council and the assembly, and another between the province and the
territory. The officials, too, whom Penn had appointed, had quarreled
among themselves. William complained that they were excessively
"governmentish;" meaning that they liked authority and that they took
details very seriously. The situation, however, was inevitably
difficult. In his relation to the king, the governor was a feudal
sovereign; in his relation to the people he was, by Penn's arrangement,
the executive of a democracy. Penn himself reconciled the two positions
by his own tact and unselfishness, as well as by a certain masterfulness
to which those about him instinctively and willingly yielded. He proved
the motto of his book-plate, _Dum Clavum Teneam_; all went well while he
with his own hands held the helm. But his deputies were not so
competent. The colony fell into two parties, the proprietary and the
popular, representing these two ideas. Then the governor whom the king
had appointed during Penn's retirement was a soldier, and his
un-Quakerlike notions as to the right conduct of a colony brought a new
element of confusion into affairs which were already sufficiently
confounded.

At last, in 1699, it became possible for the founder to make another
visit to his province. He brought his family with him, evidently
intending to stay. Philadelphia was now a city of some seven hundred
houses, and had nearly seven thousand inhabitants. The people were at
that moment in deep depression, having just been visited with a plague
of yellow fever. The pestilence, however, had abated, and Penn was
received with sober rejoicings. He took up his residence in the
"slate-roof house," a modest mansion which stood on the corner of Second
Street and Norris Alley; it was pulled down in 1867.

Now began a season of good government. The business of piracy had for
some time been merrily carried on by various enterprising persons, some
of whom lived very respectably in Philadelphia. William put a stop to
it. The importing of slaves from Africa was at that time considered by
most persons to be a good thing both for the planters and for the
slaves. Already, however, at the Pennsylvania yearly meeting of Friends
in 1688, some who came from Kriesheim, in Germany, had protested against
it,

"Who first of all their testimonial gave
Against the oppressor, for the outcast slave."

And, in consequence, though slaves were still imported, they were
humanely treated