M. Jomard, and M. Henri TernauxCompans, Paris; B. M. Norman, Esq., New Orleans.

nial and Provincial Governors, and a large mass of original papers received from America. Upwards of two hundred

Rev. B. C. C. Parker, Samuel Forry, M.D., Messrs. Jas. K. Paulding, Marshall S. Bidwell, John L. O'Sullivan, George Curtis, Denning Duer, Frederic Saunders, Matthew Morgan, Henry Remsen, John Keese, Thomas S. Sommers.

On motion of the Secretary, the Society took up certain resolutions which had been offered by George Folsom, Esq., last April, to the effect, that it was the opinion of said Society, (from which originated the suggestion), that the important objects of the mission of Mr. Broadhead will be incomplete, unless he is further aided by an appropriation of funds by the State for the prosecution of his researches in Holland, England, and France, respecting the Records of the English government, &c.

Mr. JAY read, in support of the resolutions, a highly interesting letter from Mr. Broadhead, dated Paris, 12th July, 1842, in which that gentleman states, that he has concluded his investigation in the Archives of the Netherlands, and that upwards of four thousand pages of historical documents relating to the early days of New York-many of them of rare interest-have been transcribed and arranged in volumes according to chronological order. Having terminated the business of the agency in Holland, Mr. Broadhead proceeded to London in the prosecution of his duties, directions having been given by Lord Aberdeen to the keeper of Her Majesty's State papers, to allow Mr. Broadhead access to the papers in his custody relating to the Province of New York. The permission thus granted being at once improved, an investigation forthwith commenced of the records of the proceedings of the Committee of Council, and of the Board of Trade and Plantations, which are very full and voluminous, and include the records of the proprietary Governments which

were

transferred to their custody. These records consist principally of two general series, denominated Entries and Papers. The first comprise the commissions and instructions to the Governors, dispatches and letters to them and their answers, and various other important papers copied into books for preservation. The Papers consist of the original documents received from America by the Proprietaries, the Committee and the Board. In addition to these, there is a large series of volumes containing the correspondence of the Secretaries of State with the Colo

to Mr. Broadhead's inspection, and several months have been occupied in the careful and laborious examination of their contents. The documents relating to New York commence with the period of the surrender by the Dutch in 1664, and extend down to the year 1783, forming a most invaluable mine of historical wealth, and comprising the fullest details of our Provincial affairs, during the whole period of our subjection to the crown of Great Britain. A large number of documents had been selected and allowed, and considerable advance had been made in their transcription. A list of the papers so selected from 1664 to 1763 had been already transmitted to the Governor, and they would probably occupy 20,000 folio pages. The remaining papers relating to New York to the year 1783, would embrace about 10,000 pages more.

The Rev. Dr. BAIRD, well known for his philanthropic efforts on the continent of Europe, delivered an address relative to the various courts he had visited in the prosecution of his labors, and the Society adjourned. Coffee and sandwiches were served as usual in an adjoining room, and the remainder of the evening was passed in conversation.

The following interesting paper was read by Mr. Folsom, at a late meeting of this Society, which tends to show that the series of MS. Volumes of Proceedings of the British Parliament about the period of the Protectorate, in possession of said Society, hitherto supposed to have been original documents, are proved to be but copies made cotemporaneously with the events described.

"MS. Parliamentary_Journals.—It is well known that our Library contains several MS. volumes of Parliamentary Journals of England, concerning which there has been much speculation. The current opinion has been, that they are the original records brought to this country by the fugitive regicides, as they embrace the period of the Commonwealth. This opinion still exists to some extent, and it is time that it should be corrected, if without foundation, or confirmed if true.

"There are, in all, sixteen volumes. The first of the series commenced on the first day of the year, as then reckoned, viz.: 25th March, 1650. The 15th volume ends with the year 1661. The 16th volume begins in 1676–7, and ends 1678.

"There are other manuscript volumes of different years, in the possession of indi

viduals in this country. Hon. John Rutherfurd, of New Jersey, possesses several. They are written in the Court hand of the period to which they relate. The forms of the letters, the abbreviations, &c., are of the same period.

"The water marks of the paper, belong to the same period. A particular examination of their marks as well as of the volumes generally, was made about ten years ago by the late Mr. Jas. Bowdoin, of Boston, who published the results in a volume of the Massachusetts Historical Society's Collections. Mr. Bowdoin was fully satisfied that the MSS. were at least copies made at the period of their date, if not original. An English gentleman, C. W. Stokes, Esq., examined them at the same time, and inade extracts with a view to a comparison with the journals in England, if,' says Mr. Bowdoin, contrary to the belief of several gentlemen, the journals of this period were found to exist in that country.'

"This gentleman on his return home, pursues the inquiry and writes to Mr. Bowdoin as follows:

"I have got access to the originals for the period between 1650 and 1658. The entire series is unbroken, * unless my memory deceives me, the handwriting and water marks are the same as those in the books we examined together in New York, so that there is no doubt that the copies (for I am convinced they are only copies) were made at about the same time when the originals were written. I have made the most minute inquiries on the subject, and I have learned in the course of them that many scores of copies of Journals of the House are to be found in Libraries in England, it having been formerly the practice, before minutes of the proceedings of the House were printed, for members to send their servants, some every day, to take copies. Those in New York then will, we may suppose, have been the copies made by one of the regicides who took refuge in America.'

"It would thus seem that the question of the true character of these MS. volumes was settled quite satisfactorily, ten years ago, by the examination of Mr. Bowdoin and his intelligent correspondent. But the evidence appears not to have carried general conviction, for the belief still exists to some extent, that they are the originals. We now have it in our power to add another piece of testimony which must be regarded as entirely conclusive,

and which divests the volumes of much of the value and importance as well as the mystery that has hitherto attached to them.

"A resolution passed the House of Commons, on the 31st May, 1742, in the following words: Resolved, that all the Books of the Proceedings, or the Journals of the House of Commons, now in the custody of the Clerk of the said House, and commencing with the bock called Seymour, which begins with the reign of King Edward the Sixth, be printed.

"This resolution was carried into effect, and I have before me one of the series of printed volumes, which corresponds, so far as I have been able to compare them, with the MS. vol. of the same date in our Library. That they were printed from the originals in the possession of Parliament at that period (1742) there is no reason to doubt; and those originals, as appears by the statement of Mr. Bowdoin's correspondent, still exist.

This

"Mr. Bowdoin assigns as one reason for the particular examination he instituted into this subject, the fact, that no copy of any of the Journals was to be found on this side of the Atlantic, and detached fragments only, scattered here and there, in rare books, can here be got at.' was written in 1829, and as that gentleman, whose loss to society cannot be too much regretted, possessed the means of informing himself on every subject he undertook to investigate, the statement was then unquestionably correct. But since that time complete sets of the printed Journals of Parliament have been imported into this country; three are in Washington, and one in the Department of State at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and another set has just been received here, to which the volume now before me belongs.

"Our MS. volumes, although stripped of much of the importance hitherto attached to them, must still be regarded as curiosities, from the circumstance that they were unquestionably written at the date of the events they record, and nearly a century before any printed copies were made; and also from the fact, that they may have been brought out by the fugitive regicides, who sought an asylum in this country after the Restoration. The binding of the volumes is of the same period, and their whole contents bespeak their great antiquity."