ficers escaped from the house wherein they were beset, and no mischief ensued."

"I formerly attempted, I think, madam, to give you some idea of this city. It is situate on a plain between the two large rivers Delaware and Schuylkill. The streets are straight and spacious, intersecting each other at right angles, and consist of about 2000 houses, and must contain, according to the usual computation of 8 persons to a house, 16000 inhabitants.

"This province contains people of all persuasions; liberty of conscience being allowed of from the first settlement. To enumerate the different sects is almost impossible. One is apt to think with Hudibras-That divinity had catch'd the itch, on purpose to be scratch'd. The quakers are not a fourth part of the inhabitants, and yet are the ruling number among us.-Our winters are very severe, and our summers extremely hot. The best thermometers have been this month at 97; a degree of heat seldom known on your side the water. The extremes of heat and cold in this climate are very great, and I might add, it is unhealthy."

"Philadelphia, July 25, 1750.

"We have had, and it still continues, one of the driest summers ever known. Our pastures have entirely lost their verdure, and are become as brown as the hay they afforded."

"Philadelphia, April 5th, 1752. "To the followers of Whitfield, we owe that spacious building, the seat of one of the best seminaries on the continent, where the sciences, the learned languages, and our own, are taught to a number of youths, little short of three hundred. Another instance of our calmness is seen in the united disposition to contribute to this, and many other undertakings carrying on among us-such as a steeple to our church, a presbyterian meet. ing house, a hospital, besides bridges, wharves," &c.

"Philadelphia, March 2, 1756. "The province for some time past has had almost 1200 men in pay, and several forts are erected in the counties of York,

Cumberland, Berks, and Northampton; yet, the Indians are daily making incursions, committing murders, &c. All business in the back counties is at an end, and every one refusing to pay debts, that lives fifty miles from the city. The city itself is full of idle reports, scandalous papers, murmurings, and beggars. In short, all is division, hatred, and anarchy."

"Philadelphia, September 22, 1756. "Governor Denny arrived here the 20th August. He was met at Trenton, Bristol, and all along the road, by every foe to Mr. Morris. Never was gentleman so escorted! Assemblymen, sheriffs, militiamen, associates, tag rag and bob-tail, lined the way from the widow Amos's* to the city. All more out of pique to our former,† than compliment to our present governor."

Same date.

"Since my last to you, we have proved many anxious moments: seen the defeat of general Braddock, and the remainder of his army, under colonel Dunbar, flying to the city. This, after a month's stay with us, was ordered to Albany. The Indians in our interest, deserting us and joining the French, and committing the most horrid massacres and waste on our frontiers. At first, to encourage their mischiefs, the French had promised the Indians, for every English scalp, a reward of five pistoles. But so overstocked has been this inhuman market, that the price has since fallen to a shilling, even to a dram of brandy.”

"Philadelphia, January 26, 1759. "The present governor (Denny) is the strangest composition of a gentleman I ever knew. Haughty without spirit, polite without manners, and learned without knowledge; With respect to business, always at home, yet never to be spoken with. In the morning for the proprietaries, at noon of no party, and at night, plump for the assembly. In short, my dear sir, all is going wrong, and if long suffered, will be irretrievable.

The Red Lion inn, between 12 and 13 miles from the city.

+ Governor Morris, spoken of in this correspondence, as a gentleman conspicuous for his good sense and easy manners to all degrees of people.

1

"At Lancaster one morning, he diverted a mixed company with a ludicrous picture of your family, an adept at this kind of painting. He represented a coach and six, in which sat your father asleep, and your uncle in full spirits: six attendant Quakers were behind, and Ferdinand Paris was seated on the box as their coachman, driving like the devil. On the way, a party of Indians spring from the covert and scalp two of the quakers, the others calmly saying, "who would have thought it!" Your uncle entreats Ferdinand not to drive so fast, who replies, “ damn you but I will." Your father, regardless of the driver, and ignorant of the accident, with his mouth open, continues his nap to the end of the journey."*

« Philadelphia, December 15, 1759. "I most heartily congratulate you on the arrival of governor Hamilton. He came in nick of time to stop some, and prevent much intended mischief by the worthless governor Denny, who was on the eve of selling every office."

"Philadelphia, November 16, 1763. "I now give myself the pleasure of acquainting you of the safe arrival of the Mr. Penns, on Sunday the 30th of October, a day rendered memorable as well from their landing, as from a very smart shock of an earthquake at four in the afternoon. Mr. John Penn was on Monday proclaimed governor."

THE USEFUL ARTS.-FOR THE PORT FOLIO.

MR. OLDSCHOOL,

THE following practical directions for clearing vinegar, which I have translated from the Annales de Chymie, vol. 79, p. 71, for July, 1811, appear to me so likely to be useful, that I think you will be glad to insert them in The Port Folio.

On the Decoloration of Vinegar: with a new process for taking away the colour of that acid, and other vegetable liquids,

*It appears from the correspondence that governor Denny was recognised by the proprietaries to be a very bad servant. He had been recommended to the station by the duke of Cumberland, who gives him up, and concurs in the propriety of his removal.

by means of animal charcoal. By M. Figuiers, professor of chemistry, at the school of pharmacy, at Montpelier. Read at the sitting of 27th December, 1810, of the Society of Sciences and Belles Lettres.

Of all the vegetable acids, vinegar is doubtless the earliest known and the most useful. It is made cheaply, easily, in every country, in large or in small quantities; hence its use has been greatly extended, in domestic economy and in the arts. It is a principal ingredient in several chemical and pharmaceutical preparations. The physician, the cook, the perfumer, the confectioner, alike use it. It forms one of the most considerable manufactures of France: hence the many attempts that have been made to bring to perfection the process of making it, of purifying it, and applying it to use.

Being occupied in a course of experiments to destroy the colour of vegetable liquids by means of charcoal, I hit upon a method of clearing vinegar, which, if I mistake not, will increase its uses and its value.

Vinegar of wine, is usually considered preferable to the other vinegars, and it is of this I now treat. It is either red or white, as it is made from red or white wine. The last is more prized, inasmuch as it contains less of the coloured extractive matter than red wine vinegar.

The common means employed to deprive it of colour, are the following:

1st. The whites of one or two eggs are beat up and mixed with a litre (61,028 cubic inches, or about a quart) of vinegar. The mixture is exposed to a boiling heat; the coagulated albumen carries down part of the colouring matter; the liquor is passed through filtering paper.

2dly. A large wine glass full of milk (un verre de lait) is poured into 5 or 6 quarts of hot vinegar, the mixture is stirred: the cheesy part of the milk precipitates much of the colouring matter the liquor is filtered.

3dly. The refuse of white grapes, after all the juice is pressed out, has also the property of clearing vinegar: it is used for this purpose, in a large way, at the manufacture of vinegar at Séte, from whence a great quantity of white or colourless vinc

gar is sent on to the north. For this purpose the, marc or refuse of the wine press of white grapes is put into large wooden vessels, which are then filled up with vinegar. It is so left for several days. The vinegar is drawn off by a plug at the bottom, into another vessel containing another quantity of the marc of grapes; and this process is repeated till the vinegar comes away colourless.

By my process, which can be used either in the large or the small way, the vinegar is obtained still more free from colour, indeed as colourless as water.

I have found that animal charcoal is better for this purpose than the charcoal of vegetable substances. I shall not detail the many experiments that this research has cost me.

Take a quart (litre) of red wine vinegar, add to it, cold, 695 grains, troy (45 grammes) of the charcoal of bones, obtained as hereafter described. Stir it frequently. In twenty-four hours the vinegar will be seen in a state of commencing discoloration. In two or three days the process is finished. Filter it through paper, and it will be found to have lost neither its flavour, its odour, nor its acidity. In a large way, the animal charcoal may be thrown into the cask of vinegar, and stirred about frequently. Nor need the quantity be in so large a proportion as above mentioned; one half the quantity will suffice, but it will require a longer time. No flavour is lost, nor is any superadded. I have kept this kind of mixture for months, without any diminution of acidity. By diminishing the proportion of charcoal, a light straw colour will still remain, which, to some, is desirable.

Vinegar thus discoloured, may be impregnated with any alcoholic solution of aroma, for the table or the toilet; and used for any purpose of pickling or preserving.

Wine may also be deprived of colour in the same way, and when so treated, its specific gravity is somewhat less. Still, on evaporation, it leaves a mucous residuum, which shows, that the animal charcoal acts principally on the colouring matter. This process may be used for brandy.

After the distillation of sulphuric æther, the acid employed remains in the retort; many attempts have been made to recover

VOL. I.

G