Government + Legal Documents

Rich and extensive documentation

Cabinet Papers, 1915-1981
(1915-1981) Digital facsimiles of records of the British Cabinet, including memoranda, Cabinet Secretary's notebooks, and more. Useful for demonstrating how the British government dealt with the major 20th century events. From the National Archives (U.K.).

Hansard, 1803-2005
(1803-2005) Digital version of Hansard (Parliamentary Debates), the printed transcripts of debates in the British House of Lords and House of Commons. I find the old version of the website easier to use.

State Papers Online
(1509-1782) Digital facsimiles of 16th, 17th, and 18th century British government documents on foreign and domestic affairs. Covers the Tudor, Stuart, and Hanover monarchies and includes State Papers Domestic, Scotland, Borders, Ireland, and Foreign with the Acts of the Privy Council, which contain correspondence, reports, memoranda, and parliamentary drafts from ambassadors, civil servants and provincial administrators. Calendar entries are fully-searchable and link to digital facsimiles of manuscript documents.

• Making of Modern Law: Legal Treatises, 1800-1926 US & UK
  (1800-1926) The Making of Modern Law features a fully searchable database of approximately 10 million pages and more than 21,000 works of U.S. and U.K. historical legal treatises; includes casebooks, local practice manuals, form books, works written for lay readers, pamphlets, letters, speeches, and more.
  Part of Gale Primary Sources.

• Making of Modern Law: Trials, 1600-1926
  (1600-1926) Digital facsimiles of over 10,000 titles, including trial transcripts, official records of proceedings, and popular printed accounts of U.S. and U.K. trials. The Making of Modern Law: Trials, 1600-1926 encompasses the most celebrated and fascinating trials and crimes of the extensive time period covered. The trials involving Dred Scott, John Peter Zenger, Susan B. Anthony, Oscar Wilde, the Boston Massacre, Lizzie Borden, Sacco and Vanzetti, Leopold and Loeb, the impeachment of Andrew Johnson, the Bounty mutineers, Salem witchcraft, Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, Aaron Burr, John Brown and Alfred Dreyfus, to name only a few, are included with considerable detail and commentary. Drawn from the collections of the Harvard, Yale, and Association of the Bar of the City of New York libraries.
  Part of Gale Primary Sources.

• Proceedings of the Old Bailey London, 1674 to 1834
  (1674-1913) The full text of the proceedings of over 197,000 trials along with original page images and background information on trial procedures, verdicts, and the types of crimes tried. The Old Bailey was the central criminal court for the City of London and the County of Middlesex.