curious field for investigation which could only be glanced at in these pages. It would be impossible more than to indicate some of the double uses, without tracing cuts to almanac, primer and chap-book.

Certain subjects of discussion encouraged the issue of leaflets, like the aspirations of Boston for a market, or the conditions following the experiments in bills of credit in the first half of the eighteenth century. But the institution of royal customs commissioners, the stamp act and resulting measures, contributory causes of the War for Independence, produced the greatest activity, still chiefly on the part of government. After the first years of the revolution the need of such an agency of publicity was less and the use rapidly declined. The newspaper improved as a medium of communication, and deprived the broadside of its principal excuse. Proposals of publication came in and apart from official issues represent the most interesting feature. The taste for executions and concomitant scenes died out in Boston but persisted in Worcester and other places. Ezekiel Russell of Salem developed a touch of the sensational in the general make-up of his impressions, intended to be hawked through the country by pedlars and tradesmen. It may be said, however, that the broadside practically ceases to have historical interest after 1800.

1

The subject of Massachusetts almanacs has been exhaustively treated by Dr. Charles L. Nichols. It is not a little strange that the broadside almanac, found in Pennsylvania at the end of the seventeenth century, was not more generally used in Massachusetts, for there was an undoubted convenience in that form. The earliest instance is the almanac of 1725 and while the sheet almanac is mentioned in advertisements occasionally, it is at the end of the eighteenth century that they become a regular issue, and then by that enterprising printer and publisher, Isaiah Thomas, who was the nearest approach to Benjamin Franklin in ability to measure a market for his publications. But the broadside almanac was practically destroyed by the use to which it was put, and the few known examples are generally in a condition eloquent on the difficulty of preserving them. It is also possible that the use was more general than the few surviving examples would indicate.

2

1 Am. Ant. Soc. Proceedings, XXII. 15.

2 Dr. Nichols, in a volume printed by the Club of Odd Volumes, has dealt with Isaiah Thomas and the products of his press in a manner leaving nothing to be added.

One branch of future study will be the ballads circulated in the colony and province. The production of native poetry was not large, nor did it possess a high quality either in theme or in form. The atmosphere of early Massachusetts was not favorable to the cultivation of any of the muses, least of all that of poetry. The Bay Psalm Book (1640) illustrates at once the defect of imagination and the want of appreciation of a proper vehicle for poetic fancy. For generations the form and spirit of that kind of poetry affected the verse-makers, and the wealth of English poetry was almost a sealed book to the colonists. The broadside offers many examples of attempts at versification, and it is entirely of domestic manufacture. The ballad did not come into popular use until after the War for Independence, and never, indeed, attained the popularity it enjoyed in England. James Franklin, the Fleets of Boston and Ezekiel Russell of Salem were early exploiters of the occasional ballad, and later Nathaniel Coverly and his son, of Chelmsford and Boston, issued a large number of ballads, both American and foreign, appealing to a growing market for such products.

In the list of ballads, appended to the list of broadsides, wide latitude has been taken and little regard given to time of issue. One excuse for this lies in the fact that the ballad may originally have been of early date and was reprinted for its supposed interest or novelty. Paper and print are most uncertain guides in determining the period of issue and to undertake to lay down arbitrary limits would end in greater confusion than to print a list of everything found. Completeness is not claimed for this ballad series, and much time, spent to little purpose, would be required to study origin, likeness and variation. The list is offered as tentative, to be developed by some student of that form of sheet literature. It is not a little remarkable, however, that Boston appears to have been the chief centre of production well into the nineteenth century. No other colony or state can show the same number of issues or so catholic a selection.

The difficulty of dealing with this kind of printed material is that the items were printed in small editions, were sold at a low price or given away, and were difficult to preserve. It is doubtful if they were considered at the time of more than passing interest or worth the keeping. Nor have they been deemed worthy of separate mention in a sale catalogue of books until recent years, and I well remember how they were

bundled in "lots" and sold for a song. A few collectors of autographs-like Thomas Addis Emmet and Gordon Lester Ford-gathered them to illustrate their letters, but that interest rested with such as were of historical importance. Within ten years the values in the market have steadily risen until they sell for prices out of all proportion to their intrinsic interest, but hardly yet proportioned to their rarity. Nor does any single collection yet exist of such size as to permit an appreciation of their political bearing or literary quality and position in colonial letters. Unquestionably the collection of Massachusetts Historical Society approaches the needs of such an appreciation, for effort has been made to bring to it reproductions of such issues of interest as were not to be found in the libraries of Boston and vicinity. Of 2949 items listed below in the first part of the volume, 1711 are to be found in our cabinet in the original or in a photographed form, or about fifty-eight per cent of the whole. The Society has in addition a number in facsimile form as issued in various publications, and it is within bounds to say that in Boston libraries can be found about everything of importance in this check list.

This material is not easy to locate, for few libraries have separated or catalogued their broadsides as such, and the sheets were more apt to be used as wrappers or to be folded and bound in a volume of pamphlets than to be kept as separate items. To ask a librarian for the broadsides in his keeping was to touch upon an almost unknown subject and it would be hopeless to go through the card catalogue of a library of even moderate size in search of leaflets, as the result would not justify the time required for such a search and much would be overlooked because not included or adequately described in the catalogue.

In a "Catalogue of English and American Chap-Books and Broadside Ballads in Harvard College Library" Mr. Lane has shown the great variety and yet well defined classes of such issues. The only disappointment given by this catalogue of nearly twenty-five hundred items is the small number of American issues. If any library in the land might be expected to have stored on its shelves the curious and the occasional, that of Harvard College should stand first. It is actually first in scholarly collections the English Chap-Books are an example — but it is either without a corresponding lot of American broadsides, or they are there in a form and in a location where they cannot be reached for examination. Pro

fessor George L. Kittredge kindly placed at my disposal a collection of broadside ballads which has been gathered under his direction, and has thus done what was possible to unlock the undefined extent of such treasures in that library. I cannot but feel that my list is more incomplete than could be wished, merely because Harvard College supplied so little outside of its own commencement papers, notices and forms of business. Apart from that possible source, I believe I have covered the most important collections, and am quite willing to leave the supplement to my successor.1

Such a list can never be complete, for the earlier issues of the press have so largely disappeared as to leave a gap of unknown extent. This is shown by the bills for printing for the colony submitted in 1689 and 1690 by Green, in which are named a number of items of which the larger part have not been located in any collection. There is no reason also to deny the separate appearance of some, if not all, of the elegiac verses found embodied in chapters of contemporary, or nearly contemporary, history. Morton, in his New Englands Memoriall (1669), for example, prints Peter Bulkley's "Lamentation” for the death of Rev. Thomas Hooker, 1647, two poems by Edward Bulkley, one "A Threnodia" on the death of Rev. Samuel Stone, 1663, and another on the death of Jonathan Mitchill, 1668, and a number of others. While it is possible that these verses circulated in manuscript, yet there is little internal evidence that Morton dealt in manuscript material other than that of Bradford. It is possible, even probable, that these elegies were printed and reached Plymouth in that form. I have listed them on the probability. I do not, however, list those in Mather's sermons and histories, because he was a collector of manuscripts, was in Boston, and therefore in a position to possess or have access to the manuscript.

It is impossible even to conjecture the years of printing for the ballad literature. The imprint like the "Heart and Crown" or "In Cornhill" could apply to a long term of years and only indicates the printer. Where no contemporary record assists in determining the year or period, these ballads will be given alphabetically at the end of the list. If the date of an English issue has been found, it is adopted for the undated American leaflet, to place it in about its period of production, thus sug

I have used auction catalogues sparingly. They are very inaccurate in dates and in description, and claim more than can be conceded without a careful examination of the broadside and comparison with like issues.

gesting its place in a sequence. Such a practice is arbitrary, but may be justified in default of any other plan.

An example of the problems raised is afforded by the sale by auction of what was believed to be our No. 142, the statement issued on the surrender of Edmund Andros. The copy of the broadside went into the library of Mr. William Gwinn Mather, and on his courteously sending a photostat reproduction it was found to be the same text as No. 142 but entirely different in type, being in black letter.

With such difficulties to overcome it is certain that this list cannot be considered as free from criticism. Some limitations were imposed at the beginning. Maps, or engravings or legal blanks have been excluded, except in a few instances and for special reasons. Maps are not proper subjects for such a list and are better dealt with in lists prepared by specialists in maps. A few engravings have been admitted, either because of their interest, like the card on spermaceti candles (208) engraved by Hurd, the unlocated "caricatura" (1344) by the same hand, or because they were pertinent, like the store-card of Hancock, the bookseller, or engraved commissions, like those under Bernard and Hutchinson. Law blanks came late into general use but rapidly increased in number and variety, few printers not printing what would be in steady demand and a source of small yet continuing profits. A careful study of the various changes in language and form might possibly suggest something of value to the historian of legal practice, but of no interest to any but the antiquary. The earliest occurrence of a form is noted, with occasional mention of later varieties. Where the name of the printer is found it is given, for thus a clue with which to identify other issues of the same press may be suggested. One exception has been made in the "Oaths of Allegiance." Being without date as a rule, those that bear a year the year in which the signers took the oath will serve to place in its proper time a like undated one. What appeared regularly at stated intervals are only occasionally listed. The annual law apportioning taxes throughout the colony and state, precepts to elect representatives, tickets to balls and assemblies and lottery tickets, are examples of what are either not listed at all, or given when found, or only once to establish the form. Proclamations appointing days of fasting or thanksgiving rest upon another basis, often giving historical information of the special occasion. The selection of items has not been entirely consistent, but