Pennsylvania, U.S.A., on the W. branch of the Susquehanna river, in the
W. central part of the state. Pop. (1890) 2248; (1900) 5081 (310
foreign-born); (1910) 6851. It is served by the New York Central &
Hudson River, the Pennsylvania, and the Buffalo, Rochester & Pittsburg
railways. The borough is about 1105 ft. above sea-level, in a rather
limited space between the hills, which command picturesque views of the
narrow valley. The river runs through the borough. Coal and fireclay
abound in the vicinity, and these, with leather, iron, timber and the
products of the fertile soil, are the bases of its leading industries.
Before the arrival of the whites the place had been cleared of timber
(whence its name), and in 1805 it was chosen as a site for the
county-seat of the newly erected county and laid out as a town; in 1840
it was incorporated as a borough.

CLEARING-HOUSE, the general term for a central institution employed in
connexion with large and interrelated businesses for the purpose of
facilitating the settlement of accounts.

_Banking._--The London Clearing-House was established between 1750 and
1770 as a place where the clerks of the bankers of the city of London
could assemble daily to exchange with one another the cheques drawn upon
and bills payable at their respective houses. Before the clearing-house
existed, each banker had to send a clerk to the places of business of
all the other bankers in London to collect the sums payable by them in
respect of cheques and bills; and it is obvious that much time was
consumed by this process, which involved the use of an unnecessary
quantity of money and corresponding risks of safe carriage. In 1775 a
room in Change Alley was settled upon as a common centre of exchange;
this was afterwards removed to Post Office Court, Lombard Street. This
clearing centre was at first confined to the bankers--at that time and
long afterwards exclusively private bankers--doing business within the
city, and the bankers in the west end of the metropolis used some one or
other of the city banks as their agent in clearing. When the joint-stock
banks were first established, the jealousy of the existing banks was
powerful enough to exclude them altogether from the use of the
Clearing-House; and it was not until 1854 that this feeling was removed
so as to allow them to be admitted.

At first the Clearing-House was simply a place of meeting, but it came
to be perceived that the sorting a