78 AUTHENTIC HISTORY 



expressed opinions, and that they had only in view to protect the magis- 

 tracy from insult and abuse. 



Keith remained two years longer in the colony with his separate con- 

 'i-regation, and then went to England, where, unable to justify himself 

 before the Quakers, he took orders in the Church of England. In 1702 

 he was sent to America as a Missionary, by the Society for the Propa- 

 gation of the Gospel among the heathen, although he labored not among 

 the Indians, but sought to win converts to the Church of England among 

 the Quakers. He remained here two years, which he employed in 

 travelling through the colonies, but chiefly in Pennsylvania and New 

 Jersey, preaching with indefatigable zeal and denouncing his former co- 

 religionists with the unrelenting bitterness of a renegade. His mission 

 being ended, Keith returned to England, was settled in a living in Sussex, 

 continuing to fulminate in his pamphlets against the Quakers.^ 



William Penn foresaw that these dissensions would furnish the crown 

 a pretext for depriving him of his province. His fears were soon verified. 

 William and Mary seized with avidity this opportunity to punish him 

 for his attachment to the late king ; and they were well pleased to clothe 

 un act of naked power with such justification as the disorders of the 

 ])rovince presented. 



Their majesties' commission to Benjamin Fletcher, governor-general 

 of New York, constituting him governor of Pennsylvania and the terri- 

 tories, was notified to Thomas Lloyd on the 19th of April, [1693.] There 

 was no notice, in this commission, of William Penn, nor of the provincial 

 constitution. Fletcher was empowered to summon the General Assembly 

 elected by the freeholders, to require its members to take the oaths and 

 subscribe the tests prescribed by act of parliament, and to make laws in 

 conjunction with the assembly, he having a veto upon their acts; and 

 was directed to transmit copies of such laws, for the approbation of the 

 crown, within three months from their enactment. Official information 

 of this change was not given to the constituted authorities of the prov- 

 ince, either by the king or proprietary; yet on the arrival of Colonel 

 Fletcher at Philadelphia, the government was surrendered to him with- 

 out objection ; but most of the Quaker magistrates refused to accept from 

 him the renewal of their commissions. The proprietary condemned this 

 ready abandonment of his rights, and addressed a cautionary letter to 

 Fletcher, warning him of the illegality of his appointment; which might 

 have restrained the latter from exercising his authority, had it been 

 timely received, as he was attached to Penn by personal favors.^ 

 ■ At the very beginning a misunderstanding arose between the Governor 

 and the Assembly who attempted the introduction of a mode of sum- 

 moning and electing the representatives at variance with the fundamental 

 1 Ebeling. Proud. i' Gordon. Proud. Min. of Council. 



