general government, is placed under the immediate control of Congress. It would have been inconsistent with the American character, had the original plan of the future metropolis not been framed on a scale of gigantic magnitude. A parallelogram, nearly five miles in length, and more than two in breadth, was at once parcelled out with pleasing regularity into streets, squares, and avenues, and preparations were fondly made for the rapid growth of a city, compared with which London would dwindle into a village. In short, nothing could be more splendid than Washington on paper, and nothing more entirely the reverse of splendid than the real city, when at wide intervals a few paltry houses were seen to arise amid the surrounding forest.

This

The founders of Washington imagined it would become the seat of a large foreign commerce. expectation has been disappointed. Washington has no trade of any kind, and there is at present no prospect of its ever possessing any. Its only hopes are now founded on its advantages as the seat of government, which must secure to it the benefit arising

30

APPEARANCE OF WASHINGTON.

from the expenditure of a large diplomatic body, and of those immediately connected with the executive government.

Many years have passed since the foundation of Washington, and it has at length begun to assume something of the appearance of a city. It is not easy, however, to detect in its present aspect any thing of that system and regularity so delightful in the scheme of its founders. Instead of commencing this gigantic undertaking at a central point, it was considered most judicious to begin at the extremities, and build inward from the circumference. The consequence has been, that there is perhaps no city in the world of the same population, in which the distances to be traversed in the ordinary intercourse of society are so large. The most glaring want in Washington is that of compactness and consistency. The houses are scattered in straggling groups, three in one quarter, and half a dozen in another; and ever and anon our compassion is excited by some disconsolate dwelling, the first and last born of a square or crescent yet in nubibus, suffering like an ancient

IMPRESSIONS OF THE CITY.

31

maiden in the mournful solitude of single blessed

ness.

The

There is nothing sordid in Washington, but nothing, at the same time, which claims a higher praise than is implied in the epithet respectable. chief street of the city is called Pennsylvania Avenue, and extends from the Capitol to the President's house, a distance, which I guessed in walking it to be about a mile and a half. Near to the latter of these buildings are the public offices, unadorned edifices of brick, with nothing about them which it would be very easy either to censure or admire. In this quarter also are the houses of the foreign ministers, and generally of the members of the Cabinet, so that its claims to being the Court end are undeniable.

On the morning after my arrival, having despatched my letters, I returned to the Capitol, where I passed the morning very agreeably in the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Speaker of the latter, and the Vice-President of the United States, who presides in the former,-to both of whom I had the honour to be the bearer of introductions,were obliging enough to grant me the privilege of

32

THE REPRESENTATIVES.

entré to the body of the house, so that during my stay in Washington I enjoyed the advantage of being able to listen to the debates without any of the jostling and inconvenience often unavoidable in the gallery.

I have already described the hall of the Representatives: I would now say something of the members. Their aspect as a body was certainly somewhat different from any idea I had formed of a legislative assembly. Many were well dressed, and of appearance sufficiently senatorial to satisfy the utmost demands even of a severer critic in such matters than I pretend to be. But a large proportion undoubtedly struck me as vulgar and uncouth, in a degree which nothing in my previous experience had prepared me to expect. It is impossible to look on these men without at once receiving the conviction, that they are not gentlemen by habit or education, and assuredly in no society in Europe could they be received as such.

Each member is furnished with a desk, and a considerable number are usually engaged during the progress of public business in writing letters, or

fin nome diske

HALL OF THE SENATE.

33

reading newspapers. Generally speaking, great decorum prevails in debate. Neither cheering, nor interruption of any kind, is permitted, and it is rare that any strenuous exercise of the Speaker's authority is demanded for the preservation of order. There have been occasions, however, on which the violent passions excited by antagonism of opinion, combined with personal dislike, have led to scenes perhaps unprecedented in any other deliberative assembly in the world. But the course of debate, though often troubled and vehement, is rarely violent, and the moral sense of propriety entertained by the majority of the House, is practically found to operate as a sufficient restraint on the irritable passions of individuals.

The hall of the Senate is a good deal smaller than that of the Representatives, and is very elegantly fitted up. It is likewise in the form of a semicircle, with desks at convenient distances for the members who sit uncovered. The President's chair is in the centre, and the office of this functionary—so far at least as it is connected with the maintenance of order-I should imagine to be something of a sine