108 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



The purposes aimed at in setting forth so large a programme in 

 advance are chiefly these: First, it will serve to avoid doubt and pos- 

 sible confusion in the classification of documents to know what are 

 the various sections under which they may be grouped. Thus, when 

 one is tempted to incorporate an important but only partially related 

 document in any volume in preparation at a given time, one can 

 safely set it aside, knowing that it will find more appropriate place 

 in another volume reserved for the future. Secondly, in going through 

 the masses of miscellaneous manuscript documents, it will accomplish 

 a very great saving of time for the future, if one can note and classify 

 for subsequent reference those documents which are not of special 

 interest to the subject in hand, but which are certain to be of special 

 importance for other volumes to follow. 



The documents will be given from the most authentic sources 

 available and in the language in which they were prepared or ofificially 

 presented. In the English edition the French documents will be 

 given in the original but will be followed by an English translation, 

 while in the French edition the original French documents will remain 

 unaltered while the English documents will appear in French trans- 

 lations. 



Apart from the revision and reissue of the first volume of Con- 

 stitutional Documents, 1759-1791, for some time out of print, and 

 now nearing completion, the new subjects at present in preparation 

 are three in number. First, the largest and in some respects the most 

 important, is that of the original settlement of the various sections 

 of Canada. This will deal with the sources of our population, the 

 occasion of the coming to this country, the inducements and assist- 

 ance afforded by the government, as also the restrictions imposed on 

 certain aliens, the terms on which lands were granted, and the 

 variation from time to time of these terms and conditions. This 

 is a large and complex subject and the documents relating to it will 

 fill several volumes, but it is fundamental to the study of all other 

 phases of Canadian History . The second is the constitutional develop- 

 ment of the earliest English administration in Canada, that namely 

 in Nova Scotia, which originally covered the three maritime provinces. 

 This furnishes the necessary link between the earlier constitutional 

 organization, in the various types of British Colonial Establishments 

 in America, and the later administration in Canada after the Conquest, 

 and still later in British Columbia and the Northwest Territories, 

 originally occupied by the Hudson's Bay Company. The com- 

 pletion of this treatment will require the presentation of the French 

 Constitutional Development to the periods of the taking over of the 



