DEPARTMENT OF HISTORICAL RESEARCH. II9 



divisions, are disputed or still obscure. The geography of political, social, 

 and economic movements — e. g., of agricultural and industrial progress and 

 of their relation to political history — is almost a virgin field. Explanatory 

 letter-press should be used more largely than has been customary in such 

 works, and must be prepared with as much care as any other product of 

 historical scholarship. Technical questions concerning the execution of the 

 maps must be considered with great care and with the best advice procurable. 

 Altogether, it would not be reasonable to look forward to doing more in 191 2 

 than to define the bounds and details of the enterprise in as many respects as 

 possible, to submit the table of contents in some manner to criticism by those 

 entitled to judge or suggest, to fix upon the program of procedure, and to 

 prepare some of the maps and certain sections of the letter-press. 



TEXTS. 



If Dr. Burnett is able to spend as large a part of his time in 1912 upon the 

 "Letters of Delegates to the Continental Congress" as in 1911, it seems not 

 unlikely that he may be able to complete the work. 



Miss Davenport will have all her time free for the book of treaties, and 

 will bring it a year nearer to completion. The documents themselves, at all 

 events, as distinguished from the introductions and annotations, will be given 

 their final form, a photographic or manuscript copy being obtained of what- 

 ever is in each case the authoritative text. 



The extracts required for the volumes of "American proceedings and 

 debates in Parliament," from the Lords and Commons Journals, the Irish 

 parliamentary journals, and the Acts of the Parliament of Scotland, will 

 probably be completed within the year. Some progress will also be made 

 with respect to the debates, especially with respect to those still remaining in 

 manuscript, in the British Museum and elsewhere in England. 



MISCEEEANEOUS OPERATIONS. 



The Department will no doubt maintain in 1912 activities similar in gen- 

 eral to those described above, under this head, in the report relative to the 

 last twelve months. 



