in consequence of these proceedings, been excommunicated or disowned by those who had remained faithful at their post. Exasperated at this, he had made himself doubly troublesome. He had proceeded to vilify the Magistrates, and this in cases where, if they had not acted as they did, they would not have done their duty. One instance of this will suffice. A man of the name of Babit with some others had stolen a small sloop from a wharf in Philadelphia, and these, in going down the river with it, had committed other robberies. Intelligence of this having been given to the Magistrates, three of them gave out a warrant in the nature of an hue and cry to take them, with a view of bringing them to punishment. It so happened, that the men were taken and brought to justice. Now as the Magistrates who granted this warrant were all Quakers, Keith had gone about and represented their conduct on this occasion as a violation of their religious principles for he considered the apprehension of the offenders as a species of war against their persons; and against war they, the Magistrates, pretended to bear their testimony as a religious people.

:

people. From one thing he had proceeded to another. He had published virulent books, reflecting upon the Magistrates in other respects, endeavouring thereby to degrade them in the eyes of their inferiors. For one of these publications he had been presented by the Grand Jury of Philadelphia, and had afterwards been tried, found guilty, and fined. Notwithstanding this, he was still following the same disorderly career.

CHAP

CHAPTER VI.

A. 1693-continues in retirement-is deprived of his Government by King William-his forlorn situation at this period-resolves upon returning to Pennsylvania→→ letter to that effect—but is prevented by embarrassed circumstances-writes "Fruits of Solitude"-preface and contents of the same also "Essay towards the present and future State of Europe”—analysis of the Batter-letter to N. Blandford-is heard before King William and his Council, and acquitted-death of his wife-her character-affairs of Pennsylvania. THE intelligence which William Penn had received last from America, as it related to Keith, gave him, on the very first perusal of it, the most serious uneasiness, not only because the conduct of the latter tended to spread still wider the seeds of confusion in the Province and Territories, but because he foresaw, as several of his letters at the time testify, those unhappy consequences which very soon afterwards resulted to himself. They who were at the head of affairs in England, were no strangers to the disorders which had taken place in his Government during the last two years; and, as he himself had become obnoxious to them, they had taken care already to make the

most

most of them to the King. They had al

ready held up to him the quarrels between

the Province and Territories, as arguments to prove that he, William Penn, was incapable of governing the new country which had been granted to him. As soon therefore as the schism of Keith with all its ramifications and consequences became known, they considered their arguments as confirmed. Hence they spread reports of it, but particularly of his trial and punishment by fine, throughout the kingdom. By the pains taken to communicate the latter, they occasioned a great sensation both in Westminster-hall and in the two Houses of Parliament. They soon afterwards affirmed, that Pennsylvania was in a state of ruin, and that nothing could save it but taking away the Government from. William Penn. Not a moment, they said, was to be lost in resorting to this expedient; and so rapidly was this notion disseminated, and industriously impressed upon the King and Queen, that by a Commission granted by William and Mary to Colonel Fletcher, the Governor of New York, to take upon him the Government of Pennsylvania and

the

the Territories thereunto annexed, WilliamPenn was, very soon after the news had arrived, deprived of all authority over the same,and this before' he had time to explain himself on the subject, or to throw in any reasons in bar of the appointment which had taken place.

His

One may more readily conceive than describe the feelings which must have sprung up in his mind, when the news of this cruel measure was conveyed to him. All his hopes and prospects of giving to the world a pattern, as he had imagined, of a more perfect Government and of a more virtuous and happy People, were now over. fortune might now be considered, not as having been prudently and benevolently expended in America, but as having been absolutely thrown away.--Removed from the high situation of a Governor of a province, he was now a persecuted exile. Dashed down from the pinnacle as it were of eminence and of favour in his native country, he was now living between privacy and a gaol.Keith, from having been once his confidential friend, had become now a traitor. His wife, who was on the bed

of