PHILADELPHIA. 25 
to come to Philadelphia preparatory to the 
meeting of congress, and resides there during 
the whole of the session. Once in the week, 
during his stay in the city, he lias levees, be¬ 
tween the hours of three and four in the after¬ 
noon. At these he always appears himself in 
a court dress, and it is expected that the foreign 
ministers should always attend in the same 
1 style; this they constantly do, excepting the 
French minister, who makes a point of going 
in a dishabille, not to say worse of it. Other 
persons are at liberty to go as they think pro¬ 
per. Mrs. Washington also has a drawing 
room once every week. On this occasion the 
ladies are seated in great form round the apart¬ 
ment, and tea, coffee, &c. served*. 
Philadelphia is the grand residence of the 
Quakers in America, but their number does 
not bear the same proportion now to that of 
the other citizens which it did formerly. At 
present they form about one fourth only of the 
inhabitants. This does not arise from any di¬ 
minution of the number of quakers, on the 
contrary they have considerably increased, but 
* Whether the levee is kept up by the present president, 
oi* not, I have not heard. Many objections were made to it 
by the democratic party during the administration of Gene¬ 
ral Washington, as being inconsistent with the spirit of a re¬ 
publican government, and destructive of that equality which 
ought to reign amongst the citizens of every class. 
