and whether all has been done that the means supplied would allow, and whether the plans for future action are in direct conformity with a fair construction of the will, and whether any of the income is being devoted to objects not directly contemplated by the testator, and which may be as well attained by existing institutions that have neither the means nor the mission for that which may be regarded as the specialty of the Smithsonian bequest.

And the inquiry is, in the opinion of the committee eminently worthy those who are acting for the nation which, having accepted the solemn and important trust conferred by Mr. Smithson, is bound to give to its administration all that attention which is due to the liberal views and lofty objects of the testator, and which is no less becoming the peculiar character and natural distinction of the trustee. Regard for the memory of the dead who conferred upon our citizens the benefit of the fund, and upon our nation the honor of its administration, no less than a mere self-respect will ever lead this nation, through its representatives, to guard with peculiar vigilance the sacred trust involved in the bequest of Mr. Smithson, and carefully and diligently to watch the progress of the institution in the fulfilment of the noble wishes of the founder, and the just expectation of mankind in its regard.

With this view, evidently, the government supplied the deficiency in the funds resulting from loans authorized by act of Congress; and pursuing the same object, it is believed that Congress will suggest that the treasury of the United States be the depository of the fund, and that the institution shall derive an unfluctuating income from the interest which the government of the United States shall pay for the use of that deposit.

James Smithson was the son of the Duke of Northumberland, by Elizabeth, niece of the Duke of Somerset. The disadvantages of the circumstances of his birth seem to have been less than the benefits of the wealth of his parents, and he surmounted the former by the assistance which the latter gave to the energy of his character and the ennobling objects of his pursuits, and having achieved distinction by science, an attainment fortunately not dependent upon hereditary honors, his wish was evidently to open up avenues to knowledge and facilitate its attainment for the multitude. It is better to suppose that the exalted opinions of mental cultivation and scientific attainment which Smithson manifested in his life and writings, and the efforts and contribution which he made towards ensuring to learning and superiority to any distinction founded on hereditary title, resulted rather for the ennobling influence of great scientific attainments upon his own character than for the misfortunes of his birth, which forbade his enjoyment of titular honors that distinguished his father.

Or, if made to feel the incompatibility of his condition with the kind of distinction which was enjoyed by his more fortunate relatives, he may be pardoned the ambition which led him to adopt a course to give imperishable distinction to his name, "when the titles of Percy and Northumberland are extinct." And the Smithsonian Institution, in the city of Washington, is the means by which that distinction is to be achieved and perpetuated. Such an end, with such ample means, demanded appropriate administrations and suitable measures.

Rep. 1442

It must be conceded that the plan of the Smithsonian Institution must be of a character different from most others, or it will only be a rival of existing institutions; and the language of the testator is explicit as it regards the character and objects of the institute which he intended to found and endow. The object was "to found at Washington an establishment, under the name of Smithsonian Institution, for the IN"CREASE AND DIFFUSION OF KNOWLEDGE AMONG MEN."

The government of the United States, in accepting the great trust conferred, pledged itself to carry out the objects of the founder, to administer the funds with a distinct reference to the requirements of the will, and to keep the institute, which bears the name of the founder, separate in all its relations from any and every other; to give it a distinct and substantive existence, and insure independence and efficiency to its operations.

The distinction between the increase and the diffusion of knowledge is real, and in the administration of the Smithsonian Institution is of very great importance.

We have, all around us, libraries and museums, by which what is known of literature and science may be diffused, so far as the influence of those libraries and museums extends; but it cannot be denied that such an influence is necessarily quite limited.

But the "increase of knowledge" is more dependent upon the means of the promoters than their location, and the amount of valuable contribution to any science must depend more upon assurance that the contributor can be requited for his time and labor, than upon any advantages of position; and it is eminently true that our country abounds with men whose tastes and attainments lead them into a particular branch of moral or physical science, but whose ordinary pursuits do not allow them to extend their investigations into specialities, so that large stores of knowledge often lie undeveloped in the mine of science for want of some men of leisure to follow the drift and secure the treasure.

The Smithsonian Institution has already enabled men of that class, and encouraged those of more fortunate condition to make investigations and to adduce results which the world of science has already confessed go to increase knowledge among men; and these contributions to the amount of knowledge, it is admitted, must have been reserved at least for a future day, had not the foresight of the Smithsonian Institution suggested and supplied means for the "increase,' and its appropriate and timely liberality furnished the funds and means for the dissemination.

It has already been remarked, that the unique character of Mr. Smithson's bequest rendered it difficult of administration upon any plan that should not be sanctioned by some experience, and hence, if there should be suggested a slight departure from the requirements of the letter of the law of 1846, by which the institution was organized for action, it must not be understood as censuring the views of those who labored in the plan and secured the efficient and desirable action of Congress. At that time gentlemen of the highest distinction in literature and science differed in their views of the best means of carrying out the wishes of the founder. Each had a favorite theory as it re

gards the efficiency for certain means or modes, and that difference arose greatly from previous habits and associations, or from the influence which the greater mind had upon the less.

It cannot be denied that the creation of an immense library was a favorite, and the dominant idea of many who, at that time, leaned entirely upon foreign writers for information, and resorted to books rather than to experiments and observations for exact information on any science. Such a course seems natural, where it had been universal, and the opinions are likely to be operative just in proportion to the dependence of minds upon books; and hence a vast collection of volumes in any city of the south, or fifth class in point of size, and, as yet of no particular class in point of science and literature, seemed to promise a fulfilment of the wishes of Smithson.

Yet these volumes were not to "increase the amount of knowledge among men;" they only recorded the existing amount, were merely the storehouses of what had been gathered and kept in the city of Washington, as yet only the political centre of the nation, it is difficult to see how they would serve greatly to "diffuse that knowledge among

men."

Another part of the plan is the establishment of a museum, and, in the opinion of the committee, this, if kept within just bounds, is a valuable part of the general plan. The danger is that a museum, instead of being what its name implies, will become a receptacle for all the freaks of nature which a morbid curiosity may discover, and the resort of those who would rather be amused with a lusus naturæ of any kind than with a well arranged and instructive display of products in their scientific order.

A museum for the Smithsonian Institution should be of a kind to assist the student and the master in natural studies, and enable them to pursue their inquiries to the full extent of attained results, that they may increase the amount of that kind of knowledge, may add to what is already known; and when they shall have completed that commission, and their reports shall have satisfied the institution that something is contributed to the previous amount of knowledge in their particular branches, then the institution shall cause those contributions to be printed in an appropriate manner, and copies to be distributed to the various libraries of the country and the scientific associations throughout the world; thus DIFFUSING knowledge among men.

One result of this transmission of the publications of the institution is eminently worthy of regard, in considering the means of administering the will of the testator. These books thus sent out are regarded as "exchanges," and thus they ensure to the institution returns from every corresponding society in the world that publishes its proceedings; and a single publication of a thousand copies of any memoir by the Smithsonian Institution is likely to ensure to the shelves of its library numerous copies of different scientific works from sister associations abroad, so that the very expenditure in that branch of the institution is the means of supplying the books for a library instead of its becoming the occasion of diminishing the means of supplying that branch. And it should be added that the works received in exchange are those which go to supply to the institution a portion of the very

kind of information most suited to its character and objects, and ensuring to its officers and frequenters detailed reports upon branches of science that might otherwise have remained undeveloped.

The city of Washington may rejoice in the multiplication of general libraries, and the young may frequent the Smithsonian Institution for duplicates of amusing volumes which they have seen in the congressional library; and the latest novel or the last essay may find its place on its shelves, to the augmentation of its catalogue, and the diminution of its funds; but it will scarcely be claimed, in behalf of such a collection, that it is a selection suited to the views of Smithson, or in accordance with his will.

The committee, unable at present to pursue further their enquiries into a subject of so much importance to the hopes of the scientific, beg leave to present the following resolutions:

JOINT RESOLUTIONS relative to the funds of the Smithsonian Institution.

Resolved, That having accepted the trust conferred by the last will and testament of James Smithson, and having experienced inconvenience from a former investment of a part of the funds of that trust, the United States will best promote the object of the testator, and secure the prosperous and profitable action of the Smithsonian Institution, by returning the funds of that institution in the public treasury, and allowing the same interest now paid for the use of those funds.

Resolved, That it is expedient to enlarge the permanent fund of the institution by the investment of such sums, not exceeding $125,000, as may have been or shall be received for accrued interest or otherwise, in addition to the principal sum of the Smithsonian bequest, and that the said additional sum of $125,000 be received into the treasury of the United States upon the same terms as those upon which the original fund is now held.

2d Session.

No. 145.

NAVIGATION, REVENUE, AND COLLECTION LAWS. [To accompany bill H. R. No. 663.]

MARCH 3, 1855.

Mr. FULLER, from the Committee on Commerce, made the following REPORT.

The Committee on Commerce, to whom was referred the bill of the House of Representatives (No. 663) to amend and consolidate the navigation, revenue, and collection laws of the United States, and for other purposes, make the following report, to accompany said bill, which is reported back, with sundry amendments, with the recommendation that the same do pass as amended, report:

The entire credit of the bill is due to the head of the Treasury and his efficient subordinates, who, in addition to the daily routine of their duties, have digested and consolidated the bill.

That the revenue and collection laws of the United States are very numerous and complicated must be obvious to any one who has had occasion to give them even a cursory perusal. There are now stand

ing on our statute books, unrepealed in terms, more than four hundred laws, running through more than five hundred large octavo pages. One of the laws still in force, and of daily application, was passed in 1792, another in 1793, and still another, and the most important and useful of any of our existing revenue acts, in 1799.

That a half century and more of such remarkable development and extension of our commercial and navigating interests should require frequent modification and addition to keep pace with our rapid advancement is not, of course, to be questioned. Hence, as the necessity of a change in the old law, or the addition of a new one, has been felt, legislation has ensued, and the increased mass of enactments, amounting, as before stated, to more than four hundred in number, have been passed from time to time, rather to provide for some special and pressing exigency than to form an orderly, systematic, and simple code, readily intelligible, and of easy application.

These successive enactments, whatever changes they have made in previous laws, have rarely repealed them in terms. It has been rather the practice of Congress to leave them to operate a repeal, by implication, of such provisions of previous laws as might be found repugnant to or inconsistent therewith. The result has been, that a large number of laws, bearing on the same subject matter, still remain on our statute books, and no compiler can venture to dispense with them, as he dare