74 SMITHSONIAN BEQUEST. 



have been incurred on selling the stock. All these opera- 

 tions demand mercantile agencies and assistance, to whicli 

 I am inadequate in ray own person, beyond superintending 

 them and seeing that they are rendered justl3^ I will take 

 care that these expenses are kept within limits as moderate 

 as possible, consistently with having the business regularly 

 done according to mercantile usage in operations of the 

 same nature, so that the fund, in bearing its own unavoid- 

 able expenses, may be encroached upon as little as pos- 

 sible. 



I have not yet been able to get from the solicitors a state- 

 ment of the costs of the suit, but will not fail to obtain it 

 before I embark. The final payments under this head, and 

 those I shall be called upon to make for services enumerated 

 above, can scarcely be completed but at the last moments 

 of my stay; hence I may not be able to transmit an account 

 of them to you until I arrive at New York, where also the 

 freight will have to be paid. 



In reporting to you the final decision of the court, 1 

 omitted to mention some particulars not at first accurately 

 known to me, but necessary to be now stated, viz: £526 

 lis. 6d. were decreed to be paid out of the fund to Madame 

 la Batut, as her arrears ; £25 as arrears found to be due to 

 John Fitall, the annuitant under the will ; and, lastly, 

 £53 75. Gd. as due for the use of certain warehouse-rooms in 

 London. The two first items explain themselves, after all I 

 have written. The third has reference to some personal 

 property left by the testator, contained, as I understand, in 

 thirteen boxes or trunks deposited in the warehouse-rooms 

 specified. I have had no opportunity as yet of examining the 

 contents of these boxes, but am informed that they consist 

 chiefly of books unbound, manuscripts, specimens of min- 

 erals, some philosophical or chemical instruments, and a 

 few articles of table furniture. The contents of the whole 

 are supposed to be of little intrinsic value, though parts 

 may be otherwise curious. As all now belong to the United 

 States, under the decree of the court, I shall think it proper 

 to have them shipped when the gold is shipped, paying all 

 reasonable charges. 



Ha-ving more than once spoken of the possibility of ficti- 

 tious claimants starting up for the Smithsonian bequest, 

 perhaps I may here be allowed to mention what the solicitors 

 have informed me of, viz : that since the decision, two claim- 

 ants have presented themselves at their oflice, neither having 



