was not far from the kingdom of heaven. The friends also sowed in Germany, but they reaped little there; the mode of thouing' was not relished in a country where the terms highness and excellency are always in use. Penn speedily returned to England on hearing of the illness of his father; he came to receive his last adieu. The vice-admiral was reconciled to him and embraced him with tenderness, although he was of a different religion; but William in vain exhorted him not to receive the sacrament, and to die a quaker; and the good man as uselessly recommended William to have buttons on his cuffs and loops to his hat.

William inherited great property, among which he found some debts of the crown for advances made by the vice-admiral in maritime expeditions. Nothing was less certain then, than money due from the crown. Penn was obliged to go and thou' Charles II. and his ministers more than once for payment. The government in 1680 gave him, instead of money, the property and sovereignty of a province of America, to the south of Maryland. Behold a quaker become a sovereign ! He departed for his new states, with two vessels filled with quakers who followed him. The country of Pennsylvania is so called from the name of Penn; he there founded the town of Philadelphia, which is now very flourishing. He began by making a league with the American Indians, his neighbours. This is the only treaty between these people and the christians, which was not sworn; and at the same time, the only one which has not been broken. The new sovereign was also the legislator of Pennsylvania; he instituted very wise laws, none of which have been changed since his time. The first is, not to ill-treat any person on the subject of religion, and to regard all who believe in God as brothers. Scarcely had he established his government, when many American merchants came to people this colony. The natives of the country, instead of flying into the woods, insensibly became intimate with the pacific quakers. In proportion as they detested other christian conquerors and destroyers of America, they loved these new comers. In a little

time these pretended savages, charmed with their new neighbours, came in a crowd to ask William Penn to receive them in the number of his vassals. It was a very new spectacle to see a sovereign whom everybody 'thoued', and who was spoken to hat on head; a govern ment without priests, a people without arms, citizens all nearly equal to the magistracy, and neighbours without jealousy. William Penn might boast of restoring the age of gold, which very likely never existed except in Pennsylvania.

He visited England again, after the death of Charles II. on the affairs of his new country. King James, who had loved his father, had the same affection for the son; and no longer considered him as an obscure sectary, but as a very great man. The king's policy too accorded with his taste. He wished to flatter the quakers by abolishing the laws against the nonconformists, in order that he might introduce the catholic religion in favour of this liberty. All the sects of England saw the snare, and suffered not themselves to fall into it; they were all united against catholicism, their common enemy. Penn however thought that he should not renounce his principles, to favour protestants who hated him against a king who loved him. He had established liberty of conscience in America, he wished not to appear to destroy it in Europe; he therefore remained so faithful to James II. that he was generally accused of being a jesuit. This calumny sensibly afflicted him; he was obliged to justify himself by public writings. However, the unfortunate James II. who, like most of the Stuarts, was a composi tion of greatness and weakness, and who, like them, did too much and too little, lost his kingdom without a sword being drawn, and without being able to say how it happened. All the English sects received from William III. and his parliament the same liberty which they would not hold from James. The quakers by force of law then began to enjoy all the privileges of which they are now in possession. Penn, after finally seeing his sect established without opposition in the country of his birth, returned to Pennsylvania.

His own people and the Americans received him with tears of joy, as a father who came to see his children. All his laws had been religiously observed during his absence, which never happened to any legislator before him. He remained some years at Philadelphia, and parted from them, much against his inclination, to go to London, to solicit new advantages in favour of the commerce of the Pennsylvanians. He saw them no more; but died at London in 1718.

It was in the reign of Charles II. that the quakers obtained the noble privilege of the substitution of their solemn affirmation as an oath. The chancellor, a man of wit, addressed them thus: "My friends, Jupiter once ordered all the beasts of burden to come and be shod. The asses represented that their law did not permit it: Well then, said Jupiter, you shall not be shod, but the first false step you make you shall have an hundred lashes."

I cannot tell what will be the fate of the religion of the quakers in America, but I see that it is decaying every day in London. In all countries, the predominant religion, when it persecutes not, has a tendency to absorb all others. Quakers cannot be members of parliament, or possess any public office, because an oath must be taken and they will not swear; thus they are reduced to the necessity of acquiring money by commerce. Their children enriched by the industry of their parents would possess honours, buttons and ruffles; they are ashamed of being called quakers, and turn protestants to be in the fashion.

SECTION III.

Quaker, primitive, member of the primitive christian church, Pennsylvanian or Philadelphian.

Of all these titles, the one which I like best is that of Philadelphian. There are many kinds of vanities, but the finest is that which, not arrogating to itself any title, renders almost all others ridiculous.

I soon accustom myself to see a good Philadelphian treat me as a friend and brother: these words reanimate charity in my heart, which freezes too easily.

But that two monks should call and write themselves your reverence', that they should cause their hands to be kissed in Italy and Spain, is the greatest degree of insane pride; the greatest degree of folly in those* who kiss, and ought to excite the greatest degree of surprize and laughter in those who are witnesses to their fooleries. The simplicity of the Philadelphians is the continual satire of bishops, who my lord themselves. "Are you not ashamed to call yourself lord and prince?" said a laic to the son of a machanic become a bishop; "Is it thus that Barnabas, Philip, and Jude styled themselves?" "Go to," said the prelate; "if Barnabas, Philip, and Jude, could have done so, they would; the proof of which is, that their successors did so as soon as they could."

Another, who had one day several Gascons at his table, said "I must be monseigneur, since all these gentlemen are marquises. Vanitas vanitatum."

I have already spoken of quakers in the article CHURCH (PRIMITIVE), for which reason I again speak of them. I beg, my dear reader, you will not say that I repeat myself, for if there are two or three pages repeated in this Dictionary, it is not my fault, it is that of the editors. I am ill at Mount Krapak, and cannot see to everything. I have associates who labour like myself in the vineyard of the Lord, who seek to inspire peace and tolerance, horror for fanaticism, persecution, calumny, harshness of manners, and insolent ignorance.

Thou

I tell you, without repetition, that I love quakers. Yes, if the sea did not disagree with me, it should be in thy bosom, Oh Pennsylvania! that I would finish the rest of my career; if there be any remaining. art situated in the fortieth degree of latitude, in the softest and most favourable climate; thy houses commodiously built; thy inhabitants industrious; thy manufactures in repute. An eternal peace reigns among thy citizens; crimes are almost unknown; and there is but a single example of a man banished from the country. He deserved it very properly, being an Anglican priest who turning quaker, was unworthy of

being so. This poor man was no doubt possessed of the devil, for he dared to preach intolerance; he was called George Keith, and they banished him. I know not where he went; but may all intolerants go with him.

Thus, of three hundred thousand inhabitants who live happily in thee, there are two hundred thousand foreigners. For twelve guineas, you may purchase an hundred acres of very good land, and in these hundred acres you are truly king, for you are free and a citizen; you can do no harm to any one, nor any one to you; you think as you please, and say what you think without being persecuted; you know not the weight of continually redoubled taxes, you fear not the insolence of an importunate subaltern. It is true, that at Mount Krapak we live nearly the same as yourselves; but we owe the tranquillity which we enjoy only to mountains covered with eternal snow, and to frightful precipices which surround our terrestrial paradise. Further, the devil, as in Milton, sometimes leaps these frightful hills and precipices, to infect the flowers of our paradise with his poisonous breath. Satan transformed himself into a toad to deceive two creatures who loved one another. He once came among us in his own shape to bring intolerance. Our innocence has triumphed over all the malice of the devil.*

QUESTION-TORTURE.

I HAVE always taken it for granted, that the question, or torture, was invented by robbers, who having broken into the abode of a miser, and not finding his treasure, tortured him in a thousand ways until he discovered it.

This article is retained notwithstanding the alterations, both in respect to quakerism and Pennsylvania, which have taken place since the time of Voltaire; because it is peculiarly imbued with his general philosophy and sarcastic archness. What would he say, now that the open and unrestricted toleration and religious freedom which he so much inculcated are diffused over a vast continent, the expanding foundation of what will probably be the greatest empire of the earth?-T: