TWENTY-FOURTH CONGRESS, 1835-1837. 131 



enable the President of the United States to effect this object the 

 committee report herewith a bill. 



But your committee think they would imperfectly discharge their 

 duty to this House, to their country, to the world of mankind, or to 

 the donor of this most munificent bequest were they to withhold a few 

 brief reflections which have occurred to them in the consideration of 

 the subject referred to them by the House, reflections arising from the 

 condition of the testator, from the nature of the bequest, and from 

 the character of the trustee to whom this great and solemn charge 

 has been confided. 



The testator, James Smithson, a subject of Great Britain, declares 

 himself, in the caption of the will, a descendant in blood from the 

 Percys and the Seymours, two of the most illustrious historical names 

 of the British islands. Nearly two centuries since, in 1660, the ances- 

 tor of his own name, Hugh Smithson, immediately after the restora- 

 tion of the royal family of the Stuarts, received from Charles the 

 Second, as a reward for his eminent services to that house during the 

 civil wars, the dignity of a baronet of England, a dignity still held 

 by the Dukes of Northumberland as descendants from the same Hugh 

 Smithson. The father of the testator, by his marriage with the Lady 

 Elizabeth Seymour, who was descended by a female line from the 

 ancient Percys, and by the subsequent creation of George the Third, 

 in 1766, became the first Duke of Northumberland. His son and suc- 

 cessor, the brother of the testator, was known in the history of our 

 Revolutionary war by the name of Lord Percy; was present as a Brit- 

 ish officer at the sanguinary opening scene of our Revolutionary war 

 at Lexington and at the battle of Bunker Hill, and was the bearer to 

 the British Government of the dispatches from the commander in 

 chief of the royal forces announcing the event of that memorable 

 day; and the present Duke of Northumberland, the testator's nephew, 

 was the ambassador extraordinary of Great Britain sent to assist at 

 the coronation of the late King of France, Charles the Tenth, a few 

 months only before the date of this bequest from his relative to the 

 United States of America. 



The suggestions which present themselves to the mind by the asso- 

 ciation of these historical recollections with the condition of the tes- 

 tator derive additional interest from the nature of the bequest the 

 devotion of a large estate to an institution for the increase and diffu- 

 sion of knowledge among men. 



Of all the foundations of establishments for pious or charitable uses 

 which ever signalized the spirit of the age or the comprehensive 

 beneficence of the founder, none can be named more deserving of the 

 approbation of mankind than this. Should it be faithfully carried 

 into effect with an earnestness and sagacity of application and a steady 

 perseverance of pursuit proportioned to the means furnished by the 



