BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 195
United States had been achieved, he again went abroad ; allured, like hundreds
of his countrymen, by the brilliant prospects that then began to dawn. He
had previously visited all the States, and published the result of his observations
in a now scarce volume, entitled “A View of North America,” etc. The
profession of a land-surveyor, in which he now engaged, afforded facilities that
were at once made available when Congress determined to proceed with the
building of the city. He had submitted his ideas to Washington himself prior
to 1799, and they were unanimously adopted by Congress, which decreed that
the plan of the city (by a French officer) should be marked out on the ground.
The great tide of emigration has long since continued to roll to the far West,
and left Washington in the words of Moore-
“ That famed metropolis, where fancy sees-
Squares in morasses, obelisks in trees ! ’’
Still the propriety of its being fixed where it was is creditable to the sagacity
of the individual who proposed it. His name was George Walker, the son of a
farmer at Sheardale, in the parish of Dollar, Clackmannanshire ; and having been
induced to purchase an extensive tract of land, including the Eastern Capital
and great part of the site, he reasonably anticipated that future grandeur of
the American metropolis which would have rewarded his enterprise, but which
has never been realised. We may close this episode by a quotation from a letter
written by Jefferson to Lord Buohan :-“ I feel a pride in the justice which
your lordship’s sentiments render to the character of my illustrious countryman-
Washington. The moderation of his desires, and the strength of his
judgment enabled him to calculate correctly, that the road to that glory which
never dies, is to use power for the support of the laws and liberties of our
country, not for their destruction ; and his will accordingly survive the wreck of
everything now living.”
No. CCXL.
MAJOR -GENERAL AYTOUN,
AND
THE DUC D’ANGOULEME.
TRIS Sketch, entitled “The Great and the Small,” was ‘published in 1797.
The Duc d‘Angouleme, then residing at Holyrood, constantly attended the
Saturday drills of the Royal Edinburgh Volunteers, whose uniform-blue with
red facings-very much resembled that of the French National Guards j and
