224 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 



prove inadequate to its purpose without large- appropria- 

 tions of public moneys in its aid should have been pre- 

 sented to the consideration of Congress, referred to a. 

 numerous joint committee of both Houses, there discussed,, 

 reported for the deliberation of both Houses, fully debated 

 in the House where it originated, and there decisively re- 

 jected. 



This committee concur entirely in the opinion of the 

 committee of the House at the last session of Congress,, 

 that the express language of Mr. Smithson's will indicates 

 a design not only distinct, but widely different, from the 

 schooling of children. Besides the reasons assigned in the 

 resolutions of the former committee for withholding any 

 portion of these funds from any institute of education, it is- 

 apparent that the fund itself, large and liberal as it is, could 

 be applied only to an establishment extremely partial and 

 limited, not only with regard to the instruction to be given, 

 but to the persons who could be benefited by it. For a 

 national university, besides the utter inadequatencss of tin- 

 fund for such an establishment, all its benefits would neces- 

 sarily be confined to a very small number of students from 

 the city of Washington and its immediate vicinity, together 

 with a number, scarcely larger, who, at an expense which 

 none but the wealthy could afford, might resort from dis- 

 tant parts of the Union to Washington, for learning, which, 

 after all, they could acquire with equal proficiency in the 

 colleges of their own respective States. A school devoted 

 to any particular branch of science as, for example, a mil- 

 itary or naval school; a farm school, or school of mechanic 

 arts; a school of law, physic, or divinity; a school of 

 mines, of natural history, of metaphysics, literature, morals, 

 or politics however effective for teaching these several 

 branches of science, would be available only for a very 

 , small number of individuals, and very ill adapted to pro- 

 mote the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men. 

 If education^ had been the peculiar object of Mr. Smithson's 

 solicitude, it is natural to suppose that he would have been 

 desirous of diffusing the benefits of his institution among 

 all classes of the community as extensively as might be 

 possible ; that he would have devoted it to the endowment 

 of primary schools; of infant or Sunday schools; of insti- 

 tutions, in fine, where the recipients of his bounty would 

 have been at once in great numbers, and of the class of 

 society which pre-eminently needs the blessing of elemen- 

 tary instruction. It would, no doubt, have been an excel- 

 lent disposal of his ample fortune, and would indirectly 



