70 SMITHSONIAN BEQUEST. 



These sums are entirely at your disposal, free from the 

 control of the court of chancery. 



There will be, in addition, a small cash balance, which, 

 in the course of a few days, you will be able to receive of 

 the accountant general. 



We are, very faithfully, your obedient servants, 



" ClaPxEe, Fynmore & Fladgate. 



Richard Rush, Esq. 



Richard Rush to John Forsyth. 



London, June 13, 1838. 



Sir : I am glad to be able to report to you that the sales 

 of the stock are going on well. 



The whole of the consols have been sold, and part of the 

 bank stock. 



A portion of the consols, viz : £4,535 18s. M. was sold 

 on the 6th instant for cash, at 94f. This was considered a 

 high price; more could not have been obtained for cash. 



My first desire was to sell all the stock for cash, and im- 

 mediately, that I might the sooner close the whole opera- 

 tion and get awav; but such a course I soon found, on the 

 best information and advice, would have been injudicious. 



To have attempted a sale of the bank stock, for example, 

 all at once, would probably have depressed the market for 

 this particular species of security, and occasioned a loss of 

 several hundred pounds. The reason is, that the dealings 

 in it, contradistinguished from those in the great national 

 stocks, are limited, and confined to a very few persons on 

 the stock exchange. The course which prudence dictated 

 was, to sell it out in small parcels, under careful instruc- 

 tions to the broker on each day of the sale. 



As it thus became necessary, in order to guard against 

 loss, that I should allow myself some little latitude as to 

 time in selling the bank stock, it opened a door the more 

 properly for disposing of the other stock on time, at a 

 short interval; the more especially if by that mode it could 

 be made to produce a larger sum. 



Accordingly, on the same day that I disposed of a portion 

 of the consols for cash, which served also as a feeler to 

 ascertain the cash price, I caused the whole of what re- 

 mained of this stock, viz : £60,000, to be sold on time for 



