270 The Smithsonian Institution 



to the purposes of a library. Mr. Owen argued, in reply, that 

 a library might diffuse knowledge, but would not increase it. 

 One of the ideas which was broached during these discus- 

 sions was that the library should be peripatetic. 



The Act which finally passed establishing the Smithsonian 

 Institution was in effect a compromise between the views 

 urged in the Senate and in the House ; for whereas a library 

 was mentioned as but one of the objects of the Institution, 

 yet Section 8 of this Act expressly provides for a library in 

 the following terms : 



"The said Regents shall make, from the interest of the 

 said fund, an appropriation, not exceeding an average of 

 twenty-five thousand dollars annually, for the gradual forma- 

 tion of a library, composed of valuable works pertaining to 

 all departments of human knowledge." 



At the second meeting of the Board of Regents, held on 

 September 8, 1846, a committee of three, appointed to digest 

 a plan, reported a scheme which was adopted by the Board on 

 January 25, 1847. 



This report practically recommended that half of the income 

 be set aside for a library and museum, and that the Smith- 

 sonian Institution become a center of bibliographical informa- 

 tion for the entire country. The report fully expresses the 

 aim of the Institution with regard to its own library, and 

 the other libraries of the country. It begins with a state- 

 ment that the proposition that the building about to be 

 erected should contain library room sufficient to receive 

 one hundred thousand volumes was made rather in the spirit 

 of the charter and against the deliberate conviction of the 

 committee, and then proceeds as follows : 



" But, without a vast accumulation of books in this metrop- 

 olis, your committee conceive that the Librarian of the 



