the entire northern portion of the city. The remainder of the city is bounded by water courses. All of the large avenues run out to Boundary street, with the exception of Pennsylvania and Virginia avenues. It is skirted nearly its whole length by beautiful groves of forest trees, and if opened and gravelled would make a pleasant ride around the city, which is at present very much wanted.

As it was doubtless intended for the benefit of all residents and sojourners in the city, and cannot be of any special advantage to those who live in its immediate vicinity, it would seem that Boundary street is one of those that present peculiar claims to the favorable consideration and liberality of the government.

The Supreme Court of the United States has decided that the fee simple to all the avenues and streets in the city is in the government. The aggregate length of the streets is one hundred and ninety-nine miles, and of the avenues sixty-five miles. The city has taken upon itself to open and grade the streets under authority given to it by the government, but is unwilling to do anything to the avenues, unless absolutely necessary for public convenience and Congress will not make provision for them. This unwillingness proceeds from a want of ample means and a strong conviction that the government is bound in justice, as its share, to construct the avenues. Most of the streets have been opened and graded, and the work is prosecuted as fast as the revenue of the city will justify, but still it lags far behind the march of the improvements.

Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland, are the only important avenues that have been opened and graded, and they only partially so.

The grand jury having repeatedly condemned the jail as unsafe and in all respects unsuited for the purposes of a prison, the Interior Department was called upon by the Senate for estimates and a plan for such a building as would meet the demands of the public. A plan was accordingly prepared with great care and submitted at the last session of Congress. The estimated cost of erecting the building was one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. There was, however, no definite action had upon the subject.

The present jail is situated on Judiciary square, in the very heart of the city, which is certainly a most improper location for a prison. The judges of the several courts of this District, and the members of the bar, addressed a communication to your predecessor setting. forth the great want of suitable accommodations for the criminal court and the important records of the clerk's office, and earnestly requesting him to bring the matter to the attention of Congress. Their request was complied with, and a plan was prepared for the extension of the court-house portion of the City Hall in harmony with the general plan of the building, the cost of which, including furniture, heating apparatus, enclosure, &c., was estimated at thirty thousand dollars.

The orphan's court and the office of register of wills occupy very contracted and inadequate rooms in the city's portion of the same building. If the extension of the building should be made, which I

think is very necessary, suitable provision can be made in it for the accommodation of the orphan's court and register of wills.

I ask your attention to the fifteenth section of the city charter, approved May 15, 1820, and the twelfth section of the amended charter, approved May 17, 1848. You will perceive that they require of me to make certain improvements, and to pay the expense of the same out of the proceeds of the sales of city lots belonging to the government. All the government lots that could command a purchaser have been sold. The few remaining lots are so situated that they would not bring their very low assessed nominal value. I could not, when recently offered at public sale, obtain a purchaser for them at any price.

The improvements provided for in the sections to which I have asked your attention are indispensable, and as the source from which the means to pay for them were to flow has dried up, it strikes me that there is no alternative but for the government to make a small annual appropriation for the purpose.

The great nuisance heretofore complained of as occasioned by the centre market-house has in some respects been mitigated. Commodious sheds have been erected in the rear of the market-house, on Canal street, for the accommodation of venders, and consequently the misshapen shanties which used to disfigure Pennsylvania avenue have been removed. Wagons and other vehicles which attend market are no longer permitted to occupy and obstruct the avenue, and it is now free of the litter they produce, which, for a series of years, had been complained of as an abominable nuisance. But the old whitewashed, moss covered market-house still remains to mar the beauty of the avenue and to excite the wonder of strangers that such an unsightly building should be permitted to occupy so conspicuous a position. Unless the corporation shall soon make provision to have it taken down and to erect in its stead some more appropriate and imposing building, the government ought, in my opinion, to resume control of the reservation, and not suffer it any longer to be occupied as a market place.

The time is at hand when the work of extending the Capitol grounds ought to be commenced. The extent to which they should be enlarged is a matter for Congress to determine, and therefore it does not become. me to express any preference between the various plans that have been suggested. I may, however, be permitted to express a hope that some plan will be adopted in the early part of the approaching session, and an appropriation made to carry it out, so that the work may be commenced as soon as the spring opens.

It is well known that a great number of strangers are attracted to this city in pursuit of different objects. Many of them are taken sick, and not a few are destitute of the means of procuring the necessaries of life and medical treatment. It would be unjust for the city to be saddled with the expense of taking care of this class of persons. To provide for its own destitute sick is as much as can be expected of it. Congress, actuated by a humane and benevolent spirit, annually makes an appropriation for the admission of eighteen sick non-resident

paupers in the Washington Infirmary, where they are well provided with every necessary comfort, good nurses, and skilful physicians. It will be perceived, on reference to the report of the resident physician, hereto appended, that during the year ending the 30th of June last, one hundred and nineteen patients were medically treated in this institution on the charity of the government, of which number eightynine were discharged as cured or improved, only eleven died, and nineteen still remained under treatment. It is useless to make any comments upon this report. It tells for itself of the great amount of human suffering relieved and of human life preserved. This field of benevolence might be greatly enlarged by an increased appropriation, as I have vastly many more applications for admission than the number I have a right to send to the Infirmary. Judging from the favor with which this charity has heretofore been regarded by Congress, I have every reason to believe that the sphere of its usefulness will be cheerfully extended.

The drainage of the city is mainly accomplished above ground, and the consequence is, the streets are overflowed whenever there is a heavy fall of rain, from the incapacity of the gutters to receive and carry off the vast quantity of water that seeks an outlet through them. It is almost impossible to keep streets clean that are subject to be overflowed, and the sediment which is left in them when the water passes off soon becomes offensive to the smell on exposure to the sun. The fact is well established, that countries liable to inundation are generally sickly, owing to the alluvial deposits, and the same cause might reasonably be expected to produce disease in cities. Washington, however, seems to be an exception to the rule of induction, for, notwithstanding the frequent overflow of the streets from heavy rains, medical statistics prove beyond a doubt that it is one of the healthiest cities in the country. To obviate the inconvenience resulting from the overflowing of the streets, and to prevent the possibility of sickness arising from this cause, a judicious system of sewerage should be adopted and carried into effect. In most of our large cities great attention has been bestowed upon the arrangement and construction of sewers, and they have reaped the benefit of them in the purification of the atmosphere, and a corresponding improvement in health. The government has constructed several large sewers in this city and the corporation a like number, but still there is a great deficiency for the wants of the city. What has already been done in the way of sewerage is but the beginning of what is needed, and speedy attention should be given to the subject, not only for sanatory purposes, but to provide for the disposal of the greatly increased quantity of water that will be used for bathing, washing pavements, cleaning streets, and other similar objects, when the aqueduct shall have been finished, and shall introduce into the city an abundant supply from the Great Falls of the Potomac.

To construct the necessary sewerage will require a large outlay of money, and considering the interest the United States have in property in the city, it may be deemed but just that the government should bear a fair proportion of the expense. It is important that Congress

should take this matter into consideration at the approaching session, and provide in some way for its accomplishment.

I hereto append a statement of receipts and expenditures for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1857.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

Hon. JACOB THOMPSON,

Secretary of the Interior.

JNO. B. BLAKE, Commissioner.

Statement of receipts and expenditures under the direction of the Commissioner of Public Buildings, during the fiscal year ending June 30,

1857.