REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 3 



increased expenses of tlie clerical force in the Secretary's office engaged 

 in transacting- purely (lox-ernnient business, I luive directed the atten- 

 tion of the Regents to the fact that the Chancellor of the Institution 

 (in whom alone the power of appointing an Acting Secretary is v^'sted 

 by law) may be absent when the Acting Secretary is ill and when 

 there is no one to relieve him. Such a case has actually ]U'esented 

 itself, directing attention to the necessity of authorizing the Secretary 

 to delegate authority for performing certain subordinate but indis- 

 pensable functions, such as signing a certain class of papers. 



Owing to the established principles of concbict in the Smithsonian 

 Institution (which there has been no intention of de])arting from) the 

 Secretary's power has never been diffused or delegated even as far as 

 is usual in the case of Executive Departments of the Government, 

 where there are several persons in every separate bureau constituting a 

 line of succession of those who are authorized, in case of the absence 

 of its head, to carry on ordinary business and es[»ecially to sign all 

 such routine papers as are required for its current business with the 

 Treasury. There lias been no time however in the ])ast twelve years, 

 when, in the joint event of the illness or absence of the Secretary and 

 the Acting Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, any such provision 

 has existed for carrying* on even the routine business. 



At the meeting of the Regents on January 27, 181)2, the following- 

 resolution was introduced, and was duly given effect through the 

 Executive Committee in the appointment of an ofticer of the Insti- 

 tution to act according- to its provisions: 



'■'■Resolved, That the Secretary be empowered to a|)point some 

 suitable person, who, in <'ase of need, may sign such re([uisitions. 

 vouchers, abstracts of vouchers, accounts current, and indorsements of 

 cliecks and drafts. ;t i are ueedtMl in the current business of tiie Institu- 

 tion, or of any of its bureaus, and are customarily signed in the bureaus 

 of other Departments of the Covernment." 



FINANCES. 



1 have recalled the fact that the gift of 1200,000 to the Institution by 

 ]\Ir.. Thomas Cr. Ilodgkins, of Setauket, Long Island, to which \ briefly 

 refi'rred in my report of last year, was formally accepted by tin; Board 

 of Regents at a special meeting held October 21, 181)1. 



At this meeting I stated that I had entered on a corresi)ondence 

 with Mr. Hodgkins in which he had intimated his desire to give a 

 considerable sum to the fund of the Smithsonian Instituti(m for the 

 "increase and diffusion of knowledge among men," The c<u-respond- 

 ence was followed by personal visits both by the Secretary and by the 

 Assistant Secretary, the result of which was that Mr. Ilodgkins olfcred 

 a donation of §200,000, concerning which the Secretary telegraphed 

 the Regents on June 22. [Jpon being- advised of the individual 

 approval of most of tlu^. Regents to the accei)tan(;e of the sum named, 

 Mr. Ilodgkins later, on September 22, at his home on Long Island, 



