entitled to receive the annual interest of at six per cent and the other third to bear no interest till the year 1800, when an annual interest of six per cent. will be demandable thereon also. The question awaits the decision of the legislature, whether Pennsylvánia shall thus subscribe, and lose ten years interest of one-third of the debt, or whether the state shall rely on the fulfilment of the obligations of the United States. As the interest payable in either case will be the same for the next year, it is here stated, viz. 17,911 11 0 6th. The interest paid in cash by the state on the new loan certificates per act March 1786, is per act March 1789 to be settled and repaid in indents of interest, commonly called facilities, the four years interest, see debts, head VII. is 465,092 11 7 This amount is, by the act of Congress of 4th of August 1790, allowed to be funded on an interest of three per cent. until paid, and the subject requires the direction of the legislature. As they bore no interest at all before, it is hardly to be doubted but that they will be thus funded. Whether they may or may not, so far forth as indents have not been drawn thereon, the interest to be received in the next year will be the same. Interest at three per 7th. There is also three years arrears of interest from January 1788 till January 1791, on the amount of the continental certificates, the property of the state, on which three per cent. will be demandable from the United States the next year, if non-subscribers, and funded at three per cent. per annum, if subscribers to the new loan of the United States, which is equal per annum to The 2418 1 1 £39,893 8 7 By an act of Congress June 6th 1788, authorizing the late board of treasury to dispose of a certain tract of land on Lake Erie, the property of the United States, and an act of this state, by which the delegates of Pennsylvania then in Congress were duly authorized to make the purchase for the state, on the 7th of July, in the year aforesaid, the following terms were proposed by the said delegates, and by the board of treasury thus authorized accepted on the 28th of August 1788: "To pay for the same at the rate of threefourths of a dollar per acre, payable in gold or silver, or in public securities of the United States, bearing interest, when the quantity is ascertained by actual survey, in the manner prescribed by a resolu tion of Congress of 7th June 1788." Survey hath been made, and will shortly be returned, when, according to the terms of contract, payment must be made. The directions of the legislature for this pur pose will be necessary. Agreeable to the contract, it may be paid for in gold or silver, in the non-subscribed debt (in which case three years interest must be given up) in subscribed six per cent. stock, (leaving the deferred debt, which is not yet on interest, non-receivable) or it may be dis charged in certificates granted for indents bearing an annual interest of three per cent. the market price of which is now higher than the prices of the non-subscribed species of certificates were at the time of making the said purchase. The quantity is 202,187 acres, which, at 5s. 74d. per acre, is £56,865 1 10 at three per cent. if paid therein, to be deducted from the annual interest receivable above, is 1705 19 0 Balance The interest of this state, and the secu rity of the titles of future purchasers under them, makes the perpetuating the evidence of this purchase a matter of very great moment. It appears to consist in the proposals made by the state as aforesaid, which are with the United States, and a letter of the board of treasury accepting the offer, without reciting what that offer was. If both these originals were duly recorded, and such other means as the wis dom of the legislature might suggest taken to confirm and perpetuate evidence of the sale and the terms, it might save confusion and trouble hereafter. 8th. After the first of January 1792, this state will, according to act of Congress of 4th August 1790, be entitled annually to receive from the United States the interest upon one-third of 220,000 dollars at 3 per cent. and of the two-thirds of the remaining two-thirds of the sum aforesaid at 15,543 16 6 six per cent. so far as that sum shall not 38,187 9 7 have been subscribed to the new loan of the United States in certificates of debts of this tate The part that may be subscribed will exonerate the state from the interest thereof at six per cent, which would be a larger demand on the saine capital The sum of 5501 8d. of the state debt hath already been subscribed. yet, as it is presumable Little more will be added, I set down the sum payable annually by the United States, after the year 1791, $81,606 80, equal The surplus unappropriated of the taxes, per head II. of revenue, after redeeming the bills of credit of April 1781 The surplus of the effective supplies of 1781, provincial taxes, and fines in the 2d class tax, see head IV. of the revenues The surplus of the 150,000. loan office, see head VII. of revenues 30,625 0 0 It must be a governing principle of the legislature of a free state, representing fully the people and partici pating of their burthens, to make those burthens as light and easy as circumstances will admit. This surplus of unappropriated revenue, therefore, so nearly agreeing with the amount of the annual direct tax upon the peo ple, will probably be taken to supply the place of the other, and the law directing the whole of that tax either repealed or suspended. XIII. The Balance due from the United States. Although this might be arranged under the head of unappropriated revenues, yet I chose to make a separate one of it, because it will not be so immediately produc tive, and will not meet or supply the necessities of the next year, but, by being added to the aggregate fund, may serve as a remainder therein, when other parts 7800 0 0 thereof shall have been exhausted. 9878 21 10,817 10 0 The surplus of the principal of the 50,000/ loan office, see head VIII. of the revenues, 19,917 6 11 These monies being unappropriated, are at the fu ture disposal of the legisla ture. As the monies arising from the sales of city lots and State island have been applied to the general purposes of the state, it will remain hereout to make provision for restoring the anticipation, by paying the principal and interest to any holders of the remainder of the bills of credit, (see 3d article of debts, head I.) who may apply The pensions allowed by the state, per head IX. of debts, are also to be provided for The deficieney of the revenues for support of go vernment the present year. owing to the arrears charg ed on the current fund, will require per head V. of re venues The aggregate fund, into which will naturally be thrown the residue of the revenues; 1st, because these revenues principally arise from imposts, which, when in the hands of the state, were a part of the same fund; and next, because from it the debts of the state are to be discharged, and other funds are to be kept up, but more especially as a part of these are by the United States given expressly for this purpose. This fund being diminished by the change in the govern ment of the union, and charged with new appropriations, is deficient, per head of revenues III. Balance in favour of the revenues 669 5 9 3525 0 0 6690 8 $ 30,152 11 3 76,188 3 2 $117,225 8 7 Most of the debts with which the State is now encumbered, and all the great sums raised and paid, or expended for the United States heretofore, from time to time, since the year 1775, are chargeable to their account. The amount of our claims made are,-In Specie, In Continental Money, $10,642,403 45 47,010,138 00 When all these payments are reduced to specie, and the account charged with advances made to Pennsylvania from time to time by the United States, to amount of upwards of two millions of dollars, it is expected a ba lance of about ten million of dollars specie of principal will appear in our favour; and that the interest account, equalizing the dates, will average about ten years back from the 1st of January 1792. By acts of Congress of November 1777, October 1779, February 1782, and others, this interest is at six per cent. per annum, which would yield the sum of 6000,000 dollars arrears of interest. By the act of Congress of August 5th 1790, this debt may be funded within one year after settlement, as the other debts of the United States are, by act of August 4th preceding. Although by that mode ten years interest would be lost to the state on one third of the principal, yet the advantage of receiving an interest of three per cent. on so large an arrear of interest will more than counterbalance: There can be only one bad effect, it fixes a principle, which in future may open another loan for the debts and engagements not more solemnly contracted nor more binding than the present, and afterwards another, and even others, each still less and less; for if aught can be taken either from principal or interest, on the same principle any other part of either may be taken away. The annual interest of two thirds of 10 millions, viz: 6666666 dols. 67 at 6 per cent. $400,000 The annual interest of 6 millions at 3 per cent. is Dollars per annum, 180,000 580,000 These accounts are now adjusting by the commissioners appointed by the United States for that purpose. The sum of 1.550 0 8 is entered of the debts of this state, to be funded by the United States, according to their act of August 4th 1790. Whatever sums may be thus subscribed will be chargeable per said act to this account, together with the payments to Pennsylvania on account of the interest of the 2,200,000 dollars before mentioned. The finances of the state are much embarrassed by the remains of the emission of bills of credit of 1785, none of which have been burned, and little thereof reIf the Treasurer, in deemed since November 1789. conformity to the engagements of the state, would not re-issue, but keep in his hands for burning the monies £117,225 8 7 which he receives from the general funds, till the 1.24,800 in arrears are burnt, and then in the next year, out It appears that at the time Bradford printed this alma nac* he lived near Philadelphia," and Chester, as I have said, was near this city.† of the revenues that first come in for that year in those ton, but may indifferently serve all places adjacent. By bills, keep the sum directed by law to be burnt in the Daniel Leeds Student in Agriculture. Printed and Sold ensuing year, which with the loan office completes the by William Bradford, near Philadelphia in Pennsilvania whole sum emitted, the knowledge that these bills were pro Anno 1687." This is a sheet alinanac, in twelve not to be re-issued, would not only induce those who compartments, for the twelve months; the year begins owe the state to be speedy in getting this money, and with March and ends with February, as was usual in the paying it while obtainable below par, by which means seventeenth century. At the bottom of the sheet is an the collection of the revenues would be promoted, but explanation of the almanac, an account of the eclipses the diminution of the quantity, with concurrent circum-for the year; courts and fairs at Burlington and Philadel、 stances, would in a few weeks appreciate its value, to phia, and short rules in husbandry. such a degree, that the payments to the treasury would come in mixed with hard money. The bills of this emission, which should be received on account of the other revenues for the support of government, might by these means very shortly be exchanged in the treasury for specie, which would be received in the general revenues, until the whole emission, without any obstruction to government or alteration of the systems or engagements of the state, should be redeemed. On the first of April next, this state will be entitled to receive upwards of 18500 in specie from the United States, being one quarter's payment of interest as aforesaid, which will aid the execution of this measure. In 1689, Bradford lived in the city. I possess a quarto pamphlet by George Keith, respecting the New Eng land churches, printed by Bradford in Philadelphia that year. It is the oldest book I have seen, printed in the city. I have another pamphlet, of seventy four pages printed by him in 1690, entitled, “A Refutation of Three Opposers of Truth, by plain Evidence of the Holy Scriptures, viz. Pardon Tillinghast, B. Keech, and Cot. ton Mather; and a few Words of a Letter to John Cotton. By George Keith."-Imprint Philadelphia, Printanother quarto pamphlet, of seventy two pages, written by George Keith, entitled, "A Serious Appeal to all the more Sober, Impartial and Judicious People of New Eng. land to whose Hands this may come." It is a vindica. tion of the Quakers from the attack of Cotton Mather, &c. "Printed and Sold by William Bradford, at Philadel phia in Pennsylvania, in the year 1692." I shall have the honor shortly of laying before the le-ed and Sold by William Bradford Anno 1690." I have gislature a full state of the taxes in the several counties, exhibiting where the arrears thereof lie. The deficiency of payment in due time hath been caused, partly, by the exorbitancy of the demand. The sum of 1.420,000 and upwards in direct taxes in one year exceeded the abilities of the good people of Pennsylvania to pay, and with other large taxes have been long a heavy load on many of the citizens. Another cause was, that until lately the laws were not efficient, nor adequate to the purpose of compelling payment, where compulsion was requisite. The collectors were only authorised to ask, not empowered to compel payment. As the laws have been amended, these difficulties will not exist in future, and greater collections may consequently be expected. Respectfully submitted, JOIN NICHOLSON. Comptroller General's Office, } December A SKETCH OF WILLIAM BRADFORD. From Thomas's History of Printing. WILLIAM BRADFORD, was the first printer who set tled in this colony, (Pa) He was the son of William and Anne Bradford, of Leicester, England, at which place he was born. He served his apprenticeship in London, with Andrew Sowles, printer, in Grace Church street, and married his daughter Elizabeth. Sowles was intimately acquainted with George Fox, a shoemaker of Nottingham; and the founder of the English sect of Quakers. Sowles was one of this sect, and printed for the society. Bradford adopted the principles of the Quakers, and was among the first emigrants from England to Pennsylvania in 1682, or 1683, and landed at the spot where Philadelphia was soon after laid out, before a house was built. The next year his wife arrived. At what place he first settled is rather uncertain; but, it was, as he expresses it, "near Philadelphia." The Swedes had begun a colony in Delaware as early as 1626, and made a settlement at Chester, now a part of Pennsylvania. The Dutch conquered the Swedes and attached Delaware to the government of New York. By agreement with the Duke of York, Penn, after his arrival, assumed the government of Delaware, and united it, in matters of legislation, with Pennsylvania. The general assembly was holden at Chester, and this borough became, for a time, a place of consequence. It is probable that Bradford resided there until Philadelphia assumed the appearance of a city; he might, however, have set up his press at Burlington, which is but eighteen miles distant from Philadelphia, and was then the capital of New Jersey. The first work printed by Bradford, which has reached us with a date, is, "An Almanac for the year of the Christian account 1687. Particularly respecting the Meridian and Latitude of Burling In the year 1692, much contention prevailed among the Quakers, in Philadelphia, and Bradford took an ac tive part in the quarrel. George Keith, by birth a Scotchman, a man of good abilities and well educated; was surveyor general in New Jersey; and the Society of Friends in this city employed him in 1689, as the super. intendent of their schools. Keith, having attended this duty nearly two years, became a public speaker in their religious assemblies; but being, as the Quakers asserted, of a turbulent and overbearing spirit, he gave them much trouble; they forbade him speaking as a teacher, or minister in their meetings; this, and some other irri. tating circunstances, caused a division among the Friends, and the parties were violently hostile to each other. Bradford was of the party which was attached to Keith, and supported him: their opponents were the majority. Among them were the Lieutenant Governor Lloyd, and most of the Quaker magistrates. Keith and Thomas Budd wrote against the majority, and Bradford published their writings. Keith was condemned in the city meetings, but he appealed to the general meeting of the Friends; and, in order that his case might be generally known and understood, he wrote an address to the Quakers, which he caused to be printed, and copies of it to be dispersed among the Friends, previous to their general meeting. This conduct was highly resented by his opponents; the A copy of this almanac is now in the library of Phi ladelphia. It has been suggested that Bradford first settled at Kensington, about two miles to the eastward of Phila delphia, on the banks of the Delaware; at which place there were, at that time, two or three houses, and where remained the great oak tree, under which William Penn held a treaty with the Indians, until the 5th of March 1810, when it was overthrown by a tornado. Proud, in his history of Pennsylvania, observes in a note, "The Quakers had meetings for religious worship, and for the economy of their society, as early as the fore part of the year 1681, at the house of Thomas Fairlamb, at Shakamaxon, near or about the place where Kensington now stands, nigh Philadelphia." This fact renders it, in a degree, probable, that Bradford did settle at Kensing ton. The creek at the north end of the city is known to this day by the Indian name Shakamaxon. place, to be a seditious person, and an enemy to the king and queen's government.' address was denominated seditious, and Bradford was arrested and imprisoned for printing it. The sheriff seized a form containing four quarto pages of the types Bradford and Macomb, who had been imprisoned, apof the address; he also took into his custody a quantity peared at this court, and requested that they might be of paper, and a number of books, which were in Brad- brought to trial; pleading that it was very injurious to ford's shop, with all the copies of the address which he them, and their families, to remain in confinement. They could find. The civil authority took up the business; claimed, as free born English subjects, the rights secur and, as Keith and Bradford state the facts, they who per- ed by Magna Charta, among which was the prompt adsecuted them in the religious assemblies, condemned ministration of justice; and Bradford, in particular, deand imprisoned them by civil process-the judges of sired that his trial might then take place, "because, not the courts, being the leading characters in the meetings. only his person was restrained, but his working tools, Several of Keith's party were apprehended and impri-and the paper and books from his shop, were taken from soned with Bradford; and, among them, Thomas Budd, him, and without these he could not work and maintain and John Macomb. The offence of the latter consisted his family." in his having two copies of the address, which he gave to two friends in compliance with their request. The following was the warrant for committing Bradford and Macomb. "Whereas William Pradford, printer, and John Macomb, taylor, being brought before us upon an information of Publishing, Uttering and Spreading a Malitious and Seditious paper, intituled, An Appeal from the twen ty eight Judges to the Spirit of Truth, &c. Tending to the disturbance of the Peace and the Subversion of the present government, and the said Persons being required to give Securitie to answer it at the next court, but they refused so to do. These are therefore by the King and Queens Authoritie and in our Proprietarys Name, to require you to take into your Custody the Bodies of William Bradford and John Macomb, and them safely keep till they shall be discharged by due Course of Law. Where of fail not at your Peril; and for your so Doing, this shall be your sufficient Warrant. Given under our Hands and Seales this 24th of August, 1692. "These to John White Sheriff of Philadelphia or his Deputies." Signed by Arthur Cook, and four others. The day after the imprisonment of Bradford and his friends, a Private Sessions," as it was called, of the county court was holden by six justices, all Quakers, who, to put a better complexion on their proceedings, requested the attendance of two magistrates, who were not Quakers. Soon after this session of the court Bradford was, by some means, released from his confinement. It is said, that in the examination of the frame.' the jury not being acquainted with reading backwards, attempted to raise it from the plank on which it was placed, and to put it in a more favorable situation for inspection; and that one of them assisting with his cane, pushed against the bottom of the types as the form was placed perpendicularly, when, like magic, this evidence against Bradford instantly vanished, the types fell from the frame, or chase as it is termed by printers, formed a confused heap, and prevented further investigation. Bradford having incurred the displeasure of the do. minant party in Pennsylvania, and receiving encouragement to settle in New York, he, in 1693, removed to that city; but it is supposed he had a concern in the press, which was continued in Philadelphia. Bradford continued to print for the government of N. York, and during thirty years, was the only printer in the province. On the 16th of October 1725, he began the publica. tion of the first newspaper printed in that colony. He continued his residence in the city, and enjoyed a long life, without experiencing sickness or the usual infirmities of age. Several years before his death, he re tired from business, and lived with his son William, in Hanover square. As early as 1728, he owned a paper mill at Elizabethtown, N. J. When this mill was built, I cannot determine; but I believe it was the first that was erected in New Jersey; and, it is not altogether This Court assembled, it seems, for the purpose of convicting Keith, Budd, and their connexions, of sedi-improbable that it was the first built in British America. tious conduct, and of condemning them without a hearing; but the two magistrates who were not Quakers, if On the morning of the day which closed his life, he we credit Keith and Bradford, reprobated the measure, walked over a great part of the city. He died May 23, and refused to have any concern in it, declaring, that the 1752, aged ninety-four. The New York Gazette which whole transaction was a mere dispute among the Qua-announced his death on the Monday following, mentions, kers respecting their religion, in which the government that he came to America seventy years ago; was prinhad no concern. They, however, advised that Keith, ter to the government upwards of fifty years; and was and others accused, should be sent for, and allowed to a man of great sobriety, and industry; a real friend to defend themselves, and affirmed that if any thing like the poor and needy, and kind and affable to all:-His sedition appeared in their practice, they would join temperance was exceedingly conspicuous; and he was heart and hand in their prosecution. To this the Qua- almost a stranger to sickness all his life. He had left ker magistrates would not consent, and the others in off business several years past, and being quite worn consequence left the court. The court, then, as is sta-out with old age and labour, his lamp of life went out ted in a pamphlett "proceeded in their work, and as they judged George Keith in their spiritual court, without all hearing or trial, so in like manner, they prosecu- GENERAL STATEMENT OF THE COMMERCE ted him in their temporal court without all hearing." The pamphlet further states that "one of the judges declared that the court could judge of matter of fact without evidence, and therefore without more to do, proclaimed George Keith by the common cryer, in the market * "Twenty eight," meaning those who condemned Keith, in what he called "their Spiritnal Court." This pamphlet is entitled, "New England Spirit of Persecution, transmitted to Pennsilvania, and the Pretended Quaker found Persecuting the True Christian Quaker in the Tryal of Peter Boss, George Keith, Thomas Budd and William Bradford, at the Sessyons held at Philadelphia the Ninth, Tenth, and Twelfth days of December 1692. Giving an account of the most Arbitrary Proceedings of that Court." for want of oil." OF PENNSYLVANIA. We have compiled the following table from the different tables, contained in Seybert's and Pitkin's statistics, to the year 1815-from that period to the end, we have been favoured with the necessary documents from the Register's office at Washington. The whole together, forms probably the most complete view of the commerce of this state from its commencement to the present time, that has ever been published. In a future number we may make some further observations on these tables, which we have not leisure at the present moment to do. |