28 JAMES 8M1THS0N AND HIS BEQUEST. 



States. It was soon ascertained, on consultation with eminent counsel, 

 Messrs. Thomas Pemberton and Edward Jacob, then at the head of the 

 chancery bar, that it was necessary that a suit should be brought in 

 the name of the President of the United States against the testator's 

 executors, and that the Attorney-General must be made a party to the 

 proceedings in order that he might represent before the court any claim 

 which the Crown might have to the bequest on account of its extension 

 to illegitimate children, or by reason of any part of the property con- 

 sisting of interests in land. Mr. Eush, in addition to Messrs. Pember- 

 ton and Jacob, eraiiloyed Messrs. Clarke, Pynmore, and Fladgate as his 

 legal advisers, and a suit was commenced in the court of chancery in 

 November, 1836. The first hearing, however, did not take place until the 

 1st of February, 1837, before Lord Langdale, master of the rolls, this 

 <iourt and that of the vice-chancellor being the two branches of the 

 English chancery system before which suits are brought in the first 

 instance. 



The case was fully opened on behalf of the United States by Mr. Pem- 

 berton. The King's counsel abandoned at once all opposition on the 

 part of the Crown, and no question was raised under the doctrine of es- 

 €hcats or any other by the representatives of the British Government. 

 Tlie conrt then decreed that the case be referred to one of the masters 

 in chancery, Mr. Nassau William, Sen., to make the requisite inquiries as 

 to the facts on the happening of which the United States became enti- 

 tled to the fund left by Mr. Smithson, and also as to the claim of Madame 

 De la Batut. 



The United States had never before sued in an English court, but 

 "there were precedents of other nations having done so bj'^ their execu- 

 tive heads, as, for examj^le, the King of France and the King of Den- 

 mark. The United States were therefore allowed to enter the courts in 

 the name of the President. 



Advertisements were immediately inserted in the London Times, Her- 

 ald, and Standard, and in French and Italian newspapers in Paris and 

 Port Louis, in France, and Leghorn, in Italy, asking for information re- 

 specting Henry James Hungerford j whether he married, whether ho 

 left any child, &c. 



Mr. Eush, in August, 1837, wrote to the Secretary of State that there 

 were more than eight hundred cases in arrears in the court of chancery, 

 And he felt much discouraged as to a speedy termination of the suit. 

 While the population of England had increased in a definite period six- 

 fold and her wealth twentyfold, the judicial establishment had remained 

 nearly the same. There were only eleven masters in chancery, while 

 •double the number would not be sufficient. The subject of a reform in 

 this court, Mr. Rush stated, had been specially recommended by the 

 Throne to Parliament. It had been said, with truth, that " a chancery 

 ijuit was a thing that might begin with a man's life and its termination 



