and advice of the President of Congress, and the members who had been spoken to on the occasion--that in this state of affairs, any movement to collect the militia might be regarded by the soldiery as an act of treachery, and unless it should be rapid and efficient, would at once expuse Congress, Council, and our fellow citizens-and endanger the city.

sembly Room, Colonels Shee, Eyre, Knox, Marsh, Reed, Will, Dean, Henry, Coates-Majors Rees, Brown, Casdrop, M'Cullough, Boyd, and Panqueke, and Captain Morris-only one field officer being absent.

We laid before these gentlemen the message we had received on Saturday from the soldiery, and our own resolution thereon, with the resolution of Congress passThat as to the letter of the committee "requesting ed on that day. We informed them that the committee the determination of the Council in writing," it appear- of Congress had in a conference explained the said resoed to us an ususual mode of proceeding in conferences lution by saying, that by the "effectual measures therebetween committees of Congress and the Council of in mentioned, Congress meant a call of the militia into this state; that this mode did not seem to be intended by actual service, and their exertions in consequence of Congress; that if they had made the request, we should such a call-that there was reason to believe Congress cheerfully have complied with it; if they should now would remove from this state, unless they should remake it, we should not hesitate a moment to comply; ceive assurances from us, that they might rely upon the but we had received a verbal and most important expla-effectual measures intended by the said resolution being nation of the resolution delivered by them, fully confid- immediately taken for supporting the public authority" ing in the honour of those by whom it was given-and-that as to the want of ammunition that had been menthat if the committee were apprehensive of any mistake, tioned, the objection was happily removed, we having they might reduce our answer to writing immediately, been assured by one of the committee of Congress, that and we would repeat the several parts of it, to prevent we could be supplied with any quantity of musket and any error. cannon cartridge in fifteen minutes. We therefore deThe committee said, they were sensible of the diffi-sired the officers present to give us their sentiments on culties that occurred-that they did not mean that the the practicability of assembling the militia in such a conference intended between Council and the commit- manner as might effect the purposes of the resolution tee of the soldiery should be prevented-that collect- before mentioned, and also in what manner a guard of ing adequate force in readiness to act would not be in- 500 men could be most quickly collected for immediate consistent with this procedure-that as to the conse- defence, to be relieved by the militia, in consequence quence of such an attempt being made, and not imme- of a call for the service proposed. In the course of this diately succeeding, it was suggested, that even small conference, it was asked, whether some kind of negotiabodies of militia might seize certain points, where re- tion had not taken place? We mentioned what had sistance could be made until the rest of the citizens passed on that head. After some time we retired to the should come to their aid-that as to our answer, they Council Chamber. acknowledged we had through this whole business acted with great candour towards them, but they conceived themselves clearly justifiable in requesting our deter mination in writing, and instanced the case of inferior and accountable officers, who often ask and seldom are denied such an answer-and that the reason was much stronger that it should be given to a committee of Congress. We, having before expressed our sentiments on the other points, only observed as to the last, that in our opinion, the case mentioned did not apply—that it might be very proper for responsible officers to ask for answers in writing, to justify themselves to their superiors, and a generous condescension in the persons from whom they were solicited would induce them to comply-but, the committee were a part of the body representing the Sovereignty of the United States, and we had the honor of representing the sovereignty of this state-that conferences especially, between persons vested with such authorities, were intended to obtain a free and full communication of sentiments, without the intervention of writing and that no inconvenience could be apprehended from proceeding in this usual method, as each party could rely upon the integrity of the other. mittee withdrew, and the Council rose.

The com

Soon after we came into the Chamber, one of the committee of Congress entered, and informed the President that he thought himself bound to give him notice of a great mistake that had been committed by the person, from whom he had received his intelligence concerning the ammunition, that person having, in a late conversa tion, told him there were not more than 200 musket cartridges to be found. The President took this opportunity of again desiring that Council might not be precipitated into measures not adapted to the present circumstances-that the soldiers had now been quiet for three days, and we expected every hour to hear from the committee. The gentleman said, that no report in writing had yet been made to Congress, and that for his part he should be for taking some time to make it, for the reasons that had been mentioned.

In about an hour after we had left the officers, we returned into the Assembly Room to them, and Col. Shee speaking for the company, declared it to be their opi nion-"That it would be imprudent to make any call of militia at present, as they were convinced it would be ineffectual-that if the negotiation for settling the disturbance should not succeed, and the soldiers should insist on unjust and unreasonable things, or should commit In this unhappy affair we found ourselves extremely any outrage, they would be willing to make all the exdistressed. On one side, we were urged by the Repre- ertions in their power for preserving the peace and supsentatives of the United States, to draw forth and em- porting public authority, and would use their utmost ploy the citizens in immediate hostilities against the sol-influence for disposing the minds of all under their comdiers; while, on the other hand, the citizens considered them as objects of compassion, rather than of terror or resentment. They could not bear to avenge the dignity of Congress, accidentally and undesignedly offended, by shedding the blood of men whom they considered as having fought and suffered for the American cause; and perhaps the world may be disposed to balance the charge of impolicy in this conduct, by giving credit for the humanity of such behaviour.

We met again in the evening at the President's house; and in order to make particular communications, we directed the lieutenants of the city and neighbourhood, and Captain Morris of the fight horse to be convened to meet us at the State House next morning at ten o'clock.

Accordingly, on Tuesday the 24th, we met in the As-
VOL. II.
42

mands, and of their other fellow citizens, to join in such

measures.

We then directed, that the officers should have their respective commands, as well prepared as could be for action, on the shortest notice, which they promised to do; and we are persuaded that if the occasion for commencing hostilities had appeared as pressing to the militia as it did to some, they would have acted with the same spirit that has always distinguished them, whenever in their judgment the object claimed their exertions.

Before the council adjourned we received the following letter and inclosure from the committee appointed by the soldiers: Philadelphia, June 24, 1783. "Sir-Yesterday morning we were waited on seve

Council rose, and soon afterwards we received intel. ligence that Congress was adjourned, by their Presi--threw them into confusion. The circumstance was dent, to meet at Princeton on the Thursday following.

The President immediately communicated accounts of on terms, as economical and consistent with humanity as these transactions to the President of Congress, in the circumstances will permit. But the case of the youththree letters inclosed. The papers relating to the sub-ful offender is attended with symptoms infinitely more sequent proceedings are herewith transmitted.

Thus, Gentlemen, we have laid before you a faithful narrative of this affair, composed and examined while every circumstance was exactly remembered by us, and the secretary will deliver to you the original papers on which it is principally founded. We have had great difficulties to encounter, but have been enabled to pursue that tenor of conduct which we have held, by the perfect unanimity that subsisted among us through every stage of this business.

We recollected the high trust reposed in us by our country. The honor and tranquility of the state, and the lives and property of our fellow citizens, were involved in our deliberations. We could never consent to commit these pledges of the public confidence, some of them so invaluable and revered, to the dangers necessarily resulting from hasty and violent measures.

encouraging. Youth is the season for the formation of habits; and to stop the current of vice, it is necessary to mount to its source. That much may be effected by a judicious course of treatment is conclusively proved by the experience of a kindred institution in New York. It would perhaps be presumptuous to affirm that such a course will be successful in every instance, but it would be consolatory to know that our interference will not necessarily make matters worse, and that chastisement is inflicted as much for the benefit of the culprit as of society. These considerations frequently press painfully on the mind, during the concluding act of our official duty, in the consciousness that we are sentencing a youth, not merely to the penitentiary but to perdition, and thus putting beyond the reach of hope, a case not otherwise desperate. The institution, as it at present exists, is on a scale much too limited for the purpose. While thus attentive to the interests of the state and Although incorporated, it is, I believe, the offspring of our fellow citizens, we have cheerfully exposed ourselves individual munificence, and legislative patronage, and a to every hazard that could arise from a firmness of oppo- further appeal to these sources may become necessary, sition to the demands of a mutinous soldiery. We daily I have therefore taken occasion to introduce the subject and regularly assembled in the council chamber in our to your notice, with a view to the advantage which the usual msnner, and determinately rejected every propo- institution would indispensably derive, from your counsal inconsistent with our characters and the public good. tenance, should you deem its concerns a fit subject for It is true, we have been insulted; but the follies or the a report, or presentment." faults of others cannot diminish the dignity of those who take care not to impair it by any unworthy actions of

their own.

Extract from the charge of the Hon. Chief Justice Gibson, to the Grand Jury of the Court of Oyer and Terminer, at the opening of that Court on Monday last. In conclusion, Gentlemen, let me invite your attention to a matter which, though not within the range of your immediate duties, is yet intimately connected with the administration of the criminal laws. I allude to the House of Refuge, in the environs of your city. My own attention has been drawn to this object, by two addresses of the Managers, which came to my hand only last night, and consequently too late to enable me to put the subject before you in a light as favourable as it merits. The documents, however, will be submitted to you, and these will enable you to become sufficiently acquainted with its details. You will perceive that the principal design is to provide a place of confinement for juvenile offenders, where, separated from the society of common felons, they may be subjected to a course of treatment, calculated to bring them all back to the paths of industry and virtue; the want of which is acknowledged by every one conversant with the transactions of our criminal Courts. No part of our duty is attended with more distressing considerations, than the sentencing of this class of offenders. Vengeance is not the object of the law. To reform, and deter, are exclusively the legitimate purposes of every criminal code; and when neither of these is to be accomplished, the infliction of punishment produces nothing but a useless addition to the sum of human suffering. For the restoration of those who have grown up in iniquity, my experience leads me to conclude that nothing can be done; their case is hopeless, and the efforts of society must be limited to measures of self defence, by restraining their persons,

Copy of a Presentment of the Grand Jury, made to the
Court of Oyer & Terminer, on the 26th of November,

1828.

The Grand Inquest of the Commonwealth of Pennphia, find great pleasure in presenting "The House of sylvania, inquiring for the City and County of PhiladelRefuge," as an object highly deserving the consideration

of this community.

This Institution was incorporated by an act of assembly, passed the 23d of March, 1826. A building was commenced and is now nearly ready to receive the objects, for whose reformation it has been established.

Few charities, as the Grand Inquest believe, have higher claims on the public; and few, perhaps, will, be more permanently useful.

Here the misguided and neglected, rather than guilty child, will find an abode, where religious and moral principles, and industrious habits will be inculcated-where virtue will be cherished, and vice repressed. When the pupil leaves the Institution, it is to be hoped, he will go forth into the world, with such a character for honesty and integrity, as may lead the virtuous portion of society to receive him among them. Instead of being a weight on the community, supported either in our jails or alms houses, he will be enabled to bear his part of the public burthens.

It is a melancholy fact, that in our prisons, reformation is almost hopeless. The youth who enters their walls, comparatively innocent, soon becomes an adept in every species of crime, and hardened in guilt. On his discharge, with a ruined character, and, often without the means of support, he finds himself avoided by the good, and tempted by the wicked; and soon plunges again into a career of vice, which terminates in his destruction.

Far different will be the fate of the inmates of the House of Refuge, where, from the experience derived from the London and New York Institutions, we may safely calculate, that the larger proportion will be saved.

We trust that an Institution so deserving, will be sustained by the liberal support of an enlightened and benevolent public.

Philadelphia, Nov. 26, 1828.
Signed

SAMUEL RICHARDS,

Foreman.

SAML. F. BRADFORD,
F. VANSANT,

CHARLES FINNEY,

GEORGE M'CALLMONT,

LEONARD STRICKER,
BENJAMIN JOHNSON,
SAMUEL NEWBOLD,
THOMAS TOMPKINS,
JOSEPH R. JENKS,
S. MOSS,

C. HOLLOND.

PROGRESS OE LITERATURE IN PENNSYL-
VANIA.-No. II.*

From the Philadelphia Monthly Magazine, for December.
In Graydon's memoirs of his own life, we find an
amusing account of John Beveridge, who was appointed
in 1758, professor of languages in the College and Aca-
demy of Philadelphia. He appears to have been well
versed in the branches which he professed to teach; but
his acquirements extended very little farther, and his
total ignorance of the ways of the world, disqualified
him for the management of a school on so large a scale.
From Barton's life of Rittenhouse, we learn that he ori-
ginally taught a grammar school in Edinburgh, under
the patronage of the celebrated Ruddiman. While in
that situation, he taught Latin to Thomas Blacklock, the
blind poet; and it was during this time that Blacklock
wrote his fine paraphrase of the 104th psalm, which Be-
veridge afterwards rendered into Latin. In 1765, our
author published by subscription, in Philadelphia, a col-
lection of Latin poems, entitled Epistolæ et alia quædam
miscellanea, which for the most part are written with
great purity, though it must be allowed that the reader
seldom feels the warmth of the author's poetic fire, or
is dazzled by the vividness of his imagery. The time of
his death has not been recorded.

Thomas Godfrey, the son of the inventor of the seaquadrant, of which Hadley for a time enjoyed the reputation, was born in Philadelphia in 1736. He possessed in no ordinary degree, the germ of true poetry. Among his early acquaintances were Francis Hopkinson, and Benjamin West, the distinguished artist. After the death of his father, which took place when our poet was very young, he learnt the business of watch-making, and during his apprenticeship, wrote poetry for the American Magazine. Most of his contributions were highly commended by the editor of that now forgotten work. In 1758, Dr. Smith obtained him a lieutenant's commission in the Pennsylvania forces, which the governiment was then raising for the expedition against Fort Du Quesne, in which situation he continued until the campaign was over, and the troops disbanded. In August of this year, he wrote a poetical epistle from Fort Henry, which, though not as poetical as that of Ambrose Phillips from Copenhagen, is a favourable specimen of our author's versification, and valuable, as it contains a striking picture, and perhaps the only one preserved, of the deep distress that overwhelmed the frontier settlements, when every field was stained with the blood of its owner, shed by the hands of unsparing savages.

"Here no enchanting prospect yields delight,
But darksome forests intercept the sight;
Here, fill'd with dread, the trembling peasants go,
And start with terror at each nodding bough,
Nor as they trace the gloomy way along,
Dare ask the influence of a cheering song.

"If in this wild a pleasing spot we meet,
In happier times some humble swain's retreat;
Where once with joy he saw the grateful soil,
Yield a luxuriant harvest to his toil.
[Blest with content, enjoyed his solitude,
And knew his pleasures, though of manners rude;]
The lonely prospect strikes a secret dread,
While round the ravag'd cot we silent tread,

See Register, vol. II. p. 270.

Whose owner fell beneath the savage hand,
Or roves a captive on some hostile land,
While the rich fields with Ceres' blessings stor❜d,
Grieve for their slaughter'd, or their absent lord."
In the spring of 1759 he settled as a factor in North
Carolina, where he finished his tragedy, entitled The
Prince of Parthia, the first drama known to have been
written on this side of the Atlantic. It is, all things
considered, an astonishing production. He was but
twenty-two years of age at this time-a partially edu-
cated youth, whose pursuits were calculated rather to
suppress than to foster poetic feelings; yet he ventured
into the most arduous walk of literature, perhaps even
without having heard of the rules of Horace, or the Sta-
gyrite, and it is curious to observe how surprisingly his
vigorous genius has sustained him in this undertaking.
Impatient to have his tragedy performed, he forwarded
it to Philadelphia in November, 1759, without having
revised it with sufficient care for the press, and it has
been printed with all its original inaccuracies. It has
never been represented, but might be adapted to the
stage without any material alteration. Mr. Godfrey re-
mained in North Carolina three years, when, on the
death of his employer, he returned to Philadelphia,
whence he sailed as a supercargo to New Providence;
and a few months after he revisited North Carolina,
where death'suddenly terminated his wanderings, on the
3d of August 1763, in the 27th year of his age. He has
been highly extolled for the mildness of his disposition,
warmth of heart, and unwavering friendship. His per-
son was inclined to corpulency. Among the earliest
attempts of West's pencil, is a portrait of this poet,
which, it must be admitted, is indicative of neither ta-
lent in the artist, nor in the person delineated. The
best of Mr. Godfrey's writings is decidedly the Court of
Fancy, a poem of five hundred lines, first published in
1762. There are passages in this poem that would not
derogate from the reputation of the nervous and harmoni-
ous Pope, and indeed, its author had the Temple of Fame
in view at the time of its composition. After describing in
highly poetic language the temple of Fancy, he gives
the following description of Fancy herself:

"High in the midst, rais'd on her rolling throne,
Sublimely eminent bright Fancy shone:
A glitt'ring tiara her temples bound,
Rich set with sparkling rubies all around,
Her azure eyes rolled with majestic grace,
And youth eternal bloom'd upon her face.
A radiant bough, ensign of her command,
Of polish'd gold, waved in her lilly hand;
The same the sybil to Eneas gave,
When the bold Trojan cross'd the Stygian wave.
In silver traces fix'd unto her car,

Four snowy swans, proud of th' imperial fair,
Wing'd lightly on, each in gay beauty drest,
Smooth'd the soft plumage that adorn'd her breast.
Sacred to her the lucent chariot drew,

Or whether wildly through the air she flew,
Or whether to the dreary shades of night,
Oppress'd with gloom, she downwards bent her flight,
Or, proud, aspiring, sought the blest abodes,
And boldly shot among the assembled gods."

There is much propriety in this description. Mr. Godfrey's poems were published in Philadelphia in 1765, in a quarto volume of 223 pages, 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.

Evans was a man of talents, crudition, and piety, but no poet. He wrote sensibly and harmoniously, and, had he lived in England, possibly his writings might have found a place in some of those cumbrous and soporific collections, entitled the British Poets. Still such a destiny would not have made him a poet, though many names might be referred to, as belonging to the