Page:Readings in European History Vol 2.djvu/391

 The Expansion of England 353 Dear Friend: My true love in the Lord salutes thee and dear Friends that love the Lord's precious Truth in those parts. Thine I have ; and for my business here, know that after many waitings, watchings, solicitings, and disputes in council, this day my country was confirmed to me under the great seal of England, with large powers and privileges, by the name of Pennsylvania ; a name the king would give it in honor of my father. I chose New Wales, being, as this, a pretty hilly country; but Penn being Welsh for a head, as Penman- moire in Wales, and Penrith in Cumberland, and Penn in Buckinghamshire, the highest land in England, [the king] called this Pennsylvania, which is the high or head wood- lands; for I proposed, when the secretary, a Welshman, refused to have it New W T ales, Sylvania, and they added Penn to it ; and though I much opposed it, and went to the king to have it struck out and altered, he said it was past, and would take it upon him; nor could twenty guineas move the undersecretary to vary the name; for I feared lest it should be looked on as a vanity in me, and not as a respect in the king, as it truly was to my father, whom he often mentions with praise. Thou mayest communicate my grant to Friends, and expect shortly my proposals. It is a clear and just thing, and my God that has given it me through many difficulties will, I believe, bless and make it the seed of a nation. I shall have a tender care to the government, that it be well laid at first. No more now, but dear love in the Truth. Thy true Friend, William Penn. 375. How Penn re- ceived his grant from King Charles II (1681). VII. English Views of the Revolt of the American Colonies The elder Pitt thus spoke in the House of Commons, January 20, 1775, on the growing difficulties between the king and his American colonies.