iv Introductory Note to Volume II 
of the principal author of the present volume, Dr. John J. Meng, 
at present professor of political science in Queens College, 
Flushing, New York, but at the time when his collaboration was 
commenced a member of the faculty of The Catholic University 
of America. Dr. Meng, whose reputation for careful scholarship 
has been established by his works on the history of the diplo- 
matic relations betv/een the United States and France, was already 
familiar with the archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and 
was singularly qualified to take the great mass of notes and data 
accumulated during the "mission" and to reduce them to the scale 
and order in which they are here presented. In consultations 
between Dr. Meng and the general editor a plan of presentation 
has been worked out which succeeds, it is hoped, in emphasizing 
material of importance and in describing in more summary fashion 
material that is repetitious or that represents routine oper- 
ations. 
The archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are well 
described in the following paragraphs by Dr. Meng. 
Materials for American history abound in the archives of 
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; they are scattered throughout 
a tremendous mass of diplomatic documents covering every phase 
of French foreign relations from 1500 to the present day. Al- 
though this depository is one of the largest of French archival 
collections, its organization is one of the least complicated. 
This is due in part to the early adoption by the Foreign Office 
archivists of a policy of classification that was both compre- 
hensive and simplified, and to the consistent adherence to this 
policy for more than one hundred and fifty years. 
The historical archives antedating 1848 are open to 
qualified investigators: documents prior to 1789 may be con- 
sulted without restriction; notes taken from those dated between 
1789 and 1848 are subject to review by the archival authorities. 
In addition, it has been possible to obtain special permission 
from the Commission of Diplomatic Archives to consult records 
dated as late as 1870, subject to rather close supervision. 
The archives are organized in three major series: Corre - 
spondance politique , Memoires et Documents , and Correspondance 
des consuls. Each series is in turn subdivided into fonds 
