But its antiquities--if antiquities are to be spoken of in this country--are of some interest. Here an American Congress once assembled, of which Franklin was a member. Whenever England and France contended for mastery on this continent, many of the officers and troops of the former halted here for a while, or passed on for the finally accomplished object of the conquest of Canada. Here for a time were Howe and Abercrombie, Amherst and Sir William Johnson; while, to the French, it seems to have been the limit, which, though they burnt Schenectady and ravaged the western part of the State, they seemed scarcely able to reach. Passing over intermediate occurrences, during the war of 1812 there was here concentrated a large portion of the military force of the United States, which went forth in all the pomp and circumstance of war to its mingled career of defeat and success. Two dwellings still remain in Albany dear to Revolutionary memory--the residences of General Philip Schuyler and General Abraham Ten Broeck. The latter was distinguished as a brave and capable militia officer. The services and talents of the former are not as yet sufficiently appreciated. The wise man--the trusted of Washington--the able statesman--who early pointed out the way to internal improvement in the State of New-York, only needs an impartial and well-instructed biographer to be duly known. It is a matter of satisfaction that both of these residences--crowning heights north and south of the city--are in excellent preservation, owned by wealthy persons, and destined, we may hope, to a long existence. Governor Clinton occupied during his residence in Albany (part of the time he was out of office) two different houses, which possess an interest only inferior to those we have just mentioned. One of them, formerly almost a country residence,--built by Peter W. Yates, an eminent counsellor at law, and now owned by another of the same name,--was, for a series of years, the dwelling-place of governors of the State of New-York. Here Tompkins dispensed his hospitality, while he wielded, in a manner but partially understood, the destinies of the nation during the war of 1812; and from this beautiful seat he departed, in an evil hour to himself, to be Vice-President of the United States. Clinton succeeded. In this house he met with a severe accident,--a fracture of the knee-pan from a fall; after a slow recovery he was enabled to use the limb with but slight indication of the injury. Still it prevented him from taking exercise on horseback, to which he had been much accustomed, and it probably led to an increased fulness of habit, in the later years of his life.