They shall regulate and pay all the ordinary expenses of the Society, and shall have power to draw on the Treasurer for that purpose; such orders to be signed by the Chairman and Secretary, or, in the absence of the Chairman, by the senior member of the Committee. They shall, when required, assist the Librarian and Keeper of the Cabinet, in the arrangement of the books, papers, manuscripts, and articles belonging to the library and cabinet;`and shall, once a year at least, inspect the state of the library and cabinet, and report the same to the Society. VI. All donations of books, pamphlets, manuscripts, and articles of curiosity, made to the Society, shall be received with thanks, and entered in the books of the Standing Committee, with the names of the donors, and a report thereof be made at the next meeting of the Society. VII. The Librarian shall also be the Keeper of the Cabinet until the Society think proper to appoint another person to that office; he shall carefully keep and preserve, in suitable cases to be provided for that purpose, or in such manner as the Standing Committee may direct, all the books, pamphlets, manuscripts, and articles belonging to the Society. All All pamphlets, except duplicates, shall be bound in volumes, and all the books shall be numbered by a label on the outside, and on the title-page of each volume shall be written the number, and the words, "The property of the Historical Society." manuscripts to be marked and numbered, and kept in cases to be numbered, and the contents marked on the outside. Every member taking any book or manuscript out of the library, shall give a receipt for the same in a book to be provided for that purpose; which receipt shall contain a promise to return the book within three months, and to make good all damages which the book may suffer in the mean time; and in case the book shall not be returned within the time specified, that he will replace the same, if it can be obtained, or deliver to the Librarian such book or books as in the opinion of the Standing Committee shall be of equal value, or pay the value thereof in money; but the Standing Committee may direct the Librarian not to lend such particular books and manuscripts as are of great rarity or value. No book or manuscript shall be lent to any person but a member of the Society; and if any other person is desirous to have the use of any book or manuscript, application must be made in his behalf to the Librarian, by one of the members, who shall give a receipt for such book or manuscript, expressing the name and place of abode of the person to whom the same is lent, and engaging for the return of it within three months, and to be accountable for the damage or loss thereof. TO THE PUBLIC. THE ADDRESS OF THE NEW-YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY. HAVING formed an association, for the purpose of discovering, procuring, and preserving whatever may relate to the natural, civil, literary, and ecclesiastical history of our country, and particularly of the State of New-York, we solicit the aid of the liberal, patriotic, and learned, to promote the objects of our institution. The utility of societies for the advancement of science, has been so fully proved by the experience of the most enlightened nations of Europe, and by that of our own country, that there can be no need, at this time, of any formal arguments in support of their claim to public patronage. But it may be observed, that, in this State, if we except the Agricultural Society, there is no association for the purposes of general knowledge; and the want of a regular, minute, and authentic History of New-York, renders the combined efforts of individuals for that object more peculiarly necessary. It is well known that many valuable manuscripts and papers relative to the history of our country, remain in the possession of those, who, though unwilling to entrust them to a single person, yet would cheerfully confide them to a public institution, in whose custody they would be preserved for the general benefit of society. To rescue from the dust and obscurity of private repositories such important documents, as are liable to be lost or destroyed by the indifference or neglect of those into whose hands they may have fallen, will be a primary object of our attention. The paucity of materials, and the extreme difficulty of procuring such as relate to the first settlement and colonial transactions of this State, can be fully perceived by those only who have meditated on the design of erecting an historical monument of those events, and have calculated the nature and amount of their resources; for without the aid of original records and authentic documents, history will be nothing more than a well-combined series of ingenious conjectures and amusing fables. The cause of truth is interesting to all men, and those who possess the means, however small, of preventing error, or of elucidating obscure facts, will confer a benefit on mankind by communicating them to the world. Not aspiring to the higher walks of general science, we shall confine the range of our exertions to the humble task of collecting and preserving whatever may be useful to others in the different branches of historical inquiry. We feel encouraged to follow this path by the honourable example of the Massachusetts |