It became a question whether, under the discretion vested by this law in the State officers therein named, the whole of the documents or a selection of them only should

be published. Mr. Brodhead, who was then Secretary of the American Legation at London, and about to return home, offered to superintend the publication of such a selection, if it should be determined upon, without any charge to the State for his services. It was, however, on full consideration of the subject, deemed best to print

the whole of the documents, and, under the authority vested in the State officers by the

second section of the law, they employed E. B. O'Callaghan, M. D., to make the necessary translations and to superintend the publication generally. In a communication to the Assembly, dated the 29th January, 1851 (Assembly Documents, No. 66), also in a report from the Comptroller to the Senate, made on 1st February, 1853 (Senate Documents, No. 24), and in the annual reports of the Comptroller to the Legislature, will be found detailed statements of the progress of the work. The arrangement adopted was, that the publication should consist of ten quarto volumes. Of these, the first and second were to contain translations of the " Holland Documents ;" the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth, the " London Documents ;" and the ninth and tenth, translations of the " Paris Documents." The publication of the work was commenced in 1853 by the issue of the third volume, or the first of the English series -- the translation of the papers to form the first and second volumes not having been then completed. The fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh and ninth volumes were afterwards successively issued, all of them accompanied by foot notes by the translator.