By the charter for Pennsylvania Penn was made proprietary of the province. He was supreme governor; he had the power of making laws with the advice, assent and approbation of the free men, of appointing officers, and of granting pardons. The laws were to contain nothing contrary to English law, with a saving to the Crown and the privy council in the case of appeals. Parlia ment was to be supreme in all questions of trade and commerce ; the right to levy taxes and customs was reserved to England; an agent to represent Penn was to reside in London ; neglect on the part of Penn was to lead to the passing of the government to the Crown (which event actually took place in 1692) ; no correspond ence might be carried on with countries at war with Great Britain. The importunity of the bishop of London extorted the right to appoint Anglican ministers, should twenty members of the colony desire it, thus securing the very thing which Penn was anxious to avoid—the recognition of the principle of an establishment.
He negotiated with James and Lord Baltimore with the view, ultimately successful, of freeing the mouth of the Delaware, wrote to the Indians in conciliatory terms, and encouraged the formation of companies to work the infant colony both in England and Ger many, especially the "Free Society of Traders in Pennsylvania," to whom he sold 20,000 acres, absolutely refusing, however, to grant any monopolies. In July he drew up a body of "conditions and concessions." This constitution, savouring strongly of Harrington's Oceana, was framed, it is said, in consultation with Sidney, but the statement is doubtful. Until the council of seventy-two (chosen by universal suffrage every three years, twenty-four retiring each year), and the assembly (chosen annually) were duly elected, a body of provisional laws was added.
It was in the midst of this extreme activity that Penn was made a Fellow of the Royal Society. Leaving his family behind him, Penn sailed with a hundred comrades from Deal in the "Welcome" on Sept. I, 1682. His Last Farewell to England and his letter to his wife and children contain a beautiful expression of his pious and manly nature. He landed at New Castle on the Delaware on Oct. 27, his company having lost one-third of their number by small-pox during the voyage. After receiving formal possession, and having visited New York, Penn ascended the Delaware to the Swedish settlement of Upland, to which he gave the name of Chester. The assembly at once met, and on the 7th of Decem ber passed the "Great Law of Pennsylvania." The idea which
informs this law is that Pennsylvania was to be a Christian state on a Quaker model. Philadelphia was now founded, and within two years contained 30o houses and a population of 2,50o. At the same time an act was passed, uniting under the same govern ment the territories which had been granted by feoffment by James in 1682. Realistic and entirely imaginative accounts (cf. Dixon, p. 27o), inspired chiefly by Benjamin West's picture, have been given of the treaty which there seems no doubt Penn actually made in November 1683 with the Indians. His connection with them was one of the most successful parts of his management, and he gained at once and retained through life their intense affection. Penn now wrote an account of Pennsylvania from his own observation for the "Free Society of Traders," in which he shows considerable power of artistic description. Tales of violent perse cution of the Quakers, and the necessity of settling disputes, which had arisen with Lord Baltimore, his neighbour in Maryland, brought Penn back to England (Oct. 2, 1684) after an absence of two years. In the spring of 1683 he had modified the original charter at the desire of the assembly, but without at all altering its democratic character. He was, in reference to this alteration, charged with selfish and deceitful dealing by the assembly. Within five months Charles II. died, and Penn found himself at once in a position of great influence. Penn now took up his abode at Kensington in Holland House, so as to be near the court. His influence there was great enough to secure the pardon of John Locke, who had been dismissed from Oxford by Charles, and of 1,200 Quakers who were in prison. At this time he wrote a further account of Pennsylvania, a pamphlet in defence of Buckingham's essay in favour of toleration, in which he is supposed to have had some share, and his Persuasive to Moderation to Dissenting Chris tians, very similar in tone to the One Project for the Good of Eng land. When Monmouth's rebellion was suppressed he appears to have done his best to mitigate the horrors of the western commis sion, opposing Jeffreys to the uttermost. (Burnet iii. 66; Dalrym ple i. 282.) Macaulay has accused Penn of being concerned in some of the worst actions of the court at this time. His complete refutation by Forster, Paget, Dixon and others renders it unneces sary to do more than allude to the cases of the Maids of Taunton, Alderman Kiffin, and Magdalen College (Oxford).