DEPARTMENT OF HISTORICAL RESEARCH. 115 



Manuscript reports of Parliamentary debates, in the period when there 

 was no official or public reporting, exist in considerable numbers in the 

 British Museum and in other libraries in England. Others, however, still 

 remain in private hands. One object of the Director's visit to Europe this 

 summer was, by personal application based upon previous correspondence, 

 to obtain access to these collections and to examine them for the purposes 

 of the proposed series. It is a pleasure to report that in almost all instances 

 success attended these applications. The dukes of Bedford, Leeds, and 

 Northumberland, Lord Lucas, Mr. J. H. Gurney of Keswick Hall, Capt. 

 E. G. Pretyman, M. P., of Orwell Park, and Queen's College, Oxford, 

 through its provost, Dr. J. R. McGrath, kindly permitted the examination 

 of manuscripts in their possession, from which the American portions were 

 extracted. Other manuscripts were similarly examined in three public re- 

 positories, the British Museum, the Bodleian Library, and the library of 

 Cambridge University. 



MISCELLANEOUS OPERATIONS. 



As heretofore, the editing of the "American Historical Review" has been 

 carried on in the office of the Department and by its staff. Mr. Leland has 

 continued, from Washington, to supervise in Paris the making of a calendar 

 of the papers in the French archives relating to the history of the Missis- 

 sippi Valley, doing this for an associated group of American historical so- 

 cieties, in accordance with the plan described in a previous report. M. 

 Doysie and clerical assistants have performed the work involved. This has 

 not been performed at the cost of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, 

 but has been of much value to our proposed guide to the Paris archives, 

 which in the parts covered by the Mississippi calendar can, since the latter 

 is destined to be printed, be made for the most part simply a summary of 

 its more detailed indications. M. Doysie and Mr. Leland have also been of 

 much service in Paris, in similar ways, to the State of Mississippi, Yale 

 University, the University of Illinois, the Library of Congress, and various 

 individual investigators. 



At the request of the State of Illinois Mr. Leland devoted a month, on 

 leave from the Department, to a survey of the archives of the State and the 

 preparation of a plan for their concentration and administration, in connec- 

 tion with the plans for new State buildings now under consideration at 

 Springfield. He also gave useful testimony at a hearing before the Senate 

 Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds, upon points connected with 

 the proposal for a suitable national archive building in Washington. The 

 Director has, on his own part, considered it distinctly a duty of his office 

 to promote in all possible ways the erection of such a building as a necessary 

 step toward the proper advancement of historical scholarship in the United 

 States. 



As in previous years, searches and copies have been made by the Depart- 

 ment, or under its supervision, for organizations such as the Wisconsin State 



