In establishing the colony of Pennsylvania on the basis of religious freedom, Penn declared that every Christian, without distinction of sect, should be eligible to public employments. But on the accession of William and Mary it became necessary to adopt and endorse the so-called “penal laws,” in prosecuting followers of the elder church. Penn himself was unable to prevent it, although his liberal spirit revolted at such intolerance, and it seems that the authorities in Pennsylvania were quite as willing as their chief to treat Romanists with liberality, notwithstanding the “penal laws,” since in 1708 Penn was unfavorably criticised in England for the leniency with which this sect was treated by him. “It has become a reproach,” he writes to his friend Logan, “to me here with the officers of the crown, that you have suffered the scandal of the mass to be publicly celebrated.” Despite all laws, Pennsylvania became of all the colonies the most favorable and the safest field for the priests and missionaries of the Church of Rome. It is true, they had to travel about the country in disguise, but it was known everywhere that Romanists from other provinces came to Philadelphia or Lancaster at regular intervals to receive the sacraments according to the rites of their faith. Before the Revolution, Pennsylvania harbored five Catholic churches, with about double the number of priests and several thousand communicants, mostly Irish and Germans. * * * * * The attempt upon the life of the king in 1697 had much the same effect in East New Jersey as in New York. The law of 1698, “declaring what are the rights and privileges of his majesty’s subjects in East New Jersey,” directed “that no person or persons that profess faith in God by Jesus Christ, his only Son, shall at any time be molested, punished, disturbed, or be called in question for difference in religious opinion, &c., &c., provided this shall not extend to any of the Romish religion the right to exercise their manner of worship contrary to the laws and statutes of England.”[470] [Illustration] When Lord Cornbury assumed the government of New Jersey in 1701, his instructions directed him to permit liberty of conscience to all persons except papists. Matters remained thus with the Romish Church in New Jersey until the end of British rule. * * * * *