The public charities are administered by a board of 7 members appointed by the gov ernor, and a general agent and secretary, from whose report for 1880 is drawn the fol lowing summary of particulars. The state institutions are the eastern, western, and middle penitentiaries, 5 instoto hospitals, a reform school, and the anthracite hospital. Institutions not under state control, for the support and care of the defective and delin quent classes, in which state aid is extended to the indigent class, number 50. Similar institutions, supported by endowments and private charity, receiving occasional Awe aid, 58. Besides the penitentiaries, the state contains 07 county jails, a work-house, and a house of correction for the confinement of prisoners. It numbers also 60 almshouses, of which 33 are county and 27 district institutions. There were expended in 1880 for penitentiaries $536,056.31; for the insane, etc., $853,429.10; for the deaf and dumb, $171,782.74; !or tile blind, $106.5S3.74; house of refuge, $176,098,75; reform school, $278,949.87; township poor, $205,032.31; county prisons, etc., $636,437.99; almshouses; $1,272,023.42; out door relief, $243,907.32; two hospital commissions, $637,248.03. The criminal population throughout the state was on Sept. 30, 1880, 4,623; 3 persons had been executed; the number of convicts in penitentiaries, 1728; in county prisons and work-houses, 974 31 held for payment of fines, 1250 on sununary conviction, and 630 for trial. The total number of 'inmates in the reformatories was 826. The unfortu nate classes embraced of insane, eta., 5,833, deaf and dumb, 504; blind, 444. The paupers and indigent classes numbered 8,741. The vagrants relieved numbered 25,325, showing a decrease of 71.54 per cent on the previous year; vagrants lodged, 30,772, a decrease of 63.37 per cent on 1879; number of meals furnished vagrants, 61,941, a decrease of 69.35 on 1879; they were given to 25,325 vagrants. The total of the defective classes, after certain corrections, embraces 5,493 insane and idiotic, 492 deaf and dumb, 442 blind, and 8,741 paupers and indigent.
The state maintains the agricultural college in Centre co., endowed with $500,000, and a farm of 400 acres, with a staff of 10 instructors, and 150 pupils. In 1870 the col leges in the state (exclusive of Philadelphia) were 21, with 252 professors, 1763 students, and a total of 3,204 pupils in all departments. There were also, in 1874, 13 theological schools, with 67 professors. and 416 students. The libraries are 14,849, with 6,377,845 vol umes. The newspapers and periodicals published in the state numbered 540, representing a circulation of 3,419,765, and an annual issue of 241,170,540 cqies. The total number of religions organizations, in 1870, was 3,934, owning 5,663 edifices, with 2,232,288 sit tings, valued at $52,758,384.
first visitor of Delaware bay was capt. Henry Hudson in 1609; lord de la Warr, !towever, in honor of whom the bay and river are named, accidentally dis covered its mouth in 1610. The Dutch, in 1623, took possession of the whole territory between the South river (Delaware) and the North river (Hudson), and held it until 1664, when New Netherlands was conquered by the English; recovered by the Dutch in 1672, it reverted to British rule in 1674. The first European settlement was fort Nassau, near Gloucester, in New Jersey. Fort Oplandt was built near Lewistown, Delaware. The first Dutch settlers were murdered by the Indians. The Swedes, who followed in 1638, and settled on the w. bank of the Delaware, were more successful, but their success involved them in trouble with the Dutch, to whom they finally succumbed. In 1681 a charter for the territory 12 In. n. of New Castle to 43° n.e., bounded e. by the Delaware river, and to extend w. 5' in long. to the same degree of lat., was granted to William Penn, who landed at New Castle Oct. 27, 1682, and founded Philadelphia. His advent was very auspicious; his humane treatment of the Indians and the colonists caused the new colony to flourish. In 1684 there were already upwards of 300 houses in Philadel phia, with a population of 2,500, and of 7,000 in the province and territory. Penn was temporarily deprived of his possessions under William and Mary, and did not revisit the province until 1699. He returned to England in 1701, and died there in 1718. His widow administered the government for a while, but it passed to his children and their descendants, and the proprietory government continued until the revolution in 1776; the affairs of Delaware (called the lower counties) after 1699 were administered by a sep arate legislature under the governors of Pennsylvania. In 1755-56 the province was desolated by Indian massacres; similar outrages occurred in 1763, notoriously the massacre of settlers in the Wyoming valley by Indians, and that of the Conestoga Inlians in Lan e aster co. by the Paxton boys. The botzndary difficulties between Pennsylvania and Maryland were settled by the survey of Mason and Dixon, begun in the same year and called in 1767. The development of Pennsylvania during the first century of its exist ence may be seen by the settlement of more than 12 counties. and the founding of Phil :H••lphia irn 16S2; Lancaster. 1729; York, 1741; Beading, 1747; and Carlisle in 1750. A newspaper, the Amer can Weekly Mercury, was published in Philadelphia in 1719; in 1756 stage coaches were established from Philadelphia to New York and Baltimore, and in 1757 the postal service was extended to Carlisle. The first continental congress met
in Philadelphia Sept. 5,1774. Pennsylvania was foremost in resisting British encroach ments, and led in all the momentous events of the revolution: independence was pro claimed on her soil, 1770. The battle of Germantown took place Oct. 4, 1777. Wash ington went to Valley Forge in December of that year. March 1, 1780, slavery was abolished. The state government was organized in 1776. The convention, of which Benjamin Franklin was president, signed the state constitution Sept. 28,1776. In 1 790 a new constitution, of a more democratic was adopted, which has since undergone repeated alterations. The constitution, as amended in 1808, vests the legislative power in a general assembly, consisting of a senate and house of representatives; the latter, apportioned 'to the number of taxables, are elected annually, and limited to 100; the former are elected for three years, one-third annually; their number must not be less than one-fourth or more their one third of the number of representatives, The legis lature meets annually on the first Tuesday in January. The governor,, elected on the second Tuesday of October for three years from the third Tuesday of January following, is ineligible for the same office more than twice in 9 years. The right of voting is restricted to free-born 21 years of age. The county officers are elected by the people. Art amendment of the constitution, adopted in 1850, makes the judiciary elect ive, and limits the term of office to 10 and 15 years. Under the provision for amend ments to the constitution, in 1864, the right of suffrage was granted to citizens absent in the military service of the state. Au amended constitution adopted in 1873, by a popular vote of 253,744 against 108,594, and went into force Jan. 1, 1874. It limits the senate to 50 members chosen for 4 years, and the house to 200 member:e chosen for 2 years. The sessions are held biennially; annual adjoined sessions are not allowed. The governor is empowered to convene extra sessions for urgent business, and required to do so in case of a vacancy in the office of a U. S. senator occurring during the recess. The executive department consists of a governor, a lieut.governor, who is likewise president of the senate, and a secretary of internal affairs-all elected for 4 years-an auditor-general, elected for 3 years. and a treasurer, elected for 2 years; an attorney-general, a secretary of the commonwealth, and a superintendent of public instruction, appointed by the governor, with th2 consent of two thirds of the senators, for 4 years. The governor is ineligible for two successive terms; he is empowered to commute sentences and grant pardons iu their clearly defined limits, and vested, besides the ordinary veto powers, with the prerogative of a partial veto on appropriation bills. 'Ile official acts of the governor are recorded by the secretary of the commonwealth. The department of the secretary of internal affairs embraces a bureau of industrial statistics,' and maintains the supervision of corporations, charitable institutions, the agricultural. mining, mineral, timber, and other interests of the state. He must report annually to tire general assembly. Tire judiciary embraces a supreme court, consisting of 7 judges, elected by the people for 21 years, ineligible for re-election, with the judge having the shortest 'term of office as chief-justice; the court holds annual sessions at Philadelphia, Harrisburg, Sunbury, and Pittsburg; courts of common pleas, of over and terminer and general jail delivery, of quarter sessions of the peace, magistrates' and orphans' courts. judges of the supreme court, and those of the common pleas, are justices of over and :ermine]. and genera] jail delivery in the respective counties; the latter discharge also the functions of judge of quarter sessions of tire peace and of orphans' courts in districts where special provision for them has not been made. Criminal matters of the respective districts belong likewise to their cognizance. There are 43 judicial districts in the state, in each of which the people elect one or more common pleas' judges for 10 years. See PHILADELPHIA. The state contains likewise two districts for holding U. S. courts; for the eastern district they are held in Philadelphia; for the western at Pittsburg, Williams and Erie. The right of suffrage is enjoyed by male citizens not tinder 21 years of age, who must have been citizens of the United States at least one month, residents of the state one year, and of the election district two months before the election; citizens more than 22 years old must have paid within two years a state or county tax, assessed at least two months and paid at least: one month 13.4cre the election. Naturalized citizens must have been naturalized at least one month before tire electron. The general election is held annually on the Tuesday next following the first Monday in November. Penn sylvania sends to congress 2 senators, and 27 representatives, and has 29 votes in the electoral college. .The total vote of the state for president wits in 1860, 476,436; in 1864. 572,707; in 1868, 655,662; in 1872, 561.650; in 1876, 750,352; in 1880. 874,783.