30 JAMES SMITHSON AND HIS BEQUEST. 



application of the spur. Had be not urged them to the top of their 

 speed, he would have had a lighter weight of gold to carry home with 

 him." 



The estate of Smithson which was transferred to Mr. Richard Eush 

 consisted of the following securities : 



£04,535 18s. dd. in consolidated three per cent, annuities, called con- 

 sols, sold at an average of 95| per cent., yielded £50,175. 



£12,000 in reduced three per cent, annuities, sold at 94 per cent., 

 yielded £11,280. 



£10,100 in Bank of England stock, sold at about 205 per cent., yield- 

 ing £32,990 10s. 



Good-fortune again attended Mr. Rush, for the day when be sold the 

 consols their value was higher than at any previous time for many years 

 or than at any later period. The bank stock also commanded the 

 remarkably high premium of about 205 per cent. 



The estate, therefore, independent of the accumulations of interest and 

 notwithstanding the delays in the court of chancery, was worth more 

 than in the summer of 1835, when the right of the United States first 

 attached to it by the death of Henry James Hungerford, and the entire 

 amount of sales yielded an aggregate of more than one hundred and six 

 thousand pounds sterling. 



Mr. Rush's next concern was how to transfer these funds to the United 

 States, and he decided to convert the whole into gold coin and send it 

 in this form. This was not only the most judicious course, but it secured 

 an increase of the fund to upwards of a thousand jiounds sterling on 

 account of saving the cost of exchange. This sum was enough to cover 

 commissions, insurance, freight, and other charges on the transfer of the 

 gold. 



The costs of the suit and expenses connected with the shipment of 

 the proceeds of the bequest were as follows : 



Costs of the chancery suit, £190 4s. lOd. ; selling the stock, commission 

 to Thomas Aspinwall, £797 15s. 6d.', charges for shipping, £0 19s. 4fLj 

 premium of insurance, £005 3s. lOd.', brokerage, stamps, &c., £120 4s. OtZ.j 

 freight from London to New York, £393 12s.} primage, £19 13s. 8d. 



Tiio proceeds of the sales of the stocks, &c., were converted into gold 

 sovereigns, and these were packed at the Banlc of England in bags con- 

 taining £1,000 each and shipped in eleven boxes by the packet IMediator, 

 of New York, on the 17th July, 1838. Three other boxes sent at the 

 same time contained the personal efl'ects of Smithson. 



The ship Mediator arrived in New York on the 29tli of August, 1838, 

 and the gold, amounting to £104,900 8s. G^Z., was deposited in the Bank 

 of America until the 1st of September, when it was delivered to the 

 Treasurer- of the United States Mint in Philadelphia, and iininediately 

 recoined into American money, producing $508,318.40 as the bequest of 

 Smithson. 



