PHYSICAS E NATURAES 197 



be given to íhe executors of the will, that they might in thís way be 

 indemnified for any expenses, or responsibilities assumed by their hav- 

 ing had to care for the collections; and this once granted, let the col- 

 iections be immediately given up to the Government with every thing 

 else belonging to them according to the will. And let the case be in 

 this way completly settled. 



The first answer to this proposal was a refusal; our opponents 

 ínsisting upon the one they had made in the audience of the 1}^ July 

 of Ihis year, in which they asked £ 1 .200 of supposed arrears of sa- 

 lary, to be paid before the surrender of the collections ; this being Ihen 

 rejected as it had already been once before. 



We then urged upon our defendants lhe necessity of having the 

 case brought to the Court on the 17.*^ with no compromise on our part, 

 the Judge having to assume ali responsibilities in the final decision. 



A second message was received before the 17. ^'^ by which our op- 

 ponents modified the anterior one in lhe foUowing terms: 



Acknowledgement of lhe whole right of the Portuguese Govern- 

 ment to the African collections: £ 700 being paid by lhe Governnment 

 in fuU of whatever demands might be admilted. It was Ihen proposed 

 that the colleclion to be oífered by the Government to the British Mu- 

 seum should be separated from lhe others in lhe British Museum and 

 ali retained in London unlil this be done; an offer being made to have 

 lhe sludy set first classified in lhe Museum and given up after this being 

 done. The technical ressources of lhe Museum were poinled out as su- 

 perior ones for such purposes, lhe realisalion of which would be ofad- 

 vantage lo bolh parlies. The collections to be given to olher Museums 

 would be offered oniy in the name of the Portuguese Government and 

 as it would please us. 



The terms of this compromise which fell less short of those we had 

 offered, were however nol agreed to by US5 as they hindered the prompt 

 surrender of the collections, on which we insisled, and because no li- 

 mils of lime were assigned for it, and nobody was to be appointed on 

 the pari of the Government to lake part in lhe ordering and choosing of 

 the plants, allending Ihus lo our interests in the maller. 



The whole affair being brought lo lhe Court on lhe 17.^^ Nov. the 

 final senlence of the Judge was oblained as follows: 



Declare that lhe Plainliff in right of his crown and as part of the 

 public property of the Kingdom of Portugal is enlilled to the collections 

 of botanical specimens and olher natural objecls made by Frederick 

 Welwitsch in the pleadings mentioned in lhe course of his employment 



