Alexandria Gazette

NATIONAL INSTITUTION.—Mr. Poinsett, in his recent discourse on the object and importance of a National Institution for the Promotion of Science, founded during the last year in Washington, proposes, for this object, the employment of the funds arising from the Smithsonian bequest as the best suited to carry out the benevolent intention of the testator—to increase and diffuse knowledge among men; and probably that which Mr. Smithson had himself in view; for he must be supposed to have had relation to some of the European establishments which have been so successful in promoting science and diffusing knowledge among mankind. We agree with Mr. Poinsett that the Museum of Natural History at the Garden of Plants in Paris is the best model for such an establishment, with the single addition of an observatory and a professor of astronomy.