STATE OF MAINE.

IN SENATE, May 14, 1849.

ORDERED, That 600 copies of the foregoing Communication of the Governor, and Report of Council thereon, be printed for the use of the Senate.

ATTEST:

DANIEL T. PIKE, Secretary.

TWENTY-NINTH LEGISLATURE.

No. 2.]

[SENATE.

To the President of the Senate,

and Speaker of the House of Representatives:

I herewith transmit to you the Report of Mons. Vattemare, the Agent of Maine, for literary and scientific exchanges.

It affords me pleasure, also, to announce to you his return to our capitol, after an absence of two years, which has been devoted, in other States of the Union, to the promotion of the great object to which he has dedicated his life and fortune. When his system shall have fully developed itself, by uniting, in a social and intellectual brotherhood, all the nations of the earth, his name, by being associated with that system, will have acquired an immortality, which the most exalted rank and station well may envy.

For such an enlarged philanthropist, it is unnecessary for me to ask of the Legislature of Maine, a cordial reception and co-operation; but if aught were needed to inspire them, it would be found in the consideration, that he is the medium of kindly offices, toward us, from France, our ever steadfast friend, and now our sister Republic.

COUNCIL CHAMBER,}

May 18,

JOHN W. DANA.

Wm. T. Johnson, Printer to the State.

REPORT

ON THE

SUBJECT OF INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGE,

BY ALEXANDRE VATTEMARE.

AUGUSTA, May 18, 1849.

To His Excellency, JOHN W. DANA,

Governor of the State of Maine:

SIR: I have the honor to submit my first Report as the Agent for International Exchange for this State.

In this report will be considered

I. The action of the Federal Government of the United States in relation to Exchanges.

II. The action of the State Legislatures upon the same subject.

A development of the plan, showing the mode in which the operations of Exchange are to be conducted; its expenses; the sources upon which it relies for revenue; the advantages to trade to be expected from its full realization; and, lastly, the moral bearing of the subject.

These subjects will be treated as briefly as their clear exposition will permit; and I earnestly invoke for them, in advance, your candid and favorable consideration.

I. Upon my first visit to America, in the year 1840, I submitted to the Congress of the United States, a memorial, laying before that honorable body the outline of my system of International Exchange, and praying that its consideration might be referred to an appropriate committee, in order that such measures might be taken for its establishment as the committee, in its wisdom, should deem expedient. This memorial was presented on the 5th of February, 1840. It was referred to the joint committee on the library, which brought in a favorable report, and the following resolutions, which were unanimously adopted by both Houses :

"Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the librarian, under the superintendence of the committee on the library, be [authorized] to exchange such duplicates as may be in the library, for other books or works.

"2. That he [be authorized] in the same way to exchange docu

ments.

"3. That hereafter fifty additional copies of each volume of documents, printed by order of either House, be printed and bound for the purpose of exchange in foreign countries."

Encouraged by this liberal action on the part of Congress, I returned to France, in the expectation that the most flattering tokens of the appreciation by the American nation of the kindly feelings of the French, would follow me, and afford substantial aid in my new labors in consolidating my system on the other side of the Atlantic. But owing to the employment of the word "authorized," instead of "directed," in the resolutions, nothing was accomplished; and, after an absence of eight years, which were devoted to the collection of objects of exchange in Europe, to be distributed in America, I returned to the United States, to secure, on a broader and more permanent basis, the establishment of the system.

I either transmitted, during my absence, or brought with me on my return, a vast collection of legislative documents, scientific works, objects of art, &c., all of which were presented as tokens of esteem, good will, and brotherly feeling, by the French Executive, the Chambers of Peers and Deputies, by their excellencies the Ministers of Justice, War, Navy, Interior, Commerce and Agriculture, Public Instruction, Finances, and Public Works; by the City Council of the city of Paris; by the Academy of Sciences, the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences, and by the Museum of Natural History, as well as by the most distinguished statesmen, authors, artists, mechanicians, and private individuals of France, to the Congress; the Supreme Court of the United States; to the Departments of War, Navy, and Treasury; and to the States of Maine, Massachusetts, Vermont, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia, Ohio, Louisiana, Indiana, Michigan, Kentucky, and Texas; also to the United States Military Academy at West Point; to the cities of New-York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Baltimore; and to the Universities of Cambridge, Brown's, Brunswick, and Waterville; to the Colleges of Burlington, &c.; and finally, to the National Institute of the United States.