VINDICATION FROM CHARGES OF MACAULAY. 309 her historians, has brought grave charges against the moral character of William Penn, which have been read by the public with astonishment and regret. Like the heathen priests, who adorned with garlands the victim intended for sacrifice, this author, in his work called "The History of England," introduces the name of Penn with high-sounding praise, but concludes his panegyric with ominous hints and base insinuations. "To speak the whole truth concerning Penn," he says, "is a task which requires some courage: for he is rather a mythical than a historical person. Rival nations and hostile sects have agreed in canonizing him. England is proud of his name. A great commonwealth beyond the Atlantic regards him with a reverence similar to that which the Athenians felt for Theseus, and the Romans for Quirinus. The respectable society of which he was a member honours him as an apostle. By pious men of other persuasions he is generally regarded as a bright pattern of Christian virtue. Meanwhile, admirers of a very different sort have sounded his praises. The French philosophers of the eighteenth century pardoned what they regarded as his superstitious fancies in consideration of his contempt for priests, and of his cosmopolitan benevolence, impartially extended to all races and to all creeds. His name has thus become, throughout all civilized countries, a synonyme for probity and philanthropy. "Nor is this high reputation altogether unmerited. Penn was without doubt a man of eminent virtues. He had a strong sense of religious duty, and a fervent desire to promote the happiness of mankind. On one or two points of high importance he had notions more correct than were in his day common, even among men of enlarged minds; and as the proprietor and legislator of a province, which, being almost uninhabited when it came into his possession, afforded a clear field for moral experiments, he had the rare good fortune of being able to carry his theories into practice without any compromise, and yet without any shock to existing institutions. He will always be mentioned with honour as the founder of a colony who did not, in his dealings with a savage people, abuse the strength derived from civilization, and as a lawgiver, who, in an age of persecution, made religious liberty the corner-stone of a polity. But his writings and his life furnish abundant proofs that he was not a man of strong sense. He had no skill in reading the characters of others. His confidence in persons less virtuous than himself led him into great errors and misfortunes. His enthusiasm for one great principle sometimes impelled him to violate other great principles which he ought to have held sacred. Nor was his integrity altogether proof against the temptations to which it was exposed in that splendid and polite, but deeply corrupted society, with which he now mingled. The whole court was in a ferment with intrigues of gallantry and intrigues of ambition. The traffic in honours, places, and pardons was incessant. It was natural that a man who was daily seen at the palace, and who was known to have free access to majesty, should be frequently importuned to use his influence for purposes which a rigid morality must condemn. The integrity of Penn had stood firm against obloquy and persecution. But now, attacked by royal smiles, by female blandishments, by the insinuating eloquence and delicate flattery of veteran diplomatists and courtiers, his resolution began to give way. Titles and phrases, against which he had often borne his testimony, dropped occasionally from his lips and his pen. It would be well if he had been guilty of nothing worse than such compliances with the fashions of the world. Unhappily it cannot be concealed that he bore a chief part in some transactions condemned, not merely by the rigid code of the society to which he belonged, but by the general sense of all honest men. He afterward solemnly protested that his hands were pure from illicit gain, and that he never received any gratuity from those whom he had obliged, though he might easily, while his influence at court lasted, have made a hundred and twenty thousand pounds. To this assertion full credit is due. But bribes may be offered to vanity as well as to cupidity, and it is impossible to deny that Penn was cajoled into bearing a part in some unjustifiable transactions, of which others enjoyed the profits." This is, certainly, a most extraordinary passage. The character it portrays, though incongruous, if not impossible, has evidently employed the most sedulous care of the artist. Let us endeavour to study the proportions of the figure he has so elaborately drawn. In the same paragraph we are told "he was, without doubt, a man of eminent virtues," but, "he bore a chief part in some transactions, condemned, not merely by the rigid code of the society to which he belonged, but by the general sense of all honest men." He "had a strong sense of religious duty, and a fervent desire to promote the happiness of mankind;" but, “his integrity was not altogether proof against the temptations to which it was exposed in that splendid and polite, but deeply corrupted society with which he now mingled;" and "he was cajoled into bearing a part in some unjustifiable transactions, of which others enjoyed the profits." "On one or two points of high importance he had notions |