854 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 



thing, there is veiT great force in what the Senator from Delaware 

 has said; and I certainly should unite with him in all that he has said 

 in respect of the capacity and worth of the gentleman named in the 

 resolution. 



Mr. H. Hamlin. I wish to say one word on this subject before the joint 

 resolution is referred. I wish to corroborate what has been so well 

 said by the Senator from Vermont in relation to the manner in which 

 these exchanges are effected bj^ the Smithsonian Institution, I am 

 inclined to agree with the Senator that ver}^ little can be done in that 

 direction, and if anything can be done it should be by the Secretary 

 of that institution. If this resolution is looking in the future to trans- 

 fer the practical administration of that law from the Smithsonian Insti- 

 tution, where it is so well done, to the Library of Congress, where it 

 can not be as well done, I certainly hope it will not receive the consid- 

 eration of this body. I have great fears that this is an entering wedge 

 to effect that change, and it would be a change which I think in its 

 results would be injurious and disastrous. 



Referred to Committee on the Library. 



FRENCH EXCHANGES. 



December 10, 1880 — House. 



Department of State, 

 Washington, December 7, 1880. 

 Sir: I have the honor to transmit herewith for your information a translation of a 

 letter, dated the 22d of July last, from Mr. L6on Gambetta, President of the Cham- 

 ber of Deputies in France, to the American minister at Paris, in relation to the estab- 

 lishment of an exchange of documents between the Chamber of Deputies of the 

 French Republic and the corresponding legislative body in this country. In accord- 

 ance with Mr. Gambetta's request, I inclose a letter addressed to the President of the 

 House of Representatives of the American Republic, and I likewise forward a pack- 

 age of documents which accompanied the letter just named. 

 I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant, 



Wm. M. Evarts. 

 Hon. Samuel J. Randall, 



Speaker of the House of Representatives. 



[luclosures.] 



1. Mr. L6on Gambetta to the Minister of tlie United States in France, dated July 

 22, 1880— translation. 



2. A sealed letter addressed "Monsieur le President de la Chambre des Representa- 

 tives de la Republique Am^ricaine." 



Accompaniment: A package of documents. 



[Translation.] 



Chamber of Deputies (Presidence), 



Paris, July 22, 1880. 

 Sir: Exchanges of parliamentary dociunents have for a long time been organized 

 between the political assemblies of most of the European States. 



I believe it would be useful to establish analogous exchanges between the Cham- 

 ber of Deputies of the French Republic and that of the American Republic. In con- 



