part of the city. The power of this simple machinery is sufficient to supply the city with twenty millions of gallons of water per day, if so much were needed; but the actual consumption of the city is about ten millions of gallons per day in the summer, and five millions of gallons per day in the winter, the wheels never being impeded in their motion by the ice, however thick, and an undercurrent being always available, in the severest winter, to keep up the continuous supply. The expense of this luxury is, on the average, from three to five dollars yearly only, for an entire family. The whole cost of the works, from first to last, including the spacious grounds and shrubberies attached, and the commodious house of entertainment for visitors, with all its auxiliaries, has been about a million of dollars; but it pays ample interest, and is a most profitable and economical outlay. The scenery of the surrounding region is extremely beautiful; the prospect from the eminences, to which flights of stairs ascend, is extensive; and the whole aspect of the place is that of enjoyment and repose. While the city is thus abundantly and cheaply supplied with water, care has been taken to secure an equally easy and abundant supply of all the other provisions of life. Market Street, or, as it is sometimes called, High Street, is the central one of the parallel streets that run from the Delaware to the Schuylkill east and west, and it is nearly double the breadth of all the other streets of the city, excepting only the transverse central street, called Broad Street, which crosses it at right angles from north to south, and intersects the city into four quarters by a perfect cross. Market Street is 12,500 feet in length, from river to river, and about 150 feet in breadth. Along the centre of it runs the covered ways for the public markets, one of which, from the Delaware westward, is a mile in length. The interior is admirably arranged for the purpose, and well sheltered; and in the space on each side, is the railway, communicating between Baltimore and New York through Philadelphia. The markets of this city are accounted the best in the United States, for abundance, good quality, and cheapness in the supplies. They are opened at daylight; and so early are the hours of business here, among all classes, that before eight o'clock in the morning the markets are almost all cleared. The Navy Yard at Philadelphia, which is seated on the southern extremity of the city, by Southwark and Greenwich, on the west bank of the Delaware, differs in nothing from those of New York and Washington, being provided with all the necessary conveniences and materials for building and equipping ships of the largest size, but not possessing, as in the British navy-yards, dry docks for repairs. One of the largest ships in the world has recently been built at this navy-yard, and named the Pennsylvania. She is pierced for 130 guns of the largest calibre, and is several hundred tons larger than the largest ship of war in any European navy. She had sailed for Norfolk before my arrival: but I have been assured by competent and impartial judges, that she was as beautiful in form and model, as she was stupendous in size and strength; which I can readily believe, as no candid seaman would deny that in their ships of war, as well as in their merchant vessels, the Americans have evinced a decided superiority in taste to their British progenitors. The appearance of the navy-yard, on the approach to the city by the Delaware, is very striking: the immense covered shed, under which the Pennsylvania was built, is still erect, looking like a gigantic magazine, being 270 feet long, 84 wide, and 103 feet high, and towering above all the other buildings, except the steeples of the city; while a sweep of the shore beyond, in a graceful concave curve, exhibits the long line of the city-wharves, with innumerable ships and smaller craft, as far as Kensington, the suburb which terminates the northern view in the distance. CHAP. III. Prisons of reformation in Philadelphia-Visit to the prison of Moyamensing State and condition of this establishmentStatistics of crime and disease-Personal inspection of the convicts at their labour-Effects of solitary confinement without labour Benefits of solitary confinement with labour-The Eastern penitentiary, or state prison-Statistics of crime and disease there-Proportions of natives and foreigners, and white and coloured races- Churches of Philadelphia, old and newReligious sects, and their comparative numbers-Establishments for education, public and private-Report on the state of education in Pennsylvania-Philosophical Society, and Athenæum— Historical relics in the Athenæum-Character of its secretary, Mr. John Vaughan-Characteristic letter of Benjamin Franklin -Tomb of Franklin in Philadelphia-Epitaph-Philadelphia library-Franklin institute-Academy of sciences-New museum-Musical-fund hall-Public concerts-Public squares for promenades-Newspapers-Periodicals-Book stores. THE prisons of Philadelphia are remarkable for their structure as edifices, and still more so for their excellence in arrangement, efficiency in discipline, and, above all, in their conduciveness to the reformation of the unhappy victims who become their inmates. There is perhaps nothing, in all the institutions of the country, in which the Americans manifest a greater superiority to the English, than in their treatment of prisoners. It is matter of common observation in England, that owing to the congregated manner in which criminals live in the prisons at home, few ever come out without being made more immoral by contamination, than when they went in, and none appear to come out less so. In this country, on the contrary, there are none who come out worse, but almost all are made better by their confinement in solitary cells, substituting habits of industry, order, cleanliness, and reflection, for those of idleness, disorder, filth, and recklessness, and placing themselves in a fair way to recommence life anew in an honest and useful career. In a national point of view, perhaps, there is no object of greater importance than this and I was therefore anxious to examine the prisons of Philadelphia, and investigate their system of discipline in detail. The first that we visited was the county prison, in the suburb or quarter of Philadelphia, called Moyamensing, to the south of the city. We had the advantage of being attended there by the architect who built it, Mr. Walter, and who was thoroughly conversant with all its arrangements. This building is of comparatively recent erection; and is made to contain the prisoners that were formerly confined in several jails within the city; it being the wise policy of the present race to remove from the interior of the cities in America two descriptions of public works, that ought never to have been placed amidst congregated dwellings; namely, prisons for the confinement and reformation of criminals, and cemeteries for the burial of the dead; both of which are now fast removing to the suburbs and surrounding country. The building is constructed in what is called the |