114 REPORTS ON INVESTIGATIONS AND PROJECTS. 



the Dutch historical atlas which is now in process of preparation, and which 

 may be regarded in many respects as a model. These were Prof. P. J. Blok, 

 of the University of Leyden, chairman of the commission called into exist- 

 ence for this purpose, and Mr. (Lieutenant) A. A. Beekman, its executive 

 officer, from whom valuable suggestions were obtained. 



TEXTUAL PUBI^ICATION OF DOCUMENTS, 



Though from time to time withdrawn to other portions of the Depart- 

 ment's work, Dr. Burnett has been able to spend most of his time during the 

 year upon the projected series entitled "Letters of delegates to the Contin- 

 ental Congress." This time has been spent in the process of annotation of 

 these voluminous texts in respect to their relations with the journals, a pro- 

 cess which has now been carried to its end save for one year of the Congress. 



Miss Davenport, except for a minimum of needful vacation, has occupied 

 herself continuously with her collection of "European treaties having a bear- 

 ing on United States history." From November to February she was pursu- 

 ing her subject in Paris, chiefly engaged with the diplomatic history of rela- 

 tions between France and Holland, Spain, and Portugal, in so far as these 

 relate to American history. Early in May she went to Lisbon, and through- 

 out that month and the first part of June was at work there and in Seville 

 upon papal bulls of the period of discovery and Portuguese and Spanish 

 treaties anterior to 1550. A part of September was spent in the archives 

 of The Hague. The remaining portions of the year, except August and 

 October, were filled with work in London, tending to the perfecting of her 

 series in one and another period, all prior to 1713. In October Miss Daven- 

 port is returning to the United States. 



The series called "Proceedings and debates of Parliament respecting 

 North America, 1585 to 1783," has during the year advanced in several par- 

 ticulars. The copying, or cutting and mounting, of the relevant entries in 

 the Journals of the House of Commons has been carried out through the 

 periods 1 727-1741, 1 750-1 757, and through nearly the whole of the remain- 

 ing period subsequent to 1766, as well as nearly through the seventeenth 

 century. Mr. Stock has carried down to 1731 the search for relevant por- 

 tions of the Lords' Journals. The search for printed texts of debates has 

 been pursued through a great number and variety of miscellaneous volumes. 

 Of manuscript reports and debates two interesting volumes were discov- 

 ered in the library of the Massachusetts Historical Society, and the Ameri- 

 can portions have been extracted from them. A special source of Parlia- 

 mentary debates, and one of great interest, lies in the reports which the 

 French ambassadors in London, chiefly in the eighteenth century, obtained 

 by secret means and transmitted to the court of France. These materials, 

 now preserved in the Archives des Aflfaires fitrangeres at Paris, have been 

 described in an article by M. Paul Mantoux in the "American Historical 

 Review" for January 1907 (vol. xii, pp. 244-269). M. Doysie has completed 

 a search for such portions of these reports as relate to American topics. 



