There is a new custom-house at New York, which is a very different edifice from this at Boston; it is also much larger, for the business done there is more than four times as great as that done at the Boston custom-house. There are many other custom-houses in this country, as at Philadelphia, Baltimore, and other places where ships come. From all these, the government of the United States receives about twenty millions of dollars every year. With this money, and what they get from the sale of public lands and other sources, they pay the expenses of the government, which are very great. The army costs a great deal of money, and so does the navy. I suppose one ship of war will cost half a million of dollars a year while in active service! Then the President receives 25,000 dollars a year, and each of the foreign ministers has 9,000 a year, and the officers of the custom-houses, members of Congress, and ten thousand postmasters, and a great many other persons, in the service of the government, must all be paid. So you will see that if the government receives a great deal of money, it has need of a great deal. The average expense of our government is 25,000,000 of dollars, which is about six hundred and fifty tons of silver, and would be as much as four hundred horses could draw! [Illustration: Patent Office] The New Patent Office, Washington The building of which we here give a representation, is a depository for the models of such inventions as are patented in the United States. The old patent office was burnt down a few years ago, and this has just been erected. It is a handsome and extensive edifice, and well adapted to the purpose for which it is designed. The contents of this building display in an eminent degree the inventive and ingenious character of our countrymen, and especially of the New England people, for a large proportion of the models here collected are furnished by New England men. There are machines here for almost every purpose under the sun. There are ploughs, and harrows, and coffee-mills, and saws, and water-wheels, and rakes, and corn-shellers, and stump-removers, and a multitude of other things, all arranged according to their kinds. In one part are agricultural implements; in another, are machines for the manufacture of cotton; in another, those for the manufacture of wool, &c. The number of these inventions amounts to many hundreds, and some of them display admirable skill and contrivance on the part of the inventors.