44 SMITHSONIAN BEQUEST. 



Richard Rua/i to Clarke, FyniiLorc tfc Fladijate. 



February 3, 1838. 



Gentlemen: I understood, when with you on Wednesday, that the 

 evidence obtained from France would not, in your opinion, be found 

 sufficient to prevent the master's report embracing an allowance in 

 Madame de la Batut's favor of about £150 a year during her life, with 

 some arrearages calculated on that basis; and the evidence, as ^^ou 

 exhibited and otherwise made it known to me, certainly led my mind 

 to the same conclusion. 



You added that, by sending out a commission from the court of chan- 

 cery to Paris (a process not yet resorted to), you thought that evidence 

 might still be obtained to defeat her claim; on which subject I should 

 be glad to receive answers to the following inquiries, as far as in your 

 power to give them to me: 



First. What would be the probable expense of that process? 



Second. How long before its full execution and return might be 

 expected ? 



Third. Assuming that the evidence, when so obtained, struck your 

 minds, our counsel's, and my own, as sufficient to defeat the claim, 

 yet as it might not happen that the legal advisers of Madame de la 

 Batut would take the same view of it, and thence contest its validity 

 before the court, what further delays might such a turn in the case be 

 likely, under all the circumstances, to lead to? 



As I have so repeatedly made known to you my desire for the speed- 

 iest decision of the case that may be practicable consistently with justice 

 to the United States, I make no apology for asking a reply to these 

 inquiries at as early a day as may be convenient. 

 I remain, your obedient servant, 



Richard Rush. 



Messrs. Clarke, Fynmore & FladcxAte. 



ClarJi'e, Fynmore tfe I'ladgate to Richard Rush. 



43 Craven street, Strand, 



Fehruary S, 183S. 



Dear Sir: We have to acknowledge the receipt of your favor of the 

 3d instant, containing certain queries touching the measures which 

 may be adopted in respect of the claim of Madame de la Batut. 



In reply, we beg to state that, so long as proceedings in the English 

 court of chancery are conducted as amicable suits, when both parties 

 unite in a wish to obtain the direction of the court, without unneces- 

 sary delay, it is a matter of no great difficulty to calculate their prob- 

 able duration; but circumstances sometimes arise, even in such suits, 

 that prove the calculations fallacious. When once, however, a suit 



