AMERICA'S DEBT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 147, 23 June 1934, Page 7 (Supplement)

AMERICA'S DEBT.

TO BRITISH SCIENTIST.

THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTE,

HUNDRED-YEAR-OLD-MYSTERY.

(By n Special Correspondent.)

NEW, YORK, May 20,

Recently the society columns noted the fact that the Duchess of Northumberland and her two daughters had departed for their homeland, following a brief stay in the United States.

Their titles, the heritage of the family for more than 150 years, remain an ironical reflection on the stern avowal of a countryman long dead and quite forgotten. Yet, of such consequence was this Englishman to the then youthful United States of America that'lie precipitated a debate among the lawmakers in Washington which lasted sporadically for nearly 12 years.

Picture, if you will, a warmish May morning in Washington, in the year 18.JG. Amid a babble of argumentative voices in a chamber of tho temporary eapitol building, speaks John C. Calhoun.

"If the gentleman wlio has just addressed the Senate will allow my voice to be added to his protest, I will say that I agree with him. It is too cheap a way of conferring immortality! Let that be a mutual opinion, and I will go further —I say that it is beneath the dignity of these United States to receive presents of this kind, from anyone!" The uproar of protest and accord grows louder, to be silenced, only after minutes, by VicePresident Calhoun's gavel. Mr. Calhoun's protests were unavailing, and, dignity or no, in September, IS3B, tho clipper ship Mediator entered an American harbour with £104,000 in gold sovereigns aboard, destined for the United States mint in Philadelphia. This gold was recoiued by tho treasurer into 508,318.40 dollars, a vast sum even today, but, 100 years ago, comparable, perhaps, to something like 50,000,000 dollars.

Gift of James Smithson. The money was a gift io tho United Stages from an Englishman 'named James Smithson, tho "natural" son," as the International Encyclopaedia puts it, of Hugh Smithson, the first Duke of Northumberland. James Smithson never visited America, and, so far as all records show, had no friend, relative or other living reason in the United States for tlieso words in bis will, made public at his death in 1529: "I bequeath the whole of my property ... to tho United States of America, to found at Washington, under the name of the Smithsonian Institution, an establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge aniong men." What was the touch of irony contributed to tho story, of James Smithson by tho visit, a few weeks ago, of the present Duchess of Northumberland and lier daughters? Why did lie, a Briton, voluntarily donate a half-million dollars to tho founding of a vast scientific and educational organisation in this country? In a separate section of his will, James Smithson describes himself: "Son to Hugh, first Duke of Northumberland, and Elizabeth, heiress of the Hungerfords of Studley, nieco to Charles the Proud, Duke of Somerset." Thus he establishes the circumstances of his own birth, for Elizabeth Keatc Macic, member of the Hunger ford family, was not tho wife of Hugh Smithson. And, later, in tho same document, he pronounces: "My namo shall live in the memory of man when the titles of Northumberlands and Percys are. cxtinet and forgotten." That tlioso titles still stand, despite this proud claim, is as apparent as the fact that, although almost anyone can describe the Smithsonian Institution as a national instrument of scientific and educational endeavour, few'know (lie origin of its name or iho story of the man who made it possible.

James Smithson was born in France, in 17G5, whither his mother had fled to escape inevitable punishment for his inception while she was a guest on his noble father's estate. The English Court I at that period was in a virtuous mood, and all was righteousness and wrath. He was given the name of James Lewis Macic —whether the namo was. a mythical one, or whether it came from a hasty marriage of convenience, is not definitely known. One encyclopaedic source describes Elizabeth Keatc as "tho widow of James Macic, a country gentleman of an old family." Recognised as Scientist. After the Duchess died, and while Smithson was yet a child, his father brought him back to England to receive a' gentleman's education. It was some time after his graduation from Oxford, probably about 1800, that Parliament granted* him the right to use his father's name, Smithson, whereupon he dropped tho name of ]\lacie. TTiis father's title, however, went to his half-brother, Lord Percy, tho same Lord Percy who led the British forccs in tho battle of Bunker Hill during the American Revolution.

James Smithson became a recognised scientist, a Fellow of the Royal Society. Beudant, French mineralogist, named his zinc carbonate, "Sinif.lisonite," after his colleague. Opinions vary as to Smithson's capabilities; one modern scientific writer says that his theories were not new but considered to be the most lucid demonstrations of theoretical science of that time. It is known, however, that he wrote and published some 28 scientific papers on various subjects, running tile gamut from mineralogy to a truly extraordinary topic, the analysis of a woman's tears. Perhaps it is this last subject which causes British works of reference to maintain that Smithson made his bequest to the United States "in a fit of pique at the Royal Society's rejection of a paper which ho had submitted in 1826."

He died at Genoa, Italy, oti Juno 27, 1829, without having married. Apparently, the vast bulk of his estate came to him from his father.

These are tlie main known facts about .Tames Smitlison, tlie facts that are substantiated by the Smithsonian Institution's owij investigations. But nobody knows just why this nineteenth century scientist should have left his property to a foreign country. History hazards a guess, "that a sense of wrong in the illegitimacy of his birth alienated him from his native land," and, from another writer, "that lie felt he must create for himself a position which liis birth bad denied him." A Romantic Reason. Louise Wallace Hackney, in a recent book, "Wing of Fame," which is a fictionisod biography of the life of James Smitlison, develops an entirely new and plausible surmise as to the reason for the gift—his meeting with nn American girl in.Europe, their love affair, and a brief marriage which is terminated liv her accidental death during dm fiaviige turmoil of the French devolution. While admitting this theory to be purely imaginary, Miss Hackney

maintains that it is "humanly logical, as such gifts as Smithson's usually have more than an 'intellectual' reason."

Long ago, the United States Treasury borrowed the full amount of the original bequest, on which it pays perpetual interest at the rate of G per cent. Other gifts have been added, both in property and money, until now the Smithsonian Institution is worth about 130,000,000 dollars. Congress appropriates about 1,500,000 dollars a year for it.

To the people of the United States, it is their British Museum and Louvre in one. Under its jurisdiction are the National Museum of Art, the Freer Gallery of Art, as well as the National Zoological Park and the innumerable exhibitions housed 011 its own buildings —the nation's treasures, such as Lindbergh's "Spirit of St. Louis," the original of the "Star Spangled Banner," Professor Morse's first telegraph instruments and Franklin's printing press. It is the parent of the weather bureau through the original meteorological and astronomical studies of its own staff. Two million people visit the institution yearly, and 10,000 more correspond with it. In some parts of the world a letter from it is more influential than a Government passport. ,

Whether the Smithsonian Institution exists to-day because James Smitlison made his beau goste in a lit of pique, or was antagonistic toward his own country through the unfortunate circumstanecs of his birth, or whether it stands because, from the romantic but equally plausible point of view, one spring day he met and loved a little American girl, the truth never will be known. And were it not for the efforts of loyal biographers who believe that the generosity of the man is worthy of permanent record, James Smithson's name might soon lie lost in the vastness of hits own creation.— (N.A.N.A.)