its place was supplied by a fine collection of French prints. We separated about 10 o'clock; and in the morning, Mr. L took me to make some calls on the Secretaries, and to ask whether he should take me to the President's in the morning, or defer our visit till the following Wednesday evening, when a drawing-room would be held.

We first went to Mr. Crawford's, the Secretary of the Treasury, whom we found in his study. He received us very politely,

shaking hands on our entrance, and conversing on general topics during our short visit. We then proceeded to Mr. Calhoun's, the Secretary at War, who was from home, to my great regret, as all I had heard of his character had inspired me with a strong desire to see him. I recollected having sometimes read Mr. Calhoun's speeches, in the reported debates, with great interest, and will probably recollect an excellent one which I pointed out to him on the subject of usury. From Mr. Calhoun's we proceeded to Mr. Adams, the Secretary of State, and son of Mr. Adams, the second President. When we were shown into the parlour, Mrs. Adams was sitting alone; we found her very conversable, and well acquainted with England. In speaking of the cold, which

here occasionally penetrates to the very bones, she said, that a morning or two before, when Mr. Adams rose as usual to make his own fire, at 5 o'clock, (is the Secretary of State his own fire-maker, ex-officio, in England?) the thermometer stood at 6° below zero, and at Baltimore it had been 10° below. When Mr. Adams appeared, the conversation turned principally on the weather, west of the Alleghany mountains; and both Mr. L and he seemed to question its alleged superiority to the weather on the coast.

Mr. L

As you recede from the coast towards the mountains, indeed, they stated, that with respect to cold, 100 miles west were equivalent to 100 miles north. On coming away, Mrs. Adams invited us to her party in the evening, her rooms being open every Tuesday during the session of Congress. very kindly offered to accompany me if no one was going from the British minister's, where I· was to dine. At dinner there, I met Mr. Clay, who is now the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and who will probably soon be the Governor of Kentucky. He was less animated, I believe, than usual. The British Chargé d'Affaires lives in the simple, gentlemanly, and substantial style that becomes his

country. Mr. Bagot, his predecessor, was extremely popular, from his affability, and the disposition which he evinced to conform to the manners and habits of the United States. We all went in the evening to Mrs. Adams's, where I met nearly the same party as at Mr. B's the preceding night, and among others, a young lady from the North. She amused me with her observations on her first visit to Washington, and introduced me to some other young ladies, who were making their first appearance; and here I may say, that I have yet found nothing of the coldness and reserve which I was taught to expect from the American young ladies, but on the contrary great good humour and affability.

On the 12th, I spent a considerable part of the morning in the Senate. I will give you an account of the proceedings in another letter. I then went to call on Col. T, to whom I was introduced by his son, a fellow passenger in the Courier with dispatches from Mr. Rush. I also left my card on our Chargé d'Affaires and Consul-General. In the afternoon, I went to Mr. L-'s, who had asked me to dinner, on that day, on my first arrival, and who had kindly invited Mr. Crawford and Mr. Calhoun, in order to give me an opportunity of seeing a little of them in private. Mr. Walker,

the member for Georgia, some other members of Congress, and a few gentlemen from Carolina were there.

The highest class of Carolinians are, I am told, and my observation hitherto confirms the remark, men of good breeding and liberal education. They assume a superiority in these respects, over even the Virginians, and it appears to be generally conceded to them. I was in company the other day, when we were discussing the debates of the morning, and a Virginian, who was remarking, on a slight insinuation thrown out by Judge S-, one of the Senators from South Carolina, against Massachusetts, for her backwardness during the late war, observed, "I did not expect it from a Carolinian; I thought he might be dull, but being a "Carolinian, I had no doubt he was a gentleman." The conversation, during dinner, was general, Mr. Crawford explaining some peculiarities in the system of judicature in Georgia, which he considered to be practically the best in the United States; though, in theory, Mr. Calhoun observed, it was the least promising. Before dinner, I had some conversation with each of them, on the subject of domestic manufactures, for the encouragement and protection of which Mr. Crawford, I imagine, is a decided advocate.

F

I asked Mr. Crawford what was the general opinion of intelligent men in this country respecting the present state of England; he said that the general idea was, that her civil liberties were gone; that Government will be able to suppress the popular tumults, but only by a surrender, on the part of the people, of privileges which they will be unable to recover when the alarm subsides; that if part of the national debt could be extinguished by a very large incometax, or any other mode, he conceived the country might again flourish; that it is the general opinion here, that ministers will be able to rub on some time longer, notwithstanding the defalcation of the revenue; and that their consent that cash payments should be resumed, had excited universal surprise. Mr. L is favourably impressed with the resources of England, and has reported as favourably of the indications which he observed of her progressive prosperity to a period, evidently very little, if at all, anterior to the date of his visit,-Before dinner

I

gave Mr. L-the newspaper paragraph, which I am sorry occasioned you any uneasiness as to our safety. We never were spoken till to wards the end of the voyage, and then only by outward bound vessels.

The next morning I attended the house as