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time of Colonel Fletcher; but the act was contrary Henceforth the right they had usurped

to law.

was guaranteed by Penn.

Then came the question of money. Penn had plenty of land under cultivation; the fields gave him corn and meat; the rivers yielded fish; and the air brought store of birds. To live at Pennsbury was easy. But to take his family across the Atlantic was expensive; a vessel must be hired, and wages must be paid. Yet the Assembly would do nothing in the way of grants; and he was forced to sell as much land as would cover the expenses of his voyage. He hinted that the colony was now rich enough to pay the cost of government; but his little parliament refused to undertake the charge.

Penn's wife and daughter were delighted with the prospect of going home. They felt no love for the wilderness; and more than once had urged the Governor to take them back.

As soon as news got abroad that Onas was about to quit the Delaware, the Indians came in from all parts of the country to take leave of him. A sentiment of fear that he would never more return across the great salt water haunted their untutored minds, and they clung to his assurances of amity and justice with greater force, because they feared that his children would not be to them what he had been. What pale-face had they ever seen like him? A paleface was to them a trapper, a soldier, a pirate; a man who cheated them in barter, who abused their squaws, who gave them fire-water to drink, who hustled them off their hunting-ground. But here was one pale-face

who would not cheat and lie; who would not fire into their lodge; who would not rob them of their beaverskins; who would not take a rood of land from them till they had fixed and he had paid a price. Where could they look for such another lord? To comfort them in their distress, Penn introduced them to his Council, and again repeated his desires. The members of his Council pledged themselves to carry out his wish when he was gone, as if he were still living at Pennsbury to punish the guilty and protect the innocent. They took took their parting gifts in sorrow; and after the lapse of a century the memory of that day was found to be still fresh in their descendants' hearts.

The vessel in which the Penn family were to sail being now ready, Penn appointed James Logan as his agent, and Colonel Hamilton, ex-governor of the Jerseys, as his deputy. These appointments were made with the full consent of the Assembly. Hamilton was to be assisted by a Council of ten; and, at the urgent request of his representatives, who fancied that affairs would go more smoothly if the heir were in the colony, Penn agreed to send over his son William, so that he might learn betimes the nature and wants of the country he would in a few years have to rule.

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CHAPTER XXXIV.

CLOSING SCENES (1702-18).

WHEN Penn arrived he found the state of parties changed. William was dying. Anne had been his friend, and when she succeeded to the throne, he was again a welcome guest at court. The bill of annexation was allowed to drop. Penn sent for his son, William, and told him of the promise he had made. The youth was not disposed to leave the brilliant life of London for the solitude of a new country and the stiff decorum of a Quaker town. From school days he had kept the highest company; under his mother's will he had received a fortune of his ownthe Springett property in Kent; and being suddenly set free by his mother's death, and his father's voyage, he had leapt with only too much ardour into every social vice. He drank; he roved about; he kept gay women. When his father came home he found the youth in debt, and almost ruined in constitution. This clever but perverted boy was the only remaining son of his lost Guli, and the heir to his colonial government. He had the grace to be ashamed; and on his father promising to pay his debts in

Penn gave him

which he called He also wrote

London, and to give him an estate in Pennsylvania for his separate use, he even offered to go out to America, and study the business of that country under guidance of the newly named DeputyGovernor Evans and his Council. an estate of seven thousand acres, from his son's name Williamstadt. most urgent letters to his old friends in Philadelphia about his son. He has wit,' he said, 'has kept top company, and must be handled with much wisdom.' Logan undertook to give him good advice; to keep such an eye on him as he would keep on a favourite

son.

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For a few months the young rake behaved pretty well. Logan retained his influence; and between his dog and gun, his hunter and fishing-tackle, his time was pleasantly and innocently, if not very usefully, spent. But after a while an evil intimacy sprang up between the fashionable youth and Governor Evans, an ill-conditioned person like himself; and between them they not only brought discredit on themselves, but filled the whole community with the scandal of their lives. Young Penn, as heir to the government, not only set an example of riot, but protected those who imitated his excess. The young and idle crowded round him; made him their chief; and filled his busy pate with notions of such glory as the stout old Admiral had won. The war question being under discussion in the Assembly, young Penn joined the war party, and on his own authority organised a body of troops in the Quaker city. Nor was this his worst offence.

He and his companions frequented low taverns; got up rows in the streets, and beat the watch. The riot of London seemed to have rushed at once into the midst of that quiet community. A masquerade was established at a public-house kept by Simes. The roysterers caroused till midnight at the White Hart. Women went about the streets in male attire; and two men were brought into court on a charge of being found at night in women's clothes, contrary to decency and law. But as the elders frowned, the youngsters only gibed and laughed. At length a crisis came. A scene occurred in the streets; a constable was beaten in the performance of his duty; and the city guard was called to quell the riot. Some escaped, but others were arrested :-among the former was Governor Evans, among the latter was young Penn. Next morning Penn was brought before the mayor, and rated. He replied with taunts; he was a gentleman, he said, and not responsible to his father's petty officers. Evans, who took his part, annulled by proclamation these proceedings of the court. This conduct roused the Quaker spirit:-that body indicted young Penn; and in his anger he renounced their doctrines, discipline, and jurisdiction. These disorders were a source of inappeasable grief to Penn in England, and they furnished Quarry, once more active in his work, with solid grounds of censure. The young man soon returned to England deep in debt, though he had sold the fine estate of Williamstadt; as thoroughly disgusted with America as America was with him. He quitted Pennsylvania with the threat

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