2. In obedience to the request of this gentleman, we immediately proceeded to make inquiry, and procured such information for him as the nature of the circumstances, and the short time allowed, would permit. Although the inquiry was very limited, extending. to but two districts for most of the particulars, we trust it will throw some light upon an important subject, and undeceive the public, measurably at least, in relation to it.

3. The principal topics submitted for investigation were embraced in sundry queries, propounded by the gentleman aforesaid.

4. 1st Query."What is the amount of the free colored population of Philadelphia ?" The district of Southwark contains 921 men, 1,045 women, 635 boys, 674 girls; total, 3,275. The district of Northern Liberties contains 276 men, 318 women, 265 boys, 371 girls; total, 1,230; 4,505 in all. Although this does. not include the whole city, the greater portion of the colored population is located within these divisions.

5. 2nd Query." What proportion are able to read?"In Southwark, 858, Northern Liberties, 172; these are adults a nearly equal number of children, say 970, can read; total, 2,000. In these districts there are many more poor and ignorant persons than in the other parts of the city, proportionably.

6. 3d Query." What proportion are acquainted with the other elements of common education ?" In the Northern Liberties only, information has been obtained. It appears that 92 of their number, in that district, can write. We have no account of their proficiency in other branches of education, but we have been informed by teachers, that the blacks are as apt in learning arith-metic, &c. as the whites.

7. 4th Query." How many schools, and what number under instruction?" We have no estimate of the number of common schools. There are six Sunday schools in the city. The number under instruction cannot at present be ascertained. But they suffer much inconvenience in this respect from the prejudice against their color..

8. 5th Query." How many churches of each denomination?" In the whole city there are six Methodist churches, two Presbyterian, three Baptist, one Episcopal, one Lutheran, and two public halls.,

9. 6th Query." How many actually, and how many comparatively with the white population, are paupers, and supported on public charity?" From a paper, very carefully drawn up, and presented to the Legislature in 1832, we collect the following facts. In the year 1830, it appears that out of 549 out-door poor, relieved during the year, only 22 were persons of color. The colored paupers admitted into the alms-house for the same period, did not exceed four per cent. of the whole number. The amount of taxes paid by them could not be fairly ascertained; but from imperfect returns, it appears that they pay not less than $2,500 annually, while the sum expended for the relief of their poor, out of the public funds, have rarely, if ever, exceeded $2,000 a year. The amount of rents paid by them is found to exceed $100,000 annually.

10. 7th Query.-"How many actually, and how many comparatively, are in criminal institutions?" We have not been able to obtain official information on this point; but we learn, generally, that for crimes of magnitude, their proportion is very small; while in cases of petit larceny, they fall a little below the white in the scale of moral virtue. One fact, however, in their favor, is worthy of consideration, viz. many of the colored "criminals" are among the youth, who are shut out of the House of Refuge, to which the whites have access. Very few of the former are admitted, on account of the prejudice against their color.

11. 8th Query." How many religious, charitable, and literary institutions are supported by the colored people?" The religious establishments supported by them are enumerated in the answer to the fifth query. They have more than sixty beneficent societies, some of whom are incorporated, for mutual aid in time of sickness and distress. The members of these societies are bound by rules and regulations, which tend to pro

mote industry and morality among them. Each one pays into the treasury, weekly or monthly, a stipulated sum. They expend annually, for the relief of their sick and distressed, more than $9,000, out of funds raised by themselves for mutual aid. Some of these associations number from fifty to one hundred members each, not one of whom has ever been convicted of crime, in any of the courts.

12. Besides the institutions above-mentioned, they have two tract societies, two Bible societies, two temperance societies, two female literary institutions, one moral reform society, and one library company. Their public property, (mostly appropriated to religious uses,) is esti mated at the value of more than $200,000. In addition to the foregoing, it may be proper to remark, that many of the colored people have, by their labor and economy, acquired property and become freeholders. Their real estate in the city (belonging to individuals,) is supposed to be worth at least a million of dollars.

13. It is known that more than 600, and it is believ ed that upwards of 1,000 colored persons in the city and suburbs, follow mechanical employments, many of whom are acknowledged as superior workmen.

National Inquirer.

Free People of Color.

[FROM THE PHILANTHROPIST.]

1. "The free people of color," were pronounced by Mr. Clay, some years ago, to be, "of all descriptions of our population, and of either portion of the African race, as a class, by far the most corrupt, depraved, and abandoned." Let us now attend to some of the facts which are beginning to be ascertained, and to be published for the correction of this error.

2. There were, by the last census, nearly 5,000 free people of color in Kentucky. The senior editor of this paper has made extensive inquiry as to the state of pauperism among them, as indicated by the records of the

county courts. He heard of but one, an old woman in Jassamine county, who was on the pauper list, and was supported from the public funds.

3. In the Southampton insurrection there was not a single free colored person implicated in the remotest degree, yet were hundreds of them, residing in that county, compelled by the cruelties and abuse which they suffered from the neighboring whites, to emigrate immediately afterwards to Western Africa.

4. Mr. Gayarre, a member of the Louisiana legislature in 1834, uses this language concerning the colored population in that state, in a report which he submitted to that body."It has been said, that in the colored population of Louisiana, a few respectable individuals could be found. Justice, perhaps, would have required the confession, that the many were respectable, and the few depraved; the many are sober and industrious mechanics, quiet and useful citizens, who are susceptible of noble sentiments and virtues. This homage is due to them, and your committee pays it with pleasure, &c."

5. In Philadelphia, so far from burdening the whites with the support of their paupers, their city taxes, over and above the support of their own poor, furnish funds for the support of white paupers. One of the wealthiest mechanics in that city, if not in the nation, is a colored man.

6. The following resolutions were passed lately at a meeting of those people in that city :--

"Resolved, That it is the sincere wish of this Society, that as our young people of both sexes have, for the most part, both the opportunity and the power, they should earnestly and strenuously exert themselves in their leisure hours, especially during long winter evenings, in supplying the deficiencies of an early and irregular education, and thereby qualify themselves for extended usefulness in the circles in which they move."

7. WEARING MOURNING APPAREL, &c.---" Whereas, the time-honored custom of wearing mourning apparel for the dead, being frequently attended with much inconvenience, and always with unnecessary expense;

and whereas, the money which the poor of our people are obliged to spend in this way, in conformity with the tyranny of fashion, might be applied to purposes of substantial utility; therefore, be it

"Resolved, That from motives of economy alone, if from no other, this practice should be abolished among our people.

8." Resolved, That this Society earnestly recommend to teachers of youth, to instil into the minds of their juvenile charge, the love of truth, principles of rigid honesty, habits of sobriety and industry, a sacred regard for the Sabbath day, and the injunctions of Christianity; and thus prospectively to prepare them to fill up, honorably and religiously, the stations they may be called upon to occupy.

9. "While such a course of instruction cannot but result in positive benefits to the rising generation, it will procure for us the favorable consideration of the intelligent and the magnanimous, and what is incomparably more valuable, the favor and protection of Him, who is mighty to save and strong to deliver.

10. ON PEACE AND TEMPERANCE.---" Resolved, That the principles of peace and non-resistance ought to be practised under all circumstances, by every lover of religion and good order. That we recommend to our temperance societies, to adopt the principle of total abstinence from all intoxicating liquors, as the only safe remedy against drunkenness."

Cincinnati,

THE colored people in Cincinnati have three churches, two Methodist and one Baptist, numbering about 450 members. They have four Sabbath schools, with each a small library, and three Bible classes. A female benevolent society has been organized, with forty members. Their meetings are held regularly, and the time spent in working for the poor. A society for the relief of persons in distress, called the "Cincinnati Union Society,"