far more extensive after the federal city is established than it ever was before. A large majority, however, of the people in the United States is desirous that the removal of the seat of government should take place; and there is little doubt that it will take place at the appointed time. The discontents indeed, which an opposite measure would give rise to in the south could not but be alarming, and if they did not occasion a total separation of the southern from the northern states, yet they would certainly materially destroy that harmony which has hitherto existed between them. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ +LETTER + V. _Some Account of Alexandria.—Mount Vernon, the Seat of General Washington.—Difficulty of finding the Way thither through the Woods.—Description of the Mount, and of the Views from it.—Description of the House and Grounds.—Slaves at Mount Vernon.—Thoughts thereon.—A Person at Mount Vernon to attend to Strangers.—Return to Washington._ MY DEAR SIR, Washington, December. FROM Washington I proceeded to Alexandria, seven miles lower down the river, which is one of the neatest towns in the United States. The houses are mostly brick, and many of them are extremely well built. The streets intersect each other at right angles; they are commodious and well paved. Nine miles below this place, on the banks of the Patowmac, stands Mount Vernon, the seat of General Washington; the way to it, however, from Alexandria, by land, is considerably farther, on account of the numerous creeks which fall into the Patowmac, and the mouths of which it is impossible to pass near to. [Sidenote: MOUNT VERNON.] Very thick woods remain standing within four or five miles of the place; the roads through them are very bad, and so many of them cross one another in different directions, that it is a matter of very great difficulty to find out the right one. I set out from Alexandria with a gentleman who thought himself perfectly well acquainted with the way; had he been so, there was ample time to have reached Mount Vernon before the close of the day, but night overtook us wandering about in the woods. We did not perceive the vestige of a human being to set us right, and we were preparing to pass the night in the carriage, when luckily a light appeared at some distance through the trees; it was from a small farm house, the only one in the way for several miles; and having made our way to it, partly in the carriage, partly on foot, we hired a negro for a guide, who conducted us to the place of our destination in about an hour. The next morning I heard of a gentleman, who, a day or two preceding, had been from ten o’clock in the morning till four in the afternoon on horseback, unable to find out the place, although within three or four miles of it the whole time. [Illustration: