SMITHSONIAN BEQUEST. 105 



of the suit, was, in my judgment, and in that of others better informed, 

 to whom I submitted its amount, extremely moderate. 1 hope it will 

 be thought to show care on my part to keep all those charges low, that 

 often are run up to amounts so enormous in English chancery pro- 

 ceedings; and, let me add, as in justice I am bound to do, to show more 

 strongly that the solicitors I had to deal with were honorable and 

 just men. 



I did not consider these refunded costs as belonging to the legacy 

 fund recovered, but I threw them into it when the general gold was 

 obtained that all might be safel}^ kept together and come under one 

 insurance. 



The gross amount 3delded by all the stock I sold, including the £900 

 I received as the dividend on the consols, was £105,649 6s. 



For the prices at which I sold the different parcels and kinds I beg 

 to refer to my Nos. 27 and 28, which detail the commencement, prog- 

 ress, and conclusion of the sales. This sum, added to the £725 3s. 7d. 

 received from the accountant-general of the court of chancery and the 

 £116 2s. 2d. returned to me by the solicitors, will show that the entire 

 sum that came into my hands was £106,490 lis. 9d. 



I am next to inform you of the expenses that attended the sales of 

 the stock and shipping and bringing over the gold to this countr3^ 



After I had finally recovered the legacy from the court of chanct ry 

 it did not seem to me prudent that I should, by myself alone, under- 

 take the sales of the stock awarded and delivered to me by its decree 

 any more than the shipment of the gold into which the money was 

 afterwards to be converted, these ulterior operations being usually 

 conducted through mercantile agencies and being of a nature not to 

 be advantageously, if safel}^, conducted without them. Feeling inade- 

 quate in my own person merely to the management of such operations, 

 my first intention was that the sales of the stock, as a highly important 

 part of them, should be put under the direction of some experienced 

 mercantile or banking house in London familiar with the modes of 

 doing business on its great stock exchange and self-confident in the 

 measures to be taken. But I found that to put this operation into 

 such hands would incur a commission of 1 per cent on the entire fund, 

 as mentioned in my No. 27, in addition to brokerage and other charges, 

 such as the expenses on transfers and stamps; besides that, I should 

 have had to part with the possession of the stock to such mercantile or 

 banking house whilst the sales were going on. I was also given to 

 understand that this latter step would probably lay a foundation for a 

 further mercantile commission on receiving and paying. 



Weighing all these circumstances, I came to the conclusion to keep 

 the operation of selling the stock in my own hands. Nevertheless, I 

 felt, as already intimated, that 1 could conduct it with neither skill 

 nor safety unless under the counsel and cooperation of a person well 



