pirated editions would make their appearance without his having it in his power to suppress them, There is at least a semblance of good policy in most of the American statutes respecting foreigners, and by some of them considerable advantages are offered to emigrants, but the framers of this law seem to have regarded quilldrivers as a race by no means likely to increase the energies or resources of the nation; and therefore as an effectual barrier to the importation of such learned lumber, they have rendered them incapable of benefiting themselves or even of earning a subsistence by their peculiar art, for two years after their arrival, proclaiming all that they may produce during this period to be lawful prey to depredators of every kind. The same law applies to patents.

The navy yard, which is about a mile south east of the Capitol, occupies nearly forty acres of ground on the margin of a small inlet of the eastern branch of the river. Before visiting it I had neglected to

and was printed, published, and sold on Tuesday, within 28 hours after the same was received. Another English copy of the same work was received per the Custom House, New York, at Twelve o'clock on Wednesday-at One o'clock forwarded to Philadelphia by the mail. In Philadelphia it was printed on Thursday, and on Friday 2000 copies were put in boards by Six o'clock in the morning The English copy of Moore's Loves of the Angels was taken out of the Custom House in New York on a Monday in February last, at Eleven o'clock A. M.; was immediately sent to Philadelphia, and 250 copies of the work printed were received at New York on Thursday following by Eight o'clock A. M. and the same copies were sold and circulated that afternoon."

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provide myself with an introduction to the commanding officer, and reached the gate before I recollected that this would be necessary. As the only remaining chance, I walked boldly past the sentinel hoping to get in unchallenged; ere I had gone many paces, however, the serjeant of the guard hailed me, and having ascertained that I was an interloper ordered me to turn. I made no remonstrance, but observing at a short distance from the gate a marble monument, I asked and obtained permission to inspect it. It proved to be a monument to the memory of some American naval officers, who fell several years ago in an attack on Tripoli. It consists of a column upon a square base, surmounted with an eagle and surrounded by allegorical figures as large as life. The shaft of the column bears the beak and stern of three vessels of the antique form, projecting from it at equal distances from each other. The figures are allegorical of History, Fame, Commerce, and America. History is in the act of recording on her tablet the heroic achievements of the departed warriors; Fame has mounted upon the base to crown them with laurel; Mercury carrying the cornucopiæ, as the representative of Commerce, bewails their untimely fate; and Columbia, a beautiful female decorated with feathers, is pointing two little chubby boys, one of whom carries the Roman fasces, to the commemorative device. On the front of the base is a sculptured basso relievo

representation of the bombardment. The other three sides are occupied with inscriptions; one contains the names of those who fell, another intimates that the monument was erected by their brother officers, and on the third is inscribed

FAME HAS CROWNED THEIR DEEDS,
HISTORY RECORDS THE EVENT,

THE CHILDREN OF COLUMBIA ADMIRE,
AND COMMERCE LAMENTS THEIR FALL.

This last inscription is, to say the least of it, superfluous, for the art of the sculptor is worth nothing if it cannot suggest the same ideas more expressively than words. The monument was executed in Italy and is very beautiful, but the spectator regrets to observe that the fingers of some of the figures have been broken off. We are not left in doubt as to the perpetrators of this outrage, for a small square tablet bears the mortifying information—

MUTILATED

BY BRITONS,

25TH AUGUST, 1814.

This inscription might also have been spared. It is not at all improbable that some of our soldiers, in the wantonness of victory, may have been the guilty individuals, for the monuments in Westminster Abbey abundantly manifest the propensity which prevails in the inferior classes of our country

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men to similar acts of vandalism; many of the smaller figures there, have been deprived not only of their fingers, but of their heads, and the real cause of wonder with respect to this one is, not that so much but that so little mischief was done. The person who ordered the inscription, however, should have reflected that it immediately suggests the question "How came Britons' to be here?" and it is possible, if the answer to this question is followed up by others which naturally occur, that the disgrace of allowing the fingers to be taken off, might eventually appear to be at least as great as that of having done it. A few years hence, nothing could have been seen in Washington to remind a visitor of its having been once in an enemy's hands, but so long as this monument remains in its present state, the humiliating fact is conspicuously recorded.

Postscript, February, 1819.

A second visit to this city has given me an opportunity of visiting Congress, which was not in session when I was here formerly.

The Senate and House of Representatives meet at present in plain brick buildings close by the Capitol, where temporary halls have been fitted up for them. The galleries of both houses are open to every person; I found in them auditors of every description, workmen without their coats in one place, and elegantly dressed females in an

other. The utmost quietness and decorum however prevailed.

The President of the Senate wears no costume; he appeared in a blue coat with gilt buttons, and occupied a plain elbow chair with a small canopy over it. Each senator has a writing desk before him, and many of them were either writing letters or reading newspapers. They were all in plain dresses, and many wore jockey boots.

I found the Senate discussing the propriety of making compensation to a British subject in Upper Canada, for a small vessel which had been captured by an American cruiser on Lake Ontario, before the declaration of war. The vessel had been sold, and the proceeds paid to the clerk of one of the Districts of the State of New York, to await the decision of a court; the court decided that the capture was illegal and ordered restitution, but in the mean time the clerk had become a defaulter

and eloped. A bill had in consequence been brought into the Senate, containing a provision for making good to the owner of the vessel the sum which he had thus lost. Various individuals spoke shortly on both sides of the question. Some opposed the bill, on the footing that the individual aggrieved ought to have recourse upon the legal securities of the District Clerk, and said that it would be giving to a British subject an advantage which would not have been conceded to a citizen of the United States. I had however the pleasure