re in equal rights, and
rest in the enjoyment of civil and religious liberty. Witnessing the
success that attended the removal of Friends to New Jersey, where they
were freed from the cruel persecution they had endured while in Great
Britain, under which their brethren at home were still suffering
grievously, he became desirous to obtain the control of such portion of
the yet unappropriated territory over which the King of England claimed
the sovereignty, as would enable him to found a colony, and "make a holy
experiment"--as he called it--of opening an asylum for the oppressed of
every land; where there should be secured equality of political and
civil rights, universal liberty of conscience, personal freedom, and a
just regard for the rights of property.

Admiral Penn at different times had loaned money to the British
government, and to the Duke of York; which the costly profligacy of the
Court had prevented being repaid, and, with the interest accruing, it
amounted at that time to between sixteen and seventeen thousand pounds
sterling. In 1680, William Penn petitioned the King, that in order to
cancel the debt, he should grant him the tract of country bounded on the
east by the Delaware River, and on the south by Lord Baltimore's
Province of Maryland; while the western and northern limits were
undefined; though the latter was not to interfere with the Province of
New York. But William Penn was by no means popular at the Court. The
courtiers despised him for his strict conscientiousness; the clerical
party hated him for his Quakerism, and open opposition to their assumed
place and power; while the active interest he had taken in promoting the
return of Sidney--a known Republican--to Parliament, had given offence
to the King and Duke. Private interests and jealousies were enlisted
against him, and the agents of Lord Baltimore and Sir John Werden,
deputy for the Duke of York, were assiduous in their efforts to thwart
him, and defeat his application.

But he was not a man easily turned aside from pursuing that which he
thought right to attain. The Earl of Sutherland was his firm friend in
the Privy Council, and there were several other persons of note who took
warm interest in the success of his colonial project. Penn sought and
obtained an interview with the Duke of York, and succeeded in changing
his feelings towards himself, and his views relative to the policy of
the grant. But perhaps the most cogent argument with