Washington Telegraph

City of Mexico.—An Albany D— has a description of this far-famed city which for richness and grandeur has no parallel in the New World, and very few in the Old.

The situation of the city is the most picturesque imaginable, occupying the bottom of a valley containing sixteen hundred square miles, the whole surrounded by a battlement of mountains ranging from two to ten thousand feet in height. In the centre of this vast oval basin is a lake, or rather a chain of lakes, through the midst of which the road passes for about eighteen miles on a raised causeway, and over which an army will have to feel its way with artillery. The city stands in the north eastern quarter of the valley, not more than three miles from the mountains, at an elevation of seven thousand four hundred and seventy feet. The plan of the city was laid, and the greater portion of the public buildings designed, by Cortez. The principal square is the pride of the Mexicans and the admiration of travellers. It has an area of twelve acres—the whole paved with the most beautiful marble, and forming one of the most glorious parade grounds that American soldiers were ever summoned to manoeuvre or encamp on. But it is the public buildings, after all, that form the distinguished characteristic of this majestic and opulent city.

The cathedral fills one whole side of the great square, the palace another, and the sites of both are memorable and historical: the cathedral standing on the ground where once stood the great idol temple, and the palace on the ground of Montezuma! The latter building is 200 feet long, and contains the public offices, besides the apartments of the President. The cathedral is of striking Gothic architecture, and after all the pressures and plunderings of these latter days still retains immense wealth.

The high altar is covered with plates of silver interspersed with ornaments of massive gold. This altar is enclosed with a balustrade a hundred feet long, not less precious than the high altar itself. It is composed of an amalgam of gold, silver and copper, richly flourished and figured. It is said that an offer has been made to purchase it at its weight in silver, giving half a million of dollars besides. Of this balustrade there are not less in the building than 500 feet. Statues, vases, and huge candlesticks of the precious metals, meet the eye everywhere; and yet it is said that the still more precious portion is hid from the popular eye. Such is a brief description of the city of Mexico.