From Washington.
[special Correspondence of the Dispatch.] Washington, Jan. 30, 1861.
"This correspondence" went to the President's last night.
Actual contact with, or vision of, the Old Public Functionary (Defunctionary, they now call him,) did not occur.
On the contrary, this correspondence contained itself by leaning on a door near the ante-chamber, in which the Marine Band was tooting bad music, and watching the mass of various and ill- favored humanity as it slowly circled round the East Room, like dumplings round a boiling pot. 'Tis a ridiculous spectacle.
All the men strut loftily along, trying to look as much like Congressmen as possible, and all the women hanging on their arms make it a rule to gaze into their escorts' faces with an insensate grin, as if they were excessively delighted at nothing.
Having seen a number of plump white necks and too many jagged shoulder-blades, this correspondence vamoosed the ranche.
It is Jos. C. G. Kennedy, and not John P., as I telegraphed you, who is at the head of the Census Bureau, employing the clerks' time and the people's money in sending Clemens' and other such speeches to Virginia.--Kennedy doesn't stand very high among Southern men. Some years ago Solon Borland broke his nose on account of his impertinence.
Lord Lyons declares that if the Morrill tariff and force bill passes, England will at once recognize the Southern Confederacy.
It stands to reason that free ports should command the mercantile navy of the commercial world.
The late Union was bothersome enough, but how will it be with this new tariff and the Pacific and Homestead bills ?--The Border States can't stand it. It is out of the question.
I think there must be some mistake about Mr. Tyler's believing an honorable adjustment of our difficulties being near at hand.--He did not so express himself to me. Colfax denies that Lincoln has written conciliatory letters.
Much to the disgust of Messrs. Everett and Winthrop, the Massachusetts delegation have united in a message to the Legislature of their State, urging them to send Commissioners here on the 4th of February.
Republicans will be sent, and of course they will not carry out the compromise views of the Everett party.
But the Tribune is in great fright about the prospect of a compromise.
I hear from an intimate acquaintance of Seward that the Republicans will never agree to Crittenden's amendment.
A new penny evening paper, the Confederation, is to be started.
It will be the organ of Buchanan.
I saw a beautiful illustration of ‘"free labor,"’ as I went up to the Capitol yesterday, to wit: a white boy blacking Bean Hickman's boots in open day and on the street, where everybody was passing.
The Bean is in nothing changed.
With his face withered and wrinkled like a frosted crab-apple, his cold glittering eye, and his gouty feet, knotted and gnarled like the roots of a black jack tree, he presents a singular picture.
Besides the stray quarters and halves which he picks up here and there, he has a regular annual allowance from a relative, enough to enable him to live in comfort.
He carries a gold-headed cane and a twenty dollar piece in his pocket, to show his independence.
But at the same time he wears the most ancient and obsolete clothes.
Inwardly and outwardly, he is a strange compound.
Saw Southern in ‘"Suspense,"’ on Monday night. It is an intensely French play.
Woman fond of finery and untrue to her husband.
Two lovers.
Husband comes back from sea, kills both lovers, shocks his wife to death, drowns himself in the ocean, and leaves nobody alive but an old woman, who is obliged to die very soon.
Very neat and complete conclusion.
Zed. 