TWENTY-FOURTH CONGRESS, 1835-183'7. 127 



court of chancery as to the further disposition of the property; that 

 it is not clearly defined in Mr. Smithson's will to whom, on behalf of the 

 United States, the property should be paid or transferred; and indeed 

 there is so much doubt that they apprehend the attorney -general on 

 behalf of the Crown of England must be joined in the proceedings which 

 it ma}' be requisite the United States should institute; that they act 

 in this matter for Messrs. Drummonds, the bankers, who are mere 

 stakeholders, and are ready to do all in their power to facilitate get- 

 ting the decision of the court of chancery and carrying the testator's 

 intentions into effect; and that they will be happy to communicate 

 with such professional advisers as the Government of the United 

 States shall think fit to appoint to act for them in England. And 

 having thus stated the nature of the business, they add that they 

 abstain from making any suggestion as to the party in whose name 

 proceedings should be adopted, considering that the point should be 

 determined by counsel in England, after the opinion of the proper law 

 officers in the United States shall have been taken on the subject. 



In a letter of Mr. Vail to the Secretary of State of the 28th July 

 last, communicating a cop}' of Mr, Smithson's will and the letter of 

 Messrs. Clarke, Fynmore & Fladgate to him, he says that that letter 

 and the inquiries he has made leave no doubt of the will of Mr. Smith- 

 son having been established and its dispositions recognized by the 

 court of chancery of England; that, according to the view taken of 

 the case by the solicitors, the United States, in the event of their 

 accepting the legacy and the trust coupled with it, should come for- 

 ward, by their representative, and make themselves parties to an ami- 

 cable suit before the lord chancellor of England, for the purpose of 

 legally establishing the fact of the demise of Mr. Hungerford, the 

 legatee for life, without children and intestate, proving their claim to 

 the benefit of the will, and obtaining a decree in chancery awai'ding 

 to them the proceeds of the estate; that Messrs. Clarke, Fynmore & 

 Fladgate are willing to undertake the management of the suit on the 

 part of the United States, and that, from what he has learned of their 

 standing, they may safely be confided in. And Mr. Vail suggests, 

 upon the advice of those gentlemen, a method of proceeding to assert 

 the claim of the United States to the legacy, without further delay, in 

 case it should be thought unnecessary to await the action of Congress 

 to authorize the institution of the requisite legal proceedings. 



The Secretary of State submitted the letter of Mr. Vail and the 

 papers therewith communicated to the President, who determined 

 to lay the subject before Congress at its next session, and of this 

 determination the Secretary of State apprised Mr. Vail in a letter of 

 the 26th September last. 



The President in his message of the 17th December transmits to 

 Congress all the correspondence and information relating to the sub- 



