Fent love of God towards one another, as becometh brethren in the spiritual and natural relation.

"So farewell to my thrice dearly beloved wife and children! "Yours, as God pleaseth, in that which no waters can quench, no time forget, nor distance wear away, but remains forever, "Worminghurst, fourth of WILLIAM PENN."

sixth month, 1682.

Immediately after writing this letter, he embarked, and arrived safely in the Delaware with all his companions. The country assigned to him by the royal charter was yet full of its original inhabitants; and the principles of William Penn did not allow him to look upon that gift as a warrant to dispossess the first proprietors of the land. He had accordingly appointed his commissioners, the preceding year, to treat with them for the fair purchase of a part of their lands, and for their joint possession of the remainder; and the terms of the settlement being now nearly agreed upon, he proceeded, very soon after his arrival, to conclude the settlement, and solemnly to pledge his faith, and to ratify and confirm the treaty in sight both of the Indians and planters. For this purpose a grand convocation of the tribes had been appointed near the spot where Philadelphia now stands; and it was agreed that he and the presiding sachems should meet and exchange faith, under the spreading branches of a prodigious elm-tree that grew on the bank of the river. On the day appointed, accordingly, an innumerable multitude of the Indians assembled in that neighbourhood; and were seen, with their dark visages and brandished arms, moving, in vast swarms, in the depth of the woods which then overshaded the whole of that now cultivated region. On the other hand, William Penn, with a moderate attendance of friends, advanced to meet them. He came of course unarmed-in his usual plain dress-without banners, or mace, or guards, or carriages; and only distinguished from his companions by wearing a blue sash of silk network, (which it seems is still preserved by Mr. Kett of Seething-hall, near Norwich,) and by having in his hand a roll of parchment, on which was engrossed the confirmation of the treaty of purchase and amity. As soon as he drew near the spot where the sachems were assembled, the whole multitude of Indians threw down their weapons, and seated themselves on the ground in groups, each under his own chieftain; and the presiding chief intimated to William Penn that the nations were ready to hear him. Mr. Clarkson regrets, and we cordially join in the sentiment, that there is no written cotemporary account of the particulars attending this interesting and truly novel transaction. He assures us, however, that they are still in a great measure preserved in oral tradition, and that both what we have just stated, and what follows, may be relied on as perfectly accurate. The sequel we give in his own words.

Having been thus called upon, he began. The Great Spirit, he said, who made him and them, who ruled the heaven and the earth, and who knew the innermost thoughts of man, knew that he and his friends had a hearty desire to live in peace and friendship with them, and to serve them to the utmost of their power. It was not their cus tom to use hostile weapons against their fellow-creatures, for which reason they had come unarmed. Their object was not to do injury, and thus provoke the Great Spirit, but to do good. They were then met on the broad pathway of good faith and good will, so that no ad vantage was to be taken on either side, but all was to be openness, brotherhood, and love. After these and other words, he unrolled the parchment, and by means of the same interpreter conveyed to them. article by article, the conditions of the purchase, and the words of the compact then made for their eternal union. Among other things, they were not to be molested in their lawful pursuits even in the territory they had alienated, for it was to be common to them and the English. They were to have the same liberty to do all things therein relating to the improvement of their grounds, and providing sustenance for their families, which the English had. If any disputes should arise between the two, they should be settled by twelve persons, half of whom should be English, and half Indians. He then paid them for the land, and made them many presents besides from the merchandise which had been spread before them. Having done this, he laid the roll of parchment on the ground, observing again, that the ground should be common to both people. He then added that he would not do as the Marylanders did, that is, call them children or brothers only; for often parents were apt to whip their children too severely, and brothers sometimes would differ; neither would he compare the friendship between him and them to a chain, for the rain might sometimes rust it, or a tree might fall and break it; but he should consider them as the same flesh and blood with the christians, and the same as if one man's body were to be divided into two parts. He then took up the parchment, and presented it to the sachem who wore the horn in the chaplet, and desired him and the other sachems to preserve it carefully for three generations, that their children might know what had passed between them, just as if he had remained himself with them to repeat it," P. 341-343.

The Indians, in return, made long and stately harangues—of which, however, no more seems to have been remembered, but that "they pledged themselves to live in love with William Penn and his children, as long as the sun and moon should endure." And thus ended this famous treaty ;-of which Voltaire has remarked, with so much truth and severity, "that it was the only one ever concluded between savages and christians that was not ratified by an oath; and the only one that never was broken!"

Such, indeed, was the spirit in which the negotiation was entered into, and the corresponding settlement conducted, that for the space of more than seventy years; and so long indeed as the

quakers retained the chief power in the government, the peace and amity which had been thus solemnly promised and concluded, never was violated; and a large and most striking, though solitary example afforded, of the facility with which they who are really sincere and friendly in their own views, may live in harmony even with those who are supposed to be peculiarly fierce and faithless. We cannot bring ourselves to wish that there were nothing but quakers in the world-because we fear it would be insupportably dull; but when we consider what tremendous evils daily arise from the petulance and profligacy, and ambition and irritability, of sovereigns and ministers, we cannot help thinking it would be the most efficacious of all reforms to choose all those ruling personages out of that plain, pacific, and sober-minded sect.

William Penn now held an assembly, in which fifty-nine important laws were passed in the course of three days. The most remarkable were those which limited the number of capital crimes to two-murder and high treason-and which provided for the reformation, as well as the punishment of offenders, by making the prisons places of compulsory industry, sobriety, and instruction. It was likewise enacted that all children, of whatever rank, should be instructed in some art or trade. The fees of law proceedings were fixed, and inscribed on public tables; and the amount of fines to be levied for offences also limited by legislative authority. Many admirable regulations were added, for the encou ragement of industry, and mutual usefulness and esteem. There is something very agreeable in the contentment, and sober and well-earned self-complacency, which breathe in the following letter of this great colonist, written during his first rest from those great labours.

"I am now casting the country into townships for large lots of land. I have held an assembly, in which many good laws are passed. We could not stay safely till the spring for a government. I have annexed the territories lately obtained to the province, and passed a general naturalization for strangers; which hath much pleased the people. As to outward things, we are satisfied; the land good, the air clear and sweet, the springs plentiful, and provision good and easy to come at; au innumerable quantity of wild fowl and fish; in fine, here is what an Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob would be well contented with: and service enough for God, for the fields are here white for harvest. O, how. sweet is the quiet of these parts, freed from the anxious and troublesome solicitations, hurries, and perplexities of woful Europe!" P. 350, 351.

We cannot persuade ourselves, however, to pursue any farther the details of this edifying biography. W. Penn returned to England after a residence of about two years in his colony-got VOL. II. New Series.

58

into great favour with James II.and was bitterly calumniated as a jesuit, both by churchmen and sectaries-went on doing good and preaching quakerism--was sorely persecuted and insulted, and deprived of his government, but finally acquitted, and honourably restored, under King William-lost his wife and son-travelled and married again--returned to Pennsylvania in 1699 for two years longer-came finally home to England-continued to preach and publish as copiously as ever-was reduced to a state of kind ly dotage by three strokes of apoplexy-and died at last at the age of seventy-two, in the year 1718.

He seems to have been a man of kind affections, singular activity and perseverance, and great practical wisdom. Yet we can well believe with Burnet, that he was a little puffed up with vanity; and that "he had a tedious, luscious way of talking, that was apt to tire the patience of his hearers." He was very neat in his person; and had a great horror at tobacco, which occasionally endangered his popularity in his American domains. He was mighty methodical in ordering his household; and had stuck up in his hall a written directory, or general order, for the regula tion of his family, to which he exacted the strictest conformity. According to this rigorous system of discipline, he required

-“that in that quarter of the year which included part of the winter and part of the spring, the members of it were to rise at seven in the morning, in the next at six, in the next at five, and in the last at six again. Nine o'clock was the hour for breakfast, twelve for dinner, seven for supper, and ten to retire to bed. The whole family were to assemble every morning for worship. They were to be called together at eleven again, that each might read in turn some portion of the holy scripture, or of martyrology, or of friends' books; and finally they were to meet again for worship at six in the evening. On the days of public meeting no one was to be absent except on the plea of health or of unavoidable engagement. The servants were to be called up after supper to render to their master and mistress an account of what they had done in the day, and to receive instructions for the next; and were particularly exhorted to avoid lewd discourses and troublesome noises."

We shall not stop to examine what dregs of ambition, or what hankerings after worldly prosperity, may have mixed themselves with the pious and philanthropic principles that were undoubtedly his chief guides in forming that great settlement which still bears his name, and profits by his example. Human virtue does not challenge, nor admit of such a scrutiny; and it should be sufficient for the glory of William Penn, that he stands upon record as the most humane, the most moderate, and most pacific of all governors.

The Life of Lord Nelson. By Robert Southey. 2 vols. 12mo.

[From the Critical Review, for July, 1813.]

MR. SOUTHEY has rendered a very acceptable service to a numerous class of his majesty's liege subjects, who are either rolling on the ocean, or idling on terra firma, by the present compendious and portable life of the greatest maritime hero whom England ever produced. In two very neat pocket volumes our present author has compressed a sufficiently full and detailed account of the gallant achievements of Lord Nelson; and his narrative is so stripped of all extraneous matter and superfluous circumstances, and the hero himself is so uniformly made the prominent object of the picture, that the present appears to us a very interesting piece of biography; and we believe that there are few persons who peruse the first page of the first volume, who will not have the edge of their intellectual appetite whetted to proceed to the last page of the second.

As we have already enumerated the principal particulars in the life of Lord Nelson, in our review of the performance of Messrs. Clarke and M'Arthur, we shall not accompany Mr. Southey with much regularity or minuteness in his present narrative, but shall select such parts of it as are more peculiarly in teresting, or such traits as place the character of the British hero in a light somewhat different from that of his former biographers. As far as we can judge, one very honourable characteristic of the present life is impartiality. The author is not so far dazzled by the glory of Lord Nelson as to be blind to his defects. Mr. Southey has an eagle's, or rather, perhaps, he would wish us to say, a poet's eye; and he has ventured to look fully and fixedly upon the sunny radiance of Nelson's fame; and has both seen and marked the blots of infirmity by which it was partially obscured. If Mr. Southey had not noted the occasional or partial defects of Nelson, he would have been wanting in biographical probity, which, though often violated, is always to be praised where it is found, while the want of it ought never to pass without rigid animadversion or severe reproof.

Nelson was severely wounded on the head at the battle of the Nile, and it was feared that fatal consequences would ensue.

** A large flap of the skin of the forehead, cut from the bone, had fallen over one eye; and the other being blind, he was in total darkness. When he was carried down, the surgeon, in the midst of a scene scarcely to be conceived by those who have never seen a cockpit in the time of action, and the heroism which is displayed amidst its horrors-with a natural and pardonable eagerness, quitted the poor fellow