four dollars seven-tenths. Pennfylvania has also feveral other claims on the treasury of the United States, for expences incurred on behalf of the Union.

By the balance struck by the commissioners of the congrefs, the state of Pennsylvania is debtor for the fum of seven thousand seven hundred and nine dollars.

Certain duties, that were formerly the perquifite of the fecretary of state and other public officers, have been purchased by the legislature, and are become part of the public revenue. There are other duties attached as perquifites to other officers, which the legiflature will gradually, and by the fame means, reftore to the public treasury.

LAWS RESPECTING THE SALE OF PUBLIC LANDS.

The laws that regulate the fale of public lands are deemed better in Pennfylvania than in any other of the states.

Before the revolution, the property of the lands belonged to the governor; that is to fay, to the family of William Penn. The congrefs of Pennsylvania paffed a law in 1779, which transferred the property to the state, giving the family of Penn, for indemnity, the fum of a hundred and thirty thousand pounds fterling, and leaving

leaving them in poffeffion of the lands they poffeffed as their own proper eftates. The lands which became the property of the state were immenfe. They were various enormous tracts that William Penn and his heirs had purchased of the Indians; parcels of which they fold for their own profit. A law in 1781, which eftablished an office called the land-office, enjoined the poffeffors of warrants (which were orders from the furveyor-general of the state to his deputy, to measure out a certain tract of land, and were a kind of evidence of the purchase of the eftate), obtained under the old government, to bring them to the land-office, where they were annulled, if the purchase-money had not been paid. In 1783, the affembly fet afide a large tract of land in the west of its territory, and to the north of the Ohio, to be disposed of, for certain billets which the troops of Pennsylvania had received during the war for their pay, and whofe current value was greatly below the fums for which they were iffued. The billets were to be taken in payment for the lands at their nominal value; and thefe lands were called, and indeed continue to be known by the name of, depreciation lands. The affembly also set aside another tract of land, to the north of those I have just named, called donation lands, because they were

were to be given as a reward to the officers and foldiers of the militia of Pennsylvania, in certain portions, according to their rank. It was not, however, till 1785, that these lands were actually put up to fale; and then they were put up fucceffively, in various parcels, at different prices, and on different conditions. The acquifitions made from the Indians in 1788 were, by the nature of the lands, divided into two claffes-thofe to the west of the Allegany mountains were offered to fale for ten pounds for a hundred acres ; those to the caft of the mountains, being inferior in quality, for three pounds ten fhillings.

The quantity of lands offered to fale, and the fcarcity or plenty of money, taken relatively, caused the price the affembly of Pennsylvania put upon the land and even the conditions of fale to fluctuate, independently of the quality of the land. Lots at one time amounted only to two hundred acres, while a prohibition existed to demand a warrant for more than two fuch lots; afterwards lots were extended to a thousand acres, without any restriction on the number that an individual might acquire. The price has varied, from fourteen dollars for an hundred acres to twenty-fix and fifty-three. In certain purchases, the billets of the ftate were received in payment; in others, and particularly fince the year 1793, they

they were not fo. The laft fales to the north of the Ohio, and to the weft of the Allegany Mountains, were clogged with a condition, that the purchaser should clear the land, and enclose and cultivate it, in the proportion of one acre for a hundred; erect a dwelling-house, and establish a family, who fhould refide five fucceeding years there; and the quantity to be purchased by an individual was reftricted to four hundred acres.

If, on spots of the vast tracts of lands bought of the Indians, there happened to be inhabitants, the law gave them the option of purchafing the lots on which they dwelt.

It was not till 1792, that the ftate concluded the purchase of all the lands within its bounda ries. In 1786, the ftate purchased the country extending from the Mountains of Allegany to the Ohio, reaching as far as the forty-first degree. It ftill remained to acquire the lands on its northern boundary; and that purchase was concluded in 1792.

In 1794, the legislature finding that immense portions of the public lands had been fold without their precife boundaries being described, and that the lands which remained in the hands of the state were not accurately known, fufpended the fales. And this law reflects great honour on F 3

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the affembly of Pennsylvania; because it gua rantees individuals from the injury which the avidity for the acquifition of land made too common; because the uncertainty of the bounds of the lands that remained undifpofed of, often gave an opportunity of felling the lands of the state twice, and thereby increased its revenue; and it is known, that the legiflatures of the other states have not acted with the fame delicacy in the fame circumstances.

Although the laws of Pennsylvania refpecting the fale of lands have been in general framed with equity and wifdom, abufes relative to that fubject have nevertheless been great and numerous, perhaps indeed more fo than in any of the other ftates, on account of the immenfe quantity of lands on fale. Speculations on the fales of land bought from the public afford a fubject of gaming, common in almost all the states. The wealth and rapacity of many of the inhabitants of Philadelphia inflamed this diforder in a particular manner in this ftate. Men of fortune and influence, acquainted with the proceedings of Congrefs for the payment of the paper currency, confpired to diminish the value of that paper, and afterwards bought it up and gave it in payment for public lands, at a profit of ten hundred and fometimes