has it in her power to furnish the traders of the west, with better assortments of goods, and those at more reduced prices, than can yet be afforded by Baltimore. But Baltimore is not a rival to be despised; though young, she is public spirited; her citizens are acute and enterprising; when excited they are full of fire, and though that fire has sometimes kindled a conflagration in her own bosom, it must be irresistible when properly directed. If the Pennsylvanians, therefore, neglect to cherish the trade which has poured millions of dollars into the state, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh will be forsaken; Baltimore will become the mart, and Wheeling the place of deposite. The situation of this place is pretty enough, except that the hill, at the foot of which the town is built, is so near to the river, as to leave scarcely room for the houses. They are, however, beginning to build on a flat a little lower down. An eminence back of the Town, over which the turnpike passes, affords one of the most beautiful prospects imaginable. The place is quite healthy; the inhabitants are respectable and correct in their deportment, and the society good.

It is perhaps not a matter of great importance to the Western people, whether they purchase their goods at Philadelphia, or at Baltimore, or whether they transport them by way of Pittsburgh, or of Wheeling. Time will decide these rival claims; the western merchant will make his purchases where he can do it to most advantage, and will transport his goods by the cheapest and most expeditious route. The establishment of steam boats, has carried much of this trade to New Orleans; but how far this latter place will ultimately interfere with the eastern cities, I must examine hereafter.

But there are other points of view, in which this question is highly interesting. By the controversy which I have alluded to, together with the writings of Govenor Clinton of New York, and Mr. William J. Duane of Philadelphia, it appears that the spirit of improvement is awakened in various sections of our country, and that men distinguished by their popularity, abilities, and official rank, conceive it worthy of their notice. It seems also that the rising greatness of the Western Country is not unnoticed, nor the value of her commerce unregarded.

It shows further that she has more than one outlet for her produce. Mr. Cobbett, in his letters to Mr. Birkbeck, inquires, “in case of a war with England what would become of your market

down the Mississippi? That is your sole market. That way your produce must go ; or you must dress yourselves in skins, and tear your food to bits with you hands "On this side of the mountains, there are twelve hundred miles of coast to blockade; but you, gentleman prairie owners, are like the rat that has but one hole to go out and come in at." To observations of this kind, evincing a deplorable ignorance of the country, and its resources, it is easy to answer. In the first place, we doubt whether England will ever again have it in her power, to blockade an American port, But leaving that point to be settled by our gallant navy, or even admitting Mr. Cobbett's premises, I then say, that if we cannot descend the Mississippi, we can ascend the Ohio. We now have a road from Wheeling to Baltimore, another from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia, and a communication will soon be opened, from the sources of the Ohio, to lake Erie. Large Steam boats have already ascended the river as far as Pittsburgh, in high water; but in the event alluded to, our streams would be covered by lighter vessels, propelled by steam, which would bid defiance to every obstacle, except the low water in dry seasons, and in that particular we should not be worse off than at present. The country, also presents ample means, for opening other channels of trade. The state of Ohio, part of which borders on lake Erie, will be intersected with roads and canals, as soon as the people of New York shall have completed their great work. The Illinois, or the Wabash river, will be connected with lake Michigan, and thus the people of Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, and the lower parts of Kentucky, will have water transportation to the city of New York.

It is a well known fact, that large quantities of peltry, brought to St. Louis, by the Mississippi and Missouri traders, have been carried to Philadelphia by way of Pittsburgh; and that the saltpetre, tobacco, and hempen yarn, of Kentucky, have been taken to the same market, by the same route. Even yet a large portion of the bacon and venison hams of Kentucky, are sold at Pittsburgh. Lately, to be sure, the introduction of steam boats, has carried much of this produce down the river; but if, when the Mississippi was open, any portion of the produce of the west has been transported up the Ohio, what would be done if the navigation of the former was closed? Is not the inference plain, that if produce could be shipped up the Ohio with advantage, when the Mississippi was open, there could be no great hardship in forcing it into the same channel, when that river should be closed?

As I have spoken of the public spirit of Pennsylvania, and particularly of her two principal cities, allow me to explain. myself on that subject. I am far from wishing to derogate from the honour of my native state. The merchants and gentlemen of Philadelphia, are liberal and high minded men; but they are in the habit of attending more to their own, and less to public business, than the same class of society in almost any other part of the United States. They have a regular routine of avocation, which they seldom allow to be broken in upon, by affairs which are not of immediate interest. Consequently they are less intimately acquainted with the character and resources of their own state, than the gentlemen of cther cities; and much less so than could be expected in men so well educated, and so enlightened on other subjects. Many of the most intelligent persons in Philadelphia, are utterly ignorant of the geography, population, improvements, and productions, of the interior and western parts of the State. Men who can converse learnedly of the classics, and tastefully of the fine arts, who are intimately acquainted with European history, politics and manners, and who scrutinize with critical acuteness the measures of the Federal government, glance with careless unenquiring eyes, at the lofty mountains, and fertile vallies within the bounds of their own Commonwealth. They of course feel little interest, in a subject upon which they think so little.

The state of politics, too, in Pennsylvania, has had much weight in preventing the growth of public spirit. Party spirit has raged in that devoted land with ungovernable fury; the bitterness of contention has been permitted to overstep its proper bounds; the gall of political enmity has been infused into the cup of social intercourse; and the interests of the state, have too often been forgotten, in the tumult of schemes to raise or to defeat a party, to prostrate or to exalt an individual. These contests have been distinguished by a virulence hardly known elsewhere, and a scurrilous personality which could no where else be tolerated. Men of feeling and modesty shrink from such conflicts; however willing they might be to bare their breasts in honourable war, they covet not the invidious honour, of exposing their reputations as targets for the archery of faction. No men would be more apt to stand aloof on such occasions than the Philadelphians, reared as they are, in the practice of temperance, and in habits of chaste methodical reflection. The consequence is, that the state is deVOL. XII.

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prived of the use of much of the talent, which she certainly pos. sesses. Do not understand me as making any comparison, in point of ability, between the dominant party, and the minority. My position is simply this,-that where party spirit is carried to such excess as to alienate friends, and distract society, so that one portion looks with jaundiced eye upon the other, the arm of government must be paralized, and the impulses of patriotism benumbed. The man who possesses the genius to devise, or the wealth to execute, will not co-operate with him whose popularity enables him to gain the voice of the people, or the sanction of the executive. When, therefore, a work, however noble, which is proposed by one party, is sure to be denounced by the other, men of talent retire from the disgusting controversy, and the wealthy refuse to risk their gold, in uncertain and contested schemes. When, in addition to all this, it is observed how much of the legislative time is occupied in the impeachment of officers, and the discussion of party questions, it will be seen that Pennsylvania has enough to do, to manage the wheels of government, which carrying too much steam, require the attention of all hands to prevent accidents. Yet, when, in spite of all these causes, we observe what Pennsylvania has accomplished-when we see the fine bridges over the Schuylkill, the Susquehanna, the Allegheny, and the Monongahela-the noble turnpike roads in the eastern part of the state the splendid public buildings in Philadelphia-her charitable institutions, and her literary monuments,-we cannot but acknowledge that she has the spirit, nor refrain from deploring the existence, of those counteracting causes, which keep that spirit dormant.

[The preceding letters from the pen of one of our former correspondents, were originally intended for a Western Newspaper in which a few of them appeared, but the writer having enlarged his design, determined, at our request, to publish the Series in the Port Folio. He has desired us to state that they are written under the pressure of ill health and much business: he therefore claims a candid jndgment.]

FOR THE PORT FOLIO.

[ED. P. F.]

ART. VII-History of the Reformation. Being an abridgement of Burnet's History. By the Rev. Benjamin Allen, Rector of the parish of St. Andrews, Virginia. p. p. 297.

THE writer of this work has given us an abstract of the Reformation, in a very compass; and it is to be regretted, that

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in a portion of history so deeply interesting, his plan did necessarily restrict him to a mere outline. A multitude of events, transacting simultaneously in several countries--the conduct, and the motives of the chief actors, their alternate success and disappointment; require folios to detail them.

But if these are neither within the means, nor adapted to the taste of many readers-shall we therefore remain in ignorance of the privileges we enjoy of being taught the pure precepts of the Gospel, and the liberty of worshipping God, according to the dictates of our own consciences? To appreciate these, we should contemplate the deplorable darkness that once involved the christian church-the perils, and the labours of those undaunted men who said to her, "Arise, for thy light is come," and that wonderful providence, which supported them in their opposition to Princes and Powers, to wealth and superstition! Let us contrast our own times, when every one may peaceably enquire, and unmolested pursue the way, which even his own fancy has traced out-when the Bible is not only open to all, but all are solicited to know its contents-with the gloomy period when the will of an earthly potentate, was alone the Oracle, and when the Bible was prohibited by the severest penalties! Indeed the history of the Reformation is to us a Romance. We cannot realize the excess of barbarism which compelled men to pray in a language, not one word of which they understood-or the heartless cruelty which brought the meek and beautiful Jane Grey to an ignominious death, and such men as Cranmer and Ridley with thousands of their disciples to the stake! If we reflect on these things we cannot lightly esteem the "pleasant places" which have fallen to us.

Mr. Allen has given these considerations their due weight. He has judged wisely that we had better know something than nothing. He has therefore condensed the leading features of these scenes of blood and horror into a volume of such a size and price as might conduce to a general circulation. Enough is given to shew the progress of the Reformation amidst the fluctuating spirit of uninstructed zeal.

A sketch of the lives of Luther, Calvin and Zuingle, are appended to the history of the Reformation. Germany, the birthplace of Luther, became the cradle of the Reformation by his bold and persevering devotion to the Holy cause. Many of the princes of that empire became his converts and supported him against the