384 TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION 



The constitution of Pensylvania differs from that of 

 the other states in this, that besides this Assembly, 

 which is the real law-making- power, it has not like the 

 others a Senate or Upper House, (in imitation of the 

 English House of Lords), but a Supreme Executive 

 Council, of which the Governor is President, consist- 

 ing of 12 members, elected also in the counties by 

 turns. Pensylvania besides has been quite alone in 

 setting up a Council of Censors, to which each county 

 elects two members. It is the duty of these Censors to 

 safeguard the Constitution, to observe what Assembly 

 and Council undertake and what they carry out, to 

 guard against encroachments of power, to criticize all 

 abuses and changes, and to examine into the manage- 

 ment of the revenues of the state. But information as 

 to all this is to be had from the published constitutions 

 of the several states. 



Regarding the frequent changes of residence of the 

 Congress, and especially in the matter of its annual 

 migrations from Jersey to Maryland and from Mary- 

 land to Jersey, recently decided upon, the newspapers 

 of Philadelphia have hitherto had no little diversion. 



Under the protection of an almost unrestricted free- 

 dom of the press, which rightly used can be one of the 

 solidest supports of the Constitution, there are every 

 day lavished for the amusement of the public the 

 bitterest mockeries over the high-puissant Congress, 

 and nobody is held to account. The populace, which 

 takes impudence to be liberty, would defend the author 

 as well as the publisher against every attack, as was 

 recently the case in a suit at law which Bob Morris, 

 the celebrated financier, brought against the printer 

 of the ' Freeman's Journal ' for an abusive article. I 



