PROPOSED APPLICATIONS OF SMITHSON'S BEQUEST. 915 



already established, as being more inaccessible. Such insti- 

 tutions should be founded where living is cheap. Wash- 

 ington would be the most unfavorable locality in the Union. 

 The few who could afford the expense of a school there, 

 would be apt to prefer some college, where proficiency 

 might obtain at least the reward of a diploma. Mr. Owen's 

 plan for employing the press, was probably the nearest ap- 

 proach to the great desideratum which had been made. 

 But here everything would depend upon the mode of dis- 

 tribution. His plan, as a whole, appears to me to have 

 embraced too many objects for the fund to bear, and ma- 

 chinery too much complicated to run well. In both these 

 respects, however, it was much to be preferred to the plans 

 which had preceded it. It bore the marks of intelligent 

 thought, practical wisdom, and honest patriotism; but it 

 was fated to be superseded by a piece of patchwork, which, 

 in the session of 1845-46, became the law of the land. 



The act to establish the " Smithsonian Institution" com- 

 bines some of the worst features of the preceding plans, 

 while it wants their redeeming qualities. It provides most 

 amply for wasting the entire income of the fund upon an 

 assemblage of distinct establishments under that name. It 

 creates a vast and complicated piece of machinery, which 

 would require the income of millions to keep in repair, and 

 which would seem to have no ultimate object external to 

 itself. 



The first section constitutes the President and Vice- 

 president of the United States, the Secretary of State, the 

 Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of War, the Sec- 

 retary of the Navy, the Postmaster-General, the Attorney- 

 General, the Chief Justice, the Commissioner of the Patent 

 Office, and the Mayor of the city of Washington, during 

 their continuance in their respective offices, "and such other 

 persons as they may elect honorary members" " an establishment 

 by the name of the Smithsonian Institution," "to have per- 

 petual succession," &c. 



No limit is here set to the number of honorary members. 

 The Cabinet may appoint them ad libitum. There may be 

 ten or ten hundred. With two exceptions, the whole body 

 may be changed with every change of the Administration. 

 No duties are assigned to it but those specified in the 8th 

 section, namely, "to hold stated and special meetings for 

 the supervision of the affairs of the said Institution, and the 

 advice and instruction of the said Board of Regents." As, 

 however, the said Board of Regents is, by section third, 

 authorized "to conduct the business of the Institution," it 



