1829.]

Report on the use of ardent spirits.

Your Committee are inclined to the opinion that more stimulation is even now occasionally resorted to than conduces to the patient's speedy recovery; such a practice being liable to increase and prolong inflammations of the brain, stomach, lungs and other parts of the body, some of which affections occur so generally in fevers.They decline embarking in any pathological or therapeutical discussion; which course they conceive not adapted to the furtherance of their present duty. They take the occasion, however, to remark that what has been called the physiological medicine, goes still farther than any former doctrine to discourage the unnecessary em-| ployment of spirituous liquors.

341

ous nature of which alone forms a strong objection to them as a class of remedies. There is no doubt that many cases of intemperance owed their origin particularly to the use of bitter tinctures. Considering the small amount of useful medicinal matter which enters into these latter compounds, and the large proportion of alchohol they contain, it appears to admit of a fair inquiry whether they would not be better expunged from the pharmacopoeia. To attempt to cure intermittent fever by the unaided powers of tinctures of bark and quassia, would be considered unwise by one; while, at the same time, these are abundantly sufficient to produce a habit of intemperance, and, not very unfrequently, are really its efficient cause. One of your committee has met with a case where an individual of the most correct and delicate deportment, actually acquired habits of intemperance, and was brought to the brink of the grave, by the means, unsuspected by herself, of the compound spirits of lavender.

Whatever be the practical impression of the physician, and wherever he may be disposed to draw the line at which he would limit the employment of stimulants, your Committee are strongly impressed with a sense of the moral duty of avoiding the unnecessary use of these substances; and, in particular, of employing the weight of personal character to discountenance the future rep- A powerful means of counteracting intemperance etition of it. This is alike obligatory for the sake of the consists, as your Committee apprehend, in promoting patient's health, prosperity and moral character. If the the use of such innocent substitutes for spirituous stimu physician recommend spirituous substances, and partic-lants as are calculated to restore the natural feeling of ularly if he characterize them as a strengthening reme- health in persons exhausted by fatigue. One of these, dy, calculated to relieve the popular fear of weakness, which has had, as they believe, a very great and beneit is the more incumbent on him to obviate, as far as he ficial influence, consists in the cheap and generally difcan, the mischievous consequences of what he has done, fused luxuries of Seltzer and Soda-waters. In very maby direct cautions to his patient. He should never leave ny cases, it is thought that coffee might be advantagein the hands of those who entrust him with the care of ously employed with this object. Another substitute, to their health and lives, a poison, equally destructive to which the industry of our citizens has shown our climate their moral and physical nature, but bearing an unqual- to be well adapted, is the lighter wines. The remark ified recommendation upon medical authority. Yet e- has been often made that the countries in which these ven here, in the opinion of your Committee, his obliga- are raised in large quantities do not abound with instantion does not end. It is not sufficient that he should him- ces of intemperance; and it is to be hoped that such self avoid the needless employment of these substances will soon be much more than at present the condition of in his practice, and, where he is obliged to prescribe the hills of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and New-Jersey; a them, afterwards make his patient aware of the danger change which, it is believed, may take place without ahe has incurred; the medical attendant should, where ny injury to our agriculture. The stronger wines, and possible, see his patient safely to the end of his stimula- particularly Madeira, are known to be combined with so ting course. Without this, he incurs the blame of hav-large a proportion of brandy that they are in this resing led a human being who has asked his advice into serious danger, and forsaken him before the peril was

over.

The importance of these precepts has been fully appreciated by several of those wise and good men who have preceded us in the profession of medicine, The late Dr. Fothergill informed an American physician, then in London, of the success with which he had treated a slow typhoid fever by means of brandy. He, some time afterwards, took pains to converse particularly with the same individual for the purpose of cautioning the latter against the remedy Dr. Fothergill had himself recommended; as all the patients who had thus taken it by his advice had subsequently become habitually intemperate This fact we have upon the authority of the physician himself alluded to the venerable Dr. Thomas Parke; who, through his long and useful life, has steadily continued to inculcate the duty of physcians to discourage spirituous liquors. In the same list may be included our lamented Rush, Wistar, and Griffitts.

There exists a class of cases in which stimulants appear to be really necessary; and in these your committee conceive a sound discretion will frequently discover opportunities of substituting those of another character to the seductive agents which are the source of so much vice and misery. Red pepper, hartshorn, and, where action on the nervous system is required, opium, assafætida, and camphor, will frequently render these articles entirely unnecessary; while, in other cases, they may be equally superseded in their restorative effects, by pure or aromatic bitters, preparations of iron, and acids, by nourishing food, or, again, by fermented liquors, which contain alcohol in a less concentrated and safer form.

The principles we have above stated relative to the use of ordinary distilled liquors, are in every respect as applicable to the employment of tinctures; the spiritu

pect rather objectionable than advantageous.

In the discharge of the duty to which we invoke their attention, physicians are obliged to encounter various popular prejudices, which greatly tend to the perpetuation of intemperance, and the abolition or correction of which is therefore much to be desired. These, in common with many other opinions, entertained both by the ignorant and the educated, are the result of the medical theories of the last age; and it therefore seems peculiarly incumbent on physicians to do their utmost to remove them; both as a debt due from the medical profession, and for the purpose of demonstrating to an incredulous world that our doctrinal opinions, instead of a succession of mere fluctuations, have undergone a real advancement. One of these prejudices, and perhaps the most important, is the idea that spirituous liquors have a pow erful and useful tendency to increase strength.

Immediately after swallowing a spirituous draught, the functions of the mind undergo a lively and irregular excitement, the imagination is quickened, in a majority of persons cheerful emotions are produced, and the individual is so occupied with his internal sensations that he loses a portion of his consciousness to impressions received from without. His passions, which constitute the impulse urging him to exertion, are increased in their force and vivacity; while his reasoning powers, partaking in the general jubilee, become more quick and less accurate in the execution of their task. It is in this state of things' that the intemperate labourer delights: he executes his toil or converses with his friend with a cheerful mind and a disregard of actual hardship or future calamity; he feels nothing but his present strength, and leaves care till the morrow. These halcyon moments, however, are soon followed by a change. The acquisition of strength is found to be only temporary; dullness, both of the passions and intellect succeeds, together with a diminution of the muscular power;

tendency to sleep ensues: and it is seen that the subsequent exhaustion is in reality proportionate to the previous excitement; in short, that the drinker, instead of increasing, has only used up his vital powers, and is now weaker than before. Hence it is that, although spirituous liquors create a temporary energy, which may, under some circumstances, possibly enable him who drinks them to accomplish more than at another period, yet the reverse is the case in the long run; and, both as regards a consecutive series of daily labour, and the prolongation of life, alcoholic drinks are a real disadvantage.— The experience of all those who have employed numerous workmen, and who have made comparative trials, is decidedly confirmatory of what we here allege. It is, we believe, uniformly found that those individuals who have refrained from spirituous potations have actually done more work than they themselves had performed at a time when they indulged in this injurious practice.Along with this come corresponding improvements in health, order, neatness, and domestic comfort; advantages, which, though they preach loudly in favor of abstinence, yet do not immediately bear upon the question at present before us. Not only, however, is there a greater absolute amount of work done, under equal circumstances, by those who abstain, but the work which is done displays marks of a superior condition of the mental faculties of the laborer-it is not simply more in quantity, but better adapted to the purpose in view. Thus it appears that although spirituous liquors may excite to greater exertions in a task which requires but little assistance from the intellect, and may thus the better enable men to carry some particular points, yet, in the course of time, they really occasion a waste of strength, while, even in the sudden and temporary effort, the range of their applicability is confined within narrow limits. They may augment the headlong and unthinking courage which flings the horseman upon the bayonet; but wo to the array whose directing heads are under such influence. They may encourage and assist the writer to bolder flights of imagination; but his temulent efforts will betray the Hippocrene from which he derived his inspiration. In all the arts which benefit the human race, whether by accumulative toil, ingenious fancy, or grave and profound reflection, your Committee believe that stimulating potations will always be found to produce a heavy diminution of usefulness. In mechanical strength, in the capability of enduring hardship and fatigue, in the force and clearness of the intellectual pow. ers, the intemperate can stand no comparison with individuals endowed with the same natural advantages, who abstain totally from the use of ardent spirits.

Similar results are also met with as regards the effects of spirituous liquors on the prolongation of life; and, in general, popular opinion sufficiently bears us out in the assertion. We sometimes, however, hear it said, when physicians would proscribe the stimulating draught, that facts may be produced in direct opposition to this opinion; and that hundreds have been known, who, though almost daily intoxicated for year after year, have yet arrived at a great age, and enjoyed the same good health as those who have followed the strictest rules of tempe. rance, or who even, like Cornaro, have lived by weight and measure. Some, but very few, instances of this kind we grant might be adduced; but they form no proportion to the number who fall early victims to what they may perhaps have considered a moderate indulgence. Exceptions are said to prove the correctness of a rule. A seaman has been known to fall from the masthead of a ship, and to be taken from the deck with his limbs uninjured. To attempt to infer, from the instances above alluded to, that spirituous liquors are not unfavorable to longevity, would be exactly as rational as to conclude, from the sailor's escape, that it was equally safe for his ship-mates to repeat his desperate experiment. It is the unanimous experience of every recorded age that temperance in all our actions is the only probable means of insuring a continuance of life and

health, and of prolonging to an advanced period our physical strength and the integrity of our mental powers; and in no respect is this more emphatically true than as regards the use of alcoholic liquors.

The question might here be asked, "to what extent may the use of distilled spirits be indulged in without injury to the constitution, or what is the smallest quantity capable of producing pernicious effects?" This query is very readily answered. Under ordinary circumstances, ardent spirits, in any quantity, whether great or small, are injurious to the health of the system. Pure water is confessedly the most natural and most proper drink of man; but if one more stimulating is required, it should be sought in the less pernicious class of fermented liquors. Your committee would not wish to be understood as classing among the intemperate those who are in the liabit of occasionally making use of moderate quantities of ardent spirits. Nevertheless, they cannot avoid remarking that such a practice is productive of bad effects, to a less extent, it is true, and more slowly, but not less surely, than when the quantity is sufficient for the production of intoxication. The individual who indulges in this habit, is also exposed, let his resolution and strength of mind be what they may, to the danger of gradually falling into the excessive use of a daily beverage, subversive of the health of his system, both corporeal and mental. He resembles, indeed, the traveller who prefers a dangerous path along the brink of a precipice, trusting in the strength of his brain and the accuracy of his eye, and neglecting the safe and ample road in the valley beneath.

A class by no means inconsiderable in their numbers become drunkards from an absolute persuasion that stimulating liquors are in some degree necessary, or at least that they contribute to the well-being of their constitutions. To these, ardent spirits are what the pretended Panacea or Elixir Vita was to the older chemists. They guard their votaries from the cold and damp on the one hand, and from those of excessive heat or the other; and when not required as a shield against these evils, they are frequently taken from a vague idea of their benefiting the stomach. It is well known to physicians that cold and dampness have a more pernicious influence upon the bodies of drunkards than upon those of the temperate. The abuse of alcoholic liquors acts in different ways in subjecting the patient to the attacks of disease from the influence of cold. Although, when under the immediate excitement of the intoxicating draught, they perhaps expose themselves with impunity to a degree of cold and moisture which would be injurious under other circumstances, yet, when the ef fects of the liquor have passed away,their systems are left in a condition far more liable to suffer from these causes than those of individuals habitually sober. At the same time, from the neglect of person and clothing invariably attendant upon a state of inebriety, the drunkard is most constantly exposed to circumstances peculiarly favourable to the production of disease. In regard to rheumatism, in particular, that scourge of the laboring classes, an eminent physician has laid it down as a general rule that those who live a life of sobriety and drink water only, are but rarely affected with it. We have already alluded to a truth daily experienced by medical men, that all morbid affections occurring in the body of a drunkard are less readily managed and more frequently fatal than when they occur to the same extent in the temperate. Similar statements may be made in relation to the supposed effects of ardent spirits in obviating the injurious consequences of extreme heat. They may, by benumbing or obscuring the sensations, diminish the inconvenience actually felt at the time; but so far are they from a real protection that directly the reverse is the fact. Every year, during the summer months, numbers fall victims, in this and other cities, to the effects, direct and indirect, of the solar heat. Many of these deaths are

*Poinsart.

1829.1

REPORT ON THE USE OF ARDENT SPIRITS.

ascribed to drinking cold water; and though this might appear to furnish an argument in favor of tempering the latter fluid with an admixture of spirits, yet the result of experience, both in New York and Philadelphia has been, that by far the greater past of these are in reality instances of apoplexy, caused by the heat and augmented by spirits given as a remedy; while, on the other hand, the majority of cases actually caused by cold water have occurred in the intemperate. The latter are also more exposed to the diseases of warm climates; which in them, are more unmanageable and more frequently fatal than in the temperate.

343

ed. Few errors are more commonly met with than to see the domestic practitioner either doing to the health of his patient an unmitigated, unmodified injury by the imprudent use of these articles as a medicine, or purchasing the partial stupification or the perspiration which they produce, and which might be much better obtained with other remedies, at the heavy expense of seriously increasing the malady he wishes to relieve.

To the observations which have been offered in the course of this Report, your committee hope that much need not now be added to place in its proper light the large share of responsibility which rests upon the memOne source of intemperance in this city yet remains bers of the medical profession with regard to discouragto be noticed, and may enter here. Your committee al- ing the use of spirituous liquors. At the present molude to the custom of serving out liquor, and that with- ment a great and powerful effort is in progress to proout measure, to the individuals engaged in extinguish-mote this desirable purpose, by a very large number of ing fires. Many young men and even boys are, on these occasions, induced to partake of it to a great extent, and in not unfrequent instances, have to date from that moment the commencement of intemperate habits. The fatigue and exposure to cold and heat to which our highspirited youth subject themselves in their praise-worthy efforts to stop the progress of destruction, the thirst engendered by their muscular exertion, the forgetfulness of self with which they frequently sacrifice their health to preserve the property of others, the light, the clamour and the example of their comrades, all unite to prevent them from being really aware of the quantities which some, of them too frequently consume. Your committee would earnestly press upon their fellow-citizens, in those alarming and spirit-stirring emergencies, the use of coffee, as a grateful and efficient substitute for spirituous liquors, and one much better calculated to preserve that clearness of the intellectual faculties, for the want of which much valuable property is occasionally destroyed.

Never did man commit a more gross mistake than when he had recourse to ardent spirits as a strengthener of the stomach-an agent to excite his appetite for food, and augment his power of digesting it. When the stomach is in a state of health, the smallest quantity of distilled spirits is productive of a proportionate diminution of appetite and derangement of the digestion. When diseased, almost any thing can be introduced into that organ with more impunity than alcoholic liquors. The majority, perhaps the great majority of the chronic affectious of that part of the body owe their origin to intemperance in eating and drinking, particularly the latter.

Another popular impression, which occasionally has considerable influence in furnishing the drunkard with an excuse for continuing the habit he has already incurred, is the medical precept that it is dangerous suddenly to break off from the established use of ardent spirits.— Your committee cannot deny that there exists some foundation for this doctrine. Yet they conceive that it is true in so small a number of cases, that far more mischief is done by the remark than it is capable of preventing. They apprehend it may be in some measure disarmed of the injurious consequences occasionally drawn from it by a depraved ingenuity, if the practitioner, by the silent force of ocular example, will make the spectators of his operations aware of the extent to which other stimulants can be substituted for these more destructive ones. Your committee have already enumerated some of the former; and, without embracing any therapeutical dissussion, will recommend their adoption, so far as the judgment of the physician shall approve, in the gradual diminution of the temulent excitement, and the treatment of its frequent consequence, delirium tremens.

our fellow-citizens, who have associated themselves under the title of Temperance Societies. Similar and persevering efforts have been made for many years by several religious bodies; among whom it is an act of justice to name, for old and long continued exertions, the society of Friends. Yet at no period has there been so large a portion of the community interested in this subject, and so hopeful a prospect afforded of producing a considerable change in public feeling respecting it, as at the present time. While we earnestly wish success, then, to the efforts of our philanthropic fellow citizens, your committee cannot help deeply feeling that this is no time for physicians to remain irresolute, or to pass with indifference a labour in which they are called up. on to interfere by so many considerations. They stand implicated in this duty by their peculiar knowledge of the evil, by their widely extended opportunities of aiding in its correction, and, in a particular manner, by the fact, that, as practitioners, they are unavoidably the frequent though innocent cause of its further dissemination. And, while we leave to other bodies of men that sanctity and solemnity of appeal which belong to the character of the public officers of religion, it is our most imperative duty to forewarn the imprudent of the evils which impend over their physical systems; and, at the same moment, it is equally our obligation, as men, to alarm them, wherever the case admits it, for their safety from the other and multifarious disasters attributable to the unhappy practice of drinking spirituous liquors. Your committee, therefore, respectfully beg leave to propose for the consideration of this Society the following

RESOLUTIONS:

Resolved, That this Society earnestly advises its members to employ their personal and private influence for the suppression of the moderate use of spirituous liquors, and that, for this purpose, the members are advised themselves to abstain from the use of spirituous liquors under any circumstances, except as a medicine.

Resolved, That the members are advised to diminish the employment of ardent spirits in their practice as far as is compatible with a careful and prudent consideration of the welfare of their patients.

Resolved, That the members residing in the city and liberties of Philadelphia are particularly requested to preserve an annual record of the whole number of deaths occurring in their practice, and also of the proportion of these occasioned, in their opinion, by the use of spirituous liquors.

CH. D. MEIGS.

D. FRANCIS CONDIE,
R. M. HUSTON,

EDW. JENNER COXE,
B. H. COATES.

It is perhaps sufficient to allude to the numerous other instances in which, from popular habit and opinion, alcoholic stimulants are employed for the cure of various diseases, as cholic, recent catarrhs, &c. in some of which, articles of an analogous class may be substituted, while, in others, all irritating matters ought to be avoid-lished, and the resolutions adopted, July 11th, 1829.

The above Report was read and ordered to be pub

Williams vs.

LAW CASE.

indictment for "a breach of the peace" be sustained, un-
less the particular act which constituted such breach be
The commitment to answer at the next
specified.
Court of Quarter Sessions was therefore improper, and
it becomes my duty to discharge the prisoner from that
custody in which he has been unlawfully held since the
30th of October last.

I am fully aware that this decision will disturb a praetice of some antiquity, which has contributed a large quota of tenants to our prisons.

The frequency of such commitments, however, renders it more important that their illegality be declared, and their recurrence if possible prevented. It is hoped the magistrates of the city and county will acquiesce in these views, and that no further application of the Habeas Corpus to such cases will be necessary. I shall be prepared, however, to apply the remedy whenever it may be required.

Commmonwealth ex relatione) Habeas Corpus, before J. MIlvaine, Esq. ReReakirt, Keeper of the Prison. Scorder. Nov. 17, 1829. OPINION. A single glance at the warrant of committal in this case satisfies me, as it has the counsel attending for the Commonwealth, that the prisoner was illegally committed, and must now be discharged. Inasmuch, however, as the decision of this case may bear upon many others of a similar kind, I shall in compliance with the wish of the Inspectors and officers of the Prison, explain more at length my views of the subject. The prisoner was arrested in the street by a watch man of the district of Moyamensing, on the night of the 29th of October, was brought before Justice Eneu on the following morning, and by him imprisoned to answer at the next Court of Quarter Sessions, to a charge of "having committed a breach of the peace by disorderly Although commitments like the present have been conduct in the street." The authority of watchmen to extremely common for many years past, the only argutake up night walkers, disorderly persons and disturb- ment in their favour which I remember to have heard, ers of the peace, given by express acts of Assembly, is was founded on the supposed necessity of punishing in broad enough to cover the arrest in this case, and to le- this indirect mode, a class of persons to be found in galize the proceeding up to the period when the pris- all large cities, for whose cases the law appears to have oner was brought before the magistrate. But it does made no direct provision, but who are nevertheless the not follow, from the propriety of the arrest, that any in-source of frequent trouble and uneasiness. It must be fliction by the magistrate was necessary or legal. The a strong case of necessity, indeed, that upon mere prinpower given to watchmen is intended for the preven- ciples of public convenience, can justify an expense of tion as well as for the punishment of offences; and they 8000 dollars a year, which an Inspector of the Prison may arrest individuals during the night, whose conduct now in attendance has stated to rest upon the county, evinces a tendency or disposition to violate the public for the maintenance of this kind of prisoners. With peace, but who have yet done nothing which can sub- such arguments, however, we have nothing to do. If ject them to indictment in court or to a summary con- our penal regulations be imperfect, the legislature alone viction before a magistrate. The same laws which as-is competent to supply a remedy. In the mean while, sign this power to watchmen, direct that all persons so we must administer the law as it stands, and we are arrested shall be taken before a magistrate "to be exam- bound to relieve from every species of restraint or imined and dealt with according to law." In what modes prisonment, for which clear legal authority can be may a magistrate legally deal with such persons? shown. It is probable also that the power of magis. trates to imprison for small offences is already sufficient, and that the multiplication of commitments like that before us, has arisen in a great measure from an omission to exercise their summary jurisdiction in cases clearly within its reach.-Am. Ďaily Adv.

1st. If they be charged with any petty offence, over which the magistrate exercises a summary jurisdiction, they may be convicted and sentenced to imprisonment. The commitment must then specify the charge with such certainty, as to bring it clearly within the act of Assembly applicable to the case, and must fix the precise term of imprisonment authorised by such act. The judgment of the magistrate is then final and conclusive; and the prisoner can only be discharged on the expiration of the sentence.

2d. If reasonable proof be made that the prisoner has been guilty of any felony or misdemeanor indictable at the Mayor's Court or Quarter Sessions, the magistrate must bind him over to appear at the succeeding term, or in default of sufficient surety must commit him for trial. In the latter case, the warrant of committal must distinctly state the nature of the charge; not indeed with technical precision, but with such certainty, as that it may be obvious what species of offence is intended. Any commitment to answer, which omits so to state the charge, or which states a charge not indictable, is irregular, and the prisoner, if brought up on habeas corpus, may be discharged.

3d. If no proof of an offence indictable in Court, or subject to the magistrate's summary jurisdiction be made, the prisoner is entitled to his discharge. Such discharge does not necessarily imply that the watchman has been wrong in making the arrest, for that arrest may have prevented some serious violation of law, or some disturbance of the public quiet.

The case before us is one in which a summary conviction for drunkenness or vagrancys and an imprisonment for a short specific term, would probably have been correct. If the magistrate was unwilling to take that course, he had no legal alternative but to discharge the prisoner; for no offence was alleged which could be the subject of indictment, or of which the Quarter Sessions could possibly take cognizance. Mere disorderly conduct is not a breach of the peace, nor can a commitment or

CHESAPEAKE & DELAWARE CANAL.

(Continued from page 326. )

Section No. 6.-On this section of the canal no uncommon difficulties were encountered; it occupies Turner's mill pond, beginning near the head of the pond, and ending at the dam which now forms the road; at this place which is a quarter of a mile west of the Mary. land state line, there is a pivot bridge.

The water flows both sides of the tow-path, having communications through the bank, over which are two tow-path bridges.

North of the pivot bridge is a tavern and two or three old houses called, Old Town.

Section No. 7. From the pivot bridge, 1-8 mile west to Bittle's point, the water flows both sides of the towpath, covering a quantity of low land, formerly flowed by the tide water of Broad creek.

The water is held up ten feet above its former level by a heavy embankment, forming a substantial dam from Bittle's Point to the opposite shore of the creek, where is a sluice for the discharge of waste water.

The canal is cut through Bittle's Point, to a lock of from 7 to 9 feet lift, varying with the height of water in the summit level; between this lock and the tide lock is a basin 700 feet long and 100 feet wide.

The tide lock does not operate merely as a regulating lock, but its lift varies with the tide from 1 to 7 feet.

Forty or fifty acres of land adjacent to the locks, comprising all of Bittle's Point, is laid out for a village called Chesapeake.

No remarkable improvements have yet been made

Appointments by the Directors. Benjamin Wright, Engineer Chief. Caleb Newbold. Jr. Superintendent. Daniel Livermore, President.

*Now R. M. LEWIS, Mr. Fisher having resigned. The Chesapeake and Delaware Canal is now in com plete order with a satisfactorily increasing trade upon it; on Thursday evening, I stopped at Bennett's Hotel on the west end of the Canal: there passed through the locks, between two in the afternoon and bed time, ten vessels; on rising about seven in the morning, I found seven others arrived, and nine passed the locks before eight o'clock; and in two hours after, three more had arrived, and were getting passed through the Locks. A bout this time I left Bennett's Hotel, an excellent house, where good cheer and plenty of Ducks, Canvass backs and red heads, for the amusement of sportsmen, may be met with. The splendid Barges attached to the Citizen's Line, between Philadelphia and Baltimore, take you through the Canal, 14 miles in two hours, lockage included. A TRAVELLER. VOL. IV. 44

On Saturday evening the 14th November inst. the First Easton Troop held a meeting and appointed Capt. Porter and Lieut. Lattimore, a committee to make a tender of their services, to escort the Governor Elect to Harrisburg. It will be seen by the correspondence that follows, that Mr. Wolf declines the escort.-Easton Cen.

HONOURED SIR-The members of "The First Easton

Troop of Cavalry," composed of your immediate neigh-
bors, feel desirous of being permitted to testify their
friendship and regard to you, in escorting you to Har-
risburg, when you proceed thither to be inaugurated as
Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the Common-
wealth. They have deputed the undersigned, two of
their officers, to communicate this wish to you; and we
take great pleasure in expressing to you the anxious de-
sire of the Troop, every member of which we believe to
be your personal and political friend, to be permitted
thus to testify their respect and regard to an honoured
and respected neighbor and fellow citizen, elevated by
a discerning and enlightened commonwealth to preside
over her destinies.
We are with great respect