Philadelphia is situated at the narrowest part of the isthmus between the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers, five LXXX. miles above the point of confluence, and 100 miles from the ocean. Its port is excellent, though liable to the inconvenience of being shut for a few weeks annually by the ice. Large merchant ships can ascend to it by the Schuylkill, and ships of the line by the Delaware. It is the most regularly built large town in the United States. Its principal streets are 100 feet wide, and the others not less than 50 they are shaded with poplars, tolerably paved, well lighted at night, and kept remarkably clean. The houses are of brick, and generally of three stories. There are many handsome buildings in this city, and two which are much admired, the United States Bank, and the Pennsylvania Bank. Philadelphia is distinguished by a greater number of philanthropic, literary, and useful institutions than any other city in the United States. Its population in 1820 was 114,410.

phia pri

The Philadelphia prison is a more interesting object to Philadel humanity than the most gorgeous palaces: it presents the son. practical application of principles which worldly men have derided, and philosophy has upheld without daring to hope for their adoption. The exterior of the building is simple, with rather the air of an hospital than a gaol. "On entering the court," says an intelligent traveller, "I found it full of stone-cutters, employed in sawing and preparing large blocks of stone and marble; smiths forges were at work on one side of it, and the whole court is surrounded by a gallery and double tier of work-shops, in which were brush-makers, tailors, shoemakers, weavers, all at their several occupations, labouring not only to defray to the public the expenses of their confinement, but to provide the means of their own honest subsistence for the future. I passed through the shops, and paused a moment in the gallery to look down on the scene below: it had none of the usual features of a prison-house, neither the hardened profligacy which scoffs down its own sense of guilt, nor the hollow-eyed sorrow which wastes in a living death of unavailing expiation: there was

BOOK neither the clank of chains, nor yell of execration, but a hardLXXX. working body of men, who, though separated by justice from

society, were not supposed to have lost the distinctive attributes of human nature: they were treated as rational beings operated upon by rational motives, and repaying this treatment by improved habits, by industry, and by submission. They had been profligate, they were sober and decent in behaviour; they had been idle, they were actively and usefully employed; they had disobeyed the laws, they submitted (armed as they were with all kinds of utensils,) to the government of a single turnkey, and the barrier of a single grating. The miracle which worked all this was humanity, addressing their self-love through their reason. I envied America this system: I felt a pang that my own country had neither the glory to have invented, nor the emulation to have adopted it."*

When the principles of the new system (a) of prison discipline were first recommended by Dr. Rush, in 1787, they were considered as the scheme of a humane heart misled by a wild and visionary imagination, such as it was impossible, from the nature of man, ever to realize. The trial was made, however, after much opposition, in 1790. The eventual success of the system has vanquished the prejudices of the great majority of its enemies, and the prison of Philadelphia is become a model for those of the other States. According to the regulations, the criminal, on coming into gaol, is bathed and clothed in the prison dress, and care is afterwards taken to make him keep his person clean. The prisoners sleep on the floor in a blanket, about thirty in one room, with a lamp always burning, so that the keeper has always a view of the apartment. They take their meals with strict regularity, by the sound of a bell, and in silence. Their food consists of bread, beef, (in small quantity) molasses, potatoes, mush, and rice. Spirits and beer are never allowed to enter the

Hall's Travels in Canada and the United States, p. 302.

(a) The account here given of the success of this "system" is much too favourable. The expectations of the benevolent individuals by whose influence it was introduced, have not been realized. See the article Penitentiary, in the American Edition of the New Edinburgh Encyclopedia.]-Am. ED.

prison walls. There is a sick-room, but from the regularity BOOK of their lives, disease is extremely rare. Work suitable to LXXX. the age and capacity of the convicts is assigned them, and an account opened with each. They are charged with their board and clothes, the fine imposed by the State, and expense of prosecution, and are credited for their work. At the expiration of their time of servitude half the amount of the sum left, if any, after deducting the charges, is paid to them. As the board is low, the labour constant, and the working hours greater than among mechanics, they easily earn more than their expenses. On several occasions the

balance paid to a convict has amounted to more than 100 dollars; in one instance it was 150; and from 10 to 40 dollars are commonly paid. When, from the nature of the werk at which the convict has been employed, or from his weakness, his labour does not amount to more than the charges against him, he is furnished with money to bear his expenses home to his place of residence. The price of boarding is 16 cents (about 9d.) a day. Corporal punishment is prohibited on all occasions, the keepers carrying no weapon, not even a stick; but reliance is placed for the correction of hardened criminals chiefly on the terrors of solitary confinement. The cells for this purpose are six feet by eight, and nine feet high: light is admitted by a small window, placed above the reach of the person confined. No conversation can take place but by vociferation, and as this would be heard, it would lead to a prolongation of the time of punishment. The prisoner is therefore abandoned to the gloomy severity of his own reflections. His food consists of only half a pound of bread per day. No nature has been found so stubborn as to hold out against this punishment, or to incur it a second time. Some veterans in vice have declared their preference of death by the gallows to a further continuance in that place of torment. Finally, as a security against abuses, visiting inspectors attend the prison at least twice a-week, to examine into the whole of its economy, hear the grievances, and receive the petitions of the prisoners, lay monthly reports before the

BOOK Board of Control, and in every point insure the regulari[ LXXX. ty of the system. As punishments are but necessary evils, and however judiciously conducted will not deliver society from crime, it is not to be expected that the best devised plan should give universal satisfaction. Accordingly objections have been raised to this system, and its mildness has been represented as a temptation to guilt. But the best informed persons in the United States are decidedly of opinion that it has diminished crime, while it has saved expense to the State, and suffering to the criminal, and in short, that it is recommended by sound policy as much as by humanity.

Pennsylvania unites in a more equal degree than any of its associates, the agricultural and manufacturing with the commercial character. The methods of improving the breeds of cattle, the rotation of crops, the use of manures, and all the leading branches of husbandry, are said to be better understood in Pennsylvania than in any other part of the United States. Among its manufactures those of iron, established at Pittsburg, on the western side of the Alleghanies, are considerable in amount, and progressively increasing, in consequence of local advantages of the place, which is situated in the midst of abundant mines of iron and coal, and has great facilities for the transportation of its products by the Ohio. According to the amount of its exports, (in 1820,) Pennsylvania holds the third place among the States of the Union, New York occupying the first, and Massachusetts the second. The capital too, which is the residence of the most distinguished artists, scientific characters, and men of letters in the United States, prints and circulates a greater number of books, journals, maps, and engravings, than any other city in America. Its medical institution enjoys a high reputation, and bids fair in a short time to rival the best medical schools in Europe. The State is but indifferently supplied with common schools, and the people, especially those of German and Swedish origin, are not so well educated as the New Englanders. The legislative power is vested in a Senate and House of

Representatives, elected by the whole male population of BOOK full age. The population of Pennsylvania in 1820 was LXXX. 1,049,458. Area 43,950 square miles.

the middle

What holds true of the state of manners in this State, Manners in may be applied to those of the middle States generally, States. and may be taken as descriptive of the best society in America. In New York and Pennsylvania, the people generally are perhaps less intelligent than in Massachusetts, but at the same time less pertinacious and intolerant. Though persons in genteel circumstances abound in Philadelphia, society has not yet attained those graces and that refinement which are to be found among the highest classes in Europe. "By society," says a traveller already quoted, "I mean the art of combining social qualities so as to produce the highest degree of rational enjoyment: this supposes a common stock of ideas on subjects generally interesting, and a manner of giving them circulation, by which the self-love of each may be at once roused and satisfied. Public amusements, the arts, and such literary and philosophical topics, as require taste and sensibility, without a fatiguing depth of erudition, a morality rather graceful than austere, and a total absence of dogmatism on all subjects, constitute many of the materials for such an intercourse. In Philadelphia public amusements are nothing; the fine arts are little considered, because every man is sufficiently occupied with his own business. For the same reason, questions of mere speculation in literature or philosophy would be looked upon as a waste of time; in morality every thing is precise; in religion all is dogma. It may seem strange that a people so generally well informed as the Americans, should be so little sensible to literary enjoyments; not less curious is it, that the freest people upon earth should be straight-laced in morality, and dogmatical in religion. A moment's consideration will solve this seeming inconsistency. The Americans read for improvement, and to make a practical application of their knowledge: they collect honey for the hive, not to lavish its sweetness in social intercourse; hence the form is less consider