22 The Smithsonian Institution 



private fortune the nucleus to which have been added ap- 

 propriations for objects of national importance, yet appro- 

 priations which are still administered in association with 

 his name. 



The will was proved in the Prerogative Court of Canter- 

 bury, the value of the effects being sworn to be under ^"120,- 

 ooo. The property disposed of by it is believed to have been 

 received chiefly from Colonel Henry Louis Dickinson, a son 

 of his mother by a former marriage, though he is known 

 to have received a legacy of ,3,000 from Dorothy Percy, his 

 half-sister on his father's side; but, unless through this, it is 

 proper to state that there is no indication that any portion 

 whatever of the Smithson bequest was derived from the 

 Northumberland family. 



The motives which actuated Smithson in mentioning the 

 United States as his residuary legatee, rather than any other 

 government or institution, must remain in doubt, for he is not 

 known to have had any correspondent in America, nor are 

 there in any of his papers any reference to it or its distin- 

 guished men. In selecting the nation itself as the depository 

 of his trust, he yet certainly testified his confidence in its in- 

 stitutions and his faith in their perpetuity, while it has not 

 escaped attention that he uses language in the determining 

 clause of his will remarkably similar to that already employed 

 by Washington, who in his farewell address, says: "Promote, 

 as an object of primary importance, institutions for the gen- 

 eral diffusion of knowledge." 



Smithson died June 27, 1829, at Genoa, Italy. He is 

 buried in the little English cemetery on the heights of San 

 Benigno, in a tomb which originally bore no reference to him 

 as the founder of this Institution ; but the Institution has re- 

 cently placed a tablet there remedying this omission, has sur- 

 rounded the tomb with evidence of continued care, and has 



