Stated Meeting. January 6, 1899.... A Note on William Penn's Commission for the Government of Pennsylvania During His First Visit to England in 1684. By I. MINIS HAYS, M.D. (with two plates) Stated Meeting, January 20. 1899 Specializations of the Lepidopterous Wing; Parnassi-Papilionidæ. Stated Meeting, February 3, 1899 Stated Meeting, March 3, 1899. Stated Meeting, April 7, 1899.. Specializations of the Lepidopterous Wing; the Parnassi-Papilionidæ. Part II. By A. RADCLIFFE GROTE, A.M. (with three plates).... 25 Chairman's Annual Discourse for 1899, on the Transmission of Energy by Electricity. By COLEMAN SELLERS, E.D., Vice-President Stated Meeting, April 21, 1899 Stated Meeting, May 5, 1899. 49 71 74 Divisions of North Australian Tribes. By R. H. MATHEWS, L.S... 75 Calendar of the Correspondence of Brigadier-General George Calendar of the Correspondence of Richard Henry Lee and Arthur Stated Meeting, May 19, 1899. 79 79 81 114 131 PHILADELPHIA : THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY, 104 South Fifth Street. 1899. It is requested that all correspondence be addressed TO THE SECRETARIES OF THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY, 104 SOUTH FIFTH STREET, PHILADELPHIA, U. S. A. Members will please communicate to the Secretaries any inaccuracy in name or address as given on the wrapper of this number. It is requested that the receipt of this number of the Proceedings be acknowledged to the Secretaries. Members who have not as yet sent their photographs to the Society will confer a favor by so doing; cabinet size preferred. Acknowledgments of election to and acceptance of membership were read from Messrs. Edward P. Crowell, Henry S. Pancoast, Edward H. Keiser, Ernest W. Brown, Francis Rawle, Paul Leicester Ford and Charles M. Hall. The decease of Prof. Ezra Otis Kendall, at Philadelphia, on January 5, 1899, was announced and it was ordered that the President be requested to appoint a member to prepare an obituary notice of the late Vice-President of the Society. The Judges of the annual election for Officers and Councillors held this day between the hours of two and five in the afternoon reported that the following-named persons were elected according to the laws, regulations and ordinances of the Society to the offices for the ensuing year: President. Vice-Presidents. Coleman Sellers, Isaac J. Wistar, George F. Barker. I. Minis Hays, Frederick Prime, Samuel P. Sadtler, PROC. AMER. PHILOS. SOC. XXXVIII. 159. A. PRINTED JUNE 17, 1899. Curators. J. Cheston Morris, Benjamin Smith Lyman, Henry Pettit. Treasurer. Horace Jayne. Councillors. (For three years.) William A. Ingham, Charles S. Wurts, George F. Edmunds, James T. Mitchell. (For one year to fill an unexpired term.) Henry C. Trumbull. Dr. I. Minis Hays read a "Note on Penn's Commission for the Government of Pennsylvania during his Visit to Eng land in 1684." Dr. I. Minis Hays was nominated for Librarian for the ensuing year. The Society was adjourned by the presiding officer. A NOTE ON WILLIAM PENN'S COMMISSION FOR THE BY I. MINIS HAYS, M.D. (Read January 6, 1899.) On March 4, 1681, Charles II granted a charter, in which he made William Penn full and absolute Proprietor of that dominion which is now called Pennsylvania, and invested him with the powers of government of the same. Penn sailed for America on the 6th of August of the following year and landed at New Castle, on the Delaware, on October 24. He at once set about establishing his government and aiding the Quakers, who had emigrated under his auspices, in regulating their affairs in the colony, until in 1684 the dispute between Lord Baltimore and himself concerning the boundary of their respective provinces and the critical condition into which other of his important affairs had been thrown by his enemies during his absence in America rendered his presence in England necessary. He therefore departed for home in June, 1684, but before so doing it was necessary to provide for the government of his province in his absence, and to this end, he executed a commission on the same day that he set sail, lodging in the hands of the Provincial Council the powers of government vested in him, and he appointed Thomas Lloyd, who also held a commission to keep the great seal, its President.1 In the Minutes of the Provincial Council it is stated that "at a Councill held at New Castle the 18th of ye 6th Month 1684 a commission from y° Gov' was read, Impowring the Prov" Councill to act in the Governm in his Stead, Ths. Lloyd being Presid' of ye In the Minutes of 31st of January, 1686, P.M., it is also stated that "The commission from ye Gov to ye Prov" Councill Impowring them to act in his stead, with y° memorandum on the back side thereof was Read." Neither the text of this commission, nor the important memorandum on the back is given, nor, so far as I can learn, have they ever appeared in print. I have been so fortunate, however, as to find the original document among some unarranged papers in the possession of this Society, and it bears no marks upon it to show that it was ever recorded. It seems, therefore, desirable that the text of this important document should now be made available to students of the history of this Commonwealth, as well as the memorandum on its back, which is referred to in the second record in the Minutes of the Provincial Council, which was executed on the same day on board the Ketch Endeavour just as Penn was about to sail for home, and which very materially restricted the large powers he had just previously on the same day granted in the original instrument. It constitutes another example of what has frequently been observed, that man's first impulses are more generous than his second thoughts. The following is the text of the commission: 1 Minutes of the Provincial Council of Pennsylvania. Published by the State, Vol. i, p. 66. Harrisburgh, 1838. 2 Ibid. 3 Ibid., p. 120. |