158 CARNEGIE INSTITUTION OF WASHINGTON. 



So extensive a series, brought out in the brief space of ten years, 

 can not fail to have defects. It is hoped that the books will, in the 

 main, stand well the tests of accurate scholarship. Yet if subsequent 

 investigations, by ourselves or others, show that certain books or 

 parts of books might have been much improved by spending much 

 more time in their preparation, it should be remembered that the 

 object of the Department was "to serve the present age," by bringing 

 out such guides at as early a period as possible. 



It will be seen that most of these volumes are inventories of 

 archives, American or foreign, listing single documents or whole 

 volumes that relate either to the history of the United States or to 

 the whole history of English North America. It may be computed 

 that they have called the attention of historical students to not less 

 than 100,000 historical documents or volumes of manuscripts, nearly 

 all of which were previously unknown to them. Most of the 

 foreign archives important for American history, except the French, 

 the Dutch, the Russian, and the Scandinavian, having been covered 

 by such inventories, the first stage of dealing with foreign archives 

 may well be regarded as now approaching its conclusion. Without 

 entirely delaying further operations until the writers of monographs 

 and general histories have more extensively used the treasures already 

 disclosed to them, we may conclude that hereafter a greater portion 

 of our energies and resources belongs to the textual publication of 

 documents and to the Atlas and other labors lying wholly within the 

 borders of the United States. 



During the greater part of the ten years, however, continuous 

 attention has also been given to three textual publications — the 

 "Letters of delegates to the Continental Congress," the collection of 

 "European Treaties having a bearing on United States history," 

 and the "Proceedings and debates of Parhament respecting North 

 America, 1585-1783." Each of these will consist of several volumes. 

 For each, the materials must be obtained with difficulty and adjusted 

 with great care. Their nature requires them to be products of slower 

 growth than the inventories, and they have been slower in prepara- 

 tion than was expected, so that the decade ends without any of them 

 having yet come to publication. But two of them are approaching 

 completion and a third, upon which less effort has been expended, is 

 perhaps half done. 



The ten years have also seen the preparation, in the office, of ten 

 volumes of the "American Historical Review," the writing of 20,000 

 or 25,000 letters, the continuous endeavor to assist historical socie- 

 ties, state historical departments, and serious historical investigators 

 in all possible methods that can be pursued by such an organization, 

 established in the capital city, in the neighborhood of the government 

 archives and the Library of Congress. 



