time, and place, and the public good. And with regard to the addition lately made to Philadelphia, it could afford no just cause of complaint. He had bought the land there of the old inhabitants, the Swedes. This had enabled him to add eight hundred acres to the city, and a mile on a navigable river. What he had thus bought, he had given freely to the public; though, had he retained it, considering its situation, it had been of extraordinary advantage to himself. But he could not," he said, "hope to please all." Thus we see that the best of men have their enemies; and that, where prejudice has once taken root in the mind, every thing is viewed through a false medium. The good that is connected with it is diminished, and the evil magnified: nay, the very name and nature of the thing are changed; so that avarice itself is fixed upon the most generous and patriotic motives.

CHAP

CHAPTER XXI.

A. 1685-gives an account of the death of Charles the Second-is in great favour with James the Secondhas frequent interviews with the King-endeavours to stop persecution-intercedes for John Locke-becomes unpopular by his attendance at Court-called Papist and Jesuit-correspondence between him and Tillotson on this subject-present at two public executions—affairs of Pennsylvania-irregularities and abuses in his absence-writes over to correct them—Assembly impeach Moore and arrest Robinson-their letter to him on the subject.

WILLIAM PENN had two objects in view, as I observed before, in returning to England. The first and most important was to try to stop, if possible, the cruel arm of persecution; and the second was to procure a speedy adjustment of the difference between him and the Lord Baltimore. With respect to the first, he had made some little progress in it, having obtained a sort of promise from the King that he would do something in behalf of those whose cause he pleaded; and with respect to the second, he brought it to a final issue. The Lords' Committee of Plantations, having inspected the grants and heard the evidence on both

sides, made their report to the King; and the King decided, that the land should be divided into two equal parts. The part on the Chesapeake was to be given to the Lord Baltimore. The part on the Delaware was to relapse to the Crown. This latter part, however, was ultimately intended for William Penn.

Soon after this the King died of an apoplexy. William Penn, in one of his letters written at this time to Thomas Lloyd, whom he had left President of his Provincial Council, gives an account of his death; and as there are some curious particulars in it relative to the King himself and those about him, as well as to what passed both in and out of Court, at the time, which he, from his frequent access to the Royal Family since his arrival in England, had an opportunity of knowing, I shall lay an extract from it before the reader.

"The King is dead, and the Duke succeeds peaceably. He was well on the first day (Sunday) night. About eight next morning, as he sat down to shave, his head twitched both ways or sides; and he gave a shriek and fell as dead, and so remained

some

some hours. They opportunely blooded and cupped him, and plied his head with red-hot frying-pans. He returned (revived) and continued till sixth day noon, but mostly in great tortures. He seemed very penitent, asking pardon of all, even the poorest subject he had wronged, prayed for pardon, and to be delivered out of the world, the Duke appearing mighty humble and sorrowful.

He was an able man for a divided and troubled kingdom. The present King was proclaimed about three o'clock that day. A Proclamation followed, with the King's Speech to maintain the Church and State as established, to keep property and use clemency. Tonnage and Poundage, with the Excise, are revived de bene esse till the Parliament meet

One is now choosing-The people of Westminster just gone by to chooseIt sits the nineteenth of the third month next. In Scotland one next month. Severities continue still, but some ease to us faintly promised.Be careful that no indecent speeches pass against the Government, for the King going with his Queen publicly to mass in Whitehall gives occasion. He declared he concealed himself

to

to obey his brother, and that now he would be aboveboard; which We like the better on many accounts. I was with him, and told him so; but withal hoped We should come in for a share. He smiled, and said he

desired not that peaceable people should be disturbed for their religion. And till his coronation, the twenty-third, when he and his consort are together to be crowned, no hopes of release; and till the Parliament, no hopes of any fixed liberty. I would hope, is better.

of

My business, The late King, the Papists will have, died a Roman Catholic; for he refused (after his usual way evading uneasy things, with unpreparedness first, and then weakness) the Church of England's Communion, Bishop Ken of Wells pressing him, that it would be to his comfort and that of his people to see he died of that religion he had made profession of when living; but it would not do. And once, all but the Duke, Earl of Bath, and Lord Feversham, were turned out; and one Huddlestone, a Romish priest, was seen about that time near the chamber.This is most of our news.The Popish Lords and Gentry go to Whitehall to mass daily; and the Tower,

VOL. I.

2 F

or