colony, he, in a public advertisement, described the country, and set forth the advantages which it offered to emigrants. Many persons, chiefly quakers, were induced to purchase. The fee simple of the soil was sold at the rate of twenty pounds for every thousand acres; and they who rented lands, agreed to pay one penny yearly per acre. Before the emigrants embarked, certain "conditions and concessions" were by them and the proprietor agreed upon and subscribed.

In the fall, three ships, carrying settlers, sailed for Pennsylvania. The pious and philanthropic proprietor sent a letter to the Indians, informing them that "the great God had been pleased to make him concerned in their part of the world, and that the king of the country where he lived, had given him a great province therein; but that he did not desire to enjoy it without their consent; that he was a man of peace; and that the people whom he sent were of the same disposition; and

if

any difference should happen between them, it might be adjusted by an equal number of men' chosen on both sides." The position selected by these emigrants for a settlement was above the confluence of the Delaware and the Schuylkill.

In April, 1682, Penn published a Frame of Government, the chief object of which was declared to be "to support power in reverence with the people, and to secure the people from the abuse of power." He published also a Body of Laws, which had been examined and approved by the emigrants in England; and which, says an eminent historian, "does great honour to their wisdom as statesmen,

to their morals as men, and to their spirit as colonists." From the Duke of York, he obtained the relinquishment of a tract of land, lying on the south side of the Delaware, a part of which was already settled, and in August, accompanied by about two thousand emigrants, set sail for America.

He landed first at New Castle, which was a part of the "Territories," as the land conveyed to him by the Duke was called. Upon this tract he found about three thousand Dutch, Swedes, and Finns. He proceeded to Chester, where he called an assembly on the fourth of December. This assembly annexed the Territories to the province, adopted the Frame of Government, and enacted in form the Body of Laws. Penn also made a treaty with the Indians, from whom he purchased as much land as the circumstances of the colony required. He selected the site, and marked out the plan, of an extensive city, to which he gave the name of Philadelphia, or the city of love. Before the end of the year, it contained eighty houses and cottages.

The settlement of none of the colonies commenced under such favourable auspices as that of Pennsylvania. The experience of half a century had disclosed the evils to be avoided, and pointed out the course to be pursued. The Indians, having been already taught to fear the power of the whites, were the more easily conciliated by their kindness. The soil being fertile, the climate temperate, and the game abundant, the first emigrants escaped most of the calamities which afflicted the more northern and southern provinces. The increase of population exceeded, of course, all former example.

In the new city, a second assembly was held in March 1683. At the request of the freemen and delegates, Penn granted them a second charter, which diminished the number of the council and assembly, and was, in other respects, different from the first. Some of the regulations, at that time adopted, bear the impress of the proprietor's singular genius, and benevolent disposition.

It was ordained "that, to prevent lawsuits, three arbitrators, to be called peace makers, should be chosen by the country courts, to hear and determine small differences between man and man: That children should be taught some useful trade, to the end that none might be idle, that the poor might work to live, and the rich if they should become poor: That factors, wronging their employers, should make satisfaction and one third over: That every thing, which excites the people to rudeness, cruelty, and irreligion, should be discouraged aud severely punished: That no one, acknowledging one God and living peaceably in society, should be molested for his opinions or his practice, or compelled to frequent or maintain any ministry whatever."

These judicions regulations attracted numerous emigrants; and to their salutary influence must be attributed the qualities of diligence, order and economy for which the Pennsylvanians are so justly celebrated. Within four years from the date of the grant to Penn, the province contained twenty settlements, and Philadelphia two thousand inhabitants.

In 1684, the proprietor returned to England.

He left his province in profound tranquillity, under the administration of five commissioners chosen from the council. The unfortunate James the Second soon after ascended the throne. "As he has," said Penn, "been my friend and my father's friend, I feel bound in justice to be a friend to him." He adhered to him while seated on the throne, and for two years after he was expelled from his kingdom, the government of the province was administered in his name.

By this display of attachment to the exiled monarch, he incurred the displeasure of King William. On vague suspicion, and unfounded charges, he was four times imprisoned. The government of his colony was taken from him and given to Colonel Fletcher, the governor of New York. But by the severest scrutiny, it was rendered apparent that he had in all his conduct, been actuated as much by the love of his country as by personal gratitude. He regained the good opinion of King William; and, being permitted to resume and exercise his rights, appointed William Markham, to be his deputy governor.

In 1699, he again visited Pennsylvania, and found the people discontented. They complained that his powers and their rights were not defined with sufficient precision, and demanded a new charter. In 1701, he prepared and presented one to the assembly, which was accepted. It gave to the assembly the right of originating bills, which by the previous charters was the right of the governor alone, and of amending or rejecting

those which might be laid before them. To the governor it gave the right of rejecting bills passed by the assembly, of appointing his own council, and of exercising the whole executive power. The Territories, now the state of Delaware, refusing to accept the new charter, separated from Pennsylvania, and were allowed a distinct assembly. The same governor, however, presided over both.

Immediately after his third charter was accepted, Penn returned to England, and the executive authority was afterwards administered by deputy governors appointed by the proprietor. The people incessantly murmured and complained; but the uninterrupted and unparalleled prosperity of the colony demonstrates, that but slight causes of complaint existed. That which produced the greatest and most constant irritation was the refusal by the deputy governors, to assent to any law imposing taxes on the lands of the proprietors, although the sum raised was to be expended for the benefit of the whole province. This unwise, and indeed unjust claim, of exemption, occasioned greater disgust than injury, and embittered all the enjoyments of the inhabitants. But these dissensions did not, in the least, retard the prosperity of the colony. Nor did any other cause, having that tendency, exist. The upright conduct of Penn, in his intercourse with the Indians, was imitated by those who came after him; and, for seventy years, uninterrupted harmony existed between them and the whites. In the early part of the revolutionary war, the people adopted a new constitution, by which the