784 HISTOEY OF THE SMITHSONIAN EXCHANGES. 



works of science, I have the honor, at the request of Mr. Hitt, charg6 

 d'afiiiires, to again address you on the subject, and to lay before you 

 some other considerations in regard to this scheme. 



All the governments which are represented by diplomatic agents at 

 Paris, with the exception of England and Germany, which still hold out 

 in order to first see the working of the scheme, have given in their ad- 

 hesion and agreed to the creation, within the bureaus of their respective 

 foreign secretaries, of an agency, with a special employe, charged with 

 the duty of international exchanges of works of science. 



It is hoped that an arrangement may be made in regard to the trans- 

 portation of these exchanges which will reduce the expenses to a mere 

 trifle. 



Will the Smithsonian Institution, which is already organized for this 

 kind of work, and which has been making exchanges with a certain 

 number of foreign governments for a good many years, assume to do 

 this work, on the more enlarged and more official scale which is now 

 l^roposed, and enter, as the occasion jiresents, into direct communication 

 with the different foreign bureaus; or will it demand to do this work 

 through the foreign legations of the United States; or, finally, will it 

 prefer, if the State Department will do this work, to abandon it to the 

 State Department entirely I 



The foreign bureaus would much prefer, for the sake of simplicity and 

 uniformity in the service, that the work should be done in the United 

 States exactly as it is done here — that is to say, by a special bureau 

 established within the State Department. The American legation at 

 Paris would also prefer that the exchange should be made by direct 

 communication through the bureau, rather than through its agency, and 

 it is probable that the other European legations, where exchanges are 

 to be made, would also jirefer the direct communication. 



Nevertheless, as regards the Smithsonian Institution, the relations of 

 this Institution to the government, and its superior facilities for this 

 kind of work, are so well known that in the various meetings of the 

 congress no objection was ever raised to its assimilation with the pur- 

 ix)sed official bureaus of the different governments. 



As I have already had the honor of informing your excellency, the 

 last meeting of the congress was composed, exclusively, with the excep- 

 tion of myself, of official jiersonages, some thirty- in number, mostly 

 members of the diplomatic corps; and I desire to know of your excel- 

 lency whether it would not be more appropriate for one of the members 

 of the American legation to assume hereafter the duty of representing 

 the United States in this congress. In view of the fact, however, that 

 there may not be more than one or two more meetings of the congress, 

 I have been requested by the legation to continue to fill the duty of the 

 deleg'ate to the end. 



I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 



W." E. Johnston, M. D. 



[The Smitlisouiau Institution to the State Department.] 



Smithsonian Institution, Sei)tember 17, 1878. 

 Hon. Wm. M. Evarts, 



Secretary of State : 

 Sir : I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of a communica- 

 tion from the State Department, dated August 28, inclosing a letter i 



