lifhed as aforefaid, fhall within five Years after the making thereof, be tranfmitted and delivered to the Privy Council for the Time being; and if declared by the King in Council, inconfiftent with the Sovereignty or lawful Prerogative of the Crown, or contrary to the Faith and Allegiance due to the legal Government of this Realm, fhall be adjudged void.

The fald William Penn is alfo obliged to have an Attorney or Agent to be his refident Reprefentative at fome known Place in London, who is to be anfwerable to the Crown for any Mifdemeanor committed, or wilful Default or Neglect, permitted by the faid Penn against the Laws of Trade and Navigation; and to defray the Damages in his Majefty's Courts afcertained; and in cafe of Failure, the Government to be refum'd and retain'd till Payment has been made, without any Prejudice however in any Refpect to the Landholders or Inhabitants, who are not to be affected or molefted thereby.

His Majefty moreover covenants and grants to and with the faid William Penn, in the twentieth Section, for himself, his Heirs and Succeffors, at no Time thereafter to impofe or levy any Tax on the Inhabitants in any Shape, unlefs the fame be with the Confent of the Proprietary or chief Governor, or Affembly, or by Act of Parliament in England.

On Pain of his highest Displeasure, he alfo commands all his Officers and Minifters, that they do not prefume at any Time to attempt any Thing to the στο contrary of the Premifes, or that they do in any Sort withstand the fame: And, on the contrary, injoins them, to be at all Times aiding and affifting, as was fitting, to the faid William Penn and his Heirs, and unto the Inhabitants and Merchants of the Province aforefaid, their Servants, Minifters, Factors and Af figns, in the full Ufe and Fruition of the Benefit of the faid Charter.

And in the laft Place, a Provifion is made, by the King's fpecial Will, Ordinance and Command, that, in cafe any Doubt or Question fhould thereafter per

chance

chance arife, concerning the true Senfe or Meaning of any Word, Claufe, or Sentence contained therein, fuch Interpretation fhould be made thereof and allowed in any of his Majefty's Courts, as should be adjudged moft advantageous and favourable to the faid William Penn, his Heirs and Affigns; pro vided always, That no Interpretation be admitted thereof, by which the Allegiance due to the Crown, may fuffer any Prejudice or Diminution.

The Whole confifts of twenty three, Sections; of which, it is prefumed, thefe are the most material. They are penned with all the Appearance of Candour and Simplicity imaginable; fo that if Craft had any Thing to do with them, never was Craft better hid.-As little is left as poffible to future Inftructions, and no where is there to be found the Shadow of a Pretence, That fuch Inftructions should be Laws. All is equally agreeable to Law and Reafon, the Claims of the Crown and the Rights of the Subject; nor, indeed, would the Grant have been valid if it had been otherwife. The Words legal Government are Words of great Significancy. No Command of the King's is a legal Command, unless confonant to Law, and authenticated by one of his Seals. The Forms of Office in fuch Cafe providing, That nothing illegal fhall be carried into Execution; and the Officer himfelf being refponfible to the Laws in Cafe of yielding a criminal Obedience.

It would therefore be a Waste of Words to fhew, That the Crown is limited in all Acts and Grants by: the Fundamentals of the Conftitution; and that, as it cannot alienate any one Limb or Joint of the State, fo neither, on the other, can it establish any Colony upon, or contract it within, a narrower Scale, than the Subject is intitled to by the great Charter of England.

But if it is remarkable, That fuch an Inftrument as this fhould be the Growth of an arbitrary Court, it is equally fo, That the King's Brother, James, Duke

Duke of York (afterwards the most unhappy of Kings) was at the Rebound, a Party in it: For it feems, the Right to all that Tract of Land now called the Territories of Pennsylvania, was, by a prior Grant, vefted in him; and, in August 1682, he affigned it by his Deeds of Feoffment to the faid William Penn.

It may also be inferred, That the faid William Penn had been as diligent in collecting a Number of proper Adventurers together, as in obtaining the neceffary Authorities from the Crown: For in the Interval between the Charter and the Grant he made Use of the provisional Powers given him by the fixth Section of the Former, to pafs his firft Deed of Settlement under the Title of "Certain Conditions, or "Conceffions, agreed upon by William Penn, Pro

prietary and Governor of Pennsylvania, and those "who are the Adventurers and Purchasers in the fame ". Province."

This, however, contains only Rules of Settlement and of Trade with, and Treatment of, the Indians, &c. with the Addition of fome general Injunctions for preferving of Order and keeping the Peace, agreeable to the Customs, Ufages and Laws of England.

In the next Year following, Mr. Penn printed and published a Syftem of Government under the following Title, to Wit," The Frame of the Government "of the Province of Pennfylvania in America: to"gether with certain Laws agreed upon in England,

by the Governor and divers Freemen of the aforefaid Province. To be farther explained and con"firmed there by the first Provincial Council, if they "fee meet"

At the Head of this Frame, or Syftem, is a fhort preliminary Difcourfe, Part of which ferves to give us a more lively Idea of Mr. Penn preaching in Grace-Church-Street, than we derive from Raphael's Cartoon of Paul preaching at Athens: As a Man of Confcience he fets out; as a Man of Reafon he pro

ceeds;

ceeds; and as a Man of the World he offers the most plausible Conditions to all, to the End that he might gain fome.

Two Paragraphs of this Difcourfe, the People of Pennsylvania ought to have for ever before their Eyes: To wit, 1. "Any Government is free to the People "(whatever be the Frame) where the Laws rule and "the People are a Party to thofe Laws: And more "than this is Tyranny, Oligarchy, or Confufion." "To fupport Power in Reverence with the People, and to fecure the People from the Abuse of "Power, that they may be free by their juft Obe"dience, and the Magiftrates honourable for their juft "Administration, are the great Ends of all Govern"ment."

2.

This Frame confifted of twenty-four Articles, and favoured very strongly of Harrington and his Oceana. In the Governor and Freemen of the Province, in the Form of a provincial Council always in being and yet always changing, and General Affembly, the Government was placed. By them conjunctively, all Laws were to be made, all Officers a pointed, and all publick Affairs tranfacted. Seventy-two was the Number this Council was to confift of: They were to be chofen by the Freemen; and, tho' the Governor or his Deputy was to be perpetual Prefident, he had but a treble Vote. One Third of them was, at the first, to be chofen for three Years, one Third for two Years, and one Third for one Year; in fuch Manner that there fhould be an annual Succeffion of twenty-four new Members, &c. The General Affembly was at first to confift of all the Freemen, afterwards of two hundred, and never was to exceed five hundred.

The Laws agreed upon in England were in alt forty partly political, partly moral, and partly ceconomical. They are of the Nature of an original Compact between the Proprietary and the Freemen, and as fuch were reciprocally received and executed.

But in the following Year the Scene of Action being thifted from the Mother Country to the Colony, the Deportment of the Legiflator was fhifted too. Lefs of the Man of God now appeared, and more of the Man of the World.

One Point he had already carried againft the Inclination of his Followers; namely, the Refervation of Quit-Rents, which they had remonstrated against as a Burden in itself, and, added to the PurchaseMoney, was without Precedent in any other Colony But he artfully diftinguishing the two Capacities of Proprietary and Governor; and infinuating, That Government must be fupported with Splendor and Dignity, and that by this Expedient they would be exempt from other Taxes; the Bait took and the Point was carried.

To unite the Subtlety of the Serpent with the Innocence of the Dove is not fo eafily done as faid. Having in this Inftance experienced the Weight of his Credit and the Power of his Perfuafion, he was no fooner landed, than he formed a double Scheme for uniting the Province with the Territory, tho' it does not appear he was properly authorifed fo to do, and to fubftitute another Frame of Government in Lieu of the Former, which having anfwered the great Purpofe of Inducement here at Home, for collecting of Subjects, he was now inclined to render. fomewhat more favorable to himfelf in Point of Government.

༤

Of much Artifice we find him accufed (by the Provincial Affembly of 1704, in a Reprefentation addreffed to himfelf) in the whole Courfe of this Proceeding: Whether juftly or not let the World determine.

They tell him, for Example, in fo many Words, "That we find by the Minutes of the Affembly and "other Papers, as well as living Witneffes, That, "foon after thy firft Arrival here, Thou, having "obtained the Duke's Grant for the three lower "Counties [the Territory that is to say] prevailed

" with