every other colony founded by England the interval had been greater still; and in the two provinces of Virginia and Maryland the governors had set their faces against the press. The first book printed in Philadelphia was an Almanac for 1687. which must have been printed in the preceding year. Another institution which Penn established deserves to be classed with his intellectual legislation. The post-office had been at work in England but a few years; yet so convinced was Penn of its utility that he at once issued orders to Henry Waldy to run a post and supply travellers with horses. From the Falls of Trenton to Philadelphia the carriage of a letter was charged three-penceto Chester five-pence-to Newcastle seven-penceto Maryland nine-pence. From Philadelphia to Chester the charge was two-pence-to Newcastle four-pence to Maryland six-pence. The post travelled once a-week!

When the members of Penn's first free parliament met he saw how hard it is to frame laws and constitutions for a political society at a distance; for instead of the full number of members, each county sent up only twelve, three for the Council, nine for the Assembly, making seventytwo persons-no more in all than the number he had originally fixed for the Council. They bore with them a written statement of the reasons which had led the electors to disregard the letter of his writs; a statement concluding with a prayer that this act of self-judgment might not cause the proprietor to think of altering their charter. Penn was no formalist; and as they came with full powers, he told them they were at liberty to change, amend or add to, the existing laws; he was not wedded to his own conceits, but would consent to any changes they might wish to make.

The Assembly appointed Thomas Wynne as speaker. Some parts of the Frame of Government acted as a restraint on the freedom of the Assembly, especially that clause which reserved to the Governor and his Council the sole right to propose new laws. From the first day of meeting the Assembly set this restriction at nought, but in return they wished to invest the Governor with a veto on all the doings of parliament. This last was necessary; the King's sanction being required to make every act of the colonial legislature binding, it was obvious that no law would be received in England which came unsupported by the Governor's vote. These and other points in which changes seemed desirable were discussed. Amendments were suggested and new frames drawn up. The House was anxious to obtain the privilege of conference with the Governor. An opinion was expressed that it might be well to make a new charter on the principles laid down in the Frame of Government, but in other respects to be the growth of the New World and to bear date from the new capital.

This design amounted to a transfer of the legislative power from the Council to the Assembly; and Penn saw with no little uneasiness the grasping spirit of his parliament. He called his Council together and laid before them the prayer of the Assembly. Had the Council been complete they might have fought; but fearing controversy with the larger house of representatives, they advised that an open conference should be held to ascertain the general opinion. The Assembly was then summoned, and the Governor asked them distinctly yea or nay, whether they desired to have a new charter. They replied—yea, unanimously. He then addressed them in a few words :-He ex

pressed his willingness to meet their wishes, and gave his consent to a revision of the charter; at the same time telling them they should consider their own duty as well as his desire to oblige them, and he hoped they would not find it difficult to reconcile the two.

A general committee being appointed to draw up a new charter, in ten days it was prepared. and on the 30th of March 1683, it was read, approved, and signed by the proprietor-subject, of course, to the revision of the crown lawyers in England. The Council was reduced to eighteenthe Assembly to thirty-six members. Governor and Council still retained the initiative; but the Assembly obtained some privileges and left the way open for the acquisition of more as circumstances might favour their designs. The constitution remained the same. All power was vested in the people. They elected members of Council and members of Assembly. Judges were elected to their seats; and Penn gave his power to suspend them. In the neighbouring state of Maryland, Lord Baltimore appointed magistrates, officers of government, members of council, every class of functionaries. Penn could not name either a street-sweeper or a parish-constable. 'Ipurpose he explained to a friend, 'to leave myself and my successors no power of doing mischief, that the will of one man may not hinder the good of a whole country.'

The Assembly established courts of justice for each county with the proper officers to each; they voted an impost on certain goods exported or imported for the Governor's support, which he declined. He would not hear of imposts; and a taxgatherer was for many years an unknown figure. To prevent law-suits, three Peace-Makers were

chosen by every county-court to hear and settle disputes between man and man according to the right. Law was only to be invoked as a last resource. Twice a-year an Orphans' court was to meet in each county to inquire into and regulate the affairs of widows and orphans. All this early legislation reads like pages out of Harrington and More.

The little parliament having finished its labours and adjourned, Penn made a journey up the river to a spot where Markham was engaged in building Pennsbury. The time was near when he had agreed to meet Lord Baltimore at Newcastle and settle, if they could, their boundary lines. They met, but with no more success than in the previous year. There is but little doubt that, in accordance with the terms of their several grants, both proprietors could legally claim some parts of the territory; and neither of them felt inclined to surrender what he deemed his right. Lord Baltimore wrote off to Blaythwaite and Halifax an account of the interview, giving it in such a way as to serve his own interest at the distant court. Penn learned that his rival had written to London without his privity; he suspected Baltimore of not conveying a fair report of what had taken place between them; and he instantly sat down and wrote to the Board of Trade. He expressed his surprise that Baltimore should have given a report of their conference without his knowledge and consent, protested against its being received as a true report, and proceeded to give his own version of the meeting at full length. In order that he might be represented on the spot by one in whose truth, judgment and fidelity, he had perfect confidence, he sent his cousin Markham as his agent to the court in London, pro

vided with letters to the King himself, to the Earl of Sunderland to Henry Sydney, and to the officers of the colonial department. In the early spring of 1684, Baltimore quitted Maryland for London; a movement which suggested to Penn the need of being likewise on the spot; even if causes of deeper and more painful interest than the loss of a few hundred miles of territory had not begun to crowd on him.

About the time that Lord Baltimore departed from the colony, letters arrived for Penn bringing with them a long list of calamities. His wife Guli was seriously ill; his friend Sydney had perished on the block; Shaftsbury and Essex were both in prison; persecution of nonconformers had begun to rage; Oxford had put forth the doctrine of passive obedience; and his enemies were heaping calumnies on his name.

Penn felt that he must go at once. Summoning the chiefs of all the Indian tribes in his vicinity to Pennsbury, he concluded with each a separate treaty of peace. He told them he was going beyond the seas for a little while, but would return to them again if the Great Spirit permitted him to live. He begged of them to drink no more firewater, and forbade his own people to sell them brandy and rum; he put them in the ways of honest trade and husbandry; he obtained from them a promise that they would live at peace and amity with each other and with the Christians. The new city engaged his daily thoughts; he felt some comfort in seeing it steadily rising from the ground; and as the news from Europe darkened. he was more and more anxious that Philadelphia might become a haven of safety in the coming storm.

The brig Endeavour being now ready to leave