SMITHSONIAN BEQUEST. 65 



bringing over the money in gold rather than remitting it in bills. 

 This would help to cover the commissions on shipping the former, 

 effecting insurance upon it, and paying the premium of insurance, as 

 well as charges for freight and those that have been incurred on selling 

 the stock. 



All these operations demand mercantile agencies and assistai>ce, to 

 which I am inadequate in my own person, beyond superintending them 

 and seeing that they are rendered justly. I will take care that these 

 expenses are kept within limits as moderate as possible, consistently 

 with having the business regularly done according to mercantile usage 

 in operations of the same nature, so that the fund, in bearing its own 

 unavoidable expenses, may be encroached upon as little as possible. 



I have not yet been able to get from the solicitors a statement of the 

 costs of the suit, but will not fail to obtain it before I embark. The 

 final payments under this head, and those I shall be called upon to make 

 for services enumerated above, can scarcel}" be completed but at the 

 last moments of my sta\^; hence I may not be able to transmit an 

 account of them to you until I arrive at New York, where also the 

 freight will have to be paid. 



In reporting to you the final decision of the court, I omitted to men- 

 tion some particulars not at first accurately known to me, but neces- 

 sary to be now stated, viz: £526 lis. 6d. were decreed to be paid out 

 of the fund to Madame la Batut, as her arrears; £25 as arrears found 

 to be due to John Fitall, the annuitant under the will; and, lastly, 

 £53 7s. 6d. as due for the use of certain warehouse rooms in London. 

 The two first items explain themselves, after all I have written. The 

 third has reference to some personal property left b}" the testator, con 

 tained, as I understand, in thirteen boxes or trunks deposited in the 

 warehouse rooms specified. I have had no opportunity as yet of ex- 

 amining the contents of these boxes, but am informed that they consist 

 chiefly of books unbound, manuscripts, specimens of minerals, some 

 philosophical or chemical instruments, and a few articles of table fur- 

 niture. The contents of the whole are supposed to be of little intrinsic 

 value, though parts may be otherwise curious. As all now belong to 

 the United States, under the decree of the court, I shall think it proper 

 to have them shipped when the gold is shipped, paying all reasonable 

 charges. 



Having more than once spoken of the possibility of fictitious claim- 

 ants starting up for the Smithsonian bequest, perhaps I may here be 

 allowed to mention what the solicitors have informed me of, viz, that 

 since the decision two claimants have presented themselves at their 

 office, neither having any connection with the other. When the deci- 

 sion was pronounced, the sum recovered was also proclaimed in the 

 London newspapers, which had probably awakened these claimants 

 H. Doc. T32 5 



