FIFTY-FIRST CONGRESS, 1889-1891. 1495 
the states interested, and it would seem that Congress itself adopted 
this view of its responsibility, for from July 1, 1881, to June 30, 1886, 
while the Congressional and bureaucratic exchange represented a pro 
rata cost of $29,706.85, and the scientific publications $39,034.90, Con- 
gress appropriated directly $35,500—somewhat more than the cost 
of the Government exchange, but’ leaving a balance of $3,534.90 for 
scientific and literary exchanges unpaid. This latter sum, $3,534.90, 
added to the $73,641.01 mentioned above, makes a total of $77,175.91 
for which, in equity, repayment might be requested. 
In 1886, on the 15th of March, plenipotentiaries of the United States 
and various other nationalities signed a convention more formal than 
that at Paris, by which the respective governments definitely assumed 
the exchange of official documents and scientific and literary publica- 
tions between the states interested. 
The Institution prefers to adopt the latter date as a basis for its 
request rather than the earlier date, though, as mentioned above, equity 
would seem to allow it the entire sum expended for exchanges, at 
least since its official recognition by Congress in 1881 as the Govern- 
ment exchange agent. No claim for the exchange of a purely scientific 
character is made for the years 1881 to 1886, so that the $35,500 that 
Congress appears to have appropriated for this end is treated as having 
a retroactive effect, and this amount deducted from the crude obliga- 
tion of $73,641.01 leaves $38,141.01 as the amount due the private 
fund of James Smithson from 1868 to 1886. . 
Considering separately the period from July 1, 1886, to June 30, 
1889, we find that the amount expended in these years under the 
direction of the Smithsonian Institution on account of international 
exchanges was $47,126.56; of this sum $37,000 were paid by Congres- 
sional appropriations, $3,091.75 were paid by Government depart- 
ments and others, and the balance, $7,034.81, by the Smithsonian 
Institution. 
The action of the Board of Regents contemplates the presentation 
to Congress of a request to return to the Smithsonian fund the sums 
here shown to have been expended in the interests and by the authority 
of the National Government, namely, $38,141.01, in excess of appro- 
priations advanced from January 1, 1868, to June 30, 1886, for the 
exchange of official Government documents, and $7,034.81 in excess 
of appropriations from July 1, 1886, to June 30, 1889, advanced for 
_ the purpose of carrying out a convention entered into by the United 
States, or an aggregate of $45,175.82. 
DRAFT OF BILL. 
Be it enacted, etc., That the following sums be, and the same are hereby, appro- 
priated, out of any moneys in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, in repayment 
of moneys expended from the Smithsonian fund in exchanging with foreign coun- 
tries the official publications of the United States Government, and in carrying out 
