The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1881-07-23 00:00:00

MR. BRADLAUGH.

On Tuesday (says The Times) Mr. Bradlaugh had an
interview with the inspector of police at the House
of Commons, Mr. Denning, and informed him that he
had no intention of bringing down a mob to West-
minster on Wednesday, the 3rd of August. To avoid
anything of the kind he-stated that he had arranged a
meeting of his friends not for the Wednesday but for
the Tuesday night. He said that of course he could
not prevent a crowd gathering. The police authori-
ties have arranged to exclude the public from Palace-
yard on the 3rd of August, and other steps will be
taken to preserve order at Westmirster.
At a public meeting held at Birmingham Town-hall
on Tuesday evening to protest against the exclusion
of Mr. Bradlaugh from the douse of Commons, a
letter of apology for non-attendance was received
i
from Mr. Bright, n which the right hon. gentleman
said : It is not convenient for me to leave London
now that business is so pressing before the House of
Commons. I have done what I could in the House on
behalf of the rights of constituencies to a free choice
of their Parliamentary representatives."

SETTLING iTr—Daughter.—Oh, look, papa, the
donkey is going into the sea! Papa.—Very well, my
dear; what then? Isn't it natural? Animals, you
know, unit drink.—Funny Folks,

THE REMAINS OF WILLIAM PENN.

The Times of Wednesday published the following :

Sir,—The propoaed removal of the remains of
William Penn from their resting place at Jorclans, in
Bucks, to Philadelphia, having obtained much atten-
tion on both sides of the Atlantic, I beg to inform you
that a deputation from the Society of Friends met
Mr. George L. Harrison, the Commissioner from the
State of Pennsylvania, in London to-day, and, after
discussing the subject with him, handed in a reply to
the application a copy of Nthich I enclose, and am
respectfully, RICHARD LITTLEBOY.
Newport Pagnell, July 18.

"Copy of the Third Minute of Luton. and Leighton
monthly meeting of the Society of Friends, held at Jordans,
tbe 2nd of the 6th month, 181.—This meeting having been
informed that an application is likely to be made by the
Lecislature of Pennsylvania for the removal of the remkins
of William Penn from their resting place in the adjacent
burial ground, appoints the following Friends a committee
to receive and reply to any such application, and desires
not only that such an application should be delnitely
refused, but that the views entertained by Friends respect-
ing it, and the grounds upon which their refusal is based
should be plainly stated—namely, Richard Littleboy,
Theodore Harris, Henry Brown, and John E. Littleboy.
James H. Tuke, of Hitchin, and Francis T. King of Balti-
more, are invited to associate themselves with the committee.
Signed on behalf of the meeting, by JOHN E. LITTLEBOY,
Clerk.

"To George L. Harrison, Commissioner from the State of

Pennsylvania.

"The Trustees of ordain' Meeting-house and Burial-
ground have received the application made on behalf of the
Governor and Legislature of Pennyslvania for permission
to remove the remains of William Penn, supposing that
they yet exist, from their present resting place to the city of
Philadelphia.
"The trustees of the said burial-ground have carefully
considered the application, not only from their own stand-
point as members of the Society of Friends, but in a dis-
passionate and cosmopolitan spirit, and they have arrived
at the conclusion that it is their duty to refuse it.
"They respectfully submit the following considerations
which appear to them to justify the course they have deter-
mined ta adopt.
- - - - - •- - -

"The quiet and retired spot in which the remains of
William Penn at present rest was selected by him during
the vigour of life as the burial-place of himself and his
family. He is there surrounded by his two wives and five
children, and many of Ma most intimate friends. The
trustees believe that the choice thus made was altogether in
accordance with the example of his unostentatious life. They
believe also that the removal of his remains to a Trans-
atlantic home, amid the pomp and circumstance of a State
ceremonial, accompanied in all probability by military
honour and parade, would be utterly repugnant to his known
character and sentiments.

"The Society of Friends, to whom the Burial-ground of
Jordans belongs and for whom the trustees are now called
upon to act, have always objected to the use of elaborate
monumental tombstones. For more than a century a rough
plain of the graveyard was the only available clue to the
spot where the remains of William Penn and his family were
laid. Guided by this plan, about twenty years ago small
head stones, bearing the names of the interred and the date
of burial, were placed over the existing mounds, but it is
more than doubtful whether they indicate in each case the
exact spot of interment.
-

"It need hardly be said that the memory of William Penn
Is honoured and revered among the Society of Friends in
England as sincerely as in America, and the trustees cannot
admit that America possesses a priority ot claim to the cus-
tody of his remains.
"It is true that he became the successful founder of the
State of Pennsylvania, and that the great sagacity and
unswerving Christian principle which guided his trans-
actions as colonist and Governor have gained for him the
respect and admiration of the civilized world; but William
Penn was born and died in England. In England his reli-
gions character was mainly formed. In England he was
engaged for many years as a minister of the Gospel, and
became conspicuous among the founders of a society, the
Influence of which has been largely exercised for good,
both in this country and America; and, lastly, it was
here that he dared to suffer persecution for his religious
profession, and took his part manfully in laying the foun-
dation of that system of religious liberty which we now
enjoy.

"The trustees are desirous of fulfilling in all respects the
wishes of the society with whose interests they are entrusted,
but with this reservation, they consider that they are the
sole custodians of Jordans' Burial-ground.

"They have received communications from many in-
fluential members of the society of Friends, and also from
most ()Utile lineal descendants of William Penn on both
sides of the Atlantic, earnestly desiring that the proposal
made by the Legislature of Pennsylvania may not be acceded
to, and they believe that they are supported in the decision
they have arrived at by the opinion of a very large propor-
tion of those who have a right to be consulted in the
matter.

"The trinitees think that in carrying out the project one
link in the chain which unites the two countries would be
broken. Their desire is that the bond may be strengthened,
and that the only rivalry existing between them may be in
the promotion of those things which tend to peace and
amity and the extension of the Redeemer's Kingdom.
" It is therefore from no feeling of discourtesy towards
those who initiated the movement, but from a strong con-
viction of the soundness of the objections herein stated
that they feel themselves compelled to refuse the applica-
tion.

"Signed on behalf of the Committee appointed by the
monthly meeting, and of the trustees of Jordans' estate, by
" Igen ARD LITTLEBOY, Newport Pagnell.
" TIIEuDORE HARRIS, Leighton Buzard.
"HENRY BROWN, Luton.
"JOHN h. LITTLEBOY, Watford.
11th of the 7th month, 1881."

The Times has a leader on the above, from which we
make the following extracts :
"Where the tree falls, there let it lie." This is the true
sentiment with which to regard the restingeplace of the
illustrious dead. If the principle involved in the proposal
to transfer Penn's remains to America were once to find
general favour, there is no sayiniz what it might lead. to.
The contest over the birthplace of Homer would be nothing
to the struggles that might arise over the mortal remains of
the world's undying heroes. But for Shakeepeare's curse,
who can say where his bones would now be laid, and
yet who could really wish that his resting-place should
be other then that which he chose himselt in the quiet
chureil beside the Avon ? Dante still sleeps at Ravenna
though Flereece—parri Florentia mater amoris as his
epitaph bitterly calls her--inight ainro,t be excused her
paseienate longing for his remains if it were not for the
sounder sentiment which forbids the violation of his tomb.
Columbus, alter several migrations, lies buried in Havanna!),
and Spain might strive with America in the vulgar cutest
for his dust. There are, it is true, one or two notable in-
stances which make the other way. But the scene lately
enacted at Ruins is hardly an encouragement to those
who would traffic in dead men's bones, nor can
we think that the transfer of Napoleon's remains from
St. Helena to Paris was a precedent which healthy
sentiment would have any strong desire to follow. The
gaudy and rococo mausoleum at the Invalides, with i ts
tricks of coloured light and darkened passages, is after all
but a poor exchange for the simple tomb in the lonely
Atlantic island. The cumbrous pile may gratify Parisian
taste, but it sorts ill With the truer sentiment, as broad as
humanity itself, which belongs to the original resting.
place of any man whom the world has reckoned
among its great ones. In truth, the place where
the great man is first laid is as much a part of his
history as anything else which concerns him. To take
the remains of Penn to America, there to be laid under
a pile of modern magnificence, would be simply to
add a monstrous falsehood to his real and genuine history.
He was an Englishman and he rests in English ground.
He chose his resting-place for himself, and there he is
surrounded by his two wives and by five of his
children. To divide those whom death has thus united
after nearly two centuries of peaceful rest would
surely be little short Of sacrilege. More° ier, William
Penn's history really belongs to England, even more
than it does to America. In England he lived and
died, and to what he did and suffered in England belongs
whatever of glory or of obloquy attaches to his name. It
was in England that the sect to which he so ardently
attached himself had its rise, and the controversies in
which he took so large a share were of wholly native
growth. It was In England, too, that the great
dispute as to the uprightness of his character and
the simplicity of his motives arose—a dispute which
Is said to have embittered the last days of Niactrulay.
With what justice can such a man be claimed for Penn-
sylvania, or even for America? If he had died in America
and had been buried there, no doubt his remains would have
been justly held in honour, and no one would have grudge
Penns) lvania their possession. But Penn lies buried in England
and we cannot doubt that the truer and sounder sentiment
of America will repudiate the unhallowed proposal to dis-
turb the tranquillity of his grave.
The whole earth is the sepulchre of famous men, said the
greatest of Athenian statesmen on one of the most solemn
occasions of Greek history. It is not their mortal remains
that postetity should care to honour, but the spirit and
example of their lives. Would any single American be the
better because the doubtful remains of William Penn, un-
timely snatched from the quiet earth of Jordans' burial ground,
were "removed to a Transatlantic home amid the pomp
and circumstance of a steer ceremonial," there to repose
under a monumental pile such as the too magnificent and
not too refined taste of a Pennsylvania)) Legislature would
be certain to provide? On the contrary, every American
would ha the worse for the violence done to the natural and
most wholesome sentiment which enjoins respect for the
grave. We have no desire to underrate the services rendered
brPenn to America. It is no slight thing that he was among
the first to enjoin forbearance and justice in dealine with the
native tribes, and that his treaty with the Indians was
he first and only treaty which, as Voltaire said of it, was
never sworn to and never broken." It is no slight thing
that he carried to America and there planted, in a soil which
has brought forth abundant fruit, the spirit of simplicity,
of truth, of liberty, of plain dealing, and of kindly fellow-
ship, which has always characterized the sect to which he
belonged. This is what Penn did for his own colony, and
thi is why he still deserves to be honoured in Penns?
Eitt so modest was he, so reluctant to put himself for-
ward and buke honour to himself, that if lie had had
his way, his zolony would never have beim° his own name.
New Wales was the first name proposed by hint, and his
own final choice was "Sylvania It was called Pennsyl-
vania in spite of him, and he went so far as to appeal to
Charles IL in order to induce him to disallow the prefix ;
but the King insisted on rt taming it, not, indeed, in com-
memoration of Penn himself, but in honour, as he said, of
his late friend, the Admiral, a man so different from his
son that he twice chastised him and banished him from his
house, on account of his stiffness in religion. It is in truth
little better than a mockery to think of doing honour to such
a mire by the grotesque proposal to disturb his semains. The
thing is happily impossible, for the reasons given by the
trustees ; but even if it were not impossible it would surely
be instantly forbidden by the instinctive and irresistible sen-
timent of two great nations).