The Records of the English African Companies

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Abstract
What I propose to put before the Society is a study in English diplomatic, that is, in the Science of Diplomatic under the form which I conceive it may take when applied to English Records. Opinion is so vague upon many points connected with this Science—such for instance as whether it is an unchanging series of rules, or merely a method of looking at historical sources which varies with the subject to which it is applied; whether it is applicable to documents of all periods and countries; whether it is an essential preliminary or only an interesting supplement to historical research upon documents—Diplomatic is, in fact, still so unreal a thing to many of the mass of students who now use documents for their work that it may be a little profitable to give, not indeed an exposition of its principles, but a slight view of its practical working upon an easily comprehended group of documents. If it can be made to appear that an ordered survey thus taken is a useful, even essential, preliminary to practical search in documents after any class of information, the fact that the documents here used are much later in date than those which usually form the subject of this science, will only make stronger the plea for its serious consideration by historical students. Though the mistakes caused by neglect of any introductory study of the inner side of the documents used may be more glaring (as indeed they are very glaring) in the case of the medieval than in that of the modern classes; though the latter are more comprehensible as being less removed, by reason of their dates, from our habits of thought and action; yet I hope it may appear that the difference in the character of English Records of all manner of dates is much less than it is usually believed.

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