of harmony and union among his friends. After recounting, in a letter to a friend, the several changes which he had made in the administration of government, upon the advice and at the suggestion of his people, he exclaims: "What could be tenderer? Now I perceive Thomas Lloyd is chosen by the three Upper, but not the three Lower, Counties, and sits down with his broken choice. This has grieved and wounded me and mine, I fear to the hazard of all. Whatever the morals of the Lower Counties are, it was embraced as a mercy that we got and united them to the Province; and a great charter ties them, and this particular ambition has broken it. . . . Had they learned what this means, I will have mercy and not sacrifice, there had been no breaches nor animosities there till I had come, at least."

.

The immediate evils which the Proprietor had anticipated from the separation did not arise, for the government was administered with more harmony and efficiency than it had been before since his departure. But, though unexpectedly relieved of difficulty in one direction, there came in another what proved of more injury to the colony than any evil which had hitherto existed. It was a schism in the Church. This, to a religion whose cardinal tenet is peace and good will, was especially vexatious. It was incited by George Keith, who, after having taught in the public school for a year, had entered the ministry. Of quick and acute perceptions, and well instructed in the doctrines of his Church, but with little skill or moderation in the management of affairs, he was disposed to push his logistics to absurd conclusions. He was, moreover, of an irascible and intemperate disposition, heaping abuse upon his opponents in public assemblies and by inflammatory pamphlets. He held that there was too great a slackness in the discipline of the Church; that members thereof could not consistently serve as magistrates in criminal jurisprudence. Upon small provocations, if any, he called his brethren in the ministry, "fools, ignorant heathens, lyers, heretics, rotten ranters, muggletonians." Of Lloyd he declared that "he was not fit to be a governor, and that his

name would stink." A considerable party in the Church followed him, and Keith proclaimed himself at the head of the true Society of Quakers, stigmatizing all others as apostates.

After submitting to the intemperate conduct of Keith until forbearance seemed no longer to be a virtue, a declaration or testimony of denial was drawn up against him at a meeting of the ministers of Philadelphia, which was confirmed at the next general Yearly Meeting. From the force of this decree, which was in effect an act of expulsion, he appealed to the Society in London, where he appeared in person in his own defence; but so wrathful and intemperate did he show himself, that the action of the Philadelphia meeting was confirmed. He subsequently became a bitter enemy of the Quakers, and withdrawing entirely from them, joined the Church of England, and was ordained a clergyman by the Bishop of London. After officiating in England, in America, and again in England, he finally died an unhappy man, declaring on his death-bed, "I wish I had died when I was a Quaker! for then I am sure it would have been well with my soul."

The inquiry naturally arises, while contemplating the troubles which were experienced in the administration of the Government, and in the affairs of the Church, why the Proprietor, whose personal influence in his Colony and in his Church was puissant, withheld his presence. The necessity which kept him in England seems to have been a matter of deep regret to him; but a combination of circumstances beyond his control-apparently interpositions of Providence-barred his return. In a letter to Lloyd of the 14th of April, 1691, he says: "It has been [my absence] 20,000 pounds to my damage in the country, and above 10,000 pounds here, and to the Province 500 families; but the wise God that can do what He pleases, as well as see what is in man's heart, is able to requite all; and I am persuaded that all shall work together for good in this very thing, if we can overlook all that stands in the way of our

views Godward in public matters. See that all be done prudently and humbly, and keep down irreverence and looseness, and cherish industry and sobriety."

The principal causes of his detention may be briefly recited. On the 6th of December, 1684, soon after his return to England, Charles II., from whom Penn had received his original charter, died suddenly of apoplexy. Charles was succeeded by his brother James, Duke of York. James proved to be a bigoted Catholic, though, on ascending the throne, he had made most fair promises of protection to all classes of worshiping Christians. James had been a friend to Penn, and it was through his influence that Pennsylvania had been granted to him. When James came to power, Penn had his ear, and daily visited White Hall. The King's intolerance finally grew to such a pitch, and so many were brought to the scaffold for opinion's sake, that the respect and confidence of the great mass of the English people was lost, and when on the fifth of November, William, the Prince of Orange, who had married a daughter of James, landed upon the English coast, he was received with open arms, and William and Mary were declared King and Queen, James retiring to France. The mere fact of the intimacy of Penn with James brought him under the displeasure of the new reigning party, and he was held to bail to answer charges of complicity with the deposed monarch in his highhanded practices. These vexatious suits, prolonged from term to term of court, though void of proof, would not admit of his honorable departure. At the Michaelmas term of 1690 he was cleared by the King's Bench Court, sitting at Westminster, of the charge of adhering to the kingdom's enemies. Immediately thereafter, he published proposals for a new colony which he designed to lead in person. So numerous was the promise of this colony that a convoy had been granted for it by the Secretary of State; but, before it was ready to depart, fresh charges were brought against Penn, and he was obliged to abandon his project and again prepare for trial and its many delays.

BENJ

CHAPTER III.

UNDER THE CROWN OF ENGLAND, 1693-95.

ENJAMIN FLETCHER. WILLIAM MARKHAM, Deputy Governor, April, 1693, to March, 1695.-Though enjoying the respect of King William, Penn was, nevertheless, regarded with disfavor by the party in power, and every opportunity was seized by his enemies to defeat his designs. Prevented thus by false accusations from joining his colony, while troubles were fomented among his people during his absence, he was finally brought to the humiliation of seeing his authority in his Province wrested from him and given to another. On the 21st of October, 1692, a commission was issued by William and Mary, to Benjamin Fletcher, Governor of New York, directing him to assume the government of the Province and Territories of Pennsylvania. Fletcher did not receive the commission until some months later, and on the 19th of April, 1693, wrote to Governor Lloyd, that he should commence his journey to Philadelphia on the following Monday, and desiring that notice of his coming should be given to the principal freeholders, when their Majesties' commands would be communicated to them.

Fletcher came dressed in all the pomp and splendor of royalty, attended by a numerous retinue, gorgeously bedecked with feathers and gold lace, to whom the government was surrendered without opposition or remonstrance. The subserviency of Lloyd and Markham, on the occasion, was sharply censured by Penn, who also wrote to Fletcher, “cautioning him to beware of meddling," and reminding him of his "particular obligation to him." Fletcher immediately summoned the Assembly, but in doing so, raised the opposi

tion of the Council, which began to badger him with remonstrances, alleging that, by the charter of Charles II., Penn was empowered to make laws for the government of the Province, and that under that charter, provision had been made for the meeting of the Assembly on the 10th of January, and protesting against calling it for legislative purposes at any other time. The Assembly, however, met, and the members being duly qualified, Fletcher demanded money to meet expenses which had been incurred in defending Albany against the French and Indians, the French being at this time at war with the English; and Count Frontignac, the governor of Canada, having incited the Indians to join him. in hostilities, Fletcher fortified his demand by a letter from Queen Mary, in which she expressed her will and pleasure that all the Colonies, upon the application of the governor of New York, should contribute men and money for the defence of the threatened frontier. The Assembly was careful of its privileges, stubbornly resisting any infringement thereof; but finally passed a rate bill of a penny a pound for the support of government, and a poll-tax of six shillings, which yielded over seven thousand pounds. A number of bills were passed, and laws already in force confirmed, when, the business having been completed, Fletcher appointed William Markham as his Deputy Governor, dissolved the Assembly at their request, and departed to his own Colony. Fletcher occasionally visited the Colony, and again met the Assembly in the following year, when he addressed them with many honeyed words in his message, saying, "that he considered their principles, that they could not carry arms, nor levy money to make war, though for their own defence, yet he hoped they would not refuse to feed the hungry, and clothe the naked; that was, to supply the Indian nations with such necessaries, as may influence their continued friendship to these Provinces."

On the 10th of July, 1694, Thomas Lloyd, after a sickness of a malignant fever of only six days' continuance, died in the fifty-fourth year of his age. He was born in Montgom