Nor were the people themselves insensible of it, nor more backward to declare their sentiments concerning it, than of the other parts of his conduct.

Evans, for example, having made use of the following clause in one of his papers to the assembly, to wit; "The governor, at his arrival, found the people possessed of a charter, by virtue of which the present assembly now sits, containing the frame of government, settled solemnly, as he has reason to believe, between the proprietary and the people, because, by the subscription, it is said to be thankfully accepted of by the assembly then sitting, and was signed, not only by the proprietary, but by the speaker of the assembly, in the name of all those of the province (as it is affirmed) who were then present, and unanimously consenting, and is farther witnessed by the council; this, therefore, ought fully to conclude. For, if the people could allege that any thing more was their due, it ought at that time to have been fixed and settled, the assembly then sitting, as the governor is informed, having fully considered and debated it; or, if any demands, which it is imagined might further have been made, were not then granted, the governor cannot think it proper for him to intermeddle or to concern himself farther than by virtue of the King's letters patent to the proprietary, and the proprietary's commission to him, with her Majesty's royal approbation, to govern according to that charter, and the laws in force," &c.

The assembly thus replied;

"As to the present charter, which the governor found in being at his arrival, though it be far short of an English constitution, yet even that has been violated by several inroads made upon it; and if the governor cannot grant the just and reasonable demands of the people's representatives agreeable with an English

establishment, there is cause to conclude, that the proprietary is not fully represented here; and, however the charter was received, yet it was not with such unanimity as is alleged, because diminutive of former privileges; neither was it prepared by the House of Representatives, but done in great haste."

"We are not striving for grants of power, but what are essential to the administration of justice,* and agreeable to an English constitution; and, if we have not been in possession of this these twenty-four years, we know where to place the fault, and shall only say, it is high time we were in the enjoyment of our rights."

And, lastly, the said assembly, having drawn up two several remonstrances to the proprietary, reciting the particulars of their grievances and complaints against the said governor, took occasion in the last of them, dated June 10th, 1707, to express themselves as follows;

"We, and the people we represent, being still grieved and oppressed with the male-administration and practices of thy deputy, and the ill carriage, unwarrantable proceedings, and great exactions of thy secretary, are like to be destroyed by the great injustice and arbitrary oppressions of thy evil ministers, who abuse the powers given thee by the crown, and we suppose have too much prevailed upon thee to leave us hitherto without relief.

"That the assembly which sat here on the 26th of the sixth month, 1704, agreed upon certain heads or particulars, which, according to the order of that day, were drawn up in a representation, and was signed by the speaker, and sent thee by a passenger in John Guy's brigantine, who was taken into France, from

* The governor had rejected the bill proposed by the assembly for establishing courts of justice, &c., and had done it by an ordinance of his

own.

whence the same representation was conveyed to thy hands; whereby thou art put in mind, upon what score the purchasers and first adventurers embarked with thee to plant this colony, and what grants and promises thou made, and the assurance and expectations thou gave them and the rest of the settlers and inhabitants of this province to enjoy the privileges derived from thy own grants and concessions, besides the rights and freedoms of England; but how they were disappointed in several respects, appears, in part, by the said representation, to which we refer, and become supplicants for relief, not only in matters there complained of, which are not yet redressed, but also in things then omitted, as well as what have been lately transacted, to the grievous oppression of the Queen's subjects, and public scandal of this government.

"We are much concerned, that thou conceived such displeasure as thou did against that assembly, and not in all this time vouchsafe to show thy readiness to rectify those things which they made appear were amiss; nor hast thou showed thy particular objections to the bills, which, with great care and charge, were then prepared, for confirming thy charters to this city and country, respecting both privileges and property, and for settling the affirmation instead of oaths. But, on the other hand, we found, to our great disappointment, that thou gave credit to wrong insinuations against them, as appears by thy letter from Hyde Park, dated the twenth-sixth of the twelfth month, 1704-5, wherein thou treated some particulars very unfriendly, and without any just grounds blamed the people's representatives, who, we perceive by their proceedings, were ready to support the government under thy administration, and desired nothing but to have their just rights, privileges, and properties confirmed, the judi

catories regularly established, the magistracy supplied with men of virtue and probity, and the whole constitution so framed, that the people called Quakers might have a share with other Christian people in the government, which thou always gave them an expectation of, and which they justly claim as a point of right, not for the sake of honor, but for the suppressing of vice, &c."

To wade through the whole of this provincial controversy, which, at several reprisals, lasted till Gookin was superseded in the year 1717, and replaced by William Keith, Esquire, (afterward Sir William Keith, Baronet), would be a task of great prolixity, and what consequently might prove as tedious to the reader as laborious to the writer.

Enough has been recited, to show upon what terms Mr. Penn was first followed by his flock, as a kind of patriarch to Pennsylvania; as, also, what failures in his conduct towards them were complained of by them; and, as to the conduct of the several assemblies, which, in the several periods of this interval, maintained this controversy, a bare perusal of their proceedings is in general sufficient for their justification.

Men they were; passions and interests they consequently had; and, if they were sometimes carried away a little too far by them, it is obvious the passions and interests of others worked up the ferment first, and never relented to the last.

It is true, an over rigid performance of conditions is not to be expected of government, and seldom can be exacted from it; but then, if the representative part is not tenacious, almost to a fault, of the rights and claims of the people, they will in the course of time lose their very pretensions to them.

Against Logan, the proprietary's minister, stand upon record, still unanswered, thirteen articles of malversation,

by way of impeachment, which the governor (Evans) found means to evade, against the repeated offers of the assembly to produce their witnesses and fasten their proofs upon him; and, against the governor himself, twelve in the shape of remonstrances, which argue him loose in principle, arbitrary in disposition, and scandalous in his private life and deportment.

So unpopular was he, that a unanimous vote of thanks to the proprietary was passed on his being removed, almost before his face, for he was still a resident among them; and as he had been Logan's screen, so his successor, Gookin, was little better than Logan's tool. The first had the name, the latter the power; and, by the help of the council, spurred him on, or reined him in, as he pleased.

Both were necessitous, consequently craving alike; and having each considered himself first, and the proprietary next, had little consideration left for the crown, and none at all for the people.

If Evans adventured to act in many respects as if there was neither charter nor assembly, or, rather, as if he was authorized by his commission to do what he pleased in contempt of both, (as appears by his arbitrary dismission of one assembly merely because they could not be brought to obey his dictature,) Gookin, after his example, and at the instance of Logan, declared another assembly to be no assembly, and refused to hold any further correspondence with them. And yet, when he was on the point of being recalled, he was both mean enough and desperate enough to convene the assembly, purposely to make them this laconic proposition, viz. "That for the little time he had to stay, he was ready to do the country all the service he could; and that they might be their own carvers, in case they would in some measure provide for his going back