66 SMITHSONIAN BEQUEST. 



into life. The solicitors add that one of them desired, somewhat 

 importunately, to know if the case could not be reheard in court. It 

 is needless to remark that he was told he was a little too late in his 

 application. 



1 will use this opportunity — the last I may perhaps have of writing 

 to you before I embark, from the engagements likely to press upon me 

 in getting the fund ready for shipment and clearing off all necessary 

 expenses — to say a word of our professional advisers. Of the counsel 

 I selected it is unnecessary for me to speak, their established reputa- 

 tion in the highest department of their profession putting them above 

 any testimonial from me. But of the solicitors, as they move in one 

 of its less conspicuous fields, I will barely take the liberty of saying 

 that more attention, diligence, discretion, and integrit}^ could not, I 

 believe, have been exerted by any persons than they have shown 

 throughout the whole suit from first to last. Could they ever have 

 forgotten what was due to the United States and to themselves in the 

 desire to eke out a job, nothing is plainer to me, from what has been 

 passing under my observation of the entanglements and delays natural 

 to a heavy suit in the English court of chancery, than they might have 

 found opportunities in abundance of making this suit last for years 

 yet to come. 



I have the honor to remain, with great respect, 3^our obedient servant, 



Richard Rush. 



Hon. John Forsyth, 



Secretary of State. 



OlarTce^ Fynniore (& Flad<jate to Michard Hitsh. 



Craven Street, Julf/ o, 1838. 



Dear Sir: At the time of the decease of the late Henry James 

 Hungerford, esq., which happened on the 5th of June, 1835, there 

 was standing in the name of the accountant-general of the court of 

 chancery to the credit of the cause Hungerford v. Drummond the sev- 

 eral sums following, viz: £62,739 19s. 2d. bank £3 per cent annuities, 

 £12,000 £3 per cent reduced annuities, £16,100 bank stock. 



And if these several funds had then been sold they would have real- 

 ized the sum of £102,991, or thereabouts, but owing to the proceedings 

 which were necessary to be instituted in the court of chancery, the 

 funds were not transferred into your name until the 5th of June, 1838. 

 We are happy to inform 3^ou that, notwithstanding this delay, no loss 

 has been occasioned to the United States, as, according to the market 

 prices of the funds on the last-mentioned day, the funds were then 



