[ Doc. No. 5^ ] 3: 



is much at a pause in London, and those who conduct it dispersed. It 

 \vas not until the 2()th that I was enahled to comn)and an interview with 

 these gentlemen, when two of them, Mr. Clarke and Mi'. Fladgatc, waited 

 upon me, the latter imving previonsly called, after receiving my note, to 

 mention the absence of his associates from town. With tliese two, I had 

 the preliminary conversation suited to a first interview. They chiefly 

 went over the grounds stated in their note of the 21st of .Inly, to our ciiarge 

 d'atiaires, Mr. Vail ; in some points enlaroing them and giving new 

 particulars. They said that James Smithson, the testator, died in" June, 

 1829 ; that his will was proved in the prerogative court of Canterbury, by 

 Mr. Charles Drummond, one of the executors, and one of the banking-Jiouse 

 of that name in London ; that Henry James Hungerford, the testator's nephew, 

 to whom was bequeathed the whole of his property for life, subject to a small 

 annuity to another person, brought an amicable suit in chancery against 

 Messrs. Drummond, the executors, for the purpose of having the testator's 

 assets administered under the direction of the Lord Chancellor ; in the course 

 of which suit the usual orders and decrees were made, and by its issue 

 assets ascertained and realized to the value of about one hundred thousand 

 pounds sterling; that Mr. Hungerford, v/ho resided out of England, re- 

 ceived up to the time of his death the dividends arising from the property, 

 which consisted of stock in the public funds ; and that he died at Pisa, on 

 the 5th of June, 1835, of full age, though still young, witiiout leaving 

 been married, and, as far as is yet known, without illegitimate child or 

 children : that the assets of the estate are now invested in the name of 

 the accountiint-i^-eneral of the court of chancery, subject to the further 

 disposition of the court: that the will of Mr. Smithson having made the 

 United States the final legatee on Mr. Hungerford's death without child or 

 children, legitimate or illegitimate, the facts seem to have happened under 

 which their right will attach : but the solicitors continue to think that a 

 suit, or legal proceedings of some nature, to whicli the United States must 

 be party, will have to be instituted in the court of chancery, in order to 

 make valid their right and enable them to get possession of the fund, now 

 in the hands of the court, and subject to its judgment. 



The foregoing formed the main purport of their communicalion. TJiey 

 added, that the motlier of Henry James Hungerford, who is still livino- 

 and married to a Frenchman of the name of Do la Battut, lias put in a 

 claim to a part of the property ; but as tiie claim is small and not likely to 

 come to much, the mother of Mr. Hungerford not having been married to 

 his father, it is scarcely necessary at this time to detail tlie circumstances. 



I asked at what time from the present the earliest sitting of the court 

 of chancery would be held. They replied in November. " It will be my 

 object to get the fund for the United States Vv-ithout a lawsuit in chancerv 

 of any kind, if this bo practicable ; and towards an end so desirable, my 

 further reflections and measures will for a v^diile be directed, takint;- care 

 that I do not lose the advantao;e of all proper applications at the first term 

 of the court, for whatever form of suit or other legal proceedings may b^^ 

 found indispensable. 



I have notjiing further of any importance to communicate at this junc 

 ture. I delivered to the minister of the United States, Mr. Stevenson, the; 

 letter from tlie actinia Secretary of State of July 27th, requesting jiis o-ood 

 oflices ill behalf of the public object with v/liich I am charged, siiou'd they 



