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15,000,000 and 10,176,570 gallons, during the same period.

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There are, in all, eleven tunnels, some of them many hundred feet in length, and six bridges. The largest of the bridges is one of the most stupendous achievements of the kind in this country. It spans a small tributary of the Potomac, called the Cabin John creek, by a single arch, 220 feet in span and 100 feet high. The receiving reservoir is formed by throwing a dam across a small stream known as the Powder Mill or Little Falls Branch. The dam is of pounded earth, and floods above 50 acres, making a reservoir of irregular shape, containing, at a level of 140 feet above high tide, 82,521,500 gallons. The water leaves it a distance of 3,000 feet from the point where it enters, and, in slowly passing across this pool, which deepens to 30 or 40 feet near the exit, it deposits most of its sediment. The Powder Mill Branch supplies two or three millions of gallons of pure water daily to the reservoir. The great falls of the Potomac, from whence the supply of water is obtained, are 19 miles distant.

CHAPTER VII.

ETIQUETTE.

POLITENESS and good breeding are the true foundations of social etiquette, and are the same everywhere; yet fashion and position will maintain a controlling influence. At the seat of government, a conventional form of social intercourse seems absolutely indispensable. The idea that there is no rank at our court,-that it is inimical to republican institutions, and that there can, therefore, be no precedence, has long been exploded by actual experience. The position occupied by officials, under the Constitution, gives them necessarily a certain rank, according to the importance and nature of the office, the length of term, and the age, required by law, of the incumbent. Some officials are permanent residents of Washington, while others remain but a portion of the year. Certain classes are numerous, and others are few in number. The time of some is almost entirely engrossed, while that of others is more at their command. All these circumstances tend to vary the relation between the members of this temporary form of society. Representatives of foreign courts are required, by the laws of international courtesy, to conform to the etiquette of the court at which they are sent to reside, and if there is no established form, they find themselves at a loss in respect of their deportment.

In the early days of our government, foreign customs and forms were tacitly introduced, and although the Jef fersonian dogma of equality was maintained in theory, yet the court etiquette of that period was adhered to with far more dignity and aristocratic precision than exists at present. An order like that of the Cincinnati, would scarcely be tolerated now, although, in the infancy of our government, Washington graced the order as its first president. The avowed object of the order was to establish a rank, without violating the constitution, which prohibits Congress and the States from granting any title of nobility. The following articles were agreed upon during the administration of Washington, and were endorsed by Jefferson :

In order to bring the members of society together in the first instance, the custom of the country has established that residents shall pay the first visit to strangers, and, among strangers, first comers to later comers, foreign and domestic; the character of stranger ceasing after the first visits. To this rule there is a single exception. Foreign ministers, from the necessity of making themselves known, pay the first visit to the [cabinet] ministers of the nation, which is returned.

When brought together in society, all are perfectly equal, whether foreign or domestic, titled or untitled, in or out of office.

All other observances are but exemplifications of these two principles.

The families of foreign ministers, arriving at the seat of government, receive the first visit from those of the national ministers, as from all other residents.

Members of the legislature and of the judiciary, independent of their offices, have a right as strangers to receive the first visit.

No title being admitted here, those of foreigners give no precedence.

Differences of grade among the diplomatic members gives no precedence.

At-public ceremonies, to which the government invites the presence of foreign ministers and their families, a convenient seat or station will be provided for them, with any other strangers invited and the families of the national ministers, each taking place as they arrive, and without any precedence.

To maintain the principle of equality, or of pêle mêle, and prevent the growth of precedence out of courtesy, the members of the executive will practice at their own houses, and recommend an adherence to the ancient usage of the country, of gentlemen in mass giving precedence to the ladies in mass, in passing from one apartment where they are assembled into another.

This code of equality was too republican and arbitrary in theory to meet the necessities of the case. The landmarks set by honest pride, to distinguish real inequalities of position, are not so easily obliterated. It is impossible, even, to contravene the established usages of foreign courts, by reversing the relations existing by law, birth, merit, and concession, between foreigners residing here in a representative capacity. The consequence has been that natural distinctions have been maintained, but with some evidence of a disposition on the part of certain classes to deny others rights which they have no grounds to claim themselves. During President Monroe's first term, there was much excitement in the official coteries upon this subject, which created some hard feeling, as well as many facetious remarks. At the commencement of the session of 1819-20, John Quincy Adams, then Secretary of State, addressed a letter on the subject to Daniel D. Tompkins, Vice-President, wherein he stated that he had been informed by Senators "of a minute of a rule agreed upon,

not officially, but privately, by the members of the Senate of the first Congress, that the Senators of the United States paid the first visit to no person except the President of the United States." He repudiated the claim on the part of the Senators, and expressed his intention to make no first calls as being due from him or his family. The letter caused some severe animadversions upon the writer's aristocratic views of society, but the etiquette of the official circles assumed the forms naturally prescribed by the rank and circumstances of the parties interested. There was, lately, some little dissension and confusion regarding the proper forms, but all parties were consulted, and the nature of their rights carefully considered, with a view to the peculiarities of their residence, number, and legal rank. The code was prepared advisedly, and the vexed question adjusted in the revival and establishment of the old usages and customs, which have been founded upon reason and natural privilege, and which have generally prevailed since the foundation of the government.

At the commencement of Washington's first term of administration, he addressed letters to Messrs. Adams and Hamilton, asking their attention and advice upon certain points of etiquette touching the deportment of the President of the United States. A medium between the requirements of the dignity of the office and republican equality was resolved upon, and has remained the rule.

THE CODE.

The President.-Business calls are received at all times and hours, when the President is unengaged. The morn

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