Page:American Historical Review, Volume 12.djvu/264

 2 54 P- Mantoux you herewith the journal of proceedings in ParHament during the first — or the last — three days of this week." ^ Often enough the minister acknowledges the receipt of it, in terms by which we can realize how much he was interested in the parliamentary reports. In the beginning they were read very eagerly. Amelot, on February 1 6, 1738, wrote to the Count de Cambis : I am much obliged to you for the translation you sent to me of the King of England's speech at the opening of the session, and of the ad- dresses from both Houses. All these papers seem to betoken a very quiet session. I hope you will be well informed about the business there and that you will be so kind as to keep me informed of it.^ It would be a mistake to think that their curiosity was confined to the debates concerning foreign affairs. In the volumes perused by the writer, he has found many reports upon merely British questions.^ But the attention which the French diplomatists or their government paid to the home affairs of England was not always kept up. In May, 1768, while the most exciting incidents of the famous Middlesex election were going on, a French agent wrote: " I will not send you the whole report of the Commons' transactions on Mr. Wilkes's case. It seems to me too long, and in its form too tedious for a Parisian to read." * Such indifference or intermitting neglect is undoubtedly one of the causes explaining the frequent, and in some cases rather wide, gaps in the series. But there are other causes, and by pointing them out we shall enable the reader to form a more accurate idea of what is lacking. 'Letters from Count de Cambis to Amelot, dated February 13, 20, April 17 and 24, 1738, vol. 397, ff. 108, 138. vol. 398, ff. 48, 62 ; from Count de Vismes to Amelot, March 17, April i, 4, 7, and 11, 1740, vol. 407, ff. 208, 262, 265, 282, 284; from Duke de Levis-Mirepoix to Marquis de Puyzieulx, February 18, 22, 25, March i, 1751, vol. 431, ff. 135 e seqq. from Count du Chitelet to Choiseul. December 9, 1768, vol. 482, f. 103. etc. "Vol. 397, f. 89 (minute). Further down, f. 235, is a letter of thanks from Amelot, in which he asks for the continuation of a report (debate on the Spanish depredations in America). 'One may mention, in 1733, the reports of the debates on the excise duty (vol. 380, ff. 80, 128-129) and on the settlement of the South Sea Company {ihid. 233-239) ; in 1735, the reports of debates on the elections (vol. 391. ff. 103, 108, 120-129) ; on the salt duty {ihid. 155-156) ; on a bill empowering the government to take £1,000,000 out of the sinking fund for the needs of the current year (ihid. 136-139, 192-197); in 1738, the reports of the debates "on the bill for establishing a more effective punishment of mutiny in the army and for better providing for the troops' quarters and pay of the troops " (vol. 397, ff. 240-243) ; in 1751, the report of "the debate for and against the fourteenth clause of the Regency Bill, concerning the prorogation of Parliament, discussed in Committee on Friday, May 27" (vol. 431, ft'. 457, 463) : etc,
 * W. Wolff to the French Foreign Office, May 20, 1768, vol. 484, f- 187-