selection of sites for navy-yards, all the essential facts and figures are furnished by the surveyor. That no coast can be effectively attacked, defended, or blockaded, without accurate maps and charts, needs no demonstration. The services of the Coast Survey have at all stages of its progress been called into frequent requisition by the naval and military departments of the Government; but never at any period have those services proved of more vital importance than at the present, when the operations of the navy along our extensive seaboard,

and the movements of our armies in the littoral regions, are based upon, and in many cases guided by, the intimate knowledge of the country acquired by the officers of the Coast Survey; whence it has resulted that scarcely an expedition of any magnitude has started, by sea or land, without being accompanied by one or more of those officers; and thus the institution has proved itself not only efficient in promoting the pursuits of peace, but also of eminent service in the prosecution of the war for the UNION.

THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION.

AT Genoa, in Italy, on the 27th day of June, | of Smithson shall survive in the memory of men 1829, an Englishman died, who had attracted little notice during his life beyond the scientific circles of Europe, but who, by an act of wise and farsighted munificence, was destined to be known to the world and to the remotest posterity as one of the most efficient benefactors of his race. This was James Smithson, the founder of the Institution which bears his name. By a clause in his will, equally simple in terms and comprehensive in import, he bequeathed the whole of a large estate, inherited from his father, the first Duke of Northumberland, "to the United States of America, to found at Washington, under the name of the Smithsonian Institution, an establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men."

In proceeding to give a brief account of the disposition made of this legacy, it is but just to premise that, from such scanty memorials of his life as curiosity or gratitude has been able to recover, Smithson is shown to have been a man endowed not only with a spirit of the most indefatigable and sagacious research in many branches of natural - science, but with those moral and social qualities which secure the esteem of equals and the fidelity of dependants. This is manifested by the feeling and considerate manner in which his death was noticed by the President of the Royal Society of London, of which body Smithson became an associate about the year 1790, by his friendly relations and correspondence with Davy, Black, Wollaston, and other distinguished savants, and by the care with which in his will he provides for the reasonable claims of relatives and domestics, whose attachment and services he thus commemorates and rewards. His birth was illegitimate, as is testified by his own hand: indeed, he bore at college the name of Macie, which was that of his mother. who was herself "heiress of the Hungerfords of Audley, and niece of Charles the Proud, Duke of Somerset." This circumstance may have given point to the sentiment found among his fugitive memoranda:-"Though the best blood of England flows in my veins, this avails me nothing; the name

when the titles of the Northumberlands and Percys are extinct or forgotten." He lived unmarried, and was thus enabled more fully to embrace the spirit of another of his occasional apothegms:"The man of science is of no country: the world is his country, and all men his countrymen." Much of his life was passed in different cities of Europe, and in excursions made with a view to scientific investigation and the increase of human knowledge. The fruits of his various labors are extant in communications to the Transactions of the Royal Society, and the Annals of Philosophy, besides a collection of manuscripts more or less complete. As a proof of his skill in the analysis of minute quantities, in which he is said by President Gilbert to have been the rival of Wollaston, it has been often mentioned that, on one occasion, observing a tear about to fall from a lady's eyelid, he succeeded in securing a portion of it, and, sub mitting this to delicate re-agents, contrived to ren der the evanescent tribute to feeling a tribute also to science, by resolving it into its component ingredients. Engaged during life in the advancement of knowledge, and cheered by the converse of his most enlightened cotemporaries, Smithson could well afford to dispense with those social distinctions and engagements which, though the usual appanage of wealth and pedigree, would have trenched too largely on the time devoted to more useful pursuits.

The death of a nephew, on which the legacy was conditioned, having occurred in 1835, and the Government of the United States having been notified of its interest, the late Hon. Richard Rush was sent as commissioner to assert the claim, the proceeds of which, after the delay of a technical chancery suit, were deposited, to the amount of $515,169, in the Mint at Philadelphia, on the 1st of September, 1838. There arose now the important and somewhat embarrassing question, în what form and by means of what organization the purposes of the trust thus accepted by the United States could be best fulfilled. Many and diversified were the schemes submitted to Congress,

powered, with the consent of the Board of Regents, to employ assistants.

The building, which is to be the repository of all objects of art or of curious or scientific research belonging to the United States, and which may be in the city of Washington, was designed on a scale commensurate rather with this prospective destination than with the amount of the fund or the strictly proper purposes of the trust. Commenced in 1849, its entire completion was protracted through several years, with a view mainly to the active employment of the fund in the interval and consequent augmentation of capital: so that, though the building, for which the expensive LombardoVenetian style was adopted, cost, in the end, with its various accommodations, some $325,000, an addition of $140,000 to the permanent principal was effected by this judicious delay. In the mean time the Institution had been thoroughly organized for action, as early as the year 1847, by the election of a Secretary and the adoption of a “Programme of Organization," or general scheme of operations. The choice of Secretary had fallen with great unanimity on Professor Joseph Henry, of the College of New Jersey, well known for his original researches in science, and of whom it is but just to say that the renown, success, and usefulness of the Institution are in large measure due to his wise counsels, judicious management, and uuwearied exertions. Of those whose assistance it soon became expedient for him to avail himself, Professor Spencer F. Baird, in the line of natural history, &c., and William J. Rhees, chief clerk, may be mentioned as having rendered services meriting distinct acknowledgment. The Board of Regents have uniformly accorded a liberal and enlightened support to the views and efforts of the Secretary; nor can it be invidious to cite the distinguished names of Chief-Justice Taney, Hon. Jas. A. Pearce, Professor A. D. Bache, General Totten, and the late President Felton, of Cambridge, as among those who have constantly evinced a zealous interest for the welfare of the Institution. The present Board, besides those who are members ex officio, consists of Hons. J. A. Pearce, W. P. Fessenden, L. Trumbull, of the Senate, S. Colfax, E. McPherson, S. S. Cox, of the House, W. B. Astor, of New York, W. L. Dayton, of New Jersey, Geo. E. Badger, of North Carolina, T. D. Woolsey, of Connecticut, Alex. D. Bache and Joseph G. Totten, of Washington, D.C.

which found itself involved in a discussion, rather unfamiliar to the halls of legislation, of the manifold instrumentalities by which knowledge is, or through which it may be, increased and diffused. A great national library, schools of agriculture, institutes of learning, plans of instruction more or less specific or complex, formed the staple of debates, resumed from time to time, and animated by no little of the warmth of partisanship, through a period of seven years (1839-46). Popular education, naturally a favorite idea with many, was from the first pronounced, by the competent authority of the venerable ex-President Adams, excluded from the field of competition: the legacy is for the benefit of men everywhere; its beneficiaries can be limited to no nation and no class. It seems finally to have been recognized that concessions must be made on all sides, and even that a large portion of discretionary power must be delegated to the administrative body by which the affairs of the Institution were to be conducted. Hence, after declaring the principal to be lent in perpetuity to the treasury of the United States, at an interest of 6 per cent., providing for a suitable building (to be paid for out of the interest accrued since 1838) with rooms or halls adapted to the "reception and arrangement, upon a liberal scale, of objects of natural history, including a geological and mineralogical cabinet, a chemical laboratory, a library, a gallery of art, and the necessary lecture-rooms," the act of incorporation, approved August 10, 1846, gives authority to the Board of Regents to make such disposal of any portion of the annually accruing interest, not required for the enumerated purposes, "as they shall deem best suited for the promotion of the purpose of the testator." The corporation itself, or the Establishment, as it is termed in conformity with the language of the bequest, is to consist of the President and Vice-President of the United States, the Secretaries of State, of the Treasury, of War, and of the Navy, the Postmaster-General, the AttorneyGeneral, the Chief-Justice, the Commissioner of the Patent-Office, and the Mayor of the city of Washington, during their respective terms of office, with such other persons as they may elect honorary members. The Board of Regents, to which is confided the current business of the Institution, is composed of the Vice-President and Chief Justice of the United States, the Mayor of Washington, three members of the Senate and three of the House of Representatives, together In the Programme, a paper framed by the Secrewith six persons other than members of Congress, tary upon consultation with persons of known two of whom shall be residents of Washington, judgment and experience, and adopted by the but of the others no two shall be from the same Regents as a guide for future procedure, the fact State. This Board is to be organized by the ap- is recognized that beyond the local and subsidiary pointment of one of their number as chancellor objects specifically provided by Congress there and presiding officer, and by the election of "a lies a vast field for "active operations," in the consuitable person as Secretary of said Institution," duct of which much may be done by direct means who, as principal executive agent, is to take charge for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among of the building and property, fulfil the duties of men. As the benefit is for all, so the whole circle librarian and keeper of the museum, and is em- of sciences is open for cultivation. To increase

of Smithson and of the faithfulness of those who first administered his trust." 2. Annual Reports; submitted by the Secretary to the Regents, comprising the proceedings of the Institution, and incidentally an account of the progress of science conveyed in such a form as in a high degree to interest and reward popular attention. 3. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections; an occasional series, comprising meteorological and physical tables, treatises on subjects of practical or scientific interest, and manuals for the collection and preservation of objects of natural history, as well as of methods for various physical observations.

knowledge, which can only mean a substantive | societies of the world, and the estimation in which addition to the sum of that already existing, no the work is everywhere held abundantly warrants means seem so available as to encourage, facilitate, what is claimed for it,-that "if, in the changes of and direct the researches of ingenious minds; to policy and vicissitudes of fortune, all other mediffuse knowledge, no instrument is so effective morials were lost, this alone would form an imand far-reaching as the press. Through this two-perishable monument of the wisdom and liberality fold instrumentality-keeping in view, however, a strict economy of means, and resigning therefore to other institutions whatever can be as well effected through their agency-the Smithsonian Institution aims to carry out the generous purposes of the donor, by supplying a more energetic stimulus and effectual aid to research and exploration, and by affording the means of more direct and extended communication than were otherwise attainable. What has been accomplished in the practical application of such maxims can be fully known only by an examination of the annual reports. We can only here notice the fact that the services of the Institution in behalf of every department of science have been received with emphatic acknowledgment by the learned of all countries, that its publications are everywhere eagerly sought for, and that its co-operation is constantly solicited for enterprises looking to the advancement of knowledge. These it is in the habit of promoting by a gratuitous distribution of the instruments and directions for the conduct of researches, by the often laborious and expensive reduction of observations and calculations, and, when occasion justifies or requires it, by a contribution of the necessary funds. It is certain that within the fourteen years which have elapsed since the adoption of the system of active operations, more information has been acquired and material collected by its agency for elucidating the natural history and geography of our own country, especially the western portion of it, for illustrating its climatology, geology, mineralogy, botany, and archæology, than was effected by all other means during the whole previous period of the national existence. And these labors acquire additional importance from the circumstance that, from its prominence before the scientific world, the Institution is brought into direct relationship with all analogous enterprises prosecuted elsewhere,-enterprises zealously promoted by all enlightened Governments, and directed to the solution of some of the most difficult and important problems of physical science.

A branch of the operations rapidly increasing in activity and importance is that which falls under the head of Exchanges, the Smithsonian Institution having voluntarily become the principal medium of literary and scientific communication between the learned associations and cultivators of science in our own and other countries. The development which this system has acquired is such, we are informed, as to weigh heavily on the resources both of time and money; but the fact of such development affords gratifying evidence of the commanding position of the establishment, and indicates one of the literary wants of the age for which an enlightened management will scarcely fail to make provision.

The scientific correspondence of the Institution is also one of the burdens which, although cheerfully accepted, levies no small tax on the time of the Secretary. Scarcely a day passes in which his attention is not solicited and information asked in respect to the most varied questions in the physical and natural sciences, names of specimens of plants, minerals, and insects, lists of books and apparatus, as well as in behalf of discoveries and inventions, many of which, of course, are only surprising or practicable in the eyes of the correspondents. It seems to be no unusual thing with the Secretary to have to deal with the tri-section of the angle or the quadrature of the circle, to re-vindicate the Newtonian theory of gravitation, or demolish some new system of the universe.

The Publications of the Institution consist of- The act of incorporation provided, as has been 1. The Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge; seen, for the formation of a library, museum, gala series of quarto volumes, ample in size and ele-lery of art, laboratory, &c.; and these requirements, gantly produced, containing original memoirs or treatises upon scientific subjects, all of which have been submitted, before being accepted, to the judgment of able men and pronounced upon as furnishing some positive addition to the facts or wellassured foundation for the theories of science. These volumes, of which the thirteenth is now ready for the press, are distributed gratuitously among all the important libraries and learned

since they are to be satisfied "on a liberal scale," could not fail to press heavily on an income which, whatever may be the popular conception about it, is really narrow in reference to the claims to which it is subject. The maintenance of a large public building, and the accommodation and care of books and specimens of natural history, must needs in themselves be no slight burden to so limited a revenue. Still more inadequate must it have