D is a statement of the interest which has accrued on the sum of $515,169 under the act of August 10, 1846, all of which has been paid up to the 31st December, 1853, first, for the erection of the building, and, second, for the support of the Institution, in pursuance of the terms of said act.

From these statements it appears that the fund which is pledged to reimburse to the Treasury the amount appropriated by the act of August 10, 1846, may be stated as follows:

1. Stocks on hand of the par value of.

2. Balance of cash in the Treasury

3. Balance of interest uncollected..

$720, 661.64 18, 646. 83 369, 316. 32

1, 108, 624.79

It is estimated that, by authorizing the Secretary of the Treasury to redeem the stocks of the United States held in trust for the Institution at the rates of premium offered for said stocks, and to sell the stocks of the States of Illinois, Ohio, and Michigan at their market price, the sum of $199,844 may be realized and applied toward the reimbursement of the said appropriations, and I respectfully recommend that authority may be given to pursue this course.

I have the honor to be, very respectfully,

Hon. Jos. R. CHANDLER,

Chairman Select Committee on Smithsonian Fund.

JAMES GUTHRIE, Secretary of the Treasury.

To amount paid to June 30, 1853, as compensation to the clerk in charge

B.-Statement showing the description and amount of stocks held by the Secretary of the Treasury in trust on account of the Smithsonian fund, including their market price and value at such price.

C.-Statement showing the amount of interest received and disbursed on account of the Smithsonian Institution, under the act of Congress approved August 10, 1846, which act fixed the principal of the Smithsonian fund at $515,169.

D.-Statement of the Smithsonian fund as it regards interest on stocks.

Shortly after the receipt of the above statements by the chairman of the committee, there was presented to the House of Representatives the memorial of March 10, 1854, from the Smithsonian Institution.

The statement made to the select committee by the Secretary of the Treasury shows that the Government, by an act of Congress, set apart as the capital of the Smithsonian fund the sum of $515,169; regarding those States that have failed to make payment of principal or interest of the sums loaned to them from the fund received from England as debtors to the Treasury of the United States, leaving the fund unencumbered with accounts against the borrowers and equal to the amount left by the testator.

What disposition should be made of the evidences of debts which the Government of the United States holds against the borrowers of the original fund did not form a part of the inquiries which the committee was authorized to make. But as those funds evidently belong to the Government of the United States, the committee will feel itself justified in suggesting such a disposal thereof as will release the books of the Treasury Department of the continued and increasing accounts. And at the close of the report a resolution will be added recommending the sale of all such assets, and that the net proceeds be carried to the general fund.

The memorial of the Smithsonian Institution, asking for permission to invest a portion of the fund saved in the construction of the building, for which purpose it had been appropriated, suggested to the joint committee inquiries as to the probable demands which would be made upon the income of the Institution; and that led to a further inquiry as to the legitimate objects for expenditure. These inquiries could only be answered by a recurrence to the will of the distinguished testator; and if that should be less explicit in any particular than would be desirable, then a recurrence could be had to the well-established facts of his life, and the special objects which he pursued in his devotion to science; and the end which he proposed in his pursuits while alive, and the special directions of his estate after the death of the person to whom was bequeathed a life use of his property.

Committees of Congress have several times presented statements of the objects of Mr. Smithson's bequest to the Government of the United States in trust, and their opinion of the mode in which these objects should be attained, and proceedings have been had, founded on the acts of Congress, that have been consequent upon these reports. And the Institution has been established, and been made most beneficially operative by a "direction," which has been careful to administer its affairs in the spirit of Congressional enactments.

The Smithsonian Institution, however, is unique in its character, and it is brought into action at a time when science is advancing beyond all precedent, and when the learned and the scientific of the Old World are demanding from the United States not merely a sympathy in their labors, but a contribution to the amount of knowledge and science with which the world has already been enriched.

With the constant demands upon the Institution, and the constant efforts to respond to these demands, it is not strange that it should be found occasionally necessary to inquire whether its administration is maintained with a constant eye to that progression which the advancement of science renders necessary, and whether every plan which was hesitatingly but carefully adopted in the establishment of the Institution is productive of the exact result which was contemplated on its formation, and whether any of its minor divisions impinge upon the more important branches, and thus diminish the means of usefulness on the whole, and delay the attainment of these objects, which are properly the end of the great establishment.

To judge correctly of such matters it is not only necessary to know what has been done by the Institution, but what was the plan of those by whom it was inaugurated, and especially it is important to compare the proceedings of the Institution with the will of its testator, and to ascertain whether what he proposed has been in any degree attained, and whether all has been done that the means supplied would allow, and whether the plans for future action are in direct conformity