city. The council accordingly assembled on the 28th of September, and Mr. Short, of Virginia, representing Mr. Jefferson (who was confined to his room by illness), went to the Hotel de Ville to present the bust, which Houdon had satisfactorily executed. The proceedings of the meeting were opened by M. Pelletier de Morfontaine, counsellor of state and Prévot des Marchands, by stating its object. M. Veytard, the chief clerk, read all the documents connected with the matter, after which M. Ethit de Corny, attorney-general and knight of the order of Cincinnatus, delivered an address, in which he recounted the services of Lafayette in America, the confidence of the army in him, and the attachment of the people to him. In his official capacity he then gave the requisite instructions for the reception of the bust, agreeably to the wishes of the king. It was accordingly placed in one of the galleries of the Hotel de Ville, where it remains to this day.

This was a most rare honor to be paid to a young man, only twenty-nine years of age. It was as unexpected to Lafayette as it was grateful to his feelings; and it was an additional link in the bright chain of memories and sympathies which bound him to this country.

Soon after his arrival in New York to assume the duties of the presidency, Washington imported a fine coach from England, in which, toward the close of the time of his residence there, and while in Philadelphia, he often rode with his family, attended by outriders. On these occasions it was generally drawn by four, and sometimes by six fine bay horses. The first mention of a coach, in his diary, in which he evidently refers to this imported one, is under the date of December 12, 1789, where he records as follows:

"Exercised in the coach with Mrs. Washington and the two children (Master and Miss Custis) between breakfast and dinner-went the fourteen miles round."

Previous to this he

mentions exercising in "a coach" (probably a hired one), and in "the post-chaise"-the vehicle in which he travelled from Mount Vernon to New York.

This coach was one of the best of its kind, heavy and substantial. The body and wheels were a cream color, with gilt mouldings; and the former was suspended upon heavy leathern straps which rested upon iron springs. Portions of the sides of the upper part, as well as the front and rear, were furnished with neat green Venetian blinds, and the remainder was enclosed with black leather curtains. The latter might be raised so as to make the coach quite open in fine weather.

The blinds afforded shelter from the storm while allowing ventilation. The coach was lined with bright black leather; and the driver's seat was trimmed with the same.

were wood, and the curved

reaches iron.

Upon the door Washington's arms were handsomely emblazoned, having scroll ornaments issuing from the space between the shield and the crest; and below was a ribbon with his motto upon it.

XITUS ACTA

The axles

Upon each of the four panels of the coach was an allegorical picture, emblematic of one of the seasons. upon copper by Cipriani, an Italian artist. The ground was a very dark green-so dark that it appeared nearly black; and the allegorical figures were executed in bronze, in size nine and a half by ten inches. One of them, emblematical of spring, is represented in the engraving.

EMBLAZONING ON WASHINGTON'S COACH.

These were beautifully painted

Washington and his family travelled from Elizabethtown to Philadelphia in this coach when on their way from New York to Mount Vernon, in the early autumn of 1789. Dunn, his driver, appears to have been quite incompetent to manage the six horses with which the coach was then drawn; and almost immediately after leaving Elizabethtown Point, he allowed the coach to run into a gully, by which it was injured. At Governor Livingston's, where they dined, another coachman

PICTURE ON A PANEL OF WASHINGTON'S COACH.

was employed. In a letter to Mr. Lear, written at a tavern in Maryland, while on his way to Mount Vernon, Washington said:

"Dunn has given such proof of his want of skill in driving, that I find myself under the necessity of looking out for some one to take his place. Before we reached Elizabethtown we were obliged to take him from the coach and put him on the wagon. This he turned over twice, and this morning he was found much intoxicated. He has also got the horses into the habit of stopping."

In a letter to Mr. Lear soon after arriving at Mount Vernon, Washington mentions the fact that he had left his coach and harness with Mr. Clarke, a coach-maker in Philadelphia, for repairs, and requests him to see that they are well done, when he shall reach that city, Mr. Lear being then in New York. David Clarke was an Englishman, and came over to Philadelphia about the year 1783. He constructed a travelling coach for the First President, and was sometimes called "Washington's coach-maker."

On the 31st of October, Washington again writes about his coach, in a letter to Mr. Lear. He appears to have had the emblazoning changed at that time, and instead of his entire coat-of-arms upon the doors, he had the crest only retained. He tells Mr. Lear that he thinks a wreath around the crests would better correspond with the seasons which were to remain on the panels, than the motto; and suggests that the motto might be put upon the plates of the harness. He leaves the whole matter, however, to the taste and judgment of Mr. Lear and the coach-maker.

This English coach was purchased by the late Mr. Custis, of Arlington, when the effects of the general were sold, after Mrs. Washington's death; and it finally became the property of the Right Reverend William Meade, now Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Virginia. Of this vehicle, the bishop thus writes:

"His old English coach, in which himself and Mrs. Washington not only rode in Fairfax county, but travelled through the entire length and breadth of the land, was so faithfully executed, that at the conclusion of that long journey, its builder, who came over with it, and settled in Alexandria, was