FROM RICHARD RUSH: ON THE SMITHSON BEQUEST. FRANCIS MARKOE, Esq., Corresponding Secretary, National Institution. DEAR SIR: I have to thank you for the "Bulletin of the Proceedings of the National Institution for the Promotion of Science," that you were so good as to send me; and although I am late in doing so, my thanks are not the less sincere. I have read it with great interest, and think that no one could read it without perceiving the advantages of such an institution. During the short period that it has been in operation, the indications are ample, both in the diversified objects which it proposes to itself, and in the communications addressed to it, that it will be likely to prove metropolitan in character and usefulness, as it is in situation. But what impels me, on this occasion, to something beyond a mere formal though thankful acknowledgment for the Bulletin, is the desire to notice a passage in two communications it contains-one from Mr. Duponceau, of Philadelphia, and the other from Mr. Maxcy, our Chargé d'Affaires at Brussels, relative to the Smithsonian legacy. Both these correspondents of the Institution, the former long and favorably known to philosophy and science, the latter an enlightened and patriotic American, looking at his country from abroad, have, without concert, united in the opinion that it was such an institution as yours that Mr. Smithson must have meant in making the munificent provision in his will for establishing one at Washington, and in the wish that Congress might take it as a basis in fulfilment of his intention. I cannot restrain the impulse that would add my humble though not less earnest opinion and wish to theirs. If it be scarcely a dispute that individual zeal and exertion can do more towards striking out useful projects for mankind than Governments, it would not be easy to imagine a case in which this truth could be more applicable than to the Smithson trust. This great and beneficent trust remains wholly unexecuted by the hands of Government, though to those hands solemnly confided, and as solemnly accepted. Would this have been the case had it been confided to individual hands? A negative reply may be safely given. A native of France, long a citizen of the United States, dies in the midst of us. He leaves two millions of dollars to found a college for the education of orphans, in a city of one of our States, confiding the management of his bounty to legislative and municipal authority. Already ten years have elapsed, and the philanthropic intentions of the munificent donor remain a dead letter. I allude to the Girard trust. A generous and enlightened Briton dies abroad. He leaves a hundred thousand pounds sterling to the United States, to found, at Washington, an Institution "FOR THE INCREASE AND DIFFUSION OF KNOWLEDGE AMONG MEN." What a beautiful simplicity in his words! How comprehensive they are! How boundless in their intended benefits! Yet we are now approaching the fourth summer since the money was delivered to the United States, as the high trustee of this great duty, and the intentions of this donor, too, are still a dead letter. Thus, whether upon the scale of the nation or a State, we seem alike inert under these dearest of human obligations. It is neither my province nor desire to impute blame any where; but I state facts that all may be allowed to lament, and that all must desire should cease. Active in all ways as a people, even to the charge of overdoing things, shall we become sluggards over what is incomparably the most important of all? Shall MIND be alone neglected? Shall we continue indifferent to benefits in this great field, as if our Governments desired to keep knowledge out of sight, whilst our people, as individuals, are seen to thirst for it? Let Congress hasten to wipe off the suspicion of this reproach. Let it, in the words of the venerable Duponceau, speaking from his retirement, and in the fullness of experience and years, "lay hold of your Institution and make it its own." Your machinery, put together by individuals, has been tried, and works well. It wants but little legislation to raise it up to the level of the Smithsonian will. A law that would adopt it under the name stipulated, with the requisite provisions for the application of the annual interest of the fund, and the due retention of a visitatorial power by the United States, seem the principal enactments that would be called for. No expensive corps of officers, no costly salaries, need start into being; the experience of your Institution showing that there are men among us who love science for its own sake, and who are willing to devote portions of their time to its advancement; and that their exertions can be centralized at Washington, and made to extend over all parts of our country and the world, through aids that the Government can give. For the buildings, for the botanic garden, for the chemical laboratory, for the philosophical and astronomical apparatus, for the museums of natural history and receptacles for agricultural and mechanical specimens, for the library and lectureships; for all, in a word, that relates to science, literature, and the arts, the plan of "The Royal Dublin Society," as seen in Mr. Weld's description, published in your Bulletin, might perhaps be usefully consulted; though the Garden of Plants at Paris is, indeed, as your public-spirited and distinguished associate, Mr. Poinsett, thought, a model not easily to be surpassed in all that relates to scientific usefulness, arrangement, and grandeur. The fact stated by Mr. Weld, that "The Royal Dublin Society" receives a grant of £5,600 sterling a year from the British Parliament, so far deserves notice as that it is about the amount of the annual interest of the Smithsonian fund. Let, then, this precious fund no longer be idle. Let it be made to yield, without more delay, those moral blessings for which it was sent to this hemisphere. Let Congress take your Institution as a foundation. In the contrariety of opinion as other plan, the much longer postponement, if not entire frustration of the benign intentions of the donor, is too much to be feared. to any Being yourselves but trustees for diffusing knowledge among your fellow-men, and seeking nothing selfish, there could be no objection to your asking Congress to invest you, under its own guards and sanctions, with the fund. By my estimate of duty, you owe it to science and your country to take that step, on the broadest grounds of utility to both. In your ministration, with the aid of so rich an invest ment, to the mental wants of the community, much might be hoped from salutary influences in calming the too intense and exclusive excitements at Washington, where only a slender population is concentrated. By bringing to that seat of official power other excitements in diversified objects of intellectual curiosity and attention, a change might be witnessed that would act usefully upon the spirit of legislation itself, producing good effects to the whole Union. These are not irrational hopes. Knowledge is strengthened by its alliance with power. Power is raised and purified in its aims, and chastened in its exercise, by the influence of knowledge. Every day's delay in improving the Smithsonian fund to its intended and stipulated uses, is an injury to the present and future race of men. It is a wrong, silent in its operation, but not the less a wrong. Let me even say that one of the incidental uses of the fund, when in activity at the seat of Government, will be to shed a benign aid towards the permanency of the Union itself, by that community of mind and feeling which science and literature, well endowed and cultivated at the metropolis, will in time help to engender and diffuse. Are not these high inducements to your application to Congress; and ought they not to create a reasonable confidence that the application would be favorably listened to? Else, why stand upon the merits of our political forms over old and hereditary institutions? Why think that ours rest upon right reason, the fruit of knowledge, and theirs only upon show? Why boast that ours appeal to the understanding, which knowledge forms, and theirs to the senses? Honored by having been chosen a corresponding member of your Institution, my only fear is lest this letter should be deemed presumptuous. But I take shelter under the consciousness of a good motive. Perhaps, also, I may be at fault in information touching what may already have been done in regard to the suggestions I venture to offer. In any event, I will fain hope for their indulgent recep tion. One apology for the letter lies in the fact, that it was my lot to have been the instrument, in the hands of the Government, of obtaining the Smithsonian fund for the United States. This has naturally turned my thoughts to it anxiously, however inadequately. It was a spectacle as full of interest as it was novel, to see a great nation a suitor before the tribunal of another great nation, where the issue joined had exclusive relation to the interests of MIND; and it engaged, proportionably, the thoughts and conversation of those who knew how to appreciate interests so transcendant. My next apology thence is, in the belief I entertain-with all deference to those who think otherwise—a belief derived from intercourse at the Royal Society and elsewhere, while in London on that errand, with those who were the friends and associates of Mr. Smithson in his lifetime, (and among them I name the estimable and enlightened Mr. Guillemard, once known as a commissioner in our country, under the British treaty,)—that an institution like yours, in its main features, would be the kind of one he would himself have designated. Chemistry, of all the sciences, was his favorite pursuit, as the archives of the Royal Society would attest ; but the words of his will, catholic in their spirit and boundless in their scope, include every thing. That the Court of Chancery in England would have affirmed that will in behalf of a foreign nation, unless in full faith that its sole and grand condition should be executed with reasonable diligence, is not to be supposed; consideration to redouble all other motives that should now operate upon us, to a incur no further arrears in meeting a palpable and high national duty. In conclusion, I may be pardoned for adding that, in obedience to a call from the Government, I offered a plan, in fulfilment of his will, immediately after returning from England with the fund. In some respects it was like yours, though not so good, because not so simple; besides that yours has now the advantage of actual and successful organization. With ardent wishes for its further and full success, whether adopted by Congress or not, but with wishes as ardent that that high body may not suffer this great trust fund to remain any longer as a talent buried in the earth, I am, dear sir, with great respect and regard, your faithful and obedient servant, RICHARD RUSH. FROM PETER S. DU PONCEAU: ON THE SMITHSON BEQUEST. FRANCIS MARKOE, jr., Esq., PHILADELPHIA, April, 1842. Cor. Secretary of the National Institution for the Promotion of Science. MY DEAR SIR: I have received your several letters, with the documents, respecting the Smithsonian legacy, which you have had the goodness to transmit to me at my request. I have studied them with great attention, and, I shall add, with pleasure; as you well know that the subject is very near my heart, you will judge of the satisfaction that I have had in their perusal, and in reflecting upon their contents. When the subject of this legacy was brought, for the first time, before Congress, by a message from the President, I find, from the report of the select committee to whom it was referred, (at the head of which was the illustrious John Quincy Adams,) that numerous plans and schemes were presented to that committee for the application of that fund. No one of them, says the report, appeared to that com mittee adapted to accomplish the purpose of the testator. "They generally contemplated the establishment of a school, college, or university. They proposed expenditures absorbing, in the erection of buildings, the capital of the fund itself, or a very large portion of it, leaving little or nothing to be invested as a perpetual annuity for future and continual appropriations, contributing to the improvement of future ages, as well as of the present generation; and in most of the projects there might be perceived purposes of personal accommodation and emolument to the projector, more adapted to the promotion of his own interest than to the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men." I have used the words of the committee, without adding any thing of my own. It appears to have been the opinion of that respectable body, that neither the esta blishment of a school, college, or university, was adapted to the accomplishment of the purpose of the testator. It appears, also, that the great expense which the plans proposed would occasion, and which will absorb not only the interest but the principal of that legacy, was a strong objection in the minds of the committee. Therefore, two things resulted from this opinion; the first, that something more was con templated by the testator than an establishment intended for the education of youth; and the second, that the legacy itself, though liberal, was not adequate to the esta blishment of an institution that would require large buildings and other expenditures that usually attend establishments based upon a large foundation. As Congress did not act upon that report, we may well presume that its opinion coincided with that of the committee. As things stood at that time, it was very difficult to come to a conclusion upon this very important subject. Mr. Adams, no doubt considering the inadequacy of the fund to an establishment that would embrace all the sciences, proposed that its application should be confined to the promotion of the most important of all sciences, astronomy, and that it should be employed in the erection and maintenance of an observatory, and generally for astronomical purposes. This was, as far as I can judge, the best plan that could be proposed under the then existing circumstances; nevertheless, it was not thought to answer the views of the testator, and therefore it was not carried into execution. When we consider, attentively, the words by which Mr. Smithson has expressed the object of his legacy, we cannot but be convinced that his views were more extensive than the foundation of an establishment for the promotion of particular objects of science, and that he contemplated an institution that would embrace the whole circle of human knowledge. His object is stated by himself to be "the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men." It is knowledge in general that he contemplates, and its diffusion amongst all mankind. This idea was thrown out by a few individuals at home and abroad, but does not appear to have attracted much attention. While, in consequence of the variety of opinions which existed upon this subject, no measure was taken to carry the testator's will into execution, there arose, at the city of Washington, by the combined efforts of the Government and of public-spirited individuals, an institution truly national, having for its object the promotion of science. When that institution was first established, I addressed to you a letter in November, 1840, which the institution has done me the honor to insert in its first bulletin, in which I suggested the idea of applying the Smithsonian fund to that institution. I find, from Mr. Rush's letter, which you have communicated to me, that I was not the only one to whom that suggestion occurred. Since that time, it appears to have struck the mind of many of the most respectable friends of science, and it appears to have agreed with the opinion expressed by your distinguished President, Mr. Poinsett, in his inaugural address. I see, with pleasure, that Mr. Rush entertains the same opinion. No one has had a better opportunity to know the real intentions of the testator; and his opinion, on that and many other accounts, is entitled to the greatest respect. Indeed I do not see how two institutions, having a similar object in view, can exist, at present at least, both with limited means, at the city of Washington, at the same time; and if it could be, the similarity of their pursuits might create jealousy, which would be productive of very disagreeable consequences. The National Institution, founded in a manner and patronized by the Government, would with justice claim the supcriority over a rival establishment, which had no such grounds to support it. The national honor would suffer by such a contact, and in the capital of a great nation it could not be tolerated that the foundation of an indivi |