Tills memorial of the Historical Society was received with great favor by the Legislature, which, with a liberality that has always belonged to the State of New- York, passed two acts on the 13th and the 15th of April, 1814, recognizing, in the most gratifying manner, the claims of the Institution to the regard of the representatives of the peojile. Public attention was now drawn more distinctly to the condition of the archives of the State. They were found to be in great disorder, and the necessity of some arrangement and classification of them was conceded. The Dutch records,

especially, being in a generally unfamiliar language, provision was made for their

translation, and Dr. Francis Adriaen Vaw der Kemp, a learned Hollander, was appointed by Governor Clinton to perform this service, which he accordingly did. His translations, forming twenty-six volumes, are now known and generally quoted as the "Albany Records." A concurrent resolution was also passed by the Legislature at their session in 1819, authorizing the Secretary of State, under the direction of the Governor, to cause to be bound and arranged such of the records as he might think expedient. On the 4th of January, 1820, Mr. John Van Ness Yates, then Secretary of State, submitted a Report to the Legislature, detailing the steps he had taken in

^ GENERAL INTRODUCTION.

carrying their resolution into effect, and containing an interesting and elaborate character of the public records in his synopsis of the several divisions and the specific custody. To this Keport was appended a general Catalogue, I., of the Dutch Colonial of the English Colonial Records and III., of the State Records and Kecords ; II., ; ;