extensive and magnificent. The college year is divided into two sessions, a winter session commencing on the first Wednesday of November, and terminating on the first Wednesday of May; the summer, on the first Wednesday in July, and ending on the first Wednesday of October; when the annual commencement for conferring degrees, &c., is held. After the summer session there is a vacation of one month; after the winter session one of two months, May and June. This arrangement gives students the advantage of spending the sickly season on College Hill, a spot not surpassed in healthfulness by any in the Union. The students are permitted occasionally to hear the arguments in the United States Supreme Court, and the debates in Congress.

Owing to pecuniary embarrassments, this institution, for some years past, has been arrested in the progress which it was rapidly making towards a rank among the first of our Universities; but its prospects are now again brightening, and it will probably soon acquire that reputation that might have been expected from the advantages of its locality, and the learning and ability of its professors.

THE GEORGETOWN COLLEGE, like the preceding, is beyond the limits of the city of Washington, and is very beautifully situated on one of the heights of Georgetown, and commands a splendid prospect of the city, the Potomac, and surrounding country. It was established many years ago, by the Catholics, and in 1815 was made a University by Congress, with the power to grant degrees. The buildings are large and commodious, and the

grounds around them laid out with great taste. The professors are numerous, learned, and pious, making no distinction between the Catholic and Protestant students. The system of education is liberal, and not the least bigoted, and youths of all denominations are freely admitted within the walls of this alma mater. The library is sufficiently large, and contains many old, rare, and valuable works, and the philosophical apparatus very complete. The alumni are well instructed, and the college has sent out several learned, able, and distinguished scholars. The discipline is rigid, but salutary. As in the Columbian College, the students are permitted under the guidance of an usher to visit occasionally during their sessions the Supreme Court and the two Houses of Congress, for the benefit of the living examples of excellence in forensic and parliamentary eloquence which they furnish. This institution is in a very flourishing and prosperous condition, and rapidly advancing in reputation and usefulness.

Not far from this college is the CONVENT OF VISITATION, established about forty years ago, by Archbishop Neale, upon an improved plan. The Superior is elected triennially by the sisterhood, and is ineligible for more than two terms in succession. The number of nuns or sisters varies from fifty to eighty, all devoted to their religious duties and the education of females. The younger sisters are designated to teach a free school; but the boarding school for young ladies is the most valuable and flourishing. The sisters are highly educated in science and literature, and the doctrines of Christianity. The great number

of teachers in this establishment enables it to assign one teacher at least to each department of knowledge, and she never quits it. All the useful and ornamental branches of education are taught here, and though last, not least, a knowledge of housewifery, in which the pupils graduate, and enter into life with a thorough acquaintance "with the science of the kitchen, and the mysteries of the culinary art, without which no woman can be said to be all accomplished." The discipline is strict without being severe. A tender and sisterly vigilance and maternal watchfulness only are practised, and the pupils of all denominations, who are admitted indiscriminately into this institution, love, obey, and reverence their instructresses.

ALMS HOUSE.

The Corporation maintains an ALMS HOUSE or ASYLUM, for the accommodation and support of poor, infirm, and diseased persons, and lunatics, at an annual expense of near $5,000. The Asylum stands some distance northwest of the City Hall, near Seventh street; is a large but badly constructed edifice of brick, and has attached to it a Work House or Penitentiary, where offenders against the penal laws of the Corporation are confined; but from the defective system existing, are not punished by being made to labor much. The Asylum is under the direction of six guardians, appointed annually by the Mayor, &c., and who must meet once a week, at least, to superintend the affairs of the Asylum, to attend to the

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.

Con

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. gress 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;