mercy, and peace, with all temporal blessings, may abound richly among you! So says, so prays, your friend and lover in the truth,

" WILLIAM PENN." Soon after this he sailed-to the regret of the whole colony ;—to the regret of the Dutch, Swedes, and Germans, whom he had admitted into full citizenship with the rest, and who had found in him an impartial Governor and a kind friend;-to the regret of the Indians, who had been overcome by his love, care, and concern for them; and to the regret of his own countrymen, who had partaken more or less of that generosity which was one of the most prominent features in his character. And here I may observe, with respect to his generosity, that the whole colony had experienced it; for, it ought never to be forgotten, that when the first Assembly offered him an impost on a variety of goods both imported and exported (which impost, in a course of years, would have become a large revenue of itself), he nobly refused it; thus showing that his object in coming among them was not that of his own aggrandisement, but for the promotion of a public good.

The day on which he sailed was the twelfth of August, and that on which he landed in England was the third or fourth of October; so that he had a passage of about seven weeks. A letter has been preserved, dated London, the twenty-ninth of the eighth month, which he wrote soon after his arrival, to Margaret Fox, the wife of the celebrated George Fox, which fixes the latter date, and which makes us acquainted with some other particulars concerning him. "It is now," says he, "a few days above three weeks since I arrived well in my native land. It was within seven miles of my own house, where I found my dear wife and poor children well, to the overcoming of my heart, because of the mercies of the Lord to us." We find by this letter, in which he thanked her for the love she had shown his wife during his absence, and by which, he said, his heart and soul were affected, that he had experienced no sickness or indisposition while in Pennsylvania, “that he had not missed a meal's meat or a night's rest since he went to that country; and that wonderfully had the Lord preserved him through many troubles, in the settlement he had made, both with respect to the government and the soil." With respect to the settlement, notwithstanding the false reports in circulation, reports arising from envy, he could say, "that things went on sweetly with Friends there, that many increased finely in their outward things, and grew also in wisdom, and that their meetings were blessed-of which there were no less than eighteen in the province." It appears, by this letter, that he had already been at Court. "He had seen the King and the Duke of York. They and their nobles had been very kind to him, and he hoped the Lord would make way for him in their hearts to serve his suffering people, as also his own interests as it related to his American concerns."

Another letter has been preserved, which he wrote, some weeks after that to Margaret Fox, to his friend Stephen Crisp. This worthy minister had

written to him since his arrival in England, to inform him of the many reports in circulation that were injurious to his character. The letter, therefore, in question, was to satisfy his friend as to the falsehood of what he had heard. By means of it (for the letter of S. Crisp is lost) we become aoquainted with the charges that were made against him. It appears, among other things, that his enemies had laid hold of some circumstance which had been reported to have taken place under his government, by which they would have had it inferred that he had given his sanction to some military proceedings, and, therefore, that he had dishonoured his religious profession as a Quaker. To this he replied, that "he knew of no act of hostility. There was an old timber-house at Newcastle, above the Sessions Chamber, standing upon a green, on which lay seven old-iron small cannon, some on the ground, and others on broken carriages; but there was neither a military man, nor powder, nor bullet, belonging to them. They were the property of the Governor of New York. How far the people of Newcastle might, in consequence of Colonel Talbot's threatenings, have drawn them into security and paled about their prison since he came away, he could not tell; but he was sure that, while he was there, no soldier or militia-man was ever seen; nor had any individual any commission of war from him, nor was there any law to that end. With respect to making money of the settlement, another of the charges, he had never made it a matter of gain; but had hazarded his life, and maintained government and Governor these four years past. He had been a gainer, if he had given the land, had transported free, and had had a house built for him but half as good as he left behind him. With respect to the alteration of the charter, about which there had been so much clamour, what had been altered (and that very little) had been by the people's desire, and not for any end of his own. Besides, the alteration was not immutable, as it was to be submitted to time, and place, and the public good. And with regard to the addition lately made to Philadelphia, it could afford no just cause of complaint. He had bought the land there of the old inhabitants, the Swedes. This had enabled him to add eight hundred acres to the city, and a mile on a navigable river. What he had thus bought, he had given freely to the public; though, had he retained it, considering its situation, it had been of extraordinary advantage to himself. But he could not,” he said, hope to please all." Thus we see that the best of men have their enemies; and that, where prejudice has once taken root in the mind, everything is viewed through a false medium. The good that is connected with it is diminished, and the evil magnified-nay, the very name and nature of the thing are changed; so that avarice itself is fixed upon the most generous and patriotic motives.

CHAPTER XXI.

A. 1685.-GIVES AN ACCOUNT OF THE DEATH OF CHARLES THE SECOND -IS IN GREAT FAVOUR WITH JAMES THE SECOND-HAS FREQUENT INTERVIEWS WITH THE KING-ENDEAVOURS TO STOP PERSECUTION -INTERCEDES FOR JOHN LOCKE-BECOMES UNPOPULAR BY HIS ATTENDANCE AT COURT-CALLED PAPIST AND JESUIT-CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN HIM AND TILLOTSON ON THIS SUBJECT--PRESENT AT TWO PUBLIC EXECUTIONS-AFFAIRS OF PENNSYLVANIA-IRREGULARITIES AND ABUSES IN HIS ABSENCE-WRITES OVER TO CORRECT THEM-ASSEMBLY IMPEACH MOORE AND ARREST ROBINSON-THEIR LETTER TO HIM ON THE SUBJECT.

WILLIAM PENN had two objects in view, as I observed before, in returning. to England. The first and most important was to try to stop, if possible, the cruel arm of persecution; and the second was to procure a speedy adjustment of the difference between him and the Lord Baltimore. With respect to the first, he had made some little progress in it, having obtained a sort of promise from the King that he would do something in behalf of those whose cause he pleaded; and, with respect to the second, he brought it to a final issue. The Lords' Committee of Plantations, having inspected the grants and heard the evidence on both sides, made their report to the King; and the King decided, that the land should be divided into two equal parts. The part on the Chesapeake was to be given to the Lord Baltimore. The part on the Delaware was to relapse to the Crown. This latter part, however, was ultimately intended for William Penn.

Soon after this the King died of an apoplexy. William Peun, in one of his letters, written at this time to Thomas Lloyd, whom he had left President of his Provincial Council, gives an account of his death; and, as there are some curious particulars in it relative to the King himself and those about him, as well as to what passed both in and out of Court, at the time, which he, from his frequent access to the Royal Family since his arrival in England, had an opportunity of knowing, I shall lay an extract from it before the reader :

"The King is dead, and the Duke succeeds peaceably. He was well on the first day (Sunday) night. About eight next morning, as he sat down to shave, his head twitched both ways or sides; and he gave a shriek and fell as dead, and so remained some hours. They, opportunely, blooded and cupped him, and plied his head with red-hot frying-pans. He returned (revived) and continued till sixth day noon, but mostly in great tortures. He seemed very penitent, asking pardon of all, even the poorest subject he had wronged, prayed for pardon, and to be delivered out of the world-the Duke appearing mighty humble and sorrowful.- -He was an able man for a divided and troubled kingdom. The present King was proclaimed about three o'clock that day. A proclamation followed, with the King's speech,

to maintain the Church and State as established, to keep property and use clemency. Tonnage and poundage, with the Excise, are revived de bene esse till the Parliament meet.-One is now choosing.- The people of Westminster just gone by to choose.It sits the nineteenth of the third month next. In Scotland one next month. Severities continue still, but some ease to us faintly promised.- Be careful that no indecent speeches pass against the government, for the King, going with his Queen publicly to mass in Whitehall, gives occasion.He declared he concealed himself to obey his brother, and that now he would be above-board; which we like the better on many accounts. I was with him, and told him so; but, withal, hoped we should come in for a share. He smiled, and said he desired not that peaceable people should be disturbed for their religion. And till his coronation, the twenty-third, when he and his Consort are together to be crowned, no hopes of release; and, till the Parliament, no hopes of any fixed liberty.My business, I would hope, is better.The late King, the Papists will have, died a Roman Catholic; for he refused (after his usual way of evading uneasy things, with unpreparedness first, and then weakness) the Church of England's communion, Bishop Ken, of Wells, pressing him, that it would be to his comfort and that of his people to see he died of that religion he had made profession of when living; but it would not do. And once, all but the Duke, Earl of Bath, and Lord Feversham, were turned out; and one Huddlestone, a Romish priest, was seen about that time near the chamber.- This is most of our news.-The Popish lords and gentry go to Whitehall to mass daily; and the Tower, or Royal Chapel, is crammed by vying with the Protestant lords and gentry. The late King's children, even by the Duchess of Portsmouth, go thither."

Charles the Second being dead, was succeeded by his brother, who then became James the Second. It may be recollected that Vice-Admiral Penn, when he was on his death-bed, recommended his son to the care and guardianship of the latter, when Duke of York. From this period a more regular acquaintance grew up between them, and intimacy followed. During thin intimacy, however William Penn might have disapproved, as he did, of the religious opinions of his guardian, he was attached to him from a belief that he was a friend to liberty of conscience. Entertaining this opinion concerning him, he conceived it to be his duty, now that he had become King, to renew his intimacy with him, and this in a stronger manner than ever, that he might forward the great object for which he had crossed the Atlantic-namely, the relief of those unhappy persons who were then suffering on account of their religion. He determined, therefore, to reside near him for these purposes, and accordingly he took lodgings for himself and family at Kensington.

It appears, while he resided there, that he spent his time, and that he used his influence with the King, solely in doing good. All politics he avoided, never touching upon them unless called upon; and then he never

espoused a party, but did his best to recommend moderation and to allay heats. If he ever advised the King, it was for his own real interest and the good of the nation at large. Generally speaking, however, he confined himself to the object before mentioned; and, in endeavouring to promote this, he was alive to the situation, not only of those of his own religious society, but of those of other Christian denominations who were then languishing in the gaols of the kingdom.

Among the first applications which he made to the King was one, the remembrance of which will always do honour to his memory. It was in behalf of the venerable John Locke, who had followed his patron, the Earl of Shaftesbury, into Holland, when he fled there to avoid the further persecution of his own court. Locke himself had been deprived, only the preceding year, of his place of Student of Christ Church, Oxford, with all its rights and advantages, by the command of the late King, and was at this time in danger of being seized and sent to England, in consequence of the opposition he had given to Popery and arbitrary power. It was at this moment, then, that William Penn applied. His application was successful. At least James the Second permitted William Penn to inform Locke that he should be pardoned. The message was accordingly sent. Locke, in return, expressed his sense of the friendship of William Penn, but said that he had no occasion for a pardon when he had not been guilty of any crime. This reminds me of a similar answer from George Fox to Charles the Second. This prince, touched by the hard case of the former, offered to discharge him from prison by a pardon; but he declined it on the idea that, as a pardon implied guilt, his innocence might be called in question by the acceptance of it. Thus men of high moral feeling disdain even deliverance from oppression on terms which would implicate their honour.

That we may judge of the attention shown to William Penn by James the Second, and of the almost incessant employment of Penn in behalf of others, during his residence at Kensington, I shall copy the following passage from Gerard Croese :

“William Penn was greatly in favour with the King-the Quakers' sole patron at Court-on whom the hateful eyes of his enemies were intent. The King loved him as a singular and entire friend, and imparted to him many of his secrets and counsels. He often honoured him with his company in private, discoursing with him of various affairs, and that, not for one, but many hours together, and delaying to hear the best of his peers who at the same time were waiting for an audience. One of these being envious, and impatient of delay and taking it as an affront to see the other more regarded than himself, adventured to take the freedom to tell his Majesty, that when he met with Penn he thought little of his nobility. The King made no other reply, than that Penn always talked ingenuously, and he heard him willingly. Penn, being so highly favoured, acquired thereby a number of friends. Those also who formerly knew him, when they had any favour to