take care even that it moved on during its pendency with no more of publicity to its peculiar circumstances than could be avoided. I trust that both these feelings have been discernible in the general current of my letters to you, reporting all the steps I have taken in it from my first arrival.

Need I add, as a further incentive to despatch, had further been wanting, that events bearing unfavorably upon the public affairs of this country, above all upon the harmony or stability of its foreign relations, would not have failed to operate inauspiciously upon the suit, if in nothing else, by causing stocks to fall. They did begin to fall on the first news of the rebellion in Canada, not recovering until the accounts of its suppression arrived. The case is now beyond the reach of accident, whether from political causes, or others inherent in its nature; and that its final decision thus early has been brought about by the course adopted in February, I am no longer permitted to doubt. Early may at first seem a word little applicable, after one entire year and the best part of a second have been devoted to getting the decision; but when the proverbial delays of chancery are considered, (and they could hardly have become a proverb without some foundation,) it may not, perhaps, be thought wholly out of place. Although neither the counsel nor solicitors gave their previous advice to the course, it being a point of conduct for my decision rather than of law for theirs, it is yet satisfactory to be able to state that they approved it afterwards. They regarded it as best consulting the interests of the United States, on every broad view of a case where a great moral object, higher than the pecuniary one, was at stake, enhancing the motives for rescuing it, at the earliest fit moment, from all the unavoidable risks and uncertainties of the future. A fortnight has not elapsed since it was said in the House of Commons by an able member that "a chancery suit was a thing that might begin with a man's life and its termination be his epitaph.'

On the whole, I ask leave to congratulate the President and yourself on the result. A suit of higher interest and dignity has rarely, perhaps, been before the tribunals of a nation. If the trust created by the testator's will be successfully carried into effect by the enlightened legislation of Congress, benefits may flow to the United States and to the human family not easy to be estimated, because operating

silently and gradually throughout time, yet operating not the less effectually. Not to speak of the inappreciable value of letters to individual and social man, the monuments which they raise to a nation's glory often last when others perish, and seem especially appropriate to the glory of a republic whose foundations are laid in the presumed intelligence of its citizens, and can only be strengthened and perpetuated as that improves. May I also claim to share in the pleasure that attends on relieved anxiety now that the suit is ended?

I have made inquiries from time to time, in the hope of finding out something of the man, personally a stranger to our people, who has sought to benefit distant ages by founding, in the capital of the American Union, an institution (to describe it in his own simple and comprehensive language) FOR THE INCREASE AND DIFFUSION OF KNOWLEDGE AMONG MEN. I have not heard a great deal. What I have heard and may confide in amounts to this: That he was, in fact, the natural son of the Duke of Northumberland; that his mother was a Mrs. Macie, of an ancient family in Wiltshire of the name of Hungerford; that he was educated at Oxford, where he took an honorary degree in 1786; that he went under the name of James Lewis Macie until a few years after he had left the university, when he took that of Smithson, ever after signing only James Smithson, as in his will; that he does not appear to have had any fixed home, living in lodgings when in London, and occasionally staying a year or two at a time in cities on the continent, as Paris, Berlin, Florence, Genoa, at which last he died; and that the ample provision made for him by the Duke of Northumberland, with retired and simple habits, enabled him to accumulate the fortune which now passes to the United States. I have inquired if his political opinions or bias were supposed to be of a nature that led him to select the United States as the great trustee of his enlarged and philanthropic views. The reply has been, that his opinions, as far as known or inferred, were thought to favor monarchical rather than popular institutions; but that he interested himself little in questions of government, being devoted to science, and chiefly chemistry; that this had introduced him to the society of Cavendish, Wollaston, and others advantageously known to the Royal Society in London, of which body he was a member, and to the archives of which he made contributions; and that he also became acquainted,

through his visits to the continent, with eminent chemists in France, Italy, and Germany. Finally, that he was a gentleman of feeble health, but always of courteous though reserved manners and conversation.

Such I learn to have been some of the characteristics of the man whom generations to come may see cause to bless, and whose will may enrol his name with the benefactors of mankind.

I have the honor to remain, with great respect, your obedient servant,

RICHARD RUSH.

The Hon. JOHN FORSYTH, Secretary of State.

This cause coming on the 1st day of February, 1837, to be heard and debated before the right honorable the master of the rolls, in the presence of counsel learned on both sides, his lordship did order that the plaintiff's bill should be amended, by stating the act of Congress passed in the year 1836; and the said bill being amended in court accordingly, upon hearing the same act of Congress, and also the power of attorney granted to Richard Rush, Esq., mentioned in the said bill as amended, read, his lordship did order that it should be referred to the master to whom the cause of Hungerford vs. Drummond stood transferred, to carry on the account directed by the decree of the 15th day

of December, 1829; and it was ordered that the said master should inquire whether John Fitall, in the pleadings of this cause named, was living or dead; and if the said master should find that the said John Fitall was dead, then it was ordered that he should inquire and state when he died. And it was ordered that the said master should inquire whether Henry James Hungerford, in the pleadings also named, was living or dead; and if the said master should find that the said Henry James Hungerford was dead, then it was ordered that he should inquire and state when he died, and whether he was married or unmarried at the time of his decease; and if married, whether he left any, and what, children or child him surviving; and the said master was to inquire and state the ages of such children, respectively, if more than one. And it was ordered that the said master should inquire and state to the court whether Madame de la Batut had any claim on the said testator Smithson's estate; and, for the better discovery of the matters aforesaid, the usual directions were given, and his lordship did reserve the consideration of all further directions, and of the costs of this suit, until after the said master should have made his report. That, in pursuance of the said decree, the said master made his report, dated the 23d day of March, 1838, which stands absolutely confirmed by an order dated the 27th day of March, 1838, and thereby certified he found that the sum of £53 7s. 6d. was justly due and owing to Messrs. Thomas Clarke & Co., the solicitors for the defendant Charles Drummond, from the estate of the said testator; and he found that the said John Fitall was dead, and that he died at Bush house, Wanstead, in the county of Essex, on the 14th day of June, 1834; and he found that the said Henry James Hungerford assumed the name of De la Batut, and was known as Baron Eunice de la Batut and died at the Royal hotel, called the Donzelle, situate at Pisa, on or about the 5th day of June, 1835, without ever having been married, and without leaving any issue. And the said master certified that he was of opinion and did find that the said Mary Ann de la Batut, in her right, was entitled to a claim on the estate of the said testator, James Smithson, for an interest during the life of the said Mary Ann de la Batut, in a moiety of the annual income or sum of 7,673 livres de rentes, in the report mentioned, amounting in value to the annual sum of £150 9s. sterling money of Great Britain and Ireland, calculated at

the current rate of exchange in the city of London, on the 8th day of March, 1838; and he found that the income arising from the said French stock or fund, called livres de rentes, was payable and paid half-yearly by the French Government, on or about the 22d day of March and the 22d day of September in each year; and he also found that there was due and owing to the said Mary Ann de la Batut, (or the said Theodore de la Batut, in her right,) from the estate of the said testator, James Smithson, the sum of 13,427 francs 75 centimes, for arrears of the said annuity, from the 22d day of September, 1834, to the 22d day of March, 1838, amounting in value to £526 11s. 6d., sterling money of Great Britain and Ireland, calculated at the current rate of exchange in the said city of London, as aforesaid; and he found that the annual income or annuity to which the said Mary Ann de la Batut (or the said Theodore de la Batut, in her right) was entitled for her life out of the estate of the said testator, James Smithson, amounting to £150 9s. sterling money of Great Britain and Ireland as aforesaid. And whereas the above named plaintiff and Richard Rush did, on the 3d day of May, 1838, prefer their petition unto the right honorable the master of the rolls, setting forth as therein set forth, and praying that the residue of the several stocks, funds, and securities, and cash, respectively, standing in the name of the accountant general of this court, in trust in the cause of Hungerford vs. Drummond, and in trust in this cause, which should remain after providing for and satisfying the annual and other payments directed by the will of the said testator, and the costs and charges to which the estate of the said testator had been rendered liable by virtue of the several proceedings and measures aforesaid, or any of them, might be respectively transferred, (the amount thereof to be verified by affidavit,) in the books of the governor and company of the Bank of England, and paid to the petitioner, Richard Rush; and that the boxes and packages mentioned in the said master's report might be delivered into the custody of the petitioner, Richard Rush. Whereupon all parties concerned were ordered to attend his lordship on the matter of the said petition, when this cause should come on to be heard for further directions; and this cause coming on this present day to be heard before the right honorable the master of the rolls for further directions on the said master's said report, and as to the measure of costs reserved in the said