press in charging thee, as thou tenders thy own honour and honesty, or the obligations thou art under to thy friends, and particularly thy first purchasers and adventurers inte this province, that thou do not surrender the government, whatsoever terms thou may by so doing make for thyself and family, which we shall deem no less than a betraying us, and at least will look like first fleecing, then selling: but rather use thý utmost interest with the queen, to ease us in the premises: and if after thy endeavours used to keep the government, it be per force taken from thee, thou will be the clearer in the sight of God, and us the representatives of the people of this thy province, who are thy real friends and well wishers, as we hope is evident in that we have dealt thus plainly with thee."

It was but natural, that such a paper as this should deeply affect those it was levelled against; and that it should operate differently on persons differently made and differently situated.

Those best acquainted with the necessity of keeping the first principles of government ever before their eyes, and the danger of admitting the least departure from them, could not but be pleased with the plain and firm language of this remonstrance: while those apt to be so dazzled with the outside of things, that they were incapable of looking into their contents, were as much softened with concern for the father and founder of their community, and consequently inclined to think him hardly dealt by in it.

There is something in connexion and dependence which gives a secret bias to all we think and wish, as well as what we say and in all disputes this must be duly allowed for on both sides.

Seven persons, some of them of the council, made their application by petition to the next assembly for a copy of it, but were flatly refused: and even when the governor himself in very high language required it, they were immoveable as before.

Willing as they might be to reclaim the proprietary to a due sense of his first obligations, they might be equally un

willing to expose him: and, agreeable to this, the assembly of 1706-7 in one of their remonstrances to the governor say, "that hoping the bill of courts then in dispute would have put an end to some of the grievances they had several years groaned under, they had hitherto forborn publicly to 1emonstrate; chusing rather to provide remedies for things amiss than to complain of them." Some concern they might also be under for themselves; their ascendancy was precarious it depended on the good will of numbers: and the infirmity of nature above touched upon, might happen to operate more powerfully in the people, than the consideration of justice and safety to themselves and their posterity. The province, at this time, had moreover their reasons on ac· count of oaths, a militia, &c. to apprehend some inconveniency if they fell under the immediate government of the crown; and therefore did not care to break with the propri etary entirely.

Nor was it long before, by partial and indirect practices, such as both influencing and awing the electors (facts publicly charged on the instruments of government by the assembly of 1706-7) that the governor obtained both an assembly and a speaker, almost as complaisant as he could wish. Nor ought it to be forgot, that his successor Gookin obtained such another in the year 1710.

In all matters of public concern something personal will interfere. Thus we find during this turbulent period two names frequently occur, as opposites, in principle and purpose, and the oracles of their respective parties, to wit, David Lloyd, speaker of the assembly, and James Logan, secretary to the governor and council.

Logan insults the members of the assembly sent from the house on a message to the governor. The house resent it, complain of it, arraign his conduct in office, and proceed against him as a public delinquent. The governor, on the other hand, conceives an insuperable aversion to the speaker, points him out to the public as an interested, factious, dangerous person, treats him arrogantly at two several confer

ences, and complains of the house for not abandoning him to his resentments.

Thus heat kindled heat; animosity excited animosity; and each party resolving to be always in the right, were often both in the

wrong.

By the way, this. And it is necessary still to add, that all this while, the charter of privileges and that for the city of Philadelphia, as well as that of property, remained unconfirmed at home; and the people were plainly told by Evans, that, till both the proprietary and his governor were put upon proper establishments, they were not to expect the fruits of his favour and protection.

The last of those charters, the said governor, in one of his papers, was pleased to style a tedious bill of property, fitted so entirely to the people's interest, and with so little regard to the proprietary, that it seemed strange how reasonable men could, without confusion, offer it: and in another he discourses of it as a project of the speaker's to incorporate the whole province, and take away near the whole power out of the hands of the proprietary and governor, and lodge it in the people.

To which the assembly replied in the remarkable words following;

And as to what is said concerning the charter prepared at the proprietary's departure, the draughtsman has assured us, that no project or power is comprised in that charter but what was the proprietary's direction, perused and corrected by his cousin Parmiter, before it was engrossed, and afterwards signed by himself: but whether the proprietary designed thereby to reverse the method of the government according to an English constitution, and establish a republic in its stead, or leave the people to struggle with the queen's governors, which he then expected would be the consequence of the bill then moving in parliament against proprietary governments, the draughtsman cannot tell: but he well remembers, that the proprietary told him, that he held himself obliged to do what he could to confirm his tenants in

their lands and properties, and give them all the powers he could, as he was lord of this seignory, and much more to that effect.'

And now, to finish on the head of the representation, which throws so much light on the first foundation of this colony, what afterwards passed in the assembly concerning it, candour requires should here be subjoined.

'But what, says governor Evans, I must not be silent in, is, that he (the proprietary) highly resents that heinous indignity and most scandalous treatment he has met with in the letter, directed not only to himself, but also to be shewn to some other persons disaffected to him, in the name of the assembly and people of this province, of which I have formerly demanded a copy, but was then denied it, under pretence (when it was too late) that it should be recalled: if that letter was the act of the people, truly represented, he thinks such proceedings are sufficient to cancel all obligations of care over them: but if done by particular persons only, and it is an imposture in the name of the whole, he expects the country will purge themselves, and take care that due satisfaction be given him.'

The reader will observe that the letter is not complained of as scandalous, because of its falsehood, but because of its freedom, in which it must be understood consists the indignity.

And the assembly's reply was as follows:

'As to the representation or letter sent to the proprietary by order, or in the name of the former assembly, which he takes, it seems, as an indignity, and resents it accordingly; it not having been done by this house, but being the act (or in the name) of a former, as we are not intitled to the affront,

3" William Biles acquainted this house, that Nathaniel Puckle had a letter from the proprietary to be communicated to several persons here, encouraging them to insist upon the privileges of their charter and laws, and not tamely give them up; and instanced what advantage it has been to the people of Rhode-Island, Connecticut, and other proprietary governments, to assert their rights," &c. Votes of Assembly, for August 21, 1704.

if any be, neither are we concerned in answering it: our part is only to lament (as we really do) that there should be true occasion for such representation; or, if none, that it should be offered to our proprietary, whom we both love and honour; and, therefore, we hope his obligations of care over us and the people of this province by no such means shall be cancelled.'

That this man's government should be one continued broil, from the beginning of it to the end, is proof sufficient, that Mr. Penn left his frame at least in a very imperfect

state.

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.

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