This street, which is called Pennsylvania Avenue, is above a mile in length, and at the end of it is the handsome mansion of the President; conveniently near to his residence are the various public offices, all handsome, simple, and commodious; ample areas are left round each, where grass and shrubs refresh the eye.

In another of the principal streets is the general post-office, and not far from it a very noble town- hall.

Towards the quarter of the President's house are several handsome dwellings, which are chiefly occupied by the foreign ministers.

The houses in the other parts of the city are scattered, but without ever losing sight of the regularity of the original plan; and to a person who has been travelling much through the country, and marked the immense quantity of new manufactories, new canals, new railroads, new towns, and new cities, which are springing, as it were, from the earth in every part of it, the appearance of the metropolis rising gradually into life and splendour, is a spectacle of high historic interest.
Commerce had already produced large and handsome cities in America before she had attained to an individual political existence, and Washington may be scorned as a metropolis, where such cities as Philadelphia and New York exist; but I considered it as the growing metropolis of the growing population of the Union, and it already possesses features noble enough to sustain its dignity as such.
The residence of the foreign legations and their families gives a tone to the society of this city which distinguishes it greatly from all others.

It is also, for a great part of the year, the residence of the senators and representatives, who must be presumed to be the _elite_ of the entire body of citizens, both in respect to talent and education.