The Bounds of Delaware (review)

40 BULLETIN OF FRIENDS HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION The Bounds of Delaware, by Dudley Lunt. Wilmington, The Star Publishing Company, 1947. 69 pp. $2.50. THIS book tells the facts about the most famous and lengthy boundary dispute in American history. It has lasted through four centuries and has involved Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey and Delaware. The author gloomily concludes — "on such a record it would be a bold prediction that the end of controversy has been achieved." It is certainly a long and dreary recital of legal quibbling, uncertainties of topography and of granted rights and a persistence on the part of litigants that is remarkable among grown-up and seemingly intelligent men. Out of the welter of this ancient controversy, begun in 1659, there came to be run out the Mason and Dixon Line of 1760 which is a part of the folklore of America. It is generally thought that this was the end of the matter. But no, the struggle for the control of Delaware River and Bay which was the origin of the trouble, still lingers. The mysterious and controversial 12-mile circle around New Castle which was the center of the dispute, the 40° of longitude so strangely uncertain, the prominence of the persons and regions involved, furnish a continued interest in the struggle over the minutia of legal phrases and definitions that mystifies the layman. Dutch, Swedes and English were involved and the whole moving picture of men and events is a colorful one not untouched with drama furnished by the principal litigants, William Penn the Quaker and Lord Baltimore the Catholic. To most, Penn is regarded as a benevolent colonizer , who preached lengthy sermons, wrote controversial treatises in prison and made treaties with Indians. Dudley Lunt, the author of this book, is a Wilmington, Delaware, lawyer , who spent much time recently in London preparing the case of Delaware in the dispute over the boundary of New Jersey which was argued before the Supreme Court of the United States in 1935 and is hoped to be the last echo of this famous (or infamous?) matter. Mr. Lunt has brought out a trait of Penn's character which shows him a more accomplished statesman than is generally accorded. In his controversy with Lord Baltimore he observed his usual Quaker patience and justice both in his written and personal contacts. But he could not gain all he wanted by persuasion. So says he — "Can my wicked enemies yet bow ? They shall, or break, or be broken in pieces before a year from this time comes about, and my true friends rejoice" and again — "If lenitives will not do, coercives must be tried." When Lord Baltimore built a log fort near New Castle and garrisoned it with a small armed force Penn first protested by letter, but in 1684 he issued a proclamation and commissioned one Welch to raise men to defeat the threatened invasion. It was by his persistence and firmness that Penn was able largely to succeed Vol. 37, Spring 1948 BOOK REVIEWS41 in his title claims. By his success the Quaker capital of Philadelphia escaped being included in Roman Catholic Maryland. "I find this place necessary to my Province and yt ye Presence of ye Lord Bait, was agt Law and common. I endeavoured to gett it, and have it, and will keep it if I can" asserted the resolute Penn. PhiladelphiaHorace M. Lippincott Dr. Kirkbride and His Mental Hospital, by Earl D. Bond. Philadelphia, J. B. Lippincott Company, 1947. 163 pp. $3.50. IREMEMBER distinctly that, as a young man getting my first acquaintance with the Pennsylvania Hospital in West Philadelphia through knowledge of a patient there, I asked why it was always called Kirkbride 's. The explanation which fired my imagination is effectively amplified in this book. It makes for happiness and a more effective life when a man can earn his living at work which in itself brings satisfaction and seems worth doing. Here is an outstanding example of one who had a profession and found it a satisfying though constantly challenging vocation. Thomas Story Kirkbride was born in Bucks County into a family of Quaker farmers who could give him a good...