"Secondly, that dissolution and prorogation, and calling assemblies by his writs, impowered by his commission to his present deputy, and his orders to his former deputies and commissioners of state, are contrary to the said charters.

"Thirdly, that he has had great sums of money last time he was here, for negotiating the confirmation of our laws, and for making good terms at home for the people of this province, and ease his friends here of oaths, &c. but we find none of our laws are confirmed, nor any relief against oaths; but an order from the queen to require oaths to be administered, whereby the quakers are disabled to sit in courts.

Fifthly, that we are like to be remediless in every thing that he hath not particularly granted, or made express provision for; because the present deputy calls it a great hardship upon him, and some of the council urge it as absurd and unreasonable to desire or expect any enlargement or explanation by him, of what the proprietary granted.

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Sixthly, that we are also left remediless in this, that when we are wronged and oppressed about our civil rights, by the proprietary, we cannot have justice done us; because the clerk of the court being of his own putting in, refuses to make out any process; and the justices, by and before whom our causes against him should be tried, are of his own appointment; by means whereof, he becomes judge in his own case, which is against natural equity.

"Seventhly, that sheriffs and other officers of the greatest trust in this government, which the proprietary hath commissionated, being men of no visible estates; and if any of them have given security, it was to himself; so that the people whom these officers have abused and defrauded, can reap no benefit of such security.

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Eighthly, that although the commissioners of property have power by their commission to make satisfaction where people have not their full quantity of land according to their purchase, yet they neglect and delay doing right in that behalf.

"Ninthly, that we charge the proprietary not to surrender the government, taking notice of the intimation he had given of making VOL. II....C

And they ordered a representation to be drawn up consequent thereto, and sent by the first opportunity.

Parts of this are already before us; and, as a suggestion was afterwards made, that it contained other matter than was comprehended in the articles, the remainder deserves to be inserted here.

"That upon thy being restored to the government, thou required thy lieutenant to govern us according to charter, which, by reason of Fletcher's interruption, became impossible before thy orders reached us, and so the government fell under great confusion again: nor was the administration of thy propriety much better managed, because thou put some in that commission with whom the rest would not act; and at last the office of property and surveyor-general came to be shut up, and thou kept them so whilst thou sold lands to the value of about two thousand pounds sterling, and gave thy warrants in England for surveying the said land; and also got great tracts of land laid out or secured for thyself and relations, besides several valuable parcels which should have been laid out for the purchase, but were reserved by thy surveyors, whether for thee or themselves we know not however thou appropriated those lands to thyself, by the name of concealed lands, whereas in truth they were concealed from the purchasers, who were to have their lands laid out contiguous one to another, and no vacancies left between them: and thou wast to have only thy tenth, as it fell, according to the concessions thou made with thy first adventurers; and if thou took it not up so, it was thy own (not their) fault; but the other was a manifest injury to many of them as above declared.

"That upon thy last arrival here, after all the hardships and disappointments we had laboured under, we hoped to enjoy the fruits of thy former promises and engagements; but instead of that, we found thee very full of resentment, and many of our applications and addresses, about our just rights and properties, were answered by recriminations or bitter invectives: and we found that the false insinuations and reproaches, that our adversaries had cast upon the province, with respect to false trade and harbouring pirates, had made so great an impression upon thee, that thou rather believed them than thy honest friends.

"And when thou entered upon legislation, thou wast pleased to repeal all the laws that were made in colonel Fletcher's time, which were approved by the king or queen, as we were informed, and as some of us gathered by the account thou gave of them, viz. that chancellor Somers had sent for thee to know

what thou had to object against any of those laws; and if it had not been for thee none of them had passed, or words to that effect: and not only so, but the people being minded to surrender the said second charter, upon thy promise to give them a better in lieu of it; and under pretence of passing an act for confirming and securing their lands, &c. thou obtained liberty to resurvey all the lands in the province, and to bring the people to terms for the overplus; so that by this stratagem, the warrants, surveys, and new patents, cost the people as much, and to some more, than the first purchase of their lands, besides their long attendance upon thy secretary and surveyors to have their business done: but before thou would pass that act, it must be accompanied with an impost or excise, and a two thousand pounds bill besides: and all this thou esteemed but inconsiderable, when thou compared it with the vast charge thou had been at, in the administration and defence of this government, since the year 1632, though we know thy stay here at first coming was not above two years, but went home about the difference between thee and Baltimore, concerning the bounds of the lower counties, and did not return till the year 1699; excusing thy stay by thy service to the nation of England in general, and to thy friends there in particular, (as appears by thy letters from time to time) whilst the interest of this province was sinking, which might have been upheld by the many wealthy persons that were inclined to transport themselves here, after the rout of Monmouth, if thee had then came over according to thy repeated promises: and how far thy stay has either effected what thou went about, or contributed to the establishment of the inhabitants here in their just rights and liberties, and properties, we leave thee to demonstrate, and the world to judge: in the mean time, we desire thee to consider better what to place to the account of this province; and do not forget that no part of thy pretended charges was expended in paying some of those who acted under thee, in the administration here, one of whom, viz. Thomas Lloyd, served thee in that station about nine years of thy absence, which thou leaves, it seems, for the country to discharge. "That after thou had managed these points, and was sent for to England, thou granted the third charter of privileges, by which we are now convened; as also a charter to incorporate the city of Philadelphia, and signed a charter of property, but refused to order thy seal to be affixed thereunto, till thou had advised upon it in England: nevertheless, thou promised under thy hand, that thou would confirm the first part of it relating to titles of land, but thou sent thy order, under hand and seal, dated within six months after, to countermand the sealing thereof.

"That after the laws were completed for raising all the said taxes and imposts, thou proposed that if thy friends would give thee a sum of money, thou promised to negotiate their affairs at home to the best advantage; and endeavour to procure the approbation of our laws, and a general exemption from oaths: we find that considerable sums have been raised by way of subscription and benevolence, for that service; part thou received before thou went, and more have been received since by thy secretary; but we had no account that our laws are approved, nor had we as much as a letter from thee, nor any other intimation but by thy secretary's letters, which he thought fit to communicate by piecemeals, whereby we understand, thou hast been making terms for thyself and family : and by what we gather, thou hast been upon surrendering the government; nor are thy friends here eased of oaths, but on the contrary, an order from the queen, requiring oaths to be administered to all persons who are willing to take them in all judicatures, whereby the people called quakers are disabled to sit in courts.

"That by the last charter or privileges, thou established an annual election of representatives for assembly, and that they should continue and sit upon their own adjournments; yet by thy commission to thy present deputy, John Evans, thou did, in a direct opposition to the said charter, give him power not only to call assemblies by his writs, but to prorogue and dissolve them as he should see cause; and also reserved to thyself, though in England, thy final assent to all bills passed here by thy deputy: we suppose thou hast not forgot, that what rendered the former charter inconvenient, if not impracticable, was chiefly that colonel Fletcher's interruption had extinguished the rotation of the council, and next to that, the proposals of laws by the council, in presence of the governor; as also the instability of the lower counties, which we had before experience of, and whose result was then doubted, as hath since happened: but that annual standing assemblies, liable only to the dismission and call of the governor as occasion required, was never found an inconveniency, nor assigned as a reason for changing the said former for the present charter: and should that of dissolution be introduced, it would frustrate the constitution, because if a dissolution should happen, the province might be a great part of the year without an assembly, and the governor without power to call one, whatsoever commands from the crown, or other occasions may happen; for that the election being fixed by charter, which is in nature of a perpetual writ, and has the authority of a law: if it could be superseded by the governor's writ, which is but an act of state, and merely temporary, it would be of

of vice, which, to our great trouble we have to acquaint thee, is more rife and common amongst us since the arrival of thy deputy and son, especially of late, than was ever known before: nor are we capable to suppress it, whilst it is connived at, if not encouraged by authority; the mouths of the more sober magistrates being stopped by the said late order about oaths, and the governor's licensing ordinaries not approven by the magistrates of the city of Philadelphia, and the roast chiefly ruled by such as are none of the most exemplary for virtuous conversation: thy positive orders in the premises, will be absolutely necessary to thy deputy, who thinks it unreasonable, and a great hardship on him, to give sanction to laws explanatory of thy grants, or to do any thing by way of enlargement or confirmation of aught, save what is particularly and expressly granted by thee, it being by some of his council urged as an absurdity in us to expect: and we desire that thou would order the licensing of ordinaries and taverns, to be by the justices, according to thy letter dated in September, 1697; and we hope we need not be more express in charging thee, as thou tenders, thy own honour and honesty, or the obligations thou art under to thy friends, and particularly thy first purchasers and adventurers into this province, that thou do not surrender the government, whatsoever terms thou may by so doing make for thyself and family, which we shall deem no less than a betraying us, and at least will look like first fleecing, then selling: but rather use thy utmost interest with the queen, to ease us in the premises: and if after thy endeavours used to keep the government, it be per force taken from thee, thou will be the clearer in the sight of God, and us the representatives of the people of this thy province, who are thy real friends and well wishers, as we hope is evident in that we have dealt thus plainly with thee."

It was but natural, that such a paper as this should deeply affect those it was levelled against; and that it should operate differently on persons differently made and differently situated.

Those best acquainted with the necessity of keeping the first principles of government ever before their eyes, and the danger of admitting the least departure from them, could not but be pleased with the plain and firm language of this remonstrance: while those apt to be so dazzled with the outside of things, that they were incapable of looking into their contents, were as much softened with concern for the father and founder of their community, and consequently inclined to think him hardly dealt by in it.

There is something in connexion and dependence which gives a secret bias to all we think and wish, as well as what we say: and

in all disputes this must be duly allowed f on both sides.

Seven persons, some of them of the cour cil, made their application by petition to th next assembly for a copy of it, but were flatl refused: and even when the governor himsel in very high language required it, they wer immoveable as before.

Willing as they might be to reclaim th proprietary to a due sense of his first obliga tions, they might be equally unwilling to ex pose him: and, agreeable to this, the assem bly of 1706-7 in one of their remonstrances t the governor say, "that hoping the bill o courts then in dispute would have put an en to some of the grievances they had severa years groaned under, they had hitherto for born publicly to remonstrate; choosing rathe to provide remedies for things amiss than t complain of them." Some concern they might also be under for themselves; their as cendancy was precarious: it depended on the good will of numbers: and the infirmity of nature above touched upon, might happen to operate more powerfully in the people, thar the consideration of justice and safety to themselves and their posterity. The pro vince, at this time, had moreover their rea sons on account of oaths, a militia, &c. to ap prehend some inconveniency if they fell un der the immediate government of the crown and therefore did not care to break with the proprietary entirely.

Nor was it long before, by partial and indirect practices, such as both influencing and awing the electors (facts publicly charged on the instruments of government by the assembly of 1706-7) that the governor obtained both an assembly and a speaker, almost as complaisant as he could wish. Nor ought it to be forgot, that his successor Gookin obtained such another in the year 1710.

In all matters of public concern something personal will interfere. Thus we find during this turbulent period, two names frequently occur, as opposite, in principle and purpose, and the oracles of their respective parties, to wit, David Lloyd, speaker of the assembly, and James Logan, secretary to the governor and council.

Logan insults the members of the assembly sent from the house on a message to the governor. The house resent it, complain of it, arraign his conduct in office, and proceed against him as a public delinquent. The governor, on the other hand, conceives an insuperable aversion to the speaker, points him out to the public as an interested, factious, dangerous person, treats him arrogantly at two several conferences, and complains of the house for not abandoning him to his resentments.

Thus heat kindled heat; animosity excited animosity; and each party resolving to be al