DEPARTMENT OF HISTORICAL RESEARCH. 117 



Guides of this sort for students of American history in the main or central 

 archives of England, France, Spain, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Canada, 

 and Mexico having thus been provided for, there remain only, of independ- 

 ent countries having important relations with American history, the archives 

 of the Netherlands and Scandinavia to be dealt with by way of similar gen- 

 eral survey. Provision for these, in 1914 or 191 5, has already been planned, 

 and similar examinations of the archives of Scotland, Ireland, and Russia 

 are contemplated. There will also be need, however, of further exploitation 

 of the Spanish and perhaps some other national archives upon which pre- 

 liminary volumes have already been issued ; of extensive searches of provin- 

 cial repositories in France and Spain ; and of careful searches, in so far as 

 they may be permitted, in certain private archives in England. These, how- 

 ever, are matters for fuller consideration in subsequent years. 



It is expected that Dr. Paullin, becoming a regular member of the staff of 

 the Department, will devote most of his time during the first part of the 

 ensuing year to the completion of his researches into the history of county 

 boundaries and those of Congressional districts, and through these studies 

 to the preparation of the political portions of the proposed atlas of the 

 historical geography of the United States. The remainder of his time will 

 be given to the planning, in conjunction with Professor Farrand, Prof. Jesse 

 S. Reeves, of the University of Michigan, and the Director, and so far as 

 may be to the preparation, of other portions of the atlas. 



TEXTS. 



Dr. Burnett will expend as large a part of his time as is possible upon the 

 "Letters of delegates to the Continental Congress." Miss Davenport will 

 give all her time to the book of treaties. 



Besides the continuance of the extracting of materials from parliamentary 

 journals and other printed books, for the volumes of "Proceedings and 

 debates of Parliament respecting North America, 1 585-1 783," the Director, 

 during a brief visit to England in April, will do what he can to bring toward 

 completion the copying of material upon the debates from manuscript sources 

 in the British Museum and in other places not covered by his work last sum- 

 mer. In particular he will address himself to the problem of the journals of 

 debates in the "Unreported Parliament" of 1 768-1 774, kept by Henry Caven- 

 dish, M. P., in the Egerton MSS., 215-263, a problem which has proved to 

 be singularly intricate and difficult, yet eminently deserving of solution if 

 possible, since Cavendish's reports ought to form an invaluable source for a 

 portion of history otherwise little supplied with documentary evidence. 



MISCELLANEOUS OPERATIONS. 



The Department will no doubt maintain in 1913 activities similar to those 

 described before, under this heading, in the report relative to the last twelve 

 months. 



