arrange these matters, Connoodaghtoh, king of the Susquehannah Indians, Wopatha, king of the Shawanese, Weewhinjough, king of the Ganawese, and Ahookassong, brother to the Emperor of the Five Nations, and forty other chiefs. A treaty of peace and trade was established by mutual consent, on the same terms as had formerly been granted to the Lenni Lenapé. The red man and the white man were to be as one head and one heart. The Indians were to be protected from the rapacity of traders; and as they bound themselves not to sell their furs and skins out of Pennsylvania, Penn thought it possible to teach them morals by means of trade; and on these terms the Potomac Indians were allowed to settle on his land. A treaty of peace and friendship was also concluded with Ahookassong as the ambassador of his imperial brother, on the part of the Five Nations; an important point, even in a military sense; for, when a war was raging on the frontiers, this measure added a new bulwark to Pennsylvania. Penn lost no time in transmitting the intelligence of his success in these negotiations to the English court.

In the intervals of his more pressing labours, Penn kept up communications with Richard Coote, an Irish peer, then governor at New York, and with Colonel Blakiston, Colonel Nicholson, and other governors of provinces. Questions of great importance had to be arranged; and a conference was held at New York for the purpose of settling the heads of a general regulation for all the colonies, royal and private. Penn took the leat in this conference.

The first thing to engage attention was the coinage; for the same piece was then passing in Maryland for 4s. 6d., in Virginia for 5s., in Massachussetts for 6s., in New York for 6s. 9d., and in Pennsylvania and the two Jerseys for 7s. 8d. A second point was a project for encouraging the timber-trade. A third question was the law of marriage. Great abuses had arisen; and bigamy was almost as common in the colonies as wedlock. A fourth question was the establishment of a general postal system; a fifth, the necessity for a comprehensive act of naturalisation, by which the multitudes of French, Dutch, and Swedes, who came out every year, might gain the rights and privileges of English subjects. In the settlement of boundaries with the French, Penn drew a line through the great lakes, on the double ground, that those inland waters formed a natural defence, and were the chief centres of the Indian trade. His advice was afterwards adopted by the government. Coote having agreed to these suggestions, Penn returned to Philadelphia, embodied them in a report, and transmitted them to London, where the Lords of Trade received them with much satisfaction.

But while he was thus engaged, Penn received news from England, which compelled him to return in haste. The war with France had given the friends of an imperial system many opportunities; and in the absence of the great proprietors, these partizans had brought a bill into the House of Lords for seizing the private colonies and vesting them in the Crown.

Of course attack on property and private right

was veiled under pretences of the public good. Penn knew the authors of this bill; he felt that they were wilfully deceiving William; and he thought and felt that after what he had already done, he should be able to convince the King. He had not only renewed his own friendly treaties with the natives in his own vicinity, but by urgent counsels had engaged Lord Bellamont to conclude a treaty of peace for all the settlements of the English in North America. Within his own province he had organised a system of signals and watchers, so that the appearance of any suspicious sail in the waters of the Delaware would be instantly reported to the government at Philadelphia. The question of a war contribution had not come before the Assembly, peace being now restored in Europe; but on the great drama known in history as the war of the Spanish Succession opening in calamitous grandeur, William wrote to Penn that he must have either his contingent, or his money ready. Eighty men were to be raised; if not, a sum of 350l. was to be paid. Penn laid his charge before the Assembly; but the members talked of their great poverty-doubted whether the other provinces had done their duty— and resolved to postpone considerations of his Majesty's letter until the war had actually commenced. Affairs were in this awkward way when Penn received from Lawton, who was watching every tide and turn of politics on his behalf, the news of what was passing in the House of Lords. No time was to be lost. The owners of Pennsylvania property then in England prayed the House of Lords to postpone

discussion of the Colonies Bill till Penn could be heard in person. Penn the Younger, who, amidst his dissipations, kept an eye on politics, demanded to be heard in counsel, and the Lords consenting to his prayer, the case was argued in committee, and some valuable time was gained. The House had been deceived, and the Board of Trade was found to have kept important papers back. In Pennsylvania the feeling against annexation to the crown was all but universal. Having called the representatives together, Penn laid the intelligence he had just received before them. With a single voice they urged him to return at once, and to defend their interests and his own. He said he could not think of such a voyage without reluctance. His wife, Hannah, had recently given birth to a son, and was still in a delicate state of health. He had promised himself a quiet home amongst them in his old age; and even if he should now go away for a season, no unkindness would be able to change his mind; he should return and settle in the country. He advised them to decide what ought to be done for the general security in his absence,-what changes were needed in the constitution,-what new laws were required by the circumstances which had arisen on every side. He recommended the King's letter touching subsidy to their prompt consideration : that question of the war-tax being the key-note of his answer to all misgivings of the court.

The members thanked him for these gracious words, and named committees to draw up statements and prepare the course of business. the course of business. But in place

of aiding him to meet the evil with such means as lay within their reach,--instead of voting the royal subsidy and amending their general laws,-they drew up a list of claims on him, their friend and founder. One of these claims was a request that the price of unsold land should be permanently fixed at the old rent of a bushel of wheat in a hundred; so that while their own estates were being improved tenfold in value with increase of inhabitants, his estate should have no share in this natural increase. Another was a request that he would lay out all the unsold bay marshes, a rich and highly productive soil, as common land. There was more to this effect. The settlers saw him entering on a fight in which he might be beaten,- for the King was his antagonist and judge,—and sought to wring from his misfortune some large share of personal gain. His calmness under such an insult was surprising; though his heart was strained, his speech was very mild. The inconsistency of their demands was pointed out,-concessions, where no principle was involved, were made, and the Assembly, perhaps ashamed, returned to something like a better sense. Yet what they gained from him was much: no less than a new charter of liberties. This new charter was argued at great length; and on the 28th of October, 1701, it was finally settled and accepted in the presence of the Council and Assembly. It contained encroachments on the powers of the Governor and his Council: but the chief innovation was the right which the Assembly now acquired to originate bills. They had framed some bills already in the