recklessly advanced, of his subserviency to the interests of popery and arbitrary power. For Sidney was a man of liberal, if not republican, principles, and fell, a few years afterwards, a sacrifice to the jealousy of the dominant party.

The elections having taken place, and the Parliament having at length been returned, William Penn published a book which he addressed to it under the title of "One Project for the Good of England—that is, Our Civil Union is our Civil Safety." He maintained that all English Protestants, whether Conformists or Non-conformists, agreed in this, that they owed allegiance and subjection to the civil government of England alone; whereas the Catholics, owning another temporal power as superior to the government they properly belonged to, made themselves the subjects, not of the government under which they were born, but of the government of the pope. Hence, whatever restrictions the existing Parliament might think it right to put upon the latter, it was its duty to maintain the civil interest entire, as it related to churchmen and dissenters; for, it being to the advantage of both that the pope should have no dominion in England, the church-Protestant could not injure the dissenting Protestant without weakening and destroying his own civil interest. Having discoursed largely upon this principle, he proposed as his one project a certain public declaration or test by which all Protestant dissenters might be enabled to show that they were not Catholics. This declaration, which he drew up himself, denied the pope's right to depose any sovereign, or absolve the subjects of such sovereign from their allegiance. It denied him to he

Christ's Vicar. It denied a purgatory after death, transubstantiation in the Lord's Supper, and the lawfulness and efficacy of prayers to saints and images. The declaration was to be made in all the towns and parishes on a certain day. Every abuse of this declaration was to be punished. In stating this, his project, however, he never spoke of the Catholics so as to call in question their religious rights. His only object was to show that churchmen and Protestant dissenters having the same civil interest in the government of England, the one ought not to oppress the other, and particularly for shades of difference as to their religious faith.

X.

N the year 1675, William Penn was engaged in an arbitration between John Fenwick and Edward Byllinge, two members of his own religious society, who had purchased of Lord Berkeley his half share of New Jersey in North America. Having well considered the case, he had made his award; but Fenwick refused to abide by it. This gave him great uneasiness, and produced from him the following friendly letter:

God, the

Edward

"JOHN FENWICK !—The present difference betwixt thee and Edward Byllinge fills the hearts of Friends with grief, and with a resolution to take it in two days into their consideration to make a public denial of the person that offers violence to the award made, or that will not end it without bringing it upon the public stage. righteous judge, will visit him that stands off. Byllinge will refer the matter to me again, if thou wilt do the like. Send me word, and, as opprest as I am with business, I will find an afternoon to-morrow or next day to determine, and so prevent the mischief that will certainly follow divulging it in Westminster-hall. Let me know by the bearer thy mind. O John! let Truth and the honor of it in this day prevail! Woe to him that causeth offences! I am an impartial man.

WILLIAM PENN."

This letter in about ten days was followed by a second, in which he could not help rebuking Fenwick on account of his conduct. He stated, however, that the original of the dispute reflected upon both parties, and, what was worse, upon Truth, that is, upon their religious profession as Friends.

In thirteen days he wrote another letter, as follows:

"JOHN FENWICK!—I have upon serious consideration of the present difference (to end it with benefit to you both, and as much quiet as may be), thought my counsel's opinion very reasonable; indeed, thy own desire to have the eight. parts added, was not so pleasant to the other party that it should now be shrunk from by thee as injurious; and when thou hast once thought a proposal reasonable, and given power to another to fix it, 't is not in thy power, nor indeed a discreet or civil thing, to alter or warp from it, and call it being forced. O John! I am sorry that a toy, a trifle, should thus rob men of their time, quiet, and a more profitable employ. I have had a good conscience in what I have done in this affair, and if thou reposest confidence in me, and believest me to be a good and just man, as thou hast said, thou shouldst not be upon such nicety and uncertainty. Away with vain fancies, I beseech thee, and fall closely to thy business. Thy days spend on, and make the best of what thou hast. Thy grand-children may be in the other world, before the land thou hast allotted will be employed. My counsel, I will answer for it, shall do thee all right and service in the affair that becomes him, who, I told thee at first,

should draw it up as for myself. If this cannot scatter thy fears, thou art unhappy, and I am sorry.

"Thy Friend

WILLIAM PENN."

In the year 1676, William Penn came accidentally into the situation of a manager of colonial concerns in New Jersey in North America, a situation not only important in itself, but which produced the most important results; for, by being concerned there he was by degrees led to, and fitted for, the formation of a colony of his own. Lord Berkeley, who was joint proprietor of New Jersey with Sir George Carteret, had in the preceding year sold his half share of it to John Fenwick in trust for Edward Byllinge. It was on this subject that the dispute arose between the latter, which William Penn has just been mentioned to have arbitrated, and which since that time he had by means of the most exemplary perseverance brought to an amicable issue. As soon as the adjustment took place, Fenwick in company with his wife and family, and several Quakers, embarked for America in the ship Griffith. They landed at a "pleasant rich spot on the Delaware which they called Salem." Byllinge, however, who had been drained of his money by the purchase, and who since the sailing of Fenwick had experienced misfortune, found himself unable to meet the pecuniary demands which were brought against him. He agreed, therefore, to deliver over his new property in trust for his creditors; but in consenting to do this, he had his eye fixed upon the friendly assistance of William Penn. He, therefore, applied to the latter with the most earnest en treaty to become a joint trustee with Gawen Laurie, of