110 REPORTS ON INVESTIGATIONS AND PROJECTS. 



the most interesting portion of the earlier material ; the papers relating to 

 boundaries and in general to diplomatic relations as the most important for 

 the period after the securing of independence by the United States and Mex- 

 ico; while the ^Mexican War and the subsequent developments of mutual 

 relations between the two Republics are represented by what may literally be 

 called enormous masses of fresh material deserving of the historian's atten- 

 tion. 



Of the projected books respecting American papers in London archives, 

 one, a "Guide to the manuscript material for the history of the United States 

 to 1783, in the British Museum, in minor London archives, and in the Li- 

 braries of Oxford and Cambridge," by Prof. Charles M. Andrews and Miss 

 Frances G. Davenport, was issued in 1908. Ideally this book should have 

 been preceded by one on the materials in the Public Record Office, or chief 

 London archive, for the same period, and followed by one on the materials 

 in the various London archives relating to the period of United States his- 

 tory subsequent to 1783. The obstacles which have stood in the way of this 

 order of issue have been described in previous annual reports. In the former 

 case, that of the elaborate survey of Public Record Office materials for the 

 colonial and revolutionary periods, which has for several years been in the 

 charge of Prof. Charles M. Andrews, the main difficulty arose from the 

 extensive reclassification of certain sections of the Public Record Office 

 involved in the book. Of these, the sections embraced in the first half of the 

 book are now in their final order of arrangement and Professor Andrews has 

 during the past summer completed the work of recasting this half into a 

 permanent shape, corresponding to the present classification. As it is now 

 intended that his book shall appear in two volumes, the first embracing his 

 general introduction upon the Public Record Office and his survey of the 

 American materials in what are technically called the State Papers (State 

 Papers, Foreign ; State Papers, Domestic ; Home Office Papers ; State Pa- 

 pers, Colonial, etc.), the second presenting his description of what are tech- 

 nically called Departmental records (Admiralty, Audit Office, Custom House, 

 Treasury, War Office, etc.) and the miscellaneous section embracing the 

 papers of the High Court of Admiralty and various expired commissions 

 and special collections, the stage of progress now reached may be defined by 

 saying that volume i is now completed and substantially ready for the press. 

 Volume II must await the completion of the process of reclassification. The 

 long delays due to that process are regrettable, but have doubtless borne 

 fruit in further perfecting of the material, which, as no American student 

 of the present time or of any past period has ever acquired so large a knowl- 

 edge of the Public Record Office as Professor Andrews, must, it is thought, 

 prove invaluable to historical investigators. 



The further completing of the Department's inventory of American ma- 

 terials in London archives consists of a guide to such of those materials as 

 relate to the period since 1783. This would logically follow after the two 



