wants of the poor, and to provide for the interment of such as have not the means of burial. They receive $50 per annum each, and employ a Clerk at $100, and a Physician, who receives $200 annually. The want of a Hospital for lunatics. renders it necessary, though very inconvenient, to provide for their accommodation, in the same building with the poor and infirm. These unfortunate persons are allowed two dollars a week each for their support, and the amount annually appropriated varies from five to seven hundred dollars.

In consequence of the want of a Lunatic Asylum, which the Corporation never had the means of erecting, such unfortunate persons as were deprived of reason, and had no friends to provide for them, were confined in the jail of the city for their own security, and that of the community. Congress sympathizing in their miserable condition, and desirous to meliorate it, passed an act, in 1841, directing the Marshal of the District to cause all lunatics who are paupers, now confined in the jails of Washington and Alexandria, and who may hereafter be committed as lunatics, to be conveyed to the Lunatic Asylum, of Baltimore, at the expense of the Government, provided the whole expense does not exceed three thousand dollars per annum. This act is to continue in force until the 4th of March, 1843.

There are two Female Orphan Asylums; the ST. VINCENT'S, under the direction of the Sisters of Charity, and the WASHINGTON, under the management of an association of benevolent ladies of this city; both of which are valuable institutions, and have done, and are calculated to do much good.

SOCIETIES.

The city contains numerous societies, fire companies, and banking institutions. Of the former, are the following:

THE COLUMBIAN INSTITUTE, established in 1816, for the promotion of the arts and sciences, has been recently merged in the National Institution.

THE COLUMBIAN HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY, established in 1833. The efforts of this society have been attended with great benefit to the District in the manifest improvement of its fruits, flowers, and vegetables. Its exhibitions are annual, and usually very splendid.

THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY, established in 1835. Three volumes of transactions of this society have been published by Mr. Peter Force, consisting of rare and valuable pamphlets and papers, relating to the early history and affairs of this country, and collected and embodied by him. Two very able and interesting annual discourses have been delivered by Governor Cass and Secretary Woodbury, which form, with several tracts and pamphlets, the first volume of the transactions of the society. This society now forms a department of the National Institution.

THE WASHINGTON NATIONAL MONUMENT SOCIETY has been in existence for five years. Its object is to erect a monument to the memory of the Father of his country in this city, which he selected as the Metropolis of the Nation. The officers consist of the President of the United States, as the ex-officio President of the Society;

three Vice-Presidents, a Treasurer, and Secretary, and a Board of Managers, of thirteen members. Its first President was Judge Marshall, and its second James Madison. All adult white male contributors are members, and the Vice-President of the United States, Heads of Departments of the General Government, the Governors of the respective States and Territories, Judges of the Supreme Court, and members of the Senate and House of Representatives, are honorary members. The sum to be contributed by each individual was originally limited to one dollar, but that limit has since been removed, and any amount can now be contributed. The names of the contributors are entered in a book for the purpose of being preserved in an apartment, to be prepared for that purpose in the monument. The collections made so far have been invested in safe stocks, yielding six per cent. interest, and the interest is again invested every six months.

The following are the names of the officers of the society and members of the board of managers: President of the United States, President. William Cranch, 1st Vice-President. Mayor of Washington, 2d Vice-President. William W. Seaton, 3d Vice-President. Samuel H. Smith, Treasurer.

George Watterston, Secretary.

Managers.

General N. Towson.
Colonel J. J. Abert.
Colonel A. Henderson.
Colonel James Kearney.
William Brent, Esq.
W. L. Brent, Esq.

Thomas Munroe, Esq.
Thomas Carbery, Esq.
P. R. Fendall, Esq.
Peter Force, Esq.
John McClelland, Esq.
Wm. A. Bradley, Esq.

NATIONAL INSTITUTION.

This society was established in the year 1840, for the promotion of science. It holds its meetings monthly, in a room in the Patent Office, and its officers consist of a President, Vice-President, a Treasurer, Corresponding and Recording Secretary, and twelve Directors. The Secretaries of State, Treasury, War and Navy, and the Attorney General, and Postmaster Genéral, of the United States, are ex-officio Directors. The officers are elected by ballot, annually, on the first Monday in each year, and the resident and corresponding members are required to exert themselves to procure specimens of natural history, &c., to be placed in a cabinet under the superintendence of a curator or curators. The resident members are divided into departments, and the members composing each department are specially charged with the subjects embraced therein, and required to communicate to the institution the result of their inquiries.

The Columbian Institute and American Historical Society have been incorporated into this institution, and form departments of it; and the society, from the energy and activity of its members, promises to become a very useful institution, and to accomplish the object for which it was established.

The Hall of the National Institution is open daily (Sundays excepted) from eight A. M., to five P. M., without charge for admission. Ample precautions have been taken to heat it comfortably in winter, and the arrangement of the collections is such as to give the greatest facility for their exami

nation consistent with their careful preservation. When all the materials at present in possession of the institution shall have been arranged, they will doubtless present the best collection in the United States for prosecuting the study of natural history; whilst the accessions which they are constantly receiving must soon place it on a level with similar institutions in older countries. These accessions, mostly in the form of voluntary contributions, show the interest already created in its favor, and is a gratifying evidence of the great anxiety every where, among those friendly to the promotion of knowledge, for its prosperity.

The first place in the class of contributions must be given to the United States' Exploring Expedition. The Government has very properly placed the whole of its rare and valuable collections in charge of the institution; and it must be a source of pleasure to the friends of science to know, that they will now be properly prepared and preserved. The organization of this institution at this juncture, is, on that account at least, peculiarly propitious. Without it, these collections would probably have been scattered among the different museums and private collections of the country, or been suffered to go to decay in the store-houses of Government.

It is not an easy matter to give a satisfactory description of the collections of the National Institution, as a very large portion of them yet remain in the original packages or boxes. All the assistance which the funds at the disposal of the institution would permit, has been constantly engaged in their preparation and arrangement, but much