After ten years of debate in congress, turning partly on the question whether the government ought to accept such a bequest at all and put itself in the unprecedented position of the guardian of a ward, congress accepted the trust and created by enactment an 'establishment'

THE SMITHSONIAN BUILDING.

called by the name of the Smithsonian Institution, consisting cf the President of the United States, the Vice-President, the Chief Justice of the United States, and the members of the President's Cabinet. It has also a secretary, with varied functions, among others that of being the keeper of the museum.