PENN'S INTERVIEW WITH THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS.

PEN

ENN'S treaty with the Indians was singular and notable as being the only compact entered into with them without an oath, and more remarkable still, as the only contract which was never broken ; contrasting forcibly with the horrors which were perpetrated by the first European settlers in America— horrors which earned for the perpetrators the everlasting disgust and abhorrence of every friend of humanity. Of course, in referring to the chief actor in this historical incident, it will be impossible not to contrast the spirit which pervaded the early Friends or Quakers, with the spirit, or rather the want of it, which characterises the Friends of the present. It will, however, not be needful to particularise, as the inference is necessarily so obvious.

William Penn was born in London on the 14th day of October, 1644. His father, also of the same name, was a naval officer of considerable distinction, who served with honour under the Protectorate and after the Restoration, and was much esteemed by Charles II. and the Duke of York. William was very early the subject of religious impressions.

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It is said that one day, being alone in his chamber, he was suddenly surprised with an inward grace, and observed, as he imagined, an external glory in his room, that caused him to be firmly impressed with the belief of the existence of God, and the susceptibility of the immortal soul to hold converse with him, and that he then received the seal of divinity, and was awakened or called to the exercise of a holy life. Whether he was then the subject of phantasy or not, it is certain that from that time he became seriously impressed with the importance of leading a religious life. His attention to his studies from this period was so sedulous, that at fifteen years of age he was deemed qualified for and duly entered at Christ Church, Oxford, where he became acquainted with Locke and other distinguished men. While he was prosecuting his studies at the college, he embraced an opportunity to hear a layman of the name of Thomas Loe preach; the doctrines which he taught were those known by the name of Quakerism, but which were so reasonable, and so rationally expounded, as to secure their adoption by Penn and some of his college companions. The result was that they seceded from the Church of England, and formed meetings amongst themselves for the purpose of worship. For this breach of conformity they were all fined, but their views remained unchanged. To further manifest their zeal in the newly-adopted doctrines, on the occasion of the king's ordering that the custom of wearing