PROCEEDINGS OF THE BOARD OF REGENTS. 225 



•work done by a resident of the States, respectively, are the accuracy, fidelity. 

 and fulness which would be secured, the facilities for obtaining materials, and 

 the authority which it would bear. These considerations might induce one or 

 more suitable persons in each State to encounter some personal inconvenience, 

 especially as the service is one of vast and permanent importance, and can be 

 better done now than at any future period. 



The President of the Chamber of Commerce of Bordeaux to the Secretary of 

 the Smithsonian Institution at Washington : 



Sir : I am not ignoi'ant that the Institution of which you are the Secretary, 

 and which labors with the most praiseworthy zeal to promote the progress of 

 the different branches of human knowledge, maintains relations of exchange 

 with the Imperial Academy of Sciences, Belles Lettres, and Arts of Bordeaux. 



The Chamber of Commerce, anxious in its turn to co-operate, as far as pos- 

 sible, in the realization of the plans which you pursue, feels pleasure in trans- 

 mitting to you a copy of its publications. They comprise a collection of its 

 proceedings since 1850, the first volume of the catalogue of its library, &c. It 

 is hoped that these various publications will find a place in your collections. 

 The Chamber has, on its own part, founded a considerable library, which is 

 open to the public, and it would be happy if the Smithsonian Institution should 

 think proper to send us some of the volumes which it publishes, and which are 

 filled with documents of the greatest interest on America, and on different ques- 

 tions of importance. These works would thus be at the disposal of a consid- 

 erable number of studious persons, and they would contribute to make the 

 services of the Institution of which you are the organ appreciated in all their 

 extent in Europe. Be pleased, sir, to accept the assurance of my most dis- 

 tinguished consideration. 



Carte del Palasio, Milan, 



October 31, 1862. 

 Sir : Through the kindness of your agent, Mr. Bossange, of Paris, we have 

 received the Annual Report of the Board of Regents, presented by the great 

 and liberal Smithsonian Institution to the Carte del Palasio's Agricultural As- 

 sociation, of which we are directors and regents. Reading your valuable re- 

 port, we have seen with the greatest satisfaction that the interesting and useful 

 results of your labors have been approved and commended by intelligent men 

 everywhere. Whilst expressing, honored sir, our warmest thanks for having 

 been deemed worthy by your Institution to participate in the gifts which the 

 liberality of the Smithsonian Institution renders to men devoted to science, it 

 will be a source of pleasure to us to endeavor to reciprocate your kindness. 

 To promote knowledge and facilitate its progress by stimulating men of science 

 to undertake general and extensive researches, and to offer the means of con- 

 tinuing them, is the most useful service which can be rendered to mankind. 

 The very extensive means which your great Institution has at its command, 

 the ardor with which your officers and regents began and continue their difficult 

 work, are infallible indications of the greatest results which will be produced. 

 And we do not doubt that the material and moral progress of individuals, with that 

 of science in general, will fully realize the anticipations of the founder, and 

 amply recompense the continued labors of the distinguished dh-ectors of the 

 Smithsonian Institution. 

 15 



