concede-though the right is not yet legally admitted. To James it seemed intolerable that descendants of the men who founded and endowed the colleges with their worldly goods should be excluded from them because they had not changed their religion. As the presidency of Magdalen College, one of the richest foundations in Europe, was vacant, James desired to see it filled by one who was not unfriendly to Catholics, and he therefore named Antony Farmer for election. Farmer was not legally qualified, and was besides a man of ill repute. The Fellows of the College drew up a petition praying the King to name some other person; through an through an error this petition did not reach his Majesty for several days; and in the meantime, not hearing from Whitehall, the Fellows elected John Hough, a man of blameless life and moderate abilities, to the chair. Hough and Farmer both appealed to the King,-and James referred the case to his Ecclesiastical Commissioners, by whom Hough's election was declared void, and Farmer's cause was dropped. Some weeks elapsed, that passion might have time to cool. When James sent a new mandate ordering a fresh election, recommending the bishop of the diocese for election, the Fellows would not hear of it. The King was angry. In his journey down to Bath, he received at Oxford the Heads of Colleges; he upbraided them in unkingly terms for disobedience; and he threatened to proceed against them to extremities unless they instantly obeyed.

There was much need of wise and sober media

tion.

Penn, who was going through the west country on a preaching tour, arrived at Oxford with the King on Saturday afternoon, September 3, and stayed till Monday afternoon, September 5. He was hardly fifty hours in Oxford; yet his stay was long enough to admit of his being drawn into the Magdalen business, and even to his becoming a principal in the dispute.

On Sunday, Mr. Creech, one of the offending Fellows, dined with Penn, and told him such a tale, that Penn was more than half persuaded to adventure in their cause. Being pressed by Creech, he offered to see the Fellows in a body, and to hear their story. Early on Monday he went over to the College. Hough, the selected president, received him. Hunt, Creech, Bailey, and the rest, were present, and explained their case; citing their college charter, by the terms of which Antony Farmer could not hold the office of president. Penn saw that they were right, and that the court, in forcing them against the law, was wrong. Not satisfied with letting them perceive that he was with them in his mind, he offered, then and there, to write a letter in their behalf to James. They took him at his word, and in their presence he composed a letter which they made good speed to place in James's hands. Their case, Penn told his Majesty, was very hard; they could not yield without an evident violation of their oaths. Such mandates, he continued, were a force on conscience, and were therefore contrary to the King's profession and intention.. James could not be moved. Though Penn left Oxford on the

Monday, Hough and his little senate had already come to look upon him as their friend. Bailey wrote to him after he quitted Oxford, as one who had been so kind as to appear in their behalf already, and was reported by all who knew him to employ much of his time in doing good, and in using his credit with the King to undeceive him of any wrong impressions he might entertain. All the contemporary accounts are conceived in the same spirit. Creech says he appeared in their behalf. Sykes is equally emphatic. Indeed the letter to the King would be decisive, were there no other evidence. That letter emboldened the Fellows to draw up a strong petition, which they signed and carried to Lord Sunderland, who promised to lay it before the King.

The King refused to listen. Remonstrance and entreaty were in vain. Though Penn denounced his measures as contrary to his often-avowed sentiments in favour of Liberty of Conscience, and Chief Justice Herbert declared them to be against the law, he would not retreat. He professed to believe it impossible for Oxford men to oppose the royal will. A sincere bigot himself, and scrupulously truthful in his words, he could not imagine, after a declaration of unlimited obedience had been promulgated by the University, that the members of a single college would dare to appeal from their own dogma to the free instincts of nature. 'If really Church-of-England men,' he said to the deputation, 'prove it by your obedience.'

you are

Magdalen had still much need of Penn's ser

vices; and to secure his mediation in their cause, Hough, Hunt, Cradock, and some other Fellows were deputed to wait on him at Windsor, where he lodged. They found him ready to receive them and to hear their story. He expressed his great concern for the welfare of the college, and said he had made many efforts to reconcile the King to what had passed. He grieved that things had gone so far before he was aware of the dispute; in an earlier stage- before the King's self-love had been wounded-the affair would have been easy to arrange. Still he would do his best; and if he failed, it would not be for want of will to serve their cause. He broached the doubts which had occurred to him; the Fellows answered one by one; and after much talk with them, he said his first impressions gained at Oxford were confirmed. He felt that they were in the right. Before the Oxford Fellows saw him, they were afraid that he would make some offer at accommodation; but though he wished the quarrel ended, he would not insult them by advising them to yield. Once he asked the Fellows, smiling, how they would like to see Hough made Bishop. Cradock replied in the same vein of pleasantry-they would be very glad, as the presidency and bishopric would go well enough together. Hough answered (as he says), 'seriously;' and the allusion dropped. Possessed with the fixed idea that James intended to rob them of their college, the Fellows said the Papists had already wrested from them Christ Church and University; the contest was now for Magdalen. This touched Penn

nearly; he had written much against Catholic doctrine; and he answered them with fervourThat they shall never have. The Fellows, he said, might be assured. The Catholics had got two colleges; to them he did not dispute their right; but he could confide in their prudence. Honest men would defend their just claims; but should they go beyond their common rights as Englishmen, and ask from royal favour what was not their due, they would peril all they had acquired. He felt sure they would not be so senseless. At the same time he told his visitors that he thought it unfair and unwise in them to attempt to close the national Universities to any class; others besides Churchmen wished to give their children a learned education. To this free counsel Hough-a very high Churchman-made demur. Penn ceased to urge this point. Though he could not well agree with their politics, he said he was willing to be of use to them. Hough suggested that he could promote their interests by laying a true statement of the case before their sovereign. They produced some papers, which he read; these papers he promised to read again to the King, unless peremptorily forbidden. And so the deputation left him.

James was not to be stirred from his purpose. A commission was sent down to Oxford, and the uncompromising champions of Church prerogative were all ejected from the college. Yet they lost little by their temporary removal. His self-love being gratified, the King soon afterwards restored the Fellows to their honours and emoluments; and