apprentice at Smyrna; and to-day granted my request to take a copy of one, written, as they all are, in Italian, in which he communicates his ideas of this federal domain, or city, as it is called, propter dignitatem, I suppose, together with a narrative of the mishaps that lately befel him in the sylvan suburbs of Washington. As you will have received before this the letter* containing my views of this singular capital, I shall present my fellow traveller's without comment; observing only, that I have no other reason for believing his narrative to be fabulous, (as it is all very possible,) than that with the fancy and vivacity of an ancient Greek, and all a traveller's prejudices, he does not unite a Turk's deliberation; but notwithstanding a total ignorance of mankind, and indeed of every thing, except half a dozen different languages that seem to be equally familiar to him, he commonly marches straight forward on his conclusions, and seizes them by storm, without the least regard to the ordinary process of getting to them by a course of reasoning. The truth is, that the foundations of this federal city have not been laid under prosperous auspices; and it is the only part of the United States of America I have ever seen on the decline. Commenced on a huge, unwieldy scale, in a district occupied by slave-holders, without the habits of industry or the spring of commerce, instead of rising like Carthage, instans operi, regnisque futuris, the enormous joints fall asunder before they can be well knit together; and the symptoms of premature dilapida

* This letter must have miscarried or been suppressed, as it does not appear.....E.

tion appear when the implements of construction are not yet taken away. A few scattered hamlets, many miles remote from each other, compose all that has arisen of the promised metropolis; while as many vast half-finished piles of building, at great distances apart, from commanding eminences, frown desolate and despairing on the dreary wastes that separate and environ them. Till lately the city was thickly wooded, and the American Numa might woo his Egeria in a hundred groves. But much of this

ornament has been cut down for fuel, leaving, however, enough for shooting grounds to amuse those addicted to sports of the field. Not more than 7,000 souls are computed as the population, spread over an immense area. Of these probably one half are blacks; and most of the remainder members of congress, clerks, servants, innkeepers, or in some way appurtenant to the government, prepared to follow its fortunes, if necessary, to the banks of the Missouri, or the coast of California.

FROM CARAVAN.

Dated at the federal city of Washington, in the district of Columbia, state of Maryland, one of the United States in North America.

IN my last, which I have not yet had an opportunity of sending, I discussed the merits of the American government; a subject new to me, and upon which, therefore, my reflections may not be conclusive: though I must say, the more I see and think, the fuller is my conviction, that this government, called republican, is not as popular as all governments ought to be; and instead of being managed by the people, is too subservient to various contradictory interests. The Turkish constitution, under which happy and glorious empire we have the inestimable good fortune to live, is certainly much more simple and popular. Our gengicheris, the militia, as they are called here, or great body of the people, immediately, and without any intervention, choose, declare, and instal a sultan, or president, as the chief magistrate is styled in this country; who, as he thus proceeds directly from the people, is directly responsible to them; and whenever he misbehaves, or they are dissatisfied, is by them directly removed, to make room for another object of their immediate creation and image. It appears to me to be absurd to talk of representing the people, when

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in fact the representative, improperly so styled, is chosen not by the people, but by a small number of electors, who are themselves variously appointed, many of them not by the people, but by other electors, who again do not, in all instances, emanate directly from the community at large, and who, for the most part, never saw, and never may see, the object of their selection. The Turkish constitution is undoubtedly the lineal descendant and most precious relic of the ancient Grecian republic, wherein the mass of the people act in mass. A leader is called to his post by acclamation; and what is the difference whether the instrument of his removal be an oyster shell, or a bow-string? Such at least is my opinion, which, as it is considerably enlarged upon in my last, I will not resume at full here, but submit to your judgment.

Since I wrote that letter, many strange and truly American adventures have befallen me, which furnish a fruitful subject for this, written, I am sorry to say, in a sick chamber, to which my disasters in this inhospitable country have confined me.

For several days after my arrival here, I did not know I was in the city of Washington, the capital of America, which fact I have now, however, ascertained beyond a doubt; though, had I taken no other evidence than that of my senses, I might still be incredulous. This federal city is of great dimensions; ten English miles square. But as it is the head of the wildest and most immense territories any where united under one empire, where every thing affects to be representative, unlike Smyrna or Con

stantinople, or any other city I ever saw or heard of, Washington is not built compact or in streets, but, as an image of the federal dominion, lies scattered over a wilderness, yet in a great measure unreclaimed from a state of nature. The parks and pleasure grounds, attached to the mansions of the principal officers of government, are so extensive, that though I have been very industrious, I have not yet been able to see much of the town; detached portions of which, I understand, are situated a few miles off, in different directions from where I lodge. Within sight of my window, there is a large castle, with a flag flying from the top, in which two hundred congress-men, as they are called, are confined, like muedhdkins in the minaret of a mosque, preaching day and night for the salvation of the people. Attached to the president's palace, as there is to the sultan's, there is a garden stretching all the way to the water's edge. But I believe he has no harem, and but one wife; what his religion is, I have not yet discovered. Whatever I learn hereafter, I shall take care to let you know. At present, every thing appears to me to be on a great scale. The barber, who shaves me of a morning, comes on horseback with his razors; and the physician, whom I sent for in haste to examine my wounds, lives five miles from my lodgings.

But alas! at the thought of a physician my bones ache anew; and my heart sinks at the recollection of my miraculous escapes. As the story of my adventures will sufficiently exhibit this American Palmyra, I proceed to lay them before you, that you may de