The subject was at this time considered by the Committee on Foreign Relations, aided by the Secretary of State, who laid before the Committee all the original papers relating to the proceedings of the Commissioners. In a communication to the Committee,[123] Mr. Seward stated the case as he understood it, recognizing “the refunding of the whole amount to the Chinese” as one of the methods which “suggest themselves.” This was in the summer of 1862, at the most critical period of the war for the suppression of the Rebellion, and the Committee did not feel disposed at that time to make any recommendation with regard to the fund. Meanwhile the disposition of this fund was discussed elsewhere. Our distinguished representative in China, Mr. Burlingame, entered upon it with characteristic ardor. Regarding the fund as essentially Chinese in character, if not belonging in equity to China, he urged that it should be devoted to the foundation of an institution of learning at Peking, which he proposed to call The American College, or _Ta-Mei Kwoh Hioh-kung_: first, to teach Americans the language and literature of China, so as to fit them to be interpreters and consuls; and, secondly, to educate Chinese in English studies and in their own literature, with a view to employment by their own rulers or by the United States. The usefulness and practicability of such a college were developed in two elaborate dispatches,--one bearing date Shanghai, May 19, 1862,[124] and the other, Peking, November 18, 1863,[125] in the course of which Mr. Burlingame said that he was “disposed to urge the adoption of this proposal more with a reference to the benefit such a college would be to the Chinese than to ourselves.”[126] Not content with thus declaring his desire to make this fund of benefit to them, he says, “In equity the balance appears to belong to the Chinese, but they have no voice in its disposal.”[127] His eloquent appeal has thus far been without effect. Nothing has been done to carry out his recommendation, and the question still remains, What to do with the fund?