XVI ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
14. Nova Scotia AND NEw Brunswick ARCHIVES. 
It is satisfactory to the students of Acadian annals to find that 
another edition has just been made to the printed archives of Nova 
Scotia. It will be remembered, says Dr. MacMechan, the editor of the new 
volume, that the manuscript documents relating to the history of Nova 
Scotia were collected, arranged, bound, indexed and catalogued by the 
late Thomas Beamish Akins, D.C.L., who was appointed Commissioner 
of Public Records in accordance with a resolution passed by the House 
of Assembly on the 30th April, 1857. According to the catalogue 
prepared by Dr. Akins in 1886, and now out of print, they number over 
535 volumes; and there are besides 59 boxes of unbound papers arranged 
and indexed. All these are preserved in the Province Building at 
Halifax, and form the materials for a complete history of the province. 
The collection is two-fold in character. It consists of original 
documents and transcripts of papers from the public record office in 
London and elsewhere. A selection from them was published at the 
expense of the province in 1868 by Dr. Akins. It was a stout volume of 
over 750 pages, and related to the Acadians, the encroachments of French 
Canada upon Nova Scotia, the Seven Years’ War, the founding of 
Halifax, and the establishment of representative government in 1758. 
The preface ends with the words: “There are be many documents of 
value and interest among our archives worthy of publication.” 
With this justification, the Nova Scotia Historical Society made 
representations to the Legislature, which resulted in the appointment of 
Professor MacMechan of Dalhousie College to the task of editing another 
selection from the archives, with the title:—“A Calendar of two Letter- 
Books and one Commission-Book in the possession of the Government 
of Nova Scotia, 1713-1741.” 
The documents chosen, as Dr. MacMechan states, are among the 
very oldest in the possession of the Government. Like all papers not kept 
in a fire-proof room, they are in danger of destruction, and MS. 20 was 
noted as in a “damaged condition from damp” when it was catalogued. 
In all the writing is often very faint; pages are patched and worn, and 
crumbled in the mere process of turning them over. It is doubtful if 
they will soon be read again. 
The three documents selected, MSS. 14, 15 and 20, relate to the 
internal administration of the province during Walpole’s long peace; 
they throw light on the experiment of governing a French population 
by a handful of Englishmen, and the tenacity with which this corner 
of the continent was held for the Empire. 
