Dealings with the Dead, Volume 1 (of 2)

by Lucius M. Sargent

No. LXVI.

Mr. Macaulay’s last attack upon William Penn will be found, in vol. ii., pages 295-6-7. The Fellows of Magdalen College had been most abominably treated, by James II., in 1687. The detail is too long for my limits, and is, withal, unnecessary here, since there is neither doubt nor denial of the fact. The mediatorial agency of Penn was employed. The King was enraged, and resolved to have his way. His obstinacy was a proverb. There were three courses for Penn—right, left, and medial—to side with the King—to side with the Fellows—or to act as a mediator. Mr. Macaulay is pleased, in his Index, to speak of the transaction, as “Penn’s mediation.”

Had he sided with the Fellows entirely, he would have lost his influence utterly, to serve them, with the King. Had he sided with the King entirely, he would have lost all confidence with the Fellows. Mr. Macaulay, here, as elsewhere, is evidently bent upon showing up Penn, as the “tool of the King:” and, if there is anything more unjust, upon historical record, I know not where to look for it.

[1]With manifest effort, and in stinted measure, Mr. Macaulay lets down a few drops of the milk of human kindness, in the outset, and says of Penn—“He had too much good feeling to approve of the violent and unjust proceedings of the government, and even ventured to express part of what he thought.” Here, that which proceeded from fixed and lofty principle, is ascribed to a less honorable motive—“good feeling,” or bonhommie; and the “part of what he thought,” was neither more nor less, than a bold and frank remonstrance, committed to writing, and sent to the King, by Penn.

When they met at Oxford, says Clarkson, vol. i. chap. 23, “William Penn had an opportunity of showing not only his courage, but his consistency in those principles of religious liberty, which he had defended, during his whole life.” After giving an account of the Prince’s injustice, Clarkson says—“Next morning William Penn was on horseback, ready to leave Oxford, but knowing what had taken place, he rode up to Magdalen College, and conversed with the Fellows, on the subject. After this conversation, he wrote a letter, and desired them to present it to the King.” * * * * “Dr. Sykes, in relating this anecdote of William Penn, by letter to Dr. Chazlett, who was then absent, mentions that Penn, after some discourse with the Fellows of Magdalen College, wrote a short letter, directed to the King. He wrote to this purpose—that their case was hard, and that, in their circumstances, they could not yield obedience.”

This was confirmed by Mr. Creech, as Clarkson states, and by Sewell, who states, in his History of the Rise and Progress of the Quakers, that Penn told the King the act “could not in justice be defended, since the general liberty of conscience did not allow of depriving any of their property, who did what they ought to do, as the Fellows of the said College appeared to have done.” This is the “part of what he thought,” referred to by Mr. Macaulay, who has not found it convenient, upon this occasion, to quote a syllable from Clarkson, nor from Sewell, of whose work Chalmers and others have spoken with respect.

I know of no better mode of presenting this matter fairly, than by laying before the reader contrasted passages, from Mr. Macaulay, and from Clarkson, relating to the conduct of Penn, upon this occasion. Mr. Macaulay shall lead off—“James, was as usual, obstinate in the wrong. The courtly Quaker, therefore, did his best to seduce the college from the path of right.”—Therefore!—Wherefore? Penn did his best to seduce the college from the path of right, because James was, as usual, obstinate in the wrong! This is based, of course, upon Mr. Macaulay’s favorite hypothesis, that Penn was “the tool of the King and the Jesuits.”—“He tried first intimidation. Ruin, he said, impended over the society. The King was highly incensed. The case might be a hard one. Most people thought it so. But every child knew that his Majesty loved to have his own way, and could not bear to be thwarted. Penn, therefore, exhorted the Fellows not to rely on the goodness of their cause, but to submit, or at least to temporize. Such counsel came strangely from one, who had been expelled from the University for raising a riot about the surplice, who had run the risk of being disinherited, rather than take off his hat to the princes of the blood, and who had been more than once sent to prison, for haranguing in conventicles. He did not succeed in frightening the Magdalen men.”

It may be thought scarcely worth while, to charge a Quaker, at the age of forty-three, with inconsistency, because his views had somewhat altered, since he was a wild young man, at twenty-one.

It is also clear, that Penn viewed the Magdalen question, as one quite as much of property as of conscience; and that he could see no good reason, with his eyes of toleration wide open, why all the great educational institutions should be forever, in the hands of one denomination.