in accordance with his conciliatory disposition, his own ideals of government, and the spirit of the religious society to which he belonged, to establish a free State and to bring about a practical reconciliation between his own prerogatives and the rights he was willing to accord to the people. But he was virtually a feudal lord and had founded a democracy. No accord between such conflicting principles was possible, as the long contest concerning grants, privileges, salaries, land-titles, taxes and quit-rents abundantly proves.

Not less inharmonious was the relation between the Proprietary and the Crown of England. It was a double-headed rule that could not last, and while it lasted led to appeals, complaints and intrigues, the abrogation of healthful laws, Penn's deprivation of his Government, and its restoration to him with conditions that must have sorely vexed his patience if they did not try his conscience.

The early population of Pennsylvania was heterogenous to an extent unknown in any other colony. There were the descendants. of the ancient Swedish and Dutch settlers on the Delaware; English, Scotch, Welsh and Irish, no better assimilated here than at home; Germans in great numbers, and with widely different political and religious opinions, and a sprinkling of restless spirits from many other countries-the best possible material of which to build a great State, but subject first to a trying but inevitable social and political ferment. The situation was greatly complicated by the conflicting religious opinions entertained by the people. The Friends, most numerous, and schooled by persecution into a tenac-4 ity for their principles that seemed to others almost like blind stubbornness; the plain non-resistant German denominations, in sympathy with them; the Episcopalians, willing at any time to accept and hoping some time to enjoy the privileges held by the Church in the mother country; Lutheran and Calvinistic Germans, Presbyterians, Baptists, Catholics-all were represented by ardent supporters in the infant colony, each bent upon obtaining a foothold and a following.

The Friends, from their relations to the Proprietary, were in the ascendency in the Government; and, until about the time of Braddock's defeat, always constituted the majority in the General Assembly. They were not generally liked by other religious denominations. They had been most bitterly persecuted in England and elsewhere in Europe, and in several of the American colonies;

and the feeling against them even in the Province they had founded, and to the equal privileges of which they had invited their enemies as well as their friends, was far from being cordial. A majority of the Deputy Governors were not members of their Society, and in some instances showed little respect for their tenderness of conscience. Governor Gookin even went so far as to proclaim that under an old English statute which he had exhumed, the Friends were disqualified from giving evidence in criminal cases, sitting on juries and holding office. The unthinking ridiculed their peculiarities of dress, speech and manners; and many well-meaning people, not understanding their objection to taking an oath, scoffed at their scruples and attached little sanctity to their form of solemn affirmation. Some strong men mistook their mild way of doing things for weakness, and their patient sufferance of evil for cowardice. Quakerism made a grand struggle to govern the State it had founded according to its own principles, but the time for such a government had not yet come; many Friends resigned their seats in the Assembly, upon the condemnation of their peaceful policy towards the Indians by the Privy Council of England in 1756; and their last effort to found a nation upon the principle of practical non-resistance expired amid the throes of the Revolutionary war.

The Friends were non-resistants, opposed alike to both offensive and defensive war. This they conceived to be Christ's doctrine, and they thought he meant that Christians should apply it. Their policy preserved peace with the Indians, while all the neighboring colonies were harassed by war. They believed that fair treatment would make that peace perpetual. But New York on one side, and Virginia on the other, were severely pressed by wars with savage tribes, and wanted help. England was a warlike nation, and demanded men and money for military purposes. The Indians maddened by blood shed elsewhere, began to seek revenge upon the peaceful citizens of Pennsylvania, rousing in return among the unprotected settlers in the interior of the State, a determination to meet arms with arms. The Quaker representatives in the Assembly plead the cause of peace, plead the rights of conscience, plead the success of faith well kept even with savages, and when they could do nothing better, resorted to measures which now seem equivocal to save the principle at stake. Their opponents were irritated by delays which they deemed unnecessary, and by a resistance which they thought could arise only from willful obstinacy

or unfeeling indifference; the Governors of the Province were at times filled with rage by votes refusing to comply with their demands on military subjects, or by half-way measures that failed to meet them; and some excited individuals on the borders, whose friends had been murdered and whose property had been destroyed by the savages, threatened to wreak their vengeance upon the men whom they charged with having neglected to provide adequate means of defence. The Friends could not yield without yielding one of the most vital principles of their religion; the war party looked upon it as a question of life or death. This was the issue joined, and, at last, after a struggle of more than fifty years, the friends of peace were outvoted in the Assembly, a military force was organized, the Province made ready to defend itself and punish its enemies by the sword, and the Government soon passed entirely beyond the control of the family and the followers of the founder.

Pending the civil commotion which has just been outlined, awaiting the solution of questions as vital in religion as they are funda-. mental in government, it is hardly to be wondered at that the public schools contemplated in the beginning were overlooked, and that little time could be found by legislators to mature and enact measures relating to a subject like education, requiring close and quiet consideration.

CHAPTER IV.

THE COLONIAL PERIOD, 1682 TO 1776.

EDUCATION PARTIALLY PUBLIC. "THE ACADEMY AND CHARITABLE SCHOOL OF THE PROVINCE OF PENNSYLVANIA," SUBSEQUENTLY THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA. "THE SOCIETY FOR THE PROPAGATION OF CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE AMONG THE GERMANS IN AMERICA." THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF THE CONNECTICUT SETTLERS IN WYOMING.

OWARDS the close of the period of which we are writing there

TOWARDS

occurred several events that have had a marked influence upon the history of education in the State. Harbingers they were of what was to come in the then distant future. Of these it is now appropriate to speak somewhat in detail.

The "Academy and Charitable School of the Province of Pennsylvania," in the course of years the University of Pennsylvania, although established by private citizens, deserves on account of its broad foundation, its liberal purposes and its connection with city and State authorities, to be ranked among public institutions. The' plan of an Academy was drawn up by Benjamin Franklin in 1743, but the project was laid aside soon after on account of the excitement and disturbances growing out of the war between Great Britain and France, in which the colonies were involved. In 1749, Franklin again took up the subject, interested in it some of his personal friends and a number of leading citizens; and to attract public attention wrote and published a pamphlet entitled, "Proposals relative to the Education of Youth in Pennsylvania."

This pamphlet contained matter relating to education as well calculated to attract attention now as then. It proposed that the house for the Academy should be located not far from a river, and have connected with it "a garden, orchard, meadow, and a field or two," and be furnished with "a library, maps of all countries, globes, some mathematical instruments, an apparatus for experiments in natural philosophy and mechanics, prints of all kinds, prospects, buildings and machines." The Rector among other qualifications was to be "a correct, pure speaker of the English tongue." In order

to keep the pupils in health and to strengthen and render active. their bodies, they were to be "frequently exercised in running, leaping, wrestling and swimming." The study of drawing was recommended with "some of the first principles of perspective." The English language was to be taught by grammar and reading some of the best authors; the style of the pupils was to be formed "by writing letters to each other, making abstracts of what they read, or writing the same things in their own words," and a good delivery acquired by "making declamations, repeating speeches, and delivering orations." Reading was to be made serviceable to useful knowledge by introducing the most valuable facts and observations concerning History, Chronology, Ancient Customs, Morality, Religion and Politics. Discussions, oral and written, were suggested as well calculated to "warm the imagination, whet the industry and strengthen the abilities" of the young. "Though all should not be compelled to learn Latin, Greek, or the modern foreign languages, yet none that have an ardent desire to learn them should be refused; their English, Arithmetic, and other studies absolutely necessary, not being neglected." "With the history of men, times and nations. should be read, at proper hours or days, some of the best histories of nature, which would not only be delightful to youth, and furnish them with matter for their letters, as well as other history, but would afterwards be of great use to them, whether they are merchants, handicrafts or divines; enabling the first better to understand many commodities and drugs, the second to improve their trade or handicraft by new mixtures or materials, and the last to adorn their discourses by beautiful comparisons, and strengthen them by new proofs of Divine Providence." And, "while the pupils are reading natural history, might not a little gardening, planting, grafting, and inoculating, be taught and practiced; and, now and then, excursions made to the neighboring plantations of the best farmers, their methods observed and reasoned upon for the information of youth, the improvement of agriculture being useful to all, and skill in it no disparagement to any ?" The plan thus proposed, and especially that part of it which subordinated classical to English studies, met with great favor and generous support.

The result of the agitation thus begun, was the organization of a Board of Trustees to carry the design into effect. Of this Board, Franklin was chosen President. Vacancies in the Board were to be filled by the remaining members, and no member was allowed to