The state is divided into five districts for the sessions of the Supreme Court, which, as a court in bank, holds six regular terms, for argument &c., annually; viz. for the Eastern District, at Philadelphia, on the 2d Monday in March, and on the 2d Monday in December; for the Lancaster District, at Lancaster, on the 2d Monday in May; for the Middle District, at Sunbury, on the Wednesday following the second week of the term of the Lancaster District; for the Western District, at Pittsburg, on the first Monday in September; and for the Southern District, at Chambersburg, on the Monday week next following the second week of the term of the Western District. It is only in the city and county of Philadelphia that the Supreme Court has original jurisdiction, and there only when the sum in controversy exceeds $500; all issues of fact are tried by jury before a single judge, at nisi prius. For the other counties in this state, Circuit Courts are held, which are unlike courts of nisi prius, as judgment may be rendered at them, subject to revision by appeal, in the Supreme Court in bank, and causes are only brought into them by removal from the Courts of Common Pleas. They are held by one judge in each county, at least once a year. INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT. Pennsylvania has, within a few years, engaged more extensively in works of internal improvement, as canals, rail-roads, &c., than any other state in the Union. Some of the principal of these works, which have been undertaken by the state or by private companies, are the Pennsylvania Canal and Rail-road, the Schuylkill Canal, the Union Canal, the Lehigh Canal, the Lackawaxen Canal, the Delaware Canal, and the Philadelphia and Susquehannah Rail-road; but they are not all yet completed. According to the " Pennsylvania State Register," for 1831, "The whole extent of the state canals is 428 miles, of which 406 miles are completed. Besides this extent of canal navigation, there are 302 miles belonging to private companies, making an aggregate, in the state, of 728 miles. - The public property of the commonwealth is as follows: Though Pennsylvania has many literary and benevolent institutions, yet the progress of general education in the state has been slow; and it is still very limited. In the Report of the Pennsylvania Society for the Promotion of Public Schools, dated April 28, 1831, it is said, "There is reason to believe that the attention of the citizens is so awakened to the importance of establishing public schools, that the attempt will not hereafter fail to be encouraged. The society will recollect, that at their last meeting [Oct. 11, 1830,] there was read a memorial, proposed to be presented to to the legislature, which contained statements relative to the great defi ciency in the means of education in various parts of the state, and urged the importance of speedily applying a remedy to this evil." From the memorial alluded to, the following extract is made. -"There are at least 400,000 children in Pennsylvania, between the ages of 5 and 15. Of these, during the past year, there were not 150,000 in all the schools in the state. Many counties, townships, and villages have been taken indiscriminately from all parts of the state, and been examined by your memorialists, and the average proportion of children educated in any one year compared with the entire number of children, between the above specified ages, appears to be but one out of three. It is probable that this proportion prevails generally through Pennsylvania, and justifies the assertion, that more than 250,000 children, capable of instruction, were not within a school during the past year. Many of these children never go to school at all. "Multitudes are living, and continuing to live in ignorance, and multitudes more receive, at the best, but the most superficial instruction. In our estimate of scholars, we include all those who attend the undisciplined schools in the interior, which are opened but for three to six months in the year, and are superintended generally by persons altogether unfit for their duties, as your memorialists are informed from the best authorities. "In the city and county of Philadelphia there are ample means for the education of every child, and many thousands have been benefited by them. In that district, and we believe the case is the same in the city of Lancaster, no one need be uneducated, except from choice. But throughout the rest of the state, there is no other provision for the education of the poor, than the act of the 4th April, 1809. This law has almost entirely missed the mark, at which it was originally aimed. It is inefficient, because, in some places, its existence is unknown to those for whom it was intended; in others, the assessors and county commissioners refuse to act up to the spirit of its requisitions; in a few, the teachers refuse to accept scholars under its provisions; and in very many, there is an unprincipled distinction made by the teachers, between the children paid for by the county, and those of richer parents; the former receiving less of their attention, than the latter, though their rights are equal, and their claims to sympathy greater. "This general statement neither aggravates nor colors the plain truth. On the contrary, it is a faint sketch of a formidable reality. This subject could not indeed be presented in its entire dimensions, otherwise than by embodying the mass of gloomy facts collected by your memorialists, by means of their correspondents." ECCLESIASTICAL REGISTER. The Presbyterians have 429 churches, 209 ministers, 39 licentiates, and 38,873 communicants; the Methodists, 140 preachers, and 46,390 members; the Baptists, 144 churches, 96 ministers, and 7,561 communicants; the German Reformed Church, 282 churches, and 73 ministers; the Episcopalians, 60 ministers; the Associate Presbyterians, 39 congregations, 18 ministers, and 4,180 communicants; the Evangelical Lutherans, 2 synods; the Dutch Reformed Church, 6 churches and 6 ministers; the Friends are numerous; the United Brethren have about 15 congre gations; the Unitarians, 5 congregations and 3 ministers; and there is a considerable number of Roman Catholics, some Universalists, Jews, &c. Population of Wilmington, the largest town, in 1820, 5,268; in 1830, 6,628. Population of Delaware at Different Periods. CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE CANAL. This canal, which lies partly in Maryland, but chiefly in Delaware, 13 miles in length, 66 wide at the surface of the water, and 10 feet deep, opens a highly advantageous communication between Philadelphia and Baltimore, and other places, by sloops and steamboats. During the year beginning June 1, 1830, and ending June 1, 1831, there were employed between Philadelphia and Baltimore, Alexandria, Richmond, Petersburg, and Nor folk, in the transportation of passengers and merchandise, by the way of this canal, 2 lines of steamboats and 7 lines of packets. There were made during that time, according to the official Report, the following number of passages through this canal: 1230 packets with merchandise. 600 vessels with wood, carrying 13,332 cords. 272 vessels, rafts, and arks, with lumber, carrying 7,118,734 feet. 294 vessels with flour, carrying 246 vessels with wheat, corn, &c. carrying, 101,462 barrels. . 289,173 bushels. 2638 vessels with cotton, iron, oysters, fish, whisky, and various other articles, making a total of 5,280 passages of vessels, of different descriptions, through the canal during the year. The tolls received during the same year amounted to $62,223.15. GOVERNMENT. David Hazzard, Governor; (term of office expires on the third Tuesday in January, 1833); salary $1,333§. The Senate consists of 9 members, elected for 3 years; the House of Representatives, of 21 members, elected annually. The Methodists in this state have 15 preachers and 12,304 members; the Presbyterians, 8 churches, 9 ministers, 1 licentiate, and 1,300 communicants; the Baptists, 9 churches, 9 ministers, and 520 communicants; the Episcopalians, 6 ministers. |