The Expeditions of George Rogers Clark.-Reply of Samuel Evans to William Wirt Henry.-Mr. Henry, in his reply to the comments I made upon his assumptions with regard to Pennsylvania, does not fully meet the point I raised. He said, "the troops were altogether Virginians, | and mostly from the County of West Augusta, east of the Ohio River;" and further on he remarks that "there is good reason to believe that not a single man came from Southwest Pennsylvania. The disputed territory near Pittsburg being the only place from whence recruits could have been obtained who were Pennsylvanians."

I merely cited the manner and the locality where General Clark procured volunteers for his expedition in 1781-only two years after his first expedition-to show that there were a good many Pennsylvanians in what was then claimed to be West Augusta County, and many miles south of Pittsburg. Besides, these settlers were mostly Scotch-Irish, who were ever ready to embark in any dangerous enterprise which promised novel adventures. And it is fair to presume that General Clark knew what kind or manner of men they were, before he went among them in 1781. When the names of the two hundred are published, the reader can better judge as to whether any of them were Pennsylvanians.

There is another fact I wish to state in relation to Southwest Pennsylvania, that gives the date of the settlements in that locality, and also the title to the lands about Pittsburg. In November, 1768, there assembled at Fort Stanwix, New York, a Congress of Indians, to which representatives were sent from Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and other Provinces. This was one of the largest and most important assemblages of Indians ever held in this country. They deeded to Pennsylvania a tract of land running from the northeast corner to the southwest corner of the Province, which included Pittsburg and country adjacent thereto, for which the Proprietors of Pennsylvania paid them £10,000. Immediately after this, that country was thrown open for settlement.

The first families to cross the mountains and take up their abode in that new country, were Scotch-Irish from Lancaster, York, and Cumberland Counties, in this Province. Such men as Rev. John McMillan, Rev. Joseph Smith, Rev. James Powers, Rev. C. C. Beatty, Rev. Mr. Finley, Rev. Mr. Dodd, and Dunlap, preached in Southwestern Pennsylvania before General Clark started upon his expedition These pioneers of Presbyterianism in Western Pennsylvania all had a following, not large in numbers in any one locality, but combined they numbered some hundreds.

Now as to the question of disputed boundary, and as to whether Virginia was always "neighborly or honorable with the subjects of this State."

Mason and Dixon's line in 1767 was extended from the Delaware River at the mouth of Christiana Creek due west to a point where Dunkard Creek crosses their line, which was two hundred and thirty miles distant from the Delaware River. Were a line produced, extending at right angles from this point until it intersects the Ohio River, Pittsburg would still be within the limits of Pennsylvania, without any question.

The dispute between the two States was a source of uneasiness throughout the entire colonies, as it tended to distract and cripple their resources in the struggle against the

mother country. It was the subject of discussion in Congress, and resolutions were passed recommending the two States not to foster the dispute between them, but to keep it in abeyance until the matter could be adjusted amicably. In accordance with the above, Pennsylvania first made a proposition to Virginia to appoint commissioners to adjust the boundary, which were acceded to on the part of Virginia; and on the 31st day of August, 1779, George Bryan, John Ewing, and David Rittenhouse, on the part of Pennsylvania, and James Madison and Robert Andrews on the part of Virginia, commissioners, met and agreed to extend Mason and Dixon's line due west five degrees of longitude, to be computed from the River Delaware, for the southern boundary of Pennsylvania. This agreement was not kept sacred by Virginians. They drove off settlers as far north as Fort Hand, in Westmoreland County.

On the 24th day of March, 1780, a committee of the General Assembly submitted the following address to the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania, which portrays in vivid colors the conduct of Virginians and their policy of greed, as well as the policy of Pennsylvania :

The Supreme Executive authority of the State, on the fifteenth day of December last, through the Delegates of this State, addressed the Honourable Congress of the United States on the unhappy dispute, subsisting between this State and Virginia.

The proceedure of Congress thereupon, breathed such a spirit of Wisdom, Moderation, and attention to the general interests, as well as the rights of the contending States, that we could not doubt it would have been received with that respect and acquiescence it so highly deserved Presuming fully upon this, it was communicated to the inhabitants of Pennsylvania, accompanied with the most decisive directions to yield a cheerfull and punctual compliance. Our proceedings herein, with your resolve, were transmitted to the Supreme Executive authority of Virginia, and also, to those who under their authority were oppressing and harrassing the innocent and unfortunate settlers of Pennsylvania. But this event has demonstrated how vain & delusive are those hopes which are founded on the justice or moderation of the State of Virginia. We are authorized to declare, that your resolution has been treated with a disregard bordering upon contempt; that our friendly expostulations on the impolicy & cruelty of their proceedings, have met with the like fate; and we now find ourselves reduced to the sad alternative of seeing a number of honest, industrious settlers, who have peaceably purchased, cultivated, and enjoyed their lands for many years, under Titles of this State, now dispossessed and ruined, or enter into a contest, which to us is dreadfull in contemplation. The Genious and temper of the people of this State has naturally led them, on all occasions, to prefer accommodation to hostility, and even to seek the path of peace with an earnestness which ungenerous minds may have mistaken for timidity or weakness. For proofs of this disposition, we may safely appeal to the Records of Virginia, to Congress, and to the whole World. While perpetual encroachment and aggressions have irritated and distressed the Inhabitants of this State, what people, State, or country, have we invaded, or insulted, or who has complained against us?

Our Centennial Matter.-In our May issue, we gave twenty-eight pages of CENTENNIAL EXPOSITION MEMORANDA, embracing a vast amount of information in reference not only to our great Exhibition, but to those of the past in France, England, and elsewhere, besides brief sketches of the leading edifices of our city identified with the Nation's birth. The article has met with such universal approval that we have determined to continue the subject in the same style, combining conciseness with completeness. In this number we accordingly give a Centennial Department, which will be found of real value long after the Exhibition has become itself a chapter of our Republic's history. Our series will make a full and reliable historical sketch of the Exhibition and correlative matters, and cannot fail to prove of permanent interest and value.

Crime in Official Circles.-In our May number, we introduced a subject which we deem of a degree of importance second to none which could be discussed in the United States at the present time-even the questions connected with our National Finances, and the highly important Tariff and Revenue questions, are scarce so important as these relating to the causes of and remedies for the apparent development of total depravity in our local, State, and national official circles. We have no sympathy with those reformers who, better than the delinquent and criminal officials only because they lack the opportunities and facilities to emulate them, seek to make party-capital out of the vices and evil-doings of their opponents, by an indiscriminate denunciation of the party with which the respective culprits may be identified, nor with those independent papers which seem to glory in their country's shame in so far as it supplies them with "sensational" matter to augment their profits by creating an increased demand for their newspaper. These shameless reformers and papers are not content to tell of authentic instances of official wickedness, but are constantly manufacturing out of the flimsiest materials, or creating without material, terrible tales of the vile doings of this one and that— utterly regardless of truth and of justice, and even of the fact that false accusations, even when their falsity is unquestionably shown, no less than actual instances of wrong-doing, serve to bring reproach upon our country and her institutions. We have said, in the May MONTHLY, that the apparently growing disregard of honor, honesty, and integrity in our official circles, has its source in the people, and that the people are directly chargeable with the responsibility. We expect to demonstrate this in more ways than one, but shall be content in this issue to notice most briefly but one of the popular errors, mistakes, or faults (we care not which epithet is accepted as most aptly comprehending the evil), which underlies the entire system of our selection of local, State, and National officers, and which, in itself, is a fruitful source of corruption-we mean the universal and undeviating habit of selecting every officer, from "constable," or "overseer of

the poor," up to President of the United States, simply on the ground of the party affiliations of the aspirant. Our people are, with very few exceptions, distinctly identified with one or other of the great political parties, and they seldom forget the fact, or ignore it, even in the selection of persons to fill offices wherein political opinions or political preferences can have no legitimate weight or significance.

In our Ward or Township there is a constable to be elected, and there are the usual number of aspirants; the respective political parties select each one, whose chief if not sole recommendation is that he is a Republican or a Democrat, as the case may be, and it matters not whether one be a worthy man and the other a scamp, the party which usually controls the Ward or Township elects its man as a simple matter of course-if both "regular candidates" be scamps, no third man, however well-fitted for the post, has any encouragement to contest the field, for he will not only contest it in vain, he will secure the implacable hostility of the partisans of both parties, and ever after be a marked

man.

In City or County, in State and Nation, the same party test is inexorably applied. Not only must every man elected to any position whatever, stand the party test, regardless of all other considerations, but, if he be required to appoint a subordinate, in the capacity of clerk or even messenger or porter, he dare not ignore, but must in turn apply the same test. "To the victors belong the spoils," was the dictum of Andrew Jackson, and in this every American politician is a Jacksonian. Let the Postmaster of New York, Philadelphia Boston, or Baltimore, or the Collector of any one of our Ports, disregard this wicked corruption-breeding dogma, in the selection of the humblest of his appointees, and how long a time will elapse before he will give place to a less manly, if not less honest, successor?

We have lately witnessed a painful illustration of the worst aspect of ultra party feeling, and a shameful illustration of the fact that mere partisan politicians of opposing parties will combine to strike down any honest man who will not stand the most rigid application of the party test. Richard H. Dana was and is a Republican, but he had the noble courage to oppose Benjamin F. Butler on one occasion, a distinguished honor which entitled him to the admiration of every true man in the country, and should have commanded the respect even of the United States Senate. President Grant evinced his appreciation of the worth of Mr. Dana, by appointing him to a position of suitable eminence; but the petty partisans of both parties in the United States Senate united in refusing to confirm the appointment.

Now, will any one dispute our position, when we assert that this extreme party system in the selection of our officials is largely the source and cause of official corruption, and that the people are directly responsible for the system?

But we shall have more to say on this theme; our space will not permit more in this number.

The Old Time; a Monthly Publication, devoted to the Preservation of Documents and other Authentic Information in relation to the early Explorations and Settlement and Improvement of the Country around the Head of the Ohio. Edited by NEVILE B. CRAIG, Esq. Cincinnati : Robert Clarke & Co.

This invaluable publication, originally issued in 1846 and 1849, as a monthly magazine of Western History, has long been out of print and has been among the rarest and most valued of American works, readily selling for a very high price whenever a copy chanced to be offered for sale. Messrs. Robert Clarke & Co., in its republication in two handsome volumes, demand the heartiest thanks of American readers and students and should find no difficulty in selling the entire edition at the moderate price at which they have placed the work; there is no house in the country which has done and is doing more than this right-spirited house for the encouragement, fostering, and development of a correct American sentiment by placing the best of American reading matter within the reach of the masses. Of Mr. Craig or of this work, it would be really superfluous for us to speak-his peculiar fitness as a careful and exact historian for the editing of such a publication, and the special worth and great value of "The Olden Time," are well-known to our readers. We can truthfully add the single remark that we regard these two volumes as an important addition to our library.

The Official Guide to Philadelphia; a New Hand book for Strangers and Citizens. By THOMPSON WESTCOTT, author of "A History of Philadelphia," "Life of John Fitch," etc. etc. With a History of the City, a large Map of the City, showing all the Routes of the Passenger Railways, a new Map of Fairmount Park, etc. Illustrated with nearly One Hundred Engravings. Philadelphia: Porter & Coates.

Philadelphians do not require to be told, but some of the strangers coming here during the Centennial months may, that the author of this work is undoubtedly the highest and best authority in all matters connected with this city's past and present. So well and favorably is Mr. Westcott known as a perfect cyclopædia vitalis of the local histories and traditions of every edifice, lot or piece of ground, every nook and and cranny of and near Philadelphia, that he can require no man or official's endorsement of any history of, or guide to, Philadelphia to which his name may be attached as author or authority. Hence, the obtaining and publishing of Mayor

Stokley's approval of this “Guide” seems positively absundwhatever may be the worthy Mayor's merits or demerits, Fa historical erudition we have never heard of under s.ber head, and the only instance in which we recollect his berg cited as an authority was in support of General Muhlenbergs right to be honored as a “Signer." However, the May is perfectly correct in declaring of this "Guide," that "It's a thorough, complete and practical Guide Book to our City It is all of that, and every citizen as well as every visit should have a copy.

A Century After: Picturesque Glimpses of Philadepha and Pennsylvania, including Fairmount, the Wisaks and other Romantic Localities, with the Cities and Loxt scapes of the State: A Pictorial Representation of Scener Architecture, Life, Manners and Character. Edited EDWARD STRAHAN. Illustrated with Engraving h Lauderbach, from Designs by Thomas Moran, F. 0 C. Darley, J. D. Woodward, James Hamilton, F. B. S. E. B. Bensell, W. L. Sheppard, and other eminent art te Philadelphia: Allen, Lane & Scott, and J. W. Lew derbach, 233 South Fifth Street.

This superb serial has reached "Part Fourteen," " "Part Fifteen" will complete it-and a critical cross-examnation of the entire fourteen parts confirms our high estire te more than once or twice expressed of its marvelous exte lence-it is throughout one of the finest illustrations of the high state of perfection the art of wood engraving, trography and printing have attained in this country with1a t'e Century. Twelve, Thirteen and Fourteen are fully as hand some as any we have noticed. The illustrations in these, except toward the close of Fourteen, afford some of the m "picturesque glimpses" of the State away from the city; at the last the Editor and Artist get back to Fairmount Park, reads a prepare the Centennial Exposition Part with its fifteen virks which will doubtless be the very handsomest set of Centra nial pictures—but we shall tell all about them in due time

The statue of Dr. Livingstone, which is to be erected in Edinburgh, has just been cast at Chelsea, England. It repre sents Dr. Livingstone as standing, with a Bible in one hand and an axe in the other.

It is announced that a young French artist, named De Val, has arrived here to make sketches of Centennial pat ings, which are to be engraved.

and are now so deservedly prosperous that they will doubtless endure for ages. The Philadelphia Library was established in 1731 by Benjamin Franklin, assisted by Thomas Cadwalader, Thomas Hopkinson, and a few others, and now, after the lapse of nearly a century and a half, it is one of the most valued and valuable of the institutions of our grand old city. The building, on Fifth street south of Chestnut street, shown in our engraving, was built in 1789-90 and

The Centennial City. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN can never be forgotten in Philadel phia, while four such honorable and honored monuments of his vigorous mind and beneficent public spirit survive as the Philadelphia Library, the American Philosophical Society, the Pennsylvania Hospital and the University of Pennsylvania-the first two owe their origin to him, while those who originated the second two could scarcely have consummated their plans without his active, energetic coöperation he was directly the founder of the former and really, though less directly, of the latter. These glorious monuments of the great Franklin have weathered the blasts and triumphed over

the changes and chances
of more than a century,

THE PHILADELPHIA LIBRARY.