In 1772, Robert Proud, our historian, makes a MS. memorandum of his visit to James Wright's place at Columbia, where he saw one thousand five hundred worms at their labour, under the charge of "the celebrated Susanna Wright." They said they could raise a million in one season, and would have undertaken it with suitable encouragement. About the present time, the culture of silk begins again to awaken public attention. A few families in the country are engaged in it. A Holland family, on the Frankford road, were making it their exclusive business on a large scale; and in Connecticut whole communities are pursuing it, and supplying the public with sewing silk. SHIPS AND SHIPBUILDING. PHILADELPHIA has long been justly renowned for her superior excellence and elegance in shipbuilding. None of the colonies equalled her; and, perhaps, no place in the world surpassed her in her skill and science in this matter. At the present day other cities of the union are approaching her excellence. When Samuel Humphreys, Sen., was visiting England, he was offered, it is said, a great sum to remain and execute models for the British navy. In early times they used to construct at Philadelphia great raft ships, of much larger dimensions than the late renowned ones from Canada, called the Columbus and Baron Renfrew, and which in the present day, have been regarded as nonpareils. A little before the war of Independence, the last raft ship was built and launched at Kensington. Our great raft ships were generally constructed for sale and use in England, when our timber was more plentiful and cheaper. They would carry off" eight hundred logs of timber, competent to make six ships of two hundred and fifty tons each." An eye-witness, who saw one of those mammoth fabrics descend into her destined element, said she bent and twisted much in launching, but when on the water looked to the eye of the beholder much like another ship in form, &c. Before the Revolution, a former raft ship, bearing the name of the Baron Renfrew, (probably the largest ship ever built, being upwards of five thousand tons, and double the measurement of an ordinary seventy-four) made her voyage safely into the Downs. But the pilots being unwilling to take her into the Western channel, because of her great draught of water, undertook to carry her round the One was launched in 1774-5, at Slater's wharf, a little south of Poole's bridge, and was navigated by Captain Newman. Goodwin sands, where being unable to beat up against the strong north wind, got her ashore on the Flemish banks, near Graveslines, where she was broken up by the heavy sea. Nearly all her cargo was saved. Rafts of great size were made of her lumber, and towed into France, and into the river Thames. Some of them contained fifteen to twenty thousand cubic feet of timber. On the top of one of them, which was towed to London, was the foremast spar of this mammoth ship-being a single tree of ninety feet in length, and was there regarded with great admiration, as a noble specimen of our American white pine. The ship-yards used to occupy the river banks, beginning about Girard's wharf, above High street, up to Vine street, and, as population increased, extended northward. As early as the days of the founder, the shipyard of William West was begun at Vine street. The activity of shipbuilding there, by which he enriched his posterity, was wonderful. He had generally more orders than he could supply, (so says his late grandson,) and mostly required for English and Irish houses abroad. William Penn's letter, of 1683, says, even then, “Some vessels have been built here and many boats." In July, 1718, Jonathan Dickinson writes to his correspondent, saying, "Here is great employ for shipwork for England. It increases and will increase, and our expectations from the iron-works forty miles up Schuylkill are very great." The same writer calls a ship sometimes a galley, and a small vessel a hoy-of such he speaks as being used in navigating the Delaware, and going to Cape May for cedar rails, &c. In 1721, he incidentally mentions that the sails and rigging coming to him from London for his new ship had escaped the piratesthus showing that sails and rigging were at least preferred from abroad in that day. In 1722, I notice as among the vessels at Philadelphia, those they call a pink, a galley, and a great fly-boat of 400 tons, all of which traverse the Atlantic ocean. In connexion with shipbuilding, we may justly congratulate ourselves on having had the ablest ship-carver, in the late respectable and aged William Rush, that the world has ever seen. His figures on the heads of ships have excited admiration in numerous instances in foreign countries, and have been sent for from England, to adorn vessels there. We should have heard more of such facts of preference, but that the duties there were managed to cost more than the first cost of the images themselves. More concerning his talents as an artist will be found under the article "William Rush." The frigate United States, built at Philadelphia, by Humphreys, was the fastest sailing ship ever constructed any where. I have been often assured by competent observers, that it is a fact of which we have abundant reason to be proud, that we, as a nation, surpass all other people in the skilful construction and fast sailing of our mercantile shipping. Our constructors and captains, though self-taught, do actually cover the ocean with vessels which are nowhere equalled. In a word our packet ships, for superior sailing and quick despatch of voyage, do actually eclipse the world. Our sea captains, too, are the most active and vigilant of all mariners, doing double of service, in any given period of time, to any other navigators any where to be found. PAPER MONEY. 66 Gold, imp'd by thee, can compass greatest things- In the first introduction of paper money, there was much difference of opinion concerning its eventual benefit to trade and to the community. It appears to have been first emitted under the auspices of Governor Keith, about the year 1723. Many remonstrances and counter views were urged by some. In 1723, when Benjamin Franklin first visited us from Boston, where he had seen abundance of paper money, he noticed with surprise the free circulation of metallic money among the people. The whole of his own money then consisted of a Dutch dollar and a shilling's worth of coppers-both coins unknown among us now. The very next year (1724) James Logan, in writing to the proprietaries, shows the quick effect of the paper emission, by saying, "No gold or silver then passes among them, because of their paper money-when they buy the former they give three shillings per L., or 15 per cent. advance in exchange for their paper." The common fate of "paper credit" soon follows-for counterfeiters, though threatened with "death" in staring capitals, use the means which "lends corruption lighter wings to fly," by pushing their supply also into the market. Behold! they come even from Ireland! The Gazette of 1726 announces a great quantity of counterfeit colonial bills, executed in Ireland, as arrived, and the two agents being apprehended, are soon after punished. Some of this doubtless found its use in the purchase of land for the new-comers, for the papers along to the year 1729 often make mention of its being occasionally detected in use. About this time Governor Gordon, who succeeded Sir William Keith, emitted £45,000 on land pledged at half its value, and subject to redemption. This was increased from time to time till the whole amounted to £85,000. In 1729, James Logan, writing to the proprietaries, thus speaks, saying, "I dare not speak one word against it. The popular phrensy will never stop till their credit will be as bad as they are in New England, where an ounce of silver is worth twenty shillings of their paper. They already talk of making more, and no man dares appear to stem the fury of the popular rage. The notion is, that while any man will borrow on good security of land, more money should be made for them, without thinking of what value it will be when made. They affirm that whilst the security is good the money cannot fall. The king's own hand should forbid this measure. Yet the last act should not be abrogated, (ill as the measure is,) because the money now out (if annulled) would occasion the utmost destruction." It may be remarked, that although the measure pleased the people, as they thought it increased riches as by magic, they knew not how, yet the crown officers were always averse to the creation of a paper medium. It may be mentioned also as a curious indication of the early times, and the actual need once felt of some kind of supply for the necessary interchanges required in the dealings among men in society-that there is now in the museum of the City Library an original petition of the people, of the year 1717, to the assembly of Pennsylvania, praying them to make produce a currency! I have in my possession an original account-current of the years 1730-1, by Andrew Hamilton, Esq., one of the trustees of the General Loan office, showing the operation in those days, when no banks existed, of borrowing money upon mortgages, deeds, and other securities. It seems to show that the "credit system," even then, was required and indulged, as a useful means of improving trade and increasing property. The account begins with a detail of securities received from the previous trustees, to wit: 61 mortgages on the £15,000 act, yet due, 228 do. on the £30,000 act, £930 on the several emissions, on the 2d £30,000 act, The new trustees lend out in the years 1730-1, On 77 do. 9,438 19,212 26,000 £2,546 5,481 On 39 mortgages, the sixth emission of 1st act, 24 And on a pledge of plate, Considering the present great use of paper currency in our bank notes, and the question of their utility being sometimes agitated, it may be curious to state here the view of such money as given by the assembly as early as the year 1739, being their preamble to the act of that year, to wit: "Whereas it has been found by experience, that bills of credit, emitted upon land security, as a medium of commerce have been of great service for carrying on the trade and other improvements in this province, and money and gold being now be come a commodity and generally remitted [exactly as now!] to Great Britain, in return for the manufactures of that kingdom imported hither." See Credit System, App. p. 562. VOL. II.-3 F 1 Among the emissions of later times were the bills for raising funds in 1775, for erecting" the new jail in Walnut street," and the "light house on Cape Henlopen ;" both of them were decorated with pictures of the buildings, and the history of the money in both cases was, that the bills by reason of the war, &c., were never "called in," and the whole sunk in the hands of the holders! To these succeeded the far-famed and much scouted continental money-an emission so immense in aggregate, so overwhelming to the payers, and so hopeless to the payees, as to make it in the end wholly non-effective to all concerned. The whole emission, as presented in a detailed official account exhibited in 1828, stated the enormous total of 241 millions of dollars!—all issued in five years, from 1775 to 1780. We may well exclaim, "Lo, what it is that makes white rags so dear!" In the course of the rapid depreciation which ensued, it was a common incident to hear a hundred dollars of it asked for a single yard of silk-to see children give a dollar bill for a few cakes, and finally to see 300 dollars of continental given for one dollar of silver. At one time 75 dollars of it was exchanged for one dollar of state paper. Sometimes the possession of so much nominal money, of so little worth, gave rise to many occasional freaks for its destruction— such as using it to light a pipe or a candle at a tavern; and even the soldiers sometimes, to show their recklessness of such money, or to vaunt of their abundance in it, have been known to deck off their recruiting drummers and fifers in an over-jacket formed entirely of sheets of continental money! One of the worst uses of this money was to present it as “ a legal tender," to pay with almost no value what had been before purchased for a bona fide valuable consideration. Many base men so acquired their property-especially when to "cheat a tory" was deemed fair prize with several. Houses still stand in Philadelphia, which, could their walls speak out, would tell of strangely inconsiderable values received for them by the sellers. The large double house, for instance, at the north-west corner of Pine and Second streets, was once purchased, it was said, with the money received for one hogshead of rum! The lot in Front, below Pine, whereon four or five large houses stood, called Barclay's row, was sold for £60 only of real value. Many specimens of the colonial bills, now rarely seen, may be inspected in my books of MS. Annals, both in the City Library and with the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. All of us have heard so much of "continental money," without having ever seen it-roughly and rudely as it was executed, and ruinous as it was to many by its rapid depreciation, (falling, in 1781, to 7000 for 100 dollars of specie, and soon after to nothing!) that it may be curious, and a novelty to many, to see a copy herein given of the impression of a seven dollar bill. Flooded as the country had been by its destructive inundations, it is matter of just surprise that |