THE APRIL MEETIJVG, 1844. 453 



It is consolatory to reflect, that the Institute can thus be employed and patronized 

 by the Governnaent, without exercising any doubtful powers ; and, while doing it, 

 can advance both the public interests and the cause of learning. It is always 

 auspicious to that cause, when a government can participate in its glories, so much 

 more congenial to the genius of an enlightened people, and so mucii more enno- 

 bling to their free institutions, than many of the epliemeron strifes of political 

 warfare. Still more will it be a matter of congratulation, if the Institute should 

 also be used by the Government in the performance of a sacred trust, which it has 

 assumed in relation to the Smithsonian fund. The money for this has been actually 

 accepted and placed in the treasury to the extent of more than half a million of 

 dollars. The noble task of increasing and diffusing knowledge among men, by 

 means of that liberal trust, the General Government has, in the face of the world, 

 undertaken to see performed ; and through whom can it more efficiently and cre- 

 ditably act in executing such a trust, than a body of men, under its own eye, its 

 own directions, its own laws — men, also, who, asking nothing but payment of 

 the actual expenses incurred in taking care of the public property, are willing to 

 labor in this cause without fee or reward, beyond the consciousness of being useful 

 to their race and extending wider the dominion of science and sound knowledge ? 

 Respectfully, yours, 



LEVI WOODBURY. 



Francis Markoe, Jr., Esa., 



Corresponding Secretary of the National Institute. _ 



No. 3. 30 



