XVIII JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS. 
change of the Transactions of learned societies and like works; but, in 
addition to such publications, it voluntarily transported between 1851 
and 1867 somewhat over 20,000 packages of publications of the bu- 
reaus of the National Government at an estimated cost to the private 
funds of the Institution of about $8,000. This however was understood 
to be a voluntary service, and no request for its reimbursement has 
been made or is contemplated. 
Congress however in 1867, by its act of March 2, imposed upon the 
Institution the duty of exchanging fifty copies of all documents printed 
by order of either House of Congress or by the United States Govern- 
ment or bureaus, for similar works published in foreign countries, and 
especially by foreign governments. 
The Institution possessed special facilities and experience for such 
work, the propriety of its undertaking which, in the interests of the 
Government, is evident; but it was hardly to have been anticipated 
that the Government should direct this purely administrative service 
and make no appropriation for its support. Such however was the 
case, and with the exception of a small (presently to be noted) sum, re- 
turned by some bureaus, it was wholly maintained during the next 
thirteen years, or until the first appropriation to the Institution for 
Exchanges in 1881, at the expense of the private fund of James Smith- 
son. 
From January 1, 1868, to June 30, 1886, 292,483 packages containing 
these official Government publications, having little to do with the 
object to which Congress devoted the Institution’s private funds, were 
transported by the exchange bureau ata pro rata cost of $92,943,36, 
of which $29,706.85 accrued between 1881, when the first specifie appro- 
priation was made, and 1886. Of this $92,943.36, $19,302.35 was re- 
turned from various departments and bureaus, leaving a balance of 
$73,641.01 expended in carrying exclusively governmental publications. 
What has preceded refers to the transportation of official documents, 
and not to that of Transactions of learned societies and other like works; 
but it is now necessary to mention that in 1878 the honorable Secretary 
of State designated the Smithsonian Institution as the special agent 
of the United States Government for carrying out the provisions of an 
international convention at Paris, which made the respective Govern- 
ments assume the cost, not only of the transportation of official 
documents, but of scientific and literary publications between the 
States interested, and it would seem that Congress itself adopted this 
view of its responsibility, for from July 1, 1881, to June 30, 1886, while 
the Congressional and bureaucratic exchange represented a pro rata 
cost of $29,706.85, and the scientific publications $39,034.90, Congress 
appropriated directly $35,500—somewhat more than the cost of the 
Government exchange, but leaving a balance of $3,534.90 for scientific 
and literary exchanges unpaid. This latter sum, $3,534.90, added to 
the $73,641.01 mentioned above, makes a total of $77,175.91 for which, 
in equity, repayment might be requested. 
In 1886, on the 15th of March, plenipotentiaries of the United States 
and various other nationalities signed a convention, more formal than 
that at Paris, by which the respective Governments definitely assumed 
the exchange of official documents and scientific and literary publica- 
tions between the states interested. 
The Institution prefers to adopt the latter date as a basis for its re- 
quest rather than the earlier date, though, as mentioned above, equity 
would seem to allow it the entire sum expended for exchanges, at least 
since its official recognition by Congress in 1831 as the Government 
