PROPOSED APPLICATIONS OF SMITHSON's BEQUEST. 851 



be presumed, an agreeable appendage to, the primary duties 

 of our ministers, attbrding a resource for their leisure, with 

 opportunities of a more enlarged usefulness to their countr}', 

 and fame to themselves. Permanent missions were once 

 objected to by Mr. Jefferson, as not within the true theory 

 of our foreign intercourse, which seems to countenance the 

 more a proposal for connecting with them the honorable 

 appendage suggested, since neither othcial dignity nor use- 

 fulness can ever be impaired, though both may be height- 

 ened, by co-association with knowledge in other fields. 



2. A building to be erected at Washington, with accom- 

 modations for the business of the institution. Ground to 

 be attached to it, sufficient for reproducing seeds and plants, 

 with a view to diffusing through the countrj^ such as might 

 be found to deserve it. The officers of the institution to be 

 a director, a secretarj-, a librarian, and a treasurer. Persons 

 to be under them to take care of the building and grounds. 

 The officers to be appointed by the President and Senate. 

 The director to make an annual report to Congress on the 

 state of the institution, and oftener if necessary. Its affairs, 

 to be subject to the visitation of the President, aided by a 

 standing board, to consist of the chief officers of the Gov- 

 ernment, say, taking the example of a law already in the 

 statute book in relation to the finances, the Vice-President, 

 the Chief Justice, the Secretaries of State and the Treasury, 

 and the Attorney General. The institution to have its press, 

 as the University of Oxford, or otherwise authority to em- 

 ploy one for printing communications sent to it, and the 

 lectures to be presently mentioned. Nothing to be printed 

 but under the sanction of the director and standing board 

 of visitors. To this and other ends, for the good govern- 

 ment of the institution, the standing board to have the 

 right to call in the assistance of three or more scientific or 

 literary persons unconnected with it. The profits arising 

 from all publications to go in aid of the funds of the insti- 

 tution. Communications from learned societies, or from 

 individuals eminent in science or letters, in whatever part 

 of the world, to be received by the director, and taken 

 charge of by the secretary. The director to be authorized 

 to correspond with any such societies or persons. A coun- 

 cil to assemble once a month, to consist of the officers of 

 the institution and the lecturers attached to it, before which 

 all communications to be laid. Order to be then taken upon 

 them. Such as go upon the archives, with a view to the 

 question of publication, to be brought under the considera- 

 tion of the standing board of visitors at the proper time, 



