1796 upon a new plan. Clement Biddle also published one, while he was marshal.

When we consider the abundance and amount of cotton goods and calicoes, and of woollens and cloths, now manufactured in our country-malgre all the early struggles and losses-it affords some interest now to set down the fact, little known, that cotton goods were tried to be made here even in colonial times. I find in the Complete Magazine, printed in England, for August, 1764, this special notice of these efforts, to wit: "Some beautiful samples of the cotton manufactures, now carried on at Philadelphia, have been lately imported, and greatly admired." To this we may add the fact, that General Washington, when he first appeared as President at New York, and took his public oath of office before the people there assembled, was wholly clothed in beautiful cloth of American fabric.

Mr. Cornelius now makes the most elegant mantel and hanging lamps: his manner of succeeding in that, and in silver plating, is a very curious history, and would deserve to be well told at length. How very plain were the best candlesticks in my early years! Dr. Betton's drug store first showed argand lamps about the year 1795. Several successive attempts were made to import and sell Italian alabaster mantel ornaments-such as vases and ums: one after another broke, and so their articles were distributed cheap, and diffused the taste for such display. They generally kept store but for about a year. In the same way the first large pictures with gilded frames were all wondered at, but not bought, until they broke up, and distributed them at low prices! There are many curious facts concerning the first efforts to introduce the arts-especially in forming drugs, paints and dyes, &c., at our chemical laboratories.

The outlots of the city have most surprisingly increased in valueand especially since 1800. I saw a lease of Thomas and Richard Penn, of the year 1737, to M. Hellier, of the whole square from High street to Chestnut street, and from Tenth to Eleventh streets, Delaware side, which was then leased for twenty-one years, at the price of 40s. sterling per annum! in consideration of his fencing and planting it with English grass. Low as it was, the same M. Hellier sells out his title and interest in the ground, in 1740, to Richard Nixon and Wm. Smith, for the remainder of his term, for only £5— a sum possibly nearly consumed in fencing and tilling it! Consider now the value of the same ground! If sundry of the scriveners, as I have before suggested, would be so considerate as to make memoranda of the original prices given for city lots in colonial times, as told in old deeds passing under their notice, how very greatly they would surprise the present generation by their contrast

CHANGES IN THE PRICES OF DIET.-NOTICES OF THE FORMER FISH MARKET, &c.

"For the money quite a heap."

WE cannot fail to be surprised at the former abundance (as indicated in the cheapness of prices) of many articles formerly, which are now scarce and dear.

Sheepshead, now so high priced, used to be plentiful in the Jersey market. They came from Egg harbour. The price was the same whether big or little, say 1s. 6d. apiece-some weighed six to seven pounds each. The rule was, that he who came first took the biggest. Unreasonable as this seemed, the practice long prevailed. At last the sellers attempted to introduce the sale by weight. They fixed the price at 4d. per Ib. (now they are at 1s. 10d.!) but the purchasers stood aloof, and none would buy! Then they returned to 1s. 6d. apiece again. However, sometime after, they succeeded to sell at 4d. to 6d. per lb., and so continued for years. These things were told to me by Mr. Davenport Marrot, an old gentleman,when 80 years of age. Mr. John Warder too, of nearly the same age, related much the same facts, saying, that when he was a boy all their sea fish were brought over land from Egg harbour and landed at the Old Ferry, (then the first and only one) where a small bell was rung from the top of the house, which was sufficient to inform the chief part of the town that the fish were come. There, he said, sheepshead were always sold at 18d. apiece, without any regard to size; but the first comers getting always the best.

This selling of sea fish, it is to be observed, occurred only in cool or cold weather, because when there were no ice houses, there was, of course, no way of preserving them during their necessary transportation across the Jerseys. In those days we, of course, saw no sea fish or lobsters, as now, in summer;-but their lack was well supplied, by an abundance of fine rock and perch, caught with hook and line, in the Delaware. The fishing then was far more successful than now; there were more fish, and fewer people to consume them. Increase of shipping and steamers have, probably, contributed to scare them away from their former haunts.

Wild pigeons were once innumerable. Mr. Thomas Bradford, when aged 84, remembers when they were caught in nets, and brought in cart loads to the city market. He said he had heard his forefathers say they once saw a flock fly over the city so as to obscure the sun for two or three hours, and many were killed from the tops of the

houses. They were, therefore, plentiful enough in general to sell at from 6d. to 12d. per dozen.

The same informer stated his recollections of the earliest market prices thus, viz.; Butter at 6d. to 9d.; fowls 1s.; ducks 15d.; geese 1s.; 10d.; eggs 4d. per dozen; beef at 3d. to 6d. per lb.; greens, sallads, &c., were as much for a penny as is now given for a 6d. Shad used to be retailed at 3d. to 4d., and herrings at 1s. 6d. a hundred.

Colonel A. J. Morris, when 90 years of age, has told me of his recollection of shad being sold, in several seasons of his early days, at 10s. a hundred!

The occasional prices, published in the ancient Gazettes, state prices as follows, to wit:

1719-Flour per cwt. 9s. 6d. to 10s.; tobacco 14s. cwt.; Muscovado sugar 40 to 45s. per cwt.; pork 45s. per barrel; beef 30s.; rum 3s. 9d. per gallon; molasses 1s. 6d.; wheat 3s. 3d. to 3s. 5d. per bushel; corn Is. 6d., and bohea tea-mark it, what a luxury-at 24s. per lb. !

1721-" Flower" 8s. 6d. to 9s.; turpentine 8s.; rice 17s.; fine salt 2s. 6d.; bohea tea at 30s.! pitch 12s.; tar 8s.

1748-The time of war, prices are high, say, wheat at 6s. 4d. to 7s.; flour 20s.; beef 43s., and pork 60s.

In 1755, hay is named at 50s. a ton, and now it is occasionally at 20 dollars!

1757-Flour is 12s. 6d.; wheat 3s. 6d.; corn 1s. 9d.; beef 40s.; pork 60 to 67s.; pipe staves £7; barrel staves 67s.; West India rum 2s. 11d.; New England rum 2s 7d.; Pennsylvania rum 2s. 7d.; molasses 2s. 6d.; hemp 5s.; pitch 11s.; tar 10s.; flaxseed 4s. 3d.; and, last of all, bohea is down from 30s. to only 7s.!

In 1760, I notice the fact, that several thousand barrels of flour were purchased in London for the American provinces at 8s. 6d. per cwt.-mark that!

In 1763, I perceive prices of sundry game, &c., incidentally stated to wit: a quail 14d.; a heath-hen 1s. 3d.; a teal 6d.; a wild goose 2s.; a brandt Is. 3d.; a snipe 1d. ; a duck 1s.; a cock turkey 4s.; a hen turkey 2s. 6d.

1774-Flour 18s. 6d. ; wheat 7s. 9d.; Indian corn 2s. 8d.; pipe staves £10; barrel staves 70s.; West India rum 3s. 1d.; pitch 16s.; tar 13s.; turpentine 18s.; rice 17s.; Lisbon salt 15d.; hemp 5d. ; cotton 16d.; bar iron £26; pig iron £8 10s.; pork £4 5s.; beef £2 15s.

The pebble stones used in paving the city, when first paved, cost but 4s. 6d. per cartload, delivered from the shallops.

Price of Flour-Comparative Table.-We subjoin a highly interesting table giving a comparative view of the price of flour in this city for the first three months in the year, from 1796 to 1837. For this document, our acknowledgments are due to the kindness of a mercantile friend, by whom it was carefully and accurately prepared from authentic data. It possesses peculiar interest at the pre

sent moment, showing as it does, the great and rapid fluctuations of the market, and stating the fact that, at periods when labour did not obtain more than half the price it now commands, flour has sold at much higher prices than those which are now complained of. In 1796, for instance, it sold as high as $15 a barrel.

PRICES OF FLOUR FOR THE THREE FIRST MONTHS OF THE YEAR, FROM 1796, TO 1837, INCLUSIVE.

At and after the period of the Revolution, when wheat was 5s. a bushel, the price of labour in the harvest time was 2s. 6d., and for boys, 1s. 3d. a day. I have seen wealthy men, in Chester county, who had, in their boyhood, worked many days at reaping for Is. 3d a day, and afterwards, in manhood, at 2s. 6d. The sons of such men won't now labour at all!

There were no two prices in stores and markets in Philadelphia, until after the introduction of the French from St. Domingo ;-they would insist, in all cases, upon abatement, and they and the public generally, in time, found themselves accommodated accordingly!

Changes in Prices of Land.-In such a growing city it was to be expected that the occasional changes in the value of lots and property would be very great.

To begin with Gabriel Thomas' account of 1698, he says, within the compass of twelve years that which might have been bought for 15 or 18 shillings, is now sold for £80 in ready silver, and some other lots, that might have been purchased for £3, within the space of two years were sold for £100 a piece, and likewise some land that lies near the city, that sixteen years ago might have been purchased for 6 or £8 the hundred acres, cannot now be bought under 150 or £200.

The ancient Mrs. Shoemaker, told me that her grandfather, James Lownes, was offered for £20, the whole square from High street to Arch street, and from Front to Second street, by William Penn himself. He declined it, saying, how long shall I wait to see my money returned in profit.

The aged Owen Jones, Esq., informed me that he had heard at several times that William Penn offered his hired man, a coachman, &c., the whole of the square of ground included between Chestnut and Walnut, and Front and Second streets, in lieu of one year's wages-probably of £15.

Mr. Abel James, the father of the late Doctor James, used to tell him that one Moon, of Bucks county, a Friend, was the person above alluded to, and that he used to visit Mr. James' family, and told him he had chosen a moderate tract of land in Bucks county in preference to the above mentioned square.

The same Mr. Owen Jones said the greatest rise of city plots he had ever known, were the sales of proprietaries' city lots after the sales of their estate. They rising, in hundreds of instances, he said, to have ground rents at more than double the price of the first purchase.

He related to me what he heard from the grandson of the first or second Samuel Powell, that he bought the two whole squares in

I might mention, that I used to hear a tradition that Penn's coachman had been offered the square on which Lætitia court is located; as that was but half a square it is the most probable story. And possibly the offer to Lownes was the same square also, and mistold in a lapse of years. The other squares were soon out of Penn's disposal, as belonging to purchasers and drawn by lot.