SMITHSONIAN BEQUEST. 115 



of every description from the beginning to the end of the 

 suit, with some small extra charges, to which their letter 

 refers, which I also authorized, to ensure a speedy and suc- 

 cessful termination of the suit,) and considering the magni- 

 tude of the suit, was, in my judgment, and in that of others 

 better informed, to whom I submitted its amount, extremely 

 moderate. I hope it will be thought to show care on my 

 part to keep all those charges low, that often are run up to 

 amounts so enormous in English chancery proceedings; 

 and, let me add, as in justice I am bound to do, to show 

 more strongly that the solicitors I had to deal with were 

 honorable and just men. 



I did not consider these refunded costs as belonging to 

 the legacy fund recovered, but I threw them into it when 

 the general gold was obtained, that all might be safely kept 

 together, and come under one insurance. 



The gross amount yielded by all the stock I sold, includ- 

 ing the £900 I received as the dividend on the consols, was 

 £105,649 6s. 



For the prices at which I sold the different parcels and 

 kinds, I beg to refer to my Nos. 27 and 28, which detail 

 the commencement, progress, and conclusion of the sales. 

 This sura, added to the £725 Ss. 7(:/. received from the ac- 

 countant general of the court of chancery, and the £116 25. 

 2d. returned to me by the solicitors, will show that the 

 entire sum that came into my hands was £106,490 lis. 9d. 



I am next to inform you of the expenses that attended 

 the sales of the stock, and shipping and bringing over the 

 gold to this country. 



After I had finally recovered the legacy from the court 

 of chancery, it did not seem to me prudent that I should, by 

 myself alone, undertake the sales of the stock awarded, 

 and delivered to me by its decree, any more than the ship- 

 ment of the gold, into which the money was afterwards to 

 be converted ; these ulterior operations being usually con- 

 ducted through mercantile agencies, and being of a nature 

 not to be advantageously, if safely, conducted without them. 

 Feeling inadequate, in my own person merely, to the man- 

 agement of such operations, my first intention was that the 

 sales of the stock, as a highly important part of them, 

 should be put under the direction of some experienced mer- 

 cantile or banking-house in London, familiar with the modes 

 of doing business on its great stock exchange, and self-con- 

 fident in the measures to be taken. But I found that to 

 put this operation into such hands would incur acommisiou 

 of one per cent, on the entire fund, as mentioned in my No. 



