208

PENN CALLS ASSEMBLY [CHAP. XXII this crisis, and that no private or personal plans should be allowed to interfere.

He therefore summoned his Assembly on September 15, and laid the matter before them. He pointed out his great reluctance to leave, and mentioned the improvements in local laws and interests which he had contemplated carrying out for their benefit, and added pathetically :

“I had promised myself the quietness of a wilderness, and to stay long enough with you to render everybody entirely easy and safe. My heart is among you as well as my body, whatever some people may be pleased to think.” He added that Parliament would meet in London in November, and the sooner he got there, the sooner he would return. It may appear to some that William Penn left his duties across the Atlantic with undue ease, as if he only wished to plunge once more into the party strife at home, but it must be borne in mind that it was almost impossible at that time to transact business at such a distance, and that by his presence alone could he bring any affairs to a satisfactory conclusion. The Assembly met his wishes in a most cordial and friendly manner. Penn generously offered them the choice of the deputy-governor who should succeed him, that honour they humbly refused, alleging that they could not presume to take such an office upon

1701] DEPARTURE FROM PHILADELPHIA 209 themselves. This extreme submission from his governing council did not altogether impose upon Penn, he knew well that they were alarmed lest the Home Government should put the province into new hands, and with a view to their own interests, they desired his departure, knowing that Penn could more easily obtain privileges for them by going to England.

Though his feelings were wounded by their double-dealing, he did not allow it to influence him in any way so as to interfere with his efforts on their behalf. His poor Indian subjects were the only ones of his little kingdom who never opposed his wishes, and when the news of his coming departure spread abroad, several tribes came down to Philadelphia to take leave of their benefactor.

Penn now drew up a new charter or frame of government for the better guidance of his people, and appointed Andrew Hamilton, who had been governor in both East and West Jersey, as his deputy.

Although he had every intention of returning without loss of time, he took his family with him. Indeed, the ladies objected to being left behind. Just before their departure, an address was presented to Letitia Penn, testifying that “she was courteously carriaged and sweetly tempered in her conversation among us, and a dilligent comer to meetings.” In this quaint document it

210

ADDRESS TO LETITIA [CHAP. XXII

was further stated that she was not, to the writer's knowledge, engaged to be married. Evidently, from this, the promise to William Masters had not been made public, or was only conditional. When it became known, the persons who had signed the address or “certificate” were very indignant at not having been told of the young lady's intentions, and they wished to recall the paper.

212

KENSINGTON PALACE [CHAP. XXIII churches vied with each other, in their professions of attachment to the throne, and in her speech to Parliament, she promised to maintain the Act of Toleration.

Anne had always been a friend of William Penn, he had known her since she was a little girl, in the long years of his intimacy with her father. She took the greatest interest in American concerns, and when he laid before her an address from the Quakers, she said :

“Mr Penn, I am so well pleased that anything I have promised is of satisfaction to you, but both your friends and yourself, may be assured of my protection.”

The Penns took up their abode once more in Kensington, it was then a very fashionable neighbourhood, as the court resided there almost entirely. Anne loved the old red-brick palace, still wearing much the same appearance as it did of yore, though it was in her time that the banqueting hall and conservatory were added. The upper part of the gardens was a wild hollow, and it must have been a fine genius for landscape gardening that could have thought of forming such an unsightly hollow into so beautiful an area.' Hyde Park, coming up to the Broad Walk, allowed the common people to have a peep at their beloved queen.