1494 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 
In pursuance of this instruction the Secretary has the honor to sub- 
mit the following statement: 
Under the act of Congress accepting a donation from James Smith- 
son for ‘‘the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men,” and 
giving effect to this trust by the foundation of the Smithsonian Insti- 
tution, the Board of Regents in 1851 established a system of interna- 
tional exchange of the transactions of learned societies and like works; 
but, in addition to such publications, it voluntarily transported between 
1851 and 1867 somewhat over 20,000 packages of publications of the 
bureaus of the National Government, at an estimated cost to the pri- 
vate funds of the Institution of about $8,000. This, however, was 
understood to be a voluntary service, and no request for its reim- 
bursement has been made or is contemplated. 
Congress, however, in 1867, by its act of March 2, imposed upon the 
Institution the duty of exchanging fifty copies of all documents printed 
by order of either House of Congress or by the United States Govern- 
ment or bureaus, for similar works published in foreign countries, and 
especially by foreign governments. 
The Institution possessed special facilities and experience for such 
work, the propriety of its undertaking which, in the interests of the 
Government, is evident; but it was hardly to have been anticipated 
that the Government should direct this purely administrative service 
and make no appropriation for its support. Such, however, was the 
case, and, with the exception of a small (presently to be noted) sum 
returned by some bureaus, it was wholly maintained during the next 
thirteen years, or until the first appropriation to the Institution for 
exchanges in 1881, at the expense of the private fund of James 
Smithson. 
From January 1, 1868, to June 30, 1886, 292,483 packages contain- 
ing these official Government publications, having little to do with the 
object to which Congress devoted the Institution’s private funds, were 
transported by the exchange bureau at a pro rata cost of $92,943.36, 
of which $29,706.85 accrued between 1881, when the first specific 
appropriation was made, and 1886. Of this $92,943.36, $19,302.35 was 
returned from various departments and bureaus, leaving a balance of 
$73,641.01 expended in carrying exclusively governmental publica- 
tions. 
What has preceded refers to the transportation of official documents, 
and not to that of transactions of learned societies and other like works; 
but it is now necessary to mention that in 1878 the honorable Secre- 
tary of State designated the Smithsonian Institution as the special 
agent of the United States Government for carrying out the provi- 
sions of an international convention at Paris, which made the respect- 
ive governments assume the cost, not only of the transportation of 
official documents, but of scientific and literary publications between 
