The printed records of the colonial councils and assemblies are also enumerated in Channing and Hart, Guide, §29. Parts of several of these records, — Rhode Island, 1723, Maryland, 1775, — are reprinted below (Nos. 62, 184). The best printed records are those of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and North Carolina.
The proceedings of various official and unofficial assemblies and meetings are set forth in the following extracts : a colonial council (No. 30) ; a colonial assembly (No. 62) ; a meeting of freeholders (No. 42); an electorate (No. 61) ; courts of various degrees (Nos. 17, 37, 71, 72, 73, 75) ; a city government (No. 76) ; a town-meeting (Nos. 78, 140) ; a vestry meeting (No. 77) ; a Quaker meeting (No. 102) ; colonial Congresses (Nos. 184, 187, 205) ; continental Congresses (Nos. 141, 153,155, 185, 188, 189, 190) ; committees of Congress (No. 207).
The proceedings of assemblies constitute only a small part of the material available and suggestive for such a collection as this. Below will be found portions of reports of colonial governors (Nos. 19, 21, 36, 54, 57, 85, 88, 110, 135, 154), and of governors' letters and messages (Nos. 63, 65, 70, 125). Other colonial officials are also represented: colonial secretaries (Nos. 60, 124) ; a collector of customs (No. 87) ; colonial agents (Nos. 68, 146) ; a surveyor-general (No. 111) ; a comptroller-general (No. 117) ; an envoy to the Indians (No. 115) ; a judge (No. 150), and several chief justices (Nos. 18, 148, 157); boundary commissioners (No. 38).
The British administration of colonial affairs is represented by letters and mandates of the Lords of Trade (Nos. 26, 55, 58, 67, 89, 104) ; communications from the secretaries for the colonies (Nos. 27, 43, 56, 128, 144), and from the trustees of a colony (No. 42) ; a letter of the Archbishop of Canterbury (No. 101) ; proceedings before a committee of the House of Commons (No. 143) ; a speech in Parliament (No. 142) ; an Act of Parliament (No. 45) ; a royal mandate (No. 46) ; and letters of the king (Nos. 158, 215).
Among the colonial dignitaries who are cited in this volume as witnesses to the history of their times are the following governors : Cranston (No. 19) ; Wentworth (No. 21); Sharpe (No. 36) ; Dummer (No. 48) ; Keith (No. 49) ; Pownall (Nos. 53, 59, 66, 74) ; Cosby (No. 54); Clinton (No. 57) ; Johnston (No. 63) ; Lewis Morris (No. 65) ; Dinwiddie (No. 70); Bellomont (No. 85); Burnet (No. 88); Belcher (No. 100) ; Spotswood (No. 110); Hopkins (No. 125); Dunmore
