hout difficulty, a great deal of business
with his people, the Assembly, and the Indian tribes. Unfortunately
he got word from England of a bill in Parliament for the revocation
of colonial charters and for the establishment of royal governments in
their place. He must needs return to England to fight it. Shortly before
he sailed the Assembly presented him with a draft of a new constitution
or frame of government which they had been discussing with him
and preparing for some time. This he accepted, and it became the
constitution under which Pennsylvania lived and prospered for
seventy-five years, until the Revolution of 1776.

This new constitution was quite liberal. The most noticeable feature of
it was the absence of any provision for the large elective council or
upper house of legislation, which had been very unpopular. The Assembly
thus became the one legislative body. There was incidental reference
in the document to a governor's council, although there was no formal
clause creating it. Penn and his heirs after his death always appointed
a small council as an advisory body for the deputy governor. The
Assembly was to be chosen annually by the freemen and to be composed of
four representatives from each county. It could originate bills, control
its own adjournments without interference from the Governor, choose its
speaker and other officers, and judge of the qualifications and
election of its own members. These were standard Anglo-Saxon popular
parliamentary rights developed by long struggles in England and now
established in Pennsylvania never to be relaxed. Finally a clause in the
constitution permitted the Lower Counties, or Territories, under
certain conditions to establish home rule. In 1705 the Territories took
advantage of this concession and set up an assembly of their own.

Immediately after signing the constitution, in the last days of October,
1701, Penn sailed for England, expecting soon to return. But he became
absorbed in affairs in England and never saw his colony again. This was
unfortunate because Pennsylvania soon became a torment to him instead of
a great pleasure as it always seems to have been when he lived in it. He
was a happy present proprietor, but not a very happy absentee one.

The Church of England people in Pennsylvania entertained great hopes
of this proposal to turn the proprietary colonies into royal provinces.
Under such a change, while the Quakers might still have an influence in