JAMES SMITHSON AND HIS BEQUEST. 171 



be bis epitapb." Still later it will be remembered tbat Mr. Dickens 

 stated in 1853 tbat there was then "a suit before tbe court of chancery 

 which bad been commenced twenty years before in which from thirty to 

 forty counsel had been known to appear at one time, in which costs had 

 been incurred to the amount of £70,000, which was a, friendly suit, and 

 which was no nearer its termination than when it was begun." 



Mr. Rush refers in terms of high compliment to the solicitors he had 

 employed on behalf of the United States. He says: 



"That more attention, diligence, discretion, and integrity could not 

 have been exerted by any persons than they have shown throughout tbe 

 whole suit from first to last. Could they ever have forgotten what was 

 due to the United States and to themselves, in the desire to eke out a 

 job, nothing is plainer to me, from what has been passing under my 

 observation of the entanglements and delays natural to a heavy suit in 

 the English court of chancery, than that they might have found oppor- 

 tunities in abundance of making the suit last for years yet to come." 



It is therefor*', to be regarded as one of the most remarkable events 

 in the history of the bequest that the suit of tbe United States, com- 

 menced in ^November, 1836, should have been brought to a successful 

 issue, in less than two years, on the 12th of May, 1838, which, it may be 

 interesting to note, was the hist year of the reign of Her Majesty Queen 

 Victoria. 



Mr. Rush was therefore placed in possession of the legacy with the 

 exception of the part reserved as the principal of an annuity to Madame 

 De la Batut. Mr. Rush thus expresses his satisfaction at the result: 



"A suit of higher interest and dignity has rarely perhaps been before 

 the tribunals of a nation. If the trust created by the testator's will be 

 successfully carried into effect by the enlightened legislation of Con- 

 gress benefits may flow to tbe United States and to tbe human family 

 not easy to be estimated, because operating silently and radually 

 throughout time, yet operating not the less effectually." 



Scarcely had the decision of the court been made and the amount of 

 the award published in the newspapers, when two claimants for the 

 estate of Siiiithson appeared, neither having any connection with the 

 other; and they desired, rather importunately, to know if the case could 

 not be reopened. They were much chagrined to find that they were a 

 little too late in their application, and nothing more was heard of them. 



Tbe American minister to England, Mr. Stevenson, and our consul at 

 London, Mr. Aspinwall, united in testifying to the great tact and abil- 

 ity of Mr. Rush, and in affirming — 



"That no litigant ever displayed a more ardent zeal or a more saga- 

 cious, devoted, and unremitting diligence in the prosecution of his pri-' 

 vate suit than lie did in urging on this public one to a prompt and suc- 

 cessful conclusion. The dispatch with which in consequence this purpose 

 was finally accomplished is almost without example in the annals of 

 chancery. His solicitors will long remember bis adroit and unsparing 



