and obtain, in Europe, historical documents and papers, which, when procured, were to be added to and form a part of the existing records of the State, at Albany. He was necessarily invested with a large discretion ; he was to procure as much additional material as he could ; and his scope of selection was limited only by the comprehensive restriction to such documents "relating to or in any way affecting the Colonial or other history" of New -York, as, in his own judgment, he might " deem important to

illustrate" that history.

Under this law, the names of sevei'al gentlemen connected with antiquarian investigations were suggested as fit and proper to execute its duties ; and in March, 1840, the Historical Society, through its President, Mr. Peter A. Jay, addressed an official letter to the Governor, reminding him that two distinguished citizens of the State

were then representing the United States government abroad -- Mr. Henry Wiieaton, at Berlin, and Mr. Harmanus Blbecker, at the Hague -- whose public would position

give them superior facilities for research, and who would no doubt cheerfully superintend the execution of the contemplated work ; and the Society accordingly recommended that one or the other of these gentlemen should be appointed Agent of the State. Various circumstances, however, delayed the execution of the act. At length, on the 15th of January, 1841, nearly two years after the passage of the law, Mr. John RoMEYN Brodhead was commissioned as Agent. He had resided during the previous year in Holland, with Mr. Bleecker, attached to the American Legation at the Hague, and was to some extent familiar with the peculiar duty he was expected to perform. In order, however, to avoid what was felt to be the chief inconvenience in the execution of his mission, namely, the procuring of duplicates of documents already in the possession of the State, the Agent spent several weeks in a careful examination of the principal historical records in the Secretary's office at Albany.