31 



* Rowan died at Pittsburg on Monday last. He left by will a large sum 

 * some say $80,000 for endowing a hospital in Paris, a bequest 



* which would have been used for some charitable purpose in thiscoun- 

 ' try, had not Philadelphia used Girard's trust contrary to his direction." 

 Will this Government continue to encourage other alienations of private 

 beneficence from objects of charity in this hemisphere, by neglecting 

 any longer to comply with their solemnly pledged faith ? I hope, for 

 the honor of the country, that it will not. It is because I entertain this 

 hope, that I have ventured upon the discussion of the subject, and shall 

 proceed, in brief terms, to give my own private views in the matter. 



The intention of the testator being " the increase and diffusion of 

 knowledge among men," by the foundation of an institution at Wash- 

 ington, it seems to me that the widest latitude of interpretation should 

 be applied to the construction of the will. It should be the study of 

 those who are called upon to establish that construction and to carry the 

 objects of the bequest into execution, to indulge in the most enlarged 

 and enlightened views, consistent with the practical benefit we all desire 

 that it should secure. And as no country, in proportion to its means 

 and opportunities, devotes more time and attention to primary instruc- 

 tion, so as to render the people fit, in some degree, for the high privi- 

 leges which, as American citizens, they enjoy, and as colleges and aca- 

 demies are established and well encouraged in every section of the land, 

 the only desideratum we stand in need of at present is some public in- 

 stitution similar to the one intended by the Smithsonian Bequest, where 

 those higher branches, which neither the time, opportunities, minds, nor 

 dispositions of the mass will allow them to attend to, may be placed, 

 on the most liberal and economical terms, within the reach of those 

 whose tastes, intellects, or ambition would induce them to devote them- 

 selves to the task. The best way to effect this desirable result is to found 

 public lectures, as already proposed by Messrs. Adams, Wayland, Rush, 

 &c., and to begin the instruction where it is finished in our universities. 

 These lectures should, of course, embrace all the higher branches of 

 human knowledge, be delivered by the best informed men the country 

 produces, be illustrated by proper apparatus, experiments, and drawings, 

 and open, like those of Paris and elsewhere on the continent, to the 

 public without charge and discrimination. The branches proper to be 

 taught in such an institution are so well and fully enumerated by the 

 learned gentlemen from whom I have quoted in my preceding letters, 

 that I shall not intrude upon the time of my readers with a repetition. 



