English Liberty Research Articles

An Estimate of William Penn

90 BULLETIN OF FRIENDS' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION It is a gratification to find erected here, in the New World, to the memory of one of the founders of the ancient town of Chester, a mural tablet of such " antiquity, picturesqueness and excellence of execution." References Ashmead, Henry Graham : History of Delaware County, 1884. Keen, Gregory B. : The Descendants of Jöran Kyn. Martin, John Hill : History of Chester, 1877. Record of the Chester County Court, 1681-1697. Record of the Court at Upland. AN ESTIMATE OF WILLIAM PENN By Rayner W. Kelsey 1 The year 1932 witnesses the 250th anniversary of the coming of William Penn to Pennsylvania. In the prime of life, at thirtyeight years of age, he sailed up the stately Delaware and caught his first view of his " fresh new country." He brought the enthusiasm of youth and the idealism of religious faith to the tasks of his " Holy Experiment in Government." We now have the goodly perspective of two and a half centuries in which to view his work. Hence it may be worth while to outline here some of his larger contributions to human thought and life. One naturally recalls at the beginning Penn's contribution to the cause of religious freedom. He spoke, wrote, wrought and suffered for this cause. He was expelled from Oxford University for non-conformity. For a time he was exiled from his father's house because of his adherence to a despised sect. He went to prison again and again for his faith. On one such occasion he declared : " My prison shall be my grave before I will budge a jot; for I owe my conscience to no mortal man." In a constitution for West New Jersey he wrote : " No Men nor number of Men upon Earth, hath Power or Authority to rule over Men's Consciences in religious Matters." In his famous Frame of Government of 1682 1 This article is the Foreword, somewhat adapted, of an anniversary edition of Sydney George Fisher's The True William Penn, 1932. It is used in this place by the courtesy of the J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia. For a notice of The True William Penn see Books and Notes below. AN ESTIMATE OF WILLIAM PENN91 for Pennsylvania he provided that all believers in God " shall in no ways be molested or prejudiced for their religious Persuasion or Practice in Matters of Faith and Worship." Those who know this chapter of William Penn's life are likely to count him one of the world's great leaders in the struggle for religious freedom. His life also counted heavily in the cause of political liberalism. In spite of friendly connections with the Stuart court, inherited from his father, the voice of Penn was often raised for the rights and liberties which were threatened by the Stuart despotism. At one time he suffered imprisonment to help establish the freedom of English juries from the dictation of judges. In his pamphlet, " The People's Ancient and Just Liberties Asserted," and in various similar treatises he argued for security of person and property, for the right of a fair trial by jury, for free and frequent parliaments , and for other ancient and fundamental rights of Englishmen . In the library of Haverford College is preserved the only complete copy known to exist of a pamphlet by Penn entitled, " The Excellent Priviledge of Liberty and Property, being the BirthRight of the Free-born Subjects of England." It contains a copy of Magna Charta, the Confirmation of the Charters, the Charter of Liberties granted by Penn to Pennsylvania, and other historic documents of English liberty. It was published in Philadelphia in 1687, and the high purpose of it, as stated in the Foreword, was to inform Pennsylvanians and other Americans of the " many precious Priviledges of Liberty and Property, by which every man that is a Subject to the Crown of England, may understand what is his Right, and how to preserve it." In Penn's political activities in the New World he strove earnestly to advance the cause of democracy. He was the chief author of the Concessions and Agreements of 1677 for West New Jersey. Of that...

Reviews of Books

Journal Article Reviews of Books Get access The Crisis of English Liberty. A History of the Stuart Monarchy and the Puritan Revolution. By JOHN A. R. MARRIOTT. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1930.) RICHARD LODGE RICHARD LODGE Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The English Historical Review, Volume XLVII, Issue CLXXXVI, April 1932, Pages 311–314, https://doi.org/10.1093/ehr/XLVII.CLXXXVI.311 Published: 01 April 1932

The Crisis of English Liberty. A History of the Stuart Monarchy and the Puritan Revolution. John A. R. Marriott

<i>The Crisis of English Liberty. A History of the Stuart Monarchy and the Puritan Revolution</i>. John A. R. Marriott

Book Reviews

Abstract American History. By Samuel Knox Wilson. Loyola University Press, Chicago, 1929. xv, 864 pp. $1.92. Reviewed by Edgar B. Wesley. The Development of the United States. By Wilson Porter Shortridge. The Macmillan Co., New York, 1929. xi, 775 pp. Reviewed by Edgar B. Wesley. Our United States: A History of the Nation. By James Albert Woodburn, Thomas Francis Moran, and Howard Copeland Hill. Longmans, Green and Co., New York, 1930. xxiv, 779 pp. $1.64. Reviewed by Edgar B. Wesley. The American People and Their Old World Ancestors. By Grace Vollintine. Ginn and Co., Boston, 1930. v, 576 pp. $1.24. Reviewed by Edgar B. Wesley. The Beginnings of the American People and Nation. By Mary G. Kelty. Ginn and Co., Boston, 1930. vii, 567 pp. $1.20. Reviewed by Edgar B. Wesley. The Birth of the American People. By James Morgan. The Macmillan Co., New York, 1930. xi, 335 pp. $2.50. Reviewed by Edgar B. Wesley. Readings in Vocational Life. By Howard C. Hill. Ginn and Co., Boston, 1930. xvi, 640 pp. $1.80. Reviewed by Edgar B. Wesley. Readings in Community Life. By Howard C. Hill. Ginn and Co., Boston, 1930. xvi, 640 pp. $1.80. Reviewed by Edgar B. Wesley. Makers of Our Nation. By Reuben Post Halleck and Juliette Frantz. American Book Co., New York, 1930. v, 358 pp. Reviewed by Edgar B. Wesley. Stories of Our European Forefathers. By Henry Smith Chapman. Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston, 1930. viii, 194 pp. 84 cents. Reviewed by Edgar B. Wesley. The Story of the American Colonies. By Henry Smith Chapman. Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston, 1930. viii, 232 pp. 92 cents. Reviewed by Edgar B. Wesley. The Foundations of American Government: A Textbook in Civics. By Herman A. Spindt and Frederick Lynne Ryan. D. C. Heath and Co., Boston, 1929. x, 500 pp. $1.80. Reviewed by Edgar B. Wesley. Group Life and Social Problems. By Ernest H. Shideler. Henry Holt and Co., New York, 1929. viii, 467 pp. Reviewed by Edgar B. Wesley. A History of American Civilization. By Harold Rugg. Ginn & Co., Boston, 1930. xvii + 636 pp. $1.96. Reviewed by W. C. Waterman. Porto Rico and Its Problems. By Victor S. Clark and associates. The Brookings Institution, Washington, D. C., 1930. xxxv, 707 pp. Reviewed by A. Curtis Wilgus. The Mound-Builders. By Henry Clyde Shetrone. D. Appleton and Co., New York, 1930. xxii, 508 pp. Reviewed by A. Curtis Wilgus. Great Short Biographies of the World. By Barrett H. Clark. Robert M. McBride & Co., New York, 1928. 1407 pp. Reviewed by J. Montgomery Gambrill. Problems of the Pacific—1929. Edited by J. B. Condliffe, D.Sc. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1930. XV, 697 pp. Reviewed by Cyrus H. Peake. The Peoples and Politics of Latin-America. By Mary Wilhelmine Williams. Ginn and Company, New York, 1930. vii, 845 pp. Reviewed by Ernest Galarza. The Crisis of English Liberty, A History of the Stuart Monarchy and the Puritan Revolution. Sir John A. R. Marriott. Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1930. xiv, 472 pp. $6.00. Reviewed by Charles F. Mullett. The Historical Background of English Literature. By Nelson Sherwin Bushnell. Henry Holt, New York, 1930. 360 pp. Reviewed by Jacques M. Barzun. The Power and Secret of the Jesuits. By René Fülöp-Miller. The Viking Press, New York, 1930. xviii, 523 pp. Reviewed by Walter C. Langsam. Headings in European History Since 1814. By Jonathan F. Scott and Alexander Baltzly. F. S. Crofts and Co., New York, 1930. 690 pp. Reviewed by Jacques M. Barzun. Europe: The World's Banker, 1870-1914. By Herbert Feis. Yale University Press, New Haven, 1930. 469 pp. Reviewed by Oscar I. Janowsky. Key to League of Nations Documents Placed on Public Sale, 1920-1929. By Marie J. Carroll. World Peace Foundation, Boston, 1930. 340 pp. Reviewed by Walter C. Langsam.

(1) The Biology of Population Growth (2) Alcohol and Longevity

THE present generation regards with relatively small alarm the probings of a paternal governmant into the life and death of the individual. Yet lets than a hundred years ago the principle of laissez-faire was still dominant and the jurisdiction of Whitehall was strictly limited. No longer ago than 1753, a Bill introduced into the House of Commons to provide for a census of the people met with vehement opposition. One member “feared lest some public misfortune or an epidemical distemper should follow the numbering,” while another was overpowered by the discovery that there could be “any set of men, or indeed any individual of the human species, so presumptuous and so abandoned as to make the proposal we have just heard. I hold this project,”he stated, “to be utterly subversive of the last remains of English liberty.” Yet Great Britain did not lag behind other European States. The history of vital statistics is thus a short one, and, consequently, to glean further information of the populations of the past, we are compelled to resort to statistical assumptions based upon the very meagre data that exist. (1) The Biology of Population Growth. By Raymond Pearl. Pp. xiv + 260. (London: Williams and Norgate, Ltd., 1926.) 10s. 6d. net. (2) Alcohol and Longevity. By Raymond Pearl. Pp. xii + 273. (New York and London: Alfred A. Knopf, 1926.) 15s. net.

Socialism and Individualism in Evolution

IN the rise, decline and fall, or radical modification, of systems of thought we no longer find anything astonishing. In a world of change thought naturally evolves along with everything else. But, while general statements of this sort command universal concurrence, few are in truth prepared for certain concrete exemplifications of the doctrine expressed in them. The average person cannot readily believe, for instance, that the Socialism of today is a very different thing from the Socialism of 1890, or 1900, or even 1910. He is apt to assume that Socialism is a fixed, stereotyped body of ideas and propositions, and that it cannot undergo any material change without ceasing to be Socialism. Similarly, the average person thinks Individualism is what it was in the days of Bright, Cobden, Manchesterism, or, at any rate, of Herbert Spencer and the British Liberty and Property Defence League. Assure him that Socialism and Individualism have both marched, evolved, taken on protective coloring and adapted themselves to the requirements of the new era, and he will either venture to doubt the affirmation or elseconclude inwardly that the alleged changes are apparent rather than real, shadowy and negligible rather than substantial. Even the serious reader and student occasionally pauses to wonder at the nature and quality of the differences that he finds between the Socialism or the Individualism of today and the same schools or bodies of doctrine as he knew them a quarter of a century ago. The Socialism of Edward Bellamy, of Laurence Gronlund, of Hyndman, of Bebel and other followers of Marx and Engels was distinctly rigid, mechanical, artificial. When a William Morris insisted on a certain elasticity in the arrangements of the Socialistic order, he was dubbed a dreamer and Utopian. The radical who could not swallow

Nicholas Fuller: A Forgotten Exponent of English Liberty

Nicholas Fuller: A Forgotten Exponent of English Liberty Get access Roland G. Usher Roland G. Usher Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The American Historical Review, Volume 12, Issue 4, July 1907, Pages 743–760, https://doi.org/10.1086/ahr/12.4.743 Published: 01 July 1907