authorized; but urged that it would have been impossible to carry out a comprehensive plan of improvement with the money provided, and he boldly told the committee that as the city received no taxes from the government buildings, although they comprised a large portion of the taxable property, and as those buildings had been greatly benefited by the improvements, he considered it but just that the government should assume the liabilities incurred above the amount authorized.

PART II.

THE MODERN CITY.

IN modern Washington the science and art of government is almost the only pursuit. There is very little commerce or manufacture. Here are

situated the Capitol, the seat of legislative and judicial power; the White House, the centre of executive authority; the Departments, with their bureaus and offices, constituting ganglia of nerves whose influence extends to the farthest corners of the nation.

The Capitol is the Mecca of most visitors. The best approach to it is from the Treasury by way of Pennsylvania Avenue, which gives a fine view of the structure through the mile-long vista of that noble thoroughfare.

Few public buildings have the advantage of so open and commanding a situation, and of so noble an approach. There, surmounting its grassy terraces in the midst of beautiful gardens rises the noble edifice, beautiful in its outlines, massive and grand in its proportions,- dome, statue, column, pilaster, capital, niche, pediment, cornice, entablature, balustrade, contributing each its quota to the harmony and proportion of the whole. The dome is the most conspicuous and beautiful feature. As a work of art it is unsur

passed and unsurpassable. It springs into the heavens, and rests there as lightly as a cloud. One finds it almost impossible to believe that there are four thousand tons of iron in so airy and ethereal a creation.

One can scarce comprehend at first glance the titanic proportions of the Capitol. It is in three por

tions,—representing three distinct epochs of time,a central body and two wings. The length of all is seven hundred and fifty-one feet—nearly a fifth of a mile,—and the width three hundred and twenty feet. The dome rises three hundred and seven feet above the foundation, and two hundred and eighteen feet