volume ii.--HULME.

Nature has done her part; nothing is left wanting but machines to enable the people of Ohio to keep their flour at home, instead of exporting it, at their own expense to support those abroad who are industrious enough to send them back coats, knives, and cups, and saucers.

_July 23rd._--All day at Zanesville. Spent part of it very agreeably with Mr. Adams the post-master, and old Mr. Dillon who has a large iron foundery near this.

_July 24th._--Go with Mr. Dillon about 3 miles up the Creek, to see his mills and iron-factory establishment. He has here a very fine water-fall, of 18 feet, giving immense power, by which he works a {300} large iron-forge and foundery, and mills for sawing, grinding, and other purposes.

I will here subjoin a list of the prices at Zanesville, of provisions, stock, stores, labour, &c. just as I have it from a resident, whom I can rely upon.

Dls. Cts. Dls. Cts.

Flour (superfine) per barrel of 196 lb. from 5 0 to 5 75 Beef, per 100 lb 4 0 -- 4 25 Pork (prime), per 100 lb. 4 50 -- 5 0 Salt, per bushel of 50 lb 2 25 Potatoes, per bushel 0 25 -- 0 31½ Turnips, ditto 0 20 Wheat, ditto of 60 lb. to 66 lb 0 75 Indian corn, ditto shelled 0 33⅓ -- 0 50 Oats, ditto 0 25 -- 0 33⅓ Rye, ditto 0 50 Barley, ditto 0 75 Turkeys, of from 12 lb. to 20 lb. each 0 37½ -- 0 50 Fowls 0 12½ -- 0 18¾ Live Hogs, per 100 lb. live weight 3 0 -- 5 0 Cows, (the best) 18 0 -- 25 0 Yoke of Oxen, ditto 50 0 -- 75 0 Sheep 2 50 Hay, per ton, delivered 9 0 -- 10 0 Straw, fetch it and have it. Manure, ditto, ditto. Coals, per bushel, delivered 0 8 Butter, per lb. avoirdupois 0 12½ -- 0 18 Cheese, ditto, ditto 0 12½ -- 0 25 Loaf Sugar 0 50 Raw ditto 0 31¼ Domestic Raw ditto 0 18¾ Merino Wool, per lb. avoirdupois, washed 1 0 Three-quarter Merino ditto 0 75 Common Wool 0 50 Bricks, per 1000, delivered 6 0 -- 7 0 Lime, per bushel, ditto 0 18¾ {301} Sand, in abundance on the banks of the river. Glass is sold in boxes, containing 100 square feet; of the common size there are 180 panes in a box, when the price is 14 0 The price rises in proportion to the size of the panes. Oak planks, 1 inch thick, per 100 square feet, at the saw-mill 1 50 Poplar, the same. White Lead, per 100 lb. delivered 17 0 Red ditto 17 0 Litharge 15 0 Pig Lead 9 50 Swedish Iron (the best, in bars) 14 0 Juniatta, ditto, ditto 14 0 Mr. Dillon's, ditto, ditto 12 50 Castings at Mr. Dillon's Foundery per ton 120 0 Ditto, for machinery, ditto, per lb. 0 8 Potash, per ton 180 0 Pearl Ashes, ditto 200 0 Stone masons and bricklayers, per day, and board and lodging 1 50 Plasterers, by the square yard, they finding themselves in board and lodging and in lime, sand, laths and every thing they use. 0 18¾ Carpenters, by the day, who find themselves and bring their tools 1 25 Blacksmiths, by the month, found in board, lodging and tools 30 0 to 40 0 Millwrights, per day, finding themselves 1 50 -- 2 0 Tailors, per week, finding themselves and working 14 or 15 hours a day 7 0 -- 9 0 Shoemakers the same. {302} Glazier's charge for putting in each pane of glass 8 in. by 10 in. with their own putty and laying on the first coat of paint 0 4 to 0 5 Labourers, per annum, and found 100 0 -- 120 0 The charge of carriage for 100 lb. weight from Baltimore to Zanisville 10 0 Ditto for ditto by steam-boat from New Orleans to Shippingport, and thence, by boats, to Zanesville, about 6 50 Peaches, as fine as can grow, per bushel 0 12½ -- 0 25 Apples and pears proportionably cheaper; sometimes given away, in the country.

Prices are much about the same at Steubenville; if any difference, rather lower. If bought in a quantity, some of the articles enumerated might be had a good deal lower. Labour, no doubt, if a job of some length were offered, might be got somewhat cheaper here.

_July 25th._--Leave Zanesville for Pittsburgh, keeping to the United States road; stop at Cambridge, 25 miles. During the first eight miles we met 10 wagons, loaded with emigrants.

_July 26th._--Stop at Mr. Broadshaw's, a very good house on the road, 25 miles from Cambridge.[46] This general government road is by no means well laid out; it goes strait over the tops of the numerous little hills, up and down, up and down. It would have been a great deal nearer in point of time, if not in distance (though I think it would that, too), if a view had been had to the labour of travelling over these everlasting unevennesses.

[46] When in 1798 Zane's Trace was laid out from Wheeling to Zanesville, a ferry and tavern were established where the road crossed Wills Creek. Eight years later the town of Cambridge was planted. Among the early settlers were fifteen or twenty families from the Island of Guernsey, who happened to be travelling through the West in search of homes when the town lots were offered for sale.

Bradshaw's tavern was in the village of Fairview.--ED.

_July 27th._--To Wheeling in Virginia, 31 miles. They have had tremendous rains in these parts, we hear as we pass along, lately; one of the creeks we came over has overflown so as to carry down a man's house with himself and his whole family. A dreadful catastrophe, but, certainly, one not out of the man's {303} power to have foreseen and prevented; it surprises me that the people will stick up their houses so near the water's edge. Cross Wheeling Creek several times to-day; it is a rapid stream, and I hope it will not be long before it turns many water-wheels. See much good land, and some pretty good farming.

_July 28th._--Went with a Mr. Graham, a quaker of this place, who treated us in the most friendly and hospitable manner, to see the new national road from Washington city to this town.[47] It is covered with a very thick layer of nicely broken stones, or stone rather, laid on with great exactness both as to depth and width, and then rolled down with an iron roller, which reduces all to one solid mass. This is a road made for ever; not like the flint roads in England, rough, nor soft or dirty, like the gravel roads; but, smooth and hard. When a road is made in America it is _well_ made. An American always plots against labour, and, in this instance, he takes the most effectual course to circumvent it. Mr. Graham took us likewise to see the fine coal mines near this place and the beds of limestone and freestone, none of which I had time to examine as we passed Wheeling in our ark. All these treasures lie very convenient to the river. The coals are principally in one long ridge, about ten feet wide; much the same as they are at Pittsburgh, in point of quality and situation. They cost 3 cents per bushel to be got out from the mine. This price, as nearly as I can calculate, enables the American collier to earn upon an average, double the number of cents for the same labour that the collier in England can earn; so that, as the American collier can, upon an average, buy his flour for one third of the price that the English collier pays for his flour, he receives _six times the quantity of flour for the same labour_. Here is a country for the ingenious paupers of England to come to! They find food and materials, and nothing wanting but their mouths and hands to consume and work them. I should like to see the old toast of the Boroughmongers brought out again; when they were in the height of their impudence their myrmidons used to din in our ears, "Old England for ever, and those that do not {304} like her let them leave her." Let them renew this swaggering toast, and I would very willingly for my part, give another to the same effect for the United States of America. But, no, no! they know better now. They know that they would be taken at their word; and, like the tyrants of Egypt, having got their slaves fast, will (if they can) keep them so. Let them beware, lest something worse than the Red Sea overwhelm them. Like Pharaoh and his Boroughmongers they will not yield to the voice of the people, and, surely, something like, or worse than, their fate shall befall them!

[47] For an account of the National Road, see Harris's _Journal_,