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acts is therefore omitted. The building in which the duties of the department are at present discharged is immediately behind the War Department, and its architecture is so manifestly faulty and meagre that we defer a description until it shall have a dwelling-place to some extent commensurate with the important interests it controls and represents. As organized in 1860, the department consists of the following officials:-The Secretary; Chief Clerk; Bureau of Navy Yards and Docks; Bureau of Construction, Equipment, and Repairs; Bureau of Provisions and Clothing; Bureau of Ordnance and Hydrography; and the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery; comprising in all, including the head of the department, and exclusive of messengers, fort nine persons. The division of labor is as follows:

Secretary's Office.-The Secretary has charge of everything connected with the naval establishment, and the execution of all laws relating thereto is intrusted to him, under the general direction of the President of the United States, who, by the Constitution, is commander-in-chief of the army and navy. All instructions to commanders of squadrons and commanders of vessels, all orders of officers, commissions of officers both in the navy and marine corps, appointments of commissioned and warrant officers, orders for the enlistment and discharge of seamen, emanate from the Secretary's office. All the duties of the different bureaus are performed under the authority of the Secretary, and their orders are considered as emanating from him. The general superintendence of the marine corps forms also a part of the duties of the Secretary, and all the orders of the commandant of that corps should be approved by him.

Bureau of Navy Yards and Docks.-Chief of the bureau, four clerks, one civil engineer, and one draughtsman. All the navy yards, docks, and wharves, buildings and machinery in navy yards, and everything immediately connected with them, are under the superintendence of this bureau. It is also charged with the management of the Naval Asylum.

Bureau of Construction, Equipment, and Repair.— Chief of the bureau, eight clerks and one draughtsman. The office of the Engineer-in-chief of the Navy, who is assisted by three assistant engineers, is attached to this bureau. This bureau has charge of the building and repairs of all vessels of war, purchase of materials, and the providing of all vessels with their equipments, as sails, anchors, water-tanks, &c. The Engineer-in-chief superintends the construction of all marine steam-engines for the navy, and, with the approval of the Secretary, decides upon plans for their construction.

Bureau of Provisions and Clothing.-Chief of bureau and four clerks. All provisions for the use of the navy, and clothing, together with the making of contracts for furnishing the same, come under the charge of this bureau.

Bureau of Ordnance and Hydrography.-Chief of bureau, four clerks, and one draughtsman. This bureau has charge of all ordnance and ordnance stores, the manufacture or purchase of cannon, guns, powder, shot, shells, &c., and the equipment of vessels of war, with everything connected therewith. It also provides them with maps, charts, chronometers, barometers, &c., together with such books as are furnished to ships of war. "The United States Naval Observatory and Hydrographical Office" at

Washington, and the Naval Academy at Annapolis, are also under the general superintendence of the chief of this bureau.

Bureau of Medicine and Surgery.-Chief of bureau, one passed assistant surgeon United States Navy, and two clerks. Everything relating to medicines and medical stores, treatment of sick and wounded, and management of hospitals, comes within the superintendence of this bureau.

The following statistics may be interesting to some of our readers: In 1806, the number of seamen authorized by law was 925, to which number 3,600 were added in 1809. In 1812, Congress authorized the President to employ as many as would be necessary to equip the vessels to be put in service, and to build as many vessels for the lakes as the public service required. In January, 1814, there were in actual service seven frigates, two corvettes, seven sloops of war, two blockships, four brigs, and three schooners, for sea, besides the several lake squadrons, gunboats, and harbor barges; three ships of the line and three frigates on the stocks. The whole number of men and officers employed was thirteen thousand, three hundred and thirty-nine, of which 3,729 were able seamen, and 6,721 ordinary; the marine corps, as enlarged in 1814, was 2,700 men and officers. The commissioned naval officers combatant were 22 captains, 18 commanders, 107 lieutenants, and 450 midshipmen. 1814, Secretary Jones reported to the Senate that there were three 74-gun and three 44-gun ships building; six new sloops of war built; twenty barges and one hundred and twenty-five gunboats employed in the Atlantic waters; 33 vessels of all sizes for sea, afloat or building, and 31

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on the lakes. Even in 1813, the energy of this department had led the first Napoleon to issue the following instructions to his Minister of Marine :

You will receive a decree by which I order the building, at Toulon, at Rochefort, and at Cherbourg, of a frigate of American construction. I am certain that the English have had built a considerable number of frigates on that model. They go better, and they adopt them; we must not be behindhand. Those which you will have built at Toulon, at Rochefort, and at Cherbourg, will manoeuvre in the roads, and give us to understand what to think of the model.

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We have been compelled to adopt the illogical designation above given for this portion of the chapter, by reason of the fact that the Department of the Interior has no title to its present quarters in the building belonging to and mostly paid for by the earnings of the Patent Office. At first a single room was demanded for the Secretary of

the Interior, and from that the department has continued to annex room after room of the noble building devoted to the protection of the inventive genius of the country, until the bureau for whose especial accommodation the edifice was erected finds itself "cabined and confined" in a corner of the house built with the proceeds of its own industry. The lawful fees charged for issuing patents having largely accumulated, were directed by Congress to be invested, with an additional appropriation, in the Patent Office building. From this commencement, the stately marble palace on the corner of Seventh and F streets has gradually been reared into its present magnificent proportions, the principal architectural credit being due to Mr. Edward Clark. The building is in the Doric style of architecture, 406 feet by 275, and 74 feet 11 inches in height, divided into three stories of rooms, including the modelroom, which occupies the whole upper floor, making in reality four saloons, in beauty unequaled by any apartment in the world, the total length of the connected chambers being upwards of 1,300 feet.

In the court-yard are two fountains, which cool the air in the sultry days of summer. The north front is the only one which has not a portico, and as it would only involve an expense of $75,000 to finish it in the same style with the other fronts, it is to be hoped that Congress will not withhold that sum, especially as the cost of the building would still be within the original estimate.

The Department of the Interior proper, consists of the Secretary, chief clerk, three disbursing clerks, and . twelve other regular clerks; and to its supervision and management are committed the following branches of the public service:—

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