were in this state 290 academies, with 15,910 students; 4968 primary and common schools, with 179,989 scholars. There were 33,940 persons over twenty years of age, who could neither read nor write. "In the first school district, embracing the city and county of Philadelphia, the number of schools in 1843 was 215; of which, one is the high school, forty grammar schools, eighteen secondary, seventy-six primary, and eighty not classified. The whole number of teachers, including the professors of the high school, is 499; eighty-seven males, and 412 females. The aggregate amount of salaries is 136,843 dollars; average to each, 274 dollars 23 cents. The number of pupils is 33,384, exhibiting an increase of 5222 since the last report. A number of schools for coloured children are embraced in the above summary, which is taken from an abstract from the semi-annual returns. The expenses of the board of control for all purposes, except the erection and fitting-up of school houses, have been 288,766 dollars 66 cents for a year and a half; or an average of 192,511 dollars 18 cents per annum. This includes cost of tuition, fuel, books, stationery, and supplies of every description; also, the expenses of the secretary of the board and the comptroller, repairing school houses, and all the other items which are included by the auditors under the head of general expenses. Divide this sum by 33,384 (the total number of scholars,) and it will be seen that the annual average expense of each pupil for all the purposes above stated, has been 5 dollars 76 cents. The total amount of expenditure in 1842 was 255,852 dollars 92 cents. The expenditure from January the 1st to June the 30th, 1843, was 118,028 dollars 76 cents."-American Almanac. Religious Denominations.—In 1836, the Presbyterians, including the Associate Reformed, had about 400 ministers; the Baptists, 140; the Methodists, about 250; German Reformed, 73; Episcopalians, 70; and the Quakers, 150 congregations. There were several other denominations less numerous. The principal have gradually increased since that time. Public Works: Canals.-The canal from Philadelphia, including a railroad from Johnstown to Hollidaysburg, thirty-seven miles, over the Alleghany to Pittsburgh, is 400 miles long. There is a tunnel on the railroad 870 feet long, 200 feet below the top of the mountain. The Schuylkill Navigation canal extends 108 miles from Philadelphia to Port Carbon; the Union canal, eightytwo miles from Reading to Middletown; the Lehigh, eighty-four miles from Easton to Stoddartsville; the Lackawaxen, twenty-five miles from Delaware river to Honesdale; the Conestaga, eighteen miles from Lancaster to Safe Harbour; the Codorus, eleven miles from York to Susquehanna river; Bald Eagle, twenty-five miles from West Branch canal to Bellefonte; the Susquehanna, forty-five miles from Wrightsville to Havre de Grace, and several small canals.— U. S. Gaz. See also Debt and Finances of Pennsylvania, hereafter. Railroads.-The Columbia, eighty-one miles from Columbia to Philadelphia; Valley, twenty miles from Norristown to Columbia railroad; Harrisburg and Lancaster, thirty-five miles; Cumberland Valley, fifty miles from Harrisburg to Chambersburg; Westchester, ten miles from Columbia railroad to Westchester; Franklin, thirty miles from Chambersburg to Williamsport; York and Wrightsville, thirteen miles; Strasburg, seven miles from Cumberland Valley railroad to Strasburg; Philadelphia and Reading, ninety-five miles from Reading to Pottsville; Little Schuylkill, twenty-three miles from Port Clinton to Tamaqua; Danville and Pottsville, fortyfour miles and a half from Pottsville to Sunbury; Little Schuylkill and Susquehanna, 106 miles from Tamaqua to Williamsport; Beaver Meadow branch, twelve miles from Lardner's Gap to Beaver Meadow railroad; Williamsport and Elmira, seventy-three miles and a half between the two places; Corning and Blossburg, forty miles between the two places; Mount Carbon, seven miles and a quarter from Mount Carbon to Norwegian Creek; Schuylkill Valley, ten miles from Port Carbon to Tuscarora; branches of Schuylkill Valley, fifteen miles; Schuylkill, thirteen miles from Schuylkill to the Valley; Mill Creek, nine miles from Port Carbon to Coal Mine ; Mine Hill and Schuylkill Haven, twenty miles from Schuylkill Haven to Mine Hill Gap; Mauch Chunk, nine miles from Mauch Chunk to Coal Mine; branches of Mauch Chunk, sixteen miles; Room Run, five miles and a quarter from Mauch Chunk to Coal Mine; Beaver Meadow, twenty miles from Parrysville to Coal Mine; Hazelton and Lehigh, eight miles from Hazelton Mine to Beaver Meadow railroad; Nesquehoning, five miles from Nesquehoning Mine to Lehigh river; Lehigh and Susquehanna, nineteen miles and a half from Whitehaven to Wilkesbarre; Carbondale and Honesdale, seventeen miles and a half, connects the two places; Lykin's Valley, sixteen miles and a half from Broad Mountain to Millersburg; Pine Grove, four miles from Pine Grove to Coal Mine; Philadelphia and Trenton, twenty-six miles and a quarter from Philadelphia to Morrisville; Philadelphia, Germantown, and Norristown, seventeen miles from Philadelphia to Norristown; Germantown branch of ditto, four miles; Philadelphia and Wilmington, twenty-seven miles from Philadelphia to Wilmington.-U. S. Gaz. See also Debt and Finances of Pennsylvania, hereafter. PUBLIC DEBT, RESOURCES, AND FINANCES OF PENNSYLVANIA. The great extent of territory-being more than four times as large as Holland —the large number of the population, the fertility of the soil, the abundance of coal and iron, the navigable rivers and seaports of Pennsylvania, ought to render this state as rich and as honourable in fulfilling her public and private engagements as any country in the world. If we have extolled the dignified public and private integrity of Massachusetts, a state, the greater part of which is naturally barren -and of New York, and the other states north-east of the Delaware:-if we have in a former work described the public and private honour of the people of Holland, in all periods of their history, it is painful to be compelled to refuse that tribute of respect to the citizens of the country founded by William Penn. That there are among them, many who are as honourable and as virtuous as among the best people in the world, we readily admit, and we know that this is a fact. But let not the most honest or the most virtuous among them, soothe themselves with the belief, that they are not, by the world, classed with the delinquents. They may, on the contrary, rest assured, that a knowledge of the productive resources of the state they inhabit,—and of the power that the people have, by their suffrages, to pass honest laws, and to raise an adequate revenue, will, until they purge themselves of the obligations which they continue to refuse to fulfil, cause every citizen of Pennsylvania to be viewed with distrust,—and in the moral scale, far, immeasurably far, beneath the citizens of New England, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, and the other states, who have sacredly paid their debts. We have lately heard revived that which was nearly forgotten, that an unwillingness to pay was an early characteristic of the inhabitants,that they, from their defalcation in paying that which was more than due from them to the great and virtuous founder of the country, allowed him to suffer, in old age and infirmity, the bitter evils of poverty. We would, therefore, urge upon every father, upon every mother, among the citizens of this delinquent state, however virtuous they may be individually, to combine proudly and unceasingly, until they, by discharging that which is due by the whole to others, acquire an honest dignity among the nations of the earth. If they do not, although they may pay their individual debts, and live and die otherwise as virtuous men-as Christians-still the world will hereafter consider the children of the best among them, and their children's children, as the offspring of disreputable parents. We make these observations with no invidious feeling; we do so with sorrow, when we speak or write of the country planted by William Penn. We believe, however, that the state debt of Pennsylvania will be paid; and shall add nothing further, than a view of the Resources, Finances, and Debts of the state, which we have taken altogether from American statements and accounts. RESOURCES OF PENNSYLVANIA AND HER CREDIT. The following statement is contained in an article published (in 1841) in the "Harrisburg (Pennsylvania) Intelligencer," and presents various important facts, in reference to the resources and credit of the state. "The state of Pennsylvania is inhabited by 1,724,033 free people, industrious and enterprising. In 1790, the number was only 434,373. "We have more than 28,000,000 of acres of land, and under better cultivation than any in this union, and constantly improving. It is worth at least 700,900,000 dollars. We have more than 300,000 houses, worth 300,000,000 dollars; and barns, workshops, stores, furnaces, forges, factories, and mills, worth 200,000,000 dollars more. Nor has our public debt been contracted for nothing. Our railroads and canals extend, not only to our coal and iron mines, but are designed to connect the waters of the great lakes and the great Ohio and Mississippi valleys, with the waters of the Delaware and the Chesapeake. They intersect the state in every direction, from west to east and from north to south. Including state and company works, we have more than 1000 miles of canals and 700 miles of railroads completed, and in operation, and costing more than 100,000,000 dollars. Some portions of these works are not yet profitable, in consequence of the unfinished links, and yet the tolls will this year, on the state works of about 700 miles, exceed 1,000,000 dollars. "The value of the anthracite coal mines upon the Schuylkill, the Lehigh, the Swatara, the Wisconisco, the Shamokin, the Susquehanna, and the Lackawanna, which are but just beginning to pour down their mineral wealth to the markets upon the ocean, is incalculable. In 1820 the trade commenced, and 365 tons were sent to market from the Lehigh. In 1825 the trade commenced upon the Schuylkill. The Schuylkill canal was then finished. There are now about fifty-five miles of railroads, branching from the canal to the several mines, and forty-five miles of railroads under ground. About 1800 cars are employed in conveying the coal from the mines to the canal, and between 800 and 900 boats are used in conveying the coal to Philadelphia. The arrivals of vessels annually in the Schuylkill, for the conveyance of Schuylkill coal to other states, will number about 3100. 170 sloops, schooners, and barges, arrived in two days last week. The Schuylkill mines will this year produce more than 500,000 tons, and the other anthracite mining districts about the same quantity, making 1,000,000 tons, of which about 800,000 tons will be exported to other states. "The coal trade is yet in its infancy, and increasing rapidly. The use of anthracite coal in steamboats is taking the place of wood in the eastern waters, and will be used in the steamers of the ocean as the cheapest and safest fuel. It is also coming into use in driving machinery and making iron. The mines upon the Swatara are capable of producing as much as the Schuylkill, and so are those of the Lehigh, the Wisconisco, the Shamokin, and the Susquehanna; and the Schuylkill is capable of producing four times the amount that is now mined. Improvements will soon be completed in all these mining districts. What then will be the annual worth of the anthracite coal of Pennsylvania that will be carried upon her public works? "But we have not only anthracite, but, according to our state geologist, more bituminous coal than all Europe. Our state canals intersect this bituminous coal field in all directions. All Europe contains about 2000 square miles of bituminous coal land. Pennsylvania has 10,000 square miles, or 6,400,000 acres. It is estimated, by our state geologist, that the great western bituminous coal field of Pennsylvania contains three hundred thousand millions of tons! Ten thousand times more than England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland! "This vast mineral wealth, without the public improvements, would have been dead capital for ever. According to the returns of the county commissioners to the secretary of the commonwealth, there were mined, in 1838, in Pennsylvania, west of the Alleghany mountain, more than 2,000,000 tons of bituminous coal! Not one ton of this reached the Atlantic market. About nine-tenths of it was consumed in domestic purposes at home, in furnaces and rolling mills, and in driving machinery. One-tenth, or 200,000 tons, were shipped down the Ohio and the Mississippi. What this trade will be when the great valley is filled with population, wealth, and refinementwhen Western Pennsylvania becomes the manufacturing dependence of the western states-can hardly be conjectured. Nor is this great bituminous coal field entirely separated from the Atlantic. We have abundance of bituminous coal, the nearest in the United States, of any quantity, to tidewater. The Virginia and Maryland mines on the Potomac, are from 180 to 200 miles from sloop navigation at Georgetown. The completion last year of the tidewater canal from Havre-de-Grace, in Maryland, to the Pennsylvania canal at Columbia, has this year, for the first time, opened a navigation for the bituminous coal of the Juniata, and the west branch of the Susquehanna, to the Chesapeake. It is estimated that the trade will this year reach 100,000 tons. The amount is unlimited which can be sent from these places on our canals to market. A railroad has been constructed, forty miles long, from the northern end of our coal basin to Corning, on the Chemung canal of New York, leading into the Seneca lake. There are now six locomotives, and between 300 and 400 cars on this road, conveying coal from our Blosburg mines into the state of New York. "The quantity of iron produced in Pennsylvania is equal to about one-third of the product of the whole union. Her iron is superior in quality to any other. According to the remarks of the Hon. John Irvin, in a late speech in congress, we had, in 1839, 210 charcoal furnaces, producing 98,350 tons of pig metal, and 70,000 tons of this was converted into bar iron by forges and rolling mills. More than 15,000 workmen, together making 90,000 people with their families, consume annually 7,000,000 dollars, worth of agricultural produce and merchandise. The number has increased greatly since by the establishment of anthracite furnaces. "The amount of bar and pig iron is now worth about 7,000,000 dollars. According to the returns to the secretary of the commonwealth, there was manufactured, in 1838, 50,558 tons of castings in thirty-six counties, valued at 5,805,599 dollars. Add estimated value of cast iron in sixteen counties, at least 1,194,401 dollars, and the amount of bar, pig, and cast iron in Pennsylvania is worth 14,000,000 dollars. A considerable amount of Jersey iron is made into castings and rolled into bars in Philadelphia, and a quantity of the pigs of Western Virginia, Ohio, and Kentucky are made into castings and rolled into bars at Pittsburg. "Having now glanced at some of the sources of the great wealth of our state, we will enumerate the following items taken from the returns of the marshals in taking the late census, from the returns of the commissioners to the secretary of the commonwealth, and other sources. The returns of the marshals are much too low, owing to a neglect of duty on their part, and the great reluctance on the part of the people to answer the questions put to them, it being circulated, for party purposes, that it was a forerunner of direct taxation by the general government. We have, however, taken these returns for our calculations, in most instances. The amount of the products of the dairy, and also the value of lumber annually produced in Pennsylvania is so manifestly untrue, that we have taken the returns of the county commissioners to the secretary of the commonwealth as our authority. dollars. Value of land in Pennsylvania, including mines (28,000,000 acres)... 700,000,000 Value of barns, workshops, stores, taverns, forges, and factories Total real estate 300,000,000 200,000,000 100,000,000 1,300,000,000 "Here is real estate to the amount of 1,300,000,000 dollars. A tax of three per cent upon it would pay the 35,000,000 dollars of the public debt of Pennsylvania in a single year, and leave in the treasury 4,000,000 dollars besides. "The state has laid a tax, which is estimated by William B. Reed, an intelligent state senator from Philadelphia, to produce annually, 1,800,000 dollars; more than enough to pay the interest on our debt. The tolls on our public works will this year exceed 1,000,000 dollars, which sum, will from year to year increase, and the dividends, from bank stock, auctions, &c., will far more than defray the expenses of the government. Where, then, is the cause for alarm or despondency? Besides all this, the bill for the distribution of the proceeds of the public lands among the states must pass congress, and Pennsylvania will be entitled to a tenth of the whole. The quantity of public lands to which the Indian title is extinguished, after deducting the reserves to the new states, and which remains unsold, exceeds 220,000,000 of acres, and the quantity to which the Indian title has not yet been extinguished, exceeds 730,000,000 of acres. "The personal property in the state we shall not undertake to estimate. We select the following items, Neat cattle Sheep Swine Horses and mules 1,146,418 3,396,431 1,450,531 338,565 "Let us now look at the annual products of the state. We produce one-sixth of all the wheat in the union. "Thus it will be seen, that the annual products of the state exceed one hundred and sixty millions of dollars, one per cent on which will pay the interest of our state debt.* "To conclude, who does not feel proud of this picture of Pennsylvania? She has all the resources of a great nation within herself, for happiness in peace, for power in war. She is capable of maintaining 30,000,000 of people within her borders, of feeding and clothing them herself, and making the surrounding states her tributaries. Her water power upon the Susquehanna and her hundred branches, upon the Delaware and Schuylkill and their tributaries, and upon the streams that make up the Alleghany and Monongahela, is capable of performing the labour of 400,000,000 men. What her steam power can do in her anthracite coal fields, and upon her 10,000 square miles of bituminous coal lands, let the scoffers at her credit calculate. She paid her semi-annual interest in specie on the first day of August, and this in the very crisis of the financial difficulties of the country, before our tax could be made available. A safer and better investment cannot be made than in the public stocks of Pennsylvania. They are based upon resources that will be permanent for ever. Those who depreciate them, are either ignorant of their value, or dishonest enough to speculate upon the timid. There are no people in the world who have so many advantages and so few burdens. The public debt is a trifle in this rich and powerful commonwealth. We can pay it, and never feel the burden. Our population is industrious, thriving, and honest.” (?)—Why, therefore, not prove to the world that you are honest? You are able, you say, yet you do not pay your debts. The world will never acknowledge that you are honest, until you pay what you owe. * Governor Porter, of Pennsylvania, states in his recent message (January, 1845), that the whole amount of tax assessed for the past four years at 3,013,742 dollars, of which only 1,825,050 dollars has been received, leaving 8,188,674 dollars still outstanding on the 1st of December. Of this sum, together with the 800,000 dollars outstanding for 1844, the Governor thinks 1,260,000 dollars will be received; and that, "If the provisions of the act of 1844 be fairly carried into effect, in the valuation of property, and the collection and prompt payment of the tax be enforced, the annual revenue hereafter to be derived from that source will amount to at least 1,500,000 dollars. This sum, with the other resources of the Commonwealth, will be entirely adequate to furnish the necessary amount to discharge the interest upon the public debt, and thus ensure the fidelity of the State to her engagements." |