rather artificial rhetoric, of which, as before the keynote was a prayer for deliverance ; but let it be observed, no one word from first to last, of complaint of Personal or harsh treament. « From this Province, » they say, « we have experienced nothing but good, for which ourselves, our wives, and our children, shall not cease to supplicate the Almighty that he will heep upon you all blessings, spiritual and temporal. » (Votes, p. 685).
Hard as is the lot of the poor and incapable parents to be deprived temporalily of his children — especially hard is it where there are difference of language and religion, it is idle to deny the right and the duty of the legislature when the necessity arises, to make such compulsory provision. I confess I am unable to see what less or what else the Assembly could have done ; and also, in their perplexity, they seemed to think ; for, after a vain attempt to confer further with the Governor and his Concil, and to ascertain what they thought best to be done, the whole subject was dropped. The act of January, 1757, with a short supplement remedying some matter of detail, was the last legislative act, with the exception of constant and liberal appropriations of money, amounting in six years, from November, 1755 to 1761, to the not inconsiderable sum of upwards of 7 000 £ ; to which neither the Crown nor the Proprietaries, as far as I can discover, contributed a farthing — the first having its hands full with a European war and schemes, to use Thomas Penn’s phrase in a watching their estates an devising schemes, to use Thomas Penn’s phrase in a letter to Mr. Hamilton, of « getting the better of the Assemblies ». (Hamilton MS. Letter, 25 February, 1755).
On or about the 7th of March, Pennsylvania and its capital were honored by the presence of the new Commander-in-Chief — a Peer of the Realm, John, Earl of Loudoun. He was the first coronet that had ever shone on this distant and simple land. There was feasting and rejoicing when he came, and around him no doubt clustered the loyal worshippers of rank and authority — but all the while, so say the legislative records, the poor Neutrals were pining away in misery, not the less intense because, in some measure, self inflicted. On the 3d of March, 1757, the authorities were instructed by the Assembly to act for their relief, so as to prevent them (these are the words of the resolution) from perishing from want. » — (Votes p. 700, 715).
Lord Loudoun remained but a few days in Philadelphia, but quite long enough to inflict, by the exercise of his high powers, a new pang and a new indignity on the poor neutrals. He, or rather, Secretary Peters for him, found it necessary to ascertain the exact number of Roman Catholics in the Province, so that this terrible danger might be guarded against, and in the colonial records I find the following modest letter from the Priest, which one would think might have fulled to rest the anti-papal elements of the time !
« Honored Sir : — I send you the number of Roman Catholics in this town, and of those whom I visit in the country. Mr. Sneider is not in town to give an account of the Germans, but I have heard him often say, that the whole
