TABLE shewing the number of Prisoners in the Old Penitentiary at Philadelphia, the annual charge to each county, &c. 1825. Credit. 1824. Credit. Balance. Am't rec'd Convicts Debit. Balance. Am't rec'd Allegheny 22 1755 70 829 58 936 12 21 1202 81 543 56 659 25 700 00 15 Adams 7 441 51 185 60 255 91 4 222 67 117 22 105 45 486 09 32 1015 37 153 55 425 95 74 72 589 42 78 83 200.00 401 75 9 515 29 228 15 287 14 749 79 610, 43 333 41 277 02 10 540 13 304 24 235 89 Bradford 395 83 166 00 229 83 7 398 00 147 54 250 46 200 00 10 372 18 164 52 207 66 Beaver 250 00 139 61 110 39 4 199 95 97 10 102 85 125 00 3 152 91 133 46 22 45 120 00 Berks 534 72 249 78 285 04 10 586 38 234 46 351 92 451 65 6 205 31 67 92 137 39 352 92 Chester 44 3123 11 1253 51 1869 60 1343 80 34 2138 94 880 97 1257 97 33 1683 99 637 17 1046 82 2517 77 Centre 6 328 32 83 13 245 19 183-67 6 322 00 135 10 186 90 4 198 16 39 39 158 77 Crawford 3 162 24 74 28 87 96 2 137 36 43 02 94 34 3 223 79 77 82 145 97 Cumberland, 2 184 60 46 06 138 54 161 16 175 57 142 00 34 57 138 54 3 177 89 98 34 79 55 Delaware 16 973 94 420 71 553 23 1306 55 13 727 87 393 96 333 91 553.23 14 682 64 279 58 403 05 325 00 Dauphin 7 524 51 195 68 328 83 155 43 5 344 44 143 57 200 87 162 25 2 52-20 10 75 41 45 325 03 Erie 3 134 74 77 42 57 32 200 00 7 466 18 117 84 248 34 9 496 81 273 49 223 32 100 00 Fayette 12 715 05 265 01 450 04 12 671 80 264 02 407 78 11 662 55 322 76 339 79 80 00 Franklin 471 70 214 83 256 87 11. 618 85 355 87 262 98 149 00 7 559 12 314 58 244 54 620 00 Greene 82 94 44 31 38 63 1 90 10 75 21 14 89 1 78 49. 38 87 39 62 Huntingdon 5 294 17 96 20 197 97 4 272 18 110 77 161 41 150 00 6 254 11 59 83 194 28 438 68 Indiana 182 09 21 53 60 56 5842 Montgomery Mifflin 18 84313 13 1210 40 632 74 577 66 64 39 306 32 86 15 21 23363 362 20 189 43 172 77 200 00 221 84 102 87 118 97 117 76 13. 737 36 190 70 536 66 300 00 13 621 79 17,8 65 443 14 1138 69 15 748 50 317 61 430 89 4.00 00 Westmoreland 4. 129 24 58 35 70 89 500 00 7 381 66 159 84 221 82 6 494 58 338 16 166 42 20 410 40 765 02 645 38 Lycoming 1 86 18 74.90 11 22 1 87 28 69 75 17 53 3 155 85 53 74 102 11 Pike 1 43 06 7 49 35 57 1 1 12 42 4 87 7 55 55 49 4 221 16 134 48 86 68 23 47 4 50 18 97 2 102 91 71 40 31 51 2 87 01 45 95 41 06 41 88 6 83 35 05 51 80 7 53 44 27 38 00 11 93 26 07 16 92 16 92 78 62 59 13 19 49 74 50 66 42 8.08 1 Cambria 66 03 17 66 48 37 Philadelphia 587 36,036 4114,038 4919,997 92 4,007 00 563 '33,127 42'14,970 11/18,157 31 4,061 00 617 136,114 4215,388 16 20,726 26 5,940 33 No. 16. The basis of the charge against convicts, in the colums headed debit, is for subsistence, eighteen cents per day. Clothing, seventeen dollars per year, average; shoes four dollars per year, average. The credits are for employments in which no tasks can be given, thirty cents per day. Stone sawing ten and twelve cents per foot. Weaving three cents per yard; bobbin winders twelve and a half cents per day. Shoemakers thirty cents per pair for coarse shoes-the I credits for this business advance in proportion as the quality of the work improves. Junk and oakum pickers five cents per day; the decrepid and infirm are generally employed in this department, and they scarcely make out one pound of oakum per day. In all cases where men have been employed at 30 cts. per day, they have invariably earned more than their cost, provided they have not been sick, or have not subjected themselves to cell punishment. A steady stone sawyer can saw five feet per day; their task is about three, inasmuch as we are seldom hurried with labour of that kind. Weavers can easily weave 12 yds p. day. Bobbin winders have the same as is allowed out of the prison. It will be seen by this, that it depends alone upon a man's industry and good behaviour to earn more than his cost. There have been received in the Philadelphia Prison from the courts of Quarter Sessions Oyer and Terminer Mayor's court |1821 1822 1823 1824|1825|1826| The average amount received from Philadelphia county, on account of the untried and vagrant prisoners, is Deduct cost 11,633 13 6,032 58 5,580 55 surplus to be added to the amounts received as per statements for convict prison. The average number of vagrant and untried pri soners for the six years is 216. Anecdotes of Anthony Benezet. He generally wore plush clothes, and gave as a reason for it, that after he had worn them for two or three years, they made comfortable and decent garments for the poor. He once informed a young friend, that his memory began to fail him; "but this," said he, "gives me one great advantage over thee-for thou canst find entertainment in reading a good book only once, but I enjoy that pleasure as often as I read it; for it is always new to me.' So great was his sympathy with every thing that was capable of feeling pain, that he resolved towards the close of his life, not to eat animal food. Upon coming into his brother's house one day, when his family was dining upon poultry, he was asked by his brother's wife to sit down and dine with them. "What! (said he) would you have me eat my neighbours?" Few men, since the days of the apostles, ever lived a more disinterested life. And yet, upon his death bed, he said, he wished to live a little longer, that "he might bring down self."-Rush's Essay. 43,340 Total 109,220 251 The Lehigh Company estimate their exports for the year 1828 at 20,000 tons. The Coal Trade on the Schuylkill commenced in the Year 1825, when 5000 tons were brought down by the New York and Schuylkill Coal Company, and others, and exported to New York. Since that period, several Companies and many individuals have engaged in the trade. The following list comprises the exports from Schuylkill for three years, viz, 1825 Exports. 5,000 tons 11,596 " 21,004 16 Total 37,600 44 Here it must be remarked that the excessive toll on the Canal, and the imperfect state of the Schuylkill Navigation, prevented the Coal Companies and individuals engaged in the trade from bringing down the quantity of Coal they had prepared for market, and that these obstructions were not removed till the month of August of the year 1827. In 1827 about 220 vessels, viz. Brigs, Schooners and Sloops, from 100 to 250 tons burthen, and chiefly owned in New York, Boston, New Haven and New Jersey, were In 1820 and 1821 there was no other Anthracite Coal employed in carrying Coal from the Schuylkill, and so at market, and in 1827 the quantity could have been in- great has been the demand for vessels, that almost every creased, had not the attention of the Lehigh Company coasting vessel coming into this port, and not having been occupied by making a rail way. It ought also to other freight engaged, has been immediately chartered be observed that the Company is now engaged in effect- for the coal trade, and in many instances vessels have ing an ascending navigation; having had only a descend- been sent to the Schuylkill from New York, in ballast, ing one hitherto, this will be completed in sixteen or for the want of a better trade than that in which they had eighteen months, when the price of coal will be reduc-been previously engaged. ed, and the ability of the Company extended to the sup- It is estimated that 95,000 tons will be brought down ply of 100,000 tons per annum, or a much greater the Schuylkill in 1828, and that 75,000 tons of that amount, should the market require it. quantity will be exported. In 1827 about 100 vessels of 60 to 150 tons, chiefly In 1827 the quantity of Coal brought from the Susbelonging to Egg Harbour, (though some were Plais-quehanna by the Capes of Delaware, was 845 tons, emter, and other transient vessels from the Eastward) were ploying 10 vessels. Several thousand tons of Coal reemployed by the Lehigh Company in transporting Coal main in port, which could not be shipped for want of to the Northward of the Delaware, more than one half vessels, and in consequence there is a deficiency of fuel of which went to New York. in many places which consume the Anthracite, ESTIMATE Of the Value of the Anthracite COAL TRADE from Philadelphia to various ports in the United States. came to Pennsylvania, and used to point to the place where the cabin stood, in which he, and his friends, that accompanied him, were accommodated upon their arrival. At twelve years of age, he went to Boston, where he served his apprenticeship to a cabinet maker. In the year 1745, he returned to Philadelphia, with his family, where he lived until the time of his death, He was four times married, and had eighteen children, all of whom were by his first wife. At one time of his life, he sat down, at his own table, with fourteen children. Not long before his death he heard of the birth of a grandchild, to one of his grand-children, the fifth in succession to himself. a his blood; he was uniformly cheerful and kind to every body; his religious principles were as steady as his morals were pure. He attended public worship about thirty years in the Rev. Dr. Sproat's church, and died in full assurance of a happy immortality. The life of this man is marked with several circumstances, which per haps have seldom occurred in the life of an individual. He saw and heard more of those events which are measured by time, than have ever been seen or heard by any man since the age of the patriarchs; he saw the same spot of earth, which at one period of his life, was covered with wood and bushes, and the recep tacle of beasts and birds of prey, afterwards become the seat of a city not only the first in wealth and arts in the new, but rivalling in both, many of the first cities in the old world. He saw regular streets where he once pursued a hare: he saw churches rising upon morasses, where he had often heard the croaking of frogs; he saw wharves and warehouses, where he had often seen Indian savages draw fish from the river for their daily subsistence; and he saw ships of every size and use in those streams, where he had often seen nothing but Indian canoes; he saw a stately edifice filled with legislators, astonishing the world with their wisdom and virtue, on the same spot, probably, where he had seen an Indian council fire; he saw the first treaty ratified between the newly confederated powers of America and the ancient monarchy of France, with all the formalities of parchment and seals, on the same spot, probably, where he once saw William Penn ratify his first and last treaty with the Indians, without the formality of pen, ink or paper; he saw all the intermediate stages through which a people pass, from the most simple to the highest degrees of civilization. He saw the beginning and end of the empire of Great Britain, in Pennsylvania. He had been the subject of seven successive crowned heads, and afterwards became a willing citizen of a republic; for he embraced the liberties and independence of America in his withered arms, and triumphed in the last years of his life in the salvation of his country.-Rush's Essay. He retained all his faculties till the last year of his life. Even his memory, so carly and so generally diminished by age was but little impaired. He not only remembered the incidents of his childhood and youth, but the events of latter years; and so faithful was his memory to him, that his son has informed me he never heard him tell the same story twice, but to different persons, and in different companies. His eye-sight failed him, many years before his death, but his hearing was uniformly perfect and unimpaired. His appetite was good till within a few days before his death. He generally ate a hearty breakfast of a pint of tea or coffee, as soon as he got out of his bed, with bread and butter in proportion. He ate likewise at eleven o'clock, and never failed to eat plentifully at dinner of the grossest solid food. He drank tea in the evening, but never ate any supper: he had lost all his teeth thirty years before his death, which was occasioned, his son says, by drawing excessive hot smoke of tobacco into his mouth: but the want of suitable mastication of his food, did not prevent its speedy digestion, nor impair his health. Whether the gums hardened by age, supplied the place of his teeth in a certain degree, or whether the juices of the mouth and stomach became so much more acrid by time, as to perform the office of dissolving the food more speedily and more perfectly, I know not, but I have of ten observed, that old people are most disposed to excessive eating, and that they suffer fewest inconveniences from it. He was inquisitive after news in the last years of his life, His education did not lead him to increase the stock of his ideas any other way. But it is Twibill, Indorsce, &c. a fact well worth attending to, that old age, instead of diminishing, always increases the desire of knowledge. It must afford some consolation to those who expect to be old, to discover, that the infirmities to which the decays of nature expose the human body, are rendered more tolerable by the enjoyments that are to be derived from the appetite for sensual and intellectual food. He was remarkably sober and temperate. Neither hard labour, nor company, nor the usual afflictions of human life, nor the wastes of nature, ever led him to an improper or excessive use of strong drink. For the last twenty-five years of his life, he drank twice every day of toddy, made with two table spoonfuls of spirit, in half a pint of water. His son, a man of fifty-nine years of age, told me that he had never seen him intoxicated. The time and manner in which he used spirituous liquors, I believe, contributed to lighten the weight of his years, and probably to prolong his life. "Give wine to him that is of a heavy heart, and strong drink to him that is ready to perish with age, as well as with sickness. Let him drink and forget his sorrow, and remember his misery no more." He enjoyed an uncommon share of health, insomuch that in the course of his long life he never was confined more than three days to his bed. He often declared that he had no idea of that most distressing pain called the head ache. His sleep was interrupted a little in the last years of his life with a defluxion on his breast, which produced what is commonly called the old man's cough. The character of this aged citizen was not summed up in his negative quality of temperance: he was a man of the most amiable temper: old age had not curdled vs. M'Cann. LAW CASES. Common Pleas, April 11, 1828. The action was brought on a promisory note drawn by the defendant to order, for $50; and now in the hands of a bona fide indorsee. The defendant gave in evidence that the note was signed under the following circumstances. In December 1826, M'Cann and the original drawee of the note, made a bet to run a horse and mare against each other, in Baltimore, for a large amount, and fifty dollars was fixed on for the forfeit. Promisory notes were exchanged for that amount, between the parties, and the note in question was the one given by M'Cann. The act of Assembly to prevent horse racing in Pennsylvania, was then read, making void all notes, &c. given on such consideration. For the plaintiff it was replied that the note was now in the hands of an innocent holder, who received it in the way of business; that the consideration could not be enquired into; that the act of Assembly only referred to notes, &c. made on horse races in Pennsylvania, and could not refer to Maryland; that in Maryland, horse racing is not in violation of law, but permitted; and that the case in Cowper of a bet between two English lords on a horse race in France, where racing was not illegal, being held good, was a case precisely in point. Judge King said that the present leaning of his mind was that the plaintiff could not recover, and he would instruct the jury accordingly; but he would give the plaintiff's counsel an opportunity to come in on a motion for a new trial.-Verdict for defendant; and rule for a new trial granted. For plaintiff, W, L. Hirst, esq.; for defendant J.Carey, 1828.] Peter Bousquet, vs. Matthew L. Bevan, and Wm. Porter. KITTANNING. April 8th and 9th, This cause was tried in the District Court for the city and county of Philadelphia, before Judge Hallowell, and a special Jury. Counsel for the Plaintiff, Charles Chauncey, Esq.-for Defendant, Zalegman Phillips, Esq. The plaintiff had shipped a case of silk goods to Maracaibo, where not finding a ready sale, his consignee reshipped them in March, 1825, on board the brig Sarah Ann, belonging to the defendants and bound to Philadelphia; the brig lay six weeks at Maracaibo wind bound, and arrived home about the middle of May, after the ordinary passage of thirty-two days. On her arrival the goods were sent to the Custom House as usual for appraisement, and found to be spotted, for which the Plaintiff received an allowance, and took the goods to his store; he afterwards called in the Surveyors of damaged goods and two silk merchants, who considered the damage to exceed fifty per cent. The goods were sent to auction and sold for about $430; their value here at the time of arrival if in a sound condition would have been $1035; the difference of these sums, with interest, was claimed as the measure of damages alleged to have been sustained by the want of skill and care in the conveyance of the articles by the Captain, and in the want of a survey over the hatches. 253 proper precautions on finding them damaged when opened at the Custom House, that he was bound to no tify the defendants of these facts and also of the time and place of sale, without which he was not at liberty to sacrifice the goods, (Smith vs. Martin 6 Binney 265:) that in point of law no survey over the hatches was necessary; and in this instance could not possibly have benefitted the plaintiff, as the goods in question were in the cabin andthe writ of survey did not extend beyond the hold: that it did not appear that any damage was received on board, and that it was a fair inference that they went on board in a damaged condition; at all events that the captain had not shown any want of skill or care in the transportation. Judge Hallowell charged the Jury, that the defendants were liable on the bill of lading signed by the master, for any want of skill or attention on his part which the plaintiff must prove in order to render the defendants liable: the learned Judge would not say, as the defendants' counsel had argued, that it was absolutely ne- cessary for the plaintiff to have given them notice of the proceedings as the case would entirely turn on the question whether the injury was sustained by improper stowage, sea-water or damp: if from the first or second of these causes the verdict should be for the plaintiff, but as this was a hard kind of action it should require strong proof to support it: the question for the Jury was, whe ther the case was stowed in a safe and proper place?whether this damage would have arisen if it had been in the hold; if there were a reasonable doubt as to the manner in which the injury was sustained, or if the jury should consider that every proper attention was paid to the stowage the verdict should be for the defendants.→ His honour further stated that notwithanding a writ of survey over the hatches was a good precaution, yet the plaintiff had not shown any law to support his position that the captain was bound to have had the survey order Verdict for the defendants.-Amer. Sent. For the Defendant it was proved that the brig came home in the usual passage, having but little or no bad weather, that the cargo consisted of logwood and hides, which were in the hold, and came home in sound condition, that the silks were carefully stowed in the Captain's State Room, on the top of a small lot of coffee in bags, which was covered with a sail; the box exhibited no signs of having been wet, and the Plaintiff' had said, that judging from the external appearance, he could noted on his arrival. have imagined any injury had been sustained. The coffee proved to be in handsome order, and was sold at full price; the silks consisting principally of high coloured ribbons, were very damageable articles, and liable to injuries from mildew and other damps of the Spanish Maine, the wet season usually commencing in January. The Plaintiff applied to the underwriters, who refused to make good his loss, and did not apply to the defendants until some months afterwards when this suit was brought, he had never notified them of the examination or of the sale at auction. Both mates of the brig swore that the case was carefully stowed away where no water could possibly reach it, and Capt. Hawks, one of the Surveyors was unable to determine whether the injury arose from the sea water or damp. Mr. Chauncey for Plaintiff, contended that it was not necessary for the Plaintiff to have given the defendants notice of any of the measures preparatory to the instituting of proceedings, the Surveyors having acted in the usual manner; that the Captain of the brig had acted negligently in not applying for a writ of survey over the hatches on her arrival home, which rendered the owners liable; if the plaintiff should recover in this action, the owners would have their remedy over against the master and the underwriters; he contended that the measure of damages was the price the article was worth at the port of delivery, and not the invoice price or amount insured, and for this cited Gillingham v. Dempsey, 12 Sergeant and Rawle, 183. Mr. Phillips for the defendants, contended that there was abundant evidence that every attention had been paid to the stowage of the goods; from the testimony of the mates as well as the plaintiff's assertion as to the appearance of the box no damage could have been sustained by the sea, which would otherwise have left some traces on the outside; the defendants had complied with their contract and delivered the case in the same condition as received on board. He insisted that the plaintiff had made the loss (if any) his own, by not taking the ALLEGHENY RIVER-KITTANNING. The Kittanning Gazette, after quoting the replies of Mr. Marshall, relative to the comparative expenses of manufacturing in the U. States and England, (see Register, p. 168,) furnishes the following account of the advantages of that neighbourhood as to manufactures, situation, prices of articles, &c. By this it appears the price of building is the same in Hudson as in England; the machinery double the price, and fuel more than quadruple. Nothing is said respecting the price of provisions. Hudson is in the eastern part of the state of New York. Now let us make a calculation of the expense of these things on the Allegheny river, (at Kittanning, for instance,) compared with that in Hudson. "Buildings in Hudson about the same as in England;" this is very indefinite; but we may safely say that on the Allegheny they would not cost one half what they would in HudHere the best pine boards can be procured in any quantity for $5 per 1000 feet-other timber, shingles, &c. in the same proportion; brick $3 25, and abundance of excellent granite for the quarrying. son. No section of the Union has greater facilities for propelling power than this, whether steam or water be used. This brings us to the article of fuel. That gentleman states the price of coal in Manchester to be 10 c.p. 112lb. which he says is less that one-fourth of the price of fuel in Hudson. At Kittanning the best bituminous coal can be precured for five cents per 112 lbs. delivered at the works: the supply is inexhaustible. The expense of steam power may be inferred from this; yet it is confidently believed, that even in this country, water-power would be cheaper. |