including over £60,000,000 which have been made into bars of have been made into bars of fine gold and silver for commercial purposes. Most of this gold has been derived from Montana and Nova Scotia, the Georgia and California gold being coined at branch mints in those States. The base coins are made from Pennsylvania nickel and Minnesota copper. Fully 30,000 persons visit the Mint annually, and attendants lead them through the coiningrooms, explaining the processes and the powerful and delicate machinery. In the halls above is the largest and most remarkable collection of coins and medals in America, including all manner of ancient Persian, Greek, Roman, and Asiatic pieces, complete sets of modern coinages, and a rich line of precious ores and minerals.

The Young Men's Christian Association occupies a magnificent building near the centre of the city, and in it are chapels, reading-rooms, parlours, and other agencies to interest young men and bring them under good influences. The edifice is of Ohio sand-stone, trimmed with rose-crystal marble, in a modification of the Venetian-Gothic architecture; and the main front is 230 feet long, with a high tower rising from the centre. In the same neighbourhood stand spacious buildings of granite and marble, owned and occupied by the Presbyterian Board of Publication, the Baptist Publication House, and the American Sunday School Union. In this princely and practical fashion does a free church in a free state organise its perpetual campaigns, and establish its valorous garrisons.

The Pennsylvania Hospital occupies an entire square of valuable down-town land, with lawns and flowers and groves of tall trees, in whose centre stands a long line of quaint old buildings, some of which date back to 1755. The high brick walls which surround the square are replaced by an open-work iron fence in front of the main building, just long enough to give a view of the antiquated pilasters and cupolas, the singular dormer-windows, and the statue of William Penn, erected here by his grandson, John Penn. It is the most ancient public hospital in America, and has received more than a hundred thousand patients, half of whom were poor people. The Hospital for the Insane, accommodating 500 patients, occupies a park of 111 acres, in the western suburbs. The Protestant Episcopal Hospital is a large and splendid pile of modern buildings, of brown-stone, in Norman architecture, and adorned with numerous towers and spires. The first occupants of this fair charity were several hundred wounded soldiers, sent North from one of the battles of the Civil War. The Hospital of the University is a large and imposing structure of green serpentine, in a Gothic architecture which harmonises with the neighbouring academic buildings. Among other institutions of this kind are the Preston Retreat, a great marble building, with dome and wings, established by a wealthy Quaker as a lying-in hospital; the Insane Asylum of the Friends, at Frankford, a spacious group of buildings, in a handsome park; the Burd Orphan Asylum, a long line of stone edifices, in Gothic architecture, for young female orphans of the Episcopal fold; the Church Home for Children, a fine stone building at Angora; Christ Church Hospital, at Belmont, an elaborate architectural work in brown-stone, where a hundred indigent Episcopal women are sheltered; the State Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb, founded by a Jew, in 1820, and now covering a large area; and countless other well-housed and well-endowed charities, wherein the Roman Catholics, Jews, Presbyterians, and other sects vie with each other in exemplifying the chief of the three Christian graces.

On the Pennsylvania Hospital grounds stands the building of the Historical Society of the State, filled with curiosities of the colonial era, ancient armour and weapons, deeds of land from Queen Christina of Sweden and from the native chieftains, relies of the rural communities of German mystics, and many portraits of half-forgotten worthies, painted by Sully, Peale, Benjamin West, and other notable artists. The library contains 25,000 volumes and many MSS.; and the society continually publishes works relating to

the early history of the Commonwealth.

The Protestant Episcopal denomination has 95 churches in Philadelphia, and their value far exceeds that of any of the other sects. The most ancient is the Gloria Dei (or Old Swedes') Church, founded by the Swedish immigrants in 1698, on the site of a still older fortified church, which evangelised and overawed the adjacent Indian village of Wicaco. The first pastor was the Rev. Erie Biork; and his successors for nearly a century and a half were sent from Sweden, and held to the Lutheran doctrines. Collin, the last of this line, died in 1831, a little time after the Swedish services were abandoned; and the society soon afterwards joined the Anglican communion. It is a very quaint old building, of red and black bricks, with a singular little steeple, and ancient carved seraphim inside. On all sides extends a venerable graveyard, crowded with leaning and moss-grown monuments, and shaded by large trees. This is the burial-place of Alexander Wilson, the illustrious ornithologist. In the suburb of Kingsessing is St. James's Church, a curious bit of antique Pennsylvania architecture, dating from 1761. This also pertained to a Swedish Lutheran society, and became Episcopal when the language and traditions of the Scandinavians had died out among the descendants of the founders. The settlement here was established soon after 1640, and the Swedish annalist wrote thus of it: "This was no fort, but good strong log houses, built of good hard hickory, two stories high, which was a fort good and strong enough to secure them from the Indians. For what signifieth a fort when the people therein boast of the strength of the place, and do not crave for God's assistance? And there lived five freemen, who plough, sow, plant, and manure the land, and they lived very well there, for the governor had set them there."

C.IRIST CHURCH.

Christ Church, the parent of many Episcopalian parishes, was built in 1727, on the site of a predecessor dating from 1695; and became the State church of the governors and royal officers, and afterwards of Presidents Washington and Adams. Over the eastern window hung a large medallion of King George III., but the citizens compelled its removal, about the year 1783, and it is now in the vestry-room. The chime of bells in the tower came from London, in 1754; rang in the birthday of American freedom, in 1776; was hidden in the Lehigh Valley during the British occupation of Philadelphia; and

still rings to call the down-town communicants to service. The tower contains a rare old parish library; and from its summit one can overlook the Delaware, the great city, and the level plains of New Jersey. The communion service was presented to this church by Queen Anne, in 1708. In the crypts below are the tombs of John Penn, one of the early proprietaries of the Province; Bishop White, the second prelate of the American Church, who was consecrated at Lambeth Palace in 1787; Robert Morris, the famous patriot financier of the Revolutionary era; and other fathers of the Church and State. In the graveyard of the parish, surrounded by the ceaseless din of the great city, are the tombs of several distinguished officers of the army and navy, scholars and divines, and members of the memorable First Congress. Near the side-walk, the high stone wall is replaced, for a little way, with an open iron fence, through which

passers-by can see the grave of the greatest of American philosophers - Benjamin Franklin.

St. Peter's Church is a quaint old Episcopalian temple, preserving the strange high-back pews and other furnishings of the last century, and lifting up a merry chime of bells in its tower. It was built in 1758-61, as a chapel-of-ease for Christ Church, and Washington was for a time one of its communicants. A wide area of graves surrounds this venerable edifice, among which is the tomb of Commodore Decatur, whom his admiring countrymen called "The Bayard of the Seas." Not far distant is the Episcopal Church of St. Paul, dating from 1761, and entombing the remains of Edwin Forrest, the celebrated American tragedian, Macready's determined and unyielding rival. Trinity Church, in the northern suburbs, was established in 1698, and the building in which its congregation now worships (according to the Anglican ritual) dates from 1712. For many years this parish was ministered to by missionaries sent out by the Bishop of London. Among the other notable churches of this faith, with which the city is thickly sown, are the perfect Gothic shrine of St. Stephen's, with its exquisite memorial monuments; and the cathedral-like St. Mark's, the finest Gothic building in town; and St. Andrew's, with a rich Corinthian portico, copied from the Temple of Bacchus, at Teos; and St. Clement's, the citadel of the ritualists, a stately French-Gothic building, wherein the English Cowley Fathers enact ceremonies which greatly alarm the good bishop of their church.

The city is divided into four sections by its two largest streets, Broad and Market and where these cross each other, at right angles, stands the civic palace, on the ground formerly known as Penn Square. Broad Street is 113 feet wide, and 15 miles long, beginning at the national dock-yard of League Island, on the Delaware, and running nearly northward across the city, with undeviating straightness, and out through the northern suburbs, almost to the Chelten Hills. It is an imperial avenue, in its extent and capabilities, and passes some of the finest buildings in the city. Market Street is 100 feet wide, and runs from the Delaware river nearly westward, across the Schuylkill, and thence into the country towards Haverford and Newtown. The long vista up or down either of these avenues, formerly wasted by distance, is now closed by the marble pile of the municipal buildings.

There is no other city in the world which has such a vast and magnificent civic palace as that of Philadelphia. The Rathhaus of Berlin, the Town-hall of Manchester-even the Hôtel de Ville of Paris-fail to equal it. This enormous edifice was begun in 1874, and still lacks something of completion, although swarms of workmen have been constantly engaged upon it, and upwards of £3,000,000 will have been spent before the task is accomplished. There are more than 500 rooms and offices in the building, occupying four sides of a court-yard which is 200 feet square. Four stately archways give entrance from the streets to the inner square. The tower is a remarkable piece of architecture, on account of its ponderous massiveness, as well as its unexampled height. It rests on a bed of concrete, 8 feet thick, 20 feet below the ground; and the walls are 22 feet thick at the base, of huge blocks of Virginia granite. The tower is 90 feet square at the base, and falls off at every storey until it becomes an octagon of 50 feet diameter, above which rise the springing curves of a dome. The highest point is crowned by a colossal statue of William Penn, the founder of the city. The extreme summit of this vast pile is 535 feet high, being the loftiest

cdifice which man has ever constructed, exceeding the altitude of the tallest cathedral-spires of Europe, or the pyramids of Egypt.

It was the wish of William Penn, who is still commonly spoken of as "The Founder," that Philadelphia should always remain "a green country town." The almost dreary breadth of certain of the streets, far too wide for metropolitan convenience, marks another wise forethought of the father of the colony, who wished to secure his city against the danger of wide-spreading fires. Penn also dedicated five squares as public parks, and upon all of them except one, whereon rises the marble mountain of the municipal palace, myriads of trees now refresh the air. They have been used as fair-grounds, cemeteries, and encampments; and within the present generation have been devoted entirely to their destined object. The Masonic Temple stands on a corner by Penn Square, and is the most imposing building owned by the order in any country. The two main fronts are 400 feet long and 95 feet high, of granite, and in a very impressive and massive form of Norman architecture. The building was completed in 1873, at a cost of £260,000. The façade is very bold. and striking, with round arched windows and a magnificent Norman portal, and a tower 250 feet high, crowned with turrets of unequal height. The Main Hall is Doric, and paved with coloured marbles; and then there is the Grand Banqueting Hall, rich in Corinthian colonnades; the Oriental Hall, Saracenic in form and finish; the Corinthian Hall (for the grand lodge), with acanthus carvings and finishings of walnut and cedar, and blue velvet ; the Grand Chapter Hall, in the style of the Italian Renaissance; the ponderous Egyptian Hall, with its elephantine columns, and furniture of gilded ebony, with black and gold tapestry; the Ionic Hall, surrounded by twenty-four graceful Ionic pillars, with inlaid furniture and blue and gold tapestry; the Norman Hall, Gothic Hall, Red-Cross Hall, and other mystic penetralia. The powerful order which raises such a palace for its sessions (and has several other and smaller ones in the city) was introduced here before the year 1730; and its membership now adheres to the ritual of the Ancient York Masons (whatever that may be). There are also 135 lodges and 32 encampments of Odd Fellows in the city; 78 tribes of Red Men; 104 lodges of Knights of Pythias; 118 societies of the temperance orders; numerous groups of Druids; several posts of the Grand Army of the Republic; and other secret associations without number.

The Union League, the chief club of the city, was formed during the Civil War, to aid the National Government, and with its own funds raised and fully equipped nine regiments and a battalion of infantry of the line, and five companies of cavalry; and circulated 2,600,000 tracts and books favouring the cause of the Union. It is now a social association of nearly 2,000 gentlemen, occupying a handsome house in Broad Street, built for its use, and richly adorned with works of art. The Philadelphia Club is another first-class social organisation, now nearly fifty years old, and famous for its cuisine. The Reform Club, the Penn Club, and the Social Art Club are the foremost of the other societies of this character. The best of the fishing clubs is The State in Schuylkill, a social union dating from 1732, with its "Castle," decked with many quaint antiquities and surrounded by a pleasant park, on the banks of the Schuylkill river. There are numerous yacht and rowing clubs, skating and shooting organisations, and other sporting societies. The best cricket-players in America belong here, and have many a spirited contest with the Canadians and the British officers in garrison on the north.