Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, Transmitted to Congress, With the Annual Message of the President, December 2, 1878

No. 119.
Mr. Evarts to Mr. Noyes.

Department of State,
Washington, June 10, 1878.

No. 58.]

Sir: Referring to your dispatch No. 92, I have to inform you that the communication of Dr. William E. Johnston, which accompanied it, in regard to a meeting of the commission of international exchanges and the exchange of scientific publications, having been submitted to the Smithsonian Institution, a letter has been received from Mr. Baird, the Secretary thereof, a copy of which is herewith inclosed, describing the Institution’s present system of exchanging documents and suggesting that in exchanging publications with France you shall act as agent.

I would be pleased to receive from you any suggestions which you may have to offer with reference to what is proposed by Mr. Baird.

I am, &c.,

WM. M. EVARTS.

[Inclosure in No. 58.]

Professor Baird to Mr. Evarts.

Smithsonian Institution,
Washington, D. C., June 3, 1878.

Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of May 15, inclosing a communication from W. E. Johnston, M. D., in reference to the subject of international exchanges between the United States and France.

In reply, I beg to inform you that this Institution has for a number of years been charged by Congress with the duty of exchanging its official publications and those of the various departments of the United States Government for similar publications of foreign governments, France among the number.

This Institution has also, for a still longer period, maintained a much more comprehensive and extensive system of communication between learned societies and specialists of the New World and those of the Old; receiving serial and other publications from South and Central America, the West Indies, and the British Provinces of North America, as well as those of the United States, and transmitting them through its agents abroad, these, in turn, receiving any parcels from the countries represented by them for transmission to any portion of America, likewise through the Smithsonian Institution.

An especial element in the Smithsonian system of international exchanges consists in the employment of a number of agents in different portions of Europe, a list of whom is herewith inclosed. It will be seen that the agent of France is Mr. Gustav Bossange, a well-known bookseller of Paris.

It will be entirely agreeable, to the Smithsonian Institution to adopt any plan of communication between the United States and France that may be considered an improvement upon the present, although it could not now undertake to assume any responsibility beyond that of taking charge of official publications interchanged between the two governments, and of any parcels addressed to scientific individuals and institutions.

If the Department of State will instruct the American minister at Paris to serve as agent in these transactions it will be, probably, an improvement upon the present system, which we shall be happy to see carried into effect.

I am, &c.,

SPENCER F. BAIRD,
Secretary Smithsonian Institution.