14 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 
the honors of his high position as the representative of his country 
at the court of France, we have recently been called to mourn. 
Though the latter was unable to attend the meetings of the Board, 
he rendered good service to the Institution in extending its reputa- 
tion and promoting its correspondence abroad. Besides this mortality 
among the Regents, there have also occurred in the same period four 
deaths among the assistants and employés of the establishment, and 
two among the honorary members, making twelve in number thus 
removed. 
This rapidly recurring mortality has not failed to impress me pro- 
foundly with the instability and uncertainty of life, and has led 
me, in view of the late conflagration and the loss of the counsel of 
those to whose generous and zealous co-operation I have been so long 
indebted, to regard with more than usual solicitude the proper dis- 
charge of the responsible duties which are intrusted to me as the 
principal executive officer of the establishment. 
Yet, however grieved at the loss occasioned by the fire, and sad- 
dened by the departure of those to whom I have just referred, I have 
not permitted myself for a moment to doubt that I shall continue to 
find in the present members the same cordial co-operation and liberal 
support which has characterized the guardians of the Institution for 
the past twelve years. Whatever may have been the diversity of 
views previous to that period, no difference of opinion has since been 
expressed as to the propriety of the general policy which has gov- 
erned the operations of the establishment, nor has a doubt been inti- 
mated as to the value of the results produced or their strict conformity 
with the intentions of Smithson. This harmony is, perhaps, more 
worthy of remark, when it is remembered that in the choice of the 
Regents they have been designedly selected by Congress from each 
of the prominent political parties of the day. ‘Men of the most con- 
flicting opinions meet here as on a common ground of friendly sym- 
pathy, impressed with the feeling that rivalry and prejudice should 
hold no sway in the presence of interests whose, universality and 
permanency properly withdraw them from the sphere of popular and 
temporary excitement. Hence my enforcement of the rule excluding 
from the lecture-room of the Institution topics of a partisan and irri- 
tating character has been fully sustained; while, at the same time, 
the course which has been pursued of rendering the government in 
its late trials every aid which could be supplied by scientific re- 
search has been warmly approved. 
As most persons are probably entirely ignorant of the services 
