to a repeal of the Tests-those bulwarks of the Church! While at the court of Holland, Penn mixed with the exiles who thronged the streetsthe old comrades of Sydney and Argyle; he studied their views, and made acquaintance with their miseries. With Burnet he had long and frequent discussions; but the Protestant zeal of the doctor was only inflamed by his firm adherence to his old opinions. They met with suspicion, Burnet accusing Penn of leaning to Popery, Penn accusing Burnet of bigotry and intolerance; and they parted with coldness, and on the Churchman's side with hate.

Penn's hopes turned more and more towards Pennsylvania. There he had secured a home for the oppressed. Time, he knew, would make it a nation. He would help on the good work as fast as he might be able. So, having finished his business at the Hague, he went to Amsterdam, where he engaged Wilhelm Sewell-an old friend and correspondent-to translate his accounts of Pennsylvania into Flemish, and circulate them among the able and industrious farmers of the Low Countries. He travelled through Holland and into the Rhineland, bearing everywhere the tidings that a land of freedom was springing up in the New World, where every man enjoyed his full share of political power, and every class of opinions was respected. To the citizens of the Upper Rhine he could report the success of the German colony. At a short distance from Philadelphia their countrymen had built a town, which, in affectionate remembrance of the fatherland, they called Germanopolis. It rose in a beautiful and fertile district; on the spot were a number of fresh springs; in the vicinity were oak, walnut, and chestnut-trees in abundance; and the surrounding country was in many places favourable to the vine.

CHAPTER XXVII.

MEDIATION (1686-89).

On Penn's return to London he appealed to the King and Council in behalf of the English exiles. There were two classes of English in Holland. The most numerous was that of political offenders. At first Penn tried to obtain a general pardon; but the King would not give way so far. To individual cases he was open and several pardons were obtained from him in his more gracious moods. But there were many who had merely fled from religious fear; and Penn reminded James that it would be in strict accordance with the gracious intentions he had formed, to offer these men indemnity and recall. Thus pressed, the King issued an order to that effect, and a great number of persons, who had not been engaged in treasonable acts against the government, returned to their homes. The indemnity was traced entirely to the influence of Penn; and the posterity of some of the men whom it restored to their country cherished for many years a grateful memory of his aid.

The failure of Penn's mission to the Prince of Orange hurried matters to a crisis. James, resolved to effect his purpose, not unnaturally, though most unwisely, began to lean more and more towards his great Catholic neighbour. Penn saw the danger of such an alliance more clearly than the King, and he counselled James against even raising the suspicion of a desire to rely on

France. But James was mad. It may be true that he had changed his views; instead of asking toleration for the faith which he believed to be right he meant to aim at a complete subversion of the Established Church. There is a change of tone in the correspondence with Versailles. From the probabilities of gaining a Bill of Toleration, the discussion assumes the King's aim to be the reintroduction of Popery as a state religion. James's son-in-law being with his enemies, and Parliament being determined to thwart his plans, tried his right to suspend the whole body of the penal laws. With one exception that of Street, his judges were of opinion that the King had power to suspend these enactments. James was not long in making use of his prerogative. On the 18th of March, 1687, he called his privy council together:-he told them he intended to use his royal right. Experience had shown the uselessness of penal laws. They did not prevent new sects from springing up. They were a perpetual cause of soreness and discontent. It was time to put an end to these civil troubles. Conscience was a thing not to be forced; he was resolved to give all classes of his people that right of opinion which he claimed himself. On the fourth day of April, 1687, came out his Majesty's gracious Declaration to all his loving subjects for Liberty of Conscience. By this famous act the King suspended all the penal laws agaimst free thought in matters of religion and forbade the offer of either test or oath to persons taking office under the crown.

It was a wise and noble measure, most unwisely introduced. Locke might have written some of its sentences, while others might have been inspired by Father Petre. Penn though gladly snatching at the boon of freedom, was annoyed that he

must gain it from prerogative instead of by consent of Parliament.

Apart from flaws of origin, this Declaration of Liberty of Conscience was received with different fcelings. Whigs and Tories equally disliked it. They had not been harried by the magistrates. Their brethren were not languishing in jails, and ruined by repeated and increasing fines. The laws were on their side, for they had made these laws themselves. To them the King's declaration of Liberty was but a declaration of 'Indulgence;' and by this papistical and opprobrious nick-name they described it in a hundred pamphlets, sermons, squibs, and songs. Dissenters, on the other hand, were loud in gratitude. Their prison-doors flew open. Many of them got into the army, navy, and civil service. From persecuted wretches, only fit for stocks and jails, they acquired the rights and dignities of Englishmen. Some of the more wealthy and intelligent were made magistrates and sheriffs. Quakers began to take some share in public business; at the next yearly meeting of their body the question was discussed whether they should accept or refuse magistracies. All Dissenters were elated at the change. The Anabaptists were the first to approach the throne with an expression of their thanks; the Quakers followed; then came the Independents, the Presbyterians, and the Catholics. Penn was with the Quakers, who agreed to waive the ceremony of the hat. In Sunderland's apartment the deputation uncovered themselves, and leaving their hats bchind, went into the presence bareheaded. Penn made a short speech to the King, and then delivered an address from the general body. James assured this deputation he had always been of opinion that conscience should be free and he ap

pealed to Penn in confirmation of what he told them. He should remain firm to his Declaration of Liberty; and he hoped to establish it before he died in so regular and legal a manner that future ages should have no reason to change it. Penn needed this assurance. He feared the King's violent temper not less than the bigotry of Parliament. He had no confidence in a freedom resting on the will of James; and he inserted in the address a hope that means would be taken to get the sanction of both houses to this act. In private he was plainer still. He told the King the only way to secure confidence and to obtain the sanction of Parliament was to act on open and moderate principles-to banish from his presence the Jesuits and ultra-Papists, who surrounded him daily at Whitehall. In this way only could freedom be fully given to conscience. If James had followed this counsel, he might have died on the throne of his ancestors, and might have left behind an honourable reputation amongst our native kings. He hesitated-and he fell.

The Jesuits had obtained commanding influence, and the King's true friends began to see that their pernicious counsels would bring disaster on his head. Against these Jesuits Penn was straining every nerve,-often using a boldness of expostulation which James would not have brooked from any other man. Penn told him that neither Churchmen nor Dissenters would bear their pride and ambition. The nation, he hinted broadly, was alarmed, but still more indignant. Penn wished to see the Whigs taken into greater confidence, and he kept up an irregular intercourse between their leaders and the court. He carried Trenchard Treby and Lawton to the royal closet, where he urged them to speak openly to the King,