458 



PENN PENNANT. 



Holland and Germany, where he and his friends were 

 received by many pious persons as the ministers of 

 Christ, particularly at Herwerden, by the princess 

 Elisabeth of the Rhine, daughter of the king of Bo- 

 hemia, and grand-daughter of James I. of England. 



The persecutions of dissenters continuing to rage, 

 notwithstanding their repeated applications to par- 

 liament for sufferance and protection, William Penn 

 now turned his thoughts towards a settlement in the 

 new world, as a place where himself and his friends 

 might enjoy their religious opinions without molesta- 

 tion, and where an example might be set to the na- 

 tions of a just and righteous government. " There 

 may be room there," said he, " though not here, for 

 such a holy experiment." He, therefore, in 1681, 

 solicited a patent from Charles II., for a province in 

 North America, which the king readily granted, in 

 consideration of his father's* services, and of a debt 

 still due to him from the crown. Penn soon after 

 published a description of the province, proposing 

 easy terms of settlement to such as might be dis- 

 posed to go thither. He also wrote to the Indian 

 natives, informing them of his desire to hold his pos- 

 session with their consent and good-will. He then 

 drew up the Fundamental Constitution of Pennsyl- 

 vania, and the following year he published the Frame 

 of Government, a Jaw of which code held out a 

 greater degree of religious liberty than had at that 

 time been allowed in the world. " All persons liv- 

 ing in this province, who confess and acknowledge 

 the One Almighty and Eternal God to be the Crea- 

 tor, Upholder, and Ruler of the world, and that hold 

 themselves obliged in conscience to live peaceably 

 and justly in civil society, shall in no wise be mo- 

 lested or prejudiced for their religious persuasion or 

 practice, in matters of faith and worship ; nor shall 

 they be compelled at any time to frequent or main- 

 tain any religious worship, place, or ministry, what- 

 soever." Upon the publication of these proposals, 

 many respectable families removed to the new pro- 

 vince; the city of Philadelphia was laid out upon the 

 banks of the Delaware; and, in 1682, the proprietor 

 visited his newly-acquired territory, where he re- 

 mained about two years, adjusting its concerns, and 

 establishing a friendly intercourse with his colonial 

 neighbours; during which period no less than fifty 

 sail arrived with settlers from England, Ireland, 

 Wales, Holland, and Germany. 



Soon after Penn returned to England, king Charles 

 died; and the respect which James II. bore to the 

 late admiral, who had recommended his son to his 

 favour, procured to him free access at court. He 

 made use of this advantage to solicit the discharge 

 of his persecuted brethren, 1500 of whom remained 

 in prison at the decease of the late king. In 1686, 

 having taken lodgings at Kensington, to be near 

 the court, he published a Persuasive to Moderation 

 towards Dissenting Christians, &c., humbly submit- 

 ted to the king and his great council, which is 

 thought to have hastened, if it did not occasion, the 

 king's proclamation for a general pardon, which was 

 followed the next year by his suspension of the penal 

 laws. At the revolution in 1688, Penn's intimacy 

 with the abdicated monarch created suspicions, of 

 winch he repeatedly cleared himself before author- 

 ity, until he was accused by a profligate wretch, 

 whom the parliament afterwards declared to be a 

 cheat and an impostor. Not caring to expose him- 

 self to the oaths of such a man, he withdrew from 

 public notice till 1693. In that year, through the 

 mediation of his friends at court, he was once more 

 admitted to plead his own cause before the king and 

 council, and was again acquitted of all suspicion of 

 guilt The most generally known production of his 

 temporary seclusion bears the title of Fruits of Soli- 



tude, in Reflections and Maxims relating to the Con- 

 duct of Human Life. Not long after his restoration 

 to society, he lost his wife, Gulielma, to which he 

 said all his other troubles were as nothing in com- 

 parison. He travelled, however, the same year, in 

 the west of England, and in the next prosecuted an 

 application to parliament for the relief of his friends, 

 the Quakers, in the case of oaths. In the year 1696, 

 he married a second wife, Hannah, the daughter of 

 Thomas Callowhill, an eminent merchant of Bristol, 

 and soon after buried his eldest son, Springett, a 

 remarkably pious and promising youth. In 1698, 

 he travelled in Ireland, and resided the following 

 year at Bristol. In 1699, he again sailed for Penn- 

 sylvania, with his second wife and family, intending 

 to make his province the place of their future resi- 

 dence ; but advantage was taken of his absence to 

 undermine proprietary governments, under colour of 

 the king's prerogative, and he thought it necessary 

 to return to England again in 1701. After his ar- 

 rival, the measure was laid aside, and Penn became 

 once more welcome at court, on the accession of 

 queen Anne. In 1710, finding the air near the city 

 to disagree with his declining health, he took a 

 handsome seat in Buckinghamshire, at which he 

 continued to reside during the remainder of his life. 

 In the year 1712, he had three distinct fits of the 

 apoplectic kind. The last of these so impaired his 

 memory and understanding as to render him ever 

 after unfit for public action ; but he continued to 

 deliver, in the meeting at Reading, short, but sound 

 and sensible expressions. In 1717, he scarcely knew 

 his old acquaintance, or could walk without leading. 

 He died in 1718. The writings of Penn (first pub- 

 lished in two volumes folio) bespeak his character as 

 a Christian and a philanthropist. Of his ability as a 

 politician and legislator, the prosperity of Pennsyl- 

 vania is a lasting monument. 



PENNALISM is the name for the torments and 

 impositions to which the elder students in German 

 universities used to subject the younger ones, called 

 Pennale (pen-cases), afterwards foxes. This abuse 

 was carried to a great extent ; and books written 

 200 years ago exhibit a real barbarity of manners in 

 this respect. In 1661 and 1663, the German em- 

 pire thought it necessary to enact laws against pen- 

 nalism. It corresponds to the English fagging; and, 

 though few traces of it exist at present in Germany, 

 it is still customary, in most schools, to greet the 

 " foxes" (scholars who ascend from a lower class into 

 a higher) with a sound beating ; and we find in 

 Byron's Life, by Moore, to what an extent fagging 

 has been carried in England. It is said that pennal- 

 ism originated in the Italian universities (Bologna, 

 &c.), which is very probable, as the students at these 

 universities kept together in " nations," in order to 

 protect each other, and young students went with 

 recommendations to the senior of those nations. But 

 in those rude times, the weak, who wanted protec- 

 tion, were every where exposed to the brutal abuse 

 of the stronger. Among mechanics, apprentices, 

 and young journeymen, were subjected to similar 

 discipline, a consequence of the rude feudalism 

 which had penetrated every part of society. Others 

 derive these practices from the chapters of the clergy, 

 among whom every new canon was obliged to pay 'a 

 certain sum for a banquet on his entrance ; and it is 

 a well known fact, that many of the customs, songs 

 (decent and indecent), &c. of German students, ori- 

 ginated in the chapters and monasteries. See Feast 

 of Fools. 



PENNANTj THOMAS, an English naturalist and 

 antiquary, was born at Downing, in Flintshire, in 

 1726, and studied at Oxford. His first production 

 was an account of an earthquake felt in Flintshire, 





