The first act to be noticed in connection with the city was an amendment to the charter, which prevented the Council from borrowing or appropriating money without the consent of a majority of their body. As the project of a bridge over the Ohio was then talked of, and as the Lexington and Ohio Railroad had been suggested, and the city in her corporate capacity had been warmly urged to make large subscriptions of stock to these enterprises, this provision was probably thought necessary to prevent too great lavishness in expenditure.

The next event of the year was the organization of another Presbyterian church under the Rev. Mr. Sawtell. It was commenced in April with 12 members who seceded from the First Presbyterian church. A building for worship was erected on Third Street, between Green and Walnut, and the church rapidly increased in numbers. It is at present in charge of Rev. Dr. Humphrey.

The last circumstance to be noticed in this rapid sketch of the year 1830, is the establishment of the Daily Journal by Prentice & Buxton, afterward Prentice & Johnston, then Prentice & Weissinger, and finally Prentice & Henderson. It was first published on an imperial sheet at $10 per annum. Although commenced by an entire stranger, as Mr. Prentice then was, the power of its articles and the exquisite vein of humor and irony displayed in its columns, soon gave it such popularity, that, even before its union with the Focus in 1832, it had risen to a firm and enviable position. In December Mr. Edwin Bryant became an associate editor of the paper, but did not remain in that position for more than six months. Soon after the establishment of the Journal the newspaper war with the Advertiser, so well remembered here and so widely known abroad as having given birth to a fund of wit and of satire heretofore unparalleled in the annals of newspapers, was commenced. Even the distant English journals had each their column headed—“Prenticeana”—and the paper was sought after far and near by every lover of fun or of humor in the land. It is to be regretted that the shifting character of American politics has rendered so many of the happiest of these allusions and witticisms obscure to the unpolitical or to the distant reader; a collected volume of them would else afford a delightful compendium for a leisure hour. To the older resident of Louisville, it may be interesting to recall the commencement of this long and hard-fought battle. Mr. Penn of the Advertiser, who had deservedly maintained since 1819 the most prominent rank as an editor in the West, was kind enough to furnish the Journal, at its commencement, with all its exchanges. This favor is repeatedly acknowledged by the Journal with great courtesy, but does not blind that paper to the fact that it is about to be attacked by the opposite party. Whereupon, after some time, the following article was published: “We assure the editor of the Advertiser that we shall never under any circumstances covet a personal controversy with him. We do not believe that his readers would be willing to pay him $10 a year for dissertations upon our private character, however bad it may be; and we are quite sure that ours would be loth to pay that sum for daily disquisitions on him, whatever may be his excellencies. We have due respect for the Jackson editors in the West, but we trust to be believed when we say our respect is undebased by fear. We prefer that they should accept our hand open and ungloved, but if they would rather have it in the shape of a fist, it is still at their service.” The Advertiser, seeming to prefer it in the latter form, hereupon commences anew its attack, when the war is opened in earnest by the Journal, which, at the end of a somewhat long and rather tart paragraph, let off in reply the following first coup de canon: “We believe he (Mr. Penn) has not had an article since we came here that was not made up of hints taken from the Journal. Well, we have one consolation—‘he that giveth to the poor lendeth to the Lord.’” This is followed up by a series of well directed blows, which are vigorously replied to till the eleventh or twelfth “round,” when one of the parties left the field, still, however, refusing to consider himself vanquished.

With the year 1831 came another amendment to the charter, which provides that the real estate in Louisville and the personal estate of all persons dying therein shall be subject to escheat to the Commonwealth, vested in the Mayor and Council, for the use of public schools. Also that all fines inflicted in Jefferson county shall be vested in the same manner, the fund arising therefrom to be expended in the purchase of a lot and erecting buildings thereon for said schools. It also provides that Jailor’s fees for commitments for offenses in Louisville shall be paid out of the city fund. These amendments to the charter are so numerous and of such frequent recurrence that we shall hereafter be content with a mere allusion to them.

It was also during this year that the present bank of Kentucky was built, with a view to the uses of the bank of the United States. A Louisville Lyceum was also established under the patronage of some of the most distinguished citizens of Louisville. This literary association continued in being for several years but finally was obliged, like all its fellows, to sink beneath the careless inattention of a purely commercial community.

In 1832 a new calamity came upon the city. This was an unparalleled flood in the Ohio. It commenced on the 10th of February and continued until the 21st of that month, having risen to the extraordinary height of 51 feet above low-water mark. The destruction of property by this flood was immense. Nearly all the frame buildings near the river were either floated off or turned over and destroyed. An almost total cessation in business was the necessary consequence; even farmers from the neighborhood were unable to get to the markets, the flood having so affected the smaller streams as to render them impassable. The description of the sufferings by this flood is appalling. This calamity, however, great as it was, could have but a temporary effect on the progress of the city, as will be seen hereafter.

On the 27th of May the first Unitarian church was dedicated. It is situated at the corner of Walnut and Fifth streets, and was under the direction of the Rev. Geo. Chapman, of Mass. The building of the Louisville Hotel, and the issue of the first Directory ever printed here, were also events of this period. This Directory was published by R. W. Otis, and contains, beside much other valuable matter, a brief sketch of the history of the city, from the pen of Mr. Mann Butler, the accomplished historian of Kentucky. From it we get the following commercial table of Imports from Dec. 1st, 1831, to Aug. 4th, 1832, which will prove interesting to the reader of statistics:

Bale Rope 26,830coils.
Bagging 33,411pieces.
China, &c. 1,170p’ckgs.
Coffee 18,289bags.
Cotton 4,913bales.
Mackerel 12,037bbls.
Salt, Kan. and Cone 16,729"
Salt, Turk’s Island 18,146bags.
Tea 63,500lbs.
Flour 48,470bbls.
Hides 19,121
Iron 631tons.
Lead 231"
Molasses 6,309bbls.
Nails 10,395kegs.
Sugar, N. O. 7,717hhds.
"Loaf 4,318bbls.
Tin Plate 3,108boxes.

The inspection of whiskey during this time amounted to 14,627 barrels. This Directory also gives the following as the statistics of manufactures: