ny one
could since have assumed this position, I will not venture to say;
but the fact seems to be that no one has been at the same time able
and willing to assume it.

On coming to Washington I soon became very intimate with Professor
Henry, and I do not think there was any one here to whom he set
forth his personal wishes and convictions respecting the policy
of the Smithsonian Institution and its relations to the government
more freely than he did to me. As every point connected with the
history and policy of this establishment is of world-wide interest,
and as Professor Henry used to put some things in a different light
from that shed upon the subject by current publications, I shall
mention a few points that might otherwise be overlooked.

It has always seemed to me that a deep mystery enshrouded the act
of Smithson in devising his fortune as he did. That an Englishman,
whose connections and associations were entirely with the intellectual
classes,--who had never, so far as is known, a single American
connection, or the slightest inclination toward democracy,--should,
in the intellectual condition of our country during the early
years of the century, have chosen its government as his trustee
for the foundation of a scientific institution, does of itself seem
singular enough. What seems yet more singular is that no instructions
whatever were given in his will or found in his papers beyond the
comprehensive one "to found an institution at Washington to be
called the Smithsonian Institution for the increase and diffusion
of knowledge among men." No plan of the institution, no scrap
of paper which might assist in the interpretation of the mandate,
was ever discovered. Not a word respecting his intention was ever
known to have been uttered. Only a single remark was ever recorded
which indicated that he had anything unusual in view. He did at one
time say, "My name shall live in the memory of men when the titles
of the Northumberlands and the Percys are extinct and forgotten."

One result of this failure to indicate a plan for the institution was
that, when the government received the money, Congress was at a loss
what to do with it. Some ten years were spent in discussing schemes
of various kinds, among them that of declining the gift altogether.
Then it was decided that the institution should be governed by a
Board of Regents, who should elect a secretary as their executive
officer and the administrator of