Catalogue description Home Office: Various Commissions: Records and Correspondence

Records relating to various standing royal commissions and temporary commissions of enquiry for internal affairs not assigned to other departments of state. In the following cases the records are those of the particular commission, including correspondence, draft reports or occasionally original commissions and warrants; Cambridge University, 1852 to 1861; Cattle Plague, 1865 to 1866; Constabulary Force, 1836 to 1838 (including papers of Edwin Chadwick as a member of the commission and as Secretary of the Poor Law Commission); Debts of George, Prince of Wales, 1786 to 1807; Friendly Societies and Building Societies, 1870 to 1874; Irish Education, 1834; Labour, 1891 to 1894; Naval and Military Services, Civil Departments (Hartington Commission), 1888 to 1890; Oxford University, 1852 to 1858; Paris Exhibitions, 1867 and 1878 (original commissions registered in the Science and Art Department and the Board of Education); Public Schools, 1861 to 1864; and University Education in Wales, 1917 to 1918.

In other cases the records in this series comprise Home Office papers, including correspondence from the various commissions, copies of their reports, and other papers. The Neutrality Laws Commission papers (1867-1868) consist of a set of the papers presented to the Commissioners.

The Report of H.M Commissioners on the Revenues and Management of certain college and schools, studies pursued and instruction given (H.C 1864, XX, XXI) contained by far the greater part of the evidence presented to the commissioners. Much of the present series consists of written or printed copy, with a few amendements, of the final text. Some submissions, however, do not appear to have been printed. the minutes and further correspondence of the commissioners with various bodies and individuals are also preserved, and there is a selection of exhibits, examination papers, school lists, prize compositions etc, on which the commissioners based some of their conclusions. The commission was appointed on 18 July 1861, and reported on 16 February 1864.

Records within this series are available to download as digital microfilm .