"been completed, and numerous, elegant, and sub"stantial bridges erected across our principal "streams."

How praise worthy, and yet how unusual, to see the governor of a powerful state directing his efforts to promote the blessings of peace, and the enjoyments of domestic comforts; and instead of a pompous harangue on the destruction of armies, to find him simply observing, "that in witnessing the "protection which every worthy man enjoys in his person, his religion, his labour and his property; "and in tracing the rapid progress of the improve"ments in the state, a fair occasion is presented to us for mutual congratulations."

66

LETTER IX.

Price of Labour.

A labourer gets from three quarters of a dollar to a dollar per day ; a carpenter, or mason, from one dollar and a quarter to one dollar and three quarters per day. A dollar will purchase twenty pounds of beef, or sixteen pounds of mutton or veal, or one bushel of rye or Indian corn, or two thirds of a bushel of wheat. Thus, three or four days' works of a common labourer, will supply him with provisions for a month. Hence it is, that the poorer H

classes of the Americans live better, and consume more animal food, than any other people of the same description. An English labourer may sing about the roast beef of Old England, but it is a dainty which he is rarely permitted to taste. An American labourer may dine on roast beef every day in the year, unless he prefers some other dish. The agricultural exports from Europe, are in general what the persons employed in rearing them cannot afford to eat in America they consist of the surplus beyond what they can consume; and the quantity would be immense, if the labouring part of the community here, would be satisfied to put up with the same kind of fare, which millions of his majesty's subjects would be glad to obtain. With you, it is only a privileged class who are born to live on the fat of the land-fruges consumere nati;-here the phrase extends to every class. Indeed, this is carried to a very improper and wasteful profusion. I am told that there is not a family in this county, that would use a sheep's head; and of a bullock's the only parts used are the tongue and lower jaw; the rest is thrown away; as is the case with the liver, heart and feet of all animals. One of our countrymen observed to me the other day, these people are the greatest eaters, and the least workers that I ever saw; I have been in four houses to day, and I found the men all sitting quietly within, instead of being on their farms at work; and yesterday, when I went to purchase some meat, I found a man who

had just killed five fat hogs, and on my offering to purchase some of them, he said, I have none to sell, I want to buy some myself:-his family consisted of himself, his wife, and three small children.

As it is of importance to the mechanics who wish to settle here, to make an estimate of the advantages of the situation, I have endeavoured to do it with all the care in my power. Here are two of our countrymen, one a mechanic, the other a farmer, both have large families, and are men of good judgment. They say that a family may be maintained in provision much better than they were accustomed to live on at home, at an expense of one dollar per week for each grown person; or rating children in a proper proportion. One of these (the farmer) has his wife, two sons grown up, and four other children, rating the latter as two grown persons, they are altogether equal to six. On these I have made the estimate, and the cost of the same number in Philadelphia.

Rent of a small house in Philadelphia, fit for a

mechanic with the above named family, $200 Cost of provision on an estimate of two dollars per head per week, for one year, Extra cost of clothing, 10 dollars each,

10 cords of fire wood at 6 dollars per cord,

624

60

60

$944

Amount brought forward,

House rent in Susquehanna county,

Maintenance of family at 1 dollar per

week each,

20 cords of wood,

$944

$24

$312

15

-8351

A very comfortable house may be built in Susquehanna county for 400 dollars. I have, therefore, rated the rent at the interest of the principal employed in it; but it must be observed, that in a new and thriving country, all the houses are occupied, and you find none to be rented. You must build for yourself. Supposing the above statement, which I have been careful in making, to be over-rated, then form it on the supposition of a small family, or throw off, in the calculation, one third of the supposed saving, and there remains enough to pay for one hundred acres of land, under the society's contract; and that land in three years will be worth double the price we are to pay for it. A few years' savings, without saying any thing of profits, appropriated in this way, would ensure to the mechanic a valuable farm, and a comfortable retirement from the toils of his business in his old age. Even the author of the Castle of Indolence, who speaks in such a contemptuous tone of the "scoundrel maxim' that "a penny saved is a penny got," might be dis

posed to view the annual saving of one hundred acres of good land as a very different affair. It is certainly one of great importance in the calculations of the industrious artisan, upon whose labour the comforts of his wife and children are to depend.

The society in their selection of land for a settlement, have had in view the advantages of mechanics, as well as farmers. They have seen the disadvantages which many of the former labour under in the cities of America, where house rent and firewood are very expensive; and the advantages which would be derived from a situation such as has been chosen, where the country round can be supplied with the work of the mechanics; and any surplus may be sent, at small expense, to factors established in the cities of Philadelphia or NewYork. If the work be intended entirely for those cities, when the articles are not bulky, they can be sent from Susquehanna county at a very trifling expense. Let the tanner, for instance, make his estimate at what he can afford to sell leather when he tans it in a place where he may have his bark for the trouble of taking it off the trees, and where the materials for his establishment are all to be had on the lowest terms. Let the shoemaker, who manufactures the leather, estimate the advantage to him, when he gets a higher price for his shoes here than he does in the cities, and if he wanted to send them there, to be sold by wholesale, he can do it, at an expense of perhaps a halfpenny per pair. Let the