The Sun.
London, England, 1863-12-23 00:00:00

WASHINGTON.

As DESCRIBED BY MR. G. A. SALA, THE " DAILY
TELEGRAPH' CORRESPONDENT.
That it resembles in any way the metropolis of
a great, powerful, and wealthy commonwealth can
at once, without much fear of contradiction, be de-
nied. It contains, certainly, some noble public
buildings, but they are scattered far and wide, with
all kinds of incongruous environments, producing
upon the stranger a perplexed impression that the
British Museum has suddenly migrated to the
centre of an exhausted brickfield, where rubbish
may be shot; or that St. Paul's Cathedral, washed
quite -white, and stuck upon stone stilts, has been
transformed to the centre of the great desert of
Sahara, and called a Capitol. There is a perpetual
solution of continuity at Washington. There is no
cohesion about Pennsylvania-avenue ; its houses
are as Hudibras's story of the bear and the fiddle—
begun and broke off in the middle. It is an archi-
tectural conundrum which nobody can guess, and
in which I candidly believe there is no meaning.
The Nitruviuses and Palladios of America have per-
perpetrated a vast practical joke, and called it
Washington. There is no beginning, no centre, and
no end to Washington. It is the most bogus of
towns—a shin-plaster in bricks and mortar
and marble. The people seem to be very
fond of building houses ; but when they
have run up three or four storeys which
threaten to attain the altitude of the Tower
of Babel, the confusion of tongues sets in; the
builders abandon their work; but, nothing dis-
heartened, erect three or four storeys of fresh houses
elsewhere. It is said of those patrons of the drama
who habitually avail themselves of half price that
they halve seen nothing but denouements. Wash-
ington, on the contrary, is a collection of first acts
without any catastrophes. It presents a converse
to Mercutio's description of his wound. Its avenues
are as deep as wells, and its blocks as wide as church
doors; but they do not serve any purpose that I am
aware of. Washington will be, when completed, the
most magnificent city on this side the Atlantic ; but
it is not quite begun yet. We are still at the soup
and fish, and have not got to the first entree.
Never was there so interminable an overture.
" Two piastres more,,' cries the Arab funambulist,
unworthily parodied by the London street mounte-
bank, " and the ass shall ascend the ladder." But
those piastres are never forthcoming, and the donkey
never goes up. Only two hundred million dollars
more, and two hundred thousand inhabitants, or
thereabouts, and Washington would be able to rival
the Empire City and the Crescent City, and all the
other cities to which the Americans have given, to
use the diction of Mr. Artemus Ward, " magnolious
and spanglorious" appellatives. Pendente lite,
Washington doesn't precisely languish, bat it wal-
lows in the dust like an eel in a sand-basket, deli•
cious when fried or stewed, but slightly repulsive
to the sight before he is skinned and cooked. Wash-
ington will be, I have no doubt, some day uproar-
ously splendid, but at present it isn't anything. It
is in the District of Columbia and the State of the

Future.
And yet I must, for the sake of those who will
never probably visit this rambling mass of streets
without houses, and houses without streets, liken it
to something. Well, it is like a jumbled-up collee.
tion of children'. toy villages seen through, the opera
glass of the King of Brobdignag. Again, it is not
unlike the Old Kent-road grown out of all patience.
Stay, it is like Brentford run mad, with a dash of
Highgate out of its wits, and a spice of Barnet at
the fair time—for ragged horseflesh is here abun-
dant—the whole mingled with Holborn-hill, and set
in the midst of Salisbury Plain. After this imagine
a tohobohu of Canterbury Halls and dancing saloons,
Government offices and old clothes' shops, Bath and
Cheltenham like private mansions and log cabins,
oysters, negroes, lagerbeer, mules, oxen, waggons,
dragoons, ladies in crinolines and loafers in " sit on
'em" hats, and the very faintest notion of Wash-
ington may begin to dawn upon you.

The Capture of the Chesapeake by the Con.

federates.

It has already been stated that the merchant
steamer Chesapeake had been seized by sixteen Con-
federate passengers, while on the passage from New
Yurk to Portland. The Confederates were headed
by a Southern officer, who had regular instructions
for carrying out the seizure. The Chesapeake was
taken to St. John's, New Brunswick. where her
captain and crew were landed. She then left in
the charge of the Southerners, her supposed desti-
nation being Wilmington. The St. John's Evening
Globe, of the 10th instant, says :—" The scheme
was matured here by Confederate agents. Meet-
ings were held, and the passage money of parties
to make the seizure was paid through to New
York. They were promised 500 dole. each on the
steamer's being safely taken into Wilmington. It
was also arranged that at a certain store in New
York each of the parties were to call at different
times for a parcel containing a revolver,
tion, and
.a pair of handcuffs. It is believed tuts
the cargo which was shipped by Confederate erranged
was valuable to the South, and that it vi
particulara trip.
that she should be seized on
this
nted that the
The manager of the plot
reprae:tea3pting to run
Chesapeake had been taken while
the blockade, and this waswae
harmless
the names of five
mleas effort to get
back Southern property.
seizure. They belong
of the parties engaged in the
with Captain Braine.
to this city, and left
species of humanity de-
nominated "roughs
One of them was just out of
They are of the worsto
all went from
They•
the penitentiary. here by the
don the 3d to Boston The
Chesapeake the hare-
Engle"' l here. She called
steamer New
Chesapeake did
n"becteaard Captain p
......tooThffhey The
thetfue Chesapeakel
aipe i
eb: ---y‘: orderedlio L ie
bour, and
took seßetribution,who Parker, formerly
took command."
Retribution to the officers detached to capture
is a COPY of the order of the captain
rwivinatgeer
tuot .
proceed John e 'tit!) boo ne Brains
~_you
New York with the following ; First Lieutenant H.
A. Parr, Second Lieutenant David Collins, Sailing
Master George Robinson, and crew of 11 men. You
will, on arrival, engage passage on board the
steamer, and use your discretion as to the proper
time and place to capture. Your action towards the
crew and passengers will be strictly in accordance
with the President's instructions. You will, as cir •
cumstances will permit, bring your prize to the
island of
J. Grand Menan for further orders. Sl,
Cove Harbour, if accessible.—(Signed) I
_ PARKER,ae
Captain Privateer Retribution.
is said to be of the same size and
enearlyerand faster.
Several steamers were at once
"—TheC
tics pease
peea
ea e
model of the Sumter, but much g
despatchedstr
York in search of " the pirate.
e
„ iron' New

•At the las'

•
STEAMBOATS AND PRIZE FIGLITS
weekly petty sessions held at Dartford, the super-
intendent of the Waterman's Seam Packet Company
appeared for the directors, to answer a summons at thE,
instance of the Board of Trade, charging the defendants
with illegally conveying passengers in the Gannet steam.
vessel CO a point farther than that for which the vessel was
duly licensed. It appeared that on the 16th September the
Gannet embarked two pugilists, named Roberts and Morri-
son, with a number of their adherents, who landed at a
fr
of
11d
point below Gravesend, where a fight took place. The
Gannet is licensed to convey passengers from 16.081
. a
Gravesend only. The bench inflicted a fine and £a
Itos
costs,