FIFTY-FOURTH CONGRESS, 1895-1897. 17038 
to be sent henceforth directly, and likewise free of charges, to the House 
of Deputies. | 
I have the honor to inform your excellency hereof, with the request 
to be good enough to take the necessary steps to bring about this object 
and to advise me of the result. 
I beg to add that, with respect to the other official American publi- 
cations, no change in the existing mode of exchange with Hungary is 
contemplated. 
Accept, ete., HENGELMULLER. 
[Translation.] 
IMPERIAL AND Royat Austro-HUNGARIAN LEGATION, 
Washington, October 29, 1895. 
Mr. SECRETARY OF STATE: 
In your predecessor’s note of May 16 last, No. 28, in answer to my 
communication of April 3 last, No. 709, regarding the direct recipro- 
eal exchange of legislative documents and other official Hungarian pub- 
lications with those of the United States, he was good enough to state 
that the request of the president of the Hungarian Reichstag had been 
given immediate attention by the competent authority, and that a full 
reply would subsequently follow. 
In compliance with recent instructions, I beg to call your excel- 
lency’s attention to this subject, with the request to apprise me as to 
the decision since reached. 
Accept, etc., HENGELMULLER. — 
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 
Washington, December 18, 1895. 
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your communi- 
cation of December 11, 1895, referring to the request of the Austro- 
Hungarian minister that the acts of Congress be sent directly to the 
House of Deputies instead of through the Smithsonian Institution, and 
inquiring what appropriation by Congress is considered necessary for 
carrying out a convention concluded at Brussels March 15, 1886, pro- 
viding for the ‘‘immediate exchange of official journals, parliamentary 
annals, and documents.” 
The object of the convention being the prompt interchange of the 
proceedings of the legislative bodies of the respective countries adher- 
ing thereto, it becomes necessary that a sufficient number of copies of 
the documents in question be promptly furnished to the exchange 
bureau, and that an appropriation be made to meet the additional cler- 
ical service and postage that will be required for the immediate dispatch 
of these documents. The amount of the appropriation, as far as it is 
possible to estimate for an untried service, I should place at $2,000. 
England, France, Germany, and Austria did not adhere to the con- 
