very grand. If the Capitol were finished and all Washington were
built around it, no man would say that the house in which Congress
sat disgraced the city.

Going west, but not due west, from the Capitol, Pennsylvania Avenue
stretches in a right line to the Treasury chambers. The distance is
beyond a mile; and men say scornfully that the two buildings have
been put so far apart in order to save the secretaries who sit in
the bureaus from a too rapid influx of members of Congress. This
statement I by no means indorse; but it is undoubtedly the fact that
both Senators and Representatives are very diligent in their calls
upon gentlemen high in office. I have been present on some such
occasions, and it has always seemed to me a that questions of
patronage have been paramount. This reach of Pennsylvania Avenue is
the quarter for the best shops of Washington--that is to say, the
frequented side of it is so, that side which is on your right as you
leave the Capitol. Of the other side the world knows nothing. And
very bad shops they are. I doubt whether there be any town in the
world at all equal in importance to Washington which is in such
respects so ill provided. The shops are bad and dear. In saying
this I am guided by the opinions of all whom I heard speak on the
subject. The same thing was told me of the hotels. Hearing that
the city was very full at the time of my visit--full to overflowing--
I had obtained private rooms, through a friend, before I went
there. Had I not done so, I might have lain in the streets, or have
made one with three or four others in a small room at some third-
rate inn. There had never been so great a throng in the town. I am
bound to say that my friend did well for me. I found myself put up
at the house of one Wormley, a colored man, in I Street, to whose
attention I can recommend any Englishman who may chance to want