PENSYLVANIA 97 



with that, but regretted I could not meet one whose 

 vainglory, not satisfied with the government of so con- 

 siderable a province as Pensylvania was at the same 

 time putting in for another, that of the state of Dela- 

 ware. But this may have been from lofty patriotism. 

 The inhabitants of Philadelphia seemed to me to 

 have retained something of that suspicious reserve 

 which policy compelled them to adopt at the beginning 

 of the war, and while it lasted, in their dealings with 

 strangers behavior due in the first instance partly to 

 fear, partly to aversion for political dissentients. It has 

 been said for a long time of Philadelphia that one 

 might not gain a footing in houses there so easily as 

 in the neighboring York, the explanation of which was 

 chiefly that the Quakers excluded all but their own 

 particular friends, and this behavior, imitated among 

 the bulk of the inhabitants, has in some sort remained a 

 characteristick. The war, however, which must be 

 thanked in America for so many things, and the num- 

 ber of Europeans present in the country (especially the 

 French) have worked already a positive revolution in 

 America. Burnaby remarked with regret that people 

 were not very courteous and hospitable to strangers ; 

 he would have less cause to say as much now. But I 

 must acknowledge that those among the Philadelphians 

 who have visited foreign countries are incomparably 

 more engaging and polite than others who hold court- 

 esy to be reserve; those who have travelled have 

 learned by experience how obliging even the smallest 

 attention is to a stranger, and they practice what else- 

 where has pleased them. Not so, those entirely home- 

 bred. Two of my friends, Englishmen, came from 

 York to see Philadelphia and found rooms in a house 

 7 



