1 805.] Sketch of the Origin and Prefent State of Phlhdelphk. 2\ 



(hall only for the prefent add, that in the 

 propofltion I hare made of employing 

 Englifliraen as teachers in Scotland, I am 

 far from wifliing to deprive my country- 

 men of this refpeflable means of fubfiftence, 

 for which they are in fo many other re- 

 fpefts, eminently qualified. But let thefe 

 young Scotchmen, who are meant to fill 

 icholaftic departments, be fo educated 

 thcmfelves as to be enabled to teach their 

 |)upilsthe Englifh, as well as foreign lan- 

 guage*. Nothing, for example, can pre- 

 vent even the pooreft from pafling fome 

 years in an Englifh feminary, where they 

 may be employed and paid for teaching 

 thofe branches for which they are quali- 

 fied. I am, &c. 

 London, May 6, 1805. J. B. 



for the Monthly Magazine. 



^ BRIEF SKErCHofthe ORIGIN andPRE- 

 SENT STATE of the CITY of PHILA- 

 DELPHIA. 



PHILADELPHIA is the capital of 

 Pennfylvania, and thechief ci y of the 

 tJfiited States, in point of ilze and fplen- 

 dour j though it now fills but the fecond 

 rank in refpeft to commercial importance : 

 the trade of America hai'ing latterly flow- 

 ed more fredy into the open channels of 

 the bay of New York. It muft alfo yield 

 metropolitan precedence to the doubtful 

 policyof ay^af of go'vemment far remov- 

 ed from the chief refort cf ivealth and po- 

 pulaiion, the pendulum of national aflivi- 

 ty, which muft long vibrate (perhaps for 

 cvei) between Baltimore, Philadelphia, 

 and New-Yotk ; a chain cf comiiiercial 

 cities, unparallelled in hiftory, whofe vi- 

 gorous impulfe is already accelerated by 

 the bold ramifications of turnpikes and 

 canals. 



Philadelphia Is fituated ^bout forty 

 degrees north of the equator, and ftventy- 

 iive weft of London ; being in the fame 

 parallel of latitude with Spain, Italy, and 

 Greece j climates whofe happy tempera- 

 ture had already indicated for Pennl'ylva- 

 nia a milder winter, before the original 

 frofts of November and December, by 

 which the firft adventurers were fometimes 

 (roten up in the Delaware, had evidently 

 yielded to the qualifying effefls of expof- 

 tng the furface of the earth to the rays of 

 the fun. 



If* founder, the benevolrtit and f)acific 

 William Penn, denominated it Philadel- 

 phia, or the City of Brotherly Love, from 

 a town in ancient Greece, fo named in ho- 

 nour of the fraternal attachment of Atta- 

 lui and Euoiexies ; and afterwards famous 



in the Chriftian World for one of tb« 

 Seven Churches to which St. John addrefs- 

 ed his Prophetic Vifions, fo fublimely de- 

 liveied in the Book of Revelations ; — a 

 name, methiriks, of aufpicious omen — 

 " Behold (fays the infpired Apoftle to the 

 Angel of the Church in Philadelphia), 

 I have fet before thee an open door, and no 

 man can (hut it." Religious liberty is 

 here a chartered right j the policy, as well 

 as the equity, of which, io lay nothing of 

 its confilfency with the fpirit of that reli- 

 gion which breathes ♦' peace on earth, ar»d 

 good-will to men," is happily confirmed 

 in thefe latter ages of the church, by the 

 harmony and fellowfliip in vvhich the va- 

 rious profelTors of the modern PniladeU 

 phia fo peculiarly fraiernize. 



Penn had been concerned in the fcttle- 

 ment of Ncw Jerfey fonie years before be 

 obtained fr.om Charles II. a giant of the 

 territory on the wellern iiJe of the Dcla- 

 waie. The Dti'cii and Swe;les were then 

 numerous at Li^pland (,iow Cl-.elltr), at 

 New.Calile, and at the Hoerkills (now 

 Lewis-Town), and a number of his bre- 

 thren in religious profefTion, had already 

 ercablifheJ ihemklves at Shackamaxoii 

 (now Kcnfmgton, a fuburb cf Philadel- 

 piiia), in ti.e year 1678; when a fiiip, 

 called the Shield, of Stockton, the firlt 

 that had ever ventured to tail Io high u(> 

 the river, in tacking about, ran her bow- 

 fprit among the trees which lined the 

 ibore viiurc the city now (lands ; and the 

 nevi-cuiiiers on board, bound for Burling- 

 ton, then remarked to each other, that tt 

 nujuld be a fine place for a to'-jun. 



The royal grant palfed the great-feal on 

 the 4.th of March, 1681 ; and in Auguil 

 the fuiiowiog year the venerable legiflator 

 of Pennfylvania fet fail from London, ia 

 the fhip Welrome, Captain Greenway. 



The proprietor was accompanied by a 

 hundred of his friends and fellow-profef- 

 Ibrs, contemptaouAy called Quakers by 

 their haughty countrymen ; becaufe, ia 

 their religious meetirgj, like the faithful 

 of every age, they fometimes trembled at 

 the word of God. 



A profperous gale wafted the patri- 

 archs of Pennfylvania in fix weeks to the 

 friendly coaft of America ; and the Pro- 

 prietary landed at New-Caftle, on the 

 24th of Oilober, under the acclamations 

 of the Dutch lettleis, who accompanied 

 him to Upland, the principal Swedifli fst- 

 tlement, where he collecled an alfcmbly of 

 all the freemen in the province, by whom 

 his jurifdiiSlion was unanimoufly recogniz- 

 ed and confirincd. 



It wa« here that the father gf hii coun- 

 try 



