DEPARTMENT OF HISTORICAIv RESEARCH. II7 



finished, the Clerk of the House of Representatives kindly gave the necessary 

 permission for the examination of its files. But Mr. Parker had then to re- 

 turn to Canada, and a large part of the files are stored where no one could 

 endure to work long among them in the heat of the Washington summer. 

 The work was therefore interrupted at this point, and it does not now appear 

 that it can be resumed till the appropriations for the year 1910 become 

 available. 



This may be the most appropriate place at which to mention, what appar- 

 ently was omitted from record in the last report, that on December 14, 1907, 

 President Roosevelt issued the following executive order, which has been 

 found to facilitate considerably the work of the Department: 



Officers in the executive departments who have charge of archives or ad- 

 ministrative records are instructed, in so far as public interests and depart- 

 mental orders permit them to do so, to allow agents of the Department of 

 Historical Research of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, bearing 

 proper credentials from the Director of that Department, to have access to 

 those papers, for historical purposes, at all times which are not inconvenient 

 in respect to public business, and under such proper conditions as may be 

 desired. 



TEXTUAL PUBLICATION 01? DOCUMENTS. 



The series of Letters from Delegates to the Continental Congress, under 

 the editorial care of Dr. Burnett, has advanced by several steps. The search 

 for letters has been carried on in Maine, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, 

 Maryland, and partially in New York ; when New York is completed. New 

 Jersey will be the only State remaining. The copying of the desired letters 

 or extracts has been completed in Washington, and in Maine, New Hamp- 

 shire, and Massachusetts, and partly carried out in New York; in Rhode 

 Island, Connecticut, Virginia, North Carolina, and Georgia it had already 

 been achieved. Those extracts which have to be copied from printed books 

 have mostly been copied. The series may therefore be regarded, so far as its 

 texts are concerned, as well advanced toward completion. 



The series of treaties between European powers having a bearing on the 

 history of the United States is complete so far as the texts are concerned, but 

 the main work is that of supplying to each document its proper introduction 

 and annotations, which must of necessity traverse a great part of the compli- 

 cated history of European diplomacy from the Renaissance to the present 

 time. The work begins with the Papal bulls of the fifteenth century, docu- 

 ments which on account of the international position accorded to the Popes 

 before the Reformation have historically the status of treaties. Miss Daven- 

 port, the editor of the work, has completed the introductions and notes for the 

 bulls and treaties down to 1632. 



Prof. William R. Manning, of the George Washington University, has 

 continued through a large part of the year the search through printed books. 



