HISTORICAL RESEARCH — SCOTT, WRIGHT. 239 



ography (statutes, codes, court decisions, etc.) of the subject in the 

 leading European countries, in order that the necessary literature 

 might be purchased and shipped to the Library of Congress for 

 future study. For centuries the European countries have recog- 

 nized a pecuniary responsibility to individuals for damages done. 



The insight obtained into the continental law while abroad has 

 been useful since returning in the study of our own somewhat crude 

 and developing law of claims. 



Before the mass of notes and gathered material can be correlated 

 and put in final literary form, the study of the foreign law must be 

 completed. It was hoped that the writing could have been begun 

 and some portion of the work finished by this time ; but the diffi- 

 culties mentioned in previous reports have caused delay. 



Wright, James M., Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland. 

 Grant No. 269. Study of the history of the Bahama Islands since 

 184.8 and a complete report of the contents of its public archives . $250. 



Abstract of Report. — The archives of the Bahamas are kept in the 

 public offices at the capital of the colony. There is no public archivist 

 nor any person to whom is committed the special duty of caring for 

 them. The occupants of these offices thus become the natural cus- 

 todians of the records and documents deposited in their respective 

 departments. 



Permission to examine the papers in any one of the offices is com. 

 monly granted by its custodian. But there are different regulations 

 in the different offices. Access to them is readily allowed in all the 

 offices except those of the governor and the colonial secretary, which 

 contain official correspondence. In these the permission is diffi- 

 cult to obtain, only limited privileges are granted, and all informa- 

 tion taken from them must be submitted to a censorship. 



These archives nearly all belong to the nineteenth century. Only 

 two of the offices contain documents extending far back into the 

 eighteenth century, and among the rest two of the most important 

 series of documents do not begin until 1829-1832. The absence of 

 many is unaccounted for. 



The materials for history existing here are thus seen to be limited 

 to comparatively recent times. However, they are sufficient to invite 

 research and to make possible a thorough understanding of the last 

 three-quarters of the nineteenth century. 



