great majority of gentlemen. The expense, the
trouble, or the necessity of a ruling eye at home, one or all of
these reasons, prevents the members' ladies from accompanying
them to Washington; at least, I heard of very few who had their
wives with them. The female society is chiefly to be found among
the families of the foreign ministers, those of the officers of
state, and of the few members, the wealthiest and most
aristocratic of the land, who bring their families with them.
Some few independent persons reside in or near the city, but this
is a class so thinly scattered that they can hardly be accounted
a part of the population.

But, strange to say, even here a theatre cannot be supported for
more than a few weeks at a time. I was told that gambling is the
favourite recreation of the gentlemen, and that it is carried to
a very considerable extent; but here, as elsewhere within the
country, it is kept extremely well out of sight. I do not think
I was present with a pack of cards a dozen times during more than
three years that I remained in the country. Billiards are much
played, though in most places the amusement is illegal. It often
appeared to me that the old women of a state made the laws, and
the young men broke them.

Notwithstanding the diminutive size of the city, we found much to
see, and to amuse us.

The patent office is a curious record of the fertility of the
mind of man when left to its own resources; but it gives ample
proof also that it is not under such circumstances it is most
usefully employed. This patent office contains models of all the
mechanical inventions that have been produced in the Union, and
the number is enormous. I asked the man who shewed these, what
proportion of them had been brought into use, he said about one
in a thousand; he told me also, that they chiefly proceeded from
mechanics and agriculturists settled in remote parts of the
country, who had began by endeavouring to hit upon some
contrivance to enable them to _get along_ without sending some
thousand and odd miles for the thing they wanted. If the
contrivance succeeded, they generally became so fond of this
offspring of their ingenuity, that they brought it to Washington
for a patent.

At the secretary of state's office we were shewn autographs of
all the potentates with whom the Union were in alliance; which, I
believe, pretty well includes all. To the parchments bearing
these royal signs manual were appe