Patrick's church, granted to the congregation by David Burns, one of the original proprietors. The lot having been subsequently reclaimed, the congregation, which had greatly increased in numbers, erected a plain brick church, at the foot of the Capitol Hill, on South Capitol street, in which they worshipped for many years. This being found somewhat inconvenient for the larger portion of the congregation, it was disposed of to a congregation of persons of color, who still hold it, and the one now on Four-and-a-half street was built in 1826, and has been occupied ever since by the members of the First Presbyterian church.

LITERATURE AND SCIENCE.

Not much attention has been paid to literature and science in Washington. Those in office are too much devoted to their official duties, and those out of office to other pursuits calculated to yield them support or increase their wealth, to appropriate much of their time to literary or scientific occupations.

Politics, too, engross a large share of public attention here, and though the population is intelligent, there is not the same partiality or fondness evinced for literature and science as in most of the northern cities. Newspapers and periodicals constitute the principal reading of the community, and few books are sold here to citizens, except such as they cannot dispense with. A new order of things will, however, arise in the Metropolis, when the population becomes more dense, and

The members of the bar in Washington are not very numerous; but some of them are talented and well versed in the legal science. The business transacted in the Circuit Court does not often involve questions of great complexity; but these do sometimes occur, and the whole learning and research of the bar are put in requisition. The practice does not appear to be very lucrative, and the business, as usual, is mostly done by a few of the older members of the bar. It has sometimes been distinguished for its eloquence, and in point of respectability, does not rank below that of most other cities. It does not, however, present a proper field for a young lawyer. The business generally is not of such a character as to call forth

or does it often afford opportunities for the dislay of great eloquence. At the bar of the Crimial Court, to be sure, cases sometimes occur, in vhich great ingenuity may be displayed, and a nowledge of criminal law, and all the powers of orensic eloquence developed. But these cases are are. No man can be eloquent as an advocate mong assaults and batteries and petty larcenies. It is only when crimes of the deepest dye, or offences which shock or disturb the moral sense of the community are perpetrated, and where innocence has been made the victim of deliberate villany, or the conjugal tie severed by treachery, that a high order of eloquence can be displayed; and those crimes and offences but seldom occur here. The mere plodding man of business, dull, but re gular, industrious and honest, finds his profession more lucrative than one much more highly gifted, but less desirous to accumulate, and who seeks the "bauble reputation," more than to "put money in his purse." The stimulus, too, which the prospect of attaining distinction and rank in public life, presented to the aspirant in the States, does not exist here. He feels the melancholy conviction, that whatever may be the power of his eloquence, or the variety and extent of his attainments, he can never hope to rise above the condition of a lawyer, as long as he remains within the pale of disfranchisement, within which, either voluntarily or from necessity, he has cast himself.

an abundant medical harvest. The average number of deaths annually is about two hundred and fifty, (most of these among infants,) out of a population of near twenty-four thousand, which is about one out of one hundred and fifty, and which serves to indicate the extraordinary healthiness of the Metropolis.

A medical school, connected with the Columbian College, has been established for several years, and from the increasing number of students, from various and distant parts of the Union, and the learning and ability of those who fill the different chairs, it promises, at no distant day, to equal any of the medical schools in the United States. The locality, too, for such an institution is highly favorable, affording as it does to the young students constant opportunities of observing the operations of the Government, and of seeing and knowing all the leading and distinguished public men of the country.

THE WASHINGTON LIBRARY.

This library belongs to a private company, which was incorporated by Congress, in 1814. It has been gradually increasing till it has reached about six thousand volumes, in every department of literature. It is managed by a Board of Directors, elected annually, who choose their President, Treasurer, and Librarian. Each shareholder is entitled to take books from the library, under certain restrictions, and to assign over the right of reading to another, but he is held responsible for the fines and forfeitures, which the assignee may