5 Spring-town, 37 miles from the city, 10,000 acres at 351. per hundred acres 6 Vincent's, 40 miles from the city, 20,000 acres at 351. per hundred acres 7 Richland's, 35 miles from the city, 10,000 acres at 151. per hundred acres 9 About 20 tracts in the several counties, mostly 500 acres each; reckoned 10,000 at 40l. Springet's-bury, 207 acr. at 51. 8 On the north side of the town, 50 acres at 301. Back of the said land 15 acres at 101. 9 Lot in the bank at the north end of the town, 200 feet at 31. 10 A front and bank lot between Vine and Sassafras street, 102 feet at 61. 11 Bank lot between Cedar and Pine street, 204 feet at 31. 12 Front lot on the side of Cedar, 102 feet at 31. 13 Ditto between Cedar and Pine street, 160 feet at 21. 14 Bank lot between the same streets, 40 feet at 21. 15 Marsh land near the town, 600 acres at 31. 16 Ditto 200 acres at 1s. sterling rent, and 165 per cent. is Lands within the draft of the town, at least 500 acres, 250 nearest Delaware at 15. per Pennsylva. Cur. £ 193,638 10 0 2,240 0 0 1,200 0 0 750 0 0 3,500 0 0 Pennsylva. Cur. Brought over £252,122 20 show the nature of them*) and nine tenths of the province remains undisposed of. Three fifths of all royal mines is reserved in the grants, and in all grants since the year 1732. One fifth of all other mines, delivered at the pit's mouth without charge, is also reserved No value is put on the proprietor's right to escheated lands; and, besides these advantages, several offices are in the proprietor's gift of considerable value. Register General, about £200 7,000 0 0 1,500 0 0 Clerk of Philadelphia, Chester, 150 0 0 600 0 0 612 0 0 612 0 0 306 0 0 320 0 0 80 0 0 1,800 0 0 330 0 0 3,750 0 0 300 400 300 200 Lancaster, 200 Besides several other offices of less value. These are only guessed at. The above paper has no date, but by sundry circumstances in it, particularly there being no value put on the thirds of the bank lots, because they were not then fallen in; and by the valuation put on the lands (which is very different from their present value) it must have been drawn while Mr. Thomas Penn resided in Pennsylvania, and probably more than twenty years ago: since which time a vast addition has been made to the value of the reserved lands, and a great quantity of land has been disposed of, perhaps equal to all preceding. We must therefore add to the above sum of 252,1227. 28. the following articles, viz. 1. For the increased value of the lands of the Conestogoe manor now valued at 400l. per hundred acres, and in the above estimate valued only at 401. per hundred, the said increased value being 300l. per hundred on 13,400 acres, 4 For ditto on Highland's manor, now worth 350l. per hundred 48,240 0 0 10,560 0 0 6,800 0 0 acres, 8,000 0 0 5,398 12 0 £233,972 20 5 For ditto on Springtown, now' worth 4001. per hundred acres, 36,500 0 0 53,000 0 0 7 43,500 0 0 26,000 0 0 18,150 0 0 Carried over £ 252,122 20 In this calculation no notice is taken of the thirds reserved on the bank lots (a copy of the patents J. Penn has by him to 6 For ditto on Vincent's manor, now worth 300l. per hundred For ditto on Richland's, now worth 4501. per hundred acres, 9 For ditto on the 20 tracts, now worth 3001. per hundred acres, Carried over £ 480,722 20 * By these patents, at the end of fifty years, the proprietor was to have one third of the value of the lots and the buildings, and other improvements erected on them. Brought forward 8 For ditto on Springetsbury, &c. at least. 9 For ditto on all the articles of lots from No. 9 to 14, being trebled in value, 15 For ditto on Marsh land, now worth 201. per acre, 16 For ditto on the value of lands within the draft of the town, now worth one with another, 50l. per acre,* 17 For ditto on Streiper's tract, now worth 3251. per hundred [On the next articles for the reserved rent, and the value of the government, we add no advance.] For the thirds of the bank lots and improvements on them, as they fell in after this estimate was made; reckoning every 20 feet of ground with its improvements, one with another, worth 4801., the thirds being 1601. for each 20 feet, Thus far for the present value of what was then estimated, but since that time, very great quantities of land have been sold, and several new manors laid out and reserved; one of which, viz. that of Conedoguinet, is said to contain 30,000 acres; the quantity sold since the estimate, must be at least equal to what was sold before, as the people are doubled, and the manors probably equal in quantity: we may therefore suppose that a fair estimate of the lands sold, rents and manors reserved, and new towns laid out into lots, since the above estimate, would be at least equal to it, that is another tenth, and amount also to Pennsylva. Cur. £484,722 20 2,685 0 0 5,060 0 0 10,200 0 0 18,750 0 0 15,000 0 0 37,280 0 0 573,697 2 0 573,697 2 0 Carried over £1,147,894 4 0 *The lots of land within the plan of the town were originally promised to be given to the purchasers of land in the country. But that has been long since discontinued; and for many years past the proprietor has shut the office, and forbid his agents even to sell any more of them; intending to keep them all, till he can let them out on high ground rents, or on building leases. Five hundred acres divided into house lots, and disposed of in this manner, will alone make a vast estate. The old proprietor likewise in his plan of the city, laid out five large squares, one in each quarter, and one in the cen tre of the plan, and gave the same to the inhabitants for public uses. This he published in all his accounts of the country, and his papers of invitation and encouragement to settlers; but as no formal deed or convey. ance of those squares is now to be found, the present proprietor has resumed them, turned them again into private property, that the number of his lots may be in. creased; and his surveyor-general in his lately publish. ed plan of the city, has concealed all those squares by running intended streets over them. A proceeding equally odious to the people, and dishonourable to the family! Pennsylva. Cur. For eight of these nine tenths of per 100 acres advance; this on 2,828,928 acres, is For the three fifths of all royal mines, and one fifth of all other mines reserved to these lords proprietors, we can as yet estimate no sum, and must leave it a blank as we find it, but since in the ridges of mountains not yet settled, some very valuable specimens of ores have been found by travellers, it is not unlikely this article may in time become considerable beyond computation. For the offices we shall likewise make no estimation though they are greatly increased in number and value, with the increase of people; as we believe the proprietaries do not raise immediate money from the grants of those offices at present, they being chiefly disposed of to bribe or reward their partizans and favourites; in which however they may find their account. For the escheats we likewise add nothing; for though it is thought a valuable article, we have no information on which 4,384,838 8 0 1,856,484 0 0 8,486,784 0 0 Carried over £15,875,500 12 0 Pennsylva. Cur. Brought over £15,875,593 12 0 we can form any judgment concerning its value, it must however be continually increasing. There is another article, we are greatly at a loss about, which is the interest of money arising to the proprietors from securities on lands possessed by persons unable to make present payment. These pay not only quit-rent for the land but interest for the purchase money. This interest* is thought to be a very considerable income, but we cannot estimate it. The three lower counties on Delaware, which are a distinct territory and government from the province of Pennsylvania, and held by a different title, are also a very valuable part of the proprietary estate; though what value should be put on the same is at present difficult to say. Total in Pennsylvania currenrency, £15,875,500 12 0 In sterling, about ten millions! But on the whole, it appears pretty clearly, that deducting all the articles containing the valuation of lands yet unsold, and unappropriated within their patent, and the manors and rents to be hereafter reserved, and allowing for any small over-valuations in their present reserved lands and incomes [though it is thought if any be it will not be found to exceed the under-valuation in other instances] there cannot remain less than a million of property which they now at this time have in Pennsylvania. But the Indian council at Onondago not being satisfied with the sale of so much land at once, the proprietors have since been obliged to disgorge a part of the hunting country they had not paid for, and re-convey the same to the Indians, who, when they are disposed to sell it, may possibly demand two thousand dollars more, for which the above account must then have credit. those One would think, that where such good bargains are bought of the poor natives, there should be no occasion for fraudulent art to over-reach them, in order to take more than is granted; and that if a war occasioned by such injuries, should be drawn upon the innocent inhabitants, who were the cause of the war, if they did not, as in justice they ought, bear the whole expense of it, at least they would not refuse to bear a reasonable part. Whether this has ever been the case is now a subject of public inquiry. But let us see how the land bought in such lumping pennyworths of the natives by the moAnd in that province there are about twenty nopolist, is huckstered out again to the king's subthousand families, to each of which, one with ano-jects. To give the reader some idea of this, after ther, there does not belong more than three hundred pounds of property, if so much; which multiplied by twenty thousand gives six million pounds for the whole property of the people there. The proprietaries then have in present possession a property there at least equal to one sixth of that of the people. They ought therefore to pay the same proportion of the taxes. That the reader may form some judgment of the profits made by this monopoly of land in America, in favour of the house of Penn, we shall just mention, that the land is first purchased of the Indians within the limits of their grant: the Indians of late years have somewhat raised their price; and for the last great purchase in 1754, which was of about seven millions of acres, they demanded (how much do you think?) no less than two thousand dollars, amounting, at seven and sixpence currency each, to seven hundred and fifty pounds. The land so bought the proprietor has the moderation to sell (except the best of it reserved in manors for himself) at so low a price as 15. 10s. *See Fisher's account hereafter. VOL. II.... Y 15 remarking that fifteen pounds ten shillings per hundred acres for wild land, is three times dearer than the proprietor of Maryland's price, and ten times dearer than his majesty's lands in Virginia and Carolina, both as good if not better countries, we shall present him with a genuine account, stated under the hand of the proprietor's receiver-general, obtained with great difficulty by the purchaser of two tracts of land, some time after he had paid his money; when on more particular consideration of the sum paid compared with the quantity bought, he imagined he had paid too much. The account is as follows, viz. John Fisher in right of Jacob Job. Dr. Interest from 1st March, 1732, to 19th £65 12 1 39 11 2 Brought over £50 12 1 1d. from the 19th March 1742, to 20th February, 1747, being four years eleven months and one day To five years quit-rent for said land at one halfpenny sterl. per acre per ann. víz, from March, 1742, the time the land was surveyed (for quit-rent ought not to be paid before) to March, 1748, amounting in the whole to 41. 88. 4d. sterl. at eighty five per cent. the excharged in the account delivered 41 10 9 14 11 9 56 2 6 20th February, 1747. 19th January, 1743, paid 7 10 0 14 18 9 8 59 Sum due on Job's right £73 16 7 48 12 6 John Fisher in right of Thomas Cooper, Dr. Interest from 9th January, 1743, to 20th February, 1747, is 4 years, 1 month, 11 days, Quit-rent to next month is 10 years, 51. 11s. 8d. sterling, at 85 per cent. 10 6 7 N. B. The quit-rent in full to 1st March, 1747. For the honourable proprietaries, LYNFORD LARDNER, Receiver Gen. The purchaser not being skilled in accounts, but amazed at the sum, applied to a friend to examine this account, who stated it over as follows, viz. John Fisher in the right of Jacob Job, Dr. 1742. To 423 acres, 50 per. of 19th March. land, in Pextan county, said Job by warrant dat- By cash paid that day £65 12 1 15 0 0 Carried forward £50 12 1 To interest on 50l. 12s. In Feb. 1747, John Fisher obtained a proprictary patent for the lands above-mentioned. But by the accompts then exhibited to him, and which he paid, he was charged on Job's right one hundred and forty-one pounds four shillings and eight pence, which is sixty-seven pounds eight shillings and a penny more than the above account, and also was charged on Cooper's right, seventy pounds eighteen shillings and eleven pence, which is twenty-four pounds three shillings and three pence three farthings more than the above accompt of Cooper's. So that by the two accompts it is supposed he has paid ninety-one pounds eleven shillings and four pence three farthings more than could legally be received from him. The reason of such great difference in the accompts are as follow, viz. 1st. That interest has been charged on the consideration money for Job's land for ten years and eighteen days, before the land was surveyed. 2d. That quit-rent has also been charged for that time at 85 per cent. 3d. That the principal and interest to the time of warrant and survey were added together, and that interest was charged for that total to the time the patent was granted. 4th. That interest has been charged on the consideration money for Cooper's land, for five years ten months and eight days, before the land was surveyed. 5th. That quit-rent has also been charged for that time at 85 per cent. 6th. That the principal and interest to the time of warrant and survey were added, and interest charged for that total to the time the patent was granted, which is compound interest. so that while the enemy is in the heart of the country, cavils prevent any thing being done for its relief. Mr. Denny is the third governor with whom the assembly has had these disputes within a few years." SIR,-In your paper of the ninth instant, I obTo these remarks of the accountant we shall serve the following paragraph, viz. "The last only add, that the price of exchange between letters from Philadelphia bring accounts of the Philadelphia and London is not fixed, but rises scalping the inhabitants of the back provinces by and falls according to the demand for bills; that the Indians; at the same time the disputes beeighty-five per cent. charged for the exchange in tween the governor and the assembly are carried this account is the highest exchange that per- on to as great a heighth as ever, and the messages haps was ever given in Pennsylvania, occasioned sent from the assembly to the governor, and from by some particular scarcity of bills at a particular the governor to the assembly, are expressed in time; that the proprietor himself in his estimate terms which give very little hopes of a reconciliareckons the exchange but at 65, which is indeed tion. The bill to raise money is clogged, so as to near the medium, and this charge is twenty per prevent the governor from giving his consent to cent. above it. That the valuing the currency of it; and the obstinacy of the quakers in the asthe country according to the casual rate of ex-sembly is such, that they will in no shape alter it; change with London, is in itself a false valuation, the currency not being really depreciated in proportion to an occasional rise of exchange; since every necessary of life is to be purchased in the country, and every article of expense defrayed by that currency (English goods only excepted) at as low rates after as before such rise of exchange; that therefore the proprietor's obliging those who purchase of him to pay their rents according to the rate of exchange, is unjust, the rate of exchange including withal the risk and freight on remitting money to England; and is besides a dangerous practice, as the great sums to be yearly remitted to him, put it in the power of his own agents to play tricks with the exchange at pleasure, raise it at the time of year when they are to receive the rents, by buying a few bills at a high price, and afterwards lower it by refraining to buy till they are sold more reasonably. By this account of the receiver-general's, it appears we have omitted two other articles in the estimation of the proprietary estate, viz. For the quit-rents of lands many years before they are granted! For the interest of the purchase-money many years before the purchases are made! On what pretence these articles of charge are founded, how far they may be extended, and what they may amount to, is beyond our knowledge; we are therefore obliged to leave them blank till we can obtain more particular information. Although we have not in this work taken particular notice of the numerous falsehoods and calumnies which were continually thrown out against the assembly and people of Pennsylvania, to keep alive the prejudices raised by the arts of the proprietary and his agents; yet as we think it will not be deemed improper to give the readers some specimen of them, we shall on that account, and as it affords additional light concerning the conduct and state of that province, subjoin a paper printed and published As this paragraph, like many others heretofore published in the papers, is not founded in truth, but calculated to prejudice the public against the quakers and people of Pennsylvania, you are desired to do that injured province some justice in publishing the following remarks; which would have been sent you sooner had the paper come sooner to my hands. 1. That the scalping of the frontier inhabitants by the Indians is not peculiar to Pennsylvania, but common to all the colonies in proportion as their frontiers are more or less extended and exposed to the enemy. That the colony of Virginia, in which there are very few, if any, quakers, and none in the assembly, has lost more inhabitants and territory by the war than Pennsylvania. That even the colony of New York, with all its own forces, a great body of New-England troops encamped on its frontier, and the regular army under lord Loudon posted in different places, has not been able to secure its inhabitants from scalping by the Indians; who coming secretly in very small parties skulking in the woods, must sometimes have it in their power to surprise and destroy travellers, or single families settled in scattered plantations, notwithstanding all the care that can possibly be taken by any government for their protection: centinels posted round an army, while standing on their guard, with arms in their hands, are often killed and scalped by Indians. How much easier must it be for such an enemy to destroy a ploughman at work in his field? 2. That the inhabitants of the frontiers of Pennsylvania are not quakers, were in the beginning of the war supplied with arms and ammunition by the assembly, and have frequently defended themselves and repelled the enemy, being withheld by no principle from fighting; and the losses they have suffered were owing entirely to their situation, and the loose scattered manner in which |