56 SMITHSONIAN BEQUEST. 



upon the solicitors and otherwise, to urge on the case : and 

 shall continue this course. 



Judging by all they say to me, and my own knowledge 

 of the present situation of the case, I have a confident and, 

 I trust, well-founded belief that May will not elapse with- 

 out its being brought to a hearing. 



Keferring to my ISTo. 22, I now beg leave to state that the 

 22d of September, 1834, is the date from which the annuity 

 allowed by the master's report to Madame de la Batut was 

 to commence ; and that the arrears to be paid to her, in the 

 event of a decision in favor of the United States, were to he 

 computed from that time to the 22d of March last. Tins- 

 makes three years and six months, so that the sum due on 

 an annuity of £150 9^^. would be £526 ll5. 6d. 



I have the honor to be, with great respect, your obedient 

 servant, 



Richard Rush. 



Hon. John Forsyth, Secretary of State. 



Richard Rush to John Forsyth. 



London, May 3, 1838. 



Sir : I am glad to say that the confidence expressed in 

 my last that a hearing of the case was near at hand has been 

 justified, even sooner than I expected, for it was heard on 

 the 1st of this month, and I am now to have the honor of 

 reporting to you the nature of the hearing. 



Mr. Pemberton, our leading counsel, rose, and after re- 

 capitulating the general nature of the case, as formerly 

 heard by the court, proceeded to state that the reference to 

 the master as ordered by the decree in February, 1837, had 

 duly taken place, and that all the requisite evidence had 

 been obtained in England and from Italy and France, as to 

 the facts on the happening of which the United States were 

 to become entitled to the fund bequeathed by Mr. Smithson 

 for the purpose mentioned in his will. These facts I need 

 not here repeat, being already set forth specially in my No. 

 9, of the 25th of March, 1837. 



Overlooking a volume of matter merely technical in the 

 evidence and report, or now become immaterial to the main 

 points, it will be sufficient to say that it was satisfactorily 

 established by the former that Henry James Hungerford, 



