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 Private Collections.—The publications of the Historical Manuscripts Commission are in most cases the only printed means of reference to private muniments. The 17th Report of the Commission contains an index to all the collections of papers so far dealt with by them.

Wills.—Up to the date of the Probate Act (20 & 21 Vict. c. 77) the proving of wills was under ecclesiastical jurisdiction, and the wills themselves were scattered among peculiar courts—courts of the various bishops, and the prerogative court of Canterbury. By the passing of the act a general registry was established at Somerset House, to which were transferred all the wills of the prerogative court of Canterbury and of many of the other registries. But even at the present time there remains much confusion and uncertainty as to the place of deposit of the wills of any particular court; and for accurate information on this point the inquirer must be referred to the Handbook to the Ancient Courts of Probate and Depositories of Wills, by G. W Marshall. British Colonies.

For the British colonies the most important records, historically speaking, are the Colonial Office papers deposited in the Public Record Office, London; and those colonies which have published the records relating to their history have usually gone to that source. In New South Wales, however, there is in the Colonial Secretary's office at Sydney a collection of records dating from 1789, which are included in the volumes published by that State Cape Colony possesses records dating from 1652; G. McCall Theal, historiographer of the colony, has also published important series of volumes of documents drawn from the Public Record Office and other European sources. Canada has recently centralized its records, of which a large part so far consists of transcripts made in Europe. For an account see E. C. Burnett’s List of printed guides to and descriptions of Archives and other repositories of Historical Manuscripts (American Historical Manuscripts Commission Report, 1897). The Dominion Archivist submits yearly to the Minister for Agriculture a report, in which (in Appendices) are given many lists and accounts of records. European Countries.

In dealing with Great Britain it has seemed desirable to give some account of publications dealing with the contents of the repositories described. In the remainder of the article this will not be attempted. For the most part the books mentioned are in themselves bibliographies and guides, and do not contain even abstracts or descriptions of actual documents. It is scarcely necessary to explain that much of the following information is based on the work of Langlois and Stein.

.—The records of Austria-Hungary, Bohemia, and the other states under the same government, are still preserved locally. There are repositories of government records at Vienna, Budapest and Prague, and ten provincial places of deposit. Even at Vienna there is nothing resembling the English Public Record Office; the Kaiserliches und königliches Haus-, Hof- und Staatsarchiv contains the papers of the imperial family and the records of imperial administration and of that of foreign affairs. Of other departmental papers those at the Ministry of War are the most important. There is no complete inventory of all these records. At Budapest since 1875 have been collected the archives of Hungary, Transylvania, Croatia and the government of Fiume: for an account of the records in this and other Hungarian and Transylvanian repositories see Fr. Zimmermann's Über Archiv in Ungarn; ein Führer durch ungarlandische und siebenburgische Archive.

.—The records are numerous and valuable. State Records comprise all those of the central governments, nf the modern kingdom, of the governments preceding it and of the various states such as Brabant, Flanders, Gueldres and Hainault out of which Belgium was formed. They are preserved partly at Brussels as General Records of the Kingdom and partly in provincial repositories. Thus at Ghent are archives of the county of Flanders, at Liege of the principality of that name and of the duchy of Limburg, at Mons of the county of Hainault, at Bruges of the liberty of Bruges and other jurisdictions of eastern Flanders; at Namur, Arlon, Hasselt and Tournai are repositories of less importance: at the same time the repository at Brussels contains many records of the same kind as those in the provincial offices and is the chief one of the country; the collection there has been formed from various collections in Belgium combined with records restored by the Austrian government and other acquisitions.

Archives Provinciales, the records of provincial administrations since 1794, are placed in the chief towns of each province: each collection falls into three periods, French (1794-1814), Dutch (1814-1830) and Belgian.

Municipal Archives.-The most important are those of Antwerp, Bruges, Ghent; Malines, Mons, Tournai and Ypres. The best book of general bibliographical reference for Belgian records is Pirenne's Bibliographic de l’histoire de Belgique.

.—At Copenhagen there has been, since 1889, a central Record office (Rigsarchiv) containing all the previously existing collections of records, and receiving those of the various ministries and offices. There are also repositories there, and at Odense and Viborg, for local records, municipal and others. The central office is publishing a series of inventories of documents in its charge.

.—The best general work is Les Archives de l'histoire de France, by Langlois and Stein. The administration of the records is attached to the Ministry of Public Instruction, acting through a commission and inspectors.

Archives Nationales, in the Hotel Soubise at Paris, are divided into three sections, Historique, Administrative et Dornaniale and Legislative et Judiciaire, each including subsections distinguished by letters or groups of letters. The classification is by subject, not necessarily by origin or function; but some of the classes, e.g. the archives of the Trésor des Chartes, the Parliament of Paris and the Chdtelet, represent real groups of records with a common history.

Archives des Ministères.-In theory the Archives Nationales should receive all government office records, except those in current use: actually several offices retain their own. Thus the Ministry of Foreign Affairs keeps its archives, divided into Correspondance politique and Mémoires et Documents: it also publishes series of Inventaires analytiques des Archives du Ministere des Ajfaires étrangeres, and Recueils des instructions données aux arnbassadeurs et rninistres de France depuis les traités de Westphalie jusqu'a la Révolution française. The Ministries of War and the Marine likewise possess and administer their own archives.

Archives Départementales.—Each department possesses a special office for the custody of its records, which are in many cases of great importance, consisting partly of the records of the ancient provincial governments, private documents seized at the Revolution, muniments of religious houses, &c., and partly of modern administrative records. A system of uniform classification by subjects has been applied to these, coupled with a rule that documents having a common history and origin are not to be separated; it is understood that the intelligence of the archivists in charge has enabled them to disobey neither of these regulations. For a general view of the arrangement and contents of departmental repositories see Etat généra par fonds des archives départernentales, ancien régime et période révolutionnaire (1903), and the Inventaires Sommaires for the several departments. For the publication of local societies see Manuel de bibliographic de l'histoire, by Ch. V. Langlois, (1901) p. 385 seq.

Archives Municipales et Communales: the value of these arises largely from their having had an undisturbed history: inventories of most of the collections exist in print. (See Langlois and Stein, op. cit. pp. 278-442.)

Archives Hospitalières form an important body of records, for the most part undisturbed. For their classification, and a list of the repositories of them, see Langlois and Stein, p. 443 seq.; the many other places in France where records exist are mentioned in the same work; note, however, that the archives of the Bastille are now in the Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal at Paris. There are in the English ~Public Record Office seventy-three volumes of transcripts from French archives, taken partly from the Archives Nationales (Letters of Henrietta Maria, &c.) and partly from Archives Départementales. The Record Office Calendar of Documents, France, edited by J. H. Round, containing early monastic charters, is based on these.

.—Unfortunately lists of German State archives (Geheimes Archiv) are not published. Repositories are very numerous: for their localities, see the Hand- und Addressbuch der deutschen Archive of C. A. H. Burkhardt (2nd ed., 1887). In 'Prussia, besides the central repository at Berlin, there are sixteen provincial ones of importance. The other kingdoms and states forming part of the German empire have each their repository, not always at the capital. Some account of their contents will be found in Langlois and Stein (op. cit.) and in Fr. von Löher's Archivlehre. Grundzüge der Geschichte, Aufgaben und Einrichtung unserer Archive: for the publication of State Records see Dahlmann-Waitz, Quellenkunde zur deutschen, Geschichte; and for Prussian archives in particular R. Koser's Uber den gegenwärtigen Stand der archivalischen Forschung in Preussen (1900). For the numerous and valuable records of German towns reference may be made to the works already mentioned. Many of the towns, e.g. Cologne, publish volumes drawn from their archives, and even include in them documents from other sources. Of special interest to English students is Konstantin Hohlbaum's work upon the Hanse towns. The Record Office has a volume of transcripts from German archives.

.—There is one repository for each of the eleven states. That at the Hague, for south Holland, serves also as a central repository for the whole kingdom. This collection occupies a special building, and includes the records of Foreign Affairs, classed under the countries to which they relate, and certain documents acquired from the collection of Sir Thomas Phillips. There are many printed and manuscript lists, and access to the documents is easy. This is also the case with the other provincial archives, of which the most important are those at Arnheim,