The dignified, confident message from a deputy governor, full of lofty admonitions of their duty to the Crown, the province, and the proprietor, is often met by a sarcastic, stinging reply of the Assembly.David Lloyd, the Welsh leader of the anti-proprietary party, and Joseph Wilcox, another leader, became very skillful in drafting these profoundly respectful but deeply cutting replies.In after years, Benjamin Franklin attained even greater skill.In fact, it is not unlikely that he developed a large measure of his world famous aptness in the use of language in the process of drafting these replies.The composing of these official communications was important work, for a reply had to be telling and effective not only with the Governor but with the people who learned of its contents at the coffeehouse and spread the report of it among all classes.There was not a little good-fellowship in their contests; and Franklin, for instance, tells us how he used to abuse a certain deputy governor all day in the Assembly and then dine with him in jovial intercourse in the evening.
The Assembly had a very convenient way of accomplishing its purposes in legislation in spite of the opposition of the British Government.Laws when passed and approved by the deputy governor had to be sent to England for approval by the Crown within five years.But meanwhile the people would live under the law for five years, and, if at the end of that time it was disallowed, the Assembly would reenact the measure and live under it again for another period.
The ten years after Penn's return to England in 1701 were full of trouble for him.Money returns from the province were slow, partly because England was involved in war and trade depressed, and partly because the Assembly, exasperated by the deputy governors he appointed, often refused to vote the deputy a salary and left Penn to bear all the expense of government.He was being rapidly overwhelmed with debt.One of his sons was turning out badly.The manager of his estates in England and Ireland, Philip Ford, was enriching himself by the trust, charging compound interest at eight per cent every six months, and finally claiming that Penn owed him 14,000 pounds.Ford had rendered accounts from time to time, but Penn in his careless way had tossed them aside without examination.When Ford pressed for payment, Penn, still without making any investigation, foolishly gave Ford a deed in fee simple of Pennsylvania as security.Afterwards he accepted from Ford a lease of the province, which was another piece of folly, for the lease could, of course, be used as evidence to show that the deed was an absolute conveyance and not intended as a mortgage.
This unfortunate business Ford kept quiet during his lifetime.
But on his death his widow and son made everything public, professed to be the proprietors of Pennsylvania, and sued Penn for 2000 pounds rent in arrears.They obtained a judgment for the amount claimed and, as Penn could not pay, they had him arrested and imprisoned for debt.For nine months he was locked up in the debtors' prison, the "Old Bailey," and there he might have remained indefinitely if some of his friends had not raised enough money to compromise with the Fords.Isaac Norris, a prominent Quaker from Pennsylvania, happened at that time to be in England and exerted himself to set Penn free and save the province from further disgrace.After this there was a reaction in Penn's favor.He selected a better deputy governor for Pennsylvania.He wrote a long and touching letter to the people, reminding them how they had flourished and grown rich and free under his liberal laws, while he had been sinking in poverty.
After that conditions improved in the affairs of Penn.The colony was better governed, and the anti-proprietary party almost disappeared.The last six or eight years of Penn's life were free from trouble.He had ceased his active work at court, for everything that could be accomplished for the Quakers in the way of protection and favorable laws had now been done.Penn spent his last years in trying to sell the government of his province to the Crown for a sum that would enable him to pay his debts and to restore his family to prosperity.But he was too particular in stipulating that the great principles of civil and religious liberty on which the colony had been established should not be infringed.He had seen how much evil had resulted to the rights of the people when the proprietors of the Jerseys parted with their right to govern.In consequence he required so many safeguards that the sale of Pennsylvania was delayed and delayed until its founder was stricken with paralysis.Penn lingered for some years, but his intellect was now too much clouded to make a valid sale.The event, however, was fortunate for Pennsylvania, which would probably otherwise have lost many valuable rights and privileges by becoming a Crown colony.
