Of the Capitol the centre is yet to rear its head, the wings alone are finished; these contain the Hall of Representatives and that of the Senate--a Library[71]--a Post-Office for the Members--Committee Rooms, &c. The Hall of Representatives is of semicircular form; a beautiful colonnade of native with capitals of Italian marble, ranges along within the semicircle and its base, with rich crimson and fringed curtain drapery between the columns. The President's _throne_ is placed on the centre of the base and fronting the semicircle, the seats and desks {208} for the Members ranged so as to radiate from it; the whole area is covered with a rich and rather gaudy carpet. The Hall of the Senate is as studiously plain as that of the Representatives is gaudy; in the same form, but upon a much smaller scale, and the gallery is only upon the base of the semicircle, so that a spectator here fronts the Members;--the style of decoration throughout is far preferable to the other. Of the debates on the tapis I can say but little, not having had time sufficient to give them much attention,--they were apparently carried on however with more decorum than from report I had reason to expect, except that the exercise of spitting upon the beautiful carpet was continued as everywhere else; the walls of the stairs and the stairs themselves also were covered with the saliva of tobacco chewers. It being an expected compliment from strangers coming to the Seat of Government to pay their respects to its head, we drove down to the President's house, at the hour appointed; it is a handsome stone building, which has now been restored and repaired since the shock given to it by the English; but the gardens and pleasure grounds, reaching down to the banks of the Potomac, and extending again up to the Capitol, are as yet only {209} to be seen upon paper; rude nature still rules absolute over the tract. Remains of the late snow yet lay in the shade, and negligence, studied or accidental, had left it upon the flight of steps to the President's house, an old plank being laid upon the landing that visitors might get dry to the door. A servant, not a _man of show_, admitted us into a plain hall, and ushered us up stairs to the private apartment in which we found Mr. Munroe seated alone at his bureau with various papers before him; he arose at our entrance, and himself placed chairs for us, which his _independent_ servant had left the room without doing. Mr. Munroe appeared a plain quiet man in dress and manners, the English country gentleman with a physiognomy which bore marks of deep reflection: a conversation of ten minutes on indifferent subjects terminated our visit, when, instead of formal etiquette he gave me a friendly shake of the hand with a "God bless you," spoken in a pleasing tone, which left upon me a very favourable impression.