890 PROPOSED APPLICATIONS OF SMITHSON 5 S BEQUEST. 



National University, on the establishment of which Con- 

 gress would not act except after long consultation and ascer- 

 taining the feelings of the country, and hence continually 

 procrastinating the benefits that were to arise from it; on 

 the other hand, we see the way clear for the establishment 

 of a school where Natural Philosophy, Chemistry, Geology, 

 Mineralogy, Philosophy, and all other sciences could be 

 effectually taught a school which, so far from clashing with 

 others, would aid them, and instead of meeting with their 

 animosity, would receive their cheerful countenance which, 

 although it might be helped by the gift of funds from the 

 nation, could nevertheless go into operation without them 

 which, under a wise management, could be speedily brought 

 to yield results of the utmost practical importance, and fulfill 

 to the very letter the wishes of the testator. 



The statesman who looks around on this wide-spread coun- 

 try and sees what it possesses, and what are its wants, may 

 recognize in such a disposal of this gift a timely present to 

 his fellow-countrymen a benefit the advantages of which 

 are not confined to them alone, but free and open to men of 



every nation. 



******* 



Yours, truly, A- 



From The Southern Literary Messenger, Richmond, Va., 1841, 

 Vol. VII, Page 277. 



The disposition of the munificent donation of the late 

 Mr. Smithson for founding a National Institution in the 

 city of Washington has been under discussion in the papers 

 of the day for some time past. Several articles of no ordi- 

 nary merit have appeared in your useful Magazine, mid 

 without designing to disparage the views of others, I would 

 beg leave, through the same medium, to present a few obser- 

 vations on this most important subject. 



While all the writers agree in the propriety of Congress 

 acting upon this subject, there is great diversity as to the 

 character of the Institution which it is called upon to estab- 

 lish. One proposes the establishment of a grand astronom- 

 ical observatory ; another advocates a museum of natural 

 history, with a system of public and gratuitous lectures on the 

 most popular and practical branches of liberal knowledge; 

 while a third argues, that, inasmuch as Mr. Smithson himself 

 was a friend to the natural sciences and an intimate acquaint- 



