" The Legislature of tliis State having on the 2d day of May, 1S39, passed an act for the appointment of an Agent to visit England, Holland and France for the purpose of procuring the originals or copies of such documents and papers, in the archives of those governments, relating to the Colonial and other history of this State as are important to illustrate that history, and you having been duly appointed such Agent, and being about to proceed in the execution of your duties, it seems to be proper that I should communicate to you the views entertained by the Executive in relation thereto. " This communication is to be regarded as advisory only. The language of the acts is quite indeQnite, and was undoubtedly designedly made so, in order to leave the Agent at liberty to exercise a sound and wise discretion, according to the circumstances affecting the object of his mission. In recommending those objects to the Legislature, I observed that their successful accomplishment would advance the cause of free government throughout the world, and that it was due to ourselves and to the memory of our predecessors, and to a just regard for the

respect of posterity, that every important circumstance connected with the rise and progress of our free institutions should be recorded and illustrated. " The general policy of the European governments towards their transatlantic possessions has been heretofore studied by us chiefly in the acts of their agents here, while its comparative unimportance in the domestic history of those States has caused it to be often overlooked or superficially treated by European historians. It is represented to us that there are now, in the archives and public offices of Holland and England, many papers relating to the events and persons prominent in our local history anterior to and through the Revolution.