SMITHSONIAN BEQUEST. 75 



any connexion with the other. When the decision was pro- 

 nounced, the sum recovered was also proclaimed in the 

 London newspapers, which had probably aw^akened these 

 claimants into life. The solicitors add that one of them 

 desired, somewhat importunately, to know if the case could 

 not be reheard in court ? It is needless to remark that he 

 ■was told he was a little too late in his application. 



I will use this opportunity — the last I may perhaps have 

 of writing to you before I embark, from the engagements 

 likely to press upon me in getting the fund ready for ship- 

 ment and clearing off all necessary expenses — to say a word 

 of our professional advisers. Of the counsel I selected it is 

 unnecessary for me to speak ; their established reputation 

 in the highest department of their profession putting them 

 above any testimonial from me. But of the solicitors, as 

 they move in one of its less conspicuous fields, I will barely 

 take the liberty of saying that more attention, diligence, 

 discretion, and integrity could not, I believe, have been ex- 

 erted by any persons than they have shown throughout the 

 whole suit, from first to last. Could they ever have for- 

 gotten what was due to the United States and to themselves, 

 in the desire to eke out a job, nothing is plainer to me, from 

 what has been passing under my observation of the entan- 

 glements and delays natural to a heavy suit in the English 

 court of chancery, than they might have found opportunities 

 in abundance of making this suit last for years yet to come. 



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

 dient servant, Richard Rush. 



The Hon. John Forsyth, Secretary of State. 



Clarke, Fynmore ^ Fladgate to Richard Rush. 



Craven Street, July 5, 1838. 

 Dear Sir : At the time of tlie decease of the late Henry 

 James Ilungerford, Esq., which happened on the 5th June, 

 1835, there was standing in the name of the accountant 

 general of the court of chancery, to the credit of the cause 

 Hungerford vs. Drummond, the several sums following, 

 viz : 



£62,739 19s. 2d. bank £3 per cent, unnuities ; 

 12,000 £3 per cent, reduced annuities ; 

 16,100 bank stock. 



And if these several funds had then been sold, they would 

 have realized the sum of £102,091, or thereabouts; but 



