EPISTLE VII.

ΤΟ

THOMAS HUME, ESQ. M. D.

TO

THOMAS HUME, ESQ. M.D.

FROM THE CITY OF WASHINGTON.

ΔΙΗΓΗΣΟΜΑΙ ΔΙΗΓΗΜΑΤΑ ΙΣΩΣ ΑΠΙΣΤΑ, ΚΟΙΝΩΝΑ ΩΝ ΠΕΠΟΝΘΑ ΟΥΚ ΕΧΩΝ,

XENOPHONT. Ephes. Ephesiac. Lib. v.

"Tis evening now; the heats and cares of day
In twilight dews are calmly wept away.
The lover now, beneath the western star,
Sighs through the medium of his sweet segar,
And fills the ears of some consenting she
With puffs and vows, with smoke and constancy!
The weary statesman for repose hath fled
From halls of council to his negro's shed,

Where blest he woos some black Aspasia's grace, And dreams of freedom in his slave's embrace * !

In fancy now, beneath the twilight gloom,

Come, let me lead thee o'er this modern Rome +!
Where tribunes rule, where dusky Davi bow,
And what was Goose-Creek once is Tiber now!—
This fam'd metropolis, where Fancy sees
Squares in morasses, obelisks in trees;
Which travelling fools and gazetteers adorn
With shrines unbuilt and heroes yet unborn,

*The "black Aspasia" of the present ********* of the United States, "inter Avernales haud ignotissima nymphas❞ has given rise to much pleasantry among the anti-democrat wits in America.

+ "On the original location of the ground now allotted for the seat of the Federal City (says Mr. Weld) the identical spot on which the capitol now stands was called Rome. This anecdote is related by many as a certain prognostic of the future magnificence of this city, which is to be, as it were, a second Rome." Weld's Travels, Letter iv.

A little stream runs through the city, which, with intolerable affectation, they have styled the Tiber. It was originally called Goose-Creek.

Though nought but wood * and

*********

they see,

Where streets should run and sages ought to be!

"To be under the necessity of going through a deep wood for one or two miles, perhaps, in order to see a nextdoor neighbour, and in the same city, is a curious and I believe a novel circumstance." Weld, Letter iv.

The Federal City (if it must be called a city) has not been much increased since Mr. Weld visited it. Most of the public buildings, which were then in some degree of forwardness, have been since utterly suspended. The Hotel is already a ruin; a great part of its roof has fallen in, and the rooms are left to be occupied gratuitously by the miserable Scotch and Irish emigrants, The President's House, a very noble structure, is by no means suited to the philosophical humility of its present possessor, who inhabits but a corner of the mansion himself and abandons the rest to a state of uncleanly desolation, which those who are not philosophers cannot look at without regret. This grand edifice is encircled by a very rude pale, through which a common rustic stile introduces the visitors of the first man in America. With respect to all that is within the house, I shall imitate the prudent forbearance of Herodotus, and say, тa de ev añоppпtw.

The private buildings exhibit the same characteristic display of arrogant speculation and premature ruin, and the few ranges of houses which were begun some years ago have remained so long waste and unfinished, that they are now for the most part dilapidated.