sources. During periods like those of the Middle Ages, of the Reformation, of the French Revolution, the history of the Netherlands is so interwoven with that of neighboring countries that in order thoroughly to study it one has to go abroad as well as to Dutch archives; whilst the nation, in the time of its greatest prosperity, as a people of traders and sailors, has had so many, so various, and so continuous relations with the rest of the world that it is scarcely possible to go anywhere without discovering something of interest to Dutch history. In limiting himself to the information to be drawn from Dutch archives the Dutch historian could not escape the danger of narrowing his views and lessening the value of his results. This was so evident that it had not escaped, at all, the attention of historians of a more remote period. In publishing his Archives de la Maison d'Orange-Nassau, Groen had had recourse to French and German sources as well as to the documents in the actual possession of the royal family, while such men as Bakhuizen van den Brink, van den Bergh, and P. L. Muller had published valuable reports on materials for some parts of Dutch history in the archives of Brussels, Vienna, and Lille. But all the work done had been occasional and fragmentary. At the instigation of Prof. Blok the Government ordered, in 1886, a general survey of materials relating to Dutch history in foreign countries, a survey executed under the direction of Prof. Blok, and for a great part by himself. For many years he used to devote his summer vacations entirely to this object. In 1888 he was able to issue a first report on the materials in Germany, followed the next year by a second one, dealing with another part of Germany and with Austria. In the following years the method of procedure was slightly altered, Prof. Blok only going out for a preliminary survey and some younger scholar, appointed by him, finishing the work. This line was adopted for Great Britain (preliminary report by Blok, elaborate report by Brugmans), Paris (preliminary report by Blok, elaborate ones by Van Veen and Busken Huet), and Italy (preliminary report by Blok, followed by the establishment, on his proposal, of a Dutch Historical Institute at Rome, whose director, the Abbé Gisbert Brom, has already issued two volumes of a detailed catalogue of materials interesting Dutch history in the Vatican archives, two others, dealing with the Vatican library and other depots at Rome, being under preparation, while a survey of materials at Rome interesting the history of Dutch artists and learned men, is being conducted by specialists under Dr. Brom's direction). For Russia, Scandinavia, Spain, and Portugal the work has been performed, respectively, by Profs. Uhlenbeck, Kernkamp, and Bussemaker, all appointed at the proposal of Prof. Blok, but without any preliminary survey of his. A few years ago Prof. Kernkamp published a second report on

materials in the Baltic seaports, while some steps have been taken toward cataloguing the archives of Lille and other towns in northern France; this part of the work, and also that relating to Belgium, remaining to be done. A great variety of valuable materials for Dutch history has been thrown open in this way to students, or at least made more accessible to them; the idea, of course, having never been to make superfluous, but only to facilitate, personal investigation in the foreign archives themselves by any student treating a definite object. On the whole, the work has been done with vigor and crowned with success, although the lack of stringent rules for conducting the survey has made itself strongly felt. Much, in the opinion of some critics too much, has been left to the insight and predilection of individual surveyors.

The history of this enterprise of Prof. Blok's has brought us down to the present times. Meanwhile, in 1902, the Government had taken a second and very decided step toward occupying itself with the interests of the study of history at large.

As I told you, the idea of allowing a Government grant to the Utrecht Historical Society had been ventilated some time before. The Government, however, preferred to fall back on the old program of nearly a century ago, which was now taken up again and executed on the lines then laid out by Thorbecke, though these were altered in many points, according to the experience of so many years lying between conception and performance. A State commission of 10 leading historical men was instituted to meet in the central depot of State archives at The Hague as often as they should deem necessary, but at least once a year (as a rule the commission has met four or five times a year), under the presidency of the general archivist of the Kingdom, one of the ordinary archivists acting as a secretary. Its task was to be the planning of historical publications to be undertaken by the State, and to superintend the performance of its own designs, as soon as they had been laid before the minister of the interior and accepted by him. In the act of institution, the particulars to be expressed in every advice to the Government were precisely detailed so as to prevent as far as possible the deviating by performers from the intentions of the real authors of the plan. The control of the execution of all plans of publication rested with the president and secretary, it being left free to the commission to appoint in every particular case one of its non-official members to constitute with the president and secretary this board of control. A yearly allowance was made for the purpose of printing and binding the publications, for copying manuscripts, defraying voyages to foreign archives, and for paying moderate fees to publishers. This allowance, which has been raised from time to time, now amounts to

8,000 guilders a year. Of each publication, 150 copies are left to the commission of advice to dispose of as it deems proper, 100 of these copies being regularly presented by them to libraries and institutions in Holland, the colonies, and abroad, and 50 reserved for presentation in special cases, according to the character of the publication. The other copies are handed over to a bookseller to be sold at the cost price of printing.

As it was expected that the mapping out of elaborate plans of publication and an effective control of their performance would require much time, the secretary of the commission, who, as I mentioned, was a State official, was discharged from any duty as an archivist, and was instructed to put himself entirely at the disposal of the commission.

Such, then, were the regulations under which the commission had to take in hand its task. The way in which it has thought proper to prepare its work has been deemed worthy of some consideration by your distinguished member, Dr. Jameson, in the article I referred to in the beginning of my address. As he has spoken of the proceeding at some length, I will only remind you of its main features.

The commission, before entering upon its business, unanimously resolved to make a general survey of the materials available for the study of Dutch history in its different parts and phases, and of the degree to which they had been duly published. The result was the indication of a certain number of gaps to be filled up by new publications. In order to prevent as much as possible all arbitrariness of proceeding, and to have things published in their proper time and proportion; in order to obtain, in short, a maximum of efficiency at a minimum of labor and expense, the commission resolved further to plan out the whole number of general series as well as minor publications that were deemed necessary to arrive at a state of things in which the original sources for national history might be said to be evenly and definitely presented. Of course we were quite aware that it would be impossible to carry out everything exactly as it had been originally planned; that the performance even of part of the program would take more than a man's lifetime; that experience gained and new ideas arising would necessarily lead to many deviations from the lines thus laid out. But this conviction could not restrain us from acting as we have done. The reason why it was found necessary that a permanent and official authority should interfere at all, was precisely that the voluntary element had been left too much at liberty to do what it liked, and especially to neglect what it did not like. We had no power to enforce fixed rules, but at least that of trying to observe them ourselves. In order that other historians should know what we were about, we asked for permission to publish

1

the report in which we had outlined the result of our preliminary deliberations, which had taken up a whole year, but which had led to the adoption of a fixed program which we since have had no occasion to forsake, and which greatly simplifies and regularizes our daily proceedings. This preliminary survey was published in 1904, and contained the rough outlines of 62 series and minor publications, several of which are now either completed, in process of execution, or in preparation. No publication is actually undertaken before the rough outline to be found in the Survey is replaced by a detailed project of the kind prescribed in our act of institution.

By a subsequent decree, the direction of the cataloguing of foreign archives as far as it has not yet been completed was also put into our hands, as well as the direction of the publications of the Dutch Institute at Rome.

Since the year 1905, 14 volumes have been issued, several others being in press or in preparation. In order to connect the history of the Old Dutch Republic, which till now has attracted too exclusively the attention of the student, with that of modern times, a large series of volumes is being devoted to the political history of the revolutionary period and the first half of the nineteenth century; this publication now covers the years 1789 to 1806 in six volumes, while two others, comprising the years from 1806 to 1810, will appear next year. Two volumes have been consecrated to the origins of the present Dutch constitution, dating in its actual features, apart from revisions in 1848 and 1887, from the years 1814 to 1815. Two other volumes, containing the acta of the provincial Synod of South Holland of the Dutch Reformed Church from 1621 to 1645, complete former publications of the synodal acts of an earlier period, and help to open a very rich source for the knowledge of national life and morals, which have been so profoundly influenced by the churches. A third volume of this series is in press, while others will follow. A single volume, published by Prof. Blok, exploits the series of Relazioni in the Venetian archives relating to the Dutch Republic. In addition to these 11 volumes, the report of Prof. Kernkamp on the archives of the Baltic seaports and 2 volumes of Dr. Brom's catalogue of materials in the Vatican archives complete the number of 14 given above. Next year will be published the first volume of a series on the history of the Leyden cloth manufacture from the fourteenth to the nineteenth century; while a first volume of a series on the history of the Mediterranean and Levant trade will also be ready next year, and a series of documents on the Baltic trade of the Netherlands from the Middle Ages down to the nineteenth century is in

1 Overzicht van de door bronnenpublicatie aan te vullen leemten der Nederlandsche geschiedkennis (Survey of gaps in the knowledge of Dutch history to be filled up by new publications).

preparation. The first volume of the Correspondence of Constantijn Huygens, poet, courtier, and statesman of the seventeenth century, will also be out next year; a contribution of some interest to the history of Dutch intellectual and social life of that period. Publications on the Roman, Merovingian, and Carolingian periods, on the early history of the Dutch Reformation, on the history of Dutch Catholicism during the time of the Calvinistic Dutch Republic, on that of Dutch relations with Persia (the first of a series relating to Dutch colonial history in its various aspects), on the history of Leyden University, on that of the Amsterdam Bank and Amsterdam Exchange, will also appear in due time. Enough to make clear that we did not limit ourselves to the somewhat academical task of setting up a program, but are also doing our best to carry it out as far as means permit.

If you ask me to tell you something of the experience we have gained since taking up our task, I would venture to say that it has been in most respects reassuring. The readiness of Dutch historical men to give their support to work their Government had undertaken, a support indispensable for making it what it was intended. to be, a national enterprise under official direction, has been most satisfactory, indeed, and the relations with private historical societies are of the most agreeable knd. The only respect in which reality has not quite confirmed our expectations is the difficulty in getting hold, not so much of the men as of the time required for thoroughly executing our plans on their original scale. Though allowing moderate fees, we are not able to compensate adequately the great loss of time the fulfillment of our wishes implies for our collaborators. They are an army of volunteers, and we want professional soldiers. Some of the most important series of our Survey involve a labor scarcely to be expected from any man already charged with other duties. This circumstance has led to the conviction that it will be necessary to install something like permanent headquarters where a few officers of the staff will be always at hand. The Government, which has shown the most enlightened understanding of its new enterprise, also has felt a keen interest in this particular matter and has put on the budget for the year 1910 the necessary sums for maintaining a permanent editing office to consist of a director, a subdirector, a clerk, and some copyists. While the director, besides publishing some volumes himself, will superintend the performance of the enterprise at large, the subdirector will devote himself principally to the publication of one of the most momentous and useful of all the series of the Survey, but one that can never be finished by a voluntary collaborator-that of the proceedings of the States General from the year 1576 to the end of the seventeenth