Sidney; and at last, when all obstacles to the trial of the experiment of his principles of government upon a virgin soil were overcome, he could truthfully exclaim, as he received the royal charter of his Province: "God hath given it to me in the face of the world. . . He will bless and make it the seed of a nation."

It was, therefore, very precious freight which the good ship Welcome brought to these shores the day whose anniversary we celebrate, for it carried the sublime religious and political principles of William Penn and the illimitable influences of his wise and beneficent government, whose corner-stone was civic peace, born of justice, and whose capstone was religious liberty, born of toleration.

There was doubtless much in his life which was inconsistent with the highest standards of the religion he professed, but this inconsistency he shared with every man who professes the Christian faith, and the contradictions in his career are easily reconciled in the light of his youth and early manhood. But his virtue and his glory are his alone; for, in the seventeenth century, he discovered and proclaimed the political utility of liberty, of justice, of peace, of a free press, and a liberal system of education-the principles upon which rest the blessings of the present and the hopes of the future of the human race.

Whenever, therefore, we are pained with the perusal of the sad record of his later years, the ingratitude he experienced, the embarrassments he suffered, the injustice he endured, a we follow his declining steps to the undistinguished grave where he lies buried, we may see as in retrospect the long pathway by which he travelled thither, and learn the secret of the divine inspiration by which the young soldier at its beginning was transformed before its close into an immortal benefactor of mankind.

Friend of liberty, friend of justice, friend of peace, apostle of God,

"Live and take comfort-thou hast left behind

Powers which will work for thee * *

Thou hast great allies;

*

Thy friends are exultations, agonies, and love,
And man's unconquerable mind."

BATTLE OF GERMANTOWN.

AN ADDRESS Delivered at Germantown UPON THE ONE Hundredth Anniversary of the Engagement, October 4, 1877.

BY ALFRED C. LAMBDIN, M.D.

[The story of the battle of Germantown, as told by Dr. Lambdin, agrees in all of its important points with the conclusion arrived at by the editors of this Magazine, after a careful study of every authority bearing upon the subject, which in the last few years they have been able to gather together.

From a military point the views of the editors have received the endorsement of Gen. W. W. H. Davis, whose long experience in active service must give weight to his opinion, formed on the scene of the conflict, with the evidence in the case before him.

Dr. Lambdin, in preparing his paper, has given preference in each particular to the statement of the person under whose eye the event described occurred, and no attempt has been made to reconcile other accounts, although of creditable persons, when it is known that they were in another part of the field.

The notes that have been added are by the editors, and are given to show wherein the views expressed by Dr. Lambdin differ from those of other writers. They also designate the authorities from which the statements are drawn. When conflicting evidence exists, both sides are given, that the reader may draw his own conclusions.-EDs.].

In the little book from which I gained my first lessons in American history, I recollect a rude engraving, which was said to represent the Battle of Germantown. It was the picture of a large stone house, from the windows of which issued the flash and smoke of musketry, while a platoon of Continental soldiers in elaborate uniform was boldly charging across the lawn in front. The description of the battle given in the text was equally adequate with this pictorial presentment. "On the 4th of October, 1777," it said, "General Washington's army attacked the British under Sir William Howe at Germantown, but a body of the enemy, having taken refuge in Chew's house, was enabled to keep up such a galling fire upon the patriots as compelled them to retreat." Such, in effect, was the idea inculcated in the youthful mind some