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whose people are at this moment closely settled upon lands which actually sink from one fifth to one half the value of their crops, in the mere charges of transporting them to the seaport towns, and others of whose inhabitants cannot at present send their produce to a seaport for its whole value, a thorough sense of the truth of the position is a matter of unequaled magnitude and import

ance.

"The state of things in most of the counties of Pennsylvania which are contiguous to or in the vicinity of the river Susquehannah, and its extensive branches, is considered to be really and precisely that which has been described; and the object of this paper is, to suggest hints for a plan of relief from the great expense and inconvenience they at present sustain, by creating a market town for their produce, on the main body of that river, at some proper place between the confluence of its eastern and western branches, and the lower end of its present navigation.

"It is proposed that the sum of five hundred thousand dollars, to be applied as hereinafter mentioned, be raised in either of the three following methods-that is to say, either by five thousand subscriptions of one hundred dollars each, to the capital stock of a company, to be temporarily associated for that purpose, without any exclusive privileges. Or, by the sale of one hundred thousand lottery tickets at five dollars each, or fifty thousand tickets at ten dollars each; the whole enhanced amount of which is to be redrawn in prizes, agreeably to a scheme which will be hereinafter exhibited. Or, by the application of five hundred thousand dollars of the moneys in the treasury (or otherwise in the command) of the state of Pennsylvania. The inducements to the operation, either to the states, to the adventurers in the lottery, or to the subscribers of the stock of the associated company, will appear in the sequel to be an augmentation of about one hundred per cent. in the value of the property to be embraced; that is, in a profit of about one hundred per cent. on the moneys to be raised or advanced for the purchase of the lands, and the erection of the buildings. "The application of the above sum of five hundred thousand dollars, might be as follows:

"1st. In the purchase of land on the western bank of Susquehannah, as a town seat, to be regularly laid off in a town or city for inland trade and manufactures, with streets sixty feet wide, in ablongs of five hundred feet, fronting the southwestern or prevalent summer winds, by two hundred and twenty feet; each oblong to be intersected by a twenty foot alley, running lengthwise, or from the northwest to southeast, so as to give all the lots south

west front exposures, or southwest exposures and outlets in the rear."

Here follows a detail of particulars which are too local and unimportant to be followed minutely. The above sum is therein appropriated to the purchases of land, the erection of houses, mills, rope-walks, tan-yards, bake-houses, steel-furnaces, soapboilers, tallow-chandlers, blacksmiths, coopers, wheelwrights, coppersmiths, brass-founders, turners, skin-dressers, gunsmiths, and plumbers' shops; malt houses, breweries, distilleries, printing office, bleach-yards, fulling-mills, potteries, water forges, tobacco and snuff manufactories, lumber yards, boat-builders' yards, school houses, churches, taverns, sail-cloth manufactory, brick-kilns, twine and cord factories, starch works, and dwelling houses, public library, parchment and glue manufactories, pump maker's shed and yard, &c.

"The buildings above mentioned will form a town of one thousand houses, useful work shops and factories by water, fire, or hand, all of stone or brick, which is larger by near one half than the borough of Lancaster. Being on the river Susquehannah, a very great and extensive natural canal, which, with its branches, flows through a country of fifteen millions of acres, and will be connected with the lakes, the position for a town must be considered as warranting a presumption that the lots would be more valuable. In order to extend this advantage, the buildings should be erected on every second or perhaps every third lot, whereby a number of interval lots would be left, which would be nearly of the same value. A further advantage would result from such a disposition of the houses, as the vacant lots could be usefully applied to garden purposes until they should be built upon. As the proposed houses and workshops would be of stone and brick, the possibility of the progress of fire would be less, if the owners of the interval lots should build wooden houses hereafter, than if they were to erect such houses in a compact separate quarter.

"The lots, without the scene which should be first built on, would cost, after throwing out the streets and alleys, about five dollars, and might be moderately estimated, were such a town erected, at the medium value of ten dollars.

"This town being contemplated as such an auxiliary to Philadelphia, as Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham, and Sheffield, &c. are to the seaports of Great Britain, it would be necessary to connect it with the city immediately and effectually by opening a good road to the Lancaster turnpike, by whatever might be necessary to give it the benefit of the communication with Philadelphia

through the Swatara and Tulpohocken canal, through the Brandywine canal, and through the Newport and Wilmington roads, and by all other means which can be devised. It would also be proper to connect it with the borough of Reading, Lancaster, York, Carlisle, &c., and with the western and north-western, northern, and other great roads. Thus circumstanced, with the supplies of wood fuel, coal, bark, iron, grain, cotton, hemp, flax, wool, timber, stone, lime, forage, &c., which those roads and the Susquehannah and its branches, would certainly and permanently afford, this plan could not fail to become of very great profit to the subscribers or prize-holders, or the state, and to the landed interest, both tenants and owners. The expense of transportation from the nearest navigable part of the Susquehannah by way of Newport, is nine dollars per ton; from Middletown it is twelve dollars per ton to sixteen dollars per ton; and as four-fifths of the state are on or westward of that river, the immense saving that would be made by a great and stable market like that contemplated, is equally manifest and desirable. It may be asked, whether the owners of the houses, shops, and works, would receive application from tenants? The answer is, that they would themselves be induced to occupy some of them, that the boroughs in the vicinity have been greatly extended by the settlement of tradesmen, manufacturers and others, who depend upon them and upon the farmer; and that unless their inhabitants open canals to the Susquehannah, or discover coal in their vicinity, those boroughs which are not on that river cannot grow much larger, though the demand for manufactures is steadily increasing with our population. It is regretted that the latter increase of Lancaster has been inconsiderable. But the water works, and the works by fire, which are proposed to be erected, will attract and support tradesmen and the workmen requisite to proceed with the goods they have now begun; as is constantly the case in Europe.

"It may be safely affirmed, that no part of the United States at present half as fully populated as the five counties on the Susquehannah, offers so encouraging or so certain a prospect for an inland town. It is as it were the bottom of a great bag or sack, into the upper parts of which natural and agricultural produce are poured from the northeast, from the north, and from the west.

"It will be observed, that many water works, and objects requiring the moving power of water, are particularised in the plan. For which reason, and in order to procure all the public and private advantages which are attainable, it is proposed to take some position where the river can be so drawn out of its natural bed,

as to create those mills seats and falls. It is confidently affirmed, and is not at all doubted, that there are not wanting places of that great and valuable natural capacity.

"Doubts may arise about the expediency of erecting some of the works. It is therefore observed, that those which are mentioned are merely offered for consideration. None of them are intended to be urged but it is believed that most of them would prove, on examination, eligible.

"The greater part of the private emolument would be realised, it is supposed, by the erection of nine hundred dwelling houses of various sizes (in any of which various kinds of manufactories could be pursued,) and one hundred shops for such branches as, by reason of their producing loud noises, or unpleasant smells, or of their requiring greater room, could not be carried on among women and children, infirm, aged, or sick persons, or within the compass of an apartment in a common dwelling-house. In that case, however, it would be manifestly prudent to bring the unimproved mill seats into view, that they might be in the way of early use and improvement.

"The reasons of extending a view to the immediate erection of those water mills and other works, is, that by their very great consumption of the raw materials and produce which may be drawn by purchase from the farmers, they will as early and materially increase the benefits of the proposed town to the landholder and cultivator, without taking any hands from agriculture, or preventing any from going to it.

"It will be proper to ascertain, with precision and certainty, what would be a reasonable value of two thousand acres of land, thus purchased, and thus built upon, that the inducements to the operation may be duly exhibited.

"The borough of Lancaster will appear to afford a means of comparison not too favourable, when it is remembered, that a position on the west side of the Susquehannah would give the proposed town a most extensive and fertile back country for its supplies by land, free from the expense and risk of any ferry; and that it would acquire building materials, provisions, raw materials, and the infinitely important article, pit coal, the very important articles timber and bark, in the greatest abundance, and on the cheapest terms, by means of the navigable waters of the Susquehannah; and that its traders and artisans could transport produce and manufactures to and receive supplies from Philadelphia, through the canal of Swatara, without any the least expense of carting.

"An estimate of a town, consisting of the lands and number of buildings particularised above, may be reasonably made as follows:

"The actual first cost of all the various buildings above mentioned, is stated to be

$500,000

"From these deduct the value of the four schools and the church, seven thousand two hundred dollars, which would be public, and would be of no value to the owners of the town, as such, but as they might reflect value upon the houses, manufactories, and lots. Also deduct the sum of five thousand dollars, allowed for the charges of superintendence.

66 Remains as the actual cost and real value of all the private buildings.

"The value of one hundred lots to be given for twenty churches, and thirty-two for the market, court house, and jail; nothing, but as they reflect value on the other property in the town.

"The value of one thousand and ninety nine lots, of the size of twenty by one hundred feet, on which the above private buildings and works are to be erected when they shall be completed, at one hundred dollars each on a medium.

"The value of two thousand one hundred and ninety eight interval lots, (lying between and among the private and public buildings, and exclusively of those without that part of the town plot proposed to be built upon, with the fund of five hundred thousand dollars,) at eighty dollars each on an average.

"The value of one hundred and twenty feet lots, making twenty large lots equal to one hundred feet square, suitable for erecting twenty other mills, with the requisite share of water right, at five hundred dollars for each mill seat.

"N.B. These will make with the improved mill seats about forty, and will not require the height of water, or command of a fall to be kept for more than a quarter of a mile.

"It is believed much more might be placed against this item. "The value of the exclusive privilege of keeping ferries, arising out of the ownership of the grounds, to constitute prizes.

"The value of twenty two thousand lots, accommodated with streets and alleys, not within the part built upon as above, with the wood on them, and on the streets and alleys, for fuel and timber, the stone, lime, clay, &c. for building, at ten dollars per lot, to constitute prizes.

12,200

487,800

000,000

109,9000

175,480

10,000

5,000

220,000

$1,008,540

"The several objects in the foregoing estimate of one million eight thousand five hundred and forty dollars, to constitute prizes to be drawn by the purchasers of five hundred thousand dollars worth of tickets: a scheme of a lottery more profitable than most which have been exhibited, and which will moreover yield

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