, (except so much thereof as relates to the expediency of one printer printing the bills for both Houses,) shall in future sessions apply to local, personal, and private, as well as to public bills.”[325]
Thus in England the old system of engrossing and enrolling has disappeared. It is true that the bill, in its last stage, is printed on vellum; but the ancient cumbersome proceeding is abolished.
I have referred especially to English practice, because ours was originally derived from it. But the example of a nation so truly enlightened as France may be properly adduced also. The ordinances of the kings of France were engrossed on parchment down to the reign of Louis the Fourteenth, when his great minister, Colbert, contented himself with having them copied in a fair hand on folio paper, and bound in large volumes. The voluminous ordinances of the Grand Monarch on the Government of Canada, and of the Mississippi Valley, then recently discovered, are still preserved in the Archives de la Marine at Paris, each one bearing the signature of the sovereign, and countersigned by his minister. Thus in France, even before the great changes of the Revolution, parchment was discarded, and I am not aware that it is now used either in judicial or legislative proceedings. The records and documents, all fairly copied on paper, are admirably preserved, untouched by time or damage of any kind, and in better condition than some of our own public documents written within the last ten years. I do not forget that the clerks of the last century wrote with carefully prepared ink on linen paper. Bad ink and cotton paper must, of course, be avoided, especially where metallic pens are employed to tear the surface and open the way for the deleterious fluid.