tive force and authority by the civil magistrate. His letters, while absent from the government, prove this. "Let not pity," he admonishes, "rob justice of its due, and the people of proper examples." Rule the meek meekly, and those that will not be ruled, rule with authority." It is evident, therefore, that the experiment was fairly tried, so far as the moderation of his views is regarded. He did not involve the principle of dispensing with military force in difficulties that did not belong to it, by implicating it with any fanatical and extreme views on other points. The circumstances of his colony favored, besides, the experiment. It was exempted from danger of Indian hostility, not only by the peculiar confidence and good-will between Penn and the native tribes, but by its position. Situated centrally to the other colonies, as they extended along the coast, it was far removed from French encroachment in the direction of Canada and Acadia, and Spanish in the direction of Florida and Havana. The other frontier settlements of America looked upon the deep and unfathomed forest in their rear with awe and terror, for swift destruction often darted upon them from its dark bosom; but the Five Nations, who were the guardians of the English, either occupied themselves the wilderness behind Pennsylvania, or controlled the tribes that did. Indeed, military defences were so entirely unneeded, that, whatever might have been the views of the colonists in reference to them, a considerable period might have elapsed without their being suggested.

But in the course of time, when a large and prosperous state had arisen, then, as now, the key-stone of the communities established on the Atlantic shore, and a common danger threatened the destruction and extirpation of the whole, the mother country, and the united voice of the other provinces, called for the aid and coöperation of Pennsylvania. It is curious to witness the absurd embarrassments and ludicrous perplexities to which it was driven in endeavouring to maintain its non-resistant principles, and at the same time to meet the demands of justice, reason, and necessity. Common sense, if not common honesty, required them to contribute of their abundance to aid those who were standing between them and a power which, if not effectually resisted, would overwhelm them, and sweep from the continent every vestige of the English and the Protestant liberties, the sweets of which they had long been securely enjoying.

But their sectarian principles, the pride with which men cling to peculiar speculations, and the overawing influence of prejudices which they had cherished into fanatical blindness and obstinacy in the bosoms of their own people, prevented the Quaker legislators from cutting the Gordian knot boldly at a single blow, and sending levies of brave men to share common sacrifices and perils, in defending common privileges and blessings. A party arose, however, taking the ground that something ought to be done, and at particular emergencies it prevailed, and grants of money were made by the Assembly for the general Colonial defence. The act, in such cases, would be veiled under the thin subterfuge of its being done to clothe or compensate the Indians in alliance with the Colonial forces, or, in some other disguised form, it would help on the common cause. Such indirection and equivocation, of course, had too much of hypocrisy and cunning in it to satisfy any honorable minds, while the procedure shocked the thorough and bigoted party among the Quakers, and offered a handle to all evil-disposed persons to stir up strife and bitterness in the bosom of the community. At the same time, in other lesser matters connected with the government, in order to carry on the administration. of the laws, and enforce the public authority, it was necessary to bend, more or less, if not occasionally to break, the strict formulas and rigid notions of Quakerism. This always gave rise to reproaches and ill-blood, and heightened the confusion to which society was tending. The proceedings of the courts, moreover, were interrupted by wranglings in reference to the imposition and nature of oaths, and inextricable embarrassments occurred in business transactions, in custom-house operations, as well as in juries, from vain attempts to effect a compromise between the principles of Quakerism and acts of Parliament and forms of law.

The

The following passages from letters written by prominent persons among them illustrate the state of things. Isaac Norris says, "We have no courts, no justice administered, and every man does what is right in his own eyes.' James Logan expresses himself in similar terms: public grows rampant, and wickedness is bold and open. A mobbish spirit is encouraged." "The clamors and abuses from such men to the Friends in government tire them, and make them weary of the load. When the queen asks for our quota for Canada, Friends know not how to act, or how

to refuse." Norris, in another place, observes : — " The holding of a place in government is extremely difficult to Friends, and we can hardly judge which has the worst prospect, whether to hold it under such difficulties as daily fall in the way, or to resign it to some men of no honorable principles. Some Friends are still in places and offices that cannot be exercised without great difficulties, and sometimes full stops. To me it seems impracticable to do any thing that will please and hold." "I get into a labyrinth, when I turn my thoughts that way."

At last, they could endure their perplexities no longer, they acknowledged that government was a burden they could not bear, threw it down in despair, and not only confessed the unfitness of their principles for the performance of its functions, and that they were heartily glad to have got rid of it, but it has been looked upon by them as a lasting reproach, that they ever allowed themselves to meddle with it at all.

"From the moment we Friends," say they, "began to lose sight of our original institution, we erred greatly; for when we saw so much corruption interwoven in the affairs of this world, we were unfit to be concerned in them, and should have rested satisfied in a dependence on the arm of the Lord, and what protection the laws of our country would have given us. But we must needs have that power in our own hands; and having so exceeded their native moderation and self-command, they knew no bounds, they grasped at more, by which means the life of our old and respected friend and governor, William Penn, was made a life of trouble. Let us return to our original plan, and leave the concerns of this world entirely to the men of this world."

In taking our leave of William Penn, we feel constrained, in justice and in honor to him, to say that his extensive reading, his well-balanced mind, and his large experience enabled him to avoid the fanatical extremes to which many rushed, in his day as in ours, following the "inner light" or the voice of "inspiration," as they call their own crude notions and dogmas. He was a steadfast and enlightened defender of law and order; he recognized the allegiance which the citizen owes the state, and the truly sacred authority with which the legal and constitutional acts of the government are clothed. He maintained with great clearness the obligation to obedience on the part of the people, particularly in a free state, "where the laws rule, and the people are a party to these laws."

ART. VI. The American Loyalists, or Biographical Sketches of Adherents to the British Crown in the War of the Revolution, alphabetically arranged; with a Preliminary Historical Essay. By LORENZO SABINE. Boston Little & Brown. 1847. 8vo.

IT is difficult to decide whether the theme of this volume is more peculiarly English or American, whether historic justice demanded this tribute from a citizen of the United States, or from a subject of the British empire. The topic in fact belongs to both countries, and has equal interest and an equal claim to attention on both sides of the Atlantic. The facilities for its faithful and thorough treatment, the historical documents, the private papers, correspondence, and journals, which compose the materials for its discussion, are in like manner divided between England and America.

The increasing attention which, within the last twenty years, has been given to historical labors among us, could not fail to make prominent among the subjects of biographical research that class of men whose history combines all the interest of great political questions with all that is exciting in personal efforts and adventures. The Journal and Letters of Curwen, and the Life of Van Schaack, with some smaller publications, have prepared the way for Mr. Sabine's more extensive labors. We believe that the public will receive his contribution to our history with unqualified favor. There may be some few individuals among us, who, retaining in their memories the embers of an ancient strife, will regard the revival of interest in the "Tories " in any shape as a covert attempt to redeem them from merited infamy, and will think our author has engaged in a bootless task. Such persons may condemn his volume on the mere evidence of its title. But the folly will be theirs, and they must bear with it, too, the imputation of injustice. Our scholars and patriots, and all our citizens who are lovers of justice, will thank him for enriching our annals with a volume which treats with admirable candor a theme as likely to enlist passion and prejudice as any that could employ the pen of an American writer. We may say at once, that his work is not of a partisan character. It is not a defence of the Loyalists of the American Revolution, nor even a plea in palliation of their

course, or of the sentence which posterity will repeat against them. It is as harmless as a dictionary of the English language, which contains active and passive, regular and irregular verbs, and adjectives of good and ill import, and in the three degrees of comparison.

There were three parties engaged in the American Revolution first, the native inhabitants of the Thirteen Colonies; secondly, the foreign invaders from Great Britain, and their hirelings from the continent of Europe, and from the savage woods of America; and, thirdly, those who belonged to the first party by birth, but to the second by sympathy or adop tion. It is of the principles and deeds of the members of this third party, and of their individual characters and experiences, that Mr. Sabine writes. He has given us an essay upon them as a class, and a biographical dictionary of them as individuals. The author says of himself,-"I may be permitted to say, in conclusion, that the history of individuals and of nations has been delightful to me from my earliest youth; that the annals of my own country have been as diligently studied as circumstances would permit ; and that, of all men of whom I have obtained any knowledge, the Whigs of the American Revolution have impressed me with the greatest respect and reverence, both on account of their personal virtues, and the objects which they sought to accomplish for themselves, their posterity, and mankind." Such a feeling for the victorious party, dwelling in the breast of an upright and judiciously discriminating man, would be his most essential qualification for doing justice to the "Tories," the discomfited party. As to other qualifications for the work, Mr. Sabine is in no respect deficient. His residence at Eastport, Maine, has brought him into near neighbourhood and frequent intercourse with the descendants of the Loyalists. Public documents and private papers, family records, and a faithful use of all other available means, have furnished him with abundant and authentic materials.

The volume opens with a Preliminary Historical Essay, which, in the compass of a hundred and fourteen pages, passes in review before us the general topics and considerations involved in the whole subject. Though this Essay is not designed to stand as an exposition of the motives, the course, and the issue of the Revolutionary War, it is still a better sketch than can elsewhere be found in such narrow