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British Parliamentary Papers

Debates of Both Houses of Parliament

Debates of the House of Commons

  • Journals of the House of Commons, 1547-1741. Special Collections (Spec Folio+ J301 .K3)
    • Exists from the 16th century except for a brief period from 1584-1601. Not a verbatim report of debates, but minutes of each session and a record of business transacted. Before the 19th century, many reports and papers were printed in full in the Journals. Each volume has an indexs.
  • Debates and Proceedings of the British House of Commons, 1743-1772.
  • Cobbett’s Parliamentary Debates, 1803-1812.
  • Hansard’s Parliamentary Debates, 1812-1820.
  • Parliamentary Debates, 1937-1943.
    • The Parliamentary Debates consist of several series:
    • 1st series, 1803-1820 (41 vols.);
    • 2nd series (“new series”), 1820-1830 (25 vols.);
    • 3rd series, 1830-1891 (356 vols.);
    • 4th series, 1892-1908 (199 vols.);
    • 5th series, 1909-1981;
    • 6th series, 1981 to date.
    • Beginning in 1909 (with the 5th series), the Commons and Lords Debates, which had previously been published together, were separated. The House of Lords 5th series is still ongoing; the House of Commons 5th series ended in 1981. An index to the Debates of the House of Commons and to the Debates of the House of Lords for the years 1803-1830 is available in the “Government Documents Indices” series of the Nineteenth Century Masterfile database.