156 CARNEGIE INSTITUTION OF WASHINGTON. 



pedient to attempt an archival expedition to the Lesser Antilles, a 

 systematic examination of the West Indian portion of the Colonial 

 Office Papers in the Pubhc Record Office in London might be profitably 

 undertaken, and it was hoped that this might be carried out, in some 

 portion of the year just ended, by Professor Herbert C. Bell, of Bowdoin 

 College, who had kindly consented to undertake the task whenever 

 free to do so. Mr. Bell, however, has entered the miUtary service 

 of the United States, and the conditions are still so httle favorable that 

 no attempt will be made to have either the West Indian or the London 

 portion of the enterprise carried out until the war has terminated. 



TEXTUAL PUBLICATION OF DOCUMENTS. 



The first volume of Dr. Davenport's collection of "European 

 Treaties bearing on the History of the United States and its Depend- 

 encies," extending thi'ough the treaties of 1648, reported a year ago 

 as completed in manuscript, is now all in type and approaching the date 

 of publication. Page-proofs have been read, and proofs of the index, 

 prepared by Mr. D. M. Matteson, of Cambridge, Massachusetts, are 

 in the hands of the printer. Exclusive of the index, the book makes a 

 volume of 366 pages. The documents which it presents, and which 

 can be found in no other one collection of papal bulls and international 

 treaties, are forty in number, ranging in date from 1454 to 1648 (treaty 

 of Westphalia) . Each treaty is preceded by an introduction, in which 

 Miss Davenport describes the negotiations through which it was con- 

 cluded, and brings out its significance in the history of the relations 

 between Europe and the New World. Next follows a bibhographical 

 statement as to text, translations, and works illustrative of the history 

 of the treaty. Then follows the text, which in all practicable cases is 

 based upon photographs of the original ratifications, and which has 

 been prepared with the utmost pains as to minute accuracy. This, 

 in the case of documents whose original language is not EngHsh or 

 French, is followed by a translation. The introductions and texts 

 are accompanied by learned annotations. The book, it is believed, 

 will be useful to professional students of history and interna tional law 

 and to college and university classes. 



During the past year Dr. Davenport has been engaged upon her 

 second volume, and has completed her work upon eight of the treaties 

 following that of Westphalia — treaties extending from the Anglo- 

 Dutch Compact of Hartford, 1650, to the treaty of London between 

 Great Britain and Sweden, 1656. 



In Dr. Burnett's series of ''Letters of Delegates to the Continental 

 Congress," the first volume is entirely ready for printing at the time at 

 which this report closes, and the second substantially so. The first 



