FROM PHILADELPHIA 129 



lying in Philadelphia county, both rent and tax are 

 higher than in other counties. The nearness of the 

 capital, that is, assures the farmer more profitable and 

 quicker returns, and there are other advantages which 

 are taken into the account. Moreover, those land- 

 owners suspected of adherence to the old government 

 are still assessed higher, and (as just now mentioned) 

 many British sympathizers are supposed to live in this 

 region, of whom only a few have so far condescended 

 to swear allegiance to the United States. The Pro- 

 vincial Assembly determines the amount which each 

 county shall contribute for the good of the country. 

 The counties themselves then apportion the amount 

 among the several places and farms within that terri- 

 tory, and in their estimates and equalizations are gov- 

 erned by the extent, goodness, situation, and use of 

 the lands in this way the taxes apparently fall out 

 very unequally. This same afternoon we came to an- 

 other farm (in another county, Bucks) in a stony, hilly 

 region called Rocky Hill, where a young man had to 

 pay only 10 shillings for 74 acres, but mostly woodland. 



Among the several classes of taxes in Pensylvania 

 there is a special one levied on bachelors and called the 

 ' Batchelors' Tax/ Every male person 21 years old and 

 still unprovided with a wife pays from that time on 12 

 shillings 6 pence Pensylv. Current a year. However 

 inconsiderable this tax is in itself, it effects the desired 

 purpose, because young men will not long expose them- 

 selves to mockery of this sort in a country where work- 

 ing hands can so easily find support for a family. 



This tax has long been imposed, here as well as in 

 Maryland ; and very recently the example has been fol- 

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