28 SMITHSONIAN BEQUEST. 



Iii reply, 1 had the honor to inform the Secretary, by letter dated 

 the 9th of January, that it was still a point unsettled whether the 

 property which, with a commendable zeal, you had aimed at securing 

 for the United States, ndw constituted any part of the Smithsonian 

 fund in the English court of chancery, awaiting its decision; that noth- 

 ing had yet been adjudged to the United States; that perhaps it might 

 be doubtful, under these and other circumstances I stated, all of which 

 could not have been known when the Secretary's letter to me was writ- 

 ten, how far the act of July the 1st would sustain the charge in ques- 

 tion; and that at all events I had come to the conclusion not to pay the 

 account until the issue of the proceedings in chancery on the whole 

 case here was known, unless I should receive the Secretary's instruc- 

 tions to pay it, after what I thus wrote. 



I have received none; and unless the letter from the Secretary, 

 which you have received, were written after the receipt of mine of the 

 9th of January, and contains an express direction to me to pay, I 

 should not feel at liberty to do so; the less, as everything remains 

 undecided here, and a new fact is interposed. Congress at the late 

 session omitted to make any further appropriation for the full prose- 

 cution and recovery of the Smithsonian bequest; and it is certain, in 

 my belief, that the sum allotted by the act of July 1, 1836, will be 

 exhausted by the unavoidable expenses in London before any new 

 appropriation can come from the next Congress. 



I have the honor to remain, very faithfully, your obedient servant, 



RICHARD RUSH. 



DANIEL BRENT, Esq., 



Camul of tJie United States, Parw. 



Richard Rush to John Forsyth. 



LONDON, May 18, 1837. 



SIR: I have received a letter from Mr. Brent, consul at Paris, trans- 

 mitting his account and the receipts for moneys expended by him in 

 that city, with a view to obtain for the United States some property, 

 then supposed to be a part of that which was bequeathed by Mr. 

 Smithson. It is the same account that was forwarded to me with your 

 instructions of the 17th of November last. To these I had the honor 

 of replying in my No. 6, in which the nature of the account was 

 explained and reasons assigned for suspending payment, your instruc- 

 tions appearing to have left me a discretion over the subject. I trans- 

 mit a copy of Mr. Brent's letter dated the 3d instant, with a copy of 

 my answer dated the 10th. My reasons will be seen in the latter for 

 still withholding payment, Mr. Brent's letter, as I read it, not con- 

 veying to me your direction to pay. If I have erred in this particu- 

 lar, 1 shall await your further instructions, and obey them. My letter 



