Page:Works of the Late Doctor Benjamin Franklin (1793).djvu/166

156 the ſum will be four millions and ſixty-one thouſand pounds ſterling; of which I leave one million and ſixty-one thouſand pounds to the diſpoſition and management of the inhabitants of the town of Boſton, and the three millions to the diſpoſition of the government of the ſtate; not preſuming to carry my views farther.

All the directions herein given reſpecting the diſpoſition and management of the donation to the inhabitants of Boſton, I would have obſerved reſpecting that to the inhabitants of Philadelphia; only, as Philadelphia is incorporated, I requeſt the corporation of that city to undertake the management, agreeable to the ſaid directions: and I do hereby veſt them with full and ample powers for that purpoſe. And having conſidered that the covering its ground-plat with buildings and pavements, which carry off moſt rain, and prevent its ſoaking into the earth and renewing and purifying the ſprings whence the water of the wells muſt gradually grow worſe, and in time be unfit for uſe, as I find has happened in all old cities; I recommend, that, at the end of the firſt hundred years, if not done before, the corporation of the city employ a part of the hundred thouſand pounds in bringing by pipes the water of Whiſſahickoncreek into the town, ſo as to ſupply the inhabitants, which I apprehend may be done without great difficulty, the level of that creek being much above that of the city, and may be made higher by a dam. I alſo recommend making the Skuylkil completely navigable. At the end of the ſecond hundred years, I would have the diſpoſition of the four millions and ſixty-one thouſand pounds divided between the inhabitants of the city of Philadelphia and the government of Pennſylvania, in the ſame manner as herein directed with reſpect to that of the