the province, and communicating to the one the same privileges, government, and laws, as the other already enjoyed. Every foreigner who promised allegience to the king, and obedience to the proprietary, was at the same time declared to be a freeman, and entitled to his rights. By the legislative regulation, established as fundamentals by this assembly, factors who wronged their employers were to make satisfaction and one-third over-not only the goods, but the lands of the debtor were subjected to the payment of debts-every thing which excited the people torudeness, cruelty, and irreligion, was to be discouraged and severely punished-no person acknowledging one God, and living peaceably in society, was to be molested for his opinions or practice, or to be compelled to frequent or maintain any ministry whatsoever. It was a principle of the great charter, "that children shall be taught some useful trade, to the end that none may be idle, but the poor may work to live, and the rich, if they become poor may not want."

Penn, dissatisfied with the act of settlement, without difficulty. created a second frame, agreeing partly with the first, modified according to the act of settlement in certain particulars, and in some measure essentially different from both; to which he procured the assent of the next assembly, in 1683; but which in time shared the fate of the former.

[1684.] He departed for England. The most violent dissensions followed almost instantly upon it, the provincial council and the assembly contending eagerly with regard to their mutual privileges and powers. Tranquility was not restored by the duputy governor Blackwell, who entered upon his government in December, 1688.

[1685.] Toward the close of this year Mr. Penn obtained a new grant to the Delaware colony, which he had been soliciting for some time.

[1688.] The Pennsylvanians and their rulers, when Blackwell entered upon his administration, were so much engaged in their own contests and pursuits, and so actuated by the principles of their superior, [the proprietary whose attachments to James II. during those days are well known] that they seem to have disregarded that signal revolution which transferred their allegience and Pennsylvania to the prince and princess of Orange: for the very laws and government of the province were administered in the name of the abdicated monarch, long after William and Mary had been formally proclaimed in other colonies.

It is a singularity in the history of this province, that neither. its various systems, nor its fundamental laws, were commu

nicated

nicated to the king for dissent or approbation, though strongly enforced.*

Penn's adherence to James carried him to such lengths, that he was considered as an inveterate enemy to the protestant establishment, and was for some time excepted out of the acts of grace published by William and Mary; who appointed colonel Fletcher, by the same commission, governor both of New-York and Pennsylvania. In the commission no manner of regard seems to have been had to the original charter. But when the assembly met, though sixteen short in number to what had been before usual, through the change made in the writs, they passed a vote, nem. con. That the laws of this province, which were in force and practice before the arrival of this present governor, are still in force; and that the assembly have a right humbly to move the governor for a continuation or confirmation of the same." That and subsequent assemblies shewed such a fixed determination to secure their rights, that neither governor nor lieutenant governor could bring them to bend to their wishes.

In 1696 Penn had so well managed matters at the court of England, that he was restored to his right of naming a governor; and in the beginning of 1700 he went to Pennsylvania in person. After the meeting of several assemblies, he convened one in September, 1701, and informed them of the indispensable necessity he was under of going to England, to obviate some ill offices. done by his and their enemies with the government there; but offered to do every thing that was in his power to secure to them their privileges and properties. The assmbly, in their answer, expressed their dissatisfaction at the state of both, and required. farther security; to which he gave evasive answers, but offered to leave the nomination of the deputy governor to themselves; they declined it, and went upon a new charter of privileges.

This introduced a breach between the members of the province and those of the territories; the latter insisting upon some particular privileges, which, when refused by the others, made them withdraw from the meeting, and it required all the authority and address of the proprietary to make up the breach. At last, after great heart-burnings on both parts, just when Mr. Penn was about to embark, a charter of privileges was presented to him, and being ratified by him, became the rule of government in Pennsylvania. By this important charter liberty of conscience is granted; and all christians, of whatever denomination, taking the proper oaths of allegiance and fidelity, are enabled to serve the government, either legislatively or executively. The * Chalmers's Annals.

exclusion

exclusion of all persons from the legislative and executive branches, however eminently qualified, and well behaved as members of civil society, unless they are christians, does not accord with that general liberty which ought to prevail in national communities, now that the existance of all theocracy is ended by the introduction of the kingdom of Christ. The piety of the theorist, and the subtilty of the politician, desirous of securing the support of christians, may introduce the exclusion into written or printed agreements, but cannot establish a practical exclusion of persons opposed to christianity. He must be both simple and uninformed, who will not admit, that many deists have served the Pennsylvania and other excluding governments, either legislatively or executively.

By the second article of the charter it is provided, that an assembly shall be yearly chosen by the freemen, to consist of four persons out of cach county, or of a greater number, if the governor and assembly shall so agree, on the 1st of October for ever, and shall sit on the 14th following, with power to choose a speaker and other their officers, and be judges of the qualifications and elections of their own members; shall sit upon their own adjournments, prepare bills, impeach criminals, and redress grievances; and shall possess all other powers and privileges of an assembly, according to the rights of the free-born subjects of England, and the customs observed in any of the king's plantations in America. If any county or counties shall neglect to send deputies, those who meet, provided they are not. fewer in number than two thirds of the whole, shall be considered as the legal representatives of the province.

any

:

By the eighth article, in cases of suicide, all property is to descend to the next heirs, as if the deceased had died a natural death nor is the governor to be entitled to any forfeiture, if a person shall be killed by causualty or accident. The same article provides, that no act, law, or ordinance whatsoever, shall at time hereafter be made, to alter or diminish the form or effect of this charter, or of any part of it, without the consent of the governor for the time being, and six parts in seven of the assembly met that the first article, relating to liberty of consciencc, shall be kept without any alteration inviolably for everand that William Penn, for himself, &c. does solemnly declare, that neither he, &c. shall do any thing whereby the liberties, in this charter contained, nor any part thereof, shall be infringed; and that if any thing shall be done by any person contrary thereto, it shall be held of no effect.

This new constitution differed greatly from the original.The governor might nominate his own council, and he was left

single in the executive part of the government, and had liberty to restrain the legislative, by refusing his assent to their bills. The assembly, on the other hand, acquired the important privilege of propounding laws, as well as of amending or rejecting them; but though this new constitution was thankfully accepted by the province, it was unanimously rejected by the territories; and affairs stood in this untoward state when the proprietary sailed for England. The representatives of the province and those of the territories divided, and acted as two distinct bodies; and the attempts to unite them proved ineffectual.

The territories consisted of the three counties, Newcastle, Kent, and Susser, on the Delaware, and are commonly known by the name of the three Lower Counties on the Delaware.

Notwithstanding Mr. Penn is celebrated as the wisest of legislators, the assembly, about the year 1704, unanimously came to -nine resolutions, in which they complain with great grief of him, "for undermining his own foundations; and by a subtle contrivance, laid deeper than the capacities of some could fathom, finding a way to lay aside the act of settlement, and dissove his second charter."* He was likewise charged with having extorted from the province great sums of money. They complained also of the abuses of surveyors, the clerks of the courts, and justices of the peace, who, they said, were all put in by the proprietary, so that he became his own judge in his own cause.These and other matters were the heads of a representation, or rather remonstrance, drawn up and sent to Mr. Penn, then in England, in which he is represented as an oppressor, and as falsifying his word in almost every respect, with the provincials.+ The disputes which subsisted in Pennsylvania were greatly augmented by the intemperance of the quakers themselves, who, notwithstanding all their zeal for liberty of conscience, persecuted about or soon after 1694, George Keith (who had been one of their most famous preachers) upon his conforming to the church of England; and went so far as to throw him into prison. They apoligized for their conduct by pleading, that they did not punish him for his religious principles, but for having insulted the civil government. If this was a good plea, the New-Englanders. might gain great advantages from it, in vindicating themselves as to many of the severities they practised upon the quakers, who insulted their civil governments, beyond what will be easily crcdited by those who have not had the opportunity of knowing the

* Chalmers's Annals, p. 654

†The Modern Univerfal. Hiftory, vol. xli. p. 19. 1764.

Ibid. p. 2o.

transactions

transactions of that period, or are not acquainted with the abusive language of some of the then leaders of that denomination-language which the body of modern quakers will not vindicate.

It only remains to give a concise account of the settlement of Georgia.

In 1732 a number of gentlemen, considering the vast benefit that might arise from the tract of land lying between the Savannah and the river Altamahat petitioned the king for a charter, which was accordingly granted on the ninth of June. They meant that the country should be made a bulwark for the southern colonies against the Spaniards; and should give employment to numbers of people who were burthensome at home to their friends and parishes. The charter constituted them a corporation, by the name of trustees for establishing a colony, by the name of Georgia, including the country from the most northern stream of the Savannah, to the most southern stream of the Altamaha. The corporation was to subsist for 21 years; and after the expiration of that term, the governor and all officers were to be appointed by the crown.

Toward the end of August, Sir William Heathcote recommended in the strongest terms, to the directors of the bank, the interests of the colony. His speech had the desired effect, and the members of the court, after his example, contributed largely toward the undertaking, as did great numbers of the nobility, gentry, clergy, and others; and the parliament granted £.10,000. By the beginning of November, about a hundred and sixteen colonists presented themselves, most of them labouring people; and were furnished with working tools of all kinds, stores, and small arms. Mr. Oglethorpe, one of the trustees, generously attended the first set of emigrants to Carolina, where they arrived in good health on the 15th of January, 1733. The Carolinians made them a present of 100 breeding cattle, besides hogs, and twenty barrels of rice; and furnished them with a party of horse and with scout boats, by the help of which they reached the Savannah, where Mr. Oglethorpe, ten miles up the river, pitched upon a spot for a town; and on February the 9th, the building of the first house commenced. The colonists were most generously assisted by the Carolinians and their governor, cololonel Bull, not only with their purses, but their labour, in raising the new town, named Savannah, from the river.

Mr. Oglethorpe was waited upon by a numerous deputation from the Lower Creek Nation, with whom he concluded a treaty; and soon after set out for Charles-Town, on his return to England, where he arrived in 1734, bringing with him several Indian chiefs and a war captain. But before the end of March