TWENTY-NINTH CONGRESS, 1845-1847. 357 



bition and preservation of these things are now the source of some 

 expenditure. When they shall be transferred, as proposed in this 

 bill, this expenditure will cease, or be removed from the public Treas- 

 ury to the fund of the Institution. They will be equally subject to 

 public examination, while they will be made to answer a more useful 

 end, as constituting the basis of instruction for able and scientific 

 professors. 



My remarks so far, Mr. Chairman, relate only to some unimpor- 

 tant preliminary arrangements not affecting the general scope and 

 design of the proposed Institution. These must now be examined; 

 and I propose to do it with reference to the probable design of Mr. 

 Smithson, to be inferred from his own pursuits and character of 

 mind; from his selection of our Government to execute his will, and 

 from the language in which he has expressed his intentions. 



I do not propose to enter upon any biographical sketch of Mr. 

 Smithson, or to go into a history of his philosophical labors. I will 

 merely state what has been truly said by the gentleman from Indiana 

 [Mr. Owen], that he was ardently devoted to science, and that his 

 pursuits were eminently practical and utilitarian in their character. 

 The physical sciences, in their application to the useful arts miner- 

 alogy, geology, and chemistry in its application to agriculture consti- 

 tuted his chief employments. His investigations are referred to and 

 quoted with respect by the great German chemist, Liebig. 



It is more than probable that one whose mind was constantly occu- 

 pied with these subjects and filled with the visions of rich promise 

 which must be realized in their future investigations, when munifi- 

 cently endowing an institution for increasing and diffusing knowledge 

 among men, looked particularly to those sciences which will be most 

 fruitful in great results, and to which, on that account, he himself was 

 deeply devoted. It is precisely these sciences, and these applications 

 of them, which I understand this bill to be designed and calculated to 

 promote. 



Nor was it strange, sir, that with such sentiments and such designs 

 Mr. Smithson should have selected our Government as the instrument 

 to accomplish his objects. Although it must be acknowledged that 

 this Government has heretofore contributed little or nothing to the 

 advancement of science by any direct aid or encouragement and 

 although the points at which it even comes in contact with the scien- 

 tific world are extremely few, and it is felt to be a great desideratum 

 that these connections should be increased yet Mr. Smithson had the 

 penetration to discover that the United States are the foremost people 

 of the world in the facility of adapting themselves to the progressive 

 improvements of the age. No other people are now making such 

 rapid strides in the application of science to the great purposes of 

 human industry. This tendency, so very marked at the present day, 



