Excerpt from The American Historical Review, Vol. 11: October, 1905 to July, 1906 Navy,1 has been generally overlooked. It would be strange indeed were these the only instances during a period of fifty years when minutes of the kind were made. Now a search among the archives of the Public Record Office reveals that there is an abundance of such material, not only of earlier date than anyone has stated, but also of later times, which have not been utilized. In View of their bearing upon the history of the council, it seems useful to give an account of these newly found manuscripts. They are of various kinds, corresponding to the different proceedings of the council. The earliest and simplest form of record made by the council was in connection with the petitions, of which thousands were received. It is well known how suitors addressed petitions to the king and council seeking remedies which they could not obtain from the ordinary courts. The responses were made regularly upon the backs of the same strips of parchment, in words as few as possible. As the council did not usually try cases, the endorsements consisted of brief directions to the suitors, the judges, or the chancellor: to the effect that the parties should sue at common law, or in the chan cery, that writs should be issued, that judgment be rendered, and the like. The response assumed greater length when a point of law had to be explained. Not that all of the numberless responses were actually made by the council, for there were hearers and triers of petitions appointed to do much of the work. But it is plain that even too much of the council's time was spent in the hearing of private petitions. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.