SMITH SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 123 UUJ 2 re
1832 to 1844, and also of the Louisville con- vention at which was organized the Methodist Episcopal church, South, and of every general conference of this body until his death. From 1846 to 1866 he was president of Randolph Macon college, and during this period not only filled the chair of moral science and presided over the college, hut lectured extensively in Virginia and North Carolina. In the autumn of 1866 he was transferred to the St. Louis conference, and in 1869 was chosen president of Central university, Missouri. He was for a time editor of the Richmond " Christian Advocate," and published "Lectures on the Philosophy of Slavery " (Richmond, 1860), a defence of the institution as it existed in the uthern states. SMITH, Sir William Sidney, an English admi- born at Midgham, Sussex, in 1764, died in aris, May 26, 1840. He entered the navy at the age of 12, and before he was 20 was post captain, serving to the close of the American war. He subsequently participated in the war between Sweden and Russia as a captain in the Swedish service. Afterward, in command of a small English flotilla, he harassed French commerce in the channel, but in April, 1796, was captured by a superior force and confined in the prison of the Temple in Paris. The French government refused to exchange him, but he escaped by French aid after an impris- onment of two years. In 1798 he was put in command of a squadron to operate against the French on the coast of Egypt, and conducted the memorable defence of St. Jean d'Acre against Gen. Bonaparte. He signed a treaty with Gen. Kleber for the evacuation of Egypt by the French, which was disavowed by the British government ; and he continued to par- ticipate in the war until compelled by wounds to return to England in 1801. He afterward returned to service, and at the close of the ar received a pension of 1,000. In 1821 he as made an admiral. He was an early advo- cate of the abolition of the slave trade. Me- moirs of his " Life and Times " were written by Sir John Barrow (2 vols., London, 1847). SMITHSON, James, an English physicist, foun- der of the Smithsonian institution, born about 1765, died in Genoa, June 27, 1829. He was a natural son of Hugh, third duke of North- umberland, and Mrs. Elizabeth Macie, heiress of the Hungerfords of Audley, and niece of Charles, duke of Somerset. In 1786 he took the honorary degree of A. M. at Oxford, under the name of James Lewis Macie, but between 1791 and 1803 adopted the name of Smithson, the family name of his father. At the univer- sity he distinguished himself as a chemist, and was one of the first to adopt the method of minute analysis. He became the friend and associate of Wollaston, Banks, and Davy, and in 1787 was elected a fellow of the royal soci- ety and contributed eight papers to its " Trans- actions." His papers subsequent to 1818 were published in the " Annals of Philosophy " and other scientific periodicals. At his death he left about 200 manuscripts, probably intended to form portions of a philosophical dictionary. He bequeathed to his nephew 120,000, the whole of his property, which fn case of the death of the latter without heirs was to go to the government of the United States to found at Washington, under the name of the Smith- sonian institution, an establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge. (See SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION.) SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, a scientific estab- lishment in Washington, D. C., organized by act of congress in August, 1846, to carry into effect the provisions of the will of James Smith- son. The condition on which the bequest was to take effect in favor of the United States having occurred in 1835, by the death of a nephew of the testator without issue, the Hon. Richard Rush was sent to London to prose- cute the claim. On Sept. 1, 1838, he deposit- ed in the United States mint the proceeds in English sovereigns, which amounted to $515,- 169. Suggestions were invited by the presi- dent as to the mode of disposing of the fund, which was in the mean time lent to Arkansas and other states to aid in internal improve- ments. The first section of the act of 1846, passed after several years' discussion of con- flicting plans, creates an establishment" for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men, to consist of the president and vice pres- ident of the United States, the several mem- bers of the cabinet, the chief justice of the supreme court, the commissioner of the pat- ent office, and the mayor of Washington, du- ring their respective terms of office, with such other persons as these may elect honorary members of the institution. The second de- clares the original fund to be lent in perpetu- ity to the treasury of the United States at 6 per cent., payable semi-annually ; appropriates the interest from Sept. 1, 1838, when the money was received, to July 1, 1846, amount- ing to $242,129, or so much thereof as might be necessary, for the erection of buildings, and other current incidental expenses ; and provides that all expenditures and appropria- tions shall in future be made exclusively from the accruing interest and not from the princi- pal of the fund. By the third section a board of managers is constituted, under the name of " Regents of the Smithsonian Institution," to be composed of the vice president of the United States, the chief justice, the mayor of Wash- ington, three members of the senate and three of the house of representatives, to be select- ed by the president and speaker thereof, with six other persons not members of congress, of whom two shall be resident in the city of Washington and the other four inhabitants of the United States, but no two of the same state. This board is required to elect one of its members as presiding officer, to be styled the chancellor of the institution, and also a suitable person to act as secretary both of the institu-
