BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF | gious meetings with those of his own belief. This

WILLIAM PENN.

of the world, tried every effort to induce him to abandon his fellowship with the Quakers, thinking it would be a great obstacle to his preferment. But persuasion, and even stripes, had no effect to make the young man forsake his principles, and he remained a shining example of moral and religious purity in a corrupt and licentious age. At last, his father became so incensed at his firmness, that he turned him out of his house. This is, perhaps, the only eminent instance of a son punished by a father for perseverance in well doing.

gave offence to the heads of the college, and he was persecuted for non-conformity. As he rePerhaps the young reader can find no stronger fused to submit, he was expelled from Oxford, example of fortitude and practical wisdom in the and returned home, where he constantly showed annals of history, than the life of the excellent a preference for the company of sober and reliperson whose name stands at the head of this ar-gious persons. His father, who was more a man ticle. There may have been characters more brilliant; Alexander, and Cæsar, and Napoleon, are more memorable for the splendid mischiefs they occasioned, but the fame of William Penn stands on a more solid basis than theirs. He is famous among the sons of men for his blameless life, his sterling piety, and the good he wrought for his fellow creatures. Admiral Sir William Penn, the celebrated father of a more celebrated son, was actively employed in the British Navy, under the Parliament and Charles the Second. He was early inclined to maritime affairs, in which he so distinguished himself that he was a The young William bore his misfortunes with captain at twenty-one years of age, rear-admiral meekness and patience, so that in a short time of Ireland at twenty-three, vice-admiral at twen- his father's affections were restored, and he was ty-five, and vice-admiral of England at thirty-shortly after sent to make the tour of France. one. Other great trusts he held, and was employed by both contending parties, the Parliament first, and the King after his restoration; yet he took no part in the domestic troubles, having always in view the good of the nation, rather than the interest of a party. He married the daughter of a merchant at Rotterdam, and William Penn was the issue of the marriage. He died in 1691, of complaints brought on by incessant application to his public duties.

He returned so good a scholar, and with manners so polished, that his father considered the object of his travel answered, and received him with great satisfaction. Indeed he had become a complete and accomplished gentleman.

At the age of twenty he was strongly tempted to give himself up to the pleasures of fashionable life; but the care of Almighty Providence strengthened his early impressions, and prevented his virtues and talents from being lost to the The memorable William, son of Sir William, world. Two years after, his father sent him to was born in London, in 1644. His early promise Ireland to take care of an estate he had in that was such, that his father resolved to give him a country, and there he entered into full commuliberal education, and he became a member of nion with the Friends. This was partly caused Christ's Church College, in Oxford, at fourteen. by his being imprisoned, together with several About this time he became imbued with the others, for attending a religious meeting. He vital spirit of religion, in which he received in- was soon discharged at the intercession of the struction from a Quaker preacher, and conse- Earl of Orrery, and immediately assumed the quently joined that sect with heart and soul. He dress and manners of a Quaker, which subjected withdrew from the communion of worship esta-him to infinite ridicule and contempt. blished by law in Oxford, and held private reli

Hearing of what he had done, his father sent

for him home, and did his utmost to persuade | The trial was printed, and remains to this day a him to abandon the profession he had assumed, monument of honor to William Penn, and of inand it cost his affectionate heart a hard struggle famy to his violent and unjust judges. to withstand the entreaties which his father ad- Not long after this his father died, perfectly dressed to him, hoping to persuade him to study reconciled to him, and left him his blessing and for worldly advancement. However, he did re-a large estate. He then engaged in controversy sist, and that to a degree which his friends could not altogether approve.

One thing on which Sir William insisted was, that his son should take off his hat before the king, the duke of York, and himself. Undoubtedly, it would have done him no harm to comply, but he thought such a piece of civility wrong, and desired time to consider. Thinking he meant to consult with his Quaker friends, his father forbade him to see them, and shut him up in his chamber, where he told him he should be ready to give his answer. After some time given to reflection, he told Sir William that his conscience would not suffer him to comply with his desire. This so enraged the father, that he again turned him out of doors. This conduct might be wrong, but it cannot be doubted that the young man acted conscientiously, and did what he thought his duty.

After this, his father became convinced that his conduct arose from a regard to principle, and not from perverseness or obstinacy, and therefore suffered him to return home. And whenever he was imprisoned for attending Quaker meeting, as he frequently was, Sir William contrived to get him released.

with certain Baptists, and wrote a book against popery. This he did because he had been accused of favoring the Roman Catholic religion.

Towards the end of the year 1670, William Penn was again taken into custody by a band of soldiers, for preaching, and carried to the Tower. His behaviour at the examination before the Lieutenant of the Tower was remarkably bold and spirited. That officer having told him that he had been as bad as other people, he made this reply: "I challenge all persons on earth, to say that they have seen me drunk, heard me swear, lie, or utter an obscene word. There is nothing more common than for men of loose lives to comfort themselves with the conceit that religious persons were once as bad as themselves." However, he was committed to Newgate for six months, after which he went to Holland and Germany. In 1672, he married a Miss Springett, and fixed his residence in Hertfordshire. Here he remained several years, writing and preaching to the Quakers, and upholding them on all occasions. He also made several visits to different parts of Europe.

We now come to William Penn's instrumentality in settling America. In 1675, Lord BerkeIn the twenty-fourth year of his age, Williamly, the original proprietor of New Jersey, sold Penn felt himself called by heaven, to preach to his interest in that province to a Quaker, named others, those principles in which he himself trust- Billinge, who soon after surrendered his right to ed, and that self-denial and moral purity which his creditors. William Penn was one of them, he practised.. He therefore began to hold forth in and thus became one of the chief instruments in public meetings. He also wrote and published settling the west part of New Jersey. And it several works, one of which so much offended must be said here, that the Quakers engaged in the dignitaries of the established church, that this settlement never defrauded the Indians or they procured an order to imprison him in the did them wrong. Tower of London, where none of his friends were permitted to visit him; and he was told that he should either make a public acknowledgment of his errors, or die in prison. But his enemies could not prevail with him, and in something less than a year he was released.

In the same year he went again to Ireland, where he visited certain Quakers, who were in prison on account of their religion, and endeavored to procure their liberation. He also wrote and published several treatises, preached in public, and yet found time to manage his father's

estate.

In a short time he returned to England, where he soon found opportunity to distinguish himself by his firmness and talents.

In 1690, a law was passed forbidding the assemblage of persons not belonging to the church of England, for purposes of religious worship. It was rigidly enforced against the Quakers. They were kept out of their meeting house in London, by main force, and therefore held a conventicle in the open street. William Penn preached to them on that occasion, for which he was taken into custody, and soon after tried, at the court of Old Bailey. Nothwithstanding the partiality and tyranny of his judges, he showed much manly and christain magnanimity, and made so excellent a defence, that the jury acquitted him.

It seems, that when admiral Sir William Penn died, the British government owed him a large sum of money. William Penn petitioned king Charles to grant him, instead, that part of America, now called Pennsylvania. The land was given to him in 1680, and it became his property as far as the British government could make it so. Having thus obtained this grant, he offered lands to those who might be willing to settle on them, at forty shillings an acre. A good number of purchasers soon appeared, and in the next year three shiploads of them crossed the

Atlantic.

Two years after, William Penn, or as he was then called, The Proprietary, crossed the ocean himself, and entered into treaties with the Indians, for he did not think, as some have done, and do, that the savages had no right to their lands. Then was laid the foundation of that friendship with the savages which lasted as long as the Quakers had any power in the government of Pennsylvania. William Penn treated the Indians with justice and humanity, never taking from them any thing for which he did not fairly pay, and his name is held in great respect among them to this day.

The Proprietary also laid out the plan of the city of Philadelphia, within a year after his arrival.

William Penn remained in Pennsylvania four, on divine goodness to the last. years, settling and establishing the government, of benevolence and service to mankind, both in and doing good to all men, especially the Quak- a religious and civil capacity. The flourishing ers. At the end of this time he appointed a com- and happy state of Pennsylvania may speak of mission,consisting of a president and five judges, his goodness, and his printed life to future ages, to govern in his absence, and departed for Eng- showing that an honorable, nay, glorious fame, land. For some years after he continued to re- is not inconsistent with peace, Christianity, and side in England, where he uniformly made the the uniform exercise of every moral virtue. cause of the Quakers his own. Having obtain[N. Y. Traveller. ed the favorable regard of the unfortunate James II., he was suspected of an inclination towards popery, and he was much and often vilified by polemical writers; however, he wrote often and ably in his own defence. After the abdication of the Catholic sovereign, and the accession of king William III. to the throne, he was accused of a clandestine correspondence with the former, intended to bring James and popery into England together. Though nothing could be more false, this calumny gained weight by repetition. Mr. Penn became displeasing to the reigning monarchs, William and Mary, and in 1692 he was deprived of the government of Pennsylvnia.