strenuously objected and even tried to bribe the secretaries, he could not get the name altered. It should be added that early in 1682 Carteret, grandson of the original proprietor, transferred his rights in East Jersey to Penn and eleven associates, who soon afterwards conveyed one-half of their interest to the earl of Perth and eleven others. It is uncertain to what extent Penn retained his interest in West and East Jersey, and when it ceased. The two provinces were united under one governor in 1699, and Penn was a proprietor in 1700. In 1702 the government of New Jersey was surrendered to the Crown.
By the charter for Pennsylvania Penn was made proprietary of the province. He was supreme governor; he had the power of making laws with the advice, assent and approbation of the freemen, of appointing officers, and of granting pardons. The laws were to contain nothing contrary to English law, with a saving to the Crown and the privy council in the case of appeals. Parliament was to be supreme in all questions of trade and commerce; the right to levy taxes and customs was reserved to England, an agent to represent Penn was to reside in London; neglect on the part of Penn was to lead to the passing of the government to the Crown (which event actually took place in 1692), no correspondence might be carried on with countries at war with Great Britain. The importunity of the bishop of London extorted the right to appoint Anglican ministers, should twenty members of the colony desire it, thus securing the very thing which Penn was anxious to avoid—the recognition of the principle of an establishment.
Having appointed Colonel (Sir William) Markham, his cousin, as deputy, and having in October sent out three commissioners to manage his affairs until his arrival, Penn proceeded to draw up proposals to adventurers, with an account of the resources of the colony. He negotiated, too, with James and Lord Baltimore with the view, ultimately successful, of freeing the mouth of the Delaware, wrote to the Indians in conciliatory terms, and encouraged the formation of companies to work the infant colony both in England and Germany, especially the “Free Society of Traders in Pennsylvania,” to whom he sold 20,000 acres, absolutely refusing, however, to grant any monopolies. In July he drew up a body of “conditions and concessions.” This constitution, savouring strongly of Harrington’s Oceana, was framed, it is said, in consultation with Sidney, but the statement is doubtful. Until the council of seventy-two (chosen by universal suffrage every three years, twenty-four retiring each year), and the assembly (chosen annually) were duly elected, a body of provisional laws was added.
It was in the midst of this extreme activity that Penn was made a Fellow of the Royal Society. Leaving his family behind him, Penn sailed with a hundred comrades from Deal in the “Welcome” on the 1st of September 1682. His Last Farewell to England and his letter to his wife and children contain a beautiful expression of his pious and manly nature. He landed at New Castle on the Delaware on the 27th of October, his company having lost one-third of their number by small-pox during the voyage. After receiving formal possession, and having visited New York, Penn ascended the Delaware to the Swedish settlement of Upland, to which he gave the name of Chester. The assembly at once met, and on the 7th of December passed the “Great Law of Pennsylvania.” The idea which informs this law is that Pennsylvania was to be a Christian state on a Quaker model. Philadelphia was now founded, and within two years contained 300 houses and a population of 2500. At the same time an act was passed, uniting under the same government the territories which had been granted by feoffment by James in 1682. Realistic and entirely imaginative accounts (cf. Dixon, p. 270), inspired chiefly by Benjamin West’s picture, have been given of the treaty which there seems no doubt Penn actually made in November 1683 with the Indians. His connexion with them was one of the most successful parts of his management, and he gained at once and retained through life their intense affection.
Penn now wrote an account of Pennsylvania from his own observation for the “Free Society of Traders,” in which he shows considerable power of artistic description. Tales of violent persecution of the Quakers, and the necessity of settling disputes, which had arisen with Lord Baltimore, his neighbour in Maryland, brought Penn back to England (Oct. 2, 1684) after an absence of two years. In the spring of 1683 he had modified the original charter at the desire of the assembly, but without at all altering its democratic character.[1] He was, in reference to this alteration, charged with selfish and deceitful dealing by the assembly. Within five months after his arrival in England Charles II. died, and Penn found himself at once in a position of great influence. Penn now took up his abode at Kensington in Holland House, so as to be near the court. His influence there was great enough to secure the pardon of John Locke, who had been dismissed from Oxford by Charles, and of 1200 Quakers who were in prison. At this time, too, he was busy with his pen once more, writing a further account of Pennsylvania, a pamphlet in defence of Buckingham’s essay in favour of toleration, in which he is supposed to have had some share, and his Persuasive to Moderation to Dissenting Christians, very similar in tone to the One Project for the Good of England. When Monmouth’s rebellion was suppressed he appears to have done his best to mitigate the horrors of the western commission, opposing Jeffreys to the uttermost.[2] Macaulay has accused Penn of being concerned in some of the worst actions of the court at this time. His complete refutation by Forster, Paget, Dixon and others renders it unnecessary to do more than allude to the cases of the Maids of Taunton, Alderman Kiffin, and Magdalen College (Oxford).
In 1686, when making a third missionary journey to Holland and Germany, Penn was charged by James with an informal mission to the prince of Orange to endeavour to gain his assent to the removal of religious tests. Here he met Burnet, from whom, as from the prince, he gained no satisfaction, and who greatly disliked him. On his return he went on a preaching mission through England. His position with James was undoubtedly a compromising one, and it is not strange that, wishing to tolerate Papists, he should, in the prevailing temper of England, be once more accused of being a Jesuit, while he was in constant antagonism to their body. Even Tillotson took up this view strongly, though he at once accepted Penn’s vehement disavowal. In 1687 James published the Declaration of Indulgence, and Penn probably drew up the address of thanks on the part of the Quakers. It fully reflects his views, which are further ably put in the pamphlet Good Advice to the Church of England, Roman Catholics, and Protestant Dissenters, in which he showed the wisdom and duty of repealing the Test Acts and Penal Laws. At the Revolution he behaved with courage. He was one of the few friends of the king who remained in London, and, when twice summoned before the council, spoke boldly in his behalf. He admitted that James had asked him to come to him in France; but at the same time he asserted his perfect loyalty. During the absence of William in 1690 he was proclaimed by Mary as a dangerous person, but no evidence of treason was forthcoming. It was now that he lost by death two of his dearest friends, Robert Barclay and George Fox. It was at the funeral of the latter that, upon the information of the notorious informer William Fuller (1670–1717?), an attempt was made to arrest him, but he had just left the ground; the fact that no further steps were then taken shows how little the government believed in his guilt. He now lived in retirement in London, though his address was perfectly well known to his friends in the council. In 1691, again on Fuller’s evidence, a proclamation was issued for the arrest of Penn and two others as being concerned in Preston’s plot. In 1692 he began to write again, both on questions of Quaker discipline and in defence of the sect. Just Measures in an Epistle of Peace and Love, The New Athenians (in reply to the attacks of the Athenian Mercury), and A Key opening the Way to every Capacity are the principal publications of this year.
Meantime matters had been going badly in Pennsylvania.
