PENSYLVANIA 69 



days, there is repetition to the thirteenth time, that 

 sacred number. At Philadelphia there is always some- 

 thing to be chimed, so that it seems almost as if it was 

 an Imperial or Popish city. The German Reformed 

 church, at the corner of Third- and Arch-street, has 

 also a fine steeple. 



Among the other public buildings must be mentioned 

 especially the State House, a large but not a splendid 

 structure of two storeys. The fagade is of tiled brick, 

 with no particular decoration, but in comparison regu- 

 lar and handsome. In this case also the providing of a 

 large square in front has been neglected, and this 

 would have lent distinction. The lower storey con- 

 tains two large halls, one of which the Congress for- 

 merly made use of. Here they assembled for the first 

 time on the 2nd of Sept. 1774, and here they announced 

 the Act of Independence, 4th July 1776. Three limes 

 the Congress fled from this place first, to Baltimore, 

 in the autumn of 1776, when the English army stood 

 on the banks of the Delaware in Jersey ; then, in the 

 summer of 1777, to Yorktown in Pensylvania, when 

 General Howe landed in Maryland ; and recently, be- 

 fore their own troops, to Princetown in New Jersey, 

 June 1783. 



The other hall, on the ground floor, is for the use of 

 the Supreme Court of Judicature. Above, there are 

 two halls, for the General Assembly and for the Gov- 

 ernor and Council. Two wing-buildings are joined by 

 archways to the main building. A pretty large collec- 

 tion of books which belongs to a Library Company was 

 formerly installed in one of these wings but several 

 years ago was removed to a special building in Carpen- 

 ter-street, and at present the War Office occupies this 



