CHAP. XXVII.] HOUSES OP LEGISLATURE. 123 



with lawyers who were attending the courts, and with 

 the principal merchants, and where they might have 

 access to good libraries, and be in daily communica 

 tion by steam with all parts of the State. In short, 

 they found that for the faithful discharge of their 

 task, they stood in need of a great variety of informa 

 tion which they could obtain nowhere so readily as 

 in the metropolis. Yet it seems never to have struck 

 them that our future law-makers might, with equal 

 profit to the State, derive knowledge from the same 

 sources.&quot; 



In the House of Representatives, English is spoken 

 exclusively, but in the Senate many were addressing 

 the House in French, and when they sat down an 

 interpreter rose and repeated the whole speech over 

 again in English. An orator was on his legs, main 

 taining that Baton Rouge had the best claims to be 

 come the future capital, a proposition soon afterwards 

 adopted by the majority. Another contended that 

 Donaldsonville ought to be the place, as it would suit 

 the convenience of 26,000 white male citizens, whilst 

 Baton Rouge would only favour the interest of 12,000. 

 This line of argument seemed to me to contain in it 

 an implied censure on the abandonment of New 

 Orleans, but that was no longer an open question. 

 When I afterwards saw the insignificant village of 

 Donaldsonville, I could not help being diverted at 

 the recollection of the inflated terms in which its fu 

 ture prospects had been dwelt upon. The speaker 

 said, &quot; He liked to lift the veil off the face of futurity 

 and contemplate the gigantic strides to wealth, popu 

 lation, and power, which that city was destined to 



G 2 



