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After this affecting case, I wish to present to the public a deplorable scene of wretchedness, of the most harrowing character, which none of the capitals of Europe can exceed. I should not have dared to state it, were it not avouched in the form of a public document. It has, moreover, been the subject of a grand jury presentment. Who but must read with horror and disgust the astounding fact of fifty-five families, containing two hundred and fifty-three individuals, huddled together in thirty tenements, without the convenience of a privy!

TO THE SELECT AND COMMON COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA.

THE undersigned, a committee appointed by the citizens of Upper Delaware Ward, to represent to the proper authorities the situation of that part of the said ward, lying eastward of Front-street, respectfully beg leave to state, that every house in the block, from Vine to Sassafras street, and between Front and Water streets, has been visited and examined, and an enumeration of the number of families and individuals composing them, occupying the said houses, has been made. The result of this investigation shows, that the whole number of tenements is sixtyfour; total number of inhabitants, four hundred and seventy-three. Of these, there are thirty tenements containing fifty-five families, and two hundred and fifty-three individuals, that have not the accommodation of a privy for their use!! They are compelled to make use of vessels of various descriptions; the contents of which are daily thrown into the neighbouring docks or into the streets! It will be observed, that the buildings in this block (with one or two exceptions) occupy the whole ground belonging to the premises. The privies [of 34] are situated either in the cellars, or in the vaults under the streets. Of the thirty tenements above mentioned, there are four with three, two with four, and two with six families in each.

Respectfully submitted, on behalf of the citizens of Upper Delaware

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ADDRESS OF THE BOARD OF MANAGERS OF THE SOCIETY FOR IMPROVING THE CONDITION, AND ELEVATING THE CHARACTER OF INDUSTRIOUS FEMALES.

"THE poor creatures expend their miserable earnings for fuel, sustenance, and clothing; and when their rent becomes due, they are often obliged to pawn their clothes, bedding, and furniture, to discharge their debt; or go round among benevolent citizens to beg what may satisfy their landlords-or else all that can be laid hold of is sold by a constable, and they are turned into the streets destitute. This is a case of frequent occurrence, the necessary result of the pitiful wages they receive; and

from this lamentable fate no degree of prudence, sobriety, or industry can afford adequate security, while the present evil system continues."

TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE ABOVE SOCIETY.

Extract of a Letter from Dr. Van Rensselaer, of New York. "My profession affords me many and unpleasant opportunities of knowing the wants of those unfortunate females, who try to earn an honest subsistence by the needle, and to witness the struggle often made by honest pride and destitution. I could cite many instances of young, and even middle-aged women, who have been lost to virtue,' apparently by no other cause than lowness of wages, and the absolute impossibility of procuring the necessaries of life by honest industry."

AN ADDRESS ADOPTED AT THE MEETING OF THE Friends of d. WEBSTER, IN NEW YORK, CALLED FOR THE PURPOSE OF RECOMMENDING HIS NOMINATION TO THE PRESIDENCY, 1837.

An Extract.

"WE repeat then, fellow-citizens, what, indeed, you require neither a petition nor statement to be assured of, that our whole country is, at this moment, involved in one wide-spread, all-pervading distress-a distress. confining itself to no class of citizens, to no section of territory, to no walk of life; but which is robbing the poor of their pittance as well as the rich of their abundance-which is furling the sail of our commerce, stopping the wheel of our manufactures, bringing the blight of a depreciated value upon the product of our agriculture, holding back the arm of labour from its gainful stroke, prostrating enterprise, and paralyzing industry wherever they exist, and reducing thousands of our people to the last extreme of want and wretchedness!

"It would be a useless work to enter upon a further detail of this distress. Indeed, fellow-citizens, what else but mockery would it seem, to describe suffering to those who are themselves enduring it-to paint agonies, to those who are themselves writhing under them—to hold a mirror to men stretched upon the rack, in which they might see their own contortions? It is enough to say, that there probably is not one amongst the many millions whom we are addressing, who has not felt, who is not feeling, or who is not doomed to feel, for a long time still to come, the painful consequences of the crisis that is upon us. Upon some it may only fall in the light and comparatively trifling form of a curtailment of their superfluous revenues, or a diminution of their ordinary comforts. But upon the mass of the community it brings a curtailment of the necessaries of life, and a diminution of daily bread. And upon some-the industrious poor-cut off at once, and almost without warning, from their honest and hitherto well-paid employments, deprived of their opportunity even of fulfilling the hard destiny of their condition, in earning their bread by the sweat of their brow: compelled to fold their hands in idleness, it may be in despair, which have hitherto been gladly and successfully engaged in procuring food and shelter for themselves and their families. Upon these, upon you, fellow-citizens, such of you as are in this afflicting situation

and we fear that you are by no means a small portion of the people whom we address the crisis threatens to bring the terrible alternative of starvatior or beggary.

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In the whole history of our country, in the darkest days of our colonial, or revolutionary, or national existence, there have been none which have approached it in severity. The history of the world may be challenged for its equal."

Extract from First Report of U. B. A., 1837.

"DEFICIENCY in the demand for those kinds of occupation in which the poor are usually engaged, and the inadequate compensation received, are evils severely felt by a large class who owe their indigence to no aversion to labour. They prevent the industrious poor from making provision for the winter, and have obliged many to cease depositing for fuel; and during the prevalence of sickness and suffering in the past summer, when many were unable to find employment of any description, several were obliged to withdraw the small sums they had placed in the hands of visitors for that purpose.'

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APPENDIX VI.

A FEW OF A GREAT NUMBER OF INSTANCES OF THE FIRING OF CITIES, TOWNS, &C., From 1834 to 1838 INCLUSIVE.

FIRE AT THE POOR-HOUSE.

From the Reading Chronicle.

ON Saturday morning last, at about one o'clock, the large barn at the Berks county poor-house was entirely consumed by fire, together with all its contents, save a few tons of damaged hay; the loss cannot fall short of 5000 dollars, as a large quantity of the vegetable produce of the extensive farm belonging to that establishment was stored therein, together with horse gears, and a variety of agricultural implements. It was not insured. The fire originated from the torch of a midnight incendiary, as yet undiscovered, but who, it is hoped, will be ferreted out, and meet a just punishment.-1834.

INCENDIARISM.

ANOTHER attempt was made, on Tuesday evening, to set fire to the premises of Mr. Cunningham in Baltimore. It is the fifth. The Mayor has offered a reward of one hundred dollars for the detection of the villains. A white man and a mulatto boy have been arrested by the police, on suspicion of being concerned.

We learn from the National Intelligencer, that a verdict was rendered on Friday, by the jury, in the case of Richard H. White, indicted for burning the Treasury, in March, 1833. The jury affirm that he was guilty of the act, but is saved from its penalty by the limitation of the law, as to the time within which the accused was brought to trial. The case, however, is not finally disposed of.

THE BURNING OF NEW YORK A GOOD THING.

From the New York Star.

THE Stores on the burnt district are now fast being completed, and the merchants are rapidly returning to their old stands. It is easy to see already that this rebuilt section of the city will surpass in convenience and beauty what it ever could have become, but for the great conflagration. Indeed there is no city in the world which can boast a mass of six hundred such stores. Providence has so ordered events, that what seemed at first an overwhelming calamity will, perhaps, be compensated by ultimate effects, and rather turn out for the greater prosperity of the city. At any rate those who have stores to let will never be backward to say, that they are situated in the "burnt district."

From a New York Paper.

THREE fires took place in New York on Saturday night, supposed to be the work of incendiaries. The biscuit manufactory of Mr. Treadwell, at the corner of Washington and Warren Streets, the largest establishment of the kind in the United States, was destroyed; and soon after the stables of the New York and Flushing Stage Company. Mr. Treadwell was fully insured. The third fire broke out in the Third Avenue, but was soon extinguished.

From the Richmond Enquirer.

We understand that 2000 dollars have been collected in this city, under committees appointed by the Common Hall, for the relief of the sufferers by the fire in Charleston. Mr. Macfarland, the president of the Farmer's Bank, has duly transmitted it to Charleston. Petersburg has deposited, in the Bank of Virginia, to the credit of the Mayor [of Charleston, 1460 dollars for the relief of the Charleston sufferers. The Intelligencer says, the sum deposited may be increased, as the collection has not yet closed.

Five thousand dollars have been transmitted by the merchants of Boston-and about 15,000 from New York. It is estimated that at least 100,000 dollars will be contributed on the whole, throughout the United States.

From the New York Commercial.

Now let as look at the difference.-The ravages of the great conflagration in New York, two and a half years ago, were four times as great as in Charleston. The charity committee of New York, raised on that occasion, put forth a strong appeal to the people of the United States

for assistance. And how was it responded to? The contributions, exclusive of those made in New York itself, were less than fifteen thousand dollars! We trust that the contrast presented by these facts will convince the South how widely they err in talking of the hostility of the North.

ANOTHER FIRE.

From the Baltimore Republican.

WITHIN a week, Baltimore has suffered severely from fires. Two extensive conflagrations occurred on Friday, accounts of which are subjoined.

Yesterday morning, about eleven o'clock, a fire broke out in the dome of the court-house in this city, which in a few minutes enveloped it in flames, which communicated to the rafters. In a short time the fire communicated to the rooms below, and the rafters being consumed, the whole roof, which was composed of slate, fell in. The second story, containing the county court-room, the offices of the commissioners of insolvent debtors, the county commissioners, the grand jury-room, the office of the clerk of the city records, and other offices, was entirely destroyed. The books and papers belonging to the offices were generally saved. It is apprehended that some of those belonging to the office of the county commissioners are destroyed.

At the western end of the building, in which, on the lower floor, the record offices of the clerk and register are located, the progress of the fire was arrested, and the important depositaries of the city and county records are preserved. The progress of the fire generally was arrested in time to save the whole of the lower story, containing the offices already named, the city court-room and the sheriff's office.

It is supposed to have been the work of an incendiary; the dome of the jury-room, from which the steps to the dome lead, having been left open for a day or two. The presumption is, that the incendiary expected that the confusion which must ensue would enable a number of prisoners who were waiting their trial to effect their escape amid the crowd.

It was a splendid building, and one of the principal ornaments of the city; the cost of which was between two and three hundred thousand dollars, and cannot, perhaps, be properly repaired for less than fifty thousand.

INCENDIARY ATTEMPTS IN BOSTON.
From the Gazette.

On Saturday night there were no less than three alarms of fire; the two first of which, occurring as they did within half an hour, and but a short distance from each other, were probably set on fire by the same gang of villains, if not by the very same individuals.

As Mr. Dalton, a member of engine No. 7, was returning home after the second alarm, he discovered fire in the church in Essex-street, and immediately proceeded to call up the sexton, who resides in the neighbourhood. On going into the church, it was found that some villain or villains had set it on fire in two places, by taking coals from the

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