228 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 



of the institution ; which report shall be annexed to that of the board to 

 the President of the United States, who shall communicate the said reports 

 to Congress. The services of the members of the said board shall be gra- 

 tuitous ; but the expenses incidental to their meeting and the performance 

 of their duties shall be included in the annual estimates of the War and 

 Navy Departments, alternately, and paid from the contingent expenses 

 thereof respectively. 



SEC. 11. And be it further enacted, That there is reserved to Congress 

 the right of altering, amending, adding to, or repealing, any of the provi- 

 sions of this act, which shall be found inconvenient upon experience : Pro- 

 vided, That no contract or individual right, made or acquired under such 

 provisions, shall thereby be impaired or divested. 



SEC. 12. And be it further enacted, That the sum of sixty thousand dol- 

 lars from the second and third years' interest of the Smithsonian bequest 

 be, and the same is hereby, appropriated, to be invested so as to yield a 

 yearly income at the rate of six per cent, a year ; from which yearly income 

 shall be paid the compensation of an astronomical observator, to be ap- 

 pointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate 

 of the United States, and the incidental and contingent expenses of repairs 

 upon the buildings, as they may be required. 



APPENDIX. 



Estimate of the expense of erecting an astronomical observatory of the first 

 class, and of supporting it by appropriations from the income of the Smith- 

 sonian fund. 



In the letter of llth October, 1888, to the Secretary of State, communi- 

 cated to Congress with the message of the President of the 6th of Decem- 

 ber of that year, a conjectural estimate was given of the expense of estab- 

 lishing and maintaining a permanent astronomical observatory, and of the 

 periodical publication of the results of the observations there made, and of 

 a nautical almanac. That estimate contemplated the income of seven years 

 of the fund as indispensably necessary for completing and organizing the 

 establishment in such manner as to avoid all encroachment on the capital 

 of the Smithsonian fund ; to increase it by providing from its income per- 

 manent funds for the discharge of the most of constantly accruing expend- 

 itures incident to it ; and to relieve the fund itself forever after from any 

 further contribution to this branch of the institution. 



Further reflection, and the information received of the expenses actually 

 chargeable upon the Greenwich Observatory, and defrayed by the British 

 Government, have led to the conclusion that the estimate was yet not suffi- 

 ciently li beral ; and that, for the accomplishment of the above purposes, not 

 less than ten years of the income will be required exclusively for this ob- 

 ject. But, of this large sum, an overbearing proportion will, while pro- 

 viding for all the necessary expenses of the establishment, at the same time 

 increase the capital of the fund by the value of the buildings erected, and 

 of the instruments and books purchased, and by the amount of the funds, 

 from the interest of which the observing astronomer, his assistants, and all 

 the persons to be employed in the service of the observatory, shall receive 

 their compensation. The following is a gross estimate of the sums which, 

 it is believed, will be required for the full execution of the plan presented, 

 in the bill herewith reported : 



