MANUSCRIPTS AND HISTORICAL ARCHIVES. By WORTHINGTON C. FORD. Were I to follow the rules of composition laid down in the old guide I would begin with some definitions. Having 20 minutes to my credit I believe 15 could easily be spent in framing a definition which would satisfy no one, but would leave you in a mood to welcome those who come after me on the program. Scientific accuracy has its drawbacks; let us avoid them. For I quite believe that an archive can not be defined in sufficiently precise terms to make it worth while. In a State building it is properly an archive; taken from that cover and owned by a collector, it is an autograph or an historical document; passing thence to the auction room, the mechanical possibilities of typography are exhausted in describing what it is not, with some damage to the English language, and greater damage to the purchaser. In the cabinet of the rich its interest depends upon its cost; it becomes invested, as it were, with a golden aura which will in time be more important than the document itself. The next stage is where it is framed with the check. It has now become a bit of furniture, a possible asset, a gilt-edged curiosity, convenient for starting conversation after dinner. But one more stage remains, in which it is irrevocably buried in the columns of the local newspaper, in an article describing the house and choice possessions of our public-spirited citizen, etc. The document itself is reproduced in illegible minuteness, and with a degree of inaccuracy which makes it unrecognizable, but the portrait of the aforesaid citizen is prominent. The rag or pulp document gives place to the human document. After that it is periodically resurrected for church fairs or in the dog days, when journalistic "copy" is wanted, and may in the end be fortunate enough to find a permanent abiding place in an historical society whose rules prohibit its being copied. Here it will vie with eternity in undisturbed rest. I have a high admiration for the old-time collector, while thankful that the breed has died out. He took anything without perplexing his mind with questions of right or fitness. He thought nothing of borrowing from private and State offices, and training his memory to forget the fact of borrowing. His zeal was fed by his acquisitions, and while he started a church member in good standing he ended with a system of bookkeeping which gave a balance only in his favor. According to his lights he was correct in his position, for he sought to counteract the neglect of others, and in default of any other recognized custodian he constituted himself keeper of the rolls. No doubt much has thus been saved which would otherwise have been lost, and for this he should have full credit. But much was also lost through his ignorance, lost actually and geographically, for what he got so cheaply he scattered with a lavish hand and never appreciated the advantage of keeping great collections intact. A single autograph desired led him to break a series of letters, and never could the series be made good. His actions, entirely well intentioned, were unmoral, and rarely did he rise to so high a plane as to merit our gratitude unmixed with real regret that he should have been permitted to have his way. In his blind and unmoral methods he represented the beginnings of the modern idea of preserving records; his methods, however, are directly opposed to this modern idea of preservation-truly a modern idea in this country, for it has come into application within the last 30 years. There is not in existence a private collection of size which does not contain documents easily recognized as public documents, drawn in some manner from some public source. No auction sale of autographs is held without a good sprinkling of state papers which have evidently strayed, and improperly, from their proper place of deposit. The romance of collecting is full of unexpected finds, but the romance of collecting is more than equaled in vivid interest by the sordid phases of obtaining by underhand methods what is desired. The small value placed upon manuscripts 50 years ago made the labor of the collector light and full of interest. The rapid rise in values in twenty-odd years has reduced the surprises, reduced the opportunities, and sharpened the cupidity of the dealer. Preservation has thus come to mean not only the mechanical acquisition, repairing, binding, calendaring, and storing manuscripts, but the prevention of loss through mutilation or abstraction. The police function is accentuated as the market has become wider and yet more intense. A thousand dollars for a Washington letter is no measure of its historical value, but merely the measure of the buyer's pocket. The South has for a number of reasons suffered heavy losses of records. Some could have been foreseen and provided against, some were under the conditions inevitable; all are regrettable and irretrievable. Private endeavor is doing much to make good the loss so far as is possible, and in the last 20 years the number and value of private collections in the South have noticeably increased. When the material existed, the historical spirit was wanting, or wasted itself in productions strong in rhetoric and rhapsody, singularly tinged with a spirit of the past, but deficient in fact and documentary basis. Now that the trained historian is ready, the material is wanting. Yet in spite of this drawback the history of the South and of southern men is taking a form which promises good results, and every one of the original Southern States is doing more to make what it has available for history than is my own State of Massachusetts. We are made to feel the losses of records by the immense gaps to be encountered in almost any field of investigation. A notable list of names could be made of prominent public men who have left few papers bearing upon their careers, nor would the southern contingent in this list be more numerous or important than the northern. This leaves not a little opportunity for conjecture and a play of imagination, not altogether regrettable, as the exercise of either faculty makes for controversy, and compels a periodical review of our history and biography to test their accuracy in the light of newly discovered material. Imperfection or absence of record excuses many a lame and ill-constructed story and covers with a decent pall the failings of many a reputation. But what shall we say of the modern tendency of public men to indulge in autobiography, interesting from the human side, but usually the despair of the historian? These self-constituted judges insert what they choose and omit what they choose; and they tell chiefly what we do not care to know and what will prove of little value in the final weighing of reputation and service. Do they destroy the manuscript record of failures or disappointments? Our successors will know. In State records the same selection, judicious or otherwise, can not be shown, for the rules and laws not only protect the archives but encourage the preservation of files on a scale hitherto unknown. The coming historian will still meet with gaps in public and private papers and be obliged to regret that his peculiar needs had not been foreseen and provided for; but on the public side his wants will be so fully supplied in quantity that he may be obliged to regret that so much foresight and prevision had guided the legislator and the executive officer. "Preserve" has been the cry, and under its cover strange performances have taken place. Some 20 years ago the towns of the North rushed their oldest records into a state of preservation, in which each leaf was jacketed between silk covered with a coat of paraffin. The legibility was reduced, the volumes violated all the canons of taste, and the expense was large. Then came a more reasonable period, when the fireproof building took the field, a movement entirely defensible and wholly praiseworthy. Concrete and steel have thrown a protection around our treasures which baffles would-be destroyers, save those who have correctly interpreted the story (it is absurd to call it a myth) of Jupiter and Danaë. We have the results of studies of air-tight cases, hygroscopic earths to keep the air dry, and the |