Februarv lS.--In the Senate yesterday the bill providing for the final settlement ot the claims of certain States for interest on tneIr l advances during the late war, was read the third time and passed. Some time was spent in Executive business. The Senate adjourn

 ed till Monday.

 In the House of Representatives yester- day the annual appropriation bill passed.-| The bill making appropriation for the pay l ment of sundry Revolutionary and other pen l sioncrs was considered in Committee of the 1 Whole. and some debate arose on different notifications, The bill was finally matured

 for its third reading, and the Committee ose

 and reported it to the House.

 1 Ihe Tarif.-Without being decisive, we l should say, that the vote in the House of

 Representatives, yesterday, to lay upon the table the bill reported by the Committee of Ways and Means, for reduction of the du- ties on imports, is strong indication of in- disposition on the part of the House to enter l upon the consideration of that subject at the present Session of Congress. Such decis- 1 ion may have been influenced, in some degree. l by considerations of form, or time, or cir

 cumstance but we entertain little expecta-

 ton, in the face of such decision, by so con

 siderable majority, [1O7 to 79,] of any de-

 cision in favor of general reduction of the duties on imports by the present Congress, either at this Session or the next.

 National Intelligencer, Feb. 9.

 From the Richmond Whig cf January 99. MT. Calhom.-A letter from Washington, published in the United States Gazette, of

 the 22d, speaking of Mir. Calhoun, ascribes to him the following, as his opinions, at thiS time. 1 No man has used more literally that indul-

 gence which some writer claims for experi-

 ence, than the Vice President. Yesterday an extra latitudinarian-tO-da day a li,ntarian Of 1 the strictest shool-now voting for the Tariff

 of 18l6-anOn. deDouncing the principle as oppressive and uncOnsttutional-when old ! enough to be Secretary of War, digesting, for

 the benefit of the Union, an immense system

 of improvements, which was to embrace its

 whole surface, and bring Boston and New

 Orleans into juxtapOsitiOn-when not quite old enough to the President, suffering himself to be convinced by MT. Tazewell, that the mighty fabric he had projected was unconsti- tutional! Pray, MT. Calhoun, where shall we have you? How shall we hold you

 From your opinions of to-day, how shall we

 know what they will be tomorrow

 "Mr. Calhoun's opinions, at this time. are

 represented by his friends to be friendly to a

 system of Internal Improvement by the Gen

 eral Government, under the regulation of

 sound judgement. He is also said to be de-

 cidedly in favor of renewal of the Charter

 of the Bank of the United States, and to have

 expressed himself decidedly against the lan-

 guage recently adopted byi the President in { reference to that important institution. It is

 further stated, that he is opposed to every

 proj ject for the distribution of the public lands,

 or of their proceeds. Such are the senti-

 ments which, according to rumOr of pretty

 authentic character. he entertains on these

 great topics. which are likely to divide and

 harass the country for some years to come." l A letter from Washington says-We are ! rapidly advancing to the season of business.

 and to that of excitement. What with the 1 ordinary legislation, the proposed modiica- ton of the Tariff, the appointments, the re- vision oftae military and naval establishments, the Court Martals, the Supreme Court. the drawing rooms, the soirees, the dinner parties, the tea parties, the theatre, dancing, counting, marrying, coquetting, flirting, scandalizing. and above all electioneering. ttere will be a continued hurricane here, until the 1st of May next, and few there are who do not re- quire insurance and assurance not to suffer by

 its avages.-Baltimore paper.

 Calls for Information have multiplied oflate

 exceedingly in Congress, and frequently em- ] bracing grOund that previous Congress had

 already travelled over. It is so easy and con-

 venient mode of getting at facts without the 1 trouble of investigation, that it tempts to abu

 ses. The trouble given unnecessarily in this

 way to the departments, is not triaing, and 1 the expense to the nation of printing and re- ! printing, from session to session, frequently

 the same thing, is very great. A Georgetown

 paper. edited by gentleman formerly clerk

 in the Navy Department. gives the following

 illustration of the labor and trouble occasion ed by call made in few lines, and when satisfied, leading to nothing. "Wc have known a clerk to be employed schOLe summer in preparing an answer to a call from Congress, and when finished. it oc- cupied less than one page cf letter paper. Few

 if any, who saw this report could form an

 idea of the time and labor consumed. The

 resolution to which we allude, called for

 statement of the expenses of all the Naval

 Courts Martial and Courts of Enquiry for

 certain number of years; to collect this, the ] records of the office were first searched, 10

 ascertain the number of courts, and the mem-

 bers composing them the accounts of every ] disbursing agent, as we'll as of each of these officers had then to be examined to ascertain

 the payments in each year. and although it

 might appear task very easily accomplished, it occupied, as we before stated, the time of One clerk a whole summer and was contained