is that in which the Declaration of In-state and the country at large, are likel dependence was adopted and signed, to participate in the advantages of su and in which Washington was appoint- enlightened a measure. ed commander-in-chief of the army.

The large square, in the rear of that edifice, is shaded by many fine old trees; and Washington square, just beyond it, which was enclosed but a few years ago, has several elegant churches around it, and many fine houses. But the most conspicuous public place is Independence square, before named, situated between Chestnut and Walnut

streets.

The practice of humanity and Ch. tian philanthropy, which is made prominent a feature in the system oï the friends, or quakers, has shown its influence in various important departments. The improvements in prisondiscipline, which we have noticed at some length in the description of New York, in which state the plan which now prevails in this country, and, to a considerable extent, in Europe, was first brought into operation at Auburn, have been partially adopted in this city. Dr. Rush, of Philadelphia, however, first recommended radical improvements, founded on somewhat similar grounds,

Girard College.-This splendid edifice strikes the eye with admiration from a distance, presenting a noble colonnade, of white marble, of great size, and the elegant proportions of the most celebrated Grecian models. It has been erect-in 1787, at a time when public opinion ed with immense sums of money bequeathed by the late Stephen Girard, long an eminent merchant of Philadelphia, for the education of orphans. The peculiar restrictions laid on the execution of the will, in several particulars, threw embarrassments in the way of the speedy execution of the enterprise, and the institution has never gone into op

eration.

was so unprepared to put them into operation, and even to appreciate them, that they were regarded as visionary. A prison was erected, in 1790, on a plan corresponding with his views, which was the first step in the way of improvement. The prisoners were treated with more humanity, kept clean, and subjected to regular hours, labor, and silence, being watched day and night. They were Schools.-Philadelphia has long been credited for the products of their labor; supplied with schools, in much greater and half the excess of the amount, after proportion than the state at large, in fines and expenses, was paid on the exwhich they were neglected, until 1809, piration of the sentence. But several and were but little extended or improved grand defects of the old system were by the act of the legislature of that year. retained in that prison, which further Within a few years past, exertions have experience condemned. One of the been made to establish a universal sys-principal of these was the common tem of common education, and great rooms, in which numbers of convicts advances have been made in some parts spent their time together, by day and of the state; but a large proportion of by night. No vigilance was sufficient the inhabitants being indifferent to the to prevent demoralizing intercourse; claims of education, has presented great and reformation-the great object in obstacles to the rapid change so desira-view-was not satisfactorily secured. ble. The German population, distin- The prison has since been demolished, guished as they generally are for indus- and others have been erected, on differtry and frugality, are too much opposed ent plans, on the northeastern borders to the improvements desired by many of the city.

of their fellow-citizens; and all attempts The Penitentiary, near Fairmount, is made to rival the noble example of New an immense edifice of granite, with a York and some other states, have been large yard, 650 feet square, surrounded disappointed. In Philadelphia, howev- by a wall forty feet high. The plan of er, the public schools have been placed upon a very high footing within a few years; and not only the city, but the

this building is wholly different from any before erected. It is designed for solitary confinement, in the strictest

sense of the term. Rows of cells, on Medical instruction was first given one level, are arranged in seven long by Dr. William Shippen, in 1764, in lines, radiating from an octagonal build- a course of anatomical lectures, to ten ing in the centre, where a single senti- pupils. Dr. John Morgan was his asnel is placed to watch and listen, guard-sociate the next year-both being grading several hundred convicts. Objec- uates of Edinburgh. Dr. Kahn was tions have been made to this system, on made professor of botany in 1768, and the ground of expense, and the difficulty in 1769 Dr. Bush of chymistry, while of finding occupation for the prisoners, Dr. Bond was clinical lecturer in the useful to them, or profitable to the insti- Pennsylvania hospital. This medical tution, as well as to the evil effects, college has now about four hundred stuphysical, mental, and moral, sometimes dents. resulting from uninterrupted solitude. The United States Mint was erected General Lafayette remarked, facetious- in 1830, after one of Mr. Strickland's ly, while on a visit to this prison during designs. It is entirely of white marble, its construction, that solitary confinement had been tried on him at Olmutz, without changing his character or hab

its.

The House of Refuge, for juvenile delinquents, in the same vicinity, is conducted on the same general plan as other similar institutions at New York and elsewhere, and with similar beneficial results. Vagrant and convicted boys and girls are placed there, under the charge of keepers and instructors, and are trained in good schools and various kinds of useful business, and then apprenticed, chiefly to humane persons in distant and retired country situations. Some of the boys have been sent to sea; and many unfortunate children have been rescued from ruin by such humane treatment.

The Pennsylvania Hospital. - This noble institution was founded by Dr. Thomas Bond, in 1751, aided by Franklin and others. The grounds are fine, and it contains a statue of William Penn, with West's celebrated picture of Christ healing the sick, presented by its author, a native of this state.

The University of Pennsylvania, on Ninth street, has two fine edifices, one of which is for the medical department. The origin of this institution is traced back to 1764, when a subscription was opened for an academy and charityschool, in which English, mathematics, and Latin, were to be taught. It was incorporated and endowed in 1753; and among its pupils was Lindley Murray, author of the English grammar. It was incorporated as a college in 1755.

has a front on Chestnut street of 122 feet, and one on Centre square. The whole process of making money, assaying, refining, and coining the metal, is carried on in this building. The mint was established in 1790; and in 1793, they commenced coining in the building now occupied by the Apprentices' Library company, in Seventh street. Mr. R. M. Patterson has been at the head of this establishment for several years. Since the discoveries of gold in California, the amount of coinage has been largely increased.

The Naval Hospital is situated about two miles southwest from the centre of the city. The expense is defrayed by funds contributed by the officers and seamen of the United States navy, out of their pay. The building is on an eminence, commands an extensive view, and makes a fine appearance from a distance. The front is 386 feet in length, three stories high, and it is large enough to lodge three or four hundred persons. The first story is of granite, and the second and third of marble, both of which kinds of stone are found in abundance in the vicinity of Philadelphia.

The western side of Philadelphia is a scene of much bustle and business. Several fine bridges cross the Schuylkill, and the wharves below are landingplaces for vessels coming from Delaware bay and the ocean, for the canal-boats of the Schuylkill navigation, and the Union canal, which leaves that line at Reading for the Susquehannah. Above, a fine stone dam crosses from bank to bank, and shows the first of the long

and expensive series of works which form | finished in 1813, at an expense of one an uninterrupted channel of communica- hundred and twenty thousand dollars, tion between the Schuylkill coal-mines and exceeded the largest of all others and the city. Fairmount, a high, steep by ninety-six feet in the span. It was eminence, rises near the same spot, on fifty feet wide at the abutments, and the top of which are the immense reser- thirty-five in the centre, being by this voirs for the supply of Philadelphia with form braced against lateral pressure. water, which is raised from above the The Permanent Bridge was erected, milldam, by five large waterwheels, and at the foot of Market street, by a comallowed to stand for a time in two reser-pany incorporated in 1798, and cost voirs, of the capacity of eleven millions $300,000, including the land. The work of gallons, until it deposites the earthy was a great one, at that early day, when particles. It is then distributed through- no such structure had been undertaken out the city, through pipes more than a in the country; but it was successful. hundred miles in extent. Indeed, it might be regarded as an enterprise of magnitude at any period, as the depth of the river presented formidable obstacles to the sinking of piers. The western one was founded at a depth of forty-one feet below high-water level.

The Wire Suspension-Bridge. This wonderful and beautiful specimen of art was erected in 1842, at the expense of fifty thousand dollars, by Mr. Charles Elliot, for the city and county of Philadelphia. It occupies the site of the celebrated Wernwag's wooden-arched bridge, the longest in the world (with an arch of three hundred and forty feet span), burnt down a short time previously, and connects the two sides of the Schuylkill at a very important point.

The length, from one abutment to the other, is 343 feet, and from one of the supporting rollers to the other, at the apex of the columns, 357 feet, while the breadth, including the floor and the footways, is 27 feet. The wire, of which an immense quantity was used in the fabric, is one eighth of an inch in diameter. This is formed into five cables for each side; each is constituted of 260 strands, two inches and five eighths in diameter, weighing four tons, and able to support eight hundred tons. Seventeen short and smaller cables, hanging from each of these, to support the floor-beams, are made of smaller wires, and able to support two tons each.

The large cables pass over iron rollers on the pillars, by which the tension is equalized, and are fastened around many strong iron bars, transversely imbedded in rocks or masonry. The towers are enormous columns of granite, from the state of Maine. The iron was quarried at Juniata, and manufactured at Easton-all in this state.

The arched bridge spoken of above, the predecessor of the wire-bridge, was

Fountain Park.-This is not only one of the most remarkable situations in the country, in point of picturesque beauty, but also endeared to us by historical associations of the most romantic character. Here, by the shore of the Schuylkill (or Manayone, as it was called by the aborigines), occurred some of the most desperate fights recorded in the annals of Indian warfare. Here, the axe of the first settler under Penn awoke the echoes of the woods. At the hour that the battle of Germantown was raging around Chew's house, here, at least three miles from that celebrated spot, the Hessians were endeavoring to crush a band of continentals, inferior in arms and discipline, but not in iron courage. After twelve bloody onsets, that poured from the hill into the valley, the continentals drove their enemies across the river, at the ford, whose traces are now obliterated by the rising of the waters, from Fairmount dam. This ford is situated on the southern verge of Laurel hill, one of the most beautiful spots on the globe, whose spires and monuments are now visible from the mansion.

It was here that William Penn loved to wander, contemplating, either in his walks on shore, or in his excursions on the river, the rise and progress of his much-beloved colony. In those wanderings, perchance, he already saw-for he was a deep thinker-his colony rise