Mr. jo. I could not see last year what the necessity was of appointing an agent to go about and collect statistics in the mining country, and how he could do it better there than by the returns that were made on the subject to the different Depts here. It looked to me very much like creating a place for somebody to do something. I congress I do not understand the matter so well as my honorable friendfrom California, because he is there upon the spot; but it did not impress itself upon my mind with very much force as a good way to get at it to have a agent to collect statistics, at an expense of $10,000 a year, and constantly growing; $10,000 last year, $25,000 next. How many agents does the honorable Senator propose to have? How many men are to be employed in this business of collecting statis tics? Is $25,000 to pay for one, or is he to have a corps of assts? Is this to grow up into a bureau? It seems to be constantly !rowing. The appropriation is more than i.what was proposed last year. I should like to know a little more about it. I confess it does not strike me favorably., Mr. CONNESS. Mr. President, it is an unfortunate circumstance that a statesman of the character, reputation, and ability of the honorable Senfrom Maine should so regard a question affecting one of the greatest interests of his country. I do not say this except in a literal sense; it is a matter of real regret with me. I have said to gentlemen on this side of the continent again and again that if they would go from this side to the other side of the continent and ascertain by personal experience how big a country they have, get a glimpse of its interests, its resources, catch the inspiration of its necessities, the effect would be to at least relieve us who come from that distant region, endeavoring to rePresent it and make known its wants here. I was much pleased this year at the beginning of our session to meet the honorable Senfrom Ohio, [Mr. SHERMAN,) who is always exact, always thorough, always intelligent in his statesmanship, but from whom we of that distant region had met rather eco nomical action, and to hear him say that he had gone out into the West since the last adjournment of Congress, gone to the Rocky mountains, to Denver, and that he came back with an imPression widened beyond measure as compared with that with which he went there. if I could only prevail upon my honorable friendfrom Maine to come to our country during some of the vacations, there is nothing in the world that would please us so well as to give him a welcome there, to make him acquainted with that country, with its necessi ties, with its great facts. He would not after that ask me here to tell him whether one agent or 2 or ten should be employed in collecting statistics of mines and mining; but seeing would give him the whole case. Now, Mr. President, he makes himself acquainted as he remains here at the center of the civilization of the continent with our productions as they come from the Mint with the stamp of the Government upon them. When they assume that shape he is very glad to hear of the millions; but his mind is hardly ever now carried to the 1000s and 100s of 1000s who are delving to produce those millions. A knowledge of them, of the means by which the grand result is produced, is not spread abroad here. Who can oppose the collection and diffusion of such facts? Sir, if I were seeking to get a grab at the Treasury here in behalf of the country I reepresent I should be ashamed of myself. In regard to this very proposition, it will be remembered that when the honorable Senfrom Nevada [Mr. STEwART] and myself came here we at once stopped an appropriation that nobody took any notice of that was being made annu ally, that had entered into the estimates to the extent of $15,000 for the interior Dept, connected with investigations concerning mining, and which never profited the Government a copper. We saw that it was wasted and thrown away, and we caused the appropriation to be stricken out. Application after application has been made to me as a Senfrom the Pacific coast, since I came here, to aid in the establishment of what is called a mining bureau at Washington. The newspapers in my country have taken it up and they have demanded it year after year. The honorable Senfrom Nevada has once introduced a bill for the establishment of it, and that bill was referred to the ComMining. I will say now, openly in the Senate, what I said to him connected with that bill and that proposition, no matter whence it came. As a Senator rePresenting the Pacific coast, and feeling a deep and abiding interest in mining, I would favor the establishment of a mining bureau in Washington as much as I would a pest house near my dwelling. To duplicate some of your bureaus in Washington and give it official charge of the business of mining, to be controlled by men who know nothing bout it, who perhaps never saw a mine,; who should have official authority to speak for mines and mining and miners, always, in m opinion, threatened the mines and mining with the greatest possible danger. Besides, as was suggested by the honorable Senfrom Maine, once established it would grow into an institution remarkable for the worthless and volumine us publications that would go out from it and the amount of money that would be spent in giving them publicity, and in the payment of chiefs and clerks and various other dependents. I never felt like spending the public money for the purpose of establishing an institution of that kind. And I beg the honorable Senfrom Maine to believe that we only suggest what we know by our experience will tend to the public good, and that we make these recommendations in the public behalf. I now repeat publicly the invitation I have extended to foil. the Senator in private, to come out and See us: FESSENDEN. I should like very much to do it.