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XL     JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS.

the organizer of the Smithsonian Institution, entertained the settled opinion that its operations "should be mingled as little as possible with those of the Government;" that the funds of the Institution, being specifically devoted by the terms of Smithson's bequest to a prescribed object, should not be diverted to other objects, and that consequently the activities of the Secretary should not be engrossed by other engagements which, from their nature or from the administrative cares incident to their management, might be judged to impair the distinctive singleness and highest efficiency of the Institution in laboring for "the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men." He also held that the necessity laid upon the Institution of making annual appeals to Congress for the support and extension of adjuncts not essential to the conduct of its own special operations is a necessity which should be avoided as far as practicable in the interests of a dignified and single-minded administration of the Smithson trust; and hence he thought it desirable that some more definite distinction should be made between the Smithsonian Institution and the National Museum, if on the whole it should be judged best to retain them under a common jurisdiction. His own judgment inclined in favor of their entire separation. In the presence of additional engagements so vast, multiform, and important as those involved in the conduct of the Fish Commission, it is obvious that these opinions of Professor Henry would have gained an added emphasis.

The late Secretary, Professor Baird, while acquiescing in the strict views of Professor Henry with regard to the precise terms of the Smithsonian bequest, and while faithfully working, within the proper sphere of the Smithsonian Institution, on the general lines laid down by his predecessor, did not, it is presumed, entirely share Professor Henry's opinions as to the reflex influence and effect exerted by the adjuncts in question upon the normal function and legitimate fame of the Smithsonian Institution. Endowed with a wonderful capacity for administrative detail, and capable of inspiring his subordinates with the enthusiam in their work and with loyalty to their official chief, he doubtless saw in these manifold adjuncts of the Institution only so many auxiliaries to its beneficent design ("the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men"), and therefore only so many additional accessories to its usefulness and glory.

Set as your committee are to execute the will of the Regents and not at all to define the scope or policy of the Institution, it would obviously be impertinent on our part to essay any prejudgments on the questions that may be raised by the existing attitude of the Institution considered in the kind or degree of its relations to the National Museum, to the Bureau of Ethnology, and to the Fish Commission. the former two of these adjuncts are parts and parcel of our jurisdiction, while the latter from its inception was placed under the responsible management of the late Secretary, and is now under the direction fo Assistant Secretary Goode.