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SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION
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tonight's mail.

I have had time to study the opinion only a little. In my judgment the opinion, while to be regarded as not determinative of our rights, is necessarily a "set-back," because no one Judge dissents. 

I regard the chances of reversing this decision to be fairly good. The case is so complicated that it demands very strict application on the part of the Judge who writes the opinion. I shall make every effort to have the case reached at Albany at the earliest possible moment. 

After a little deliberation and some communication with Mr. Wetmore I shall be prepared to give you a little more precisely what in our opinion is the effect of the decision, and the chances of our succeeding.

I may repeat here, since you have succeeded Mr. Langley, that I have always regarded the case as an extremely difficult one. The fact that the Court has kept it for advisement for nearly a year, shows that the Court also considers it a difficult case. 

Mr. Wetmore has been most diligent and able in his presentation of the argument. We shall take great pleasure in doing our very best to secure to the Institution that benefit of this alternative bequest. I think that it belongs to the Smithsonian Institution, because the Andrews will is not legally made. Had Mrs. Andrews lived for some time after her husband's death, these questions could not have arisen, probably, except possibly as to the provision of the statute of New York, which prohibits a testator having a wife from giving more than half of his estate to a

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