1830. CR. Dec. 31. By cash paid, orders drawn by the Board of Health, No. 1 and 153, and charged to the following accounts,viz. HEALTH OFFICE, for Port Physician, Health Officer, Clerk, and Messengers salaries, Bargemen and Superintendents of Poudrette Lots' wages, Collectors on the Delaware and Schuyl kill, Rent of Health Office, repairs of Poudrette Lots, Auditor's Bill, Carriage Hire, Interest of Money, Lumber for Lots, Wood for the Office, Printing, Advertising, and incidental expenses, LAZARETTO,for Steward, Physician, and Quarantine Master's salaries, Bargemen and Gardener's wages, Steward's Bill of Supplies for the Institution, Lumber, Carpenter's Bill, Furniture, Taxes, New Boats, Paint and Oil, Wood, Carrying the Mail, and Incidental expenses for the year, CITY HOSPITAL. Bill of repairs, LOANS. Repaid, Charged to sundry persons for removing Nuiscance, $5129 27 5975 60 August 30, 1831. MAUCH CHUNK, August 22, 1831. We understand that the Lehigh Coal and Naviga tion company are about suspending their shipments of coal to tide, for the present, and until the Delaware Division of the Pensylvania canal; and also the Morris canal are put in order for navigation. The former it is supposed will be in order for the regular passage of boats during the two months ensuing, and the latter during the two coming weeks. In the mean while, most of their force will be applied to finishing a Railway to their new and extensive mines.-Courier. FECUNDITY.-The Williamsport (Pennsyl.) Chronicle says: Yesterday morning, the wife of Mr. Oliver M'Caslin, of Fairfield township, in this county, gave birth to two daughters and a son-they are all well and hardy. At a birth previous, she had two daughters and a son-they were also fine stout children, but one of them is living at this time. A new township has been erected in York county, 96 52 Pennsylvania-being part of the fertile valley in which Dillsburg is situated-and the township is named CARROLL, in honour of the last surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence. 1000 Appointment by the Governor. 468 02 12669 41 From which deduct a balance in favour of Joseph Pryor, Clerk, which will be accounted for in 1831, 18 95 12650 46 Printed by WM. F. GEDDES, No. 9 Library street. JOSEPH HEMPHILL, to be one of the associate judges of Beaver county, in the place of the Hon. David Drennan, deceased. HAZARD'S REGISTER OF PENNSYLVANIA DEVOTED TO THE PRESERVATION OF EVERY KIND OF USEFUL INFORMATION RESPECTING THE STATE. VOL. VIII.-NO. 11. EDITED BY SAMUEL HAZARD. PHILADELPHIA, SEPT. 10, 1831. From the Memoirs of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. SOME ACCOUNT OF THE EARLY POETS AND POETRY OF PENNSYLVANIA, [Continued from page 156.] NO. 193. well used birches would often set upon their feet the stubborn hexameters of their pupils. But it is time to notice THOMAS MAKIN. He must have been one of the earliest settlers in our colony; for, in 1689, we find him named as an usher under George Keith, in Friends' public graminar school; and in the following year, he suc ceeded Keith as head master. After this, he was sever his obscure and quiet life we have few other particulars. he abandoned it, I believe, for one of the settlements in His school in Philadelphia was not very lucrative, and the interior, where Pueros elementa docentem Occupat extremis in vicis balba senectus. The poets who have been already named in this pa-al times chosen clerk of the provincial assembly. Of per, were many of them Englishmen by birth, of respectable but humble families, though frequently of extensive acquirements, who had sought in our province that competence and ease which might enable them to gratify their taste, and prosecute the studies of their youth. The rest were young Americans of the better provincial families, who, though not deeply learned, discovered in their boyish verses a tincture of the let ters which their fathers had brought with them from Britain. An acquaintance with the classics of Rome, and with the popular authors of England, is undoubtedly to be inferred from these compositions; and though they lie under the usual disadvantage of imitations, they not only often emulate the ease and elegance of their models, but at times seem even to have caught no small degree of their spirit. The extent to which poetry was cultivated by our early inhabitants, and the encouragement which it received in all classes, will astonish those who have adopted the current opinions as to our primitive illiteratenss; when they recollect that all this was previous to the establishment of our Library and our College, and before even the warmest admirers of Franklin can pretend that Philadelphia received that impulse in every species of improvement which is generally attributed to him. This is the more gratifying, as I do not believe there is one of us who has not been often mortified at the insinuation, that our ancestors owed their very civilization to a single stranger. I have already mentioned the anonymous pieces which appeared in our newspapers. The merit of several of them is of a very high order; superior certainly to that of most of the acknowledged poems which were printed, and I might refer to three productions of the year 1731, entitled "A Journey from Petapsco to Annapolis," "Verses on the Art of Printing," and "A Fable, the Dog and the Fox," with a confidence that they would do more than justify my assertion. Several other poems of that period, prove that their authors were the possessors of most of the poetic qualifications, and well deserved the favour with which our ancestors received them. The Latin poetry which was written in our colony is not to be passed unnoticed. I recollect but few instances where modern poetry has been able to clothe itself gracefully in Latin verses; and I am certain, I do not hazard much in asserting, that the taste of Horace or Quinctilian would not be satisfied with any modern composition in their native language. Our ignorance of many of its idiomatic niceties has been admitted by the most accomplished scholars, and always render hopeless any competition with our Roman masters; still, we must admire the fluency and accuracy which distinguish the Latin productions of many European scholars, and applaud the success of schoolboys in one of their most difficult and useful exercises. Our early Professors of Humanity were not behind their European brethren in their classical compositions; and, without doubt, their VOL. VIII. 21 In 1728 and 1729, he dedicated to James Logan two Latin poems, which are still in the collection of MSS. at Stenton, and "which seem to have been written," says Robert Proud, "chiefly for amusement in his old age." One is entitled "Encomium Pennsylvaniæ," and the other "In laudes Pennsylvania poema, seu descriptio Pennsylvania." These poems celebrate the institutions, the productions, and the scenery of our province; in alternate hexameters and pentameters, which have been called rude, but which, at least, deserve praise for metrical correctness and descriptive fidelity. Some extracts from these pieces are to be found in the 2d vol. of Robert Proud's history, who has added a translation in English rhyme. About the year 1741 lived WILLIAM LOURY, the author, it is supposed; of several Latin odes which were at that time published. His history is entirely unknown, and his name would have been equally so, had it not been subscribed to a piece which has the following title "De morte luctuosa celeberrimi Andreæ Hamiltonis "In deep parade of language dead But by far the best Latin verses which have been pub. ished in Pennsylvania are those of Mr. JOHN BEVERIDGE. He was a native of Scotland, and taught at Edinburgh a Grammar school under the patronage of the celebrated Ruddiman. Amongst his pupils was the blind poet Thomas Blacklock, to whom he sends in some English verses his own reasons for writing poetry, and whose fine Paraphrase of the 104th Psalm he rendered into Latin verse. It appears that he emigrated to New England in 1752, where he remained five years, and contracted friendships with the famous Dr. Jonathan Mayhew and other eminent scholars. In 1758 he was appointed Professor of Languages in the College and Academy of Philadel phia. His knowledge of Latin was accurate and pro 162 EARLY POETS AND POETRY OF PENNSYLVANIA. found, but he did not possess the art of teaching; and [SEPTEMBER Penn in French. He, however, made himself so com. plete a master of the English tongue, as to be able to compose rhymes not altogether contemptible. These consist of letters, acrostics, and other poems, addressed to Rachel Preston, Hannah Hill, and Mary Norris, all daughters of his friend T. Lloyd. They compose part of a MS. volume in the possession of Mr. John F. Watson of Germantown. He also wrote a work which was published in Germany about the year 1700, entitled "A Description of Pennsylvania." He resided in Germantown on the premises now occupied by his descendants, where he had it is said, extensive vineyards and gardens. He died about the year 1720. DAVID JAMES DOVE is mentioned by Mr. Graydon as a popular statirical poet about the middle of the last century. He was by birth an Englishman, and had, it is said, gained some ludicrous notoriety in his own country. He was established in this city as a schoolmaster before the year 1759, and soon afterwards was appointed English teacher in the Philadelphia Academy; but he disagreed with the trustees, and on the opening of the Germantown Academy in 1762, became head mas ter of that seminary. Another quarrel soon separated him from his institution, and he erected a house on an adjoining lot, where he established an opposition school; but this undertaking was unsuccessful, and shortly abandoned, and we hear no more of Mr. Dove. He is said to have been a good scholar, and distinguished for his powers of elocution. He had an ardent and peculiar temper, and was whimsical even in his discipline. Amongst several amusing instances, Mr. Graydon gives the following: "He had another contrivance for boys who were late in their morning attendance. This was to despatch a committee of five or six scholars for them, with a bell and lighted lantern; and in this odd equipage, the bell all the while tingling, they were conducted to school." As Dove affected strict regard to justice in his dispensations of correction, he once submitted with good humor to the same punishment from his pupils to their no small gratification, and the entertainment of the In the Pennsylvania Gazette of August 2d, 1736, is printed a Sonnet, and in that of August 12th, an Elegy on the death of Gov. Gordon, written in French by Mr. JOHN SOLOMON. The verses are by no means extraordinary, and all that we know of their author, we learn from an advertisement of June 24th in the same year, in which he professes to be a Parisian, and offers "to teach the Latin and French languages after the most easy and concise method to the gentlemen and ladies of Philadelphia." Mr. Solomon was the third or fourth professor of the French language whom we find established in this city; a fact, which will, I think, excite astonish-spectators. As his poetical compositions were generalment when the period and the condition of our province are considered, and which must elevate our opinion of the learning and refinement of our ancestors. At the present day the French language is so universally studied, that it is hardly considered an accomplishment, but at that early period it could only have been learnt as a key to the rich treasures of its literature. It will not, I think, be out of place to notice that the German colonists of Pennsylvania were not all destitute of poetic talent. The learning of some of their leaders, it is well known, was extensive and profound; and though we have no reason to suppose that they often descended to amusements so unsuited to their religious gravity as the lighter kinds of poetry, we have several of their devotional effusions which are said to be fine compositions. Among them is a book of Hymns composed by JOHN KELPIUS, the Hermit, of whom Mr. Watson, in his excellent "Notes on the early History of Germantown,"* gives an interesting account; and a German paraphrase of several portions of Scripture, which was published in the Pennsylvania Gazette of March 31st, 1742, and is subscribed Gottfried L., Germantown, Dec. 28. Kelpius's hymn book was translated into English verse by CHRISTOPHER WITT, a learned physician and astronomer, who emigrated from England and settled at Germantown in 1704. He was a believer and adept in the Rosicrucian philosophy, and gained great reputa tion among the Germans as a magus and astrologer. FRANCIS DANIEL PASTORICS was a scholar and a poet. He was born in Limpurg in Germany, in 1641, and emigrated in 1683 in the same vessel with Thomas Lloyd, to whom and to whose daughters many of his compositions now extant, are addressed. When he left England it appears he had not acquired the English language, for in one of his poems he speaks of having held conversation with T. Lloyd in Latin, and with William * See Register, vol. I. p. 281. ly political or personal satires, their popularity, though great, was only ephemeral; and I do not know that a copy of a single piece is now to be found. I have heard repeated several lines from a very bitter attack upon William Moore of Moore's Hall, entitled "Washing the Black-a-moor White," written on the occasion of that gentleman's arrest by the assembly. The verses of Mr. Dove are characterised as bitterly sarcastic, and sometimes pointedly witty, and he perhaps chiefly owed his ill success in this province to his unrestrained propensity to satire. Several of the poets whose names have already occur. red, have received the praise of fluency, elegancc, vivacity, or wit. I have not ventured to claim for one of them either brilliant imagination or original genius. I am now to mention one whose deficient education and unpropitious fortunes were compensated by poetic talents which were of the highest order, and which, but for an early death, would have even gained him European laurels. THOMAS GODFRERY, JR. was son of the well known inventor of the quadrant, and was born at Philadelphia in 1736. His father died when he was a child; and his mother, whom we have no reason to suspect of tenderness, satisfied herself by affording him a common English education. For the cultivation of his taste, he was indebted to his own persevering study of the best English poetry. His life was an adventurous and interesting one. As a poet, he was above the drudgery of a tion, and a few copies of the productions of our provin Dove was also a caricaturist of considerable reputa cial Gilray are a treasure to the antiquary. Like his satires, they they were political, personal, and moral, and sometimes possessed, it is said, great humour. They were not often engraved; but several copies by the author himself were distributed privateiy, or hung in the barber's shops of our metropolis. 1831.] BANK OF THE UNITED STATES. mechanical occupation, which the more plodding genius of a mathematician might have turned to his account, and elevated by a brilliant invention. He abandoned, therefore, the trade of his father, and was as little captivated by the art of watch making, to which he had been apprenticed. A restless disposition urged him to embrace the profession of a soldier. He obtained, by the aid of Dr. Smith, a lieutenancy in the provincial troops, and was long enough on an Indian campaign to be disgusted with its hardships. He was attracted by the hope of rapidly acquiring fortune at the south, and established himself in North Carolina. Again dissatisfied, he tempted the ocean, and in vain sought wealth in commerce. He returned to Carolina, where an imprudent exposure to the malaria of that unhealthy climate was the cause of his death at the early age of 26 years. He is said to have been a man of the strictest integrity, of amiable duposition, and of engaging modesty. We are told also, that his talent for music was of the highest order, and bat the opposition of his friends prevented the developement of a genius for painting which would have gained him great reputation. These talents are altogether congenial with those of a poet; and indeed the man whose ear is not acutely sensible to the melody and power of music, and whose eye cannot measure the proportions of grace and appreciate the bold or delicate touches of the pencil, wants some of the essential ingredients of a poet. An active and adventurous career is also favourable to the developement of poetic talents. A life passed in an humble station, has little variety and but few excitements; but the dangers and triumphs of warfare-the tempests of the ocean-the majestic wildness of our forests-the simplicity and romance of the Indian character-even the luxuriance and flagrance of southern flowers-all work upon a poetic imagination, and excite those effusions which arouse and elevate, or soothe and sadden. Godfrey found patrons amongst the principal literati of the province; and his smaller poems, which were occasionally published in the American Magazine, were ushered with praises and received with applause. After his death his poems were collected, and in 1765 were published in Philadelphia, in a small quarto volume, preceded by a critical review from the pen of Dr. Smith, and a biographical sketch of the author by his friend and brother poet Nathaniel Evans. The "Court of Fancy" is the principal poem in the volume, and it has received the highest commendation. It is said to display "strong imagination and poetic genius," and to be distinguished for harmony, delicacy, and gracefulness." Perhaps all this might be proved by a few selectionscertainly the piece contains some highly poetical descriptions; but on the whole, it is neither well contrived nor polished; and like all similar allegorical pieces, is formal and uninteresting. Amongst Godfrey's minor pieces, several might be noticed as possessing more than common beauty. His epistle from Fort Henry is a specimen of his best style. The versification is quite elegant, and the pictures of the ravages of Indian warfare at the frontier settlements, is drawn with considerable power and feeling. A translation of Chaucer's "Assembly of Birds" contains some fine verses, and several of the pastorals and elegies have no small degree of elegance and sweetness. The "Prince of Parthia," as a dramatic composition, has certainly many defects in its plot, as well as faults in its style; but is, when we make due allowance for its author, a most wonderful production. We must excuse many passages, which, in the work of a more accomplished author, we would censure as inflated and common place. Yet several of the scenes are written with considerable pow 163 by the Philadelphia company of players, before they should leave the city, induced him to transmit it in the unfinished state in which it must now be read. With the exception of a farce which Mr. Graydon says was written about the year 1770, and in which his pompous and affected writing-master was caricatured under the name of Parchment, this is, it is believed, the only dramatic production of Pennsylvania previous to the revolution. Prefixed to Godfrey's poems is an elegy to his mem. ory by JOHN GREEN; a portrait painter, and one of his early friends. Whether the author was inspired by any other occasion is not known, but the freedom and har mony of his numbers seem to imply that his pen had not been wholly unpractised. [To be Continued.) BANK OF THE UNITED STATES, On Thursday, 1st inst. at the Triennial Meeting of the Stockholders of the Bank of the United States, STEPHEN GIRARD, Esq. officiated as Chairman, and JouN POTTER, Esq. of South Carolina, as Secretary. A comprehensive and luminous report was submitted in writing by NICHOLAS BIDDLE, Esq. the President, in behalf of the Directors of the Bank, showing, in a masterly manner, the condition, the character, and the importance of this great national institution. This able and instructive document will, no doubt, be published. After it was heard, the following Resolution was moved by HORACE BINNEY, Esq. and the gentlemen who were accordingly appointed a Committee, made, in the afternoon, the annexed Report, which was adopted without dissent. Resolved, That the communication made by the Board of Directors to this meeting, be referred to a Committee of seven to report thereon; and that the same Committee be authorized to report upon such other matters as they may deem to be interesting to the Stockholders. The Committee appointed were:-H. Binney, Robert Ralston, R. L. Colt. Paul Beck, Manual Eyre, Joseph Hemphill, James Ronaldson. The Committee to whom was referred the communication from the Board of DirectorsREPORT: That they have verified by a comparison with the tabular statements of the Bank the material facts reported in this interesting paper and find them to be correct. The reasoning by which the Board of Direc tors has deduced from them the connection between the Bank and the present prosperity of our country, and has sustained the principles which have regulated the administration of its concerns for many years, requires no comment. All who read the communication, which it is presumed, will be given to the public, will discern for themselves not merely the actual prosperity of this institution, greater and more stable than any former epoch, but the manner in which its great public and private trusts have been performed,-its public trusts towards the Government and People of the United States, and its immediate private trusts towards the Stockholders, and those who have confided it to their funds and their credit. The perfect harmony of these interests under the operations of a Bank organized as the Bank of the United States has been by law, and administered as it now is, is believed to be demonstrated; and it would be mere waste and superfluity in the Committee to attempt to add either to the cogency or the variety of the considerations, by which the Board of Directors has completed the demonstration. The Committee will not however deny themselves the satisfaction of submitting to the Stockholders a few of the inferences, which the communication, taken in connex. ion with the past and known history of the United States and the Bank, appears to justify, 1st. That the Bank at its origin, and at great cost and sacrifice, effectually promoted the restoration of specie payments: and that its able administration for several years past, has finally established a currency as universally sound within the United States as can ever be expected, or as is essential to the general welfare: and that this has occurred in a community whose currency for a part of the time has felt the influence of active though temporary causes of derangement, and is at all times exposed to danger, by the number and variety of its Banking Institution. 2d. That the Bank, through the whole course of its operations has effectually assisted the Treasury in the collection and distribution of the public revenue; and that of late years, it has been signally efficient in preventing the discharge of the public debt from disturbing the operations of commerce, or the course and value of pecuniary investments. 3d. That the Bank by its judicious intervention in the business of domestic exchanges, has given such facility and regularity to this indispensable instrument of internal trade, that neither the want nor the cost of it any longer exists, to embarrass any opinion whatever. 4th. That by its extensive operations in Foreign Exchange the Bank for several years held in its hands, and has at all times used, with striking effect, the power of arresting all sudden and violent fluctuations in this branch of commerce; and promises by the same means greatly to economise the use of the precious metals in the future trade of the United States with China, and India. 5th. That these public services of the Bank of the United States are the peculiar result of an institution organized and administered as this has been; that the organization of any bank or body whatever, essentially different, would fail in the attainment of most or all of the great objects adverted to, and that an efficient administration is alone necessary to develope the powers, and public uses of the Bank in its existing form. [SEPTEMBER The Charter of this Bank will expire by its present limitation, on the 3d of March 1836, and there will consequently be but one triennial meeting after the pre sent, and that at a point of time too near the expiration of the present Charter to authorize measures in regard to its renewal. It is fit, in the opinion of your Committee, that before that meeting, power should be given to the Board of Directors, to prosecute them if they think proper. This power should be large and definite, not merely to solicit a renewal, but to abide, if they think right, by the terms which Congress may impose. A Board of Directors who have administered the Bank in the manner detailed in their recent communication, are safe depositories of the entire power of the stockholders on the subject of a renewal of the Charter. With these remarks the committee terminate their duty by offering to the adoption of the meeting the following resolutions: Resolved, That an administration by which the interest of the Stockholders and public are successfully blended, is that system which is properly characteristic of a Bank of the United States; and that to the present able administration of the Bank, the Stockholders and the public are indebted for the full, efficient, and profitable developement of such a system. Resolved, That the thanks of this meeting be presented to the Board of Directors for their comprehensive and lucid Report upon the operations and present condition of the Bank, with an assurance that the Stockholders place an unabating confidence in their wisdom and fidelity in the further administration of its concerns. Resolved, That the confidence of the Stockholders continues to be due to the able and faithful President of the Institution, and that their thanks be given to him for the enlarged and liberal views which have distinguished his administration of the Bank, and for the skill with which be has united in its operations, a regard to the public welfare with a steady support of the rights and interests of the stockholders. are hereby authorized to make such application in the name and behalf of the Stockholders, and to accept such terms of renewal as they may consider just and proper. 6th. That while the Bank has been administered for several years upon those principles which are demon- Resolved, That if at any time before the next triennial strably the best both for the public and the stockhold- meeting of the Stockholders, it shall be deemed expe ers, yet that adverse circumstances at an earlier day, dient by the President and Directors to apply to Conand among them, chiefly; the cost and sacrifice attend-gress for a renewal of the Charter of the Bank, they ing the restoration of an unsound currency, by which an immense loss, that would otherwise have fallen upon the Treasury and People of the United States, was assumed by the Bank, have prevented the stockholders from deriving the usual returns of money invested at the lowest rate of interest,-the original subscribers not having realized an interest equal to five per cent. per annum paid semi-annually, and subsequent purchasers of the stock at an advance, having generally received less. 7th. That the stock of this Bank is distributed in such amounts, to such a variety of persons, and for such different purposes and trusts, that all charge or allegation of monopoly by any body of men whatever is shown to be without foundation; whereas the same circumstances prove the deep and critical interest which widows, orphans, charitable societies, and other trusts, have in the prosperity and continuance of the Bank. 8th. That the welfare of this Bank is now identified with that of the people of the United States, from those who wield the largest operations of commerce, to him whose interest in the currency does not go beyond the just compensation for his daily labour. These inferences your Committee believe to be sound, and that no partial interest which they may have as stockholders ought to prevent them using their privilege as citizens in stating them.-Their proof may be made manifest to all who know the history of the Bank and the country, by pursuing the communication of the Board of Directors. There is one other subject within range of the refeence to the Committee, upon which they deem it their duty to report. Bank of the United States, Sept. 1st, 1831. (Signed) Hor: Binney, Rob. Ralston, Roswell L. Colt, Paul Beck, Jr. Manuel Eyre, Joseph Hemphill, James Ronaldson. Resolved, That the reports adopted by the Stockholders be referred to the President and Directors for the purpose of being printed and circulated in pamphlet form for the benefit of the Stockholders. BLACK LEAD MINES. Man is a superficial sort of being. He looks at the outside of things, and contents himself with the belief that he has seen all there is to be examined. It was thus, we confess, that we viewed, some ten days since, the BLACK LEAD MINES of Southampton, in this county. The Mine is situated on the top of Edge Hill, one mile and a half N: N. E. from Smithfield, and one mile and a quarter S. E. from the Buck Tavern. Its greatest perpendicular depth at present is between ninety and a hundred feet. The water is raised from it by two pumps, worked by a single horse, to within thirty feet of the surface, where it passes off into a side drain; this drain was intended to have been about thirty feet lower, and is actually carried at that depth to within fifty yards, or a little more, of the mine, where the workmen encoun tered a rock too hard to be penetrated by the means |