26 THE NEW-YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY THE WILLIAM L. CLEMENTS COLLECTION OF MANUSCRIPTS The historian and student of American history owe to Mr. William L. Clements of Bay City, Mich., an everlasting debt of gratitude for the invaluable collections of manuscripts which he bought in England during the past decade and brought to Michigan. No work on American history during the French and Indian and Revolutionary War periods will be complete without a study of the documents now in the William L. Clements Library at Ann Arbor, Mich.,* and in the vaults of Mr. Clements' home in Bay City. A systematic search, conducted by Mr. Clements over a period of years, for the papers of the British military commanders of the day and the statesmen who had charge of American affairs, resulted in these large collections coming to America. At Ann Arbor the principal papers are those of Lord Shel- burne (1737-1805), who, while President of the Board of Trade in Grenville's Cabinet in 1763, Opposed the Stamp Act and other measures detrimental to the American colonies. He became Premier of England in 1782, and negotiated the preliminaries of peace with the United States. These papers are contained in about 165 bound volumes and cover the entire period of his public service in Great Britain. Others of these documents belonged to Alexander Wedderburn (1733-1805)-, Attorney-General of England, and one of the greatest enemies of the colonists in Lord North's cabinet. Also to be found here are the papers of Sir William Knox, under-Secretary of State in the cabinet with Lord Germaine. In Bay City, awaiting final transfer to the library at Ann Arbor are the papers, dating from 1743, of George Clinton, colonial Governor of New York, followed by those of Sir Henry Clinton, dated 1776-1782. The latter, who first served under Lord Howe in New York, became the commander of the British forces in America when Howe resigned in 1778. Here also are the papers of Sir Thomas Gage, commander-in-chief of the British * This librarv was the gift of Mr. Clements to the University of Michigan.