42 KEYIEWS REPORT OF THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 



permitted to regret tl\at misunderstandings on one side and pique on 

 the otlier liad suifered so splendid an endowment to pass from 

 its natural course into a foreign channel. The funds left by will of 

 ]VIr. Sinithson, (an Englishman, and an illegitimate son of the Duke 

 of Northumberland,) who had quarrelled with, the Sojal Society after 

 having offered the endowment to them, amounted to over five hun- 

 dred thousand dollars, and were accepted by the Government of the 

 United States, in trust, " to found at Washington, under the name 

 of the Smithsonian Institution, an establishment for the increase and 

 diffusion of knowledge among men." Considering the fate which 

 has befallen too many of the charitable bequests in the old world, it 

 was an interesting question to find how such a trust would be exe- 

 cuted in a case where no superior tribunal could exist to take cogni- 

 sance of malversation, and Avhere lack of specific definition in the 

 wording of the bequest left plausible openings for misappropriation, 

 the only protection against which, was the honor of a government 

 whose citizens have not been uniforml}^ notorious for the best of faith 

 towards creditors. When the Act of Incorporation was before Con- 

 gress, it was perhaps natural that such schemes as the following 

 should be suggested : the diffusion of popular information among the 

 people of the United States by the distribution of Tracts — the foun- 

 dation of a K ational University — the establishment of a large library 

 at Washington, or of a IN" ational Museum. Of these, the first is 

 simply ridiculous, aud against the rest it was urged by some who, 

 fortunately, took a wider and juster view of their duties as trustees 

 in the management of this endowment, that the object dpsigued by 

 the founder was specific as regards the "increase of knowledge," 

 and cosmopolitan as regards its " diffusion among men ;" that it was 

 clearly never intended by him merely to educate the youth of the 

 United States, nor to found monster establishments of books or 

 specimens in a particular locality, which could only benefit citizens 

 of the United States, and but few even of them. There was plain 

 justice in this reasoning, for, however desirable and laudable these 

 designs may be in themselves, they are only indirectly related to the 

 design of the endowment ; would have been in their effects chiefly 

 and primarily beneficial to the country in which they existed ; and 

 ought, if their existence is desired, to be provided for by that country 

 itself. If institutions which shall rival the British Museum, the 

 National G-allery, and the Universities of Great Britain are to exist 

 on this side the Atlantic, they should be raised by the people whose 

 advantage and glory they concern, and not by the legacy of a stranger 



