THIRTY-THIRD CONGRESS, 1853-1855. 511 



March 3, 1855. 



Act for naval service for 1856. 



To enable the Secretary of the Navy to pay the salary of Professor 

 James P. Espy, for the current fiscal year, ending June 30, 1856, $2,000; 

 the payment to be made in the same manner and under the like control 

 as former appropriations for meteorological observations. 



(Stat., X, 677.) 



EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 

 August 4, 1854. 



Civil and diplomatic act for 1855. 



Department of the Interior. That the collections of the exploring 

 expedition, now in the Patent-Office, be placed under the care and 

 management of the Commissioner of Patents, who is hereby author- 

 ized to employ one principal keeper of said collections at an annual 

 salary of $900, one assistant keeper at an annual salary of $750, one 

 night watchman at an annual salary of $600, and two laborers at an 

 annual salary each of $365 $2,980. 



(Stat. X, 572.) 



To enable the Joint Committee on the Library of Congress to 

 replace the seven volumes and atlas of the exploring expedition 

 destroyed by the burning of the Library, and the plates and other 

 property destroyed by the fire in Philadelphia, including binding, 

 $9,010.75. ' 



(Stat. X, 547.) 



March 3, 1855. 



Civil and diplomatic act for 1856. 



For completing the publications of the works of the exploring expe- 

 dition, $29,320. 

 (Stat. X, 668.) 



RESIGNATION OF MR. RUFUS CHOATE POLICY OF THE INSTITUTION 



INVESTIGATION. 

 January 17, 1855 Senate. 



The President (Mr. JESSE D. BRIGHT). I lay before the Senate a 

 communication from Hon. Rufus Choate, one of the Regents of the 

 Smithsonian Institution: 



To the Senate and House of Representatives: 



I take leave to communicate to the two Houses of Congress my resignation of the 

 office of Regent of the Smithsonian Institution. . " 



It is due to the body which has been pleased to honor me with their trust for some 

 years, and has recently conferred it for a new term, to say that this step is taken 

 not from any loss of interest in the welfare of that important establishment, but in 

 part from the inconvenience experienced in attending the meetings, and in part 

 also, and more immediately, from my inability to concur or acquiesce in an interpre- 

 tation of the act of Congress constituting the actual Institution and the Board of 



