chance with others. When into the colony were intro duced persons of all grades, habits, and principles, inequalities came inevitably: but as a rule, the rich, however well satisfied with their own or their fathers' moral superiority, were not inclined to assume the appearance of an aristocracy deriving consideration from "carnal" ideas.

The formation of a landed oligarchy was not facilitated in Penn's dominion. Mention has been made how small were the tracts of the first purchasers from William Penn, and how, by the regulations, the retention of a location depended upon its being peopled, and how the tracts of over 5000 acres before very long were cut up.

A resident country gentry conspicuous in respective neighbourhoods by number of acres and mode of life was not established. Except Dr. More, before mentioned, and the Growdons at "Trevose," Bucks County, and one or two others, the first purchasers of as many as 5000 acres, and those who afterwards bought plantations of that size, did not reside upon them. The wealthy men of the province lived in its city with in later times a country place near by, but in size very different from the landed estate of a rural grandee of New York, Virginia, or South Carolina.

The laws of Pennsylvania interfered with the unfairness by which many landed estates have been preserved and increased. In the first place, as to being withheld from creditors, "the Laws agreed upon in England" made all lands and goods liable to pay debts except where there was lawful issue, and then all the goods and one third of the land. This was changed by the Great Law passed at Chester so that, in case of issue, all the goods were liable and half the land, in case the land was bought before the debt was contracted. By various temporary laws and a permanent one of Fletcher's time, all lands were subjected to sale

on judgment and execution against the defendant or his heirs, executors, or administrators, but the messuage and plantation on which the defendant was residing was not to be sold until the last, and not until a year after the judgment. When Penn was on his second visit to Pennsylvania, a clause was adopted requiring the personalty to be sold first. In Fletcher's time was introduced the liability of all the real estate as well as personalty of any decedent to sale for payment of debts by the executor or administrator under approval of a court, or by judgment and proceedings of court except where the personal property was sufficient.

There was a remedy, too, against an inheritance increasing in value while the family starved. Following a temporary law of earlier date, Fletcher enacted in 1694 that the widow or administrator of an intestate might, in case of considerable debt or charge of child or children, sell such part of the intestate's lands as the Council or County Court should think fit for paying the debts, educating the children, supporting the widow, and improving the rest of the estate to their advantage.

In the next place, while the English common law tended towards the monopoly of land, the statutes of Pennsylvania almost always required the division of what a man left at his death. By the charter of Charles II, the laws of England were to govern the descent of land and the succession to personalty in Pennsylvania until altered by the Proprietary and freemen. The first enactment to curtail the unfair benefit of primogeniture went into force in April, 1683, providing that the whole estate in the Province and Territories, unless an equal provision had been arranged for with property elsewhere, should go, after payment of debts, one third to the wife, and one third to the children equally, and the other third as the decedent pleased; if his wife were dead, two thirds to the children equally, and one third as he pleased, his debts being first paid, whereas

if he died intestate, the estate should go to his wife and children, but if he left neither wife nor child, then to his brothers and sisters or to the children of his brothers and sisters; if there were none, one half to the parents, and the other half to the next of kin; if no parents, the half should go to the Governor, and if no kindred claiming within three years, the other half to the public. This same law, as we see, interfered with the power of a parent to aggrandize one child by disinheriting the rest. As the words of the law did not say what the division should be between wife and children in cases of intestacy, chapter CLXXII, passed in 3mo., 1684, fixed it thus: one third of the lands to the wife during her life, the rest to the children, the eldest son taking a double share: if there were no child, half of the real estate to the wife for life, the rest to the intestate's kin. The limitation upon the right to dispose by will was removed in 1693, when also the right of the children of deceased relations to take their parents' share was recognized, and it was explained that, except where the eldest son was concerned, the division among relations in equal degree should be equal. The right of children of deceased brethren to take the share which their parent would have taken if living, was allowed by act of 1700.

The act of Jany. 12, 1705-6, made the children share the land equally, the widow taking the same share as a child. There was nothing said to limit her interest to a life estate, and apparently she was always allowed to have a fee simple until the act of February 4, 1748–9, prescribed a different construction of the aforesaid law.

There were good reasons why the Quaker province attracted, besides the Quakers and the separatists wishing to be undisturbed in religion, those who were not sure of the means of support at home. Here was good soil, cheap land, a well behaved population, public sentiment in favor of the simplest style of living, no danger

from the aborigines, no military service, nothing to pay for a military or ecclesiastical establishment, a government run at the least cost possible, there being no handsome houses provided for the acting Governors, and such acting Governors as received salaries other than occasional sums drawing their pay from William Penn until the XVIIth Century closed. If a man wished to get drunk, or break Sabbath, or have certain sports, he found the laws decidedly "blue;" but it was the era of "blue laws." On the other hand, if his necessities drove him to some small theft, the punishment was lighter than at home: however, it was only after the colony had been in existence a number of years that Pennsylvania was to any degree a resort for persons looking forward to crime.

In due time, among the immigrants of English or Welsh birth or ancestry, the non-Quakers outnumbered the Quakers. Differing from the latter in matters of religion, and at times in earnest dispute and bitter anger against them over certain measures of civil government, yet these non-Quakers attempted only sporadically to lessen the Quaker's share in legislation, and largely combined with them on questions not interfering with the Church of the one or the conscience of the other, and made lasting the impression upon the community of the social and political principles of the co-religionists of the Founder of the Colony.

CHAPTER VI

A REPUBLICAN FEUDATORY.

Powers granted by Charles II-Penn's attitude as to war-Penn's claim to greatness-His suggestion of Union of the Colonies and of a Parliament of Europe-His character and abilitiesCovenant for a Democracy-Delaware taken into Union-Naturalization-General Suffrage-Frame of 1683-Religious freedom-All Christians eligible to office The theological tests in England"Solemn promise" of witnesses-Unsettled lawsAbsentee rule by the Penns-Thomas Lloyd and other deputies-Fortune inherited by William Penn and his first wife-Too small for his undertaking-Philip Ford-Receipts and indebtedness -Penn very prominent in England-James II and the Quakers-Penn at the time of the Revolution.

The Charter of King Charles II not only made William Penn and his heirs and assigns feudal lords of the soil, but added an authority in him and his heirs like that of Viceroy. The clause directly granting powers of legislation did not extend them to his assigns, although the clause providing for certain laws of England to be temporarily in force, said that they should be so until altered by him, his heirs and assigns, and by the freemen, their delegates or deputies or the greater part of them. Penn or his heirs or his or their Deputies and Lieutenants could ordain and, under his or their seals, publish any laws for raising money or other public or private purpose with the consent of the majority