meeting. The patriarch George Fox hearing of his great reputation, came to London (tho the journey was very long) purely to fee and converfe with him. Both refolv'd to go upon miffions into foreign countries, and accordingly they embark'd for Holland, after having left labourers fufficient to take care of the London vineyard.

THEIR labours were crown'd with fuccefs in Amfterdam; but a circumstance, which reflected the greatest honour on them, and at the fame time put their humility to the greatest trial, was the reception they met with from Elizabeth the princess Palatine, aunt to George the first of Great Britain, a lady confpicuous for her genius and knowledge, and to whom Des Cartes had dedicated his Philofophical Ro

mance.

SHE was then retir'd to the Hague, where fhe receiv'd thefe friends, for fo the Quakers were at that time call'd in Holland. This princefs had feveral conferences with them in her palace, and fhe at last entertain'd fo favourable an opinion of Quakerifm, that they confefs'd fhe was not far from the kingdom of heaven. The friends. fow'd likewife the good feed in Germany, but reap'd very little fruit; for the mode of Thee-ing and Thou-ing was not approv'd of in a country, where a man is perpetually oblig'd to employ the titles of highnefs and

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excellency. William Pen return'd foon to England, upon hearing of his father's ficknefs, in order to fee him before he died. The vice-admiral was reconcil'd to his fon, and tho' of a different perfuafion, embrac'd him tenderly. William made a fruitless exhortation to his father not to receive the facrament, but to die a Quaker; and the good old man intreated his fon William to wear buttons on his fleeves, and a crape hatband in his beaver; but all to no purpose.

WILLIAM PEN inherited very large poffeffions, part of which confifted in crown debts, due to the vice-admiral for fums he had advanc'd for the fea-service. No monies were at that time more fecure than those owing from the king. Pen was oblig'd to go more than once, and Thee and Thou king Charles and his minifters, in order to recover the debt; and at laft, inftead of fpecie, the government invested him with the right and fovereignty of a province of America, to the fouth of Maryland. Thus was a Quaker rais'd to fovereign power. Pen fet fail for his new dominions with two fhips freighted with Quakers, who follow'd his fortune. The country was then call'd Pensilvania, from William Pen, who there founded Philadelphia, now the most flourishing city in that country. The first step he took was to en

ter

ter into an alliance with his American neighbours; and this is the only treaty between thofe people and the Chriftians that was not ratified by an oath, and was never infring'd. The new fovereign was at the fame time the legiflator of Pensilvania, and enacted very wife and prudent laws, none of which have ever been chang'd fince his time. The first is, to injure no perfon upon a religious account, and to confider as brethren all those who believe in one God.

He had no fooner fettled his government, but several American merchants came and peopled this colony. The natives of the country, inftead of flying into the woods, cultivated, by infenfible degrees, a friendship with the peaceable Quakers. They lov'd thefe foreigners as much as they detefted the other Chriftians who had conquer'd and laid wafte America. In a little time, a great number of these favages (falfely fo call'd) charm'd with the mild and gentle disposition of their neighbours, 'came in crowds to William Pen, and befought him to admit them into the number of his vaffals. 'Twas very rare and uncommon for a fovereign to be Thee'd and Thou'd by the meaneft of his fubjects, who never took their hats off when they came into his prefence; and as fingular for a government to be without one priest in it, and for a people to be without arms, either of

fenfive

fenfive or defenfive; for a body of citizens to be abfolutely undistinguish'd but by the publick employments, and for neighbours not to entertain the leaft jealousy one against another.

WILLIAM PEN might glory in having brought down upon earth the fo much boasted golden age, which in all probability never existed but in Penfilvania. He returned to England to fettle fome affairs relating to his new dominions. After the death of king Charles the fecond, king James, who had lov'd the father, indulg'd the fame affection to the fon, and no longer confider'd him as an obfcure Sectary, but as a very great man. The king's politicks on this occafion agreed with his inclinations. He was defirous of pleafing the Quakers, by annulling the laws made against Nonconformists, in order to have an opportunity, by this univerfal toleration, of eftablishing the Romish religion. All the fectarifts in England faw the fnare that was laid for them, but did not give into it; they never failing to unite when the Romish religion, their common enemy, is to be oppos'd. But Pen did not think himself bound in any manner to renounce his principles, merely to favour Proteftants, to whom he was odious, in opposition to a king who lov'd him. He had establish'd an univerfal toleration with regard to confcience,

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fcience, in America, and wou'd not have it thought that he intended to destroy it in Europe; for which reafon he adhered fo inviolably to king James, that a report prevail'd univerfally of his being a Jefuit. This calumny affected him very strongly, and he was obliged to justify himself in print. However, the unfortunate king James the fecond, in whom, as in moft princes of the Stuart family, grandeur and weaknefs were equally blended; and who, like them, as much overdid fome things as he was short in others, loft his kingdom in a manner that is hardly to be accounted for.

ALL the English fectarists accepted from William the third and his parliament, the toleration and indulgence which they had refus'd when offer'd by King James. 'Twas then the Quakers began to enjoy, by virtue of the laws, the several privileges they poffefs at this time. Pen having at last feen Quakerifm firmly establifh'd in his native country, went back to Penfilvania. His own people and the Americans receiv'd him with tears of joy, as tho' he had been a father who was return'd to vifit his children. All the laws had been religiously obferv'd in his abfence, a circumstance in which no legiflator had ever been happy but himself. After having refided fome years in Penfilvania, he left it, but with

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