Pennsylvania, one of the United States of North America, and, in point of manufactures, the most important in the Union. As now limited, it extends from 39.43. to 42.16. of north latitude, and from 74.35. to 80.31. of longitude west from Greenwich. It is bounded on the north by New York; on the east and north-east by the river Delaware, which separates it from New Jersey; on the south-east by the state of Delaware; on the south by Maryland and part of Virginia; and on the west by the latter state and part of that of Ohio. Darby, in his Geographical View, makes its greatest length to be 315 American statute miles, and its greatest breadth 176 miles, thus comprehending an area of about 47,000 square miles, or 30,080,000 statute acres. The most prominent natural features which strike the eye at the first glance of a map of Pennsylvania are the mountains. Scarcely any part of it is entitled to be called level; and it may be doubted whether a more widely diversified region exists upon the face of the earth, or one of similar area in which the vegetable and mineral productions are more numerous. The Appalachian range in the United States generally extends in a direction deviating not very essentially from the south-west to the north-east; but in Pennsylvania the whole chain is deflected from that course, and traverses the state in a serpentine direction. Towards the southern boundary, the mountains run nearly north-north-east, but gradually incline more easterly as they penetrate northward; and in the central counties many of the chains run nearly east and west. But as they approach the northern limits of the state they again gradually incline to the north-east, and enter New York and New Jersey nearly in that direction. The principal ridges are the Blue Mountains, behind which, and nearly parallel with them, are other smaller ridges. On the west side of the Susquehannah are the Kittatinny ridges, which are succeeded by the great Alleghany ridge, the largest of all, and which gives name to the whole system. West of these mountains, Pennsylvania consists of hill, dale, and plains, having a surface not unlike to that of New England. In respect to surface, this state is divisible into three natural sections, viz. first, a small but important hilly tract between the marine alluvium and the lower ridges of the Appalachian system, which is called the eastern section, and comprises 7869 square miles; secondly, the mountainous or middle section, comprising 25,189 square miles; and, thirdly, the western or hilly section, comprising 13,942 square miles. The highest peaks of the Alleghanies are elevated from 2000 to 3000 feet above the level of the sea. This middle region, chiefly occupied by Germans, presents all varieties of scenery, the grand, rugged, and romantic, blending with the sheltered, the beautiful, and the cultivated. Some of the mountains admit of cultivation almost to their summits, and the valleys between them are in general rich and fertile.

The principal rivers are the Delaware, the Susquehanna, Schuylkill, Lehigh, Alleghany, Monongahela, Ohio, Juniatta, Youghiogheny, and Clarion, formerly called Toby's Creek. The Susquehannah is the largest Atlantic river of the United States. It rises in the state of New York, near the sources of the Mohawk, and, flowing in a south-westerly direction, enters Pennsylvania, but afterwards bends its course back into New York. Still seeking an outlet to the west, it returns into Pennsylvania, and receives the Tioga River, the West Branch, and the Juniatta. These accumulated waters swell it to a broad stream, which, passing Harrisburgh, enters Maryland, and finds its estuary in Chesapeake Bay, at Havre-de-Grace, after a course, measuring its curves, of more than five hundred miles. It has a number of tributaries, the largest of which is the Juniatta. This stream has its origin in the Alleghanies, from two large branches which rise a little above Huntingdon. The united river divides again, and by two mouths enters the Susquehannah fourteen miles above Harrisburgh. Lehigh is an important branch of the Delaware. It finds its way through several hills, and, amongst others, through the Blue Ridge. After passing the Moravian towns and a beautiful country, it falls into the Delaware at Easton. The canals have enabled the great cities to avail themselves of the rich and exhaustless coal-beds near its banks. Schuylkill rises amongst the mountains of Schuylkill county, and, winding through a rich country, and the towns of Reading and Pottstown, supplying Philadelphia with water in its course, it falls into the Delaware about seven miles below the commercial metropolis of Pennsylvania. It has a long course; and the locks and canals have rendered it navigable, so that the immense beds of anthracite coal at its head sources are rendered available to Philadelphia and the country on the coast. Besides these main streams, Pennsylvania is watered by numerous large creeks and rivulets to as great a degree as any equal extent of country in the United States. Many of these, besides irrigating and fertilizing the rich interior of the state, likewise furnish admirable water power.

The soil of Pennsylvania is much diversified. In some parts it is barren, but a great proportion of it is fertile, and not a little very excellent. West of the mountains the soil of the first quality is a deep black mould, equal in fertility to that of any part of the United States. Pennsylvania is emphatically a grain country, wheat being the most important article of produce. Indian corn, rye, buck-wheat, barley, oats, flax, hemp, beans, peas, and potatoes, are also extensively cultivated; thus, with the exception of rice, embracing all the cerealia raised in the United States. From the difference of level in the state, it admits a great diversity of other vegetable productions. Amongst fruits, apples, cherries, pears, peaches, and plums are abundant. Of indigenous forest-trees there is equal variety, including hemlock, pine, hickory, walnut, wild cherry, locust, maple, chestnut, mulberry, oak, gum, sassafras, elm, and poplar. Grapes are common, and the wild plum and crab-apple abound. In some counties foreign grapes have been advantageously cultivated, and wine and brandy of good quality have been made from them, but not to any extent. The sugar maple in the western and northern parts of the state is abundant, and sugar is made from it in sufficient quantity to supply the home consumption. Many parts of the state produce fine meadow-grass, and in these the products of the dairy are abundant. Pennsylvania is famous for its breed of draught horses; and nature has abundantly supplied the forests with game. Deer, turkeys, pheasants, and partridges, are numerous; and wild ducks are found in almost every stream. Wild geese, swans, and pigeons are migratory, and frequently found in large flocks. Bears, panthers, wild cats, wolves, and other original tenants of the forests, are more and more disappearing as settlement and cultivation extend. In the low grounds are found minks, musk-rats, and opossums; and snakes form a numerous tribe; but the bite of the rattlesnake and copperhead alone is deadly. In the eastern rivers are found rock-perch, bass, shad, and herring, which latter come from the sea in large shoals. In the western waters there is a species of cat-fish, weighing from fifty to a hundred pounds; and pike likewise of an enormous weight and size are found. Sturgeon are common to both these sections of the state. In the smaller streams trout, chub, sun-perch, mullet, white salmon, and other species of fish, are found in their several seasons.

Pennsylvania is very rich in minerals and metals. Iron ore is distributed throughout many parts of it, and the manufactures of iron are carried on to a greater extent than in any other state in the Union. Copper, lead, and alum appear in some parts; and limestone and marble, of the finest quality for the purposes of architecture and statuary, are abundant. In the middle counties anthracite, and in the western bituminous coal, are found in inexhaustible quantities. The bituminous coal-lands in Pennsylvania are estimated by a committee of the legislature of the state to comprehend an extent of 21,000 square miles, and the anthracite of 975 square miles. Since the opening of the anthracite coal trade in 1820, its average annual increase has been thirty-three per cent.; and the committee believe that it will continue to increase in the same ratio for some years to come.

During later years Pennsylvania has engaged very extensively in works of internal improvement, more so than any other state in the Union. The Pennsylvania Canal and Railroad, extending from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, forming a connected line of communication nearly 400 miles in length, claims particular attention as a most magnificent work. Railroads have been laid out on a very extensive scale, and numerous turnpike roads and bridges have been constructed in a superior style of excellence and durability. The first turnpike road in the United States was made in Pennsylvania. At the end of 1836 the state canals in operation extended 600 miles, and the state railways 120 miles. The canals constructed by incorporated companies extended 286 miles, and the railways 106 miles. Besides these, a great number of others were in course of construction, and many of them were far advanced towards completion.

The manufactures of Pennsylvania comprehend those of cotton, woollen, iron, leather, paper, glass, ropes, and various others which supply the demand for the luxuries as well as the necessaries of life. Flour and meal also constitute important articles in the trade of this state. In the year 1831 there were in the state 67 cotton-mills, having 120,810 spindles; and there were manufactured 21,332,467 yards of cloth, with 7,111,174 lbs. of cotton used. In connection with the iron manufactures there are a vast number of blast-furnaces, air-furnaces, forges, trip-hammers, rolling and slitting mills, and naileries. In the year 1831 there were one hundred steam-engines in Pittsburgh alone. In its iron manufactures Pennsylvania far excels every other state in the Union; and, after cotton, the next in importance are those of paper and leather. The coal trade of Pennsylvania promises to be of great importance to the state, and even to the whole Union. There are three anthracite coal-mines, those of Schuylkill, Lackawana, and Lehigh. The quantity of coal taken from the first-named mine in 1834 was 224,242 tons, from the second 106,500, and from the last-named 42,700. The Lehigh mines were first wrought in 1820, the Schuylkill in 1825, and the Lackawana so late as 1829. The whole quantity shipped from the three mines, from the time when they were first opened for the market, up to the 1st of January 1836, was 2,498,024 tons. The value of the exports and imports of Pennsylvania for the year ending 30th of September 1836 was as under: Value of imports in American vessels, 14,172,453; in foreign vessels, 895,780; total, 15,068,233 dollars. Value of exports of domestic produce, 2,627,651; of foreign produce, 1,343,904; total, 3,971,555 dollars. The number of vessels which entered Philadelphia during the preceding year was, American 348, their tonnage being 68,177; and foreign sixty-eight, their tonnage being 10,816; total, 416 vessels, of 78,993 tons burden. Ship-building is carried on to a considerable extent in Pennsylvania. For the year ending 1836 there were seventy-four vessels built, their tonnage being 10,214.

The financial concerns of the state stand thus:

Receipts for the year 1836..................4,000,437-64 dollars. Payments ditto...............................3,675,638-11

Balance in the treasury......................324,799-53

The public debt, relating chiefly to public improvements, was 24,970,762; and the public property, consisting principally of public works and of bank stock, was 29,106,801 dollars. From this statement it appears that the value of the property belonging to the state exceeds the amount of debt by 4,136,039 dollars. On the 1st of December 1836, the number of banks in Pennsylvania was fifty; and the capital authorized, 59,658,482 dollars; a return which, however, was not believed to be complete, though it may be considered as nearly correct. In November 1835 there were only forty-four banks, the condition of which is thus stated: Specie 3,876,868, circulation 10,982,023, deposits 13,347,977, capital 18,858,482 dollars. The amount received for postage in 1834 was 343,406 dollars, which is about 87,000 lower than that of New York, but double the sum for postage received in any other state.

The ecclesiastical statistics of Pennsylvania for the year were as follows: Presbyterians, 475 churches; Methodist Episcopal church, 252 ministers; Evangelical Lutheran church, 312 places of public worship; German Reformed church, 150 ditto; Baptists, 157 ditto; Friends, 150 ditto; Roman Catholics, fifty-six ditto; Church of the United Brethren, eleven ditto; Associate Presbyterian church, twelve ditto; Reformed Dutch church, eight ditto; New Jerusalem church, seven ditto; Unitarians, five ditto; and the Universalists, one convention. The Lutherans, the German Reformed, the Friends, and the United Brethren, are more numerous in this state than in any other. With the exception of the Friends, whose spiritual teachers are not allowed any salary if they are at all able to support themselves without it, the ministers of religion, in general, are supported by voluntary subscriptions, contributions, and rents of pews. The facilities of receiving education in Pennsylvania are very great. The state has made grants of money and land at different times to colleges and academies, the gross amount of which is estimated at 485,000 dollars. In the year 1837, there were no less than ten colleges in Pennsylvania, besides law, medical, theological, and other schools. The university of Pennsylvania, founded in Philadelphia in the year 1755, is a highly respectable institution, embracing the departments of arts, medicine, natural science, and law. In the medical department there are seven professors, attended by above four hundred students. According to an official document published in 1837, eight of the academies which have received aid from the state report their having eight hundred and forty-one students, and a hundred and sixteen graduates, in 1836. The funds were estimated at 333,000 dollars, of which sum the property of the university of Pennsylvania alone amounts to 186,000. In three of the libraries there were 11,200 volumes. The university of Pennsylvania itself, however, possesses 44,000 volumes. There are a great number of academies and common schools, both these kinds of institutions having received considerable aid from the state funds. By the new school-laws of the state, which were passed in 1835, each county is left to determine by its votes whether it will entitle itself to the aid of the public fund, by assuming a certain proportion of the expense. The whole number of districts, according to the report already mentioned, is 987, and the number of common schools 3349. The city and county of Philadelphia constitute a school district, and are not included in the above statements. By the last annual report it appears that above 11,000 children are taught at the expense of the country. The whole number of children in the state between the ages of five and fifteen is about 320,000; but the number of scholars in the common schools is only 150,838, so that education in Pennsylvania is still somewhat limited. But when the new laws relative to this important object shall have taken full effect, a decided improvement will no doubt take place. The principal literary seminaries in this state, besides the university at Philadelphia, are, Dickinson College at Carlisle; Jefferson College at Canonsburgh; Washington College at Washington; Western University at Pittsburgh; Allegheny College at Meadville; Madison College at Union Town; Mount Airy College at German Town; the Theological seminaries at Gettysburgh, York, and Alleghany Town; and the Moravian schools at Bethlehem, Nazareth, and Lititz. By the will of a wealthy citizen of Philadelphia, who died in 1831, a fund of two millions of dollars (to be augmented, if necessary, by rents of real property, and residuary personal estate) has been appropriated for the establishment of a college for the education of orphan children. There are other benevolent institutions in the cities and towns of Pennsylvania, such as the necessities of a populous manufacturing country require; but being similar to those of New York and other large cities, they need not be particularly specified. Philadelphia is celebrated for the extent of its establishments in connection with the diffusion of knowledge. Paper-making, printing, and publishing, are carried on with great enterprise; and a vast number of gazettes, periodicals, monthlies, and quarterlies, are issued. "This city, besides, vies with Boston," says Mr. Flint, "in the number and extent of its school and classical books. If Boston publishes, as regards material and execution, more substantially, Philadelphia publishes cheaper, a circumstance often as important in the extension of its books." Boston had the honour of publishing the first newspaper in the British colonies in America, which appeared in 1704. Philadelphia followed in 1719; and since that time they have multiplied in Pennsylvania more rapidly than in any other state, with the exception of New York. In the year 1834, there were published two hundred and twenty newspapers, of which thirteen were daily papers; and the number of periodical journals, of various kinds, amounted to thirty-two.

The population of the counties and county towns of Pennsylvania in 1830 was as follows:

| Counties | Population | County Towns | Population | |----------------|------------|------------------|------------| | Adams | 21,379 | Gettysburgh | 1,473 | | Berks | 53,357 | Reading | 5,859 | | Bucks | 45,740 | Doyleston | 1,262 | | Chester | 50,908 | West Chester | 1,258 | | Cumberland | 29,218 | Carlisle | 2,523 | | Delaware | 17,361 | Chester | 848 | | Dauphin | 25,303 | Harrisburgh | 4,311 | | Franklin | 35,103 | Chambersburgh | 2,794 | | Lehigh | 22,266 | Allentown | | | Lancaster | 76,558 | Lancaster | | | Lebanon | 20,546 | Lebanon | 7,704 | | Montgomery | 39,404 | Norristown | 1,826 | | Northampton | 39,267 | Easton | 1,089 | | Perry | 14,257 | New Bloomfield | 3,529 | | Philadelphia | 108,503 | Philadelphia | 167,811 | | Pike | 4,843 | Milford | | | Schuylkill | 20,783 | Orwigsburgh | 773 | | Wayne | 7,663 | Bethany | 327 | | York | 42,658 | York | 4,216 |

Western District

| Alleghany | 37,964 | Pittsburgh | 12,542 | | Armstrong | 17,625 | Kittanning | 1,620 | | Beaver | 24,206 | Beaver | 914 | | Bedford | 24,536 | Bedford | 870 | | Bradford | 19,669 | Towanda | | | Butler | 14,683 | Butler | 580 | | Cambria | 7,079 | Ebensburgh | 270 | | Centre | 18,765 | Bellefonte | 699 | | Clearfield | 4,803 | Clearfield | | | Columbia | 20,049 | Danville | | | Crawford | 16,005 | Meadville | 1,070 | | Erie | 16,906 | Erie | 1,329 | | Fayette | 29,237 | Uniontown | 1,341 | | Greene | 18,028 | Waynesburgh | | | Huntingdon | 27,159 | Huntingdon | | | Indiana | 14,251 | Indiana | 433 | | Jefferson | 2,225 | Brookville | | | Luzerne | 27,304 | Wilkesbarre | 2,233 | | Lycoming | 17,637 | Williamsport | | | McKean | 1,439 | Smithport | | | Mercer | 19,731 | Mercer | 656 |

1 Without the city of Philadelphia. The total population of Pennsylvania amounted in 1830 to 1,347,672, of whom 403 were slaves. The inhabitants are principally descended from the English, Welsh, Irish, Scotch, and Germans; besides Swedes, French, and a few Dutch. The language, in general, is English, but in many of the counties the German prevails to a considerable extent. The character of the Pennsylvanians is somewhat diversified by difference of extraction and variety of the modes of education, but this is chiefly in minor points. The law regarding aliens provides that their friends may purchase lands, tenements, and hereditaments within this commonwealth, not exceeding five thousand acres, and may have and hold the same as fully as any natural-born citizen. Such persons may also acquire, take, hold, and dispose of real estate by descent or devise, in as full and ample a manner as the citizens of the state.

The commercial capital of Pennsylvania is Philadelphia; but the political metropolis is Harrisburgh, pleasantly situated on the eastern bank of the river Susquehannah, nearly one hundred miles west from Philadelphia. At this place there is erected a covered bridge of twelve arches over the river, the construction of which cost nearly two hundred thousand dollars. The Pennsylvania Canal passes along the eastern side of the town, and forms a large basin for a harbour. Harrisburgh is regularly laid out and well built, consisting chiefly of brick. The capitol is a spacious and elegant edifice, situated on a considerable elevation on the outside of the town. The other public buildings are, a county court-house, a jail, two or three banks, a large Lancasterian school-house, about twelve places of public worship, and a number of printing offices, from six of which newspapers are issued, two of them in the German language. It has also a steam-mill, with a variety of manufacturing establishments, and is a place of considerable trade. Fifty or sixty years ago Harrisburgh was a wilderness inhabited by savages. It is now the capital of the second state in importance in the North American Union, with a population which in 1838 may be estimated at between six and seven thousand souls.

Lancaster, the capital of the richest and most fertile county in the state, is delightfully situated near Conestoga Creek, which falls into the Susquehannah sixty-two miles west from Philadelphia. It is a very healthy and flourishing city, and carries on an extensive trade with the surrounding country. The houses are well built; and amongst the numerous public edifices may be mentioned Franklin College, which was founded in 1787. There are churches, banks, schools, literary and charitable societies, sufficient for the wants of the inhabitants; and eight or nine newspapers are published in the English, and four or five in the German language. The inhabitants are mostly of German descent, and many speak the language of the land from which they sprung; but the English predominates. There are in Lancaster seventeen distilleries, and several tan-yards, breweries, and potteries. This town was laid out in the year 1730, and became early celebrated for the excellency of its stockings, saddles, and guns; it is still famous for its rifles, and the number and excellence of the stage-coaches built there. The population in 1838 was estimated at about 9000. Lat. 3. 40. N. and long. 76. 10. west from Greenwich.

Reading, also in the centre of a fine agricultural country, is situated on the east bank of the Schuylkill, and contains a number of public buildings. Being connected with Philadelphia by the line of the Pennsylvania Canal, its trade is rapidly advancing, and manufactures are also increasing. Many fine mills have been established in the vicinity, there being an ample command of water-power. The population of Reading in 1838 was reckoned at about 7500. Carlisle is an interior post-town, sixteen miles west from Harrisburgh, and 116 west from Philadelphia. It is pleasantly situated, and regularly laid out, being built chiefly of stone and brick, and it enjoys considerable trade. Dickinson College, founded here in 1783, is a flourishing institution. This town has rapidly increased, and the population in 1838 was about six thousand. Chambersburgh is situated ninety miles west from Philadelphia. The stream on which it stands furnishes water-power for many manufactories, of which the town already contains a considerable number. Blue-stone, free-stone, and marble, abound in the vicinity; and it has turnpike communications with Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Pittsburgh. The population in 1838 was estimated at above 4000. York is situated on Codorus's Creek, eighty-five miles west from Philadelphia. It is in the centre of a fertile and beautiful country, and is a handsome town, containing a number of public buildings, and a population in 1838 of above 6000. Bethlehem, Easton, Lebanon, and New Bloomfield, are all towns more or less in a flourishing state, and containing from 4000 to 8000 inhabitants.

Pittsburgh, the capital of the western district of Pennsylvania, is situated in a beautiful plain on a point of land where the Alleghany and Monongahela unite to form the river Ohio. The site of the town was early regarded as very important, and was selected by the French for Port du Quesne, one of the principal fortified places in the great chain of posts which was to connect Canada with Louisiana. It was the scene of more than one battle, and before this place Washington gained his first laurels. The name was afterwards changed to Fort Pitt, and finally to Pittsburgh. A considerable town soon rose around the fort; but the Indian wars, and the troubles of the western country, prevented its rapid growth until 1793, although the present Pittsburgh was commenced in 1765. It is now, in the extent of its manufactures, the only rival of Cincinnati in the west; and in population, wealth, and importance, it is next to that city, and the third in the valley of the Mississippi. In general the town is well built, some of the streets being handsome, and the public buildings spacious; but the whole has a gloomy or dingy aspect, from the dust and smoke of the pit-coal used in the manufactories and houses. The coal is found in the neighbourhood in inexhaustible quantities, and is easily obtained. Pittsburgh is well provided with houses of public worship for various sects, and has a public library, several banks, and a theatre. The manufacturing establishments are probably more numerous and extensive than in any other town in America in proportion to its population. In its manufactures it resembles Birmingham in England, those carried on upon a great scale being ironmongery of every description, steam-engines, and iron work in general; cutlery of all descriptions; glass and paper, cotton and woollens, pottery, chemical preparations, tin and copper ware, all which are produced to the value of 3,000,000 of dollars annually. Boat and steam-boat building have been pursued here on a greater scale than in any other town in the western country. The market is abundantly supplied, but the cost of articles is much higher than in the towns farther west on the Ohio. At low stages of the water flat and keel-boats cannot always descend the river from Pittsburgh, which circumstance diverts to Wheeling a part of the travel to the western country; still a great part of it centres at Pittsburgh, and, in high stages of the water, steam-boats are continually arriving and departing. Pittsburgh has immense advantages in point of artificial as well as natural water communications. The great Pennsylvania Canal terminates here, and others connect it with various parts of the country. The inhabitants are a mixed race of Germans, Irish, English, Scotch, French, Swiss, and many other nations, and are distinguished for industry and economy. The Western University, founded here in the year 1820, is a thriving institution; and there are, besides, a number of seminaries of education, and benevolent societies. The suburbs of Pittsburgh are Alleghany Town, Northern Liberties, Birmingham, and Lawrenceville. Pittsburgh is the seat of justice for the county of Alleghany, and is situated in latitude 40° 32' north, and longitude 88° west from Greenwich. The population of Pittsburgh, including the suburbs, may be estimated at nearly 30,000.

The following observations by Mr Flint will serve to convey an idea of the importance of this state, and the rapid advances which it has made, and is still making.

"A single fact from the census of 1830 will illustrate the vigorous advance of this great state in population and importance. The aggregate increase of twenty-eight towns is sixty per cent. In 1829, 297,206 barrels of wheat flour, 39,523 of rye flour, and 1609 hogsheads and 6433 barrels of corn meal, were inspected in Philadelphia." In fact, "it spreads a wide surface in the Ohio valley, rapidly advancing in wealth and population. New towns are springing up in every direction. It abounds in all the elements of wealth and power. Public opinion has given it a strong impulse towards manufactures, and a gigantic system of internal improvements. Its inhabitants, though composed of all nations, are distinguished for their orderly habits, industry, and sober progress of thrift, and a sturdy spirit of political independence. The passing stranger, as he traverses the state, is struck with the noble roads and public works, with the beautiful German farms, and their magnificent and imperishable stone houses, and often still more magnificent stone barns. An agricultural country, alike charming and rich, spreads under his eye. He not only passes many handsome towns, but is surprised with the frequent recurrence of neat and populous villages, the names of which he had met in no itinerary or gazetteer. He sees a country of immense agricultural resources."

Pennsylvania was originally settled by a Swedish colony, which went over in the year 1638, under the government and protection of Sweden. The Dutch and Finns had likewise settled on the river Delaware, previously to the British conquest of the New Netherlands in the year 1664. In 1682, the celebrated William Penn founded a colony here, having obtained a charter from Charles II, which put him in possession of the soil and the government of the country. In the following year emigration to Pennsylvania from Wales commenced, the colonists purchasing a large extent of land, and calling the several settlements after favourite places in their native country. The Indian right was respected by William Penn, whose sense of justice induced him to make an equitable purchase from the aborigines, notwithstanding his charter; and the same policy was pursued by the constituted government after the American revolution, when the state of Pennsylvania made new purchases from the native proprietors at a fair price, and in open treaty, in the year 1784. Although the state of Pennsylvania might have considered the proprietary claims as a royalty to which the independent government could lawfully succeed, yet, as a peculiar acknowledgment of the merits and claims of William Penn and his family, the legislature offered to confirm the heirs of Penn in the title to the manor lands, which were ten per cent. of all the surveyed lands in the province, and to grant them a sum of L130,000, which offer was accepted. This was a liberal compensation for revolutionary losses, considering that, in the year 1712, William Penn had offered to the queen of England the government and soil of the province for the sum of L12,000; and the transference would have taken place had not an apoclectic attack rendered him incapable of completing the legal claim. A litigated question with the neighbouring state of Connecticut, touching the right of territory in the northern part of Pennsylvania, was in dependence, from the year 1750, for more than seventy years, when the public and private rights to the soil were settled in favour of this state, under conciliations and restrictions, determined by special acts of the Pennsylvania legislature, and the decisions of the supreme court of the United States. The seat of the state government was transferred from Philadelphia to Lancaster in the year 1799; and the progress of improvement and population caused it in 1812 to be removed to Harrisburgh, where handsome buildings are erected for the accommodation of the legislature and the officers of the government.

From the beginning of the eighteenth century until the commencement of the American revolution, the government was generally administered by deputies appointed by the proprietors, who were mostly resident in England. The first constitution of Pennsylvania was adopted in 1776, and the present constitution in 1790. The legislative power is vested in a general assembly, consisting of a senate and house of representatives. The representatives are elected annually on the second Tuesday in October, being apportioned according to the number of taxable inhabitants. The number cannot be less than sixty, nor more than a hundred. The senators are chosen for four years, one fourth being elected annually at the time of the election of the representatives. Their number cannot be greater than one third, nor less than one fourth, of the number of the representatives. The executive power is vested in a governor, who is elected by the people on the second Tuesday in October, and who holds his office during three years from the third Tuesday in December next following his election; and he cannot hold the office more than nine years in any term of twelve years. The general assembly meets annually at Harrisburgh on the first Tuesday in December, unless sooner convened by the governor. The judicial power is vested in the supreme court, courts of common pleas, an orphan's court, a register's court, a court of quarter sessions of the peace for each county, and in such other courts as the legislature may from time to time establish. The judges of the supreme court, and the several courts of common pleas, are appointed by the governor, and hold their offices during good behaviour. The right of suffrage is possessed by every freeman of twenty-one years of age who has resided in the state two years immediately preceding an election, and within that time paid a state or county tax, assessed at least six months before the election. It may be mentioned, in conclusion, that on the 2d of May 1837, a convention met at Harrisburgh, for the purpose of amending the constitution. What alterations were then made does not appear, but it is not probable that the essential features of the constitution have been materially changed. (n. n. n.)