In March, 1G83, he held in the infant settlement the second assembh', and, waiving some more of his propri- etary privileges, amended " the frame of government," so that almost in all Ijut the name Pennsylvania was rendered a representative democracy ; and to his dying day he declared that if the pcojile needed anything more to make them happy he would readily grant it. .Says a modern writer: "In the early constitutions of Pennsylvania is to be found tlie distinct annunciation of every great principle, the germ, if not the develop- ment, of every valuable improvement in government or legislation which has been introduced into the political systems of more modern epochs." After having settled the provincial administration (five commissioners, with Lloyd as president during his absence), he returned in August, 1G84, to England on account of his domestic affairs, and the prospect that, by his influence on king- Charles II, he could give better ]irotcction to the increas- ing sect of the Quakers. In 1G85 Charles II was suc- ceeded on the throne l)\' his brother, the duke of York, as James II. In accordance with the pledge given to the admiral on his death-bed, the new king bestowed on the son the same friendship he had on the deceased. Penn, therefore, failed not to attend the royal court, and tried to use as heretofore his influence for good. But these frequent visits at Whitehall were misconstrued, and the most invidious and ridiculous slanders were jnit in circulation. He was accused of being a Catholic, a disguised Jesuit, corresponding with the pope and traf- ficking with pardons to convicted criminals. All the actions which in the eyes of zealots might give color to these criminations may be easily explained by the radical principles of equal rights and tolerance to all de- nominations openU- avowed by Penn, and by the prompt- ings of broad humanity to redress or alleviate grievances of any kind so natural to his character. The facts arc that, mainly through his influence on the monarch, in 1686 a proclamation was issued which, with a number of other Dissenters, set fourteen hundred imprisoned Quakers at liberty; and in 1687 another declaration for liberty of conscience to all, unrestricted by any test and penalties. When, inider a liberal construction of this Nonconformity Act, the king tilled office's with Catholics, and committed himself to other reactionary measures, the Whig party prevailed in Parliament (1688), and de- clared James, who left England, to have forfeited the crown, and installed William of Orange and Mary as rulers of the realm. Now a still graver offence, that of high-treason, was laid on Penn : the charge that, out of attachment to the fallen royalty, he was accomplice to a plot calculated to overthrow the newly chosen regime and restore the self-exiled James to the throne. The indictment rests mainly on the statement of the head- conspirator Preston, who, convicted of the crime and condemned to death, naming among others also Penn as implicated, tried to postpone or avert his own execu- tion. Fuller, the principal witness against him, was by Parliament afterwards branded as an impostor. The impeachment is too outrageous. That Penn, the man of common-sense, the apostle of peace and good-will, who had forbidden the use of carnal weapons, an exemplar of frankness, enjoying imder the IJeform more toleration than ever, should invite a hostile (t'rench) invasion and
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civil war for the uncertain caprice of a bigoted and li- centious king! (For a detailed refutation we refer the reader to Dixon.) In answer to these calumnies, to which, with other still more serious charges, even Macau- lay gives credence in his History of Enijlaml, Penn pub- lished (1688) a letter of which the following is an ex- tract : " It is fit that I contradict them as particularly as they accuse me. I say then, solemnly, I am so far from having been bred at St. Omer's, and received orders at Rome, that I never was at either place; nor do I know anybody there ; nor had I ever anj- correspondence with anybody in these places. And as for officiating in the king's chapel, or any other, it is so ridiculous, as well as untrue, that, besides that nobody can do it but a priest, I have been married to a woman of some condition above sixteen years, which no priest can be by any dispensa- tion whatever. I have not so much as looked into any chapel of the Roman religion, and consequently not the king's, though a common curiosity warrants it daily to people of all persuasions. And, once for all, I do say I am a Protestant Dissenter, and to that degree such that I challenge the most celebrated Protestant of the Eng- lish Church, or any other on that head, be he layman or clergyman, in public or private. For I would have such people know it is not impossible for a true Protestant Dissenter to be dutiful, thankful, and serviceable to the king, though he (the king) be of the IJoman Catholic communion. We lujld not our property or protection from him by our persuasion, and therefore his persuasion should not be the measure of our allegiance." Another attempt to fasten a disreputable transaction on Penn is the charge that he was an agent of the queen in extort- ing or collecting a penalty from the parents of certain girls who, under the lead of their schoolmistress, ten- dered colors to the rebellious Monmouth when passing Taunton: and who were for this act imprisoned on the charge of high-treason. The imputation against Penn rests on a letter dated Feb. 13, 1685-6, bv' secretary Sunderland, addressed to "Mr. Penn," who, in company with Walden, should manage the affair. The penalt)' demanded was £7000. which her gracious majesty do- nated to her maids of honor. In reply: 1. It nowhere appears that William Penn was meant — to one (ieorge Peim the business would have been more congenial; 2. It is not proved that either William or George or any Penn accepted the commission ; 3. It is a fact, substan- tiated by the contemporary Oldmixon, that one Brent, a popish lawyer, and Crane as his deputy, were engaged, and executed the collection, much to their own benefit, so that the maids of honor received only one third part of the imposed fine. Equally groundless is the insiima- tion that he interfered in the affair of JMagdalen College to the injury of the Protestant faculty. He tried to me- diate and save it, if possible, even by a compromise, which was construed by his enemies as trying to induce the president (Hough) to commit simony. His only fault was that lie could not prevail over the king, who, bent on his purpose, by a ro3'al order transferred the institu- tion to the Jesuits despite all remonstrances. But as credence to these calumnies, fostered probably by High Churchmen, was accorded by tlie government, an or- der for his arrest was finally issued (1690). Penn, absent to attend the funeral of his master, George Fox, when learning of it, to escape the blind fury of his pow- erful enemies, first concealed himself in London, and then by the way of Shoreham passed over into France, and once only had a secret interview with Algernon Sidney, in which he with more than his usual earnest- ness protested his innocence. In December, 1693, after the passion had subsided, he appeared again in England, and stood trial before the royal privy council, and was honorably acquitted. IMeanwhile he had suifered great- ly, not only in person, but also in property. Just before his intended arrest (1690) he had prepared a new expe- dition of five hundred colonists, and was on the eve of sailing. All the expenses of the outfit were lost, and in 1692 he was deprived of his supreme rights in Pennsyl-