786 HISTORY OF THE SMITHSONIAN EXCHANGES. 



tions of the Smithsonian Institution to this gOYernment, and its sujierior 

 facilities for conducting exchanges of the kind proposed, are so well 

 known, that, in the various meetings of the congress, no objection has 

 been raised to its assimilation with the proposed olficial bureaus of the 

 difierent governments." It is believed that there is no obstacle to effect- 

 ing such an assimilation substantially on the basis of the suggestions 

 contained in your letter of June 3, 1878. 



The United States minister at Paris has therefore been directed to 

 convey, through Dr. Johnston, to the international conference the opin- 

 ion of this government, that, so far as its special domestic bureau of ex- 

 change is concerned, it is preferable to leave the work with the Smith- 

 sonian Institution rather than to replace it by the organization of a new 

 bureau ad hoc in the Department of State, but that no objection is seen 

 to entering into a common arrangement of international exchange, pro- 

 vided that the operations of the Institution be assimilated with those of 

 the foreign bureaus so as to enable it to act as though it were, for the 

 special purpose in view, a bureau of the foreign department of this gov- 

 ernment. 



As you make no categorical answer to the inquiry contained in Dr. 

 Johnston's letter of the 5th ultimo, as to whether the Smithsonian In- 

 stitution will consent " to assume to do this work on the more enlarged 

 and more official scale which is now proposed, and enter, as the occasion 

 presents, into direct communication with the different foreign bureaus, 

 or will it demand to do this work through the foreign legations of the 

 United States," it is inferred that any practical arrangement sanctioned 

 by the conference will meet the approval of the Board of Eegents. 

 Mr. Noyes will, therefore, be instructed to advise Dr. Johnston in that 

 sense, and leave the details of assimilation to the deliberation of the 

 conference, inclining, however, if there be no impediment to such a 

 course, to favor the designation of the legations of the United States in 

 foreign countries as the channels of communication between the several 

 foreign bureaus and the Institution, as apparently contemplated in your 

 letter of the 3d of June last. Any special consideration which you may 

 be disposed to advance on this point will nevertheless receive prompt 

 attention. 



I am, sir, your obedient servant, 

 Wm. M. Evarts. 



[The State Dej)artment to tlie Smithsonian Institution.] 



Department of State, Washington, October 30, 1878. 

 Prof. Spencer F. Baird, 



Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution : 

 Sir : I transmit to you herewith a copy of a note received from the 

 minister of Portugal in this country, giving information of the action of 

 the Portuguese Government with reference to exchanges of publications 



