244: EIGHTH ANNUAL REPORT OF 



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from year to j-ear ; and it is evident that they must continue to increase 

 in a geometrical ratio, on account of the greater repairs which, in time, 

 will be required on the building. After deducting Irom the income the 

 cost of repairs, lighting, and heating ; of messenger, attendants, and 

 watchmen; of stationary, transportation, and postage; after dividing 

 the remainder by two, and deducting from the quotient the expense of 

 the public lectures, the final sum to be devoted to the most important, 

 and, indeed, the only legitimate object of the bequest, is exceedingly 

 small. 



The attempt has, however, been made in good faith to carry out the 

 resolution of February, 1847; and if items which may properly be 

 charged to the library and collections were added to this side of the 

 account, the balance up to the present date would be in favor of the 

 active operations. But the plan has not been found to work well in 

 practice. The income is too small properly to support more than one 

 S3 r stem of operations, and therefore the attempt to establish and sustain 

 three departments, with separate ends and separate interests, must lead 

 to inharmonious action, and consequently to diminished usefulness. 



•However proper such a division of the income might have been in 

 the beginning, in order to harmonize conflicting opinions, and to submit 

 with proper caution the several proposed schemes to a judicious trial, 

 the same considerations do not now exist for its continuance; changes 

 have since occurred which materially alter the conditions on which the 

 resolution was founded. The plan of active operations was not at first 

 fully understood even by the literary men of the country. It was con- 

 sidered chimerical, and incapable of being continued for any length of 

 time ; and hence it was thought important to provide for the means of 

 falling back upon a library and collections. The experience of six 

 years has, however, established its practicability and importance, and 

 it is now considered by the great majority of intelligent persons 

 who have studied the subject, the only direct means of realizing the 

 intention of the donor. Again: the building was to have been finished 

 in five years, and the income after this was to be increased by the 

 interest on the remaining surplus fund ; But the Regents have found it 

 necessary, for the better security of the library and museum, to acid fifty 

 thousand dollars to the cost of the edifice ; and ten years will have 

 elapsed from the beginning, instead of five, before any income from 

 the surplus fund will be available. This additional expense is not 

 incurred for the active operations, and the question may be asked 

 whether they ought to bear any part of this additional burden. Further- 

 more, at the time the division was made, it was thought obligatory on 

 the part of the Institution to support the great museum of the Exploring 

 Expedition ; but the Regents have since concluded that it is not advisa- 

 ble to take charge of this collection ; and Congress, by its appropriation 

 for the enlargement of the Patent Office, concurred in the opinion 

 expressed in the Senate by the Hon. Jefferson Davis, that it was a gift 

 which ought not to be pressed upon the Institution. The inquiiy may 

 also, in this case, be made, whether it is advisable in the present state 

 of the funds, and the wants of the active operations, to expend any 

 considerable portion of the income in the production of a collection 

 of objects of nature and art. Again: the active operations are procur- 



