Notwithstanding Mr. Penn is celebrated as the wisest of legislators, the assembly, about the year 1704, unanimously came to nine resolutions, in which they complain with great grief of him, “for undermining his own foundations; and by a subtle contrivance, laid deeper than the capacities of some could fathom, finding a way to lay aside the act of settlement, and dissove his second charter.”[47] He was likewise charged with having extorted from the province great sums of money. They complained also of the abuses of surveyors, the clerks of the courts, and justices of the peace, who, they said, were all put in by the proprietary, so that he became his own judge in his own cause.—These and other matters were the heads of a representation, or rather remonstrance, drawn up and sent to Mr. Penn, then in England, in which he is represented as an oppressor, and as falsifying his word in almost every respect, with the provincials.[48] The disputes which subsisted in Pennsylvania were greatly augmented by the intemperance of the quakers themselves, who, notwithstanding all their zeal for liberty of conscience, persecuted about or soon after 1694, George Keith (who had been one of their most famous preachers) upon his conforming to the church of England; and went so far as to throw him into prison. They apologized for their conduct by pleading, that they did not punish him for his religious principles, but for having insulted the civil government.[49] If this was a good plea, the New-Englanders might gain great advantages from it, in vindicating themselves as to many of the severities they practised upon the quakers, who insulted their civil governments, beyond what will be easily credited by those who have not had the opportunity of knowing the transactions of that period, or are not acquainted with the abusive language of some of the then leaders of that denomination—language which the body of modern quakers will not vindicate. It only remains to give a concise account of the settlement of _Georgia_. In 1732 a number of gentlemen, considering the vast benefit that might arise from the tract of land lying between the Savannah and the river Altamahat petitioned the king for a charter, which was accordingly granted on the ninth of June. They meant that the country should be made a bulwark for the southern colonies against the Spaniards; and should give employment to numbers of people who were burthensome at home to their friends and parishes. The charter constituted them a corporation, by the name of trustees for establishing a colony, by the name of Georgia, including the country from the most northern stream of the Savannah, to the most southern stream of the Altamaha. The corporation was to subsist for 21 years; and after the expiration of that term, the governor and all officers were to be appointed by the crown.