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YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

Gift of

WILLIAM SMITH MASON, Y 1888S

WALKER SCOMPANYI
NewsSeconoHako
booksellers.

is,bridge street

ABERDEEN.

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tTtt	TnBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

From the original picture on pastel, painted from li/e by J. A. Dutlkssis, in 1783.THE MINERVA LIBRARY OF FAMOUS BOOKS.

Edited by G. T. BETTANY, M.A., B.Sc.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY

AND

LETTERS

OF

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

EDITED BY

JOHN BIGELOW

WITH A PORTRAIT OF FRANKLIN

WARD, LOCK AND CO.

LONDON, NEW YORK, AND MELBOURNE
1891.EDITORIAL NOTE.

The claims of Benjamin Franklin to eminence as a self-made
man, a printer and journalist, an electrician and natural philo-
sopher, a statesman and a diplomatist are incontestably great.
Upon each of these aspects of Franklin ample information, con-
veyed in an easy, interesting, natural style, is contained in this
volume. In addition there is the historical interest of a personal
record, by one most intimately engaged' in them, of events and
negotiations of the utmost moment to this country and the civi-
lised world. No study of the American War of Independence
and the events which led to and followed it can be complete
which does not include Franklin’s Life and Letters. It should form
a companion book of reference in school or college historical
libraries. It presents many engaging pictures .of the human
side of Franklin, his domestic interests, his social and intellectual
friendships; and it has some claims to rank with; “ Montaigne’s
Essays,” from its candid unveiling of the personality of the writer,
its naturalness, and its instructiveness.

The edition of Franklin’s Life and Letters, brought out in
1874 by Mr. John Bigelow, in three volumes, is by far the most
full and accurate which exists. The present volume reproduces
his revised edition of 1879, with the omission of some documents
and letters of minor interest, and notes which in many cases are
unnecessary for English readers. Mr. Bigelow was United States
Minister to France from 1865 to 1867, and he utilised his oppor-
tunities to make a complete collation of Franklin’s autobio-
graphy, forming pages 1 to 120 of this volume, with the original
manuscript, which he was fortunate enough to obtain from its
French owner, M. de Senarmont, a collateral descendant of M. le
Veillard, Franklin’s intimate friend. He has also edited Franklin’s
Complete Works.

G. T. B.CONTENTS.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY .....................

LETTERS, Etc.:—

CHAPTER I. (1757-1762)	........

CHAPTER II. (1762-1764)	...	........

CHAPTER III. (1764-1766)	........

CHAPTER IV. (1766)	...............

CHAPTER V. (1766-1767)

CHAPTER VI. (1767-1768) ...

CHAPTER VII. (1768-1770)	........

CHAPTER VIII. (1770-1771)...	........

CHAPTER IX. {1771-1772)	........

CHAPTER. X. (1772)	...............

CHAPTER XI..........................

CHAPTER XII. (1773-1774)...............

CHAPTER XIII............ ...........

CHAPTER XIV. (1774-1776)...............

CHAPTER XV..........................

l'AUE

I

120

152

160

170

191

209

222

251

260

284

306

312

320

341

349iv	CONTENTS.

PAGE

CHAPTER XVI. (1775-1776)............................386

CHAPTER XVII. (1776).............................   396

CHAPTER XVIII.	(1776-1778)	   399

CHAPTER XIX. (1778) ...	...	...	...	...	420

CHAPTER XX. (1778-1779) ...	...	...	...	... 427

CHAPTER XXI. (1779-1780)	  448

CHAPTER XXII. (1780)	 458

CHAPTER XXIII.	(178.1)	    475

CHAPTER XXIV.	(1782)	...	   490

CHAPTER XXV....	...	...	............... 505

CHAPTER XXVI. (1782)	...... ...	...	... 557

CHAPTER XXVII.	(1782-1783)....................... 570

CHAPTER XXVIII. (1783)...................... ... 579

CHAPTER XXIX.	(1784)	  585

CHAPTER XXX. (1784-1785)	   591

CHAPTER XXXI.	(1785)	  601

CHAPTER XXXII.	(1785-1787)	 615

CHAPTER XXXIII. (1787)	...... .............. 623

CHAPTER XXXIV.	(1787)............................625

CHAPTER XXXV.	(1789-1790).....................   633LIFE AND LETTERS

OF

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

A UTOB 10 GRAPH Y.

Twyford, at the Bishop of St. Asaph'S,1 1771.
DEAR Son : I have ever had pleasure in obtaining any little anec-
dotes of my ancestors. You may remember the inquiries I made
among the remains of my relations when you were with me in England,
and the journey I undertook for that purpose. Imagining it may be
equally agreeable to you to know the circumstances'of my life, many
of which you are yet unacquainted with, and expecting the enjoyment
of a week’s uninterrupted leisure in my present country retirement, I
sit down to write them for you. To which I have besides some other
inducements. Having emerged from the poverty and obscurity in
which I was born and bred, to a state of affluence and some degree
of reputation in the world, and having gone so far through life with a
considerable share of felicity, the conducing means I made use of,
which with the blessing of God so well succeeded, my posterity may
like to know, as they may find some of them suitable to their own
situations, and therefore fit to be imitated.

That felicity, when I reflected on it, has induced me sometimes to
say, that were it offered to my choice, I should have no objection to a
repetition of the same life from its beginning, only asking the advan-
tages authors have in a second edition to correct some faults of the
first. So I might, besides correcting the faults, change some sinister
accidents and events of it for others more favorable. But though
this were denied, I should still accept the offer. Since such a repeti-
tion is not to be expected, the next thing jnost like living one’s life
over again seems to be a recollection of that life, and to make that
recollection as durable as possible by putting it down in writing.

Hereby, too, I shall indulge the inclination so natural in old men,
1 The country-seat of Bishop Shipley.2

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

to be talking of themselves and their own past actions; and I shall
indulge it without being tiresome to others, who, through respect to
age, might conceive themselves obliged to give me a hearing, since
this may be read or not as any one pleases. And, lastly (I may as well
confess it, since my denial of it will be believed by nobody), perhaps
I shall a good deal gratify my own vanity. Indeed, I scarce ever
heard or saw the introductory words, “ Without vanity I may say”
&c., but some vain thing immediately followed. Most people dislike
vanity in others, whatever share they have of it themselves; but I
give it fair quarter wherever I meet with it, being persuaded that it is
often productive of good to the possessor, and to others that are with-
in his sphere of action ; and therefore, in many cases, it would not be
altogether absurd if a man were to thank God for his vanity among
the other comforts of life.

And now I speak of thanking God, I desire with all humility to
acknowledge that I owe the mentioned happiness of my past life to
His kind providence, which lead me to the means I used and gave
them success. My belief of this induces me to hope, though I must
not presume, that the same goodness will still be exercised toward
me, in continuing that happiness, or enabling me to bear a fatal re-
verse, which I may experience as others have done ; the complexion
of my future fortune being known to Him only in whose power it is to
bless to us even our afflictions.

The notes one of my uncles (who had the same kind of curiosity in
collecting family anecdotes) once put into my hands, furnished me
with several particulars relating to our ancestors. From these notes I
learned that the family had lived in the same village, Ecton, in
Northamptonshire, for three hundred years, and how much longer he
knew not (perhaps from the time when the name of Franklin, that
before was the name of an order of people, was assumed by them as
a surname when others took surnames all over the kingdom), on a
freehold of about thirty acres, aided by the smith’s business, which
had continued in the family till his time, the eldest son being
always bred to that business; a custom which he and my father
followed as to their eldest sons. When I searched the registers at Ecton,
I found an account of their births, marriages and burials from the
year 1555 only, there being no registers kept in that parish at any
time preceding. By that register I perceived that I was the youngest
son of the youngest son for five generations back. My grandfather
Thomas, who was born in 1598, lived at Ecton till he grew too old to
follow business longer, when he went to live with his son John, a dyer
at Banbury, in Oxfordshire, with whom my father served an appren-
ticeship. There my grandfather died and lies buried. We saw his
gravestone in 1758. His eldest son Thomas lived in the house at
Ecton, and left it with the land to his only child, a daughter, who,
with her husband, one Fisher, of Wellingborough, sold it to Mr. Isted,
now lord of the manor there. My grandfather had four sons that
grew up, viz. : Thomas, John, Benjamin and Josiali. I will give you
what account I can of them, at this distance from my papers, and ifBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.	3

these are not lost in my absence, you will among them find many
more particulars.1

Thomas was bred a smith under his father ; but, being ingenious,
and encouraged in learning (as all my brothers were) by an Esquire
Palmer, then the principal gentleman in that parish, he qualified
himself for the business of scrivener ; became a considerable man in

1 Franklin’s father has left the following account of his ancestry in a letter
addressed to his son Benjamin in 1739. Benjamin was then thirty-three years of
age and Deputy Postmaster General at Philadelphia.

*’ From Josiah to B. Franklin :

“ Loving Son : As to the original of our name, there is various opinions ; some
say that it came from a sort of title, of which a book that you bought when here
gives a lively account. Some think we are of a French extract, which was
formerly called Franks ; some of a free line, a line free from that vassalage which
was common to subjects in days of old ; some from a bird of long red legs. Your
uncle Benjamin made inquiry of one skilled in heraldry, who told him there is two
coats of armour, one belonging to the Franklins of the North, and one to the
Franklins of the West. However, our circumstances have been such as that it
hath hardly been worth while to concern ourselves much about these things any
farther than to tickle the fancy a little. The first that I can give account of, is my
great-grandfather, as it was a custom in those days among young men too many
times to goe to seek their fortunes, and in his travels he went upon liking to a
taylor; but he kept such a stingy house, that he left him and travelled farther, and
came to a smith’s house, and coming on a fasting day, being in popish times, he
did not like there the first day ; the next morning the servant was called up at five
in the morning, but after a little time came a good toast and good beer, and he
found good housekeeping there ; he served and learned the trade of a smith. In
Queen Mary's days, either his wife, or my grandmother, by father’s side, informed
my father that they kept their Bible fastened under the top of a joint-stool, that
they might turn up the book and read in the Bible, that when anybody came to the
dore they turned up the stool for fear of the aparitor, for if it were discovered they
would be in hazard of their lives. My grandfather was a smith also, and settled
in Eton, in Northamptonshire, and he was imprisoned a year and a day on
suspicion of his being the author of some poetry that touched the character of
some great man. He had only one son and one daughter ; my grandfather’s name
was Thomas, my mother’s name was Jane. My father was born at Ecton or Eton,
Northamptonshire, on the 18th of October, 1698married to Miss Jane White,
niece to Coll. White, of Banbury, and died in the 84th year of his age. There
was nine children of us, who were happy in our parents, who took great care by
their instructions and pious example to breed us up in a religious way. My eldest
brother had but one child, which was married to one Mr. Fisher, at Walling-
bofough, in Northamptonshire. The town was lately burnt down, and whether
she was a sufferer or not I cannot tell, or whether she be living or not. Her father
dyed worth fifteen hundred pounds, but what her circumstances are now I know
not. She hath no child. If you by the freedom of your office, makes it more
likely to convey a letter to her, it would be acceptable to me. There is also
children of brother John and sister Morris, but I hear nothing from them, and they
write not to me, so that I know not where to find them. I have been again to
about seeing * * * *, but have mist of being informed.

“We received yours, and are glad to hear poor Jammy is recovered so well.
Son John received the letter, but is so busy just now that he cannot write you an
answer, but will do the best he can. Now with hearty love to, and prayer for you
all, I rest your affectionate father.

Josiah Franklin.

" Boston, May 26,1739.”4

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

the county ; was a chief mover of all public-spirited undertakings for
the county or town of Northampton, and his own village, of which
many instances were related of him ; and much taken notice of and
patronized by the then Lord Halifax. He died in 1702, January 6,
old style, just four years to a day before I was born. The account we
received of his life and character from some old people at Ecton, I
remember, struck you as something extraordinary, from its similarity
to what you knew of mine. “ Had he died on the same day,” you said,
“ one might have supposed a transmigration.”

John was bred a dyer, I believe of woollens. Benjamin was bred a
silk dyer, serving an apprenticeship at London. He was an ingenious
man. I remember him well, for when I was a boy he came over to
my father in Boston, and lived in the house with us some years. He
lived to a great age. His grandson, Samuel Franklin, now lives in
Boston. He left behind him two quarto volumes, MS.?jpf his own
poetry, consisting of little occasional pieces addressed to his friends
and relations, of which the following, sent to me, is a specimen. He
had formed a short-hand of his own, which he taught me, but, never
practising it, I have now forgot it. I was named after this uncle, there
being a particular affection between him and my father. He was
very pious, a great attender of sermons of the best preachers, which
he took down in his short-hand, and had with him many volumes of
them. He was also much of a politician ; too much, perhaps, for his
station. There fell lately into my hands, in London, a collection he
had made of all the principal pamphlets relating to public affairs,
from 1641 to 1717 ; many of the volumes are wanting as appears by
the numbering, but there still remain eight volumes in folio, and
twenty-four in quarto and in octavo. A dealer in old books met with
them, and knowing me by my sometimes buying of him, he brought
them to me. It seems my uncle must have left them here when he
went to America, which was above fifty years since. There are many
of his notes in the margins.

This obscure family of ours was early in the Reformation, and con-
tinued Protestants through the reign of Queen Mary, when they were
sometimes in danger of trouble on account of their zeal against
popery. They had got an English Bible, and to conceal and secure
it, it was fastened open with tapes under and within the cover of a
joint-stool. When my great-great-grandfather read it to his family,
he turned up the joint-stool upon his knees, turning over the leaves
then under the tapes. One of the children stood at the door to give
notice if he saw the apparitor coming, who was an officer of the
spiritual court. In that case the stool was turned down again upon
its feet, when the Bible remained concealed under it as before. This
anecdote I had from my uncle Benjamin. The family continued all
of the Church of England till about the end of Charles the Second's
reign, when some of the ministers that had been outed for non-con-
formity holding conventicles in Northamptonshire, Benjamin and
Josiah adhered to them and so continued all their lives : the rest of
the family remained with the Episcopal Church.BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

5

Josiah, my father, married young, and carried his wife with three
children into New England, about 1682. The conventicles having
been forbidden by law, and frequently disturbed,, induced some con-
siderable men of his acquaintance to remove to that country, and he
was prevailed with to accompany them thither, where they expected
to enjoy their mode of religion with freedom. By the same wife he
had four children more born there, and by a second wife ten more, in
all seventeen ; of which I remember thirteen sitting at one time at his
table, who all grew up to be men and women, and married; I was the
youngest son, and the youngest child but two, and was born in Boston,
New England.1 My mother, the second wife, was Abiah Folger,
daughter of Peter Folger, one of the first settlers of New England, of
whom honorable mention is made by Cotton Mather, in his church
history of that country, entitled Magnalia Christi Americana, as “ a
godly, learned Englishmanif I remember the words rightly. I have
heard that he wrote sundry small occasional pieces, but only one of
them was printed, which I saw now many years since. It was written
in 1675, *n home-spun verse of that time and people, and
addressed to those then concerned in the government there. It was
in favor of liberty of conscience, and in behalf of the Baptists,
Quakers, and other sectaries that had been under persecution,
ascribing the Indian wars, and other distresses that had befallen the
country, to that persecution, as so many judgments of God to punish
so heinous an offense, and exhorting a repeal of those uncharitable
laws. The whole appeared to me as written with a good deal of
decent plainness and manly freedom. The six concluding lines I re-
member, though I have forgotten the two first of the stanza; but the
purport of them was, that his censures proceeded from good-will, and
therefore he would be known to be the author.

" Because to be a libeller (says he)

I hate it with my heart;

From Sherburne town, where now I dwell,

My name I do put here ;

Without offense your real friend,

It is Peter Folgier."

My elder brothers were all put apprentices to different trades. I
was put to the grammar-school at eight years of age, my father in-
tending to devote me, as the tithe of his sons, to the service of the
Church. My early readiness in learning to read (which must have

1 He was born January 6th, 1706, old style, being Sunday, and the same as
January 17th, new style, which his biographers have usually mentioned as the day
of his birth. By the records of the Old South Church in Boston, to which his
father and mother belonged, it appears that he was baptized the same day. In
the old public Register of Births, still preserved in the Mayor's Office in Boston,
his bi^h is recorded under the date of January 6th, 1706. At this time his
father occupied a house in. Milk Street, opposite to the Old South Church, but he
removed shortly afterward to a house at the corner of Hanover and Union Streets,
where it is believed he resided the remainder of his life, and where the son passed
bis early year§.6

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

been very early, as I do not remember when I could not read), and
the opinion of all his friends, that I should certainly make a good
scholar, encouraged him in this purpose of his. My uncle Benjamin,
too, approved of it, and proposed to give me all his short-hand volumes
of sermons, I suppose as a stock to set up with, if I would learn his
character. I continued, however, at the grammar-school not quite
one year, though in that time I had risen gradually from the middle
of that class of that year to be the head of it, and farther was lemoved
into the next class above it, in order to go with that into the third at
the end of the year. But my father, in the mean time, from a view of
the expense of a college education, which having so large a family he
could not well afford, and the mean living many so educated were
afterwards able to obtain—reasons that he gave to his friends in my
hearing—altered his first intention, took me from the grammar-school,
and sent me to a school for writing and arithmetic, kept by a then
famous man, Mr. George Brownell, very successful in his profession
generally, and that by mild, encouraging methods. Under him I
acquired fair writing pretty soon, but I failed in the arithmetic, and
made no progress in it. At ten years old I was taken home to assist
my father in his business, which was that of a tallow-chandler and
sope-boiler ; a business he was not bred to, but had assumed on his
arrival in new England,' and on finding his dying trade would not
maintain his family, being in little request. Accordingly, I was
employed in cutting wick for the candles, filling the dipping mold
and the molds for cast candles, attending the shop, going of errands,
etc.

I disliked the trade, and had a strong inclination for the sea, but my
father declared against it; however, living near the water, I was
much in and about it, learnt early to swim well, and to manage^boats ;
and when in a boat or canoe with other boys, I was commonly allowed
to govern, especially in any case of difficulty : and upon other occa-
sions I was generally a leader among the boys, and sometimes led
them into scrapes, of which I will mention one instance, as it shows
an early projecting public spirit, tho’ not then justly conducted.

There was a salt-marsh that bounded part of the mill-pond, on the
edge of which, at high water, we used to stand to fish for minnows.
By much trampling, we had made it a mere quagmire. My proposal
was to build a wharfif there fit for us to stand upon, and I showed my
comrades a large heap of stones, which were intended for a new house
near the marsh, and which would very well suit our purpose. Accord-
ingly, in the evening, when the workmen were gone, I assembled a
number of my play-fellows, and working with them diligently like so
many emmets, sometimes two or three to a stone, we brought them
all away and built our little wharfif. The next morning the workmen
were surprised at missing the stones, which were found in our wharfif.
Inquiry was made after the removers ; we were discovered and com-
plained of; several of us were corrected by our fathers ; and, though
I pleaded the usefulness of the work, mine convinced me that nothing
was useful which was not honest.BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

7

I think you may like to know something of his person and character.
He had an excellent constitution of body, was of middle stature, but
'well set, and very strong ; he was ingenious, could draw prettily, was
skilled a little in music; and had a clear pleasing voice, so that when
he played psalm tunes on his violin and sung withal, as he sometimes
did in an evening after the business of the day was over, it was
extremely agreeable to hear. He had a mechanical genius too, and,
on occasion, was very handy in the use of other tradesmen’s tools ;
but his great excellence lay in a sound understanding and solid
judgment in prudential matters, both in private and publick affairs.
In the latter, indeed, he was never employed, the numerous family he
had to educate and the straitness of his circumstances keeping him
close to his trade; but I remember well his being frequently visited
by leading people, who consulted him for his opinion in the affairs of
the town or of the church he belonged to, and showed a good deal of
respect for his judgment and advice : he was also much consulted by
private persons about their affairs when any difficulty occurred, and
frequently chosen an arbitrator between contending parties. At his
table he liked to have, as often as he could, some sensible friend or
neighbor to converse with, and always took care to start some in-
genious or useful topic for discourse, which might tend to improve the
minds of his children. By this means he turned our attention to
what was good, just, and prudent in the conduct of life ; and little or
no notice was ever taken of what related to the victuals on the table,
whether it was well or ill dressed, in or out of season, of good or bad
flavor, preferable or inferior to this or that other thing of the kind, so
that I was bro’t up in such a perfect inattention to those matters as
to be quite indifferent what kind of food was set before me, and so
unobservant of it, that to this day if I am asked I can scarce tell a
few hours after dinner what I dined upon. This has been a conveni-
ence to me in travelling, where my companions have been sometimes
very unhappy for want of a suitable gratification of their more
delicate, because better instructed, tastes and appetites.

My mother had likewise an excellent constitution : she suckled all
her ten children. I never knew either my father or mother to have
any sickness but that of which they dy’d, he at 89, and she at 85
years of age. They lie buried together at Boston, where I some
years since placed a marble over their grave, with this inscription :

Josiah Franklin,
and

AbiAH his wife,

*	lie here interred,

They lived lovingly together in wedlock
fifty-five years.

Without an estate, of any gainful employment,
■By constant labor and industry,
with God’s blessing,

They maintained a large family
comfortably,8

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

and brought up thirteen children
and seven grandchildren
reputably.

From this instance, reader,

Be encouraged to diligence in thy calling,
And distrust not Providence.

He was a pious and prudent man ;
She, a discreet and virtuous woman.
Their youngest son,

In filial r.e_gard to their memory,
Places this stone.

J. F. born 1655," died 1744, ^Ftat 89.
A. F. born 1667, died 1752, ------85.

By my rambling digressions I perceive myself to be grown old. I
us’d to write more methodically. But one does not dress for private
company as for a publick ball. ’Tis perhaps only negligence.

To return : I continued thus employed in my father’s business for
two years, that is, till I was twelve years old; and my brother John,
who was bred to that business, having left my father, married, and
set up for himself at Rhode Island, there was all appearance that I
was destined to supply his place, and become a tallow-chandler. But
my dislike to the trade continuing, my father was under apprehensions
that if he did not find one for me more agreeable, I should break
away and get to sea, as his son Josiah had done, to his great vexation.
He therefore sometimes took me to walk with him, and see joiners,
bricklayers, turners, braziers, etc., at their work, that he might observe
my inclination, and endeavor to fix it on some trade or other on
land. It has ever since been a pleasure to me to see good workmen
handle their tools; and it has been useful to me, having learnt so
much by it as to be able to do little jobs myself in my house when a
workman could not readily be got, and to construct little machines
for my experiments, while the intention of making the experiment was
fresh in my mind. My father at last fixed upon the cutler’s trade,
and my uncle Benjamin’s son Samuel, who was bred to that business
in London, being about that time established in Boston, I was sent to
be with him some time on liking. But his expectations of a fee with
me displeasing my father, I was taken home again.

From a child I was fond of reading, and all the little money that
came into my hands was ever laid out in books. Pleased with the
Pilgrim’s Progress, my first collection was of John Bunyan’s works in
separate little volumes. I afterwards sold them to enable me to buy
R. Burton’s Historical Collections ; they were small chapmen’s books,
and cheap, 40 or 50 in all. My father’s little library consisted chiefly
of books in polemic divinity, most of which I read, and have since
often regretted that, at a time when I had such a thirst for knowledge,
more proper books had not fallen in my way, since it was now resolved
I should not be a clergyman. Plutarch’s Lives there was in which I
read abundantly, and 1 still think that time spent to great advantage.
There was also a book of De Foe’s, called an Essay on Projects, and
another of Dr. Mather’s, called Essays to do Good, which perhapsBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.	9

gave me a turn of thinking that had an influence on some of the
principal future events of my life.

This bookish inclination at length determined my father to make
me a printer, though he had already one son (James) of that profes-
sion. In 1717 my brother James returned from England with a press
and letters to set up his business in Boston. I liked it much better
than that of my father, but still had a hankering for the sea. To
prevent the apprehended effect of such an inclination, my father was
impatient to have me bound to my brother. I stood out some time,
but at last was persuaded, and signed the indentures when I was yet
but twelve years old. I was to serve as an apprentice till I was
twenty-one years of age, only I was to be allowed journeyman’s wages
during the last year. In a little'time I made great proficiency in the
business, and became a useful hand to my brother. I now had access
to better books. An acquaintance with the apprentices of booksellers
enabled me sometimes to borrow a small one, which I was careful to
return soon and clean. Often I sat up in my room reading the greater
part of the night, when the book was borrowed in the evening and to
be returned early in the morning, lest it should be missed or wanted.

. And after some time an ingenious tradesman, Mr. Matthew Adams,
who had a pretty collection of books, and who frequented our printing-
house, took notice of me, invited me to his library, and very kindly lent
me such books as I chose to read. I now took a fancy to poetry, and
made some little pieces ; my brother, thinking it might turn to account,
encouraged me, and put me on composing occasional ballads. One was
called The Light-house Tragedy, and contained an account of the
drowning of Captain Worthilake, with his two daughters: the other
was a sailor’s song, on'the taking of Teach (or Blackbeard) the pirate.
They were wretched stuff, in the Grub-street-ballad style ; and when
they were printed he sent me about the town to sell them. The first
sold wonderfully, the event being recent, having made a great noise.
This flattered my vanity : but my father discouraged me by ridiculing
my performances, and telling me verse-makers were generally beggars.
So I escaped being a poet, most probably a very bad one; but as
prose writing has been of great use to me in the course of my life,
and was a principal means of my advancement, I shall tell you how,
in such a situation, I acquired what little ability I have in that way.

There was another bookish lad in the town, John Collins by name,
with whom I was intimately acquainted. We sometimes disputed,
and very fond we were of argument, and very desirous of confuting
one another, which disputatious turn, by the way, is a.pt to become a
very bad habit, making people often extremely disagreeable in company
by the contradiction that is necessary to bring it into practice; and
thence, besides souring and spoiling the conversation, is productive of
disgusts and, perhaps, enmities where you may have occasion for
friendship. I had caught it by reading my father’s books of dispute
about religion. Persons of good sense, I have since observed, seldom
fall into it, except lawyers, university men. and men of all sorts that
have been bred at Edipborough.IO

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

A question was once, somehow or other, started between Collins
and me, of the propriety of educating the female sex in learning,
and their abilities for study. He was of opinion that it was
improper, and that they were naturally unequal to it. I took the
contrary side, perhaps a little for dispute’s sake: He was naturally
more eloquent, had a ready plenty of words ; and sometimes, as I
thought, bore me down more by his fluency than by the strength of
his reasons. As we parted without settling the point, and were not to
see one another again for some time, I sat down to put my arguments
into writing, which I copied fair and sent to him. He answered, and
I replied. Three or four letters of a side had passed, when my father
happened to find my papers and read them. Without entering into
the discussion, he took occasion to talk to me about the manner of my
writing ; observed that, though I had the advantage of my antagonist
in correct spelling and pointing (which I ow’d to the printing-house),
I fell far sort in elegance of expression, in method and perspicuity, of
which he convinced me by several instances. I saw the justice of his
remarks, and thence grew more attentive to the manner in writing,
and determined to endeavor at improvement.

About this time I met with an odd volume of the Spectator. It was
the third. I haxl never before seen any of them. I bought it, read it
over and over, and was much delighted with it. I thought the writing
excellent, and wished, if possible, to imitate it. With this view I took
some of the papers, and, making short hints of the sentiment in each
sentence, laid them by a few days,*and then, without looking at the
book, try’d to compleat the papers again, by expressing each hinted
sentiment at length, and as fully as it had been expressed before, in
any suitable words that should come to hand. Then I compared my
Spectator with the original, discovered some of my faults, and corrected
them. But I found I wanted a stock of words, or a readiness in recol-
lecting and using them, which I thought I should have acquired before
that time if I had gone on making verses; since the continual
occasion for words of the same import, but of different length, to suit
the measure, or of different sound for the ryhme, would have laid me
under a constant necessity of searching for variety, and also have
tended to fix that variety in my mind, and make me master of it.
Therefore I took some of the tales and turned them into verse ; and,
after a time, when I had pretty well forgotten the prose, turned them
back again. I also sometimes jumbled my collection of hints into
confusion, and after some weeks endeavored to reduce them into the
best order, before I began to form the fulL sentences and compleat the
paper. This was to teach me method in the arrangement of thoughts.
By comparing my work afterwards with the original, I discovered many
faults and amended them ; but I sometimes had the pleasure of
fancying that, in certain particulars of small import, I had been lucky
enough to improve the method or the language, and this encouraged
me to think I might possibly in time come to be a tolerable English
writer, of which I was extreamly ambitious. My time for these
exercises and for reading was at night, after work or before it beganBENJAMIN FRANKLIN

Ii

in the morning, or on Sundays, when I contrived to be in the printing-
house alone, evading as much as I could the common attendance on
public worship which my father used to exact of me when I was under
his care, and which indeed I still thought a duty, though I could not,
as it seemed to me, afford time to practise it.

When about 16 years of age I happened to meet with a book, writ-
ten by one Tryon, recommending a vegetable diet. I determined to
go into it. My brother, being yet unmarried, did not keep house, but
boarded himself and his apprentices in another family. My refusing
to eat flesh occasioned an inconveniency, and I was frequently chid
for my singularity. I made myself acquainted with Tryon’s manner
of preparing some of his dishes, such as boiling potatoes or rice,
making hasty pudding, and a few others, and then proposed to my
brother, that if he would give me, weekly, half the money he paid for
my board, I would board myself. He instantly agreed to it, and I
presently found that I could save half what he paid me. This was an
additional fund for buying books. But I had another advantage in it.
My brother and the rest going from the printing-house to their meals,
I remained there alone, and, despatching presently my light repast,
which often was no more than a bisket or a slice of bread, a handful
of raisins or a tart from the pastry-cook’s, and a glass of water, had
the rest of the time till their return for study, in which I made the
greater progress, from that greater clearness of head and quicker
apprehension which usually attend temperance in eating and drink-
ing.

And now it was that, being on some occasion made asham’d of my
ignorance in figures, which I had twice failed in learning when at
school, I took Cocker’s book of Arithmetick, and went through the
whole by myself with great ease. I also read Seller’s and Shermy’s
books of Navigation, and became acquainted with the little geometry
they contain ; but never proceeded far in that science. And I read
about this time Locke on Human Understanding, and the Art oj
Thinking, by Messrs, du Port Royal.

While I was intent on improving my language, I met with an
English grammar (I think it was Greenwood’s), at the end of which
there were two little sketches of the arts of rhetoric and logic, the
latter finishing with a specimen of a dispute in the Socratic method ;
and soon after I procur’d Xenophon’s Memorable Things of Socrates,
wherein there are many instances of the same method. I was
charm’d with it, adopted it, dropt- my abrupt contradiction and
positive argumentation, and put on the humble inquirer and doubter.
And being then, from reading Shaftesbury and Collins, become a real
doubter in many points of our religious doctrine, I found this method
safest for myself and very embarassing to those against whom I used
it; therefore I took a delight in it, practis’d it continually, and grew
very artful and expert in drawing people, even of superior knowledge,
into concessions, the consequences of which they did not foresee,
entangling them in difficulties out of which they could not extricate
themselves, and so obtaining victories that neither myself nor my12

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

cause always deserved. I continu’d this method some few years, but
gradually left it, retaining only the habit of expressing myself in terms
of modest diffidence; never using, when I advanced any thing that
may possibly be disputed, the words certainly, undoubtedly, or any
others that give the air of positiveness to an opinion ; but rather say,
I conceive or apprehend a thing to be so and so ; it appears to me,
or I should think it is so or so, for such and such reasons ; or I imagine
it to be so; or it is so, if I am not mistaken. This habit, I believe,
has been of great advantage to me when I have had occasion to
inculcate my opinions, and persuade men into measures that I have
been from time to time engag’d in promoting ; and, as the chief ends
of conversation are to inform or to be informed, to please or to per-
suade, I wish well-meaning, sensible men would not lessen their
power of doing good by a positive, assuming manner, that seldom
fails to disgust,^tends to create opposition, and to defeat every one of
those purposes for which speech was given to us, to wit, giving or
receiving information or pleasure. For, if you would inform, a
positive and dogmatical manner in advancing your sentiments may
provoke contradiction and prevent a candid attention. If you wish
information and improvement for the knowledge of others, and yet at
the same time express yourself as firmly fix’d in your present opinions,
modest, sensible men, who do not love disputation, will probably
leave you undisturbed in the possession of your error. And by such
a manner, you can seldom hope to recommend yourself in pleasing
your hearers, or to persuade those whose concurrence you desire.
Poye says, judiciously:

“ Men should be taught as if you taught them not.

And things unknown propod d as things forgot; ”

farther recommending to us

“ To speak, tho’ sure, with seeming diffidence.”

And he might have coupled with this line that which he has coupled
with another, I think, less properly,

“For want of modesty is want of sense.’’

If you ask, Why less properly ? I must repeat the lines,

‘ Immodest words admit of no defense,
For want of modesty is want of sense."

Now, is not want of sense (where a man is so unfortunate as to want
it) some apology for his want of modesty ? and would not the lines
stand more justly thus ?

“ Immodest words admit but this defense,
That want of modesty is want of sense."

This, however, 1 should submit to better judgments,BENJAMIN FRANICLIN.	13

My brother had, in 1720 or 1721, begun to print a newspaper. It
was the second that appeared in America, and was called the New
England Courant. The only one before it was the Boston News-
Letter. I remember his being dissuaded by some of his friends from
the undertaking, as not likely to succeed, one newspaper being, in
their judgment, enough for America. At this time (1771) there are
no less than five-and-twenty. He went on, however, with the under-
taking, and after having worked in composing the types and printing
off the sheets, I was employed to carry the papers thro’ the streets to
the customers.

He had some ingenious men among his friends, who amus’d them-
selves by writing little pieces for this paper, which gain’d it credit
and made it more in Remand, and these gentlemen often visited us.
Hearing their conversations, and their accounts of the approbation
their papers were received with, I was excited to try my hand among
them ; but, being still a boy, and suspecting that my brother would
object to printing anything of mine in his paper if he knew; it to be
mine, I contrived to disguise my hand, and, writing an anonymous
paper, I put it in at night under the door of the printing-house. It
was found in the morning, and communicated to his writing friends
when they call’d in as usual. They read it, commented on it in my
hearing, and I had the exquisite pleasure of finding it met with their
approbation, and that, in their different guesses at the author, none
were named but men of some character among us for learning and
ingenuity. I suppose now that I was rather lucky inmy judges, and that
perhaps they were not really so very good ones as I then esteem’d
them.

Encourag’d, however, by this, I wrote and convey’d in the same way
to the press several more papers which were equally approv’d ; and
I kept my secret till my small fund of sense for such performances
was pretty well exhausted, and then I discovered it, when I began to
be considered a little more by my brother’s acquaintance, and in a
manner that did not quite please him, as he thought, probably with
reason, that it tended to make me too vain. And, perhaps, this might
be one occasion of the differences that we began to have about this
time. Though a brother, he considered himself'as my master, and
me as his apprentice, and, accordingly, expected the same services
from me as he would from another, while I thought he demean’d me
loo much in some he requir’d of me, who from a brother expected
more indulgence. Our disputes were often brought before our father,
and I fancy I was either generally in the right, or else a better
pleader, because the judgment was generally in my favor. But my
brother was passionate, and had often beaten me, which I took
extreamly amiss ; and, thinking my apprenticeship very tedious, I was
continually wishing for some opportunity of shortening it, which at
length offered in a manner unexpected.1

1 I fancy his harsh and tyrannical treatment of me might be a means of impres-
sing me with that aversion to arbitrary power that has stuck to me through my
whole life.14

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

One of the pieces in our newspaper on some political point, which I
have now forgotten, gave offense to the Assembly. He was taken up,
censur’d, and imprison’d for a month, by the speaker’s warrant, I
suppose, because he would not discover his author. I too was taken
up and examin’d before the council ; but, tho’ I did not give them any
satisfaction, they content’d themselves with admonishing me, and
dismissed me, considering me, perhaps, as an apprentice, who was
bound to keep his master’s secrets.

During my brother’s confinement, which I resented a good deal,
notwithstanding our private differences, I had the management of the
paper; and I made bold to give our rulers some rubs in it, which my
brother took very kindly, while others began to consider me in an
unfavorable light, as a young genius that had a turn for libelling and
satyr-. My brother’s discharge was accompany’d with an order of
the House (a very odd one), that “ James Franklin should no longer
print the paper called the New England Courant.”

There was a consultation held in our printing-house among his
friends, what he should do iathis case. Some proposed to evade the
order by changing the name of the paper ; but my brother, seeing in-
conveniences in that, it was finally concluded on as abetter way, to let
it be printed for the future under the name of Benjamin Franklin ;
and to avoid the censure of the Assembly, that might fall on him
as still printing it by his apprentice, the contrivance was that my
old indenture should be return’d to me, with a full discharge on the
back of it, to be shown on occasion, but to secure to him the benefit
of my service, I was to sign new indentures for the remainder of the
term, which were to be kept private. A very flimsy scheme it was ;
however, it was immediately executed, and the paper went on accord-
ingly, under my name for several months.

At length, a fresh difference arising between my brother and me, I
took upon me to assert my freedom, presuming that he would not
venture to produce the new indentures. It was not fair in me to take
this advantage, and this I therefore reckon one of the first errata of
my life; but the unfairness of it weighed little with me, when under
the impressions of resentment for the blows his passion too often
urged him to bestow upon me, though he was otherwise not an ill-
natur’d man ; perhaps I was too saucy and provoking.

When he found I would leave him, he took care to prevent my get-
ting employment in any other printing-house of the town, by going
round and speaking to every master, who accordingly refus’d to give
me work. I then thought of going to New York, as the nearest place
where there was a printer ; and I was rather inclin’d to leave Boston
when I reflected that I had already made myself a little obnoxious
to the governing party, and,, from the arbitrary proceedings of the
Assembly in my brother’s case, it was likely I might, if I stay’d, soon
bring myself into scrapes ; and farther, that my indiscrete disputa-
tions about religion began to make me pointed at with horror by good
people as an infidel or atheist. I determin’d on the point, by my
father now siding with my brother, I was sensible that, if I attemptedBENJAMIN FRANKLIN

IS

to go openly, means would be used to prevent me. My friend Collins,
therefore, undertook to manage a little for me. He agreed with the
captain of a New York sloop for my passage, under the notion of my
being a young acquaintance of his, that had got a naughty girl with
child, whose friends would compel me to marry her, and therefore I
could not appear or come away publicly. So I sold some of my books
to raise a little money, was taken on board privately, and as we had
a fair wind, in three days I found myself in New York, near 300 miles
from home, a boy of but 17, without the least recommendation to, or
knowledge of any person in the place, and with very little money in
my pocket.

My inclinations for the sea were by this time worne out, or I might
now have gratify’d them. But, having a trade, and supposing myself
a pretty good workman, I offer’d my service to the printer in the place,
old Mr. William Bradford, who had been the first printer in Penn-
sylvania, but removed from thence upon the quarrel of George Keith.
Pie could give me no employment, having little to do, and help
enough already; but says he, “My son at Philadelphia has lately
lost his principal hand, Aquila Rose, by death ; if you go thither, I
believe he may employ you.” Philadelphia was a hundred miles
further; I set out, however, in a boat for Amboy, leaving my chest
and things to follow me round by sea.

In crossing the bay, we met with a squall that tore our rotten sails
to pieces, prevented our getting into the Kill, and drove us upon Long
Island. In our way, a drunken Dutchman, who was a passenger too,
fell overboard ; when he was sinking, I reached through the water to
his shock pate, and drew him up, so that we got him in again. His
ducking sobered him a little, and he went to sleep, taking first out of
his pocket a book, which he desir’d I would dry for him. It proved
to be my old favourite author, Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, in Dutch,
finely printed on good paper, with copper cuts, a dress better than I
had ever seen it wear in its ownJanguage. I have since found that it
has been translated into most of the languages of Europe, and suppose
it has been more generally read than any other book, except perhaps
the Bible. Honest John was the first that I know of who mix’d
narration and dialogue; a method of writing very engaging to the
reader, who in the most interesting parts finds himself, as it were,
brought into the company and present at the discourse. De Foe in
his Cruso, his Moll Flanders, Religious Courtship, Family Instructor,
and other pieces, has imitated it with success; and Richardson has
done the same in his Pamela, etc.

When we drew near the island, we found it was at a place where
there, could be no lapding, there being a great surff on the stony
beach. So we dropt anchor, and swung round towards the shore.
Some people came down to the water edge and hallow’d to us, as we
•did to them ; but the wind was so high, and the surff so loud, that we
could not hear so as to understand each other. There were canoes on
■the shore, and we made signs, and hallow’d that they should fetch us ;
•but they either did not understand us, or thought it impracticable, soi6

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

they went away, and night coming on, we had no remedy but to Wait
till the wind should abate ; and, in the mean time, the boatman and I
concluded to sleep, if we could ; and so crowded into the scuttle, with
the Dutchman, who was still wet, and the spray beating over the head
of our boat, leak’d thro’ to us, so that we were soon almost as wet as he.
In this manner we lay all night, with very littl£ rest ; but, the wind
abating the next day, we made a shift to reach Amboy before night,
having been thirty hours on the water, without victuals, or any drink
but a bottle of filthy rum, the water we sail’d on being salt.

In the evening I found myself very feverish, and went in to bed ;
but, having read somewhere that cold water drank plentifully was
good for a fever, I follow’d the prescription, sweat plentifully most of
the night, my fever left me, and in the morning, crossing the ferry, I
proceeded on my journey on foot, having fifty miles to Burlington,
where I was told I should find boats that would carry me the rest of
the way to Philadelphia.

It rained very hard all the day ; I was thoroughly soak’d, and by
noon a good deal tired ; so I stopt at a poor inn, where I staid all
night, beginning now to wish that I had never left home. I cut so
miserable a figure, too, that I found, by the questions ask’d me, I was
suspected to be some runaway servant, and in danger of being taken
up on that suspicion. However, I proceeded the next day, and got in
the evening to an inn, within eight or ten miles of Burlington, kept by
one Dr. Brown. He entered into conversation with me while I took
some refreshment, and, finding that I had read a little, became very
sociable and friendly. Our acquaintance continu’d as long as he
liv’d. He had been, I imagine, an itinerant doctor, for there was no
town in England, or country in Europe, of which he could not give a
very particular account. He had some letters, and was ingenious, but
much of an unbeliever, and wickedly undertook, some years after, to
travestie the Bible in doggrel verse, as Cotton had done Virgil. By
this means he set many of the facts in a very ridiculous light, and
might have hurt weak minds if his work had been published ; but it
never was.

At his house I lay that night, and the next morning reach’d
Burlington, but had the mortification to find that the regular boats
were gone a little before my coming, and no other expected to go
before Tuesday, this being Saturday ; wherefore I returned to an old
woman in the town, of whom I had bought gingerbread to eat on the
water, and ask’d her advice. She invited me to lodge at her house
till a passage by water should offer; and being tired with my foot
travelling, I accepted the invitation. She understanding I was a
printer, would have had me stay at that town and follow my business,
being ignorant of the stock necessary to begin with. She was very
hospitable, gave me a dinner of ox-cheek with great good will,
accepting only of a pot of ale in return ; and I thought myself fixed
till Tuesday should come. However, walking in the evening by the
side of the river, a boat came by, which I found was going towards
Philadelphia, with several people in her. They took me in, and, asBENJAMIN FRANKLIN

17

there was no wind, we row’d all the way ; and about midnight, not
having yet seen the city, some of the company were confident we must
have passed it, and would row no farther; the others knew not where
we were ; so we put toward the shore, got into a creek, landed near
an old fence, with the rails of which we made a fire, the night being
cold, in October, and there we remained till daylight. Then one of
the company knew the place to be Cooper’s Creek, a little above
Philadelphia, which we saw as soon as we got out of the creek, and
arriv’d there about eight or nine o’clock on the Sunday morning, and
landed at the Market-street wharf.

I have been the more particular in this description of my journey,
and shall be so of my first entry into that city, that you may in your
mind compare such unlikely beginnings with the figure I have since
made there. I was in my working dress, my best cloatlis being to
come round by sea. I was dirty from my journey ; my pockets were
stuff’d out with shirts and stockings, and I knew no soul nor where to
look for lodging. I was fatigued with travelling,, rowing and want of
rest, I was very hungry ; and my whole stock of cash consisted of a
Dutch dollar, and about a shilling in copper. The latter I gave the
people of the boat for my passage, who at first refus’d it, on account
of my rowing ; but I insisted on their taking it. A man being some-
times more generous when he has but a little money than when he
has plenty, perhaps thro’ fear of being thought to have but little.

Then I walked up the street, gazing about till near the market-house
I met a boy with bread. I had made many a meal on bread, and,
inquiring where he got it, I went immediately to the baker’s he
directed me to, in Second-street, and ask’d for bisket, intending such
as we had in Boston ; but they, it seems, were not made in Philadelphia.
Then I asked for a three-penny loaf, and was told they had none such.
So not considering or knowing the difference of money, and the
greater cheapness nor the names of his bread, I bad him give me
three-penny worth of any sort. He gave me, accordingly, three great
puffy rolls. I was supriz’d at the quantity, but took it, and, having no
room in my pockets, walked off with a roll under each arm, and
eating the other. Thus I went up Market-street as far as Fourth-
street, passing by the door of Mr. Read, my future wife’s father ; when
she, standing at the door, saw me, and thought I made, as I certainly
did, a most awkward, ridiculous appearance. Then I turned and
went down Chesnut-street and part of Walnut-street, eating my roll
all the way, and, coming round, found myself again at Market-street
wharf, near the boat I came in, to which I went for a draught of the
river water ; and, being filled with one of my rolls, gave the other two
to a woman and her cljild that came down the river in the boat with us,
and were waiting to go farther.

Thus refreshed, I walked again up the street, which by this time
had many clean-dressed people in it, who were all walking the same
way. I joined them, and thereby was led into the great meeting-house
of the Quakers near the market. I sat down among them, and, after
looking round awhile and hearing nothing said, being very drowsy thro’

3i8

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

labor and want of rest the preceding night, I fell fast asleep, and'
continu’d so till the meeting broke up, when one was kind enough to
rouse me. This was, therefore, the first house I was in, or slept in, in
Philadelphia.

Walking down again toward the river, and, looking in the faces of
people, I met a young Quaker man, whose countenance I lik’d, and,
accosting him, requested he would tell me where a stranger could get
lodging. We were then near the sign of the Three Mariners. “ Here,”
says he, “ is one place that entertains strangers, but it is not a repu-
table house ; if thee wilt walk with me, I’ll show thee a better.” He
brought me to the Crooked Billet in Water-street. Here I got a
dinner ; and, while I was eating it, several sly questions were asked
me, as it seemed to be suspected from my youth and appearance, that
I might be some runaway.

After dinner, my sleepiness return’d, and being shown to a bed, I
lay down without undressing, and slept till six in the evening, was
call’d to supper, went to bed again very early, and slept soundly till
next morning. Then I made myself as tidy as I could, and went to
Andrew Bradford the printer’s. I found in the shop the old man his
father, whom I had seen at New York, and who, travelling on horse-
back, had got to Philadelphia before me. He introduc’d me to his
son, who receiv’d me civilly, gave me a breakfast, but told me he did
not at present want a hand, being lately suppli’d with one ; but there
was another printer in town, lately set up, one Keimer, who, perhaps,
might employ me ; if not, I should be welcome to lodge at his house,
and he would give me a little work to do now and then till fuller
business should offer.

The old gentleman said he would go with me to the new printer ;
and when we found him, “ Neighbour,” says Bradford, “ I have
brought to see you a young man of your business ; perhaps you may
want such a one.” He ask’d me a few questions, put a composing
stick in my hand to see how I work’d, and then said he would employ
me soon, though he had just then nothing for me to do ; and, taking
old Bradford, whom he had never seen before, to be one of the town’s
people that had a good will for him, enter’d into a conversation on his
present undertaking and prospects ; while Bradford, not discovering
that he was the other printer’s father, on Keimer’s saying he expected
soon to get the greatest part of the business into his own hands, drew
him on by artful questions, and starting little doubts, to explain all his
views, what interest he reli’d on, and in what manner he intended to
proceed. I, who stood by and heard all, saw immediately that one
of them was a crafty old sophister, and the other a mere novice.
Bradford left me with Keimer, who was greatly surpris’d when I told
him who the old man was.

Keimer’s printing-house, I found, consisted of an old shatter’d
press, and one small, worn-out font of English, which he was then
using himself, composing an Elegy on Aquila Rose, before mentioned,
an ingenious young man, of excellent character, much respected in the
town, clerk of the Assembly, and a pretty poet. Keimer made versesBENJAMIN FRANKLIN

19

too, but very indifferently. He could not be said to write them, for
his manner was to compose in the types directly out of his head. So
there being no copy, but one pair of cases, and the Elegy likely to re-
quire all the letter, no one could help him. I endeavor’d to put his
press (which he had not yet us’d, and of which he understood nothing)
into order fit to be work’d with ; and, promising to come and print
off his Elegy as soon as he should have got it ready, I return’d to
Bradford’s, who gave me a little job to do for the present, and there I
lodged and dieted. A few days after, Keimer sent for me to print off
the Elegy. And now he had got another pair of cases, and a pamphlet
to reprint, on which he set me to work.

These two printers I found poorly qualified for their business.
Bradford had not been bred to it, and was very illiterate ; and Keimei,
tho’ something of a scholar, was a mere compositor, knowing nothing
of presswork. He had been one of the French prophets, and could
act their enthusiastic agitations. At this time he did not profess any
particular religion, but something of all on occasion ; was very
ignorant of the world, and had, as I afterwards found, a good deal of
the knave in his composition. He did not like my lodging at Brad-
ford’s while I work’d with him. He had a house, indeed, but without
furniture, so he could not lodge me ; but he got me a lodging at Mr.
Read’s, before mentioned, who was the owner of his house ; and, my
chest and clothes being come by this time, I made rather a more re-
spectable appearance in the eyes of Miss Read than I had done when
she first happen’d to see me eating my roll in the street.

I began now to have some acquaintance among the young people
of the town, that were lovers of reading, with whom I spent my even-
ings very pleasantly ; and gaining money by my industry and frugality,

I lived very agreeably, forgetting Boston as much as I could, and not
desiring that any there should know where I resided, except my friend
Collins, who was in my secret, and kept it when I wrote to him. At
length, an incident happened that sent me back again much sooner
than I had intended. I had a brother-in-law, Robert Holmes, master
of a sloop that traded between Boston and Delaware. He being at
Newcastle, forty miles below Philadelphia, heard there of me, and
wrote me a letter mentioning the concern of my friends in Boston at
my abrupt departure, assuring me of their good will to me, and that
every thing would be accommodated to my mind if I would return, to
which he exhorted me very earnestly. I wrote an answer to his letter,
thank’d him for his advice, but stated my reasons for quitting Boston
fully and in such a light as to convince him I was not so wrong as he
had apprehended.

Sir William Keith, governor of the province, was then at Newcastle,
and Captain Holmes, happening to be in company with him when my
letter came to hand, spoke to him of me, and show’d him the letter.
The governor read it, and seem’d surpris’d when he told my age. He
said I appear’d a young man of promising parts, and therefore should
be encouraged; the printers at Philadelphia were wretched ones ;
^nd, if I would set up there, he made no doubt I should succeed; for20

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

his part, he would procure me the public business, and do me every
other service in his power. This my brother-in-law afterwards told
me in Boston, but I knew as yet nothing of it ; when, one day, Keimer
and I being at work together near the window, we saw the governor
and another gentleman (which proved to be Colonel French, of New-
castle), finely dress’d, come directly across the street to our house, and
heard them at the door.

Keimer ran down immediately, thinking it a visit to him ; but the
governor inquir’d for me, came up, and with a condescension and
politeness I had been quite unus’d to, made me many compliments,
desired to be acquainted with me, blam’d me kindly for not having
made myself known to him when I first came to the place, and would
have me away with him to the tavern, where he was going with Colonel
French to taste, as he said, some excellent Madeira. I was not a little
surprised, and Keimer star’d like a pig poison’d. I went, however,
with the governor and Colonel French to a tavern, at the corner of
Third-street, and over the Madeira he propos’d my setting up my
business, laid before me the probabilities of success, and both he and
Colonel French assur’d me 1 should have their interest and influence
in procuring the public business of both governments. On my doubt-
ing whether my father would assist me in it, Sir William said he would
give me a letter to him, in which he would state the advantages, and
he did not doubt of prevailing with him. So it was concluded I should
return to Boston in the first vessel, with the governor’s letter recom-
mending me to my father. In the mean time the intention was to be
kept a secret, and I went on working with Keimer as usual, the gover-
nor sending for me now and then to dine with him, a very great honor
I thought it, and conversing with me in the most affable, familiar, and
friendly manner imaginable.

About the end of April, 1724, a little vessel offer’d for Boston. I
took leave of Keimer as going to see my friends. The governor gave
me an ample letter, saying many flattering things of me to my father,
and strongly recommending the project of my setting up at Philadel-
phia as a thing that must make my fortune. We struck on a shoal in
going down the bay, and sprung a leak ; we had a blustering time at
sea, and were oblig’d to pump almost continually, at which I took my
turn. We arriv’d safe, however, at Boston in about a fortnight. I had
been absent seven months, and my friends had heard nothing of me ;
for my br. Holmes was not yet return’d, and had not written about
me. My unexpected appearance surpriz’d the family ; all were, how-
ever, very glad to see me, and made me welcome, except my brother.
I went to see him at his printing-house. I was better dress’d than,
ever yvhile in his service, having a genteel new suit from head to foot-,
a watch, and my pockets lin’d with near five pounds sterling in silver.'
He receiv’d me not very frankly, look’d me all over, and turn’d to his
work again.

The journeymen were inquisitive where I had been, what sort of a
country it was, and how I lik’d it. "I prais’d it much, and the happy
life I led in it; expressing strongly my intention of returning to it; and,BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

21

one of them asking what kind of money we had there, I produced a
handful of silver, and spread it before them, which was a kind of
raree-show they had not been us’d to, paper being the money of Bos-
ton. Then I took an opportunity of letting them see my watch ; and,
lastly (my brother still grum and sullen), I gave them a piece of eight
to drink, and took my leave. This visit of mine offended hkm ex-
treamly ; for, when my mother some time after spoke to him of a
reconciliation, and of her wishes to see us on good terms together, and
that we might live for the future as brothers, he said I had insulted
him in such a manner before his people that he could never forget or
forgive it. In this, however, he was mistaken.

My father received the governor’s letter with some apparent sur-
prise, but said little of it to me for some days, when Capt. Holmes
returning he show’d it to him, ask’d him if he knew Keith, and what
kind of man he was ; adding his opinion that he must be of small dis-
cretion to think of setting a boy up in business who wanted yet three
years of being at man’s estate. Holmes said what he could in favor
of the project, but my father was clear in the impropriety of it, and at
last gave a flat denial to it. Then he wrote a civil letter to Sir William,
thanking him for the patronage he had so kindly offered me, but de-
clined to assist me as yet in setting up, I being in his opinion, too
young to be trusted with the management of a business so important,
and for which the preparation must be so expensive.

My friend and companion Collins, who was a clerk in the post-
office, pleas’d with the account I gave him of my new- country,
determined to go tljither also ; and, while I waited for my father’s de-
termination, he set out before me by land to Rhode Island, leaving
his books, which were a pretty collection of mathematicks and natural
philosophy, to come with mine .and me to New York, where he pro-
pos’d to wait for me.

My father, tho’ he did not approve Sir William’s proposition, was
yet pleas’d that I had been able to obtain so advantageous a character
from a person of such note where I had resided, and that I had been
so industrious and careful as to equip myself so handsomely in so
short a time ; therefore, seeing no prospect of an accommodation be-
tween my brother and me, he gave his consent to my returning again
to Philadelphia, advis’d me to behave respectfully to the people there,
endeavor to obtain the general esteem, and avoid lampooning and
libeling, to which he thought I had too much inclination ; telling me,
that by steady industry and a prudent parsimony I might save enough
by the time I was one-and-twenty to set me up ; and that, if I came
near the matter, he would help me out with the rest. This was all I
could obtain, except some small gifts as tokens of his and my mother’s
love, when I embark’d again for New York, now with their approba-
tion and their blessing.

The sloop putting in at Newport, Rhode Island, I visited my
brother John, who had been married and settled there some years.
He received me very affectionately, for he always lov’d me. A friend
of his, one Vernon, having some money due to him in Pensilvania,22

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

about thirty-five pounds currency, desired I would receive it for him,
and keep it till I had his directions what to remit it in. Accordingly,
he gave me an order. This afterwards occasion’d me a good deal of
uneasiness.

At Newport we took in a number of passengers for New York,
among which were two young women, companions, and a grave, sen-
sible, matron-like Quaker woman, with her attendants. I had shown
an obliging readiness to do her some little services, which impress’d
her I suppose with a degree of good will toward me ; therefore, when
she saw a daily growing familiarity between me and the two young
women, which they appear’d to encourage, she took me aside, and
said, “ Young man, I am concern’d for thee, as thou has no friend with
thee, and seems not to know much of the world, or of the snares
youth is expos’d to ; depend upon it, those are very bad women; I
can see it in all their actions ; and if thee art not upon thy guard, they
will draw thee into some danger; they are strangers to thee, and I
advise thee, in a friendly concern for thy welfare, to have no acquaint-
ance with them.” As I seem’d at first not to think so ill of them as
she did, she mentioned some things she had observ’d and heard that
had escap’d my notice, but now convinc’d me she was right. I
thank’d her for her kind advice, and promis’d to follow it. When we
arrived at New York, they told me where they liv’d, and invited me to
come, and see them ; but I avoided it, and it was well I did ; for the
next day the captain miss’d a silver spoon and some other things, that
had been taken out of his cabin, and, knowing that these were a
couple of strumpets, he got a warrant to search their lodgings, found
the stolen goods, and had the thieves punish’d. So, tho’ we had
escap’d a sunken rock, which we scrap’d upon in the passage, I
thought this escape of rather more importance to me.

At New York I found my friend Collins, who had arriv’d there
some time before me. We had been intimate from children, and had
read the same books together; but he had the advantage of more
time for reading and studying, and a wonderful genius for mathe-
matical learning, in which he far outstript me. While I liv’d in
Boston, most of my hours of leisure for conversation were spent with
him, and he continu’d a sober as well as an industrious lad ; was
much respected for his learning by several of the clergy and other
gentlemen, and seemed to promise making a good figure in life. But,
during my absence, he had acquir’d a habit of sotting with brandy ;
and 1 found by his own account, and what I heard from others, that
he had been drunk every day since his arrival at New York, and
behav’d very oddly. He had gam’d, too, and lost his money, so that
I was oblig’d to discharge his lodgings, and defray his expenses to
and at Philadelphia, which prov’d extremely inconvenient to me.

The then governor of New York, Burnet (son of Bishop Burnet),
hearing from the captain that a young man, one of his passengers,
had a great many books, desir’d he would bring me to see him. I
waited upon him accordingly, and should have taken Collins with me
but that he was not sober. The gov’r. treated me with great civility,BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

23

show’d me his library, which was a very large one, and we had a good
deal of conversation about books and authors. This was the second
governor who had done me the honour to take notice of me; which,
to a pdor boy like me, was very pleasing.

We proceeded to Philadelphia. I received on the way Vernon’s
money, without which we could hardly have finish’d our journey.
Collins wished to be employ’d in some counting-house; but, whether
they discover’d his dramming by his breath, or by his behaviour, tho’
he had some recommendations, he met with no success in any applica-
tion, and continu’d lodging and boarding at the same house with me,
and at my expense. Knowing I had that money of Vernon’s, he was
continually borrowing of me, still promising repayment as soon as he
should be in business. At length he had got so much of it that I was
distress’d to think what I should do in case of being call’d on to
remit it.

His drinking continu’d, about which we sometimes quarrel’d; for,
when a little intoxicated, he was very fractious. Once, in a boat on
the Delaware with some other young men, he refused to row in his
turn. “I will be row’d home,” says he. “We will not row you,” says
I. “You must, or stay all night on the water,” says he, “just as you
please.” The others said, “Let us row; what signifies it?” But, my
mind being soured with his other conduct, I continu’d to refuse. So
he swore he would make me row, or throw me overboard; and
coming along, stepping on the thwarts, toward me, when he came up
and struck at me, I clapped my hand under his crutch, and, rising,
pitched him head-foremost into the river. I knew he was a good
swimmer, and so was under little concern about him; but before he
could get round to lay hold of the boat, we had with a few strokes
pull’d her out of his reach: and even when he drew near the boat, we
ask’d if he would row, striking a few strokes to slide her away from
him. He was ready to die with vexation, and obstinately would not
promise to row. However, seeing him at last beginning to tire, we
lifted him in and brought him home dripping wet in the evening.
We hardly exchang’d a civil word afterwards, and a West India
captain, who had a commission to procure a tutor for the sons of
a gentleman at Barbadoes, happening to meet with him, agreed to
carry him thither. He left me then, promising to remit me the first
money he should receive in order to discharge the debt; but I never
heard of him after.

The breaking into this money of Vernon’s was one of the first great
errata of my life; and this affair show’d that my father was not much
out of his judgment when he suppos’d me too young to manage
business of importance. But Sir William, on reading his letter, said
he was too prudent. There was great difference in persons ; and dis-
cretion did not always accompany years, nor was youth always
without it. “And since he will not set you up,” says he, “I will do it
myself. Give me an inventory of the things necessary to be had from
England, and I will send for them. You shall repay me when you
are able; I am resolv’d to have a good printer here, and I am sure24

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

you must succeed.” This was spoken with such an appearance of
cordiality, that I had not the least doubt of his meaning what he said.

I had hitherto kept the proposition of my setting up, a secret in
Philadelphia, and I still kept it. Had it been known that I depended
on the governor, probably some friend, that knew him better, would
have advis’d me not to rely on him, as I afterwards heard it as his
known character to be liberal of promises which he never meant to
keep. Yet, unsolicited as he was by me, how could I think his
generous offers insincere? I believ’d him one of the best men in the
world.

I presented him an inventory of a little print’g-house, amounting
by my computation to about one hundred pounds sterling. He lik’d it,
but ask’d me if my being on the spot in England to cliuse the types,
and see that every thing was good of the kind, might not be of some
advantage. “Then,” says he, “when there, you may make ac-
quaintances, and establish correspondences in the bookselling and
stationery way.” I agreed that .this might be advantageous.
“Then,” says he, “get yourself ready to go with Annis”; which was
the annual ship, and the only one at that time usually passing between
London and Philadelphia. But it would be some months before
Annis sail’d, so I continu’d working with Keimer, fretting about the
money Collins had got from me, and in daily apprehensions of being
call’d upon by Vernon, which, however, did not happen for some
years after.

I believe I have omitted mentioning that, in my first voyage from
Boston, being becalm’d off Block Island, our people set about catch-
ing cod, and hauled up a great many. Hitherto I had stuck to my
resolution of not eating animal food, and on this occasion I consider’d,
with my master Tryon, the taking every fish as a kind of unprovoked
murder, since none of them had, or ever could do us any injury that
might justify the slaughter. All this seemed very reasonable. But I
had formerly been a great lover of fish, and, when this came hot out
of the frying-pan, it smelt admirably well. I balanc’d some time
between principle and inclination, till I recollected that, when the fish
were opened, I saw smaller fish taken out of their stomachs; then
thought I, “ If you eat one another, I don’t see why we mayn’t eat
you.” So I din’d upon cod very heartily, and continued to eat with
other people, returning only now and then occasionally to a vegetable
diet. So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable creature, since it
enables one to find or make a reason for every thing one has a mind
to do.

Keimer and I liv’d on a pretty good familiar footing, and agreed
tolerably well, for he suspected nothing of my setting up. He
retained a great deal of his old enthusiasms and lov’d argumentation.
We therefore had many disputations. I used to work him so with
my Socratic method, and had trepann’d him so often by questions
apparently so distant from any point we had in hand, and yet by
degrees lead to the point, and brought him into difficulties and con-
tradictions, that at last he grew ridiculously cautious, and wouldBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

2;

hardly answer me the most common question, without asking first,
“ What do you intend to infer from that? ” However, it gave him so
high an opinion of my abilities in the confuting way, that he seriously
proposed my being his colleague in a project he had of setting up a
new sect. He was to preach the doctrines, and I was to confound all
opponents. When he came to explain with me upon the doctrines, I
found several conundrums which I objected to, unless I might have
my way a little too, and introduce some of mine.

Keimer wore his beard at full length, because somewhere in the
Mosaic law it is said, “ Thou shalt not mar the corners of thy beard."
He likewise kept the Seventh day, Sabbath; and these two points
were essentials with him. I dislik’d both; but agreed to admit them
upon condition of his adopting the doctrine of using no animal food.
“I doubt,” said he, “my constitution will not bear that.” I assur’d
him it would, and that he would be the better for it. He was usually
a great glutton, and I promised myself some diversion in half starving
him. He agreed to try the practice, if I would keep him company.
I did so, and we held it for three months. We had our victuals
dress’d, and brought to us regularly by a woman in the neighbour-
hood, who had from me a list of forty dishes, to be prepar’d for us at
different times, in all which there was neither fish, flesh, nor fowl, and
the whim suited me the better at this time from the cheapness of it,
not costing us above eighteen pence sterling each per week. I have
since kept several Lents most strictly, leaving the common diet for
that, and that for the common, abruptly, without the least incon-
venience, so that I think there is little in the advice of making those
changes by easy gradations. I went on pleasantly, but poor Keimer
suffered grievously, tired of the project, long’d for the flesh-pots of
Egypt, and order’d a roast pig. He invited me and two women
friends to dine with him; but, it being brought too soon upon table,
he could not resist the temptation, and ate the whole before we came.

I had made some courtship during this time to Miss Read. I had
a great respect and affection for her, and had some reason to believe
she had the same for me; but, as I was about to take a long voyage,
and we were both very young, only a little above eighteen, it was
thought most prudent by her mother to prevent our going too far at
present, as a marriage, if it was to take place, would be more con-
venient after my return, when I should be, as I expected, set up in
business. Perhaps, too, she thought my expectations not so well
founded as I imagined them to be.

My chief acquaintances at this time were Charles Osborne, Joseph
Watson, and James Ralph, all lovers of reading. The two first were
clerks to an eminent scrivener or conveyancer in the town, Charles
Brogden; the other was clerk to a merchant. Watson was a pious,
sensible young man, of great integrity; the others rather more lax in
their principles of religion, particularly Ralph, who, as well as Collins,
had been unsettled by me, for which they both made me suffer.
Osborne.was sensible, candid, frank; sincere and affectionate to his
friends; but, in literary matters, too fond of criticising. Ralph was26

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

ingenious, genteel in his manners, and extremely eloquent; I think I
never knew a prettier talker. Both of them great admirers of poetry,
and began to try their hands in little pieces. Many pleasant walks
we four had together on Sundays into the woods, near Schuylkill,
where we read to one another, and conferr’d on what we read.

Ralph was inclin’d to pursue the study of poetry, not doubting but
he might become eminent in it, and make his fortune by it, alleging
that the best poets must, when they first began to write, make as
many faults as he did. Osborne dissuaded him, assur’d him he had
no genius for poetry, and advis’d him to think of nothing beyond the
business he was bred to ; that, in the mercantile way, tho’ he had no
stock, he might, by his diligence and punctuality, recommend himself
to employment as a factor, and in time acquire wherewith to trade on
his own account. I approv’d the amusing one’s self with poetry now
and then, so far as to improve one’s language, but no farther.

On this it was propos’d that we should each of us, at our next
meeting, produce a piece of our own composing, in order to improve
by our mutual observations, criticisms, and corrections. As language
and expression were what we had in view, we excluded all considera-
tions of invention by agreeing that the task should be a version of
the eighteenth Psalm, which describes the descent of a Deity. When
the time of our meeting drew nigh, Ralph called on me. first, and let
me know his piece was ready. I told him I had been busy, and,
having little inclination, had done nothing. He then show’d me his
piece for my opinion, and I much approv’d it, as it appear’d to me to
have great merit. “Now,” says he, “Osborne never will allow the
least merit in any thing of mine, but makes 1000 criticisms out of
mere envy. He is not so jealous of you ; I wish, therefore, you would
take this piece, and produce it as yours ; I will pretend not to have
had time, and so produce nothing. We shall then see what he will
say to it.” It was agreed, and I immediately transcrib’d it, that it
might appear in my own hand.

We met; Watson’s performance was read ; there were some beauties
in it, but many defects. Osborne’s was read ; it was much better ;
Ralph did it justice ; remarked some faults, but applauded the beau-
ties. He himself had nothing to produce. I was backward ; seemed
desirous of being excused ; had not had sufficient time to correct, etc. ;
but no excuse could be admitted ; produce I must. It was read and
repeated ; Watson and Osborne gave up the contest, and join’d in
applauding it. Ralph only made some criticisms, and propos’d some
amendments ; but I defended my text. Osborne was against Ralph,
and told him he was no better a critic than poet, so he dropt the
argument. As they two went home together, Osborne expressed him-
self still more strongly in favor of what he thought my production ;
having restrain’d himself before, as he said, lest I should think it
flattery. “But who would have imagin’d,” said he, “that Franklin
had been capable of such a performance ; such painting, such force,
such fire ! He has even improv’d the original. In his common con-
versation he seems to have no choice of words; he hesitates andBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

2 7

blunders ; and yet, good God ! how he writes ! ” When we next met,
Ralph discovered the trick we had plaid him, and Osborne was a little
laught at.

This transaction fixed Ralph in his resolution to become a poet. I
did all I could to dissuade him from it, but he continued scribbling
verses till Pope cured him. He became, however, a pretty good prose
writer. More of him hereafter. But, as I may not have occasion
again to mention the other two, I shall just remark here that Watson
died in my arms a few years after, much lamented, being the best of
our set. Osborne went to the West Indies, where he became an emi-
nent lawyer and made money, but died young. He and I had made
a serious agreement, that the one who happen’d first to die should, if
possible, make a friendly visit to the other, and acquaint him how he
found things in that separate state. .But he never fulfill’d his promise.

The governor, seeming to like my company, had me frequently to
his house, and his setting me up was always mention’d as a fixed thing.
I was to take with me letters recommendatory to a number of his
friends, besides the letter of credit to furnish me with the necessary
money for purchasing the press and types, paper, etc. For these
letters I was appointed to call at different times, when they were to be
ready ; but a future time was still named. Thus he went on till the
ship, whose departure too had been several times postponed, was on
the point of sailing. Then, when I call’d to take my leave and
receive the letters, his secretary, Dr. Bard, came out to me and
said the governor was extremely busy in writing, but would be
down at Newcastle before the ship, and there the letters would be
delivered to me.

Ralph, though married, and having one child, had determined to
accompany me in this voyage. It was thought he intended to estab-
lish a correspondence, and obtain goods to sell on commission ; but I
found afterwards, that, thro’ some discontent with his wife’s relations,
he purposed to leave her on their hands, and never return again.
Having taken leave of my friends, and interchang’d some promises
with Miss Read, I left Philadelphia in the ship, which anchor’d at
Newcastle. The governor was there ; but when I went to his lodging,
the secretary came to me from him with the civillest message in the
world, that he could not then see me, being engaged in business of the
utmost importance, but should send the letters to me on board, wish’d
me heartily a good voyage and a speedy return, etc. I returned on
board a little puzzled, but still not doubting.

Mr. Andrew Hamilton, a famous lawyer of Philadelphia, had taken
passage in the same ship for himself and son, and with Mr. Denham,
a Quaker merchant, and Messrs. Onion and Russel, masters of an iron
work in Maryland, had engag’d the great cabin ; so that Ralph and I
were forced to take up with a berth in the steerage, and none on board
knowing us, were considered as ordinary persons. But Mr. Hamilton
and his son (it was James, since governor) return’d from Newcastle to
Philadelphia, the father being recall’d by a great fee to plead for a
seized ship ; and, just before we sail’d, Colonel French coming on28

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

board, and showing me great respect, I was more taken notice of, and,
with my friend Ralph, invited by the other gentlemen to come into
the cabin, there being now room. Accordingly, we remov’d thither.

Understanding that Colonel French had brought oh board the
governor’s despatches, I ask’d the captain for those letters that were
to be under my care. He said all were put into the bag together and
he could not then come at them ; but, before we landed in England,
I should have an opportunity of picking them out ; so I was satisfied
for the present, and we proceeded on our voyage. We had a sociable
company in the cabin, and lived uncommonly well, having the addition
of all Mr. Hamilton’s stores, who had laid in plentifully. In this pas-
sage Mr. Denham contracted a friendship for me that continued during
his life. The voyage was otherwise not a pleasant one, as we had a
great deal of bad weather.

When we came into the Channel, the captain kept his word with me,
and gave me an opportunity of examining the bag for the governor’s
letters. I found none upon which my name was put as under my care.
I picked out six or seven, that, by the handwriting, I thought might be
the promised letters, especially as one of them was directed to Basket,
the king’s printer, and another to some stationer. We arriv’d in
London the 24th of December, 1724. I waited upon the stationer, who
came first in my way, delivering the letter as from Governor Keith.
“ I don’t know such a person,” says he ; but, opening the letter, “O !
this is from Riddlesden. I have lately found him to be a compleat
rascal, and I will have nothing to do with him, nor receive any letters
from him.” So, putting the letter in my hand, he turn’d on his heel
and left me to serve some customer. I was surprized to find that
these were not the governor’s letters ; and, after recollecting and com-
paring circumstances, I began to doubt his sincerity. I found my
friend Denham, and opened the whole affair to him. He let me into
Keith’s character ; told me there was not the least probability that he
had written any letters for me ; that no one, who knew him, had the
smallest dependence on him ; and he laught at the notion of the
governor’s giving me a letter of credit, having, as he said, no credit to
give. On my expressing some concern about what I should do, he
advised me to endeavor getting some employment in the way of my
business. “Among the printers here,” said he, “you will improve
yourself, and when you return to America, you will set up to greater
advantage.”

We both of us happen’d to know, as well as the stationer, that
Riddlesden, the attorney, was a very knave. He had half ruin’d Miss
Read’s father by persuading him to be bound for him. By this letter
it appear’d there was a secret scheme on foot to the prejudice of
Hamilton (suppos’d to be then coming over with us) ; and that Keith
was concerned in it with Riddlesden. Denham, who was a friend of
Hamilton’s, thought he ought to be acquainted with it; so, when he
arriv’d in England, which was soon after, partly from resentment and
ill-will to Keith and Riddlesden, and partly from good-will to him, I
waited on him, and gave him the letter. He thank’d me cordially,BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

29

the information being of importance to him ; and from that time he
became my friend, greatly to my advantage afterwards on many
occasions.

But what shall we think of a governor’s playing such pitiful tricks,
and imposing so grossly on a poor ignorant boy ! It was a habit he
had acquired. He wish’d to please everybody ; and, having little to
give, he gave expectations. He was otherwise an ingenious, sensible
man, a pretty gdod writer, and a good governor for the people, tlio’
not for his constituents, the proprietaries, whose instructions he some-
times disregarded. Several of our best laws were of his planning and
passed during his administration.

Ralph and I were inseparable companions. We took lodgings
together in Little Britain at three shillings and sixpence a week—as
much as we could then afford. He found some relations, but they
were poor, and unable to assist him. He now let me know his inten-
tions of remaining in London, and that he never meant to return to
Philadelphia. He had brought no money with him, the whole he could
muster having been expended in paying his passage. I had fifteen
pistoles ; so he borrowed occasionally of me to subsist, while he was
looking out for business. He first endeavored to get into a playhouse,
believing himself qualify’d for an actor; but Wilkes,1 to whom he
apply’d, advis’d him candidly not to think of that employment, as it
was impossible he should succeed in it. Then he propos’d to Roberts,
a publisher in Paternoster Row, to write for him a weekly paper like
the Spectator, on certain-conditions, which Roberts did not approve.
Then he endeavored to get employment as a hackney writer, to copy
for the stationers and lawyers about the Temple, but could find no
vacancy.

I immediately got into work at Palmer’s, then a famous printing-
house in Bartholomew Close, and here I continu’d near a year. I was
pretty diligent, but spent with Ralph a good deal of my earnings in
going to plays and other places of amusement. We had together con-
sumed all my pistoles, and now just rubbed on from hand to mouth.
He seem’d quite to forget his wife and child, and I, by degrees, my
engagements with Miss Read, to whom I never wrote more than one
letter, and that was to let her know I was not likely soon to return.
This Was another of the great errata of my life, which I should wish
to correct if I were to live it over again. In fact, by our expenses, I
was constantly kept unable to pay my passage.

At Palmer’s I was employed in composing for the second edition of
Wollaston’s “ Religion of Nature.” Some of his reasonings not ap-
pearing to me well founded, I wrote a little metaphysical piece in
which I made remarks on them. It was entitled “A Dissertation on
Liberty and Necessity, Pleasure and Pain.” I inscribed it to my friend
Ralph ; I printed a small number. It occasion’d my being more con-
sidered by Mr. Palmer as a young man of some ingenuity, tho’ he
seriously expostulated'with me upon the principles of my pamphlet,
which to him appear’d abominable. My printing this pamphlet was

1 A comedian.30

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

another erratum. While I lodg’d in Little Britain, I made an ac-
quaintance with one Wilcox, a bookseller, whose shop was at the next
door. He had an immense collection of second-hand books. Circu-
lating libraries were not then in use ; but we agreed that, on certain
reasonable terms, which I have now forgotten, I might take, read, and
return any <rf his books. This I esteem’d a great advantage, and I
made as much use of it as I could.

My pamphlet by some means falling into the hands of one Lyons, a
surgeon, author of a book entitled “ The Infallibility of Human Judg-
ment,” it occasioned an acquaintance between us. He took great
notice of me, called on me often to converse on those subjects, carried
me to the Horns, a pale alehouse in--------Lane, Cheapside, and intro-

duced me to Dr. Mandeville, author of the “ Fable of the Bees,” who
had a club there, of which he was the soul, being a most facetious,
entertaining companion. Lyons, too, introduced me to Dr. Pemberton,
at Batson’s Coffee-house, who promised to give me an opportunity,
some time or other, of seeing Sir Isaac Newton, of which I was
extreamely desirous ; but this never happened.

I had brought over a few curiosities, among which the principal was
a purse made of the asbestos, which purifies by fire. Sir Hans Sloane
heard of it, came to see me, and invited me to his house in Bloomsbury
Square, where he show’d me all his curiosities, and persuaded me to
let him add that to the number, for which he paid me handsomely.

In our house there lodg’d a young woman, a milliner, who, I think,
had a shop in the Cloisters. She had been genteelly bred, was sen-
sible and lively, and of most pleasing conversation. Ralph read plays
to her in the evenings, they grew intimate, she took another lodging,
and he followed her. They liv’d together some time ; but, he being
still out of business, and her income not sufficient to maintain them
with her child, he took a resolution of going from London, to try for a
country school, which he thought himself well qualified to undertake,
as he wrote an excellent hand, and was a master of arithmetic and
accounts. This, however, he deemed a business below him, and
confident of future better fortune, when he should be unwilling to have
it known that he once was so meanly employed, he changed his name,
and did me the honor to assume mine; for I soon after had a letter
from him, acquainting me that he was settled in a small village (in
Berkshire, I think it was, where he taught leading and writing to ten
or a dozen boys, at sixpence each per week), recommending Mrs.

T-----to my care, and desiring me to write to him, directing for Mr.

Franklin, school-master, at such a place.

He continued to write frequently, sending me large specimens of an
epic poem which he was then composing, and desiring my remarks
and corrections. These I gave him from time to time, but endeavour’d
rather to discourage his proceeding. One of Young’s Satires was then
just published. I copy’d and sent him a great part of it, which set
in a strong light the folly of pursuing the Muses with any hope of
advancement by them. All was in vain ; sheets of the poem continued
to come by every post. In the mean time, Mrs. T----------, having on hisBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

3i

account lost her friends and business, was often in distresses, and us’d
to send for me, and borrow what I could spare to help her out of them.
I grew fond of her company, and, being at that time under no religious
restraint, and presuming upon my importance to her, I attempted
familiarities (another erratum), which she repuls’d with a proper
resentment, and acquainted him with my behariour. This made a
breach between us ; and, when he returned again to London, he let
me know he thought I had cancell’d all the obligations he had been
under to me. So I found I was never to expect his repaying me what I
lent to him, or advanc’d for him. This, however, was not then of much
consequence, as he was totally unable ; and in the loss of his friend-
ship I found myselt relieved from a burthen. I now began to think of
getting a little money beforehand, and, expecting better work, I left
Palmer’s to work at Watts’s, near Lincoln’s Inn Fields, a still greater
printing-house. Here I continued all the rest of my stay in London.

At my first admission into this printing-house I took to working at
the press, imagining I felt a want of the bodily exercise I had been
us’d to in America, where presswork is mix’d with composing. I
drank only water; the other workmen, near fifty in number, were
great guzzlers of beer. On occasion, I carried up and down stairs a
large form of types in each hand, when others carried but one in both
hands. They wondered to see, from this and several instances, that
the Water-American, as they called me, was stronger than them-
selves, who drank strong beer ! We had an alehouse boy who attended
always in the house to supply the workmen. My companion at the
press drank every day a pint before breakfast, a pint at breakfast with
his bread and cheese, a pint between breakfast and dinner, a pint
at dinner, a pint in the afternoon about six o’clock, and another when
he had done his day’s work. I thought it a detestable custom ; but it
was necessary, he suppos’d, to drink strong beer, that he might be
strong to labor. I endeavoured to convince him that the bodily
strength afforded by beer could only be in proportion to the grain or
flour of the barley dissolved in the water of which it was made ; that
there was more flour in a pennyworth of bread ; and therefore, if
he would eat that with a pint of water, it would give him more
strength than a quart of beer. He drank on, however, and had four
or five shillings to pay out of his wages every Saturday night for that
muddling liquor ; an expense I was free from. And thus these poor
devils keep themselves always under.

Watts, after some weeks, desiring to have me in the composing-
room, I left the pressmen ; a new bien venu or sum for drink, being
five shillings, was demanded of me by the compositors. I thought it
an imposition, as I had paid below ; the master thought so too, and
forbad my paying it. I stood out two or three weeks, was accordingly
considered as an excommunicate, and had so many little piieces ot
private mischief done me, by mixing my sorts, transposing my pages,
breaking my matter, etc., etc., if 1 were ever so little out of the room,
and all ascribed to the chappel ghost, which they said ever haunted
those not regularly admitted, that, notwithstanding the master’s32

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

protection, I found myself oblig’d to comply and pay the money, con-
vinc’d of the folly of being on ill terms with those one is to live with
continually.

I was now on a fair footing with them, and soon acquir’d con-
siderable influence. I propos’d some reasonable alterations in their
chappel laws, and carried them against all opposition. From my
example, a great part of them left their muddling breakfast of beer,
and bread, and cheese, finding they could with me be suppyl’d from a
neighboring house with a large porringer of hot water-gruel, sprinkled
with pepper, crumb’d with bread, and a bit of butter in it, for the price
of a pint of beer, viz., three half-pence. This was a more comfortable
as well as cheaper breakfast, and kept their heads clearer. Those
who continued sotting with beer all day, were often, by not paying,
out of credit at the alehouse, and us’d to make interest with me to get
beer ; their light, as they phrased it, being out. I watch’d the pay-
table on Saturday night, and collected what 1 stood engag’d for them,
having to pay sometimes near thirty shillings a week on their accounts.
This, and my being esteem’d a pretty good riggite, that is, a jocular
verbal satirist, supported my consequence in the society. My constant
attendance (I never making a St. Monday) recommended me to the
master; and my uncommon quickness at composing occasioned my
being put upon all work of dispatch, which was generally better paid.
So I went on now very agreeably.

My lodging in Little Britain being too remote, I found another
in Duke-street, opposite to the Romish Chapel. It was two pair of
stairs backwards, at an Italian warehouse. A widow lady kept the
house ; she had a daughter, and a maid servant, and a journeyman
who attended the warehouse, but lodg’d abroad. After sending to
inquire my character at the house where I last lodg’d, she agreed
to take me in at the same rate, 3s. 6d. per week ; cheaper, as she said,
from the protection she expected in having a man lodge in the house.
She was a widow, an elderly woman ; had been bred a Protestant,
being a clergyman’s daughter, but was converted to the Catholic
religion by her husband, whose memory she much revered ; had lived
much among people of distinction, and knew a thousand anecdotes of
them as far back as the times of Charles the Second. She was lame
in her knees with the gout, and, therefore, seldom stirred out of
her room, so sometimes wanted company; and hers was so highly
amusing to me, that I was sure to spend an evening with her when-
ever she desired it. Our supper was only half an anchovy each, on a
very little strip of bread and butter, and half a pint of ale between us ;
but the entertainment was in her conversation. My always keeping
good hours, and giving little trouble in the family, made her unwilling
to part with me ; so that, when I talk’d of a lodging I had heard of,
nearer my business, for two shillings a week, which, intent as I now
was on saving money, made some difference, she bid me not think of
it, for she would abate me two shillings a week for the future ; so I
remained with her at one shilling and sixpence as long as I staid in
London.BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

33

In a garret of her house there lived a maiden lady of sevfchty, in the
most retired manner, of whom my landlady gave me this account :
that she was a Roman Catholic, had been sent abroad when young,
and lodg’d in a nunnery with an intent of becoming a nun ; but, the
country not agreeing with her, she returned to England, where, there
being no nunnery, she had vow’d to lead the life of a nun, as near as
might be done in those circumstances. Accordingly, she had given
all her estate to charitable uses, reserving only twelve pounds a year
to live on, and out of this sum she still gave a great deal in charity,
living herself on water-gruel- only, and using no fire but to boil it.
She had lived many years in that garret, being permitted to remain
there gratis by successive Catholic tenants of the house below, as
they deemed it a blessing to have her there. A priest visited her to
confess her every day. “ I have ask’d her,” says my landlady, “ how
she, as she liv’d, could possibly find so much employment for a
confessor ? ”	“ Oh,” said she, “ it is impossible to avoid vain

thoughtsI was permitted once to visit her. She was chearful and
polite, and convers’d pleasantly. The room was clean, but had no
other furniture than a matras, a table with a crucifix and book, a stool
which she gave me to sit on, and a picture over the chimney of Saint
Veronica displaying her handkerchief, with the miraculous figure of
Christ’sbleedingface on it, which shecxplainedto me with great serious-
ness. She look’d pale, but was never sick ; and I give it as another
instance on how small an income, life and health may be supported.

At Watts’s printing-house I contracted an acquaintance with an
ingenious young man, one Wygate, who, having wealthy relations, had
been better educated than most printers ; was a tolerable Latinist,
spoke French, and lov’d reading. I taught him and a friend of his
to swim at twice going into the river, and they soon became good
Swimmers. They introduc’d me to some gentlemen from the country,
who went to Chelsea by water to see the College and Don Saltero’s
curiosities. In our return, at the request of the company, whose
curiosity Wygate had excited, I stripped and leaped into the river,
and swam from near Chelsea to Blackfryar’s, performing on the way
many feats of activity, both upon and under water, that surpris’d and
pleas’d those to whom they were novelties.

I had from a child been ever delighted with this exercise, had
studied and practis’d all Thevenot’s motions and positions, added
some of my own, aiming at the graceful and easy as well as the useful.
All these I took this occasion of exhibiting to the company, and was
much flatter’d by their admiration ; and Wygate, who was desirous
of becoming a master, grew more and more attach’d to me on that
account, as well as from the similarity of our studies. He at length
proposed to me travelling all over Europe together, supporting our-
selves everywhere by working at our business. I was once inclined to
it; but, mentioning it to my good friend Mr. Denham, with whom
I often spent an hour .when I had leisure, he dissuaded me from it,
advising me to think only of returning to Pennsilvania, which he was
now about to do.

434

LIFE AND LEI TERS OF

I mast record one trait of this good man’s character. He had
formerly been in business at Bristol, but failed in debt to a number of
people, compounded and went to America. There, by a close applica-
tion to business as a merchant, he acquir’d a plentiful fortune in a few
years. Returning to England in the ship with me, he invited his old
creditors to an entertainment, at which he thank’d them for the easy
composition they had favored him with, and, when they expected
nothing but the treat, every man at the first remove found under his
plate an order on a banker for the full amount of the unpaid remainder
with interest.

He now told me he was about to return to Philadelphia, and should
carry over a great quantity of goods in order to open a store there.
He propos’d to take me over as his clerk, to keep his books, in which
he would instruct me, copy his letters, and attend the store. He
added, that, as soon as I should be acquainted with mercantile business,
lie would promote me by sending me with a cargo of flour and bread,
etc., to the West Indies, and procure me commissions from others
which would be profitable ; and, if I manag’d well, would establish me
handsomely. The thing pleas’d me ; for I was grown tired of London,
remembered with pleasure the happy months I had spent in Penn-
sylvania, and wish’d again to see it; therefore I immediately agreed on
the terms of fifty pounds a year, Pennsylvania money ; less, indeed, than
my present gettings as a compositor, but affording a better prospect.

I now took leave of printing, as I thought, for ever, and was daily
employ’d in my new business, going about with Mr. Denham among
the tradesmen to purchase various articles, and seeing them pack’d
up, doing errands, calling upon workmen to dispatch, etc.; and,
when all was on board, I had a few days’ leisure. On one of these
days, I was, to my surprise, sent for by a great man I knew only by
name, a Sir William Wyndham, and I waited upon him. He had
heard by some means or other of my swimming from Chelsea to
Blackfriar’s, and of my teaching Wygate and another young man to
swim in a few hours. He had two sons, about to set out on their
travels ; he wish’d to have them first taught swimming, and proposed
to gratify me handsomely if I would teach them. They were not yet
come to town, and my stay was uncertain, so I could not undertake
it; but, from this incident, I thought it likely that, if I were to remain
in England and open a swimming-school, I might get a good deal of
money ; and it struck me so strongly, that, had the overture been
sooner made me, probably I should not so soon have returned to
America. After many years, you and I had something of more im-
portance to do with one of these sons of Sir William Wyndham,
become Earl of Egremont, which I shall mention in its place.

Thus I spent about eighteen months in London ; most part of the
time I work’d hard at my business, and spent but little upon myself
except in seeing plays and in books. My friend Ralph had kept me
poor ; he owed me about twenty-seven pounds, which I was now never
likely to receive ; a great sum out of my small earnings ! I lov’d him,
notwithstanding, for he had many amiable qualities. I had by no meansBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

35

improv’d my fortune ; but I had picked up some very ingenious ac-
quaintance, whose conversation was of great advantage to me ; and
I had read considerably.

We sail’d from Gravesend on the 23d of July, 1726. For the inci-
dents of the voyage, I refer you to my Journal, where you will find
them all minutely related. Perhaps the most important part of that
journal is thzfilan to be found in it, which I formed at sea, for regu-
lating my future conduct in life. It is the more remarkable, as being
formed when I was so young, and yet being pretty faithfully adhered
to quite thro’ to old age.

We landed in Philadelphia on the nth of October, where I found
sundry alterations. Keith was no longer governor, being superseded
by Major Gordon. I met him walking the streets as a common citizen.
He seem’d a little asham’d at seeing me, but pass’d without saying
anything. I should have been as much asham’d at seeing Miss Read,
had not her friends, despairing with reason of my return after the
receipt of my letter, persuaded her to marry, another, one Rogers, a
potter, which was done in my absence. With him, however, she was
never happy, and soon parted from him, refusing to cohabit with him
or bear his name, it being now saicWthat he had another wife. He
was a worthless fellow, tho’an excellent workman, which was the tempta-
tion to her friends. He got into debt, ran away in 1727 or 1728, went
to the West Indies, and died there. Keimer had got a better house,
a shop well supply’d with stationery, plenty of new types, a number
of hands, tho’ none good, and seem’d to have a great deal of business.

Mr. Denham took a store in Water-street, where we open’d our
goods ; I attended the business diligently, studied accounts, and grew,
in a little time, expert at selling. We lodg’d and boarded together ;
he counsell’d me as a father, having a sincere regard for me. I re-
spected and lov’d him, and we might have gone on together very
happy ; but, in the beginning of February, 172^, when I had just
pass’d my twenty-first year, we both were taken ill. My distemper
was a pleurisy, which very nearly carried me off. . I suffered a good
deal, gave up the point in my own mind, and was rather disappointed
when I found myself recovering, regretting, in some degree, that I
must now, some time or other, have all that disagreeable work to do
over again. I forget what his distemper was ; it held him a long time,
and at length carried him off. He left me a small legacy in a nun-
cupative will, as a token of his kindness for me, and he left me once
more to the wide world ; for the store was taken into the care of his
executors, and my employment under him ended.

My brother-in-law, Holmes, being now at Philadelphia, advised my
return to my business ; and Keimer tempted me, with an offer of large
wages by the year, to come and take the management of his printing-
house, that he might better attend his stationer’s shop. I had heard a
bad character of him in London from his wife and her friends, and was
not fond of having any more to do with him. I tri’d for farther em-
ployment as a merchant’s clerk ; but, not readily meeting with any, I
clos’d again with Keimer. I found in his house these hands : HughLIFE AND LETTERS OF

36

Meredith, a Welsh Pensilvanian, thirty years of age, bred to country
work ; honest, sensible, had a great deal of solid observation, was
something of a reader, but given to drink. Stephen Potts, a young
countryman of full age, bred to the same, of uncommon natural parts,
wit and humor, but a little idle. These he had agreed with at extream
low wages per week, to be rais’d a shilling every three months, as they
would deserve by improving in their business ; and the expectation
of these high wages, to come on hereafter, was what he had drawn
them with. Meredith was to work at press, Potts at book-binding,
which he, by agreement, was to teach them, though he knew neither
one nor t’other. John------, a wild Irishman, brought up to no busi-

ness, whose service, for four years, Keimer had purchased from a
captain of a ship ; he, too, was to be made a pressman. George
Webb, an Oxford scholar, whose time for four years he had likewise
bought, intending him for a compositor, of whom more presently ; and
David Harry,, a country boy, whom he had taken apprentice.

I soon perceiv’d that the intention of engagingme at wages so much
higher than he had been us’d to give, was, to have these raw, cheap
hands form’d thro’ me ; and, as soon as I had instructed them, then
they being all articled to him, he should be able to do without me. I
went on, however, very cheerfully, put his printing-house in order,
which had been in great confusion, and brought his hands by degrees
to mind their business and to do it better.

It was an odd thing to find an Oxford scholar in the situation of a
bought servant. He was not more than eighteen years of age, and
gave me this account of himself; that he was born in Gloucester,
educated at a grammar-school there, had been distinguish’d among
the scholars for some apparent superiority in performing his part, when
they exhibited plays ; belong’d to the Witty Club there, and had
written some pieces in prose and verse, which were printed in the
Gloucester newspapers ; thence he was sent to Oxford ; where he con-
tinued about a year, but not well satisfi’d, wishing of all things to see
London, and become a player. At length, receiving his quarterly
allowance of fifteen guineas, instead of discharging his debts he
walk’d out of town, hid his gown in a furze bush, andWooted it to
London, where, having no friend to advise him, he fell into bad com-
pany, soon spent his guineas, found no means of being introduc’d
among the players, grew necessitous, pawn’d his cloaths, and wanted
bread. Walking the street very hungry, and not knowing what to do
with himself, a crimp’s bill was put in his hand, offering immediate
entertainment and encouragement to such as would bind themselves
to serve in America. He went directly, sign’d the indentures, was
put into the ship, and came over, never writing a line to acquaint his
friends what has become of him. He was lively, witty, good-natur’d,
and a pleasant companion, but idle, thoughtless, and imprudent to
the last degree.

John, the Irisliman, soon ran away ; with the rest I began to live
very agreeably, for they all respected me the more, as they found
Keimer incapable of instructing them, and that from me they learnedBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

37

something daily. We never worked on Saturday, that being Kcimci’s
Sabbath, so I had two days for reading. My acquaintance with
ingenious people in the town increased. Keimer himself treated me
with great civility and apparent regard, and nothing now made me
uneasy but my debt to Vernon, which I was yet unable to pay, being
hitherto but a poor (Economist. He, however, kindly made no de-
mand of it.

Our printing-house often wanted sorts, and there was no letter-
founder in America ; I had seen types cast at James’s in London, but
without much attention to the manner ; however, I now contrived a
mould, made use of the letters we had as puncheons, struck the matrices
in lead, and thus supply’d in a pretty tolerable way all deficiencies.
I also engrav’d several things on occasion ; I made the ink ; I was
warehouseman, and everything, and, in short, quite a fac-totum.

But, however serviceable I might be, I found that my services be-
came every day of less importance, as the other hands improv’d in
the business ; and, when Keimer paid me my second quarter’s wages,
he let me know that he felt them too heavy, and thought I should make
an abatement. He grew by degrees less civil, put on more of the
master, frequently found fault, was captious, and seem’d ready for an
outbreaking. I went on, nevertheless, with a good deal of patience,
thinking that his encumber’d circumstances were partly the cause. At
length a trifle snapt our connections ; for, a great noise happening
near the court-house, I put my head out of the window to see what
was the matter. Keimer, being in the street, look’d up and saw me,
call’d out to me in a loud voice and angry tone to mind my business,
adding some reproachful words, that nettled me the more for their
publicity, all the neighbors who were looking out on the same occa-
sion, being witnesses how 1 was treated. He came up immediately
into the printing-house, continu’d the quarrel, high words pass’d on
both sides, he gave me the quarter’s warning we had stipulated, ex-
pressing a wish that he had not been oblig’d to so long a warning. I
told him his wish was unnecessary, for I would leave him that instant;
and so, taking my hat, walk’d out of doors, desiring Meredith, whom
I saw below, to take care of some things I left, and bring them to my
lodgings.

Meredith came accordingly in the evening, when we talked my
affair over. He had conceiv’d a great regard for me, and was very
unwilling that I should leave the house while he remain’d in it. He
dissuaded me from returning to-my native country, which I began to
think of; he reminded me that Keimer was in debt for all he pos-
sess’d ; that his creditors began to be uneasy ; that he kept his shop
miserably, sold often without profit for ready money, and often trusted
without keeping accounts ; that he must therefore fail, which would
make a vacancy I might profit of. I objected my want of money. He
then let me know that his father had a high opinion of me, and, from
some discourse that had pass’d between them, he was sure would
advance money to set' us up, if I would enter into partnership with
him. “ My time,’’ says he, “ will be out with Keimer in the spring ;38

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

by that time we may have our press and types in from London. I
am sensible I am no workman ; if you like it, your skill in the busi-
ness shall be set against the stock I furnish, and we will share the
profits equally.

The proposal was agreeable, and I consented ; his father was in
town and approv’d of it ; the more as he saw I had great influence
with his son, had prevail’d on him to abstain long from dram-drinking,
and he hop’d might break him of that wretched habit entirely, when
we came to be so closely connected. I gave an inventory to the
father, who carry’d it to a merchant; the things were sent for, the
secret was to be kept till they should arrive, and in the mean time I
was to get work, if I could, at the other printing-house. But I found
no vacancy there, and so remain’d idle a few days, when Keimer, on
a prospect of being employ’d to print some paper money in New
Jersey, which would require cuts and various types that I only could
supply, and apprehending Bradford might engage me and get the
jobb from him, sent me a very civil message, that old friends should
not part for a few words, the effect of sudden passion, and wishing me
to return. Meredith persuaded me to comply, as it would give more
opportunity for his improvement under my daily instructions ; so I
return’d, and we went on more smoothly than for some time before.
The New Jersey jobb was obtain’d, I contriv’d a copper-plate press
for it, the first that had been seen in the country ; I cut several orna-
ments and checks for the bills. We went together to Burlington,
where I executed the whole to satisfaction ; and he received so large
a sum for the work as to be enabled thereby to keep his head much
longer above water.

At Burlington I made an acquaintance with many principal people
of the province. Several of them had been appointed by the As-
sembly a committee to attend the press, and take care that no more
bills were printed than the law directed. They were therefore, by
turns, constantly with us, and generally he who attended, brought
with him a friend or two for company. My mind having been
much more improv’d by reading than Keimer’s, I suppose it was
for that reason my conversation seem’d to be more valu’d. They
had me to their houses, introduced me to their friends, and show’d
me much civility ; while he, tho’ the master, was a little neglected.
In truth, he was an odd-fish ; ignorant of common life, fond of rudely
opposing receiv’d opinions, slovenly to extream dirtiness, enthusiastic
in some points of religion, and a little knavish withal.

We continu’d there near three months ; and by that time I could
reckon among my acquired friends, Judge Allen, Samuel Bustill, the
secretary of the Province, Isaac Pearson, Joseph Cooper, and several
of the Smiths, members of Assembly, and Isaac Decovv, the surveyor-
general. The latter was a shrewd, sagacious old man, who told me
that he began for himself, when young, by wheeling clay for the
brickmakers, learned to write after he was of age, carri’d the chain
for surveyors, who taught him surveying, and he had now by his
industry, acquir’d a good estate; and says he, “ I foresee that youBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

39

will soon work this man out of his business, and make a fortune in it at
Philadelphia.” He had not then the least intimation of my intention
to set up there or anywhere. These friends were afterwards of great
use to me, as I occasionally was to some of them. They all continued
their regard for me as long as they lived.

Before I enter upon my public appearance in business, it may be
well to let you know the then state of my mind with regard to my
principles and morals, that you may see how far those influenc’d the
future events of my life. My parents had early given me religious
impressions, and brought me through my childhood piously in the
Dissenting way. But I was scarce fifteen, when, after doubting by
turns of several points, as I found them disputed in the different books
I read, I began to doubt of Revelation itself. Some books against
Deism fell into my hands ; they were said to be the substance of
sermons preached at Boyle’s Lectures. It happened that they wrought
an effect on me quite contrary to what was intended by them ; for the
arguments of the Deists, which were quoted to be refuted, appeared
to me much stronger than the refutations ; in short, I soon became a
thorough Deist. My arguments perverted some others, particularly
Collins and Ralph ; but, each of them having afterwards wrong’d me
greatly without the least compunction, and recollecting Keith’s con-
duct towards me (who was another freethinker), and my own towards
Vernon and Miss Read, which at times gave me great trouble, I began
to suspect that this doctrine, tho’ it might be true, was not very useful.
My London pamphlet,1 which had for its motto these lines of Dryden :

,	“ Whatever is, is right. Though purblind man

Sees but a part o’ the chain, the nearest link :

His eyes not carrying to the equal beam,

That poises all above ; ”

1 Printed in 1725.

Dr. Franklin in a part of a letter to Mr. B. Vaughan, dated Nov. 9,1779, gives a
further account of this pamphlet, in these words :

“ It was addressed to Mr. J. R., that is, James Ralph, then a youth of about
my age, and my intimate friend ; afterwards a political writer and historian. The
purport of it was to prove the doctrine of fate, from the supposed attributes of
God ; in some such manner as this : that in erecting and governing the world, as
he was infinitely wise, he knew what would be best; infinitely good, he must be
disposed and infinitely powerful, he must be able to execute it: consequently all
is right. There were only an hundred copies printed, of which I gave a few to
friends, and afterwards disliking the pjece, as conceiving it might have an ill ten-
dency, I burnt the rest, except one copy, the margin of which was filled with
manuscript notes by Syms, author of the Infallibility of Human Judgment, who
was at that time another of my acquaintance in London. I was not nineteen years
of age when it was written. In 1730', I wrote a piece on the other side of the
question, which began with laying for its foundation this fact: ‘ That almost all
men in all ages and countries, have at times made use of prayer.’ Thence I
reasoned, that if all things are ordained, prayer must among the rest be ordained.
But as prayer can produce no change in things that are ordained, praying must
then be useless and an absurdity. God would therefore not ordain praying if
everything else was ordained. But praying exists, therefore all things are not
ordained, etc. This pamphlet was never printed, and the manuscript has been
long lost. The great uncertainty I found in metaphysical reasonings disgusted me,
and I quitted that kind of reading and study for others more satisfactory.”40

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

and from the attributes of God, his infinite wisdom, goodness and
power, concluded that nothing could possibly be wrong in the world,
and that vice and virtue were empty distinctions, no such things
existing, appear’d now not so clever a performance as I once thought
it; and I doubted whether some error had not insinuated itself un-
perceiv’d into my argument, so as to infect all that follow’d, as is
common in metaphysical reasonings.

I grew convinc’d that truth, sincerity and integrity in dealings
between man and man were of the utmost importance to the felicity
of life ; and I form’d written resolutions, which still remain in my
journal book, to practice them ever while I lived. Revelation had
indeed no weight with me, as such ; but I entertain’d an opinion that,
though certain actions might not be bad because they were forbidden
by it, or good because it commanded them, yet probably these actions
might be forbidden because they were bad for us, or commanded
because they were beneficial to us, in their own natures, all the cir-
cumstances of things considered. And this persuasion, with the kind
hand of Providence, or some guardian angel, or accidental favourable
circumstances and situations, or all together, preserv’d me, thro’ this
dangerous time of youth, and the hazardous situations I was some-
times in among strangers, remote from the eye and advice of my
father, without any willful gross immorality or injustice, that might
have been expected from my want of religion. I say willful, because
the instances I have mentioned had something of necessity in them,
from my youth, inexperience, and the knavery of others. I had there-
fore a tolerable character to begin the world with; I valued it properly,
and determin’d to preserve it.

We bad not been long return’d to Philadelphia before the new
types arriv’d from London. We settled with Keimer, and left him by
his consent before he heard of it. We found a house to hire near the
market, and took it. To lessen the rent, which was then but twenty-
four pounds a year, tho’ I have since known it to let for seventy, we
took in Thomas Godfrey, a glazier, and his family, who were to pay a
considerable part of it to us, and we to board with them. We had
scarce opened our letters and put our press in order, before George
House, an acquaintance of mine, brought a countryman to us, whom
he had met in the street inquiring for a printer. All our cash was
now expended in the variety of particulars we had been obliged to
procure, and this countryman’s five shillings, being our first-fruits, and
coming so seasonably, gave me more pleasure than any crown I have
since earned ; and the gratitude I felt toward House has made me
often more ready than perhaps I should otherwise have been to assist
young beginners.

There are croakers in every country, always boding its ruin. Such
a one then lived in Philadelphia ; a person of note, an elderly man,
with a wise look and a very grave manner of speaking; his name
was Samuel Mickle. This gentleman, a stranger to me, stopt one day
at my door, and asked me if I was the young man who had lately
opened.a new printing-house. Being answered in the affirmative, heBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

4i

said he was sorry for me, because it was an expensive undertaking,
and the expense would be lost; for Philadelphia was a sinking place,
the people already half bankrupts, or near being so ; all appearances
to the contrary, such as new buildings and the rise of repts, being to
his certain knowledge fallacious; for they were, in fact, among the
things that would soon ruin us. And he gave me such a detail of
misfortunes now existing, or that were soon to exist, that he left me
half melancholy. Had I known him before I engaged in this business,
probably I never should have done it. This man continued to live in
this decaying place, and to declaim in the same strain, refusing for
many years to buy a house there, because all was going to destruc-
tion ; and at last I had the pleasure of seeing him give five times as
much for one as he might have bought it for when he first began his
croaking.

I should have mentioned before, that, in the autumn of the preced-
ing year, I had form’d most of my ingenious acquaintance into a
club of mutual improvement, which we called the Junto ; we met
on Friday evenings. The rules that I drew up required that every
member, in his turn, should produce one or more queries on any point
of Morals, Politics, or Natural Philosophy, to be discuss’d by the com-
pany ; and once in three months produce and read an essay of his own
writing, on any subject he pleased. Our debates were to be under
the direction of a president, and to be conducted in the sincere spirit
of inquiry after truth, without fondness for dispute, or desire of
victory ; and, to prevent warmth, all expressions of positiveness in
opinions, or direct contradiction, were after some time made contra-
band, and prohibited under small pecuniary penalties.

The first members were Joseph Breintnal, a copyer of deeds for the
scriveners, a good-natur’d, friendly, middle-ag’d man, a great lover of
poetry, reading all he could meet with, and writing some that was
tolerable ; very ingenious in many little Nicknackeries, and of sensible
conversation.

Thomas Godfrey, a self-taught mathematician, great in his way,
and afterward inventor of what is now called Hadley’s Quadrant.
But he knew little out of his way, and was not a pleasing companion;
as, like most great mathematicians I have met with, he expected
universal precision in everything said, or was for ever denying or
distinguishing upon trifles, to the disturbance of all conversation.
He soon left us.

Nicholas Scull, a surveyor, afterward surveyor-general, who lov’d
books, and sometimes made a few verses.

William Parsons, bred a shoemaker, but, loving reading, had
acquir’d a considerable share of mathematics, which he first studied
with a view to astrology, that he afterwards laught at it. He also
became surveyor-general.

William Maugridge, a joiner, a most exquisite mechanic, and a
solid, sensible man.

Hugh Meredith, Stephen Potts, and George Webb I have charac-
teriz’d before.42

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

Robert Grace, a young gentleman of some fortune, generous, lively,
and witty ; a lover of punning and of his friends.

And William Coleman, then a merchant’s clerk, about my age, who
had the coolest, clearest head, the best heart, and the exactest morals
of almost any man I ever met with. He became afterwards a mer-
chant of great note, and one of our provincial judges. Our friendship
continued without interruption to his death, upward of forty years ;
and the club continued almost as long, and was the best school of
philosophy, morality, and politics that then existed in the province ;
for our queries, which were read the week preceding their discussion,
put us upon reading with attention upon the several subjects, that we
might speak more to the purpose ; and here, too, we acquired better
habits of conversation, every thing being studied in our rules which
might prevent our disgusting each other. From hence the long con-
tinuance of the club, which I shall have frequent occasion to speak
further of hereafter.

But my giving this account of it here is to show something of the
interest I had, eveiy one of these exerting themselves in recommend-
ing business to us. Brientnal particularly procur’d us from the
Quakers the printing forty sheets of their history, the rest being to be
done by Keimer ; and upon this we work’d exceedingly hard, for the
price was low. It was a folio, pro patria size, in pica, with long
primer notes. I compos’d of it a sheet a day, and Meredith worked
it off at press; it was often eleven at night, and sometimes later,
before I had finished my distribution for the next day’s work, for the
little jobbs sent in by our other friends now and then put us back.
But so determin’d I was to continue doing a sheet a day of the folio,
that one night, when, having impos’d my forms, I thought my day’s
work over, one of them- by accident was broken, and two pages
reduced to pi, I immediately distributed and compos’d it over again
before I went to bed ; and this industry, visible to our neighbors,
began to give us character and credit; particularly, I was told, that
mention being made of the new printing-office at the merchants’
Every-night club, the general opinion of it was that it must fail, there
being already two printers in the place, Keimer and Bradford ; but
Dr. Baird (whom you and I saw many years after at his native place,
St. Andrew’s in Scotland) gave a contrary opinion: “For the industry
of that Franklin,” says he, “is superior to any thing I ever saw of
the kind ; I see him still at work when I go home from club, and he
is at work again before his neighbors are out of bed.” This struck
the rest, and we soon after had offers from one of them to supply
us with stationery ; but as yet we did not chuse to engage in shop
business.

I mention this industry the more particularly and the more freely,
tho’ it seems to be talking in my own praise, that those of my
posterity, who shall read it, may know the use of that virtue, when
they see its effects in my favour throughout this relation.

George Webb, who had found a female friend that lent him where-
with to purchase his time of Keimer, now came to offer himself asBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

43

a journeyman to us. We could not then employ him ; but I foolishly
let him know as a secret that I soon intended to begin a newspaper,
and might then have work for him. My hopes of success, as I told
him, were founded on this, that the then only newspaper, printed by
Bradford, was a paltry thing, wretchedly manag’d, no way entertaining,
and yet was profitable to him; I therefore thought a good paper
would scarcely fail of good encouragement. I requested Webb not
to mention it; but he told it to Keimer, who immediately, to be
beforehand with me, published proposals for printing one himself, on
which Webb was to be employ’d. I resented this : and, to counteract
them, as I could not yet begin our paper, I wrote several pieces of
entertainment for Bradford’s paper, under the title of the Busy Body,
which Breintnal continu’d some months. By this means the attention
of the publick was fixed on that paper, and Kenner’s proposals, which
we burlesqu’d and ridicul’d, were disregarded. He began his paper,
however, and, after carrying it on three quarters of a year, with at
most only ninety subscribers, he offered it to me for a trifle ; and I,
having been ready some time to go on with it, took it in hand directly;
and it prov’d in a few years extremely profitable to me.1

I perceive that I am apt to speak in the singular number, though
our partnership still continu’d ; the reason may be that, in fact, the
whole management of the business lay upon me. Meredith was no
compositor, a poor pressman, and seldom sober. My friends lamented
my connection with him, but I was to make the best of it.

Our first papers made a quite different appearance from any before
in the province; a better type, and better printed ; but some spirited
remarks of my writing, on the dispute then going on between Governor
Burnet and the Massachusetts Assembly, struck the principal people,
occasioned the paper and the manager of it to be much talk’d of,
and in a few weeks brought them all to be our subscribers.

Their example was follow’d by many, and our number went on
growing continually. This was one of the first good effects of my
having learnt a little to scribble ; another was, that the leading men,
seeing a newspaper now in the hands of one who could also handle
a pen, thought it convenient to oblige and encourage me. Bradford
still printed the votes, and laws, and other publick business. He
had printed an address of the House to the governor, in a coarse,
blundering manner ; we reprinted it elegantly and correctly, and sent
one to every member. They were sensible of the difference : it
strengthened the hands of our friends in tire House, and they voted
us their printers for the year ensuing.

Among my friends in the House I must not forget Mr. Hamilton,
before mentioned, who was then returned from England, and had a
seat in it. He interested himself for me strongly in that instance, as
he did in many others afterwards, continuing his patronage till his
death.

1 This paper was called The Universal Instructor in all Arts and Sciences and
Pennsylvania Gazette. Keimer printed his last number, the 29th, on the 25th day
of September, 1729.44

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

Mr. Vernon, about this time, put me in mind of the debt I ow’d
him, but did not press me. I wrote him an ingenuous letter of
acknowledgment, crav’d his forbearance a little longer, which he
allow’d me, and as soon as I was able, I paid the principal with
interest, and many thanks ; so that erratum was in some degree
corrected.

But now another difficulty came upon me which I had never the
least reason to expect. Mr. Meredith’s father, who was to have paid
for our printing-house, according to the expectations given me, was
able to advance only one hundred pounds currency, which had been
paid ; and a hundred more was due to the merchant, who grew
impatient, and su’d us all. We gave bail, but saw that, if the money
could not be rais’d in time, the suit must soon come to a judgment
and execution, and our hopeful prospects must, with us, be ruined,
as the press and letters must be sold for payment, perhaps at half
price.

In this distress two true friends, whose kindness I have never
forgotten, nor ever shall forget while I can remember any thing,
came to me separately, unknown to each other, and, without any
application from me, offering each of them to advance me all the
money that should be necessary to enable me to take the whole busi-
ness upon myself, if that should be practicable ; but they did not like
my continuing the partnership with Meredith, who, as they said, was
often seen drunk in the streets, and playing at low games in alehouses,
much to our discredit. These two friends were William Coleman and
Robert Grace. I told them I could not propose a separation while
any prospect remain’d of the Merediths’ fulfilling their part of our
agreement, because I thought myself under great obligations to them
for what they had done, and would do if they could; but, if they
finally fail’d in their performance, and our partnership must be dis-
solv’d, I should then think myself at liberty to accept the assistance
of my friends.

Thus the matter rested for some time, when I said to my partner,
“ Perhaps your father is dissatisfied at the part you have undertaken
in this affair of ours, and is unwilling to advance for you and me
what he would for you alone. If that is the case, tell me, and I will
resign the whole to you, and go about my business.” “ No,” said he,
“ my father has really been disappointed, and is really unable ; and
I am unwilling to distress him farther. I see this is a business I am
not fit for. I was bred a farmer, and it was a folly in me to come
to town, and put myself, at thirty years of age, an apprentice to
learn a new trade. Many of our Welsh people are going to settle
in North Carolina, where land is cheap. I am inclin’d to go with
them, and follow my old employment. You may find friends to assist
you. If you will take the debts of the company upon you; return
to my father the hundred pound he has advanced ; pay my little
personal debts, and give me thirty pounds and a new saddle, I will
relinquish the partnership, and leave the whole in your hands.” I
agreed to this proposal; it was drawn up in writing, sign’d, and seal’dBENJAMIN FRANKLIN

45

immediately. I gave him what he demanded, and he went soon after
to Carolina, from whence he sent me next year two long letters, con-
taining the best account that had been given of that country, the
climate, the soil, husbandry, etc., for in those matters he was very
judicious. I printed them in the papers, and they gave great satis-
faction to the publick.

As soon as he was gone, I recurr’d to my two friends ; and because
I would not give an unkind preference to either, I took half of
what each had offered and I wanted of one, and half of the other ;
paid off the company’s debts, and went on with the business in my
own name, advertising that the partnership was dissolved. I think
this was in or about the year 1729.1

About this time there was a cry among the people for more paper
money, only fifteen thousand pounds being extant in the province, and
that soon to be sunk. The wealthy inhabitants oppos’d any addition,
being against all paper currency, from an apprehension that it would
depreciate, as it had done in. New England, to the prejudice of all
creditors. We had discuss’d this point in our Junto, where I was
on the side of an addition, being persuaded that the first small sum
struck in 1723 had done much good by increasing the trade, employ-
ment, and number of inhabitants in the province, since I now saw all
the old houses inhabited, and many new ones building : whereas I
remembered well, that when I first walk’d about the streets of Phila-
delphia, eating my roll, I saw most of the houses in Walnut-street,
between Second and Front streets, with bills on their doors, “To be
let and many likewise in Chestnut-street and other streets,, which
made me then think the inhabitants of the city were deserting it one
after another.

Our debates possess’d me so fully of the subject, that I wrote and
printed an anonymous pamphlet on it, entitled “ The Nature and
Necessity of a Paper Currency." It was well receiv’d by the common
people in general; but the rich men dislik’d it, for it increas’d and
strengthen’d the clamor for more money, and they happening to have
no writers among them that were able to answer it, their opposition
slacken’d, and the point was carried by a majority in the House. My
friends there, who conceiv’d I had been of some service, thought fit to
reward me by employing me in printing the money ; a very profitable
iobb and a great help to me. This was another advantage gain’d by
my being able to write.

The utility of this currency became by time and experience so
evident as never afterwards to be much disputed; so that it grew soon
to fifty-five thousand pounds, and in 1739 to eighty thousand pounds,
since which it arose during war to upwards of three hundred and fifty
thousand pounds, trade, building, and inhabitants all the while increas-
ing, tho’ I now think there are limits beyond which the quantity may
be hurtful.

I soon after obtain’d, thro’ my friend Hamilton, the printing of the

1 By the agreement of dissolution, still extant, it appears that it took place July
14th, 1730.46

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

Newcastle paper money, another profitable jobb as I then thought it;
small things appearing great to those in small circumstances ; and
these, to me, were really great advantages, as they were great encour-
agements. He procured for me, also, the printing of the laws and
votes of that government, which continu’d in my hands as long as I
follow’d the business.

I now open’d a little stationer’s shop. I had in it blanks of all
sorts, the correctest that ever appear’d among us, being assisted in
that by my friend Brientnal. I had also paper, parchment, chap-
men’s books, etc. One Whitemash, a compositor I had known in
London, an excellent workman, now came to me, and work’d with
me constantly and diligently; and I took an apprentice, the son of
Aquila Rose.

' I began now gradually to pay off the debt I was under for the
printing-house. In order to secure my credit and character as a trades-
man, I took care not only to be in reality industrious and frugal, but
to avoid all appearances to the contrary. I drest plainly ; I was seen
at no places of idle diversion. I never went out a fishing or shooting ;
a book, indeed, sometimes debauch’d me from my work, but that was
seldom, snug, and gave no scandal; and, to show that I was not
above my business, 1 sometimes brought home the paper I purchas’d
at the stores thro’ the streets on a wheelbarrow. Thus being
esteem’d an industrious, thriving young man, and paying duly for
what I bought, the merchants who imported stationery solicited my
custom ; others proposed supplying me with books, and I went on
swimmingly. In the mean time, Keimer’s credit and business
declining daily, he was at last forc’d to sell his printing-house to
satisfy his creditors. He went to Barbadoes, and there lived some
years in very poor circumstances.

His apprentice, David Harry, whom I had Instructed while I
worked with him, set up in his place at Philadelphia, having bought
his materials. I was at first apprehensive of a powerful rival in
Harry, as his friends were very able, and had a good deal of interest,

I therefore propos’d a partnership with him, which he, fortunately
for me, rejected with scorn. He was very proud, dress’d like a
gentleman, liv’d expensively, took much diversion and pleasure
abroad, ran in debt, and neglected his business ; upon which, all
business left him ; and, finding nothing to do, he followed Keimer to
Barbadoes, taking the printing-house with him. There this appren-
tice employ’d his former master as a journeyman ; they quarrel’d
often ; Harry went continually behindhand, and at length was forc’d
to sell his types and return to his country work in Pensilvania. The.
person that bought them employ’d Keimer to use them, but in a few
years he died.

There remained now no competitor with me at Philadelphia but
the old one, Bradford ; who was rich and easy, did a little printing
now and then by straggling hands, but was not very anxious about
the business. However, as he kept the post-office, it was imagined
he had better opportunities of obtaining news ; his paper was thoughtBENJAMIN FRANKLIN

47

a better distributer of advertisements than mine, and therefore had
many more, which was a profitable thing to him, and a disadvantage
to me; for, tho’ I did indeed receive and send papers by the post,
yet the publick opinion was otherwise, for what I did send was by
bribing the riders, who took them privately, Bradford being unkind
enough to forbid it, which occasion’d some resentment on my part;
and I thought so meanly of him for it, that, when I afterward came
into his situation, I took care never to imitate it.

I had hitherto continu’d to board with Godfrey, who lived in part
of my house with his wife and children, and had one side of the shop
for his glazier’s business, tho’ he worked little, being always absorbed
in his mathematics. Mrs. Godfrey projected a match for me with a
relation’s daughter, took opportunities of bringing us often together,
till a serious courtship on my part ensu’d, the girl being in herself very
deserving. The old folks encourag’d me by continual invitations to
supper, and by leaving us together, till at length it was time to explain.
Mrs. Godfrey manag’d our little treaty. I let her know that I expected
as niuch money with their daughter as w'ould pay off my remaining
debt for the printing-house, which I believe was not then above a
hundred pounds. She brought me'word they had no such sum to
spare ; I said they might mortgage their house in the loan-office.
The answer to this, after some days, was, that they did not approve
the match : that, on inquiry of Bradford, they had been inform’d the
printing business was not a profitable one ; the types would soon be
worn out, and more wanted; that S. Keimer and D. Harry had
failed one after the other, and I should probably soon follow them ;
and, therefore, I was forbidden the house, and the daughter shut up.

Whether this was a real change of sentiment or only artifice, on a
supposition of our being too far engaged in affection to retract, and
therefore that we should steal a marriage, which would leave them at
liberty to give or withhold what they pleas’d, I know not ; but I
suspected the latter, resented it, and went no more. Mrs. Godfrey
brought me afterward some more favorable accounts of their
disposition, and would have drawn me on again; but I declared
absolutely my resolution to have nothing more to do with that family.
This was resented by the Godfreys ; we differ’d, and they removed,
leaving me the whole house, and I resolved to take no more inmates.

But this affair having turned my thoughts to marriage, I look’d
round me and made overtures of acquaintance in other places ; but
soon found that, the business of a printer being generally thought a
poor one, I was not to expect money with a wife, unless with such a
one as I should not otherwise think agreeable. In the mean time,
that liard-to-be-governed passion of youth hurried me frequently into
intrigues with low women that fell in my way, which were attended
with some expense and great inconvenience, besides a continual risque
to my health by a distemper which of all things I dreaded, though by
great good luck I escaped it. A friendly correspondence as neighbours
and old acquaintances had continued between me and Mrs. Read’s
family, who all had a regard for me from the time of my first lodging48

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

in their house. I was often invited there and consulted ill their
affairs, wherein I sometimes was of service. I piti’d poor Miss Read’s
unfortunate situation, who was generally dejected, seldom cheerful,
and avoided company. I considered my giddiness and inconstancy
when in London as in a great degree the cause of her unhappiness,
tho’ the mother was good enough to think the fault more her own than
mine, as she had prevented our marrying before 1 went thither, and
persuaded the other match in my absence. Our mutual affection was
revived, but there were now great objections to our union. The match
was indeed looked upon as invalid, a preceding wife being said to be
living in England ; but this could not easily be prov’d, because of the
distance ; and, tho’ there was a report of his death; it was not certain.
Then, tho’ it should be true, he had left many debts, which his
successor might be call’d upon to pay. We ventured, however, over
all these difficulties, and I took her to wife, September ist, 1730.
None of the inconveniences happened that we had apprehended ; she
proved a good and faithful helpmate, assisted me much by attending
the shop; we throve together, and have ever mutually endeavor’d
to make each other happy. Thus I corrected that great erratwn as
well as I could.1

About this time, our club meeting, notrat a tavern, but in a little
room of Mr. Grace’s, set apart for that purpose, a proposition was
made by me, that, since our books were often referr’d to in our
disquisitions upon the queries, it might be convenient to us to have
them altogether where we met, that upon occasion they might be
consulted ; and by thus clubbing our books to a common library, we
should, while we lik’d to keep them together, have each of us the
advantage of using the books of all the other members, which would
be nearly as beneficial as if each owned the whole. It was lik’d and
agreed to, and we filrd one end of the room with such books as we
could best spare. The number was not so great as we expected ; and
tho’ they had been of great use, yet some inconveniences occurring
for want of due care of them, the collection, after about a year, was
separated, and each took his books home again.

And now I set on foot my first project of a public nature, that for a
subscription library. I drew up the proposals, got them put into form
by our great scrivener, Brockden, and, by the help of my friends in the
Junto, procured fifty subscribers of forty shillings each to begin with,
and ten shillings a year for fifty years, the term our company was to
continue. We afterwards obtain’d a charter, the company being
increased to one hundred : this was the mother of all the North
American subscription libraries, now so numerous. It is become a
great thing itself, and continually increasing. These libraries have
improved the general conversation of the Americans, made the com-
mon tradesmen and farmers as intelligent as most gentlemen from other
countries, and perhaps have contributed in some degree to the stand so
generally made throughout the colonies in defence of their privileges.

1 Mrs. Franklin lived after her marriage over forty years. She died December
19, 1774.BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

40

Mein0. Thus far was written with the intention express’d in the
beginning and therefore contains several little family anecdotes of no
importance to others. What follows was written many years after iii
compliance with the advice contain’d in these letters, and accordingly
intended for the public. The affairs of the Revolution occasion’d the
interruption.

Letter from Mr. Abel James, with Notes of my Life {received in

Paris).

"My Dear and Honored Friend: I have often been desirous
of writing to thee, but could not be reconciled to the thought, that the
letter might fall into the hands of the British, lest some printer or
busy-body should publish some part of its contents, and give our
friend pain, and myself censure.

“ Some time since there fell into my hands, to my great joy, about
twenty-three sheets in thy own handwriting, containing an account of
the parentage and life of thyself, directed to thy son, ending in the
year 1730, with which there were notes, likewise in thy writing ; a copy
of which I inclose, in hopes it may be a means, if thou continued it
up to a later period, that the first and latter part may be put together ;
and if it is not yet continued, I hope thee will not delay it. Life is
uncertain, as the preacher tells us ; and what will the world say if
kind, humane, and benevolent Ben. Franklin should leave his friends
and the world deprived of so pleasing and profitable a work ; a work
which would be useful and entertaining not only to a few, but to
millions ? The influence writings under that class have on the minds
of youth is very great, and has nowhere appeared to me so plain, as
in our public friend’s journals. It almost insensibly leads the youth
into the resolution of endeavouring to become as good and eminent
as the journalist. Should thine, for instance, when published (and I
think it could not fail of it), lead the youth to equal the industry and
temperance of thy early youth, what a blessing with that class would
such a work be ! I know of no character living, nor many of them
put together, who has so much in his power as thyself to promote a
greater spirit of industry and early attention to business, frugality,
and temperance with the American youth. Not that I think the
work would have no other merit and use in the world, far from it ;
But the first is of such vast importance that I know nothing that can
equal it.”

The foregoing letter and the minutes accompanying it being shown
to a friend, I received from him the following :

Letter-from Mr. Benjamin Vaughan.

“ Pakis, January 31, 1783.

“ My DEAREST Sir : When I had read over your sheets of
minutes of the principal incidents of your life, recovered for you by

55o

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

your Quaker acquaintance, I told you I would send you a letter ex-
pressing my reasons why I thought it would be useful to complete
and publish it as he desired. Various concerns have for some time
past prevented this letter being written, and I do not know whether it
was worth any expectation ; happening to be at leisure, however, at
present, I shall by writing, at least, interest and instruct myself; but
as the terms I am inclined to use may tend to offend a person of your
manners, I shall only tell you how I would address any other person,
who was as good and as great as yourself, but less diffident. I would
say to him, Sir, I solicit the history of your life from the following
motives : Your history is so remarkable, that if you do not give it,
somebody else will certainly give it; and perhaps so as nearly to do,
as much harm, as your own management of the thing might do good.
It'will moreover present a table of the internal circumstances of your
country, which will very much tend to invite to it settlers of virtuous
and manly minds. And considering the eagerness with which such
information is sought by them, and the extent of your reputation, I do
not know of a more efficacious advertisement than your biography
would give. All that has happened to you is also connected with the
detail of the manners and situation of a rising people ; and in this
respect I do not think that the writings of Caesar and Tacitus can be
more interesting to a true judge of human nature and society. But
these, sir, are small reasons, in my opinion, compared with the chance
which your life will give for the forming of future great men ; and in
conjunction with your Art,of Virtue (which you design to publish) of
improving the features of private character, and consequently of
aiding all happiness, both public and domestic. The two works I
allude to, sir, will in particular give a nobie rule and example of self-
education. School and other education constantly proceed upon false
principles, and show a clumsy apparatus pointed at a false mark ; but
your apparatus is simple, and the mark a true one ; and while parents
and young persons are left destitute of other just means of estimating
and becoming prepared for a reasonable course in life, your discovery
that the thing is in many a man’s private power, will be invaluable !
Influence upon the private character, late in life, is not only an in-
fluence late in life, but a weak influence. It is in youth that we plant
our chief habits and prejudices ; it is in youth that we take our party
as to profession, pursuits- and matrimony. In youth, therefore, the
turn is given ; in youth the-education even of the next generation is
given ; in youth the" private and public character is determined ; and
the term of life extending but from youth to age, life ought to begin
well from youth, and more 'especially before we take our party as to
our principal objects. But your biography will not merely teach self-
education, but the education of a wise man ; and the wisest man will
receive lights and improve his progress, by seeing detailed the conduct
of another wise man. And why are weaker men to be deprived of
such helps, when we see our race has been blundering on in the dark,
almost without a guide in this particular, from the farthest trace of
time? Show then, sir, how much is to be done, both to sons andBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

5i

fathers ; and invite all wise men to become like yourself, and other
men to become wise. When we see how cruel statesmen and warriors
can be to the human race, and how absurd distinguished men can be
to their acquaintance, it will be instructive to observe the instances
multiply of pacific, acquiescing manners ; and to find how compatible
it is to be great and domestic, enviable and yet good-humored.

“ The little private incidents which you will also have to relate^ will
have considerable use, as we want, above all things, rules of prudence
in ordinary affairs ; and it will be curious to see how you have acted
in these. It will be so far a sort of key to life, and explain many
things th^t all men ought to have once explained to them, to give
them a chance of becoming wise by foresight. The nearest thing to
having experience of one’s own, is to have other people’s affairs
brought before us in a shape that is interesting ; this is sure to happen
from your pen; our affairs and management will have an air of
simplicity or importance that will not fail to strike ; and I am con-
vinced you have conducted them with as much originality as if you
had been conducting discussions in politics or philosophy ; and what
more worthy of experiments and system (its importance and its errors
considered) than human life ?

“ Some men have been virtuous blindly, others have speculated
fantastically, and others have been shrewd to bad purposes ; but you,
sir, I am sure, will give under your hand, nothing but what is at the
same moment, wise, practical and good. Your account of yourself
(for I suppose the parallel I am drawing for Dr. Franklin, will hold
not only in point of character, but of private history) will show that
you are ashamed of no origin ; a thing the more important, as you
prove how little necessary all origin is to happiness, virtue, or great-
ness. As no end likewise happens without a means, so we shall
find, sir, that you yourself framed a plan by which you became con-
siderable ; but at the same time we may see that though the event is
flattering, the means are as simple as wisdom could make them ;
that is, depending upon nature, virtue, thought and habit. Another
thing demonstrated will be the propriety of every man’s waiting for
his time for appearing upon the stage of the world. Our sensations
being very much fixed to the moment, we are apt to forget that more
moments are to follow the first, and consequently that man should
arrange his conduct so as to suit the whole of a life. Your attribution
appears to have been applied to your life, and the passing moments
of it have been enlivened with content and enjoyment, instead of
being tormented with foolish impatience or regrets. Such a conduct
is easy for those who make virtue and themselves in countenance by
examples of other truly great men, of whom patience is so often the
characteristic. Your Quaker correspondent, sir (for here again I will
suppose the subject of niy letter resembling Di\ Franklin), praised
your frugality, diligence and temperance, which he considered as a
pattern for all youth ; but it is singular that he should have forgotten
your modesty and your disinterestedness, without which you never
could have waited for your advancement, or found your situation in52

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

ihe mean time comfortable ; which is a strong lesson to show the
poverty of glory and the importance of regulating our minds. If this
correspondent had known the nature of your reputation as well as I
do, he would have said, Your former writings and measures would
secure attention to your Biography, and Art of Virtue ; and your
Biography and Art of Virtue, in return, would secure attention to

them.	This is an advantage attendant upon a various character, and
which brings all that belongs to it into greater play ; and it is the
more useful, as perhaps more persons are at a loss for the means of
improving their minds and characters, than they are for the time or
the inclination to do is. But there is one concluding reflection, sir,
that will shew the use of your life as a mere piece of biography.
This style of writing seems a little gone out of vogue, and yet it is a
very useful one ; and your specimen of it may be particularly service-
able, as it will make a subject of comparison with the lives of various
public cut-throats and intriguers, and with absurd monastic self-
tormentors or vain literary triflers. If it encourages more writings of
the same kind with your own, and induces more men to spend lives
fit to be written, it will be worth all Plutarch’s Lives put together.
But being tired of figuring to myself a character of which every
feature suits only one man in the world, without giving him the praise
of it, I shall end my letter, my dear Dr. Franklin, with a personal
application to your proper self. I am earnestly desirous, then, my
dear sir, that you should let the world into the traits of your genuine
character, as civil broils may otherwise tend to disguise or traduce it.
Considering your great age, the caution of your character, and your
peculiar style of thinking, it is not likely that anyone besides yourself
can be sufficiently master of the facts of your life, or the intentions of
your mind. Besides all this, the immense revolution of the present
period, will necessarily turn our attention towards the author of it,
and when virtuous principles have been pretended in it, it will be
highly important to shew that such have really influenced ; and, as
your own character will be the principal one to receive a scrutiny, it
is proper (even for its effects upon your vast and rising country, as
well as upon England and upon Europe) that it should stand respect-
able and eternal. For the furtherance of human happiness, I have
always maintained that it is necessary to prove that man is not even
at present a vicious and detestable animal; and still more to prove
that good management may greatly amend him ; and it is for much
the same reason, that I am anxious to see the opinion established,
that there are fair characters existing among the individuals of the
race ; for the moment that all men, without exception, shall be con-
ceived abandoned, good people will cease efforts deemed'to be hope-
less, and perhaps think of taking their share in the scramble of life,
or at least of making it comfortable principally for themselves. Take

then,	my dear sir, this work most speedily into hand : shew yourself
good as you are good ; temperate as you are temperate ; and above
all things, prove yourself as one, who from your infancy have loved
justice, liberty and concord, in a way that has ip^de it natural andBENJAMIN PR AN KLIN.	53

consistent for you to have acted, as we have seen you act in the last
seventeen years of your life. Let Englishmen be made not only to
respect, but even to love you. When they think well of individual?
in your native country, they will go nearer to thinking well of youi
country ; and when your countrymen see themselves well thought of
by Englishmen, they will go nearer to thinking well of England.
Extend your views even further ; do not stop at those who speak the
English tongue, but after having settled so many points in nature and
politics, think of bettering the whole race of men. As I bave not read
any part of the life in question, but know only the character that lived
it, I write somewhat at hazard. I am sure, however, that the life and
the treatise I allude to (on the Art of Virtue) will necessarily fulfil the
chief of my expectations ; and still more so, if you take up the
measure of suiting these performances to the several views above
stated. Should they even prove unsuccessful in all that a sanguine
admirer of yours hopes from them, you will at least have framed
pieces to interest the human mind ; and whoever gives a feeling of
pleasure that is innocent to man, has added so much to the fair side
of a life otherwise too much darkened by anxiety and too much
injured by pain. In the hope, therefore, that you will listen to the
prayer addressed to you in this letter, I beg to subscribe myself, my
dearest sir, etc., etc.,

“ Signed,	Benj. Vaughan.”

Continuation of the Account of my Life, begun at Passy, near Paris,

17S4.

It is some time since I receiv’d the above letters, but I have been
too busy till now to think of complying with the request they contain.
It might, too, be much better done if I were at home among my
papers, which would aid my memory, and,help to ascertain dates;
but my return being uncertain, and having just now a little leisure, I
will endeavour to recollect and write what I can ; if I live to get home,
it may there be corrected and improv’d.

Not having any copy here of what is already written, I know not
whether an account is given of the means I used to establish the
Philadelphia public library, which, from a small beginning, is now
become so considerable, though I remember to have come down to
near the time of that transaction (1730). I will therefore begin here
with an account of it, which may be struck out if found to have been
already given.

At the time I establish’d myself in Pennsylvania, there was not
a good bookseller’s shop in any of the colonies to the southward
of Boston. In New York and Philad’a the printers were indeed
stationers ; they sold only paper, etc., almanacs, ballads, and a few
common school-books. Those who lov’d reading were oblig’d to send
for their books from England ; the members of the Junto had each a
few. We had left the alehouse, where we first met, and hired a room54

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

to hold our club in. 1 propos’d that we should all of us bring’ our
books to that room, where they would not only be ready to consult
in our conferences, but become a common benefit, each of us being
at liberty to borrow such as he wish’d to read at home. This was
accordingly done, and for some time contented us.

Finding the advantage of this little collection, I propos’d to render
the benefit from books more common, by commencing a public sub-
scription library. I drew a sketch of the plan and rules that would
be necessary, and got a skilful conveyancer, Mr. Charles Brockden,
to put the whole in form of articles of agreement to be subscribed,
by which each subscriber engag’d to pay a certain sum down for the
first purchase of books, and an annual contribution for increasing
them. So few were the readers at that time in Philadelphia, and the
majority of us so poor, that I was not able, with great industry, to
find more than fifty persons, mostly young tradesmen, willing to pay
down for this purpose forty shillings each, and ten shillings per
annum. On this little fund we began. The books were imported ;
the library was opened one day in the week for lending to the sub-
scribers, on their promissory notes to pay double the value if not duly-
returned. The institution soon manifested its utility, was imitated by
other towns, and in other provinces. The libraries were augmented
by donations ; reading became fashionable ; and our people, having
no publick amusements to divert their attention from study, became
better acquainted with books, and in a few years were observ’d by
strangers to be better instructed and more intelligent than people
of the same rank generally are in other countries.

When we were about to sign the above-mentioned articles, which
were to be binding on us, our heirs, etc., for fifty years, Mr. Brockden,
the scrivener, said to us, “You are young men, but it is scarcely
probable that any of you will live to see the expiration of the term
fix’d in the instrument.” A number of us, however, are yet living;
but the instrument was after a few years rendered null by a charter
that incorporated and gave perpetuity to the company.

The objections and reluctances I met within soliciting the subscrip-
tions, made me soon feel the impropriety of presenting one’s self as
the proposer of any useful project, that might be suppos’d to raise
one’s reputation in the smallest degree above that of one’s neighbors,
when one has need of their assistance to accomplish that project. I
therefore put myself as much as I could out of sight, and stated it as
a scheme of a number of friends, who had requested me to go about
and propose it to such as they thought lovers of reading. In this way
my affair went on more smoothly, and I ever after practis’d it on such
occasions ; and, from my frequent successes, can heartily recommend
it. The present little sacrifice of your vanity will afterwards be dmply
repaid. If it remains a while uncertain to whom the merit belongs,
some one more vain than yourself will be encouraged to claim it, and
then even envy will be disposed to do you justice by plucking those
assumed feathers, and restoring them to their right owner.

This library afforded me the means of improvement by constantBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

55

study, for which I set apart an hour or two each day, and thus
repair’d in some degree the loss of the learned education my father
once intended for me. Reading was the only amusement I allow’d
myself. I spent no time in taverns, games, or frolicks of any kind ;
and my industry in my business continu’d as indefatigable as it was
necessary. I was indebted for my printing-house ; I had a young
family coming on to be educated, and I had to contend with for
business two printers, who were established in the place before me.
My circumstances, however, grew daily easier. My original habits
of frugality continuing, and my father having, among his instructions
to me when a boy, frequently repeated a proverb of Solomon, “ Seest
thou a man diligent in his calling, he shall stand before kings, he shall
not stand before mean men,” I from thence considered industry as a
means of obtaining wealth and distinction, which encourag’d me,
tho’ I did not think that I should ever literally stand before kings,
which, however, has since happened ; for I have stood before Jive,
and even had the honor of sitting down with one, the King of Den-
mark, to dinner.

We have an English proverb that says, “He that would thrive, must
ask his wife.'1 It was lucky for me that I had one as much dispos’d
to industry and frugality as myself.- She assisted me cheerfully in my
business, folding and stitching pamphlets, tending shop, purchasing
old linen rags for the paper-makers, etc., etc. We kept no idle ser-
vants, our table was plain and simple, our furniture of the cheapest.
For instance, my breakfast was a long time bread and milk (no tea),
and I ate it out of a twopenny earthen porringer, with a pewter spoon.
But mark how luxury will enter families, and make a progress, in spite
of principle : being call’d one morning to breakfast, I found it in a
China bowl, with a spoon of silver ! They had been bought for me
without my knowledge by my wife, and had cost her the enormous
sum of tliree-and-twenty shillings, for which she had no other excuse
or apology to make, but that she thought her husband deserv’d a
silver spoon and a China bowl as well as any of his neighbors. This
was the first appearance of plate and China in our house, which after-
wards, in a course of years, as. our wealth increas’d, augmented
gradually to several hundred pounds in value.

I had been religiously educated as a Presbyterian; and tho’ some
of the dogmas of that persuasion, such as the eternal decrees of God,
election, reprobation, etc., appeared to me unintelligible, others doubt-
ful, and I early absented myself from the public assemblies of the
sect, Sunday being my studying day, I never was without some
religious principles. I never doubted, for instance, the existence of
the Deity ; that he made the world, and govern’d it by his Provi-
dence ; that the most acceptable service of God was the doing good
to man ; that our souls are immortal ; and that all crime will be
punished, and virtue rewarded, either here or hereafter. These I
esteem’d the essentials of every religion ; and, being to be found in
all the religions we had in our country, I respected them all, tho’ with
different degrees of respect, as I found them more or less mix’d withLIFE AND LETTERS OF

56

other articles, which, without any tendency to inspire, promote, or
confirm morality, serv’d principally to divide us, and make us un-
friendly to one another. This respect to all, with an opinion that
the worst had some good effects, induc’d me to avoid all discourse
that might tend to lessen the good opinion another might have of
his own religion ; and as our province increas’d in people, and new
places of worship were continually wanted, and generally erected by
voluntary subscriptions, my mite for such purpose, whatever might be
the sect, was never refused.

Tho’ I seldom attended any public worship, I had still an opinion
of its propriety, and of its utility when rightly conducted, and I regu-
larly paid my annual subscription for the support of the only Presby-
terian minister or meeting we had in Philadelphia. He us’d to visit
me sometimes as a friend, and admonish me to attend his ministrations,
and I was now and then prevail’d on to do so, once for five Sundays
successively. Had he been in my opinion a good preacher, perhaps
J might have continued, notwithstanding the occasion I had for the
Sunday’s leisure in my course of study ; but his discourses were
chiefly either polemic arguments, or explications of the peculiar
doctrines of our sect, and were all to me very dry, uninteresting, and
unedifying, since not a single moral principle wras inculcated or
enforc’d, their aim seeming to be rather to make us Presbyterians
than good citizens.

At length he took for his text that verse of the fourth chapter of
Philippians, “ Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, honest,
just, pure, lovely, or of good report, if there be any virtue, or any
praise, think 071 these things.” And I imagin’d, in a sermon on such
a text, we could not miss of having some morality. But he confin’d
himself to five points only, as meant by the apostle, viz. : 1. Keeping
holy the Sabbath day. 2. Being diligent in reading the holy Scrip-
tures. 3. Attending duly the publick worship. 4. Partaking of the
Sacrament. 5. Paying a due respect to God’s ministers. These
might be all good things ; but, as they were not the kind of good
things that I expected from that text, I despaired of ever meeting
with them from any other, was disgusted, and attended his preaching
no more. I had some years before compos’d a little Liturgy, or form
of prayer, for my own private use (viz., in 1728), entitled, Articles of
Belief and Acts of Religion. I return’d to the use of this, and went
no more to the public assemblies. My conduct might be blameable,
but I leave it, without attempting further to excuse it ; my present
purpose being to relate facts, and not to make apologies for them.1

1 Giving some advice to his daughter Sarah, in a letter written on the eve of his
departure for England in 1764, the Doctor refers more at length to the subject of
church ministration. He writes :

" Go constantly to church, whoever preaches. The act of devotion in the com-
mon prayer-book is your principal business there, and, if properly attended to,
will do more towards amending the heart than sermons generally can do. For
they were composed by men of much greater piety and wisdom than our common
composers of sermons can pretend to be ; and therefore I wish you would never
miss the prayer days ; yet I do not mean you should despise sermons even of theBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

57

It was about this time I conceiv’d the bold and arduous project of
arriving at moral perfection. I wish’d to live without committing any,
fault at any time ; I would conquer all that either natural inclination,
custom, or company might lead me into. As I knew, or thought 1
knew, what was right and wrong, I did not see why I might not
always do the one and avoid the other. But I soon found I had
undertaken a task of more difficulty than I had imagined. While my
care was employ’d in guarding against one fault, I was often surprised
by another ; habit took the advantage of inattention ; inclination was
sometimes too strong for reason. I concluded, at length, that the
mere speculative conviction that it was our interest to be completely
virtuous, was not sufficient to prevent our slipping ; and that the con-
trary habits must be broken, and good ones acquired and established,
before we can have any dependence cn a steady, uniform rectitude of
conduct. For this purpose I therefore contrived the following method.

In the various enumerations of the moral virtues I had met with in
my reading, I found the catalogue more or less numerous, as different
writers included more or fewer ideas under the same name. Tem-
perance, for example, was by some confined to eating and drinking,
while by others it was extended to mean the moderating every other
pleasure, appetite, inclination, or passion, bodily or mental, even to
our avarice and ambition. I propos’d to myself, for the sake of clear-
ness, to use rather more names, with fewer ideas annex’d to each, than
a few names with more ideas ; and I included under thirteen names
of virtues all that at that time occurr’d to me as necessary or desirable’,
and annexed to each a short precept, which fully express’d the extent
I gave to its meaning.

These names of virtues, with their precepts, were :

1.	Temperance.—Eat not to dullness ; drink not to elevation.

2.	Silence.—Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself;
avoid trifling conversation.

3.	Order.—Let all your things have their places-; let each part of
your business have its time.

4.	Resolution.—Resolve to perform what you ought; perform
without fail what you resolve.

5.	Frugality; — Make no expense but to do good to others or
yourself; i.e.t waste nothing.

6.	Industry.—Lose no time : be always employ’d in something
useful; cut off all unnecessary actions.

preachers you dislike, for the discourse is often much better than the man, as sweet
and clear waters come through very dirty earth. I am the more particular on this
head as you seemed to express a little before I came away, some inclination to
leave our church, which I would not have you do.”53

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

7.	Sincerity.—Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly ;
and, if you speak, speak accordingly.

8.	Justice.—Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits
that are your duty.

9.	Moderation.—Avoid extreams ; forbear resenting injuries so
much as you think they deserve.

10.	Cleanliness.—Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, cloaths, or
habitation,

11.	Tranquillity.—Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents
common or unavoidable.

12.	CHASTITY.—Rarely use venery but for health or offspring, never
to dulness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another’s peace or
reputation.

13.	Humility.—Imitate Jesus and Socrates.

My intention being to acquire the habitude of all these virtues, I
judg’d it would be well not to distract my attention by attempting the
whole at once, but to fix it on one of them at a time ; and, when I
should be master of that, then to proceed to another, and so on, till I
should have gone thro’ the thirteen ; and, as the previous acquisition
of some might facilitate the acquisition of certain others, I arrang’d
them with that view, as they stand above. Temperance first, as it
tends to procure that coolness and clearness of head, which is so
necessary where constant vigilance was to be kept up, and guard
maintained against the unremitting attraction of ancient habits, and
the force of perpetual temptations. This being acquir’d and establish’d,
Silence would be more easy ; and my desire being to gain knowledge
at the same time that I improv’d in virtue, and considering that in
conversation it was obtain’d rather by the use of the ears than of the
tongue, and therefore wishing to break a habit I was getting into of
prattling, punning, and joking, which only made me acceptable to
trifling company, I gave Silence the second place. This and the
next, Order, I expected would allow me more time for attending to my
project and my studies. Resolution, once become habitual, would
keep me firm in my endeavors to obtain all the subsequent virtues ;
Frugality and Industry freeing me from my remaining debt, and pro-
ducing affluence and independence, would make more easy the practice
of Sincerity and Justice, etc., etc. Conceiving then, that, agreeably
to the advice of Pythagoras in his Golden Verses, daily examination
would be necessary, I contrived the following method for conducting
that examination.

I made a little book, in which I allotted a page for each of the
virtues. I rul’d each page with red ink, so as to have seven columns,
one for each day of the week, marking each column with a letter for
the day. I cross’d these columns with thirteen red lines, marking the
beginning of each line with the first letter of one of the virtues, onBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

59

wliich line, and in its proper column, I might mark, by a little black
spot, every fault I found upon examination to have been committed
respecting that virtue upon that day.

Form of the -pages.

TEMPERANCE.							
		EAT DR T NIC	NOT TO DULNESS ; NOT TO ELEVATION.				
-	S.	M.	T.	W.	T.	F.	S.
T.	!						
S.		*		*		*	
O.	* *	*	*		*	*	*
R.			%			*	
F.		*			*		
I.			*		i		
S.					|		
j.	!					|		
M. |	j					1		
C. |	j	|					|		
T. | ,	|	|					|		
C. |					|		
H- |	|	1					| .		

I determined to give a week’s strict attention to each of the virtues
successively. Thus, in the first week, my great guard was to avoid
every the least offence against Temperance, leaving the other virtues
to their ordinary chance, only marking every evening the faults of the
day. Thus, if in the first week I could keep my first line, marked T,
clear of spots, I suppos’d the habit of that virtue so much strengthen’d,
and its opposite weaken’d, that I might venture extending my atten-
tion to include the next, and for the following week keep both lines
clear of spots. Proceeding thus to the last, I could go thro’ a course
compleat in thirteen weeks, and four courses in a year. And like him
who, having a garden to weed, does not attempt to eradicate all bad
herbs at once, which would exceed his reach and his strength, but
works on one of the beds, at a time, and, having accomplish’d the first,
proceeds to a second, so I should have, I hoped, the encouraging6o

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

pleasure of seeing on my pages the progress I made in virtue, by
clearing successively my lines of their spots, till in the end, by a
number of courses, I should be happy in viewing a clean book, after a
thirteen weeks’ daily examination.

This my little book had for its motto these lines from Addison’s
Cato ;

“ Here will I hold. If there's a power above us
(And that there is, all nature cries aloud
Thro’ all her works), He must delight in virtue ;

And that which he delights in must be happy.”

Another from Cicero,

“ O vitae Philosophia dux ! O virtutum indagatrix expultrixque vitiorum ! Unus
dies, bene et ex praeceptis tuis actus, peccanti immortalitati est anteponendus."

Another from the Proverbs of Solomon, speaking of wisdom or
virtue :

“ Length of days is in her right hand, and in her left hand riches and honour.
Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace." iii. 16, 17.

And conceiving God to be the fountain of wisdom, I thought it
right and necessary to solicit his assistance for obtaining it ; to this
end I formed the following little prayer, which was prefix’d to my
tables of examination, for daily use.

“ O powerful Goodness ! bountiful Father ! merciful Guide! Increase hi me that
wisdom which discovers my truest interest. Strengthen my resolutions to perform
what that wisdom dictates. Accept my kind offices to thy other children as the only
return in my power for thy continual favours to me."

I used also sometimes a little prayer which I took from Thomson’s
Poems, viz. :

" Father of light and life, thou Good Supreme I
O teach me what is good ; teach me Thyself 1
Save me from folly, vanity, and vice,

From every low pursuit; and fill my soul

With knowledge, conscious peace, and virtue pure ;

Sacred, substantial, never-fading bliss 1 ”

The precept of Order requiring that every part of my business should
have its allotted time, one page in my little book contain’d the follow-
ing scheme of employment for the twenty-four hours of a natural day.

Thf. Morning.

Question. What good shall I do
this day ?

5

6

2

Rise, wash, and address Powerful
Goodness l Contrive day’s business,
and take the resolution of the day ;
prosecute the present study, and
breakfast.

Work.

Read, or overlook my. accounts,
and dine.

31 Work.

$1BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

61

Evening.

Question. What good have I done
to-day ?

Pul things in their places. Supper.
Music or diversion, or conversation.
Examination of the day.

io

n

12

Night.

Sleep.

2

3

4'

I enter’d upon the execution of this plan for self-examination, and
continu’d it with occasional intermissions for some time. I was sur-
pris’d to find myself so much fuller of faults than I had imagined ;
but I had the satisfaction of seeing them diminish. To avoid the
trouble of renewing now and then my little book, which, by scraping
out the marks on the paper of old faults to make room for new ones
in a new course, became full of holes, I transferr’d my tables and pre-
cepts to the ivory leaves of a memorandum book, on which the lines
were drawn with red ink, that made a durable stain, and on those lines
I mark’d my faults with a black-lead pencil, which marks I could
easily wipe out with a wet sponge. After a while I went th.ro’ one
course only in a year, and afterward only one in several years, till at
length I omitted them entirely, being employ’d in voyages and busi-
ness abroad, with a multiplicity of affairs that interfered ; but I always
carried my little book with me.

My scheme of Order gave me the most trouble ; and I found that,
tho’ it might be practicable where a man’s business was such as to
leave him the disposition of his time, that of a journeyman printer, for
instance, it was not possible to be exactly observed by a master, who
must mix with the world, and often receive people of business at their
own hours. Order, too, with regard to places for things, papers, etc.,
I found extreamly difficult to acquire. I had not been early accus-
tomed to it, and, having an exceeding good memory, I was not so
sensible of the inconvenience attending want of method. This article,
therefore, cost me so much painful attention, and my faults in it vexed
me so much, and I made so little progress in amendment, and had
such frequent relapses, that I was almost ready to give up the attempt,
and content myself with a faulty character in that respect, like the
man who, in buying an ax of a smith, my neighbour, desired to have
the whole of its surface as bright as the edge. The smith consented
to grind it bright for him if he would turn the wheel ; he turn’d, while
the smith press’d the broad face of the ax hard and heavily on the
stone, which made the turning of it very fatiguing. The man came
every now and then from the wheel to-see how the work went on, and
at length would take his ax as it was, without farther grinding. “No,”
said the smith, turn on, turn on ; we shall have it bright by-and-by ;
as yet, it is only speckled.” “ Yes,” says the man, “ but I think I like
a speckled ax best." And I believe this may have been the case with
many, who, having, for want pf some such means as I employ’d, found62

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

the difficulty of obtaining good and breaking bad habits in other
points of vice and virtue, having given up the struggle, and concluded
that “ a speckled ax was bestj” for something, that pretended to be
reason, was every now and then suggesting to me that such extream
nicety as I exacted of myself might be a kind of foppery in morals,
which, if it were known, would make me ridiculous ; that a perfect
character might be attended with the inconvenience of being envied
and hated ; and that a benevolent man should allow a few faults in
himself, to keep his friends in countenance.

In truth, I found myself incorrigible with respect to Order ; and
now I am grown old, and my memory bad, I feel very sensibly the
want of it. But, on the whole, tho’ I never arrived at the perfection I
had been so ambitious of obtaining, but fell far short of it, yet I was,
by the endeavour, a better and a happier man than I otherwise should
have been if I had not attempted it; as those who aim at perfect
writing by imitating the engraved copies, tho’ they never reach the
wish’d-for excellence of those copies, their hand is mended by the
endeavor, and is tolerable while it continues fair and legible.

It may be well my posterity should be informed that to this little
artifice, with the blessing of God, their ancestor ow’d the constant
felicity of his life, down to his 79th year, in which this is written.
What reverses may attend the remainder is.in the hand of Providence ;
but, if they arrive, the reflection on past happiness enjoy’d ought to
help his bearing them with more resignation. To Temperance he
ascribes his long-continued health, and what is still left to him of a
good constitution ; to Industry and Frugality, the early easiness of his
circumstances and acquisition of his fortune, with all that knowledge
that enabled him to be a useful citizen, and obtained for him some
degree of reputation among the learned ; to Sincerity and Justice, the
confidence of his country, and the honorable employs it conferred
upon hiyi; and to the joint influence of the whole mass of the virtues,
even in the imperfect state he was able to acquire them, all that even-
ness of temper, and that cheerfulness in conversation, which makes
his company still sought for, and agreeable even to his younger
acquaintance. I hope, therefore, that some of my descendants may
follow the example and reap the benefit.

It will be remark’d that, tho’ my scheme was not wholly without
religion, there was in it no mark of any of the distinguishing tenets
of any particular sect. I had purposely avoided them ; for, being fully
persuaded of the utility and excellency of my method, and that it
might be serviceable to people in all religions, and intending some
time or other to publish it, I would not have any thing in it that should’
prejudice any one, of any sect, against it. 1 purposed writing a little
comment on each virtue, in which 1 would have shown the advan-
tages of possessing it, and the mischiefs attending its opposite vice ;
and I should have called my book The Art of Virtue, because it
would have shown the means and manner of obtaining virtue, which
would have distinguished it from the mere exhortation to be good,
that does not instruct and indicate the means, but is like the apostle’sBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

63

man of verbal charity, who only without showing to the naked and
hungry how or where they might get clothes or victuals, exhorted them
to be fed and clothed.—James ii. 15, 16.

But it so happened that my intention of writing and publishing
this comment was never fulfilled. I did, indeed, from time to time,
put down short hints of the sentiments, reasonings, etc., to be made
use of in it, some of which I have still by me ; but the necessary
close attention to private business in the earlier part of my life, and
public business since, have occasioned my postponing it; for, it being
connected in my mind with a great and extensive project, that required
the whole man to execute, and which an unforeseen succession of em-
ploys prevented my attending to, it has hitherto remain’d unfinish’d.

In this piece it was my design to explain and enforce this doctrine,
that vicious actions are not hurtful because they are forbidden, but
forbidden because they are hurtful, the nature of man alone con-
sidered ; that it was, therefore, every one’s interest to be virtuous who
wish’d, to be happy even in this world; and I should, from this
circumstance (there being always in the world a number of rich
merchants, nobility, states, and princes, who have need of honest
instruments for the management of their affairs, and such being so
rare), have endeavored to convince young persons that no qualities
were so likely to make a poor man’s fortune as those of probity and
integrity.

My list of virtues contain’d at first but twelve ; but a Quaker
friend having kindly informed me that I was generally thought proud ;
that my pride show’d itself frequently in conversation ; that I was not
content with being in the right when discussing any point, but was
overbearing, and rather insolent, of which he convinc’d me by
mentioning several instances ; I determined endeavouring to cure
myself, if I could, of this vice or folly among the rest, and I added
Humility to my list, giving an extensive meaning to the word.

I cannot boast of much success in acquiring the reality of this
virtue, but I had a good deal with regard to the ap)pearance of it. I
made it a rule to forbear all direct contradiction to the sentiments of
others, and all positive assertion of my own. I even forbid myself,
agreeably to the old laws of our Junto, the use of every word or
expression in the language that imported a fix’d opinion, such as
certainly, undoubtedly, etc., and I adopted, instead of them, I con-
ceive, I apprehend, or I imagine a thing to be so or so ; or it so appears
to me at present. \Vhen another asserted something that I thought an
error, I deny’d myself the pleasure of contradicting him abruptly, and
of showing immediately some absurdity in his proposition ; and in
answering I began by observing that in certain cases or circumstances
his opinion would be right, but in the present case there appear'd or
seem'd to me some difference, etc. I soon found the advantage of this
change in my manner; the conversations I engag’d in went on more
pleasantly. The modest way in which I propos’d my opinions pro-
cur’d them a readier reception and less contradiction ; I had less
mortification when I was found to be in the wrong, and I more easily64

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

prevail’d with others to give up their mistakes and join with me when
I happened to be in the right.

And this mode, which I at first put on with some violence to
natural inclination, became at length so easy, and so habitual to me,
that perhaps for these fifty years past no one has ever heard a dog-
matical expression escape me. And to this habit (after my character
of integrity) I think it principally owing that I had early so much
weight with my fellow-citizens when I proposed new institutions, or
alterations in the old, and so much influence in public councils when
I became a member; for I was but a bad speaker, never eloquent,
subject to much hesitation in my choice of words, hardly correct in
language, and yet I generally carried my points.

In reality, there is, perhaps, no one of our natural passions so hard
to subdue as pride. Disguise it, struggle with it, beat it down, stifle
it, mortify it as much as one pleases, it is still alive, and will every now
and then peep out and show itself; you will see it, perhaps, often in
this history ; for, even if I could conceive that I had compleatly
overcome it, I should probably be proud of my humility.

[Thus far written at Passy, 1784.]

[“/ am now about to write at home, August, 1788, but can not have
the help expected from my papers, many of them being lost in the
war. I have, hozvever, found the followmg.”\

Having mentioned a great and 'extensive project which I had con-
ceiv’d, it seems proper that some account should be here given of that
project and its object. Its first rise in my mind appears in the follow-
ing little paper, accidentally preserv’d, viz. :

Observations on my reading history, in Library, May 19th, 1731.

“ That the great affairs of the world, the wars, revolutions, etc., are
carried on and effected by parties.

“ That the view of these parties is their present general interest, or
what they take to be such.

“ That the different views of these different parties occasion all con-
fusion.

“ That while a party is carrying on a general design, each man has
his particular private interest in view.

“That as soon as a party has gain’d its general point, each member
becomes intent upon his particular interest ; which, thwarting others,
breaks that party into divisions, and occasions more confusion.

“ That few in public affairs act from a meer view of the good of
their country, whatever they may pretend ; and, tho’ their actings
bring real good to their country, yet men primarily considered that
their own and their country’s interest was united, and did not act from
a principle of benevolence.

“ That fewer still, in public affairs, act with a view t9 the ^ood pf
mankind.BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

65

“There seems to me at present to be great occasion for raising a
United Party of Virtue, by forming the virtuous and good men of all
nations into a regular body, to be govern’d by suitable good and wise
rules, which good and wise men may probably be more unanimous in
their obedience to, than common people are to common laws.

“ I at present think that whoever attempts this aright, and is well
qualified, cannot fail of pleasing God, and of meeting with success.

“B. F.”

Revolving this project in my mind, as to be undertaken hereafter,
when my circumstances should afford me the necessary leisure, I pyt
down from time to time, on pieces of paper, such thoughts as occurr’d
to me respecting it. Most of these are lost; but I find one purporting
to be the substance of an intended creed, containing, as I thought, the
essentials of every known religion, and being free of every thing that
might shock the professors of any religion. It is express’d in these
words, viz.:

“That there is one God, who made all things.

“ That He governs the world by His providence.

“ That He ought to be worshiped by adoration, prayer, and thanks-
giving.

“But that the most acceptable service of God is doing good to
man.

“ That the soul is immortal.

“ And that God will certainly reward virtue and punish vice, either
here or hereafter.”

My ideas at that time were, that the sect should be begun and
spread at first among young and single men only ; that each person
to be initiated should not only declare his assent to such creed, but
should have exercised himself with the thirteen weeks’ examination
and practice of the virtues, as in the before-mention’d model; that the
existence of such a society should be kept a secret, till it was become
considerable,* to prevent solicitations for the admission of improper
persons, but that the members should each of them search among his
acquaintance for ingenuous, well-disposed youths, to whom, with
prudent caution, the scheme should be gradually communicated ; that
the members should engage to afford their advice, assistance, and
support to each other in promoting one another’s interests, business,
and advancement in life; that, for distinction, we should be call’d
The Society of the Free and Easy : free, as being, by the general
practice and habit of the virtues, free from the dominion of vice ; and
particularly by the practice of industry and frugality, free from debt,
which exposes a man to confinement, and a species of slavery to his
creditors.

This is as much as I can now recollect of the project, except that I
communicated it in part to two young men, who adopted it with some
enthusiasm ; but my then narrow circumstances, and the necessity I
was under of sticking close to my business, occasion’d my postponing
the further prosecution of it at that time ; and my multifarious occupa-
tions, public and private, induc’$ me to continue postponing, so that it66

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

has been omitted till I have no longer strength or activity left sufficient
for such an enterprise ; tho’ I am still of opinion that it was a practi-
cable scheme, and might have been very useful, by forming a great
number of good citizens; and I was not discourag’d by the seeming
magnitude of the undertaking, as I have always thought that one man
of tolerable abilities may work great changes, and accomplish great
affairs among mankind, if he first forms a good plan, and, cutting off
all amusements or other employments that would divert his attention,
makes the execution of that same plan his sole study and business.

In 1732 I first publish’d my Almanack, under the name of Richard
Saunders; it was continu’d by me about twenty-five years, commonly
call’d Poor Richard's Almanac. I endeavor’d to make it both enter-
taining and useful, and it accordingly came to be in such demand,
that I reap’d considerable profit from it, vending annually near ten
thousand.1 And observing that it was generally read, scarce any
neighborhood in the province being without it, I consider’d it as a
proper vehicle for conveying instruction among the common people,
who bought scarcely any other books; I therefore filled all the little
spaces that occurr’d between the remarkable days in the calendar
with proverbial sentences, chiefly such as inculcated industry and
frugality, as the means of procuring wealth, and thereby securing
virtue; it being more difficult for a man in want, to act always
honestly, as, to use here one of those proverbs, it is hard for an
empty sack to stand upright.

These proverbs, which contained the wisdom of many ages and
nations, I assembled and form’d into a connected discourse prefixed
to the Almanack of 1757, as the harangue of a wise old man to the
people attending an auction. The bringing all these scatter’d counsels
thus into a focus enabled them to make greater impression. The
piece, being universally approved, was copied in all the newspapers
of the Continent; reprinted in Britain on a broad side, to be stuck up
in houses ; two translations were made of it in French, and great
numbers bought by the clergy and gentry, to distribute gratis among
their poor parishioners and tenants. In Pennsylvania, as it dis-

1 The advertisement to the first number of this the most celebrated of Almanacs
was printed in the Pennsylvania Gazette on the 19th of December, 1732. Though
appearing thus late in the season, three editions of No. 1 were sold before the end
of January. The advertisement ran as follows :

"Just published, for 1733, An Almanack, containing the Lunations, Eclipses,
Planets’ Motions and Aspects, Weather, Sun and Moon’s Rising and Setting,
High Water, etc.; besides many pleasant and witty Verses, Jests, and Sayings ;
Author’s Motive of Writing ; Prediction of the Death of his friend, Mr. Titan
Leeds ; Moon no Cukold ; Bachelor’s Folly; Parson's Wine and Baker’s Pudding;
Short Visits; Kings and Bears ; New Fashions ; Game for Kisses ; Katherine’s
Love ; Different Sentiments ; Signs of a Tempest; Death of a Fisherman ; Con-
jugal Debate ; Men and Melons ; the Prodigal; Breakfast in Bed ; Oyster Law-
suit, etc. By Richard Saunders, Philomat. Printed and Sold by B. Franklin.”

I believe there is no complete collection of this Almanac in existence. The most
complete one that I have any knowledge of was made by Mr. Doggett, for some
years the publisher of a New York Directory. At his death, however, the collec-
tion was dispersed.BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

6 7

couraged useless expense in foreign superfluities, some thought it
had its share’ of influence in producing that growing plenty of money
which was'observable for several years after its publication.

I considered my newspaper, also, as another means of communi-
cating instruction, and in that view frequently reprinted in it extracts
from the Spectator, and other moral writers ; and sometimes pub-
lished little pieces of my own, which had been first compos’d for
reading in our Junto. Of these are a Socratic dialogue, tending to
prove that, whatever might be his parts and abilities, a vicious man
could not properly be called a man of sense ; and a discourse on self-
denial, showing that virtue was not secure till its practice became a
habitude, and was free from the opposition of contrary inclinations.
These may be found in the papers about the beginning of 1735.

In the conduct of my newspaper, 1 carefully excluded all libelling
and personal abuse, which is of late years become so disgraceful to
our country. Whenever I was solicited to insert anything of that
kind, and the writers pleaded, as they generally did, the liberty of the
press, and that a newspaper was like a stage-coach, in which any one
who would pay had a right to a place, my answer was, that I would
print the piece separately if desired, and the author might have as
many copies as he pleased to distribute himself, but that I would not
take upon me to spread his detraction ; and that, having contracted
with my subscribers to furnish them with what might be either useful
or entertaining, I could not fill their papers with private altercation,
in which they had no concern, without doing them manifest injustice.
Now, many of our printers make no scruple of gratifying the malice
of individuals by false accusations of the fairest characters among
ourselves, augmenting animosity even to the producing of duels ; and
are, moreover, so indiscreet as to print scurrilous reflections on the
government of neighboring statesr and eyen on the conduct of our
best national allies, which may be attended with the most pernicious
consequences. These things I mention as a caution to young printers,
and that they may be encouraged not to pollute their presses and
disgrace their profession by such infamous practices, but refuse
steadily, as they may see by my example that such a course of
conduct will not, on the whole, be injurious to their interests.

In 1733 I sent one of my journeymen to Charleston, South Carolina,
where a printer was wanting. I furnish’d him with a press and letters,
on an agreement of partnership, by which I was to receive one-third
of the profits of the business, paying one-third of the expense. He
was a man of learning, and honest but ignorant in matters of account;
and, tho’ he sometimes made me remittances, I could get no account
from him, nor any satisfactory state of our partnership while he lived.
On his decease, the business was continued by his widow, who, being
born and bred in Holland, where, as I have been inform’d, the know-
ledge of accounts makes a part of female education, she not only sent
me as clear a state as she could find of the transactions past, but
continued to account with the greatest regularity and exactness every
quarter afterwards, and managed the business with such success, that68

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

she not only brought up reputably a family of children, but, at the
expiration of the term, was able to purchase of me the printing-house,
and establish her son in it.

I mention this affair chiefly for the sake of recommending that
branch of education for our young females, as likely to be of more use
to them and their children, in case of widowhood, than either music
or dancing, by preserving them from losses by imposition of crafty
men, and enabling them to continue, perhaps, a profitable mercantile
house, with establish’d correspondence, till a son is grown up fit to
undertake and go on with it, to the lasting advantage and enriching
of the family.

About the year 1734 there arrived among us from Ireland a young
Presbyterian preacher, named Hemphill, who delivered with a good
voice, and apparently extempore, most excellent discourses, which
drew together considerable numbers of different persuasions, who
join’d in admiring them. Among the rest, I became one of his con-
stant hearers, his sermons pleasing me, as they had little of the
dogmatical kind, but inculcated strongly the practice of virtue, or
what in the religious stile are called good works. Those, however,
of our congregation, who considered themselves as orthodox Presby-
terians, disapprov’d his doctrine, and were join’d by most of the old
clergy, who arraign’d him of heterodoxy before the synod, in order to
have him silenc’d. I became his zealous partisan, and contributed all
I could to raise a party in his favour, and we combated for him a while
with some hopes of success. There was much scribbling pro and con
upon the occasion ; and finding that, tho’ an excellent preacher, he
was but a poor writer, I lent him my pen and wrote for him two or
three pamphlets, and one piece in the Gazette of April, 1735. Those
pamphlets, as is generally the case with controversial writings, tho’
eagerly read at the time* were soon out of vogue, and I question
whether a single copy of them now exists.

During the contest an unlucky occurrence hurt his cause exceed-
ingly. One of our adversaries having heard him preach a sermon
that was much admired, thought he had somewhere read the sermon
before, or at least a part of it. On search, he found that part quoted at
length, in one of the British Reviews, from a discourse of Dr. Foster’s.
This detection gave many of our party disgust, who accordingly aban -
doned his cause, and occasion’d our more speedy discomfiture in the
synod. I stuck by him, however, as I rather approv’d his giving us
good sermons compos’d by others, than bad ones of his own manu-
facture, tho’ the latter was the practice of our common teachers. He
afterward acknowledg’d to me that none of those he preach’d were his
own ; adding, that his memory was such as enabled him to retain and
repeat any sermon after one reading only. On our defeat, he left us
in search elsewhere of better fortune, and I quitted the congregation,
never joining it after, tho’ I continu’d many years my subscription for
the support of its ministers.

I had begun in 1733 to study languages ; I soon made nfyself so
much a master of the French as to be able to read the books withBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

69

ease. I then undertook the Italian. An acquaintance, who was also
learning it, us’d often to tempt me to play chess with him. Finding
this took up too much of the time I had to spare for study, I at length
refus’d to play any more, unless on this condition, that the victor in
every game should have a right to impose a task, either in parts of
the grammar to be got by heart, or in translations, etc., which tasks
the vanquish’d was to perform upon honour, before our next meeting.
As we play’d pretty equally, we thus beat one another into that lan-
guage. I afterwards, with a little painstaking, acquir’d as much of
the Spanish as to read their books also.

I have already mention’d that I had only one year’s instruction in a
Latin school, and that when very young, after which I neglected that
language entirely. But, when I had attained an acquaintance with
the French, Italian, and Spanish, I-was surpriz’d to find, on looking
over a Latin Testament, that I understood so much more of that
language than I had imagined, which encouraged me to apply myself
again to the study of it, and I met with more success, as those pre-
ceding languages had greatly smooth’d my way.

From these circumstances, I have thought that there is some incon-
sistency in our common mode of teaching languages. We are told
that it is proper to begin first with the Latin, and, having acquir’d
that, it will be more easy to attain those modern languages which are
deriv’d from it ; and yet we do not begin with the Greek, in order
more easily'to acquire the Latin. It is true that, if you can clamber
and get to the top of a staircase without using the steps, you will more
easily gain them in descending ; but certainly, if you begin with the
lowest you will with more ease ascend to the top ; and I would there-
fore offer it to the consideration of those who superintend the educa-
tion of our youth, whether, since rtiany of those who begin with the
Latin quit the same after spending some years without having made
any great proficiency, and what they have learnt becomes almost
useless, so that their time has been lost, it would not have been better
to have begun with the French, proceeding to the Italian, etc. ; for,
tho’, after spending the same time, they should quit the study of lan-
guages and never arrive at the Latin, they would, however, have
acquired another tongue or two, that, being in modern use, might be
serviceable to them in common life.

After ten years’ absence from Boston, and having become easy in
my circumstances, I made a journey thither to visit my relations,
which I could not sooner well afford. In returning, I call’d at New-
port to see my brother, then settled there with his printing-house.
Our former differences were forgotten, and our meeting was very
cordial and affectionate. He was fast declining in his health, and
requested of me that, in case of his death, which he apprehended not
far distant, I would take home his son, then but ten years of age, and
bring him up to the printing business. This I accordingly perform’d,
sending him a few years to school before I took him into the office.
His mother carried on the business till he was grown up, when I
assisted him with an assortment of new types, those of his father70

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

being in a manner worn out. Thus it was that I made my brother
ample amends for the service I had depriv’d him of by leaving him
so early.

In 1736 I lost one of my sons, a fine boy of four years old, by the
small-pox, taken in the common way. I long regretted bitterly, and
still regret, that I had not given it to him by inoculation. This I
mention for the sake of parents who omit that operation, on the sup-
position that they should never forgive themselves if a child died
under it; my example showing that the regret may be the same
either way, and that, therefore, the safer should be chosen.

Our club, the Junto, was found so useful, and afforded such satis-
faction to the members, that several were desirous of introducing
their friends, which could not well be done without exceeding what
we had settled as a convenient‘number, viz., twelve. We had from
the beginning made it a rule to keep our institution a secret, which
was pretty well observ’d; the intention was to avoid applications of
improper persons for admittance, some of whom, perhaps, we might
find it difficult to refuse. I was one of those who were against any
addition to our number, but, instead of it, made in writing a proposal,
that every member separately should endeavor to form a subordinate
club, with the same rules respecting queries, etc., and without in-
forming them of the connection with the Junto. The advantages
proposed were, the improvement of so many more young citizens by
the use of our institutions ; our better acquaintance with the general
sentiments of the inhabitants on any occasion, as the Junto member
might propose what queries we should desire, and was to report to the
Junto what pass’d in his separate club: the promotion of our par-
ticular interests in business by more extensive recommendation, and
the increase of our influence in public affairs, and our power of doing
good by spreading thro’ the several clubs the sentiments of the Junto.

The project was approv’d, and every member undertook to form his
club, but they did not all succeed. Five or six only were compleated,
which were called by different names, as the Vine, the Union, the
Band, etc. They were useful to themselves, and afforded us a good
deal of amusement, information, and instruction, besides answering,
in some considerable degree, our views of influencing the public
opinion on particular occasions, of which I shall give some instances
in course of time as they happened.

My first promotion was my being chosen, in 1736, clerk of the
General Assembly. The choice was made that year without oppo-
sition ; but the year following, when I was again propos’d (the choice,
like that of the members, being annual), a new member made .a long
speech against me, in order to favour some other candidate. I was,
however, chosen, which was the more agreeable to me, as, besides the
pay for the immediate service as clerk, the place gave me a better
opportunity of-keeping up an interest among the members, which
secur’d to me the business of printing the votes, laws, paper money,
and other occasional jobbs for the public, that, on the whole, were very
profitable.BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

7i

I therefore did not like the opposition of this new member, who
was a gentleman of fortune and education, with talents that were
likely to give him, in time, great influence in the House, which,
afterwards happened. I did not, however, aim at gaining his favour
by paying any servile respect to him, but, after some time, took this
other method. Having heard that he had in his library a certain very
scarce and curious book, I wrote a note to him, expressing my desire
of perusing that book, and requesting he would do me the favour of
lending it to me for a few days. He sent it immediately, and I
return’d it in about a week with another note, expressing strongly my
sense of the favour. When we next met in the House, he spoke to
me (which he had never done before), and with great civility ; and he
ever after manifested a readiness to serve me on all occasions, so that
we became great friends, and our friendship continued to his death.
This is another instance of the truth of an old maxim I had learned,
which says, “ He that has once done yon a kindness will be more ready
to do you another, than he whom you yourself have obliged” And it
shows how much more profitable it is prudently to remove, than to
resent, return, and continue inimical proceedings.

In 1737, Colonel Spotswood, late governor of Virginia, and then
postmaster-general, being dissatisfied with the conduct of his deputy
at Philadelphia, respecting some negligence in rendering, and in-
exactitude of his accounts, took from him the commission and offered
it to me. I accepted it readily, and found it of great advantage ; for,
tho’ the salary was small, it facilitated the correspondence that
improv’d my newspaper, increas’d the number demanded, as well as
the advertisements to be inserted, so that it came to afford me a con-
siderable income. My old competitor’s newspaper declin’d propor-
tionably, and I was satisfy’d without retaliating his refusal, while
postmaster, to permit my papers being carried by the riders. Thus
he suffer’d greatly from his neglect in due accounting; and I mention
it as a lesson to those young men who may be employ’d in managing
affairs for others, that they should always render accounts, and make
remittances, with great clearness and punctuality. The character of
observing such a conduct is the most powerful of all recommendations
to new employments and increase of business.

I began now to turn my thoughts a little to public affairs, beginning,
however, with small matters. The city watch was one of the first
things that I conceiv’d to want regulation. It was managed by the
constables of the respective wards in turn ; the constable warned a
number of housekeepers to attend him for the night. Those who
chose never to attend, paid him six shillings a year to be excus’d, which
was suppos’d to be for hiring substitutes, but was, in reality, much
more than was necessary for that purpose, and made the constableship
a place of profit; and the constable, for a little drink, often got such
ragamuffins about him as a watch, that respectable housekeepers did
not choose to mix with. Walking the rounds, too, was often neglected,
and most of the nights spent in tippling. I thereupon wrote a paper
to be read in Junto, representing these irregularities, but insisting72

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

more particularly on the inequality of this six-shilling tax of the
constables, respecting the circumstances of those who paid it, since a
poor widow housekeeper, all whose property to be guarded by the
watch did not perhaps exceed the vjilue of fifty pounds, paid as much
as the wealthiest merchant, who had thousands of pounds’ worth of
goods in his stores.

On the whole, I proposed a more effectual watch, the hiring of
proper men to serve constantly in that business ; and as a more
equitable way of supporting the charge, the levying a tax that should
be proportion’d to the property. The idea, being approv’d by the
Junto, was communicated to the other clubs, but as arising in each of
them ; and though the plan was not immediately carried into execu-
tion, yet, by preparing the minds of people for the change, it paved
the way for the law obtained a few years after, when the members of
our clubs were grown into more influence.

About this time I wrote a paper (first to be read in Junto, but it was
afterward publish’d) on the different accidents and carelessnesses by
which houses were set on fire, with cautions against them, and means
proposed of avoiding them. This was much spoken of as a useful
piece, and gave rise to a project, which soon followed it, of forming a
company for the more ready extinguishing of fires, and mutual assist-
ance in removing and securing of goods when in danger. Associates
in this scheme were presently found, amounting to thirty. Our
articles of agreement oblig’d every member to keep always in good
order, and fit for use, a certain number of leather buckets, with strong
bags and baskets (for packing and transporting of goods), which were
to be brought to every fire ; and we agreed to meet once a month and
spend a social evening together, in discoursing and communicating
such ideas as occurred to us upon the subject of fires, as might be
useful in our conduct on such occasions.

The utility of this institution soon appeared, and many more
desiring to be admitted than we thought convenient for one company,
they were advised to form another, which was accordingly done ; and
this went on, one new company being formed after another, till they
became so numerous as to include most of the inhabitants who were
men of property; and now, at the time of my writing this, tho’
upwards of fifty years since its establishment, that which I first
formed, called the Union Fire Company, still subsists and flourishes,
tho’ the first members are all deceas’d but myself and one, who is
older by a year than I am. The small fines that have been paid by
members for absence at the monthly meetings have been apply’d to
the purchase of fire-engines, ladders, fire-hooks, and other useful
implements for each company, so that I question whether there is a
city in the world better provided with the means of putting a stop to
beginning conflagrations; and, in fact, since these institutions, the
city has never lost by fire more than one or two houses at a time, and
the flames have often been extinguished before the house in which
they began has been half consumed.

In 1739 arrived among us from Ireland the Reverend Mr. WhiteBENJAMIN FRANKLIN

73

field, who had made himself remarkable there as an itinerant
preacher, He was at first permitted to preach in some of our
churches; but the clergy, taking a dislike to him, soon refus’d him
their pulpits, and he was oblig’d to preach in the fields. The
multitudes of all sects and denominations that attended his sermons
were enormous, and it was matter of speculation to me, who was one
of the number, to observe the extraordinary influence of his oratory
on his hearers, and how much they admir’d and respected him, not-
withstanding his common abuse of them, by assuring them they were
naturally half beasts and half devils. It was wonderful to see the
change soon made in the manners of our inhabitants. From being
thoughtless or indifferent about religion, it seem’d as if all the world
were growing religious, so that one could not walk thro’ the town in
an evening without hearing psalms sung in different families of every
street.

And it being found inconvenient to assemble in the open air, subject
to its inclemencies, the building of a house to meet in was no sooner
propos’d, and persons appointed to receive contributions, but sufficient
sums were soon receiv’d to procure the ground and erect the building,
which was one hundred feet long and seventy broad, about the size of
Westminster Hall; and the work was carried on with such spirit as to
be finished in a much shorter time than could have been expected.
Both house and ground were vested in trustees, expressly for the use
of any preacher of any religious persuasion who might desire to say
something to the people at Philadelphia ; the design in building not
being to accommodate any particular sect, but the inhabitants in
general ; so that even if the Mufti of Constantinople were to send a
missionary to preach Mohammedism to us, he would find a pulpit at
his service.

Mr. Whitefield, in leaving us, went preaching all the way thro’ the
colonies to Georgia. The settlement of that province had lately been
begun, but, instead of being made with hardy, industrious husband-
men, accustomed to labor, the only people fit for such an enterprise, it
was with families of broken shop-keepers and other insolvent debtors,
many of indolent and idle habits, taken out of the jails, who, being
set down in the woods, unqualified for clearing land, and unable to
endure the hardships of a new settlement, perished in numbers,
leaving many helpless children unprovided for. The sight of their
miserable situation inspir’d the benevolent heart of Mr. Whitefield
with the idea of building an Orphan House there, in which they might
be supported and educated. Returning northward, he preach’d up
this charity, and made large collections, for his eloquence had a
wonderful power over the hearts and purses of his hearers, of which
I myself was an instance.

I did not disapprove of the design, but, as Georgia was then desti-
tute of materials arid workmen, and it was proposed to send them from
Philadelphia at a great expense, I thought it would have been better
to have built the house here, and brought the children to it. This I
advis’d ; but he was resolute in his first project, rejected my counsel,74

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

and I therefore refused to contribute. I happened soon after to attend
one of his»sermons, in the course of which I perceived he intended to
finish with a collection, and I silently resolved he should get nothing
from me. I had in my pocket a handful of copper money, three or
four silver dollars, and five pistoles in gold. As he proceeded I began
to soften, and concluded to give the coppers. Another stroke of his
oratory made me asham’d of that, and determin’d me to give the
silver ; and he finish’d so admirably, that I empty’d my pocket wholly
into the collector’s dish, gold and all. At this sermon there was also
one of our club, who, being of my sentiments respecting the building-
in Georgia, and suspecting a collection might be intended, had, by
precaution, emptied his pockets before he came from home. Towards
the conclusion of the discourse, however, he felt a strong desire to
give, and apply’d to a neighbour, who stood near him, to borrow some
money for the purpose. The application was unfortunately [made] to
perhaps the only man in the company who hnd the firmness not to be
affected by the preacher. His answer was, “ At any other time. Friend
Hopkinson, I would lend to thee freely j but not now, for thee seems to
be out of thy right senses .”

Some of Mr. Whitefield’s enemies affected to suppose that he would
apply these collections to his own private emolument ; but I, who was
intimately acquainted with him (being Employed in printing his
Sermens and Journals, etc.), never had the least suspicion of his
integrity, but am to this day decidedly of opinion that he was in all
his conduct a perfectly honest matt j and methinks my testimony in
his favour ought to have the more weight, as we had no religious con-
nection. He us’d, indeed, sometimes to pray for my conversion, but
never had the satisfaction of believing that his prayers were heard.
Ours was a mere civil friendship, sincere on both sides, and lasted to
his death.

The following instance will show something of the terms on which
we stood. Upon one of his arrivals from England at Boston, he wrote
to me that he should come soon to Philadelphia, but knew not where
he could lodge when there, as he understood his old friend and host,
Mr. Benezet, was removed to Germantown. My answer was, “ You
know my house ; if you can make shift with its scanty accommodations,
you will be most heartily welcome.” He reply’d, that if I made that
kind offer for Christ’s sake, I should not miss of a reward. And I
returned, “ Don't let me be mistaken; it was not for Christ's sake, but
for your sake” One of our common acquaintance jocosely remark’d,
that, knowing it to be the custom of the saints, when they received
any favour, to shift the burden of the obligation from off their own
shoulders, and place it in heaven, I had contriv’d to fix it bn earth.

The last time I saw Mr. Whitefield was in London, when he
cousulted me about his Orphan House concern, and his purpose of
appropriating it to the establishment of a college.

He had a loud and clear voice, and articulated his words and sen-
tences so perfectly, that he might be heard and understood at a great
distance, especially as his auditories, however numerous, observ’d theBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

75

most exact silence. He preach’d one evening from the top of the
Court-house steps, which are in the middle of Market-street, and on
the west side of Second-street, which crosses it at right angles. Both
streets were filled with his hearers to a considerable distance. Being
among the hindmost in Market-street, I had'the curiosity to learn how
far he could be heard, by retiring backwards down the street towards
the river ; and 1 found his voice distinct till I came near Front-street,
when some noise in that street obscur’d it. Imagining then a semi-
circle, of which my distance should be the radius, and that it were
fill’d with auditors, to each of whom I allow’d two square feet, I
computed that he might well be heard by more than thirty thousand.
This reconcil’d me to the newspaper accounts of his having preach’d
to twenty-five thousand people in the fields, and to the antient his-
tories of generals haranguing whole armies, of which I had sometimes
doubted.

By hearing him often, I came to distinguish easily between sermons
newly compos’d, and those which he had often preach’d in the course
of his travels. His delivery of the latter was so improv’d by frequent
repetitions that every accent, every emphasis, every modulation of
voice, was so perfectly well turn’d and well plac’d, that, without being
interested'in the subject, one could not help being pleas’d with the
discourse ; a pleasure of much the same kind with that receiv’d
from an excellent piece of musick. This is an advantage itinerant
preachers have over those who are stationary, as the latter can not
well improve their delivery of a sermon by so many rehearsals.

His writing and printing from time to time gave great advantage to
his enemies ; unguarded expressions, and even erroneous opinions,
delivered in preaching, might have been afterwards explain’d or
qualifi’d by supposing others that might have accompani’d them, or
they might have been deny’d; but litera scripta Vianet. Critics
attack’d his writings violently, and with so much appearance of reason
as to diminish the number of his votaries and prevent their encrease ;
so that I am of opinion if he had never written any thing, he would
have left behind him a much more numerous and important sect, and
his reputation might in that case have been still growing, even after
his death, as there being nothing of his writing on which to found a
censure and give him a lower character, his proselytes would be left
at liberty to feign for him as great a variety of excellences as their
enthusiastic admiration might wish him to have possessed.

My business was now continually augmenting, and my circum-
stances growing daily easier, my newspaper having become very
profitable, as being for a time almost the only one in this and the
neighbouring provinces. I experienced, too, the truth of the observa-
tion, “that after getting the Jh'st hundred pound, it is more easy to get
the second,” money itself being of a prolific nature.

The partnership at Carolina having succeeded, I was encourag’d to
engage in others, and to promote several of my workmen, who had
behaved well, by establishing them with printing-houses in different
colonies, on the same terms with that in Carolina. Most of them did7 6

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

well, being enabled at the end of our term, six years, to purchase the
types of me and go on working for themselves, by which means
several families were raised. Partnerships often finish in quarrels;
but I was happy in this, that mine were all carried on and ended
amicably, owing, I think, a good deal to the precaution of having
very explicitly settled, in our articles, every thing to be done by or
expected from each partner, so that these was nothing to dispute,
which precaution I would therefore recommend to all who enter into
partnerships ; for, whatever esteem partners may have for, and con-
fidence in each other at the time of the contract, little jealousies .and
disgusts may arise, with ideas of inequality in the care and burden of
the business, etc., which are attended often with breach of friendship
and of the connection, perhaps with lawsuits and other disagreeable
consequences.

I had, on the whole, abundant reason to be satisfied with my being
established in Pennsylvania. There were, however, two things that
I regretted, there being no provision for defense, nor for a compleat
education of youth ; no militia, nor any college. I therefore, in 1743,
drew up a proposal for establishing an academy; and at that time,
thinking the Reverend Mr. Peters, who was out of employ, a fit person
to superintend such an institution, I communicated the project to
him; but he, having more profitable views in the service of the pro-
prietaries, which succeeded, declin’d the undertaking; and, not
knowing another at that time suitable for such a trust, I let the
scheme lie a while dormant. I succeeded better the next year, 1744,
in proposing and establishing a Philosophical Society. The paper
I wrote for that purpose will be found among my writings, when
collected.

With respect to defense, Spain having been several years at war
against Great Britain, and being at length join’d by France, which
brought us into great danger ; and the laboured and long-continued
endeavour of our governor, Thomas, to prevail with our Quaker
Assembly to pass a militia law, and make other provisions for the
security of the province, having proved abortive, I determined to try
what might be done by a voluntary association of the people. To
promote this, I first wrote and published a pamphlet, entitled Plain
Truth, in which I stated our defenceless situation in strong lights,
with the necessity of union and discipline for our defense, and pro-
mis’d to propose in a few days an association, to be generally signed
for that purpose. The pamphlet had a sudden and surprising effect.
I was call’d upon for the instrument of association, and having settled
the draft of it with a few friends, I appointed a meeting of the citizens
in the large building before mentioned. The house was pretty full ; I
had prepared a number of printed copies, and provided pens and ink
dispers’d all over the room. I harangued them a little on the subject,
read the paper, and explained it, and then distributed the copies,
which were eagerly signed, not the least objection being made.

When the company separated, and the papers were collected, we
found above twelve hundred hands ; and, other copies being dispersedBENJAMIN FRANKLIN

77

in the country, the subscribers amounted at length to upward of ten
thousand. These all furnished themselves as soon as they could with
arms, formed themselves into companies and regiments, chose their
own officers, and met every •week to be instructed in the manual
exercise, and other parts of military discipline. The women, by sub-
scriptions among themselves, provided silk colors, which they pre-
sented to the companies, painted with different devices and mottos,
which I supplied.

The officers of the companies composing the Philadelphia
regiment, being met, chose me for their colonel; but, conceiving
myself unfit, I declin’d that station, and recommended Mr. Lawrence,
a fine person, and a man of influence, who was accordingly appointed.
I then propos’d a lottery to defray the expense of building a battery
below the town, and furnishing it with cannon. It filled expeditiously,
and the battery was soon erected, the merlons being fram’d of logs
and fill’d with earth. We bought some old cannon from Boston, but,
these not being sufficient, we wrote to England for more, soliciting, at
the same time, our proprietaries for some assistance, tho’ without
much expectation of obtaining'it.

Meanwhile, Colonel Lawrence, William Allen, Abram Taylor,
Esqr., and myself were sent to New York by the associators, com-
mission’d to borrow some cannon of Governor Clinton. He at first
refus’d us peremptorily ; but at dinner with his council, where there
was great drinking of Madeira wine, as the custom of that place then
was, he softened by degrees, and said he would lend us six. After a
few more bumpers he advanc’d to ten ; and at length he very good-
naturedly conceded eighteen. They were fine cannon, eighteen-
pounders, with their carriages, which we soon tiansported and
mounted on our battery, where the associators kept a nightly guard
while the war lasted, and among the rest I regularly took my turn of
duty there as a common soldier.

My activity in these operations was agreeable to the governor and
council; they took me into confidence, and I was consulted by them
in every measure wherein their concurrence wras thought useful to the
association. Calling in the aid of religion, I propos’d to them the
proclaiming a fast, to promote reformation, and implore the blessing
of Heaven on our undertaking. They embrac’d the motion ; but, as
it was the first fast ever thought of in the province, the secretary had
no precedent from which to draw the proclamation. My education
in New England, where a fast is proclaimed every year, was here of
some advantage: 1 drew it in the accustomed stile ; it was translated
into German, printed in both languages, and divulg’d thro’ the pro-
vince. This gave the clergy of the different sects an opportunity of
influencing their congregations to join in the association, and it would
probably have been general among all but Quakers if the peace had
not soon interven’d.

It was thought by some of my friends that, by my activity in these
affairs, I should offend that sect, and thereby lose my interest in the
Assembly of the province, where they formed a great majority. A78

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

young gentleman who had likewise some friends in the House, and
wished to succeed me as their clerk, acquainted me that it was de-
cided to displace me at the next election ; and he, therefore, in good
will, advis’d me to resign, as more consistent with my honour than
being turn’d out. My answer to him was, that I had read or heard
of some public man who made it a rule never to ask for an office, and
never to refuse one when offer’d to him. “ I approve,” says I, “of his
rule, and will practice it with a small addition; I shall never ask,
never refuse, nor ever resign an office. If they will have my office of
clerk to dispose of to another, they shall take it from me. I will not,
by giving it up, lose my right of some time or other making reprisals
on my adversaries.” I heard, however, no more of this ; I was chosen
again unanimously as usual at the next election. Possibly, as they
dislik’d my late intimacy with the members of council, who had join’d
the governors in all the disputes about military preparations, with
which the House had long been harass’d, they might have been
pleas’d if I would voluntarily have left them ; but they did not care to
displace me on account merely of my zeal for the association, and
they could not well give another reason.

Indeed I had some cause to believe that the defense of the country
was not disagreeable to any of them, provided they were not requir’d
to assist in it. And I found that a much greater number of them
than I could have imagined, tho’ against offensive war, were clearly
for the defensive. Many pamphlets pro and con were publish’d on
the subject, and some by good Quakers, in favour of defense, which I
believe convinc’d most of their younger people.

A transaction in our fire company gave me some insight into their
prevailing sentiments. It had been propos’d that we should en-
courage the scheme for building a battery by laying out the present
stock, then about sixty pounds, in tickets of the lottery. By our rules,
no money could be dispos’d of till the next meeting after the proposal.
The company consisted of thirty members, of which twenty-two were
Quakers, and eight only of other persuasions. We eight punctually
attended the meeting; but, tho’ we thought some of the Quakers
would join us, we were by no means sure of a majority. Only one
Quaker, Mr. James Morris, appear’d to oppose the measure. He
expressed much sorrow that it had ever been propos’d, as he said
Friends w’ere all against it, and it would create such discord as might
break up the company. We told him that we saw no reason for that;
we were the minority, and if Friends were against the measure, and
out-voted us, we must and should, agreeably to the usage of all
societies, submit. When the hour for business arriv’d, it was mov’d
to put the vote; he allow’d we might then do it by the rules, but, as
he could assure us that a number of members intended to be present
for the purpose of opposing it, it would be but candid to allow a little
time for their appearing.

While we were disputing this, a waiter came to tell me two gentle-
men below desir’d to speak with me. I went down, and found they
were two of our Quaker members. They told me there were eight ofBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

79

them assembled at a tavern just by; that they were determin’d to
come and vote with us if there should be occasion, which they hop’d
would not be the case, and desir’d we would not call for their assist-
ance if we could do without it, as their voting for such a measure
might embroil them with their elders and friends. Being thus secure
of a majority, I went up, and after a little seeming hesitation, agreed
to a delay of another hour. This Mr. Morris allow’d to be extremely
fair. Not one of his opposing friends appear’d, at which he express’d
great surprize ; and, at the expiration of the hour, we carry’d the reso-
lution eight to one; and as, of the twenty-two Quakers, eight were
ready to vote with us, and thirteen, by their absence, manifested that
they were not inclin’d to oppose the measure, I afterward estimated
the proportion of Quakers sincerely against defense as one to twenty-
one only ; for these were all regular members of that society, and in
good reputation among them, and had due notice of what was propos’d
at that meeting.

The honorable and learned Mr. Logan, who had always been of
that sect, was one who wrote an address to them, declaring his appro-
bation of defensive war, and supporting his opinion by many strong
arguments. He put into my hands sixty pounds to be laid out in
lottery tickets for the battery, with directions to apply what prizes
might be drawn wholly to that service. He told me the following
anecdote of his old master, William Penn, respecting defense. He
came over from England, when a young man, with that proprietary,
and as his secretary. It was war-time, and their ship was chas’d by
an armed vessel, suppos’d to be an enemy. Their captain prepar’d
for defense; but told William Penn, and his company of Quakers,
that he did not expect their assistance, and they might retire into the
cabin, which they did, except James Logan, who chose to stay upon
deck, and was quarter’d to a gun. The suppos’d enemy prov’d a
friend, so there was no fighting; but when the secretary went down
to communicate the intelligence, William Penn rebuk’d him severely
for staying upon deck, and undertaking to assist in defending the
vessel, contrary to the principles of Friends, especially as it had not
been required by the captain. This reproof, being before all the com-
pany, piqu’d the secretary, who answer’d, “ I being thy servant, why did
thee not order me to come down ? But thee was willing enough I should
stay and help to fight the ship when thee thought there was danger.”

My being many years in the Assembly, the majority of which were
constantly Quakers, gave me frequent opportunities of seeing the
embarrassment given them by their principle against war, whenever
application was made to them, by order of the crown, to grant aids
for military purposes. They were unwilling to offend government, on
the one hand, by a direct refusal ; and their friends, the body of the
Quakers, on the other, by a compliance contrary to their principles ;
hence a variety of evasions to avoid complying, and modes of dis-
guising the compliance when it became unavoidable. The common
mode at last was, to grant money under the phrase of its being “for
the king's use'' and never to inquire how it was applied.8o

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

But, if the demand was not directly from the crown, that phrase
was found not so proper, and some other was to be invented. As,
when powder was wanting (I think it was for the garrison at Louis-
burg), and the government of New England solicited a grant of some
from Pennsilvania, which was much urg’d on the House by Governor
Thomas, they could not grant money to buy powder, because that was
an ingredient of war ; but they voted an aid to New England of three
thousand pounds, to be put into the hands of the governor, and ap-
propriated it for the purchasing of bread, flour, wheat, or other
grain. Some of the council, desirous of giving the House still further
embarrassment, advis’d the governor not to accept provision, as not
being the thing he had demanded ; but he reply’d, “ I shall take the
money, for l understand very well their meaning ; other grain is gun-
powder,” which he accordingly bought, and they never objected to it.

It was in allusion to this fact that, when in our fire company we
feared the success of our proposal in favour of the lottery, and I had
said to my friend Mr. Syng, one of our members, “ If we fail, let us
move the purchase of a fire-engine with the money ; the Quakers can
have no objection to that; and then, if you nominate me and I you as
a committee for that purpose, we will buy a great gun, which is cer-
tainly a fire-engine." “ 1 see,” says he, “ you have improv’d by being
so long in the Assembly ; your equivocal project would be just a
match for their wheat or other grain!

These embarrassments that the Quakers suffer’d from having estab-
lish’d and published it as one of their principles that no kind of war
was lawful, and which, being once published, they could not after-
wards, however they might change their minds, easily get rid of,
reminds me of what I think a more prudent conduct in another sect
among us, that of the Dunkers. I was acquainted with one of its
founders, Michael Welfare, soon after it appear’d. He complain’d to
me that they were grievously calumniated by the zealots of other per-
suasions, and charg’d with abominable principles and practices, to
which they were utter strangers. I told him this had always been the
case with new sects, and that, to put a stop to such abuse, I imagin’d
it might be well to publish the articles of their belief, and the rules of
their discipline. He said that it had been propos’d among them, but
not agreed to, for this reason : “ When we were first drawn together
as a society,” says he, “ it had pleased God to enlighten our minds so
far as to see that some doctrines, which we once esteemed truths,
were errors; and that some others, which we had esteemed
errors, were real truths. From time to time He has been pleased
to afford us farther light, and our principles have been improving, and
our errors diminishing. Now we are not sure that we are arrived at
the end of this progression, and at the perfection of spiritual or theo-
logical knowledge ; and we fear that, if we should once print our
confession of faith, we should feel ourselves as if bound and confin’d
by it, and perhaps be unwilling to receive farther improvement, and
our successors still more so, as conceiving what we their elders and
founders had done, to be something sa,Qifed, never to be departed from.”BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

81

This modesty in a sect is perhaps a singular instance in the history
of mankind, every other sect supposing itself in possession of all
truth, and that those who differ are so far in the wrong ; like a man
traveling in foggy weather, those at some distance before him on the
road he sees wrapped up in the fog, as well as those behind him, and
also the people in the fields on each side, but near him all appears
clear, tho’ in truth he is as much in the fog as any of them. To avoid
this kind of embarrassment, the Quakers have of late years been
gradually declining the public service in the Assembly and in the
magistracy, choosing rather to quit their power than their principle.

In order of time, I should have mentioned before, that having, in
1742, invented an open stove for the better warming of rooms, and at
the same time saving fuel, as the fresh air admitted was warmed in
entering, I made a present of the model to Mr. Robert Grace, one of
my early friends, who, having an iron-furnace, found the casting of
the plates for these stoves a profitable thing, as they were growing in
demand. To promote that demand, I wrote and published a pam-
phlet, entitled “ An Account of the new-invented Pennsylvania Fire-
places; wherein their Construction and Manner of Operation is
particularly explained; their Advantages above every other Method of
wanning Rooms demonstrated; and all Objections that have been
raised against the Use of them answered and obviated,” etc. This
pamphlet had a good effect. Gov’r. Thomas was so pleas’d with the
construction of this stove, as described in it, that he offered to give
me a patent for the sole vending of them for a term of years ; but 1
declin’d it from a principle which has ever weighed with me on such
occasions, viz., That, as we enjoy great advantages from, the inventions
of others, we should be glad of an opportunity to serve others by any
invention of ours; and this we should do freely and generously.

An ironmonger in London however, assuming a good deal of my
pamphlet, and working it up into his own, and making some small
changes in the machine, which rather hurt its operatiqn, got a patent
for it there, and made, as I was told, a little fortune by it. And this
is ndt the only instance of patents taken out for my inventions by
others, tho’ not always with the same success, which I never contested,
as haying no desire of profiting by patents myself, and hating disputes.
The use of these fireplaces in very many houses, both of this and the
neighboring colonies, has been, and is, a great saving of wood to the
inhabitants.

Peace being concluded, and the association business therefore at an
end, I turn’d my thoughts again to the affair of establishing an
academy. The first step I took was to associate in the design a
number of active friends, of whom the Junto furnished a good part;
the next was to write and publish a pamphlet, entitled Proposals
relating to the Education of Youth in Pennsylvania. This I dis-
tributed among the principal inhabitants gratis; and as soon as I
could suppose their minds a little prepared by the perusal of it, I set
on foot a subscription for opening and supporting an academy : it was
to be paid in quotas yearly for five years ; by so dividing it, I judg’d

782

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

the subscription might be larger, and I believe it was so, amounting
to no less, if I remember right, than five thousand pounds.

In the introduction to these proposals, I stated their publication,
not as an act of mine, but of some publick-spiritedgentlemen, avoiding
as much as I could, according to my usual rule, the presenting myself
to the publick as the author of any scheme for their benefit.

The subscribers, to carry the project into immediate execution,
chose out of their number twenty-four trustees, and appointed Mr.
Francis, then attorney-general, and myself to draw up constitutions
for the government of the academy; which being done and signed, a
house was hired, masters engag’d, and the schools opened, I think, in
the same year, 1749.

The scholars increasing fast, the house was soon found too small,
and we were looking out for a piece of ground, properly situated, with
intention to build, when Providence threw into our way a large house
ready built, which, with a few alterations, might well serve our purpose.
This was the building before mentioned, erected by the hearers of Mr.
Whitefield, and was obtained for us in the following manner.

It is to be noted that the contributions to this building being made
by people of different sects, care was taken in the nomination of
trustees, in whom the building and ground was to be vested, that a
predominancy should not be given to any sect, lest in time that pre-
dominancy might be a means, of appropriating the whole to the use
of such sect, contrary to the original intention. It was therefore that
one of each sect was appointed, viz., one Church-of-England man, one
Presbyterian, one Baptist, one Moravian, etc., those, in case of vacancy
by death, were to fill it by election from among the contributors. The
Moravian happen’d not to please his colleagues, and on his death they
resolved to have no other of that sect. The difficulty then was, how
to avoid having two of some other sect, by means of the new choice.

Several persons were named, and for that reason not agreed to. At
length one mention’d me, with the observation that I was merely an
honest man, and of no sect at all, which prevail’d with them to chuse
me. The enthusiasm which existed when the house was built had
long since abated, and its trustees had not been able to procure fresh
contributions for paying the ground-rent, and discharging some other
debts the building had occasion’d, which embarrass’d them greatly.
Being now a member of both setts of trustees, that for the building
and that for the academy, I had a good opportunity of negotiating
with both, and brought them finally to an agreement, by which the
trustees for the building were to cede it to those of the academy, the
latter undertaking to discharge the debt, to keep for ever open in the
building a large hall for occasional preachers, according to the original
intention, and maintain a free-school for the instruction of poor
children. Writings were accordingly drawn, and on paying the debts
the trustees of the academy were put in possession of the premises ;
and by dividing the great and lofty hall into stories, and different
rooms above and below for the several schools, and purchasing some
additional ground, the whole was soon made fit for our purpose, andBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

83

the scholars remov’d into the building. The care and trouble of
agreeing with the workmen, purchasing materials, and superintending
the work, fell on me ; and I went thro’it the more cheerfully, as it did
not then interfere with my private business, having the year before
taken a very able, industrious, and honest partner, Mr. David Hall,
with whose character I was well acquainted, as he had work’d for me
four years. He took off my hands all care of the printing-office,
paying me punctually my share of the profits. This partnership con-
tinued eighteen years, successfully for us both.

The trustees of the academy, after a while, were incorporated by a
charter from the governor ; their funds were increas’d by contributions
in Britain and grants of land from the proprietaries, to which the
Assembly has since made considerable addition ; and thus was estab-
lished the present University of Philadelphia. I have been continued
one of its trustees from the beginning, now near forty years, and have
had the very great pleasure of seeing a number of the youth who have
receiv’d their education in it, distinguish’d by their improv’d abilities,
serviceable in public stations, and ornaments to their country.

When I disengaged myself, as above mentioned, from private busi-
ness, I flatter’d myself that, by the sufficient tho’ moderate fortune I
had acquir’d, I had secured leisure during the rest of my life for
philosophical studies and amusements. I purchased all Dr. Spence’s
apparatus, who had come from England to lecture here, and I pro-
ceeded in my electrical experiments with great alacrity ; but the
publick, now considering me as a man of leisure, laid hold of me for
their purposes, every part of our civil government, and almost at the
same time, imposing some duty upon me. The governor put me into
the commission of the peace ; the corporation of the city chose me of
the common council, and soon after an alderman ; and the citizens at
large chose me a burgess to represent them in Assembly. This latter
station was the more agreeable to me, as I was at length tired with
sitting there to hear debates, in which, as clerk, I could take no part,
and which were often so unentertaining that I was induc’d to amuse
myself with making magic squares or circles, or any thing to avoid
weariness ; and I conceiv’d my becoming a member would enlarge
my power of doing good. I would not, however, insinuate that my
ambition was not flatter’d by all these promotions ; it certainly was ;
for, considering my low beginning, they were great things to me ; and
they were still more pleasing, as being so many spontaneous testi-
monies of the public good opinion, and by me entirely unsolicited.

The office of justice of the peace I try’d a little, by attending a few
courts, and sitting on the bench to hear causes ; but finding that more
knowledge of the common law than I possess’d was necessary to act
in that station with credit, I gradually withdrew from it, excusing
myself by my being oblig’d to attend the higher duties of a legislator
in the Assembly. My election to this trust was repeated every year
for ten years, without my ever asking any elector for his vote, or
signifying, either directly or indirectly, any desire of being chosen.
On taking my seat in the House, my son was appointed their clerk.34

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

The year following, a treaty being to be held with the Indians at
Carlisle, the governor sent a message to the House, proposing that
they should nominate some of their members, to be join’d with some
members of council, as commissioners for that purpose. The House
named the speaker (Mr. Norris) and myself; and, being commission’d,
we went to Carlisle, and met the Indians accordingly.

As those people are extreamly apt to get drunk, and, when so, are
very quarrelsome and disorderly, we strictly forbad the selling any
liquor to them ; and when they complain’d of this restriction, we told
them that if they would continue sober during the treaty, we would
give them plenty of rum when business was over. They promis’d
this, and they kept their promise, because they could get no liquor,
and the treaty was conducted very orderly, and concluded to mutual
satisfaction. They then claim’d and receiv’d the rum ; this was in
the afternoon : they were near one hundred men, women, and children,
and were lodg’d in temporary cabins, built in the form of a square,
just without the town. In the evening, hearing a great noise among
them, the commissioners walk’d out to see what was the matter. We
found they had made a great bonfire in the middle of the square ;
they were all drunk, men and women, quarreling and fighting. Their
dark-colouiJd bodies, half naked, seen only by the gloomy light of the
bonfire, running after and beating one another with firebrands, accom-
panied by their horrid yellings, form’d a scene the most resembling
our ideas of hell that could well be imagin’d; there was no appeasing
the tumult, and we retired to our lodging. At midnight a number of
them came thundering at our door, demanding more rum, of which
we took no notice.

The next day, sensible they had misbehav’d in giving us that dis-
turbance, they sent three of their old counselors to make their apology'.
The orator acknowledg’d the fault, but laid it upon the rum ; and then
endeavoured to excuse the rum by saying, “ The Great Spirit, who
made all things, made every thing for some use, and whatever use he
design'd any thing for, that use it should always be put to. Now, when
he made rum, he said, ‘ Let this be for the Lndians to get drunk with]
and it must be so." And, indeed, if it be the design of Providence to
extirpate these savages in order to make room for cultivators of the
earth, it seems not improbable that rum may be the appointed means.
It has already annihilated all the tribes who formerly inhabited the
sea-coast.

In 1751, Dr. Thomas Bond, a particular friend of mine, conceived
the idea of establishing a hospital in Philadelphia (a very beneficent
design, which has been ascrib’d to me, but was originally his), for the
reception and cure of poor sick persons, whether inhabitants of the
province or strangers. He was zealous and active in endeavouring to
procure subscriptions for it, but the proposal being a novelty in
America, and at first not well understood, he met with but small
success.

At length he came to me with the compliment that he found there
was no such thing as carrying a public-spirited project through withoutBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

«5

my being concern’d in it. “ For,” says he, “ I am often ask’d by tho^c
to whom I propose subscribing, Have you consulted Franklin upon
this business ? And what does he think of it ? And when I tell them
that I have not (supposing it rather out of your line), they do not
subscribe, but say they will consider of it.” I enquired into the
nature and probable utility of his scheme, and receiving from him a
very satisfactory explanation, I not only subscrib’d to it myself, but
engag’d heartily in the design of procuring subscriptions from others.
Previously, however, to the solicitation, I endeavoured to prepare the
minds of the people by writing on the subject in the newspapers,
which was my usual custom in such cases, but which he had omitted.

The subscriptions afterwards were more free and generous ; but,
beginning to flag, I saw they would be insufficient without some
assistance from the Assembly, and therefore propos’d to petition for
it, which was done. The country members did not at first relish the
project; they objected that it could only be serviceable to the city,
and therefore the citizens alone should be at the expense of it ; and
they doubted whether the citizens themselves generally approv’d of it.
My allegation on the contrary, that it met with such approbation as to
leave no doubt of our being able to raise two thousand pounds by
voluntary donations, they considered as a most extravagant supposi-
tion, and utterly impossible.

On this I form’d my plan ; and, asking leave to bring in a bill for
incorporating the contributors according to the prayer of their petition,
and granting them a blank sum of money, which leave was obtained
chiefly on the consideration that the House could throw the bill out if
they did not like it, I drew it so as to make the important clause a
conditional one, viz., “ And be it enacted, by the authority aforesaid,
that when the said contributors shall have met and chosen their
managers and treasurer, and shall have raised by their contributions a

capital stock of------value (the yearly interest of which is to be

applied to the accommodating of the sick poor in the said hospital, free
of charge for diet, attendance, advice, and medicines), and shall 7nake
the same appear to the satisfaction of the speaker of the Assembly for
the time being, that then it shall and may be lawful for the said speaker,
and he is hereby required, to sign an order on the provincial treasurer
for the payment of two thousand pounds, in two yearly payments, to
the treasurer of thq said hospital, to be applied to the founding,
building, and finishing of the same.”

This condition carried the bill through ; for the members, who had
oppos’d the grant, and now conceiv’d they might have the credit of
being charitable without the expence, agreed to its passage ; and then,
in soliciting subscriptions among the people, we urg’d the conditional
promise of the law as an additional motive to give, since every man’s
donation would be doubled ; thus the clause work’d both ways. The
subscriptions accordingly soon exceeded the requisite sum, and we
claim’d and receiv’d the public gift, which enabled us to carry the
design into execution. A convenient and handsome building was
soon erected; the institution has by constant experience been found86

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

useful, and flourishes to this day ; and I do not remember any of my
political manoeuvres, the success of which gave me at the time more
pleasure, or wherein, after thinking of it, I more easily excus’d myself
for having made some use of cunning.

It was about this time that another projector, the Rev. Gilbert
Tennent, came to me with a request that I would assist him in pro-
curing a subscription for erecting a new meeting-house. It was to be
for the use of a congregation he had gathered among the Presbyterians,
who were originally disciples of Mr. Whitefield. Unwilling to make
myself disagreeable to my fellow-citizens by too frequently soliciting
their contributions, I absolutely refus’d. He then desired I would
furnish him with a list of the names of persons I knew by experience
to be generous and public-spirited. I thought it would be unbecoming
in me, after their kind compliance with my solicitations, to mark them
out to be worried by other beggars, and therefore refus’d also to give
such a list. He then desir’d I would at least give him my advice.
“ That I will readily do,” said I ; “ and, in the first place, I advise you
to apply to all those whom you know will give something ; next, to
those whom you are uncertain whether they will give anything or not,
and show them the list of those who have given ; and, lastly, do not
neglect those who you are sure will give nothing, for in some of them
you may be mistaken.” He laugh’d and thank’d me, and said he
would take my advice. He did so, for he ask’d of everybody, and he
obtain’d a much larger sum than he expected, with which he erected
the capacious and very elegant meeting-house that stands in Arch-
street.

Our city, tho’ laid out with a beautifull regularity, the streets large,
strait, and crossing each other at right angles, had the disgrace of
suffering those streets to remain long unpav’d, and in wet weather the
wheels of heavy carriages plough’d them into a quagmire, so that it
was difficult to cross them ; and in dry weather the dust was offensive.
I had liv’d near what was call’d the Jersey Market, and saw with pain
the inhabitants wading in mud while purchasing their provisions. A
strip of ground down the middle of that market was at length pav’d
with brick, so that, being once in the market, they had firm footing,
but were often over shoes in dirt fo get there. By talking and writing
on the subject, I was at length instrumental in getting the street
pav’d with stone between the market and the brfck’d foot-pavement,
that was on each side next the houses. This, for some time, gave an
easy access to the market dry-shod ; but, the rest of the street not
being pav’d, whenever a carriage came out of the mud upon this
pavement, it shook off and left its dirt upon it, and it was soon
cover’d with mire, which was not remov’d, the city as yet having no
scavengers.

After some enquiry, I found a poor, industrious man, who was
willing to undertake keeping the pavement clean, by sweeping it twice
a week, carrying off the dirt from before all the neighbours’ doors,
for the sum of sixpence per month, to be paid by each house. I then
wrote and printed a paper setting forth the advantages to the neigh-BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

87

bourhood that might be obtain’d by this small expense ; the greater
ease in keeping our houses clean, so much dirt not being brought in
by people’s feet ; the benefit to the shops by more custom, etc., etc.,
as buyers could more easily get at them ; and by not having, in windy
weather, the dust blown in upon their goods, etc., etc. I sent one of
these papers to each house, and in a day or two went round to see
who would subscribe an agreement to pay these sixpences ; it was
unanimously sign’d, and for a time well executed. All the inhabitants
of the city were delighted with the cleanliness of the pavement that
surrounded the market, it being a convenience to all, and this rais’d
a general desire to have all the streets paved, and made the people
more willing to submit to a tax for that purpose.

After some time I drew a bill for paving the city, and brought it
into the Assembly. It was just before I went to England, in 1757,
and did not pass till I was gone, and then with an alteration in the
mode of assessment, which I thought not for the better, but with an
additional provision for lighting as well as paving the streets, which
was a great improvement. It was by a private person, the late Mr.
John Clifton, his giving a sample of the utility of lamps, by placing
one at his door, that the people were first impress’d with the idea of
enlighting all the city. The honour of this public benefit has also
been ascrib’d to me, but it belongs truly to that gentleman. I did
but follow his example, and have only some merit to claim respecting
the form of our lamps, as differing from the globe lamps we were at
first supplyki with from London. Those we found inconvenient in
these respects: they admitted no air below ; the smoke, therefore,
did not readily go out above, but circulated in the globe, lodg’d on
its inside, and soon obstructed the light they were intended to afford ;
giving, besides, the daily trouble of wiping them clean ; and an
accidental stroke on one of them would demolish it, and render it
totally useless. I therefore suggested the composing them of four
flat panes, with a long funnel above to draw up the smoke, and
crevices admitting air below, to facilitate the ascent of the smoke ;
by this means they were kept clean, and did not grow dark in a few
hours, .as the London lamps do, but continu’d bright till morning, and
an accidental stroke would generally break but a single pane, easily
repair’d.

I have sometimes wonder’d that the Londoners did not, from the
effect holes in the bottom of the globe lamps us’d at Vauxhall have in
keeping them clean, learn to have such holes in their street lamps.
But, these holes being made for another purpose, viz., to communicate
flame more suddenly to the wick by a little flax hanging down thro’
them, the other use, of letting in air, seems not to have been thought
of; and therefore, after the lamps have been lit a few hours, the
streets of London are very poorly illuminated.

The mention of these improvements puts me in mind of one I
propos’d, when in London, to Dr. Fothergill, who was among the best
men I have known, and a great promoter of useful projects. I had
observ’d that the streets, when dry, were never swept, and the light88

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

dust carried away ; but it was suffer’d to accumulate till wet weather
reduc’d it to mud, and then, after lying some days so deep on the
pavement that there was no crossing but in paths kept clean by poor
people with brooms, it was with great labour rak’d together and thrown
up into carts open above, the sides of which suffer’d some of the slush
at every jolt on the pavement to shake out and fall, sometimes to the
annoyance of foot-passengers. The reason given for not sweeping
the dusty streets was, that the dust would fly into the windows of
shops and houses.

An accidental occurrence had instructed me how much sweeping
might be done in a little time. 1 found at my door in Craven-street,
one morning, a poor woman sweeping my pavement with a birch
broom ; she appeared very pale and feeble, as just come out of a fit
of sickness. I ask’d who employ’d her to sweep there; she said,
“ Nobody ; but I am very poor and in distress, and I sweeps before
gentlefolkses doors, and hopes they will give me something.” I bid
her sweep the whole street clean, and I would give her a shilling ;
this was at nine o’clock; at 12 she came for the shilling. From the
slowness I saw at first in hdr working, I could scarce believe that the
work was done so soon, and sent my servant to examine it, who
reported that the whole street was swept perfectly clean, and all the
dust plac’d in the gutter, which was in the middle ; and the next rain
wash’d it quite away, so that the pavement and even the kennel were
perfectly clean.

I then judg’d that, if thaftfeeble woman could sweep such a street
in three hours, a strong, active man might have done it in half the
time. And here let me remark the convenience of having but one
gutter in such a narrow street, runnirig down its middle, instead of
two, one on each side, near the footway; for where all the rain that
falls on a street runs from the sides and meets in the middle, it forms
there a current strong enough to wash away all the mud it meets
with ; but when divided into two channels, it is often too weak to
cleanse either, and only makes the mud it finds more fluid, so that
the wheels of carriages and feet of horses throw and dash it upon the
foot-pavement, which is thereby rendered foul and slippery, and
sometimes splash it upon those who are walking. My proposal, com-
municated to the good doctor, was as follows :

“ For the more effectual cleaning and keeping clean the streets of
London and Westminster, it is proposed that the several watchmen
be contracted with to have the dust swept up in dry seasons, and the
mud rak’d up at other times, each in the several streets and lanes of
his round ; that they be furnish’d with brooms and other proper
instruments for these purposes, to be kept at their respective stands,
ready to furnish the poor people they may employ in the service.

“ That in the dry summer months the dust be all swept up into
heaps at proper distances, before the shops and windows of houses
are usually opened, when the scavengers, with close-covered carts,
shall also carry it all away.

That the mud, when rak’d up, be not left in heaps to be spreadBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

89

abroad again by the wheels of carriages and trampling of horses, but
that the scavengers be provided with bodies of carts, not plac’d high
upon wheels, but low upon sliders, with lattice bottoms, which, being
cover’d with straw, will retain the mud thrown into them, and permit
the water to drain from it, whereby it will become much lighter, water
making the greatest part of its weight; those bodies of carts to be
plac’d at convenient distances, and the mud brought to them in
wheelbarrows; they remaining where plac’d till the mud is drain’d,
and then horses brought to draw them away.”

I have since had doubts of the practicability of the latter part of
this proposal, on account of the narrowness of some streets, and
the difficulty of placing the draining-sleds so as not to encumber too
much the passage ; but I am still of opinion that the former, requiring
the dust to be swept up and carry’d away before the shops are open,
is very practicable in the summer, when the days are long; for, in
walking thro’ the Strand and Fleet-street one morning at seven
o’clock, I observ’d there was not one shop open, tho’ it had been
daylight and the sun up above three hours; the inhabitants of London
chusing voluntarily to live much by candle-light, and sleep by sun-
shine, and yet often complain, a little absurdly, of the duty on candles,
and the high price of tallow.

Some may think these trifling matters not worth minding or re-
lating ; but when they consider that tho’ dust blown into the eyes
of a single person, or into a single shop on a windy day, is but of
small importance, yet the great number of the instances in a populous
city, and its frequent repetitions give it weight and consequence,
perhaps they will not censure very severely those who bestow some
attention to affairs of this seemingly low nature. Human felicity is
produc’d not so much by great pieces of good fortune that seldom
happen, as by little advantages that occur every day. Thus, if you
teach a poor young man to shave himself, and keep his razor in order,
you may contribute more to the happiness of his life than in giving
him a thousand guineas. The money may be soon spent, the regret
only remaining of having foolishly consumed it; but in the other
case, he escapes the frequent vexation of waiting for barbers, and of
their sometimes dirty fingers, offensive breaths, and dull razors ; he
shaves when most convenient to him, and enjoys daily the pleasure
of its being done with a good instrument. With these sentiments I
have hazarded the few preceding pages, hoping they may afford hints
which some time or other may be useful to a city I love, having
lived many years in it very happily, and perhaps to some of our towns
in America.

Having been for some time employed by the postmaster-general
of America as his comptroller in regulating several offices, and bringing
the officers to account, I was, upon his death in 1753, appointed,
jointly with Mr. William Hunter, to succeed him, by a commission
from the postmaster-general in England. The American office never
had hitherto paid any thing to that of Britain. We were to have
gix hundred pounds a year between us, if we coqld make that sum90

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

out of the profits of the office. To do this, a variety of improvements
were necessary ; some of these were inevitably at first expensive, so
that in the first four years the office became above nine hundred
pounds in debt to us. But it soon after began to repay us; and
before I was displac’d by a freak of the ministers, of which I shall
speak hereafter, we had brought it to yield three times as much clear
revenue to the crown as the postoffice of Ireland. Since that im-
prudent transaction, they have receiv’d from it—not one farthing !

The business of the postoffice occasion’d my taking a journey this
year to New England, where the College of Cambridge, of their own
motion, presented me with the degree of Master of Arts. Yale
College, in Connecticut, had before made me a similar compliment.
Thus, without studying in any college, I came to partake of their
honours. They were conferr’d in consideration of my improvements
and discoveries in the electric branch of natural philosophy.

In 1754, war with France being again apprehended, a congress of
commissioners from the different colonies .was, by an order of the
Lords of Trade, to be assembled at Albany, there to confer with the
chiefs of the Six Nations concerning the means of defending both
their country and ours. Governor Hamilton, having receiv’d this
order, acquainted the House with it, requesting they would furnish
proper presents for the Indians, to be given on this occasion; and
naming the speaker (Mr. Norris) and myself to join Mr. Thomas
Penn and Mr. Secretary Peters as commissioners to act for Pennsyl-
vania. The House approv’d the nomination, and provided the goods
for the present, and tho’ they did not much like treating out of the
provinces ; and we met the other commissioners at Albany about the
middle of June.

In our way thither, I projected and drew a plan for the union of all
the colonies under one government, so far as might be necessary for
defense, and other important general purposes. As we pass’d thro’
New York, I had there shown my project to Mr. James Alexander
and Mr. Kennedy, two gentlemen of great knowledge in public affairs,
and, being fortified by their approbation, I ventur’d to lay it before
the Congress. It then appeared that several of the commissioners
had form’d plans of the same kind. A previous question was first
taken, whether a union should be established, which pass’d in the
affirmative unanimously. A committee was then appointed, one
member from each colony, to consider the several plans and report.
Mine happen’d to be preferr’d, and, with a few amendments, was
accordingly reported.

By this plan the general government was to be administered by a
president-general, appointed and supported by the crown, and a grand
council was to be chosen by the representatives of the people of the
several colonies, met in their respective assemblies. The debates
upon it in Congress went on daily, hand in hand with the Indian
business. Many objections and difficulties were started, but at length
they were all overcome, and the plan was unanimously agreed to, and
copies ordered to be transmitted to the Board of Trade and to theBENJAMIN FRANKLIN

9i

assemblies of the several provinces. Its fate was singular : the
assemblies did not adopt it, as they all thought there was too much
;•prerogative in it, and in England it was judg’d to have too much of
the democratic. The Board of Trade therefore did not approve of it,
nor recommend it for the approbation of his majesty ; but another
scheme was form’d, supposed to answer the same purpose better,
whereby the governors of the provinces, with some members of their
respective councils, were to meet and order the raising of troops,
building of forts, etc., and to draw on the treasury of Great Britain
for the expense, which was afterwards to be refunded by an act of
Parliament laying a tax on America. My plan, with my reasons in
support of it, is to be found among my political papers that are
printed.

Being the winter following in -Boston, I had much conversation with
Governor Shirley upon both plans. Part of what passed between us on
the occasion may also be seen among these papers. The different
and contrary reasons of dislike to my plan makes me suspect that it
was really the true medium ; and I am still of opinion it would have
been happy for both sides the water if it had been adopted. The
colonies, so united, would have been sufficiently strong to have de-
fended themselves ; there would then have been no need of troops
from England ; of course, the subsequent pretence for taxing America,
and the bloody contest it occasioned, would have been avoided. But
such mistakes are not new : history is full of the errors of states and
princes.

“ Look round the habitable world, how few
Know their own good, or, knowing it, pursue ! ”

Those who govern, having much business on their hands, do not
generally like to take the trouble of considering and carrying into
execution new projects. The best public measures are therefore
seldom adopted from previous wisdom, but forc'd by the occasion.

The Governor of Pennsylvania, in sending it down to the Assembly,
expressed his approbation of the plan, “ as appearing to him to be
drawn up with great clearness and strength of judgment, and there-
fore recommended it as well worthy of their closest and most serious
attention.” The House, however, by the management of a certain
member, took it up when I happen’d to be absent, which I thought
not very fair, and reprobated it without paying any attention to it at
all, to my no small mortification.

In my journey to Boston this year, I met at New York with our
new governor, Mr. Morris, just arriv’d there from England, with whom
I had been before intimately acquainted. He brought a commission
to supersede Mr. Hamilton, who, tir’d with the disputes his proprietary
instructions subjected him to, had resign’d. Mr. Morris ask’d me if
I thought he must expect as uncomfortable an administration. I said,
“ No ; you may, on the contrary, have a very comfortable one, if you
will only take care not to enter into any dispute with the Assembly.”
“ My dear friend,” says he, pleasantly, “ how can you advise my92

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

avoiding disputes ? You know I love disputing ; it is one of my
greatest pleasures ; however, to show the regard I have for your
counsel, I promise you I will, if possible, avoid them.” He had some
reason for loving to dispute, being eloquent, an acute sophister, and,
therefore, generally successful in argumentative conversation. He
had been brought up to it from a boy, his father, as I have heard,
accustoming his children to dispute with one another for his diversion,
while sitting at table after dinner; but I think the practice was not
wise; for, in the course of my observation, these disputing, contra-
dicting, and confuting people are generally unfortunate in their affairs.
They get victory sometimes, but they never get good will, which
would be of more use to them. We parted, he going to Philadelphia,
and I to Boston.

In returning, I met at New York with the votes of the Assembly,
by which it appear’d that, notwithstanding his promise to me, he and
the House were already in high contention ; and it was a continual
battle between them as long as he retain’d the government. I had
my share of it; for, as soon as I got back to my seat in the Assembly,
I was put on every committee for answering his speeches and mes-
sages, and by the committees always desired to make the drafts. Our
answers, as well as his messages, were often tart, and sometimes
indecently abusive ; and, as he knew I wrote for the Assembly, one
might have imagined that, when we met, we could hardly avoid cutting
throats; but he was so good-natur’d a man that no personal difference
between him and me was occasion’d by the contest, and we often
din’d together.

One afternoon, in the height of this public quarrel, we met in the
street. “Franklin,” says he, “you must go home with me and spend the
evening ; I am to have some company that you will like ; ” and, taking
me by the arm, he led me to his house. In gay conversation over our
wine, after supper,.he told us, jokingly, that he much admir’d the idea
of Sancho Panza, who, when it was proposed to give him a govern-
ment, requested it might be a government of blacks, as then, if he
could not agree with his people, he might sell them. One of his
friends, who sat next to me, says, “ Franklin, why do you continue to
side with these damn’d Quakers? Had not you better sell them?
The proprietor would give you a good price.” “ The governor,” says
I, “ has not yet blacked them enough.” He, indeed, had labored
hard to blacken the Assembly in all his messages, but they wip’d off
his coloring as fast as he laid it on, and plac’d it, in return, thick upon
his own face ; so that, finding he was likely to be negrofied himself,
he, as well as Mr. Hamilton, grew tir’d of the contest, arid quitted the
government.

These public quarrels were all at bottom owing to the proprietaries,
our hereditary governors, who, when any expense was to be incurred
for the defense of their province, with incredible meanness instructed
their deputies to pass no act for levying the necessary taxes, unless
their vast estates were in the same act expressly excused ; and they
had even taken bonds of these deputies to observe such instructions.BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.	93

The Assemblies for three years held out against this injustice, tho’
constrained to bend at last. At length Captain Denny, who was
Governor Morris’s successor, ventured to disobey those instructions :
how that was brought about I shall show hereafter.

But I am got forward too fast with my story : there are still some
transactions to be mention’d that happened during the administration
of Governor Morris.

War being in a manner commenced with France, the government
of Massachusetts Bay projected an attack upon Crown Point, and
sent Mr. Quincy to Pennsylvania, and Mr. Pownall, afterward
Governor Pownall, to New York, to solicit assistance. As I was in
the Assembly, knew its temper, and was Mr. Quincy’s countryman,
he appli’d to me for my influence and assistance. I dictated his
address to them, which was well receiv’d. They voted an aid of ten
thousand pounds, to be laid “out in provisions. But the governor
refusing his assent to their bill (which included this with other sums
granted for the use of the crown), unless a clause were inserted
exempting the proprietary estate from bearing any part of the tax
that would be necessary, the Assembly, tho’ very desirous of making
their grant to New England effectual, were at a loss how to accomplish
it. Mr. Quincy labored hard with the governor to obtain his assent,
but he was obstinate.

I then suggested a method of doing the business without the
governor, by orders on the trustees of the Loan Office, which, by law,
the Assembly had the right of drawing. There was, indeed, little or
no money at that time in the office, and therefore I propos’d that the
orders should be payable in a year, and to bear an interest of five per
cent. With these orders I suppos’d the provisions might easily be
purchas’d. The Assembly, with very little hesitation, adopted the
proposal. The orders were immediately printed, and I was one of
the committee directed to sign and dispose of them. The fund for
paying them was the interest of all the paper currency then extant in
the province upon loan, together with the revenue arising from the
excise, which being known to be more than sufficient, they obtain’d
instant credit, and were not only receiv’d in payment for the pro-
visions, but many money’d people, who had cash lying by them,
vested it in those orders, which they found advantageous, as they
bore interest while upon hand, and might on any occasion be used as
money ; so that they were eagerly all bought up, and in a few weeks
none of them were to be seen. Thus this important affair was by my
means compleated. Mr. Quincy return’d thanks to the Assembly in
a handsome memorial, went home highly pleas’d with the success of
his embassy, and ever after bore for me the most cordial and affec-
tionate friendship.

The British government, not chusing to permit the union of the
colonies as propos’d at Albany, and to trust that union with their
defense, lest they should thereby grow too military, and feel their own
strength, suspicions and jealousies at this time being entertain’d of
them, sent over General Braddock with two regiments of regular94

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

English troops for that purpose. He landed at Alexandria, in Vir-
ginia, and thence march’d to Frederictown, in Maryland, where he
halted for carriages. Our Assembly apprehending, from some infor-
mation, that he had conceived violent prejudices against them, as
averse to the service, wish’d me to wait upon him, not as from them,
but as postmaster-general, under the guise of proposing to settle with
him the mode of conducting with most celerity and certainty the
despatches between him and the governors of the several provinces,
with whom he must necessarily have continual correspondence, and
of which they propos’d to pay the expense. My son accompanied
me on this journey.

We found the general at Frederictown, waiting impatiently for the
return of those he had sent thro’ the back parts of Maryland and
Virginia to collect waggons. I stayed with him several days, din’d
with him daily, and had full opportunity of removing all his prejudices,
by the information of what the Assembly had before his arrival
actually done, and were still willing to do, to facilitate his operations.
When I was about to depart, the returns of waggons to be obtained
were brought in, by which it appear’d that they amounted only to
twenty-five, and not all of those were in serviceable condition. The
general and all the officers were surpris’d, declar’d the expedition was
then at an end, being impossible, and exclaim’d against the ministers
for ignorantly landing them in a country destitute of the means of
conveying their stores, baggage, etc., not less than one hundred and
fifty waggons being necessary.

I happen’d to say I thought it was a pity they had not been landed
rather in Pennsylvania, as in that country almost every farmer had
his waggon. The general eagerly laid hold of my words, and said,
“ Then you, sir, who are a man of interest there, can probably procure
them for us ; and I beg you will undertake it.” I ask’d what terms
were to be offer’d the owners of the waggons ; and I was desir’d to
put on paper the terms that appeared to me necessary. This I did,
and they were agreed to, and a commission and instructions accord-
ingly prepar’d immediately. What those terms were will appear in
the advertisement I publish’d as soon as I arriv’d at Lancaster, which
being, from the great and sudden effect it produc’d, a piece of some
curiosity, I shall insert it at length, as follows :

“ Advertisement.

" Lancaster, April 26,1775.

“ Whereas, one hundred and fifty waggons, with four horses to each
waggon, and fifteen hundred saddle or pack horses, are wanted for the
service of his majesty’s forces now about to rendezvous at Will’s
Creek, and his excellency General Braddock having been pleased to
empower me to contract for the hire of the same, I hereby give notice
that I shall attend for that purpose at Lancaster from this day to next
Wednesday evening, and at York from next Thursday morning till
Friday evening, where I shall be ready to agree for waggons and
teams, or single horses, on the following terms, viz. : 1. That ^hereBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

95

shall be paid for each waggon, with four good horses arid a driver,
fifteen shillings per diem ; and for each able horse with a pack-saddle,
or other saddle and furniture, two shillings per diem ; and for each
able horse without a saddle, eighteen pence per diem. 2. That the
pay commence from the time of their joining the forces at Will’s
Creek, which must be on or before the 20th of May ensuing, and that
a reasonable allowance be paid over and above for the time necessary
for their travelling to Will’s Creek and home again after their discharge.
3. Each waggon and team, and every saddle or pack horse, is to be
valued by indifferent persons chosen between me and the owner ; and
in case of the loss of any waggon, team, or other horse in the service,
the price according to such valuation is to be allowed and paid. 4..
Seven days’pay is to be advanced and paid in hand by me to the
owner of each waggon and team, or horse, at the time of contracting,
if lequired, and the remainder to be paid by General Braddock, or by
the paymaster of the army, at the time of their discharge, or from
time to time, as it shall be demanded. 5. No drivers of waggons, or
persons taking care of the hired horses, are on any account to be
called upon to do the duty of soldiers, or be otherwise employed than
in conducting or taking care of their carriages or horses. 6. All oals,
Indian corn, or other forage that waggons or horses bring to the camp,
more than is necessary for the subsistence of the horses, is to be
taken for the use of the army, and a reasonable price paid for the
same.

“Note.—My son, William Franklin, is empowered to enter into
like contracts with any person in Cumberland county.

-	“ B. Franklin.”

“ To the inhabitants oj the Counties of Lancaster, York, and
Cumberland.

“ Friends and Countrymen,

“Being occasionally at the camp at Frederic a few days since, I
found the general and officers extrenjely exasperated on account of
their not being supplied with horses and carriages, which had been
expected from this province, as most able to furnish them ; but,
through the dissensions between our governor and Assembly, money
had not been provided, nor any steps taken for that purpose.

“ It was proposed to send an armed force immediately into these
counties, to seize as many of the best carriages and horses as should
be wanted, and compel as many persons into the service as would be
necessary to drive and take care of them.

“I apprehended that the progress of British soldiers through these
counties on such an occasion, especially considering the temper they
are in, and their resentment against us, would be attended with many
and great inconveniences to the inhabitants, and therefore more
willingly took the trouble of trying first what might be done by fair
and equitable meansi The people of these back counties have lately
complained to the Assembly that a sufficient currency was wanting ;
you have an opportunity of receiving and dividing among you a very96

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

considerable sum ; for, if the service of this expedition should con-
tinue, as it is more than probable it will, for one hundred and twenty
days, the hire of these waggons and horses will amount to upward of
thirty thousand pounds, which will be paid you in silver and gold of
the king’s money.

“The service will be light and easy, for the army will scarce march
above twelve miles per day, and the waggons and baggage-horses, as
they carry those things that are absolutely necessary to the welfare of
the army, must march with the army, and no faster ; and are, for the
army’s sake, always placed where they can be most secure, whether
in a march or in a camp.

“If you are really, as I believe you are, good and loyal subjects to
his majesty, you may now do a most acceptable service, and make it
easy to yourselves ; for three or four of such as can not separately
spare from the business of their plantations a waggon and four horses
and a driver, may do it together, one furnishing the waggon, ahotber
one or two horses, and another the driver, and divide the pay pro-
portionably between you ; but if you do not this service to your king
and country voluntarily, when such good pay and reasonable terms
are offered to you, your loyalty will be strongly suspected. The
king’s business must be done ; so many brave troops, come so far for
your defense, must not stand idle through your backwardness to do
what may reasonably be expected from you; waggons and horses
must be had ; violent measures will probably be used, and you will
be left to seek for a recompense where you can find it, and your case,
perhaps, be little pitied or regarded.

“ I have no particular interest in this affair, as, except the satisfac-
tion of endeavoring to do good, I shall have only' my labour for my
pains. If this method of obtaining the waggons and horses is not
likely to succeed, I am obliged to send word to the general in fourteen
days ; and I suppose Sir John St. Clair, the hussar, with a body of
soldiers, will immediately enter the province for the purpose, which I
shall be sorry to hear, because I am very sincerely and truly your
friend and well-wisher,

“ B. Franklpn.”

I received of the general about eight hundred pounds, to be dis-
bursed in advance-money to the waggon owners, etc.; but that sum
being insufficient, I advanc’d upward of two hundred pounds more,
and in two weeks the one hundred and fifty waggons, with two hun-
dred and fifty-nine carrying horses, were on their march for the camp.
The advertisement promised payment according to the valuation, in
case any waggon or horse should be lost. The owners, however,
alleging they did not know General Braddock, or what dependence
might be had on his promise, insisted on my bond for the performance,
which I accordingly gave them.

While I was at the camp, supping one evening with the officers of
Colonel Dunbar’s regiment, he represented to me his concern for the
subalterns, who, he said, were generally not in affluence, and could illBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

97

afford, in this dear country, to lay in the stores that might be neces-
sary in so long a march, thro’ a wilderness, where nothing was to be
purchas’d. I commiserated their case, and resolved to endeavor
procuring them some relief. I said nothing, however, to him of my
intention, but wrote the next morning to the committee of the
Assembly, who had the disposition of some public money, warmly
recommending the case of these officers to their consideration, and
proposing that a present should be sent them of necessaries and
refreshments. My son, who had some experience of a camp life and
of its wants, drew up a list for me, which I enclos’d in my letter.
The committee approv’d, and used such diligence that, conducted by
my son, the stores arrived at the camp as soon as the waggons. They
consisted of twenty parcels, each containing

6 lbs. loaf sugar.

6 lbs. good Muscovado do.
i lb. good green tea.
i lb. good bohea do.

6 lbs. good ground coffee.

6 lbs. chocolate.

1-2 cwt. best white biscuit.

1-2 lb. pepper.

i quart best white vine vinegar.

i Gloucester cheese.

1	kegg containing 20 lbs. good butter.

2	doz. old Madeira wine.

2 gallons Jamaica spirits.

1	bottle flour of mustard.

2	well-cur’d hams.

1-2 doz. dry’d tongues.

6 lbs. rice.

6 lbs. raisins.

These twenty parcels, well pack’d, were placed on as many horses,
each parcel, with the horse, being intended as a present for one officer.
They were very thankfully receiv’d, and the kindness acknowledg’d
by letters to me from the colonels of both regiments, in the most
grateful terms. The general, too, was highly satisfied with my con-
duct in procuring him the waggons, etc., and readily paid my account
of disbursements, thanking me repeatedly, and requesting my farther
assistance in sending provisions after him. I undertook this also,
and was busily employ’d in it till we heard of his defeat, advancing
for the service of my own money, upwards of one thousand pounds
sterling, of which I sent him an account. It came to his hands,
luckily for me, a few days before the battle, and he return’d me im-
mediately an order on the paymaster for the round sum of one thou-
sand pounds, leaving the remainder to the next account. I consider
this payment as good luck, having never been able to obtain the
remainder, of which more hereafter.

This general was, I think, a brave man, and might probably have
made a figure as a good officer in some European war. But he had
too much self-confidence, too high an opinion of the validity of regular
troops, and too mean a one of both Americans and Indians. George
Croghan, our Indian interpreter, join’d him on his march with one
hundred of those people, who might have been of great use to his
army as guides, scouts, etc., if he had treated them kindly; but he
slighted and neglected them, and they gradually left him.

In conversation with him one day, he was giving me some account
of his intended progress. “ Aftqr taking Fort Duquesne,” says he,
“ I ant to proceed to Niagara ; and, having taken that, to Frontenac,98

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

if the season will allow time ; and I suppose it will, for Duquesne can
hardly detain me above three or four days ; and then I see nothing
that can obstruct my march to Niagara.” Having before revolv’d in
my mind the long line his army must make in their march by a very
narrow road, to be cut for them thro’ the woods and bushes, and also
what I had read of a former defeat of fifteen hundred French, who
invaded the Iroquois country, I had conceiv’d some doubts and some
fears for the event of the campaign. But I ventur’d only to say, “To
be sure, sir, if you arrive well before Duquesne, with these fine troops,
so well provided with artillery, that place not yet compleatly fortified,
and as we hear with no very strong garrison, can probably make but
a short resistance. The only danger I apprehend of obstruction .to
your march is from ambuscades of Indians, who, by constant practice,
are dexterous in laying and executing them ; and the slender line,
near four miles long, which your army must make, may expose it to
be attack’d by surprise in its flanks, and be cut like a thread into
several pieces, which from their distance, can not come up in time to
support each other.”

He smil’d at my ignorance, and reply’d, “These savages may, in-
deed, be a-formidable enemy to your raw American militia, but upon the
king’s regular and disciplin’d troops, sir, it is impossible they should make
any impression.” I was conscious of an impropriety in my disputing
with a military man in matters of his profession, and said no more.
The enemy, however, did not take the advantage of his army which I
apprehended its long line of march expos’d it to, but let it advance
without interruption till within nine miles of the place; and then, when
more in a body (for it had just passed a river, where the front had
halted till all were come over), and in a more open part of the woods
than any it had pass’d, attack’d its advanced guard by a heavy fire
from behind trees and bushes, which was the first intelligence the
general had of an enemy’s being near him. This guard being dis-
ordered, the general hurried the troops up to their assistance, which
was done in great confusion, thro’ waggons, baggage, and cattle; and
presently the fire came upon their flank : the officers, being on horse-
back, were more easily distinguish’d, pick’d out as marks, and fell
very fast; and thfe soldiers were crowded together in a huddle, having
or hearing no orders, and standing to be shot at till two-thirds of them
were killed ; and then, being seiz’d with a panick, the whole fled with
precipitation.

The waggoners took each a horse out of his team and scamper’d ;
their example was immediately followed by others ; so that all the
waggons, provisions, artillery, and stores were left to the enemy. The
general, being wounded, was brought off with difficulty; his secretary,
Mr. Shirley, was killed by his side ; ajul out of eighty-six officers,
sixty-three were killed or wounded; and seven hundred and fourteen
men killed out of eleven hundred. These eleven hundred bad been
picked men from the whole army ; and the rest had been left behind
with Colonel Dunbar, who was to follow with the heavier part_of the
stores, provisions, and baggage. The flyers, not being pursu’d, arriv’dBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

99

at Dunbar’s camp, and the panick they brought with them instantly
seiz’d him and all his people ; and, tho’ he had now above one thou-
sand men, and the enemy who had beaten Braddock did not at most
exceed four hundred Indians and French together, instead of pro-
ceeding and endeavoring to recover some of the lost honour, he
ordered all the stores, ammunition, etc., to be destroy’d, that he might
have more horses to assist his flight towards the settlements, and less
lumber to remove. He was there met with requests from the gover-
nors of Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, that he would post his
troops on the frontiers, so as to afford some protection to the in-
habitants' ; but he continu’d his hasty march thro’ all the country,
not thinking himself safe till he arriv’d at Philadelphia, were the
inhabitants could protect him. This whole transaction gave us
Americans the first suspicion that our exalted ideas of the prowess
of British regulars had not been well founded.

In their first march, too, from their landing till they got beyond
the settlements, they had plundered and stripped the inhabitants,
totally ruining some poor families, besides insulting, abusing, and
confining the people if they remonstrated. This was enough to put
us out of conceit of such defenders, if we had really wanted any.
How different was the conduct of our French friends in 1781, who,
during a march thro’ the most inhabited part of our country from
Rhode Island to Virginia, near seven hundred miles, occasioned not
the smallest complaint for the loss of a pig, a chicken, or even an apple.

Captain Orme, who was one of the general’s aids-de-camp, and,
being grievously wounded, was brought off with him, and continu’d
with him to his death, which happen’d in a few days, told me that
he was totally silent all the first day, and at night only said, “ Who
would have thought it?” That he was silent again the following day,
saying only at last, “ We shall better know how to deal with them
another timeand dy’d in a few minutes after.

The secretary’s papers, with all the general’s orders, instructions,
and correspondence, falling into the enemy’s hands, they selected
and translated into French a number of the articles, which they
printed, to prove the hostile intentions of the British court before the
declaration of war. Among these I saw some letters of the general
to the ministry, speaking highly of the great service I had rendered
the army, and recommending me to their notice. David Hume, too,
who was some years after Secretary to Lord Hertford, when minister
in Fiance, and afterward to General Conway, when secretary of state,
told me he had seen among the papers in that office, letters from
Braddock highly recommending me. But the expedition having been
unfortunate, my service, it seems, was not thought of much value, for
those recommendations were never of any use to me.

As to rewards from himself, I ask’d only one, which was, that he
would give orders to his officers not to enlist any more of our bought
servants, and that he would discharge such as had been already
enlisted. This he readily granted, and several were accordingly
return’d to their masters, on my application. Dunbar, when the com-IOO

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

mand devolv’d on him, was not so generous. He being at Philadel-
phia, on his retreat, or rather flight, I apply’d to him for the discharge
of the servants of three poor farmers of Lancaster county that he had
enlisted, reminding him of the late general’s orders on that head. He
promised me that, if the masters would come to him at Trenton,
where he should be in a few days on his march to New York, he
would there deliver their men to them. They accordingly were at
the expense and trouble of going to Trenton, and there he refus’d to
perform his promise, to their great loss and disappointment.

As soon as the loss of the waggons and horses was generally known,
all the owners came upon me for the valuation which I had given
bond to pay. Their demands gave me a great deal of trouble, my
acquainting them that the money was ready in the paymaster’s hands,
but that orders for paying it must first be obtained from General Shir-
ley, and my assuring them that 1 had apply’d to that general by letter;
but, he being at a distance, an answer could not soon be receiv’d, and
they must have patience, all this was not sufficient to satisfy, and
some began to sue me. General Shirley at length relieved me from
this terrible situation by appointing commissioners to examine the
claims, and ordering payment. They amounted to near twenty
thousand pound, which to pay would have ruined me.

Before we had news of this defeat, the two Doctors Bond came to
me with a subscription paper for raising money to defray the expense
of a grand firework, which it was intended to exhibit at a rejoicing
on receipt of the news of our taking Fort Duquesne. I looked grave,
and said it would, I thought, be time enough to prepare for the
rejoicing when we knew we should have occasion to rejoice. They
seem’d surpris’d that I did not immediately comply with their pro-
posal. “Why the d—1!” says one of them, “ you surely don't sup-
pose that the fort will not be taken ?” “ I don’t know that it will not
be taken, but I know that the events of war are subject to great un-
certainty.” I gave them the reasons for my doubting; the subscription
was dropt, and the projectors thereby missed the mortification they
would have undergone if the firework had been prepared. Dr. Bond,
on some other occasion afterward, said he did not like Franklin’s
forebodings.

Governor Morris, who had continually worried the Assembly with
message after message before the defeat of Braddock, to beat them
into the making of acts to raise money for the defense of the province,
without taxing, among others, the proprietary estates, and had rejected
all their bills for not having such an exempting clause, now redoubled
his attacks with more hope of success, the danger and necessity being
greater. The Assembly, however, continu’d firm, believing they had
justice on their side, and that it would be giving up an essential right
if they suffered the governor to amend their money-bills. In one of
the last, indeed, which was for granting fifty thousand pounds, his
propos’d amendment was only of a single word. The bill express’d
“that all estates, real and personal, were to be taxed, those of the
proprietaries not excepted.” His amendment was, for not read only:BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

101

a small, but very material alteration. However, when the news of
this disaster reached England, our friends there, whom we had taken
care to furnish with all the Assembly’s answers to the governor’s
messages, rais’d a clamor against the proprietaries for their meanness
and injustice in giving their governor such instructions ; some going
so far as to say that, by obstructing the defense of their province,
they forfeited their right to it. They were intimidated by this, and
sent orders to their receiver-general to add five thousand pounds of
their money to whatever sum might be given by the Assembly for
such purpose.

This, being notified to the House, was accepted in lieu of their share
of a general tax, and a new bill was form’d, with an exempting clause,
which passed accordingly. By this act I was appointed one of the
commissioners for disposing of the money, sixty thousand pounds.
I had been active in modelling the bill and procuring its passage, and
had, at the same time, drawn a bill for establishing and disciplining
a voluntary militia, which I carried thro’ the House without much
difficulty, as care was taken to leave the Quakers at their liberty. To
promote the association necessary to form the militia, I wrote a
dialogue,1 stating and answering all the objections I could think of
to such a militia, which was printed, and had, as I thought, great
effect.

While the several companies in the city and country were forming,
and learning their exercise, the governor prevail’d with me to take
charge of our North-western frontier, which was infested by the enemy,
and provide for the defense of the inhabitants by raising troops and
building a line of forts. I undertook this military business, tho’ I did
not conceive myself well qualified for it. He»gave me a commission
with full powers, and a parcel of blank commissions for officers, to be
given to whom I thought fit. I had but little difficulty in raising men,
having soon five hundred and sixty under my command. My son,
who had in the preceding war been an officer in the army rais’d
against Canada, was my aid-de-camp, and of great use to me. The
Indians had burned Gnadenhut, a v411age settled by the Moravians,
and massacred the inhabitants; but the place was thought a good
situation for one of the forts.

In order to march thither, I assembled the companies at Beth-
lehem, the chief establishment of those people. I was surprised to
find it in so good a posture of defense ; the destruction of Gnadenhut
had made them apprehend danger. The principal buildings were
defended by a stockade ; they had purchased a quantity of arms and
ammunition from New York, and had even plac’d quantities of small
paving stones between the windows of their high stone houses, for
their women to throw down upon the heads of any Indians that should
attempt to force into them. The armed brethren, too, kept watch,
and reliev’d as methodically as in any garrison town. In conversation
with the bishop, Spangenberg, I mention’d this my surprise ; for,

1 This dialogue and the militia act are in the Gentleman’s Magazine for Feb-
ruary and March, 1756.—[Marg. Note.]102

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

knowing they had obtained an act of Parliament exempting them
from military duties in the colonies, I had suppos’d they were con-
scientiously scrupulous of bearing arms. He answer’d me that it was
not one of their established principles, but that, at the time of their
obtaining that act, it was thought to be a principle with many of their
people. On this occasion, however, they, to their surprise, found it
adopted by but a few. It seems they were either deceiv’d in them-
selves, or deceiv’d the Parliament; but common sense, aided by pre-
sent danger, will sometimes be too strong for whimsical opinions.

It was the beginning of January when we set out upon this business
of building forts. I sent one detachment toward the Minisink, with
instructions to erect one for the security of that upper, part of the
country, and another to the lower part, with similar instructions ; and
I concluded to go myself with the rest of my force to Gnadenhut,
where a fort was tho’t more immediately necessary. The Moravians
procur’d me five waggons for our tools, stores, baggage, etc.

Just before we left Bethlehem, eleven farmers, who had been driven
from their plantations by the Indians, came to me requesting a supply
of firearms, that they might go back and fetch off their cattle. I gave
them each a gun with suitable ammunition. We haidnot march’d
many miles before it began to rain, and it continued raining all day ;
there were no habitations on the road to shelter us, till we arriv’d near
night at the house of a German, where, and in his barn, we were all
huddled together, as wet as water could make us. It was well we
were not attack’d in our march, for our arms were of the most ordinary
sort, and our men could not keep their gun locks dry. The Indians
are dextrous in contrivances for that purpose, which we had not.
They met that day the eleven poor farmers above mentioned, and killed
ten of them. The one who escap’d inform’d that his and his com-
panions’ guns would not go off, the priming being wet with the rain.

The next day being fair, we continu’d.our march, and arriv’d at the
desolated Gnadenhut. There was a saw-mill near, round which were
left several piles of boards, with which we soon hutted ourselves ; an
operation the more necessary at that inclement season, as we had no
tents. Our first work was to bury more effectually the dead we found
there, who had been half intenJd by the country people.

The next morning our fort was plann’d and mark’d out, the circum-
ference measuring four hundred and fifty-five feet, which would require
as many palisades to be made of trees, one with another, of a foot
diameter each. Our axes, of which we had seventy, were immediately
set to work to cut down trees, and, our men being dextrous in the use
of them, great despatch was made. Seeing the trees fall so fast, I
had the curiosity to look at my watch when two men began to cut at
a pine ; in six minutes they had it upon the ground, and I found it of
fourteen inches diameter. Each pine made three palisades of eighteen
feet long, pointed at one end. While these were preparing, our other
men dug a trench all round, of three feet deep, in which the palisades
were to be planted ; and, our waggons, the bodys being taken off, and
the fore and hind wheels separated by taking out the pin which unitedBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.	103

the two parts of the perch, we had ten carriages, with two horses each,
to bring the palisades from the woods to the spot. When they were
set up, our carpenters built a stage of boards all round within, about
six feet high, for the men to stand on when to fire thro’ the loopholes.
We had one swivel gun, which we mounted on one of the angles, and
fir’d it as soon as fix’d, to let the Indians know, if any were within
hearing, that we had such pieces ; and thus our fort, if such a
magnificent name may be given to so miserable a stockade, was
finish’d in a week, though it rain’d so hard every other day that the
men could not work.

This gave me occasion to observe, that, when men are employ’d,
they are best content’d ; for on the days they worked they were good-
natur’d and cheerful, and, with the consciousness of having done a
good day’s work, they spent the evening jollily ; but on our idle days
they were mutinous and quarrelsome, finding fault with their pork, the
bread, etc., and in continual ill-humor, which put me in mind of a
sea-captain, whose rule it was to keep his men constantly at work ;
and, when his mate once told him that they had done every thing, and
there was nothing further to employ them about, “ Oh? says he, “make
them scour the anchor.”

This kind of fort, however contemptible, is a sufficient defense
against Indians, who have no cannon. Finding ourselves now posted
securely, and having a place to retreat to on occasion, we ventur’d out
in parties to scour the adjacent country. We met with no Indians,
but we found the places on the neighboring hills where they had lain
to watch our proceedings. There was an art in their contrivance of
those places that seems worth mention. It being winter, a fire was
necessary for them ; but a common fire on the surface of the ground
would by its light have discover’d their position at a distance. They
had therefore dug holes in the ground about three feet diameter, and
somewhat deeper ; we saw where they had with their hatchets cut off
the charcoal from the sides of burnt logs lying in the woods. With
these coals they had made small fires in the bottom of the holes, and
we observ’d among the weeds and grass the prints of their bodies,
made by their laying all round, with their legs hanging down in the
holes to keep their feet warm, which, with them, is an essential point.
This kind of fire, so manag’d, could not discover them, either by its
light, flame, sparks, or even smoke : it appear’d that their number was
not great, and it seems they saw we were too many to be attacked by
them with prospect of advantage.

We had for our chaplain a zealous Presbyterian minister, Mr. Beatty,
who complained to me that the men did not generally attend his
prayers and exhortations. When they enlisted, they were promised,
besides pay and provisions, a gill of rum a day, which was punctually
serv’d out to them, half in the morning, and the other half in the
evening ; and I observ’d they were as punctual in attending to receive
it; upon which I said to Mr. Beatty, “ It is, perhaps, below the dignity
of your profession to act as steward of the rum, but if you were to
deal it out and only just after prayers, you would have them all aboutio4

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

you.” He liked the tho’t, undertook the office, and, with the help of
a few hands to measure out the liquor, executed it to satisfaction, and
never were prayers more generally and more punctually attended ; so
that I thought this method preferable to the punishment inflicted by
some military laws for non-attendance on divine service.

I had hardly finish’d this business, and got my fort well stor’d with
provisions, when I receiv’d a letter from the governor, acquainting me
that he had call’d the Assembly, and wished my attendance there, if
the posture of affairs on the frontiers was such that my remaining
there was no longer necessary. My friends, too, of the Assembly,
pressing me by their letters to be, if possible, at the meeting, and my
three intended forts being now compleated, and the inhabitants con-
tented to remain on their farms under that protection, I resolved to
return ; the more willingly, as a New England officer, Colonel Clap-
ham, experienced in Indian war, being on a visit to our establishment,
consented to accept the command. I gave him a commission, and,
parading the garrison, had it read before them, and introduc’d him to
them as an officer who, from his skill in military affairs, was much
more fit to command them than myself; and, giving them a little
exhortation, took my leave. I was escorted as far as Bethlehem,
where I rested a few days to recover from the fatigue I had undergone.
The first night, being in a good bed, I could hardly sleep, it was so
different from my hard lodging on the floor of our hut at Gnaden
wrapt only in a blanket or two.

While at Bethlehem, I inquir’d a little into the practice of the
Moravians : some of them had accompanied me, and all were very
kind to me. I found they work’d for a common stock, eat at common
tables, and slept in common dormitories, great numbers together.
In the dormitories I observed loopholes, at certain distances all along
just under the ceiling, which I thought judiciously placed for change
of air. I was at their church, where I was entertain’d with good
musick, the organ being accompanied with violins, hautboys, flutes,
clarinets, etc. I understoo/1 that their sermons were not usually
preached to mixed congregations of men, women, and children, as is
our common practice, but that they assembled sometimes the married
men, at other times their wives, then the young men, the young
women, and the little children, each division by itself. The sermon I
heard was to the latter, who came in and were plac’d in rows on
benches; the boys under the conduct of a young man, their tutor,
and the girls conducted by a young woman. The discourse seem’d
well adapted to their capacities, and was delivered in a pleasing,
familiar manner, coaxing them, as it were, to be good. They behav’d
very orderly, but looked pale and unhealthy, which made me suspect
they were kept too much within doors, or not allow’d sufficient
exercise.

I inquir’d concerning the Moravian marriages, whether the report
was true that they were by lot. I was told that lots were us’d only in
particular cases : that generally, when a young man found himself
dispos’d to marry, he inform’d the elders of his class, who consultedBENJAMIN FRANKLIN

105

the elder ladies that govern’d the young women. As these elders of
the different sexes were well acquainted with the tempers and dispo-
sitions of their respective pupils, they could best judge what matches
were suitable, and their judgments were generally acquiesc’d in ; but
if, for example, it should happen that two or three young women were
found to be equally proper for the young man, the lot was then
recurred to. I objected, if the matches are not made by the mutual
choice of the parties, some of them may chance to be very unhappy.
“ And so they may,” answer’d my informer, “ if you let the parties
chuse for themselves which, indeed, I could not deny.

Being returned to Philadelphia, I found the association went on
swimmingly, the inhabitants that were not Quakers having pretty
generally come into it, formed themselves into companies, and chose
their captains, lieutenants, and ensigns, according to the new law.
Dr. B. visited me, and gave me an account of the pains he had taken
to spread a general good liking to the law, and ascribed much to those
endeavors. I had had the vanity to ascribe all to my Dialogue;
however, not knowing but that he might be in the right, I let him
enjoy his opinion, which I take to be generally the best way in such
cases. The officers, meeting, chose me to be colonel of the regiment,
which I this time accepted. I forget how many companies we had,
but we paraded about twelve hundred well-looking men, with a com-
pany of artillery, who had been furnished with six brass field-pieces,
which they had become so expert in the use of as to fire twelve times
in a minute. The first time I reviewed my regiment they accompanied
me to my house, and would salute me with some rounds fired before
my door, which shook down and broke several glasses of my electrical
apparatus. And my new honour proved not much less brittle ; for
all our commissions were soon after broken by a repeal of the law in
England.

During this short time of my colonelship, being about to set out on
a journey to Virginia, the officers of my regiment took it into their
heads that it would be proper for them to escort me out of town, as
far as the Lower Ferry. Just as I was getting on horseback they
came to my door, between thirty and forty, mounted, and all in their
uniforms. I had not been previously acquainted with the project, or
I should have prevented it, being naturally averse to the assuming of
state on any occasion ; and I was a good deal chagrin’d at their
appearance, as I could not avoid their accompanying me. What
made it worse was, that, as soon as we began to move, they drew
their swords and rode with them naked all the way. Somebody wrote
an account of this to the proprietor, and it gave him great offense.
No such honor had been paid him when in the province, nor to any
of his governors ; and he said it was only proper to princes of the
blood royal, which may be true for aught I know, who was, and still
am, ignorant of the etiquette in such cases.

This silly affair, however, greatly increased his rancour against me,
which was before not a little, on account of my conduct in the Assembly
respecting the exemption of his estate from taxation, which 1 hadio6

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

always oppos’d very warmly, and not without severe reflections on his
meanness and injustice of contending for it. He accused me to the
ministry as being the great obstacle to the king’s service, preventing,
by my influence in the House, the proper form of the bills for raising
money, and he instanced this parade with my officers as a proof of
my having an intention to take the government of the province out
of his hands by force. He also applied to Sir Everard Fawkener, the
postmaster-general, to deprive me of my office ; but it had no other
effect than to procure from Sir Everard a gentle admonition.

Notwithstanding the continual wrangle between the governor and
the House, in which I, as a member, had so large a share, there still
subsisted a civil intercourse between that gentleman and myself, and
we never had any personal difference. I have sometimes since
thought that his little or no resentment against me, for the answers it
was known I drew up to his messages, might be the effect of pro-
fessional habit, and that, being bred a lawyer, he might consider us
both as merely advocates for contending clients in a suit, he for the
proprietaries and I for the Assembly. He would, therefore, sometimes
call in a friendly way to advise with me on difficult points, and some-
times, tho’ not often, take my advice.

We acted in concert to supply Braddock’s army with provisions ;
and, when the shocking news arrived of his defeat, the governor sent
in haste for me, to consult with him on measures for preventing the
desertion of the back counties. I forget now the advice I gave ; but
1 think it was, that Dunbar should be written to, and prevail’d with,
if possible, to post his troops on the frontiers for their protection, till,
by re-enforcements from the colonies, he might be able to proceed on
the expedition. And, after my return from the frontier, he would have
had me undertake the conduct of such .an expedition with provincial
troops, for the reduction of Fort Duquesne, Dunbar and his men
being otherwise employed; and he proposed to commission me as
general. I had not so good an opinion of my military abilities as he
profess’d to have, and I believe his professions must have exceeded
his real sentiments ; but probably he might think that my popularity
would facilitate the raising of the men, and my influence in Assembly,
the grant of money to pay them, and that, perhaps, without taxing the
proprietary estate. Finding me not so forward to engage as he
expected, the project was dropt, and he soon after left the government,
being superseded by Captain Denny.

Before I proceed in relating the part I had in public affairs under
this new governor’s administration, it may not be amiss here to give
some account of the rise and progress of my philosophical reputa-
tion.

In 1746, being at Boston, I met there with a Dr. Spence, who was
lately arrived from Scotland, and sliow’d me some electric experiments.
They were imperfectly perform’d, as he was not very expert; but,
being on a subject quite new to me, they equally surpris’d and pleased
me. Soon after my return to Philadelphia, our library company
receiv’d from Mr. P. Collinson, Fellow of the Royal Society of London,BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

107

a present of a glass tube, with some account of the use of it in
making such experiments. I eagerly seized the opportunity of
repeating what I had seen at Boston ; and, by much practice, acquir’d
great readiness in performing those, also, which we had an account
of from England, adding a number of new ones. I say much practice,
for my house was continually full, for some time, with people who
came to see these new wonders.

To divide a little this incumbrance among my friends, I caused a
number of similar tubes to be blown at our glass-house, with which
they furnish’d themselves, so that we had at length several performers.
Among these, the principal was Mr. Kinnersley, an ingenious neighbor,
who, being out of business, I encouraged to undertake showing the
experiments for money, and drew up for him two lectures, in which
the experiments were rang’d in such order, and accompanied with
such explanations in such method, as that the foregoing should assist
in comprehending the following. He procur’d an elegant apparatus
for the purpose, in which all the little machines that I had roughly
made for myself were nicely form’d by instrument-makers. His
lectures were well attended, and gave great satisfaction ; and after
some time he went thro’ the colonies, exhibiting them in every capital
town, and pick’d up some money. In the West India islands, indeed,
it was with difficulty the experiments could be made, from the general
moisture of the air.

Oblig’d as we were to Mr. Collinson for his present of the tube,
etc., I thought it right he should be inform’d of our success in using
it, and wrote him several letters containing accounts of our experi-
ments. He got them read in the Royal Society, where they were not
at first thought worth so much notice as to be printed in their Trans-
actions. One paper, which I wrote for Mr. Kinnersley, on the same-
ness of lightning with electricity, I sent to Dr. Mitchel, an acquaintance
of mine, and one of the members also of that society, who wrote me
word that it had been read, but was laughed at by the connoisseurs.
The papers, however, being shown to Dr Fothergill, he thought them
of too much value to be stifled, and advis’d the printing of them. Mr.
Collinson then gave them to Cave for publication in his Gentleman’s
Magazine ; but he chose to print them separately in a pamphlet, and
Dr. Fothergill wrote the preface. Cave, it seems, judged rightly for
his profit, for by the additions that arrived afterward, they swell’d to
a quarto volume, which has had five editions, and cost him nothing
for copy-money.

It was, however, some time before those papers were much taken
notice of in England. A copy of them happening to fall into the
hands of the Count de Buffon, a philosopher deservedly of great repu-
tation in France, and, indeed, all over Europe, he prevailed with
M. Dalibard to translate them into French, and they were printed at
Paris. The publication-offended the Abbe Nollet, preceptor in Natural
Philosophy to the royal family, and an able experimenter, who had
form’d and publish’d a theory of electricity, which then had the general
vogue. He could not at first believe that such a work came fromLIFE AND LETTERS OF

io8

America, and said it must have been fabricated by his enemies at
Paris, to decry his system. Afterwards, having been assur’d that
there really existed such a person as Franklin at Philadelphia, which
he had doubted, he wrote and published a volume of Letters, chiefly
address’d to me, defending his theory, and denying the verity of my
experiments, and of the positions deduc’d from them.

I once purpos’d answering the abbe, and actually began the answer;
but, on consideration that my writings contain’d a description of ex-
periments which any one might repeat and verify, and if not to be
verifi’d, could not be defended ; or of observations offer’d as conjec-
tures, and not delivered dogmatically, therefore not laying me under
any obligation to defend them ; and reflecting that a dispute between
two persons, writing in different languages, might .be lengthened
greatly by mistranslations, and thence misconceptions of one another’s
meaning, much of one of the abbd’s letters being founded on an error
in the translation, I concluded to let my papers shift for themselves,
believing it was better to spend what time I could spare from public
business in making new experiments, than in disputing about those
already made. I therefore never answered M. Nollet, and the event
gave me no cause to repent my silence ; for my friend, M. le Roy, of
the Royal Academy of Sciences, took up my cause atid refuted him ;
my book was translated into the Italian, German, and Latin languages;
and the doctrine it contain’d was by degress universally adopted by
the philosophers of Europe, in preference to that of the abbe ; so that

he lived to see himself the last of his sect, except Monsieur B--, of

Paris, his Sieve and immediate disciple.

What gave my book the more sudden and general celebrity, was
the success of one of its proposed experiments, made by Messrs.
Dalibard and De Lor at Marly, for drawing lightning from the clouds.
This engag’d the public attention every where. M. de Lor, who had
an apparatus for experimental philosophy, and lectur’d in that branch
of science, undertook to repeat what he called the Philadelphia Ex-
periments; and, after they were performed before the king and court,
all the curious of Paris flocked to see them. I will not swell this nar-
rative with an account of that capital experiment, nor of the infinite
pleasure I receiv’d in the success of a similar one I made soon after
with a kite at Philadelphia, as both are to be found in the histories of
electricity.

Dr. Wright, an English physician, when at Paris, wrote to a friend,
who was of the Royal Society, an account of the high esteem my ex-
periments were in among the learned abroad, and of their wonder
that my writings had been so little noticed in England. The society,
on this, resum’d the consideration of the letters that had been read to
them ; and the celebrated Dr. Watson drew up a summary account
of them, and of all I had afterwards sent to England on the subject,
which he accompanied with some praise of the writer. This summary
was then printed in their Transactions ; and some members of the
society in London, particularly the very ingenious Mr. Canton, having
verified the experiment of procuring lightning from the clouds by aBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

109

pointed rod, and acquainting them with the success, they soon made
me more than amends for the slight with which they had before treated
me. Without my having made any application for that honor, they
chose me a member, and voted that I should be excus’d the customary
payments, which would have amounted to twenty-five guineas; and
ever since have given me their Transactions gratis.1 They also pre-
sented me with the gold medal of Sir Godfrey Copley for the year
1753, the delivery of which was accompanied by a very handsome
speech of the president, Lord Macclesfield, wherein I was highly
honoured.

Our new governor, Captain Denny, brought over for me the before-
mentioned medal from the Royal Society, which he presented to me
at an entertainment given him by the city. He accompanied it with
very polite expressions of his esteem for me, having, as he said, been
long acquainted with my character. After dinner, when the company,
as was customary at that time, were engag’d in drinking, he took me
aside into another room, acquainted me that he had been advis’d by
his friends in England to cultivate a friendship with me, as one who
was capable of giving him the best advice, and of contributing most
effectually to the making his administration easy; that he therefore
desired of all things to have a good understanding with me, and he
begg’d me to be assur’d of his readiness on all occasions to render me
every service that might be in his power. He said much to me, also,

1 Dr. Franklin gives a further account of his election in a letter to his son,
Governor Franklin, from which the following is an extract:

“London, 19 December, 1767.

“ We have had an ugly affair at the Royal Society lately. One Dacosta, a Jew,
who, as our clerk, was intrusted with collecting our moneys, has been so unfaithful
as to embezzle near thirteen hundred pounds in four years. Being one of the
Council this year, as well as the last, I have been employed all the last week in
attending the inquiry into, and unravelling, his accounts, in order to come to a full
knowledge of his frauds. His securities are bound in one thousand pounds to the
Society, which they will pay, but we shall probably lose the rest. He had this
year received twenty-six admission payments of twenty-five guineas each, which he
did not bring to account.

“While attending to this affair, I had an opportunity of looking over the old
Council books and journals of the Society, and, having a curiosity to see how I
came in, of which I had never been informed, I looked back for the minutes relating
to it. You must know, it is not usual to admit persons that have not requested to
be admitted ; and a recommendatory certificate in favour of the candidate, signed
by at least three of the members, is by our rule to be presented to the Society,
expressing that he is desirous of that honor, and is so and so qualified. As I
never had asked or expected the honor, I was, as I said belore, curious to see how
the business was managed. I found that the certificate, worded very advan-
tageously for me, was signed by Lord Macclesfield, then president, Lord Parker,
and Lord Willoughby ; that the election was by a unanimous vote ; and, the
honor being voluntarily conferred by the Society, unsolicited by me, it was thought
wrong to demand or receive the usual fees or composition ; so that my name was
entered on the list, with a vote of Council that 1 was not to pay anything, and
accordingly nothing has ever been demanded of me. Those who are admitted in
the common way, pay five guineas admission fees, and two guineas and a half
yearly contribution, or twenty-five guineas down in lieu of it. In my case a sub-
stantial favor accompanied the honor,”I IO

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

of the proprietor’s good disposition towards the province, and of the
advantage it might be to us all, and to me in particular, if the opposi-
tion that had been so long continu’d to his measures were dropt, and
harmony restor’d between him and the people ; in effecting which, it
was thought no one could be more serviceable than myself; and,I
might depend on adequate acknowledgments and recompenses, etc.,
etc. The drinkers, finding we did hot return immediately to the table,
sent us a decanter of Madeira, which the governor made liberal use
of, and in proportion became more profuse of his solicitations and
promises.

My answers were to this purpose : that my circumstances, thanks
to God, were such as to make proprietary favours unnecessary to me;
and that, being a member of the Assembly, I could not possibly accept
of any ; that, however, I had no personal enmity to the proprietary,
and that, whenever the public measures he propos’d should be for the
good of the people, no one should espouse and forward them more
zealously than myself; my past opposition having been founded on
this, that the measures which had been urged were evidently intended
to serve the proprietary interest, with great prejudice to that of the
people; that I was much obliged to him (the governor) for his pro-
fessions of regard to me, and that he might rely on every thing in my
power to make his administration as easy, as possible, hoping at the
same time that he had not brought with him the same unfortunate
instruction his predecessor had been hamper’d with.

■> On this he did not then explain himself; but when he afterwards
came to do business with the Assembly, they appear’d again, the dis-
putes were renewed, and I was as active as ever in the opposition,
being the penman, first, of the request to have a communication of the
instructions, and then of the remarks upon them, which may be found
in the votes of the time, and in the Historical Review I afterward pub-
lish’d. But between us personally no enmity arose; we were often
together; he was a man of letters, had seen much of the world, and
was very entertaining and pleasing in conversation. He gave me the
first information that my old friend Jas. Ralph was still alive ; that he
was esteem’d one of the best political writers in England ; had been
employ’d in the dispute between Prince Frederic and the king, and
had obtain’d a pension of three hundred a year; that his reputation
was indeed small as a poet, Pope having damned his poetry in the
Dunciad; but his prose was thought as good as any man’s.

The Assembly finally finding the proprietary obstinately persisted
in manacling their deputies with instructions inconsistent not only
with the privileges of the people, but with the service of the crown,
resolv’d to petition the king against them, and appointed me their
agent to go over to England, to present and support the petition.
The House had sent up a bill to the governor, granting a sum of sixty
thousand pounds for the king’s use (ten thousand pounds of which
was subjected to the orders of the then general, Lord Loudoun), which
the governor absolutely refus’d to pass, in compliance with his in-
structions.BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

hi

I had agreed with Captain Morris, of the paquet at New York, for
my passage, and my stores were put on board, when Lord Loudoun
arriv’d at Philadelphia, expressly, as he told me, to endeavor an
accommodation between the governor and Assembly, that his
majesty’s service might not be obstructed by their dissensions. Ac-
cordingly, he desir’d the governor and myself to meet him, that he
might hear what was to be said on both sides. We met and discuss’d
the business. In behalf of the Assembly, I urg’d all the various argu-
ments that may be found in the public papers of that time, which
were of my writing, and are printed with the minutes of the Assembly;
and the governor pleaded his instructions, the bond he had given to
observe them, and his ruin if he disobey’d, yet seemed not unwilling
to hazard himself if Lord Loudoun would advise it. This his lordship
did not chuse to do, though I once thought I had nearly prevail’d
with him to do it; but finally he rather chose to urge the compliance
of the Assembly; and he entreated me to use my endeavours with
them for that purpose, declaring that he would spare none of the king’s
troops for the defense of our frontiers, and that, if we did not continue
to provide for that defense ourselves, they must remain expos’d to the
enemy.

I acquainted the House with what had pass’d, and, presenting them
with a set of resolutions I had drawn up, declaring our rights, and
that we did not relinquish our claim to those rights, but only sus-
pended the exercise of them on this occasion thro 'force, against which
we protested, they at length agreed to drop that bill, and frame another
conformable to the proprietary instructions. This of course the governor
pass’d, and I was then at liberty to proceed on my voyage. But, in
the mean time, the paquet had sailed with my sea-stores, which was
some loss to me, and my only recompense was his lordship’s thanks
for my service, all the credit of obtaining the accommodation falling
to his share.

He set out for New York before me; and, as the time for dispatch-
ing the paquet-boats was at his disposition, and there were two then
remaining there, one of which, he said, was to sail very soon, I re-
quested to know the precise time, that I might not miss her by any
delay of mine. His answer was, “ I have given out that she is to sail
on Saturday next; but I may let you know, entre nous, that if you are
there by Monday morning, you will be in time, but do not delay
longer.” By some accidental hinderance at a ferry, it was Monday
noon before I arrived, .and I was much afraid she might have sailed,
as the wind was fair ; but I was soon made easy by the information
that she was still in the harbor, and would not move till the next day.
One would imagine that I was now on the very point of departing for
Europe. I thought so; but I was not then so well acquainted with
his lordship’s character, of which indecision was one of the strongest
features. I shall give some instances. It was about the beginning of
April that I came to New York, and I think it was near the end of
June before we sail’d. There were then two of the paquet-boats,
\vhich had been long in port, but were detained for the general’s112

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

letters, which were always to be ready to-morrow. Another paquet
arriv’d ; she too was detain’d; and, before we sail’d, a fourth was
expected. Ours was the first to be dispatch’d, as having been there
longest. Passengers were engag’d in all, and some extremely im-
patient to be gone, and the merchants uneasy about their letters, and
the orders they had given for insurance (it being war time) for fall
goods ; but their anxiety avail’d nothing ; his lordship’s letters were
not ready ; and yet whoever waited on him found him always at his
desk, pen in hand, and concluded he must needs write abundantly.

Going myself one morning to pay my respects, 1 found in his ante-
chamber one Innis, a messenger of Philadelphia, who had come
from thence express with a paquet from Governor Denny for the
General. He delivered to me some letters from my friends there,
which occasion’d my inquiring when he was to return, and where he
lodg’d, that I might send some letters by him. He told me he was
order’d to call, to-morrow at nine for the general’s answer to the
governor, and should set off immediately. I put my letters into his
hands the same day. A fortnight after I met him again in the same
place. “So, you are soon return’d, Innis?” “Return'd/ no, I am
not gone yet.” “How so?” “I have called here l?y order every
morning these two weeks past for his lordship’s letter, and it is not
yet ready.” “ Is it possible, when he is so great a writer ? for I see
him constantly at his escritoire.” “ Yes,” says Innis, “ but he is like
St. George on the signs, always on horseback, and never rides on."
This observation of the messenger was, it seems, well founded ; for,
when in England, I understood that Mr. Pitt gave it as one reason for
removing this general, and sending Generals Amherst and Wolfe, that
the minister never heardfront him, and could not know what he was
doing.

This daily expectation of sailing, and all the three paquets going
down to Sandy Hook, to join the fleet there, the passengers thought
-it best to be on board, lest by a sudden order the ships should sail,
and they be left behind. There, if I remember right, we were about
six weeks, consuming our sea-stores, and oblig’d to procure more.
At length the fleet sail’d, the General and all his army on board,
bound to Louisburg, with intent to beseige and take that fortress ;
all the paquet-boats in company ordered to attend the General’s
ship, ready to receive his dispatches when they should be ready.
We were out five days before we got a letter with leave to part, and
then our ship quitted the fleet and steered for England. The other
two paquets he still detained, carried them with him to Halifax, where
lie stayed some time to exercise the men in sham attacks upon sham
forts, then alter’d his mind as to besieging Louisburg, and return’d to
New York, with all his troops, together with the two paquets above
mentioned, and all their passengers I During his absence the French
and savages had taken Fort George, on the frontier of that proviqce,
and the savages had massacred many of the garrison after capitula-
tion.

I saw afterwards in London Captain Bonnell, who commanded oneBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

iij

of those paquets. He told me that when he had been detain’d a month,
he acquainted his lordship that his shipwas grown foul, to a degree that
must necessarily hinder her fast sailing, a point of consequence for a
paquet-boat, and requested an allowance of time to heave her down
and clean her bottom. He was asked how long time that would re-
quire. He answer’d, three days. The general replied, “If you can
do it in one day, I give leave ; otherwise not ; for you must certainly
sail the day alter to-morrow.” So he never obtain’d leave, though
detained afterwards from day to day during full three months.

I saw also in London one of Donnell’s passengers, who was so en-
rag’d against his lordship for deceiving and detaining him so long at
New York, and then carrying him to Halifax and back again, that
he swore he would sue him for damages. Whether he did or not, I
never heard ; but, as he represented the injury to his affairs, it was
very considerable.

On the whole, I wonder’d much how such a man came to be in-
trusted with so important a business as the conduct of a great army ;
but, having since seen more of the great world, and the means of
obtaining, and motives for giving places, my wonder is diminished.
General Shirley, on whom the command of the army devolved upon
the death of Braddock, would, in my opinion, if continued in place,
have made a much better campaign than that of Loudoun in 1757,
which was frivolous, expensive, and disgraceful to our nation beyond
conception ; for, tho’ Shirley was not a bred soldier, he was sensible
and sagacious in himself, and attentive to good advice from others,
capable of forming judicious plans, and quick and active in carrying
them into execution. Loudoun, instead of defending the colonies
with his great army, left them totally expos’d, while he paraded idly
at Halifax, by which means Fort George was lost, besides he derang’d
all our mercantile operations, and distress’d our trade, by a long em-
bargo on the exportation of provisions, on pretence of keeping supplies
from being obtain’d by the enemy, but in reality for beating down their
price in favor of the contractors, in whose profits, it was said, perhaps
from suspicion only, he had a share. And, when at length the em-
bargo was taken off, by neglecting to send notice of it to Charlestown,
the Carolina fleet was detain’d near three months longer, whereby
their bottoms were so much damaged by the worm that a great part
of them foundered in their passage home.

Shirley was, I believe, sincerely glad of being relieved from so bur-
densome a charge as the conduct of an army must be to a man un-
acquainted with military business. I was at the entertainment given
by the city of New York to Lord Loudoun, on his taking upon him
the command. Shirley, tho’ thereby superseded, was present also.
There was a great company of officers, citizens, and strangers, and,
some chairs having been borrowed in the neighborhood, there was
one among them very low, which fell to the lot of Mr. Shirley. Per-
ceiving it as I sat by him, I said, “ They have given you, sir, too low
a seat.” “ No matter,” says he, “ Mr. Franklin, I find a low seat the
easiest.”

9114

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

While I was, as afore mention’d, detain’d at New York, I receiv’d
all the accounts of the provisions, etc., that I had furnish’d to Brad-
dock, some of which accounts could not sooner be obtain’d from the
different persons I had employ’d to assist in the business. I presented
them to Lord Loudoun, desiring to be paid the ballance. He.caus’d
them to be regularly examined by the proper officer, who, after com-
paring every article with its voucher, certified them to be right ; and
the ballance due for which his lordship promis’d to give me an order
on the paymaster. This was, however, put off from time to time ;
and, tho’ I call’d often for it by appointment, I did not get it. At
length, just before my departure, he told me he had, on better
consideration, concluded not to mix his accounts with those of
his predecessors. “And you,’’ says he, “when in England, have
only to exhibit your accounts at the treasury, and you will be paid
immediately.”

I mention’d, but without effect, the great and unexpected expense

had been put to by being detain’d so long at New York, as a reason
for my desiring to be presently paid ; and on my observing that it
was not right I should be put to any further trouble or delay in ob-
taining the money I had advanc’d, as I charged no commission for my
service, “O, sir,” says he, “you must not think of persuading us that
you are no gainer ; we understand better those affairs, and know that
every one concerned in supplying the army finds means, in the doing
it, to fill his own pockets.” I assur’d him that was not my case, and
that I had not pocketed a farthing ; but he appear’d clearly not to
believe me ; and, indeed, I have since learnt that immense fortunes
are often made in such employments. As to my ballance, I am not
paid it to this day, of which more hereafter.

Our captain of the paquet had boasted much, before we sailed, of
the swiftness of his ship ; unfortunately when we came to sea, she
proved the dullest of ninety-six sail, to his no small mortification.
After many conjectures respecting the cause, when we were near
another ship almost as dull as ours, which, however, gain’d upon us,
the captain ordered all hands to come aft, and stand as near the en-
sign staff as possible. We were, passengers included, about forty
persons. While we stood there, the ship mended her pace, and soon
left her neighbour far behind, which prov’d clearly what our captain
suspected, that she was loaded too much by the head. The casks of
water, it seems, had been all plac’d forward; these he therefore
order’d to be mov’d further aft, on which the ship recover’d her
character, and proved the best sailer in the fleet.

The captain said she had once gone at the rate of thirteen knots,
which is accounted thirteen miles per hour. We had on board, as a
passenger, Captain Kennedy, of the Navy, who contended that it was
impossible, and that no ship ever sailed so fast, and that there must
have been some error in the division of the log-line, or some ipistake in
heaving the log. A wager ensu’d between the two captains, to be
decided when there should be sufficient wind. Kennedy thereupon
examin’d rigorously the log-line, and, being satisfi’d with that, he de-BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.	115

termin’d to throw the log himself. Accordingly some days after, when
the wind blew very fair and fresh, and the captain of the paquet,
Lutwidge, said he believ’d she then went at the rate of thirteen knots,
Kennedy made the experiment, and own’d his wager lost.

The above fact I give for the sake of the following observation.
It has been remark’d, as an imperfection in the art of ship-building,
that it can never be known,'till she Is tried, whether a new ship will
or will not be a good sailer ; for that the model of a good sailing ship
has been exactly follow’d in a new one, which has prov’d, on the con-
trary, remarkably dull. I apprehend that this may partly be occasion’d
by the different opinions of seamen respecting the modes of lading,
rigging, and sailing of a ship ; each has his system ; and the same
vessel, laden by the judgment and orders of one captain, shall sail
better or worse than when by the orders of another. Besides, it
scarce ever happens that a ship is form’d, fitted for the sea, and sail’d
by the same person. One man builds the hull, another rigs her, a
third lades and sails her. No. one of these has the advantage of know-
ing all the ideas and experience of the others, and, therefore, can not
draw just conclusions from a combination of the whole.

Even in the simple operation of sailing when at sea, I have often
observ’d different judgments in the officers who commanded the suc-
cessive watches, the wind being the same. One would have the sails
trimm’d sharper or flatter than another, so that they seem’d to have
no certain rule to govern by. Yet I think a set of experiments might
be instituted, first, to determine the most proper form of the hull for
swift sailing; next, the best dimensions and properest place for the
masts ; then the form and quantity of sails, and their position, as the
wind may be ; and, lastly, the disposition of the lading. This is an
age of experiments, and I think a set accurately made and combin’d
would be of great use. I am persuaded, therefore, that ere long some
ingenious philosopher will undertake it, to whom I wish success.

We were several times chased on our passage, but outsail’d every
thing, and in thirty days had soundings. We had a good observation,
and the captain judg’d himself so near our port, Falmouth, that, if we
made a good run in the night, we might be off the mouth of that harbor
in the morning, and by running in the night might escape the notice
of the enemy’s privateers, who often cruis’d near the entrance of the
channel. Accordingly, all the sail was set that we could possibly make,
and the wind being very fresh and fair, we went right before it, and
made great way. The captain, after his observation, shap’d his course,
as he thought, so as to pass wide of the Scilly Isles; but it seems there
is sometimes a strong indraught setting up St. George’s Channel,
which deceives seamen and caused the loss of Sir Cloudesley Shovel’s
squadron. This indraught was probably the cause of what happened
to us.

We had a watchman plac’d in the bow, to whom they often called,
“ Look well out before there J and he as often answered, “Ay, ay/” but
perhaps had his eyes shut, and was half asleep at the time, they some-
times answering, as is said, mechanically j for he did not see a lightLIFE AND LETTERS OF

116

just before us, which had been hid by the studding-sails from the man
at the helm, and from the rest of the watch, but by an accidental yaw
of the ship was discover’d, and occasion’d a great alarm, we being
very near it, the light appearing to me as big as a cart-wheel. It was
midnight, and our captain was fast asleep ; but Captain Kennedy,
jumping upon deck, and seeing the danger, ordered the ship to wear
round, all sails standing ; an operation dangerous to the masts, but
it carried us clear, and we escaped shipwreck, for we were running
right upon the rocks on which the lighthouse was erected. This
deliverance impressed me strongly with the utility of light-houses,
and made me resolve to encourage the building of more of them in
America, if I should live to return there.

In the morning it was found by the soundings, etc., that we were
near our port, but a thick fog hid the land from our sight. About
nine o’clock the fog began to rise, and seem’d to be lifted up from the
water like the curtain at a play-house, discovering underneath, the
town of Falmouth, the vessels in its harbor, and the fields that sur-
rounded it. This was a most pleasing spectacle to those who had been
so long without any other prospects than the uniform view of a vacant
ocean, and it gave us the more pleasure as we were now free from the
anxieties which the state of war occasion’d.

I set out immediately, with my son, for London, and we only stopt
a little by the way to view Stonehenge on Salisbury Plain, and Lord
Pembroke’s house and gardens, with his very curious antiquities at
Wilton. We arrived in London the 27th of July, 1757.

As soon as I was settled in a lodging Mr. Charles had provided for
me, I went to visit Dr. Fothergill, to whom I was strongly recom-
mended, and whose counsel respecting my proceedings I was advis’d
to obtain. He was against an immediate complaint to government,
and thought the proprietaries should first be personally appli’d to, who
might possibly be induc’d by the interposition.and persuasion of some
private friends, to accommodate matters amicably. I then waited on
my old friend and correspondent, Mr. Peter Collinson, who told me
that John Hanbury, the great Virginia merchant, had requested to
be informed when I should arrive, that he might carry me to Lord
Granville’s, who was then President of the Council and wished to see
me as soon as possible. I agreed to go with him the next morning.
Accordingly Mr. Hanbury called for me and took me in his carriage
to that nobleman’s, who. receiv’d me with great civility ; and after
some questions respecting the present state of affairs in America and
discourse thereupon, he said to me : “ You Americans have wrong
ideas of the nature of your constitution ; you contend that the king’s
instructions to his governors are not laws, and think yourselves at
liberty to regard or disregard them at your own discretion. But
those instructions are not like the pocket instructions given to a
minister going abroad, for regulating his conduct in some trifling
point of ceremony. They are first drawn up by judges learned in the
laws ; they are then considered, debated, and perhaps amended in
Council, alter which they are signed by the king. They are then, soBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

117

far as they relate to you, the law of the land, for the king is the
Legislator of the Colonies.” I told his lordship this was new
doctrine to me. I had always understood from our charters that our
laws were to be made by our Assemblies, to be presented indeed to
the king for his royal assent, but that being once given the king could
not repeal or alter them. And as the Assemblies could not make
permanent laws without his assent, so neither could he make a law
for them without theirs. He assur’d me I was totally mistaken. I
did not think so, however, and his lordship’s conversation having a
little alarm’d me as to what might be the sentiments of the court
concerning us, I wrote it down as soon as I return’d to my lodgings.1
I recollected that about 20 years before, a clause in a bill brought
into Parliament by the ministry had propos’d to make the king’s in-
structions laws in the colonies, but the clause was thrown out by the

1 An account of this conversation with Granville is given in the following letter
from Franklin to Mr. James Bowdoin :

* “London, 13 January, 1772.

“Dear Sir: I should very readily have recommended your son to the care
of my friend, Dr. Priestly, if he had continued to superintend the academy at
Warrington ; but he has left that charge some time since, and is now pastor of a
congregation at Leeds in Yorkshire. I am much obliged to you for introducing
me to the acquaintance of Mr. Erving, who appears a very intelligent, sensible
man. The governing of colonies by instruction has long been a favourite point
with ministers here. About thirty years since, in a bill brought into Parliament
relating to America, they inserted a clause to make the king’s instructions laws in
the colonies, which, being opposed by the then agents, was thrown out.

"And 1 well remember a conversation with Lord Granville, soon after my
arrival here, in which he expressed himself on that subject in the following terms.

‘ Your American Assemblies slight the king’s instructions, pretending that they are
not laws. The instructions sent over to your governors are not like the pocket
instructions given to ambassadors, to be observed at their discretion, as circum-
stances may require. They are drawn up by grave men, learned in the laws and
constitutions of the realm ; they are brought into Council, thoroughly weighed,
well considered, and amended if necessary, by the wisdom of that body, and,
when received by the governors, they are the laws of the land ; for the king is the
legislator of the c'olonies.’ I remember this the better, because, being a new
doctrine to me, I put it down as soon as I returned to my lodgings. To be sure, if
a governor thinks himself obliged to obey all instructions, whether consistent or
inconsistent with the constitution, laws, and rights of the country he governs; and
can proceed to govern in that train, there is an end of the constitution, and those
rights are abolished. But I wonder that an honest gentleman can think there is
honor in being a governor on such terms. And I think the practice cannot
possibly continue, especially if opposed with spirit by our Assemblies. At present
no attention is paid by the American ministers to any agent here whose appoint-
ment is not ratified by the governor’s assent; and, if this is persisted in, you can
have none to serve you in a public character, that do not render themselves agree-
able to these ministers, and those otherwise appointed can only promote your
interests by conversation as private gentlemen or by writing. Virginia had, as you
observe, two agents, one for the Council, the other for the Assembly ; but I think
the latter only was considered as agent for the Province.

“He was appointed by an act, which expired in the time of Lord Botetourt,
and was not revived. The other, I apprehend, continues; but I am not well
acquainted with the nature of his appointment. I only understand that he does
not concern himself much with the general affairs of the colony. ’’—Spark? Werks
qf Franklin, vol. vii. p. 549.u8

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

Commons, for which we adored them as our friends and friends of
liberty, till by their conduct towards us in 1765 it seem’d that they
had refus’d that point of sovereignty to the king only that they might
reserve it for themselves.

After some days, Dr. Fothergill having spoken to the proprietaries,
they agreed to a meeting with me at Mr. T. Penn’s house in Spring
Garden. The conversation at first consisted of mutual declarations
of disposition to reasonable accommodations, but I suppose each party
had its own ideas of what should be meant by reasonable. We then
went into consideration of our several points of complaint, which I
enumerated. The proprietaries justify’d their conduct as well as they
could, and I the Assembly’s. We now appeared very wide, and so
far from each other in our opinions as to discourage all hope of agree-
ment. However, it was concluded that I should give them the heads
of our complaints in writing, and they promis’d then to consider them.
I did so soon after, but they put the paper into the hands of their
solicitor, Ferdinand John Paris, who managed for them all their law
business in their great suit with the neighbouring proprietary of
Maryland, Lord Baltimore, which had subsisted 70 years, and wrote
for them all their papers and messages in their dispute with the
Assembly. He was a proud, angry man, and as I had occasionally in
the answers of the Assembly treated his papers with severity, they
being really weak in point of argument and haughty in expression, he
had conceived a mortal enmity to me, which discovering itself when-
ever we met, I declin’d the proprietary’s proposal that he and I should
discuss the heads of complaint between our two selves, and refus’d
treating with any one but them. They then by his advice put the
paper into the hands of the Attorney and Solicitor-General for their
opinion and counsel upon it, where it lay unanswered a year wanting
eight days, during which time I made frequent demands of an answer
from the proprietaries, but without obtaining any other than that they
had not yet received the opinion of the Attorney and Solicitor-General.
What it was when they did receive it I never learnt, for they did not
communicate it to me, but sent a long message to the Assembly drawn
and signed by Paris, reciting my paper, complaining of its want of
formality, as a rudeness on my part, and giving a flimsy justification
of their conduct, adding that they should be willing to accommodate
matters if the Assembly would send out some person of catidour to
treat with them for that purpose, intimating thereby that I was not such.

The want of formality or rudeness was, probably, my not having
address’d the paper to them with their assum’d titles of True and
Absolute Proprietaries of the Province of Pennsylvania, which I
omitted as not thinking it necessary in a paper, the intention of which
was only to reduce to a certainty by writing, what in conversation I
had delivered viva voce.

But during this delay, the Assembly having prevailed.with Gov’r
Denny to pass an act taxing the proprietary estate in common with
the estates of the people, which was the grand point in dispute, they
omitted answering the message.BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

119

When this act however came over, the proprietaries, counselled by
Paris, determined to oppose its receiving the royal assent. Accord-
ingly they petition’d the king in Council, and a hearing was appointed
in which two lawyers were employ’d by them against the act, and two
by me in support of it. They alledg’d that the act was intended to
load the proprietary estate in order to spare those of the people, and
that if it were suffer’d to continue in force, and the proprietaries who
were in odium with the people, left to their mercy in proportioning the
taxes, they would inevitably be ruined. We reply’d that the act had
no such intention, and would have no such effect. That the assessors
were honest and discreet men under an oath to assess fairly and
equitably, and that any advantage each of them might expect in
lessening his own tax by augmenting that of the proprietaries was too
trifling to induce them to perjure themselves. This is the purport of
what I remember as urged by both sides, except that we insisted
strongly on the mischievous consequences that must attend a repeal,
for that the money, ^ioo,ooor being printed and given to the king’s
use, expended in his service, and now spread among the people, the
repeal would strike it dead in their hands to the ruin of many, and
the total discouragement of future grants, and the selfishness of the
proprietors in soliciting such a general catastrophe, merely from a
groundless fear of their estate being taxed too highly, was insisted on
in the strongest terms. On this, Lord Mansfield, one of the counsel,
rose, and beckoning me took me into the clerk’s chamber, while the
lawyers were pleading, and asked me if I was really of opinion that
no injury would be done the proprietary estate in the execution of the
act. I said certainly. “ Then,” says he, “ you can have little objec-
tion to enter into an engagement to assure that point.” I answer’d,
“None at all.” He then call’d in Paris, and after some discourse, his
lordship’s proposition was accepted on both sides; a paper to the
purpose was drawn up by the Clerk of the Council, which I sign’d
with Mr. Charles, who was also as Agent of the Province for their
ordinary affairs, when Lord Mansfield returned to the Council Cham-
ber, where finally the law was allowed to pass, Some changes were
however recommended, and we also engaged they should be made by
a subsequent law, but the Assembly did not think them necessary ;
for one year’s tax having been levied by the act before the order of
Council arrived, they appointed a committee to examine the proceed-
ings of the assessors, and on this committee they put several particu-
lar friends of the proprietaries. After a full enquiry, they unanimously
sign’d a report that they found the tax had been assess’d with perfect
equity.

The Assembly looked into my entering into the first part of the
engagement, as an essential service to the Province, since it secured
the credit of the paper money then spread over all the country. They
gave me their thanks in form when I return’d. But the proprietaries
were enraged at Governor Denny for having pass’d the act, and
turn’d him out with threats of suing him for breach of instructions
which he had given bond to observe. He, however, had done it at120

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

the instance of the General, and for His Majesty’s service, and having
some powerful interest at court, despis’d the threats and they were
never put in execution.

LETTERS, ETC.

CHAPTER I. (1757-1762.)

Domestication and Protracted Illness in London—Removal of Governor Denny—
Countermining the Proprietors—Historical Review, etc., of Pennsylvania—
'J'our through England and Scotland—Cambridge University—Visits the
Home of his Ancestors—Counsels the Annexation of Canada to the British
Empire—Portrait of William Penn—The " Art of Virtue”—Karnes's “ Ele-
ments of Criticism ”—Directions for a Young Lady’s Reading—Expensiveness
of English Wives—Hume’s "Jealousy of Commerce"—Baskerville’s Printing
Types—Property of the Penn Family—Death of his Mother-in-law—Lightning
Conductors.

To his wife, During my illness, which continued near eight weeks,
dated London, I wrote several letters as I was able. The last was by
22 Nov., 1757. tjie packet which sailed from Falmouth above a week
since. In that I informed you that my intermitting fever, which had
continued to harass me by frequent relapses, was gone off, and I have
ever since been gathering strength and flesh. My doctor, Fothergill,
who had forbid me the use of pen and ink, now permits me to write
as much as I can without over fatiguing myself, and therefore I sit
down to write more fully than I have hitherto been able to do.

The 2nd of September I wrote to you, that I had had a violent cold
and something of a fever, but that it was almost gone. However, it
was not long before I had another severe cold, which continued longer
than the first, attended by great pain in my head, the top of which was
very hot, and when the pain went off, very sore and tender. These
fits of pain continued sometimes longer than at others ; seldom less
than twelve hours, and once thirty-six hours. I was now and then a
little delirious ; they cupped me on the back of the head, which
seemed to ease me for the present; I took a great deal of bark, both
in substance and infusion, and too soon thinking myself well, I ven-
tured out twice, to do a little business and forward the service I am
engaged in, and both times got fresh cold and fell down again. My
good doctor grew very angry with me for acting contrary to his
cautions and directions, and obliged me to promise more observance
for the future. He attended me very carefully and affectionately ; and
the good lady of the house nursed me kindly.1 Billy was^also of

1 By the advice of some of his Pennsylvania friends who had boarded there,
Franklin took up his residence in London with a Mrs. Margaret Stevenson, in
Craven Street, Strand, where he lived during the whole of his subsequent residence
jn London. Both for Mrs. Stevenson and for her daughter Mary, then a youngBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

121

great service to rue, in going from place to place, where I could not
go myself, and Peter was very diligent and attentive.1 I took so much
bark in various ways, that I began to abhor it; I durst not take a
vomit, for fear of my head ; but at last I was seized one morning with
a vomiting and purging, the latter of which continued the greater
part of the day, and I believe was a kind of crisis to the distemper,
carrying it clear off; for ever since I feel quite lightsome, and am
every day gathering strength ; so I hope my seasoning is pver, and
that I shall enjoy better health during the rest of my stay in Eng-
land.

Governor Shirley’s affairs are still in an uncertain state ; he is
endeavouring to obtain an inquiry into his conduct, but the confusion
of public affairs occasions it to be postponed. He and I visit fre-
quently. I make no doubt but reports will be spread by my enemies
to my disadvantage, but let none of them trouble you. If I find I can
do my country no good, I will take care at least not to do it any
harm ; I will neither seek nor expect anything for myself; and,
though I may perhaps not be able to. obtain for the people what they
wish and expect, no interest shall induce me to betray the trust they
have reposed in me ; so make yourself quite easy with regard to such
reports.

I should have read Sally’s French letter with more pleasure, but
that I thought the French rather too good to be all her own com-
posing. I suppose her master must have corrected it. But I am
glad she is improving in that and her music; I send her a French
Pamela.

December 3rd.—I write by little and little as I can find time. I have
now gone through all your agreeable letters, which give me fresh
pleasure every time I read them. Last night I received another,
dated October 16th, which brings me the good news that you and
Sally were got safe home ; your last, of the 9th, being from Elizabeth-
town.

I am glad to hear that Miss Ray is well, and that you correspond.
It is not convenient to be forward in giving advice in such cases.
She has prudence enough to judge for herself, and I hope she will
judge and act for the best.

I hear there has a miniature painter gone over to Philadelphia, a
relation to John Reynolds. If Sally’s picture is not done to your
mind by the young man, and the other gentleman is a good hand and
follows the business, suppose you get Sally’s done by him, and send
it to me with your small picture, that I may here get all our little

lady of eighteen years, he formed a cordial attachment, which lasted through life.
Miss Stevenson was a girl of superior sense, and the interest which Franklin took
during the earlier years of their acquaintance, in perfecting her education and in
cultivating her friendship,. reveals to us one of the most sunny and attractive
phases of his character. Miss Stevenson spent most of her time with her aunt,
Mrs. Tickell, in the country. This led to a correspondence between her and the
doctor, which was faithfully sustained on both sides up to the year of his death,

1 The Billy here referred to is his son William.122

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

family drawn in one conversation piece. I am sorry to hear of the
general sickness; I hope it is over before this time; and that little
Franky is recovered.

I was as much disappointed in my intention of writing by the
packet, as you were in not receiving letters, and it has since given me
a great deal of vexation. I wrote to you by way of New York, the
day after my arrival in London, which I do not find you have re-
ceived.

I do not use to be a backward correspondent, though my sickness
has brought me behindhand with my friends in that respect. Had
I been well, I intended to have gone round among the shops, and
bought some pretty things for you and my dear good Sally (whose
little hands you say eased your headache), to send by this ship, but 1
must now defer it to the next, having only got a crimson satin cloak
for you, the newest fashion, and the black silk for Sally ; but Billy
sends her a scarlet feather, muff, and tippet, and a box of fashionable
linen for her dress. In the box is a thermometer for Mr. Taylor, and
one for Mr. Schlatter, which you will carefully deliver; as also a
watch for Mr. Schlatter. I shall write to them. The black silk was
sent to Mr. Neales, who undertook to forward it in some package of
his.

It is now twelve days since I began to write this letter, and I still
continue well, but have not yet quite recovered my strength, flesh, or
spirits. I every day drink a glass of infusion of bark in wine, by way
of prevention, and hope my fever will no more return. On fair days,
which are but few, I venture out about noon. The agreeable conversa-
tion I meet with among men of learning, and the notice taken of me
by persons of distinction, are the principal things that soothe me for
the present under this painful absence from my family and friends.
Yet those would not keep, me here another week, if I had not other
inducements ; duty to my country, and hopes of being able to do it
service.

Pray remember me kindly to all that love us, and to all that we love.
It is endless to name names. I am, my dear child, your loving
husband.

To his wife, I am thankful to God for sparing my little family in
dated London, that time of general sickness, and hope to find them all
u Jan., 1758. weq at my return. The New York paper you sent me
was the latest that came, and of use to our friend Strahan. He has
offered to lay me a considerable wager, that a letter he has wrote to
you will bring you immediately over hither ; but I tell him I will not
pick his pocket; for I am sure there is no inducement strong enough
to prevail with you to cross the seas. I should be glad if I could tell
you when I expected to be at home, but that is still in the jlark ; it is
possible I may not be able to get away this summer ; but I hope, if I
stay another winter, it will be more agreeable than the greatest part of
the time I have hitherto spent in England.BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

123

To his wife, I begin to think I shall hardly be able to return before
dated london, this time twelve months. I am for doing effectually
all,, ' what I came about; and I find it requires both time and
patience. You may think, perhaps, that I can find many amusements
here to pass the time agreeably. It is true, the regard and friendship
I meet with from persons of worth, and the conversation of ingenious
men, give me no small pleasure ; but, at this time of life, domestic
comforts afford the most solid satisfaction, and my uneasiness at
being absent from my family, and longing desire to be with them,
make me often sigh in the midst of cheerful company.

My love to my dear Sally. I confide in you the care of her and her
education. I promise myself the pleasure of finding her much im-
proved at my return. When you write to Boston, give my love to
sister Jenny, as I have not often time to write to her. If you please,
you may send her the enclosed little picture.

To his wife, Your kind advice about getting a chariot, I had taken
dated London^ some time before ; for I found, that, every time I walked
19 Feb., 1758. 0ut, j got fresh cold ; and the hackney coaches at this
end of the town, where most people keep their own, are the worst in
the whole city, miserable, dirty, broken, shabby things, unfit to go into
when dressed clean, and such as one would be ashamed to get out of
at any gentleman’s door. As to burning wood, it would answer no end,
unless one would furnish all one’s neighbours and the whole city with
the same. The whole town is one great smoky house, and every street a
chimney, the air full of floating seacoal soot, and you never get a sweet
breath of what is pure, without riding some miles for it into the country.

I am sorry to hear, that a storm has damaged a house of my good
friend Mr. Bartram. Acquaint him that I have received the seeds,
and shall write to him shortly. I hope the Speaker is recovered of the
illness you mention.

Give my thanks to Dr. Bond for the care he takes of you. I have
wrote to him by this vessel. Mr. Hunter and Polly talk of returning
this spring. He is wonderfully recruited. They both desire to be
remembered to you. She received your letter and answered it. Her
answer I enclosed in one of mine to you. Her daughter Rachel, who
plays on the harpsicord and sings prettily, sends Sally one of her songs,
that I fancied.

I send you by Captain Budden a large case, and a small box. In
the large case is another small box, containing some English china ;
viz., melons and leaves for a desert of fruit and cream, or the like ; a
bowl remarkable for the neatness of the figures, made at Bow, near
this city ; some coffee cups of the same ; a Worcester bowl, ordinary.
To show the difference of workmanship, there is something from all
the china works in England ; and one old true china basin mended, of
an odd colour. The same box contains four silver salt ladles, newest,
but ugliest, fashion ; a little instrument to core apples ; another to
make-little turnips out of great ones ; six coarse diaper breakfast cloths ;
they are to spread on the tea-table, for nobody breakfasts here on the124

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

naked table, but on the cloth they set a large tea-board with the cups.
There is also a little basket, a present from Mrs. Stevenson to Sally,
and a pair of garters for you, which were knit by the young lady, her
daughter, who favoured me with a pair of the same kind, the only ones
I have.been able to wear; as they need not be bound tight, the ridges
in them preventing their slipping. We send them therefore as a
curiosity for the form, more than the value. Goody Smith may, if she
pleases, make such for me hereafter. My love to her.

In the great case, besides the little box, is contained some carpeting
for a best room floor. There is enough for one large or two small ones,
it is to be sewed together, the edges being first felled down, and care
taken to make the figures meet exactly ; there is bordering for the same.
This was my fancy. Also two large fine Flanders bed ticks, and two
pair of large superfine blankets, two fine damask table-cloths and
napkins, and forty-three ells of Ghentish sheeting Holland. These
you ordered. There are also fifty-six yards of cotton, printed curiously
from copper plates, a new invention, to make bed and window curtains ;
and seven yards of chair bottoms, printed in the same way, very neat.
These were my fancy ; but Mrs. Stevenson tells me I did wrong not to
buy both of the same colour. Also seven yards of printed cotton,
blue ground, to make you a gown. I bought it by candlelight, and
liked it then, but not so well afterwards. If you do not fancy it, send
it as a present from me to sister Jenny. There is a better gown for
you, of flowered tissue, sixteen yards, of Mrs. Stevenson’s fancy, cost
nine guineas ; and I think it a great beauty. There was no more of
the sort, or you should have had enough for a negligee or suit.

There are also snuffers, a snuffstand, and extinguisher, of steel, which
I send for the beauty of the work. The extinguisher is for spermaceti
candles only, and is of a new contrivance, to preserve the snuff upon
the candle. There is some music Billy bought for his sister, and some
pamphlets for the Speaker and for Susy Wright. A mahogany and a
little shagreen box, with microscopes and other optical instruments
loose, are for Mr. Alison, if he likes them ; if not, put them in my room
till I return. I send the invoice of them, and I wrote to him formerly
the reason of my exceeding his orders. There are also two sets of
books, a present from me to Sally, “The World” and “The Con-
noisseur.” My love to her.

I forgot to mention another of my fancyings, viz., a pair of silk
blankets, very fine. They are of a new kind, were just taken in a
French prize, and such were never seen in England before. They are
called blankets, but I think they will be very neat to cover a summer
bed, instead of a quilt or counterpane. I had no choice, so you will
excuse the soil on some of the folds ; your neighbour Foster can get
it off. I also forgot, among the china, to mention a large fine jug for
beer, to stand in the cooler. I fell in love with it at first sight; for I
thought it looked like a fat jolly dame, clean and tidy, with a neat blue
and white calico gown on, good natured and lovely, and put me in
mind of—somebody. It has the coffee cups in it, packed in best crystal
salt, of a peculiar nice flavour, for the table, not to be powdered.BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

125

I hope Sally applies- herself closely to her French ancl music, and
that I shall find she has made great proficiency. The harpsichord I
was about, and which was to have cost me forty guineas, Mr.- Stanley
advises me not to buy ; and we are looking out for another, one that
has been some time in use, and is a tried good one, their being not so
much dependence on a new one, though made by the best hands.
Sally’s last letter to her brother is the best wrote that of late I have
seen of hers. I only wish she was a little more careful of her spelling.
I hope she continues to love going to church, and would have her read
over and over again the “Whole Duty of Man,” and the “ Lady’s
Library.”

Look at the figures on the china bowl and coffee cups, with your
spectacles on ; they will bear examining.

I have made your compliments to Mrs. Stevenson. She is indeed
very obliging, takes great care of my health, and is very diligent when
I am any way indisposed ; but yet I have a thousand times wished you
with me, and my little Sally with her ready hands and feet to do, and
go, and come, and get what I wanted. There is a great difference
in sickness between being nursed with that tender attention which

proceeds from sincere love ; and------- (The remainder of this letter

is lost.)

To his wife I was down at Cambridge with Billy when Snead
dated London) sailed, so I did not write again by him as I intended.
10 June, 1758. His sailing so soon was unexpected to me. I am some-
what out of the way of vessels, and Mr. Partridge by mistake wrote
me Snead was not to sail that week ; so, being very kindly entertained
there in the colleges, we did not hurry so soon home as we might have
done. However, this vessel perhaps may be there about the same
time.

I think nobody ever had more faithful correspondents than I have
in Mr. Hughes and you. It is impossible for me to get or keep out of
your debts. I received the bill of exchange you got of Mr. Nelson, and
it is paid. I received also the Proprietary’s account. It gives me
concern to receive such frequent accounts of your being indisposed ;
but we both of us grow in years, and must expect our constitutions,
though tolerably good in themselves, will by degrees give way to the
infirmities of age.

I have sent, in a trunk of the Library Company’s, some of the best
writing paper for letters, and best quills and wax, all for Mrs. Moore,
which I beg she would accept; having received such civilities here
from her sister and brother Scott, as are not in my power to return.
I shall send some to Sally by the next opportunity. By Captain Lut-
widge I sent my dear girl a newest fashioned white hat and cloak, and
sundry little things, which I hope will get safe to hand. I now send
her a pair of buckles, made of French paste stones, which are next in
lustre to diamonds. They cost three guineas, and are said to be cheap
at that price. I fancy I see more likeness in her picture than I did at
first, and I look at it often with pleasure, as at least it reminds me of126

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

her. Yours is at the painter’s, who is to copy it and do me of the same
size ; but, as to family pieces, it is said they never look well, and are
quite out of fashion, and I find the limner very unwilling to undertake
anything of the kind. However, when Franky’s comes, and that of
Sally by young Hesselius, I shall see what can be done. . I wonder how
you came by Ben Lay’s picture.

You are very prudent not to engage in party disputes. Women
never should meddle with them, except in endeavours to reconcile their
husbands, brothers, and friends, who happen to be of contrary sides.
If your sex keep cool, you may be a means of cooling ours the sooner,
and restoring more speedily that social harmony among fellow-citizens,
that is so desirable after long and bitter dissensions.

Cousin Dunlap has wrote me an account of his purchasing Chattin’s
printing-house. I wish it may be advantageous to him without injuring
Mr. Hall. I can however do nothing to encourage him, as a printer in
Philadelphia, inconsistent with my pre-engagement to so faithful a
partner. And I trust you will take care not to do anything in that way,
that may draw reflections on me ; as if I did underhand, through your
means, what I would not care to appear in openly. I hope he will keep
a good understanding with Mr. Hall,1 and I am pleased to hear that
he asked his advice and friendship ; but I have thought it right and
necessary to forbid the use of my letters by Mr. Dunlap without Mr.
Hall’s consent. The post-office, if it is agreeable to you, may be
removed to Mr. Dunlap’s house, it being proposed by our good friend
Mr. Hughes.

I wrote to you lately to speak to Ambruster2 not to make use of my
name any more in his newspaper, as I have no particular concern in
it, but as one of the trustees only. I have no prospect of returning till
next spring, so you will not expect me. But pray remember to make
me as happy as you can, by sending some pippins for myself and
friends, some of your small hams, and some cranberries.

Billy is of the Middle Temple, and will be called to the bar either
this term or the next. I write this in answer to your particular inquiry.

I am glad you like the cloak I sent you. The black silk was sent
by our friend Mr. Collinson. I never saw it. Your answer to Mr.
Strahan was just what it should be.* I was much pleased with it.
He fancied his rhetoric and art would certainly bring you over.

I have ordered two large print Common Prayer Books to be bound,
on purpose for you and Goody Smith ; and, that the largeness of the
print may not make them too bulky, the christenings, matrimonies,
and everything else that you and she have not immediate and con-
stant occasion for, are to be omitted. So you will both of you be
reprieved from the use of spectacles in church a little longer.

If the ringing of the bells frightens you, tie a piece of wire from
one bell to the other, and that will conduct the lightning without

1	Mr. David Hall had been the partner, and was now the successor, of Franklin
in his business.

2	Anthony Ambruster, a German printer in Philadelphia, and for some time
publisher of a newspaper there in the German language.BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

127

ringing or snapping, but silently ; though I think it best the bells
should be at liberty to ring, that you may know when they are
electrified ; and when you are afraid you may keep at a distance.1 I
wrote last winter to Josey Crocker to come over hither and stay a
year, and work in some of the best shops for improvement in his
business, and therefore did not send the tools ; but, if he is about to
be married, I would not advise him to come. I shall send the tools
immediately. You have disposed of the apple-trees very properly. 1
condole with you on the loss of your walnuts.

I see the governor’s treatment of his wife makes all the ladies
angry. If it is on account of the bad example, that will soon be
removed ; for the Proprietors are privately looking out for another ;
being determined to discard him, and the place goes a begging.
One, to whom it was offered, sent a friend to make some inquiries of
me. The Proprietors told him they had there a city-house and a
country-house, which he might use rent free ; that everything was so
cheap he might live on five hundred pounds sterling a year, keep a
genteel table, a coach, &c., and his income would be at least nine
hundred pounds. If it fell short of that, the Proprietors would
engage to make it up. For the truth of his being able to live genteelly
and keep a coach for five hundred pounds a year, the Proprietors
refefred him to Mr. Hamilton, who, it seems, told him the same
story ; but, on inquiry of Mr. Morris, he had quite a different account,
and knew not which to believe. The gentleman is one Mr. Graves, a
lawyer of the Temple. He hesitated a good while, and I am now
told has declined accepting it. I wish that may not be true, for he
has the character of being a very good sort of man; though while
the instructions continue, it matters little who is our governor. It
was to have been kept a secret from me, that the Proprietors were
looking out for a new one ; because they would not have Mr. Denny
know anything about it, till the appointment was actually made, and
the gentleman ready to embark. So you may make a secret of it too,
if you please, and oblige all your friends with it.

I need not tell you to assist godmother in her difficulties; for I
know you will think it as agreeable to me, as it is to your own good
disposition. I could not find the bit of thread you mention to have
sent me, of your own spinning. Perhaps it was too fine to be seen.
I am glad little Franky begins to talk.. It will divert you to have
him often with you.

Mrs. Stevenson and her daughter desire me to present their com-
pliments, and offer their services to you and Sally. I think of going
into the country soon, and shall be pretty much out this summer, in
•different parts of England. I depend chiefly on these journeys for
•the establishment of my health.

1 In the year 1753 Franklin had erected an iron rod for the purpose of drawing
lightning from the clouds into his house. He also placed two bells in such a
position that they would ring when the rod was* electrified. Mrs. Franklin, it
■seems, did not fancy having the clouds on such a familiar footing in the house
•during her husband’s absence.128

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

To the Speaker Mr. Charles at my request has drawn the state of the
and Committee of case, in order to obtain opinions of eminent lawyers how
Assembly, dated ^ar our present privileges would be affected in case of
London, 10 June, a change of government, by our coming immediately
1788‘	under the crown. I send you a copy of this case, with

the opinion of our counsel upon it, who is esteemed the best acquainted
with our American affairs and constitutions, as well as with govern-
ment law in general. He being also thoroughly knowing in the present
views of the Board of Trade, and in their connexions and characters,
has given me withal, as a friend, some prudential advice in a separate
sheet distinct from his law opinion, because the law opinion might
necessarily appear where he would not care the advice should be seen.
I send you, also, a copy of this, and should be glad of your sentiments
upon it. One thing, that he recommends to be done before we push
our point in Parliament, is removing the prejudices, that art and
accident have spread among the people of this country against us,
and obtaining for us the good opinion of the bulk of mankind without
doors. This I hope we have it in our power to do, by means of a
work now nearly ready for the press, calculated to engage the attention
of many readers, and at the same time to efface the bad impressions
received of us; but it is thought best not to publish it till a little
before the next session of Parliament.1

The Proprietors are determined to discard their present governor,
as soon as they can find a successor to their mind. They have lately
offered the government to Mr. Graves, a gentleman of the Temple,
who has had it for some time under consideration, and makes a diffi-
culty of accepting it. The beginning of the week it was thought he
would accept; but on Thursday night I was told he had resolved to
refuse it. I know not, however, whether he may not yet be prevailed
on. He has the character of a man of good understanding, and good
dispositions. {The remainder of the letter is lost.)

Tohigwife,dated niine °f June ioth, by the Mercury, Captain Robin-
London, 6 Sept., son, I mentioned our having been at Cambridge. We
1768,	stayed there a week, being entertained with great kind-

ness by the principal people, and shown all the curiosities of the
place ; and, returning by another road to see more of the country, we
came again to London. I found the journey advantageous to my
health, increasing both my health and spirits, and therefore, as all the
great folks were out of town, and public business at a stand, I the

1 The book of which Franklin here speaks is the “ Historical Review of the
Constitution and Government of Pennsylvania,” which was published in the year
J759. It was a rather lively aita:k upon William Penn and his descendants, and
made no slight sensation when it appeared. Public opinion ascribed its authorship
to Franklin, and he was assailed for it with great virulence by all the proprietary
press. Franklin did not disavow the paternity then, nor did he ever do so publicly.
Indeed, there was little doubt that he had furnished most of the material, and that
it was printed, published, and circulated under his direction ; but we now know,
from a letter to David Hume of the 27th Sept., 1760, that though he was not
strictly speaking the author, he must have furnished all the material. It was
doubtless put into shape by.his son William and by his old friend Ralph.BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.	129

more easily prevailed with myself to take another journey, and accept
of the invitation we had, to be again at Cambridge at the Commence-
ment, the beginning of July. We went accordingly, were present at
all the ceremonies, dined every day in their halls, and my vanity was
not a little gratified by the particular regard shown me by the
chancellor and vice-chancellor of the University, and the heads of
colleges.

After the Commencement, we went from Cambridge through
Huntingdonshire into Northumberlandshire,1 and at Wellingborough,
on inquiry, we found still living Mary Fisher, whose maiden name
was Franklin, daughter and only child of Thomas Franklin, my
father’s eldest brother. She is five years older than sister Dowse,
and remembers her going away with my father and his then wife, and
two other children to New England about the year 1685. We have
had no correspondence with her since my uncle Benjamin’s death,
now near thirty years. I knew she had lived at Wellingborough, and
had married there to one Mr. Richard Fisher, a grazier and tanner,
about fifty years ago, but did not expect to see either of them alive,
so inquired for their posterity. I was directed to their house, and we
found them both alive, but weak with age, very glad however to see
us. She seems to have been a very smart, sensible woman. They
are wealthy, have left off business, and live comfortably. They have
had only one child, a daughter, who died, when about thirty years of
age, unmarried. She gave me several of my uncle Benjamin’s letters
to her, and acquainted me where the other remains of the family
lived, of which I have, since my return to London, found out a
daughter of my father’s only sister, very old, and never married.
She is a good, clever woman, but poor, though vastly contented with
her situation, and very cheerful. The others are in different parts of
the country. I intend to visit them, but they were too much out of
our tour in that journey.

From Wellingborough we went to Ecton, about three or four miles,
being the village where my father was born, and where his father,
grandfather, and great-grandfather had lived, and how many of the
family before them we know not. We went first to see the old house
and grounds ; they came to Mr. Fisher with his wife, and, after letting
them for some years, finding his rent something ill paid, he sold them.
The land is now added to another farm, and a school kept in the
house. It is a decayed old stone building, but still known by the
name of Franklin House. Thence we went to visit the rector of the
parish, who lives close by the church, a very ancient building. He
entertained us very kindly, and showed us the old church register, in
which w'ere the births, marriages, and burials of our ancestors for two
hundred years, as early as his book began. His wife, a good-natured,
chatty old lady (granddaughter of the famous Archdeacon Palmer,
who formerly had that parish, and lived there), remembered a great
deal about the family ; carried us out into the churchyard, and showed
ps several of their gravestones, which were so covered with moss that
1 Obviously a misprint or slip of the pen for Northamptonshire,

IO	'130

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

we could not read the letters, till she ordered a hard brush and basin
of water, with which Peter scoured them clean, and then Billy copied
them. She entertained and diverted us highly with stories of Thomas
Franklin, Mrs. Fisher’s father, who was a conveyancer, something of
a lawyer, clerk of the county courts, and clerk to the archdeacon in
his visitations; a very leading man in all county affairs, and much
employed in public business. He set on foot a subscription for
erecting chimes in their steeple, and completed it, and we heard them
play. He found out an easy method of saving their village meadows
from being drowned, as they used to be sometimes by the river,
which method is still in being ; but, when first proposed, nobody
could conceive how it could be; “but however,”they said,“if Franklin
says he knows how to do it, it will be done.” His advice and opinion
were sought for on all occasions, by all sorts of people, and he was
looked upon, she said, by some, as something of a conjurer.' He
died just four years before I was born, on the same day of the same
month.

Since our return to London, I have had a kind letter from cousin
Fisher, and another from the rector, which I send you.

From Ecton we went to Northampton, where we stayed part of the
day; then went to Coventry, and from thence to Birmingham. Here,
upon inquiry, we soon found out yours, and cousin Wilkinson’s, and
cousin Cash’s relations. First, we found out one of the Cashes, and
he went with us to Rebecca Flint’s, where we saw her and her husband.
She is a turner and he a buttonmaker ; they have no children ; were
very glad to see any person that knew their sister Wilkinson ; told us
what letters they had received, and showed us some of them; and
even showed us that they had, out of respect, preserved a keg, in
which they had received a present of some sturgeon. They sent for
their brother, Joshua North, who came with his wife immediately to
see us ; he is a turner also, and has six children, a lively, active man.
Mrs. Flint desired me to tell her sister, that they live still in the old
house she left them in, which I think she says was their father’s.
From thence Mr. North went with us to your cousin Benjamin’s.
(The remamder of this letter is wanting.)

To his sister I wonder you have had no letter from me since my
Mrs. Jane Me- being in England. I have wrote you at least two, and
don1’ ^6tedBept1" * think a third before this, and, what was next to waiting
1758.	’	on you in person, sent you my picture. In June last I

sent Benny 1 a trunk of books, and wrote to him. I
hope they are come to hand, and that he meets with encouragement in
his business. I congratulate you on the conquest of Cape Breton, and
hope, as your people took it by praying the first time, you will now
pray that it may never be given up again, which you then forgot.
Billy is well, but in the country. I left him at Tunbridge Wells,
where we spent a fortnight, and he is now gone with some company
to see Portsmouth. We have been together over a great part of
1 Mrs. Mecom’s son.BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

I3i

England this summer, and, among other places, visited the town our
father was born in, and found some relations in that part of the
country still living.

Our cousin Jane Franklin, daughter of our uncle John, died about
a year ago. We saw her husband, Robert Page, who gave us some
old letters to his wife from uncle Benjamin. In one of them, dated
Boston, July 4th, 1723, he writes that your uncle Josiah has a daughter
Jane, about twelve years old, a good-humoured child. So keep up to
your character, and don’t be angry when you have no letters. In a
little book he sent her, called - None but Christ,” he wrote an acrostic
on her name, which for namesake’s sake, as well as the good advice
it contains, I transcribe and send you, viz.

“ Illuminated from on high,

And shining brightly in your sphere,

Ne’er faint, but kesp a steady eye,

Expecting endless pleasures there.

“ Flee vice as you’d a serpent flee ;

Raise faith and hope three stories higher,

And let Christ’s endless love to thee
Ne’er cease to make thy love aspire.

Kindness of heart by words express,

Let your obedience be sincere,

In prayer and praise your God address,

Nor cease, till he can cease to hear.”

After professing truly that I had a great esteem and veneration for
the pious author, permit me a little to play the commentator and critic
on these lines. The meaning of three stories higher seems somewhat
obscure. You are to understand, then, that faith, hope, and charity
have been called the three steps of Jacob’s ladder, reaching from
earth to heaven ; our author calls them stories, likening religion to a
building, and these are the three stories of the Christian edifice.
Thus improvement in religion is called building up and edification.
Faith is then the ground floor, hope is up one pair of stairs. My dear
beloved Jenny, don’t delight so much to dwell in those lower rooms,
but get as fast as you can into the garret, for in truth the best room in
the house is charity. For my part, I wish the house was turned
upside down ; it is so difficult (when one is fat) to go upstairs ; and
not only so, but I imagine hope and faith may be more firmly built
upon charity, than charity upon faith and hope. However that may
be, I think it the better reading to say—

“ Raise faith and hope one story higher."

Correct it boldly, and I’ll support the alteration ; for, when you are
up two stories already, if you raise your building three stories higher
you will make five in all, which is two more than there should be, you
expose your upper rooms more to the winds and storms ; and, besides,
I am afraid the foundation will hardly bear them, unless indeed you
build with such light stuff as straw and stubble, and that, you know,
won’t stand fire. Again, where the author says,

“ Kindness of heart by words express,"132

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

strike out zvords, and put in deeds. The world is too full of compli-
ments already. They are the rank growth of every soil, and choke
the good plants of benevolence and beneficence ; nor do I pretend
to be the first in this comparison of words and actions to plants ; you
may remember an ancient poet, whose works we have all studied and
copied at school long ago.

“ A man of words and not of deeds
Is like a garden full of weeds.”

It is pity that good works, among some sorts of people, are so little
valued, and good words admired in their stead ; I mean seemingly
pious discourses, instead of humane benevolent actions. Those they
almost put out of countenance, by calling morality ratten morality,
righteousness ragged righteousness, and even filthy ra’gs. So much
by way of commentary.

My wife will let you see my letter, containing an account of our
travels, which I would have you read to sister Dowse, and give my
love to her. I have no thoughts of returning till next year, and then
may possibly have the pleasure of seeing you and yours; taking
Boston in my way home.1

To lord Kames, You have been pleased kindly to desire to have all my
dated London, 3 publications. I had daily expectations of procuring
Jan., 1760.	some of them from a friend to whom I formerly sent

them when I was in America, and postponed writing to you, till I
should obtain them ; but at length he tells me he cannot find them ;
very mortifying this to an author, that his works should so soon be
lost! So I can only send you my “ Observations on the Peopling of
Countries,” which happens to have been reprinted here ; “ The De-
scription of the Pennsylvania Fire-place,” a machine of my contriving;
and some little sketches that have been printed in the “ Grand Maga-
zine,” which I should hardly own, did I not know that your friendly
partiality would make them seem at least tolerable.

How unfortunate I was, that I did not press you and Lady Kames
more strongly to favour us with your company farther. How much
more agreeable would our journey have been, if we could have enjoyed
you as far as York. We could have beguiled the way, by discoursing
on a thousand things, that now we may never have an opportunity of
considering together ; for conversation warms the mind, enlivens the
imagination, and is continually starting fresh game, that is im-
mediately pursued and taken, and which would never have occurred
in the duller intercourse of epistolary correspondence. So that when-
ever I reflect on the great pleasure and advantage I received from the
free communication of sentiment, in the conversation we had at Kames,
and in the agreeable little rides to the Tweed side, I shall for evei
regret our premature parting.

1 Much of Franklin's time during the year 1759 was devoted to electrical experi*
ments, which led to a large correspondence with the learned throughout Europe,
most of which, however, is unhappily lost.BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

133

No one can more sincerely rejoice than I do, on the reduction of
Canada ; and this is not merely as I am a colonist, but as I am a
Briton. I have long been of opinion, that the foundations of the
future grandeur and stability of the British empire lie in America;
and though, like other foundations, they are low and little now, they
are, nevertheless, broad and strong enough to support the greatest
political structure that human wisdom ever yet erected. I am, there-
fore, by no means for restoring Canada. If we keep it, all the country
from the St. Lawrence to the Mississippi will in another century be
filled with British people. Britain itself will become vastly more
populous, by the immense increase of its commerce; the Atlantic
sea will be covered with your trading ships ; and your naval power,
thence continually increasing, will extend your influence round the
whole globe, and awe the world 1 If the French remain in Canada,
they will continually harass our colonies by the Indians, and impede
if not prevent their growth ; your progress to greatness will at best be
slow, and give room for many accidents that may for ever prevent it.
But I refrain, for I see you begin to think my notions extravagant,
and look upon them as the ravings of a mad prophet.

Your Lordship’s kind offer of Penn’s picture is extremely obliging.
But, were it certainly his picture, it would be too valuable a curiosity
for me to think of accepting it. I should only desire the favour of
leave to take a copy of it. I could wish to know the history of the
picture before it came into your hands, and the grounds for supposing
it his.. I have at present some doubts about it; first, because the
primitive Quakers declared against pictures as a vain expense ; a
man’s suffering his portrait to be taken was conceived as pride ; and
I think to this day it is very little practised among them. Then, it is
on a board ; and 1 imagine the practice of painting portraits on boards
did not come down so low as Penn’s time ; but of this I am not
certain. My other reason is an anecdote I have heard, viz., that when
old Lord Cobham was adorning his gardens at Stow with busts of
famous men, he made inquiry of the family for the picture of
William Penn, in order to get a bust formed from it, but could find
none ; that Sylvanus Bevan, an old Quaker apothecary, remarkable
for the notice he takes of countenances, and a knack he has of cutting
in ivory, strong likenesses of persons he has once seen, hearing of
Lord Cobham’s desire, set himself to recollect Penn’s face, with which
he had been well acquainted ; and cut a little bust of him in ivory,
which he sent to Lord Cobham, without any letter or notice that it
was Penn’s. But my Lord, who had personally known Penn, on
seeing it, immediately cried out, “Whence comes this? It is William
Penn himself! ” And from this little bust, they say, the large one in
the gardens was formed.

I doubt, too, whether the whisker was not quite out of use at the
time when Penn must have been of an age appearing in the face of
that picture. And yet, notwithstanding these reasons, I am not with-
out some hope that it may be his; because I know some eminent
Quakers have had their pictures privately drawn and deposited with134

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

trusty friends ; and know, also, that there is extant at Philadelphia a
very good picture of Mrs. Penn, his last wife. After all, I own I have
a strong desire to be satisfied concerning this picture ; and as Bevan
is yet living here, and some other old Quakers that remember William
Penn, who died but 1718, I would wish to have it sent to me carefully
packed up in a box by the wagon (for I would not trust it by sea),
that I may obtain their opinion. The charges I shall very cheerfully
pay ; and if it proves to be Penn’s picture, I shall be greatly obliged
to your Lordship for leave to take a copy of it, and will carefully
return the original.

My son joins with me in the most respectful compliments to you
and Lady Karnes. Our conversation, till we came to York, was chiefly
a recollection of what we had seen and heard, the pleasure we had
enjoyed, and the kindnesses we had received, in Scotland, and how
far that country had exceeded our expectations. On the whole, I
must say, I think the time we spent there was six weeks of the densest
happiness I have met with in any part of my life ; and the agreeable
and instructive society we found there in such plenty has left so
pleasing an impression on my memory, that, did not strong connec-
tions draw me elsewhere, I believe Scotland would be the country I
should choose to spend the remainder of my days in.
fo John Hughes,	There has been for some time a talk of peace, and

dated London, 7 probably we should have had one this winter, if the Icing
Jan., 1760. 0f prussia»s late misfortunes had not given the enemy
fresh spirits, and encouraged them to try their luck another campaign,
and exert all their remaining strength, in hopes of treating with
Hanover in their hands. If this should be the case, possibly most of
our advantages may be given up again at the treaty, and some among
our great men begin already to prepare the minds of people for this,
by discoursing that to keep Canada would draw on us the envy of
other powers, and occasion a confederation against us; that the
country is too large for us to people ; not worth possessing, and the
like. These notions I am every day and every hour combating, and
I think not without some success. The event God only knows. The
argument that seems to have the principal weight is, that, in case of
another war, if we keep possession of Canada„the nation will save two
or three millions a year, now spent in defending the American colo-
nies, and be so much the stronger in Europe, by the addition of the
troops now employed on that side of the water. To this I add, that
the colonies would thrive and increase in a much greater degree, and
that a vast additional demand would arise for British manufactures,
to supply so great an extent of Indian country ; with many other
topics, which I urge occasionally according to the company I happen
into, or the persons I address. And, on the whole, I flatter myself that
my being here at this time may be of some service to the general
interest of America.

To his wife, I received the enclosed some time since from Mr.
dated London, 5 Strahan. I afterwards spent an evening in conver-
Maroh, 1760. sation with him on the subject. He was very urgentBENJAMIN FRANKLIN

135

with me to stay in England, and prevail with you to rejnove hither
with Sally. He proposed several advantageous schemes to me, which
appeared reasonably founded. His family is a very agreeable one ;
Mrs. Strahan a sensible and good woman, the children of amiable
characters, and particularly the young man, who is sober, ingenious,
and industrious, and a desirable person. In point of circumstances
there can be no objection ; Mr. Strahan being in such a way as to lay
up a thousand pounds every year from the profits of his business, after
maintaining his family and paying all charges. I gave him, however,
two reasons why I could not think of removing hither ; one, my affec-
tion to Pennsylvania, and long established friendships and. other con-
nections there; the other, your invincible aversion to crossing the seas.
And without removing hither, I could not think of parting with my
daughter to such a. distance. I thanked him for the regard shown to
us in the proposal, but gave him no expectation that I should forward
the letters. So you are at liberty to answer or not, just as you think
proper. Let me, however, know your sentiments. You need not
deliver the letter to Sally, if you do not think it proper.

To Mary Steven- * embrace, most gladly, my dear friend’s proposal of
son, dated Graven a subject for our future correspondence; not only as it
M ’ i7G0°n’ 1 occasi°n rny hearing from her more frequently, but
ay’ ' as it will lay me undei a necessity of improving my own
knowledge, that I may be better able to assist in her improvement. I
only fear my necessary business and journeys, with the natural in-
dolence of an old man, will make me too unpunctual a correspondent.
For this I must hope some indulgence. But v/hw will you, by the
cultivation of your mind, make yourself still more amiable, and a
more desirable companion for a man of understanding, when you are
determined, as I hear, to live single? If we enter, as you propose,
into moral as well as natural philosophy, I fancy, when I have
established my authority as a tutor, I shall take upon me to lecture
you a little on the chapter of duty.

But, to be serious, our easiest mode of proceeding I think will be,
for you to read some books that I may recommend to you ; and, in
the course of your reading, whatever occurs, that you do not thoroughly
apprehend, or that you clearly conceive and find pleasure in, may
occasion either some questions for further information, or some obser-
vations that show how far you are satisfied and pleased with your
author. These will furnish matter for your letters to me, and, in
consequence, mine also to you.

Let me know, then, what books you have already perused on the
subject intended, that I may the better judge what to advise for your
next reading. And believe me ever, my dear good girl, your affec-
tionate friend and servant.

To lord Kames, I have endeavoured to comply with your request in
dated London, 9 writing something on the present situation of our affairs
May, 1760. jn America, in order to give more correct notions of the136

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

British interest with regard to the colonies, than those I found many
sensible men possessed of. Enclosed you have the production, such
as it is. I wish it may, in any degree, be of service to the public. I
shall at least hope this from it, for my own part, that you will consider
it as a letter from me to you, and take its length as some excuse for
being so long a coming.1

I am now reading with great pleasure and improvement your excel-
lent work, “ The Principles of Equity.” It will be of the greatest
advantage to the judges in our colonies, not only in those which’have
courts of chancery, but also in those which, having no such courts, are
obliged to mix equity with common law. It will be of more service
to the colony judges, as few of them have been bred to the law. I
have sent a book to a particular friend, one of the judges of the
Supreme Court in Pennsylvania.

I will shortly send you a copy of the “ Chapter” you are pleased to
mention in so obliging a manner ; and shall be extremely obliged in
receiving a copy of the collection of “Maxims for the Conduct of Life,”
which you are preparing for the use of your children. I purpose like-
wise a little work for the benefit of youth, to be called “ The Art of
Virtue.” From the title I think you will hardly conjecture what the
nature of such a book may be. I must therefore explain it a little.
Many people lead bad lives that would gladly lead good ones, but do
not know how to make the change. They have frequently resolved
and endeavoured it ; but in vain, because their endeavours have not
been properly conducted. To expect people to be good, to be just, to
be temperate, &c., without shewing them how they should become so,
seems like the ineffectual charity mentioned by the apostle, which
consisted in saying to the hungry, the cold, and the naked, “ Be ye
fed, be ye warmed, be ye clothed,” without showing them how they
should get food, fire, or clothing.

Most people have naturally some virtues, but none have naturally
all the virtues. To acquire those that are wanting, and secure what
we acquire, as well as those we have naturally, is the subject of an
art. It is as properly an art as painting, navigation, or architecture.
If a man would become a painter, navigator, or architect, it is not
enough that he is advised to be one, that he is convinced by the argu-
ments of his adviser, that it would be for his advantage to be one, and
that he resolves to be one, but he must also be taught the principles
of the art, be shown all the methods of working, and how to acquire
the habits of using properly all the instruments ; and thus regularly
and gradually he arrives, by practice, at some perfection in the art.
If he does not proceed thus, he is apt to meet with difficulties that
discourage him, and make him drop the pursuit.

My “ Art of Virtue ” has also its instruments, and teaches the
manner of using them. Christians are directed to have faith in Christ,
as the effectual means of obtaining the change they desire. It may,
when sufficiently strong, be effectual with many; for a full opinion,

1 This was probably the tract entitled "The Interest of Great Britain Con-
sidered,” which was first published in 1760.BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

137

that a teacher is infinitely wise, good, and powerful, and that he will
certainly reward and punish the obedient and disobedient, must give
great weight to his precepts, and make them much more attended to
by his disciples. But many have this faith in so weak a degree, that
it does not produce the effect. Our “ Art of Virtue ” may, therefore,
be of great service to those whose faith is unhappily not so strong,
and may come in aid of its weakness. Such as are naturally well
disposed, and have been so carefully educated, as that good habits
have been early established, and bad ones prevented, have less need
of this art ; but all maybe more or less benefited by it. It is, in
short, to be adapted for universal use. I imagine what I have now
been writing will seem to savour of great presumption. I must
therefore speedily finish my little piece, and communicate the manu-
script to you, that you may judge whether it is possible to make good
such pretensions. I shall at the same time hope for the benefit of
your corrections.

To Mary Steven- I send my good girl the books I mentioned to her last
eon, Craven night. I beg her to accept of them as a small mark of
st., 6May, 1760. my esteem and friendship. They are written in the
familiar, easy manner, for which the French are so remarkable ; and
afford a good deal of philosophic and practical knowledge, unembar-
rassed with the dry mathematics used by more exact reasoners, but
which are apt to discourage young beginners.

I would advise you to read with a pen in your hand, and enter in
a little book short hints of what you find that is curious, or that may
be useful; for this will be the best method of imprinting such
particulars in your memory, where they will be ready, either for
practice on some future occasion, if they are matters of utility, or at
least to adorn and improve your conversation, if they are rather
points of curiosity. And as many of the terms of science are such,
as you cannot have met with in your common reading, and may
therefore be unacquainted with, I think it would be well for you to
have a good dictionary at hand, to consult immediately when you
meet with a word you do not comprehend the precise meaning of.
This may at first seem troublesome and interrupting ; but it is a
trouble that will daily diminish, as you will daily find less and less
occasion for your dictionary, as you become more acquainted with
the terms; and in the meantime you will read with more satisfaction,
because with more understanding.

When any point occurs, in which you would be glad to have farther
information than your book affords you, I beg you would not in the
least apprehend, that I should think it a trouble to receive and answer
your questions. It will be a pleasure, and no trouble. For though I
may not be able, out of my own little stock of knowledge, to afford
you what you require, I can easily direct you to the books, where it
may most readily be found.

To his •wife, I am concerned that so much trouble should be given
dated London, 27 you by idle reports concerning me. Be satisfied, my
June, 1760. dear, that while I have my senses, and God vouchsafes138

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

me His protection, I shall do nothing unworthy the character of an
honest man, and one that loves his family.1

I have not yet seen Mr. Beatty, nor do I know where to write to
him. He forwarded your letter to me from Ireland. The paragraph
of your letter, inserted in the papers, related to the negro school. I
gave it to the gentlemen concerned, as it was a testimony in favour
of their pious design. But I did not expect they would print it with
your name. They have since chosen me one of the Society, and I am
at present chairman for the current year. I enclose you an account
of their proceedings.2

I did not receive the “Prospect of Quebec,” which you mention
that you sent me. Peter continues with me, and behaves as well as I
can expect, in a country where there are many occasions of spoiling
servants, if they are ever so good. He has as few faults as most of
them, and I see with only one eye, and hear only with one ear ; so we
rub on pretty comfortably. King, that you inquire after, is not with
us. He ran away from our house near two years ago, while we were
absent in the country; but was soon found in Suffolk, where he had
been taken into the service of a lady, that was very fond of the merit
of making him a Christian, and contributing to his education and
improvement. As he was of little use, and often in mischief, Billy
consented to her keeping him while we stay in England. So the lady
sent him to school, has him taught to read and write, to play on the
violin and French horn, with some other accomplishments more
useful in a servant. Whether she will finally be willing to part with
him, or persuade Billy to sell him to her, I know not. In the mean
time he is no expense to us.

The accounts you give me of the marriages of our friends are very
agreeable. I love to hear of every thing that tends to increase the
number of good people. You cannot conceive how shamefully the
mode here is a single life. One can scarce be in the company of
a dozen men of circumstance and fortune, but what it is odds that
you find on inquiry eleven of them are single. The.great complaint
is the excessive expensiveness of English wives.

I am extremely concerned with you at the misfortune of our friend
Mr. Griffith. How could it possibly happen ? It was a terrible fire
that of Boston. I shall contribute here towards the relief of the
sufferers. Our relations have escaped, I believe, generally ; but some
of my particular friends must have suffered greatly.

Poor David Edwards died this day week, of a consumption. I

1	On a later occasion he wrote to his wife : " Let no one make you uneasy with
their idle or malicious scribblings, but enjoy yourself and friends, and the comforts
of life, that God has bestowed on you, with a cheerful heart. I am glad their
pamphlets give you so little concern. I make no other answer to them at present,
than what appears in the seal of this letter.” The device on the seal was a dove,
standing on a coiled serpent in the act of raising its head and darting out its
tongne, surrounded with the motto, Innocence surmont tout. This was not his
usual seal, but one adopted for the occasion.

2	This relates to a scheme, which had been set on foot by the philanthropic Dr.
Thos. Bray, for the conversion of negroes in the British plantations.BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

139

had a letter from a friend of his, acquainting me that he had been
long ill, and incapable of doing his business, and was at board in
the country. I feared he might be in straits, as he never was prudent
enough to lay up any thing. So I wrote to him immediately, that,
if he had occasion, he might draw on me for five guineas. But he
died before my letter got to hand. I hear the woman, at whose
house he long lodged and boarded, has buried him and taken all
he left, which could not be much, and there are some small debts
unpaid.

To David Hume, I am obliged to you for the favourable sentiments
dated Coventry, you express of the pieces sent to you ; though the
27 ept., 76 . volume relating to our Pennsylvania affairs 1 was not
written by me, nor any part of it, except the remarks on the Pro-
prietor’s estimate of his estate, and some of the inserted messages
and reports of the Assembly, which I wrote when at home, as a
member of committees appointed by the House for that service.
The rest was by another hand.

But though I am satisfied by what you say, that the Duke of
Bedford was hearty in the scheme of the expedition, I am not so
clear that others in the administration were equally in earnest in that
matter. It is certain, that, after the Duke of Newcastle’s first orders
to raise troops in the colonies, and promise to send over commissions
to the officers, with arms and clothing for the men, we never had
another syllable from him for eighteen months ; during all which
time the army lay idle at Albany for want of orders and necessaries ;
and it began to be thought at last, that, if an expedition had ever
been intended, the first design and the orders given must, through the
multiplicity of business here at home, have been quite forgotten.3

I am not a little pleased to hear of your change of sentiments in
some particulars relating to America ; because I think it of import-
ance to our general welfare, that the people of this nation should have
right notions of us, and I know no one, that has it more in his power
to rectify their notions than Mr. Hume. I have lately read with great
pleasure, as I do every thing of yours, the excellent Essay on the
“Jealousy of Commerce.” I think it cannot but have a good effect
in promoting a certain interest, too little thought of by selfish man,
and scarcely ever mentioned, so that we hardly have a name for it ;
I mean the interest of humanity, or common good of mankind. But
I hope, particularly from that Essay, an abatement of the jealousy,
that reigns here, of the commerce of the colonies, at least so far as
such abatement may be reasonable.

I thank you for your friendly admonition relating to some unusual
words in the pamphlet. It will be of service to me. The “pejorate"
and the “ colonizesince they are not in common use here, I give up
as bad ; for certainly in writings intended for persuasion and for

1	The treatise here mentioned is probably the “ Historical Review of the Consti-
tution and Government of Pennsylvania."

2	This was the expedition projected against Canada in the year 1746.140

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

general information, one cannot be too clear; and every expression
in the least obscure is a fault. The “ unshakeable ” too, though clear,
I give up as rather low. The introducing new words, where we are
already possessed of old ones sufficiently expressive, I confess must
be generally wrong, as it tends to change the language ; yet, at the
same time, I cannot but wish the usage of our tongue permitted
making new words, when we want them, by composition of old ones
whose meanings are already well understood. The German allows of
it, and it is a common practice with their writers. Many of our
present English words were originally so made ; and many of the
Latin words. In point of clearness, such compound words would
have the advantage of any we can borrow from the ancient or from
foreign languages. For instance, the word inaccessible, though long
in use among us, is not yet, I dare say, so universally understood by
our people, as the word uncomeatable would immediately be, which
we are not allowed to write. But I hope with you, that we shall
always in America make the best English of this Island our standard,
and I believe it will be so. I assure you it often gives me pleasure
to reflect, how greatly the audience (if I may so term it) of a good
English writer will, in another century or two, be increased by the
increase of English people in our colonies.

My son presents his respects with mine to you and Dr. Monro.
We received your printed circular letter to the members of the Society,1
and purpose some time next winter to send each of us a little philo-
sophical essay.

To John Bas- Let me give you a pleasant instance of the prejudice some
kervilie, dated have entertained against your work. Soon after I returned,
i76oen Bt ’ discoursing with a gentleman concerning the artists of
‘	Birmingham, he said you would be a means of blinding all

the readers in the nation; for the strokes of your letters, being too
thin and narrow, hurt the eye, and he could never read a line of them
without pain. “ I thought,” said I, “ you were going to complain of
the gloss of the paper, which some object to.” “ No, no,” said he, “ I
have heard that mentioned, but it is not that; it is in the form and cut
of the letters themselves ; they have not that height and thickness of
the stroke, which make the common printing so much the more com-
fortable to the eye.” You see this gentleman was a connoisseur. In
vain I endeavoured to support your character against the charge ; he
knew what he felt, and could see the reason of it* and several other
gentlemen among his friends had made the same observation, &c.

Yesterday he called to visit me, when, mischievously bent to try his
judgment, I stepped into my closet, tore off the top of Mr. Caslon’s
specimen, and produced it to him as yours, brought with me from
Birmingham ; saying, I had been examining it, since he spoke to me,
and could not for my life perceive the disproportion he mentioned,
desiring him to point it out to me. He readily undertook it, and went
over the several founts, showing me everywhere what he thought
1 A Philosophical Society lately established at Edinburgh.BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

141

instances of that disproportion ; and declared, that he could not then
read the specimen, without feeling very strongly the pain he had
mentioned to me. I spared him that time the confusion of being told,
that these were the types he had been reading all his life, with so
much ease to his eyes ; the types his adored Newton is printed with,
on which he has pored not a little ; nay, the very types his own book
is printed with, (for he is himself an author,) and yet never discovered
this painful disproportion in them, till he thought they were yours.

To the printer I met lately with an old quarto book on a stall, the
of the London titlepage and the author’s name wanting, but containing
chrome e. discourses, addressed to some king of Spain, extolling
the greatness of monarchy, translated into English, and said in the
last leaf to be printed at London by Bonham Norton and John Bill,
“ Printers to the King’s most excellent Majestie, MDCXXIX.” The
author appears to have been a Jesuit, for, speaking of that order in
two places, he calls it our Society. Give me leave to communicate to
the public a chapter of it, so apropos to our present situation, (only
changing Spain for France,) that 1 think it well worth general attention
and observation, as it discovers the arts of our enemies, and may
therefore help in some degree to put us on our guard against them.

What effect the artifices here recommended might have had in the
times when our author wrote, I cannot pretend to say ; but I believe,
the present age being more enlightened and our people better
acquainted than formerly with our true national interest, such arts can
now hardly prove so generally successful; for we may with pleasure
observe, and to the honour of the British people, that, though writings
and discourses like these have lately not been wanting, yet few in any
of the classes he particularizes seem to be affected by them, but all
ranks and degrees among us persist hitherto in declaring for a vigorous
prosecution of the war, in preference to an unsafe, disadvantageous,
or dishonourable peace ; yet, as a little change of fortune may make
such writings more attended to, and give them greater weight, I think
the publication of this piece, as it shows the spring from whence these
scribblers draw their poisoned waters, may be of public utility.

A Briton.

1 In June of this year, and after a delay of three years, Franklin succeeded in
bringing his controversy with the proprietaries to a close, and upon terms which
received the entire approbation of his constituents, the right of taxing the pro-
prietary estates, the main point in dispute, being fully recognized. He did not,
however, return to America until two years later, occupying himself with the
advocacy and direction of the expedition against Canada, the annexation of which
to the empire he had much at heart, with scientific studies and experiments, and
with the manufacture of a sound public opinion in England through the columns
of the periodical press. In the latter category should be included this communica-
tion to the London Chronicle. Its date is not known, but " its contents," says Mr.
Sparks, - ‘ show it to have been written towards the close of the French war, and
probably in 1760, or the year following. Under the disguise of a pretended
chapter from an old book, and in the imitation of an antiquated §tyle, ne throws
out hints suited to attract attention and afford amusement."142

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

“ Chap. XXXIV.

“ On the Meanes of disposing the Enemie to Peace.

“ Warres, with whatsoever Prudence undertaken and conducted, do
not always succeed. Many Thinges out of Man’s Power to governe,
such as Dearth of Provision, Tempests, Pestilence, and the like,
oftentimes interfering and totally overthrowing the best Designes ; so
that these Enemies (England and Holland) of our Monarchy though
apparently at first the weaker, may by disastrous Events of Warre, on
our Parte, become the stronger, and though not in such degree, as to
endanger the Bodie of this great Kingdom, yet, by their greater Power
of Shipping and Aptness in Sea Affairs, to be able to cut off, if I may
so speake, some of its smaller Limbs and Members that are remote
therefrom and not easily defended, to wit, our Islands and Colonies
in the Indies ; thereby however depriving the Bodie of its wonted
Nourishment, so that it must thenceforthe languish and grow weake,
if those Parts are not recovered, which possibly may by continuance
of Warre be found unlikelie to be done. And the Enemie, puffed up
with their successes, and hoping still for more, may not be disposed
to Peace on such Termes as would be suitable to the honour of your
Majestie, and to the Welfare of your State and Subjects. In such
Case, the following Meanes may have good Effect.

“ It is well knowne, that these Northerne People, though hardie of
Bodie and bold in Fight.be nevertheless, through overmuch Eating
and other Intemperance, slowe of Wit, and dull in Understanding, so
that they are ofttimes more easilie to be governed and turned by Skill
than by Force. There is therefore always Hope, that, by wise Counsel
and dexterous Management, those Advantages, which through crosse
Accidents in Warre have been lost, may again with Honour be
recovered. In this Place I shall say little of the Power of Money
secretly distributed among Grandees, or their Friends or Paramours ;
that Method being in all Ages known and practised. If the minds of
Enemies can be changed, they may be brought to grant willingly and
for nothing what much Gold would scarcely have otherwise prevailed
to obtaine. Yet, as the procuring this Change is to be by fitte Instru-
ments, some few Doubloones will not unprofitably be distributed by
your Majestie. The manner whereof I shall now briefely recite.

“In those Countries, and particularly in England, there are not
wanting Menne of Learning, ingenious Speakers and Writers, who
are nevertheless in lowe Estate, and pinched by Fortune. These,
being privately gained by proper Meanes, must be instructed in their
Sermons, Discourses, Writings, Poems, and Songs, to handle and
specially inculcate Points like these which followe. Let them magnifie
the Blessings of Peace, and enlarge mightilie thereon, which is not
unbecoming grave Divines and other Christian Menne. Let them
expatiate on the Miseries of Warre, the Waste of Christian Blood,
the growing Scarcitie of Labourers and Workmen, the Dearness of
all foreign Wares and Merchandise, the Interruption of Commerce^BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

143

the Captures of Ships, the Increase and great Burthen of Taxes. Let
them represent the Warre as an unmeasurable Advantage to Par-
ticulars, and to Particulars only, (thereby to excite envie against those,
who manage and provide for the same,) while so prejudicial to the
Commonweale and People in general. Let them represent the
Advantages gained against us, as trivial and of little Import; the
Places taken from us, as of small Trade and Produce, inconvenient
for Situation, unwholesome for Ayre and Climate, useless to their
Nations, and greatlie chargeable to keepe, draining the home Countrie
both of Menne and Money.

“ Let them urge, that, if a Peace be forced on us, and those Places
withheld, it will nourishe secret Griefe and Malice in the King and
Grandees of Spain, which will ere long breake forthe in new Warres,
when those Places may again be retaken, without the Merit and Grace
of restoring them willingly for Peace’ Sake. Let them represent the
making or Continuance of Warres, from views of Gaine, to be base
and unworthy a brave People, as those made from Views of Ambition
are mad and wicked. Let them insinuate, that the Continuance of
the present Warre, on their Parte, hath these Ingredients in its
Nature. Then let them magnifie the great Power of your Majestie,
and the Strength of your Kingdome, the inexhaustible Wealthe of
your Mines, the Greatness of your Incomes, and thence your Abilitie
of continuing the Warre ; hinting withal the new Alliances you may
possiblie make ; at the same time setting forth the sincere Disposition
you have for Peace, and that it is only a Concerne for your Honour,
and the Honour of your Realme, that induceth you to insist on the
Restitution of the places taken.

“ If, with all this, they shrewdly intimate, and cause it to be under-
stood by artful Wordes and believed, that their own Prince is himself
in Heart for Peace, on your Majestie’s Termes, and grieved at the.
Obstinacy and Perverseness of those among his People, who are for
continuing the Warre, a marvellous Effect shall by these Discourses
and Writings be produced ; and a wonderful strong Partie shall your
Majestie raise among your Enemies in Favour of the Peace you
desire ; insomuch that their own Princes and wisest Counsellours will
in a Sorte be constrained to yeeld thereto. For, in this Warre of
Wordes, the Avarice and Ambition, the Hope and Fears, and all the
Crowd of humane Passions will be raised and put in Array to fight
for your Interests against the reall and substantiall Interest of their
own Countries. The simple and undiscerning Many shall be carried
away by the Plausibilitie and Well-seeming of these Discourses ; and
the Opinions becoming more popular, all the Rich Menne, who have
great Possessions, and fear the Continuance of Taxes, and hope Peace
will end them, shall be emboldened thereby to crie aloud for Peace;
their Dependents, who are many, must do the same.

“All Merchaunts, fearing Loss of Ships and greater Burthens on
Trade by further Duties and Subsidies, and hoping greater Profits by
the ending of the Warre, shall join in the crie for Peace. All the
Usurers and Lenders of Money to the State, who on a Peace hope144

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

great Profits on their Bargains, and fear if the Warre be continued
the State shall become bankeroute, and unable to pay them ; these,
who have no small Weighte, shall join the crie for Peace. All, who
maligne the bold Conductors of the Warre, and envie the Glorie they
may have thereby obtained ; these shall crie aloud for Peace, hoping,
that, when the Warre shall cease, such Menne becoming less
necessarie shall be more lightly esteemed, and themselves more
sought after. All the Officers of the Enemie’s Armies and Fleets,
who wish for Repose and to enjoy their Salaries or Rewardes in
Quietnesse, and without Peril; these, and their Friends and Families,
who desire their Safetie and the Solace of their Societie, shall all crie
for Peace.

“ All those, who be timorous by Nature, amongste whom be reckoned
Menne of Learning that lead sedentarie Lives, doing little Exercise
of Bodie, and thence obtaining but few and weake Spirits ; great
Statesmen, whose natural Spirits be exhausted by much Thinking, or
depressed by overmuch Feasting ; together with all Women, whose
Power, weake as they are, is not a little amongste the Menne ; these
shall incessantly speake for Peace. And finally all Courtiers, who
suppose they conforme thereby to the Inclinations of the Prince, {ad
Exemplum Regis, &c.) ; all who are in Places, fear to lose them, or
hope for better ; all who are out of Places, and hope to obtaine them ;
with all the worldly minded Clergy, who seeke Preferment; these,
with all the Weighte of their Character and Influence, shall join the
crie for Peace ; till it becomes one universal Clamour, and no Sound,
but that of Peace, Peace, Peace, shall be heard from every Quarter.

“ Then shall your Majestie’s Termes of Peace be listened to with
much Readinesse, the Places taken from you be willingly restored,
and your Kingdome, recovering its Strength, shall only need to waite
a few Years for more favourable Occasions, when the Advantages to
your Power, proposed by beginning the Warre, but lost by its bad
Successe, shall, with better Fortune, be finally obtained.”

To Hu h You te^ me V°u sometimes visit the ancient Junto. I
Roberts, dated wish you would do it oftener. I know they all love
London,26Feb., and respect you, and regret your absenting yourself so
1761‘	much. People are apt to grow strange, and not under-

stand one another so well, when they meet but seldom. Since we
have held that Club, till we are grown gray together, let us hold it out
to the end. For my own part, I find I love company, chat, alaugh, a
glass, and even a song, as well as ever ; and at the same time relish
better than I used to do the grave observations and wise sentences
of old men’s conversation ; so that I am sure the Junto will be still as
agreeable to me as it ever has been. I therefore hope it will not be
discontinued, as long as we are able to crawl together.

To Josiah * received your very obliging letter of December 25th,
Quincy, dated by the hand of your valuable son, who had before
London, 8April, favoured me now and then with a kind visit. I con-
1761‘	gratulate you on his account, as I am sure you must haveBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.	145

a great deal of satisfaction in him. His ingenuous, manly, and
generous behaviour, in a transaction here with the Society of Arts,
gave me great pleasure, as it was much to his reputation.

I am glad my weak endeavours for our common interest were
acceptable to you and my American friends. I shall be very happy
indeed, if any good arises from them. The people in power here do
now seem convinced of the truth of the principles I have inculcated,
and inclme to act upon them ; but how far they will be able to do so
at a peace, is still uncertain, especially as the war in Germany grows
daily less favourable to us. My kinsman, Williams, was but ill
informed in the account he gave you of my situation here. The
Assembly voted me fifteen hundred pounds sterling, when I left
Philadelphia, to defray the expense of my voyage, and negotiations in
England, since which they have given nothing more, though I have
been here near four years. They will, I make no doubt, on winding
up the affair, do what is just; but they cannot afford to be extravagant,
as that report would make them.

ToEdwardPen- * enclose you a letter from your kinsman, Mr. Springet
nington, dated Penn, with whom I had no acquaintance until lately, but
landon, 9 May, have the pleasure to find him a very sensible, discreet
young man, with excellent dispositions, which makes me
the more regret, that the government as well as property of our
province should pass out of that line. There has, by his account,
been something very mysterious in the conduct of his uncle, Mr.
Thomas Penn, towards him. He was his guardian ; but, instead of
endeavouring to educate him at home under his eye in a manner
becoming the elder branch of their house, has from his infancy been
endeavouring to get rid of him.

He first proposed sending him to the East Indies. When that was
declined, he had a scheme of sending him to Russia ; but, the young
gentleman’s mother absolutely refusing to let him go out of the
kingdom, unless to Pennsylvania to be educated in the college there,
he would by no means hear of his going thither, but bound him an
apprentice to a county attorney in an obscure part of Sussex, which,
after two years’ stay, finding that he was taught nothing valuable, nor
could see any company that might improve him, he left, and returned
to his mother, with whom he has been ever since, much neglected by
his uncle, except lately that he has been a little civil, to get him to
join in a power of attorney to W. Peters and R. Hockley for the sale
of some Philadelphia lots, of which he is told three undivided fourth
parts belong to him. But he is not shown the right he has to them ;
nor has he any plan of their situation, by which he may be advised of
their value ; nor was he told, till lately, that he had any such right,
which makes him suspect that he may have other rights that are
concealed from him.

In some letters to Ins father’s eldest brother, Springet Penn, whose
heir he is, he finds that Sir William Keith surveyed for him, -the said
Springet, a manor of seventy-five thousand acres on the Susquehanna,146

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

which he called Springetsbury, and would be glad to know what
became of that survey, and whether it was ever conveyed away. By
searching the records, you may possibly obtain some light in this and
other land affairs, that maybe for his interest. The good inclinations
you have shown towards that interest, in a letter that has been shown
to me, encourage me to recommend this matter earnestly to your care
and prudence; and the more privately you carry on your .inquiries,
for the present, the better it will be.

His uncle has lately proposed to him to buy of him Pennsbury manor
house, with one thousand acres of the land near the house, pretending
that his principal reason for doing it was not the value of the land, but
an inclination he had to possess the ancient home of the head of the
family, and a little land round it just to support it. You know the
situation of that manor, and can judge whether it would be prudent to
sell the part proposed from the rest, and will advise him concerning it.
He has refused to treat about it at present, as well as to sign the power
of attorney for the sale of the city lots ; upon which his late guardian
has brought in an account against him, and demands a debt of four
hundred pounds, which he urges him to pay, for that, as he says, he
very much wants the money, which does not seem to look well.

Not only the Land Office may be searched for warrants and surveys to
the young gentleman’s ancestors, but also the Record Office for deeds
of gift from the first proprietor, and other subsequent grants or con-
veyances. I may tell you in confidence,*that some lawyers are of
opinion, that the government was not legally conveyed from the eldest
branch to others of the family but this is to be farther inquired into,
and at present it is not to be talked of.

To his wife I wrote to you just before we left London, that we were
dated Utrecht, about to make a short tour to Holland. I wrote to you
Se tH°i7Md’ 41 s*nce fr01P Antwerp in Flanders, and am now to acquaint
ep ’’	' you, that, having seen almost all the principal places,

and the things worthy of notice, in those two countries, we are on our
return to London, where we hope to be next Saturday or Sunday, that
we may not miss the Coronation. At Amsterdam I met with Mr.
Crellius and his daughter, that was formerly Mrs. Neigh. Her
husband, Dr. Neigh, died in Carolina, and she is married again and
lives very well in that city. They treated us with great civility and
kindness, and will be so obliging as to forward this letter to you, a ship
being bound to New York from Amsterdam. We are in gpod health,
and have had a great deal of pleasure, and received a good deal of
information in this tour, that may be useful when we return to
America.

To Mica Mary My dear P°lly’s good mamma bids me write two or
Stevenson, dated three lines, by way of apology for her so long omitting to
m"? tCr 1761 St ’ wr'^e‘ She acknowledges the receiving of two agreeable
0 ■’	‘ letters from her beloved daughter, enclosing one for

Sally Franklin, which was much approved (excepting one word only)
and sent as directed.BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

147

The reasons of her not writing are, that her time all day is fully taken
up, during the daylight, with the care of her family, a*nd—lying abed in
the morning. And her eyes are so bad, that she cannot see to write
in the evening—for playing at cards. So she hopes that one, who is
all goodness, will certainly forgive her, when her excuses are so sub-
stantial. As for the secretary, he has not a word to say in his own
behalf, though full as great an offender, but throws himself upon mercy;
pleading only that he is, with the greatest esteem and sincerest regard,
his dear Polly’s ever affectionate friend.

To lord Kames, It is long since I have afforded myself the pleasure of
wted .-i0113011' writing to you. As I grow in years, I find I grow more
0,r,, 7 ' indolent, and more apt to procrastinate. I am indeed a
bad correspondent; but what avails confession without amendment ?

When I come so late with my thanks for your truly valuable
“ Introduction to the Art of Thinking,” can I have any right to inquire
after your “ Elements of Criticism ” ? I promise myself no small
satisfaction in perusing that work also, when it shall appear. By the
first, you sow thick in the young mind the seeds of good sense concern-
ing moral conduct, which, as they grow and are transplanted into life,
must greatly adorn the character and promote the happiness of the
person. Permit me to say, that I think I never saw more solid, useful
matter contained in so small a compass, and yet the method and
expression so clear, that the brevity occasions no obscurity. In the
other you will, by alluring youth to the practice of learning, strengthen
their judgment, improve and enlarge their understanding, and increase
their abilities of being useful.

To produce the number of valuable men necessary in a nation for
its prosperity, there is much more hope from schemes of early institution
than from reformation. And, as the power of a single man to do
national service, in particular situations of influence, is often immensely
great, a writer can hardly conceive the good he may be doing, when
engaged in works of this kind. I cannot, therefore, but wish you would
publish it as soon as your other important employments will permit
you to give it the finishing hand.

With these sentiments you will not doubt my being serious in the
intention of finishing my “ Art of Virtue.” It is not a mere ideal work.
I planned it first in 1732. I have from time to time made, and
caused to be made, experiments of the method with success. The
materials have been growing ever since. The form only is now to be
given ; in which I purpose employing my first leisure, after my return
to my other country.

Your invitation to make another jaunt to Scotland, and offer to meet
us half way en famille, was extremely obliging. Certainly I never
spent my time anywhere more agreeably, nor have I been in any place,
where the inhabitants and their conversation left such lastingly pleas-
ing impressions on my mind, accompanied with the strongest inclina-
tion once more to visit that hospitable, friendly, and sensible people.
The friendship your Lordship in particular honours me with would not,148

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

you may be assured, be among the least of my inducements. My Son
is in the same sentiments with me. 15ut we doubt we cannot have
that happiness, as we are to return to America early in the next
spring.

I am ashamed that I have been so useless a member to your
Philosophical Society, since they did me the honour of admitting me.
But 1 think it will not be long before they hear from me. I should be
very glad to see Dr. Cullen’s paper on Fire. When may we expect
the publication? I have, as you have heard, been dealing in Smoke,
and I think it not difficult to manage, when one is once acquainted
thoroughly with the principles. But, as the causes are various, so
must the remedies be ; and one cannot prescribe to a patient at such
a distance, without first having a clear state of its case. If you should
ever take the trouble of sending me a description of the circumstances
of your smoky chimneys, perhaps I might offer something useful
towards their cure. But doubtless you have doctors equally skilful
nearer home.

I sent one of your “ Principles of Equity ” as a present to a particular
friend of mine, one of the judges of the Supreme Court in Pennsyl-
vania, where, as there is no court of chancery, equity is often mixed
with the common law in their judgments. I since received two letters
from him. In the first, when he had read but part of the work, he
seemed to think something wanting in it. In the next, he calls his first
sentiments in question. I think 1 will send you the letters, though of
no great importance, lest, since I have mentioned them, you should
think his remarks might be of more consequence. You can return
them when any friend is coming this way.

To Hiss Mary Your good mamma has just been saying to me, that
Stevenson, dated she wonders what can possibly be the reason she has
in»? a? March] not had a line from you for so long a time. I have made
T762.	’ no complaint of that kind, being conscious, that, by

not writing myself, I have forfeited all claim to such favour, though
no letters give me more pleasure, and I often wish to hear from you ;
but indolence grows upon me with years, and writing grows more and
more irksome to me.

Have you finished your course of philosophy? No more doubts to
be resolved ? No more questions to ask ? If so, you may now be at
full leisure to improve yourself in cards. Mamma bids me tell you
she is lately much afflicted and half a cripple with the rheumatism. I
send you two or three French Gazettes de Midecine, which I have just
received from Paris, wherein is a translation of the extract of a letter
you copied out for me. You will return them with my French letters
on Electricity, when you have perused them.

To his wife, * condole with you most sincerely on the death of our
dated London, 24 good mother,1 being extremely sensible of the distress
March, 1762, and affliction it must have thrown you into. Your

1 Mrs. Read, the mother of-Mrs. Franklin.BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

149

comfort will be, that no care was wanting on your part towards her,
and that she had lived as long as this life could afford her any rational
enjoyment. It is, I am sure, a satisfaction to me, that I cannot charge
myself with having ever failed in one instance of duty and respect to
her during the many years that she called me son. The circumstances
attending her death were indeed unhappy in some respects ; but some-
thing must bring us all to our end, and few of us shall see her length
of days. My love to brother John Read, and sister and cousin Debby,
the young cousin Johnny Read, and let them all know, that I

on me to let me

know, that he is about to set out for Portsmouth, in order to sail for
America. I am finishing all business here in order for my return,
which will either be in the Virginia fleet, or by the packet of May next;
I am not yet determined which. I pray God grant us a happy meet-
ing.

We are all well, and Billy presents his duty. Mr. Strahan has
received your letter, and wonders he has nof been able to persuade
you to come over.

To David Hume, It is no small pleasure to me to hear from you that
dated London) my paper on the means of preserving buildings from
19 May, 1762. damage by lightning, was acceptable to the Philosophical
Society. Mr. Russel’s proposals of improvement are very sensible
and just. A leaden spout or pipe is undoubtedly a good conductor, so
far as it goes. If the conductor enters the ground just at the founda-
tion, arid from thence is carried horizontally to some well, or to a
distant rod driven downright into the earth, I would then propose,
that the part under the ground should be lead, as less liable to con-
sume with rust than iron. Because, if the conductor near the foot of
the wall should be wasted, the lightning might act on the moisture of
the earth, and by suddenly rarefying it occasion an explosion, that
may damage the foundation. In the experiment of discharging my
large case of electrical bottles through a piece of small glass tube filled
with water, the suddenly rarefied water has exploded with a force equal,
I think, to that of so much gunpowder; bursting the tube into many
pieces, and driving them with violence in all directions and to all parts
of the room. The shivering of trees into small splinters, like a broom,
is probably owing to this rarefaction of the sap in the longitudinal
pores, or capillary pipes, in the substance of the wood. And the blow-
ing up of bricks or stones in a hearth, rending stones out of a founda-
tion, and splitting of walls, are also probably effects sometimes of
rarefied moisture in the earth, under the hearth, or in the walls. We
should therefore have a durable conductor under ground, or convey the
lightning to the earth at some distance.

It must afford Lord Marischal a good deal of diversion to preside in
a dispute so ridiculous as that you mention. Judges in their decisions
often use precedents. I have somewhere met with one, that is what
the lawyers call a case in point. The Church people and the Purjtans

sympathize with them all affectionately.

This I write in haste, Mr. Beatty having just calledLIFE AND LETTERS OF

150

in a country town had once a bitter contention concerning the erecting
of a Maypole, which the former desired and the latter opposed. Each
party endeavoured to strengthen itself by obtaining the authority of the
mayor, directing or forbidding a Maypole. He heard their altercation
with great patience, and then gravely determined thus : “You, that
are for having no Maypole, shall have no Maypole ; and you, that are
for having a Maypole, shall have a Maypole. Get about your business,
and let me hear no more of this quarrel.”

Your compliment of gold and wisdom is very obliging to me, but a
little injurious to your country. The various value of everything in
every part of this world arises, you know, from the various proportions
of the quantity to the demand. We are told, that gold and silver in
Solomon’s time were so plenty, as to be of no more value in his
country than the stones in the street. You have here at present just
such a plenty of wisdom. Your people are, therefore, not to be
censured for desiring no more among them than they have ; and if I
have any, I should certainly carry it where, from its scarcity, it may
probably come to a bettSr market.

To Mary Steven- * * * Our ships for America do not sail so soon as I
son, dated ion- expected ; it will be yet five or six weeks before we
don, 7June, 1762. embark? and leave the old world for the new. I fancy I
feel a little like dying saints, who, in parting with those they love in
this world, are only comforted with the hope of more perfect happiness
in the next. I have, in America, connections of the most engaging
kind ; and, happy as I have been in the friendships here contracted,
those promise me greater and more lasting felicity. But God only
knows whether these promises shall be fulfilled.

To Marv Steven- This is the best paper I can get at this wretched inn,
Bon, dated Forts- but it will convey what is entrusted to it as faithfully as
mouth, 17 Au- the finest. It will tell my Polly how much her friend is
ffUB ’	' afflicted, that he must, perhaps, never again see one for

whom he has so sincere an affection, joined to so perfect an esteem ;
who he once flattered himself might become his own, in the tender
relation of a child, but can now entertain such pleasing hopes no more.
Will it tell how much he is afflicted? No, it cannot.

Adieu, my dearest child. I will call you so. Why should I not call
you so, since I love you with all the tenderness of a father ? Adieu.
May the God of all goodness shower down his choicest blessings upon
you, and make you infinitely happier, than that event would have
made you. And, wherever I am, believe me to be, with unalterable
affection, my dear Polly, your sincere friend.

T lord Tram«. I am now waiting here only for a wind to waft me to
dated1 Portal America, but cannot leave this happy island and my
mouth, 17 Au- friends in it, without extreme regret, though I am going
gust, 76 . to a country and a people that I love. I am going from
the old world to the new; and I fancy I feel like those, who areBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

151

leaving this world for the next ; grief at the parting ; fear of the
passage ; hope of the future. These different passions all effect their
minds at once : and these have tendered me down exceedingly. It is
usual for the dying to beg forgiveness of their surviving friends, if
they have ever offended them.

Can you, my Lord, forgive my long silence, and my not acknow-
ledging till now the favour you did me in sending me your excellent
book ? Can you make some allowance for a fault in others, which
you have never experienced in yourself; for the bad habit of post-
poning from day to day, what one every day resolves to do to-morrow?
A habit that grows upon us with years, and whose only excuse is we
know not how to mend it. If you are disposed to favour me, you will
also consider how much one’s mind is taken up and distracted by the
many little affairs one has to settle before the undertaking such a
voyage, after so long a residence in a country; and how little, in
such a situation, one’s mind is fitted for serious and attentive reading ;
which, with regard to the “ Elements of Criticism,” I intended before
I should write. I can now only confess and endeavour to amend. In
packing up my books, I have reserved yours to read on the passage.
I hope I shall therefore be able to write to you upon it soon after my
arrival. At present I can only return my thanks, and say that the
parts I have read gave mfe both pleasure and instruction ; that I am
convinced of your position, new as it was to me, that a good taste in
the arts contributes to the improvement of morals ; and that I have
had the satisfaction of hearing the work universally comjnended by
those who have read it.

And now, my dear Sir, accept my sincere thanks for the kindness
you have shown me, and my best wishes of happiness to you and
yours. Wherever I am, I shall esteem the friendship you honour me
with as one of the felicities of my life ; I shall endeavour to cultivate
it by a more punctual correspondence ; and I hope frequently to hear
of your welfare and prosperity.1

1 Franklin sailed for America immediately after writing this letter, and after
a sojourn in England of five years.152

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

CHAPTER II. (1762-1764.)

His Reception in America—His Son’s Marriage, and appointment as Governor of
New Jersey—Tour through the Colonies as Postmaster-General—Insurrection
of the Indians—Drafts a Militia Bill—Its Rejection by the Governor—Drafts
a Petition to the Throne for a Change of.Governor—Is Defeated for the
Assembly—Sent to England again as Agent of the Colony of Pennsylvania—
Parting Advice to his Daughter—Connecticut Religion.

To Mr White- * THANK you for your kind congratulations on my
ford, datedPhila- son’s promotion and marriage.1 If he makes a good
deighia, 7 Dec., governor and husband, (as I hope he will, for I know he
’	has good principles and a good disposition,) these events

will both of them give me continual pleasure.

The taking of the Havana, on which I congratulate you,, is a con-
quest of the greatest importance, and will doubtless contribute a due
share of weight in procuring us reasonable terms of peace. It has
been, however, the dearest conquest, by far, that we have made this
war, when we consider the terrible havoc made by sickness in that
brave army of veterans, now almost totally ruined.

To Mrs. Cath- I received with great pleasure my dear friend’s favour
H™1® T>v¥n‘ December 20th, as it informed me that you and yours
phia, 23 * jan.j are all well. Mrs. Franklin admits of your apology
1763.’	for dropping the correspondence with her, and allows

your reasons to be good ; but hopes, when you have more leisure, it
may be resumed. She joins with me in congratulating you on your
present happy situation. I thank you for your kind invitation. I
purpose a journey into New England in the spring or summer coming.
I shall not fail to pay my respects to you and Mr. Greene, when I

1 Franklin sailed for America towards the end of August, 1762, but did not reach
Philadelphia until Nov. 1st. A few days before sailing, his son William was
named Governor of New Jersey ; and very shortly after, somewhat to the father's
disappointment we may infer from his last letter to Miss Stevenson, the governor
married a young West Indian girl named Dowes. As William had personally no
pretensions to an appointment of such dignity, it is not easy to misunderstand the
motives of the ministry in making it. The differences between the mother country
and the colonies had already assumed such importance as to make it desirable to
detach a man of Franklin’s influence from the colonial party. The effort to induce
him to bring his family to England and settle there having failed, the blandish-
ments of patronage were essayed, with what expectations maybe inferred from the
following paragraph in a letter from Thomas Penn, one of the proprietaries, to
Governor Hamilton:

“ I am told you will find Mr. Franklin more tractable, and I believe we shall, in
matters of prerogative; as his son must obey instructions, and what he is ordered
to do the father cannot well oppose in Pennsylvania."

The artifice had its perfect work upon the son, who, to the infinite chagrin of the
father, from that time forth became the instrument of the ministry, and in the due
course of events a pensioned refugee in London. The ministers were not long in
discovering that their compliments had been wasted upon the doctor, whose zeal
and vigilance in maintaining the rights of the colonies increased with every new
provocation.BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

153

come your way. Please to make my compliments acceptable to him.

I have had a most agreeable time of it in Europe. I have, in com-
pany with my son, been in most parts of England, Scotland, Flanders,
and Holland; and generally have enjoyed a good share of health.
If you had asked the rest of your questions, I could more easily have
made this letter longer. Let me have them in your next. I think I
am not much altered ; at least my esteem and regard for my Katy (if
I may still be permitted to call her so) is the same, and I believe will
be unalterable, whilst I am, &c.

To lord	You require my history from the time I set sail for

dated London, 2 America. I left England about the end of August, 1762,
June, 1765. jn company with ten sail of merchant ships, under a
convoy of a man-of-war.1 We had a pleasant passage to Madeira,
where we were kindly received and entertained ; our nation being then
in high honour with the Portuguese, on account of the protection we
were then affording them against the united invasions of France and
Spain. It is a fertile island, and the different heights and situations
among its mountains afford such temperaments of air, that all the
fruits of northern and southern countries are produced there; corn,
grapes, apples, peaches, oranges, lemons, plantains, bananas, &c.
Here we furnished ourselves with fresh provisions, and refreshments
of all kinds ; and, after a few days, proceeded on our voyage, running
southward until we got into the trade winds, and then with them
westward, till we drew near the coast of America. The weather was
so favourable, that there were few days in which we could not visit
from ship to ship, dining with each other, and on board of the man-
of-war : which made the time pass agreeably, much more so than
when one goes in a single ship ; for this was like travelling in a moving
village, with all one’s neighbours about one.

On the 1st of November, I arrived safe and well at my own home,
after an absence of near six years, found my wife and daughter well ;
the latter grown quite a woman, with many amiable accomplishments
acquired in my absence ; and my friends as hearty and affectionate as
ever, with whom my house was filled for many days, to congratulate
me on my return. I had been chosen yearly during my absence to
represent the city of Philadelphia in our provincial Assembly ; and,
on my appearance in the House, they voted me three thousand pounds
sterling for my services in England, and their thanks delivered by the
Speaker. In February following, my son arrived with my new
daughter ; for, with my consent and approbation, he married soon after
I left England a very agreeable West India lady, with whom he is
very happy. I accompanied him to his government, where he met
with the kindest reception from the people of all ranks, and has lived
with them ever since in the greatest harmony. A river only parts that
province and ours, and his residence is within seventeen miles of me,
so that we frequently see each other.

In the spring of 1763, I set out on a tour through all the northern

«	1 England was then at war with France.LIFE AND LETTERS OF

iS4

Colonies to inspect and regulate the post-offices in the several pro-
vinces. In this journey I spent the summer, travelled about sixteen
hundred miles, and did not get home till the beginning of November.
The Assembly sitting through the following winter, and warm disputes
arising between them and the governor, I became wholly engaged in
public affairs ; for, besides my duty as an Assembly man, I had another
trust to execute, that of being one of the commissioners appointed by
law to dispose of the public money appropriated to the raising and
paying an army to act against the Indians, and defend the frontiers.
And then, in December, we had two insurrections of the back in-
habitants of our province, by whom twenty poor Indians were
murdered, that had, from the first settlement of the province, lived
among us, under the protection of our government. This gave me a
good deal of employment; for, as the rioters threatened further
mischief, and their actions seemed to be approved by an ever-acting
party, I wrote a pamphlet entitled “A Narrative, &c.” (which I think
I sent to you) to strengthen the hands of our weak government, by
rendering the proceedings of the rioters unpopular and odious. This
had a good effect; and afterwards, when a great body of them with
arms marched towards the capital, in defiance of the government, with
an avowed resolution to put to death one hundred and forty Indian
converts then under its protection, I formed an Association at the
governor’s request, for his and their defence, we having no militia.
Near one thousand of the citizens accordingly took arms ; Governor
Penn made my house for some time his head-quarters, and did every-
thing by my advice ; so that, for about forty-eight hours, I was a very
great man ; as I had been once some years before, in a time of public
danger.1

But the fighting face we put on, and the reasonings we used with the
insurgents (for I went at the request of the governor and council, with
three others, to meet and discourse with them), having turned them
back and restored quiet to the city, I became a less man than ever; for
I had, by this transaction, made myself many enemies among the
populace; and the governor (with whose family our public disputes
had long placed me in an unfriendly light, and the services I had
lately rendered him not being of the kind that make a man acceptable),
thinking it a favourable opportunity, joined the whole weight of the
proprietary interest to get me out of the Assembly ; which was accord-
ingly effected at the last election, by a majority of about -twenty-five
in four thousand voters. The House, however, when they met in
October, approved of the resolutions taken, while I was Speaker, of
petitioning the crown for a change of government, and requested me
to return to England, to prosecute that petition; ■ which service I
accordingly undertook, and embarked at the beginning of November
last, being accompanied to the ship, sixteen miles, by a cavalcade of
three hundred of my friends, who filled our sails with their good wishes,
and I arrived in thirty days at London.

1 This is a reference to the defeat of General Braddock by the French, at the
battle of Monongahela.BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

155

Here I have been ever since, engaged in that and other public
affairs relating to America, which are like to continue for some time
longer upon my hands ; but I promise you, that when I am quit of these,
I will engage in no other ; and that, as soon as I have recovered the
ease and leisure I hope for, the task you require of me, of finishing my
“ Art of Virtue,” shall be performed. In the meantime, I must re-
quest you would excuse me on this consideration, that the powers of
the mind are possessed by different men in different degrees, and that
every one cannot, like Lord Karnes, intermix literary pursuits and im-
portant business without prejudice to either.

I send you herewith two or three other pamphlets of my writing on
our political affairs, during my short residence in America ;1 but I do
not insist on your reading them ; for I know you employ all your time
to some useful purpose.

To Mary ste- Your pleasing favour of November i ith is now before
▼enson, dated me. It found me, as you supposed it would, happy
March* $63*’ 5 with my American friends and family about me;

’	and it made me more happy in showing me, that I am

not yet forgotten by the dear friends I left in England. And, indeed,
why should I fear they will ever forget me, when I feel so strongly
that I shall ever remember them?

Of all the enviable things England has, I envy it most its people.
Why should that petty Island, which, compared to America, is but like
a stepping-stone in a brook, scarce enough of it above water to keep
one’s shoes dry; why, I say, should that little Island enjoy, in almost
every neighbourhood, more sensible, virtuous, and elegant minds, than
we can collect in ranging a hundred leagues of our vast forests ? But
It is said the Arts delight to travel westward. You have effectually
defended us in this glorious war, and in time you will improve us.
After the firs.t cares for the necessaries of life are over, we shall come
to think of the embellishments. Already, some of our young geniuses
begin to lisp attempts at painting, poetry, and music. We have a
young painter now studying at Rome. Some specimens of our poetry
I send you, which, if Dr. Hawkesworth’s fine taste cannot approve, his
good heart will,at least excuse. The manuscript piece is by a young
friend of mine, and was occasioned by the loss of one of his friends,
who lately made a voyage to Antigua to settle some affairs, previous to
an intended marriage with an amiable young lady here, but unfor-
tunately died there. I send it to you, because the author is a great
admirer of Mr. Stanley’s musical compositions, and has adapted this
piece to an air in the sixth Concerto of that gentleman, the sweetly
solemn movement of which he is quite in raptures with. He has
attempted to compose a recitativo for it, but, not being able to satisfy
himself in the bass, wishes I could get it supplied. If Mr. Stanley
would condescend to do. that for him, he would esteem it as one of
the highest honours, and it would make him excessively happy. You

1 These were “A Narrative of the Late Massacres Cool Thoughts and
the “ Preface to Galloway’s Speech.”156

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

will say that a recitativo can be but a poor specimen of our music. It
is the best and all I have at present, but you may see better hereafter.

I hope Mr. Ralph’s affairs are mended since you wrote. I know
he had some expectations, when I came away, from a hand that
would help him. He has merit, and one would think ought not to be
so unfortunate.

I do not wonder at the behaviour you mention of Dr. S----------towards

me, for I have long since known him thoroughly. I made that man
my enemy by doing him too much kindness. It is the honestest way
of acquiring an enemy. And, since it is convenient to have at least
one enemy, who, by his readiness to revile one on all occasions, may
make one careful of one’s conduct, I shall keep him an enemy for that
purpose ; and shall observe your good mothers advice, never again to
receive him as a friend. She once admired the benevolent , spirit
breathed in his sermons. She will now see the justness of the lines
your laureate Whitehead addressed to his poets, and which I now
address to her.

“ Full many a peevish, envious, slanderous elf
Is, in his works, benevolence itself.

For all mankind, unknown, his bosom heaves ;

He only injures those, with whom he lives.

Read, then, the man ;—does truth his actions guide,

Exempt from petulance, exempt from pride ?

To social duties does his heart attend,

As son, as father, husband, brother, friend?

Do those, who know him, love him f If they do,

You've my permission, you may love him too."

Nothing can please me more, than to see your philosophical im-
provements, when you have leisure to communicate them to me. I
still owe you a long letter on that subject which I shall pay. I am
vexed with Mr. James, that he has been so dilatory in Mr. Madison’s
Armomca. I was unlucky in both the workmen, that I permitted to
undertake making those instruments. The first was fanciful, and
never could work to the purpose, because he was ever conceiving some
new improvement, that answered no end. The other I doubt is abso-
lutely idle. I have recommended a number to him from hence, but
must stop my hand.

Adieu, my dear Polly, and believe me, as ever, with the sincerest
esteem and regard, your truly affectionate friend and humble servant.

To his wife, We left Woodbridge on Tuesday morning, and went
dated NewYork, to Elizabethtown, where I found our children returned
16 June, 1763 from the Falls, and very well. The Corporation were
to have a dinner that day at the Point for their entertainment, and pre-
vailed on us to stay. There were all the principal people, and a great
many ladies. After dinner we set out, and got here before dark. We
waited on the governor and on General Amherst yesterday ; dined with
Lord Stirling; went in the evening to my old friend Mr. Kennedy’s
funeral; and are to dine with the general to-day. Mr. Hughes andBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.	157

daughter are well, and Betsey Holt. I have not yet seen B. Mecom,
but shall to-day. I am very well.

I purpose to take Sally at all events, and write for her to-day to be ready
to go in the packet that sails next Friday week.1 If there is no other
suitable company, Mr. Parker will go with her and take care of her.

I am glad you sent some wax candles with the things to Boston. I am
now so used to them, that I cannot well do without them. You spent
your Sunday very well, but I think you should go oftener to church.

I approve of your opening all my English letters, as it must give you
pleasure to see, that people, who knew me there so long and so inti-
mately, retain so sincere a regard for me.

To Mrs. Cath- 1 am almost ashamed to tell you, that I have had an-
crine Greene, other fall, and put my shoulder out. It is well reduced
Se^4 ms0”’ 5 again, but is still affected with constant, though not
’’	' very acute pain. I am not yet able to travel rough

roads, and must lie by awhile, as I can neither hold reins nor whip
with my right hand till it grows stronger.

Do you think, after this, that even your kindest invitations, and Mr.
Greene’s can prevail with me to venture myself again on such roads ?
And yet it would be a great pleasure to me to see you and yours once
more. Sally and my sister Mecom thank you for your remembrance
of them, and present their affectionate regards. My best respects to
good Mr. Greene, Mrs. Ray, and love to your little ones. I am glad
to hear they are well, and that your Celia goes alone. I am, dear
friend, yours affectionately.

w George Your frequently repeated wishes for my eternal, as well
dated3 * Phila- as my temporal happiness, are very obliging, and I can
deiphia, 19 June, only thank you for them and offer you mine in return.
1764,	I have myself no doubt, that I shall enjoy as much of

both as is proper for me. That Being, who gave me existence, and
through almost threescore years has been continually showering his
favours upon me, whose very chastisements have been blessings to
me ; can I doubt that he loves me? And, if he loves me, can I doubt
that he will go on to take care of me, not only here but hereafter ?
This to some may seem presumption; to me it appears the best
grounded hope ; hope of the future built on experience of the past.

To Mrs. Jffeoom, * * * I find myself at present quite clear from
dated Phila- pain, and so have at length left off the cold bath. There
N°V ’ *s» h°wever> some weakness in my shoulder, though
much stronger than when I left Boston, and mending.

1 Franklin was about setting out upon a five months' tour through the northern
colonies for the inspection of the post-offices. He travelled about sixteen hundred
miles, accompanied by his daughter, in a light carriage, driving himself. A saddle-
horse made a part of the equipage, on which Sally rode most of the way from
Rhode Island to Philadelphia. He was suffering at this time from a pain in the
breast, which was aggravated by a succession of accidental falls, to which allusion
is made in several of his letters written at this period. It passed away, however,
soon after his return to Philadelphia.i58

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

I am otherwise very happy in being at home, where I am allowed to
know when I have eat enough and drunk enough, am warm enough,
and sit in a place that I like, &c., and nobody pretends to know what
I feel better than I do myself. Don’t imagine that I am a whit the
less sensible of the kindness I experienced among my friends in New
England. I am very thankful for it, and shall always retain a grateful
remembrance of it.

Sarah8 daU£ted We £ot: ^own ^ere at sunset> having taken in more
Reedy island,1 live stock at Newcastle, with some other things we
7 at maht, 8 wanted. Our good friends, Mr. Galloway, Mr. Wharton,
l764, and Mr. James, came with me in the ship from Chester

Nov., 176

1 Recent disorders in the province convinced Governor John-Penn, who, in
October, 1763, had succeeded Governor Hamilton, that the civil power required
strengthening, and he recommended a militia law for the embodiment of all able-
bodied citizens for the public defence. The Assembly cheerfully accepted the sug-
gestion, and a committee of which Franklin was a member reported a suitable
bill, one of the clauses of which gave the governor the choice of any one of three
persons named by each company and regiment for officers. It also fixed the scale
of fines, and provided for the trial of offenders by judges and juries in the courts of
law.

The governor refused his signature to this bill, claiming for himself the sole
power of appointing officers, increasing the scale of fines, requiring all trials to be
by court-martial, and making some offences punishable with death.

The Assembly was shocked by these proposals, and would not listen to them for
a moment. The bill was lost. The ill feeling engendered by this dispute was
aggravated by another which soon followed. To meet the expenses of the Indian
war, it was proposed to raise^50,000 on bills of credit, for the partial redemption
of which a land tax was to be laid.

By virtue of the decision made by the king in council, at Franklin’s solicitation,
the located uncultivated lands of the proprietaries were not to be assessed higher
than the lowest rate at which any located uncultivated lands belonging to the in-
habitants should be assessed,—that is, as the Assembly interpreted it, the pro-
prietary lands were not to be rated higher than lands of a similar quality belonging
to other persons. Availing himself of an ambiguity in the expression, the governor
insisted that all the proprietary lands, whatever their quality, were to be assessed
at the lowest rates.

The greater impending danger from the savages compelled the Assembly to sub-
mit to this pettifogging construction, and they passed the act on the governor's
terms. Neither he nor the Assembly then suspected that the concession he had
extorted, and to which they had been forced to submit, was to result in rebellion,
revolution, and the independence of the colonies.

Before adjourning, the Assembly, in a series of resolutions, expressed their belief
that the peace and happiness of the province could never be restored till the power
of governing it was lodged directly in the crown.

These resolutions were found to have correctly interpreted the sentiments of the
people ; for when the Assembly met again, some seven weeks later, petitions to the
king for a change of government came in from more than three thousand of the
inhabitants.

The Assembly, encouraged by these manifestations, decided by a large majority
to unite in a petition for the same object drafted by Franklin himself, who, at the
same time, was chosen Speaker in the place of Norris, who hesitated to affix his
signature to such a document.

Pending these proceedings, the British ministry had signified its intention to
raise a revenue from stamp duties in the colonies. The Assetnbly, participating in
the excitement which this intelligence caused throughout the country, sent to Mr.BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

159

to Newcastle, and went ashore there. It was kind to favour me with
their good company as far as they could. The affectionate leave taken
of me by so many friends at Chester was very endearing. God bless
them and all Pennsylvania.

My dear child, the natural prudence and goodness of he.art God
has blessed you with make it less necessary for me to be particular in
giving you advice. I shall therefore only say, that the more attentively
dutiful and tender you are towards your good mamma, the more you
will recommend yourself to me. But why should I mention me, when
you have so much higher a promise in the commandments, that such
conduct will recommend you to the favour of God. You know I have
many enemies, all indeed on the public account (for I cannot recollect
that I have in a private capacity given just cause of offence to any
one whatever), yet they are enemies, and very bitter ones ; and you
must expect their enmity will extend in some degree to you, so that
your slightest indiscretions will be magnified into crimes, in order the
more sensibly to wound and afflict me. It is therefore the more
necessary for you to be extremely circumspect in all your behaviour,
that no advantage maybe given to their malevolence.

Go constantly to church, whoever preaches. The act of devotion
in the Common Prayer Book is your principal business there, and if
properly attended to, will do more towards amending the heart than
sermons generally can do. For they were composed by men of
much greater piety and wisdom, than our common composers of
sermons can pretend to be; and therefore I wish you would never
miss the prayer days ; yet I do not mean you should despise sermons,
even of the preachers you dislike, for the discourse is often much
better than the man, as sweet and clear waters come through- very
dirty earth. I am the more particular on this head, as you seemed

Jackson, then agent of the colony of Pennsylvania in London, a remonstrance
against the scheme, as tending to deprive the people of their most essential rights
as British subjects. The signing of these instructions was Dr. Franklin's last act
as Speaker of the Assembly.

The election which took place in the autumn of this year, 1764, turned on the
question of a change in the government, and though the proprietary party succeeded
by a majority of twenty-five votes out of four thousand in depriving Franklin of the
seat to which he had been chosen for fourteen years in succession, it proved to them
a barren victory, for as soon as the Assembly convened, it not only resolved to
prosecute the measures and policy of the previous Assembly, but to send Franklin
as a special agent to England to take charge of their petition for a change of
government, and to look after all the interests of the province abroad.

The Assembly promptly voted that a provision for the doctor's expenses should
be made in the next money bill, upon the strength of which the merchants sub-
scribed £1,100 towards his expenses in a few hours, and on the 7th of November,
and only twelve days after his appointment, he was on his way again to England,
accompanied as far as Chester, where he was to board his vessel, by on escort of
some three hundred of his fellow-citizens.

After a tempestuous voyage of thirty days, he landed at Portsmouth, proceeded
at once to London, and on the night of the 10th of December was installed again
in his old. lodgings with Mrs. Stevenson, in Craven Street. It was on his voyage
down the Delaware, that he addressed this letter of the 8th November to his
(daughter Sally.T6o

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

to express a little before I came away some inclination to leave our
church, which I would not have you do.

For the rest, I would only recommend to you in my absence, to
acquire those useful accomplishments, arithmetic and book-keeping.
This you might do with ease, if you would resolve not to see company
on the hours you set apart for those studies.

We expect to be at sea to-morrow, if this wind holds ; after which
I shall have no opportunity of writing to you, till I arrive (if it please
God I do arrive) in England. I pray that his blessing may attend
you, which is worth more than a thousand of mine, though they are
never wanting.

To Jared inger- I should be glad to know what it is that distinguishes
d’iJh’atei)ochii" Connecticut religion from common religion :—communi-
1702. ’	’ cate, if you please, some of these particulars that you

think will amuse me as a virtuoso. When I travelled
in Flanders I thought of your excessively strict observation of Sun-
day ; and that a man could hardly travel on that day among you upon
his lawful occasions without hazard of punishment, while where I was
every one travelled, if he pleased, or diverted himself in any other
way; and in the afternoon both high and low went to the play or the
opera, where there was plenty of singing, fiddling, and dancing. I
looked round for God’s judgments but saw no signs of them. The
cities were well built and full of inhabitants, the markets filled with
plenty, the people well favoured and well clothed ; the fields well
tilled ; the cattle fat and strong ; the fences, houses and windows all
in repair ; and no Old Tenor anywhere in the country,—which would
almost make one suspect that the Deity is not so angry at that offence
as a New England Justice.

CHAPTER III. (1764-1766.)

Jealousy of English Manufacturers—Origin of the Stamp Act^Opposition of
Franklin—Effect of its Passage in America—Names a Stamp Distributor—
Unpleasant Consequences—Correspondence with Dean Tucker.

To the editor of a	Sir,—In your paper of Wednesday last, an ingenious

Mon^y^Mi Mayd corresPondent who calls himself The Spectator, and
1765.	’	’ dates from Pimlico, under the guise of goodwill to the

news-writers, whom he calls a “ useful body of men in
this great city,” has, in my opinion, artfully attempted to turn them
and their works into ridicule, wherein, if he could succeed, great
injury might be done to the public as well as to these good people.

Supposing, Sir, that the “ we hears ” they give us of this or the
other intended tour or voyage of this and the other great personage
were mere inventions, yet they at least offer us an innocent amusement
while we read, and useful matter for conversation when we are dis-
posed to converse.	tBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

161

Englishmen, Sir, are too apt to be silent when they have nothing
to say, and too apt to be sullen when they are silent; and, when they
are sullen, to hang themselves. But, by these ive hears, we are
supplied with abundant funds for discourse. We discuss the motives
for such voyages, the probability of their being undertaken, and the
practicability of their execution. Here we display our judgment in
politics, our knowledge of the interests of princes, and our skill in
geography, and (if we have it) show our dexterity in argumentation.
In the meantime, the tedious hour is killed, we go home pleased with
the applauses we have received from others, or at least with those we
give to ourselves ; we sleep soundly, and live on, to the comfort of
our families. But, Sir, I beg leave to say, that all the articles of news
that seem improbable are not mere inventions. Some of them, I can
assure you on the faith of a traveller, are serious truths. And here,
quitting Mr. Spectator of Pimlico, give me leave to instance the
various accounts the news-writers have given us, with so much honest
zeal for the welfare of Poor Old England, of the establishing manu-
factures in the colonies to the prejudice of those of the kingdom. It
is objected by superficial readers, who yet pretend to some knowledge
of those countries, that such establishments are not only improbable,
but impossible, for that their sheep have but little wool, not in the
whole sufficient for a pair of stockings a year to each inhabitant; that,
from the universal dearness of labour among them, the working of
iron and other materials, except in a few coarse instances, is im-
practicable to any advantage.

Dear Sir, do not let us suffer ourselves to be amused with such
groundless objections. The very tails of the American sheep are so
laden with wool, that each has a little car or wagon on four little wheels,
to support and keep it from trailing on the ground. Would they
caulk'their ships, would they even litter their horses with wool, if it
were not both plenty and cheap ? And what signifies the dearness of
labour, when an English shilling passes for five and twenty ? Their
engaging three hundred silk throwsters here in one week for New
York was treated as a fable, because, forsooth, they have “ no silk
there to throw.” Those, who make this objection, perhaps do not
know, that, at the same time the agents from the King of Spain were
at Quebec to contract for one thousand pieces of cannon to be made
there for the fortification of Mexico, and at New York engaging the
usual supply of woollen floor-carpets for their West India houses,
other agents from the Emperor of China were at Boston treating
about an exchange of raw silk for wool, to be carried in Chinese junks
through the Straits of Magellan.

And yet all this is as certainly true, as the account said to be from
Quebec, in all the papers of last week, that the inhabitants of Canada
are making preparations for a cod and whale fishery this “ summer in
the upper Lakes.” Ignorant people may object, that the upper Lakes
are fresh, and that cod and whales are salt water fish ; but let them
know, Sir, that cod, like other fish when attacked by their enemies,
fly into any water where they can be the safest; that whales, whenLIFE AND LETTERS OF

162

they have a mind to eat cod, pursue them wherever they fly ; and that
the grand leap of the whale in the chase up the Falls of Niagara is
esteemed, by all who have seen it, as one of the finest spectacles in
nature. Really, Sir, the world is grown too incredulous. It is like
the pendulum ever swinging from one extreme to another. Formerly
everything printed was believed, because it was in print. Now things
seem to be disbelieved for just the very same reason. Wise men
wonder at the present growth of infidelity. They should have con-
sidered, when they taught the people to doubt the authority of news-
papers and the truth of predictions in the almanacs, that the next
step might be a disbelief of the well vouched accounts of ghosts and
witches, and doubts even of the truths of the Creed.

Thus much I thought it necessary to say in favour of an honest set
of writers, whose comfortable living depends- on collecting and sup-
plying the printers with news at the small price of sixpence an article,
and who always show their regard to truth, by contradicting in a
subsequent article such as are wrong, for another sixpence, to the
great satisfaction and improvement of us coffee-house students in
history and politics, and all future Livys, Rapins, Robertsons, Humes,
and Macaulays, who may be sincerely inclined to furnish the world
with that rara avis, a true history. I am, Sir, your humble servant,

A Traveller.

Letter to a person	Sir,—I have attentively perused the paper you sent

oearoin'w&e me, and am of opinion, that the measure it proposes, of
buSy*1and6 effects an union with the colonies, is a wise one ; but I doubt
of * union with it will hardly be thought so here, till it is too late to
oonoemSgthere- attempt it. The time has been, when the colonies
peal or suspension would have esteemed it a great advantage, as well as
d£ted StaLon£m’ honour to be permitted to send members to Parliament;
Jan. 6,1766.	’ and would have asked for that privilege, if they could

have had the least hopes of obtaining it. The time is
now come, when they are indifferent about it, and will probably not
ask it, though they might accept it if offered them ; and the time will
come, when they will certainly refuse it. But if such an union were now
established (which methinks it highlyimports this country to establish)
it would probably subsist as long as Britain shall continue a nation.
This people, however, is too proud, and too much despises the
Americans, to bear the thought of admitting them to such an equitable
participation in the government of the whole.

Then the next best thing seems to be, leaving them in the quiet
enjoyment of their respective constitutions ; and when money is
wanted for any public service, in which they ought to beat a part,
calling upon them by requisitorial letters from the crown (according
to the long-established custom) to grant such aids as their loyalty
shall dictate, and their abilities permit. The very sensible and
benevolent author of that paper seems not to have known, that
such a constitutional custom subsists, and has always hitherto been
practised in America ; or he would not have expressed himself in thisBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

163

manner; “ It is evident, beyond a doubt, to the intelligent and im-
partial, that after the very extraordinary efforts, which were effectually
made by Great Britain in the late war to save the colonists from
destruction, and attended of necessity with an enormous load of debts
in consequence, that the same colonists, now firmly secured from
foreign enemies, should be somehow induced to contribute some
proportion towards the exigencies of state in future.” This looks as
if he conceived the war had been carried on at the sole expense
of Great Britain, and the colonies only reaped the benefit, without
hitherto sharing the burden, and were therefore now indebted to
Britain on that account. And this is the same kind of argument that
is used by those, who would fix on the colonies the heavy charge of
unreasonableness and ingratitude, which I think your friend did not
intend.

Please to acquaint him, then, that the fact is not so; that, every
year during the war, requisitions were made by the crown on the
colonies for raising money and men ; that accordingly they made
more extraordinary efforts, in proportion to their abilities, than Britain
did; that they raised, paid, and clothed, for five or six years, near
twenty-five thousand men, besides providing for other services, as
building forts, equipping guard-ships, paying transports, &c. And
that this was more than their fair proportion is not merely an opinion
of mine, but was the judgment of government here, in full knowledge
of all the facts ; for the then ministry, to make the burthen more
equal, recommended the case to Parliament, and obtained a reimburse-
ment to the Americans of about two hundred thousand pounds
sterling every year j which amounted only to about two-fifths of their
expense ; and great part of the rest lies still a load of debt upon
them ; heavy taxes on all their estates, real and personal, being laid
by acts of their assemblies to discharge it, and yet will not discharge
it in many years.

While, then, these burdens continue ; while Britain restrains the
colonies in every branch of commerce and manufactures that she
thinks interferes with her own ; while she drains the colonies, by her
trade with them, of all the cash they can procure by every, art and
industry in any part of the world, and thus keeps them always in her
debt (for they can make no law to discourage the importation of your
to them ruinous superfluities, as you do the superfluities of France ;
since such a law would immediately be reported against by your
Board of Trade, and repealed by the crown); I say, while these
circumstances continue, and while there subsists the established
method of royal requisitions for raising money on them by their own
assemblies on every proper occasion ; can it be necessary or prudent
to distress and vex them by taxes laid here, in a Parliament wherein
they have no representative, and in a manner which they look upon
to be unconstitutional and subversive of their most valuable rights ?
And are they to be thought unreasonable and ungrateful if they oppose
such taxes ?	- ,

Wherewith, they say, shall we show our loyalty to our gracious164

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

King, if our money is to be given by others, without asking our con-
sent? And, if the Parliament has a right thus to take from us a
penny in the pound, where is the line drawn that bounds that right,
and what shall hinder their calling, whenever they please, for the
other nineteen shillings and eleven pence ? Have we then anything
that we can call our own? It is more than probable, that bringing
representatives from the colonies to sit and act here as members of
Parliament, thus uniting and consolidating your dominions, would in
a little time remove these objections and difficulties, and make the
future government of the colonies easy ; but, till some such thing is
done, I apprehend no taxes, laid there by Parliament here, will ever
be collected, but such as must be stained with blood ; and I am sure
the profit of such taxes will never answer the expense of collecting
them, and that the respect and affection of the Americans to this
country will in the struggle be totally lost, perhaps never to be re-
covered ; and therewith all the commercial and political advantages,
that might have attended the continuance of this respect and this
affection.

In my own private judgment, I think an immediate repeal of the
Stamp Act would be the best measure for this country ; but a sus-
pension of it for three years, the best for that. The repeal would fill
them with joy and gratitude, re-establish their respect and veneration
for Parliament, restore at once their ancient and natural love for this
country, and their regard for everything that comes from it ; hence
the trade would be renewed in all its branches ; they would again
indulge in all the expensive superfluities you supply them with, and
their own new-assumed home industry would languish. But the
suspension, though it might continue their fears and anxieties, would
at the same time keep up their resolutions of industry and frugality ;
which in two ot three years would grow into habits, to their lasting
advantage. However, as the repeal will probably not be now agreed
to, from what I think a mistaken opinion, that the honour and dignity
of government is better supported by persisting in a wrong measure
once entered into, than by rectifying an error as soon as it is dis-
covered ; we must allow the next best thing for the advantage of both
countries, is the suspension ; for, as to executing the act by force, it
is madness, and will be ruin to the whole.

To "William	In the pamphlet you were so kind as to lend me, there

PaMv^March isf	one hnportant fact misstated, apparently from the

1778.	’ writer’s not having been furnished with good informa-

tion ; it is the transaction between Mr. Grenville and
the colonies, wherein he understands that Mr. Grenville demanded of
them a specific sum, that they refused to grant anything, and that it
was on their refusal only, that he made the motion for the Stamp Act,
No one of these particulars is true. The fact was this. Some time in
the winter of 1763-64, Mr. Grenville called together the agents of the;
several colonies, and told them that he proposed to draw a revenue
from America, and to that end his intention was to levy a stamp dutyBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

165

on the colonies by Act of Parliament in the ensuing session, of which
he thought it fit that they should be immediately acquainted, that they
might have time to consider, and, if any other duty equally productive
would be more agreeable to them, they might let him know it. The
agents were therefore directed to write this to their respective
Assemblies, and communicate to him the answers they should receive ;
the agents wrote accordingly. I was a member in the Assembly of
Pennsylvania when this notification came to hand. The observations
there made upon it were, that the ancient, established, and regular
method of drawing aid from the colonies was this. The occasion was
always first considered by their sovereign in his privy council, by
whose sage advice he directed his secretary of state to write circular
letters to the several governors, who were directed to lay them before
their assemblies. In these letters the occasion was explained for their
satisfaction; with gracious expressions of his majesty’s confidence in
their known duty and affection, on which he relied, that they would
grant such sums as should be suitable to their abilities, loyalty, and
zeal for his service. That the colonies had always granted liberally on
such requisitions, and so liberally during the late war, that the king,
sensible that they had granted much more than their proportion, had
recommended it to Parliament, five years successively, to make them
some compensation, and the Parliament accordingly returned them
two hundred thousand pounds a year, tp be divided among them.
That the proposition of taxing them in Parliament was therefore both
cruel and unjust. That, by the constitution of the colonies, their
business was with the king, in matters of aid ; they had nothing to do
with any jinancier, nor he with them ; nor were the agents the proper
channels through which requisitions should be made : it was therefore
improper for them to enter in any stipulation, or make any proposition,
to Mr. Grenville about laying taxes on their constituents by Parliament,
which had really no right at all to tax them, especially as the notice he
had sent them did not appear to be by the king’s order, and perhaps
was without his knowledge ; as the king, when he would obtain any-
thing from them, always accompanied his requisition with good words ;
but this gentleman, instead of a decent demand, sent them a notice,
that they should certainly be taxed, and only left them the choice of
the manner. But, all this notwithstanding, they were so far from
refusing to grant money, that they resolved to the following purpose ;
That, as they always had, so they always should think it “ their duty
to grant aid to the crown, according to their abilities, whenever
required of them in the usual constitutional manner.”

I went soon after to England, and took with me an authentic copy
of this resolution, which I presented to Mr. Grenville before he brought
in the Stamp Act. I asserted in the House of Commons (Mr. Grenville
being present), that I had done so, and he did not deny it. Other
colonies made similar resolutions. And, had Mr. Grenville, instead of
that act, applied to the king in council for such requisitional letters,
letters to be circulated by the secretary of state, I am sure he would
have obtained more money from the colonies by their voluntary grants,LIFE AND LETTERS OF

166

than he himself expected from his stamps. But he chose compulsion
rather than persuasion, and would not receive from their goodwill
what he thought he could obtain without it. And thus the golden
bridge, which the ingenious author thinks the Americans unwisely and
unbecomingly refused to hold out to the minister and Parliament, was
actually held out to them, but they refused to walk over it. This is
the true history of that transaction ; and, as it is probable there may
be another edition of that excellent pamphlet, I wish this may be
communicated to the candid author, who I doubt not will correct that
error.

Tuoker Jdat«d Reverend Sir,—Being informed that some severe
12 Feb., strictures on my conduct and character had appeared in
1774.	a new book published under your respectable name, I

purchased and read it. After thanking you for those parts of it that
are so instructive on points of great importance to the common interest
of mankind, permit me to complain, that, if by the description you
give in pages 180, 181, of a certain American patriot, whom you say
you need not name, you do, as is supposed, mean myself, nothing can
be further from the truth than your assertion, that I applied or used
any interest, directly or indirectly, to be appointed one of the stamp
officers for America. I certainly never expressed a wish of the kind
to any person whatever; much less was I, as you say, “ more than
ordinarily assiduous on this head.” I have heretofore seen in the
newspapers insinuations of the same import, naming me expressly ;
but, being without the name of the writer, I took no notice of
them.

I know not whether they were yours, or were only your authority
for your present charge ; but now they have the weight of your name
and dignified character, I am more sensible of the injury ; and I beg
leave to request, that you will reconsider the grounds on which you
have ventured to publish an accusation, that, if believed, must prejudice
me extremely in the opinion of good men, especially in my own
country, whence I was sent expressly to oppose the imposition of that
tax. If on such reconsideration and inquiry you find, as I am per-
suaded you will, that you have been imposed upon by false reports, or
have too lightly given credit to hearsays in a matter that concerns
another’s reputation, I flatter myself that your equity will induce you
to do me justice, by retracting that accusation. In confidence of this,
I am, with great esteem, Reverend Sir, your most obedient and most
humble servant,	B. Franklin.

To Benjamin	Sir,—The letter which you did me the honour to send

Monday,’21 Feb., t0 Gloucester, I have just received in London, where I
1774. ’	have resided many weeks, and am now returning to Glou-

cester. On inquiry, I find that I was mistaken in some
circumstances relating to your conduct about the Stamp Act, though
right as to the substance. These errors shall be rectified the first
opportunity. After having assured you, that I am no dealer inBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.	167

anonymotis newspaper paragraphs, nor have a connexion with any
who are, I have the honour to be, Sir, your humble servant,

J. Tucker.

Tu ker Jdated Reverend Sir,—I received your favour of yesterday.
Tuesday, * 22 If the substance of what you have charged me with is
Feb., 1774. right, I can have but little concern about any mistakes
in the circumstances j whether they are rectified or not,
will be immaterial. But, knowing the substance to be wrong, and
believing that you can have no desire of continuing in an error,
prejudicial to airy man’s reputation, I am persuaded you will not take
it amiss, if I request you to communicate to me the particulars of the
information you have received, that I may have an opportunity of
examining them; and I flatter myself I shall be able to satisfy you
that they are groundless. I propose this method as more decent than
a public altercation, and suiting better the respect due to your
character. With great regard, I have the honour to be, Reverend
Sir, your most obedient humble servant,	B. Franklin.

v«7,iriinenjj^f?	Sir,—The recluest made in your last letter is so very

Gloucester, 24 just and reasonable, that I shall comply with it very
Feb., 1774. readily. It has long appeared to me, that you much
exceeded the bounds of morality in the methods you
pursued for the advancement of the supposed interests of America.
If it can be proved, that I have unjustly suspected you, I shall
acknowledge rfly error with as much satisfaction as you can have in
reading my recantation of it. As to the case more immediately
referred to in your letters, I was repeatedly informed, that you had
solicited the late Mr. George Grenville for a place or agency in the
distribution of stamps in America. From which circumstance I
myself concluded, that you had made interest for it on your own
account ; whereas I am now informed, there are no positive proofs of
your having solicited to obtain such a place for yourself, but that there
is sufficient evidence still existing of your having applied for it in favour
of another person. If this latter should prove to be the fact, as I am
assured it will, I am willing to suppose, from several expressions in
both your letters, that you will readily acknowledge that the difference
in this case between yourself and your friend, is very immaterial to the
general merits of the question. But, if you should have distinctions
in this case, which are above my comprehension, I shall content
myself with observing, that your great abilities and happy discoveries
deserve universal regard; and that, as on these accounts I respect
and esteem you, so I have the honour to be, Sir, your very humble
servant,	J. Tucker.

Tu k	Reverend Sir,—I thank you for the frankness with

London, 2« Feb., which you have communicated to me the particulars of
1774. ’	the information you had received, relating to my

supposed application to Mr. Grenville for a place in thei68

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

American stamp-office. As I deny that either your former or latter
informations are true, it seems incumbent on me, for your satisfaction,
to relate all the circumstances fairly to you, that could possibly give
rise to such mistakes.

Some days after the Stamp Act was passed, to which I had given
all the opposition I could, with Mr. Grenville, I received a note from
Mr. Whately, his secretary, desiring to see me the next morning. I
waited upon him accordingly, and found with him several other colony
agents. He acquainted us, that Mr. Grenville was desirous to make
the execution of the act as little inconvenient and disagreeable to
America as possible ; and therefore did not think of sending stamp
officers from this country, but wished to have discreet and reputable
persons appointed in each province from among the inhabitants, such
as would be acceptable to them ; for, as they were to pay the tax, he
thought strangers should not have the emolument. Mr. Whately
therefore wished us to name for our respective colonies, informing us,
that Mr. Grenville would be obliged to us for pointing out to him
honest and responsible men, and would pay great regard to our nomina-
tions. By this plausible and apparently candid declaration, we were
drawn in to nominate ; and I named for our province Mr. Hughes,
saying, at the same time, that I knew not whether he would accept of
it, but, if he did, I was sure he would execute the office faithfully. ( I
soon after had notice of hts appointment. We none of us, I believe,
foresaw or imagined, that this compliance with the request of the
minister would or could have been called an application of ours, and
adduced as a proof of our approbation of the act we had been oppos-
ing ; otherwise I think few of us would have named at all; I am sure
I should not. This, I assure you, and can prove to you by living
evidence, is a true account of the transaction in question, which, if
you compare with that you have been induced to give of it in your
book, I am persuaded you will see a difference that is far from being
“ a distinction above your comprehension.”

Permit me further.to remark, that your expression of there being
“ no positive proofs of my having solicited to obtain such a place for
myselff implies that there are nevertheless some circumstantial
proofs sufficient at least to support a suspicion. The latter part how-
ever of the same sentence, which says, “ there is sufficient evidence
still existing of my having applied for it in favour of another person,”
must, I apprehend, if credited, destroy that suspicion, and be con-
sidered as positive proof of the contrary ; for, if I had interest enough
with Mr. Grenville to obtain that place for another, is it likely that it
would have been refused me, had I asked it for myself?

There is another circumstance, which I would offer to your candid
consideration. You describe me as “ changing sides, and appearing
at the bar of the House of Commons to cry down the very measure I
had espoused, and direct the storm that was falling upon that
minister.” As this must have been after my supposed solicitation of
the favour for myself or my friend, and Mr. Grenville and Mr. Whately
were both in the House at the time, and both asked me questions, canBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

169

it be conceived, that, offended as they must have been with such
a conduct in me, neither, of them should put me in mind of this
my sudden changing of sides, or remark it to the House, or reproach
me with it, or require my reasons for it ? And yet all the members
then present know, that not a syllable of the kind fell from either
of them, or from any of their party.

I persuade myself by this time you begin to suspect you may have
been misled by your informers. I do not ask who they are, because I
do not wish to have particular motives for disliking people, who in
general may deserve my respect. They too may have drawn con-
sequences beyond the information they received from others, and,
hearing the office had been given to a person of my nomination,
might as naturally suppose I had solicited it, as Dr. Tucker, hearing
that I had solicited it, might “ conclude” it was for myself.

I desire you to believe, that I take kindly, as I ought, your freely
mentioning to me “ that it has long appeared to you, that I much
exceeded the bounds of morality in the methods I pursued for the
advancement of the supposed interests of America.” I am sensible
there is a good deal of truth in the adage, that our sins and our debts
are always more than we take them to bej and though I cannot at
present, on examination of my conscience, charge myself with any
immorality of that kind, it becomes me to suspect, that what has lojig
appeared to you may have some foundation. You are so good as to
add, that, “ if it can be proved you have unjustly suspected me, you
shall have a satisfaction in acknowledging the error.” It is often a
thing hard to prove that suspicions are unjust, even when we know
what they are ; and harder when we are unacquainted with them. I
must presume, therefore, that in mentioning them, you had an inten-
tion of communicating the grounds of them to me if I should request
it, which I now do, and I assure you, with a sincere desire and design
of amending what you may show me to have been wrong in my
conduct, and to thank you for the admonition. In your writings I
appear a bad man ; but, if I am such, and you can thus help me
to become in reality a good one, I shall esteem it more than a
sufficient reparation to, Reverend Sir, your most obedient humble
servant,	B. Franklin.1

1 A memorandum was found appended to the rough draft of this letter, in the
handwriting of the author, dated February 7, 1775, in which he said, “ No answer
has yet been received.” In a later edition of his work, however, Dean Tucker
omitted the offensive passages.LIFE AND LETTERS OF

CHAPTER IV. (1766.)

franklin’s examination before the house of commons.

The examination
of Dr. Benjamin
Franklin, in the
British House of
Commons, rela-
tive to the repeal
of the American
Stamp Aot, in

From the journal of the House of Commons, as given
by Mr. Vaughan.

'•'‘February 3rd, 1766. Benjamin Franklin and a number
of other persons ordered to attend the committee of the
whole House, to whom it was referred to consider farther
the several papers, which were presented to the House
by Mr. Secretary Conway.

I	As soon as the Stamp Act was promulgated in the colonies, acloucLof petitions
from their various assemblies was showered upon Parliament for its repeal. The
stamped paper was rejected as if it were poisoned ; vessels were forbidden to land
it ; the distributors were compelled to resign their commissions ; Hughes dared not
show himself in the streets, nor did Franklin entirely escape. A caricature of the
period represents the devil whispering in his ear: “ Ben, you shall be my agent
throughout my dominions." His house and family even were supposed at one
time to be in peril from the mob, as appears by the following extract from a letter
written him by his wife on the 22nd September:

“You will see by the papers what work has happened in other places, and some-
thing has been said relative to raising a mob in this place. I was for nine days
kept in a continual hurry by people to remove ; and Sally was persuaded to go to
Burlington (the residence of her brother, the governor)) for safety ; but on Monday
last we had very great rejoicings on account of the change of the ministry, and a
preparation for bonfires at night, and several houses threatened to be pulled down.

“ Cousin Davenport came and told me that more than twenty people had told
him it was his duty to be with me. I said I was pleased to receive civility from any-
body, so he stayed with me some time ; towards night I said he should fetch a gun
or two, as we had none. I sent to ask my brother to come and bring his gun also,
so we [turned] one room into a magazine; I ordered some sort of defence up-
stairs, such as I could manage myself. I said when I was advised to remove, that
I was very sure you had done nothing to hurt anybody, nor had I given any
offence to any person at all, nor would I be made uneasy by anybody, nor
would I stir or show the least uneasiness, but if any one came to disturb me,

I should show a proper resentment, and I should be very much affronted with any-
body.

II	Sally was gone with Miss Rose to see Captain Real’s daughter, and heard the
report there, and came home to be with me; but I had sent her word not to
come. I was told there were eight hundred men ready to assist any one that
should be molested.

* * * “Billy (the Governor of New Jersey) came down to ask us up
to Burlington. I consented to Sally’s going, but I will not stir, as I really
don’t think it would be right in me to stir or show the least uneasiness at
all. * * *	'

“ It is Mr. Samuel Smith that is setting the people mad by telling them it was
you that had planned the Stamp Act, and that you are endeavouring to get the
Test Act brought over here,”

Such was the state of affairs in America when the subject was again brought
before Parliament in the beginning of '66, the Marquis of Rockingham having
displaced Mr. Grenville.

The new ministers resolved to recommend a repeal of the Stamp Act. While the
question was under debate in Parliament, a motion which probably originated
with the ministers, who were now striving to effect a repeal of the Act, was adopted,
that Franklin be called before the House and examined respecting the state of
affairs in America. This is the report of his examination.BENJA MIN FRANKLIN.	171

“February 15th. Benjamin Franklin, having passed through his
examination, was excepted from farther attendance.

“ February mth. The resolutions of the committee were reported
by the chairman, Mr. Fuller ; their seventh and last resolution setting
forth, that it was their opinion that the House be moved, that leave be
given to bring in a Bill to repeal the Stamp Act.”

1.	Q. What is your name, and place of abode ?—A. Franklin, of
Philadelphia.

2.	Q. Do the Americans pay any considerable taxes among them-
selves ?—A. Certainly many, and very heavy taxes.

3.	Q. What are the present taxes in Pennsylvania, laid by the laws
of the colony ?—A. There are taxes on all estates real and personal ;
a poll tax; a tax on all offices, professions, trades, and business,
according to their profits ; and excise on all wine, rum, and other
spirits ; and a duty of ten pounds per head on all negroes imported,
with some other duties.

4.	Q. For what purposes are those taxes laid ?—A. For the support
of the civil and military establishments of the country and to dis-
charge the heavy debt contracted in the last war.

5.	Q. How long are those taxes to continue?—A. Those for dis-
charging the debt are to continue till 1772, and longer, if the debt
should not be then all discharged. The others must always continue.

6.	Q. Was it not expected that the debt would have been sooner
discharged?—A. It was, when the peace was made'with France and
Spain. But, a fresh war breaking out with the Indians, afresh load
of debt was incurred ; and the taxes, of course, continued longer by a
new law.

7.	Q. Are not all the people very able to pay those taxes ?—A. No.
The frontier counties, all along the continent, having been frequently
ravaged by the enemy.and greatly impoverished, are able to pay very
little tax. And therefore, in consideration of their distresses, our late
tax laws do expressly favour those counties, excusing the sufferers;
and I suppose the same is done in other governments.

8.	Q. Are not you concerned in the management of the Post-office
in America?—A. Yes. I am Deputy-Postmaster-General of North
America.

9.	Q. Don’t you think the distribution of stamps by post to all the
inhabitants very practicable, if there was no opposition?--^. The
posts only go along the seacoasts ; they do not, except in a few in-
stances, go back into the country ; and, if they did, sending for stamps
by post would occasion an expense of postage amounting in many
cases to much more than that of the stamps themselves.

10.	Q. Are you acquainted with Newfoundland ?—A. I never was
there.

11.	Q. Do you know whether there are any post-roads on that

There is nothing he ever wrote in which Franklin exhibited more of all the
qualities which distinguished him among men than his replies to the questions put
to him on this occasion.172

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

island ?—A. I have heard that there are no roads at all, but that the
communication between one settlement and another is by sea only.

12.	Q. Can you disperse the stamps by post in Canada?—A.
There is only a post between Montreal and Quebec. The inhabitants
live so scattered and remote from each other in that vast country, that
posts cannot be supported among them, and therefore they cannot ge t
stamps per post. The English colonies, too, along the frontiers ar e
very thinly settled.

13.	Q. From the thinness of the back settlements, would not the
Stamp Act be extremely inconvenient to the inhabitants, if executed ?
—A. To be sure it would ; as many of the inhabitants could not get
stamps when they had occasion for them without taking long journeys,
and spending perhaps three or four pounds, that the Crown might get
sixpence.

14.	Q. Are not the colonies, from their circumstances, very able to
pay the stamp duty?—A. In my opinion there is not gold and silver
enough in the colonies to pay the stamp duty for one year.1

15.	Q. Don’t you know that the money arising from the stamps was
all to be laid out in America?—A. I know it is appropriated by the
act to the American service ; but it will be spent in the conquered
colonies, where the soldiers are ; not in the colonies that pay it.

16.	Q. Is there not a balance of trade due from the colonies where
the troops are posted, that will bring back the money to the old
colonies?—A. I think not. I believe very little would come back. I
know of no trade likely to bring it back. I think it would come, from
the colonies where it was spent, directly to England ; for I have always
observed, that in every^colony the more plenty the means of remit-
tance to England, the more goods are sent for, and the more trade
with England carried on.

17.	Q. What number of white inhabitants do you think there are
in Pennsylvania ?—A. I suppose there may be about one hundred
and sixty thousand.

18.	Q. What number of them are Quakers ?—A. Perhaps A third.

19.	Q. What number of Germans?—A. Perhaps another third;
but I cannot speak with certainty.

20.	Q. Have any number of the Germans seen service, as soldiers,
in Europe ?—A. Yes, many of them, both in Europe and America.

21.	Q. Are they as much dissatisfied with the Stamp Duty as the

‘The Stamp Act said, " that the Americans shall have no commerce, make no
exchange of property with each other, neither purchase, nor grant, nor recover
debts ; they, shall neither marry nor make their wills unless they pay such and such
sums" in specie for the stamps which must give validity to the proceedings. The
operation of such a tax, had it obtained the consent of the people, appeared in-
evitable ; and its annual productiveness, on its introduction, was estimated, by its
proposer in the House of Commons at the commitee for supplies, at one hundred
thousand pounds sterling. The colonies being already reduced to the necessity
of having paper money, by sending to Britain the specie they collected in foreign
trade, in order to make up for the deficiency of their other returns for British manu-
factures, there were doubts whether there could remain specie sufficient to answer
the tax.BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

173

English ?—A. Yes, and more ; and with reason, as their stamps are,
in many cases, to be double.'

22.	Q. How many white men do you suppose there are in North
America?—A. About three hundred thousand, from sixteen to sixty
years of age.3

23.	Q. What may be the amount of one year’s imports into Penn-
sylvania from Britain?—A. I have been informed that our merchants
compute the imports from Britain to be above five hundred thousand
pounds.

24.	Q. What may be the amount of the produce of your province
exported to Britain ?—A. It must be small, as we produce little that
is wanted in Britain. I suppose it cannot exceed, forty thousand
pounds.

25.	Q. How then do you pay the balance?—A. The balance is
paid by our produce carried to the West Indies, and sold in our own
islands, or to the French, Spaniards, Danes, and Dutch ; by the same
produce carried to other colonies in North America, as to New
England, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, Carolina, and Georgia ; by the
same, carried to different parts of Europe, as Spain, Portugal, and
Italy. In all which places we receive either money, bills of exchange,
or commodities that suit for remittance to Britain ; which, together
with all the profits on the industry of our merchants and mariners,
arising in those circuitous voyages, and the freights made by their
ships, centre finally in Britain to discharge the balance, and pay for
British manufactures continually used in the provinces, or sold to
foreigners by our traders.

26.	Q. Have you heard of any difficulties lately laid on the Spanish
trade ?—A. Yes ; I have heard, that it has been greatly obstructed by
some new regulations, and by the English men-of-war and cutters
stationed all along the coast in America.

27.	Q. Do you think it right that America should be protected by
this country and pay no part of the expense ?—A. That is not the
case. The colonies raised, clothed, and paid, during the last war,
near twenty-five thousand men, and spent many millions.

28.	Q. Were you not reimbursed by Parliament ?—A. We were
only reimbursed what, in your opinion, we had advanced beyond our

‘The Stamp Act provided, that a double duty should be laid *' where the instru-
ment, proceedings, &c., shall be engrossed, written, or printed within the said
colonies and plantations, in any other than the English language.” This measure,
it is presumed, appeared to be suggested by motives of convenience, and the
policy of assimilating persons of foreign to those of British descent, and preven-
ting their interference in the conduct of law business till this change should be effected.
It seems, however, to have been deemed too precipitate, immediately to extend
this clause to newly-conquered countries. An exemption therefore was granted,
in this particular, with respect to Canada and Grenada, for the space of five years,
to be reckoned from the commencement of the duty. See the Stamp Act.—B. V.

a Strangers excluded, some parts of the northern colonies doubled their numbers
in fifteen or sixteen yeats ; to the southward they were longer ; but, taking, one
with another, they had doubled, by natural generation only, once in twenty-five
years. Pennsylvania^including strangers, had doubled in about sixteen years.174

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

proportion, or beyond what might reasonably be expected from us ;
and it was a very small part of what we spent. Pennsylvania, in
particular, disbursed about five hundred thousand pounds, and the
reimbursements, in the whole, did not exceed sixty thousand pounds.

29.	Q. You have said that you pay heavy taxes in Pennsylvania ;
what do they amount to in the pound ?—A. The tax on all estates, real
and personal, is eighteen-pence in the pound, fully rated; and the tax
on the profits of trades and professions, with other taxes, do, I suppose,
make full half a crown in the pound.

30.	Q. Do you know anything of the rate of exchange in Pennsyl-
vania, and whether it has fallen lately ?—A. It is commonly from one
hundred and seventy to one hundred and seventy-five. I have heard,
that it has. fallen lately from one hundred and seventy-five to one
hundred and sixty-two and a half; owing, I suppose, to their lessening
their orders for goods : and, when their debts to this country are paid,
1 think the exchange will probably be at par.

31.	Q. Do you not think the people of America would submit to
pay the Stamp Duty, if it was moderated ?—A. No, never, unless com-
pelled by force of arms.

32.	Q. Are not the taxes in Pennsylvania laid on unequally, in order
to burden the English trade ; particularly the tax on professions and
business ?—A. It is not more burdensome in proportion than the tax
on lands. It is intended and supposed to take an equal proportion of
profits.

33.	Q. How is the assembly composed ? Of what kinds of people
are the members ; landholders or traders ?—A. It is composed of
landholders, merchants, and artificers.

34.	Q. Are not the majority landholders ?—A. I believe they are.

35.	Q. Do not they, as much as possible, shift the tax off from the
land, to ease that, and lay the burden heavier on trade ?—A. I have
never understood it so. I never heard such a thing suggested. And
indeed an attempt of that kind could answer no purpose. The mer-
chant or trader is always skilled in figures, and ready with his pen and
ink. If unequal burdens are laid on his trade, he puts an additional
price on his goods ; and the consumers, who are chiefly landholders,
finally pay the greatest part, if not the whole.

36.	Q. What was the temper of America towards Great Britain
before the year 1763 P1—A. The best in the world. They submitted

1 In the year 1733, “for the welfare and prosperity of our sugar colonies in
America,” and " for remedying discouragements of planters,” duties were “given
and granted” to George the Second, upon all rum, spirits, molasses, syrups, sugar,
and paneles of foreign growth, produce, and manufacture, imported into the
colonies. This regulation of trade for the benefit of the general empire was
acquiesced in, notwithstanding the introduction of the novel terms “give and
grant.” But the Act, which was made only for the term of five years, and had
been several times renewed in the reign of .George the Second, and once in the
reign of George the Third, was renewed again in the year 1763, in the reign of
George the Third, and extended to other articles upon new and altered grounds.
It was stated in the preamble to this Act, “that it was expedient that new pro-
visions and regulations should be established for improving the revenue of thisBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

175

willingly to the government of the Crown, and paid, in their courts,
obedience to the Acts of Parliament. Numerous as the people are in
the several old provinces, they cost you nothing in forts, citadels,
garrisons, or armies, to keep them in subjection. They were governed
by this country at the expense only of a little pen, ink, and paper ;
they were led by a thread. They had not only a respect, but an
affection for Great Britain; for its laws, its customs and manners,
and even a fondness for its fashions, that greatly increased the com-
merce. Natives of Britain were always treated with particular regard ;
to be an Old-England man was, of itself, a character of some respect,
and gave a kind of rank among us.

37.	Q. And what is their temper now?—A. O, very much altered.

38.	Q. Did you ever hear the authority of Parliament to make laws
for America questioned till lately?—A. The authority of Parliament
was allowed to be valid in all laws, except such as should lay internal
taxes. It was never disputed in laying duties to regulate commerce.

39.	Q. In what proportion hath population increased in America?—
A. I think the inhabitants of all the provinces together, taken at a
medium, double in about twenty-five years. But their demand for
British manufactures increases much faster; as the consumption is
not merely in proportion to their numbers, but grows with the growing
abilities of the same numbers to pay for them. In 1723, the whole
importation from Britain, to Pennsylvania was about fifteen thousand
pounds sterling ; it is now near half a million.

40.	Q. In what light did the people of America use to consider the
Parliament of Great Britain ?—A. They considered the Parliament as
the great bulwark and security of their liberties and privileges, and
always spoke of it with the utmost respect and veneration. Arbitrary
ministers, they thought, might possibly, at times, attempt to oppress
them ; but they relied on it, that the Parliament, on application, would
always give redress. They remembered, with gratitude, a strong
instance of this, when a Bill was brought into Parliament, with a
clause to make royal instructions laws in the colonies, which the
House of Commons would not pass, and it was thrown out.

41.	Q. And have they not still the same respect for Parliament?—
A. No, it is greatly lessened.

42.	Q. To what cause is that owing?—A. To a concurrence of
causes ; the restraints lately laid on their trade, by which the bringing

kingdom.;" that it “was just and necessary that a revenue should be raised in
America for defending, protecting, and securing the same; ” “and that the Commons
of Great Britain, desirous of making some provision towards raising the said
revenue in America, have resolved to give and grant to his Majesty the several
rates and duties," &c. Mr. Mauduit, agent for Massachusetts Bay, tells us, that
he was instructed in the following terms to oppose Mr. Grenville’s taxing system.
“You are to remonstrate against these-measures, and, if possible, to obtain a
repeal of the Sugar Act, and prevent the imposition of any further duties or taxes
on the colonies. Measures will be taken that you may be joined by all the other
agents. Boston, June s&,th, 1764."

The question proposed to Dr. Franklin alludes to this Sugar Act in 1763. Dr.
Franklin’s answer particularly merits the attention of the historian and tne politi-
cian. .176

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

of foreign gold and silver into the colonies was prevented ; the pro-
hibition of making paper money among themselves, and then
demanding a new and heavy tax by stamps, taking away, at the same
time, trials by juries, and refusing to receive and hear their humble
petitions.

43.	Q. Don’t you think they would submit to the Stamp Act, if it was
modified, the obnoxious parts taken out, and the duty reduced to some
particulars of small moment?—A. No, they will never submit to it.

44.	Q. What do you think is the reason that the people in America
increase faster than in England?—A. Because they marry younger,
and more generally.

45.	Q. Why. so ?—A. Because any young couple, that are indus-
trious, may easily obtain land of their own, on which they can raise
a family.

46.	Q. Are not the lower ranks of people more at their ease in
America than in England ?—A. They may be so, if they are sober and
diligent, as they are better paid for their labour.

47.	Q. What is your opinion of a future tax, imposed on the same
principle with that of the Stamp Act ? How would the Americans
receive it ?—A. Just as they do this. They would not pay it.

48.	Q. Have not yon heard of the resolutions of this House, and of
the House of Lords, asserting the right of Parliament relating to
America, including a power to tax the people there?—A. Yes, I have
heard of such resolutions.

49.	Q. What will be the opinion of the Americans on those reso-
lutions ?—A. They will think them unconstitutional and unjust.

50.	Q. Was it an opinion in America before .1763, that the Parlia-
ment had no right to lay taxes and duties there ?—A. I never heard
any objection to the right of laying duties to regulate commerce ; but
a right to lay internal taxes was never supposed to be in Parliament,
as we are not represented there.

51.	Q. On what do you found your opinion, that the people in
America made any such distinction ?—A. I know that whenever the
subject has occurred in conversation where I have been present, it has
appeared to be the opinion of every one, that we could not be taxed
by a Parliament wherein we were not represented. But the payment
of duties laid by an Act of Parliament, as regulations of commerce,
was never disputed.

52.	Q. But can you name any act of assembly, or public act of any
of your governments, that made such distinction?—A. I do not know
that there was any ; I think there was never an occasion to make any
such act, till now that you have attempted to tax us ; that has occa-
sioned resolutions of assembly, declaring the distinction, in which I
think every assembly on the continent, and every member in every
assembly, have been unanimous.

53.	Q' What, then, could occasion conversations on that subject
before that time ?—A. There was in 1754 a proposition made, (I think
it came from hence), that in case of a war, which was then appre-
hended, the governors of the polonies should meet, and order theBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

177

levying of troops, building of forts, and taking every other necessary
measure for the general defence ; and should draw On the treasury
here for the sums expended, which were afterwards to be raised in
the colonies by a general tax, to be laid on them by Act of Parliament.
This occasioned a good deal of conversation on the subject ; and the
general opinion was, that the Parliament neither would nor could lay
any tax on us, till we were duly represented in Parliament ; because it
was not just, nor agreeable to the nature of an English constitution.

54.	Q. Don’t you know there was a time in New York, when it was
under consideration to make an application to Parliament to lay taxes
on that colony, upon a deficiency arising from the assembly’s refusing
or neglecting to raise the necessary supplies for the support of the
civil government ?—A. I never heard of it.

55.	Q. There was such an application under consideration in New
York; and do you apprehend they could suppose the right of Parlia-
ment to lay a tax in America was only local, and confined to the case
of a deficiency in a particular colony, by a refusal of its assembly to
raise the necessary supplies?—A. They could not suppose such a
case, as that the assembly would not raise the necessary supplies to
support its own government. An assembly that would refuse it must
want common sense ; which cannot be supposed. I think there was
never any such case at New York, and that it must be a misrepresenta-
tion, or the fact must be misunderstood. I know there have been
some attempts, by ministerial instructions from hence» to oblige the
assemblies to settle permanent salaries on governors, which they
wisely refused to do ; but I believe no assembly of New York, or any
other colony, ever refused duly to support government by proper allow-
ances, from time to time, to public officers.

56.	Q. But, in case a governor, acting by instruction, should call on
an assembly 4o raise the necessary supplies, and the assembly should
refuse to do it, do you not think it would then be for the good of the
people of the colony, as well as necessary to government, that the
Parliament should tax them?— A. I do not think it would be necessary.
If an assembly could possibly be so absurd, as to refuse raising the
supplies requisite for the maintenance of government among them,
they could not long remain in such a situation ; the disorders and
confusion occasioned by it must soon bring them to reason.

57.	Q. If it should not, ought not the right to be in Great Britain of
applying a remedy?—A. A right, only to be used in such a case, I
should have no objection to ; supposing it to be used merely for the
good of the people of the colony.

58.	Q. But who is to judge of that, Britain or the colony?—A.
Those that feel can best judge.

59.	Q. You say the colonies have always submitted to external taxes,
and object to the right of Parliament only inlaying internal taxes ; now
can you show, that there is any kind of difference between the two
taxes to the colony on which they may be laid ?—A. I think the differ-
ence is very great. An external tax is a duty laid on commodities
imported ; that duty is added to the first cost and other charges on

13178

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

the commodity, and, when it is offered to sale, makes a part of the
price. If the people do not like it at that price, they refuse it; they
are not obliged to pay it. But an internal tax is forced from the
people without their consent, if not laid by their own representatives.
The Stamp Act says, we shall have no commerce, make no exchange
of property with each other, neither purchase, nor grant, nor recover
debts ; we shall neither marry nor make our wills, unless we pay such
and such sums ; and thus it is intended to extort our money from us,
or ruin us by the consequences of refusing to pay it.

60.	Q. But supposing the external tax or duty to be laid on the
necessaries of life, imported into your colony, will not that be the
same thing in its effects as an internal tax ?—A. I do not know a
single article imported into the northern colonies, but what they can
either do without, or make themselves.

61.	Q. Don’t you think cloth from England absolutely necessary to
them?—A. No, by no means absolutely necessary ; with industry and
good management, they may very well supply themselves with all they
want.

62.	Q. Will it not take a long time to establish that manufacture
among them ; and must they not in the meanwhile suffer greatly ?—
A. I think not. They have made a surprising progress already. And
I am of opinion, that before their old clothes are worn out, they will
have new ones of their own making.

63.	Q. Can they possibly fin^l wool enough in North America?—
A. They have taken steps to increase the wool. They entered into
general combinations to eat no more lamb ; and very few lambs were
killed last year. This course, persisted in, will soon make a prodigious
difference in the quantity of wool. And the establishing of great
manufactories, like those in the clothing towns here, is not necessary,
as it is where the business is to be carried on for the purposes of trade.
The people will all spin, and work for themselves, in their own
houses.

64.	Q. Can there be wool and manufacture enough in one or two
years ?—A. In three years, I think there may.

65.	Q. Does not the severity of the winter, in the northern colonies,
occasion the.wool to be of bad quality?—A. No; the wool is very
fine and good.

66.	Q. In the more southern colonies, as in Virginia, don’t you
know, that the wool is coarse, and only a kind of hair?—A. I don’t
know it. I never heard it. Yet I have been sometimes in Virginia.
I cannot say I ever took particular notice of the wool there, but I
believe it is good, though I cannot speak positively of it; but Virginia
and the colonies south of it have less occasion for wool; their winters
are short, and not very severe; and they can very well clothe them-
selves with linen and cotton of their own raising for the rest of the year.

67.	Q. Are not the people in the more northern colonies obliged to
fodder their sheep all the winter?—A. In some of the most northern
colonies they may be obliged to do it, some part of the winter.

68.	Q. Considering the resolutions of Parliament, as to the right,BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.	179

do you think, if the Stamp Act is repealed, that the North Americans
will be satisfied?—A. I believe they will.

69.	Q. Why do you think so ?—A. I think the resolutions of right
will give them very little concern, if they are never attempted to be
carried into practice. The colonies will probably consider themselves
in the same situation, in that respect, with Ireland; they know you
claim the same right with regard to Ireland, but you never exercise it,
and they may believe you never will exercise it in the colonies, any
more than in Ireland, unless on some very extraordinary occasion.

70.	Q. But who are to be the judges of that extraordinary occa-
sion? Is not the Parliament?—A. Though the Parliament may
judge of the occasion, the people will think it can never exercise such
right, till representatives from the colonies are admitted into Parlia-
ment ; and that, whenever the occasion arises, representatives will be
ordered.

71.	Q. Did you never hear that Maryland, during the last war, had
refused to furnish a quota toward the common defence ?—A. Mary-
land has been much misrepresented in that matter. Maryland, to my
knowledge, never refused to contribute or grant aids to the Crown.
The assemblies, every year during the war, voted considerable sums,
and formed bills to raise them. The bills were, according to the con-
stitution of that province, sent up to the Council, or Upper House, for
concurrence, that they might be presented to the governor, in order to
be enacted into laws. Unhappy disputes between the two Houses,
arising from the defects of that constitution principally, rendered all
the bills but one or two, abortive. The proprietary’s council rejected
them. It is true,.Maryland did not then contribute its proportion ;
but it was, in my opinion, the fault of the government, not oi the people.

72.	Q. Was it not talked of in the other provinces, *as a proper
measure, to apply to the Parliament to compel them?—A. I have
heard such discourse ; but, as it was well known that the people were
not to blame, no such application was ever made, nor any step taken
towards it.

73.	Q. Was it not proposed at a public meeting?—.<4. Not that I
know of.

74.	Q. Do you remember the abolishing of the paper currency in
New England, by act of assembly?—A. I do remember its being
abolished in the Massachusetts Bay.

75.	Q. Was not Lieutenant-Governor Hutchinson principally con-
cerned in that transaction ?—A. I have heard so.

76.	Q. Was it not at that time a very unpopular law ?—A. I believe
it might, though I can say little about it, as I lived at a distance from
that province.

77.	Q. Was not the scarcity of gold and silver an argument used
against abolishing the paper?—A. I suppose it was.

78.	Q. What is the present opinion there of that law? Is it as
unpopular as it was at first?—A. I think it is not.

79.	Q. Have not instructions from hence been sometimes sent over
to governors, highly oppressive and unpolitical?—A. Yes.LIFE AND LETTERS OF

180

80.	Q. Have not some governors dispensed with them for that
reason ?—A. Yes, I have heard so.

81.	Q. Did the Americans ever dispute the controlling power of
Parliament to regulate the commerce?—A. No.

82.	Q. Can anything less than military force carry the Stamp Act
into execution ?—A. 1 do not see how a military force can be applied
to that purpose.

83.	Q. Why may it not?—A. Suppose a military force sent into
America, they will find nobody in arms ; what are they then to do?
They cannot force a man to take stamps who chooses to do with-
out them. They will not find a rebellion; they may indeed make
one.

84.	Q. If the Act is not repealed, what do you think will be the
consequences ?—A. A total loss of the respect and affection the
people of America bear to this country, and of all the commerce that
depends on that respect and affection.

85.	Q. How can the commerce be affected?—A. You will find, that
if the Act is not repealed, they will take a very little of your manu-
factures in a short time.

86.	Q. Is it in their power to do without them?—A. I think they
may very well do without them.

87.	Q. Is it their interest not to take them?—A. The goods they
take from Britain are either necessaries, mere conveniences, or super-
fluities. The first, as cloth, &c., with a little industry they can make
at home ; the second they can do without, till they are able to provide
them amongst themselves ; and the last, which are much the greatest
part, they will strike off immediately. They are mere articles of
fashion, purchased and consumed because the fashion in a respected
country; but will now be detested and rejected. The people have already
struck off, by general agreement, the use of all goods fashionable in
mournings, and many thousand pounds’ worth are sent back as un-
saleable.

88.	Q. Is it their interest to make cloth at home?—A. I think they
may at present get it cheaper from Britain; I mean, of the same fineness
and workmanship ; but, when one considers other circumstances, the
restraints on their trade, and the difficulty of making remittances, it
is their interest to make everything.

89.	Q. Suppose an act of internal regulations connected with a tax ;
how would they receive it?—A. I think it would be objected to.

90.	Q. Then no regulation with a tax would be submitted to?—
A. Their opinion is, that, when aids to the Crown are wanted, they are
to be asked of the several assemblies, according to the old-established
usage ; who will, as they always have done, grant them freely. And
that their money ought not to be given away, without their consent,
by persons at a distance, unacquainted with their circumstances and
abilities. The granting aids to the Crown is the only means they
have of recommending themselves to their sovereign ; and they think
it extremely hard and unjust, that a body of men. in which they have
no representatives, should make a merit of itself of giving and grantingBENJAMIN FRANKLIN

181

what is not its own, but theirs ; and deprive them of a right they
esteem of the utmost value and importance, as it is the security of all
their other rights.

91.	Q. But is not the post-office, which they have long received, a
tax as well as a regulation ?—A. No ; the money paid for the postage
of a letter is not of the nature of a tax ; it is merely a quantum
meruit for a service done-; no person is compellable to pay the money
if he does not choose to receive the service. A man may still, as before
the Act, send his letter by a servant, a special messenger, or a friend,
if he thinks it cheaper and safer.

92.	Q. But do they not consider the regulations of the post-office,
by the Act of last year, as a tax?—A. By the regulations of last year
the rate of postage was generally abated near thirty per cent, through
all America ; they certainly cannot consider such abatement as a tax.

93.	Q. If an excise was laid by Parliament, which they might like-
wise avoid paying, by not consuming the articles excised, would they
then not object to it?—A. They would certainly object to it, as an
excise is unconnected with any service done, and is merely an aid,
which they think ought to be asked of them, and granted by them, if
they are to pay it; and can be granted for them by no others what-
soever, whom they have not empowered for that purpose.

94.	Q. You say they do not object to the right of Parliament, in
laying duties on goods to be paid on their importation ; now, is there
any kind of difference between a duty on the importation of goods,
and an excise on their consumption ?—A. Yes, a very material one ;
an excise, for the reasons I have just mentioned, they think you can
have no right to lay within their country. But the sea is yours ; you
maintain, by your fleets, the safety of navigation in it, and keep it
clear of pirates ; you may have, therefore, a natural and equitable
right to some toll or duty on merchandises carried through that part
of your dominions, towards defraying the expense you are at in ships
to maintain the safety of that carriage.

95.	Q. Does this reasoning hold in the case of a duty laid on the
produce of their lands exported? And would they not then object to
such a duty?—A. If it tended to make the produce so much dearer
abroad, as to lessen the demand for it, to be sure they would object to
such a duty ; not to your right of laying it, but they would complain
of it as a burden, and petition you to lighten it.

96.	Q. Is not the duty paid on the tobacco exported, a duty of that
kind?—A. That, I think, is only on tobacco carried coastwise, from
one colony to another, and appropriated as a fund for supporting the
college at Williamsburg in Virginia.

97.	Q. Have not the assemblies in the West Indies the same
natural rights with those in North America?—A. Undoubtedly.

98.	Q. And is there not a tax laid there on their sugars exported ?
—A. I am not much acquainted with the West Indies ; but the duty
of four and a half per cent, on sugars exported was, I believe, granted
by their own assemblies.

99.	Q. How much is the poll-tax in your province laid on unmarriedi82

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

men ?—A. It is, I think, fifteen shillings, to be paid by every single
freeman, upwards of twenty-one years old.

ioo. Q. What is the annual amount of all the taxes in Pennsyl-
vania ?—A. I suppose about twenty thousand pounds sterling.

ior. Q. Supposing the Stamp Act continued and enforced, do you
imagine that ill humour will induce the Americans to give as much for
worse manufactures of their own, and use them, preferable to better
of ours ?—A. Yes, I think so. People will pay as freely to gratify our
passion as another, their resentment as their pride.

102.	Q. Would the people at Boston discontinue their trade?—A.
The merchants are a very small number compared with the body of
the people, and must discontinue their trade, if nobody will buy their
goods.

103.	Q. What are the body of the people in the colonies ?—A. They
are farmers, husbandmen, or planters.

104.	Q. Would they suffer the produce of their lands to rot ?—A.
No ; but they would not raise so much. They would manufacture
more, and plough less.

105.	Q. Would they live without the administration of justice in
civil matters, and suffer all the inconveniences of such a situation for
any considerable time, rather than take the stamps, supposing the
stamps were protected by a sufficient force, where every one might
have them?—A. I think the supposition impracticable, that the
stamps should be so protected as that every one might have them.
The Act requires sub-distributors to be appointed in every county
town, district, and village, and they would be necessary. But the
principal distributors, who were to have had a considerable profit on
the whole, have not thought it worth while to continue in the office ;
and I think it impossible to'find sub-distributors fit to be trusted, who,
for the trifling profit that must come to their share, would incur the
odium, and run the hazard, that would attend it; and, if they could be
found, I think it impracticable to protect the stamps in so many
distant and remote places.

106.	Q. But in places where they could be protected, would not the
people use them, rather than remain in such a situation, unable to
obtain any right, or recover by law any debt?—A. It is hard to say
what they would do. I can only judge what other people will think,
and how they will act, by what I feel within myself. I have a great
many debts due to me in America, and I had rather they should
remain unrecoverable by any law, than submit to the Stamp Act.
They will be debts of honour. It is my opinion that people will either
continue in that position, or find some way to extricate themselves ;
perhaps by generally agreeing to proceed in the courts without stamps.

107.	Q. What do you think a sufficient military force to protect the
distribution of the stamps in every part of America?—A. A very great
force, I can’t say what, if the disposition of America is for a general
resistance.

108.	Q. What is the number of men in America able to bear arms,

or of disciplined militia ?—A. There are, I suppose, at least.......	BENJAMIN FRANKLIN	183

[1Question objected to. He 'withdrew. Called in again ]

109. Q. Is the American Stamp Act an equal tax on the country?
—A. I think not.

no. Q. Why so?—A. The greatest part of the money must arise
from lawsuits from the recovery of debts, and be paid by the lower
sort of people, who were too poor easily to pay their debts. It is,
therefore, a heavy tax on the poor, and a tax upon them for being
poor.

nr. Q. But will not this increase of expense be a means of lessen-
ing the number of lawsuits ?—A. I think not ; for as the costs all fall
upon the debtor, and are to be paid by him, they would be no dis-
couragement to the creditor to bring his action.

112.	Q. Would it not have the effect of excessive usury ?—A. Yes ;
as an oppression of the debtor.

113.	Q. How many ships are there laden annually in North
America with flax-seed for Ireland?—A. I cannot speak to the
number of ships ; but I know, that, in 1752, ten thousand hogsheads
of flax-seed, each containing seven bushels, were exported from
Philadelphia to Ireland. I suppose the quality is greatly increased
since that time, and it is understood, that the exportation from New
York is equal to that from Philadelphia.

114.	Q. What becomes of the flax that grows with that flax-seed?
—A. They manufacture some into coarse, and some into a middling
kind of linen.

115.	Q. Are there any slitting-mills in America ?—A. I think there
are three, but I believe only one at present employed. I suppose
they will all be set to work, if the interruption of the trade continues.

116.	Q. Are there any fulling-mills there ?—A. A great many.

117.	Q. Did you never hear, that a great quantity of stockings were
contracted for, for the army, during the war, and manufactured in
Philadelphia ?—A. I have heard so.

118.	Q. If the Stamp Act should be repealed, would not the
Americans think they could oblige the Parliament to repeal every
external tax law now in force?—A. It is hard to answer questions of
what people at such a distance will think.

119.	Q. But what do you imagine they will think were the motives
of repealing the Act ?—A. I suppose they will think, that it was
repealed from a conviction of its inexpediency; and they will rely
upon it, that, while the same inexpediency subsists, you will never
attempt to make such another.

120.	Q. What do you mean by its inexpediency?—A. I mean its
inexpediency on several accounts ; the poverty and inability of those
who were to pay the tax, the general discontent it has occasioned,
and the impracticability of enforcing it.

• 121. Q. If the Act should be repealed, and the legislature should
show its resentment to the opposers of the Stamp Act, would the
colonies acquiesce in the authority of the legislature ? What is your
opinion they would do ?—A. I don’t doubt at all, that if the legislature
repeal the Stamp Act, the colonies will acquiesoe in the authority.LIFE AND LETTERS OF

184

122. Q. But if the legislature should think fit to ascertain its right
to lay taxes, by any act laying a small tax, contrary to their opinion,
would they submit to pay the tax ?—A. The proceedings of the people
in America have been considered too much together. The proceed-
ings of the assemblies have been very different from those of the
mobs, and should be distinguished, as having no connection with each
other. The assemblies have only peaceably resolved what they take
to be their rights ; they have taken no measures for opposition by
force, they have not built a fort, raised a man, or provided a grain of
ammunition, in order to such opposition. The ringleaders of riots,
they think ought to be punished ; they would punish them themselves,
if they could. Every sober, sensible man, would wish to see rioters
punished, as, otherwise, peaceable people have no security of person
or estate; but as to an internal tax, how small soever, laid by the
legislature here on the people there, while they have no representa-
tives in this legislature, I think it will never be submitted to ; they
will oppose it to the last; they do not consider it as at all necessary
for you to raise money on them by your taxes ; because they are, and
always have been, ready to raise money by taxes among themselves,
and to grant large sums, equal to their abilities, upon requisition
from the Crown.

They have not only granted equal to their abilities, but, during all
the last war, they granted far beyond their abilities, and beyond their
proportion with this country (you yourselves being judges), to the
amount of many hundred thousand pounds ; and this they did freely
and readily, only on a sort of promise, from the Secretary of State,
that it should be recommended to Parliament to make them compen-
sation. It was accordingly recommended to Parliament, in the most
honorable manner for them. America has been greatly misrepre-
sented and abused here, in papers, and pamphlets, and speeches, as
ungrateful, and unreasonable, and unjust; in having put this nation
to an immense expense for their defence, and refusing to bear any
part of that expense. The colonies raised, paid, and clothed near
twenty-five thousand men during the last war; a number equal to
those sent from Britain, and far beyond their proportion ; they went
deeply into debt in doing this, and all their taxes and estates are
mortgaged for many years to come, for discharging that debt.

. Government here was at that time very sensible of this. The
colonies were recommended to Parliament. Every year the King
sent down to the House a written message to. this purpose ; “ that his
Majesty, being highly sensible of the zeal and vigour with which his
faithful subjects in North America had exerted themselves, in defence
of his Majesty’s just rights and possessions, recommended it to the
House to take the'-same into consideration, and enable him to give
them a proper compensation.” You will find those messages on your
own journals every year of the war to the very last; and you did
accordingly give two hundred thousand pounds annually to the Crown,
to be distributed in such compensation to the colonies.

Tfiis js the strongest of all proofs, that the colonies, far from beingBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

185

unwilling to bear a share of the burden, did exceed their proportion ;
for if they had done less, or had only equalled their proportion, there
would have been no room or reason for compensation. Indeed, the
sums, reimbursed them, were by no means adequate to the expense
they incurred beyond their proportion ; but they never murmured at
that; they esteemed their sovereign’s approbation of their zeal and
fidelity, and the approbation of this House, far beyond any other kind
of compensation; therefore there was no occasion for this act, to
force money from a willing people. They had not refused giving
money for the purposes of the Act; no requisition had been made ;
they were always willing and ready to do what could reasonably be
expected from them, and in this light they wish to be considered.

123. Q. But suppose Great Britain should be engaged in a war in
Europe, would North America contribute to the support of it?—A. I
do think they would as far as their circumstances would permit.
They consider themselves as a part of the British Empire, and as
having one common interest with it; they may be looked on here as
foreigners, but they do not consider themselves as such. They are
zealous for the honour and prosperity of this nation ; and, while they
are well used, will always be ready to support it, as far as their little
power goes. In 1739 they were called upon to assist in the expedition
against Carthagena, and they sent three thousand men to join your
army. It is true, Carthagena is in America, but as remote from the
northern colonies, as if it had been in Europe. They make no dis-
tinction of wars, as to their duty of assisting in them.

I know the last war is commonly spoken of here, as entered into for
the defence, or for the sake, of the people in America. I think it is
quite misunderstood. It began about the limits between Canada and
Nova Scotia ; about territories to which the Crown indeed laid claim,
but which were not claimed by any British colony j none of the lands
had been granted to any colonist; we had therefore no particular
concern or interest in that dispute. As to the Ohio, the contest there
began about your right of trading in the Indian country, a right you
had by the treaty of Utrecht, which the French infringed; they
seized the traders and their goods, which were your manufactures ;
they took a fort which a company of your merchants, and their
factors, and correspondents, had erected there to secure that trade.
Braddock was sent with.an army to retake that fort, (which was
looked on here as another encroachment on the King’s territory), and
to protect your trade. It was not till after his defeat that the
colonies were attacked. They were before in perfect peace with both
French and Indians; the troops were not, therefore, sent for their
defence.

The trade with'the Indians, though carried on in America, is not an
American interest. The people of America are chiefly farmers and
planters ; scarce anything that they raise or produce is an article of
commerce with the Indians. The Indian trade is a British interest;
it is carried on with British manufactures, for the profit of British
merchants and manufacturers ; therefore the war, as it commenced186

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

for the defence of territories of the crown (the properly of no Ameri-
can), and for the defence of a trade purely British, was really a
British war, and yet the people of America made no scruple of con-
tributing their utmost towards carrying it on, and bringing it to a
happy conclusion.

124.	Q: Do you think, then, that the taking possession of the King’s
territorial rights, and strengthening the frontiers, is not an American
interest?—A. Not particularly, but conjointly a British and American
interest.

125.	Q. You will not deny, that the preceding war, the war with
Spain, was entered into for the sake of America; was it not
occasioned by captures made in the American seas ?—A. Yes ;
captures of ships carrying on the British trade there with British
manufactures.

126.	Q. Was not the late war with the Indians, since the peace
France, a war for America only ?—A. Yes; it was more, particularly
for America than the former ; but was rather a consequence or re-
mains of the former war, the Indians not having been thoroughly
pacified ; and the Americans bore by much the greatest share of the
expense. It was put an end to by the army under General Bouquet;
there were not above three hundred regulars in that army, and above
one thousand Pennsylvanians.

127.	Q. Is it not necessary to send troops to America, to defend the
Americans against the Indians ?—A. No, by no means ; it never was
necessary. They defended themselves when they were but a handful,
and the Indians much more numerous. They continually gained
ground, and have driven the Indians over the mountains, without any
troops sent to their assistance from this country. And can it be thought
necessary now to send troops for their defence from those diminished
Indian tribes, when the colonies have become so populous and so
strong ? There is not the least occasion for it; they are very able to
defend themselves.

128.	Q. Do you say there were not more than three hundred regular
troops employed in the late Indian war?—A. Not on the Ohio, or the
frontiers of Pennsylvania, which was the chief part of the war that
affected the colonies. There were garrisons at Niagara, Fort Detroit,
and those remote posts kept for the sake of your trade ; I did not
reckon them ; but I believe, that on the whole the number of Ameri-
cans or provincial troops, employed in the war, was greater than that
of the regulars. I am not certain, but I think so.

129.	Q. Do you think the assemblies have a right to levy money on
the subject there, to grant to the crown ?—A. I certainly think so ;
they have always done it.

130.	Q. Are they acquainted with the Declaration of Rights ? And
do they know, that, by that statute, money is not to be raised on the
subject but by consent of Parliament?—A. They are very well ac-
quainted with it.

131.	Q. How then can they think they have a right to levy money
for the crown, or for any other than local purposes ?—A. They under-BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

187

stand that clause to relate to subjects only within the realms ; that no
money can be levied on them for the crown, but by consent of Parlia-
ment. The colonies are not supposed to be within the realm ; they
have assemblies of their own, which are their parliaments, and they
are, in that respect, in the same situation with Ireland. When money
is to be raised for the crown upon the subject in Ireland, or in the
colonies,-the consent is given in the Parliament of Ireland, or in the
assemblies of the colonies. They think the Parliament of Great
Britain cannot properly give that consent, till it has representatives
from America ; for the Petition of Right expressly says, it is to be by
common consent in Parliament ; and the people of America have no
representatives in Parliament, to make a part of that common con-
sent.

132.	Q. If the Stamp Act should be repealed, and an act should
pass, ordering the assemblies of the colonies to idemnify the sufferers
by the riots, would they obey it?—A. That is a question I cannot
answer.

133.	Q• Suppose the King should require the colonies to grant a
revenue, and the Parliament should be against their doing it, do they
think they can grant a revenue to the King, without the consent of the
Parliament of Great Britain ?—A. That is a deep question. As to my
own opinion, I should think myself at liberty to do it, if I liked the
occasion.

134.	Q• When money has been raised in the colonies, upon requi-
sitions, has it not been granted to the King ?—A. Yes, always; but
the requisitions have generally been for some service expressed, as to
raise, clothe, and pay troops, and not for money only.

135.	Q. If the act should pass requiring the American assemblies
to make compensation to the sufferers, and they should disobey it.
and then the Parliament should, by another act, lay an internal tax,
would they then obey it?—A. The people will pay no internal tax ;
and, I think, an act to oblige the assemblies to make compensation is
unnecessary ; for I am of opinion, that, as soon as the present heats
are abated, they will take the matter into consideration, and if it is
right to be done, they will do it of themselves.

136.	Q. Do not letters often come into the post-offices in America,
directed to some inland town where no post goes ?—A. Yes.

137.	Q. Can any private person take up those letters and carry
them as directed ?—A. Yes ; any friend of the person may do it, pay-
ing the postage that has accrued.

138.	Q. But must not he pay an additional postage for the distance

to such inland town ?—No.	.	»

139.	Q■ Can the postmaster answer delivering the letter, without
being paid such additional postage ?—A. Certainly he can demand
nothing, where he does no service.

140.	Q. Suppose a person, being far from home, finds a letter in a
post-office directed to him, and he lives in a place to which the post
generally goes, and the letter is directed to that place ; will the post-
master deliver him the letter, without his paying the postage receivable188

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

at the place to which the letter is directed?—.<4. Yes ; the office can-
not demand postage for a letter that it does not carry, or farther than
it does carry it.

141.	Q. Are not ferry-men in America obliged, by act of Parlia-
ment, to carry over the posts without pay?—A. Yes.

142.	Q. Is not this a tax on the ferryrmen ?—A. They do not con-
sider it as such, as they have an advantage from persons travelling
with the post.

143.	Q. If the Stamp Act should be repealed, and the crown should
make a requisition to the colonies for a sum of money, would they
grant it ?—A. I believe they would.

144.	Q. Why do you think so ?—A. I can speak for the colony I
live in; I had. it in instruction from the assembly to assure the
ministry, that, as they always had done, so they should always think
it their duty, to grant such aids to the crown as were suitable to their
circumstances and abilities, whenever called upon for that purpose,
in the usual constitutional manner ; and I had the honour of communi-
cating this instruction to that honourable gentleman then minister.

145.	Q. Would they do this for a British concern, as suppose a war
in some part of Europe, that did not affect them?—A. Yes, for any
thing that concerned the general interest. They consider themselves
a part of the whole.

146.	Q. What is the usual constitutional manner of calling on the
colonies for aids ?—A. A letter from the Secretary of State.

147.	Q. Is this all you mean ; a letter from the Secretary of State?
—A. I mean the usual way of requisition, in a circular letter from the
Secretary of State, by his Majesty’s command, reciting the occasion,
and recommending it to the colonies to grant such aids as became
their loyalty, and were suitable to their abilities.

148.	Q. Did the Secretary of State ever write for money for the
crown ?—A. The requisitions have been to raise, clothe, and pay men,
which cannot be done “without money.

149.	Q. Would they grant money alone, if called on?—A. In my
opinion they would, money as well as men, when they have money, or
can make it.

150.	Q. If the Parliament should repeal the Stamp Act, will the
assembly of Pennsylvania rescind their resolutions ?—A. I think not.

151.	Q. Before there was any thought of the Stamp Act, did they
wish for a representation in Parliament ?—A. No.

152.	Q. Don’t you know, that there is, in the Pennsylvania charter,
an express reservation of the right of Parliament to lay taxes there ?—
A. I know there is a clause in the charter, by which the King grants,
that he will levy no taxes on the inhabitants, unless it be with the
consent of the assembly, or by act of Parliament.

153.	Q. How, then, could the assembly of Pennsylvania assert, that
laying a tax on them by the Stamp Act was an infringement of their
rights ?—A. They understand it thus ; by the same charter, and other-
wise, they are entitled to all the privileges and liberties of English-
men ; they find in the Great Charters, and the Petition and Declara-BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

189

tion of Rights, that one of the privileges of English subjects is, that
they are not to be taxed but by their common consent; they have
therefore relied upon it, from the first settlement of the province, that
the Parliament never would, nor could, by color of that clause in the
charter, assume a right of taxing them, till it had qualified itself to
exercise such right, by admitting representatives from the people to
be taxed, who ought to make a part of that common consent.

154.	Q. Are there any words in the charter that justify that con-
struction ?—A. “ The common rights of Englishmen,” as declared by
Magna Charta, and the Petition of Right, all justify it.

155.	Q. Does the distinction between internal and external taxes
exist in the words of the charter?—A. No, I believe not.

156.	Q. Then, may they not, by the same interpretation, object to the
Parliament’s right of external taxation ?—A. They never have hitherto.
Many arguments have been lately used here to show them that there
is no difference, and that, if you have no right to tax them internally,
you have none to tax them externally, or make any other law to bind
them. At present they do not reason so ; but in time they may pos-
sibly be convinced by these arguments.

157.	Q. Do not the resolutions of the Pennsylvania assembly say
“all taxes ” ?—A. If they do, they mean only internal taxes ; the same
words have not always the same meaning here and in the colonies.
By taxes, they mean internal taxes ; by duties, they mean customs ;
these are their ideas of the language.

158.	Q. Have you not seen the resolutions of the Massachusetts
Bay assembly ?—A. I have.

159.	Q. Do they not say, that neither external nor internal taxes
can be laid on them by Parliament ?—A. I don’t know that they do ;
I believe not.

160.	Q. If the same colony should say, neither tax nor imposition
could be laid, does not that province hold the power of Parliament
can lay neither ?—A. I suppose, that, by the word imposition, they do
not intend to express duties to be laid on goods imported, as regula-
tions of commerce.

161.	Q. What can the colonies mean then by imposition, as distinct
from taxes ?—A. They may mean many things, as impressing of men
or of carriages, quartering troops on private houses, and the like ;
there may be great impositions that are not properly taxes.

162.	Q. Is not the post-office rate an internal tax laid by act of
Parliament?—A. I have answered that.

163.	Q. Are all parts of the colonies equally able to pay taxes ?—
A. No, certainly ; the frontier parts, which have been ravaged by the
enemy, are greatly disabled by that means; and therefore, in such
cases, are usually favoured in our tax laws.

164.	Q. Can we, at this distance, be competent judges of what
favours are necessary?—A. The Parliament have supposed it, by
claiming a right to make tax laws for America ; I think it impossible.

165.	Q. Would the repeal of the Stamp Act be any discouragement
of your manufactures ? Will the people that have begun to manu-LIFE AND LETTERS OF

igo

facture decline it?—A. Yes, I think they will; especially if, at the
same time, the trade is opened again, so that remittances can be easily
made. I have known several instances that make it probable. In
the war before last, tobacco being low, and making little remittance,
the people of Virginia went generally into family manufactures. After-
wards, when tobacco bore a better price, they returned to the use of
British manufactures. So fulling-mills were very much disused in the
last war in Pennsylvania, because bills were then plenty, and remit-
tances could easily be made to Britain for English cloth and othergoods.

166.	Q. If the Stamp Act should be repealed, would it induce the
assemblies of America to acknowledge the rights of Parliament to tax
them, and would they erase their resolutions ?— A. No, never.

167.	Q. Are there no means of obliging them to erase those resolu-
tions ?—A. None that I know of; they will never do it, unless com-
pelled by force of arms.

168.	Q. Is there a power on earth that can force them to erase
them?—A. No power, how great soever, can force men to change
their opinions.

169.	Q. Do they consider the post-office as a tax, or as a regulation ?
—A. Not as a tax, but as a regulation and conveniency; every
assembly encouraged it, and supported it in its infancy, by grants of
money, which they would not otherwise have done '; and the people
have always paid the postage.

170.	Q. When did you receive the instructions you mentioned?—
A. I brought them with me, when I came to England, about fifteen
months since.

171.	Q. When did you communicate that instruction to the minis-
ter ?—A. Soon after my arrival, while the stamping of America was
under consideration, and before the bill was brought in.

172.	Q. Would it be most for the interest of Great Britain, to em-
ploy the hands of Virginia in tobacco, or in manufactures ?—A. In
tobacco, to be sure.

173.	Q. What used to be the pride of the Americans?—A. To
indulge in the fashions and manufactures of Great Britain.

174.	Q. What is now their pride?— A. To wear their old clothes
over again, till they can make new ones.

Withdrew.*

1 This Examination was published in 1767, without the name of printer or
of publisher, and the following remarks upon it are contained in the Gentleman's
Magazine for July of that year: “From this examination of Dr. Franklin, the
reader may form a clearer and more comprehensive idea of the state and disposi-
tion of America, of the expediency or inexpediency of the measure in question, and
of the character and conduct of the minister who proposed it, than from all that
has been written upon the subject in newspapers and pamphlets, under the titles of
essays, letters, speeches, and considerations, from the first moment of its becoming
the object of public attention till now. The questions in general are put with great
subtilty and judgment, and they are answered with such deep and familiar know-
ledge of the subject, such precision and perspicuity, such temper and yet such
spirit, as do the greatest honour to Dr, Franklin, and justify the general opinion of
his character and abilities.”BENJAMIN" FRANKLIN.

191

CHAPTER V. (1766-1767.)

Franklin sends his Wife a New Dress on the Repeal of the Stamp Act—New Dis-
putes with the Mother Country—Colonies required to provide for Soldiers—
Lord Chatham—Marriage of Sally Franklin—Experiment of making Paper
Money not a Legal Tender—Advances of the French Ambassador to Franklin
-Visits the Continent—First Impressions of France and Germany.

To his wife. As the Stamp Act is at length repealed,1 I am willing
dated London, 6 you should have a new gown, which you may suppose
April, 1766. j nQj. sen(j sooner, as I knew you would not like to
be finer than your neighbours, unless in a gown of your own spinning.
Had the trade between the two countries totally ceased, it was a com-
fort to me to recollect, that I had once been clothed from head to foot
in woollen and linen of my wife’s manufacture, that I never was
prouder of any dress in my life, and that she and her daughter might
do it again if it was necessary. I told the Parliament, that it was my
opinion, before the old clothes of the Americans were worn out, they
might have new ones of their own making. I have sent you a fine
piece of Pompadour satin, fourteen yards, cost eleven shillings a yard ;
a silk negligie and petticoat of brocaded lutestring for my dear Sally,
with two dozen gloves, four bottles of lavender water, and two little
reels. The reels are to screw on the edge of the table, when she
would wind silk or thread. The skein is to be put over them, and
winds better than if held in two hands. There is also a gimcrack
corkscrew, which you must get some brother gimcrack to show you
the use of. In the chest is a parcel of books for my friend Mr. Cole-
man, and another for cousin Colbert. Pray did he receive those I sent
him before ? I send you also a box with three fine cheeses. Perhaps
a bit of them may be left wh'en I come home. Mrs. Stevenson has
been very diligent and serviceable in getting these things together for
you, and presents her best respects, as does her daughter, to both you
and Sally. There are two boxes included in your bill of lading for
Billy.

I received your kind letter of February 20th. It gives me great
pleasure to hear, that our good old friend Mrs. Smith is on the
recovery. I hope she has yet many happy years to live. My love
to her. I fear, from the account you give of brother Peter,2 that
he cannot hold out long. If it should please God that he leaves us
before my return, I would have the post-office remain under the
management of their son, till Mr. Foxcroft and I agree how to
settle it.

1 Dr. Franklin’s examination closed the 13th February. The bill for the repeal
of the Stamp Act received the royal assent the 18th of the following month.
Though this repeal was followed by a Declaratory Act no less offensive in principle
than the one it succeeded, affirming “ the right of Parliament to bind the colonies
in all cases whatsoever,” the colonies were frantic with joy, and the enthusiasm for
Franklin, both at home and abroad, was unbounded.

a Peter Franklin, the last surviving brother of Dr. Franklin, died July 1st, 1766,
dn the seventy-fourth year of his age.192

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

There are some droll prints in the box, which were given me by
the painter, and, being sent when I was not at home, were packed up
without my knowledge. I think he was wrong to put in Lord Bute,
who had nothing to do with the Stamp Act. But it is the fashion
to abuse that nobleman, as the author of all mischief.

To hig wife, Mrs. Stevenson has made up a parcel of haberdashery
dated London, 13 for you, which will go by Captain Robinson. She will
June, 1766. also sen(j yOU another cloak, in the room of that we
suppose is lost. I wrote to you, that I had been very ill lately. I
am now nearly well again, but feeble. To-morrow I set out with my
friend Dr. Pringle (now Sir John), on a journey to Pyrmont, where
he goes to drink the waters ; but I hope more from the air and
exercise, having been used, as you know, to have a journey once a
year, the want of which last year has, I believe, hurt me, so that,
though I was not quite to say sick, I was often ailing last winter,
and through the spring. We must be back at farthest in eight
weeks, as my fellow traveller is the Queen’s physician, and has
leave for no longer, as her Majesty will then be near her time. I
purpose to leave him at Pyrmont, and visit some of the principal
cities nearest to it, and call for him again when the time for our
return draws nigh.1

To LordKameg, I received your obliging favour of January the 19th.
dated London, ll You have kindly relived me from the pain 1 had long
April, 1767. been under. You are goodness itself. I ought to have
answered yours of December 25th, 1765. I never received a letter
that contained sentiments more suitable to my own. It found me
under much agitation of mind on the very important subject it
treated. It fortified me greatly in the* judgment I was inclined to
form, though contrary to the general vogue, on the then delicate
and critical situation of affairs between Great Britain and the
colonies, and on that weighty point, their union. You guessed
aright in supposing that I would not be a mute in that play. I was
extremely busy, attending members of both Houses, informing, ex-
plaining, consulting, disputing, in a continual hurry from morning
till night, till the affair was happily ended. During the course of
its being called before the House of Commons, I spoke my mind
pretty freely. Enclosed I send you the imperfect account that was
taken of that examination. You will there see how entirely we
agree, except in a point of fact, of which you could not but be mis-
informed ; the papers at that time being full of mistaken assertions,
that the colonies had been the cause of the war, and had ungrate-
fully refused to bear any part of the expense of it.

1 In the Journals of the Pennsylvania Assembly it is mentioned, that a letter Had
been received from Dr. Franklin, dated June 10th, 1766, in which he had asked
leave of the House to return home in the spring. No motion on the subject is
recorded during the session ; and, on the first day of the next session, his appoint-
ment as agent was renewed.BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

193

I send it you now, because I apprehend some late accidents are
likely to revive the contest between the two countries. I fear it will
be a mischievous one. It becomes a matter of great importance,
that clear ideas should be formed on solid principles, both in Britain
and America, of the true political relation between them, and the
mutual duties belonging to that relation. Till this is done, they will
be often jarring. I know none whose knowledge, sagacity, and im-
partiality qualify him so thoroughly for such a service as yours do you.
I wish, therefore, you would consider it. You may thereby be the
happy instrument of great good to the nation, and of preventing much
mischief and bloodshed. I am fully persuaded with you, that a con-
solidating union, by a fair and equal representation of all the parts of
this empire in Parliament, is the only firm basis on which its political
grandeur and prosperity can be founded. Ireland once wished it, but
now rejects it. The time lias been, when the colonies might have
been pleased with it; they are now indifferent about it ; and, if it is
much longer delayed, they too will refuse it. But the pride of this
people cannot bear the thought of it, and therefore it will be delayed.
Every man in England seems to consider himself as a piece of a
sovereign over America ; seems to jostle himself into the throne with
the King, and talks of our subjects in the colonies. The Parliament
cannot well and wisely make laws suited to the colonies, without being
properly and truly informed of their circumstances, abilities, temper,
&c. This it cannot be without representatives from thence ; and yet
it is fond of this power, and averse to the only means of acquiring the
necessary knowledge for exercising it; which is desiring to be omni-
potent, without being omniscie?it.

I have mentioned, that the contest is likely to be revived. It is on
this occasion. In the same session with the Stamp Act, an act was
passed to regulate the quartering of soldiers in America; when the
bill was first brought in, it contained a clause, empowering the officers
to quarter their soldiers in private houses; this we warmly opposed,
and got it omitted. The bill passed, however, with a clause, that
empty houses, barns, &c., should be hired for them; and that the
respective provinces, where they were, should pay the expense and
furnish firing, bedding, drink, and some other articles to the soldiers,
gratis. There is no way for any province to do this but by the
Assembly’s making a law to raise the money. The Pennsylvania
Assembly has made such a law ; the New York Assembly has refused
to do it; and now all the talk here is, of sending a force to compel
them.

The reasons given by the Assembly to the governor for the refusal
are, that they understand the act to mean the furnishing such things
to soldiers, only while on their march through the country, and not to
great bodies of soldiers, to be fixed, as at present, in the province, the
burden in the latter case being greater than the inhabitants can bear;
that it would put it in the power of the captain-general to oppress the
province at pleasure, &c. But there is supposed to be another reason
at bottom, which they inti mate* though they do not plainly express it;

14194

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

to wit, that it is of the nature of an internal tax laid on them by
Parliament, which has no right so to do. Their refusal is here called
rebellion, and punishment is thought of.

Now waiving that point of right, and supposing the legislatures in
America subordinate to the legislature of Great Britain, one might
conceive, I think, a power in the superior legislature to forbid the
inferior legislatures making particular laws ; but to enjoin it to make
a particular law, contrary to its own judgment, seems improper; an
Assembly of Parliament not being an executive officer of government,
whose duty it is, in law-making, to obey orders, but a deliberative
body, who are to consider what comes before them, its propriety,
practicability, or possibility, and to determine accordingly. The very
nature of a Parliament seems to be destroyed by supposing it may be
bound and compelled, by a law of a superior Parliament, to make a
law contrary to its own judgment.

Indeed, the act of Parliament in question has not, as in other acts
when a duty is enjoined, directed a penalty on neglect or refusal, and
a mode of recovering that penalty. It seems, therefore, to the people
in America, as a mere requisition, which they are at liberty to comply
with or not, as it may suit or not suit the different circumstances of
the different provinces. Pennsylvania has therefore voluntarily com-
plied. New York, as I said before, has refused. The ministry
that made the act, and all their adherents, call for vengeance. The
present ministry are perplexed, and the measures they will finally
take on the occasion are yet unknown. But sure I am, that, if force
is used, great mischief will ensue ; the affections of the people of
America to this country will be alienated ; your commerce will be
diminished; and a total separation of interests will be the final
consequence.

It is a common, but mistaken notion here, that the colonies were
planted at the expense of Parliament, and that therefore the Parlia-
ment has a right to tax them, &c. The truth is, they were planted at
the expense of private adventurers, who went over there to settle,
with leave of the King, given by charter. On receiving this leave,
and those charters, the adventurers voluntarily engaged to remain the
King’s subjects, though in a foreign country ; a country which had
not been conquered by either King or Parliament, but was possessed
by a free people.

When our planters arrived, they purchased the lands of the natives,
without putting King or Parliament to any expense. Parliament had
no hand in their settlement, was never so much as consulted about
their constitution, and took no kind of notice of them, till many years
after they were established. I except only the two modern colonies,
or rather attempts to make colonies (for they succeed but poorly, and
as yet hardly deserve the name of colonies), I mean Georgia and
Nova Scotia, which have hitherto been little better than Parlia-
mentary jobs. Thus all the colonies acknowledge the King as their
sovereign ; his governors there represent his person ; laws are made
by their Assemblies or little parliaments, with the governor’s assent,BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

195

subject still to the King’s pleasure to affirm or annul them. Suits
arising in the colonies, and between colony and colony, are deter-
mined by the King in Council. In this view, they seem so many
separate little states, subject to the same prince. The sovereignty of
the King is therefore easily understood. But nothing is more
common here than to talk of the sovereignty of parliament, and the
sovereignty of this nation over the colonies; a kind of sovereignty
the idea of which is not so clear, nor does it clearly appear on what
foundation it is established. On the other hand, it seems necessary
for the common good of the empire, that a power be lodged some-
where, to regulate its general commerce ; this can be placed nowhere
so properly as in the Parliament of Great Britain ; and, therefore,
though that power has in some instances been executed with great
partiality to Britain and prejudice to the colonies, they have never-
theless always submitted to it. Custom-houses are established in all
of them, by virtue of laws made here, and the duties instantly paid,
except by a few smugglers, such as are here and in all countries ; but
internal taxes laid on them by Parliament are still and ever will be
objected to, for the reason- that you will see in the mentioned ex-
amination.

Upon the whole, I have lived so great a part of my life in Britain,
and have formed so many friendships in it, that I love it, and sincerely
wish it prosperity ; and therefore wish to see that union, on which
alone I think it can be secured and established. As to America, the
advantages of such a union to her are not so apparent. She may suffer
at present under the arbitrary power of this country; she may suffer for
a while in a separation from it ; but these are temporary evils which
she will outgrow. Scotland and Ireland are differently circumstanced.
Confined by the sea, they can scarcely increase in numbers, wealth,
and strength, so as to overbalance England. But America, an
immense territory, favoured by nature with all advantages of climate,
soils, great navigable rivers, lakes, &c., must become a great country,
populous and mighty ; and will, in a less time than is generally con-
ceived, be able to shake off any shackles that may be imposed upon
her, and perhaps place them on the imposers. In the meantime
every act of oppression will sour their tempers, lessen greatly, if not
annihilate, the profits of your commerce with them, and hasten their
final revolt; for the seeds of liberty are Universally found there, and
nothing can eradicate them. And yet there remains among that
people so much respect, veneration, and affection for Britain, that, if
cultivated prudently, with a kind usage and tenderness for their
privileges, they might easily be governed still for ages, without force
or any considerable expense. But I do not see here a sufficient
quantity of the wisdom that is necessary to produce such a conduct,
and I lament the want of it.

I borrowed at Millar’s the new edition of your “ Principles of
Equity,” and have read with great pleasure the preliminary discourse
on the principles of morality. I have never before met with any-
thing so satisfactory on the subject. While reading it, I made a few196

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

remarks as I went along. They are not of much importance, but I
send you the paper.

I know the lady you mention (Mrs. Montague); having, when in
England before, met her once or twice at Lord Bath’s. I remember
I then entertained the same opinion of her that you express. On the
strength of your recommendation, I purpose soon to wait on her.

This is unexpectedly grown a long letter. The visit lo Scotland,
and the “Art of Virtue,” we will talk of hereafter.

To Cadwallader I am always glad to hear from you, when you have
London 6 May1 le'sure to write, and I expect no apologies for your not
1767. ’	’ writing. I wish all correspondence was on the foot of

writing and answering when one can, or when one is
disposed to it, without the compulsions of ceremony. I am pleased
with your scheme of a Medical Library at the Hospital; and I fancy
I can procure you some donations among my medical friends here, if
you will send me a catalogue of what books you already have. En-
closed I send you the only book of the kind jin my possession here,
having just received it as a present from the author. It is not yet
published to be sold, and will not be for some time, till the second
part is ready to accompany it.

I thank you for your remarks on the gout. They may be useful to
me, who have already had some touches of that distemper. As to
Lord Chatham, it is said that his constitution is totally destroyed and
gone, partly through the violence of the disease, and partly by his own
continual quacking with it. There is at present no access to him.
He is said to be not capable of receiving, any more than of giving,
advice. But still there is such a deference paid to him, that much
business is delayed on his account, that so when entered on it ‘may
have the strength of his concurrence, or not be liable to his repre-
hension, if he should recover his ability and activity. The ministry,
we at present have, has not been looked upon, either by itself or
others, as settled, which is another cause of postponing everything not
immediately necessary to be considered. New men, and perhaps new
measures, are often expected and apprehended, whence arise con-
tinual cabals, factions, and intrigues among the outs and inns, that
keep everything in confusion. And when affairs will mend is very
uncertain.	•

To Joseph In my last of May 20th, I mentioned my hopes that
Lradon^b Jmfed we s^lou^ a* length get over all obstructions to the
1767,° ’	’ repeal of the act restraining the legal tender of paper

money ; but those hopes are now greatly lessened.

The ministry had agreed to the repeal, and the notion that had
possessed them, that they might make a revenue from paper money
in appropriating the interest by Parliament, was pretty w'ell removed
by my assuring them that it was my opinion no colony could make
money on those terms, and that the benefits arising to the commerce
of this country in America from a plentiful currency would thereforeBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

197

be lest and the repeal answer no end, if the Assemblies were not
allowed to appropriate the interest themselves ; that the crown might
get a great share upon occasional requisitions, I made no doubt, by
voluntary appropriations of the Assemblies; but they would never
establish such funds as to make themselves unnecessary to govern-
ment. These and other reasons, that were urged, seemed to satisfy
them, so that we began to think all would go on smoothly, and the
merchants prepared their petition, on which the repeal was to be
founded. But in the House, when the chancellor of the exchequer
had gone through his proposed American revenue, viz., by duties
on glass, china ware, paper, pasteboard, colours, tea, &c., Grenville
stood up and undervalued them all as trifles ; and, says he, “ I will tell
the honourable gentleman of a revenue, that will produce something
valuable in America; make paper money for the colonies, issue it
upon loan there, take the interest, and apply it as you think proper.”
Mr. Townshend, finding the House listened to this and seemed to
like it, stood up again and said, that was a proposition of his own,
which he had intended to make with the rest, but it had slipped his
memory, and the gentleman, who must have heard of it, now unfairly
would take advantage of that slip and make a merit to himself of
a proposition that was another’s, and as a proof of it, assured the
House a bill was prepared for the purpose, and would be laid before
them.

This startled all our friends ; and the merchants concluded to keep
back their petition for a while, till things appeared a little clearer,
lest their friends in America should blame them, as having furnished
foundation for an act, that must have been disagreeable to the
colonies. I found the rest of the ministry, did not like this proceeding
of the chancellor’s, but there was no going on with our scheme
against his declaration, and, as he daily talked of resigning, there
being no good agreement between him and the rest, and as we found
the general prejudice against the colonies so strong in the House, that
anything in the shape of a favour to them all was like to meet with
opposition, whether he was out or in, I proposed to Mr. Jackson the
putting our colony foremost, as we stood in a pretty good light, and
asking the favour for us alone. This he agreed might be proper in
case the chancellor should go out, and undertook to bring in a bill for
that purpose, provided the Philadelphia merchants would petition fot
it; and he wished to have such a petition ready to present, if an
opening for it should offer. Accordingly I applied to them, and pre-
pared a draft of a petition for them to sign, a copy of which I send
you enclosed. They seemed generally for the measure ; but, appre-
hending the merchants of the other colonies, who had hitherto gone
hand in hand with us in all American affairs, might take umbrage if
we now separated from them, it was thought right to call a meeting of
the whole to consult upon this proposal.

At this meeting I represented to them, as the ground of this
measure, that, the colonies being generally out of favour at present,
any hard clause relating to paper money in the repealing bill will be198

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

more easily received in Parliament, if the bill related to all the
colonies ; that Pennsylvania, being in some degree of favour, might
possibly alone obtain a better act than the whole could do, as it might
by government be thought as good policy to show favour where there
had been the reverse ; that a good act obtained by Pennsylvania
might auother year, when the resentment against the colonies should
be abated, be made use of as a precedent, &c., &c. But, after a good
deal of debate it was finally concluded not to precipitate matters,
it being very dangerous by any kind of petition to furnish the chan-
cellor with a horse on which he could put what saddle he thought fit.
The others merchants seemed rather averse to the Pennsylvania
merchants proceeding alone, but said they were certainly at liberty to
do as they thought proper. The conclusion of the Pennsylvania
merchants was to wait awhile, holding the separate petition ready to
sign and present, if a proper opening should appear this session, but
otherwise to reserve it to the next, when the complexion of ministers
and measures may probably be changed. And, as this session now
draws to a conclusion, I begin to think nothing will be farther done in
it this year.

Mentioning the merchants puts me in mind of some discourse I
heard among them, that was by no means agreeable. It was said,
that, in the opposition they gave the Stamp Act, and their endeavours
to obtain the repeal, they had spent at their meetings, and in expresses
to all parts of this country, and for a vessel to carry the joyful news to
North America, and in the entertainments given our friends of both
Houses, &c., near fifteen hundred pounds ; that for all this, except
from the little colony of Rhode Island, they had not received as much
as thank ye; that, on the contrary, the circular letters they had
written with the best intentions to the merchants of the several
colonies, containing their best and most friendly advice, were either
answered with unkind,reflections, or contemptuously left without
answer; and that'the captain of the vessel, whom they sent express
with the news, having met with misfortunes, that obliged him to
travel by land through all the colonies from New Hampshire to
Pennsylvania, was everywhere treated with neglect and contempt,
instead of civility and hospitality; and nowhere more than at Phila-
delphia, where, though he delivered letters to the merchants, that
must make him and his errand known to them, no one took the least
notice of him. J own I am ashamed to hear all this, but hope there is
some mistake in it. I should not have troubled you with this account,
but that I think we stand in truth greatly obliged to the merchants,
who are a very respectable body, and whose friendship is worth pre-
serving, as it may greatly help us on future occasions ; and therefore
I wish some decent acknowledgments or thanks were sent from the
Assemblies of the colonies, since their correspondents have omitted it.

I have said the less of late in my letters concerning the petitions,
because I hoped this summer to have an opportunity of communi-
cating everything vivd voce, and there are particulars that cannot
safely be trusted to paper. Perhaps I may be more determined as toBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.	199

returning or staying another winter, when I receive my next letters
from you and my other friends in Philadelphia.

We got the chancellor to drop his salt duty. And the merchants
trading to Portugal ,and Spain, he says, have made such a clamour
about the intention of suffering ships to go directly with wine, fruit,
and oil, from those countries to America, that he has dropped that
scheme, and we are, it seems, to labour a little longer under the
inconveniences of the restraint.

It is said the bill to suspend the legislatures of New York and
Georgia, till they comply with the act of Parliament for quartering
soldiers, will pass this session. I fear that imprudences on both sides
may, step by step, bring on the most mischievous consequences. It
is imagined here, that this act will enforce immediate compliance; and,
if the people should be quiet, content themselves with the laws they
have, and let the matter rest, till in some future war the King wanting
aids from them, and finding himself restrained in his legislation by
the act as much as the people, shall think fit by his ministers to pro-
pose the repeal, the Parliament will be greatly disappointed; and
perhaps it may take this turn. I wish nothing worse may happen.

The present ministry will probably continue through this session.
But their disagreement, with the total inability of Lord Chatham,
through sickness, to do any business, must bring on some change
before next winter. I wish it may be for the better, but fear the
contrary.

To m;.■ Mary We were greatly disappointed yesterday, that we had
Stevenson, dated not the pleasure, promised us, of our dear Polly’s com-
Craven st., 17 pany. Your good mother would have me write a line
une’ ' in answer to your letter. A muse, you must know, visited
me this morning 1 I see you are surprised, as 1 was. I never saw
one before, and shall never see another; so I took the opportunity of
her help to put the answer into verse, because I was some verse in
your debt ever since you sent me the last pair of garters.

This muse appeared to be no housewife. I suppose few of them
are. She was dressed (if the expression is allowable) in an undress, a
kind of slatternly neglig&e, neither neat nor clean, nor well made;
and she has given the same sort of dress to my piece. On reviewing
it, I would have reformed the lines, and made them all of a length, as
I am told lines ought to be ; but I find I cannot lengthen the short
ones without stretching them on the rack, and I think it would be
equally cruel to cut off any part of the long ones. Besides, the super-
fluity of these makes up for the deficiency of those j and so, from a
principle of justice, I leave them at full length, that I may give you,
at least in one sense of the word, good measure.

To his wife, dated	It seems now as if I should stay here another winter,

i7fi7^0n’ 82Juae* an<I therefore I must leave it to your judgment to act in

’	the affair of our daughter’s match, as shall seem best.1

T Sally Franklin, Franklin’s only daughter, married Richard Bache, October
29, 1767. She was twenty-three years of age.200

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

If you think it a suitable one, I suppose the sooner it is completed the
better. In that case I would advise that you do not make an expen-
sive feasting wedding, but conduct everything with frugality and
economy, which our circumstances now require to be observed in all
our expenses. For, since my partnership with Mr. Hall is expired, a
great source of our income is cut off; and, if I should lose the post-
office, which, among the changes here, is far from being unlikely, we
should be reduced to our rents and interest of money for a subsistence,
which will by no means afford the chargeable housekeeping and enter-
tainments we have been used to.

For my own part, I live here as frugally as possible not to be desti-
tute of the comforts of life, making no dinners for anybody, and con-
tenting myself with a single dish when I dine at home ; and yet such
is the dearness of living here in every article, that my expenses amaze
me. I see, too, by the sums you have received in my absence, that
yours are very great ; and I am very sensible that your situation
naturally brings you a great many visitors, which occasions an expense
not easily to be avoided, especially when one has been long in the
practice and habit of it. But, when people’s incomes are lessened, if
they cannot proportionably lessen their outgoings, they must come to
poverty. If \ye were young enough to begin business again, it might
be another matter ; but I doubt we are past it, and business not well
managed ruins one faster than no business. In short, with frugality
and prudent care we may subsist decently on what we have, and leave
it entire to our children ; but without such care we shall not be able
to keep it together ; it will melt away like butter in the sunshine, and
we may live long enough to feel the miserable consequences of our
indiscretion.

I know very little of the gentleman or his character, nor can I at
this distance. I hope his expectations are not great of any fortune to
be had with our daughter before our death. I can only say that, if
he proves a good husband to her and a good son to me, he shall find
me as good a father as I can be ; but at present, I suppose you would
agree with me, that we cannot do more than fit her out handsomely
in clothes and^ furniture, not exceeding in the whole five hundred
pounds of value. For the rest, they must depend, as you and I did,
on their own industry and care, as what remains in our hands will be
barely sufficient for our support, and not enough for them when it
comes to be divided at our decease.

Sally Franklin is well. Her father, who had not seen her for a
twelvemonth, came lately and took her home with him for a few
weeks to see her friends. He is very desirous I should take her with
me to America.

I suppose the blue room is too blue, the wood being of the same
colour with the paper, and so looks too dark. I would have you finish
it as soon as you can, thus : paint the wainscoat a dead white ; paper
the walls blue, and tack the gilt border round just above the surbase
and under the cornice. If the paper is not equally colourec^ when
pasted on, let it be brushed over again with the same colour, and letBENJAMIN FRANKLIN

201

thzjapier machi musical figures be tacked to the middle of the ceil-
ing. When this is done, I think it will look very well.

I am glad to hear that Sally keeps up and increases the number of
her friends. The best wishes of a fond father for her happiness always
attend her.

To Samuel ^ should sooner have answered your kind letter of last
Franklin,1 dated year, but postponed it from time to time, having mislaid
i7fl7don’ 17 July’ the print I intended to send you, which I have now found
’	and send herewith. I am glad to hear of the welfare of

yourself and family, which I hope will long continue. My love to
them all.

It gives me pleasure whenever I find that my endeavours to serve
America are acceptable to my friends there. Your kind notices of
them are very obliging.

I find here but two of our relations remaining that bear the name
of Franklin, viz., Thomas Franklin of Lutterworth, in Leicestershire,
a dyer, and his daughter Sally Franklin, about fourteen years of age,
who has been with me in London about a year, and sends her duty to
you. Thomas Franklin is the grandson of John Franklin, your grand-
father’s brother. There are besides still living, Eleanor Morris, an
old maiden lady, daughter of your grandfather’s sister Hannah; and
also Hannah Walker, granddaughter of his brother John. Mrs.
Walker has three sons. She lives at Weslbury, in Buckinghamshire,
and Mrs. Morris with her. And these are the whole. It is thought
best by my friends that I should continue here another winter.

To his wife,dated Captain Ourry dined here a few days since, and thanks
r?ff7don’ 6 Aus’’ y°u ^or remembering him, desiring his respects to you
767,	and	Sally. Mr. Strahan and family, the same. I

received the bill sent by Mr. Potts, and suppose it will be duly paid.
You will return him the overplus. I wish I could take my passage
this time with Captain Falconer. I was on board the other day with
Mr. and Mrs. West,2 Mrs. Stevenson, and Mrs. Hopkinson, to drink
tea. It is a fine ship, and I think it not unlikely I may go with
him next time, as he is a very kind, good friend, whom I much
respect.

I am glad you go sometimes to Burlington. The harmony you
mention in our family and among our children gives me great plea*
sure. I am sorry to hear of the death of our good old friend Debby
Norris. She was a worthy good woman, and will be missed. If I
can in any shape be of service to Mr. Francis, you may depend I
shall do it, being much concerned for his misfortune. I am told the
affair is like to turn out better for him than was expected. Sally
Franklin is now in the country with her father. She is an only child,
and a very good girl.

1 The grandson of Benjamin Franklin, Dr. Franklin’s uncle, after whom he was
named.

* Mr. Benjamin West, the painter.202

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

I received the watch-chain, which you say you send to be put to
rights. I do not see what it wants. Mrs. Stevenson says it is too
old-fashioned for Sally, and advised sending the watch also, to be
changed away for a new watch and chain.

In your last letters you say nothing concerning Mr. Bache. The
misfortune that has lately happened to his affairs, though it may not
lessen his character as an honest or a prudent man, will probably
induce him to forbear entering hastily into a state that must require a
great addition to his expense, when he will be less able to supply it.
If you think that, in the meantime, it will be some amusement to Sally
to visit her friends here, and return with me, I should have no objec-
tion to her coming over with Captain Falconer, provided Mrs. Fal-
coner comes at the same time, as is talked of. I think, too, it might
be some improvement to her. I am at present meditating a journey
somewhere, perhaps to Bath or Bristol; as I begin to find a little
giddiness in my head, a token that I want the exercise I have yearly
been accustomed to. I long to see you, and be with you.

To Jose h Gal- The con^us'on among our great men still continues as
loway, dated much as ever, and a melancholy thing it is to consider
8 Aus’’ ^iat» instead of employing the present leisure of peace
767‘	in such measures as might extend our commerce, pay

off our debts, secure allies, and increase the strength and ability of
the nation to support a future war, the .whole seems to be wasted in
party contentions about places of power and profit, in court intrigues
and cabals, and in abusing one another.

.There has lately been an attempt to make a kind of coalition of
parties in a new ministry ; but it fell through, and the present set is
like to continue for some time longer, which I am rather pleased with,
as some of those who were proposed to be introduced are professed
adversaries to America, which is now made one of the distinctions of
party here ; those who have in the last two sessions shown a disposi-
tion to favour us being called, by way of reproach, Americans ; while
the others, adherents to Grenville and Bedford, value themselves on
being true to the interests of Britain, and zealous for maintaining its
dignity and sovereignty over the colonies.

This distinction will, it is apprehended, be carried much higher in
the next session, for the political purpose of influencing the ensuing
election. It is already given out that the compliance of New York,
in providing for the quarters, without taking notice of its being done
in obedience to the act of Parliament, is evasive and unsatisfactory ;
that it is high time to put the right and power of this country to tax
the colonies out of dispute, by an act of taxation, effectually carried
into execution, and that all the colonies should be obliged explicitly
to acknowledge that right. Every step is taking to render the taxing
of America a popular measure here, by continually insisting on the
topics of our wealth and flourishing circumstances, while this country
is loaded with debt, great part of it incurred on our account, the dis-
tress of the poor here by the multitude and weight of taxes, &c., &c.;BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.	203

and, though the traders and manufacturers may possibly be kept in
our interest, the idea of an American tax is very pleasing to the landed
men, who therefore readily receive and propagate these sentiments
wherever they have influence.

If such a bill should be brought in, it is hard to say what would be
the event of it, or what would be the effects. Those who oppose it,
though they should be strong enough to throw it out, would be stig-
matized as Americans, betrayers of Old England, &c., and perhaps,
our friends by this means being excluded, a majority of our adversaries
may get in, and then the act infallibly passes the following session.
To avoid the danger of such exclusion, perhaps little opposition will
be given, and then it passes immediately. I know not what to advise
on this occasion, but that we should all do our endeavours on both
sides of the water to lessen the present unpopularity of the American
cause, conciliate the affections of people here towards us, increase by
all possible means the number of our friends, and be careful not to
weaken their hands and strengthen those of our enemies by rash pro-
ceedings on our side, the mischiefs of which are inconceivable. Some
of our friends have thought that a publication of my Examination
here might answer some of the above purposes, by removing pre-
judices, refuting falsehoods, and demonstrating our merits with regard
to this country. It is accordingly printed, and has a great run. I
have another piece in hand, which I intend to put^ut about the time
of the meeting of Parliament, if those I consult with shall judge that
it may be of service.1

The next session of Parliament will probably be a short one, on
account of the following election ; and I am now advised, by some of
our great friends here, to see that out, not returning to America till
the spring. My presence, indeed, is necessary there to settle some
private affairs. Unforeseen and unavoidable difficulties have hitherto
obstructed our proceedings in the main intent of my coming over,
and perhaps (though I think my being here has not been altogether
unserviceable) our friends in the Assembly may begin to be discour-
aged and tired of the expense. If that should be the case, I would
not have you propose to continue me as agent at the meeting of the
new Assembly. My endeavours to serve the province, in what I may
while I remain here, shall not be lessened by that omission.

I am glad you have made a trial of paper money, not a legal tender.
The quantity, being small, may perhaps be kept in full credit notwith-
standing ; and, if that can be avoided, I am not for applying here
again very soon for a repeal of the restraining act. I am afraid an
ill use will be made of it. The plan of our adversaries is to render
Assemblies in America useless, and to have a revenue, independent
of their grants, for all the purposes of their defence and supporting
governments among them. It is our interest to prevent this. And,
that they may not lay hold of our necessities for paper money, to draw
a revenue from that article whenever they grant us the liberty we want,

1 Probably the piece entitled, "Causes of the American Discontents before
1768.”2o4

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

of making it a legal tender, I wish some other method may. be fallen
upon of supporting its credit. What think you of getting all the
merchants, traders, and principal people of all sorts, to join in petitions
to the Assembly for a moderate emission, the petition being accom-
panied with a mutual engagement to take it in all dealings at the rates
fixed by law ? Such an engagement had a great effect in fixing the
value and rates of our gold and silver. Or, perhaps, a bank might be
established that would answer all purposes. Indeed, I think with
you, that those merchants here, who have made difficulties on the
subject of the legal tender, have not understood their own interest.
For there can be no doubt that, should a scarcity of money continue
among us, we shall take off less of their merchandise, and attend more
to manufacturing and raising the necessaries and superfluities of life
among ourselves, which we now receive from them. And perhaps
this consequence would attend our making no paper money at all of
any sort, that, being thus by want of cash driven to industry and
frugality, we should gradually become more rich without their trade
than we can possibly be with it, and, by keeping in the country the
real cash that comes into it, have in time a quantity sufficient for all
our occasions. But I suppose our people will scarce have patience to
wait for this.

I have received the printed votes, but not the laws. I hear nothing
yet of any objection made by the Proprietaries to any of them at the
Board of Trade.

Please to present my duty to the Assembly, with thanks for their
.'are of me, and assure them of my most faithful services.

To William Last week I dined at Lord Shelburne’s, and had a
▼emor^of Now l°n£ conversation with him and Mr. Conway (there
/ersey, dated being no other company) on the subject of reducing
Xondon, 28 Aug., American expense. They have it in contemplation to
return the management of Indian affairs into the hands
of the several provinces on which the nations border, that the colonies
may bear the charge of treaties, &c., which they think will then be
managed more frugally, the treasury being tired with the immense
drafts of the superintendents. I took the opportunity of urging it as
one means of saving expense in supporting the outposts, that a settle-
ment should be made in the Illinois country; expatiated on the various
advantages, viz., furnishing provisions cheaper to the garrisons, secur-
ing the country, retaining the trade, raising a strength there, which,
on occasion of a future war, might easily be poured down the Missis-
sippi upon the lower country, and into the Bay of Mexico, to be used
against Cuba or Mexico itself. I mentioned your plan, its being
approved by Sir William Johnson, the readiness and ability of the
gentlemen concerned to carry the settlement into execution, with very
little expense to the crown, &c. The secretaries appeared finally to
be fully convinced, and there remained no obstacle but the Board of
Trade, which was to be brought over privately, before the matter
should be referred to them officially. In case of laying aside theBENJAMIN FRANKLIN

205

superintendents, a provision was thought of for Sir William Johnson.1
We had a good deal of farther discourse on American affairs,
particularly on paper money.	Lord Shelburne declared himself

.fully convinced of the utility of taking off the restraint, by my
answer to the Report of the Board of Trade. General Conway had
not seen it, and desired me to send it to him, which I did next morn-
ing. They gave me expectation of a repeal next session, Lord Clare
being come over ; but they said there was difficulty with others at the
Board, who had signed that Report; for there was a good deal in
what Soame Jenyns had laughingly said, when asked to concur in
some measure, I have no kind of objection to it, provided we have
heretofore signed nothing to the contrary.

In this conversation I did not forget our main Pennsylvania busi-
ness, an l I think made some farther progress, though but little. The
two sc c etaries seemed intent upon preparing business for next Par-
liament, which makes me think that the late projects of changes are
now quite over, and that they expect to continue in place. But whether
they will do much or little, I cannot say.

Du Guerchy, the French ambassador, is gone home, and Monsieur
Durand is left minister plenipotentiary. He is extremely curious to
inform himself in the affairs of America; pretends to have a great
esteem for me, on account of the abilities shown in my examination ;
has desired to have all my political writings, invited me to dine with
him, was very inquisitive, treated me with great civility, makes me
visits, &c. I fancy that intriguing nation would like very well to
meddle on occasion, and blow up the coals between Britain and her
colonies ; but I hope we shall give them no opportunity.

I write this in a great hurry, being setting out in an hour on another
journey with my steady, good friend, Sir John Pringle. We propose
to visit Paris. Durand has given me letters of recommendation to
the Lord knows who. I am told I shall meet with great respect
there ; but winds change, and perhaps it will be full as well if I do
not. We shall be gone six weeks. I have a little private commission
to transact, of which more another time.—Communicate nothing of
this letter but privately to our friend Galloway.

To mrj«« Mary Soon after I left you in that agreeable society at
Btevenaon,	Bromley, I took the resolution of making a trip with

l4tedSeptember! Sir John Pringle into.France. We set out on the 28th
1767.	’ past. All the way to Dover we were furnished with

1 The subject here introduced, which is frequently mentioned in letters to his
son, relates to an application by a company to the crown for the grant of a tract
of land west of the Alleghanies, with the design of establishing a colony there. It
was called Walpole's Grant, from the circumstance of Mr. Thomas Walpole
having been the principal person concerned in procuring it. The scheme originated
with Colonel Croghan, William Franklin, and Sir William Johnson.

The plan of purchasing of the French seems to ha,ve been subsequently aban-
doned, and the company applied to the crown for a tract of unsettled lands mostly
between the Alleghanies and the Ohio River. Lord Hillsborough opposed the
petition, and one of Franklin’s ablest papers was written in reply to a report made
by him on the subject to the Board of Trade.206

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

postchaises, hung so as to lean forward, the top coming down over
one’s eyes, like a hood, as if to prevent one’s seeing the country ;
which being one of my great pleasures, I was engaged in perpetual
disputes with the innkeepers, ostlers, and postillions, about getting the
straps taken up a hole or two before, and let down as much behind,
they insisting that the chaise leaning forward was an ease to the
horses, and that the contrary would kill them. I suppose the chaise
leaning forward looks to them like a willingness to go forward, and
that its hanging back shows reluctance. They added other reasons,
that were no reasons at all, aind made me, as upon a hundred other
occasions, almost wish that mankind had never been endowed with a
reasoning faculty, since they know so little how to make use of it, and
so often mislead themselves by it, and that they had been furnished
with a good sensible instinct instead of it.

At Dover, the next morning, we embarked for Calais with a num-
ber of passengers, who had never before been at sea. They would
previously make a hearty, breakfast, because, if the wind should fail,
we might not get over till supper time. Doubtless they thought, that,
when they had paid for their breakfast, they had a right to it, and
that, when they had swallowed it, they were sure of it. But they had
scarce been out half an hour, before the sea laid claim to it, and they
were obliged to deliver it up. So that it seems there are uncertainties,
even beyond those between the cup and the lip. If ever you go to
sea, take my advice, and live sparingly a day or two beforehand.
The sickness, if any, will be lighter and over sooner. We got to
Calais that evening.

Various impositions we suffered from boatmen, porters, and the like,
on both sides the water. I know not which are most rapacious, the
English or French, but the latter have, with their knavery, most
politeness.

The roads we found equally good with ours in England, in some
places paved with smooth stones, like our new streets, for many mile.s
together, and rows of trees on each side, and yet there are no turn-
pikes. But then the poor peasants complained to us grievously, that
they were obliged to work upon the roads full two months in the year,
without being paid for their labour. Whether this is truth, or whether,
like Englishmen, they grumble, cause or no cause, I have not yet been
able fully to inform myself.

The women we saw at Calais, on the road, at Boulogne, and in the
inns and villages, were generally of dark complexions ; but arriving
at Abbeville we found a sudden change, a multitude of both women
and men in that place appearing remarkably fair. Whether this is
owing to a small colony of spinners, wool-combers, and weavers,
brought hither from Holland with the woollen manufactory about
sixty years ago, or to their being less exposed to the sun than in other
places, their business keeping them much within doors, I know not.
Perhaps, as in some other cases, different causes may club in producing
the effect, but the effect itself is certain. Never was I in a place of
greater industry, wheels and looms going in every house.BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

207

As soon as we left Abbeville, the swarthiness returned. I speak
generally; for here are some fair women at Paris, who, I think, are
not whitened by art. As to rouge, they don’t pretend to imitate
nature in laying it on. There is no gradual diminution of the colour,
from the full bloom in the middle of the cheek to the faint tint near
the sides, nor does it show itself differently in different faces. I have
not had the honour of being at any lady’s toilette to see how it is laid
on, but I fancy I can tell you how it may or can be done. Cut a hole
of three inches diameter in a piece of paper ; place it on the side of
your face in such a manner, as that the top of the hole may be just
under the eye ; then, with a brush dipped in the colour, paint face and
paper together ; so when the paper is taken off, there will remain a
round patch of red exactly the form of the hole. This is the mode,
from the actresses on the stage upwards through all ranks of ladies to
the princesses of the blood ; but it stops there, the Queen not using
it, having in the serenity, complacence, and benignity, that shine so
eminently in, or rather through her countenance, sufficient beauty,
though now an old woman, to do extremely well without it.

You see I speak of the Queen as if I had seen her ; and so I have,
for you must know I have been at court. We went to Versailles last
Sunday, and had the honour of being presented to the King; he
spoke to both of us very graciously and very cheerfully, is a hand-
some man, has a very lively look, and appears younger than he is. In
the evening we were at the Grand Convert, where the family sup in
public. The table was half a hollow square, the service gold. When
either made a sign for drink, the word was given by one of the
waiters; A boire pour le Roi, or A boire pour la Reine. Then two
persons came from within, the one with wine and the other with water
in carafesj each drank a little glass of what he brought, and then put
both the carafes with a glass on a salver, and then presented it.
Their distance from each other was such as that other chairs might
have been placed between any two of them. An officer of the court
brought us up through the crowd of spectators, and placed Sir John
so as to stand between the Queen and Madame Victoire. The King
talked a good deal to Sir John, asking many questions about our
royal family ; and did me too the honour of taking some notice of
me ; that is saying enough ; for I would not have you think me so
much pleased with this King and Queen, as to have a whit less regard
than I used to have for ours. No Frenchman shall go beyond me in
thinking my own King and Queen the very best in the world, and the
most amiable.

Versailles has had infinite sums laid out in building it and supplying
it with water. Some say the expenses exceeded eighty millions ster-
ling. The range of buildings is immense; the garden-front most
magnificent, all of hewn stone ; the number of statues, figpres, urns,
&c., in marble and bronze of exquisite workmanship, is beyond con-
ception. But the water-works are out of repair, and so is great part
of the front next the town, looking, with its shabby, half-brick walls
and broken windows, not much better than the houses in Durham208

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

Yard. There is, in short, both at Versailles and Paris, a prodigious
mixture of magnificence and negligence, with every kind of elegance
except that of cleanliness, and what we call tidiness. Though I must
do Paris the justice to say, that in two points of cleanliness they
exceed us. The water they drink, though from the river, they render
as pure as that of the best spring, by filtering it through cisterns filled
with sand ; and the streets with constant sweeping are fit to walk in,
though there is no paved footpath. Accordingly, many well dressed
people are constantly seen walking in them. The crowd of coaches
and chairs for this reason is not so great. Men, as well as. women,
carry umbrellas in their hands, which they extend in case of rain or
too much sun ; and, a man with an umbrella not taking up more than
three foot square, or nine square feet of the street, when, if in a coach,
he would take up two hundred and forty square feet, you can easily
conceive, that, though the streets here are narrow, they may be much
less encumbered. They are extremely well paved, and the stones,
being generally cubes, when worn on one side, may be turned and
become new.

The civilities we everywhere receive, give us the strongest impres-
sions of the French politeness. It seems to be a point settled here
universally, that strangers are to be treated with respect ; and one has
just the same deference shown one here by being a stranger, as in
England by being a lady. The custom-house officers at Port St.
Denis, as we entered Paris, were about to seize two dozen of excellent
Bordeaux wine given us at Boulogne, and which we brought with us ;
but, as soon as they found we were strangers, it was immediately
remitted on that account. At the Church of Notre Dame, where we
went to see a magnificent illumination, with figures, &c., for the de-
ceased Dauphiness, we found an immense crowd, who were kept out
by guards; but, the officer being told that we were strangers from
England, he immediately admitted us, accompanied and showed us
everything. Why don’t we practise this urbanity to Frenchmen?
Why should they be allowed to outdo us in any thing ?

Here is an exhibition of painting, like ours in London, to which
multitudes flock daily. I am not connoisseur enough to judge which
has most merit. Every night, Sundays not excepted, here are plays
or operas ; and, though the weather has been hot, and the houses full,
one is not incommoded by the heat so much as with us in winter.
They must have some way of changing the air, that we are not ac-
quainted with. I shall inquire into it.

Travelling is one way of lengthening life, at least in appearance. It
is but about a fortnight since we left London, but the variety of scenes
we have gone through makes it seem equal to six months living in one
place. Perhaps I have suffered a greater change, too, in my own
person, than I could have done in six years at home. I had not been
here six days, before my tailor and perruquier had transformed me
into a Frenchman. Only think what a figure I make in a little bag-
wig and with naked ears ! They told me 1 was become twenty years
younger, and looked very gallant.BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.	209

This lettel* shall cost you a shilling, and you may consider it cheap,
when you reflect, that it has cost me at least fifty guineas to get into
the situation that enables me to write it. Besides, I might, if I had
stayed at home, have won perhaps two shillings of you at cribbage.
By the way, now I mention cards, let me tell you that quadrille is now
out of fashion here, and English Whist all the mode at Paris and the
court.

And pray look upon it as no small matter, that, surrounded as I am
by the glories of the world, and amusements of all sorts, I remember
you, and Dolly, and all the dear good folks at Bromley. It is true, I
cannot help it, but must and ever shall remember you all with pleasure.

CHAPTER VI. (1767-1768.)

The Walpole Grant again—Change of Ministry—Hillsborough named Secretary
of State for America—Franklin edits ‘‘The Farmer’s Letters”—Particulars of
his Election to the Royal Society—Powers of Parliament over the Colonies
defined—Corruption at Elections—Dissolution of Parliament.

To William * think the New Yorkers have been very discreet in
Franklin, dated forbearing to write and publish against the late act of
London, 25 N°V., Parliament. I wish the Boston people had been as
67‘	quiet, since Governor Bernard as sent over all their

violent papers to the ministry, and wrote them word that he daily
expected a rebellion. He did indeed afterwards correct this extrava-
gance, by writing again, that he now understood those papers were
approved by few, and disliked by all the sober, sensible people of the
province. A certain noble Lord expressed himself to me with some
disgust and contempt of Bernard on this occasion, saying he ought to
have known his people better, than to impute to the whole country
sentiments that perhaps are only scribbled by some madman in a
garret ; that he appeared to be too fond of contention, and mistook
the matter greatly, in supposing such letters as he wrote were accept-
able to the ministry. I have heard nothing of the appointment t»f
General Clark to New York ; but I know he is a friend of Lord Shel-
burne’s, and the same that recommended Mr. Maclean to be his
secretary. Perhaps it might be talked of in my absence.

The commissioners for the American Board went hence while I was
in France. You know before this time who they are, and how they
are received, which I want to hear. Mr. Williams, who is gone in
some office with them, is brother to our cousin Williams of Boston ;
but I assure you I had not the least share in his appointment, having,
as I told you before, carefully kept out of the way of that whole affair.

As soon as I received Mr. Galloway’s, Mr. Samuel Wharton’s, and
Mr. Croghan’s letters on the subject of the boundary, I communicated
them immediately to Lord Shelburne. He invited me the next day to210

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

dine with him. Lord Clare was to have beerj there, but did not come.
There was nobody but Mr. Maclean. My Lord knew nothing of the
boundary’s having ever been agreed on by Sir William, had sent the
letters to the Board of Trade, desiring search to be made there for Sir
William’s letters, and ordered Mr. Maclean to search the secretary’s
office, who found nothing. We had much discourse about it, and I
pressed the importance of despatching orders immediately to Sir
William to complete the affair. His Lordship asked who was to make
the purchase, that is, be at the expensg. I said,-that, if the line in-
cluded any lands within the grants of the charter colonies, they should
pay the purchase money of such proportion. If any within the pro-
prietary grants, they should pay their proportion ; but that what was
within royal governments, where the King granted the lands, the
crown should pay for that proportion. His Lordship was pleased to
say, he thought this reasonable. He finally desired me to go to Lord
Clare, as from him, and urge the business there, which I undertook
to do.

Among other things at this conversation, we talked of the new
settlement. His Lordship told me had himself drawn up a paper of
reasons for those settlements, which he laid before the King in
Council, acquainting tliem that he did not offer them merely as his
own sentiments ; they were what he had collected from General
Amherst, Dr. Franklin, and Mr. Jackson, three gentlemen that were
allowed to be the best authorities for anything that related to America.
1 think he added that the Council seemed to approve of the design.
I know it was referred to the Board of Trade, who I believe hive not
yet reported on it, and I doubt will report against it. My Lord told
me one pleasant circumstance, viz. that he had shown his. paper to
the Dean of Gloucester (Tucker), to hear his opinion of the matter ;
who very sagaciously remarked, that he was sure that proper was drawn
up by Dr. Franklin; he saw him in every paragraph ; adding, that
Dr. Franklin wanted to remove the seat of government to America;
that, says he, is his constant plan.

I waited.next morning upon Lord Clare, and pressed the matter of
the boundary closely upon him. He said they could not find they
had ever received any letters from Sir, William concerning this
boundary, but were searching farther ; agreed to the necessity of
settling it; but thought there would be some difficulty about who
should pay the purchase money ; for that this country was already so
loaded, it could bear no more. We then talked of the new colonies.
I found he was inclined to think one near the mouth of the Ohio might
be of use in securing the country, but did not much approve that at
Detroit. And, as to the trade, he imagined it would be of little con-
sequence, if we had all the peltry to be purchased there, but supposed
our traders would sell it chiefly to the French and Spaniards at New
Orleans, as he heard they had hitherto done.

At the same time that we Americans wish not to be judged of, in
the gross, by particular papers written by anonymous scribblers and
published in the colonies, it would be well if we could avoid FallingBENJAMIN FRANKLIN

211

into the same mistake in America, in judging of ministers here by the
libels printed against them. The enclosed is a very abusive one, in
which if there is any foundation of truth, it can only be in the insinua-
tion contained in the words “after eleven adjournments^' that they
are too apt to postpone business ; but, if they have given any occasion
for this reflection, there are reasons and circumstances that may be
urged in their excuse.

It gives me pleasure to hear, that the people of the other colonies
are not insensible of the zeal with which I occasionally espouse their
respective interests, as well as the interests of the whole. I shall con-
tinue to do so as long as I reside here and am able.

To Joseph Gallo- I am inclined to think with you, that the small sum
way, dated ion- you have issued to discharge the public debts only will
don, 1 Deo., 1767. not be materially affected in its credit for want of the
legal tender, considering especially the present extreme want of money
in the province. You appear to me to point out the true cause of the
general distress, viz., the late luxurious mode of living introduced by a
too great plenty of cash. It is indeed amazing to consider, that we
had a quantity sufficient before the war began, and that the war added
immensely to that quantity, by the sums spent among us by the crown,
and the paper struck and issued in the province ; and now in so few
years all the money spent by the crown is gone away, and has carried
with it all the gold and silver we had before, leaving us bare and
empty, and at the same time more in debt to England than ever we
were. But I am inclined to think, that the mere making more money
will not mend our circumstances, if we do not return to that industry
and frugality, which were the fundamental causes of our former pros-
perity. I shall nevertheless do my utmost this w-inter to obtain the
repeal of the act restraining the legal tender, if our friends the mer-
chants think it practicable, and will heartily espouse the cause ; and,
in truth, they have full as much interest in the event as we have.

The present ministry, it is now thought, are likely to continue at
least till a new Parliament; so that our apprehensions of a change,
and that Mr. Grenville would come in again, seem over for the present.
He behaves as if a little out of his head on the article of America,
which he brings into every debate without rhyme or reason, when the
matter has not the least connection with it. Thus, at the beginning
of this session on the debate upon the King’s speech, he tried every-
body, even his friends, with a long harangue about and against
America, of which there was not a word in the speech. Last Friday
he produced in the House a late Boston Gazette, which he said denied
the legislative authority of Parliament, was treasonable, rebellious, &c.,
and moved it might be read, and that the House would take cogni-
zance of it; but, it being moved on the other haild that Mr. Grenville’s
motion should be postponed to that day six months, it was carried
without a division; and, as it is known that this Parliament will
expire before that lime, it was equivalent to a total rejection of the
motion. The Duke of Bedford, too, it seems, moved in vain for a2X2

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

consideration of this paper in the House of Lords. These are favour-
able symptoms of the present disposition of Parliament towards
America, which I hope no conduct of the Americans will give just
cause of altering.

To 'William The res°luti°ns °f the Boston people concerning trade
Franklin, dated make a great noise here. Parliament has not yet taken
iw7don’10 Dec’’ not'ce °f them, but the newspapers are in full cry against
'	America. Colonel Onslow told me at court last Sunday,

that I could not conceive how much the friends of America were run
upon and hurt by them, and how much the Grenvillians triumphed.
I have just written a paper for next Tuesday’s Chronicle to extenuate
matters a little.1

Mentioning Colonel Onslow reminds me of something, that passed
at the beginning of this session in the House between him and Mr.
Grenville. The latter had been raving against America,as traiiorous,
rebellious, &c., when the former, who has always been its firm friend,
stood up and gravely said, that in reading the Roman history he found
it was a custom among that wise and magnanimous people, whenever
the senate was informed of any discontent in the provinces, to send
two or three of their body into the discontented provinces, to inquire
into the grievances complained of, and report to the senate, that mild
measures might be used to remedy what was amiss, before any severe
steps were taken to enforce obedience ; that thfs example he thought
worthy of our imitation in the present state of our colonies, for he did
so far agree with the honourable gentleman, that spoke just before
him, as to allow there were great discontents among them. He
should therefore beg leave to move, that tvvo.or three members of
Parliament be appointed to go over to New England on this service.

1 Scarcely had Franklin returned to London from his continental trip, when
news arrived of the retaliatory measures which the series of revenue acts of Parlia-
ment had provoked in Boston. They were regarded as but the Stamp Act in a
new disguise, and as a continuation of a policy which it was hoped had been
abandoned with that odious measure. Disappointed and indignant, the Bostonians
assembled in town meeting, formally recommended the encouragement of domestic
manufactures and the abandonment of all superfluities, and engaged themselves,
after a stated time, to eschew entirely the use of certain specified articles of foreign
manufacture.

These resolutions, adopted on the 28th of October, 1767, produced scarcely less
excitement in England than the acts of Parliament which provoked them had pro-
duced in the colonies. They were denounced as deliberately disrespectful to Par-
liament, and little short of rebellious. These threats from the colonies worried
Franklin, because they strengthened the enemies of the actual ministry, which was
doing the best it could for America. To calm the excitement, Dr. Franklin wrote
a paper which was printed, though, as Dr. Franklin said, with the teeth drawn and
the nails pared, that it could neither scratch nor bite, in the London Chronicle,
entitled ‘‘Causes of the ^Jnierican Discontents before 1768.” It did not save the
ministry, however. The king was determined that the colonies should feel and
respect his power, and so at the commencement of the following year Lord Hills-
borough took the place of Lord Shelburne, and was made Secretary of State for
America, a newly-created department, and was also placed at the head of the
Board of Trade.BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

213

And that it might not be supposed that he was for imposing burdens
on others which he would not be willing to bear himself, he did at the
same time declare his own willingness, if the House should think fit
to appoint them, to go over thither with that honourable gentleman.
Upon this there was a great laugh, which continued some time, and
was rather increased by Mr. Grenville’s asking, “ Will the gentleman
engage that I shall be safe there ? Can I be assured that I shall be
allowed to come back again to make the report?” As soon as the
laugh was so far subsided, as that Mr. Onslow could be heard again,
he added, “ I cannot absolutely engage for the honourable gentleman’s
safe return ; but if he goes'thither upon this service, I am strongly of
opinion the event will contribute greatly to the future quiet of both
countries.” On which the laugh was renewed and redoubled.

If our people should follow the Boston example in entering into
resolutions of frugality and industry, full as necessary for us as for
them, I hope they will among other things give this reason, that it
is to enable them more speedily and effectually to discharge their
debts to Great Britain. This will soften a little, and at the same time
appear honourable and like ourselves.

To John Ross, The instruction you mention, as proposed by a certain
dated London, 13 great man, was really a wild one. The reasons you
Dec., 1767. made use of against it were clear and strong, and could
not but prevail. It will be time enough to show a dislike to the coali-
tion, when it is proposed to us. Meanwhile we have all the advantage
in the argument of taxation, which our not being represented will
continue to give us. I think, indeed, that such an event is very
remote. This nation is indeed too proud to propose admitting
American representatives into their Parliament; and America is not
so humble, or so fond of the honour, as to petition for it. In matri-
monial matches it is said, when one party is willing, the match is half
made ; but, where neither party is willing, there is no great danger of
their coming together. And, to be sure, such an important business
would never be treated of by agents unempowered and uninstructed ;
nor would government here act upon the private opinion of agents,
which might be disowned-by their constituents.

The present ministry seem now likely to continue through this
session ; and this, as a new election approaches, gives them the
advantage of getting so many of their friends chosen as may give a
stability to their administration. I heartily wish it, because they are
all well disposed towards America.

To ’William Dear Son,—We have had an ugly affair at the
Franklin, dated Royal Society lately. One Dacosta, a Jew, who as our
17670D' W De° ’ c^er^ was intrusted with collecting our monies, has been
so unfaithful as to embezzle near ^1300 in four years.
Being one of the council this year as well as the last, I have been
employed all the last week in attending the inquiry into and unravel-
ling his accounts in order to come to a full knowledge of his frauds.214

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

His securities are bound in one thousand pounds to the Society, which
they will pay, but we shall probably lose the rest. He had this year
received twenty-six admission payments of twenty-five guineas each,
which he did not bring to account.

While attending to this affair I had an opportunity of looking over
the old council-books and journals of the Society, and having a
curiosity to see how I came in, of which I had never been informed, I
looked back for the minutes relating to it. You must know it is not
usual to admit persons who have not requested to be admitted, and a
recommendatory certificate in favour of the candidate, signed by at
least three of the members, is by our rule to be presented to the
Society, expressing that he is desirous of that honour, and is so and
so qualified. As I never had asked or expected the honour, I was, as
I said before, curious to see how the business was managed. I found
that the certificate, worded very advantageously for me, was signed by
Lord Macclesfield, then President, Lord Parker and Lord Willoughby ;
that the election was by a unanimous vote ; and the honour being
voluntarily conferred by the Society, unsolicited by me, it was
thought wrong to demand or receive the usual fees or composition ;
so that my name was entered on the list with a vote of council that L
ivas not to pay any thing, and accordingly nothing has ever been
demanded of me. Those who are admitted in the common way, pay
five guineas admission fees, and two guineas and a half yearly contri-
bution, or twenty-five guineas down in lieu of it. In my case a
substantial favour accompanied the honour.

William

______ We have had so many alarms of changes, which did

Franklin," dated not take place, that just when I wrote it was thought
london^ Jan- the ministry would stand their ground. However, im-
uary’ 1 mediately after, the talk was renewed, and it soon
appeared that the Sunday changes were actually settled. Mr. Conway
resigns and Lord Weymouth takes his place. Lord Gower is made
President of the Council in the room of Lord Northington. Lord Shel-
burne is stripped of the American business, which is given to Lord
Plillsborough as secretary of state for America, a new distinct depart-
ment. Lord Sandwich, it is said, comes into the post-office in his
place. Several of the Bedford party are now to come in.

How these changes may affect us, a little time will show. Little at
present is thought of but elections, which gives me hopes that nothing
will be done against America this session, though the Boston Gazette
had occasioned some heats, and the Boston Resolutions a prodigious
clamour. I have endeavoured to palliate matters for them as well as
I can. I send you my manuscript of one paper, though I think you
take the Chronicle. The editor of that paper, one Jones, seems a
Grenvillian, or is very cautious, as you will see by his corrections and
omissions. He has drawn the teeth and pared the nails of my paper,
so that it can neither scratch nor bite. It seems only to paw and
mumble. I send you also two other late pieces of mine. There is
another which I cannot find.BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

215

I am told there has been a talk of getting me appointed under-
secretary to Lord Hillsborough; but with little likelihood, as it is
a settled point here that I am too much of an American. I am in very
good health, thanks to God.

To Joseph Gallo- ^ wrote to you by way of Boston, and have little to
way, dated Lon- add, except to acquaint you that some changes have
1768 9 January’ taken place sisce my last, which have not the most
promising aspect for America, several of the Bedford
party being come into employment again ; a party that has dis-
tinguished itself by exclaiming against us on all late occasions. Mr.
Conway, one of our friends, has resigned, and Lord Weymouth takes
his place. Lord Shelburne, another friend, is stripped of the American
part of the business of his office, which now makes a distinct depart-
ment, in which Lord Hillsborough is placed. I do not think this noble-
man in general an ememy to America ; but, in the affair of paper
money, he was last winter strongly against us.

I did hope I had removed some of his prejudices on that head, but
am not certain. We have, however, increased the cry for it here, and
I believe shall attempt .to obtain the repeal of the act, though the
Boston Gazette and their resolutions about manufactures have hurt
us much, having occasioned an immense clamour here. I have en-
deavoured to palliate matters for them as well as I can, and hope with
some success. For having, in a large company in which were some
members of Parliament, given satisfaction to all, by what I alleged in
explanation of the conduct of the Americans, and to show that they
were not quite so unreasonable as they appeared to be, I was advised
by several present to make my sentiments public, not only for the sake
of America, but as it would be some ease to our friends here, who are
triumphed over a good deal by our adversaries on the occasion. I
have accordingly done it in the enclosed paper.

To his wife, I received your kind letter by Captain Story, of
dated London, November 19th, and a subsequent one by Captain
13Feb., 1768. Falconer without date. I have received also the Indian
and buckwheat meal, that they brought from you, with the apples,
cranberries, and nuts, for all which I thank you. They all prove good,
and the apples were particularly welcome to me and my friends, as
there happens to be scarce any of any kind in England this year. We
are much obliged to the captains, who are so good as to bring these
things for us, without charging anything for their trouble.

I am much concerned for my dear sister’s loss of her daughter. It
was kind in you to write a letter of condolence. I have also written
to her on the occasion. I am not determined about bringing Sally
over with me, but am obliged to you for the kind manner in which you
speak of it, and possibly I may conclude to do it.1 I am sorry you had
1 This was Sally Franklin, the daughter of Thomas Franklin, a remote family
connection. As this Thomas Franklin was in narrow circumstances, Dr. Franklin
took the charge of his daughter for several years. She married in England, and
did not visit America.2l6

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

so much trouble with that Nelson. By what is now said of her here,
she did not deserve the notice you took of her, or that any credit should
be given to her stories. I am afraid she has made mischief in my
family by her falsehoods. I think your advice good, not to help any
one to servants. I shall never be concerned in such business again ;

I never was lucky in it.

P.S.—I forgot to tell you that a certain very great lady, the best
woman in England, was graciously pleased to accept some of your nuts,
and to say they were excellent. This is to yourself only.1

To Joseph Gallo- *n mine °f January 9th, I wrote to you that I believed,
■way, dated Lon- notwithstanding the clamour against America had been
1768 17 Feb ' Sreatly increased by the Boston proceedings, we should
1 '	attempt this session to obtain the repeal of the restrain-

ing act relating to paper money. The change of the administration,
with regard to American affairs, which was agreed on some time before
the new secretary kissed hands and entered upon business, made it
impossible to go forward with that affair, as the minister quitting that
department would not, and his successor could not, engage in it; but
now our friends the merchants have been moving in it, and some of
them have conceived hopes, from the manner in which Lord Hills-
borough attended to their representations. It had been previously
concluded among us, that, if the repeal was to be obtained at all, it
must be proposed in the light of a favour to the merchants of this
country, and asked for by them, not by the agents as a favour to
America. But, as my Lord had, at sundry times before he came into
his present station, discoursed with me on the subject, and got from
me a copy of my answer to his report, when at the head of the Board
of Trade, which some time since he thanked me for, and said he would
read again and consider carefully, I waited upon him this morning,
partly with intent to learn if he had changed his sentiments.

We entered into the subject, and had a long conversation upon it,
in which all the arguments he used, against the legal tender of paper
money, were intended to demonstrate, that it was for the benefit of the
people themselves to have no such money current among them ; and
it was strongly his opinion, that, after the experience of being without
it a few years, we should all be convinced of this truth, as he said the
New England colonies now were ; they having lately,, on the runnour
of an intended application for taking off the restraint, petitioned here,
that it might be continued as to them. However, his Lordship was
pleased to say, that, if such application was made for the three colonies
of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York, as I proposed, it should
have fair play, he would himself give it no sort of opposition ; but he
was sure it would meet with a great deal, and he thought it could not
succeed. He was pleased to make me compliments upon my paper,

* The following note explains this postscript:

“Dr. Franklin presents his respectful compliments to Lord Bathurst, with some
American nuts ; and to Lady Bathurst with some American apples ; which he pray?
they will accept as a tribute from that country, small indeed, but voluntary."BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

217

assuring me he had read it with a great deal of attention, that I had
said much more in favour of such a currency than he thought could be
said, and all he believed that the subject would admit of; but that it
had not on the whole changed his opinion, any further than to induce
him to leave the matter now to the judgment of others, and let it take
its course, without opposing it as last year he had determined to have
done.

I go into the city to-morrow, fo confer with the merchants again upon
it; that, if they see any hopes, we may at least try the event. But 1
own my expectations are now very slender, knowing as I do, that
nothing is to be done in Parliament, that is not a measure adopted by
ministry and supported by their strength, much less anything they are
averse to or indifferent about.

I took the opportunity of discoursing with his Lordship concerning
our particular affair of the change of government, gave him a detail
of all proceedings hitherto, the delays it had met with, and its present
situation. He was pleased to say, he would inquire into the matter,
and would talk with me further upon it. He expressed great satisfac-
tion in the good disposition, that, he said, appeared now to be general
in America, with regard to government here, according to the latest
advices ; and informed me, that he had by his Majesty^ order wrote
the most healing letters to the several governors, which, if shown to
the Assemblies, as he supposed they would be, could not but confirm
that good disposition. As to the permission we want to bring wine,
fruit, and oil directly from Spain and Portugal, and to carry iron direct
to foreign markets, it is agreed on all hands that this is an unfavourable
time to move in those matters ; George Grenville and those in the
opposition, on every hint of the kind, making a great noise about the
Act of Navigation, that palladium of England, as they call it, to be
given up to rebellious America, &c. &c., so that the ministry would not
venture to propose it, if they approved. I am to wait on the secretary
again next Wednesday, and shall write you further what passes, that
is material.

The Parliament have of late been acting an egregious farce, calling
before them the mayor and aldermen of Oxford, for proposing a sum
to be paid by their old members on being rechosen at the next elec-
tion"; and sundry printers and brokers, for advertising and dealing in
boroughs, &c. The Oxford people were sent to Newgate, and dis-
charged, after some days, on humble petition, and receiving the
Speaker’s reprimand upon their knees. The House could scarcely
keep countenances, knowing as they all do, that the practice is
general. People say, they mean nothing more than to beat down the
price by a little discouragement of borough jobbing, now that their
own elections are all coming on. The price indeed is grown exorbi-
tant, no less than four thousand pounds for a member.

Mr. Beckford has brought in a bill for preventing bribery and cor-
ruption in elections, wherein was a clause to oblige every member to
swear, on his admission into the House, that he had not directly or
indirectly given any bribe to any ejector; but this was so universally218

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

exclaimed against, as answering no end but perjuring the members,
that he has been obliged to withdraw that clause. It was indeed a
cruel contrivance of his, worse than the gunpowder plot; for that was
only to blow the Parliament up to heaven, this to sink them all down

to-----. Mr. Thurlow opposed this bill by a long speech. Beckfqrd,

in reply, gave a dry hit to the House, that is repeated everywhere.
“The honourable gentleman,” says he, “in his learned discourse, gave
us first one definition of corruption, th*n he gave us another definition
of corruption, and I think he was about to give us a third. Pray does
that gentleman imagine there is any member of this House that does
not KNOW what corruption is ? ” which occasioned only a roar of
laughter, for they are so hardened in the practice, that they are very
little ashamed of it. This between ourselves.

To Thomas The story you mention of Secretary Conway’s wonder-
Wharton, dated ing what I could be doing in England, and that he had
i7«R,‘on’ 20 Feb’’ not seen me f°r a considerable time, savours strongly of
'	the channel through which it came, and deserves no

notice. But, since his name is mentioned, it gives me occasion to
relate what passed between us the last time I had the honour of con-
versing with him. It was at court, when the late changes were first
rumoured, and it was reported he was to resign the secretary’s office.
Talking of America, I said I was sorry to find, that our friends were
one after another quitting the administration, that I was apprehensive
of the consequences, and hoped what I heard of his going out was
not true. He said it was really true, the employment had not been of
his choice, he had never any taste for it, but had submitted to engage
in it for a time, at the instance of his friends, and he believed liis
removal could not be attended with any ill consequences to America ;
that he was a sincere well-wisher to the prosperity of that country as
well as this, and hoped the imprudences of either side would never be
carried to such a height as to create a breach of the union, so essen-
tially necessary to the welfare of both ; that, as long as his Majesty
continued to honour him with a share in his counsels, America should
always find in him a friend, &c. This I write, as it was agreeable to
me to hear, and I suppose will be so to you to read. For his character
has more in it of the frank honesty of the soldier, than of the plausible
insincerity of the courtier ; and therefore what he says is more to be
depended on.

The Proprietor’s dislike to my continuing in England, to be sure, is
very natural; as well as to the repeated choice of Assembly men not
his friends ; and probably he would, as they so little answer his
purposes, wish to see elections as well as agencies abolished. They
make him very unhappy, but it cannot be helped.

To Mr. Livezev, * received your kind letter of November 18th, with a
dated London, 20 very welcome present of another dozen of your wine.
Feb., 1768.	The former had been found excellent by many good

judges ; my wine merchant in particular was very desirous of knowingBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

219

what quantity of it might be had, and at what price, to which I could
give him no satisfaction. I only said, that the grapes, being unculti-
vated, were not very juicy ; I apprehended, so many of them must be
required, and so much labour in gathering and pressing them, to pro-
duce a little wine, that the price could not be very low. I shall apply
this parcel as I did the last, towards warming the hearts of the
friends of our country, and well-wishers to the change of its govern-
ment.	0.

To Cadwallader 1 ™rot* You a, few Iin?s by Capt. Falconer and sent
Evans, dated you Dr. Watsons new piece of Experiments in mocula-
london, 20 Feb., tion, which I hope will be agreeable to you.

‘	In yours of Nov. 20th you mention the lead in the

worms of stills as a probable cause of the dry bellyache among punch
drinkers in our West Indies. I had before acquainted Dr. Baker
,with a fact of that kind, the general mischief done by the use of lead
worms, when rum-distilling was first practised in New England, which
occasioned a severe law there against them ; and he has mentioned it
in the second part of the piece not yet published. I have long been of
opinion, that this distemper proceeds always from a metallic cause
only, observing that it affects, among tradesmen those who use lead,
however different their trades, as glaziers, letter founders, plumbers,
potters, white lead' makers, and painters (from the latter, it has been
conjectured, it took its name Colica Pictonum, by the mistake of a
letter and not from its being the disease of Picton); and although the
worms of stills ought to be of pure tin, they are often made of pewter,
which has a mixture in it of lead.

The Boston people pretending to interfere with the manufactures of
this country, makes a great clamour here against America in general.
I have endeavoured therefore to palliate matters a little in several
public papers. It would, as you justly observe, give less umbrage if
we meddled only with such manufactures as England does not attend
to. That of linen might be carried on more or less in every family
(perhaps it can only do in a family way), and silk I think in most of
the colonies. But there are many manufactures that we cannot carry
on to advantage, though we were at entire liberty. And after all this
country is fond of manufactures beyond their real value ; for the true
source of riches is husbandry. Agriculture is truly productive of new
wealth; manufactures only change forms ; and whatever value they
give to the material they work upon, they in the mean time consume
an equal value of provisions, &c. So that riches are not increased by
manufacturing ; the only advantage is that provisions in the shape of
manufactures are more easily carried for sale in foreign markets. And
where the provisions cannot be easily carried to market, it is well so
to transform them for our own use as well as for foreign sale. In
families also where the children and servants of farmers have some
spare time, it is well to employ it in making something; and in
spinning or knitting, &c., to gather up fragments (of time) that
nothing may be lost j for these fragments, though small in themselves,220

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

amount to something great in the year, and the family must eat
whether they work or are idle.

But this nation seems to have increased the number of its manu-
factures beyond reasonable bounds (for there are bounds to every-
thing), whereby provisions are now risen to an exorbitant price by the
demand for supplying home mouths ; so that there may be an impor-
tation from foreign countries ; but the expense of bringing provisions
from abroad to feed manufacturers hefe will so enhance the price of
the manufactures that they may be made cheaper where the provisions
grow and the mouths will go to the meat.

To William The PurPose of settling the new colonies seems at
Franklin, dated present to be dropped, the change of American adminis-
London, _	13 tration not appearing favourable to it. There seems

010 ’	' rather to be an inclination to abandon the posts in the

back country, as more expensive than useful; but counsels are so
continually fluctuating here, that nothing can be depended on. The
new secretary, my Lord Hillsborough, is, I find, of opinion, that the
troops should be placed, the chief part of them, in Canada and Florida,
only three battalions to be quartered in New York, New Jersey, and
Pennsylvania; and that Forts Pitt, Oswego, Niagara, &c., should be
left to the colonies to garrison and keep up, if theyJhink it necessary,
for the protection of their trade. Probably his opinion may be
followed, if the new changes do not produce other ideas.

As to my own sentiments, I am weary of suggesting them to so
many different inattentive heads, though I must continue to do it
while I slay among them. The letters from Sir William Johnson,
relating to the boundary, were at last found, and orders were sent over
about Christmas for completing the purchase and settlement of it.
My Lord Hillsborough has promised me to send duplicates by this
packet, and urge the speedy execution, as we represented to him the
danger that these dissatisfactions of the Indians might produce a
war. But I can tell you, there are many here, to whom the news of
such a war would give pleasure ; who speak of it as a thing to be
wished ; partly as a chastisement to the colonies, and partly to make
them feel the want of protection from this country, and pray for it.
For it is imagined, that we cOuld not possibly defend ourselves against
the Indians without such assistance ; so little is the state of America
understood here.

My Lord Hillsborough mentioned the “Farmer’s Letters” to me,
said he had read them, that they were well written, and he believed he
could guess who was the author, looking in my face at the same time,
as if he thought it was me. He censured the doctrines as extremely
wild. I have read them as far as No. 8. I know not if any more
have been published. I should have thought they had been written
by Mr. Delancey, not having heard any mention of the others you
point out as joint authors. I am not yet master of the idea these and
the New England writers have of the relation between Britain and
her colonies. I know not what the Boston people mean by the “ sub-BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

221

Ordination ” they acknowledge in their Assembly to Parliament, while
they deny its power to make laws for them, nor what bounds the
Farmer sets to the power he acknowledges in Parliament to “ regulate
the trade of the colonies.” it being difficult to draw lines between
duties for regulation and those for revenue ; and, if the Parliament is
to be the judge, it seems to me that establishing such principles of
distinction will amount to little.

The more I have thought and read on the subject, the more I find
myself confirmed in opinion, that no middle doctrine can be well
maintained, I mean not clearly with intelligible arguments. Some-
thing might be made of either of the extremes ; that Parliament has
a power to make all laws for us, or that it has a power to make no
Iukjs for us ; and I think the arguments for the latter more numerous
and weighty, than those for the former. Supposing that doctrine
established, the colonies would then be so many separate states, only
subject to the same king, as England and Scotland were before the
union. And then the question would be, whether a union like that
with Scotland would or would not be advantageous to the whole. I
should have no doubt of the affirmative, being fully persuaded that it
would be best for the whole, and that though particular parts might
find particular disadvantages in it, they would find greater advantages
in the security arising to every part from the increased strength of
the whole. But such union is not likely to take place, while the nature
of our present relation is so little understood on both side of the
water, and sentiments concerning it remain so widely different.

As to the Farmer’s combating, as you say they intend to do, my
opinion, that the Parliament might lay duties though not impose
internal taxes, I shall not give myself the trouble to defend it. Only
to you, I may say,, that not only the Parliament of Britain, but every
state in Europe, claims and exercises a right of laying duties on the
exportation of its own commodities to foreign countries. A duty is
paid here on coals exported to Holland, and yet England has no right
to lay an internal tax on Holland. All goods brought out of France
to England, or any other country, are charged with a small'duty in
France, which the consumers pay, and yet France has no right to
tax other countries. And in my opinion the grievance is not that
Britain puts duties upon her own manufactures exported to us, but
that she forbids us to buy the like manufactures from any other
country. This she does, however, in virtue of her allowed right to
regulate the commerce of the whole empire, allowed I mean by the
Farmer, though I think whoever would dispute that right might stand
upon firmer ground, and make much more of the argument; but my
reasons are too many and too long for a letter.

Mr. Grenville complained in the House, that the governors of New
Jersey, New Hampshire, East and West Florida, had none of them
obeyed the orders sent them, to give an account of the manufactures
carried on in their respective provinces. Upon hearing this, I went
after the House was up, and got a sight of the reports made by the
other governors. They are all much in the same strain, that there222

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

are no manufactures of any consequence ; in Massachusetts a little
coarse woollen only, made in families for their own wear ; glass and
linen have been tried and failed. Rhode Island, Connecticut, and
New York much the same. Pennsylvania has tried a linen manu-
factory, but it is dropped, it being imported cheaper; there is a glass-
house in Lancaster county, but it makes only a little coarse ware for
the country neighbours. Maryland is clothed all with English manu-
factures. Virginia the same, except that in their families they spin a
little cotton of their own growing. South Carolina and Georgia none.
All speak of the dearness of labour, that makes manufactures impracti-
cable. Only the governor of North Carolina parades with a large
manufacture in his country, that may be useful to Britain, of pine
boards: they having fifty sawmills on one river.

These accounts are very satisfactory here, and induce the Parlia-
ment to despise and take no notice of the Boston resolutions. I wish
you would send your account before the meeting of next Parliament.
You have only to report a glasshouse for coarse window glass and
bottles, and some domestic manufactures of linen and woollen for
family use, that do not half clothe the inhabitants, all the finer goods
coming from England and the like. ' I believe you will be puzzled to
find any other, though I see great puffs in the papers.

The Parliament is up, and the nation in a ferment with the new
elections. Great complaints are made that the natural interests of
country gentlemen in their neighbouring boroughs is overborne by the
moneyed interests of the new people, who have got sudden fortunes
in the Indies, or as contractors. Four thousand poimds is now the
market price for a borough. In short, this whole venal nation is now
at market, will be sold for about two millions, and might be bought
out of the hands of the present bidders (if he would offer half a
million more) by the very Devil himself.

I shall wait on Lord Hillsborough again next Wednesday, on behalf
of the sufferers by Indian and French depredations', to have an allow-
ance of lands out of any new grant made by the Indians, so long
solicited, and perhaps still to be solicited, in vain.

CHAPTER VII. (1768-1770.)

The Election to the New Parliament—The Wilkes Riots—Franklin's Temptations—
Named President of the American Philosophical Society—Early Marriages—
Sensitiveness of Old-Age—The Culture of Political Science—Peter Collinson
Paper Money—Smoky Chimneys—Food a Measure of Value—Advice to the
Colonists—The Shop-Keeping State—Non-Importation Pledge—The Craven
Street Gazette.

The old Parliament is gone, and its enemies now find
way,°dated ion- themselves at liberty to abuse it. I enclose you a pam-
don ’ 13 Harch, phlet, published the very hour of its prorogation. All
176®*	the members are now in their counties and boroughsBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.	223

among their drunken electors ; much confusion and disorder in many
places, and such profusion of money as never was known before on
any similar occasion. "The first instance of bribery to be chosen a
member, taken notice of on the journals, is no longer ago than Queen
Elizabeth’s time, when the being sent to Parliament was looked upon as
troublesome service, .and therefore not sought after. It is said that
such a one, “ being a simple man, and conceiving it might be of some
advantage to him, had given four pounds to the mayor and corpora-
tion, that they might choose him to serve them in Parliament.”

The price is monstrously risen since that time, for it is now no less
than four thousand pounds! It is thought, that near two millions
will be spent this election ; but those who understand figures and act
by computation, say the crown has two millions a year in places and
pensions to dispose of and, it is well worth while to engage in such a
seven years’ lottery, though all that have tickets should not get prizes.

Since my last, a long one, of March 13th, nothing has
Franklin dated keen talked or thought of here but elections. There
London, is April, have been amazing contests all over the kingdom, twenty
1768,	or thirty thousand pounds of a side spent in several

places, and inconceivable mischief done by debauching the people
and making them idle, besides the immediate actual mischief done by
drunken mad mob's to houses, windows, &c. The scenes have been
horrible. London was illuminated two nights running, at the com-
mand of the mob, for the success of Wilkes, in Middlesex election.
The second night exceeded anything of the kind ever seen here on
the greatest occasions of rejoicing, as even the small cross-streets,
lanes, courts, and other out-of-the-way places were all in a blaze with
lights, and the principal streets all night long, as the mobs went round
again after two o’clock, and obliged people who had extinguished their
candles to light them again. Those who refused had all their windows
destroyed. The damage done, and expense of candles, have been
computed at fifty thousand pounds. It must have been great, though
probably not so much.

The ferment is not yet over, for he has promised to surrender him-
self to the court next Wednesday, and another tumult is then expected ;
and what the upshot will be no one can yet foresee. It is really an
extraordinary event, to see an outlaw and an exile, of bad personal
character, not worth a farthing, come over from France, set himself
up as candidate for the capital of the kingdom, miss his election only
by being too late in his application, and immediately carrying it for
the principal county; the mob (spirited up by numbers of different
ballads sung or roared in every street) requiring gentlemen and ladies
of all ranks, as they passed in their carriages, to shout for Wilkes and
liberty, marking the same words on their coaches with chalk, and No.
451 on every door; which extends a vast way along the roads into

1 Wilkes was prosecuted for publishing a libel against the government in a paper
called the North Briton. Parliament ordered “ No. 45" of that paper, in which
the libel was contained, to be burnt by the hands of the common hangman.224

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

the country. I went last week to Winchester, and observed, that for
fifteen miles out of town there was scarce a door or window shutter next
the road unmarked ; and this continued, here and there, quite to
Winchester, w'hich is sixty-four miles.

To John Ross, I received your favour of Mfirch 13th, and am
dated London, 14 extremely concerned at the disorders on our frontiers,
May, 1768. and at the debility or wicked connivance of our govern-
ment and magistrates, which must make property and even life more
and more insecure among us, if some effectual remedy is not speedily
applied. I have laid all the accounts before the ministry here. I
wish I could procure more attention to them. I have urged over and
over the necessity of the change, we desire ; but this country itself
being at present in a situation very little better, weakens our argument
that a royal government would be better managed, and safer to live
under, than that of a proprietary. Even this capital, the residence of
the King, is now a daily scene of lawless riot and confusion. Mobs
patrolling the streets at noonday, some knocking all down that will
not roar for Wilkes and liberty ; courts of justice afraid to give judg-
ment against him ; coal-heavers and porters pulling down the houses
of coal merchants, that refuse to give them more wages ; sawyers
destroying sawmills; sailors unrigging all the outward bound ships,
and suffering none to sail till merchants agree to raise their pay ;
watermen destroying private boats and threatening bridges ; soldiers
firing among the mobs and killing men, women, and children, which
seems only to have produced a universal sullenness, that looks like a
black cloud coming on, ready to burst in a general tempest.

What the event will be, God only knows. But some punishment
seems preparing for a people who are ungratefully abusing the best
constitution, and the best King, any nation was ever blessed with,
intent on nothing but luxury, licentiousness, power, places, pensions,
and plunder ; while the ministry, divided in their counsels, with little
regard for each other, worried by perpetual oppositions, in continual
apprehension of changes, intent on securing popularity in case they
should lose favour, have for some years past had little time or inclina-
tion to attend to our small affairs, who?e remoteness makes them
appear still smaller.

The bishops here are very desirous of securing the Church of
England in America, and promoting its interests and enlargement by
sending one of their order thither ; but, though they have long solicited
this point with government here, they have not as yet been able to
obtain it; so apprehensive are ministers of engaging in any novel
measure.

To Joseph Gallo- I received your favour of March 31st. It is now, with
way, dated ion- the messages, in the hands of the minister, so that I
don, HMay 1768. cannot be more particular at present in answering it
than to say, I should have a melancholy prospect in going home to
such public confusion, if I did not leave greater confusion behind me.BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

225

The newspapers, and my letter of this day to Mr. Ross, will inform
you of the miserable situation this country is in. While I am writing,
a great mob of coal porters fills the street, carrying a wretch of their
business upon poles to be ducked, and otherwise punished at their
pleasure, for working at the old wages. All respect to law and
government seems to be lost among the common people, who are
moreover continually inflamed by seditious scribblers, to trample on
authority and everything that used to keep them in order.

The Parliament is now sitting, but will not continue long together,
nor undertake any material business. The court of King’s Ilench
postponed giving sentence against Wilkes on his outlawry till the next
term, intimidated, as some say, by his popularity, and willing to get
rid of the affair for a time, till it should be seen what the Parliament
would conclude as to his membership. The Common, at least some
of them, resent that conduct, which has thrown a burthen on them it
might have eased them of, by pillorying or punishing him in some
infamous manner, that would have given better ground for expelling
him the House. His friends complain of it as a delay of justice, say
the court knew the outlawry to be defective, and that they must finally
pronounce it void, but would punish him by long confinement. Great
mobs of his adherents have assembled before the prison, the guards
have fired on them ; it is said five or six are killed, and sixteen or
seventeen wounded ; and some circumstances have attended this
military execution, such as it being done by the Scotch regiment, the
pursuing a lad, and killing him at his father’s house, &c., &c., that
exasperate people exceedingly, and more mischief seems brewing.
Several of the soldiers are imprisoned. If they are not hanged, it is
feared there will be more and greater mobs ; and, if they are, that no
soldier will assist in suppressing any mob hereafter. The prospect
either way is gloomy. It is said the English soldiers cannot be con-
fided in, to act against these mobs, being suspected as rather inclined
to favour and join them.

I am preparing for my return, and hope for the pleasure of finding
you well, when I shall have an opportunity of communicating to you
more particularly the state of things here relating to our American
affairs, which I cannot so well do by letter.

T William Since my last, I have received yours of May 10th,
Franklin, dated dated at Amboy, which I shall answer particularly by
London, 2 July, next week's packet. I purpose now to take notice of that
1768,	part, wherein you say it was reported at Philadelphia I

was to be appointed to a certain office here, which my friends all wished,
but you did not believe it for the reason I had mentioned. Instead of
my being appointed to a new office, there has been a motion made to
deprive me of that 1 now hold,1 and, I believe, for the same reason,
though that was not the reason given out, viz., my being too much of
an American; but as it came from Lord Sandwich, our new post-
master-general, who is of the Bedford party, and a friend of Mr.

1 Deputy Postmaster-General in America.
x6226

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

Grenville, I have no doubt that the reason he gave out, viz., my non-
residence, was only the pretence, and that tli2 other was the true
reason ; especially as it is the practice in many other instances to
allow the non-residence of American officers, who spend their salaries
here, provided care is taken that the business be done by deputy or
otherwise.

The first notice I had of this was from my fast friend Mr. Cooper,
secretary of the treasury. He desired me, by a little note, to call
upon him there, which I did ; when he told me, that the Duke of
Grafton had mentioned to him some discourse of Lord Sandwich’s, as
if the office suffered by my absence, and that it would be fit to appoint
another, as I seemed constantly to reside in England; that Mr. Todd,
secretary of the postoffice, had also been with the Duke, talking to
the same purpose, &c. ; that the Duke had wished him (Mr. Cooper)
to mention this to me, and to say to me, at the same time, that, though
my going to my post might remove the objection, yet if I chose rather
to reside in England, my merit was such in his opinion, as to entitle
me to something better here, and it should not be his fault if I was
not well provided for. I told Mr. Cooper, that, without having heard
any exception had been taken to my residence here, I was really pre-
paring to return home, and expected to be gone in a few weeks ; that,
however, I was extremely sensible of the Duke’s goodness, in giving
me this intimation, and very thankful for his favourable disposition
towards me ; that, having lived long in England, and contracted a
friendship and affection for many persons here, it could not but be
agreeable to me to remain among them some time longer, if not for
the rest of my life j and that there was no nobleman, to whom I could,
from sincere respect for his great abilities and amiable qualities, so
cordially attach myself, or to whom I should so willingly be obliged
for the provision he mentioned, as to the Duke of Grafton, if his
Grace should think I could, in any station where he might place me,
be serviceable to him and to the public.

Mr. Cooper said, he was very glad to hear I was still willing to
remain in England, as it agreed so perfectly with his inclinations to
keep me here ; wished me to leave my name at the Duke of Grafton’s
as soon as possible, and to be at the treasury again the next board
day. I accordingly called at the Duke’s, and left my card ; and when
I went next to the treasury, his grace not being there, Mr. Cooper
carried me to Lord North, chancellor of the exchequer, who said very
obligingly, after talking of some American affairs, “ I am told by Mr.
Cooper, that you are not unwilling to stay with us. I hope we shall
find some way of making it worth your while.” I thanked his Lord-
ship, and said I should stay with pleasure, if I could any ways be
useful to government. He made me a compliment, and I took my
leave, Mr. Cooper carrying me away with him to his country-house at
Richmond to dine and stay all night.

He then told me, that Mr. Todd had been again at the Duke of
Grafton’s, and that, upon his (Mr. Cooper’s) speaking in my behalf,
Mr. Todd had changed his style, and said I had, to be sure, a greatBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

227

deal of merit with the office, having by my good management regu-
lated the posts in America, so as greatly to increase the revenue ;
that he had had great satisfaction in corresponding with me while I
was there, and he believed they never had a better officer, &c. The
Thursday following, being the birthday, I met with Mr. Todd at
court. He was very civil, took me with him in his coach to the
King’s Arms in the city, where I had been invited to dine by Mr.
Trevor, with the gentlemen of the postoffice; we had a good deal of
chat after dinner between us two, in which he told me, Lord Sand-
wich (who was very sharp) had taken notice of my stay in England,
and said, If one could do the business, why should there be tzvo ? On
my telling Mr. Todd that I was going home, (which I still say to
everybody, not knowing but that what is intimated above may fail of
taking effect), he looked blank, and seemed disconcerted a little,
which makes me think some friend of his was to have been vested
with my place ; but this is surmise only. We parted very good friends.

That day I received another note from Mr. Cooper, directing me to
be at the Duke of Grafton’s next morning, whose porter had orders to
let me in. I went accordingly, and was immediately admitted. But
his grace being then engaged in some unexpected business, with much
condescension and politeness made that apology for his not discoursing
with me then, but wished me to be at the treasury at twelve the next
Tuesday. I went accordingly, when Mr. Cooper told me something
had called the Duke into the country, and the board was put off,
which was not known till it was too late to send me word ; but was
glad I was come, as he might then fix another day for me to go again
with him into the country. The day fixed was Thursday. I returned
yesterday ; should have stayed till Monday, but for writing by these
vessels. He assures me the Duke has it at heart to do something
handsome for me. Sir John Pringle, who is anxious for my stay, says
Mr. Cooper is the honestest man of a courtier that he ever knew, and
he is persuaded they are in earnest to keep me.

The piece I wrote against smuggling, in the Chronicle of November
last, and one in April, on the Labouring Poor, which you will find in
the Gentleman!s Magazine for that month, have been lately shown by
Mr. Cooper to the chancellor of the exchequer, and to the Duke, who
have expressed themselves much pleased with them. I am to be
again at the treasury on Tuesday next, by appointment of Mr. Cooper.
Thus particular I have been, that you may judge of this affair.

For my own thoughts, I must tell you, that, though I did not think
fit to decline any favour so great a man expressed an inclination to do
me, because at court, if one shows an unwillingness to be obliged, it
is often construed as a mark of mental hostility, and one makes an
enemy; yet, so great is my inclination to be at home and at rest, that
I shall not be sorry, if this business falls through, and I am suffered
to retire with my old post; nor indeed very sorry, if they take that
from me too on account of my zeal for America, in which some of my
friends have hinted to me that I have been too open. I shall soon be
able, I hope, by the next packet, to give you farther light. In the2:8

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

meantime, as no one but Sir John knows of the treaty, I talk daily of
going in the August packet at farthest. And when the late Georgia
appointment of me to be their agent is mentioned, as what may
detain me, I say, I have yet received no letters from that Assembly,
acquainting me what their business may be ; that I shall probably
hear from them before that packet sails ; that, if it is extraordinary
and of such a nature as to make my stay another winter necessary, I
may possibly stay, because there would not be time for them to choose
another ; but, if it is common business, I shall leave it with Mr. Jack-
son and proceed.

I do not, by the way, know how that appointment came about,
having no acquaintance that I can recollect in that country. It has
been mentioned in the papers some time, but I have only just now
received a letter from Governor Wright, informing me that he had
that day given his assent to it, and expressing his desire to correspond
with me on all occasions, saying the Committee, as soon as they could
get their papers ready, would write to me and acquaint me with their
business.1

We have lost Lord Clare from the Board of Trade. He took me
home from court the Sunday before his removal, that I might dine
with him, as he said, alone, and talk over American affairs. He
seemed as attentive to them, as if he was to continue ever so long.
He gave me a great deal of flummery ; saying, that, though at my
Examination I answered some of his questions a little pertly, yet he
liked me from that day, for the spirit I showed in defence of my
country ; and at parting, after we had drunk a bottle and a half
of claret each, he hugged and kissed me, protesting he never in his
life met with a man he was so much in love with. This I write for
your amusement. You see by the nature of this whole letter, that it
is to yourself only. It may serve to prepare your mind for any event
that shall happen.

If Mr. Grenville comes into power again, in any department re-
specting America, I must refuse to accept of anything that may seem
to put me in his power, because I apprehend a breach between the
two countries ; and that refusal might give offence. So that, you see,
a turn of a die may make a great difference in our affairs. We may
be either promoted, or discarded ; one or the other seems likely soon
to be the case, but it is hard to divine which. I am myself grown sc*
old as to feel much less than formerly the spur of ambition ; and, if it
were not for the flattering expectation, that by being fixed here I
might more effectually serve my country, I should certainly determine
for retirement, without a moment’s hesitation.

To Joseph Gallo- Since my last, nothing material has occurred here;
way, dated Lon- relating to American affairs, except the removal of Lord
don, 2 July, 1768, Clare from the head of the Board of Trade to the treasury

1 Dr. Franklin was appointed Agent for Georgia, with a salary of one hundred,
pounds a year, by an ordinance of the Assembly, dated April nth, 1768. The
appointment was annually renewed while he remained in England. The salary
was .subsequently enlarged to two hundred pounds a year,	{BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

229

of Ireland, and the return of Lord Hillsborough to the Board of Trade
as first commissioner, retaining the title and powers of secretary of
state for the colonies. This change was very sudden and unexpected.
My Lord Clare took me home from court to dine with him but two
days before, saying he should be without other company, and wanted
to talk with me on sundry American businesses. We had accordingly
a good deal of conversation on our affairs, in which he seemed to
interest himself with all the attention, that could be supposed in a
minister, who expected to continue in the management of them. This
was on Sunday, and on the Tuesday following he was removed.
Whether my Lord Hillsborough’s administration will be more stable,
than others have been for a long time, is quite uncertain ; but as his
inclinations are rather favourable towards us (so far as he thinks con-
sistent with what he supposes the unquestionable rights of Britain),
I cannot but wish it may continue, especially as these perpetual muta-
tions prevent the progress of all business.

But another change is now talked of, that gives me great uneasi-
ness. Several of the Bedford party being now got in, it has been
for some time apprehended, that they would sooner or later draw
their friend Mr. Grenville in after them. It is now said, he is to be
secretary of state, in the room of Lord Shelburne. If this should
take place, or if in any other shape he comes again into power, I fear
his sentiments of the Americans, and theirs of him, will occasion
such clashings as may be attended with fatal consequences. The
last accounts from your part of the world, of the combinations re-
lating to commerce with this country, and resolutions concerning the
duties here laid upon it, occasion much serious reflection ; and it is
thought the points in dispute between the two countries will not fail
to come under the consideration of Parliament early in next gession.
Our friends wonder, that I persist in my intention of returning this
summer, alleging that I might be of much more service to my country
here, than I can be there, and wishing me by all means to stay the
ensuing winter, as the presence of persons well acquainted with
America, and of ability to represent these affairs in a proper light,
will then be highly necessary. My private concerns, however, so
much require my presence at home, that I have not yet suffered
myself to be persuaded by their partial opinion of me.

The tumults and disorders, that prevailed here, lately, have now
pretty well subsided. Wilkes’s outlawry is reversed, but he is sen-
tenced to twenty-two months’ imprisonment, and one thousand pounds
fine, which his friends, who feared he would be pilloried, seem rather
satisfied with. The importation of corn, a pretty good hay harvest,
now near over, and the prospect of plenty from a fine crop of wheat,
make the poor more patient, in hopes of an abatement in the price of
provisions ; so that, unless want of employment by the failure of Ameri-
can orders should distress them, they are like to be tolerably quiet.

To John Alleyne,	You desire, you say, my impartial thoughts on the

dated Craven st., subject of an early marriage, by way of answer to the
8, August, 1768. numberless objections that have been made by numerous230

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

persons to your own. You may remember, when you consulted me
on the occasion, that I thought youth on both sides to be no objec-
tion. Indeed, from the marriages that have fallen under my obser-
vation, I am rather inclined to think, that early ones stand the best
chance of happiness. The temper and habits of the young are not
become so stiff and uncomplying, as when more advanced in life ;
they form more easily to each other, and hence many occasions of
disgust are removed. And, if youth has less of that prudence, which
is necessary to manage a family, yet the parents and elder friends of
young married persons are generally at hand to afford their advice,
which amply supplies that defect ; and, by early marriage, youth is
sooner formed to regular and useful life ; and possibly some of those
accidents or connections, that might have injured the constitution, or
reputation, or both, are thereby happily prevented.

Particular circumstances of particular persons may possibly some-
times make it prudent to delay entering into that state ; but in
general, when nature has rendered our bodies fit for it, the pre-
sumption is in nature’s favour, that she has not judged amiss in
making us desire it. Late marriages are often attended, too, with
this further inconvenience, that there is not the same chance that the
parents will live to see their offspring educated. “Late children,”
says the Spanish proverb, “ are early orphans.” A melancholy re-
flection to those, whose case it may be ! With us in America, marriages
are generally in the morning of life ; our children are therefore edu-
cated and settle'd in the world by noon ; and thus, our business being
done, we have an afternoon and evening of cheerful leisure to our-
selves ; such as our friend at present enjoys. By these early marriages
we are blessed with more children ; and from the mode among us,
founded by nature, every mother suckling and nursing her own child,
more of them are raised. Thence the swift progress of population
among us, unparalleled in Europe.

In fine, I am glad you are married, and congratulate you most
cordially upon it. You are now in the way of becoming a useful
citizen ; and you have escaped the unnatural state of celibacy for life,
the fate of many here, who never intended it, but who, having too long
postponed the change of their condition, find at length, that it is too
late to think of it, and so live all their lives in a situation that greatly
lessens a man’s value. An odd volume of a set of books bears not the
value of its proportion to the set. What think you of the odd half
of a pair of scissors? It cannot well cut anything; it may possibly
serve to scrape a trencher.

Pray make my compliments and best wishes acceptable to your
bride. I am old and heavy, or I should ere this have presented them
in person. I shall make but small use of the old man’s privilege, that
of giving advice to younger friends. Treat your wife always with
respect; it will procure respect to' you, not only from her, but from
all that observe it. Never use a slighting expression to her, even in
jest, for slights in jest, after frequent bandyings, are apt to end in
angry earnest. Be studious in your profession, and you will beBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

231

learned. Be industrious and frugal, and you will be rich. Be sober
and temperate, and you will be healthy. Be in general virtuous, and
you will be happy. At least, you will, by such conduct, stand the best
chance for such consequences. I pray God to bless you both ; being
ever your affectionate friend.

To Hiss Mary * see very clearty the unhappiness of your situation,
Stevenson, dated and that it does not arise from any fault in you. I pity
J,“doni 0ct,i you most sincerely. I should not, however, have thought
’	of giving you advice on this occasion, if you had not re-

quested it, believing, as I do, that your own good sense-is more than
sufficient to direct you in every point of duty to others and yourself.
If, then, I should advise you to anything, that may be contrary to
your own opinion, do not imagine, that I shall condemn you if you
do not follow such advice. I shall only think, that, from a better
acquaintance with circumstances, you form a better judgment of what
is fit for you to do.

Now, I conceive with you, that---, both from her affection to you,

and from the long habit of having you with her, would really be miser-
able without you. Her temper, perhaps, was never of the best; and,
when that is the case, age seldom mends it. Much of her unhappi-
ness must arise from thence ; and, since wrong turns of mind, when
confirmed by time, are almost as little in our power to cure, as those
of the body, I think with you, that her case is a compassionable one.

If she had, through her own imprudence, brought on herself any
grievous sickness, I know you would think it your duty to attend
and nurse her with filial tenderness, even were your own health to be
endangered by it, Your apprehension, therefore, is right, that it may
be your duty to live with her, though inconsistent with your happiness
and your interest ; but this can only mean present interest and pre-
sent happiness; for I think your future, greater, and more lasting
interest and happiness will arise from the reflection, that you have
done your duty, and from the high rank you will ever hold in the
esteem of all that know you, for having persevered in doing that duty
under so many and great discouragements.

My advice, then, must be, that you return to her as soon as the
time proposed for your visit is expired ; and that you continue, by
every means in your power, to make the remainder of her days as
comfortable to her as possible. Invent amusements for her; be
pleased when she accepts of them, and patient when she perhaps
peevishly rejects them. I know this is hard, but I think you are
equal to it; not from any servility of temper, but from abundant good-
ness. In the meantime, all your friends, sensible of your present
uncomfortable situation, should endeavour to ease your burden, by
acting in concert with you, and to give her as many opportunities as
possible of enjoying the pleasures of society, for your sake.

Nothing is more apt to sour the temper of aged people, than the
apprehension that they are neglected : and they are extremely apt to
entertain such suspicions, It was therefore that I proposed asking herLIFE AND LETTERS OF

232

to be of our late party ; but, your mother disliking it, the motion wa9
dropped, as some others have been, but my too great easiness, contrary
to my judgment. Not but that I was sensible her being with us might
have lessened our pleasure, but I hoped it might have prevented you
some pain.

In fine, nothing can contribute to true happiness, that is incon-
sistent with duty ; nor can a course of action conformable to it, be
finally without an ample reward. For God governs ; and he is good.
1 pray him to direct you ; and, indeed, you will never be without his
direction if you humbly ask it, and show yourself always ready to
obey it. Farewell, my dear friend, and believe me ever sincerely and
affectionately yours.

To a friend, Your sentiments of the importance of the present
dated London! dispute between Great Britain and the colonies appear
28 Nov., 1768. t0 me extremely just. There is nothing I wish for more,
than to see it amicably and equitably settled.

But Providence will bring about its own ends by its own means ;
and if it intends the downfall of a nation, that nation will be so
blinded by its pride and other passions, as not to see its danger, or
how its fall may be prevented.

Being born and bred in one of the countries, and having lived long
and made many agreeable connections of friendship in the other, I
wish all prosperity to both ; but I have talked and written so much
and so long on the subject, that my acquaintance are weary of hearing,
and the public of reading any more of it, which begins to make me
weary of talking and writing ; especially as I do not find that I have
gained any point, in either country, except that of rendering myself
suspected by my impartiality; in England, of being too much an
American, and in America of being too much an Englishman.
Your opinion, however, weighs with me, and encourages me to try one
effort more, in a full, though concise statement of facts, accompanied
with arguments drawn from those facts; to be published about the
meeting of Parliament, after the holidays. If any good may be done
I shall rejoice ; but at present I almost despair.

Have you ever seen the barometer so low as of late? The 22nd
instant, mine was at 28.41, and yet the weather fine and fair.

To hia -wife Captain Falconer has been arrived at Plymouth some
dated London, 2! time, but, the winds being contrary, could get no farther ;
Dec,, 1768, s0 j have not yet received the apples, meal, &c., and
fear they will be spoiled. I send with this some of the new kind of oats
•much admired here to make oatmeal of, and for other uses, as being
free from husks ; and some Swiss barley, six rows to an ear. Perhaps
our friends may like to try them, and you may distribute the seed
among them. Give some to Mr. Roberts, Mr. Rhoads, Mr. Thomson,
Mr. Bartram, our son, and others.

I hope the cold you complain of, in two of your letters, went off
without any ill consequences. We are, as you observe, blest with aBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

233

great share of health, considering our years, now sixty-three. For
my own part, I think -of late that my constitution rather mends. I
have had but one touch of the'gout, and that a light one, since I left
you. It was just after my arrival here, so that this is the fourth winter
I have been free. Walking a great deal tires me less than it used to
do. I feel stronger and more active. Yet I would not have you think,
that I fancy I shall grow young again. I know that men of my bulk
often fail suddenly. I know that, according to the course of nature,
I cannot at most continue much longer, and that the living even of
another day is uncertain. I therefore now form no schemes, but
such as are of immediate execution, indulging myself in no future
prospect except one, that of returning to Philadelphia, there to spend
the evening of life with my friends and family.

To Michael Col- Understanding that an account of our dear departed
linson. [Date friend, Mr. Peter Collinson,1 is intended to be given to
uncertain.] the public, I cannot omit expressing my approbation
of the design. The characters of good men are exemplary, and often
stimulate the well disposed to an imitation, beneficial to mankind, and
honourable to themselves. And as you may be unacquainted with the
following instances of his zeal and usefulness in promoting knowledge,
which fell within my observation, I take the liberty of informing you,
that in 1730, a subscription library being set on foot at Philadelphia,
he encouraged the design by making several very valuable presents to
it, and procuring others from his friends ; and, as the library company
had a considerable sum arising annually to be laid out in books, and
needed a judicious friend in London to transact the business for them,
he voluntarily and cheerfully undertook that service, and executed it
for more than thirty years successively, assisting in the choice of
books, and taking the whole care of collecting and shipping them,
without ever charging or accepting any consideration for his trouble.
The success of this library (greatly owing to his kind countenance and
good advice) encouraged the erecting others in different places on
the same plan ; and it is supposed there are now upwards of thirty
subsisting in the several colonies, which have contributed greatly to
the spreading of useful knowledge in that part of the world ; the
books he recommended being all of that kind, and the catalogue of
this first library bejng much respected and followed by those libraries
that succeeded.

During the same time he transmitted to the directors of the library
the earliest accounts of every new European improvement in agricul-
ture and the arts, and every philsophical discovery ; among which, in
1745, he sent over an account of the new German experiments in
electricity, together with a glass tube, and some directions for using
it, so as to repeat those experiments. This was the first notice I had
£>f that curious subject, which I afterwards prosecuted with some dili-
gence, being encouraged by the friendly reception he gave to the

Peter Collinson, a notable botanist.234

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

letters I wrote to him upon it. Please to accept this small testimony
of mine to his memory, for which I shall ever have the utmost
respect.

To Lord Kames, 1. am Slad t0 find You ai'e turning your thoughts to
dated London, i political subjects, and particularly to those of money,
January, 176». taxes, manufactures, and commerce. The world is yet
much in the dark on these important points ; and many mischievous
mistakes are continually made in the management of them. Most of
our acts of Parliament for regulating them are, in my opinion, little
better than political blunders, owing to ignorance of the science, or
to the designs of crafty men, who mislead the legislature, proposing
something under the specious appearance of public good, while the
real aim is to sacrifice that to their own private interest. I hope a
good deal of light may be thrown on these subjects by your sagacity
and acuteness. I only wish I could first have engaged you in discus-
sing the weighty points in dispute between Britain and the colonies.
But the long letter I wrote you for that purpose, in February or March,
1767, perhaps never reached your hand, for I have not yet had a word
from you in answer to it.

The act you inquire about had its rise thus. During the war, Vir-
ginia, issued great sums of paper money for the payment of their
troops, to be sunk in a number of years by taxes. The British mer-
chants trading thither received these bills in payment for their goods,
purchasing tobacco with them to send home. The crop of tobacco
one or two years falling short, the factors, who were desirous of
making a speedy remittance, sought to pay, with the paper money,
bills of exchange. The number of bidders for these bills raised the
price of them thirty per cent above par. This was deemed so much
loss to the purchasers, and supposed to arise from a depreciation of
the paper money. The merchants, on this supposition, founded a
complaint against that currency to the Board of Trade. Lord Hills-
borough, then at the head of that Board, took up the matter strongly,
and drew a report, which was presented to the King in Council,
against all paper currency in the colonies. And, though there was no
complaint against it from any merchants, but those trading to Virginia,
all those trading to the other colonies "being satisfied with its opera-
tion, yet the ministry proposed, and the Parliament came into the
making a general act, forbidding all future emissions of pa'per money,
that should be a legal tender in any colony whatever.

The Virginia merchants have since had the mortification to find, that,
if they had kept the paper money a year or two, the above-mentioned
loss would have been avoided ; for, as soon as tobacco became more
plenty, and of course bills of exchange also, the exchange fell as much
as it before had risen. I was in America when the act passed. On
my return to England, I got the merchants trading to New York,
Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, &c., to meet, to consider and join
in an application to have the restraining act repealed. To prevent
this application, a copy was put into the merchants’ hands of LordBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

2S5

Hillsborough’s report, by which it was supposed they might be con-
vinced that such an application would be wrong. They desired my
sentiments on it, which I gave in the paper I send you enclosed. I
have no copy by me of the report itself; but in my answer you will
see a faithful abridgment of all the arguments or reasons it contained.
Lord Hillsborough has read my answer, but says he is not convinced
by it, and adheres to his former opinion. We know nothing can be
done in Parliament, that the minister is absolutely against, and there-
fore we let that point rest for the present. And, as I think a scarcity
of money will work with our other present motives for lessening our
fond extravagance in the use of the superfluous manufactures of this
country, which unkindly grudges us the enjoyment of common rights,
and will tend to lead us naturally into industry and frugality, I am
grown more indifferent about the repeal of the act, and, if my country-
men will be advised by me, we shall never ask it again.

There is not, as I conceive, any new principle wanting, to account
for the operations of air, and all the affections of smoke in rooms and
chimneys ; but it is difficult to advise in particular cases at a distance,
where one cannot have all the circumstances under view. If two
rooms and chimneys are “perfectly similiar” in situation, dimension,
and all other circumstances, it seems not possible, that, “in summer,
when no fire had been in either of them for some months, and in a
calm day, a current of air should at the same time go up the chimney
of the one, and down the chimney of the other.” But such difference
may and often does take place, from circumstances in which they are
dissimilar, and which dissimilarity is not very obvious to those who
have little studied the subject. As to your particular case, which you
describe to be, that, “ after a whole day’s fire, which must greatly heat
the vent, yet, when the fire becomes low, so as not to emit any smoke,
neighbour smoke immediately begins to descend and fill the room ; ”
this, if not owing to particular winds, may be occasioned by a stronger
fire in another room, communicating with yours by a door, the outer
air being excluded by the outward door’s being shut, whereby the
stronger fire finds it easier to be supplied with air down through the
vent, in which the weak fire is, and thence through the communicating
door, than through the crevices. If this is the circumstance, you will
find that a supply of air is only wanting, that may be sufficient for
both vents. If this is not the circumstance, send me, if you please, a
complete description of your room, its situation, and connection, and
possibly I may form a better judgment. Though I imagine your Pro-
fessor of Natural Philosophy, Mr. Russel, or Mr. George Clark, may
give you as good advice on the subject as I can. But I shall take
the liberty of sending you, by the first convenient opportunity, a col-
lection of my philosophical papers lately published, in which you will
find something more relating to the motions of air in chimneys.

To commence a conversation with you on your new project, I have
thrown some of my present sentiments into the concise form of aphor-
isms, to be examined between us, if you please, and rejected or corrected
and confirmed, as we shall find most proper. I send them inclosed.236

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

To the same, I received your excellent paper on the preferable use
dated London) of oxen in agriculture, and have put it in the way of
21 Feb., 1769. being communicated to the public here. I have ob-
served in America, that the farmers are more thriving in those parts
of the country where horned cattle are used, than in those where the
labour is done by horses. The latter are said to require twice the
quantity of land to maintain them; and after all are not good to eat,
at least we do not think them so. Here is a waste of land that might
afford subsistence for so many of the human species. Perhaps it was
for this reason, that the Hebrew lawgiver, having promised that the
children of Israel should be as numerous as the sands of the sea, not
only took care to secure the health of individuals by regulating their
diet, that they might be fitter for producing children, but also forbade
their using horses, as those animals would lessen the quantity of sub-
sistence for men. Thus we find, when they took any horses from
their enemies, they destroyed them; and in the commandments,
where the labour of the ox and ass is mentioned, and forbidden on
the Sabbath, there is no mention of the horse, probably because they
were to have none. And, by the great armies suddenly raised in that
small territory they inhabited, it appears to have been very full of people.

Food is always necessary to all, and much the greatest part of the
labour of mankind is employed in raising provisions for the mouth.
Is not this kind of labour, then, the fittest to be the standard by
which to measure the values of all other labour, and consequently
of all other things whose value depends on the labour of making or
procuring them ? May not even gold jfnd silver be thus valued? If
the labour of the farmer, in producing a bushel of wheat, be equal to
the labour of the miner in producing an ounce of silver, will not the
bushel of wheat just measure the value of the ounce of silver? The
miner must eat; the farmer indeed can live without the ounce of
silver, and so perhaps will have some advantage in settling the price.
But these discussions I leave to you, as being more able to manage
them ; only, I will send you a little scrap I wrote some time since on
the laws prohibiting foreign commodities.

I congratulate you on your election as president of your Edinburgh
Society. I think I formerly took notice to you in conversation, that
I thought there had been some similarity in our fortunes, and the
circumstances of our lives. This is a fresh instance, for, by letters
just received, I find that I was about the same time chosen president
of our American Philosophical Society, established at Philadelphia.

I have sent by sea, to the care of Mr. Alexander, a little box,
containing a few copies of the late edition of my books, for my
friends in Scotland. One is directed for you, and one for your
Society, which I beg that you and they would accept as a small mark
of my respect.

To Samuel The Parliament remain fixed in their resolution not to
Cooper, dated repeal the duty acts this session, and will rise next
London, 27 April, Tuesday. I hope my country folks will remain as fixed
1769,	in their resolutions of industry and frugality, till theseBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

2 V

acts are repealed. And, if I could be sure of that, I should almost
wish them never to be repealed ; being persuaded, that we shall reap
more solid and extensive advantages from the steady practice of those
two great virtues, than we can possibly suffer damage from all the
duties the Parliament of this kingdom can levy on us. They flatter
themselves you cannot long subsist without their manufactures. They
believe you have not virtue enough to persist in such agreements.
They imagine the colonies will differ among themselves, deceive and
desert one another, and quietly one after the other submit to the
yoke, and return to the use of British fineries. They think, that,
though the men may be contented with homespun stuffs, the women
will never get the better of their vanity and fondness for English
modes and gewgaws. The ministerial people all talk in this strain,
and many even of the merchants. I have ventured to assert, that
they will all find themselves mistaken ; and I rely so much on the
spirit of my country, as to be confident I shall not be found a false
prophet, though at present not believed.

I hope nothing that has happened, or may happen, will diminish
in the least our loyalty to our Sovereign, or affection for this nation
in general. I can scarcely conceive a King of better dispositions, of
more exemplary virtues, or more truly desirous of promoting the
welfare of all his subjects. The experience we have had of the
family in the two preceding mild reigns, and the good temper of our
young princes, so far as can yet be discovered, promise us a con-
tinuance of this felicity. The body of this people, too, is of a noble
and generous nature, loving and honouring the spirit of liberty, and
hating arbitrary power of all sorts. We have many, very many,
friends among them.

But, as to the Parliament, though I might excuse that which made
the acts, as being surprised and misled into the measure, I know not
how to excuse this, which, under the fullest conviction of its being a
wrong one, resolves to continue it. It is decent, indeed, in your
public papers to speak as you do of the “ wisdom and the justice of
Parliamentbut now that the subject is more thoroughly under-
stood, if this new Parliament had been really wise, it would not have
refused even to receive a petition against the acts ; and, if it had
been just, it would have repealed them, and refunded the money.
Perhaps it may be wiser and juster another year, but that is not to be
depended on.

If, under all the insults and oppressions you are now exposed to,
you can prudently, as you have lately done, continue quiet, avoiding
tumults, but still resolutely keeping up your claims and asserting your
rights, you will finally establish them, and this military cloud that now
blusters over you will pass away, and do no more harm than a summer
thunder shower. But the advantages of your perseverance in industry
and frugality will be great and permanent. Your debts will be paid,
your farms will be better improved, and yield a greater produce ; your
real wealth will increase in a plenty t»f every useful home production,
and all the true enjoyments of life, even though no foreign trade238

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

should be allowed you ; and this handicraft, shop-keeping state, will,
for its own sake, learn to behave more civilly to its customers.

Your late governor, Mr. Pownall, appears a hearty friend to
America. He moved last week for a repeal of the acts, and was
seconded by General Conway, Sir George Saville, Mr. Jackson, Mr.
Trecothick, and others, but did not succeed. A friend has favoured
me with a copy of the notes taken of Mr. Pownall’s speech, which I
send you, believing it will be agreeable to you and some other of our
friends to see them. You will observe in some parts of it the
language a member of Parliament is obliged to hold, on American
topics, if he would at all be heard in the House. He has given
notice, that he will renew the motion at the next and every session.
All Ireland is strongly in favour of the American cause. They have
reason to sympathize with us. I send you four pamphlets written in
Ireland, or by Irish gentlemen here, in which you will find some
excellent well-said things.

To Mrs Jane Mrs. Stevenson has executed your order, and sends
Mecom, dated the things in a bandbox directed to you. A new-
London, 27April, fashioned something, that was not ready when the box
7 '	was packed up, is enclosed in her letter.

I am now grown too old to be ambitious of such a station, as that
which you say has been mentioned to you. Repose is more fit for
me, and much more suitable to my wishes. There is no danger of
such a thing being offered to me, and I am sure I shall never ask it.
But even if it were offered, I certainly could not accept it, to act
under such instructions as I know miftt be given with it. So you
may be quite easy on that head.1

To Mrs Jane As to t^ie rePorts You mention, that are spread to my
Mecom, dated disadvantage, I give myself as little concern about them
London, Maioli as possible. I have often met with such treatment from
l, 1766.	people, that I was all the while endeavouring to serve. At

other times I have been extolled extravagantly, where I had little or no
merit. These are the operations of nature. It sometimes is cloudy, it
rains, it hails; again it is dear and pleasant, and the sun shines on us.
Take one thing with another, and the world is a pretty good sort of a
world, and it is our duty to make the best of it, and be thankful.
One’s true happiness depends more upon one’s own judgment of one’s
self, or a consciousness of rectitude in action and intention, and the
approbation of those few, who judge impartially, than upon the
applause of the unthinking, undiscerning multitude, who are apt to
cry Hosanna to-day, and to-morrow, Crucify him.

To Mias Mary Agreeably to your orders, delivered to me very
TwTsdayD’mom- punctually by Temple, I return you enclosed Voltaire’s
in^ 27 June, verses. The translation I think full as good as the
17®9,	original. Remember that I am to have them again.

I take this opportunity to send you, also, a late paper, containing

1 Dr. Franklin’s enemies reported that he was disposed to accept a place under
the British government.BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

239

a melancholy account of the distresses of some seamen. You will
observe in it the advantages they received from wearing their clothes
constantly wet with salt water, under the total want of fresh water to
drink. You may remember I recommended this practice many years
ago. Do you know Dr. Len, and did you communicate it to him ? I
fancy his name is wrong spelt in this paper, and that it should be Lind,
having seen in the Review some extracts from a book on sea-diseases,
published within these two or three years, by one Dr. Lind ; but I have
not seen the book, and know not whether such a passage be in it.

I need not point out to you an observation in favour of our doctrine,
that you will make on reading this paper, that, kavitig little to eat,
these poor people in wet clothes day and night caught no cold.

My respects to your aunt, and love to all that love you.

To John Bax- It is £reat pleasure I understand by your favour
tram, dated of April ioth,that you continue to enjoy so good a share
London, 9 July, of health. I hope it will long continue. And, although
7 ’	it may not now be suitable for you to make such wide

excursions as heretofore, you may yet be very useful to your country
and to mankind, if you sit down quietly at home, digest the know-
ledge you have acquired, and compile and publish the many obser-
vations you have made, and point out the advantages that may be
drawn from the whole, in public undertakings or particular private
practice. It is true, many people are fond of accounts of old build-
ings, and monuments ; but there is a number, who would be much
better pleased with such accounts as you could afford them. And, for
one, I confess, that if I could find in any Italian travels a receipt for
making Parmesan cheese, it would give me more satisfaction than
a transcript of any inscription from any old stone whatever.

I suppose Mr. Michael Collinson, or Dr. Fothergill, has written to
you what may be necessary for your information relating to your affairs
here. I imagine there is no doubt but the King’s bounty to you will be
continued ; and that it will be proper for you to cpntinue sending now
and then a few such curious seeds, as you can procure, to keep up
your claim. And now I mention seeds, I wish you would send me a
few of such as are least common, to the value of a guinea, which Mr.
Foxcroft will pay you for me. They are for a particular friend, who is
very curious. If in any thing I can serve you here, command freely.
To Mary Just come home from a venison feast, where I have
Stevenson, dated drunk more than a philosopher ought, I find my dear
Saturtor even. Polly’s cheerful, chatty letter, that exhilarates me more
than allthewtae.‘

1 The letter referred to in the text will be found to contain the first intimation
of an attachment to Mr. Hewson, which matured into matrimony the following
year. It ran as follows :

From Miss Welcome to England ! my dear, my honoured friend. Just as
Haxy Stevenson I began a letter to my mother, I received the news of your arrival.2
to B. Franklin, ... I met with a very sensible physician yesterday, who prescribes
dated Margate, abstinence for the cure of consumptions. He must be clever, be-
1 Sept, 1709. cause he thinks as we do. I would not have you or my mother

3 A reference to the doctor’s recent tour on the continent.240

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

Your good mother says there is no occasion for any intercession of
mine in your behalf. She is sensible that she is more in fault than her
daughter. She received an affectionate, tender letter from you, and
she has not answered it, though she intended to do it; but her head,
not her heart, has been bad, and unfitted her for writing. She owns,
that she is not so good a subject as you are, and that she is more un-
willing to pay tribute to Caesar, and has less objection to smuggling ;
but it is not, she says, mere selfishness or avarice ; it is rather an
honest resentment at the waste of those taxes in pensions, salaries,
perquisites, contracts, and other emoluments for the benefit of people
she does not love, and who do not deserve such advantages, because
—I suppose—because they are not of her party.

Present my respects to your good landlord and his family. I
honour them for their conscientious aversion to illicit trading. There
are those in the world, who would not wrong a neighbour, but make
no scruple of cheating the King. The reverse, however, does not
hold; for whoever scruples cheating the King, will certainly not
wrong his neighbour.

You ought not to wish yourself an enthusiast. They have, indeed,
their imaginary satisfactions and pleasures, but these are often bal-
anced by imaginary pains and mortification. You can continue to be
a good girl, and thereby lay a solid foundation for expected future
happiness, without the enthusiasm that may perhaps be necessary to
some others. As those beings, who have a good sensible instinct,
have no need of reason, so those, who have reason to regulate their
actions, have no occasion for enthusiasm. However, there are certain
circumstances in life, sometimes, where ft is perhaps best not to hearken
to reason. For instance ; possibly, if the truth were known, I have
reason to be jealous of this same insinuating, handsome young phy-
sician ; but, as it flatters more my vanity, and therefore gives me more
pleasure, to suppose you were in spirits on account of my safe return,
I shall turn a deaf ear to reason in this case, as I have done with
success in twenty others. But I am sure you will always give me
reason enough to continue ever your affectionate friend.

To Cadwtdlader By a ship just sailed from hence (the captain a
Evans, dated stranger, whose name I have forgotten), I send you a
lm”1’ 7 Sept ’ ^ate French treatise on the management of silkworms.

It is said to be the best hitherto published, being

surprised, if I should run off with this young man. To be sure it would be an
imprudent step, at the discreet age of thirty ; but there is no saying what one
should do, if solicited by a man of an insinuating address and good person, though
he may be too young for one, and not yet established in his profession. He
engaged me so deeply in conversation, and I was so much pleased with him, that
I thought it necessary to give you warning, though I assure you he has made no
proposal.

How I rattle ! This flight must be owing to this new acquaintance, or to the joy
of hearing my old one is returned to this country. I know which I attribute it to,
for I can tell when my spirits were enlivened ; but you may think as you please, if
you will believe me to be, dear Sir, your truly affectionate humble servant,

Mary Stevenson.BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.	241

written In the silk country by a gentleman well acquainted with the
whole affair. It seems to me to be, like many other French writings,
rather too much drawn out in words ; but some extracts from it, of the
principal directions, might be of use, if you would translate and pub-
lish them. I think the bounty is offered for silk from all the colonies
in general. I will send you the act. But I believe it must be wound
from the cocoons, and sent over in skeins. The cocoons would spoil
on the passage, by the dead worm corrupting and staining the silk.
A public filature should be set up for winding them there ; or every
family should learn to wind their own. In Italy they are all brought
to market, from the neighbouring country, and bought up by those
that keep the filatures. In Sicily each family winds its own silk, for
the sake of having the remains to card and spin for family use. If
some provision were made by the Assembly for promoting the growth
of mulberry trees in all parts of the province, the culture of silk might
afterwards follow easily. For the great discouragement to breeding
worms at first is the difficulty of getting leaves and the being obliged
to go far for them.

There is no doubt with me but that it might succeed in our country.
It is the happiest of all inventions for clothing. Wool uses a good deal
of land to produce it, which, if employed in raising corn, would afford
much more subsistence for man, than the mutton amounts to. Flax
and hemp require good land, impoverish it, and at the same time
permit it to produce no food at all. But mulberry trees may be
planted in hedgerows on walks or avenues, or for shade near a house,
where nothing else is wanted to grow. The food for the worms, which
produce the silk, is in the air, and the ground under the trees may still
produce grass, or some other vegetable good for man or beast. Then
the wear of silken garments continues so much longer, from the
strength of the materials, as to give it greatly the preference. Hence
it is that the most populous of all countries, China, clothes its inhabi-
tants with silk, while it feeds them plentifully, and has besides a vast
quantity both raw and manufactured to spare for exportation. Raw
silk here, in skeins well wound, sells from twenty to twenty-five shil-
lings per pound ; but, if badly wound, is not worth five shillings. Well
wound is, when the threads are made to cross each other every way in
the skein, and only touch where they cross. Badly wound is, when
they are laid parallel to each other ; for so they are glued together,
break in unwinding them, and take a vast deal of time more than the
other, by losing the end every time the thread breaks. When once
you can raise plenty of silk, you may have manufactures enough from
hence.

To Hiss Mary Your good mother has complained more of her head
Stevenson, dated since you left us than ever before. If she stoops, or
22 looks, or bends her neck downwards, on any occasion,
’’	it is with great pain and difficulty, that she gets her head

up again. She has, therefore, borrowed a breast and neck collar of
Mrs. Wilkes, such as misses wear, and now uses it to keep her head

17242

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

up. Mr. Strahan has invited us all to dine there to-morrow, but she
has excused herself. Will you come, and go with me ? If you cannot
well do that, you will at least be with us on Friday.

As to my own head, which you so kindly inquire after, its swimming
has gradually worn off, and to-day for the first time I felt nothing of
it on getting out of bed. But, as this speedy recovery is, as I am
fully persuaded, owing to the extreme abstemiousness I have observed
for some days past at home, I am not without apprehensions, that,
being to dine abroad this day, to-morrow, and next day I may inad-
vertently bring it on again, if I do not think of my little monitor and
guardian angel, and make use of the proper and very pertinent
clause she proposes, in my grace. Here comes a morning visitor.
Adieu.

To a friend in Your very judicious letter of November 26th, being
America, dated communicated by me to some member of Parliament,
18 was handed about among them, so that it was some time
’	' before I got it again into my hands. It had due weight

with several, and was of considerable use. You will see that I printed
it at length in the London Chronicle, with the merchants’ letter. When
the American affairs came to be debated in the House of Commons,
the majority*, notwithstanding all the weight of ministerial influence,
was only sixty-two for continuing the whole last act; and would not
have been so large, nay, I think the repeal would have been carried,
but that the ministry were persuaded by Governor Bernard, and some
lying letters said to be from Boston, that the associations not to import
were all breaking to pieces, that America was in the greatest distress
for want of the goods, that we could not possibly subsist any longer with-
out them, and must of course submit to any terms Parliament should
think fit to impose upon us. This, with the idle notion of the dignity
and sovereignty of Parliament, which they are so fond of, and imagine
will be endangered by any further concessions, prevailed, I know, with
many, to vote with the ministry, who, otherwise, on account of the
commerce, wish to see the difference accommodated.1

But, though both the Duke of Grafton and Lord North were and are,
in my opinion, rather inclined to satisfy us, yet the Bedford party are so
violent against us, and so prevalent in the council, that more moderate
measures could not take place. This party never speak of us but with
evident malice ; “ rebels ” and “ traitors ” are the best names they can
afford us, and I believe they only wish for a colourable pretence and
occasion of ordering the soldiers to make a massacre among us.

On the other hand, the Rockingham and Shelburne people, with Lord
Chatham’s friends, are disposed to favour us, if they were again in

1 The following extract is from a letter written by Mr. Johnson, agent from Con-
necticut, to Governor Trumbull, dated London, March 6th, 1770 :

"At length the American revenue act has been debated in the House of Com-
mons. Lord North moved, yesterday, for leave to bring in a bill to repeal the
duty upon the three articles only, which he grounded upon the promise made by
the administration in their circular letter to propose it to Parliament, and upon the
anti-commercial nature of these duties.BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

243

power, which at present they are not like to be ; though they, too,
would be for keeping up the claim of Parliamentary sovereignty, but
without exercising it in any mode of taxation. Besides these, we have
for sincere friends and well-wishers the body of Dissenters generally
throughout England, with many others, not to mention Ireland and all
the rest of Europe, who, from various motives, join in applauding the
spirit of liberty, with which we have claimed and insisted on our privi-
leges, and wish us success, but whose suffrage cannot have much
weight in our affairs.

The merchants here were at length prevailed on to present a peti-
tion, but they moved slowly, and some of them, I thought, reluctantly ;
perhaps from a despair of success, the city not being much in favour
with the court at present. The manufacturing towns absolutely re-
fused to move at all; some pretending to be offended with our
attempting to manufacture for ourselves ; others saying, that they had
employment enough, and that our trade was of little importance to
them, whether we continued or refused it. Those, who began a little
to feel the effects of our forbearing to purchase, were persuaded to be
quiet by the ministerial people, who gave out, that certain advices were
received of our beginning to break our agreements ; of our attempts
to manufacture proving all abortive and ruining the undertakers ; of
our distress for want of goods, and dissensions among ourselves, which
promised the total defeat of all such kind of combinations, and the
prevention of them for the future, if the government were not urged
imprudently to repeal the duties. But now that it appears from late
and authentic accounts, that agreements continue in full force, that a
ship is actually returned from Boston to Bristol with nails and glass
(articles that were thought of the utmost necessity), and that the
ships, which were waiting here for the determination of Parliament,
are actually returning to North America in their ballast, the tone of
the manufacturers begins to change, and there is no doubt, that, if we
are steady, and persevere in our resolutions, these people will soon
begin a clamour, that much pains has hitherto been used to stifle.

In short, it appears to me, that if we do not now persist in this
measure till it has had its full effect, it can never again be used on any
future occasion with the least prospect of success, and that, if we do
persist another year, we shall never afterwards have occasion to use it,

To Hiss Mary I received your letter this morning, and, as I am so
Stevenson, dated engaged, that I cannot see you when you come to-day,
Mayfl'&o. 81 I write this line just to say, that I am sure you are a
much better judge in this affair of your own, than I can
possibly be.1 In that confidence it wa% that I forbore giving my
advice when you mentioned it to me, and not from any disapproba-
tion. My concern (equal to any father’s) for your happiness makes
me write this, lest, having more regal'd for my opinion than you ought,
and imagining it against the proposal because I did not immediately

1 Alluding to a proposal from Mr. Hcwson. See ante, p. 41.244

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

advise accepting it, you should let that weigh anything in your
deliberations.

I assure you, that no objection has occurred to me. His person you
see ; his temper and understanding you can judge of; his character,
for anything I have ever heard, is unblemished ; his profession, with
the skill in it he is supposed to have, will be sufficient to support a
family; and, therefore, considering the fortune you have in your
hands (though any future expectation from your parent should be dis-
appointed), I do not see but that the agreement maybe a rational one
on both sides.

I see your delicacy, and your humility too ; for you fancy that if
you do not prove a great fortune, you will not be loved ; but I am sure,
were I in his situation in every respect, knowing you so well as I do,
and esteeming you so highly, I should think you a fortune sufficient
for me without a shilling.

Having thus, more explicitly than before, given my opinion, I leave
the rest to your sound judgment, of which no one has a greater share ;
and I shall not be too inquisitive after your particular reasons, your
doubts, your fears, and the like. For I shall be confident, whether
you accept or refuse, that you do right. I only wish you may do
what will most contribute to your happiness, and of course to mine.

P.S.—Do not be angry with me for supposing your determination
not quite so fixed as you fancy it.	«

To Samuel Coo- With this I send you two speeches in Parliament on
per, dated Lon- our affairs by a member {hat you know. The repeal of
on, une, . tjie wh0ie jate act Would have undoubtedly have been a
prudent measure, and I have reason to believe that Lord North was
for it, but some of the other ministers could not be brought to agree
to it ; so the duty on tea, with that obnoxious preamble, remains to
continue the dispute. But I think the next session will hardly pass
over without repealing them ; for the Parliament must finally comply
with the sense of the nation.

As to the standing army kept up among us in time of peace, without
the consent of our Assemblies, I am clearly of opinion that it is not
agreeable to the constitution. Should the King, by the aid of his
Parliaments in Ireland and the colonies, raise an army, and bring it
into England, quartering it here in time of peace without the consent
of the Parliament of Great Britain, I am persuaded he would soon be
told, that he had no right so to do, and the nation would ring with
clamours against it. I own, that I see no difference in the cases ; and,
while we continue so many distinct and separate states, our having the
same head, or sovereign, the King, will not justify such an invasion of
the separate right of each state to be consulted on the establishment
of whatever force is proposed to be kept up within its limits, and to
give or refuse its consent, as shall appear most for the public good
of that state.

That the colonies originally were constituted distinct states, and
intended to be continued such, is clear to me from a thorough con-BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.	245

sideration of their original charters, and the whole conduct of the
crown and nation towards them until the restoration. Since that
period, the Parliament here has usurped an authority of making laws
for them, which before it had not. We have for some time submitted
to that usurpation, partly through ignorance and inattention, and partly
from our weakness and inability to contend. I hope, when our rights
are better understood here, we shall, by prudent and proper conduct,
be able to obtain from the equity of this nation a restoration of them.
And, in the meantime, I could wish, that such expressions as the
Supreme authority of Parliament, the subordinacy of. our Assemblies
to the Parliament, and the like, which in reality mean nothing, if our
Assemblies, with the King, have a true legislative authority ; I say, I
could wish that such expressions were no more seen in our public
pieces. They are too strong for compliment, and tend to confirm a
claim of subjects in one part of the King’s dominions to be sovereigns
over their fellow subjects in another part of his dominions, when in
truth they have no such right, and their claim is founded only in
usurpation, the several states having equal rights and liberties, and
being only connected, as England and Scotland were before the union,
by having one common sovereign, the King.

This kind of doctrine the Lords and Commons here would deem
little less than treason against what they think their share of the
sovereignty over the colonies. To me those bodies seem to have been
long encroaching on the rights of their and our sovereign, assuming
too much of his authority, and betraying his interests. By our con-
stitutions he is, with his plantation Parliaments, the sole legislator of
his American subjects, and in that capacity is, and ought to be, free
to exercise his own judgment, unrestrained and unlimited by his
Parliament here. And our Parliaments have a right to grant him
aids without the consent of this Parliament, a circumstance, which,
by the way, begins to give it some jealousy. Let us, therefore, hold
fast our loyalty to our King, who has the best disposition towards us,
and has a family interest in our prosperity ; as that steady loyalty is
the most probable means of securing us from the arbitrary power of a
corrupt Parliament, that does not like us, and conceives itself to have
an interest in keeping us down and fleecing us.

If they should urge the inconvenience of an empire’s being divided
into so many separate states, and from thence conclude, that we are
not so divided, I would answer, that an inconvenience proves nothing
but itself. England and Scotland were once separate states under
the same King. The inconvenience found in their being separate
states did not prove, that the Parliament of England had a right
to govern Scotland. A formal union was thought necessary, and
England was a hundred years soliciting it, before she could bring
it about. If Great Britain now thinks such a union necessary with
us, let her propose her terms, and we may consider them. Were
the general sentiments of this nation to be consulted in the case,
I should hope the terms, whether practicable or not, would at least
be equitable; for I think, that, except among those with whom the246

LTFE AND LETTERS OF

spirit of Toryism prevails, the popular inclination here is, to wish
us well, and that we may preserve our liberties.

I unbosom myself thus to you, in confidence of your prudence^
and wishing to have your sentiments on the subject in return.

Mr. Pownall, I suppose, will acquaint you with the event of his
motions, and therefore I say nothing more of them, than that he
appears very sincere in his endeavours to serve us ; on which account,

1 some time since republished with pleasure the parting addresses to
him of your Assembly, with some previous remarks to his honour, as
well as in justification of our people.

I hope, that before this time those detestable murderers have quitted
your province, and that the spirit of industry and frugality continues
and increases.

To his wife, By Captain Falconer I answered Sally’s letter about
dated	her son’s being inoculated, and told her Sir John

11110	’ Pringle’s opinion, as to the probability of his not having

the smallpox hereafter. I think he advised, as no eruption appeared,
to make sure of the thing by inoculating him again. I rejoice much
in the pleasure you appear to take in him. It must be of use to your
health, the having such an amusement. My love to him, and to his
father and mother.

Captain Ourry is going abroad as a travelling tutorto Lord Galway’s
son ; Mrs. Strahan is at Bath; Mr. Strahan and children, Mr. and
Mrs. West and their son, are all well at present; though Mr. West
himself has had a long illness. They always inquire after you, and I
present your compliments. Poor Nanny^was drawn in to marry a
worthless fellow, who got all her money, and then ran away and left
her. So she is returned to her old service with Mi-s. Stevenson,
poorer than ever, but seems pretty patient, only looks dejected, sighs
sometimes, and wishes she had never left Philadelphia. Mr. Mont-
gomery died at sea, as we have lately heard.

As to myself, I had, from Christmas till Easter, a disagreeable
giddiness hanging about me, which however did not hinder me from
being about and doing business. In the Easter holidays, being at a
friend’s house in the country, I was taken with a sore throat, and
came home half strangled. From Monday till Friday, I could
swallow nothing but barley water and the like. On Friday came
on a fit of the gout, from which I had been free five years. Im-
mediately the inflammation and swelling in my throat disappeared;
my foot swelled greatly, and I was confined about three weeks ;
since which I am perfectly well, the giddiness and every other dis-
agreeable symptom having quite left me. I hope your health is
likewise by this time quite re-established; being as ever, my dear
child, your affectionate husband.

To Mrs M Your friends are all much pleased with your account
Hewson*' datecl of the agreeable family, their kind reception and enter-
Xondon/24 July, tainment of you, and the respect shown you ; ' only
1770,	Dolly and I, though we rejoice and shall do so inBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

247

every thing that contributes to your happiness, are now and then in
low spirits, supposing we have lost each a friend. Harwell says she
conceives nothing of this ; and that we must be two simpletons to
entertain such imaginations. I showed her your letter to your
mother, wherein you say, “ Dolly is a naughty girl, and, if she does
not mend, I shall turn her off; for I have got another Dolly now,
and .a very good Dolly too.” She begged me not to communicate
this to Dolly, for though said in jest, yet, in her present state of
mind, it would hurt her. I suppose that it was for the same good-
natured reason, that she refused to show me a paragraph of your
letter to Dolly, that had been communicated by Dolly to her.

July 2$th. The above was written yesterday, but, being interrupted,
I could not finish my letter in time for the post; though I find I had
little to add. Your mother desires me to express abundance of affec-
tion for you, and for Mr. Hewson; and to say all the proper things
for her, with respect to the rest of your friends there. But you can
imagine better than I can write. Sally and little Temple join in best
wishes of prosperity to you both. Make my sincerest respects accept-
able to Mr. Hewson, whom, exclusive of his other merits, I shall always
esteem in proportion to the regard he manifests for you. Barwell tells
me, that your aunt had received his letter, and was highly pleased
with it and him; so I hope all will go well there; and I shall take
every opportunity of cultivating her good disposition, in which I think
you used to be sometimes a little backward, but you always had your
reasons,

I am apt to love everybody that loves you, and therefore I suppose
I shall in time love your new mother, and new sister, and new Dolly.
I find I begin to like them already, and, if you think proper, you may
tell them so. But your old Dolly and I have agreed to love each
other better than ever we did, to make up as much as we can our sup-
posed loss of you. We like your assurance of continued friendship,
unimpaired by your change of condition, and we believe you think as
you write ; but we fancy we know better than you. You know I once
knew your heart better than you did yourself. As a proof that I am
right, take notice,—that you now think this the silliest letter I ever
wrote to you, and that Mr. Hewson confirms you in that opinion.

However, I am still what I have been so many years, my dear good
girl, your sincerely affectionate friend and servant.	•

The Craven Street GazetteI

To Mrs. Mar- This morning Queen Margaret, accompanied by her
saret Stevenson, first maid of honour, Miss Franklyn.set out for Roches-
22Sept^im7’ *er* Immediately on their departure, the whole streetwas
’*	'	in tears—from a heavy shower of rain. It is whispered,

that the new family administration which took place on her majesty’s
departure, promises like all other new administrations, to govern much
belter than the old one.

1 This newspaper burlesque was written during the temporary absence of Mrs.
Stevenson at Rochester.248

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

We hear that the great person (so called from his enormous size)
of a certain family in a certain district, is grievously affected at the
late changes, and could hardly be comforted this morning, though
the new ministry promised him a roasted shoulder of mutton and
potatoes for his dinner. It is said that the same great person intended
to pay his respects to another great personage this day, at St. James,
it being coronation-day ; hoping thereby a little to amuse his grief;
but was prevented by an accident, Queen Margaret, or her maid of
honour, having carried off the key of the drawers, so that the lady of
the bed-chamber could not come at a lace shirt for his highness.
Great clamours were made on this occasion against her majesty.
Other accounts say, that the shirts were afterwards found, though too
late, in another place. And some suspect, that the wanting of a shirt
from those drawers was only a ministerial pretence to picking the
locks, that the new administration might have everything at command.

We hear that the lady chamberlain of the household went to market
this morning, by her own self, gave the butcher whatever he asked for
the mutton, and had no dispute with the potato woman, to their great
amazement at the change of times. It is confidently asserted, that
this afternoon, the weather being wet, the great person a little chilly,
and nobody at home to find fault with the expense of fuel, he was
indulged with a fire in his chamber. It seems the design is, to make
him contented by degrees with the absence of the queen.

A project has been under consideration of government, to take the
opportunity of her majesty’s absence fordoing a thing she was always
averse to, namely, fixing a new lock on die street door, or getting a
key made to the old one ; it being found"extremely inconvenient, that
one or other of the great officers of state should, whenever the maid
goes out for a ha’penny worth of sand, or a pint of porter, be obliged
to attend the door to let her in again. But opinions being divided,
which of the two expedients to adopt, the project is for the present,
laid aside.

We have good authority to assure our readers, that a cabinet council
was held this afternoon at tea, the subject of which was a proposal
for the reformation' of manners, and a more strict observation of the
Lord’s day. The result was a unanimous resolution, that no meat
should be dressed to-morrow ; whereby the cook and the first minister
will both be at liberty to go to church, the one having nothing to do,
and the other no roast to rule. It seems the cold shoulder of mutton,
and the apple-pie, were thought sufficient for Sunday’s dinner. All
pious people applaud this measure, and it is thought the new ministry
will soon become popular.

We hear that Mr. Wilkes was at a certain house in Craven Street
this day, and inquired after the absent queen. His good lady and
children are well.

The report, that Mr. Wilkes, the patriot, made the above visit, is
without foundation, it being his brother, the courtier.

Sunday, September 23.—It is now found by sad experience, that
good resolutions are easier made than executed. NotwithstandingBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

249

yesterday’s solemn order of Council, nobody went to church to-day—it
seems the great person’s broad-built bulk lay so long abed, that the
breakfast was not over until it was too late to dress. At least this is
the excuse. In fine, it seems a vain thing to hope reformation from
the example of our great folks.

The cook and the minister, however, both took advantage of the
order so far, as to save themselves all trouble, and the clause of cold
dinner was enforced, though the going 16 church was dispensed with ;
just as common working folks observe the commandment. The
seventh day thou shalt rest, they think a sacred injunction ; but the
other mV days shalt thou labour is deemed a mere piece of advice, which
they may practise when they want bread, and are out of credit at the
alehouse, and may neglect whenever they have money in their pockets.
It must, nevertheless, be said in justice to our court that, whatever
inclination they had to gaming, no cards were brought out to-day.

Lord and Lady Hewson walked after dinner to Kensington, to pay
their duty to the Dowager, and Dr. Fatsides made four hundred and
sixty-nine turns to his dining-room as the exact distance of a visit to
the lovely Lady Barwell, whom he did not find at home ; so there was
no struggle for and against a kiss, and he sat down to dream in the
easy-chair, that he had it without any trouble.

Monday, September 24.—We are credibly informed, that the great
person dined this day with the club at the Cat and Bagpipes in the
City, on cold round of boiled beef. This, it seems, he was under
some necessity of doing (though he rather dislikes beef), because truly
the ministers were to be all abroad somewhere to dine on hot roast
venison. It is thought, that, if the queen had been at home, he would
not have been so slighted. And though he shows outwardly no signs
of dissatisfaction, it is suspected that he begins to wish for her
majesty’s return.

It is currently reported, that poor Nanny had nothing for dinner in
the kitchen, for herself and puss, but the scraping of the bones of
Saturday’s dinner.

This evening there was high play at Craven Street House. The
great person lost money. It is supposed the ministers, as is usually
supposed of all ministers, shared the emoluments among them.

Tuesday, September 25.—This morning the good Lord Hutton called
at Craven Street House, and inquired very respectfully and affection-
ately concerning the welfare of the queen. He then imparted to the
big man a piece of intelligence important to them both, which he had
just received from Lady Hawkesworth, namely, that their amiable and
excellent companion, Miss Dorothea Blount, had made a vow to
marry absolutely him of the two, whose wife should first depart this
life. It is impossible to express with words the various agitations of
mind appearing in both their faces on this occasion ; vanity, at the
preference given them over the rest of mankind ; affection for their
present wives ; fear of losing them ; hope (if they must lose them) to
obtain the proposed comfort; jealousy of each other, in case both
wives should die together—all working at the same time, jumbled250

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

their features into inexplicable confusion. They parted, at length,
with professions and outward appearances of ever-enduring friend-
ship ; but it was shrewdly suspected, that each of them wished health
and long life to the other’s wife ; and that however long either of these
friends might like to live himself, the other would be very well pleased
to survive him.

It is remarked that the skies have wept every day in Craven Street
since the absence of the queen.

The public maybe assured, that this morning a certain great person
was asked very complaisantly by the mistress of the household, if he
would choose to have the blade bone of Saturday’s mutton, that had
been kept for his dinner, broiled or cold. He answered gravely, If
there is any flesh on it, it may be broiled; if not, it may as well be cold.
Orders were accordingly given for broiling it. But when it came to
table, there was indeed so very little flesh, or rather none at all, puss
having dined on it yesterday after Nanny, that, if our new adminis-
tration had been as good economists as they would be thought, the
expense of broiling might well have been saved to the public, and
carried to the sinking fund. It is assured the great person bears all
' with infinite patience. But the nation is astonished at the insolent
presumption, that dares treat so much mildness in so cruel a manner.
A terrible accident had liked to have happened, this afternoon at tea.
The boiler was set too near the end of the little square table. The
first ministress was sitting at one end of the table to administer the
tea ; the great person was about to sit down at the other end, where
the boiler stood. By a sudden motion^the lady gave the table a tilt.
Had it gone over, the great person must have been scalded ; perhaps
to death. Various are the surmises and observations on this occasion.
The godly say, it would have been a just judgment on him on pre-
venting by his laziness, the family’s going to church last Sunday. The
opposition do not stick to insinuate, that there was a design to scald
him, prevented only by his quick catching the table. The friends of
the ministry give out, that he carelessly jogged the table himself, and
would have been inevitably scalded had not the ministress saved him.
It is hard for the public to come at the truth of these cases.

At six o’clock this afternoon, news came by the post, that her
Majesty arrived safely at Rochester Saturday night. The bells im-
mediately rang—for candles to illuminate the parlour ; the court went
into cribbage ; and the evening concluded with every demonstration
ofjoy.

It is reported that all the principal officers of state have received an
invitation from the Duchess Dowager of Rochester, to go down thither
on Saturday next. But it is not yet known whether the great affairs
they have on their hands will permit them to make this excursion.

We hear, that, from the time of her Majesty’s leaving Craven Street
House to this day, no care is taken to file the newspapers ; but they
lie about in every room, in every window, and on every chair, just
where the Doctor lays them when he has read them. It is impossible
government can long go on in such hands.BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

251

CHAPTER VIII. (1770 1771.)

N<J Taxation without Representation—Franklin Appointed Agent for Massa-
chusetts Bay—False Rumours of his Resigning the Post-Office—Bad Political
Surgery—Conference and Scene with Lord Hillsborough.

To M. Dubourg,1 * SEE wlt^ pleasure, that we think pretty much alike
dated’ London, on the subject of English America. We of the colonies
Oot. 2, 1770. have never insisted, that we ought to be exempt from
contributing to the common expenses necessary to support the
prosperity of the empire. We only assert, that, having Parliaments of
our own, and not having representatives in that of Great Britain, our
Parliaments are the only judges of what we can and what we ought to
contribute in this case ; and that the English Parliament has no right
to take our money without our consent. In fact, the British Empire is
not a single state ; it comprehends many ; and, though the Parliament
of Great Britain has arrogated to itself the power of taxing the colonies,
it has no more right to do so, than it has to tax Hanover. We have
the same King, but not the same legislatures.

The dispute between the two countries has already lost England
many millions sterling, which it has lost in its commerce, and America
has ih this respect been a proportionable gainer. This commerce
consisted principally of superfluities ; objects of luxury and fashion,
which we can well do without; and the resolution we have formed of
importing no more, till our grievances are redressed, has enabled
many of our infant manufactures to take root; and it will not be easy
to make our people abandon them in future, even should a connection
more cordial than ever succeed the present troubles. I have, indeed,
no doubt that the Parliament of England will finally abandon its
present pretensions, and leave us to the peaceable enjoyment of our
rights and privileges.

To his wife, da- * am y°ur little grandson recovered so soon of
ted London, 3 his illness, as I see you are quite in love with him, and
Oct., 1770. that y0ur happiness is wrapped up in his ; since your
whole long letter is made up of the history of his pretty actions. It
was very prudently done of you not to interfere, when his mother
thought fit to correct him ; which pleased me the more, as I feared,
from your fondness of him, that he would be too much humoured, and
perhaps spoiled. There is a story of two little boys in the street; one
was crying bitterly ; the other came to him to ask what was the
matter ; “ I have been,” says he, “ for a pennyworth of vinegar, and I
have broke the glass, and spilled the vinegar, and my mother will
whip me.” “ No she won’t whip you,” says the other. “ Indeed, she
will,” says he, “ What/’ says the other, “ have you then got ne’er a
grandmother ? ”

* A friend of Buffon’s.252

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

To Thomas Cus- Your favour of October 31st came to hand a few days
hing,1 dated Lon- since, with the vote of the House of Representatives,
mo 84 :DeC,’ aPP°intinS me the*r agent here, which as it was un-
'	solicited on my part, I esteem the greater honour ; and

shall be very happy, if I can, in that capacity, render my country any
acceptable service.8 ...

I have the pleasure to acquaint you, from good authority, that the
project formed by the enemies of the province, for bringing into Par-
liament a bill to abridge our charter rights, thought at first it received
some countenance, and great pains were taken to recommend it, is
now laid aside. I do not presume to suppose, that the opposition I
gave to it (by showing the imprudence of the measure, and declaring
openly my opinion on all occasions, that, the charter being a compact
between the King and the people of the colony who were out of the
realm of Great Britain, there existed nowhere on earth a power to
alter it, while its terms were complied with, without the consent oj
both the contracting farties), had any weight on the occasion. I
rather think, that a disposition prevails of late to be on good terms
with the colonies, especially as we seem to be on the eve of a war with
Spain ; and that, in consequence of that disposition, which I hope we
shall cultivate, more attention has been paid to the sober advice of
our friends, and less to the virulent instigations of our enemies. . . .

To Mrs Jane Me- As to ^ie rumour you mention (which was, as Josiah
com, dated Lon- tells me, that I had been deprived of my place in the
30 Deo'’ PosGoffice 0(1 account of a letter I wrote to Phila-
delphia), it might have this foundation, that some of the
ministry had been displeased on my. writing such letters, and there
were really some thoughts among them of showing that displeasure in
that manner. But I had some friends, too, who, unrequested by me,
advised the contrary. And my enemies were forced to content them-
selves with abusing me plentifully in the newspapers, and endeavouring
to provoke me to resign. In this they are not likely to succeed, I
being deficient in that Christian virtue of resignation. If they would
have my office, they must take it.

I have heard of some great man, whose rule it was, with regard to
offices, never to ask for them, and never to refuse them; to which I
have always added, in my own practice, never to resign them. As I

1 Speaker of the Massachusetts Assembly.

a In the spring of 1768, while the Duke of Grafton was luring him (Franklin)
with the prospect of a place, and while he was preparing for the third time to
return to America, came news that the young colony of Georgia had appointed him
its London agent. Next year New Jersey selected him for her agent, and the year
following, his native province of Massachusetts. These appointments, together
with the threatening aspect of colonial affairs, and the urgent entreaties of liberal
men in England and patriotic men in America, detained him still at his post in
London. For ten years he was always on the point of returning; for ten years
events were continually frustrating his design. His new appointments had the
effect of placing him at ease in his circumstances. Pennsylvania paid her agent
j£5oo a year, Massachusetts, ,£400 ; Georgia, ^200; New Jersey, £\oa. His
election for tfie important province of Massachusetts was not unanimous. . . ,BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

253

tbld my friends, I rose to that office through a long course of service
in the inferior degrees of it. Before my time, through bad manage*
ment, it never produced the salary annexed to it; and, when I received
it, no salary was to be allowed, if the office did not produce it. During
the first four years it was so far from defraying itself, that it became
nine hundred and fifty pounds sterling in debt to me and my col-
league. I had been chiefly instrumental in bringing it to its present
flourishing state, and therefore thought I had some kind of right to it.
I had hitherto executed the duties of it faithfully, and to the perfect
satisfaction of my superiors, which I thought was all that should be
expected of me on that account. As to the letters complained of, it
was true I did write them, and they were written in compliance with
another duty, that to my country ; a duty quite distinct from that of
postmaster.

My conduct in this respect was exactly similar to that I held on a
similar occasion but a few years ago, when the then ministry were
ready to hug me for the assistance I afforded them in repealing a
former revenue act. My sentiments were still the same, that no such
acts should be made here for America ; or, if made, should as soon as
possible be repealed; and I thought it should not be expected of me
to change my political opinions every time his Majesty thought fit to
change his ministers. This was my language on the occasion ; and I
have lately heard, that, though I was thought much to blame, it being
understood that every man who holds an office should act with the
ministry, whether agreeable or not to his own judgment, yet, in con-
sideration of the goodness of my private character (as they were
pleased to compliment me), the office was not to be taken from me.

Possibly they may still change their minds, and remove me ; but no
apprehension of that sort will, I trust, make the least alteration in my
political conduct. My rule, in which I have always found satisfaction,
is, never to turn aside in public affairs through views of private
interest; but to go straight forward in doing what appears to me
right at the time, leaving the consequences with Providence. What
in my younger days enabled me more easily to walk upright, was, that
I had a trade, and that I knew I could live upon little ; and thence
(never having had views of making a fortune) I was free from avarice,
and contented with the plentiful supplies my business afforded me.
And now it is still more easy for me to preserve my freedom and
integrity, when I consider that I am almost at the end of my joueney,
and therefore need less to complete the expense of it; and that what
I now possess, through the blessing of God, may, with tolerable
economy, be sufficient for me (great misfortunes excepted), though 1
should add nothing more to it by any office or employment whatso-
ever.

I send you by this opportunity the two books you wrote for. They
cost three shillings apiece. When I was first in London, about forty-
five years since, I knew a person, who had an opinion something like
your author’s. Her name was Ilive, a printer’s widow. She died
soon after 1 left England, and by her will obliged her son to deliverLIFE AND LETTERS OF

254

publicly, in Salters’ Hall, a solemn discourse, the purport of which
was to prove, that this world is the true Hell, or place of punishment
for the spirits, who had transgressed in a better state, and were sent
here to suffer for their sins in animals of all sorts. It is long since I
saw the discourse, which was printed. I think a good deal of Scrip-
ture was cited in it, and that the supposition was, that, though we now
remembered nothing of such a preexistent state, yet after death we
might recollect it, and remember the punishments we had suffered, so
as to be the better for them ; and others, who had not yet offended,
might now behold and be warned by our sufferings.

In fact, we see here, that every lower animal has its enemy, with
proper inclinations, faculties, and weapons, to terrify, wound, and
destroy it; and that men, who are uppermost, are devils to one
another ; so that, on the established doctrine of the goodness and
justice of the great Creator, this apparent state of general and syste-
matical mischief seemed to demand some such supposition as Mrs.
Hive’s to account for it consistently with the honour of the Deity.
But our reasoning powers, when employed about what may have been
before our existence here, or shall be after it, cannot go far, for want
of history and facts. Revelation only can give us the necessary infor-
mation, and that, in the first of these points especially, has been very
sparingly afforded us.

I hope you continue to correspond with your friends at Philadelphia.
My love to your children.

Cushin Thdated * * * The doctrine of the right of Parliament to
Londonf 5 Feb., lay taxes on America is now almost generally given up
1771.	here, and one seldom meets in conversation with any,

who continue to assert it. But there are still many, who think that
the dignity and honour of Parliament, and of the nation, are so much
engaged, as that no formal renunciation of the claim is ever to be
expected. We ought to be contented, they say, with a forbearance of
any attempt hereafter to exercise such right; and this they would
have us rely on as a certainty. Hints are also given, that the duties
now subsisting may be gradually withdrawn, as soon as a regard
to that dignity will permit it to be decently done, without subjecting
government to the contempt of all Europe, as being compelled into
measures by the refractoriness of the colonies. How far this may be
depended on, no one can say. The presumption rather is, that if, by
time, we become so accustomed to these, as to pay them without dis-
content, no minister will afterwards think of taking them off, but
rather be encouraged to add others.

Perhaps there was never an instance of a colony so much and so
long persecuted with vehement and malicious abuse, as ours has been,
for near two years past, by its enemies here and those who reside in it.
The design apparently was, by rendering us odious, as well as con-
temptible, to prevent all concern for us in the friends of liberty here,
when the projects of oppressing us further, and depriving us of our
rights by'various violent measures, should be carried into execution.BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

255

Of late, this abuse has abated; the sentiments of a majority of the
ministers are, I think, become more favourable towards us ; and I
have reason to believe, that all those projects are now laid aside. The
projectors themselves, too, are, I believe, somewhat diminished in
their credit; and it appears not likely that any new schemes of the
kind will be listened to, if fresh occasion is not administered from out-
side the water. It seems, however, too early yet to expect such an
attention to our complaints, as would be necessary to obtain an im-
mediate redress of our grievances. A little time is requisite ; but no
opportunity will be lost by your agents, of stating them where it may
be of use, and inculcating the necessity of removing them, for the
strength and safety of the empire. And I hope the colony Assemblies
will show, by frequently repeated resolves, that they know their rights,
and do not lose sight of them. Our growing importance will ere long
compel an acknowledgment of them, and establish and secure them to
our posterity.

In case of my leaving this country, which I may possibly do in the
ensuing summer, I shall put into the hands of Dr. Lee all the papers
relating to your affairs, which I have received from you, or from the
son of your late agent, Mr. De Berdt. The present American
secretary, Lord Hillsborough, has indeed objected to the Assembly’s
appointment, and insists that no agent ought to be received or
attended to, by government here, who is not appointed by an act of
the General Court, to~which the governor has given his assent. This
doctrine, if he could establish it, would in a manner give to his Lord-
ship the power of appointing, or at least negativing any choice of the
House of Representatives and Council, since it would be easy for him
to instruct the governor not to assent to the appointment of such and
such men, who are obnoxious to him ; so that, if the appointment is
annual, every agent that valued his post must consider himself as
holding it by the favour of his Lordship, and of course too much
obliged to him to oppose his measures, however contrary to the
interest of the province.

Of what use such agents would be, it is easy to judge ; and,
although I am assured, that, notwithstanding this fancy of his Lord-
ship, any memorial, petition, or other address from, or in behalf of,
the House of Representatives to the King in Council, or to either
House of Parliament, would be received from your agent as usual, yet,
on this occasion, I cannot but wish, that the public character of a
colony agent was better understood and settled, as well as the political
relation between the colonists and the mother country.

When they come to be considered in the light of distinct states, as I
conceive they really are, possibly their agents may be treated with
more respect, and considered more as public ministers. Under the
present American administration, they are rather looked on with an
evil eye, as obstructers of ministerial measures; and the Secretary
would, I imagine, be well pleased to get rid of them, being, as he has
sometimes intimated, of opinion that agents are unnecessary, for that,
whatever is to be transacted between the assemblies of colonies and256

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

the government here, may be done through and by the governor’s
letters, and more properly than by an agent whatever. In truth, your
late nominations, particularly of Dr. Lee and myself, have not been at
all agreeable to his Lordship.

I purpose, however, to draw up a memorial, stating our rights and
grievances, and, in the name and behalf of the province, protesting
particularly against the late innovations in respect to the military
power obtruded on the civil, as well as the other infringements of the
charter; and at a proper time, if Mr. Bollan on due consideration
approves of it and will join me in it, to present it to his Majesty in
Council. Whether speedy redress is or is not the consequence, I
imagine it may be of good use to keep alive our claims, and show,
that we have not given up the contested points, though we take no
violent measures to obtain them.

A notion has been much inculcated here by our enemies, that any
farther concession on the part of Great Britain would only serve to
increase our demands. I have constantly given it as my opinion,
that, if the colonies were restored to the state they were in before the
Stamp Act, they would be satisfied, and contend no further. As in
this I have been supposed not to know, or not to speak the sentiments
of the Americans, I am glad to find the same so fully expressed in the
Committee’s letter. It was certainly, as I have often urged, bad
policy, when they attempted to heal our differences by repealing part
of the duties only ; as it is bad surgery to leave splinters in a wound,
which must prevent its healing, or in time occasion it to open afresh.

There is no doubt of the intention to make governors and some
other officers independent of the people for their support, and that this
purpose will be persisted in, if the American revenue is found suffi-
cient to defray the salaries. Many think this so necessary a measure,
that, even if there were no such revenue, the money should issue out
of the treasury here. But this, I apprehend, would hardly be the
case, there being so many demands at home ; and the salaries of so
many officers in so many colonies would amount to such an immense
sum, that probably the burden would be found too great, and the pro-
viding for the expense of their own governments be left to the colonies
themselves.

I shall watch everything that may be moved to the detriment of
the province, and use my best endeavours for its service.

No public notice has yet been taken of the inflammatory paper
mentioned by the Committee, as stuck up in Boston ; and I think
the indiscretion of individuals is not now so likely, as it has been of
late, to make general impressions to our disadvantage.
p° Sl<£ted * wrote to you some weeks since in answer to yours
London, 5 Feb., of July and November, expressing my sentiments witli-
1771. ’	out the least reserve on points that require free discus-

sion, as I know I can confide in your prudence not to hurt my
usefulness here, by making me more obnoxious than I must necessarily
be from that known attachment to the American interest, which my
duty as well as inclination demands of me.BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

257

In the same confidence I send you the enclosed extract from my
Journal, containing a late conference between the Secretary1 and your
friend, in which you will see a little of his temper. It is one of the
many instances of his behaviour and conduct, that have given me the
very mean opinion I entertain of his abilities and fitness for his station.
His character is conceit, wrongheadedness, obstinacy, and passion.
Those, who would speak most favourably of him, allow all this ; they
only add, that he is an honest man, and means well. If that be true,
as perhaps it may, I wish him a better place, where only honesty and
well-meaning are required, and where his other qualities can do no
harm. Had the war taken place, I have reason to believe he would
have been removed. He had, I think, some apprehensions of it-hiiji-
self at the time I was with him. I hope, however, that our affairs will
not much longer be perplexed and embarrassed by his perverse and
senseless management. I have since heard, that his Lordship took
great offence at some of my last words, which he calls extremely rude
and abusive. He assured a friend of mine, that they were equivalent
to telling him to his face, that the colonies could expect neither favour
nor justice during his administration. I find he did not mistake me.

It is true, as you have heard, that some of my letters to America
have been echoed back hither ; but that has not been the case with
any that were written to you. Great umbrage was taken, but chiefly
by Lord Hillsborough, who was disposed before to be angry with me,
and therefore the inconvenience was the less ; and, whatever the con-
sequences are of his displeasure, putting all my offences together, I
must bear them as well as I can. Not but thqt, if there is to be war
between us, I shall do my best to defend myself and annoy my
adversary, little regarding the story of the Earthen Pot and Brazen
Pitcher. One encouragement I have, the knowledge, that he is not a
whit better liked by his colleagues in the ministry, than he is by me,
that he cannot probably continue where he is much longer, and that
he can scarce be succeeded by anybody, who will not like me the
better for his having been at variance with me.

Minutes of the Conference mentioned above.

Wednesday, 16 January, 1771.—I went this morning to wait on
Lord Hillsborough. The porter at first denied his Lordship, on which
I left my name and drove off. But, before the coach got out of the
square, the coachman heard a call, turned, and went back to the door,
when the porter came and said, “ His Lordship will see you, Sir.” I
was shown into the levee room, where I found Governor Bernard, who,
I understood, attends there constantly. Several other gentlemen
were there attending, with whom I sat down a few minutes, when
Secretary Pownall came out to us, and said his Lordship desired I
would come in.

I was pleased with this ready admission and preference, having
sometinies waited three or four hours for my turn j and, being pleased,

» Lord Hillsborough.

18258

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

I could more easily put on the open, cheerful countenance, that my
friends advised me to wear. His Lordship came towards me and
said, “I was dressing in order to go to court; but, hearing that you
were at the door, who are a man of business, I determined to see you
immediately.” I thanked his Lordship, and said that my business at
present was not much ; it was only to pay my respects to his Lord-
ship, and to acquaint him with my appointment by the House of
Representatives of Massachusetts Bay to be their agent here, in
which station if I could be of any service—(I was going on to say—
“to the public, I should be very happy ;but his Lordship, whose
countenance changed at my naming that province, cut me short by
sayi'ng, with something between a smile and a sneer,)

L. H. I must set you right there, Mr. Franklin, you are not
agent.

B. F. Why, my Lord ?

L. H. You are not appointed.

B. F. I do not understand your Lordship ; I have the appoint-
ment in my pocket.

L. H. You are mistaken ; I have later and better advices, I
have a letter from Governor Hutchinson ; he would not give his
assent to the bill.

B. F. There was no bill, my Lord ; it was a vote of the House.

L. H. There was a bill presented to the governor for the purpose
of appointing you and another, one Dr. Lee, I think he is called, to
which the governor refused his assent.

B. F. I cannot understand this, my Lord ; I think there must be
some mistake in it. Is your-Lordship quite sure that you have such
a letter ?

L. H. I will convince you of it directly. (Rings the bell) Mr.
Pownall will come in and satisfy you.

B. F. It is not necessary that I should now detain your Lordship
from dressing. You are going to court. I will wait on your Lordship
another time.

L. H. No, stay ; he will come immediately. (To the servant)
Tell Mr. Pownall I want him.

(Mr. Pownall comes in)

L.. H. Have not you at hand Governor Hutchinson’s letter, men-
tioning his refusing his assent to the bill for appointing Dr. Franklin
agent ?

Sec. P. My Lord ?

L. H. Is there not such a letter ?

Sec. P. No, my Lord; there is a letter relating to some bill for
the payment of a salary to Mr. De Berdt, and I think to some other
agent, to which the governor had refused his assent.

L. H. And is' there nothing in the letter to the purpose I
mention ?

Sec. P. No, my Lord.

B. F. I thought it could not well be, my Lord ; as my letters are
by the last ships, and they mention no such thing. Here is thqBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

259

authentic copy of the vote of the House appointing' me, in which
there is no mention of any act intended; Will your Lordship please
to look at it ? (With seeming unwillingness he takes it, but does not
look into it.)

L. H. An information of this kind is not properly brought to me
as Secretary of State. The Board of Trade is the proper place.

B. F. I will leave the paper then with Mr. Pownall to be------

L. II. (Hastily.) To what end would you leave it with him ?

B. F. To be entered on the minutes of that Board, as usual.

L. H. (Angrily). It shall not be entered there. No such paper
shall be entered there, while I have anything to do with the business
of that Board. The House of Representatives has no right to appoint
an agent. We shall take no notice of any agents, but such as are
appointed by acts of Assembly, to which the governor gives his
assent. We have had confusion enough already. Here is one agent
appointed by the Council, another by the House of Representatives.
Which of these is agent for the province ? Who are we to hear in
provincial affairs ? An agent appointed by act of Assembly we can
understand. No other will be attended to for the future, I can assure
you.

B. F. I cannot conceive, my Lord, why the consent of the
governor should be thought necessary to the appointment of an agent
for the people. It seems to me that------

L. II. (With a mixed look of anger and contempt.) I shall not
enter into a dispute with you, Sir, upon this subject.

B. F. I beg your Lordship’s pardon ; I do not presume to dispute
with your Lordship ; I would only say, that it seems to me that
every body of men, who can appear in person, where business relating
to them may be transacted, should have a right to appear by an
agent. The concurrence of the governor does not seem to me
necessary. It is the business of the people that is to be done ; he is
not one of them ; he is himself an agent ?

L. H. (Hastily.) Whose agent is he ?

B. F. The King’s, my Lord.

L. H. No such matter. He is one of the corporation by the
province charter. No agent can be appointed but by an act, nor any
act pass without his assent. Besides, this proceeding is directly
contrary to express instructions.

B. F. I did not know there had been such instructions. I am not
concerned in any offence against them, and-------

L. H. Yes, your offering such a paper to be entered is an offence
against them. (Folding it up again without having read a word oj
it.) No such appointment shall be entered. When I came into
the administration of American affairs, I found them in great dis-
order. By my firmness they are now something mended ; and, while
I have the honour to hold the seals, I shall continue the same con-
duct, the same firmness. I think my duty to the master I serve,
and to the government of this nation, requires it of me. If that
conduct is not approved* they may take my office from me when26o

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

they please. I shall make them a bow, and thank them; I shall
resign with pleasure. That gentleman knows it, (pointing to Mr.
Pownall,) but, while I continue in it, I shall resolutely persevere
in the same firmness. {Spoken with great warmth, and turning
pale in his discourse, as if he was angry at something or somebody,
besides the agent, and of more consequence to himself)

B. F. {Reaching out his hand for the paper, which his Lordship
returned to him) I beg your Lordship’s pardon for taking up so
much of your time. It is, I believe, of no great importance whether
the appointment is acknowledged or not, for I have not the least
conception that an agent can at present be of any use to any of the
colonies. I shall therefore give your Lordship no further trouble.
(Withdrew)

CHAPTER IX. (1771-1772.)

Silkworms—A Model Young American—Sowing the Wind—IIow to Make Chil-
dren Handsome—The New World contrasted with the Old—Lord Hills-
borough replaced by Lord Dartmouth.

To Cadwallader I have not now before me your letter, which came
Evans, dated with the sample of silk, having put it into the hands
London, to Feb., 0f Walpole with the sample, who has promised me
full and particular answers to all your queries after the
silk has been thoroughly examined. 'In the meantime he tells me,
the best sort appears to him to be worth in itself twenty-seven or
twenty-eight shillings a pound, and will fetch that price when some
imperfections in the reeling it are remedied. He tells me farther,
that the best eggs are to be had from Valencia in Spain, whence lie
will procure some for you against the next year; the worms from
those eggs being the strongest, healthiest, and producing the finest
silk of any others; and he thinks you should get some reelers from
Italy, which he would likewise undertake to do for you if desired.
He is one of the most opulent and noble-spirited merchants of this
kingdom.

To Jonathan 1 suppose Jonathan has told you, that the lottery is
williams, dated drawn, and your two new tickets had the same success
London,5Mareh, as the former> namely, one twenty-pound prize, and
one blank. Would you go on any further ?

Josiah is very happy in being under the tuition of Mr. Stanley,
who very kindly undertook him at my request, though he had left off
teaching. Josiah goes constantly, too, to several concerts, besides
operas and oratorios, so that his thirst for music is in a way of being
thoroughly satiated. This is the principal expense; for, in all other
respects, I never saw two young men from America, more prudent
and frugal than he and his brother are.BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

261

Jonathan seems to have an excellent turn for business, and to be
a perfect master of accounts. In the latter he has been of great
use to me, having put all mine in order for me. There is a proposal
from his uncle- of his going to East India, as a writer in the Com-
pany’s service, which I wish may take place, as I think, if he lives,
he cannot fail bringing home a fortune. He had ordered a cargo
of goods to be sent you for cousin Wood’s shop, and had given ex-
pectations of paying ready money. But, one of your bills being
protested, there seemed a necessity of asking some credit of the
merchant. I advised him to .take what was wanting of me, rather
than fail in punctuality to his word, which is sacred here among all
that would maintain a character in trade. He did so ; and thereby
also saved the discount without putting me to the least inconve-
nience, provided the money is replaced in six months ; and I was
glad I had it in my power to accommodate him.

I hope you have before this time got another tenant for your
house, and at the former rent. However, I would have you go on
advancing to my sister the amount of it, as I am persuaded she
cannot well do without it. She has, indeed, been very unfortunate
in her children.1 I am glad to hear, that, as soon as the weather
permits, the tomb will receive a thorough repair. Your kind care
in this matter will greatly oblige your affectionate uncle.

To lira. Wil- I received your kind letter by your sons. They are,
liama,datedLon- I assure you, exceeding welcome to me; and they
1771. 6 Mftrch’ behave with so much prudence, that no two young
men could possibly less need the advice you would have
me give them. Josiah is very happily employed in his musical
pursuits. And as you hinted to me, that it would be agreeable to
you if I employed Jonathan in writing, I requested him to put my
accounts in order, which had been much neglected. He undertook
it with the utmost cheerfulness and readiness, and executed it with
the greatest diligence, making me a complete new set of books, fairly
written out and settled in a mercantile manner, which is a great
satisfaction to ma, and a very considerable service. I mention this,
that you may not be in the least uneasy from an apprehension of
their visit being burdensome to me ; it being, I assure you, quite the
contrary.

It has been wonderful to me to see a young man.from America,
in a place so full of various amusements as London is, as attentive
to business, as diligent in it, and keeping as close at home till it
was finished, as if it had been for his own profit; and as if he had
been at the public diversions so often, as to be tired of them.

I pray God to keep and preserve you, and give you again, in due
time, a happy sight of these valuable sons.

1 Mrs. Jane Mecom, the youngest and favourite sister of Dr. Franklin, was
married at fifteen to Edward Mecom, by whom she had twelve children, but was
early left a widow and in destitute circumstances. Her wants Vere generously
provided for by her brother, whom she survived about four years. The youngest
of seventeen children, she was the last that died.262

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

To ■William ^ *s l°n£ since I have heard from you. The last
Franklin, dated packet brought me no letter, and there are two packets
London, 20April, now due. It is supposed that the long easterly winds

'	have kept them back. We have had a severe and

tedious winter. There is not yet the smallest appearance of spring.
Not a bud has pushed out, nor a blade of grass. The turnips, that
used to feed the cattle, have been destroyed by the frost. The hay in
most parts of the country is gone, and the cattle perishing for want,
the lambs dying by thousands through cold and scanty nourishment.
On Tuesday last I went to dine at our friend Sir Matthew Feather-
stone’s through a heavy storm of snow. His windows, you know,
look into the park. Towards evening, I observed the snow still lying
over all the park, for the ground was before too cold to thaw, it being
itself frozen, and ice in the canal. You cannot imagine a more winter-
like prospect. Sir Matthew and Lady Featherstone always inquire
kindly of your welfare, as do Mr. and Mrs. Sargent.

Sir John Pringle has heard from Mr. Bowman of your kindness to
that gentleman, and desires I would present his particular acknow-
ledgments for the attention you have paid to his recommendation.
The Ohio affair seems now near a conclusion, and, if the present
ministry stand a little longer, I think it will be completed to our
satisfaction. Mr. Wharton has been indefatigable, and I think scarce
any one I know besides would have been equal to the task, so difficult
it is to get business forward here, in which some party purpose is not
to be served. But he is always avnong them, and leaves no stone
unturned.

I have attended several times this winter upon your acts of
Assembly. The Board are not favourably disposed towards your
insolvent acts, pretending to doubt whether distant creditors, particu-
larly such as reside in England, may not sometimes be injured by
them. I have had a good deal of conversation with Mr. Jackson
about them, who remarks, that, whatever care the Assembly may,
according to my representation of their practice, take in examining
into the cases to prevent injustice, yet upon the /ace of the acts
nothing of that care appears. The preambles only say, that such and
such persons have petitioned and set forth the hardship of their im-
prisonment, but not a word of the Assembly’s having inquired into
the allegations contained in such petitions and found them true ; not
a word of the general consent of the principal creditors, or of any
public notice given of the debtor’s intention to apply for such an act;
all which, he thinks, should appear in the preambles. And then those
acts would be subject to less objection and difficulty in getting them
through the offices here. I would have you communicate this to the
Speaker of the Assembly, with my best respects. I doubt some of
those acts will be repealed. Nothing has been done, or is now likely
to be done, by the Parliament, in American affairs. The House of
. Commons antfr the city of London are got into a violent controversy,
that seems at present to engross the public attention, and the session
cannot continue much longer.BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

263

By this ship i send the picture, that you left with Meyer. He has
never yet finished the miniatures. The other pictures I send with it
are for my own house, but this you may take to yours.

To the Com- I think one may clearly see, in the system of customs
mittee of Corre- to be exacted in America by act of Parliament, the seeds
SassachusettB,11' sown °f a total disunion of the two countries, though, as
dated London, 15 yet, that event may be at a considerable distance. The
May, 1771. course and natural progress seems to be, first, the
appointment of needy men as officers, for others do not care to leave
England ; then, their necessities make them rapacious, their office
makes them proud and insolent, their insolence and rapacity make
them odious, and, being conscious that they are hated, they become
malicious ; their malice urges them to a continual abuse of the in-
habitants in their letters to administration, representing them as dis-
affected and rebellious, and (to encourage the use of severity) as weak,
divided, timid, and cowardly. Government believes all; thinks it
necessary to support and countenance its officers ; their quarrelling
with the people is deemed a mark and consequence of their fidelity ;
they are therefore more highly rewarded, and this makes their con-
duct still more insolent and provoking.

The resentment of the people will, at times and on particular inci-
dents, burst into outrages and violence upon such officers, and this
naturally draws down severity and acts of further oppression from
hence. The more the people are dissatisfied, the more rigour will be
thought necessary; severe punishments will be inflicted to terrify ;
rights and privileges will be abolished ; greater force will then be
required to secure execution and submission ; the expense will be-
come enormous ; it will then be thought proper, by fresh exactions, to
make the people defray it ; thence, the British nation and govern-
ment will become odious, the subjection to it will be deemed no longer
tolerable ; war ensues, and the bloody struggle will end in absolute
slavery to America, or ruin to Britain by the loss of her colonies ; the
latter most probable, from America’s growing strength and mag-
nitude.

But, as the whole empire must, in either case, be greatly weakened,
I cannot but wish to see much patience arid the utmost discretion in
our general conduct, that the fatal period may be postponed, and
that, whenever this catastrophe shall happen, it may appear to all
mankind, that the fault has not been ours. And, since the collection
of these duties has already cost Britain infinitely more, in the loss of
commerce, than they amount to, and that loss is likely to continue
and increase by the encouragement given to our manufactures through
resentment; and since the best pretence for establishing and en-
forcing the duties is the regulation of trade for the general advantage,
it seems to me, that it would be much better for Britain to give them
up, on condition of the colonies undertaking to enforce and collect
such, as are thought fit to be continued, by laws of their own, and
1 Thomas Cushing, James Otis, and Samuel Adams.264

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

officers of their own appointment, for the public uses of their respec-
tive governments. This would alone destroy those seeds of disunion,
and both countries might thence much longer continue to grow great
together, more secure by their united strength, and more formidable
to their common enemies. But the power of appointing friends and
dependents to profitable offices is too pleasing to most administrations,
to be easily parted with or lessened ; and therefore such a proposi-
tion, if it were made, is not very likely to meet with attention.

I do not pretend to the gift of prophecy. History shows, that, by
these steps, great empires have crumbled heretofore; and the late
transactions we have so much cause to complain of show, that we are
in the same train, and that, without a greater share of prudence and
wisdom, than we have seen both sides to be possessed of, we shall
probably come to the same conclusion.

The Parliament, however, is prorogued, without having taken any
of the steps we had been threatened with, relating to our charter.
Their attention has been engrossed by other affairs, and we have
therefore longer time to operate in making such impressions, as may
prevent a renewal of this particular attempt by our adversaries.

To Jonathan * g°t h°me *n good time and well; but, on perusing
Shipley,°Biiihop the letters that were sent to me from America during
of st.’ Asaph, my absence, and considering the business they require
Jhned ^7^d0n, 24 °f me> ^ hod not convenient to return so soon as I
intended. I regret my having been obliged to leave
that most agreeable retirement, which, good Mrs. Shipley put me so
kindly in possession of. I now breathe with reluctance the smoky
air of London, when I think of the sweet air of Twyford ; and, by t.lie
time your races are over, or about the middle of next month, if it
should not then be unsuitable to your engagements or other purposes,
I promise myself the happiness of spending a week or two where I so
pleasantly spent the last.

I have taken the liberty of sending by the Southampton stage,
which goes to-morrow, a parcel directed to your Lordship, to be left
at the turnpike next beyond Winchester, containing one of my books
for Miss Georgiana, which I hope she will be good enough to accept
as a small mark of my regard for her philosophic genius ; and also a
specimen of the American dried apples for Mrs. Shipley, that she may
judge whether it will be worth while to try the practice. I doubt
some dust may have got among them ; therefore it will not perhaps
be amiss to rinse them a minute or two in warm water, and dry them
quick in a napkin ; but this is submitted to her better judgment.

To John Bar- As to your pension, there is not, I believe, the . least
tram, dated ion- reason for you to apprehend its being stopped. I know
?£?.' 17 ,uly» not who receives it for you here, or I should quicken
1 '	them in writing to you. But there is no instance in

this King’s reign of taking away a pension once granted, unless for
some great offence. Young is in no esteem here as far as I can learn.BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

265

I wish your daughter success with her silkworms* I am persuaded
nothing is wanting in our country for the produce of silk, but skill ;
which will be obtained by persevering till we are instructed by
experience.

You take notice of the failing of your eyesight. Perhaps you have
not spectacles that suit you, and it is not easy there to provide one’s
self. People too, when they go to a shop for glasses, seldom give
themselves time to choose with care ; and, if their eyes are not rightly
suited, they are injured.' Therefore I send you a complete set, from
number one to thirteen, that you may try them at your ease ; and,
having pitched on such as suit you best at present, reserve those of
higher numbers for future use, as your eyes grow still older ; and with
the lower numbers, which are for younger people, you may oblige
some other friends. My love to good Mrs. Bartram and your chil-
dren. I am, as ever, your faithful friend and servant.

P. S. On inquiry, I find your pension continues, and will be regu-
larly paid, as it becomes due, to the person you empower to receive it
for you.

To GadwaUader * wrote to you on the 4th instant, and sent you a paper
Evans, dated of observations on your specimens of silk, drawn up by
London, 18 July, Mr. Patterson, who is noted here in that trade, with a
’	specimen of Italian silk as a copy for our people to

imitate. But they must not be discouraged if they should not come
up to the lustre of it, that being the very finest, and from a particular
district in Italy, none other being equal to it from any other district
or any other country.

The European silk I understand is all yellow, and most of the India
silk. What comes from China is white. In Ogilby’s account of that
country, I find that, in the province of Chekiang, “they prune their
mulberry trees once a year, as we do our vines in Europe, and suffer
them not to grow up to high trees, because through long experience
they have learned, that the leaves of the smallest and youngest trees
make the best silk, and know thereby how to distinguish the first
spinning of the threads from the second, viz., the first is that which
comes from the young leaves, that are gathered in March, with which
they feed their silkworms; and the second is of the old summer
leaves. And it is only the change of food, as to the young and old
leaves, which makes the difference in the silk. The prices of the first
and second spinning differ among the Chineses. The best silk is that
of March, the coarsest of June, yet both in one year.” I have copied
this passage to show, that in Chekiang they keep the mulberry trees
low ; but I suppose the reason to be, the greater facility of gathering
the leaves. It appears too by this passage, that they raise two crops
a year in that province, which may account for the great plenty of silk
there. But perhaps this would not answer with us, since it is not
practised in Italy, though it might be tried. Chekiang is from
twenty-seven to thirty-one degrees of north latitude. Duhalde has a
good deal on the Chinese management of the silk business.266

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

To his wife, I am glad to hear of all your welfares, and that the
dated London, H pictures were safe arrived. You do not tell me who
771' mounted the great one, nor where you have hung it up.
Let me know whether Dr. Bond likes the new one better than the old
one ; if so, the old one is to be returned hither to Mr. Wilson, the
painter. You may keep the frame, as it may be wanted for some
other picture there. I spent three weeks in Hampshire, at my friend
the Bishop of St. Asaph’s. The Bishop’s lady knows what children
and grandchildren I have and their ages ; so, when I was to come
away on Monday the 12th, in the morning, she insisted on my staying
that one day longer, that we might together keep my grandson’s
birthday. At dinner, among other nice things, we had a floating
island, which they always particularly have on the birthdays of any of
their own six children, who were all but one at table, where there was
also a clergyman’s widow, now above one hundred years old. The
chief toast of the day was, Master Benjamin Bache, which the vener-
able old lady began in a bumper of mountain. The Bishop’s lady
politely added, “ and that he may be as good a man as his grand-
father.” I said I hoped he would be much better. The Bishop, still
more complaisant than his lady, said, “ We will compound the matter,
and be contented if he should not prove quite so good." This chit-
chat is to yourself only, in return for some of yours about your grand-
son, and must only be read to Sally, and not spoken of to anybody
else; for you know how people add and alter silly stories that they
hear, and make them appear ten times more silly.

Just while I am writing, the post brings me the enclosed from the
good Bishop, with some letters of'recommendation for Ireland, to see
which country I am to set out next week with my old friend and fellow
traveller, Counsellor Jackson. We expect to be absent a month or
six weeks. The Bishop’s youngest daughter, mentioned in his letter,
is about thirteen years of age, and came up with me in the postchaise
to go to school.

To Mrs Marv * came to this place on Saturday night, right well,
Hewson,' dated and untired with a seventy miles’ journey. That day I
Preston,25Nov., met with your and my Dolly’s joint letter, which would
‘	have refreshed me with its kindness, if I had been ever

so weary.

The account you give of a certain lady’s having entertained a new
gallant, in my absence, did not surprise me ; for I have been used to
rivals, and scarce ever had a friend or a mistress in my whole life,
that other people did not like as well as myself. And, therefore, I
did not wonder, when I read in the newspapers some weeks since,
that “the Duke of C.” (that general lover) “had made many visits of
late to an old lady not many miles.from Craven Street.” I only
wondered, considering the dislike she used to have for the family, that
she would receive his visits. But as I saw, soon after, that Prince
Charles had left Rome, and was gone a long journey, nobody knew
whither, I made no doubt but the newswriters had mistaken the
person, and that it was he, who had taken the opportunity of my
absence to solace himself with his old friend.BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

267

I thank you for your intelligence about my godson. I believe you
are sincere, when you say you think him as fine a child as you wish to
see. He had cut two teeth, and three, in another letter, make five ;
for I know you never write tautologies. If I have over-reckoned, the
number will be right by this time. His being like me in so many
particulars pleases me prodigiously ; and I am persuaded there is
another, which you have omitted, though it must have occurred to
you while you were putting them clown. Pray let him have every-
thing he likes. I think it of great consequence while the features of
the countenance are forming ; it gives them a pleasant air, and, that
being once become natural and fixed by habit, the face is ever after
the handsomer for it, and on that much of a person’s good fortune
and success in life may depend. Had I been crossed as much in my
infant likings and inclinations as you know I have been of late years,
I should have been, I.was going to say, not near so handsome; but
as the vanity of that expression would offend other folks’ vanity, I
change it, out of regard to them, and say, a great deal more homely.

I rejoice that your good mother’s new regimen succeeds so well with
her. We are to set out, my son and I, to-morrow for London, where
I hope to be by the end of the week, and to find her, and you, and all
yours well and happy. My love to them all.

To Hra J I have now been some weeks returned from my
ttecom,8, dated journey through Wales, Ireland, Scotland, and the
London, 13 Jan., North of England, which, besides being an agreeable
1772,	tour with a pleasant companion, has contributed to the

establishment of my health ; and this is the first ship I have heard of,
by which I could write to you.

I thank you for the receipts ; they are as full and particular as one
could wish ; but they can easily be practised only in America, no
bayberry wax, nor any Brasiletto, being here to be had, at least to my
knowledge. I am glad, however, that those useful arts, which have
so long been in our family, are now put down in writing. Some
future branch may be the better for it.

It gives me pleasure, that those little things sent by Jonathan
proved agreeable to you. I write now to cousin Williams to press the
payment of the bond. There has been forbearance enough on my
part; seven years or more, without receiving any principal or interest.
It seems as if the debtor was like a whimsical man in Pennsylvania,
of whom it was said that, it being against his principle to pay interest,
and against his interest to pay the principal, he paid neither one nor
the other. ,

I doubt you have taken too old a pair of glasses, being tempted by
their magnifying greatly. But people in choosing should only aim at
remedying the defect. The glasses that enable them to see as well,
at the same distance they used to hold their book or work, while their
eyes were good, are-those they should choose; not such as make
them see better, for such contribute to hasten the time when still older
glasses will become necessary.268

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

All, who have seen my grandson, agree with you in their accounts
of his being an uncommonly fine boy, which brings often afresh to
my mind the idea of my son Franky,1 though now dead thirty-six
years, whom I have seldom since seen equalled in everything, and
whom to this day I cannot think of without a sigh. Mr. Bache is
here ; I found him at Preston, in Lancashire, with his mother and
sisters, very agreeable people, and I brought him to London with me.
I very much like his behaviour. He returns in the next ship to
Philadelphia.

P. S. No arms of the Folgers are to be found in the Herald’s
Office. I am persuaded it was originally a Flemish family, which
came over with many others from that country in Queen Elizabeth’s
lime, flying from the persecution then raging there.

To the Com- *	*	* In yours of July 9th it is mentioned, that

mittee of Cor- the House desire I would annually send an account of
Haesaohueette)11 expense I am at, in carrying on the affairs of the
dated London, is province. Having business to do for several colonies,
Jan., 1772. almost every time I go to the public offices, and to the
ministers, I have found it troublesome to keep an account of small
expenses, such as coach and chair hire, stationery, &c., and difficult
to divide them justly. Therefore I have some time since omitted
keeping any account, or making any charge of them, but content
myself with such salaries, grants, and allowances, as have been made
me. Where considerable sums have been disbursed, as in fees to
counsel, payment of solicitors’ bills, and the like, those I charge.
But as yet I have made no such^ disbursements on the account of
your province.

To Samuel t0 a2ency> whether I am re-chosen or not, and
Cooper, dated whether the General Assembly is ever permitted to pay
London, 13 Jan., me or not, I shall nevertheless continue to exert myself
1778‘	in behalf of my country as long as I see a probability of

my being able to do it any service. I have nothing to ask or expect
of ministers. I have, thanks to God, a competency for the little time
I may expect to live, and am grown too old for ambition of any kind,
but that of leaving a good name behind me.

Your story of the clergyman and proclamation is a pleasant one.
I can only match it with one I had from my father. I know not if it
was ever printed. Charles the First ordered his proclamation,
authorizing sport on a Sunday, to be read in all churches. Many
clergymen complied, some refused, and others hurried it through as
indistinctly as possible. But one, whose congregation expected no
such thing from him, did, nevertheless, to their great surprise read it
distinctly. He followed it, however, with the fourth commandment,
Remember to keep holy the Sabbath day, and then said, “ Brethren, I
have laid before you the commandment of your King, and the com-
mandment of your God. I leave it to yourselves to judge which of
the two ought rather to be observed.”

1 Francis Folger, who died in his fourth year.BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

269

I should very readily have recommended your son to
Bowdoin, dated the care of my friend, Dr. Priestley, if he had continued
London, ’l3 Jan., to superintend the academy at Warrington ; but he has
1TO>	left that charge some time since, and is now pastor of a

congregation at Leeds in Yorkshire.

The governing of colonies by instruction has long been a favourite
point with ministers here. About thirty years since, in a bill brought
into Parliament relating to America, they inserted a clause to make
the King’s instructions laws in the colonies, which, being opposed by
the then agents, was thrown out And I well remember a conversa-
tion with Lord Granville, soon after my arrival here, in which he
expressed himself on that subject in the following terms. “ Your
American Assemblies slight the King’s instructions, pretending that
they are not laws. The instructions sent over to your governors are
not like the pocket instructions given to ambassadors, to be observed
at their discretion, as circumstances may require. They are drawn
up by grave men, learned in the laws and constitutions of the realm ;
they are brought into Council, thoroughly weighed, well considered,
and amended if necessary, by the wisdom of that body ; and, when
received by the governors, they are the laws of the land; for the
King is the legislator of the colonies.”

I remember this the better, because, being a new doctrine to me, I
put it down as soon as I returned to my lodgings. To be sure, if a
governor thinks himself obliged to obey all instructions, whether con-
sistent or inconsistent with the constitution, laws, and rights of the
country he governs, and can proceed to govern in that train, there is
an fend of the constitution, and those rights are abolished. But I
wonder, that any honest gentleman can think there is honour in being
a governor on such terms. And I think the practice cannot possibly
continue, especially if opposed with spirit by our Assemblies. At
present no attention is paid by the American ministers to any agent
here, whose appointment is not ratified by the governor’s assent; and,
if this is persisted in, you can have none to serve you in a public
character, that do not render themselves agreeable to these ministers,
and those otherwise appointed can only promote your interests by
conversation, as private gentlemen or by writing.

Virginia had, as you observe, two agents, one for the Council, the
other for the Assembly ; but I think the latter only was considered as
agent for the province. He was appointed by an act, which expired
in the time of Lord Botetourt, and was not revived. The other, I
apprehend, continues ; but I am not well acquainted with the nature
of his appointment. I only understand, that he does not concern
himself much with the general affairs of the colony. * * *

•

To Joshua ^ was £reat pleasure I learnt, by Mr. Marchant,
Babcock, dated that you and Mrs. Babcock and all your good family
London, 13 Jan., continue well and happy. I hope I shall find you all in
1778,	the same state, when I next come your way, and take

shelter, as often heretofore, under your hospitable roof. The Colonel,270

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

I am told, continues an active and able fanner, the most honourable
of all employments, in my opinion, as being themost useful in itself,
and rendering the man most independent. My namesake, his son,
will soon, I hope, be able to drive the plough for him.

I have lately made a tour through Ireland and Scotland. In those
countries, a small part of the society are landlords, great noblemen,
and gentlemen, extremely opulent, living in the highest affluence and
magnificence. The bulk of the people are tenants, extremely poor,
living in the most sordid wretchedness, in dirty hovels of mud and
straw, and clothed only in rags.

I thought often of the happiness of New England, where every
man is a freeholder, has a vote in public affairs, lives in a tidy, warm
house, has plenty of good food and fuel, with whole clothes from head
to foot, the manufacture, perhaps, of his own family. Long may they
continue in this situation ! But, if they should ever envy the trade of
these countries, I can put them in a way to obtain a share of it.
Let them, with three-fourths of the people of Ireland, live the year
round on potatoes and buttermilk, without shirts, then may their
merchants export beef, butter, and linen. Let them, with the
generality of the common people of Scotland, go barefoot, then may
they make large exports in shoes and stockings ; and, if they will be
content to wear rags, like the spinners and weavers of England, they
may make cloths and stuffs for all parts of the world.

Farther, if my countrymen should ever wish for the honour of
having among them a gentry enormously wealthy, let them sell their
farms and pay racked rents ; t,he scale of the landlords will rise, as
that of the tenants is depressed, who will soon become poor, tattered,
dirty, and abject in spirit. Had I never been in the American
colonies, but were to form my judgment of civil society by what I
have lately seen, I should never advise a nation of savages to admit
of civilization ; for I assure you, that, in the possession and enjoyment
of the various comforts of life, compared to these people, every
Indian is a gentleman, and the effect of this kind of civil society
seems to be, the depressing multitudes below the savage state, that a
few may be raised above it. My best wishes attend you and yours,
being ever, with great esteem, &c.

To Thomas Sir,— * am now returned again to London from a
Cushing, dated journey of some months in Ireland and Scotland.
I772d011’13 Jan’’ Though my constitution, and too great confinement
to business during the winter, seem to require the air
and the exercise of a long journey once a year, which I have now
practised for more than twenty years past, yet I should not have been
out so long this time, but that I was well assured the Parliament
would not meet till towards the end of January, before which meeting
few of the principal people would be in town, and no business of
importance likely to be agitated relating to America.

I have now before me your esteemed favours. In the first you
mention, that the General Assembly was still held out of its ancientBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

271

and only convenient seat, the Townhouse in Boston, and by the latest
papers from thence I see, that it was prorogued again to meet in Cam-
bridge, which I a little wonder at, when I recollect a question asked
me by Lord Hillsborough in Ireland, viz., Whether I had heard from
New England lately, since the General Court was returned to Boston ?
From this I concluded, that orders had been transmitted by his Lord-
ship for its removal. Perhaps such may have been sent, to be used
discretionally. I think I have before mentioned to you one of the
articles of impeachment brought against a bad minister of a former
King ; “That to work his ends he had caused the Parliament to sit
in villibus et remotis partibus regni, where few people, propter defectum
hospiiii et victualium, could attend, thereby to force illos paucos, qui
remanebunt de communitate regni, concedere regi quamvis pessima”
Lord Clarendon, too, was impeached for endeavouring to introduce
arbitrary government into the colonies.

Lord Hillsborough seems, by the late instructions, to have been
treading in the paths, that lead to the same unhappy situation, if the
Parliament here should ever again feel for the colonies. Being in
Dublin, at the same time with his Lordship, I met with him accident-
ally at the Lord Lieutenant’s, who had happened to invite us to dine
with a large company on the same day. As there was something
curious in our interview, I must give you an account of it. He was
surprisingly civil, and urged my fellow travellers and me to call at his
house in our intended journey northward, where we might be sure of
better accommodations than the inns would afford us. He pressed us
so politely, that it was not easy to refuse without apparent rudeness,
as we must pass through his town, Hillsborough, and by his door;
and therefore, as it might afford an opportunity of saying something
on American affairs, I concluded to comply with his invitation.

His Lordship went home some time before we left Dublin. We
called upon him, and were detained at his house four days, during
which time he entertained us with great civility, and a particular
attention to me, that appeared the more extraordinary, as I knew that
just before we left London he had expressed himself concerning me in
very angry terms, calling me a republican, a factious, mischievous
fellow, and the like.

In our conversations he first showed himself a good Irishman,
blaming England for its narrowness towards that country in restrain-
ing its commerce, and discouraging its woollen manufacture. When
I applied his observations to America, he said he had always been of
opinion, that America ought not to be restrained in manufacturing
anything she could manufacture to advantage; that he supposed,
that, at present, she found more profit in agriculture ; but, whenever
she found that less profitable, or any particular manufacture more so,
he had no objection to her pursuing it; and that the subjects in every
part of the King’s dominion had a natural right to make the best use
they could of the production of their country. He censured Lord
Chatham for affecting in his speech, that the Parliament had a right
or ought to restrain manufactures in the colonies ; adding, that, as he272

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

knew the English were apt to be jealous on that head, he avoided
everything that might inflame that jealousy; and, therefore, though
the Commons had requested the crown to order the governor to send
over annually accounts of such manufactures, as were undertaken in
the colonies, yet, as they had not ordered such accounts to be annually
laid before them, he should never produce them till they were called
for.

Then he gave me to understand, that the bounty on silk raised in
America was a child of his, and he hoped it would prove of great
advantage to that country ; and that he wished to know in what
manner a bounty on raising wine there might be contrived, so as to
operate effectually for that purpose, desiring me to turn it in my
thoughts, as he should be glad of my opinion and advice. Then he
informed me, that Newfoundland was grown too populous to be left
any longer without a regular government, but there were great diffi-
culties in the forming such a kind of government as would be suitable
to the particular circumstances of that country, which he wished me
likewise to consider, and that I would favour him with my sentiments.

He seemed attentive to everything, that might make my. stay in his
house agreeable to me, and put his eldest son Lord Kilwarling into
his phaeton with me, to drive me a round of forty miles, that I might
see the country, the seats, and manufactures, covering me with his
own great-coat, lest I should take cold. In short, he seemed extremely
solicitous to impress me, and the colonies through me, with a good
opinion of him. All which I could not but wonder at, knowing that
he likes neither them nor me ; and I thought it inexplicable but on
the suppositibn, that he apprehended an approaching storm, and was
desirous of lessening beforehand the number of enemies he had so
imprudently created. But, if he takes no steps towards withdrawing
the troops, repealing the duties, restoring the Castle, or recalling the
offensive instructions, I shall think all the plausible behaviour I have
described is meant only, by patting and stroking the horse, to make
him more patient, while the reins are drawn tighter, and the spurs set
deeper into his sides.

Before leaving Ireland I must mention, that, being desirous of see-
ing the principal patriots there, I stayed till the opening of their
Parliament. I found them disposed to be friends of America, in
which I endeavoured to confirm them, with the expectation that our
growing weight might in time be thrown into their scale, and, by
joining our interest with theirs, a more equitable treatment from this
nation might be obtained for them as well as for us. There are many
brave spirits among them. The gentry are a very sensible, polite,
and friendly people. Their Parliament makes a most respectable
figure, with a number of good speakers in both parties, and able men
of business. And I must not omit acquainting you, that, it being a
standing rule to admit members of the English Parliament to sit
(though they do not vote) in the House among the members, while
others are only admitted into the gallery, my fellow traveller, being an
English member, was accordingly admitted as such. But I supposedBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

*7 3

1 must go to the gallery, when the Speaker stood up, and acquainted
the House, that he understood there was in town an American gentle-
man of (as he was pleased to say) distinguished character and merit,
a member or delegate of some of the Parliaments of that country, who
was desirous of being present at the debates of the House; that there
was a rule of the House for admitting members of English Parlia-
ments, and that he supposed the House would consider the American
Assemblies as English Parliaments ; but, as this was the first instance,
he had chosen not to give any order in it without receiving their
directions. On the question, the House gave a loud unanimous ay.

To Samuel * received your kind letter of November 8th, and
Franklin, dated rejoice to hear of the continued welfare of you and your
iTOdon’13 Jan’’ S00^ wife and four daughters. I hope they will all get
good husbands. I dare say they will be educated so as
to deserve them.

I knew a wise old man, who used to advise his young friends to
choose wives out of a bunch ; for where there were many daughters,
he said, they improved each other, and from emulation acquired more
accomplishments, knew more, could do more, and were not spoiled by
parental fondness, as single children often are. Yours have my best
wishes, and blessing, if that can be of any value.

To Ezra Stiles, There is lately published in Paris a work, entitled
dated London, 13 “ Zend-Avesta, Ouvrage de Zoroastre, contenant les
77 1	I dees Theologiques, Physiques et Morales de ce Ldgis-

lateurj les CMmonies die Culte Religieux qu'il a ttabli, et
plusieurs Traits importans relatifs ct V Ancienne Histoire des Perses.
Traduit en Francois sur ! Original Zend,, avec des Remarques: et
accompagne de plusieurs Traites propres a Iclaircir les Matieres, qui
en sont £ Objetj par M. Anquetil du Perron, de l' Academie Roy ale
des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, et Interprbte du Roy pour les Langues
Orientales." It is in two volumes quarto. Near half the work is an
account of the author’s travels in India, and his residence among the
Parses during several years to learn their languages.

I have cast my eye over the religious part; it seems to contain a
nice morality, mixed wilh abundance of prayers, ceremonies, and
observances. If you desire to have it, I will procure it for you.
There is no doubt of its being a genuine translation of the books at
present deemed sacred, as the writings of Zoroaster, by his followers ;
hut perhaps some of them are of later date, though ascribed to him ;
for to me there seems too great a quantity and variety of ceremonies
and prayers, to be directed at once by one man. In the Romish
church they have increased gradually in the course of ages to their
present bulk. Those, who added new ones from time to time, found
it necessary to give them authority by pretences of their antiquity.
The books of Moses, indeed, if all written by him, which some doubt,
are an exception to this observation.

To his wife, I take notice of the considerable sums you have paid.

vmQ0n’ I would hot have you send me any receipts. I am
88 an,, ' satisfied with the accounts you give.

i9274

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

I am much pleased with your little histories of our grandson, and
happy in thinking how much amusement he must afford you. I pray
that God may continue him to us and to his parents. Mr. Bache is
about returning. His behaviour here has been very agreeable to me.
I have advised him to settle down to business in Philadelphia, where,
I hope, he will meet with success. I mentioned to you before, that I
saw his mother and sisters at Preston, who are very genteel and
agreeable people.

I received your young neighbour Haddock’s silk, and carried it to
her relations, who live very well, keeping a linen-draper’s shop in
Bishop’s-gate Street. They have a relation in Spitalfields, that is a
manufacturer, who I believe will do it well. I shall honour much
every young lady, that I find on my return dressed in silk of her own
raising. I thank you for the sauceboats, and am pleased to find so
good a. progress made in the china manufactory. I wish it success
most heartily.

Mrs. Stevenson, too, loves to hear about your little boy. Her own
grandson and my godson is a fine child, now nine months old. He
has an attentive, observing, sagacious look, as if he had a great deal
of sense ; but as yet he is not enough acquainted with our language
to express it intelligibly. His mother nurses him herself, for which I
much esteem her ; as it is rather unfashionable here ; where numbers
of little innocents suffer and perish. His name is William.

The squirrels came safe and well. You will see by the enclosed
how welcome they were. A hundred thanks are sent you for them,
and I thank you for the readiness with which you executed the com-
mission. The buckwheat and'* Indian meal are come safe and good.
They will be a great refreshment to me this winter \ for, since I can-
not be in America, everything that comes from thence comforts me
a little, as being something like home. The dried peaches, too, are
excellent ; those dried without their skins. The parcel in their skins
are not so good. The apples are the best I ever had, and came with
the least damage. The sturgeon you mention, did not come; but
that is not so material.

I hope our cousin Fisher will do well among us. He seems a
sober, well inclined man ; and, when I saw him at Birmingham, he
appeared to be well respected by his relations and friends. An
active, lively, industrious wife would be a good thing for him. I sent
you from Ireland a fine piece of the holland of that country. Captain
All, whom I met with there, found a captain whom he knew, who
promised to take care of it and deliver it safe. You mention
nothing of it in your letter of December 2nd, when, in the common
course, you ought to have had it before that time, which makes me
fear it is lost. I wrote to you from Dublin and from Glasgow in Scot-
land. I was in Ireland about seven weeks ; in Scotland about four
weeks ; absent from London, in all, more than three months. My
tour was a very pleasant one. I received abundance of civilities
from the gentry of both kingdoms, and my health is improved by the
air and exercise.BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

275

I have advised Mr. Bache to deal only in the ready money way,
though he should sell less. It is the safest and the most easy manner
of carrying on business. I have given him two hundred pounds
sterling to add something to his cargo. My love to our dear Sally.

To Mrs. Sarah * met w*t^1 Bache at Preston, where I stayed two or
Bache, ’ dated three days, being very kindly entertained by his mother
l772d0n’ 89 Jan'’ ar*d sisters, whom I liked much. He came to town with
me, and is now going home to you. I have advised him to
settle down to business in Philadelphia, where he will always be with
you. I am of opinion, that almost any profession a man has been
educated in is preferable to an office held at pleasure, as rendering
him more independent, more a free man, and less subject to the
caprices of superiors ; and I think, that, in keeping a store, if it be
where you dwell, you can be serviceable to him, as your mother was
to me ; for you are not deficient in capacity, and I hope you are not
too proud.

You might easily learn accounts, and you can copy letters, or write
them very well upon occasion. By industry and frugality you may get
forward in the world, being both of you yet young ; and then what we
may leave you at our death will be a pretty addition, though of itself
far from sufficient to maintain and bring up a family. It is of more
importance for you to think seriously of this, as you may have a
number of children to educate. Till my return you need be at no
expense for rent, as you are all welcome to continue with your mother ;
and indeed it seems to be your duty to attend her, as she grows infirm,
and takes much delight in your company and the child’s. This saving
will be a help in your progress ; and for your encouragement I can
assure you, that there is scarce a merchant of opulence in your town,
whom I do not remember a young beginner with as little to go on
with, and no better prospects than Mr. Bache.

I hope you will attend to what is recommended to you in this letter,
it proceeding from sincere affection, after due consideration, with the
knowledge I have of the world and my own circumstances. I am
much pleased with the account I receive from all hands of your dear
little boy. I hope he will be continued a blessing to us all. It is a
pleasure to me, that the little things I sent you proved agreeable. I
am ever, my dear Sally, your affectionate father.

To William Your bast you mention some complaisance of Lord
Franklin,- dated Hillsborough towards you, that showed a disposition to
rmdon’ 30 Jan’’ on better terms. His behaviour to me in Ireland
1	corresponds exactly. We met first at the Lord Lieu-

tenant’s. Mr. Jackson and I were.invited to dine there, and when we
came, we were shown into a room where Lord Hillsborough was alone.
He was extremely civil, wonderfully so to me, whom he had not long
before abused to Mr. Strahan, as a factious, turbulent fellow, always
in mischief, a republican, enemy to the King’s service, and what not.
He entered very frankly into conversation with us both, and invited us276

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

both to stop at his house in Hillsborough, as we should travel north-
ward, and urged it in so polite a manner, that we could not avoid
saying that we would wait on him if we went that way. In my own
mind I was determined not to go that way ; but Mr. Jackson thought
himself obliged to call on his Lordship, considering the connection
his office forms between them. His Lordship dined with us at the
Lord Lieutenant’s. There were at table the Lord Chancellor, the
Speaker, and all the great officers of state. He drank my health, and
was otherwise particularly civil. He went from Dublin some days
before us.

At Dublin we saw and were entertained by both parties, the courtiers
and the patriots. The latter treated me with particular respect. We
were admitted to sit among the members of the Commons’ House ;
Mr. Jackson as member of the British Parliament, and I as member
of some British Parliament in America. The Speaker proposed it in
my behalf, with some very obliging expressions of respect for my
character, and was answered by the House with a unanimous ay of
consent, when two members came out to me, led me in between them,
and placed me honourably and commodiously. I hope our Assemblies
will not fall short of them in this politeness, if any Irish member
should happen to be in our country.

In Scotland I spent five days with Lord Karnes at his seat, Blair
Drummond, near Stirling, two or three days at Glasgow, two days at
Carron Iron Works, and the rest of the month in and about Edin-
burgh, lodging at David Hume’s, who entertained me with the greatest
kindness and hospitality, as did Lord Karnes and his lady. All our
old acquaintances there, Sir Alexander Dick and lady, Mr. McGowan,
Drs. Robertson, Cullen, Black, Ferguson, Russel, and others, inquired
affectionately of your welfare. I was out three months, and the journey
was evidently of great service to my health.

Mr. Bache had some views of obtaining an office in America ; but
I dissuaded him from the application, as I could not appear in it, and
rather wish to see all I am connected with in an independent situation,
supported by their own industry. I therefore advised him to lay out
the money he brought with him in goods, return and sit down to
business in Philadelphia, selling for ready money only, in which way
I think he might, by quick returns, get forward in the world. It would
have been wrong for Sally to leave her mother, besides incurring the
expense of such a voyage.

I cast my eye over Goddard’s piece against our friend Mr. Galloway,
and then lit my fire with it. I think such feeble, malicious attacks
cannot hurt him.

The resolution of the Board of Trade to admit, for the future, no
agents to appear before them, but such as are appointed by “ con-
current act of the whole Legislature,” will, I think, put an end to
agencies, as, I apprehend, the Assemblies will think agents under the
ministerial influence, that must arise from such appointments, cannot
be of much use in their colony affairs. In truth, I think the agents,
as now appointed, of as much use to the government here, as to theBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

-77

colonies that send them, having often prevented its going into mistaken
measures through misinformation, that must have been very incon-
venient to itself, and would have prevented more of the same kind if
they had been attended to ; witness the stamp and duty acts. I
believe, therefore, we shall conclude to leave this omniscient, infallible
minister to his own devices, and be no longer at the expense of sending
any agent, whom he can displace by a repeal of the appointing act.
I am sure I should not like to be an agent in such a suspicious
situation, and shall therefore decline serving under every such appoint-
ment.

Your Assembly may avoid the dispute you seem apprehensive of,
by leaving the appointment of an agent out of the support bill, or
rather I should say, the sum for his salary. The money in my hands
will pay him, whoever he is, for two or three years, in which the
measure and the minister may be changed. In the meantime, by
working with a friend, who has great influence at the Board, he
can serve the province as effectually as by an open reception and
appearance.

Our friend Sir John Pringle put into my hands the other day a letter
from Mr. Bowman, seeming, I thought, a good deal pleased with the
notice you had taken of his recommendation. I send you a copy of
it, that you may see the man has a grateful disposition. Temple has
been at home with us during the Christmas vacation from school.
He improves continually, and more and more engages the regard of
all that are acquainted with him, by his pleasing, sensible, manly
behaviour.

I have of late great debates with myself whether or not I shall
continue here any longer. I grow homesick, and, being now in my
sixty-seventh year, I begin to apprehend some infirmity of age may
attack me, and make my return impracticable. I have, also, some
important affairs to settle before my death, a period I ought now to
think cannot be far distant. I see here no disposition in Parliament
to meddle farther in colony affairs for the present, either to lay more
duties or to repeal any ; and I think, though I were to return again, I
may be absent from here a year without any prejudice to the business
I am engaged in, though it is not probable, that, being once at home,
I should ever again see England. I have indeed so many good kind
friends here, that I could spend the remainder of my life among them
with great pleasure, if it were not for my American connections, and
the indelible affection I retain for that dear country, from which I
have so long been in a state of exile. My love to Betsey.

To John Fox- You take not*ce> that “ Mr. Wharton’s friends will not
oroft, dated Lon- allow me any merit in this transaction,1 but insist the
don, 4Feb., 1772. whole is owing to his superior abilities.” It is a common
error in friends, when they would extol their friend, to make com-
parisons, and to depreciate the merits of others. It was not necessary

1 His agency in procuring the grant of a tract of land on the Ohio river to a
company, of which Mr. Thomas Walpole, a London banker, was president.278

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

for bis friends to do so in this case. Mr. Wharton will in truth have
a good deal of merit in the affair if it succeeds, he having been
exceedingly active and industrious in soliciting it, and in drawing up
memorials and papers to support the application and remove objections.
But, though I have not been equally active, it not being thought proper,
that I should appear much in the solicitation, since I became a little
obnoxious to the ministry, on account of my letters to America, yet I
suppose my advice may have been thought of some use, since it has
been asked on every step, and I believe, that, being longer and better
known here than Mr. Wharton, I may have lent some weight to his
negotiations by joining in the affair, from the greater confidence men
are apt to place in one they know, than in a stranger. However, as I
neither ask nor expect any particular consideration for any service I
may have done, and only think I ought to escape censure, I shall not
enlarge on this invidious topic.

Let us all do our endeavours, in our several capacities, for the
common service ; and, if one has the ability or opportunity of doing
more for his friends than another, let him think that a happiness, and
be satisfied. The business is not yet quite completed ; and, as many
things may happen between the cup and the lip, perhaps there may
be nothing of this kind for friends to dispute about. For, if nobody
should receive any benefit, there would be no scrambling for the
honour.

In yours from New York, of July 3rd, you mentioned your intention
of purchasing a bill to send hither, as soon as you returned home from
your journey. I have not since received any from you, which I only
take notice of, that, if you liavk sent any, you may not blame me for
not acknowledging the receipt of it.

In mine of April 20th, I explained to you what I had before
mentioned, that, in settling our private accounts, I had paid you the
sum of three hundred and eighty-nine pounds, or thereabouts, in my
own wrong, having before paid it for you to the general post-office. I
hope that since you have received your books, and looked over the
accounts, you are satisfied of this. I am anxious for your answer
upon it, the sum being too large to be left long without an adjust-
ment.

To William At Icngth we have got rid of Lord Hillsborough, and
Franklin, dated Lord Dartmouth takes his place, to the great satisfaction
London, iTAng., 0f a]| the friends of America. You will hear it said
‘	among you, I suppose, that the interest of the Ohio

planters has ousted him ; but the truth is, what I wrote you long since,
that all his brother ministers disliked him extremely, and wished for
a fair occasion of tripping up his heels ; so, seeing that he made a
point of defeating our scheme, they made another of supporting it, on
purpose to mortify him, which they knew his pride could not bear. I
do not mean they would have done this, if they had thought our pro-
posal bad in itself, or his opposition well founded ; but I believe, if he
had been on good terms with them, they would not have differed withBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

279

him for so small a matter. The King, too, was tired of him and of
his administration, which had weakened the affection and respect of
the colonies for a royal government, of which (I may say it to you) I
used proper means from time to time that his Majesty should have due
information and convincing proofs. Mere of this when I see you.

The King^s dislike made the others more firmly united in the reso-
lution of disgracing Hillsborough, by setting at nought his famous
report, liut, now that business is done, perhaps our affair may be less
regarded in the cabinet and suffered to linger, and possibly may yet
miscarry. Therefore let us beware of every word and action, that may
betray a confidence in its success, lest we render ourselves ridiculous
in case of disappointment. We are now pushing for a completion of
the business; but the time is unfavourable, everybody gone or going
into the country, which gives room for accidents.

The regard Lord Dartmouth has always done me the honour to
express for me, gives me room to hope being able to obtain more in
favour of our colonies upon occasion, than I could for some time past.

To William I*1 yours of May 14th, you acquaint me with your
Franklin, dated indisposition, which gave me groat concern. The reso-
l772d0n’19AUS ’ lut*on y°u have taken to use more exercise is extremely
proper; and I hope you will steadily perform it. It is
of the greatest importance to prevent diseases, since the cure of them
by physic is so very precarious.

In considering the different kinds of exercise, I have thought, that
the quantum of each is to be judged of, not by time or by distance,
but by the degree of warmth it produces in the body. Thus, when I
observe, if I am cold when I get into a carriage in a morning, I may
ride all day without being warmed by it; that, if on horseback my
feet are cold, I may ride some hours before they become warm ; but,
if I am ever so cold on foot, I cannot walk an hour briskly, without
glowing from head to foot by the quickened circulation ; I have been
ready to say (using round numbers without regard to exactness, but
merely to make a great difference), that there is more exercise in one
mile’s riding on horseback, than Jive in a coach ; and more in one
mile’s walking on foot, than in Jive on horseback ; to which I may add,
that there is more in walking one mile up and down stairs, than in Jive
on a level floor. The two latter exercises may be had within doors,
when the weather discourages going abroad ; and the last may be had
when one is pinched for time, as containing a great quantity of exer-
cise in a handful of minutes. The dumb-bell is another exercise of the
latter compendious kind. By the use of it I have in forty swings
quickened my pulse from sixty to one hundred beats in a minute,
counted by a second watch ; and I suppose the warmth generally in-
creases with quickness of pulse.

To William As Lord Hillsborough in fact got nothing out of me,
Franklin, dated I should rather suppose he threw me away as an orange
uef1 V378.9 Aue' would yield no juice, and therefore not worth more

'	’ squeezing. When I had been a little while returned to28o

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

London, I waited on him to thank him for his civilities in Ireland, and
to discourse with him on a Georgia affair. The porter told me he was
not at home. I left my card, went another time, and received the
same answer, though I knew he was at home, a friend of mine
being with him. After intermissions of a week each, I made two
more visits, and received the same answer. The last time
was on a levee day, when a number of carriages were at his
door. My coachman driving up, alighted, and was opening
the coach door, when the porter, seeing, me, came out, and surlily
chid the coachman for opening the door before he had inquired
whether my Lord was at home ; and then turning to me, said,
“ My Lord is not at home.” I have never since been nigh him, and
we have only abused one another at a distance.

The contrast, as you observe, is very striking between his conversa-
tion with the chief justice, and his letter to you concerning your
province. I know him to be as double and deceitful as any man I
ever met with. But we have done with him, I hope, for ever. His
removal has, I believe, been meditated ever since the death of the
Princess Dowager. For I recollect, that on my complaining of him
about that time to a friend at court, whom you may guess, he told me,
we Americans were represented by Hillsborough as an unquiet people,
not easily satisfied with any ministry ; that, however, it was thought
too much occasion had been given us to dislike the present; and asked
me, whether, if he should be removed, I could name another likely to
be more acceptable to us. I said, “ Yes, there is Lord Dartmouth ;
we liked him very well when he was at the head of the Board formerly,
and probably should like him again.” This I heard no more of, but
I am pretty sure it was reported where I could wish it, though I know
not that it had any effect.

As to my situation here, nothing can be more agreeable, especially
as I hope for less embarrassment from the new minister ; a general
respect paid me by the learned, a number of friends and acquaintance
among them, with whom I have a pleasing intercourse ; a character
of so much weight, that it has protected me when some in power would
have done me injury, and continued me in an office they would have
deprived me of; my company so much desired, that I seldom dine at
home in winter, and could spend the whole summer in the country-
houses of inviting friends, if I chose it. Learned and ingenious
foreigners, that come to England, almost all make a point of visiting
me ; for my reputation is still higher abroad than here. Several of
the foreign ambassadors have assiduously cultivated my acquaintance,
treating me as one of their corps, partly I believe from the desire they
have, from time to time, of hearing something of American affairs, an
object become of importance in foreign courts, who begin to hope
Britain’s alarming power will be diminished by the defection of her
colonies ; and partly that they may have an opportunity of introducing
me to the gentlemen of their country who desire it. The King, too,
has lately been heard to speak of me with great regard.

These are flattering circumstances ; but a violent longing for homeBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

281

sometimes seizes me, which I can no otherwise subdue butby promising
myself a return next spring or next fall, and so forth. As to returning
hither, if I once go back I have no thoughts of it. I am too faradvanced
in life to propose three voyages more. I have some important affairs to
settle at home, and, considering my double expenses here and there, I
hardly think my salaries fully compensate the disadvantages. The
late change, however, being thrown into the balance, determines me
to stay another winter.

August 12nd—\ find I omitted congratulating you on the honour
of your election into the Society for Propagating the Gospel. There
you match indeed my Dutch honour. But you are again behind, for
last night I received a letter from Paris, of which the enclosed is an
extract, acquainting me that I am chosen Associe Etranger (foreign
member) of the Royal Academy there. There are but eight of these
Associds Etrangers in all Europe, and those of the most distinguished
names for science. The vacancy I have the honour of filling was
made by the death of the late celebrated Van Swieten of Vienna.
This mark of respect from the first academy in the world, which Abbd
Nollett, one of its members, took so much pains to prejudice against
my doctrines, I consider as a kind of victory without ink-shed, since
I never answered him. I am told he has but one of his sect now re-
maining in the Academy. All the rest, who have in any degree
acquainted themselves with electricity, are as he calls them Frank-
linists.

To Anthony I made a little extract from yours of April 27th, of the
Benezet,1 dated number of slaves imported and perishing,with some close
AU*" remar^s on *he hypocrisy of this country, which en-
UB ’	courages such a detestable commerce by laws for pro-

moting the Guinea trade ; while it piqued itself on its virtue, love of
liberty, and the equity of its courts, in setting free a single negro.
This was inserted in the London Chronicle, of the 20th of June last.

I thank you for the Virginia address, which I shall also publish with
some remarks. I am glad to hear that the disposition against keep-
ing negroes grows more general in North America. Several pieces
have been lately printed here against the practice, and I hope in time
it will be taken into consideration and suppressed by the legislature.
Your labours have already been attended with great effects. I hope,
therefore, you and your friends will be encouraged to proceed. My
hearty wishes of success attend you, being ever, my dear friend, yours
affectionately.

To Joseph Gallo- Lord Hillsborough, mortified by the Committee of
way, dated Lon- Council’s approbation of our grant, in opposition to his
don,22Aug.,1772. rep0rti has resigned. I believe, when he offered to do so,
he had such an opinion of his importance, that he did not think it
would be accepted : and that it would be thought prudent rather to

1 A distinguished philanthropist, who was a prominent member of the Sopiefy of
Friends, of French origin,282

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

set our grant aside than to part with him. His colleagues in the
ministry were all glad to get rid of him, and perhaps for this reason
joined more readily in giving him that mortification. Lord Dartmouth
succeeds him, who has much more favourable dispositions towards the
colonies. He has heretofore expressed some personal regard for me,
and I hope now to find our business with the Board more easy to
transact.

To Thomas Lord Dartmouth, now our American minister, is at
Cushing, dated present in the country, and will probably not be in town
Umber' i772?eP	season °f business comes on. I shall then im-

’	’ mediately put the petition into his hands, to be presented

to his Majesty. I may be mistaken, but I imagine we shall not meet
the same difficulty in transacting business with him, as with his
predecessor, on whose removal I congratulate you and the Assembly
most heartily.

To the Duke de It was with the greatest pleasure I received the infor-
Vrilliere, dated mation your Grace has condescended to give me, of my
beMth’xT??.16111 nom'nation by the King to fill a vacancy in the
’	’ Academy of Sciences, as Associe Etranger. I have a

high sense of the great honour thereby conferred on me, and beg that
my grateful acknowledgments may be presented to his Majesty.

To Joseph Priest*	In the affair of so much importance to you, wherein

ley, dated ion- you ask my advice, I cannot, for want of sufficient
b°r’l772.Septem premises, counsel you what to determine ; but, if you
' ’	’ please, I will tell you how. When those difficult cases

occur, they are difficult, chiefly because, while we have them under
consideration, all the reasons pro and con are not present to the mind
at the same time ; but sometimes one set present themselves, and at
other times another, the first being out of sight. Hence the various
purposes or inclinations that alternately prevail, and the uncertainty
that perplexes us.

To get over this, my way is, to divide half a sheet of paper by a
line into two columns ; writing over the one pro, and over the other
con; then during three or four days’ consideration, I put down under
the different heads short hints of the different motives, that at different
times occurto me,for or against the measure. When I have thus got
them all together in one view, I endeavour to estimate their respective
weights ; and where I find two (one on each side) that seem equal, I
strike them both out. If I find a reason pro equal to some two
reasons con, I strike out the three. If I judge some two reasons con,
equal to some three reasons pro, I strike out the five; and thus pro-
ceeding I find at length where the balance lies ; and if, after a day or
two of farther consideration, nothing new that is of importance occurs
on either side, I come to a determination accordingly. And, though
the weight of reasons cannot be taken with the precision of algebraic
quantities, yet, when each is thus considered separately and com-BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

283

paratively, and the whole lies before me, I think I can judge better,
and am less liable to make a rash step ; and in fact I have found great
advantage from this kind of equation, in what may be called moral or
prudential algebra.

To Mian Geor- I lament with you most sincerely the unfortunate end
gina Shipley, of poor Mungo. Few squirrels were better accom-
Septemherd°iT72? Pushed ; for he had had a good education, had travelled
'	' far, and seen much of the world. As he had the honour

of being, for his virtues your favourite, he should not go, like common
skuggs, without an elegy or an epitaph. Let us give him one in the
monumental style and measure, which, being neither prose nor verse,
is perhaps the properest for grief; since to use common language
would look as if we were not affected, and to make rhymes would
seem trifling in sorrow.

EPITAPH

ON T1IE LOSS OF AN AMEHICAN SQUIRREL, WHO, F.SCAPING FROM HIS CAGE,
WAS KILLED BV A SHEPHERD’S DOG.

Alas! poor Mungo !

Happy wert thou,' hadst thou known
Thy own felicity.

Remote from the fierce bald eagle,

Tyrant of thy native woods,

Thou liadst nought to fear from his piercing talons,

Nor from the murdering gun
Of the thoughtless sportsman.

Safe in thy wired castle,

Grimalkin never could annoy thee.

Daily wert thou fed with the choicest viands,

By the fair hand of an indulgent mistress ;

But, discontented,

Thou wouldst have more freedom.

Too soon, alas ! didst thou obtain it;

And wandering,

Thou art fallen by the fangs of wanton, cruel Ranger !

Learn hence,

Ye who blindly seek more liberty,

Whether subjects, sons, squirrels, or daughters,

That apparent restraint may be real protection,

Yielding peace and plenty
With security.

If you wish it, I shall procure another to succeed him ; but perhaps
you will now choose some other amusement.

Remember me affectionately to all the good family, and believe me
ever your affectionate friend.

To Thomas Lord Dartmouth, our American minister, came to
Cushing, dated town last wfcek, and held his first levee on Wednesday,
iTradon’ 4 Nov#’ w^en * Pa*d my respects to him, acquainting him at the
Tn'	same time, that I should in a few days wait upon him,284

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

on business from Boston ; which I have accordingly since done, and
have put your petition to the King into his Lordship’s hands, that
being the regular course.

He received me very obligingly, made no objection to my acting as
agent without an appointment assented to by the governor, as his pre-
decessor had done, so that I hope business is getting into a better
train. I shall use my best endeavours in supporting the petition, and
write you more fully by the next ship to Boston,

CHAPTER X. (1772.)

Bad Financing—Troubles of the India Company—Franklin's Sixty-seventh Birth-
day—Hutchinson Letters—Censures of the Assembly—Arthur Lee—Who
discovered America?—Painting on China.

To Joseph Gallo- Two circumstances have diverted me lately. One
way, dated Lon- was, that, being at the court of exchequer on some busi-
don,2Dec., 1772. ne-sS Df my own, I there met with one of the commis-
sioners of the stamp office, who told me he attended with a memorial
from that board, to be allowed in their accounts the difference between
their expense in endeavouring to establish those offices in America,
and the amount of what they received, which from Canada and the
West India Islands was but about fifteen hundred pounds, while the
expense, if I remember right, was above twelve thousand pounds,
being for stamps and stamping, with paper and parchment returned
upon their hands, freight, &c. The other is the present difficulties of
the India Company, and of government on their account. The Com-
pany have accepted bills, which they find themselves unable to pay,
though they have the value of two millions in tea and other India
goods in their stores, perishing under a want of demand ; their credit
thus suffering, and their stock falling one hundred and twenty per
cent., whereby the government will lose the four hundred thousand
pounds per annum, it having been stipulated that it should no longer
be paid, if the dividend fell to that mark. And, although it is known,
that the American market is lost by continuing the duty on tea, and
that we are supplied by the Dutch, who doubtless take the oppor-
tunity of smuggling other India goods among us with the tea, so
that for the five years past we might probably have otherwise taken
off the greatest part of what the Company have on hand, and so have
prevented their present embarrassment, yet the honour of govern-
ment is supposed to forbid the repeal of the American tea duty;
while the amount of all the duties goes on decreasing, so that the
balance of this year does not (as I have it from good authority)
exceed eighty pounds, after paying the collection ; not reckoning the
immense expense of guarda-costas, &c. Can an American help
smiling at these blunders ? Though, in a national light, they are
truly deplorable,BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

285

To Thomas ^ few ^ays after my leaving your petition with Lord
Cushing, dated Dartmouth, his Lordship sent for me to discourse with
rmdon’ 2 De0'’ me uPon After a long audience, he was pleased to
77 1	say, that, notwithstanding all I had said or could say, in

support and justification of the petition, he was sure the presenting it
at this time could not possibly produce any good ; that the King would
be exceedingly offended, but what steps his Majesty would take upon
it was uncertain ; perhaps he would require the opinion of the judges
or government lawyers, which would surely be against us ; perhaps he
might lay it before Parliament, and so the censure of both Houses
would be drawn down upon us. The most favourable thing to be
expected was, a severe reprimand to the Assembly, by order of his
Majesty, the natural consequence of which must be more discontent
and uneasiness in the province. That, possessed as he was with great
goodwill for New England, he was extremely unwilling, that one of
the first acts of his administration, with regard to the Massachusetts,
should be of so unpleasant a nature. That minds had been heated
and irritated on both sides of the water, but he hoped those heats
were now cooling, and he was averse to the addition of fresh fuel.
That, as I had delivered the petition to him officially, he must present
it, if I insisted upon it; but he wished I would first cpnsult my con-
stituents, who might possibly, on reconsideration, think fit to order its
being deferred.

I answered, that the great majority, with which the petition and the
resolves on which it was founded were carried through the House,
made it scarce expectable, that their order would be countermanded ;
that the slighting, evading, or refusing to receive petitions from the
colonies, on some late occasions by the Parliament, had occasioned
a total loss of the respect for and confidence in that body, formerly
subsisting so strongly in America, and brought on a questioning of
their authority ; that his Lordship might observe that petitions came
no more from thence to Parliament, but to the King only ; that the
King appeared now to be the only connection between the two coun-
tries ; and that, as a continued union was essentially necessary to the
well-being of the whole empire, I should be sorry to see that link
weakened, as the other had been ; that I thought it a dangerous thing
for any government to refuse receiving petitions, and thereby prevent
the subjects from giving vent to their griefs.

His Lordship interrupted me by replying, that he did not refuse to
deliver the petition ; that it should never justly be said of him, that he
interrupted the complaints of his Majesty’s subjects ; and that he
must and would present it, as he had said before, whenever I should
absolutely require ; but, for motives of pure goodwill to the province,
he wished me not to insist on it, till I should receive fresh orders.

Finally, considering that, since the petition was ordered, there had
been a change in the American administration; that the present
minister was our friend in the repeal of the Stamp Act, and seems
still to have good dispositions towards us ; that you had mentioned to
me the probability, that the House would have remonstrated on all286

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

their other grievances, had not their time been taken up with the
difficult business of a general valuation, and, since the complaint
of this petition was likely alone to give offence, it might perhaps
be judged advisable to give the substance of all our complaints at
once, rather than in parts and after a reprimand received ; I say, upon
the whole, I thought it best not to disoblige him in the beginning of
his administration, by refusing him what he seemed so desirous of, a
delay at least in presenting the petition, till farther directions should
be received from my constituents. If, after deliberation, they should
send me fresh orders, I shall immediately obey them, and the appli-
cation to the crown itself may possibly derive greater weight from the
reconsideration given it, while the temper of the House may be some-
what calmed by the removal of a minister, who had rendered himself
so obnoxious to them. Accordingly, I consented to the delay
desired, wherein I hope my conduct will not be disapproved.

On this occasion I think it fit to acquaint you, that there has lately
fallen into my hands part of a correspondence that I have every
reason to believe laid the foundation of most, if not all, our present
grievances. I am not at liberty to tell through what channel I
received it; and I have engaged that it shall not be printed, nor
copies taken of the whole, or any part of it ; but I am allowed to
let it be seen by some men of worth in the province, for their
satisfaction only. In confidence of your preserving inviolably my
engagement, I send you enclosed the original letters, to obviate every
pretence of unfairness in copying, interpolation, or omission. The
hands of the gentlemen will be well known. Possibly they may
not like such^an exposal of their conduct, however tenderly and
privately it may be managed. But, if they are good men, or pre-
tend to be such, and agree that all good men wish a good under-
standing and harmony to subsist between the colonies and their mother
country, they ought the less to regret, that, at the small expense of

part I cannot but acknowledge, that my resentment against this
country, for its arbitrary measures in governing us, conducted by the
late minister, has, since my conviction by these papers that those
measures were projected, advised, and called for by mei\ of character
among ourselves, and whose advice must therefore be attended with
all the weight that was proper to mislead, and which could therefore
scarce fail of misleading ; my own resentment, I say, has by this
means been exceedingly abated. I think they must have the same
effect with you ; but I am not, as I have said, at liberty to make the
letters public. I can only allow them to be seen by yourself, by the
other gentlemen of the Committee of Correspondence, by Messrs.
Bowdoin and Pitts of the Council, and Drs. Chauncy, Cooper, and
Winthrop, with a few such other gentlemen as you may think fit to'
show them to. After being some months in your possession, you are
requested to return them to me.

As to the writers, I can easily, as well as charitably, conceive it

their reputation for sincerity and public spirit among their compatriots,
so desirable an event may in some degree be forwarded. For my ownBENJAMIN FRANKLIN,.

287

possible, that men educated in prepossessions of the unbounded
authority of Parliament, &c., may think unjustifiable every opposition
even to its unconstitutional exactions, and imagine it their duty to
suppress, as much as in them lies, such opposition.' But, when I find
them bartering away the liberties of their native country for posts,
and negotiating for salaries and pensions extorted from the people;
and conscious of the odium these might be attended with, calling for
troops to protect and secure the enjoyment of them ; when I see them
exciting jealousies in the crown, and provoking it to work against so
great a part of its most faithful subjects ; creating enmities between
the different countries of which the empire consists ; occasioning a
great expense to the old country for suppressing or preventing
imaginary rebellions in the new, and to the new country for the pay-
ment of needless gratifications to useless officers and enemies; I
cannot but doubt their sincerity even in the political principles they
profess, and deem them mere time-servers, seeking their own private
emolument through any quantity of public mischief; betrayers of the
interest, not of their native country only, but of the government they
pretend to serve, and of the whole English empire.

To Thomas * did myself the honour of writing to you on the 2nd
Cushing, dated of December past, enclosing some original letters from
frndon, 6 Jan., persons in Boston, which 1 hope got safe to hand. I
have since received your favour of October 27th, which
containing in a small compass so full an enumeration of our grievances,
the steps necessary to remove them, and the happy effects that must
follow, I thought that though marked private, it might be -of use to
communicate it to Lord Dartmouth ; the rather too, as he would there
find himself occasionally mentioned with proper respect, and learn
that his character was esteemed in the colonies. Accordingly I wrote
him a few lines, and enclosed it a day or two before I was to wait
on his Lordship, that he might have a little time to consider the
contents.

When I next attended him, he returned me the letter with great
complaisance in his countenance ; said he was glad to find that people
in America were disposed to think so favourably of him ; that they did
him but justice in believing he had the best disposition towards them,
for he wished sincerely their welfare, though possibly he might not
always think with them, as to the means of obtaining that end ; that
the heads of complaint in your letter were many, some of them
requiring much consideration, and therefore it could scarce be ex-
pected that a sudden change should be made in so many measures,
supposing them all improper to be continued, which perhaps might
not be the case. It was however his opinion, that, if the Americans
continued quiet, and gave no fresh offence to government, those
measures would be reconsidered, and such relief given as upon con-
sideration should be thought reasonable.

I need not remark, that there is not much in general discourse ;
but I could then obtain nothing more particular, except that his288

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

Lordship expressed in direct terms his disapprobation of the itl*
struction for exempting the colonies from taxation ; which, however,
was, as he said, in confidence to me, relying that no public mention
should be made of his opinion on that head.

In the mean time, some circumstances are working in our favour
with regard to the duties. It is found by the last year’s accounts
transmitted by the commissioners, that the balance in favour of
Britain is but about eighty-five pounds, after payment of salaries, &c.,
exclusive of the charge of a fleet to enforce the collection. Then it is
observed, that the India Company is so out of cash, that it cannot
pay the bills drawn upon it, and its other debts; and at the same
time so out of credit, that the Bank does not cafe to assist them,
whence they find themselves obliged to lower their dividend ; the
apprehension of which has sunk their stock from two hundred and
eighty to one hundred and sixty, whereby several millions of property
are annihilated, occasioning private bankruptcies and other distress,
besides a loss to the public treasury of four hundred thousand pounds
per annum, which the Company are not to pay into it as heretofore,
if they are not able to keep up their dividend at twelve and a half.
And, as they have at the same time tea and other India goods in
their warehouses, to the amount of four millions, as some say, for
which they want a market, and which, if it had been sold, would have
kept up their credit, I take the opportunity of remarking in all
companies the great imprudence of losing the American market, by
keeping up the duty on tea, which has thrown that trade into the
hands of the Dutch, Danes, Swedes, and French, who, according to
the reports and letters of some custom-house officers in America, now
supply by smuggling the whole continent, not with tea only, but
accompany that article with other India goods, amounting, as sup-
posed, in the whole to five hundred thousand pounds sterling per
annum. This gives some alarm, and begins to convince people more
and more of the impropriety of quarrelling with America, who at that
rate might have taken off two millions and a half of those goods
within these five years that the combination has subsisted, if the duly
had not been laid, or had been speedily repealed.

But our great security lies, I think, in our growing strength, both
in numbers and wealth ; that creates an increasing ability of assisting
this nation in its wars, which will make us more respectable, out
friendship more valued, and our enmity feared ; thence it will soon
be thought proper to treat us not with justice only, but with kindness,
and thence we may expect in a few years a total change of measures
with regard to us ; unless, by a neglect of military discipline, we
should lose all martial spirit, and our western people become as tame
as those in the eastern dominions of Britain, when we may expect the
same oppressions ; for there is much truth in the Italian saying,
Make yourselves sheep, and the wolves will eat you. In confidence of
this coming change in our favour, I think our prudence is meanwhile
to be quiet, only holding up our rights and claims on all occasions in
resolutions, memorials, and remonstrances ; but bearing patientlyBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.	289

the little present notice that is taken of them. They will all have
their weight in time, and that time is at no great distance.

To his wife, I feel some regard for this sixth of January, as my old
dated London, 6 nominal birthday, though the change of style has carried
Jan., 1773. the reai (jay forward to the 17th, when I shall be, if I
live till then, sixty-seven years of age. It seems but the other day
since you and I were ranked among the boys and girls, so swiftly
does time fly ! We have, however, great reason to be thankful, that
so much of our lives has passed so happily ; and that so great a share
of health and strength remains, as to render life yet comfortable.

I received your kind letter of November 16th by Sutton. The
apples are not yet come on shore, but I thank you for them. Captain
All was so good as to send me a barrel of excellent ones, which serve
me in the mean time. I rejoice to hear that you all continue well.
But you have so used me to have something pretty about the boy,
that I am a little disappointed in finding nothing more of him, than
that he is gone up to Burlington. Pray give in your next, as usual, a
little of his history.

All our friends here are pleased with your remembering them, and
send their love to you. Give mine to all that inquire concerning me,
and a good deal to our children.

To William The opposition are now attacking the ministry on the
Franklin, dated St. Vincent’s affair, which is generally condemned here,
1773d011’ *4Feb'’ and some think Lord Hillsborough will be given up, as
the adviser of that expedition. But, if it succeeds,
perhaps all will blow over. The ministry are more embarrassed
with the India affairs. The continued refusal of North America to
take tea from hence, has brought infinite distress on the Company.
They imported great quantities in faith that that agreement could not
hold ; and now they can neither pay their debts nor dividends ; their
stock has sunk to the annihilating near three millions of their
property, and government will lose its four hundred thousand pounds
a year ; while their teas lie on hand. The bankruptcies, brought on
partly by this means, have given such a shock to credit, as has not
been experienced here since the South Sea year. And this has
affected the great manufacturers so much, as to oblige them to dis-
charge their hands, and thousands of Spitalfields and Manchester
weavers are now starving, or subsisting on charity. Blessed effects of
pride, pique, and passion in government, which should have no
passions.

To Thomas The Council and Assembly’s answer to Governor
Cushing, dated Hutchinson’s speech I caused to be printed here, as
6 soon as I received them. His reply I see since printed
also, but their rejoinder is not yet come. If he intended,
by reviving that dispute, to recommend himself, he has greatly missed
his aim ; for the administration are chagrined with his offlciousness,2go

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

their intention having been to let all contention subside, and by
degrees suffer matters to return to the old channel. They are now
embarrassed by his proceedings ; for, if they lay the governor’s
despatches, containing the declaration of the General Court, before
Parliament, they apprehend measures may be taken, that will widen
the breach ; which would be more particularly inconvenient at this
time, when the disturbed state of Europe gives some apprehensions
of a general war. On the other hand, if they do not lay them before
Parliament, they give advantage to opposition against themselves on
some future occasion, in a charge of criminal neglect. Some say he
must be a fool; others, that through some misinformation lie really
supposed Lord Hillsborough to be again in office.

Yesterday I had a conversation with Lord Dartmouth, of which I
think it right to give you some account. On my saying, that I had no
late advices from Boston, and asking if his Lordship had any, he
said,“None since the governor’s second speech ; but what difficulties
that gentleman has brought us all into by his imprudence ! Though
I suppose he meant well ; yet what can now be done ? It is im-
possible, that Parliament call suffer such a declaration of the General
Assembly, asserting its independency, to pass unnoticed.” “In my
opinion,” said I, “ it would be better and more prudent to take no
notice of it. It is words only. Acts of Parliament are still submitted
to there. No force is used to obstruct their execution. And, while
that is the case, Parliament would do well to turn a deaf ear, and
seem not to know that such declarations had ever been made.
Violent measures against the province will not change the opinion of
the people. Force could do no good.” “I do not know,” said he,
“ that force would be thought of; but perhaps an act may pass to lay
them under some inconveniences, till they rescind that declaration.
Can they not withdraw it ? I wish they could be persuaded to re-
consider the matter, and do it of themselves, voluntarily, and thus
leave things between us on the old footing, the points undiscussed.
Don’t you think,” continued his Lordship, “such a thing possible?”
“ No, my Lord,” said I, “I think it is impossible. If they were even
to wish matters back in the situation before the governor’s speech,
and the dispute obliterated, they cannot withdraw their answers till
he first withdraws his speech, which methinks would be an awkward
operation, that perhaps he will hardly be directed to perform. As to
an act of Parliament, laying that country under inconveniences, it is
likely that it will only put them as heretofore on some method of
incommoding this country till the act is repealed ; and so we shall go
on injuring and provoking each other, instead of cultivating that good
will and harmony., so necessary to the general welfare.”

He said, that might be, and he was sensible our divisions must
weaken the whole ; “ for we are yet one empiresaid he, “ whatever
may be the sentiments of the Massachusetts Assembly ; ” but he did
not see how that could he avoided. He wondered, as the dispute was
now of public notoriety, Parliament had not already called for the
despatches ; and he thought he could not omit much longer the com-BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

291

municating them, however unwilling he was to do it, from his appre-
hension of the consequences. “ But what,” his Lordship was pleased
to say, “ if you were in my place, would or could you do ? Would
you hazard the being called to account, in some future session of
Parliament for keeping back the communication of despatches of such
importance?” I said, “his Lordship could best judge what, in his
situation, was fittest for him to do ; I could only give my poor opinion
with regard to Parliament, that, supposing the despatches laid before
them, they would act most prudently in ordering them to lie on the
table, and take no further notice of them. For, were I as much aft
Englishman as I am an American, and ever so desirous of establish-
ing the authority of Parliament, I protest to your Lordship, I cannot
conceive of a single step the Parliament can take to increase it, that
will not tend to diminish it; and after abundance of mischief they
must finally lose it. The loss in itself perhaps would not be of much
consequence, because it is an authority they can never well exercise
for want of due information and knowledge, and therefore it is not
worth hazarding the mischief to preserve it.”

Then adding my wishes that I could be of any service in healing
our differences, his Lordship said, “ I do not see anything of more
service, than prevailing on the General Assembly, if you can do it, to
withdraw their answers to the governor’s speech.” “ There is not,”
says I, “ the least probability they will ever do that; for the country
is all of one mind upon the subject. Perhaps the governor may have
represented to your Lordship, that these are. the opinions of a party
only, and that great numbers are of different sentiments, which may
in time prevail. But, if he does not deceive himself, he deceives your
Lordship ; for in both Houses, notwithstanding the influence apper-
taining to his office, there was not, in sending up those answers, a
single dissenting voice.” “ I do not recollect,” says his Lordship,
“ that the governor has written anything of that kind. I am told,
however, by gentlemen from that country, who pretend to know it,
that there are many of the governor’s opinion, but they dare not show
{heir sentiments.” “I never heard,” said I, “that any one has
suffered violence for siding with the governor.” “ Not violence, per-
haps,” said his Lordsliip, “-but they..are reviled and held in contempt,
and people do not care to incur the disesteejn and displeasure of their
neighbours.”

As I knew Governor Bernard had been in with his Lordship just
before me, I thought he was probably one of these gentleman infor-
mants, and therefore said, “ People, who are engaged in any party or
have advised any measures, are apt to magnify the numbers of those
they would have understood as approving their measures.” His
Lordship said, that was natural to suppose might be the present case ;
for whoever observed the conduct of parties here must have seen it a
constant practice ; and he agreed with me, that, though a nemine
contradicente did not prove the absolute agreement of every man in
the opinion voted, it at least demonstrated the great prevalence of
that opinion.292

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

Thus ended our conference. I shall watch this business till the
Parliament rises, and endeavour to make people in general as sensible
of the inconveniences to this country, that may attend a continuance
of the contest, as the Spitalfields weavers seem already to be in their
petition to the King, which I herewith send you. I have already the
pleasure to find, that my friend, the Bishop of St. Asaph’s Sermon is
universally approved and applauded, which I take to be no bad
symptom.

To Thomas ^ was thought at the beginning of the session, that
Cushing, dated the American duty on tea would be taken off. But now
London, 4 June, the wise scheme is, to take off so much duty here, as
' '	will make tea cheaper in America than foreigners can

supply us, and to confine the duty there, to keep up the exercise of
the right. They have no idea, that any people can act from any other
principle but that of interest ; and they believe, that threepence in a
pound of tea, of which one does not perhaps drink ten pounds in a
year, is sufficient to overcome all the patriotism of an American.

I purpose soon to write to you very fully. As to the letters I com-
municated to you, though I have not been able to obtain leave to
take copies or publish them, I have permission to let the originals
remain with you, as long as you may think it of any use to have them
in possession.

To Thoma3 I thank you for the pamphlets you have sent me, con-
Cushing, dated taining the controversy between the governor and the
Lonuon, 7 July, two Houses. I have distributed them where I thought
they might be of use. He makes perhaps as much of
his argument as it will bear ; but has the misfortune of being on the
weak side, and so is put to shifts and quibbles, and the use of much
sophistry and artifice, to give plausibility to his reasonings. The
Council and the Assembly have greatly the advantage in point of fair-
ness, perspicuity, and force. His precedents of acts of Parliament
binding the colonies, and our tacit consent to those acts, are all
frivolous. Shall a guardian, who has imposed upon, cheated, and
plundered a minor under his care, who was unable to-jprevem ft, plead
those impositions after his ward halt discovered them, as precedents
and authorities for continuing them. There have been precedents,
time out of nnnd, for robbing on Hounslow Heath, but the highway-
man, who robbed there yesterday, does nevertheless deserve hang-
ing.

I am glad to see the resolves of the Virginia House of Burgesses.1
There are brave spirits among that people.* I hope their proposal will
be readily complied with by all the colonies. It is natural to suppose,
as you do, that, if the oppressions continue, a congress may grow out
of that correspondence. Nothing would more alarm our ministers ;
but, if the colonies agree to hold a congress, I do not see how it can
bi prevented.

1 They appointed a committee of correspondence with the legislatures ofthe
ether colonies, for the purpose of promoting mutual and friendly intercourse.BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

293

I note your directions relating to public and private letters, and shall
not fail to observe them. At the same time I think all the corres-
pondence should be in the Speaker’s power, to communicate such
extracts only as he should think proper for the House. It is ex-
tremely embarrassing to an agent, to write letters concerning his
transactions with ministers, which letters he knows are to be read in
the House, where there may be governor’s spies, who carry away parts,
or perhaps take copies, that are echoed back hither privately ; if they
should not be, as sometimes they are, printed in the Votes. It is
impossible to write freely in such circumstances, unless he would
hazard his usefulness, and put it out of his power to do his country any
farther service. I speak this now, not upon my own account, being
about to decline all public business, but for your consideration with
regard to future agents.

And, now we speak of agents, I must mention my concern, that I
should fall under so severe a censure of the House, as that of neglect
in their business. I have submitted to the reproof without reply in
my public letter, out of pure respect. It is not decent to dispute a
father’s admonitions. But- to you in private, permit me to observe,
that, as to the two things I am blamed for not giving the earliest
notice of, viz., the clause in the act relating to dockyards, and the
appointment of salaries for the governor and judges, the first only
seems to have some foundation. I did not know, but perhaps I ought
to have known, that such a clause was intended. And yet in a Parlia-
ment, that during the whole session refused admission to strangers,
wherein near two hundred acts were passed, it is not so easy a matter
to come at the knowledge of every clause in every act, and to give
opposition to what may affect one’s constituents ; especially when it is
not uncommon to smuggle clauses into a bill, whose title shall give no
suspicion, when an opposition to such clauses is apprehended. I say
this is no easy matter. But, had I known of this clause, it is not likely
I could have prevented its passing in the present disposition of govern-
ment towards America ; nor do I see, that my giving earlier notice of
its having passed could have been of much service.

As to the other, concerning the governor and judges, I should hardly
have thought of sending the House an account of it, if the minister
had mentioned it to me ; as I understood from their first letter to me,
that they had already the best intelligence “ of its being determined by
administration to bestow large salaries on the attorney-general, judges
and governors of the province.” I could not therefore possibly ‘‘give
the first notice of this impending evil.” I answered, however, “that
there was no doubt of the intention of making governors, and some
other officers, independent of the people for their support ; and that
this purpose will be persisted in, if the American revenue is found
sufficient to defray the salaries.” This censure, though grievous, does
not so much surprise me, as I apprehended all along from the begin-
ning, that between the friends of an old agent, my predecessor,
who thought himself hardly used in his dismission, and those of a
young one impatient for the succession, my situation was not likely-94

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

to be a very comfortable one, as my faults could scarce pass un-
observed.1

I think of leaving England in September. As soon as possible after
my arrival in America, I purpose, God willing, to visit Boston, when I
hope to have the pleasure of paying my respects to you. I shall then
give every information in my power, and offer every advice relating to
our affairs, not so convenient to be written, that my situation here for
so many years may enable me to suggest lor the benefit of our country.
Some time before my departure, I shall put your papers into the hands
of Mr. Lee, and assist him with my counsel while I stay, where there
may be any occasion for it. He is a gentleman of parts and ability ;
and, though he cannot exceed me in sincere zeal for the interest and
prosperity of the province, his youth will easily enable him to serve it
with more activity.

To Thomas The King’s ^rm answer, as it is called, to our petitions
Cushing, dated and remonstrances, has probably been judged sufficient
l®“doil» 7 July* for the present. I forwarded that answer to you by the
last packet, and sent a copy of it by a Boston ship the
beginning of last month. Therein we are told, that “ his Majesty has
well weighed the subject matter, and the expressions, contained in those
petitions ; and that, as he will ever attend to the humble petitions of
his subjects, and be forward to redress every real grievance, so he is
determined to support the constitution, and resist with firmness every
attempt to derogate from the authority of the supreme legislature.”

By this it seems that some exception is taken to the expressioiis of
the petitions, as not sufficiently humble, that the grievances complained
of are not thought real grievances, that Parliament is deemed the
supreme legislature, and its authority over the colonies supposed to be
the cojistitution. Indeed, the last idea is expressed more fully in the
next paragraph, where the words of the act are used, declaring the
right of the crown, with the advice of Parliament, to make laws of
sufficient force and validity to bind its subjects in America in all cases
whatsoever.

When one considers the King’s situation, surrounded by ministers,
counsellors, and judges, learned in the law, who are all of this opinion,
and reflects how necessary it is for him to be well with his Parliament,
from whose yearly grants his fleets and armies are to be supported,
and the deficiencies of his civil list supplied, it is not to be wondered at,
that he should be firm in an opinion established, as far as an act of
Parliament could establish it, by even the friends of America at the
time they repealed the Stamp Act; and which is so generally thought
right by his Lords and Commons, that any act of his, countenancing
the contrary, would hazard his embroiling himself with those powerful
bodies. And from hence it seems hardly to be expected from him,

1 The “young one impatient for the succession” was Arthur Lee, brother of
Richard Henry Lee. No man has written or said so many spiteful and disparaging
things of Franklin as Arthur Lee, and no man ever did so much to thwart all his
foreign policy.BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

295

that he should take any step of that kind. The grievous instructions,
indeed, might be withdrawn without their observing it, if his Majesty
thought fit so to do ; but, under the present prejudices of all about
him, it seems that this is not yet likely to be advised.

The question then arises, How are we to obtain redress ? If we look
back into the Parliamentary history of this country, we shall find, that,
in similar situations of the subjects here, redress would seldom be
obtained but by withholding aids when the sovereign was in distress,
till the grievances were removed. Hence the rooted custom of the
Commons to keep money bills in their own disposition, not suffering
even the Lords to meddle in grants, either as to quantity, manner of
raising, or even in the smallest circumstance. This country pretends
to be collectively our sovereign. It is now deeply in debt. Its funds
are far short of recovering their par since the last war ; another would
distress it still more. Its people diminish, as well as its credit. Men
will be wanted, as well as money. The colonies are rapidly increasing
in wealth and numbers. In the last war they maintained an army of
twenty-five thousand. A country able to do that is no contemptible
ally. In another war they may perhaps do twice as much with equal
ease. Whenever a war happens, our aid will be wished for, our friend-
ship desired and cultivated, our good will courted. Then is the time
to say, “ Redress our grievances. You take money from us by force,
arid now you ask it of voluntary grant. You cannot have it both ways.
If you choose to have it without our consent, you must go on taking
it that way, and be content with what little you can so obtain. If you
would have our free gifts, desist from your compulsive methods, and
acknowledge our rights, and secure our future enjoyment of them.”
Our claims r^ill then be attended to, and our complaints regarded.

By what I perceived not long since, when a war was being appre-
hended with Spain, the different countenance put on by some great
men here towards those who were thought to have a little influence in
America, and the languge that began to be held with regard to the
then minister for the colonies, I am confident, that, if that war had
taken place, he would have been immediately dismissed, all his
measures reversed, and every step taken to recover our affection and
procure our assistance. Thence I think it fair to conclude, that
similar effects will probably be produced by similar circumstances.

But, as the strength of an empire depends not only on the union of
its parts, but on their readiness for united exertion of their common
force ; and as the discussion of rights may seem unseasonable in the
commencement of actual war, and the delay it might occasion be pre-
judicial to the common welfare ; as likewise the refusal of one or a
few colonies would not be so much regarded, if the others granted
liberally, which perhaps by various artifices and motives they might
be prevailed on to do ; and as this want of concert would defeat the
expectation of general redress, that otherwise might be justly formed ;
perhaps it would be best and fairest for the colonies, in a general
congress now in peace to be assembled, or by means of the correspon-
dence lately proposed; after a full and solemn assertion and declara-296

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

tion of their rights, to engage firmly with each other, that they will
never grant aids to the crown in any general war, till those rights are
recognized by the King and both Houses of Parliament ; communica-
ting at the same time to the crown this their resolution. Such a step
I imagine will bring the dispute to a crisis ; and, whether our demands
are immediately complied with, or compulsory measures thought of to
make us rescind them, our ends will finally be obtained ; for even the
odium accompanying such compulsory attempts will contribute to
unite and strengthen us, and in the meantime all the world will allow
that our proceeding has been honourable.

No one doubts the advantage of a strict union between the mother
country and the colonies, if it may be obtained and preserved on
equitable terms. In every fair connexion, each party should find its
own interest. Britain will find hers in our joining with her in every
war she makes, to the greater annoyance and terror of her enemies ;
in our employment of her manufactures, and enriching her merchants
by our commerce ; and her government will feel some additional
strengthening of its hands by the [disposition of our profitable posts
and places. On our side, we have to expect the protection she can
afford us, and the advantage of a common umpire in our disputes,
thereby preventing wars we might otherwise have with each other ; so
that we can without interruption go on with our improvements, and
increase our numbers. We ask no more of her, and she should not
think of forcing more from us.

By the exercise of prudent moderation on her part, mixed with
a little kindness ; and by a decent behaviour on ours, excusing where
we can excuse from a consideration of circumstances, and bearing a
little with the infirmities of her government, as we would with those
of an aged parent, though firmly asserting our privileges, and declaring
that we mean at a proper time to vindicate them, this advantageous
union may still be long continued. We wish it, and we may endeavour
it; but God will order it as to his wisdom shall seem most suitable.
The friends of liberty here wish we may long preserve it on our side
of the water, that they may find it there, if adverse events should
destroy it here. They are therefore anxious and afraid, lest we should
hazard it by premature attempts in its favour. They think we may
risk much by violent measures, and that the risk is unnecessary, since
a little time must infallibly bring us all we demand or desire, and
bring it to us in peace and safety. I do not presume to advise.
There are many wiser men among you, and I hope you will be
directed by a still superior wisdom.

With regard to the sentiments of people in general here, concerning
America, 1 must say, that we have among them many friends and
wellwishers. The Dissenters are all for us, and many of the merchants
and manufacturers. There seems to be, even among the country
gentlemen, a general sense of our growing importance, a disapproba-
tion of the harsh measures with which we have been treated, and a
wish that some means may be found of perfect reconciliation. A few
members of Parliament in both Houses, and perhaps some in highBENJAMIN FRANKLIN

297

office, have in a degree the same ideas ; but none of these seem
willing as yet to be active in our favour, lest adversaries should take
advantage, and charge it upon them as a betraying the interests of
this nation. In this state of things, no endeavour of mine, or our
other friends here, “ to obtain a repeal of the acts so oppressive to
the colonists, or the orders of the crown so destructive of the charter
rights of our province in particular,” can expect a sudden success. By
degrees, and a judicious improvement of events, we may work a
change in minds and measures ; but otherwise such great alterations
are hardly to be looked for.

I am thankful to the House for their kind attention, in repeating
their grant to me of six hundred pounds. Whether the instruction
restraining the governor’s assent is withdrawn or not, or is likely to
be, I cannot tell, having never solicited or even once mentioned it to
Lord Dartmouth, being resolved to owe no obligation to the favour of
any minister. If, from a sense of right, that instruction should be
recalled, and the general principle on which it was founded is given
up, all will be very well ; but you can never think it worth while to
employ an agent here, if his being paid or not is to depend on the
breath of a minister, and I should think it a situation too suspicious,
and therefore too dishonourable for me to remain in a single hour.
Living frugally, I am under no immediate necessity ; and, if I serve
my constituents faithfully, though it should be unsuccessfully, I am
confident they will always have it in their inclination, and some time
or other in their power, to make their grants effectual.

To Samuel * perused your tracts with pleasure. I see you inherit
M&theri dated all the various learning of your famous ancestors, Cotton
rmdon’ 7 July’ an<^ Increase Mather. The father, Increase, I once
'	heard preach at the Old South Meeting for Mr. Pember-

ton ; and I remember his mentioning the death of “ that wicked old
persecutor of God’s people, Louis the Fourteenth of which news
had just been received ; but which proved premature. I was some
years afterwards at his house at the North End, on some errand to
him, and remember him sitting in an easy ,chair, apparently very old
and feeble. But Cotton I remember in the vigour of his preaching and
usefulness.

You have made the most of your argument, to prove that America
might be known to the ancients. There is another discovery of it
claimed by the Norwegians, which you have not mentioned, unless it
be under the words, “of old viewed and observed,” page 7. About
twenty-five years since, Professor Kalm,a learned Swede, was with us
in Pennsylvania. 'He contended, that America was discovered by
their northern people, long before the time of Columbus; which 1
doubting, he drew up and gave me some time after a note of those
discoveries, which I send you enclosed. It is his own handwriting,
and his own English ; very intelligible for the time he had been
among us. The circumstances give the account a great appearance
of authenticity. And if one may judge by the description of the298

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

winter, the country they visited should be southward of New England,
supposing no change since that time of the climate. But, if it be true,
as Krantz, I think, and some other historians tell us, that old Green-
land, once inhabited and populous, is now rendered uninhabited by
ice, it should seem that almost perpetual northern winter had gained
ground to the southward ; and, if so, perhaps more northern countries
might anciently have had vines, than can bear them in these days.

The remarks you have added, on the late proceedings against
America, are very just and judicious ; and I cannot see any impro-
priety in your making them, though a minister of the gospel. This
kingdom is a good deal indebted for its liberties to the public spirit of
its ancient clergy, who joined with the barons in obtaining Magna
Charta, and joined heartily in forming the curses of excommunication
against the infringers of it. There is no doubt bu(? the claim of Parlia-
ment, of authority to make laws binding oti the colonies in all cases
whatsoever, includes an authority to change our religious constitution,
and establish Popery or Maliomedanism, if they please, in its stead ;
but, as you intimate, power does not infer right j and, as the right is
nothing, and the power, by our increase, continually diminishing, the
one will soon be as insignificant as the other. You seem only to have
made a small mistake, in supposing they modestly avoided to declare
they had a right, the words of the act being, “ that they have and of
tight ought to have, full power, &c.”

Your suspicion that sundry others, besides Governor Bernard, “ had
written hither their opinions and counsels, encouraging the late
measures to the prejudice of our country, which have been too much
heeded and followed,” is, I apprehend, but too well founded. You call
them “ traitorous individuals,” whence I collect, that you suppose them
of our own country. There was among the twelve Apostles one traitor,
who betrayed with a kiss. It should be no wonder, therefore, if among
so many thousand true patriots, as New England contains, there
should be found even twelve Judases ready to betray their country for
a few paltry pieces of silver. Their ends, as well as their views, ought
to be similar. But all the oppressions evidently work for our good.
Providence seems by every means intent on making us a great people.
May our virtues public and private grow with us, and be durable,
that liberty, civil and religious, may be secured to our posterity, and
to all from every part of the Old World that take refuge among us.

To William I am glad to find by yours of May 4th, that you have
Franklin, dated been able to assist Josiah Davenport a little ; but vexed
rj73don’14 July’ ^ie anc* y°u sb°u^d think of putting me upon a
solicitation, which it is impossible for me to engage in.
I am not upon terms with Lord North, to ask any such favour from
him. Displeased with something he said relating to America, I have
never been at his levees, since the first. Perhaps he has taken that
amiss. For the last week we met occasionally at Lord Le Despencer’s,
in our return from Oxford, where I had been to attend the solemnity
of his installation, and he seemed studiously to avoid speaking to’me.BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

299

I ought to be ashamed to say, that on such occasions I feel myself to
be as proud as anybody. His lady indeed was more gracious. She
came, and sat down by me on the same’ sofa, and condescended
to enter into a conversation with me agreeably enough, as if to make
some amends. Their son and daughter were with them. They stayed
all night, so that we dined, supped, and breakfasted together, without
exchanging three sentences. But, had he ever so great a regard for
me, I could not ask that office, trifling as it is, for any relation of mine.
And, detesting as I do the whole system of American customs,
believing they will one day bring on a breach, through the indiscretion
■and insolence of those concerned in the collection, I should never wish
to see one so near to me in that business. If you think him capable
of acting as deputy secretary, I imagine you might easily obtain that
for him of Mr. Morgan.

He has lately been with me, is ahvay very complaisant, and, under-
standing I was about returning to America, requested my interest
to obtain for him the agency for your province. His friend, Sir
Watkin Lewes, who was formerly candidate for the same great place,
is now high sheriff of London, and in the way of being Lord Mayor.
The new sheriffs elect are (could you think it ?) both Americans, viz.
Mr. Sayre, the New Yorker, and Mr. William Lee, brother to Dr. Lee.
I am glad you stand so well with Lord Dartmouth. I am likewise well
with him, but he never spoke to me of augmenting your salary. He is
truly a good man, and wishes sincerely a good understanding with the
colonies, but does not seem to have strength equal to his wishes.
Between you and me, the late measures have been, I suspect, very
much the King’s own, and he has in some cases a great share of
whafhis friends call firmness. Yet, by some painstaking and proper
management, the wrong impressions he has received may be removed,
which is perhaps the only chance America has for obtaining soon the
redress she aims at. This entirely to yourself.

And, now we are among great folks, let me tell you a little of Lord
Hillsborough. I went down to Oxford with and at the instance of
Lord Le Despencer, who is on all occasions very good to me, and
seems of late very desirous of my company.1 Mr. Todd too was there,

1 It was doubtless during this trip that Franklin’s fable of the Eagle and the Cat
was written. It was preserved by John Adams, who has thus set it down :—

“ Dr. Franklin told me that before his return to America from England in 1775,
he was in company, I believe, at Lord Spencer’s, with a number of English noble-
men, when the conversation turned upon fables, those of A£sop, La Fontaine, Gay,
Moore, &c. Some one of the company observed that he thought the subject was
exhausted. He did not believe that any man could now find an animal, beast,
bird, or fish that he could work into a new fable with any success ; and the whole
company appeared to applaud the idea, except Franklin, who was silent. The
gentleman insisted on his opinion. He said, with submission to their lordships, he
believed the subject was inexhaustible, and that many new and instructive fables
might be made out of such materials. Can you think of any one at present? If
your lordships will furnish me a pen, ink, and paper, I believe I can furnish your
lordships with one in a few minutes. The paper was brought, and he sat down
and wrote :

‘ Once upon a lime an eagle scaling round a farmer’s barn, and espying a hare,300

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

who has some attachment to Lord Hillsborough, and, in a walk we
were taking, told me, as a secret, that Lord Hillsborough was much
chagrined at being out of place, and could never forgive me for
writing that pamphlet against his Report about the Ohio. “ I assured
him,” says Mr. Todd, “ that I knew you did not write it; and the
consequence is, that he thinks I know the contrary, and wanted to
impose upon him in your favour ; and so I find he is now displeased
with me, and for no other cause in the world.” His friend Bamber
Gascoign, too, says, that they well know it was written by Dr.
Franklin, who was one of the most mischievous men in England.

That same day Lord Hillsborough called upon Lord Le Despencer,
whose chamber and mine were together in Queen’s College. I was
in the inner room shifting, and heard his voice, but did not see him,
as he went downstairs immediately with Lord Le Despencer, who
mentioning that I was above, he returned directly and came to me in
the pleasantest manner imaginable. “ Dr. Franklin,” said he, “ I did
not know till this minute that you were here, and I am come back to
makeyov my bow. I am glad to see you at Oxford, and that you look
so well,” &c. In return for this extravagance, I complimented him
on his son’s performance in the theatre, though indeed it was but
indifferent, so that account was settled. For as people say, when they
are angry, If he strikes me, Til strike him again; I think sometimes it
may be right to say, If he flatters me, Til flatter him again. This is
lex talionis, returning offences in kind. His son, however (Lord
Fairford), is a valuable young man, and his daughters, Ladies Mary
and Charlotte, most amiable young women. My quarrel is only with
him, who, of all the men I ever met with, is surely the most unequal
in his treatment of people, the most insincere, and the most wrong-
headed; witness, besides his various behaviour to me, his duplicity in
encouraging us to ask for more land, ask for enough to make a province
(when we at first asked only for two millions five hundred thousand
acres), were his words, pretending to befriend our application, then
doing everything to defeat it; and reconciling the first to the last, by
saying to a friend, that he meant to defeat it from the beginning ; and
that his putting us upon asking so much was with that very view,
supposing it too much to be granted. Thus, by the way, his mortifi-
cation becomes double. He has served us by the very means he
meant to destroy us, and tripped up his own heels into the bargain.

darted down upon him like a sunbeam, scooped him in his claws and remounted
with him in the air. He soon found that he had a creature of more courage and
strength than a hare, for which, notwithstanding the keenness of his eyesight, he
had mistaken a cat. The snarling and scrambling of the prey was very incon-
venient, and what was worse, she had disengaged herself from his talons, grasped
his body with her four limbs so as to stop his breath, and seized fast hold of his
throat with her teeth. " Pray,” said the eagle, “ let go your hold and I will
release you.” “ Very fine,” said the cat, *' I have no fancy to fall from this height
and be crushed to death. You have taken me up, and you shall stoop and let me
down." The eagle thought it necessary to stoop accordingly.’

"The moral was so applicable to England and America that the fable was
allowed to be original, and was much applauded.”BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

301

To Samuel * see by the PaPersi that you continue to afford that
Danforth, dated public your services, which makes me almost ashamed
London, 26 July, Qf my resolutions for retirement. But this exile, though
77 ’	an honourable one, is become grievous to me, in so long

a separation from my family, friends, and country; all which you
happily enjoy; and long may you continue to enjoy them. I hope
for the great pleasure of once more seeing and conversing with you ;
and, though living on in one’s children, as we both may do, is a good
thing, I cannot but fancy it might be better to continue living our-
selves at the same time. I rejoice, therefore, in your kind intentions
of including me in the benefits of that inestimable stone, which, curing
all diseases (even old age itself), will enable us to see the future
glorious state of our America, enjpying in full security her own
liberties, and offering in her bosom a participation of them to all the
oppressed of other nations. I anticipate the jolly conversation we
and twenty more of our friends may have a hundred years hence on
this subject, over that well replenished bowl at Cambridge Com-
mencement. I am, dear Sir, for an age to come, and for ever, with
sincere esteem and respect, your most obedient and humble servant.

To John Win * am	to see, that you are elected into the

throp, dated Council, and are about to take part in our public affairs.
f~/on’ 85 JulJr> Your abilities, integrity, and sober attachment to the
‘	liberties of our country, will be of great use in this

tempestuous time in conducting our little bark into safe harbour. By
the Boston newspapers, there seems to be among us some violent
spirits, who are for an immediate rupture. But I trust the general
prudence of our country will see, that by our growing strength we
advance fast to a situation in which our claims must be allowed ; that
by a premature struggle we may be crippled, and kept down another
age ; that, as between friends, every affront is not worth a duel,
between nations every injury not worth a war, so between the
governed and governing every mistake in government, every en-
-croachment on right, is not worth a rebellion.

It is in my opinion sufficient for the present, that we hold them
forth on all occasions, not giving up any of them, using at the same
time every means to make them generally understood and valued by
the people; cultivating a harmony among the colonies, that their
union in the same sentiments may give them greater weight; re-
membering withal, that this Protestant country (our mother, though
lately an unkind one) is worth preserving, and that her weight in the
scale of Europe, and her safety in a great degree, may depend on her
union with her. Thus conducting, I am confident we may in a few
years obtain every allowance of, and every security for, our in-
estimable privileges, that we can wish or desire.

To Thomaa I am favoured with yours of June 14th and 16th,
LondonS,25 July4 containing some copies of the resolves of the committee
^773, ’ -	’ upon-the letters.1 I see by your account of the trans-

? The Hutchinson Letters.302

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

action, that you could not well prevent what was done. As to the
report of other copies being come from England, I know that could
not be. It was an expedient to disengage the House. I hope the
possession of the originals, and the proceedings upon them, will be
attended with salutary effects to the province, and then I shall be well
pleased.

I observe that you mention, that no person besides Dr. Cooper and
one of the committee knew they came from me. I did not accompany
them with any request of being myself concealed; for, believing what
I did to be in the way of my duty as agent, though I had no doubt of
its giving offence, not only to the parties exposed, but to adminis-
tration here, I was regardless of the consequences. However, since
the letters themselves are now copied and printed, contrary to the
promise I made, I am glad my name has not been heard on the
occasion ; and, as I do not see it could be of any use to the public,
I now wish it may continue unknown ; though I hardly expect it. As
to yours, you may rely on my never mentioning it, except that I may
be obliged to show your letter in my own vindication to the person
only, who might otherwise think he had reason to blames for breach
of engagement. It must surely be seen here, that, after such a
detection of their duplicity, in pretending a regard and affection to the
province, while they were undermining its privileges, it is impossible
for the crown to make any good use of their services, and that it
can never be for its interest to employ servants, who are under such
universal odium. The consequence, one would think, should be their
removal. But perhaps it may be to titles, or to pensions, if your
revenue can pay them.

To William Dr. Cooper of New York’s opinion of the author of
Franklin, dated the Sermon, however honourable to me, is injurious to
London, l Sep- the good Bishop of St. Asaph; and therefore I must say,
temper. “ • }n justice and truth, that I know nothing of his intention
to preach on the subject, and saw not a word of the Sermon till it was
printed. Possibly some preceding conversation between us may have
turned his thoughts that way ; but, if so, that is all.

I think the resolutions of the New England townships must have
the effect they seem intended for, viz., to show that the discontents
were really general, and their sentiments concerning their rights
unanimous, and not the faction of a few demagogues, as their governors
used to represent them here ; and therefore not useless, though they
should not as yet induce government to acknowledge their claims ;
that people may probably think it sufficient for the present to assert
and hold forth their rights, secure, that sooner or later they must
be admitted and acknowledged. The declaratory law here had too its
use, viz., to prevent or lessen at least a clamour against the ministry,
that repealed the Stamp Act, as if they had given up the right of this
country to govern America. Other use indeed it could have none;
and I remember Lord Mansfield told the Lords, when upon that bill,
that it was nugatory. To be sure, in a dispute between two partiesBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.	303

about lights, the declaration of one party can never be supposed to
bind the other.

It is said there is now a project on foot to form a union with
Ireland, and that Lord Harcourt is to propose it at the next meeting
of the Irish Parliament. The eastern side of Ireland are averse to it;
supposing, that, when Dublin is no longer the seat of their govern-
ment it will decline, the harbour being but indifferent, and that the
western and southern ports will rise and flourish on its ruins, being
good in themselves, and much better situated for commerce. For
these same reasons, the western and southern people are inclined
to the measure, and it is thought it may be carried. But these are
difficult affairs, and usually take longer time than the projectors
imagine. Mr. Crowley, the author of several proposals for uniting
the colonies with the mother countiy, and who runs about much
among the ministers, tells me, the union of Ireland is only the first
step towards a general union. He is for having it done by the Par-
liament of England, without consulting the colonies, and he will
warrant, he says, that if the terms proposed are equitable, they will all
come in one after the other. He seems rather a little cracked upon
the subject.

It is said here, that the famous Boston letters were sent chiefly, if
not all, to the late Mr. Whately. They fell into my hands, and I
thought it my duty to give some principal people there a sight of
them, very much with this view, that, when they saw the measures
they complained of took their rise in a great degree from the repre-
sentations and recommendations of their own countrymen, their re-
sentment against Britain on account of those measures might abate,
as mine Had done, and a reconciliation be more easily obtained. In
Boston they concealed who sent them, the better to conceal who
received and communicated them. And perhaps it is as well, that it
should continue a secret. Being of that country myself, I think those
letters more heinous than you seem to think them; but you had not
read them all, nor perhaps the Council’s remarks on them. I have
written to decline their agency, on account of my return to America.
Dr. Lee succeeds me. I only keep it while I stay, which perhaps will
be another winter.

I grieve to hear of the death of my good old friend, Dr. Evans.
I have lost so many, since I left America, that I begin to fear that I
shall find myself a stranger among strangers, when I return. If so,
I must come again to my friends in England.

To Thomas To avoid repealing the American tea duty, and yet
Cushing, dated find a vent for tea, a project is executing to send it from
^ondon, 12 Sept., hence on account of the East India Company, to be sold
77 '	in America, agreeable to a late act, empowering the

Lords of the Treasury to grant licenses to the company to export tea
thither, under certain restrictions, duty free. Some friends of govern-
ment, as they are called, in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, &c., are
to be favoured with the commission, who undertake by their interest304

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

to carry the measure through in the colonies. How the other mer-
chants, thus excluded from the tea-trade, will like this, I cannot fore-
see. Their agreement, if I remember right, was not to import tea, till
the duty shall be repealed. Perhaps they will think themselves still
obliged by that agreement, notwithstanding this temporary expedient;
which is only to introduce the tea for the present, and may be
dropped next year, and the duty again required, the granting or
refusing such license from time to time remaining in the power of the
treasury. And it will seem hard, while their hands are tied, to see
the profits of that article all engrossed by a few particulars.

Enclosed I take the liberty .of sending you a small piece of mine,
written to expose, in as striking a light as I could, to the nation, the
absurdity of the measures towards America, and to spur the ministry
if possible to a change of those measures.1

To William * know not what letters of mine Governor Hutchinson
Franklin, dated could mean, as advising the people to insist on their
1773d011’ 6 °ct'’ ^dependency. But, whatever they were, I suppose he
'	has sent copies of them hither,having heard some whisper-

ings about them. I shall, however, be able at any time to justify
everything I have written ; the purport being uniformly this, that
they should carefully avoid all tumults and every violent measure, and
content themselves with verbally keeping up their claims, and holding
forth their rights whenever occasion requires ; secure, that, from the
growing importance of America, those claims will ere long be attended
to and acknowledged.

From a long and thorough consideration of the subject, I am indeed
of opinion, that the Parliament has no right to make any law what-
ever, binding on the colonies ; that the King, and not the King, Lords,
and Commons collectively, is their sovereign ; and that the King, with
their respective Parliaments, is their only legislator. I know your
sentiments differ from mine on these subjects. You are a thorough
government man, which I do not wonder at, nor do I aim at converting
you. I only wish you to act uprightly and steadily, avoiding that
duplicity, which, in Hutchinson, adds contempt to indignation. If
you can promote the prosperity of your people, and leave them
happier than you found them, whatever your political principles are,
your memory will be honoured.

I have written two pieces here lately for the Public Advertiser; on
American affairs, designed to expose the conduct of this country towards
the colonies in a short, comprehensive, and striking view, and stated,
therefore, in out-of-the-way forms, as most likely to take the general
attention. The first was called “Rules by which a Great Empire may
be reduced to a Small One the second, “An Edict of the King of
Prussia? I sent you one of the first, but could not get enough of the
second to spare you one, though my clerk went the next morning to the
printer’s, and wherever they were sold. They were all gone but two.

1 " Rules by which a Great Empire may be reduced to a Small One ; ’’ or, “An
Edict of the King of Prussia.”BENJA MIN FRA NIC LIN.	305

In my owil mind I preferred the first, as a composition, for the quantTty
and variety of the matter contained, and a kind of spirited ending
of each paragraph. But I find that others here generally prefer the
second.

I am not suspected as the author, except by one or two friends; and
have heard the latter spoken of in the highest terms, as the keenest
and severest piece that has appeared here a long time. Lord Mans-
field, I hear, said of it, that it was very able and Very artful
indeed; and would do mischief by giving here a bad impression of
the measures of government; and in the colonies, by encouraging
them in their contumacy. It is repeated in the Chronicle, where you
will see it, but stripped of all the capitaling and italicking, that
intimate the allusions and mark the emphasis of written discourses,
to bring them as near as possible.to those spoken. Printing such a
piece all in one even small character, seems to me like repeating one
of Whitefield’s sermons in the monotony of a school-boy.

What made it the more noticed here was, that people in reading it
were,.as the phrase is, taken in, till they had got half through it, and
imagined it a real edict, to which mistake I suppose the King of
Prussia’s character must have contributed. I was down at Lord Le
Despencer’s, when the post brought that day’s papers. Mr. Whitehead
was there, too (Paul Whitehead, the author of “ Manners ”), who runs
early through all the papers, and tells the company what he finds
remarkable. He had them in another room, and we were chatting in
the breakfast parlour, when he came running in to us, out of breath,
with the paper in his hand. “ Here ! ” says he, “ here’s news for ye !
Here’s the King of Prussia, claiming a right to this kingdom ! ” All
stared, and"I as much as anybody : and he went on to read it. When
he had read two or three paragraphs, a gentleman present said,
“ Damn his impudence, I dare say we shall hear by the next post, that
he is upon his march with one hundred thousand men to back this.”
Whitehead, who is very shrewd, soon after began to smoke it, and
looking in my face, said, “ I’ll be hanged if this is not some of your
American jokes upon us.” The reading went on, and ended with
abundance of laughing, and a general verdict that it was a fair hit ;
and the piece was cut out of the paper and preserved in my Lord’s
collection.

I do not wonder that Hutchinson should be dejected. It must be
an uncomfortable thing to live among people, who, he is conscious,
universally detest him. Yet I fancy he will not have leave to come
home, both because they know not well what to do with him, and
because they do not very well like his conduct.

To Thomas The pieces I wrote, to increase and strengthen those
Cushing, dated sentiments, were more read and talked of and attended
im°n’ 1 N°T'’ t0 usua^ The first, as you will see by the enclosed,
has been called for and reprinted in the same paper,
besides being copied in others, and in the magazines. A long,
laboured answer has been made to it, (by Governor Bernard, it is

213°6

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

said), which I send you. I am told it does not satisfy those in whose
justification it was written, and that a better is preparing.

To an engraver, I was much pleased with the specimens you so kindly
dated London, 3 sent me of your new art of engraving. That on the
Nov., 1773. china is admirable. No one would suppose it any thing
but painting. I hope you meet with all the encouragement you merit,
and that the invention will be, what inventions seldom are, profitable
to the inventor.

Now we are speaking of inventions, I know not who pretends to
that of copper-plate engravings for earthen ware, and I am not
disposed to contest the honour with anybody, as the improvement in
taking impressions not directly from the plate, but from printed paper,
applicable by that means to other than flat forms, is far beyond my
first idea. But I have reason to apprehend, that I might have given
the hint, on which that improvement was made ; for, more than
twenty years since, I wrote to Dr. Mitchell from America, proposing
to him the printing of square tiles, for ornamenting chimneys, from
copper plates, describing the manner in which I thought it might be
done, and advising the borrowing from the booksellers the plates, that
had been used in a thin folio, called “ Moral Virtue Delineated,” for
the purpose.

The Dutch Delft ware tiles were much used in America, which are
only or chiefly Scripture histories, wretchedly scrawled. I wished to
have those moral prints, which were originally taken from Horace’s
poetical figures, introduced on tiles, which, being about our chimneys
and constantly in the eyes of children when by the fireside, might
give parents an opportunity of explaining them, to impress moral
sentiments, and I gave expectations of great demand for them if
executed. Dr. Mitchell wrote to me, in answer, that he had com-
municated my scheme to one of the principal artists in the earthen
way about London, who rejected it as impracticable ; and it was not
till some years after, that I first saw an enamelled snuff box, which I
was sure was from a copper plate, though the curvature of the form
made me wonder how the impression was taken. I understand the
china work in Philadelphia is declined by the first o.wners. Whether
any others will take it up and continue it, I know not.

CHAPTER XI.

Rules for re-
ducing a Great
Empire to p
Small One; pre-
sented to a Late
Minister, when
he entered upon
his Administra-
tion.

An ancient sage valued himself‘upon this, that,
though he could not fiddle, he knew how to make a
great city of a little one. The science that I, a modern
simpleton, am about to communicate, is the very re-
verse.

I address myself to all ministers who have 'the
management of extensive dominions, which from theirBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.	307

very greatness have become troublesome to govern, because the
multiplicity of their affairs leaves no time for fiddling.

1.	In the first place, Gentlemen, you are to consider, that a great
empire, like a great cake, is most easily diminished at the edges.
Turn your attention, therefore, first to your remotest provinces ; that,
as you get rid of them, the next may follow in order.

2.	That the possibility of this separation may always exist, take
special care the provinces are never incorporated with the mother
country; that they do not enjoy the same common rights, the same
privileges in commerce ; and that they are governed by severer laws,
all of your enacting, without allowing them any share in the choice of
the legislators. By carefully making and preserving such distinctions,
you will (to keep to my simile of the cake) act like a wise gingerbread-
baker, who, to facilitate a division, cuts his dough half through in
those places where, when baked, he would have it broken to pieces.

3.	Those remote provinces have perhaps been acquired, purchased,
or conquered, at the sole expense of the settlers, or their ancestors ;
without the aid of the mother country. If this should happen to
increase her strength, by their growing numbers, ready to join in her
wars ; her commerce, by their growing demand for her manufactures ;
or her naval power, by greater employment for her ships and seamen,
they may probably suppose some merit in this, and that it entitles
them to some favour ; you are therefore to forget it all, or resent it,
as if they had done you injury. If they happened to be zealous
whigs, friends of liberty, nurtured in revolution principles, remember
all that to their prejudice, and contrive to punish it; for such
principles, after a revolution is thoroughly established, are of no more
use ; they are eveg, odious and abominable.

4.	However peaceably your colonies have submitted to your govern-
ment, shown their affection to your interests, and patiently borne their
grievances ; you are to suppose them always inclined to revolt, and
treat them accordingly. Quarter troops among them, who by their
insolence may provoke the rising of mobs, and by their bullets and
bayonets suppress them. By this means, like the husband who uses
his wife ill from suspicion, you may in time convert your suspicions
into realities.

5.	Remote provinces must have governors and judges, to represent
the royal person, and execute everywhere the delegated parts of his
office and authority. You ministers know, that much of the strength
of government depends on the opinion of the people ; and much of
that opinion on the choice of rulers placed immediately over them.
If you send them wise and good men for governors, who study the
interest of the colonists, and advance their prosperity ; they will think
their King wise and good, and that he wishes the welfare of his
subjects. If you send them learned and upright men for judges, they
will think him a lover,of justice. This may attach your provinces
more to his government. You are therefore to be careful whom you
recommend to those offices. If you can find prodigals, who have
ruined their fortunes, broken gamesters or stock-jobbers, these may3o8

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

do well as governors ; for they will probably be rapacious, and
provoke the people by their extortions. Wrangling proctors and
pettifogging lawyers, too, are not amiss ; for they will be for ever
disputing and quarrelling with their little Parliaments. If withal they
should be ignorant, wrongheaded, and insolent, so much the better.
Attorneys’ clerks and Newgate solicitors will do for chief justices,
especially if they hold their places during your pleasure ; and all will
contribute to impress those ideas of your government, that are proper
for a people you would wish to renounce it.

6.	To confirm these impressions, and strike them deeper, whenever
the injured come to the capital with complaints of mal-administration,
oppression, or injustice, punish such suitors with long delay, enormous
expense, and a final judgment in favour of the oppressor. This will
have an admirable effect every way. The trouble of future com-
plaints will be prevented, and governors and judges will be encouraged
to farther acts of oppression and injustice; and thence the people
may become more disaffected, and at length desperate.

7.	When such governors have crammed their coffers, and made
themselves so odious to the people that they can no longer remain
among them, with safety to their persons, recall and reward them
with pensions. You may make them baronets too, if that respectable
order should not think fit to resent it. All will contribute to encourage
new governors in the same practice, and make the supreme govern-
ment detestable.

8.	If, when you are engaged in war, your colonies should vie in
liberal aids of men and money against the common enemy, upon your
simple requisition, and give far beyond their abilities, reflect that a
penny taken from them by your power is more honourable to you,
than a pound presented by their benevolence ; despise therefore their
voluntary grants, and resolve to harass them with novel taxes. They
will probably complain to your Parliament, that they are taxed by a
body in which they have no representative, and that this is contrary
to common right. They will petition for redress. Let the Parliament
flout their claims, reject their petitions, "refuse even to suffer the read-
ing of them, and treat the petitioners with the utmost contempt.
Nothing can have a better effect in producing the alienation proposed ;
for, though many can forgive injuries, none ever forgave contempt.

9.	In laying these taxes, never regard the heavy burdens those
remote people already undergo, in defending their own frontiers,
supporting their own provincial government, making new roads,
building bridges, churches, and- other public edifices ; which*in old
countries have been done to your hands by your ancestors, but which
occasion constant calls and demands on the purses of a new people.
Forget the restraint you lay on their trade for your own benefit, and
the advantage a monopoly of this trade gives your exacting merchants.
Think nothing of the wealth those merchants and your manufacturers
acquire by the colony commerce ; their increased ability thereby
to pay taxes at home; their accumulating, in the price of their
commodities, most of those taxes, and so levying them from theirBENJAMIN FRANKLIN

309

consuming customers ; all this, and the employment and support
of thousands of your poor by the colonists, you are entirely to forget.
But remember to make your arbitrary tax more grievous to your
provinces, by public declarations importing that your power of taxing
them has no limits; so that, when you take from them without their
consent a shilling in the pound, you have a clear right to the other
nineteen. This will probably weaken every idea of security in their
property, and convince them, that under such a government they have
nothing they can call their own ; which can scarce fail of producing
the happiest consequences !

10.	Possibly, indeed, some of them might still comfort themselves,
and say, “ Though we have no property, we have yet something left
that is valuable : we have constitutional liberty, both of person and of
conscience. This King, these Lords, and these Commons, who it
seems are too remote from us to know us, and feel for us, cannot take
from us our Habeas Corpus right, or our right of trial by a jury of our
neighbours ; they cannot deprive us of the exercise of our religion,
alter our ecclesiastical constitution, and compel us to be Papists, if
they please, or Mahometans.” To annihilate this comfort, begin by
laws to perplex their commerce with infinite regulations, impossible
to be remembered and observed ; ordain seizures of their property for
every failure ; take away the trial of such property by jury, and give
it to arbitrary judges of your own appointing, and of the lowest
characters in the country, whose salaries and emoluments are to arise
out of the duties or condemnations, and whose appointments are
during pleasure. Then let there be a formal declaration of both
Houses^ that opposition to your edicts is treason, and that persons
suspected of treason in the provinces may, according to some obsolete
law, be seized and sent to the metropolis of the empire for trial ; and
pass an act, that those there charged with certain other offences, shall
be sent away in chains from their friends and country to be tried in
the same manner for felony. Then erect a new court of Inquisition
among them, accompanied by an armed force, with instructions to
transport all such suspected persons ; to be ruined by the expense, if
they bring over evidences to prove their innocence, or be found guilty
and hanged, if they cannot afford it. And, lest the people should
think you cannot possibly go any farther, pass another solemn
declaratory act, “that King, Lords, Commons had, have, and of right
ought to have, full power and authority to make statutes of sufficient
force and validity to bind the unrepresented provinces in all cases
whatsoever.” This will include spiritual with temporal, and, taken
together, must operate wonderfully to your purpose ; by convincing
them, that they are at present under a power something like that
spoken of in the Scriptures, which can not only kill their bodies, but
damn their souls to all eternity, by compelling them, if it pleases, to
worship the Devil.

11.	To make your taxes more odious, and more likely to procure
resistance, send from the capital a board of officers to superintend the
collection, composed of the most indiscreet, ill-bred, and insolent you3io

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

can find. Let these have large salaries out of the extorted revenue,
and live in open, grating luxury upon the sweat and blood of the in-
dustrious ; whom they are to worry continually with groundless and
expensive prosecutions before the above mentioned arbitrary revenue
judges ; all at the cost of the party prosecuted, though acquitted, be-
cause the King is to pay no costs. Let these men, by your order, be
exempted from all the common taxes and burdens of the province,
though they and their property are protected by its laws. If any
revenue officers are suspected of the least tenderness for the people,
discard them. If others are justly complained of, protect and reward
them. If any of the under officers behave so as to provoke the people
to drub them, promote those to better offices ; this will encourage
others to procure for themselves such profitable drubbings, by multi-
plying and enlarging such provocations, and all will work towards the
end you aim at.

12.	Another way to make your tax odious, is to misapply the pro-
duce of it. If it was originally appropriated for the defence of the
provinces, and the better support of government, and the administra-
tion of justice, where it may be necessary ; then apply none of it to
that defence ; but bestow it where it is not necessary, in augmenting
salaries or pensions to every governor, who has distinguished himself
by his enmity to the people, and by calumniating them to their sove-
reign. This will make them pay it more unwillingly, and be more
apt to quarrel with those that collect it and those that impose it; who
will quarrel again with them; and all shall contribute to your own
purpose, of making them weary of your government.

13.	If the people of any province have been accustomed to support
their own governors and judges to satisfaction, you are to apprehend
that such governors and judges maybe thereby influenced to treat the
people kindly, and to do them justice. This is another reason for
applying part of that revenue in larger salaries to such governors and
judges, given, as their commissions are, during your pleasure only;
forbidding them to take any salaries from their provinces ; that thus
the people may no longer hope any kindness from their governors,
or (in crown cases) any justice from their judges. And, as the money
thus misapplied in one province is extorted from all, probably all will
resent the misapplication.

14.	If the Parliaments of your provinces should dare to claim rights,
or complain of your administration, order them to be harassed with
repeated dissolutions. If the same men are continually returned by
new elections, adjourn their meetings to some country village, where
they cannot be accommodated, and there keep them during pleasure ;
for this, you know, is your prerogative ; and an excellent one it is, as
you may manage it to promote discontents among the people,
diminish their respect, and increase their disaffection.

15.	Convert the brave, honest officers of your navy into pimping
tide-waiters and colony officers of the customs. Let those, who in
time of war fought gallantly in defence of the commerce of their
countrymen, in peace be taught tq prey upon it, Let them learn tQBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

3”

be corrupted by great and real smugglers ; but (to show their dili-
gence) scour with armed boats every bay, harbour, river, creek, cove,
or nook throughout the coast of your colonies ; stop and detain every
coaster, every wood-boat, every fisherman ; tumble their cargoes and
even their ballast inside out and upside down ; and, if a pennyworth
of pins is found unentered, let the whole be seized and confiscated.
Thus shall the trade of your colonists suffer more from their friends in
time of peace, than it did from their enemies in war. Then let these
boats’ crews land upon every farm in their way, rob their orchards,
steal their pigs and poultry, and insult the inhabitants. If the injured
and exasperated farmers, unable to procure other justice, should attack
the aggressors, drub them, and burn their boats ; you are to call this
high treason and rebellion, order fleets and armies into their country,
and threaten to carry all the offenders three thousand miles to be
hanged, drawn, and quartered. O ! this will work admirably 1

16.	If you are told of discontents in your colonies, never believe that
they are general, or that you have given occasion for them ; therefore
do not think of applying any remedy, or of changing any offensive
measure. Redress no grievance, lest they should be encouraged to
demand the redress of some other grievance. Grant no request that
is just and reasonable, lest they should make another that is un-
reasonable. Take all your informations of the state of the colonies
from your governors and officers in enmity with them. Encourage
and reward these leasing-makers ; secrete their lying accusations,
lest they should be confuted; but act upon them as the clearest
evidence ; and believe nothing you hear from the friends of the people.
Suppose all their complaints to be invented and promoted by a few
factious demagogues, whom if you could catch and hang, all would be
quiet. Catch and hang a few of them accordingly ; and the blood of
the martyrs shall work miracles in favour of your purpose.

17.	If you see rival nations rejoicing at the prospect of your dis-
union with your provinces, and endeavouring to promote it; if they
translate, publish, and applaud all the complaints of your discontented
colonists, at the same time privately stimulating you to severer mea-
sures, let not that offend you. Why should it, since you all mean the
same thing ?

18.	If any colony should at their own charge erect a fortress to
secure their port against the fleets of a foreign enemy, get your gover-
nor to betray that fortress into your hands. Never think of paying
what it cost the country, for that would look, at least, like some regard
for justice ; but turn it into a citadel to awe the inhabitants and curb
their commerce. If they should have lodged in such fortress the very
arms they bought and used to aid you in your conquests, seize them
all; it will provoke, like ingratitude added to robbery. One admir-
able effect of these operations will be, to discourage every other colony
from erecting such defences, and so their and your enemies may more
easily invade them ; to the great disgrace of your government, and of
course the furtherance of your project.

19.	Send armies into their country under pretence of protecting the312

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

inhabitants; but, instead of garrisoning the forts on their frontiers
with those troops, to prevent incursions, demolish those forts, and
order the troops into the heart of the country, that the savages may
be encouraged to attack the frontiers, and that the troops may be
protected by the inhabitants. This will seem to proceed from your
ill will or yoar ignorance, and contribute farther to produce and
strengthen an opinion among them, that you are no longer fit to
govern them.

20. Lastly, invest the general of your army in the provinces, with
great and unconstitutional powers, and free him from the control of
even your own civil governors. Let him have troops enough under
his command, with all the fortresses in his possession ; and who
knows but (like some provincial generals in the Roman empire, and
encouraged by the universal discontent you have produced) he may
take it into his head to set up for himself? If he should, and you
have carefully practised the few excellent rules of mine, take my word
for it, all the provinces will immediately join him ; and you will that
day (if you have not done it sooner) get rid of the trouble of governing
them, and all the plagues attending their commerce and connexion
from thenceforth and forever.

CHAPTER XII. (1773-1774.)

Petition of the Massachusetts Assembly for Hutchinson's Recall—Hearing in the
Cockpit—Wedderburn’s Insolence—The Petition Rejected—Franklin dis-
missed from the Post-office—Relations of Franklin with Earl Chatham and
Lord Howe—Earl Chatham's Motion for the Conciliation of America rejected.

To Thomas I WAITED on Lord Dartmouth, on his return to town,
Cushing, dated and learned that he had presented to his Majesty our
London^s Janu- petition for the removal of the governors. No sub-
ary’ ' sequent step had yet been taken upon it; but his Lord-
ship said, the King would probably refer the consideration of it to a
committee of Council, and that I should have notice to be heard in
support of it. By the turn of his conversation, though he was not
explicit, I apprehend the petition is not likely to be complied with ;
but we shall see. His Lordship expressed, as usual, much concern at
the differences subsisting, and wished they would be accommodated.
Perhaps his good wishes are all that is in his power.

The famous letters having unfortunately engaged Mr. Temple and
Mr. Whately in a duel, which being interrupted, would probably be
renewed, I thought it incumbent on me to prevent, as far as I could,
any farther mischief, by declaring publicly the part I had in the affair
of those letters, and thereby at the same time to rescue Mr. Temple’s
character from an undeserved and groundless imputation, that bore
hard upon his honour, viz., that of taking the letters from Mr. Whately,
and in breach of confidence. I did this with the more pleasure, as IBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

3i3

believe him a sincere friend to our country. I am told by some, that
it was imprudent in me to avow the obtaining and sending those
letters, for that administration will resent it. I have not much appre-
hension of this ; but, if it happens, I must take the consequences. I
only hope it will not affect any friend on your side of the water, for I
have never mentioned to whom they were transmitted.

A letter of mine to you, printed in one of the Boston papers, has
lately been reprinted here, to show, as the publisher expresses it, that
I am “ 07ie of the most determined enemies of the welfare and pros-
perity of Great Britain.” In the opinion of some, every one who
wishes the good of the whole empire may nevertheless be an enemy
to the welfare of Great Britain, if he does not wish its good exclu-
sively of every other part, and to see its welfare built on their servi-
tude and wretchedness. Such an enemy I certainly am. But
metlrinks it is wrong to print letters of mine at Boston, which give
occasion to these reflections.

I shall continue to do all I possibly can this winter towards an
accommodation of our differences ; but my hopes are small. Divine
Providence first infatuates the power it designs to ruin.

To william N° insinuations of the kind you mention, concerning
Franklin, dated Mr. Galloway, have reached me, and, if they had, it
London^ Janu- woui(j have been without the least effect; as I have
ary’ ' always had the strongest reliance on the steadiness of
his friendship, and on the best grounds, the knowledge I have of his
integrity, and the often repeated disinterested services he has rendered
me. My return will interfere with nobody’s interest or influence in
public affairs, as my intention is to decline all interest in them, and
every active part, except where it can serve a friend, and to content
myself with communicating the knowledge of them which my situa-
tion may have furnished me with, and be content with giving my
advice for the public benefit, where it may be asked, or where I shall
think it may be attended to ; for, being now about entering my sixty-
ninth year, and having lived so great a part of my life to the public,
it seems but fair that I should be allowed to live the small remainder
to myself and to my friends.

If the honourable office you mention will be agreeable to him, I
heartily wish it him. I only hope, that, if offered to him, he will insist
on its being not during pleasure, but quamdiu se bene gesserit.

Our friend Temple, as you will see by the papers, has been engaged
in a duel, about an affair in which he had no concern. As the com-
bat was interrupted, and understood to be unfinished, I thought it
incumbent on me to do what I could for preventing further mischief,
and so declared my having transmitted the letters in question. This
has drawn some censure upon myself; but, as I grow old, I grow less
concerned about censure, when I am satisfied that I act rightly ; and
I have the pleasure of having exculpated a friend, who lay unde-
servedly under an imputation much to his dishonour.

I am now seriously preparing for my departure to America. I3M

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

purpose sending my luggage, books, instruments, &c., by All or
Falconer, and taking my passage to New York in one of the spring or
summer packets, partly for settling "some business with thje post-office
there, and partly that I may see you on my way to Philadelphia, and
learn thereby more perfectly the state of affairs there.

To Thomas We had	imagined, that the King would have

Cushing, dated considered that petition,1 as he had done the preceding
London^is Feh- one, jn his cabinet, and have given an answer without a
ruary’ * hearing, since it did not pray punishments or disabilities
on the governors. But on Saturday the 8th of January, in the after-
noon, I received notice from the clerk of the Council, that the Lords
of the Committee for Plantation Affairs, would, on the Tuesday follow-
ing at twelve, meet at the Cockpit, to take into consideration the
petition referred to them by his Majesty, and that my attendance was
required.

I sent directly to Mr. Arthur Lee, requesting a meeting, that we
might consult upon it. He was not at his chambers, but my note was
left for him. Sunday morning I went to Mr. Bollan, and communi-
cated the affair to him. He had received a similar notice. We con-
sidered whether it was best to employ other counsel, since Mr. Lee,
he said, could not be admitted as such, not being yet called to the

bar.	He thought it not advisable. He had sometimes done it in
colony cases, and found lawyers of little service. Those who are
eminent, and hope to rise in their profession, are unwilling to offend
the court; and its disposition on this occasion was well known. But
he would move to be heard in behalf of the Council of the province,
and thence take occasion to support the petition himself.

I went and sent again to Mr. Lee’s chambers in the Temple, but
could not meet with him ; and it was not till near the end of the
week that I learnt he was at Bath. On Monday, very late in the
afternoon, I received another notice, that Mr. Mauduit, agent for the
governor and lieutenant-governor, had asked and obtained leave to be
heard by counsel on the morrow in their behalf. This very short
notice seemed intended to surprise us. On Tuesday, we attended at
the Cockpit, and, the petition being read, I was called upon for what
1 had to offer in support of it; when, as had been concerted between

us,	I acquainted their Lordships that Mr. Bollan, then present, in
pursuance of their notice, would speak to it.

He came forward and began to speak ; but objection was imme-
diately made by some of the Lords, that he, being only agent for the
Council, which was not a party to this petition, could not properly be
heard on it. He however repeatedly endeavoured to obtain leave to
speak, but without effect ; they would scarce hear out a sentence, and
finally set him aside. I then said, that, with the petition of the House
of Representatives, I had received their resolutions which preceded
it, and a copy of the letters on which those resolutions were founded,
which I would'lay before their Lordships in support of the petition.

1 Of the Assembly of Massachusetts for the recall of Governor Hutchinson.BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

315

The resolutions were accordingly read ; but, when the letters were
taken up, Mr. Wedderburn, the solicitor-general, brought there as
counsel for the governors, began to object, and inquire how they were
authenticated, as did also some of the Lords. I said the authentica-
tions were annexed. They wanted to know the nature of them. I
said that would appear, when they were read, and prayed they would
hear them. Lord Chief Justice De Grey asked whom the letters were
directed to ; and, taking them in his hand, observed there was no
address prefixed to any of them. 1 said, that, though it did not
appear to whom they were directed, it appeared who had written
them ; their names were subscribed ; the originals had been shown to
the gentlemen themselves, and they had not denied their handwriting;
and the testifications annexed proved these to be true copies;

With difficulty I obtained leave to have the authentications read ;
and the solicitor-general proceeding to make observations as counsel
for the governors, I said to their Lordships, that it was some surprise
to me to find counsel employed against the petition; that I had no
notice of that intention, till late in the preceding day ; that I had not
purposed troubling their Lordships with the hearing of counsel,
because I did not conceive that anything could possibly arise out of
the petition, any point of law or of right, that might require the
discussion of lawyers; that I apprehended this matter before their
Lordships was rather a question of civil or political prudence, whether,
on the state of the fact that the governors had lost all trust and con-
fidence with the people, and become universally obnoxious, it would
be for the interest of his M-ajesty’s service to continue them in those
stations in that province ; that I conceived this to be a question of
which their Lordships were already perfect judges, and could receive
no assistance in it from the arguments of counsel ; but, if counsel was
to be heard on the other side, I must then request- leave to bring
counsel in behalf of the Assembly, and that their Lordships would
be pleased to appoint a further day for the hearing, to give time for
preparing the counsel.

Mr. Mauduit was then asked, if he would waive the leave he had of
being heard by counsel, that their Lordships might proceed imme-
diately to consider the petition. He said he was requested by the
governors to defend them, and they had promised to defray the
expense, by which he understood that they expected he should
employ counsel; and then, making me some compliments, as if of
superior abilities, said he should not against me hazard the defence
of his friends by taking it upon himself. I said I had intended merely
to lay the papers before their Lordships, without making a single
comment on them. But this did not satisfy ; he chose to be heard by
counsel. So finally I had leave to be heard by counsel also in behalf
of the petition* The solicitor-general, finding his cavils against the
admission of the letters were not supportable, at last said, that, to
save their Lordships’ time, he would admit the copies to be true
transcripts of the originals, but he should reserve to himself a right,
when the matter came on again, pf asking certain questions, such as,316

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

How the Assembly came into possession of them, through what hands,
and by what means they were procured ? “ Certainly,” replied Lord
Chief Justice De Grey, somewhat austerely, “ and to whom they were
directed ; for the perfect understanding of the passages may depend
on that and other such circumstances. We can receive no charge
against a man founded on letters directed to nobody, and perhaps
received by nobody. The laws of this country have no such practice.”
Lord President, near whom I stood, as I was putting up my papers,
asked me if I intended to answer such questions. In that, I said, I
should take counsel. The day appointed for the hearing was the 29th
of January.

Several friends now came to me, and advised me to retain Mr.
Dunning, formerly solicitor-general, and very able in his profession.
I wished first to consult with Mr. Lee, supposing he might rather be
for his friend, Mr. Sergeant Glynn. I found Mr. Lee was expected in
town about the latter end of the week, and thought to wait his com-
ing; in the meantime I was urged to take Mr. Dunning’s advice, as
to my own conduct, if such questions should be asked me. I did so;
and he was clear, that I was not and could not be obliged to answer
them, if I did not choose it, which I informed him was the case, being
under a promise not to divulge from whom I received the letters. He
said he would attend, however, if I desired it, and object in my behalf
to their putting such questions.

A report now prevailed through the town, that I had been grossly
abused by the solicitor-general, at the Council Board. But this was
premature. He had only intended it, and mentioned that intention.
I heard, too, from all quarters, that the ministry and all the courtiers
were highly enraged against me for transmitting those letters. I was
called an incendiary, and the papers were filled with invectives against
me. Hints were given me, that there were some thoughts of appre-
hending me, seizing my papers, and sending me to Newgate. I was
well informed, that a resolution was taken to deprive me of'my place;
it was only thought best to defer it till after the hearing ; I suppose,
because I was there to be so blackened, that nobody should think it
injustice. Many knew, too, how the petition was to be treated ; and
I was told, even before the first hearing, that it was to be rejected
with some epithets, the Assembly to be censured, and some honour
done the governors. How this could be known, one cannot say.
It might be only conjecture.

The transactions relating to the tea had increased and strengthened
the torrent of clamour against us. No one had the least expectation
of success to the petition ; and, though I had asked leave to use
counsel, I was half inclined to waive it, and save you the expense; but
Mr. Bollan was now strongly for it, as they had refused to hear him.
And, though fortified by his opinion, as he had long experience in your
affairs, I would at first have ventured to deviate from the instructions
you sent me in that particular, supposing you to allow some discre-
tionary liberty to your agents ; yet, now that he urged it as necessary,
I employed a solicitor, and furnished him with what materials I couldBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.	317

fot framing a brief; and Mr. Lee, coming to town, entered heartily
into the business, and undertook to engage Sergeant Glynn, who would
readily have served us, but, being in a fit of the gout, which made his
attendance uncertain, the solicitor retained Mr. Dunning and Mr.
John Lee, another able man of the profession.

While my mind was taken up with this business, I was harassed
with a subpoena from the Chancellor to attend his court the next day,
at the suit of Mr. William Whately concerning the letters. This man
was under personal obligations to me, such as would have made it
base in him to commence such a suit of his own motion against me, with-
out any previous notice, claim, or demand ; but, if he was capable of
doing it at the instance of the ministry, whose banker he is for some
pension money, he must be still baser.

The briefs being prepared and perused by our counsel, we had a
consultation at Mr. Dunning’s chambers in Lincoln’s Inn. I intro-
duced Mr. Arthur Lee, as my friend and successor in the agency.
The brief, as you will see by a copy I send you, pointed out the
passages of the letters, which were applicable in support of the
particular charges contained in the resolutions and petition. But the
counsel observed, we wanted evidence to prove those passages false ;
the counsel on the other side would say, they were true representations
of the state of the country ; and, as to the political reflections of the
writers, and their sentiments of government, their aims to extend and
enforce the power of Parliament and diminish the privileges of their
countrymen, though these might appear in the letters and need no
other proof, yet they would never be considered here as offences, but
as virtues and merits. The c-eunsel therefore thought it would answer
no good end to insist on those particulars ; and that it was more
advisable to state as facts the general discontent of the people, that
the governors had lost all credit with them, and were become odious,
&c.; facts of which the petition was itself full proof, beca'use otherwise
it could not have existed; and then show, that it must in such a
situation be necessary for his Majesty’s service, as well as the peace
of the province, to remove them. By this opinion, great part of the
brief became unnecessary.

Notwithstanding the intimations I had received, I could not believe
that the solicitor-general would be permitted to wander from the ques-
tion before their Lordships into a new case, the accusation of another
person for another matter, not cognizable before them, who could not
expect to be there so accused, and therefore could not be prepared for
his defence. And yet all this happened, and in all probability was
preconcerted ; for all the courtiers were invited, as to an entertain-
ment, and there never was such an appearance of privy counsellors on
any occasion, not less than thirty-five, besides an immense crowd of
other auditors.

The hearing began by reading my letter to Lord Dartmouth,
enclosing the petition, then the petition itself, the resolves, and lastly
the letters, the solicitor-general making no objections, nor asking any
of the questions he had talked of at the preceding board. Our counselLIFE AND LETTERS OF

318

then opened the matter, upon their general plan, and acquitted them-
selves very handsomely ; only Mr. Dunning, having a disorder on his
lungs that weakened his voice exceedingly, was not so perfectly heard
as one could have wished. The solicitor-general then went into what
he called a history of the province for the last ten years, and bestowed
plenty of abuse upon it, mingled with encomium on the governors.
But the favourite part of his discourse was levelled at your agent, who
stood there the butt of his invective ribaldry for near an hour, not a
single Lord adverting to the impropriety and indecency of treating a
public messenger in so ignominious a manner, who was present only
as the person delivering your petition, with the consideration of which
no part of his conduct had any concern. If he had done a wrong, in
obtaining and transmitting the letters, that was not the tribunal where
he was to be accused and tried. The cause was already before the
Chancellor. Not one of their Lordships checked and recalled the
orator to the business before them, but, on the contrary, a very few
excepted, they seemed to enjoy highly the entertainment, and fre-
quently burst out in loud applause. This part of his speech was
thought so good, that they have since printed it, in order to defame
me everywhere, and particularly to destroy my reputation on your
side of the water; but the grosser parts of the abuse are omitted,
appearing, I suppose, in their own eyes, too foul to be.seen on paper;
so that the speech, compared to what it was, is now perfectly decent.
I send you one of the copies. My friends advise me to write an
answer, which I purpose immediately.

The reply of Mr. Dunning concluded. Being very ill, and much
incommoded by standing so long, his voice was so feeble, as to be
scarce audible. What little I heard was very well said, but appeared
to have little effect.

Their Lordships’ Report, which I send you, is dated the same day.
It contains a severe censure, as you will see, on the petition and the
petitioners ; and, as I think, a very unfair conclusion from my silence,
that the charge of surreptitiously obtaining the letters was a true one ;
though the solicitor, as appears in the printed speech, had acquainted
them that that matter was before the Chancellor ; and my counsel had
stated the impropriety of my answering there to charges then trying
in another court. In truth I came by them honourably, and my inten-
tion in sending them was virtuous, if an endeavour to lessen the
breach between two states of the same empire be such, by showing
that the injuries complained of by one of them did not proceed from
the other, but from traitors among themselves.

It may be supposed, that I am very angry on this occasion, and
therefore I did purpose to add no reflections of mine on the treatment
the Assembly and their agent have received, lest they should be
thought the effects of resentment and a desire of exasperating. But,
indeed, what I feel on my own account is half lost in what I feel for
the public. When I see, that all petitions and complaints of griev-
ances are so odious to government, that even the mere pipe which
conveys them becomes obnoxious, I am at a loss to know how peaceBENJAMIN FRANKLIN

3i9

and union are to be maintained or restored between the different parts
of the empire. Grievances cannot be redressed unless they are
known; and they cannot be known but through complaints and
petitions. If these are deemed affronts, and the messengers punished
as offenders, who will henceforth send petitions ? And who will
deliver them? It has been thought a dangerous thing in any state to
stop up the vent of griefs. Wise governments have therefore gene-
rally received petitions with some indulgence, even when but slightly
founded. Those, who think themselves injured by their rulers, are
sometimes, by a mild and prudent answer, convinced of their error.
But where complaining is a crime, hope becomes despair.

The day following I received a written notice from the secretary of
the general post-office, that his Majesty’s postmaster-general found it
necessary to dismiss me from my office of deputy postmaster-general
in North America. The expression was well chosen, for in truth they
were under a necessity of doing it; it was not their own inclination ;
they had no fault to find with my conduct in the office ; they knew my
merit in it, and that, if it was now an office of value, it had become
such chiefly through my care and good management; that it was
worth nothing, when given to me ; it would not then pay the salary
allowed me, and, unless it did, I was not to expect it; and that it now
produces near three thousand pounds a year clear to the treasury
here. They had beside a personal regard for me. But, as the post-
offices in all the principal towns are growing daily more and more
valuable, by the increase of correspondence, the officers bfeing paid
commissions instead of salaries,-the ministers seem to intend, by
directing me to be displaced on this occasion, to hold out to them all
an example, that, if they are not corrupted by their office to promote
the measures of administration, though against the interests and
rights of the colonies, they must not expect to be continued. This is
the first act for extending the influence of government in this branch.
But, as orders have been some time since given to the American post-
master-general, who used to have the disposition of all places under
him, not to fill vacancies of value, till notice of such vacancies had
been sent hither, and instructions thereupon received from hence, it is
plain, that such influence is to be a part of the system ; and probable,
that those vacancies will for the future be filled by officers from this
country. How safe the correspondence of your Assembly committees
along the continent will be through the hands of such officers may now
be worth consideration, especially as the post-office Act of Parliament
allows a postmaster to open letters, if warranted so to do by the order
of a secretary of state, and every provincial secretary may be deemed
a secretary of state in his own province.

It is not yet known what steps will be taken by government with
regard to the colonies, or to our province in particular. But, as
inquiries are making of all who come from thence, concerning the late
riot, and the meetings that preceded it, and who were speakers and
movers at these meetings, I suspect there is some intention of seizing
persons, and perhaps of sending them hither. But of this I have no320

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

certainly. No motion has yet been made in the. House of Commons
concerning our affairs ; and that made in the House of Lords was
withdrawn for the present. It is not likely, however, that the session
will pass over without some proceeding relating to us, though perhaps
it is not yet settled what the measures shall be.

CHAPTER XIII.

AN ACCOUNT* OF THE TRANSACTIONS RELATING TO GOVERNOR
HUTCHINSON’S LETTERS.

Having been from my youth more or less engaged in public affairs, it
has often happened to me in the course of my life to be censured
sharply for the part I took in them. Such censures I have generally
passed over in silence, conceiving, when they were just, that I ought
rather to amend than defend ; and, when they were undeserved, that
a little time would justify me. Much experience has confirmed my
opinion of the propriety of this conduct ; for, notwithstanding the
frequent, and sometimes the virulent attacks which the jostlings of
party interests have drawn upon me, I have had the felicity of bring-
ing down to a good old age as fair a reputation (may I be permitted to
say it ?) as most public men that I have known, and have never had
reason to repent my neglecting to defend it.

I should therefore (persisting, as old men ought to do, in old habits)
have taken no notice of the late invective of the solicitor-general, nor
of the abundant abuse in the papers, were I not urged to it by my
friends, who say, that the first being delivered by a public officer of
government before a high and most respectable court, the Privy Coun-
cil, and countenanced by its report, and the latter having that for its
foundation, it behoves me, more especially as I am about leaving this
country, to furnish them with the knowledge of such facts as may
enable them to justify to others their good opinion of me. This com-
pels me to the present undertaking ; for otherwise, having for some
time past been gradually losing all public connections, declining my
agencies, determined on retiring to my little family, that I might
enjoy the remainder of life in private repose, indifferent to the opinion
of courtiers, as having nothing to seek or wish among them, and being
secure that time would soon lay the dust which prejudice and party
have so lately raised, I should not think of giving myself the trouble

1 The profound sensation produced by the publication of the Hutchinson letters,
and the unmerited obloquy which his part in the matter brought upon Dr. Frank-
lin, decided him, before leaving England, to prepare the detailed account of his
connection with these letters which is here given. He does not reveal the source
from whence the letters came to him, but Mr. C. Francis Adams, upon the
authority of his grandfather. President John Adams, says, “ Scarcely a doubt can
remain that Sir John Temple was the man who procured the Hutchinson letters
and had them delivered to Franklin." This account was not published till 1817.BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

32i

of writing, and my friends of reading, an apology for my political
conduct.

That this conduct may be better understood, and its consistency
more apparent, it seems necessary that I should first explain the prin-
ciples on which I have acted. It has long appeared to me, that the
only true British policy was that, which aimed at the good of the
whole British empire, not that which sought the advantage of one part
in the disadvantage of the others; therefore all measures of procuring
gain to the mother country arising from loss to her colonies, and all of
gain to the colonies arising from or occasioning loss to Britain, especi-
ally where the gain was small and the loss great, every abridgment of the
power of the mother country, where that power was not prejudicial to
the liberties of the colonists, and every diminution of the privileges of
the colonists, where they were not prejudicial to the welfare of the
mother country, I, in my own mind, condemned as improper, partial,
unjust, and mischievous; tending to create dissensions, and weaken
that union, on which the strength, solidity, and duration of the empire
greatly depended ; and I opposed, as far as my little powers went, all
proceedings, either here or in America, that in my opinion had such
tendency. Hence it has-often happened to me, that while I have been
thought here too much of an American, I have in America been
deemed too much of an Englishman.

From a thorough inquiry (on occasion of the Stamp Act) into the
nature of the connection between Britain and the colonies, I became
convinced, that the bond of their union is not the Parliament, but the
King. That, in removing to Americana country out of the realm,
they did not carry with them the statutes then existing; for, if they
did, the Puritans must have been subject there to the same grievous
act of conformity, tithes, spiritual courts, &c., which they meant to be
free from by going thither; and in vain would they have left their
native country, and all the conveniences and comforts of its improved
state, to combat the hardships of anew settlement in a distant wilder-
ness, if they had taken with them what they meant to fly from, or if
they had left a power behind them capable of sending the same chains
after them, to bind them in America. They took with them, however,
by compact, their allegiance to the King, and a legislative power for
the making a new body of laws with his assent, by which they were to
be governed. Hence they became distinct states, under the same
prince, united as Ireland is to the crown, but not to the realm, of
England, and governed each by its own laws, though with the same
sovereign, and having each the right of granting its own money to
that sovereign.

At the same time, I considered the King’s supreme authority over
all the colonies as of the greatest importance to them, affording a
dernier ressort for settling all their disputes, a means of preserving
peace among them with each other, and a centre in which their com-
mon force might be united against a common enemy. This authority
I therefore thought, when acting within its due limits, should be ever
ps carefully supported by the colonists as by the inhabitants of Britain.322

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

In conformity with these principles, and as agent for the colonies,
I opposed the Stamp Act, and endeavoured to obtain its repeal, as an
infringement of the rights of the colonists, of no real advantage to
Britain, since she might ever be sure of greater aids from our volun-
tary grants than she could expect from arbitrary taxes, as by losing
our respect and affection, on which much of her commerce with us
depended, she would lose more in that commerce than she could pos-
sibly gain by such taxes, and as it was detrimental to the harmony
which had till then so happily subsisted, and which, was so essential
to the welfare of the whole. And to keep up, as much as in me lay, a
reverence for the King and a respect for the British nation on that
side the water, and, on this, some regard for the colonies (both tend-
ing to promote that harmony), I industriously, on all occasions in my
letters to America, represented the measures that were grievous to
them, as being neither royal nor national measures, but the schemes
of an administration which wished to recommend itself for its ingenuity
in finance, or to avail itself of new revenues in creating, by places and
pensions, new dependencies ; for that the King was a good and
gracious prince, and the people of Britain their real friends. And on
this side the water I represented the people of America as fond of
Britain, concerned for its interests and its glory, and without the least
desire of a separation from it. In both cases I thought, and still
think, I did not exceed the bounds of truth, and I have the heartfelt
satisfaction attending good intentions, even when they are not suc-
cessful.

With these sentiments, I could not but see. with concern the send-
ing of troops to Boston ; and their behaviour to the people there gave
me infinite uneasiness, as I apprehended from that measure the worst
of consequences, a breach between the two countries. And I was
the more concerned when I found that it was considered there as a
national measure (since none here opposed it), and as a proof that
Britain had no longer a parental regard for them. I myself, in con-
versation sometimes, spoke of it in this light, and I own with some
resentment (being myself a native" of that country), till I was, to my
great surprise, assured by a gentleman of character and distinction
(whom I am not at present permitted to name) that not only the
measure I particularly censured so warmly, but all the other grievances
we complained of, took their rise, not from the government here, but
were projected, proposed to administration, solicited, and obtained by
some of the most respectable among the Americans themselves, as
necessary measures for the welfare of that country. As I could, not
readily assent to the probability of this, he undertook to convince me,
and he hoped, through me (as their agent here), my countrymen.
Accordingly, he called on me some clays after, and produced to me
these very letters from Lieutenant-Governor Hutchinson, Secretary
Oliver, and others, which have since been the subject of so much
discussion.

Though astonished, I could not but confess myself convinced, and
I was ready, as-he desired, to convince my countrymen ; for I saw, IBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

323

felt indeed by its effect upon myself, the tendency it must have towards
a reconciliation, which for the common good I earnestly wished ; it
appeared, moreover, my duty to give my constituents intelligence of
such importance to their affairs ; but there was some difficulty, as this
gentleman would not permit copies to be taken of the letters; and, if
that could have been done, the authenticity of those copies might have
been doubted and disputed. My simple account of them, as papers I
had seen, would have been still less certain; I therefore wished to
have the use of the originals for that purpose, which I at length
obtained, on these express conditions; that they should not be printed;
that no copies should be taken of them; that they should be shown
only to a few of the leading people of the government; and that they
should be carefully returned.

I accepted those conditions, and under the same transmitted the
original letters to the Committee of Correspondence at Boston, without
taking or reserving any copy of them for myself. I agreed the more
willingly to the restraint, from an apprehension that a publication
might, considering the state of irritation in which the minds of the
people there had long been kept, occasion some riot of mischievous
consequence. I had no other scruple in sending them, for, as they
had been handed about here to injure that people, why not use them
for their advantage ? The writers, too, had taken the same liberty
with the letters of others, transmitting hither those of Rosne and
Auchmuty in confirmation of their own calumnies against the
Americans ; copies of some of mine, too, had been returned here by
officers of government. Why, then, should theirs be exempt from
the same treatment? To whom they had been directed here I could
only conjecture ; for I was not informed, and there was no address
upon them when I received them. My letter, in which I enclosed
them, expressed more fully the motives above mentioned for sending
them, and I shall presently give an extract of so much of it as related
to them.

But as it has, on the contrary, been roundly asserted that I did noty
as agent, transmit those letters to the Assembly’s Committee of Cor-
respondence; that I sent them to a junto, my peculiar correspondents;
that, fearing to be known as the person who sent them, I had insisted
on the keeping that circumstance a secret; that I had “shown the
utmost solicitude to have that secret kept; ” and, as this has been
urged as a demonstrative proof, that I was conscious of guilt in the
manner of obtaining them, and therefore feared a discovery so much
as to have been afraid of putting my name to the letter in which I
enclosed them, and which only appeared to be mine by my well-known
handwriting ; I would here, previous to that extract, observe, that on
the same paper was first written the copy of a preceding letter, which
had been first signed by me as usual; and accordingly, the letter now in
question began with these words, “ The above is a copy of my last;"
and all the first part of it was on business transacted by me relating
to the affairs of the province, and particularly to two petitions sent to
pie as agent by the Assembly, to be presented to the King. These324

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

circumstances must to every person there have as clearly shown me
to be the writer of that letter, as my well-known hand must have done
to those peculiar correspondents of my own, to whom it is said I sent
it. If then I hoped to be concealed by not signing my name to such
a letter, I must have been as silly as that bird which is supposed to
think itself unseen when it has hid only its head. And, if I could
depend on my correspondents keeping secret a letter and a trans-
action, which they must needs know were mine, I might as well have
trusted them with my name, and could have had no motive for omitting
it. In truth, all I insisted on was (in pursuance of my engagement),
that the letters should not be printed or copied ; but I had not at the
time the least thought or desire of keeping my part in that transaction
a secret ; and, therefore, so far from requesting it, I did not so much
as give the smallest intimation, even that it would be agreeable to me
not to be mentioned on the occasion. And, if I had had that inclina-
tion, I must have been very weak indeed to fancy that the person I
wrote to, all the rest of the Committee of Correspondence, five other
persons named, and “ such others as the Committee might think fit to
show them to,” with three gentlemen here to whom I had communi-
cated the matter, should all keep as a secret on my account what I
did not state as a secret, or request should be concealed.

So much of the letter as relates to the Governor’s letters is as
follows :

•* On this occasion I think it fit to acquaint you that there has lately
fallen into my hands part of a correspondence, that I have reason to
believe laid the foundation of most, if not all, our present grievances.
I am not at liberty to tell through what channel I received it; and I
have engaged that it shall not be printed, nor copies taken of the
whole, or any part of it; but I am allowed to let it be seen by some
men of worth in the province, for their satisfaction only. In con-
fidence of your preserving inviolably my engagement, I send you
enclosed the original letters, to obviate every pretence of unfairness
in copying, interpolation, or omission. The hands of the gentlemen
will be well known. Possibly they may not like such an exposal of
their conduct, however tenderly and private y it may be managed.
But, if they are good men, or pretend to be such, and agree that all
■good men wish a good understandmg and harmony to subsist
between the colo?iics and their mother country, they ought the less to
regret that, at the small expense of their reputation for sincerity and
public spirit among their compatriots, so desirable an e%>ent may in
some degree be forwarded. For my own part, I cannot but acknow-
ledge that my resentment against this country, for its arbitrary mea-
sures in governing us, conducted by the late minister, has, since my
conviction by these papers that those measures were projected, advised,
and called for by men of character among ourselves, and whose advice
must therefore be attended with all the weight that was proper to
mislead, and which could therefore scarce fail of misleading ; my owft
resentment, I say, has by this means been Exceedingly abated- IBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

325

think they must have the same effect with you; but I am not, as I
have said, at liberty to make the letters public. I can only allow
them to be seen by yourself, by the other gentlemen of the Committee
of Correspondence, by Messrs. Bowdoin and Pitts of the Council, and
Drs. Chauncy, Cooper, and Winthrop, with a few such other gentle-
men as you may think fit to show them to. After being some months
in your possession, you are requested to return them to me.

“As to the writers, I can easily as well as charitably conceive it
possible, that men educated in prepossessions of the unbounded
authority of Parliament, &c., may think unjustifiable every opposition
even to its unconstitutional exactions, and imagine it their duty to
suppress, as much as in them lies, such opposition. But, when I find
them bartering away the liberties of their native country for posts,
and negotiating for salaries and pensions extorted from the people :
and, conscious of the odium these might be attended with, calling for
troops to protect and secure the enjoyment of them ; when I see
them exciting jealousies in the crown, and provoking it to work against
so great a part of its most faithful subjects ; creating enmities between
the different countries of which the empire consists ; occasioning a
great expense to the tf/^/country for suppressing or preventing imaginary
rebellions in the new, and to the new country for the payment of need-
less gratifications to useless officers and enemies ; I cannot but doubt
their sincerity even in the political principles they profess, and deem
them mere time-servers, seeking their own private emolument, through
any quantity of public mischief ; betrayers of the interest, not of their
native country only, but of the government they pretend to serve, and
of the whole English empire.

“ With the greatest esteem and respect, I have the honour to be,
Sir, your and the Committee’s most obedient humble servant,

“B. Franklin.”

My next letter is of January 5th, 1773, to the same gentleman,1
beginning with these words. “ I did myself the honour of writing to
you on the 2nd of December past, enclosing some original letters from
persons at Boston, which I hope got safe to handand then it goes
on with other business transacted by me as agent, and is signed with
my name as usual. In truth, I never sent an anonymous letter to any
person in America, since my residence in London, unless where two
or more letters happened to be on the same paper, the first a copy of
a preceding letter, and the subsequent referring to the preceding ; in
that case, I may possibly have omitted signing more than one of them,
as unnecessary.

The first letter, acknowledging the receipt of the papers, is dated
“ Boston, March 24th, 1773,” and begins thus :

*' I have just received your favour of the 2nd December last, with the
several papers enclosed, for which I am much obliged to you. I have
communicated them to some of the gentlemen you mentioned. They

1 Thomas Cushing, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Massachusetts.326

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

are of opinion, that, though it might be inconvenient to publish them,
yet it might be expedient to have copies taken and left on this side
the water, as there may be a necessity to make some use of them
hereafter ; however, I read to them what you wrote to me upon the
occasion, and told them I could by no means consent copies of them
or any part of them should be taken without your express leave ; that
I would write to you upon the subject, and should strictly eonform to
your directions.”

The next letter, dated April 20th, 1773, begins thus :

“I wrote you in my last, that the gentlemen, to whom I had com-
municated the papers you sent me under cover of yours of the 2d of
December last, were of opinion, that they ought to be retained on this
side the water, to be hereafter employed as the exigency of our affairs
may require, or at least that authenticated copies ought to be taken
before they are returned. I shall have, I find, a very difficult task
properly to conduct this matter, unless you obtain leave for their being
retained or copied. I shall wait your directions on this head, and
hope they will be such as will be agreeable to all the gentlemen, who
unanimously are of opinion, that it can by no means answer any valu-
able purpose to send them here for the inspection of a few persons,
barely to satisfy their curiosity.”

On the 9th of March, I wrote to the same person, not having then
received the preceding letters, and mentioned my having written to
him on the 2nd of December and 5th of January ; and, knowing what
use was made against the people there, if every trifling mob, and fear-
ing lest, if the letters should contrary to my directions be made public,
something more serious of the kind might happen, I concluded that
letter thus:

“ I must hope that great care will be taken to keep our people quiet,
since nothing is more wished for by our enemies, than that by insur-
rections we should give a good pretence for increasing the military
among us, and putting us under more severe restraints. And it must
be evident to all, that by our rapidly increasing strength we shall soon
become of so much importance, that none of our just claims or privi-
leges will be, as heretofore, unattended to, nor any security we can wish
for our rights be denied us.”

Mine of May 6th begins thus : “ I have received none of your
favours, since that of November 28th. I have since written to you of
the following dates, December 2nd, January 5th, March 9th, and April
3rd, which I hope got safe to hand.” Thus in two out of three letters
subsequent to that of December 2nd, which enclosed the governor’s
letters, I mentioned my writing that letter, which shows I could have
no intention of concealing my having written it ; and that therefore
the assertion of my sending it anonymously is without probability.

In mine of June 2nd, 1773, I acknowledge the receipt of his letter of
March 24th, and, not being able to answer immediately his request ofBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

327

leave to copy the letters, I said nothing of them then, postponing tltat
subject to an opportunity that was expected two days after, viz., June
4th, when my letter of that date concludes thus : “ As to the letters I
communicated to you, though I have not been able to obtain leave to
take copies or publish them, I have permission to let the originals
remain with you, as long as you may think it of any use to have the
originals in possession.”

In mine of July	1773, I answer the above of April 20th as

follows ; “The letters communicated to you were not merely to satisfy
the curiosity of any, but it was thought there might be a use in showing
them to some friends of the province, and even to some of the gover-
nors fiarty, for their more certain information concerning his conduct
and politics, though the letters were not made quite public. I believe
I have since written to you, that there was no occasion to return them
speedily ; and, though I cannot obtain leave as yet to suffer copies to
be taken of them, I am allowed to say, that they may be shown and
read to whom and as many as you think proper.”

The same person wrote to me June 14th, 1773, in these terms ;

“I have endeavoured inviolably to keep to your injunctions with
respect to the papers you sent me ; I have shown them only to such
persons as- you directed ; no one person, except Dr. Cooper and one
of the Committee, knows from whom they came or to whom they were
sent. I have constantly avoided mentioning your name upon the
occasion, so that it never need be known (if you incline to keep it
a secret) whom they came from, and to whom they were sent ; and
I desire, so far as I am concerned,, my name may not be mentioned;
for it may be a damage to me. I thought it, however, my duty to com-
municate them as permitted, as they contained matters of importance
that very nearly affected the government. And, notwithstanding all
my care and precaution, it is now publicly known that such letters are
here. Considering the number of persons who were to see them (not
less than ten or fifteen), it is astonishing they did not get air before.”
Then he goes on to relate how the Assembly, having heard of them,
obliged him to produce them, but engaged not to print them ; and
that they afterwards did nevertheless print them, having got over that
engagement by the appearance of copies in the House, produced by a
member, who it was reported had just received them from England.
This letter concludes ; “ I have done all in my power strictly to con-
form to your restrictions ; but, from the circumstances above related,
you must be sensible it was impossible to prevent the letters being
made public, and therefore hope I shall be free from all blame respect-
ing this matter.”

This letter accounts for its being, unexpectedly to me, made a secret
in Boston, that I had sent the letters. The gentleman to whom I sent
them had his reasons for desiring not to be known as the person who
received and communicated them ; but as this would have been sus-328

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

petted, if it were known that I sent them, that circumstance was to be
kept a secret. Accordingly they were given to another, to be by him
produced by the committee.

My answer to this was of July 25th, 1773, as follows ;

“ I am favoured with yours of June 14th, containing some copies of
the resolves of the committee upon the letters. I see by your account
of the transaction, that you could not well prevent what was done. As
to the report of other copies being come from England, I think that
could not be. It was an expedient to disengage the House. I hope
the possession of the originals, and the proceedings upon them, will
be attended with salutary effects to the province, and then I shall be
well pleased. I observe what you mention, that no person besides Dr.
Cooperand one of the committee knew they came from me. I did
not accompany them with any request of being myself concealed ; for,
believing what I did to be in the way of my duty as agent, though I
had no doubt of its giving offence, not only to the parties exposed, but
to administration here, I was regardless of the consequences. How-
ever, since the letters themselves are now copied and printed, con-
trary to the promise I made, I am glad my name has not been heard
on the occasion ; and, as I do not see it could be of any use to the
public, I now wish it may continue unknown, though I hardly expect
it. As to yours, you may rely on my never mentioning it, except that
I may be obliged to show your letter in my own vindication, to the
person only who might otherwise think he had reason to blame me for
breach of engagement.”

With the abovementioned letter of the 14th of June, I received one
from another of the gentlerrten to whom the papers had been com-
municated, which says ; “ By whom and to whom they were sent is
still a secret, known only to three persons here, and may still remain
so, if you desire it.” My answer to him, of July 25th, was ; “ I ac-
companied them with no restriction relating to myself; my duty to
the province as their agent, I thought, required the communication of
them so far as I could. I was sensible I should make enemies there,
and perhaps might offend government here ; but these apprehensions
I disregarded. I did not expect, and hardly still expect, that my
sending them could be kept a secret. But since it is such hitherto, I
now wish it may continue so ; because the publication of the letters,
contrary to my engagement, has changed the circumstances.” His
reply to this, of the 10th of November, is ; “After all the solicitous
inquiries of the governor and his friends respecting his letters, it still
remains a secret from and to whom they were sent here. This is
known, among us, to two only besides myself; and will remain un-
discovered, unless further intelligence should come from your side the
water, than I have reason to think has yet been obtained. I cannot,
however, but admire your honest openness in this affair, and noble
negligence of any inconveniences that might arise to yourself in this
essential service to our injured country.”BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

329

“To another friend1 I wrote of the same date, July 25th, what will
show the apprehensions I was constantly under, of the mischiefs that
would attend a breach from the exasperated state of things, and the
arguments I used to prevent it; viz., “ I am glad to see that you are
elected into the council, and are about to take part in our public
affairs. Your abilities, integrity, and sober attachment to the liber-
ties of our country, will be of great use, at this tempestuous time, in
conducting our little bark into a safe harbour. By the Boston news-
papers there seem to be among us some violent spirits, who are for
an immediate rupture. But, I trust, the general prudence of our
countrymen will see, that by our growing strength we advance fast to
a situation in which our claims must be allowed ; that by a premature
struggle we may be crippled and kept down another age ; that, as
between friends every affront is not worth a duel, and between nations
every injury is not worth a war ; so between the governed and the
governing, every mistake in government, every encroachment on
rights, is not worth a rebellion. It is, in my opinion, sufficient for the
present that we hold them forth on all occasions, not giving up any of
them ; using, at the same time, every means to make them generally
understood and valued by the people ; cultivating a harmony among
the colonies, that their union in the same sentiments may give them
greater weight; remembering withal that this Protestant country (our
mother, though of late an unkind one), is worth preserving; and that
her weight in the scale of Europe, her safety, in a great degree, may
depend on our union with her. Thus conducting, I am confident, we
may within a few years obtain every allowance of, and every security
for, our inestimable privileges, that we can wish or desire.”

His answer, of December 31st, is ;

“ I concur perfectly with you in the sentiments expressed in your
last. No considerate person, I should think, can approve of desperate
remedies, except in desperate cases. The people of America are ex-
tremely agitated by the repeated efforts of administration to subject
them to absolute power. They have been amused with accounts of
the pacific disposition of the ministry, and flattered with assurances,
that, upon their humble petitions, all their grievances would be re-
dressed. They have petitioned from time to time ; but their petitions
have had no other effect than to make them feel more sensibly their
own slavery. Instead of redress, every year has produced some new
manoeuvre, which could have no tendency but to irritate them more and
more. The last measure of the East India Company’s sending their
tea here, subject to a duty, seems to have given the finishing stroke
to their patience. You will have heard of the steps taken at Boston,
New York, and Philadelphia, to prevent the payment of this duty,
by sending the tea back to its owners. But, as this was found impos-
sible at Boston, the destruction of the tea was the consequence. What
the event of these commotions will be, God only knows. The people
through the colonies appear immovably fixed in their resolution, that
the tea duty shall never be paid ; and, if the ministry are determined
1 Professor Winthrop, of Harvard College.330

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

to enforce chese measures, I dread the consequences ; I verily fear
they will turn America into a field of blood. But I will hope for the
best.”

I am told, that administration is possessed of most of my letters
sent or received on public affairs for some years past; copies of them
having been obtained from the files of the several assemblies, or as
they passed through the postoffice. I do not condemn their minis-
terial industry or complain of it. The foregoing extracts may be
compared with those copies ; and I can appeal to them with confi-
dence, that, upon such comparison, these extracts will be found faith-
fully made ; and that the whole tenor of my letters has been, to
persuade patience and a careful guarding against all violence, under the
grievances complained of, and this from various considerations, such
as, that the welfare of the empire depended upon the union of its
parts ; that the sovereign was well disposed towards us, and the body
of this nation our friends and well-wishers ; that it was the ministry
only who were prejudiced against us ; that the sentiments of ministers
might in time be changed, or the ministers themselves be changed ; or
that, if those chances failed, at least time would infallibly bring re-
dress, since the strength, weight, and importance of America were
continually and rapidly increasing, and its friendship, of course, daily
becoming more valuable, and more likely to be cultivated by an atten-
tion to its rights. The newspapers have announced, that treason is
found in some of my letters. It must, then, be of some new species.
The invention of court lawyers has always been fruitful in the dis-
covery of new treasons; and perhaps it has now become treason to
censure the conduct of ministers. None of any other kind, I am sure,
can be found in my correspondence.

The effect of the governor’s letters on the minds of the people in
New England, when they came to be read there, was precisely what
had been expected, and proposed by sending them over. It was now
seen, that the grievances, which had been so deeply resented as mea-
sures of the mother country, were in fact the measures of two or three
of their own people ; of course all that resentment was withdrawn
from her, and fell where it was proper it should fall, on the heads of
those caitiffs, who were the authors of the mischief. Both Houses took
up the matter in this light; and the House of Representatives agreed
to the following resolves, reported by the committee appointed to
consider the letters ; viz.

“The Committee appointed to consider certain Letters laid before the
House of Representatives, reported the following Resolves.

“Tuesday, June 15th, 1773.

“ Resolved, That the letters signed Tho. Hutchinson and Andw.
Oliver, now under the consideration of this House, appear to be the
gentfine letters of the present governor and lieutenant-governor of this
province, whose handwriting and signatures are well known to many
of the members of this House : and that they contain aggravatedBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

33i

accounts of facts and misrepresentations ; and that one manifest
design of them was to represent the matters they treat of in a light
highly injurious to this province, and the persons against whom they
were written.

“ Resolved, That, though the letters aforesaid, signed Tho. Hutchin-
son, are said by the governor in his message to this House of June 9th,
to be ‘ private letters written to a gentleman in London, since de-
ceased,’ and ‘ that all except the last were written many months before
he came to the chair ’ ; yet that they were written by the present
governor, when he was lieutenant-governor and chief justice of this
province ; who has been represented abroad as eminent for his abili-
ties, as for his exalted station ; and was under no official obligation to
transmit private intelligence ; and that they therefore must be con-
sidered by the person to whom they were sent, as documents of solid
intelligence ; and that this gentleman in London, to whom they were
written, was then a member of the British Parliament, and one who
was very active in American affairs ; and therefore that these letters,
however secretly written, must naturally be supposed to have, and
really had, a public operation.

“ Resolved, That these ‘ private letters ’ being written ‘ with express
confidence of secrecy’ was only to prevent the contents of them
being known here, as appears by said letters ; and this rendered them
the more injurious in their tendency, and really insidious.

“ Resolved, That the letters signed Tho. Hutchinson, considering
the person by whom they were written, the matters they expressly
contain, the express reference in some of them for ‘full intelligence’
to Mr. Hallowed, a person deeply interested in the measures so much
complained of, and recommendatory notices of divers other persons,
whose emoluments arising from our public burdens must excite them
to unfavourable representations of us, the measures they suggest, the
temper in which they were written, the manner in which they were
sent, and the person to whom* they were addressed, had a natural
and efficacious tendency to interrupt and alienate the affections of our
most gracious sovereign King George the Third, from this his loyal
and affectionate province ; to destroy that harmony and goodwill
between Great Britain and this colony, which every friend to either
would wish to establish ; to excite the resentment of the British
administration against this province ; to defeat the endeavours of our
agents and friends to serve us by a fair representation of our state
of grievances; to prevent our humble and repeated petitions from
reaching the royal ear of our common sovereign ; and to produce
the severe and destructive measures, which have been taken against
this province, and others still more so, which have been threatened.

“ Resolved, As the opinion of this House, that it clearly appears
from the lettersaforesaid, signed Tho. Hutchinson and Andw. Oliver,
that it was the desire and endeavour of the writers of them that
certain acts of the British Parliament, for raising a revenue in
America, might be carried into effect by military force; and, by in-
troducing a fleet and army into this his Majesty’s loyal province, to332

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

intimidate the minds of his subjects here, and prevent every constir
tutional measure to obtain the repeal of those acts, so justly esteemed
a grievance to us, and to suppress the very spirit of freedom.

“Resolved, That it is the opinion of this House, that, as the
salaries lately appointed for the governor lieutenant-governor, and
judges of this province, directly repugnant to the charter, and sub-
versive of justice, are founded on this revenue ; and as these letters
were written with a design, and had a tendency, to promote and
support that revenue, therefore there is great reason to suppose the
writers of those letters were well knowing to, suggested, and promoted
the enacting said revenue acts, and the establishments founded on
the same.

“ Resolved, That, while the writer of these letters, signed Tho.
Hutchinson, has been thus exerting himself, by his ‘ secret confidential
correspondence/ to introduce measures destructive of our consti-
tutional liberty, he has been practising every method among the
people of this province, to fix in their minds an exalted opinion of
his warmest affection for them, and his unremitted endeavours to
promote their best interests at the court of Great Britain.

“ Resolved, as the opinion of this House, That, by comparing these
letters, signed Tho. Hutchinson, with those signed Andw. Oliver,
Cha. Paxton, and Nath. Rogers, and considering what has since ift
fact taken place conformable thereto, that there have been for many
years past measures contemplated, and a plan formed, by a set of men
born and educated among us, to raise their own fortunes, and advance
themselves to posts of honour and profit, not only to the destruction
of the charter and constitution of this province, but at the expense of
the rights and liberties of the American colonies. And it is further
the opinion of this House, that the said persons have been some of
the chief instruments in the introduction of a military force into the
province, to carry their plans into execution ; and, therefore, they
have been not only greatly instrumental in disturbing the peace and
harmony of the government, and causing and promoting great dis-
cord and animosities, but are justly chargeable with the great corrup-
tion of morals, and all that confusion, misery, and bloodshed, which
have been the natural effects of the introduction of troops.

“ Whereas, for many years past, measures have been taken by the
British administration, very grievous to the good people of this pro-
vince, which this House have now reason to suppose were promoted,
if not originally suggested, by the writers of these letters ; and many
efforts have been made by the people to obtain the redress of theii
grievances ;

“ Resolved, That it appears to this House, that the writers of these
letters have availed themselves of disorders that naturally arise in a
free government under such oppressions, as arguments to prove,
that it was originally necessary such measures should have been
taken, and that they should now be continued and increased.

“ Whereas, in the letter signed.Cha. Paxton, dated Boston Harbour,
June 20th, 1768, it is expressly declared, that ‘ unless we have imme-BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.	333

diately two or three regiments, it is the opinion of all the friends of
government, that Boston will be in open rebellion; ’

“ Resolved, That this is a most wicked and injurious representation,
designed to inflame the minds of his Majesty’s ministers and the
nation ; and to excite in the breast of our sovereign a jealousy of
his loyal subjects of said town, without the least grounds therefor, as
enemies of his Majesty’s person and government.

“ Whereas, certain letters by two private persons, signed T. Moffat
and G. Rome, have been laid before the House, which letters contain
many matters highly injurious to government, and to the national
peace;

“Resolved, That it has been the misfortune of their government
from the earliest period of it, from time to time, to be secretly
traduced and maliciously represented to the British ministry, by
persons who were neither friendly to this colony nor to the English
constitution.

“ Resolved, That this House have just reason to complain of it as
a very great grievance, that the humble petitions and remonstrances
of the commons of this province are not allowed to reach the hands
of our most gracious sovereign, merely because they are presented
by an agent, to whose appointment the governor, with whom our chief
dispute may subsist, doth not consent ; while th0 partial and injlam-
matory letters of individuals, who are greatly interested in the
revenue acts, and the measures taken to carry them into execution,
have been laid before administration, attended to, and determined
upon, not only to the injury of the reputation of the people, but to
the depriving them of their invaluable rights and liberties.

“ Whereas, this House are humbly of opinion, that his Majesty
will judge it to be incompatible with the interest of his crown, and
the peace and safety of the good people of this his loyal province,
that persons should be continued in places of high trust and author-
rity in it, who are known to have, with great industry, though secretly,
endeavoured to undermine, alter, and overthrow the constitution of
the province ; therefore,

“ Resolved, That this House is bound, in duty to the King and
their constituents, humbly to remonstrate to his Majesty the conduct
of his Excellency Thomas Hutchinson, Esquire, Governor, and the
Honourable Andrew Oliver, Esquire, Lieutenant-Governor, of this
province ; and to pray that his Majesty would be pleased to remove
them for ever from the Government thereof.”1

Upon these Resolutions was founded the following petition, trans-
mitted to me to be presented to his Majesty.

“TO THE KING’S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY.
“Most Gracious Sovereign,

“ We, your Majesty’s loyal subjects, the representatives of your

1 These resolutions were adopted by a large majority, both by the House Of
Representatives and by the Council.334

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

ancient colony of Massachusetts Bay, in General Court legally
assembled, by virtue of your Majesty’s writ, under the hand and seal
of the Governor, beg leave to lay this our humble petition before
your Majesty.

“ Nothing but the sense of duty we owe to our sovereign, and
the obligation we are under to consult the peace and safety of the
province, could induce us to remonstrate to your Majesty con-
cerning the malconduct of persons, who have heretofore had the
confidence and esteem of this people ; and whom your Majesty has
been pleased, from the purest motives of rendering your subjects
happy, to advance to the highest places of trust and authority in the
province.

“Your Majesty’s humble petitioners, with the deepest concern and
anxiety, have seen the discords and animosities which have too long
subsisted between your subjects of the parent state and those of the
American colonies. And we have trembled with apprehensions, that
the consequences, naturally arising therefrom, would at length prove
fatal to both countries.

“ Permit us humbly to suggest to your Majesty, that your subjects
here have been inclined to believe, that the grievances which they
have suffered, and still continue to suffer, have been occasioned by
your Majesty’s ministers and principal servants being, unfortunately
for us, misinformed in certain facts of very interesting importance to
us. It is for this reason that former assemblies have, from time to
time, prepared a true state of facts to be laid before your Majesty,
but their humble remonstrances and petitions, it is presumed, have
by some means been prevented from reaching your royal hand.

“Your Majesty’s petitioners have very lately had before them
certain papers, from which they humbly conceive it is most reason-
able to suppose, that there has been long a conspiracy of evil men in
this province, who have contemplated measures, and formed a plan
to advance themselves to power, and raise their own fortunes, by
means destructive of the charter of the province, at the expense of
the quiet of the nation, and to the annihilating of the rights and
liberties of the American colonies.

“ And we do, with all due submission to your Majesty, beg leave
particularly to complain of the conduct of his Excellency Thomas
Hutchinson, Esquire, Governor, and the Honourable Andrew Oliver,
Esquire, Lieutenant-Governor of this your Majesty’s province, as
having a natural and efficacious tendency to interrupt and alienate
the affections of your Majesty, our rightful sovereign, from this your
loyal province ; to destroy that harmony and good-will between Great
Britain and this colony, which every honest subject should strive to
establish ; to excite the resentment of the British administration
against this province ; to defeat the endeavours of our agents and
friends to serve us by a fair representation of our state of facts ; to
prevent our humble and repeated petitions from reaching the ear of
your Majesty, or having their desired effect. And, finally, that the
said Thomas Hutchinson and Andrew Oliver have been among theBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

33 5

chief instruments in introducing a fleet and army into this province,
to establish and perpetuate their plans, whereby they have been, not
only greatly instrumental in disturbing the peace and h&rmony of the
government, and causing unnatural and hateful discords and ani-
mosities between the several parts of your Majesty’s extensive
dominions, but are justly chargeable with all that corruption of morals,
and all that confusion, misery, and bloodshed, which have been the
natural effects of posting an army in a populous town.

“ Wherefore,- we most humbly pray, that your Majesty would be
pleased to remove from their posts in this government the said
Thomas Hutchinson, Esquire, and Andrew Oliver, Esquire ; who have,
by their abovementioned conduct, and otherwise, rendered themselves
justly obnoxious to your loving subjects, and entirely lost their con-
fidence ; and place such good and faithful men in their stead, as your
Majesty in your wisdom shall think fit.

“ In the name and by order of the House of Representatives.

“ Thomas Cushing, Speaker.”

Lord Dartmouth, Secretary of State for the colonies, being in the
country when I received this petition, I transmitted it to his Lordship,
enclosed in a letter, of which the following is a copy, as also of his
answer.

“TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE EARL OF DARTMOUTH.

“ My Lord,

London, August 21st, 1773.

“I have just received, from the House of Representatives of the
Massachusetts Bay, their address to the King, which I now enclose,
and send to your Lordship, with my humble request in their behalf,
that you would be pleased to present it to his Majesty the first con-
venient opportunity.

“ I have the pleasure of hearing from that province by my late
letters, that a sincere disposition prevails in the people there to be on
good terms with the mother country; that the Assembly have declared
their desire only to be put into the situation they were in before the
Stamp Act. They aim at no novelties. And it is said, that, having
lately discovered, as they think, the authors of their grievances to be
some of their own people, their resentment against Britain is thence
much abated.

“ This good disposition of theirs (will your Lordship permit me to
say) may be cultivated by a favourable answer to this address, which
I therefore hope your goodness will endeavour to obtain. With the
greatest respect, I have the honour to be, my Lord, &c.,

“ B. Franklin,

“Agent for the House of Representatives!336

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

“LORD DARTMOUTH’S ANSWER.

“ Sandvvell, 25th of August, 1773.

“Sir,

“I have received your letter of the 21st instant, together with an
address of the House of Representatives of the Massachusetts Bay,
which I shall not fail to lay before the King the next time I shall
have the honour of being admitted into his presence. I cannot help
expressing to you the pleasure it gives me to hear, that a sincere
disposition prevails in the people of that province to be on good terms
with the mother country, and my earnest hope that the time is at no
great distance, when every ground of uneasiness will cease, and the
most perfect tranquillity and happiness be restored to the breasts of
that people.

“ I am, Sir, your most obedient humble servant,

“ Dartmouth.

“Benjamin Franklin, Esq.”

No one, who knows Lord Dartmouth, can doubt the sincerity of
the good wishes expressed in his letters to me ; and, if his Maj'esty’s
other servants had fortunately been possessed of the same benevolent
dispositions, with as much of that attention to the public interest, and
dexterity in managing it, as statesmen of this country generally show
in obtaining and securing their places, here was a fine opportunity put
into their hands of “ re-establishing the union and harmony that
formerly subsisted between great Britain and her colonies,” so neces-
sary to the welfare of both, and upon the easy condition of only
“restoring things to the state they were in at the conclusion of the
late war.” This was a solemn declaration sent over from the province
most aggrieved, in which they acquitted Britain of their grievances,
and charged them all upon a few individuals of their own country.
Upon the heads of these very mischievous men they deprecated no
vengeance, though that of the whole nation was justly merited ; they
considered it as a hard thing for an administration to punish a
governor who had acted from orders, though the orders had been
procured by his misrepresentations and calumnies ; they therefore
only petitioned, “ that his Majesty would be pleased to remove
Thomas Hutchinson, Esquire, and Andrew Oliver, Esquire, from
their posts in that government, and place good and faithful men in
their stead.” These men might have been placed or pensioned
elsewhere, as others have been ; or, like the scape-goats of old, they
might have carried away into the wilderness all the offences which
have arisen between the two countries, with the burdens of which,
they, having been the authors of these mischiefs, were most justly
chargeable.

But this opportunity ministers had not the wisdom to embrace;
they chose rather to reject it, and to abuse and punish me for giving
it. A court clamour was raised against me as an incendiary ; and theBENJAMIN FRANKLIN

331

Vfery action Upon which I valued myself, as it appeared to me a means
of lessening our differences, I was unlucky enough to find charged
upon me, as a wicked attempt to increase them. Strange perversion !

I was, it seems, equally unlucky in another action, which I also
intended for a good one, and which brought on the abovementioned
clamour. The news being arrived here of the publication of those
letters in America, great inquiry was made, who had transmitted them.
Mr. Temple, a gentleman of the customs, was accused of it in the
papers. He vindicated himself. A public altercation ensued upon it
between him and a Mr. Wliately, brother and executor to the person
to whom it was supposed the letters had been originally written, and
who was suspected by some of communicating them ; on the supposi-
tion, that by his brother’s death they might have fallen into his hands.
As the gentleman, to whom I sent them, had, in his letter to me above
recited, given an important reason for his desiring it should be con-
cealed, that he was the person who received them, and had for the
same reason chosen not to let it be known I sent them, I suffered that
altercation to go on without interfering, supposing it would end, as
other newspaper controversies usually do, when the parties and the
public should be tired of them. But this dispute unexpectedly and
suddenly produced a duel. The gentlemen were parted ; Mr. Wliately
was wounded, but not dangerously. This, however, alarmed me, and
made me wish I had prevented it; but, imagining all now over
between them, I still kept silence* till I heard that the duel was
understood to be unfinished (as having been interrupted by persons
accidentally near), and that-it would probably be repeated as soon as
Mr. Wliately, who was mending daily, had recovered his strength. I
then thought it high time to interpose ; and, as the quarrel was for the
public opinion, I took what I thought the shortest way to settle that
opinion, with regard to the parties, by publishing what follows.

“ To the Printer of the Public Advertiser.

“Sir,

“ Finding that two gentlemen have been unfortunately engaged in
a duel, about a transaction and its circumstances, of which both of
them are totally ignorant and innocent ; I think it incumbent upon
me to declare (for the prevention of farther mischief, as far as such a
declaration may contribute to prevent it), that I alone am the person
who obtained and transmitted to Boston the letters in question. Mr.
W. could not communicate them, because they were never in his pos-
session ; and, for the same reason, they could not be taken from him
by Mr. T. They were not of the nature of private letters between
friends. They were written by public officers to persons in public
stations, on public affairs, and intended to procure public measures ;
they were therefore handed to other public persons, who might be
influenced by them to produce those measures. Their tendency was
to incense the mother country against her colonies, and by the steps
recommended, to widen the breach ; which they effected. The chief
caution expressed with regard to privacy was, to keep their contents

23338

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

from the colony agents, who, the writers apprehended, might return
them, or copies of them, to America. That apprehension was, it
seems, well founded ; for the first agent who laid his hands on them,
thought it his duty to transmit them to his constituents.

“ 13. FRANKLIN,

“ Agent for the House of Representatives
of Massachusetts Bay.

“Craven Street, December 25th, 1773.”

This declaration of mine was at first generally approved, except
that some blamed me for not having made it sooner, so as to prevent
the duel ; but I had not the gift of prophecy ; 1 could not foresee that
the gentlemen would fight; I did not even foresee that either of them
could possibly take it ill of me. I imagined I was doing them a good
office, in clearing both of them from suspicion, and removing the
cause of their difference. I should have thought it natural for them
both to have thanked me; but I was mistaken as to one of them.
His wound perhaps at first prevented him, and afterwards he was
tutored probably to another kind of behaviour by his court connec-
tions.

My only acquaintance with this gentleman, Mr. William Whately,
was from an application he made to me to do him the favour of
inquiring after some land in Pennsylvania, supposed to have been
purchased anciently from the first proprietor, by a Major Thomson,
his grandfather, of which they had some imperfect memorandums in
the family, but knew not whether it might'not have been sold or con-
veyed away by him in his lifetime, as there was no mention of it in his
will. I took the trouble of writing, accordingly, to a friend of mine,
an eminent lawyer there, well acquainted with such business, desiring
him to make the inquiry. He took some pains in it at my request,
and succeeded ; and in a letter informed me, that he had found the
land ; that the proprietary claimed it, but he thought the title was
clear to the heir of Thomson ; that he could easily recover it for him,
and would undertake it, if Mr. Whately should think fit to employ
him ; or, if he should rather choose to sell it, my friend empowered
me to make him an offer of five thousand pounds sterling for it.
With this letter I waited upon him about a month before the duel, at
his house in Lombard Street, the first time I had ever been in it. He
was pleased with the intelligence, and called upon me once or twice
afterwards to concert the means of making out his title.

I mention some of these circumstances to show, that it was not
through any previous acquaintance with him that I came to the know-
ledge of the famous letters ; for they had been in America near a year
before I so much as knew where he lived ; and the others I mention
to show his gratitude. I could have excused his not thanking me for
sparing him a second hazard of his life; for, though he might feel
himself served, he might also apprehend, that to seem pleased would
look as if he was afraid of fighting again ; or perhaps he did not value
his life at any thing ; but the addition to his fortune one would thinkBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

339

of some value to a banker ; and yet the return this worthy gentleman
made me for both favours was, without the smallest previous notice,
warning, complaint, or request to me, directly or indirectly, to clap
upon my back a chancery suit.

His bill set forth, “ That he was administrator of the goods and
chattels of his late brother Thomas Whately; that some letters had
been written to his said brother by the Governors Hutchinson and
Oliver ; that those letters had been in the custody of his said brother
at the time ef his death, or had been by him delivered to some other
;person for perusal, and to be by such person safely kept and returned
to said Thomas Whately ; that the same had by some means come
into my hands ; that, to prevent a discovery, I, or some person by my
order, had erased the address of the letters to the said Thomas
Whately ; that, carrying on the trade of a printer, I had, by my agents
or confederates, printed and published the same letters in America,
and disposed of great numbers ; that I threatened to print and sell
the same in England ; and that he had applied to me to deliver up to
him the said letters, and all copies thereof, and desist from printing
and publishing the same, and account with him for the prof is thereof;
and he was in hopes I would have complied with such request, but so
it was that I had refused, &c., contrary to equity and good conscience,
and to the manifest injury and oppression of him, the complainant;
and praying my Lord Chancellor, that I might be obliged to discover
how I came by the letters, what number of copies I had printed and
sold, and to account with him for theprofits,” &c., &c. The gentleman
himself must have known, that every circumstance of this was totally
false ; that of his brother’s having delivered the letters to some other
person for perusal excepted. Those as little acquainted with law as I
was (who indeed never before had a lawsuit of any kind), may wonder
at this as much as I did ; but I have now learnt, that in chancery,
though the defendant must swear the truth of every point in his
answer, the plaintiffIs not put to his oath, or obliged to have the
least regard to truth in his bill, but is allowed to lie as much as he
pleases. I do not understand this, unless it be for the encourage-
ment of business.

My answer upon oath was, “That the letters in question were given
to me, and came into my hands, as agent for the House of Represen-
tatives of the Province of Massachusetts Bay ; that, when given me, I
did not know to whom they had been addressed, no address appear-
ing upon them ; nor did I know before that any such letters existed ;
that I had not been for many years concerned in printing ; that I did
not cause the letters to be printed, nor direct the doing it ; that I did
not erase any address that might have been on the letters, nor did I
know that any other person had made such erasure; that I did, as
agent to the province, transmit (as I apprehended it my duty to do),
the said letters to one of the committee, with whom I had been
directed to correspond, inasmuch as in my judgment they related to
matters of great public importance to that province, and were put into
my hands for that purpose ; that I had never been applied to by the340

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

complainant, as asserted in his bill, and had made no profits of the
letters, nor intended to make any,” &c.

It was about this time become evident, that all thoughts of recon-
ciliation with the colony of the Massachusetts Bay, by attention to
their petitions, and a redress of their grievances, was laid aside ; that
severity was resolved ; and that the decrying and vilifying the people
of that country, and me their agent, among the rest, was quite a court
measure. It was the ton with all the ministerial folks to abuse them
and me, in every company, and in every newspaper, and it was
intimated to me, as a thing settled, long before it happened, that the
petition for removal of the governors was to be rejected, the Assembly
censured, and myself, who had presented it, was to be punished by
the loss of my place in the postoffice. For all this I was therefore
prepared ; but the attack from Mr. Whately was, I own, a surprise to
me; under the abovementioned circumstances of obligation, and
without the slightest provocation, I could not have imagined any man
base enough to commence, of his own motion, such a vexatious suit
against me. But a little accidental information served to throw some
light upon the business. An acquaintance1 calling on me, after
having just been at the treasury, showed me what he styled a pretty
thing, for a friend of his ; it was an order for one hundred and
fifty pounds, payable to Dr. Samuel Johnson, said to be one half of
his yearly pension, and drawn by the secretary of the treasury on this
same Mr. Whately. I then considered him as a banker to the treasury
for the pension money, and thence as having an interested connection
with the administration, that might induce him to act by direction of
others in harassing me with this suit; which gave me if possible a
still meaner opinion of him, than if he had done it of his own accord.

What further steps he or his confederates, the ministers, will take in
this cause, I know not. I do not indeed believe the banker himself,
finding there are no ‘profits to be shared, would willingly lay out a
sixpence more upon the suit ; but then my finances are not sufficient
to cope at law with the treasury here ; especially when administration
has taken care to prevent my constituents of New England from
paying me any salary, or reimbursing me any expenses, by a special
instruction to the governor, not to sign any warrant for that purpose
on the treasury there.

The injustice of thus depriving the people there of the use of their
own money, to pay an agent acting in their defence, while the
governor, with a large salary out of the money extorted from them by
act of Parliament, was enabled to pay plentifully Mauduit and Wed-
derburn to abuse and defame them and their agent, is so evident as
to need no comment. But this they call government !

1 William Strahan, Member of Parliament, and King's Printer,BEN/AMIN FRANKLIN.

3H

CHAPTER XIV. (1774-1776.)

Ministerial Hostility to Franklin—£larm of the Manufacturers—Death of Mr.
Hewson—Lord Chatham—The Proper Uses of Eloquence—Death of Mrs.
Franklin—Thomas Paine—Corruption in England—Proposals of Lord North
_____Writes an Account of his Negotiations with Lord Howe—Jefferson's Sus-
picions that Wm. Temple Franklin had tampered with it—Embarks for the
United States.

I have written a pretty full account to tlie Speaker
of the treatment their petition and their agent have
received here. My letter went to Symes, and probably
you may have seen it before this can reach you ; there-
fore, and because I have a little disorder in my eyes at present, I do
not repeat any part of it to you, nor can I well send a copy to him.

You can have no conception of the rage the ministerial people have
been in with me, on account of my transmitting those letters. It is
quite incomprehensible. If they had been wise, they might have
made a good use of the discovery, by agreeing to lay the blame of
our differences on those, from whom, by those letters, it appeared to
have arisen, and by a change of measures, which would then have
appeared natural, and restored the harmony between the two countries.

I send directed to you a set of the late French edition of my Philo-
sophical Papers. There are in it several pieces not in the English.
When you have looked them over, please to give them to Mr.
Winthrop for the College Library.

To Thomas m'ne February 2nd, I informed you, that, after
Cushing, dated the treatment I had received at the Council Board, it
i2£.don’ 8 April was not possible for me to act longer as your agent,
'	apprehending I could as such be of no further use to the

province. I have nevertheless given what assistance I could, as a
private man, by speaking to members of both Houses, and by joining
in the petitions of the natives of America now happening to be in
London, which were ably drawn by Mr. Lee, to be presented sepa-
rately to the several branches of the legislature. They serve, though
without other effect, to show our sentiments, and that we did not look
on and let the act pass without bearing our testimony against it. And,
indeed, though called petitions (for under another name they would
not have been received) they are rather re7nonstrances and protests.

By the enclosed extract of a letter from Wakefield in Yorkshire to a
friend of mine, you will see that the manufacturers begin to take the
alarm. Another general non-importation agreement is apprehended
by them, which would complete their ruin. But great pains are taken
to quiet them with the idea, that Boston must immediately submit, and
acknowledge the claims of Parliament, for that none of the other
colonies will adhere to them. A number of the principal manu-
facturers from different parts of the kingdom are now in town, to
oppose the new duty on foreign linens, which they fear may provoke

To Samuel
Cooper, dated
London, 25 Feb-
ruary, 1774.342

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

the Germans to lay discouragements on British manufactures. They
have desired me to meet and dine with them on Wednesday next,
where I shall have an opportunity of learning their sentiments more
fully, and communicating my own.

To Mrs De- I hoped to have been on the sea in my return by this
borah Franklin, time ; but find I must stay a few weeks longer, perhaps
dated	28 for the summer ships. Thanks to God, I continue well

pn ’	1 and hearty ; and I hope to find you so, when I have the

happiness once more of seeing you.

Your goddaughter, Amejia Evans that was, (now Mrs. Barry), is
gone again with her husband and children to Tunis, where she is to
live some time, while her husband, who is captain of a ship, trades in
those seas. Enclosed I send the affectionate, sensible letter she
wrote to me on taking leave.

My blessing to the children. Mrs. Hewson’s have lately had the
smallpox; the eldest in the common way very full, the youngest by
inoculation lightly, and both are now well. But Mr. Hewson is down
with a terrible fever, and till yesterday his life was despaired of. We
now begin to hope his recovery.

To the	Our family here is in great distress. Poor Mrs.

dated London’ Hewson has lost her husband, and Mrs. Stevenson her
May 5,1774. son-in-law. He died last Sunday morning of a fever,
which baffled the skill of our best physicians. He was an excellent
young man, ingenious, industrious, useful, and beloved by all that
knew him. He was just established in a profitable, growing business,
with the best prospects of bringing up his young family advan-
tageously. They were a happy couple. All their schemes of life are
now overthrown.

To Thomas With this I enclose a list of your new Council, the
Cushing, dated Quebec Bill, an abstract of the resolutions for laying
London, 1 June, duties on that province, and some papers containing the
1774‘	two protests of the Lords, and a list of those who have

voted against the bills.

Lord Chatham, being ill at the time, could not be present, or he
would probably have voted on the same side. He has since appeared
in the House, and delivered his sentiments fully on the American
measures, blamed us for destroying the tea, and our declarations of
independence on the Parliament ; but condemned strongly the
measures taking here in consequence, and spoke honourably of our
province and people, and of their conduct in the late war.

Mr. Lee has gone to make the tour of France and Italy, and pro-
bably will be absent near a year. Just before his departure he drew
up, at my instance, a kind of answer to the Lords’ Committee’s
Report, for which I furnished him with most of the materials. I
enclose a copy of it. I had resigned your agency to him, expecting
to leave England about the end of this month ; but on his departureBENJAMIN EE ANN LIN.

343

he has returned me all the papers, and I feel myself now under a kind
of necessity of continuing, till you can be acquainted with this cir-
cumstance, and have time to give further orders. .

Your friendly concern on my account, lest the project for a sub-
scription post office in America should prove prejudicial to me, is very
obliging ; but you must have learnt, before this time, that it was then
superfluous, my place having been taken from me on the 31st of
January. As the salary I received in that office is now ceased, and I
have been lately at near two hundred pounds’expense on the province
account in various ways, I am obliged to request, that some means
may be fallen upon of making me a remittance here; for I have little
expectation that the instruction will be recalled on my application.

To Mr. Goombe, * received with great pleasure yours of May 15th, as
dated ' London’ it informed me of your health and happiness. I thank
22 July, 1774. yOU for your Sermon, which I read with satisfaction.
I am glad that of my good Bishop1 pleased you. I enclose a speech
of his on the same subject. It is deemed here a masterpiece of
eloquence. I send also the last edition of some lines of your friend
Goldsmith, with the addition of my friend Whitefoord’s epitaph, whom
you may remember. Also the “ Heroic Postscript,” the author of
which is yet unknown. He may be fond of fame as a poet; but, if he
is, his prudence predominates at present, and prevaijs with him to
shun it.

That which you are acquiring as an orator, gives me pleasure as
your friend ; and it will give you the most solid satisfaction, if you
find that by your eloquence you can turn many to righteousness.
Without this effect, the preacher or the priest, in my opinion, is not
merely sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal, which are innocent
things ; he is rather like the cunning man in the Old Bailey, who
conjures and tells fools their fortunes to cheat them out of their
money.

To his wife I enclose a letter I have just received from your
dated London, 22 god-daughter, Mrs. Barry. I wrote to you before, that
July, 1774. she had married the captain of a ship in the Levant
trade. She is now again at Tunis, where you will see she has lately
lain in of her third child. Her father, you know, was a geographer,2
and his daughter has some connection, I think, with the whole globe ;
being born herself in America, and having her first child in Asia, her
second in Europe, and now her third in Africa.

Mrs. Stevenson presents her best respects. She too is very happy
in her two grandsons. Her daughter, our poor Polly, who lately lost
her good husband, has become rich by the death of her aunt. I am
ever, my dear Debby, your affectionate husband.3

1 Bishop of St. Asaph.

a I.ewis Evans, of Philadelphia.

3 This was the last letter we have from Franklin to his wife. She died of
paralysis, on Monday, the 19th of December, 1774, in the seventieth year of her
age.344

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

To ■William Cousin Jonathan Williams is now with me, and en-
Franklin, dated gaged in posting and settling my accounts, which will
iond°n, 7 Sept., be done before the next packet, when I-shall send what
'	concerns Parker’s.

You mention, that my presence is wished for at the Congress ; but
no person besides in America has given me the least intimation of
such a desire, and it is thought by the great friends of the colonies
here, that I ought to stay till the result of the Congress arrives, when
my presence here may be useful. All depends on the Americans them-
selves. If they make, and keep firmly, resolutions not to consume
British manufactures till their grievances are redressed, this ministry
must fall, and the laws be repealed. This is the opinion of all the wise
men here.

I hear nothing of the proposal you have made for a Congress of
governors. I do not wonder so much as you do, that the Massa-
chusetts have not offered payment for the tea. First, because of the
uncertainty of the act, which gives them no security that the port shall
be opened on their making that payment. Secondly, no precise sum
is demanded. Thirdly, no one knows what will satisfy the custom-
house officers ; nor who the others are, that must be satisfied ; nor
what will satisfy them. And fourthly, they are in the King’s power,
after all, as to how much of the port shall be opened. As to “doing

In a letter which Governor Franklin wrote to his father, five days later, an-
nouncing her decease, he said:

“ Her death was po more than might be reasonably expected after the paralytic
stroke she received some lime ago, which greatly affected her memory and under-
standing. She told me when I took leave of her on my removal to Amboy, that
she never expected to see you unless you returned this winter, for that she was sure
she should not live till next summer. I heartily wish you had happened to have
come over in the fall, as I think her disappointment in that respect preyed a good
deal on her spirits.

******

“ It gives me great pleasure to find that you have so perfect an enjoyment of
that greatest of blessings, health. But I cannot help being concerned to find that
notwithstanding you are so sensible that you cannot in the course of nature long
expect the continuance of it, yet you postpone your return to your family. If there
was any prospect of your being able to bring the people in power to your way of
thinking, or those of your way of thinking being brought into power, I should not
think so much of your stay. But as you have had by this time pretty strong proofs
that neither can be reasonably expected, and that you are looked upon with an
evil eye in that country and are in no small danger of being brought into trouble
for your political conduct, you had certainly better return while you are able to
bear the fatigue of the voyage, to a country where the people revere you and are
inclined to pay a deference to your opinion. I wonder none of them, as you say,
requested your attendance at the late Congress, for I heard from all quarters that
your return was ardently wished for at that time, and I have since heard it lamented
by many that you were not at that meeting ; as they imagined, had you been
there, you would have framed some plan of accommodation of our difference that
would have met with the approbation of a majority of the delegates, though it
would not have coincided with the deep designs of those who influenced that
majority. However mad you may think the measures of the ministry are, yet I
trust you have candour enough to acknowledge that we are no way behindhand
with them in * * * of madness on this side of the water. However, it is a
disagreeable subject, and I will drop it.”—Letters to Franklin, p. 59.BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

345

justice before they ask it,” that should have been thought of by the
legislature here, before they demanded it of the Bostonians. They
have extorted many thousand pounds from America unconstitutionally,
under colour of acts of Parliament, and with an armed force. Of this
money they ought to make restitution. They might first have taken
out payment for the tea, and returned the rest. But you, who are a
thorough courtier, see every thing with government eyes.

I am sorry, for the loss of Sir William Johnson, especially at this
time of danger from an Indian war. I see by the papers that you were
with him at the time. A Spanish war is now seriously apprehended ;
and the stocks of course are falling.

To Mrs. Jane * hope you continue in health, as I do, thanks to God.
Mecom, ' dated But I wish to know how you fare in the present distress
London, 26 Sept., 0f our dear country. I am apprehensive, that the letters

‘	between us, though very innocent ones, are intercepted.

They might restore to me yours at least, after reading them; especially
as I never complain of broken, patched-up seals (of late very com-
mon), because I know not on whom to fix the fact.

I see in a Boston paper of August 18th, an article expressing, “ that
it is generally believed Dr. Franklin has received a promise of being
restored to the royal favour, and promoted to an office superior to that
which he resigned.” I have made no public answer to any of the
abuses I have received in the papers here, nor shall I to this. But as
I am anxious to preserve your good opinion, and as I know your
sentiments, and that you must be much afflicted yourself, and even
despise me, if you thought me capable of accepting any office from
this government, while it is acting with so much hostility towards my
native country, I cannot miss this first opportunity of assuring you,
that there is not the least foundation for such a report ; that, so far
from having any promise of royal favour, I hear of nothing but royal
and ministerial displeasure ; which, indeed, as things at present stand,
I consider as an honour. I have seen no minister since January, nor
had the least communication with them. The generous and noble
friends of America in both Houses do indeed favour me with their
notice and regard ; but they are in disgrace at court, as well as my-
self. Be satisfied, that I shall do nothing to lessen me in your esteem,
or my own. I shall not, by the least concurrence with the present
measures, merit any court favour, nor accept of any, if it were offered
me, which, however, is not at all likely to happen.

As those here, who most interest themselves in behalf of America,
conceive, that my being present at the arrival of the proceedings of
the Congress and the meeting of Parliament may be of use, I submit to
their judgment, and think it now likely, that I shall not return till
spring.

To Bichard The bearer, Mr. Thomas Paine, is very well recora-
Bache, dated mended to me, as an ingenious, worthy young man.
tendon, 30 Sept, g0es Pennsylvania with a view of settling there.

'	I request you to give him your best advice and counte-346

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

nance, as he is quite a stranger there. If you can put him in a way of
obtaining employment as a clerk, or assistant tutor in a school, or
assistant surveyor, (of all which I think him very capable), so that he
may procure a subsistence at least, till he can make acquaintance and
obtain a knowledge of the country, you will do well, and much oblige
your affectionate father. My love to Sally and the boys.

To James Bow- ^ we cont'nue fifm an<i united, and resolutely per-
doin, dated Ion- sist in the non-consumption agreement, this adverse
~g25Fel,rua,ry> ministry cannot possibly stand another year. And
surely the great body of our people, the farmers and
artificers, will not find it hard to keep an agreement by which they
both save and gain. The traders only can suffer, and, where they do
really suffer, some compensation should if possible be made them.
Hitherto the conduct of the colonies lias given them great reputation
all over Europe. By a brave perseverance, with prudence and moder-
ation, not forward in acting offensively, but resolute in defence when
necessary, they will establish a respectable character both for wisdom
and courage ; and then they will find friends everywhere. The eyes
of all Christendom are now upon us, and our honour as a people is
become a matter of the utmost consequence to be taken care of. If
we tamely give up our rights in this contest, a century to come will
not restore us in the opinion of the world ; we shall be stamped with
the character of dastards, poltrons, and fools ; and be despised and
trampled upon, not by this haughty, insolent nation only, but by all
mankind. Present inconveniences are, therefore, to be borne with
fortitude, and better times expected.

" In formes hyemes red licit
Jupiter ; idem

Summovet. Non si male nunc, et olitn
Sic erit.”

I am much pleased with Mr. Quincy. It is a thousand pities his
strength of body is not equal to his strength of mind. His zeal for the
public, like that of David for God’s house, will, I fear, eat him up.

To Joseph Gallo. In last 1 mentioned to you my showing your plan
way, dated ion- of union to Lords Chatham and Camden. I now hear,
m525FebrUary’ t^iat y°u ^ad sent to Lord Dartmouth. Lord Gower
I believe alluded to it, when in the House he censured
the Congress severely, as first resolving to receive a plan for uniting
the colonies to the mother country, and afterwards rejecting it, and
ordering their first resolution to be erased out of their minutes. Per-
mit me to hint to you, that it is whispered here by ministerial people,
that yourself and Mr. Jay of New York are friends to their measures,
and give them private intelligence of the views of the popular or
country party in America. I do not believe this ; but I thought it a
duty of friendship to acquaint you with the report.BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

347

I have not heard what objections were made to the plan in the Con-
gress, nor would I make more than this one, that, when I consider the
extreme corruption prevalent among all orders of men in this old,
rotten state, and the glorious public virtue so predominant in our
rising country, I cannot but apprehend more mischief than benefit
from a closer union. I fear they will drag us after them in all the
plundering wars, which their desperate circumstances, injustice, and
rapacity, may prompt them to undertake; and their wide-wasting
prodigality and profusion is a gulf that will swallow up every aid we
may distress ourselves to afford them.

Here numberless and needless places, enormous salaries, pensions
perquisites, bribes, groundless quarrels, foolish expeditions, false ac-
counts or no account, contracts and jobs, devour all revenue, and pro-
duce continual necessity in the midst of natural plenty. I apprehend,
therefore, that to unite us intimately will only be to corrupt and poison
us also. It seems like Mezentius’ coupling and binding together the
dead and the living.

11 Tormenti genus, et sanie taboque fluentes.

Complexu in misero, longi sic morte necabat."

However, I would try any thing, and bear any thing that can be
borne with safety to our just liberties, rather than engage in a war
with such relations, unless compelled to it by dire necessity in our own
defence.

But, should that plan be again brought forward, I imagine, that,
before establishing the union, it would be necessary to agree on the
following preliminary articles.

1.	The Declaratory Act of Parliament to be repealed.

2.	All acts of Parliament, or parts of acts, laying duties on the
colonies to be repealed.

3.	All acts of Parliament altering the charters, or constitutions, or
laws of any colony, to be repealed.

4.	All acts of Parliament restraining manufactures to be repealed.

• 5. Those parts of the navigation acts, which are for the good of the
whole empire, such as require that ships in the trade should be British
or Plantation built, and navigated by three-fourths British subjects,
with the duties necessary for regulating commerce, to be re-enacted by
both Parliaments.

6. Then, to induce the Americans to see the regulating acts faith-
fully executed, it would be well to give the duties collected in each
colony to the treasury of that colony, and let the governor and
Assembly appoint the officers to collect them, and proportion their
salaries. Thus the business will be cheaper and better done, and the
misunderstandings between the two countries, now created and
fomented by the unprincipled wretches, generally appointed from
England, be entirely prevented.

These are hasty thoughts submitted to your consideration.

You will see the new proposal of Lord North, made on Monday last,348

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

which I have sent to the Committee.1 Those in administration, who
are for violent measures, are said to dislike it. The others rely upon
it as a means of dividing, and by that means subduing us. But I can-
not conceive, that any colony will undertake to grant a revenue to a
government, that holds a sword over their heads with a threat to strike
the moment they cease to give, or do not give so much as it is pleased
to expect. In such a situation, where is the right of giving our own
property freely, or the right to judge of our own ability to give? It
seems to me the language of a highwayman, who, with a pistol in your
face, says, “ Give me your purse, and then I will not put my hand
into your pocket. But give me all your money, or I will shoot you
through the head.”

To a friend on Being about to embark for America, this line is just
the Continent, to take leave, wishing you every kind of felicity, and to
dated London, 17 request that, if you have not yet purchased for me the

8X0 ’	' Theatrum Machinarum, you will now omit doing it, as

I have the offer of a set here. But if you have purchased it, your
draft on me will be duly paid in my absence by Mrs. Stevenson, in
whose hands I leave all my little affairs till my return, which I' pro-
pose, God willing, in October. Mrs. Stevenson keeps the house in
Craven Street, wherein I have always lodged since my residence in
London.

Be pleased to present my humble respects to your good Prince with
my best wishes for his prosperity, and repeat my thankful acknowledg-
ment for his gracious and benevolent proposition in my favour, of
which, though I could not, for the reasons I gave you, avail myself, I
shall nevertheless always retain the most grateful sense, and if either
here or in America, I could render his highness any kind of service,
it would give me infinite pleasure.

1 "That, when the Governor, Council, and Assembly, or General Court of his
Majesty’s provinces, or colonies, shall propose to make provision according to their
respective conditions, circumstances, and situations, for contributing their pro-
portion to the common defence ; such proportion to be raised under the authorities
of the General Court, or General Assembly, of such province or colony, and dis-
posable by Parliament; and shall engage to make provision also for the support of
the civil government, and the administration of justice in such province or colony ;
it will be proper, if such proposal shall be approved by his Majesty in Parliament,
and for so long as such provision shall be made accordingly, to forbear in respect
of such province or colony, to levy any duties, tax, or assessment, or to impose any
further duty, tax, or assessment, except only such duties as it may be expedient to
impose for the regulation of commerce ; the net produce of the duties last men-
tioned, to be carried to the account of such province, colony, or plantation respec-
tively.”-- AImon's Parliamentary Register, vol. i. p. 196.BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

349

CHAPTER XV.

AN ACCOUNT OF NEGOTIATIONS IN LONDON FOR EFFECTING A RE-
CONCILIATION BETWEEN GREAT BRITAIN AND THE AMERICAN
COLONIES.

On board the Pennsylvania Packet, Captain Osborne,
bound to Philadelphia, March 22nd, 1775.

Dear Son,—Having now a little leisure for writing, I will en-
deavour, as I promised you, to recollect what particulars I can of the
negotiations I have lately been concerned in, with regard to the mis-
understandings between Great Britain and America.

During the recess of the last Parliament, which had passed the
severe acts against the Province of the Massachusetts Bay, the
minority having been sensible of their weakness, as an effect of their
want of union among themselves, began to think seriously of a coali-
tion. For they saw in the violence of these American measures, if
persisted in, a hazard of dismembering, weakening, and perhaps
ruining the British empire. This inclined some of them to propose
such an union with each other, as might be more respectable in the
ensuing session, have more weight in opposition, and be a body out
of which a new ministry might easily be formed, should the ill success
of the late measures, and the firmness of the colonies in resisting them,
make a change appear necessary to the King.

I took some pains to promote this disposition, in conversations with
several of the principal among the minority of both Houses, whom I
besought and conjured most earnestly not to suffer, by their little mis-
understandings, so glorious a fabric as the present British empire to
be demolished by these blunderers; and for their encouragement
assured them, as far as my opinions could give any assurance, of the
firmness and unanimity of America, the continuance of which was
what they had frequent doubts of, and appeared extremely appre-
hensive and anxious concerning it.

From the time of the affront given me at the Council Board, in
January,-1774, I had never attended the lev£e of any minister. I
made no justification of myself from the charges brought against me ;
I made no return of the injury by abusing my adversaries ; but held a
cool, sullen silence, reserving myself to some future opportunity ; for
which conduct I had several reasons not necessary here to specify.
Now and then I heard it said, that the reasonable part of the ad-
ministration was ashamed of the treatment they had given me. I
suspected that some who told me this, did it to draw from me my
sentiments concerning it, and perhaps my purposes ; but I said little
or nothing upon the subject. In the meantime, their measures with
regard to New England failing of the success that had been confidently
expected, and finding themselves more and more embarrassed, they
began, as it seems, to think of making use of me, if they could, to
assist in disengaging them. But it was too humiliating to think of35°

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

applying to me openly and directly, and therefore it was contrived to
obtain what they could of my sentiments through others.

The accounts from America during the recess all manifested, that
the measures of administration had neither divided nor intimidated
the people there; that, on the contrary, they were more and more
united and determined ; and that a non-importation agreement was
likely to take place. The ministry thence apprehending that this, by
distressing the trading and manufacturing towns, might influence
votes against the court in the elections for a new Parliament (which
were in course to come on the succeeding year), suddenly and unex-
pectedly dissolved the old one, and ordered the choice of a new one
within the shortest time admitted by law, before the inconveniences of
that agreement could begin to be felt, or produce any such effect.

When I came to England in 1757, you may remember I made
several attempts to be introduced to Lord Chatham (at that time
first minister), on account of my Pennsylvania business, but without
success. He was then too great a man, or too much occupied in
affairs of greater moment. I was therefore obliged to content myself
with a kind of non-apparent and unacknowledged communication
through Mr. Potter and Mr. Wood, his secretaries, who seemed to
cultivate an acquaintance with me by their civilities, and drew from
me what information I could give relative to the American war, with
my sentiments occasionally on measures that were proposed or advised
by others, which gave me the opportunity of recommending and
enforcing the utility of conquering Canada. I afterwards considered
Mr. Pitt as an inaccessible. I admired him at a distance, and made
no more attempts for a nearer acquaintance. I had only once or
twice the satisfaction of hearing through Lord Shelburne, and I think
Lord Stanhope, that he did me the honour of mentioning me some-
times as a person of respectable character.

But towards the end of August last, returning from Brighthelmstone,
I called to visit my friend Mr. Sargent, at his seat, Halsted in Kent,
agreeable to a former engagement. He let me know, that he had
promised to conduct me to Lord Stanhope’s at Chevening, who ex-
pected I would call on him when I came into that neighbourhood.
We accordingly waited on Lord Stanhope that evening, who told me
Lord Chatham desired to see me, and that Mr. Sargent’s house, where
I was to lodge, being in the way, he would call for me there the next
morning, and carry me to Hayes. This was done accordingly. That
truly great man received me with abundance of civility, inquired par-
ticularly into the situation of affairs in America, spoke feelingly of the
severity of the late laws against the Massachusetts, gave me some
account of his speech in opposing them, and expressed great regard
and esteem for the people of that country, who he hoped would con-
tinue firm and united in defending by all peaceable and legal means
their constitutional rights. I assured him, that I made no doubt they
would do so ; which he said he was pleased to hear from me, as he
was sensible I must be well acquainted with them.

I then took occasion to remark to him, that in former cases greatBENJAMIN FRANKLIN

35i

empires had crumbled first at their extremities, from this cause ; that
countries remote from the seat and eye of government, which there*
fore could not well understand their affairs for want of full and true
information, had never been well governed, but had been oppressed
by bad governors, on presumption that complaint was difficult to be
made and supported against them at such a distance. Hence, such
governors had been encouraged to go on, till their oppressions became
intolerable. But that this empire had happily found, and long been
in the practice of, a method, whereby every province was well
governed, being trusted in a great measure with the government of
itself; and that hence had arisen such satisfaction in the subjects,
and such encouragement to new settlements, that, had it not been for
the late wrong politics, (which would have Parliament to be omni-
potent, though it ought not to be so unless it could at the same time
be omniscient), we might have gone on extending our western empire,
adding province to province, as far as the South Sea. That I lamented
the ruin which seemed impending over so fine a plan, so well adapted
to make all the subjects of the greatest empire happy ; and I hoped
that, if his Lordship, with the other great and wise men of the British
nation, would unite and exert themselves, it might yet be rescued out
of the mangling hands of the present set of blundering ministers ; and
that the union and harmony between Britain and her colonies, so
necessary to the welfare of both, might be restored.

He replied, with great politeness, that my idea of extending our
empire in that manner was a sound one, worthy of a great, benevolent,
and comprehensive mind. He wished with me for a good understand-
ing among the different parts of the opposition here, as a means of
restoring the ancient harmony of the two countries, which he most
earnestly desired ; but he spoke of the coalition of our domestic
parties, as attended with difficulty, and rather to be desired than ex-
pected. He mentioned an opinion prevailing here, that America
aimed at setting up for herself as an independent stale; or, at least, to
get rid of the Navigation Acts. I assured him, that, having more
than once travelled almost from one end of the continent to the other,
and kept a great variety of company, eating, drinking, and conversing
with them freely, I never had heard in any conversation, from any
person, drunk or sober, the least expression of a wish for a separation,
or hint that such a thing would be advantageous to America. And as
to the Navigation Act, the main, material part of it, that of carrying
on trade in British or plantation bottoms, excluding foreign ships
from our ports, and navigating wi»h three quarters British seamen,
was as acceptable to us as it could be to Britain. That we were even
not against regulations of the general commerce by Parliament, pro-
vided such regulations were bond fide for the benefit of the whole
empire, not for the small advantage of one part to the great injury of
another, such as the obliging our ships to call in England with our
wine and fruit, from Portugal or Spain ; the restraints on our manu-
factures, in the woollen and hatmaking branches, the prohibiting of
slitting-mills, steel-works, &c. He allowed, that some amendment

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

might be made in those acts ; but said those relating to the slitting-
mills, trip-hammers, and steel-works, were agreed to by our agents, in
a compromise on the opposition made here to abating the duty.

In fine, he expressed much satisfaction in my having called upon
him, and particularly in the assurances I had given him, that America
did not aim at independence ; adding, that he should be glad to see me
again as often as might be. I said, I should not fail to avail myself
of the permission he was pleased to give me of waiting upon his
Lordship occasionally, being very sensible of the honour, and of the
great advantages and improvement I should reap, from his instructive
conversation ; which indeed was not a mere compliment.

The new Parliament was to meet the 29th of November, 1774.
About the beginning of that month, being at the Royal Society, Mr.
Raper, one of our members, told me there was a certain lady who had
a desire of playing with me at chess, fancying she could beat me, and
had rccpiested him to bring me to her. It was, he said, a lady with
whose acquaintance he was sure I should be pleased, a sister of Lord
Howe’s, and he hoped I would not refuse the challenge. I said, I had
been long out of practice, but would wait upon the lady when he and
she should think fit. He told me where her house was, and would
have me call soon, and without further introduction, which I undertook
to do ; but, thinking it a little awkward, I postponed it; and on the
30th, meeting him again at the feast of the Society election, being the
day after the Parliament met, he put me in mind of my promise, and
that I had not kept it, and would have me name a day when he said
he would call for me, and conduct me. I named the Friday following.
He called accordingly. I went with him, played a few games with
the lady, whom I found of very sensible conversation and pleasing
behaviour, which induced me to agree most readily to an appointment
for another meeting a few days afterwards ; though I had not the
least apprehension that any political business could have any con-
nection with this new acquaintance.

On the Thursday preceding this chess party, Mr. David Barclay
called on me to have some discourse concerning the meeting of
merchants to petition Parliament. When that was over, he spoke of
the dangerous situation of American affairs, the hazard that a civil
war might be brought on by the present measures, and the great merit
that person would have, who could contrive some means of preventing
so terrible a calamity, and bring about a reconciliation. He was then
pleased to add, that he was persuaded, from my knowledge of both
countries, my character and influence in one of them, and my abilities
in business, no man had it so much in his power as myself. I naturally
answered, that I should be very happy if I could in any degree be
instrumental in so good a work, but that I saw no prospect of it ; for,
though I was sure the Americans were always willing and ready to
agree upon any equitable terms, yet I thought an accommodation
impracticable, unless both sides wished it; and, by what I could
judge from the proceedings of the ministry, I did not believe they had
the least disposition towards it; that they rather wished to provokeBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

353

the North American people into an open rebellion, which might justify
a military execution, and thereby gratify a grounded malice, which I
conceived to exist here against the Whigs and Dissenters of that
country. Mr. Barclay apprehended* I judged too hardly of the
ministers ; he was persuaded they were not all of that temper, and he
fancied they would be very glad to get out of thejr present embarrass-
ment on any terms, only saving the honour and dignity of government,
lie wished, therefore, that I would think of the matter, and he would
call again and converse with me further upon it. I said I would do
so, as he requested it, but I had no opinion of its answering any
purpose. We parted upon this. But two days after I received a
letter from him, enclosed in a note from Dr. Folhergill (arranging a
meeting).

The time appointed was the evening of the day on which I was to
have my second chess party with the agreeable Mrs. Howe, whom I
met accordingly. After playing as long as we liked, we fell into a
little chat, partly on a mathematical problem,1 and partly about the
new Parliament, then just met, when she said, “And what is to be
done with this dispute between Great Britain and the colonies? I
hope we are not to have a civil war.” “ They should kiss and be
friends,” said I ; “what can they do better? Quarrelling can be of
service to neither, but is ruin to both.” “ I have often said,” replied
she, “ that I wished government would employ you to settle the dispute
for them ; I am sure nobody could do it so well. Do not you think
that the thing is practicable ?” “ Undoubtedly, Madam, if the parties
are disposed to reconciliation ; for the two countries have really no
clashing interests to differ about. It is rather a matter of punctilio,
which two or three reasonable people might settle in half an hour. I
thank you for the good opinion you are pleased to express of me ; but
the ministers will never think of employing me in that good work ;
they choose rather to abuse me.” “ Ay,” said she, “ they have behaved
shamefully to you. And indeed some of them are now ashamed of it
themselves.” I looked upon this as accidental conversation, thought
no more of it, and went in the evening to the appointed meeting of
Dr. Fothergill’s, where I found Mr. Barclay with him.

The Doctor expatiated feelingly on the mischiefs likely to ensue
from the present difference, the necessity of accommodating it, and
the great merit of being instrumental in so good a work ; concluding
with some compliments to me ; that nobody understood the subject so
thoroughly, and had abetter head for business of the kind; that it
seemed therefore a duty incumbent on me, to do everything I could to
accomplish a reconciliation ; and that, as he had with pleasure heard
from David Barclay, that I had promised to think of it, he hoped I
had put pen to paper, and formed some plan for consideration, and
brought it with me. I answered, that I had formed no plan ; as, the
more I thought of the proceedings against the colonies, the more
satisfied I was, that there did not exist the least disposition in the

1 This lady (which is a little unusual in ladies) has a good deal of mathematical
knowledge.

24354

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

ministry to an accommodation ; that therefore all plans must be
useless. He said, I might be mistaken ; that, whatever was the
violence of some, he had reason, good reason, to believe others were
differently disposed ; and that, if I would draw a plan, which we three
upon considering should judge reasonable, it might be made use of,
and answer some good purpose, since he believed that either himself
or David Barclay could get it communicated to some of the most
moderate among the ministers, who would consider it with attention ;
and what appeared reasonable to us, two of us being Englishmen,
might appear so to them.

As they both urged this with great earnestness, and, when I men-
tioned the impropriety of my doing anything of the kind at the time
we were in daily expectation of hearing from the Congress, who
undoubtedly would be explicit on the means of restoring a good
understanding, they seemed impatient, alleging,- that it was uncertain
when we should receive the result of the Congress, and what it would
be ; that the least delay might be dangerous ; that additional punish-
ments for New England were in contemplation, and accidents might
widen the breach, and make it irreparable ; therefore, something
preventive could not be too soon thought of and applied. I was
therefore finally prevailed with to promise doing what they desired,
and to meet them again on Tuesday evening at the same place, and
bring with me something; for their consideration.

Accordingly, at the time, I met with them, and produced the
following paper.

"Hints for Conversation upon the Subject of Terms that might probably
produce a Durable U?iion between Britain and the Colonies.

“ i. The tea destroyed to be paid for.

“ 2. The Tea-duty Act to be repealed, and all the duties that have been received
upon it to be repaid into the treasuries of the several provinces from which they
have been collected.

" 3. The Acts of Navigation to be all reenacted in the colonies.

"4. A naval officer, appointed by the crown, to reside in each colony,’to see
that those acts are observed.

"5. All the acts restraining manufactures in the colonies to be repealed.

“6. All duties arising on the acts for regulating trade with the colonies, to be
for the public use of the respective colonies, and paid into their treasuries. The
collectors and custom-house officers to be appointed by each governor, and not
sent from England.

"7. In consideration of the Americans maintaining their own peace establish-
ment, and the monopoly Britain is to have of their commerce, no requisition to be
made from them in time of peace.

“8. No troops to enter and quarter in any colony, but with the consent of its
legislature.

"9. In time of war, on requisition made by the King, with the consent of
Parliament, every colony shall raise money by the following rules or proportions,
viz. If Britain, on account of the war, raises three shillings in the pound to its
land tax, then the colonies to add to their last general provincial peace tax a sum
equal to one fourth thereof; and if Britain, on the same account, pays four shillings
in the pound, then the colonies to add to their said last peace tax a sum equal to
half thereof, which additional tax is to be granted to his Majesty, and to be
employed in raising and paying men for land or sea service, furnishing provisions,BENJAMIN FEAN KLIN.

355

transports, or for such other purposes as the King shall require and direct. And,
though no colony may contribute less, each may add as much by voluntary grant
as they shall think proper.

11 io. Castle William to be restored to the province of the Massachusetts Bay,
and no fortress built by the crown in any province, but with the consent of its
legislature.	_

“ n. The late Massachusetts and Quebec Acts to be repealed, and a free govern-
mentgranted to Canada.

“ 12. All judges to be appointed during good behaviour, with equally permanent
salaries, to be paid out of the province revenues by appointment of the Assemblies.
Or, if the judges are to be appointed during the pleasure of the crown, let the
salaries be during the pleasure of the Assemblies, as heretofore.

“ 13. Governors to be supported by the Assemblies of each province.

" 14. If Britain will give up its monopoly of the American commerce, then the
aid above mentioned to be given by America in time of peace as well as in time of
war.

"15. The extension of the act of Henry the Eighth, concerning treasons, to the
colonies, to be formally disowned by Parliament.

“16. The American admiralty courts reduced to the same powers they have in
England, and the acts establishing them to be reenacted in America.

“17. All powers of internal legislation in the colonies to be disclaimed by
Parliament.”

In reading this paper a second time, I gave my reasons at length for
each article.

On the Jirst I observed, That, when the injury was done, Britain
had a right to reparation, and would certainly have had it on demand,
as was the case when injury was done by mobs in the time of the
Stamp Act ; or she might have a right to return an equal injury, if
she rather chose to do that; but she could not have a right both to
reparation and to return an equal injury j much less had she a right
to return the injury ten or twenty fold, as she had done by blocking
up the port of Boston. All which extra injury ought, in my judgment,
to be, repaired by Britain. That, therefore, if paying for the tea was
agreed to by me, as an article fit to be proposed, it was merely from a
desire of peace, and in compliance with their opinion expressed at our
first meeting, that this was a sine qud non, that the dignity of Britain
required it, and that, if this was agreed to, everything else would be
easy. This reasoning was allowed to be just; but still the article was
thought necessary to stand as it did.

On the second, That the act should be repealed, as having never
answered any good purpose, as having been the cause of the present
mischief, and never likely to be executed. That, the act being con-
sidered as unconstitutional by the Americans, and what the Parliament
had no right to make, they must consider all the money extorted by it,
as so much wrongfully taken, and of which therefore restitution ought
to be made ; and the rather, as it would furnish a fund out of which
the payment for the tea destroyed might best be defrayed. The
gentlemen were of opinion, that the first part of this article, viz., the
repeal, might be obtained, but not the refunding part, and therefore
advised striking that out; but, as I thought it just and right, I insisted
on its standing.

On the third and fourth articles I observed, we were frequently356

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

charged with views of abolishing the Navigation Act. That, in truth,
those parts of it which were of most importance to Britain, as tending
to increase its naval strength, viz. those restraining the trade, to be
carried on only in ships belonging to British subjects, navigated by at
least three quarters British or colony seamen, &c., were as acceptable
to us as they could be to Britain, since we wished to employ our own
ships in prefeience to foreigners, and had no desire to see foreign ships
enter our ports. That indeed the obliging us to land some of our
commodities in England before we could carry them to foreign
markets, and forbidding our importation of some goods directly from
foreign countries, we thought a hardship, and a greater loss to us than
gain to Britain, and therefore proper to be repealed. But, as Britain
had deemed it an equivalent for her protection, we had never applied,
or proposed to apply, for such a repeal. And, if they must be con-
tinued, I thought it best (since the power of Parliament to make them
was now disputed), that they shotild be reenacted in all the colonies,
which would demonstrate their consent to them. And then, if, as in
the sixth article, all the duties arising on them were to be collected by
officers appointed and salaried in the respective governments, and the
produce paid into their treasuries, I was sure the acts would be better
and more faithfully executed, and at much less expense, and one great
source of misunderstanding removed between the two countries, viz.,
the calumnies of low officers appointed from home, who were for ever
abusing the people of the country to government, to magnify their own
zeal, and recommend themselves to promotion. That the extension of
the admiralty jurisdiction, so much complained of, would then no
longer be necessary ; and that, besides its being the interest of the
colonies to execute those acts, which is the best security, government
might be satisfied of its being done, from accounts to be sent home by
the naval officers of the fourth article. The gentlemen were satisfied
with these reasons, and approved the third and fourth articles; so
they were to stand.

The fifth they apprehended would meet with difficulty. They said,
that restraining manufactures in the colonies was a favourite idea
here; and therefore they.wished that article to be omitted, as the
proposing it would alarm and hinder perhaps the considering and
granting others of more importance ; but, as I insisted on the equity
of allowing all subjects in every country to make the most of their
natural advantages, they desired I would at least alter the last word
from repealed to reconsidered, which I complied with.

In maintaining the seventh article (which was at first objected to,
on the principle that all under the care of government should pay
towards the support of it) my reasons were, that, if every distinct part
of the King^s dominions supported its own government in time of
peace, it was all that could justly be required of it; that all the old or
confederated colonies had done so from their beginning ; that their
taxes for that purpose were very considerable ; that new countries had
many public expenses, which old ones were free from, the works being
done to their hands by their ancestors, such as making roads andBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

357

bridges, erecting churches, court-houses, forts, quays, and other public
buildings, founding schools and places of education, hospitals and
alms-houses, &c., &c.; that the voluntary and the legal subscriptions
and taxes for such purposes, taken together, amounted to more than
was paid by equal estates in Britain. That it would be best for
Britain, on two accounts, not to take money from us, as contribution
to its public expense, in time of peace ; first, for that just so much less
would be got from us in commerce, since all we could spare was
already gained from us by Britain in that way ; and, secondly, that,
coming into the hands of British ministers, accustomed to prodigality
of public money, it would be squandered and dissipated, answering
no good general purpose. That, if we were to be taxed towards the
support of government in Britain, as Scotland has been since the
union, we ought then to be allowed the same privileges in trade as
she has been allowed. That, if we are called upon to give to the
sinking fund, or the national debt, Ireland ought to be likewise called
upon : and both they and we, if we gave, ought to have some means
established of inquiring into the application, and securing a com-
pliance with the terms on which we should grant. That British
ministers would perhaps not like our meddling with such matters;
and that hence might arise new causes of misunderstanding. That,
upon the whole, therefore, I thought it best on all sides that no aids
shall be asked or expected from the colonies in time of peace ; that
it would then be their interest to grant bountifully and exert them-
selves vigorously in time of war, the sooner to put an end to it. That
specie was not to be had to send to England in supplies, but the
colonies could carry on war with their own paper money; which
would pay troops, and for provisions, transports, carriages, clothing,
arms, &c. So this seventh article was at length agreed to without
further objection.

The eighth the gentlemen were confident would never be granted.
For the whole world would be of opinion, that the King, who is to
defend all parts of his dominions, should have of course a right to
place his troops where they might best answer that purpose. I sup-
ported the article upon principles equally important,, in my opinion,
to Britain as to her colonies ; for that, if the King could bring into
one part of his dominions troops raised in any other part of them,
without the consent of the legislatures of the part to which they were
brought, he might bring armies raised in America into England with-
out consent of Parliament, which probably would not like it, as a few
years since they had not liked the introduction of the Hessians and
Hanoverians, though justified by the supposition of its being a time
of danger. That, if there should be at any time real occasion for
British troops in America, there was no doubt of obtaining the con-
sent of the Assemblies there ; and I was so far from being willing to
drop this article, that I thought I ought to add another, requiring all
the present troops to be withdrawn, before America could be expected
to treat or agree upon any terms of accommodation ; as what they
should now do of that kind might be deemed the effect of compulsion,358

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

the appearance of which ought as much as possible to be avoided,
since those reasonable things might be agreed to, where the parties
seemed at least to act freely, which would be strongly refused under
threats or the semblance of force. That the withdrawing the troops
was therefore necessary to make any treaty durably binding on the
part of the Americans, since proof of having acted under force would
invalidate any agreement. And it could be no wonder, that we should
insist on the crown’s having no right to bring a standing army among
us in time of peace, when we saw now before our eyes a striking
instance of the ill use to be made of it, viz., to distress the King’s
subjects in different parts of his dominions, one part after the other,
into a submission to arbitrary power, which was the avowed design
of the army and fleet now placed at Boston. Finding me obstinate,
the gentlemen consented to let this stand, but did not seem quite to
approve of it. They wished, they said, to have this a paper or plan
that they might show as containing the sentiments of considerate,
impartial persons, and such as they might as Englishmen support,
which they thought could not well be the case with this article.

The ninth article was so drawn, in compliance with an idea of Dr.
Fothergill’s, started at our first meeting, viz. that government here
would probably riot be satisfied with the promise of voluntary grants
in time of war from the Assemblies, of which the quantity must be
uncertain ; that, therefore, it would be best to proportion them in
some way to the shillings in the pound raised in England ; but how
such proportion could be ascertained he was at a loss to contrive. I
was desired to consider it. It had been said, too, that Parliament was
become jealous of the right claimed and heretofore used by the crown,
of raising money in the colonies without Parliamentary consent; and,
therefore, since we would not pay Parliamentary taxes, future requisi-
tions must be made with consent of Parliament, and not otherwise.
I wondered that the crown should be willing to give up that separate
right, but had no objection to its limiting itself, if it thought proper;
so I drew the article accordingly, and contrived to proportion the aid
by the tax of the last year of peace. And since it was thought, that
the method I should have liked best would never be agreed to, viz.
a Continental Congress to be called by the crown, for answering
requisitions and proportioning aids, I chose to leave room for volun-
tary additions by the separate Assemblies, that the crown might have
some motive for calling them together, and cultivating their goodwill,
and they have some satisfaction in showing their loyalty and their
zeal in the common cause, and an opportunity of manifesting their
disapprobation of a war, if they did not think it a just one. This article
therefore met with no objection from them; and I had another reason
for liking it, viz. that the view of the proportion to be given in time of
war, might make us the more frugal in time of peace.

For the tenth article, I urged the injustice of seizing that fortress
(which had been built at an immense charge by the province, for the
defence of their port against national enemies), and turning it into
a citadel for awing the town, restraining their trade, blocking up theirBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

359

port, and depriving them of their privileges. That a great deal had
been said of their injustice in destroying the tea; but here was a
much greater injustice uncompensated, that castle having cost the
province three hundred thousand pounds. And that such a use made
of a fortress they had built, would not only effectually discourage
every colony from ever building another, and thereby leave them
more exposed to foreign enemies, but was a good reason for their
insisting that the crown should never erect any hereafter in their
limits, without the consent of the legislature. The gentlemen had not
much to say against this article, but thought it would hardly be
admitted.

The eleventh article, it was thought, would, be strongly objected to ;
that it would be urged the old colonists could have nothing to do with
the affairs of Canada, whatever we had with those of the Massachu-
setts ; that it would be considered as an officious meddling merely to
disturb government; and that some even of the Massachusetts acts
were thought by administration to be improvements of that govern-
ment, viz. those altering the appointment of counsellors, the choice of
jurymen, and the forbidding of town meetings. I replied that we,
having assisted in the conquest of Canada, at a great expense of blood
and treasure, had some right to be considered in the settlement of it.
That the establishing an arbitrary government on the back of our
settlements might be dangerous to us all; and that, loving liberty
ourselves, we wished it to be extended among mankind, and to have
no foundation for future slavery laid in America. That, as to amend-
ing the Massachusetts government, though it might be shown that
every one of these pretended amendments were real mischiefs, yet
that charters being compacts between two parties, the King and the
people, no alteration could be made in them, even for the better, but
by the consent of both parties. That the Parliament’s claim and
exercise of a' power to alter our charters, which had always been
deemed inviolable but for forfeiture, and to alter laws made in pur-
suance of these charters, which had received the royal approbation,
and thenceforth deemed fixed and unchangeable, but by the powers
that made them, had rendered all our constitutions uncertain, and set
us quite afloat. That, as, by claiming a right to tax us ad libitum,
they deprived us of all property ; so, by this claim of altering our laws
and charters at will, they deprived us of all privilege and right what-
ever, but what we should hold at their pleasure. That this was a
situation we could not be in, and must risk life and everything rather
than submit to it. So this article remained.

The twelfth article I explained, by acquainting the gentlemen with
the former situation of the judges in most colonies, viz. that they were
appointed by the crown, and paid by the Assemblies. That, the
appointment being during the pleasure of the crown, the salary had
been during the pleasure of the Assembly. That, when it has been
urged against the Assemblies, that their making judges dependent on
them for their salaries, was aiming at an undue influence over the
courts of justice ; the Assemblies usually replied, that making them360

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

dependent on the crown for continuance in their places, Was also
retaining an undue influence over those courts; and that one undue
influence was a proper balance for the other ; but that whenever the
crown would consent to acts making the judges during good behaviour,
the Assemblies would at the same time grant their salaries to be- per-
manent during their continuance in office. This the crown has how-
ever constantly refused. And this equitable offer is now again here
proposed ; the colonies not being able to conceive why their judges
should not be rendered as independent as those in England. That, on
the contrary, the crown now claimed to make the judges in the
colonies dependent on its favour for both place and salary, both to be
continued at its pleasure. This the colonies must oppose as inequit-
able, as putting both the weights into one of the scales of justice. If,
therefore, the crown does not choose to commission the judges during
good behaviour, with equally permanent salaries, the alternative pro-
posed that the salaries continue to be paid during the pleasure of the
Assemblies as heretofore. The gentlemen allowed this article to be
reasonable.

The thirtee7ith was objected to, as nothing was generally thought more
reasonable here, than that the King should pay his own governor, in
order to render him independent of the people, who otherwise might
aim at influencing him against his duty, by occasionally withholding
his salary. To this I answered, that governors sent to the colonies
were often men of no estate or principle, who came merely to make
fortunes, and had no natural regard for the country they were to
govern. That to make them quite independent of the people, was to
make them careless of their conduct, whether it was beneficial or
mischievous to the public, and giving a loose to their rapacious and
oppressive dispositions. That the influence supposed could never
extend to operate anything prejudicial to the King’s service, or the
interest of Britain ; since the governor was bound by a set of particular
instructions, which he had given surety to observe ; and all the laws
he assented to were subject to be repealed by the crown, if found
improper. That the payment of the salaries by the people was more
satisfactory to them, as it was productive of a good understanding and
mutual good offices between governor and governed, and therefore the
innovation lately made in that respect at Boston and New York had,
in my opinion, better be laid aside. So this article was suffered to
remain.

But the fourteenth was thought totally inadmissible. The monopoly
of the American commerce could never be given up, and the proposing
it would only give offence without answering any good purpose. I
was therefore prevailed on to strike it wholly out.

The fifteenth was readily agreed to.

The sixteenth it was thought would be of little consequence, if the
duties were given to the colony treasuries.

The seventeenth it was thought could hardly be obtained, but might
be tried.

Thus having gone through the whole, I was desired to make a fairBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

361

copy for Dr. Fothergill, who now informed us, that, having an oppor-
tunity of seeing daily Lord Dartmouth, of whose good disposition he
had a high opinion, he would communicate the paper to him, as the
sentiments of considerate persons, who wished the welfare of both
countries. “Suppose,” said Mr. Barclay, “I were to show this paper
to Lord Hyde ; would there be anything amiss in so doing? He is
a very knowing man ; and, though not in the ministry, properly
speaking, he is a good deal attended to by them. I have some
acquaintance with him ; we converse freely sometimes ; and perhaps,
if he and I were to talk these articles over, and I should communicate
to him our conversation upon them, some good might arise out of it.”
Dr. Fothergill had no objection, and I said I could have hone. I
knew Lord Hyde a little, and had an esteem for him. I had drawn
the paper at their request, and it was now theirs to do with it what
they pleased. Mr. Barclay then proposed that I should send the
fair copy to him, which, after making one for Dr. Fothergill and one
for himself, he would return to me. Another question then arose,
whether I had any objection to their mentioning that I had been con-
sulted. I said, none that related to myself; but it was my opinion, if
they wished any attention paid to the propositions, it would be better
not to mention me; the ministry having, as I conceived, a prejudice
against me, and everything that came from me. They said, on that
consideration it might be best not to mention me ; and so it was
concluded. For my own part, I kept this whole proceeding a profound
secret; but I soon after discovered, that it had taken air by some
means or other.

Being much interrupted the day following, I did not copy and send
the paper. The next morning I received a note from Mr. Barclay,
pressing to have it before twelve o’clock. I accordingly sent it to him.
Three days after, I received the following note from him.

“ D. Barclay presents his respects, and acquaints Dr. Franklin,
that, being informed a pamphlet, entitled ‘A Friendly Address,’
has been dispersed to the disadvantage of America (in particular by
the Dean of Norwich), he desires Dr. Franklin will peruse the enclosed,
just come to hand from America; and, if he approves of it, republish
it, as D. Barclay wishes something might be properly spread at Nor-
wich. D. Barclay saw to-day a person, with whom he had been
yesterday (before he called on Dr. Franklin), and had the satisfaction
of walking part of the way with him to another noble person’s house,
to meet on the business, and he told him, that he could say, that he
saw some light.

“ Cheap side, nth instant.”

The person so met and accompanied by Mr. Barclay, I understood
to be Lord Hyde, going either to Lord Dartmouth’s or Lord North’s ;
I knew not which.

In the following week arrived the proceedings of the Congress,362

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

which had been long and anxiously expected, both by the friends and
adversaries of America.

The first impression made by the proceedings of the American
Congress on people in general, was greatly in our favour. Adminis-
tration seemed to be staggered, were impatient to know whether the
Petition mentioned in the proceedings was come to my hands, and
took a roundabout method of obtaining that information, by getting a
ministerial merchant, a known intimate of the Solicitor-General, to
write me a letter, importing that he heard I had received such a
petition, that I was to be attended in presenting it by the merchants,
and begging to know the time, that he might attend “on so important
an occasion, and give his testimony to so good a work.” Before these
proceedings arrived, it had been given out, that no petition froni the
Congress could be received, as they were an illegal body ; but the
Secretary of State, after a day’s perusal (during which a council was
held), told us it was a decent and proper petition, and cheerfully
undertook to present it to his Majesty, who, he afterwards assured
us, was pleased to receive it very graciously, and to promise to lay it,
as soon as they met, before his two Houses of Parliament; and we
had reason to believe, that, at that time, the petition was intended to
be made the foundation of some change of measures; but that pur-
pose, if such there was, did not long continue.

About this time, I received a letter from Mr. Barclay, then at Nor-
wich, dated December 18th, expressing his opinion, that it might be
best to postpone taking any further steps in the affair of procuring a
meeting and petition of the merchants (on which we had had several
consultations), till after the holidays, thereby to give the proceedings
of Congress more time to work upon men’s minds ; adding, “ I like-
wise consider, that our superiors will have some little time for reflec-
tion, and perhaps may contemplate on the propriety of the ‘Hints’
in their possession. By a few lines I have received from Lord Hyde,
he intimates his hearty wish that they may be productive of what may
be practicable and advantageous for the mother country and the
colonies.”

On the 22nd, Mr. Barclay was come to town, when I dined with
him, and learnt that Lord Hyde thought the propositions too hard.

On Christmas-day evening, visiting Mrs. Howe, she told me as soon
as I went in, that her brother, Lord Howe, wished to be acquainted
with me ; that he was a very good man, and she was sure we should
like each other. I said, I had always heard a good character of Lord
Howe, and should be proud of the honour of being known to him.
“ He is but just by,” said she ; “ will you give me leave to send for
him ? ”	“ By all means, Madam, if you think proper.” She rang for

a servant, wrote a note, and Lord Howe came in a few minutes.

After some extremely polite compliments, as to the general motives
for his desiring an acquaintance with me, he said he had a particular
one at this time, which was the alarming situation of our affairs with
America, which no one, he was persuaded,understood better than my-
self ; that it was the opinion of some friends of his, that no manBENJAMIN FRANKLIN

3f3

could do more towards reconciling our differences than I could, if I
would undertake it; that he was sensible I had been very ill treated
by the ministry, but he hoped that would not be considered by me in
the present case ; that he himself, though not in opposition, had much
disapproved of their conduct towards me ; that'some of them, he was
sure, were ashamed of it, and sorry it had happened ; which he sup-
posed must be sufficient to abate resentment in a great and generous
mind ; that, if he were himself in administration, he should be ready
to make me ample satisfaction, which, he was persuaded, would one
day or other be done ; that he was unconnected with the ministry,
except by some personal friendships, wished well however to govern-
ment, was anxious for the general welfare of the whole empire, and
had a particular regard for New England, which had shown a very
endearing respect to his family ; that he was merely an independent
member of Parliament, desirous of doing what good he could, agree-
ably to his duty in that station ; that he therefore had wished for an
opportunity of obtaining my sentiments on the means of reconciling
our differences, which he saw must be attended with the most mis-
chievous consequences, if not speedily accommodated ; that he hoped
his zeal for the public welfare would, with me, excuse the impertinence
of a mere stranger, who could have otherwise no reason to expect, or
right to request, me to open my mind to him on these topics ; but
he did conceive, that, if I would indulge him with my ideas of the
means proper to bring about a reconciliation, it might be of some use ;
that perhaps I might not be willing myself to have any direct com-
munication with this ministry on this occasion ; that I might likewise
not care to have it known, that I had any indirect communication
with them, till I could be well assured of their good dispositions ; that,
being himself upon no ill terms with them, he thought it not impossible
that he might, by conveying my sentiments to them and theirs to me,
be a means of bringing on a good understanding, without committing
either them or me, if his negotiation should not succeed ; and that I
might rely on his keeping perfectly secret everything I should wish to
remain so.

Mrs. Howe here offering to withdraw, whether of herself, or from
any sign from him, I know not, I begged she might stay, as I should
have no secret in a business of this nature, that I could not freely
confide to her prudence ; which was truth ; for I had never conceived
a higher opinion of the discretion and excellent understanding of any
woman on so short an acquaintance. I added, that, though I had
never before the honour of being in his Lordship’s company, his
manner was such as had already engaged my confidence, and would
make me perfectly easy and free in communicating myself to him.

I begged him, in the first place, to give me credit for a sincere
desire of healing the breach between the two countries ; that I would
cheerfully and heartily do everything in my small power to accomplish
it; but that I apprehended from the King’s speech, and from the
measures talked of, as well as those already determined on, no inten-
tion or disposition of the kind existed in the present ministry, and3^4

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

therefore no accommodation could be expected till we saw a change.
That, as to what his Lordship mentioned of the personal injuries
done me, those done my country were so much greater, that I did not
think the other, at this time, worth mentioning ; that, besides, it was
a fixed rule with me, not to mix my private affairs with those of the
public ; that I could join with my personal enemy in serving the
public, or, when it was for its interest, with the public in serving that
enemy ; these being my sentiments, his Lordship might be assured,
that no private considerations of the kind should prevent my being
as useful in the present case as my small ability would permit.

He appeared satisfied and pleased with these declarations, and gave
it me as his sincere opinion, that some of the ministry were extremely
well disposed to any reasonable accommodation, preserving only the
dignity of government ; and he wished me to draw up in •writing some
propositions containing the terms on which I conceived a good
understanding might be obtained and established, and the mode of
proceeding to accomplish it; which propositions, as soon as prepared,
we might meet to consider, either at his house, or at mine, or where I
pleased ; but, as his being seen at my house, or me at his, might, he
thought, occasion some speculation, it was concluded to be best to
meet at his sister’s, who readily offered her house for the purpose,
and where there was a good pretence with her family and friends for
my being often seen, as it was known we played together at chess. I
undertook, accordingly, to draw up something of the kind; and so for
that time we parted, agreeing to meet at the same place again on the
Wednesday following.

I dined about this time by invitation with Governor Pownall.
There was no company but the family ; and after dinner we had a
tete-d,-tete. He had been in the opposition ; but was now about
making his peace, in order to come into Parliament upon ministerial
interest, which I did not then know. He told me, what I had before
been told by several of Lord North’s friends, that the American
measures were not the measures of that minister, nor approved by
him ; that, on the contrary, he was well disposed to promote a recon-
ciliation upon any terms honourable to government; that I had been
looked upon as the great fomenter of the opposition in America, and
as a great adversary to any accommodation; that he, Governor
Pownall, had given a different account of me, and had told his Lord-
ship that I was certainly much misunderstood. From the Governor’s
further discourse I collected, that he wished to be employed as an
envoy or commissioner to America, to settle the differences, and to
have me with him ; but, as I apprehended there was little likelihood
that either of us would be so employed by government, I did not give
much attention to that part of his discourse.

I should have mentioned in its place (but one cannot recollect every-
thing in order), that, declining at first to draw up the propositions
desired by Lord Howe, I alleged its being unnecessary, since the
Congress in their petition to the King, just then received and pre-
sented through Lord Dartmouth, had stated their grievances, andBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

365

pointed out very explicitly what would restore the ancient harmony ;
and I read a part of the petition to show their good dispositions,
which, being very pathetically expressed, seemed to affect both the
brother and sister. But still I was desired to give my ideas of the
steps to be taken, in case some of the propositions in the petition
should not be thought admissible. And this, as I said before, I
undertook to do.

I had promised Lord Chatham to communicate to him the first im-
portant news I should receive from America. I therefore sent him
the proceedings of the Congress as soon as I received them ; but a
whole week passed after 1 received the petition, before I could, as I
wished to do, wait upon him with it, in order to obtain his sentiments
on the whole; for my time was taken up in meetings with the other
agents to consult about presenting the petition, in waiting three
different days with them on Lord Dartmouth, in consulting upon and
writing letters to the Speakers of Assemblies, and other business,
which did not allow me a day to go to Hayes.

At last, on Monday the 26th, I got out, and was there about one
o’clock. He received me with an affectionate kind of respect, that
from so great a man was extremely engaging; but the opinion he
expressed of the Congress was still more so. They had acted, he
said, with so much temper, moderation, and wisdom, that he thought
it the most honourable assembly of statesmen since those of the
ancient Greeks and Romans, in the most virtuous times. That there
were not in their whole proceedings above one or two things he could
have wished otherwise ; perhaps but one, and that was their assertion,
that the keeping up a standing army in the colonies’ in time of peace,
without consent of their legislatures, was against law. He doubted
that was not well founded, and that the law alluded to did not extend
to the colonies. The rest he admired and honoured. He thought
the petition decent, manly, and properly expressed. He inquired
much and particularly concerning the state of America, the probability
of their perseverance, the difficulties they must meet with in adhering
for any long time to their resolutions, the resources they might have
to supply the deficiency of commerce ; to all which I gave him
answers with which he seemed well satisfied. He expressed a great
regard and warm affection for that country, with hearty wishes for
their prosperity ; and that government here might soon come to see
its mistakes, and recfify them ; and intimated that possibly he might,
if his health permitted, prepare something for its consideration, when
the Parliament should meet after the holidays; on which he should
wish to have previously my sentiments.

1 mentioned to him the very hazardous state I conceived we were
in, by the continuance of the army in Boston ; that, whatever dispo-
sition there might be in the inhabitants to give no just cause of offence
to the troops, or in the general to preserve order among them, an
unpremeditated, unforeseen quarrel might happen between perhaps a
drunken porter and a soldier, that might bring on a riot, tumult, and
bloodshed, and in its consequences produce a'breach impossible to be366

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

healed ; that the army could not possibly answer any good purpose
there, and might be infinitely mischievous ; that no accommodation
could properly be proposed and entered into by the Americans, while
the bayonet was at their breasts ; that, to have any agreement bind-
ing, all force should be withdrawn. His Lordship seemed to think
these sentiments had something in them that was reasonable.

From Hayes I went to Halsted, Mr. Sargent’s place, to dine,
i itending thence a visit to Lord Stanhope at Chevening; but, hearing
that his Lordship and the family were in town, I stayed at Halsted all
night, and the next morning went to Chislehurst to call upon Lord
Camden, it being in my way to town. I met his Lordship and family
in two carriages just without his gate, going on a visit of congratu-
lation to Lord Chatham and his lady, on the late marriage of their
daughter to Lord Mahon, son of Lord Stanhope. They were to be
back at dinner; so I agreed to go in, stay dinner, and spend the
evening there, and not return to town till next morning. We had
i hat afternoon and evening a great deal of conversation on American
affairs, concerning which he was very inquisitive, and I gave him the
best information in my power. I was charmed with his generous and
noble sentiments ; and had the great pleasure of hearing his full
approbation of the proceedings of the Congress, the petition, &c. &c.t
of which, at his request, I afterwards sent him a copy. He seemed
anxious that the Americans should continue to act with the same
temper, coolness, and wisdom, with which they had hitherto proceeded
in most of their public assemblies, in which case he did not doubt
they would succeed in establishing their rights, and obtain a solid and
durable agreement with the mother country ; of the necessity and
great importance of which agreement, he seemed to have the strongest
impressions.

I returned to town the next morning, in time to meet at the hour
appointed by Lord Howe. I apologized for my not being ready with
the paper I had promised, by my having been kept longer than I
intended in the country. We had, however, a good deal of conversa-
tion on the subject, and his Lordship told me he could now assure me,
of a certainty, that there was a sincere disposition in Lord North and
Lord Dartmouth to accommodate the differences with America, and
to listen favourably to any proposition that might have a probable
tendency to answer that salutary purpose. He then asked me what I
thought of sending some person or persons over, commissioned to
inquire into the grievances of America upon the spot, converse with
the leading people, and endeavour with them to agree upon some
means of composing our differences. I said, that a person of rank and
dignity, who had a character of candour, integrity, and wisdom, might
possibly, if employed in that service, be of great use.

He seemed to be of the same opinion, and that whoever was
employed should go with a hearty desire of promoting a sincere recon-
ciliation, on the foundation of mutual interests and mutual good-will;
that he should endeavour, not only to remove their prejudices against
government, but equally the prejudices of government against them,BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

3 (7

and bring on a perfect good understanding, &c. Mrs. Howe said, “ I
wish, brother, you were to be sent thither on such a service; I should
like that much better than General Howe’s going to command the
army there.” “ I think, Madam,” said I, “they ought to provide for
General Howe some more honourable employment.” Lord Howe
here took out of his pocket a paper, and offering it to me said, smiling,
“ If it is not an unfair question, may I ask whether you know anything
of this paper?” Upon looking at it, I saw it was a copy, in David
Barclay’s hand, of the “ Hints” before recited ; and said, that I had
seen it; adding, a little after, that, since I perceived his Lordship was
acquainted with a transaction, my concern in which I had understood
was to have been kept a secret, I should make no difficulty in owning
to him, that I had been consulted on the subject, and had drawn up
that paper. He said, he was rather sorry to find that the sentiments
expressed in it were mine, as it gave him less hopes of promoting, by
my assistance, the wished-for reconciliation ; since he had reason to
think there was no likelihood of the admission of those propositions.
He hoped, however, that I would reconsider the subject, and form
some plan that would be acceptable here. He expatiated on the
infinite service it would be to the nation, and the great merit jn being
instrumental in so good a work ; that he should not think of influenc-
ing me by any selfish motive, but certainly I might with reason expect
any reward in the power of government to bestow.

This to me was what the French vulgarly call spitting in the soup.
However, I promised to draw some sketch of a plan, at his request,
though I much doubted, I said, whether it would be thought prefer-
able to that he had in his hand. But he was willing to hope that it
would ; and, as he considered my situation, that I had friends here
and constituents in America to keep well with, that I might possibly
propose something improper to be seen in my handwriting ; therefore,
it would be better to send it to Mrs. Howe, who would copy it, send
the copy to him to be communicated to the ministry, and return me
the original. This I agreed to, though I did not apprehend the in-
convenience lie mentioned. In general, I liked much his manner, and
found myself disposed to place great confidence in him on occasion ;
but in this particular the secrecy he proposed seemed not of much
importance.

In a day or two, I sent the following paper, enclosed in a cover,
directed to the Honourable Mrs. Howe.

“ It is supposed to be the wish on both sides, not merely to put a stop to the
mischief at present threatening the general welfare, but to cement a cordial union,
and remove not only every real grievance, but every cause of jealousy and suspicion.

“ With this view, the first thing necessary is, to know what is, by the different
parties in the dispute, thought essentially necessary for the obtaining such a union.

“ The American Congress, in their petition to the King, have been explicit,
declaring, that by a repeal of the oppressive acts therein complained of, ‘ the
harmony between Great Britain and the colonies, so necessary to the happiness of
both, and so ardently desired of them, will, with the usual intercourse, be imme-
diately restored.'

“ Jf it has been thought reasonable here, to expect that, previous to an alteration368

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

of measures, the colonies should make some declaration respecting their future
conduct, they have also done that, by adding, ‘ That, when the causes of their
apprehensions are removed, their future conduct will prove them not tinworthy of
the regard they have been accustomed in their happier days to enjoy.'

“ For their sincerity in these declarations, they solemnly call to witness the

Searcher of all hearts.

. “ If Britain can have any reliance on these declarations (and perhaps none to be
extorted by force can be more relied on than these, which are thus freely made),
she may, without hazard to herself, try the expedient proposed, since, if it fails, she
has it in her power at any time to resume her present measures.

“It is then proposed ; That Britain should show some confidence ib these
declarations, by repealing all the laws or parts of laws, that are requested to be
repealed in the Petition of the Congress to the King ;

“ And that, at the same time, orders should be given to withdraw the fleet from
Boston, and remove all the troops to Quebec, or the Floridas, that the colonies
may be left at perfect liberty in their future stipulations.

“ That this may, for the honour of Britain, appear not the effect of any appre-
hension from the measures entered into and recommended to the people by the
Congress, but from good-will, and a change of disposition towards the colonies,
with a sincere desire of reconciliation ; let some of their other grievances, which in
their petition they have left to the magnanimity and justice of the King and Parlia-
ment, be at the same time removed, such as those relating to the payment of
governors’ and judges' salaries, and the instructions for dissolving Assemblies, &c.,
with the declarations concerning-the statute of Henry the Eighth.

“And to give the colonies an immediate opportunity of demonstrating the
reality of their professions, let their proposed ensuing Congress be authorized by
government (as was that held at Albany, in 1754), and a person of weight and
dignity of character be appointed to preside at it on behalf of the crown.

“ And then let requisition be made to the Congress, of such points as govern-
ment wishes to obtain for its future security, for aids, for the advantage of general
commerce, for reparation to the India Company, &c. &c.

“ A generous confidence thus placed in the colonies, will give groupd to the
friends of government there, in their endeavours to procure from America every
reasonable concession, or engagement, and every substantial aid, that can fairly be
desired."

At the meeting of Parliament after the holidays, which was on the
19th of January, 1775, Lord Howe returned to town, when we had
another meeting, at which he lamented, that my propositions were
not such as probably could be accepted ; intimated, that it was thought
I had powers or instructions from the Congress to make concessions
on occasion, that would be more satisfactory. I disclaimed the having
any of any kind, but what related to the presenting of their petition.
We talked over all the particulars in my paper, which I supported with
reasons; and finally said, that, if what I had proposed would not do, I
should be glad to hear what would do ; I wished to see some proposi-
tions from the ministers themselves. His Lordship was not, he said,
as yet fully acquainted with their sentiments, but should learn more in
a few days. It was, however, some weeks before I heard anything
further from him.

In the meanwhile, Mr. Barclay and I were frequently together on
the affair of preparing the merchants’ petition, which took up so much
of his time that he could not conveniently see Lord Hyde ; so he had
no information to give me concerning the “ Hints,” and I wondered
I heard nothing of them from Dr. Fothergill. At length, however*BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

369

but I cannot recollect about what time, the Doctor called on me, and
told me he had communicated them, and with them had verbally-
given my arguments in support of them, to Lord Dartmouth, who,
after consideration, had told him, some of them appeared reasonable,
but others were inadmissible or impracticable. That having occasion
to see frequently the Speaker, he had also communicated them to him,
as he found him very anxious for a reconciliation. That the Speaker
had said it would be very humiliating to Britain to be obliged to
submit to such terms ; but the Doctor told him she had been unjust,
and ought to bear the consequences, and alter her conduct; that the
pill might be bitter, but it would be salutary, and must be swallowed.
That these were the sentiments of impartial men, after thorough con-
sideration and full information of all circumstances ; and that sooner
of later these or similar measures must be followed, or the empire
would be divide and ruined. The Doctor, on the whole, hoped some
good would be effected by our endeavours.

On the* 10th of January, I received a card from Lord Stanhope,
acquainting me, that Lord Chatham, having a motion to make on the
morrow in the House of Lords, concei'ning America, greatly desired
that I might be in the House, into which Lord Stanhope would
endeavour to procure me admittance. At this time it was a rule of the
House, that no person could introduce more than one friend. The
next morning his Lordship let me know by another card, that, if
I attended at two o’clock in the lobby, Lord Chatham would be there
about that time, and would himself introduce me. I attended, and
met him there accordingly. On my mentioning to him what Lord
Stanhope had written to me, he said, “ Certainly; and I shall do it
with the more pleasure, as I am sure your being present at this day’s
debate will be of more service to America than mine ; ” and so taking
me by the arm was leading me along the passage to the door that
enters near the throne, when one of the door-keepers followed, and
acquainted him that, by the order, none were to be carried in at that
door but the eldest sons or brothers of peers; on which he limped
back with me to the door near the bar, where were standing a number
of gentlemen, waiting for the peers who were to introduce them, and
some peers waiting for friends they expected to introduce; among
whom he delivered me to the door-keepers, saying, aloud, “ This is
Dr. Franklin, whom I would have admitted into the House ; ” when
they readily opened the door for me accordingly.

As it had not been publicly known, that there was any communica-
tion between his Lordship and me, this I found occasioned some
speculation. His appearance in the House, I observed, caused a kind
of bustle among the officers, who were hurried in sending messengers
for members, I suppose those in connection with the ministry, some-
thing of importance being expected when that great man appears ; it
being but seldom that his infirmities permit his attendance. I had
great satisfaction in hearing his motion and the debate upon it, which
I shall not attempt to give here an account of, as you may find a
better in the papers of the time. It was his motion for withdraw-

25370

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

ing the troops from Boston, as the first step towards an accommoda-
tion.

The day following, I received a note from Lord Stanhope expressing,
that, “ at the desire of Lord Chatham, was sent me enclosed the motion
he made in the House of Lords, that I might be possessed of it in the
most authentic manner, by the communication of the individual paper,
which was read to the House by the mover himself.” I sent copies
of this motion to America, and was the more pleased-with it, as I con-
ceived it had partly taken its rise from a hint I had given his Lord-
ship in a former conversation. It follows in these words.

LORD CHATHAM’S MOTION, JANUARY 20TII, 1775.

" That an humble address be presented to his Majesty, most humbly to advise
and beseech his Majesty, that, in order to open the way to a happy settlement of
the dangerous troubles in America, by beginning to allay ferments and soften
animosities there ; and above all, for preventing in the mean time any sudden and
fatal catastrophe at Boston, now suffering under the daily irritation of an army
before their eyes, posted in their town ; it may graciously please his Majesty, that
immediate orders may be despatched to General Gage for removing his Majesty’s
forces from the town of Boston, as soon as the rigour of the season and other
circumstances, indispensable to the safety and accommodation of the said troops,
may render the same practicable.”

I was quite charmed with Lord Chatham’s speech in support of his
motion. He impressed me with the highest idea of him, as a great
and most able statesman.1 Lord Camden, another wonderfully good
speaker and close reasoner, joined him in the same argument, as did
several other Lords, who spoke excellently well ; but all availed no
more than the whistling of the winds. The motion was rejected.
Sixteen Scotch peers, and twenty-four bishops, with all the lords in
possession or expectation of places, when they vote together unani-
mously, as they generally do for ministerial measures, make a dead
majority, that renders all debating ridiculous in itself, since it can
answer no end.

As in the course of the debate some Lords in the administration
had observed, that it was common and easy to censure their measures,
but those who did so proposed nothing better, Lord Chatham men-
tioned, that he should not be one of those idle censurers : that he had
thought long and closely upon the subject, and proposed soon to lay
before their Lordships the result of his meditation, in a plan for heal-
ing our differences, and restoring peace to the empire, to which his
present motion was preparatory. I much desired to know what his
plan was, and intended waiting on him to see if he would communicate
it to me ; but he went the next morning to Hayes, and I was so much

1 It was reported at the time, that his Lordship had concluded his speech with
the following remarkable words : “ If the ministers thus persevere in misadvising
and misleading the King, I will not say, that they can alienate the affections of his
subjects from his crown, but I will affirm, that they will make the crown not worth
his wearing. I will not say, that the King is belrayed, but I will pronounce, that
the kingdom is undone."BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

37 i

taken up with daily business and company, that I could not easily get
out to him. A few days after, however, Lord Mahon called on me,
and told me Lord Chatham was very desirous of seeing me ; when I
promised to be with him the Friday following, several engagements
preventing my going sooner.

On Friday the 27th, I took a post-chaise about nine o’clock, and
got to Hayes about eleven ; but, my attention being engaged in read-
ing a new pamphlet, the post-boy drove me a mile or two beyond the
gate. His Lordship, being out on an airing in his chariot, had met
me before I reached Hayes, unobserved by me, turned and followed
me, and not finding me there, concluded, as he had seen me reading,
that I had passed by mistake, and sent a servant after me. He
expressed great pleasure at my coming, and acquainted me in a long
conversation with the outlines of his plan, parts of which he read to
me. He said he had communicated it only to Lord Camden, whose
advice he much relied on, particularly in the law part; and that he
would, as soon as he could get it transcribed, put it into my hands for
my opinion and advice, but should show it to no other person before
he presented it to the House ; and he requested me to make no men-
tion of it, otherwise parts might be misunderstood and blown upon
beforehand, and others perhaps adopted and produced by ministers
as their own. I promised the closest secrecy, and kept my word, not
even mentioning to any one that I had seen him. I dined with him,
his family only present, and returned to town in the evening.

On the Sunday following, being the 29th, his Lordship came to
town, and called upon me in Craven Street. He brought with him
his plan transcribed, in the form of an act of Parliament, which he
put into' my hands, requesting me to consider it carefully, and com-
municate to him such remarks upon it as should occur to me. His
reason for desiring to give me that trouble was, as he was pleased to
say, that he knew no man so thoroughly acquainted with the subject,
or so capable of giving advice upon it; that he thought the errors of
ministers in American affairs had been often owing to their not obtain-
ing the best information ; that, therefore, though he had considered
the business thoroughly in all its parts, he was not so confident of his
own judgment, but that he came to set it right by mine, as men set
their watches by a regulator. He had not determined when he should
produce it in the House of Lords ; but in the course of our conversa-
tion, considering the precarious situation of his health, and that if
presenting it was delayed, some intelligence might arrive which would
make it seem less seasonable, or in all parts not so proper ; or the minis-
try might engage in different measures, and then say, “If.you had pro-
duced your plan sooner, we might have attended to ithe concluded
to offer it the Wednesday following ; and therefore wished to see me
upon it the preceding Tuesday, when he would again call upon me,
unless 1 could conveniently come to Hayes. I chose the latter, in
respect to his Lordship, and because there was less likelihood of inter-
ruptions ; and I promised to be with him early, that we might have
more time. He stayed with me near two hours, his equipage waiting372

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

at the door ; and being there while people were coming from church,
it was much taken notice of, and talked of, as at that time was every
little circumstance that men thought might possibly any way affect
American affairs. Such a visit from so great a man, on so important
a business, flattered not a little my vanity ; and the honour of it gave
me more pleasure, as it happened on the very day twelve months that
the ministry had taken so much pains to disgrace me before the Privy
Council.

I was at Hayes early on Tuesday, agreeably to my promise, when
we entered into consideration of the plan ; but, though I stayed near
four hours, his Lordship, in the manner of, I think, all eloquent persons,
was so full and diffuse in supporting every particular I questioned,
that there was not time to go through half my memorandums. He is
not easily interrupted ; and I had such pleasure in hearing him, that
I found little inclination to interrupt him. Therefore, considering
that neither of us had much expectation, that the plan would be
adopted entirely as it stood ; that, in the course of its consideration,
if it should be received, proper alterations might be introduced ; that,
before it would be settled, America should have opportunity to make
her objections and propositions of amendment ; that, to have it re-
ceived at all here, it must seem to comply a little with some of the
prevailing prejudices of the legislature ; that, if it was not so perfect
as might be wished, it would at least serve as a basis for treaty, and in
the meantime prevent mischiefs ; and that, as his Lordship had
determined to offer it the next day, there was not time to make
changes and another fair copy; I therefore ceased my querying ;
and, though afterwards many people were pleased to do me the
honour of supposing I had a considerable share in composing it, I
assure you, that the addition of a single word only was made at my
instance, viz., “ constitutions ” after “ charters ” ; for my filling up, at
his request, a blank with the titles of acts proper to be repealed, which
I took from the proceedings of the Congress, was no more than might
have been done by any copying clerk.

On Wednesday, Lord Stanhope, at Lord Chatham’s request, called
upon me, and carried me down to the House of Lords, which was
soon very full. Lord Chatham, in a most excellent speech, introduced,
explained, and supported his plan. When he sat down, Lord Dart-
mouth rose, and very properly said, it contained matter of such weight
and magnitude, as to require much consideration ; and he therefore
hoped the noble Earl did not expect their Lordships to decide upon it
by an immediate vote, but would be willing it should lie upon the
table for consideration. Lord Chatham answered readily, that he
expected nothing more.

But Lord Sandwich rose, and in a petulant, vehement speech,
opposed its being received at all, and gave his opinion, that it ought
to be immediately rejected, with the contempt it deserved. That he
could never believe it to be the production of any British Peer. That
it appeared to him rather the work of some American ; and, turning
his face towards me, who was leaning on the bar, said, he fancied heBENJAMIN FRANKLIN. .

373

had in his eye the person who drew it up, one of the bitterest and
most mischievous enemies this country had ever known. This drew
the eyes of many Lords upon me ; but, as I had no inducement to
take it to myself, I kept my countenance as immovable as if my
features had been made of wood. Then several other Lords of the
administration gave their sentiments also for rejecting it, of which
opinion also was strongly the wise Lord Hillsborough. But the Dukes
of Richmond and Manchester, Lord Shelburne, Lord Camden, Lord
Temple, Lord Lyttleton, and others, were for receiving it, some
through approbation, and others for the character and dignity of the
House. One Lord mentioning with applause, the candid proposal of
one of the ministers, Lord Dartmouth, his Lordship rose again, and
said, that having since heard the opinions of so many Lords against
receiving it, to lie upon the table for consideration, he had altered his
mind, could not accept the praise offered him for a candour of which
he was now ashamed, and should therefore give his voice for rejecting
the plan immediately.

I am the more particular in this, as it is a trait of that nobleman’s
character, who from his office is supposed to. have so great a share in
American affairs, but who has in reality no will or judgment of his
own, being, with dispositions for the best measures, easily prevailed
with to join in the worst.

Lord Chatham, in his reply to Lord Sandwich, took notice of his
illiberal insinuation, that the plan was not the person’s who proposed
it ; declared that it was entirely his own ; a declaration he thought
himself the more obliged to make, as many of their Lordchips ap-
peared to have so mean an opinion of it ; for if it was so weak or so
bad a thing, it was proper in him to take care that no other person
should unjustly share in the censure it deserved. That it had been
heretofore reckoned his vice, not to be apt to take advice; but he
made no scruple to declare, that, if he were the first minister of this
country, and had the care of settling this momentous business, he
should not be ashamed of publicly calling to his assistance a person
so perfectly acquainted with the whole of American affairs as the
gentleman alluded to, and so injuriously reflected on ; one, he was
pleased to say, whom all Europe held in high estimation for his know-
ledge and wisdom, and ranked with our Boyles and Newtons ; who
was an honour, not to the English nation only, but to human nature !
I found it harder to stand this extravagant compliment than the pro-
ceeding equally extravagant abuse; but kept as well as I could an
unconcerned countenance, as not conceiving it to relate to me.

To hear so many of these hereditary legislators declaiming so
vehemently against, not the adopting merely, but even the considera-
tion of a proposal so important in its nature, offered by a person of so
weighty a character, one of the first statesmen of the age, who had
taken up this country when in the lowest despondency, and conducted
it to victory and glory, through a war with two of the mightiest king-
doms in Europe ; to hear them censuring his plan, not only for their
own misunderstandings of what was in it, but for their imaginations374

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

of what was not in it, which they would not give themselves an oppor-
tunity of rectifying by a second reading ; to perceive the total igno-
rance of the subject in some, the prejudice and passion of others, and
the wilful perversion of plain truth in several of the ministers ; and,
upon the whole, to see it so ignominiously rejected by so great a
majority, and so hastily too, in breach of all decency, and prudent
regard to the character and dignity of their body, as a third part of
the national legislature, gave me an exceeding mean opinion of their
abilities, and made their claim of sovereignty over three millions of
virtuous, sensible people in America seem the greatest of absurdities,
since they appeared to have scarce discretion enough to govern a herd
of swine. Hereditary legislators ! thought I. There would be more
propriety, because less hazard of mischief, in having (as in some
university of Germany) hereditary professors of mathematics! But
this was a hasty reflection ; for the elected House of Commons is no
belter, nor ever will be while the electors receive money for their votes,
and pay money wherewith ministers may bribe their representatives
when chosen.

After this proceeding I expected to hear no more of any negotiation
for settling our difference amicably ; yet, in a day or two, I had a note
from Mr. Barclay requesting a meeting at Dr. Fothergill’s, the 4th of
February, in the evening. I attended accordingly, and was surprised
by being told, that a very good disposition appeared in-administra-
tion ; that the “ Hints” had been considered, and several of them
thought reasonable,.and that others might be admitted with small
amendments. The good Doctor, with his usual philanthropliy, ex-
patiated on the miseries of war : that even a bad peace was preferable
to the most successful war ; that America was growing, in strength ;
and, whatever she might be obliged to submit to at present, she would
in a few years be in a condition to make her own terms.

Mr. Barclay hinted how much it was in my power to promote an
agreement; how much it would be to my honour to effect it ; and
that I might expect, not only restoration of my old place, but almost
any other I could wish for, &c. I need not tell you, who know me so
well, how improper and disgusting this language was to me. The
Doctor’s was more suitable. Him I answered, that we did not wish
for war, and desired nothing but what was reasonable and necessary
for our security and well-being. To Mr. Barclay I replied, that the
ministry, I was sure, would rather give me a place in a cart to Tyburn,
than any other place whatever ; and to both, that I sincerely wished
to be serviceable; that I needed no other inducement than to be
shown how I might be so ; but saw they imagined more to be in my
power than really was. I was then told again, that conferences had
been held upon the “ Hints” ; and the paper being produced was
read, that I might hear the observations that had been made upon
them separately, which were as follows.

1. The first article was approved. 3. The second agreed to, so far as related to
the repeal of the Tea Act. But repayment of the duties that had been collectedBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

375

was refused. 3. The third not approved, as it implied a deficiency of power in
the Parliament that made those acts. 4. The fourth approved. 5. The fifth agreed
to, but with a reserve, that no change prejudicial to Britain was to be expected.
6. The sixth agreed to, so far as related to the appropriation of the duties ; but the
appointment of the officers and their salaries to remain as at present. 7. The
seventh, relating to aids in time of peace, agreed to. 8. The eighth, relating to
the troops, was inadmissible. 9. The ninth could be agreed to, with this differ-
ence, that no proportion should be observed with regard to preceding taxes, but
each colony should give atplcasure. 10. The tenth agreed to, as to the restitution
of Castle William ; but the restriction on the crown in building fortresses refused.
11. The eleventh refused absolutely, except as to the Boston Port Bill, which would
be repealed ; and the Quebec Act might be so far amended, as to reduce that
province to its ancient limits. The other Massachusetts acts, being real amend-
ments of their constitution, must for that reason be continued, as well as to be a
standing example of the power of Parliament. 12. The twelfth agreed to, that the
judges should be appointed during good behaviour, on the Assemblies providing
permanent salaries, such as the crown should approve of. 13. The thirteenth
agreed to, provided the Assemblies make provision as in the preceding article.
15. The fifteenth agreed to. 16. The sixteenth agreed to, supposing the duties
paid to the colony treasuries. 17. The seventeenth inadmissible.

We had not at this time a great deal of conversation upon these
points ; for I shortened it by observing, that, while the Parliament
claimed and exercised a power of altering our constitutions at
pleasure, there could be no agreement; for we were rendered unsafe
in every privilege we had a right to, and were secure in nothing.
And, it being hinted how necessary an agreement was for America,
since it was so easy for Britain to burn all our seaport towns, I grew
warm, said that the chief part of my little property consisted of houses
in those towns ; that they might make bonfires of them whenever they
pleased ; that the fear of losing them would never alter my resolution
to resist to the last that claim of Parliament; and that it behoved
this country to take care what mischief it did us ; for that sooner or
later it would certainly be obliged to make good all damages with
interest! The Doctor smiled, as I thought, with some approbation
of my discourse, passionate as it was, and said, he would certainly
repeat it to-morrow to Lord Dartmouth.

In the discourse concerning the “ Hints,” Mr. Barclay happened
to mention, that, going to Lord Hyde’s, he found Lord Howe with
him; and that Lord Hyde had said to him, “ You may speak any
thing before Lord Howe, that you have to say to me, for he is a friend
in whom I confide ; ” upon which he accordingly had spoken with the
same freedom as usual. By this I collected how Lord Howe came by
the paper of “ Hints,” which he had shown me. And, it being
mentioned as a measure thought of, to send over a commissioner with
powers to inquire into grievances, and give redress on certain condi-
tions, but that it was difficult to find a proper person, 1 said, “Why
not Lord Hyde ? He is a man of prudence and temper, a person of
dignity, and, I should think, very suitable for such an employment ;
or, if he would not go, there is the other person you just mentioned,
Lord Howe, who would, in my opinion, do excellently well.” This
passed as mere conversation, and we parted.376

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

Lord Chatham’s rejected plan being printed, for the public judgment,
1 received six copies from Lord Mahon, his son-in-law, which I sent
to different persons in America.

A week and more passed, in which I heard nothing further of any
negotiation, and my time was much taken up among the members of
Parliament, when Mr. Barclay sent me a note to .say, that he was in-
disposed, but desirous of seeing me, and should be glad if I would call
on him. I waited upon him the next morning, when he told me, that
he had seen Lord Hyde, and had some further discourse with him on
the Articles ; that he thought himself now fully possessed of what
would do in this business ; that he therefore wished another meeting
with me and Dr. Fothergill, when he would endeavour to bring pre-
pared a draft conformable chiefly to what had been proposed and
conceded on both sides, with some propositions of his own. I readily
agreed to the meeting, which was to be on Thursday evening, February
16th.

We met accordingly, when Mr. Barclay produced the following
paper, viz.,

“ A Plan, which, it is believed, would produce a permanent union between Gjeat
Britain and her Colonies.

" i. The tea destroyed to be paid for ; and, in order that no time may be lost, to
begin the desirable work of conciliation, it is proposed that the agent or agents, in
petition to the King, should engage that the tea destroyed shall be paid for ; and,
in consequence of that engagement, a commissioner to have authority, by a clause
in an act of Parliament, to open the port (by a suspension of the Boston Port Act)
when that engagement shall be complied with.

“2. The Tea-duty Act to be repealed, as well for the advantage of Great Britain
as the colonies.

"3. Castle William to be restored to the province of Massachusetts Bay, as
formerly, before it was delivered up by Governor Hutchinson.

“4. As it is believed, that the commencement of conciliatory measures will, in a
considerable degree, quiet the minds of the subjects in America, it is proposed,
that the inhabitants of the province of the Massachusetts Bay should petition the
King, and state their objections to the said act.1 And it is to be understood, that
the said act shall be repealed. Interim, the commissioner to have power to sus-
pend the act, in order to enable the inhabitants to petition.

‘ ‘ 5. The several provinces, who may think themselves aggrieved by the Quebec
Bill, to petition in their legislative capacities ; and it is to be understood, that so
far of the act, as extends the limits of Quebec beyond its ancient bounds, is to be
repealed.

“ 6. The act of Henry the Eighth to be formally disclaimed by Parliament.

"7. In time of peace, the Americans to. raise, in their respective provinces, by
acts of their own legislatures, a certain sum or sums, such as may be thought neces-
sary for a peace establishment, to pay governors, judges, &c. Vide Laws of Jamaica.

“ 8. In time of war, on requisition made by the King, with consent of Parliament,
every colony shall raise such sums of money.as their legislators may think suitable
to their abilities and the public exigency, to be laid out in raising and paying men
for land or sea service, furnishing provisions, transports, or such other purposes as
the King shall require and direct.

"9. The acts of navigation to be reexamined, in order to see whether some
alterations might not be made therein, as much for the advantage of Great Britain
as the ease of the colonies.

1 Supposed to mean the Boston Port Act.BENJAMIN FRANKLIN,

377

“ io. A naval officer to be appointed by the crown to reside in each colony, to
see those acts observed.

N.B.—" In some colonies they are not appointed by the crown.

" ii. All duties arising on the acts for regulating trade with the colonies to be for
the public use of the respective colonies, and paid into their treasuries, and an
officer of the crown to see it done.

“12. The admiralty courts to be reduced to the same powers as they have in
England.

. “ 13. All judges in the King’s colony governments to be appointed during good
behaviour, and to be paid bv the province, agreeable to article seventh.

“ N. B. If the King chooses to add to their” salaries, the same to be sent from
England.

“14. The governors to be supported in the same manner.”

Our conversation turned chiefly upon the first article. It was said,
that the ministry only wanted some opening to be given them, some
ground on which to found the commencement of conciliating mea-
sures ; that a petition containing such an engagement as mentioned in
this article would answer that purpose ; that preparations were making
to send over more troops and ships ; that such a petition might pre-
vent their going, especially if a commissioner were proposed. I was
therefore urged to engage the colony agents to join with me in such
a petition. My answer was, that no agent had anything to do with the
tea business, but those for Massachusetts Bay, who were Mr. Bollan
for the Council, myself for the Assembly, and Mr. Lee, appointed to
succeed me when I should leave England ; that the latter, therefore,
could hardly yet be considered as an agent; and that the former was
a cautious, exact man, and not easily persuaded to take steps of such
importance without instructions or authority ; that, therefore, if such
a step were to be taken, it would lie chiefly on me to take it; that,
indeed, if there were, as they supposed, a clear probability of good to
be done by it, I should make no scruple of hazarding myself in it ; but
I thought the empowering a commissioner to suspend the Boston Port
Act was a method too dilatory, and a mere suspension would not be
satisfactory; that, if such an engagement were entered into, all the
Massachusetts acts should be immediately repealed.

They laid hold of the readiness I had expressed to petition on a
probability of doing good, applauded it, and urged me to draw up a
petition immediately. I said it was a matter of importance, and with
their leave I would take home the paper, consider the propositions as
they now stood, and give them my opinion to-morrow evening. This
was agreed to, and for that time we parted.

Weighing now the present dangerous situation of affairs in America,
and the daily hazard of widening the breach there irreparably, I em-
braced the idea proposed in the paper of sending over a commissioner,
as it might be a means of suspending military operations, and bring
on a treaty, whereby mischief would be prevented, and an agreement
by degrees be formed and established. I also concluded to do what
had been desired of me as to the engagement, and essayed a draft of
a memorial to Lord Dartmouth for that purpose simply, to be signed
only by myself. As to the sending of a commissioner, a measure378

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

which I was desired likewise to propose, and express my sentiments
of its utility, I apprehended my colleagues in the agency might be
justly displeased if I took a step of such importance without consult-
ing them, and therefore I sketched a joint petition to that purpose, for
them to sign with me, if they pleased ; but, apprehending that would
meet with difficulty, I drew up a letter to Lord Dartmouth, containing
the same proposition, with the reasons for it, to be sent from me only.
I made also upon paper some remarks upon the propositions; with some
hints, on a separate paper, of further remarks to be made in conversa-
tion, when we should meet in the evening of the 17th.

Mr. Barclay, Dr. Fothergill, and myself, met according to appoint-
ment at the Doctor’s house. I delivered to them the “ Remarks ” I
had made on the paper, and we talked them over. I read also the
sketches I had made of the petitions and memorials ; but, they being
of opinion, that the repeal of none of the Massachusetts acts could be
obtained by my engaging to pay for the tea, the Boston Port Act ex-
cepted, and I insisting on a repeal of a//, otherwise declining to make
the offer, that measure was deferred for the present, and I pocketed
my drafts. They concluded, however, to report my sentimerfts, and
see if any further concession could be obtained. They observed, too,
that I had signed my “ Remarks ” ; on which I said, that understand-
ing by other means, as well as from them, that the ministers had been
acquainted with my being consulted in this business, I saw no occasion
for further mystery ; and, since conveying and receiving through
second hands their sentiments and mine occasioned delay, and might
be attended with misapprehension, something being lost or changed
by mistake in the conveyance, I did not see why we should not meet
and discuss the points together at once ; that, if this was thought
proper, I should be willing and ready to attend them to the ministerial
persons they conferred with. They seemed to approve the proposal,
and said they would mention it.

The next morning I met Lord Howe, according to appointment.
He seemed very cheerful, having, as I imagine, heard from Lord Hyde
what that Lord might have heard from Mr. Barclay the evening of the
16th, viz., that I had’ consented to petition, and engage payment for
the tea ; whence it was hoped, the ministerial terms of accommoda-
tion make take place. He let me know, that he was thought of to be
sent commissioner for settling the differences in America; adding,
with an excess of politeness, that, sensible of his own unacquainted-
ness with the business, and of my knowledge and abilities, he could
not think of undertaking it without me ; but, with me, he should doit
most readily; for he should found his expectation of success on my
assistance. He therefore had desired this meeting, to know my mind
upon a proposition of my going with him in some shape or other, as
a friend, an assistant, or secretary ; that he was very sensible, if he
should be so happy as to effect anything valuable, it must be wholly
owing to the advice and assistance I should afford him ; that he should
therefore make no scruple of giving me upon all occasions the full
honour of it; that he had declared to the ministers his opinion of myBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

379

good dispositions towards peace, and what he now wished was to he
authorized by me to say, that I consented to accompany him, and
would co-operate with him in the great work of reconciliation. That
the influence I had over the minds of people in America was known
to be very extensive ; and that I could, if any man could, prevail with
them to comply with reasonable propositions.

I replied, that I was obliged to his Lordship for the favourable
opinion he had of me, and for the honour he did me in proposing to
make use of my assistance ; that I wished to know what propositions
were intended for America ; that, if they were reasonable ones in
themselves, possibly I might be able to make them appear such to my
countrymen ; but, if they were otherwise, I doubted whether that could
be done by any man, and certainly I should not undertake it. His
Lordship then said, that he should not expect my assistance without a
-proper consideration. That the business was of great importance ; and,
if he undertook it, he should insist on being enabled to make, generous
and ample appointments for those he took with him, particularly for
me ; as well as a firm promise of subsequent rewards. “And,” said
lie, “ that the ministry may have an opportunity of showing their good
disposition towards yourself, will you give me leave, Mr. Franklin, to
procure for you previously some mark of it ; suppose the payment
here of the arrears of your salary, as agent for New England, which I
understand they have stopped for sonie time past?” “My Lord,”
said I, “ I shall deem it a great honour to be in any shape joined with
your Lordship in so good a work ; but, if you hope service from any
influence I may be supposed to have, drop all thoughts of procuring
me any previous favours from ministers ; my accepting them would
destroy the very influence you propose to make use of ; they would be
considered as so many bribes to betray the interest of my country ;
but only let me see thz propositions, and, if I approve of them, I shall
not hesitate a moment, but will hold myself ready to accompany your
Lordship at an hour’s warning.” He then said, he wished I would
discuss with Lord Hyde upon the business, and asked if I had any
objection to meet his Lordship. I answered, none, not the least; that
I had a great respect for Lord Hyde, and would wait upon him when-
ever he should be pleased to permit it. He said he would speak to
Lord Hyde, and send me word.

On the morning of February 20th, it was currently and industriously
reported all over the town, that Lord North would that day make a
pacific motion in the House of Commons for healing all differences
between Britain and America. The House was accordingly very full,
and the members full of expectation. The Bedford party, inimical to
America and who had urged severe measures, were alarmed, and began
to exclaim against the minister for his timidity, and the fluctuation, of
his politicsj they even began to count voices, to see if they could not,
by negativing his motion, at once unhorse him, and throw him out of
administration. His friends were therefore alarmed for him, and
there was much caballing and whispering. At length a motion, as one
had been promised, was made, but whether that originally intended, is380

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

with me very doubtful. I suspect, from its imperfect composition,
from its inadequateness to answer the purpose previously professed,
and from some other circumstances, that, when first drawn, it con-
tained more of Mr. Barclay’s plan, but was curtailed by advice, just
before it was delivered. My old proposition of giving up the regula-
ting duties to the colonies was in part to be found in it; and many,
who knew nothing of that transaction, said it was the best part of the
motion. It was as follows.

LORD NORTH’S MOTION, FEBRUARY 20TH, 1775.

“ That it is the opinion of this committee, that, when the Governor, Council,
and Assembly, or General Court of his Majesty’s provinces or colonies shall pro-
pose to make provision according to their respective conditions, circumstances, and
situations, for contributing their proportion to the common defence, such proportion
to be raised under the authority of the General Court or General Assembly of such
province or colony, and disposable by Parliament, and shall engage to make pro-
vision also for the support of the civil government and the administration of justice
in such province or colony, it will be proper, if such proposal shall be approved by
his Majesty in Parliament, and for so long as such provision shall be made accord-
ingly, to forbear, in respect of such province or colony, to levy any duties, tax, or
assessment, or to impose any further duty, tax, or assessment, excepU-only such
duties as may be expedient to impose for the regulation of commerce ; the net pro-
duce of the duties last mentioned to be carried to the account of such province,
colony, or plantation, exclusively.”

After a good deal of wild debate, in which this motion was supported
upon various and inconsistent principles by the ministerial people, and
even met with an opposition from some of them, which showed a
want of concert, probably from the suddenness of the alterations
above supposed, they all agreed at length, as usual, in voting it by a
large majority.

Hearing nothing during all the following week from Messrs. Bar-
clay and Fothergill (except that Lord Hyde, when acquainted with
my willingness to engage for the payment of the tea, had said it gave
him new life), nor anything from Lord Howe, I mentioned his silence
occasionally to his sister, adding, that I supposed it owing to his
finding what he had proposed to me was not likely to take place ; and
I wished her to desire him, if that was the case, to let me know it by
a line, that I might be at liberty to take other measures. She did so
as soon as he returned from the country, where he had been for a day
or two ; and I received from her the following note.

“ Mrs. Howe’s compliments to Dr. Franklin ; Lord Howe not quite
understanding the message received from her, will be very glad to
have the pleasure of seeing him, either between twelve and one this
morning (the only hour he is at liberty this day), at her house, or at
any hour to-morrow most convenient to him.

“ Grafton Street, Tuesday

I met his Lordship at the hour appointed. He said, that he had not
seen me lately, as he expected daily to have something more materialBENJAMIN FRANKLIN,\	.

38i

to Say to tti6 thaft had yet occurred ; and hoped that I would have
called on Lord Hyde, as I had intimated I should do when I appre-
hended it might be useful, which he was sorry to find I had not done.
That there was something in my verbal message by Mrs. Howe, which
perhaps she had apprehended imperfectly ; it was the hint of my pur-
pose to take other measures. I answered, that having, since I had
last seen his Lordship, heard of the death of my wife at Philadelphia,
in whose hands I- had left the care of my affairs there, it was become
necessary for me to return thither as soon as conveniently might be ;
that what his Lordship had proposed of my accompanying him to
America might, if likely to take place, postpone my voyage to suit his
conveniency ; otherwise, I should proceed by the first ship ; that I did
suppose by not hearing from him, and by Lord North’s motion, all
thoughts of that kind were laid aside, which was what I only desired
to know from him.

He said, my last paper of “ Remarks ” by Mr. Barclay, wherein I
had made the indemnification of Boston, for the injury of stopping its
port, a condition of my engaging to pay for the tea (a condition
impossible to be complied with), had discouraged further proceeding
on that idea. Having a copy of that paper in my pocket, I showed
his Lordship, that I had proposed no such condition of my engagement,
nor any other than the repeal of all the Massachusetts acts. That
what followed relating to the indemnification was only expressing my
private opinion, that it would be just, but by no means insisting upon
it. He said the arrangements were not yet determined on ; that, as
I now explained myself, it appeared I had been much misappre-
hended ; and he wished of all things I would see Lord Hyde, and
asked if I would choose to meet him there (at Mrs. Howe’s), or that
he should call upon me. I said, that I would by no means give Lord
Hyde that trouble. That, since he (Lord Howe) seemed to think it
might be of use, and wished it done soon, I would wait upon Lord
Hyde. I knew him to be an early riser, and would be with him at
eight o’clock the next morning; which Lord Howe undertook to
acquaint him with. But I added, that, from what circumstances I could
collect of the disposition of ministry, I apprehended my visit would
answer no material purpose. He was of a different opinion ; to which
I submitted.

The next morning, March 1st, I accordingly was early with Lord
Hyde, who received me with his usual politeness. We talked over a
great part of the dispute between the countries. I found him ready
with all the newspaper and pamphlet topics ; of the expense of
settling our colonies, the protection afforded them, the heavy debt
under which Britain laboured, the equity of our contributing to its
alleviation ; that many people in England were no more represented
than we were, yet all were taxed aad governed by Parliament, &c.,
&c. I answered all, but with little effect ; for, though his Lordship
seemed civilly to hear what I said, I had reason to believe he attended
very little to the purport of it, his mind being employed the while in
thinking on what he himself purposed to say next.LIFE AND LETTERS OF

382

lie hoped, he said, that Lord North’s motion would have been
satisfactory ; and asked what could be objected to it. I replied, the
terms of it were, that we should grant money till Parliament had
agreed we had given enough, without having the least share in judging
of the propriety of the measure for which it was to,be granted, or of
our own abilities to grant; that these grants were also to be made
under a threat of exercising a claimed right of taxing us at pleasure,
and compelling such taxes by an armed force, if we did not give till
it should be thought we had given enough ; that the proposition was
similiar to no mode of obtaining aids that ever existed, except that of
a highwayman, who presents his pistol and hat at a coach window,
demanding no specific sum, but, if you will give all your money, or
what he is pleased to think sufficient, he will civilly omit putting his
own hand into your pockets ; if not, there is his pistol. That the mode
of raising contributions in an enemy’s country was fairer than this,
since there an explicit sum was demanded, and the people who were
raising it knew what they were about, and when they should have
done ; and that, in short, no free people could ever think of beginning
to grant upon such terms. That, besides, a new dispute had now been
raised, by the Parliament’s pretending to a power of altering our
charters and established laws, which was of still more importance to us
than their claim of taxation, as it set us all adrift, and left us without
a privilege we could depend upon, but at their pleasure: this was a
situation we could not possibly be in; and as Lord North’s proposi-
tion had no relation to this matter, if the other had been such as we
could have agreed to, we should still be far from reconciliation.

His Lordship thought I misunderstood the proposition; on which
I took it out and read it. He then waived that point, and said he
should be glad to know from me, what would produce a reconciliation.
I said, that his Lordship, I imagined, had seen several proposals .of
mine for that purpose. He said he had ; but some of my articles
were such as would never be agreed to. That it was apprehended I
had several instructions and powers to offer more acceptable terms,
but was extremely reserved, and perhaps from a desire he did not
blame, of doing better for my constituents ; but my expectations
might deceive me; and he did think I might be assured I should
never obtain better terms than what were now offered by Lord North.
That administration had a sincere desire of restoring harmony with
America; and it was thought, if I would cooperate with them,,the
business would be easy. That he hoped I was above retaining resent-
ment against them, for what nobody now approved, and for which
satisfaction might be made me ; that I was, as he understood, in high
esteem among the Americans ; that, if I would bring about a reconci-
liation on terms suitable to the dignity of government, I might be as
highly and generally esteemed here, and be honoured and rewarded\
perhaps, beyond my expectation.

I replied, that I thought I had given a convincing proof of my sin-
cere desire of promoting peace, when, on being informed that all
wanted for the honour of government was, to obtain payment for theBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

38 3

tea, I offered, without any instruction to warrant my so doing, or
assurance that I should be reimbursed, or my conduct approved, to
engage for that payment, if the Massachusetts acts were to be
repealed ; an engagement in which I must have risked my whole for-
tune, which I thought few besides me would have done. That, in
truth, private resentments had no weight with me in public business ;
that I was not the reserved man imagined, having really no secret
instructions to act upon. That I was certainly willing to do every-
thing that could reasonably be expected of me. But, if any supposed
I could prevail with my countrymen to take black for white, and wrong
for right, it was not knowing either them or me ; they were not capable
of being so imposed on, nor was I capable of attempting it.

He then asked my opinion of sending over a commissioner, for the
purpose mentioned in a preceding part of this account, and my answer
was to the same effect. By the way, I apprehend, that to give me an
opportunity of discoursing with Lord Hyde on that point, was a prin-
cipal motive with Lord Howe for urging me to make this visit. His
Lordship did not express his own sentiments upon it. And thus ended
this conversation.

Three or four days after I received a note from Mrs. Howe. I
answered, that I would do myself the honour of waiting on Lord
Howe, at her house, the Tuesday following, at eleven o’clock. We
met accordingly. He began by saying, that I had been a better
prophet than himself, in foreseeing that my interview with Lord Hyde
would be of no great use ; and then said, that he hoped I would excuse
the trouble he had given me, as his intentions had been good both
towards me and the public. He was sorry, that at present there was
no appearance of things going into the train he had wished, but that
possibly they might yet take a more favourable turn ; and, as he under-
stood I was going soon to America, if he should chance to be sent thither
on that important business, he hoped he might still expect my assist-
ance. I assured him of my readiness at all times of cooperating
with him in so good a work ; and so, taking my leave, and receiving
his good wishes, ended the negotiation with Lord Howe. And I
heard no more of that with Messrs. Fothergill and Barclay. I could
only gather, from some hints in their conversation, that neither of them
were well pleased with the conduct of the ministers respecting these
transactions. And, a few days before I left London, I met them by
their desire, at the Doctor’s house, when they desired me to assure their
friends from them, that it was now their fixed opinion, that nothing
could secure the privileges of America, but a firm, sober adherence
to the terms of the association made at the Congress, and that the
salvation of English liberty depended now on the perseverance and
■virtue of America.

During the whole, my time was otherwise much taken up, by friends
•calling continually to inquire news from America ; members of both
Houses of Parliament, to inform me what passed in the Houses, and
•discourse with me on-the debates, and on motions made, or to be
made; merchants of London and of the manufacturing and port3&4

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

towns, on their petitions ; the Quakers, upon theirs, &c., &c.; so that
I had no time to take notes of almost anything. This account is
therefore chiefly from recollection, in which doubtless much must
have been omitted, from deficiency of memory ; but what there is, I
believe to be pretty exact; except that, discoursing with so many
different persons about the same time, on the same subject, I may
possibly have put down some things as said by or to one person, which
passed in conversation with another.

A little before I left London, being at the House of Lords, during a
debate in which Lord Camden was to speak, and who indeed spoke
admirably on American affairs, I was much disgusted, from the
ministerial side, by many base reflections on American courage,
religion, understanding, &c., in which we were treated with the utmost
contempt, as the lowest of mankind, and almost of a different species
from the English of Britain ; but particularly the American honesty
was abused by some of the Lords, who asserted that we were all
knaves, and wanted only by this dispute to avoid paying our debts ;
that, if we had any sense of equity or justice, we should ofler,pay-
ment of the tea, &c. I went home somewhat irritated and heated ;
and, partly to retort upon this nation, on the article of equity, drew up
a memorial to present to Lord Dartmouth before my departure ; but,
consulting my friend, Mr. Thomas Walpole, upon it, who is a member
of t'he House of Commons, he looked at it and at me several times
alternately, as if he apprehended me a little out of my senses. As I
was in the hurry of packing up, I requested him to take the trouble of
showing it to his neighbour, Lord Camden, and ask his advice upon
it, which he kindly undertook to do ; and returned it me with a note,
which here follows the proposed memorial.

“To the Right Honourable the Earl of Dartmouth, one of his

Majesty’s principal Secretaries of State ;

“A Memorial of Benjamin Franklin, Agent of the Province of

Massachusetts Bay.

“ Whereas an injury done can only give the party injured a right to
full reparation ; or, in case that be refused, a right to return an equal
injury ; and whereas the blockade of Boston, now continued nine
months, hath every week of its continuance done damage to that
town, equal to what was suffered there by the India Company ; it
inflows that such exceeding damage is an injury done by this govern-
ment, for which reparation ought to be made; and whereas reparation
of injuries ought always (agreeably to the custom of all nations, savage
as well as civilized), to be first required, before satisfaction is taken
by a return of damage to the aggressors; which was not done by
Great Britain in the instance above mentioned ; I the underwritten
do therefore, as their agent, in the behalf of my country and the said
town of Boston, protest against the, continuance of the said blockade ;
and I do hereby solemnly demand satisfaction for the accumulated
injury done them, beyond the value of the India Company’s tea
destroyed.BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

385

“And whereas the conquest of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the coasts
of Labrador and Nova Scotia, and the fisheries possessed by the
French there and on the Banks of Newfoundland, so far as they were
more extended than at present, was made by the joint forces of Britain
and the colonies, the latter having nearly an equal number of men in
that service with the former; it follows, that the colonies have an
equitable and just right to participate in the advantage of those
fisheries; I do, therefore, in the behalf of the colony ot the Massa-
chusetts Bay, protest against the act now under consideration in
Parliament, for depriving that province, with others, of that fishery
(on pretence of their refusing to purchase British commodities), as an
act highly unjust and injurious; and I give notice, that satisfaction
will probably one day be demanded for all the injury that may be
done and suffered in the execution of such act ; and that the in-
justice of the proceeding is likely to give such umbrage to all the
colonies, that in no future war, wherein other conquests may be
meditated, either a man or a shilling will be obtained from any of
them to aid such conquests, till full satisfaction be made as aforesaid.

“B. Franklin.

“ Given in London, this \6lh day of March, 1775.”

“to dr. franklin.

“ Dear Sir,

“ I return you the memorial, which it is thought might be attended
with dangerous consequences to your person, and contribute to ex-
asperate the nation.

“ 1 heartily wish you a prosperous voyage, a long health, and am,
with the sincerest regard, your most faithful and obedient servant,

“Thomas Walpole.

“Lincoln's Inn Fields, 16th March, 1775.”

Mr. Walpole called at my house the next day, and, hearing I was
gone to the House of Lords, came there to me, and repeated more
fully what was in his note ; adding, that it was thought my having no
instructions directing me to deliver such a protest, would make it
appear still more unjustifiable, and be deemed a national affront. I
had no desire to make matters worse, and, being grown cooler, tQok
the advice so kindly given me.

The evening before I left London, I received a note from Dr.
Fothergill, with some letters to his friends in Philadelphia. In that
note he desires me to get those friends “ and two or three more
together, and inform them, that, whatever specious pretences arc
offered, they are all hollow ; and that to get a larger field on which to
fatten a herd of worthless parasites is all that is regarded. Perhaps
it may be proper to acquaint them with David’s Barclay’s and our
united endeavours, and the effects. They will stun at least, if not
convince, the most worthy, that nothing very favourable is intended,
if more unfavourable articles cannot be obtained.” The Doctor, in
jhe course of his daily visits among the great, in the practice of

26386

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

his profession, had full opportunity of being acquainted with their
sentiments, the conversation everywhere turning upon the subject of
America.

CHAPTER XVI. (1775-1776.)

Franklin chosen Delegate to the Second Continental Congress—His Expedition to
Canada—Discouragements and Return—Declaration of Independence—
Chosen President of the Pennsylvania Constitutional Convention—John
Thompson’s Sign.

j h You will have heard, before this reaches you, of a
Priestley, dated march stolen by the regulars into the country by night,
Philadelphia, 16 and of their expedition back again. They retreated
May, 1775. twenty miles in six hours.1 The governor had called the
Assembly to propose Lord North’s pacific plan, but, before the time
of their meeting, began cutting of throats. You know it was sa-id he
carried the sword in one hand, and the -olive branch in the other; and
it seems he chose to give them a taste of the sword first.

He is doubling his fortifications at Boston, and hopes to secure his
troops till succour arrives. The place indeed is naturally so de-
fensible, that I think them in no danger. All America is exasperated
by his conduct, and more firmly united than ever. The breach be-
tween the two countries is grown wider, and in danger of becoming
irreparable.

I had a passage of six weeks, the weather constantly so moderate
that a London wherry might have accompanied us all the way. I
got home in the evening, and the next morning was unanimously
chosen by the Assembly of Pennsylvania, a delegate to the Congress
now sitting.

In coming over, I made a valuable philosophical discovery, which I
shall communicate to you when I can get a little time.

To Mrs. jane * have just now heard by Mr. Adams, that you are
Mecom, ’ dated come out of Boston,2 and are at Warwick in Rhode
86 Island. I suppose it must be at good Mr. and Mrs;
ay’ ' Greene’s, to whom present my affectionate respects. I
write this line just to let you know, that I am returned well from
England, and that I found my family well; but have not found the
repose I wished for, being the next morning after my arrival delegated
to the Congress by our Assembly.

I wish to hear from you, and to know how you have left your affairs
in Boston ; and whether it would be inconvenient for you.to come

1	Barely two weeks previous to Franklin’s arrival, the battles of Lexington and
Concord, precipitated by the orders of General Gage to burn some colonial stores,
had been fought, and eighty-three Americans killed, wounded, and missing, against
two hundred and seventy-three, in the same category, on the other side.

2	Boston, where his sister had resided, was in a state of siege.BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

387

hither, or you wish rather that I should come to see you, if the
business I am engaged in will permit. Let me know if you want any
assistance, and what is become of cousin Williams and his family, and
other friends.

To William Mr. ^TRAHAN,

Stratum, dated You are a member of Parliament, and one of that
Philadelphia, 5 majority, which has doomed my country to destruction.
July, 1775. You have begun to burn our towns, and murder our
people. Look upon your hands, they are stained with the blood
of your relations ! You and I were long friends ; you are now my
enemy, and I am yours.

To Joseph The Congress met at a time when all minds were so
Priestley, dated exasperated by the perfidy of General Gage, and his
7 attack on the country people, that propositions for at-

y’ ’ tempting an accommodation were not much relished ;
and it has been with difficulty that we have carried another humble
petition to the crown, to give Britain one more chance, one oppor-
tunity more, of recovering the friendship of the colonies; which,
however, I think she has not sense enough to embrace, and so I
conclude she has lost them for ever.

She has begun to burn our seaport towns ; secure, I suppose, that
we shall never be able to return the outrage in kind. She may doubt-
less destroy them all ; but, if she wishes to recover our commerce,
are these the probable means ? She must certainly be distracted; for
no tradesman out of Bedlam ever thought of increasing the number
of his customers, by knocking them on the head ; or of enabling them
to pay their debts, by burning their houses. If she wishes to have
us subjects, and that we should submit to her as our compound
sovereign, she is now giving us such miserable specimens of her
government, that we shall ever detest and avoid it, as a complication
of robbery, murder, famine, fire, and pestilence.

You will have heard before this reaches you, of the treacherous
conduct of General Gage to the remaining people in Boston, in detain-
ing their goods, after stipulating to let them go out with their effects,
on pretence that merchants’ goods were not effects; the defeat of a
great body of his troops by the country people at Lexington; some
other Small advantages gained in skirmishes with their troops; and
the action at Bunker’s Hill, in which they were twice repulsed, and
the third time gained a dear victory. Enough has happened, one
would think, to convince your ministers, that the Americans will fight,
and that this is a harder nut to crack than they imagined.

We have not yet applied to any foreign power for assistance, nor
offered our commerce for their friendship. Perhaps we never may; yet
it is natural to think of it, if we are pressed. We have now an army
on the establishment, which still holds yours besieged. My time was
never more fully employed. In the morning at six, I am at the
Committee of Safety, appointed by the Assembly to put the province388

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

in a state of defence ; which committee holds till near nine, when I am
at the Congress, and that sits till after four in the afternoon. Both
these bodies proceed with the greatest unanimity, and their meetings
are well attended. It will scarce be credited in Britain, that men can
be as diligent with us from zeal for the public good, as with you for
thousands per annum. Such is the difference between uncorrupted
new states, and corrupted old ones.

Great frugality and great industry are now become fashionable here.
Gentlemen, who used to entertain with two or three courses, pride
themselves now in treating with simple beef and pudding. By these
means, and the stoppage of our consumptive trade with Britain, we
shall be better able to pay our voluntary taxes for the support of our
troops. Our savings in the article of trade amount to near five mil-
lions sterling per annum.

I shall communicate your letter to Mr. Winthrop ; but the camp is
at Cambridge, and he has as little leisure for philosophy as myself.

To Mrs. Mary It grieves me, that the present situation of public affairs
Hewson, dated makes it not eligible for you to come hither with your
8 family, because I am sure you would otherwise like
this country, and might provide better here for your
children, at the same time that I should be made more happy by your
neighbourhood and company. I flatter myself that this may yet
happen, and that our public disputes may be ended by the time your
private business is settled to your mind, and then we may be all happy
together.

The debt you mention of mine to Bolton remains unpaid through
his own neglect. I was charged by Matthews ten pounds for the tea-
kitchen, but Bolton told me I ought not to pay so much ; that he
would see what it should be when he got home, and send me word,
which he never did. I dunned him for it by letters, as often as Mat-
thews sent to me, but received no answer.

I take it kindly of my godson that he should remember me ; my
love to him. I am glad to hear the dear children are all well through
the measles. I have much delight in my godsons. Mr. and Mrs.
Bache join in love to yours. Ben, when I delivered him your blessing,
inquired the age of Elizabeth, and thought her yet too young for him;
but, as he made no other objection, and that will lessen every day, I
have only to wish being alive to dance with your mother at the wed-
ding. Temple was much obliged by your kind .remembrance of him.
He is now very happy with his father at Amboy, near New York,
but returns to me in September, to prosecute his studies in our
College.

I am much pleased with the contribution letter, and thank you for
your share of it. I am still well and hearty, and never went through
more business than I do at present. God knows when I shall be per-
mitted to enjoy the repose I wish. Adieu, jny very dear friend.
Continue your pleasing correspondence, and believe me ever yours
most affectionately.BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.	389

•Petto iu The Committee of Safety acquainted you by a letter,
tedmperth’ Am- dated the 26th instant, that we had ordered a ton of
boy, 29 Aug., gunpowder to be sent to you, agreeably to your request.
1775,	It left Philadelphia early on Sunday morning, and yes-

terday I overtook the wagon on the road at Trenton, and left it pro-
ceeding on the journey. But, being informed this morning at Bruns-
wick that four wagon-loads of powder had passed through that place
on Friday evening for your city, and supposing it to be the powder,
which you mentioned as having been expected, but not arrived, which
occasioned your sending to us; and, as we have still too little at Phila-
delphia, I thought it best to stop that powder, and send it back again,
and wrote accordingly to the wagoner by a person just setting out
for Trenton. I write this, therefore, that you may not expect it at
New York in consequence of our letter.

To Joseph Priest- I am to set out to-morrow for the camp, and, having
ley, dated Phila- but just heard of this opportunity, can only write a line
dei^hia, 3 Oct., tQ SRy t^at j am wen an(j bearty. Tell our dear good
friend, Dr. Price, who sometimes has his doubts and
despondencies about our firmness, that America is determined and
unanimous ; a very few Tories and placemen excepted, who will pro-
bably soon export themselves. Britain, at the expense of three mil-
lions, has killed one hundred and fifty Yankees this campaign, which
is twenty thousand pounds a head ; and at Bunker’s Hill she gained
a mile of ground, half of which she lost again by our taking post on
Ploughed Hill. During the same time sixty thousand children have
been born in America. From these data his mathematical liead will
easily calculate the time and expense necessary to kill us all, and con-
quer our whole territory.

To a friend in I wish as ardently as you can do for peace, and should
England,3 dated rejoice exceedingly in cooperating with you to that end.
SfSjf. 3 But every ship from Britain brings some intelligence of

’’	' new measures that tend more and more to exasperate ;

and it seems to me, that until you have found by dear experience the
reducing us by force impracticable, you will think of nothing fair and
Reasonable.

We have as yet resolved only on defensive measures. If you would
recall your forces and stay at home, we should meditate nothing to
injure you. A little time so given for cooling on both sides would
have excellent effects. But you will goad and provoke us. You des-
pise us too much ; and you are insensible of the Italian adage, that
there is no little ettemy. I am persuaded that the body of the British
people are our friends ; but they are changeable, and by your lying

1 Chairman of the Committee of Safety of the province of New York. Franklin
had himself been selected chairman of a similar committee in Pennsylvania, which
was specially charged with the duty of arming and defending the colony, organizing
the militia, providing ammunition and supplies, and issuing bills of credit to pay
for them.

• Probably David Hartley.390

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

gazettes may soon be made our enemies. Our respect for them will
proportionally diminish, and I see clearly we are on the high road to
mutual family hatred and detestation. A separation of course will be
inevitable. It is a million of pities so fair a plan as we have hitherto
been engaged in, for increasing strength and empire with public
felicity, should be destroyed by the mangling hands of a few blunder-
ing ministers. It will not be destroyed ; God will protect and prosper
it, you will only exclude yourselves from any share in it. We hear,
that more ships and troops are coming out. We know, that you may
do us a great deal of mischief, and are determined to bear it patiently
as long as we can. But, if you flatter yourselves with beating us into
submission, you know neither the people nor the country. The Con-
gress are still sitting, and will wait the result of their last petition.

To Charles W. F. I received your several favours, of May 18th, June
Dumas, dated 30th, and July 8th, by Messrs. Vaillant and Pochard;
De^lT^111’ 9 wh°m ^ I could serve upon your recommendation, it

’’	' would give me great pleasure. Their total want of

English is at present an obstruction to their getting any employment
among us ; but I hope they will soon obtain some knowledge of it.
This is a good country for artificers or farmers; but gentlemen of
mere science in les belles leilres cannot so easily subsist here, there
being little demand for their assistance among an industrious people,
who, as yet, have not much leisure for studies of that kind.

I am much obliged by the kind present you have made us of your
edition of Vattel. It came to us in good season, when the circum-
stances of a rising state make it necessary frequently to consult the
law of nations. Accordingly that copy, which I kept (after depositing
one in our own public library here, and sending the other to the College
of Massachusetts Bay, as you directed), has been continually in the
hands of the members of our Congress, now sitting, who are much
pleased with your notes and preface, and have entertained a high and
just esteem for their author.

It gives 11s great pleasure to learn from you, that toute V Europe
nous souhaile le plus heureux succcs pour le maintien de nos libertes.
But we wish to know, whether any one of them, from principles of
humanity, is disposed magnanimously to step in for the relief of an
oppressed people; or whether if, as it seems likely to happen, we
should be obliged to break off all connection with Britain, and declare
ourselves an independent people, there is any state or power in Europe,
who would be willing to enter into an alliance with us for the benefit
of our commerce, which amounted, before the war, to near seven
millions sterling per annum, and must continually increase, as our
people increase most rapidly. Confiding, my dear friend, in your good
will to us and to our cause, and in your sagacity and abilities for business,
the committee of Congress, appointed for the purpose of establishing
and conducting a correspondence with our friends in Europe, of which
committee I have the honour to be a member, have directed me toBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

391

request of you, that, as you arc situated at the Hague, where ambas-
sadors from all the courts reside, you would make use of the oppor-
tunity that situation affords you, of discovering, if possible, the
disposition of the several courts with respect to such assistance or
alliance, if we should apply for the one, or propose the other. As it
may possibly be necessary, in particular instances, that you should,
for this purpose, confer directly with some great ministers, and show
them this letter as your credential, we only recommend it to your dis-
cretion, that you proceed therein with such caution, as to keep the
same from the knowledge of the English ambassador, and prevent
any public appearance, at present, of your being employed in any
such business ; as thereby we imagine many inconveniences may be
avoided, and your means of rendering us service increased.

That you may be better able to answer some questions, which will
probably be put to you, concerning our present situation, we inform
you, that the whole continent is very firmly united, the party for the
measures of the British ministry being very small, and much dis-
persed ; that we have had on foot, the last campaign, an army of near
twenty-five thousand men, wherewith we have been able, not only to
block up the King’s army in Boston, but to spare considerable detach-
ments for the invasion of Canada, where we have met with great
success, as the printed papers sent herewith will inform you, and have
now reason to expect the whole province may be soon in our posses-
sion ; that we purpose greatly to increase our force for the ensuing
year, and thereby we hope, with the assistance of a well-disciplined
militia, to be able to defend our coast, notwithstanding its great
extent; that we have already a small squadron of armed vessels to
protect our coasting trade, who have had some success in taking
several of the enemy’s cruisers, and some of their transport vessels
and store ships. This little naval force we are about to augment, and
expect it may be more considerable in the next summer.

We have hitherto applied to no foreign power. We are using the
utmost industry in endeavouring to make saltpetre, and with daily
increasing success. Our artificers are also everywhere busy in fabri-
cating small arms, casting cannon, &c. ; yet both arms and ammuni-
tion are much wanted. Any merchants, who would venture to send
ships laden with those articles, might make great profit; such is the
demand in every colony, and such generous prices are and will be
given ; of which, and of the manner of conducting such a voyage, the
bearer, Mr. Story, can more fully inform you ; and whoever brings in
those articles is allowed to carry off the value in provisions, to our
West Indies, where they will probably fetch a very high price, the
general exportation from North America being stopped. This you
will see more particularly in a printed resolution of the Congress.

We are in great want of good engineers, and wish you could engage
and send us two able ones, in time for the next campaign, one
acquainted with field service, sieges, &c., and the other with fortifying
of seaports. They will, if well recommended, be made very welcome,
and have honourable appointments, besides the expenses of their392

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

voyage hither, in which Mr. Story can also advise them. As what we
now request of you, besides taking up your time, may put you to some
expense, we send you for the present, enclosed, a bill for one hundred
pounds sterling, to defray such expenses, and desire you to be assured
that your services will be considered, and honourably rewarded, by
the Congress.

We desire, also, that you would take the trouble of receiving from
Arthur Lee, agent for the Congress in England, such letters as may
be sent by him to your care, and of forwarding them to us with your
despatches. When you have occasion to write to him to inform him
of anything, which it may be of importance that our friends there
should be acquainted with, please to send your letters to him, under
cover, directed to Mr. Alderman Lee, merchant, on Tower Hill,
London ; and do not send it by post, but by some trusty shipper, or
other prudent person, who will deliver it with his own hand. And
when you send to us, if you have not a direct safe opportunity, we
recommend sending by way of St. Eustatia, to the care of Messrs.
Robert and Cornelius Stevenson, merchants there, who will forward
your despatches to me.

To hia moat So- I have just received, through the hands of the ambas-
wne Highness, sador of Spain, the much esteemed present your most
Bourboi^dated Serene Highness hath so kindly sent me, of your excel-
Phiiadeiphia, 12 lent version of Sallust.1

Dec., 1776.	I am extremely sensible of the honour done me, and

beg you would accept my thankful acknowledgments. I wish I could
send hence any American literary production worthy of your perusal ;
but as yet the Muses have scarcely visited these remote regions. Per-
haps, however, the proceedings of our American Congress, just pub-
lished, may be a subject of some curiosity at your court. I therefore
take the liberty of sending your Highness a copy, with some other
papers, which contain accounts of the successes wherewith Providence
has lately favoured us. Therein your wise politicians may contem.
plate the first efforts of a rising state, which seems likely soon to act
a part of some importance on the stage of human affairs, and furnish
materials for a future Sallust. I am very old, and can scarce hope to
see the event of this great contest; but looking forward, I think I see
a powerful dominion growing up here, whose interest it will be, to
form a close and firm alliance with Spain, (their territories bordering),
and who, being united, will be able, not only to preserve their own
people in peace, but to repel the force of all the other powers in
Europe. It seems, therefore, prudent on both sides to cultivate a
good understanding, that may hereafter be so useful to both ; towards
which a fair foundation is already laid in our minds, by the well
founded popular opinion entertained here of Spanish integrity and
honour. I hope my presumption in hinting this will be pardoned. If
in anything on this side the globe I can render either service or

1 The famous Latin and Spanish edition of Sallust, printed in 1772, by Ibarra,
at the Royal Press in Madrid.BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

393

pleasure to your Royal Highness, your commands will make me
happy. With the utmost esteem and veneration, I have the honour to
be your Serene Highness’s most obedient and most humble servant.

To Charles Lee * rejoice that you are going to Canada. I hope the
dated Philadel- gout will not have the courage to follow you into that
$776’ 19 Feb ’ severe cl*mate- I believe you will have the number of
men you wish for. I am told there will be two thousand
more, but there are always deficiencies.

The bearer, Mr. Paine, has requested a line of introduction to you,
which I give the more willingly, as I know his sentiments are not very
different from yours. He is the reputed, and, I think, the real author
of Common Seftse, a pamphlet that, has made great impression here.
I do not enlarge, both because he waits, and because I hope for the
pleasure of conferring with you face to face in Canada. I will only
add, that we are assured here on the part of France, that the troops
sent to the West Indies have no inimical views to us or our cause. It
is thought they intend a war without a previous declaration. God
prosper all your undertakings, and return you with health, honour, and
happiness.

To Philip Sohuy- The Congress have appointed three Commissioners
ler,1 dated PhilL to go to Canada, of which number I have the honour to
11 Mar’’ one- We purpose setting out some day this week. I
’	take the liberty of mentioning this, as, possibly, a little

previous notice may enable you more easily to make any preparation
you shall judge necessary to facilitate and expedite our journey, which,
I am sure, you will be kindly disposed to do for us. A friend with us
will make our company four, besides our servants. We shall either
go in carriages directly to Albany, or by water, if the river is open,
from New York.

ToLord Stirling, My DEAR Lord,—I received your obliging letter
datedsome days since at Philadelphia ; but, our departure
27 arc , 1776. from thence being uncertain, I could not till now
acquaint your Lordship when we expected to be at New York. We
move but slowly, and I think we shall scarce reach Newark before to-
morrow, so that we cannot have the pleasure of seeing you before
Friday. Being myself, from long absence, as much a stranger in New
York as the other gentlemen, we join in requesting you would be so
good as to cause lodgings to be provided for us, and a sloop engaged
to carry us to Albany. There are five of us, and we propose staying
in New York two nights at least.

To	Josiah * am ^ere on my way to Canada, detained by the

Quinoy, dated present state of the Lakes, in which the unthawed ice
15 obstructs navigation. I begin to apprehend that I have
p ’	' undertaken a fatigue, that, at my time of life, may prove

too much for me; so I sit down to write to a few friends by way of
farewell.

1 General Schuyler was at this time in command of the army operating in
Canada.394

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

I congratulate you on the departure of your late troublesome neigh-
bours. I hope your country will now for some time have rest, and that
care will be taken so to fortify Boston, as that no force shall be able
again to get footing there. Your very kind letter of November 13th,
enclosing Lord Chatham’s and Lord Camden’s speeches, I duly re-
ceived. I .think no one can be more sensible than I am of the favours
of corresponding friends, but I find it impossible to answer as I ought.
At present I think you will deem me inexcusable, and therefore I will
not attempt an apology. But if you should ever happen to be at the
same time oppressed with years and business, you may then extenuate
a little for your old friend.

You ask, “ When is the Continental Congress by general consent to
be formed into a supreme legislature ; alliances, defensive and offen-
sive, formed ; our ports opened ; and a formidable naval force estab-
lished at the public charge?” I can only answer at present, that
nothing seems wanting but that “ general consent.” The novelty of
the thing deters some, the doubt of success, others, the vain hope of
reconciliation, many. But our enemies take continually every proper
measure to remove these obstacles, and their endeavours are attended
with success, since every day furnishes us with new causes of increas-
ing enmity, and new reasons for wishing an eternal separation ; so that
there is a rapid increase of the formerly small party, who Avere for an
independent government.

Your epigram on Lord Chatham’s remark has amply repaid me for
the song. Accept my thanks for it, and for the charming extract of a
lady’s letter, contained in your favour of January 22nd. I thought,
when I sat down, to have written by this opportunity to Dr. Cooper,
Mr. Bowdoin, and Dr. Winthrop, but I am interrupted. Be so good
as to present my affectionate respects to them, and to your family.
Adieu, my dear friend, and believe me ever yours most affectionately.

To Philip Schuy- We arrived here safe yesterday evening, in your post-
ler, dated New chaise driven by -Lewis. I was unwilling to give so
York, 27 May, much trouble, and would have borrowed your sulkey,
’	and driven myself; but good Mrs. Schuyler insisted on

a full compliance with your pleasure, as signified in your letter, and I
was obliged to submit, which I was afterwards very glad of, part of
the road being very stony and much gullied, where I should, probably,
have overset and broken my own bones, all the skill and dexterity of
Lewis being no more than sufficient. Through the influence of your
kind recommendation to the innkeepers on the road, we found a great
readiness to supply us with a change of horses. Accept our thankful
acknowledgments ; they are all we can at present make.

We congratulate you on the very valuable prize made at Boston.
They threaten us with a mighty force from England and Germany. I
trust that, before the end of the campaign, its inefficacy will be apparent
to all the world, our enemies become sick of their projects, and the
freedom of America be established on the surest foundation, its own
ability to defend it. May God bless, and preserve you, for all ourBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.	395

sakes as well as for that of your dear family. Mr. Carroll joins me in

every hearty wish for prosperity and felicity to you and yours.

To the Com- AVe arrived here safe yesterday evening, having left
missionerB in Mrs. Walker with her husband at Albany, from whence
New York, 27 we came down by land. We passed him on Lake
May, 1776. Champlain ; but he returning overtook us at Saratoga,
where they both took such liberties, in taunting at our conduct in
Canada, that it came almost to a quarrel. We continued our care of
her, however, and landed her safe in Albany with her three waggon
loads of baggage, brought thither without putting her to any expense,
and parted civilly though coldly. I think they both have an excellent
talent at making themselves enemies, and, I believe, live where they
will, they will never be long without them.

We met yesterday two officers from Philadelphia, with a letter from
the Congress to the Commissioners, and a sum of hard money. I
opened the letter, and sealed it again, directing them to carry it for-
ward to you. .1 congratulate you on the great prize carried into
Boston. Seventy-five tons of gunpowder are an excellent supply, and
the thousand carbines with bayonets, another fine article. The Ger-
man auxiliaries are certainly coming. It is our business to prevent
their returning. The Congress have advised the erecting new govern-
ments, which has occasioned some dissension in Philadelphia, but I
hope it will soon be composed.

I shall be glad to hear of your welfare. .As to myself, I find I grow
daily more feeble, and think I could hardly have got along so far, but
for Mr. Carroll’s friendly assistance and tender care of me. Some
symptoms of the gout now appear, which makes me think my indis-
position has been a smothered fit of that disorder, which my constitu-
tion wanted strength to form completely. I have had several fits of it
formerly.1

1 The arrival of a messenger at Montreal with the news that a British fleet with
troops on board had reached Quebec, and had attacked the small and disheartened
army of the colonists and put it to flight, was the immediate cause of his prompt
return. The Doctor reached Philadelphia early in June, after an absence of about
ten weeks, and in time to take part in the Declaration of American Independence.
The delegates found a great many things to criticise and to alter in the document.

“I was sitting by Dr. Franklin,” says Jefferson, “who perceived that I was
writhing under these mutilations.

“ ‘ I have made it a rule,’ says he, * whenever in my power, to avoid becoming
the draftsman of papers to be reviewed by a public body. I took my lesson from
an incident which I will relate to you.

“ ‘When I was a journeyman printer, one of my companions, an apprenticed
hatter, having served out his time, was about to open shop for himself. His first
concern was to have a handsome signboard with a proper inscription. He com-
posed it in these words : John Thompson, Hatter, makes and sells Hats for ready
Money, with a figure of a hat subjoined. But he thought he would submit it to his
friends for their amendments. The first he showed it to thought the word hatter
tautologous, because followed by the words makes hats, which showed he was a
hatter. It was struck out. The next observed that the word makes might as well
be omitted, because his customers would not care who made the hats ; if good and
to their inind they would buy, by whomsoever made. He struck it out. A third396

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

CHAPTER XVII. (1776.)

Negotiations with Lord Howe for a Reconciliation with the Colonies—Franklin’s
Curtain Lecture to John Adams.

To Lord Howe,1 * RECEIVED safe, the letters your Lordship so kindly
dited Phila- forwarded to me, and beg you to accept my thanks.
8StEhme July	officii despatches, to which you refer me, contain

’	' nothing more than what we had seen in the act of

Parliament, viz., offers of pardon upon submission, which I am sorry to
find, as it must give your Lordship pain to be sent so far on so hope-
less a business.

Directing pardons to be offered the colonies, who are the very
parties injured expresses indeed that opinion of our ignorance, base-
ness, and insensibility, which your uninformed and proud nation has
long been pleased to entertain of us ; but it can have no other effect
than that of increasing our resentment. It is impossible we should
think of submission to a government, that has with the most wanton
barbarity and cruelty burnt our defenceless towns in the midst of
winter, excited the savages to massacre our farmers, and cur slaves to
murder their masters, and is even now bringing foreign mercenaries
to deluge our settlements with blood. These atrocious injuries have
extinguished every remaining spark of affection for that parent country
we once held so dear ; but, were it possible for us to forget and forgive
them, it is not possible for you (I mean the British nation) to forgive
the people you have so heavily injured. You can never confide again
in those as fellow subjects, and permit them to enjoy equal freedom,
to whom you know you have given such just cause of lasting enmity.
And this must impel you, were we again under your government,
to endeavour the breaking our spirit by the severest tyranny, and
obstructing, by every means in your power, our growing strength and
prosperity.

But your Lordship mentions “the King’s paternal solicitude for
promoting the establishment of lasting peace and union with the
colonies.” If by peace is here meant a peace to be entered into

said he thought the words for ready money were useless, as it was not the custom
of the place to sell on credit. Every one who purchased expected to pay. They
were parted with, and the inscription now stood, John Thompson sells hats.
"Sells hats," says his next friend ; “why, nobody will expect you to give them
away. What, then, is the use of that word ? ’’ It was stricken out, and hats fol-
lowed, the rather as there was one painted on the board. So his inscription was
ultimately reduced to John Thompson, with the figure of a hat subjoined.’ ”

When the members were about to sign the document, Mr. Hancock is reported
to have said, “ We must be unanimous ; there must be no pulling different ways ;
we must all hang together." “ Yes," replied Franklin, “ we must indeed all hang
together, or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately."

Four days after the 4th of July, delegates were elected to a Constitutional Con-
vention for Pennsylvania, of which Franklin was afterwards chosen president. On
the 20th this body chose Franklin a member of Congress by the highest number of
votes cast for any candidate.

1 Commander of the British fleet of one hundred and twenty sail which arrived
in the waters of New York in the early part of July, 1776.BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

397

between Britain and America, as distinct states now at war, and his
Majesty has given your Lordship powers to treat with us of such a
peace, I may venture to say, though without authority, that I think a
treaty for that purpose not yet quite impracticable, before we enter
into foreign alliances. But I am persuaded you have no such powers.
Your nation, though, by punishing those American governors, who
have created and fomented the discord, rebuilding our burnt towns,
and repairing as far as possible the mischiefs done us, might yet
recover a great share of our regard, and the greatest part of our grow-
ing commerce, with all Ihe advantage of that additional strength to be
derived from a friendship with us ; but I know too well her abounding
pride and deficient wisdom, to believe she will ever take such salutary
measures. Her fondness for conquest, as a warlike nation, her lust of
dominion, as an ambitious one, and her thirst for a gainful monopoly,
as a commercial one, (none of them legitimate causes of war), will all
join to hide from her eyes every view of her true interests, and con-
tinually goad her on in those ruinous distant expeditions, so destructive
both of lives and treasure, that must prove as pernicious to her in the
end, as the crusades formerly were to most of the nations of Europe.

I have not the vanity, my Lord, to think of intimidating by thus
predicting the effects of this war ; for I know it will in England have
the fate of all my former predictions, not to be believed till the event
shall verify it.

Long did I endeavour, with unfeigned and unwearied zeal, to
preserve from breaking that fine and noble China vase, the British
empire ; for I knew, that, being once broken, the separate parts could
not retain even their share of the strength or value that existed m the
whole, and that a perfect reunion of those parts could scarce ever
be hoped for. Your Lordship may possibly remember the tears of joy
that wet my cheek, when, at your good sister’s in London, you once
gave me expectations that a reconciliation might soon take place.
I had the misfortune to find those expectations disappointed, and
to be treated as the cause of the mischief I was labouring to pre-
vent. My consolation under that groundless and malevolent treat-
ment was, that I retained the friendship of many wise and good men
in that country, and, among the rest, some share in the regard of Lord
Howe.

The well-founded esteem, and, permit me to say, affection, which I
shall always have for your Lordship, makes it painful to me to see you
engaged in conducting a war, the great ground of which, as expressed
in your letter, is “the necessity of preventing the American trade
from passing into foreign channels.” To me it seems, that neither the
obtaining or retaining of any trade, how valuable soever, is an object
for which men may justly spill each other’s blood ; that the true and
sure means of extending and securing commerce is the goodness and
cheapness of commodities ; and that the profit of no trade can ever be
equal to the expense of compelling it, and of holding it, by fleets and
armies.

I consider this war against us, therefore, as both unjust and unwise;398

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

and I am persuaded, that cool, dispassionate posterity will condemn
to infamy those who advised it; and that even success will not
save from some degree of dishohour those, who voluntarily engaged
to conduct it. I know your great motive in coming hither was the
hope of being instrumental in a reconciliation ; and I believe, when
you find that impossible on any terms given you to propose, you
will relinquish so odious a command, and return to a more honourable
private station.

With the greatest and most sincere respect, I have the honour to be,
my Lord, your Lordship’s most obedient humble servant.

To lord Howe * received your favour of the 16th past. I did not
dated Fhila- immediately ansvver it, because I found that my corre-
deiphia, 8 Sep- sponding with your Lordship was disliked by some
em er’ ' members of Congress. I hope now soon to have an
opportunity of discussing with you, vivd voce, the matters mentioned
in it; as I am, with Mr. Adams and Mr. Rutledge, appointed to wait
on your Lordship, in consequence of a desire you expressed in some
conversation with General Sullivan, and of a resolution of Congress
made thereupon, which that gentleman has probably before this time
communicated to you.

We propose to set out on our journey to-morrow morning, and to be
at Amboy on Wednesday about nine o’clock, where we should be glad
to meet a line from your Lordship, appointing the time and place
of meeting. If it would be agreeable to your Lordship, we apprehend,
that, either at the house on Staten Island opposite to Amboy, or
at the governor’s house in Amboy, we might be accommodated with a
room for the purpose. With the greatest esteem and respect, I have
the honour to be, my Lord, &C.1

1 The day after this letter was written, Franklin and his colleagues set out from
Philadelphia for Staten Island to visit Lord Howe. Mr. Adams has left an amusing
account of their first night's repose at New Brunswick :

“ The taverns were so full we could with difficulty obtain entertainment. At
Brunswick, but one bed could be procured for Dr. Franklin and me, in a chamber
little larger than the bed, without a chimney and with only one small window.
The window was open, and I, who was an invalid and afraid of the air in the night,
shut it close. ‘ Oh,’ says Franklin, ‘ don’t shut the window, we shall be suffocated.’
1 answered I was afraid of the evening air. Dr. Franklin replied, ‘ The air within
this chamber will soon be, and indeed is now, worse than without doors. Come,
open the window and come to bed, and I will convince you. I believe you are not
acquainted with my theory of colds.’ Opening the window, and leaping into bed,
I said I had read his letters to Dr. Cooper, in which he had advanced that nobody
had ever got cold by going into a cold church or any other cold air, but the theory
was so little consistent with my experience that I thought it a paradox. However,
1 had so much curiosity to hear his reasons that I would run the risk of a cold.
The Doctor then began a harangue upon air and cold, and respiration and perspira-
tion, with which I was so much amused that I soon fell asleep, and left him and his
philosophy together, but I believe they were equally sound and insensible within a
few minutes alter me, for the last words I heard were pronounced as if he was more
than half asleep. I remember little of the lecture, except that the human body by
respiration and perspiration destroys a gallon of air a minute; that two such
persons as were now in that chamber would consume all the air in it in an hour or
two ; that by breathing over again the matter thrown off by the lungs and the skin,
we should imbibe the real cause of colds, not from abroad, but from within, &c,”BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

399

CHAPTER XVIII. (1776-1778.)

Franklin’s Mission to France—Complaints of Lord Stormont—Arrival in Passy—
M. de Chaumont—Reception in Paris—Count de Vergennes—Lord Stormont
—Lafayette—Capture of Burgoyne—Treaty of Alliance with France.

In thirty days after we left the Capes of Delaware, we
cock, "president came to an anchor in Quiberon Bay. I remained on
of ’ Congress,1 board four days, expecting a change of wind proper to
Dewmblr^me.8 carry the ship into the river Loire ; but the wind seemed
’	' fixed in an opposite quarter. I landed at Aury, and

with some difficulty got hither, the road not being well supplied with
means of conveyance. Two days before we saw land, we met a
brigantine from Bordeaux belonging to Cork, and another from
Rochefort belonging to Hull, both of which were taken. The first
had on board staves, tar, turpentine, and claret; the other cognac
brandy and flaxseed. There is some difficulty in determining what to
do with them ; as they are scarce worth sending to America, and the

1 The situation of the colonists had become so desperate, and the attitude of the
English Parliament so menacing, that the Congress determined early in the spring
of 1776 to send out a special agent to France, authorized to treat with the French
ministry for aid in their unequal contest. Silas Deane, a native of Connecticut, a
graduate of Yale College, part lawyer and part merchant, and at this time a mem-
ber of the Congress, was selected for this mission. He received his instructions,
hnd of the most minute character, from Dr. Franklin, at whose instigation, pro-
bably, the mission was determined upon.

The communication between the Old World and the New was in those days
infrequent and hazardous. The campaign of that year had been disastrous. The
battle of Long Island had been followed by the loss of New York and the retreat
of the colonial army into Westchester County. Everything looked gloomy and
unpromising for the ‘‘infant Hercules.” At last, in September, a letter was re-
ceived by Dr. Franklin from his old friend Dubourg, of Paris, giving such an
encouraging account of the dispositions of the French government towards the
colonists, that Congress decided at once to send a special commission to Paris to
mature as rapidly as possible the germinating sympathy of the French government
and people.

On the first ballot Franklin was chosen unanimously. When the result was
announced, he is reported to have turned to Dr. Rush, who was sitting near him,
and said: “ I am old and good for nothing ; but as the storekeepers say of their
remnants of cloth, ‘ I am but a fag end, you may have me for what you please.’"

On the next ballot Thomas Jefferson, then thirty-three years of age, was elected,
and Silas Deane on the third. Mr. Jefferson was compelled, on account of the
illness of his wife, to decline the mission, and, as if it was the purpose of Provi-
dence that no opportunity should be wanting to Franklin to bring into the fullest
relief all of his virtues and wisdom, Aitliur Lee was named in Mr. Jefferson’s
place.

Lee and Deane were in Europe. On the 26th day of October, just thirty days
after he was elected, and in the seventieth year of his age, Franklin set out from
Philadelphia on this new and perilous mission. He was accompanied by his two
grandsons, William Temple Franklin, a comely boy of seventeen, a natural son of
his own natural son William Franklin who was then a prisoner in Connecticut, and
Benjamin Franklin Bache, a boy of seven, and the oldest son of his daughter Sally.
They sailed from Marcus Hook in the Reprisal, a swift sloop of war of sixteen
gutls, under the command of Captain Wickes, on the 28th of October.400

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

mind of the French court, with regard to prizes brought into their
ports, is not yet known. Jt is certainly contrary to their treaties with
Britain to permit the sale of them, and we have no regular means of
trying and condemning them. There are, however, many here, who
would purchase prizes ; we have already had several offers from
persons who are willing to take upon themselves all consequences
as to the illegality. Captain Wickes, as soon as he can get his
refreshment, intends to cruise in the Channel.

Our friends in France have been a good deal dejected with the
Gazette accounts of advantages obtained against us by the British
troops. I have helped them here to recover their spirits a little, by
assuring them, that we still face the enemy, and were under no appre-
hension of their armies being able to complete their junction. I
understand that Mr. Lee has lately been at Paris, and Mr. Deane is
still there, and that an underhand supply is obtained from the govern-
ment of two hundred brass fieldpieces, thirty thousand firelocks, and
some other military stores, which are now shipping for America,
and will be convoyed by a ship of war. The court of England (M.
Penet tells me, from whom I have the above intelligence), had the folly
to demand Mr. Deane to be delivered up, but were refused.

Our voyage, though not long, was rough, and I feel myself weak-
ened by it; but I now recover strength daily, and in a few days shall
be able to undertake the journey to Paris. I have not yet taken any
public character, thinking it prudent first to know whether the court
is ready and willing to receive ministers publicly from the Congress ;
that we may neither embarrass it on the one hand, nor subject our-
selves to the hazard of a disgraceful refusal on the other. I have
despatched an express to Mr. Deane, with the letters that I had for
him from the Committee, and a copy of our commission, that he may
immediately make the proper inquiries, and give me information.
In the mean time I find it generally supposed here, that I am
sent to negotiate ; and that opinion appears to give great pleasure,
if I can judge by the extreme civilities I meet with from num-
bers of the principal people, who have done me the honour to
visit me.

I have desired Mr. Deane, by some speedy and safe means, to give
Mr. Lee notice of his appointment. I find several vessels here laden
with military stores for America, just ready to sail. On the whole,
there is the greatest prospect that we shall be well provided for
another campaign, and much stronger than we were last. A Spanish
fleet has sailed with seven thousand land forces foot, and some horse.
Their destination is unknown, but supposed against the Portuguese
in Brazil. Both France and England are preparing strong fleets,
and it is said, that all the powers of Europe are preparing for war,
apprehending that a general one cannot be very far distant. When
1 arrive at Paris I shall be able to write with more certainty. I beg
you to present my duty to Congress, and assure them of my most
faithful endeavours in their service.BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

401

To Mrs Marv Figure to yourself an old man, with gray hair appear-
Hewson,' dated ing under a martin fur cap, among the powdered heads
Paris, 12 Jan- 0f Paris. It is this odd figure that salutes you, with
UMy’ *. handfuls of blessings on you and your dear little ones.

On my arrival here, Mademoiselle Biheron gave me great pleasure
in the perusal of a letter from you to her. It acquainted me that you
and yours were well in August last. I have with me here my young
grandson, Benjamin Franklin Bache, a special good boy. I shall give
him a little French language and address, and then send him over to
pay his respects to Miss Hewson. My love to all that love you,
particularly to dear Dolly.

Temple, who attends me here, presents his respects. I must con-
trive to get you to America. I want all my friends out of that wicked
country. I have just seen in the paper seven paragraphs about me,
of which six were lies.

To Mra Mary What has become of my and your dear Dolly ? Have
Hewson,' dated you parted ? for you mention nothing of her. I know
Paria’ 26 Jan- your friendship continues ; but perhaps she is with one
uajy' ' of her brothers. How do they all do?

I have not yet received a line from my dear old friend, your mother.
Pray tell me where she is, and how it is with her. Jonathan, who is
now at Nantes, told me that she had a lodging in Northumberland
Court. I doubt her being comfortably accommodated there. Is Miss
Barwell a little more at rest, or as busy as ever? Is she well ? And
how fares it with our good friends of the Henckell family ?

But, principally, I want to know how it is with you. I hear you
have not quite settled yet with those people. I hope, however, that
you have a sufficient income, and live at your ease, and that your
money is safe out of the funds. Does my godson remember anything
of his Doctor papa ? I suppose not. Kiss the dear little fellow for
me; not forgetting the others. I long to see them and you. What
became of the lottery ticket I left with your good mother, which was
to produce the diamond ear-rings for you? Did you get them? If
not, Fortune has wronged you, for you ought to have had them.

ToJosephPrieet- I rejoice to hear of your continual progress in those
lev, dated Paris, useful discoveries ; I find that you have set all the philo-
27January, 1777. s0p]iers 0f Europe at work upon fixed air; and it is
with great pleasure I observe how high you stand in their opinion ;
for I enjoy my friends’ fame as my own.

The hint you gave me jocularly, that you did not quite despair of
the philosopher's stone, draws from me a request, that, when you have
found it, you will take care to lose it again ; for I believe in my
conscience, that mankind are wicked enough to continue slaughtering
one another as long as they can find money to pay the butchers. But,
of all the wars in my time, this on the part of England appears to
be the wickedest ; having no cause but malice against liberty, and
the jealousy of commerce. And I think the crime seems likely to

27402

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

meet with its proper punishment; a total loss of her own liberty, and
the destruction of her own commerce.

I suppose you would like to know something of the state of affairs
in America. In all probability we shall be much stronger the next
campaign than we were in the last; better armed, better disciplined,
and with more ammunition. When I was at the camp before Boston, the
army had not five rounds of powder a man. This was kept a secret
even from our people. The world wondered that we so seldom fired
a cannon; we could not afford it; but we now make powder in
plenty.

To me it seems, as it has always done, that this war must end in
our favour, and in the ruin of Britain, if she does not speediiy put
an end to it. An English gentleman here the other day, in company
with some French, remarked, that it was folly in France not to make
war immediately ; And in England,replied one of them, not to make
peace.

Do not believe the reports you hear of our internal divisions. We
are, I believe, as much united as any people ever were, and as firmly.

To Kn Thomp- You are too early, hussy, as well as too saucy, in
aon, at Liale, calling me rebel; you should wait for the event, which
Paria, 8 will determine whether it is a rebellion or only a revolu-
e ’’	1 tion. Here the ladies are more civil; they call us les

insurgens, a character that usually pleases them ; and methinks all
other women who smart, or have smarted, under the tyranny of a bad
husband, ought to be fixed in revolution principles, and act accord-
ingly.

In my way to Canada last spring, I saw dear Mrs. Barrow at New
York. Mr. Barrow had been from her two or three months to keep
Governor Tryon and other Tories company on board the Asia, one of
the King’s ships which lay in the harbour ; and in all that time that
naughty man had not ventured once on shore to see her. Our troops
were then pouring into the town, and she was packing up to leave it,
fearing, as she had a large house, they would incommode her by
quartering officers in it. As she appeared in great perplexity, scarce
knowing where to go, I persuaded her to stay; and I went to the
general officers then commanding there, and recommended her to
their protection ; which they promised and performed. On my return
from Canada, where I was a piece of a governor (and I think a very
good one) for a fortnight, and might have been so till this time if your
wicked army, enemies to all good government, had not come and
driven me out, I found her still in quiet possession of her house. I
inquired how our people had behaved to her. She spoke in high
terms of the respectful attention they had paid her, and the quiet and
security they had procured her. I said I was glad of it; and that, if
they had used her ill, I would have turned Tory. Then said she, with
that pleasing gaiety so natural to her, I wish they had. For you must
know she is a Torycss as well as you, and can as flippantly call rebel.
I drank tea with her; we talked affectionately of you and our otherBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

403

friends the Wilkeses, of whom she had received no late intelligence.
What became of her since, I have not heard. The street she lived in
was some months after chiefly burnt down; but, as the town was then,
and ever since has been, in possession of the King’s troops, I have
had no opportunity of knowing whether she suffered any loss in the
conflagration. I hope she did not, as, if she did, I should wish I had
not persuaded her to stay there.

I am glad to learn from you, that that unhappy, though deserving

family, the W-----s, are getting into some business, that may afford

them subsistence. I pray, that God will bless them, and that they

may see happier days. Mr. Cheap’s and Dr. H----------’s good fortunes

please nie. Pray learn, if you have not already learnt, like me, to be
pleased with other people’s pleasures, and happy with their happiness,
when none occur of your own ; and then perhaps you will not so soon
be weary of the place you chance to be in, and so fond of rambling
to get rid of your ennui. I fancy you have hit upon the right reason
of your being weary of St. Ollier's, viz., that you are out of temper,
which is the effect of full living and idleness. A month in Bridewell,
beating hemp, upon bread and water, would give you health and
spirits, and subsequent cheerfulness and contentment with every other
situation. I prescribe that regimen for you, my dear, in pure good
will, without a fee. And let me tell you, if you do not get into temper,
neither Brussels nor Lisle will suit you. I know nothing of the price
of living in either of those places ; but I am sure a single woman, as
you are, might with economy upon two hundred pounds a year main-
tain herself comfortably anywhere, and me into the bargain. Do not
invite me in earnest, however, to come and live with you ; for, being
posted here, I ought not to comply, and I am not sure I should be
able to refuse.

Present my respects to Mrs. Payne and Mrs. Heathcot; for, though
I have not the honour of knowing them, yet, as you say they are
friends to the American cause, I am sure they must be women of
good understanding. I know you wish you could see me ; but, as you
cannot, I will describe myself to you. Figure me in your mind as
jolly as formerly, apd as strong and hearty, only a few years older ;
very plainly dressed, wearing my thin gray straight hair, that peeps
out under my only coiffure, a fine fur cap, which comes down my fore-
head almost to my spectacles. Think how this must appear among
the powdered heads of Paris! I wish every lady and gentleman in
France would only be so obliging as to follow my fashion, comb their
own heads as I do mine, dismiss their friseurs, and pay me half the
money they paid to them. You see, the gentry might well afford this,
and I could then enlist these friseurs, who are at least one hundred
thousand, and with the money I would maintain them, make a visit
with them to England, and dress the heads of your ministers and
privy councillors j which I conceive at present to be unpeu ddrangles.
Adieu, madcap; and believe me ever, your affectionate friend and
humble servant.

P.S.—Don’t be proud of this long letter. A fit of the gout, which4°4

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

has confined me five days, and made me refuse to see company, has
given me a little time to trifle; otherwise it would have been very
short, visitors and business would have interrupted; and perhaps,
with Mrs. Barrow, you wish they had.

To John Ingcn- ------1 long laboured in England, with great zeal and

houaz, Paris, sincerity, to prevent the breach that has happened, and
iDate uncertain],	js now so wide, that no endeavours of mine can

possibly heal it. You know the treatment I met with from that
imprudent court; but I keep a separate account of private injuries,
which I may forgive ; and I do not think it right to mix them with
public affairs. Indeed, there is no occasion for their aid to whet my
resentment against a nation, that has burnt_ our defenceless towns in
the midst of winter, has excited the savages to assassinate our innocent
farmers, with their wives and children, and our slaves to murder their
masters !

It would therefore be deceiving you, if I suffered you to remain in
the supposition you have taken up, that I am come to Europe to make
peace. I am in fact ordered hither by the Congress for a very different
purpose; viz., to procure those aids from European powers, for
enabling us to defend our freedom and independence, which it is
certainly their interest to grant: as by that means the great and
rapidly growing trade of America will be open to them all, and not a
monopoly to Great Britain, as heretofore ; a monopoly, that, if she is
suffered again to possess, will be such an increase of her strength by
sea, and if she can reduce us again to submission, she will have
thereby so great an addition to her strength by land, as will, together,
make her the most formidable power the world has yet seen ; and,
from her natural pride and insolence in prosperity, of all others the
most intolerable.

You desire to know my opinion of what will probably be the end of
this war; and whether our new establishments will not be thereby
reduced again to deserts. I do not, for my part, apprehend much
danger of so great an evil to us. I think we shall be able, with a
little help, to defend ourselves, our possessions, and our liberties so
long, that England will be ruined by persisting in the wicked attempt
to destroy them. I must nevertheless regret that ruin, and wish that
her injustice and tyranny had not deserved it. And I sometimes
flatter myself, that, old as I am, I may possibly live to see my country
settled in peace and prosperity, when Britain shall make no more a
formidable figure among the powers of Europe.

You put me in mind of an apology for my conduct, which has been
expected from me, in answer to the abuses thrown upon me before
the Privy Council. It was partly written, but the affairs of public
importance I have ever since been engaged in prevented my finishing
it. The injuries, too, that my country has suffered, have absorbed
private resentments, and made it appear trifling for an individual to
trouble the world with his particular justification, when all his com-
patriots were stigmatized by the King and Parliament as being, inBENJAMIN EliANKLIN.

every respect, the worst of mankind! I am obliged to you, however,
for the friendly part you have always taken in the defence of my
character; and it is indeed no small argument in my favour, that
those, who have known me most and longest, still love me and trust
me with their most important interests, of which my election into the
Congress by the unanimous voice of the Assembly, or Parliament of
Pennsylvania, the day after my arrival from England, and my present
mission hither by the Congress itself, are instances incontestable.--------

To Arthur lee,1 We have received your’favours from Vitoria and Burgos,
dated Passy,2 21 The Congress, sitting at Baltimore, despatched a packet
Horoh, 1777. to us the	januaryt containing an account of the

success at Trenton, and subsequent events to that date, as far as they
had come to knowledge. The vessel was obliged to run up a little
river in Virginia to avoid some men-of-war, and was detained there
seventeen days, or we should have had these advices sooner. We
learn however through England, where they have news from New
York to the 4th of February, that in Lord Cornwallis’s retreat to New
Brunswick, two regiments of his rear guard were cut to pieces ; that,
General Washington having got round him to Newark and Elizabeth-
town, he had retired to Amboy in his way to New York ; that General
Howe had called in the garrisons of Fort Lee and Fort Constitution,
which were now possessed by our people; that, on the New York side,
Forts Washington and Independence were retaken by our troops, and
that the British forces at Rhode Island were recalled for the defence
of New York.

The Committee in their letters mention the intention of Congress
to send ministers to the courts of Vienna, Tuscany, Holland, and
Prussia. They also send us a fresh commission, containing your
name instead of Mr. Jefferson’s, with this additional clause, “and
also to enter into, and agree upon a treaty with His Most Christian

1	From the Commissioners to the Committee of Secret Correspondence, Paris,
February 6th. “Finding that our residence here together is nearly as expensive
as if separate, and having reason to believe, that one of us might be useful in
Madrid, and another in Holland, and some courts further northward, we have
agreed that Mr. Lee go to Spain, and either Mr. Deane or Dr. Franklin to the Hague.
Mr. Lee sets out to-morrow, having obtained passports, and a letter from the
Spanish ambassador here to the minister there. The journey to Holland will not
take place so soon. The particular purposes of these journeys we cannot prudently
now explain.”

Mr. Lee was not permitted by the Spanish court to proceed further than Burgos.
He rejoined the other Commissioners at Paris after an absence of seven weeks.

2	Upon Franklin’s arrival in Paris he was conducted by Mr. Deane to the Hotel
Hamburg, his own residence, in the Rue del’Universite, where he remained a few
weeks. It proved too public a place for a lion of such proportions as by this time
the Doctor had attained, and he was but too happy to accept the invitation of M.
Le Rayde Chaumont, a warm, steadfast, and most useful friend of the Americans,
to occupy a house, or dependance, as the French call it, of his country place, the
H6tel Valentinois, at Passy. Besides its greater seclusion, the relations which M.
de Chaumont held with the court and ministry gave to this residence advantages
which did not escape the sagacious eye of the American envoy. Dr. Franklin
continued to occupy this house for the entire nine years of his sojourn in France.406

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

Majesty, or such other person or persons as shall be by him authorized
for that purpose, for assistance in carrying on the present war between
Great Britain and these United States.” The same clause is in a
particular commission they have sent me, to treat with the court of
Spain, similar to our common commission to the court of France ;
and I am accordingly directed to go to Spain ; but, as I know that
choice was made merely on the supposition of my being a little
known there to the great personage for whom you have my letter
(a circumstance of little importance), and I am really unable through
age to bear the fatigue and inconveniences of such a journey, I must
excuse myself to Congress, and join with Mr. Deane in requesting
you to proceed in the business on the former footing, till you can
receive a particular commission from Congress, which will no doubt
be sent as soon as the circumstances are known.

We know of no plans or instructions to Mr. Deane but those you
have with you. By the packet, indeed, we have some fresh instruc-
tions, which relate to your mission, viz., that, in case France and
Spain will enter into the war, the United States will assist the former
in the conquest of the British sugar islands, and the latter in the con-
quest of Portugal, promising the assistance of six frigates manned,
of not less than twenty-four guns each, and provisions equal to two
millions of dollars ; America desiring only for her share, what Britain
holds on the continent; but you shall by the first safe opportunity
have the instructions at length. I believe we must send a courier.

If we can, we are ordered to borrow two millions of pounds on
interest. Judge then what a piece of service you will do, if you can
obtain a considerable subsidy, or even a loan without interest.

We are also ordered to build six ships of war. It is a pleasure to
find the things ordered, which we were doing without orders.

We are also to acquaint the several courts with the determination
of America to maintain at all events our independence. You will see,
by the date of the resolution relating to Portugal, as well as by the
above, that the Congress were stout in the midst of their difficulties.
It would be well to sound the court of Spain on the subject of per-
mitting our armed ships to bring prizes into her ports, and there
dispose of them. If it can be done openly, in what manner can
we be accommodated with the use of their ports, or under what
restrictions ? This government has of late been a little nice on that
head; and the orders to L’Orient have occasioned Captain Wickes
some trouble.

We have good advice of our friend at Amsterdam, that, in the
height of British pride on their summer success, and just before they
heard of any check, the ambassador, Sir Joseph Yorke, had been
ordered to send a haughty memorial to the States, importing that,
notwithstanding their promise^ to restrain their subjects from sup-
plying the rebels, it was notorious, that those supplies were openly
furnished by Hollanders at St. Eustatia; and that the governor of
that island had returned, from his fort, the salute of a rebel ship of
war with an equal number of guns; that his Majesty justly and highlyBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

407

resented these proceedings, and demanded that the States should
by more severe provisions restrain that commerce; that they should
declare their disapprobation of the insolent behaviour of their
governor, and punish him by an immediate recall ; otherwise his
Majesty, who knows what appertains to the dignity of his crown,
would take proper measures to vindicate it; and he required an
immediate answer. The States coolly returned the memorial, with
only this answer, that, when the respect due to sovereigns was not
preserved in a memorial, it ought not to be expected in an answer.
But the city of Amsterdam took fire at the insolence of it, and
instructed their deputies in the States to demand satisfaction by the
British court’s disavowal of the memorial, and the reprimand of the
ambassador. The States immediately demanded a number of men-
of-war ships to be in readiness. Perhaps since the bad news has
come, England may be civil enough to make up this little difference.

Mr. Deane is still here. You desire our advice about your stopping
at Burgos. We are of opinion, that you should comply with the
request. While we are asking aid, it is necessary to gratify the
desires, and in some sort comply with the humours, of those we apply
to. Our business now is to carry our point. But I have never yet
changed the opinion I gave in Congress, that a virgin State should
preserve the virgin character, and not go about suitoring for alliances,
but wait with decent dignity for the applications of others. I was
overruled; perhaps for the best.

J°	Lith> I have just been honoured with a letter from you,

April,	* dated the 26th past, in which you express yourself as

astonished, and appear to be angry, that you have no
answer to a letter you wrote me on the nth of December, which you
are sure was delivered to me.

In exculpation of myself, I assure you that I never received any
letter from you of that date. And indeed, being then but four days
landed at Nantes, I think you could scarce have heard so soon of my
being in Europe.

But I received one from you of the 8th of January, which I own
I did not answer. It may displease you, if I give you the reason ;
but, as it may be ofr use to you in your future correspondences, I will
hazard that for a gentleman to whom I feel myself obliged, as an
American, on account of his good will to our cause.

Whoever writes to a stranger should observe three points. 1. That
what he proposes be practicable. 2. His propositions should be made
in explicit terms, so as to be easily understood. 3. What he desires
should be in itself reasonable. Hereby he will give a favourable
impression of his understanding, and create a desire of further
acquaintance. Now it happened that you were negligent in all these
points; for, first, you desired to have means procured for you of
taking a voyage to America “ avec suretd”; which is not possible,
as the dangers of the sea subsist always, and at present there is the
additional danger of being taken by the English. Then you desuc408

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

that this may be “sans tropgrandes dipenses,” which is not intelligible
enough to be answered, because, not knowing your ability of bearing
expenses, one cannot judge what may be trop grandes. Lastly, you
desire letters of address to the Congress and to General Washington;
which it is not reasonable to ask of one who knows no more of you,
than that your name is Lith, and that you live at Bayreuth.

In your last you also express yourself in vague terms, when you
desire to be informed whether you may expect “ detre re$u dune
maniere convenable ” in our troops. As it is impossible to know what
your ideas are of the manilre convenable, how can one answer this?
And then you demand, whether I will support you by my authority
in giving you letters of recommendation. I doubt not your being a
man of merit; and, knowing it yourself, you may forget that it is not
known to everybody ; but reflect a moment, Sir, and you will be con-
vinced, that, if I were to practise giving letters of recommendation
to persons of whose character I knew no more than I do of yours, my
recommendation would soon be of no authority at all.

I thank you, however, for your kind desire of being serviceable
to my countrymen; and I wish in return, that I could be of service
to you in the scheme you have formed of going to America. But
numbers of experienced officers here have offered to go over and join
our army, and I could give them no encouragement, because I have
no orders for that purpose, and I know it is extremely difficult to
place them when they arrive there. I cannot but think, therefore,
that it is best for you not to make so long, so expensive, and so
hazardous a voyage, but to take the advice of your friends, and “ stay
in Franconia.” I have the honour to be, Sir, &c.

To lord stor- Captain Wickes, of the Reprisal frigate, belonging
mont,1 dated to the United States of America, has now in his hands
83 Feb,» near one hundred British seamen, prisoners. He de-
’	sires to know, whether an exchange may be made with

him for an equal number of American seaftnen, now prisoners in
England? We take the liberty of proposing this matter to your
Lordship, and of requesting your opinion (if there be no impropriety
in your giving it), whether such an exchange will probably be agreed
to by your court.

If your people cannot be soon exchanged here, they will be sent
to America. We have the honour to be, with great respect, your
Lordship’s most obedient, humble servants,	B. Franklin,

S. Deane.

To Lord stor- We did ourselves the honour of writing some time
mont, dated ago to your Lordship, on the subject of exchanging
8 Apri1* prisoners. You did not condescend to give us any
*	answer, and therefore we expect none to this. We,

however, take the liberty of sending you copies of certain depositions,
which we shall transmit to Congress, whereby if will be known to

1 British Ambassador at Paris.BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

409

your court, that the United States are not unacquainted with the bar-
barous treatment their people receive, when they have the misfortune
of being your prisoners here in Europe ; and that, if your conduct
towards us is not altered, it is not unlikely that severe reprisals may
be thought justifiable, from the necessity of putting some check to
such abominable practices.

For the sake of humanity, it is to be wished, that men would endea-
vour to alleviate,as much as possible, the unavoidable miseries attending
a state of war. It has been said, that, among the civilized nations of
Europe, the ancient horrors of that state are much diminished ; but
the compelling men by chains, stripes, and famine, to fight against
their friends and relations, is a new mode of barbarity which your
nation alone had the honour of inventing ; and the sending American
prisoners of war to Africa and Asia, remote from all probability of
exchange, and where they can scarce hope ever to hear from their
families, even if the unwholesomeness of the climate does not put a
speedy end to their lives, is a manner of treating captives, that you
can justify by no other precedent of custom, except that of the black
savages of Guinea. We are, your Lordship’s most obedient humble
servants,	B. Franklin,

S. Deane.

To lord Stor- answer to a letter, which concerns some of the most
mont, dated material interests of humanity, and of the two nations,
Puns, 8 April, Qreat Britain and the United States of America, now
at war, we received the enclosed indecent paper, as
coming from your Lordship, which we return for your Lordship’s more
mature consideration.1	B. Franklin,

S. Deane.

To Samuel * thank you for your kind congratulations on my safe
Cooper, dated arrival here, and for your good wishes. I am, as you
Pans, 1 May, supposed, treated with great civility and respect by all
*	orders of people ; but it gives me still greater satisfac-

tion to find that our being here is of some use to our country. On that
head I cannot be more explicit at present.

I rejoice with you in the happy change of affairs in America last
winter. I hope the same train of success will continue through
the summer. Our enemies are disappointed in the number of addi-
tional troops they purposed to send over. What they have been able
to muster will not probably recruit their army to the state it was in
the beginning of last campaign ; and ours, I hope, will be equally
numerous, better armed, and better clothed, than they have been
heretofore.

All Europe is on our side, of the question, as far as applause and
good wishes can carry them. Those who live under arbitrary power
do nevertheless approve of liberty, and wish for it; they almost

1 The words of the paper sent by Lord Stormont, and referred to in the above
letter as indecent, were, “ The King’s Ambassador receives no applications from
rebels, unless they come to implore his Majesty's mercy,4io

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

despair of recovering it in Europe ; they read the translations of our
separate colony constitutions with rapture ; and there are such num-
bers everywhere who talk of removing to America, with their families
and fortunes, as soon as peace and our independence shall be estab-
lished, that it is generally believed we shall have a prodigious addition
of strength, wealth, and arts, from the emigrations of Europe ; and it
is thought, that, to lessen or prevent such emigrations, the tyrannies
established there must relax, and allow more liberty to their people.
Hence it is a common observation here, that our cause is the cause of
all mankind, and that we are fighting for their liberty in defending
our own. It is a glorious task assigned us by Providence ; which has,
I trust, given us spirit and virtue equal to it, and will at last crown it
with success.

To John Win- * forwarded your letter to Dr. Price, who was well
throp, dated lately ; but his friends, on his account, were under some
*“j8» 1 May* apprehensions from the violence of government, in con-
'	sequence of his late excellent publications in favour of

liberty. I wish all the friends of liberty and of man would quit that
sink of corruption, and leave it to its fate.

The people of this country are almost unanimously in our favour.
The government has its reasons for postponing a war, but is making
daily the most diligent preparations ; wherein Spain goes hand in
hand. In the meantime, America has the whole harvest of prizes
made upon the British commerce ; a kind of monopoly that has its
advantages, as, by affording greater encouragement to our cruisers,
it increases the number of our seamen, and thereby augments our
naval power.

The conduct of those Princes of Germany, who have sold the blood
of their people, has subjected them to the contempt and odium of all
Europe. The Prince of Anspach, whose recruits mutinied and refused
to march, was obliged to disarm and fetter them, and drive them to
the seaside by the help of his guards; himself attending in person.
In his return he was publicly hooted by mobs through every town he
passed in Holland, with all sorts of reproachful epithets. The King
of Prussia’s humour of obliging those Princes to pay him the same toll
per head for the men they drive through his dominions, as used to be
paid him for their cattle, because they were sold as such, is generally
spoken of with approbation, as containing a just reproof of those
tyrants.1 I send you enclosed one of the many satires that have
appeared on this occasion.

With best wishes of prosperity to yourself and to my dear country,
where I hope to spend my last years, and lay my bones, I am ever,
dear Sir, your affectionate friend.

1 This practical joke of Frederick’s was fully warranted by the nature of the
traffic in which his fellow-sovereigns were embarked. George Ilf., in one of his
letters to Lord North, dated from Kew, August 20, 1775, said :

“ As to the proposals transmitted by Mi. Romer, they all end in corps *f officers,
which cannot be done but by act of Parliament; the only idea these Germans
ought to adopt (sic) is the being contractors for raising recruits, and fixing the priceBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

411

To Thomas The general news here is, that all-Europe is arming
ctrailing, dated and preparing for war, as if il were soon expected,
rnris, 1 May, Many of the powers, however, have their reasons for
rri'	endeavouring to postpone it, at least a few months

longer.

Our enemies will not be able to send against us all the strength they
intended ; they can procure but few Germans; and their recruiting
and impressing at home goes on but heavily. They threaten, how-
ever, and give out, that Lord Howe is to bombard Boston this summer,
and Burgoyne, with the troops from Canada, to destroy Providence
and lay waste Connecticut; while Howe marches against Philadelphia.
They will do us undoubtedly as much mischief as they can ; but the
virtue and bravery of our country will, with the blessing of God, pre-
vent part of what they intend, and nobly bear the rest. This campaign
is entered upon with a mixture of rage and despair, as their whole
scheme of reducing us depends upon its success; the wisest of the
nation being clear, that, if this fails, administration will not be able to
support another.

To a friend, You know, my dear friend, that I am not capable of
Passy. [Date refusing you anything in my power, which would be a
unknown.] real kindness to you or any friend of yours ; but, when I
am certain that what you request would be directly the contrary, I ought
to refuse it. I know that officers going to America for employment
will probably be disappointed; that our armies are full; that there
are a number of expectants unemployed, and starving for want of sub-
sistence ; that my recommendation will not make vacancies, nor can
it fill them, to the prejudice of those who have a better claim ; that
soine of those officers I have been prevailed on to recommend have,
by their conduct, given no favourable impression of my judgment in
military merit ; and then the voyage is long, the passage very expen-
sive, and the hazard of being taken and imprisoned by the English
very considerable. If, after all, no place can be found affording a
livelihood for the gentleman in question, he will perhaps be distressed
in a strange country, and ready to blaspheme his friends, who, by their
solicitations, procured for him so unhappy a situation.

Permit me to mention to you that, in my opinion, the natural com-
plaisance of this country often carries people too far in the article of

they will deliver Hum at Hamburg, Rotterdam, and any other port they may
propose.”

This is very much in the style of a cattle-dealer.

It must have been the recital of these degrading enormities which inspired the
following anecdote at the expense of royalty, preserved by John Adams. He says
in his Diary:

“ Franklin told us one of his characteristic stories. A Spanish writer of certain
visions of hell relates, that a certain devil, who was civil, showed him all the apart-
ments of the place ; among others, that of the deceased kings. The Spaniard was
much pleased at so illustrious a sight, and, after viewing them for some time, said
he should be glad to see the rest of them. ‘ The rest 1' said the demon ; ‘ here
are all the kings that have ever reigned upon earth, from the creation of it to this
day. What the devil would the man have ? ' ”412

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

recommendations. You give them with too much facility to persons of
whose real characters you know nothing, and sometimes at the request
of, others of whom you know as little. Frequently, if a man has no
useful talents, is good for nothing and burdensome to his relations, or
is indiscreet, profligate, and extravagant, they are glad to get rid of
him by sending him to the other end of the world ; and for that pur-
pose scruple not to recommend him to those they wish should recom-
mend him to others, as “ un bon sujet,filein de mirite&c., &c. In
consequence of my crediting such recommendations, my own are out
of credit, and I cannot advise anybody to have the least dependence
on them. If, after knowing this, you persist in desiring my recom-
mendation for this person, who is known neither to me nor to you, I
will give it, though, as I said before, I ought to refuse it.1

These applications are my perpetual torment. People will believe,
notwithstanding my repeated declarations to the contrary, that I am
sent hither to engage officers. In truth, I never had any such orders.
It was never so much as intimated to me, that it would be agreeable
to my constituents. I have even received for what I have done of the
kind, not indeed an absolute rebuke, but some, pretty strong hints of
disapprobation. Not a day passes in which 1 have not a number
of soliciting visits, besides letters. If I could gratify all, or any of
them, it would be a pleasure. I might, indeed, give them the recom-
mendation and the promises they desire, and thereby please them for
the present; but, when the certain disappointment of the expectations
with which they will so obstinately flatter themselves shall arrive,
they must curse me for complying with their mad requests, and not
undeceiving them ; and will become so many enemies to our cause
and country.

You can have no conception how I am harassed. All my friends
are sought out and teazed to teaze me. Great officers of all ranks,
in all departments; ladies, great and small, besides professed solicitors,
worry me from morning to night. The noise of every coach now that
enters my court terrifies me. I am afraid to accept an invitation to
dine abroad, being almost sure of meeting with some officer or officer’s

1 For cases of this kind, and where it was absolutely impossible to refuse, Dr.
Franklin drew up the following as a model, and actually employed it in some
instances:—

“ Model of a Letter of Recommendation of a person you are
unacquainted with.

“ Paris, 2 April, 1777.

" Sir,

" The bearer of this, who is going to America, presses me to give him a letter of
recommendation, though I know nothing of him, not even his name. This may
seem extraordinary, but I assure you it is not uncommon here. Sometimes, indeed,
one unknown person brings another equally unknown, to recommend him ; and
sometimes they recommend one another ! As to this gentleman, I must refer you
to himself for his character and merits, with which he is certainly better acquainted
than I can possibly be. I recommend him, however, to those civilities which every
stranger, of whom one knows no harm, lias a right to ; and I request you will do
him all the good offices, and show him all the favour, that, on further acquaint-
ance, you shall find him to deserve. I have the honour to be, &c."BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

4*3

friend, who, as soon as I am put in good humour by a glass or two of
champagne, begins his attack upon me. Luckily I do not often in
my sleep dream of these vexatious situations, or I should be afraid of
what are now my only hours of comfort. If, therefore, you have the
least remaining kindness for me, if you would not help to drive me
out of France, for God’s sake, my dear friend, let this your twenty-
third application be your last.

To David Hart- Filled though our letters have always been with sen-
ley, dated Passy, timents of good will to both countries, and earnest desires
14 October, 1777. 0f preventing their ruin and promoting their mutual
felicity, I have been apprehensive, that, if it were known that a cor-
respondence subsisted between us, it might be attended with incon-
venience to you. I have therefore been backward in writing, not
caring to trust the post, and not well knowing whom else to trust with
my letters. But being now assured of a safe conveyance, I venture
to write to you, especially as I think the subject such a one as you
may receive a letter upon without censure.

Happy should I have been, if the honest warnings I gave, of the
fatal separation of interests, as well as of affections, that must attend
the measures commenced while I was in England, had been attended
to, and the horrid mischief of this abominable war been thereby pre-
vented. I should still be happy in any successful endeavours for
restoring peace, consistent with the liberties, the safety, and the
honour of America. As to our submitting to the government of Great
Britain, it is vain to think of it. She has given us by her numberless
barbarities, (by her malice in bribing slaves to murder their masters,
and savages to massacre the families of farmers, with her baseness
in rewarding the unfaithfulness of servants, and debauching the virtue
of honest seamen, intrusted with our property), in the prosecution
of the war, and in the treatment of the prisoners, so deep an im-
pression of her depravity, that we never again can trust her in the
management of our affairs and interests. It is now impossible to
persuade our people, as I long endeavoured, that the war was merely
ministerial, and that the nation bore still a good will to us. The
infinite number of addresses printed in your gazettes, all approving
the conduct of your government towards us, and encouraging our
destruction by every possible means, the great majority in Parliament
constantly manifesting the same sentiments, and the popular public
rejoicings on occasion of any news of the slaughter of an innocent
and virtuous people, fighting only in defence of their just rights; these,
together with the recommendation of the same measures by even
your celebrated moralists and divines, in their writings and sermons,
that are still approved and applauded in your great national assemblies,
all join in convincing us, that you are no longer the magnanimous,
enlightened nation, we once esteemed you, and that you are unfit
and unworthy to govern us, as not being able to govern your own
passions.

But, as I have said, I should be nevertheless happy in seeing peace414

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

restored. For though, if my friends and the friends of liberty and
virtue, who still remain in England, could be drawn out of it, a con-
tinuance of this war to the ruin of the rest would give me less concern,
I cannot, as that removal is impossible, but wish for peace for their
sakes, as well as for the sake of humanity, and preventing further
carnage.

This wish of mine, ineffective as it may be, induces me to mention
to you, that, between nations long exasperated against each other in
war, some act of generosity and kindness towards prisoners on one
side has softened resentment, and abated animosity on the other, so
as to bring on an accommodation. You in England, if you wish for
peace, have at present the opportunity of trying this means, with
regard to the prisoners now in your gaols. They complain of very
severe treatment. They are far from their friends and families, and
winter is coming on, in which they must suffer extremely, if continued
in their present situation; fed scantily on bad provisions, without warm
lodging, clothes, or fire, and not' suffered to invite or receive visits
from their friends, or even from the humane and charitable of their
enemies.

I can assure you, from my own certain knowledge, that your people,
prisoners in America, have been treated with great kindness ; they
have been served with the same rations of wholesome provisions with
our own troops, comfortable lodgings have been provided for them,
and they have been allowed large bounds of villages in the healthy
air, to walk and amuse themselves with on their parole. Where you
have thought fit to employ contractors to supply your people, these
contractors have been protected and aided in their operations. Some
considerable act of kindness towards our people would take off the
reproach of inhumanity in that respect from the nation, and leave it
where it ought with more certainty to lay, on the conductors of your
war in America. This I hint to you, out of some remaining good
will to a nation I once loved sincerely. But, as things are, and in my
present temper of mind, not being over fond of receiving obligations,
I shall content myself with proposing, that your government would
allow us to send or employ a commissary to take some care of those
unfortunate people. Perhaps on your representations this might
speedily be obtained in England, though it was refused most in-
humanly at New York.

If you could have leisure to visit the gaols in which they are con-
fined, and should be desirous of knowing the truth relative to the
treatment they receive, I wish you would take the trouble of dis-
tributing among the most necessitous according to their wants, five
or six hundred pounds, for which your drafts on me here shall be
punctually honoured. You could then be able to speak with some
certainty to the point in Parliament, and this might be attended with
good effects.

Ifyou cannot obtain for us permission to send a commissary, possibly
you may find a trusty, humane, discreet person at Plymouth, and
another at Portsmouth, who would undertake to communicate whatBENJAMIN FRANKLIN

4i5

relief we may be able to afford those unfortunate men, martyrs to the
cause of liberty. Your King will not reward you for taking this
trouble, but God will. I shall not mention the gratitude of America ;
you will have what is better, the applause of your own good conscience.
Our captains have set at liberty above two hundred of your people,
made prisoners by our armed vessels and brought into France, besides
a great number dismissed at sea on your coasts, to whom vessels were
given to carry them in. But you have not returned us a man in ex-
change. If we had sold your people to the Moors at Sallee, as you
have many of ours to the African and East India Companies, could
you have complained?

In revising what I have written, I found too much warmth in it, and
was about to strike out some parts. Yet I let them go, as they will
afford you this one reflection; “ If a man naturally cool, and rendered
still cooler by old age, is so warmed by our treatment of his country,
how much must those people in general be exasperated against us ?
And why are we making inveterate enemies by our barbarity, not only
of the'present inhabitants of a great country, but of their infinitely more
numerous posterity; who will in future ages detest the name of English-
man, as much as the children in Holland now do those of Alva and
Spaniard." This will certainly happen, unless your conduct is speedily
changed, and the national resentment falls, where it ought to fall
heavily, on your ministry, or perhaps rather on the King, whose will
they only execute.

With the greatest esteem and affection, and best wishes for your
prosperity, I have the honour to be, dear Sir, &c.

To a Friend,1 I am much obliged by your communication of the
dated Paasy, 14 letter from England. I am of your opinion, that it is
Ootober, 1777. not prGper f01- publication here. Our friend’s expressions
concerning Mr. Wilson, will be thought too angry to be made use of
by one philosopher when speaking of another, and on a philosophical
question. He seems as much heated about this one point, as the Jan-
senists and Molinists were about the five. As to my writing anything
on the subject, which you seem to desire, I think it not necessary,
especially as I have nothing to add to what I have already said upon
it in a paper read to the committee, who ordered the conductors at
Purfleet; which paper is printed in the last French edition of my
writings.

I have never entered into any controversy in defence of my philo-
sophical opinions ; I leave them to take their chance in the world.

1 A controversy had lately been raised among the philosophers in England
respecting pointed and blunt lightning conductors. Mr. Wilson was the champion
for blunt conductors, in opposition to the theory of Dr. Franklin. Pointed con-
ductors had been erected at the Queen’s palace, but by the advice of Mr. Wilson
they were taken down, and blunt ones substituted in their place. Dr. Ingenhousz,
who was then in England, took up the subject with considerable warmth against
Mr. Wilson, and wrote a letter to a gentleman in Paris, which he desired might be
shown to Dr. Franklin. The above letter was written to that gentlemaD, who, as
requested, had communicated the one he received from Dr, Ingenhousz.416

. LIFE AND LETTERS OF

If they are fight, truth and experience will support them ; if wrong,
they ought to be refuted and rejected. Disputes are apt to sour
one’s temper, and disturb one’s quiet. I have no private interest in
the reception of my inventions by the world, having never made, nor
proposed to make, the least profit by any of them. The King's
changing his pointed conductors for blunt ones is, therefore, a matter
of small importance to me. If I had a wish about it, it would be that
he had rejected them altogether as ineffectual. For it is only since
he thought himself and family safe from the thunder of Heaven, that
he dared to use his own thunder in destroying his innocent subjects.
I am, Sir, yours, &c.

To Ralph Izard,1 I received yours late last evening. Present circum-
dated Passy, 29 stances, which I will explain to you when 1 have the
January, me. honour of seeing you, prevent my giving it a full answer
now. The reasons you offer had before been all under consideration.
But I must submit to remain some days under the opinion you appear
to have formed, not only of my poor understanding in the general
interests of America, but of my defects in sincerity, politeness, and
attention to your instructions. These offences, I flatter myself, admit
of fair excuses, or rather will be found not to have existed. You
mention, that you feel yourself hurt. Permit me to offer you a
maxim, which has through life been of use to me, and may be so to
you, in preventing such imaginary hurts. It is, “always to suppose
one’s friends may be right, till one finds them wrong, rather than to
suppose them wrong till one finds them right.” You have heard and
imagined all that can be said or supposed on one side of the question,
but not on the other. I am nevertheless, with sincere esteem, dear
Sir, your most obedient and humble servant.

To James Hut- You desired, that if I had no proposition to make, I
ton, dated Passy, would at least give my advice. I think it is Ariosto
l Feb., 1778. who says, that all things lost on earth are to be found
in the moon ; on which somebody remarked, that there must be a
great deal of good advice in the moon. If so, there is a good deal of
mine, formerly given and lost in this business. I will, however, at
your request give a little more, but without the least expectation that
it will be followed ; for none but God can at the same time give good
counsel, and wisdom to make use of it.

You have lost by this mad war, and the barbarity with which it
has been carried on, not only the government and commerce of
America, and the public revenues and private wealth arising from
that commerce, but what is more, you have lost the esteem, respect,

1 Mr. Izard had been appointed by Congress Commissioner to the court of the
Grand Duke of Tuscany. As he did not find the state of affairs in Europe
favourable to the purposes of his mission, he resided in Paris during the entire
term for which he was appointed. He felt aggrieved at not being invited to the
consultations of the other Commissioners, and wasted most of his time in trying
to make his acquaintances see how much better the work of his government would
be done if Dr. Franklin and he were to change places.BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

4i7

friendship, and affection of all that great and growing people, who
consider you at present, and whose posterity will consider you, as the
worst and wickedest nation upon earth. A peace you may un-
doubtedly obtain by dropping all your pretensions to govern us ; and,
by your superior skill in huckstering negotiation, you may possibly
make such an apparently advantageous bargain, as shall be applauded
in your Parliament; but, if you cannot, with the peace, recover the
affections of that people, it will not be a lasting nor a profitable
one, nor will it afford you any part of that strength, which you once
had by your union with them, and might (if you had been wise enough
to take advice) have still retained.

To recover their respect and affection, you must tread back the
steps you have taken. Instead of honouring and rewarding the
American advisers and promoters of this war, you should disgrace
them ; with all those who have inflamed the nation against America
by their malicious writings ; and all the ministers and generals who
have prosecuted the war with such inhumanity. This would show a
national change of disposition, and a disapprobation of what had
passed.

In proposing terms, you should not only grant such as the
necessity of your affairs may evidently oblige you to grant, but such
additional ones as may show your generosity, and thereby demon-
strate your good will. For instance, perhaps you might, by your
treaty, retain all Canada, Nova Scotia, and the Floridas. But if you
would have a real friendly as well as able ally in America, and avoid
all occasion of future discord, which will otherwise be continually
arising on your American frontiers, you should throw in those
countries. And you may call it, if you please, an indemnification for
the burning of their towns, which indemnification will otherwise be
some time or other demanded.

I know your people will not see the utility of such measures, and
will never follow them, and even call it insolence and impudence in
me to mention them. I have, however, complied with your desire,
and am, as ever, your affectionate friend.

P.S. February \2th.—I wrote the above some time before I re-
ceived yours, acquainting me with your speedy and safe return,
which gave me pleasure. I doubted after I had written it, whether it
would be well to send it ; for as your proud nation despises us ex-
ceedingly, and demands and expects absolute and humble submission,
all talk of treaty must appear impudence, and tend to provoke rather
than conciliate. As you still press me by your last to say something, I
conclude to send what l.had written, for I think the advice is good,
though it must be useless ; and I cannot, as some amongst you desire,
make propositions, having none committed to me to make; but we
can treat, if any are made to us ; which, however, we do not expect.
I abominate with you all murder, and I may add, that the slaughter
of men in an unjust cause is nothing less than murder ; I therefore
never think of your present ministers and their abettors, but with the
jmage, strongly paiijt^d in my view, of their hands, red, wet, and

28LIFE AND LETTERS OF

418

drooping with the blood of my countrymen, friends, and relations.
No peace can be signed by those hands. Peace and friendship will,
nevertheless, subsist for ever between Mr. Hutton and his affectionate
friend.

To David Hart- ^ thousand thanks for your so readily engaging
in the means of relieving our poor captives, and the
pains you have taken, and the advances you have made
for that purpose. I received your kind letter of the 3rd instant, and
send you enclosed a bill of one hundred pounds. I much approve of
Mr. Wren’s prudent, as well as benevolent conduct in the disposition
of the money, and wish him to continue doing what shall appear to
him and to you to be right, which I am persuaded will appear the
same to me and my colleagues here. I beg you will present him,
when you write, my respectful acknowledgments.

Your “ earnest caution and request, that nothing may ever persuade
America to throw themselves into the arms of France, for that times
may mend, and that an American must always be a stranger in
France, but that Great Britain may for ages to come be their home,”
marks the goodness of your heart, your regard for us, and love of
your country. But, when your nation is hiring all the cut-throats it
can collect, of all countries and colours, to destroy us, it is hard to per-
suade us not to ask or accept aid from any power, that may be
• prevailed with to grant it ; and this only from the hope, that,
though you now thirst for our blood, and pursue us with fire and
sword, you may, in some future time, treat us kindly. This is too
much patience to be expected of us ; • indeed, I think it is not in
human nature.

The Americans are received and treated here in France with a
cordiality, a respect, and affection they never experienced in England
when they most deserved it; and which is now (after all the pains
taken to exasperate the English against them, and render them odious
as well as contemptible), less to be expected there than ever. And I
cannot see why we may not, upon an alliance, hope for a continuance
of it, at least, as much as the Swiss enjoy, with whom France has
maintained a faithful friendship for two hundred years past, and
whose people appear to live here in as much esteem as the natives.
America has been forced and driveti into the arms of France. She
was a dutiful and virtuous daughter. A cruel mother-in-law turned
her out of doors, defamed her, and sought her life. All the world
knows her innocence, and takes her part; and her friends hope
soon to see her honourably married. They can never persuade her
return and submission to so barbarous an enemy. In her future
prosperity, if she forgets and forgives, it is all that can be reasonably
expected of her. I believe she will make as good and useful a wife
as she did a daughter, that her husband will love and honour her, and
that the family, from which she was so wickedly expelled, will long
regret the loss of her.

I know not whether a peace with us is desired in England ; I

ley, dated_PasBy,
12 Feb., '

1778.BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

419

rather think it is not at present, unless on the old impossible terms of
submission and receiving pardon. Whenever you shall be disposed
to make peace upon equal and reasonable terms, you will find little
difficulty, if you get first an honest ministry. The present have all
along acted so deceitfully and treacherously, as well as inhumanly,
towards the Americans, that I imagine, that the absolute want of all
confidence in them will make a treaty, at present, between them and
the Congress impracticable.

The subscription for the prisoners will have excellent effects in
favour of England and Englishmen. The Scotch subscriptions for
raising troops to destroy us, though amounting to much greater sums,
will not do their nation half so much good. If you have an oppor-
tunity, I wish you would express our respectful acknowledgments and
thanks to your committee and contributors, whose benefactions will
make our poor people as comfortable as their situation can permit.
Adieu, my dear friend. Accept my thanks for the excellent papers
you enclosed to me. Your endeavours for peace, though unsuccessful,
will always be a comfort to you, and in time, when this mad war
shall be universally execrated, will be a solid addition to your reputation.

P.S.—An old friend of mine, Mr. Hutton, a chief of the Moravians,
who is often at the Queen’s palace, and is sometimes spoken to by
the King, was over here lately. He pretended to no commission, but
urged me much to propose some terms of peace, which I avoided.
He has written to me since his return, pressing the same thing, and
expressing with some confidence his opinion, that we might have
everything short of absolute independence, &c. Enclosed I send
my answers open, that you may read them, and, if you please, copy,
before you deliver or forward them. They will serve to show you
more fully my sentiments, though they serve no other purpose.

To Thomas * received your favour by Mr. Austin, with your most
Cushing, dated agreeable congratulations on the success of the American
f™y’ 21 Feb'’ arms in the northern department.1 In return,’give me
77 ’	leave to congratulate you on the success of our negotia-

tions here, in the completion of the two treaties with his Most
Christian Majesty ; the one of amity and commerce, on the plan of
that proposed by Congress, with some good additions ; the other of
alliance for mutual defence, in which the Most Christian King agrees
to make a common cause with the United States, if England attempts
to obstruct the commerce of his subjects with them ; and guarantees
to the United States their liberty, sovereignty, and independence,
absolute and unlimited, with all the possessions they now have, or
may have, at the conclusion of the war; and the States in return
guarantee to him his possessions in the West Indies. The great
principle in both treaties is a perfect equality and reciprocity ; no
advantage to be demanded by France, or privileges in commerce,
which the States may not grant to any and every other nation.

In short, the King has treated with us generously and magnani-

1 The capture of Burgoyne’s army at Saratoga.420

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

mously ; taken no advantage of our present difficulties, to exact
terms which we should not willingly grant, when established in
prosperity and power. I may, add, that he has acted wisely, in
wishing the friendship contracted by these treaties may be durable,
which probably might not be, if a contrary conduct had taken place.

Several of the American ships, with stores for the Congress, are
now about sailing, under the convoy of a French squadron. England
is in great consternation, and the minister, on the 17th instant, con-
fessing that all his measures had been wrong, and that peace was
necessary, proposed two bills for quieting America ; but they are full
of artifice and deceit, and will, I am confident, be treated accordingly
by our country.

P.S.—The treaties were signed by the plenipotentiaries on both
sides, February 6th, but are still for some reasons kept secret, though
soon to be published. It is understood that Spain will soon accede
to the same. The treaties are forwarded to Congress by this
conveyance.1 * * * *

To David return for your repeated advice to us, not to con-
Hartley, dated elude any treaty with the House of Bourbon, permit-me
mt}8’ 26 Feb ’ to S’ve (thr°ugh y°u) a little advice to the Whigs in
England. Let nothing induce them to join with the
Tories, in supporting and continuing this wicked war against the
Whigs of America whose assistance they may hereafter want to
secure their own liberties, or whose country they may be glad to retire
to for the enjoyment of them.

CHAPTER XIX. (1778.)

Recall of Silas Deane—France prepares for War-Advances made to Franklin by
the English Government—His Difficulties with Mr. Lee—Franklin and Voltaire.

To the President My colleague, Mr. Deane, being recalled by Congress,
Of Congress, and no reasons given that have yet appeared here, it is
M«ch, maf’ 31 aPPrehended to be the .effect of some misrepresentations,
from an enemy or two at Paris and at Nantes. I have
no doubt, that he will be able clearly to justify himself; but, having
lived intimately with him now fifteen months, the greatest part of the
time in the same house, and been a constant witness of his public
conduct, I cannot omit giving this testimony, though unasked, in his
behalf, that I esteem him a faithful, active, and able minister, who,
to my knowledge, has done in various ways great and important

1 The pretence given for not publicly avowing the treaties was a doubt about

their ratification by Congress, but the existence of the treaties became so notorious

m a lew weeks that all attempt to make a secret of it was idle. The Commissioners

uere then received at court, and established.ip. full.diplotiiatio relations with the

Trench government,	■ ‘BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.	421

services to his country, whose interests I wish may always, by every
one in her employ, be as much and as effectually promoted. With
my dutiful respects to the Congress, I have the honour to be, &c.

To Arthur lee,1 There is a style in some of your letters, I observe it
dated Fassy, l particularly in the last, whereby superior merit is
April, 1778. assumed to yourself in point of care and attention to
business, and blame is insinuated on your colleagues without making
yourself accountable, by a direct charge of negligence or unfaithful-
ness, which has the appearance of being as artful as it is unkind. In
the present case I think the insinuation groundless.

I do not know that either Mr. Deane or myself ever showed any
unwillingness to settle the public accounts. The banker’s book always
contained the whole. You could at any time as easily have obtained
the account from them as either pf us, and you had abundantly more
leisure. If, on examining it, you had wanted explanation of any article,
you might have called for it and had it. You never did either. As
soon as I obtained the account, I put it into your hands, and desired
you to look into it, and I have heard no more of it since till now, just
as Mr. Deane was on the point of departing. Mr. Deane, however,
left with me before the receipt of your letter both the public papers,
and explications of the several articles in the account that came within
his knowledge. With these materials, I suppose we can settle the

1 The treaty of alliance between France and the insurgent colonies was con-
cluded on the 6th February, 1778 ; on the 20th of the following month Franklin
and his associate Commissioners were received at court as the representatives of an
independent State. When the news of these events reached London, they were
regarded of course as a declaration of war, and Lord Stormont was instructed im-
mediately to quit France. In anticipation of this event, a French squadron was in
readiness, and sailed from Toulon under the command of Count d’Estaing about
the middle of April. 'It bore to the United States M. Gerard, the first minister
from France to the now United States of America, and Silas Deane, one of the
three American Commissioners, who had been recalled for a misuse of the public
funds, and was destined to witness but not allowed to share in his country’s
triumph. Mr. Deane was replaced by John Adams.

The English ministry began at last to comprehend the gravity of the task they
had undertaken. They had now war with America and France, and every prospect
of a war with Spain, then in close alliance with France.

Every one in England was urging the ministry to negotiate a peace with America.
Commissioners were sent to the Congress, and secret ministerial agents also to
Franklin, instructed to draw from his proposals which could be used with advan-
tage in America. Mr. Hutton, a Moravian, Mr. William Pulteney, and Mr. David
Hartley, all three members of Parliament, were employed by turns, and sometimes
all together, in trying to extract from the Doctor some basis of a peace short of
recognizing the independence of the colonies, and, failing in that, his consent to
negotiate separately from France.

Franklin’s brave and masterly deportment under all the temptations held out to
him by the English government, his far-seeing faith in the ultimate success of the
cause upon-which he had embarked “ his life, his fortune, and his sacred honour,”
and his inflexible loyalty to France, reflect perhaps as much credit upon the
American name and lend as much dignity to our national origin as any event of
the Revolution.

The glory of his achievements was not a little increased by the trouble he had
with some of his associate Commissioners, and notably with Lee and Ralph Izard.422

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

account whenever you please. You have only to name the day and
place, and I will attend to the business with you.

To Arthur lee Mr. Deane communicated to me his intention of
dated Passy, 4 setting out for America immediately, as a secret, which
April, 1778. he desired I would mention to nobody. I complied with
his request. If he did not think fit to communicate it to you also,* it
is from him you should demand his reasons.

This court has an undoubted right to send as ministers whom it
pleases, and where it pleases, without advising with us, or desiring our
approbation. The measure of sending M. Gerard as a minister to
Congress was resolved on without consulting me ; but I think it a
wise one, and, if I did not, I do not conceive that I have any right to
find fault with it. France was not consulted when we were sent here.
Your angry charge, therefore, of our “making a party business of it,”
is groundless ; we had no hand in the business. And, as we neither
“ acted nor advised ” in it, which you suppose, your other high-
sounding charge of our doing, thereby, violence to the authority that
constituted us, and a great injury and injustice to you, is equally
without foundation. As to the concealing it from you, reasons were
given by Mr. Deane, that appeared to me satisfactory, and founded
entirely on views of public good. I promise to communicate them to
you hereafter, if you desire it, that you may have an opportunity of
refuting them, if you can. At present, it is not proper.

Your third paragraph, therefore, containing a particular account of
what passed between you and me at my house on Monday, seems not
to require any answer. I am still of the same opinion, that, after
having sent the treaties themselves by different good conveyances, in
which treaties our public character was acknowledged in the most
authentic manner, and the avowal of the transactibn by the French
ambassador to the King of England, which was in all the papers of
Europe, the sending a vessel express to carry the news of paying our
respects to court, which was likewise in the papers, was an expensive
and altogether unnecessary operation.

I received your letter directed to Mr. Deane and myself relating to
the accounts. I had no opportunity of showing it to him till the
evening of his departure, and then he was in too much of a hurry to
peruse it. I could not, therefore, sooner answer it. But I then wrote
an answer, acquainting you that he had put into my hands the public
papers, with all the information he could give relating to the accounts.
It was intended to be transcribed fairly, and sent to you in the morning.
Your secretary called for an answer before I had time to copy it. I
had a good deal of company; and, thinking a verbal message might
perhaps do as well and save the trouble, I desired him, with my com-
pliments, to acquaint you, that I was ready to settle the account with
you at any time you should think fit to appoint, except to-morrow,
when I should be otherwise engaged. As this verbal message offended
you, though I cannot conceive why, I now send you the letter. In it,
I complain of your artful, and, I think I may call them, unjust insinu-BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

423

ations. You give me fresh instances in the letter I am answering.
You magnify your zeal to have the public accounts settled, and
insinuate that Mr. Deane and I prevented it,he by “taking possession
of all the vouchers,” and both of us by taking constantly the public
papers to ourselves, which are the property of all the Commissioners.

When this comes to be read in the Committee, for whom it seems
to be calculated, rather than for me, who know the circumstances,
what can they understand by it, but that you are the only careful,
honest man of the three, and that we have some knavish reasons for
keeping the accounts in the dark, and you from seeing the vouchers ?
But the truth is, the papers naturally came into Mr. Deane’s hands
and mine ; first, as he was engaged in the purchasing of goods for the
Congress before either you or I came into France ; next, as somebody
must keep the papers, and you were either on long journeys to Spain,
to Vienna and Berlin, or had a commission to go and reside in Spain,
which it was expected would soon be executed ; whereas Mr. Deane
and I lived, almost constantly, in the same house, either at Paris or
Passy ; you, separate from us ; and we did most of the business.
Where then could the papers be so properly placed as with us, who
had daily occasion to make use of them ? I never knew, that you
desired to have the keeping of them. You never were refused a
paper, or the copy of a paper, that you desired.

As to my not acquainting you with the opportunity of writing to
Congress by Mr. Deane, we had lately wrote, and sent, by probably
safe conveyances, all I knew of importance to write. I, therefore, did
not propose, nor did I write any letter to the Committee by him,
especially as in my opinion, considering the route he was to take, he
would not arrive so soon as other vessels, which may sail long after
him. And he could himself give as good an account of our being at
court, the only public transaction since our last letters, as we could
write. ‘

You ask me, why I act so inconsistently with my duty to the public ?
This is a heavy charge, Sir, which I have not deserved. But it is to
the public, that I am accountable, and not to you. I have been a
servant to many publics, through a long life ; have served them with
fidelity, and have been honoured by their approbation. There is not
a single instance of my ever being accused before of acting contrary
to their interest or my duty. I shall account to the Congress, when
called upon, for this my terrible offence of being silent to you about
Mr. Deane’s and M. Gdrard’s departure. And I have no doubt of
their equity in acquitting me.

It is true, that I have omitted answering some of your letters,
particularly your angry ones, in which you, with very magisterial airs,
schooled and documented me, as if I had been one of your domestics.
I saw in the strongest light the importance of our living in decent
civility towards each other, while our great affairs were depending
here. I saw your jealous, suspicious, malignant, and quarrelsome
temper, which was daily manifesting itself against Mr. Deane and
almost every other person you had any concern with. I, therefore424

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

passed your affronts in silence, did not answe*r, but burnt your angry
letters, and received you, when I next saw you, with the same civility,
as if you had never wrote them. Perhaps I may still pursue the same
conduct, and not send you these. I believe I shall not, unless exceed-
ingly pressed by you ; for, of all things, I hate altercation.

One word more about the accounts. You tell me, that my reason
for not settling the accounts before, was, that it was not my business ;
now, it seemed my business only, and Mr. Deane had nothing to do
with it. Both these positions are imaginary. I could never have
given any such reasons, being always willing to settle accounts with
everybody, and not having the least motive to delay or postpone the
settlement of these. Nor could it seem, that 1 should say Mr. Deane
had nothing to do with it. He had done what he could towards it,
and, being actually gone, could do no more. The infinity of business
we have had is the true and only reason, that I know of, why they
have not been settled, that is, why we did not meet, sit down, and
compare the vouchers with the articles in the banker’s account, in
order to see that his charges were supported, and that he had given
us due credit for the moneys we had put into his hands. This,. I
apprehend, is all we have to do here. It is to the Congress we are
separately to account for the separate drafts we have made on him.
This, Mr. Deane can do, when he arrives, having taken a copy of the
account with him.

If you think we should account to one another for our expenses, I
have no objection, though I never expected it. I believe they will be
found very moderate. I answer mine will, having had only the
necessaries of life, and purchased nothing besides, except the Ency-
clopedia, nor sent a sixpence’ worth of anything to my friends or
family in America. I have the honour to be your obedient servant.

To Arthur Lee, Mr. Williams had orders from Mr. Deane and myself
dated Passy, 6 to purchase and make up a large quantity of clothing,
April, 1778. and g^jp tjie same pursuance of the orders of Con-
gress. I imagine you were not in France, when this measure was
taken, and so could not be consulted. But you certainly have been
acquainted with it since your return. I never heard, that you made
any objection to it, and you may at any time have fuller information
if desired. I think the orders of any two of us, in these cases, are
sufficient, and that, if we have given directions to an agent of ours to
draw on our banker in discharge of contracts made properly for the
public service, his drafts ought to be honoured. The reason of per-
mitting him to draw on our banker, instead of ourselves, was, as I
understand it, convenient at that time, to mask more effectually our
building and equipping vessels of force. If, in a single instance, he is
known or suspected to have abused this confidence placed in him, I am
ready to join with you in putting a stop to his proceedings by ordering
his bills to be protested. If not, I think the public service requires,
that he should complete his orders, which, as far as I have ever heard,
he has hitherto executed with great care, fidelity, and ability.BENJAMIN FRANKLIN	425

As to the want of funds with Mr. Grand, I suppose, that, before
the bills drawn on him become due, which are charged in his account,
and bring the balance against us, he will be fully supplied with what
are necessary.

I send you herewith sundry letters relating to our affairs, for your
perusal and advice upon them.

To Arthur lee, Mr. Franklin is not inclined to sign this letter to Mr.
Mted ira“y’ 17 Grancl;1

ay’ 77 ’	1. Because he does not know, that any inconveniences

have arisen from the order originally given, that the orders of each
of us separately should be honoured.

2.	Because Mr. Lee is pleased to be very angry with him, which is
expressed in many of his letters, and therefore Mr. Franklin does not
choose to be obliged to ask Mr. Lee's consent, whenever he may have
occasion to draw for his subsistence, as that consent cannot be ex-
pected from any necessity of a reciprocal compliance on Mr. Frank-
lin’s part, Mr. Lee having secured his subsistence by taking into his
own possession one hundred and eighty-five thousand livres, and his
brother, by a deception on the Commissioners, of forty-eight thousand.
Mr. Franklin has no objection to any resolution, that all contracts for
the public shall be made by joint consent, or at least by a majority,
together with the drafts for payment. Indeed, he wishes, that, if
practicable, he might be excused from any concern in matters of com-
merce, which he so little understands. But, as we are separately
accountable to Congress for our personal expenses, and Mr. Franklin
does not desire to have the least control in those of his colleagues, so
neither does he choose to subject his to the control of Mr. Lee.

3.	He declines signing this letter, because it orders Mr. Grand to
deliver to us all letters directed to Mr. Deane, which may come into
his hands ; and, it being understood that Dr. Bancroft is intrusted and
empowered by Mr. Deane to receive his letters, and there may be
some concerning his private affairs, with which we have no concern,
and which it maybe improper for us to examine, Mr. Franklin thinks,
that the supposition of a possibility, that they may relate to the public,
is not sufficient excuse for such gratification of private curiosity.

ToD. Hartley. I thank you for your kind caution, but having nearly
finished a long life, I set but little value on what re-

1 This is in reply to the following to Mr. Grand, which Mr. Lee requested Dr.
Franklin to sign.

“ Sir; It is our desire, that you accept no bills nor pay any money out of the
funds, which are or may be in your hands to the credit of us three jointly, without
our joint order. As it has been the practice to address letters upon the business of
the Commission to Mr. Deane, we desire, that you will send to us all the letters
you receive so directed, and not give them to any private persons.”

Ferdinand Grand, of Swiss extraction and a Protestant, had a small country-
place near Franklin’s residence at Passy. His brother, Sir George Grand, having
rendered Count de Vergennes, while minister in Stockholm, some important politi-
cal service in changing the constitution of Sweden, was rewarded with the cross of
St. Louis. His daughter by her second roaiTiage became Mrs. Aaron Burr. Sir
George was member of a banking house in Amsterdam.426

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

mains of it. Like a draper, when one chaffers with him for a remnant,
I am ready to say, “ As it is only the fag end, I will not differ with
you about it; take it for what you please.” Perhaps the best use such
an old fellow can be put to, is to make a martyr of him.

To Count de Ver- Mr. Hartley, a member of Parliament, an old ac-
cennes, dated quaintance of mine, arrived here from London on Sun-
imy> P ’ day last. He is generally in the opposition, especially
on American questions, but has some respect for Lord
North. In conversation, he expressed the strongest anxiety for peace
with America, and appeared extremely desirous to know my senti-
ments of the terms, which might probably be acceptable if offered ;
whether America would not, to obtain peace, grant some superior
advantages in trade to Britain, and enter into an alliance, offensive
and defensive; whether, if war should be declared against France,
we had obliged ourselves by treaty to join with her against England.

My answers have been, that the United States were not fond of
war, and with the advice of their friends would probably be easily
prevailed with to make peace on equitable terms; but we had no terms
committed to us to propose, and 1 did not choose to mention any ;
that Britain, having injured us heavily by making this unjust war
upon us, might think herself well off, if on reparation of those mjuries
we admitted her to equal advantages with other nations in commerce;
but certainly she had no reason to expect superiorj that her known
fondness for war, and the many instances of her readiness to engage
in wars on frivolous occasions, were probably sufficient to cause an
immediate rejection of every proposition for an offensive alliance with
her; and that, if she made war against France on our account, a
peace with 11s, at the same time, was impossible : for that, having met
with friendship from that generous nation, when we were cruelly op-
pressed by England, we were under ties stronger than treaties could
form, to make common cause; which we should certainly do to the
utmost of our power.

Here has also been with me a Mr. Chapman, who says he is a
member of the Parliament of Ireland, on his way home from Nice,
where he had been for the recovery of his health. He pretended to
call on me only from motives of respect for my character, &c. But,
after a few compliments, he entered on a similar discourse, urging
much to know what terms would satisfy America, and whether, on
having peace and itidepende?ice granted to us, we should not be willing
to submit to the Navigation Act, or give equivalent privileges in trade
to Britain. The purport of my answer to him was, in short, that
peace was of equal value to England as to us, and independence we
were already in possession of; that, therefore, England’s offer to grant
them to us could not be considered as proposing any favour, or as
giving her a right to expect peculiar advantages in commerce. By his
importunity, I found his visit was not so occasional as he represented
it; and, from some expressions, I conjectured he might be sent by
Lord Shelburne to sound me, and collect some information. On theBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

42 7

whole, I gather from these conversations, that the opposition, as well
as the ministry, are perplexed with the present situation of affairs, and
know not which way to turn themselves, or whether it is best to go
backward or forward, or what steps to take to extricate that nation
from its present dangerous situation.

I thought it right to give your Excellency an account of these inter-
views, and to acquaint you with my intention of avoiding such here-
after ; as I see but little prospect of utility in them, and think they are
very liable to hurtful misrepresentations.

By advices from London we learn, that a fleet for Quebec, with
goods valued at five hundred thousand pounds sterling, is to sail about
the end of this month, under convoy only of a single frigate of thirty
guns, in which is to go Governor Haldimand.

Enclosed I send a paper I have just received from London. It is
not subscribed by any name, but I know the hand. It is from an old
friend, of general and great acquaintance, and marks strongly the
present distress and despair of considerate people in England.

CHAPTER XX. (1778-1779.)

New Attempts to corrupt the Commissioners—Pickpocket Commerce—Too many
Cooks—Indiscretion of British Commissioners—The Wreckers—Cruelty to
American Prisoners—American Extravagance—Named Minister Plenipoten-
tiary.

To Charles de I have received your letter, dated Brussels, the 16th
Weissentein, past. My vanity might possibly be flattered by your
Juiy-i, vm?*3' exPress*ons compliment to my understanding, if your
proposals did not more clearly manifest a mean opinion

of it.

You conjure me, in the name of the omniscient and just God, before
whom I must appear, and by my hopes of future fame, to consider if
some expedient cannot be found to put a stop to the desolation of
America, and prevent the miseries of a general war. As I am con-
scious of having taken every step in my power to prevent the breach,
and no one to widen it, I can appear cheerfully before that God,
fearing nothing from His justice in this particular, though I have
much occasion for His mercy in many others. As to my future fame,
I am content to rest it on my past and present conduct, without seek-
ing an addition to it in the crooked, dark paths, you propose to me,
where I should most certainly lose it. This your solemn address
would therefore have been more properly made to your sovereign and
his venal Parliament. He and they, who wickedly began, and madly
continue, a war for the desolation of America, are alone accountable
for the consequences.

You endeavour to impress me with a bad opinion of French faith ;
but the instances of their friendly endeavours to serve a race of weak428

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

princes, who, by their own imprudence, defeated every attempt to
promote their interest, weigh but little with me, when I consider the
steady friendship of France to the Thirteen United States of Switzer-
land, which has now continued inviolate two hundred years. You tell
me, that she will certainly cheat Us, and that she despises us already.
I do not believe that she will cheat us, and I am not certain that she
despises us ; but I see clearly that you are endeavouring to cheat .us
by your conciliatory bills ; that you actually despised our understand-
ings, when you flattered yourselves those artifices would succeed ; and
that not only France, but all Europe, yourselves included, most
certainly and for ever would despise us, if we were weak enough to
accept your insidious propositions.

Our expectations of the future grandeur of America are not so
magnificent, and therefore not so vain or visionary, as you represent
them to be. The body of our people are not merchants, but humble
husbandmen, who delight in the cultivation of their lands, which, from
their fertility and the variety of our climates, are capable of furnishing
all the necessaries and conveniences of life without external com-
merce ; and we have too much land to have the least temptation to
extend our territory by conquest from peaceable neighbours, as well
as too much justice to think of it. Our militia, you find by experience,
are sufficient to defend our lands from invasion ; and the commerce
with us will be defended by all the nations who find an advantage in
it. We, therefore, have not the occasion you imagine, of fleets or
standing armies, but may leave those expensive machines to be main-
tained for the pomp of princes, and the wealth of ancient states. We
propose, if possible, to live in peace with all mankind ; and after you
have been convinced, to your cost, that there is nothing to be got by
attacking us, we have reason to hope, that no other power will judge
it prudent to quarrel with us, lest they divert us from our own quiet
industry, and turn us into corsairs preying upon theirs. The weight
therefore of an independent empire, which you seem certain of our
inability to bear, will not be so great as you imagine. The expense
of our civil government we have always borne, and can easily bear,
because it is small. A virtuous and laborious people may be cheaply
governed. Determining, as we do, to have no offices of profit, nor
any sinecures or useless appointments, so common in ancient or cor-
rupted states, we can govern ourselves a year, for the sum you pay in
a single department, or for what one jobbing contractor, by the favour
of a minister, can cheat you out of in a single article.

You think we flatter ourselves, and are deceived into an opinion
that England must acknowledge our independency.. We, on the other
hand, think you flatter yourselves in imagining such an acknowledg-
ment a vast boon, which we strongly desire, and which you may gain
some great advantage by granting or withholding. We have never
asked it of you ; we only tell you, that you can have no treaty with us
but as an independent state ; and you may please yourselves and your
children with the rattle of your right to govern us, as long as you have
dope with that of your King’s being King of France, without givingBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

429

us the least concern, if you do not attempt to exercise it. That this
pretended right is indisputable, as you say, we utterly deny. Your
Parliament never had a right to govern us, and your King has forfeited
it by his bloody tyranny. But I thank you for letting me know a
little of your mind, that, even if the Parliament should acknowledge
our independency, the act would not be binding to posterity, and that
your nation would resume and prosecute the claim as soon as they
found it convenient from the influence of your passions, and your
present malice against us. We suspected before, that you would not
be actually bound by your conciliatory acts, longer than till they had
served their purpose of inducing us to disband our forces ; but we
were not certain, that you were knaves by principle, and that we ought
not to have the least confidence in your offers, promises, or treaties,
though confirmed by Parliament.

• I now indeed recollect my being informed, long since, when in
England, that a certain very great personage, then young, studied
much a certain book, called “Arcana Imperii.” I had the curiosity to
procure the book and read it. There are sensible and good things in
it, but some bad ones; for, if I remember rightly, a particular King is
applauded for his politically exciting a rebellion among his subjects,
at a time when they had no strength to support it, that he might, in
subduing them, take away their privileges, which were troublesome to
him ; and a question is formally stated and discussed, Whether a
■prince, who to appease a revolt, makes promises of indemnity to the
rev otters, is obliged to fulfil those promises. Honest and good men
would say, Ay ; but the politician says, as you say, No. And he gives
this pretty reason, that, though it was right to make the promises,
because otherwise the revolt would not be suppressed, yet it would be
wrong to keep them, because revolters ought to be punished to deter
from future revolts.

If these are the principles of your nation, no confidence can be
placed in you ; it is in vain to treat with you ; and the wars can only
end in being reduced to an utter inability of continuing them.

One main drift of your letter seems to be, to impress me with an
idea of your own impartiality, by just censures of your ministers and
measures, and to draw from me propositions of peace, or approba-
tions of those you have enclosed to me, which you intimate may by
your means, be conveyed to the King directly, without the intervention
of those ministers. You would have me give them to, or drop them
for, a stranger, whom I may find next Monday in the church of Notre
Dame, to be known by a rose in his hat. You yourself, Sir, are quite
unknown to me ; you have not trusted me with your true name. Our
taking the least step towards a treaty with England through you,
might, if you are an enemy, be made use of to ruin us with our new
and good friends. I may be indiscreet enough in many things ; but
certainly, if I were disposed to make propositions (which I cannot do,
having none committed to me to make), I should never think of
delivering them to the Lord knows who, to be carried to the Lord
knows where, to serve no one knows what purposes. Being at this430

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

time one of the most remarkable figures in Paris, even my appearance
in the church of Notre Dame, where I cannot have any conceivable
business, and especially being seen to leave or drop any letter to any
person there, would be a matter of some speculation, and might, from
the suspicions it must naturally give, have very mischievous conse-
quences to our credit here. '

The very proposing of a correspondence so to be managed, in a
manner not necessary where fair dealing is intended, gives just reason
to suppose you intend the contrary. Besides, as your court has sent
Commissioners to treat with the Congress, with all the powers that
could be given them by the crown under the act of Parliament, what
good purpose can be served by privately obtaining propositions from
us ? Before those Commissioners went, we might have treated in
virtue of our general powers (with the knowledge, advice, and appro-
bation of our friends), upon any propositions made to us. But, under
the present circumstances, for us to make propositions, while a treaty
is supposed to be actually on foot with the Congress, would be
extremely improper, highly presumptuous with regard to our con-
stituents, and answer no good end whatever.

I write this letter to you, notwithstanding; (which I think I can
convey in a less mysterious manner, and guess it may come to your
hands;) I write it because I would let you know our sense of your
procedure, which appears as insidious as that of your conciliatory
bills. Your true way to obtain peace, if your ministers desire it, is to
propose openly to the Congress fair and equal terms, and you may
possibly come sooner to such a resolution, when you find, that personal
flatteries, general cajolings, and panegyrics on our virtue and wisdom
are not likely to have the effect you seem to expect; the persuading
us to act basely and foolishly, in betraying our country and posterity
into the hands of our most bitter enemies, giving up or selling our arms
and warlike stores, dismissing our ships of war and troops, and putting
those enemies in possession of our forts and ports.

This proposition of delivering ourselves, bound and gagged, ready
for hanging, without even a right to complain, and without a friend to
be found afterwards among all mankind, you would have us embrace
upon the faith of an act of Parliament 1 Good God ! an act of your
Parliament 1 This demonstrates that you do not yet know us, and
that you fancy we do not know you ; but it is not merely.this flimsy
faith, that we are to act upon ; you offer us hope, the hope of places,
PENSIONS, and PEERAGES. These, judging from yourselves, you think
are motives irresistible. This offer to corrupt us, Sir, is with me your
credential, and convinces me that you are not a private volunteer in
your application. It bears the stamp of British court character. It
is even the signature of your King. But think for a moment in what
light it must be viewed in America. By places, you mean places
among us, for you take care by a special article to secure your own to
yourselves. We must then pay the salaries in order to enrich our-
selves with these places. But you will give us pensions, probably to
be paid too out of your expected American revenue, and which noneBENJAMIN FRANKLIN

43i

of us can accept without deserving, and perhaps obtaining, a sus-
pensioti. Peerages ! alas! Sir, our long observation of the vast
servile majority of your peers, voting constantly for every measure
proposed by a minister, however weak or wicked, leaves us small
respect for that title. We consider it as a sort of tar-and-feather
honour, or a mixture of foulness and folly, which every man among
us, who should accept it from your King, would be obliged to renounce,
or exchange for that conferred by the mobs of their own country, or
wear it with everlasting infamy. I am, Sir, your humble servant.

To James Lovell, Commerce among nations, as between private persons,
dated Paris, 22 should be fair and equitable, by equivalent exchanges
July, 1778. and mutuai supplies. The taking unfair advantages of
a neighbour’s necessities, though attended with temporary success,
always breeds bad blood. To lay duties on a commodity exported,
which our neighbours want, is a knavish attempt to get something for
nothing. The statesman who first invented it had the genius of a
pickpocket, and would have been a pickpocket if fortune had suitably
placed him. The nations, who have practised it, have suflered"four-
fold, as pickpockets ought to suffer. Savoy, by a duty on exported
wine, lost the trade of Switzerland, which thenceforth raised its own
wine ; and (to waive other instances) Britain, by her duty on exported
tea, has lost the trade of her colonies. But, as we produce no com-
modity that is peculiar to our country, and which may not be obtained
elsewhere, the discouraging the consumption of ours by duties on ex-
portation, and thereby encouraging a rivalship from other nations in
the ports we trade to, is absolute folly, which indeed is mixed more or
less with all knavery. For my own part, if my protest were of any
consequence, I should protest against our ever doing it, even by way
of reprisal. It is a meanness with which I would not dirty the con-
science or character of my country.

The objections, stated against the last of the two articles, had all
been made and considered here ; and were sent, I imagine, from
hence, by one who is offended, that they were not thought of weight
sufficient to stop the signing of the treaty, till the King should, in
another council, reconsider those articles, and, after agreeing to omit
them, order new copies to be drawn, though all was then ready
engrossed on parchment as before settled. I did not think the articles
of much consequence ; but I thought it of consequence, that no delay
should be given to the signing of the treaty after it was ready. But,
if I had known that those objections would have been sent to the
Committee, I should have sent the answers they received, which had
been satisfactory to all the Commissioners, when the treaty was
settled, and until the mind of one1 of them was altered by the
opinion of two other persons.2 It is now too late to send those
answers. But I wish, for the future, if such a case should again
happen, that Congress would acquaint their Commissioners with such

* Arthur Lee,	f Ralph Izard and William Lee.432

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

partial objections, and hear their reasons before they determine that
they have done wrong. In the meantime this only to you in private ;
it will be of no use to communicate it, as the resolution of Congress
will probably be received and executed before this letter comes to
hand.

Speaking of Commissioners in the plural, puts me in mind of
inquiring, if it can be the intention of Congress to keep three Com-
missioners at this court; we have indeed four with the gentleman
intended for Tuscany, who continues here, and is very angry that he
was not consulted in making the treaty, which he could have mended
in several particulars ; and perhaps he is angry with some reason, if
the instructions to him do, as he says they do, require us to consult
him. We shall soon have the fifth ; for the envoy to Vienna, not being
received there, is, I hear, returning hither. The necessary expense of
maintaining us all is, I assure you, enormously great. I wish that the
utility may equal it. I imagine every one of us spends nearly as much
as Lord Stormont.did. It is true, he left behind him the character
of a niggard ; and, when the advertisement appeared for the sale of
his household goods, all Paris laughed at an article of it, perhaps very
innocently expressed, “ Une graiide quantile du lingede table, qui ii a
jamais servi.''	“ Cela est tres-vraisemblable” say they, u car il n' a

jamais donne d manger.”

But, as to our number, whatever advantage there might be in the
joint counsels of three for framing and adjusting the articles of the
treaty, there can be none in managing the common business of a
resident here. On the contrary, all the advantages in negotiation
that result from secrecy of sentiment, and uniformity in expressing it,
and in common business from despatch, are lost. In a court, too,
where every word is watched and weighed, if a number of Commis-
sioners do not every one hold the same language, in giving their
opinion on any public transaction, this lessens their weight; and when
it may be prudent to put on, or avoid certain appearances of concern,
for example, or indifference, satisfaction, or dislike, where the utmost
sincerity and candour should be used, and would gain credit, if no
semblance of art showed itself in the inadvertent discourse, perhaps
of only one of them, the hazard is in proportion to the number. And
where every one must be consulted on every particular of common
business, in answering every letter, &c., and one of them is offended if
the smallest thing is done without his consent, the difficulty of being
often and long enough together, the different opinions, and the time
consumed in debating them, the interruptions by new applicants in
the time of meeting, &c., &c., occasion so much postponing and delay,
that correspondence languishes, occasions are lost, and the business
is always behindhand.

I have mentioned the difficulty of being often and long enough
together. This is considerable, where they cannot all be accommo-
dated in the same house; but to find three people whose tempers
are so good, and who like so well one another's company, and manner
of living and conversing, as to agree well themselves, though being iqBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

433

one house, and whose servants will not by their indiscretion quarrel
with one another, and by artful misrepresentations draw their masters
in to take their parts, to the disturbance of necessary harmony, these
are difficulties still greater and almpst insurmountable. And, in con-
sideration of the whole, I wish Congress would separate us.

The English and French fleets, of nearly equal force, are now both
at sea. It is not doubted, but that if they meet, there will be a battle;
for, though England through fear affects to understand it to be still
peace, and would excuse the depredations she has made on the com-
merce of France, by pretences of illicit trade, &c., yet France con-
siders the war begun, from the time of the King’s message to
Parliament, complaining of the insult France had given by treating
with us, and demanding aids to resist it, and the answer of both
Houses, offering their lives and fortunes. These, and the taking
several frigates, are deemed indisputable hostilities.

M. de Beaumarchais has been out of town ever since the arrival of
your power to settle with him. I hope he will be able to furnish the
supplies mentioned in the invoice and contract. The settlement may
be much better made with the assistance of Mr. Deane, we being not
privy to the transactions. We have agreed to give M. Dumas two
hundred louis a year, thinking that he well deserves it.

To John Adams * very much approve your plan with regard to our
dated Passy) future accounts, and wish it to be followed.

Saturday, 26 The accounts that have been shown you are only
ep ’’	' those of the person we had intrusted with the receiving

and paying our money, and intended merely to show how he was dis-
charged of it. We are to separate from that account the articles for
which Congress should be charged, and those for which we should
give credit.

It has always been my intention to pay for the education of my
children, their clothes, &c., as well as for books and other things for
my private use ; and whatever I spend in this way I shall give Con-
gress credit for, to be deducted out of the allowance they have promised
us. But as the article of clothes for ourselves here is necessarily much
higher than if we were not in public service, I submit it to your con-
sideration, whether that article ought nQt to be reckoned among
expenses for the public. I know I had clothes enough at home to
have lasted me a lifetime in a country where I was under small
necessity of following new fashions.

I shall be out of town till Monday. When I return, we will, if you
please, talk further of these matters, and put the accounts in the order
they are hereafter to be kept.1

To David Hart- You ask my sentiments on a truce for five or seven
ley, dated Passy, years, in which no mention should be made of that
26 Oct., 1778.	stumblingblockto England, the independence of America.

I must tell you fairly and frankly, that there can be no treaty of

1 Almost immediately upon the receipt of Franklin’s letter, he was named Envoy
Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, and Adams went home.434

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

peace with us, in which France is not included. But I think a treaty
might be made between the three powers, in which England expressly
renouncing the dependence of America seems no more necessary, than
her renouncing the title of King of France, which has always been
claimed for her kings. Yet, perhaps, it would be better for England
to act nobly and generously on the occasion, by granting more than
she could, at present, be compelled to grant; make America easy on
the score of old claims ; cede all that remains in North America ; and
thus conciliate and strengthen a young power, which she wishes to
have a future and serviceable friend. I do not think England would
be a loser by such a cession. She may hold her remaining possessions
there, but not without a vast expense; and they would be the occasion
of constant jealousies, frequent quarrels, and renewed wars. The
United States, continually growing stronger, will have them at last;
and, by the generous conduct above hinted at, all the intermediate
loss of blood and treasure might be spared, and solid, lasting peace
promoted. This seems to me good counsel, but I know it cannot be
followed.

The friend you mention must always be welcome to me, with or
without the cheeses ; but" I do not see how his coming hither could
be of any use at present, unless in the quality of a plenipotentiary,
to treat of a sincere peace between all parties.

Your Commissioners are acting very indiscreetly in America. They
first spoke very disrespectfully of our good ally. They have since
called in question the power of Congress to treat with them ; and have
endeavoured to begin a dispute about the detention of Burgoyne’s
troops, an affair which I conceive not to be within their commission.
They are vainly trying, by publications, to excite the people against
the Congress. Governor Johnstone has been attempting to bribe the
members; and, without the least regard to truth, has asserted three
propositions, which, he says, he will undertake to prove. The two
first of them I know to be false, and I believe the third to be so. The
Congress have refused to treat with the Commissioners, while he
continues one of them, and he has therefore resigned.

These gentlemen do not appear well qualified for their business. I
think they will never heal the breach, but they may widen it.

To Mrs. Mai- Since my coming here, I have been told, that Mr.
raret Stevenson, Henley, the linen-draper, had said, on my going to
j diTMSy’ 86 America, that I had gone away in his debt. I can
m hardly believe it. Let me know if you have heard
such a thing, and what is the meaning of it. I thought he had been
fully paid, and still think so, and shall, till I am assured of the con-
trary. Let me know, at the same time, how my account stands with
you.

You wish to know how I live. It is in a fine house, situated in a
neat village, on high ground, half a mile from Paris, with a large
garden to walk in. I have abundance of acquaintance, dine abroad
six days in seven. Sundays I reserve to dine at home, with suchBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.	435

Americans as pass this way; and I then have my grandson Ben, with
some other American children from the school.

If being treated with all the politeness of France, and the apparent
respect and esteem of all ranks, from the highest to the lowest, can
make a man happy, I ought to be so. Indeed, I have nothing to com-
plain of, but a little too much business, and the want of that order and
economy in my family which reigned in it when under your prudent
direction.

To David Hart- I have just received your favour of the 23rd past, in
ley,datedPaeay, which you mention, “that the alliance between France
a Feb., 1m and America is the great stumblingblock in the way of
making peace and you go on to observe that, “whatever engage-
ments America may have entered into, they may, at least by consent
of parties, be relinquished\ for the purpose of removing so material an
obstacle to any general treaty of free and unengaged parties'; ” adding
that, “ if the parties could meet for the sake of peace upon free and
open ground, you should think that a very fair proposition to be offered
to the people of England, and an equitable proposition in itself.”

The long, steady, and kind regard you have shown for the welfare
of America, by the whole tenor of your conduct in Parliament, satisfies
me that this proposition never took its rise with you, but has been
suggested from some other quarter; and that your excess of humanity,
your love of peace, and your fear for us, that the destruction we are
threatened with will certainly be effected, has thrown a mist before
your eyes, which hindered you from seeing the malignity and mischief
of it. We know that your King hates Whigs and Presbyterians ;
that he thirsts for our blood, of which he has already drunk large
draughts ; that weak and unprincipled ministers are ready to execute
the wickedest of his orders, and his venal Parliament equally ready to
vote them just. Not the smallest appearance of a reason can be
imagined, capable of inducing us to think of relinquishing a solid
alliances with one of the most amiable, as well as most powerful,
princes of Europe, for the expectation of unknown terms of peace, to
be afterwards offered to us by such a government; a government that
has already shamefully broken all the compacts it ever made with us.
This is worse than advising us to drop the substance for the shadow.
The dog, after he found his mistake, might possibly have recovered
his mutton ; but we could never hope to be trusted again by France,
or indeed by any other nation under heaven. Nor does there appear
any more necessity for dissolving an alliance with France, before you
can treat with us, than there would be of dissolving your alliance with
Holland, or your union with Scotland, before we could treat with you.
Ours is, therefore, no material obstacle to a treaty, as you suppose it
to be. Had Lord North been the author of such a proposition, all the
world would have said it was insidious, and meant only to deceive and
divide us from our friends, and then to ruin us ; supposing our fears
might be so strong as to procure an acceptance of it. But, thanks to
Go.d, that is not the case. We have long since settled all the account436

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

in our own minds. We know the worst you can 'do to us, if you have
your wish, is, to confiscate our estates and take our lives, to rob and
murder us; and this you have seen we are ready to hazard, rather
than come again under your detested government.

You must observe, my dear friend, that I am a little warm. Excuse
me. It is over. Only let me counsel you not to think of being sent
hither on so fruitless an errand,'as that of making such a proposition.

It puts me in mind of the comic farce entitled, God-send, or The
Wreckers. You may have forgotten it; but I will endeavour to amuse
you by recollecting a little of it.

Scene. Mount’s Bay.

[A ship riding at anchor in a great storm. A lee shore full of
rocks, and lined with people, furnished with axes and carriages to cut
up wrecks, knock the sailors on the head, and carry off the plunders
according to as tom.]

ist Wrecker. This ship rides it out longer than I expected ; she
must have good ground tackle.

2nd Wrecker. -We had better send off a boat to her, and persuade
her to take a pilot, who can afterward run her ashore, where we can
best come at her.

3id Wrecker. I doubt whether the boat can live in this sea ; but if
there are any brave fellows willing to hazard themselves for the good
of the public, and a double share, let them say ay.

Several Wreckers. I, I, I, I.

\_The boat goes off, and comes under the ship's stern.]

Spokesman. So ho, the ship, ahoa !

Captain. Hulloa.

Sp. Would you have a pilot ?

Capt. No, no !

Sp. It blows hard, and you are in danger.

Capt. I know it.

Sp. Will you buy a better cable ? We have one in the boat here.

Capt. What do you ask for it ?

Sp. Cut that you have, and then we’ll talk about the price of this.

Capt. I shall do no such foolish thing. I have lived in your parish
formerly, and know the heads of ye too well to trust ye ; keep off from
my cable there ; I see you have a mind to cut it yourselves. If you
go any nearer to it, I’ll fire into you and sink you.

Sp. It is a damned rotten French cable, and will part of itself in
half an hour. Where will you be then, Captain ? You had better
take our offer.

Capt. You offer nothing, you rogues, but treachery and mischief.
My cable is good and strong, and will hold long enough to baulk all
your projects.

Sp. you talk unkindly, Captain, to people who came here only
for your good.

Capt. I know you came for all our goods, but, by God’s help, youBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.	437

shall have none of them ; you shall not serve us as you did the India-
men.

Sp. Come, my lads, let’s be gone. This fellow is not so great a
fool as we took him to be.---

To David Hurt- I received your proposition for removing the stum-
ley, datedPassy bling block. Your constant desire of peace ought to
28 Feb., 1779. endear you to both sides ; but this proposition seems to
be naturally impracticable. We can never think of quitting a solid
alliance, made and ratified, in order to be in a state for receiving
unknown proposals of peace, which may vanish in the discussion.
The truth is, we have no kind of faith in your government, which
appears to us as insidious and deceitful as it is unjust and cruel; its
character is that of the Spider in Thomson,

“ Cunning and fierce,

Mixture abhorred !"

Besides, we cannot see the necessity of our relinquishing our
alliance with France in order to a treaty, any more than of your
relinquishing yours with Holland.

To David Hart- I am sorry you have had so much trouble in the affair
ley, dated Passy, of the prisoners. You have been deceived as well as I.
21 March, 1779. jsj0 cartei shjp has yet appeared ; and it is now evident
that the delays have been of design, to give more opportunity of
seducing the men by promises and hardships to seek their liberty in
engaging against their country; for we learn from those who have
escaped, that there are persons continually employed in cajoling and
menacing them; representing to them that we neglect them ; that
your government is willing to exchange them ; and that it is our fault
it is not done; that all the news from America is bad on their side ;
we shall be conquered and they will be hanged, if they do not accept
the gracious offer of being pardoned, on condition of serving the King,
&c. A great part of your prisoners have been kept these six months
on Board a ship in Brest road, ready to be delivered ; where I am
afraid they were not so comfortably accommodated, as they might
have been in French prisons. They are now ordered on shore.

Knowing how earnestly and constantly you wish for peace, J. cannot
end a letter to you without dropping a word on that subject, to mark
that my wishes are still in unison with yours. After the barbarities
your nation has exercised against us, I am almost ashamed to own,
that I feel sometimes for her misfortunes and her insanities. Your
veins are open, and your best blood continually running. You have
now got a little army into Georgia, and are triumphing in that success.
Do you expect ever to see that army again? I know not what General
Lincoln or General Thompson may be able to effect against them ;
but, if they stay through the summer in that climate, there is a certain
General Fever, that I apprehend will give, a good account of most of
them. Perhaps you comfort yourselves, that our loss of blood is us438

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

great as yours. But,'as physicians say, there is a great difference in
the facility of repairing that loss between an old body and a young
one. America adds to her numbers annually one hundred and fifty
thousand souls. She, therefore, grows faster than you can diminish
her, and will outgrow all the mischief you can do her. Have you the
same prospects ? But it is unnecessary for me to represent to you, or
you to me, the mischiefs that each nation is subjected to by the war ;
we all see clearly enough the nonsense of continuing it; the difficulty
is, where to find sense enough to put an end to it.

To Josiah ^	6reat sincerity I join you in acknowledging

Quincy, dated and admiring the dispensations of Providence in our
rm7, 28 AprU’ favour- America has only to be thankful* and to perse-
1	vere. God will finish his work, and establish their free-

dom ; and the lovers of liberty will flock from all parts of Europe with
their fortunes to participate with us of that freedom, as soon as peace
is restored.

I am exceedingly pleased with your account of the French polite-
ness and civility, as it appeared among the officers and people of their
fleet. They have certainly advanced in those respects many degrees
beyond the English. I find them here a most amiable nation to live
with. The Spaniards are by common opinion supposed to be cruel,
the English proud, the Scotch insolent, the Dutch avaricious, &c., but
I think the French have no national vice ascribed to them. They
have some frivolities, but they are harmless. To dress their heads so
that a hat cannot be put on them, and then wear their hats under their
arms, and to fill their noses with tobacco, may be called follies, per-
haps, but they are not vices. They are only the effects of the tyranny
of custom. In short, there is nothing wanting in the character of a
Frenchman, that belongs to that of an agreeable and worthy man.
There are only some trifles surplus, or which might be spared.

Will you permit me, while I do them this justice, to hint a little
censure on our own country people, which I do ‘in good will, wishing
the cause removed. You know the necessity we are under of supplies
from Europe, and the difficulty we have at present in making returns.
The interest bills would do a great deal towards purchasing arms,
ammunition, clothing, sail-cloth, and other necessaries for defence.
U pon inquiry of those who present these bills to me for acceptance,
what the money is to be laid out in, I find that most of it is for super-
fluities, and more than half of it for tea. How unhappily in this
instance the folly of our people, and the avidity of our merchants,
concur to weaken and impoverish our country. I formerly computed,
that we consumed before the war, in that single article, the value of
five hundred thousand pounds sterling annually. Much of this was
saved by stopping the use of it. I honoured the virtuous resolution
of our women in foregoing that little gratification, and I lament that
such virtue should be of so short duration. Five hundred thousand
pounds sterling, annually laid out in defending ourselves, or annoying
our enemies, would have great effect. With what face can we askBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.	<39

aids and subsidies from our friends, while we are wasting our own
wealth in such prodigality ?

To Samuel The depreciation of our money must, as you observe,
Cooper, dated greatly affect salary men, widows, and orphans. Me-
i™7’ 28 Ap^il,	this evil deserves the attention of the several

legislatures, and ought, if possible, to be remedied by
some equitable law, particularly adapted to their circumstances. I took
all the pains I could in Congress to prevent the depreciation, by pro-
posing first, that the bills should bear interest; this was rejected, and
they were struck as you see them. Secondly, after the first emission,
I proposed that we should stop, strike no more, but borrow on interest
those we had issued. This was not then approved of, and more bills
were issued. When, from the too great quantity, they began to
depreciate, we agreed to borrow on interest; and I proposed, that, in
order to fix the value of the principal, the interest should be promised
in hard dollars. This was objected to as impracticable ; but I still
continue of opinion, that, by sending out cargoes to purchase it, we
might have brought in money sufficient for that purpose, as we
brought in powder, &c., &c. ; and that, though the attempt must have
been attended with a disadvantage, the loss would have been a less
mischief than any measure attending the discredit of the bills, which
threatens “to take out of our hands the gre^t instrument of our
defence.

The Congress did at last come into the proposal of paying the
interest'in real money. But when the whole mass of the currency
was under way in depreciation, the momentum of its descent was too
great to be stopped by a power, that might at first have been sufficient
to prevent the beginning of the motion. The only remedy now seems
to be a diminution of the quantity by a vigorous taxation, of great
nominal sums, which the people are more able to pay, in proportion
to the quantity and diminished value; and the only consolation under
the evil is, that the public debt is proportionably diminished with the
depreciation ; and this by a kind of imperceptible tax, every one
having paid a part of it in the fall of value that took place between
the receiving and paying such sums as passed through his hands. For
it should always be remembered, that the original intention was to
sink the bills by taxes, which would as effectually extinguish the debt
as an actual redemption.

This effect of paper currency is not understood on this side the
water. And indeed the whole is a mystery even to the politicians,
how we have been able to continue a war four years without money,
and how we could pay with paper, that had no previously fixed fund
appropriated specifically to redeem it. This currency, as we manage
it, is a wonderful machine. It performs its office when we issue it; it
pays and clothes troops, and provides victuals and ammunition ; and
when we are obliged to issue a quantity excessive, it pays itself off by
depreciation.

Our affairs in general stand in a fair light throughout Europe Our440

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

cause is universally approved. Our cons billions of government have
been translated and printed in most languages, and are so much,
admired for the spirit of liberty that reigns in them, that it is gener-
ally agreed we shall have a vast accession of national property after
the war, from every part of this continent, and particularly from the
British Islands. We have only to persevere and to be happy.

To Mrs. Patience	* received your favour of the 14th of March past, and,

Wright,1 dated if you should continue in your resolution of returning to
1779	4 May’ America, through France, I shall certainly render you any

of the little services in my power ; but there are so
many difficulties at present in getting passages hence, particularly safe
ones for women, that methinks I should advise your stay till more
settled times, and till a more frequent intercourse is established.

As to the exercise of your art here, I am in doubt whether it would
answer your expectations. Here are two or three who profess it, and
make a show of their works on the Boulevards; but it is not the taste
for persons of fashion to sit to these artists for their portraits ; and
both house rent and living at Paris are very expensive.

I thought that friendship required I should acquaint you with these
circumstances ; after which you will use your discretion.

P.S.—My grandson, whom you may remember when a little saucy boy
at school, being my amanuensis in writing the within letter,'has been
diverting me with his remarks. He conceives, that your figures can-
not be packed up without damage from anything you could fill the
boxes with to keep them steady. He supposes, therefore, that you
must put them into postchaises, two and two, which will make a long
train upon the road, and be a veiy expensive conveyance; but, as they
will eat nothing at the inns, you may the better afford it. When they
come to Dover, he is sure they are so like life and nature, that the
master of the packet will not receive them on board without passes ;
which you will do well therefore to take out from the Secretary’s office,
before you leave London ; where they will cost you only the modest
price of two guineas and sixpence each, which you will pay without
grumbling, because you are sure the money will never be employed
against your country. It will require, he says, five or six of the long

1 Niece of John Wesley, but born at Philadelphia. Mrs. Wright was a skilful
modeller in wax ; an art which she turned to account in the American war, by
coming to England and exhibiting her performances. “This enabled her,”
William Temple Franklin informs us, “ to procure much intelligence of importance,
which she communicated to Dr. Franklin and others, with whom she corresponded
during the whole war. As soon as a general was appointed, or a squadron begun
to be fitted out, the old lady found means of access to some family where she
could gain information, and thus, without being at all suspected, she contrived to
transmit an account of the number of the troops, and the place of their destination,
to her political friends abroad. She at one time had frequent access to Buckingham
House ; and used, it was said, to speak her sentiments very freely to their
Majesties, who were amused with her originality. The great Lord Chatham
honoured her with his visits, and she took his likeness, which appears in West-
minster Abbey. Mrs. Wright died, very old, in February, 1786."BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

441

wicker French stagecoaches to carry them as passengers from Calais
to Paris, and a ship with good accommodations to convey them
to America ; where all the world will wonder at your clemency to

Lord N------; that, having it in your power to hang, or send him to

the lighters, you had generously reprieved him for transportation.

To the Com- The Marquis de Lafayette, who arrived here the nth
mittee of Foreign of February, brought me yours of October 28th, and the
Affairs, dated new commission, credentials, and instructions, which
imy’ 7’ the Congress have honoured me with.1 I have not since
had an opportunity of writing, that I could trust : for I
see, by several instances, the orders given to private captains to throw
their despatches into the sea, when likely to be taken, are sometimes
neglected, and sometimes so badly executed, that the letters are
recovered by the enemy, and much inconvenience has attended their
interception. You mention, that you should speedily have oppor-
tunities of forwarding duplicates and triplicates of the papers; none
of them has ever come to hand, nor have I received any other line
from you of later date.

I immediately acquainted the minister of foreign affairs with my
appointment, and communicated to him, as usual, a copy of my
credential letter, on which a day was named for my reception. A fit
of the gout prevented my attendance at that time, and for some weeks
after ; but, as soon as I was able to go through the ceremony, I went
to Versailles, and was presented to the King, and received in all the
forms. I delivered the letter of Congress into his Majesty’s own
hands, who, in the most gracious manner, expressed his satisfaction.
And I have since constantly attended the levee every Tuesday, with
the other foreign ministers, and have taken, every proper occasion of
repeating the assurances I am instructed to give, of the grateful
sentiments of Congress, and their determined resolution to fulfil
religiously their engagements. Much pains i3 constantly taken by the
enemy to weaken the confidence of this court in their new allies, by
representing our people as weary of the war, and of the government
of Congress ; which body, too, they represent as distracted by dis-
sensions, &c.; but all this has very little effect, and, when on some
occasions it has seemed to make a little impression, and create some
apprehensions, I have not found it difficult to remove them. And it
is my firm opinion, that, notwithstanding the great losses suffered by
the commerce of this kingdom, since the commencement of the war,
the disposition of the court to continue it (till its purpose of establish-
ing our independence is completed) is not the least changed, nor their
regard for us diminished.

The end of that part of the instructions, which relates to American
seamen taken by the French in English ships, had already been ob-

1 The Commission had each written to their several friends that the interest of
the service would be consulted by the appointment of a single envoy to the court
of France, and putting an end to the commission by which the United States were
then represented therfe.442

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

tained, Captain Jones having had for some time an order from court,
directed to the keepers of the prisoners, requiring them to deliver to
him such Americans as should be found in their hands, that they
might be at liberty to serve under his command. Most of them have
accordingly been delivered to him, if not all. The minister of the
marine, having entertained a high opinion of him, from his conduct
and bravery in taking the Drake, was desirous of employing him in
the command of a particular enterprise, and to that end requested us
to spare him, which we did, and sent the Ranger home, under the
command of his lieutenant. Various accidents have hitherto post-
poned his equipment, but he now has the command of a fifty-gun ship
with some frigates, all under American commissions and colours, fitted
out at the King’s expense, and will sail, it is said, about the 1st of
June.

The Marquis de Lafayette was, with some land troops, to have gone
with him; but I now understand the Marquis is not to go, the plan
being a little changed.

The Alliance being weakly manned at first, and the captain judging
it necessary to be freed from thirty-eight of his men, who had been
concerned in a conspiracy, and unwilling to take French seamen, I
thought it best to send him directly home, as his ship might be of
some protection to the vessels then about sailing to America, and Mr.
Adams, who was desirous of returning soon, might be accommodated
with a passage in a swift-sailing vessel. I accordingly offered her as
a convoy to the trade at Nantes ; but the gentlemen concerned did
not think fit to wait for getting ready, as a French convoy offered, for
at least part of the voyage ; and, the minister requesting she might be
added to Captain Jones’s little squadron, and offering to give a passage
to Mr. Adams in the frigate with the new ambassador, and to com-
plete the Alliance's complement of men, I thought it best to continue
her a little longer in Europe, hoping she may, in the projected cruise,
by her extraordinary swiftness, be a means of taking prisoners enough
to redeem the rest of our countrymen, now in the English gaols.
With this view, as well as to oblige the minister, I ordered her to
join Captain Jones at L’Orient, and obey his orders, where she is now
accordingly.

There have been great misunderstandings between the officers of
that ship and their captain, and great discontents among the men for
want of clothes and money. I have been obliged to make great ad-
vances to appease those discontents, and I now hope the authority
and prudence of Captain Jones will be able to remove, or at least to
prevent, the ill effects of those misunderstandings. The conspirators
are detained in prison, and will remain there, subject to such directions
as Congress may think fit to give concerning them. The courts here
would not, because they properly could not, undertake to try them ;
and we had not captains enough to make a court-martial for the pur-
pose. The sending them to America, with evidence to convict them,
will be a great trouble and expense; and perhaps their offence cannot
be so clearly made out, as to justify a punishment sufficient to deterBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

443

by its exemplary severity. Possibly, the best use that can be made
of them, is to give them in exchange for as many Americans in the
cartel now operating here; The perfidious conduct of the English and
Scotch sailors in our service, a good deal discourages the idea of tak-
ing them out of those prisons in order to employ them.

This cartel is at length brought about by the -indefatigable endea-
vours of an old friend of mine, and a long declared one to America,
Mr. Hartley, member of Parliament for Hull. The ship employed has
already brought us one cargo from the prison at Plymouth. The
number was intended for a hundred, but proved ninety-seven, and she
is returned with as many in exchange, to bring us a second number
from the prison at Portsmouth. This is to continue till all are ex-
changed. The Americans are chiefly engaged with Captain Jones and
Landais. This exchange is the more remarkable, as our people were
all committed as for high treason.

Agreeably to the seventh instruction, I have earnestly recommended
the reduction of Halifax and Quebec. The Marquis de Lafayette
joined me warmly in the application for this purpose, and I hope we
shall in due time see some good effects from it. I have also, in various
ways, and through different channels, laid before the ministry the
distressed state of our finances in America. There seems a great
willingness in all of them to help us, except in the controller, M.
Necker, who is said not to be well disposed towards us, and is sup-
posed to embarrass every measure proposed to relieve us by grants of
money. It is certain, that under the resolution, perhaps too hastily
declared, of the King^s imposing no new taxes on his subjects for this
year, the court has great difficulties in defraying present expense, the
vast exertions to put the navy in a condition to equal that of England
having cost immense sums.

There is also a prevailing opinion, that the most effectual service to
us is to be expected from rendering their marine superior to that of
England. The King has, however, to encourage our loan in Holland,
been so good as to engage, under his hand, to be security for our pay-
ment of the interest of three millions of livres ; but that loan has not
yet amounted to more than about eighty thousand florins. Dr. Trice,
whose assistance was requested by Congress, has declined that service,
as you will see by the copy of his letter enclosed. To me it seems,
that the measure recommended by the wisdom of Congress, for
diminishing the quantity of paper by taxes of large nominal sums,
must have very salutary effects.

As to your finances here, it is fit that you should know the state of
them. When the Commissioners of Congress made the proposition
of paying the interest at Paris of the money borrowed in America,
they understood the loan to be of five millions of dollars. They ob-
tained from government sums more than sufficient for the interest of
such a sum. That sum has been increased; and, if they could other-
wise have provided for it, they have been from time to time drained by
a number of unforeseen expenses, of which the Congress had no
knowledge, and of others, occasioned by their orders and drafts; and444

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

the cargoes sent to the Commissioners by the Committee have some
of them been treacherously run away with by the seamen, or taken by
the enemy, or, when arrived, have been hitherto applied toward the
payment of debts, the tobaccos to the farmers-general according to
contract,- and the rice and indigo to Messrs. Hortalez & Co.,1 from
whom, by the way, we have not yet been able to procure any account.

I have lately employed an accountant, the son of our banker, to
form complete books of our accounts to be sent to Congress. They
are not yet ready. When they are, I shall send them by the first safe
opportunity. In the meantime, I may just mention some particulars
of our disbursements. Great quantities of clothing, arms, ammuni-
tion, and naval stores, sent from time to time ; payment of bills from
Mr. Bingham, one hundred thousand livres ; Congress bills in favour
of Haywood & Co., above two hundred thousand ; advanced to Mr.
Ross, about twenty thousand pounds sterling; paid Congress drafts
in favour of returned officers, ninety-three thousand and eighty livres ;
to our prisoners in England, and after their escape to help them
home, and to other Americans here in distress, a great sum, I cannot
at present say how much ; supplies to Mr. Hodge for fitting out
Captain Conyngham, very considerable ; for the freight of ships to
carry over the supplies, great sums ; to Mr. William Lee and Mr.
Izard, five thousand five hundred pounds sterling ; and for fitting the
frigates Raleigh, Alfred, Boston, Providence, Alliance, Ranger, &c., I
imagine not less than sixty or seventy thousand livres each, taken
one with another ; and for the maintenance of the English prisoners,
I believe, when I get in all the accounts, I shall find one hundred
thousand livres not sufficient, having already paid above sixty-four
thousand upon that article. And now, the drafts of the treasurer
of the loans coming very fast upon me, the anxiety I have suffered,
and the distress of mind lest I should not be able to pay them, have
for a long time been very great indeed.

To apply again to this court for money for a particular purpose,
which they had already over and over again provided for and fur-
nished us, was extremely awkward. I therefore repeated the general
applications, which we had made when together, for aids of money ;
and received the general answers, that the expense of government for
the navy was so great, that at present it was exceedingly difficult to
furnish the necessary supplies ; that France, by sending a fleet to
America, obliged the enemy td divide their forces, and left them so
weak on the continent, as to aid us by lessening our expense, if it
could not by giving us money, &c. &c.; and I was asked if we did not
receive money from Spain. I know, indeed, of some money received
from thence, and I have heard of more, but know not how much, Mr.
Arthur Lee, as minister for Spain, having taken to himself all the
management of that affair, and will account to Congress. I only
understand, that there is none of it left to assist in paying Congress
bills.

1 The firm-name under which the French government, through Beaumarchais,
extended financial aid to the United States,BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

445

I at length obtained, as above mentioned, the King’s bon for pay-
ment of the interest of three millions, if I could borrow it in Holland,
or elsewhere ; but, though two eminent houses in Amsterdam have
undertaken it, and had hopes of success, they have both lately written
to me, that the great demands of money for Germany and for England
had raised interest above our limits, and that the successes of the
English in Georgia and St. Lucia, and in destroying the French trade,
with the supposed divisions in Congress, all much magnified by the
British minister, and the pressing application to borrow by several of
our States separately, had made the moneyed people doubtful of our
stability, as well as our ability to repay what might be lent us, and
that it was necessary to wait a more favourable moment for proceeding
with our loan.

In this situation, I have been applied to by Mr. William Lee, and
lately, through our banker, by Mr. Izard, for more money for their
expenses ; and I am told, there is much anger against me for declin-
ing to furnish them, and that I am charged with disobeying an order
of Congress, and with cruelly attempting to distress gentlemen, who
are in the service of their country. They have, indeed, produced to
me a resolve of Congress, empowering them to dratv on the Com-
missioners in France for their expenses at foreign courts ; and doubt-
less Congress, when that resolve was made, intended to enable us to
pay those drafts ; but, as that has not been done, and the gentlemen
(except Mr. Lee for a few weeks) have not incurred any expense at
foreign courts, and, if they had, the five thousand five hundred guineas,
received by them in about nine months, seemed an ample provision
for it, and as both of them might command money from England, I
do not conceive that I disobeyed an order of Congress, and that, if I
did, the circumstances will excuse it; and I could have no intention
to distress them, because I must know it is out of my power, as their
private fortunes and credit will enable them at all times to pay their
own expenses.

In short, the dreadful consequences of ruin to our public credit,
both in America and Europe, that must attend protesting a single
Congress draft for interest, after our funds were out, would have
weighed with me against the payment of more money to those gentle-
men, if the demand had otherwise been well founded. I am, however,
in the judgment of Congress ; and, if I have done amiss, must submit
dutifully to their censure. Thanks to God, I have this last week got
over the difficulty, so far as relates to the bills, which will all be
punctually paid ; but if the Navy Boai'd sends more ships here to be
fitted, or the Congress continue to draw for the payment of other
debts, the ships will be disappointed, and I shall probably be made a
bankrupt, unless funds are at the same time sent over to discharge
such demands.

With regard to the fitting out of ships, receiving and disposing of
cargoes, and purchasing of supplies, I beg leave to mention, that,
besides my being wholly unacquainted with such business, the distance
I am from the ports renders my having anything to do with it ex-LIFE AND LETTERS OF

446

tremely inconvenient. Commercial agents have indeed been ap-
pointed by Mr. William Lee ; but they and the captains are continually
writing for my opinion or orders, or leave to do this or that, by which
much time is lost to them, and much of mine taken up to little purpose,
from my ignorance. I see clearly, however, that many of the captains
are exorbitant in their demands, and in some cases I think those
demands are too easily complied with by the agents, perhaps because
the commissions are in proportion to the expense. I wish, therefore,
the Congress would appoint the consuls they have a right to appoint
by the treaty, and put into their hands all that sort of employment.
I have in my desk, I suppose, not less than fifty applications from
different ports, praying the appointment, and offering to serve gratis
for the honour of it, and the advantage it gives in trade ; but I imagine,
that, if consuls are appointed, they will be of our own people from
America, who, if they should make fortunes abroad, might return with
them to their country.

The commissions demanded by the agents seem to me in some
cases very high. For instance, Mr. Schweighauser, in a late account,
charges five per cent, on the simple delivery of the tobaccos to the
officer of the farmers-general in the port, and by that means makes
the commission on the delivery of the two last cargoes amount to
about six hundred and thirty pounds sterling. As there was no sale
in the case, he has, in order to calculate the commission, valued the
tobacco at ninety livres the hundredweight; whereas, it was, by our
contract with the farmers, to be delivered at about forty livres. I got
a friend, who was going upon change, to inquire among the merchants
what was the custom in such cases of delivery. 1 send enclosed the
result he has given me of his inquiries. In consequence, I have
refused to pay the commission of five per cent, on this article ; and
I know not why it was, as is said, agreed with him at the time of his
appointment, that he should have five per cent, on his transactions, if
the custom is only two per cent., as by my information.

I have mentioned above the applications of separate States to
borrow money in Europe, on which I beg leave to remark, that, when
the General Congress are endeavouring to obtain a loan, these separate
attempts interfere, and are extremely inconvenient, especially where
some of the agents are empowered to offer a higher interest, and some
have powers in that respect unlimited. We have likewise lately had
applications from three several States to this court, to be furnished
with great quantities of arms, ammunition, and clothing, or with
money upon credit to buy them ; and from one State to be supplied
with naval stores and ships of war. These agents, finding that they
had not interest to obtain such grants, have severally applied to me,
and seem to think it my duty, as minister for the United States, to
support and enforce their particular demands. I have endeavoured
to do so ; but I find the ministers do not like these separate applica-
tions, and seem to think, that they should properly come only through
Congress, to whom the several States in such cases ought first to make
known their wants, and then the Congress could instruct their ministerBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

447

accordingly. This would save the King’s ministers a good deal of
trouble, and the several States the expense of these particular agents ;
concerning whom I would add a little remark, that we have in America,
too readily, in various instances, given faith to the pretensions of
strangers from Europe, who offer their services as persons who have
powerful friends and great interest in their own country, and by that
means obtain contracts, orders, or commissions, to procure what we
want, and who, when they come here, are totally unknown, and have
no other credit but what such commissions give them, or, if known,
the commissions do not add so much to their credit as they diminish
that of their employers.

I have received two letters from a Frenchman, settled in one of the
ports of Barbary, offering himself to act as our minister with the
Emperor, with whom he pretended to be intimate, and acquainting
me, that his Imperial Majesty wondered we had never sent to thank
him for being the first power on this side of the Atlantic that had
acknowledged our independence, and opened his ports to us ; advising
that we should send the Emperor a present. On inquiry at the office
in whose department Africa is included, I learned the character of
this man to be such, that it was not safe to have any correspondence
with him, and therefore I did not answer his letters. I suppose Con-
gress has received the memorial we presented to this court respecting
the Barbary States, and requesting the King’s good offices with them,
agreeable to the treaty ; and also the answer, expressing the King’s
readiness to perform those good offices “ whenever the Congress
should send us instructions, and make provision for the necessary
presents or, if those papers have not yet got to hand, they will be
found among the copies carried over by Mr. Adams, and therefore I
only mention them by way of remembrance. Whenever a treaty with
the Emperor is intended, I suppose some of. our naval stores will be
an acceptable present, and the expectation of continued supplies of
such stores, a powerful motive for entering into and continuing a
friendship.

I • should send you copies of several other memorials and public
papers; but, as Mr. Adams goes in the same ship, and has the whole
of our transactions during his time, it is not so necessary by this
vessel. The disposition of this nation in general continues friendly
towards us and our cause ; and I do not see the least diminution of it,
except among the West India merchants and planters, whose losses
have rendered them a little discontented. Spain has been long acting
as a mediator, but arming all the time most vigorously. Her naval
force is now very great indeed, and, as her last proposition of a long
truce, in which America should be included and treated as independent
in fact, though not expressly acknowledged as such, has been lately
rejected by England, it is now thought, that her open junction with
France in the war is not far distant.

The Commissioners here have a power in general terms to treat of
peace, friendship, and commerce with European States, but I appre-
hend this is scarce explicit enough to authorize me to treat of such a448

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

truce, if the proposition should again come upon the tapis. I there-
fore wish the Congress to consider of ft, and give such powers as may
be necessary to whom they may think proper, that, if a favourable
opportunity of making an advantageous treaty should offer, it may
not be missed.

I have just received a letter from Mr. Bingham, acquainting me,
that the ship Deane, and the General Gates, are just arrived at Mar-
tinique, and apply to him to be careened, refitted, and procure a fresh
supply of provisions ; and that, though he has no orders, he must
draw upon me for the expense. I think it right to acquaint you thus
early, that I shall be obliged to protest his bills.

I have just obtained from his Majesty orders to the government 'of-
Guadaloupe, to make reasonable reparation to Captain Giddens of
Newbury for the loss of his vessel, sunk in mistake by a battery of
that island. Great preparations are making here, with much activity
in all the seaports, taking up transports, and building small vessels,
proper for the landing of troops, &c.; so that many think an invasion-
of England or Ireland is intended. The intention, whatever it is, may
change ; but the opinion of such an intention, which seems to prevail
in England, may tend to keep their troops and ships at home.

General and Lord Howe, General Cornwallis and Grey, Colonel
Montresor, and Captqin Hammond, and others, have formally given
it as their opinion, in Parliament, that the conquest of America is im-
practicable. This week, as we hear, John Maxwell, Joseph Galloway,
Andrew Allen, John Patterson, Theophilus Morris, Enoch Story, and
Jabez Fisher, are to be examined to prove the contrary. One would
think the first set were likely to be the best judges.

CHAPTER XXI. (1779-1780.)

Inception of Irish Emigration to America—Intrigues of Personal Enemies—The
First Clay Medallion in France—Rules for judging Euglishmen—Sword
to Lafayette—Beaumarchais’ Accounts—Paying too much for the Whistle.

To Sir Edward I Received some time since a letter from a person at
dated^aa*’ 27 ^e^ast> informing me that a great number of people in
May, rm.87, ** those parts were desirous of going to settle in America,
if passports could be obtained for them and their effects,
and referring me to you for future information. I shall always be ready
to afford every assistance and security in my power to such under-
takings, when they are really meant, and are not merely schemes of
trade with views of introducing English manufactures into America,
under pretence of their being the substance of persons going there to
settle.

I admire the spirit with which I see the Irish are at length deter-
mimed to claim some share of that freedom of commerce, which is
the right of all mankind, but which they have been so long deprivedBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

449

of by the abominable selfishness of their fellow subjects. To enjoy
all the advantages of the climate, soil, and situation in which God and
nature has placed us, is as clear a right as that of breathing ; and can
never be justly taken from men but as a punishment for some atrocious
crime.

The English have long seemed to think it a right, which none could
have but themselves. Their injustice has already cost them dear, and,
if persisted in, will be their ruin.

To Horatio The pride of England was never so humbled by any-
pate"’ s jated thing as by your capitulation of Saratoga. They have
vmJ’ Un°’ not yet got over it, though a little elevated this spring
by their success against the French commerce. Cut the
growing apprehensions, of having Spain too upon their hands has
lately brought them down to an humble seriousness, that begins to
appear even in ministerial discourses, and the papers of ministerial
writers. All the happy effects of that transaction for America are not
generally known. I may some time or other acquaint the world with
some of them. When shall we meet again in cheerful converse, talk
over our adventures, and finish with a quiet game of chess ?

The little dissensions between particular States in America are much
magnified in England, and they once had great hopes from them. I
consider them, with you, as the effects of apparent security ; which do
not effect the grand points of independence, and adherence to treaties ;
and which will vanish at a renewed appearance of danger. This court
continues heartily our friend, and the whole nation arc warm in our
favour; excepting only a few West Indians, and merchants in that
trade, whose losses make them a little uneasy.

To Hiohard I am very easy about the efforts Messrs. L----------------

Bache, dated and------are using, as you tell me, to injure me on that

lm*’ * Jime’ side the water. I trust in the justice of the Congress,
that they will listen to no accusations against me, that I
have not been first acquainted with, and had an opportunity of answer-
ing. I know those gentlemen have plenty of ill will to me, though I
have never done to either of them the smallest injury, or given the
least just cause of offence. But my too great reputation, and the
general good will this people have for me, and the respect they show
me, and even the compliments they make me, all grieve those unhappy
gentlemen ; unhappy indeed in their tempers, and in the dark, uncom-
fortable passions of jealousy, anger, suspicion, envy, and malice. It
is enough for good minds to be affected at other people’s misfortunes ;
but they, that are vexed at everybody’s good luck, can never be happy.
I take no other revenge of such enemies, than to let them remain in
the miserable situation in which their malignant natures have placed
them, by endeavouring to support an estimable character ; and thus,
by continuing the reputation the world has hitherto indulged me with,
I shall continue them in their present state of damnation ; and I
am not disposed to reverse my conduct for the aHeviatign of their
torments.	' ■

3°45o

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

I am surprised to hear, that my grandson, Temple Franklin, being
with me, should be an objection against me, and that there is a cabal
for removing him. Methinks it is rather some merit, that I have
rescued a valuable young man from the danger of being a Tory, and
fixed him in honest republican Whig principles ; as I think, from the
integrity of his disposition, his industry, his early sagacity, and un-
common abilities for business, he may in time become of gredt service
to his country. It is enough that I have lost my son; would they add
my grandson ? An old man of seventy, I undertook a winter voyage
at the command of the Congress, and for the public service, with no
other attendant to take care of me. I am continued here in a foreign
country, where, if I am sick, his filial attention comforts me, and, if I
die, I have a child to close my eyes and take care of my remains. His
dutiful behaviour towards me, and his diligenceand fidelity in business,
are both pleasing and useful to me. His conduct, as my private secre-
tary, has been unexceptionable, and I am confident the Congress will
never think of separating us.

I have had a great deal of pleasure in Ben too.1 He is a good,
honest lad, and will make, I think, a valuable man. He had made as
much proficiency in his learning, as the boarding school he was at
could well afford him ; and, after some consideration where to find a
better for him, I at length fixed on sending him to Geneva. I had a
good opportunity by a gentleman of that city, who had a place for him
in his chaise, and has a son about the same age at the same school.
He promised to take care of him, and enclosed I send you the letters
I have since received relating to him and from him. He went very
cheerfully, and I understand is very happy. I miss his company on
Sundays at dinner. But, if I live, and I can find a little leisure, I shall
make the journey next spring to see him, and to see at the same time
the old thirteen United States of Switzerland.

Thanks be to God, I continue well and hearty. Undoubtedly I grow
older, but I think the last ten years have made no great difference. I
have sometimes the gout, but they say that is not so much a disease
as a remedy. God bless you.

To Mrs. Sarah The clay medallion of me you say you gave to Mr.
Bache,	dated Hopkinson was the first of the kind made in France. A

imy’	Une’ variety of others have been made since of different sizes ;

some to be set in the lids of snuff boxes, and some so
small as to be worn in rings ; and the numbers sold are incredible.
These, with the pictures, busts, and prints (of which copies upon
copies are spread everywhere), have made your father’s face as well
known as the moon, so that he durst not do anything that would oblige
him to run away, as his phiz would discover him wherever he should
venture to show it. It is said by learned etymologists, that the name
doll, for the images children play with, is derived from the word Idol.
From the number of dolls now made of him, he may be? truly said, in,
that sense, to be i-doll-ized in this country.

1 Mr. Bache's eldest son.benjamin franklin.

451

I think you did right to stay out of town till the summer was .over,
for the sake of your child’s health. I hope you will get out again this
summer, during the hot months ; for I begin to love the dear little
creature from your description of her.

I was charmed with the account you gave me of your industry, the
tablecloths of your own spinning, &c.; but the latter part of the
paragraph, that you had sent for linen from France because weaving
and flax were grown dear, alas, that dissolved the charm ; and your
sending for long black pins, and lace, and feathers / disgusted me as
much as if you had put salt into my strawberries. The spinning, I see,
rs laid aside, and you are to be dressed for the ball ! You seem not to
know, my dear daughter, that, of all the dear things in this world,
idleness is the dearest, except mischief.

The project you mention, of removing Temple from me, was an
unkind one. To deprive an old man, sent to serve his country in
a foreign one, of the comfort of a child to attend him, to assist him in
health and take care of him in sickness, would be cruel, if it was
practicable. In this case it could not be done ; for, as the pretended
suspicions of him are groundless, and his behaviour in every respect
unexceptionable, I should not part with the child, but with the
employment. But I am confident, that, whatever may be proposed
by weak or malicious people, the Congress is too wise and too good
to think of treating me in that manner.

Ben, if I should live long enough to want it, is like to be another
comfort to me. As I intend him for a Presbyterian as well as a
republican, I have sent him to finish his education at Geneva. He is
much grown, in very good health, draws a little, as you will see by the
enclosed, learns Latin, writing, arithmetic, and dancing, and speaks
French better than English. He made: a translation of your last
letter to him, so that some of your works may now appear in a foreign
language. He has not been long from me. I send the accounts I
have of him, and I shall put him in mind of writing to you. I cannot
propose to you to part with your own dear Will. I must one of these
days go back to see him ; happy to be once more all together ! but
futurities are uncertain. Teach him, however, in the meantime, to
direct his worship more properly, for the deity of Hercules is now
quite out of fashion.

The present you mention as sent by me was rather that of a
merchant at Bordeaux ; for he would never give me any account of it,
and neither Temple nor I know anything of the particulars.

When I began to read your account of the high prices of goods, “ a
pair of gloves seven dollars, a yard of common gauze twenty-four
dollars, and that it now required a fortune to maintain a family in
a very plain way,” I expected you would conclude with telling me,
that everybody as well as yourself was grown frugal and industrious ;
and I could scarce believe my eyes in reading forward, that “ there
never was so much pleasure and dressing going on and that you
yourself wanted black pins and feathers from France to appear, I
suppose, in the mode ! This leads me to imagine, that perhaps it is452

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

not so much that the goods are grown dear, as that the money is
grown cheap, as everything else will do when excessively plenty ; and
that people are still as easy nearly in their circumstances, as when
a pair of gloves might be had for half a crown. The war indeed may
in some degree raise the prices of goods, and the high taxes which are
necessary to support the war may make our frugality necessary ; and,
as I am always preaching that doctrine, I cannot in conscience or
in decency encourage the contrary, by my example, in furnishing
my children with foolish modes and luxuries. I therefore send all
the articles you desire, that are useful and necessary, and omit the
rest; for, as you say you should “ have great pride in wearing any-
thing I send, and showing it as your father’s taste,” I must avoid
giving you an opportunity of doing that with either lace or feathers.
If you wear your cambric ruffles as I do, and take care not to mend
the holes, they will come in time to be lace ; and feathers, my dear
girl, may be had in America from every cock’s tail.

If you happen again to see General Washington, assure him of my
very great and sincere respect, and tell him, that all the old Generals
here amuse themselves in studying the accounts of his operations, and
approve highly of his conduct.

Present my affectionate regards to all friends that inquire after me,
particularly Mr. Duffield and family, and write oftener, my dear child,
to your loving father.

To the Marquis You a5^ my °P>ni°n> what conduct the English will
de Lafayette, probably hold on this occasion,1 and whether they will
dated Passy, 19 not rather propose a negotiation for a peace. I have
ugus ’	' but one rule to go by in judging of those people, which

is, that whatever is prudent for them to do they will omit ; and what
is most imprudent to be done, they will do it. This, like other general
rules, may sometimes have its exceptions ; but I think it will hold
good for the most part, at least while the present ministry continues,
or, rather, while the present madman has the choice of ministers.

You desire to know whether I am satisfied with the ministers here ?
It is impossible for anybody to be more so. I see they exert them-
selves greatly in the common cause, and do everything for us they
can. We can wish for nothing more, unless our great want of money
should make us wish for a subsidy, to enable us to act more vigorously
in expelling the enemy from their remaining posts, and reducing
Canada. But their own expenses are so great, that I cannot press
such an addition to it. I hope, however, that we shall get some
supplies of arms and ammunition, and perhaps, when they can be
spared, some ships to aid in reducing New York and Rhode Island.

To the Marquis The Congress, sensible of your merit towards the
de Lafayette, United States, but unable adequately to reward it,
Ai^ustf 17%' 24 determined to present you with a sword, as a small
uKu*t, . marjc 0f their grateful acknowledgment. They directed

1 He refers to hostile preparations against England, in France,BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

453

it to be ornamented with suitable devices. Some of the principal
actions of the war, in which you distinguished yourself by your
bravery and conduct, are therefore represented upon it. These, with
a few emblematic figures, all admirably well executed, make its
principal value. By the help of the exquisite artists France affords, I
tind it easy to express everything but the sense we have of your worth
and our obligations to you. For this, figures and even words are
found insufficient. I therefore only add, that with the most perfect
esteem and respect, I have the honour to be, &c.

P.S. My grandson goes to Havre with the sword, and will have
Ihe honour of presenting it to you.

Prssident ^of * received the letter your Excellency did me the
Congr/ss, dated honour to write to me of the of June last, enclosing
Fassy, 4 (Jotober, acts of Congress respecting bills of exchange for two
1779,	millions four hundred thousand livres tournois, drawn

on me in favour of M. de Beaumarchais. The bills have not yet
appeared, but I shall accept them when they do, relying on the care
of Congress to enable me to pay them. As to the accounts of that
gentleman, neither the Commissioners, when we were all together,
nor myself since, have ever been able to obtain a sight of them, though
repeatedly promised ; and I begin to give over all expectation of them.
Indeed, if I had them, I should not be able to do much with them, or
to controvert anything I might doubt in them, being unacquainted
with the transactions and agreements on which they must be founded,
and having small skill in accounts. Mr. Ross and Mr. Williams,
pressing me to examine and settle theirs, I have been obliged to
request indifferent persons, expert in such business, to do it for me,
subject to the revision of Congress ; and I could wish that my time
and attention were not taken up by any concerns in mercantile affairs,
and thereby diverted from other more important.

* * * * * • * * *

The extravagant luxury of our country, in the midst of all its
distresses, is to me amazing. When the difficulties are so great to
find remittances to pay for the arms and ammunition necessary for
our defence, I am astonished and vexed to find upon inquiry, that
much the greatest part of the Congress interest bills come to pay
for tea, and a great part of the remainder is ordered to be laid out
in gewgaws and superfluities. It makes me grudge the trouble of
examining, and entering, and accepting them, which indeed takes a
great deal of time.

********

On this occasion give me leave to remark, that, of all the vast
quantities of goods we have sent you by many different vessels since
my being in France, we never were happy enough to receive the least
scrip of acknowledgment that they had ever come to hand, except
from Mr. Langdon, of a cargo arrived at Portsmouth, and I think
of one more. This is doubtless owing to the interruption our cor-454

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

respondence has met with, and not altogether to neglect. But, as
such advices of receipt may be made in short letters, it would be well
to send more copies. The following is a matter of less importance.
It is two years, I believe, since I sent the monument of General
Montgomery. I have heard that the vessel arrived in North Carolina,
but nothing more. I should be glad to know of its coming to hand,
and whether it is approved. Here it was admired for the goodness
and beauty of the marble, and the elegant simplicity of the design.
The sculptor has had an engraving made of it, of which I enclose a
copy. It was contrived to be affixed to the wall within some church,
or in the great room where the Congress met. Directions for putting
it up went with it. All the parts were well packed in strong cases.

To a Friend in The accoimt you have had of the vogue I am in here
America, dated has some truth in it. Perhaps few strangers in France
bexTh# °Ct0 have had the good fortune to be so universally popular;
^	1 but the story you allude to, mentioning “ mechanic rust,”

is totally without foundation. But one is not to expect being always
in fashion. I hope, however, to preserve, while I stay, the regard
you mention of the French ladies ; for their society and conversation,
when I have time to enjoy them, are extremely agreeable.

The enemy have been very near you indeed. When only at the
distance of a mile, you must have been much alarmed. We have
given them a little taste of this disturbance upon their own coasts this
summer; and, though we have burnt none of their towns, we have
occasioned a good deal of terror and bustle in many of them, as they
imagined our Commodore Jones had four thousand troops with him
for descents.

I am glad to learn that my dear sister continued in good health, and
good spirits, and that she had learnt not to be afraid of her friend,
fresh air. With the tenderest affection, &c.

To Samuel ^ *s a l°nS t'me E’Rce * have had the pleasure of
Cooper, dated hearing from you. The intelligence you were used to
ba,S?7797 °Cto" favour me with was °ften useful to our affairs. I hope
er' ‘	I have not lost your friendship, together with your cor-

respondence. Our excellent Mr. Winthrop, I see, is gone. He was
one of those old friends, for the sake of whose society I wished to
return and spend the small remnant of my days in New England. A
few more such deaths will make me a stranger in my own country.
The loss of friends is the tax a man pays for living long himself. 1
find it a heavy one.

You will see by the newspapers that we have given some disturb-
ance to the British coasts this year. One little privateer out of
Dunkirk, the Black Prince, with a Congress commission, and a few
Americans mixed with the Irish and English smugglers, went round
their Islands and took thirty-seven prizes in less than three months.
The little squadron of Commodore Jones, under the same cominission
and colours, has alarmed those coasts exceedingly, occasioned a’ goodBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.	455

deal of internal expense, done great damage to their trade, and taken
two frigates, with four hundred prisoners. He is now with his prin-
cipal prizes in Holland, where he is pretty well received, but must
quit that neutral country as soon as his damages are repaired. The
English watch with a superior force his coming out, but we hope he will
manage so as to escape their vigilance. Few actions at sea have de-
monstrated such steady, cool, determined bravery, as that of Jones in
taking the Serapis.

There has been much rumour this summer throughout Europe, of
an approaching peace, through the mediation of Russia and Holland;
but it is understood to arise from the invention of stockjobbers and
others interested in propagating such opinions. England seems not
to be yet sufficiently humbled, to acknowledge the independence of
the American States, or to treat with them on that footing ; and our
friends will not make a peace on any other. So we shall probably see
another campaign.

By the invoices I have seen and heard of, sent hither with Congress
interest bills of exchange to purchase the goods, it should seem that
there is not so great a want of necessaries as of superfluities among
our people. It is difficult to conceive that your distresses can be
great, when one sees that much the greatest part of that money is
lavished in modes, and gewgaws, and tea ! It is impossible for us to
become wiser, when by simple economy, and avoiding unnecessary
expenses, we might more than defray the charge of the war. We
export solid provision of all kinds, which is necessary for the suste-
nance of man, and we import fashions, luxuries, and trifles. Such
trade may enrich the traders, but never the country.

The good will of all Europe to our cause as being the cause of
liberty, which is the cause of mankind, still continues, as does the
universal wish to see the English pride humiliated, and their power
curtailed. Those circumstances are encouraging, and give hopes of
a happy issue. Which may God grant, and that you, my friend, may
live* long a blessing to your country.

To Beniamin * thank you much for the great care and pains you
Vaughan, dated have taken in regulating and correcting the edition of
rmy’ 9 W°T'’ t^10Se PaPei's*r Your friendship for me appears in
*	almost every page; and if the preservation of any of

them should prove of use to the public, it is to you that the public
will owe the obligation. In looking them over, I have noted some
faults of impression that hurt the sense, and some other little matters,
which you will find all in a sheet under the title of Errata. You can
best judge whether it may'be worth while to add any of them to the
errata already printed, or whether it may not be as well to reserve the
whole for correction in another edition, if such should ever be. En-
closed I send a more perfect copy of the Chapter,2

1	Referring to an edition of Franklin's writings which Mr. Vaughan had prepared,
and which was published in London in one volume by J. Johnson in 1799.

2	Entitled " Parable on Persecution,” first defectively printed by Lord Karnes.LIFE AND LETTERS OF

*56

If I should ever recover the pieces that were in the hands of my
son, and those I left among my papers in America, I think there may
be enough to make three more such volumes, of which a great part
would be more interesting.

As to the time of publishing, of which you ask my opinion, I am not
furnished with any reasons, or ideas of reasons, on which to form any
opinion. Naturally I should suppose the bookseller to be from ex-
perience the best judge, and I should be for leaving it to him.

I did not write the pamphlet you mention. I know nothing of it.
I suppose it is the same, concerning which Dr. Priestley formerly
asked me the same question. That for which he took it was entitled,
‘‘A Dissertation on Liberty and Necessity, Pleasure and Pain,” with
these lines in the title-page.

“ Whatever is, is right. But purblind man
Secs but a part o' the chain, the nearest links ;

His eyes not carrying to that equal beam,

That poises all above.”	Dryden.

London. Printed MDCCXX V.

I return the manuscripts you ^vere so obliging as to send me ; I
am concerned at your having no other copies ; I hope these will get
safe to your hands. I do not remember the Duke de Chaulnes show-
ing me the letter you mention. I have received Dr. Crawford’s book,
but not your abstract, which I wait for as you desire.

I send you also M. Dupont’s “ Table Econoinique,” which I think
an excellent thing, as it contains in a clear method all the principles
of that new sect, called here les Economistes.

Poor Henly’s dying in that manner is inconceivable to me. Is any
reason given to account for it, besides insanity?

THE WHISTLE.

To Hadam? Bril-	I received my dear friend’s two letters, one for

ion, dated Passy, Wednesday and one for Saturday. This is again
1779 N<wember* Wednesday. I do not deserve one for to-day, because
I have not answered the former. But, indolent as I
am, and averse to writing, the fear of having no more of your pleasing
epistles, if I do not contribute to the correspondence, obliges me to
take up my pen ; and as Mr. B. has kindly sent me word, that he
sets out to-morrow to see you, instead of spending this Wednesday
evening as I have done its namesakes, in your delightful company, I
sit down to spend it in thinking of you, in writing to you, and in
reading over and over again your letters.

I am charmed with your description of Paradise, and with your
plan of living there ; and I approve much of your conclusion, that, in
the meantime, we should draw all the good we can from this world.
In my opinion, we might all draw more good from it than we do, and
suffer less evil, if we would take care not to give too much for whistles.
For to me it seems, that most of the unhappy people we meet with,
are becoming so by neglect of that caution.BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.	457

You ask what I mean ? You love stones, and will excuse my telling
one of myself.

When I was a child of seven years old, my friends, on a holiday,
filled my pockets with coppers. I went directly to a shop where they
sold .toys for children ; and, being charmed with the sound of a whistle,
that I met by the way in the hands of another boy, I voluntarily offered
and gave all my money for one. I then came home, and went whist-
ling all over the house, much pleased with my whistle, but disturbing
all the family. My brothers, and sisters, and cousins, understanding
the bargain I had made, told me I had given four times as much for
it as it was worth ; put me in mind what good things I might have
bought with the rest of the money ; and laughed at me so much for
my folly, that I cried with vexation ; and the reflection gave me more
chagrin than the whistle gave me pleasure.

This however was afterwards of use to me, the impression continuing
on my mind ; so that often, when I was tempted to buy some unneces-
sary thing, I said to myself, Don't give too much for the whistle; and
1 saved my money.

As I grew up, came into the world, and observed the actions of
men, I thought I met with many, very many, who gave too much for
the whistle.

When I saw one too ambitious of court favour, sacrificing his time
in attendance on levees, his repose, his liberty, his virtue, and perhaps
his friends, to attain it, I have said to myself, This man gives too
much for his whistle.

When I saw another fond of popularity, constantly employing him-
self in political bustles, neglecting his own affairs, and ruining them
by that neglect, Me fays, indeed, said I, too much for his whistle.

If I knew a miser, who gave up every kind of comfortable living,
all the pleasure of doing good to others, all the esteem of his fellow-
citizens, and the joys of benevolent friendship, for the sake of accumu-
lating wealth, Poor man, said I, you pay too much for your whistle.

When I met with a man of pleasure, sacrificing every laudable
■improvement of the mind, or of his fortune, to mere corporeal sensa-
tions, and ruining his health in their pursuit, Mistaken man, said I,
you are providing pain for yourself, instead of pleasure ; you give too
much for your whistle.

If I see one fond of appearance, or fine clothes, fine houses, fine
furniture, fine equipages, all above his fortune, for which he contracts
debts, and ends his career in a prison, Alas / say I, he has paid dear,
very dear, for his whistle.

When I see a beautiful, sweet-tempered girl married to an ill-
natured brute of a husband, What a pity, say I, that she should pay
so much for a whistle !

In short, I conceive that great part of the miseries of mankind are
brought upon them by the false estimates they have made of the
value of things, and by their giving too much for their whistles.

Yet I ought to have charity for these unhappy people, when I con-
sider, that, with ali this wisdom of which I am boasting, there are458

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

certain things in the world so templing, for example, the apples of
King John, which happily are not to be bought ; for if they were put
to sale by auction, 1 might very easily be led to ruin myself in the
purchase, and find that I had once more given too much for the
whistle.

Having some time since heard of your illness with
great concern, it gave me infinite pleasure to learn this
i779.y’ 19 N°V ’ t,aV fr°m M. Chantel, who did me the honour of a visit,
that you were so far recovered as to be able to make
little excursions on horseback. I pray God that your convalescence
may be quick and perfect, and your health be again firmly established.
Science would lose too much in losing one so zealous and active in its
cause, and so capable of accelerating its progress and augmenting its
dominions.

1 find myself here immersed in affairs, which absorb my attention,
and prevent my pursuing those studies in which I always found the
highest satisfaction ; and I am now grown so old, as hardly to hope
for a return of that leisure and tranquillity so necessary for philo-
sophical disquisitions. I have, however, not long since thrown a few
thoughts on paper relative to the Aurora Borealis, which I would send
you, but that I suppose you may have seen them in the youinal of
the Abb6 Rozier. If not, I will make out a copy, and send it to you ;
perhaps with some corrections.

Everything of your writing is always very welcome to me ; if, there-
fore you have lately published any new experiments or observations
in physics, I shall be happy to see them, when you have an opportunity
of sending them to me.

To John Baptist
Baccaria. dated

CHAPTER XXII. (1780.)

Never a Good War or a Bad Peace—British Devilism—Prospects of Science—
Invites Washington to visit Europe—Free Ships make Free Goods—Madame
Brillon—The Ephemera—Dialogue between Franklin and the Gout—His
Eurydice and Madam Helvetius—An Economical Project for diminishing the
Cost of Light—Indiscretion of John Adams—Count de Vergennes declines,
answering his Letters—Desperate Situation of the American Republic—New
Appeal for Aid, and a Warning to France.

To David Hart- I HAVE long postponed answering your letter of the
lov,datedPasay. 29th of June. A principal point in it, on which you
e ■’ 7 '	seemed to desire my opinion, was, the conduct you

thought America ought to hold, in case her allies should, from motives
of ambition or resentment of former injuries, desire her to continue
the war, beyond what should be reasonable and consistent with her
particular interests. As often as I took up your letter in order to
answer it, this suggestion displeased me, and I laid it down again. I
saw no occasion for discussing such a question at present, nor anyBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.	459

good end it could serve to discuss it before the case should happen ;
and I saw inconveniences in discussing it. I wish, therefore, you had
not mentioned it. For the rest, I am as much for peace as ever I
was, and as heartily desirous of seeing the war ended, as I was to
pre^nt its beginning ; of which your ministers know I gave a strong
proof before I left England, when, in order to an accommodation, I
offered at my own risk, without orders for so doing, and without know-
ing whether I should be owned in doing it, to pay the whole damage
of destroying the tea at Boston, provided the acts made against that
province were repealed. This offer was refused. I still think it would
have been wise to have accepted it. If the Congress have therefore
intrusted to others, rather than to me, the negotiations for peace,
when sufch shall be set on foot, as has been reported, it is perhaps
because they may have heard of a very singular opinion of mine, that
there hardly ever existed such a thing as a bad peace, or a good war,
and that I might therefore easily be induced to make improper con-
cessions. But at the same time they and you may be assured, that I
should think the destruction of our whole country, and the extirpa-
tion of our whole people, preferable to the infamy of abandoning our
allies.

As neither you nor I are at present authorized to treat of peace, it
seems to little purpose to make or consider propositions relating to
it. I have had so, many such put into my hands, that I am tired of
them. I will, however, give your proposal of a ten years’ truce this
answer, that, though I think a solid peace made at once a much better
thing, yet, if the truce is practicable and the peace not, I should be
for agreeing to it. At least I see at present no sufficient reasons for
refusing it, provided our allies approve of it. But this is merely a
private opinion of mine, which perhaps may be changed by reasons,
that at present do not offer themselves. This, however, I am clear
in, that withdrawing your troops will be best for you, if you wish a
cordial reconciliation, and that the truce should produce a peace.

# # # # # #

You may have heard, that accounts upon oatli have been taken in
America, by order of Congress, of the British barbarities committed
there. It is expected of me to make a schoolbook of them, and to
have thirty-five prints designed here by good artists, and engraved,
each expressing one or more of the different horrid facts, to be inserted
in the book, in order to impress the minds of children and posterity
with a deep sense of your bloody and insatiable malice and wicked-
ness. Every kindness I hear of, done by an Englishman to an American
prisoner, makes me resolve not to proceed in the work, hoping a
reconciliation may yet take place. But every fresh instance of your
devilism weakens that resolution, and makes me abominate the thought
of a reunion with such a people. You, my friend, have often persuaded
me, and I believed it, that the war was not theirs, nor approved by
them. But their suffering it so long to continue, and the wretched
rulers to remain who carry it on, makes me think you have too good
an opinion of them.4&o

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

To Riohard It gave me great pleasure to understand that you Con-
Price, dated tinue well. Your writings, after all the abuse you and
ary,"1780.Fel>rtt" they have met with, begin to make serious impressions
on those who at first rejected the counsels you gave; and
they will acquire new weight every day, and be in high esteem wjien
the cavils against them are dead and forgotten.

Please to present my affectionate respects to that honest, sensible,
and intelligent Society, who did me so long the honour of admitting
me to share in their instructive conversations. I never think of the
hours I so happily spent in that company, without regretting that they
are never to be repeated; for I see no prospect of an end to this
unhappy war in my time. Dr. Priestley, you tell me, continues his
experiments with success. We make daily great improvements in
natural, there is one I wish to see in moral philosophy ; the discovery
of a plan, that would induce and oblige nations to settle their disputes
without first cutting one anothePs throats. When will human reason
be sufficiently improved to see the advantage of this ? When will
men be convinced, that even successful wars at length become mis-
fortunes to those, who unjustly commenced them, and who triumphed
blindly in their success, not seeing all its consequences ? Your great
comfort and mine in this war is, that we honestly and faithfully did
everything in our power to prevent it.

To JosephPriest- Your kind letter of September 27th came to hand but
lev, dated Paasy. very lately, the bearer having stayed long in Holland.
8leb., 1780. j ajwayS rej0ice to hear of your being still employed in
experimental researches into nature, and of the success you meet with.
The rapid progress true science now makes, occasions my regretting
sometimes that I was born so soon. It is impossible to imagine the
height to which may be carried, in a thousand years, the power of
man over matter. We may perhaps learn to deprive large masses of
their gravity, and give them absolute levity, for the sake of easy
transport. Agriculture may diminish its labour and double its pro-
duce ; all diseases may by sure means be prevented or cured, not
excepting even that of old age, and lives lengthened at pleasure even
beyond the antediluvian standard. O that moral science were in as
fair a way of improvement, that men would cease to be wolves to one
another, and that human beings would at length learn what they now
improperly call humanity !

I have considered the situation of that person1 very attentively. 1
think that, with a little help from the Moral Algebra, he might form
a better judgment than any other person can form for him. But, since
my opinion seems to be desired, I give it for continuing to the end of
the term, under all the present disagreeable circumstances. The con-
nection will then die a natural death. No reason will be expected to

1 Dr. Priestley himself, who had accepted the situation of librarian to Lord
Shelburne on a salary of ^300 a year, for a number of years, but, before the
expiration of the term, had found it irksome, and had sought Franklin’s advice
about quitting it.BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

461

be given for the separation, and of course no offence taken at reasons
given ; the friendship may still subsist, and in some other way be
useful. The time diminishes daily, and is usefully employed. All
human situations have their inconveniences; we feel those that we
find in the present, and we neither feel nor see those that exist in
another. Hence we make frequent and troublesome changes without
amendment, and often for the worse.

In my youth I was passenger in a little sloop, descending the river
Delaware. There being no wind we were obliged, when the ebb was
spent, to cast anchor, and wait for the next. The heat of the sun on
the vessel was excessive, the company strangers to me, and not very
agreeable. Near the river side I saw what I took to be a pleasant
green meadow, in the middle of which was a large shady tree, where it
struck my fancy I could sit and read (having a book in my pocket),
and pass the time agreeably till the tide turned. I therefore prevailed
with the captain to put me ashore. Being landed, I found the greatest
part of my meadow was really a marsh ; in crossing which, to come at
my tree, I was up to my knees in mire ; and I had not placed myself
under its shade five minutes before the mosquitoes in swarms found
me out, attacked my legs, hands, and face, and made my reading and
my rest impossible ; so that I returned to the beach, and called for
the boat to come and take me on board again, where I was obliged to
bear the heat I had strove to quit, and also the laugh of the company.
Similar cases in the affairs of life have since frequently fallen under
my observation.

I have had thoughts of a college for him in America. I know no one
who might be more useful to the public in the instruction of youth.
But there are possible unpleasantnesses in that situation ; it cannot be
obtained but by a too hazardous voyage at this time for a family ; and
the time for experiments would be all otherwise engaged.

ToGeoreeWash- I have received but lately the letter your Excellency
ington, dated did me the honour of writing to me in recommendation
?7soy’ 5 Maroh, of the Marquis de Lafayette. His modesty detained it
7 ’	long in his own hands. We became acquainted, how-

ever, from the time of his arrival at Paris : and his zeal for the honour
of our country, his activity in our affairs here, and his firm attachment
to our cause and to you, impress me with the same regard and esteem
for him that your Excellency’s letter would have done had it been
immediately delivered to me.

Should peace arrive after another campaign or two, and afford us a
little leisure, I should be happy to see your Excellency in Europe, and
to accompany you, if my age and strength would permit, in visiting
some of its ancient and most famous kingdoms. You would, on this side
of the sea, enjoy the great reputation you have acquired, pure and free
from those little shades that the jealousy and envy of a man’s country-
men and contemporaries are ever endeavouring to cast over living
merit. Here you would know, and enjoy, what posterity will say of
Washington. For a thousand leagues have nearly the same effect462

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

with a thousand years. The feeble voice of those grovelling passions
cannot extend so far either in time or distance. At present I enjoy
that pleasure for you; as I frequently hear the old generals of this
martial country, who study the maps of America, and mark upon
them all your operations, speak with sincere approbation and great
applause of your conduct; and join in giving you the character of one
of the greatest captains of the age.

I must soon quit this scene, but you may live to see our country
flourish, as it will amazingly and rapidly after the war is over ; like a
field of young Indian corn, which long fair weather and sunshine had
enfeebled and discoloured, and which in that weak state, by a thunder
gust of violent wind, hail, and rain, seemed to be threatened with
absolute destruction ; yet the storm being past, it recovers fresh
verdure, shoots up with double vigour, and delights the eye, not of its
owner only, but of every observing traveller.

The best wishes that can be formed for your health, honour, and
happiness, ever attend you from yours, &c.

To Samuel *	*	* It gives me infinite satisfaction to find that

Cooper, dated with you, the wisest and best among our people, are so
?78oay’ !6March, hearty in endeavouring to strengthen the alliance. We
'	certainly owe much to this nation ; and we shall obtain

much more, if the same prudent conduct towards them continues, for
they really and strongly wish our prosperity, and will promote it by
every means in their power. But we should at the same time do as
much as possible for ourselves, and not ride (as we say) a free horse
to death. There are some Americans returning hence, with whom our
people should be upon their guard, as carrying with them a spirit of
enmity to this country. Not being liked here themselves, they dislike
the people ; for the same reason, indeed, they ought to dislike all that
know them.

To Joaepii Seed, I have just received the pamphlet you did me the
dated Faisy, 19 honour to send me by M. Gerard, and have read it with
March, 1780. pleasure. Not only as the clear state of facts it does you
honour, but as it proves the falsehood of a man,1 who also showed no
regard to truth in what he said of me, “ that I approved of the pro-
positions he carried over." The truth is this. His brother, Mr.
Pulteney, came here with those propositions ; and after stipulating
that if I did not approve of them, I should not speak of them to any
person, he communicated them to me. I told him frankly, on his
desiring to know my sentiments, that I did not approve of them, and
that I was sure they would not be accepted in America. “ But,” I
said, “ there are two other Commissioners here ; I will, if you please,
show your propositions to them, and you will hear their opinions. I
will also show them to the ministry here, without whose knowledge
and concurrence we can take no step In such affairs.” “ No,” said he,

1 Governor Johnstone, one of the British Commissioners for treating with
Congress.BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

463

“ as you do not approve of them, it can answer no purpose to show
them to anybody else ; the reasons that weigh with you will also weigh
with them ; therefore I now pray, that no mention may be made of my
having been here, or my business.” To this I agreed, and therefore
nothing could be more astonishing to m$, than to see, in an American
newspaper, that direct lie, in a letter from Mr. Johnstone, joined with
two other falsehoods relating to the time of the treaty, and to the
opinion of Spain !

In proof of the above, I enclose a certificate of a friend of Mr.
Pulteney’s, the only person present at our interview ; and I do it the
rather at this time, because I am informed that another calumniator
(the same who formerly in his private letters to particular members
accused you, with Messrs. Jay, Duane, Langdon, and Harrison, of
betraying the secrets of Congress in a correspondence with the
ministry) has made this transaction with Mr. Pulteney an article of
accusation against me, as having approved the same propositions.1
He proposes, I undersatnd, to settle in your government. I caution
you to beware of him ; for, in sowing suspicions and jealousies, in
creating misunderstandings and quarrels among friends, in malice,
subtilty, and indefatigable industry, he has, I think, no equal.

I am glad to see that you continue to preside in our new State, as
it shows that your public conduct is approved by the people. Yqu
have had a difficult time, which required abundance of prudence, and
you have been equal to the- occasion. The disputes about the Con-
stitution seem to have subsided. It is much admired here, and all
over Europe, and will draw over many families of fortune to settle
under it, as soon as there is a peace. The defects, that may on seven
years’ trial be found in it, can be amended, when the time comes for
considering them.

To an agent In my last, of the 27th instant, I omitted one thing
for	American j jia(j intended, viz., to desire you would give abso-

Paasy, 30 May, lute orders to your cruisers not to bring in any more
1780.	Dutch vessels, though charged with enemy’s goods,

unless contraband. All the neutral States of Europe seem at present
disposed to change what had before been deemed the law of nations,
to wit, that an enemy’s property may be taken wherever found; and
to establish a rule, that free ships shall make free goods. This rule is
itself so reasonable, and of a nature to be so beneficial to mankind,
that I cannot but wish it may become general. And I make no doubt
but that the Congress will agree to it, in as full an extent as France
and Spain. In the meantime, and until I have received their orders
on the subject, it is my intention to condemn no more English goods
found in Dutch vessels, unless contraband ; of which I thought it
right to give you this previous notice, that you may avoid the trouble
and expense likely to arise from such captures, and from the detention
pf them for a decision.

1 The calumniator here referred to is Arthur Lee.464

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

To the President

* * * The Alliance in her last cruise, met with
.7 ’**” Congress’ and sent to America a Dutch ship, supposed to have on
Ji11*	17S!87’ board an English cargo.

ay’ ‘ A ship of that nation has been brought in here by the
Black Prince, having an English cargo. I consulted with Messrs.
Adams and Dana, who informed me, that it was an established rule
with us in such cases to confiscate the cargo, but to release the ship,
paying her freight, &c. This I have accordingly ordered in the case
of this ship, and hope it may be satisfactory. But it is a critical time
with respect to such cases ; for, whatever may formerly have been the
law of nations, all the neutral powers at the instance of Russia seem
at present disposed to change it, and to enforce the rule that free ships
shall make free goods, except in the case of contraband. Denmark,
Sweden, and Holland have already acceded to the proposition, and
Portugal is expected to follow. France and Spain, in their answers,
have also expressed their approbation of it. I have, therefore,
instructed our privateers to bring in no more neutral ships, as such
prizes occasion much litigation, and create ill blood.

To Robert Mor- Everything here in Europe continues to wear a good
ris, datedPasBy, face. Russia, Sweden, Denmark, and Holland are rais-
3 June, 1780. jng a strong naval force to establish the free navigation
for neutral ships, and of all their cargoes, though belonging to enemies,
except contraband, that is, military stores. France and Spain have
approved of it, ai>d it is likely to become henceforth the law of nations,
that free ships make free goods. England- does not like this con-
federacy. 1 wish they would extend it still farther, and ordain, that
unarmed trading ships, as well as fishermen and farmers, should be
respected, as working for the common benefit of mankind, and never
be interrupted in their operations, even by national enemies ; but
let those only fight with one another whose .trade it is, and who are
armed and paid for the purpose.

To Charles w. * approve much of the principles of the confederacy
F. Dumas, dated of the neutral powers, and am not only for respecting
f-so37’ 6 JunC’ sb'Ps as the house of a friend, though containing the
goods of an enemy, but I even wish, for the sake of
humanity, that the law of nations may be further improved, by deter-
mining, that, even in time of war, all those kinds of people, who are
employed in procuring subsistence for the species, or in exchanging
the necessaries or conveniences of life, which are for the common
benefit of mankind, such as husbandmen on their lands, fishermen
in their barques, and traders in unarmed vessels, shall be permitted
to prosecute their several innocent and useful employments without
interruption or molestation, and nothing taken from them, even when
wanted by an enemy, but on paying a fair price for the same.

To John Jay, Mrs. Jay does me much honour in desiring to have
dated Fassy, 13 one of the prints, that have been made here of her
Juns, 78 . countryman. I send what is said to be the best of fiveBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

465

or six engraved by different hands, from different paintings. The
verses at the bottom are truly extravagant. But you must know, that
the desire of pleasing, by a perpetual rise of compliments in this
polite nation, has so used up all the common expressions of approba-
tion, that they are become flat and insipid, and to use them almost
implies censure. Hence music, that formerly might be sufficiently
praised when it was called bonne, to go a little farther they call it
excellente, then superbe, magnifiquc, exquise, celeste, all which being in
their turns worn out, there only remains divinej and, when that is
grown as insignificant as its predecessors, I think they must return to
common speech and common sense ; as, from vying with one another
fn fine and costly paintings on their coaches, since I first knew the
country, not being able to go farther in that way, they have returned
lately to plain carriages, painted without arms or figures, in one uni-
form colour.

To William Car- The Marquis de Lafayette arrived safely at Boston on
michael,1 dated the 28th of April, and, it is said, gave expectations of
17M*7’ 17 Jime> con1'np °f a squadron and troops. The vessel that
brings this left New London the 2nd of May; her
captain reports, that the siege of Charleston was raised, the troops
attacked in their retreat, and Clinton killed; but this wants confirma-
tion. London has been in the utmost confusion for seven or eight
days. The beginning of this month, a mob of fanatics, joined by a
mob of rogues, burnt and destroyed property to the amount, it is said,
of a million sterling. Chapels of foreign ambassadors, houses of
members of Parliament that had promoted the act for favouring
Catholics, and the houses of many private persons of that religion,
were pillaged and consumed, or pulled down, to the number of fifty ;
among the rest, Lord Mansfield’s is burnt, with all his furniture,
pictures, books, and papers. Thus he, who approved the burning of
American houses, has had fire brought home to him. He himself was
horribly scared, and Governor Hutchinson, it is said, died outright of
tire fright. The mob, tired with roaring and rioting seven days and
nights, were at length suppressed, and quiet restored on the 9th, in
the evening. Next day Lord George Gordon was committed to the
tower.

Enclosed I send you the little piece you desire.2 To understand it
rightly you should be acquainted with some few circumstances. The
person to whom it was addressed is Madame Brillon, a lady of most
respectable character and pleasing conversation; mistress of an
amiable family in this neighbourhood, with which I spend an evening
twice in every week. She has, among other elegant accomplishments,
that of an excellent musician ; and, with her daughter, who sings
prettily, and some friends who play, she kindly entertains me and my

1	Secretary to the American Legation at Madrid, while Mr. Jay was minister
there ; and afterwards for many years Chargi d'Affaires of the United States at
the court of Spain.

2	The Ephemera. See next page.

314C6

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

grandson with little concerts, a cup of tea, and a game of chess. I
call this my Opera, for I rarely go to the Opera at Paris.

The Moulin Joli is a little island in the Seine about two leagues
hence, part of the country-seat of another friend,1 where we visit
every summer, and spend a day in the pleasing society of the ingenious,
learned, and very polite persons who inhabit it. At the time when
the letter was written, all conversations at Paris were filled with dis-
putes about the music of Gluck and Picini, a German and Italian
musician, who divided the town into violent parties. A friend of this
lady having obtained a copy of it, under a promise not to give another,
did not observe that promise ; so that many have been taken, and it
is become as public as such a thing can well be, that is not printed ;
but I could not dream of its being heard of at Madrid ! The thought
was partly taken from a little piece of some unknown writer, which I
met with fifty years since in a newspaper, and which the sight of the
Ephemera brought to my recollection.

To John Fother- I rejoiced most sincerely to hear of your recovery
eiil datedPassy, from the dangerous illness by which I lost my very
19 June, 1780. valuable friend Peter Collinson. As I am sometimes
apprehensive of the same disorder, I wish to know the means that were
used and succeeded in your case ; and shall be exceedingly obliged
to you for communicating them when you can do it conveniently.

lie pleased to remember me respectfully to your good sister, and to
our worthy friend, David Barclay, who I make no doubt laments with
you and me, that the true pains we took together to prevent all this
horrible mischief proved ineffectual.

THE EPHEMERA:

AN EMBLEM OF HUMAN LIFE.

T» Xadame Bril- You may remember, my dear friend, that when we
k>n’ of-	lately	spent that happy day in the delightful garden and

written in 1778. sweet society of the Moulin Joly, I stopped a little in
one of our walks; and stayed some time behind the company. We
had been shown numberless skeletons of a kind of little fly, called
an ephemera, whose successive generations, we were told, were bred
and expired within the day. I happened to see a living company of
them on a leaf, who appeared to be engaged in conversation. You
know I understand all the inferior animal tongues. My too great
application to the study of them is the best excuse I can give for the
little progress I have made in your charming language. I listened
through curiosity to the discourse of these little creatures ; but as
they, in their natural vivacity, spoke three or four together, I could
make but little of their conversation. I found, however, by some
broken expressions that I heard now and then, they were disputing
warmly on the merit of two foreign musicians, one a cousin, the other
a moschetoj in which dispute they spent their time, seemingly as
1 Monsieur Watelet.BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

4C7

regardless of the shortness of life as if they had been sure of living a
month. Happy people ! thought I; you are certainly under a wise,
just, and mild government, since you have no public grievances to
complain of, nor any subject of contention but the perfections and
imperfections of foreign music. I turned my head from them to an
old grey-headed one, who was single on another leaf, and talking to
himself. Being amused with his soliloquy, I put it down in writing,
in hopes it will likewise amuse her to whom I am so much indebted
for the most pleasing of all amusements, her delicious company and
heavenly harmony.

“It was,” said he, “the opinion of learned philosophers of our race,
who lived and flourished long before my time, that this vast world,
the Moulin Joly, could not itself subsist more than eighteen hours ;
and I think there was some foundation for that opinion, since, by the
apparent motion of the great luminary that gives life to all nature,
and which in my time has evidently declined considerably towards
the ocean at the end of our earth, it must then finish its course, be
extinguished in the waters that surround us, and leave the world in
cold and darkness, necessarily producing universal death and de-
struction. I have lived seven of those hours, a great age, being no
less than four hundred and twenty minutes of time. How very few
of us continue so long ! I have seen generations born, flourish, and
expire. My present friends are the children and grandchildren of the
friends of my youth, who are now, alas; no more ! And I must soon
follow them ; for, by the course of nature, though still in health, I
cannot expect to live above seven or eight minutes longer. What
now avails all my toil and labour, in amassing honey-dew on this
leaf, which I cannot live to enjoy! What the political struggles I
have been engaged in, for the good of my compatriot inhabitants of
this bush, or my philosophical studies for the benefit of our race in
general! for, in politics, what can laws do without morals ? Our
present race of ephemerae will in a course of minutes become corrupt,
like those of other and older -bushes, and consequently as wretched.
And in philosophy how small our progress ! Alas 1 art is long and
life is short 1 My friends would comfort me with the idea of a name,
they say I shall leave behind me ; and they tell me I have lived long
enough to nature and to glory. But what will fame be to an ephemera
who no longer exists ? and what will become of all history in the
eighteenth hour, when the world itself, even the whole Moulin Joly,
shall come to its end, and be buried in universal ruin ?” To me after
all my eager pursuits, no solid pleasures now remain, but the re-
flection of a long life spent in meaning well, the sensible conversation
of a few good4 lady ephemerae, and now and then a kind smile and a
tune from the ever amiable Brillante.

To Alexander You see, my dear Sir, that I was not afraid my
Small,1 dvted masters would take it amiss, if I ran to see an olcl
Ttso^’ 8 Jaly’ frienc** though in the service of their enemy. They are
reasonable enough to allow, that differing politics
* A surg.'on in the British army, then passing through Paris.468

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

should not prevent the intercommunication of philosophers, who
study and converse for the benefit of mankind. But you have doubts
about coming to dine with me. I suppose you will not venture it ;
your refusal will not indeed do so much honour to the generosity and
good nature of your government, as to your sagacity. You know your
people, and I do not expect you. I think, too, that in friendship I
ought not to make you more visits, as I intended ; but I send my
grandson to pay his duty to his physician.

You inquired about my gout, and I forgot to acquaint you, that
I had treated it a little cavalierly in its two last.accesses. Finding
one night that my foot gave me more pain after it was covered
warm in bed, I put it out of bed naked ; and, perceiving it easier,
I let it remain longer than I at first designed, and at length fell
asleep, leaving it there till morning. The pain did not return, and I
grew well. Next winter, having a second attack, I repeated the
experiment ; not with such immediate success in dismissing the
gout, but constantly with the effect of rendering it less painful, so
that it permitted me to sleep every night. I should mention, that
it was my son who gave me the first intimation of this practice.
He being in the old opinion, that the gout was to be drawn out
by transpiration ; and, having heard me say, that perspiration was
carried on more copiously when the body was naked, than when
clothed, he put his foot out of bed to increase that discharge, and
found ease by it, which he .thought a confirmation of the doctrine.
But this method requires to be confirmed by more experiments, before
one can conscientiously recommend it. 1 give it you, however, in
exchange for your receipt of tartar emetic ; because the commerce of
philosophy as well as other commerce, is best promoted "by taking
care to make returns.

To Madame Hel- ------- And now I mention your friends, let me tell

vetius, at Au- you, that 1 have in my way been trying to form some
teui1,	hypothesis to account for your having so many, and of

such various kinds. I see that statesmen, philosophers, historians,
poets, and men of learning of all sorts, are drawn around you, and
seem as willing to attach themselves to you as straws about a fine
piece of amber. It is not that you make pretensions to any of their
sciences ; and, if you did, similarity of studies does not always make
people love one another. It is not that you take pains to engage
them ; artless simplicity is a striking part of your character. 1 would
not attempt to explain it by the story of the ancient, who, being asked
why philosophers sought the acquaintance of kings, and kings not
that of philosophers, replied, that philosophers knew what they
wanted, which was not always the case with kings. Yet thus far the
comparison may go, that we find in your sweet society, that charming
benevolence, that amiable attention to oblige, that disposition to
please and be pleased, which we do not always find in the society of
one another. It springs from you ; it has its influence on us all ; and
in your company we are not only pleased with you, but better pleased
with one another, and with ourselves.BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

469

To	Mortified at the barbarous resolution pronounced by

Helvetius. you so positively yesterday evening, that you would re-
main single the rest of your life, as a compliment due to the memory of
your husband, I retired to my chamber. Throwing myself upon my bed,
I dreamt that I was dead, and was transported to the Elysian Fields.

I was asked whether I wished to see any persons in particular ; to
which I replied, that I wished to see the philosophers. “There are
two who live here at hand in this garden ; they are good neighbours,
and very friendly towards one another.’’ “ Who are they ? ”
“ Socrates and Helvetius.” “ I esteem them both highly ; blit let me
see Helvetius first, because I understand a little French, but not a
word of Greek.” I was conducted to him ; he received me with much
courtesy, having known me, he said, by character, some time past. He
asked me a thousand questions relative to the war, the present state of
religion, of liberty, of the government in France. “You do not inquire,
then,” said I, “ after your dear friend, Madame Helvetius ; yet she
loves you exceedingly ; I was in her company not more than an hour
ago.” “Ah,” said he, “you make me recur to my past happiness,
which ought to be forgotten in order to be happy here. For many
years I could think of nothing but her, though at length I am con-
soled. I have taken another wife, the most like her that I could find ;
she is not indeed altogether so handsome, but she has a great fund of
wit and good sense ; and her whole study is to please me. She is at
this moment gone to fetch the best nectar and ambrosia to regale me ;
stay here awhile and you will see her.” “ I perceive,” said I, “that
your former friend is more faithful to you than you are to her ; she
has had several good offers, but refused them all. I will confess to
you that I loved her extremely; but she was cruel to me, and re-
jected me peremptorily for your sake.” “ I pity you sincerely,” said
he, “ for she is an excellent woman, handsome and amiable. But do
not the Abbe de la Roche and the Abbe Morellet visit her ? ” “ Cer-
tainly they do; not one of your friends has dropped her acquaint-
ance.” ‘Uf you had gained the Abbe Morellet with a bribe of good
coffee and cream, perhaps you would have succeeded; for he is as
deep a reasoner as Duns Scotus or St. Thomas ; he arranges and
methodizes his arguments in such a manner that they are almost
irresistible. Or, if by a fine edition of some old classic, you had
gained the Abbe de la Roche to speak against you, that would have
been still better; as I always observed, that when he recommended
anything to her, she had a great inclination to do directly the con-
trary.” As he finished these words the new Madame Helvetius
entered with the nectar, and I recognized her immediately as my
former American friend, Mrs. Franklin ! I reclaimed her, but she
answered me coldly ; “ I was a good wife to you for forty-nine years
and four months, nearly half a century; let that content you. I
have formed a new connection here, which will last to eternity.”

Indignant at this refusal of my Eurydice, I immediately resolved to
quit those ungrateful shades, and return to this good world again, to
behold the sun and you 1 Here I am : let us avenge ourselves /4 7o

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

To the Abbe de la I have run over, my dear friend, the little book ol
Hoche, at Au- poetry, by M. Helvetius, with which you presented me
tem1.	The poem on “ Happiness ” pleased me much, and

brought to my recollection a little drinking song, which I wrote forty
years ago upon the same subject, and which is nearly on the samq
plan, with many of the same thoughts, but very concisely expressed.
It is as follows.

Singer.

Fair Venus calls ; her voice obey,

In beauty’s arms spend night and day.

The joys of love all joys excel,

And loving’s certainly doing well.

Chorus.

Oh ! no I
Not so !

For honest souls know,

Friends and a bottle still bear the bell.

Singer.

Then let us get money, like bees lay up honey ;

We'll build us new hives, and store each cell.

The sight of our treasure shall yield us great pleasure ;

We’ll count it, and chink it, and jingle it well.

Chorus.

Oh ! no!

Not so!

For honest souls know,

Friends and a bottle still bear the bell.

Singer.

If this does not fit ye, let’s govern the city,

. In power is pleasure no tongue can tell;

By crowds though you’re teased, your pride shall be pleased,

And this can make Lucifer happy in hell 1

Chorus.

Oh! no!

Not so 1

For honest souls know,

Friends and a bottle still bear the bell.

Singer.

Then toss off your glasses, and scorn the dull asses,

Who, missing the kernel, still gnaw the shell;

What’s love, rule, or riches? Wise Solomon teaches,

They’re vanity, vanity, vanity still.

Chorus.

That’s true ;

He knew ;

He’d tried them all through ;

Friends and a bottle still bore the bell.

’Tis a singer, my dear Abbe, who exhorts his companions to seek
happiness in love, in riches, and in power. They reply, singing to-BENJAMIN FRA NIC LIN.	471

gethcr, that happiness is not to be found in any of these, things ; that
it is only to be found in friends and wine. To this proposition the
singer at length assents. The phrase “ bear the belli’ answers to the
French expression, “ obtain the prized

I have often remarked, in reading the works of M. Helvetius, that,
although we were born and educated in two countries so remote from
each other, we have often been inspired with the same thoughts ; and
it is a reflection very flattering to me, that we have not only loved the
same studies, but, as far as we have mutually known them, .the same
friends, and the same woman.

* * * Mr. Adams has given offence to the court

x0 tno irreaitlpnt .	.	.	v	.	...

of Congi. fls, here, by some sentiments and expressions contained m
dated p“jjy, j several of his letters written to the Count de Vergennes.

U£U8 ’	1 I mention this with reluctance, though perhaps it would

have been my duty to acquaint you with such a circumstance, even
were it not required of me by the minister himself. He has sent me
copies of the correspondence, desiring I would communicate them to
Congress ; and I send them herewith. Mr. Adams did not show me
his letters before he sent them. I have, in a former letter to Mr.
Lovell, mentioned some of the inconveniences, that attend the having
more than one minister at the same court; one of which incon-
veniences is, that they do not always hold the same language, and
that the impressions made by one, and intended for the service of his
constituents, may be effaced by the discourse of the other. It is true,
that Mr. Adams’s proper business is elsewhere; but, the time not
being come for that business, and having nothing else here wherewith
to employ himself, he seems to have endeavoured to supply what he
may suppose my negotiations defective in. He thinks, as he tells me
himself, that America has been too free in expressions of gratitude to
France ; for that she is more obliged to us than we to her ; and that
we should show spirit in our applications. I apprehend, that he
mistakes his ground, and that this court is to be treated with decency
and delicacy. The King, a young and virtuous prince, has, I am
persuaded, a pleasure in reflecting on the generous benevolence of the
action in assisting an oppressed people, and proposes it as a part of
the glory of his reign. I think it right to increase this pleasure by
our thankful acknowledgments, and that such an expression of grati-
tude is not only our duty, but our interest. A different conduct
seems to me what is not only improper and unbecoming, but what
may be hurtful to us. Mr. Adams, on the other hand, who, at the same
time, means our welfare and interest as much as I, or any man, can
do, seems to think a little apparent stoutness, and a greater air of in-
dependence and boldness in our demands, will procure us more ample
assistance. It is for Congress to judge and regulate their affairs
accordingly.

M. de Vergennes, who appears much offended, told me, yesterday,
that he would enter into no further discussions with Mr. Adams, nor
answer any more of his letters. He is gone to Holland to try, as he472

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

told me, whether something might not be done to render us less
dependent on France. He says, the ideas of this court and those of
the people in America are so totally different, that it is impossible for
any minister to please both. He ought to know America better than
I do, having been there lately, and he may choose to do what he
thinks will best please the people of America. But, when I consider
the expressions of Congress in many of their public acts, and particu-
larly in their letter to the Chevalier de la Luzerne, of the 24th of May
last, I cannot but imagine, that he mistakes the sentiments of a few for
a general opinion. It is my intention, while I stay here, to procure
what advantages I can for our country, by endeavouring to please
this court ; and I wish I could prevent anything being said by any of
our countrymen here^that may have a contrary effect, and increase
an opinion lately showing itself in Paris, that we seek a difference,
and with a view of reconciling ourselves to England. Some of them
have of late been very indiscreet in their conversations.

The great public event in Europe of this year is the proposal, by
Russia, of an armed neutrality for protecting the liberty of com-
merce. The proposition is accepted now by most of the maritime
powers. As it is likely to become the law of nations, that free ships
should make free goods, I wish the Congress to consider, whether it
may not be proper to give orders to their cruisers not to molest
foreign ships, but conform to the spirit of that treaty of neutrality.

To Mia. Geor- ^*s l°no> very l°nS> my dear friend, since I had the
giana * Shipley, great pleasure of hearing from you, and receiving any
Sated Passy, 0f your very pleasing letters. But it is my fault. I
8 Oct., 7 . have long omitted my part of the correspondence.
Those who love to receive letters should write letters. I wish I could
safely promise an amendment of that fault. But, besides the in-
dolence attending age, and growing upon us with it, my time is en-
grossed by too much business ; and I have too many inducements to
postpone doing, what I feel I ought to do for my own sake, and what
I can never resolve to omit entirely.

Your translations from Horace, as far as I can judge of poetry and
translations, are very good. That of the Quo, qub scelesti ruitis ? is
so suitable to the times, that the conclusion, (in your version), seems
to threaten like a prophecy ; and methinks there is at least some
appearance of danger that it may be fulfilled. I am unhappily an
enemy, yet I think there has been enough of blood spilt, and I wish
what is left in the veins of that once loved people, may be spared by
a peace solid and everlasting.

It is a great while since I have heard anything of the good bishop.
Strange, that so simple a character should sufficiently distinguish one
of that sacred body ! Donnez-moi cte ses nouyelles. I have been some
time flattered with the expectation of seeing the countenance of that
most honoured and even beloved friend, delineated by your pencil.
The portrait is said to have been long on the" way, but is not yet
arrived; nor can I hear where it is.BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

473

Indolent as I have confessed myself to be, I could not, you see,
miss this good and safe opportunity of sending you a few lines, with
my best wishes for your happiness, and that of the whole dear and
amiable family in whose sweet society I have spent so many happy
hours. Mr. Jones1 tells me, he shall have a pleasure in being
the bearer of my letter, of which I make no doubt. I learn from him,
that to your drawing, and music, and painting, and poetry, and Latin,
you have added a proficiency in chess ; so that you are, as the
French say, remplie de talens. May they and you fall to the lot of
one, that shall duly value them, and love you as much as I do.

To Richard Besides the pleasure of their company, I had the great
Price, dated satisfaction of hearing by your two valuable friends, and
l78oy’ 9 °Ct ’ Ieani*nff from your letter, that you enjoy a good state of
health. May God continue it, as well for the good of
mankind as for your comfort. I thank you much for the second
edition of your excellent pamphlet. I forwarded that you sent to Mr.
Dana, he being in Holland. I wish also to see the piece you have
written (as Mr. Jones tells me) on Toleration. I do not expect
that your new Parliament will be either wiser or honester than the
last. All projects to procure an honest one, by place bills, &c., appear
to me vain and impracticable. The true cure, I imagine, is to be
found only in rendering all places unprofitable, and the King too poor
to give bribes and pensions. Till this is done, which can only be by
a revolution (and I think you have not virtue enough left to procure
one), your nation will always be plundered, and obliged to pay by
taxes the plunderers for plundering and ruining. Liberty and virtue
therefore join in the call, “ Come out of her, my people ” I

I am fully of your opinion respecting religious tests ; but, though
the people of Massachusetts have not in their new constitution kept
quite clear of them, yet, if we consider what that people were one
hundred years ago, we must allow they have gone great lengths in
liberality of sentiment on religious subjects ; and we may hope for
greater degrees of perfection, when their constitution, some years
hence, shall be revised. If Christian preachers had continued to
teach as Christ and his Apostles did, without salaries, and as the
Quakers now do, I imagine tests would never have existed; for 1
think they were invented, not so much to secure religion itself, as the
emoluments of it. When a religion is good, I conceive that it will
support itself; and, when it cannot support itself, and God does not
take care to support it, so that its professors are obliged to call for the
help of the civil power, it is a sign, I apprehend, of its being a bad
one. But I shall be out of my depth, if I wade any deeper in theology,
and I will not trouble you with politics, nor with news which are
almost as uncertain ; but conclude with a heartfelt wish to embrace
you once more, and enjoy your sweet society in peace, among our
honest, worthy, ingenious friends at the London.

* Afterwards Sir William Jones.474

LIFE AND LETTERS OF-

To Count de Ver- * h.ave Just received from Congress their letter for
gennes, dated the King, which I have the honour of putting herewith
l78lSy’ 13 Fcb ’ *n*:0 ^an<^s °f y°ur Excellency. I am charged, at
the same time, to “ represent, in the strongest terms,
the unalterable resolution of the United States to maintain their
liberties and independence ; and inviolably to adhere to the alliance
at every hazard, and in every event ; and that the misfortunes of the
last campaign, instead of repressing, have redoubled their ardour :
that Congress are resolved to employ every resource in their power
to expel the enemy from every part of the United States, by the most
vigorous and decisive co-operation with marine and other forces of
their illustrious ally ; that they have accordingly called on,the several
States for a powerful army and ample supplies of provisions ; and
that the States are disposed effectually to comply with their requisi-
tions. That if, in aid of their own exertions, the court of France can
be prevailed on to assume a naval superiority in the American seas,
to furnish the arms, ammunition, and clothing, specified in the esti-
mate heretofore transmitted, and to assist with the loan mentioned in
the letter, they flatter themselves, that, under the divine blessing, the
war must speedily be terminated, with glory and advantage to both
nations.”

By several letters to me from intelligent persons it appears, that the
great and expensive exertions of the last year, by which a force was
assembled capable of facing the enemy, and which accordingly drew
towards New York, and lay long near that city, was rendered in-
effectual by the superiority of the enemy at sea ; and that their
successes in Carolina had been chiefly owing to that superiority,
and to the want of the necessary means for furnishing, marching,
and paying the expense of troops sufficient to defend that province.
The Marquis de Lafayette writes to me, that it is impossible to con-
ceive, without seeing it, the distress which the troops have suffered
for want of clothing; and the following is a paragraph of a letter
from General Washington, which I ought not to keep back from your
Excellency, viz., “ I doubt not that you are so fully informed by Con-
gress of our political and military state, that it would be superfluous
to trouble you with anything relative to either. If I were to speak on
topics of the kind, it would be to show that our present situation
makes one of two things essential to us ; a peace, or the most vigorous
aid of our allies, particularly in the article of money. Of their dis-
position to serve us, we cannot doubt ; their generosity will do every-
thing which their means will permit.” They had in America great
expectations, I know not on what foundation, that a considerable
supply of money would be obtained from Spain ; but that expectation
has failed, and the force of that nation in those seas has been em-
ployed to reduce small forts in Florida, without rendering any direct
assistance to the United States ; and indeed the long delay of that
court, in acceding to the treaty of commerce, begins to have the
appearance of its not inclining to have any connection with us; so
that, for effectual friendship, and for the aid so necessary in the pre-BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.	475

sent conjuncture, vve can rely on France alone, and in tlie continuance
of the King’s goodness towards us.

I am grown old. I feel myself much enfeebled by my late long
illness, and it is probable I shall not long have any more concern in
these affairs. I therefore take this occasion to express my opinion to
your Excellency, that the present conjuncture is critical; that there is
some danger lest the Congress should lose its influence over the
people, if it is found unable to procure the aids that are wanted ; and
that the whole system of the new government in America may thereby
be shaken ; that, if the English are suffered once to recover that
country, such an opportunity of effectual separation as the present
may not occur again in the course of ages; and that the possession
of those fertile and extensive regions, and that vast seacoast, will
afford them so broad a basis for future greatness, by the rapid growth
of their commerce, and breed of seamen and soldiers, as will enable
them to become the terror of Europe, and to exercise with impunity
that insolence, which is so natural to their nation, and which will
increase enormously with the increase of their power.

CHAPTER XXIII. (1781.)

Franklin asks to be relieved from the Mission to Paris —Congress refuses his
Request—His Enemies in America—Duties on Exports—Expenses of Foreign
Ministers—How to do much Good with little Money—Appointed one of the
Commissioners to negotiate a Peace—Capitulation of Cornwallis.

To the President 1 ?AD the honour of receiving on the 13th of last
of Congress, month your Excellencys letter of the 1st of January,
pas6y, 12 together with the instructions of November 28th and
610 ’	' December 27th, a copy of those to Colonel Laurens,

and the letter to the King. I immediately drew a memorial, enforcing
as strongly as I could the requests that are contained in that letter,
and directed by the instructions, and I delivered the same with the
letter, which were both well received; but, the ministry being ex-
tremely occupied with other weighty affairs, and I obtaining for some
time only general answers, that something would be done for us, &c.,
and Mr. Laurens not arriving, I wrote again, and pressed strongly for
a decision on the subject; that I might be able to write explicitly by
this opportunity, what aids the Congress were, or were hot, to expect ;
the regulation of their operations for the campaign depending on the
information I should be enabled to give.

Upon this, I received a note, appointing Saturday last for a meeting
with the minister, which I attended punctually. He assured me of the
King’s goodwill to the United States ; remarking, however, that, being
on the spot, I must be sensible of the great expense France was
actually engaged in, and the difficulty of providing for it, which ren-
dered the lending us twenty-five millions at present impracticable.476

LIFE AND LETTERS Op

But he informed me, that the letter from the Congress, and my
memorials, had been under his Majesty’s consideration ; and ob-
served, as to loans in general, that the sum we wanted to borrow in
Europe was large, and that the depreciation of our paper had hurt
our credit on this side of the water ; adding, also, that the King could
not possibly favour a loan for us in his dominions, because it would
interfere with, and be a prejudice to, those he was under the necessity
of obtaining himself to support the war ; but that, to give the States a
signal proof of his friendship, his Majesty had resolved to grant them
the sum of six millions, n&t as a loan, but as a free gift. This sum,
the minister informed me, was exclusive of the three millions, which
he had before obtained for me, to pay the Congress drafts for interest,
&c., except in the current year.	>

To the Preeident 1 ™ust no7. be& }e,ave, ,to, say something relating to
of Congrese, myself; a subject with which I have not often troubled
Mtodi,Pvir«87’ 12 tbe Congress. I have passed my seventy-fifth year, and

8X0 ’	' I find that the long and severe fit of the gout, which I

had the last winter, has shaken me exceedingly, and I am yet far
from having recovered the bodily strength I before enjoyed. I do not
know that my mental faculties are impaired; perhaps I shall be the
last to discover that ; but I am sensible of great diminution in my
activity, a quality I think particularly necessary in your minister for
this court. I am afraid, therefore, that your affairs may some time or
other suffer by my deficiency. I find also, that the business is too
heavy for me, and too confining. The constant attendance at home,
which is necessary for receiving and accepting your bills of exchange
(a matter foreign to my ministerial functions), to answer letters, and
perform other parts of my employment, prevents my taking the air
and exercise, which my annual journeys formerly used to afford me,
and which contributed much to the preservation of my health. There
are many other little personal attentions, which the infirmities of age
render necessary to an old man’s comfort, even in some degree to the
continuance of his existence, and with which business often interferes.

I have been engaged in public affairs, and enjoyed public con-
fidence, in some shape or other, during the long term of fifty years,
and honour sufficient to satisfy any reasonable ambition ; and I have
no other left but that of repoce, which I hope the Congress will grant
me, by sending some person to supply my place. At the same time,
I beg they, may be assured, that it is not any the least doubt of their
success in the glorious cause, nor any disgust received in their service,
that induces me to decline it, but purely and simply the reasons above
mentioned. And, as I cannot at present undergo the fatigues of a ska
voyage (the last having been almost to much for me), and would not
again expose myself to the hazard of capture and imprisonment in
this time of war, I purpose to remain here at least till the peace ;
perhaps it may be for the remainder of my life; and, if any know-
ledge or experience I have acquired here may be thought of use to my
successor, I shall freely communicate it, and assist him with any in-BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.	477

fluence I may be supposed to have, or counsel that may be desired
of me.1

I have one request more to make, which, if I have served the
Congress to their satisfaction, I hope they will not refuse me; it is,
that they will be pleased to take under their protection my grandson,
William Temple Franklin. I have educated him from his infancy,
and I brought him over with an intention of placing him where he
might be qualified for the profession of the law : but the constant
occasion I had for his services as a private secretary during the time
of the Commissioners, and more extensively since their departure,
has induced me to keep him always with me ; and indeed, being con-
tinually disappointed of the secretary Congress had at different times
intended me, it would have been impossible for me, without this
young gentleman’s assistance, to have gone through the business in-
cumbent on me. He has therefore lost so much of the time necessary
for law studies, that I think it rather advisable for him to continue, if
it may be, in the line of public foreign affairs ; for which he seems
qualified by a sagacity and judgment above his years, and great dili-
gence and activity, exact probity, a genteel address, a facility in
speaking well the French tongue, and all the knowledge of business
to be obtained by a four years’ constant employment in the secretary’s
office, where he may be said to have served a kind of apprenticeship.

After all the allowance I am capable of making for the partiality of
a parent to his offspring, I cannot but think he may in time make a
very able foreign minister for Congress, in whose service his fidelity
may be relied on. But I do not at present propose him as such, for
though he is now of age, a few years more of experience will not be
amiss. In the meantime, if they should think fit to employ him as a
secretary to their minister at any European court, I am persuaded
they will have.reason to be satisfied with his conduct, and I shall be
thankful for his appointment, as a favour to me.

My accounts have been long ready for the examination of some
person to be appointed for that purpose.

To William * received your respected favour of the 20th past, and
Hodgson, dated am shocked exceedingly at the account you gave me of
Passy, 1 April, Digges. He that robs the rich even of a single guinea

’	is a villain ; but what is he who can break his sacred

trust, by robbing a poor man and a prisoner of eighteen pence given
in charity for his relief, and repeat that crime as often as there are

1 Franklin was weary of contending with foes, secret and open, so far from their
base of operations. This, no doubt, had much to do with this urgent request to
be , relieved. , The Congress not only declined to accede to it, but made him joint
Commissioner with Jay and Adams to settle the terms of peace. In a letter to the
President of Congress, dated at Madrid, April 25th, 1781, Mr. Jay said : “ I per-
ceive Dr. Franklin desires to retire. This circumstance calls upon me to assure
Congress, that I have reason to be perfectly satisfied with his conduct towards me,
and that I have received from him all the aid and attention I could wish or expect.
His character is very high here, and I really believe that the respectability, which
he enjoys throughout Europe, has been of general use to our cause and country."478

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

weeks in a winter, and multiply it by robbing as many poor men every
week as make up the number of near six hundred? We have no
name in our language for such atrocious wickedness. If such a fellow
is not damned, it is not worth while to keep a devil.

I am sorry you have been obliged to advance money. I desired
Mr. Grand, some time since, to order two hundred pounds to be paid
you in London. If that is not done, draw on him for the sum of two
hundred and fifty pounds, payable at thirty days’ sight, and your bill
shall be duly honoured.

To Mr. Jay, Digges, a Maryland merchant, residing in London,
dated Passy, who pretended to be a zealous American, and to have
Aug. 20,1781. much concern for our poor people in the English
prisons, drew upon me for their relief at different times last winter
to the amount of four hundred and ninety-five pounds sterling, which
he said had been drawn for upon him by the gentlemen at Portsmouth
and Plymouth, who had the care of the distribution. To my utter
astonishment I have since learned, that the villain had not applied
above thirty pounds of the money to that use, and that he has failed
and absconded.

To William Car- ^ thank you much for your friendly hints of the opera-
michael, dated tions of my enemies, and of the means I might use to
nsi87’ 12 Apri1’ defeat them. Having in view at present no other point
to gain but that of rest, I do not take their malice so
much amiss, as it may farther my project, and perhaps be some ad-
vantage to you. ------- and ----- are open, and, so far, honourable

enemies ; the-----, if enemies, are more covered. I never did any of

them the least injury, and can conceive no other source of their malice
but envy. To be sure, the excessive respect shown me here by ranks
of all people, and the little notice taken of them, was a mortifying
circumstance; but it was what I could neither prevent or-remedy.
Those who feel pain at seeing others enjoy pleasure, and are unhappy,
must meet daily with so many causes of torment, that I conceive them
to be already in a state of damnation ; and on that account I ought
to drop all fesentment with regard to those two gentlemen. But I
cannot help being concerned at the mischief their ill tempers will be
continually doing in our public affairs, whenever they have any con-
cern in them.

I remember the maxim you mention of Charles the Fifth, Yo y el
Tiempoj and have somewhere met with an answer to it in this distich.

" I and Time ’gainst any two ;

Chance and I 'gainst Time and you.”

And I think the gentlemen you have at present to deal with, would do
wisely to guard a little more against certain chances.

The prince of Maceran, with several persons of his nation, did me
the honour of breakfasting with me on Monday last, when I presented
the compliments you charged me with. Mr. Cumberland has not yet
arrived in Paris, as far as I have heard.BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.	479

The discontents in our army have been quieted. There was in
them not the least disposition of revolting to the enemy. I thank you
for the Maryland captain’s news, which I hope will be confirmed.
They have heard something of it in England, as you will see by the
papers, and are very uneasy about it,<as well as about their news from
the East Indies.

To Lafayette, You are a very good correspondent, which I do not
dated Passy, 14 deserve, as I am a bad one. The truth is, I have too
May, 1781. much business upon my hands, a great deal of it foreign
to my function as a minister, which interferes with my writing regu-
larly to my friends. But I am nevertheless extremely sensible of
your kindness in sending me such frequent and full intelligence of the
state of affairs on your side of the water, and in letting me see by your
letters, that your health continues, as well as your zeal for our cause
and country.

You mention my having enemies in America. You are luckier, for
I think you have none here, nor anywhere. Your friends have heard
of your being gone against the traitor Arnold, and are anxious to hear
of your success, and that you have brought him to punishment. En-
closed is a copy of a letter from his agent in England, captured by one
of our cruisers, and by which the price or reward he received for his
treachery may be guessed at. Judas sold only one man, Arnold three
millions. Judas got for his one man thirty pieces of silver, Arnold not
a halfpenny a head. A miserable bargain ! especially when one con-
siders the quantity of infamy he has acquired to himself, and entailed
on his family.1

The English are in a fair way of gaining still more enemies ; they
play a desperate game. Fortune may favour them, as it sometimes
does a drunken dicer ; but by their tyranny in the East, they have at
length roused the powers there against them, and I do not know that
they have in the West a single friend. If they lose their India com-
merce (which is one of their present great supports), and one battle at
sea, their credit is gone, and their power follows. Thus empires, by
pride, folly, and extravagance, ruin themselves like individuals. M.
de la Motte Piquet has snatched from between their teeth a good deal
of their West India prey, having taken twenty-two sail of their home-
ward bound prizes. One of our American privateers has taken two
more, and brought them into Brest, and two were burnt; there were
thirty-four in company, with two men-of-war of the line and two
frigates, who saved themselves by flight, but we do not hear of their
being yet got in.

I think it was a wise measure to send Colonel Laurens here, who
could speak knowingly of the state of the army. It has been attended
with all the success that perhaps could reasonably be expected, though

1 The letter here mentioned was from a banker in London to General Arnold,
staling that he had received from him bills to the amount of five thousand pounds
sterling, which the banker said he had invested in the stocks. This was supposed
to be the money paid to Arnold as the reward of his treachery. After the war, a
pension was likewise granted to each of his children.480

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

not with all that was wished. He has fully justified your character of
him, and returns thoroughly possessed of my esteem ; but that cannot
and ought not to please him so much, as a little more money would
have done for his beloved army. This court continues firm and steady
in its friendship, and does everything it can for us. Can we not do a
little more for ourselves ? My successor (for I have desired the Con-
gress to send me one) will find it in the best disposition towards us,
and 1 hope he will take care to cultivate that disposition. You,
who know the leading people of both countries, can perhaps judge
better than any member of Congress of a person suitable for this
station.

1 wish you may be in a way to give your advice, when the matter
is agitated in that assembly. I have been long tired of the trade of
minister, and wished for a little repose before I went to sleep for good
and all. I thought I might have held out till the peace ; but, as that
seems at a greater distance than the end of my days, I grow impatient.
1 would not, however, quit the service of the public, if I did not sin-
cerely think that it would be easy for the Congress, with your counsel,
to find a fitter man. God bless you, and crown all your labours with
success.	T

To John Adams, I have with you, no doubt that America will be easily
dated Passy, 19 able to pay off not only the interest, but the principal,
May, 1781. 0f au t^e debts she may contract in this war. But
whether duties upon her exports will be the best method of doing it,
is a question I am not so clear in. England raised indeed a great
revenue by duties on tobacco. But it was by virtue of a prohibition
of foreign tobaccos, and thereby obliging the internal consumer to pay
those duties. If America were to lay a duty of five pence sterling a
pound on the exportation of her tobacco, would any European nation
buy it? Would not the colonies of Spain and Portugal, and the
Ukraine of Russia, furnish it much cheaper? Was not England her-
self obliged, for such reasons, to drop the duty on tobacco she fur-
nished to France ? Would it not cost an immense sum in officers, &c.,
to guard our long coast against smuggling of tobacco, and running it
out to avoid a duty ? And would not many even of those officers be
corrupted and connive at it ? It is possibly an erroneous opinion, but
I find myself rather inclined to adopt that modern one, which suppose
it best for every country to leave its trade entirely free from all in.
cumbrances. Perhaps no country does this at present. Holland
comes the nearest to it; and her commercial wealth seems to have
increased in proportion.

Your Excellency has done me the honour of announcing to me your
appointment. I hope soon to return the compliment by informing
you of my demission. I find the various employments of merchant,
banker, judge of admiralty, consul, &c., &c., besides my ministerial
function, too multifarious and too heavy for my old shoulders ; and
have therefore requested Congress that I may be relieved ; for in this
point I agree even with my enemies, that another may easily be found
who can better execute them.BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

481

To Mews. D. I received the letter you did me the honour of writing
Wendorp and to me on the 31st past, relating to your ship, supposed
Hoytser, dated to be retaken from the English by an American
Paasy, 8 June, privateer, and carried into Morlaix. I apprehend that
1781,	you have been misinformed, as I do not know of any

American privateer at present in these seas» I have the same senti-
ments with you of the injustice of the English, in their treatment of
your nation. They seem at present to have renounced all pretension
to any other honour, than that of being the first piratical state in the
world. There are three employments, which I wish the law of nations
would protect, so that they should never be molested or interrupted
by enemies even in time of war; I mean farmers, fishermen, and mer-
chants ; because their employments are not only innocent, but for the
common subsistence and benefit of the human species in general. As
men grow more enlightened, we may hope that this will in time be the
case. Till then we must submit, as well as we can, to the evils we
cannot remedy.

To John Adam.' Mr. Grand has communicated to me a letter from your
dAted Pauy, ll Excellency to him, relating to certain charges in your
une> 7 1 account, on which you seem to desire to have my
opinion. As we are all new in these matters, I consulted, when I was
making up my account, one of the oldest foreign ministers here, as to
the custom in such cases. He informed me, that it was not perfectly
uniform with the ministers of all courts, but that in general, where a
salary was given for service and expenses, the expenses understood
were merely those necessary to the man, such as housekeeping, cloth-
ing, and coach ; but that the rent of the hotel in which he dwelt, the
payment of couriers, the postage of letters, the salary'of clerks, the
stationery for his bureau,.with the feasts afid illuminations made on
public occasions, were esteemed the expenses of the Prince, or State
that appointed him, being for the service or honour of his prince or
nation, and either entirely, or in great part, expenses, that, as a private
man, he would have been under no necessity of incurring. These, there-
fore, were to be charged in his accounts. He remarked, it was true, that
the minister’s housekeeping as well as his house was usually, and in
some sort necessarily more expensive, than those of a private person ;
but this, he said, was considered in his salary, to avoid trouble in ac-
counts ; but that, where the Prince or State had not purchased or
built a house for their minister, which was sometimes the ease, they
always paid his house rent.

I have stated my own accounts according to this information ; and
I mention them, that, if they seem to you reasonable, we may be uni-
form in our charges, by your charging, in the same manner ; or, if
objections to any of them occur to you, that you would communicate
them to me for the same reason.

Thus you see my opinion, that the articles you mention, of courtage,
commission, and port de lettres, are expenses that ought to be borne,
not by you, but by the United States. Yet it seems to me more proper

32482

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

that you should pay them, and charge them with the other articles
above mentioned, than that they should be paid by me, who, not
knowing the circumstances, cannot judge (as you can) of the truth and
justice of such an account when presented, and who, besides, have no
orders to pay more on your account than your net salary.

With regard to that salary, though your receipts to Fizeau and
Grand, shown to me, might be quite sufficient to prove they had
paid you the sums therein mentioned, yet, as there are vouchers for
them, and which they have a right to retain, I imagine it will be
clearest if you draw upon me, agreeably to the order of Congress ;
and, if this is quarterly, it will be the most convenient to me.

ToWilliamJack- I have this instant received your letter of the 2nd,
rrffda£aflB8& urging ^e delivery of the money. I must be short in
the morning, my reply, as your express waits.

1781,	Colonel Laurens indeed obtained a promise of ten

millions to be raised by a loan in Holland. I understood, while he
was here, that that loan was in train, and that the million and a half
to be sent with you was a part of it. I since learn, that nothing has
yet been obtained in Holland, that the success is not yet certain, and
that the money in question is a part of the six millions I had obtained
before his arrival, upon the strength of which I accepted the bills
drawn on his father, and on Mr. Jay, and without which acceptances
the Congress’s credit in America would have been ruined, and a loss
incurred of twenty per cent, upon the protests. I cannot obtain more
money here at present ; and those bills, being accepted, must be
paid, as well as those I accepted on your earnest request, for the
great unexpected purchase you made in Holland.

Colonel Laurens has carried two millions and a half of that six
millions with him, which will serve till the loan in Holland produces
a further supply. In the meantime I cannot suffer the credit of our
country to be destroyed, if, by detaining this money, it may be saved.
And, if I were to consent to its going, our banker would be obliged
to arrest great part of it as belonging to the States, he being in
advance for them, which would occasion much disagreeable noise,
and very ill consequences to our credit in Europe.

I find, by Mr. Viemerange’s account just received, that Mr. Laurens’s
orders have more than absorbed all the money he did not take with
him. I applaud the zeal you have both shown in the affair; but I
see, that nobody cares how much I am distressed, provided they can
carry their own points. I must, therefore, take what care I can of
mine, theirs and mine being equally intended for the service of the
public. I am sorry to learn that the vessel is detained for this
express. I understood by your last, that she waited for convoy. I
heartily wish you a good voyage, and am, with great esteem, &c.

ToWilliam Jack-	I received your letter of the 2nd instant, by your first

son, ^atedfaBs'y, express, this morning at six, answered it, and sent him
5 July, 1781. away immediately. I have just now received yourBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

483

second express, of the same date, in which you threaten me with
a proceeding, that I apprehend exceedingly imprudent, as it can
answer no good end to you, must occasion much scandal, and be
thereby very prejudicial to the affairs of the Congress.

But I cannot, therefore, consent to suffer their bills, to the amount
of more than a million accepted and expected, to go back protested
for want of this money. I have nothing to change in the answer
above mentioned. You will, however, follow your own judgment, as
I must follow mine; and you will take upon yourself the con-
sequences.

To William Jack-	I received and answered two of your expresses yester-

c°?’idat!™n““y’ day morning, and in the evening I received a third
y’ ' letter from you, all dated the 2nd instant.

In this last you tell me, “ that I must be sensible I cannot have the
disposal of the money, as it was obtained without either my know-
ledge or concurrence, by Colonel Laurens, appointed special minister
for that purpose.” I do not desire to diminish the merit of Colonel
Laurens. I believe he would have been glad, if it had been in his
power, to have procured ten times the sum ; and that no application
or industry on his part for that purpose would have been wanting.
But I cannot let this injurious assertion of yours pass, without
expressing my surprise, that you, who were always with that gentle-
man, should be so totally ignorant of that transaction. The six
millions, of which he took with him two and a half, of which one and
a half were sent to Holland, and of which more than the remainder
is ordered in stores from hence, was a free gift from the king’s
goodness (not a loan to be repaid with interest), and was obtained
by my application, long before Colonel Laurens’s arrival.

I had also given in ajist of the stores to be provided, though on
his coming I cheerfully gave up the further prosecution of that busi-
ness into his hands, as he was better acquainted with the particular
wants of the army, than I could be, and it was one of the purposes
of his appointment.

Thus no part of the affair was done without my “ knowledge and
concurrence,” except the sending a million and a half of the specie
to Holland. This was indeed a secret to me. I had heard of that
sum’s being ready there to embark, but I always, till lately, under-
stood it to be a part of the Dutch loan, which I am about to mention,
or I should certainly have opposed that operation. What Colonel
Laurens really obtained, and a great service I hope it will prove, was
a loan upon interest of ten millions, to be borrowed on the credit of
this court in Holland. I have not heard, that this loan has yet pro-
duced any thing, and therefore I do not know that a single livre
exists, or has existed in Europe, of his procuring for the States. On
thg contrary, he and you have drawn, from me considerable sums,
as necessary for your expenses, and he left me near forty thousand
livres to pay for the Alliance;, and, moreover, engaged me in a. debt
jn Holland, which I understood might amount to about fifteen thousand484

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

pounds sterling, and which you contrived to make fifty thousand

pounds.	,

When I mentioned to him the difficulty I should find to pay the
drafts, he said, “You have the remainder of the six millions.’’ He
gave me no account of the dispositions he had made, and it is but
fately I have learnt, that there is no remainder. To gratify you, and
to get that ship out, which could not have stirred without me, I have
engaged for the vast sum above mentioned, which I am sure I shall
be'much distressed to pay, and therefore have not deserved at your
hands the affront you are advised to menace me with.

And since I find you make it a point of reflection upon me, that
I want to apply money to the payment of my engagements for the
Congress, which was obtained by Colonel Laurens for other purposes,
1 must request, that you will upon this better information take
occasion to correct that error, if you have communicated it to any
other person.

I5y the letters you showed me, that had passed between Mr. Adams
and you, I perceived he had imbibed an opinion, that Colonel
Laurens had, as he expressed it, done more for the United States
in the short time of his being in Europe, than all the rest of their
diplomatic corps put together. I should never have disputed this,
because I had rather lend a little credit to a friend, than take any
from him, especially when I am persuaded he will make a good use
of it ; but, when his friends will make such a suppositious credit a
matter of reproach to me, it is not right to continue silent.

As to the safety of your excellent conveyance you mention, I must
own, I have some doubts about it, and I fear I shall hear of the
arrival of that ship in England, before she sees America. Be that
as it may, I am clear that no use can possibly be made of the money
in America for supporting the credit of the States, equal in any degree
to the effect it must have for the same purpose, when applied to the
payment of their bills here, which must otherwise go back protested.
And I am sure it will be exceedingly prejudicial to their credit, if,
by the rash proceeding you threaten, this situation of their affairs
becomes the subject of public talk and discussion in Europe.

To Kobert Mor- I have just received your very friendly letter of the
6th of June past, announcing your appointment to the
’	' superintendence of our finances. This gave me great

pleasure, as, from your intelligence, integrity, and abilities, there is
reason to hope every advantage, that the public can possibly receive
from such an office. You are wise in estimating beforehand, as the
principal advantage you can expect, the consciousness of having done
service to your country ; for the business you have undertaken is of
so complex a nature, and must engross so much of your time and
attention, as necessarily to injure your private interests; and the
public is often niggardly, even of its thanks, while you are sure of
beingicensured by malevolent critics arid bug-writers, who will ab,use
you while you are serving them, an$ wound your character in name-BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

485

less pamphlets ; thereby resembling those little dirty insects, that
attack us only in the dark, disturb our repose, molesting and wounding
us, while our sweat and blood are contributing to their subsistence.
Every assistance that my situation here, as long as it continues, may
enable me to afford you, shall certainly be given ; for, besides my
affection for the glorious cause we are both engaged in, I value myself
upon your friendship, and shall be happy if mine can be made of any
use to you.

To William Cor- The Congress have done me the honour to refuse
Passyfa* ££ accepting my resignation, and insist on my continuing
1781.	.	’ in their service till the peace. I must therefore buckle

again to business, and thank God that my health and
spirits are of late improved. I fancy it may have been a double mor-
tification to those enemies you have mentioned to me, that I should
ask as a favour what they hoped to vex me by taking from me ; and
that I should nevertheless be continued. But this sort of considera-
tions should never influence our conduct. We ought always to do
what appears best to be done, without much regarding what others
may think of it. I call this continuance an honour, and I really
esteem it to be a greater than my first appointment, when I consider
that all the interest of my enemies, united with my own request, were
not sufficient to prevent it.

To a Friend, Your comparison of the keystone of an arch is very
datedFassy,	pretty, tending to make me content with my situation.

But I suppose you have heard our story of the harrow; if not, here
it is. A farmer, in our country, sent two of his servants to borrow
one of a neighbour, ordering them to bring it between them on their
shoulders. When they came to look at it, one of them, who had much
wit and cunning, said; ‘*\Vhat could our master mean by sending only
two men to bring this harrow ? No two men upon earth are strong
enough to carry it.” “ Poh ! ” said the other, who was vain of his
strength, “ what do you talk of two men ? One man may carry it.
Help it upon my shoulders and see.” As he proceeded with it, the
wag kept exclaiming, “Zounds, how strong you are! I could not have
tnought it. Why, you are a Samson! There is not such another man
in America. What amazing strength God has given you ! But you
will kill yourself! Pray put it down and rest a little, or let me
bear a part of the weight.” “No, no,” said he, being more encouraged
by the compliments, than oppressed by the burden; “ you shall see I
can carry it quite home.” And so he did. In this particular I am
afraid my part of the imitation will fall short of the original.

To wiiiiam Reverend Sir,—I duly received the letter you did
Nixon, dated me the honour of writing to me the 25th past, together
bm-88itaSiBeptein- with the valuable little book, of which you are the author.

’	’ There can be no doubt, but that a gentleman of your

learning and abilities might make a very useful member of society inLIFE AND LETTERS OF

4 86

our new country, and meet with encouragement there, either as an
instructor in one of our Universities, or as a clergyman of the Church
of Ireland. But I am not empowered to engage any person to go over
thither, and my abilities to assist the distressed are very limited. I
suppose you will soon be set at liberty in England by the cartel for
the exchange of prisoners. In the meantime, if five loius-clors may
be of present service to you, please to draw on me for that sum, and
your bill shall be paid on sight. Some time or other you may have
an opportunity of assisting with an equal sum a stranger who has
equal need of it. Do so. By that means you will discharge any
obligation you may suppose yourself under to me. Enjoin him to do
the same on occasion. By pursuing such a practice, much good may
be done with little money. Let kind offices go round. Mankind are
all of a family.

To Franois Hop- As *° t^ie fr*ends and enemies you just mentioned, I
kinson, dated have hitherto, thanks to God, had plenty of the former
fwi87' 13 Sept’' kind; they have been my treasure ; and it has perhaps
‘	been of no disadvantage to me, that I have had a few

of the latter. They serve to put us upon correcting the faults we have,
and avoiding those we are in danger of having. They counteract the
mischief flattery might do us, and their malicious attacks make our
friends more zealous in serving us and promoting our interest. At
present, I do not know of more than two such enemies that I enjoy,

viz.----and-------. I deserved the enmity of the latter, because I

might have avoided it by paying him a compliment, which I neglected.
That of the former I owe to the people of France, who happened to
respect me too much and him too little ; which I could bear, and he
could not. They are unhappy, that they cannot make everybody
hate me as much as they do ; and I should be so, if my friends did
not love me much more than those gentlemen can possibly love one
another.

To the President * duly received the two letters your Excellency did
of Congress, me the honour of writing to me, both dated the 19th of
dated ™!sy' “ June, together with the letter addressed to the King and
Sept., . the three Commissioners, with the instructions relative
to the negotiations for peace. I immediately went to Versailles and
presented the letter, which was graciously received. I communicated
also to Count de Vergennes a copy of your instructions after having
deciphered them. He read them while I was with him, and expressed
his satisfaction with the unreserved confidence placed in his court by
the Congress, assuring me, that they never would have cause to regret
it, for that the King had the honour of the United States at heart, as
well as their welfare and independence. Indeed, this has already
been manifested in the negotiations relative to the plenipotentiaries ;
and I have had so much experience of his Majesty’s goodness to us,
in the aids afforded us from time to time, and of the sincerity of this
upright and able minister, who never promised me anything which heBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.	487

did not punctually perform, that I cannot but think the confidence well
and judiciously placed, and that it will have happy effects.

I am extremely sensible of the honour done me by the Congress in
this new appointment. I beg they would accept my thankful acknow-
ledgments ; and, since they judge I may be serviceable, though I had
requested leave to retire, I submit dutifully to their determination,
and shall do my utmost to merit in some degree the favourable opinion
they appear to have of me. I am the more encouraged in this resolu
tion, as within the last three months I find my health and strength
considerably re-established.

I wish, however, that a consul-general may soon be appointed for
this kingdom ; it would ease me of abundance of troublesome business,
to which I am not equal, and which interferes with my own important
functions.

To John Adams, I have never known a peace made, even the most
dated Passy, 12 advantageous, that was not censured as inadequate,
October, 1781. an(j tj,e makers condemned as injudicious or corrupt.
“Blessed are the peacemakers'1' is, I suppose, to be understood in
the other world ; for in this they are frequently cursed. Being as yet
rather too much attached to this world, I had therefore no ambition
to be concerned in fabricating this peace, and know not how I came
to be put into the commission. I esteem it, however, as an honour to
be joined with you in so important a business ; and if the execution
of it shall happen in my time, which I hardly expect, I shall en-
deavour to assist in discharging the duty according to the best of my
judgment.

' I have heard nothing of Mr. Jefferson. I imagine the story of his
being taken prisoner is not true. From his original unwillingness to
leave America, when I was sent hither, I think his coming doubtful,
unless he had been made "acquainted with and consented to the ap-
pointment.

I hope your health is fully established. I doubt not but you have
the advice of skjlful physicians, otherwise I should presume to offer
mine, which would be, though you find yourself well, to take a few
doses of bark, by way of fortifying your constitution, and preventing
a return of your fever.

To	Edmund * received but a few days since your very friendly

Burke, dated letter of August last, on the subject of General Bur-

baMf78i6 0fct°" s°yne*

er’ ’	Since the foolish part of mankind will make wars from

time to time with each other, not having sense enough otherwise to
settle their differences, it certainly becomes the wiser part, who cannot
prevent those wars, to alleviate as much as possible the calamities
attending them. Mr. Burke always stood high in my esteem ; but his
affectionate concern for his friend renders him still more amiable, and
makes the honour he does me of admitting me of the number still
more precious.

I do not think the Congress have any wish to persecute General488

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

Burgoyne. I never heard, till I received your letter, that they had
recalled him; if they have made such a resolution, it must be, I suppose,
a conditional one, to take place in case their offer of exchanging him
for Mr. Laurens should not be accepted; a resolution intended merely
to enforce that offer.

I have just received an authentic copy of the resolve containing
that offer; and authorizing me to make it. As I have no communica-
tion with your ministers, I send it enclosed to you. If you can find
any means of negotiating this business, I am sure the restoring of
another worthy man to his family and friends will be an addition to
your pleasure.

To Thomas Having no direct communication with the British
McKean, Presi- ministers, and Mr. Burke appearing, by a letter to me,
dated tassy,^ warmly interested in favour of his friend, General Bur-
Nov., 1781. goyne, to prevent his being recalled, I have requested
and empowered him to negotiate that exchange, and I soon expect his
answer. The late practice of sending to England prisoners taken in
America has greatly augmented the number of those unfortunate men,
and proportionally increased the expense of relieving them. The
subscriptions for that purpose in England have ceased. The allowance
I have made to them of sixpence each per week during the summer,
though small, amounts to a considerable sum; and, during the winter,
I shall be obliged to double, if not treble it. The Admiralty there
will not accept any English in exchange, but such as have been taken
by Americans, and absolutely refuse to allow any of the paroles given
to our privateers by English prisoners discharged at sea, except in
one instance, that of fifty-three men taken in the Snake sloop, by the
Pilgrim and Rambler, which was a case attended, as they say, with
some particular circumstances. I know not what the circumstances
were, but shall be glad to see the fifty-three of our people, whom they
promised to send me by the first cartel. I have above, five hundred
other paroles solemnly given in writing, by which the Englishmen
promised, either to send our people in exchange, or to surrender
themselves to me in France, not one of which has been regarded, so
little faith and honour remain in that corrupted nation. Our priva-
teers, when in the European seas, will rarely bring in their prisoners
when they can get rid of them at sea. Some of our poor brave
countrymen have been in that cruel captivity now near four years. I
hope the Congress will take this matter into immediate consideration,
and find some means for their deliverance,and to prevent the sending
more from America. By my last accounts, the number now in the
several prisons amounts to upwards of eight hundred.

I request also some direction from Congress (having never received
any) respecting the allowance to be made to them while they remain
there. They complain, that the food given them is insufficient. Their
petition to the English government, to have an equal allowance with
the French and Spanish prisoners, has been rejected, which makes
the small pecuniary assistance I can send them more necessary. IfBENJAMIN FRANKLIN

489

a certain number of English prisoners could be set apart in America,
treated exactly in the same manner, and their exchange refused till it
should be agreed to set these at liberty in Europe, one might hope to
succeed in procuring the discharge of our people. Those, who escape
and pass through France to get home, put me also to a great expense
foi* their land journeys, which could be prevented if they could be
exchanged, as they would be landed here in ports.

The very friendly disposition of this court towards us still continues,
and will, I hope, continue for ever. From my own inclination, as well
as in obedience to the orders of Congress, everything in my power
shall be done to cultivate that disposition ; but I trust it will be
remembered, that the best friends may be overburdened ; that, by too
frequent, too large, and too importunate demands upon it, the most
cordial friendship may be wearied ; and, as nothing is more teasing
than repeated, unexpected large demands for money, I hope the Con-
gress will absolutely put an end to the practice of drawing on their
ministers, and thereby obliging them to worry their respective courts for
the means of payment. It may have otherwise very ill effects in
depressing the spirit of a minister, and destroying that freedom of
representation, which, on many occasions, it might be proper for him
to make use of.

I heartily congratulate you, Sir, on your being called to the honour-
able and, important office of President, and wish you every kind of
prosperity.

Toaninsh^ady I received the letter you did me the honour of writing
dated Passy, si to me on the 26th of last month ; in answer to which I
November, 1781. OUght to inform you, that I was born in America, now
near seventy-six years since, that I never was in Ireland till the year
1772, which was for a few weeks only, and I did not pass thence to
America with any person’of my name, but returned to England ; nor
had I ever any knowledge of the John Franklin you mention. I have
exact accounts of every person of my family since the year 1555, when
it was established in England, and am certain, that none of them but
myself since that time was ever in Ireland. The name of Franklin
is common among the English of the two nations, but there is a num-
ber of different families who bear it, and who have no relation to each
other. It would be a pleasure to me to discover a relation in Europe,
possessing the amiable sentiments expressed in your letter. I assure
you I should not disown the meanest. I should also be glad if I
could give you a satisfactory account of your family ; but I really
know nothing of them. I have therefore not the honour of being
related to them, but I have that of being, Madam, yours, &c.

To Thomas * wish most heartily with you, that this cursed war was
PownaU, dated at an end ; but I despair of seeing it finished in my
f*»y’ WoT,, time. Your thirsty nation has not yet drunk enough of

’	our blood. I am authorized to treat of peace whenever

she is disposed to it; but I saw inconveniences in meeting and dis-490

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

coursing with you on the subject, or with any one not avowed by your
ministry ; having already experienced such, in several instances. Mr.
Hobart appeared not fully acquainted with your ideas, and, as he could
not communicate them, I could make no judgment of them. My best
wishes attend you, being with the old, long continued esteem, dear
Sir, your most obedient, &c.

To John Adams, I sent forward last Saturday some packets and letters
dated Passy, 26 for you, which I hope got to hand in time. Most
Nov., 1781. heartily do I congratulate you on the glorious news !1
The infant Hercules in his cradle has now strangled his second ser-
pent, and gives hopes that his future history will be answerable.

I enclose a packet, which I have just received from General
Washington, and which I suppose contains the articles of capitula-
tion. It is a rare circumstance, and scarce to be met with in history,
that in one war two armies should be taken prisoners completely, not
a man in either escaping. It is another singular circumstance, that
an expedition so complex, formed of armies of different nations, and
of land and sea forces, should with such perfect concord be assembled
from different places by land and water, form their junction punctually,
without the least retard by cross accidents of wind or weather, or
interruption from the enemy; and that the army,, which was their
object, should in the meantime have the goodness to quit a situation
from whence it might have escaped, and place itself in another whence
an escape was impossible.

General Greene has done wonders too in Carolina. I hear that a
reinforcement was to be sent to him from the army in Virginia, and
that there are hopes of his reducing Charleston. Y.ou have probably
in the enclosed packet the account of his last great action. Count
de Grasse sailed on the 30th with the fleet and part of the land forces.
His destination is not mentioned.

CHAPTER XXIV. (1782.)

R. R. Livingston named Minister of Foreign Affairs—Lafayette’s Reception in
France—Robert Morris—The Fall of Silas Deane—Count de S£gur—Prince
de Broglie—Fall of the North Ministry—Rritish Intrigues in Holland—Peace,
Competence, Friends, and Reputation—The Young Angel of Destruction—
Insincerity of the British Ministry.

To David Hart- I RECEIVED a few days since your favour of the 2nd
ley, dated Passy, instant, in which you tell me, that Mr. Alexander had
15Jan., 1782. informed you, “America was disposed to enter into a
separate treaty with Great Britain.” I am persuaded, that your
strong desire for peace has misled you, and occasioned your greatly
misunderstanding Mr. Alexander; as I think it scarce possible, he
should have asserted a thing so utterly void of fowidation. I remem-
1 The capitulation of Lord Cornwallis’s army.BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

491

ber-that you have, as you say, often urged this on former occasions,
and that it always gave me more disgust than my friendship for you
permitted me to express. But, since you have now gone so far as to
carry such a proposition to Lord North, as arising from us, it is neces-
sary that I should be explicit with you, and tell you plainly, that I
never had such an idea ; and I believe there is not a man in America,
a few English Tories excepted, that would not spurn' at the thought of
deserting a noble and generous friend, for the sake of a truce with an
unjust and cruel enemy.

I have again read over your Conciliatory Bill, with the manuscript
propositions that accompany it, and am concerned to find, that one
cannot give vent to a simple wish for peace, a mere sentiment of
humanity, without having it interpreted as a disposition to submit to
any base conditions that may be offered us, rather than continue the
war; for on no other supposition could you propose to us a truce of
ten years, during which we are to engage not to assist France,
while you continue the war with her. A truce, too, wherein nothing
is to be mentioned that may weaken your pretensions to dominion
over us, which you may therefore resume at the end of the term, or
at pleasure ; when we should have so covered ourselves with infamy,
by our treachery to our first friend, as that no other nation can ever
after be disposed to assist us, however cruelly you might think fit to
treat us. Believe me, my dear friend, America has too much under-
standing, and is too sensible of the value of the world’s good opinion, to
forfeit it all by such perfidy. The Congress will never instruct their Com-
missioners to obtain a peace on such ignominious terms ; and though
there can be but few things in which I should-venture to disobey their
orders, yet, if it were possible for them, to give me such an order as
this, I should certainly refuse to act; I should instantly renounce
their commission, and banish .myself for ever from so infamous a
country.

We are a little ambitious too of your esteem ; and, as I think we
have acquired some share of it by our manner of making war with
you, I trust we shall not hazard the loss of it by consenting meanly to
a dishonourable peace.

Lord North was wise in demanding of you some authorized acknow-
ledgment of the proposition from authorized persons. He justly
thought it too improbable to be relied on, so as to lay it before the
Privy Council. You can now inform him, that the whole has been a
mistake, and that no such proposition as that of a separate peace has
been, is, or is ever likely to be made by me ; and I believe by no other
authorized person whatever in behalf of America. You may further,
if you please, inform his Lordship, that Mr. Adams, Mr. Laurens, Mr.
Jay, and myself, have long since been empowered, by a special com-
mission, to treat of peace whenever a negotiation shall be opened for
that purpose ; but it must always be understood, that this is to be in
conjunction with our allies, conformably to the solemn treaties made
with them.

You have, my dear friend, a strong desire to promote peace, and it492

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

is a most laudable and virtuous desire. Permit me then to wish, that
you would, in order to succeed as a mediator, avoid such invidious
expressions as may have an effect in preventing your purpose. You
tell me, that no stipulation for our independence must be in the treaty,
because you “ verily believe, so deep is the jealousy between England
and France, that England would fight for a straw, to the last man and
the last shilling, rather than be dictated to by France.” And again,
that “the nation would proceed to every extremity, rather than be
brought to a formal recognition of independence at the haughty com-
mand of France.” My dear Sir^ if every proposition of terms for
peace, that may be made by one of the parties at war, is to be called
and considered by the other as dictating, and a haughty command,
and for that reason rejected, with a resolution of fighting to the last
man rather than agree to it, you see that in such case no treaty of
peace is possible.

In fact, we began the war for independence on your government,
which we found tyrannical, and this before France had anything to do
with our affairs ; the article in our treaty, whereby the “two parties
engage, that neither of them shall conclude either truce or peace with
Great Britain, without the formal consent of the other first pbtained ;
and mutually engage, not to lay down their arms unt il the indepen-
dence of the United States shall have been formally or tacitly assured,
by the treaty or treaties, that shall terminate the war,” was an article
inserted at our instance, being in our favour. And you see, by the
article itself, that your great difficulty may be easily got over, as a
formal acknowledgment of our independence is not made necessary.
But we hope by God’s help to enjoy it; and I suppose we shall fight
for it as long as we are able.

I do not make any remarks upon the other propositions, because I
think, that, unless they were made by authority, the discussion of
them is unnecessary, and may be inconvenient. The supposition of
our being disposed to make a separate peace I could not be silent
upon, as it materially affected our reputation and its essential interests.
If 1 have been a little warm on that offensive point, reflect on your
repeatedly urging it and endeavour to excuse me. Whatever may be
the fate of our poor countries, let you and me die as we have lived, in
peace with each other.

To John Jay, I am much surprised at the dilatory and reserved
^yuua^at conduct of your court. I know not to what amount you
Passy, ’ 19 Jan., have obtained aids from it; but, if they are not con-
1782.	siderable, it were to be wished you had never been sent

there, as the slight they have put upon our offered friendship is very
disreputable to us, and, of course, hurtful to our affairs elsewhere. I
think they are shortsighted, and do not look very far into futurity,
or they would seize with avidity so excellent an opportunity of secur-
ing a neighbour’s friendship, which may hereafter be of great conse-
quence to their American affairs.

If I were in Congress, I should advise your being instructed toBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

493

thank them for past favours, and take your leave. As I am situated,
I do not presume to give you such advice, nor could you take it, if I
should. But I conceive there would be nothing amiss in your
mentioning in a short memoir, the length of time elapsed since the
date of the secret article, and since your arrival, to urge their determi-
nation upon it, and pressing them to give you an explicit, definitive,
immediate answer, whether they would enter into treaty with us or
not, and, in case of refusal, solicit your recall, that you may not con-
tinue from year to year, at a great expense, in a constant state of
uncertainty with regard to so important a matter. I do not see how
they can decently refuse such an answer. But their silence, after the
demand made, should in my opinion be understood as a refusal, and
we should act accordingly. I think I see a very good use that might
be made of it, which I will not venture to explain in this letter.

Mr. Laurens, being now at liberty, perhaps may soon come here,
and be ready to join us, if there should be any negotiations for peace.
In England they are mad for a separate one with us, that they may
more effectually take revenge on France and Spain. I have had
several overtures hinted to me lately from different quarters, but I am
deaf. The thing is impossible. We can never agree to desert our
first and our faithful friend on any consideration whatever. We
should become infamous by such abominable baseness.

To Robert R. * received, at the same time, your several letters of
livinmton,1 da- October 20th, 24th, and November 26th, which I
ted Faasy, 28 purpose to answer fully by the return of the Alliance.
Jan., 7 . Having just had a very short notice of the departure of
this ship, I can only at present mention the great pleasure your
appointment gives me, and my intention of corresponding with you
regularly and frequently, as.you desire. The information contained
in your letters is full and clear ; I shall endeavour that mine, of the
state of affairs here, may be as satisfactory. With great esteem, &c.

David You have taken pains to rectify a mistake of mine,
Hartley, dated relating to the aim of your letters. I accept kindly your
Fasay, 16 Feb., replication, and I hope you will excuse my error, when
1782‘	you reflect, that I knew of no consent given by France

to our treating separately of peace, and that there have been .mixed
in some of your conversations and letters various reasonings, to show,
that, if France should require ■something of us that was unreasonable,
we then should not be obliged by our treaty to join with her in con-
tinuing the war. As there had never been such requisition, what
could I think of such discourses? I thought, as I suppose an honest
woman would think, if a gallant should entertain her with suppositions
of cases, in which infidelity to her husband would be justifiable.
Would not she naturally imagine, seeing no other foundation or
motive for such conversation, that, if he could once get her to admit

1 Robert R. Livingston was appointed by Congress Secretary of Foreign Affairs
in the fall of 1781.	1494

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

the general principle, his intended next step would be to persuade her,
that such a case actually existed ? Thus, knowing your dislike of
France, and your strong desire of recovering America to England, I
was impressed with the idea, that such an infidelity on our part would
not be disagreeable to you ; and that you were therefore aiming to
lessen in my mind the horror I conceived -at the idea of it. But we
will finish here by mutually agreeing, that neither you were capable of
proposing, nor I of acting on, such principles.

I cannot, however, forbear endeavouring to give a little possible
utility to this letter, by saying something on your case of Dunkirk.
You do not see, why two nations should be deemed natural enemies to
each other. Nor do I, unless one or both of them are naturally
mischievous and insolent. But I can see how enmities long continued,
even during a peace, tend to shorten that peace, and to rekindle a
war; and this is when either party, having an advantage in war,
shall exact conditions in the treaty of peace, that are goading and
constantly mortifying to the other. I take this to be the case of your
“ commissioner at Dunkirk.’' What would be your feelings, if France
should take and hold possession of Portsmouth, or Spain of Plymouth,
after a peace, as you formerly held Calais, and now .hold Gib-
raltar? Or, on restoring your ports, should insist on having an
insolent commissioner stationed there, to forbid your placing one
stone upon another by way of fortification ? You would probably not
be very easy under such a stipulation. If therefore you desire a
peace, that may be firm and durable, think no more of such extrava-
gant demands. It is not necessary to give my opinion further on that
point, yet I may add frankly, as this is merely private conversation
between you and me, that I do think a faithful ally, especially when
under obligations for such great and generous assistance as we have
received, should fight as long as he is able, to prevent, as far as his
continuing to fight may prevent, his friends being compelled again to
suffer such an insult.

My dear friend, the true pains you are taking to restore peace,
whatever may be the success, entitle you to the esteem of all good
men. If your ministers really desire peace methinks they would do
well to empower some person to make propositions for that purpose.
One or other of the parties at war must take the first step. To do
this belongs properly to the wisest. America being a novice in Such
affairs, has. no pretence to that character; and indeed after the
answer given by Lord Stormont (when we proposed to him something
relative to the mutual treatment of prisoners with humanity), that
“ the King's ministers receive no applications from rebels, unless 7vhen
they come to implore his Majesty's clemency,” it cannot be expected,
that we should hazard the exposing ourselves again to such insolence.
All I can say further at present is, that in my opinion your enemies
do not aim at your destruction, and that if you propose a treaty you
will find them reasonable in their demands, provided that on your
side they meet with the same good dispositions. But do not dream o(
dividing us ; you will certainly never be able to effect it.BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

495

To Robert R The Marquis de Lafayette was at his return hither
Livingston, da- received by all ranks with all possible distinction. He
4 daily gains in the general esteem and affection, and
' 7 ' promises to be a great man here. He is warmly
attached to our cause ; we are on the most friendly and confidential
footing with each other, and he is really very serviceable to me in my
applications for additional assistance.

I will endeavour to procure a sketch of an emblem for the purpose
you mention. This puts me in mind of a medal I have had a
mind to strike, since the late great event you gave me an account of,
representing the United States by the figure of an infant Hercules in
his cradle, strangling the two serpents ; and France by that of Minerva,
sitting by as his nurse, with her spear and helmet, and her robe
specked with a few Jleurs de Its, The extinguishing of two entire
armies in one war is what has rarely happened, and it gives a presage
of the future force of our growing empire.1

The friendly disposition of this court towards us continues. We
have sometimes pressed a little too hard, expecting and demanding,
perhaps, more than we ought, and have used improper arguments,
which may have occasioned a little dissatisfaction, but it has not
been lasting. In my opinion, the surest way to obtain liberal aid
from others is vigorously to help ourselves. People fear assisting the
negligent, ,the indolent, and the careless, lest the aids they afford
should be lost. I know we have done a great deal; but it is said, we
are apt to be supine after a little success, and too backward in furnish-
ing our contingents. This is really a generous nation, fond of glory,
a,nd particularly that of protecting the oppressed. Trade is not the
admiration of their noblesse, who always govern here. Telling them,
their commerce will be advantaged by our success, and that it is their
interest to help us, seems as much as to say, “ Help us, and we shall
not be obliged to you.” Such indiscreet and improper language has
been sometimes held here by some of our people, and produced no
good effects.

The constant harmony, subsisting between the armies of the two
nations in America, is a circumstance, that has afforded me infinite
pleasure. It should be carefully cultivated. I hope nothing will
happen to disturb it. The French officers, who have returned to
France this winter, speak of our people in the handsomest and kindest
manner ; and there is a strong desire in many of the young noblemen
to go over to fight for us ; there is no restraining some of them ; and
several changes among the officers of their army have lately taken
place in consequence.

1 This medal was subsequently executed, under the direction of Dr. Franklin,
with some variation in the device. On one side is an infant in his cradle strangling
two serpents. Minerva, as the emblem of France, with her spear, helmet, and
shield, is engaged in a contest with the British lion. The motto is, Non sine Diis
ANIMOSUS infans ; under which are the dates of the two victories at Saratoga
and Yorktown, "17 Oct. 1777,” and 19 Oct. 1781." On the other side of the
medal is a head of Liberty ; in the exergue, Libertas Americana, and the date
pf American independence, “ 4 Jul. 1776. ”496

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

You must be so sensible of the utility of maintaining a perfect good
understanding with the Chevalier de la Luzerne, that I need say
nothing on that head. The affairs of a distant people in any court of
Europe will always be much affected by the representations of the
minister of that court residing among them.

Generals Cornwallis and Arnold are both arrived in England. It is
reported, that the former, in all his conversations, discourages the
prosecution of the war in America ; if so, he will of course be out of
favour. We hear much of audiences given to the latter, and of his
being present at councils.

You desire to know, whether any intercepted letters of Mr. Deane
have been published in Europe ? I have seen but one in the English
papers, that to Mr. Wadsworth, and none in any of the French and
Dutch papers, but some may have been printed that have not fallen in
my way. There is no doubt of their being all genuine. His conversa-
tion, since his return from America, has, as I have been informed, gone
gradually more and more into that style, and at length come to an open
vindication of Arnold’s conduct ; and, within these few days, he has
sent me a letter of twenty full pages, recapitulating those letters, and
threatening to write and publish an account of the treatment he has
received from Congress, &c. He resides at Ghent, is distressed both
in mind and circumstances, raves and writes abundance, and I imagine
it will end in his going over to join his friend Arnold in England. I
had an exceeding good opinion of him when he acted with me, and I
believe he was then sincere and hearty in our cause. But he is changed,
•and his character ruined in his own country and in this, so that I see no
other but England to which he can now retire. He says, that we owe
him about twelve thousand pounds sterling ; and his great complaint
is, that we do not settle his accounts and pay him. Mr. Johnstone
having declined the service, I proposed engaging Mr. Searle to under-
take it ; but Mr. Deane objected to him, as being his enemy. In my
opinion he was, for that reason, even fitter forthe service of Mr. Deane ;
since accounts are of a mathematical nature, and cannot be changed
by an enemy, while that enemy’s testimony, that he had found then
well supported by authentic vouchers, would have weighed more than
the same testimony from a friend.

With regard to negotiations for a peace, I see but little probability
of their being entered upon seriously this year, unless the English
minister has failed in raising his funds, which it is said he has secured ;
so that we must provide for another campaign, in which I hope God
will continue to favour us, and humble our cruel and haughty enemies ;
a circumstance which, whatever Mr. Deane may say to the contrary,
will give pleasure to all Europe.

This year opens well, by the reduction of Port Mahon, and the
garrison prisoners of war, and we are not without hopes, that Gibraltar
may soon follow. A few more signal successes in America will do
much towards reducing our enemies to reason. Your expressions of
good opinion with regard to me, and wishes of my continuance in this
employment, are very obliging. As long as the Congress think I canBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

497

bq useful to our affairs, it is my duty to obey their orders ; but I should
be happy to see them better executed by another, and myself at liberty,
enjoying, before I quit the stage of life, some small degree of leisure
and tranquillity.

To David Hart- I have just received your favours of March the nth
legatedPassy, and 12th, forwarded to me by Mr. Digges, and another
3 March, 1782. Qf ^ 2Ist per p0St> j congratulate you on the returning
good disposition of your nation towards America, which appears in the
resolutions of Parliament, that you have sent me; and I hope the
chang;e of your ministry will be attended with salutary effects. I con-
tinue in the same sentiments expressed in my former letters ; but, as
I am but one. of five in the commission, and have no knowledge of the
sentiments of the others, what has passed between us is to be con-
sidered merely as private conversation. The five persons are Messrs.
Adams, Jay, Laurens, Jefferson, and myself ; and, in case of the death
or absence of any, the remainder have power to act or conclude. I
have not written to Mr. Laurens, having constantly expected him here,
but shall write to him next post; when I shall also write more fully
to you.

To George I received duly the honour of your letter, accompany-
"Washington, da- ing the capitulation of General Cornwallis. All the
April,^1782^’ * world agree, that no expedition was ever better planned
or better executed ; it has made a great addition to the
military reputation you had already acquired, and brightens the glory
that surrounds your name, and that must accompany it to our latest
pbsterity. No news could possibly make me more happy. The infant
Hercules has now strangled the two serpents1 that attacked him in
his cradle, and I trust his future history will be answerable.

This will be presented to you by the Count de S£gur. He is son of
the Marquis de Segur, minister of war, and our very good friend ;
but 1 need not claim your regards to the young gentleman on that
score; his amiable personal qualities, his very sensible conversation,
and his zeal for the cause of liberty, will obtain and secure your esteem,
and be better recommendation than any I can give him.

The English seem not to know either how to continue the war, or
tb.make peace with us. Instead of entering into a regular treaty for
putting an end to a contest they are tired of, they have voted in Parlia-
ment, that the recovery of America by force is impracticable, that an
offensive war against us ought not to be continued, and that whoever
advises it shall be deemed an enemy to his country.

Thus the garrisons of New York and Charleston, if continued there,
must sit still, being only allowed to defend themselves. The ministry,
not understanding or approving this making of peace by halves, have
quitted their places ; but we have no certain account here who is to
succeed them, so that the measures likely to be taken are yet uncer-
tain ; probably we shall know something of them before the Marquis

* Burgoyne and Cornwallis, with their armies.

33498

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

cle Lafayette takes his departure. There are grounds for good hopes,
however ; but I think we should not therefore relax-in our preparations
for a vigorous campaign, as that nation is subject to sudden fluctua-
tions ; and, though somewhat humiliated at present, a little success in
the West Indies may dissipate their present fears, recall their natural
insolence, and occasion the interruption of negotiation, and a continu-
ance of the war. We have great stores purchased here for the use of
your army, which will be sent as soon as transports can be procured
for them to go under good convoy.

T« David Hart- You justly observe, in yours of the 12th, that the first
ley, dated Pasay, object is, to procure a “ meeting of qualified and fiutho-
6 April, 1788. rjzed persons,” and that you understand the ministry
will be ready to proceed towards opening a negotiation as soon as the
bill shall pass, and therefore it is necessary to consult time and place,
and manner and persons, on each side. This you wrote while the old
ministry existed. If the new have the same intentions, and desire a
general peace, they may easily discharge Mr. Laurens from those
engagements, which make his acting in the commission improper; and,
except Mr. Jefferson, who remains in America, and is not expected
here, we, the Commissioners of Congress, can easily be got together
ready to meet yours, at such place as shall be agreed to by the powers at
war, in order to form the treaty. God grant that there may be wisdom
enough assembled to make, if possible, a peace that shall be perpetual,
and that the idea of any nations being natural enemies to each other
may be abolished for the honour of human nature.

With regard to those, who may be commissioned from your govern-
ment, whatever personal preferences I may conceive in my own mind,
it cannot become me to express them. I only wish for wise and honest
men. With such, a peace may be speedily concluded. With conten-
tious wranglers, the negotiation may be drawn into length, and finally
frustrated.

I am pleased to see, in the votes and Parliamentary speeches, and
in your public papers, that, in mentioning America, the word recon-
ciliation is often used. It certainly means more than a mere peace.
It is a sweet expression. Revolve in your mind, my dear friend, the
means of bringing about this reconciliation. When you consider the
injustice of your war with us, and the barbarous manner in which it
has been carried on, the many suffering families among us from your
burning of towns, scalping by savages, &c., &c., will it not appear to
you, that though a cessation of the war may be a peace, it may not be
a reconciliation ? Will not some voluntary acts of justice, and even of
kindness on your part, have excellent effects towards producing such a
reconciliation ? Can you not find means of repairing in some degree
those injuries ? You have in England and Ireland twelve hundred of
our people prisoners, who have for years bravely suffered all the hard-
ships of that confinement, rather than enter into your service, to fight
against their country. Methinks you ought to glory in descendants of
such virtue. What if you were to begin your measures of reconcilia-BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

459

tion by setting them at liberty ? I know it would procure for you the
liberty of an equal number of your people, even without a previous
stipulation ; and the confidence in our equity, with the apparent good
will in the action, would give very good impressions of your change
of disposition towards us. Perhaps you have no knowledge of the
opinions lately conceived of your King and country, in America ;
the enclosed copy of a letter will make you a little acquainted with
them, and convince you how impossible must be every project of
bringing us again under the dominion of such a sovereign.

To George Wash- I did myself the honour of writing to you a few days
ington, dated since by the Count de Segur. This line is chiefly to
8 April, present the Prince de Broglie to your Excellency, who
goes over to join the army of M. de Rochambeau. He
bears an excellent character here, is a hearty friend to our cause, and
I am persuaded you will have a pleasure in his conversation. I take
leave, therefore, to recommed him to those civilities, which you are
always happy in showing to strangers of merit and distinction.

I have heretofore congratulated your Excellency on your victories
over our enemy’s generals ; I can now do the same on your having
overthrown their politicians. Your late successes have so strengthened
the hands of opposition in Parliament, that they are become the
majority, and have compelled the King to dismiss all his old ministers
and their adherents. The unclean spirits he was possessed with arc
now cast out of him ; but it is imagined, that, as soon as he has
obtained a peace, they will return with others worse than themselves,
and the last state of that man, as the Scripture says, shall be worse
than the first.

As soon as we can learn anything certain of the projects of the new
ministry, I shall take the first opportunity of communicating them.

To Eobert E. Being af court on Tuesday, I learned from the Dutch
Livingston,dated minister, that the new English ministry have offered,
nsa7' ^ April trough the ministers of Russia, a cessation of arms to
‘	Holland, and a renewal of the treaty of 1674. M. de

Berkenrode seemed to be of the opinion, that the offer was intended
to gain time, to obstruct the concert of operations with France for
the ensuing campaign, and to prevent the conclusion of a treaty
with America. It is apprehended, that it may have some effect in
strengthening the hands of the English party in that country, and
retard affairs a little ; but it is hoped, that the proposal will not be
finally agreed to. It would indeed render the Dutch ridiculous. A,
having a cane in his hand, meets his neighbour B, who happens to
have none, takes the advantage, and gives him a sound drubbing. B,
having found a stick, and coming to return the blows he received, A
says, My old friend, why should we quarrel? We are neighbours ;
let us be good ones, and live peaceably by each other, as we used to
do.” If B is so easily satisfied, and lays aside his stick, the rest of
the neighbours, as well as A, will laugh at him. This is the light in
wkich I stated it. Enclosed I send you a copy of the proposition.5oo

LIFE A AD LETTERS OF

I see by the newspapers, that the Spaniards, have taken a little post
called St. Joseph, pretend to have made a conquest of the Illinois
country. In what light does this proceeding appear to Congress?
While they decline our offered friendship, are they to be suffered to
encroach on our bounds, and shut us up within the Appalachian
mountains ? I begin to fear they have some such project.

To Mrs Mary ^ received your kind letter of the 23rd of December.
Hewson, dated I rejoice always to hear of your and your good mother’s
I782y’ 13 AprU| vve^are> though I can write but seldom, and safe oppor-
tunities are scarce. Looking over some old papers, I
find the rough draft of a letter, which I wrote to you fifteen months
ago, and which probably miscarried, or your answer miscarried, as I
never received any. I enclose it, as the spring is coming on, and the
same proposition will now again be in season, and easily executed, if
you should approve of it.

You mention Mr. Viny’s being with you. What is his present
situation ? I think he might do well with his wheel business in this
country. By your newspapers, Jacob seems to have taken it to him-
self. Could he not make up a good coach, with the latest useful
improvements, and bring you all in it? It would serve here as a
specimen of his abilities, if he chose to stay, or would sell well, if he
chose to return. I hope your mother has got over her lowness of
spirits about the dropsy. It is common for aged people to have at
times swelled ankles towards evening ; but it is a temporary disorder,
which goes oft of itself, and has no consequences. My tender love to
her.

If you have an opportunity of sending to Geneva, I like well enough
your sending the books thither for my godson grandson, who goes on
well there. You do well to keep my granddaughter without stays.
God bless her and all of you.

You may imagine I begin to grow happy in my prospects. I should
be quite so, if I could see peace and good will restored between our
countries ; for I enjoy health, competence, friends, and reputation.
Peace is the only ingredient wanting to my felicity.1

To David Hart- Since mine of the 5th, I have thought further of the
ley, dated Daasy subject of our late letters. You were of opinion, that
13 April, 1782. the iate ministry desired sincerely a reconciliation with
America, and with that view a separate peace with us was proposed.

1 Four years before (July 2, 1778), a contemporary wrote from Versailles :

" I do not often speak of Mr. Franklin, because the gazettes tell you enough of
him. However, I will say to you that our Parisians are no more sensible in their
attentions to him than they were towards Voltaire, of whom they have not'spoken
since the day following his death. Mr. Franklin is besieged, followed, admired,
adored, wherever he shows himself, with a fury, a fanaticism, capable no doubt of
flattering him and of doing him honour, by which at the same time proves that we
shall never be reasonable, and that the virtues and better qualities of our nation'
will always be balanced by a levity, an inconsequence, and an enthusiasm too
excessive to be durable."BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

501

It happened, that, at the same time, Lord North had an emissary
here to sound the French ministers with regard to peace, and to make
them very advantageous propositions, in case they would abandon
America. You may judge from hence, my dear friend, what opinion
I must have formed of the intentions of your ministers. To convince
you of the truth of this, I may acquaint you, that the emissary was a
Mr. Forth ; and that the answer given him to carry back to the
English ministers, was, “ that the King of France is as desirous of
peace as the King of England; and that he would accede to it as soon
as he could with dignity and safety; but it is a matter of the last im-
portance for His Most Christian Majesty to know, whether the court
of London is disposed to treat on equal terms with the allies of France

Mr. Forth went off with this answer for London, but probably did
not arrive till after the dismission of the ministers that sent him. You
may make any use of this information, which you judge proper. The
new ministry may see by it the principles that govern this court; and
it will convince them, I hope, that the project of dividing us is as vain,
as it would be to us injurious.

To John Jav, I have undertaken to pay all the bills of your accept-
dated Passy, 22 ance that have come to my knowledge, and I hope in
April, 1782. God no more will be drawn upon us, but when funds are
first provided. In that case, your constant residence at Madrid is no
longer so necessary. You may make a journey either for health or
pleasure, without retarding the progress of a negotiation not yet begun.
Here you are greatly wanted, for messengers begin to come and go,
and there is much talk of a treaty proposed; but I can neither make,
nor agree to propositions of peace, without the assistance of my col-
leagues. Mr. Adamg, I am afraid, cannot just now leave Holland.
Mr. Jefferson is not in Europe, and Mr. Laurens is a prisoner, though
abroad upon parole. I wish, therefore, that you would resolve upon
the journey, and render yourself here as soon as possible. You would
be of infinite service. Spain has taken four years to consider whether
she should treat with us or not. Give her forty, and let us in the
meantime mind our own business. I have much to communicate to
you, but choose rather to do it vivA voce, than trust it to letters.

To a Friend 1 received the letter you did me the honour of writing
dated Passy, 4 me, and am much obliged by your kind present of a
May, 1782. book. The relish for reading poetry had long since left
me ; but there is something so new in the manner, so easy, and yet so
correct in the language, so clear in the expression, yet concise, and so
just in the sentiments, that I have read the whole with great pleasure,
and some of the pieces more than once. I beg you to accept my
thankful acknowledgments, and to present my respects to the author.1

I shall take care to forward the letters to America, and shall be glad
of any other opportunity of doing what maybe agreeable to you, being,
with great respect for your character, your most obedient humble
servant.

1 William Cowper.LIFE AND LETTERS OF

50a

To Joseph I have always great pleasure in hearing from you, in
Priestley, dated learning that you are well, and that you continue your
m!*7’ 7 June’ exPer‘ments- I should rejoice much, if I could once
more recover the leisure to search with you into the
works of nature ; I mean the inanimate, not the animate or moral part
of them ; the more I discovered of the former, the more I admired
them ; the more I know of the latter, the more I am disgusted with
them. Men I find to be a sort of beings very badly constructed, as
they are generally more easily provoked than reconciled, more dis-
posed to do mischief to each other than to make reparation, much
more easily deceived than undeceived, and having more pride and
even pleasure in killing than in begetting one another; for without a
blush they assemble in great armies at noonday to destroy, and when
they have killed as many as they can, they exaggerate the number to
argument the fancied glory; but they creep into corners, or cover
themselves with the darkness of night, when they mean to beget, as
being ashamed of a virtuous action. A virtuous action it would be,
and a vicious one the killing of them, if the species were really worth
producing or preserving ; but of this I begin to doubt.

I know you have no such doubts, because, in your zeal for their
welfare, you are taking a great deal of pains to save their souls. Per-
haps as you grow older, you may look upon this as a hopeless project,
or an idle amusement, repent of having murdered in mephitic air so
many honest, harmless mice, and wish, that, to prevent mischief, you
had used boys and girls instead of them. In what light we are viewed
by superior beings, may be gathered from a piece of late West India
news, which possibly lias not yet reached you. A young angel of
distinction being sent down to this world on some business, for the
first time, had an old courier-spirit assigned him as a guide. They
arrived over the seas of Martinico, in the middle of the long day of
obstinate fight between the fleets of Rodney and De Grasse. When,
through the clouds of smoke, he saw the fire of the guns, the decks
covered with mangled limbs, and bodies dead or dying; the ships
sinking, burning, or blown into the air ; and the quantity of pain,
misery, and destruction, the crews yet alive were thus with so much
eagerness dealing round to one another; he turned angrily to his
guide, and said, “You blundering blockhead, you are ignorant of your
business ; you undertook to conduct me to the earth, and you have
brought me into hell !” “ No, Sir,” says the guide, “ I have made no
mistake; this is really the earth, and these are men. Devils never
treat one another in this cruel manner ;. they have more sense, and
more of what men (vainly) call humanity.”

But to be serious, my dear old friend, I love you as much as ever,
and I love all the honest souls that meet at the London Coffee-House.
I only wonder how it happened, that they and my other friends in
England came to be such good creatures in the midst of so perverse a
generation. I long to see them and you once more, and I labour for
peace with more earnestness, that I may again be happy in your sweet
society.BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

5°3

I showed your letter to the Duke de Larochefoucauld, who thinks
with me, that the new experiments you have made are extremely
curious ; and he has given me thereupon a note, which I enclose, and
I request you would furnish me with the answer desired.

Yesterday the Count du Nord1 was at the Academy of Sciences,
when sundry experiments were exhibited for his entertainment; among
them, one by M. Levoisier, to show that the strongest fire we yet know,
is made in a charcoal blown upon with dephlogisticated air. In a
heat so produced, he melted platina presently, the fire being much
more powerful than that of the strongest burning mirror.

To Jonathan After so long a silence, and the long continuance of
of^StT’	-its unfortunate causes, a line from you was a prognostic

dated Passy.xo of happier times approaching, when, we may converse
June, 1782. and communicate freely, without danger from the
malevolence of men enraged by the ill success of their distracted
projects.

I long with you for the return of peace, on the general principles of
humanity. The hope of being able to pass a few-more of my last days
happily in the sweet conversations and company I once enjoyed at
Twyford, is a particular motive that adds strength to the general wish,
and quickens my industry to procure that best of blessings. After
much occasion to consider the folly and mischiefs of a state of warfare,
and the little or no advantage obtained even by those nations, who
have conducted it with the most success, I have been apt to think,
that there has never been, nor ever will be, any such thing as a good
war, or a bad peace.

You ask if I still relish my old studies. I relish them, but I cannot
pursue them. My time is engrossed unhappily with other concerns.
I requested of the Congress last year my discharge from this public
station, that I might enjoy a little leisure in the evening of a long life
of business ; but it was refused me, and I have been obliged to
drudge on a little longer.

You are happy as your years come on, in having that dear and
most amiable family about you. Four daughters ! how rich ! I have
but one, and she, necessarily detained from me at a thousand leagues
distance. I feel the want of that tender care of me, which might be
expected from a daughter, and would give the world for one. Your
shades are all placed in a" row over my fireplace, so that I not only
have you always in my mind, but constantly before my eyes.

The cause of liberty and America has been greatly obliged to you.
I hope you will live long to see that country flourish under its new
constitution, which I am sure will give you great pleasure. Will you
permit me to express another hope, that, now your friends are in
power, they will take the first opportunity of showing the sense they
ought to have of your virtues and your merit ?

Please to make my best respects acceptable to Mrs. Shipley,, and
embrace for me tenderly all our dear children.

1 Afterwards the Emperor Paul the First of Russia.504

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

To Mrs Mary Y°u cann°t be niore pleased in talking about your
Hewson,’ dated children, your methods of instructing them, and the
Passy, 13 June, progress they make, than I am in hearing it, and in

1	finding, that, instead of following the idle amusements,

which both your fortune and the custom of the age might have led
you into, your delight and your duty go together, by employing your
time in the education of your offspring. This is following nature and
reason, instead of fashion ; than which nothing is more becoming the
character of a woman of sense and virtue.

We have here a female writer on education, who has lately published
three volumes, that are much talked of. I will send them to you by
the first opportunity. They are much praised and much censured.
The author, Madame la Comtesse de Genlis, is made, in consequence
of her writing that work, governess of the children of the Due de
Chartres, who is son of the Duke of Orleans. Perhaps you may not
find much in it, that can be of use to you, but you may find some-
thing.

I enclose another piece on the same subject, written by another
Comtesse, Madame de Forbach, who does me the honour of calling
me her friend, by which means I have a copy, it not being published.
When you have leisure, I shall like to see your remarks.

Do not send any books to Geneva. The troubles of that city have
driven the school and my boy out of it, and I have thoughts of send-
ing for him home. Perhaps I may put him for a while under your
care, to recover his English in the same school with your sons.

To	Richard The anc>ent Roman and Greek orators could only

Prioe, dated speak to the number of citizens capable of being
r»5?y’ 13 Jun8’ assembled within the reach of their voice. Their writ-
1782,	ings had little effect, because the bulk of the people

could not read. Now by the press we can speak to nations; and
good books and well written pamphlets have great and general
influeuce. The facility, with which the same truths may be repeatedly
enforced by placing them daily in different lights in newspapers,
which are everywhere read, gives a great chance of establishing them.
And we now find, that it is not only right to strike w-hile the iron is
hot, but that it may be very practicable to heat it by continually
striking.

To Miss Alex- — I am not at all displeased, that the thesis and dedi-
ander, dated cation, with which we were threatened, are blown over,
nsa7’ 84 June' ^or * dislike much all sorts of mummery. The republic
of letters has gained no reputation, whatever else it may
have gained, by the commerce of dedications ; I never made one, and
I never desired, that one should be made to me. When I submitted
to receive this, it was from the bad habit I have long had of doing
everything that ladies desire me to do ; there is no refusing anything
to Madame la Marck, nor to you. I have been to pay my respects to
that amiable lady, not merely because it was a compliment due to her,BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

505

bat because I love her ; which induces me to excuse her not letting
in6 in ; the same reason I should have for excusing your faults, if you
had any.

I have not seen your papa since the receipt of your pleasing letter,
so could arrange nothing with him respecting the carriage. During
seven or eight days, I shall be very busy ; after that you shall hear
from me, and the carriage shall be at your service. How could you
think of writing to me about chimneys and fires, in such weather as
this! Now is the time for the frugal lady you mention to save her
wood, obtain plus de chaleur, and lay it up against winter, as people
do ice against summer. Frugality is an enriching virtue ; a virtue I
never could acquire in myself ; but I was once lucky enough to find it
in a wife, who'thereby became a fortune to me. Do you possess it ?
If you do, and I were twenty years younger, I would give your father
one thousand guineas for you. I know you would be worth more to
me as a mena%Zrey but I am covetous, and love good bargains.

CHAPTER XXV.

JOURNAL OF THE NEGOTIATIONS FOR PEACE WITH GREAT BRITAIN
FROM MARCH 21 TO JULY I, 1782.

Passy, 9 May, 1782.

As since the change of the ministry in England some serious pro-
fessions have been made of their dispositions to peace, and of their
readiness to enter into a general treaty for that purpose ; and as the
concerns and claims of five nations are to be discussed in that treaty,
which must therefoTe be interesting to the present age and to posterity,
I am inclined to keep a journal of the proceedings as far as they come
to my knowledge ; and, to make it more complete, I will first endea-
vour to recollect what has already past. Great affairs sometimes take
their rise from small circumstances. My good friend and neighbour
Madame Brillon, being at Nice all last winter for her health, with her
very amiable family, wrote to me, that she had met with some English
gentry there, whose acquaintance proved agreeable. Among them
she named Lord Cholmondely, who she said had promised to call, in
his return to England, and drink tea with us at Passy. He came
accordingly. He told me, that he knew Lord Shelburne had a great
regard for me, that he was sure his Lordship would be pleased to hear
from me, and that if I would write a line he should have a pleasure in
carrying it. On which I wrote the following to Lord Shelburne.

" Passy, 22 March, 1782.

“ My Lord,—Lord Cholmondely having kindly offered to take a
letter from me to your Lordship, I embrace the opportunity of assuring
the continuance of my ancient respect for your talents and virtues,5o6

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

and of congratulating you on the returning good disposition of your
country-in favour of America, which appears in the late resolutions of
the Commons. I am persuaded it will have good effects. I hope it
will tend to produce a general peace, which I am sure your Lordship,
with all good men, desires, which I wish .to see before I die, and to
which I shall, with infinite pleasure, contribute everything in my
power. * * With great and sincere esteem, I have the honour to
be, &c. &c.	“B. Franklin.”

Soon after this we heard from England, that a total change had
taken place in the ministry, and that Lord Shelburne had come in as
Secretary of State. But I thought no more of my letter, till an old
friend and near neighbour of mine many years in London appeared
at Passy, and introduced a Mr. Oswald, who gave me letters from
Lord Shelburne and Mr. Laurens.

I entered into conversation with Mr. Oswald. He was represented
as fully apprized of Lord Shelburne’s mind, and I was desirous of
knowing it. All I could learn was, that the new ministry sincerely
wished for a peace; that they considered the object of the war, to
France and America, as obtained; that, if the independence of the
United States was agreed to, there was no other point in dispute, and
therefore nothing to hinder a pacification ; that they were ready to
treat of peace, but he intimated, that, if France should insist upon
terms too humiliating to England, they could still continue the war,
having yet great strength and many resources left. I let him know,
that America would not treat but in concert with France, and that, my
colleagues not being here, I could do nothing of importance in the
affair; but that, if he pleased, I would present him to M. de Ver-
gennes, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. He consenting, I
wrote and sent a letter to Count de Vergennes, with the letters I had
received.

The next day, being at court with the foreign ministers, as usual on
Tuesdays, I saw M. de Vergennes, who acquainted me, that he had
caused the letters to be translated, had considered the contents, and
should like to see Mr. Oswald. We agreed that the interview should
be on Wednesday at ten o’clock. Immediately on my return home,
I wrote to Mr. Oswald, acquainting him with what had passed at
Versailles, and proposing that he should be with me at half past eight
the next morning, in order to proceed thither.

He came accordingly, and we arrived at Versailles punctually. M.
de Vergennes received him with much civility. Mr. Oswald not being
ready in speaking French, M. de Rayneval interpreted. Mr. Oswald
at first thought of sending an express, with the account of the conver-
sation, which continued near an hour, and was offered a passport, but
finally concluded to go himself; and I wrote the next day the letter
following to Lord Shelburne.

“ Passy, 18 April, 1782.

“My Lord,—I have received the letter your Lordship did me
the honour of writing to me on the 6th instant. I congratulate youBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

507

on your new appointment to the honourable and important office you
formerly filled so worthily, which must be so far pleasing to you, as
it affords you more opportunities of doing good, and of serving your
country essentially in its great concerns.

“ I have conversed a great deal with Mr. Oswald, and am much
pleased with him. He appears to me a wise and honest man. I
acquainted him, that I was commissioned, with others, to treat of
and conclude a peace. That full powers were given us for that pur-
pose, and that the Congress promised in good faith to ratify, confirm,
and cause to be faithfully observed, the treaty we should make ; but
that we would not treat separately from France, and I proposed intro-
ducing him to the Count de Vergennes, to whom I communicated
your Lordship’s letter containing Mr. Oswald’s character, as a founda-
tion for the interviews. He will acquaint you, that the assurance he
gave of His Britannic Majesty’s good dispositions towards peace was
well received, and assurances returned of the same good dispositions
in His Most Christian Majesty.

“With regard to circumstances relative to a treaty, M. de Ver-
.gennes observed, that the King’s engagements were such, that he
could not treat without the concurrence of his allies ; that the treaty
should, therefore, be for a general, not a partial peace ; that, if the
parties were disposed to finish the war speedily by themselves; it
would .perhaps be best to treat at Paris, as an ambassador from
Spain was already there, and the Commissioners from America
might easily and soon be assembled there. Or, if they chose to
make use of the proposed mediation, they might treat at Vienna:
but that the King was so truly willing to put a speedy end to the
war, that he would agree to any place the King of England should
think proper.

“ I leave the rest of the conversation to be related to your Lord-
ship by Mr. Oswald ; and, that he might do it more easily and fully,
than he could by letter, I was of opinion with him, that it would be
best he should return immediately and do it vivA voce. Being my-
self but one of the four persons now in Europe, commissioned by
the Congress to treat of peace, I can make no propositions of much
importance without them. I can only express my wish, that, if Mr.
Oswald returns hither, he may bring with him the agreement of your
court to treat for a general peace, and the proposal of place and time,
that I may immediately write to Messrs. Adams, Laurens, and Jay.
I suppose, that in this case, your Lordship will think it proper to
have Mr. Laurens discharged from the engagements he entered into,
when he was admitted to bail. I desire no other channel of com-
munication between us, than that of Mr. Oswald, which I think your
Lordship has chosen with much judgment. He will be witness of my
acting with all the simplicity and good faith, which you do me the
honour to expect from me ; and, if he is enabled, when he returns
hither, to communicate more fully your Lordship’s mind on the prin-
cipal points to be settled, I think it may contribute much to the blessed
work our hearts are engaged in.508

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

“ By the act of Parliament relative to American prisoners, I see the
King is empowered to exchange them. I hope those you have in
England and Ireland may be sent home soon to their country, in flags
of truce, and exchanged for an equal number of your people. Permit
me to add, that I think it would be well, if some kindness were mixed
in the transaction, with regard to their comfortable accommodation on
shipboard ; as these poor unfortunate people have been long absent
from their families and friends, and rather hardly treated. With great
and sincere respect, I have the honour to be, my Lord, &c.

“ B. Franklin.”

On our return from Versailles, Mr. Oswald took occasion to impress
me with ideas, that the present weakness of the government of
England, with regard to continuing the war, was owing chiefly to the
division of sentiments about it; that, in case France should make
demands too humiliating for England to submit to, the spirit of the
nation would be roused, unanimity would prevail, and resources
would not be wanting. He said, there was no want of money in the
nation ; that the chief difficulty lay in the finding out new taxes to
raise it; and, perhaps, that difficulty might be avoided by shutting up
the Exchequer, stopping the payment of the interest of the public
funds, and applying that money to the support of the war. I made no
reply to this ; for I did not desire to discourage their stopping pay-
ment, which I considered as cutting the throat of the public credit,
and a means of adding fresh exasperation against them with the
neighbouring nations. Such menaces were besides an encourage-
ment with me, remembering the adage, that they who threaten are
afraid..

The next morning, when I had written the above letter to Lord
Shelburne, I went with it to Mr. Oswald’s lodgings, and gave it to
him to read before I sealed it ; that, in case anything might be in it
with which he was not satisfied, it might be corrected; but he ex-
pressed himself much pleased.

In going to him, I had also in view the entering into a conver-
sation, which might draw out something of the mind of his court on
the subject of Canada and Nova Scotia. I had thrown some loose
thoughts on paper, which I intended to serve as memorandums for
my discourse, but without a fixed intention of showing them to him.
On his saying that he was obliged to me for the good opinion I had
expressed of him to Lord Shelburne in my letter, and assuring me,
that he had entertained the same of me, I observed, that I perceived
Lord Shelburne had placed great confidence in him, and, as we had
happily the same in each other, we might possibly, by a free com-
munication of sentiments, and a previous settling of our own minds
on some of the important points, be the means of great good, by
impressing our sentiments on the minds of those with whom they
might have influence, and where their being received might be of
importance.

J then remarked, that his nation seemed to desire a reconciliation ;BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.	509

that, to obtain this, the party which had been the aggressor and had
cruelly treated the other, should: show some marks of concern for what
was past, and some disposition to make reparation ; that perhaps
there were things, which America might demand by way of repa-
ration, and which England might yield, and that the effect would be
vastly greater, if they appeared to be voluntary, and to spring from
returning good will; that I, therefore, wished England would think of
offering something to relieve those, who had suffered by its scalping
and burning parties. Lives indeed could not be restored nor com-
pensated, but the villages and houses wantonly destroyed might be
rebuilt, &c. I then touched upon the affair of Canada, and, as in
a former conversation he had mentioned his opinion, that the giving
up of that country to the English, at the last peace, had been a politic
act in France, for that it had weakened the ties between England and
her colonies, and that he himself had predicted from it the late revo-
lution, I spoke of the occasions of future quarrel that might be pro-
duced by her continuing to hold it; hinting at the same time, but not
expressing too plainly, that such a situation, to us so dangerous,
would necessarily oblige us to cultivate and strengthen our union with
France. He appeared much struck with my discourse, and, as I
frequently looked at my paper, he desired to see it. After some little
delay, I allowed him to read it; the following is an exact copy.

“notes for conversation.

“ To make a peace durable, what may give occasion for future wars
should if practicable be removed.

“ The territory of the United States and that of Canada, by long
extended frontiers, touch each other.

“ The settlers o» the frontiers of the American provinces are
generally the most disorderly of the people, who, being far removed
from the eye and control of their respective governments, are more
bold in committing offences against neighbours, and are for ever
occasioning complaints and furnishing matter for fresh differences
between their States.

“By the late debates in Parliament, and public writings, it appears
that Britain desires a reco7iciliation with the Americans. It is a sweet
word. It means much more than a mere peace, and what is heartily
to be wished for. Nations make a peace whenever they are both
weary of making war. But, if one of them has made war upon the
other tinjustly, and has wantonly and unnecessarily done it great
injuries, and refuses reparation, though there may, for the present, be
peace, the resentment of those injuries will remain, and will break
out again in vengeance when occasions offer. These occasions will
be watched for by one side, feared by the other, and the peace will
never be secure ; nor can any cordiality subsist between them.

“ Many houses and villages have, been burnt in America by the
English and their allies, the Indians. I do not know that the
Americans will insist on reparation ; perhaps they may. But would5 io

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

it not be better for England to offer it? Nothing would have a greater
tendency to conciliate, and much of the future commerce and return-
ing intercourse between the two countries may depend «n the recon-
ciliation. Would not the advantage of reconciliation by such means
be greater than the expense ?

‘•If then a way can be proposed, which may tend to efface the
memory of injuries, at the same time that it takes away the occasions
of fresh quarrels and mischief, will it not be worth considering,
especially if it can be done, not only without expense, but be a means
of saving ?

“ Britain possesses Canada. Her chief advantage from that
possession consists in the trade for peltry. Her expenses in govern-
ing and defending that settlement must be considerable. It might
be humiliating to her to give it up on the demand of America. Per-
haps America will not demand it; some of her political rulers may
consider the fear of such a neighbour, as a means of keeping the
thirteen States more united among themselves, and more attentive to
military discipline. But on the mind of the people in general would
it not have an excellent effect, if Britain should voluntarily offer to
give up this province; though on these conditions, that she shall in
all times coming have and enjoy the right of free trade thither,
unencumbered with any duties whatsoever; that so much of the
vacant lands there shall be sold, as will raise a sum sufficient to pay
for the houses burnt by the British troops and their Indians ; and also
indemnify the royalists for the confiscation of their estates ?

“This is mere conversation matter between Mr. Oswald and Mr.
Franklin, as the former is not empowered to make propositions,
and the latter cannot make any without the concurrence of his
colleagues.”

He then told me, that nothing in his judgment could be clearer,
more satisfactory and convincing, than the reasonings in that paper ;
that he would do his utmost to impress Lord Shelburne with them ;
that as his memory might not do them justice, and it would be im-
possible for him to express them so well, or state them so clearly as I
had written them, he begged I would let him take the paper with him,
assuring me that he would return it safely into my hands. I at length
complied with this request also. We parted exceeding good friends,
and he set out for London.

By the first opportunity after his departure, I wrote a letter to Mr.
Adams, and sent the papers therein mentioned, that he might fully be
apprized of the proceedings. I omitted only the paper of Notes for
Conversation with Mr. Oswald, but gave the substance. The reason
of my omitting it was, that, on reflection, I was not pleased with my
having hinted a reparation to Tories for their forfeited estates, and I
was a little ashamed of my weakness in permitting the paper to go out
of my hands.

Supposing Mr. Laurens to be in Holland with Mr. Adams, I, at the
same time wrote to him. «BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.	511

Just after I had despatched these letters, I received the following
from Mr. Adams.

FROM JOHN ADAMS TO B. FRANKLIN.

“Amsterdam, 16 April, 1782.

“Sir,—Yesterday noon, Mr. William Vaughan, of London, came to
my house with Mr. Laurens, the son of the president, and brought me
a line'from the latter, and told me the President was at Haerlem, and
desired to see me. I went to Haerlem and found my old friend at the
Golden Lion. He told me, he was come partly for his health and the
pleasure of seeing me, and partly to converse with me, and see if he had
at present a jusjt ideas and views of things, at least to see if we agreed
in sentiment, having been desired by several of the new ministry to
do so. I asked him if he was at liberty ? He said, No ; that he was
still under parole, but at liberty to say what he pleased to me. I told
him, that I could not communicate to him, being a prisoner, even his
own instructions, nor enter into any consultation with him as one of
our colleagues in the commission for peace ; that all I should say to
him would be as one private citizen conversing with another; but that,
upon all such occasions, I should reserve a right to communicate what-
ever should pass to bur colleagues and allies.

“ He said, that Lord Shelburne, and others of the new ministers,
were anxious to know, whether there was any authority to treat of a
separate peace, and whether there could be an accommodation upon
any terms short of independence ; that he had ever answered them,
that nothing short of an express or tacit acknowledgment of our
independence, in his opinion, would ever be accepted, and that no
treaty ever would, or could, be made separate from France. He asked
me, if his answers had been right. I told him, that I was fully of that
opinion. He said, that the new ministers had received Digges’s
report, but his character was such, that they did not choose to depend
upon it; that a person by the name of Oswald, I think, set off for
-Paris to see you, about the same time he came away to see me.

“ I desired him, between him and me, to consider, without saying
anything of it to the ministry, whether we could ever have a real peace,
with Canada or Nova Scotia in the hands of the English; and whether
we ought not to insist, at least, upon a stipulation, that they should
ikeep no standing army, or regular troops, nor erect any fortifications,
'upon the frontiers of either. That, at present, I saw no motive that
we had to be anxious for a peace ; and, if the nation was not ripe for
iit upon proper terms, we might wait patiently till they should be so.

“ I found the old gentleman perfectly sound in his system of politics.
He has a very poor opinion, both of the integrity and abilities of the
1 new ministry, as well as the old. He thinks they know not what they
are about; that they are spoiled by the same insincerity, duplicity,
falsehood, and corruption, with the former. Lord Shelburne still
-flatters the King with ideas of conciliation and a separate peace, &c.;
yet the nation, and the best men in it, are for universal peace and an512

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

express acknowledgment of American independence, and many of the
best are for giving up Canada and Nova Scotia. His design seemed
to be solely to know how far Digges’s report was true. After an hour
or two of conversation, I returned to Amsterdam, and left him to
return to London.

“ These are all but artifices to raise the stocks ; and, if you think of
any method to put a stop to them, I will cheerfully concur with you.
They now know sufficiently, that our commission is to treat of a
general peace, and with persons vested with equal powers ; and, if you
agree to it, I will, never to see another messenger that is not a pleni-
potentiary.

“ It is expected that the seventh Province, Guelderland, will this
day acknowledge American independence. I think we are in such a
situation now, that we ought not, upon any consideration, to think of
a truce, or anything short of an express acknowledgment of the
sovereignty of the United States. I should be glad, however, to
know your sentiments upon this point. I have the honour to be, &c.

“John Adams.”

To the above, I immediately wrote the following answer.

‘‘ Passy, 20 April, 1782.

“ Sir,—I have just received the honour of yours, dated the 16th
instant, acquainting me with the interview between your Excellency
and Mr. Laurens. I am glad to learn, that his political sentiments
coincide with ours, and that there is a disposition in England to give
us up Canada and Nova Scotia.

“ I like your idea of seeing no more messengers, that are not pleni-
potentiaries ; but I cannot refuse seeing again Mr. Oswald, as the
minister here considered the letter to me from Lord Shelburne as a
kind of authentication given that messenger, and expects his return
with some explicit propositions. I shall keep you advised of whatever
passes.

“The late act of Parliament, for exchanging American prisoners as
prisoners of war, according to the law of nations, anything in their
commitments notwithstanding, seems to me a renunciation of their
pretensions to try our people as subjects guilty of high treason, and to
be a kind of tacit acknowledgment of our independency. Having
taken this step, it will be less difficult for them to acknowledge it
expressly. They are now preparing transports to send the prisoners
home. I yesterday sent the passports desired of me.

“ Sir George Grand shows me a letter from Mr. Fizeau, in which he
says, that, if advantage is taken of the present enthusiasm in favour
of America, a loan might be obtained in Holland, of five or six millions
of florins, for America, and, if their house is empowered to open it,
he has no doubt of success ; but that no time is to be lost. I earnestly
recommend this matter to you, as extremely necessary to the operations
of our financier, Mr. Morris, who, not knowing that the greatest part
of the last five millions had been consumed by purchase of goods, &c.,.BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.	513

in Europe, writes me advice of large drafts, that he shall be obliged to
make upon me this summer.

_ “ This court has granted us six millions of livres for the current
year; but it will fall vastly short of our occasions, there being large
orders to fulfil, and near two millions and a half to pay M. Beaumar-
chais, besides the interest, bills, &c. The house of Fizeau and Grand
is now appointed banker for France, by a special commission from the
King, and will, on that, as well as other accounts, be, in my opinion,
the fittest for this operation. Your Excellency being on the spot, c&n
better judge of the terms, &c., and manage with that house the whole
business, in which I should be glad to have no other concern than that
of receiving assistance from it, when pressed by the dreaded drafts.
With great respect, I am, Sir, &c.

“B. Franklin.”

In reply to this, Mr. Adams wrote to me as follows.

‘‘Amsterdam, 2 May, 1782.

“ Sir,—I am honoured with your favour of the 20th of April, and
Mr. Laurens’s son proposes to carry the letter to his father forthwith.
The instructions by the courier from Versailles came safe, as all other
despatches by that channel no doubt will do. The correspondence
with Mr. Hartley I received by Captain Smedley, and will take the
first good opportunity by a private hand to return it, as well as that
with the Earl of Shelburne.

“ Mr. Laurens and Mr. Jay will, I hope, be able to meet at Paris ;
but when it will be in my power to go, I know not. Your present
negotiation about peJce falls in very well to aid a proposition, which I
am instructed to make, as soon as the court of Versailles shall judge
proper, of a triple or quadruple alliance. This matter, the treaty of
commerce, which is now under deliberation, and the loan, will render
it improper for me to quit this station, unless in case of necessity. If
there is a real disposition to permit Canada to accede to the American
association, I should think there would be no great difficulty in
adjusting all things between England and America, provided our
allies are contented too. In a former letter I hinted, that I thought
an express acknowledgment of our independence might now be
insisted on ; but I did not mean, that we should insist upon such an
article in the treaty. If they make a treaty of peace with the United
States of America, this is acknowledgment enough for me.

“ The affair of a loan gives me much anxiety and fatigue. It is true,
1 may open a loan for five millions ; but I confess, I have no hopes of
.obtaining so much. The money is not to be had. Cash is not infinite
in this country. Their profits by trade have been ruined for two or
three years ; and there are loans open for France, Spain, England,
Russia, Sweden, Denmark, and several other powers, as well as their
own national, provincial, and collegiate loans. The undertakers are
already loaded with burdens greatthan they can hear; and all the

34LIFE AND LETTERS OF

SJ4

brokers in the republic are so engaged, that there is scarcely a ducat
to be lent, but what is promised.

“ This is the true cause why we should not succeed; yet they will
seek a hundred other pretences. It is considered such an honour and
such an introduction to American trade to be the house, that the
eagerness to obtain the title of American banker is prodigious.
Various houses have pretensions, which they set up very high ; and,
let me choose which I will, I am sure of a cry and clamour.

“ I have taken some measures to endeavour to calm the heat, and
give general satisfaction, but have as yet small hopes of success. I
would strike with any house that would insure the money, but none
will undertake it, now it is offered, although several were very ready to
affirm that they could, when it began to be talked of. Upon inquiry,
they do not find the money easy to obtain, which I could have told
them before. It is to me, personally, perfectly indifferent which is the
house ; and the only question is, which will be able to do best for the
interests of the United'States. This question, however simple, is not
easy to answer. But I think it clear, after very painful and laborious
inquiry for a year and a half, that no house whatever will be able to do
much. Enthusiasm, at some times and in some countries, may do a
great deal; but there has as yet been no enthusiasm in this country
for America, strong enough to untie many purses. Another year, if
the war continues, perhaps we may do better. I have the honour to
be, &c.

“John Adams.”

During Mr. Oswald’s absence, I received the following letter from
Mr. Laurens.

" London, 20 April, 1782.

“ Sir,—I wrote to you on the 7th instant, by Mr. Oswald, since
which, that is to say, on the 28th, I was honoured by the receipt of
your lettei*of the 12th, enclosing a copy of the commission for treating
for peace, by the hands of Mr. Young. The recognizance, exacted
from me by the late ministry, has been vacated and done away by the
present ; these have been pleased to enlarge me without formal con-
ditions ; but, as I would not consent that the United States of America
should be outdone in generosity, however late the marks appeared on
this side, I took upon me to assure Lord Shelburne, in a letter of
acknowledgment for the part, which his Lordship had taken for
obtaining my release, that Congress would not fail to make a just and
adequate return. The only return, in my view, is Lieutenant-General
Lord Cornwallis. Congress were pleased some time ago, to offer a
British lieutenant-general for my ransom ; and, as I am informed a
special exchange of Lord Cornwallis for the same object was lately in
contemplation, it would afford me very great satisfaction to know, that
you will join me in cancelling the debt of honour, which we have
impliedly incurred, by discharging his Lordship from the obligations
of his parole.BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

515

“ For my own part, though not a bold adventurer, I think I shall
riot commit myself to the risk of censure, by acting conjunctly with
you in such a bargain. I entreat you, Sir, at least, to reflect on this
matter; I shall take the liberty of requesting your determination
'when I reach the continent, which will probably happen in a few
days.

“ Lord Cornwallis, in a late conversation with me, put the following
case. ‘Suppose,’ said his Lordship, ‘it shall have been agreed, in
America, that Lord Cornwallis should be offered in exchange for Mr.
Laurens, don’t you think, although you are now discharged, I ought
to reap the intended benefit ?’ A reply from the feelings of the heart,
as I love fair play, was prompt; ‘ Undoubtedly, my Lord, you ought
to be, and shall be, in such case, discharged, and I will venture to
take the burden upon myself.’ Certain legal forms, I apprehend,
rendered the discharge of me, without condition, unavoidable ; but I
had previously refused to accept of myself for nothing, and what I
now aim at was understood as an adequate return ; it is not to be
doubted, his Lordship’s question was built on this ground.

“ I had uniformly and explicitly declared to the people here,
people in the first rank of importance, that nothing short of inde-
pendence, in terms of our treaty of alliance, would induce America to
treat for truce or peace, and that no treaty could be had without the
consent of our ally first obtained; in a word, if you mean to have
peace, you must seek for a general peace. The doctrine was ill-
relished, especially by those whose power only could set the machine
in motion ; but having, since my return from Haerlem, asserted, in
very positive terms, that I was confirmed in my former opinions, the
late obduracy has been more than a little softened, as you will soon
learn from the worthy friend, by whom I addressed you on the 7th,
who two days ago set out on his return to Passy and Versailles, with,
I believe, a more permanent commission than the former.

“Accept my thanks, Sir, for the kind offer of a supply of money.
I know too well how much you have been harassed for that article,
and too well, how low our American finances in Europe are ; there-
fore, if I can possibly avoid it, I will not further trouble you, nor
impoverish them, or not till the last extremity. Hitherto I have
supported myself without borrowing from anybody, and I am deter-
mined to continue living upon my own stock while it lasts ; the stock
is indeed small ; my expenses have been and shall be in a suitable,
modest style. I pray God to bless you. I have the honour to be,
&c.

“Henry Laurens.”

“ P.S.—I judged it proper, not only to show the peace and com-
mission to Lord Shelburne, but to give his Lordship a copy of it,
from an opinion that it would work no evil, being shown elsewhere.”

On the 4th of May, Mr. Oswald returned, and brought me the
following letter from Lord Shelbqrne.516

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

“ Shelburne House, 20 April, 1782.

“ Dear Sir,

“ I have received much satisfaction in being assured by you, that
the qualifications of wisdom and integrity, which induced me to make
choice of Mr. Oswald as the fittest instrument for the renewal of our
friendly intercourse, have also recommended him so effectually to
your approbation and esteem. I most heartily wish the influence of
this first communication of our mutual sentiments may be extended
to a happy conclusion of all our public differences.

“ The candour with which the Count de Vergennes expresses his
Most Christian Majesty’s sentiments and wishes, on the subject of a
speedy pacification, is a pleasing omen of its accomplishment. His
Majesty is not less decided in the same sentiments and wishes, and
it confirms his Majesty’s ministers in their intention to act in like
matter, as most consonant to the true dignity of a great nation. In
consequence of these reciprocal advances, Mr. Oswald is sent back
to Paris, for the purpose of arranging and settling with you the. pre-
liminaries of time and place ; and I have the pleasure to tell you,
that Mr. Laurens is already discharged from those engagements,
which he entered into when he was admitted to bail.

“ It is also determined, that Mr. Fox, from whose department that
communication is necessarily to proceed, shall send a proper person,
who may confer and settle immediately with the Count de Vergennes
the further measures and proceedings, which may be judged proper
to adopt toward advancing the prosecution of this important business.

“ In the mean time, Mr. Oswald is instructed to communicate to
you my thoughts upon the principal objects to be settled. Transports
are actually preparing for the purpose of conveying your prisoners to
America, to be there exchanged ; and we trust, that you will learn,
that due attention has not been wanting to their accommodation and
good treatment.

“ I have the honour to be, with very sincere respect, dear Sir, your
very faithful and obedient humble servant,

“ Shelburne.”

Having read the letter, I mentioned to Mr. Oswald the part, which
refers me to him for his Lordship’s sentiments. He acquainted me,
that they were very sincerely disposed to peace; that the whole
ministry concurred in the same disposition ; that a good deal of con-
fidence was placed in my character for open, honest dealing ; that it
was also generally believed, I had still remaining some part of my
ancient affection and regard for Old England, and it was hoped it
might appear on this occasion. He then showed me an extract from
the minutes of Council, but did not leave the paper with me. As well
as I can remember, it was to this purpose.

“At a Cabinet Council, held April 27th, 1782, Present, Lord
Rockingham, Lord Chancellor, Lord President, Lord Camden, &c.,
&c., to the number of fifteen or twenty, being all ministers, and great
officers of State.BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.	517

“It was proposed to represent to his Majesty, that it would be
wTell for Mr. Oswald to return to Doctor Franklin and acquaint him,
that it is agreed to treat for a general peace, and at Paris ; and that
the principal points in contemplation are, the allowing of American
Independence, on condition that England be put into the same
situation, that she was left in by the peace of 1763.”

Mr. Oswald also informed me, that he had conversed with Lord
Shelburne on the subject of my paper of Notes, relating to recon-
ciliation. That he had shown him the.paper, and had been prevailed
on to leave it with him a night ; but it was on his Lordship’s
solemn promise of returning it, which had been complied with, and
he now returned it to me. That it seemed to have made an im-
pression, and he had reason to believe that matter might be settled
to our satisfaction towards the end of the treaty ; but in his own
mind he wished it might not be mentioned at the beginning. That
his Lordship indeed said, he had not- imagined reparation would
be expected, and he wondered I should not whether it was intended
to demand it. Finally, Mr. Oswald acquainted me, that, as the
business now likely to be brought forward more particularly apper-
tained to the department of the other Secretary, Mr. Fox, he was
directed to announce another agent coming from that department,
who might be expected every day, viz. the honourable Mr. Gren-
ville, brother to Lord Temple, and son of the famous Mr. George
Grenville, formerly Chancellor of the Exchequer. I immediately
wrote to the Count de Vergennes.

On Monday morning I went with Mr. Oswald to Versailles, and we
saw the minister. Mr. Oswald acquainted him with the disposition of
his Court to treat for a general eace, and at Paris ; and he an-
nounced Mr. Grenville, who, he said, was to set out about the same
time with him, but, as he would probably come by the way of Ostend,
might be a few days longer on the road. Some general conversation
passed, agreeable enough, but not of importance.

In our return, Mr. Oswald repeated to me his opinion, that the
affair of Canada would be settled to our satisfaction, and his wish
that it might not be mentioned, till towards the end of the treaty. He
intimated, too, that it was apprehended, the greatest obstructions in
the treaty might come from the part of Spain ; but said, if she was
unreasonable, there were means to bring her to reason. That Russia
was a friend to England, had lately made great discoveries on the back
of North America, could make establishments there, and might easily
transport an army from Kamschatka to the coast of Mexico, and
conquer all those countries. This appeared a little visionary, at
present; but I did not dispute it.

On the whole, I was able to draw so little from Mr. Oswald of the
sentiments of Lord Shelburne, who had mentioned him as intrusted
with the communication of them, that I could not but wonder at his
being sent again to me, especially as Mr. Grenville was so soon to
follow.5i8

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

On Tuesday I was at Court, as usual on that day. M. de Vergennes
asked me, if Mr. Oswald had not opened himself further to me? I
acquainted him with the sight I had had of the minute of Council,
and of the loose expressions contained in it, of what was in contem-
plation. He seemed to think it odd, that he had brought nothing
more explicit. I supposed Mr. Grenville might be better furnished.
The next morning I wrote to Mr. Adams.

I had but just sent away this letter, when Mr. Oswald came in, bring-
ing with him Mr. Grenville, who was just arrived. He gave me the
following letter from Mr. Secretary Fox.

“St. James’s, i May, 1782.

“ SIR,—Though Mr. Oswald will, no doubt, have informed you of
the nature of Mr. Grenville’s commission, yet I cannot refrain from
making use of the opportunity, that his going offers me, to assure you
of the esteem and respect, which I have borne to your character, and
to beg you to believe, that no change in my situation has made any in
those ardent wishes for reconciliation, which I have invariably felt
from the very beginning of this unhappy contest.

“ Mr. Grenville is fully acquainted with my sentiments upon this
subject, and with the sanguine hopes, which I have conceived, that
those with whom we are contending are too reasonable to continue a
contest which has no longer any object, either real or even imaginary. I
know your liberality of mind too well to be afraid, lest any prejudices
against Mr. Grenville’s name may prevent you from esteeming those
excellent qualities of heart and head, which belong to him, or from
giving the fullest credit to the sincerity of his wishes for peace, in
which no man in either country goes beyond him. I am, with great
truth and regard, &c.	“ C. J. Fox.’’

I imagined the gentleman had been at Versailles, as I supposed Mr
Grenville vVould first have waited on M. de Vergennes before he called
on me. But finding, in conversation, that he had not, and that he
expected me to introduce him, I immediately wrote to that minister,
acquainting him, that Mr. Grenville was arrived, and desired to know
when his Excellency would think fit to receive him, and I sent an
express with my letter.

I then entered into conversation with him on the subject of his
mission, Mr. Fox having referred me to him, as being fully acquainted
with his sentiments. He said, that peace was really wished for by
everybody, if it could be obtained on reasonable terms; and, as the
idea of subjugating America was given up, and both France and
America had thereby obtained what they had in view originally, it was
hoped, that there now remained no obstacle to a pacification. That
England was willing to treat of a general peace with all the powers at
war against her, and that the treaty should be at Paris.

I did not press him much for further particulars, supposing they
were reserved for our interview with M. de Vergennes. The gentlemen
did me the honour of staying to dinner with me, on the supposition,BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

519

which I urged, that my express might be back before we parted.
This gave me an opportunity of a good deal of general conversation
with Mr. Grenville, who appeared to me a sensible, judicious, intelli-
gent, good-tempered, and well-instructed young man, answering well
the character Mr. Fox had given me of him.

They left me, however, about six o’clock, and my messenger did not
return till near nine. He brought me the answer of the Count de
Vergennes, that he was glad to hear of Mr. Grenville’s arrival, and
would be ready to receive us to-morrow, at half past ten or eleven
o’clock. I immediately enclosed this note in one to Mr. Grenville,
requesting him to be with me at Passy by eight, that we might have
time to breakfast befoi'e we set out.

We set out accordingly the next morning in my coach, and arrived
punctually at Count de Vergennes’s, who received Mr. Grenville in the
most cordial manner, on account of the acquaintance and friendship,
that had formally subsisted between his uncle and the Count de Ver-
gennes, when they were ambassadors together at Constantinople.

After some little agreeable conversation, Mr. Grenville presented
his letters from Mr. Secretary Fox, and, I think, from the Duke of
Richmond. When these were read, the subject of peace was entered
upon. What my memory retains of the discourse amounts to little
more than this, that, after mutual declarations of the good dispositions
of the two courts, Mr. Grenville having intimated, that, in case Eng-
land gave America independence, France, it was expected, would
restore the conquests she had made of British islands, receiving back
those of Miquelon and St. Pierre. And, the original object of the
war being obtained, it was supposed that France would be contented
with that. The minister seemed to smile at the proposed exchange,
and remarked, the offer of giving independence to America amounted
to little. “ America,” said he, “ does not ask it of you ; there is Mr.
Franklin, he will answer you as to that point.” “ To be sure,” I said,
“ we do not consider ourselves as under any. necessity of bargaining
for a thing that is our own, which we have bought at the expense of
much blood and treasure, and which we are in possession of.” “As
to our being satisfied with the original object of the war,” continued
he, “ look back to the conduct of your nation in former wars. In the
last war, for example, what was the object ? It was the disputed right
of some waste lands on the Ohio and the frontiers of Nova Scotia.
Did you content yourselves with the recovery of those lands ? No, you
retained at the peace all Canada, all Louisiana, all Florida, Grenada, and
other West India islands, the greatest part of the northern fisheries,
with all your conquests in Africa and the East Indies.” Something
being mentioned of its not being reasonable, that a nation, after
making an unprovoked and unsuccessful war upon its neighbours,
should expect to sit down whole, and have everything restored, which
she had lost in such a war, I think Mr. Grenville remarked, the war
had been provoked by the encouragement given by France to the
Americans to revolt. On which the Count de Vergennes grew a little
warm, and declared firmly, that the breach was made, and our inde-520

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

pendence declared, long before we received the least encouragement
Irom France ; and he defied the world to give the smallest proof of
the contrary. “ There sits,” said he, “ Mr. Franklin, who knows the
fact, and can contradict me if I do not speak the truth.”

He repeated to Mr. Grenville, what he had before said to Mr.
Oswald, respecting the King’s intention of treating fairly, and keep-
ing faithfully the conventions he should enter into, of which disposition
he should give at the treaty convincing proofs by the fidelity and
exactitude, with which he should observe his engagements with his
present allies, and added, that the points which the King had chiefly
in view were justice and dignity ; these he could not depart from. He
acquainted Mr. Grenville, that he should immediately write to Spain
and Holland, communicate to those courts what had passed, and
request their answers ; that, in the meantime, he hoped Mr. Grenville
would find means of amusing himself agreeably, to which he should be
glad to contribute ; that he would communicate what had passed to
the King, and he invited him to come again the next day.

On our return, Mr. Grenville expressed himself as not quite satisfied
with some part of the Count de Vergennes’s discourse, and was
thoughtful. He told me, that he had brought two State messengers
with him, and perhaps, after he had had another interview with the
minister, he might despatch one of them to London. I then requested
leave to answer, by that opportunity, the letters I had received from
Lord Shelburne and Mr. Fox, and he kindly promised to acquaint me
in time of the messenger’s departure. He did not ask me to go with
him the next day to Versailles, and I did not offer it.

The coming and going of these gentlemen were observed, and made
much talk at Paris; and the Marquis de Lafayette, having learned
something of their business from the minister, discoursed with me
about it. Agreeably to the resolutions of Congress, directing me to
confer with him, and take his assistance in our affairs, I communicated
to him what had passed. He told me, that, during the treaty at Paris
for the last peace, the Duke de Nivernais had been sent to reside in
London, that this court might, through him, state what was from time
to time transacted in the light they thought best, to prevent misrepre-
sentations and misunderstandings. That such an employ would be
extremely agreeable to him on many accounts ; that as he was now an
American citizen, spoke both languages, and was well acquainted with
our interests, he believed he might be useful in it; and that, as peace
was likely from appearances to take place, his return to America was
perhaps not so immediately necessary. I liked the idea, and en-
couraged his proposing it to the ministry. He then wished I would
make him acquainted with Messrs. Oswald and Grenville, and for that
end proposed meeting them at breakfast with me, which I promised to
contrive if I could, and endeavour to engage them for Saturday.

Friday morning, the ioth of May, I went to Paris, and visited Mr.
Oswald. I found him in the same friendly dispositions, and very
desirous of good, and seeing an end put to this ruinous war. But I
got no further sight as to the sentiments of Lord Shelburne respectingBENJAMIN FRANKLIN\

5-i

the terms. I told him the Marquis de Lafayette would breakfast with
me to-morrow, and as he, Mr. Oswald, might have some curiosity to
see a person who had in this war rendered himself so remarkable, I
proposed his doing me the same honour. He agreed to it cheerfully.
I came home intending to write to Mr. Grenville, who I supposed might
stay and dine at Versailles, and therefore did not call on him. But
lie was returned, and I found the following note from him.

“ Paris, io May.

“ Mr. Grenville presents his compliments to Mr. Franklin ; he pro-
poses sending a courier to England at ten o’clock to-night, and will
give him in charge any letters Mr. Franklin may wish to send by
him.”

I sat down immediately, and wrote the two short letters following to
the secretaries of state.

TO CHARLES J. FOX.

” Passy, io May, 1782.

“Sir,—I received the letter you did me the honour of writing to me
by Mr. Grenville, whom I find to be a sensible, judicious, and amiable
gentleman. The name, I assure you, does not lessen with me the
regard his excellent qualities inspire. I introduced him as soon as
possible to Count de Vergennes ; he will himself give you an account
of his reception. I hope his coming may forward the blessed work
of pacification, in which, for the sake of humanity, no time should be
lost, no reasonable cause as you observe existing at present for the
continuance of this abominable war. Be assured of my endeavours to
put an end to it.

“I am much flattered by the good opinion of a person'I have long
highly esteemed, and I hope it will not be lessened by my conduct in
the affair, that bas given rise to our correspondence. With great
respect, I have the honour to be &c.,	“B. Franklin.”

TO LORD SHELBURNE.

“ Passy, 10 May, 1782.

“ My Lord,—I have received the honour of your Lordship’s letter,
dated the 28th past, by Mr. Oswald, informing me, that he is sent
back to settle with me the preliminaries of time and place. Paris, as
the place, seemed to me yesterday to be agreed on, between Mr.
Grenville and M. de Vergennes, and is perfectly agreeable to me.
The time cannot well be settled till this court has received answers
from Madrid, and the Hague, and until my colleagues are arrived.
I expect daily Messrs. Jay and Laurens. Mr. Adams doubts whether
he can be here, but that will not hinder our proceeding.

“ It gave me great pleasure to hear Mr. Laurens is discharged
entirely from the obligations he had entered into. I am much obliged
by the readiness with which your Lordship has conferred that favour.
Please to accept my thankful acknowledgments.522

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

“ I am happy, too, in understanding from your letter, that transports
are actually preparing to convey our prisoners to America, and that
attention will be paid to their accommodation and good treatment.
Those people on their return will be dispersed through every part of
America, and the accounts they will have to give of any marks of
kindness received by them under the present ministry, will lessen
much the resentment of their friends against the nation, for the hard-
ships they suffered under the past.

“ Mr. Oswald rests here awhile by my advice, as I think his presence
likely to be useful. With great, and sincere respect, 1 have the honour
to be, &c.	“B. Franklin.”

The Monday following, I called to visit Mr. Grenville. I found
with him Mr. Oswald, who told me he was just about returning to
London. I was a little surprised at the suddenness of the resolution
he had taken, it being, as he said, to set out the next morning early.
I conceived the gentleman was engaged in business, so I withdrew,
and went to write a few letters, among which was the following to
Lord Shelburne, being really concerned at the thought of losing so
good a man as Mr. Oswald.

TO LORD SHELBURNE.

“ Passy, 13 May, 1782.

“ My Lord,—I did myself the honour of writing to your Lordship
a few days since, by Mr. Grenville’s courier, acknowledging the receipt
of yours of the 28th past, by Mr. Oswald.

“ I then hoped that gentleman would have remained here some
time, but his affairs, it seems, recall him sooner than he imagined. I
hope he will return again, as I esteem him more, the more.I am
acquainted witl\ him, and believe his moderation, prudent counsels,
and sound judgment may contribute much, not only to the speedy
conclusion of a peace, but to the framing such a peace as may be firm
and lasting. With great respect, &c.	“ B. Franklin.”

I went in the evening to Mr. Oswald’s lodging with my letters,
when he informed me, his intention was to return immediately hither
from England ; and, to make the more despatch in going and return-
ing, he should leave his carriage at Calais, as the embarking and
debarking of carriages in the packet boats often occasioned a tide’s
delay. I did not inquire the reason of this movement. We had but
little conversation, for Mr. Grenville coming in, I soon after wished
him a good journey and retired, that I might not interrupt their con-
sultations.

Since his departure Mr. Grenville has made me a visit; and entered
into conversation with me, exactly of the same tenor with the tetters
I formerly received from Mr. Hartley, stating suppositions that France
might insist on points totally different from what had been the object
of our alliance, and that, in such case, he should imagine we we' <: not
at all bound to continue the war to obtain such points for her, &c. IBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

523

thought I could not give him a better answer to this kind of discourse,
than what I had given in two letters to Mr. Hartley, and, therefore,
calling for those letters, I read them to him. He smiled, and would
have turned the conversation ; but I gave a little more of my senti-
ments on the general subject of benefits, obligation, and gratitude. I
said, I thought people had often imperfect notions of their duty on
those points, and that a state of obligation was to many so uneasy a
state, that they became ingenious in finding out reasons and argu-
ments to prove that they had been laid under no obligation at all,
or that they had discharged it, and they too easily satisfied themselves
with such arguments.

: To explain clearly my ideas on the subject, I stated a case. A, a
stranger to B, sees him about to be imprisoned for a debt by a merci-
less creditor ; he lends him the sum necessary to preserve his liberty.
B then becomes the debtor of A, and, after some time, repays the
money. Has he then discharged the obligation ? No. He has dis-
charged the money debt, but the obligation remains, and he is a debtor
for the kindness of A, in lending him the sum so seasonably, ff B
should afterwards find A in the same circumstances, that he, B, had
been in when A lent him the money, he may then discharge this
obligation or debt of kindness in part, by lending him an equal sum.
In part, I said, and not wholly, because, when A lent B the money,
there had been no prior benefit received to induce him to it. And,
therefore, if A should a second time need the same assistance, 1
thought B, if in his power, was in duty bound to afford it to him.

Mr. Grenville conceived that it was carrying gratitude very far, to
apply this doctrine to our situation in respect to France, who was
really the party served and obliged by our separation from England,
as it lessened the. jaower of her rival and relatively increased her
own.

I told him, I was so strongly impressed with the kind assistance
afforded us by France in our distress, and the generous and noble
manner in which it was granted, without exacting or stipulating for a
single privilege, or'particular advantage to herself in our commerce,
or otherwise, that I could never suffer myself to think of such reason-
ings for lessening the obligation ; and I hoped, and, indeed, did not
doubt, but my countrymen were all of the’same sentiments.

Thus he gained nothing of the point he came to push ; we parted,
however, in good humour. His conversation is always polite, and his
manner pleasing. As he expressed a strong desire to discourse with
me on the means of a reconciliation with America, I promised to con-
sider the subject, and appointed Saturday the first day of June, for
our conversation, when he proposed to call on me. The same day
I received another letter from my old friend Mr. Hartley. Our former
correspondence on the subject of peace since the beginning of this
year, I have kept by itself, as it preceded this, was in the time of the
old ministry, and consisted wholly of letters unmixed with personal
conversation.LIFE AND LETTERS OF

;24

FROM DAVID HARTLEY TO B. FRANKLIN.

“ London, 3 May, 1782.

“My dear Friend,—I write to you only one line, just to inform
you, that a general order is issued by our government for the release
of all the American prisoners everywhere. I have had this from Lord
Shelburne, who informed me, that the order was not partial or con-
ditional, but general and absolute. I heartily congratulate you upon
this first step towards sweet reconciliation. I hope other things will
follow. I had a long conversation with Lord Shelburne relating to
America, in which he expressed himself in most favourable terms. I
shall have the honour of seeing and conversing with you again. But
at present, as you know, certain matters are depending from your side
of the water.

“ Mr. Laurens is entirely at liberty. I see him very frequently, and
when you see him he will tell you many things from me, which have
occurred to me in my poor endeavours to promote the cause of peace.
Da pacem, Domine, in diebus nostris. Your affectionate, &c.

“D. Hartley.”

TO DAVID HARTLEY.

" Passy, 13 May, 1782.

“ My dear Friend,—I have just received your favour of the
3rd instant. I thank you much for the good news you give me, that
‘ an order is issued by your government for the release of all the
American prisoners everywhere, an order not partial or conditional,
but general and absolute.’ I rejoice with you in this step, not only on
account of the unhappy captives, who by it will be set at liberty and
restored to their friends and families, but as I think it will tend greatly
towards a reconciliation, on which alone the hope of a durable peace
can be founded. I am much indebted to your good brother for a
very kind and obliging letter, which was mislaid when it should have
been answered. I beg you would present to him my thankful
acknowledgments and my very sincere respects. I join with you
most heartily in the prayer that ends your letter, Da pacem, Domwe,
in diebus nostris. I am ever, my friend, yours most affectionately,

“B. Franklin.”

Our business standing still at present, till the return of Mr. Oswald,
gives me a void, that I may fill up with two or three circumstances, not
at present connected with this intended treaty, but which serve to
show something of the disposition of courts who have, or may have, a
concern in it.

Mr. Jay had written to me, from time to time, of the unaccountable
delays he had met with since his residence at the court of Spain, and
that he was now no nearer in the business he had been charged with,
than when he first arrived. Upon the first coming of Mr. Oswald,
and the apparent prospect of a treaty, I wrote to press his ^oming
hither, and, being a little out of humour with that court, I said, theyBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

S2S

have taken four years to consider whether they should treat with
us, give them forty, and let us mind our own business ; and I sent
the letter under cover to a person at Madrid, who I hoped would
open and read it.

It seems to me, that we have, in most instances, hurt our credit and
importance, by sending all over Europe, begging alliances, and solicit-
ing declarations of our independence. The nations, perhaps, from
thence seemed to think, that our independence is something they have
to sell, and that we do not offer enough for it. Mr. Adams has
succeeded in Holland, owing to their war with England, and a good
deal to the late votes in the Commons towards a reconciliation ; but
the ministers of the other powers refused, as I hear, to return his
visits, because our independence was not yet acknowledged by their
courts. I had heard here, by good luck, that the same resolution was
taken by several of them not to return the visits I should make them
(as they supposed) when I was first received here as minister pleni-
potentiary, and disappointed their project by visiting none of them.
In my private opinion, the first civility is due from the old resident to
the stranger and new comer. My opinion indeed is good for nothing
against custom, which I should have obeyed, but for the circumstances,
that rendered it more prudent to avoid disputes and affronts, though
at the hazard of being thought rude or singular.

While I am writing, something ridiculous enough on this head has
happened to me. The Count du Nord, who is son of the Empress of
Russia, arriving at Paris, ordered, it seems, cards of visit to be sent to
all the foreign ministers. One of them, on which was written, “ Le
Comte du Nord et le Prince Bariatinski,” was brought to me. It
was on Monday evening last. Being at court the next day, I inquired
of an old minister, my friend, what was the etiquette, and whether the
Count received visits. The answer was, “A 'on; on se fait Icrire;
voild, tout” This is done by passing the door, and ordering your
name *o be written on the porter’s book. Accordingly, on Wednesday
I passed the house of Prince Bariatinski, ambassador of Russia, where
the Count lodged, and left my name on the list of each. I thought no
more of the matter ; but this day, May the 24th, comes the servant
who brought the card, in great affliction, saying he was like to be
ruined by his mistake in bringing the card here, and wishing to
obtain from me some paper, of I know not what kind, for I did not
see him.

In the afternoon came my friend, M. Le Roy, who is also a
friend of the Prince’s, telling me how much he, the Prince, was
concerned at the accident, that both himself and the Count had
great personal regard for me and my character, but that, our in-
dependence not yet being acknowledged by the court of Russia, it was
impossible for him to permit himself to make me a visit as minister.
I told M. Le Roy it was not my custom to seek such honours,
though I was very sensible of them when conferred upon me ; that I
should not have voluntarily intruded- a visit, and that, in this case,
I had only done what I was informed the etiquette required of me;526

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

but if it would be attended with any inconvenience to Prince Baria-
tinski, whom I much esteemed and respected, I thought the remedy
was easy; he had only to erase my name out of his book of visits
received, and I would burn their card.

All the northern princes are not ashamed of a little civility com-
mitted towards an American. The King of Denmark, travelling in
England under an assumed name, sent me a card, expressing in strong
terms his esteem for me, and inviting me to dinner with him at St.
James’s. And the ambassador from the King of Sweden lately asked
me, whether I had powers to make a treaty of commerce with their
kingdom, for, he said, his master was desirous of such a treaty with
the United States, had directed him to ask me the question, and had
charged him to tell me, that it would flatter him greatly to make
it with a person whose character he so much esteemed, &c. Such
compliments might make me a little proud, if we Americans were not
naturally as much so already as the porter, who, being told he had
with his burden jostled the great Czar, Peter, then in London, walking
the street ; “ Poh ! ” says he, “ we are all Czars here

I did not write by Mr. Oswald to Mr. Laurens, because, from some
expressions in his last to me, I expected him here, and I desired
Mr. Oswald, if he found him still in London, or met him on the road,
to give him that reason. I am disappointed in my expectation, for I
have now received (May 25th) the following letter from him.

FROM HENRY LAURENS TO B. FRANKLIN.

“ Ostend, 17 May, 1782.

“ Sir,—I had the honour of addressing you on the 30th ultimo by
post, a duplicate of which will accompany this, in order to guard against
the effect of a miscarriage in the first instance, and I beg leave to refer
you to the contents.

“ On the 10th current and no sooner, your very obliging favour of
the 20th preceding reached me in London. Being then on the point
of leaving that place, I deferred a reply until my arrival on this side.
This happened yesterday, too late to catch the post of the day, except
by a single letter, put into my hands, I believe, by Dr. Price, which I
sent forward.

“ I sincerely and heartily thank you, Sir, for the cordial contents of
your last letter ; but, from the most mature reflection, and taking into
consideration my present very infirm state of health, I have resolved
to decline accepting the honour intended me by Congress, in the
Commission for treating with Great Britain, and I' find the less diffi-
culty in coming to this determination, from a persuasion in my own
mind that my assistance is not essential, and that it was not the view
or expectation of our constituents, that every one named in the Com-
mission should act. I purpose to repair to, or near Mr. Adams, and
inquire of him, whether I may yet be serviceable under the Commis-
sion to which I had been first appointed, that for borrowing me.ley for
the use of the United States. If he speaks in the affirmative,! shall,
though much against my own grain, as is well known at our little court,BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

527

proceed in the mission with diligence and fidelity; otherwise, I shall
take a convenient opportunity of returning to give an account there,
of having in the course of two years and upwards done nothing, except-
ing only the making a great number of rebels in the enemy’s country,
and reconciling thousands to the doctrine of absolute and unlimited
independence; a doctrine, which I asserted and maintained with as
much freedom in the Tower of London, as I ever had done in the
State House at Philadelphia ; and, having contentedly submitted to
the loss of my estate, and being ready to lay down my life in support
of it, I had the satisfaction of perceiving the coming of converts every
day. I must not, however, conclude this head without assuring you,
that, should you think proper to ask questions respecting American
commerce, or the interest of any particular State, I will answer with
candour and the best judgment I am possessed of; but of that judg-
ment I sincerely protest 1 have the utmost diffidence. God prosper
your proceedings in the great work ; you will be called blessed by all
the grateful of the present generation, and your name will be celebrated
by posterity. I feel myself happy in reflecting, that, in the great out-
lines of a treaty, our opinions exactly coincide, that we shall not want
the countenance and assistance of our great and good ally, and that
you have so honest a man as Mr. Oswald to deal with for preliminaries.
I know him to be superior to chicanery, and am sure he will not defile
his mind by attempting any dirty thing.

“ I entreat you, Sir, to present my humble respects to M. de Ver-
gennes, and thank his Excellency for his polite expressions respecting
me, and be so good as to say all that shall appear necessary in excuse
for my non-appearance at his court.

“Lord Cornwallis called on me the day before I left London, and
was, as you may suppose, very anxious to know when he might prob-
ably hear from me on the subject of his release ; let me, therefore,
request your opinion in answer to what I had the honour of writing in
my last concerning that affair. I wish it may prove satisfactory to his
Lordship, by enabling me, with your consent and concurrence, to
cancel a debt, which does not sit easy upon me, and which cannot
with honour to our country remain unpaid. I think we shall not, it is
impossible we should, incur displeasure by doing an act of common
justice, and our authority may be fairly implied.

“ His Lordship declares he has no intention of returning to America,
but desires to be reinstated in his legislative and military character in
his own country, and I am of opinion, that in the former he will rather
be friendly to us than otherwise. For my own part, if the war con-
tinues, I should not be uneasy if his Lordship were to go to the
Chesapeake again.

“ I have a thousand compliments and good wishes to present to you
from friends in England, where, males and females, I am sure you
have at least so many, that ^our own remembrance will lead you to
individuals of your old acquaintance.

“ To-morrow I intend to proceed to Brussels, and thence, probably,
to the Hague and Amsterdam. My movements must, unavoidably, be528

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

as slow as water carriage. My weak under limbs cannot bear continual
thumping on the pavement in the rough'machines of this country, and
the feebleness of my pocket will not admit the indulgence of a more
convenient vehicle. I beg, Sir, you will write to me at the house of
Mr. Edward Jennings, or under the protection of any other friend in
that city, that will be at the trouble of finding out a voyager, who is,
at all times, and in all places, with the highest esteem and respect,
Sir, &c.,	“Henry Laurens.”

To the above, I wrote the following answer.

TO HENRY LAURENS.

“ Passy, 25 May, 1782.

“ Sir,—I am now honoured with yours of the 17th. I had before
received one of the 7th, which remained unanswered, because, from
the words in it, ‘ when I reach the Continent, which will probably
happen in a few days,’ I flattered myself with the pleasure of seeing
you here. That hope is disappointed by your last, in which you tell
me, you are determined not to act in the Commission for treating of
peace with Great Britain. I regret your takingthis resolution,princi-
pally because I am persuaded, that your assistance must have been of
great service to our country. But I have besides some private or
particular reasons, that relate to myself.

“To encourage me in my arduous task, you kindly tell me I shall
be called blessed, &r=c. I have never yet known of a peace made, that
did not occasion a great deal of popular discontent, clamour, and cen-
sure on both sides. This is, perhaps, owing to the usual management
of the leaders and ministers of the contending nations, who, to keep
up the spirits of their people for continuing the war, generally repre-
sent the state of their own affairs in a better light, and that of the
enemy in a worse, fhan is consistent with the truth ; hence the popu-
lace on each side expect better terms than can really be obtained, and
are apt to ascribe their disappointment to treachery. Thus the peace
of Utrecht, and that of Aix-la-Chapelle, were said in England to have
been influenced by French gold, and in France, by English guineas.
Even the last peace, the most glorious and advantageous for England
that ever she made, was, you may remember, violently decried, and the
makers as violently abused. So that the blessing promised to peace-
makers, I fancy, relates to the next world, for in this they seem to
have a greater chance of being cursed. And as another text observes,
that in ‘the multitude of counsellors there is safetywhich I think
may mean safety to the counsellors as well as to the counselled, be-
cause, if they commit a fault in counselling, the blame does not fall
upon one or a few, but is divided among many, and the share of each is
so much the lighter, or because when a number of honest men are
concerned, the suspicion of their being biassed is weaker, as being idore
improbable ; or because defendit numerus; for all these reasons,
but especially for the support your established character of integrityBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.	529

would afford me against the attacks of enemies, if this treaty take
place, and I am to act in it, I wish for your presence, and the presence
of as many of the Commissioners as possible, and I hope you will
reconsider and change your resolution.

“ In the meantime, as you have had opportunities of conversing
with the new ministers, and other leading people in England, and of
learning their sentiments relating to terms of peace, &c., I request you
would inform me by letters of what you think important. Letters
from you will come safer by the court courier than by the post, and I
desire you would, if you should continue determined not to act, com-
municate to me your ideas of the terms to be insisted on, and the
points to be attended to, respecting commerce, fisheries, boundaries,
and every other material circumstance, that may be of importance to
all or any of the United States.

“ Lord Shelburne having written to me on the subject of the wished
for peace, I acquainted him in my answer, sent by our friend, Mr.
Oswald, that you were one of the Commissioners, appointed by Con-
gress to treat with Britain, and that I imagined his Lordship would
therefore think proper to discharge you entirely from the obligations
you entered into, when you were admitted to bail, that you might be
at liberty to act freely in the Commission. He wrote to me in
reply, that you were accordingly discharged immediately. His Lord-
ship mentioned nothing of any exchange being expected for you ;
nevertheless, I honour your sensibility on the point, and your concern
for the credit of America, that she should not be outdone in generosity
by Great Britain, and will cheerfully join with you in any act, that you
may think proper, to discharge in return the parole of Lord Corn-
wallis, as far as in our power may lie ; but we have no express authority
for that purpose, and the Congress may possibly, in the meantime,
have made some other arrangement relative to his exchange. I con-
ceive, that our acts should contain a clause, reserving to Congress the
final approbation or disallowance of the proceeding ; and I have some
doubt whether Lord Cornwallis will think himself well freed of his
engagements, and at liberty to exercise his military employments, by
virtue of any concession in his favour made by persons, who are rot
vested .with authority for that purpose. So that, on the whole, perhaps
the best and surest way will be, our writing immediately to Congress,
and strongly recommending the measure. However, I will do what
you shall think best.

“ I heartily wish you success in any endeavours you may use in
Holland for raising a loan of money. We have pressed rather too hard
on this court, and we still want more than they can conveniently spare
us ; but I am sorry, that too scrupulous regard to our wants and diffi-
culties should induce you, under the present infirmity of your lower
limbs, to deny yourself the necessary comfort of an easy carriage
rather than make any use of the public assistance, when the public
must be much in your debt. I beg you would get over that difficulty,
and take of me what you may have occasion for.

“ The letter you forwarded to me was from America’s constant,

3553°

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

friend, the good Bishop of St. Asaph. He speaks of you in terms of
the highest esteem and respect.

“ Mr. Oswald has gone back again to London, but intended to
return again immediately. Mr. Grenville remains here, and has
received power to treat, but no further steps can be taken till Spain
and Holland have empowered ministers for the same purpose.

“ I shall inform you and Mr. Adams (if he does not come) of the
proceeding from time to time, and request your counsel in cases of
any difficulty. I hope you will not think of hazarding a return to
America before a peace, if we find any hopes of its being soon
obtained ; and that, if you do not find you can be useful in the man-
ner you wish, in Holland, you will make me happy by your company
and counsel here. With great and sincere esteem, &c.

“B. Franklin.”

May 26th, I received the following from Mr. Hartley.

‘‘London, 13 May, 1782.

“My dear Friend,—I wrote you a long letter dated May 1st, by
Mr. Laurens, who left London on Saturday last, but I will add a few
lines now by a conveyance, which I believe will overtake him, just to
tell you two or three things, which I believe I omitted in my last.
Perhaps they may not be of any consequence, but, as they relate to
my own conduct, I could wish to have you understand them.

“After several conferences with the late ministry, I gave in the
paper, called the ‘ Breviate,’ on the 7th of February, but I never
received any answer from them. They resigned on the 20th of March.
Upon the accession of the new ministry, I heard nothing from them
upon the subject, nor indeed did I apply to them. I did not know
whether that paper would not come, into their hands by succession,
and I doubted whether it might not be more proper for me to wait till
I heard from them. While I remained doubtful about this, I received
your letters, which determined me to go to Lord Shelburne. This
was about the beginning of the present month. I communicated to
him some extracts, such as those about the prisoners, &c., and like-
wise the whole of your letter of April 13th, containing the offer of the
late ministry, the King of France’s answer, together with your reflec-
tions in the conclusion respecting peace. As you had given me a
general permission, I left with him a copy of the whole letter.

“ Upon the occasion of this interview, Lord Shelburne tolcf me, that
he had made much inquiry in the offices for the correspondence and
papers, which had passed between the late ministry and me, but that
he could not meet with them. He expressed a regret, that he had
not conversed with me at an earlier day, with many civilities of that
kind. In short, I had been backward to intrude myself, and he
expressed regret that he had not sent for me.

“ Upon this opening on his part, I stated to him the substance of
what passed between the late ministry and myself, and T left a copy
of the ‘Breviate’ with him. He gave me a very attentive audience,BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

53i

and I took that opportunity of stating my sentiments to him, as far as
I could, upon every view of the question. Upon his expressing his
regret that he had not seen me sooner, I told him that I always had
been, and always should be, most ready to give any assistance in my
power towards the work of peace. I say the same to you.

“ I do not believe that there is any difference of sentiment between
you and me, personally, in our own minds upon indepence, &c., &c.
But we belong to different communities, and the right of judgment,
and of consent and dissent, is vested in the community. Divide
independence into six millions of shares, and you should have been
heartily welcome to my share from the beginning of the war. Divide
Canada into six millions of. shares, I could find a better method of
disposing of my share, than by offering it to France to abandon
America. Divide the Rock of Gibraltar into six millions of pieces, I
can only answer for one portion. Let Reason and Justice decide in
any such case, as universal umpires between contending parties, and
those, who wish well to the permanent peace of mankind, will not
refuse to give and to receive equal justice.

“ I agree with you, that the equitable and the philosophical principles
of politics can only form a solid foundation of permanent peace ; and
the contraries to them, though highly patronized by nations them-
selves, and their ministers, are no better than vulgar errors ; but
nations are slow to convictions from the personal arguments of
individuals. They are ‘jealous in honour, seeking the bubble repu-
tation even in the cannon’s mouth.’ But until a confirmed millennium,
founded upon wiser principles, shall be generally established, the repu-
tation of nations is not merely a bubble. It forms their real security.

“ To apply all this, in one word, let all nations agree, with on?
accord, to beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into
pruning-hooks, or give me wooden walls to great Britain ! I have
nothing further to add. My reason for writing this was just to com-
municate to you in what position I had delivered over my conferences
and arguments with the late ministry into the hands of the present.
And I will conclude with your own words, may God send us all more
wisdom. I anrever, most affectionately, yours, &c.

“D. Hartley.”

“ P.S.—May \7tI1. Since writing the above, I have likewise left a
copy of the enclosed preliminaries with Lord Shelburne.”

PRELIMINARIES.

" May, 1782.

“ I. That the British troops shall be withdrawn from the Thirteen
Provinces of North America, and a truce made between Great Britain
and the said Provinces, for years. (Suppose ten or twenty years.)

“ 2. That a negotiation for peace shall bond Jide be opened between
Great Britain and the allies of America.

“3. If'the proposed negotiation between Great Britain and the532

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

allies of America should not succeed so far as to produce peace, but
that war should continue between the said parties, that America
should act, and be treated, as a neutral nation.

“4. That, whenever peace shall take place between Great Britain
and the allies of America, the truce between Great Britain and
America shall be converted into a perpetual peace, the independence
of America shall be admitted and guaranteed by Great Britain, and
a commercial treaty settled between them.

“ 5. That these propositions shall be made to the court of France,
for communication to the American Commissioners, and for an answer
to the court of Great Britain.”

The same day Mr. Grenville visited me. He acquainted me that
his courier was returned, and had brought him full powers in form to
treat for a peace with France and her allies. That he had been at
Versailles, and had shown his power to M. de Vergennes, and left a
copy with him. That he had also a letter of credence, which he was
not to deliver till France should think fit to send a minister of the
same kind to London ; that M. de Vergennes had told him, that he
would lay it before the King, and had desired to see him again on
Wednesday. That Mr. Oswald had arrived in London, about an hour
before the courier came away. That Mr. Fox in his letter had charged
him to thank me for that which I had written, and to tell me, that
he hoped I would never forget, that he and I were of the same
country.

I answered, that I should always esteem it an honour to be owned
as a countryman of Mr. Fox. He had requested me, at our last
interview, that, if I saw no impropriety in doing it, I would favour him
with a sight of the treaty of alliance between France and America. I
acquainted him that it was printed, but that if he could not readily
meet with a copy, I would have one written for him. And, as he had
not been able to find one, I this day gave it to him.

He lent me a London gazette, containing Admiral Rodney’s account
of his victory over M. de Grasse, and the accounts of other successes
in the East Indies, assuring me, however, that these events made not
the least change in the sincere desire of his court to treat for peace.

In the afternoon the Marquis de Lafayette called upon me. I
acquainted him with what Mr. Grenville had told me respecting the
credential letter, and the expectation that a person on the part of this
court would be sent to London with a commission similar to his. The
Marquis told me, he was on his way to Versailles, and should see M.
de Vergennes. We concluded, that it would now be proper for him
to make the proposition we had before talked of, that he should be
the person employed in that service.

On Monday, the 27th, I received a letter from Mr. Jay, dated the 8th,
acquainting me, that he had received mine of the 21st and 22nd past,
and had concluded to set out for Paris about the 19th, so that he may
be expected in a few days.

I dined this day with Count d’Estaing, and a number of braveBENJAMIN FRANKLIN

533

marine officers, that he had invited. We were all a little dejected
with the news. I mentioned, by way of encouragement, the dbserva-
tion of the Turkish bashaw, who was taken with his fleet at Lepanto
by the Venetians. “ Ships,” says he, “ are like my master’s beard ;
you may cut it, but it will grow again. He has cut off from your
government all the Morea, which is like a limb, which you will never
recover.” And his words proved true.

On Tuesday I dined at Versailles with some friends, so was not at
home when the Marquis de Lafayette called to acquaint me, that M.
de Vergennes informed him, that the full power received by Mr. Gren-
ville from London, and communicated by him, related to France only.
The Marquis left for me this information, which I could not under-
stand. On Wednesday I was at court, and saw the copy of the power.
It appeared full with regard to treating with France, but mentioned
n.ot a word of her allies. And, as M. de Vergennes had explicitly
and constantly, from the beginning, declared to the several messengers,
Mr. Forth, Mr. Oswald, and Mr. Grenville, that France could only
treat in concert with her allies, and it had in consequence been
declared on the part of the British ministry, that they consented to
treat for a general peace, and at Paris, the sending this partial power
seemed to be insidious, and a mere invention to occasion delay, the
late disasters to the French fleet having probably given the court of
England fresh courage and other views.

M. de Vergennes said he should see Mr. Grenville on Thursday,
and would speak his mind to him on the subject very plainly. “ They
want,” said he, “to treat with us for you, but this the King will not
agree to. He thinks it not consistent with the dignity of your state.
You will treat for yourselves ; and every one of the powers at war
with England will make its own treaty. All that is necessary for our
common security is, that the treaties go hand in hand, and are signed
all on the same day.”

Prince Bariatinski, the Russian ambassador, was particularly civil
to me this day at court, apologized for what passed relating to the
visit, expressed himself extremely sensible of my friendship in covering
the affair, which might have occasioned him very disagreeable con-
sequences, &c. The Count du Nord came to M. de Vergennes, while
we were drinking coffee, after dinner. He appears lively and active,
with a sensible, spirited countenance. There was an opera that night
for his entertainment. The house being richly finished with abundance
of carving and gilding, well illuminated with wax tapers, and the
company all superbly dressed, many of the men in cloth of tissue,
and the ladies sparkling with diamonds, formed altogether the most
splendid spectacle my eyes ever beheld.

I had some little conference to-day with Messrs. Berkenrode,
Vanderpierre, and Boeris, the ambassador of Holland and the agents
of the Dutch East India Company. They informed me, that the
second letter of Mr. Fox to the mediating minister of Russia, pro-
posing a separate peace with Holland, made no more impression than
the first, and no peace would be made but in concurrence with France.534

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

The Swedish minister told me he expected orders from his court
relative to a treaty, &c.

I had, at our last interview, given Mr. Grenville a rendezvous for
Saturday morning, and, having some other engagements for Thursday
and Friday, though I wished to speak with him on the subject of his
power, I did not go to him, but waited his coming to me on Saturday.
On Friday, May 31st, Mr. Oswald called on me, being just returned,
and brought me the following letter from David Hartley, and two
letters from Lord Shelburne, the first of which had been written
before his arrival.

FROM DAVID HARTLEY TO B. FRANKLIN.

“London, 25 May, 17S2.

“ My dear Friend,—Yours of the 13th instant I received by Mr.
Oswald. I did not doubt but that the news of a general and absolute
release of the American prisoners, which Lord Shelburne was so good
as to communicate to me, in answer to that part of your letter of the
5th of April, in which you speak so pathetically of sweet reconciliation,
wrould give you much sincere and heartfelt pleasure. Cod send, that
it may be the happy omen of final reconciliation and durable peace. I
should be very happy to hear that good news from you, and in any
way to contribute to it. Having on that subject communicated the
preliminaries, dated May, 1782, to Lord Shelburne, you may be
assured that I have no reservations upon that head respecting
America, in any circumstances or condition whatever. You know all
my thoughts upon that subject, and the principles upon which they are
founded, and, therefore, that they are not changeable.

“It would give me the greatest pleasure, if I could hope for ary
opportunity of seeing you. I could say many things, which are
otherwise incommunicable, and which perhaps would contribute to
facilitate the road to peace. I think I see in many parts much matter
to work with, out of which a peace, honourable to all parties and upon
durable principles, might be established. No degrading or mortifying
conditions to shorten peace and rekindle war. Perhaps I might not
say too much if I were to add, that simply the adoption of reason
among nations, and the mere rectification of obsolete and gothic
absurdities, which carry no gratification, would afford a fund of
remuneration to all parties for renouncing those objects of mutual
contention, which, in the eye of reason, are no better than creatures of
passion, jealousy, and false pride. Until the principles of reason and
equity shall be adopted in national transactions, peace will not be
durable amongst men.

“These are reflections general to all nations. As to the mutual
concerns between Great Britain and North America, reconciliation is
the touchstone to prove those hearts, which are without alloy. If I can
be of any assistance to you, in any communications or explanations
conducive to peace, you may command my utmost services. Even if
a French minister were to overhear such an offer, let him not take itBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.	535

in jealous part. Zealously and affectionately attached to my own
country and to America, I am nevertheless most perfectly of accord
with you, that justice and honour should be observed to all nations.
Mr. Oswald will do me the favour to convey this to you. I heartily wish
him success in his pacific embassy. Yours ever, most affectionately,

“D. Hartley.”

FROM THE EARL OF SHELBURNE TO B, FRANKLIN.

‘'Whitehall, 21 May, 1782.

“ Sir,—I am honoured with your letter of the 10th instant, and am
very glad to find that the conduct, which the King has empowered me
to observe towards Mr. Laurens, and the American prisoners, has
given you pleasure. I have signified to Mr. Oswald his Majesty’s
pleasure, that he shall continue at Paris till he receives orders from
hence to return. In the present state of this business, there is nothing
for me to add, but my sincere wishes for a happy issue, and to repeat
my assurances, that nothing shall be wanting on my part which can
contribute to it. I have the honour to be, with very great regard,

“Shelburne.”

FROM THE EARL OF SHELBURNE TO B. FRANKLIN.

‘‘Whitehall, 25 May, 1782.

“Sir,—1 have the honour to receive your letter of the 13th of May,
by Mr. Oswald. It gives me great pleasure to find my opinion of the
moderation, prudence, and judgment of that gentleman confirmed by
your concurrence. For I am glad to assure you, that we likewise
concur in hoping that those.qualities may enable him to contribute to
the speedy conclusion of a peace, and such a peace as may be firm
and lasting. In that hope, he has the King’s orders to return imme-
diately to Paris, and you will find him, I trust, properly instructed to
co-operate in so desirable an object. I have the honour to be, &c.

“Shi.lburne”

Saturday, June $th. Mr. Grenville came, according to appoint-
ment. Our conversation began by my acquainting him, that I had
seen the Count de Vergennes, and had perused the copy left with him
of the power to treat. That, after what he, Mr. Grenville, told me of
its being to treat with France and her allies, I was a little surprised
to find in it no mention of the allies, and that it was only to treat with
the King of France and his ministers ; that, at Versailles, there was
some suspicion of its being intended to occasion delay ; the professed
desire of a speedy peace being, perhaps, abated in the British court
since its late successes ; but that I imagined the words relating to the
allies might have been accidentally omitted in transcribing, or that,
perhaps, he had a special power to treat with us distinct from the
other.536

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

He answered, that the copy was right, and that he had no such power
in form, but that his instructions were full to that purpose, and that he
was sure the ministers had no desire of delay, nor any of excluding us
from the treaty, since the greatest part of those instructions related to
treating with me. That, to convince me of this sincerity of his court re-
specting us, he would acquaint me with one of his instructions, though,
perhaps, the doing it now was premature, and therefore a little incon-
sistent with the character of a politician, but he had that confidence in
me that he should not hesitate to inform me (though he wished that at
present it should go no further) he was instructed to acknowledge the
independence of A merica, previous to the commencement of the treaty.
And he Said he could only account for the omission of America in the
POWER, by supposing that it was an old official form copied from that
given to Mr. Stanley, when he came over hither before the last peace.
Mr. Grenville added, that he had, immediately after his interview with
the Count de Vergennes, despatched a courier to London, and hoped,
that with his return the difficulty would be removed. That he was
perfectly assured their late success had made no change in the dis-
position of his court to peace, and that he had more reason than the
Count de Vergennes to complain of delays, since five days were spent
before he could obtain a passport for his courier, and then it was not to go
and return by way of Calais, but to go by Ostend, which would occasion
a delay of five days longer. Mr. Grenville then spoke much of the
high opinion the present ministry had of me, and their great esteem
for me, their desire of a perfect reconciliation between the two
countries, and the firm and general belief in England, that no man
was so capable as myself of proposing the proper means of bringing
about such a reconciliation ; adding that, if the old ministers had
formerly been too little attentive to my counsels, the present were
very differently disposed, and he hoped that in treating with them, I
would totally forget their predecessors.

The time has been when such flattering language, as from great
men, might have made me vainer, and had more effect on my conduct,
than it can at present, when I find myself so near the end of life as to
esteem lightly all personal interests and concerns, except that of
maintaining to the last, and leaving behind me the tolerably good
character 1 have hitherto supported.

Mr. Grenville then discoursed of our resolution not to treat without
our allies. “This,” says he, “can only properly relate to France,
with whom you have a treaty of alliance, but you have none with
Spain, you have none with Holland. If Spain and Holland, and ever,
if France should insist on reasonable terms of advantage to them-
selves, after you have obtained all you want, and are satisfied, can it
be right that America should be dragged on in a war for their interest
only ? ” He stated this matter in various lights and pressed it
earnestly.

I resolved, from various reasons, to evade the discussion, therefore
answered, that the intended treaty not being yet begun, it appeared
unnecessary to enter at present into considerations of that kind. TheBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

537

preliminaries being once settled and the treaty commenced, if any of
the other powers should make extravagant demands on England, and
insist on our continuing the war till those were complied with, it would
then be time enough to consider what our obligations were, and how
far they extended. The first thing necessary was for him to procure
the full powers, the next for us to assemble the plenipotentiaries of all
the belligerent parties, and then propositions might be mutually made,
received, considered, answered, or agreed to. In the mean time I
would just mention to him, that, though we were yet under no obliga-
tions to Spain by treaty, we were under obligations of gratitude for
the assistance she had afforded us ; and as Mr. Adams had some
weeks since commenced a treaty, in Holland, the terms of which I
was not yet acquainted with, I knew not but that we might have
already some alliance and obligations contracted there. And perhaps
we ought, however, to have some consideration for Holland on this
account, that it was in vengeance for the friendly disposition shown
by some of her people to make a treaty of commerce with us, that
England had declared the war against her.

He said, it would be hard upon England, if, having given reason-
able satisfaction to one or two of her enemies, she could not have
peace with those till she had complied with whatever the others might
demand, however unreasonable, for so she might be obliged to pay
for every article fourfold. I observed, that when she made her pro-
positions, the more advantageous they were to each, the more it
would be the interest of each to prevail with the others to accept those
offered to them. We then spoke of the reconciliation ; but, his full
power not being yet come, I chose to defer entering upon that subject
at present. I told him, I had thoughts of putting down in writing the
particulars that I judged would conduce to that end, and of adding
my reasons, that this required alittle time, and I had been hindered
by accidents ; which was true, for I had begun to write, but had post-
poned it on account of his defective power to treat. But I promised
to finish it as soon as possible. He pressed me earnestly to do it,
saying, an expression of mine in a former conversation, that there still
remained roots of good will in America towards England, which if
properly taken care of might produce a reconciliation, had made a
great impresrion on his mind, and given him infinite pleasure, and he
hoped I would not neglect furnishing him with the information of
what would be necessary to nourish those roots., and could assure me,
that my advice would be greatly regarded.

Stmday, June 2nd. The Marquis de Lafayette called and dined
with me. He is uneasy about the delay, as he cannot resolve con-
cerning his voyage to America, till some certainty appears of there
being a treaty or no treaty.

On Monday the 3rd, Mr. Oswald came according to appointment.
He told me, he had seen and had conversations with Lord Shelburne,
Lord Rockingham, and Mr. Fox. That their desire of peace con-
tinued uniformly the same, though he thought some of them were a
little too much elated with the late victory in the West Indies ; and533

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

when, observing his coolness, they asked him, if he did not think it a
very good thing ; “ yes,” said he, “if you do not rate it too high.” He
went on with the utmost frankness to tell me, that the peace was
absolutely necessary for them. That the nation had been foolishly
involved in four wars, and could no longer raise money to carry them
on, so that if they continued, it would be abolutely necessary for them
to stop payment of the interest money on the funds, which would ruin
their future credit. He spoke of stopping on all sums above one
thousand pounds, and continuing to pay on those below, because the
great sums belonged to the rich, who could better bear the delay of
their interest, and the smaller sums to poorer persons, who would be
more hurt, and make more clamour, and that the rich might be
quieted by promising them interest upon their interest. All this
looked as if the matter had been seriously thought on.

Mr. Oswald has an air of great simplicity and honesty, yet I could
hardly take this to be merely a weak confession of their deplorable
state, and thought it might be rather intended as a kind of intimida-
tion, by showing us that they had still that resource in their power,
which he said would furnish five millions a year. But, he added, our
enemies may now do what they please with us ; they have the ball at
their foot, was his expression, and we hope they will show their
moderation and magnanimity. He then repeatedly mentioned the
great esteem the ministers had for me, that they, with all the con-
siderate people of England, looked to, and depended on me for the
means of extricating the nation from its present desperate situation ;
and that, perhaps, no single man had ever in his hands an opportunity
of doing so much good as I had at this present time, with much more
to that purpose. He then showed me a letter to him from Lord
Shelburne, partly, I suppose, that I.might see his Lordship’s opinion
of me, which, as it has some relation -to the negotiation, is here
inserted. He left it with me, requesting that I would communicate it
to Mr. Walpole.

FROM THE EARL OF SHELBURNE TO RICHARD OSWALD.

"Whitehall, 21 May, 1782. '

“Sir,—It has reached me, that Mr. Walpole esteems himself much
injured by your going to Paris, and that he conceives it was a measure
of mine, intended to take the present negotiation with the court of
France out of his hands, which he conceives to have been previously
commenced through his channel, by Mr. Fox. I must desire that you
will have the goodness to call upon Mr. Walpole, and explain to him
distinctly, how very little foundation there is for so unjust a suspicion,
as I knew of no such intercourse. Mr. Fox declares he considered
what had passed between him and Mr. Walpole, of a mere private
nature, not sufficiently material to mention to the King or the cabinet,
and will write to Mr. Walpole to explain this distinctly to him.

“ But if you find the least suspicion of this kind has reached Dr.
Franklin, or the Count de Vergennes, I desire this matter may beBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

539

clearly explained to both. I have too much friendship for Dr. Frank-
lin, and too much respect for the character of the Count de Vergennes,
with which J am perfectly acquainted, to be so indifferent to the good
opinion of either, as to suffer them to believe me capable of an
intrigue, where I have both professed and observed a direct opposite
course of conduct. In truth, I hold it in such perfect contempt, that,
however proud I may be to serve the King in my present situation, or
in any other, and however anxious I may be to serve my country, I
should not hesitate a moment about retiring from any situation which
required such services. But I must do the King the justice to say,
that his Majesty abhors them, and_ I need not tell you, that it is my
fixed principle, that no country in any moment can be advantaged by
them. I am, with great truth and regard, &c.

“Shelburne.”

In speaking further of the ministry’s opinion of the great service it
might be in my power to render, Mr. Oswald said, he had told them
in one of his conversations, that nothing was to be expected of me but
consistency, nothing unsuitable to my character, or inconsistent with
my duty to my country. I did not ask him the particular occasion of
his saying this, but thought it looked a little as if something incon-
sistent with my duty had been talked of or proposed. Mr. Oswald
also gave me a copy of a paper of memorandums, written by Lord
Shelburne, viz.

“ i. That I am ready to correspond more particularly with Dr.
Franklin, if wished.

“ 2. That the Enablmg Act is passing, with the insertion of Com-
missioners recommended by Mr. Oswald ; and, on our part, commis-
sioners will be named, or any character given to Mr. Oswald, which
Dr. Franklin and he may judge conducive to a final settlement of
things between Great Britain and America; which Dr. Franklin very
properly says, requires to be treated in a very different manner from
the peace between Great Britain and France, who have always been
at enmity with each other.

“3. That an establishment for the loyalists must always be on Mr.
Oswald’s mind, as it is uppermost in Lord Shelburne’s, besides other
steps in their favour to influence the several States to agree to a
fair restoration or compensation for whatever confiscations have taken
place.

“ 4. To give Lord Shelburne’s letter about Mr. Walpole to Dr.
Franklin.”

On perusing this paper, I recollected that a bill had been some
time since proposed in Parliament, To enable his Majesty to conclude
a Peace or Truce with the revolted Provinces in America, which I
supposed to be the Enabling Bill mentioned, that had hitherto slept;
and, not haying been passed, was perhaps the true reason why the540

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

colonies were not mentioned in Mr. Grenville’s commission. Mr.
Oswald thought it likely, and said, that the words, “ insertion of Com-
missioners, recommended by Mr. Oswald,” relating to his advising an
express mention in the bill of the Commissioners appointed by Con-
gress to treat of peace, instead of the vague denomination of any
person or persons, &*c., in the first draft of the bill.

As to the loyalists, I repeated what I had said to him when first
here, that their estates had been confiscated by the laws made in
particular States where the delinquents had resided, and not by any
law of Congress, who, indeed, had no power, either to make such
laws or to repeal them, or to dispense with them, and, therefore, could
give no power to their Commissioners to treat of a restoration for
those people ; that it was an affair appertaining to each State. That
if there were justice in compensating them, it must be due from
England rather than America ; but, in my opinion, England was not
under any very great obligations to them, since it was by their mis-
representations and bad counsels, she had been drawn into this
miserable war. And that if an account was to be brought against us
for their losses we should more than balance it by an account of the
ravages they had committed all along the coasts of America.

Mr. Oswald agreed to the reasonableness of all this, and said he
had, before he came away, told the ministers, that lie thought no re-
compense to those people was to be expected from us ; that he had,
also, in consequence of our former conversation on that subject, given
it as his opinion, that Canada should be given up to the United States,
as it would prevent the occasions of future difference, and as the
government of such a country was worth nothing, and of no import-
ance, if they could have there a free commerce ; that the Marquis of
Rockingham and Lord Shelburne, though they spoke reservedly, did
not seem very averse to it, but that Mr. Fox appeared to be startled
at the proposition. He was, however, not without hopes that it would
be agreed to.

We now came to another article of the note, viz. “ on our part com-
missioners will be named, or any character given to Mr. Oswald,
which Dr. Franklin and he may judge conducive to a final settlement
of things between Great Britain and America.”

This he said was left entirely to me, for he had no will in the
affair; he did not desire to be further concerned, than to see it in
train, he had no personal views either of honour or profit. He had
now seen and conversed with Mr. Grenville, thought him a very sen-
sible young gentleman, and very capable of the business ; he did not,
therefore, see any further occasion there was for himself; but if I
thought otherwise, and conceived he might be further useful, he was
content to give his time and service, in any character or manner I
should think proper. I said, his knowledge of America, where he had
lived, and with every part of which, and of its commerce and circum-
stances, he was well acquainted, made me think, that, in persuading
the ministry to things reasonable relating to that country, he could
speak or write with more weight than Mr. Grenville, and, therefore,BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

$4*

I wished him to continue in the service ; and I asked him, whether
he would like to be joined in a general commission for treating with
all the powers at war with England, or to have a special commission
to himself for treating with America only. He said, he did not choose
to be concerned in treaty with the foreign powers, for he was not suffi-
ciently a master of their affairs, or of the French language, which,
probably, would be used in treating; if, therefore, he accepted of any
commission, it should be that of treating with America. I told him
I would write to Lord Shelburne on the subject; but Mr. Grenville
having some time since despatched a courier, partly on account of the
commission, who was not yet returned, I thought it well to wait a few
days, till we could see what answer lie would bring, or what measures
were taken. This he approved of.

The truth is, he appears so good and so reasonable a man, that,
though I have no objection to Mr. Grenville, I should be loth to lose
Mr. Oswald. He seems to have nothing at heart but the good of
mankind, and putting a stop to mischief; the other, a young states-
man, may be supposed to have naturally a little ambition of recom-
mending himself as an able negotiator.

In the afterpoon, M. Boeris, of Holland, called on me, and ac-
quainted me, that the answer had not yet been given to the last
memorial from Russia, relating to the mediation ; but it was thought
it would be in respectful terms, to thank her Imperial Majesty for her
kind offers, and to represent the propriety of their connection with
France in endeavours to obtain a general peace, and that they con-
ceived it would be still more glorious for her Majesty to employ her
influence in procuring a general, than a particular pacification. M.
Boeris further informed me, that they were not well satisfied in
Holland with the conduct of the Russian court, and suspected views
of continuing the war for particular purposes. '

Wednesday, June 5th. Mr. Oswald called again to acquaint me,
that Lord Cornwallis, being very anxious to be discharged from his
parole as soon as possible, had sent a Major Ross hither to solicit it,
supposing Mr. Laurens might be herewith me. Mr. Oswald told me,
what I had not heard before, that Mr. Laurens, while prisoner in the
Tower, had proposed obtaining the discharge of Lord Cornwallis in
exchange for himself, and had promised to use his utmost endeavours
to that purpose, in case he was set at liberty, not doubting of the
success. I communicated to Mr. Oswald what had already passed
between Mr. Laurens and me, respecting Lord Cornwallis, which ap-
pears in the preceding letters ; and told him I should have made less
difficulty about the discharge of his parole, if Mr. Laurens had in-
formed me of his being set at liberty in consequence of such an offer
and promise; and I wished him to state this in a letter to me, that it
might appear for my justification in what I might, with Mr. Laurens,
do in the affair, and that he would procure for me from Major Ross
a copy of the parole, that I might be better acquainted with the
nature of it. He accordingly in the afternoon sent me the following
letter.542

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

FROM RICHARD OSWALD TO B. FRANKLIN.

“ Paris, 5 June, 1782.

“Sir,—While Mr. Laurens was under confinement in England,
he promised, thit, on condition of his being liberated upon his parole,
he would apply to you for an exchange in favour of Lord Cornwallis,
by a discharge of his Lordship’s granted upon the surrender of his
garrison at the village of York in Virginia ; and, in case of your being
under any difficulty in making such exchange, he undertook to write
to the Congress, and to request it of that assembly, making no doubt
of obtaining a favourable answer, without loss of time.

“ This proposal, signed by Mr. Laurens’s hand, I carried and
delivered, I think, in the month of December last, to his Majesty’s
then secretaries of state, which was duly attended to ; and in con-
sequence thereof, Mr. Laurens was soon after set at full liberty. And
though not a prisoner under parole, yet it is to be hoped, a variation
in the mode of discharge will not be supposed of any essential differ-
ence.

“And with respect to Mr. Laurens, I am satisfied he will consider
himself as much interested in the success of this application, as if his
own discharge had been obtained under the form, as proposed by the
representation, which I delivered to the secretaries of state, and, I
make no doubt, will sincerely join my Lord Cornwallis in an acknow-
ledgment of your favour and good offices, in granting his Lordship a
full discharge of his parole above mentioned. I have the honour to
be, with much respect, Sir, your most obedient humble servant,

“ Richard Oswald.”

“ P.S. Major Ross has got no copy of Lord Cornwallis’s parole.
He says it was in the common form, as in like cases.

“ Since writing the above, I recollect I was under a mistake, as if
the proposal of exchange came first from Mr. Laurens; whereas, it
was made by his Majesty’s secretaries of state to me, that Mr. Laurens
should endeavour to procure the exchange of Lord Cornwallis, so as
to be discharged himself. Which proposal I carried to Mr. Laurens,
and had from him the obligation above mentioned, upon which the
mode of his discharge was settled.

“ R. O.”

To this I wrote the following answer.

TO RICHARD OSWALD.

" Passy, 6 June, 1782.

“ Sir,—I received the letter you did me the honour of writing
to me, respecting the parole of Lord Cornwallis. You are acquainted
with what I wrote some time since to Mr. Laurens. To-morrow is
post day from Holland, when possibly I may receive an answer,
with a paper drawn up by him for the purpose of discharging that
parole, to be signed by us jointly. .1 suppose the staying at Paris'BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

543

another day will hot be very inconvenient to Major Ross, and, if I
do not hear to-morrow from Mr. Laurens, I will immediately, in
compliance with your request, do what I can towards the liberation
of Lord Cornwallis. I have the honour to be, with great respect,
Sir, your moit obedient humble servant,

“B. Franklin.”

Friday, June 'jth. Major Ross called upon me, to thank me for
the favourable intentions I had expressed in my letter to Mr. Oswald,
respecting Lord Cornwallis, and to assure me, that his Lordship
would for ever remember it with gratitude, &c. I told him it was
our duty to alleviate, as much as we could, the calamities of war;
that I expected letters from Mr. Laurens, relating to the affair, after
the receipt of which I would immediately complete it. Or, if I did
not hear from Mr. Laurens, I would speak to the Marquis de Lafa-
yette, get his approbation, and finish it without further delay.

Sunday, June <)th. Dr. Bancroft being intimately acquainted with
Mr. Walpole, I this day gave him Lord Shelburne’s letter to Mr.
Oswald, requesting he would communicate it to that gentleman. Dr.
Bancroft said, it was believed both Russia and the Emperor wish the
continuance of the war, and aimed at procuring for England a peace
with Holland, that England might be better able to continue it against
France and Spain.

The Marquis de Lafayette having proposed to call on me to-day, I
kept back the discharge of Lord Cornwallis, which was written and
ready, desiring to have his approbation of it, as he had in a former
conversation advised it. He did not come, but late in the evening
sent me a note, acquainting me, that he had been prevented, by
accompanying the Great Duke to the review, but would breakfast
with me to-morrow morning.

This day I received a letter from Mr. Dana, dated at St. Peters-
burg^, April 29th, in which is the following passage. ‘‘We yesterday
received the news, that the States-General had, on the 19th of this
month (N. S ), acknowledged the independence of the United States.
This event gave a shock here, and is not well received, as they at
least profess to have flattered themselves, that the mediation would
have prevented it, and otherwise brought on a partial peace between
Britain and Holland. This resentment, I believe, will not be pro-
ductive of any ill consequences to the Dutch republic.” It is true,
that while the war continues, Russia feels a greater demand for the
naval stores, and perhaps at a higher price. But is it possible, that,
for such petty interests, mankind can wish to see their neighbours
destroy each other ? Or has the project, lately talked of, some
foundation, that Russia and the Emperor intend driving the Turks
out of Europe, and do they therefore wish to see France and England
so weakened, as to be unable ’to assist those people ?

Monday, June 10th. The Marquis de Lafayette did not come till
between eleven and twelve. He brought with him Major Ross.

The Marquis spoke to me about a request of Major Ross’s inLIFE AND LETTERS OF

$44

behalf of himself, Lord Chewton, a lieutenant-colonel, and Lieutenant
Haldane, who were aides-de-camp to Lord Cornwallis, that they too
might be set at liberty with him. I told the Marquis, that he was
better acquainted with the custom in such cases than I, and being
himself one of the generals, to whom their parole had been given, he
had more right to discharge it than I had, and that, if he judged it a
thing proper to be done, I wished him to do it. He went into the
bureau, saying he would write something, which he accordingly did,
but it was not, as J expected, a discharge that he was to sign, it was
for me to sign. And the Major not liking that which I had drawn
for Lord Cornwallis, because theie was a clause in it, reserving to
Congress the approbation or disallowance of my act, went away with-
out taking it. Upon which I the next morning wrote the following to
Mr. Oswald.

TO RICHARD OSWALD.

“ Passy, ii June, 1782.

“SIR,—I did intend to have waited on you this morning to inquire
after your health, and deliver the enclosed paper relating to the parole
of Lord Cornwallis, but being obliged to go to Versailles, I must post-
pone my visit till to-morrow.

“ I do not conceive that 1 have any authority in virtue of my office
here, to absolve that parole in any degree; I have, therefore, en-
deavoured to found it as well as I could on the express power given
me by Congress to exchange General Burgoyne for Mr. Laurens. A
reservation is made of confirmation or disapprobation by Congress,
not from any desire to restrain the entire liberty of that general, but
because I think it decent and my duty to make such reservation, and
that I might otherwise be blamed as assuming a power not given
me, if I undertook to discharge absolutely a parole given to Congress,
without any authority from them for so doing. With great esteem
and respect, &c.

“B. Franklin.'’

I have received no answer from Mr. Laurens. The following is the
paper mentioned in the above letter.

The Discharge of I^ord Cornwallis from his Parole..

“The Congress having, by a resolution of the 14th of June last,
empowered me to offer an exchange of General Burgoyne for the
Honourable Henry Laurens, then a prisoner in the Tower of London,
and whose liberty they much desire to obtain, which exchange,
though proposed by me, according to the said resolution, had not
been accepted or executed, when advice was received, that General
Burgoyne was exchanged in virtue of another agreement ; ^nd Mr.
Laurens thereupon having proposed another lieutenant-general, viz.,
Lord Cornwallis, as an exchange for himself, promising, that, if set at
liberty, he would do his utmost to obtain a confirmation of that pro-BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.	545

posal; and Mr. Laurens being soon after discharged, and having
since urged me earnestly, in several letters, to join with him in
absolving the parole of that general, which appears to be a thing just
and equitable in itself; and for the honour therefore of our country,
I do hereby, as far as in my power lies, in virtue of the above reso-
lution, or otherwise, absolve and discharge the parole of Lord Corn-
wallis, given by him in Virginia; setting him at entire liberty to act
in his civil or military capacity, until the pleasure of Congress shall
be known, to whom is reserved the confirmation or disapprobation of
this discharge, in case they have made, or shall intend to make, a
different disposition.

“ Given at Passy, this 9th day of June, 1782.

“B. Franklin,

“ Minister Plenipotentiary from the United States oj
America to the Court of France.”

I do not well comprehend Major Ross’s conduct in refusing this
paper. He was come express from London, to solicit the discharge
of Lord Cornwallis’s parole. He had said, that his Lordship was very
anxious to obtain that discharge, being unhappy in his present situa-
tion. One of his objections to it was, that his Lordship, with such a
limited discharge of his parole, could not enter into foreign service.
He declared it was not his Lordship’s intention to return to America.
Yet he would not accept the paper, unless the reservation was
omitted. I did not choose to make the alteration, and so he left it,
not well pleased with me.

This day, Tuesday, June nth, I was at Versailles, and had a good
deal of conversation with M. de Rayneval, Secretary to the Council.

I showed him the letters I had received by Mr. Oswald from Lord
Shelburne, and related all the consequent conversation I had with Mr.
Oswald. I related ter him also the conversation I had had with Mr.
Grenville. We concluded that the reason of his courier’s not being
returned, might be the formalities occasioning delay in passing the
Enabling Bill.

I went down with him to the cabinet of Count de Vergennes, where
all was repeated and explained. That minister seemed now to be
almost persuaded, that the English court was sincere in its declarations
of being desirous of peace. We spoke of all its attempts to separate
us, and of the prudence of our holding together and treating in
concert. I make one remark, that, as they had shown so strong a
desire of disuniting us, by large offers to each particular power,
plainly in the view of dealing more advantageously with the rest, and
had reluctantly agreed to make a general treaty, it Avas possible, that,
after making a peace with all, they might pick out one of us to make
war with separately. Against which project I thought it would not be
amiss, if, before the treaties of peace were signed, we who were at war
against England should enter into another treaty, engaging ourselves,
that in such a case we should again make it a common cause, and
renew the general war; which he seemed to approve of. He read546

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

Lord Shelburne’s letter relating to Mr. Walpole, said that gentleman
had attempted to open a negotiation through the Marquis de Castries,
who had told him he was come to the wrong house, and should go to
Count de Vergennes ; but he never had appeared ; that he was an
intriguer, knew many people about the court, and was accustomed to
manage his affairs by hidden and roundabout ways ; but, said he,
“When people have anything to propose, that relates to my employ-
ment, I think they should come directly to me ; my cabinet is the
place where such affairs are to be treated.” On the whole he
seemed rather pleased that Mr. Walpole had not come to him, appear-
ing not to like him.

I learned that Mr. Jay had taken leave, on the 7th past, of the
Spanish ministers, in order to come hither, so that he may be daily
expected ; but I hear nothing of Mr. Laurens or Mr. Adams.

Wednesday, June 12th. I visited Mr. Oswald this morning. He
said he had received the paper I had sent him, relating to the parole
of Lord Cornwallis, and had, by conversing with Major Ross, con-
vinced him of his error in refusing it; that he saw I had done every-
thing that could be fairly desired of me, and said everything in the
paper that could give a weight to the temporary discharge, and tend
to prevail with the Congress to confirm and complete it. Major Ross,
coming in, made an apology for not having accepted it at first,
declared his perfect satisfaction with it, and said, he was sure Lord
Cornwallis would be very sensible of the favour. He then mentioned
the custom among military people, that, in discharging the parole of
a general, that of his aids was discharged at the same time. 1
answered, I was a stranger to the customs of the army, that I had
made the most of the authority I had for exchanging General Bur-
goyne, by extending it as a foundation for the exchange of Lord
Cornwallis, but that I had no shadow of authority for going further ; that
the Marquis de Lafayette, having been present when the parole was
given, and one of the generals who received it, was, I thought, more
competent to the discharge of it than myself; and I could do nothing
in it. He went then to the Marquis, who, in the afternoon, sent me
the drafts of a limited discharge, which he should sign, but requested
my approbation of it, of which I made no difficulty, though I observed
he had put into it that it was by my advice. He appears very
prudently cautious of doing anything, that may seem assuming a
power that he is not vested with.

Friday, the \&,th. M. Boeris called again, wishing to know if Mr.
Grenville’s courier was returned, and whether the treaty was like to go
on. I could give him no information. He told me it was intended in
Holland, in answer to the last Russian memorial, to say, that they
could not now enter into a particular treaty with England, that they
thought it more glorious for her Imperial Majesty to be the mediatrix
in a general treaty, and wished her to name the place. I said to him,
“As you tell me their High Mightinesses are not well satisfied with
Russia, and had rather avoid her mediation, would it not be better to
omit the proposition, at least of her naming the place, especially asBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

547

France, England, and America have already agreed to treat at Paris?”
He replied, it might be better, but, says he, “ we have no politicians
among us.” I advised him to write and get that omitted, as I under-
stood it wquld be a week before the answer was concluded on. He
did not seem to think his writing would be of much importance. I
have observed, that his colleague, M. Vanderpierre, has a greater
opinion by far of his own influence and consequence.

Saturday, June 15th. Mr. Oswald came out to breakfast with me.
We afterwards took a walk in the garden, when lie told me, that Mr.
Grenville’s courier returned last night. That he had received by him
a letter from Mrs. Oswald, but not a line from the ministry, nor had
he heard a word from them since his arrival, nor had he heard of any
news brought by the courier.' That he should have gone to see Mr.
Grenville this morning, but he had omitted it, that gentleman being
subject to morning headaches, which prevented his rising so early.
I said, I supposed he would go to .Versailles, and call on me in his
return. We had but little farther discourse, having no new subject.

Mr. Oswald left me about noon, and soon after Mr. Grenville
came, and acquainted me with the return of his courier, and that he
had brought the full powers. That he, Mr. Grenville, had been at
Versailles, and left a copy with Count de Vergennes. That the
instrument was in the same terms with the former, except that, after
the power to treat with the King of France, or his ministers, there was
an addition of words, importing a power to treat with the ministers of
any other Prince or State whom it might concern. That Count de
Vergennes had at first objected to these general words, as not being
particular enough, but said, he would lay it before the King, and com-
municate it to the ministers of the belligerent powers, and that Mr.
Grenville should hear from him on Monday. ^Tr. Grenville added,
that he had further informed Count de Vergennes of his being now
instructed to make a proposition as a basis for the intended treaty,
viz., the peace of 1763 ; that the proposition intended to be made
under his first powers, not being then received, was now changed,
and, instead of proposing; to allow the independence of America on
condition of England’s being put into the situation she was in at the
peace of 1763, he was now authorized to declare the Independence of
America previous to the treaty, as a voluntary act, and to propose
separately as a basis the treaty of 1763. This also Count de
Vergennes undertook to lay before the King, and communicate to me.

Mr. Grenville then said to me, he hoped all difficulties were now
removed, and that we might proceed in the good work. I asked him
if the Enabling Bill was passed? He said, No. It passed the Com-
mons, and had been once read in the House of Lords, but was not yet
completed. I remarked, that the usual time approached for the
prorogation of Parliament, and possibly this business might be
omitted. He said there was no danger of that, the Parliament would
not rise this year till the middle of July ; the India affairs had put
back other business which must be done, and would require a pro-
longation of the season till that time. I then observed to him, that,543

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

though we Americans considered ourselves at a distinct independent
power, or State, yet, as the British government had always hitherto,
affected to consider us only as rebellious subjects, and as the Enabling
Act was not yet passed, I did not think it could be fairly supposed,
that his court intended by the general words, any other Prince or State,
to include a people whom they did not allow to be a State ; and that,
therefore, I doubted the sufficiency of his power as to treating with
America, though it might be good as to Spain and Holland. He
replied, that he himself had no doubt of the sufficiency of his power,
and was willing to act upon it. I then desired to have a copy of the
power, which he accordingly promised me.

He would have entered into conversation on the topic of reconcili-
ation, but I chose still to wave it, till I should find the negotiation
more certainly Commenced ; and I showed him the London paper
containing the article above transcribed, that he might see how our
conversations were misrepresented, and how hazardous it must be for
me to make any propositions of the kind at present. He seemed to
treat the newspapers lightly, as of no consequence ; but I observed,
that, before he had finished the reading of the article, he turned to the
beginning of the paper to see the date, which made me suspect that
he doubted whether it might not have taken its rise from some of his
letters.

When he left me, I went to dine with M. de Chaumont, who had
invited me to meet there Mr. Walpole, at his request. We shook
hands, and he observed, that it was near two years since we had seen
each other. Then, stepping aside, he thanked me for having com-
municated to him Lord Shelburne’s letter to Mr. Oswald ; thought it
odd that Mr. Oswald himself had not spoken to him about it; said he
had received a letter from Mr. Fox upon the affair of St. Eustatia, in
which there were some general words, expressing a desire of peace ;
that he had mentioned this to the Marquis de Castries, who had
referred him to Count de Vergennes, but he did not think it a sufficient
authority for him to go to that minister. It was known that he had
business with the minister of the Marine on the other affair, and,
therefore, his going to him was not taken notice of; but, if he had
gone to Count de Vergennes, minister of Foreign Affairs, it would
have occasioned speculation and much discourse; that he had there-
fore avoided it till he should be authorized, and had written accordingly
to Mr. Fox ; but that, in the mean time, Mr. Oswald had been chosen
upon the supposition, that he, Mr. Walpole, and I were at variance.
He spoke of Mr. Oswald as an odd kind of man, but that, indeed, his
nation were generally odd people, &c. We dined pleasantly together
with the family, and parted agreeably, without entering into any
particulars of the business. Count d’Estaing was at this dinner, and
I met him again in the evening at Madame Brillon’s. There is at
present among the people much censure of Count de Grasse’s
conduct, and a general wish that Count d’Estaing had the command
in America. I avoid meddling, or even speaking on the subject, as^
improper for me, though I much esteem that commander-	:BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

549

Sunday, the \6th. I heard nothing from Versailles. I received a
letter from Mr. Adams, acquainting me he had drawn upon me for a
quarter’s salary, which he hoped would be the last, as lie now found
himself in the way of getting some money there, though not much.
But he says not a word in answer to my late letters on public affairs,
nor have I any line from Mr. Laurens, which I wonder at. I received
also a letter from Mr. Carmichael, dated June 5th, at Madrid. He
speaks of Mr. Jay being on his journey, and supposes he would be
with me before that letter, so that I may expect him daily. We have
taken lodgings for him in Paris.

Monday, the \jth. I received a letter from Mr. Hodgson, ac-
quainting me that the American prisoners at Portsmouth, to the
number of three hundred, were all embarked on board the transports,
that each had received twenty shillings’ worth of necessaries at the
expense of government, and went on board in good humour; that
contrary winds had prevented the. transports arriving in time at
Plymouth, but that the whole number there now of our people,
amounting to seven hundred, with those arrived from Ireland, would
soon be on their way home.

In the evening the Marquis de Lafayette came to see me, and said
he had seen Count de Vergennes, who was satisfied with Mr. Gren-
ville’s powers. He asked me what I thought of them, and I told him
what I had said to Mr. Grenville of their imperfection with respect to
us. He agreed in opinion with me. I let him know that I pro-
posed waiting on Count de Vergennes to-morrow.

He said he had signed the paper relating to Major Ross’s parole, and
hoped Congress would not take it amiss, and added, that, in con-
versation with the Major, he had asked him why England vvas so
backward to make propositions. “We are afr^d,” says the Major,
“ of offering you more than you expect or desire.” I find myself in
some perplexity with regard to these two negotiators. Mr. Oswald
appears to have been the choice of Lord Shelburne, Mr. Grenville that
of Mr. Secretary Fox. Lord Shelburne is said to have lately acquired
much of the King’s confidence. Mr. Fox calls himself the minister of
the people, and it is certain that his popularity is lately much in-
creased. Lord Shelburne seems to wish to have the management of
the treaty ; Mr. Fox seems to think it in his department. I hear that
the understanding between these ministers is not quite perfect. Mr.
Grenville is clever, and seems to feel reason as readily as Mr.
Oswald, though not so ready to own it. Mr. Oswald appears quite
plain and sincere ; I sometimes a little doubt Mr. Grenville. Mr.
Oswald, an old man, seems now to have no desire but that of
being useful in doing good. Mr. Grenville, a young man, naturally
desirous of acquiring reputation, seems to aim at that of being an able
negotiator. Mr. Oswald does not solicit to have any share in the
business, but, submitting the matter to Lord Shelburne and me,
expresses only his willingness to serve, if we think he may be useful,
and is equally willing to be excused, if we judge there is no occasion
for him. Mr. Grenville seems to think the whole negotiation com-550

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

mitted to him, and to have no idea of Mr. Oswald’s being concerned
in it, and is, therefore, willing to extend the expressions in his com-
mission, so as to make them comprehend America, and this beyond
what I think they will bear. I imagine we might, however, go on
very well with either of them, though I should rather prefer Oswald ;
but I apprehend difficulties if they are both employed, especially if
there is any misunderstanding between their principals. I must,
however, write to Lord Shelburne, proposing something in conse-
quence of his offer of vesting Mr. Oswald with any commission, which
that gentleman and I should think proper.

Tuesday, the 18th. I found myself much indisposed with a sudden
and violent cold, attended with a feverishness and headache. I
imagined it to be an effect of the influenza, a disorder now reigning in
various parts of Europe. This prevented my going to Versailles.

Thursday, the 10th. Weather excessively hot, and my disorder
continues, but is lessened, the headache having left me. I am, how-
ever, not yet able to go to Versailles.

Monday, the 2^th. Wrote to Mr. Oswald, promising to see him on
Wednesday, and went with Mr. Jay to Versailles. Count de Ver-
gennes acquainted us, that he had given to Mr. Grenville the answer
to his propositions, who had immediately despatched it to his court.
He read it to us, and I shall endeavour to obtain a copy of it. Count
de Vergennes informing us, that a frigate was about to be despatched
for America, by which we might write, and that the courier who was
to carry down the despatches would set out on Wednesday morning,
we concluded to omit coming to court on Tuesday, in order to pre-
pare our letters. Count de Vergennes appeared to have some doubts
about the sincerity of the British court, and the bonni foi of Mr.
Grenville, but said the return of Mr. Grenville’s courier might give
light. I wrote the following letters to Mr. Secretary Livingston and
Mr. Morris.

TO ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON.

“ Passy, 25 June, 1782.

“ Sir,—I have received your respective letters of January 26th and
February 13th. The first was accompanied with a form of a conven-
tion for the establishment of consuls. Mr. Barclay having been
detained these six months in Holland, though in continual expectation
of returning hither, I have yet done nothing in that business, thinking
his presence might be of use in settling it. As soon as he arrives I
shall move the completion of it.

“ The second enforces some resolutions of Congress, sent me with
it, respecting a loan of twelve millions of livres, to be demanded of
France for the current year. I had already received the promise of
six millions, together with the clearest and most positive assurances,
that it was all the King could spare to us, that we must not expect
more, that, if drafts and demands came upon me beyond that sum, it
behoved me to take care how I accepted them, or where I should find
funds for the payment, since I could certainly not be further assistedBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

5 5i

out of the royal treasury. Under this declaration, with what face
could I ask for another six millions? It would be saying, you are not
to be believed, you can spare more; you are able to lend me twice
the sum if you were but willing. If you read my letter to Mr. Morris
of this date, I think you will be convinced how improper any language,
capable of such a construction, would be to such a friend. I hope,
however, that the loan Mr. Adams has opened in Holland for three
millions of florins, which it is said is likely to succeed, will supply the
deficiency.

“ By the newspapers I have sent, you will see, that the general
disposition of the British nation towards us had been changed. Two
persons have been sent here by the new ministers, to propose treating
for peace. They had at first some hopes of getting the belligerent
powers to treat separately, one after another ; but, finding that im-
practicable, they have, after several messengers sent to and fro, come
to a resolution of treating with all together for a general peace, and
have agreed, that the place shall be Paris. Mr. Grenville is now here
with full powers for that purpose, (if they can'be reckoned full with
regard to America, till a certain act is completed for enabling his
Majesty to treat, &c., which has gone through the Commons, and has
been once read in the House of Lords). I keep a very particular
journal of what passes every day in the affair, which is transcribing,
to be sent to you. I shall, therefore, need to say no more about it in
this letter, except, that though I still think they were sincere at first
in their desire of peace, yet, since their success in the West Indies,
I imagine, that I see marks of their desiring rather to draw the
negotiations into length, that they may take the chance of what the
campaign shall produce in their favour ; and, as there are so many
interests to adjust, it will be prudent for us to* suppose, that even
another campaign may pass before all can be agreed. Something,
too, may happen to break off the negotiations, and we should be pre-
pared for the worst.

“ I hoped for the assistance of Mr. Adams and Mr. Laurens. The
first is too much engaged in Holland to come hither, and the other
declines serving ; but I have now the satisfaction of being joined by
Mr. Jay, who happily arrived here from Madrid last Sunday. The
Marquis de Lafayette is of great use in our affairs here, and, as the
campaign is not likely to be very active in North America, I wish I
may be able to prevail with him to stay a few weeks longer. By him
you will receive the journal above mentioned, which is already pretty
voluminous, and yet the negotiations cannot be said to be opened.

“ Ireland, you will see, has obtained all her demands triumphantly.
I meet no one from that country, who does not express some obliga-
tions to America for their success.

“ Before I received your just observations on the subject, I had
obtained from the English ministers a resolution to exchange all our
prisoners. They thought themselves obliged to have an act of Parlia-
ment about it for authorizing the King to do it, this war being different
from others, as made by an act of Parliament declaring us rebels, and552

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

our people being committed for high treason. I empowered Mr.
Hodgson, who was chairman of the committee that .collected and dis-
pensed the charitable subscriptions for the American prisoners, to
treat and conclude on the terms of their discharge ; and, having
approved of the draft he sent me of the agreement, I hope Congress
will see fit to order a punctual execution of it. I have long suffered
with those poor brave men, who with so much public virtue have
endured four or five years’ hard imprisonment, rather than serve
against their country. I have done all I could afford towards making
their situation more comfortable ; but their numbers were so great,
that I could do but little for each, and that very great villain, Digges,
defrauded them of between three and four hundred pounds, which he
drew from me on their account. He lately wrote me a letter, in which
he pretended he was coming to settle with me, and to convince me,
that had been mistaken with regard to his conduct ; but he never
appeared and I hear he is gone to America. Beware of him, tor he
is very artful, and has cheated many. I hear every day of new
rogueries committed by him in England.

“ The ambassador from Sweden to this court applied to me lately
to know, if I had powers that would authorize my making a treaty
with his master in behalf of the United States. Recollecting a general
power, that was formerly given to me with the other Commissioners,
I answered in the affirmative. He seemed much pleased, and said
the King had directed him to ask the question, and charged him to
tell me, that he had so great esteem for me, that it would be a par-
ticular satisfaction to him to have such a transaction with me. I have
perhaps some vanity in repeating this ; but I think, too, that it is
right that Congress should know it, and judge if any use may be made
of the reputation of a citizen for the public service. In case it should
be thought fit to employ me in that business, it will be well to send a
more particular power and proper instructions. The ambassador
added, that it was a pleasure to him to think, and he hoped it would
be remembered, that Sweden was the first power in Europe, which
had voluntarily offered its friendship to the United States without
being solicited. This affair should be talked of as little as possible
till completed.

“ I enclose another complaint from Denmark, which I request you
will lay before Congress. I am continually pestered with complaints
from French seamen, who were with Captain Conyngham in his first
cruise from Dunkirk; from others who were in the Lexington, the
Alliance, &c., being put on board prizes that were retaken, were never
afterwards able to join their respective ships, and so have been
deprived of the wages, &c., due to them. It is for our national honour,
that justice should be done them, if possible ; and I wish you to pro-
cure an order of Congress for inquiring into their demands, and
satisfying such as shall be found just. It may be addressed to the
consul.

“ I enclose a note from M. de Vergennes to me, accompanied by a
memoir relating to a Swiss, who died at Edenton. If you can procureBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.	553

the information desired, it will much oblige the French ambassador in
Switzerland.

“ I have made the addition you directed to the cipher. I rather
prefer the old one of Dumas, perhaps because I am more used to it.
I enclose several letters from that ancient and worthy friend of our
country. He is now employed as secretary to Mr. Adams, and I must,
from a long experience of his zeal and usefulness, beg leave to recom-
mend him warmly to the consideration of Congress, with regard to his
appointments, which have never been equal to his merit. As Mr.
Adams writes me the good news, that he shall no longer be obliged to
draw on me for his salary, I suppose it will be proper to direct his
paying that, which shall be allowed to *M. Dumas. Be pleased to
present my duty to the Congress, and believe me to be, with great
esteem and regard,	“ B. Franklin.”

“to ROBERT MORRIS.

“ Passy, 25 June, 1782.

“ Sir,------For what relates to war and peace, I must refer you to

Mr. Livingston, to whom I write fully. I will only say, that, though
the English a few months since seemed desirous of peace, I suspect
they now intend to draw out the negotiation into length, till they can
see what this campaign will produce. I hope our people will not be
deceived by fair words, but be on their guard, ready against every
attempt that our insidious enemies may make upon us. I am, &c.

“ B. Franklin.”

Wednesday, the 26th. I sent away my letters, and went to see Mr.
Oswald. I showed him the draft of a letter to be addressed to him
instead of Lord Shelburne, respecting the commission, or public
character, he might hereafter be vested with. Tins draft was founded
on Lord Shelburne’s memorandums, which Mr. Oswald had shown to
me, and this letter was intended to be communicated by him to Lord
Shelburne. Mr. Oswald liked the mode, but rather chose that no
mention should be made of his having shown me Lord Shelburne’s
memorandums, though he thought they were given to him for that
purpose. Sol struck that part out, and new modelled the letter, which
I sent him the next day, as follows*

TO RICHARD OSWALD.

"Passy, 27June, 1782.

“ Sir,—The opinion I have of your candour, probity, and good
understanding, and good will to both countries, made me hope you
would have been vested with the character of plenipotentiary to treat
with those from America. When Mr. Grenville produced his first
commission, which was only to treat with France, I did imagine that
the other to treat with us was reserved for you, and kept only till the
Enabling Bill should be passed. Mr. Grenville has since received a
second commission, which, as he informs ^me, has additional words,
empowering him to treat with the ministers of any other Prince or554

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

State whom it may concern, and he seems to understand, that those
general words comprehend the United States of America. There may
be no doubt, that they may comprehend Spain and Holland; but, as
there exist various public acts, by which the government of Britain
denies us to be states, and none in which they acknowledge us to be
such, it seems hardly clear that we could be intended at the time the
commission was given, the Enabling Act not being then passed. So
that, though I can have no objection to Mr. Grenville, nor right to
make it, if I had any, yet, as your long residence in America has
given you a knowledge of that country, its people, circumstances,
commerce, &c., which, added to your experience in business, may be
useful to both sides in facilitating and expediting the negotiation, I
cannot but hope,that it is still intended to vest you with the character
above mentioned, respecting the treaty with America, either separately
or in conjunction with Mr. Grenville, as to the wisdom of your ministers
may seem best. Be it as it may, I beg you would accept this line as a
testimony of the sincere esteem and respect with which, &c.

“ B. Franklin.”

Friday, June 28th. M. de Rayneval called upon me, and acquainted
me, that the ministers had received intelligence from England, that,
besides the orders given to General Carleton to propose terms of
reunion to America, artful emissaries were sent over, to go through
the country and stir up the people to call on the Congress to accept
those terms, they being similar to those settling with Ireland ; that it
would, therefore, be well for Mr. Jay and me to write and caution
Congress against these practices. He said Count de Vergennes wished
also to know what I had written respecting the negotiation, as it would
be well for us to hold pretty near the same language. I told him, that
I did not apprehend the least danger that such emissaries would meet
with any success, or that the Congress would make any treaty with
General Carleton ; that I would, however, write as he desired; and
Mr. Jay, coming in, promised the same. He said the courier would
go to-morrow. I accordingly wrote as follows to Mr. Secretary
Livingston, and to my friend Dr. Cooper.

TO ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON.

“ Passy, 28 June, 1782.

“ Sir,—In mine of the 25th instant, I omitted mentioning, that, at
the repeated, earnest instances of Mr. Laurens, who had given such
expectations to the ministry in England, when his parole or securities
were discharged, as that he could not think himself at liberty to act
in public affairs, till the parole of Lord Cornwallis was absolved by
me in exchange, I sent to that general the paper, of which the enclosed
is a copy; and I see, by the English papers, that his Lordship, imme-
diately on the receipt of it, appeared at court, and has taken his seat
in the House of Peers, which he did not before think was warrantable.
My authority for doing this appeared questionable to myself; but
Mr. Laurens judged it deducible from that respecting General Bur-BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

555

goyne, and, by his letters to me, seemed so unhappy till it was done,
that I ventured it, with a clause, however, as you will see, reserving
to Congress the approbation or disallowance of it.

“ The Enabling Act is now said to be passed, but no copy of it is
yet received here, so that,* as the bill first printed has suffered altera-
tions in passing through Parliament, and we know not what they are,
the treaty with us is not yet commenced. Mr. Grenville expects his
courier in a few days, with the answer of his court to a paper given
him on the part of this. That answer will probably afford us a clearer
understanding of the intentions of the British ministry, which for
some weeks past have appeared somewhat equivocal and uncertain.
It looks as if, since their late success in the West Indies, they a little
repented of the advances they had made in their declarations respect-
ing the acknowledgment of our independence ; and we have pretty
good information, that some of the ministers still flatter the King with
the hope of recovering his sovereignty over us, on the same terms as
are now making with Ireland. However willing we might have been,
at the commencement of this contest, to have accepted such con-
ditions, be assured we can have no safety in them at present. The
King hates us most cordially. If he is once admitted to any degree
of power and government among us, however limited, it will soon be
extended by corruption, artifice, and force, till we are reduced to
absolute subjection, and that the more easily, as, by receiving him
again for our King, we shall draw upon us the contempt of all Europe,
who now admire and respect us, and shall never again find a friend
to assist us.

“ There are, it is said, great divisions in the ministry on other points
as well as this, and those who aim at engrossing the power, flatter the
King with this project of reunion, and, it is said^have much reliance
on the operations of private agents sent into America to dispose minds
there in favour of it, and to bring about a separate treaty there with
General Carleton. I have not the least apprehension, that Congress
will give in to this scheme, it being inconsistent with our treaties, as
well as with our interest; but I think it will be well to watch the
emissaries, and secure, or banish immediately, such as shall be found
tampering and stirring up the people to call for it.

“ The firm, united resolution of Prance, Spain, and Holland, joined
with ours, not to treat of a particular, but a general peace, notwith-
standing the separate tempting offers to each, will in the end give us
the command of that peace. Every one of the other powers sees
clearly its interest in this, and persists in that resolution. The Con-
gress, I am persuaded, are as clear-sighted as any of them, and will
not depart from the system, which has been attended with so much
success, and promises to make America soon both great and
happy.

“ I have just received a letter from Mr. Laurens, dated at Lyons, on
his journey into the south of France’for his health. Mr. Jay will write
also by this opportunity. With great esteem, I have the honour to
b-, &c.	“B. Franklin.”556

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

TO SAMUEL COOrER.

" Passy, 28 June, 1782.

----“Our public affairs are in a good situation here. England,

having tried in vain to make a separate peace with each of the powers
she is at war with, has at length agreed to treat for a general peace
with them all together ; and at Paris. If we all continue firm in the
resolution not to separate, we shall command the terms. I have no
doubt of this steadiness here ; and though we are told, that endeavours
are making on your side the water to induce America to a reunion,
on the terms now granting to Ireland, and that powers are sent to
General Carleton for that purpose, I am persuaded the danger of this
project will appear so evident, that, if offered, it will be immediately
rejected. We have no safety but in our independence ; with that we
shall be respected, and soon become great and happy. Without it,
we shall be despised, lose all our friends, and then either be cruelly
oppressed by the King, who hates, and is incapable of forgiving us,
or, having all that nation’s enemies for ours, shall sink with it. I am
ever, my dear friend, yours most affectionately, B. Franklin.”

M. de Rayneval, who is Secretary to the Council of State, called
again in the evening. I gave him copies of the three preceding letters
to peruse and show to Count de Vergennes, to convince him that we
held no unde^jiand dealings here. I own I had, at the same time,
another view in it, which was, that they should see I had been ordered
to demand further aids, and had forborne to make the demands, with
my reasons, hoping, that, if they could possibly help us to more money,
they might be induced to do it.

I had never made any visit to Count d’Aranda, the Spanish ambas-
sador, for reasons before mentioned. M. de Rayneval told Mr. Jay
and me this morning, that it would be well for us to wait on him, and
he had authority to assure us we should be well received. We accord-
ingly concluded to wait on his Excellency the next morning.

Saturday, June 2<)th. We went together to the Spanish ambas-
sador’s, who received us with great civility and politeness. He spoke
with Mr. Jay on the subject of the treaty they were to make together,
and mentioned in general, as a principle, that the two powers should
consider each other’s conveniency, and accommodate and compensate
each other as well as they could. That an exact compensation might,
perhaps, not be possible, but should be approached as nearly as the
nature of things would admit. “Thus,” says he, “if there is a certain
thing which would be convenient to each of us, but more convenient
to one than to the other, it should be given to the one to whom it
would be most convenient, and compensation made by giving another
thing to the other, for the same reason.” I suppose he had in view
something relating to boundaries or territories, because, he added, we
will sit down together with maps in our hands, and, by that means,
shall see our way more clearly. I learned from him, that the expedi-
tion against Providence had sailed, but no advice was yet received of
its success. On our gomg out, he took pains himself to open theBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

557

folding doors for us, which is a high compliment here ; and told us
he would return our visit (rendre son devoir) and then fix a day with
us for dining with him. I dined with Mr. Jay and a company of
Americans at his lodgings.

Saturday, July 1st. Mr. Grenville called on me.

CHAPTER XXVI. (1782.)

Fabianism of the Ministry—Moravian Indians—Victory Medals—Sir Joseph Banks
—Objections to Indemnifying American Loyalists—Difficulties of Transatlantic
Correspondence—Preliminaries between Frajice and England agreed on.

To Henry I wonder a little at Mr.------------not acquainting you

Laurens, dated whether your name was in the Commission or not. I
l78Sky’ 2 July’ begin to suspect, from various circumstances, that the
British ministry, elated perhaps too much by the suc-
cess of Admiral Rodney, are not in earnest to treat immediately, but
rather wish delay. They seem to hope, .that further successes may
enable them to treat more advantageously ; or, as some suppose, that
certain propositions to be made to Congress by General Carleton may
render a treaty here with us unnecessary. A little bad news, which it
is possible they may yet receive from the same quarter, will contribute
to set-them right; and then we may enter seriously upon the treaty ;
otherwise I conjecture it may not take place till after another cam-
paign. Mr. Jay is arrived here. Mr. Grenville and Mr. Oswald con-
tinue here. Mr. Oswald has yet received no commission ; and that
of Mr. Grenville does not very clearly comprehend us, according to
British ideas ; therefore it requires explication. When I know more,
you shall have further information.

•

To James Hut- A letter written by you to M. Bertrn, Miiiistre d'Etat,
ton, datedPassy, containing an account of the abominable murders com-
"J Ji ” • mitted by some of the frontier people on the poor
Moravian Indians, has given me infinite pain and vexation. The
dispensations of Providence in this world puzzle my weak reason ; I
cannot comprehend why cruel-men should have been permitted thus
to destroy their fellow creatures. “Some of the Indians may be sup-
posed to have committed sins, but one cannot think, the little children
had committed any worthy of death. Why has a single man in Eng-
land, who happens to love blood and to hate Americans, been per-
mitted to gratify that bad temper by hiring German murderers, and,
joining them with his own, to destroy in a continued course of bloody
years near one hundred thousand human creatures, many of them
possessed of useful talents, virtues, and abilities, to which he has no
pretension? It is he who has furnished the savages with hatchets
and scalping knives, and engages them to fall upon our defenceless
farmers, and murder them with their wives and children, paying for
their scalps, of which the account kept in America already amounts,
as I have heard, to near two thousand !LIFE AND LETTERS OF

Perhaps the people of the frontiers, exasperated by the cruelties of
the Indians, have been induced to kill all Indians that fall into their
hands without distinction ; so that even these horrid murders of our
poor Moravians may be laid to his charge. And yet this man lives,
enjoys all the good things this world can afford, and is surrounded by
flatterers, who keep even his conscience quiet by telling him he is the
best of Princes ! I wonder at this, but I cannot therefore part with
the comfortable belief of a Divine Providence ; and the more I see
the impossibility, from the number and extent of his crimes, of giving
equivalent punishment to a wicked man in this life, the more I am
convinced of a future state, in which all that here appears to be wrong
shall be set right, all that is crooked made straight. In this faith let
you and me, my dear friend, comfort ourselves ; it is the only comfort,
in the present dark scene of things, that is allowed us.

To Robert R. The or(^er °f Congress, for liquidating the accounts
Livingston,dated between this court and the United States, was executed
I7828y’ 12 AUS ’ before arrived. All the accounts against us for money
lent, and stores, arms, ammunition, clothing, &c., furnished
by government, were brought in and examined, and a balance received,
which made the debt amount to the even sum of eighteen millions,
exclusive of the Holland loan, for which the King is guarantee. I
send a copy of the instrument to Mr. Morris. In reading it, you will
discover several fresh marks of the King’s goodness towards us, amount-
ing to the value of near two millions. These, added to the free gifts
before made to us at different times, form an object of at least twelve
millions, for which no returns but that of gratitude and friendship are
expected. These, I hope, may be everlasting. The constant good
understanding between France and the Swiss Cantons, and the steady
benevolence of this crown towards them, afford us a well-grounded
hope that our alliance may be as durable and as happy for both
nations ; there being strong reasons for our union, and no crossing
interests between us. I write fully to Mr. Morris on money affairs,
who will doubtless communicate to you my letter, so that I need say
the less to you on that subject.

The letter to the King was well received; the accounts of your
rejoicings on the news of the Dauphin’s birth gave pleasure here ; as
do the firm conduct of Congress in refusing to treat with General
Carleton, and the unanimous resolutions of the Assemblies of different
States on the same subject. All ranks of this nation appear to be in
good humour with us, and our reputation rises throughout Europe. I
understand from the Swedish ambassador, that their treaty with us
will go on as soon as ours with Holland is finished; our treaty with
France, with such improvements as that with Holland may suggest,
being intended as the basis.

Your approbation of my idea of a medal, to perpetuate the memory
of York and Saratoga victories, gives me great pleasure, and en-
courages me to have it struck. I wish you would acquaint me with
what kind of a monument at York the emblems required are to beBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

559

fixed on ; whether an obelisk or a column ; its dimensions ; whether
any part of it is to be marble, and the emblems carved on it, and
whether the work is to be executed by the excellent artists in that way
which Paris affords ; and, if so, to what expense they are to be limited.
This puts me in mind of a monument I got made here and sent to
America, by order of Congress, five years since. I have heard of its
arrival, and nothing more. It was admired here for its elegant antique
simplicity of design, and the various beautiful marbles used in its
composition. It was intended to be fixed against a wall in the State
House of Philadelphia. I know not why it has been so long neglected ;
it would, methinks, be well to inquire after it, and get it put up some-
where. Directions for fixing it were sent with it. I enclose a print
of it. The inscription in the engraving is not on the monument; it
was merely the fancy of the engraver. There is a white plate of
marble left smooth to receive such inscription as the Congress should
think proper.1

Our countrymen, who have been prisoners in England, are sent
home, a few excepted, who were sick, and who will be forwarded as
soon as recovered. This eases us of a very considerable charge.

I communicated to the Marquis de Lafayette the paragraph of your
letter which related to him. He is still here, and, as there seems not
so much likelihood of an active campaign in America, he is probably
more useful where he is. His departure, however, though delayed, is
not absolutely laid aside.

The second changes in the ministry of England have occasioned,
or have afforded, pretences for various delays in the negotiation for
peace. Mr. Grenville had two successive imperfect commissions.
He was at length recalled, and Mr. Fitzherbert is now arrived to
replace him, with a commission in due form to treat with France,
Spain, and Holland. Mr. Oswald, who is here, is informed by a letter
from the new Secretary of State, that a commission, empowering him
to treat with the Commissioners of Congress, will pass the seals, and
be sent him in a few days ; till he arrives, this court will not proceed
in its own negotiation. I send the Enabling Act, as it is called. Mr.
Jay will acquaint you with what passes between him and the Spanish
ambassador, respecting the proposed treaty with Spain. I will only
mention, that my conjecture of that court’s design to coop us up
within the Allegany Mountains is now manifested. I hope Congress
will insist on the Mississippi as the boundary, and the free navigation
of the river, from which they could entirely exclude us.

To Sir Joseph * have just received the very kind, friendly letter you
Banks, dated were so good as to write to me by Dr. Broussonnet. Be
hasB?782Septem" assured> that I long earnestly for a return of those peace-
‘	ful times, when I could sit down in sweet society with

1 This was probably the monument ordered by Congress to be erected to the
memory of General Montgomery. Dr. Franklin was directed to procure it in
Paris, at an expense not exceeding three hundred pounds sterling. See Journals
of Congress, January z$th, 1776. The monument was placed in the portico of St.
Paul’s Church, in the city of New York.560

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

my English philosophical friends, communicating to each other new
discoveries, and proposing improvements of old ones ; all tending to
extend the power of man over matter, avert or diminish the evils he
is subject to, or augment the number of his enjoyments. Much more
happy should I be thus employed in your most desirable company,
than in that of all the grandees of the earth projecting plans of mis-
chief, however necessary they may be supposed for obtaining greater
good.

I am glad to learn by the Doctor that your great work goes on. I
admire your magnanimity in the undertaking, and the perseverance
with which you have prosecuted it.

I join with you most perfectly in the charming wish you so well
express, “ that such measures may be taken by both parties as may
tend to the elevation of both, rather than the destruction of either.”
If anything has happened endangering one of them, my comfort is,
that I endeavoured earnestly to prevent it, and gave honest, faithful
advice, which, if it had been regarded, would have been effectual.
And still, if proper means are used to produce, not only peace, but
what is much more interesting, a thorough reconciliation, a few years
may heal the wounds that have been made in our happiness, and
produce a degree of prosperity of which at present we can hardly form
a conception.

To Robert R	mY ^ast ^e 26th Past> I mentioned that the

Livingston,dated negotiation for peace had been obstructed by the want
^“iS’HOetober, Qf due form in the English commissions appointing their
plenipotentiaries. In that for treating with us, the men-
tioning of our States by their public name had been avoided, which
we objected to; another is come, of which I send a copy enclosed.
We have now made several preliminary propositions, which the Eng-
lish minister, Mr. Oswald, has approved, and sent to his court. He
thinks they will be approved there, but I have some doubts. In a few
days, however, the answer expected will determine. By the first of
these articles, the King of Great Britain renounces, for himself and
successors, all claim and pretension to dominion or territory within
the Thirteen United States ; and the boundaries are described as in
our instructions, except that the line between Nova Scotia and New
England is to be settled by commissioners after the peace. By
another article, the fishery in the American seas is to be freely exer-
cised by the Americans, wherever they might formerly exercise it
while united with Great Britain. By another, the citizens and subjects
of each nation are to enjoy the same protection and privileges in each
others’ ports and countries, respecting commerce, duties, &c., that are
enjoyed by native subjects. The articles are drawn up very fully by
Mr. Jay, who I suppose sends you a copy; if not, it will go by the
next opportunity. If these articles are agreed to, I apprehend little
difficulty in the rest. Something has been mentioned about the
refugees and English debts, but not insisted on; as we declared at
once, that, whatever confiscations had been made in Arnerica, being-BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

561

in virtue of the laws of particular States, the Congress had no authority
to repeal those laws, and therefore could give us none to stipulate for
such repeal. * * *

The different accounts given of Lord Shelburne’s character, with
respect to sincerity, induced the minister here to send over M. de
Rayneval, Secretary to the Council, to converse with him, and
endeavour to form by that means a more perfect judgment of what
was to be expected from the negotiations. He was five or six days in
England, saw all the ministers, and returned quite satisfied, that they
are sincerely desirous of peace, so that the negotiations now go on
with some prospect of success. But the court and people of England
are very changeable. A little turn of fortune in their favour some-
times turns their heads ; and I shall .not think a speedy peace to be
depended on till I see the treaties signed.

To Eiohard You may we^ remember, that in the beginning of our
Oswald, dated conferences, before the other Commissioners arrived, on
Pusy, 36 Nov., y0ur mentioning to me a retribution for the Royalists,
whose estates had been confiscated, I acquainted you that
nothing of that kind could be stipulated by us, the confiscation being
made by virtue of laws of particular States, which the Congress had
no power to contravene or dispense with, and therefore could give us
no such authority in our commission. And I gave it as my opinion
and advice, honestly and cordially, that, if a reconciliation was
intended, no mention should be made in our negotiations of those
people ; for, they having done infinite mischief to our properties, by
wantonly burning and destroying farm houses, villages, towns, if com-
pensation for their losses were insisted on, we should certainly exhibit
again an account of all the ravages they had committed, which would
necessarily recall to view scenes of barbarity, that must inflame,
instead of conciliating, and tend to perpetuate an enmity that we all
profess a desire of extinguishing. Understanding, however, from you,
that this was a point your ministry had at heart, I wrote concerning it
to Congress, and I have lately received the following resolution, viz.,

“ By the United States in Congress assembled.

" September 10th; 1782.

“ Resolved, That the Secretary for Foreign Affairs be, and he is
hereby, directed to obtain, as speedily as possible, authentic returns
of the slaves and other property, which have been carried off or
destroyed in the course of the war by the enemy, and to transmit the
same to the ministers plenipotentiary for negotiating peace.

“ Resolved, That, in the mean time, the Secretary for Foreign
Affairs inform the said ministers, that many thousands of slaves, and
other property, to a very great amount, have been carried off, or
destroyed, by the enemy ; and that, in the opinion of Congress, the
great loss of property, which the citizens of the United States have
sustained by the enemy, will be considered by the several States as
an insuperable bar to their making restitution or indemnification to

37562

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

the former owners of property, which has been, or may be forfeited to,
or confiscated by, any of the States.”

In consequence -of these resolutions and circular letters of the
Secretary, the Assembly of Pennsylvania, then sitting, passed the fol-
lowing act, viz.

“Whereas great damages, of the most wanton nature, have been
committed by the armies of the King of Great Britain, or their
adherents, within the territory of the United States of North America,
unwarranted by the practice of civilized nations, and only to be ac-
counted for from the vindictive spirit of the said King and his officers ;
and whereas an accurate account and estimate of such damages, more
especially the waste and destruction of property, may be very useful
to the people of the United States of America, in forming a future
treaty of peace, and, in the mean time, may serve to exhibit in a true
light to the nations of Europe the conduct of the said King, his
ministers, officers, and adherents ; to the end, therefore, that proper
measures be taken to ascertain the damages aforesaid, which have
been done to the citizens and inhabitants of Pennsylvania, in the
course of the present war within this State; be it enacted by the
House of Representatives of the freemen of the commonwealth of
Pennsylvania, in General Assembly met, and by the authority of the
same, that in every county of this State, which has been invaded by
the armies, soldiers, or adherents of the King of Great Britain, the
Commissioners of every such county shall immediately meet together,
each within their county, and issue directions to the assessors of the
respective townships, districts, and places within such county, to call
upon the inhabitants of every township and phace, to furnish accounts
and estimates of the damages, waste, spoil, and destruction, which
have been done and committed as aforesaid, upon the property, real
or personal, within the same township or place, since first day of
, which was in the year of our Lord 177 , and the same ac-
counts and estimates to be transmitted to the Commissioners without
delay. And, if any person or persons shall refuse or neglect to make
out such accounts and estimates, the said assessors of the township or
place shall, from their own knowledge, and by any other reasonable
and lawful method, take and render such an account and estimate of
all damage done or committed, as aforesaid; provided always that
all such accounts and estimates, to be made out and transmitted
as aforesaid, shall contain a narrative of the time and circumstances ;
and, if in the power of the person aggrieved, the names of the
general, or other officers or adherents, of the enemy, by whom
the damage in any case was done, or under whose orders the army,
detachment, party, or persons, committing the same, acted at that
time ; and also the name and condition of the person or persons,
whose property was so damaged or destroyed ; and that all such
accounts and estimates be made in current money, upon oath or affir-
mation of the sufferer, or of others having knowledge concerning theBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

563

same ; and that in every case it be set forth, whether the party injured
hath received any satisfaction for his loss, and by whom the same was
given.

“And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that the said
Commissioners, having obtained the said accounts and estimates from
the assessor of the townships and places, shall proceed to inspect and
register the same in a book, to be provided for that purpose, dis-
tinguishing the districts and townships, and entering those of each
place together ; and if any account and estimate be imperfect, or not
sufficiently verified and established, the said Commissioners shall have
power, and they, or any two of them, are hereby authorized, to
summon and compel any person, whose evidence they shall think
necessary, to appear before them at a day and place appointed, to be
summoned upon oath or affirmation,'concerning any damage or injury
as aforesaid; and the said Commissioners shall, upon the call and
dema'nd of the President or Vice-President of the Supreme Executive
Council, deliver, or send, to the Secretary of the said Council all or
any of the original accounts and estimates aforesaid, and shall also
deliver, or send, to the said Secretary copies of the book aforesaid, or
any part or parts thereof, upon reasonable notice. And be it further
enacted by the authority aforesaid, that all losses of negro or mulatto
slaves and servants, who have been deluded and carried away by the
enemies of the United States, and have not been recovered or recom-
pensed, shall be comprehended within the accounts and estimates
aforesaid ; and that the Commissioners and assessors of any county,
which had not been invaded as aforesaid, shall nevertheless inquire
after, and procure accounts and estimates of any damages suffered by
the loss of such servants and slaves, as is herein before directed as to
other property.

“ And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that the
charges and expenses of executing this act, as tp the pay of the said
Commissioners and assessors, shall be as in other cases; and that
witnesses shall be rewarded for their loss of time and trouble, as wit-
nesses summoned to appear in the courts of quarter sessions of the
peace ; and the said charges and expenses shall be defrayed by the
Commonwealth ; but paid, in the first instance, out of the hands of
the Treasurer of the county, fo? county rates, and levies upon orders
drawn by the Commissioners of the proper county.”

We have not yet had time to hear what has been done by the other
Assemblies ; but I have no doubt that similar acts will be made use
of by all of them, and that the mass of evidence produced by the exe-
cution of those acts, not only of the enormities committed by those
people, under the direction of the British generals, but of those com-
mitted by the British troops themselves, will form a record, that must
render the British name odious in America to the latest generations.
In that authentic record will be found the burning of the fine towns of
Charlestown, near Boston ; of Falmouth, just before winter, when the
sick, the aged, the women and children, were driven to seek shelter564

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

where they could hardly find it; of Norfolk, in the Inidst of winter ;
of New London, of Fairfield, of Esopus, &c., besides near a hundred
and fifty miles of well settled country laid waste; every house and
barn burnt, and many hundreds of farmers, with their wives and
children, butchered and scalped.

The present British ministers, when they reflect a little, will cer-
tainly be too equitable to suppose, that their nation has a right to
make an unjust war (which they have always allowed this against us
to be), and do all sorts of unnecessary mischief, unjustifiable by the
practice of any individual people, which those they make war with are
to suffer without claiming any satisfaction ; but that, if Britons, or
their adherents, are in return deprived of any property, it is to be re-
stored to them, or they are to be indemnified. The British troops can
never excuse their barbarities. They were unprovoked. The Loyalists
may say-in excuse of theirs, that they were exasperated by the loss of
their estates, and it was revenge. They have then had their revenge.
Is it right they should have both ?

Some of those people may have merit in their regard for Britain,
and who espoused her cause from affection ; these it may become you
to reward. But there are many of them who were waverers, and were
only determined to engage in it by some occasional circumstance or
appearances ; these have not much of either merit or demerit; and
there are others, who have abundance of demerit respecting your
country, having by their falsehoods and misrepresentations brought
on and encouraged the continuance of the war; these, instead of
being recompensed, should be punished.

It is usual among Christian people at war to profess always a desire
of peace ; but, if the ministers of one of the parties choose to insist
particularly on a certain article, which they have known the others
are not and cannot be empowered to agree to, what credit can they
expect should be given to such professions ?

Your ministers require, that we should receive again into our bosom
those who have been our bitterest enemies, and restore their properties
who have destroyed ours, and this, while the wounds they have given
us are still bleeding 1 It is many years since your nation expelled the
Stuarts and their adherents, and confiscated their estates. Much of
your resentment against them may by this time be abated ; yet, if we
should propose it, and insist on it as an article of our treaty with you,
that that family should be recalled and the forfeited estates of its
friends restored, would you think us serious in our professions of
earnestly desiring peace ?

I must repeat my opinion, that it is best for you to drop all mention
of the refugees. We have proposed, indeed, nothing but what we
think best for you as well as ourselves. But, if you will have them
mentioned, let it be in an article, in which you may provide, that they
shall exhibit accounts of their losses to the Commissioners, hereafter
to be appointed, who should examine the same, together with the
accounts now preparing in America of the damages done by them, and
state the account; and that, if a balance appears in their favour, itBENJAMIN FRANKLIN,

565

shall be paid by lis to you, and by you divided among them as you
shall think proper ; and if the balance is found due to us, it shall be
paid by you.

Give me leave, however, to advise you to prevent the necessity of
so dreadful a discussion by dropping the article, that we may write to
America and stop the inquiry.

To Robert R. * am honoured by your several letters, dated Sep-
liviogston, ’ tember 5th, 13th, 15th, and 18th. I believe that the
iated .PaMy* 6 complaints you make in them, of my not writing, may
eo’’ ' ere now have appeared less necessary, as many of my
letters written before those complaints must have since come to hand.
I will nevertheless mention some of the difficulties your ministers
meet with, in keeping up a regular and punctual correspondence. We
are far from the seaports, and not well informed, and often misin-
formed, about the sailing of vessels. Frequently we are told they are
to sail in a week or two, and often they lie in the ports for months
after, with our letters on board, either waiting for convoy, or for other
reasons. The post-office here is an unsafe conveyance ; many of the
letters we receive by it have evidently been opened, and doubtless the
same happens to those we send ; and, at this time particularly, there
is so violent a curiosity in all kinds of people to know something
relating to the negotiations, and whether peace may be expected, or a
continuance of the war, that there are few private hands or travellers,
that we can.trust with carrying our despatches to. the seacoast; and I
imagine, that they may sometimes be opened and destroyed, because
they cannot be well sealed.

Again, the observation you make, that the Congress ministers in
Europe seem to form themselves into a privy council, transacting
affairs without the privity or concurrence of the sovereign, may be in
some respects just; but it should be considered, that, if they do not
write as frequently as other ministers here do to their respective
courts, or if, when they write, their letters are not regularly received,
the greater distance of the seat of war, and the extreme irregularity of
conveyances maybe the causes, and not a desire of acting without the
knowledge or orders of their constituents. There is no European
court, to which an express cannot be sent from Paris in ten or fifteen
days, and from most of them answers may be obtained in that time.
There is, I imagine, no minister, who would not think it safer to act
by orders than from his own discretion ; and yet, unless you leave
more to the discretion of your ministers in Europe than courts usually
do, your affairs may sometimes suffer extremely from the distance,
which, in the time of war especially, may make it five or six months
before the answer to a letter shall be received. I suppose the minister
from this court will acquaint Congress with the King’s sentiments
respecting their very handsome present of a ship of the line. People
in general here are much pleased with it.

I communicated, together with my memoir demanding a supply of
rfioney, copies of every paragraph in your late letters, which express566

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

so strongly the necessity of it. I have been constant in my solicita-
tions both directly, and through the Marquis de Lafayette, who has
employed himself diligently and warmly in the business. The nego-
tiations for peace are, I imagine, one cause of the great delay and
indecision on this occasion beyond what has been usual, as the
quantum may be different if those negotiations do or do not succeed.
We have not yet learned what we may expect. We have been told
that we shall be aided, but it cannot be to the extent demanded ; six
millions have been mentioned, but not as a sum fixed. The minister
tells me still, that he is working upon the subject, but cannot yet give
a determinative answer. I know his good will to do the best for
us that is possible.

It is in vain for me to repeat again what I have so often written, and
what I find taken so little notice of, that there are bounds to every-
thing, and that the faculties of this nation are limited like those of all
other nations. Some of you seem to have established as maxims the
suppositions, that France has money enough for all her occasions, and
all ours besides ; and that, if she does not supply us, it is owing to her
want of will, or to my negligence. As to the first, I am sure it is not
true ; and to the second, I can only say I should rejoice as much
as any man in being able to obtain more ; and I shall also rejoice in
the greater success of those who may take my place. You desire
to be very particularly acquainted with “ every step which tends to
negotiation.” I am, therefore, encouraged to send you the first part
of the “ Journal,” which accidents, and a long, severe illness inter-
rupted ; but which, from notes I have by me, may be continued if
thought proper. In its present state, it is hardly fit for the inspection
of Congress, certainly not for public view. I confide it therefore to
your prudence.

The arrival of Mr. Jay, Mr. Adams, and Mr. Laurens has relieved
me from much anxiety, which must have continued, if I had been left
to finish the treaty alone; and it has given me the more satisfaction, as
I am sure the business has profited by their assistance.

Much of the summer has been taken up in objecting against the
powers given by Great Britain, and in removing those objections.
The not using any expressions, that might imply an acknowledgment
of our independence, seemed at first industriously to be avowed. But
our refusing otherwise to treat, at length induced them to get over
that difficulty, and then we came to the point of making propositions.
Those made by Mr. Jay and me before the arrival of the other gentle-
men, you will find in the paper A, which was sent by the British
plenipotentiary to London for the King’s consideration. After some
weeks, an under-secretary, Mr. Strachey, arrived, with whom we had
much contestation about the boundaries and other articles, which
he proposed and we settled ; some of which he carried to London,
and returned with the propositions, some adopted, others omitted or
altered, and new ones added, which you will see in paper B. We
spent many days in disputing, and at length agreed on and signed the
preliminaries, which you will see by this conveyance. The BritishBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

567

minister struggled hard for two points, that the-favours granted to the
loyalists should be extended, and all our fishery contracted. We
silenced them on the first, by threatening to produce an account of the
mischief done by those people ; and as to the second, when they told
us they could not possibly agree to it as we requested it, and must
refer it to the ministry in London, we produced a new article to be
referred at the same time, with a note of facts in support of it, which
you have, C.1 Apparently, it seemed, that, to avoid the discussion of
this, they suddenly changed their minds, dropped the design of
recurring to London, and agreed to allow the fishery as demanded.

1 The papers alluded to in this letter may be found in the Diplomatic Correspon-
dence, Vol. X. pp. 88, 94, 106. The paper marked C was drawn up by Dr.
Franklin, and is as follows.

ARTICLE PROPOSED AND READ TO THE COMMISSIONERS BEFORE SIGNING THE
PRELIMINARY ARTICLES.

"It is agreed, that his Britannic Majesty will earnestly recommend it to his
Parliament to provide for and make a compensation to the merchants and shop-
keepers of Boston, whose goods and merchandise were seized and taken out of
their stores, warehouses, and shops, by order of General Gage and others of his
commanders and officers there ; and also to the inhabitants of Philadelphia, for
the goods taken away by his army there ; and to make compensation, also, for the
tobacco, rice, indigo, and negroes, &c., seized and carried off by his armies under
Generals Arnold, Cornwallis, and others, from the States of Virginia, North and
South Carolina, and Georgia, and also for all vessels and cargoes, belonging to the
inhabitants of the said United States, which were stopped,-seized, or taken, either
in the ports, or on the seas, by his governors, or by his ships of war, before the
declaration of war against the said States.

"And it is further agreed, that his Britannic Majesty will also earnestly recom-
mend it to his Parliament to make compensation for all the towns, villages, and
farms, burnt and destroyed by his troops, or adherents, in the said United States.

FACTS.	«

" There existed a free commerce, upon mutual faith, between Great Britain and
America. The merchants of the former credited the merchants and planters of the
latter with great quantities of goods, on the common expectation, that the
merchants, having sold the goods, would make the accustomed remittances ; that
the planters would do the same by the labour of their negroes, and the produce of
that labour, tobacco, rice, indigo, &c.s

" England, before the goods were sold in America, sends an armed force, seizes
those goods in the stores ; some even in the ships that brought them, and carries
them off; seizes, also, and carries off the tobacco, rice, and indigo, provided by
the planters to make returns, and even the negroes, from whose labour they might
hope to raise other produce for that purpose. *

“ Britain now demands that the debts shall, nevertheless, be paid.

" Will she, can she, justly, refuse making compensation for such seizures?

" If a diaper, who had sold a piece of linen to a neighbour on credit, should
follow him, and take the linen from him by force, and then send a bailiff to arrest
him for the debt, would any court of law or equity award the payment of the debt,
without ordering a restitution of the cloth ?

"Will not the debtors in America cry out, that, if this compensation be not
made, they were betrayed by the pretended credit, and are now doubly ruined ;
first, by the enemy, and then by the negotiators at Paris, the goods and negroes
sold them being taken from them, with all they had besides, and they are now to
be obliged to pay for what they have been robbed of ? ”568

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

You will find in the preliminaries some inaccurate and ambiguous
expressions, that want explanation, and which may be explained in
the definitive treaty; and, as the British ministry excluded our pro-
position relating to commerce, and the American prohibition of that
with England may not be understood to cease merely by our con-
cluding a treaty of peace, perhaps we may then, if the Congress shall
think fit to direct it, obtain some compensation for the injuries done
us, as a condition of our opening again the trade. Every one of the
present British ministry has, while in the ministry, declared the war
against us as unjust, and nothing is clearer in reason, than that those,
who injure others by an unjust war, should make full reparation.
They have stipulated too, in these preliminaries, that, in evacuating
our towns, they shall carry off no plunder, which is a kind of acknow-
ledgment that they ought not to have done it before.

The reason given us for dropping the article relating to commerce
was, that some statutes were in the way, which must be repealed
before a treaty of that kind could be well formed, and that this was a
matter to be considered in Parliament.

They wanted to bring their boundary down to the Ohio, and to
settle their loyalists in the Illinois country. We did not choose such
neighbours.

We communicated all the articles, as soon as they were signed, to
Count de Vergennes, (except the separate one), who thinks we have
managed well, and told me, that we had settled what was most appre-
hended as a difficulty in the work of a general peace, by obtaining the
declaration of our independency.

December \\th. I have this day learned, that the principal pre-
liminaries between France and England are agreed on^to wit;

1.	France is to enjoy the right of fishing and drying on all the west
coast of Newfoundland, down to Cape Ray. Miquelon and St. Pierre
to be restored, and may be fortified.

2.	Senegal remains to France, and Goree to be restored. The
Gambia entirely to England.

3.	All the places taken from France in the East Indies to be re-
stored, with a certain quantity of territory round them.

4.	In the West Indies, Grenada and the Grenadines, St. Christo-
pher’s, Nevis, and Montserrat, to be restored to England ; St. Lucia
to France. Dominique to remain with France, and St. Vincent’s to
be neutralized.

5.	No Commissioner at Dunkirk.

The points not yet quite settled are the territory round the places
in the Indies, and neutralization of St. Vincent’s. Apparently these
will not create much difficulty.

Holland has yet hardly done anything in her negotiation.

Spain offers for Gibraltar to restore West Florida and the Bahamas.
An addition is talked of the Island of Guadaloupe, which France will
cede to Spain in exchange for the other half of Hispaniola, and Spain
to England, but England, it is said, chose rather Porto Rico. Nothing
yet concluded.BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

569

As soon as I received the commission and instructions for treating
with Sweden, I waited on the ambassador here, who told me he daily
expected a courier on that subject. Yesterday he wrote a note to
acquaint me, that he would call on me to-day, having something to
communicate to me. Being obliged to go to Paris, I waited on him,
when he showed me the full powers he had just received, and I showed
him mine. We agreed to meet on Wednesday next, exchange copies,
and proceed to business. His commission has some polite expres-
sions in it, to wit ; “ that his Majesty thought it for the good of his
subjects to enter into a treaty of amity and commerce with the United
States of America, who had established their independence, so justly
merited, by their courage and constancy or to that effect. I imagine
this treaty will be soon completed; if any difficulty should arise, I
shall take the advice of my colleagues.

I thank you for the copies of Mr. Paine’s letter to the Abb£ Raynal,
which I have distributed into good hands. The errors we see in his-
tories of our times and affairs weaken our faith in ancient history.
M. Hilliard d’Auberteuil has here written another history of our revo-
lution ; which, however, he modestly calls an Essay, and, fearing that
there may be errors, and wishing to have them corrected, that his
second edition may be more perfect, he has brought me six sets, which
he desires me to put into such hands in America, as may be good
enough to render him and the public that service. I send them to
you for that purpose, by Captain Barney, desiring that one set may be
given to Mr. Paine, and the rest where you please. There is a quarto
set in the parcel, which please to accept from me.

I have this day signed a common letter to you drawn up by my
colleagues, which you will receive herewith. We have kept this
vessel longer for two things, a passport promised us from England,
and a sum to send in her; but she is likely to depart without both,
being all of us impatient that Congress should receive early intelligence
of our proceedings, and for the money we may probably borrow a
frigate.

I am now entering on my seventy-eighth year ; public business has
engrossed fifty of them ; I wish now to be, for the little time 1 have
left, my own master. If I live to See this peace concluded, I shall
beg leave to remind the Congress of their promise then to dismiss
me. I shall be happy to sing with old Simeon, Now lettest thou thy
servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation. With
great esteem, &c.570

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

CHAPTER XXVII. (1782-1783.)

Misunderstanding between Count de Vergennes and Dr. Franklin—The Signing
of the Preliminary Treaty—Suggests his Grandson for a Diplomatic Appoint-
ment—Mr. Jefferson appointed Minister to France—Definitive Treaty of
Peace.

To Count deVer-	I received the letter your Excellency did me the

gennes, dated honour of writing to me on the 15th instant.1 The pro-
cember i782.De" Posa^ °f having a passport from England was agreed to
’	' by me the more willingly, as I at that time had hopes of

obtaining some money to send in the Washington, and the passport
would have made its transportation safer, with that of our despatches,
and of yours also, if you had thought fit to make use of the occasion.
Your Excellency objected, as I understood it, that the English ministers,
by their letters sent in the same ship, might convey inconvenient ex-
pectations into America. It was therefore I proposed not to press for
the passport, till your preliminaries were also agreed to. They have
sent the passport without being pressed to do it, and they have sent
no letters to go under it, and ours will prevent the inconvenience
apprehended. In a subsequent conversation, your Excellency men-
tioned your intention of sending some of the King’s cutters, whence
I imagined, that detaining the Washington was no longer necessary ;
and it was certainly incumbent on us to give Congress as early an
account as possible of our proceedings, who will think it extremely
strange to hear of them by other means, without a line from us. I
acquainted your Excellency, however, with our intention of despatch-
ing that ship, supposing you might possibly have something to send
by her.

Nothing has been agreed in the preliminaries contrary to the
interests of France; and no peace is to take place between us and

1 The letter referred to here ran as follows :

FROM COUNT DE VERGENNES TO B. FRANKLIN.

Versailles, 15 December, 1782.

Sir,—I cannot but be surprised, that, after the explanation I have had with you,
and the promise you gave, that you would not press the application for an English
passport for the sailing of the packet Washington, you now inform me, that you
have received the passport, and that at ten o’clock to-morrow morning your courier
will set out to carry your despatches. I am at a loss, Sir, to explain your conduct,
and that of your colleagues on this occasion. You have concluded your pre-
liminary articles without any communication between us, although the instructions
from- Congress prescribe, that nothing shall be done without the participation of
the King. You are about to hold out a certain hope of peace to America, without
even informing yourself on the state of the negotiation on our part.

You are wise and discreet, Sir ; you perfectly understand what is due to pro-
priety ; you have all your life performed your duties. I pray you to consider how
you propose to fulfil those, which are due to the King? I am not desirous of
enlarging these reflections ; I commit them to your own integrity. When you
shall be pleased to relieve my uncertainty, I will entreat the King to enable me to
answer your demands. I have the honour to be, Sir, with sincere regard, &c.

De Vergennes.BENJA MIN FR A NKL IN.

571

England, till you have concluded yours. Your observation is, how-
ever, apparently just, that, in not consulting you before they were
signed, we have been guilty of neglecting a point of biensdance.' But,
as this was not from want of respect for the King, whom we all love
and honour, we hope it will be excused, and that the great work,
which has hitherto been so happily conducted, is so nearly brought
to perfection, and is so glorious to his reign, will not be ruined by a
single indiscretion of ours. And certainly the whole edifice sinks to
the ground immediately, if you refuse bn that account to give us any
further assistance.

We have not yet despatched the ship, and I beg leave to Wait upon
you on Friday for your answer.

It is not possible for anyone to be more sensible than I am, of whatr
I and every American owe to the King, for the many and great
benefits and favours he has bestowed upon us. All my letters to
America are proofs of this 'r all tending to make the same impressions
on the minds of my countrymen, that 1 felt in my own. And I believe,
that no Prince was ever more beloved and respected by his own sub-
jects, than the King is by the people of the United States. The
English, I just now learn, flatter themselves they have already divided
us. I hope this little misunderstanding will therefore be kept a secret,
and that they will find themselves totally mistaken.

To Robert When I wrote to you on the 14th, I expected to have
Morris, dated despatched the Washington immediately, though with-
Passy, 23 out any money. A little misunderstanding prevented it.
Decem er, 7 . p^at vvaSj after some time, got over, and on Friday last
an order was given to furnish me with six hundred thousand livres
immediately, to send in that ship ; and I was answered by the Count
de Vergennes, that the rest of the six millions should be paid \is
quarterly in the course of the year 1783. If your drafts make it
necessary, I believe we can have it advanced, at least on paying dis-
count. Mr. Grand has been ever since busy collecting the proper
species to send it in, and it will go, I suppose, to-morrow or next day.
1 am glad to make use of this opportunity, and wish the sum could
have been larger, as we have got a passport from England for the
ship Washington, Captain Barney, signed by the King’s own hand,
the more curious, as it acknowledges us by our title of the United
States of America.

We should not, however, imagine ourselves already in peace. The
others powers are not yet agreed, and war may still continue longer
than we expect. Our preliminaries have not yet been communicated
to Parliament, and I apprehend there will be great clamours against

1 There is no doubt that the lack of biensiance, to which ^Franklin himself thought
it wise to plead guilty, gravely compromised all the Commissioners, and was very
near resulting in their abrupt recall. Neither is there any doubt that it resulted
mainly from a mistrust of the good faith of the French Government on the part of
Messrs. Jay and Adams. There is no authority that I know of for adding Franklin,
who would no doubt have deemed it wise to co-operate so far as he did with his
colleagues, were his faith in the French ministry never so profound.572

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

them when they appear. Hints are already thrown out, that the
King has gone beyond his powers ; and, if the new ministry do not
stand their ground, perhaps the ratification may be prevented. A
little more success in the West Indies this winter may totally turn the
heads of that giddy nation.

I pressed hard, therefore, for the whole sum demanded, but was
told it was impossible, the great efforts to be made this campaign in
the East and West Indies (the armies for which are now afloat), and
the enormous expense engaged in, having much embarrassed the
finances.

Our people certainly ought to do more for themselves.' It is absurd,
the pretending to be lovers of liberty while they grudge paying the
defence for it. It is said here, that an impost of five per cent, on all
goods imported, though a most reasonable proposition, had not been
agreed to by all the States, and was therefore frustrated; and that
your newspapers acquaint the world with this, with the non-payment
of taxes by the people, and with the non-payment of interest to the
creditors of the public. The knowledge of these things has hurt our
credit, and the loan in Holland, and would prevent our getting any
here but from the government. The foundation of credit abroad
should be laid at home, and certain funds should be prepared and
established beforehand, for the regular payment at least of the
interest. With sincere esteem and respect, I am, &c.

To Mr» Mary	—The departure of my dearest friend,1 which I leam

Hewson,’ dated from your last letter, greatly affects me. To meet with
i7fny’ 27 Jan’’ ^ier once more *n this life was one of the principal
7 ’	motives of my proposing to visit England again, before

my return to America. The last year carried off my friends Dr.
Pringle, Dr. Fothergill, Lord Karnes, and Lord le Despencer. This
has begun to take away the rest, and strikes the hardest. Thus the
ties I had to that country, and indeed to the world in general, are
loosened one by one, and I shall soon have no attachment left to make
me unwilling to follow.

I intended writing when I sent the eleven books, but I lost the time
in looking for the twelfth. I wrote with that; and hope it came to
hand. I therein asked your counsel about my coming to England.
On reflection, I think I can, from my knowledge of your prudence,
foresee what it will be, viz., not to come too soon, lest it should seem
braving and insulting some who ought to be respected. I shall, there-
fore, omit that journey till I am near going to America, and then
just step over to take leave of my friends, and spend a few days with
you. 1 purpose bringing Ben with me, and perhaps may leave him
under your care.

At length we are in peace, God be praised, and long, very long,
may it continue. All wars are follies, very expensive, and very
mischievous ones. When will mankind be convinced of this, and
agree to settle their differences by arbitration ? Were they to do it,
* Mrs. Stevenson, mother of Mrs. Hewson.BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.	573

even by the cast of a die, it would be better than by fighting and
destroying each other.

Spring is coming on, when travelling will be delightful. Can you
not, when you see your children all at school, make n little party, and
take a trip hither ? I have now a large house, delightfully situated, in
which I could accommodate you and two or three friends, and I am
but half an hour’s drive from Paris.

In looking forward, twenty-five years seem a long period, but, in
looking back, how short! Could you imagine, that it is now full a
quarter of a century since we were first acquainted? It was in 1757.
During the greatest part of the time, I lived in the same house with
my dear deceased friend, your mother; of course you and I conversed
with each other much and often. It is to all our honours, that in all
that time we never had among us the smallest misunderstanding.
Our friendship has been all clear sunshine, without the least cloud in
its hemisphere. Let me conclude by saying to you, what I have had
too frequent occasions to say to my other remaining old friends, “ The
fewer we become, the more let us love one another.’1

To Sobert it. I send herewith another copy of the treaty concluded
Livingston, ’ with Sweden. I hope, however, that you will have
86 received the former, and that the ratification is for-
p ’	’ warded. The King, as the ambassador informs me, is

now employed in examining the duties payable in his ports, with a
view of lowering them in favour of America, and thereby encouraging
and facilitating our mutual commerce.

The definitive treaties have met with great delays, partly by the
tardiness of the Dutch, but principally from the distractions in the
court of England, where, for six or seven weeks, there was properly
no ministry, nor. any business affected. They have at last settle^ a
ministry, but of such a composition as does not promise to be lasting.
The papers will inform you who they are. It is now said, that Mr.
Oswald, who signed the preliminaries, is not to return here, but that
Mr. David Hartley comes in his stead to settle the definitive. A
Congress is also talked of, and that some use is to be made therein of
the mediation formerly proposed of the Imperial courts. Mr. Hartley
is an old friend of mine, and a strong lover of peace, so that I hope
we shall not have much difficult discussion with him ; but I could
have been content to have finished with Mr. Oswald, whom we always
found very reasonable.

Mr. Laurens, having left Bath, mended in his health, is daily ex-
pected at Paris, where Messieurs Jay and Adams still continue. Mr.
Jefferson has not yet arrived, nor the Romulus, in which ship I am
told he was to have taken his passage. I have been the more im-
patient of this delay, from the expectation given me of full letters by
him. It is extraordinary, that we should be so long without any
arrivals from America in any part of Europe. We have as yet heard
nothing of the reception of the preliminary articles in America, though
it is now nearly five months since they were signed.574	LIFE AND LETTERS OF

A multitude of people are continually applying to me personally,
and by letters, for information respecting the means of transporting
themselves, families, and fortunes to America. I give no encourage-
ment to any of the King’s subjects, as I think it would not be right in
me to do it without their sovereign’s approbation ; and, indeed, few
offer from France but persons of irregular conduct and desperate cir-
cumstances, whom we had better be without ; but I think there will
be great emigrations from England, Ireland, and Germany. There is
a great contest among the ports, which of them shall be of those to be
declared free for the American trade.. Many applications are made to
me to interest myself in the behalf of all of them ; but having no
instructions on that head, and thinking it a matter more properly
belonging to the consul, I have done nothing in it.

Mr. Barclay is often ill, and I am afraid the settlement of our
accounts will be, in his hands, a long operation. I shall be impatient
at being detained here on that score after the arrival of my successor.
Would it not be well to join Mr. Ridley with Mr. Barclay for that
service ? He resides in Paris, and seems active in business. I know
not, indeed, whether he would undertake it, but wish he may.

The finances here are embarrassed, and a new loan is proposed by
way of lottery, in which, it is said by some calculators, the King will
pay at the rate of seven per cent. I mention this to furnish you with
a fresh convincing proof against cavillers of the King’s generosity
towards us, in lending us six millions this year at five per cent., and
of his concern for our credit, in saving by that sum the honour of Mr.
Morris’s bills, while those drawn by his own officers abroad have their
payment suspended for a year after they become due. You have been
told, that France might help us more liberally if she would. This last
transaction is a demonstration of the contrary.

To David * send you enclosed the copies you desired of the
Hartley, dated papers I read to you yesterday.1 I should be happy if
8 “fty. I could see, before I die, the proposed improvement of
the law of nations established. The miseries of man-
kind would be diminished by it, and the happiness of millions secured
and promoted. If the practice of privateering could be profitable to
any civilized nation, it might be so to us Americans ; since we are so
situated on the globe, as that the rich commerce of Europe with the
West Indies, consisting of manufactures, sugars, &c., is obliged to
pass before our doors, which enables us to make short and cheap
cruises, while our own commerce is in such bulky, low-priced articles,
as that ten of our ships taken by you are not equal in value to one of
yours, and you must come far from home, at a great expense, to look
for them. I hope, therefore, that this proposition, if made by us, will
appear in its true light, as having humanity only for its motive. I do
not wish to see a new Barbary rising in America, and our long ex-
tended coast occupied by piratical states. I fear, lest our privateering
success in the two last wars should already have given our people too
1 Against privateering.BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

575

strong a relish for that most mischievous kind tif gaming, mixed
blood ; and, if a stop is not now put to the practice, mankind may
hereafter be more plagued with American corsairs, than they have
been and are with the Turkish. Try, my friend, what you can do, in
procuring for your nation the glory of being, though the greatest
naval power, the first who voluntarily relinquished the advantage that
power seems to give them, of plundering others, and thereby impeding
the mutual communications among men of the gifts of God, and
rendering miserable multitudes of merchants and their families,
artisans, and cultivators of the earth, the most peaceable and innocent
part of the human species. ' With great esteem and affection, I am
ever, my dear friend, yours most sincerely.

To Robert R * * * I shall now answer yours of March the 26th, May
Livingston, ’ the 9th, and May the 31st. It gave me great pleasure
dated Passy, 22 to learn by the first, that the news of peace diffused

y> 78 • general satisfaction. I will not now take it upon me to
justify the apparent reserve, respecting this court, at the signature,
which you disapprove. We have touched upon it in our general letter.
I do not see, however, that they have much reason to complain of
that transaction. Nothing was stipulated to their prejudice, and none
of the stipulations were to have force, but by a subsequent act of their
own. I suppose, indeed, that they have not complained of it, or you
would have sent us a copy of the complaint, that we might have
answered it. I long since satisfied Count de Vergennes about it here.
We did what appeared to all of us best at the time, and if we have
done wrong, the Congress will do right, after hearing us, to censure
us. Their nomination of five persons to the service seems to mark,
that they had some dependence on our joint judgment, since one
alone could have made a treaty by direction of the French ministry as
well as twenty.

I will only add, that, with respect to myself, neither the ldtter from
M. de Marbois, handed us through the British negotiators (a sus-
picious channel), nor the conversations respecting the fishery, the
boundaries, the royalists, &c., recommending moderation in our
demands, ai*e of weight sufficient in my mind to fix an opinion, that
this court wished to restraia us in obtaining any degree of advantage
we could prevail on our enemies to accord; since those discourses
are fairly resolvable, by supposing a very natural apprehension, that
we, relying too much on the ability of France to continue the war in
our favour, and supply us constantly with money, might insist on
more advantages than the English would be willing to grant, and
thereby lose the opportunity of making peace, so necessary to all our
friends.

I ought not, however, to conceal from you, that one of my
colleagues 1 is of a Very different opinion from me in these matters.
He thinks the French minister one of the greatest enemies of our
country, that he would have straitened our boundaries, to prevent the

1 Mr. Adams.LIFE AND LETTERS OF

576

growth of our people ; contracted our fishery, to obstruct the increase
of our seamen ; and retained the royalists among us, to keep us
divided ; that he privately opposes all our negotiations with foreign
courts, and afforded us, during the war, the assistance we received,
only to keep it alive, that we might be so much the more weakened
by it; that to think of gratitude to France is the greatest of follies,
and that to be influenced by it would ruin us. He makes no secret of
his having these opinions, expresses them publicly, sometimes in
presence of the English ministers, and speaks of hundreds of instances
which he could produce in proof of them. None, however, have yet
appeared to me, unless the conversations and letter above-mentioned
are reckoned such.

If I were not convinced of the real inability of this court to furnish
the further supplies we asked, I should suspect these discourses of a
person in his station might have influenced the refusal; but I think
they have gone no further than to occasion a suspicion, that we have
a considerable party of Antigallicans in America, who are not Tories,
and consequently to produce some doubts of the continuance of our
friendship. As such doubts may hereafter have a bad effect, I think
we cannot take too much care to remove them; and it is therefore I
write this, to put you on your guard (believing it my duty, though I
know that I hazard by it a mortal enmity), and to caution you respect-
ing the insinuations of this gentleman against this court, and the
instances he supposes of their ill-will to us, which I take to be as
imaginary as I know his fancies to be, that Count de Vergennes and
myself are continually plotting against him, and employing the news-
writers of Europe to depreciate his character, &c. But as Shake-
speare says, “Trifles light as air,” &c. I am persuaded, however,
that he means well for his country, is always an honest man, often
a wise one, but sometimes, and in some things, absolutely out of his
senses.

When the commercial article mentioned in yours of the 26th was
struck out of our proposed preliminaries by the British ministry, the
reason given was, that sundry acts of Parliament still in force were
against it, and must be first repealed, which I believe was really their
intention, and sundry bills were accordingly brought in for that
purpose; but, new ministers with different principles succeeding, a
commercial proclamation totally different from those bills has lately
appeared. I send enclosed a copy of it. We shall try what can be
done in the Definitive Treaty towards setting aside that proclamation ;
but, if it should be persisted in, it will then be' a matter worthy the
attentive discussion of Congress, whether it will be most prudent to
retort with a similar regulation in order to force its repeal (which may
possibly tend to bring on another quarrel), or to let it pass without
notice, and leave it to its own inconvenience, or rather impracticability,
in the execution, and to the complaints of the West India planters,
who must all pay much dearer for our produce, under those restric-
tions.

I am not enough master of the course of our commerce to give anBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

577

opinion on this particular question, and it does not behoove me to do
it; yet I have seen so much embarrassment and so little advantage in
all the restraining and compulsive systems, that I feel myself strongly
inclined to believe, that a State, which leaves all her ports open to all
the world upon equal terms, will, by that means, have foreign com-
modities cheaper, sell its own productions dearer, and be on the whole
the most prosperous. I have heard some merchants say, that there is
ten per cent, difference between Will you buy? and Will you sell?
When foreigners bring us their goods, they want to part with them
speedily, that they may purchase their cargoes and despatch their ships,
which are at constant charges in our ports ; we have then the advan-
tage of their Will you buy? And when they demand our produce, we
have the advantage of their Will you sell?' And the concurring
demands of a number also contribute to raise our prices. Thus both
those questions are in our favour at home, against us abroad.

The employing, however, of our own ships and raising a breed of
seamen among us, though it should not be a matter of so much private
profit as some imagine, is nevertheless of political importance, and
must have weight in considering this subject.

The judgment you make of the conduct of France in the peace, and
the greater glory acquired by her moderation than even by her arms,
appears to me perfectly just. The character of this court and nation
seems, of late years, to be considerably changed. The ideas of
aggrandizement by conquest are out of fashion, and those of com-
merce are more enlightened and more generous than heretofore.
We shall soon, I believe, feel something of this in our being admitted
to a greater freedom of trade with their Islands. The wise here think
France great enough ; and its ambition at present seems to be only
that of justice and magnanimity towards other nations, fidelity and
utility to its allies.	%

I have received no answer yet from Congress to my request of
being dismissed from their service. They should, methinks, reflect,
that if they continue me here, the faults I may henceforth commit,
through the infirmities of age, will be rather theirs than mine. I am
glad my Journal afforded you any pleasure. I will, as you desire,
endeavour to continue it. ^

Mr. Barclay has in his hands the affair of the Alliance and Bon
Homme Richard. I will afford him all the assistance in my power,
but it is a very perplexed business. That expedition, though for
particular reasons under American commissions and colours, was
carried on at the King’s expense, and under his orders. M. de
Chaumont was the agent appointed by the Minister of Marine to
make the outfit. He was also chosen by all the captains of the
squadron, as appears by an instrument under their hands, to be their
agent, receive, sell, and divide prizes, &c. The Crown bought two of
them at public sale, and the money, I understand, is lodged in the
hands of a responsible person at L’Orient. M. de Chaumont says he
has given in his accounts to the Marine, and that he has no more to
do with the affair, except to receive a balance due to him.

38578

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

I am sorry to find, that you have thoughts of quitting the service.
I do not think your place can be easily well supplied. You mention,
that an entire new arrangement, with respect to foreign affairs, is
under consideration. I wish to know whether any notice is likely to
be taken in it of my grandson. He has now gone through an
apprenticeship of near seven years in the ministerial business, and is
very capable of serving the States in that line, as possessing all the
requisites of knowledge, zeal, activity, language, and address. He -is
well liked here, and Count de Vergennes has expressed to me in warm
terms his very good opinion of him. The late Swedish ambassador,
Count de Krutz, who has gone home to be Prime Minister, desired I
would endeavour to procure his being sent to Sweden, with a public
character, assuring me, that he should be glad to receive him there as
our minister, and that he knew it would be pleasing to the King.
The present Swedish ambassador has also proposed the same thing
to me, as you will see by a letter of his, which I enclose. One of the
Danish ministers, M. Walterstorf, who will probably be sent in a
public character to Congress, has also expressed his wish, that my
grandson may be sent to Denmark. But it is not my custom to
solicit employments for myself, or any of my family, and I shall not
do it in this case. I only hope, that if he is not to be employed in
your new arrangement, I may be informed of it as soon as possible,
that, while I have strength left for it, I may accompany him in a tour
to Italy, returning through Germany, which I think he may make to
more advantage with me than alone, and which I have long promised
to afford him, as a reward for his faithful service, and his tender filial
attachment to me. -

Since our trade is laid open, and no longer a monopoly to England,
all Europe seems desirous of sharing in it, and for that purpose to
cultivate our friendship. That it may be better known everywhere,
what sort of people, and what kind of government they will have to
treat with, I prevailed with our friend, the Due de la Rochefoucauld,
to translate our book of Constitutions into French, and I presented
copies to all the foreign ministers. I send you one herewith. They
are much admired by the politicians here, and it is thought will induce
considerable emigrations of substantial people from different parts of
Europe to America. It is particularly a matter of wonder, that, in
the midst of a cruel war raging in the bowels of our country, our
sages should have the firmness of mind to sit down calmly and form
such complete plans of government. They add considerably to the
reputation of the United States.

You will see by the inclosed copy of a letter I received from Algiers,
the danger t\yo of our ships escaped last winter. I think it not
improbable that those rovers may be privately encouraged by the
English to fall upon us, and to prevent our interference in the carrying
trade; for I have in London heard it is a maxim among the merchants,
that, if there were no Algiers, it would be worth England's while to
build one. I wonder, however, that the rest of Europe do not combine
to destroy those nests, and secure commerce from their future piracies.BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

579

The Duke of Manchester, who has always been our friend in the
House of Lords, is now here as ambassador from England. I dine
with him to-day, 26th, and, if anything of importance occurs, I will
add it in a postcript.

To the President After a continued course of treating for nine months,
of Congress, the English ministry have at length come to a resolution
AuMsfim to lay aside, for the present, all the new propositions,
that have been made and agreed to, their own as well as
ours ; and they offer to sign again as a Definitive Treaty, the articles of
November the 30th, 1782, the ratifications of which have already
been exchanged. 'We have agreed to this, and on Wednesday next,
the third of September, it will be signed, with all the definitive treaties,
establishing a general peace, which may God long continue.1

CHAPTER XXVIII. (1783.)’

Franklin on Fox—The Demoralizing Fruits of a Depreciated Currency—Josiah
Quincy, Jr.—Mistrust of England—The American Constitutions in Europe—
Prerogative of Government.

To Charles J. I received in its time the letter you did me the
Fok„ dated honour of writing to me by Mr. Hartley ; and I cannot
tember 1783S*P	depart without expressing my satisfaction in his

’	' conduct towards us, and applauding the prudence of that

choice, which sent us a man possessed of such a spirit of conciliation,
and of all that frankness, sincerity, and candour which naturally
produce confidence, and thereby facilitate the most difficult negotia-
tions. Our countries are now happily at peace, on which I coftgratu-
late you most cordially ; and I beg you to be assured, that as long as
I have any concern in public affairs, I shall readily and heartily
concur with you in promoting every measure that may tend to
promote the common felicity.

To David Hart- Enclosed is my letter to Mr. Fox. I beg you would
ley, dated Passy, assure him, that my expressions of esteem for him are
6 Bept., 1783. not mere professions. I really think him a great man,
and I should not think so, if I did not believe he was at bottom,
and would prove himself a good one. Guard him against mistaken
notions of the American people. You have deceived yourselves too

1 At last, on the 3rd day of September, 1782, and after a protracted negotiation
of over two years, a definitive treaty of peace between England and the United
States was signed by the American Commissioners and "by Mr. Hartley, the English
Commissioner, at his apartment in the Hotel de York. On the same day, a treaty
of peace between France and England was signed at Versailles. The treaty with
the United States was unanimously ratified by the King of England on the 9th bf
April following. With this act terminated the seven years’ war of independence,
and the United States of America took their place in the family of nations.580

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

long with vain expectations of reaping advantage from our little
discontents. We are more thoroughly an enlightened people, with
respect to our political interests, than perhaps any other under heaven.
Every man among us reads, and is so easy in his circumstances
as to have leisure for conversations of improvement, and for
acquiring information. Our domestic misunderstandings, when we
have them, are of small extent, though monstrously magnified by
your microscopic newspapers. He who judges from them, that we
are on the point of falling into anarchy, or returning to the obedience
of Britain, is like one who, being shown some spots in the sun, should
fancy, that the whole disk would soon be overspread with them, and
that there would be an end of daylight. The great body of intel-
ligence among our people, surrounds and overpowers our petty dissen-
sions, as the Sun’s great mass of fire diminishes and destroys his spots.-
Do not, therefore, any longer delay the evacuation of New York, in
the vain hope of a new revolution in your favour, if such a hope has
indeed had any effect in occasioning the delay. It is now nine months
since the evacuations were promised. You expect with reason, that
the people of New York should do your merchants justice in the
payment of their old debts; consider the injustice you do them in
keeping them so long out of their habitations, and out of their
business, by which they might have been enabled to make payment.

There is no truth more clear to me than this, that the great interest
of our two countries is a thorough reconciliation. Restraints on the
freedom of commerce and intercourse between us, can afford na
advantage equivalent to the mischief they will do, by keeping up ill
humour, and promoting a total alienation. Let you and me, my dear
friend, do our best towards advancing and securing that reconciliation,
We can do nothing, that will in a dying hour afford us more solid
satisfaction.

To Mrs. Mary I received your kind letter of the 9th past. I am
Hewson, dated glad, that the little books are pleasing to you and your
f783*y’ 7 Sept ’ children, and that the children improve by them.

My grandson Bache has been four years at school at
Geneva, and is but lately come home to me here. I find reason to be
satisfied with the improvement he has made in his learning. He
translates common Latin readily into French, but his English has
suffered for want of use ; though I think he would readily recover it,
if he were awhile at your school at Cheam, and at the same time be
going on with his Latin and Greek. You were once so kind as to
offer to take him under your care ; would that be still convenient
to you ? He is docile and of gentle manners, ready to receive and
follow good advice, and will set no bad example to your other children.
He gains every day upon my affections.

I long much to see you and yours, and’my other friends in England,
but I have not yet determined on the journey. Our definitive treaty of
peace being now signed, I have indeed less to confine me here, and
might make a short excursion without much inconvenience 5 but shortBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.	581

days and winter are coming on, and I think I can hardly undertake
.such an expedition before the spring of next year.

With regard to the future establishment of your children, which you
say you want to consult me about, I am still of opinion, that America
will afford you more chances of doing it well than England. All the
' means of good education are plenty there, the general manners arc
simple and pure, temptations to vice and folly fewer, the profits of
- industry in business as great and sure as in England ; and there is one
advantage more, which your command of money will give you there,
I mean the laying out a part of your fortune in new land, now to be
had extremely cheap ; but which must be increased immensely in
value, before your children come of age, by the rapid population of
the country. If you should arrive there while I live, you know you
may depend on every assistance in my power to afford you, and I
think my children will have a pleasure too in serving their father’s
friend. I do not offer it as a motive, that you will be much esteemed
and respected there ; for that you are, and must be, everywhere ; but
give me leave to flatter myself, that my being made happier in my last
years by your neighbourhood and society may be some inducement to
you.

I forwarded your letter to Mr. Williams. Temple is always with
me, being my secretary. He presents his respects to you. I have
been lately ill with a fit of the gout, if that may indeed be called a
disease. I rather suspect it to be a remedy, since I always find my
health and vigour of mind improved after the fit is over.

To j iai I lament with you the many mischiefs, the injustice,
Quincy, dated the corruption of manners, &c., that attended a depre-
Passy, 11 Bept., dating currency. It is some consolation to m^, that I
1783,	washed rfty hands of that evil by predicting it in Con-

gress, and proposing means, that would have been effectual to prevent
it if they had been adopted. Subsequent operations, that I have
executed, demonstrate that my plan was practicable ; but it was un-
fortunately rejected. Considering all our mistakes and mismanage-
ments, it is wonderful we have finished our affairs so well, and so soon.
Indeed, I am wrong in using that expression, “ we have finished our
affairs well.” Our blunders have been many, and they serve to mani-
fest the hand of Providence more clearly in our favour ; so that we
may much more say, “ These are thy doings, O Lord, and they are
marvellous in our eyes.”

Mr. Storer, whom you recommended to me, is now in England.
He needed none of the advice you desired me to give him. His
behaviour here was mpst unexceptionable, and he gained the esteem
of all who knew him.

The epitaph of my dear and much esteemed young friend, is too
well written to be capable of improvement by any corrections of mine.
Your moderation appears in it, since the natural affection of a parent
has not induced you to exaggerate his virtues. I shall always mourn
his loss with you, a loss not easily made up to his country.582

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

How differently constituted was his noble and generous mind from
that of the miserable calumniators you mention. Having plenty of
merit in himself, he was not jealous of the appearance of merit in
others, but did justice to their characters with as much pleasure as
these people do injury. It is now near two years since your friendship
induced you to acquaint me with some of their accusations. I guessed
easily at the quarter from whence they came; but conscious of my
innocence, and unwilling to disturb public operations by private
resentment or contentions, I passed them over in silence ; and I have
not, till within these few days, taken the least step towards my vindi-
cation. Informed that the practice of abusing me continues, and that
some heavy charges are lately made against me, respecting my con-
duct in the treaty, written from Paris and propagated among you, I
have demanded of all my colleagues that they do me justice, and I
have no doubt of receiving it from each of them. I did not think it
necessary to justify myself to you, by answering the calumnies you
mentioned. I knew you did not believe them.

It was improbable, that I should at this distance combine with any-
body to urge the redemption of the paper on those unjust terms,
having no interest in such redemption. It was impossible that I should
have traded with the public money, since I had not traded with any
money, either separately or jointly with any other person, directly or
indirectly, to the value of a shilling since my being in France. And
the fishery, which it was said I had relinquished, had not then come in
question, nor had I ever dropped a syllable to that purpose in word or
writing; but was always firm in this principle, that, having had a
common right with the English to the fisheries while connected with,
that nation, and having contributed equally with our blood and treasure
in conquering what had been gained from the French, we had an un-
doubted right, in breaking up our partnership, to a fair division. As
to the two charges of age and weakness, 1 must confess the first, but
I am not quite so clear in the latter; and perhaps my adversaries may
find that they presumed a little too much upon it, when they ventured
to attack me.

But enough of these petty personalities. I quit them to rejoice with
you, in thz peace God has blest us with, and in the prosperity it gives
us a prospect of. The definitive treaty was signed the 3rd instant. We
are now friends with England and with all mankind. May we never
see another war, for in my opinion there never was a good war, or a
bad peace.

To David Hart- * * * What would you think of a proposition, if I
i«y, dated Passy, should make it, of a compact between England, France,
16 October, 1783. an(j America ? America would be as happy as the
Sabine girls, if she could be the means of uniting in perpetual peace
her father and her husband. What repeated follies are those repeated
wars ! You do not want to conquer and govern one another. Why
then should you be continually employed in injuring and destroying
one another ? How many excellent things might have been done toBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

583

promote the internal welfare of each country; what bridges, roads,
canals, and other useful public works and institutions, tending to the
common felicity, might have been made and established with the
money and men foolishly spent during the last seven centuries by our
mad wars in doing one another mischief ! You are near neighbours,
and each have very respectable qualities. Learn to be quiet and to
respect each other’s rights. You are all Christians. One is The
Most Christian King, and the other Defender of the Faith. Manifest
the propriety of these titles by your future conduct. “ By this,” says
Christ, “ shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye love one
another.” “ Seek peace, and ensue it.”

To the President ^ was certa*nly disagreeable to the English ministers,
of Congress, that all their treaties for peace were carried on under the
dated Passy, 25 eye Qf the French court. This began to appear towards
ecem er, . conciusion, Vvhen Mr. Hartley refused going to Ver-
sailles, to sign there with the other powers our definitive treaty, and
insisted on its being done at Paris, which we in good humour complied
with, but at an earlier hour, that we might have time to acquaint Count
de Vergennes before he was to sign with the Duke of Manchester.

With respect to the British court, we should, I think, be constantly
upon our guard, and impress strongly upon our minds, that, though it
has made peace with us, it is not in truth reconciled either to us, or to
its loss of us, but still flatters itself with hopes, that some change in
the affairs of Europe, or some disunion among ourselves, may afford
them an opportunity of recovering their dominion, punishing those
who have most offended, and securing our future dependence. It is easy
to see by the general turn of the ministerial newspapers (light things,
indeed, as straws and feathers, but like them they show which way the
wind blows), and by the malignant improvement their ministers make,
in all the foreign courts, of every little accident or dissension among
us, the riot of a few soldiers at Philadelphia, the resolves of some
town meetings, the reluctance to pay taxes, &c., all which are exag-
gerated, to represent our government as so many anarchies, of which
the people themselves are weary, and the Congress as having lost its
influence, being no longer respected ; I say it is easy to see from this
conduct, that they bear us no good will, and that they wish the reality
of what they are pleased to imagine. They have, too, a numerous
royal progeny to provide for, some of whom are educated in the
military line. In these circumstances we cannot be too careful to
preserve the friendships we have acquired abroad, and the union we
have established at home, to secure our credit by a punctual discharge
of our obligations of every kind, and our reputation by the wisdom
of our councils ; since we know not how soon we may have a fresh
occasion for friends, for credit, and for reputation.

The extravagant misrepresentations of our political state in foreign
countries, made it appear necessary to give them better information,
which I thought could not be more effectually and authentically done,
than by publishing a translation into French, now the most general584

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

language in Europe, of the book of Constitutions, which had been
printed by order of Congress. This I accordingly got well done, and
presented two copies, handsomely bound, to every foreign minister
here, the one for himself, the other more elegant for his Sovereign. It
has been well taken, and has afforded matter of surprise to many, who
had conceived mean ideas of the state of civilization in America, and
could not have expected so much political knowledge and sagacity had
existed in our wilderness. And from all parts I have the satisfaction
to hear, that our constitutions in general are much admired. I am per-
suaded, that this step will not only tend to promote the emigration to
our country of substantial people from all parts of Europe, by the
numerous copies I shall disperse, but will facilitate our future treaties
with foreign courts, who could not before know what kind of govern-
ment and people they had to treat with. As, in doing this, I have
endeavoured to further the apparent views of Congress in the first
publication, I hope it may be approved, and the expense allowed. I
send herewith one of the copies.

The remissness of our people in paying taxes is highly
ri«, dated Pa«By| blamable; the unwillingness'to pay them is still more
261 Seoember) so. I see, in some resolutions of town meetings, a
1783,	remonstrance against giving Congress the power to take,

as they call it, the people’s money out of their pockets, though only to
pay the interest and principal of debts duly contracted. They seem
to mistake the point. Money, justly due from the people, is their
creditors’ money, and no longer the money of the people, who, if they
withhold it, should be compelled to pay by some law.

All property, indeed, except the savage’s temporary cabin, his bow,
his matchcoat, and other little acquisitions, absolutely necessary for
his subsistence, seems to me to be the creature of public convention.
Hence the public has the right of regulating descents, and all other
conveyances of property, and even of limiting the quantity and the uses
of it. All the property that is necessary to a man, for the conserva-
tion of the individual and the propagation of the species, is his natural
right, which none can justly deprive him of; but all property super-
fluous to such purposes is the property of the public, who, by their
laws, have created it, and who may therefore by other laws dispose of
it, whenever the welfare of the public shall demand such disposition.
He that does not like civil society on these terms, let him retire and
live among savages. He can have no right to the benefits of society,
who will not pay his club towards the support of it.

I am sorry for the public’s sake, that you are about to quit your
office, but on personal considerations I shall congratulate you ; for I
cannot conceive of a more happy man, than he, who having been long
loaded with public cares, finds himself relieved from them, and en-
joying repose in the bosom of his friends and family.BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

585

CHAPTER XXIX. (1784.)

The Usefulness of Enemies—The American Eagle as a National Symbol criticised
—Political Disorders in England—Her Last Resource—Mesmer and Mes-
merism—The Way to make Money lent do the most Good—Cotton Mather
—The Final Ratification of the Treaty.

To John Jay, I received your kind letter of the 26th past, and im-
dated Paosy, 6 mediately sent that enclosed to Mrs. Jay, whom I saw a
Jan., 1784. few (jayS since with the children, all perfectly well. It
is a happy thing, that the little ones are so finely past the smallpox,
and I congratulate you upon it most cordially.

It is true, as you have heard, that I have the’stone, but not that I
have had thoughts of being cut for it. It is as yet very tolerable. It
gives me no pain but when in a carriage on the pavement, or when I
make some sudden quick moveipent. If I can prevent its growing
larger, which I hope to do by abstemious living and gentle exercise, I'
can go on pretty comfortably with it to the end of my journey, which
can now be at no great distance. I am cheerful, enjoy the company of
my friends, sleep well, have sufficient appetite, and my stomach per-
forms well its functions. The latter is very material to the preservation
of health. I therefore take no drugs lest I should disorder it. You
may judge that piy disease is not very grievous, since I am more
afraid of the medicines than of the malady.

It gives me pleasure to learn from you, that my friends still retain
their regard for me. I long to see them again, but I doubt I shall
hardly accomplish it. If our commission for the treaty of commerce
were arrived, and we were at liberty to treat in England, I might then
come over to you, supposing the English ministry disposed to enter
into such a treaty.

I have, as you observe, some enemies in England* but they are my
enemies as an American j I have also two or three in America, who
are my enemies as a minister j but I thank God there are not in the
whole world any who are my enemies as a man; for by his grace,
through a long life, I have been enabled so to conduct myself, that there
does not exist a human being who can justly say, “ Ben. Franklin has
wronged me.” This, my friend, is in old age a comfortable reflection.
You too have, or may have, your enemies ; but let not that render you
unhappy. If you make a right use of them, they will do you more
good than harm. They point out to us our faults ; they put us upon
our guard, and help us to live more correctly.

To Mrs Sarah	The' gentleman, who made the voyage to France to

Baohe, dated provide the ribands and medals, has executed his com-
i784y’ 86 Jan‘’ mission. To me they seem tolerably done; but all
‘	such things are criticized. Some find fault with the

Latin, as wanting classical elegance and correctness ; and, since
our nine universities were not able to furnish better Latin, it was pity,
they say, that the mottoes had not been in English. Others object to
the title, as not properly assumable by any but General Washington,586

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

and a few others, who served without pay. Others object to the bald
eagle as looking too much like a dindon, or turkey. For my own part,
I wish the bald eagle had not been chosen as the representative of
our country; he is a bird of bad moral character ; he does not get
his living honestly ; you may have seen him perched on some dead
tree, where, too lazy to fish for himself, he watches the labour of the
fishing-hawk ; and, when that diligent bird has at length taken a fish,
and is bearing it to his nest for the support of his mate and young
ones, the bald eagle pursues him, and takes it from him. With all
this injustice he is never in good case ; but, like those among men
who live by sharping and robbing, he is generally poor, and often very
lousy. Besides, he is a rank coward ; the little kingbird, not bigger
than a sparrow, attacks him boldly and drives him out of the district.
He is therefore by no means a proper emblem for the brave and
honest Cincinnati of America, who have driven all the kingbirds from
,our country ; though exactly fit for that order of knights, which the
French call Chevaliers dIndustrie.

I am, on this account, not displeased that the figure is not known
as a bald eagle, but looks more like a turkey. For in truth, the turkey
is in comparison a much more respectable bird, and withal a true
original native of America. Eagles have been found in all countries,
but the turkey was peculiar to ours ; the first of the species seen in
Europe, being brought to France by the Jesuits from Canada, and
served up at the wedding table of Charles the Ninth. He is, besides
(though a little vain and silly, it is true, but not the worse emblem for
that), a bird of courage, and would not hesitate to attack a grenadier
of the British guards, who should presume to invade his farmyard
with a red coat on.

I shall not enter into the criticisms made upon their Latin. The
gallant officers of America may not have the merit of being great
scholars, but they undoubtedly merit much, as brave soldiers, from
their country, which should therefore not leave them merely to fame
for their ilvirtutis premium” which is one of their Latin mottoes.
Their “esto perpetual another, is an excellent wish, if they meant it
for their country ; bad, if intended for their Order.. The States should
not only restore to them the omnia of their first motto,1 which many
of them have left and lost, but pay them justly, and reward them
generously. They should not be suffered to remain, with all their new
created chivalry, entirely in the situation of the gentleman in the story,
which their omnia reliquit reminds me of. You know everything
makes me recollect some story. He had built a very fine house, and
thereby much impaired his fortune. He had a pride, however, in
showing it to his acquaintance. One of them, after viewing it all,
remarked a motto over the door “ OIA VANITAS.” “What,” says
he, “is the meaning of this OIA? it is a word I don’t understand.”
“ I will tell you,” said the gentleman ; “ I had a mind to have the
motto cut on a piece of smooth marble, but there was not room for it

1 “ Omnia reliquit servare rempublicam.BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

5 87

between the ornaments, to be put in characters large enough to be
read. I therefore made use of a contraction anciently very common
in Latin manuscripts, whereby the ms and n's in words are omitted,
and the omission noted by a little dash above, which you may see
there ; so that the word is omnia, OMNIA VANITAS.” “ Oh,” said his
friend, “ I now comprehend the meaning of your motto, it relates to
your edifice ; and signifies, that, if you have abriged your omnia, you
have, nevertheless, left your Vanitas legible at full length.”

To William Your arguments, persuading me to come once more to
strahan, dated England, are very powerful. To be sure, I long to see
m4y’ 16 Feb’ aSa'n my friends there, whom I Jove abundantly; but
there are difficulties and objections of several kinds,
which at present I do not see how to get over.

I lament with you the political disorders England at present labours
under. Your papers are full of strange accounts of anarchy and con-
fusion in America, of which we know nothing, while your own affairs
are really in a deplorable situation. In my humble opinion, the root
of the evil lies not so much in too long, or too unequally chosen
Parliaments, as in the enormous salaries, emoluments, and patronage
of your great offices ; and that you will never be at rest till they are
all abolished, and every place of honour made at the same time,
instead of a place of profit, a place of expense and burden.

Ambition and avarice are each of them strong passions, and when
they are united in the same persons, and have the same objects in
view for their gratification, they are too strong for public spirit and
love of country, and are apt to produce the most violent factions and
contentions. They should therefore be separated, and made to act
one against the other. Those places, to speak.in our old style (brother
type), may be good for the chapel, but they are bad for the master, as
they create constant quarrels that hinder the business. For example,
here are two months that your government has been employed \xi get-
ting its form to press; which is not yet fit to work on, every page of
it being squabbled, and the whole ready to fall into pie. The founts,
too, must be very scanty, or strangely out of sorts, since your composi-
tors cannot find either upper or lower case letters sufficient to set the
word Administration, but are forced to be continually turning for
them. However, to return to common (though perhaps too saucy)
language, do not despair; you have still one resource left, and that
not a bad one, since it may reunite the empire. We have some
remains of affection for you, and shall always be ready to receive and
take care of you in case of distress. So if you have not sense and
virtue enough to govern yourselves, even dissolve your present old
crazy constitution, and send members to Congress.

You will say my advice “ smells of MadeiraYou are right. This
foolish letter is mere chitchat between ourselves over the second bottle.
If, therefore, you show it to anybody, (except our indulgent friends,
Dagge and Lady Strahan) I will positively solless you. Yours ever
most affectionately.588

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

To M. de la You desire my sentiments concerning the cures per-
Condamine, formed by Camus and Mesmer. I think, that, in general,
MarchP17^’ 19 ma^adies caused by obstructions may be treated by elec-
810 ’	' tricity with advantage. As to the animal magnetism, so

much talked of, I must doubt its existence till I can see or feel some
effect of it. None of the cures said to be performed by it have fallen
under my observation, and there being so many disorders which cure
themselves, and such a disposition in mankind to deceive themselves
and one another on these occasions, and living long has given me so
frequent opportunities of seeing certain remedies cried up as curing
everything, and yet soon after totally laid aside as useless, I cannot
but fear that the expectation of great advantage from this new method
of treating diseases will prove a delusion. That delusion may, how-
ever, and in some cases, be of use while it lasts. There are in every
great, rich city a number of persons, who are never in health, because
they are fond of medicines, and always taking them, whereby they
derange the natural functions, and hurt their constitution. If these
people can be persuaded to forbear their drugs, in expectation of being
cured by only the physician’s finger, or an iron rod pointing at them,
they may possibly find good effects, though they mistake the cause.

To Ben'amin * received yours of the 15th instant, and the memorial
Webb, "'dated it enclosed. The account they give of your situation
Passy, 22 April, grieves me. I send you herewith a bill for ten louis
784,	d’ors. I do not pretend to give such a sum ; I only

lend it to you. When you shall return to your country with a good
character, you cannot fail of getting into some business, that will in
time enable you to pay all your debts. In that case, when you meet
with another honest man in similar distress, you must pay me by
lending this sum to him ; enjoining him to discharge the debt by a
like operation, when he shall be able, and shall meet with such
another opportunity. I hope it may thus go through many hands,
before it meets with a knave that will stop its progress. This is a
trick of mine for doing a deal of good with a little money. I am not
rich enough to afford much in good works, and so am obliged to be
cunning and make the most of a little. With best wishes for the suc-
cess Of your memorial, and your future prosperity, I am, dear Sir,
your most obedient servant.

To Samuel I received your kind letter, with your excellent advice
Mather, dated to the people of the United States, which I read with
n<S!y' 18 May’ Sreat pleasure, and hope it will be duly regarded. Such
writings, though they may be lightly passed over by
many readers, yet, if they make a deep impression on one active
mind in a hundred, the effects may be considerable. Permit me to
tnention one little instance, which, though it relates to myself, will
not be quite uninteresting to you. When I was a boy, I met with a
book, entitled “ Essays to do Goody" which I think was written by
your father.1 It had been so little regarded by a former possessor,

1 Cotton Mather.BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

589

that several leaves of it were torn out; but the remainder gave me
such a turn of thinking, as to have an influence on my conduct
through life ; for I have always set a greater value on the character ot
a doer of good, than on any other kind of reputation ; and if I have
been, as you seem to think, a useful citizen, the public owes the
advantage of it to that book.

You mention your being in your seventy-eighth year ; I am in my
seventy-ninth ; we are grown old together. It is now more than sixty
years since I left Boston, but I remember well both your father and
grandfather, having heard them both in the pulpit, and seen them in
their houses. The last time I saw your father was in the beginning
of 1724, when I visited him after my first trip to Pennsylvania. He
received me in his library, and on my taking leave showed me a
shorter way out of the house through a narrow passage, which was
crossed by a beam over head. We were still talking as I withdrew,
lie accompanying me behind, and I turning partly towards him,
when he said hastily, “ Stoop) Stoop / ” I did not understand him,
till I felt my head hit against the beam. He was a man that never
missed any occasion of giving instruction, and upon this he said to
me, “ You are young, and have the world before you; stoop as you
go through it) and you will miss many hard thumps.” This advice,
thus beat into my head, has frequently been of use to me; and I often
think of it, when I see pride mortified, and misfortunes brought upon
people by their carrying their heads too high.

I long much to see again my native place, and to lay my bones
there. I left it in 1723 ; I visited it in 1733, 1743, 1753, and 1763.
In 1773 I was in England ; in 1775 I had a sight of it, but could not
enter, it being in possession of the enemy. I did hope to have been
there in 1783, but could not obtain my dismission from this employ-
ment here; and now I fear I shall never have that fiappiness. My
best wishes however attend my dear country. Esto perpetua. It is
now blest with an excellent constitution ; may it last forever !

This powerful monarchy continues its friendship for the United
States. It is a friendship of the utmost importance to our security,
and should be carefully cultivated. Britain has not yet well digested
the loss of its dominion over us, and has still at times some flattering
hopes of recovering it. Accidents may increase those hopes, and
encourage dangerous attempts. A breach between us and France
would infallibly bring the English again upon our backs ; and yet we
have some wild heads among our countrymen, who are endeavouring
to weaken that connection ! Let us preserve our reputation by per-
forming our engagements ; our credit by fulfilling our contracts ; and
friends by gratitude and kindness ; for we know not how soph we may
have occasion for all of them.

To Charles Yesterday evening Mr. Hartley met with Mr. Jay and
Thomson,	myself, when the ratifications of the definitive treaty

CongresT dated were exchanged. I send a copy of the English ratifica-
“	, fa May, tion to the President.

Tha$ the great and hazardous enterprise we have been

rassy

1784.S9o

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

engaged in, is, God be praised, happily completed ; an event I hardly
expected I should live to see. A few years of peace, well improved,
will restore and increase our strength ; but our future safety will
depend on our union and our virtue. Britain will be long watching
for advantages, to recover what she has lost. If we do not convince
the world, that we are a nation to be depended on for fidelity in
treaties ; if we appear negligent in paying our debts, and ungrateful
to those who have served and befriended us ; our reputation, and all
the strength it is capable of procuring, will be lost, and fresh attacks
upon us will be encouraged and promoted by better prospects of suc-
cess. Let us therefore beware of being lulled into a dangerous
security ; and of being both enervated and impoverished by luxury;
of being weakened by internal contentions and divisions; of being
shamefully extravagant in contracting private debts, while we are
backward in discharging honourably those of the public ; of neglect
in military exercises and discipline, and in providing stores of arms
and munitions of war, to be ready on occasion ; for all these are
circumstances that give confidence to enemies, and diffidence to
friends ; and the expenses required to prevent a war are much lighter
than those that will, if not prevented, be absolutely necessary to
maintain it.

I am long kept in suspense without being able to learn the purpose
of Congress respecting my request of recall, and that of some
employment for my secretary, William Temple Franklin. If I am
kept here another winter, and as much weakened by it as by the last,
I may as well resolve to spend the remainder of my days here ; for I
shall hardly be able to bear the fatigues of the voyage in returning.
During my long absence from America, my friends are continually
diminishing by death, and my inducements to return lessened in
proportion. But 1 can make no preparations either for going con •
veniently, or staying comfortably here, nor take any steps towards
making some other provision for my grandson, till I know what I am
to expect. Be so good, my dear friend, as to send me a little private
information.

To the Count de *. * * You are engaged in a great work, reforming the
Oamnomanes,1 ancient habitudes, removing the prejudices, and pro-
June lm7’ 5 ^noting the industry of your nation. You have in the
’	’ Spanish people good stuff to work upon, and by a

steady perseverance you will obtain perhaps a success beyond your
expectation ; for it is incredible the quantity of good that may be done
in a country by a single man, who will make a business of it, and not
suffer himself to be diverted from that purpose by different avocations,
studies, or amusements.

There are two opinions prevalent in Europe, which have mischievous
effects in diminishing national felicity : the one, that useful labour is
dishonourable; the other, that families may be perpetuated with
estates. In America we have neither of these prejudices, which is a,
1 An eminent Spanish statesman and writer,BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

59i

great advantage to us. You will see our ideas respecting the first, in
a little piece I send you, called Information to those who would remove
to America. The second is mathematically demonstrable to be an
impossibility under the present rules of law and religion. Since,
though the estate may remain entire, the family is continually dividing.
For a man’s son is but half of his family, his grandson but a fourth,
his great-grandson but an eighth, the next but a sixteenth of his
family; and, by the same progression, in only nine generations the
present proprietor’s part in the then possessor of the estate will be
but a five hundred and twelfth, supposing the fidelity of all the suc-
ceeding wives equally certain with that of those now existing; too
small a portion, methinks, to be anxious about, so as to oppose a
legal liberty of breaking entails and dividing estates, which would
contribute so much to the prosperity of the country.

CHAPTER XXX. (1784-1785.)

The Absurdity of Duelling—The Uses and Abuses of Luxury—Overtures from
his Son—The Foolish Generals and the Jolly Printers—England’s Error in
opposing Emigration—The Old Testament in the New Constitution—England
prosecuting the War through the Press—Replaced by Thomas Jefferson.

To Thomas Per- It *s astonishing that the murderous practice of duel-
oivai, dated ling, which you so justly condemn, should continue so
lTO4Sy’ 17 l°n£ ’n voffue* Formerly, when duels were used to
determine lawsuits, from an opinion that Providence
would in every instance favour truth and right with victory, they were
excusable. At present, they decide nothing. A man says something,
which another tells him is a lie.. They fight; but, whichever is killed,
the point at dispute remains unsettled. * * * How can such miserable
sinners as we are entertain so much pride, as to conceit that every
offence hgainst our imagined honour merits death? These petty
princes in their own opinion would call that sovereign a tyrant,
who should put one of them to death for a little uncivil language,
though pointed at his sacred person; yet every one of them makes
himself judge in his own cause, condemns the offender without a
jury, and undertakes himself to be the executioner.

To Benjamin * * * Dr. Price’s pamphlet of advice to America
Vaughan, dated is a good one, and will do good. You ask, “ what
*a«y> 26 JuJy» remedy I have for the growing luxury of my country,
’	which gives so much offence to all English travellers

without exception.” I answer, that I think it exaggerated, and that
travellers are no good judges whether our luxury is growing or dimin-
ishing. Our people are hospitable, and have indeed too much pride
in displaying upon their tables before strangers the plenty and variety
that our country affords. They have the vanity, too, of sometimes592

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

borrowing one another’s plate to entertain more splendidly. Strangers
being invited from house to house, and meeting every day with a feast,
imagine what they see is the ordinary way of living of all the families
where they dine ; when perhaps each family lives a week afterwards
upon the remains of the dinner given. It is, I own, a folly in our
people to give such offence to English travellers. The first part of
the proverb is thereby verified, that fools make feasts. I wish in this
case the other were as true, and wise meti eat them. These travellers
might, one would think, find some fault they could more decently
reproach us with, than that of our excessive civility to them as
strangers.

By the by, here is ju§t issued an arret of Council taking off all the
duties upon the exportation of brandies, which, it is said, will render
them cheaper in America than your rum ; in which case there is no
doubt but they will be preferred, and we shall be better able to bear
your restrictions on our commerce. There are views here, by aug-
menting their settlements, of being able to supply the growing people
of America with the sugar that may be wanted there. On the whole,
I believe England will get as little by the commercial war she has
begun with us, as she did A>y the military.

It is wonderful how preposterously the affairs of this world are
managed. Naturally one would imagine, that the interest of a few
individuals should give way to general interest; but individuals manage
their affairs with so much more application, industry, and address,
than the public do theirs, that general interest most commonly gives
way to particular. We assemble parliaments and councils, to have
the benefit of their collected wisdom ; but we necessarily have, at the
same time, the inconvenience of their collected passions, prejudices,
and private interests. By the help of these, artful men overpower
their wisdom, and dupe its possessors; and if we may judge by the
acts, arrets, and edicts, all the world over, for regulating commerce,
an assembly of great men is the greatest fool upon earth.

I have not yet, indeed, thought of a remedy for luxury. I -am not
sure, that in a great state it is capable of a remedy, nor that the evil
is in itself always so great as it is represented. Suppose we include
in the definition of luxury all unnecessary expense, and then let us
consider whether laws to prevent such expense are possible to be
executed in a great country, and whether, if they could be executed,
our people generally would be happier, or even richer. Is not the
hope of being one day able to purchase and enjoy luxuries a great
spur to labour and industry ? May not luxury, therefore, produce more
than it consumes, if without such a spur people would be, as they are
naturally enough inclined to be, lazy and indolent ? To this purpose
I remember a circumstance. The skipper of a shallop, employed
between Cape May and Philadelphia, had done us some small service,
for which he refused to be paid. My wife, understanding that he had
a daughter, Sent her a present of a new-fashioned cap. Three years
after, this skipper being at my house with an old farmer of Cape May,BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.	593

his passfengef, he mentioned the cap, and how much his daughter had
been pleased with it. “But,” said he, “it proved a dear cap to our
congregation.” “ How so ?” “ When my daughter appeared with it
at meeting, it was so much admired, that all the girls resolved to get
such caps from Philadelphia; and my wife and I computed, that the
whole could not have cost less than a hundred pounds.” “ True,” said
the farmer, “ but you do not tell all the story. I think the cap was
nevertheless an advantage to us, for it was the first thing that put our
girls upon knitting worsted mittens for sale at Philadelphia, that they
might have wherewithal to buy caps and ribbons there; and you know
that that industry has continued, and is likely to continue and increase
to a much greater value, and answer better purposes.” Upon the
whole, I was more reconciled to this little piece of luxury, since not
only the girls were made happier by having fine caps, but the Phila-
delphians by the supply of warm mittens.

In our commercial towns upon the seacoast, fortunes will occasionally
be made. Some of those who grow rich will be prudent, live within
bounds, and preserve what they have gained for their posterity;
others, fond of showing their wealth will be extravagant and' ruin
themselves. Laws cannot prevent this ; and perhaps it is not always
an evil to the public. A shilling spent idly by a fool, may be picked
up by a wiser person, who knows better what to do with it. It is
therefore not lost. A vain, silly fellow builds a fine house, furnishes
it richly, lives in it expensively, and in a few years ruins himself; but
the masons, carpenters, smiths, and other honest tradesmen have been
by his employ assisted in maintaining and raising their families ; the
farmer has been paid for his labour, and encouraged, and the estate is
now in better hands. In some cases, indeed, certain modes of luxury
may be a public evil, in the same manner as it is a private one. If
there be a nation, for instance, that exports its beef *and linen, to pay
for the importation of claret and-porter, while a great part of its people
live upon potatoes, and wear no shirts, wherein does it differ from the
sot, who lets his family starve, and sells his clothes to buy drink ?
Our American commerce is, I confess, a little in this way. We sell
our victuals to the Islands for rum and sugar ; the substantial neces-
saries of life for superfluities. But we have plenty, and live well
nevertheless, though, by being soberer, we might be richer.

The vast quantity of forest land we have yet to clear, and put in
order for cultivation, will for a long time keep the body of our nation
laborious and frugal. Forming an opinion of our people and their
manners by what is seen among the inhabitants of the seaports, is
judging from an improper sample. The people of the trading towns
may be rich and luxurious, while the country possesses all the virtues,
that tend to promote happiness and public prosperity. Those towns
are not much regarded by the country ; they are hardly considered as
an essential part of the States ; and the experience of the last war has
shown, that their being in the possession of the enemy did not neces-
sarily draw on the subjection of the country, which bravely continued
to maintain its freedom and independence notwithstanding.

39594

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

It has been computed by some political arithmetician, that, if every
man and woman would work for four hours each day on something
useful, that labour would produce sufficient to procure all the
necessaries and comforts of life, want and misery would be banished
out of the world, and the rest of the twenty-four hours might be
leisure and pleasure.

What occasions then so much want and misery ? It is the employ-
ment of men and women in works, that produce neither the necessaries
nor conveniences of life, who, with those who do nothing, consume
necessaries raised by the laborious. To explain this.

The first elements of wealth are obtained by labour, from the earth
and waters. I have land, and raise corn. With this, if I feed a family
that does nothing, my corn will be consumed, and at the end of the
year I shall be no richer than I was at the beginning. But if, while I
feed them, I employ them, some in spinning, others in making bricks,
&.c. for building, the value of my corn will be arrested and remain
with me, and at the end of the year we may all be better clothed and
better lodged. And if, instead of employing a man I feed in making
bricks, I employ him in fiddling for me, the corn he eats is gone, and
no part of his manufacture remains to augment the wealth and con-
venience of the family ; I shall therefore be the poorer for this fiddling
man, unless the rest of my family work more, or eat less, to make up
the deficiency he occasions.

Look round the world and see the millions employed in doing
nothing, or in something that amounts to nothing, when the necessaries
and conveniences of life are in question. What is the bulk of com-
merce, for which we fight and destroy each other, but the toil of
millions for superfluities, to the great hazard and loss of many lives by
the constant dangers of the sea ? How much labour is spent in
building and fitting great ships, to go to China and Arabia for tea and
coffee, to the West Indies for sugar, to America for tobacco? These
things cannot be called the necessaries of life, for our ancestors lived
very comfortably without them.

A question may be asked ; Could all these people, now employed
in raising, making, or carrying superfluities, be subsisted by raising
necessaries ? I think they might. The world is large, and a great
part of it still uncultivated. Many hundred millions of acres in Asia,
Africa, and America are still in forest, and a great deal even in Europe.
On a hundred acres of this forest a man might become a substantial
farmer, and a hundred thousand men, employed in clearing each his
hundred acres, would hardly brighten a spot big enough to be visible
from the moon, unless with Herschel’s telescope ; so vast are the
regions still in wood.

It is, however, some comfort to reflect, that, upon the vvhole, the
quantity of industry and prudence among mankind exceeds the
quantity of idleness and folly. Hence the increase of good buildings,
farms cultivated, and populous cities filled with wealth, all over Europe,
which a few ages since were only to be found on the coast of the
Mediterranean ; and this, notwithstanding the mad wars continuallyBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

595

raging, by which are often destroyed in one year the works of many
years’ peace. So that we may hope the luxury of a few merchants on
the coast will not be the ruin of America.

One reflection more, and I Will end this long, rambling letter.
Almost all the parts of our bodies require some expense. The feet
demand shoes ; the legs, stockings ; the rest of the body, clothing ;
and the belly, a good deal of victuals. Our eyes, though exceedingly
useful, ask, when reasonable, only the cheap assistance of spectacles,
which could not much impair our finances. But the eyes of other
people are the eyes that ruin us. If all but myself were blind, I should
want neither fine clothes, fine houses, nor fine furniture.

To William * received your letter of the 22nd ultimo, and am glad
Franklin, dated to find that you desire to revive the affectionate inter-
Pasay, 16 course, that formerly existed between us. It will be very
UBUB ’	’ agreeable to me ; indeed, nothing has ever hurt me so

much, and affected me with such keen sensations, as to find myself
deserted in my old age by my only son ; and not only deserted, but to
find him taking up arms against me in a cause, wherein my good'fame,
fortune, and life were all at stake. You conceived, you say, that your
duty to your King and regard for your country required this. I ought
not to blame you for differing in sentiment with me in public affairs.
We are men, all subject to errors. Our opinions are not in our own
power; they are formed and governed much by circumstances, that
are often as inexplicable as they are irresistible. Your situation was
such that few would have censured your remaining neuter, though
there are natural duties which precede political ones, and cannot be
extinguished by them.

This is a disagreeable subject. I drop it ; and^ve will endeavour,
as you propose, mutually to forget what has happened relating to it, as
well as we can. I send your son over to pay his duty to you. You
will find him much improved. He is greatly esteemed and beloved in
this country, and will make his way anywhere. It is my desire, that
lie should study the law, as the necessary part of knowledge for a
public man, and profitable if he should have occasion to practise it.
I would have you therefore put into his hands those law-books you
have, viz. Blackstone, Coke, Bacon, Viner, &c. He will inform you,
that lie received the letter sent him by Mr. Galloway, and the paper
dt enclosed, safe.

On my leaving America, I deposited with that friend for you, a chest
of papers, among which was a manuscript of nine or ten volumes,
relating to manufactures, commerce, and finance, which cost me in
England about seventy guineas ; and eight quire books, containing
the rough drafts of all my letters while I lived in London. These are
missing; I hope you have got them ; if not, they are lost. Mr.
Vaughan has published in London a volume of what he calls my
political works. He proposes a second edition ; but, as the first was
very incomplete, and you had many things that were omitted, (for I
used to send you sometimes the rough drafts, and sometimes the596

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

printed pieces I wrote in London), I have directed hirtt tb apply to you
for what may be in your power to furnish him with, or to delay his
publication till I can be at home again, if that may ever happen.

I did intend returning this year ; ftut the Congress, instead of giving
me leave to do so, have sent me another commission, which will keep
m§ here at least a year longer ; and perhaps I may then be too old
and feeble to bear the voyage. I am here among a people that love
and respect me, a most amiable nation to live with ; and perhaps I
may conclude to die among them ; for my friends in America are
dying off, one after another, and I have been so long abroad, that I
should now be almost a stranger in my own country.

I shall be glad to see you when convenient, but would not have you
come here at present. You may confide to your son the family affairs
you wished to confer upon with me, for he is discreet ; and I trust,
that you will prudently avoid introducing him to company, that it may
be improper for him to be seen with. 1 shall hear from you by him ;
and letters to me afterwards will come safe under cover directed to
Mr. Ferdinand Grand, banker, at Paris. Wishing you health, and
more happiness than it seems you have lately experienced, I remain
your affectionate father.

To William * * * You Press me much to come to England. I am
Btrahan, dated not without strong inducements to do so°; the fund of
^“"y. 19 knowledge you promise to communicate to me is an
addition to them, and no small one.' At present it is
impracticable. But, when my grandson returns, come with him. We
will talk the matter over, and perhaps you may take me back with you.
I have a bed at your service, and will try to make your residence, while
you can stay with us, as agreeable to you, if possible, as I am sure it
will be to me.

You do not “ approve the annihilation of profitable places ; for you
do not see why a statesman, who does his business well, should not
be paid for his labour as well as any other workman.” Agreed- But
why more than any other workman ? The less the salary the greater
the honour. In so great a nation, there are many rich enough to
afford giving their time to the public ; and there are, I make no doubt,
many wise and able men, who would take as much pleasure in govern-
ing for nothing, as they do in playing chess for nothing. It would be
one of the noblest amusements. That this opinion is not chimerical,
the country I now live in affords a proof; its whole civil and criminal
law administration being done for nothing, or in some sense for less
than nothing ; since the members of its judiciary parliaments buy
their places, and do not make more than three per ce7it. for their
money by their fees and emoluments, while the legal interest is five;
so that in fact they give two per cent, to be allowed to govern, and all
their time and trouble into the bargain. Thus profit, one motive for
desiring place, being abolished, there remains only ambition j and that
being in some degree balanced b.y loss, you may easily conceive, that
there will not be very violent factions and contentions for such places,BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

59/

nor much of the mischief to the country, that attends your factions,
which have often occasioned wars, and overloaded you with debts im-
payable.

I allow you all the force of your joke upon the vagrancy of our Con-
gress. They have a right to sit where they please, of which perhaps
they have made too much use by shifting too often. But they have
two other rights ; those of sitting whe7i they please, and as long as
they please, in which methinks they have the advantage of your Par-
liament ; for they cannot be dissolved by the breath of a minister, or
sent packing as you were the other day, when it was your earnest
desire to have remained longer together.

You “ fairly acknowledge, that the late war terminated quite con-
trary to your expectation.” Your expectation was ill founded ; for you
would not believe your old friend, who told you repeatedly, that by
those measures England would lose her colonies, as Epictetus warned
in vain his master that he would break his leg. You believed rather
the tales you heard of our poltroonery and impotence of body and
mind. Do you not remember the story you told me of the Scotch
sergeant, who met with a party of forty American soldiers, and, though
alone, disarmed them all, and brought them in prisoners ? A story
almost as improbable as that of the Irishman, who pretended to have
alone taken and brought in five of the enemy by surrounding them.
And yet, my friend, sensible and judicious as you are, but partaking
of the general infatuation, you seemed to believe it.

The word general puts me in mind of a general, your General Clarke,
who had the folly to say in my hearing at Sir John Pringle’s, that,
with a thousand British grenadiers, he would undertake to go from
one end of America to the other, and geld all the males, partly by
force and partly by a little coaxing. It is plain he look us for a species
of animals very little superior to brutes. The Parliament too believed
the stories of another, foolish general, I forget his name, that the
Yankeys never felt bold. Yankey was understood to be a sort ot
Yahoo, and the Parliament did not think the petitions of such
creatures were fit to be received and read in so wise an assembly.
What was the consequence of this monstrous pride and insolence ?
You first sent small armies to subdue us, believing them more than
sufficient, but soon found yourselves obliged to send greater ; these,
whenever they ventured to penetrate our country beyond the protec-
tion of their ships, were either repulsed and obliged to scamper out, or
were surrounded, beaten, and taken prisoners. An American planter,
who'had never seen Europe, was chosen by us to command our
troops, and continued during the whole war. This man sent home
to you, one after another, five of your best generals baffled, their
heads bare of laurels, disgraced even in the opinion of their em-
ployers.

Your contempt of our understandings, in comparison with your own,
appeared to be not much better founded than that of our courage, ii
we may judge by this circumstance, that, in whatever court of Europe
a Yankey negotiator appeared, the wise British minister was routed,598

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

put in a passion, picked a quarrel with your friends, and was sent home
with a flea in his ear.

But after all, my dear friend, do not imagine that I am vain enough
'.o ascribe our success to any superiority in any of those points. I am
too well acquainted with all the springs and levers of our machine,
not to see, that our human means were unequal to our undertaking,
and that if it had not been for the justice of our cause, and the conse-
quent interposition of Providence, in which we had faith, we must
have been ruined. If I had ever before been an atheist, I should now
have been convinced of the being and government of a Deity ! It is
he who abases the proud and favours the humble. May we never for-
get his goodness to us, and may our future conduct manifest our
gratitude.

But let us leave these serious reflections and converse with our usual
pleasantry. I remember your observing once to me as we sat together
in the House of Commons, that no two journeymen printers, within
your knowledge, had met with such success in the world as ourselves.
You were then at the head of your profession, and soon afterwards
became a member of Parliament. I was an agent for a few provinces,
and now act for them all. But we have risen "by different modes. I,
as a republican printer, always liked a form well planed down; being
averse to those overbearing letters that hold their heads so high, as to
hinder their neighbours from appearing. You, as a monarchist, chose
to work upon crown paper, and found it profitable ; while I worked
upon pro patria (often indeed called foolscap) with no less advantage.
Both our heaps hold out very well, and we seem likely to make a pretty
good day’s work of it. With regard to public affairs (to continue in
the same style), it seems to me that the compositors in your chapel do
not cast off their copy well, nor perfectly understand imposing ; their
forms, too, are continually pestered by the outs and doubles, that are
not easy to be corrected. And I think they were wrong in laying aside
some faces, and particularly certain head-pieces, that would have been
both useful and ornamental. But, courage ! The business may still
flourish with good management; and the master become as rich as
any of the company.

By the way, the rapid growth and extension of the English language
in America, must become greatly advantageous to the booksellers, and
holders of copyrights in England. A vast audience is assembling
there for English authors, ancient, present, and future, our people
doubling every twenty years ; and this will demand large and of course
profitable impressions of your most valuable books, I would, there-
fore, if I possessed such rights, entail them, if such a thing be
practicable, upon my posterity ; for their worth will be continually
augmenting. This may look a little like advice, and yet I have drunk
no madeira these six months.

The subject, however, leads me to another thought, which is, that
you do wrong to discourage the emigration of Englishmen to America.
I n my piece on population, I have proved, I think, that emigration
does not diminish but multiplies a nation. You will not have fewer atBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

599

home for those that go abroad ; and as every man who comes among
us, and takes up a piece of land, becomes a citizen, and by our consti-
tution has a voice in elections, and a share in the government of the
country, why should you be against acquiring by this fair means a re-
possession of it, and leave it to be taken by foreigners of all nations
arrd languages, who by their numbers may drown and stifle the Eng-
lish, which otherwise would probably become in the course of two
centuries the most extensive language in the world, the Spanish only
excepted? It is a fact, that the Irish emigrants and their children arc
now in possession of the government of Pennsylvania, by their majority
in the Assembly, as well as of a great part of the territory ; and I re-
member well the first ship that brought any of them over.

To a Friend in * was g^d to ^iear diat you possessed a comfortable
England, dated retirement, and more so that you had thoughts of
m4y’ 21 Aue'' removing to Philadelphia, for that it would make me
very happy to have you there. Your companions would
be very acceptable to the Library, but I hoped you would long live to
enjoy their company yourself. I agreed with you in sentiments con-
cerning the Old Testament, and thought the clause in our constitution,
which required the members of Assembly to declare their belief, that
the whole of it was given by divine inspiration, had better have been
omitted. That I had opposed the clause ; but, being overpowered by
numbers, and fearing more might in* future times be grafted on it, I
prevailed to have the additional clause, “ that no further or more ex-
tended profession of faith should ever be exacted” I observed to you
too, that the evil of it was the less, as no inhabitant nor any officer of
government, except-the members of Assembly, was obliged, to make
the declaration.	„

So much for that letter ; to which I may no,w add, that there are
several things in the Old, Testament, impossible to be given by divine
inspiration ; such as the approbation ascribed to the angel of the Lord,
of that abominably wicked-and detestable action of Jael, the wife of
Heber, the Kenite. If the rest of the book were like that, I should
rather suppose it given by inspiration from another quarter, and
renounce the whole.

To John Jay, I did hope to have heard by the last packet of your
* having accepted the secretaryship of foreign affairs, but
’’	' was disappointed. I write to you now, therefore only as

a private friend ; yet I may mention respecting public affairs, that, as
far as I can perceive, the good disposition of this court towards us
continues. I wish I could say as much for the rest of the European
courts. I think that their desire of being connected with us by treaties
is of late much abated ; and this I suppose is occasioned by the pains
Britain takes to represent us everywhere as distracted with divisions,
discontented with our governments, the people unwilling to pay taxes,
the Congress unable to collect them, and many desiring the restora-
tion of the old government. The English papers are full of this stuff,6oo

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

and their ministers get it copied into the foreign papers. The moving
about of the Congress from place to place has also a bad effect, in
giving colour to the reports of their being afraid of the people. I
hope they will soon settle somewhere, and, by the steadiness and
wisdom of their measures, dissipate all those mists of misrepresenta-
tion raised by the remaining malice of ancient enemies, and establish
our reputation for national justice and prudence as they have done for
courage and perseverance.

It grieves me that we have not been able to discharge our first year’s
payment of interest to this court, due the beginning of last month. I
hope it will be the only failure, and that effectual measures will be
taken to be exactly punctual hereafter. The good paymastersays the
proverb, is lord of another man's purse, The bad one, if he ever has
again occasion to borrow, must pay dearly for his carelessness and
injustice.

You are happy in having got back safe to your country. I should
be less unhappy, if I could imagine the delay of my cotige useful to the
States, or in the least degree necessary. But they have many equally
capable of doing all I have to do here. The new proposed treaties
are the most important things ; but two can go through them as
well as three, if indeed any are likely to be completed, which I
begin to doubt, since the new ones make little progress, and the old
ones, Which wanted only the fiat of Congress, seem now to be going
rather backward ; I mean those I had projected with Denmark and
Portugal.

My grandsons are sensible of the honour of your remembrance, and
present their respects to you and Mrs. Jay. I add my best wishes of
health and happiness to you all.

To Benjamin We see much in parliamentary proceedings, and in
PMs^ai Iprif PaPers and pamphlets, of the injury the concessions to
1785.	’ Ireland will do to the manufacturers of England, while

the people of England seen>to be forgotten, asdf quite
out of the question. If the Irish can manufacture cottons, and stuffs,
and silks, and linens, and cutlery, and toys, and books, &c. &c. &c.,
so as to sell them cheaper in England than the manufacturers of
England sell them, is not this good for the people of England, who are
not manufacturers ? And will not even the manufacturers themselves
share the benefit ? Since if cottons are cheaper, all the other manu-
facturers who wear cottons will save in that article ; and so of the rest .
If books can be lfad much cheaper from Ireland (which I believe, for
I bought Blackstone there for twenty-four shillings, when it was sold
in England at four guineas), is not this an advantage, not to English
booksellers, indeed, but to English readers, and to learning ? And of
all the complainants, perhaps these booksellers are least worthy of
consideration. The catalogue you last sent me amazes me by the
high prices (said to be the lowest) affixed to each article. And one
can scarce see a new book, without observing the excessive artifices
made use of to puff up a paper of verses into a pamphlet, a pamphletBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

601

into an octavo, and an octavo into a quarto, with scab-boardings,
white-lines, sparse titles of chapters, and exorbitant margins, to such
a degree, that the selling of paper seems now the object, and printing
on it only the pretence. I enclose the copy of a page in a late comedy.
Between every two lines there is a white space equal to another line.
You have a law, I think, against butchers’ blowing of veal to make it
look fatter ; why not one against booksellers’ blowing of books to
make them look bigger? All this to yourself; you can easily guess
the reason.

My grandson is a little indisposed, but sends you two pamphlets,
<c Figaro,” and “ Le Roy Voyageur.” The first is a play of Beaumar-
chais, which has had a great run here. The other a representation of
all the supposed errors of government in this country, some of which
are probably exaggerated. It is not publicly sold; we shall send
some more shortly.

To Count do I have the honour to acquaint your Excellency, that
Pasf^sf’xiay1 * have at length obtained, and yesterday received, the
1785.	’ permission of Congress to return to America. As my

malady makes it impracticable for me to pay my devoirs
at Versailles personally, may I beg the favour of you, Sir, to express
respectfully for me to his Majesty, the deep sense I have of all the
inestimable benefits his goodness has conferred on my country. . , .

CHAPTER XXXI. (1785.)

Preparation for leaving France—The Cargo of Onions—Foundling Hospitals—
The Three Greenlanders—American Royalists—Elective Bishops—His
Abridged Liturgy—Quits Passy—Journey to Havre—Voyage to Southamp-
ton—Attention from English Friends—Voyage to the United States—
Arrival Home.

To Mrs. Mary I received your little letter from Dover, which gave
Hewson,' dated me great pleasure, as it informed me of your happy
1785 ^ 6 May’ Pro§ress so ^ar y°ur way home. I hope the rest of
your journey tvas as prosperous.1

You talk of obligations to me, when in fact I am the person obliged.
I passed a long winter, which appeared the shortest of any I ever
passed. Such is the effect of pleasing society, with friends one loves.

I have now received my permission to return, and am making my
preparations. I hope to get away in June. I promise myself, or
rather flatter myself, that I shall be happy when at home. But,
however happy that circumstance may make me, your joining me
there will surely make me happier, provided your change of country
may be for the advantage of your dear little family. When you have
made up your mind on the subject, let me know by a line, that I may

* She and her children had spent the previous winter with franklin at Passy,602

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

prepare a house for you as near me, and otherwise as convenient for
you, as possible.

My neighbours begin to come out from Paris, and replace them-
selves in their Passy houses. They inquire after you, and are sorry
you are gone before they could make themselves known to you. M;
Le Veillard, in particular, has told me at different times, what indeed
I knew long since, O est une bien digne femme, cette Madame Hewson,
une Iris amiable femme. I would not tell you this if I thought it
would make you vain ; but that is impossible ; you have too much
good sense.

So wish me a good voyage, and, when you pray at church for all that
travel by land or sea, think, of your ever affectionate friend.

P.S.—My love to William, and Thomas, and Eliza, and tell them I
miss their cheerful prattle. Temple being sick, and Benjamin at Paris,
I have found it very triste breakfasting alone, and sitting alone, and
without any tea in the evening.

To Jonathan --------- The conversations you mention respecting

"Williams, dated America are suitable. Those people speak what they
nsfi87’ 19 May’ w*s^ i kut she was certainly never in a more happy

'	situation. They are angry with us, and speak all manner

of evil of us ; but we flourish, notwithstanding. They put me in mind
of a violent High Church factor, resident in Boston, when I was a
boy. He had bought upon speculation a Connecticut cargo of onions,
which he flattered himself he might sell again to great profit, but
the price fell, and they lay upon hand. He was heartily vexed with
his bargain, especially when lie observed they began to grow in the
store he had filled with them. He showed them one day to a friend.
“ Hear they are,”" said he, “ and they are growing too ! I damn
them every day ; but I think they are like the Presbyterians ; the
more I curse them, the more they grow.”

To George "What- I sent you a few lines the other day, with my medal-
ley, dated Passy, lion, when I should have written more, but was prevented
23 Hay, 1785. by the conling jn 0f a bavard, who worried me till even-
ing. I bore with him, and now you are to bear with me; for I shall
probably bavarder in answering your letter.

I am not acquainted with the sayings of Alphonsus, which you
allude to as a sanctification of your rigidity, in refusing to allow me
the plea of old age, as an excuse for my want of exactness in corre-
spondence. What was that saying? You do not, it seems, feel any
occasion for such an excuse, though you are, as you say, rising seventy-
five. But I am rising (perhaps more properly falling) eighty, and I
leave the excuse with you till you arrive at that age ; perhaps you
may then be more sensible of its validity, and see fit to use it for
yourself.

I must agree with you, that the gout is bad, and that the stone is
worse. I am happy in not having them both together, and I join in
your prayer, that you may live till you die without either. But IBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.	603

doubt the author of the epitaph you send me was a little mistaken,
when he, speaking of the world, says, that

“ he ne'er cared a pin

What they said or may say of the mortal within.”

It is so natural to wish to be well spoken of, whether alive or dead,
that I imagine he could not be quite exempt from that desire; and
that at least he wished to be thought a wit, or he would not have given
himself the trouble of writing so good an epitaph to leave behind him.
Was it not as worthy of his care that the world should say he was an
honest and a good man ? I like better the concluding sentiment in
the old song, called “The Old Man’s Wish,” wherein, after wishing
for a warm house in a country town, an easy horse, some good authors,
ingenious and cheerful companions, a pudding on Sundays, with stout,
ale, and a bottle of Burgundy, &c., &c., in separate stanzas, each
ending with this burthen,

“ May I govern my passions with absolute sway,

Grow wiser and better as my strength wears away,

Without gout or stone, by a gentle decay ;"

lie adds, ^

" With a courage undaunted may I face my last day,

And, when.I am gone, may the better sort say,

' In the morning when sober, in the evening when mellow,

He's gone, and has not left behind him his fellow ;

For he governed his passions, &c.’ ”

But what signifies our wishing ? Things happen, after all, as they will
happen. I have sung that wishing song a thousand times, when I
was young, and now find, at fourscore, that the three contraries have
befallen me, being subject to the gout and the stone, and not being
yet master of all my passions. Like the proud girl in my country,
who wished and resolved not to marry a parson, nor a Presbyterian,
nor an Irishman ; and at length found herself married to an Irish
Presbyterian parson.

You see I have some reason to wish, that, in a future state, I may
not only be as well as I was, but a little better. And I hope it; for I,
loo, with your poet, trust in God. And when I observe, that there is
great frugality, as well as wisdom, in his works, since he has been
evidently sparing both of labour and materials; for by the various
wonderful inventions of .propagation, he has provided for the continual
peopling his world with plants and animals, without being at the
trouble of repeated new creations ; and by the natural reduction of
compound substances to their original elements, capable of being
employed in new compositions, he has prevented the necessity of
creating new matter ; so that the earth, water, air, and perhaps fire,
which being compounded form wood, do, when the wood is dissolved,
return, and again become air, earth, fire, and water ; I say, that, when I
see nothing annihilated, and not even a drop of water wasted, I cannot604

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

suspect the annihilation of souls, or believe, that he will suffer the
daily waste of millions of minds ready made that now exist, and put
himself to the continual trouble of making new ones. Thus finding
myself to exist in the world, I believe I shall, in some shape or other,
always exist; and, with all the inconveniences human life is liable to,
I shall not object to a new edition of mine ; hoping, however, that the
errata of the last may be corrected.

I return your note of children received in the Foundling Hospital
at Paris, from 1741 to 1755, inclusive ; and I have added the years
succeeding, down to 1770. Those since that period I have not been
able to obtain. I have noted in the margin the gradual increase, viz.,
from every tenth child so thrown upon the public, till it comes to every
third ! Fifteen years have passed since the last account, and probably
it may now amount to one half. Is it right to encourage this mon-
strous deficiency of natural affection? A surgeon I met with here
excused the women of Paris, by saying, seriously, that they could not
give suck ; “ Carsaid he, “ elles n'ont point de tetons.” He assured
me it was a fact, and bade me look at them, and observe how flat
they were on the breast ; “ they have nothing more there,” said he,
“ than I have upon the back of my hand.” I have since thought
that there might be some truth in his observation, and that, possibly,
nature, finding they made no use of bubbies, has left off giving them
any. Yet, since Rousseau pleaded, with admirable eloquence, for
the rights of children to their mother’s milk, the mode has changed a
little ; and some ladies of quality now suckle their infants and find
milk enough. May the mode descend to the lower ranks, till it
becomes no longer the custom to pack their infants away, as soon as
born, to the Enfans Trouvls, with the careless observation, that the
King is better able to maintain them.

I am credibly informed, that nine-tenths of them die there pretty
soon, which is said to be a great relief to the institution, whose funds
would not otherwise be sufficient to bring up the remainder. Except
the few persons of quality above mentioned, and the multitude who
send to the Hospital, the practice is to hire nurses in the country to
carry out the children, and take care of them there. Here is an office
for examining the health of nurses, and giving them licenses. They
come to town on certain days of the week in companies to receive the
children, and we often meet trains of them on the road returning to
the neighbouring villages, with each a child in her arms. But those,
who are good enough to try this way of raising their children, are
often not able to pay the expense ; so that the prisons of Paris are
crowded with wretched fathers and mothers confined pour inois de
nourrice, though it is laudably a favourite charity to pay for them, and
set such prisoners at liberty. I wish success to the new project of
assisting the poor to keep their children at home, because I think
there is no nurse like a mother (or not many), and that, if parents did

few days begin to love them, and thence be spurred to greater industry
for their maintenance. This is a subject yon understand better thanBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

605

1, and, therefore, having perhaps said too much, I drop it. I only add
to the notes a remark, from the “ History of the Academy of Sciences,”
much in favour of the Foundling Institution.

The Philadelphia bank goes on, as I hear, very well. What you
call the Cincinnati Institution is no institution of our government, but
a.private convention among the officers of our late army, and so uni-
versally disliked by the people, that it is supposed it will be dropped.
It was considered as an attempt to establish something like an heredi-
tary rank or nobility. I hold with you, that it was wrong ; may I add,
that all descending honours are wrong and absurd ; that the honour
of virtuous actions appertains only to him that performs them, and is
in its nature incommunicable. If it were communicable by descent,
it must also be divisible among the descendants; and the more
ancient the family, the less would be found existing in any one branch
of it; to say nothing of the greater chance of unlucky interruptions.

Our constitution seems not to be well understood with you. If the
Congress were a permanent body, there would be more reason in being
jealous of giving it powers. But its members are chosen annually,
cannot be chosen .more than three years successively, nor more than
three years in seven ; and any of them may be recalled at any time,
whenever their constituents shall be dissatisfied with their conduct.
They are of the people, and return again to mix with the people, having
no more durable preeminence than the different grains of sand in an
hourglass. Such an assembly cannot easily become dangerous to
liberty They are the servants of the people, sent together to do the
people’s business, and promote the public welfare ; their powers must
be sufficient, or their duties cannot be performed. They have no
profitable appointments, but a mere payment of daily wages, such as
are scarcely equivalent to their expenses ; so that, having no chance
for great places, and enormous salaries or pensions, as in some coun-
tries, there is no canvassing or bribing for elections.

I wish Old England were as happy in its government, but I do not
see it. Your people, however, think their constitution the best in the
world, and affect to despise ours. It is comfortable to have a good
opinion of one’s self, and of everything that belongs to us ; to think
one’s own religion, king, and wife, the best of all possible wives, kings,
or religions. I remember three Greenlanders, who had travelled two
years in Europe under the care of some Moravian missionaries, and
had visited Germany, Denmark, Holland, and England. When I
asked them at Philadelphia, where they were in their way home,
whether, nbw they had seen how much more commodiously the
white people lived by the help of the arts, they would not choose to
remain among us; their answer was, that they were pleased with
having had an opportunity of seeing so many fine things, bitt they chose
to live in their own country. Which country, by the way, consisted
of rock only, for the Moravians where obliged to carry earth in their
ship from New York, for the purpose of making a cabbage garden.

By Mr. Dollond’s saying, that my double spectacles can only serve
particular eyes, I doubt he has not been rightly informed of their con-6o6

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

struction. I imagine it will be found pretty generally true, that the
same convexity of glass, through which a man sees clearest and best
at the distance proper for reading, is not the best for greater distances.
I therefore had formerly two pairs of spectacles, which I shifted occa-
sionally, as in travelling I sometimes read, andoften wanted to regard
the prospects. Finding this change troublesome, and not always
sufficiently ready, I had the glasses cut, and half of each kind asso-
ciated in the same circle, thus,

Least convex,
Tor distant objects.

Least convex.

Most convex,
for reading.

Most convex.

By this means, as I wear my spectacles constantly, I have only to
move my eyes up or down, as I want to see distinctly far or near, the
proper glasses being always ready. This I find more particularly con-
venient since my being in France, the glasses that serve me best at
table to see what I eat, not being the best to see the faces of those on
the other side of the table who speak to me ; and when one’s ears are
not well accustomed to the sounds of a language, a sight of the move-
ments in the features of him that speaks helps to explain ; so that I
understand French better by the help of my spectacles.

My intended translator of your piece, the only one I know who
understands the subject, as well as the two languages (which a trans-
lator ought to do, or he cannot make so good a translation), is at
present occupied in an affair that prevents his undertaking it; but
that will soon be over. I thank you for the notes. I should be glad
to have another of the printed pamphlets.

We shall always be ready to take your children, if you send them to
us. I only wonder, that, since London draws to itself, and consumes
such numbers of your country people, the country should not, to
supply their places, want and willingly receive the children you have
to dispose of. That circumstance, together with the multitude who
voluntarily part with their freedom as men, to serve for a time as
lackeys, or for life as soldiers, in consideration of small wages, seems
to me proof that your island is over-peopled. And yet it is afraid of
emigrations !

To Frauds Ha- I agree with you perfectly in the opinion, that, though
seres, dated the contest has been hurtful to both our countries, yet
nw7’ 86 JUne> event> a separation, is better even for yours than
success. The reducing and keeping us in subjection byBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.	607

an armed force would have cost you more than the dominion could be
worth, and our slavery would have brought on yours. The ancient
system of the British empire was a happy one, by which the colonies
were allowed to govern and tax themselves. Had it been wisely con-
tinued, it is hard to imagine the degree of power and importance in
the world that empire might have arrived at. All the means of grow-
ing greatness, extent of territory, agriculture, commerce, arts, popula-
tion, were within its own limits, and therefore at its command.

I used to consider that system as a large and beautiful porcelain
vase ; I lamented the measures that I saw likely to break it, and
strove to prevent them ; because, once broken .1 saw no probability of
its being ever repaired. My endeavours did not succeed; we are
broken, and the parts must now do as well as they can for themselves.
We may still do well, though separated. I have great hopes of our
side, and good wishes for yours. The anarchy and confusion you
mention, as supposed to prevail among us, exist only m your news-
papers. I have authentic accounts, which assure me, that no people
were ever better governed, or more content with their respective
constitutions and governments, than the present Thirteen States of
America.

A little reflection may convince any reasonable man, that a govern-
ment wherein the administrators are chosen annually by the free voice
of the governed, and may also be recalled at any time if their conduct
displeases their constituents, cannot be a tyrannical one, as your
Loyalists represent it; who at the same time inconsistently desire to
return and live under it. And, among an intelligent, enlightened
people, as ours is, there must always be too numerous and too strong
a party for supporting good government and the laws, to suffer what
is called anarchy. This better account of our situation must be
pleasing to your humanity, and therefore I give it you.

But we differ a little in our sentiments respecting the Loyalists (as
they call themselves), and the conduct of America towards them,
which, you think, “ seems actuated by a spirit of revenge ; and that
it would have been more agreeable to policy, as well as justice, to
have restored their estates upon their taking the oaths of allegiance
to the new governments.” That there should still be some resent-
ment against them in the breasts of those, who have had their houses,
farms, and towns so lately destroyed, and relations scalped under the
conduct of these royalists, is not wonderful; though I believe the
opposition given by many to their reestablishing among us is owing to
a firm persuasion, that there could be no reliance on their oaths ; and
that the effect of receiving those people again would be an introduc-
tion of that very anarchy and confusion they falsely reproach us with.
Even the example you propose, of the English Commonwealth’s re-
storing the estates of the royalists after their being subdued, seems
rather to countenance and encourage our acting differently, as pro-
bably if the power,.which always accompanies property, had not been
restored to the royalists, if their estates had remained confiscated, and
their persons had been banished, they could not have so much con-6o8

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

tributed. to the restoration of kingly power, and the new government
of the republic might have been more durable.

The majority of examples in your history are on the other side of
the question. All the estates in England and south of Scotland, and
most of those possessed by the descendants of the English in Ireland,
are held from ancient confiscations made of the estates of Caledonians
and Britons, the original possessors in your island, or the native Irish,
in the last century only. It is but a few months since, that your Par-
liament has, in a few instances, given up confiscations incurred by a
rebellion suppressed forty years ago. The war against us was begun
by a general act of Parliament, declaring all our estates confiscated ;
and probably one great motive to the loyalty of the royalists was the
hope of sharing in these confiscations. They have played a deep
game, staking their estates against ours ; and they have been unsuc-
cessful. But it is a surer game, since they had promises to rely on
from your government, of indemnification in case of loss ; and I see
your Parliament is about to fulfil those promises. To this I have
no objection, because, though still our enemies, they are men ; they
are in necessity ; and I think even a hired assassin has a right to
his pay from his employer. It seems too more reasonable, that the
expense of paying these should fall upon the government wtfb en-
couraged the mischief done, rather than upon us who suffered it; the
confiscated estates making amends but for a very small part of that
mischief. It is not, therefore, clear, that our retaining them is charge-
able with injustice.

I have hinted above, that the name loyalist was improperly assumed
by these people. Royalists they may perhaps be called. But the true
loyalists were the people of America, against whom they acted. No
people were ever known more truly loyal, and universally so, to their
sovereigns. The Protestant succession in the House of Hanover was
their idol. Not a Jacobite was to be found from one end of the
Colonies to the other. They were affectionate to the people of Eng-
land, zealous and forward to assist in her wars, by voluntary con-
tributions of men and money, even beyond their proportion.' The
King and Parliament had frequently acknowledged this by public
messages, resolutions, and reimbursements. But they were equally
fond of what they esteemed their rights ; and, if they resisted when
those were attacked, it was a resistance in favour of a British con-
stitution, which every Englishman might share in enjoying, who should
come to live among them; it was resisting arbitrary impositions,
that were contrary to their common right and to fundamental con-
stitutions, and to constant ancient usage. It was indeed a resistance
in favour of the liberties of England, which might have been endan-
gered by success in the attempt against ours; and therefore a great
man in your Parliament,1 did not scruple to declare, he rejoiced that
America had resisted. I, for the same reason, may add this very
resistance to the other instances of their loyalty. I have already said,

1 The first Lord Chatham.BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

609

that I think it just you should reward those Americans, who joined
your troops in the war against their own country ; but, if ever honesty
could be inconsistent with policy, it is so in this instance.

To Htb. Mary I wrote to you the 5th of last month, and have since
Hewson,' dated received your kind letters of the 8th, informing me of
I785y’ 26 June’ y°ur we^arej and that of the dear children, which gave
me great pleasure. I shall long to see you all again in
America, where I hope to be soon. Almost all my things are now
packed up, and will be in the barge next Wednesday, to go down the
river; for, though I know not yet what vessel I shall go in, I would
have everything at Havre ready to embark; and I suppose I shall
not be here myself a fortnight longer!

I say nothing to persuade you to go with me or to follow me ;
because I know you do not usually act from persuasion, but from
judgment ; and, as that is very sound, I leave you to yourself. You
will do what is best for you and yours, and that will give me most
pleasure. Miss Lamotte’s friends do not consent to her going to
England. I enclose her letter, by which you will see, that, though
she speaks the language prettily, she does not write it correctly.
Indeed, abundance of the French are deficient in their own ortho-
graphy. I offered her, as you desired, the money that might be
necessary for the journey.

Temple is not yet quite well, having had several returns of his ague.
Benjamin continues hearty, and has been very serviceable in packing.
They-both present their respects.

If you should write me a line before my departure, direct it to
Havre de Grace. Adieu, my very dear friend, and believe me ever
yours with sincerest respect and affection.

P.S. My love to every one of the children.

To Mrs. Mary By this post I have given orders to engage a fine ship,
Hewson, dated now at London, to carry me and my family to Phila-
l785y’ 4 July’ ddphia. My baggage is already on the Seine, going
down to Havre, from whence, if the captain cannot call
for us there, we shall cross the channel, and meet him at Cowes, in the
Isle of Wight. The ship has a large, convenient cabin, with good
lodging-places. The whole to be at my disposition, and there is
plenty of room for you and yours. You may never have so good an
opportunity of passing to America, if it is your intention. Think of
it, and take your resolution ; believing me ever your affectionate friend.

P.S. Love to the dear children. If Mr. Williams is returned to
London, he will inform you of the particulars. If not, you may
inquire of Wallace, Johnson, and Muir, merchants, London, to be
heard of at the Pennsylvania Coffee-House, Birchin Lane. The ship
is to be at Cowes the 1st of August.

To Granville * received the books you were so kind as to send me
Sharp, dated by Mr. Drown. Please to accept my hearty thanks.
fwy’ 6 ^Uly, ^our writings, which always have some public good for
their object, I always read with pleasure. I am perfectly
406io

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

of your opinion, with respect to the salutary law of gavelkind, and
hope it may in time be established throughout America. In six of
the States, already, the lands of intestates are divided equally among
the children, if all girls ; but there is a double share given to the
eldest son, for which I see no more reason, than giving such share to
the eldest daughter; and I think there should be no distinction.
Since my being last in France, I have seen several of our eldest sons,
spending idly their fortunes by residing in Europe and neglecting
their own country; these are from the southern States. The
northern young men stay at home, and are industrious, useful citizens;
the more equal division of their fathers’ fortunes not enabling them
to ramble and spend their shares abroad, which is so much the better
for their country.

I like your piece on the election of bishops. There is a fact in
Holinshed’s “ Chronicles,” the latter part relating to Scotland, which
shows, if my memory does not deceive me, that the first bishop in
that country was elected by the clergy. I mentioned it some time
past in a letter to two young men, who asked my advice about ob-
taining ordination, which had been denied them by the bishops in
England, unless they would take the oath of allegiance to the King ;
and I said, I imagine, that, unless a bishop is soon sent over with
power to consecrate others, so that we may have no future occasion
for applying to England for ordination, we may think it right, after
reading your piece, to elect also.

The Liturgy you mention was an abridgement of that made by a
noble Lord of my acquaintance, who requested me to assist him by
taking the rest of the book, viz. the Catechism and the reading and
singing Psalms. These I abridged by retaining of the Catechism
only the two questions, What is your duty to God? What is your
duty to your neighbour ? with answers. The Psalms were much con-
tracted by leaving out the repetitions (of which I found more than I
could have imagined), and the imprecations, which appeared not to
suit well the Christian doctrine of forgiveness of injuries, and doing
good to enemies. The book was printed for Wilkie, in St. Paul’s
Church Yard, but never much noticed. Some were given away, very
few sold, and I suppose the bulk became waste paper. In the prayers
so much was retrenched, that approbation could hardly be expected ;
but I think, with you, a moderate abridgment might not only be
useful, but generally acceptable.1

I am now on the point of departing for America, where I shall be
glad occasionally to hear from you, and of your welfare ; being with
sincere and great esteem, dear Sir, your most obedient and most
humble servant.

1 The title of the volume, alluded to in the text, is as follows : "Abridgement
of the Book of Common Prayer, and Administration of the Sacraments, and other
Rites and Ceremonies of the Church, according to the Use of the Church of
England ; together with the Psalter, or Psalms of David, pointed as they are to be
sung or said in Churches. London ; printed in the Year MDCCLXX1II." The
•' noble Lord," mentioned as aiding in the preparation of this volume, was Lore!
Le DeSpencfer.BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

611

To David Hart- I cannot quit the coasts of Europe without taking
6ejuldatl78^a3Sy' leave niy ever dear friend Mr. Hartley. We were
y’ ’ long fellow labourers in the best of all works, the work
of peace. -1 leave you still in the field, but, having finished my day’s
task, l am going home to go to bed. Wish me a good night’s rest, as
I do you a pleasant evening. Adieu ! and believe me ever yours
most affectionately,	B. Franklin,

in his eightieth year.

To Mrs. Hecom, I left Passy yesterday afternoon, and am here on my
dated St. Ger- vvay to Havre de Grace, a seaport, in order to embark
f°r America. I make use of one of the King’s litters,
13 July, 1785. ’ carried by mules, which walk steadily and easily, so
that I bear the motion very well. I am to be taken on
board a Philadelphia ship on the coast of England (Captain Truxtun),
the beginning of next month. Not having written to you since the
letter, which contained a bill on Mr. Vernon, and as I may not have
another opportunity before my arrival in Philadelphia (if it pleases
God I do arrive), I write these particulars to go by way of England,
that you may be less uneasy about me. I did my last public act in
this country just before I set out, which was signing a treaty of amity
and commerce with Prussia. I have continued to work till late in the
day ; it is time I should go home and go to bed.

Extracts from ar Having stayed in France about eight years and a
Private Journal, half, i took leave of the court and my friends, and set
out on my return home, July 12th, 1785, leaving Passy with my two
grandsons at four P.M, ; arrived about eight o’clock at St. Germain.
M. de Chaumont, with his daughter Sophia, accompanied us to
Nanterre. M. Le Veillard will continue with us to Havre. We met
at St. Germain the Miss Alexanders, with Mrs. Williams, our cousin,
who had provided a lodging.for me at M. Benoit’s. I found that the
motion of the litter, lent me by the Duke de Coigny, did not much
incommode me. It was one of the Queen’s, carried by two very large
mules, the muleteer riding another ; M. Le Veillard and my children
in a carriage. We drank tea at M. Benoit’s, and went early to bed.

Wednesday, July 15th.—Breakfast with our friends ; take leave and
continue our journey ; dine at a good inn at Meulon, and get to
Mantes in the evening. A messenger from the Cardinal de la Roche-
foucauld meets us there, with an invitation to us to stop at his house
at Gaillon the next day ; acquainting us at the same time, that he
would take no. excuse ; for, being all-powerful in his archbishopric, he
would stop us volens nolens at his habitation, and not permit us to
lodge anywhere else. We consented. Lodged at Mantes. Found
myself very little fatigued with the day’s journey, the mules going
only foot pace.

July 14th.—Proceed early, and breakfast at Vernon. Received a
visit there from Vicomte de Tilly and his Comtesse. Arrive at the
Cardinal’s without dining, about six in the afternoon. It is a superb
ancient chateau, built about three hundred and fifty years since; but61 2

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

in fine preservation, on an elevated situation, with an extensive and
beautiful view over a well cultivated country. The Cardinal is Arch-
bishop of Rouen. A long gallery contains the pictures of all his
predecessors. The chapel is elegant in the old style, with well-painted
glass windows. The terrace magnificent. We supped early. The
entertainment was kind and cheerful. We were allowed to go early
to bed, on account of our intention to depart early in the morning.
The Cardinal pressed us to pass another day with him, offering to
amuse us with hunting in his park ; but the necessity we are under of
being in time at Havre, would not permit. So we took leave and
retired to rest. The Cardinal is much respected and beloved by the
people of this country, bearing in all respects an excellent character.

July \$th.—Set out about five in the morning; travelled till ten,
then stopped to breakfast, and remained in the inn during the heat of
the day. We had heard at the Cardinal’s that our friend Mr. Holker,
of Rouen, had been out that day as far as Port St. Antoine to meet
us, expecting us there from a letter of M. de Chaumont’s. Here came
to us one of his servants, who was sent to inquire if any accident had
happened to us on the road, and was ordered to proceed till he got
intelligence. He went directly back, and we proceeded. We passed
a chain of chalk mountains, very high, with strata of flints. The
quantity that appears to have been washed away on one side of these
mountains, leaving precipices of three hundred feet high, gives an
idea of extreme antiquity. It seems as if done by the beating of the
sea. We got to Rouen about five ; were most affectionately received
by Mr. and Mrs. Holker. A great company of genteel people at
supper, which was our dinner. The chief President of the Parliament
and his lady invited us to dine the next day ; but being preengnged
with Mr. Holker, we compounded for drinking tea. We lodge all at
Mr. Holker’s.

July 16th.—A deputation from the Academy of Rouen cariie with
their compliments, which were delivered in form, and a present for
me by one of the directors; being a magical square, which, I think
he said, expressed my name. I have perused it since, but I do not
comprehend it. The Duke de Chabot’s son, lately married to a Mont-
morency, and colonel of a regiment now at Rouen, was present at the
ceremony, being just come in to visit me. I forgot to mention that I
saw with pleasure in the Cardinal’s cabinet, a portrait of this young
man’s grandmother. Madame la Duchesse d’Enville, who had always
been our friend, and treated us with great civilities at Paris ; a lady
of uncommon intelligence and merit.

I received here also a present of books, 3 vols. 4to, from Dr.--,

with a very polite letter, which I answered.

We had a great company at dinner, and at six went in a chair to
the Presidents, where were assembled some gentlemen of the robe.
We drank tea there, awkwardly made, for want of practice, very little
being drunk in France. I went to bed early ; but my company supped
with a large invited party, and were entertained with excellent singing.

July I’jth — Sgt out early. Mr. Holker accompanied us some miles,BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

613

when we took an affectionate leave of each other. Dine at Yvetot,
a large town, and arrive at Bolbec ; being the longest day’s journey
we have yet made. It is a market town of considerable business, and
seems thriving. The people well clad, and appear better fed than
those of the wine countries. A linen printer here offered to remove
to America, but I did not encourage him.

July 18/A—Left Bolbec about ten o’clock, and arrive at Havre at
five P.M., having stopped on the road at a miserable inn to bait. We
were very kindly received by M. and Mde. Ruellan. The governor
makes us a visit, and some other gentlemen.

July 19/A—We receive visits in form from the intendant, the gover-
nor or commandant, the officers of the regiment of Poitou and Picardy,
the corps of engineers, and M. Limosin.

M. Limosin proposes several vessels ; all very dear. We wait for
the packet from Southampton. Dine at M. Ruellan’s, where we
lodge. Receive the affiliation of the lodge at Rouen.

July 20Ih.—Return the visits. Receive one from the corps de
marine, and one from the corps d’artillerie. M. Houdon arrives and
brings me letters. Dine at M. Limosin’s. Present M. and Mde. Le
Mesurier and their sister, agreeable people of Alderney (Aurigny).
Kindly entertained by M. Limosin and his daughter. Return the last
visits.

The packet-boat arrives, and, the captain (Jennings) calling at our
lodging, we agreed with him to carry us and the baggage we have
here for ten guineas, to land us at Cowes. We are to depart to-
morrow evening.

July 21 st.—We had another visit from M. de Villeneuve, the com-
mandant, inviting us to dine with him to-morrow; but, intending to
go off this evening, we could not accept that honour.

Dine with our friendly host and hostess’. Mde. Feints, Mde. de
Clerval, and two other ladies visit M. Le Veillard with several
gentlemen.

In the evening, when we thought we were on the point of departing,
the captain of the packet comes and acquaints us that the wind is
right against us, and blows so hard that it is impossible to get out,
and we give up the project till to-morrow.

July 22nd.—Breakfast and take leave of some friends, and go on
board the packet at half after ten. Wind not very fair.

July 23rd.—Buffet all night against the north-west wind, which
was full in our teeth. This continued till two o’clock to-day, then
came fair, and we stand on our course. At seven P.M. we discover
land, the Isle of Wight.

July 24th.—We had a fair wind all night, and this morning at seven
o’clock, being off Cowes, the captain represented to me the difficulty
of getting in there against the flood, and proposed that we should
rather run up to Southampton, which we did, and landed there
between eight and nine. Met my son, who had arrived from London
the evening before, with Mr. Williams and Mr. J. Alexander. Wrote
a letter to the Bishop of St. Asaph, acquainting him with my arrival,614

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

and lie came with his lady and daughter, Miss Kitty, after dinner to
see us ; they talk of staying here as long as we do. Our meeting was
very affectionate. I write letters to London, viz. to Messrs. W. J. M.
and Co., to acquaint them with our arrival, and desire to know when
the ship will sail, to Mr. Williams. These letters went by post before
we knew of his being here. Wrote also to Mr. B. Vaughan.

July 2$th.—The Bishop and family lodging in the same inn, the
Star, we all breakfast and dine together. I went at noon to bathe in
Marlin’s salt-water hot-bath, and, floating on my back, fell asleep,
and slept near an hour by my watch, without sinking or turning ! A
thing I never did before, and should hardly have thought possible.
Water is the easiest bed that can be. Read over the writings of
conveyance, &c., of my son’s lands in New Jersey and New York to
my grandson. Write to M. Ruellan, M. Limosin, M. Holker, and M.
Grand. Southampton is a very neat, pretty place. The two French
gentlemen, our friends, much pleased with it. The Bishop gives me
a book in 4to, written by Dean Paley, and the family dine with us.
Sundry friends came to see me from London y by one I receive a
present of my friend Dr. Fothergill’s works, from Dr. Lettsom, and a
book on finance from Mr. Gale. Mr. Williams tells me the ship had
fallen down to Gravesend the 22nd, so that she might be in the Downs
the 24th, and possibly here to-morrow ; that is on the Mother Bank,
which we can see hence. Mr. Williams brought a letter from Mr.
Nepean, secretary to Lord Townshend, addressed to Mr. Vaughan,
expressing that orders would be sent to the custom-house at Cowes
not to trouble our baggage, &c. It is still here on board the packet
that brought it over. Mr. Alexander takes leave for London ; write
by him to Mr. Jackson, Dr. Jeffries, Dr. Lettsom, and my son-in-
law Bache, the latter to be sent by the packet.

July 26th.—Deeds signed between W. Franklin and W. T.
Franklin.

Mr. Williams having brought sundry necessaries for me, goes down
with them to Cowes, to be ready for embarking. Captain Jennings
carries down our baggage that he brought from Havre. My dear
friend, M. Le Veillard, takes leave to go with him. Mr. Vaughan
arrives from London to see me.

July 2"]th.—Give a power to my son to recover what may be due to
me from the British Government. Hear from J. Williams that the
ship is come.

We all dine once more with the Bishop and family, who kindly
accept our invitation to go on board with us. We go down in a shal-
lop to the ship. The captain entertains us at supper. The company
stay all night.

July 28Hi.—When I waked in the morning, found the company
gone, and the ship under sail.

Tuesday, September 15th.—The wind springing fair last evening
after a calm, we found ourselves this morning at sunrising abreast of■BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

615

the light-house, and between Capes May and Henlopen. We sail
into the bay very pleasantly ; water smooth, air cool, day fair and
fine.

We passed Newcastle about sunset, and went on near to Red Bank
before the tide and wind failed, then came to an anchor.

Wednesday, September 14th.—With the flood in the morning came
a light breeze, which brought us above Gloucester Point, in full view
of dear Philadelphia 1 when we again cast anchor, to wait for the
health officer, who, having made his visit and finding no sickness,
gave us leave to land.

. My son-in-law came with a boat for us ; we landed at Market Street
wharf, where we were received by a crowd of people with huzzas, and
accompanied with acclamations quite to my door. Found my family
well.

God be praised and thanked for all His mercies.

CHAPTER XXXII. (1785-1787.)

Franklin’s Reception in America—Elected President of Pennsylvania—A Delegate
to the Federal Convention to frame a New Constitution.

To David Hart- Your newspapers are filled with accounts of dis-
ley, dated Phila- tresses and miseries, that these States are plunged into
ber^nw.27 °0t°" since their separation from Britain. You may believe
me when I tell you, that there is no truth in those ac-
counts. I find all property in lands and houses augmented vastly in
value ; that of houses in to^vns at least fourfold. The crops have been
plentiful, and yet the produce sells high, to the great profit of the
farmer. At the same time, all imported goods sell at low rates, some
cheaper than the first cost. Working people have plenty of employ
and high pay for their labour.

These appear to me as certain signs of public prosperity. Some
traders, indeed, complain that trade is dead ; but this pretended evil
is not an effect of inability in the people to buy, pay for, and consume
the usual articles of commerce, as far as they have occasion for them ;
it is owing merely to there being too many traders, who have crowded
hither from all parts of Europe with more goods than the natural
demand of the country requires. And what in Europe is called the
debt of America, is chiefly the debt to these adventurers and super-
cargoes to their principals, with which the settled inhabitants of
America, who never paid better for what they want and buy, have
nothing to do. As to the contentment of the inhabitants with the
change of government, methinks a stronger proof cannot be desired,
than what they have given in my reception. You know the part I had
in that change, and you see in the papers the addresses from all ranks
with which your friend was welcomed home, and the sentiments they
contain confirmed yesterday in the choice of him for President by the6i6

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

Council and new Assembly, which was unanimous, a single voice in
seventy-seven excepted.

I remember you used to wish for newspapers from America. Here-
with I send a few, and you shall be regularly supplied, if you can put
me in a way of sending them, so that you may not be obliged to pay
postage.

To Edward Ban- I received your kind letter of September 5th, inform-
ph ua h,datl« *n? me	*ntenti°n Mr. Dilly has of printing a new

.November, 1785. edition of my writings, and of his desire, that I would
furnish him with such additions as I may think proper.
At present all my papers and manuscripts are so mixed with other
things, by the confusions occasioned in sudden and various removals
during the late troubles, that I can hardly find anything. But, having
nearly finished an addition to my house, which will afford me room to
put all in order, I hope soon to be able to comply with such a request;
but l hope Mr. Dilly will have a good understanding in the affair with
Henry and Johnson, who, having risked the former impressions, may
suppose they thereby acquired some right in the copy. As to the
“ Life ” proposed to be written, if it be by the same hand who fur-
nished a sketch to Dr. Lettsom, which he sent me, I am afraid it will
be found too full of errors for either you or me to correct ; and, having
been persuaded by my friends, Messrs. Vaughan and M. Le Veillard,
Mr. James of this place, and some others, that such a “ Life,” written
by myself, may be useful to the rising generation, I have made some
progress in it, and hope to finish it this winter ; so I cannot but wish
that project of Mr. Dilly’s biographer may be laid aside. I am never-
theless thankful to you for your friendly offer of correcting it. * 5;: *

To Jonathan My reception here was, as you have heard, very
Shipley, dated honourable indeed ; but I was betrayed by it, and by
Feb l786^a’ ** some remains of ambition, from which I had imagined

*’	' myself free, to accept of the chair of government for the

State of Pennsylvania, when the proper thing for me was repose and
a private life. I hope, however, to be able to bear the fatigue for one
year, and then to retire. * * *

As to my domestic circumstances, of which you kindly desire to
hear something, they are at present as happy as I could wish them. I
am surrounded by my offspring, a dutiful and affectionate daughter
in my house, with six grandchildren, the eldest of whom you have seen,
who is now at College in the next street, finishing the learned part of
his education ; the others are promising, both for parts and good dis-
positions. What their conduct may be, when they grow up and enter
the important scenes of life, I shall not live to see, and I cannot fore-
see. I therefore enjoy among them the present hour, and leave the
future to Providence.

He that raises a large family does, indeed, while he lives to observe
them, stand, as Watts says, a broader mark for sorrow j but then he
stands a broader mark for pleasure too. When we launch our littleBENJAMIN FRANKLIN

617

fleet of barks into the ocean, bound to different ports, we hope for each
a prosperous voyage ; but contrary winds, hidden shoals, storms, and
enemies come in for a share in the disposition of events ; and though
these occasion a mixture of disappointment, yet, considering the risk
where we can make no insurance, we should think ourselves happy if
some return with success. My son’s son, Temple Franklin, whom you
have also seen, having had a fine farm of six hundred acres conveyed
to him by his father when we were at Southampton, has dropped for
the present his views of acting in the political line, and applies him-
self ardently to the study and practice of agriculture. This is much
more agreeable to me, who esteem it the most useful, the most inde-
pendent, and therefore the noblest of employments. His lands are on
navigable water, communicating with the Delaware, and -but about
sixteen miles from this city. He has associated to himself a very
skilful English farmer lately arrived here, who is to instruct him in the
business, and partakes for a term the profits ; so that there is a great
apparent probability of their success.

You will kindly expect a word or two concerning myself. My health
and spirits continue, thanks to God, as when you saw me. The only
complaint I then had, does not grow worse, and is tolerable. I still
have enjoyment in the company of my friends ; and, being easy in my
circumstances, have many reasons to like living. But the course of
nature must soon put a period to my present mode of existence. This
I shall submit to with the less regret, as, having seen during a longlife
a good deal of this world, I feel a growing curiosity to be acquainted
with some other ; and can cheerfully, with filial confidence, resign my
spirit to the conduct of that great and good Parent of mankind, who
created it, and who has so graciously protected and prospered me from
my birth to the present hour. Wherever I am, I hope always to retain
the pleasing remembrance of your friendship, being with sincere and
great esteem, my dear friend, yours most affectionately.

P.S.—We all join in respects to Mrs. Shipley, and best wishes for
the whole amiable family.

To M. Ie Veil- i received and read with great pleasure your kind
dated ° Ph5a'. letter of October 9th. It informed me of yOur welfare,
delphia, 6March, and that of the best of good women, and of her amiable
1'86,	daughter, who I think will tread in her steps. My effects

came all in the same ship, in good order; and we are now drinking
every day les eaux dpiiries de Passy with great satisfaction, as they
kept well, and seemed to be rendered more agreeable by the long
voyage.

I am here in the bosom of my family, and am not only happy my-
self, but have the felicity of seeing my country so. Be assured, that
all the stories spread in the English papers of our distresses, and con-
fusions, and discontents with our new governments, are as chimerical
as the history of my being in chains in Algiers. They exist only in
the wishes of our enemies. America never was in higher prosperity,
her produce abundant and bearing a good price, her working people6i8

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

all employed and well paid, and all property in lands and houses of
more than treble the value it bore before the war; and, our commerce
being no longer the monopoly of British merchants, we are furnished
with all the foreign commodities we need, at much more reasonable
rates than heretofore. So that we have no doubt of being able to dis-
charge more speedily the debt incurred during the war, than at first
was apprehended. * * *

I made no progress when at sea in the history you mention ;1 but I
was not idle there, having written three pieces, each of some length ;
one on Nautical matters ; another on Chimneys ; and a third a
Description of my Vase for consuming smoke, with directions for
using it. These are all now printing in the Transactions of our Philo-
sophical Society, of which I hope soon to send you a copy.

My grandsons present their compliments. The eldest is very busy
in preparing for a country life, being to enter upon his farm the 25th
instant. It consists of about six hundred acres, bounding on navigable
water, sixteen miles from Philadelphia. The youngest is at College,
very diligent in his studies. You know my situation, involved in
public cares ; but they cannot make me forget that you and I love
one another, and that I am ever, my dear friend, yours most affec-
tionately.

To Mrs. Mary A long winter has passed, and I have not had the
Hewson,' datSl pleasure of a line from you, acquainting me with your
PhUadeipkia, 6 an(j y0ur children’s welfare, since I left England. I
ay’ ' suppose you have been in Yorkshire, out of the way and
knowledge of opportunities ; for I will not think that you have for-
gotten me.

To make me some amends, I received a few days past a large
packet from Mr. Williams, dated September, 1776, near ten years
since, containing three letters from you, one of December 12th, 1775.
This packet had been received by Mr. Bache, after my departure for
France, lay dormant among his papers during all my absence, and
has just now broken out upon me, like words, that had been, as some-
body says, congealed in northern air. Therein I find all the pleasing
little family history of your children ; how William had begun to
spell, overcoming, by strength of memory, all the difficulty occasioned
by the common wretched alphabet, while you were convinced of the
utility of our new one ; how Tom, genius-like, struck out new paths,
and, relinquishing the old names of the letters, called U bell, and P
bottlej how Eliza began to grow jolly, that is, fat and handsome,
resembling Aunt Rooke, whom I used to call my lovely. Together
with all the then news of lady Blount’s having produced at length a
boy ; of Dolly’s being well, and of poor good Catherine’s decease ; of
your affairs with Muir and Atkinson, and of their contract for feeding
the fish in the channel ; of the Vinys and their jaunt to Cambridge in
the long carriage ; of Dolly’s journey to Wales with Mrs. Scott; of
the Wilkeses, the Pearces, Elphinstone’s, &c.;—concluding with a
1 Memoirs of his own life.BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

619

kind of promise, that, as soon as the ministry and Congress agreed to
make peace, I should have you with me in America. That peace has
been some time made ; but, alas 1 the promise is not yet fulfilled.

I have found my family here in health, good circumstances, and
well respected by their fellow citizens. The companions of my youth
are indeed almost all departed, but I find an agreeable society among
their children and grandchildren. I have public business enough to
preserve me from ennui, and private amusement besides in conversa-
tion, books, my garden, and cribbage. .Considering our well-furnished,
plentiful market as the best of gardens, I am turning mine, in the
midst of which my house stands, into grass plots and gravel walks,
with trees and flowering shrubs. Cards we sometimes play here, in
long winter evenings ; but it is as they play at chess, not for money,
but for honour, or the pleasure of beating one another. This will not
be quite a novelty to you, as you may remember we played together in
that manner during the winter at Passy. I have indeed now and then
a little compunction in reflecting that I spend time- so idly; but
another reflection comes to relieve me, whispering, “ You know that
the soul is immortal j why then should you be such a niggard of a
little time, when you have a whole eternity before you?” So, being
easily convinced, and, like other reasonable creatures, satisfied with
a small reason, when it is in favour of doing what I have a mind to, I
shuffle the cards again, and begin another game.

As to public amusements, we have neither plays nor operas, but we
had yesterday a kind of oratorio, as you will see by the enclosed
paper; and we have assemblies, balls, and concerts, besides little
parties at one another’s houses, in which there is sometimes dancing,
and frequently good music ; so that we jog on in life as pleasantly as
you do in England ; anywhere but in London, for there you have
plays performed by good actors. That, however, is, I think, the only
advantage London has over Philadelphia.

Mrs. Jane You need not be concerned, in writing to me, about
Mecom, ’ dated your bad spelling; for, in my opinion, as our alphabet
^uadeiphia, 4 now stands, the bad spelling, or what is called so, is

y' ' generally the best, as conforming to the sound of the
letters and of the words. To give you an instance. A gentleman
received a letter, in which were these words,—Not finding Brown at
hom, I delivered your meseg to his yf The gentleman finding it bad
spelling, and therefore not very intelligible, called his lady to help him
read it. Between them they picked out the meaning of all but theyf
which they could not understand. The lady proposed calling her
chambermaid, because Betty, says she, has the best knack at reading
bad spelling of anyone I know. Betty came, and was surprised, that
neither Sir nor Madam could tell what yf was. “ Why,” says she,
“yf spells wife; what else can it spell ? ” And, indeed, it is a much
better, as well as shorter method of spelling wife, than doubleyou,
i, ef e, which in reality spells doubleyifey.

There is much rejoicing in town to-day, it being the anniversary of620

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

the Declaration of Independence, which we signed this day ten year9,
and thereby hazarded lives and fortunes. God was pleased to put a
favourable end to the contest much sooner than we had reason to
expect. His name be praised.

To Thpmas I have read your manuscript with some attention. By
Paine (1).	the argument it contains against a particular Providence,

though you allow a general Providence, you strike at the foundations
of all religion. For without the belief of a Providence, that takes
cognizance of, guards, and guides, and may favour particular persons,
there is no motive to worship a Deity, to fear his displeasure, or to
pray for his protection. I will not enter into any discussion of your
principles, though you seem to desire it. At present, I shall only
give you my opinion, that, though your reasonings are subtle, and may
prevail with some readers, you will not succeed so as to change the
general sentiments of mankind on that subject, and the consequence
of printing this piece will be, a great deal of odiym drawn upon your-
self, mischief to you, and no benefit to others. He that spits against
the wind, spits in his own face.

But, were you to succeed, do you imagine any good would be done
by it ? You yourself may find it easy to live a virtuous life, without
the assistance afforded by religion ; you having a clear perception of
the advantages of virtue, and the disadvantages of vice, and possessing
a strength of resolution sufficient to enable you to resist common
temptations. But think how great a portion of mankind consists of
weak and ignorant men and women, and of inexperienced, incon-
siderate youth of both sexes, who have need of the motives of religion
to restrain them from vice, to support their virtue, and retain them in
the practice of it till it becomes habitual, which is the great point for
its security. And perhaps you are indebted to her originally, that is,
to your religious education, for the habits of virtue upon which you
now justly value yourself. You might easily display your excellent
talents of reasoning upon a less hazardous subject, and thereby obtain
a rank with our most distinguished authors. For among us it is not
necessary, as among the Hottentots, that a youth, to be raised into
the company of men, should prove his manhood by beating his
mother.

I would advise you, therefore, not to attempt unchaining the tiger,
but to burn this piece before it is seen by any other person ; whereby
you will save yourself a great deal of mortification by the enemies it
may raise against you, and perhaps a good deal of regret and repent-
ance. If men are so wicked with religion, what would they be if
without it? I intend this letter itself as a proof of my friendship,
and therefore add no professions to it; but subscribe simply yours,

B. Franklin.

To M. Lo Veil- * * * As to the little history I promis’d you, my
lard, ' dated purpose still continues of completing it, and I hoped to
Philadelphia, 15 do it this summer, having built an addition to my house,
prl’ ' in which I have placed my library, and where I canBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

621

write without being disturbed by the noise of the children, but the
General Assembly having lately desired my assistance in a great
convention to be held here in May next for amending the Federal
Constitution, I begin to doubt whether I can make any progress in it
till that business is over.

Yours of the 23rd of May did not arrive here till the 5 th of October,
and this is not the only instance of the long time letters are delayed
in your seaports. It is true that we had, as you mention, two parties
in this State—one for preserving the Constitution as it is, and the
other for adding an Upper House as a check to the Assembly. But
having tried it seven years, the strongest party was for continuing it,
and since my arrival no obstruction has happened in public business,
such as you have been informed of, by the seceding of one party from
the Assembly. Having served one year as President of Council, I
had not resolution enough to refuse serving another, and was again
chosen in November last, without a single dissenting voice but my
own. By our laws one cannot serve more than three years, but I
think I shall decline the third.

I am quite of your opinion that our independence is not quite com-
plete till we have discharged our public debt. This State is not behind-
hand in its proportion, and those who are in arrear are actually
employed in contriving means to discharge their respective balances,
but they are not all equally diligent in the business, nor equally
successful; the whole will, however, be paid, I am persuaded, in. a
few years.

The English have not yet delivered up the posts on our frontiers,
agreeable to treaty ; the pretence is that our merchants have not paid
their debts. I was a little provoked when I first heard this, and I
wrote some remarks upon it which 'I send you. They have been
written near a year, but I have not yet published them, being unwilling
to encourage any of our people who may be able to pay in their neglect
of duty. This paper, therefore, is only for your amusement and that
of our excellent friend, the Duke de Rochefoucauld. * * *

To the Duke de la	Your friendly congratulations on my arrival and

dated Phiiodel- reception here were very obliging. Tlie latter was, as
phia, 15 April, you have heard, extremely flattering. The two parlies
1787,	in the Assembly and Council, the constitutionists and

anti-constitutionists, joined in requesting my service as counsellor,
and afterwards in electing me as President. Of seventy-four members
in Council and Assembly, who voted by ballot, there was in my first
election but one negative, besides my own ; and in the second, after a
year’s Service, only my own. And I experience, from all the principal
people in the government, every attention and assistance that can be
desired towards making the task as little burdensome to qae as possible.
So I am going on very comfortably hitherto with my second year, and
I do not at present see any likelihood of a change ; but future events
are always uncertain, being governed by Providence or subject to
chances ; and popular favour is very precarious, being sometimes lost622

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

as well as gained by good actions ; so I do not depend on a continu-
ance of my present happiness, and therefore shall not be surprised, if,
before my time of service expires, something should happen to diminish
it.

These States in general enjoy peace and plenty. There have been
some disorders in the Massachusetts and Rhode Island governments;
those in the former are quelled for the present; those of the latter,
being contentions for and against paper money, will probably continue
some time. Maryland too is divided on the same subject, the Assembly
being for it, and the Senate against it. Each is now employed in en-
deavouring to gain the people to its party against the next elections,
and it is probable the Assembly may prevail. Paper money in
moderate quantities has been found beneficial; when more than the
occasions of commerce require, it depreciated and was mischievous ;
and the populace are apt to demand more than is necessary. In this
State we have some, and it is useful, and I do not hear any clamour
for more.

There seems to be but little thought at present in the particular
States, of mending their particular constitutions ; but the grand
Federal Constitution is generally blamed as not having given suffi-
cient powers to Congress, the federal head. A convention is there-
fore appointed to revise that constitution, and propose a better. You
will see by the enclosed paper, that your friend is to be one in that
business, though he doubts his malady may not permit his giving
constant attendance. I am glad to see, that you are named as one of
a General Assembly to be convened in France. I flatter myself, that
great good may accrue to that dear nation from the deliberations of
such an assembly. I pray God to give it his blessing.

I sympathize with you and the family most sincerely, in the great
loss sustained by the decease of that excellent woman.1 It must be
indeed a heavy one. My best wishes attend those that remain, and
that the happiness of your sweet domestic society may long continue
without such another interruption.

I send herewith a volume of the Transactions of our Philosophical
Society for you, another for M. de Condorcet, and a third for the
Academy. The war had interrupted our attempts to improve our-
selves in scientific matters, but we now begin to resume them.

The bearer of this is Mr. Paine, the author of a famous piece,
entitled “ Common Sense,” published here with great effect on the
minds of the people at the beginning of the Revolution. He is an
ingenious, honest man ; and as such I beg leave to recommend him
to your civilities. He carries with him the model of a bridge of a
new construction, his own invention, concerning which I intended to
have recommended him to M. Peyronnet, but I hear he is no more.
You can easily procure Mr. Paine a sight of the models and drawings
of the collection appertaining to the Pouts et Chausees; they must
afford him useful lights on the subject. We want a bridge over our

1 The Duchess d’Enville, mother of the Duke de la Rochefoucauld.BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.	623

river Schuylkill, and have no artist here regularly bred to that kind
of architecture.

My grandsons are very sensible of the honour of your remembrance,
and desire me to present their respects.

CHAPTER XXXIII. (1787.)

Freedom of Commerce—Herschel and his Discoveries—Folly of War—Picture of

Franklin during the Session of the Convention to frame a New Constitution.

To the Abbe * * * I am of the same opinion with you, respecting
Horellet, dated the freedom of commerce, especially in countries where
Philadelphia, 22 direct taxes are practicable. This will be our case in
p ’	1 time, when our wide-extended country fills up with

inhabitants. But at present they are so widely settled, often five or
six miles distant from one another in the back country, that the
collection of a direct tax is almost impossible, the trouble of the
collectors’ going from house to house amounting to more than the
value of the tax. Nothing can be better expressed than your senti-
ments are on this point, where you prefer liberty of trading, cultivating,
manufacturing, &c., even to civil liberty, this being affected but rarely,
the other every hour. Our debt occasioned by the war being heavy,
we are under the necessity of using imposts, and every method we can
think of, to assist in raising a revenue to discharge it ; but in sentiment
we are well disposed to abolish duties on importation, as soon as we
possibly can afford to do so.

Whatever may be reported by the English in Europe, you may be
assured, that our people are almost unanimous in being satisfied with
the Revolution. Their unbounded respect for all who were principally
concerned in it, whether as warriors or statesmen, and the enthusiastic
joy with which the day of the declaration of independence is every-
where annually celebrated, are indubitable proofs of this truth. In one
or two of the States there have been some discontents on partial and
local subjects ; these may have been fomented, as the accounts of
them are exaggerated, by our ancient enemies ; but they are now
nearly suppressed, and the rest of the States enjoy peace and good
order, and flourish amazingly. The crops have been good for several
years past, the price of country produce high, from foreign demand,
and it fetches ready money ; rents are high in our towns, which increase
fast by new buildings ; labourers and artizans have high wages well
paid, and vast tracts of new land are continually clearing and rendered
fit for cultivation.

The pains you have taken to translate the congratulatory addresses,
which I received on my arrival, is a fresh proof of the continuance of
your friendship for me, which has afforded me as much satisfaction as
the addresses themselves, and you will readily believe, that for me this
is not saying little; for this welcome of my fellow citizens has far624

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

surpassed my hopes. Popular favour, not the most constant thing in
the world, stands by me. My election to the presidency for the second
year was unanimous. Will this disposition continue the same for the
third? Nothing is more doubtful. A man, who holds a high office,
finds himself so often exposed to the danger of disobliging some one
in the fulfilment of his duty, that the resentment of those, whom he has
thus offended, being greater than the gratitude of those whom he has
served, it almost always happens, that, while he is violently attacked,
he is feebly defended. You will not be surprised, then, if you learn,
that I have not closed my political career with the same delate with
which it commenced.

I am sorry for what you tell me of the indisposition you have
experienced. I sometimes wonder, that Providence does not protect
the good from all evil and from every suffering. This should be so in
the best of worlds ; and, since it is not so, I am piously led to believe,
that, if our world is not indeed the best, we must lay the blame on the
bad quality of the materials of which it is made. I am, my dear
friend, with sincere esteem and affection, ever yours.

To Thomas Jor- * *'* I hardly know which to admire most; the
dated Phiiaiici- wonderful discoveries made by Herschel, or the inde-
phia, 18 May, fatigable ingenuity by which he has been enabled to
l787,	make them. Let us hope, my friend, that, when free

from these bodily embarrassments, we may roam together through
some of the systems he has explored, conducted by some of our Old
companions already acquainted with them. Hawkesworth will enliven
our progress with his cheerful, sensible converse, and Stanley accom-
pany the music of the spheres.

To Mrs. Jane * * * * agree with you perfectly in your disapproba-
Meeom, dated lion of war. Abstracted from the inhumanity of it, I think
Seitadi787itt’ 20 wrono *n P°int °f human prudence; for, whatever
ep ’’	' advantage one nation would obtain from another,

whether it be part of their territory, the liberty of commerce with
them, free passage on their rivers, &c., &c., it would be much cheaper
to purchase such advantage with ready money than to pay the expense
of acquiring it by war. An army is a devouring monster, and, when
you have raised it, you have, in order to subsist it, not only the fair
charges of pay, clothing, provisions, arms, and ammunition, with
numberless other contingent and just charges to answer and satisfy,
but you have all the additional knavish charges of the numerous tribe
of contractors to defray, with those of every other dealer who
furnishes the articles wanted for your army, and takes advantage of
that want to demand exorbitant prices. It seems to me, that, if
statesmen had a little more arithmetic, or were more accustomed to
calculation, wars would be much less frequent. I am confident, that
Canada might have been purchased from France for a tenth part of
the money England spent in the conquest of it. And, if, instead of
fighting with us for the power of taxing fts, she has kept us in gooclBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

625

humour by allowing us to dispose of our own money, and now and
then giving us a little of hers, by way of donation to colleges, or
hospitals, or for cutting canals, or fortifying ports, she might have
easily drawn from us much more by our occasional voluntary
grants and contributions, than ever she could by taxes. Sensible
people will give a bucket or two of water to a dry pump, that they
may afterwards get from it all they have occasion for. Her ministry
were ‘deficient in that little point of common sense. And so they
spent one hundred millions of her money, and after all lost what they
contended for.

I lament the loss your town has suffered this year by fire. I some-
times think men do not act like reasonable creatures, when they build
for themselves combustible dwellings, in which they are every day
obliged to use fire. In my new buildings, I have taken a few precau-
tions, not generally used ; to wit, none of the wooden work of one room
communicates with the wooden work of any other room ; and all the
floors, and even the steps of the stairs, are plastered close to the
boards, besides the plastering on the laths under the joists. There
are also trap-doors to go out upon the roofs, that one may go out and
wet the shingles in case of a neighbouring fire. But, indeed, I think
the staircases should be of stone, and the floors tiled as in Paris, and
the roofs either tiled or slated.

I sent you lately a barrel of flour, and I blame myself for not
sooner desiring you to lay in your winter’s wood, and drawing upon
me for it as last year. But I have been so busy. To avoid such
neglect in future, I now make the direction general, that you draw on
me every year for the same purpose.

CHAPTER XXXIV. (1787.)

Reelected President of Pennsylvania—Conveniences of a Revenue Tariff—The
First Steamboat—Honesty of Heretics—Franklin’s Fublic Services.

To M. Le I SHOULD have proceeded in the history you mention,1
Veiilard,' dated if I could well have avoided accepting the chair of
17 Pres*dent for this third and last year; to which I was
e ’’	’ again elected by the unanimous voice of the Council

and General Assembly in November. If I live to see this year expire,
I may enjoy some leisure, which I promise you to employ in the work
you do me the honour to urge so earnestly.

I sent you with my last a copy of the new Constitution proposed
for the United States by the late General Convention. I send one
also to our excellent friend the Duke de la Rochefoucauld. I attended
the business of the Convention faithfully for four months. Enclosed
you have the last speech I made in it. Six States have already

1 The Memoirs of bis own Life.

41626

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

adopted the Constitution, and there is now little doubt of it being
accepted by a sufficient number to carry it into execution, if not
immediately by the whole. It has, however, met with great opposition
in some States, for we are at present a nation of politicians. And,
though there is a general dread of giving too much power to our
governors, L think we are more in danger from too little obedience in
the governed.

We shall, as you suppose, have imposts on trade, and custom-
houses, not because other nations have them, but because we cannot at
present do without them. We want to discharge our public debt
occasioned by the late war. Direct taxes fare not so easily levied on
the scantily settled inhabitants of our wide-extended country ; and
what is paid in the price of merchandise is less felt by the consumer,
and less the cause of complaint. When we are out of debt we may
leave our trade free, for our ordinary charges of government will not
be great.

Where there is a free government, and the people make their own
laws by their representatives, I see no injustice in their obliging one
another to take their own paper money. It is no more so than com-
pelling a man by law to take his own note. But it is unjust to pay
strangers with such money against their will. The making of paper
money with such a sanction is however a folly, since, although you
may by law oblige a citizen to take it for his goods, you cannot fix his
prices ; and his liberty of rating them as he pleases, which is the
same thing as setting what value he pleases on your money, defeats
your sanction.

I have been concerned to hear of the troubles in the internal govern-
ment of the country I love ; and hope some good may come out of
them ; and that they may end without mischief.

In your letter to my grandson, you asked some questions that had
an appearance as if you meditated a visit to us. Nothing in this
world would give me greater pleasure, than to receive and embrace
here the whole family ; but it is too great a happiness to be expected.

To John lath- It would certainly, as you observe, be a very great
de?1 hi^si^M^" P^easure t0 me> if I could once again visit my native
1788. a’ ay’ town, and walk over the grounds I used to frequent
when a boy, and where I enjoyed much of the innocent
pleasures of youth, which would be so brought to my remembrance,
and where I might find some of my old acquaintance to converse
with. But when I consider how well I am situated here, with every-
thing about me, that I can call either necessary or convenient; the
fatigues and bad accommodations to be met with and suffered in a
land journey, and the unpleasantness of sea voyages, to one, who,
although he has crossed the Atlantic eight times, and made many
smaller trips, does not recollect his having ever been at sea without
taking a firm resolution never to go to sea again ; and that, if I were
arrived in Boston, I should see but little of it, as. I could neither bear
1 A Boston clergyman.BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

627

walking nor riding in a carriage over its pebbled streets ; and, above
all, that I should find very few indeed of my old friends living, it
being now sixty-five years since I left it to settle here ;—all this con-
sidered, I say, it seems probable, though not certain, that I shall
hardly again visit that beloved place. But I enjoy the company and
conversation of its inhabitants, when any of them are so good as to
visit me ; for, besides their general good sense, which I value, the
Boston manner, turn of phrase, and even tone of voice, and accent in
pronunciation, all please, and seem to refresh and revive me.

I have been long impressed with the same sentiments you so well
express, of the growing felicity of mankind, from the improvements
in philosophy, morals, politics, and even the conveniences of common
living, and the invention and acquisition of new and useful utensils
and instruments ; so that I have sometimes almost wished it had been
my destiny to be born two or three centuries hence. For invention
and improvement are prolific, and beget more of their kind. The
present progress is rapid. Many of great importance, now unthought
of, will before that period be produced ; and that I might not only
enjoy their advantages, but have my curiosity gratified in knowing
what they are to be. I see a little absurdity in what I have just
written, but it is to a friend, who will wink and let it pass, while I men-
tion one reason more for such a wish, which is, that, if the art of
physic shall be improved in proportion to other arts, we may then be
able to avoid diseases, and live as long as the patriarchs in Genesis ;
to which I suppose we should have little objection.

I am glad my dear sister has so good and kind a neighbour. I
sometimes suspect she may be backward in acquainting me with cir-
cumstances in which I might be more useful to her. If any such
should occur to your observation, your mentioning them to me will be
a favour I shall be thankful for.

To M. Dupont de * * * We must not expect, that a new government
Nemours, dated may be formed, as a game of chess maybe played, by a
JmwTrfM*’ 9	hand, without a fault.- The players of our game

une' ' are so many, their ideas so different, their prejudices so
strong and so various, and their particular interests, independent of
the general, seeming so opposite, that not a move can be made that
is not contested ; the numerous objections confound the understan-
ding; the wisest must agree to some unreasonable things, that reason-
able ones of more consequence may be obtained ; and thus chance
has its. share in many of the determinations, so that the play is more
like tric-trac with a box of dice.

We are much pleased with, the disposition of your government to
favour our commerce, manifested in the late reglement. You appear to
be possessed of a truth, which few governments are possessed of, that
A must take some of B’s produce, otherwise B will not be able to pay
for what he would take of A. But there is one thing wanting to faci-
litate and augment our intercourse. It is a dictionary, explaining the
names of different articles of manufacture in the two languages.628

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

When I was in Paris, I received a large order for a great variety of
goods, particularly of the kind called hard wares, that is, wares of iron
and steel ; and when I showed the invoice to your manufacturers, they
did not understand what kind of goods or instruments were meant by
the names ; nor could any English or French dictionary be found to
explain them. So I sent to England for one of each sort, which
might serve both as explanation and as a model, the latter being of
importance likewise, since people are prejudiced in favour offorms they
have been used to, though perhaps not the best. They cost me twenty-
five guineas, but were lost by the way, and, the peace coming on, the
scheme dropped. It would, however, as I imagine, be well worth
reviving, for our merchants say, we still send to England for such
goods as we want, because there they understand our orders, and can
execute them precisely.

To theDuke de la Our public affairs begin to wear a more quiet aspect,
dated °Phiiadel- The disputes about the faults of the new constitution are
phia, 22 Oct., subsided. The first Congress will probably mend the
*788,	principal ones, and future Congresses the rest. That

which you mentioned did not pass unnoticed in the Convention.
Many, if I remember right, were for making the President incapable
of being chosen after the first four years ; but the majority were for
leaving the electors free to choose whom they pleased ; and it was
alleged, that such incapacity might tend to make the President less
attentive to the duties of his office, and to the interests of the people,
than he would be if a second choice depended on their good opinion
of him. We are making experiments in politics ; what knowledge we
shall gain by them will be more certain, though perhaps we may

hazard too mpch in that mode of acquiring it.------

Having now finished my turn of being President, and promising
myself to engage no more in public business, I hope to enjoy the
small remains of life that are allowed me, in the repose I have so long
wished for. I purpose to employ it in completing the personal history
you mention. It is now brought down to my fiftieth year. What is
to follow will be of more important transactions ; but it seems to me
what is done will be of more general use to young readers, exempli-
fying strongly the effects of prudent and imprudent conduct in the
commencement of a life of business.

To H. Ie Veil- I have been much afflicted The last summer with a
lord, datedPhiia- long-continued fit of the gout, which I am not quite
178$.	24 0ot,, c^ear °f> though much better ; my other malady is not

augmented. I have lately made great progress in the
work you so urgently demand, and have come as far as my fiftieth
year. Being now free from public business, as my term in the
Presidentship is expired, and resolving to engage in no other public
employment, I expect to have it finished in about two months, if
illness or some unforeseen interruption does not prevent. I do not
therefore send a part at this time, thinking it better to retain theBENJAMIN FRANKLIN	629

whole till I can view it all together and make the proper correc-
tions.

I am much concerned to hear the broils in your country, but hope
they will lead to its advantage. When this fermentation is over and
the troubling parts subsided, the wine will be fine and good, and
cheer the hearts of those who drink of it.

Our affairs mend daily and are getting into good order very fast.
Never was any measure so thoroughly discussed as our proposed new
constitution. Many objections were made to it in the public papers,
and answers to these objections. Much party heat there was, and
some violent personal abuse. I kept out of the dispute, and wrote
only one little paper on the occasion, which I enclose. You seem to
me to be too apprehensive about our President’s being perpetual.
Neither he nor we have any such intention. What danger there may
be of such an event, we are all aware of, and shall take care effectually
to prevent it. The choice is from four years fo four years, the appoint-
ments will be small ; thus we may change our President if we don’t
like his conduct, and he will have less inducement to struggle for a
new election. As to the two Chambers, I am of your opinion, that
one alone would be better ; but, my dear friend, nothing in human
affairs and schemes is perfect, and perhaps that is the case of our
opinions. * * *

I regret the immense quantity of misery brought upon mankind by
fhis Turkish war ; and I am afraid the King of Sweden may burn his
fingers by attacking Russia. When will princes learn arithmetic
enough to calculate, if they want pieces of one another’s territory, how
much cheaper it would be to buy them, than to make war for them,
even though they were to give a hundred years’ purchase ? But, if
glory cannot be valued, and therefore the wars for it cannot be subject
to arithmetical calculation so as to show their advantage or disad-
vantage, at least wars for trade, which have gain for their object, may
be proper subjects for such computation; and a trading nation, as
well as a single trader, ought to calculate the probabilities of profit
and loss before engaging in any considerable adventure. This how-
ever nations seldom do, and we have had frequent instances of their
spending more money in wars for acquiring or securing branches of
commerce, than a hundred years’ profit or the full enjoyment of them
can compensate.

Remember me affectionately to good Dr. Price, and to the honest
heretic, Dr. Priestley. I do not call him honest by way of distinction ;
for I think all the heretics I have known have been virtuous men.
They have the virtue of fortitude, or they would not venture to own
their heresy ; and they cannot afford to be deficient in any of the
other virtues, as that would give advantage to their many enemies ;
and they have not, like orthodox sinners, such a number of friends to
excuse or justify them. Do not, however, mistake me. It is not
to my good friend’s heresy that I impute his honesty. On the con-
trary, it is his honesty that has brought upon him the character of
heretic.630

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

ToMrs.Eiizaleth -------You tel1 n^e our Poor Wend Ben Kent is gone ;

Partridge, dated I hope to the regions of the blessed ; or at least to some
Nov.a nSe!*’ 25 place whei'e souls are prepared for those regions. I found
’’	' my hope on this, that, though not so orthodox as you

and I, he was an honest man, and had his virtues. If he had any
hypocrisy it was of that inverted kind, with which a man is not so bad
as he seems to be. And, with regard to future bliss, I cannot help
imagining, that multitudes of the zealously orthodox of different sects,
who at the last day may flock together in hopes of seeing each other
damned, will be disappointed, and obliged to rest content with their
own salvation.

To Charles Thom- Enclosed I send a letter to the President of Congress,
son, Seoretary of for the time being, which, if you find nothing improper
PMUdeiphiadat29 *n **■> or t^at 'n regard to me you could wish changed or
Nov., 1788. ’ amended, I would request you to present. * * *

I enclose also a “ Sketch of my Services to the
United States,” wherein you will find mention of the extra services
I performed, that do not appertain to the office of plenipotentiary,
viz. as judge of admiralty, as consul before the arrival of Mr. Barclay,
as banker in examining and accepting the multitude of bills of ex-
change, and as secretary for several years, none being sent to me,
though other ministers were allowed such assistance.

I must own, I did hope, that, as it is customary in Europe to make
some liberal provision for ministers when they return home from
foreign service, the Congress would at least have been kind enough
to have shown their approbation of my conduct by a grant of a small
tract of land in their western country, which might have been of use
and some honour to my posterity. And I cannot but still think they
will do something of the kind for me, whenever they shall be pleased
to take my services into consideration. * * *

But how different is what has happened to me. On my return from
England, in 1775, the Congress bestowed on me the office of post-
master-general, for which I was very thankful. It was indeed an
office I had some kind of right to, as having previously greatly en-
larged the revenue of the post by the regulations I had contrived and
established, while I possessed it under the crown. When I was sent
to France, I left it in the hands of my son-in-law, who was to act as
my deputy. But soon after my departure, it was taken from me, and
given to Mr. Hazard. * * *

This is all to yourself only, as a private friend ; for I have not, nor
ever shall, make any public complaint; and, even if I could have
foreseen such unkind treatment from Congress, their refusing me
thanks would not in the least have abated my zeal for the cause, and
ardour in support of it. I know something of the nature of such
changeable assemblies, and how little successors know of the services
that have been rendered to the corps before their admission, or feel
themselves obliged by such services ; and what effect in obliterating
a sense of them, during the absence of the servant in a distant country,BENJA MIN FRA NIC LIN.	631

the artful and reiterated malevolent.insinuations of one or two envious
and malicious persons may have on the minds of members, even of
the most equitable, candid, and honourable dispositions ; and therefore
1 will pass these reflections into oblivion.

My good friend, excuse, if you can, the trouble of this letter ; and
if the reproach thrown on republics, that they are apt to be ungrateful,
should ever unfortunately be verified with respect to your services,
remember that you have a right to unbosom yourself in communi-
cating your griefs to your ancient friend and most obedient humble
servant.

Sketch of the Services of B. Franklin to the United States of America.

In England, he combated the St$imp Act, and his writings in the papers against
it, with his examination in Parliament, were thought to have contributed much to
its repeal.

He opposed the Duty Act; and, though he could not prevent its passing, he
obtained of Mr. Townshend an omission of several articles, particularly salt.

In the subsequent difference he wrote and published many papers, refuting the
claim of Parliament to tax the colonies.

^ He opposed all the oppressive acts.

He had two secret negotiations with the ministers for their repeal, of which he
has written, a narrative. In this he offered payment for the destroyed tea, at his
own risk, in case they were repealed.

He was joined with Messrs. Bollan and Lee in all the applications to government
for that purpose. Printed several pamphlets at his own considerable expense
against the then measures of government, whereby he rendered himself obnoxious,
was disgraced before the privy council, deprived of a place in the post-office of
£"300 sterling a year, and obliged to resign his agencies, viz., of Pennsylvania,
£500; of Massachusetts, £400; of New Jersey, *£100; of Georgia, £200. In
the whole ,£1,500 sterling per annum.

Orders were sent to the King's governors not to sign any warrants on the
treasury for the orders of his salaries ; and,1 though he was not actually dismissed
by the colonies that employed him, yet, thinking the known malice of the court
against him rendered him less likely than others to manage their affairs to their
advantage, he judged it to be his duty to withdraw from their service, and leave it
open for less exceptionable persons, which saved them the necessity of removing him.

Returning to America, ne encouraged the Revolution. Was appointed chair-
man of the Committee of Safety, where he projected the chevaux de frise for
securing Philadelphia, then the residence of Congress.

Was sent by Congress to head-quarters near Boston with Messrs. Harrison and
Lvnch, in 1775, to settle some affairs with the northern governments and General
Washington.

In the spring of 1776, was sent to Canada with Messrs. Chase and Carroll,
passing the Lakes while they were not yet free from ice. In Canada was, with
his colleagues, instrumental in redressing sundry grievances, and thereby recon-
ciling the people more to our cause. He then advanced to General Arnold and
other servants of Congress, then in extreme necessity, .£353 in gold, out of his
own pocket, on the credit of Congress, which was of great service at that juncture,
in procuring provisions for our army.

Being at the time he was ordered on this service upwards of seventy years of
age, he suffered in his health by the hardships of this journey ; lodging in the
woods, &c., in so inclement a season ; but, being recovered, the Congress in the
same year ordered him to France. Before his departure, he put all the money he
could raise, between three and four thousand pounds, into their hands; which,
demonstrating his confidence, encouraged others to lend their money in support of
the cause.632

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

He made no bargain for appointments, but was promised by a vote, the net
salary of ^500 sterling per annum, his expense paid, and to be assisted by a secre-
tary, who was to have £1,000 per annum, to include all contingencies.

When the Pennsylvania Assembly sent him to England in 1764, on the same
salary, they allowed him one year’s advance for his passage, and in consideration
of the prejudice to his private affairs that must be occasioned by his sudden depar-
ture and absence. He has had no such allowance from Congress, was badly
accommodated in a miserable vessel, improper for those northern seas (and which
actually foundered in her return), was badly fed, so that on his arrival he had
scarce strength to stand.

His services to the States as commissioner, and afterwards as minister plenipo-
tentiary, are known to Congress, as may appear in his correspondence. His extra
services may not be so well known, and therefore may be here mentioned. No
secretary ever arriving, the business was in part before, and entirely when the other
commissioners left him, executed by himself, with the help of his grandson, who
at first was only allowed clothes, board, and lodging, and afterwards a salary,
never exceeding £300 a year (except while he served as secretary to the Commis-
sioners for peace), by which difference in salary, continued many years, the Con-
gress saved, if they accept it, £700 sterling a year.

He served as consul entirely several years, till the arrival of Mr. Barclay, and
even after, as that gentleman was obliged to be much and long absent in Holland,
Flanders, and England ; during which absence, what business of the kind occurred,
still came to.Mr. Franklin.

He served, though without any special commission for the purpose, as a judge
of admiralty; for, the Congress having sent him a quantity of blank commissions
for privateers, he granted them to cruisers fitted out in the ports of France, some
of them manned by old smugglers, who knew every creek on the coast of England,
and, running all round the island, distressed the British coasting trade exceedingly,
and raised their general insurance. One of those privateers alone, the Black
Prince, took in the course of a year seventy-five sail! All the papers, taken in
each prize brought in, were in virtue of an order of council sent up to Mr.

He served also as merchant, to make purchases, and direct the shipping of stores
to a very great value, for which he has charged no commission.

But the part of his service which was the most fatiguing and confining, was that
of receiving and accepting, after a due and necessary' examination, the bills of
exchange drawn by Congress for interest money, to the amount of two millions
and a half of livres annually ; multitudes of the bills very small, each of which,
the smallest, gave as much trouble in examining, as the largest. And this careful
examination was found absolutely necessary, from the constant frauds attempted
by presenting seconds and thirds for payment after the firsts had been discharged.
As these bills were arriving more or less by every ship and every post, they required
constant attendance. Mr. Franklin could make no journey for exercise, as had
been annually his custom, and the confinement brought on a malady that is likely
to afflict him while he lives.

In short, though he has always been an active man, he never went through so
much business during eight years, in any part of his life, as during those of his
residence in France ; which however he did not decline until he saw peace happily
made, and found himself in the eightieth year of his age ; when, if ever, a man has
some right to expect repose.1

1 Dr. Franklin’s accounts remained unsettled till his death, notwithstanding his
repeated solicitations to have them examined, adjusted, and closed. No allowance
was ever granted for the “equitable demands for extra services," to which he
thought himself entitled, nor were the grounds of them even made a subject of
inquiry; no vote of thanks or approbation was passed for his long, steady, and
most successful labours in the cause of his country.

to examine them, judge of the legality of the capture, and
ty of the port, that he found the prize good, and that the sale

Franklin, who was __ __________

write to the admiralty of the port, mat ne iouna tne prize gooa, ana mat tne sale
might be permitted. These papers, which are very voluminous, he has' to produce.BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

633

CHAPTER XXXV. (1789-1790.)

Retirement from Public Life—Death of the Good Bishop—Penalties of Old Age-
Farewell to Washington—The Perils of too Good Credit—The Slave Trade
—Noah Webster—Franklin’s Religious Views—Last Illness—And Death.

To Ai»-roT.afi. * * * Having served my time of three years as presi-
Small, dated dent, I have now renounced all public business, and
Philadelphia, 17 enjoy the otium cum dignitate. My friends indulge
e ’’	’ me with their frequent visits, which I have now leisure

to receive and enjoy. The Philosophical Society, and the Society for
Political Inquiries, meet at my house, which I. have enlarged by
additional building, that affords me a large room for those meetings,
another over it for my library now very considerable, and over all
some lodging rooms. I have seven promising grandchildren by my
daughter, who play with and amuse me, and she is a kind attentive
nurse to me when I am at any time indisposed; so that I pass my
time as agreeably as at my age a man may well expect, and have
little to wish for, except a more easy exit than my malady seems to
threaten. * * *

c°th ' e	* *- * I am too old to follow printing again myself,

Green^116	but loving the business, I have brought up my grandson

Philadelphia, 2 Benjamin to it, and have built and furnished a printing-
Uarch, 1789. house for him, which he now manages under my eye.

I have great pleasure in the rest of my grandchildren, who are now in
number eight, and all promising, the youngest only six months old,
but shows signs of great good nature. My friends here are numerous,
and I enjoy as much of their conversation as I can reasonably wish ;
and I have as much health and cheerfulness, as can well be expected
at my age, now eighty-three. Hitherto this long life has been
tolerable happy ; so that, if I were allowed to live it over again, I
should make no objection, only wishing for leave to do, what authors
do in a second edition of their works, correct some of my errata.
Among the felicities of my life I reckon your friendship, which I shall
remember with pleasure as long as that life lasts.

To	Miss it is only a few days since the kind letter of my dear

Shhd^ dated young friend, dated December 24th, came to my hands.
Philadelphia, 27 I had before, in the public papers, met with the afflicting
April, life. news1 that letter contained. That excellent man has
then left us ! His departure is a loss, not to his family and friends
only, but to his nation, and to the world ; for he was intent on doing
good, had wisdom to devise the means, and talents to promote them.
His “ Sermon before the Society for Propagating the Gospel,” and
his “Speech intended to have been spoken,” are proofs of his ability
as well as humanity. Had his counsels in those pieces been attended
to by the ministers, how much bloodshed might have been prevented,
and how much expense and disgrace to the nation avoided !

* The Bishop of St. Asaph died in London, on the 9th of December, 1788.634

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

Your reflections on the constant calmness and composure attending
his death are very sensible. Such instances seem to show, that the
good sometimes enjoy in dying a foretaste of the happy state they are
about to enter.

According to the course of years, I should have quitted this world
long before him. I shall however not be long in following. I am
now in my eighty-fourth year, and the last year has considerably
enfeebled me; so that I hardly expect to remain another. 'You will
then, my dear friend, consider this as probably the last line to be
received from me, and as a taking leave. Present my best and most
sincere respects to your good mother, and love to the rest of the
family, to whom I wish all happiness.

w v	My malady renders my sitting up to write rather

dated' ^Phila- painful to me ; but I cannot let my son-in-law, Mr.
deiphia, 16 Sept., Bache, part for New York, without congratulating you
by him on the recovery of your health, so precious to us
all, and on the growing strength of our new government under your
administration. For my own personal ease, I should have died two
years ago ; but, though those years have been spent in excruciating
pain, I am pleased that I have lived them, since they have brought
me to see our present situation. I am now finishing my eighty-fourth
year, and probably with it my career in this life ; but whatever state
of existence I am placed in hereafter, if I retain any memory of what
has passed here, I shall with it retain the esteem, respect, and affec-
tion, with which I have long been, my dear friend, yours most sincerely.

To John wrieht	* * * I wish success to' your endeavours for obtaining

London, dated an abolition of the Slave Trade. The epistle from your
Philadelphia, 4 Yearly Meeting, for the year 1758, was not the first

ov’’ ' sowing of the good seed you mention ; for I find by an
old pamphlet in my possession, that George Keith, near a hundred
years since, wrote a paper against the practice, said to be “ given
forth by the appointment of the meeting held by him, at Philip James’s
house, in the city of Philadelphia, about the year 1693 wherein a
strict charge was given to Friends, “that they should set their negroes
at liberty, after some reasonable time of service, &c., &c.” And about
the year 1728, or 1729, I myself printed a book for Ralph Sandyford,
another of your Friends in this city, against keeping negroes in
slavery ; two editions of which he distributed gratis. And about the
year 1736, I printed another book on the same subject for Benjamin
Lay, who also professed being one of your Friends, and he distributed
the books chiefly among them. By these instances it appears, that
the seed was indeed sown in the good ground of your profession,
though much earlier than the time you mention, and its springing up
to effect at last, though so late, is some confirmation of Lord Bacon’s
observation, that a good motion never dies; and it may encourage us in
making such, though hopeless of their taking immediate effect. -*■ * *

I hope the fire of liberty, which you mention as spreading itself over
Europe, will act upon the inestimable rights of man, as common fireBENJA MIN FRA NKLIN.	63 5

does upon gold; purify without destroying them ; so that a lover of
liberty may find a country in any part of Christendom.

To	I have long been of your opinion, that your legal

Smith, dated provision for the poor is a very great evil, operating as
Philadelphia, 6 does to the encouragement of idleness. We have
ov'’ ' followed your example, and begin now to see our error,
and, I hope, shall reform it. I find by your letters, that every man
has patience enough to bear calmly and coolly the .injuries done to
other people. You have perfectly forgiven the royalists, and you seem
to wonder, that we should retain any resentment against them for
their joining with the savages to burn our houses, and murder and
scalp our friends, our wives, and our children. I forget who it was
that said, “We are commanded to forgive our enemies, but we are
nowhere commanded to forgive our friends.” Certain it is, however,
that atrocious injuries done to us by our friends are«naturally more
deeply resented than the same done by enemies. They have left us,
to live under the government of their King in England and Nova
Scotia. We do not miss them, nor wish their return ; nor do we envy
them their present happiness.

The accounts you give me of the great prospects you have respecting
your manufactures, agriculture, and commerce, are pleasing to me;
for I still love England and wish it prosperity. You tell me, that the
government of France is abundantly punished for its treachery to
England in assisting us. You might also have remarked, that the
government of England had been punished for its treachery to France
in assisting the Corsicans, and in seizing her ships in time of full
peace, without any previous declaration ol war. I believe govern-
ments are pretty near equal in honesty, and cannot with much
propriety praise their own in preference co that of their neighbours.

You do me too much honour in naming me with Timoleon. I am
like him only in retiring from my public labours ; which indeed my
stone, and other infirmities of age, have made indispensably necessary.

I hope you are by this time returned from your visit to your native
country, and that the journey has given a firmer consistence to your
health. Mr. Penn’s property in this country, which you inquire
about, is still immensely great; and I understand he has received
ample compensation in England for the part he lost.

1 think you have made a happy choice of rural amusements ; the
protection of the bees, and the destruction of the hop insect. I wish
success to your experiments, and shall be glad to hear the result.
Your Theory of Insects appears the most ingenious and plausible of
any, that have hitherto been proposed by philosophers.

. Our new Constitution is now established with eleven States, and the
accession of a twelfth is soon expected. We hav§ had one session
of Congress under it, which was conducted with remarkable prudence,
and a good deal of unanimity. Our late harvests were plentiful, and
our produce still fetches a good price, through an abundant foreign
demand and the flourishing state of our commerce.63 6

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

To Ezra stile* * * * Your desire to know something of my religion,
dated Phila- It is the first time I have been questioned upon it. But
deiphia, 9 i cannot take your curiosity amiss, and shall endeavour
8X0 ’	' in a few words to gratify it. Here is my creed. I

believe in one God, the creator of the universe. That he governs it
by his Providence. That he ought to be worshipped. That the most
acceptable service we render to him is doing good to his other
children. That the soul of man is immortal, and will be treated with
justice in another life respecting its conduct in this. These I take to
be the fundamental points in all sound religion, and I regard them as
you do in whatever sect I meet with them.

As to Jesus of Nazareth, my opinion of whom you particularly
desire, I think his system of morals and his religion, as he left them
to us, the best the world ever saw or is like to see ; but I apprehend
it has received various corrupting changes, and I have, with most of
the present I^jssenters in England, some doubts as to his Divinity ;
though it is a question I do not dogmatize upon, having never studied
it, and think it needless to busy myself with it now, when I expect
soon an opportunity of knowing the truth with less trouble. I see no
harm, however,'in its being believed, if that belief has the good
consequence, as probably it has, of making his doctrines more
respected and more observed ; especially as I do not perceive, that
the Supreme takes it amiss by distinguishing the unbelievers in his
government of the world with any peculiar marks of his displeasure.

I shall only add, respecting myself, that, having experienced the
goodness of that Being in conducting me prosperously through a long
life, I have no doubt of its continuance in the next, though without the
smallest conceit of meriting such goodness. My sentiments on this
head you will see in the copy of an old letter enclosed, which I wrote
in answer to one from an old religionist, whom I had relieved in a
paralytic case by electricity, and who, being afraid I should grow
proud upon it, sent me his serious though rather impertinent caution.
I send you also the copy of another letter, which will show something
of my disposition relating to religion.

To Thomas * received your letter of the 31st of last past, relating
Jefferson, dated to encroachments made on the eastern limits of the
Fliiladeijgbia., 8 United States by settlers under the British government,
pr ’	’ pretending that it is the western, and not the eastern

river of the Bay of Passamaquoddy which was designated by the
name of St. Croix, in the treaty of peace with that nation ; and
requesting of me to communicate any facts which my Aemory or
papers may enable me to recollect, and which may indicate the true
river, which the commissioners on both sides had in their view, to
establish as the boundary between the two nations.

Your letter fftund me under a severe fit of my malady, which
prevented my answering it sooner, or attending, indeed, to any kind
of business. I now can assure you, that I am perfectly clear in the
remembrance that the map we used in tracing the boundary! wasBENJAMIN FRANKLIN.	637

brought to the treaty by the commissioners from England, and that it
was the same that was published by Mitchell above twenty years
before. Having a copy of that map by me in loose sheets, I send you
that sheet which contains the Bay of Passamaquoddy, where you will
see that part of the boundary traced. I remembered, too, that in that
part of the boundary we relied much on the opinion of Mr. Adams,
who had been concerned in some former disputes concerning those
territories. I think, therefore, that you may obtain still further light
from him.

That the map we used was Mitchell’s map, Congress were acquainted
at the time, by a letter to their Secretary for Foreign Affairs, which I
suppose may be found upon their files.

This letter, which was such a satisfactory test of the unabated
strength of Franklin’s memory, was written during the illness which
was destined to prove his last, and only nine days before his death.
He died on the 17th of April, 1790, aged eighty-four years and three
months. His remains were interred in the cemetery of Christ Church,
in Philadelphia, beside those of his wife, on the 21st day of April, 1790.
A plain marble slab covers the two graves, pursuant to the directions
of his will, with no other inscription than their names and the year of
Iris decease.

In a letter from Dr. Rush to Dr. Price, dated at Philadelphia a
week, after Franklin’s death, the writer says :

“The papers will inform you of the death of our late friend Dr.
Franklin. The evening of his life was marked by the same activity of
his moral and intellectual powers which distinguished its meridian.
His conversation with his family upon the subject of his dissolution was
free and cheerful. A few days before he died, he rose from his bed
and begged that it might be made up for him so that he might die in
a decetit manner. His daughter told him that she hoped he would re-
cover and live many years longer. He calmly replied, ‘ I hope not.'
Upon being advised to change his position in bed, that he might
breathe easy, he said, ‘ A dying man can do nothitig easy.’

All orders and bodies of people have vied with each other in
paying tributes of respect to his memory.”

Mrs. Hewson wrote thus to one of Franklin’s oldest friends in
England :

“ •-:< * * 1 was the faithful witness of the closing scene, which he
sustained with that calm fortitude which characterised him through life.
No repining, no peevish expression, ever escaped him during a con-
finement of two years, in which, I believe, if every moment of ease
could be added together, would not amount to,two whole months.
When the pain was not too violent to be amused, he employed him-
self with his books, his pen, or in conversation with his friends ; and
upon every occasion displayed the clearness of his intellect and the
cheerfulness of his temper. Even when the intervals from pain were638

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

so short, that his words were frequently interrupted, I have known him
to hold a discourse in a sublime strain of piety. I say this to you,
because I know it will give you pleasure.

“ I never shall forget one day that I passed with our friend last
summer. I found him in bed in great agony ; but, when that agony
abated a little, L'aSked if I should read to him. He said, yes ; and
the first book I met with was Johnson’s ‘ Lives of the Poets.’ I read
the ‘ Life of Watts,’ who was a favourite author with Dr. Franklin ;
and, instead of lulling him to sleep, it roused him to a display of the
powers of his memory and his reason. He repeated several of Watts’s
‘ Lyric Poems,’ and descanted upon their sublimity in a strain worthy
of them and of their pious author. It is natural for us to wish that
an attention to some ceremonies had accompanied that religion of the
heart, which I am convinced Dr. Franklin always possessed; but let
us, who feel the benefit of them, continue to practise them, without
thinking lightly of that piety, which could support pain without a mur-
mur, and meet death without terror.”

"the end.

WARD, LOCK AND CO., LONDON NEy YORK, AND MELBOURNE.YALE UNIVERSITY

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