of faith, declarations, test, &ct., as in the Act of Parliament of 1 W. & M. c. 18.

The Council construing the commission to themselves as not giving power to enact laws, the Assembly resolved to adjourn until 3mo. (May) 1, contending for the right to sit upon their own adjournment. The result was that the Assembly adjourned until that date, unless sooner called, and the Council declared it prorogued to the same time: but the dispute gave rise to a project to establish the House's right by a law.

Evans published his commission in Philadelphia on 12mo. 3, 1703-4, having arrived the night before, and duly took the oaths, the least fitted by experience of all the persons selected by the Penns for the office, and, as it turned out, the most discreditable in private life. To intemperance, which was soon the topic of common talk, there was added in time an item of seduction. The great Quaker had been deceived; for William Penn, distracted as he may have been with financial and political troubles in England, and important as it was to fill the vacancy quickly, was too wise knowingly to send as his representative one whose loose living would shock the staid people of the colony, and give a handle to the anti-Proprietary faction. Apart and aloof from the Churchmen were some persons resentful against or distrustful of Penn who were rigid Quakers, and would appeal to the ideal of a land where good men administered good laws.

Yet, as will be shown on a later page, a handle for Penn's enemies was to be given by one very near to him, viz: his eldest surviving son, who came with Evans, and whose debts had driven him across the water, leaving wife and children at home to await future plans. He speedily, in connection with Logan, hired for a city residence "Clark's great house” near the S. W. corner of Third and Chestnut. Mompesson soon joined them, and so did Evans, after boarding first

with Al Paxton, and afterwards with John Finney. For information on business, but not guidance in mode of life, Evans and Penn Jr. looked to Logan. Having as Judge jurisdiction as far north as New Hampshire, and being in turn very soon superseded as to Pennsylvania and West Jersey by a new commission reappointing Quary, Mompesson was usually away. He and William Penn Jr. and Bewley, the Collector, were invited to become members of the Council. Mompesson qualified on February 7, and the younger Penn on the 8th, but Bewley declined, because the position might be thought by some to conflict with his position in the Customs. Logan appears to have qualified a second time, immediately after the qualifying of the Proprietary's son, to whom was given precedence at the board over all others. In the course of ten days after Evans's arrival, William Rodeney, William Trent, Richard Hill, and Jasper Yeates became members, and in May, George Roche, and in October, Joseph Pidgeon.

Evans had come ignorant of there being a split in the Assembly, and, when he found it necessary to summon a legislature, he determined, if possible, to effect a reunion. He sent writs to the Lower Counties for the election of four members each, but when the twenty-six already chosen by Pennsylvania proper appeared, they insisted that they were already a separate House. The representatives of the Territories, among whom were Rodeney, Brinckloe, and Hill, thereupon announced their consent to accept the Charter, if its provision were complied with that there be only four representatives from each of the six counties. The representatives from Pennsylvania replied that they were unable to recede from what they had done, including the increase of their number. So it was settled there should be a separate House for the Territories,

its members to be chosen by new writs, and to meet in New Castle.

When the Assembly of the Province convened, Evans asked for a salary for himself, and the raising of the £350 fixed by the late King for the building of fortifications in the province of New York. The House, in a very courteous message, expressed anxiety as to the allowance of the laws by the Crown, and referred to the former excuse as to the £350. In a reply, which again urged the relief of the Proprietary by the assumption of the acting Governor's support, and even asked for making good Penn's promise of allowance to Hamilton, Evans angered the members by arguing the insufficiency of the excuse for not voting money to the Queen. More serious than Evans's wounding of the Assemblymen's sensibilities in contradicting their mind, was that Penn's commission to Evans had reserved the final assent to all laws. This instance of depriving the Deputy of the power to represent the principal had to be brought to the scrutiny of so acute and so ill disposed a lawyer as Lloyd, and nearly caused the Assembly to declare the commission void. The heir-apparent's most important political act while in America was joining with the other Councillors, Mompesson among them, in deciding, in response to the Assembly's question, that the clause was void, but did not invalidate the rest of the commission, and that the bills which the Lieutenant-Governor passed into laws, and to which the great seal was affixed, could not be annulled by the Proprietary without the vote of the Assembly. This declaration was made on 3rd month 23, 1704. Logan, while saying that it was clearly right, explained to Penn that the Councillors would not have made it, had they not seen that the Assembly would do nothing without it.

After the Assembly had voted an address to the Queen congratulating her upon her accession, the ob

liviousness of the members to their representing any but one religious denomination was shown in entitling another address to her, which they unanimously adopted, "The humble address of the People called Quakers convened in Assembly at Philadelphia." By the prayer with which this Address closed, we see that the Assemblymen, and presumably most of their Quaker constituents, were willing to make affirmation "in the presence of Almighty God." The Address said that, at the time of the grant to Penn, the tract called Pennsylvania was little cultivated, and the few inhabitants were Dutch, Fins, and Swedes, "whose manner of living was of small advantage to the Crown of England;" that, in hopes of enjoying the liberties granted, a considerable colony of Quakers with some of other persuasions came over, and made great improvements, and others differing from them in religious matters had become sharers of the government, which was carried on by the obligation of a solemn attestation under the local laws, without oaths, the taking or administering of which was against the religious persuasion of the Quakers, still the most considerable inhabitants for number and estates; that some of the Quakers who might be serviceable in courts of judicature were excluded by the effect of the royal order in Council of Jany. 21, 1702, requiring the administration of oaths to those willing to take them; that those who wished to introduce oaths had often declared their willingness to take the said solemn affirmation wherever the life of a subject was not in question: therefore those addressing the Queen prayed her to grant that the affirmation prescribed by Act of Parliament to be taken by Quakers might be allowed to all persons and on all occasions instead of an oath. The Assembly drafted a provincial law to this effect, to be adopted when the Queen showed herself favorable. Evans, on the other hand, issued

a proclamation declaring the judicial proceedings null and void when carried on without oath.

Penn's financial circumstances were by this time distracting. He had paid, but not promptly, some of the interest on the Ford account accruing since April 1, 1697. Ford, however, had seen by the time of Penn's second arrival in America that there would be a default in paying the redemption money on April 1, 1700, and had determined to stand upon the rights which the face of the papers executed between Penn and himself gave him. "Not having the fear of God before his eyes," as many men and many women have not when making their wills, although such action, if unrecalled, will be the parting act of their lives, Philip Ford made a will dated Jany. 21, 1699, speaking of his having purchased Pennsylvania and Delaware, and giving said land to trustees to sell. He made a proviso that, if in Ford's lifetime or within six months after his death, William Penn paid £11134 8s. 3d., and all arrears still due on April 1 following the date of the will, and all other debts due, the trustees should convey the land to Penn: but this proviso, Ford declared to be a voluntary kindness to Penn, and not the result of any obligation. By April 1, 1700, Penn had not by redeeming prevented such a will from becoming operative, and, on April 1, 1701, the lease had expired with the rent about paid up. Ford died on Jany. 8, 1701 (O. S. ?). His widow and children, beneficiaries of his will, had an account stated with Penn, by which he owed on April 1, 1702, £591 8s. 10d. over and above the principal represented by the redemption price. Although he continued to pay at short intervals small amounts, it was impossible for him to pay the principal.

There was, to be sure, a large amount of indebtedness due apparently from Americans for land, Logan holding bonds in 1705 for about 2000l., but the realization of such must await the debtors' pleasure and abil