currency in Pennsylvania until early in 1841, when another attempt was made to resume, but it proved fatal to the United States Bank of Pennsylvania, and the. Girard Bank, which were obliged to go into liquidation; while nearly all the banks of this state, and of all the states south and west of it continued their suspension.* To relieve the distressing pressure throughout the state consequent upon the downfall of the great banks, and the general reaction of all private speculations, and also to provide temporary means for meeting the demands upon the state treasury, the banks, still in a state of suspension, were permitted, by a law of 4th May, 1841, to issue small notes, of the denomination of $1, $2, and $3, which were loaned to the state, and were redeemable in state stock whenever $100 were presented in one parcel. The treasury of the state still being embarrassed, the state stocks became depreciated, (being at one time as low as $35 for $100,) and the small notes depending upon it, sympathized in the depreciation, but not to an equal extent. An attempt to coerce the banks to specie payments, in the spring of 1842, was unsuc

* Depreciation of Stocks.-A calculation showing the relative value of the stocks held in Pennsylvania now, and three years ago, would be an interesting document. The wisest and best of our citizens have been deceived. Nay, some of those who railed most, at what they described as the ingenuity and falsehood of others, have also committed egregious errors.

To illustrate the matter, we invite attention to the following table. It will be seen that we have mentioned only a portion of the stocks that have been bought and sold in our market within the last few years. The picture it presents is frightful indeed. It will be seen that out of a capital of little more than sixty-two millions of dollars, there is an aggregate loss of nearly fifty-seven millions!-Bicknell's Reporter of 1841.

[To this table have been added, by the compiler, two columns, bringing the quotations down to June, 1843, from which the further aggregate loss may be easily estimated. An improvement will be noticed in the last column.]

cessful, the state having made no adequate provision for the redemption of the small notes, (called Relief Notes.) A few city banks resumed; others failed; the country banks generally remained in a state of suspension, and the relief notes, at a discount of from 7 to 10 per cent., formed the only currency throughout the state. During this year the state made only a partial payment, in depreciated funds, of the semiannual interest on her stocks, and her credit, hitherto sustained with difficulty, sunk with that of other delinquent states. The legislative provisions of 1842 and 1843, especially the tax law of July, 1842, may in time replenish the exhausted treasury, and resuscitate the credit of the state. The following statement, compiled from Gov. Porter's message of 4th January, 1843, exhibits the amount of the public funded debt of the state, and the objects for which it has been contracted.

The whole amount of the present funded debt of the state, exclusive of the deposit of the surplus revenue, is $37,937,788 24. This debt is reimbursable as follows:

$15,000 00

56,022 60

62,500 00

1844,

To the funded debt, as stated above,

Should be added the amount due domestic creditors, (contractors, &c.) a little over

Relief Notes, payable in State Stock,

And the interest on the State debts, payable in Feb. 1843,

$37,937,788 1,000,000 2,113,650

874,278

$41,925,716

Total debt in Feb. 1843, about

The public improvements for which the principal amount of the state debt has been incurred, consist of 793 miles of canals and railways completed, and 140 miles of canals in progress of construction and nearly completed.

The finished works are the following:

The Delaware canal, from Easton to tide at Bristol,

The main line of canal and railway from Philadelphia to Pittsburg,

Canal from Beaver, on the Ohio river, to the mouth of the French creek feeder, in the direction of Erie,

Canal from Franklin, on the Allegheny river, to Conneaut lake,

Canal, Susquehanna and North Branch, from Duncan's Island to Lackawanna,
Canal, West Branch, from Northumberland to Farrandsville,

MILES.

594

3951

974

494

1111

73

7

Several side cuts and navigable feeders,

Total, canals and railways completed,

Canals in progress, and nearly completed:

North Branch extension, from Lackawanna to New York line,

Erie extension, from the mouth of the French creek Feeder to Erie harbor,
Wiconisco Canal, from Duncan's Island to Wiconisco creek,

Total canals in progress,

7931

90

381

121

1401

The state has always met the payment of the interest upon the public debt with punctuality, until the semi-annual payment due on the 1st of August, 1842, when, for want of adequate provision for that purpose, certificates of the amount due to each holder of the stock were issued, bearing an interest of six per cent., payable in one year.

On the 2d May, 1837, a convention, of which John Sergeant was elected president, assembled at Harrisburg for the purpose of revising the constitution of the commonwealth. Adjourning in July, the convention met again at Harrisburg in October, and removed in December to Philadelphia, where their labors were closed on the 22d Feb. 1838. The amendments were adopted by the people at the subsequent annual election. In conformity with the more important amendments, the political year commences in January; rotation in office is secured by allowing the governor but two terms of three years each, in any term of nine years; the senatorial term is reduced to three years; the power of the legislature to grant banking privileges is abridged and regulated; private property cannot be taken for public use without compensation previously secured; the governor's patronage is nearly all taken away, and the election of many officers heretofore appointed by him is vested in the people or their representatives; the governor's nomination of judicial officers must be confirmed in the senate with open doors; all life offices are abolished; judges of the supreme court are to be commissioned for fifteen years,-presidents of the common pleas, and other law judges, for ten years, and associate judges for five years-if they so long behave themselves well; the right of suffrage is extended to all white freemen twenty-one years old, one year resident in the state, having within two years paid a tax assessed ten days before the election, and having resided ten days immediately preceding in the district; white freemen between the age of 21 and 22, citizens of the United States, having resided a year in the state and ten days in the district, may vote without paying any tax; two successive legislatures, with the approbation of the people at a subsequent election, once in five years, may add to the constitution whatever other amendments experience may require.

ADAMS COUNTY.

ADAMS COUNTY was formerly a part of York, from which it was separated by the Act of 22d Jan. 1800. Length 27 m., breadth 24; area, 528 sq. miles. Population in 1800, 13,172; in 1810, 15,152; in 1820, 19,370; in 1830, 21,378; in 1840, 23,044. The lofty chain called the South Mountain, sweeps around the northern and western boundaries, passing into Maryland and Virginia under the well-known name of the Blue Ridge. The prevailing rocks of this mountain are the massive silicious sandstones of Formation I. of the great secondary series, according to the classification of the state geologist. The old red sandstone also appears in some places. The lower hills and valleys which compose the remainder of the county belong principally to the "middle secondary series," composed of blue, red, and green shales, talcose rocks, and gray sandstones. Here and there a bed of limestone has been protruded-a valuable acquisition for the neighboring farmers. Iron ore is found in several localities, and the dense forests of the mountain furnish abundance of charcoal for smelting it. Copper ore has also been found in some places, in the shape of green and blue carbonate, with a little native copper; but the furnace built for smelting it by Mr. Thompson in the southwestern part of the county, has been abandoned as unprofitable. There have been occasional rumors and surmises of the existence of gold and silver mines; but hitherto the most successful mode of obtaining gold in Adams county, has been by that peculiar mixture of lime and red shale so well known and skilfully practised among the German farmers during the last fifteen years.

Several iron furnaces are or have been in operation, among which the Caledonia furnace, on the Chambersburg road, and the Maria furnace, owned by Messrs. Stevens and Paxton, in Hamilton Ban township, are the most prominent.

The silicious and broken lands of the mountains are poorly adapted to agricultural purposes; but the rolling slate lands in the lower and middle portions of the county furnish some excellent farms, on which there thrives an industrious and frugal people.

There are no navigable streams in the county, yet it is well watered, and useful mill seats are abundant. Rock, Marsh, Middle, and Toms creeks, branches of the Monocasy river, drain the southern and middle sections of the county, and flow into Maryland. Latimore, Bermudian, and Opossum creeks, water the northeastern section, forming the sources of the Conewago creek, which flows through York county into the Susquehanna.

There are fifteen or twenty well-built public bridges, and, in all, about ninety miles of excellent turnpike roads. A track has been graded, at an expense to the state of about $700,000, for a railroad from Gettysburg to the Maryland line, intended to connect with the Baltimore and Ohio road; but the rails have never been laid, and the work is now suspended-perhaps abandoned. This is the road which, from its very circuitous and expensive character, has been stigmatized by some state politicians as "the Tape-worm."

About the years 1734-6, a band of emigrants from Scotland and the north of Ireland, more usually known in Pennsylvania as Scotch-Irish, settled on the "red lands" in the southeastern part of York county. Not long afterwards, and probably about the year 1740, a number of the same race made the first settlement in what is now Adams county, among the hills near the sources of Marsh creek. At that time the limestone lands in the lower part of the county, now so valuable in the hands of the German farmers, were not held in high estimation, on account of the scarcity of water, and the Scotch-Irish passed them by to select the slate lands, with the pure springs and mountain air to which they had been accustomed at home. These settlers were of the better order of peasantry, and brought with them the characteristics of their native land. They were moral, industrious, and intelligent; and for the most part were rigid Presbyterians, or "Seceders." "Seceders." They were frugal, as the Scotch always are-plain in their mode of living, but cordial and hospitable. They were universally men of undaunted courage and high patriotic feeling; and when the alarm of the revolution first rung through the land, it called no truer or more willing hearts than those of the ScotchIrish Presbyterians. The manners and character of the early settlers have been very generally inherited by their descendants-many of whom still cultivate the same farms, worship in the same old churches, and hold fast to the rigid and venerated "form of sound words" of the Presbyterian church. The Scotch rarely leave their learning behind them. One of the first Latin schools established in the state was taught here by an old Scotsman, who continued to fill the station for many years. He was succeeded by the Rev. A. Dobbin, as we infer from the following notice in an old Gettysburg paper of 1804. "The students of the Rev. A. Dobbin hereby solicit the public to favor them with their attendance at the courthouse in Gettysburg, where they hope to entertain them with some short discourses on interesting and amusing subjects."

The German population now so large in the county, and which threatens soon to outnumber the Scotch-Irish, came in at a much later date— probably about the close of the last century. As late as the year 1790, the inhabitants of all these townships were obliged to go to York postoffice for their letters, 25 or 30 miles. In an old York newspaper of that date, there is an advertisement of letters remaining in the office; and it is remarkable that nearly all the names from the region now Adams county, are Scotch and Irish-the McPhersons, McLellans, and all the other Macs; the Campbells, Alisons, Wilsons, Morrisons, Worrells, &c. &c.-while a German name seldom occurs. It will not escape observation, too, that the names of the townships in Adams county are nearly all of Irish origin.

The region around Gettysburg, including all of Cumberland and part of Strabane townships, was originally known as "the Manor of Mask,” established by warrant from the Penns in 1740, previous to which time many settlements had been made. Some dispute arose concerning the title; but a compromise was effected by the original settlers through the agency of Mr. McLellan in 1765, when the boundaries of the manor were marked, and a list of the names of the first settlers, with the date of their settlement, was returned to the land-office, to prove the incipiency of their title.