Advice to young men and boys: A series of addresses delivered by B. B. Comegys to the pupils of Girard CollegeComegys, B. B. (Benjamin Bartis)
Religion
Advice to young men and boys: A series of addresses delivered by B. B. Comegys to the pupils of Girard College
Comegys, B. B. (Benjamin Bartis)
Conduct of life; Girard College
When the news of Penn’s arrival and cordial reception reached England
and the continent of Europe, the effect was to arouse a spirit of
emigration. Although Penn’s first thought and purpose was to found
a colony, where he and others who held the religious views of the
Society of Friends might worship without hindrance (which liberty
was denied them in England), the people from other countries in
Europe came here in great numbers for other purposes. The population
therefore multiplied rapidly, and the people were generally such as had
determined to brave the privations of a new country, to make themselves
a home where life could be lived under better conditions than in the
old countries, under the harsh government of tyrannical kings. This
emigration was stimulated also by the very liberal terms which the
governor offered to new-comers; for to actual settlers he offered the
land at about ten dollars for a hundred acres, subject, however, to
a quit-rent of a quarter of a dollar an acre per annum forever; and
this may be the origin of that ground-rent instrument which is almost
peculiar to Pennsylvania, and which is such a favorite investment for
our rich men.
After a stay of two years Penn returned to England, where he had left
his wife and children; the care of the government having been left with
a council, of which Thomas Lloyd was president, who kept the great seal.
Not long after his return to England the king, Charles the Second,
died, and having no son he was succeeded by his brother, James Duke of
York, as James the Second. Although Penn was on the most cordial terms
with the new king, as he had been with Charles, this did not secure him
from the repeated annoyances and persecutions of those who detested his
religion. So severe was the treatment to which he was subjected, and
such was his personal danger from unprincipled men, that he escaped to
France. But not being able nor willing to bear this exile, he returned
to England, was tried for his offence against the law of the church and
was acquitted. After this he came to America again, intending to spend
the rest of his life here, but he remained only two years.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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