DEPARTMENT OF HISTORICAL RESEARCH. II5 



The process of revision to which Miss Davenport has been subjecting in 

 London archives the portions of her book of treaties written in first draft in 

 America does not readily permit nmiierical or quantitative statements of 

 progress made. It may be said that the book, "Treaties, bearing on Ameri- 

 can history, concluded by European powers," is completed nearly to the time 

 of the treaties of Westphalia. 



The collection entitled "American proceedings and debates in Parliament, 

 to 1783," will, as the title suggests, be derived from two sources, on the one 

 hand from the official journals of the English House of Lords and House of 

 Commons, of the Scottish Parliament, and of the Irish Lords and Commons, 

 and on the other hand from the unofficial reports, printed and manuscript, 

 of debates in these bodies. During the year Mr. Stock has brought to a con- 

 clusion the page-by-page search for American items in the 39 folio volumes 

 of the Commons Journals, and has carried to 1676 the search in the Lords 

 Journals. The extracts noted by him in the Commons Journals have been 

 copied through half the volumes ; or, more exactly, have been cut from the 

 printed Journals possessed by the Department, and mounted to serve as print- 

 er's copy. This process is much cheaper and more satisfactory than copying. 

 Our facilities for pursuing it have been greatly increased by the generous 

 action of the American x\ntiquarian Society, which through its librarian, Mr. 

 Clarence S. Brigham, presented to the Department last spring a series of 

 duplicate volumes of the Commons Journals, which, with the volumes the 

 Department already had, make up nearly a complete set. On the debates the 

 only work done during the year has been to continue at the British Museum 

 to 1770 (with part of 1774) the collation of the reports of debates in the 

 Parliament of 1 768-1 774, taken down, partly in longhand and partly in short- 

 hand, by Henry Cavendish, M. P. This process of collation has consisted in 

 comparing the text of the earlier debates printed by Wright with the original 

 manuscripts ostensibly used by him, and, since the divergences proved to be 

 very wide, in preparing a proper copy of Cavendish's text. This work has 

 been carried on in London by Miss i\Iary T. ]\Iartin. 



MISCELLAXEOUS OPERATIONS. 



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

 carried on in the office of the Department and by its staff. In Paris Mr. 

 Leland has continued to supervise the making of the calendar of papers in 

 the French archives relating to the history of the Mississippi Valley, de- 

 scribed in the annual report of two years ago. and undertaken by an associ- 

 ated group of historical organizations in the United States. This work has 

 taken some of his time, but this has been compensated for by the manner 

 in which its preparation has fitted in with, and in many particulars aided, the 

 prosecution of his main task in the Parisian archives. For similar reasons 

 he has been permitted to assist the Department of Archives and History of 

 the State of Mississippi by making the necessary arrangements for extensive 



