that his proposal was entirely an act of favour on his part, and that it was not to be drawn into precedent as a matter of right in future.

This declaration of the Governor disconcerted them again. They had no conception, either that William Penn or that they themselves had forfeited those privileges which were in the compact of the settlement. They determined, however, in order that the public business might go on, to sacrifice their feelings for once, and to acknowledge his acceptance of their subscription to the declaration and professions before mentioned, as an act of indulgence for the time.

As soon as the members had become thus qualified for the exercise of their functions, the Governor communicated to them a letter, by way of message from the Queen, stating, that as the expense for the protection of Albany against the French had become intolerably burthensome to its inhabitants, and as Albany was a frontier, by means of which several other colonies were defended, it was but reasonable that such colonies should assist the government of New York, from time to time, in the preservation of it during the war.

The Assembly, after having deliberated upon the message, resolved upon an humble address to the Governor, in which they seemed desirous of putting off the consideration of the subject contained in it, respectfully beseeching him that their procedure in legislation might be according to the usual method and laws of the government of Pennsylvania, founded upon the late King's letters patent, which they humbly conceived were yet in force. To this address be replied, but in a manner so displeasing (for he threatened tɔ annex them to the government of New York), that they sent him a public remonstrance, through the medium of their Speaker. They said, among other things, that one of the reasons alleged for the superseding of William Penn was his adhering too much to James the Second, but that he had never been found guilty of the charge. Another was, that the administration of justice had been impeded by the quarrels between the Territories and the Province. This charge was equally unfounded: for the courts of justice were open in all the counties belonging to the government, and justice duly executed, from the highest crimes of treason and murder, to the lowest differences about property, before the date of his (the Governor's) commission. Neither did they apprehend that the Province was in danger of being lost to the Crown, although the government was in the hands of some whose principles were not for war. They conceived that his (the Governor's) administration, though it suspended that of William Penn, was not to be at variance with the fundamental principles of the latter. They acknowledged him (Fletcher) undoubtedly as their then lawful Governor; but they reserved to themselves, and to those whom they represented, the continuance of their just privileges and rights.

After this the Assembly enacted several laws. These were sent up to the Governor and Council. They were detained, however, by the former unconsti

tutionally in point of time, to see whether the Assembly would vote a pecuniary supply, according to the tenor of the Queen's letter. This unseasonable delay together with other circumstances, offended the Assembly again; so that they unanimously resolved, "that all bills sent to the Governor and Council, in order to be amended, ought to be returned to this house to have their further approbation upon such amendments, before they could have their final assent to pass into laws." In consequence of this the Governor returned some of them, with his objections, for amendment. These the Assembly passed; after which they voted a supply, consisting of one penny in the pound on all real and personal estates for one year, and six shillings per poll for one year upon individuals who had come out of servitude, or were not worth one hundred pounds; which, when collected in the six counties, would amount to seven hundred and sixty pounds sixteen shillings and twopence.

The Governor, having obtained his supply, confirmed all the bills which had been passed. He then dissolved the Assembly at their own request; and having appointed William Markham his Deputy Governor, he returned to his station at New York.

It must be obvious, from this statement, that there was no great cordiality between Governor Fletcher and the Council and Assembly during his residence among them. The former, following the practice he had been accustomed to in the administration of the government of New York, which differed from that of Pennsylvania, was led into a false step at the very first by convening the Assembly in an illegal manner. This produced sus picion and jealousy among the latter. This suspicion and this jealousy he awakened again, perhaps from his own ignorance of Quaker principles, by his attempt to introduce the oath among them as a qualification for legislation. But, while they were in this unsettled state, he proposed to them the Queen's Letter, by which they were to vote a pecuniary supply towards the defence of Albany. Here, being equally principled against war as against oaths, their feelings received another shock. They began now to be seriously alarmed. They had left their homes and crossed the Atlantic to get rid of what they considered to be the barbarous and corrupt customs of the Old World, and to start, as a people, upon a new system. But they found themselves grievously disappointed. Oaths, war, and taxation, were now at hand. They thought they saw armies marching and countermarching among what they had expected to be peaceable habitations. They thought they saw the Indians engaged in a contest, those very people whom it was the object of William Penn to bring from ferocious habits to the blessings of civilised life. With respect to the tax, as it was a fundamental of their religion always to obey the existing government, except where their consciences suffered, they consented to it; but they stipulated in the bill, that one-half of the money raised should go to the maintenance of the Governor, and the other half as their own free present to the Crown. Such

was the state of their minds when Governor Fletcher left them, upon a view of which they could not help contrasting his government with that of William Penn. This served only to confirm their prejudices against the former, and to elevate the character of the latter. Nor could this view of the matter operate otherwise than as a painful reproach upon themselves; for, in a few months after Fletcher, a mere stranger, had arrived, they granted him a provision, and they made the Crown a present; while, for years, even to this very time, they had not furnished a table for William Penn.

CHAPTER XXX.

A. 1694.-WRITES "AN ACCOUNT OF THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF THE QUAKERS "GENERAL CONTENTS OF THIS WORK-ALSO "A VISITATION TO THE JEWS"-EXTRACTS FROM THENCE-PUBLISHES HIS "JOURNEY INTO HOLLAND AND GERMANY AS PERFORMED IN 1677 " -IS RESTORED TO HIS GOVERNMENT BY KING WILLIAM-HANDSOME MANNER OF WORDING THE ROYAL ORDER FOR THIS PURPOSE -TRAVELS IN THE MINISTRY LETTER TO JOHN GRATTON AFFAIRS OF PENNSYLVANIA-DEATH AND CHARACTER OF THOMAS LLOYD.

WILLIAM PENN, having been honourably acquitted, was now at liberty to follow his inclinations where he pleased. His thoughts were naturally directed towards Pennsylvania. But, alas! his new situation, among other things, prevented him, at least for the present, from going there! He had just lost his wife. His children were without a mother. He felt it, therefore, his duty to stay at home for a while, that he might comfort and instruct his family; that he might act the part of a double parent; and that he might make those arrangements, which the late melancholy event had rendered necessary in his domestic concerns.

Being tied down, as it were, to the house, on this account, his mind fell into employment, the result of which was the production of a book, which, however, he intended only as a Preface to the writings of George Fox. It contained "An Account of the Rise and Progress of the People called Quakers, in which their Fundamental Principles, Doctrines, Worship, Ministry, and Discipline, were Plainly Declared.”

He gave, in the first chapter of this work, a history of the different dispensations of God to the time of George Fox, or to the first appearance of the Quakers.

He explained, in the second, their great principle; the opposition it had met with; its progress notwithstanding; and the great comfort it administered wherever it had been received; how, out of it, three great and

fundamental doctrines sprung, which their preachers taught—namely, repentance from dead works to serve the living God, perfection from sin as included in the notion of regeneration or a new birth, and an acknowledgment of eternal rewards and punishments; how, from these, as the greater, other doctrines sprung, which influenced their practice, such as the love of one another; the love of their enemies; their refusal to confirm their testimony by an oath, and to fight or engage in wars, and to pay ministers for preaching the Gospel of Christ, and to show respect to persons by flattering titles or compliments of respect; their adoption of plainness and simplicity in their language, their abstinence from all unnecessary words, and their rejection of the heathen custom of drinking healths to people. He concluded with a description of their simple way of marriage, and of the manner of registering their births and conducting their funerals, all of which were opposite to the pomps and vanities of the world.

He explained, in the third chapter, what were the qualifications of their ministers, and the marks by which they might be known to be Christian.

In the fourth chapter he explained the object and the manner of conducting their discipline. Its object was to supply the necessities of the poor; to take care that they who were members answered their high profession, not only by living peaceably, but by showing, in all things, a good example; to inquire previously as to marriages, whether the parties to be concerned in them were clear of all marriage-promises or engagements to others; to register births and funerals; and to record the services and sufferings of those deceased members who had acted as faithful servants. The way of conducting it he described to be by elders, and by monthly, quarterly, and yearly meetings, at which persons were deputed to attend for their respective districts. All members, however, whether deputed or not, might be present at these, and deliver their minds upon the points before them. At these meetings there was no visible head, no chairman, or chief manager; but they considered Christ as their President, who would always be in the midst of those who met together in his name. He then described the principle and authority upon which they proceeded against those who had transgressed, the manner of such proceeding, and how the way was left open to them (on repentance) of restoration to membership.

The fifth chapter contained a history of the life of the founder. He drew therein a beautiful and interesting picture of his birth, parentage, early disposition, habits, qualifications, character, troubles, sufferings, and of his death and final triumph.

The sixth contained general exhortations, not only to the members of the society, but to those who were yet strangers to the Quakers as a people. These exhortations were varied so as to suit the ages, conditions, and states of those to whom they were severally addressed.

William Penn spent a part of his retirement with his family in reading.

Among the books which interested him at this time was one written by John Tomkins. It had the following title: "The Harmony of the Old and New Testament, and the Fulfilling of the Prophets concerning our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and his Kingdom in the Latter Days; with a Brief Concordance of the Names and Attributes given to Christ, and some Texts of Scripture collected concerning Christ's Humiliation and Sufferings, also his Excellent Dignity and Glorification." In consequence of the perusal of this book he felt his mind drawn towards those unhappy people, who, ever since the destruction of Jerusalem, have been wandering about, carrying the marks of prophecy with them wherever they have gone. He wrote, therefore, by way of Appendix to it, a small pamphlet, which he called "A Visitation to the Jews." It consisted of a tender and compassionate address to the seed of Abraham and house of Israel after the flesh, wherever scattered over the face of the earth, with an earnest desire that the time of their captivity might come to an end, and that they, who were the natural branches, broken off through unbelief, might come again to be ingrafted by faith and through the circumcision made without hands, so that the hope of the promise made to their fathers might be manifested among them. In this address he attempted to show them how ill-founded those objections were which stood in the way of their conversion to the Christian religion. I select the following passage as a specimen of the manner of his argument on this occasion:

"But if," says he to the Jews, "you have no reason to deny the New Testament writings any more than we have to deny the authority of the Old, in which you so firmly believe, it is as reasonable in us to expect you should receive the authority of the New as that we should embrace the authority of the Old. For what have you to justify the truth of those writings, but the impossibility of so many people consenting to delude themselves, and being able to impose upon their posterity a fiction about the great and important matters of immortality? For the miracles recorded in the Old Testament Scriptures are as much above reason, and, consequently, as incredible to worldly men, as the miracles recorded in the New Testament Scriptures; so that the authority you have for the Old Testament writings is the truth and credibility of their tradition. This, we say, we also have for ours. How could so many men, whom you have not taxed with ill lives or atheistical principles, agree together to put so great an imposture upon the world, as the penmen of the New Testament writings must needs have done, if what they wrote were fictions? You cannot deny that there was such a man as Jesus, and that he was put to death by your fathers, though pretended to be a malefactor, and that he had followers, and that those followers asserted and maintained the doctrine of their Master. Where is there any confutation of what is affirmed of the deeds and doctrines of Jesus by his writers in the whole body of your antiquity, that he wrought none of the miracles said to be wrought by him?"