however he did not fix his name, lest it might prejudice the reader) called "Good Advice to the Church of England, and to Roman Catholic and Protestant Dissenters, in which it is endeavoured to be made appear, that it is their Duty, Principle, and Interest, to abolish the Penal Laws and Tests."

This work, like all his works on liberty, was an able and powerful production, and could not fail but throw obstacles in the way of intolerance and persecution.

The following extracts from letters to Thomas Lloyd, will show what was going on in Pennsylvania at this time. "I rejoice," says he, "that God has preserved your health so well, and that his blessings are upon the earth, but grieved at the bottom of my heart for the heats and disorders among the people. I entreat thee to consider of the true reason of our unhappiness, on your side (Pennsylvania) among our magistrates. Is it not their self-value ?-Men should be meek, humble, grave. This secures both reverence and love. This wise and good men will do. Is any one out of the way? They should not so much look at his infirmities, as take care they are not themselves also overtaken; eyeing how many good qualities the offender has to serve the public, and not cast a whole apple away for one side being defective."

By two other letters it appears that the provincial council had neglected and slighted his letters; that he had religiously consecrated his labour for their good, but that it was neither valued nor understood by them; that they had conducted themselves in such a manner in other respects as to have forfeited their charter over and over again, if he had chosen to take advantage of it; and that they had entirely neglected the supply which they had promised him. On this latter subject he stated, "that his quit-rents were then at least at the value of five hundred pounds a year, and were then due, though he could not get a penny. God is my witness," says he, "I lie not. I am above six thousand pounds out of pocket* *We may now estimate the sacrifices of William Penn. If his quit-rents amounted to £500 per annum, he must have sold

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more than ever I received by the Province and you may throw in my pains, cares, and hazard of life, and leaving of my family and friends to serve them."

It also appeared that he now began to be embarrassed for want of remittances from America,- -so that though it was his intention to have returned there in the autumn, he was prevented from so doing on this account. "There is nothing," says he, "my soul breathes more for in this world, next to my dear family's life, than that I may see poor Pennsylvania again-but I cannot force my way hence, and see nothing done on that side inviting.'

To remedy these evils he took the executive power out of the hands of the provincial council, and reduced the executive to five persons.

To those, in June, he wrote as follows: "Be diligent, faithful, loving, and communicate one with another in things that concern the public.-Draw not several ways: have no cabals apart, nor reserves from one another: move with a mutual simplicity, an entire confidence in one another; and if at any time you mistake or misapprehend, or dissent from one another, expose not one another's infirmities. Justice, mercy, temperance of spirit, are high qualities, and necessary ones in government. I beseech God to fit you for his work more and more."

es

From a letter which he wrote to his agent, it appears that the only reason of his stay in England was the " tablishment of the liberty which he was a small instrument to begin in the land. The Lord," says he, "has given me great interest with the King, though not so much as is said; and I confess I should rejoice to see poor old England fixed, and the penal laws repealed; and if it goes well with England, it cannot go ill with Pennsylvania. But this I will say, no temporal honour or profit one million of acres of land, for which according to the terms of sale, he must have received £20,000. To this add the £6,000 now mentioned, and he must have spent £26,000 upon the province, in presents to the Indians, in re-purchases of the land from these, in the maintenance of Government and Governor, and in other public matters; a sum not much short of £100,000 in these days.

can tempt me to turn away from poor Pennsylvania, as unkindly used as I am; and no poor slave in Turkey desires more earnestly, I believe, for deliverance, than I do to be with you: wherefore be contented awhile, and God in his time will bring us together."

CHAPTER XIX.

A. 1684-1688.

WILLIAM PENN still staid in England, for the purpose of seeing religious liberty established by a law of the land, and was still a frequent attendant on the King at Whitehall. Going there one day in company with George Whitehead, they met Gilbert Latey, an experienced minister of the Society. They asked him if he would go with them, and wait upon the King. Gilbert paused awhile, and, as he stood in silence, it opened in his mind what he should say to the king; whereupon he told the friends he was ready to go with them. Accordingly they went, and had admittance into the King's presence. George Whitehead and William Penn having spoken what they had to say, the King was pleased to ask Gilbert, whether he had not something to say; upon which Gilbert, in a great deal of humility, spake in the manner following: "The mercy, favour, and kindness, which the King hath extended to us as a people in the time of our trial and sore distress, we humbly acknowledge; and I truly desire that God may show the King mercy and favour in the time of his trouble and sore distress." The King replied, I thank you; and so they parted. But what was spoken by Gilbert lived with the King; and some time after, when he was in Ireland, driven from his throne, he desired a friend to remember him to Gilbert. "Tell him," said the king," the words he spake to me I shall never forget," adding that one

part of them had come true (the revolution and sore distress thereby), and that he prayed to God that the other might come to pass. Upon this Gilbert caused it to be signified to the king, that the second part of what he had said was also in a great measure come to pass, for that the Lord had given him his life;" alluding to his escape at the battle of the Boyne.

In the month of April the King renewed his declaration for liberty of conscience, with this addition, that he would adhere firmly to it, and that he would put none into public employments but such as would concur with him in maintaining it. He also promised that he would hold a Parliament in the November following. This was what William Penn desired. He wished the King to continue firm to his purpose; but he knew that neither tests nor penalties could be legally removed without the consent of Parliament. He rejoiced therefore that Parliament were to be consulted on the measure; for he indulged a hope, that the substance of the royal declaration would be confirmed by both houses, and thus pass into a law of the land.

At the time when this declaration was renewed, an order of council came out, that it should be read in the churches within the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the kingdom. Sancroft, archbishop of Canterbury, and six other bishops, namely, St. Asaph, Ely, Bath and Wells, Peterborough, Chichester, and Bristol, presented a petition to the King in behalf of themselves and several other bishops, and a great body of the clergy; in which they laid before him the reasons why they had opposed the reading of the declaration in the churches, as the order in council had prescribed. They intended, they said, no disrespect to his majesty, nor did they breathe any spirit of hostility towards the Dissenters; but the Declaration being founded on a dispensing power, which had been declared illegal no less than three times in eight years, they could not become parties to it by giving it the extraordinary publicity required. The King having heard the petition, took time to deliberate upon it; after

which the seven bishops were sent prisoners to the tower. The excitement caused by this rash step was terrible, and when the bishops were brought to trial, they were acquitted among the plaudits of the nation.

After this event William Penn became more unpopular in the country than ever. It had got out, probably by means of Burnet, that he had been employed by the King on the embassy to the Hague to obtain the Prince of Orange's consent, not only to a toleration, but to the removal of tests. It had been suspected that he was the mover of the royal proclamation in 1686, and of the declaration in 1687. It had become known, though he had concealed his name, that he was the author of "Good Advice to the Church of England, and Roman Catholics and Protestant Dissenters." It was now taken for granted, though the measure was contrary to his mind, that he had a hand in the imprisonment of the bishops. The consequence was, that he became very odious to the church. The dissenters also, whose cause he had been so zealously pleading, turned against him. In consequence of his intimacy with the King, they judged him to be a creature of the same stamp, and to have the like projects and pursuits. The King had this year made a more open acknowledgement of Popery than ever. He had permitted the Jesuits to erect a college in the Savoy in London, and suffered the friars to go publicly in the dress of their monastical orders; which was a strange sight to Protestants. He had permitted also the Pope's Nuncio D'Ada, to make his public entry into Windsor in great state. He thus showed himself most openly a Catholic. And Penn was believed to be of the same persuasion, and it was suspected that when he wished to establish a toleration and to abolish tests, he had no other motive than that of protecting the Roman Catholic religion, and thus giving it an opportunity to flourish. The cry that he was a Jesuit was revived with double fury. He was also charged with being disaffected to the free part of the constitution, and a friend to arbitrary power. The clamour against him was so great, and so