mitted within five year to the king in council, and the acts might be declared void within fix months, if not approved.

The novel introduction of the clause subjecting the inhabitants of Pennsylvania to taxation by act of parliament, might afford an argument against being so taxed, to all the colonies whose charters contained no such clause. Dr. Franklin being asked, when examined by the house of commons, in the time of the stamp act, "Secing their is in the Pennsylvania charter, an express reservation of the right of parliament to lay taxes there, how could the assembly assert, that laying a tax on them by the stamp act was an infringement on their rights? answered, "They understand it thus-by the same charter and otherwise they are enti tled to all the privileges and liberties of Englishmen. They find in the great charters and the petition and declaration of rights, that one of the privileges of English subjects is, that they are not to be taxed but by their own consent: they have therefore relied upon it, from the first settlement, that the parliament never would or could, by colour of that clause, tax them till it had qualified itself for the exercise of such right, by admitting representatives from the people to be taxed." You will recollect governor Nicholson's writing in 1698, "a great many people in all the colonies, especially in those under proprietaries, think that no law of England ought to be binding to them without their own consent: for they foolishly say, they have no representatives sent from themselves to the parliament of England." [p. 39.]

The Pennsylvanians, it may be noted, were not declared by the patent to be English subjects. There was no express stipu lation, as had been inserted in all the other colonial patents, "that the Pennsylvanians and their descendants should be considered as subjects born within the realm;" for the lawyers who revised it, considered such declaratious as nugatory, since they were inferred by law.* If the right of the English parliament to tax the colonies could also have been inferred by law, why was not the express reservation of that right considered likewise as nugatory.

In May, Penn detached Mr. Markham, his kinsman, with a small emigration, in order to take possession of the country, and prepare it for a more numerous colony. Care was taken to orderan humane attention to the rights of the Indians.

[1628] The frame of government for Pennsylvania was published in April. It was forced from the proprietary by friends, who would not have settled his country, unless gratified in whatever they demanded. It underwent a similar fate with Chalmers's Political Annals, under the head of Pennsylvania.

the

the constitutions of Locke; and after a variety of alterations, was at length wholly laid aside, and a simpler form established. As a supplement to the frame, there was published, in the subsequent May, a body of laws agreed upon in England by the adventurers, which was intended as a great charter, and does honor to their wisdom as statesmen, to their morals as men, and to their spirit as colonists.

Mr. Penn, desirous of carrying his religion southward to the Chesapeak, was continually soliciting the duke of York, for a grant of the Delaware colony. The prince at length wearied out, conveyed, in August, the town of Newcastle, with a territory of twelve miles round; as also that tract of land extending southward from it upon the Delaware to Cape-Henlopen. It was known to both parties, that the title of what was now granted was extremely exceptionable, as the duke could transfer no other right than mere occupancy in opposition to the legal claim. of lord Baltimore. Penn, however, who was intent on his own interest in those parts, immediately assumed the powers of ju

risdiction.

When, for the first time, he arrived on the banks of the Delaware, October the 24th, he found them inhabited by 3,000 persons, composed of Swedes, Dutch, Finlanders and English. Not only his own colonists, but the rest, received him with joy and respect. He was accompanied thither by about 2,000 emigrants, who being either quakers or other dissenters, wished to enjoy their peculiarities and religion, in a country that offered a peaceful asylum to the persecuted. Mr. Penn immediately entered into a treaty With the Indians, and, agreeable to the bishop of London's counsel, purchased from them as much of the soil as the circumstances of the colony required, for a price that gave them satisfaction: he also settled with them a very kind Correspondence. In December, he convened the first assembly at Chester, consiting of seventy-two delegates from the six counties, into which they had divided Pennsylvania and the Delaware colony, soon after denominated the territories. The inhabitants proposed that the deputies might serve both for the provincial council and general assembly; three out of every county for the former, and nine for the latter. Their proposals were passed by the assembly without hesitation into an act of settlement. The persons returned were declared to be the legal council and assembly, and every county was empowered to send the same number in future, which in the same manner should constitute the legislature; and after the addition of a few other explanations, the modified frame of government was solemnly recognized and accepted. Then an act was passed, annexing the territories to VOL. I.

I

the

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 afreeman, andentitled 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 cagerly 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 scrve the government, either legislatively or executively. The

* Chalmers's Annale.

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 writ ten 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 each 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.

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 any time hereafter be made, to alter or diminish the form or cffect 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 conscience, 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