continually suspected of plotting to restore the Stuart family, having been four times arrested on the charge, but always acquitted, as there was neither proof nor tittle of evidence.

During Penn's absence from Pennsylvania, the affairs of the colony fell into some confusion. In order to restore quiet and better management, he had changed the governors several times, but without any beneficial effect. These changes, and the disquiet in the colony, furnished the government with a pretext to deprive him of his power; this, no doubt, was the effect of the reports of Penn's favouring the court of James II. and holding, as it was alleged, treasonable correspondence with the deposed king. Penn was, however, in 1694, restored to the government of his possessions, the evils complained of being admitted to be only the result of his absence. He returned to Pennsylvania in 1699, after an extended tour through England and Ireland, for the purpose of preaching and teaching. On his arrival, he commenced his public work by an endeavour to ameliorate the condition of the slaves. The Quakers had already humanely resolved that for the future buying, selling, and holding men in slavery, should be considered, as such practices really are, opposed to Christianity. Penn further obtained for the slaves admission to places of worship, and established meetings for their special instruction. This was the foundation of that which will ultimately be the emancipation of the slaves in America.

But in this humane work Penn did not forget the. Indians; he devised various means for securing for them kind and considerate treatment. He was not, however, beyond the power of envy, and had therefore to suffer many charges, in some instances from great men, which history has attested to be totally without foundation. He was at the same time subjected to much wrong at the hands of the Assembly, which sought to divert his quit-rents to the support of the government.

In 1701 he returned to England, in order to oppose a scheme which had been promulgated, for placing the colonies under the royal control; the scheme was, however, abandoned before he arrived. He then found himself in the midst of a law-suit, the result of his confidence in a dishonest steward, but which was decided against him. The loss which he then sustained, and losses to which he had been previously subjected, compelled him for a time to reside within the rules of the Fleet Prison. This induced him to mortgage the province of Pennsylvania for £6600; and in 1712 he agreed to sell his rights to the government for £12,000, but was unable to complete his intention owing to a succession of apoplectic fits. These he survived for a time, in a tranquil and happy state, until the 30th of July, 1718, on which day he died.

From that time until the publication of Macaulay's History of England," posterity has not ceased to do justice to the name and fame of Penn; it was

reserved for the eloquent historian, upon evidence the most weak and unsupported, to endeavour to blast and wither the reputation of the great Quaker-upon evidence so unsupported, indeed, that the most immaterial historical statement could claim small credence if so supported; yet on such evidence we are called upon to believe that Penn was wanting in integrity, that he was an unscrupulous courtier, that he received bribes for unlawful purposes, and was dishonest to the principles of the Society of which he was a member, as well as to the Christian religion. So to believe, indeed, would be to believe that Penn's life was a living lie; that from the first he was a hypocrite; that he gave up the pleasures and gaieties of the period for a mercenary and sordid purpose; that religion was a cloak, and not a reality in which he believed and had his being. The reader is not called upon to violate his common sense by so believing.

But Lord Macaulay's name warranted an investigation of the facts. The Quakers would not tamely submit that the brightest name enrolled in their archives should be dimmed and dishonoured. History was ransacked, private records were brought to light and carefully searched, and the result, as detailed by Forster and Dixon, has been the most complete exculpation of the charges, and the restoration to the hearts and heads of all honest men, of the name and fame of William Penn.

FREDERIC THE GREAT'S INTERVIEW
WITH VOLTAIRE.

HE character of Frederic the Great, notwithstanding the special pleading of Carlyle, must be held in detestation. He was pre-eminently mean, though he was certainly entitled to the distinguishing term Great-great in his military resources, mean in his aims and ends. Ingratitude, one of the most unpardonable of moral crimes, early marked his character. His father, the first Frederic, treating him with extraordinary severity, induced him to devise a plan, assisted by his friend De Catt, to escape from Prussia. The scheme being discovered, he and De Catt were brought to trial. The result would have been the death of the young prince, had it not been for the interference of Austria. De Catt was executed before the windows of the fort of Custrin, in which the prince was imprisoned, and from whence he was compelled to view the revolting spectacle. The guards of his prison, doubtless feeling for the unhappy position of the prince, relaxed the severity of his detention by permitting him occasionally to steal out under the cover of night, to pass a few hours at the château of a nobleman, whose family manifested towards him great kindness, and who at the same time

incurred the greatest risks on his account. They not only furnished him with books and candles, to wile away the tedium of his prison life, but got up little concerts and other entertainments, to amuse him when he visited them by permission of his jailer. The baron, owing to the needed expenses of his large family, was kept very poor, but he contrived, notwithstanding, to assist Frederic with six thousand rixdollars at various times. When he came to the throne, his first act was to invade the hereditary dominions of Austria, and to reduce to the utmost distress the daughter of the king by whose interposition his life had been saved. The family and relations of De Catt, whose life had been forfeited in his service, were never rewarded with even a smile of royal favour, but were, as it seemed, intentionally neglected. The baron who had so signally served him during his imprisonment, never received a creutzer of the money he had advanced; and both he and his family were so coldly received at court, that they were justified in considering themselves in disgrace. Those who care to defend this conduct of Frederic, cite the Prussian law which prohibits the loan of money to princes of the blood, and which renders all debts so contracted null and void. It is a wretched defence, which no one with a spark of honour in his breast would entertain.

As he grew older, Frederic did not improve. In one of his subsequent engagements he saw his nephew