rope, gathering the children of misfortune. From England and Wales, from Scotland and Ireland, and the Low Countries, emigrants crowded to the land of promise. On the banks of the Rhine new companies were formed under better auspices than those of the Swedes; and, from the highlands above Worms, the humble people renounced their German homes for his protection. There had been nothing in the history of the human race like the confidence which his simple virtues and institutions inspired. In August, 1683, "Philadelphia consisted of three or four little cottages;" the conies were yet undisturbed in their hereditary burrows; the deer fearlessly bounded past blazed trees, that foreboded streets; the stranger who wandered from the river bank was lost in the forest; and, two years afterward, the place contained about six hundred houses, and the school-master and the printing press had begun their work. "I must, without vanity, say," such was his honest self-gratulation in 1684, "I have led the greatest colony into America that ever any man did upon a private credit, and the most prosperous beginnings that ever were in it are to be found among us."

The government had been organized, peace with the natives confirmed, the fundamental law established, the courts of justice instituted. The province already contained eight thousand souls. Intrusting the great seal to his friend Lloyd, and the executive power to a committee of the council, Penn, in August, 1684, sailed for England, leaving to his people a farewell, unclouded by apprehension. "My love and my life are to you and with you, and no water can quench it, nor distance bring it to an end. I have been with you, cared over you, and served you with unfeigned love; and you are beloved of me and dear to me beyond utterance. I bless you in the name and power of the Lord, and may God bless you with his righteousness, peace, and plenty, all the land over." "You are come to a quiet land, and liberty and authority are in your hands. Rule for him under whom the princes of this world will one day esteem it their honor to govern in their places." "And thou, Philadelphia, the virgin settlement of this province, my soul prays to God for thee, that thou mayest stand in the day of trial, and that thy children

VOL. 1.-38

may be blessed." "Dear friends, my love salutes you all.” And, after he reached England, he assured eager inquirers that "things went on sweetly with Friends in Pennsylvania; that they increased finely in outward things and in wisdom."

The question respecting the boundaries between the domains of Lord Baltimore and of William Penn was promptly resumed before the committee of trade and plantations; and, after many hearings, in October, 1685, it was decided that the tract of Delaware did not constitute a part of Maryland. The boundaries of Delaware were ultimately established by a compromise.

This decision formed the basis of a settlement between the respective heirs of the two proprietaries in 1732. Three years afterward, the subject became a question in chancery; in 1750, the present boundaries were decreed by Lord Hardwicke; ten years later, they were, by agreement, more accurately defined; and, in 1761, commissioners began to designate the limit of Maryland on the side of Pennsylvania and Delaware. In 1763, Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, two mathematicians and surveyors, were engaged to mark the lines. In 1764, they entered upon their task, with good instruments and a corps of axemen; by the middle of June, 1765, they had traced the parallel of latitude to the Susquehannah; a year later, they climbed the Little Alleghany; in 1767, they carried forward their work, under an escort from the Six Nations, to an Indian war-path, two hundred and forty-four miles from the Delaware river. Others continued Mason and Dixon's line to the bound of Pennsylvania on the south-west.

But the care of colonial property did not absorb the enthusiasm of Penn; now that his father's friend had succeeded to the throne, he employed his fortune, his influence, and his fame to secure that "IMPARTIAL" liberty of conscience which, for nearly twenty years, he had advocated before the magistrates of Ireland, and English juries, in the Tower, in Newgate, before the commons of England, in public discussions with Baxter and the Presbyterians, before Quaker meetings, at Chester and Philadelphia, and through the press to the world. It was his old post, the office to which he was faithful from youth to age. Fifteen thousand families had

been ruined for dissent since the restoration; five thousand persons had died victims to imprisonment. The monarch was persuaded to exercise his prerogative of mercy; and, in 1686, at Penn's intercession, not less than twelve hundred Friends were liberated from the horrible dungeons and prisons where many of them had languished hopelessly for years. For Locke, then a voluntary exile, he obtained a promise of immunity, which the blameless philosopher, in the just pride of innocence, refused. Claiming for the executive of the country the prerogative of employing every person, "according to his ability, and not according to his opinion," he labored to effect a repeal by parliament of every disfranchisement for opinion. Ever ready to deepen the vestiges of British freedom, and vindicate the right of "the free Saxon people to be governed by laws of which they themselves were the makers," his soul was bent on effecting this end by means of parliament during the reign of James II., well knowing that the prince of Orange was pledged to a less liberal policy. The political tracts of "the arch Quaker" in behalf of liberty of conscience connect the immutable principles of human nature and hu man rights with the character and origin of English freedom, and exhaust the question as a subject for English legislation. No man in England was more opposed to Roman Catholic dominion; but he desired, in the controversy with the Roman church, nothing but equality; and, in the true spirit of liberty, he sought to infuse his principles into the public mind, that so they might find their place in the statute-book through the convictions of his countrymen. William Penn was involved in the obloquy which followed the Stuarts; but the candor of his character triumphs over detraction; his fame has its ineffaceable record in the history of the world.

Meanwhile, the Quaker legislators in the woods of Pennsylvania were serving their novitiate in popular legislation. To complain, to impeach, to institute committees of inquiry, to send for persons and papers, to quarrel with the executive -all was attempted, and all without permanent harm. The assembly, in 1685 and 1686, originated bills without scruple; they attempted a new organization of the judiciary; they alarmed the merchants by their lenity toward debtors; they

would vote no taxes; they claimed the right of inspecting the records, and displacing the officers of the courts. Jealousy of a feudal chief was displayed. The maker of the first Pennsylvania almanac was censured for publishing Penn as a lord; they expelled a member who reminded them that they were contravening the provisions of their charter. The executive power was imperfectly administered, for the council was too numerous a body for its regular exercise. In 1687, a commission of five was substituted; and finally, when it was resolved to appoint a deputy governor, the choice of the proprietary was not wisely made. In legislation, justice and wisdom were left to struggle with folly and passion; but, in the universal prosperity, discontent could find no resting-place.

Peace was uninterrupted. Once, indeed, it was rumored that on the Brandywine five hundred Indians were assembled to concert a massacre. Immediately Caleb Pusey, with five Friends, hastened unarmed to the scene of anticipated danger. The sachem repelled the report with indignation; and the griefs of the tribe were canvassed and assuaged. "The great God, who made all mankind, extends his love to Indians and English. The rain and the dews fall alike on the ground of both; the sun shines on us equally; and we ought to love one another." Such was the diplomacy of the Quaker envoy. The king of the Delawares answered: "What you say is true. Go home, and harvest the corn God has given you. We intend you no harm."

The white man agreed with the red man to love one another. William Penn employed blacks without scruple. The free society of traders, which he chartered and encouraged, in its first public agreement relating to negroes, did but substitute, after fourteen years' service, the severe condition of adscripts to the soil for that of slaves. At a later day he endeavored to secure to the African mental and moral culture, the rights and happiness of domestic life. His efforts were not successful. In his last will he directed his own slaves to be emancipated; but his direction was not regarded by the heir. On the subject of negro slavery, the German mind was least inthralled by prejudice, because Germany had never yet participated in the slave-trade. The Swedish and

1

German colony of Gustavus Adolphus had avowed the design to permit only free labor. The general meeting of the Quakers for a season forebore a positive judgment; but already, in 1688, "the poor hearts" from Kirchheim, "the little handful" of German Friends from the highlands above the Rhine, came to the resolution that it was not lawful for Christians to buy or to keep negro slaves.

This decision of the German emigrants on negro slavery was taken during the lifetime of George Fox, who recognised no distinction of race. "Let your light shine among the Indians, the blacks, and the whites," was his message to Quakers on the Delaware. A few weeks before his death, he exhorted Friends in America to be the light of the world, the salt to preserve earth from corruption. Covetousness, he adds, is idolatry; and he bids them beware of that "idol for which so many lose morality and humanity." In 1691, on his deathbed, nearly his last words were: "Mind poor Friends in America." His works praise him. Neither time nor place can dissolve fellowship with his spirit. To his name William Penn left this short epitaph: "Many sons have done virtuously in this day; but, dear GEORGE, thou excellest them all."

An opposite system was developed in the dominions of the

duke of York.