THIRTY-FIRST CONGRESS, 1849-61. 519 



Mr. Thompson, of Pennsylvania, insisted on the regular 

 order of business. 



The Speaker, stated to the gentleman from Alabama, (Mr. 

 Hilliard,) that the report could only be introduced by unan- 

 imous consent. The regular order of business was insisted 

 upon, and objections were made in several quarters. 



The report, therefore, was not presented. 



House of Representatives, July 25, 1850. 



The Speaker laid before the House a communication 

 from the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, trans- 

 mitting the annual report of the Board of Regents of the 

 Smithsonian Institution ; which letter and report were laid 

 upon the table, and ordered to be printed. 



House of Representatives, December 18, 1850. 



Mr. Fitch said there was upon the Speaker's table a joint 

 resolution from the Senate providing for the appointment 

 of Regents for the Smithsonian Institution whose term of 

 service had expired. He hoped the House would take up 

 and consider the resolution, as it would occupy but a few 

 minutes. It was absolutely necessary that it should be 

 passed, for the reason that the Board of Regents was not 

 full and no business could be transacted by the Board until 

 the vacancies should have been tilled. He hoped the reso- 

 lution would be taken up. 



There being no objection, the joint resolution was taken 

 up, read three several times, and passed. 



House of Representatives, February 24, 1851. 



Mr. Thompson, of Mississippi, moved the following amend- 

 ment to the clause- appropriating money for the purchase of 

 books for the Library of Congress, viz : 



To rnable the Smithsonian Institution to publish a new edition of Wilkes' 

 Narrative and the accompanying series of papers, the plates and engravings 

 of which have been made at the expense of the United States, be, and they 

 are hereby, ordered to be delivered over to the said Institution, to be used 

 for that purpose. 



He said that, as these plates were valuable and the Con- 

 gress of the United States did not propose to use them, he 

 should be glad that some use might be made of them. It 

 appeared to him that the Smithsonian Institution was as 

 proper a party to whom to intrust these plates for publica- 

 tion as any. Congress had already provided for the distribu- 

 tion of books published by that Institution. He (Mr, T.) 

 did not wish that they shoukl be published and distributed 



