IV.
A committee of employ, who shall endeavour to procure constant employment for those free negroes who are able to work: as the want of this would occasion poverty, idleness, and many vicious habits. This committee will, by sedulous enquiry, be enabled to find common labour for a great number; they will also provide, that such, as indicate proper talents, may learn various trades, which may be done by prevailing upon them to bind themselves for such a term of years, as shall compensate their masters for the expence and trouble of instruction and maintenance. The committee may attempt the institution of some useful and simple manufactures, which require but little skill, and also may assist, in commencing business, such as appear to be qualified for it.
Whenever the committee of inspection shall find persons of any
## particular description requiring attention, they shall immediately
direct them to the committee, of whose care they are the proper objects.
In matters of a mixed nature, the committees shall confer, and, if necessary, act in concert. Affairs of great importance shall be referred to the whole committee.
The expence, incurred by the prosecution of this plan, shall be defrayed by a fund, to be formed by donations, or subscriptions, for these particular purposes, and to be kept separate from the other funds of this society.
The committee shall make a report of their proceedings, and of the state of their stock, to the society, at their quarterly meetings, in the months called April and October.
_Philadelphia, 26th October, 1789._
_Paper: a Poem[196]._
Some wit of old--such wits of old there were-- Whose hints show'd meaning, whose allusions care, By one brave stroke to mark all human kind, Call'd clear blank paper ev'ry infant mind; When still, as opening sense her dictates wrote, Fair virtue put a seal, or vice a blot.
The thought was happy, pertinent, and true; Methinks a genius might the plan pursue. I (can you pardon my presumption), I-- No wit, no genius, yet for once will try.
Various the papers various wants produce, The wants of fashion, elegance, and use. Men are as various: and, if right I scan, Each sort of _paper_ represents some _man_.
Pray note the fop--half powder and half lace-- Nice, as a bandbox were his dwelling-place: He's the _gilt-paper_, which apart you store, And lock from vulgar hands in the 'scrutoire.
Mechanics, servants, farmers, and so forth, Are _copy-paper_, of inferior worth; Less priz'd, more useful, for your desk decreed, Free to all pens, and prompt at ev'ry need.
The wretch, whom av'rice bids to pinch and spare, Starve, cheat, and pilfer, to enrich an heir, Is coarse _brown-paper_; such as pedlars choose To wrap up wares, which better men will use.
Take next the miser's contrast, who destroys Health, fame, and fortune, in a round of joys.
Will any paper match him? Yes, throughout, He's a true _sinking-paper_, past all doubt.
The retail politician's anxious thought Deems _this_ side always right, and _that_ stark nought; He foams with censure; with applause he raves-- A dupe to rumours, and a tool of knaves; He'll want no type his weakness to proclaim, While such a thing as _fools-cap_ has a name.
The hasty gentleman, whose blood runs high, Who picks a quarrel, if you step awry, Who can't a jest, or hint, or look endure: What's he? What? _Touch-paper_ to be sure.
What are our poets, take them as they fall, Good, bad, rich, poor, much read, not read at all? Them and their works in the same class you'll find; They are the mere _waste-paper_ of mankind.
Observe the maiden, innocently sweet, She's fair _white-paper_, an unsullied sheet; On which the happy man, whom fate ordains, May write his _name_, and take her for his pains.
One instance more, and only one I'll bring; 'Tis the _great man_ who scorns a little thing, Whose thoughts, whose deeds, whose maxims are his own, Form'd on the feelings of his heart alone: True genuine _royal-paper_ is his breast; Of all the kinds most precious, purest, best.
FOOTNOTE:
[196] We have been told, that this poem is not Franklin's, and the name of some other person was at the time mentioned to us as the author; but as we have forgotten both the name and the authority, and as the poem has been ascribed to Dr. Franklin in the American Museum, we think it not right to omit it. _Editor._
_Plain Truth; or serious Considerations on the present State of the City of Philadelphia, and Province of Pensylvania:_
BY A TRADESMAN OF PHILADELPHIA[197].
Capta urbe, nihil fit reliqui victis. Sed, per deos immortales, vos ego appello, qui semper domos, villas, signa, tabulas vestras, tantæ æstimationis fecistis; si ista, cujuscumque modi sint, quæ amplexamini, retinere, si voluptatibus vestris otium præbere vultis; expergiscimini aliquando, & capessite rempublicam. Non agitur nunc de sociorum injuriis; _libertas & anima_ nostra in dubio est. Dux hostium cum exercitu supra caput est. Vos cunctamini etiam nunc, & dubitatis quid faciatis? Scilicet, res ipsa aspera est, sed vos non timetis eam. Imo vero maxime; sed inertiâ & mollitiâ animi, alius alium expectantes, cunctamini; videlicit, diis immortalibus confisi, qui hanc rempublicam in maximis periculis servavere _non votis, neque suppliciis muliebribus, auxilia deorum parantur_: vigilando, agendo, bene consulendo, prospere omnia cedunt. Ubi socordiæ tete atque ignaviæ tradideris, nequicquam deos implores; irati, infestique sunt.
M. POR. CAT. IN SALUST.
It is said, the wise Italians make this proverbial remark on our nation, viz. The English _feel_, but they do not _see_. That is, they are sensible of inconveniences when they are present, but do not take sufficient care to prevent them: their natural courage makes them too little apprehensive of danger, so that they are often surprised by it, unprovided of the proper means of security. When it is too late, they are sensible of their imprudence: after great fires, they provide buckets and engines: after a pestilence, they think of keeping clean their streets and common sewers: and when a town has been sacked by their enemies, they provide for its defence, &c. This kind of _after-wisdom_ is indeed so common with us, as to occasion the vulgar, though very insignificant saying, _When the steed is stolen, you shut the stable door_.
But the more insensible we generally are of public danger and indifferent when warned of it, so much the more freely, openly, and earnestly, ought such as apprehend it to speak their sentiments; that, if possible, those who seem to sleep may be awakened, to think of some means of avoiding or preventing the mischief, before it be too late.
Believing therefore, that it is my _duty_, I shall honestly speak my mind in the following paper.
War, at this time, rages over a great part of the known world; our newspapers are weekly filled with fresh accounts of the destruction it every where occasions. Pensylvania, indeed, situate in the centre of the colonies, has hitherto enjoyed profound repose; and though our nation is engaged in a bloody war, with two great and powerful kingdoms, yet, defended, in a great degree, from the French, on the one hand, by the northern provinces, and from the Spaniards, on the other, by the southern, at no small expence to each, our people have, till lately, slept securely in their habitations.
There is no British colony, excepting this, but has made some kind of provision for its defence; many of them have therefore never been attempted by an enemy; and others, that were attacked, have generally defended themselves with success. The length and difficulty of our bay and river have been thought so effectual a security to us, that hitherto no means have been entered into, that might discourage an attempt upon us, or prevent its succeeding.
But whatever security this might have been while both country and city were poor, and the advantage to be expected scarce worth the hazard of an attempt, it is now doubted, whether we can any longer safely depend upon it. Our wealth, of late years much encreased, is one strong temptation, our defenceless state another, to induce an enemy to attack us; while the acquaintance they have lately gained with our Bay and river, by means of the prisoners and flags of truce they have had among us; by spies which they almost every where maintain, and perhaps from traitors among ourselves; with the facility of getting pilots to conduct them; and the known absence of ships of war, during the greatest part of the year, from both Virginia and New York, ever since the war began, render the appearance of success to the enemy far more promising, and therefore highly encrease our danger.
That our enemies may have spies abroad, and some even in these colonies, will not be made much doubt of, when it is considered, that such has been the practice of all nations in all ages, whenever they were engaged, or intended to engage, in war. Of this we have an early example in the book of Judges (too pertinent to our case, and therefore I must beg leave a little to enlarge upon it) where we are told, _Chap._ xviii, v. 2. That _the children of Dan sent of their family five men from their coasts to spie out the land, and search it, saying, Go, search the land_. These Danites it seems were at this time not very orthodox in their religion, and their spies met with a certain idolatrous priest of their own persuasion, v. 3, and they said to him, _Who brought thee hither? What makest thou in this place? And what hast thou here?_ [Would to God no such priests were to be found among us]. And they said unto him, v. 5. _Ask counsel of God, that we may know, whether our way which we go shall be prosperous: and the priest said unto them, Go in peace; before the Lord is your way wherein you go._ [Are there no priests among us, think you, that might, in the like case, give an enemy as good encouragement? It is well known, that we have numbers of the same religion with those, who of late encouraged the French to invade our Mother Country.] _And they came_, verse 7, _to Laish, and saw the people that were therein, how they dwelt_ CARELESS, _after the manner of the Zidonians_, QUIET _and_ SECURE. They _thought_ themselves secure, no doubt; and as they _never had been_ disturbed, vainly imagined they _never should_. It is not unlikely, that some might see the danger they were exposed to by living in that _careless_ manner; but that, if these publicly expressed their apprehensions, the rest reproached them as timorous persons, wanting courage or confidence in their gods, who (they might say) had hitherto protected them. But the spies, verse 8, returned, and said to their countrymen, verse 9, _Arise, that we may go up against them; for we have seen the land, and behold it is very good! And are ye still? Be not slothful to go._ Verse 10, _when ye go, ye shall come to a people_ SECURE; [that is, a people that apprehend no danger, and therefore have made no provision against it; great encouragement this!] _and to a large land, and a place where there is no want of any thing_. What could they desire more? Accordingly we find, in the following verses, that _six hundred men_ only, _appointed with weapons of war_, undertook the conquest of this _large land_; knowing that 600 men, armed and disciplined, would be an over-match perhaps for 60,000, unarmed, undisciplined, and off their guard. And when they went against it, the idolatrous priest, verse 17, _with his graven image, and his ephod, and his seraphim, and his molten image_, [plenty of superstitious trinkets] joined with them, and, no doubt, gave them all the intelligence and assistance in his power; his heart, as the text assures us, _being glad_, perhaps for reasons more than one. And now, what was the fate of poor Laish! The 600 men being arrived, found, as the spies had reported, a people QUIET and SECURE, verse 20, 21, _And they smote them with the edge of the sword, and burnt the city with_ FIRE; _and there was no_ DELIVERER, _because it was far from Zidon_.--Not so far from Zidon, however, as Pensylvania is from Britain; and yet we are, if possible, more _careless_ than the people of Laish! As the scriptures are given for our reproof, instruction and warning, may we make a due use of this example, before it be too late!
And is our _country_, any more than our city, altogether free from danger? Perhaps not. We have, it is true, had a long peace with the Indians: but it is a long peace indeed, as well as a long lane, that has no ending. The French know the power and importance of the Six Nations, and spare no artifice, pains or expence, to gain them to their interest. By their priests they have converted many to their religion, and these[198] have openly espoused their cause. The rest appear irresolute what part to take; no persuasions, though enforced with costly presents, having yet been able to engage them generally on our side, though we had numerous forces on their borders, ready to second and support them. What then may be expected, now those forces are, by orders from the crown, to be disbanded, when our boasted expedition is laid aside, through want (as it may appear to them) either of strength or courage; when they see, that the French and their Indians, boldly, and with impunity, ravage the frontiers of New York, and scalp the inhabitants; when those few Indians, that engaged with us against the French, are left exposed to their resentment: when they consider these things, is there no danger that, through disgust at our usage, joined with fear of the French power, and greater confidence in their promises and protection than in ours, they may be wholly gained over by our enemies, and join in the war against us? If such should be the case, which God forbid, how soon may the mischief spread to our frontier countries? And what may we expect to be the consequence, but desertion of plantations, ruin, bloodshed and confusion!
Perhaps some in the city, towns, and plantations near the river, may say to themselves, "An Indian war on the frontiers will not affect us; the enemy will never come near our habitations; let those concerned take care of themselves." And others who live in the country, when they are told of the danger the city is in from attempts by sea, may say, "What is that to us? The enemy will be satisfied with the plunder of the town, and never think it worth his while to visit our plantations: let the town take care of itself."--These are not mere suppositions, for I have heard some talk in this strange manner. But are these the sentiments of true Pensylvanians, of fellow-countrymen, or even of men, that have common sense or goodness? Is not the whole province one body, united by living under the same laws, and enjoying the same privileges? Are not the people of city and country connected as relations, both by blood and marriage, and in friendships equally dear? Are they not likewise united in interest, and mutually useful and necessary to each other? When the feet are wounded, shall the head say, it is not me; I will not trouble myself to contrive relief! Or if the head is in danger, shall the hands say, we are not affected, and therefore will lend no assistance! No. For so would the body be easily destroyed: but when all parts join their endeavours for its security, it is often preserved. And such should be the union between the country and the town; and such their mutual endeavours for the safety of the whole. When New England, a distant colony, involved itself in a grievous debt to reduce Cape Breton, we freely gave four thousand pounds for _their_ relief. And at another time, remembering that Great Britain, still more distant, groaned under heavy taxes in supporting the war, we threw in our mite to their assistance, by a free gift of three thousand pounds: and shall country and town join in helping strangers (as those comparatively are) and yet refuse to assist each other?
But whatever different opinions we have of our security in other respects, our TRADE, all seem to agree, is in danger of being ruined in another year. The great success of our enemies, in two different cruizes this last summer in our bay, must give them the greatest encouragement to repeat more frequently their visits, the profit being almost certain, and the risk next to nothing. Will not the first effect of this be, an enhancing of the price of all foreign goods to the tradesman and farmer, who use or consume them? For the rate of insurance will increase, in proportion to the hazard of importing them; and in the same proportion will the price of those goods increase. If the price of the tradesman's work, and the farmer's produce, would increase equally with the price of foreign commodities, the damage would not be so great: but the direct contrary must happen. For the same hazard or rate of insurance, that raises the price of what is imported, must be deducted out of, and lower the price of what is exported. Without this addition and deduction, as long as the enemy cruize at our capes, and take those vessels that attempt to _go out_, as well as those that endeavour to _come in_, none can afford to trade, and business must be soon at a stand. And will not the consequences be, a discouragement of many of the vessels that used to come from other places to purchase our produce, and thereby a turning of the trade to ports that can be entered with less danger, and capable of furnishing them with the same commodities, as New York, &c.; a lessening of business to every shopkeeper, together with multitudes of bad debts, the high rate of goods discouraging the buyers, and the low rates of their labour and produce, rendering them unable to pay for what they had bought; loss of employment to the tradesman, and bad pay for what little he does; and lastly, loss of many inhabitants, who will retire to other provinces not subject to the like inconveniences; whence a lowering of the value of lands, lots, and houses.
The enemy, no doubt, have been told, that the people of Pensylvania are Quakers, and against all defence, from a principle of conscience; this, though true of a part, and that a small part only of the inhabitants, is commonly said of the whole; and what may make it look probable to strangers is, that in fact, nothing is done by any part of the people towards their defence. But to refuse defending one's self, or one's country, is so unusual a thing among mankind, that possibly they may not believe it, till by experience, they find they can come higher and higher up our river, seize our vessels, land and plunder our plantations and villages, and retire with their booty unmolested. Will not this confirm the report, and give them the greatest encouragement to strike one bold stroke for the city, and for the whole plunder of the river?
It is said by some, that the expence of a vessel, to guard our trade, would be very heavy, greater than perhaps all the enemy can be supposed to take from us at sea would amount to; and that it would be cheaper for the government to open an insurance office, and pay all losses. But is this right reasoning? I think not; for what the enemy takes is clear loss to us, and gain to him; increasing his riches and strength, as much as it diminishes ours, so making the difference double; whereas the money, paid our own tradesmen for building and fitting out a vessel of defence, remains in the country, and circulates among us; what is paid to the officers and seamen, that navigate her, is also spent ashore, and soon gets into other hands; the farmer receives the money for her provisions, and, on the whole, nothing is clearly lost to the country but her wear and tear, or so much as she sells for at the end of the war less than her first cost. This loss, and a trifling one it is, is all the inconvenience; but how many and how great are the conveniences and advantages! and should the enemy, through our supineness and neglect to provide for the defence both of our trade and country, be encouraged to attempt this city, and after plundering us of our goods, either _burn it_, or put it to ransom, how great would that loss be! besides the confusion, terror, and distress, so many hundreds of families would be involved in!
The thought of this latter circumstance so much affects me, that I cannot forbear expatiating somewhat more upon it. You have, my dear countrymen and fellow citizens, riches to tempt a considerable force to unite and attack you, but are under no ties or engagements to unite for your defence. Hence, on the first alarm, _terror_ will spread over all; and as no man can with certainty depend that another will stand by him, beyond doubt very many will seek safety by a speedy flight. Those, that are reputed rich, will flee, through fear of torture, to make them produce more than they are able. The man, that has a wife and children, will find them hanging on his neck, beseeching him with tears to quit the city, and save his life, to guide and protect them in that time of general desolation and ruin. All will run into confusion, amidst cries and lamentations, and the hurry and disorder of departers, carrying away their effects. The few that remain will be unable to resist. _Sacking_ the city will be the first, and _burning_ it, in all probability, the last act of the enemy. This, I believe, will be the case, if you have timely notice. But what must be your condition, if suddenly surprized, without previous alarm, perhaps in the night! Confined to your houses, you will have nothing to trust to but the enemy's mercy. Your best fortune will be, to fall under the power of commanders of king's ships, able to controul the mariners; and not into the hands of _licentious privateers_. Who can, without the utmost horror, conceive the miseries of the latter! when your persons, fortunes, wives, and daughters, shall be subject to the wanton and unbridled rage, rapine, and lust, of negroes, mulattoes, and others, the vilest and most abandoned of mankind[199]. A dreadful scene! which some may represent as exaggerated. I think it my duty to warn you: judge for yourselves.
It is true, with very little notice, the rich may shift for themselves. The means of speedy flight are ready in their hands; and with some previous care to lodge money and effects in distant and secure places, though they should lose much, yet enough may be left them, and to spare. But most unhappily circumstanced indeed are we, the middling people, the tradesmen, shopkeepers, and farmers of this province and city! We cannot all fly with our families; and if we could, how shall we subsist? No; we and they, and what little we have gained by hard labour and industry, must bear the brunt: the weight of contributions, extorted by the enemy (as it is of taxes among ourselves) must be surely borne by us. Nor can it be avoided, as we stand at present; for though we are numerous, we are quite defenceless, having neither forts, arms, union, nor discipline. And though it were true, that our trade might be protected at no great expence, and our country and our city easily defended, if proper measures were but taken; yet, who shall take these measures? Who shall pay that expence? On whom may we fix our eyes with the least expectation, that they will do any thing for our security? Should we address that wealthy and powerful body of people, who have ever since the war governed our elections, and filled almost every seat in our assembly; should we intreat them to consider, if not as friends, at least as legislators, that _protection_ is as truly due from the government to the people, as _obedience_ from the people to the government; and that if, on account of their religious scruples, they themselves could do no act for our defence, yet they might retire, relinquish their power for a season, quit the helm to freer hands during the present tempest, to hands, chosen by their own interest too, whose prudence and moderation, with regard to them, they might safely confide in; secure, from their own native strength, of resuming again their present station, whenever it shall please them: should we remind them, that the public money, raised _from all_, belongs _to all_; that since they have, for their own ease, and to secure themselves in the quiet enjoyment of their religious principles (and may they long enjoy them) expended such large sums to oppose petitions, and engage favourable representations of their conduct, if they themselves could by no means be free to appropriate any part of the public money for our defence; yet it would be no more than justice, to spare us a reasonable sum for that purpose, which they might easily give to the king's use as heretofore, leaving all the appropriation to others, who would faithfully apply it as we desired: should we tell them, that though the treasury be at present empty, it may soon be filled by the outstanding public debts collected; or at least credit might be had for such a sum, on a single vote of the assembly: that though _they_ themselves may be resigned and easy under this naked, defenceless state of the country, it is far otherwise with a very great part of the people; with _us_, who can have no confidence that God will protect those, that neglect the use of rational means for their security; nor have any reason to hope, that our losses, if we should suffer any, may be made up by collections in our favour at home. Should we conjure them by all the ties of neighbourhood, friendship, justice, and humanity, to consider these things; and what distraction, misery, and confusion, what desolation and distress, may possibly be the effect of their _unseasonable_ predominancy and perseverance; yet all would be in vain: for they have already been, by great numbers of the people, petitioned in vain. Our late governor did for years solicit, request, and even threaten them in vain. The council have since twice remonstrated to them in vain. Their religious prepossessions are unchangeable, their obstinacy invincible. Is there then the least hope remaining, that from that quarter any thing should arise for our security?
And is our prospect better, if we turn our eyes to the strength of the opposite party, those great and rich men, merchants and others, who are ever railing at Quakers for doing what their principles seem to require, and what in charity we ought to believe they think their duty, but take no one step themselves for the public safety. They have so much wealth and influence, if they would use it, that they might easily, by their endeavours and example, raise a military spirit among us, make us fond, studious of, and expert in, martial discipline, and affect every thing that is necessary, under God, for our protection. But _envy_ seems to have taken possession of their hearts, and to have eaten out and destroyed every generous, noble, public-spirited sentiment. _Rage_ at the disappointment of their little schemes for power, gnaws their souls, and fills them with such cordial hatred to their opponents, that every proposal, by the execution of which _those_ may receive benefit as well as themselves, is rejected with indignation. "What," say they, "shall we lay out our money to protect the trade of Quakers? Shall we fight to defend Quakers? No; let the trade perish, and the city burn; let what will happen, we shall never lift a finger to prevent it." Yet the Quakers have _conscience_ to plead for their resolution not to fight, which these gentlemen have not. Conscience with you, gentlemen, is on the other side of the question: conscience enjoins it as a _duty_ on you (and indeed I think it such on every man) to defend your country, your friends, your aged parents, your wives, and helpless children: and yet you resolve not to perform this duty, but act contrary to your own consciences, because the Quakers act according to theirs. Till of late, I could scarce believe the story of him, who refused to pump in a sinking ship, because one on board, whom he hated, would be saved by it as well as himself. But such, it seems, is the unhappiness of human nature, that our passions, when violent, often are too hard for the united force of reason, duty, and religion.
Thus unfortunately are we circumstanced at this time, my dear countrymen and fellow-citizens; we, I mean, the middling people; the farmers, shopkeepers, and tradesmen of this city and country. Through the dissensions of our leaders, through mistaken principles of religion, joined with a love of worldly power, on the one hand; through pride, envy, and implacable resentment on the other; our lives, our families, and little fortunes, dear to us as any great man's can be to him, are to remain continually exposed to destruction, from an enterprising, cruel, now well-informed, and by success encouraged, enemy. It seems as if heaven, justly displeased at our growing wickedness, and determined to punish[200] this once-favoured land, had suffered our chiefs to engage in these foolish and mischievous contentions, for _little posts_ and _paltry distinctions_, that our hands might be bound up, our understandings darkened and misled, and every means of our security neglected. It seems as if our greatest men, our _cives nobilissimi_[201] of both
## parties, had sworn the ruin of the country, and invited the French,
our most inveterate enemy to destroy it. Where then shall we seek for succour and protection? The government we are immediately under denies it to us; and if the enemy comes, we are _far from Zidon, and there is no deliverer near_. Our case is dangerously bad; but perhaps there is yet a remedy, if we have but the prudence and the spirit to apply it.
If this new flourishing city, and greatly improving colony, is destroyed and ruined, it will not be for want of numbers of inhabitants able to bear arms in its defence. It is computed, that we have at least (exclusive of the Quakers) sixty thousand fighting men, acquainted with fire arms, many of them hunters and marksmen, hardy and bold. All we want is order, discipline, and a few cannon. At present we are like the separate filaments of flax before the thread is formed, without strength, because without connection; but UNION would make us strong, and even formidable. Though the _great_ should neither help nor join us; though they should even oppose our uniting, from some mean views of their own, yet, if we resolve upon it, and it please God to inspire us with the necessary prudence and vigour, it _may_ be effected. Great numbers of our people are of British race, and though the fierce fighting animals of those happy islands are said to abate their native fire and intrepidity, when removed to a foreign clime, yet with the people it is not so; our neighbours of New England afford the world a convincing proof, that Britons, though a hundred years transplanted, and to the remotest part of the earth, may yet retain, even to the third and fourth descent, that zeal for the public good, that military prowess, and that undaunted spirit, which has in every age distinguished their nation. What numbers have we likewise of _those brave people_, whose fathers in the last age made so glorious a stand for our religion and liberties, when invaded by a powerful French army, joined by Irish Catholics, under a bigotted popish king! Let the memorable siege of Londonderry, and the signal actions of the Iniskillingers, by which the heart of that prince's schemes was broken, be perpetual testimonies of the courage and conduct of those noble warriors! Nor are there wanting amongst us, thousands of _that warlike_ nation, whose sons have ever since the time of Cæsar maintained the character he gave their fathers, of joining the most _obstinate courage_ to all the other military virtues: I mean the brave and steady Germans. Numbers of whom have actually borne arms in the service of their respective princes; and if they fought well for their tyrants and oppressors, would they refuse to unite with us in defence of their newly acquired and most precious liberty and property? Were this union formed, were we once united, thoroughly armed and disciplined, was every thing in our power done for our security, as far as human means and foresight could provide, we might then, with more propriety, humbly ask the assistance of Heaven, and a blessing on our lawful endeavours. The very fame of our strength and readiness would be a means of discouraging our enemies; for it is a wise and true saying, that _one sword often keeps another in the scabbard_. The way to secure peace is to be prepared for war. They, that are on their guard, and appear ready to receive their adversaries, are in much less danger of being attacked, than the supine, secure and negligent. We have yet a winter before us, which may afford a good and almost sufficient opportunity for this, if we seize and improve it with a becoming vigour. And if the hints contained in this paper are so happy as to meet with a suitable disposition of mind in his countrymen and fellow-citizens, the writer of it will, in a few days, lay before them a form of an ASSOCIATION for the purposes herein mentioned, together with a practicable scheme for raising the money necessary for the defence of our trade, city, and country, without laying a burthen on any man.
_May the God of wisdom, strength, and power, the Lord of the armies of Israel, inspire us with prudence in this time of danger, take away from us all the seeds of contention and division, and unite the hearts and counsels of all of us, of whatever sect or nation, in one bond of peace, brotherly love, and generous public spirit; may he give us strength and resolution to amend our lives, and remove from among us every thing that is displeasing to him; afford us his most gracious protection, confound the designs of our enemies, and give peace in all our borders, is the sincere prayer of_
A TRADESMAN of Philadelphia.
FOOTNOTES:
[197] For this pamphlet we are indebted to the same American correspondent, who furnished us with the papers intitled The Busy-Body: but it came too late for insertion in its proper place, which, agreeably to its date, is at the commencement of the present volume. Dr. W. Smith, in his eulogium on our author, delivered before the American philosophical society, speaks of this production as follows: "In 1744, a Spanish privateer, having entered the Bay of Delaware, ascended as high as Newcastle, to the great terror of the citizens of Philadelphia. On this occasion Franklin wrote his first political pamphlet called Plain Truth, to exhort his fellow-citizens to the bearing of arms; which laid the foundation of those military associations, which followed, at different times, for the defence of the country." We presume that Dr. Smith is correct in his date, but the copy sent us by our correspondent, which is the second edition, was printed in 1747. _Editor._
[198] The praying Indians.
[199] By accounts, the ragged crew of the Spanish privateer that plundered Mr. Liston's, and another plantation, a little below Newcastle, was composed of such as these. The _honour_ and _humanity_ of their officers may be judged of, by the treatment they gave poor captain Brown, whom they took with Martin's ship in returning from their cruize. Because he bravely defended himself and vessel longer than they expected, for which every generous enemy would have esteemed him, did they, after he had struck and submitted, barbarously _stab_ and _murder_ him, though on his knees begging quarter!
[200] When God determined to punish his chosen people, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, who, though breakers of his other laws, were scrupulous observers of that ONE, which required keeping holy the Sabbath-day; he suffered even the strict observation of that command to be their ruin: for Pompey, observing that they then obstinately refused to fight, made a general assault on that day, took the town, and butchered them with as little mercy as he found resistance.
JOSEPHUS.
[201] Conjuravere cives nobilissimi patriam incendere; GALLORUM GENTEM, infestissimam nomini Romano, ad bellum arcessunt.
CAT. IN SALUST.
_Four Letters[202] to George Whatley, Esq. Treasurer of the Foundling Hospital, London._
Letter I.
_Passy, near Paris, Aug. 21, 1784._
MY DEAR OLD FRIEND,
I received your kind letter of May 3, 1783. I am ashamed that it has been so long unanswered. The indolence of old age, frequent indisposition, and too much business, are my only excuses. I had great pleasure in reading it, as it informed me of your welfare.
Your excellent little work, "The Principles of Trade," is too little known. I wish you would send me a copy of it by the bearer, my grandson and secretary, whom I beg leave to recommend to your civilities. I would get it translated and printed here, and if your bookseller has any quantity of them left, I should be glad he would send them to America. The ideas of our people there, though rather better than those that prevail in Europe, are not so good as they should be: and that piece might be of service among them.
Since and soon after the date of your letter, we lost, unaccountably as well as unfortunately, that worthy, valuable young man you mention, your namesake Maddeson. He was infinitely regretted by all that knew him.
I am sorry your favourite charity does not go on as you could wish it. It is shrunk indeed by your admitting only 60 children in a year. What you have told your brethren respecting America is true. If you find it difficult to dispose of your children in England, it looks as if you had too many people. And yet you are afraid of emigration. A subscription is lately set on foot here to encourage and assist mothers in nursing their infants themselves at home; the practice of sending them to the _Enfans Trouvés_ having risen here to a monstrous excess, as by the annual bills it appears they amount to near one third of the children born in Paris. This subscription is likely to succeed, and may do a great deal of good, though it cannot answer all the purposes of a foundling hospital.
Your eyes must continue very good, since you are able to write so small a hand without spectacles. I cannot distinguish a letter even of large print, but am happy in the invention of double spectacles, which, serving for distant objects as well as near ones, make my eyes as useful to me as ever they were. If all the other defects and infirmities of old age could be as easily and cheaply remedied, it would be worth while, my friend, to live a good deal longer. But I look upon death to be as necessary to our constitutions as sleep. We shall rise refreshed in the morning.--Adieu, and believe me ever,
Your's most affectionately,
B. FRANKLIN.
Letter II.
_Passy, May 19, 1785._
DEAR OLD FRIEND,
I received the very good letter you sent me by my grandson, together with your resemblance, which is placed in my chamber and gives me great pleasure: there is no trade, they say, without returns, and therefore I am punctual in making those you have ordered. I intended this should have been a long epistle, but I am interrupted, and can only add, that I am ever,
Yours, most affectionately,
B. FRANKLIN.
My grandson presents his most affectionate respects.
Letter III.
_Passy, May 23, 1785._
DEAR OLD FRIEND,
I sent you a few lines the other day with the medallion, when I should have written more, but was prevented by the coming in of a _bavard_, who worried me till evening. 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 saying 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 exactitude in correspondence. What was that saying?--You do not, it seems, feel any occasion for such an excuse, though you are, as you say, rising 75, but I am rising (perhaps more properly falling) 80--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 I doubt the author of the epitaph you sent me is a little mistaken, when, speaking of the world, he says, that
----------------He ne'er car'd 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 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 old authors, ingenious and cheerful companions, pudding on Sundays, with stout ale and a bottle of burgundy, &c. &c. in separate stanzas, each ending with this burden,
May I govern my passions with absolute sway, And grow wiser and better as strength wears away, Without gout or stone by a gentle decay--
he adds for the last stanza,
With 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 not left behind him his fellow. For he govern'd his passions, &c.
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 too, 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; for 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 cannot 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 preceding, as far back as 1710, together with the general christenings of the city; and 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 monstrous deficiency of natural affection? A surgeon I met with here excused the women of Paris, by saying seriously, that they _could not_ give suck, _Car, dit-il, ils 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, says 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, with admirable eloquence pleaded 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 _Enfants Trouvés_, 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 licences. 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 arms. But those who are good enough to try this way of raising their children are often not able to pay the expence, so that the prisons of Paris are crouded with wretched fathers and mothers confined _pour mois de nourice_; 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 not immediately send their infants out of their sight, they would in a few days begin to love them, and thence be spurred to greater industry for their maintenance. This is a subject you understand better than I, 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 universally disliked by the people, that it is supposed it will be dropped. It was considered as an attempt to establish something like an hereditary 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, and 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 pre-eminence than the different grains of sand in an hour-glass. 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 expences, so that having no chance for great places and enormous salaries or pensions, as in some countries, there is no briguing 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 every thing that belongs to us, to think one's own religion, king, and wife, the best of all possible wives, kings, and 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 (when they were in their way home) whether, now they had seen how much more commodiously the white people lived by the help of the arts, they would not chuse to remain among us--their answer was, that they were pleased with having had an opportunity of seeing many fine things, _but they chose to live in their own country_: which country, by the way, consisted of rock only, for the Moravians were obliged to carry earth in their ship from New York, for the purpose of making there a cabbage garden!
By Mr. Dollond's saying, that my double spectacles could only serve
## particular eyes, I doubt he has not been rightly informed of their
construction, 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 pair of spectacles, which I shifted occasionally, as in travelling I sometimes read and often want to regard the prospects. Finding this change troublesome, and not always sufficiently ready, I had the glasses cut out and half of each kind associated in the same circle, the least convex, for distant objects the upper half, and the most convex, for reading, the lower half: 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 convenient since my being in France; the glasses that
serve me best at table to see what I eat, 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 movements 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 translator 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, your 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 lacqueys, or for life as soldiers in consideration of small wages, seems to me a proof that your island is over-peopled, and yet it is afraid of emigrations! Adieu, my dear friend, and believe me ever,
Yours, very affectionately,
B. FRANKLIN.
Letter IV.
_Philadelphia, May 18, 1787._
I received duly my good old friend's letter of the 19th of February, with a copy of one from Mr. Williams, to whom I shall communicate it when I see him, which I expect soon to do. He is generally a punctual correspondent, and I am surprised you have not heard from him.
I thank you much for your notes on banks; they are just and solid, as far as I can judge of them. Our bank here has met with great opposition, partly from envy, and partly from those who wish an emission of more paper-money, which they think the bank influence prevents. But it has stood all attacks, and went on well notwithstanding the assembly repealed its charter; a new assembly has restored it; and the management is so prudent, that I have no doubt of its continuing to go on well. The dividend has never been less than 6 per cent, nor will that be augmented for some time, as the surplus profit is reserved to face accidents. The dividend of 11 per cent, which was once made, was from a circumstance scarce avoidable. A new company was proposed, and prevented only by admitting a number of new partners. As many of the first set were averse to this, and chose to withdraw; it was necessary to settle their accounts; so all were adjusted, the profits shared that had been accumulated, and the new and old proprietors jointly began on a new and equal footing. Their notes are always instantly paid on demand, and pass on all occasions as readily as silver, because they will always produce silver.
Your medallion is in good company, it is placed with those of Lord Chatham, Lord Camden, Marquis of Rockingham, Sir George Savil, and some others, who honoured me with a share of friendly regard when in England. I believe I have thanked you for it, but I thank you again.
I believe with you, that if our plenipotentiary is desirous of concluding a treaty of commerce, he may need patience. But if I were in his place, and not otherwise instructed, I should be apt to say, Take your own time, gentlemen. If the treaty cannot be made as much to your advantage as to ours, don't make it. I am sure the want of it is not more to our disadvantage than to yours. Let the merchants on both sides treat with one another. _Laissez les faire._
I have never considered attentively the congress scheme for coining, and I have it not now at hand, so that at present I can say nothing to it. The chief uses of coining seem to be ascertaining the fineness of the metals, and saving the time that would otherwise be spent in weighing to ascertain the quantity. But the convenience of fixed values to pieces is so great as to force the currency of some whose stamp is worn off, that should have assured their fineness, and which are evidently not of half their due weight; this is the case at present with the sixpences in England, which one with another do not weigh three-pence.
You are now 78, and I am 82. You tread fast upon my heels: but, though you have more strength and spirit, you cannot come up with me till I stop; which must now be soon; for I am grown so old as to have buried most of the friends of my youth; and I now often hear persons, whom I knew when children, called _old_ Mr. such a one, to distinguish them from their sons now men grown, and in business; so that by living twelve years beyond _David's_ period, I seem to have intruded myself into the company of posterity, when I ought to have been a-bed and asleep. Yet had I gone at 70, it would have cut off 12 of the most active years of my life, employed too in matters of the greatest importance; but whether I have been doing good or mischief, is for time to discover. I only know that I intended well, and I hope all will end well.
Be so good as to present my affectionate respects to Dr. Rowley. I am under great obligations to him, and shall write to him shortly. It will be a pleasure to him to hear that my malady does not grow sensibly worse, and that is a great point: for it has always been so tolerable, as not to prevent my enjoying the pleasures of society, and being cheerful in conversation. I owe this in a great measure to his good counsels.
Adieu, my dear friend, and believe me ever,
Yours, most affectionately,
B. FRANKLIN.
_Geo. Whatley, Esq._
FOOTNOTE:
[202] These letters did not come into our possession till the preceding sheets and even the subsequent appendix were printed. We are indebted for them to Mr. I. T. Rutt, the originals of which were put into his hands about twelve years ago by a relation of his, the nephew of the gentleman to whom they were addressed. "Mr. Whatley, the friend of Dr. Franklin," Mr. Rutt informs us, "had engaged in mercantile pursuits, and was for some time a British consul in the Mediterranean. During the latter years of his life, he devoted his time to various objects of public utility, for which he was well qualified, and particularly attached himself to the interests of the Foundling Hospital, of which he was the treasurer. He died in 1791, aged 82, having survived his correspondent not quite a year." _Editor._
APPENDIX, No. II.
CONTAINING LETTERS, BY SEVERAL EMINENT PERSONS, ILLUSTRATIVE OF DR. FRANKLIN'S MANNERS AND CHARACTER.
_Letter from the late Dr. Price to a Gentleman in America._
_Hackney, June 19, 1790._
DEAR SIR,
I am hardly able to tell you how kindly I take the letters with which you favour me. Your last, containing an account of the death of our excellent friend, Dr. Franklin, and the circumstances attending it, deserves my particular gratitude. The account which he has left of his life will show, in a striking example, how a man, by talents, industry, and integrity, may rise from obscurity to the first eminence and consequence in the world; but it brings his history no lower than the year 1757, and I understand, that since he sent over the copy, which I have read, he has been able to make no additions to it. It is with a melancholy regret I think of his death; but to death we are all bound by the irreversible order of nature, and in looking forward to it, there is comfort in being able to reflect--that we have not lived in vain, and that all the useful and virtuous shall meet in a better country beyond the grave.
Dr. Franklin, in the last letter I received from him, after mentioning his age and infirmities, observes, that it has been kindly ordered by the author of nature, that, as we draw nearer the conclusion of life, we are furnished with more helps to wean us from it, among which one of the strongest is the loss of dear friends. I was delighted with the account you gave in your letter of the honour shown to his memory at Philadelphia, and by congress; and yesterday I received a high additional pleasure, by being informed, that the national assembly of France had determined to go into mourning for him[203].--What a glorious scene is opened there! The annals of the world furnish no parallel to it. One of the honours of our departed friend is, that he has contributed much to it.
I am, with great respect,
Your obliged and very
humble servant,
RICHARD PRICE.
FOOTNOTE:
[203] Congress ordered a general mourning throughout the United States for a month: the national assembly of France decreed, that the assembly do wear mourning for three days, that a funeral oration be delivered by M. Mirabeau, the elder, and that the president write a letter of condolence to congress: and the common-council of Paris paid the extraordinary tribute, of attending in a body at a funeral oration, delivered by the Abbe Fauchet, in the Rotunda of the market-place, which was hung with black, illuminated with chandeliers and rows of lamps, and decorated with suitable devices. _Editor._
_Letter from Mr. Thomas Jefferson to the late Dr. William Smith, of Philadelphia[204]._
I feel both the wish and the duty to communicate, in compliance with your request, whatever, within my knowledge, might render justice to the memory of our great countryman, Dr. Franklin, in whom philosophy has to deplore one of its principal luminaries extinguished. But my opportunities of knowing the interesting facts of his life have not been equal to my desire of making them known.
I can only, therefore, testify in general, that there appeared to me more respect and veneration attached to the character of Dr. Franklin in France, than to that of any other person in the same country, foreign or native. I had opportunities of knowing
## particularly, how far these sentiments were felt by the foreign
ambassadors and ministers at the court of Versailles. The fable of his capture by the Algerines, propagated by the English newspapers, excited no uneasiness, as it was seen at once to be a dish cooked up to please certain readers; but nothing could exceed the anxiety of his diplomatic brethren on a subsequent report of his death, which, although premature, bore some marks of authenticity.
I found the ministers of France equally impressed with his talents and integrity. The count de Vergennes, particularly, gave me repeated and unequivocal demonstrations of his entire confidence in him.
When he left Passy, it seemed as if the village had lost its patriarch. On taking leave of the court, which he did by letter, the king ordered him to be handsomely complimented, and furnished him with a litter and mules of his own, the only kind of conveyance the state of his health could bear.
The succession to Dr. Franklin, at the court of France, was an excellent school of humility to me. On being presented to any one, as the minister of America, the common-place question was, "_c'est vous Monsieur, qui remplacez le Docteur Franklin?_"--is it you, sir, who replace Dr. Franklin? I generally answered--"No one can replace him, sir; I am only his successor."
I could here relate a number of those _bon mots_, with which he was used to charm every society, as having heard many of them; but these are not your object. Particulars of greater dignity happened not to occur, during his stay of nine months after my arrival in France.
A little before that time, Argand had invented his celebrated lamp, in which the flame is spread into a hollow cylinder, and thus brought into contact with the air, within as well as without. Dr. Franklin had been on the point of the same discovery. The idea had occurred to him; but he had tried a bullrush as a wick, which did not succeed. His occupations did not permit him to repeat and extend his trials to the introduction of a larger column of air, than could pass through the stem of a bullrush.
About that time, also, the king of France gave him a signal testimony of respect, by joining him with some of the most illustrious men of the nation to examine that ignis-fatuus of philosophy, the animal magnetism of the maniac, Mesmer; the pretended effects of which had astonished all Paris. From Dr. Franklin's hand, in conjunction with his brethren of the learned committee, that compound of fraud and folly was unveiled, and received its death-wound. After this nothing very interesting was before the public, either in philosophy or politics, during his stay; and he was principally occupied in winding up his affairs, and preparing for his return to America.
These small offerings to the memory of our great and dear friend (whom time will be making still greater, while it is spunging us from its records) must be accepted by you, sir, in that spirit of love and veneration for him, in which they are made; and not according to their insignificancy in the eyes of a world, which did not want this mite to fill up the measure of his worth.
His death was an affliction which was to happen to us at some time or other. We have reason to be thankful he was so long spared; that the most useful life should be the longest also; that it was protracted so far beyond the ordinary span allotted to humanity, as to avail us of his wisdom and virtue, in the establishment of our freedom in the west; and to bless him with a view of its dawn in the east, where men seemed till now to have learned every thing--but _how to be free_.
FOOTNOTE:
[204] Extracted from the Eulogium on Dr. Franklin, delivered by Dr. W. Smith, before the American philosophical society. _Editor._
_Letter from the late Dr. Joseph Priestley to the Editor of the Monthly Magazine[205]._
SIR,
I have just read in the Monthly Review, vol. 36, p. 357, that the late Mr. Pennant said of Dr. Franklin, that, "living under the protection of our mild government, he was secretly playing the incendiary, and too successfully inflaming the minds of our fellow subjects in America, till that great explosion happened, which for ever disunited us from our once happy colonies."
As it is in my power, as far as my testimony will be regarded, to refute this charge, I think it due to our friendship to do it. It is probable, that no person now living was better acquainted with Dr. Franklin and his sentiments on all subjects of importance, than myself, for several years before the American war. I think I knew him as well as one man can generally know another. At that time I spent the winters in London, in the family of the Marquis of Lansdown, and few days passed without my seeing more or less of Dr. Franklin; and the last day that he passed in England, having given out that he should depart the day before, we spent together, without any interruption, from morning till night.
Now he was so far from wishing for a rupture with the colonies, that he did more than most men would have done, to prevent it. His constant advice to his countrymen, he always said, was "to bear every thing from England, however unjust;" saying, that "it could not last long, as they would soon outgrow all their hardships." On this account Dr. Price, who then corresponded with some of the principal persons in America, said, he began to be very unpopular there. He always said, "If there must be a war, it will be a war of ten years, and I shall not live to see the end of it." This I have heard him say many times.
It was at his request, enforced by that of Dr. Fothergil, that I wrote an anonymous pamphlet, calculated to show the injustice and impolicy of a war with the colonies, previous to the meeting of a new parliament. As I then lived at Leeds, he corrected the press himself, and, to a passage, in which I lamented the attempt to establish arbitrary power in so large a part of the British empire, he added the following clause, "to the imminent danger of our most valuable commerce, and of that national strength, security, and felicity, which depend on union and on liberty."
The unity of the British empire, in all its parts, was a favourite idea of his. He used to compare it to a beautiful China vase, which, if once broken, could never be put together again: and so great an admirer was he at the time of the British constitution, that he said he saw no inconvenience from its being extended over a great part of the globe. With these sentiments he left England; but when, on his arrival in America, he found the war begun, and that there was no receding, no man entered more warmly into the interests of what he then considered as _his country_, in opposition to that of Great Britain. Three of his letters to me, one written immediately on his landing, and published in the collection of his Miscellaneous Works, p. 365, 552, and 555[206], will prove this.
By many persons, Dr. Franklin is considered as having been a cold-hearted man, so callous to every feeling of humanity, that the prospect of all the horrors of a civil war could not affect him. This was far from being the case. A great part of the day abovementioned that we spent together, he was looking over a number of American newspapers, directing me what to extract from them for the English ones; and, in reading them, he was frequently not able to proceed for the tears literally running down his cheeks. To strangers he was cold and reserved; but where he was intimate, no man indulged to more pleasantry and good humour. By this he was the delight of a club, to which he alludes in one of the letters above referred to, called the _whig-club_, that met at the London coffee-house, of which Dr. Price, Dr. Kippis, Mr. John Lee, and others of the same stamp, were members.
Hoping that this vindication of Dr. Franklin will give pleasure to many of your readers, I shall proceed to relate some particulars relating to his behaviour, when lord Loughborough, then Mr. Wedderburn, pronounced his violent invective against him at the privy-council, on his presenting the complaints of the province of Massachusetts (I think it was) against their governor. Some of the
## particulars may be thought amusing.
On the morning of the day on which the cause was to be heard, I met Mr. Burke, in Parliament-street, accompanied by Dr. Douglas, afterwards bishop of Carlisle; and after introducing us to each other, as men of letters, he asked me whither I was going? I said I could tell him where I _wished_ to go. He then asking me where that was, I said to the privy-council, but that I was afraid I could not get admission. He then desired me to go along with him. Accordingly I did; but when we got into the anti-room, we found it quite filled with persons as desirous of getting admission as ourselves. Seeing this, I said, we should never get through the crowd. He said, "Give me your arm;" and locking it fast in his, he soon made his way to the door of the privy-council. I then said, Mr. Burke, you are an excellent leader; he replied, "I wish other persons thought so too."
After waiting a short time, the door of the privy-council opened, and we entered the first, when Mr. Burke took his stand behind the first chair next to the president, and I behind that the next to his. When the business was opened, it was sufficiently evident, from the speech of Mr. Wedderburn, who was counsel for the governor, that the real object of the court was to insult Dr. Franklin. All this time he stood in a corner of the room, not far from me, without the least apparent emotion.
Mr. Dunning, who was the leading counsel on the part of the colony, was so hoarse, that he could hardly make himself heard; and Mr. Lee, who was the second, spoke but feebly in reply; so that Mr. Wedderburn had a complete triumph. At the sallies of his sarcastic wit, all the members of the council, the president himself (Lord Gower) not excepted, frequently laughed outright. No person belonging to the council behaved with decent gravity, except Lord North, who, coming late, took his stand behind the chair opposite to me.
When the business was over, Dr. Franklin, in going out, took me by the hand, in a manner that indicated some feeling. I soon followed him, and going through the anti-room, saw Mr. Wedderburn there surrounded with a circle of his friends and admirers. Being known to him, he stepped forwards as if to speak to me; but I turned aside, and made what haste I could out of the place.
The next morning I breakfasted with the doctor, when he said, "He had never before been so sensible of the power of a good conscience; for that if he had not considered the thing for which he had been so much insulted, as one of the best actions of his life, and what he should certainly do again in the same circumstances, he could not have supported it." He was accused of clandestinely procuring certain letters, containing complaints against the governor, and sending them to America, with a view to excite their animosity against him, and thus to embroil the two countries. But he assured me, that he did not even know that such letters existed, till they were brought to him as agent for the colony, in order to be sent to his constituents; and the cover of the letters on which the direction had been written, being lost, he only guessed at the person to whom they were addressed, by the contents.
That Dr. Franklin, notwithstanding he did not show it at the time, was much impressed by the business of the privy council, appeared from this circumstance: when he attended there, he was dressed in a suit of Manchester velvet; and Silas Dean told me, that, when they met at Paris to sign the treaty between France and America, he purposely put on that suit.
Hoping that this communication will be of some service to the memory of Dr. Franklin, and gratify his friends,
I am, sir, your's, &c.
J. PRIESTLEY.
_Northumberland, Nov. 10, 1802._
FOOTNOTES:
[205] Inserted in the number for February, 1803. _Editor._
[206] Answering to page [___] of the present volume. _Editor._
FINIS.
JAMES CUNDEE, PRINTER,
_Ivy Lane, Paternoster Row_.
INDEX.
A.
_Accent_, or emphasis, wrong placing of, a fault in modern tunes, ii. 345.
_Accidents_ at sea, how to guard against, ii. 172.
_Adams_, Mr. Matthew, offers the use of his library to Franklin, i. 16.
_Addison_, Franklin an assiduous imitator of, in his youth, i. 13.
_Advice_ to youth in reading, ii. 378. to emigrants to America, iii. 398. to a crafty statesman, 430. to a young tradesman, 463. to a young married man, 477. to players at chess, 490.
_Æpinus_, his hypothesis of magnetism, i. 412.
_Agriculture_ takes place of manufactures till a country is fully settled, iii. 107. the great business of America, 393.
_Air_, some of the properties of, ii. 226. its properties with respect to electricity, i. 204. properties of its particles, 205. ii. 1. its currents over the globe, i. 207. resists the electric fluid and confines it to bodies, 241. its effects in electrical experiments, 253. its elasticity not affected by electricity, 254. its friction against trees, 270, 323. has its share of electricity, 333. its electricity denser above than below, 335. in rooms, electrified positively and negatively, 353. attracts water, ii. 1. when saturated with water precipitates it, 2. dissolves water, and, when dry, oil, 4. why suffocating, when impregnated with oil or grease, _ibid._ supports water, 5, 46, 49. why less heated in the higher regions than near the earth's surface, 6. how it creates hurricanes, _ibid._ winds, 8. whirlwinds, 10. effects of heat upon, 50. its effects on the barometer, 92. condensed, supposed to form the centre of the earth, 119, 127. noxious, corrected by vegetation, 129. observations on the free use of, 213. rare, no bad conductor of sound, 337. fresh, beneficial effects of, in bed-rooms, iii. 495.
_Air-thermometer_, electrical, experiments with, i. 336.
_Albany_ plan of union, short account of, i. 127. its singular fate, 129. papers relating to, iii. 3. motives on which formed, 4. rejects partial unions, 6. its president and grand council, 9. election of members, 12. place of first meeting, 13. new election, _ibid._ proportion of members after three years, 15. meetings of the grand council and call, 16. allowance to members, 17. power of president and his duty, 18. treaties of peace and war, _ibid._ Indian trade and purchases, 19. new settlements, 21. military establishments, 23. laws and taxes, 24, 26. issuing of money, 25. appointment of officers, 27. rejected in England, 29.
_Almanack._ _See Poor Richard._
_Alphabet_, a new one proposed, ii. 357. examples of writing in it, 360. correspondence on its merits, 361.
_Amber_, electrical experiments on, i. 403.
_America_, North, air of, drier than that of England and France, ii. 140. why marriages are more frequent there than in Europe, 385. why labour will long continue dear there, _ibid._ argument against the union of the colonies of, under one government, 401. state of toleration there, 457. reflections on the scheme of imposing taxes on, without its consent, iii. 30. thoughts on the representation of, in the British parliament, 37. interest of Great Britain with regard to, 39. forts in the back settlements of, no security against France, 99. wars carried on there against the French, not merely in the cause of the colonies, 105. preference of the colonies of, to the West Indian colonies, 113. great navigable rivers of, favourable to inland trade, 118. what commodities the inland parts of, are fitted to produce, 119. the productions of, do not interfere with those of Britain, 123. union of the colonies of, in a revolt against Britain, impossible but from grievous oppression, 132. reasons given for restraining paper-bills of credit there, 144. intended scheme of a bank there, described, 155. attempts of Franklin for conciliation of Britain with, 286. feeling of, as to Britain, in May 1775, 346. conciliation of Britain with, hopeless, 355. account of the first campaign of the British forces against, 357. application of, to foreign courts, for aid in its independence, 360. credit of, with that of Britain, in 1777, compared, 372. true description of the interest and policy of, 391. information to those emigrating thither, 398. terms on which land may be obtained for new settlements there, 409.
_Americans_, their prejudices for whatever is English, i. 144.
_Anchor_, a swimming one proposed, ii. 181, 185.
_Ancients_, their experimental learning too often slighted, ii. 146.
_Anecdote_ of Franklin's early spirit of enterprise, i. 11. of a Swedish clergyman among the Indians, iii. 386. of an Indian who went to church, 389.
_Animal_ food, Franklin's abstinence from, i. 20. return to, 47. humorous instance of abstinence from, 49. heat, whence it arises, ii. 79, 125. magnetism, detected and exposed, i. 150.
_Animalcules_, supposed to cause the luminous appearance of sea-water, ii. 89.
_Animals_, how to kill them by electricity, i. 415.
_Antifederalists_ of America, comparison of, to the ancient Jews, iii. 410.
_Apprentices_ easier placed out in America than in Europe, iii. 407. indentures of, how made in America, 408.
_Argumentation_, bad effects of, as a habit, i. 17. best method of, 22.
_Armies_, best means of supporting them, ii. 400.
_Armonica_, musical instrument so called, described, ii. 330. manner of playing on it, 334.
_Asbestos_, specimen of, sold by Franklin to Sir Hans Sloane, i. 60. letter relating to it, iii. 513.
_Astrology_, letter to the Busy-body on, iii. 448.
_Atmosphere_ sometimes denser above than below, ii. 6. electrical, its properties, i. 294.
_Aurora borealis_ explained, i. 212. conjectures respecting, 257, ii. 69. query concerning, i. 293.
B.
_Badoin_, Mr. letters from, i. 314, 324.
_Ballads_, two, written by Franklin in his youth, i. 16.
_Balls_ of fire in the air, remark concerning, ii. 337.
_Barometer_, how acted on by air, ii. 92.
_Barrels_ for gunpowder, new sort proposed, i. 376.
_Bass_, unnecessary in some tunes, ii. 343.
_Bathing_ relieves thirst, ii. 104. observations on, 211.
_Battery_, electrical, its construction, i. 193.
_Baxter_, Mr. observations on his enquiry into the nature of the soul, ii. 110.
_Beccaria_, character of his book on electricity, i. 310.
_Beer_, not conducive to bodily strength, i. 62.
_Bells_, form in consecrating them at Paris, i. 384.
_Belly-ache_, dry, lead a cause of, ii. 220.
_Bermuda_, little thunder there, i. 216.
_Bermudian_ sloops, advantages of their construction, ii. 173.
_Bernoulli_, Mr. his plan for moving boats, ii. 179.
_Bevis_, Dr. draws electricity from the clouds, i. 429.
_Bible_, anecdote of its concealment in the reign of Mary, i. 7. travestied by Dr. Brown, 31.
_Bills_ of mortality, reasonings, formed on those for capital cities, not applicable to the country, ii. 383.
_Birth_, noble, no qualification in America, iii. 400.
_Bishops_, none in America, and why, ii. 456, 458.
_Black clothes_ heat more and dry sooner than white, ii. 108. not fit for hot climates, 109.
_Blacksmith_, trade of, hereditary in Franklin's family, i. 4.
_Blindness_ occasioned both by lightning and electricity, i. 228.
_Boats_, difference of their sailing in shoal and deep water, ii. 160. management of, best understood by savages, 176. how rowed by the Chinese, 177. methods of moving them by machinery, _ibid._ improvement of Mr. Bernoulli's plan for moving them, 179. proposal for a new mode of moving them, _ibid._ double, advantage of, 173, 174. one built by Sir W. Petty, _ibid._
_Bodies_, electrified negatively, repel each other, ii. 294. effect of blunt, compared with pointed ones, i. 172, 223.
_Body_, human, specifically lighter than water, ii. 208. political and human, compared, iii. 115.
_Boerhaave_, his opinion of the propagation of heat, ii. 58. of steam from fermenting liquors, 59.
_Boiling_ water, experiments with, i. 332, 344, 345. pot, bottom of, why cold, 387.
_Bolton_, Mr. experiment by, i. 346.
_Books_ read by Franklin in his youth, i. 15, 18, 20, 21.
_Boston_, the birth-place of Franklin, i. 8. why quitted by him in his youth, 27, its inhabitants decrease, ii. 210. preface to proceedings of the town meeting of, iii. 317.
_Boyle's_ lectures, effect of, on Franklin, i. 79.
_Braddock_, general, defeat of, i. 131.
_Bradford_, printer at Philadelphia, i. 34, 102.
_Brass_, hot, yields unwholesome steams, ii. 249
_Brientnal_, Joseph, a member of the Junto club, i. 83.
_Brimstone_, when fluid, will conduct electricity, i. 256.
_Bristol waters_, an alledged fact concerning, ii. 95.
_Britain_, incapacity of, to supply the colonies with manufactures, ii. 386.
_British empire_, an union of several states, iii. 310.
_Brown_, Dr. acquaintance of Franklin's, i. 30. travestied the bible, 31.
_Bubbles_ on the surface of water, hypothesis respecting, ii. 48.
_Buchan_, earl of, letter to, on the price of land for new settlements in America, iii. 409.
_Buildings_, what kind safest from lightning, i. 379.
_Bullion_, causes of its variation in price, iii. 153.
_Bunyan's_ Voyages, a book early read by Franklin, i. 15, 28.
_Bur_, cause of, round a hole struck through pasteboard, i. 280.
_Burnet_, governor, his attention to Franklin in his youth, i. 44.
_Busy-body_, essays under the title of, i. 86. iii. 422.