[210]. Paper-money was not so well managed in some of the other colonies, where it was issued in too large quantities, and its credit not established on funds sufficiently stable and secure;[[210a]] a circumstance which induced the parliament of Great-Britain to interdict, for a time, further emissions of that sort of money, called bills of credit, by the provincial legislatures.
Although the last emission of loan-office bills of credit, under the colonial government of Pennsylvania, was made in the beginning of the year 1773, the want of this succedaneum for gold and silver, as a circulating medium of commerce commensurate to the encreased population and trade of the country, was experienced some considerable time before. In a letter written by the Hon. Mr. T. Penn to the Rev. Mr. Barton, dated, London, June 17, 1767, the writer says:
“Your account of the increase of the growth of hemp, gives me great pleasure; and I think the demand there has been for wheat, since the date of your letter, must have made the country people rich, even those who were poor before: it will prevent people being under the necessity of parting with their lands, and going to Carolina. Their produce will always bring them money at Philadelphia, notwithstanding there may be some more need for paper-money; yet, when trade is brisk, it circulates faster, and a less quantity will carry on a greater trade: however, I hope, in the next session of parliament, we may get the law which prohibits our making any more, repealed.”
The parliamentary restriction was, in fact, afterwards taken off; and an effort was made, in the beginning of the year 1770, by the legislature of Pennsylvania, to enact a loan-office law, for the purpose of putting in circulation a further emission of paper-money: but the measure then miscarried, in consequence of some disagreement between the governor and the general assembly respecting the right they severally claimed, of appointing the trustees of the proposed loan-office.
[211]. The number of members in the Boston Academy is never to exceed two hundred, nor to be less than forty. By being limited to so moderate a number as the former, for the greater extreme, this academy will be likely to select suitable persons for the honour of fellowship, with the more discriminating circumspection.
[212]. Robert Patterson, Esq. Director of the Mint, and David Rittenhouse Waters, Esq. a gentleman bred to the law, and a grandson of the late Dr. Rittenhouse.
The decease of Mr. Waters happened soon after: he died on the 4th of September, 1813, at the premature age of twenty-two years. Although he had just entered on the threshold of the world, this excellent young man exhibited many proofs of extraordinary attainments in literature and science, as well as of a superior genius. He appeared to have inherited from his maternal grandfather, congenial talents. In his life, his amiable disposition endeared him to all who had an opportunity of knowing his virtues: in his death, not only have his relatives and friends experienced an afflicting bereavement, but his country has sustained the loss of a citizen of great promise.
[213]. Although Mr. Ellicott is a native of Pennsylvania, and was a citizen of that state until the British army took possession of Philadelphia, in 1777, he resided in Baltimore county about eight years after that event.
[214]. In the years 1767 and 1768.