72 SMITHSONIAN BEQUEST. 



Left to myself to make the most of the fund after recover- 

 ing it from chancery, which depended so much on the sale 

 of the stock, it has not been without full consideration that 

 I did not call on the Messrs. Rothschild to sell it all, for 

 which their experience and situation here, besides being the 

 bankers of the United States, might have seemed to point 

 them out. But, first, they w^ould, I take for granted, have 

 charged a commission of one per cent., to which I could 

 ]iot have objected, as it is allowed here, apart from the 

 broker's commission, and by the chamber of commerce at 

 New York on effecting sales of stock ; whilst Colonel Aspin- 

 wall charges me no such commission, and I much desired 

 to save the amount of it to the fund, if, with his efficient 

 aid, I could conduct the sales confidently' and advanta- 

 geously myself. But, secondly, if the former, as the bankers 

 of the United States, would have performed the task with- 

 out charge, I should not have been the less disinclined to 

 place it in their hands, having had no instructions to do so, 

 and, being without these, I could only exercise my best dis- 

 cretion. They are, as I in common with others here sup- 

 pose, very large dealers in stock on their own account, as 

 occasion may serve ; and hence may naturally be supposed 

 to desire sometimes a rise, sometimes a fiill, in these ever- 

 fluctuating things. "With more than a hundred thousand 

 pounds to throw upon the market, I therefore thought it 

 best, acting on a general rule of prudence in all business, to 

 keep the operation of selling entirely clear of every quarter 

 where any insensible bias might, by possibility even, exist 

 to a course other than that which would regard alone the 

 Smithsonian fund. 



I design to leave no sale outstanding after the 6th of July. 

 The subsequent steps, however, for obtaining the gold, and 

 those necessary in various ways for shipping it, will render 

 it impracticable for me to embark with it in the packet 

 which sails from Portsmouth on the 10th of July, that 

 packet leaving London always on the 7th. But I will fol- 

 low in the succeeding one of the 20th of July, which leaves 

 this port on the 17th, before which time I trust that every- 

 thing will have been fully and satisfactoril}'' closed, as far 

 as the trust can be closed here. 



I have the honor to remain, with great respect, your 

 obedient servant, 



KiCHARD Rush. 



The Hon. John Forsyth, Secretary of State. 



