Chapter 49:
The king and the second petition of congress.August, September, in Europe. November in America—1775.
The zeal of Richard Penn appeared from hisChap. XLIX.} 1775. Aug. |
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celerity.
Four days after the petition to the king had been adopted by congress, he sailed from Philadelphia on his mission.
He arrived in Bristol on the thirteenth of August, and made such speed that he was the next day in London.
Joint proprietary of the opulent and rapidly increasing colony of Pennsylvania, of which he for a time was governor, long a resident in America, intimately acquainted with many of its leading statesmen, the chosen suppliant from its united delegates, an Englishman of a loyalty above impeachment or suspicion, he singularly merited the confidence of the government.
But not one of the ministers waited on him, or sent for him, or even asked him, through subordinates, one single question about the state of the colonies.
The king, on whose decision neither the petition nor its bearer had the slightest
Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1860.
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