SMITHSONIAN BEQUEST. 107 



(2) The premium of insurance, stamps, and policies, viz, £599 3s. 

 4d., with the charges £6 6d. ; and 



(3) The expense of selling the stock (£120 4s. 6d.), deducted from 

 the gross amount of moneys that came into my hands (£106,490 lis. 

 9d.), will leave £104,960 8s. 7d., which was the precise sum in gold I 

 brought over in the eleven boxes and, under instructions from the 

 Secretary of the Treasury, deposited at the mint in Philadelphia on 

 the 1st instant to the credit of the Treasurer of the United States. 



The foregoing is the statement I have to make of the expenses. I 

 presume to hope that they will not be thought objectionable, but, on 

 the contrary, moderate under all the heads. If I have been somewhat 

 minute in explaining them it is for the better understanding of the 

 different accounts and documents inclosed, trusting that this will be 

 my excuse when about to surrender up a trust where so much pecun- 

 iary responsibility has devolved upon me. 



In regard to the fourteen boxes containing the personal effects of 

 Mr. Smithson, it will be perceived that the letter of the solicitors of 

 the 5th July mentions that they had sent me a list of them. They did 

 so, and I inclose it (marked F): It is proper to remark that this list 

 refers to but one of the boxes, or rather to a trunk, as their letter 

 specifies, and it proved to be erroneous. I preferred that all these 

 boxes and the trunk should be first opened at the consulate, in pres- 

 ence of the consul and others who might aid me in ascertaining their 

 contents. When the trunk was opened several of the articles down 

 upon the list were not in it. I mentioned this to the solicitors, and it 

 produced the explanator}' letter from them of the 13th of July, which 

 I inclose (marked G). All the rest of the boxes were filled with things 

 of little intrinsic value, as far as a mere superficial inspection of them, 

 pressed upon me on the eve of my embarkation, could determine. 

 They seemed to be chiefly old books, pamphlets, manuscripts, and 

 some philosophical or chemical instruments. Of the whole contents 

 (such as they were) all were left as we found them, except to have 

 been repacked with the aid of the consul and his assistants and put in 

 a better state for crossing the sea than they were when delivered to 

 me. When first opened it was evident that time, mold, and careless 

 packing in the first instance had nearly destroyed man}^ of the articles. 



The freight payable on the gold was not paid in London, not being 

 due until the arrival of the ship at New York; but the consul agreed 

 with the captain for three-eighths of one per cent, which brought the 

 amount to £393 12s. Primage was £19 13s. 8d., and the freight and 

 primage on the fourteen Smithsonian boxes was to have been £3 8s. 5d. 

 These several charges I was necessarily obliged to assume for the 

 United States, and engaged to pay them when the ship got to New York. 

 On arriving there I received the instructions of the Secretary of the 

 Treasury of the 20th of July, directing me to transfer the gold to the 



