3 9002 07086 2025 kfmB ¥: Y '.* BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. WRITTEN BY HIMSELF, AND CONTINUED BY HIS GRANDSON AND OTHERS. HIS SOCIAL EPISTOLARY CORRESPONDENCE, PHILOSOPHICAL, POLITICAL, AND MORAL LETTERS AND ESSAYS, DIPLOMATIC TRANSACTIONS AS AGENT AT LONDON AND MINISTER PLENIPOTENTIARY AT VERSAILLES. AUGMENTED BY MUCH MATTER NOT CONTAINED IN ANY FORMER EDITION POSTLIMINIOUS PREFACE. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. II. PHILADELPHIA: M'CARTY & DAVIS, No. 171 MARKET STREET 18 34. Ektehei) according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1834, by McCarty & Davis, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. CONTENTS OF VOL. IL HISTORICAL. Grievances of Pennsylvania - v. Dedication to Arthur Onslow vii. Introduction to the History - - - viii. Review of the Constitution and Government of Pennsylvania - - . . . j Appendix; containing sundry original Papers, relative to the several Points of Controversy between the Governors and Assemblies of Pennsylvania 132 HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL BEFORE THE REVOLUTION. Albany Papers - ... 176 I. Reasons and Motives on which the Plan of Union was formed - - - ¦ ih. It. Reasons against partial Unions - 177 III. Plan of a proposed Union of the several Colonies of Massachusett's Bay, New Hamp shire, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Soutli Carolina .... 179 Albany Papers— continued. I. Letter to Governor Shirley, concerning the Imposition of direct Taxes upon the Colo nies, without their consent - - - 184 II. Letter to the same ; concerning direct Taxes in the Colonies imposed without con sent, indirect Taxes, and the Albany Plan of Union ... 184 III. Letter on the Subject of uniting the Co- ~^ lonies more intimately with Great Britain, by Representatives in Parliament - 186 The Canada Pamphlet:— The Interest of Great Britain considered, with '"*' regard to her Colonies and the Acquisitions of Canada and Guadaloupe - - - 190 Plain Truth ; or, Serious Considerations on the present State of the City of Philadelphia, and Province of Pennsylvania. By a Tradesman of Philadelphia . , . . - 205 A Comparison of the Conduct of the ancient Jews, and of the Anti-federalists in the United States of America - - 211 The Internal State of America; being a true Description of the Interest and Policy of that vast Continent - - - - - 212 Settlement on Ohio ; Report of Lords Commis sioners for Trade and Plantations, concerning a Grant of Lands on the river Ohio, in North America ..... 214 Appendix, No. I. Proclamation by the King - 238 Appendix. No. II. State of the King's Quit-rents in North America ... . . 240 Comparison of Great Britain and America as to - Credit, in 1777 - - - 241 PHILOSOPHICAL. Essays and Correspondence. Electricity.— Wonderful Effect of Points.— Posi five and negative Electricity.— Electrical Kiss, —Counterfeit Spider.— Simple and commo dious electrical Machine - - - 244 Observations on the Leyden Bottle, with Expe^ riments - - - ... 345 Farther Experiments.- Leyden Bottle analyzed, —Electrical Battery.— Magical Picture.— Elec trical Wheel or Jack.— Electrical Feaat Observations and Suppositions respecting Thun der-gusts ¦ - 254 Page Introductory Letter to some additional Papers 257 Opinions and Conjectures concerning the Pro perties and Effects of electrical Matter, &c. 258 Additional Experiments with the Leyden Bottle 266 Accumulation of the electrical Fire in the elec trified Glass.— Effect of Lightning explained, &c. - - - - 267 Unlimited Nature of the electric Force 268 Of the Terms, electric per se and non-electric. —Relation between Metals and Water, &c. • 268 An Experiment towards discovering more of the qualities of the electrical Fluid - 269 Mistake, that only Metal and Water were con ductors, rectified, &c. - . . , 269 Difference in the Electrcity of a Globe of Glass charged, and a Globe of Sulphur, and the pro bable Course of their different Attractions and Repulsions, &c. - - 271, 272 Electrical Experiment made at Marly - - 273 . Letter of W. Watson concerning electrical Ex periments upon Thunder-clouds - - 275 Remarks on the Abbii Nollet's Letters, by David Colden - - - ... 276 Curious Instance of the Effect of Oil on Water 279 Rev. Mr. Farish to Dr. Brovvnrigg - ' - 280 Dr. Franklin to Dr. Brownrigg ib. Mr. Tengnagel to Count Bentinck 282 The electrical Kite - - . 284 Size of Rods for Conductors to Buildings.— De scription of a Thunder-cloud - ¦ • ih. Of the positive and negative State of Electricity in the Clouds .... 289 Electrical Experiments - - jj. Experiments made in pursuance of those made by Mr. Canton ; with explanations, by B. Franklin - - . . 292 Turkey killed by Electricity - . . 293 Dr. Franklin to Dr. Lining on electrical Matters 294 Beccaria's Work on Electricity, &c. - 29fi Dr. Franklin to Peter Collinson - 297 Mr. Bowdoin to Dr. Franklin concerning Light ning - - - - 298 Answer to the same, by Dr. Franklin - - 299 Mr. Bowdoin to Dr. Franklin on the Effect of Lightning on Capt. Waddell's Compass, &c. 301 Of the Electric Spark,— Time taken up by ip. Answer to the foregoing - ... 302 Mr. Kinnersley to Dr. Franklin.— Experiments on boiling Water, &c. 303 Answer to the foregoing - 306 Effects of Lightning in Carolina 312 Remarks by Dr. Franklin - 313 On the Electricity of the Tourmalin - - 314 Professor Winthrop to Dr. Franklin, relating to Electricity in the Atmosphere - - 315 A. Small, of London, to Dr. Franklin - - 316 Best Method of securing a Powder Magazine from Lightning - ¦ - - ib. Professor Winthrop to Dr. Franklin.- Electrical Conductors - 3i8 Answer to the above - - ib. Opinions and Observations concerning the uti lity of long pointed Rods - - 320 On the utility of electrical Conductors - 323 On the Effects of Electricity in paralytic cases 334 Electrical Experiments on Amber - ib. On the Electricity of the Fogs in Ireland 325 The Shock from the Surinam Eel, or the Torpe do, considered - , . . ^QQ On the Analogy between Magnetism and Elec tricity ..... ^j. Mode of rendering Meat tender by Electricity . 327 iii CONTENTS. Page Choice of Glass for the Leyden Experiment - 328 Concerning the Leyden Bottle - - 329 Physical and Meteorological Obaervations ib. On Water- spouts ... - 332 Water-spouts and Whirlwinds - 334. 340 Description of a Water-spout at Antigua 339 Shooting Stars - - • - ib. Obaervations on the Meteorological Paper 342. 344 Answers to the foregoing - - 343. 345 Extracts from Dampier's Voyages 346. 347 C Colden to Dr. Franklin - 347 Account of a Whirlwind in Maryland 348 On the N. E Storms in North America - 349 Meteorological Imaginations and Conjectures - 350 On Cold produced by Evaporation - 350. 353 Concerning the Light in Sea-water 354 On the Saltness of Sea-water - - 355 On the Bristol Waters, and the Tide in Ri vers . - . . . 356. 358 Salt Water rendered fresh by Distillation.— Me thod of relieving thirst by Sea-water - - 358 Tendency of Rivers to the Sea.—Effects of the Sun's Rays on Cloths of different colours - 359 Effect of Air on the Barometer, and the Benefits derived from the Study of Insects - - 360 Effect of Vegetation on noxious Air • • 361 On the Inflammability of the Surface of certain Rivers in America - - - - ib. On the different duantities of Rain which fall at different Heights over the same Ground - 362 On the Properties of an Hygrometer . - 363 On the Difference of Navigation in shoal and deep Water - - - 365 Improvements in Navigation 366. 374 On the Gulf Stream - - 376 On the Warmth of Sea-water - - - 377 Journal of a Voyage from the Channel between France and England towards America - 379 On the Art of Swimming - - 381. 382 On the free Use of Air 383 On the Causes of Colds ib. On the Vis Inertiffi of Matter ib. On the different Strata of the Earth • 385 Theory of the Earth - - ib. Theory of Light and Heat ... 387 Of Magnetism and the Theory of the Earth 388 On the Nature of Sea Coal - - - 389 Number of Deaths in Philadelphia by Inoculation ib. Answer to the preceding - ib. Effects of Lead upon the Human Constitution 390 The prevailing Doctrines of Life and Death 391 New-invented Pennsylvania Fire-places 392 On the Causes and Cure of smoky Chimneys - 401 Description of a new Stove for burning Pit-coal and consuming all its Smoke - - - 414 Method of contracting Chimneys.— Modesty in Disputation - - - - ,420 POLITICAL ESSAYS. Concerning the Increase of Mankind, peopling of Countries, &c. ¦ ¦ 421 Page Remarks on some of the foregoing Observations 423 Plan, by Messrs. Franklin and Dalrymple, for benefiting distant unprovided Countries 427 Of the Provision made in China against Famine 428 Positions concerning national Wealth - - ib. On the Price of Corn, and the Management of the Poor .... - 429 On Freedom of Speech and the Press - 431 On Government . - - 439, 440 On Paper Money - ¦ 441 On Coin - 445 Rules of Health 448 Rules for a Club formerly established in Phila delphia - - - - ¦ ib. Sketch of an English School 449 On Discoveries - - - 453 On the Usefulness of the Mathematics 453 Causes of Earthquakes - 4.54 Public Men - 458 On Smuggling .... . 4(;o Plan for improving the Condition of the Free Blacks - ¦ - - - 401 Remarks concerning the Savages of North America .... 4C2 Memoire de Sir John Dalrymple ou Projet du Lord Rocheford, pour empecher la Guerre - 4(15 On human Vanity ¦ - 4r> On true Happiness 469 On Self-denial - 470 Rivalship in Almanac making 471 The Waste of Life ... 472 Dialogue I. between Phjlocles and Horatio, con cerning Virtue and Pleasure - 473 Dialogue 11. The same continued 47.5 Poor Richard's Almanac— The Way to Wealth 477 Advice to a Young Tradesman - ¦ 4eU Necessary Hints to those that would be Rich - ib. The Way to make Money plenty in every Man's pocket ..... 4g] Hints for a Reply to the Protests of certain Members of the House of Lords against the Repeal of the Stamp Act - - - - 49ii Observations on Passages in a Pamphlet, en titled, "Good Humour, or, a Way with the Colonies" ... . -vj;* Observations on Passages in a Letter from a Merchant in London to his Nephew in North America - - - 504 Observations on Passages in an "Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Disputes be tween the British Colonies in America and their Mother Country" - 510 ' Observations on Passages in a Pamphlet, en titled, " The True constitutional Means for putting an end to the Disputes between Great Britain and the American Colonies" • 516 BAGATELLES, The handsome and deformed Leg - 4S1 The Busybody - - -J83 The Drinker's Dictionary - 495 White-washing - - 493 REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF GRIEVANCES OF THE ASSEMBLY OF PENNSYLVANIA, FEBRUARY 22, 1757. Is obedience to the order of the house, we have drawn up the heads of the most important aggrievances that occur to us, which the people of tliis province with great difficulty labour under ; the many infractions of the constitution (in manifest violation of the royal grant, the proprietary charter, the laws of this province, and of the laws, usages, and customs of our mother-country) and other matters ; which we apprehend call aloud for redress. They are as follow : First — By the royal charter (which has ever been, ought to be, and truly is the principal and invariable fundamental of this constitution) king Charles the Second did give and grant unto William Penn, his heirs, and assigns, the province of Pennsylvania ; and also to him and his heirs, and his or their deputies or lieutenants, free, full, and absolute power, for the good and happy government thereof, to make and enact any laws, according to their best discretion ; by and with the advice, assent, and approbation of the freemen of the said country, or of their dele gates or deputies ; for the raising of money, or any other end appertaining to the public state, peace, or safety of the said country. By the words of this grant, it is evident, that full powers are granted to the deputies and Ueutenants of William Penn and his heirs, to concur with the people in framing laws for their protection and the safety of the province, according to their best discretion ; independent of any instructions or directions they should receive from their principals. And it is equally obvious to your committee, that the people of this province and their representa tives were interested in this royal grant ; and by virtue thereof, have an original right of legisla tion inherent in them ; which neither the proprietors nor any other person whatsoever can divest them of, restrain, or abridge, without manifestly violating and destroying the letter, spirit, and de sign of this grant. Nevertheless we unfortunately find, that the proprietaries of this province, regardless of this sacred fundamental of our rights and liberties, have so abridged and restricted their late and pre sent governor's discretion in matters of legislation, by their illegal, impracticable, and unconstitu tional instructions and prohibitions ; that no bill for granting aids and supplies to our most gracious sovereign (be it ever so reasonable, expedient, and necessary for the defence of this his majesty's colony, and safety of his people) unless it be agreeable thereto, can meet with his approbation : by means whereof the many considerable sums of money which have been offered for those pur poses, by the assemblies of this province (ever anxious to maintain his honour and rights), have been rejected : to the great encouragement of his majesty's enemies, and the imminent danger of the loss of this colony. Secondly — The reprepresentatives of the people, in general assembly met, by virtue of the said royal grant, and the charter of privileges granted by the said Wilham Penn, and a law of this province, have right to, and ought to enjoy all the powers and privileges of an assembly, accord ing to the rights of the free-born subjects of England, and as is usual in any of the plantations in America : [also] it is an indubitable and now an incontested right of the commons of England, to grant aids and supplies to his majesty in any manner they think most easy to themselves and the people ; and they [also] are the sole judges of the measure, manner, and time of granting and raising the same. Nevertheless the proprietaries of this province, in contempt of the said royal grant, proprietary charter, and law of their colony, designing to subvert the fundamentals of this constitution, to deprive the assembly and people of their rights and privileges, and to assume an arbitrary and tyrannical power over the liberties and properties of his majesty's liege subjects, have so restrained the governors by the despotic instructions (which are not to be varied from, and are particularly directory in the framing and passing of money hills and supplies to his majesty, as to the mode, measure, and time), that it is impossible for the assembly, should they lose all sense of their most essential rights, and comply with those instructions, to grant sufficient aids for the defence of this his majesty's province from the common enemy. Thirdly — In pursuance of sundry acts of general asembly, approved of by the crown, [and] a natural right inherent in every man antecedent to all laws, the assemblies of this province have had the power of disposing of the public moneys, that have been raised for the encouragement of trade and support of government, by the interest money arising by the loan of the bills of credit and the excise. No part of these moneys was ever paid by the proprietaries, or ever raised on their estates ; and therefore they can have no pretence of right to a voice in the disposition of them. They have ever been applied with prudent frugality to the honour and advantage of the public, and the king's immediate service, to the general approbation of the people : the credit of the government has been preserved, and the debts of the public punctually discharged. In short, no inconveniencies but great and many advantages have accrued, from the assembly's prudent car? and management of these funds. \* 5 vi GRIEVANCES OF PENNSYLVANIA. Yet the proprietaries resolved to deprive the assemblies of the power and means of supportmg an agent in England, and of prosecuting their complaints and remonstrating their aggrievances, when injured and oppressed, to his majesty and his parliament ; and to rob them of this natural right (whicli has been so often approved of by their gracious sovereign), have, by their said in structions, prohibited their governor from giving his assent to any laws emitting or remitting any paper currency or bills of credit, or for raising money by excise or any other method ; unless the governor or commander-in-chief for the time being, by clauses to be inserted therein, has a nega tive in the disposition of the moneys arising thereby ; let the languishing circumstances of our trade be ever so great, and a further or greater medium be ever so necessary for its support. Fourthly — By the laws and statutes of England, the chief rents, honours, and castles of the crown are taxed, and pay their proportion to the supplies that are granted to the king for the defence of the realm, and support of government : his majesty, the nobility of the realm, and all the British subjects do now actually contribute their proportion towards the defence of America in general, and this province in particular ; and it is in a more especial manner the duty of the proprietaries to pay their proportion of a tax for the immediate preservation of their own estates in this provinre. To exempt, therefore, any part of their estates from their reasonable part of this necessary burthen, it is unjust as it is illegal, and as new as it is arbitrary. Yet the proprietaries, notwithstanding the general danger to which the nation and its colonies are exposed, and great distress of this province in particular, by their said instructions, have pro hibited their governors from passing laws for the raising suppUes for its defence ; unless all their located, unimproved, and unoccupied lands, quit-rents, fines, and purchase moneys on interest (the much greater part of their enormous estates in this colony) are expressly exempted from paying any part of the tax. Fiftldy — By virtue of the said royal charter, the proprietaries are invested with a power of doing every thing " which unto a complete establishment of justice, unto courts and tribunals, forms of judicature, and manner of proceedings, do belong." It was certainly the import and design of this grant, that the courts of judicature should be formed, and the judges and officers thereof hold their commissions, in a manner not repugnant, but agreeable to the laws and customs of England ; that thereby they might remain free from the influence of persons in power, the rights of the people might be preserved, and their properties elTectually secured. That by the guarantee, William Penn (understanding the paid grant in this light) did, by his original frame of govern ment, covenant and grant with the people, that the judges and other officers should hold their commissions during their good behaviour, and no longer. Notwithstanding which, the governors of this province have, for many years past, granted all the commissions to the judges of the king's bench or supreme court of this province, and to the judges of the court of common pleas of the several counties, to be held during their leiU and pleasure ; by means whereof, the said judges being subject to the influence and directions of the proprietaries and their governors, their favourites and creatures, the laws may not be duly ad ministered or executed, but often wrested from their true sense to serve particular puqioses ; the foundation of justice may be liable to be destroyed ; and the lives, laws. Uberties, privileges, and properties of the people thereby rendered precarious and altogether insecure ; to the great disgrace of our laws, and the inconceivable injury -of his majesty's subjects. Your committee further beg leave to -add, that besides these aggrievances, there are other hard ships the people of this province have experienced, that call for redress. — The enlistment of ser vants, witJiout tlie least satisfaction being made to the masters, has not onU' prevented the culti vation of our lands, and diminished the trade and commerce of the province, but is a burden extremely unequal and oppressive to individuals. And should the practice continue, the conse quence must prove very discouraging to the further settlement of this colony, and prejudicial to his majesty's future service. — Justice, therefore, demands, that satisfaction should be made to the masters of such enlisted servants ; and that the right of masters to their servants be confirmed and settled. — But as those servants have been enhsled into his majesty's ser^e for tlie general defence of America, and not of this province only, but all the colonics, and the nation in general, have and will receive equal benefit from their service ; this satisfaction should be made at the expense of the nation, and not of the province only. That the people now labour under a burden of taxes, almost insupportable by so young a colony, for the defence of its long-extended frontier, of about two hundred miles from New Jersey to Maryland ; without either of those colonies, or tlie three lower counties on Delaware, con tributing their proportion thereto ; though their frontiers are in a great measure covered and protected by our forts. And should the war continue, and with it this unequal burden, many of his majesty's subjects in this province will be reduced to want, and the province, if not lost to the enemy, involved in debt, and, sunk under its load. That notwithstanding this weight of taxes, the assemblies of this province have given to the general service of the nation, five thousand pounds to purchase provisions for the troops under general Braddock ; two thousand nine hundred and eighty-five pounds and eleven pence for clear ing a road by his orders ; ton thousand five hundred and fourteen pounds ten shillings and a penny to general Shirley, for the purchasing provisions for the New England forces ; and ex pended the sum of two thousand three hundred and eighty-five pounds and two pence halfpenny DEDICATION TO ARTHUR ONSLOW, ESQ. vii in supporting the inhabitants of Nova Scotia ; which likewise we conceive ought to be a national expense. And that his majesty's subjects, the merchants and insurers in England, as well as the merchants here and elsewhere, did during the last, and will during the present war, greatly suffer in their property, trade, and commerce, by the enemy^s privateers on this coast, and at our capes, unless some method be fallen on to prevent it. Wherefore your committee are of opinion, that the commissioners intended to be sent to England, to solicit a memorial and redress of the many infractions and violations of the constitu tion, should also have it in charge, and be instructed to represent to our most gracious sovereign and his parliaments, the several unequal burdens and hardships before mentioned ; and endeavour to procure satisfaction to the masters of such servants as have been enlisted, and the right of mas ters to their servants established and confirmed ; and obtain a repayment of the said several sums of money, some assistance towards defending our extensive frontier, and a vessel of war to protect the trade and commerce of this province. Submitted to the correction of the house, February 22, 1757. TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE ARTHUR ONSLOW, Esq. SPEAKER OF THE HONOURABLE HOUSE OF COMMONS. Sm — The subject of the following sheets is an unhappy one : the controversy between the proprietaries and successive assemblies of Pennsylvania. A controversy which has often embar rassed, if not endangered the public service ; a controversy which has been long depending, and which still seems to be as far from an issue as ever. Our blessed Saviour reproaches the Pharisees with laying heavy burdens on men's shoulders, which they themselves would not stir with a single finger. Our proprietaries, sir, have done the same ; and for the sake of the commonwealth, the provuice has hitherto submitted to the imposition. Not, indeed, without the most strenuous endeavours to lay the load equally, the fullest manifestations of their right to do so, and the strongest protesta tions against the violence put upon them. Having been most injuriously misrepresented and traduced in print by the known agents and dependants of these gentlemen their fellow subjects, they at last find themselves obliged to set forth an historical state of their case, and to make their appeal to the pubhc upon it. With the public opinion in their favour, they may with the more confidence lift up their eyes to the wisdom of parliament and the majesty of the crown, from whence alone they can derive an effectual remedy. To your hands, sir, these papers are most humbly presented, for considerations so obvious, that they scarce need any explanation. ¦The Roman provinces did not stand more in need of patronage than ours : and such cUents as we are would have preferred the integrity of Cato to the fortune of Csesar. The cause we bring is in fact the cause of all the provinces in one ; it is the cause of every British subject in every part of the British dominions. It is the cause of every man who deserves to be free, everywhere. The propriety, therefore, of addressing these papers to a gentleman, who, for so many succes sive parliaments, with so much honour to himself and satisfaction to the public, has been at the head of the commons of Great Britain, cannot be called in question. You will smile, sir, perhaps, as you read the references of a provincial assembly to the rights and claims of parhament ; but, we humbly conceive, it will be without the least mixture of re sentment ; those assemblies having nothing more in view than barely to establish their privileges, on the most rational and solid basis they could find, for tlie security and service of their con stituents. And you are humbly besought, sir, not to think the worse of this address, because it has been made without your permission or privity. Nobody asks leave to pay a debt ; every Briton is your debtor, sir ; and all we have said, or can say, is but a poor composition for what we owe you. You have conferred as much honour on the chair you fill, as the chair has conferred on you. Probity and dignity are your characteristics. May that seat always derive the same lustre from the same quahties. This at least ought to be our prayer, whether it is or not within our expectations. For the province of Pennsylvania, as well as in my own private capacity, I have the honour to be, with the most profound respect, Sir, your most obedient, humble servant, THE EDITOR. INTRODUCTION. To obtain an infinite variety of purposes, by a few plain principles, is the characteristic of nature. As the eye is affected, so is the understanding; ¦objects at a distance strike us according to their dimensions, or the quantity of light thrown upon them ; near, accordmg to their novelty or familiar ity; as they are in motion or at rest, It is the same with actions. A battle is all motion : — a hero all glare ; while such images are before us, we can attend to nothing else. Solon and Lycurgus would make no figure in the same scene with the king of Prussia: and we are at present so lost in the mili tary scramble on the continent next us,* m which it must he confessed we are deeply interested, that we have scarce time to throw a glance towards America, where we have also much at stake, and wliere, if anywhere, our account must be made up at last. We love to stare more than to reflect; and to be indolently amused at our leisure, rather than com mit the smallest trespass on our patience by wind ing a painful, tedious maze, whicli would pay us in nothing but knowledge. But then, as there are some eyes which can find nothing marvellous, but what is marvellously great, so there are others which are equally disjwsed to marvel at what is marvellously little; and who can derive as much entertainment from their mi croscope in examining a mite, as Dr. in ascer taining the geography of the moon, or measuring the tail of a comet. Let this serve as an excuse for the author of these sheets, if he needs any, for bestowing them on the transactions of a colony, till of late hardly mentioned in our annals; in point of establish ment one of the last upon the British list, and in point of rank one of the most subordinate ; as being not only subject, in common with the rest, to the crown, but also so the claims of a proprietary, who thinlvs he does them honour enough in governing them by deputy ; consequently so much farther re moved from the royal eye, and so much the more ex posed to the pressure of self-interested instructions. Considerable, however, as most of them for hap piness of situation, fertility of soil, product of valuable commodities, number of inhabitants, ship ping, amount of exportations, latitude of rights and pHvileges, and every other requisite for the being and well-being of society, and more considerable than any of them all for the celerity of its growth, unassisted by any human help but the vigour and virtue of ils own excellent constitution. A father and his family, the latter united by in terest and affection, the former to be reverei for the wisdom of his inslilulions, and the indulgent use of his authority, was Ihc form it was at first presented in. Those wiio were only ambitious of repose found it here; and as none returned with an evil report of the land, nutnbers followed, all partook of the leaven they found ; the community * This publinition was made in London diirinir the war that bcjrun in 1753, anil the author, wlio always adapts hinisfilf to his situation, had discerniutirit enough to perceive tliat a. work on a siihjoct so im portant would lose none of ils considenitlon by ItiMrig published in a remote colony. The introduction, which is a model of vivid style and sound wisdom, written as in Louilon, and with the zeal of a man eealouB for the prosperity of the British government. viii still wore the same equal face; nobody aspired; nobody was oppressed ; industry was sure of profit, knowledge of esteem, and virtue of veneration. An assuming landlord, strongly disposed to con vert free tenants into abject vassals, and to reap what he did not sow, countenanced and abetted by a few desperate and designing dependants on the one side ; and on the other, all who ha^'e sense enougii to know their rights, and spirit enough to defend them, combined as one man against the said landlord, and his encroachjnents, is the form it lias since assumed. And, surely, lo a nation bom to liberty like this, bound to leave it unimpaired as they received it from their fathers in perpetuity to their heirs, and interested in the conservation of it in every- ap pendage of the British empire, the particulars of such a contest cannot be w holly indifferent. On the contrary, it is reasonable to think, the first workings of power against liberty, and the natural efforts of unbiased men to secure them selves against the first approaches of oppression, must have a captivating power over every man of sensibility and discernment amongst us. Liberty, it seems, tlirives best in the woods, America best cultivates what Germany brought forlh. And were it not for certain ugly compari sons, hard to be suppre^ed, the pleasure arising from such a research would be without alloy. In the feuds of Florence, recorded by Wachia- vel, we find more to lament and less to praise. Scarce can we believe the first citizens of the an cient republics had such pretensions to considera- lion, though so highly celebrated in ancient story. And as to ourselves, we need no longer have re course to the late glorious stand of the French parliaments to excite our emulation. It is a loiown custom among farmers to change iheir corn from season to season for the sake of filling the bushel : and in case the wisdom of the age should condescend to make the like experi ment in another shape, from hence we may learn whither to repair for the proper species. It is not, however, to be presumed, that such as have long been accustomed to consider the colo nies, in general, as only so many dependencies on the council-board, the board of trade, and the board of customs ; or as a hot-bed for causes, jobs, and other pecuniar}' emoluments, and as bound as elTectually by instructions as by laws, can be pre vailed upon to consider these patriot rustics with anv degree of respect. Derision, on the contrary, must be the lot of hira w ho imagines it in the power of the pen to set any lustre upon them ; and indignation theirs for dar ing to assert and maintain the independency inter woven in their constitution, which now, it seems, is become an improper ingredient, and therefore to be excised away. But how contemptibly soever these genffemen mtiy talk of the colonies, how cheap soever they may hold their assemblies, or how insignificant the planters and traders who compose them, truth will bo truth, and principle principle not\\ithstanding Courage, w'isdom, integrity, and honour are not to be measured by tlie sphere assigned them to act in, but by the trials they undergo, and the vouch ers they furnish, and if so manifested, need neithei robes nor titles to set them oW, FRANKLIN'S WORKS. AN HISTORICAL REVIEW CONSTITUTION AND GOVERNMENT PENNSYLVANIA. The constitution of Pennsylvania is de rived, first, from the birthright of every Bri tish subject ; secondly, from the rotjal charter gi-anted to William Penn by king Charles IL, and thirdly, from the charter of privileges granted by the said William Penn as proprieta ry and governor, in virtue of the former, to the freemen of the said province and territories ; being the last of four at several periods issued by the same authority. The birthright of every British subject is, to have a property of his own, in his estate, person, and reputation ; subject only to laws enacted by his own concurrence, either in person or by his representatives : and which birthright accompanies him wheresoever he wanders or rests ; so long as he is within the pale of the British dominions, and is true to his allegiance. . The royal charter was granted to William Penn in the beginning of the year 1681. A most alarming period ! The nation being in a strong ferment ; and the court forming an arbitrary plan ; which, under the countenance of a small standing army, they began the same year to carry into execution, by cajoling some corporations, and forcing others by quo warrantos to surrender their charters: so that by the abuse of law, the disuse of par liaments, and the terror of power, the king dom became in effect the prey of will and pleasure. The charter governments of America had, before this, afforded a place of refuge to the persecuted and miserable ; and, as if to en large the field of liberty abroad, which had been so sacrilegiously contracted at home, Pennsylvania even then was made a new asylum, where all who wished or desired to be free might be so for ever. The basis of the grant expressed in the pre amble was, the merits and services of admiral Penn, and the commendable desire of his son to enlarge the British empire, to promote such useful commodities as might be of benefit to it, and to civilize the savage inhabitants. In the third section, which constitutes the said William Penn the true and absolute pro prietary of the said province, there is a sa ving to the crown, of the faitli and allegiance of the said William Penn, his heirs and as signs, and of all other proprietaries, tenants, and inhabitants of the said province, as also of the sovereignty thereof The fourth, professing to repose special trust and confidence in the fidelity, wisdom, justice, and provident circumspection of the said Penn, grants to him and his heirs, and to his and their deputies, free, full, and absolute power, for the good and happy government of the said country, to ordain, make, and enact, and under his or their seals, to publish any laws whatsoever, for the raising of money for public uses of the said province, or for any other end appertaining either unto the public state, peace, or safety of the said country, or unto the private utility of particular persons, according to their best discretion; by and with the advice, assent, and approbation of the freemen of the said country, or the greater part of them, or of their delegates and depu ties, to be assembled in such sort and form, as to him and them shall seem best, and as often as need shall require. By the fifth, the said William Penn is im- powered and authorized to erect courts of ju dicature, appoint judges, and administer jus tice in all forms, and carry all the laws so made as above, into execution, under the pains therein expressed ; provided the said laws be consonant to reason, and not repugnant or con trary, (but as near as conveniently may be) agreeable to the laws and statutes and rights of England; with a saving to the crown in FRANKLIN'S WORKS. case of appeals ; for this reason doubtless, that in case any act of injustice or oppression was committed, the party injured might be sure of redress. By the sixth, wliich presumes, that in the government of so great a country, sudden ac cidents might happen, which would require a remedy before the freeholders or their dele gates could be assembled to the making of laws, the said William Penn, and his heirs, by themselves or their magistrates duly or dained, are impowered to make and con stitute fit and wholesome ordinances, from time to time, as well for the preservation of the peace, as for the better government of the inhabitants, under the same proviso as that above, regarding the laws, and so as that the said ordinances be not extended in any sort to bind, change, or take away the right or interest of any person or persons, for or in their life, members, freehold, goods, or chattels. And to the end, that neither the said Wil liam Penn or his heirs, or other the planters, owners, or inhabitants of the said province, may, by misconstruction of the power afore said, through inadvertency, or design, depart from their faith and allegiance to the crown, the seventh section provides, that a transcript or duplicate of all laws, so made and publish ed as aforesaid, shall within five years after the making thereof, be transmitted and deli vered to the privy council for the time being : and if declared by the king in council, incon sistent with the sovereignty or lawful prero gative of the crown, or contrary to the faith and allegiance due to the legal government of this realm, shall be adjudged void. The said William Penn is also obliged to have an attorney, or agent, to be his resident representative, at some known place in Lon don, ¦^ho is to be answerable to the crown for any misdemeanour committed, or wilful de fault or neglect, committed by the said Penn against the laws of trade and navigation ; and to defray the damages in his majesty's courts ascertained; and in case of failure, the go vernment to be resumed and retained till pay ment has been made ; without any prejudice however in any respect to the landholders or inhabitants, who are not to be affected or mo lested thereby. His majesty, moreover, covenants and grants to and with the said William Penn, in the twentieth section, for himself, his heirs and successors, at no time thereafter, to im pose or levy any tax on the inhabitants in any shape, unless the same be with the con sent of the proprietary or chief governor, or assembly, or by act of parliament in England. On pain of his highest displeasure, he also commands all his officers and ministers, that they do not presume at any time to attempt any thing to the contrary of the premises, or that they do in any sort withstand the same: and, on the contrary, enjoins them, to be at all times aiding and assisting, as was fitting to the said William Penn and his heirs, and unto the inhabitants and merchants of the province aforesaid, their servants, ministers, factors, and assigns, in the full use and fruition of the benefit of the said charter. And in the last place, a provision is made, by the king's special will, ordinance, and command, that, in case any doubt or ques tion should thereafter perchance arise, con cerning the true sense or meaning of any word, clause, or sentence contained therein, such interpretation should be made thereof and allowed in any of his majesty's courts, as should be adjudged most advantageous and fa vourable to the said William Penn, his heirs and assigns; provided always, that no inter pretation be admitted thereof, by which the allegiance due to the crown may suffer any prejudice or dimunution. The whole consists of twenty-three sec tions ; of which it is presumed, these are the most material. They are penned with all the appearance of candour aud simplicity imaginable; so that if crafl had any thing to do with them, never was craft better hid. As little is left as possible io future instructions, and no where is there to be found the shadow of a pretence, that such instructions should be laws. All is equally agreeable to law and reason, the claims of the crown and the rights of the subject; nor, indeed, would the grant have been valid if it had been otherwise. The words legal government are words of great significancy. — No command of the king's is a legal command, unless consonant to law, and authenticated by one of his seals ; — the forms of office in such case pro\iding, that nothing illegal shall be carried into e-\ecution ; and the officer himself being responsible to the laws in case of yielding a criminal obedience. It would therefore be a waste of words to show, that the crown is limited in all acts and grants, by the fundamentals of the con stitution ; and that, as it cannot alienate any one limb or joint of the state, so neither, on the other, can it establish any colony upon, or contract it within a narrower scale, than the subject is entitled to by the great charter of Ens:land. But if it is remarkable, that such an in strument as tliis should be the growth of an arbitrary court, it is equally so, that the king's brother, James, duke of York, (after wards the most unhappy of kings) was at the rebound, a party in it; for it seems, the right to all that tract of land now called the ter ritories of Pennsylvania, was, by a prior grant, vested in him ; and, in August, 1682, he as signed it by his deeds of feoflhient to the said William Penn. It may also be inferred, that the said Wil- PENNSYLVANIA. 8 liam Penn had teen as diligent in collecting a number of proper adventurers together, as in obtaining the necessary authorities from the crown : for in the interval between the charter and the grant, he made use of the provisional powers given him by the sixth section of the former, to pass his first deed of settlement under the title of " Certain condi tions, or concessions, agreed upon by William Penn, proprietary and governor of Pennsyl vania, and those who are the adventurers and purchasers in the same province." Tliis, however, contains only rules of set tlement, and of trade with, and treatment of the Indians, &c. with the addition of some ge neral injunctions for preserving of order and keeping the peace, agreeable to the customs, usages, and laws of England. In the next year following, Mr. Penn printed and published asystem of government, under the following title, to wit, " The frame of the government of the province of Penn sylvania in America: together with certain laws agreed upon in England, by the governor and divers freemen of the aforesaid province. To be farther explained and confirmed there by the first provincial council, if they see meet." At the head of this frame, or system, is a short preliminary discourse, part of which serves to give us a more lively idea of Mr. Penn preaching in Graccchurch-street, than we derive from Raphael's Cartoon of Paul preaching at Athens: as a man of concience he sets out ; as a man of reason he proceeds, and as a man of the world he offers the most plausible conditions to all, to the end that he might gain some. Two paragraphs of this discourse, the peo ple of Pennsylvania ought to have for ever before their eyes: to wit, 1. "Any govern ment is free to the people (whatever be the frame) where the laws rule and the people are a party to those laws : and more than this is tyranny, oligarchy, or confusion." 2. " To support power in reverence with the people, and to secure the people from the abuse of power, that they may be free by their just obedience, and the magistrates honourable for their just administration, are the great ends of all government." This frame consisted of twenty-four articles, and savoured very strongly of Harrington and his Oceana. In the governor and freemen of the province, in the form of a provincial council, (always in being and yet always changing,) and general assembly, the go vernment was placed. By them conjunctive ly, all laws were to be made, all officers ap pointed, and all public affairs transacted. Seventy-two was the number this council was to consist of: they were to be chosen by the freemen ; and, though the governor or his dfiQuty wa-=! to be perpetual president, he had but a treble vote. One third of them was, at the first, to be chosen for three years, one third for two years, and one third for one year ; in such manner that there should be an annual succession of twenty-four new members, &c. The general assembly was at first to consist of all the freemen, afterwards of two hundred, and never was to exceed five hundred. The laws agreed upon in England were in all forty ; partly political, partly moral, and part ly economical. They are of the nature of an original compact between the proprietary and the fireemen, and as such were reciprocally re ceived and executed. But in the following year the scene of ac tion being shifted from the mother country to the colony, the deportment of the legislator was shifted too. Less of the man of God now appeared, and more of the man of the world. One point he had already carried against the inclination of his followers ; namely, the reservation of quit-rents, which they had re monstrated against as a burden in itself, and, added to the purchase-money, was without precedent in any other colony : but he artfully distinguishing th^ two capacities of proprie tary and governor ; and insinuating, that go vernment must be supported with splendour and dignity, and that by this expedient they would be exempt from other taxes ; the bait took, and the point was carried. To unite the subtlety of the serpent with the innocence of the dove is not so easily done as said. Having in this instance expe rienced the weight of ills credit and the power of his persuasion, he was no sooner landed, than he formed a double scheme for uniting the province with the territory, though it does not appear he was properly authorized so to do, and to substitute another frame of government in lieu of the former, which hav ing answered the great purpose of inducement here at home,* for collecting of subjects, he was now inclined to render somewhat more favourable to himself in point of government. Of much artifice we find him accused (by the provincial assembly of 1704, in a repre sentation addressed to himself) in the whole course of this proceeding ; whether justly or not let the world determine. They tell him, for example, in so many words, "That we find by the minutes of the assembly and other papers, as well as living witnesses, that, soon after thy first arrival here, thou, having obtained the duke's grant for the three lower counties [the territory that is to say] prevailed with the people of the pro vince to unite in legislation and government with them of the lower counties ; and then by a subtle contrivance and artifice, laid deeper than the capacities of some could fathom, or * BnsOand, v/y^re thisP'"!ew was first p"lJlished 4 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. the circumstances of many could admit them i and condition, that whenever the crown had time then to consider of, a way was found out assumed that government, or the people there to lay aside that, and introduce another char ter, which thou completed in the year 1683." At a place called Chester, in December, 1682, the freemen both of the province and territory were convened ; but those of the province having, by election, returned twelve persons to serve for each county as members of the provincial council, were induced to ac company that return with significations and petitions by their sheriffs, &c. importing that because of the fewness of the people, their in ability in estate, and their unskilfulness in matters of government, their desire was, that the twelve so returned for each county, might serve both for provincial council and general assembly ; that is to say, three of each twelve for members of council, and the remaining nine for assembly-men ; with the same powers and privileges granted by the charter or frame of government to the whole : and ac cording to these significations and petitions of theirs, an act of settlement was drawn up and passed, in which, after the said charterer frame has been artfully mentioned as one of those probationary laws, which by the coun cil and assembly might be altered at plea sure, the model of the said council and assem bly so reduced is admitted ; the persons so re turned are declared and enacted to be the le gal council and assembly; the number of the said council is fixed at three persons out of each county for the time to come ; the num ber of assembly-men for each is reduced to six ; and, after a variety of farther regulations, the said charter or frame is solemnly recog nised and accepted : as if with these altera tions and amendments it was understood to be complete. The act for uniting the province and the territory humbly besought, as it is therein specified, by the deputies of the said territory, was also passed at the same time and place ; in virtue of which all the benefits and advan tages before granted to the provincials, were equally communicated to both ; and both from that time were to be as one people under one and the same government. Of this act, however, the provincial assem bly of 1704, in the representation to their pro prietary before cited, complain in the terms following : " And as to the conveniency of tlie union of the province and lower counties, we cannot gainsay it, if the king had granted thee the government as the duke had done the soil : but to our great grief and trouble, we cannot find that thou had any such grant ; and if thou had, thou would not produce it, though often requested so to do : therefore we take it the harder that thou, who knew how precarious thy power was to govern the lower counties, should bring thy province into such a state revolted, or refused to act with us in legisla tion, as they often did, that then the said se cond charter should become impracticable, and the privileges thereby granted of no effect to the province, because the representatives of the lower counties were equal in number with those of the province, and the charter re quired a greater number than the province had, or by charter could elect for members of council and assembly ; and our numbers, by the charter, could not be increased without the revolter's consent" In the interval between this session at Chester, in December, 1682, and the next at Philadelphia in March and April, 1683, Mr. Penn, notwithstanding the act of settlement, furnished himself with another /rame, in part conformable to the first, in part modified ac cording to the said act ; and in part essential ly different from both: and concerning this again, the assembly of 1704, in their repre sentation aforesaid, thus freely expostulate with the proprietary : to wit, " The motives which we find upon record, inducing the people to accept of that second charter, were chiefly two, viz. That the num ber of representatives would prove burden some to the country : and the other was, that, in regard thou had but a treble vote, the peo ple, through their unskilfiilness in the laws of trade and navigation, might pass some laws over thy head repugnant thereunto, which might occasion the forfeiture of the king's letters patent, by which this country was granted to thee ; and wherein is a clause for that purpose, which we find much relied upon, and frequently read or urged in the as sembly of that time ; and security demanded by thee from the people on that account" "As to the first motive, we know that the number of representatives might have been very well reduced without a new charter : and as to the laws of trade, we cannot con ceive that a people so fond of thyself for (their) governor, and who saw much with thy eyes in those affairs, should, against thy advice and cautions, make laws repugnant to those of trade, and so bring trouble and disappointment upon themselves, by being a means of sus pending thy administration; the influence whereof and hopes of thy continuance therein, induced them, as we charitably conclude, to embark with thee in that great and weighty afliiir, more than the honour due to persons in those stations, or any sinister ends destructive to the constitution tliey acted by. Therefore, we see no just cause thou had to insist on such security, or to have a negative upon bills to be passed into laws in general assemblies, since thou had by the said charter (pursuant to the authority and direction of the king's letters patent aforesaid) formed those assem- PENNSYLVANIA. blies, and, thereupon reserved but a treble vote in the provincial council, which could not be more injurious to thee than to the people, for the reasons aforesaid." And again, afterwards ; " Thus vvas the first charter laid aside, con trary to the tenor thereof, and true intent of the "first adventurers ; and the second charter introduced and accepted by the general as sembly held at Philadelphia, in the first and second months, 1683, where thou solemnly testified, that what was inserted in that char ter was solely intended by thee for the good and benefit of the freemen of the province, and prosecuted with much earnestness in thy spirit towards God at the time of its compo sure." In less than three years after Mr. Penn's arrival in the province, and when it began to wear a thriving face, a dispute between lord Baltimore, proprietary of Maryland, and him, furnished him with a pretence to return to England ; leaving the government to be ad ministered by five commissioners of state, taken out of the provincial council, the re mainder of that council, and the general as sembly. James II. was now on the throne : Mr. Penn was attached to him closely by obligations, if not by principles : that prince's impolitic plan of restoring the Roman ritual by universal toleration, seems to have been almost inspired by him : in the king's dispute with the fellows of Magdalen college, Mr. Penn was an active instrument on his majesty's behalf, not without some injurious imputations to himself: and for some years after the revolution, had the misfortune to lie under the suspicions and the frowns of the government. His nursling-colony was yet in the cradle, while it wEis thus deserted ; consequently stood in need of all expedience to facilitate its growth, and all preservatives against dis orders. Disorders it actually fell into, which are still to be traced in the minutes of their as semblies: one More in particular, we find impeached by the assembly before the pro vincial council, of misdemeanour in ten several articles, and, in a letter to the proprietary, signed by John White, speaker, represented as an aspiring and corrupt minister of stale. We find the assembly and provincial coun cil at variance about their respective powers and privileges ; what is more extraordinary still, we find the proprietary, in 1686, requir ing and enjoining his said commissioners to dissolve the frame of government by his late charter constituted ; and they not being able to carry this point, we find, in December, 1688, a deputy-governor appointed, captain John Blackwell, who, like a practised man, set out with endeavouring to sow dissensions among the freemen, and by making such a display of the proprietary power as might awe the ma jority into proprietary measures. Tliqs John White, the former speaker, who signed the letter from the assembly to Mr. Penn, concern ing the misdemeanours of More, was no sooner returned for the county of New castle, than he was thrown into prison, and by violence wrested out of the hands of the assembly, after he had been brought up to Philadelphia by habeas corpus. The said governor also finding that the said assembly was not of the proprietary complexion, and that they were disposed to open the session with a discussion of grievances, found pre tences for several days to evade giving them audience, all either frivolous or groundless ; and in the mean time, left no stone unturned to temper the council to his own mind ; and then by their concurrence, to make a suitable impression upon the assembly. The assembly, however, not only retained their firmness, but also took care to leave the two following memorials of it in their mi nutes : to wit, May 14. " That whereas this assembly have attended here for several days, and have sent several messengers to the governor and council, appointed to confer with the members of assembly according to charter : and whereas the said messengers have given this house to understand, that they were answered by the governor, that there was not a full council to receive them : and, whereas this house being well assured, that there is, and has been, for these two days last past, a competent number of members in town, ready to yield their at tendance, yet several of the said members have not been hitherto permitted to sit in council, to the great detriment and grievance of the country : therefore, we desire, that these grievances may be speedily redressed, and our liberties inviolably preserved." May 15. " That no person who is commis- sionated or appointed by the governor to re ceive the governor's fines, forfeitures, or reve nues whatsoever, shall sit in judgment in any court of judicature within this government, in any matter or cause whatsoever, where a fine or forfeiture shall or may accrue to the go vernor." On the last of these two days, and previous to the last of these votes, the governor at length favoured them with the meeting desir ed ; and thereat made a speech, in which are the following remarkable paragraphs: viz. " I suppose you have been formerly ac quainted with the reasons and necessity of the proprietary's absenting himself so long from you as till the late revolutions in Eng land ; he hath frequently evidenced his strong desire above all things to be restored to you : what hath hindered of late, we have from the divers reports of things transacted in England, which require we should wait for their being 6 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. rendered more certain ; and, in the mean time, strive in our prayers, that the Lord, who go verns this universe, will do it in his wisdom and good will, towards all his suffering people, and ourselves in particular. " I suppose, gentlemen, you expected some bills should have been sent down to you from the provincial council, for your consideration, before your coming up and passing them into laws at this meeting. Divers reasons might be why none were ; I shall acquaint you with some of them : viz. " 1. The honourable proprietary, for rea sons known to himself, hath given positive di rections for letting all the laws drop or fall, except the fundamentals, and afterwards for calling together the legislative authority, to pass such of them, or others, as they should see fit for the fiiture ; which is my full inten tion to do. "2. The honourable proprietary, being by his patent from the king, authorized by him self, his heirs, &c. with consent of the free men, to make, and under his seal to publish, necessary laws for the good of the people ; which had never been done with all requisite circumstances, whilst himself was here ; and without which, I must doubt whether what were passed, or should hereafter be passed, have that due sanction or establishment which laws require ; and finding the great seal, under which they should pass, was not to be had, the keeper thereof refusing to allow the use of it in any cases by my direction, I therefore look ed upon it as labour in vain to attempt it " 3. The present posture and alteration of affairs in England ; the uncertainty touching the condition of the proprietary himself, and his power: and the fears of what dangers might ensue, as well to him as ourselves, in passing and confirming laws of such a nature, as would have been approved of in this con juncture of affairs, forbad it " 4. The animosities and dissensions which were here amongst you before I came, and have been lately revived amongst the mem bers of the provincial council, by the endea vours of some, as to their proceedings in that service, hindered their agreement in council, as to doing any thing ; insomuch as I was con strained, for love and peace sake, upon that and the other foregoing considerations, to dis miss them from further attendance on that ac count. " 5. An expedient occurred to me, of less danger to us all: viz. that I, being by my commission, as aforesaid, referred for my rule and instructions to the laws then in being, and which had been, as well by the proprietary as people, approved and owned as such, whilst he was amongst you here, and observing that he had reserved the confirmation and disannul ling of what laws should be made in his ab sence, to himself; so that if any were or should be proposed, they coiUd not take effect among us as laws, till his pleasure should be therein declared ; I came to a resolution with in myself, of observing them in the course of my government, as so many rules and instruc tions given me by my master, as far as I should find and judge them not contrary to the laws of England, and in supplying the want or de fect in your laws by the laws of England, which I believe will be most grateful to our superiors in England, especially at this time; and will be as useful among ourselves, there being no other way occurring to my under standing whereby you may receive the benefit of them: and in this purpose I am ready, un less you should otherwise advise, until by bet ter information out of England, we shall be led out of these state meanders." The assembly answered, among other things, as follows : viz. " We heartily wish that thy design in com ing hither, with all imaginable respect to our governor and inhabitants here, may be pur sued accordingly with suitable measures; and we cannot but have that opinion of our worthy governor's tender regard to the people here, that as he will justilj' no unbecoming behaviour in us towards his representative, so we hope he will vindicate no unlawful or ri gid procedure against us. As to our governor's absence, we are very sensible that, as it may be to his disappointment, so it is extremely to our prejudice. Were we in expectation of re ceiving bills from thee and the council as for merly ; to the reason thou art pleased to give why none are sent, that the proprietary and governor hath given directions for letting all the laws drop or fall, we are credibly inform ed, that afterwards he was well pleased they should stand; and all the laws made here since his departure, were sent for his perusal, and none of them, to our knowledge, in tlie least declared void by him ; neither do we conceive that he hath any reason so to do. " As to tlie estabUshment of laws, we ex pected nor aimed at any higher sanction tlian was used in the governor's time ; but in case bills had been prepared and promulgated ac cording to charter, and had passed by us into laws, and the great seal had been necessary and tlie same duly required to be applied to the said laws, and the keeper refused the same, then we might justly blame such refii- sal : but as to tlie way thou mentions, that our proprietary and governor is authorized by iiimself, and with consent of the freemen, to make laws, and under his seal to publish them, and not in the granted way of the char ter and act of seuhment ; as we do not de sire, so our hopes are, that no laws of that make will be imposed upon us: and had we made laws at this time, as formerly, we ques tion not but that they had been as inoffensive in the present conjuncture, as afore : and we PENNSYLVANIA. do conceive, that our laws here, not being de clared or adjudged by the king under his pri vy seal to be void, do remain and stand in full force, according to the true intent and mean ing thereof. " As for the charge of animosities and dis sensions amongst us before thy coming here, it is so general, that we can make no other answer than that in matters of government, our apprehensions were otherwise, the end of good government being answered, in that power was supported in reverence with the people, and the people were secured from the abuse of power ; but for what thou mentions to have been .renewed since amongst the members of council, we leave them to an swer. " As to the expedient proposed, of thy go verning this province and territories, by such of the laws as were made before our proprie tary and governor went hence, which thou shalt judge not contrary to the laws of Eng land, we conceive no such expedient can be consistent with our constitution, without the concurrence of the council, according to such methods as have been heretofore used in le gislature, and what course of government is otherwise, will be ungrateful and uncertain to us, for how far the laws of England are to be our rules, is declared by the king's letters patent " As to thy assuring us, thy just compliance with us, in what we may reasonably desire, we take it kindly, and do desire that our mem bers of council may be permitted to sit, accord ing to our former request" The governor finding himself thus steadily opposed, had recourse to another piece of practice, which was to prevail on certain mem bers to withdraw themselves from the house : the house, on the other hand, voted this to be a treachery, and farther prepared and presented the following request to the governor : viz. " To the governor and council, sitting at Philadelphia, the twentieth day of the third month, 1689. " We the representatives of the freemen of Pennsylvania, and territories thereof, in as sembly met, being much disappointed in our expectation in not finding any bills prepared and promulgated by you for a further concur rence; and perceiving three members duly elected to serve in council (in whose wisdom and faithfulness we much confide) too long kept out; and that a member of our own, is treated with great rigor and severity in the time of assembly, and not allowed to be with us, though most of us have known him to have been serviceable therein these several years: we (being under a strait in these con siderations) do request your tender regard of our grievances already presented, and of our answer presented to the governor in council, to his speech delivered to us there ; and we do desire, you do not go to dismiss us until we are received, and righted in our just com plaints ; and that we be not discouraged in chargmg before the provincial council, such persons or members whom we can with great probability make appear to be ill ministers and chief authors of the present arbitrariness in government ; and who are men unworthy as we conceive, to be much consulted with, and unfit to be chief magistrates. — What we purpose to do herein, shall be orderly, speedi ly, and within bounds." It does not appear that this request met with any regard, or that the proprietary inte rest gained any ground in the assemblies held the two subsequent years : and in the year 1693, the king and queen assumed the go vernment of the colony into their own hands ; under what pretext in virtue of what manage ment, whether to gratify any displeasure con ceived against Mr. Penn, or in concert with him, is not specified. Colonel Fletcher was appointed governor of New York and Pennsylvania by one and the same commission, with equal powers and prerogatives in both provinces : as if there was no such thing as a charter extant. This commission of his was, also, accompa nied with a letter from the queen, counter signed Nottingham, requiring him, as governor of Pennsylvania, to send such aid or assist ance in men or otherwise, for the security of the province of New York against the at tempts of the French and Indians, as the con dition of the said colony would permit, as if the good will of the freemen was no longer worth mentioning. To the assembly, however, this royal visiter thought fit to communicate both his commis sion and her majesty's said letter. But then it was an assembly widely different from that appointed by their charter. Instead of six members for each of the six counties, those of Philadelphia and New Castle were reduced to four each, and the rest to three ; difference sixteen : and, as an act of grace, his excellency dispensed with the oaths of such as made it a point of conscience not to swear ; and accept ed a written profession and declaration of al legiance, before established in their stead. — Whether so strange an innovation was open ly and specially complained of or not, the as sembly had nevertheless the spirit to open their session with the following resolution, which passed nem. con. " That the laws of this province that were in force and practice before the arrrival of this present governor, are still in force : and that the assembly have a right humbly to move the governor for a con tinuation or confirmation of the same." They also interwove this vote of theirs in their address to him, and not unartfully intro duced it under the umbrage of an insinuation that the king and queen had thought fit to FRANKLIN'S WORKS. appoint him to be their governor, because of the absence of their proprietary ; but derived no benefit from it : for the governor bluntly told them, "he was sorry to find their desires grounded upon so great mistakes:" adding these emphatical expressions, " the absence of the proprietary is the least cause mentioned in their majesties' letters patent, for their ma jesties asserting their undoubted right of go verning their subjects in this province. There are reasons of greater moment : as the ne glects and miscarriages in the late adminis tration; the want of necessary defence against the enemy ; the danger of [the pro vince must be understood] being lost from the crown. — The constitution of their majesties' government and that of Mr. Penn's are in di rect opposition one to the other : if you will be tenacious in stickling for this, it is a plain demonstration, use what words you please, that indeed you decline the other." The assembly again, not to be wanting in duty to the king and queen, nor consistency to themselves, admitted their majesties' right of government to be indubitable ; but would not allow themselves to be under any mistake in relation to the proprietary's absence. " And to the other reasons rendered, (said they in their remonstrances) for the superceding our proprietary's governancy , we apprehend [they] are founded on misinformations ; for the courts of justice were open in all counties in this go vernment, and justice duly executed from the highest crimes of treason and murder to the determining the lowest difference about proper ty, before the date or arrival of the governor's commission. Neither do we apprehend, that the province was in danger of being lost from the crown, although the government was in the hands of some whose principles are not for war : and we conceive, that the present governancy hath no direct opposition (with respect to the king's government here in ge neral) to our proprietary's William Penn, though the exercise of thy authority at pre sent supersedes that of our said proprietary: nevertheless we readily own thee for our law ful governor, saving to ourselves and those whom we represent, our and their just rights and privileges." Proceeding then to business, they voted a supply ; but inclined to have their laws con firmed and their grievances redressed first : accordingly, they sent up a committee often, with the book of their laws to the governor for his acceptance and ratification : and, after a long debate between him, assisted by five of his council, and them, which was termi nated on his side somewhat equivocally, he sent two of the said council to assure the house, in his name, of his confirmation of all the said laws (excepting one relating to ship wrecks) during the king's pleasure: for which they thought proper to return him a vote of thanks. Nor is it much to be wondered at, that men taken by surprise, out of the hands of their friend the proprietary, and exposed at once to a wrestling-match with the crown, which they had never had any immediate transac tions with before, should submit to hold their liberties by courtesy, rather than incur the least risk of not holding them at all. There was, however, a party among them, who having drawn up a petition of right claiming and desiring the use and benefit of two hundred and three laws therein specified, as in all respects consonant to their charter, and none of them annulled by the crown in consequence of the power reserved to the so vereign ; would hear of no abatement ; and who had credit enough with the assembly to obtain the sending a message to the governor, signifying, "that it was the sense and ex pectation of the assembly, that aggrievances ought to be redressed before any bill of supply ought to pass." And here their hearts failed them : for the governor having returned the bill sent up with the message which he had proposed amendments to, without any specifications of what those amendments were to be, with the following answer, " that the assembly should have no account of the amendments of the bUl, till they came in a full house before him to give the last sanction to the laws ;" and fer- ther, " that he saw nothing would do but an annexion to New York." The menace car ried the supply. When the biU for granting it was however sent up, they not only sent up the roll of their laws with it, but also gave that part of their order the first place in their books. They further "Resolved, nem. con. that all bills sent to the governor and council in order to be amended, ought to be returned to this house, to have their farther approbation upon such amendments, before they can have their final assent to pass into laws." And though they did not join with their committee often in the following paper, they suffered it to be entered in their books, by way of protest on their behalf: to wit " We whose names are hereunto subscrib ed, representatives of the freemen of this pro vince in assembly, do declare, it is tlie un doubted right of this house to receive back from the governor and council all such bills as are sent up for their approbation oramend- ments : and tliat it is as necessary to know tlie amendments, and debate tlie same, as the body of tlie bills : and that the denial of that right is destructive to the freedom of mak ing laws. And we also declare, it is the right of the assembly, that, before any bill for sup plies be presented for tlie last sanction of a PENNSYLVANIA. 9 law, aggrievances ought to be redressed. | Therefore, we, with protestation (saving our just rights in assembly) do declare, that the assent of such of us, as were for sending up the bill this morning, was merely in considera tion of the governor's speedy departure, but that it should not be drawn into example or precedent for the future. David Lloyd," &c. And concerning this whole period, we find the freemen in assembly met for the year 1704, thus farther expostulating with their proprietary, in the remonstrance already more than once referred to : to wit, " But what thou and they (the five commissioners of state) could not effect in that behalf, was performed by colonel Fletcher in the year 1693, and then we were brought under the immediate direc tion of the crown, but with commands for him to govern us by the laws of the country : and although both the laws and charter had been long before transmitted to thee, in order to get the late king's (James) approbation there of, which we insisted upon, and urged that they were laws till disapproved, yet thou hav ing sent no account whether they were ap proved or not we were forced to comply with him, and accept of such as he pleased : but the charter he totally rejected." Before he set out for New York, he did however give a written sanction to the laws required ; and the next year's assembly proved notwithstanding to be of the same leaven with the last This assembly had been summoned by the writs of the lieutenant-governor (Markham) and when met in a humour to state and re dress the grievances of the colony, found them selves precluded from acting by an order from Fletcher for their adjournment. That, therefore, they might make the most of two days, they appointed a committee of grievances ; and having received their report, agreed upon a remonstrance to the governor thereon, containing a complaint of their being sent for only to be dismissed ; asserting the right of the house to adjourn themselves ; and among several other particulars, calling upon the governor so to exert his power and au thority, that cases determined by juries might not be unduly avoided by determinations in equity ; that to prevent arbitrary assessments and the dissatisfaction they gave rise to, the justices of the peace might consult with, and be directed by the approbation of the several grand juries; and that the money raised by the last assembly might be properly applied and properly accounted for to the present at their next sitting. Their right of adjourning themselves having been admitted, they met accordingly towards the end of the next month. — Governor Fletcher was by this time returned to them in person ; and in the opening of his speech, made them a handsome apology for not meeting them be- fore ; urging the necessity of a sudden jour ney to Albany, to endeavour at reclaiming the five nations of Indians, hitherto the allies of England, but now confederated with the go vernor of Canada against us ; said he had brought the papers which passed at the con ference along with him, for their satisfaction ; that their Indians would be next forced into the same fatal confederacy ; that he had seen with his eyes, a large tract of cultivated land about Albany, which had been abandoned by the in habitants, rather through the unkindness of their neighbours in refusing them assistance, than by the force of the enemy : prayed, that those who shut their eyes against a distant danger, might not find it at their own doors ; extolled the two provinces of Jersey for the aids they had sent ; and concluded thus, " Gentle men, I consider your principles, that you will .not carry arms, nor levy money to make war, though for your own defence ; yet I hope you will not refuse to feed the hungry and clothe the naked : my meaning is to supply those In dian nations with such necessaries as may in fluence them to a continuance of their friend ship to these provinces. And now, gentle men, if you will consider wherein I may be useful to you, according to the tenor of my commission, in redressing your grievances, if you have any, you shall find me ready to act by the rules of loyalty, with a true regard to liberty and property." , What appears to have been most remark able in this session, was a dispute between the governor and the house about a money biU : he alleging it was inconsistent with his trust to pass the bill, because they had named col lectors therein, which seemed to derogate from the confidence reposed in the king's officer appointed to collect the last tax ; and insisting upon some answer to the queen's letter, before he came to a final resolution con cerning it ; and they at once adhering to their bill, and desiring it might not be rejected on the first of those accounts ; since they could not but assert their undoubted right to appro priate as well as raise money, agreeable to the privileges heretofore granted them, the practice in England, as well as in that and also in some of the neighbouring colonies ; and that as to the receiver, when their appro priations had been answered, he was to dis pose of the remainder as the governor and council should order. The governor still pressed for their answer to her majesty, instead of giving them the sa tisfaction desired ; and the said answer prov ing to be a remonstrance, he dissolved them. Of the next sessions the accounts are ex tremely imperfect We find, indeed, by a course of minutes, that a joint committee of the council, at the requisition of the govern or, had several meetings, to consider of the queen's letter, the governor's demands there- 10 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. on in his speech, and an act of settlement; that an answer to his speech was drawn up and sent to the governor, together with an act of settlement ; that the messengers on their return, reported, they had delivered both, and were told the governor and council had no farther business at present; and that after several adjournments, being met in committee, and in high debate, their attendance was re quired by the governor in order to dissolve them. That the demands made upon them, in vir tue of the queen's letter, were the subject of these debates, is more than probable : and if so, it will follow, that their want of will or power to comply with them was the cause of their dissolution. In the year 1696, being the next year fol lowing, Markham, once the proprietary's se cretary and clerk of the council, and of late lieutenant-governor, summoned the next as sembly, as lieutenant to the proprietary now Teinstated in the government; and at their meeting, recommended governor Fletcher's speech at the opening of the New York as sembly, thereby to excite the charity of Penn sylvania, in relieving the poor Indians, whose «orn and provisions had been destroyed by the French : and the sense of the house upon it was, by way of message, thus communicated. "Whereas the governor has been pleased to convene us, by his writs, although not in the form* of our charter, as we could desire, we have obeyed the same, and considered what he has laid before us, viz. an answer to the late queen's letter, and our proprietary's promise upon his restoration to his govern ment; and are heartily and unanimously willing and ready to perform our duty therein, so far as in us lies, if the governor would be pleased to settle us in our former constitutions, enjoyed by us before this government was committed to governor Fletcher's trust." This was followed, on the governor's part, with a demand of money as before for the re lief of the Indians : and the assembly choosing to take care of the provincial constitution first, required the governor to appoint a commit tee of the council to join with a committee of the assembly for that purpose : such a joint committee was appointed accordingly ; who agreed in recommending this expedient " that the governor, at the request of the as sembly, would be pleased to pass an act (of settlement must be understood) with a salvo to the proprietary and people ; and that he would also issue out his writs for choosing a full number of representatives on the 10th of March next ensuing, to serve in provincial council and assembly according to charter, until the proprietary's pleasure should be known therein ; and that if the proprietary * They had been issued upon Fletcher's plan before specified. should disapprove the same, that then the said act should be void, and no ways prejudi cial to him or the people in relation to the va lidity or invalidity of the said charter." To this expedient the house unanimously agreed. A bill of settlement and a money bill, were thereupon ordered and prepared ; and after some temperament, reported, agreed to, and passed. The money bill was for raisuig three hun dred pounds for support of government, and relieving the distressed Indians. In the act of settlement the rotation prin ciple was wholly dropped. Elections both of council and assembly were to be annual and certain : the time of election, March 10th : the time of sitting. May the 10th : the mem bers of council for each county two, for the assembly four : they were to be of the most note for virtue, wisdom, and ability, and otherwise qualified in point of fortune and re sidency. In the governor or his deputy, and the said assembly and council, the govern ment was placed. The governor or his de puty was to preside in council; but at no time perform any act of state whatsoever, but by and with the advice and consent of the council, or a majority thereof: that two thirds were to be a quorum in the upper walk of bu siness, and one third in the lower: that the assembly should have power to propose bills as well as the council : that both might con fer on such as either of them should propose : that such as the governor in council gave his consent to, should be laws : that the style of those laws should be, — By the governor, with the assent and the approbation of the freemen in general assembly met: the duplicates thereof should be transmitted to the king's council, according to the late king's patent : that the assembly should sit on their own ad journments and committees, and continue to prepare and propose bills, redress grievances, impeach criminals, &c. till dismissed by the governor and council ; and to remain during the year liable to serve upon his and their summons ; should be allowed wages and travelling charges ; two thirds to make a quo rum ; all questions to be decided by a majo rity ; affirmations to be admitted in all courts, &c. instead of oaths, where required ; all per sons in possession of lands by purchase or otherwise under any legal or equitable claim, so to continue ; sheriffs and their substitutes to give security for office behaviour ; elections were to be free, regular, incorrupt &c. no member being permitted to serve without wages, or for less wages than by tliis act ap pointed, &c. Neitlier the form or effect of this act was to be diminished or altered in any part or clause thereof, contrary to the true intent or meaning thereof, without the consent of the governor and six parts in seven of the freemen in council and assembly met : PENNSYLVANIA. II it wa* to contmue and be in force till the proprietary should by some instrument under his hand and seal, signify his pleasure to the contrary : and it was provided, that neither this act nor any other should preclude or de bar the inhabitants of this province and terri tories from claiming, having, and enjoying any of the rights, privileges, and immunities, which the said proprietary for himself, his heirs and assigns, did formerly grant or which of right did belong unto them the said inhabi tants by virtue of any law, charter, or grant whatsoever, any thing therein contained to the contrary notwithstanding. A new application from governor Fletcher for farther assistance, and the report of a com mittee of the assembly to whom it was refer red (urging the infancy, poverty, and incum bered state of the colony in excuse for non compliance) together with an act for ratifymg and confirming the acts and proceedings of the last year's assembly by some persons questioned and misrepresented, are all the re mains oi what passed in the assembly of 1697. Nor does any thing material occur in the years 1698, 1699, till the arrival of the pro prietary from England. January 25th, 1699-1700, the assembly be ing convened for the second time, was told by the proprietary in person, that he had so con vened them chiefly to reinforce the former laws; or by a new law more rigorously to discourage piracy and forbidden trade : misde meanours which he said had exposed the go vernment to much odium at home, which he had been much pressed by his superiors to cor rect, and which he, therefore, pressed most concernedly upon them. Both these points were immediately refer red to the consideration of two several com mittees ; and one of their own members, son- in-law of their late lieutenant-governor Mark ham, proving to be the most obnoxious person on the first of these accounts, they proceeded so far as to commit him, till satisfied by the governor that he had given sufficient security for his appearance to answer what complaints should be brought against him. They also took care to purge themselves on the head of forbidden or illicit trade, which ap pears to have been done in so effectual a man ner, that the governor himself could not avoid co-operating with the council in their justifi cation. To prove which, his answer to their several addresses (concerning a fit person to be provincial treasurer ; cautions to avoid con fusion in the next election, which was to be on a new model, as also the expediency of the advice and consent of the council and assem bly thereon; and false information sent to England against them) here uiserted, will be sufficient : to wit, " First, as to the receiver or treasurer, that he would consider of it, and would take care to please all by his choice of a fit person : as to their address to avoid confusion in the next election, that he consented to the request of the house, and ordered by general consent of council and assembly, minutes to be made in both : that at the next election, three should be chosen for council in each county, and six for assembly pthe election to be on the usual day ; but reserving to himself the specification of the term the former were to serve for, which. was to be expressed in the writ : and that as to the other point of false information sent against the colony to England, the unseason able time of the year would not suffer the merits of the case to be thoroughly discussed, but that all the representatives both of council and assembly, had agreed in drawing up some general defence for the present" And before their separation it was drawn up and presented to the governor accordingly. The next general assembly met at the usual time, and was in every respect an extraordina ry one : extraordinary for the number of mem bers superadded in the manner just recited ; extraordinary for an occasional law they pass ed at the instance of the governor and coun cil, to prolong the present sessions beyond the time limited by charter ; and extraordinary for the debates concerning another new frame of government, which continued through the whole course of it, without producing any sa tisfactory temperament at last. Found intractable, after a month's practice, they were dissolved ; and in October following, a new assembly was summoned ; not as before to consist of thirty-six members, but of twen ty-four ; that is to say, four instead of six for each county. The place of meeting was also different; for instead of assembling as usual at Phdadel- phia, the members were convened at New castle, perhaps only to gratify the inhabitants of the territories, at a time when extraordina ry demands were to be made upon them for the gratification of the proprietary governor. At the opening of this assembly, the govern or said, he had called them upon urgent occa sions : that they were in want of a frame of government; a body of laws; a settlement of property ; and a supply for the support of go vernment: adding, that he would give them all the assistance in his power. With the body of laws they began, and made a considerable progress in the work ; but the frame of government again met with as many difficulties as before. The conditions of union between the province and the territories, in particular, had like to have produced an im mediate separation : and the dispute which arose concerning equal privileges or equal voices in the representative, could be no otherwise compromised than by referring the issue to the next general assembly. The points which more immediately con- 12 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. cerned both branches of the legislature, were the settlement of property and the supply. In the latter the governor himself was deeply in terested, and almost every landholder of the colony in the former. These, therefore, were to be first despatched ; and, accordingly, a bill for the effectual establishment and con firmation of the freeholders of both parts of the united colony, their heirs and assigns, in their lands and tenements ; together with two others ; one for raising of one penny per pound, and six shillings per head for support of go vernment, &c. and one for granting and rais ing to the proprietary and governor two thou sand pounds, upon the real value of estates real and personal, and another six shillings poll-tax ; of which more than a moiety was paid by the county of Philadelphia alone. Nor ought it to be forgotten, that in the pre ceding session four pence in the pound and twenty-four shillings per head had been de manded for these services ; and that as they paid by halves, the proprietary performed by halves ; as the mention hereafter made of his charter of property will demonstrate. The same assembly being again convened in August at Philadelphia, in consequence of a letter from his majesty, requiring an aid of three hundred and fifty pounds sterling, to wards the fortifications to be raised on the frontiers of New York, they excused them selves from complying ; urging that the great sums lately assessed upon the colony by way of imposts and taxes, over and above the ar rears of quit-rents, had rendered them inca pable : and these excuses were readily admit ted by the government ; so that the proprieta ry interest in this instance undeniably sup planted the royal : and private interest pub lic service. In September, 1701, the proprietary con vened another assembly, consisting of four members for each of the six counties, agreea ble to the law, for ascertaining the number of members, lately passed at Newcastle; and though he had in the last evaded giving a copy of his speech in writing to the house, as not being his usual way, went out of his way for this once to do it now. Some apology he made for calling them to gether a month sooner than they would have met of course : assigned as a reason, the ne cessity he was under, through the endeavours of the enemies to the prosperity of the colony, to go for England, where, taking the advan tage of his absence, some had attempted to undermine his government : talked as if the voyage was disagreeable to him ; as if the quiet of a wilderness was all his ambition ; as if his purpose had been to stay with them al ways, or at least till he could render every body safe and easy : said his heart was with them, whatever some people might please to think ; that no unkindness or disappointment should, with submission to God's providence, ever be able to alter his love to the country, and his resolution to return and settle his fa mily and posterity in it, &c. " Think, there fore, (continued he in the most captivating style and manner that ever was made use o^ since all men are mortal, of some suitable ex pedient and provision for your safety as well as in your privileges as property, and you will find me ready to comply with whatsoever may render us happy by a nearer union of our interests. Review again your laws ! propose new ones that may better your circum stances ; and what you do, do it quickly ! remembering that the parliament sits the end of the next month, and that the sooner I am there, the safer I hope we shall all be here." He then returned to the three hundred and fifty pounds sterliag, demanded by the king ; imparted to them the happy issue of colonel Fletcher's conferences with the five nations; and again recommended unanimity and des patch, since it might contribute to the disap pointment of those who had long sought the ruin of their young country. The assembly returned a short but affec tionate and respectfiil answer; after which they presented an address to him, consisting of twenty-one articles : the first desiring, that, on his departure for England, due care be taken, he might be represented there by persons of integrity and considerable known estates, who might have full power and au thority not only to grant and confirm lands, &c. but to compensate short and resume ouer measure. — The second, that he would grant them such an instrument as might absolutely secure and defend the freemen of the pro vince, by them represented, in their estates and properties, from himself, his heirs and assigns for ever, or any claiming under him, them, or any of them ; as also to clear all Indian purchases and others. — And tlie last, that the bill of property, passed at Newcastle, might be inserted in the charter, with such amendments as should be agreed on. To each of the whole twenty -one he re turned a special answer ; and to the three re cited, those that follow. "To tlie first: I shall appoint those in whom I can confide, whose powers shall be sufficient and public for the security of all concerned; and I hope they shall be of honest character witliout just exception, to do that which is right between you and me." ['Tis strange the crown should not be so much as mentioned.] " To tlie se cond : much of it is included in my answer to the first; however, lam willing to execute a public instrument or charter to secure you in your properties, according to purchase and the law of property made lately at Newcastle, excepting some corrections and amendments absolutely necessary therein : and to the last, PENNSYLVANIA. 13 I agree that the law of property made at Newcastle shall be inserted in the charter with requisite amendments." How short these expressions fell of his speech is obvious ; nor is it any honour to himself or his laws, that the latter stood in need of so many amendments ; and that the freemen found reason to thmk they could not take too many precautions to secure them selves against him. To these answers of the governor, the as sembly returned as many replies ; most of them expressing their acceptance and ac knowledgments : and the matter of the first bemg at all times equally reasonable, deserves to be particularly remembered, to wit, " that the commissioners thou art pleased to pro mise, be invested With full and complete pow er, and be obliged by some clause in the com mission to act without refusal or delay, ac cording to the full and public powers thereof; and that it would please thee to nominate the persons to the assembly." The governor, on the other hand, whether out of artifice or complaisance is hard to say, would have induced them to name his substi tute themselves : but, they as artificially or complaisantly excused themselves; saying, they did not pretend to the knowledge neces sary for such a nomination, and that they de sired to leave it to the governor's pleasure. While the charter of privileges was under consideration, the late breach between the members of the province and those of the ter ritory was again opened, and soon grew wider than ever. The territory-men were for obtaining some powers or rights peculiarly favourable to them selves ; which the others thinking unreason able, were not willing to allow : and not be ing able to carry their point, the members for the territory left the house. The proprietary interposed his authority to bring about an accommodation ; and for the present prevailed. But the same spirit of animosity still remained ; and what with the hurry the governor was in to set sail, and what with the warm dispute which arose be tween him and the assembly concerning the allowance to be made to such as had defec tive measure in their lands, the remainder of a session, so plausibly opened, and in which the constitution was to be finally settled, was soured with expostulations and reproaches even to the last moment of it: and the go vernor and his freemen at last parted like people who were equally glad, they had made so much of, and were now to be sepa rated from each other. And thus the course of time has brought us to that frame or system which, in subordi nation to the royal charter, is, at present, the rule of govenunent in Pennsylvania. In May, 1700, the former had been surren- 2 dered into the hands of the governor, by six parts in seven of the assembly, under a so lemn promise of restitution, with such altera tions and amendments as should be found ne cessary. On the 28th of October, 1701, when the governor was so near his departure that it might almost be said he had one foot on board, this promise was made good ; the coun cil, the assembly, (the provincial part of it, that is to say,) and several of the principle in habitants of Philadelphia attending. The charter oi privileges granted by Wil liam Penn, Esq. to the inhabitants of Pennsyl vania, and territories, this important instru ment is called ; and the main purport of it is as follows, to wit : " that because no people could be truly happy, though under the greatest enjoyment of civil liberties, if abridg ed of the freedom of their consciences, as to their religious profession and worship, no in habitant, confessing and acknowledging one almighty God, and professing himself obliged to live quiet under the civil government, should be in any case molested or prejudiced in person or estate : that all persons profess ing to believe ih Jesus Christ the Saviour of the world, promising when required, allegi ance to the king, and taking certain attests by a certain provincial law provided, should be capable to serve the government either legislatively or executively : that an assem bly should be yearly chosen by the freemen, to consist of four persons out of each county, of most note for virtue, wisdom, and ability ; or of a greater number, if the governor and assembly should so agree ; upon the first of, October for ever, and should sit on the 14th following, with power to choose a speaker and other their officers, to be judges of the quali fications and elections of their own members, sit upon their own adjournments, appoint com mittees, prepare bills, impeach criminals, and redress grievances, with all other powers and privileges of an assembly, according to the rights of the freebom subjects of England, and the customs observed in any of the king's plantations in America : that two thirds of the freemen so chosen should have the full power of the whole : that the said freemen in each respective county, at the time and place of meeting for electing representatives, might choose a double number of persons to present to the governor for sheriffs and coroners, to serve for three years, if so long they should behave themselves well, out of whom the go vernor was to nominate one for each office, provided his nomination was made the third day after presentment, otherwise the person first named to serve ; and in case of death or default, the governor to supply the vacancy : that three persons should be nominated by the justices of the respective counties, out of whom the governor was to select one to serve 14 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. for clerk of the peace, within ten days, or otherwise the place to be filled by the first so nominated : that the laws of the govern ment should be in this style, viz. — By the governor, ibith the consent and approbation of the freemen in general assembly met : that all criminals should have the same privi leges of witnesses and council as their prose cutors : that no person should be obliged to answer any complaint, matter or thing what soever, relating to property , before the govern or and council, or in any other place but in ordinary course of justice, unless in appeals according to law : that the estates of suicides shoulc) not be forfeited : that no act, law, or ordinance whatsoever should atany time here after, be made or done to alter, change, or di minish the form or effect of this charter, or of any part or clause therein, according to the true intent and meaning thereof, without the consent of the governor for the time being, and six parts in seven of the assembly met : that the first article relating to liberty of con science should be kept and remain without any alteration inviolably for ever : that the said William Penn, for himself, his heirs and assigns, did thereby solemnly declare, grant, and confirm, that neither he, his heirs or as signs, should procure, or do any thing or things whereby the liberties in this charter contained and expressed, nor any part there of, should be infringed or broken ; and, that if any thing should be procured and done by any person or persons contrary thereto, it should be held of no force or effect" Thus, though much remained of the first institution, much was taken away. The peo ple had no longer the election of the council ; consequently all who, for the future, were to serve in that capacity, were to be nominated by the governor ; consequently were to serve on what terms he pleased. Instead of having but three voices in seventy-two, he was left single in the executive, and at liberty to re strain the legislative, by refusing his as sent to their bills whenever he thought fit. On the other hand, the assembly, who at first could not propound laws, though they might amend or reject them, were put in possession of that privilege ; and, upon the whole, there was much more room for ac knowledgments than complaints. How much soever the governor had grown upoa Mr. Penn, and how much soever his concern for others had worn offj when raised to a sphere above them, it is plain he had not forgotten his own trial, nor the noble com mentary upon Magna Cliarta, which, in his tract called. The people's ancient and jtist li berties asserted, he had upon that occasion made public ; wherein he says, " There were but two sorts of government : will and power ; or, condition and contract That the first was a government of men, the second of laws. That universal reason was and ought to be, among rational beings, uni versal law : that of laws, some were funda mental and immutable; some temporary, made for present convenience, and for conve nience to be changed. That the fundamental laws of England were of all laws most abhor rent of will and pleasure : and, that till houses should stand without their own foundations, and Englishmen cease to be Englishmen, they could not be cancelled, nor the subjects de prived of the benefit of them." Such as it was, by the freemen of the pro vince it was thankfully accepted, but by those of the territory unanimously declined ; and m this divided condition this new Lycurgus, as Montesquieu calls him, left them. Andrew Hamilton, Esq. (not the celebrated barrister of that name) was the person appoint ed to be his substitute ; and the principal effort of his administration was to bring about a reunion, which being at length found im practicable (the territory-men still persisting in their refusal of the charter) the province, in virtue of that charter, claimed a separate representative of their own, which in point of number was fixed at eight members for each of the three counties, and two for the city of Philadelphia, now so constituted by the proprietary's special charter ; and after duly qualifying themselves according to law, their first resolution was, " That the representatives or delegates of the freeholders of this province, according to the powers granted by the proprietary and governor by his charter, dated the eighth day of October, Anno Domini 1701, may meet in assembly on the fourteenth day of" October, yearly, at Philadelphia, or elsewhere, as shall be appointed by the governor and council for the time being, and so continue on their own adjournments from time to tune during the year of their service, as they shall find oc casion, or think fit, for preparing of bills, de bating thereon, and voting, in order to ijieir being passed into laws; appomting com mittees, redressing of grievances, and im peaching of criminals, as they shall see meet in as ample manner as any of the assemblies of this provmce and territories have hitherto at any time done, or might legally do; as effectually, to all intents and purposes, as any of the neighbouring governments under the crown of England have power to do, accord ing to the rights and privileges of the free- born subjects of England, keeping to the rules and prescriptions of the parliament of England ; as near as may be, respecting the infiincy of the government and the capacities of the people : and that the said assembly, as often as the governor for the time being shall require, attend on him, in order to legislation : and to answer all other justenda of assemblies on any emergencies or reasons of state; but PENNSYLVANIA. 15 shall not be subject at any time to be by him adjourned, prorogued, or dissolved." This was the state of things when John Evans, Esq. appointed deputy-governor on the death of Mr. Hamilton, arrived in the pro vince, in the beginning of the year 1704. What his commission and instructions were does not appear ; but having convened the representatives both of the province and terri tories, to meet him at the same time in his council-chamber, he affected to be surprised at finding them in separate states : said her majesty considered them as one entire govern ment; and earnestly pressed them both to come to an amicable agreement, not without insinuation, that neither of them would other wise be in a condition to act at all. The provincials, in return, intimated, that they should be heartily glad of a farther union with the territories if it could be obtained without prejudice to their constitution or to their charter : said, those of the territory had been the occasion of inserting that clause in their charter by which tliey had been enabled to act separately : made professions of so much good will and good neighbourhood as might prevent all inconveniencies from their separa tion : that they had appointed a committee to confer with them, &c. Conferences were accordingly opened be tween the two houses, which produced two papers; one from the territory members, not over ingenuous in its contents, offering now to receive the charter they had till then reject ed, and to co-operate with those of the province : and the other, a reply from the provincials, charging them with inconsistency, and de claring, that seeing they were by their for mal refusal necessitated to form themselves into a distinct assembly, and were now es tablished accordingly, it was not in their pow er, as they conceived, without a violation of the charter and trust reposed in them, to en tertain any expedient to reconcile their re quest of an union with the said charter, &c. Thus all negotiation on this head came to an end, and the provincials were already in disgrace with their new governor, for showing so little regard to his recommendation. A bill to confirm their charter, and some proceedings to correct the exorbitancies of the proprietary land-office, rendered them yet far ther obnoxious ; and they also were in their turns exasperated by some intemperate cen sures passed on their proceedings by one of the governor's council. Nor was this all ; the bill to confirm their charter, &c. was sent back, with such amend ments as appeared to the house destructive to the present constitution, and for that reason drew from them the following unanimous re solutions and address founded thereon : to wit, " Resolved, that what is proposed for amendment in the fourth and fifth pages of the bill, will render the said charter useless and ineffectual, and bring an odium upon the proprietary, who granted this instead of other charters, wherein were larger and greater privileges granted to the first adventurers and purchasers of land in this province, which they expected (as it was their undoubted right) to enjoy, as well as the lands they bought ; therefore this house cannot admit of those amendments; because they are also destruc tive to the present constitution, by which the representatives of the free people of this pro vince are now assembled, and are resolved to assert and maintain. " Resolved, that the method of passing bills by the governor should be adjusted and settled ; but whether the governor thinks fit to be in council or not at the passing of bills is submitted to him. " Resolved, that it is consistent with the late king's letters patent and the said charter of privileges, that the council (as now chosen) should have a share in the legislation, unless it be when the government is in the council ; which this house agrees may be upon the death of the governor, unless other provision be made by the governor in chief; and that a clause may be added to the bill for that pur pose." " To John Evans, Esq. lieutenant-governor, &c. &c. " The address of the assembly of the said pro vince, sitting at Philadelphia, the twelfth day of August, 1704, " In all humble manner showeth, "That this assembly, having taken into their serious consideration the matters yester day debated in the conference, relating to the proposed amendments to the bill intituled. An act, for removing and preventing all ques tions anddisputes concerning the convening and sitting of this assembly, &c. as also for confirmation of the charter of privileges, do find nothing advanced that can reconcile the said amendments to the constitution of our charter ; and thereupon do come to this re solve, — That to admit of the power of disso lution, or prorogation in the governor, will manifestly destroy or frustrate the elections settled by the charter, which is a perpetual writ, supported by the legislative authority of this government, and will make way for elections by writs grounded upon a preroga tive, or rather a pre-eminence, which the pro prietary and his deputy are by charter debar red to resume. " But to take off the jealousies that may arise upon that part of the charter and bill, which impowers us to sit upon our own ad journments, we are willing to settle and limit the times of adjournment and sitting ; and in order thereunto propose to the governor, " That a clause be added to the aforesaid 16 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. bill, that the time of the assembly's sitting from the fourteenth of October, yearly, shall not ex ceed twenty days, unless the governor for the time being and assembly shall agree to a long er time ; and the adjournment from that time shall not be less than three months ; and so for every time of sitting, and every adjourn ment within the year, respectively." The return to this was as follows : viz. " From the governor in council to the assem bly. "The governor upon the best advice he can have upon the point of dissolution and proro gation, cannot be of opinion, that the propri etary has granted away that power ; and that therefore it is very unsafe for him to do it He is very unwilling to have any misunderstand ing with the assembly, and shall always be inclinable to make things easy in this, as well as other points ; and desires to leave it till further directions can be had from England, to which he thinks it is fit the matter should be referred : and in the mean time recom mends to the assembly, to proceed to the des patch of such other business of importance as lies before them, and the exigencies of the go vernment necessarily require ; and to which the opportunity now presented to them ought to invite and encourage them." And this was the rejoinder of the assembly. "To John Evans, Esq. lieutenant-govern or, &c. "The address of the representatives, i&c. " Humbly showeth, " That we have taken into our serious con sideration thy written message yesterday, re lating to the bill for confirmation of the char ter of privileges, &c. " And since the points of dissolution and prorogation are by thee asserted, and the power of this assembly to sit upon their own adjournments, first brought into question by the council in October last, which occasioned us to proceed thus far in explaining and set tling our constitution by charter; we con ceive we cannot safely let it drop at this time (and remain disputable) without violation of, or injury to, our said present constitution ; and consequently it will not be so proper to proceed to the despatch of other affairs of im portance before us, whilst our foundation re mains unsettled. " That allowing what one of the members of council who came with the message was pleased to observe to us, that the proprietary had not given away the power of dissolution, &c. by the charter {in express words) yet that it could not be intended to be reserved by him, seems, evident to us for tlie following reasons: " First because it could at no time be put in practice, without frustrating the very de sign of the grant, that we should have an an nual standing assembly. " Secondly, that whenever a dissolution should happen, the governor, not being capa ble to call a new one by writ, as the same member of council rightly observed, the re- mainmg part of that year the province must be destitute of an assembly, and the governor of power to call one, whatever commands from the crown or other extraordinary occa sions may happen, unless (as the said member was pleased to observe) by some such means as would need the power of a subsequent as sembly, to confirm all that they should have occasion to act or do. " Thirdly, that the proprietary, in the pre amble of this present charter, having been pleased to remember and acknowledge his promise made to the assembly upon the de livery of the former charter, that he would either restore us that or another better adapt ed to our circumstances : therefore, in assur ance of his good and sincere intentions, this charter must be such an one. " Fourthly, by the former constitution, it is very plain there could be no dissolution ; be cause the same members of assembly, and no others, were liable to be called at any time within the year : and in many years' experi ence, no inconvenience found to arise there by; nor was that any controverted point between the proprietary and the people, for the rectifying whereof another charter was thought necessary, but other matters not im- knowi) to some of the council. " Fifthly, and lastly, as a clear proof that the proprietary never intended to reserve the power of dissolution, it may be remembered, that at the close of the sessions of assembly, in the year 1701, when the members being then chosen, by writs, requested a dissolution, the proprietary answered, he would not do it ; nor could he answer it to the crown, to leave the provmce without a standing assembly. " Upon the whole, we take leave to inform thee, that since this assembly (having long waited in hopes of the passing of this, with other bills lying before thee) is much strait ened in time, the season of the year urgently calling most of the members from their at tendance ; and considering the governor's great indisposition is an obstruction of busi ness ; and that another election is now near at hand ; tfiat it is the inchnation and desire of this liouse, tliat all other business might be waived till the meeting of the next assembly ; and that in the mean time, the governor would be favourably pleased further to consider the aforesaid points." Impelled also to discharge their minds in full to the proprietary himself, they agreed, nem. con. to nine several heads of complaint, which were entered in their minutes as fol low, to wit : PENNSYLVANIA. 17 "First, that the proprietary at the first set- ling of this province, promised large privi leges, and granted several charters to the people ; but by his artifices brought them all at his will and pleasure to defeat " Secondly, that dissolution and prorogation, and calling assemblies by his writs, impower ed by his commission to his present deputy, and his orders to his former deputies and com missioners of state, are contrary to the said charters. " Thirdly, that he has had great sums of money last time he was here, for negotiating the confirmation of our laws, and for making good terms at home for the people of this pro vince, and ease his friends here of oaths, &c. but we find none of our laws are confirmed, nor any relief against oaths ; but an order from the queen to require oaths to be adminis tered, whereby the quakers are disabled to sit in courts. " Fourthly, that there has been no survey or-general since Edward Pennington died, but great abuses by surveyors, and great extor tions by them and the other officers concern ed in property, by reason of the proprietary's refusing to pass that law proposed by the as sembly, in l701, to regulate fees, iSic. " Fifthly, that we are like to be remediless in every thing that he hath not particularly granted, or made express provision for; be cause the present deputy calls it a great hard ship upon him, and some of the council urge it as absurd and unreasonable to desire or ex pect any enlargement or explanation by him, of what the proprietary granted. " Sixthly, that we are also left remediless in this, that when we are wronged and op pressed about our civil rights, by the proprie tary, we cannot have justice done us; be cause the clerk of the court being of his own putting in, refuses to make out any process ; and the justices, by and before whom our causes against him should be tried, are of his own appointment ; by means wheteof, he be comes judge in his own case, which is against natural equity. " Seventhly, that sheriffs and other officers of the greatest trust in this government, which the proprietary hath commissionated, being men of no visible estates ; and if any of them have given security, it was to himself; so that the people whom these officers have abused and defrauded, can reap no benefit of such security. " Eighthly, that although the commission ers of property have power by their commis sion to make satisfaction where people have not their full quantity of land according to their purchase, yet they neglect and delay doing right in that behalf. " Ninthly, that we charge the proprietary not to surrender the government, taking no tice of the intimation he had given of making Vol. n. . . . C 2* terms, &c. and let him understand how vice grows of late." And they ordered a representation to be drawn up consequent thereto, and sent by the first opportunity. Parts of this are already before us; and, as a suggestion was afterwards made, that it contained other matter than was comprehend ed in the articles, the remainder deserves to be inserted here. " That upon thy being restored to the go vernment, thou required thy lieutenant to govern us according to charter, which, by reason of Fletcher's interruption, became im possible before thy orders reached us, and so the government fell under great confusion again: nor was the administration of thy pro priety much better managed, because thou put some in that commission with whom the rest would not act ; and at last the office of property and surveyor-general came to be shut up, and thou kept them so whilst thou sold lands to the value of about two thousand pounds sterling, and gave thy warrants in England for surveying the said land ; and also got great tracts of land laid out or secured for thyself and relations, besides several va luable parcels which should have been laid out for the purchase, but were reserved by thy surveyors, whether for thee or themselves we know not : however thou appropriated those lands to thyself, by the name of concealed lands, whereas in truth they were concealed from the purchasers, who were to have their lands laid out contiguous one to another, and no vacancies left between them : and thou wast to have only thy tenth, as it fell, according to the concessions thou made with thy first adventurers; and if thou took it not up so, it was thy own (not their) fault ; but the other was a manifest injury to many of them as above declared. " That upon thy last arrival here, after all the hardships and disappointments we had laboured under, we hoped to enjoy the fruits of thy former promises and engagements ; but instead of that, we found thee very full of resentment, and many of our applications and addresses, about our just rights and proper ties, were answered by recriminations or bitter invectives : and we found that the false in sinuations and reproaches, that our adversa ries had cast upon the province, with respect to false trade and harbouring pirates, had made so great an impression upon thee, that thou rather believed them than thy honest friends. "And when thou entered upon legislation, thou wast pleased to repeal all the laws that were made in colonel Fletcher's time, which were approved by the king or queen, as we were informed, and as some of us gathered by the account thou gave of them, viz. that chancellor Somers had sent for thee to know 18 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. what thou had to object against any of those laws ; and if it had not been for thee none of them had passed, or words to that effect : and not only so, but the people being minded to surrender the said second charter, upon thy promise to give them a better in lieu of it; and under pretence of passing an act for con firming and securing their lands, &c. thou obtauied liberty to resurvey all the lands in the province, and to bring the people to terms for the overplus ; so that by this stratagem, the warrants, surveys, and new patents, cost the people as much, and to some more, than the first purchase of their lands, besides their long attendance upon thy secretary and surveyors to have their business done : but before thou would pass that act, it must be accompanied with an impost or excise, and a two thou sand pounds bill besides : and all this thou es teemed but inconsiderable, when thou com pared it with the vast charge thou had been at in the administration and defence of this government since the year 1632, though we know thy stay here at first coming was not above two years, but went home about the difference between thee and Baltimore, con cerning the bounds of the lower counties, and did not return till the year 1699 ; excusing thy stay by thy service to the nation of Eng land in general, and to thy friends there in particular, (as appears by thy letters from time to time) whilst the interest of this pro vince was sinking, which might have been upheld by the many wealthy persons that were inclined to transport themselves here, after the rout of Monmouth, if thee had then came over according to thy repeated pro mises: and how fiir thy stay has eitiier effected what thou went about, or contributed to the establishment of the inhabitants here in their just rights and liberties, and properties, we leave thee to demonstrate, and the world to judge : in the mean time, we desire thee to consider better what to place to the account of this province ; and do not forget that no part of thy pretended charges was expended in paying some of those who acted under thee, in the administration here, one of whom, viz. Thomas Lloyd, served thee in that station about nine years of thy absence, which thou leaves, it seems, for the country to discharge. " That after thou had managed these points, and was sent for to England, thou granted the third charter of privileges, by which we are now convened ; as also a charter to incor porate the city of Philadelphia, and signed a charter of property, but refused to order thy seal to be affixed Uiereunto, till thou had ad vised upon it in England : nevertheless, thou promised under thy hand, that thou would confirm the first part of it relating to titles of land, but thou sent tliy order, under hand and seal, dated within six months after, to coun termand the selling thereof. " That after the laws were completed for raising all the said taxes and imposts, thou proposed that if thy friends would give thee a sum of money, thou promised to negotiate their affairs at home to the best advantage ; and endeavour to procure the approbation of our laws, and a general exemption from oaths : we find that considerable sums have been raised by way of subscription and benevo lence, for that service; part thou received before thou went and more have been receiv ed since by thy secretary ; but we had no ac count that our laws are approved, nor had we as much as a letter from thee, nor any other intimation but by thy secretary's letters, which he thought fit to communicate by piece meals, whereby we understand, thou hast been making terms for thyself and family : and by what we gather, thou hast been upon surrendering the government; nor are thy friends here eased of oaths, but on the con trary, an order from the queen, requiring oaths to be administered to all persons who are willing to take them in all judicatures, whereby the people called quakers are disa bled to sit in courts. " That by the last charter or privileges, thou established an annuEil election of repre sentatives for assembly, and tliat they should continue and sit upon their own adjournments ; yet by thy commission to thy present deputy, John Evans, thou did, in a direct opposition to the said charter, give him power not only to call assemblies by his writs, but to prorogue and dissolve them as he should see cause ; and also reserved to thyself, though in England, thy final assent to elII bills passed here by thy deputy : we suppose thou hast not forgot, that what rendered the former charter inconve nient if not impracticable, was chieflv that colonel Fletcher's interruption had extin guished the rotation of the council, and next to that the proposals of laws by the council, in presence of the governor ; as also the in stability of the lower counties, which we had before experience of, and whose result was then doubted, as hath since happened : but that annual standing assemblies, liable only to the dismission and call of the governor as occasion required, was never found an incon- veniency, nor assigned as a reason for chang ing the said former for the present charter : and should that of dissolution be introduced, it would frustrate the constitution, because if a dissolution should happen, the province might be a great part of the year without an assembly, and the governor without power to call one, whatsoever commands from the crown, or other occasions may happen ; for that the election being fixed by charter, which is in nature of a perpetual writ, and has the authority of a law: if it could be superseded by the governor's writ, which is but an act of state, and merely temporary, it would be of PENNSYLVANIA. IS pernicious consequence to the province as well as thyself: and of this thou seemed very sen sible, when being desirable by the assembly, upon the close of the session in the year 1701, to dissolve them, (being then called by writs) thou told them, thou wouldst not do it, for that thou couldst not answer to the crown to leave the province without a standing assem bly. " That as the exemption from any dissolu tion or prorogation, seems to be an insepara ble consequent of thy grant, as well as our constant practice upon the former charter, which this was by thy promise to exceed, so upon an attempt made by the council, to pro rogue us in October last, we have thought it our duty to prepare a bill for eiscertaining, ex plaining, and settling our present constitu tion ; which we having presented to thy depu ty for his assent, he finding that the power of dissolution and prorogation is not in express words granted away by charter, as also the inconveniency thereof with his said commis sion, after several conferences thereupon, had with him and his council, he thought fit to ad vise us to forbear the farther pressing it, tdl we should hear from thee ; therefore he be ing unwilling to pass the said bill by us judg ed so necessary, and the very foundation of our present constitution, we could not think it proper to proceed to perfect any other busi ness, whilst that remained unsettled : nor do we suppose any thing will be done in legisla tion either by the present or succeeding as semblies, till the difficulties we labour under herein be removed, either by thy speedy order, or by thy deputy without it ; seeing to pro ceed upon other matters, would be to raise a superstructure before the foundation were well laid ; nor do we look upon it very advisa ble for us to proceed far in legislation, until thou repeals those parts of thy lieutenant's commission, relating to prorogation and dis solution of assemblies, for the reasons before given ; as also concerning thy final assent to laws, which we conceive to be very unrea sonable in itself, and a great abuse and viola tion of our constitution, that thou should offer to put three negatives upon our acts, whereas by our first charter, we had none but that of the crown ; and how thou gained another to thyself, we have before showed thee, but now to bring us under three, seems a contrivance to provoke us to complain to the queen, that thou art not effectually represented here, and make that a motive for her to take us under her immediate care and protection, which would make thy surrender in some measure our act, which if thou should do without the consent of the landholders and inhabitants of this province first obtained, would look too much like treachery. " That it appears, by several petitions now before us, that very great abuses have been and are put upon the inhabitants, and extor tions used by thy secretary, surveyors, and other officers, concerned in property as well as courts, which might have been prevented or sooner remedied, had thou been pleased to pass the bill proposed by the assembly in the year 1701 to regulate fees ; as also the want of a surveyor-general, which is a great injury and dissatisfaction to the people ; as is likewise the want of an established judica ture for trials between thee and the people ; for if we exhibit our complaints against thee, or those who represent thee in state or proper ty, they must be determined by or before jus tices of thy own appointment; by which means, thou becomes, in a legal sense, judge in thy own cause, which is against natural equity : therefore, we propose, that a man learned in the laws of England, may be com missioned by the queen, to determine all mat ters, wherein thy tenants have just cause to complain against thee, thy deputies or com missioners ; or else restore the people to the privilege of electing judges, justices, and other officers, according to the direction of the first charter, and intent of the first adventurers, and as the people of New England have by king William's charter : that thy commissioners of property, are very unwilling to make good the deficiencies of those lands thou hast been many years ago paid for (though thou gave them power so to do) and so great is the dif- culty and trouble to get satisfaction in this particular, that it is better for one to forego his right, than wait on and attend the commis sioners about it unless the quantity wanting be very great. " We have many other things to represent to thee as grievances; as thy unheard of abuses to thy purchasers, &c. in pretending to give them a town, and then by imposing un conscionable quit-rents, makes it worse by tenfold than a purchase would have been : also the abuse about the bank, and want of common to the town, and not only so, but the very land the town stands on, is not cleared of the Swedes' claims. "These are the chief heads, which we thought fit at this time to lay before thee, earnestly entreating thy serious consideration of them, and that thou will now at last, after we have thus long endured and groaned un der these hardships (which of late seem to be multiplied upon us) endeavour as far as in thee lies, to retrieve thy credit with us thy poor te nants and fellow-subjects, by redressing these aggrievances, especially in getting our laws confirmed, and also to be eased of oaths, and giving positive orders to thy deputy to unite heartily with us, upon our constitution ; and that the charters thou granted us for city and country, may be explained, settled, and con firmed by law : and we further entreat, that effectual care be taken for the suppressing 20 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. of vice, which, to our great trouble we have to acquaint thee, is more rife and common amongst us since the arrival of thy deputy and son, especially of late, than was ever known before : nor are we capable to suppress it, whilst it is connived at, if not encouraged by authority ; the mouths of the more sober magistrates being stopped by the said late order about oaths, and the governor's licensing ordinaries not approven by the magistrates of the city of Philadelphia, and the roast chiefly ruled by such as are none of the most exemplary for virtuous conversation : thy po sitive orders in the premises, will be absolute ly necessary to thy deputy, who thinks it un reasonable, and a great hardship on him, to give sanction to laws explanatory of thy grants, or to do any thing by way of enlarge ment or confirmation of aught save what is particularly and expressly granted by thee, it being by some of his council urged as an ab surdity in us to expect : and we desire that thou would order the licensing of ordinaries and taverns, to be by the justices, according to thy letter dated in September, 1697 ; and we hope we need not be more express in charg ing thee, as thou tenders, thy own honour and honesty, or the obligations thou art under to thy friends, and particularly thy first pur chasers and adventurers into this province, that thou do not surrender the government whatsoever terms thou may by so doing make for thyself and family, which we shall deem no less than a betraying us, and at least will look like first fleecing, then selling : but ra ther use thy utmost interest with the queen, to ease us in the premises : and if after thy endeavours used to keep the government, it he per force taken from thee, thou will be the clearer in the sight of God, and us the repre sentatives of the people of this thy province, who are thy real friends and well wishers, as we hope is evident in that we have dealt thus plainly with thee." It was but natural, that such a paper as this should deeply affect those it was levelled against ; and that it should operate different ly on persons differently made and differently situated. Those best acquainted with the necessity of keeping the first principles of government ever before their eyes, and the danger of ad mitting the least departure from them, could not but be pleased with the plain and firm language of this remonstrance : while those apt to be so dazzled with the outside of things, that they were incapable of looking into their contents, were as much softened with concern for the father and /oantiJer of their communi ty, and consequently inclined to thhik him hardly dealt by in it There is something in connexion and de pendence which gives a secret bias to all we think and wish, as well as what we say : and in all disputes this must be duly allowed for on both sides. Seven persons, some of them of the coun cil, made their application by petition to the next assembly for a copy of it, but were flatly refused : and even when the governor himself in very high language required it, they were immoveable as before. Willing as they might be to reclaim the proprietary to a due sense of his first obliga tions, they might be equally unwilling to ex pose him : and, agreeable to this, the assem bly of 1706-7 in one of their remonstrances to the governor say, "that hoping the bill of courts then in dispute would have put an end to some of the grievances they had several years groaned under, they had hitherto for- hompvblicly to remonstrate ; choosing rather to provide remedies for things amiss than to complain of them." Some concern they might also be under for themselves ; their as cendancy was precarious : it depended on the good will of numbers : and the infirmity of nature above touched upon, might happen to operate more powerfully in the people, than the consideration of justice and safety to themselves and their posterity- The pro vince, at this time, had moreover their rea sons on account of oaths, a militia, &c. to ap prehend some inconveniency if they fell un der the immediate government of the crown ; and therefore did not care to break with the proprietary entirely. Nor was it long before, by partial and in direct practices, such as both influencing and awing the electors (facts publicly charged on the instruments of government by the assem bly of 1706-7) that the governor obtained both an assembly and a speaker, almost as complaisant as he could ivish. Nor ought it to be forgot, that his successor Gookin ob tained such another in the year 1710. In all matters of public concern something personal will interfere. Thus we find during this turbulent period, two names frequently occur, as opposite, in principle and purpose, and tiie oracles of their respective parties, to wit, David Lloyd, speaker of tlie assembly, and James Logan, secretary to the governor and council. Logan insults the members of the assembly sent from the house on a message to the go vernor. The house resent it complamofit arraign his conduct in office, and proceed against him as a public delinquent The governor, on the other hand, conceives an insuperable aversion to the speaker, points him out to the public as an interested, factious, dangerous person, treats him arrogantly at two several conferences, and complains of the house for not abandoning him to his resent ments. Thus heat kindled heat ; animosity excited aaimosity ; and «ach party resolving to be al- PENNSYLVANIA. 21 ways in the right, were often both in the wrong. By the way, this. And it is necessary still to add, that all this while, the charter of ¦privileges and that for the city of Philadel phia, as well as that of property, remained un confirmed at home ; and the people were plamly told by Evans, that, till both the pro prietary and his governor were put upon pro per establishments, they were not to expect the fruits of his favour and protection. The last of those charters, the said governor, in one of his papers, was pleased to style a tedious bill of property, fitted so entirely to the people's interest, and with so little regard to the proprietary, that it seemed strange how reasonable men could, without confusion, of fer it : and in another he discourses of it as a project of the speaker's, to incorporate the whole province, and take away near the whole power out of the hands of the proprie tary and governor, and lodge it in the people. ¦To which the assembly replied in the re markable words following ; " And as to what is said concerning the charter prepared at the proprietary's depart ure, the draughtsman has assured us, that no project or power is comprised in that charter but what was the proprietary's direction, perused and corrected by his cousin Parmiter, before it was engrossed, and afterwards signed by himself: but whether the proprietary de signed thereby to reverse the method of the government according to an English consti tution, and establish a republic in its stead, or leave the people to struggle with the queen's governors, which he then expected would be the consequence of the bill then moving in parliament against proprietary governments, the draughtsman cannot tell : but he well re members, that the proprietary told him, that he held himself obliged to do what he could to confirm his tenants in their lands and proper ties, and give them all the* powers he could, as he was lord of this seignory, and much more to that effect." And now, to finish on the head of the re presentation, which throws so much light on the first foundation of this colony, what after wards passed in the assembly concerning it, candour requires should here be subjoined. " But what says governor Evans, I must not be silent in, is, that he, (the proprietary) high ly resents that heinous indignity and most scandalous treatmenthe has met with in the let ter, directed not only to himself, but also to * " Wiliam Biles acquainted this house, that Natha niel Puclile had a letter from the proprietary to be com municated to several persons here, encouraging them to visit upon the privileges of their charter and laws, and not tamely give them up ; and instanced what advan tage it has been to the people of Rhode-Island, Con necticut, and other proprietary governments, to as sert their rights," &c. Fotes ofMssembty for August 21, 1704. be shown to some other persons disaffected to him, in the name of the assembly and peo ple of this province, of which I have former ly demanded a copy, but was then denied it, under pretence (when it was too late) that it should be recalled: if that letter was the act of the people, truly represented, he thinks such proceedmgs are sufficient to cancel all obligations of care over them : but if done by particular persons only, and it is an imposture in the name of the whole, he expects the country will purge themselves, and take care that due satisfaction be given him." The reader will observe that the letter is not complained of as scandalous, because of its falsehood, but because of its freedom, in which it must be understood consists the in dignity. And the assembly's reply was as follows : " As to the representation or letter sent to the proprietary by order, or in the name of the former assembly, which he takes, it seems as an indignity, and resents it accordingly ; it not having been done by this house, but being the act (or in the name) of a former, as we are not entitled to the affront, if any be, nei ther are we concerned in answering it : our part is only to lament (as we really do) that there should be true occasion for such repre sentation ; or, if none, that it should be offered to our proprietary, whom we both love and honour ; and, therefore, we hope his obliga tions of care over us and the people of this province by no such means shall be cancel ed." That this man's government should be one continued broil, from the beginning of it to the end, is proof sufficient, that Mr. Penn left his frame at least in a very imperfect state. Nor were the people themselves insensible of it, nor more backward to declare their sentiments concerning it, than of the other parts of his conduct Evans, for example, having made use of the following clause in one of his papers to the assembly, to wit ; " The governor, at his arrival, found the people possessed of a charter, by virtue of which the present assembly now sits, contain ing theframe of government, settled solemnly, as he has reason to believe, between the pro prietary and the people, because by the sub scription, it is said to be thankfully accepted of by the assembly then sitting, and was sign ed not only by the proprietary, but by the speaker of the assembly, in the name of all those of the province (as it is affirmed), who were then present, and unanimously consent ing, and is farther witnessed by the council ; this, therefore, ought fully to conclude : for if the people could allege, that any thuig more was their due, it ought at that time to have been fixed and settled ; the assembly then sitting, as the governor is informed, hav- 22 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. ing fully considered and debated it ; or if any demands, which it is imagined might further have been made, were not then granted, the governor cannot think it proper for him to in termeddle or to concern himself farther than by virtue of the king's letter patent, to the proprietary, and the proprietary's commission to him, with her majesty's royal approbation, to govern according to that charter, and the laws in force, &c. The assembly thus replied : " As to the present charter, which the go vernor found in being at his arrival, though it he far short of an English constitution, yet even that has been violatedhj several inroads made upon it : and if the governor cannot grant the just and reasonable demands of the people's representatives agreeable with an English establishment there is cause to con clude, that the proprietary is not/ttHj/repre- .sented here : and, however the charter was received, yet it was not with such unanimity as is alleged, because diminutive of former privileges ; neither was it prepared by the house of representatives, but done in great haste." " We are not striving for grants of power, but what are essential to the administration of * justice, and agreeable to an English con stitution : and if we have not been in posses sion of this these twenty-four years, we know where to place the fault, and shall only say, it is high time we were ui the enjoyment of our rights." And lastly, the said assembly having drawn up two several remonstrances to the proprie tary, reciting the particulars of their griev ances and complaints against the said go vernor, took occasion in the last of them, dat ed June 10, 1707, to express themselves as follows. " We, and the people we represent, being still grieved and oppressed with the mal-ad- ministration and practices of thy deputy, and the ill carriage, unwarrantable proceedings, and great exactions of thy secretary, are like to be destroyed by the great injustice and ar bitrary oppressions of thy evil ministers, who abuse the powers given thee by the crown, and we suppose have too much prevailed up on thee to leave us hitherto without relief " That the assembly which sat here on the 26th of the sixth month, 1704, agreed upon cer tain heads or particulars, which, according to the order of that day, were drawn up in a re presentation, and was signed by the speaker, and sent thee by a passenger in John Guy's brigantine, who was taken into France, from whence the same representation was conveyed to thy hands ; whereby thou art put in mind, • The governor had rejected the Wl proposed by the -lescmbly for establishing courts of justice, &o. and had (lone it by an ordinance of his own. upon what score the purchasers and first ad venturers embarked with thee to plant this colony, and what grants and promises thou made, and the assurance and expectations, thou gave them and the rest of the settlers and inhabitants of this province, to enjoy the pri vileges derived from thy own grants and con cessions, besides the rights and freedoms of England : but how they were disappointed in several respects, appears, in part, by the said representation, to which we refer; and be come supplicants for relief, not only in matters there complained of which are not yet redress ed, but also in things then omitted, as well as what have been lately transacted, to the griev ous oppression of the queen's subjects, and public scandal of this government" " We are much concerned, that thou con ceived such displeasure as thou did against that assembly, and not in all this time vouch safe to show thy readiness to rectify those things which they made appear were amiss : nor hast thou showed thy particular objections to the bills, which, with great care and charge, were then prepared, for confirming thy char ters to this city and country, respecting both privileges and property, and for settling the affirmation instead of oaths : but on the other hand, we found, to our great disappointment, that thou gave credit to wrong insinuations against them, as appears by thy letter from Hyde-Park, dated the twenty-sixth of the twelfth month, 1704-5, wherein thou treated some particulars very unfriendly, and without any just grounds blamed the people's repre sentatives, who, we perceive by their pro ceedings, were ready to support the govern ment under thy administration, and desired no thing but to have their just rights, privileges, and properties confirmed, the judicatories re gularly established, the magistracy supplied with men of virtue and probity, and the whole constitution so framed, that the people called quakers might have a share with other Chris tian people in the government which thou always gave them an expectation of, and which they justly claim as a point of right, not for the sake of honour, but for the sup pressing of vice, &c." To wade through the whole of this provin cial controversy which, at several reprisals, lasted till Gookin was superseded in tlie year 1717, and replaced by William Keith, Esq. (afterward sir Wdliam Keith, Bart) would be a task of great prolixity, and what conse quently might prove as tedious to the reader as laborious to the writer. Enough has been recited, to show upon what terms Mr. Penn was first followed by his flock, as a kind of patriarch, to Pennsylva nia ; as also, what failures in his conduct to wards them were complained of by them ; and as to the conduct of the several assem blies, which, in the several periods of this in- PENNSYLVANIA. 23 terval, maintained this controversy, a bare pe rusal of their proceedings is in general suffi cient for their justification. Men they were ; passions and interests they consequently had ; and, if they were some times carried away a little too far by them, it is obvious the passions and interests of others worked up the ferment first, and never relent ed to the last It is true, an over rigid performance of con ditions is not, to be expected of government, and seldom can be exacted from it : but then if the representative part is not tenacious, al most to a fault, of the rights and claims of the people, they will in a course of time lose their very pretensions to them. Agauist Logan, the proprietary's minister, stands upon record, still unanswered, thirteen articles of malversation, by way of impeach ment, which the governor (Evans) found means to evade, against the repeated offers of the assembly to produce their witnesses and fasten their proofs upon him : and against the governor himself, twelve in the shape of re monstrances, which argue him loose in prin ciple, arbitrary in disposition, and scandalous in his private life and deportment So unpopular was he, that an unanimous vote of thanks to the proprietary was passed on his being removed, almost before his face, for he was still a resident among them : and as he had been Logan's screen, so his succes sor, Gookin, was little better than Logan's tool. The first had the name ; the latter the power ; and by the help of the council, spur red him on, or reined him in, as he pleased. Both were necessitous, consequently crav ing alike ; and having each considered him self first, and the proprietary next, had little consideration left for the crown, and none at all for the people. If Evans adventured to act in many re spects as if there was neither charter nor as sembly, or, rather, as if he was authorized by his commission to do what he pleased in con tempt of both, (as appears by his arbitrary dis mission of one assembly, merely because they could not be brought to obey his dictature) Gookin after his example, and at the instance of Logan, declared another assembly to be no assembly, and refused to hold any further cor respondence with them : and yet when he was on the point of being recalled, he was both mean enough and desperate enough to con vene the assembly, purposely to make them this laconic proposition, viz. " That, for the little time he had to stay, he was ready to do the country all the service he could : — and that they might be their own carvers, in case they would in some measure provide for his going back to seek another employment" Of which, however, they made no other use than to gratify him with a present of two hundred pounds. Lastly, that the reader may have a general idea of those assemblies, represented in pro prietary language as so refractory and turbu lent, so pragmatical and assuming, let him ac cept of a passage out of one of their own pa pers to governor Evans, in which they thus characterize themselves. " And though we are mean men, and represent a poor colony, yet as we are the immediate grantees of one branch of the legislative authority of this pro vince, {which we would leave to our posterity as free as it was granted) we ought to have been, and do expect to be more civilly treated by him that claims the other branch of the same authority, and under the same royal grant, and has his support from us and the people we represent." It is by this time apparent enough, that though the proprietary and popular interests spring from one and the same source, they di vide as they descend : that every proprietary governor, for this reason, has two masters ; one who gives him his commission, and one who gives him his pay : that he is on his good behaviour to both : that if he does not fulfil with rigor every proprietary command, how ever injurious to the province or offensive to the assembly, he is recalled : that if he does not gratify the assembly in what they think they have a right to claim, he is certain to live in perpetual broils, though uncertain whe ther he shall be enabled to live at all : and that, upon the whole, to be a governor upon such terms, is to be the most wretched thing- alive. Sir William Keith could not be ignorant of this ; and therefore, however he was in structed here at home, either by his princi pal or the lords of trade, resolved to govern himself when he came upon the spot, by the governing interest there : so that his admi nistration was wholly different from that of his two predecessors. With as particular an eye to his own par ticular emolument he did indeed make his first address to the assembly : but then all he said was in popular language : he did not so much as name the proprietary : and his hints were such as could not be misunderstood, that in case they would pay him well, he would serve them well. The assembly, on the other hand, had sense enough to discern, that this was all which could be required of a man who had a family to maintain with some degree of splendour, and who was no richer than plantation go vernors usually are : in short, they believed in him, were liberal to him, and the returns he annually made them were suitable to the confidence they placed in him : so that the proper operation of one master-spring kept the whole machine of government, for a consider able period of time, in a more consistent mo tion than it had ever known before. 24 FRANKLIN'S WORKS Of all political cements reciprocal interest is the strongest ; and the subject's money is never so well disposed of, as in the mainte nance of order and tranquilhty, and the pur- Chase of good laws; for which felicities Keith's administration was deservedly memo rable. Under proprietary displeasure, however, by the resentment and artifice of Logan, the pro prietary secretary, excited and aggravated by some neglects and mistakes of his own, he sunk at last ; after what manner, it may not be altogether unuseful to intimate. When Mr. Penn died in the year 1718, he left his hold of the province (which was much incumbered, by a mortgage on one hand, and by a transfer of it to the crown for ten thou sand pounds, of which he had received two thousand pounds, on the other) in the hands of trustees, namely, his widow, Henry Gould- ney, Joshua Gee, and his all-sufficient secre tary Logan. The difficulties thus resting in his family were very well known in the province ; not withstanding which, the inhabitants, satisfied with their governor, persevered in all duties to them ; nor seemed to entertain a thought to their disadvantage. Logan and his creatures were the only mal contents ; and why they were so will be made sufficiently obvious. 'The governor and as sembly in concurrence, could govern the pro vince without his participation ; so he remain ed without importance to either, till this share of the trust enabled him to interpose, emd en titled him to be heard, at the expense of both. In the second year after Keith's arrival, Lo gan had divided his council against him, and carried offa majority ; and ever after had re presented him in his despatches, as having sub stituted his own interest in the place of the proprietary's, and confederated with the as sembly to make both branches of the legisla ture equally subservient to popular purposes. Subtle, however, as he was, and practised in all the arts of political disguise, he could not long conceal himself from the penetration of Keith. Thus having been detected (as Keith says*) in aggravating, and even in alter ing certain minutes of the council-proceedings for the purposes before specified : and, m full confidence of proprietary protection, defend ing himself therein, with much personal abuse against the governor; the latter dismissed him from his post as secretary, and substituted another in his place. With this, and a variety of other complaints all of the same tendency, Logan therefore made a voyage to England, soon after he be came a trustee, and there made his court so effectually to the widow, &c. that they freighted him back with letters of reproof, ?Governor Keith's letter to the widow Penn, Sep tember 24, 1724. and private instructions to Keith, not only to reinstate him, but in effect, to be governed by him, as implicitly as Gookin had been governed before. Keith, on the other hand, being a man of too much spirit to submit to such treatment, and presuming beside, that his services to and interest in the colony, and his connexions with the most considerable men in it, would uphold him against all opposition whatsoever, communicated all to the assembly, together with his own answers : and this he thought was the more incumbent on him, because Lo gan had already been making his efforts to stir up a party against him. Logan, upon this, commences advocate in form for the proprietary interest ; presents a written plea on its behalf to the assembly, justifying therein all the restrictions laid on the governor by those instructions, (which will be in the next session explained) and whether by chance or design, it is hard to pronounce, suffered the secret of the quarrel to escape, by insinuating, that the proprietary, during his absence, had not received one penny either to himself or his family from the government, whereas others had received large sums. The assembly, however, not being in a hu mour to pay two government subsidies in stead of one, when exempted by the original article of quit^ents from the obligation of paying any, did not so much as take notice of this point; but on the contrary, closing with the governor, desired his concurrence with them, and offered their concurrence to him, in withstanding whatever was in the said instructions contained, repugnant to their charter, or inconsistent witli tlieir pri vileges. The governor himself also became an ad vocate for the province, and laid before the assembly a written defence of the constitu tion thereof, as well as of tlie late proprieta ry's character, in answer to Logan's memo rial; and the session was concluded most triumphantly on the governor's side : for the house not only agreed to a remonstrance, in answer to the widow Penn's private instruc tions, as they were called; but moreover gratified him for his extraordmary services with a thousand pounds. The controversy continued notwithstand ing; and both parties bestirred tliemselves equally in order to make proselytes. Logan seemed more humble than before, but never was more confident Keitli never was so much in pain for his own stability, and yet never seemed to have less apprehensions. In proportion, however, as it became more and more probable, that he would be laid aside, he became less and less considered ; and a breach between him and the speaker Lloyd, so often mentioned, and who had, even in PENNSYLVANIA. 25 print, acted the part of a second to him, be came as fatal to him as it was fortunate to Logan. When the next assembly met, it soon ap peared, that though the governor used the same patriot-language to it, he had not the same ascendancy over it Two several ne gatives were put, upon two several motions to furnish him, the first with six hundred pounds, the second with five hundred pounds, towards his support. No more than four hun dred pounds could be obtained : and, notwith standing all engines and all devices were em ployed, no farther compensation could be pro cured for him. It is equally the lot of this nation to be more specious than virtuous, more splendid than consistent and to abound more in politi cians than philosophers. Keith had more of the former than the latter in his composition, though he was neither in any eminent degree. A politician would not have furnished his ad versaries with a plea to excuse his removal, liy communicating a private paper to a popu lar assembly. A philosopher, governed by principle, and proof against passion, would not have been in the power of any issue whatsoever : and if the assembly had been capable of consistency, they would have set a lustre on his dismission, by accompanying it with all the douceurs in the power of the province to have heaped upon him, that other governors might have thought it worth their while to proceed on his plan. Instead of which, on the first intelligence of a new governor, which was as carefully imparted to them, as concealed from him, they even affected to procrastinate the busi ness of the province ; and when upbraided by Keith with this backwardness, and, not with out some mixture of indignation, required to give the public a testimonial of his adminis tration, they proceeded in it, as if rather con strained than inclined ; and at last took care to say as little as possible, though they had room to say so much. In short, after a nine years' administration, unembarrassed with any one breach between the governor and assembly ; and, as acknow ledged by the latter, productive of much po sitive good to the province, they parted with reciprocal coldness, if not disgust: Keith dis daining to follow Gookin's example in desir ing a benevolence ; and they not having con sideration enough left for him to offer it There is no man, long or much conversant in this overgrown city, who hath not often found himself in company with the shades of departed governors, doomed to wander out the residue of their lives, full of the agoniz ing remembrance of their passed eminence, and the severe sensation of present neglect Sir William Keith, upon his* return, was ^ He staid in Philadelphia some time after his being displaced; and, seduced by his resentments, coude* added to this unfortunate list ; concerning whom the least that can be said, is, that either none but men of fortune shall be appointed to serve in such dignified offices : or otherwise, that, for the honour of government itself, such as are recalled without any notorious impu tation on their conduct should be preserved from that wretchedness and contempt which they have been but too frequently permitted to fall into, for want even of a proper subsist ence. The reader is desired to pardon this di gression, if it is one. It was necessary to show, that the province of Pennsylvania, when well governed, is easily governed ; and that whichever branch of the legislature inflames the proprietary jealousy, or interferes with the proprietary interest, the result is the same : the obnoxious assembly is reprimanded and vilified, and as before observed, the obnoxious governor is recalled. So that, unless the province stoops to be loaded with a triple tier of subsidies ; namely, one for the public service, ordinary and ex traordinary, one for the governor's annual ap pointments, and one for the gratification of the proprietaries and their creatures, it seems reasonable to conclude it is never to enjoy any established state of tranquillity. And now, in addition to the points of pro prietary encroachment and proprietary re sentment already mentioned, we are natural ly led to such other points of controversy, as at various times have arisen for want of suffi cient foresight and sufficient preventatives ; and of which several are unhappily in agita tion at this very day. It cannot but be recollected, that Mr. Penn, in his discourse with his joint adventurers, concerning reserved rents for the support of^ government, made a remarkable distinction be tween his two capacities of proprietary and governor : and from hence, as well as from the nature of the trust, it must obviously fol low, that when he withdrew himself to Eng land, and transferred the government to his deputies, those deputies could not but be pos sessed of all the powers originally vested, by the crown, in him. Adroit as he was at re finements, he could not do by his trust as he did by his land; — withhold a reserve of power, and, like the drunken sailors in the play, appoint a viceroy, and retain a power to be viceroy over him. And yet even Mr. Penn himself in his com mission to Evans, a man, as we have seen, determined enough to push any proprietary, and defeat any popular point whatsoever, could venture to slip the following clause in to his commission, to wit : " saving always to scended to act a part neither becoming nor prudent : procuring himself to be returned as an assembly-man, and taking all the measures in his power to divide the province, embarrass the governor, and distress the ;re- prietaries. 26 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. me and my heirs, om final asicut to all such bills as thou shalt pass into lawj in the said go vernment, &c." The assembly, however, to whom this com mission was communicated, were shrewd enough to start the following doubt upon it, and to send it by way of message to the coun cil, to vvit : " whether the said vote is void in itself, and does not vacate the rest of the said commission or render it invalid'.'" And the counoil,with the proprietary's eldest son at the head, and secretary Logan at the rear of it, were so startled at it, that, in order to evade the last inference, they found themselves un der a necessity to return the following answer. " We of the council, whose names are here unto subscribed, are of opinion, that the said saving is void in itself : and that those bills which the present lieutenant-governor shall think fit to pass into laws, and cause the pro prietary's great seal to be affixed thereunto, cannot afterwards be vacated or annulled by the proprietary, without assent of the assem bly of this province." The next piece of practice, to answer the same purpose, that was found out, was to im pose certain conditions of government on the deputy, under the penalty of a certain sum. Tills was first submitted to by Keith, and has been a rule to all his successors, with this dif ference, that whereas the penalty exacted from him was but one thousand pounds ster ling, it has been since raised to two or three thousand pounds. If ever the case of this colony should come before parliament, which is not altogether im probable, no doubt these conditions will be called for ; and if they should then be found irreconcilable with the charter, and a check upon the legislative, altogether unconstiiu- tional and illegal, the wisdom of the nation will, no doubt, pronounce upon such a tres pass according to the heinousness of it Again : the widow Penn, in her private in structions to sir William Keith, having ad mitted and complained, that the powers of le gislature were lodged in the governor and as sembly, without so much as a negative re served to the proprietary when absent pro ceeds to avow, that it was never intended [by the proprietary must be understood] the said governor and assembly should have the ex ercise of these powers ; as also to pronounce it a dangerous invention of Keith's to enact laws in conjunction with the assembly, and transmit them directly to the king's ministers without any other check ; and then, after thus arrogantly interposing between the king and his lieges of this province, clenches the whole with the following injunction ; " therefore, for remedy of this grievance, it is required, that thou advise with the council, upon every meeting or adjournment of the assembly, which requires any deliberation on the go vernor's part : that thou make no speech, nor send any written message to the assembly, but what shall be first approved in council ; that thou receive all messages from them in council, if practicable at the time ; and shall return no bills to the house, without the ad vice of the council ; nor pass any whatsoever into a law, without the consent of a majority of that board, &.c." What, therefore, the governor's bond has not been sufficient to obtain, this new expe dient was to extort If the governor would not act as required, he was thus to be disabled from acting at all : and after so many vari ous frames of government had been granted and regranted, proprietary will and pleasure was to be the last resort of all. In vain both governor and assembly freely and fidly remonstrated against such an in novation, in a government supposed to be guarded by charter against all innovations whatsoever ; more especially such as were neither consistent with the rights of the peo ple, the powers already vested in the govern or, nor the respect due to the crown. Logan discovered the assembly were not authorized by charter to advise, though they were to enact ; because the word advice was not to be found in that last given to them ; that governors were not to be trusted to act without advice ; consequently the said e.x- pedient to bridle them was a good one ; and if we may judge by events, his sophistry has given the law ever since. From what has been thus far recited, it is obvious, that the proprietary of Peiir.sylvania was of too little consideration here at home, to be of much use to the province either as a protector or advocate ; and yet that he was there so much above the level of his freemen and tenants, that, even in their legislative ca pacity confederated with the governor, they could hardly maintain their rights they were so many ways entitled to, against the artifices and encroachments of his emissaries. As lord of the soil, is the light he is next to be considered. The charter 3Ir. Penn obtained of the crown, comprehended a fii" greater extent of territory, than he thought fit to take up of the Indians at his first pur chase. -And even in the very infancy of his colo ny, it was by act of assembly inconsiderately, because unconditionally, provided, that in case any person should presume to buy land of the natives, within the limits of the province, &c. witliout leave first obtained from the proprie tary, the bargain and purchase so made should be void. Rendered thus tlie only purchaser, he reck oned he might always accommodate himself at the Indian market on the same terms, with what quantity of land he pleased ; and till the stock in hand, or such parts of it as he PENNSYLVANIA. 27 thought fit to dispose of, were in a fair way of being sold off, he did not think it for his interest to incumber himself with more. This happened sooner than he foresaw ; though it must be acknowledged the founders of few cities appear to have had more fore sight than he. 'The growth of his colony ex ceeded his most sanguine e.xpectations ; and, when successive new purchases came to be made, an inconvenience by degrees became maniffest which, perhaps, had not been thought of before, or if thought of, had not been guard ed against. Men who want a present convenience must not be over solicitous about future contingen cies ; and, in general, we choose to be blind to such objects as we fear we have not strength enough to remove: he that is too much of a huckster often loses a bargain ; as he that is too little so, often purchases a law suit It was no hard matter to induce a belief, that occasional treaties with the Indians, un der the pretence of keeping up the same bro therly correspondence which had been at first established with them, was a necessary mea sure of government ; nor to prevail v/ith the province, while this was understood to be the sol e consideration, to bear the expense of them. But when it appeared, as in the course of time was unavoidable, that a treaty and a pur chase went on together ; that the former was a shoeing-horn for the latter ; that the go vernor only made the compliments, and the assembly the presents, &c. it could not but appear also, that there must be somewhat un fair in a procedure where one paid all the cost, and the other engrossed all the profit ; and that it was high time to put some stop to a practice so injurious to their understandings. It is not indeed necessary in private life to bargain, that those who purchase for their own use and advantage, should pay the price out of their own pockets; but in public it is. Persons who stand on the same ground will insist on the same rights ; and it is mat ter of wonder, when any one party discovers folly or insolence enough to demand or e.xpect any pre-eminence over the other. Whereas prerogative admits of no equality ; and presupposes, that difference of place al ters the use of language, and even the very nature of things. Hence, though protection is the reason, and, consequently, should be the end of go vernment we ought to be as much upon our guard against our protectors as agauist our enemies. Power, like water, is ever working its own way ; and wherever it can find or make an opening, is altogether as prone to overflow whatever is subject to it And though matter of right overlooked. may be reclaimed and re-assumed at any time, it cannot be too soon reclaimed and re- assumed. That assembly then, which first discovered this lapse, or which at the requisition of their constituents, first endeavoured to retrieve it, did no more than their duty ; and the prece dent they set cannot be too closely followed. Again : the distinction made by Mr. Penn in the case of the quit-rents, between his two capacities of governor and proprietary, had , an use. which even he, with all his shrewd ness, did not perhaps advert to, when it was made ; or at least expect it would be adverted to by any body else. For the support of the governor and govern ment, it must be recollected they were sub mitted to; for the support of the proprietary, when absent from his government, and when the government charge was otherwise sup ported, they were paid : and as he and his agents went on, not only to reserve such rents out of all the parcels of lands they dis posed of, but even to rise in their demands, as the value of lands rose ; so it could not but follow, that in processof time these quit-rents would of themselves become an immense es tate. When, therefore, the proprietary no longer acted as governor, nor even resided in the province, nor expended a fifth of his income there, could it be supposed, that this estate, thus obtained and thus perverted from its original purpose, should not be liable, in com mon with ail other estates, to contribute to those charges it was first in the entire allot ted for, and the whole amount of which it so many fold exceeds ? No property in England is tax-free: no difference m the amount, or value of property, makes any difference in the duty of subjects : and nothing is more consonant to reason, than that he who possesses most, should contribute most to the public service. And yet, for want of a specific clause to declare their property taxable, the present proprietaries insist on having it exempted from every public obligation, and upon charg- in? the difference on the public, who, it can not be too often remembered, gave it in the first instance as the price of an exemption from all other taxes. Clear, however, it will be made to every unprejudiced mind, that such a specific clause neither is nor ever was necessary ; and, that in virtue of the inherent right, as well as the power and authority reposed in the freemen to tax themselves by ways and means of their own providing, all the property of the province lies indiscrim'inately at their discretion, sub ject to an equal taxation. The paper currency of the province is next to be mentioned ; and as that was out of pros- 28 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. pect while the several /rames of government were under consideration, it could not be comprehended in any of them. The currency then was, and so continued to be, for many years after, gold and silver of any species by weight; at first in so irre gular a manner, and at such uncertain rates, as gave the crafty many opportunities to prey upon the ignorant and necessitous; conse quently was productive of much contention, embarrassment, and confusion. By royal proclamatipn, in the fourth of queen Anne, the rates and values of all foreign coins current in the English colonies were li mited and ascertained ; and, in her sixth, the contents of the said proclamation were enacted into a law, which is still in force. But the annual influx of these foreign coins, through what channel soever, or from whatso ever source, by no means answered the de mands of an annual issue. From England came all the manufactures consumed in the plantations ; and all the re turns they could make by their commodities sent thither directly, or the product of them at other markets, fell far short of the balance growing against them. The defect, therefore, was to be made good in gold and silver, and was so as long and as often as any could be found. Every colony, in its turn, v/as, consequently, drained of its specie ; and, as it is an impossibility known and avowed, for any trading community to sub sist without some medium of circulation, every colony in its turn was obliged to have recourse to the same expedient of uttering provincial bills of credit and making them answer, as far as possible, all the topical purposes of gold and silver ; by which their several capitals were enlarged ; the gold and silver became commo dities that could be spared for exportation ; and the merchants at home were paid in that gold and silver, without any provincial detri ment. Pennsylvania, however, if not the very last, was one of the last, which gave into it It was not till the year 1722 (Keith, govern or) that they made their first experiment ; and even then they proceeded with the utmost caution and circumspection, in every step they took. Knowing, for example, that the danger of depreciation was the only danger they had to guard against and that nothing but an over quantity, defect of solid security, and of pro per provision to recall and cancel them, could create that danger, they issued at first but fif teen thousand pounds ; they made no loans but on land-security or plate deposited in the loan-office : they obliged the borrowers to pay five per cent, for the sums they took up ; they made their bills a tender in all payments of all kinds, on pain of vacating the debt, or for feiting the commodity : to keep them as near as possible on a par with gold and silver, they imposed sufficient penalties on all those who presumed to make any bargain or sale upon cheaper terms, in case of being paid in the one preferable to the other : they provided for the gradual reduction of them, by enactmg, that one eighth of the principal, as well as the whole interest money, should be annually paid. And it was not till they were convinced by expe rience of the utility of the measure, and the in sufficiency of tlie sum, that they adventured to issue thirty thousand pounds more. Such, moreover, was the benefit apparently resulting from it; such the inconveniency ap prehended by every body from the scarcity of money sure to follow a too precipitate dis charge of the loans; and such the apparent growth of the province during this interval, that, in the year 1729 (Patrick Gordon, go vernor) it was thought advisable to increase the provincial capital by a new emission of bills, to the amount of thirty thousand pounds, and to render the repayments still easier to the borrowers, by reducing them to one six teenth a year. Again : in the year 1739 (George Thomas, governor) occasion was taken from the disco veries repeatedly made, that these provincial- bills had been counterfeited, not only to call them all in, in order to their being replaced with others of a new impression, &c. but also for the reasons before given, to issue the fur ther sums of eleven thousand one hundred and ten pounds five shillings, (which, added to the sums already in circulation, made their whole capital amount to eighty thousand pounds) to be current for sixteen years. Lastly : finding, that the like, or a greater sum, in case the province should grow still greater, would in all probability be always necessary, the assembly moreover provided, that so fest as any of the former borrowers should repay their provincial-money, the trus tees of the loan-office might re-emit the same sums during the said term of sixteen years, on the same conditions, either to them or others, without any new authority for that pur pose. And, upon the whole, it is to be observed, that the assembly, in establisliing tliis paper currency, in taking upon themselves, as repre sentatives of the province, to appoint the trus tees and other officers charged with the ad ministration of it; in providing tliat the said trustees and officers sliould be responsible to the province for their conduct in it ; and in reserving to the assembly, for the time being, tlie disposition and application of tlie annual product met not with any such objection from their governors, or the proprietaries, or the ministry here at home, as could excite the least apprehension of any such contest, as might either embroil the province, affect the interest, or incommode tlie government of it PENNSYLVANIA. 29 It is true, the proprietaries and their agents did, from the beginning, discover a repugnance to this measure, till they found themselves considered in it ; like the snail with his horns, they had no sensations for the province, but what reached them through the nerves of pow er and profit. Profit, though ranked last, they consulted first ; and when possessed of one point, they thought they might wrangle more successfully for the other. If the widow Penn acquiesced in the paper- money acts passed by Keith, she reprimanded him for passing them ; and in a manner forbid him to pass any more. Gordon (Keith's successor) having over and over again acknowledged his conviction of the conveniences arising to the province from a reasonable increase of their paper currency, gave t'pe assembly to understand, in so many words, that nothing but the gratification of the proprietaries in the affair of, their quit-rents, would prevent the opposition they were other wise to expect to the act then before them in England. By special contract with the several pur chasers, these quit-rents of theirs were to be paid in sterling money ; and, as it was impos sible, by any provision whatsoever, to make the provincial currency answer the universal purposes of gold and silver, so no provision could hinder these metals from having the pre ference of paper. To convert paper into spe cie or bullion could not of course but be at tended with some cost ; and hence the propri etary-remittances could not but come shorter home. When, therefore, by the eighty thou sand pounds act, paper was to become the pro vincial establishment, they would not allow their share of the provincial advantage result ing from it (which was, at least, equal to that of the province, as will hereafter become appa rent) to be what it really was, an adequate consideration, but insisted, not only on having the difference between paper and specie or bullion made up to them, and that the differ ence of exchange should be made up to them also ; or, in other words, that the pounds ster ling due to them in Pennsylvania, should be paid to them nett in England. In short the sum of one thousand two hun dred pounds was in this manner extorted from the province, together with an annuity of one hundred and thirty pounds, to continue during the circulation of those bills ; which will serve to show, at least, that the province could not be more stubborn, upon other occasions, than the proprietaries were selfish on this. There remains yet another topic to be touch ed upon, which will require a more tender consideration from the reader than perhaps it may always find. Mr. Penn and his followers were of that sect who call themselves by the amiable and levelling name of Friends ; and who having a* been at first opprobriously called by that of quakers, have been forced, by the joint ty ranny of imposition and custom, to answer to it ever since. Of these, the majority carried along with them a scruple better accommodated to the forming of a society and preserving it in peace, than to the protecting it from those insults and depredations which pride and lust of do minion have at all periods committed on their weaker neighbours ; and from the visitation of which, no system of politics, morals, or re ligion, hath as yet been able to preserve man kind. All their views, purposes, and endeavours were narrowed, therefore, to the forms and uses of civil life ; and to link the several parts of their own little community in the most ex pedient manner together. Nor, indeed, had they at that time any other object before them : alike to wage war against any power in alliance with England, and to correspond with any power at war with her, was expressly forbid both to the proprie tary and theprovince, by the fifteenth section of the royal charter. The French were too feeble in America and too remote from Pennsylvania, to be then apprehended. The provinces adjacent were branches from the same root and responsible for their conduct to the same laws ; and the Indians, from the very beginning, had been considered and treated as equally the sons of One common father. Land wanted by us was a drug to them. The province, then to be allotted, peopled, and cultivated, had not been wrested from them by violence, butpurchased for a suitable consi deration. In the contract between the proprie tary and his sub-adventurers, all possible care had been taken that no cause of complaint should be administered to them : in trade they were not to be overreached nor imposed upon : in their persons they were not to be in sulted or abused ; and, in caseof any complaint on either side, the subject-matter was to be heard by the magistrates in concert with the Indian chief, and decided by a mixed jury of Indians and planters. The same regard to conscience which led them into this wilderness, adhered to them af terwards ; and having thus resolved and pro vided, never to be aggressors, and not being sovereigns, they left the rest to Providence. Governed by principle in all things, and be lieving the use of arms to be unlawful, the case of defence by arms could not come with in their plan. But then as their community was left open to Christians of all persuasions, and the con ditions of union could be abhorrent to none, they might well presume on being joined by numbers, which has since happened accord ingly, who, being devoid of such scruples. 30 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. might be easily induced, for proper considera- iions, to take that difficulty out of their hands : and, as to military service, under all English tenures whatsoever, no man could be compel led to serve in person, who made it his choice to serve by proxy. Add to all this ; that William Penn him self does not appear to have been under the dominion of these scruples ; he having taken care in his charter from the crown (sect 10.) to be invested with all the powers ever be stowed on a captain-general (which were al so to descend to his heirs and assigns) " to levy, muster, and train all sorts of men, of what condition soever, or wheresoever bom, and to make war and to pursue such enemies as should make incursions into the province, as well by sea as land, even without the li mits of the said province, and, by God's assist ance, to vanquish and take them," &c. And, lastly, if ever involved in the quarrels of the mother-country, and obliged to take their share of the common duty and the com mon danger, they might reasonably hope for all the protection from thence they might stand in need of, on the condition of contribut ing all that was in their power, consistent with their principles, towards it. This they have occasionally done from colo nel Fletcher's time downwards, and they would have done more, if the proprietary calls and those of their deputies had not put it out of their power. Allowing, therefore, that this unresisting principle would have been a solecism in the construction of an independent state, it was not, provincially speaking, destitute of proper palliatives. At least, scruple of conscience is at all times, and in all cases, less blameable than the wanton experiments tried upon the pro vince, even by the proprietary's own agents : first to scatter terrors among the peaceable in habitants, and then to plead the necessity of a military force from the effects of their own wicked devices. Of this nature was the false alarm raised in the queen's time by Evans and Logan : a fact which stands charged against them, in the records of the assembly, at this very day; and which, as often as recollected, will ever sug gest a fear, that a measure, so unwarrantably contended for, would, if obtained, be as un warrantably made use of We have now such a summary of the state of Pennsylvania, from its origin, before us, as may render every branch of the controversy still depending, familiar to us : and, as facts are best seen and understood in order of time as they occurred, we shall do our best to fol low the thread as it lies. In April, 1740, when the paper currency of the province had been just increased, as above specified, to eighty thousand pounds, and es tablished for sixteen years, the merchants trading to the eastern colonies of America, took occasion to complain to the house of commons, of the inconveniences and discou ragements brought on the commerce of Great Britain in those parts, by the excessive quan tities of paper money there issued, and the de preciated condition thereof, for want of proper funds to support its credit The house, by way of palliative, addressed the throne to put a temporary stop to the evil, by instructing the several governors, not to give their assent to any farther laws of that nature, without an ex press proviso, that they should not take effect till his majesty's approbation had been first obtained. Such instructions were accordingly sent ; and those to the governor of Pennsylvania were dated August 21, 1740. Notwithstand ing all which, the lords of trade and planta tions (having already in their hands a full and clear account of the currency, as esta blished by the eighty thousand pounds act, as also of the rates of gold and silver, from the year 1700 to the year 17.39 ; and having been moreover convinced, bythe merchants trading to that province, that such a sum was not on ly reasonable but necessary for carrying on the commerce of the country) thought fit to recommend the said act to the royal accept ance and ratification ; and ten days after wards the lords justices passed it into a law. Here the affair slept for several years, ex cept that the assembly, in conformity to an or der, which accompanied the instructions just mentioned, caused a second state of their cur rency to be transmitted the following year to the lords of trade : and before it was again re sumed in parliament the several incidents, next to be recited, took place. When the attempt upon Carthagena was under consideration, the northern colonies were called upon to furnish soldiers for tliat service, and Pennsylvania among the rest The assembly was at that time composed, as it had hitherto generally been ; consequently tliis demand could not but be productive of scruples and difficulties in point of conscience ; that however, they might discharge all obli gations at once, they voted four thousand pounds for the king's use, and the governor took upon himself to raise the soldiers. This was a duty of office ; and, if he had discharged it properly, what would have given universal satisfaction. The labour of the plantations is performed chiefly by indented servants, brought from Great Britain, Ireland, and Germany; nor, because of the high price it bears, can it be performed any other way. These servants are purchased of the captains who bring them ; the purchaser, by a positive law, has a legal property in them during the term tliey are bound for ; can sell or bequeath them ; and, like other chattels, they are lia- PENNSYLVANIA. 31 ble to be seized for debts. Out of these, ne vertheless, did the governor make his levies. A ferment ensued : the owners were tena cious of their rights : the governor stood upon prerogative as paramount to all : the dispute was brought into the courts ; and such was the terror of power, that the aggrieved was forced to repair to New York for advocates. The assembly, seeing no other remedy, thought themselves bound to defend the rights of their constituents ; and did defend them ac cordingly, by refusing to part with their sup ply, unless these servants so unjustly taken from their masters were restored. "The go vernor was obstinate, and so the money was, at last applied, as it ought, to indemnify them for the injury they had sustained. That, however, they might not be misre presented or misunderstood at home, as defi cient in zeal for the public, or backward to contribute to the service, they came the next year to the following vote, to wit: 'The house, taking into consideration the many taxes their fellow-subjects in Great Britain are obliged to pay towards supporting the dig nity of the crown, and defraying the necessa ry and contingent charges of government, and willing to demonstrate the fidelity, loyal ty, and affection of the inhabitants of this pro vince to our gracious sovereign, by bearing a share of the burden of our fellow-subjects, proportionably to our circumstances, do there fore, cheerfully and unanimously resolve, that three thousand pounds be paid for the use of the king, his heirs and successors, to be applied to such uses as he in his royal wisdom shall think fit to direct and appoint" And the said three thousand pounds were after wards paid into his majesty's exchequer by the agent of the province accordingly. A free gift, if ever there was one, from subject to sovereign ; and, however small, a sufficient voucher for the good intentions of those who made it In the beginning of the year 1745, the pro ject against Louisburgh, having been carried in the assembly of New England by a single vote only, was imparted to the assembly of Pennsylvania by governor Shirley, with a de sire, that they would contribute thereto : but though they could not be prevailed upon to take any part in an enterprise which to them appeared so desperate, they voted four thou sand pounds in provisions, for the refresh ment and support of the brave troops who had taken the place, as soon as it was known they were in possession of it, and that such supplies were wanting. In the beginning of the year 1746, the mi nisters affected to entertain a project for the reduction of Canada. By letters from the secretary's office, dated April 6, the northern colonies were severally called upon to con tribute their respective quotas towards it ; which they cheerfully concurred in doing, seduced by their interests and their inclina tions into a belief, that the whole line of our colonies would not be thus agitated, nor their Indian allies induced to take up the hatchet in conjunction with them, merely by way of feint to facilitate a peace. Forces were every where raised by the several governors, and the assembly of Penn sylvania voted five thousand pounds for the king's use, or, in other words, as their con tingent for this pretended national service. The money so voted being more than their revenue could furnish, they proposed to raise it by an addition of the like sum to their pa per currency ; in which case the king would be served, the provincial capital would be so far enlarged, and the interest arising from it would, in a due proportion of time, discharge the principal. And here began the first dispute between the governor and the assembly on this topic : the governor pleaded the instruction of 1740 as a reason, why he could not bring himself to such a pitch of boldness as he apprehended was necessary to the contravention of it; and therefore urged them to find out some method less exceptionable for raising the said sum : and they, willing to comply as far as possible with his scruples, so far receded from their point to that time as to issue it out of the money dormant in the loan-office for exchang ing torn and illegible bills, and to replace it by a new emission of bills to the same amount, to be sunk out of the product of the excise in ten years. Upon which the governor waved the instruction, and passed the bill ; five hun dred men were raised and supported by it, for near eighteen months, employed chiefiy in de fending the frontiers of New York, when the expedition at length was dropped and the troops disbanded. A formal bill to restrain the northern colo nies in general, from issuing paper bills of credit, it must be observed had been brought into parliament, but not perfected; and in the year 1748 again : upon which occasion the next governor of Pennsylvania, James Hamilton, Esq. ; in a message to the assembly in October 1749, made use of the following remarkable expressions : " I take it for grant ed, we are all sensible of the mischievous tendency of the bill that was brought into par liament the last year, to regulate and restrain paper bills of credit in the plantations (in which there was a clause to enforce the or ders of the crown in his majesty's American dominions) and it is not improbable, that some thing of the same kind may be offered in the ensumg session. I persuade myself you will give your agent full instructions upon this subject, in case it should become necessary for him to oppose it : the honourable proprie taries at that time laboured and with success 32 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. to avert the ihischiefs that threatened this province from the passing of the said bill ; and I have it in command from them to assure you of their assistance upon all future occa sions, wherein the welfare and happiness of the people of this province may be concerned." This had a favourable appearance towards the province, and from hence it might well be supposed, that the issues from this source would never be productive of any deep or lasting strife. But though the springs had not as yet broke out with any violence, they were working their way under ground. The growing charge of Indian affairs, which lay wholly on the province, and which, on the head of pur chases, as before explained, was productive of great advantages to the proprietaries, began to be the subject of public complaint: and by these suggestions of the importance of the proprietaries at home, the people were to be taught the danger of disobliging them. But if this was their view, it did not an swer : the assembly had too much discernment to be diverted from the object before them by the interposition of another, how dextrously soever the trick was performed, and therefore proceeded, notwithstanding, to take this affair into consideration. It is scarce necessary to intimate, that the governor, and the creatures of the govern ment, did all they could, not only to discour age them in it, but also to convince them, in effect that, according to the usual current of the world, all advantages are the prerogative of those above, and all burdens the inheritance of those below. — This may indeed be agreea ble to the usual current of the world: but then as such doctrines are not over palatable anywhere, so in a free government like^Penn- sylvania, it was not to be thought they would be swallowed at all. They were neither to be convinced nor discouraged it seems : on the contrary, they persevered ; they examin ed ; they reported ; they resolved ; and at last applied to the proprietaries, to do what equity required, by taking a share of the charge upon themselves. The proprietaries, on the other hand, an nounced in their reply, " that they did not conceive themselves to be under any such ob ligation, even though the people had been taxed for the charges of government : that as not one shilling had been levied on tlie peo ple for that service, it was so much less rea sonable in the people to ask any thing of them : that they had, notwithstanding, charged them selves with paying their interpreter even much more than could be due to him on their account, and were also then at the expense of maintaining his son with a tutor in the In dian country, to learn their language and customs for the service of the country ; as well as of sundry other charges on Indian af fairs ; that they had been at considerable ex pense for the service of the province both in England and there : that they pay the Indi ans for the land they purchase : and that they are no more obliged to contribute to the pub lic charges than any other chief governor of any other colony." In answer to this, the assembly, May 1751, re spectfully represented, "that the preserving a good understanding with the Indians was more for the interest of the proprietary estate than that of any other estate in the province, as it gave the proprietaries an opportunity of pur chasing lands on the frontiers at a low price, and selling them at a high one, which would other wise be impracticable : that, therefore, the ob ligations of justice and equity being stronger than those of law, they were certainly bound by them to contribute to the expense of those Indian treaties and presents by which the good understanding so beneficial to them was main tained ; that though taxes in form, for the im mediate support of the proprietaries' substi tute, and for defraymg the charges of these Indian treaties, had not of late years been im posed on the province, the charge of all (by the interest of the paper-money, which was a virtual tax, the excise, which was a real one, producing about 3000Z. per annum, and the tax arising from licenses of various kinds, amounting yearly to a sum not inconsidera ble, and appropriated wholly to the governor's support) was paid by the province : tliat the assembly had always paid the Indian inter preter for his public services to his full sa tisfaction : that they believed future assem blies would not fail to do whatever could be reasonably expected from them in regard to his son, when he should be qualified to suc ceed him; as also to discharge all just debts for expenses properly chargeable to the pro vince, whether incurred tliere or hi England, whenever the accounts should be exhibited : that by tlie act forbidding all but the proprie taries to purchase lands of the Indians, tliey had obtained a monopoly of the soil, conse quently ought to bear the whole charge of every treaty for such purchases, as the profit was to be wholly tlieirs : that tlieir paying for land (bought as was conceived much cheap er on account of the provincial presents ac companying those treaties) was not a satisfac tory reason, why they should not bear a part of the charge of such otlicr treaties as tended to the common welfare and peace of the pro vince : and that upon the whole, as the inte rests of the proprietaries were so constantly intermixed, more or less, with those of the province, in all Indian treaties, and as it ap peared the proprietaries tliought they paid more than their share, while the people thought they paid abundantly too much, they apprehended the surest way to prevent dissa tisfaction on all sides, would be to fix a certain PENNSYLVANIA. 33 proportion of the charge of all future provin cial treaties with the Indians, to be paid by the proprietaries and province respectively : which, not only as a proposal equitable in it self, but conducive also to preserve that union and harmony between the proprietaries and people, so evidently advantageous to both, they hoped, would, on further consideration, be agreed to." How this was received we shall seein its place. The assembly proceeded soon after, to take into consideration the growth of the province, and the state of their commerce ; and finding both to be such as required an extension of their paper-currency, on the same grounds and for the same ends as at first gave rise to it, unanimously resolved to strike an additional sum of twenty thousand pounds, in order to replace defective bills, and increase the pro vincial capital, in proportion to the increase of inhabitants ; as also tore-emit and continue the sums already in circulation. A bill was accordingly prepared in Janu ary, 1753, and sent up to the governor (Ha milton) for his concurrence ; but though that gentleman was a native of the province, with rather better qualifications for his post and, as may be supposed, more affection for the people than is common with governors, he had his reasons for not seeing this provincial point in the same light that the province did, and therefore returned the bill in a day or two, with his negative upon it : qualified in deed with expressions of concern for his so differing ui opinion with them, but founded in the dislike raised in Britain by the late too general and undistinguishing complaints against the .plantation bills of credit, which rendered the time very unseasonable for any application to the crown concerning the ex tension or re-emission of theirs : and fortified by a caveat, which sounded so much the more plausible, as it seemed to be drawn from their own premises, namely, that the many advan tages they derived from the use of paper-mo ney ought to make them extremely careful, how they took any step which might possibly endanger it. The assembly, on 'the other hand, gladly fastened on an acknowledgment so express in favour of the thing ; and, from the same sense of it, declared themselves to be equally careful with the governor in the conduct and direction of it : but having so done, they went on to say, " that as they did not think the dis like raised in Britain of the plantation bills, was so general and undistinguishing, or still so warmly subsisted as the governor seemed to apprehend, so neither did they conceive the time to be unseasonable for an application to the crown about theirs : that they were equally concerned with the governor for their difference of opinion, and that they might not Vol. II. . . . E seem to act too precipitately in an affair of such importance, they chose to make a short adjournment before they took his objection in to consideration." Adjourn they did accordingly ; and at their next meeting, which was towards the end of May the same year, found themselves ear nestly pressed by a message from the go vernor, on one hand concerning Indian affairs, and on the other by petitions from a consider able number of inhabitants, for a further addi tion to their paper-money, supported by a va riety of allegations of the most mterestingand affecting nature. The governor's message, whether prema ture or not will best appear from the sequel, prepared the house to expect, " that the coun try of Alleghany situate on the waters of the Ohio, partly within the limits of Pennsylva nia, partly within those of Virginia, already was or soon would be invaded by an army of French and Indians from Canada : in which case the Indians inhabiting there, who were a mixture of the Six Nations, Shawnese, De- la wares, and Twigtwees, lately recommended as allies to the province by the said Six Na tions, would be obliged to leave the country, and his majesty's subjects trading with them would be cut off, &c. unless timely warned by the messengers sent to them by himself for that purpose : that Montour, an inter preter, had heard the French declaration de livered, and the reply of the Indians, which was firm and- resolute, but not to be relied upon as they were in want of all things." — So fer was matter of intelligence. The rest was a pathetic representation of dangers and mischiefs to be apprehended on their own frontiers, and exhortations to enable him to give the Indians assistance answerable to their exingencies. And upon the heels of this message, the governor also communicated to them the an swer of the proprietaries to the representation of the assembly above exhibited; and which if purposely calculated to divide the province and inflame the animosities already kindled, could not have been better framed or better timed for those fatal purposes. Professions of attachment to the true and real interest of the province, of sparing no cost or pains whenever it should appear to them necessary to advance it, and acting such a part in considering the matter of the repre sentation as all disinterested persons should think just, they set out with : and, having made this ground for themselves, they pro ceed to charge the assembly with being ac tuated by ill will to them on one hand, and a desire to ingratiate themselves with the weaker part of the electors on the other. In the next paragraph they say, after we had " ordered our governor to give you the answer which he did, to your former application, we 34 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. had no reason to expect a repetition of the ap plication directly to ourselves, as you might well suppose we had considered the matter before we had returned our first answer, and the repeating the request could only produce the repeating the answer, the occasion for which does not appear to us. It is possible, that one purpose may be in order to show more publicly this difference in opinion be tween us and yourselves ; and if that was ever intended, it will be convenient we should set this matter in a clear light (although it may make our answer longer than we could wish) that the true state of the matter may appear." They then urge the authority of the board of trade, in justification of their former asser tion, that they were no more obliged to con tribute to the public charges, than the chief governor of any other colony : they will not allow that their honoured father had any as sistance from the people in making his pur chases, or that there is the least colour for pressing them so unseasonably to contribute to the public charge, seeing that the said charge did not much exceed one haff of the revenue : — and they not only return to their first charge, that the assembly by so doing, could only mean to captivate the weakest of the people, and so by their assistance continue to hold their seats in the assembly, but farther, «ite as so many proofs, the time of making their first representation, which was just be fore an election : their printjng the report and most extraordinary resolutions on which the said representation was founded, which seemed to argue it was rather intended as an address to them the said populace, than to the proprietaries, and the solemn repetition of the same request as if it was a matter of great value and importance. Take the next article in their own words. " Wherefore, on this occasion, it is necessary that we should inform the people, through yourselves their representatives, that as by the constitution, our consent is necessary to their laws, at the same time that they have an un doubted right to such as are necessary for the defence and real service of the country ; so, it will tend the better to facilitate the several matters which must be transacted with us, for their representatives to show a regard to us and our interest: for, considering the rank which the crown has been pleased to give us in Pennsylvania, we shall expect from the people's representatives on all occasions, a treatment suitable thereto; and that whilst we desire to govern the province according to law only, they should be as careful to support our interests, as we shall always be to sup port theirs." Recurring again to the revenue, they af fected to be truly concerned for being oblig ed to acquaint the public with a state of it, settle that state at six thousand pounds a year. arising from the excise and the provincial bills : again assert, that the annual expense of government for a series of years, including Indian charges, amounts to little more than half that sum: and that of all this revenue, about four hundred pounds a year only has, on an average, for twenty years past (and great part of that time during war) been ex pended in presents to the Indians and charges on that account which they could not con ceive to be a large sum, compared with that revenue, the manner of its being raised, and so important a service as that of keeping the united nations of Indians in the interest of Great Britain. They then talk of the taxes paid by their family here at home, as an equivalent to the Indian article ; and then proceed in the fol lowing remarkable terms. " And at the same time that we show you that we do pay all other taxes here, that on land only excepted, we must advise you to be very careful not to put people here in mind of that signal exemp tion. Several proposals have been made for laying taxes on North America, and it is most easy to foresee, that the self-same act of parlia ment that shall lay them on our, will also lay them on your estates, and on those of your con stituents." In the next article, having denied that the assembly had always paid the interpreter to his satisfaction, and insisted tliat they them selves had gratified him when the assembly had refused to pay him what he thought his services deserved ; they add, in a higher tone : "however, with respect to any expense of that sort,- and many others here, we entered into them without any expectation of being repaid, and should think it ftr lieneath us to send the accounts of them to the house of re presentatives, as your agents employed by yourselves might do, for the expenses incurred by them." Proceeding in the same style, they say in the next article, " we do not conceive that any act of assembly does, or can establish what you call a monopoly in us for the pur chase of lands : we derive no right or proper ty from any such law : it is under the king's royal charter that we have the sole right to make such purchases," &c. It is fit the last five articles should be in serted entire ; and tliey are verbatim as fol lows, viz. " 12. Your assertion, that treaties for land are made at a less expense to us, on account of provincial presents being given at the same time, does not appear to us to be founded on fact : the last purchase was made on no other account, but purely to save the province the expense of malting another present to some Indians, who come down after the time that the principle deputation had received the pre sents intended for the whole, and were on PENNSYLVANIA. 35 their return back ; and the land was bought very dear on that account other treaties for land have been made when provincial pre sents have not been given ; and we do not or ever did desure that the inhabitants should bear any part of the expense of Indians, who come down solely at our request to consent to the sale of lands, unless they stay on other public business also; and whenever they have come down on both accounts, we are sensible the expense has been divided in a manner very favourable to the public. " 13. We are far from desiring to avoid contributing to any public expense which it is reasonable we should bear a part of, al though our estate is not, by law, liable to be ta.xed. As we have already been, so we doubt not we shall always be, at a far greater expense in attending the affairs of the province, than our estate could be taxed at ffall the es tates in the province were rated to the public charges, which would be the only fair way of establishing a proportion. If we were willing to consent to any such matter, the value of our estate, and of the estates of all the inhabitants, ought to be considered, and the whole ex pense proportionably laid upon the whole value ; in which case, you will find, that the ex pense which we voluntarily submit to, out of affection to the inhabitants, is much more than such our proportion so laid would amount to : besides these general expenses, the first of us sent cannon, at his own charge, to the amount of above four hundred pounds sterling, for the defence of our city of Philadelphia, ne glected by a late house of representatives ; which, alone, is such a sum as the proportion of a tax on our estate would not in many years amount to. And, as this is the case, we are not disposed to enter into any agree ment with the house of representatives for payment of any particular proportion of In dian or other public expense, but shall leave it to them (to whom it of right belongs) to provide for such expense, as they shall judge necessary for the public service. " 14. As you desire to appear willing on your parts, to ease your constituents of a small part of the Indian's expense, by throw ing it upon us, we shall, on our part, and hereby do recommend it to you to give them a real and far greater relief, by taking off a large share of that only tax which is borne by them. As the general expense amounts to little more than three thousand pounds a year, we conceive it may very well be provided for out of the interest of the paper-money, and one half of the present excise: especially if we shall be induced, from the state of your trade (which we expect soon to receive) to consent to an increase of your paper-curren cy ; this would ease the inhabitants of about fifteen hundred pounds a year, which would be felt by many of them, when they would not be sensible of the trifle you propose we should contribute to the public expense. We have directed the governor to consent to such a law when you shall think fit to present it to him. " 15. As we shall ever, in the first place, endeavour to promote the real interests of the good people of Pennsylvania, we make no doubt of preserving an union and harmony be tween us and them, unless men of warm or uneasy spirits should unhappily procure them selves to be elected for representatives, and should, for the supporting of their own pri vate views, or interests, influence their bre thren, otherwise honest and well-designing, to espouse their cause ; in such case indeed, disputes may arise, wherein we shall engage with the utmost reluctance ; but even then, as we shall make the general good the rule of our actions, we shall, on all such occasions, if ever they should happen, steadily, and without wavering, pursue measures the most likely to conduce to that good end. " 16. The representatives being annually chosen, we are aware that we are not writing now to the same persons who sent the repre sentation to us ; the persons most forward to push on a measure (which, from the answer, we directed our governor to give to the for mer application he was desired to make to us, must be supposed disagreeable) may not now be in the house, but may be succeeded by more prudent persons returned for their places, who would be careful not to press a matter too far, in which the rights of the people a«re not really concerned : however, the answer we give must be to the representation sent us. And we desire, in any matter of the like nature, that the house will be satisfied with such an answer, as the governor may ha\e orders to give on our behalf "Thomas Pens, Richard Penn." In the temper the assembly was in before the reading of this ungracious paper, it was but natural to expect, that they would have taken fire immediately, and proceeded at once to their own justification. But, much to the honour of their prudence, they took a different method. They ordered it to lie on the table, together with their own votes, report, representation, &c. alluded to in it ; and returning to the two points already before them, resolved to clear their way, by des patching them first These, it will be remembered, were the currency-bill, returned to the house by the governor before their adjournment with a ne gative, and the governor's message with re spect to the resolution of the Indians to with stand the French, in case they should be in vaded by them on the Ohio. They had also under consideration several new despatches from their agent here at home, 36 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. and also an account of the value of their im ports from hence ; which for the year 1749 was in all two hundred and thirty-eight thou sand six hundred and thirty-seven pounds two shillings and ten pence. For the year 1750, two hundred and seventeen thousand seven hundred and thirteen pounds and ten pence. And for the year 1751, one hundred and ninety thousand nine hundred and seventeen pounds five shillings and one penny. Whence it was apparent, that for want of a sufficient currency, to invigorate the industry, and sup ply the wants of the province, the importa tions from hence were in a gradual course of declension. And after mature deliberation on the whole matter, they again sent up their bill to the governor with the following mes sage, viz. " May it please the Governor, " The governor's apprehension, at our last sitting, that the dislike raised in Great Britain of the bills of credit in the plantations, by the late too general and undistinguishing com plaints, so warmly subsisted, as to make any application to the crown about our currency at that time unseasonable, induced the house, notwithstanding their different sentiments, to make a short adjournment, to consider farther of the weight of that objection; and also of the sums by that bill proposed to be made, and con tinued current in this province. And now, when we reflect, that though the complaints against a paper-currency, arising from the ex cesses of some colonies therein, were indeed at first too general and undistinguishing, so as to occasion the bringing into parliament a bill for restraining the same in all the colonies ; yet, as upon strict inquiry (a state of our cur rency then lying before them) the parliament thought fit to alter the bill, and lay the re straint only on those colonies where that cur rency had been abused, we cannot but look on this as distinguishing in our favour ; espe cially as we are assured, that no complaints were ever made of our currency by the Bri tish merchants trading hither, who only could be affected by it ; but that on the contrary they have, whenever called upon for their opinion, by the parliament or the lords of trade, appeared openly and warmly in its favour, and declared (as they did in 1739, when our act for eighty thousand pounds, the present sum, was under consideration) That it was not on ly a reasonable sum, but absolutely necessary for carrying on the commerce of the country ; which appears by the report of the said lords, made on that occasion to the council. And as the exports from Britain to this province, of which we have authentic accounts, had then, in the three preceding years, amounted to no more than one hundred and seventy-nine thousand six hundred and fifty-four pounds nine shillings and two pence sterling ; and now in the years 1749, 1750, and 1751, they amount to six hundred and forty-seven thousand three hundred and seventeen pounds eight shillings and nine pence sterling ; and our numbers of people, and domestic trade, and the occasions for a medium of commerce, are equally in creased, there cannot we think, be any doubt, but the British merchants will now likewise be of opinion, that the small addition we at present propose isabsolutely necessary, though they may not think it so suitable to our cir cumstances as a larger sum; one hundred thousand pounds of paper-currency bearing by no means the same proportion to our trade now, as eighty thousand pounds did then. And it is certain, that as the money circulating among us diminishes, so must our trade and usefuE ness to Great Britain, and our consumption of its manufactures, diminish. " Upon the whole, we entreat the governor to consider the distressing circumstances un der which the trade, and in consequence the whole province, must languish, if, contrary to our expectations, the bill we now present him should not be enacted into a law. And we are well assured, that as the governor has been pleased to declare his sentiments of the many advantages we derive from the use of paper-money, his transmitting it home, in a true light, will make our application to the crown as effectual as it is seasonable." The governor now demurred in his turn, and by his secretary gave the house to under stand, that as it was usual for the asembly to meet again in August to finish the business of the year, he chose for that and some other rea sons, to keep the bill under consideration, till that time. In this the house acquiesced : and hav ing suspended all resolutions on the propri etaries' paper, and the draught prepared by a committee of their owm in answer to it "till their next sitting, proceeded to the Indian affairs, and having come to proper resolutions thereon, transmitted them also, together with the following judicious message to the go vernor, to wit : " May it please the Governor, " We have, on all occasions, acknowledged our grateful sentiments of the governor's re gard and justice towards the Indians, our al lies ; and we now again return our hearty thanks for his continued care, and for commu nicating the intelligence he has received con cerning their present distresses. In pursu ance of which, we have resumed the consider ation of tlie letters laid before the house, with tlie message of the 16th of October last toge ther witli the governor's late message and pa pers, sent down to us before and since the re turn of the expresses despatched to Ohio. We hove also carefully examined the messenger himself, and such' Indian traders, and others, who could give us any information of the num bers, and designs of the forces, raised by the PENNSYLVANIA. 37 governor of Canada, and of the condition of the Twigtwees, as well as the other Indians, our allies, upon the waters of Ohio, and upon ma ture deliberation, have resolved to contribute generously to their assistance, by a present suitable to their want of the necessaries of life. " Though the alliance between the crown of Great Britain and the Six Nations, and the protection and assistance they expect to re ceive in virtue of that alliance, is more imme diately underthedirectionof the government of New York; and although Virginia, at this time, has entered largely into the trade, and wUl, no doubt, on the present occasion, assist them and their alhes, yet we have always endeavoured, in proportion to our abilities, by presents, as well as by obliging our Indian traders to behave with justice towards them, to preserve their friendship ; and on the pre sent occasion, notwithstanding we have the misfortune to differ in sentiments with our proprietaries in the part they ought to bear in these expenses, we have rather considered the advantages both they and the province may receive by our liberality, which we have voted cheerfully, and recommended the dis tribution to the care of the governor, that the Six Nations at Onondago (upon any applica tion to be made to him in their own behalf, or for their allies who reside to the westward, and are likely to be more immediately affect ed) may be satisfied, and the present intended them best answer their necessities, and our peaceable and friendly intentions." The present was eight hundred pounds ; two hundred pounds as a present of condolence to the Twigtwee nation, for the loss of four teen of them, cut off in the preceding year, by the French and their Indians,* and the rest to be distributed by the governor among the other nations, at his own discretion. Thus far all was calm and quiet ; and at their next meeting, in the latter end of Au gust they received two other messages from the governor, relating to the money-bill and the Indian present: the latter importing, that he had not, as yet, received any application for any purpose whatever, from any of the Indians ; nor even such well-grounded advices of their wants and distresses as to induce him to make any use of the credit reposed in him : that he had, however, despatched Weiser [the interpreter] for intelligence; and that, having received advices by all who came from the westward, that the French were on the march towards the Ohio, and had sent out their par- * They suffered this loss in defence of some English traders then in one of their towns. The French came with a strong body, and demanded that the traders and their goods should be delivered up to tiiem. The Indi ans determined to protfict them, but were overpowered by numbers; some of the traders were killed, and the rest carried to Montreal, and afterwards sent prisoners to France. This was before the commencement of the present war, and one of the many hostilities of the like kind previous to our seizing their ships. ties to scour the woods before them, he had not sent the present of condolence, for fear of its falling into the enemies' hands, &c. And as to the former, it related to the cur rency-bill, returned at the same time with some few amendments, to which he, the go vernor, presumed the house could have no objection; and concluded with these remark able expressions: "I cannot, however, but acquaint you, that in giving my assent to this bill, I have acted rather in compliance to your repeated application, than that, in my own judgment, I could think an addition to our currency at this time, absolutely neces sary : I am in hopes, nevertheless, that as the sum to be emitted is not exorbitant, it may be attended with no bad consequences to the pro vince." Now the principal of these amendments was the following proviso, viz. " Provided al ways, and it is hereby farther enacted by the authority aforesaid, that this act or any thing therein contained, shall not take effect, or be deemed or construed or taken to have any force or effect, until the same shall have re ceived the royal approbation of his majesty, his heirs, or successors." Which proved to be so far from being unobjectionable, that upon the question, the house unanimously resolved, " Not to agree to this amendment, because they apprehended it to be destructive of the liberties derived to them by the royal and pro vincial charters, as well as injurious to the pro prietaries' rights, and without any precedent in the laws of the province." And the go vernor, on the other hand, adhered, "Because the clause so proposed to be added was found ed on the additional instruction from the lords justices, in pursuance of the commons' address above specified ; which instruction had been known to the province ever since January, 1740 ; and consequently, they might see the reason of his adding it was such as he could not allow himself the liberty of receding from." And here it is to be lamented, that, while this affair was first under the consideration of parliament, neither the proprietary nor the pro vincial agent thought fit to lay those clauses of their charter before the house, by which the said proprietary and the assembly are en trusted with the whole legislative power, sub ject to the royal revision and ratification, and may even put laws not inconsistent with their allegiance in force, for the term of five years, without it ; since, in all probability, that mea sure would have produced some such a tem perament as might have prevented the broil which ensued apparently for want of it The assembly took the governor's reply im mediately into consideration, and prepared a suitable rejoinder; in which having inter woven the unanimous resolution just specifi ed, they declared themselves assured, from the report of their committee, to whom they 38 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. had referred both the clause and the exami nation of their laws, that there had not been one single instance of a law passed under such a restriction as that then contended for, from the first settlement of the province to that day. And here they might have safely stopt if they had thought fit seeing nothing could be added in their justification stronger than their charter-claims, and such a series of practice founded upon them : but willing to be every way fortified, they entered farther into an inquiry, why so dangerous an expe riment should be then pressed upon them without the least apparent necessity 1 and proceeded to show, that the instruction itself was a temporary one : that, though it was di rected to a governor of that province among the rest, it neither did nor could suit their circumstances, either at that or any other time before or since : that this, having been manifested to and acknowledged by the lords of trade, the ends of it as to them, had been fully answered : that the said lords, in their report to the house of commons, subsequent to that address to the throne concerning the paper currencies of America, having signifi ed, that they would humbly propose that his majesty would be graciously pleased to repeat his orders to his governors of the plantations, not to give their assent, for the future, to any bill or bills for issuing or re-issuing paper- money, proceed to say, " We hope these pro positions for reducing and discharging the paper-currency of the plantations, may have a good effect in those governments which are held by immediate commission under his ma jesty; but we are very doubtful, whether they will produce the like effect in the charter go vernments, who do apprehend themselves by their particular charters and constitutions to be very little dependent upon the crown, and for that reason seldom pay that obedience to his majesty's orders, which might be reason ably expected from them ;" that, notwithstand ing what is here said concerning the repeti tion of these orders, they had good reason to believe those orders, at least to their govern ors, had never been repeated : that a bill, in which was a clause to inforce the orders and instructions of the crown in America had been repeatedly brought into parliament, and as often rejected: that the governor himself had represented this bill (to restrain the issues of paper-money) as of mischievous tendency: that even the very proprietaries had made a merit of obposing it : that, as in the act of par liament for that pOrpose which did pass in June 1751, the eastern colonies alone were included ; so Pennsylvania was left in full pos session of its rights, even by the parliament itself : that, as the date of the governor's com mission was many years posterior the date of the instruction, they hoped and presumed, he was at full liberty to pass all their acts upon the terms granted them by the royal and pro vincial charter, without putting them to the disagreeable necessity of examining the vali dity of such instructions, &c. And, lastly, as to the issue of their inquiry, concerning the necessity of contending for the present amendments, they not only declared them selves at a loss to find it out but also called upon the governor to comply with the general voice of the people, and the repeated unani mous applications of their representatives in granting them and the province the season able relief provided for hi the bill, by giving his assent to it as it stood. How the governor was circumstanced may be gathered from his actions : he adhered to his amendments, and returned the bill as be fore, with a written message, in which he persevered in holding up the instruction as an insurmountable bar, till revoked, to the as sent required of him ; urging, that his prede cessor had done the same, in 1746 : that the assembly admitted the validity of it in ordina ry cases ; and, without pretending to dispute, only hoped he would find himself at liberty, on a re-consideration, to give his assent not withstanding, to a currency-bill when any extraordinary emergency required it : that then, it seemed plain, they did not think an instruction, founded on an address of the com mons, was either illegal or temporary, or de structive of their liberties; that ff these were then the sentiments of both governor Emd assem bly, there was no room for the insinuation that he had been the first to press so dangerous an experiment ; that if there was no instance be fore of a like clause offered, there was. per haps, no instance of the like instruction, which otherwise, it was to have been supposed, would have met with the same dutiful obedi ence ; that a restraining instruction was, per haps, on no occasion so necessary as in tlie business of money, over which the king had peculiar prerogatives ; that if they could make it appear to his majesty's ministry, tliat an addi tion to their currency was at that time necessa ry, tlie royal compliance was not to be doubted ; that with regard to the former currency-bill by them cited, he was still of the same opi nion ; but that surely a very moderate share of penetration was stifflcient to distinguish be tween an act to enforce all orders and instruc tions, and an instruction founded on an ad dress of parliament ; that they would cer tainly allow him to judge for himself in a point recommended to his observance on pain of incurring his majesty's highest displeasure ; that he did not by any means blame them for contending for what they apprehended to be their rights and privileges, eonsequpntly could have no objection to their examining the validity of the king's instructions, provid ed they proceeded with such temper and mo deration, as might give the world no room to PENNSYLVANIA. repeat the charge brought against the charter- governments by the lords of trade, of appre hending themselves very little dependent on the crown ; and that upon the whole, he was sincerely of opinion, the royal instruction was of the same force as when the late governor told the assembly, in the year 1746, he could not bring himself to such a pitch of boldness as to contravene it It is obvious, that the conjuring up the ghost of these departed instructions, was only to strike an awe into the assembly, and there by prepare them for what farther practice, the new orders which could not but accompany the proprietary's paper already recited, might enjoin. The king, the king's ministers, and the house of commons, were authorities too big for a provincial representative to compete with, and therefore it might be supposed their very names would serve. But they were too wise and too steady to be amused, and the difference of language made use of by the proprietaries and their governor, was alone sufficient to warrant the different conduct they observed ; for though the governor talked only of the sovereign power, the proprietaries talked only of them selves ; " If WE shall be induced from the state of your trade to consent to an increase of your paper-currency." JVot thinking themselves obliged, therefore, to consider what additional inducements were necessary to incline those great men to suffer their deputy to discharge the duty of his com mission, the assembly chose to lose their bill rather than pay more for it than it was worth. Accordingly, the governor's amendments being again put to the question, were again rejected unanimously ; and a committee was appointed to answer his message, which they did in such a manner as showed they were more anxious to do justice to their cause than make their court to the governor. What governor Thomas did in passing the five thousand pounds act they urged against what he said ; the validity of instructions in ordinary cases, said to be admitted by the as sembly of that time, they explain away, by saying, the distinction was only made use of to furnish the governor with a pretence, or inducement to pass the bill : that this was not the first instruction unlimited in point of time, and remaining as yet unrevoked, which neither was or would, as they hoped, be ob served ; since there was one still to be found in the'council-books to governor Keith, dated July, 1723, requiring him, for the future, not to pass any private act without a suspending clause, till his majesty's approbation had been first obtained; that unfortunate, indeed, would the case of Pennsylvania be, if governors were never to be freed from the obligation of ocqaRional instructions. " If the king," said they, "should judge all the purposes of his instruction answered, upon passing the paper- money bill in parliament in 1751, we must, nevertheless, for ever continue under the burden of it without redress. And if we should suppose the governor is restricted by the proprietaries from giving his assent to the emission of any farther sum in bills of credit, as we have very little reason to doubt, if then the proprietaries should be pleased to with draw that restriction, and leave him at liberty to pass all our acts upon the terms granted to us by our charters, what will this avail if the governor continues to think he can never be freed from the obligation of his instructions 1" More materially still, they also subjoined the articles following, viz. " We apprehend all royal orders and in structions subject the governors to whom they are directed, and their successors too, as the governor is pleased to inform us, to the royal displeasure, unless such instructions are re voked by his majesty's authority ; and yet we cannot find that governor Keith, to whom it was directed, or governor Gordon his suc cessor, or governor Thomas, or our present governor, have ever thought themselves un der any danger of incurring his majesty's dis pleasure for a total neglect, and direct diso bedience to the additional instruction of the lords justices in 1723, the original of which we make no doubt, as well as of the instruc tion of 1740, is in the governor's possession ; and the substance of both we know to be printed with the minutes of our house. Why then an instruction, allowed to be in force in 1723, and still unrevoked, should be of no ef fect, and an additional instruction of the lords justices in 1740, possibly revoked by the con duct of the succeeding sessions of the same parliament, upon whose address to his majesty that instruction was founded, should be so strictly binding, is what we cannot appre hend. " But if the liberty the governor contends for can mean, that we must allow him to judge for himself, how far he may or may not obey such royal instructions, at his own risk, (as his majesty's highest displeasure is threat ened against him particularly) and at his own pleasure too, then we must own we are at a loss to distinguish any great difference be tween the mischievous tendency of an act to enforce all orders and instructions of the crown whatever, and the necessity the go vernor is pleased to think we are under to allow him the power of enforcing them when ever he shall think fit ; with this preference, however, that we would far rather choose to submit ourselves, and our cause, to the king and the justice of a British parliament, than to the mere will of our governor, whether to enforce or disregard them, however they may have answered their ends, or otherwise abated 40 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. of their force ; and in the present case, we hope the governor, on reflection, will pay some regard to the judgmentof the same par liament from which the address to the crown had been preferred to issue this additional instruction, who, although requested in their next session by the board of trade, to address the crown again, that he would be pleased to repeat his instructions to the governors in his American colonies, have not only never com plied therewith, that we know of, but have since passed an act for restraining the issuing bills of credit in those particular colonies, where, after a full inquiry, they found such emissions injurious to the trade of Great Britain, or not calculated to do justice between man and man, and have left us, as we presume, exonerated from the burden of this additional instruction, and in full power over our laws upon the terms of our charters ; and so long as we ask nothing farther than is warranted by these, we hope it neither will nor can in terfere with the royal prerogatives. " It may be presumed, the representatives of this province, when met in their assemblies, have some valuable privileges yet left, in framing their laws, to do justice between man and man, without the aid of an additional in struction ; and we hope it cannot be expect ed that we should very easily part with those rights and depend on royal instructions, over which we are to allow the governor the pow er he is pleased to contend for ; and we have no reason to doubt, all men of understanding and candour will prefer a regular course of laws, occasionally suited to the times, and framed by the representatives of the people, annually chosen, and assented to by their go vernor, to a series of instruction sent for that purpose from so great a distance. " For our own part, we are fully satisfied and assured, that so long as we continue in our duty and loyalty to the best of kings, who has been pleased to declare, that nothing in this world can give him so much pleasure as to see {his subjects) a flourishing and happy people : and neither claim, nor desire, other or greater privileges than those we have a right to, under the grant of his royal prede cessors, we can have nothing to fear from a king and a British parliament ; and, as it is our duty to defend these in the best manner we are able, in the fiiithful discharge of so high a trust, we shall have the satisfaction of our own minds, and, we hope, the counte nance of all good men, notwithstanding the governor's opinion, that the charge made against this province (among other charter provinces) by the board of trade, is not much to our advantage." And having before declared their persua sion or assurance, that the governor might pass the law in question, or any other law consistent with the royal charter, without the least apprehension of his majesty's displeasure, they finally suggest, that it must be not only a loss of time to the representatives, but a great expense to the country, to prepare bills for the governor's assent, which he was bound by private instructions from the proprietaries not to pass. Unanimously this report was approved of; and yet from a principle of moderation we must presume, it was left to be reconsidered by the next assembly ; as also was another re port received the same day from the com mittee, appointed to draw up a reply to the paper last transmitted from the proprietaries, of which, as a debt both of honour and justice to the province, some account is now to be given. Sixteen sections or paragraphs, it must be recollected, that paper was composed of; and one by one they are severally considered, ac knowledged or refused. The declaration contained in the first is acknowledged to be a noble one, and worthy the rank held by the proprietaries : the insinu ation in the second is declared to be not only groundless but also injurious ; the assembly, instead of opposing the proprietary interest having consulted that interest even in the very point in question, if it was consistent with their interest to have a good under standing with the people ; to obtain which a method w£is proposed: to the intimation contained in the third, that after they had or dered their governor to give the answer which he did to the former application, they had no reason to expect a repetition directly to them selves, &c. ; it was replied, that repetitions, when they are supported with new reasons, and contain answers to those given for refiis- ing the request that had been made, are jus tifiable in all cases, except where the persons applied to were sure to be infallibly right or incapable of hearing reason : to the fourth, containing the opinion of the lords of trade, concerning the obligations incumbent on the proprietaries as chief governors, to pay a part of public charges, the committee say, that the house did not require their contribution as go vernors but as proprietaries ; which was ac cording to William Penn's own distinction formerly made ; and considering them, as in the same paragraph is afterwards done, to be the wealthiest inhabitants of the province, it follows undeniably, that such their contribu tions were therefore due to the province in proportion to their substance in it : in their an swer to the fifth, they both combat with and complain of a misrepresentation contained in it, OS a thing unworthy the dignity of the proprietaries and chief governors of a pro vince, urging, that they did not assert, pur chases were made directly with the people's money ; but only, that they were made on the more reasonable terms, because of the pro- PENNSYLVANIA. 41 vincial presents attending them ; and that this was advanced as an additional reason why the proprietaries should bear, at least, a pro portional part of the expense of such presents ; sharing in the first place, as they did, in the good from these treaties resulting to the whole, and engrossing, over and above, a very considerable advantage to themselves. To the sixth, which insinuates, that the people are able enough to pay these expenses without the assistance of the proprietaries, they retort most unanswerably, that because they are able to pay, it does not follow, that, therefore, they are obliged to pay unjustly ; as also, that they, the proprietaries, are as able as themselves, and asking, why that rea son, which, it was plain, was not sufficient to induce them to pay a part, should be held of force enough with the people to induce them to pay the whole 1 after which they declare the charge against them in the said paragraph of aiming to captivate the weakest of the peo ple, &c. to be an absolute mistake, unsupport ed with the least degree of probability, the proprietaries not having had any formidable share in the people's esteem for many years past, nor the supposed address to the people made, nor the representation itself published, nor even the votes on which it was founded, till after the election was over, &c. Upon the seventh, concerning the expedi ency of showing a due regard to the proprie taries and their interest, they comment as follows, " that is, as we understand it, though the proprietaries have a deputy here, sup ported by the province, who is, or ought to be fully impowered to pass all laws necessary for the service of the country, yet, before we can obtain such laws, we must facilitate their passage, by paying money for the proprietaries which they ought to pay ; or, in some other shape make it their particular interest to pass them : we hope, however, that, if this practice has ever been begun it will never be conti nued in this province ; and that since, as this very paragraph allows, we have an undoubted right to such laws, we shall be always able to obtain them from the goodness of our sove reign, without goinff to market for them to a subject." — They afterwards expatiate on the word rank as applied by the proprietaries to themselves in the same paragraph ; concern ing which they say, " we cannot find on pe rusing the representation in question, that it contains any treatment unsuitable to their rank. The resolve of the house was, that to prevent dissatisfactions on all sides, they should be requested, in the most reasonable and most respectful manner, to agree upon a proportion of Indian charges to be paid by them and the province according to justice : and it may be submitted to the judgment of all impartial persons, whether the represent ation drawn in pursuance of the resolve, was Vol. not both reasonable in itself and respectful in the manner. It was not, as the proprietaries represent it, an address to the public. It is not to this day made public. It was a private application to themselves, transmitted to them through the hands of their governor. Their true interest (which they will always find to consist in just equitable, and generous mea sures, and in securing the affections of their people) was consulted in it, and one suitable means proposed to obtain that end. As to rank, the proprietaries may remember, that the crown has likewise been pleased to give the assemblies of this province a rank ; a rank which they hold, not by hereditary de scent, but as they are the voluntary choice of a free people, unbribed, and even unsolicited : but they are sensible that true respect is not necessarily connected with rank, and that it is only from a course of action suitable to that rank they can hope toobtain it." Coming then to the eighth, they express their surprise at the concern affected by the proprietaries, on their being, as they say, laid under a necessity of acquainting the public with a state of the provincial revenue, the said revenue being annually settled, stated, printed, and published by the assembly, and having so been for thirty years past : adding, that whatever reasons the proprietaries might have to make a secret of their revenue, the province had none. — The manner in which the proprietaries reason concerning taxes they ob ject to in the next place, as inaccurate and in conclusive : asserting, that taxes, how reason ably soever imposed or willingly paid, are, nevertheless, taxes : that all taxes ought upon the whole, to produce more good to those who pay them, than the same sum left at their own disposal, in which case they are no burden, &c. and concluding thus ; " after estimating our whole present revenue, as if it had been the same for twenty years past, and would certain ly continue, though the proprietaries know it depends On temporary acts near expiring, the renewal of which is at best dubious, they con clude that four hundred pounds a year, for In dian expenses, is a small sum, and that we are under no necessity of being frugal, on this ac count, of the public money. This four hun dred a year is the sum that they find has been paid on an average for twenty years past, and they take no notice of ite being a growing charge, and that for the four last years before the representation, it amounted to nearly twelve hundred a year, which we conceive disinterested persons will think a very large sum : and although the same excise might have been raised, if not half that money had been expended, it does not seem to us to follow, that the proprietaries ought not to have paid their just proportion of it ; if the sum be small, their proportion of it must have been smaller : and the money so saved might have been ap- 42 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. plied to some other use, beneficial to the pub lic ; or have remained ready in the treasury for any emergency." In return to the ninth they say, the people of Pennsylvania pay, proportionably, as much towards the support of his majesty's govern ment, in the shape of duties and excise, as the proprietary family, or any other subjects ; in deed as much as an infant colony can bear ; and more they hoped and believed the justice of a British parliament would never burden them with : adding, " the proprietaries ex emption was not published till now at their own instance ; it was made use of as a private motive to themselves only in the representa.- tion." To the tenth, which regards the Indian in terpreter, among other things equally perti nent, they say, " we suppose the instance al luded to, wherein the assembly did not fully satisfy him, must have been such as the pro prietaries were concerned in by the purchase of lands ; and a part might be accordingly left for them to pay." — And for themselves and all other assemblies, they declare their hope and belief, that no service from the proprie taries to the province, will ever be suffered to pass without grateful acknowledgments and proper returns. Of the proprietary right to a monopoly of land, whether from the crown or assembly, they, in answer to the eleventh article, waive all dispute ; it being every way conclusive alike, " that those in whose fevour such mono poly was created, ought, at least, to bear a part of the expense necessary to secure them the full benefit of it" Lastly, having already given the conclud ing five articles of the proprietary paper in the entire, it is but reasonable to subjoin the en tire answers, which were as follow. To wit : " 12. In the twelfth paragraph, three things appear somewhat extraordinary to your com mittee. 1. That the proprietaries should de ny that treaties for land are made at less ex pense on account of provincial presents ac companying them ; which we think any dis interested judge would at least allow to be probable. 2. That they should say the last purchase was made on no other account, but purely to save the province the expense of a present ; as if they had no occasion to pur chase more land of the Indians, or found no advantage in it 3. That to prove such pur chases were not the cheaper on account of provincial presents occompanying them, they should give an instance in which, tliey them selves say, the purchase was the dearer for want of such presents. If purchases are dear er to the proprietaries when no provincial pre sents accompany them, does not this clearly confirm the assertion of the assembly, that they are the cheaper when there are such presents ? and does it not prove what the pro prietaries deny 1" " 13. It appears by their thirteenth para graph, that the proprietaries think the part they voluntarily submit to bear, and expect always to bear, of public expenses, is greater than their proportion, equitably laid, would amount to. If this be so, and they are, as they say, ' far from desiring to avoid contributing to any public expense which it is reasonable they should bear a part of, although their es tate is not by law liable to be taxed,' your committee are at a loss to conceive, why they should refuse, ' to enter into an agreement for the payment of any particular proportion of Indian or other public expenses,' when such agreement might save them money, and is proposed to prevent dissatisfactions, and to preserve union and harmony between them and the people ; unless it be to show their ut ter contempt of such union and harmony, and how much they are above valuing the peo ple's regard. "The charge on former assemblies, that they neglected the defence of the proprieta ries' city, your committee cannot but think unkind, when it is known to the world, that they gave many thousand pounds during the war to the king's use, besides paying near three thousand pounds at one time, to make good the damages done to the masters of ser vants, by the irregular and oppressive pro ceedings of the proprietary's lieutenant; and that their not providing cannon to defend the city was not from neglect but other con siderations set forth at large in the printed proceedings of those times, needless now to be repeated. At the same time it may be re membered, that though the defence of the proprietaries' city, as they are pleased to term it, by batteries of cannon, was more their in terest (we will not say duty) than any other persons whatsoever, and they now represent it as a thing so necessary, yet tliey themselves really neglected, and even discouraged it; while some private gentlemen gave sums nearly equal to that they mention, and many contributed vastly more, considering their circumstances, by which means those batte ries were not only completed in season, but the defence of botli town and country in that way provided for ; whereas this boasted as sistance of four hundred pounds' worth of cannon, was sent, like Venetian succours, af ter the wars were over. Yet we doubt not, but the proprietary who sent them has long since had the thanks of those who received them, though we cannot learn that they ever were fevoured with any from him, for what they did and expended in defence of his share of the province property." " 14. The fourteenth paragraph of the pro prietaries' answer seems cdculated merely PENNSYLVANIA. 43 for the same design with which they charge the representation, viz., to amuse the weaker part of the people. — If they are really dispos ed to favour the drinkers of spirituous liquors, they may do it without a law, by instructing their lieutenants to abate half the license fees, which would enable the retailers to sell proportionably cheaper ; or to refuse licenses to more than half the present number of public houses, which might prevent the ruin of many families, and the great increase of idleness, drunkenness, and other immoralities among us." " 15. In return to the good resolutions ex pressed by the proprietaries in their fifteenth section, your committee hope that future, as well as past assemblies, will likewise endea vour to make the public good the rule of their actions, and upon all occasions consult the true interest and honour of the proprietary family, whatever may be the sentiments or conduct of any of its particilar branches. To this end, we think the honest and free remarks con tained in this report, may be more conducive than a thousand flattering addresses. And we hope, that when the proprietaries shall think fit to reconsider this matter, they will be per suaded, that agreeing to an eqtiitable propor tion of expense will be a good means of tak ing away one handle of dissension from ' men of warm, uneasy spirits,' if such should ever unhappily procure themselves to be elected." " 16. Yet if the proprietaries are really de sirous of preserving an union and harmony between themselves and this people, we can not but be surprised at their last paragraph, whereby they endeavour to cut off the assem bly's access to them, in cases where the an swers received from their deputies may not be thought agreeable to the public good. No king of England, as we can remember, has ever taken on himself such state, as to refuse personal applications from the meanest of his subjects, where the redress of a grievance could not be obtained of his officers. Even sultans, Sophies, and other eastern absolute monarchs will, it is said, sometimes sit whole days to hear the complaints and petitions of their very slaves ; and are the proprieta ries of Pennsylvania, become too great to be addressed by the representatives of the freemen of their province 1 if they must not be reasoned with, because they have given instructions, nor their deputy because he has received them ; our meetings and delibera tions are henceforth useless ; we have only to know their will and to obey. " To conclude ; if this province must be at more than two thousand pounds a year ex pense, to support a proprietary's deputy, who shall not be at liberty to use his own judg ment in passing laws [as is intimated to us in the fourteenth section of the answer we have been considering] but the assent must be obtained from chief governors, at three thousand miles distance, often ignorant or mis informed in our affairs, and who will not be applied to or reasoned with when they have given instructions. We cannot but esteem those colonies that are under the immediate care of the crown in a much more eligible situation; and our sincere regard for the me mory of our first proprietary, must make us ap prehend for his children, that if they follow the advice of Rehoboam's counsellors, they will, like him, absolutely lose, — at least, the affections of their people. A loss, which how ever they affect to despise, will be found of more consequence to them than they seem at present to be aware of" The assembly returned in October, for the remainder of the year 1753, and to last till October 1754, being composed of nearly the same persons as the last, met with the same dispositions, and proceeded on the same prin ciples. To have a sufficient currency was, as we have seen, the great provincial point ; and from the facts already stated, it is sufficiently clear, that the proprietary-concurrence there with was not to be obtained, but upon such terms as even silver and gold could never be worth. The loan-office, which was in the hands of the assembly, was still considered as an over balance for the land-office, in the hands of the proprietary, though they never came into competition, and no benefit could any way result to the province, but the pro prietaries were sure to have their share of it. What encouragement the near prospect of a war furnished to either ; and what use was made of it ; and at whose door the obstructions given to the public service are to be laid, will best be deduced from the sequel. With the consideration of the state of their commerce, and the accumulated proofs result ing therefrom, that with the increase of their currency, the trade of the province, as well by importations froni England as the exportations of their own product, had amazingly increas ed, the assembly opened their sessions in Fe bruary, 1754 ; and taking in also the consi deration of their currency with it, came to the following unanimous resolutions. To wit: " That it is necessary that the paper-money of this province should be re-emitted for a far ther time. " That there is a necessity of a farther ad dition to the paper-money at present current by law within this province. " That there is a necessity, that a sum should be struck to exchange the ragged and torn bills now current by law in this pro vince." Upon which resolutions, they afterwards or dered in a bill for striking forty thousand pounds, to be made current and emitted on loan, and for re-emitting and continuing the 44 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. currency of the bills already in circulation ; and on the other hand, the governor sent them down a written message, accompanied with a letter to himself from the earl of Holder- nesse, a second from the lords of trade, and a third from the French commandant on the Ohio to Mr. Dinwiddle, deputy governor of Virginia. The earl of Holdernesse's letter was dated August 28, 1753, and as it may be presum ed, was nearly the same with the other let ters, sent at the same time, to the governors of the other provinces. The contents of it were, " That his majes ty having received information of the march of a considerable number of Indians, support ed by some regular European troops, with an intention, as it was apprehended, to commit some hostilities on parts of his majesty's do minions in America, his lordship had receiv ed the king's commands to send him (the go vernor) intelligence thereof; as also to direct him, to use his utmost diligence to learn how far the same might be well grounded ; and to put him upon his guard, that he might be at all events, in a condition to resist any hostile attempts that might be made upon any parts of his majesty's dominions within his govern ment ; and to direct him in the king's name, that in case the subjects of any foreign prince or state should presume to make any encroach ments on the limits of his majesty's domi nions, or to erect forts on his majesty's lands, or commit any other act of hostility, he was immediately to represent the injustice of such proceedings, and to require them forthwith to desist from any such unlawful undertaking ; but if, notwithstanding such requisition, they should still persist he was then to draw forth the armed force of the province, and to use his best endeavours to repel force by force. — But as it was his majesty's determination not to be the aggressor, he had the king's commands most strictly to enjoin him, the Slid governor, not to make use of the armed force under his direction, excepting within the undoubted limits of his majesty's domi nions: and that, whereas it might be greatly conducive to his majesty's service, that all his provinces in America should be aiding and as sisting each other in case of any invasion, he had it particularly in charge from his majesty to acquaint him, that it was his royal will and pleasure, that he should keep up an exact cor respondence with all his governors on the con tinent ; and that in case he should be inform ed by them of any hostile attempts, he was immediately to assemble the general assem bly, and lay before them the necessity of mu tual assistance, and engage them to grant such supplies as the exigency of affairs might require." 'The letter from the lords of trade, was dated September 18, and imported, " That his majesty having been pleased to order a sum of money to be issued for presents to the Six Na^ tions of Indians, and to direct his governor of New York to hold an interview with them, for delivering the same, for burying the hatchet, and for renewing the covenant cham, they thought it their duty to signify the same ; and it having been usual upn the like occasions for merly, for all his majesty's colonies, whose in terest or security were connected with or de pended upon them, to join in such interview ; and that, as the present disposition of those Indians and the attempts made upon them to withdraw them from the British interest ap pear to them to make such a general inter view more particularly necessary at that time, their desire was, that he, the governor, would lay this matter before the council and general assembly or the province under his govern ment, and recommend to them forthwfth to make a proper provision for appointing com missioners to be joined with those of the other governments, for renewing the covenant chain, &c. and that the said commissioners might be men of character, ability, integrity, and well acquainted with Indian affairs." The letter of the French commandant was in answer to the representations of governor Dinwiddle, concerning the French encroach ments on the Ohio, (for the European regu lars mentioned in lord Holdernesse's letters, were of that nation, though so much caution had been used to suppress the very name) and in very polite terms denied the whole charge. In the governor's written message accom panying these papers, something was said of each ; and of the last rather more (whatever the matter of fact really was) than it seems to contain. The French commandant says, " it belongs to his general at Canada, not to him, to demonstrate the reality of the king his master's right to the lands situated along the Ohio : that he shall forward the letter he has received to him ; that his answer would be a law to him ; that as to the requisition made to him, to retire, he could not think himself obliged to submit to it; that he was there by his general's orders, which he was deter mined to obey; that he did not know of any thing that had passed during the campaign, which could be esteemed an hostility ; that if the governor had been more particular in his complaints, he had been more particular in his answer, &c." The governor's comment is in these words, " An express has this week brought me go vernor Dinwiddle's account of llat gentle man's [col. Geo. Washington's] return witli the answer of the commander of^ the fort, who avows the hostilities already committed, and declares his orders from the king of France are to build more forts, taite possession of oil the country, and oppose all who shall resist. PENNSYLVANIA. 45 English as well as Indians, and that he will certainly execute these orders as early as the season will permit" It is certain, at least, this language was never echoed at home : — and not a little ex traordinary it is, to find this gentleman in his very next paragraph, making so very free with the French nariie, which the secretary of state had been so extremely careful to avoid the mention of. " Gentlemen (he proceeds to say) French forts and French armies so near us, will be everlasting goads in our sides ; our inhabitants from thence will feel all the miseries and dread ful calamities that have been heretofore suf fered by our neighbour colonies; all those outrages, murders, rapines, and cruelties, to which their people have been exposed, are now going to be experienced by ourselves, un less a force be immediately raised sufficient to repel these invaders. It is to be hoped, there fore, that as loyal subjects to his majesty, and in justice to your country, you will not fail to take into your consideration the present exigency of affairs ; and, as it will be attend ed with a very considerable expense, and re- qaiie a large number of men, make provision accordingly, that I may be enabled to do what his majesty, as well as the neighbouring co lonies, will expect from a government so po pulous, and likely to be so nearly affected with the neighbourhood of French garrisons." In subsequent paragraphs, he farther in forms the assembly, that the governors of Vir ginia, New York, and the Massachusetts, had made a tender of their assistance to the pro vince, and expressed an earnest desire to act in concert with it ; enforces the necessity of a general union of all the provinces, both in coun cil and forces ; recommends the appointment of some trusty person to reside, in behalf of the province, among the Indians upon the Ohio ; as also the preparation of a bill for better re gulating the Indian trade ; and concludes with the following stimulative, to wit : " Gentlemen, " There is so much to be done, and so little time to do it in, the season being so far ad vanced, and governor Dinwiddle expecting the forces from this province to join those of Virgmia, early in March, on Potowmack, that I most earnestly entreat you will not delay the supplies, nor deal them out with a sparing hand, but use all the expedition in your pow er ; for you will undoubtedly agree with me, that so alarming an occasion has not occurred since the first settlement of the province, nor any one thing happened that so much de serves your serious attention." A treaty with the Ohio Indians, it is to be observed, had been just concluded at the ex pense of the province, by three commissioners, two of them selected out of the assembly by the governor ; and the necessity of regulating the Indian trade had, in the course of the confer ences, been made undeniably apparent, by the representations and complamts of the Indian chiefs. And the reader will of himself be furnished with proper reflections on the earl of Holder nesse's letter to the governors of the seve ral provinces, imposing the double care upon them, of defending themselves against the en croachments of the enemy, and also against all objections at home, in case of doing it im properly. To say nothing of the peculiar difficulty laid both on the province and go vernor of Pennsylvania, where there never had been any armed force on a provincial es tablishment at all. The assembly took the whole into immedi ate consideration, and agreed upon the follow ing answer, which was sent up to the govern or the same day. To wit : "The distressed circumstances of the Indi ans, our allies, on the river Ohio, demand our closest attention, and we shall not fail to proceed in the matters contained in the' go vernor's message with all the despatch an af^ fair of so much importance will admit of, in which we doubt not to comply with every thing that can be reasonably expected on our part " In the mean time, having some days since prepared a bill, which we conceive ab solutely necessary, not only to the trade and welfare of this province, but to the support of government, upon the success of which our deliberations at this time must in a great measure depend ; we now lay it before him as a bill of the utmost importance, and to which we unanimously request he would be pleased to give his assent. Four days the governor and his council em ployed in considering what return should be made to it; or, rather in searching out such an expedient as should force the province in to the measures of the proprietaries, or else, by their refusal, embroil them with the go vernment. In his very first paragraph he gave an absolute negative to their bill. He told them, that the product of their present funds was greatly more than sufficient for the support of government ; that he hoped to find them better subjects to his majesty, and great er lovers to their country, than to make the issue of their bill, in which he and they had an equal right to judge for themselves, the rule of their conduct " If, however, (continued he) you should be of opinion, that there will be a necessity to strike a farther sum in bills of ; credit to defray the charges of raising sup plies for his majesty's service in this time of imminent danger, and will create a proper fund or funds for sinking the same in a few years, I will concur with you in passing a law for that purpose, thinking myself sufficiently warranted so to do, in cases of real emergency. 46 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. " And now, gentlemen, I hope you will, up on due consideration, be of opinion with me, that the chief end of your bill will be hereby, in a great measure answered, as the sum to be struck and circulated upon this occasion, will be such an addition to your present cur rency, a^ probably may be thought sufficient for some time." The assembly also, in their turn, took a suffi cient time for deliberation, and having touch ed on the unusual manner in which the go vernor had been pleased to reject their bill, and assumed some merit to themselves, in not suffering any separate interests of their own to interfere with the common good, observed, there was some difference between the royal orders and the governor's manner of repre senting them ; chose therefore to adhere to the former; availed themselves most pru dently and sensibly of the cautions so circum stantially recommended and enforced in them ; more especially concerning the undoubted limits, and the restrictions thereupon, that his majesty may not he rendered the aggressor ; said it would be highly presumptuous in them to j udge of those undoubted limits ; that instead of being called upon to resist any hostile at tempt made upon any part of Pennsylvania, they were called upon to grant such a supply as might enable the governor to raise forces to be ready to join those of Virginia ; that therefore they hoped the governor, under these circumstances, would concur with them, that the most prudent part for them would be to wait the result ofthe government of Virginia, where no provision had as yet been made that they knew of, nor in any of the neighbouring colonies, though the several governors, in pur suance of the king's command, had made the necessary requisitions of their several assem blies, and they were equally bound by all the ties of general interest. They also superad ded the regard due to the scruples of those conscientiously principled against war, yet deeply sensible of the blessings they enjoyed, and willing to demonstrate their duty and loy alty, by giving such occasional sums of money for the king's use, as might be reasonably ex pected from so young a colony ; took notice they had contracted a debt of fourteen hun dred pounds for presents to the Indians, and other charges arising from the late treaty, which they should cheerfully discharge, though their proprietaries had refused to con tribute any part of their Indian expenses ; agreed to send commissioners to Albany, as required, though the place was so remote, and to deftoy the expense, &c. The difficulty thus retorted on the governor, and his resentment it must be supposed quick ened thereby, he takes up the minutes of the last day's sessions ofthe last assembly, and un der the pretence of justifying his own charac ter, revives the old controversy concerning the paper-money instructions, by a long and angry paper sent to the house March 1 ; and, for getting what he had formerly said in the fol lowing paragraph, " I do not blame you, gen tlemen, for contending for what you are per suaded are your rights and privileges, and consequently can have no objection to your examining the validity of the king's instruc tions ;" flames out as follows, " Had I been an enemy to the liberties and privileges of the people, or been desirous of gratifying my own passions at their expense, it must be confessed you have furnished me with the fairest occa sion a governor so disposed could possibly have wished for. For example, you have voted a clause, proposed to be added to your bill by his majesty's express direction, at the request of his two houses of parliament, to be de structive to the liberties of the people of this province, &c. and have even threatened to examine the validity of the king's mstruction, if, by a perseverance in my opinion, I laid you under the necessity of doing it What is this less than declaring, that the lords and commons, and his majesty's privy council, consisting, among others, of the most emi nent lawyers in Great Britain, have request ed, and his majesty enjoined, an act directly contrary to law V And he concludes with making a merit to the province ofthe moderation he had shown, in suppressing his sense of the provocations then offered to him, in hopes of a more dis passionate behaviour for the future. The very next day this paper was followed by another more immediately in point: the governor, therein, undertaking first to defend his negative, and the use he had made of it ; and, secondly, so to turn the tables on the as sembly, that all the wrong should be on their side, and all the right on his own. The use made of the different language used by the secretary of state and him, he calls an evasion ; and what they ought not, in point of duty, to have taken any advantage of He then declares he has undoubted assurance, that part of his majesty's dominions, within his government was, at that time, invaded by the subjects of a foreign prince, who had erected forts within the same ; and requires them to take notice, that he did then call upon them, pursuant to his majesty's orders, in the present emergency to grant such sup plies as might enable him to draw forth the armed force of the province, &c. He then undertook to prove, that the place where the French had then their head-quarters was within the limits of tlie province ; and tells them, that if he did not communicate mate rials before to assist their inquiries into this fact, so neither had they applied to him for them; that if they had inquired for them selves and suppressed the truth, it was ex tremely disingenuous; if not, their neglect PENNSYLVANIA. 47 could be imputed to no other cause than a de sire to have a plausible excuse for not paying a proper regard to his majesty's commands ; that even on account of the scruples urged, he had looked on governor Dinwiddle's re quisition as a very lucky circumstance ; see ing, that a requisition from himself would have set the province in the front of opposition ; and a refusal 'from them, would have exposed it to the contempt and derision, as well of the French as our Indian allies ; that as the French avow these hostilities, so the Indians, menaced by them, most earnestly besought us, to build places of refuge, to which their wives and children might repair for safety, and also to assist them against their enemies ; that in stead of being governed by the example of the neighbouring colonies, nothing temained but to give the necessary supplies, and there by set the example to them, this province having been first invaded, and consequently in the most immediate danger ; that without this, they could neither keep their treaties with the Indians, nor demonstrate their duty and loy alty to his majesty ; that having now done his duty, whatever ill consequences might hap pen, were to be laid at their door ; that with regard to the refusal of the proprietaries, to contribute any part of their Indian expenses, it was true, they had refused to do it in the manner expected, and they had given their reasons ; but that the proposal made by him, the governor, by their order, in the years 1750 and 1751, in regard to the building a strong trading house near the place then invaded and possessed by the French, could not be forgot ; whichgenerousoffer*hadtheassembly thought fit to close with, it might, at a small expense, have prevented all the mischiefs impending, and secured a country to the English, which probably might not be recovered without a heavy charge, and the loss of many lives. Whether the hostilities committed by the French were or were not committed within the bounds of Pennsylvania, became the great question. — The assembly called for evidence ; the governor imparted all he could collect ; and, after a strict examination of the premises, the assembly chose only to glance at the in flammatories thrown in their way, and to pro fess their readiness to concur with the go vernor in whatever might preserve the har mony between the several branches of the legislature, so necessary at all times, and es pecially at a crisis so important, so far as the preservation of their rights and the duty they owed their constitutents would permit Not departing, however, from their former senti ments, nor admitting any one of the articles laid against them; but, on the contrary, maintaining, that the secretary of the state's letter could be the only rule of their conduct ; * See the assembly's answer to this charge hereafter, in the time of goversor Morris. and tacitly upbraiding the governor for having suddenly altered the whole connexion be tween Pennsylvania and Virginia, in conse quence of such supposed misconduct of theirs : and concluding their replication in these words : " as governor Dinwiddle had laid be fore his assembly the earl of Holdernesse's letter, sent, as we presume, in the same terms to all the colonies on the continent, we judged it most prudent to wait till the assembly of that government had enabled him to act in obedience to the royal commands, especially as they had that letter under their considera tion from the first of November last, as ap pears by the journal of their house of bur gesses now before us ; but we are now called upon as principals, and the governor is pleased to inform us, that he has undoubted assurance that part of his majesty's dominions within the government is at this time invaded by the subjects of a foreign prince, who have erected forts within the same ; and calls upon us, pur suant to his majesty's orders in the present emergency, to grant such supplies as may enable him to resist those hostile attempts, and repel force by force : but, as it appears to us that the governor is enjoined by the royal orders, not to act as a principal beyond the undoubted limits of his government ; and as, by the papers and evidences sent down and referred to by the governor, those limits have not been clearly ascertained to our satisfaction ; we fear the altering our connexions with his majesty's colony of Virginia, and the precipi tate call upon us, as the province invaded, cannot answer any good purpose at this time, and therefore we are now inclined to make a short adjournment" The adjournment they proposed was to the sixth of May ; and, before they broke up, the governor again addressed them with another message, in which he also affected to wave several things personal to himself, which, at another time, he might have thought it incum bent on him to take notice of; and proceeded to tell them, that had they examined with their usual accuracy the gentleman, who by his appointment attended their house, and compared their testimony with the written papers atseveral times communicated to them, he thought it would have appeared so clear to them, that the French had lately erected one or more forts far within the limits of the pro vince, that nothing less than an actual men suration could have made it more evident ; that even taking it for granted, however, the forementioned encroachments were not with in the said limits, yet he, having been inform ed by the governor of Virginia, that hostile attempts had teen made on part of his majes ty's dominions, and called upon him for the as sistance of this province, it was equally their duty, to grant such supplies as the present exigency of affairs required ; and, that he 48 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. could not but be apprehensive, that so long an adjournment would frustrate his majesty's just expectations from them. This message was dated March 9, and April 2 we find them sitting by his special summons again : the occasion of which was the next day explained in the usual way by message, as follows : " I am now to acquaint you, gentlemen, that since your adjournment I have received from governor Dinwiddle the several papers herewith laid before you ; by which it will appear, that he is taking all imaginable pains for the security of his ma jesty's dominions, so far as the provision made by his assembly will permit him to act ; and he is very impatient to know the issue of your deliberations on this subject. I cannot therefore doubt but, that agreeable to the pro fession in your message ofthe twenty-seventh of February, ' of being ready and willing to demonstrate your duty and loyalty, by giving such sums of money to the king's use, upon all suitable occasions, as may consist with your circumstances, or can reasonably be ex pected from this province;' I say I cannot doubt but you will, with the greatest alacrity, lay hold on the present opportunity of evinc ing the sincerity of those professions, by granting such an aid to his majesty, as may comport with the circumstances of the pro vince, and be suitable to the exigence of the service. And, in the doing of this, I hope you will be guided rather by the importance of the concern, than by the example of other co lonies : it being found by experience to be a very ill-judged piece of economy to cramp an enterprise of this nature in the article of sup plies ; and that whatever is given on such oc casions, short of being sufficient to accomplish the ends proposed, becomes, for the most part, a waste of so much treasure, without answer ing any of the purposes for which it was in tended. " I have at present only to add my request, that whatever you intend to do on this occa sion, may receive all the despatch the nature of the thing will admit of; the season of the year for action advancing so fast, that unless our measures be speedily taken, they will, I fear, be rendered altogether unserviceable." Upon the fifth, after many debates, it was resolved, by a small majority, that a sum of money should be given for the king's use ; and what the sum should be, occasioned many debates more. Twenty thousand pounds be ing proposed on the ninth, it passed in the ne gative by a majority of twenty-five to eight ; reduced to fifteen thousand pounds, it passed in the negative twenty-three to ten ; reduced to ten thousand pounds, it passed in the nega tive twenty-two to eleven ; and again reduc ed to five thousand pounds the next day, it again passed in the negative twenty-two to ten. Those who had hitherto led the house, voting affirmatively; and, on the contrary, those who had hitherto voted affirmatively go ing over to the remainder of the negatives.— And this apparent perplexity was, m their re ply to the governor's message, thus accounted for : " And we now beg leave to inform the governor, that we have had that message un der our serious consideration ever since it came down to the house ; butaft.er all our de bates thereupon, we find that nearly one half of the members are, for various reasons, against granting any money to the kmg's use at this time ; and those who are for granting, differ so widely in their sentimente concern ing the sum, that there seems at present no possibility of their agreeing, except in such a sum, as, in the judgment of many of them, is quite disproportionate to the occasion : there fore, and that the members may have an op portunity of consulting their constituents on this important affair, we are now inclined to adjourn to the thirteenth of the next month." According to their adjournment, the house met again. May 6, and were informed by the governor of the arrival of a body of French forces, consisting of upwards of one thousand men, before the fort building by the Vfrgini- ans on the Ohio, and the surrender thereof He also laid before them the despatches he had severally received from governor Din widdle of Virginia, concerning the state of that province, and the succours he wanted and expected; and from governor Delancy of New York, concerning the interest of his majesty's colonies in general, as well as of Pennsylvania in particular; and said, "he hoped they would have their due weight witli them in their deliberations and advice." The proposals made by the governors of Boston and New York for an union of the several co lonies in Indian affairs, he then recommended to them earnestly, as agreeable to his own sentiments, and likely to be productive of more real benefit at much less expense than the method hitherto in use of making fre quent and distinct presents to the Indians, &c. And he desired to be enabled to instruct the commissioners to be sent from their province, to concur with' those ofthe other colonies, in case a reasonable plan should be offered. A joint bill for granting an aid to the king, and replacing torn and ragged bills of credit was the result of their first day's debate ; and after several divisions, the several sums were settled at ten thousand pounds for the king, and twenty thousand for tlie other purpose. The commons of Great Britain will not suffer a money-bill to be amended : the lords may reject, his majesty may refuse his assent, but what they give, they give upon their own terms. In Pennsylvania a money-bill exacted from the province, by all the considerations which could affect generous minds, or intimidate PENNSYLVANIA. 49 weak ones, the dread of an enemy at the gates, and of incurring both the royal dis pleasure and the public odium, for not making a seasonable provision against his approach es, could not be accepted without amend ments. Even this bill, at such a crisis offered, and ' for such a service, was returned by the go vernor, with amendments prefaced with a written message, of which the two following were the most material paragraphs : viz. " Considering the royal instruction laid be fore the assembly last year, it must be appa rent that I have, merely from a desire to oblige you, consented to raise the money hi- tended for his majesty's use in a manner by you proposed. And have prolonged the cur rency of the bills of credit, to be issued in virtue of the bUl now under consideration, as far as I think consistent with my own safety. " And, as the fund to be established upon the foot of my proposed amendment will be more than sufficient to repay the sum grant ed by the bill, I can see no reason for extend ing the act of excise longer than four years beyond the date of its present limitation, or for burdening the people unnecessarily with a tax that possibly may not be wanted." And these proposed amendments restored unanimity to the house ; for whereas they had been divided many ways in the course of the bill, they now acted with one will and one voice, in rejecting that concerning the excise, which manifestly took its rise from proprietary considerations only ; and for the sake of which, either the service of the public was to be neg lected, or the province to give up its under standing. — The latter exceeded the power of persuasion ; and the former they left those to answer for, to whom it belonged. Their reply to the governor on this occa sion was as follows : " The house are not in clined to enter into any dispute with the go vernor on the subject of his proposed amend ments to the money-bill ; as the representa tives of the people have an undoubted right to judge, and determine, not only of the sum to be raised for the use of the crown, but of the manner of raising it " The governor, in his message of the nine teenth of February, was pleased to tell us, ' That if the house should be of opinion that there will be a necessity to strike a farther sum in bills of credit todefray the charges of raismg supplies for his majesty's service in this time of imminent danger, and would cre ate a proper fund or funds, for sinking the same in a few years, he would concur with us in passing a law for that purpose, think ing himself sufficiently warranted so to do in cases of real emergency.' ' " On this assurance, the house have pre pared a bill, and presented it to the governor, Vol. n....G 5 to strike the sum of ten thousand pounds, to give the same to the king's use, and to sink it by an extension of the excise act for a far ther term of ten years. The governor wil! be pleased to consider, that his predecessor, to whom the mentioned instruction was giv en, did afterwards pass an act of the same kind, extending the excise act ten years (now near expired) for a grant of five thou sand pounds only ; and we never heard that he incurred the royal displeasure for so doing. As the sum we grant is double, we had no expectation that our proposing the same term would have been deemed extravagant The governor thinks four years sufficient ; but as the representatives are best acquainted with the circumstances of the people, and must themselves, as a part of the people, bear a share of all burdens laid upon them, it seems not reasonable to suppose they will lay such burdens unnecessarily. They now offer ten thousand pounds to the crown, and propose a manner of raising it, that they judge most easy and convenient for the people they re present : and, if the governor thinks fit to re fuse it, merely from an opinion that a shorter term for sinking the bills would be more easy for the people, we cannot but suppose, that, since the messages in which he so warmly recommended this affair to us, he has, on far ther advices, or better consideration, changed his sentiments of the importance of the pre sent occasion for supplies, and doth not now think the danger so imminent, or the emer gency so great or so real, as he then appre hended it to be." They also intimated at the same time, that, it being an inconvenient season for the mem bers to be absent from their respective homes, they desired the governor to let them know his result as soon as possible. And upon the next day but one this result came, and proved to be of a nature altogether extraordinary. Having charged the assembly with laying down a position in their last message, derogatory to the rights of govern ment; in maintaining, that the representatives of the people have an undoubted right to judge and determine, not only ofthe sum to be rais ed for the use of the crown but of the manner of raising of it, he first acknowledges that right, and then whittles it away, by arguing, it was not an exclusive right; one half of the legislative powers being vested in the go vernor. After which he goes on to say, that he had neither objected to the sum, though he wished it had been larger and more sea sonably granted, nor to the manner of raising it, though he could have also wished it had not been by compelling him to depart from the letter of his majesty's instruction, but only to the extension of the fund, whereby the mo ney is proposed to be repaid, to an unneces- 50 FRANIiLIN'S WORKS. sary length, by which a tax was to be laid and continued upon the people without the least apparent necessity : and that he was sorry to find, they were not satisfied with a fund by which the ten thousand pounds granted to his majesty would be repaid in the easiest man ner in six years, and leave a surplus of seve ral thousand pounds in their hands to be dis posed of as they thought fit ; and that for the said ten thousand pounds so granted, they were desirous of obtainmg more than three times the sum for themselves: that the ex ample of any former governor was not to be a rule for him : but that however, if they would enlarge the sum given for his majesty's use, he would extend the time for repaying it in the same proportion already allowed in his amendment which he should not otherwise recede from ; that it was possible more might be concealed under this solicitude for so long an extension of the excise than they were willing should be discovered: — and here a paragraph occurs, which does indeed make a discovery, and which will be of singular use to the intelligent reader through the whole course of the controversy, viz. " It is well known, that by the laws now in force, the public money is solely in the disposal of the assembly, without the participation of the go vernor; nevertheless, while these acts, by which money was raised, were of short dura tion, the governor had now and then an op portunity of obliging the assembly in a very essential manner by a renewal of those acts, and thereby of making himself acceptable to them ; but to extend them to such an unrea sonable length of time as you now desire, might be to render him in a great measure unnecessary to them during the continuance of those acts, but upon terms very disagreeable to himself, as well as injurious to his consti tuents : to this condition, therefore, I will not be the means of reducing any successor of mine ; and this circumstance is of no small additional weight with me to adhere to my amendment" He then desires them to ob serve, that the question between them, is not, which is best acquainted with the circum stances of the people 1 but whether it was reasonable to burden them with an unneces sary taxi assures them, they are exceedingly mistaken, if they really supposed he had either changed his sentiments with respect to the importance of the present occasion for sup plies, or that he was less apprehensive ofthe dangers the province was then exposed to from the invasion of a foreign power than be fore ; makes a merit of having gone farther in his condescensions to please them, than he was warranted to do, by the king's instruc tion, unless they made an addition to the sup ply, by extending their currency a year longer than the utmost term allowed to the eastern governments by the late act of parliament ; adds, that he well knew the state of their funds, and that the loan-office itself, were the money duly collected, was able to furnish a much larger sum than the sum granted upon this important occasion, independent of the interest hereafter to accrue, &c. That such being the favourable state of their finances, in declining to do what his majesty so justly expected from them, merely because he, the governor, would not wholly depart from his instruction, they became more justly charge able with a wanton disregard of his majesty's commands, than he could possibly be witli the lukewarmness imputed to him, which he had the greatest detestation of: and with a mixture of persuasion and menace, he came to a conclusion as follows, " let me therefore, gentlemen, recommend to your serious atten tion, a review of your conduct upon the pre sent occasion, and if you shall find that you have been too precipitate in the resolution contained in your message, let me entreat you to rectify it before it be too late ; for, as I must be obliged soon to lay this whole trans action before his majesty, it would give me the greatest pleasure that both you and 1 might receive his gracious approbation of our services. But if, contrary to my hopes, you should still persist in refusing to accept of my amendment, and the bill should by that means be lost I cannot but apprehend some unhappy consequences to the province from your ex traordinary behaviour." There is, one would think, a magical power in government, capable not only of altering, but even reversing the forms, colours, and essences of tilings ; to common sense it seems evident, that the people give, arid the governor refuses to accept ; and that the said governor, by avowing proprietary and deputy-govern- ment-reasons for such his refusal, avows, that the king's service and the people's safety are but subordinate considerations — but our own eyes are not to be trusted it seems — none of this is so — if the people do not do all that is required of them, and in the manner requu-ed, they do nothing; and all die mischiefs that ensue are to be laid at their door. The assembly were not however, to be amused by the waving of a governnient-wand ; but on the contrary, having bestowed as much time upon the af&ir as was necessary for a thorough discussion of it came to a course of spirited resolutions ; of which the most material and perspicuous are those which follow, viz. "That the raising of money for support of government and otlier public uses, by an ex cise on spirituous liquors, hath been practised in this province, with very little intermission, for more than thirty years past and hath not been found, communibus annis, to produce more money than was necessary for those uses. " That the raising money by such excise, PENNSYLVANIA. 51 has by experience been found less burden some to the people, than the method of poll and pound rates ; and hence the load of pub lic expense hath been more cheerfully borne, government more liberally supported, those who serve the public better and more punctu ally paid, and greater sums given from time to time to the king's use, than could otherwise have well been raised. " That if the excise act be extended but four years, and the sum of ten thousand pounds is to be sunk thereby in that term, yearly provincial ta.xes by poll and pound rates (al ways more grievous to the people) must pro bably in a short time become necessary, to de fray the usual and contingent expenses of the government " That if there really were, which is very uncertain, so great a sum outstanding due to the public, as ff collected, would be in the dis position of the house, and sufficient to answer the present emergency ; yet, to enforce the collection suddenly, by seizing and selling the estates of the delinquent borrowers, in this time of scarcity of money, when so many plantations being offered at once to sale, could not probably find a sufficient number of good purchasers, and must consequently sell for much less than their real value, would be cruel, oppressive, and ruinous to the people. " That the right of judging and determin ing, not only of the sum necessary to be rais ed for any public service, but of the time and manner of Raising it, and term for paying it; is solely in the representatives of the people ; and that the governors of this province have not, nor ever had, nor can have, any right to interfere therein, under pretence of rectifying mistakes, easing the people, or any other pre tence whatever. " That a just, upright, and prudent admi nistration of government, will always be the best and most effectual means of obtaining and securing the affections of the people ; and that it is neither necessary nor expedient to deny the present assembly the exercise of their just rights, that a future governor may have an opportunity of obliging a future as sembly by permitting it. " That an act of parliament made express ly to remedy disorders in the eastern govern ments, and in which this province is neither named, nor intended, cannot by any construc tion be supposed binding on the governors or assemblies of Pennsylvania. " That to refuse a grant of ten thousand pounds to the king's use at this critical junc ture, when the service ofthe crown, and the welfkre, present and future, of all the British colonies, seem to the governor so eminently to demand supplies, merely from an opinion in the governor, that he can judge better than the people's representatives what is most for their eaSe, or that a future governor may have an opportunity of making himself acceptable, appears to this house to be sacrificing too much, to considerations of uncertain and small moment. " That we have now offered the governor a bill for granting ten thousand pounds to the king's use, to be sunk by extending the excise for ten years, (a bill of the like tenor of that of 1746 [passed by governor Thomas] for grant ing the sum of five thousand pounds to the king's use, to be sunk by extending the excise for ten years) to which he has been pleased to refuse his assent. " That as the governor [in his message of the 1st of March last] acknowledged the term of ten years for extending the excise to sink the five thousand pounds, was ' a short space of time,' and that there was not ' the least probability of that act's producing any of the inconveniences complained of;' the same term of ten years for extending the ex cise to sink ten thousand pounds, must, in consequence, be allowed a 'short space of time :' and, the bill he now refuses being of the same tenor, there cannot be ' the least probability of its producing the inconvenien ces complained of; the preventmg of which for the future appears clearly [to the go vernor] to have been the sole end and purpose ofthe royal instruction.' " That the governor having, as he hoped, [to use his own words] ' incontestably proved, that the true and real intention of the royal instruction could have been no other than to guard against the abuses enumerated in the body of it ; and the act for granting five thou sand pounds for the king's use, passed by the late governor, in 1746, being of a singular and quite different nature from acts passed upon ordinary occasions, could not be com prehended within the meaning ofthe said in struction:' the bill now offered to the govern or for granting ten thousand pounds for the king's use, being also of a singular and quite different nature from acts passed upon ordinary occasions, and of the same tenor with the act passed in 1746, cannot be comprehended, by the governor, (unless he has very lately altered his opinion) to be within the meaning of the royal instruction ; and therefore, " That it is our opinion, that if the governor is restricted by any instruction from passing this bill, it must be by some instruction which he has never been pleased to lay before this house, — and not the royal instruction, the operation of which, against bills of this tenor, he hath so effectually invalidated. " That this house will this day adjourn to the nineteenth day of the month called Au gust, next" Before they adjourned, however, and with out any mention made of these resolutions, they addressed the governor by message ; in _ which, having' civilly and thankfully observed 52 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. the care he had taken, to obtain the best in telligence he was able of what was proposed to be transacted at the ensuing treaty to be held at Albany, &c. they proceeded as follows: " And as he has been pleased to request our sentiments on the instructions to be given the gentlemen commissioners on the part of this province, ' to which he will pay the greatest regard,' we can do no less than re turn him our grateful acknowledgments for his condescension and justice; and would cheerfully comply there with at this time: but when we consider, that no propositions for an union of the colonies, in Indian affairs, can effectually answer the good purposes, or be binding farther than they are confirmed by laws enacted under the several governments comprised in that union ; that we know not what restrictions the governor may lie under in passing our acts ; and that we have very little reason to depend upon any assistance in our Indian expenses, whereby a former as sembly, it has been respectfully addressed for, and where we think in justice we have a right to expect it ; we are, under these cir cumstances, at a loss to advise him on the important articles he has lieen pleased to propose to our consideration. Nevertheless, as we have already declared our satisfaction in the gentlemen the governor has been pleased to name for this commission, so we confide in their abilities and prudence to an swer the ends proposed in the letter from the lords oftrade, of the eighteenth of September last, by renewing at this interview, the cove nant chain with the Six Nations, and by frus trating, as far as lies in their power, any at tempts which have been made to withdraw them from the British interest : and for this purpose, in compliance with the said letter from the lords oftrade, we have now granted a present to.be made to those Indians on our behalf, however inconvenient we may judge it to hold our treaties at Albany on other oc casions." Lastly : the governor also,, on his part de sired the members sent with this message to acquaint the house, that as some parts ofthe minutes of that session might be necessary to be mentioned in the representation, the go vernor found himself obliged to make to his majesty, in answer to his royal order, in rela tion to the invasion of his dominions by the French and their Indian allies, he desired the house would order a copy thereof to be deliver ed to him : and an order was thereupon made, that the said minutes might be delivered to him accordingly. Their next meeting was on the 7th of Au gust following, by special summons: upon which occasion, the governor, having sent for the house, acquainted them with Washing ton's defeat, and in the most solemn manner (his words) recommended to them a cheerful and vigorous resolution of dislodging from the neighbourhood of their settlements, [not the settlements themselves, or parts unset tled /ar within the limits of the province, as before confidently asserted from undoubted assurance] not indeed as prmcipals, but in concurrence with the government of Virginia, when the determinations taken there should be communicated to them — urging, that in the mean while it would be highly expedient to take into consideration the most proper ways and means of raising a supply for this ser vice ; and that in doing thereof, they should industriously avoid whatever might be likely to occasion any difference of opmion between him and them, to the detriment of the com mon cause, &,c. That some provision should be made for the support of such Indians as, fiying from the enemy, had taken refiige amongst their brethren of Pennsylvania ; that the inhabitants on the frontiers, had also by their petitions applied to him for protection ; that the defenceless state of the province m general, demanded their special considera tion: that it was become his indispensable duty to press it upon them accordingly, die. And in the close of all he expressed himself as follows : " It is with great satisfaction, that I now communicate to you the proceedmgs of the commissioners at the late treaty at Albany ; as, on perusal thereof, you wiU clearly per ceive, that the lands on the river Ohio do yet belong to the Indians of the Six Nations, and have, long since, been by them put under the protection of the crown of England. That the proceedings of the French in erecting forts on that river, and in the countries adjacent have never received the countenance or approbation of those nations ; but on the contrary, are ex pressly declared by them, to have been with out their privity or consent That they are greatly alarmed at the rapid progress of the French, and in severe terms reproach us with supine negligence, and the defenceless state of our possessions; and, in effect call upon us to fortify our frontiers, as well for the secu rity of their countries as of our own. — That after a due and weighty reflection on these several matters, with many others of equal importance, tlie commssioners thought it ne cessary to consider of, and draw up a repre sentation of the present state of the colonies : and from thence, judging that no effectual op position was like to be made to the destruc tive measures of the French, but by an union of them all for their mutual defence, devised likewise a general plan for that purpose, to be offered to the consideration of their re spective legislatures. " And as both those papers appear to me to contain matters of the utmost consequence to the welfare ofthe colonies in general, and to have been digested and drawn up with great PENNSYLVANIA. 53 -clearness and strength of judgment, I cannot but express my approbation of them ; and do therefore recommend them to you, as well worthy of your closest and most serious at tention." The particulars contained in this speech were also enforced by several papers commu nicated at the same time: and the house taking the premises into consideration, after various debates, divisions, rejections, &c. agreed to a bill for striking the sum of thirty- five thousand pounds in bills of credit and for granting fifteen thousand pounds thereof for the king's use, and for applying the remain der to the exchange of torn and ragged bills : which, being presented to the governor, pro duced the following answer, viz. "The governor promised himself, from the request he made to the house in his speech at the openi-.ig of the session, that (consider ing the importance ofthe occasion) they would have fallen upon some method of raising mo ney for the king's use to which he might have had no material objection ; and could not help therefore being extremely mortified at find ing the bill nov; presented him for that pur pose, to be not only formed on the said plan, but to be nearly of the same tenor with that to which he refused his assent at their last meeting. He has nevertheless complied with the proffer he then made them, and has agreed to extend the fund they have chosen to raise the money upon, in the same propor tion as they have increased the sum granted to his majesty. But the house is peremptory, and will admit of no alteration in their bill. All then that remains after assuring them that the governor, lest the king's services should suffer, has strained his powers even beyond what he almost dares think consistent with his safety, is, to submit our respective conduct to the judgment of our superiors. But he hopes this also may be rendered un necessary by the arrival of the gentlemen that is to succeed him in the administration, who may every day be looked for among us : and who may possibly think himself more at liberty with respect to the matter in contro versy, than the governor can presume to do. In the mean while it is hoped no considerable detriment may arise to his majesty's affairs in the short interval between this and the time of his actual arrival. " So much has already been said upon this subject on another occasion, that the governor declines any farther enlargement thereon, as well knowing that public disputes of this na ture frequently terminate in private animosi ties, which he is very desirous of avoiding ; and therefore only expects from the house that they will do him the same justice he is wil ling to do them, in supposing him to act from his judgment, when he tells them that he can not recede from his amendments." This was the last act of Mr. Hamilton's go vernment Weary of a service, which he found incompatible, if not with his notions of honour, at least with his repose, he had desired to be dismissed ; and was succeeded by Robert Hunter Morris, Esq. In the beginning of October, 1754, much about the time of Mr. Morris's arrival at Phi ladelphia, a new assembly was to be chosen in the course ofthe year, and had been chosen accordingly. To these summoned, according to form, up to his council-chamber, the new governor made a short speech ; importing, "his persua sion that the proprietaries had nothing more at heart than the welfare and prosperity ofthe people : his own self-flattery that it was from the opinion that they had entertamed of his disposition to promote the general happiness to the utmost of his power, they had made choice of him : the resolution he had taken not to disappoint them : assurance, that he should, upon all occasions, be studious to protect the people committed to his charge in their civil and religious privileges, and careful to main tain the just rights of government, as equally conducive to the public good : a recommend ation, in particular, ofthe state of the frontier both of that and the neighbouring govern ments ; where they would find the French act ing with a steady uniformity and avowed reso lution to make themselves masters ofthe coun try ; an interspersion of certain stimulatives, drawn from a contemplation of the miseries they would be exposed to, in case they suffered the enemy to strengthen themselves in their posts ; and an earnest call upon them, in his majesty's name, to exert themselves at that critical juncture in defence of their country. And lastly, a declaration, that if they should find any laws wanting for the better govern ment of the province, he should be ready to enter upon the consideration of such as they should propose, and give his consent to such as he should think reasonable." More doubts than confidence, it may be pre sumed, this speech excited ; for the assembly having, upon the report, bestowed some time in the consideration of it, thought fit to call for a copy of the governor's commission, as also of the royal approbation, before they proceeded to answer it. This answer was also as dry, and as cau tiously worded, as the governor's speech. They echoed back what parts of it they could ; and they joined issue with the governor in pro mising with the same sincerity, to contribute every thing in their power to support him in the exertion ofthe just rights of government, conducive to the good ends by him specified. After which they proceeded in these words : " the encroachments of the French on his ma jesty's territories, and their hostile proceedings in this time of peace, are truly alarming ; and 54 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. as they have been long since known in Great Britain, we were in hopes, on the governor's arrival, to have received instructions from the crown how to conduct ourselves on this im portant occasion : but as we have not had any such laid before us, the royal order sent to the several colonies by the earl of Holdernesse, in his letter of the twenty-eighth of August, 1753, appears to be the only rule by which we can no w act with safety. And as we find our late assembly did what was most consistent with the trust reposed ui them, to comply there with, the governor may likewise depend upon our doing whatever can be reasonably expect ed from us for the good of this province, or the general interest of the British colonies on the continent, whenever our assistance can be applied to any valuable purpose. But at present, as we know not where to direct our aid, and as this has not been the usual time of doing business, occasioned by the governor's being obliged to give his attendance elsewhere, we are inclined, if he has no objection, or any thing farther to lay before us, to make a short adjournment ; and if, during our recess, any matters of importance should come to his knowledge, we shall cheerfully attend the governor's call of our house, and contribute our assistance for the public good." The result was, that the governor thanked them for their speech, and concurred in their proposition; upon which they adjourned ac cordingly. In the beginning of December they met again, and then the governor communicated a letter from sir Thomas Robinson, secretary of state, dated July 5, 1754 ; by which it appears, that for upwards of ten months, the case of the northern colonies, actually invaded by the French, had not been made the foremost point of consideration here at home ; and that the Americans were in a sort of disgrace at court for not having broken through all the cau tions laid upon them before, and assumed and exercised all the powers of government in taking care of themselves. Let the reader judge for himself " Whitehall, July 5, 1754. " Sir, — Your letter of the 25th of Novem ber last, in answer to the earl of Holder nesse's ofthe 28th of August, having been re ceived and laid before the king, I am to ac quaint you, that it is his majesty's express command, that you should, in obedience there to, not only act vigorously in the defence of the government under your care, but that you should likewise be aiding and assisting his ma jesty's other American colonies, to repel any attempts made against them ; and it was with great surprise, that the king observed your to tal silence upon that part of his majesty's or ders, which relate to a concert with the other colonies, which, you must be sensible, is now become more essentially necessary for their common defence, since the account received by you from major Washington, with regard to the hostilities committed by the French up on the river Ohio, which verify in fact what was apprehended when the earl of Holder nesse wrote so fully to you in August last, and which might have been, in great measure, if not totally prevented, had every one of his majesty's governments exerted themselves ac cording to those directions, the observance whereof I am now, by the king's command, to enforce to you in the strongest manner. — I am, &c." The governor also accompanied this letter with a speech, in which occur the following curious particulars, viz. " From the letters and intelligence I have ordered to be laid before you, it will appear that the French have now, at their fort at Mo- nongatula, above a thousand regular troops, besides Indians ; that they are well supplied with provisions, and that they have lately re ceived an additional number of cannon ; that their upper forts are also well garrisoned and . provided ; and that they are making a settle ment of three hundred families in the coun try of the Twigtwees, at tlie south-west eud of the lake Erie. " From those papers you will likewise be informed of the use they have made of their last year's success among the Indians of the Six Nations, having prevailed with many of .them to remove to Canada, who will either be neuter in the present dispute, or take up arms against us, while such few of the Indi ans, as still retain their attachment to the English, dare not be active for us, till they see a force in the field superior to that of the French ; and if that be not soon, they will certamly give up our cause, and embrace the tempting offers made them by tlie French. " Gentlemen, it is now several year& since the French undertook this expedition, and we have long had full intelligence of their de signs, and ofthe steps they have taken to car ry them into execution : their progress indeed has been very surprising, owing chiefly to the inactivity of the English colonies, who, I am sorry to say, have looked with too much in difference upon an affair that must end in their ruin if not timely prevented." [Poor colonies ! exposed on one hand ! cen sured on the other !] In a subsequent paragraph he also proceeds as follows : " These encroachments of the French up on the territories of the crown of Britain in America, have turned the eyes of Europe to tliis quarter of the world, as it is uncertain what effects they may produce. The conduct therefore, of these colonies, will he more than ever the object of their attention, and ours in particular who are most immediately concern ed: for whether the French forts are within PENNSYLVANIA. 55 the particular limits of this province or not, I look upon to be very immaterial in the present case, though in my opinion they are clearly so : but be that as it may, our situation at present is certainly very alarming: the French on our borders are numerous, strong ly fortified, well provided, and daily increas ing ; the small body of English troops on the frontiers, weakened by desertion from the in dependent companies, and the want of disci pline in the new levies ; the Six Nations of Indians, formerly our firm friends, divided among themselves, many of them gone over to the French, and others wavering and in doubt whether to follow their brethren, or continue with us ; the neighbouring provin ces (except Virginia) though nearly interest ed in the issue of the present affair, either contributing nothing towards the common cause, or sparuigly : and though Virginia has indeed given thirty thousand pounds, yet it will avail but little, unless a considerable bo dy of troops be sent from this province, and kept up till the work is done. " Permit me, therefore, gentlemen, to press this matter upon you : exert yourselves upon the present occasion ; dissipate the cloud that hangs over your country, and save her from the threatened destruction. His majesty, ever anxious for the welfare of all his subjects, ex cites and commands us ; the eyes of a British parliament, ofthe people of our mother coun try, of the other American colonies ; and even of all Europe, are upon us; and the fate of this country, the happiness or misery of your posterity, very much depend on your resolu tions." Thus Pennsylvania alone must be put in the front of the battle, must undertake for all, pay for all, &c. and is goaded on so to do by the very proprietaries and their deputy, who should have stood in the gap, and endeared themselves to the province, by endeavouring to have the load laid as equally on the whole continent, and the effort made as generally as possible. It is visible, the governor's name signified nothing, whether Hamilton or Morris, except that the hardest driver was sure to be the best thought of by his employers : and it was but natural, that the assembly should be as re solute to continue theprovince in such a state as might render it worth preserving, as they were willing to contribute whatsoever they properly could towards its preservation. — Pennsylvania was more dear to them for the excellency of its constitution, than the excel lency of its soil ; and whatever the narrow notions of proprietaries may be, as the liberty of the province is diminished, the value of their possessions in it will diminish in the same proportion. » To discharge all duties at once, therefore, they again put the demands for the general service, and those for the particular interest ofthe province, upon the same footing, by the old expedient of a currency bill, providing for striking the sum of forty thousand pounds in bills of credit; one moiety for the king's use, and the other for replacing damaged bills: which they sent up to the governor for his concurrence, with a written message, of which what follows was the most material part. "Though we hope the number of the French, and their Indian allies, mentioned in George Croghan's letters are full large, yet the uncommon efforts they have made towards obtaining a possession on that part of his ma jesty's dominions, are truly alarming, and dan gerous to the British interest in North Ame rica: and we have good reason to believe, the sums granted the king by our late assembly, had the then governor been pleased to pass the bills offered to him for that purpose, ' might in a great measure, if not totally, have prevented the bad situation of our affairs at present,' and have placed our duty to the best of kings, as we desire it should always appear, among his most loving and loyal sub jects. And for this reason, it is with concern we find, by the above mentioned letter from the secretary of state, ' That it was with great surprise the king had observed, in our late governor's answer to the earl of Holder nesse, he had been totally silent on that part of his majesty's orders, which relate to a concert with the other colonies.' But as we have great confidence in our governor, that he will at all times afford us all good offices and pro tection, and will be pleased to represent us and our affeirs in a favourable light, as we hope he may do with great justice ; so, on our part vve shall not fail to contribute every thing in our power to answer all reasonable expectations from so young a colony, so far as is consistent with our civil and religious liber ties; beyond which, under so good a king, we are well assured nothing further will be asked or expected ft'om us : and, in return for the governor's justice and protection, it will give us particular pleasure to make his administra tion in this province easy to himself, and ho nourable to all." Amazing was the answer by the governor, on the sixth day afterwards returned: for having, at his very outset, taken shelter under the old exploded instruction to governor Tho mas, and Ryder the attorney-general's opinion upon governor Hamilton'^ case, delivered in the following compendious manner: "lam of opinion, it is by no means safe or advisea- ble, or consistent vvith his duty, to pass such bills, without a suspending clause ;" and sug gested, that he could not by any means agree to the said bill, because forbid by the said in struction, without such a clause. He then proceeded to say, " however, as the act of parliament restraining the four eastern go- 56 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. vernments from emitting paper-currency, gives them a power to strike bills of credit in case of emergency, I hope I shall be justified in thinking the reason holds good as to us who are in the greatest danger, being already invaded by the French, and in immediate ex pectation of outrage from the Indians in their alliance : I will therefore join with you in any bill for striking what sum you shall think our pressing occasions demand, provided a fund be established for sinking the same in five years. " I am exceedingly obliged to the house for their kind sentiments with regard to me, and shall make it my peculiar care so to act as to merit the continuance of their good opinion ; and can truly say it is no small mortification to me to be obliged to differ in opinion from the representatives of the province, who, I am convinced, act from upright motives, and what they esteem to be its true interest ; but would willingly hope, when they come to reflect on the obligations I am under to pay obedience to his majesty's instructions, that they will not press me to disobey them ; especially when they consider, that, should I disregard my own honour and safety in passing a bill circumstanced as this is, there is great danger of its being disapproved by his majesty ; and what loss and confusion such an event would cause in the province, by the paper-bills be coming of no value, I need not particularly mention." From the year 1740, down to the time of this altercation, his majesty's ministers had never once interfered in this dispute ; nor in these requisitions from the secretary's office, in the king's name, of aids from his American subjects, is the least trespass on the right of the subject, by any injunction direct or indi rect concerning the mode of raising these aids, to be traced : and yet this petty proprietary governor dares to make a bugbear of his ma jesty's disapprobation, at the same time, and in the same breath that he leaves a gap for dispensing with the very instruction he pleads, provided the proprietary turn is served, of re ducing the term to five years. It is moreover reasonable to think the go vernor had in his hands at this very time a third letter from the secretary of state, now sir Thomas Robinson, dated October 26, 17.54: for on the very ne.\t day after this message was delivered, he sent down a copy of the said letter to the house, accompanied with another written message so timid and constructed, as to render it as embarrassing as possible. This third letter imported, that the mi nisters had at last come to a resolution of taking some measures of their own for the defence of America. Amongst others it was said, the king had commanded two regiments of foot, consisting of five hundred men each, to repair to Virginia, there to be completed to seven hundred ; as also to send orders to go vernor Shirley and sir William PeppereU, to raise two regiments of one thousand men each ; for which officers were to be appointed, and to repair to America forthwith ; all to be com manded in chief by a general officer of rank and capacity, accompanied by a deputy-quar ter-master-general, and a commissary of the musters, who were likewise to set out as soon as conveniently might be, in order to prepare everv thing for the arrival of the regiments to be sent and those to be raised. What fol lows is in the very words of the letter, viz. " You will receive from that general, and the other officers just mentioned, a full and exact account of the arms, clothing, and other necessaries, to be sent upon this important oc casion; as likewise ofthe ordnance stores, and of the officers and attendants belonging thereto : all which being ordered for this ser vice, are such proofs of his majesty's regard for the security and welfare of his subjects in those parts, as cannot fail to excite you to exert yourself, and those under your care, to take the most vigorous steps to repel your common danger ; and to show that the king's orders, which were sent you last year by the earl of Holdernesse, and were renewed to you in my letter of the 5th of July, have at last roused that emulation and spirit which every man owes at tliis time, to his majesty, the public, and himself The kmg will not therefore imagine, that either you, or the rest of his governors, will suffer the least neglect or delay in tlie performance of tlie present service, now strongly recommended to you, particidarly with regard to tlie following points, viz. That you should carefully provide a sufficient quantity of fresh victuals, at the expense of your government to be ready for the use of the troops, at their arrival. That you should likewise furnish the officers, who may have occasion to go from place to place, with all necessaries for travelling by land, in case there are no means of going by sea ; and that you should use your utmost diligence and authority in procuring an exact observance of such orders as shall be issued from time to time, by the commander in chief, for quarter ing the troops, impressing carriages, and pro viding all necessaries for such forces as sliall arrive, or be raised witliin your government " As the articles above-mentioned are of a local and peculiar nature, and arising entire;- ly within your government it is almost need less for me to acquaint you, that his majesty will expect, that the charge tliereof be defray ed by his subjects belonging to the same. But with regard to such other articles, which are of a more general concern, it is the king's pleasure, tliat the same should be supplied by a common fund, to be established for the be nefit of all tlie colonies collectively in North PENNSYLVANIA. 57 America; for which purpose you will use your utmost endeavours to induce the assem bly of yout province to raise, forthwith, as large a sum as can be affijrded, as their con tribution to this common fund, to be employ ed, provisionally, for the general service of North America, particularly for paying the charge of levying the troops to make up the complement of the regiments above-mention ed, until such time as a plan of general union of his majesty's northern colonies, for their common defence, can be perfected. " You will carefully confer, or correspond, as you shall have opportunities, upon every thing relative to the present service, with the said general, sir William PeppereU, and go vernor Shirley, or either of them ; and as it is the king's intention to give all proper en couragement to such persons who shall en gage to serve upon this occasion, you will ac- quamt all such persons, in the king's name, that they will receive arms and clothing from hence, and that they shall be sent back, if de sired, to their respective habitations, when the service in Amerita shall be over. " As the several governors in all the king's provinces and colonies in North America will receive, by this conveyance, a letter to the same effect with this which I now send you, they wUl be prepared at the same time to obey his majesty's commands. — ^And I am to direct you to correspond with all, or either of them, occasionally, as you shall find it expedient for the general service." It is plain by the general drift of this letter, that it related equally to every governor and every government ofNorth America : and yet the governor of Pennsylvania did his best to narrow the application of it to Pennsylvania only. These are his words: " you will ybserve by the secretary of state's letter, that it is his majesty's pleasure we should contri bute as far as we can to the having about three thousand men in readiness to enlist ; that we should provide a quantity of fresh provisions for the troops, and necessaries for the officers that may have occasion to travel by land ; that the orders to be issued by the commander in chief for quartering the soldiers, and impress ing carriages, should be carried into exact ex ecution; and that all necessaries should be provided for such troops as shall arrive or be raised within this government. — His majesty expects, that as the several articles, above- mentioned, are of a local and peculiar nature, and arising entirely within this government, that the charge thereof should be defrayed by his subjects within the same." To both these messages the assembly im mediately applied themselves, to prepare suit able answers ; and, beginning with the first, among other things said, " We have the mis fortune to differ in opinion from the governor, after considering the case maturely as it now Vol. IL . . . H lies before us; nevertheless, we do assure him, that though in a matter of small import ance we might not, perhaps, be very tenacious of our own sentiments; yet, in this case, our all is concerned, and if we should not act be coming the rights our birth, as Englishmen, entitles us to, we might appear unworthy of the regard we have already experienced, and have good reason to hope for hereafter, from a British parliament" " It appears that the case, as stated to the attorney-general, regards only emissions of bUls of credit on common and ordinary occa sions; and, in our opinion, very little, if it all, affects the present bill : and it is remarkable, that there is not the least notice taken of the act for granting five thousand pounds for the king's use, which governor Thomas passed without a suspending clause, by extending this very excise act for ten years, which we have now again extended for the same term of years only, and loaded it with a grant of twenty thousand pounds. "As colonel 'Thomas gave his assent to that act after the receipt ofthe additional in struction, which the governor has now sent down with our bill, and as we presume he has no other or later instructions from the crown, though he has since received the royal appro bation, we hope he will not think himself more restricted by it than the gentleman to whom it was immediately directed ; who has never suffered in his honour, that we know of, or incurred the king's displeasure for giv ing his assent to that bill, and at this time holds a government of great importance un der the immediate powers ofthe crown. " Governor Hamilton, we find, entered into bonds and penalties (among other things) that he shall from time to time, and all times, hereafter, so long as he shall continue lieu tenant-governor of the said province, observe, perform, and obey all such directions and in structions, which now are, or shall at any time be given, or sent to him, by his majesty, his heirs, and successors, or from any person or persons, now acting, or that hereafter shall act by authority from his majesty, his heirs and successors, and pursuant to, and for the putting in execution the several acts of trade and navigation, relating to the plantations, &c, which bond, or bonds of the like tenor, we presume our governor may have entered into before he received the royal approbation : and yet our late governor seems clearly in his reasoning with former assemblies, to have ac knowledged he thought himself at liberty to pass acts of the tenor of our present bUl for granting money for the king's use ; and never offered a suspending clause, notwithstanding his bonds to the crown ; but whether he might, or might not, be safe in passing a bUl of the kind mentioned in his state ofthe case, could regard himself only, and does, by no means. .58 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. determine the rights we claim under the royal charter. And we have the pleasure to assure the governor, we have been credibly informed thit the board of trade, about a year ago, stat ed a question to the attorney and solicitor-ge neral, with respect to the validity of this in struction of a suspending clause, over govern ments claiming particular rights by charter ; to which they have not yet given any answer, that we can learn. And we know, that not withstanding two bills extending the royal instructions over councils and assemblies in America had been attempted in parliament without success, and a third bill was brought in with the same clause, yet it could not ob tain a passage there. And we are informed, that a noble fi'iend to liberty and the rights of the British subject, a member of that house, exposed this third attempt so fully, upon the second reading of the bill, that the clauses on this head objected to were dropt without a division in the committee. And until such acts of parliament shall be obtained, which we have good reason to hope will never be imposed upon us, the governor must agree with us, that it is our duty to defend the rights and privileges we enjoy under the royal charter. " As in the present case, we are not bound by any acts of parliament, and are certainly clear of the act limiting the eastern colonies, both as to the force and the intention of it, we hope the governor, from his known abUities and good will to the prosperity of this pro vince, will immediately discern the differ ence between this biU and acts of assembly creating bills of credit on common and ordi nary occasions. What force royal instructions may have on bUls of credit passed on com mon and ordinary occasions is not immediately before us, and may be considered at a proper time. But we hope the governor, notwith standing any penal bond he may have entered into, will, on reflection, think himself at a li berty, and find it consistent with his safety and honour, to give his assent to this bUl, which may, at this time, be of such great ser vice to the British interest in America. " But if we should unhappily still differ in opinion, notwithstanding these reasons, and such as have been offered by our former as semblies, we must be obliged, as our last re source, to apply to the crown for redress, or to the lords of trade, or our proprietaries, as the case may require ; in which, we doubt not, the governor will favour us with his as sistance. And in order to furnish ourselves with every thing necessary for our own vin dication, and that this case may appear in its full light, we entreat the governor will be pleased to inform us, whether the royal in struction is the only impediment; or whether he has any farther instructions from our pro prietaries, which influence him in refusing his assent to our bUll and, if he has, that he would be pleased to lay those instructions be fore us for our consideration." And the answer to the second was as fol lows: "The undoubted proofs his majesty has ever given of his gracious and paternal affec tion for all his subjects, however distant from his royal presence, and the fresh marks we have now before us of his care and regard for the welfare and security of his subjects in North America, excite in us the warmest re turns of duty and gratitude ; and we hope we have fully testified, that we have nothing more at heart, in all our deliberations, than to answer the reasonable expectations of the crown from this young but loyal colony. We have cheerfully passed a biU for granting twenty thousand pounds for the king's use, which now lies before the governor for liis ap probation, and we hope wUl answer all the purposes recommended to his care by sir Thomas Robinson's letter of the 26th of Octo ber last" It was now the governor's turn ; and the reader must recollect his former declarations, in order to wonder enough at his introductory paragraph, which was as follows : "Gentlemen, when your biU for striking twenty thousand pounds, &c. was before me, I duly considered tlie dangerous circum stances in which the province was involved ; and the absolute necessity of speedy measures to remove the French from their encroach ments, and this induced me, instead of adding a cause to suspend the force of the act tUl his majesty's pleasures could be known, to send it back to you, that you might frame such a one as I was at liberty to give my consent to; and at the same time to signify to you, that I would agree to the striking any sum the pre sent emergency might require, provided funds were established for sinking tlie same in five years, that being the term prescribed by an act of parliament for regulating paper-money in the eastern governments ; "and I thought the reason of that act extended here, though the force of it did not ; and I hoped that 1 should be excused, if I so far relaxed the in struction upon the present occasion, as to act agreeable to the rule laid down by parliament for the neighbouring governments, and I am sorry, for the sake ofthe public, to find by your message, that you have so far misapprehend ed me, as to conceive that I intended to uisist on the suspending clause in tliis danfferous situation of affairs, which the words of my message do in no wise import, and that upon the whole, you refuse to accede to tlie reason able measures I proposed." — Proceeding then to Ryder's opinion ; he would not allow, it re garded only common and ordinary emissions: said, that if governor Thomas was never cen sured for dispensing with the instruction, it PENNSYLVANIA. 59 was because the transaction itself had never been made known to his majesty or his minis ters ; that the fact mentioned by them, relat ing to the case laid by the lords of trade be fore the attorney and solicitor-general, was quite unknown to him ; that however, when they should report their opinion, and his ma jesty should think fit to issue different instruc tions, he should endeavour to pay the proper obedience ; that the debates in parliament, &.c. had little connexion with the matter then be fore them ; that though the parliament did not agree to give a general sanction to all instruc tions from his majesty, yet the instruction in question havuig been the result of addresses from both houses, it could not be doubted but they would support their own act ; that he joined with them in opinion, that the only me thod to have the validity and force of the same finally determined would be by an application to his majesty, and was desirous they should lay the whole affair before his majesty's mi nisters ; that being, as he was, in a great mea sure, a stranger to their constitution, the pro prietaries' instructions were quite necessary to him ; that those he had received from them, were so perfectly calculated to promote and secure the happiness of the province, and so reasonable in themselves, that they required nothing of him, but what he should have thought it his duty to do without them : that though he did not think it quite decent and he believed unprecedented, for a governor to be called upon for a sight of his instructions, he would nevertheless communicate them to the house whenever the public service should require it ; that, accordingly, he took that op portunity to acquaint them, that he had it in charge from the proprietaries, to recommend to them, in the most pressing manner, to pro vide with all imaginable despatch for the de fence and safety of the province, not only by affording such aids as his majesty from time to time should require, but by establishing a regular militia, providing arms and stores of war, and budding proper magazines ; all to be done in such a manner as to be least burden some to the inhabitants, and particularly so, as not to oblige any to bear arms who were or might be conscientiously scrupulous against it ; that he required this, in pursuance of the proprietaries' instructions; and that he was the more urgent in it because the province never had been in more imminent danger than it was at that time : that being to give true and exact accounts of the state of the province to his majesty and his ministers, as well as to the proprietaries, he desired a clear and de terminate answer to this point, that he might be able to lay the same before his majesty in such a manner as might make the interposi tion of parliament unnecessary ; that he was really concerned to find, that instead of pro viding for the articles recommended to them by his majesty, in a manner agreeable to his royal directions [it has been already observed, that no manner had been, or could be, with propriety, directed by the king] they insisted on his passing the bill, in the shape they had sent it up, though before informed he could not do it ; that he then again assured them, he would not assent to that or any other bill for emitting paper-money, but upon the terms above-mentioned; he also took occasion to add, among other things, that this dispute so long depending, might certainly have receiv ed his majesty's determination long ago, had they applied for it — [which, by the way, might have been retorted with equal truth on the proprietaries] — That, were there no other method of raising money for the present ser vice, but that by them proposed and insisted upon, their conduct might have appeared in a more favourable light ; but that as they had, or ought to have had in bank, by the laws in being, fourteen or fifteen thousands pounds, together with a revenue of seven thousand pounds a year ; as the city and province were in rich and flourishing circumstances, the peo ple numerous, and burdened with none or very trifling taxes, he could not consent to pass the bill proposed ; it being (said he) a direct breach of a royal instruction intended to en force an act of p^liament of the sixth of queen Anne, which [whether act or instructions is doubtful] they knew had been shamefully slighted and disregarded in this and the neigh bouring provinces. "Upon the whole," con tinued he,"you will consider, gentlemen, in what light you will appear to his majesty and a British parliament, who are expending great sums of money for the defence of these colo nies, whUe you, the very province most con cerned as being invaded, instead of contribut ing towards your own defence, are entering into an ill-timed controversy concerning the validity of royal instructions, which might have been determined long ago, and may be delayed to a more convenient time, without any the least injury to the rights of the peo ple. Letme, therefore, gentlemen, once more recommend the present unhappy circum stances of this country to your most serious consideration ; and entreat you to lay aside (for the present at least) every thing that may admit of any dispute, and enter heartily into such measures as may best answer the public expectations, and assist his majesty in the measures he has concerted, and is carrying into execution, for the preservation of this country." The assembly again, as if to give the go vernor time for second thoughts, sent him up the reply that follows. " Before we enter upon the consideration of the other parts of the governor's message of the 24th instant we must acknowledge our selves engaged to return him oar hearty 60 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. thanks for informing us, that, ' as he was in a great measure a stranger to our consti tution, and, to be so highly intrusted by the proprietaries, it seemed quite necessary he should receive instructions from them. — And notwithstanding he may think it not quite decent, or may believe it unprecedented, for a governor to be called upon for a sight of his instructions, yet he will communicate them to the house whenever the public service shall require it.' — In return to this candid declara tion, and the assurance he is pleased to give us, as well as the ready fumishmg us with other parts of those instructions, we beg leave to inform the governor, that we not only ap prehend it the undoubted right of a British parliament to address the crown for such in formation as they judge absolutely necessary to their deliberations ; but also, that the pro prietary instructions to our former governors, have been repeatedly laid before the assem blies of this province." Here certain instances were recited ; and the sequel was in these words : " We, there fore, under these considerations, and for that we are of opinion those proprietary instruc tions, which the governor is pleased to inform us our proprietaries gave him on their appoint ing and intrusting him with this government, are the principal, if not the sole, obstructions to the passing our bill for granting twenty thousand pounds for the king's use ; and also, for that whatever bills we might prepare for this, or any other purpose, after all the expense to the country, and after all our pains in fram ing them, would be liable to the same diffi culties, unless we could know what those pro prietary instructions are. We say, under these considerations, and from the regard our governor is pleased to express for our charter, and our liberties, we earnestly request he would now candidly communicate those in structions to us, as the time when 'the public service requires it' in the most par ticular manner ; for, as we are now under an absolute necessity of addressing the crown, in support of our civil and religious liberties, in which we have the pleasure of the governor's concurrence, and indeed his desire that we should apply to his majesty on this occasion, we must, in justice to ourselves, and in dis charge of the duty we owe to those we re present, make those proprietary instructions, and the force and validity of them, the great end of our humble petition to the crown at this time, unless the governor shall be pleas ed to convince us to the contrary." It was not till the fourth day after this message was presented, that the governor re joined: during which interval the business of the session seems to have been wholly at a stand ; and the language he then used was to the following effect : " That though the house of commons had a right to address the crown for information, and former governors had occasionally laid particular instructions before the assemblies, he did not think assem blies had a right to have them all laid before them upon demand ; and was still of opinion, that their application for that purpose was ir regular and unprecedented ; that it was true he had proprietary instructions as all other governors had had; but that he [who it seems was to be the only judge] could not thmk it then for his majesty's service, or the interest ofthe province, to communicate them farther than he had already done ; especially as they claimed it as a right and seemed in dustriously to seek fresh matter of dispute about them, when the public service requu-ed they should be otherwise employed, when they expressed so great a dislike to them, and when they had avowed a purpose of making the force and validity of them, the great end of their petition to the crown, and aU this with out so much as knowing, except in what re lated to a militia, &c. what those instructions were ; that, having assigned the royal in struction, and the attorney-general's opmion upon it, as his reasons for not agreeing to their bill for striking forty thousand pounds, he should be glad to know upon what inform ation they had given it as their opinion, that proprietary instructions had been the princi pal if not the sole directors of his conduct or had become so intimately acquainted with his private sentiments, as to know, that when he said one thing he meant another ; that he had been, and stUl was, desirous, they should ap ply to the crown for a determination of the dispute between them; but that as he did not know the civil or religious liberties of the people were invaded by the instruction which gave rise to it he could have no inten tion to consent to an application in support of them ; that an invasion of the civil and reh- gious liberty of a people, was to be reckoned among the worst of crimes, and was then most aggravated when committed by those who were bound both by their oaths and their duty, to preserve those blessings, and protect the people in tlie enjoyment of tliem ; that his sa cred majesty, who had so long and so happily governed his people uponconstitutional prin ciples only, disdained a thought of douig or approving any thing tliat was otherwise ; that a British parliament would never esteem a royal instruction, issued at their own request and intended to enforce a good and whole some law, in the least destructive of the civil and religious liberties of any part of his ma jesty's subjects, whatever they, tlie represen tatives of Pennsylvania, might do ; that it gave him particular concern, that they should purposely enter into a dispute about that m- struction, and choose to publish such senti ments of his majesty's government, at a time like that, when a I^ench army were fortify- PENNSYLVANIA. 61 ing themselves in their country ; that he earnestly recommended to them to consider, whether such expressions might not have a tendency to alienate the affections of the peo ple from his majesty's person and government, and thereby greatly obstruct the measures he was taking at a vast expense, for the preser vation and protection of his subjects on that continent ; that he had lately received intel ligence that six thousand of the best troops of France were actually arrived at the lower fort on the Ohio, and were there employed in fortifying the country ; that this ought to con vince them, France had formed some grand design on that continent, and that as they had made their first attack upon Pennsylvania, as the most plentiful and most defenceless part of his majesty's dominions, so in a particular manner, it behoved them to exert themselves accordingly ; and that he must therefore, en treat them once more, to waive all disputes till a more favourable season, to consider se riously the dangers their country was expos ed to, and not only grant the supplies requir ed, but enable him to raise a considerable body of men, to be employed in conjunction with his majesty's troops, establish a regular militia, provide the necessary stores of war, &c. that the province, for want of discipline, might no longer be left an easy prey to a much weak er body of men, than were then encamped within a few days of this city." How grossly uncandid and clumsily crafty this rhapsody was, appears at the first glance ; and its operation could not but be suitable to its contents. In short, the assembly, upon the second readuig of this and his former message, ob serving, that the governor called upon them to show, upon what information they founded their opinion, that he was restrained by pro prietary instructions from passing their bill, had recourse to their former proceedings in relation to the proprietaries bearing a propor tionable part ofthe expenses incurred on In dian affairs ; and the whole having been read and duly considered, upon the issue made the following order, to wit : " That the representation from the assem bly to the proprietaries in 1751, the proprie taries answer thereto laid before the house in May, 1753, and the report of a committee of assembly at that time on the said answer (neither of which have as yet been made pub lic) be now printed with the minutes of this sitting." — And they were printed according ly. — So that the whole province had now for the first time the whole case before their eyes, and could not help being convinced by these emphatical words, in clause fourteen, of the proprietary answer, before pointed out, "especially if we shall be induced, from the state of your trade, to consent to an increase of your paper-currency," that proprietary, not 6 royal instructions, were indeed the only ob stacle to the public service. But we anticipate — the assembly did not stop here ; but unanimously came to such re solutions, and grafted such an address upon them, as, notwithstanding some few inaccu racies, must ever do as much honour to their understandings as justice to their cause, and the noble principles it was founded upon. With reference to the conduct of their pre decessors in former assemblies, and the suc cess of their honest endeavours for continu ing to them the invaluable blessings they en joyed under their charters, derived from the royal clemency and goodness, and the justice and benevolence of their founder, they set out; and declared themselves sufficiently animated by their examples to pursue faith fully the same path which they had trod be fore them. Having then glanced at the governor's eva sion of his promise concerning his proprietary instructions, and the papers which had pass ed between the proprietaries and the assem bly, as the ground of their proceedings, they inserted the unanimous resolutions they had come to, which were as follow, viz. " That it is the opinion of this house, that the late governor, who was, we presume, as much bound by the additional instruction to col. Thomas, in 1740, as our present governor is or can be, has clearly admitted in his rea sonings with our last assembly, ' that it was an absurdity too glaring, to suppose that any government would voluntarily tie up the hands of its subjects from serving it by such means as they are able, in cases of great emer gency ;' and that col. Thomas, in passing the act for granting five thousand pounds, for the king's use, in the year 1746, by extend ing the excise act for ten years, was so far from acting contrary to the instruction he had received from the lords justices in 1740, that the very contrary was evident;' and that the said instruction was not binding up on him from passing a hill in cases of great emergency, of the same tenor with our bill for granting twenty thousand pounds, for the king's use, which our governor has now been pleased to refuse his assent to. " That it is the opinion of this house, that the governor is undoubtedly bound by pro prietary instructions, and that they may be, and we believe they really are, or some of them are, such as, independent of the royal instruction, limit or restrain him from pass ing acts, which, by the royal and provincial charters, we have an undoubted right to offer, and by which he has, or ought to have, full powers to give his assent to, as governor of this province. -" That it is the opinion of this house, that these proprietary instructions, or some one or more of them, is, or are, the principal, if not 62 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. the sole, obstruction to the passing our bill for granting twenty thousand pounds for the king's use, in this time of imminent danger to the British interest in North America." — Ad ding, " May it please the governor, these re solutions, which are forced from us, we have entered into with the utmost reluctancy; and, in support of them, or any other part of our present conduct, we conceive it our in dispensable duty to conduct ourselves precise ly within the bounds of sincerity and sober reason, and to avoid every thing that is not in our opinion necessary to our own just vindi cation." Yet more to manifest their ingenuity, they declared, in the next place, their readiness to retract the whole or any part of these re solves, on being convinced by a sight of the governor's proprietary instructions, which it was still in his power to communicate, that they had entertained a wrong opinion of them ; but then, tUl that should be the case, they presumed the governor himself could not but allow, that they had good reason to say, they were under a necessity of making their hum ble application to the crown in support of their civil and religious liberties ; and to think, as it was most natural they should, that, if this could have been done, it would have been done ; as also, that the governor, at their re quest would have concurred with them in an address to the proprietaries in support of their charter, as it regarded the royal instructions only ; and that, on the contrary, as circum stances were, their apprehensions of the pro prietary instructions, and the operation of them, in defeating the bill by which they pro posed to demonstrate their readiness and cheerfulness in answering all the reasonable expectations of the crown, could not but be well grounded : so that it was with extreme concern, they found their governor, who was, or ought to be, set over them for their pro tection, endeavouring to represent them in a light they detested and abhorred. " The governor is but in the beginning of his administration," said they, " and if, when he received the proprietaries' commission, he was, ' in a great measure, a stranger to our constitution,' we apprehend he still continues a stranger not only to our constitution, but to the inhabitants, if he does not certainly know, that the king has not a more loyal people among all his subjects, than the inhabitants are, and have ever been, since the first set tlement of this province ; nevertheless they are convinced they ought not to be governed by proprietary instructions in opposition to their charter, which is, in our opinion, the foundation and sanction of our civil and reli gious liberties ; and especially if these in structions must be secreted from them, and by that means the whole country left without any known rule of their conduct And it sur prises us extremely, that a request of this house, respectfully addressed to the governor, that he would be pleased to lay before us those instructions, or such part of them as might re late to the immediate service of the crown, and to the preservation of this his rnajesty's colony, in order that we might examine how far they interfered with that allegiance the proprietaries themselves, and all of us, owe to the crown, or with the privileges granted by our charters, should be represented by our go vernor as an act that ' might have a tendency to alienate the affections ofthe people of this province from his majesty's person and govern ment, and thereby greatly obstruct the mea sures he is taking, at a vast expense, for the preservation and protection of his subjects upon this continent' That thus contending for the rights granted us by the royal charter, which is the known rule of our conduct should have a tendency of that kind, under a king, who has been graciously pleased to declare, ' that nothing in this world can give him so much pleasure as to see his subjects a flou rishing and happy people,' is so foreign from our thoughts, and we trust will be so foreign to every impartial construction, that we may safely leave it without any further remarks of our own. But if it should have a tendency to alienate the affections ofthe people from being bound by private proprietary instruc tions, the blame is not with us, who have never been consulted upon them ; and if we had been consulted, should have thought our selves obliged to declare, that we have a great dislike to proprietary instructions, and that so far as they are against the prerogatives ofthe crown, or an infringement of our charter, they are illegal, and void in themselves." They then cite sir William Keith's declara tions concerning proprietary instructions be fore inserted ; and at the same time intimate, that he was the first governor who gave bond for the performance of them. — In answer to that part of the proprietary instructions which the governor had so cheerfully laid before them, concerning a militia, &c. they begged leave to say, " that as it requires money to be levied upon the people for providing arms and stores of war, and building magazines, we are of opinion it may be time enough to deliberate upon it, when we are uiformed how far he is at liberty by his instructions to pass our bUls ; and whether himself, or the representatives of the people, are the proper judges of the manner of raising such monies. And when these, our civil and religious rights, are se cured, we cannot doubt all will rise up as one man in behalf of our king, our country, and our charters, according to our several stations and abilities." ' Coming then to the governor's state of their revenue, they show, he was as much a stran ger to that as to the people and the constitu- PENNSYLVANIA. 63 tion ; and, that instead of having fourteen or fifteen thousand pounds in bank, they could :iot have above seven thousand pounds; as also, that what with the very large sums they had paid for the support of government, and for Indian and other expenses, their treasury and loan-office were almost quite exhausted. Aft,er which they proceed as follows : " But admitting the governor's computation in all its extent, if twenty thousand pounds, as he is pleased to inform us, will go but a very little way to raise and maintain such troops as he may think necessary, and without which we had better, in bis opinion, do nothing at all, how can the inconsiderable sum we have any power over, answer his demands, though we should ruin the persons now outstanding in our loan-office, by the immediate sale of their lands f we are unwUling to make any further remarks on this head, which has, we find, been heretofore insisted upon by our late go vernor, but carries with it, as we conceive, snch appearances of severity, without answer ing any good purpose, that we think it our indispensable duty to oppose it, as far as in justice we may; and now more especially, when we have offered a. bUl which would raise a generous sum of money immediately, for the use of the crown, in a manner that would be most easy and most agreeable to us all. Whilst we are upon this article, as the governor must be in a great measure a stran ger to our accounts, we take the liberty to remark, that the proprietary patents make, as we are informed by the trustees, near one half ofthe mortgages now outstanding. These, after paying for their lands out of the money borrowed from the province, are to improve them with the remainder, if any ; and as they must have shelter for themselves at least, however mean, and some land cleared for their subsistence, it necessarily puts them in arrears, let them be ever so honest and indus trious; whilst the purchases of such their lands are constantly complied with on grant ing the patents, the bulk of which, we pre sume, may have been remitted to Great Britain, and makes a very sensible diminution ofthe sUver and gold current among us : so that all ranks of people, however flourishing the governor may be pleased to represent us, complain justly for want of a due medium to carry on our trade ; but as this inquiry is not immediately before us, we shall at present leave it, and proceed to inform the governor yet farther, that his computation of our annual income is also too high ; for as our excise, communibus an??is,y ields about three thousand jwiinds (out of which five hundred pounds is yearly applied towards sinking the sum of five thousand pounds, heretofore granted to the king's use) the interest payable into the loan-office is much about the same sum ; and his error in the last article, we presume, might arise, upon a supposal that our whole princi pal sum of eighty thousand pounds wes always yielding an interest; but this has ever been found impracticable, as considerable sums must be continually changing hands, by vir tue of our re-emitting acts. Besides which, ' the province has, out of that principal sum, lent considerable parts of it, without yielding any interest at all ; and particularly a debt from the city of Philadelpliia, still due upon the first and second thirty thousand pounds' acts, long since expired. And, until that is in our hands, it would be unjust to compute an interest arising from it, or upbraid us with it, as money which ought to have been in our hands by law, whilst some may think we have no power to sue for it by the laws in being." Again : concerning the royal instructions, or act of queen Anne, said to have- been shamefully slighted and disregarded in that and the neighbouring provinces, they argued thus: "the neighbouring provinces must an swer for themselves ; but, so far as regards this colony, we find, by the votes of the house, that whilst col. Thomas had the act before him, for emitting and re-emitting eighty thou sand pounds, this very act of the sixth of queen Anne was considered, debated, and so fully explained, that although exchange was then higher than at this time, he (who was undoubtedly under the same oaths and bonds to observe the acts of trade with our present governor) after mature deliberation, gave his assent to that act on the nineteenth of May, 1739 ; which, after having been recommend ed by the merchants in England trading to this province, as an act not only reasonable, but likewise necessary for carrying on the commerce of this country," the king was pleased to confirm it in a full council on the twelfth day of May following. What then the governor does, or can mean, by saying, vve knov/ that this province has shamefully slighted a royal instruction, intended to en force an act of the sixth of queen Anne, is what vfe are entirely at a loss to imagine ; neither can we conceive any good reason, why our governor should choose to call our bill for granting twenty thousand pounds for the king's use, a bUl for striking forty thou sand pounds, without any further explanation, though ^hat bill had been repeatedly under his consideration. It would be, perhaps, too unkind to suppose, as the bill itself, and the contents of it would in all probability be un known to our superiors, further than the grant to the crown, he could have the least inten tion to misrepresent the purport of it and for this reason we leave it entirely to his own reflection. The title of that bill is, " an act for striking forty thousand pounds in bUls of credit, and for granting twenty thousand pounds thereof to the king's use, and to pro vide a fund for smking the same ; and for ai> 64 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. plying the remainder to the exchange of torn and ragged bills now current in this pro vince;' and the governor well knows, it adds no more to our paper-currency than the very twenty thousand pounds granted the king, and even that struck for no other rea son than to answer the immediate call of the crown, and to make the grant effectual." In answer to the governor's assertion, that the French were already in possession of part of their province, they instance the language constantly used here at home : to wit that the French had invaded his majesty's territo ries in Virginia; as also a map then lying before them, founded on authorities supplied by the board of trade and their own proprie taries, wherein every fort built by the French is placed beyond the western boundaries of Pennsylvania; and they again took refuge behind the cautions so minutely expressed and strongly insisted upon, in the first letter from the secretary's office, urging, that while the two crowns were still in a state of amity, it could answer no good purpose to contra vene them; and that the king himself, having most graciously interposed, it would be more prudent and becoming to consider him as the most proper judge of the limits of his own dominions. In their next section, they dispute the pro bability and almost the possibility of the ar rival of such a body as six thousand ofthe best troops of France at the lower fort upon the Ohio, as asserted by the governor ; insinuate, that such accounts would have deserved more credit, if they had been transmitted from Oswego, near which they must have necessa rily passed ; and from whence very minute intelligence was received of the passage of those forces which first laid the foundation of the enemy's strength upon the Ohio; and leave the fact to rest upon its own evidence. .After this referring to their dispute with governor Hamilton, and the information they gave him of an instruction from the crown, not to pass any private act, or act of privilege to any individual, without asuspending clause, which had never been enforced by the pro prietaries, or observed by any governor, they plead a necessity o*" informing the governor, though with great reluctance, " That in the year 1735, governor Gordon passed an act for vesting more effectually certain lands in George M'Call, in direct contradiction to that instruction, without the least mention of a sus pending clause." And with an elevation of sentiment, style, and manners, seldom seen in public papers, they finish their reply as follows : " As we have reason to believe the assem bly was then acquainted with that instruction, and as the bill particularly related to our ho nourable proprietaries, our last assembly, not- withstandmg the indiscreet call upon them. contented themselves, from motives of pru dence and moderation, with barely pointing out this transaction, in hopes our honourable proprietaries would see themselves at least equally concerned with the representatives of the people both in fact and right, and thereby might be induced to join cordially with the people of this province, in vindicating our char ter from the continual infraction of such in structions ; which, if they must operate in the manner the governor is pleased to contend for, and our proprietary instructions must be bind ing upon us also, the rights derived to us by the royal charter is a name only, whilst the very essence of it is effectually destroyed : under the sanction of which charter, a sober, industrious people, without any charge to the crown or the proprietary, first settled this wil derness, and by their frugality, and the equity of their laws, laid the foundation of a flourish ing colony, which already, within the ordina ry life of a man, has made a considerable ad dition to the dominions of the crown, by an in crease of dutiful and loyal subjects, and bears no mean rank in contributing to the wealth and trade of our mother country. " Whether the above act for granting five thousand pounds for the king's use, or the act tor vesting lands in George M'Call, were ever sent home for the royal approbation, very lit tle concerns us, as we presume the trans mitting our acts is the immediate duty of our proprietaries, or their lieutenants, in piu^su- ance of the royal charter, which we look up on as the anterior solemn royal instruction, for the rule of their conduct as well as of our own. "Upon the whole, from what we have said, we presume it evidently appears, that propri etary instructions and restrictions upon their governors, as they have occasionally been made a part ofthe public records at different times, have been judged and resolved by our governor, councU, and the representatives of the people, either, " 1. Inconsistent with the legal prerogative of the crown settled by act of parliament " 2. Or a positive breach of the charter of privileges to tlie people. " 3. Or absurd in their conclusions, and therefore impracticable. " 4. Or void in themselves. — Therefore, " Whenever the governor shall be pleased to lay his proprietary instructions before us for our examination, and if tlien they should appear to be of the same kind as heretofore, his good judgment should lead him to con clude, that such ' considerations in life' as our allegiance to the crown, or the immediate safety ofthe colony, &c. are sufficient induce ments for him to disobey them, notwithstand ing any penal bonds to the contrary, we shall cheerfully continue to grant such further sums of money for the king's use, as the cir- PENNSYLVANIA. 65 cumstances of the country may bear, and in a manner we judge least burdensome to the in habitants of this province." Lastly, that they might be able to set all imputation and misrepresentation whatsoever at defiance, they applied themselves to find out some expedient, by which the service re commended to them by the crown might be promoted as far as in thenj lay, even without the concurrence of the governor. In order to which, having thoroughly weighed the con tents of sir Thomas Robinson's last letter, and the state of the provincial treasury in which there was scarce five hundred pounds remaining, they unanimously resolved to raise five thousand pounds on the credit ofthe province, for the accommodation of the king's troops ; and impowered certaui members of their own to negotiate the loan, and allow such interest as should be found necessary. The controversy, however, whicli this new governor had been so ingenious as to work up to such a pitch in so short a time, was, by the continuance of the same ingenuity, to be stUl continued as warm as ever. Accordingly, down came another message from him, in which he complains to the as sembly, of the very great obscurity, unneces sary repetitions, and unmeaning paragraphs contained in their last performance; and through the whole, manifests that spirit of perverseness, which is but too prevalent with most men on the like occasions. Ofthe in accuracies before acknowledged in the per formance (and which are perhaps unavoidable in pieces drawn up from a variety of sugges tions, and subject to a variety of alterations and additions,) he takes all the advantage he can ; and does indeed foul the water, though he cannot divert the current It would be endless to wade through all the minutenesses of so tedious a contest ; and odds if the reader did not leave the writer in the midst of it. To be as concise as possible, therefore : his paper is as insidious as that of the assembly was candid and open. He would not allow that he had promised them a sight of his in structions, with regard to their bill for grant ing twenty thousand pounds to the king; which was so far true, because he could have none regarding that particulai- measure; he would not allow that he had represented their application for those instructions, as hav ing a tendency to alienate the affections of the people from the king ; which was also true, because such his representation hod been confined to the expressions they had made use of concerning the invasion of their civU and religious liberties; the last of which is indeed no otherwise to be accounted for, than by the demand made upon them, to es tablish a militia, and thereby oblige those to carry arms, who made it a point of con- Vm TI T fi* science to disavow resistance by force ; those expressions, he would needs have it had the tendency he ascribed to them ; because, " he very well knew how fond the people were of their currency, and how averse to any re straint upon it" He endeavoured to embroil them with the crown, for having called the instruction in question, an infraction of the royal charter. He reproached' them both with ingratitude and with injustice, for being pleas ed to be angry with their proprietaries. In vindicating the aft'ections of those gentlemen to the province, he derived his argument from their interest in it ; and he is peremptory, that instead of entertaining designs to invade the just rights and privileges of the inhabi tants, there was nothing they so much detest ed and abhorred ; he adhered to the resolu tion he had taken, nevertheless, not to lay his instructions before them at that time ; be ing sensible they were no way necessary, and that the assembly, having already de clared them destructive to their liberties, they were not in a proper temper for the con sideration of them ; to show he was not re strained by proprietary instructions from pass ing bills for the defence of the country, he declares himself ready to pass a law for esta blishing a militia, &c. and for emitting any sum in paper-money, on proprietary terms ; that is to say, on such funds as might sink the same in five years. He perseveres m maintaining, that the act of the sixth of queen Anne had been shamefully slighted even in their province ; because pieces of eight were then, and had been, for many years past, current at seven shillings and sixpence; whereas, according to that act, they should pass for six shillings only : as if money, like all other commodities, would not find and fix its own value, in spite of all the precautions and provisions the wit of man could invent He also maintained, that, on a re-examina tion of the provincial accounts, their revenue was seven thousand three hundred and eigh ty one pounds per annum, clear of the five hundred pounds per annum for sinking the five thousand pounds, formerly given for the king's use ; and, that the sums due, and which, by the laws in being, should have been paid in the September preceding, amounted at least to fourteen thousand pounds. He averred, they could not but be sensible that the twen ty thousand pounds currency they proposed to give, and called a generous sum, was very insufficient to answer the exigence, and that it was not two pence in the pound, upon the just and real value of the estates of the pro vince; and, in short he said whatsoever else occurred to him, which could favour his pur pose of figuring here at home : as if he was in all respects right, and the assembly in all respects wrong. Argumentatively then, if not historically, 66 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. we have now the merits of the case before us, and may safely pronounce, that, if instruc tions may or can be construed into laws, in structions are then of more val ue than pro clamations, which do not pretend to any such authority. — That, though grants from the crown are in the first instance matter of grace, the subject may claim the benefit of them as matter of right. — That when the prerogative has once laid any restraint on itself, nothing short of a positive act of forfeiture, or act of parliament, can authorize any species of resumption. — That if a subsequent instruc tion may cancel or obviate an original grant, charters, under all the sanctions the preroga tive can give them, are no better than quick sands. — "That in the charter given to WUliam Penn, Esq. and solemnly accepted as the ba sis of government, by his followers, there is no reserve on the behalf of the crown, to tie up the province from making the same use of its credit, which is the privilege of every private subject — That, notwithstanding all the pre tended sacro-sanctitude of an instruction, pro bationary at first, neither renewed or refer red to, directly or indirectly, by his majesty or his ministers afterwards, and virtually dis charged by a subsequent act of parliament which expressly restrained some colonies, and consequently left the rest in possession of their ancient liberty, the governor was no toriously ready to dispense with it on proprie tary terms. — That the difference between five and ten years for smking the bills, was a point in which the national interest had no con cern. — That if the eastern colonies, which were those restrained by the said act, might nevertheless, in case of exigence, make new issues of paper-money, those unrestrained might surely do the same in the like case, on such terms, and after a mode, as appeared most reasonable to themselves. — That accord ing to all the representations of the governor to the assembly, if true, the fate of the pro vince, if not of the public, depended on their giving a supply. — That, consequently, no exi gency could be more pressing than the pre sent, nor emission of paper-money better warranted. — And that he could, nevertheless, leave the province exposed to all the calami ties which that exigence could possibly brmg upon it or upon the service in general, ra ther than give up one proprietary item : whereas the difficulty imposed upon the peo ple manifestly was, either to be a prey to their invaders, or give up every privilege that made their country worth defending : which shows, in the fullest clearest and most unan swerable manner, that all proprietary inter position between the sovereign and subject, is alike injurious to both ; and that the sole cism of an imperium in imperia, could hard ly be more emphatically illustrated. To the crown, under this difficulty, the as sembly now thought it high time to make their appeal; in humble confidence, that a fair and modest state of their case, would re commend them to the royal protection, and skreen them from the malignity of their ad versaries. That the governor, however, might not, in the mean time, remain ignorant of theu- sen timents, they made another application to him by message ; in which they apprised him of what they had done, and of their joining issue with him in submitting their cause to his ma jesty's decision ; as also, of their inclination to adjourn till May, for the sake of their own pri vate affairs, to relieve the province from the expense they sat at and suspend the unea siness which a contest Uke to be endless, and in which they were treated with so little de cency, had given to them. And having thus, as they observed, reduced what immediately concerned them, within a narrow compass, they first declare, it was hard for them to con jecture, how the governor came by his know ledge ofthe people's fondness of their curren cy, and aversion to restraints on that head ; seeing they had not petitioned for any increase of it nor the assembly offered any such bUl, during his administration, except that which comprehended the sum given for the king's use, and that only as the best method they could devise for making the grant effectuaL On tlie behaff of the late assemblies, they next insinuate, that when they did offer such bUls they were but for a very moderate sum, found ed on minute calculations of their trade, and guarded against the danger of depreciation, by such securities as long experience had shown to be effectual. Proceeding then to the governor's re-assertion concerning the shameful slights put on the money-act of queen Anne, they appeal to the testimony of the board of trade in favour of their own as a reasonable act, and the royal sanction given thereto, by which it is declared, that their provincial bUls of credit are lawful money of America, according to the said act of queen Annej as also to the course of exchange ever since, as a full confutation of his charge. They further plead a necessity to differ from him in his state of the public money ; assure him the computations he relied upon were made without skUl, or a sufficient knowledge of their laws; adhere to the justice and rec titude of their own state; maintain, that by the laws in being, seven thousand pounds was the most they had power over, which sum, since their last settlement, had been greatly reduced by the very heavy charges of govern ment; and, having recapitulated what the go vernor had been pleased to say concerning the insufficiency of their grant, &c. conclude in the followmg spirited manner : " What the governor may think sufficient, is as much a mystery to us, as he may appre- PENNSYLVANIA. 87 hend his proprietary instructions are ; but, we presume, it may be sufficient for all the pur poses in sir Thomas Robinson's last letter, and as much or more, than we think, can be reasonably expected from us. How the go vernor became so suddenly acquainted with the real value of our estates, is not easy to conceive ; but we know from long experience, having many of us received our birth in this province, that the inhabitants are not gene rally wealthy or rich, though we believe them to be, in the main, frugal and industrious, yet it is evident that their lands are greatly in cumbered with their debts to the public. From these considerations, we are obliged to think the governor's estimation of our wealth is undoubtedly too high, unless he includes the value of the proprietary lands ; for, by the re port of a committee of assembly in August, 1752, it appears, that the taxables of this pro vince did not exceed twenty-two thousand ; and the grant we have offered of twenty thou sand pounds, from the best calculations we can make, doth at least amount to five times the sum that hath ever been raised by a two penny tax through this province. As we think the governor cannot be a competent judge ofthe real value of our estates, in this little time of his administration, and as we have now submitted our cause to higher de termination, we conceive ourselves less con cerned in his computations of our estates, whatever they may be. " The governor is pleased to inform us, ' That the proprietaries are too nearly inter ested in the prosperity of this country, to do any thing to its prejudice, and he should have imagined that the people could not now stand in need of any proofs ofthe proprietary affec tion, or suspect them of having any designs to invade their just rights andprivUeges, which, he is confident they detest and abhor.' We cannot suppose the governor would mean they detest and abhor our just rights and privileges ; and yet we are convinced the clause in their commission to him, their lieutenant, whereby they impower him to act as fully and amply, to all intents, constructions, and purposes, as they themselves might or could do, were they personally present, ' You, (our governor) fol lowing and observing such orders, instruc tions, and directions, as you now have, or hereafter, from time to time, shall receive from us, or our heirs,' is not only repugnant to our just rights and privUeges, but imprac ticable, against common sense, against law, and void in itself; and yet if the governor should think his hands are so tied up by these instructions, that he is not at liberty to act for the public good, we must conclude they are of dangerous consequence at all times, and particularly in this time of imminent danger, not only to ourselves, but to the British inter est in North America." To this message the governor returned a short answer in these words : " Gentlemen, " I am very much surprised at your pro posal to adjourn tUl May, as you have made no provision for the defence of the province, or granted the supplies expected by the crown, and recommended by the secretary of state's letters : I must, therefore, object to the pro posed adjournment, while things remain in this situation, and hope you wUl, in consider ation of the danger to which your country stands exposed, continue sitting till you have granted the supplies to the crown, and effect ually provided for the defence of the people you represeiit; but if you are determined to rise at this time without doing any thing, re member it is your own act, and all the fatal consequences that may attend your leaving the province in this defenceless state, must lie at your doors." The house in return unanimously resolved, " That the governor has been respectfully and repeatedly solicited by this house, to pass a bill presented to him, for granting twenty thousand pounds for the king's use, which, in our opinion would have answered the expec tations of the crown from this province, as signified by the secretary of state's letters, had the governor been pleased to have given it his assent ; therefore whatever ill conse quences ensue, from supplies not having been granted at this critical juncture, must lie at his door." The governor, by his secretary, demanded a copy of their minutes. The house ordered the minutes both of this and their last sessions to be printed, and that a copy finished should be delivered to the governor: and, having then resolved to adhere to their adjournment, adjourned accordingly. In the beginning of March, however, the governor thought fit to re-assemble them, and assigned the arrival of general Braddock, the necessity of considering what he had to pro pose without delay, and making the provisions expected by his majesty for the service in time, as his reasons for so doing. In the same message he also acquainted them, " That he had issued a commission to a num ber of men acquainted with the country, to form a plan of opening roads from the inha bited parts ofthe province westward towards the Ohio, at the requisition of sir John St. Clair, quarter-master-general, to facUitate the march ofthe troops, conveyance of provi sions, &c. and also to prepare an estimate of the expense, which he called upon them to provide for ; also, to be enabled to take such a part in the measures proposed by the east ern governments for the maintenance of his majesty's just rights, &c. as became the ho nour and interest of a province circumstanced like theirs. Having then premised, that it 68 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. was said the large supply of provisions fur nished to the French from these colonies, not Pennsylvania in particular, which he acknow ledged had little concern in that unnatural trade, had enabled the enemy to support their forces in America, he informed them, he had given the officers of the customs preventive orders in relation thereto; and added, that he made no doubt of their joining with him in a law to make those orders more effectual. The desire of the eastern governments, that Pennsylvania would join with them in their operations to frustrate the schemes of the French, made his next topic ; and he grafted a hope upon it, that they would enable him to take such part as became the honour and interest of a province, circumstanced like theirs. The establishment of a post between Philadelphia and a place called Winchester, at the desire of general Braddock, was what he recommended next; and that again was followed by another desire ofthe same gene ral's, that the quotas for the common fund of the several provinces, recommended by the secretary of state, might be lodged in the hands of a treasurer, subject to his demands, in order to expedite business ; and the general being perfectly disinterested, as also willing to account for his disbursements, he hoped they would put it in his power to return him a satisfactory answer; and for a conclusion, he recommended vigour, unanimity, and des patch, that the happy opportunity put into the hands of the colonies by his majesty's paternal care, &c. might not be lost" That there was no retrospect in this mes sage was some recommendation of it ; but the merit of this forbearance lasted no longer than till the afternoon of the veiy same day, when the house was artfiilly perplexed with two messages more, which could not but revive the memory of past dissensions, and conse quently the ill humour they had produced. "The first contained a reprimand for their hav ing printed sir T. Robinson's letters, commu nicated to them without his, the governor's, privUege or consent, and a caution against the publication of them ; and an intimation, that though he bad letters and other papers relat ing to his majesty's service to communicate to them, he did not think it safe to do it, without proper assurances that the contents should re main a secret The second being nearly as short, and rather more extraordinary, shall be given in his own words : " Gentlemen, " On the tenth of January last, I demanded, by the secretary, a copy of the minutes of your proceedings, which you promised to send me ; but not receiving them, I did, on the twenty-ninth ofthe same month, by letter to the speaker, again demand them, and have frequently, by the secretary, reiterated my re quest, but could not obtain a sight of them till the twelfth instant above two months afl«r your rising, and then only a part of them were sent me in print, and I have not yet seen the whole of them. " The keeping your proceedings thus a se cret from me, I take to be a very unconstitu tional and extraordinary measure, liable to a construction that I do not choose at present to put upon it but only to acquaint you that I expect you will order your clerk to attend me every night with the minutes of the day, that I may know what is done and doing in your house, and be able in time to lay the same before his majesty and his ministers, who ex pect to be regularly informed of the measures taking by the legislatures ofthe colonies." Both were answered the next day in su"o- stance thus, " That they were humbly of opi nion, such letters as those in question, con taining the commands of the crown, ought generally to be inserted in their minutes as being the foundation of their proceedings, and what might be necessary for their justification; that those letters were communicated with out the least caution to keep the contents a secret ; that the latter, which was the most material of the two, was a circular letter which had been sent in effect to all the pro vinces and colonies in North America, and of which the substance, as they were informed, had been printed in the speeches of several governors to their assemblies ; that the de sign of sending two regiments from England, and raising two more in America, was no se cret having been avowed even in the Lon don Gazette ; that the governor himself had given very full and particular abstracts of those letters, in his messages which had been printed in their own gazettes long before the house adjourned, and passed without objec tion ; that they were, therefore, surprised at the exceptions started now to the insertion of them in their minutes, and, no single in convenience to result from it. having been pointed out were not inclined to expunge them ; that knowing not what assurances of secresy would be satisfactory, they could only say, that whenever it should appear to the house to be necessary for the king's service, or the public good, to keep any matters laid be fore them secret, proper measures, they doubt ed not would be taken for tliat purpose." Proceeding then to what related to the go vernor's demand of a copy of tlieir mmutes, they adjourned, " That they had ordered the said minutes to be printed with all conveni ent speed, and, when finished, that a copy should be delivered as required ; that as soaa as they could be copied and revised by a com mittee of the house, they were put to press ; and that the governor had been supplied with a copy of the greatest part of them even be fore tJiey were finished ; that it had been the constant practice of the house to have their PENNSYLVANIA. minutes so revised, and to postpone the said revisal, till after the rising of the house ; and that tUl this was done, no copies had ever been given out, unless of special votes on special occasions ; that the principal matters contain ed in these minutes were generally to be found in the governor's speeches or messages, and the answers of the house ; and that these, together with such votes as were most mate rial, were, for the most part, immediately printed in the newspapers, that the rest was chiefly matter of form ; that, therefore, as it would be inconvenient to the house to make up and perfect their votes daily, so as to send a copy to the governor, as they saw no public service concerned in it nor knew of any right in the governor so peremptorily to demand it they were not inclined to alter their ancient custom ; that his charge of taking extraordi nary or unconstitutianal measures to keep their proceedings a secret from him, was void of any real foundation ; that as to the con struction put by the governor on their con duct, they neither knew nor could guess what it was ; that whatever it was, they had rather it had been spoken plainly, than insinuated, because they might then have known how to justify themselves; that, however, being con scious of firmest loyalty to the crown, and the most upright intentions to the people they re presented, they were not very apprehensive of any great prejudice from such insinuations ; the reflecting on the weight and importance ofthe matters laid before them in the morn ing message, which, moreover, so earnestly pressed them to unanimity and despatch, they could not but be surprised at receiving mes sages of so different a kind in the afternoon, and which could only tend to produce division and delay, &c. — And that, therefore, they humbly entreated the governor to suspend those his irritating accusations and novel de mands tUl a season of more leisure, and that he would permit them to proceed, without any farther interruption, on the business for which he had been pleased to call them together." Not to be diverted, however, from the pur suit he was in by this caution, he sent a let ter to the printers for the assembly (one of whom was a member) forbidding them to pub lish the secretary of state's letters; and or dered his secretary to inspect the journals of the house from the 17th to the 20th of March then current, both inclusive, and to take a copy thereof Upon the former of which measures they resolved, that the said letters had been properly inserted ; that the house had by sufficient reasons shown, that the ex punging those letters was both improper and unnecessary ; that the right of directing what should, or should not be inserted in the minutes of the house, was solely in the house; and that the governor had not, nor could have, any right to interfere therein: and they ordered the printer to proceed with the publication of their minutes as they then stood ; and with regard to the latter, they in formed the governor by message, " that when their minutes should be revised and printed after the end ofthe session according to long continued custom, a fair copy should be pre sented to the governor ; but that till then they hoped the governor would Excuse them if they did not permit any body to inspect them, or any copy of them to be taken." Here this little ruffle ended : and while it was yet subsisting, the governor informed the house, as a secret which he recommended to them to keep so, " that governor Shirley, with the concurrence of his council and assembly, having, among other measures, formed a de sign to buUd a fort near Crown Point, within the limits of his majesty's territories, had sent commissioners to this and other governments, to solicit their contributions to the same un dertaking ; that the said governor had written to him fully upon this head, that he should communicate his letter to them, that they might see what was expected from the pro vince; that Mr. Quincy, his commissioner, was actually arrived, and had made his appli cation to him ; and that he heartUy recom mended it to them to grant the necessary sup plies for that important service." Upon the heels of this, by another message he also informed them of, and congratulated them upon, the arrival ofthe transports, with the forces and artillery destined for the Ame rican service in Virginia; after which he proceeded, as in the last session, to say, " that his majesty's care and affection for his sub jects in America having induced him to so large and seasonable an assistance, for the re covery of those possessions which the French, contrary to the faith of treaties, had seized, they would be greatly wanting to themselves if they neglected the opportunity to frustrate the attempts of that perfidious people ; that to render his majesty's measures effectual, it was expected, that the colonies should raise an additional number offerees, and should furnish ' provisions and all necessaries to those employ- ' ed for their protection ; as they would see by i a letter from the earl of Halifax, and another ' from general Braddock, which were to be laid before them ; that this being so reasonable in itself, he could not doubt its being readUy complied with by all the provinces, in propor tion to their abilities ; and he hoped, that as Pennsylvania was the most interested in the event, they would exert themselves as became the representatives of a province actually in vaded, and having their all depending on the success ofthe present enterprise ; that he earn estly besought them to consider what might be the consequence of their refiisingto grant the necessary supplies, as they might be as sured his majesty would not condescend to 70 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. recommend to them in vain the making pro vision for their own defence, but would doubt less, upon their refusal, be enabled by his par liament to oblige those who reaped the im mediate benefit of such a chargeable protec tion to contribute their proportion of it ; and that if by a disappointment in the articles ex pected to be supplied by them, the great ex pense the nation had been put to for the se curity of these invaluable branches of the British empire, should be rendered unavail able, they could not but think they would justly draw upon themselves the resentment of his majesty, and a British parliament." How unusual soever such language was on such occasions, and how inconsistent soever with the claims and rights of freemen, the as sembly not only stifled their resentments of it, but proceeded the very same day to do all that was required of them with all the alacrity imaginable. Twenty-five thousand pounds was the sum they granted to the king's use : five thousand pounds of it was appropriated for the sum bor rowed for the service at the last sitting ; ten thousand pounds for the purchase of provisions, at the request of the government of Massa chusetts-bay, for victualling their forces ; five thousand pounds, to answer the occasional draughts of general Braddock ; and the re maining five thousand for the maintenance of such Indians as had taken refuge in the pro vince, and other contingent expenses in their votes expressed : and the whole was to be raised by an emission of paper bills to the same amount, and to be sunk by an extension of the excise for ten years. If the other part of the former bill concern ing torn and ragged bills, was mentioned, or at all insisted upon, it could not be carried ; the majority on this occasion resolving, that no provincial consideration of that kind should furnish the least pretence for any obstruction to the general service. Upon the 28th of March, 1755, this bUl was left with the governor, and on the first of the next month he sent them the following message, viz. " Gentlemen, " Your bUl for striking twenty-five thousand pounds, being contrary to his majesty's in structions relating to paper-money, and of the same nature with thebUI I refused my assent to the last sitting of the assembly, I cannot pass it into a law, without a breach of duty to the crown ; and I am concerned you should offer such a bill to me, when you had agreed to submit the dispute between us, upon one of the like kind, to his majesty. " As this is a time of imminent danger, and the forces raised and destined for the service of the colonies must wait the supplies from this province, I again entreat you to fall upon some other meth(S of raising money, that we may not lose this happy opportunity of re covering his majesty's dominions, now invaded by the subjects of the French king, and pre venting their unjust encroachments for the future. " But if these repeated recommendations of so reasonable a supply, shall faU of the desired effect and any ill consequences should at tend it his majesty and his ministers, a Bri tish parliament your own constituents, and the neighbouring governments will be at no loss on whom to lay the blame." This message was also accompanied with - another, dated March 31, in which the go vernor having referred to an accoimt to be given them by his secretary, of several mat ters committed te the care of one Scarroyady, an Indian chief, by the Ohio Indians, made use of it as an additional goad to the assembly, in the manner following : " Gentlemen, " So much depends on the disposition and measures of tlie Indians at this time, that I must earnestly recommend it to you to make provision for the ensuing treaty, as well as to enable me to take proper notice of this chief, who is so hearty in our interest and of the young men he has brought along with him, in order to be employed in some services, which, he says, are of importance to tlie general cause. " It will readily occur to you, that the seve ral western Indians, who wish well to the English interest wait with impatience for the return of this chief, and wUl form their mea sures according to the report which he shall make to them of our treatment of them ; for which reason, it wUI be of the last conse quence, that this chief, and these young men. go from us well clotlied, and perfectly well pleased." On the same day also, Mr. Quincy, com missioner to the province from the govern ment of Massachusetts-bay, presented a me morial to the assembly, which containing an unquestionable testimonial in tlieir favour, de serves to be inserted entire as follows, viz. " Gentlemen, " I am extremely sorry to find, that not withstanding all tlie motives and arguments I was able to offer his honour the lieutenant- governor, he did not see his way clear to give his consent to tlie money-bill you have laid before him. " The cheerfulness with which you therein granted ten thousand pounds, for victualling the forces intended to march from New Eng land to secure his majesty's territories, leaves me no room to doubt your zeal for his ma jesty's service, or your hearty concurrence with the government I have the honour to re present, in tlie measures now proposed for our common safety ; and therefore, though you are unhappUy disappointed in the manner of PENNSYLVANIA. 71 your grant, I flatter myself you will not faU to find some other means of rendering it effec tual. " The advantages which a speedy and vi gorous execution of those measures promises to all the colonies, and the mischiefs which a neglect of them will entail upon us and our posterity, are clearly pointed out, and fully illustrated in the papers which have been the subject of your late deliberations. " In rendering this important service to the crown, to the British nation, and to their fel low-subjects in the other governments. New England offers to spend her treasure as freely as her blood, and, were her abilities equal to her zeal, would as cheerfully bear the whole ex pense, as she undertakes the whole hazard of the enterprise. But the vast yearly charge she is subjected to, by her vicinity to the French, and the necessity of defending so ex tensive a frontier from the incursions of those perfidious people, and their Indians, both in time of peace and war, has so exhausted her finances, and burdened her with such a load of debt that, without the assistance of the neighbouring more wealthy colonies, she must drop the design, however promising and glorious, as utterly impracticable. " Happy will your province be, gentlemen, if you can stUl keep those dangerous people at a distance from your borders, by which you will be free from the many mischiefs we have always suffered by their neighbourhood. " The opportunity is now offered you, and, if embraced, will, by the blessing of God, se cure your future peace and prosperity. But whatever you do, should be determined in stantly, for the season flies, and the delay may oe as pernicious as a refusal. " I have just received advice, that Connec ticut has voted fifteen hundred men, and that even the little government of Rhode Island has granted four hundred, the expense of which will be more than is asked of you. New York seems heartUy disposed to do her part ; and there is reason to think that your good ex ample may have an advantageous influence on your neighbours of New Jersey. " I need say no more to urge you to a speedy and effectual resolution, but conclude, with the utmost respect gentlemen. Yours, &c." The rest of the day was spent in debates, as it was natural it should ; but on the morrow they resolved to raise fifteen thousand pounds on the credit of the province, in the manner they had done before ; that is to say, five thou sand pounds to repay the sum so before bor rowed for victualling the king's troops, and ten thousand pounds to answer the request of the Massachusetts government, so earnestly en forced by Mr. Quincy. Thus, one would think, they had done all that couldbe reasonably required of men : they had dropt the particular concern of the pro vince ; they had overlooked whatever was of^ fensive in the governor's messages and beha viour to them, they had forborne all altercation thereon ; and Mr. Quuicy, on behalf of the go vernment he represented, presented them such a paper of acknowledgment as abundantly ve rifies all that is here said of them, to wit : " Sir, — The sum which this honourable assembly has granted to his majesty's use, and appropriated for victualling the troops intend ed to be marched for securing his majesty's territories, is an instance of your concern and zeal for the public safety, which I doubt not will be highly acceptable to his majesty. And as it was made in consequence of my applica tion to you, I beg leave to return you my grateful sense and acknowledgment ; and to assure you, in the name andbehalf of the go vernment I have the honour to represent, that it will be duly applied to the purposes for which it was granted." The governor, however, dissatisfied still, because disappointed and defeated, first evad ed the assembly's demand of the restitution of their bill according to custom, and then re fused it, saying, " That it was a bill of so ex traordinary a nature, that he thought it his duty to lay it before his majesty, and should keep it for that purpose." He also informed them by message of intel ligence he had received, that the French had fitted out fifteen saU of the line, with which they were sending out six thousand land forces, and that the king's ministers were not in the secret of their destination ; yet as they were bound for America, and could not be ig norant that Pennsylvania was both a plenti- fiil and defenceless country, he thought it his duty to call upon them to enable him to put it into a posture of defence, by establishing a regular militia, and providing the necessary stores of war. This message was dated April 3d, and yet on the 8th following he advised them to make a short adjournment, because he was to receive the governors Shirley and De Lancey, that evening, and was to accompany them to An napolis, there to confer with general Braddock, and the governors Sharpe of Maryland, and Dinwiddle of Virginia ; after which, it was probable, he should have several matters to lay before the assembly ; but, as a parting stroke, he called upon them to make some pro vision for Scarroyady, before mentioned, and his young men, which they did — not without some wholesome hints, that they had been long enough already a charge to the province ; that there were proper lands where, and it was a proper season when, they might both hunt, and plant their ^orn, by which they might provide for themselves ; and that as to the Indian treaty they had been required to make provision for, the governor could not expect they could come to any immediate resolution. 72 FRANKUN'S WORKS. tUl they had received the necessary informa tion concerning it It was in this manner they parted. The adjournment they made was only to the 12th of May, and yet the governor both complain ed of that term as too long, and said he should call them sooner if there was occasion. When they met, they gave the governor notice as usual, and that they were ready to receive whatever he had to lay before them. The governor's answer was, that he bad nothing to lay before them at present but the German bill ; a bill, that is to say, recommended by the governor himself, from the notorious necessity of it for preventing the importation of Ger man or other passengers or servants in too great numbers in one vessel, and for prevent ing the spreading of contagious distempers, imported by or together with them, &c. This had been prepared by the house at their last sitting, and sent up to the governor ; had been returned with amendments by him ; some of these amendments had been adopted : and then the bill had been again sent up, with a desire from the house, that the governor would be pleased to pass the same as it then stood. This he had not been pleased to do, but on the contrary had referred it to the consideration of his council, by whose advice he had been determined to adhere to his amendments ; un der which declaration it was now again sent down to the house ; who having appointed a committee to draw up a message to the go vernor, representing the inconveniences to be apprehended from the said amendments, and agreed to that message, on the report of the same, came to a resolution of adjourning on the morrow to the first of September. To say this message was of the most pa thetic, rational, and interesting kind, is to say the least that can be said of it : it explained the evU to be remedied, and the consequences to be apprehended from a continuance of it, in the most affecting terms ; it demonstrated, that the amendments insisted upon by the go vernor were calculated to deprive it of all its vigour and utility ; that in effect the province was to be as much exposed to the same nui sances and dangers as ever ; and what gave the most offence of all, by the following para graph the inhabitants were led to the very source of so crying a grievance. " By our charters, and the laws of this pro vince, the whole legislative power is vested in the governor and the representatives of the people ; and as we know of no other negative upon our bills but what the governor himself has, we could wish he had been pleased to have exercised his own judgment upon this our bill, without referring the consideration of it to a committee of his councU, most of them such, as we are informed, who are, or have lately been, concerned in the importa tions, the abuses of which this bUl was design ed to regulate and redress." Now, whichever party was in the right, can it be said, that the king, or the supply for his service, or any one of the points in the preceding session agitated, had any concern in the rise, progress, or issue of this contro versy 1 has it not been already observed, to the honour of the assembly, how cautiously and prudently they had avoided whatever could tend to widen the breach on any of these heads 1 is it not fresh before us, that even for want of provocation, the governor himself was forced both to part with them, and meet them again in peace. And yet having declared as we have seen, that he had nothing to commu nicate to them, consequently nothing to ask of them, other than what related to tliis Ger man bill ; did he take the hint from hence to treat them by message in the following ex traordinary manner, viz. " Gentlemen, " When I summoned you together on the 17th of March last, I was in hopes you would bring with you inclinations to promote the public service, by granting the supplies ex pected by the crown, and by putting this pro vince into a posture of defence; but I am sorry to find, that neither the danger to which this country stands exposed, nor his majesty's repeated and affectionate calls, have had any weight with you. " The bill you sent me for striking twenty- five thousand pounds, was of a more extraor dinary nature than that I refused my assent to in the winter sessions, as it gave general Braddock a power over no more than five thousand pounds, and subjected the remaining twenty thousand, and all the surplus of the excise, for eleven years to come, to the dis position of some ofthe members of your house, and to the assembly for the time being. " The offering money in a way, and upon terms that you very well knew 1 could not, consistent with my duty to the crown, con sent to, is, in my opinion, trifling with the king's commands, and amounts to a refusal to give at all ; and I am satisfied wUl be seen in this light by my superiors ; who, by your bUl above-mentioned, which I shall lay be fore them, and by the whole of your conduct since you have been made acquainted with the designs of the French, wUl be convinced, that your resolutions are, and have been, to take advantage of your country's danger, to aggrandize and render permanent your own power and authority, and to destroy that of the crown. That it is for this purpose, and to promote your scheme of future independency, you are grasping at the disposition of all pub lic money, and at the power of filling all the offices of government especially those of the revenue ; and when his majesty and the na- PENNSYLVANIA. 73 tion are at the expense of sending troops for the protection of these colonies, you refuse to furnish them with provisions and necessary carriages, though your country is full of both; unless you can, at the same time, encroach upon the rights of the crown, and increase your own power, already too great for a branch of a subordinate and dependent go vernment, so remote from the principal seat of power. " You have, gentlemen, by a vote of your own house, without the consent of the go vernment, impowered a committee of your members to borrow money upon the credit of the assembly, and to dispose of the same to certain uses in that vote mentioned. You have also, by votes and resolves of your own house, created bills or notes of credit made payable to the bearers thereof, to the amount of fifteen thousand pounds, which you have issued in lieu of money, and they are now circulating in this province, without the ap probation of the government You have de nied me access to your journals, and refused me copies of your minutes. And you have printed and published the secretary of state's letters to me signifying his majesty's com mands, not only without my consent, but con trary to an order I had issued to the printers, expressly forbidding the publication of those letters. " Whether you have a right to the exercise of such extraordinary powers, his majesty and his ministers will judge, before whom it is my duty to lay your proceedings as soon as I can come at them, and to whom they will appear the more dangerous, as neither they nor you can know but a future assembly may use those powers against the government by which they are protected. " WhUe I had any the most distant hopes of your coming into measures that might pro mote the public service at this critical con juncture, I suffered some parts of your con duct to remain unobserved upon ; but as I am now convinced, from the whole tenor of your behaviour, and from your message of yester day, notifyuig your intentions to adjourn till September next, without granting the neces sary supplies, that you have no design to con tribute any thing towards the defence of this country, I thought it right to be no longer sUent upon those heads. " Gentlemen, when the bill to prevent the importation of the Germans, &c. was under my consideration, I took such advice upon it, and made such amendments to it, as I thought would best answer the public purposes, and put that trade upon such a footing as to pre vent the many abuses that had been practised in it, and at the same time secure this city and province against the coming in and spreading of infectious distempers. How far the bill, as proposed by you, or amended by me, would. Vol. Tf Tf 1 or would not, have answered those ends, was a matter proper to be considered at a confer- once, which you might have desired if you had thought proper, as it is the only means of bringing a bill to perfection, when the branches of the legislature diff'er in opinion concerning any amendments proposed to it ; but instead thereof, you have sent me a mes sage filled with unjust reflections upon the amendments proposed by me, and plainly de signed to represent me, as havmg no regard for the health or safety of the inhabitants of this country ; in doing which, I cannot think you have paid a proper regard to truth. How ever, as it is not my intention to enter into a controversy with you upon that bill, which might have been agreed upon between us, had the usual method of proceeding in such cases been pursued by you, I shall say nothing more upon the head, especially as this matter seems purposely chosen to lead me and the public from considering that part of your conduct that must, in its consequences, most nearly affect the inhabitants of this province." It is in every reader's power to confute every article of this message from the mate rials before him, though not to account ftr the governor's reasons for so unseasonably ex posing himself; but as we have heard one party, 'tis fit we should hear the- other, and if they have been guilty of any partiality, or failed in any point of justice to themselves, let him supply the defect or correct the error that finds himself qualified so to do. The piece that ensues was their answer. To wit : " May it please the Governor, " When we met, in obedience to the go vernor's summons, on the 17th of March last, we really brought with us the sincerest in clinations to promote the public service, by granting the supplies expected by the crown ; and we trust it will appear to all who impar tially examine the proceedings of that session, that we did every thing in our power, as our affairs were then circumstanced ; and conse quently that the danger to which this country stood exposed, and his majesty's repeated and affectionate calls, had great weight with us, whatever they had with the governor. " The bUl we sent up, for striking the sum of twenty-five thousands pounds, and giving the same to the king's use, and for providing a fund to sink it, had nothing extraordinary in its nature, or differing from other bills here tofore passed or presented for like purposes in this province, excepting that the sum given was extraordinary, compared with the time proposed for sinking it ; the sum for the Ca nada expedition, in the last war, being but five thousand pounds, to be sunk in ten years, and this sum, though five times greater, was to be sunk by the same fund, in the same number of years. In the bill five thousand 74 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. pounds of the sum was appropriated to pay for provisions bought and given for the use of the forces in Virginia, under general Brad dock ; ten thousand pounds more was given to buy provisions for the New England forces under his command ; five thousand pounds more was subjected to his order, and to be disposed of for the king's service as he should think fit; and the remaining five thousand pounds was appropriated for the subsistence of Indians taldng refuge in this province, payment of posts or expresses, hire of car riages, clearing of roads, and other necessary contingent expenses for the king's service, as might be incumbent on this government to discharge. Thus the whole twenty-five thousand pounds was appropriated to the king's service ; and almost all of it to the im mediate use of general Braddock, or to such purposes as were by him especially recom mended in his letters, laid before the house by the governor. The members of the house, mentioned by the governor, were to have no share in the disposition of it ; it was disposed of by the bill, and they could only have the trouble of laying it out according to the ap propriation, and keeping the accounts. This is truth, and well known to the governor, if he perused our bill with any degree of atten tion ; yet how differently is it represented in the governor's message ! it is called only, ' a bill for striking twenty-five thousand pounds ;' which is but a part of the title, the words, ' and for giving the same to the king's use,' being (as it would seem) carefully omitted, lest they might mUitate against the assertion which immediately follows, that, 'twenty thousand pounds of it was suhjected to the dis position of some members ofthe house, and of the assembly for the time being.' Then it is said, ' it gave general Braddock a power over no more than five thousand pounds,' be cause it gave him a power to draw for, and appropriate as he pleased, no more than that sum, though all the twenty-five thousand pounds (except a small part for the support of Indian refugees, which is likewise for the king's service) was appropriated for his, and his army's use, or services by him required ; and we cannot learn that any other colony besides, hath given, or offered to give, that gentleman a power over as many pence. Great subtilty and dexterity appear in this manner of disguising truths, and changing ap pearances, but we see in it very little candour and ingenuity. " In the next paragraph of the governor's message, there are many assertions in which we think we are equally misrepresented ; we are charged with ' offering money in a way, and upon terms which we knew the governor could not, consistent with his duty to the crown, consent to.' We really thought, and still think, it was inconsistent with his duty to the crown to refuse it ; if we are mistaken, 'tis an error in judgipent ; we have appealed to our gracious king on this head, and we hope for a favourable determination. We are charged with ' trifling with the king's com mands, and refusing to give at all,' though we have actually given great sums in obedi ence to those commands, and earnestly en deavoured to give much greater, which the governor refused, unless we would give in a manner which we think inconsistent with our present just liberties and privUeges, held un der the royal charter. We are charged with ' resolving to aggrandize our own power, and destroy that of the crown ;' a charge as we conceive, utterly groundless, and for which we have never given the least foundation. We are charged with a ' scheme of inde pendency.' We have no such scheme, nor ever had ; nor do we, as a part of the legis lature, desire any independency but what the constitution authorises, which gives us a right to judge for ourselves and our constituents, ofthe utUity and propriety of laws, or modes of laws, about to be made ; and does not yet, and we confide never will, oblige us to make laws by di rection. We are charged with grasping at the disposition of aU public money, and at the power of filling all the offices of government : a charge, as we conceive, equally groundless and invidious ; we have, by law, a right to dispose of some public money, and we cannot be properly said to grasp at what we are in possession of; that part of the public money, which the governor receives, arising by li censes, &c. great as it is, he disposes of as he pleases, and we have never attempted to in terfere in it ; nor can one instance be given of our attempting to fill any office, which we are not by some express law impowered to fill. But the heaviest charge of this para graph concludes it ; the governor is pleased to say, ' when his majesty and the nation are at the expense of sending troops for the pro tection of these colonies, you refuse to furnish them witli provisions and necessary carriages, though your country is full of both ; unless you can at the same time encroach upon the rights of the crown.' This charge is really amazing ! it requires, however, no other an swer, than a simple relation of fact In the same session, and as soon as it appeared there was no hope of obtaining the bUl for givmg twenty thousand pounds to the kmg's use, and many weeks before tlie forces arrived, we voted and gave five thousand pounds to pur chase provisions and other necessaries for those forces; tliese provisions were accordingly bought, and are sent to Virginia, being the full quantity required of us : we have since given ten thousand pounds to purchase pro visions for the New-England forces ; it was given as soon as requested, and before the troops were raised ; those provisions are most PENNSYLVANIA. 75 of them actually purchased, great part sent away, and all will probably be at the place ap- pohited before they are wanted. We gave not a pound of provision less than was asked of us, and all the carriages required of us have been furnished. This has been done with the greatest readiness and alacrity, and done, we conceive, without the least encroachment on the rights of the crown, unless 'borrowing money on our own credit' (which we thought even every private man had a right to do, if he had any credit) be indeed such an encroach ment "Indeed the next paragraph begins with charging this upon us as a crime, 'you have, the governor is pleased to say, by a vote of your own house, without the consent of the government, impowered a committee of your members to borrow money upon the credit of the assembly, and to dispose of the same to certain uses in that vote mentioned.' By this caution in expressing the uses, a stranger might imagine, that they were wicked, if not treasonable uses, and that the governor, out of mere tenderness for his people, forbore to ex plain them ; but the uses mentioned in the votes, are, to purchase fresh victuals, and other necessaries, for the use of the king's troops at their arrival ; and to purchase and transport provisions requested by the govern ment of the Massachusetts-bay, to victual the forces about to march for securing his majes ty's territories. These are the uses, in the votes mentioned, and the only uses ; and we can conceive no reason for touching them so gently by the name of certain uses, unless the governor thought, that being more explicit on the uses, might seem to lessen, in some de gree, the heinous crime of borrowing money on our own credit. " The governor is pleased to add, ' you have also, by votes and resolves, of your own house, created bills, or notes of credit, made payable to the bearers thereof, to the amount of fifteen thousand pounds, which you have issued in lieu of money, and they are now cir culating in this province, without the appro bation of the government.' This charge, we presume, will, like the rest, vanish on a little explanation. By the laws of this pro vince now in force, and which have received the royal assent, the disposition of the interest- money, and excise, is vested in the assembly for the time being : out of this revenue the assemblies have, from time to time, defrayed the charges of government. The constant method of payment was always this ; when an account against the public was allowed, or any expense for public service agreed to, an order issued, drawn on the treasurer, or trus tees of the loan-office, and signed by the speaker, or the clerk, by order of the house. As these orders were generally paid on sight, they naturally obtained some credit, and some times passed through several hands before payment was demanded. At the last settle ment ofthe public accounts, it appeared, that a considerable sum of this interest and excise- money, over which the assembly alone had a legal power, ought to be in the hands of the treasurer and trustees. The governor him self was pleased to point this money out to us, to compute the sum, and urge the house to make use of it, when in January last he re fused their bill for giving twenty-five thou sand pounds to the king's use. The house alleged, and truly, that the money was out standing in many hands, and could not sud denly be collected, without distressing and ruining the people. However, on the credit of this fund, we voted the first five thousand pounds for provisions, and ordered the money to be borrowed on interest. And at the last sitting, when the governor refused to pass our bill for giving twenty-five thousand pounds to the king's use, he may be pleased to remem ber, that he sent us down a message in which, after the reason given for not passing the bill, there are these words : ' As this is a time of imminent danger, and the forces raised and destined for the service ofthe colonies, must wait the supplies from this province, I again entreat you to fall upon some other method of raising money, that we may not lose this happy opportunity of recovering his majesty's dominions now invaded by the French king.' The house accordingly fell on this other me thod : they gave ten thousand pounds of the money in their power to the king's use ; they appointed a committee to purchase the pro visions required, and impowered them to draw for the sum on the treasurer or trustees of the loan-office, as had been usual ; with this only difference, that as former draughts were payable on sight, and therefore bore no in terest, these being payable in a year, were to bear interest ; and in the mean time the out standing money was ordered to be got in, that the draughts might be punctually discharged. Monied men, knowing the goodness of the fund, and confiding in the justice and punc tuality of the assembly, which has always honourably discharged the public debts, have voluntarily furnished the committee with cash for these draughts, which they have laid by in their chests to receive in time the interest. Thus the kng's forces have been expeditiously supplied, the people have time to pay off their debts to the public, and no one is oppressed, distressed, or injured ; nor is any encroach ment made on the powers of government, or any thing done that has not been usual, or which the assembly are not by law impowered to do. Yet this is" what the governor repre sents as ' creating bUls of credit, and issuing them in lieu of money, without the approba tion of the government ;' by which, persons unacquainted with the fact, might understand 76 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. we had been making paper-money, and issuing it on loan, or in some other manner, to produce an advantage to ourselves, and attempted to make it a legal tender without the governor's assent, &c. all which is mere misrepresenta tion or misapprehension, as will appear by the resolves themselves, to which we beg leave to refer. After this explanation of our conduct we believe it wUl clearly appear, that the governor's insinuation, as if we had used powers dangerous to the government, is as groundless as it is unkind. " The other charges, of ' denying the go vernor access to our journals, and printing the secretary of state's letters,' having been made and answered in former messages be tween the governor and the house, we think it unnecessary to take any further notice of them here. But we are surprised to find, that after having effectually given fifteen thousand pounds, in provisions and other ne cessaries for the king's forces, maintained at so great an expense our Indian allies, esta blished a constant regular post through two hundred miles of country, merely for the ser vice of the army, and advanced a considerable sum to make a long and chargeable road through the wilderness and mountains to the Ohio, for the use of the kmg's forces, the whole expense of which we have engaged to defray, we should still be flatly told by the go vernor, - ' That he is convinced from the whole tenor of our behaviour, that we have no de sign to contribute any thing towards the de fence of this country.' " The governor is pleased further to censure us, for not desiring a conference on the bill to prevent the importation of Germans, or other passengers, in too great numbers in one ship or vessel, and to prevent the spreading of con tagious distempers, &c. We own that it is sometimes practised, when the governor and assembly differ in judgment concerning a bill, to request a conference, if there be any hope by such a conference to obtain an agreement ; but we being, from many circumstances at tending the bill, without such hope at pre sent, contented ourselves with laying before the governor, in a message, our reasons for not agreeing to his proposed amendments, and submitted those reasons to his consider ation; the bill may still be resumed, and a conference entered into at a future session, if there should be any prospect of success. If our proceeding was irregular, which we think it was not, the governor may be pleased tore- member, he himself set us a more irregular example at our last sitting, when we present ed him the bill for granting twenty-five thou sand pounds to the king's use ; for he neither proposed ,any amendment nor desired any conference, nor would return us our bill (when we expressly sent for it to be reconsidered) according to the constant custom in this go vernment, but only acquainted us, that, ' it being a bUl of a very extraordinary nature, he would send it home to the ministry,' which we hope he has accordingly done, as we be lieve it will be found, however the governor may have misapprehended it, to have nothing extraordinary in its nature, or inconsistent with our duty to the crown, or assuming more than our just rights and privileges. " On the whole, while we find the governor transforming our best actions into crimes, and endeavouring to render the inhabitants of Pennsylvania odious to our gracious sovereign and his ministers, to the British nation, to all the neighbouring colonies, and to the army that is come to protect us ; we cannot look up on him as a friend to this country. We are plain people, unpractised in the sleights and artifices of controversy, and have no joy in disputation. We wish the governor of the same disposition : and when he shall, as we hope he wiU, on better consideration, alter his conduct towards us, and thereby convince us that he means well to the province, we may then be able to transact the public business together with comfort both to him and our selves ; of which till then we have small ex pectation." Such was the language of liberty, truth, and candour — we feel the force of it — we can not resist its authority ! and if the governor had the mortification to find they had ordered both his message and their answer to be printed in their gazettes, he had also the plea sure to find himself excused for the present by their adjournment from the impossible task, of constructing such a reply as the pressure of this case required. Perhaps they thought the absurdity he had fallen into, by charging them with a resolu tion to take advantage of their country's dan ger, to aggrandize and render permanent their own power and authority, too glaring to need any comment. Perhaps they did not think it proper to retort, that the inhabitants of a colo ny, so remote from the principal seat of em pire, had abundantly more to apprehend from an excess of power in their governor, than tlie governor could possibly have from a like ex cess in their representatives ; the executive, as before observed, being a single principle always in force, and the legislative composed of two co-equal principles, which must always tally, or can no otlierwise operate, than by re straining and controlling the operations of each other, as in the case before us ; and, per haps, tliey had not the resolution of the house of commons of July 2, 1678, in sight at that time, which was as follows, viz. " That all aids and supplies granted to his majesty in parliament are the sole gift of the commons ; that all biUs for the granting any such aids and supplies ought to begm wim tlie commons ; and that it is the undoubted and PENNSYLVANIA. 77 sole right ofthe commons to direct, limit, and appomt in such bills, the ends, purposes, con siderations, conditions, limitations, and quali fications, of such grants, which ought not to be changed by the house of lords." To say nothing of certain remarkable provisions of theirs m the year 1678 (which, in a course of conferences with the lords, they adhered to) to appoint a receiver of their own for the ad ministration of the money then granted for the payment and disbanding of the army, and the payment of the same into the chamber of London, instead ofthe exchequer. Their adjournment was to the first of Sep tember ; but they were assembled by special summons on the 13th of June ; and the first minute on their books of public note is, one, to specify the approbation given by the lords jus tices to governor Thomas's act for granting five thousand pounds out of bills of credit for the kmg's use. The date of this approbation is October 9, 1748, so that it was subsequent to the king's instruction so pertinaciously in sisted upon ; and having, either by some acci dent or neglect been overlooked thus long, the governor, as we have seen, had in the Decem ber before taken the advantage to express himself thus hardUy to the assembly : " Colo nel Thomas's conduct is no rule to me, nor will mine be for any one that may succeed me; and if we may judge from his not trans mitting that act to England, we may presume, that he did not look upon that particular as the most recommendatory part of his administra tion. It is true, he was never censured for it ; and, indeed, how could he, as the transaction was never made known to his majesty or his ministers." And the next minute that follows this, con cerning the said approbation, notifies. That sundry letters from sir Peter Halket and colonel Dunbar were then read, acknow ledging the receipt of certain presents from the house to the officers of their respective re giments, of the most considerate and accept able kind, and returning thanks for the same. The reason of this summons assigned by the governor in his message was to this effect, "That general Braddock having begun his march towards fort Du Quesne, had repre sented to him, ' That in case he should reduce that fort, his intentions were to leave a garri son, with all the guns, stores, &c. he should find in it ; that in case the French should abandon and destroy the fortifications, &c. as he had reason to apprehend they would, he should then repair it, or construct some place of defence ; but that in either case, as the ar tillery, stores, &c. he had with him would be absolutely necessary for the prosecution of his plan, he was determined to leave none of them behind him, and e.xpected to have all his wants of that kind, as well as provisions for his garri son, supplied by the governments of Virginia, 7* Maryland, and Pennsylvania ; and, that he might not be delayed in his operations, those things might be immediately forwarded to him under proper convoys ;' adding, that the said general had lately received intelligence, which he had communicated to him, that the French, together with their Indians, intended, as soon as the army was ftr advanced, to fall upon the back country ; and that, tliough the general thought it a bravado, he also thought it advise- able to take all possible precautions against it ; that he had called them together upon this application and intelligence ; that he had re commended it to them, to enable him to furnish such ofthe things demanded as were proper for the province, and to conduct them to the places where they would be wanted, which could not be well done without a strong guard ; as also by a militia or otherwise, to protect the said back country against the incursions of the enemy ; that, upon the receipt ofthe general's letter, he had written to the governors of Vir ginia and Maryland, to know what shares of these supplies their governments would re spectively furnish ; that he needed not inforce the point by any other arguments, than that fort Du Quesne was within their province, and that the great expense the nation was at on this occasion would be thrown away, his ma jesty's intentions rendered abortive, ^nd his arms dishonoured, if the countries the said general should recover were left in such a naked condition, that the French might take possession of them again, as soon as the army should be withdrawn, &c. A very little skill in political matters would have shown those concerned, that there was rather more management concealed under this speech than was strictly necessary, and put them on their guard accordingly. The assembly of Pennsylvania had some wisdom as well as much plainness ; and there fore, by way of preliminary, desired to have the letter in their custody, which was to be the ground of their proceedings. The governor hesitated : said it contained many matters not proper to be made public ; that it would not be safe, therefore, unless the house would previously promise him it should not be printed ; but however, he would show it to a committee, if the house would appoint one for that purpose. The house on the other hand, renewed their request in writing, alleged that it had always been the custom, when assemblies were called together on occasion of letters received, to communicate those letters ; that giving a committee a sight of letters, on which any important step was to be taken, did not seem sufficient ; but that the letters should lie be- , fore the house to be read as often as necessary to the right understanding ofthe matters they contained or required; that the governor might safely put his trust in the prudence of the house ; in fine, they would hear of no al- 78 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. ternative, since the importance of the contents of that letter had been urged as the reason for calling them together at so unseasonable a time of the year ; and, as they could not take the letter into consideration without seeing it, they hoped he would not by starting new methods of proceeding, and engaging them in trivial disputes, any longer obstruct or delay the public service. This was done the sixteenth. The next day, instead of an answer, the governor sent them down a brace of new messages. One in the morning, giving them to understand, " That the roads they had ordered to be made to the Ohio would be attended with a much greater expense than was at first imagined ; that the money sent to the commissaries was already spent ; that more was wanting ; and, that the general having discharged the sol diers' wives out ofthe army, with a stoppage of one shilling sterling a week out of their husband's pay for their subsistence, it would become the compassion of the province to supply what would be farther necessary for that purpose ;" and another in the afternoon, containing more intelligence. Intelligence he himself had now received, and had for warded to the general : namely, that several bodies of troops had passed from Canada over the lake Ontario in their way to the Ohio, to join the forces already there ; that the French were doing their utmost to engage the Indians on their side ; and, rather than faU, were de termined to oppose general Bi-addock with the whole force of Canada. Containing also a repetition of what in effect he had said before concerning the back country ; heightened with some new apprehensions, that when the troops were removed, the enemy might either cut off or greatly interrupt their communica tion with the province, which might be every way attended with fatal consequences. And all was made use of to authorize a fresh de mand for a mUitia-law, and a new demand for a supply to enable him to buUd strong houses on the new road to the Ohio, and to maintain such a number of men as should be necessary to keep the communication between the pro vince and the army open, escort provisions, stores, &c. that the general might neither be forced to weaken his army by making detach ments from it, nor expose those detachments to be surprised and cut off; and that he might occasionally make use of them as auxiliaries too, in case the numbers brought against him should make such a reinforcement necessary ; and (after having rung all the changes that such a medley of demands and suggestions in such hands was capable or) making the province answerable, as usual, in case of non-compli ance, for all mischiefs. On the 21st, however, when the house (having taken into consideration, that the fif teen thousand pounds given to the king's use in the preceding April, and paid out ofthe mo ney in the disposition ofthe house, which was almost exhausted, could not answer all the pur poses intended by the bill for granting twenty- five thousand pounds to which the governor re fused his assent) had already prepared two money-bills, one for striking ten thousand pounds for the exchange of defaced bUls, and one of fifteen thousand pounds more for the king's use, the governor's answer concerning general Braddock's letter came ; and therein he asserted, that the governor for the tune be ing had a right to call the assembly together whenever he thought the public service re quired it ; that his speeches or messages were a sufficient foundation for them to proceed upon ; that they having, by the plenitude of their own power, not only given their orders to the printers to proceed with the publica tion of the secretary of state's letters, in con tradiction to his to the contrary, but also claimed a right of doing the same by any other papers laid before them, they could not be at a loss for the reason of his caution on the present occasion ; that he being answer able for every secret of state that should be communicated to him for the king's service, and by the nature of his station the sole and only judge what letters and papers were proper to be made public, did expect a pro mise of secresy from the house, either verbal or otherwise, or something tantamount to it ; and that otherwise he should not communi cate it And, on the twenty-sixth following, the as sembly returned their answer. In the opening of which, having admitted the governor's right or power to call them togetlier, they, never theless, insist on the usual manner of exercis ing it ; that is to say, with a proper regard to the convenience of the members at their har vest, and to despatch, when necessarUy sum moned at that or other unseasonable tunes, for the sake of keeping up a good understand ing between the governor and them. " But" said they, " should our governors consider this power, as a power of bringmg us toge-' ther at a great expense to the country, merely to show their abUities in contriving new modes, or making new demands upon the peo ple, to obstruct the ends of their meeting, we apprehend it will answer no valuable purpose." That his speeches and messages were a suffi cient foundation for them to proceed upon, they also admitted to be occasionally true ; but then they were of opinion, on the contrary, that when his writs of summons were founded on letters or advices, referred to in his said speeches and messages, they had a right to have theoriginalpaperslaid before them; and they averred this had ever been the practice in their province ; so that a different conduct at that time could only tend to obstruct the public business before them. " If governors," PENNSYLVANIA. 79 they fartlier intimated, " might differ m their modes of conducting themselves, according to the different reasons for choosing them or pur poses to be served by them, it became the peo ple nevertheless to be consistent with them selves at all times, which could never be if they did not make original papers the rule of their proceeding. The objection drawn from their printing the secretary of state's letter, so often recurred to by the governor, though so fully confuted, they would not allow to be of any weight unless he could show, their print ing it had discovered any of his majesty's de signs and commands, with respect to the French, not more generally known before by his own messages, the public prints, and the speeches of other governors ; especially as it had been communicated without any caution, and had been printed before this objection of his was known. Answerable for every secret of state communicated to him by his superiors as such, they seemed wiUing to aUow ; but such as he was enjoined to lay before the as sembly, they contended, were so to be laid before them, and they were to be responsible for the use made of them afterwards. And as to his sole and only power of judging what papers were fit, and what not, to be laid be fore the public, they so far disputed it, as to except such papers as were necessary for their justification, which, they presumed, were sub ject to the decisions of their own prudence only, wherein they were assured he might very safely confide." "The more trivial this dispute may appear, the more apparent becomes that spirit of per verseness which the proprietaries had let loose, to keep the province in a perpetual broil ; till, weary of the conflict, they should grow tame by degrees, and at last crouch, like the camel, to take up what load, and carry it what length of way, their drivers pleased. On the said 21st of June, when the go vernor's litigious message thus answered came down, the house sent up their two money-bills with a message, importing, that the several services, by them enumerated, having almost exhausted their treasury, they had sent up a new bill to give the additional sum of fifteen thousand pounds for those purposes ; in which bill, said they (for the rest of the message shall be given in their own words) " We have carefully followed the act passed by governor Thomas, in 1746, for granting five thousand pounds for the king's use, and the other acts relating to our bUls of credit, confirmed by the crown on the twenty-ninth of October, 1748 ; from which acts so confirmed, the enacting clauses, so far as they could be made agree able to our present circumstances, have been inserted in this bill, that every objection aris ing from the royal instruction to colonel Thomas, in 1740, might be obviated by a di rect decision of the highest authority. And as that confirmation of our acts, which we presume wUl have its due weight with our governor, may be more certainly known to him than it appears to have hitherto been, we take the liberty of sending him the original confirmation. "We have only to entreat the governor would be pleased to give this bill all the des patch in his power, as our long sitting at this time is in every respect unseasonable, and the presence of many of our members is now absolutely necessary at their homes, for the better security of their harvests under their present calamitous circumstances." To understand what is here meant by the words calamitous circumstances, it is neces sary the reader should be informed, that Pennsylvania having been visited this year with a severe frost and drought, which had obliged the inhabitants in many places to mow their wheat, in order to supply the want of fodder for their cattle, no longer abounded in bread-corn, as it usually does ; and very me lancholy apprehensions began to be entertain ed, that the miseries of scarcity would be su peradded to those of war. From the 21st to the 25th, nevertheless, the governor brooded over the two bUls (viz. the ten thousand pounds bill for exchange, and the fifteen thousand pounds bUl for the king's use,) and then sent down a message acknowledg ing, that many ofthe bills of credit were in a bad condition; but requiring to be first satis fied, how much of the money formerly struck for exchanging bills, and of which three thou sand three hundred and two pounds six shil lings and eight pence was at the last settle ment remaining in the hands of the trustees, was stUl so remaining, before he passed that bill. He wjs answered the same day, that, according to the best computation that could be made, the sum was one thousand three hundred and two pounds six shUlings and eight pence. Before that answer could reach his hands, his secretary was despatched to the house with such amendments to the other, which was the principal bill, as he was, unquestionably, preconvinced the assembly would never comply with. And that this is no uncharitable or unreasonable assertion, is manifest from the whole tenor of his conduct, which was demonstrably such as would have better became a French governor than an English one. The assembly, however, bestowed a pro per time of consideration on those amend ments, and then acquauited him by message, that they adhered to their bill in all its parts ; but accompanied this declaration with a ques tion. Whether he would pass it into a law as it then stood 1 to which he answered first, that he would take it into consideration ^^and finally gave it under his hand, that ho adhered to his amendments, without assigning any 80 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. reasons, desLrmg a conference, or having re course to any other expedient usual on the like occasions. The ten thousand pounds bill for exchang ing torn and defaced money, met with a bet ter fate ; for, after some concessions on both sides, it was passed into a law ; and this was almost the only fruit of a session so unseason ably exacted, and introduced with such extra ordinary demands. They then acquainted the governor by mes sage, that they proposed to adjourn to the first of September then next ensuing ; and the go vernor signified m reply, that he had no objec tion thereto. Notwithstandmg which he summoned them again to meet on the 23d of July ; and they met accordingly, gave him notice thereof as usual, and required a copy of the writs by which they were summoned. His answer was not returned till the next day, and then what he said was to this effect : that he should have laid the business he had for the consider ation of the house before them the day pre ceding, had not the shocking news he had received, prevented his getting it ready time enough ; but that the house should hear from him that morning, and also have the copy of the writ as desired. This shocking news was the strange, un precedented, ignominious defeat of general Braddock ; and what, if possible, is more shocking stUI, this incident which, though so inconsiderable to the whole, struck so much horror through every part, had no other effect on him, than the miracles of Moses had on the heart of Pharaoh. If the exposed condition of the province had before furnished him with topics for levies of money and troops, and for placing an unlimit ed confidence in him their governor, and his first movers the proprietaries, he now thought it would render his eloquence irresistible ; and at all hazards resolved to make the most of it. Fear, though most and enfeebler of any of the passions, has the strongest dominion over us; and whUe we are scarce half of our selves, it is not to be wondered, that we be come the property of any body else. With a face, and a voice, and whatever else was suitable for the practice now to he tried, did the governor now meet the assem bly ; and having despatched his text (the de feat of Braddock) in less than six lines, came at once to use and application in the terms following : " This unfortunate and unexpect ed change in our affairs, will deeply affect every one of his majesty's colonies, but none of them in so sensible a manner as this pro vince, which, having no militia, is thereby left exposed to the cruel incursions of the French and their barbarous Indians, who de light in shedding human blood, and who make no distinction as to age or sex — as to those that are armed against them, or such as they can surprise in their peaceful habitations- all are alike the objects of their cruelty— slaughtermg the tender infant and tlie frights ed mother with equal joy and fierceness. To such enemies, spurred on by the native cru elty of their tempers, encouraged by then- late success, and having now no army to fear, are the inhabitants of this province exposed— and by such must we now expect to he over run, ff we do not immediately prepare for our own defence ; nor ought we to content our selves with this, but resolve to drive and con fine the French to then- own just limits." Here the noble example of the eastern governments (New England) in forcing the enemy to keep a due distance from their bor ders, was recommended and enforced ; and then returning to his main point he again ex patiated thus : " Allow me therefore, gentle men, to recommend to your most serious con sideration the present state and condition of your country, the danger to which the lives and properties of all those you have under taken to represent, stand exposed at this cri tical and melancholy conjuncture ; and to de sire that you would not by any ill-timed par simony, by reviving any matters that have been in dispute, or from any other motive, suffer the people to remain any longer unde fended, or the blood of the innocent to be shed by the cruel hands of savages. There are men enough in this province to protect it against any force the French can bring, and numbers of them are willing and desirous to defend their country upon the present occa sion, but they have neither arms, ammunition, nor discipline, without which it wUl be im possible to repel an active enemy, whose trade is war. I therefore hope, that you wUl, with out delay, grant such supplies as may enable me not only to secure, the people of this pro vince, but by reinforcmg and assisting the king's troops, enable them to remove the French from their present encroachments. "If something very effectual be not done at this time for the safety and security of the province, the enemy, who know how to make the best use of a victory, wUl strengthen themselves in such a manner, tliat it will be next to impossible for us to remove them." In effect, the assembly chose, for this once, to be blind to the artificial part of his speech, and to discharge tlieir own duty in such a manner, as should leave him, even on bis own premises, inexcusable for any failure on his side. On the very next day they granted an aid to the crown of fifty thousand pounds ; and though it is plain by this that they did not want a goad, on the next following, when they had the ways and means of raising this sum . under consideration, the governor, by mes- PENNSYLVANIA. 81 sage, apprised them that colonel Dunbar, with the remainder of the king's forces, had reached fort Cumberland ; and that, as soon as his circumstances would admit, he intend ed to continue his march to Philadelphia ; and that he had laid these matters before them, that they might fall upon measures, as soon as possible, for the protection of the western frontier. But this had not the desired effect ; for the assembly in their reply most rationally suggest ed, that colonel Dunbar's forces might be em ployed on this service ; and requested the governor to make use of his instances accord ingly. This he could not refuse; but the sequel may show how little desirous he was of having the province defended by those forces. The next day, while the house was de bating on the ways and means, among which one was known to be taxing the proprietary estate in proportion with others, a pompous message was sent down, containing an offer on the part of the proprietaries, of one thou sand acres of land, west of the Alleghany mountains, without purchase-money, and for fifteen years clear of quit-rents, to every co lonel who should serve on an expedition from that or the neighbouring provinces against the the French on the Ohio ; seven hundred and fifty to each lieutenant-colonel and major ; five hundred to each captain, four hundred to each lieutenant and ensign, and two hundred to every common soldier ; and requiring the house to affijrd some assistance to such as should accept the same. To make up weight, a letter of intelligence from an Indian trader lately returned from Canada, whither he had fled to avoid being apprehended for kUling a man, was sent along with this message ; and, upon the heels of both, a remonstrance (not a petition) was con jured up, from sundry inhabitants of the city and county of PhUadelphia (emigrants from the famous borough of Totness it must be presumed) and presented to the assembly, containing a submissive conceit, that one hun dred thousand pounds was as small a sum as would answer the present exigency ; and sig nifying the willingness of the presenters to contribute their proportion of the same, or of a larger sum if necessary ; not to insist on sundry petitions from many of the inhabit ants of three townships ; and two more from sundry inhabitants of the county of Chester, who made it their prayer to be furnished with arms and ammunition for defence of their houses and famUies. The assembly, in the mean time, with a degree of composure and steadiness, which in a higher orbit would be called dignity and magnanimity, delivered their sentiments and purposes in one address to the governor, in the following concise but weighty terms: viz. Vol. U t " We have deliberately and seriously con sidered the governor's speech of the twenty- fourth instant, together with the letters and papers he has been pleased to lay before us, by which we find, that the defeat ofthe forces, under the immediate command of general Braddock, and the retreat of colonel Dun bar, to fort Cumberland, are attended with very shocking circumstances; nevertheless, it gives us real satisfaction, under this unfortu nate and unexpected charge in our affairs, that this province has seasonably and cheer fully complied with the demands ofthe king's forces, and that no part of this unhappy de feat can be laid to our charge. " We think it our duty on this occasion to be neither parsimonious nor tenacious of such matters as have been in dispute, and are now under the consideration of our superiors ; but, reserving to ourselves all our just rights, we have resolved to grant fifty thousand pounds for the king's use, by a tax on all the real and personal estates within this province, in which we shall proceed with all possible despatch ; hoping to meet in the governor the same good dispositions he so earnestly recommends to us. " The governor's call of our house at this time is agreeable to us, as it impowers us to exert ourselves yet farther in the service of our country ; and the like opportunity given to the lower counties, under the governor's administration, we doubt not will be accept able to them, and add their contribution to the common cause, before the time to which they stand adjourned." And now a plain, undefining reader would think, that, the danger of the province being so great as the governor had described it, and the disposition of the assembly so sincere to provide for its security, the issue of the ses sion could not but be as happy as the prospect was promising. The very reverse of this, however, happen ed to be the case. The assembly found the proprietaries in possession of an immense es tate, in lands and quit-rents ; this estate was as much endangered as any other estate, and was to be defended in common with the rest ; they did not think the immensity of it gave it any title to any exemption of any kind, and they found no such exemption specified in any of their charters. Proceeding, therefore, by the rules of rea son and equity, as well as policy, they taxed the whole land alike ; and subjected the pro prietaries, as landholders, to a proportional share of all the claims and impositions, which their deputy would have exempted them from as governors in chief, and was so strenuous for imposing on the people alone; and this one bitter ingredient was mors in olla, death in the pot The burdens laid by the proprie taries, or by proprietary power on the pro vince, could not be too heavy ; but they them- 82 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. selves would not charge a finger with the least part of the weight of them. On the same day that the bUl was sent up, it was returned with such amendments, as en tirely exonerated the whole proprietary estate ; and the following message was immediately prepared by the assembly, and despatched to the governor, to wit : " May it please the Governor, " The taxing of the proprietary estate with the estates of the people of the province, for their common security in this time of immi nent danger, seems to us so perfectly equita ble and just, that we are surprised the govern or should propose it as an amendment to our bUl,* that the proprietary estate be in this in stance exempted. " As the occasion urges, we are extremely desirous to come as soon as possible to a con clusion in the business of this sitting ; and do therefore entreat the governor would he pleas ed to acquaint us explicitly, whether he is re stricted by the proprietaries from passing the bUl as it stands in that particular, though it were otherwise consistent with his judgment, since it will only waste time to endeavour to convince him of its reasonableness, ff after all it will not obtain his assent. " Or, if it be possible that such exemption ofthe proprietary estate from its share in the common expense of securing the whole, should appear to the governor a thing right in itself, we would then request bun to favour us with the reasons of his opinion, that we may take them immediately into consideration ; for till this matter is explained, and understood, we think it needless to consider any other pro posed alterations." To this the governor the next day replied. " Gentlemen, " In answer to your message of yesterday, you wUl give me leave to observe, that hi the proprietary commission appointmg me to this government, there is a proviso that nothing therein contained shall extend, or be construed to extend, to give me any power to do or con sent to any act whereby the estate or property of the proprietaries may be hurt or incumber ed ; and this proviso being contained in the body of the commission from which I derive the power of acting as governor, it is not only the highest prohibition to me, but any law that I may pass contrary to that proviso, I imagine, would be void in itself for want of power in me to give it a being. " But had I not been thus prohibited, I should still have thought it my duty, to have excepted the proprietary estate from the le vies proposed to be made, for the following reasons. * The bill laid the tax on all estates real and personal throughout the province, the proprietary estate " not excepted," The amendment propo.ned was in these %vords, "Dele the word [not] and insert the word [only."] A small, but very signiftcant alteration I " 1. For that all governors, whether here ditary or otherwise, are, from the nature of their office, exempt from the payment of taxes ; on the contrary, revenues are gene rally given to them to support the honour and dignity of government, and to enable them to do the duties of their station. "2. For that this exemption from taxes arising from the nature of government, is en forced by a positive law in this province, which expressly declares, that the proper es tates ofthe proprietaries shall not be liable to rates or taxes. " 3. For that the proprietaries, by their go vernor, having consented to a law for vesting in the people the sole choice ofthe persons to assess and lay taxes in the several counties, without reserving to themselves, or their go vernor, any negative upon such choice, and this concession being made with an express proviso, that the proprietory estates should not be taxed, it will be very unreasonable to impower such persons by a law, without their previous consent, to tax their estates at dis cretion. " 4. For that it is contrary to the constant practice and usage in this and all the proprie tary governments upon this continent so far as I have been informed, to lay any tax upon the lands or estates of the proprietaries, exer cising the government by themselves or their lieutenants. " For these reasons principally I made the amendments, relating to the proprietary es tate, to your bill for giving fifty thousand pounds to the king's use, and I hope, gentle men, they will be sufficient to induce you to agree to those amendments. Were the pro prietaries now upon the spot, I know their love and affection for this country to be such that they would do any thing in their power for its preservation and safety ; but as they are not here, I have, on their behalf, propos ed to give lands west of the Alleghany moun tains, without any purchase-money, and free from the payment of quit-rents for fifteen years to come, and then not to exceed the common quit-rent in this province. The par ticular quantity proposed as an additional en couragement for each officer and soldier, is expressed m a message to vou upon that head." And the next day but one the assembly re joined, " That the intention of the bUl was not to hurt or incumber (it being as little in their power or intention to hurt or incumber the es tates of their constituents, as in the governor's to hurt or incumber tlie proprietary estate) but to free it from hurt and incumbrance ; the worst of incumbrances, the neighbourhood ofso mischievous an enemy, who, as they had been repeatedly told by the governor, had taken ac tual possession of some part, and laid claim to a much greater part of the proprietaries' coun- PENNSYLVANIA. 83 try ; they could not conceive how the giving a part to save the whole, and, in the proprieta ry's case, not only to save the whole, but to render it of double or treble value, could pro perly be called hurting or incumbering an es tate ; that if the argument had any force, it had the same force in behalf of the people ; and, consequently, he ought in duty to reject both parts of the bill for the same reason ; that for their parts, happening to think otherwise, they had laid the tax as cheerfully on their own estates as on those of their constituents. " That the proposed grant of lands, for the encouragement of military adventurers, west of the Alleghany mountains, without any pur chase-money, was as absolutely irreconcilea- ble with the letter of the proprietary proviso in his, the governor's commission, as his as sent to the tax upon their estate could be re presented to be ; that if their love and affec tion for their country was such, that if they were on the spot, they would do any thing in their power for its preservation ; and if the governor, presuming on that love and affec tion, thought himself at liberty to dispense with so positive a prohibition, it might be ask ed, why could he not venture to do the same in one instance for the same reason as in the other"! and if the grant of lands would be va lid, notwithstanding such prohibition, why would not his assent to the bUl be the same ) that this magnified offer had in reality been proposed only to make the taxing ofthe pro prietary estate appear less reasonable ; that it was in effect an offer of amusement only, good lands not being so much as specified ; and as good as the best there, being to be had in Virginia (where quit-rents were but two shillings, whereas the common quit-rents in Pennsylvania were four shillings and tVvo pence sterling) without purchase-money, and with the same exemption of that quit-rent for fifteen years to come, so that the encourage ment so graciously offered to those adventu rers to recover the proprietaries' lands out of the hands of the enemy, was at the bottom no better tlian a proposal to reward them with a part of the lands they were so to reco ver, at more than double the price demanded in the neighbouring province, without any of the risk they were ui the present case to be exposed to. " That the governor being vested by the royal charter itself with all the powers granted thereby, for the good and happy government of the province, was in full capacity to pass the law in question, the proprietaries having no authority to restrain those powers ; and all such restraints having been already con sidered and declared as null and void. " That they did not propose to tax the pro prietary as governor, but as a fellow-subject, a landholder and possessor of an estate in Pennsylvania, an estate that would be more benefited by a proper application of the tax than any other estate in the province ; tliat the proprietary did not govern them, that the province, at a large expense, supported a lieu tenant lo do that duty for him ; that if the proprietary did govern them in person, and had a support allowed him on that account, they should not have thought it less reasona ble to tax him as a landholder for the secu rity of his land ; that they the representatives of the people, were also allowed wages for their service in assembly ; and yet the go vernor, they insinuated, would hardly allow it to be a good reason why their estates should therefore be tax free ; that it was scarce to be supposed the proprietary could, from the nature of his office, derive higher pretensions than the king himself; and yet that the king's tenants were, by every land- tax act, impowered to deduct the same out of their rent; and that tlie king's receivers were obliged, under severe penalties, to allow of such deductions ; but that this was not the first instance by many, in which proprietors and governors of petty colonies have assum ed greater powers, privileges, immunities, and prerogatives, than were ever claimed by their royal master, on the imperial throne of all his extensive dominions. " That the positive law of this province hinted at by the governor as exempting the proprietaries' estates from taxes, was no other than the law for raising county rates and le vies, which were in the same act appropriat ed to purposes for which the proprietaries could not reasonably be charged (as wages to assembly-men, rewards for killing wolves, &c.) not a general, constitutional law of the province ; that by a positive law, the people's representatives were to dispose ofthe people's money, and yet it did not extend to all cases in government; that if it had, amendments of another kind might have been expected from the governor ; seeing, that, in consideration ofthe purposes ofthe grant, they had allow ed him a share in the disposition, and that he, by his last amendment proposed also, to have a share in the disposition of the overplus, if any. " That they begged leave to ask, whether, if the proprietary estate was to be taxed as proposed, it would be equitable for the owner to have a negative in the choice of assessors, since that would give him half the choice, in lieu, perhaps, of a hundredth part ofthe tax; that as it was, he had officers, friends, and other dependants, in every county, to vote for him, in number equal to the proportionable value of the share of the tax ; that if the pro prietary shrunk at the injustice of being tax ed where he had no choice in the assessors, they again asked, with what face of justice he could desire and insist on having half the power of disposing of the money levied, to 84 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. which he would not contribute a farthing; that there was great impropriety in saying the proprietary estate was by this act to be taxed at discretion, seeing the assessors were to be upon their oaths or solemn affirmations, which gave the proprietary as good security for equity and justice as any subject in the king's dominions. " That as to the governor's plea, deduced from usage and custom, they alleged, usage and custom against reason and justice, ought to have but little weight ; that the usage of exemptions in cases where the proprietary es tates could not be benefited by a tax, was not in point ; that if it was, so far as regard ed the estates of persons exercismg govern ment by themselves or lieutenant it could not include the estates of proprietaries, who not only did not exercise government by themselves, but would moreover restrain their lieutenants from exercising the just powers they were vested with by the royal charter." And their last paragraph was at once so co gent and pathetic, that it ought to be given in their own words, which cannot be amend ed. To wit : " On the whole, we beg the governor would again calmly and seriously consider our bUl, to which end we once more send it up to him. We know that without his assent the money cannot be raised, nor the good ends so ear nestly desired and expected from it to be ob tained, and we fear his resolution to refuse it But we entreat him to reflect with what re luctance a people born and bred in freedom, and accustomed to equitable laws, must un dergo the weight of this uncommon tax, and even expose their persons for the defence of his estate, who, by virtue of his power only, and without even a colour of right, should re fuse to bear the least share of the burden, though to receive so great a benefit! with what spirit can they exert themselves in his cause, who will not pay the smallest part of their grievous expenses? how odious must it be to a sensible, manly people, to find him who ought to be their father and protector, taking advantage of public calamity and distress, and their tenderness for their bleeding country, to force down their throats laws of imposition, abhorrent to common justice and common reason ! why will the governor make himself the hateful instrument of reducing a free peo ple to the abject state of vassalage ; of de priving us of those liberties, which have given reputation to our country throughout the world, and drawn inhabitants from the re motest parts of Europe to enjoy them 1 liber ties not only granted us of favour, but of right; liberties which in effect we have bought and paid for, since we have not only performed the conditions on which they were granted, but have actually given higher prices for our lands on their account; so that the proprietary famUy have been doubly paid for them, in the value of the lands, and in the increase of rents with mcrease ofpeople. Let not our affections be torn in this manner from a family we have long loved and honoured ! let that novel doctrine, hatched by their mis taken friends, 'that privUeges granted to promote the settlement of a country, are to be abridged when the settlement is obtained,' iniquitous as it is, be detested as it deserves, and banished from all our public councils ! and let the harmony, so essential to the welfare of both governors and governed, be once again restored ; since it can never be more necessary to our affairs than in their present melancholy situation 1 we hope the governor will excuse some appearance of warmth, in a cause of all others in the world the most m- terestuig ; and believe us to be, with all pos sible respect and duty to the proprietary fa- mUy and to himself, his and their sincere friends and well-wishers." The governor, on the other hand, to find them employment while he had this puzzling paper under his consideration, called upon them again in his majesty's name, like any constable, to put the province into a posture of defence by establishing a militia, so as that a due regard might be had to scrupulous con sciences; and demanded an- explicit answer. This was done August 9, being Saturday ; on the Monday following, he gave them to understand, by another message, that beiaj quite uncertain, what effect his letters to colo nel Dunbar with regard to the posting his troops on the western frontiers, would have; having also been required by him to provide quarters for his troops, and having upon appli cation to the mayor and corporation of Phila delphia, to provide quarters for them accord ingly, been told, that they knew of no law to authorize them for so doing ; a law would be necessary for that purpose, and recommended it to them to prepare one, those troops being then upon their march into the province, whe ther they were to remain there or not And on the morrow he plyed them with another teaser ; which, together with the as sembly's answer of the same day, and his re joinder of the 16th, shall be given in the re spective terms they were delivered. " Gentlemen, " I am importuned by the Indians, to let them know what it is this government has to impart to them. If they can be made hearty for us, they may prevent a great deal of mis chief, engage other Indians in our favour, and be prepared for any other service that we may thmk proper to employ them in. " To do this wUl require great skUl, and an open hand, for presents they certainly ex pect, and will not, at tliis time, be satisfied with small ones. " The Owendaets came, on our invitation, PENNSYLVANIA. 85 and such terms must therefore be offered them as will effectually engage their friendship; the matter cannot now be minced, neither witli them nor the other nations. You wUl therefore please to consider this matter well, and give me your sentiments and counsel in this nice and critical situation of our affairs." The assembly's answer : — " May it please the Governor, " The secretary, by a verbal message from the governor, on the twentieth of December last, acquainted the house, ' that Scaroyady's son-in-law was charged with a message from the Owendaets, to inquire what their brethren the English designed to do in regard to the late incroachments of the French ; and having heard, since he came to town, that the king of England intended to send over a number of troops to assist in repelling those uivaders, he was wiUing, if the governor thought proper, to return to his nation, and acquaint them with the joyful news ; the governor, therefore, de sired the opuiion of the house, whether it would be most advisable for Scaroyady's son-in- law to return now to the Ohio, or go to Onon dago with Scaroyady.' Whereupon the house gave for answer, that it was their opinion that it would be most proper for Scaroyady's son-in-law to return to the Ohio as soon as conveniently he could. This is all the part our house have had in relation to the Owen daets ; neither did we know of the least inten tion of inviting them, or any others ; so that as they are now come down without our know ledge or request, entirely upon the governor's invitation, it is some surprise to us to find the Indians should have reason to importune him, or that he should be at any loss to know what it is he has to impart to them on this occasion. " Our conduct towards the Indians in our alliance has been always candid, and free from any subterfuge whatever, so that we do not understand what the governor would mean by telling us 'that the matter cannot be now minced, neither with them nor the other na tions.' And we are likewise at a loss to con ceive why they should expect great presents from us, who are wholly ignorant of the in tention of their coming. " The governor has been pleased to refuse his assent to our bills which had provided for Indian and other expenses, and as our trea sury is exhausted by the very heavy charges for the king's service, these Indians are come among us at a very unfortunate time, when it is not in our power to supply them in the manner we are inclined to do ; however we wUl do all that can be reasonably expected from us, and must leave the rest to be sup plied by the proprietaries, whose interest is at least as much concerned as ours in en gaging the affections of the Indians at this time." The governor's rejoinder : — " Gentlemen, " If my message gave you room to think that the Owendaets came here on a particular invitation of muie, at this time, I have led you into a mistake. ,They set out from their country, as they have informed me, on the plan set forth in the minutes of councU of the twentieth and twenty-fourth of December last, which were laid before you. " The other Indians, at their request, ac companied them hither, as they were stran gers ; and Scaroyady says, he has some par ticular business to transact with this govern ment. I have, in the name of the province, given thanks to the Owendaets for this kind visit, and to those of the Six Nations that were with our army in the late action ; as sured them all of the affections of the Eng lish ; recommended to them to continue firm in their attachment to us ; and given them room to expect some presents as a token of our regard. " As the treasury is exhausted, I can only say, that I wUl readily pass a bill for striking any sum, in paper-money, the present exi gency may require, provided funds are es tablished for sinking the same in five years. " The secretary will communicate to you what was said to the Indians yesterday, and I shall lay before you what may further pass between us, and earriestly recommend it to you, to enahle me to send these people away perfectly satisfied." In this interval also, the governor, in ano ther written message, did his utmost to refute the arguments urged by the assembly, to jus tify theu- claim to tax the proprietary estate ; but as the paper is long, and the assembly's answer to it much longer ; as the dispute was again and again revived, and a thousand ways diversified ; as the data already before us af ford sufficient grounds for a fair decision ; and as it would require the phlegm of a German to wade through all the minutenesses of it, all these pieces may be collected in an ap pendix, for the sake of those so fond of pre cision, that they cannot be satisfied unless they see the whole of a controversy together. 'The assembly, however, on the very day that they received the governor's paper, pre pared him to expect a full, and as they hoped, a satisfactory answer ; and in order that the public business of the greatest importance might not any longer be delayed by such dis putes, took leave to acquaint him, " That the bill they had sent up to him was a money- bUI, granting fifty thousand pounds to the king's use, which they saw no reason to alter ; that they, therefore, adhered to their bill, and desfred the governor would be pleased to give his final answer, whether he would pass it or not, as it then stood 1" FRANKLIN'S WORKS. And upon the next, the governor signified in writing, to the assembly, " That having amended the bUl for raising fifty thousand pounds, and not beuig yet satisfied that it was in his power or consistent with his trust, to pass it without these amendments, whatever he might be when he should hear what they pro posed to say to him upon that head, he thought it necessary in answer to their mes sage of the day before to inform them', that he did adhere to the amendments to the bUl so by him made." This message was also accompanied by an other, in which the governor specifies, " That he had received a letter from colonel Dunbar in answer to the proposition he had made to him [at the instance of the assembly, should have been acknowledged] for posting part of his troops on the western frontier, signifying, that he was willing to employ them in the best manner he could, for the honour of his master and the service ofthe public, and enclosing the opinion of a council of war, by which he, the governor, was desired to give them a meeting at Shippensburg, where they would wait till he could join them ; and that he should rea dily have gone thither for that purpose, had he not received another letter from governor Shirley, (in answer to one of his, requesting orders for employing the remainder of the two English regiments in pi^otecting the frontiers of that and the neighbouring provinces) in which he said, he thought it for his majesty's service to employ those troops another way, as those provinces were populous enough to protect themselves ; and therefore had sent orders to colonel Dunbar, under cover to him, to march his troops to that city ; which he had [already] forwarded to him ; and that as the march of these troops would leave the western frontier exposed to the French and Indians, he thought it his duty to communicate those mat ters to them, that they might, as soon as pos sible, make provision for the security of the back inhabitants, and for the subsistence of the troops during their march through the pro vince, which might prevent great mischieft to the people inhabiting near the road from Ship pensburg to PhUadelphia." So that the march of our own troops is here discoursed of in such language as renders it doubtful for a moment, whether he is not speaking of the enemy. Governor Shirley's thoughts are immediately received as laws ; governor Morris has not a thought to suggest to the contrary ; it was for the king's service to leave a province, actually invaded, as the last of these governors had over and over again asserted to the assembly, exposed to the ra vages of the enemy ; and though provision had been at first made for having four re giments to carry on the war in these pro vinces, these provinces were now all at once selves, though some of them had not yet arm ed a man, or beat a drum. Out of all which, such a jumble of ideas encounter each other, and such a variety of doubte and suspicions arises, that one cannot help wondering that the assembly did not call for these several letters, and from the evidence of their own eyes, and their own understandings, form such a remonstrance, as would have displayed the whole state of things in its proper colours. In this one instance, therefore, it may be not irrationally supposed, that their usual sa gacity faUed them ; and this failure was no sooner discovered, than the governor came up on them with another message importing, " That his secretary would lay before them the copies of sundry petitions which had been pre sented to him from several parte of the pro vuice, representing their naked and defence less condition, and praying to be enabled to defend themselves, which they were sensible was not in his power to comply with ; that he would also lay before them a letter from one John Harris, giving an account of a large party of Indians actually set out from the French fort with a design to fell upon and destroy the inhabitante of this and the neighbouring pro vinces ; that they had this piece of intelligence as he had received it ; that they would form their own judgments upon it ; that for his part he thought it probable ; and that therefore he recommended it to them to take immediate thought about it as the consequence would be very terrible to the inhabitants, if the ac count should prove true, and it could do them no injury to be upon their guard ff it should prove fiJse." This was dated the 15th— the 16th he farther gave them to understand, " That he found, by an extract of a letter from governor Lawrence, of Nova Scotia, to lieutenant-go vernor Phipps, of New England, sent by go vernor De Lancy, of New York, to bun, that the French at Louisburg were in such dis tress for want of provisions, that if a supply could be prevented, they might be reduced to a necessity of givmg it up to us ; and that therefore, he recommended it to them to think of some proper law, tliat their being supphed from Pennsylvania might be more effectually prevented." And on the 19th he again notified, "That he had received letters by express from go vernor Shiriey, [which however he did not communicate] acquainting hun, that he had wrote to colonel Dunbar, that it appeared clear to hun (Shirley) as there would be four months of good weather before the winter set in, that with the number of forces the colonel then had, and the assistances he might have from Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, he might yet have it in his power, to retrieve supposed to be in a condition to cover them- 1 the loss sustained in the late defeat, by pro- PENNSYLVANIA. 87 ceeding to fort Du Quesne, and had sent him orders for that purpose ; and that in addition to this, he had said to him, that it would de pend on those several provinces to assist colo nel Dunbar with reinforcements, provisions, ammunition, artUlery, ordnance stores, carri ages, horses, and all other things to fit him out for his march, &c. and that he had wrote to the same effect to governor Dinwiddle and governor Sharpe, whose assistance, with that of Pennsylvania, he entirely relied upon at that extraordinary crisis ; that he must there fore recommend it to them, to enable him to do the several things so expected of them, to take the matter into immediate consideration, and give him their answer thereto, that he might send it forward to colonel Dunbar, and the said governors of Maryland and Virginia, whose measures would, in a great measure, depend on what he should be enabled to do." Now general Shirley himself, in the state of his own conduct, which he has lately laid before the public, says, 1st, that colonel Dun bar did not receive any orders whatever from him tUl about the middle of August at which time he had advanced far in his march to Phi ladelphia ; and 2dly, that the orders he then sent him, were to march his troops to Albany, there to be ready to assist either in the expe dition against Niagara or Crown-point as his majesty's service should require, or at least cover the country in case major-general John son should be defeated by the French, &c. nor does he mention one word of the assist ances he expected or required of the said provinces. The general, nevertheless, might possibly have sent such orders subsequent The assembly did not, however, start any scruple on this head ; but, as before, took all upon content ; and behaved in every respect, as if they were altogether as solicitous to tax themselves, as their proprietaries. To render this undeniable, an instance of a very singular kind is now to be brought for ward. Certain gentlemen of Philadelphia, not ofthe assembly, to the number of twenty, subscribed in various proportions, the sum of five hundred and two pounds, ten shUlings ; and made a tendef of it to the house with the following proposal, to wit : " We the subscribers observe, with great concern, that the governor and assembly differ in opinion, in respect to the taxing the pro prietaries' estate ; and lest by such difference in opinion the bill for raising fifty thousand pounds for his majesty's service should not take effect : " And as the assembly, in their message to the governor, seem to be of opinion, that were the proprietaries' lands to be taxed, the sum would not exceed five hundred pounds :* * This however was a forced construction put on the " We, rather than the least check should be given to his majesty's service at this time of imminent danger, by a matter so very tri fling, do hereby promise and engage to pay five hundred pounds, money of Pennsylvania, into the public stock, for the king's use, in lieu of what the proprietaries would pay as their part of the fifty thousand pounds, were their lands to be taxed. " And as we declare the absence of the ho nourable the proprietaries to be our motive for making this proposal, being well assured, that were they present it would have been altogether unnecessary; and we doubt not but they wUl honourably acquit every sub scriber of this expense." The house, taking it into consideration, " re solved, that such a proposal to this house is improper, as this house is destitute of the necessary information to assess any estate duly, and neither can nor ought to assess the proprietaries' estate at the sum proposed, or at any other sum whatever; and as, in case the subscribers should neglect or refuse to pay the sum subscribed, it would not be in the power of this house, not being a body incor porate, to sue them for the same. But as the house presumes that the said proposal may have arose from the subscribers' judgmeiit of the equity of taxing the proprietaries' estate equaUy with all othens in this province, for their common safety, ordered, that the said proposal be sent up to the governor as a fur ther security to him, in case he should give his assent to the bill for raising fifty thousand pounds for the king's use," &c. And having on the 19th, prepared a suitable message, sent it up together with their bill, to the governor, under a strong expression of hope, that, with this further security he would cheerfully give his assent to it At the same time, also, in a separate mes sage, they further apprized him, " that they had taken his message concerning governor Shirley's orders into consideration ; and that it was their opinion, his giving assent to their bill, which they earnestly requested of him, would enable him to do every thing which could be reasonably expected from them." And that he might not serve any insidious purpose by his message concerning Louis burg, they sent him the following answer, in which they at once corrected his state ofthe fact, by inserting the very words of governor Lawrence's letter, and left him to answer for his deviation. " May it please the Governor, " We have considered the governor's mes sage of the 16th instant, with the extract from words ofthe assembly by these friends of the proprieta ry; and it appears by an act afterwards passed, that five thousand pounds, and not five hundred pounds, was looked upon and accepted as an equivalent for the pro prietaries of a sixty thousand pounds tax. FRANKLIN'S WORKS. governor Lawrence's letter to governor Phipps, in which it is observed, ' that if the excel lent laws prohibiting the transportation of provisions to Louisburg continue in force for two months longer, there is a probability that the governor of that place wUl be obliged to present the keys of the garrison to Mr. Bos- cawen.' And our governor is pleased to re commend it to us, to think of some proper law that may most effectually prevent their being supplied from this province ; but as an act passed this house, and received the go vernor's assent, at our last sitting, intituled, ' an act to continue an act, intituled, an act to prevent the exportation of provisions, naval or warlike stores, from this province to cape Breton, or to any other dommions of the French king, or places at present in posses sion of any of his subjects,' by which the act continued wUl be in force at least ten months to come, and has been, as far as we know, ef fectual for the purposes intended ; and as the governor has not pointed out to us any defect in that act, nor has any occurred to us, we cannot at present think what law can be made more effectually to prevent that place being supplied with provisions, &c. from this province." And now the period was come, when all capable of conviction, were to be convinced, that, though the governor had laboured hard to establish a belief, that the uncomplying disposition of the assembly was the only ob stacle to the current of public business, the contrary was the matter of fact; and that having observed obstinacy on his side never faded to produce some concession on theirs, he had come to a resolution, to proceed in the same courfee of exaction, till nothing re quired of him by his instructions was left un performed; that is to say, till the assembly had nothing left to part with. The shadow of a royal instruction, so long and so often played before their eyes, was now out ofthe question ; the governor says the pro vince is actually invaded ; that a victorious enemy is on the point of ravaging it with fire and sword ; the kmg's troops, after having been so many ways gratified and assisted, are recalled ; they are told they are to provide for their own defence ; they offer fifty thousand pounds to be laid out for that purpose ; the pro prietary estate becomes liable to a demand, computed by his friends at about five hundred pounds, even that five hundred pounds, is of fered on the behalf of the proprietaries, by a few private individuals, as an expedient to re move that only difficulty out of the way : and the governor refuses it. So that, if there was any truth in the governor's repeated asser tions, the safety of the province, the interest ofthe public, and the honour of the British crown, were to be alike exposed and endan gered, together with the proprietary estate, so impertinently and improvidently put into the scale against all the rest To say all at once, his answer to the last proposition, as verbally delivered to the house by his secretary, was in these words, viz. " Sir, — The governor having by message of the 14th inst. informed you, that he did not think it consistent with his power, or trust to pass the bUl for raising fifty thousand pounds, without the amendments he had made to it and that he adhered to those amendments ; is surprised at your message of this day, to which he can only say, that he thinks it his duty to adhere stUl to the amendments he made to that bUl." On the same day, also, by another message he put them in mind ofhis former requisitions concerning a mUitia ; and demanded a plam and categorical answer, whether they would, or would not establish one, " That his majes ty and his ministers might be informed, whe ther, at this time of danger, the province of Pennsylvania was to be put into a posture of defence or not!" This convinced the house, that all expedi ent was at an end ; and that all the governor aimed at was to bewilder them if possible in another maze of controversy. To discharge themselves, therefore, ofevery branch of duty, as far as they were permitted to do it with any consistency to themselves, and regard to the fundamentals of their constitution, they first took into consideration the several peti tions of the frontier towns, for arms, &c., and resolved, that a sum not exceeding one thou sand pounds, if so much remained in the trea sury at the disposition of the house by the laws in force, should be paid into the hands of a committee ofthe house, then named, to he by them disposed of, with the concurrence of the governor for the time being, as should ap pear necessary. Proceeding then to the governor's verbal message concerning their money-bill; they agreed to return an answer to this effect viz. " that he, having in his former answer signifi ed, that he was not yet satisfied, &c.. whatever he might be when he heard what they had far ther to say, which argued a suspension of his determination, and Aey having since sent him a long message containing tlie reasons of their procedure, Siey could not but be sur prised at his surprise, more especially as he had not even then returned tlieir bUl ; that as to his proposal for striking any sum in pa per-money the present exigency might re quire, provided funds were established for sinking the same in five years, they had no funds equal to so great a sum without the as sistance of an equitable tax, to which the governor would always have his objections in favour of the proprietary estate ; that as this proposal might lead them back into those dis putes, which, by the form of tliis bill, agree- PENNSYLVANIA. 89 able f» the governor's advice in his sjieech at the opening of the session, they had studied to avoid, they should be ferther surprised to receive it from him, could they find the least reason to think he was sincerely desirous of having any thing done for the defence of the province ; and that being now convinced, no farther benefit could arise from their longer sittmg, and being to meet of course in a few weeks to settle the accounts of the year, they took leave to acquaint him of their purpose to adjourn to the 15th of September ensuing, in case he hod no objection to that time." Lastly, by the same members that were appointed to carry up this message to the go vernor, they also sent another concerning a mUitia, in which having enumerated his se veral messages in relation to the defence and safety ofthe province, they waive the point by saying, " That the elections throughout the province being near at hand, they chose to re fer that point to a fiiture assembly, and then proceed as follows: — But as we find, by the governor's result upon our bill for granting fifty thousand pounds for the king's use, he cannot think it consistent with the trust reposed in him by the proprietaries to pass that bUl, we find by experience that it can an swer no good purpose to waste our time in preparing bUls for his assent in which, for the common security and defence ofthe province, we apprehend it would be a high breach of the trust reposed in us, to exclude the propri etaries' estate from bearing any part of the burden, and if not excluded, as the governor asserte, must at last be rejected by him for want of sufficient powers in his commission ; and therefore (had we no other objections) we hope the governor will judge it reasona ble, after so many repeated refusals of the bUls we have offered to him for granting large sums of money for the king's use, that we now wait the determination of our superiors, what powers he has, or ought to have, as our go vernor, under the royal and provincial char ters ; and what exclusive rights our proprie taries may be justly intitled to in the laying and levying of taxes for the common security and defence of their estates, with all the other estates within this province." In answer to the first of these messages, so far as related to the time of adjournment, (with which he was verbally acquainted by the messengers) the governor was pleased to say, " he had no objection to that time more than any other ; but that if he found [on pe rusal ofthe written messages then delivered to him] that the house had not given him a satisfactory answer, to his messages relating to a militia, he should csdl them again imme diately." To the time of their own adjournment, they had nevertheless, the grace to be indulged with a recess. And on the third day of Vol. II. ... M 8* their sitting, they preferred a request to the governor, " that, if he had any business of im portance to lay before them, particularly, if any application had been made to him for a. farther supply of provisions, for the use ofthe king's forces then gone towards Crown-point, he would be pleased to lay it before them soon, as their year was near expired, and the time of their continuance together consequent ly short" The answer they received was verbal, by his honour's secretary, importing, " that the government of Massachusetts-bay had ordered two thousand eight hundred men to be imme diately raised, in addition to the one thousand five hundred before raised for the reduction of Crown-point ; and that the governor had tlie day before received a letter from governor Phipps, desiring, at the instance of the council and assembly there, an immediate supply of provisions to be sent to Albany." And, as if this was not enough to ask of them, a supple mental paragraph was grafted upon it as fol lows : " the governor has also been informed, that the government of Connecticut have rais ed fifteen hundred men, and Rhode-Island one hundred and fifty, in addition to the forces sent by those governments against Crown-point, who wUl also stand in need of a supply of pro visions ; he therefore recommends these mat ters to your consideration." Two articles, out of governor Shirley's state of his own conduct, will come in not improperly .here ; viz. "Upon Mr. Shirley's jirrival at New York (July 4,) he found a fiiU stop put to the preparations for the expedition against Crown-point, with respect to the arti cles of artUlery and mUitary stores, which the governments of Massachusetts-bay and New York had agreed to furnish between them, de pending that the colonies of Connecticut, New- Hampshire, and Rhode-Island, would pay their proportions of the expense ; but that not being done, the government of New York de clined parting with the stores, without actual payment or security given. After having re moved this obstacle to the expedition's pro ceeding, by putting into the hands ofthe go vernment of New York, a sufficient quantity ofthe Pennsylvania provisions, as a security for reimbursing them on account of the be fore-mentioned articles, and advanced about one thousand pounds sterling, ofhis own mo ney, towards the expense of transporting the artillery, and ordnance-stores, in confidence of being reimbursed by the New England colo nies, he embarked for Albany." The reader will make his own remarks ; at least he wUl infer from what passed in the assembly of Pennsylvania before, in relation to orders said to have been received from and demands, made by general Shirley, that the said assembly would now have been inexcu sable, if they had not called upon their go- 90 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. vernor, for governor Phipp's letter and the other informations referred to upon this occa sion; which they did by express message; and that having been told by him in answer to that call, that he had orders from the se cretary of state not to lay before the house any papers but such as he pleased, they should apply to him for a sight of such orders. They did so, and were again refused ; he signifying that such orders being intended for his own government, he thought it unproper to communicate them ; and in the name of the secretary of state, vouching, as he himself had done before, that messages from him were a sufficient foundation for them to proceed upon ; but withal recurring to what he had also of fered in his former message, namely, to com municate to their speaker, or a few of the house, such parts of the information he had re ceived from the eastward as his majesty's service required. But this not proving satisfactory to the house, all proceedings on this head were for some days at a stand ; and the interval was filled with a continuation of the animated con troversy, which in the preceding session had so highly exasperated the two branches of the legislature against each other, and which ne ver had been either revived, or caused, if the governor and his employers had not preferred their own private views, to all the moral and equitable obligations of government When the assembly had sat nine days, and now remained in a sort of suspense, not choos ing to infiame on one hand, and willing to hope the governor would find reasons to abate of his unreasonable stiffiiess on the other; came down a long message by way of answer to the assembly's paper of August 19 ; and, sufficiently exasperated thereby, that body, now at the point of dissolution, resolved to ac quit themselves with as much spirit as if they had been immortal. To the appendix the reader must be again referred for both pieces; they cannot, they ought not to be suppressed ; they are too long to be here inserted entire, and to abridge them, at least that of the assembly, would be to maim one of the most lively pieces that li berty ever inspired or controversy produced. See Appendix A. Such a reference then to the subject matter of both as wUl just serve to keep us a sort of historical connexion, is all the use to be made of them in this place. The assembly had (very truly) charged the governor with contriving all possible methods of expense to exhaust their funds ond distress tlieir affairs ; and had given in proof the ex orbitant demand made upon them for cutting the road for the use of the army ; an enter prise which they tell him they had undertaken at his instance, on a computation of its costing only eight hundred pounds. The governor in his reply said such a sum might have been mentioned as what it would cost in some men's private opinion ; but not upon an es timate of the commissioners, nor what had been as such sent to him. Addmg, "that though they had numbered the making the road among their meritorious acts, they had in effect done it out of fear of having proper representations made of their conduct at home, and of an armed force being used to oblige the inhabitants to do this necessary work ; that he had persuaded the general to compound for one road instead of two, to con tract even that to two thirds of the breadth, and not to carry it so far by many mUes as directed by the quarter-master-general ; by which great savings were made to the pro vince, and thanks instead of complaints were due to him, and rewards to the commissioners who had served the province in so hazardous a task so well ; that he had never made such a demand as five thousand pounds, nor could it have been made by any one, because the accounts were not come in; and that now they were come in, the charge did not amount to three thousand pounds, which was not ex travagant, considermg the distance and ex pedition required in the work." The assembly in their answer could not be so full in tlieir own justification, and, con sequently, in refuting the governor, as they might have been, because the necessary docu ments happened at that time to be mislaid. But when those documents were recovered, they did themselves ample justice, by reprint ing the most material in an appendix to their minutes. And among them was a letter from the said commissioners to the governor, which was communicated, together with one of the go vernor's own, (to the committee of assembly, at that extraordinary crisis, appointed to act on behalf of the whole, and other members then caUed in to their assistance) by his se cretary ; in which was the following express clause : " the expense of making the road thirty feet wide, and the principal pinches twenty, wUl make an expense of about eight hundred pounds." This letter was dated AprU 16tli ; and the committee having, ui the name of the house, undertaken to Aefiay the expense of both roads, the work went on ac cordingly. In another letter from the same commissioners, dated May 3d, it is said, " both roads will leave little of one thousand five hundred pounds, for it is impossible to tell what unexpected occurrences wUl arise," &c. the house, now sitting, resolved to persevere notwitlistanding, and notwithstanding the loss of tlieir bill, which made their compliance more difficult. Another estimate, dated fifteen days after this, signified, " that the expense of opening both roads would be little under two thousand pounds." Thus three estimates PENNSYLVANIA 91 had been delivered in, each exceeding the other ; and after all this, when one road had been dropt, and the other reduced in the man ner alleged by the governor, the said com missioners did actually require five thousand pounds to be sent to them, in addition to what had been paid to them already, which in mo ney and provisions was supposed to be near one thousand pounds. The committee of ac counts had sat upon this requisition, had pro nounced it to be extravagant, and had given it as their opinion, August 8th, 1755, " that in orderto prevent imposition on the public, the said commissioners ought forthwith to attend the said committee with their accounts fairly stated, with proper vouchers for the same." From all which premises, the house had surely reason to ask as they did, " whether they had not good reason to be surprised at this, and to suspect some extravagance in the management 1" But they went farther still ; they cited the original letter from the govern or's six commissioners to him, and by him communicated to the house, August 9th, in which the five thousand pounds is specified, together with an intimation, that the people being much in want of money, the money could not be sent too soon. And they con clude this section with the following shrewd remark: "The governor's judgment of our motives to engage in this work of opening the roads, seems to us a very uncharitable one, but we hope to find more equitable judgment elsewhere. We are obliged to him, however, for owning that we did engage in it at all. For as he is pleased to lay it down as a max im that we are very wicked people ; he has shown in other instances, when we have done any good, that he thinks it no more injustice to us to deny the facts, than npw to deny the goodness of our motives. He would, however, thmk himself iU used, if any part ofhis zeal in that affair was ascribed to the menaces di rected to him ; or to a view of accommodating by the new road the lands of the proprietaries' new purchase, and by that means increasing the value of their estate at our expense." Again : the governor was pleased to express himself in these extraordinary terms — " You have often mentioned what you have done to promote the success of his majesty's arms un der general Braddock, and for the defence of the province, and say, you have letters from the late general, thanking you for your ser vice ; the truth of this I must beg leave to question, as the late general was too honest to say one thing to you, and another to the king's ministers. He might acknowledge the services of particular men, but how you can take those to yourselves as an assembly, when you had no hand in what was done, I am at a loss to know. I thmk it will not be doubted, but that had you in time opened the proper roads, raised men, and provided carriages and necessary provisions for the troops, as this was the only province able in the general's situa tion, to furnish him with them, we might now have been in peaceable possession of fort Du Quesne." To which astonishing, because groundless charge, the assembly, in the following full and effectual manner, replied : " We own that we have often mentioned this ; but we have been forced to it by the governor's asserting, as of ten, in his messages, contrary to known fact, that we had done nothmg, and would do no thing of that kind. But it seems we take to ourselves the services of particular men, in which the governor says, we had no hand ; and adds, ' That had we in time opened the proper roads, raised men, and provided car riages, and necessary provisions for the troops, we might now have been in peaceable posses sion effort Du Quesne.' We beg leave to ask the governor, has the body no share in what is done by its members 1 has the house no hand in what is done by its committees'! has it no hand in what is done by virtue of its own resolves and orders 'i did we not, many weeks before the troops arrived, vote tive thousand pounds for purchasing fresh victuals, and other necessaries for their use 1 did we not even borrow money on our own credit to purchase those provisions when the governor had re jected our bill 1 wUl the governor deny this, when he himself once charged it upon us as a crime "! were not the provisions actually pur chased by our committee, the full quantity re quired by the commissary, and carried by land to Virginia at our expense, even before they were wanted 1 did the army ever want pro visions, till they had abandoned or destroyed them 1 are there not even now some scores of tons of it lying at fort Cumberland and Cone- gochieg ? did the governor ever mention the opening of roads to us before the 18th of March, though the requisition was made to him by the quarter-master-general in January? did we not in a few days after send him up a bill to provide for the expense, which he refused 1 did not the governor proceed nevertheless to appoint commissioners, and engage labourers for opening the road, whom we afterwards agreed to pay out of the money we happened to have in our power 1 did the work ever stop a moment through any default of oursl was the road ever intended for the march of the troops to the Ohio 1 was it not merely to open a communication with this province, for the more convenient supplying them with pro visions when they should be arrived there 1 did they wait in the least for this road 7 had they not as many men as they wanted, and many from this province 1 were they not more numerous than the enemy they went to oppose, even after the general had left near half his army fifty miles behind him? were not all the carriages they demanded, being one 92 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. hundred and fifty, engaged, equipt, and sent forward in a few days after the demand, and all at WUls's creek many days before the army was ready to march ') with what face then of probability can the governor undertake to say, " That had we in time opened the pro per roads, raised men, and provided carriages, and necessary provisions for the troops, we might now have been in peaceable possession effort Du Quesne?" "The governor is pleased to doubt our having such letters as we mentioned ; we are therefore, in our own vindication, under a ne cessity of quoting to him some parts of them ; and wUl show him the originals whenever he shall please to require it The general's se cretary, in his letter of the l6th of May to one of our members (who, in pursuance of a re solve ofthe house for the service of the army, waited on the general at Frederic, and there occasionally undertook the furnishing of wa gons, which he performed with the assistance of some other members ofthe committee, and for that, and other services to the troops, re ceived the thanks of the house at his return) says, ' You have done us great service in the execution ofthe busuiess you have kindly un dertaken ; and indeed without it, I don't see how the service could have been carried on, as the expectations from Maryland have come to nothing.' And again, in his letter of May the fourteenth, ' The general orders me to acquaint you that he is greatly obliged to you, for the great care and readiness with which you have executed the business you undertook for him. At your request he wUl with plea sure discharge the servants that may have en listed in the forces under his command, or any others for whom you may desire a discharge ; and desires that you would, for that purpose, send him their names.' And again, in his letter of May the twentieth, 'I have only time to thank you once more, in the name of the general and every body concerned, for the service you have done, which has been con ducted throughout with the greatest prudence and most generous spirit for the public ser vice.' The general's own letter, dated the twenty-ninth of May, mentions and acknow ledges the provisions given by the Pennsyl vania assembly [though the governor wUl allow us to have had ' no hand' in it,] and says, ' Your regard for his majesty's service, and assistance to the present expedition, de serve my sincerest thanks,' &c. Colonel Dunbar writes, in his letter of May the thir teenth, concerning the present of refresh ments, and carriage horses sent up for the subalterns, ' I am desired by all the gentle men, whom the committee have been so good as to think of in so genteel a manner, to re turn them their hearty thanks.' And again, on the twenty-first of May, 'Your kuid present is now aU arrived, and shall be equally divided to-morrow between sir Peter Halket's subalterns and mine, which I appre hend will be agreeable to the committee's m- tent This I have made known to tlie of ficers of both regiments, who unamimously desire me to return their generous benefec- tors their most hearty thanks, to which be pleased to add mine,' &c. And sir Peter Halket, in his ofthe twenty-third of May, says, ' The officers of my regiment are most sen sible of the fevours conferred on the subal terns by your assembly, who have made them so well-timed, and so handsome a present At their request and desire I return their thanks, and to the acknowledgments of the officers, beg leave to add mine, which you, I hope, wUl do me the favour for the whole to offer to the assembly, and to assure them, that we shall on every occasion do them the jus tice due for so seasonable and well-judged an act of generosity.' There are more of the same kind, but these may suffice to show that we had ' some hand in what was done,' and that we did not, as the governor supposes, de viate from the truth, when, in our just and ne cessary vindication against his groundless, cru el, and repeated charge, ' that we had refiised the proper, necessary, and timely assistance to an army sent to protect the colonies,' we alleged, ' that we had supplied that army plentifully with all they asked of us, and more than all, and had letters from the late gene ral, and other principal officers, acknowledg ing our care, and thanking us cordially for our services.' If the general ever wrote dif ferently of us to the king's ministers, it must have been whUe he was under the first im pressions given him by the governor to our disadvantage, and before he knew us; and we think with the governor, that if he had lived, he was too honest a man, not to have retracted those mistaken accounts of us, and done us ample justice." What is still more unlucky for the go vernor, his secretary writing to the said com missioners with all the authority he could de pute to him, April 25, 1755, makes use of these very words, " What sir John St Clair says is so far true, that had the army been ready now, and retarded by delays in matters undertaken by this province, all the mischiefs thence arising would have been justly charge able on this province ; but I am much mis taken, if they can within a month from this date, get their artUlery so far as your road." In the same letter he also says, " Surely the flour wUl be delivered in time ; or great blame may be laid with truth, at the door of the commissioners." Not the province; and, indeed, the flour was actually delivered so soon and so fast, that the general had not even provided storehouses and shelters sufficient to PENNSYLVANU. 93 secure it against the weather, to which great quantities of it lay exposed in Maryland after the delivery of it there. What spirit this gentleman (the governor) was possessed with, had been aquestion. The assembly would not allow him to have the spirit of government ; he himself maintained, that if he had had enough of the spirit of sub mission, (terms generally held irreconcUeable) his government would have been more agree able to the province. But now it can be a question no longer. The last period of the governor's message was the very quintessence of invective. " In fine, gentlemen, said he, I must remind you, that in a former message you said you were a plain people that had no joy in disputation. But let your minutes be examined for fifteen ysars past, not to go higher, and in them will be found more artifice, more time and money spent in frivolous controversies, more unparal leled abuses of your governors, and more un- dutifulness to the crown, than in all the rest of his majesty's colonies put together. And while you continue in such a temper of mind, I have very little hopes of good, either for his majesty's service, or for the defence and protection of this unfortunate country." And in the reply of the assembly his own artillery was turned upon him as follows: " The minutes are printed, and in many hands, who may judge, on examining them, whether any abuses of governors and undutifulness to the crown are to be found in them. Contro versies indeed there are too many ; but as our assemblies are yearly changing, whUe our proprietaries, during that term, have remain ed the same, and have probably given their governors the same instructions, we must leave others to guess from what root it is most likely that those controversies should continu ally spring. As to frivolous controversies, we never had so many of them as since our present governor's administration, and all raised by himself; and we may venture to say, that during that one year, scarce yet ex pired, there have been more ' unparalleled abuses' of this people, and their representa tives in assembly, than in all the years put together, since the settlement ofthe province. " We are now to take our leave of the go vernor ; and indeed, since he hopes no good from us, nor we from him, 'tis time we should be parted. If our constituents disapprove our conduct, a few days wUl give them an op portunity of changing us by a new election ; and could the governor be as soon and as easily changed, Pennsylvania would, we ap prehend, deserve much less the character he gives it, of an unfortunate country." That, however, they might still continue to act on the same ma.xims, and contmue to deserve the same confidence, they proceeded to contribute all they could to the advance ment of the service; not only without the concurrence of the governor, but in spite of his endeavours to render them odious by all the means of prevention his wit, his malice, or his power could help him to. In what manner, the following unanimous resolutions will specify. "That when application is made to this house by the governor, for something to be done at the request of another government, the letters and papers that are to be the found ation of our proceedings on such application, ought to be, as they have been by all preced ing governors, laid before the house for their consideration. " That a sight afforded to the speaker, or a few of the members, of papers remaining in the governor's hands, cannot be so satisfacto ry to the rest of the house, nor even to the speaker, and such members, as if those papers were laid before the house were they might receive several distinct readings, and be sub ject to repeated inspection and discussion till they were thoroughly understood ; and all danger ofmistakes and misconceptions through defect of attention, or of memory, in one or a few persons, effectually prevented. " That great inaccuracies and want of ex actness have been frequently observed by the house in the governor's manner of stating matters, laid before them in his messages ; and therefore they cannot think such mes sages, without the papers therein referred to, are a sufficient foundation for the house to proceed upon, in an affair of moment, or that it would be prudent or safe so to do, either for themselves or their constituents. " That though the governor may possibly have obtained orders not 'to lay the secretary of state's letters, in some cases, before the house, they humbly conceive and hope that letters from the neighbouring governments, in such cases as the present, icannot be includ ed in those orders. "That when an immediate assistance to neighbouring colonies is required of us ; ta interrupt or prevent our deliberations, by re fusing us a sight of the request, is a proceed ing extremely unproper and unseasonable. " But a member of this house producing a letter to himself from the honourable Thomas Hutchinson, Esq. a person of great distinction and weight in the government of Massachu setts-bay, and a member ofthe council of that province, mentioning the application to this go- i vernment for provisions, and the necessity of ' an immediate supply ; and it appearing by the resolution of the councU of war, held at the carrying place, on the twenty-fourth past (an abstract of which is communicated to the speaker, by the honourable Thomas Pownal, Esq. lieutenant-governor of the Jerseys) that the army wUl be in want of blankets and other clothing, suitable to the approaching season ; 94 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. and this house being willing to afford what assistance may be in their power, under their present unhappy circumstances of an exhaust ed treasury, and a total refusal by the go vernor of their bills for raising money, re solved, " That a voluntary subscription of any sum or sums, not exceeding ten thousand pounds, which shall be paid by any persons into the hands of Isaac Norris, Evan Morgan, Joseph Fox, John Mifflin, Reese Meredith, and Sa muel Smith of the city of Philadelphia, gen tlemen, within two weeks after this date, to wards the furnishing of provisions and blan kets, or other warm clothing, to the troops now at or near Crown-point, on the frontiers of New York, wUl be of service to the crown, and acceptable to the public, and the subscri bers ought to be thankfully reimbursed (with interest) by future assemblies, to whom it is accordingly by this house earnestly recom mended." -And this may be called the finishing mea sure of this every way public-spirited assem bly ; the governor did not choose to be in the way to receive their reply ; and so the ses sion and the controversy for this time ended together. Into the hands of what number of readers, or readers of what capacities, dispositions, or principles, this treatise shall fall, is out of calculation the first, and decision the last ; but whatever the number may be, or however they may happen to be principled, disposed, or endowed, the majority wUl by this time, probably, exclaim, enough of this governor ! or, enough of this author ! But whichever should happen to be the case, pardon is asked for the necessity of pro ceeding a few stages farther ; and patience ought to be required, to induce the reader to hold out to the end ofso disagreeable a jour ney. Though foiled, disgraced, and silenced this anti-Penn, this undertaker to subvert the buUding Penn had raised, was far from quit ting the lists. On the contrary, he lay in wait with impa tience for a verification of his own predictions concerning the danger of the frontier, and the miseries the inhabitants were to sustain when the enemy should break in upon them. When such should actually become the case, when the fiigitives should on all sides, be driven either by the enemy or their own fears, or both, towards the capital; when every week should furnish some new tragedy; and rumour so practised upon credulit}', that every single fact should by the help of echoes and re-echoes be multiplied into twenty ; when the panic should become general, and the very distractions ofthe herd, and their inca pacity to operate for themselves, should ren der them obnoxious to any imposition what soever, then, he thought, and not altogether unjustly, their passions might be of service to him, though their reason could not; and the event will show, that, provided he might at tain his ends, he could be very indifferent about the means. Factions he had found means to form, both in the city and the several counties; and tools and implements of all kinds, from the officious magistrate down to the prostitute writer, the whispering incendiary, and avow ed desperado, he was surrounded with. The press he had made an outrageous use of; a cry he had raised ; and in miniature the whole game of faction was here played by him with as little reserve, though not with as much success, as it is in greater affiiirs elsewhere. The current of elections, however, still con- tmued to set against him : those who had the most interest at stake remained firm to the interest of their country ; and now nothing re mained but the dint of artifice and clamour, to compel those to be subservient to his indi rect purposes, ff possible, whom he could not de prive of their country's confidence and fevour. This was the true state of Pennsylvania, when the new assembly, composed chiefly of the old members, took their seats. On the 14th of October the house met of course, according to their constii^^ution ; but did not proceed to material, or at least extraordi nary, business. The governor was not as yet sure of his crisis ; and therefore, chose to feel their pulse first in manner following: — His secretary being in conversation with the speaker of the assembly (the same who had served in that office for many years past) took occasion to communicate two letters to him concerning Indian affairs; and the speaker, asking, whether they were not to be laid be fore the house, the secretary replied, he had no such orders. The letters were of course returned ; and the speaker made the house ac quainted with this incident; adding, "that he thought the said letters contained matters of great importance to the welfare ofthe pro vince ; but as he could not presume to charge his memory with the particulars, so as to lay them before the house for the foundation of their conduct, he could only mention the fact, and recommend it to the consideration ofthe house." The house hereupon deputed two members to inform the governor, "that hav ing gone through the usual business done at the first sitting of an assembly, they were in clined to adjourn, unless he had any thing to lay before them, particularly in regard to In dian affairs, that might require their longer stay." And the same members were ferthet directed to acquaint him with the time of their adjournment, in case the governor should in reply say, he had nothing to communicate. This concert upon one side, produced concert on the other. The governor replied, as had PENNSYLVANIA. 95 been foreseen, " that if he had had any busi ness to lay before the house he should have done it before that time." And being then made acquainted with the proposed time of adjournment, which was tUl the first of De cember, he said — It was very well. The house, therefore, having first resolved to continue the supplies granted by the former assembly to the Indians on their frontier, ad journed accordmgly, having sat but four days. Fifteen days of this adjournment were also suffered to elapse, as if all danger and appre hension were at an end. But then the govern or being armed at all points, summoned them to meet him, with all the circumstances of alarm and terror his imagination could furnish. Intelligence (probably the same intelli gence contained in the two letters communi cated by his secretary to the speaker) that a party of PVench and Indians, to the number of fifteen hundred, as he was informed, had passed the Alleghany hills, and having pene trated as fer as the Kittochtiny hiUs, within about eighty mUes of Philadelphia, were en camped on the Susquehanna, was the busi ness he had to impart to them : and from his manner of imparting it, he seemed more de lighted than shocked with the recital. " This invasion," said he, " was what we had the greatest reason to believe would be the con sequence of general Braddock's defeat and the retreat of the regular troops." Why did they retreat then from the actual seat of war? was the wUd country on the Ohio better worth defending than Pennsylvania? was any pro jected acquisition of more importance to the public than the preservation of such a coun try ? did not this very governor talk of the plenty of the province and its defenceless state, from time to time, almost in the style of invitation, as if he meant to b^peak the very event he was now expatiating upon? and is not he more to be upbraided for suffer ing those troops to be recalled, ff he did no more, without making the strongest remon strances against it, than the assembly who besought their protection ; and if it should appear from his whole conduct, that he de sired nothing more ardently than that such an event should happen; and that his principal endeavour was, to improve it when it did hap pen to proprietary purposes, at the expense of the fortunes, liberties, and lives of the in habitants, with what abhorrence must we re flect on the pains taken in this speech, to ag gravate the calamitous state ofthe province, and to place it to the account of those, who had in a most signal manner deserved the thanks not only of the Pennsylvanians, but also of all the friends and lovers of liberty and virtue distributed through the British empire ? " Had my hands been sufficiently strength ened (so he proceeded) I should have put this province linto such a posture of defence, as might have prevented the mischiefs that have since happened." A dose of venom apparently prepared and administered to poison the pro vince ; tf the governor might hkve been their saviour, and was not, for want of proper pow ers, the assembly accused of having withheld them, were to be considered as public ene mies. To be treated as such could not but follow. The populace are never so ripe for mischief as in times of most danger. A pro vincial dictator he wanted to be constituted ; he thought this would be the surest way of carrying his point; and if the Pennsylvanians had taken so frantic a turn, they would not have been the first, who like the flock in the fable, had, in a fit of despair, taken a wolf for their shepherd.. But to return : " That the Delaware and Shawanese Indians had been gained over by the French, under the ensnaring pretence of restoring them to their country," constituted his next inflammatory. And then in order to magnify his own merits, he farther suggested "That he had sent the same intelligence, both to the king's ministers, together with a representation of the defenceless state of the province, and to the neighbouring govern ments, that the latter might be at once pre pared to defend themselves and succour them ; that the back inhabitants having, upon this occasion, behaved themselves with uncommon spirit and activity, he had given commissions to such as were wUling to take them, and en couragement to all to defend themselves, till the government was enabled to protect them ; but that they had complained much of want of order and discipline, as well as of arms and ammunition, and he was without power, mo ney, or means to form them into such regular bodies, as the exigency required, &c. ; that the designs ofthe enemy could only be conjectur ed from their motions and numbers ; and that from those and the known circumstances of the province, it was reasonable to apprehend, they had something more in view, than bare ly cutting off and destroying some of the fron tier settlements." And for a conclusion he summed up his lords the proprietaries' wUl and pleasure as follows : His majesty and the proprietaries having committed the people of this province to ray charge and care, I have done, and stUl shall very readily do, every thing in my power to fiilfil that important trust ; and to that end, I think it my duty to call upon you to grant such supplies of money as his majesty's ser vice, at this important and dangerous crisis, may require, and to prepare a bUl for establish ing a regular militia, exempting such as are conscientiously scrupulous of bearing arms, it being impossible, without such a law, though large sums of money should be raised, to pre vent confusion and disorder, or conduct mat ters with any degree of regularity. 96 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. " As the enemy are now laying waste the country, and slaughtering the inhabitants, there is no time to be lost ; I therefore think it necessary upon this occasion to inform you, that I am ready and wUling to consent to a law for emitting any sum in paper-money the present service may require, if funds are es tablished for sinking the same in five years ; but I cannot think it consistent either with the powers of my commission, or the duty I owe the crown, to pass any bUls of the same or a like tenor of those I have heretofore re fused. And I hope you will not waste your time in offering me any such bUls, as you must know from what has passed between me and the late assembly, and the information I now give you, it is not in my power to con- Isent to ; and I earnestly recommend it to you to afford in time that assistance which your bleeding country stands so much in need of" So that in case they would not wave their privUeges in the manner prescribed, and pro tect the proprietary estate gratis, their country might bleed to death if it would ; for they were not to be permitted to make use of their own money their own way, to save it One act of parliament * there is, and one only, which not only admits, that governors and deputy-governors may abuse their power and oppress the subject, but also affects to pro vide for the punishment of such oppressors. But then the word oppression is left so vague and indefinite, that no subject overdid, or can derive any benefit from it Of all the several species of oppression, that, now practised by this man upon a whole province, was surely the most grievous ; and as it required no com mon share of firmness to withstand it so it re quired an equal degree of prudence to temper that firmness, in such a manner as might ob viate all the misconstructions and misrepre sentations, the withstanders had good reason to be sure would be put upon it Petitions from various quarters, and many of them of such an opposite tendency that they were irreconcUeable with each other, poured in upon them. Some of the petitioners de claring themselves highly sensible of the zeal and diligence the assembly had shown for the interest and welfare of their constituents, in contending for what ought in justice to be granted. Others pretending to pray, that the house would not keep up unnecessary disputes with the governor, nor by reason of their re ligious scruples longer neglect the defence of the province. Both requiring to have arms put into their hands. And others expressing their fervent desires that measures might be pursued consistent with their peaceable prin ciples, and that they would continue hurpbly to confide in the protection of that Almighty Power, which had hitherto been as walls and bulwarks round about them. - 11 «L 12 of Will. III. cap. 12. The assembly received all with composure ; and resolved to give all the satisfaction they could to all. To the points enforced by the governor they attended first ; and to take off the panic which prevailed in the provmce, undertook to rectify the intelligence he had given, which could not but contribute great ly to the increase of it In their reply to that part ofhis speech, for instance they told him, " they could not find by the letters and pa pers, he had been pleased to lay before them, that any such number of French and Indians were encamped on any part of the river Sus quehanna." — What they admitted was, " that the back settlers were greatly alarmed and terrified ; that cruelties had been committed on the inhabitants by the Delaware and Shawanese Indians, principally withm the lands purchased by the proprietaries at Al bany but the year before ; that perhaps, there might be a few of the French Mohawks among them ; but this was not very clear ; and that these were to be followed, as several of the accounts said, by a large number of Indians and French from fort Du Quesne, with a de sign of dividing themselves into parties, in order to fell on the back settiements of Penn sylvania and Virginia ; and that the Indians still inclined to preserve their alliance with the provuice, seemed on the other hand, as much terrified, lest provoked with these hos tilities, the English generally should revenge upon them the barbarities so committed by the invaders ; that therefore great care and judg ment was, in their opinion requisite, m con ducting their Indian affairs at that critical con juncture ; that as the Six Nations were in alliance with the crown of Great Britain, and numbers of them then acting with great fide lity and bravery under general Johnson, it seemed absolutely necessary on their part to make it their request to the governor to be informed, whether he knew of any disgust or injury the Delawares or Shawanese had ever received from Pennsylvania, and by what means their affections could be so ahenated, as, not only to take up the hatchet agamst die said province, in breach of their dependence on the Six Nations, by whom tliey had been so long since subdued, but also of the friendly interviews and treaties, which they (the Penn sylvanians) had so repeatedly and very lately held both with them and the Six united Na tions, both before and after the defection of part of the Shawanese, for whom they had particularly mterposed their good offices, in procuring the liberty and sending home a number of then: people, as it was apprehend ed, much to then: satisfection ? as also, whe ther he had any knowledge of the inclination of the said Six Nations, or what part they had taken in relation to this cruel mcursion, of the Delo ware and Shawanese? they ferther desired him to lay before them the Indian PENNSYLVANIA. 97 treaty held at Philadelphia in the September preceding ; and declared themselves dispos ed and resolved to do every thing in their power, if it should appear they had sustain ed any injury at their hand, to regain their affections, rather than by any neglect or re fusal of that justice which was due both to them and all their Indian allies, entail upon themselves and their posterity the calamities of a cruel Indian war, of which they appre hended there would otherwise be but too much danger." And the governor, the same afternoon, sending down another message, importing, " that the enemy had fallen upon the settle ments at a place called the Great Cove, and slaughtered or made prisoners such of the in habitants as could not make their escape ; that those adjoining were quitting their habi tations and retreating inwards ; and that he must therefore most earnestly press them to strengthen his hands, and enable him speedily to draw forth the forces of the province, as any delay might be attended with the most fatal consequences ;" they took the same in to immediate consideration, and granted sixty thousand pounds to the king's use, to be struck in bills of credit, and sunk by a tax of six pence per pound, and ten shillings per head, yearly, for four years, laid on all the estates, real and personal, and taxables within the province ; and on the fourth day afterwards sent it up to the governor for his assent, who, most unwarrantably and cruelly took advan tage of the terrors which had seized upon the province, and which he himself had helped to accumulate, to reject it immediately ; urging, that it was of the same kind with one he had formerly refused his assent to. And that it was not consistent either with his duty or his safety, to exceed, in matters of government, the powers of his commission, much less to do what his commission expressly prohibited." So that his own safety with regard to his bond and his commission were put into the scale against the safety of the province ; and his duty to the proprietaries against his duty to the king and the public ; which shows, in one word, that the whole bias of such government is eccentrical and unnatural. His first duty was to concur with the as sembly in whatever was necessary for the good and happy government ofthe province ; the necessity of the grant in question, even for the preservation ofthe province, had been the burden of every one of his speeches and messages. So pressing was the extremity, so imminent the danger, so terrifying the con fusion, that the least delay on the side of the assembly had been represented as productive of the most fatal consequences ; and yet the smallest proprietary consideration could in duce the governor to act as if he did not be lieve one word he had said, or had the least Vol. II - N 9 concern about any other consideration what soever. Whether the proprietaries ought to be taxed or not he would no longer dispute. " It was sufficient for him, he said, that they had given him no power in that case ; he reproached them with having sat six days, and instead of strenthening his hands in that interval, with having sent him a message, for regaining the affections of the Indians then employed in laying waste the country, and butchering the inhabitants." But then he chose to forget entirely their application to him at their first sitting, for such intelligence as they might then have proceeded to business upon, and his express declaration, when they proposed an adjournment to him, " that he had no bu siness to impart to them.'' He, nevertheless, added, " that, upon the repeated accounts he had received of the miserable situation of the back counties, his council had unanimously advised him to repair thither himself, to put things in the best order possible ; and that he had hitherto declined it, that he might first know what they had to propose on this occa sion ; but that having now received a bill from them, which they well knew he could not give his consent to, he despaired of their doing any thing, so should immediately set off for the back counties; that if the people there had not all the assistance their present distresses made necessary, it would not be for want of inclination in him, but of power ; that he should take a quorum of the council with him ; and that, in case they should have any bills to propose that were consistent with the duties of his station, and the just rights of government, he should readily give his con sent to them whenever they were brought to him." This menace of immediately setting off for the back counties, was also another piece of practice on the fears of the assembly ; but whatever effect it had without doors, it does not appear to have had much within ; on the contrary, the assembly deputed two of their members, to know his determinate resolution, " whether he would or would not pass the bill?" and in the latter case, "to desire him to return it to the house." This message was verbal; and he evaded a present reply by saymg, that if the house would send him a message in writing on that head, he would return them an answer; adding, "that he should not return the said bill." A written message was hereupon taken into consideration; but before it could be perfected, another from the governor was brought down by the secretary, importing, " that the Indians living upon the Susquehan na, amounting in allto about three hundred fighting men, had applied to him, to put the hatohet into their hands in conjunction with the provincial forces, and to be furnished with 98 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. arms, ammunition, provisions, and strong houses, for the protection of their old men, women, and children ; that they had desired an explicit answer without further delay, that they might either prepare to act with the province, or provide for their own security ; that they had assured him this would be the last application they should make ; and that in case it did not succeed, they should leave them as an uifatuated people to the mercy of their enemies; that he could not but look upon this as one of the most import ant matters that ever came under their consi deration ; as it could not be supposed these Indians would expose themselves to the fury of an enemy so superior to themselves, unless they were vigorously supported ; and as a re fusal would unavoidably throw them into the arms of the French ; that how fatal this must prove to the inhabitants of Pennsylvania and all the English colonies, they could not be ig norant; that he was ready and desirous to do any thing consistent with his duty to the crown for the protection and assistance, as well those of their allies, as of the said in habitants; and that upon this important af fair, and at the pressing instance of these In dians, he had put off his journey to the back settlements, although he conceived his pre sence among them at that time to be extreme ly necessary." Thus the defeat of one expedient made way for the trial of another ; and what the govern or's set-off could not effect, was to be re-at tempted by this put-off The assembly, however, were equally proof against both ; and having adjusted a separate answer to each, sent them up the next day, November 11, by the same messengers. In the first they signified, " that they had come together with the sincerest disposition to avoid, if possible, all disputes whatsoever with the governor ; that they were deejily affected with the distresses of the fron1;ier country, and determined to do every thing that could be expected of them for the public safety ; that they had immediately voted a large sum for the king's service, and provid ed a fund for sinking the whole witliin five years, as recommended by the governor ; that as the colony had been founded on maxims of peace, as they had so long maintained an uninterrupted friendship with the natives, and as the French had already gained the De lawares * and Shawanese to their interest they thought it was but natural for them to inquire what cause of complaint had been ad ministered to them, and to express their rea- * A pamphlet was written in Pennsylvania, and pub- llRhed in London, entitled, " An inquiry into the cause ofthe alienation ofthe Delaware and Shawanese In dians from the British interest," &c., wherein will be found what reason the assembly had to suspect those Indians might have been injuriously treated by the proprietaries and their agents. diness to do them justice, before hostUities were returned, and the breach grown wider; that for their better information, and without intending the least offence to the governor, they had applied for the last treaty ; that their message to this effect was sent upon the se cond day after their entering upon business; and that the governor had not tUl then vouch safed them an answer." Coming then to the bUl, " They suggested an apprehension, that the governor's immediate refusal of it, because it was ofthe same kind with one he had be fore refused, arose from his not having allow ed himself time to consider of it ;" adding, " that indeed all bills for raising money were so far of the same kind ; but this differed greatly from every former bill which had been offered him ; that all the amendments(of any consequence) which he had proposed to the last bUl he had refused, save that for totally exempting the proprietary estate, had been ad mitted in this; that bemg as desirous as the go vernor to avoid any dispute on that head, they had even so framed the bUl, as to submit it en tirely to his majesty's royal determination, whether that estate had or had not a right to such exemption ; that so much time was allow ed by the bill, that the king's pleasure might possibly be known even before the first assess ment ; that it was farther provided, that ff at any time during the continuance ofthe act the crown should declare the said estate exempt as aforesaid, in such case the tax, though assessed, should not be levied, or tf levied should be refunded, and replaced by an addi tional tax on the province ; that they could not Conceive any thing more feir and rea sonable than this, or that the governor would or could start any objection to it : since the words * in his commission, which he was pleased to suppose contained an express pro hibition ofhis passing such a bUl, did not ap pear to them to have any such meaning ; that if it was one ofthe just rights of government, that the proprietary estate should not be tax ed for the common defence of aU estates in the province, those just rights were well understood in England, the proprietaries were on the spot to plead their own cause, or if as remote as they (the assembly) were, might safely confide in his majesty's known wisdom and justice ; that the equity of their being taxed, had appeared so plain even to their best friends there, that they had enter ed into a voluntary subscription to pay their supposed quota for them, in fiUl assurance, * " Provided always, that nothing herein contained, shall extend, or be construed to extend, to give you any power or authority to do, perform, act, suffer, ac quiesce in, or consent or agree unto, any act, matter or thing whatsoever, by means or reason whereof, we, or either of us, or the heirs of us, or either of us, may be hurt, pre,judiced, impeached, or incumbered, in our or their, or either of our or their royalties, jurisdictions, properties, estate, right, tiUe or interest, of, in or to, the said province or counties, or any part of them." PENNSYLVANIA. 99 that if they had been present, they would have done the same themselves, and would repay what should be so advanced for them ; that ff the proprietaries had any of this zeal for the service about them, this bill, if passed, would give them a happy opportunity of raa- ntfesting it, by becoming solicitors to the king for his approbation, and refusing to peti tion for an exemption; and that since the right of exemption contended for on their be half, could never be settled between the go vernor and assembly, the bUl transferred the cause thither where only it could be decided." The residue of this piece contains so full, so noble, and so affecting a recapitulation of the whole dispute, and seta the selfish conduct of the proprietaries and their deputy in so clear a light, that leave must be taken to in sert it verbatim. " Our assemblies have of late had so many supply bUls, and of such different kinds, re jected, on various pretences: some for not complying with obsolete occasional instruc tions (though other acts exactly of the same tenor had been past since those instructions, and received the royal assent ;) some for be ing inconsistent with the supposed spirit of an act of parliament, when the act itself did not any way affect us, being made express ly for other colonies ; some for being, as the governor was pleased to say, ' of an extraordi nary nature,' without informing us wherein that extraordinary nature consisted ; and others for disagreeing with new-discovered mean ings, and forced constructions of a clause in the proprietary commission ; that we are now really at a loss to divine what bill can possi bly pass. The proprietary instructions are secrets to us ; and we may spend much time, and much of the public money, in preparing and framing bills for supply, which, after all, must, from those instructions, prove abortive. If we are thus to be driven from bill to bUl, without one solid reason afforded us; and can raise no money for the king's service, and re lief or security of our country, till we fortu nately hit on the only bill the governor is al lowed to pass, or till we consent to make such as the governor or proprietaries dkect us to make, we see little use of assemblies in this particular, and think we might as well leave it to the governor or proprietaries to make for us what supply laws they please, and save ourselves and the country the expense and trouble. All debates and all reasonings are vain, where proprietary instructions, just or unjust, right or wrong, must inviolably be observed. We have only to find out, if we can, what they are, and then submit and obey. — But surely the proprietaries' conduct, whether, as fathers of their country, or sub jects to their king, must appear extraordinary, when it is considered that they have not only formally refused to bear any part of our yearly heavy expenses in cultivating and maintaining friendship with the Indians, though they reap such immense advantages by that friendship ; but that they now, by their lieutenant, refuse to contribute any part towards resisting an invasion of the king's colony committed to their care ; or to submit their claim of ex emption to the decision of their sovereign. " In fine, we have the most sensible con cern for the poor distressed inhabitants ofthe frontiers. We have taken every step in our power, consistent with the just rights of the freemen of Pennsylvania, for their relief, and we have reason to believe, that in the midst of their distresses they themselves do not wish us to go farther. Those who would give up essential liberty, to purchase a little tempo rary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safe ty. Such as were inclined to defend them selves, but unable to purchase arms and am munition, have, as we are informed, been sup plied with both, as far as arms could be pro cured, out of monies given by the last assem bly for the king's use ; and the large supply of money offered by this bill, might enable the governor to do every thing else that should be judged necessary for their further security, if he shall think fit to accept it Whether he could, as he supposes, " if his hands had been properly strengthened, have put the pro vince into such a posture of defence, as might have prevented the present mischiefs," seems to us uncertain ; since late experience in our neighbouring colony of Virginia (which had every advantage for that purpose that could be desired) shows clearly, that it is next to impossible to guard effectually an extended frontier, settled by scattered single families at two or three miles distance, so as to secure them from the insidious attacks of small par ties of skulking murderers; but thus much is certain, that by refusing our bills from time to time, by which great sums were seasona bly offered, he has rejected all the strength that money could afford him ; and if his hands are still weak or unable, he ought only to blame himself, or those who have tied them. " If the governor proceeds on his journey, and takes a quorum of his council with him, we hope, since he retains our bill, that it wUl be seriously and duly considered by them ; and that the same regard for the public wel fare which induced them unanimously to ad vise his intended journey, will induce them as unanimously to advise his assent We agree, therefore, to his keeping the bUl, ear nestly requesting he would reconsider it at tentively; and shall be ready at any time to meet him for the purpose of enacting it into a law." There is not in any volume, the sacred writings excepted, a passage to be found bet ter worth the veneration of freemen, than this, "those who would give up essential 100 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. liberty, to'purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety ;" nor could a lesson of more utility have been laid at that crisis before the Pennsylvanians. And as to the other message of the assem bly, which was sent up together with this, it was so solid and concise that it wUl not bear an abridgment. "May it please the Governor, " We have considered the governor's mes sage of yesterday, relating to the application and pressing instances of the Indians, and are glad to find, that he is at length prevaUed on to declare himself ready and desirous to do any thing, consistent with his duty to the crown, for the protection and assistance, as well of our allies, as of the inhabitants of this province in general." We never have, and we hope never shall, desire him to do any thing inconsistent with that duty. He has it now in his power to do what he may think the exigence requires, for the service ofthe crown, the protection of our allies, and ofthe inhabitants of the province. As cap tain-general, he has, by the royal charter, full authority to raise men ; and the bill now in his hands, granting sixty thousand pounds, will enable him to pay the expenses. We grant the money 'cheerfully, though the tax to sink it will be a heavy one ; and we hope the bUl will receive his assent immediately." With both, a bill was sent up, for supply ing the western and northern Indians, friends and allies of Great Britain, with goods at more easy rates, supporting an agent, or agents among them, and preventing abuses in the Indian trade, to which the governor's assent was desired. The governor's answer was, "that he would take the same into consideration, and give it all the despatch in his power." But whatever he was pleased to say, both his head and his heart were at this time taken up with other purposes; how just in them selves, how agreeable to his commission, and how salutary to the province, the sequel wUl most properly explain. In the cause of this long and manifold con troversy, the proceedings of parliament had been frequentiy referred to ; and the rights of the house of commons as frequently urged by way of sanction for the claims of the assembly. And now the proprietary-party or governor's- men, (for wherever there is influence, there such creatures will always be found) being desirous also in their turn, to avail themselves of their reading, had recourse, it may be pre sumed, to the famous Kentish petition in the year 1701, as a proper precedent for them to proceed upon, in hectoring the assembly into such measures as they could not be prevailed upon to adopt by any other means. Willing, however, to give their copy the air of an original, they chose to represent to their representatives, rather than to petition; and whereas the Kentish petition humbly im plored, these came with a positive and im mediate demand. The mayor of Philadelphia took the lead in this turbulent transaction, and found one hun dred and thirty-three inconsiderates, to follow him, under the name of several ofthe princi pal inhabitants of that city. To the assembly it was presented, the very day after the two messages, just recited, were left with the governor, " at a time when a bold and barbarous enemy bets advanced within about one hundred mUes of this me tropolis, [the governor had said eighty] cany- ing murder and desolation along with them ;" (thus pompously it began,) " we should think ourselves greatly wanting, &c. if we did not thus publicly join our names to the number of those who are requesting you to pass a law in order to put the province into a posture of de fence," &c. A militia by law is the measure they after wards contend for; and to show how men differ from themselves according to circum stances and situations, the government-doc trine here was, " that the proper and natural force of every country was its mUitia ; with out which no government could ever subsist it self, that no sums of money however great could answer the purposes of defence witiiout such a law," &c. And it was in these very words, they had the temerity to enforce their point. " We hope we shall always be enabled to preserve that respect to you, which we would wUlingly pay to those who are the feithfiil representatives of the freemen of this province. But, on the present occasion, you wUl forgive us, gentlemen, if we assume characters some thing higher than that of humble suitors, praying for the defence of our lives and pro perties, as a mattter of grace and fevour on your side ; you wUl permit us to make a po sitive and immediate demand of it as a matter of perfect and unalienable right on our own parts, both by the laws of God and man." As also, again afterwards. " Upon the whole, gentlemen, we must be permitted to repeat our demand, that you will immediately frame and offer a law for the de fence of the province, in such a manner as the present exigency requires. The time does not permit many hands to be put to this re presentation ; but if numbers are necessary, we trust we shall neither want a sufficient number of hands nor hearts, to support and second us, till we finally obtain such a reason able demand." To a committee it was referred, together with the address from certain of the people called quakers, (recommending peaceable measures, and insinuating, that otherwise many as well as themselves would be under a PENNSYLVANIA. 101 necessity to suffer rather than to pay) and that concerning unnecessary disputes with the go vernor, as containing sundry matters of an ex traordinary nature, for consideration ; and in the mean time, the house plyed the governor with message after message, concerning the bUl for regulating their Indian trade, and that for the supply. Both parties apparently Wanted to gain time. It was equally danger ous for the assembly to provoke or parley with a multitude ; and nothing but new matter from the frontier could give the governor any new advantage over them. His answer to the assembly on the 14th of November was, " That he had given the bill relating to the Indian trade to his clerk to tran scribe ;" and that, as to the other, " He was then reconsidering it according to the request of the house ; and when he came to any re solution upon it, the house might expect his final answer ; but he did not know when that would be." At last, on the 17th, that is to say, after having been again quickened by another mes sage, he sent down the latter with a paper of amendments, and a written message different both in matter and manner from, but alto gether as illusory as the former. For, having maintained, as before, that he was not author ized by his commission to pass such a bill, and yet agreed with the assembly, that their dis pute must in the end, be determined by his majesty, he changed his objection from the thing to the mode, which he argued was un precedented, and, in effect, impracticable : for, he said, " The kmg could not properly give his assent to some parts of an act and reject others ; and he then suggested another expe dient, namely, for the house to adopt his own amendmente sent down with the bill, by which the proprietary estate was entirely exempt ed ; and to prepare and pass anotlier bill, whereby the said estate was to be taxed in the same proportion with every other estate, only not by assessors chosen by the people, but by commissioners reciprocally chosen by himself and the assembly, and also named in the bUl ; together with a suspending clause, that the same should not take effect till it had received his majesty's approbation. All was closed with a sort of protestation, that nothing but an implicit confidence in his majesty's goodness and justice, that he would disapprove it if it was wrong, and his own most sincere and ardent desire of doing every thing in his power for the good and security ofthe people committed to his care, could have induced him to pass a law in any shape for taxing the said estate ; and a predecision, that if they were equally sincere and equally affected with the distresses and miseries of theu: bleeding coun try, they could have no objection to this me thod of afforduig immediate succour and re lief" 9* What the doctrine was, established in the province, concerning suspending clauses, is already before the reader, and consequently the inference, in case the assembly had been weak enough to swallow the bait thus hung out for them. — But they were neither to be so amused by him, nor so terrified by his allies without doors, as either to forego the use of their understandings, or to act with their eyes open as if they had no eyes at all. Having, therefore, sufficientiy canvassed the matter, they first resolved, that they would adhere to their bUl without admitting any of the governor's proposed amendments ; and then, to make him sensible, that they also had some artillery to ply, as well as he, they far ther resolved, "'That, in case the governor should persist in refusing his assent to their bUl, which was so just and equitable in its nature, and so absolutely necessary at that time for the welfare of the British interest in America, after he should receive the answer of the house to his message then under consi deration, they would make their appeal to the throne by remonstrance, humbly beseeching his majesty to cause their present governor to be removed, or take such other measures as might prevent the fatal consequences likely to ensue from his conduct." This vote was unanimous : and they far ther took notice in their minutes of some dis satisfaction expressed at an Indian treaty held in the year 1753, by one of the chiefs of the Shawanese, and some promise made to him on the behalf of the proprietaries, which had not been complied with. The governor, on the other hand, sent down the secretary with intelligence of another mas sacre committed by thekidiansataplace call ed Tulpehooken ; and in a. written message farther observed on the supply bill, he had re turned, " that no money could be issued in virtue of it till the next January ; before which the greatest part of the province might be laid waste, and the people destroyed or driven from then: habitations; thence proceeded to de mand an immediate supply of money ; and con cluded with a signification, that, should they enable him to raise money on the present oc casion, a law founded on the act of parliament for punishing mutiny and desertion, would be absolutely necessary for the government of them, when not joined with his majesty's re gular troops." This was no sooner read than the house ad justed their answer to his former message, in which " They maintained the propriety of their bUl ui point of mode as well as matter : that conditional or alternative clauses were far from being unprecedented ; that the act was so constructed as to be complete either way ; that, on the contrary, in pursuing the other method recommended, of passing two bills diametrically contradictory to each other. 102 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. in the same breath, they might be justly charged with doing what would be not only un precedented and absurd, but what would,infal- libly secure the end aimed at by the governor, to wit, exempting the proprietaries from tax ation ; that as to the expedient of assessing the proprietary estate by commissioners in stead of assessors, they did not see the neces sity of it ; that the lords of parliament had, in the year 1692, proposed a like amendment to a money-bill, but finding it could not be car ried, had dropped it then, and never revived it since ; that it was one of the most valuable rights of British subjects to have their mo- ney-bUls accepted without amendments, a right not to be given up without destroying the constitution, and incurring greater and more lasting mischiefs than the grant of mo ney can prevent ; that of the twenty amend ments offered by the governor to the fifty thousand pounds bill ofthe last assembly, the present assembly had admitted every one of them that was of any consequence into the present bfll, merely for the sake of avoiding all dispute, except that of exempting the pro prietary estate ; and even that had been so modified as they ima.gined no o'Djection could remain ; that they found, however, in this in stance, how endless it was to admit such changes : seeing the governor now wanted to amend his own amendments, add to his own additions, and alter his own alterations; so that, though they should now accede to these, they could not be sure of being ever the nearer to a conclusion ; that, as the pass ing the proposed separate hill was equally in consistent with the governor's construction ofthe prohibitory clause in his commission, which he seemed now to have got over ; so they hoped he would not, for the sake of a mere opinion, concerning mode and propriety, any longer refiise a bUl of so great import ance to his majesty's service, and even the proprietary estate, going daily to ruin, as well as the relief of the province ; and that the same implicit confidence in his majesty's good ness, which induced him to pass such a bUl in any shape, might also encourage him to believe, that any little impropriety, if any there was, would be graciously passed over ; that, ff there could be any doubts, which was most affected with the miseries of the pro vince ; they, who were most of them natives of it, and who had all of them tiieir estates there, or he, a stranger among them ; a con sideration of the many bUls they had offered in vain for its relief, and their earnest endea vours to give such great sums to that end, would solve them all; and that upon the whole, the house adhered to their bill without amendments; because it was a money-bill; because the whole sum was granted to the crown, and to be paid out of the pockets of the subject; and because it was in their judg ments a reasonable one. Lastly, they made It their request, that since, at such a time as that, disputes and contentions between differ ent parts of the government could not but be extremely prejudicial both to the king's ser vice and the welfare of the country, they might be thenceforth laid aside ; and that the governor, by passing this just and equitable bill, would lay the foundation of such an agree ment as might conduce to the general bene fit of all concerned, and prevent the necessity they should otherwise be under, of making an immediate application and complaint against him to their sovereign." They accompanied this message with cer tain extracts from the journals of parliament, concerning the claims of the lords and the perseverance of the commons in rejecting them ; they also, in a separate message, ap plied for information concerning the Shawa nese affair before-mentioned ; and in a farther message they apprized him, " That their trea sury was quite exhausted by the heavy ex penses lately incurred, and that they knew of no way of raising money so expeditiously as that proposed by the bill then before the go vernor." After which they subjoined the fol lowing expressions, " It is true, the money in tended to be struck, may not be current be fore the thirty-first of December; but as that is not more than six weeks, there is no doubt but that labour, service, and any thing else that money can purchase among us, may be had on credit for so short a time, if the bill passes ; and in consideration of the necessity of affording timely Jtssistance to the distressed inhabitants in the back counties, we smcerely hope, and once more earnestly entreat that the governor will no longer refuse or delay his assent to it." At this time the house had a militia bill under their consideration, framed in compli ance with the request of sundry petitions they had received, setting forth, " that the peti tioners were very wUIing to defend them selves and country, and desirous of being formed into regular bodies for that purpose, under proper officers, with legal authority :" the bill therefore was, as tiie title expressed, " forthe better ordering and regulating such as are wUling and desirous of being united for military purposes." It gave these the powers they desired, without compelling others who might be conscientiously against bearing arms. In which respect it conformed with the go vernor's particular recommendation often re peated. This bill was sent up to him on the twenty- first ; and, at the same time, the house called upon him for his result on the bUls already before him. Nothing is more true, than, that the more clearly and unanswerably you convince a man that he is in the wrong, the more you exas- PENNSYLVANIA. IDS perate him against you ; and never was any truth more strongly Ulustrated than this ap pears to have been in the person of this high and mighty governor. He could not forgive the assembly, because they had put him out of conceit with himself: and the poorer he found himself in arguments, the more strongly his passions excited hira to make use of invec tives. Invective became his only resource then ; and the little power he had over him self, yet ferther showed how unfit he was to be a governor. Having pronounced his proposal to the as sembly to he a reasonable one, and declared himself no less astonished than grieved, that they should reject it ; and, more especially, as their best argument for so doing was founded on a new and lofty claim of privilege, he en deavours both to prove the novelty and ac count for the assumption of it, by saying, " It had never been heard of, till towards the close of Mr. Hamilton's administration, and that the assembly being then pressed on the subject of defence, first introduced and have since continued their claim: either wholly to avoid giving money for warlike purposes, or to arrogate unwarrantable powers to them selves." To certain extracts from the minutes of the councU, sent together with this mes sage to them, he then referred for his proofs, that the governor's right to amend money- bills was never till then questioned ; and after upbraiding them, in his way, for risking tiie rejection ofso important an act, on account of the proprietary exemption, resolved all their reason for adhering to what he called, the indirect and perplexed method of their bUl, into their sovereign pleasure to have it so. The same paragraph contained also some strange insinuations, "That, not daring to trust their cause on its own bottom, they had chosen to blend both bUls together, that they might have a better chance of having their chief governor and his estate subjected to their mercy." And what with his implicit confidence, that the crown, in the common method, would neither pass that or any other law for the sake of the greatest sums, if the proprietary claim to an exemption was just in itself; and what with his foresight of mani fest inconveniences that might ensue from a total rejection thereof (which he himself had nevertheless persevered in doing.) The next paragraph is hardly to be deciphered at all, except that in the close of it, he attempte to justify his own uncommon method, by saying, " he had separated the two parts of the bill, that the province might be served either way ; [which the assembly had been altogether as provident of before.] Any absurdity in this method he professed himself unable to disco ver ; and the good-natured construction put upon it by them, ofhis intending to secure an infallible exemption to the proprietary estate thereby, he said he should leave among the rest of the groundless charges against him." Condescend he did, however, to offer one amendment more, which, according to him, was to reconcUe all : namely, by the addition of the following words to the exemption clause proposed to be added to the first bill, to wit : " 'The estates of the honourable Thomas Penn and Richard Penn, esquires, excepted ; which shall be taxed in the manner directed by a particular law, passed or to be passed for that purpose." Not willmg, however, to rest the controversy here, he proceeded to declare, " that their extracts from the journals of par liament proved nothing to the purpose for which they were quoted ; the constitution of England and the constitution of Pennsylvania being no way similar ; that how many so ever of his former amendments they had ad mitted, their leaving out the most material one, made the proposal of a separate bill a ne cessary expedient : so that they had no rea son for bursting out into such a lofty strain of rhetoric concerning his amending his amend ments, &c. That as to the number of money- bills he had rejected, they were but five in all, and all rejected for sufficient reasons, [such as we have seen !] and that, if they were dis posed to relieve their country, they had many other ways, to which he should have no ob jection." Proceeding then to the personal topic, and his being treated as a stranger, he takes a retrospect of their conduct, with an intent to show, that they had treated Mr. Ha milton, though a native, with as many abuses as they had treated him ; and here occurs a paragraph or two which must be inserted ver batim, viz. "And here, was I inclined to go beyond my own times, I might begin with reminding you how contemptuously you treated the pro prietary offer of four hundred pounds, for erecting a place of strength on the Ohio, to gether with an offer Af one hundred pounds per annum towards its support ; which offers were made at a time when your concurrence would probably have prevented many of the calamities we now groan under. " I might also observe, that when Mr. Ha milton first called upon you, pursuant to his majesty's orders, to grant such supplies as would enable him to draw forth the strength of the province, and to repel force by force, you would not admit that the French en croachments and fortifications on the Ohio were within our limits, or his majesty's do minions ; thereby seeking an excuse to avoid doing what was required of you." He had also the disingenuity to mention the late defeat of his majesty's forces, in express terms as having happened, " for want of that timely support and assistance which it was in the power of the province to have afforded." .And having again declared, that he could not 104 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. recede from his amendments, and expressed his satisfaction at their intended complaint against him, he concluded with the two fol lowing paragraphs, which are equally insidi ous, injurious, and unbecoming. " Upon the v\fhole, it appears clear to me, that you never mtended that any of your bUls should pass for raising money to defend the province ; and this seems now to be placed beyond all dispute, since those people, under whose influence you are chiefly known to be, are said to have declared publicly to you, that they would sooner suffer than pay towards such purposes. " However, I shall put one proof more, both of your sincerity and mine, in our professions of regard for the public, by offering to agree to any bill, in the present exigency, which it is consistent with my duty to pass, lest, be fore our present disputes can be brought to an issue, we should neither have a privilege to dispute about, nor a country to dispute in." Together with this message, the secretary also brought down another altogether as ex traordinary, in which the governor acquaints the house, " that he had considered their bill, for the better ordering and regulating such as were wUling and desirous to be united for mUitary purposes within that province ; and though there were many things in it of a very extraordhiary nature, and that he was con vinced it would never answer the purpose of defending the province, even if it could be carried into execution, in any reasonable time, which he was afraid it could not, yet, to show he was desirous of doing any thing that had even a chance of contributing to the safety ofthe province, he should consent to it in the shape they had sent it, as it would be entering into new disputes, should he amend it properly." And what is, perhaps, more extraordinary stUl, the governor on the same day, namely, Saturday, November 22, received some des patches from the proprietaries, the contents of which he did not communicate to the house till the Monday following ; by which time he was ready to unmask such a variety of batte ries, as he thought would be sufficient, by their very noise alone, so to intimidate his an tagonists at least, that they should not pre sume to make him such a return to his last message as they had done to his former. The first was a report from his council, con taining such a discussion of Indian affairs as was to be taken for a discharge in full of the Shawanese complaints mentioned in a mes sage from the assembly, at their first sitting, in consequence ofthe governor's summons. The second was a call upon them to pro vide for a swarm of French inhabitants ba nished out of Nova Scotia by governor Law rence, and sent at a venture to be distributed through the rest ofhis majesty's colonies along the continent. And the third not only notified the receipt of the proprietaries' despatches above-men tioned, but farther specified, " That, such was their care and regard for the people, that they had no sooner received the account he had sent them of general Braddock's defeat than they sent him an order upon their receiver- general for five thousand pounds, as a free gift to the public, to be applied to such uses as that event might make necessary for the com mon security of the province ; that he had di rected the said receiver-general to have the money ready as soon as possible ; and that it should be paid by such persons as should be appointed by act of assembly for the disposi tion of any sum they might think necessary for the defence of the province in that time of danger." Two other clauses were also added : one importing, " That this timely and generous instance of the proprietaries' care and anxiety for the inhabitants, could not feU making the most lasting impression upon the minds of every well-wisher to that country ;" and the other, " That the governor upon that occasion again recommended it to them to lay aside all disputes, and to grant such supplies in addition to what the proprietaries had given, as his majesty's service and the press ing exigencies of the province required." That they might not however, have any merit to plead on either of these heads, but might seem to be driven by force into every such measure as was thus recommended, on the very next day after this, and before it was possible for them to come properly to any re solutions at all ; came again the mayor of Philadelphia, having now also prevaUed with his corporation to join him and his prompters, with a remonstrance, in a style altogether dictatorial, " reproachuig them with loosing their time in deliberations, whUe their fellow- subjects were exposed to slaughter, and in de bates about privUeges , while they were de prived of the great first privilege of self-pre servation, and requiring them to postfione all disputes, grant necessary supplies, and pass a reasonahle law for establishing a militia ; and in the close of it, recommending despatch, as the people seemed already in a deplorable and desperate state, and they feared it would not be possible to preserve the peace and quiet ofthe city, or of the province itself, much longer." 'The house, notwithstanding, to be consist ent in all things, called, in the first place, upon their committee for the answer they were directed to prepare to the governor's last invective, which was ready, and in sub stance as follows ; to wit, " That if they could be astonished at any thing which came from their governor, they should be astonished at his repeating charges PENNSYLVANIA. 105 and calumnies, groundless in themselves, and so repeatedly, fully, and publicly refuted ; that instead of refuting them, therefore, they should only refer to their former refutations ; that what he says concerning the risk of los ing so important an act was mere sophistry and amusement ; that, as they had before as serted, conditional or alternative clauses were conimon ; that in the same act there was an other, namely, that in case the four year tax did not produce sixty thousand pounds, the de fect should be supplied by an additional tax ; and, if it exceeded, the overplus should be disposed by a future act; to which the go vernor had made no objection ; that, notwith standing all the dust he had attempted to raise, it was therefore clear to them, that the bUl was entirely unobjectionable ; that their mode was more proper than his, and as safe both for the bUl, and the pretended rights of the pro prietary ; that his commission had no such prohibition as he affected to find in it ; and that they could not, in a money-bUl like this, admit of amendments not founded in reason, justice, or equity, but in the arbitrary plea sure of a governor, without betraying the trust reposed in them by their constituents, and giving up their just rights as free-born subjects of England; that by the charters their constitution was founded upon, in ad dition to the privileges therein specially named, thy are moreover entitled to all other powers and privileges of an assembly, accord ing to the rights of the free-born subjects of England, and as is usual in any of the king's plantations in America ; that the free-bom subjects of England had a right to grant their own money their own way, the governor did not deny, nor that the same was usual in other plantations; that therefore they had the same right, and should have had it if it had not been so specified in their charter; such free-born subjects, instead of losing any of their essential rights, by removing into the king's plantations, and extending the British dominions at the hazard of their lives and for tunes ; being, on the contrary, uidulged with particular privileges for their encouragement in so useful and meritorious an undertaking ; that indeed their constitution was, in one res pect, no way simUar to that of England, namely, the king's having a natural connexion with his people, the crown descending to his posterity, and his own power and security waxing and waning with the prosperity of his people; whereas plantation-governors were frequently transient persons, of broken fortunes, greedy of money, destitute of all concern for those they governed, often their enemies, and endea vouring not only to oppress but defame them, and thereby render them obnoxious to their sovereign, and odious to their fellow -subjects; that their present governor not only denied them the privUeges of an English constitu- VoL. II. ... O tion, but had endeavoured to introduce a French one, by reducing their assemblies to the insignificance to which the French parlia ments had been reduced ; had required them to defend their country, and then put it out of their power, unless they would first part with some of the essentials which made it worth defending, which was in fact reducing them to an Egyptian constitution : for, that as the Egyptians were to perish by famine unless they became servants to Pharaoh, so were they by the sword, unless they also became servants to an absolute lord, or as he was pleased to style himself, absolute proprietary ; that all comparisons' made by the governor of himself to his immediate predecessor would be to his own disadvantage, the differences between the former gentleman and his assem blies having been but small, in comparison with those then subsisting, and conducted by him with some tenderness to his country ; that how much soever the people were at that time dissatisfied with some particulars in his administration, the present had given them abundant reason to regret the change ; that as to the collusion charged upon them, in not intending any of the bills they had offered for the defence of their country should pass, they could, with humble confidence, appeal to the searcher of all hearts, that their intentions per fectly corresponded with their actions ; that, not to mention the unfairness of ascribing to a whole people the indiscretion of a few, [those who had declared they would suffer ra ther than pay for mUitary measures] the go vernor himself must own, they could not be under the influence he supposed, when they assured him that several more votes had been given for those measures since they were pe titioned against, than before ; that they were totally ignorant of the many other ways of raising money, to which the governor had no objection ; as also, what that other bill might be, which he might think consistent with his duty to pass ; that he thought it inconsistent with his duty to pass any bills contrary to his instructions from the proprietaries, which (like the instructions of the president and council of the north, mentioned by lord Coke, 4 inst p. 246,) were to them impenetrable secrets ; that, according to the same great lawyer's re mark on governing by such insructions, misera est survitus ubijus est vagum aut incogni- tum ; that, therefore, it would be in vain for them to search for other ways, or frame other bUls ; and that here the matter must rest tUl his majesty should be graciously pleased to relieve them ; since, with the governor, they could no otherwise hope to end their unhappy divisions, than by submitting to one part or the other of the miserable alternative men tioned by him ; either not to have a privilege worth disputing about, or be deprived of a country to dispute it in," 106 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. But though this answer was, in every par ticular, conformable to the sense ofthe house, and was afterwards printed in the appendix to their proceedings, they declined making use of it ; and that for the present reported by the committee was to the effect following: to wit " that the bulk of the governor's long message consisted of groundless charges and calumnies, which having been repeatedly re futed, might be safely left to themselves ; that though they had prepared a full answer to the rest, yet as there were now some hopes of an agreement with him in the money-bUI, which was the prmcipal business of the ses sion, they submitted it to the house, whether it would not be more consistent with their prudence and moderation to suppress it ; that there being, however, one or two new charges brought against the assemblies of that pro vince, it might be proper to take some notice of them; that the first of these was, that they contemptuously treated the proprietary offer of four hundred pounds, for erecting a place of strength on the Ohio, and of one hundred pounds per annum towards its support ; that this contemptuous treatment was not specified, but might be explained, by a passage out of the Brief State, [a proprietary pamphlet] where it is said, " the house refused this pro posal a place in their minutes;" that the fact was, however, otherwise ; that the said pro posal appears in several pages there specified ; and that nothing farther than what is there, could properly be made a part of those re cords ; and the reason thereof is then assigned in the following narrative ; which, for various reasons, deserves to be made a part of this discourse. " The late governor HamUton, after sending the message of the thirteenth of August, 1751, requested a private meeting with some of the members of that house, but without any au thority from the assembly. " At this meeting governor HamUton of fered, on behalf of the proprietaries, four hun dred pounds, towards building such a house upon or near the Ohio, (but not a syllable of maintaining or supporting it) The Indians were so far from pressing our engaging in it that instructions were drawn by this govern ment to require it of them, at a treaty held by G. Croghan, in May, 1751, and they evidently showed themselves apprehensive, such an at tempt might give umbrage to the French, and bring them down the Ohio with an armed force, to take possession of those lands. And about two years afterwards, these very Ohio Indians, at the treaty held at Carlisle, in Oc tober, 1753, say to our government ' I desire you would hear and take notice of whot I am about to say ; the governor of Virginia de sired leave to build a strong house on Ohio, which came to the ears of the governor of Canada, and we suppose this caused him to invade our country.' Treaty, page 8. The same sentunents appeared among the Six Na tions, at the Albany treaty ; ' that the Eng lish and French were only contending which of them should have their lands.' The rea soning made use of by the members at this private conference with the late governor was, that the land were they proposed to build it was claimed by the crown, and was very probably beyond the limits of Pennsylvania ; that at least it would be beyond the reach of our laws, as appeared by the people already settled on Juniata, just beyond the North mountaui ; that this, instead of healing, might create irreconcUeable breaches with our In dians, considering what sort of people would probably reside there; that the Indians had never heartily requested it nor did it seem to be their interest so to do ; and ff they hjtd re quested it, as they were in subjection to the Six Nations, it would be necessary to have their assent ; that this precipitate act would probably create a jealousy in the French, and give them some pretence of an infraction of the treaty of Utrecht on our part and might finally engage the British nation in a war with France. These, and many other rea sons, were urged at that private conference, as several of those members apprehended, to governor Hamilton's satisfaction. And it ap pears by George Croghan's journal, that those Indians neither did, nor did they think they could, give leave to buUd a house on the Ohio, without the express consent of the Six Na tions ; and accordingly they took two months to acquaint the Onondago councU with this transaction, and then to send us word, which they never complied with. " It appears further, by the assembly's mes sage to governor HamUton, on the twenty- first of August 1751, taken from the informa tions of Conrad Weiser, and Andrew Mon tour, ' that the request inserted in George Croghan's journal as made by the Indians at Ohio to this government to erect a strong trading house in their country, as well as the danger 'tis there said they apprehended from the attempte of the French, was misunder stood, or misrepresented by the person, the governor confided in for the management of that treaty.' But it may be unnecessary to pursue this inquiry into an affair wherein George Croghan thought himself unkindly, if not unjustiy, sacrificed to private ends, as is well known to such as were acquainted with this affair, and appears in the letters and other papers sent by himself to some of the mem bers of that assembly." Coming then to the other new charge, namely, that the assembly would not admit, that the French encroachments were within the king's dominions, they maintain that this charge is as Ul-founded as the other ; " For, say they, though the house never took upon PENNSYLVANIA, 107 them to ascertamthe bounds of the king's do minions, they never directly or indirecUy de nied those encroachments to be within them." They then proceeded to examine the extracts from the council minutes sent by the go vernor, in proof that money-bills had been amended by former governors. They de monstrated in ten several instances, those ex tracts had not been fairly represented. And they concluded in these words : " were all these to be deducted from the list, it would appear that there are but few instances in our journals of proper money-bUls amended by the governor, and the amendments agreed to by the house ; this is no more than was acknow ledged by the preceding assembly, in their message ofthe 29th of September, where they say, that in a very few instances their prede cessors might have waved that right on par ticular occasions, but had never given it up." Scarce had the house agreed with their committee in laying aside, for the present, the first of these answers, for the reasons as signed in the second, than certain inhabitants of PhUadelphia, joined with others of the county of Chester, in all twenty-nine persons, thought themselves at liberty to assail the house in person with a petition, desiring, that the governor and the house would unite in the fear of God, &c. And as the minute taken of this strange incident (which followed the Philadelphia remonstrance in much such a manner as the legion-letter followed the Kentish petition before referred to) will serve at once to show the ferment which then pre vailed in the province, and yet how far the people in general were from desiring to be preserved against the incursions of the ene mies, at the expense of their constitutional liberties ; it is here inserted, to wit : " The speaker told them, that it was well known this house was composed of members chosen without any solicitation on their parts, to be the representatives of the people, and guardians of their liberties ; that the whole powers the house were invested with, were derived from the people themselves, and that as the house had hitherto, so they should stUl continue to discharge the high trust reposed in them to the best of their understanding and abUities ; and then asked them, whether they desired that the house should give up any rights, which, m the opinion of the house, the people were justly entitled to ? some of the pe titioners, in behalf of the whole, answered, no; they were fer from requiring any thing of that kind ; all they wanted was, that some expe dient might be feUen upon, if possible, to ac commodate matters in such a manner, as that the province might be relieved from its pre sent unhappy situation. To this the speaker replied, that nothing could be more agreeable to this house than a harmony between the two branches of the legislature ; and that as the governor had yesterday evening sent down a message, intimating that the proprietaries are now disposed to contribute a sum of money to wards the common security of the province, there was a great probabUity that all contro versies on that head were at an end, and that some method would be speedUy taken for re lieving the province from its present diffi culties." In effect, the governor having given his con sent to the militia biU, and the house havmg made some immediate provision, for landing and relieving the miserable French exUes ob truded upon them from Nova Scotia, they pro ceeded to resolve, first, unanimously, " That the right of granting supplies to the crown in this province, is alone in the repre sentatives of the freemen met in assembly, being essential to an English constitution. -And the limitation of all such grants, as to the matter, manner, measure, and time, is in them only." And then, " That in consideration of the governor's message of yesterday, by which it appears that the proprietaries have sent him an order on the receiver-general for five thousand pounds, to be paid into the hands of such persons as shall be appointed by act of assembly, and ap plied with such sums as the assembly should grant, to such uses as may be necessary for the common security of the province ; and as it would not be reasonable or just, at this time, to tax the proprietary estate, in order to raise money therefrom, over and above the said grant from the proprietaries, the house will immediately proceed to form a new bill for granting a sum of money to the use of the crown, and therein omit the taxation of the said estate." Accordingly, such a bUl was ordered the same day ; and, in full confutation of all the injurious surmises that they did not so much as intend to save their country, prosecuted with so much zeal and alacrity, that it re ceived the governor's assent the next day but one following. Thus the two branches of the legislature were at last united in the great duty of making all contribute to the defence and preservation of all. But though the storm was for the present over, some marks of recent turbulence stiU re mained. The governor, though frequently called upon, could not be brought to pass the bill for regulating the Indian trade ; the house, therefore, thought proper to press him with such a message, as should, by explaining the nature ofthe bill, not only indicate the nature ofthe abuses it was calculated to correct, but also oblige him, if possible, to account for his delay ; and the message agreed upon was as follows, viz. 108 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. " May it please the Governor, "As the bill for regulating the Indian trade, by employing sober and discreet persons to reside among those nations that remain friends to this province, for the purpose of fur nishing them with the necessary goods in ex change for their peltry, at easy and reasonable rates, on account of the public, and thereby securing them to our interest, seems to us a bill of great importance at this juncture, we are very desirous of bringing it to a conclu sion as soon as possible ; and therefore once more earnestly request the governor would be pleased to let us know his sentiments upon it, and communicate the amendments he is pleased to say he thinks needful, that we may consider them. The bill has already lain be fore him above two weeks ; and we fear, if something of the kind is not immediately gone into, we shall lose our few remaining Indians on the Susquehanna ; for as none of our traders now go among them, and they dare not come down to our settlements to buy what they want, for fear of being mistaken for enemies, there seems to be the greatest danger of their being necessarily driven into the arms of the French, to be provided with the means of subsistence." To which the governor was pleased to re turn the foUowing evasive answer: " Gentlemen, " Since your bill for regulating the Indian trade has been before me, my time has been so much taken up with the variety of business that the circumstances of this provmce made necessary to be despatched without delay, that I have not been able to give it the considera tion a bUl of that nature requires, nor to ex amine the laws of the neighbouring provinces upon that subject But as the Indian traxle is now at. a stand, I cannot conceive that it wUl be at all dangerous to the public to defer the completing of this act till the next sitting ; especially as it will be necessary to call in and confine our friendly Indians to certain limits, to prevent their being mistaken for, and killed as enemies, where they must be subsisted. This wUl hinder thetn from hunt ing, so that they will have no skins no trade with." And now, after having so often treated the assembly as a body fitter to be prescribed to, than consulted with, he took it into his head to apply to them for advice ; on what account it is reasonable his own message should ex plain. " Gentlemen, " General Shirley, pursuant to his majesty's orders for that purpose, has requested me to meet him at New York, in a congress he has there appointed, as you will observe by the extract of a letter from him upon that subject, which the secretary wUl lay before you. At that meeting, business of the greatest conse quence to his majesty's service and the safety of these colonies will be considered and con cluded, and the success of the next year's ope rations may in a great measure depend on the timely resolutions of that councU. " I have lately received such intelligence as to tlie state of Indian affairs, as wUl make it necessary for the colonies to join in some ge neral treaty with those people, as well to the southward as the northward, which can no way so well be resolved on as at the congress now already met " And on the other hand, the late incursions of the enemy, and the necessity there is of putting this province into a posture of defence, as well as carrying into execution the several matters now in agitation, call for my presence, and the authority ofthe government Under these difficulties, I find myself at a loss which service to prefer, and desire you wUl give me your sentimente on this momentous and press ing occasion." Now this congress was in fact to be a coun cU of war ; and the instructions the general had received, according to his own account, was to summon such ofthe governors on the continent, as far westward as Virginia, as could, to attend it Governor Morris, therefore, would have been under no great difficulty on this head, if the circumstances of his province had been really such as he had been always fond of set ting them forth. But his purpose was to go ; and he wanted the countenance of the assembly to concur with his incluiations, that he might not be charged with inconsistency, either by stimu lating them with false alarms, or deserting them in real dangers. The assembly, however, chose to leave the difficulty upon himself, as he alone was ac quainted with the necessity of his attending the said congress ; but then they left him at no loss concerning their opinion ; for they ad mitted the present circumstances did call strongly for his presence at home, and forthe whole authority of government ; and they also offered to be at the expense of sendmg com missioners to New York, to supply his place, either in concluding on the matters proposed by the crown, or concerting measures for a general treaty with the Indians. " For, said they, as this province always has been, so we still are ready to join with the neighbouring colonies in any treaty with the Indians, that may conduce to the general advantage ofthe British interest, as well as, at our own charge, to make such as tend particularly to our own peace and security." A noble declaration ! what is alone sufil- cient to silence all the invectives which have been so liberally bestowed on this province ! PENNSYLVANIA. 109 and what, in modern proprietary documente and the speeches and messages of deputy-go vernors, it would be very hard to match. Of the stress in this message, however, laid on the present state of Indian affairs, the house took the advantage to recollect what had pass ed between them and the governor in rela tion to the Shawanese complaint ; and v/ith an equal regard to truth and candour, took occasion in a message to the governor, to ex press themselves upon it as follows, viz. " May it please the Governor, " We have considered the report of the committee ofthe governor's councU, to which he is pleased to refer us for an answer to our inquiry, relating to a claim of the Shawanese Indians, on the lands near Conedoguinet. — We are far from desiring to justify those In dians in their late outrages and murders, com mitted against the people of this province, in violation of the most solemn treaties. We believe that great care has generally been taken to do the Indians justice by the pro prietaries in the purchases made of them, and in all our other public transactions with them ; and as they have not the same ideas of legal property in lands that we have, and some times think they have right, when in law they have none, but yet are cheaply satisfied for their supposed as well as real rights, we think our proprietaries have done wisely, not only to purchase their lands, but to ' purchase them more than once,' as the governor says they have done, rather than have any differ ence with them on that head, or give any handle to the enemies of the province to exas perate those people against us. It appears in deed, from the report, that they could have but a slender foundation for a claim of satis faction for those l^nds ; we are, however, con vinced, by original minutes taken by one of the commissioners at the treaty of Carlisle, now lying before us, that the Shawanese chiefs mentioned that claim of theirs to the lands in question at that time, and were promised that the matter should be laid before the proprieta ries. It was after the public general business of the treaty was over, and was not inserted in the printed account of the treaty, perhaps because it was thought to relate more particu larly to the proprietary than to the province ; and one of the commissioners being himself concerned in the proprietaries' affairs, there was reason to believe he would take care to get it settled ; and doubtless he would have done so, had he not, as appears by the report, entirely forgot the whole transaction. We are sorry it was not done, though probably the uistigations, present situation, and power ofthe French, might have been sufficient ne vertheless to have engaged those Indians in the war against us." They also took into consideration the go vernor's answers to their several messages in relation to their bill for regulating the Indian trade; and resolved thereon, "That it was their opinion, the governor had evaded giving any answer, or offering amendments to it that it might be transcribed and sent over to the proprietaries for their opinion or assent ; that the said bill was of great importance in the present critical situation of affairs ; that the delay or refusal of entering into the consider ation thereof at tiiat time, might be attended with very ill consequences ; and that those consequences would not lie at their door." And having before resolved to adjourn tUl the first of March ensuing, they moreover took upon them to provide for the subsistence of certain friendly Indians, settled near their fron tiers, in the mean while. Nor was this all : for the incidents of the session having shown, that it was high time for the assembly to assert their own authority, as far forth at least as the factions and in trigues of the province at that time subsisting would permit, they called for the report of their committee appointed to sit on the seve ral irregular and improper applications which had been made to them during the session ; and having duly considered it, ordered it to be entered on the minutes of the house. Every body knows, that the reports of com mittees can consist of opinions only; and these gentlemen give it as theirs, " that though it was the undoubted right of the freemen ofthe province, not only to petition, but even to ad vise their representativesonsuitable occasions, yet all applications whatever to the house, ought to be respectful, decent, pertinent, and founded in truth." " That the petition of Moore and his thirty- five followers, concerning unnecessary dis putes with the governor, when no disputes had been begun ; and insinuating, that the house had neglected the security of the pro vince from conscientious scruples, was found ed on mistakes and misapprehensions of facts and circumstances." [They might have said much more if they had thought proper.] " That the petition intitled, an address of certain people called quakers in behalf of themselves and others, (signed by Anthony Morris and twenty-two others) so far as it en gaged for any more than themselves, and in sinuated they would be under a necessity of suffering rather than paying for other than peaceable measures, had notwithstanding the decency of its language, assumed a greater right than they were invested with ; and, for asmuch as the said petitioners had not duly considered former precedents, especially the grant of two thousand pounds to the crown in the year 1711, was an unadvised and in discreet application to the house at that time." That the representation from the mayor of Philadelphia, and one hundred and thirty- three others, said to be ofthe principal inha- 110 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. bitante, but in reality a great part of them not freeholders, many of them strangers and obscure persons, and some of them under age, as it charged the house with not having a proper concern for the lives of the inhabitante, and dictated, in a haughty peremptory man ner, to the representative body ofthe whole people, what laws to make, and threatened to force a compliance, &c. if its commands were not obeyed, was a paper extremely presuming, indecent insolent, and improper ; and that the said mayor, by becoming a promoter and ring leader of such an insulton thatpart ofthe go vernment, and by his authority, arts, and "in fluence, drawing in so many indiscreet or un wary persons to be partakers with him there in, had exceedingly misbehaved himself, and failed greatly in the duty of his station." Ex pressions equally applicable to the governor himself as chief magistrate, if the mayor in all this, only acted as a tool ofhis. And upon the whole, " that the said paper ought to be rejected." Thus ended this memorable session, on the .3d of December ; and that day two months, instead of that day three months, which was the time prefixed by their own adjournment the governor, having, in that interval, left his pro vince, in order to attend the mUitary congress at New York, notwithstanding the preventives thrown as above by the assembly in his way, thought fit to convene them again ; and by the medium of a written message in the usual form, told them, " that he had called them to gether, to consider of the plan of operations concerted in the late councU of war held at that place for the security ofhis majesty's do minions on the continent ; that he had direct ed the said plan to be laid before them, under a recommendation of secresy, that no part of it might be suffered to transpire ; that the many encroachmente of the PVench, &c. suf ficiently showed what they had farther to ex pect if they did not by an united, vigorous, and steady exertion of their strength, dislodge and confine them within their own just bounds ; that he was persuaded this would be found the best way of providing for their own security ; and that therefore, he must recom mend it to them to grant him such supplies as might enable him to furnish what was ex pected from that province towards the general service ; that they must be sensible their suc cess would very much depend on their being early in motion ; and that he made no doubt, they would use the greatest dUigence and des patch in whatever measures their zeal for the public cause might induce them to take upon the present occasion ; that every thing possi ble had been done for the security ofthe pro vince ; that a chain of forts and block-houses, extending from the river Delaware along the Kittatinny hills [where he had formerly said the 1500 French and Indians had taken post in their way to PhUadelphia] to the Maryland- line, was then almost complete ; that they were placed at the most important passes, at convenient distances, and were aU garrisoned with detachmente in the pay ofthe province, and he believed, in case the officers and men posted in them did their duty, they would prove a sufficient protection against such par ties as had hitherto appeared on their borders ; that he had directed the minutes ofthe seve ral conferences held with the Indians, and other papers relating to Indian affairs (by which it appeared that the bulk of the Indians living on the Susquehanna, were not only in the French interest, but deaf to all the m- stances of the Six Nations thereon) to be laid before them ; that the heads of those nations had been convened by the timely care of ge neral Shirley, and were then met in councU to treat on those and other matters ; that he was informed, they were so much displeased with the conduct of the Delawares and Shawa nese, that they seemed inclinable to take up the hatchet against them ; and that he hoped the warmth with which general Shirley had recommended this matter to them, woiUd in duce them to act vigorously on this occasion." Connexion is not to be expected in this gen tleman's proceedings; his congress we have already seen converted into a councU of war; instead of a general treaty with the Indians, he brings back a plan of military operations ; and while the levies were actually making of the sixty thousand pounds, just given, for the defence of the prov ince, he calls upon them for a supply, towards an offensive war. By the plan settled among the governors at their late councU, which is now in prmt, the colonies were to raise ten thousand two hun dred and fifty men, to be employed in two bodies against the French settlements on the lake Ontario, and Crown-point ; and of these, fifteen hundred were to be supplied by Penn sylvania. The governor, however, did not thmk it expedient to push this demand in the cavalier manner he had hitherto practised ; probably convinced that it was what the province nei ther would or could comply with ; and that consequentiy he should only draw down so much the more odium on himself Besides, the assembly was scarce met, be fore a circumstance occurred, which, though of an almost private nature, served to evince the truth of what has been just insinuated. The several recruiting parties distributed through tiie province by the order of general Shirley, had renewed the old practice of en listing purchased servante ; the persons thus deprived of their property brought their com- plainte before the assembly ; the assembly not only received Uie petitioners fevourobly, but also espoused their cause in the strongest terms to the governor ; and as their address PENNSYLVANIA. Ill on this occasion, contains such a state both of the province and its conduct, as will serve to make the reader equally acquainted with both, the most material paragraphs are here ad joined. " We presume tiiat no one colony on the continent has afforded more free recruits to the king's forces than Pennsylvania; men have been raised here in great numbers for Shirley's and Pepperell's regimente, for Hal ket's and Dunbar's, for the New York and Carolina independent companies, for Nova Scotia, and even for the West India islands. By this, and the necessity we are under of keeping up a large body of men to defend our own extensive frontiers, we are drained of our hired labourers ; and as this province has but few slaves, we are now obliged to depend principally upon our servants to assist us in tUling our lands. If these are taken from us, we are at a loss to conceive how the provi sions that may be expected out of this province another year, for the support of the king's ar mies, are to be raised. " We conceive that this province could not possibly have fiirnished the great numbers of men and quantity of provisions it has done for the king's service, had it not been for our constant practice of importing and purchas ing servante to assist us in our labour. Many of these, when they become free, settle among us, raise families, add to the number of our people, and cultivate more land ; and many others who do not so setfle, are ready and fit to take arms when the crown calls for sol diers. But if the possession of a bought ser vant, after purchase made, is thus rendered precarious, and he may at any time be taken away from his master at the pleasure of a re cruiting officer, perhaps when most wanted, in the midst of harvest or of seed time, or in any other hurry of business, when another cannot be provided to supply his place, the purchase, and of course the importation of servante will be discouraged, and the people driven to the necessity of providing themselves with negro slaves, as the property in them and their service seems at present more se cure. Thus the growth ofthe country by in crease of white inhabitants will be prevented, the province weakened rather than strength ened (as every slave may be reckoned a do mestic enemy) one great and constant source of recruite be in a great measure cut off, and Pennsylvania soon be unable to afford more men for the king's service, than the slave colo nies now do." They also accompanied their address with an extract of a letter from general Shirley to colonel Dunbar, in which he declares himself convinced, that the enlisting of apprentices and indented servante would greatly disserve his majesty's interest, as well as be in most cases grievous to the subject, and in the strongest manner recommends it to him to avoid doing it Even the governor himself in his answer acknowledged the fact ; admitted it to be a great hardship, and an unequal burden upon the inhabitants of the province ; but, instead of issuing his proclamation, strictly charging and commanding all officers civil and military to be aiding and assisting to the inhabitants, in securing or recovering their servante, when jmy attempt should be made to force them away, as required by the assembly; told them the courts were open, and that the injured might there sue out his remedy by due course oflaw. He also signified, that general Shirley had now altered his opinion, and issued orders different from those he had before given to colonel Dunbar. And in effect, a letter from the said general, in answer to one of the go vernor's, was soon after communicated to the assembly, in which he pleads the necessities of the service for a continuance of the prac tice ; and in justification of it cites the au thority of his own government " where it was common, he said, to impress both indent ed servants and others for garrisoning the frontier towns, where they often remained se veral years." And his thus renouncing his former convic tion, is so much the morte remarkable, because the province had recently made his troops a voluntary present of warm waistcoats, stock ings, and mittens ; and in his letter of ac knowledgment (dated but five days before that to the governor) to the assembly, addressed to one of the members, he expresses himself as follows : " I am now, sir, to acquaint you, that I have ordered a distribution of clothing, and to de sire the favour of you to make my acknow ledgments to the assembly for this second in stance of their public spirit and zeal for his majesty's service, and the general good of these colonies, given by them in the expedi tion against Crown-point " I cannot but hope that so laudable an ex ample will inspire the other colonies with the like spirit, so necessary at this critical con juncture for putting a stop to the invasions and devastations of the French and their Indians within our borders, and placing the British- northern colonies in a state of security against the attempts which, from the armament sent thelast year from France, and their known de signs, we have the utmost reason to expect they will push this year ; and that it wUl con tinue to animate the government of Pennsyl vania in the common cause, as it hath hitherto done, so highly to their advantage. " Be pleased likewise, to assure them, sir, that I shall not be wanting in making a just representation to his majesty of these marks of their zeal for the service of their king and 112 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. country, and doing every thing in ray power for the service ofthe provmce." It is indeed remarkable of Pennsylvania, that though represented and treated by its enemies, as if it was the barren fig-tree, ap plications were continually made to it on all sides, as if it was capable of furnishing all de mands, and incapable of refusing any. His majesty having graciously ordered a considerable present to be sent to New York for the Six Nations ; and sir Charles Hardy, governor of that province, being soon to hold a meeting with them, in order to the distribu tion, Pennsylvania was called upon to follow the example of New York in making some ad dition to it : and governor Morris was prevaU ed upon by governor Hardy to make the de mand accordingly. Nor was the assembly averse to it : the pro vince had agents at that very time with sir William Johnson, to sound the disppsition of those nations towards them, and as sir Charles Hardy's meeting was not to take place till to- v/ards the end of March, and the governor's message was dated February 16, they ap prehended that no inconveniences could en sue from their not giving a determinate an swer till the return of those agents, which was very soon expected. And in the mean ti?ne, as the governor could not mention Indian affairs to them, without putting them in mind of the bill, which had been so long in his hands for regulating the Indian trade, they again called upon him to take it into consideration. They had now sat a full month ; and had received a message from him, recommending a stop to be put to the exportation of provi sions, from some ill-grounded apprehensions of a scarcity, which they had under consider ation ; they were also deeply engaged in a bill for the better regulation of their forces, and they had sent up another for continuing the excise, when the governor was pleased to return both that and the Indian trade bill, with several proposed amendments, and a no tice, " That his majesty's service requiring his presence at Newcastle, he intended to set out for that place on the morrow, or next day after." To redeem time, therefore, the said amend ments were immediately discussed, and upon the question rejected ; of which they apprized him in the following brief and sensible man ner : " May it please the Governor, " The excise bill now offered the governor for his assent, being free of all objections as to royal instructions, or act of parliament, and the same that has heretofore repeatedly re ceived the royal assent ; and no reason ap pearing to the house why the change should be made that is proposed by the governor's amendment they therefore unanimously ad here to the bill, and desire that it may receive his assent as it now stands. " The bill for regulating the Indian trade, being an imitation of the law for the same purpose, found so beneficial by long practice and experience in the province of the Massa- chusette, the house do also adhere to that bill as it stands ; and request the governor would be pleased to reconsider his amendments." Of this the govern(Jr took no notice, but proceeded to Newcastle, as he had before inti mated he would ; and as the assembly having at latst conquered the difficulties raised among themselves, and passed their bUl for regulat ing the officers and soldiers in the service and pay of the province, adjourned to the 5th of April then next ensuing. As this adjournment wElS so very short, the members were permitted to have the full be nefit of it ; butwhen they met again new trou bles arose ; not to say were prepared for them. Sir William Johnson's treaty with the Six Nations was laid before them ; and they found the governor strongly determined to involve the province in an Indian war with the Dele- wares and Shawanese ; which a very consider able part of the province, from principles of prudence, as well as scruples of conscience, most earnestly desired to avoid. The affair was soon taken into considera tion ; and the house appeared to be far from unanimous upon it : some from the papers laid before them, finding reason to believe, that an accommodation might still be effected, were for addressing the governor to suspend his purpose for some time longer ; and others had influence enough to postpone the debate, and thereby prevent their coming to any con clusion upon the question at all. The issues of war and peace, they might probably argue, were solely in the executive ; and consequently the executive was alone to be answerable for the uses made of them. But whatever their arguments were, what ever effect they had witiiin doors, the same difference of opinion still remained without On one hand, some of the people called qua kers, residing in the city of Philadelphia, on behalf of themselves and many others, pre sented petitions both to the governor and the house, full of e.xhortation's to pursue pacific measures with these savages, and to preserve the province, if possible, from the calamities of an Indian war; and, on the other, the go vernor informed the house, that a number of people from the back counties had resolved on a meeting, in order to proceed in a body to make some demands of the legislature then sitting ; and, after having .made a merit ofhis information, added, " that by the advice of the council, he should give immediate orders to the provincial and other magistrates, to use PENNSYLVANIA. 113 their utmost endeavours to prevent the mis chiefs which might attend so extraordinary a procedure." The house, however, preserved their equa nimity on this occasion ; surprise they did ex press, that, having in all respects demonstrat ed so much care and concern for the security of the province, any of the people should me ditate mischief against them ; but, instead of discovering any fear, they announced the laws of the province against rioters, and ac companied their thanks to the governor for his inteUigence, with a request, that he would lay before them what informations he had re ceived concerning their views or designs, or wherein they had apprehended themselves to be either neglected or aggrieved : which re quest he never thought fit to comply with. It may indeed be collected, that these in surgents were as strenuous for war as the quietiste were for peace ; and that the govern or took advantage of this very incident to de clare war against the Delawares and Shawa nese, and offer rewards for taking prisoners and scalps, which he did immediately thereon. He also gave notice, in form, of the same to the assembly, urging the many and great cruelties on his majesty's subjects within the province, as the cause ; and concluded his message in the following terms : " But as great part of the sixty thousand pounds is already expended, and what remains wUl very soon be consumed in maintaining the troops posted on the frontiers, and other necessary services, I recommend it to you, gentlemen, to grant such further supplies, as may be necessary to carry on the war with vigour, upon the success of which the future peace and safety ofthe inhabitants of this pro vince wUl very much depend." The same day he also informed them, " that the Indians which had so long subsisted on the bounty ofthe province (instead of tak ing part in this new war) were on the point of removing with their famUies (he was fear ful, on some discontent, though he knew of no reason,) into the country of the Six Na tions ; and had demanded of him the neces sary conveyance and passporte." And he added, " that if they could not be prevaUed on to act with the English, which he had di rected the interpreter to endeavour, it would be necessary to reward the two partizans amongst them (Scarroyady and Montour) to their satisfection for their trouble and service, to send the others away well satisfied, and to give those that should continue good encour agement" The house, in answer, signified in sub stance, " that their late supply of sixty thou sand pounds had fully enabled the governor, and the commissioners who were joined with him for the disposition of it to do all that was desired, or necessary to be done; that if Vol. II. ... P 10* great part of that supply, so lately granted, was already expended, and the rest would soon be so, they knew of no remedy ; but that as the assessment for sinking the bUls of credit issued in pursuance of the said act had not as yet been laid or levied, as a great part of the money was stUl in hand, and as they were soon to meet again upon the ad journment, then so necessary to their pri vate affairs, having waited long for the go vernor's answer to their bills, they could not think it would be of use at that time to lay an additional load oftaxes on the inhabitante ; they concluded with an earnest recommenda tion ofthe bill for regulating the Indian trade, as a bill of great importance for conciliating the minds of the Indiems yet unfixed in their resolutions, and confirming those already in alliance with them, by supplying them with such goods and other things they might have occasion for, on the easiest terms, at the charge and under the inspection of the government" And, in a separate message, sent at the same time, they farther gave him to understand, " that, having seriously deliberated on his message for putting a stop to the exportation of provisions, ever since they had received it, and made a full inquiry into the circumstances of the country, they had reason to hope that, under the common course of God's good pro vidence, no considerable danger or incon venience could arise from continuing to leave their porte still open tUl their next meeting ; as also, that they proposed to adjourn tUl the 24th ofthe month next ensuing." The return to this was, that the governor " had no objection to the proposed time of ad journment; that he thought, with the house, there was no immediate necessity for laying an embargo on provisions ; that he should lay before the commissioners the affair ofthe In dians now in town, and endeavour to send them away well satisfied ; that he expected the house would have made some preparations for executing the plan of operations for the en suing campaign, but as they had not, it, must lie upon them ; that as to the Indian trade, and excise bills, he should consider them against the next meeting ; and lastiy, that he thought it proper to mention to the house by their messengers, that although he had had more burdens laid upon him than any of his predecessors in the same time, yet he had re ceived less from the house than any of them." Lastly, the house taking into consideration what the governor had said relating to their not having made preparations for executing the plan of operations for the ensuing cam paign, resolved, in these words, " that as this province has received no assistance from our mother country, and as we have already ex pended large sums of money for the ftising and supporting a considerable body of men for the defence of our extensive frontiers, against 114 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. the continued depredations and encroachments of a savage and merciless enemy, besides what has been expended in maintaining the friendly Indians, French neutrals, and in other pur poses for the king's service, which expenses are likely to be continued for some time ; the house are of opinion, that the present circum stances of the province will not now admit of their going into any preparations for executing the aforesaid plan of operations ; and that it would be not only impracticable, but very im prudent, at a time the country is so greatly distressed by the unjustifiable taking of in dented servants, and so many of our freemen are enlisted and gone away, to send so great a proportion of men as is demanded of us, to so great a distance, and thereby deprive ourselves of their assistance, which we have too much reason to think we shaU soon have occasion for." These were the transactions of April 16th ; and, as the reader will observe no notice was taken of the governor's remonstrance concern ing himself, he wUl from.thence, perhaps, be led to account for his reconvening them so soon afterwards as the 10th of May ; he be ing then absent at a place called Harris's ferry, and having nothing, more pressing to lay before them, than what is contained in the following abstract ofhis message to them upon that occasion ; to wit : " That the people of the frontier counties westward having lost great numbers of their fighting men, and the remainder being either driven from their habitations, or worn out with fatigue, there was the greatest reason to ap prehend, the next attack would produce the entire evacuation of the two next counties, York and Cumberland; that the consider ation of this deplorable and dangerous situa tion of those counties, which the most con- .siderable of their inhabitants had, in the most affecting manner, laid before him, had in duced him to call them together ; that the best and speediest means might be taken to prevent, if possible, farther desolation ; that the law for establishing a voluntary mUitia had contributed very little, if any thing, to the defence of the frontier ; that he had ob served it was defective when he passed it, and that it required so much time to carry it into execution, that nothing good was to be expected from it; that though many compa nies had been formed under it, yet, for want of sufficient power lodged in him to order them to the frontiers, they were, as to that most material service, entirely useless ; that he must therefore recommend it to them to form such a militia as might be just, equal, and carried into immediate execution, so as that he might be able to draw the strength of the province to such parts as stood most in need of it ; and the whole burden of defend ing the province might not fall too heavUy on the few inhabitante whose circumstances obliged them to remain in the back counties ; that, as by the latest accounts from Europe, a considerable armament from France was to be expected in America, now to become the seat of war, and as the enemy would in such case depend upon being supplied with provisions from the king's colonies, by the intervention of the Dutch, he conceived a general embargo would be necessary ; and that it should be rendered effectual, by some such special law as should be thought necessary by himself and the governors of the neighbouring pro vinces, which he recommended to them to prepare ; and that the affairs of the province, and, in particular, the building a fort at a place called Shamokin, which was of so great importance to the province, requiring his per sonal care and attendance, it gave him concern that he could not be then at PhUadelphia ; but that they might be assured he would give all the despatch imaginable to any bills they might propose, which the secretary was to send to him from time to time by express." To give the more weight to the mUitia clause, a petition was presented to the house from the officers of the association companies in the city of PhUadelphia, complaining of the insufficiency of the present law, and praying that a new one might be framed, in which the defects ofthe former should be remedied. The assembly gave the petition a civil but cool reception ; and, in their reply to the go vernor's message, fiirnished the public with a brief of their sentimente and proceedings on the present occasion ; to wit : " That being met in pursuance of the go vernor's call, they were concerned for his ab sence ; as the public business could not be transacted as it ought where the several par ties were so far asunder ; that as by the joint care of himself and the commissioners, for disposing of the sixty thousand pounds, the frontier was now in a better state of defence, than that of any other colony on tiie continent ; the forte being numerous, all strongly garri soned, and both officers and soldiers now re duced to due obedience and discipline, by means of the act of parliament which, at their last sitting, they had extended to that province, they could not but hope, that the distressed inhabitants of the two counties men tioned, might, by the blessing of God, become more secure in their settiemente, and conse quently, more easy in their minds ; and that more especially as they understood, there were in the interior counties many formed companies as yet unemployed, who were rea dy to enter into the service, and march to the frontier, whenever the governor should think fit to call them ; and a considerable sum was still in the hands ofthe commissioners, where with the expense might be defrayed; that as they conceived, the marching the militia to PENNSYLVANIA. 115 the frontier on every alarm, would be less ef fectual for ite defence, and much more expen sive and burdensome to the people, tlian their proportion of a tax for the maintenance of standing guards ; that indeed, they had little experience of a militia in this province, conse quently, in framing so new a thing as a law to regulate it, their first essay might have ite defecte ; that, however, as the governor did not point them out, when he passed the act, and they had ' not since occurred to them, all they could then say was, that when he should think fit to send down any supplementary amendmente, they would take them into their serious consideration ; which he, the governor, might possibly be ready to do by the time to which they stood adjourned, then not far dis tant ; that they had therewith sent him a bill for prohibiting the exportation of provisions or warlike stores from this province, which they hoped would meet with his concurrence, be ing in conformity with the law lately passed at New York ; but that as all restrictions made by them would be ineffectual, unless the low er counties (the territory as formerly called) were in like manner restrained ; they had re ferred the continuance of their law, to such future act as the governor and assembly of those counties should pass for that purpose ; that they apprehended a strict compliance with that law would be of great service to the British interest and therefore earnestly re commended it to the governor, that when passed it might be carried effectually into ex ecution. And, lastly, that as the season re quired the present attendance of many ofthe members at their plantations, they proposed to re-adjourn themselves to the same time as be fore; when they hoped the governor would find himself enough at leisure to meet them at PhUadelphia." Thus ended this session of four days ; the prohibitory law was passed by the governor at Harris's ferry ; and when they met again, they received from the secretary two other mes sages from the same place ; one designed for their farther amusement at their last sitting ; but which arrived half an hour too late ; and the other for the present. According to the former, " the governor had received letters from the governors Din widdle and Sharpe, giving an account of the miserable condition of their frontier ; and the danger they were in from the enemy, who had penetrated as far as Winchester in Virginia ; he had, thereupon, redoubled his diUgence for the better securing the most exposed part of their own ; but he was stUl fearful, that, for want of a sufficieilt force to take the field, the garrisons on that side would not be able to keep off the numbers of the enemy, which there was the greatest reason to expect would soon appear in those parte ; so that no time was to be lost in preparing, in some more effectual manner, for their defence." According to the latter, " all the despatch he had been able to make in his works had not brought them to such a forwardness as would permit him, without prejudice to that important part of the public service, to be in town at their meeting ; he had, however, the satisfaction to tell them, that he had made a lodgment in a very secure place upon the ri ver, beyond the Kittatiny hUls (the place from whence, it must be recollected, he fired his first beacon to alarm, or rather distract, the province) ; the secretary would lay before them a letter from governor Sharpe, with the extracts of an act of his government for grant ing forty thousand pounds for his majesty's ser vice ; only twenty-five thousand pounds of it was conditional [so that conditional acts were regular in Maryland though not in Pennsyl vania] that Pennsylvania and Virginia contri buted their reasonable quotas towards the ex pedition it was granted for ; they must be sen sible there would be no peace or safety for them [his old argument] unless these western colonies united their strength in making a well-concerted push to dislodge the French from their encroachments ; and that no time was so favourable as when his majesty's forces and those ofthe eastern colonies were employed against them to the northward ; it was therefore to be taken into immediate con sideration, and he was to be enabled to give governor Sharpe the expected assurances, that Pennsylvania would, for its own sake, contribute accordingly." A complaint from commodore Spry, that he was in great want of seamen for his majesty's ships under his command, and that he expect ed a supply from those colonies, brought up the rear ; with a requisition " that he might be enabled by bounty or otherwise to raise and send hira as many as the province could spare, which would be a very seasonable and acceptable service." In conformity to so pressing and plausible a message, a money-bill was immediately or dered, and some progress was made thereiin. But advice having been received from sir Charles Hardy and sir William Johnson, that the Delawares and Shawanese had promised to cease from hostUities, and were disposed to renew and strengthen their alliance and friendship, and the governor (Morris) having caused a suspension of arms to be proclaimed thereon, they contented themselves with as suring him, " that he should not faU of the necessary support in the prosecution of such measures as might tend to bring this good dis position of the said Indian tribes to a happy issue; and with recommending it to the com missioners of the sixty thousand pounds act, to concur with the governor in furnishing lie FRANKLIN'S WORKS. such supplies of money as might be necessa ry thereto." They also again put the go vernor in mind of the Indian trade bUl, so often recommended to him before; urging, " that it might be of great service at that juncture, by bringing such of our Indians as had never been joined with, and desired to be distinguished from, those who had committed the outrages on the hack settiemente, under the immediate inspection and care of the go vernment, by supplying their necessities on the easiest terms, securing their affections, and inducing others to come in for the same beneficial considerations." A promise to reconsider it, this drew from him ; but as if he had resolved to set his own price on such a service to the province, he put them in mind, by a message the same hour, " That, though the trouble and expense of administration had been considerably great er than in any former time, no sums had been granted for his support since their first ses sion ; and he therefore desired, they would take this matter into consideration, and make such provision as was agreeable to justice and the practice of former assemblies." What the governor's case was with respect to revenue, and what the merite of his ser vice, may be collected from the sheete al ready before us ; so that it wUl be enough in this place to say, that the assembly could turn a deaf ear as well as he ; and, that he, hav ing given them to understand in his message concerning sir Charles Hardy's intelligence, and the suspension of arms, that he had call ed the assembly of the lower counties to meet him on the 4th of June, in order to render the late embargo permanent and effectual, by pre vailing with them to pass a law to the same effect, and that he imagined his absence for three or four days would be no uiterruption to their proceedings, they adjourned them selves to the 2Sth. Before they separated, however, which de serves notice, six members requested leave to resign their seats for certain reasons by them specified in a paper presented th the house at the same time ; and it was, after consideration, resolved thereon, that, in case they continued in the same mind after the adjournment, and delivered the said paper into the hands ofthe speaker [in proof thereof] their seate should be deemed vacated accordingly. They did continue in the same mind, and delivered the following paper as proof thereof : " May it please the Speaker and the House, " A few days suice we communicated to the house our inclinations to resign our seate ; in which the house appeared disposed to fa vour us. " This repbtition of our continuing in tiiose intentions, does not proceed from any design of involving the house in unnecessary trouble ; but as many of our constituente seem of opi nion, that the present situation of public af fairs calls upon us for services in a mUitary way, which, from a conviction of judgment after mature deliberation, we cannot comply with ; we conclude it most conducive to the peace of our own minds, and the reputation of our religious profession, to persist in our re solutions of resigning our seats, which we ac cordingly now do ; and request these our rea sons may be entered on the minutes of the house." The speaker hereupon sent an order to the secretary, being the proper officer, to issue write for so many re-elections, who thought fit to refuse obedience, the governor being of opinion, that though there was an express pro vision by law for filling a vacancy occasioned by wifful absence, there was none for a va cancy occasioned by resignation. Upon which the speaker, by the advice of such members as vi(ere then in town, issued his own writs, founded on the same law, from whence the governor derived his objection. These writs the sheriffi obeyed, what instances soever they might have been importuned with to the con trary ; the freeholders exercised their rights of electing in pursuance of them ; the returns were made in the usual form ; and the house resolved nem. con. that the members so re turned had been duly elected. Thus the breach was closed as soon as it was opened ; and whatever view the governor had to serve by his opposition, he neither did himself or views any service hy it. His message, introductory to the business of the session, contained a notification of the king's having appointed the earl of Loudon conunander-in-chief of all his forces in Ame rica, with two regimente of foot, a train of ar tUlery, stores, &c. and commanded him, the governor, to give his lordship and the troops all the assistance in his power : particularly to recommend it to them, to appropriate such part of the funds already raised, or to be raised, for the public service, so as to be issued as his lordship should direct As also of another circumstance altogether new in the British constitution ; namely, his majesty being ena bled by act of parliament to appoint a num ber of German, Swiss, and Dutch Protestants to be officers of a regiment to be raised and called the Royal* American Regiment; as also of another particular recommendation which he was enjoined to make to tiiem, that the masters of such indented servants as * This American regiment was lo consist of four thousand men : it was to be composed of whatever pro- testants the colonies could furiosi], and, according to the lirst plan, was to have been commanded by none but foreign officers ; but this plan having been object ed to, some abatements were admitted ; namely, that the foreign officers should not exceed one half of the wljole number ; that room should be left for some Ame ricans ; that the commaniler should be always a na tural-born subject, &:€. PENNSYLVANIA. 117 should engage in the king's service, might be uidemnified out of the funds raised for the public service. And the nature of this review requires, that the sequel of this message should be given in the governor's own words, which were as follows, to wit : " His majesty has further commanded me to recommend it to you, to pass effectual laws for prohibiting all trade and commerce with the French, and to prevent their being supplied witii provisions; and as the law late ly, passed here for an embargo will, by the ex piration of the act for that purpose passed in the lower counties, end on the seventh of July, I hope you wUl prepare a proper bill for continuing an embargo, so necessary for his majesty's service, and the safety of these co lonies, for some time longer. " The secretary will lay before you extracte ofthe secretary of state's letters to me, relating to the matters now recommended, and I hope you v/ill without delay enter upon the consi deration of them, and comply with his majes ty's expectations. " The money heretofore given for the king's use will be very soon expended, and I shall in that case be under a necessity of disbanding the troops raised for the defence of the pro vince, and of destroy mg or abandoning the several forts erected upon our frontiers; I must therefore desire you wUl grant such further supplies as the present situation of our affairs require." To the clause relating to the embargo, the house ordered an immediate answer to be pre pared; ui Which, having told him what he could not but know before, " that they had al ready done what was now requfred of them, by a law still in force, and which would have so continued till August 4, the time limited by the law of New York, provided the three lower counties had also passed a law conform able thereto," they proceeded in these words ; " As provisions might be exported from this province through those counties not subject to our laws, and great quantities are raised there, we were fully apprized that any re straints we could lay upon our exportations here would by no means put a stop to the sup plying the French with provisions, unless that government prohibited the exportations from thence also ; we therefore limited the continu ance of our act accordingly, and we must own the astonishment we were under, when we found the governor had enacted a law there invalidating the acts of the other colonies, by limiting the continuance of their act to one month only. " As our act prohibits the exportation of provisions in conformity with the law of New York colony, with which New Jersey, we understand, has also complied, the governor cannot think it reasonable, that the colonies of New York, New Jersey, and this province. should be deprived of their laws by an act of the government of the three lower counties ; therefore, as that act was passed by the go vernor himself, we presume, mstead of apply ing to us upon this occasion, he wUl think it his duty to call the assembly of the three lower counties, to whom it belongs, to conti nue their law to the time Ihnited by the other governmente. " It is well known that Maryland raises great quantities of wheat, pork, and other pro visions, and yet, as we are informed, their ports have hitherto continued open to the ex- porte of provisions from thence ; the governor wOl therefore judge the necessity of recom mending a prohibition there, without which, we apprehend, the acts of the northern and eastern colonies must, prove ineffectual." The bill of supply already before the house, was, in the next placed resumed : and to clear the way as they went, a new message was sent to the governor to know, whether he had come to any resolution on the excise and In dian trade bUls ? to which, in effect, he an swered, that, as to the latter, he thought his amendmente to it so just and reasonable, that he could not therefore, recede from them ; and as to the former, that he had added a clause by which the money to arise by it, was to be disposed of in such a manner as the go vernor and commander-in-chief, and in case of his death or absence, the president of the councU and the assembly should direct ; ad ding, " this manner of disposing of the public money appears to me most conducive to the general interest, and you will observe by an article in the proprietary instructions to me, which I send you herewith, that I am restrain ed from passing any bill of that nature without such an appropriating clause." And this instruction was delivered in the terms following, to wit : " You shall not give your assent to any law for prolonging the present excise, or laying any other excise, or raising any money on the inhabitants of the said province of Pennsylva nia, unless there be an enacting clause, that all money arising from the said excise, or other duties, shall be disposed of only as we or either of us, exercising the office of govern or, or the lieutenant-governor, or, in case of his death or absence, the president ofthe coun cU, and the house of representatives, for the time being, shall direct ; and not otherwise." Thus the great proprietary secret, so long suspected, so long and so cautiously preserved, and which had operated so mischievously and dangerously, not only to the province of Penn sylvania but all the provmces adjoining, was at last acknowledged ; and it thereby became undeniable, that, under such a commission, enforced by a penal bond upon the holder of it, neither the province could be protected, the king served, or the interest of the com- 118 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. munity maintained, unless the freemen parted with their birth-righte, and the special confirm ations of them contained in their charter. And it is equally to be wondered, that any two subjecte in the king's dominions, should presume to exact such concessions from their fellow-subjects as his majesty himself neither has, or makes any claim to; and that any gentleman should submit to serve them on such equally tyrannical and servile terms. The resolutions of the house hereon were worthy ofthe occasion, and as such are equally worthy of having a place in this work. " Resolved, that it is the opmion of this house, that the said proprietary instruction was the principal, ffnot the only, obstruction to the passmg of several bills offered to the governor by the last assembly for granting money for the king's use. " That the act for laying an excise on wine, rum, brandy, and other spirits, passed in the year 1744 ; and the act granting five thou sand pounds for the king's use, passed the 24th of June, 1746, by which the said act for lay ing an excise on wine, rum, brandy, and other spirite, was continued for ten years next after the first day of June, 1746, have received the royal approbation. " That acte laying an excise on spirituous liquors have been found necessary for defray ing the charges of government, and have been continued within this province for more than thirty years ; and that the governor's not passing the bill presented to him for continu ing the excise, upon the terms of all our former acte, repeatedly approved of by the crown, from an apprehension that he is re strained by the said proprietary instruction, is evasive and frivolous, and an infringement of our just rights ; and, that, as deputy-govern or of this province, he has, or ought to have, full powers to give his assent to all such bills as we have an undoubted right to offer. " That the said instruction ' is not calcu lated to promote the happiness and prosperity of this province, and is inconsistent with the prerogative of the crown, and the liberties of the people ;' and that all proprietary instruc tions, not warranted by the laws of Great Britaui, are Ulegal and void in themselves ; nevertheless, if the governor should appre hend himself bound by such proprietary in structions, they may prove ruinous to the pro vince, and of dangerous consequence to the British interest in America. " That the house do adhere to the bill for continuing the act for laying an excise on wine, rum, brandy, and other spirits, as it now stands, without admitting the governor's pro posed amendments thereto." It now also became apparent to the pro vince, that even the boasted free-gift of the proprietaries of five thousand pounds, was not to be obtained but as it could be collected out of the arrears of their quit-rente ; and that it being impracticable to collect such a sum fast enough to answer the public demands, the deficiency could no otherwise be made good than by act of assembly for striking the sum of four thousand pounds, remaining due on the proprietary-order, in bills of credit, to be sunk out ofthe growing paymente as they should come in. This, in short, was the fa vour applied for on their behalf by their re ceiver-general, who declared, at the same time, that he had consulted the governor on this head, who had expressed his readiness to concur with the house in a reasonable bUl for that purpose; not directly to the assembly, however, was this favour applied for ; nor as a favour to the proprietaries; (that would have been beneath the proprietary dignity ;) but by the interposition of the commissioners of the sixty thousand pounds act The as sembly nevertheless gave way to the expedi ent ; the receiver-general had leave to bring in a bill for the purpose ; and the same, with a different preamble, was passed and sent up to the governor. The difference is this — In the first, the reason assigned for the bUl was to this effect ; " whereas the proprietaries have been pleased to make a free gift of the sum of five thousand pounds towards the pub lic charge, &c. whereof their receiver-gene ral had as yet been able to pay but one thou sand pounds ; to the end, therefore, that the good intentions ofthe proprietaries in the said gift may be fully answered, and the public may receive the immediate benefit thereof, be it enacted, &c." — In the second, care was taken to specify, tiiat the said sum was to be applied towards the public charge, and was given in consideration of their [the proprieta ries] being exempted from the payment of their taxes towards raising the sum of sixty thousand pounds. On the same day that the bUl was thus sent up, namely, the seventh after their meeting, they also sent up a money-biU, fbr granting the sum of forty tjiousand pounds for the king's use, and for striking the said sum in bUls of credit, and to provide a fund for sinking the same ; and, upon the receipt of the said bill, the governor was pleased to say, " That he would give it all the despatch in his power, but that he could not say when the house might expect to know his result there upon, as he was that day going to Newcastle, in order to meet the assembly of the three lower counties," Notwithstanding which, the two members to whom he thus expressed himself were no sooner withdrawn, than he sent after them another message to the house, signifying, " That by intelligence he had received from two Indians, two days before, the western Indians were forming themselves into a body in order to attack the province about the time PENNSYLVANM. 119 of harvest &c." adding, "If upon considera tion of this matter, any other measures are necessary for the public safety, you wUl ena ble me to take them." Thus, hariequin like, he could play con trary parte in the some interlude. If a sup ply was not given without delay, the troops were to be disbanded, the forts destroyed, and the frontier consequentiy laid open ; and yet, with a. supply in his hand, he could delibe rately go upon another service ; at the same time he could also communicate intelligence of additional dangers : and yet with the same supply in his hand, he could insinuate want of ability to withstand them. The assembly, in fact, told him in reply to this message, that in case he passed their bill, he would find himself sufficiently ena bled to take every measure that might be ne cessary. What is farther remarkable, a merchant of Philadelphia, who had supplied the garrisons in Newfoundland with provisions for six years, and who had now a vessel in the port freighted with the same, could not obtain a clearance; the governor and councU being unanimously of opinion, that, because of the late act to prevent exportations, no such clear ance could be granted. A member of the house, who, by order from the navy-contract or at Jamaica had, in like manner, freighted a ship, met with the same difficulty under the same pretence. Both made application to the house for relief: and it was not only resolv ed, that the said act was of the same tenor with that of New York, and never intended in any wise to restrain the exportation of pro visions for his majesty's navy and garrisons, nor could, in their opinion be so understood, except by the most forced construction there of; but also, that to prevent any ill conse quences which might arise from such inter pretation, a bill should be immediately prepar ed at the table for expressly permitting such exportations. This bUl, when finished, was sent up to the governor, who promised to give it all the des patch in his power ; and was followed by an other for a longer contuiuance ofthe embar go act, with a simUar clause of explanation ; ufion the presenting of which, the governor being asked, by order of the house, whether he had corae to any determination upon the former? answered, " that he had read but not considered it" And being farther pressed on the necessities ofthe service, according to the aUegations above specified, said " that, in case the legislature of the three lower counties did not continue the embargo, the same would ex pire in a few days, and then there would be no necessity ofthe said supplementary act; and ff the embargo act ofthe three lower counties should be continued, he would have it in his power to permit vessels laden with provisions or stores for his majesty's service to saU at any time, by the bUl the house had sent him for that purpose." Thus the two ships were to be continued in port, to wait the good pleasure of another government ; and the interval was to be lost to the service, unless the owners found ways and means to accommodate matters with the governor. The house, however, plied him with ano ther message, and received such another illu sory answer ; they also again put hira in mind of the forty thousand pounds supply-bill : and were told (notwithstanding his pressing mes sage at the opening of the session) " That he had not read it through ; but that he thought it stood in need of amendraents." He also told the two members employed upon that oc casion, " He was just then setting off for Newcastle ;" and they acquainting him far ther, " That, as it would be extremely incon venient to the country-members, to continue sitting tUl his return, and as there was no business depending of any importance, but what lay before the governor, they had thoughts of adjourning that day (being July 5) to the second of August by which time the harvest would be nearly over," his answer was, " That he had no objection to their ad journing over the harvest, and that he approv ed ofthe time proposed." And the house, on the return of their mes sengers, having first resolved, " That any UI consequences which might attend the govern or's not passing their supplementary bUl (for exporting provisions for the king's service notwithstanding the embargo) would not lie at their door," did adjourn accordingly. After all which, on that very day fortnight (July 19,) in the very midst ofthe harvest, did this worthy governor oblige the members by special summons to meet him ; the occasion of which is thus set forth in his message to the house of that day, to wit : " Gentlemen, at your instance I called the assembly of the lower counties, and pressed them to continue the prohibition of provisions and warlike stores to the time limited by the laws of New York and Jersey, but they chose only to continue it tUl the 20th instant, and from thence for so long time as the legis lature of this province should pass or continue a law forthe like purposes, provided the same did not exceed the 22d day of October next. I am thereby laid under the disagreeable necessity of calling you together at this busy season, in orderto have the embargo continu ed for the same tune that it is in the provinces of New York and Jersey ; and as the acte of assembly passed for the prohibition of provi sions and warlike stores will expire with to morrow, I hope you will immediately enter upon this matter, and give it all the despatch the nature of the thmg requires. The secre- 120 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. tary wUl lay before you a copy of the act of the lower countiep, and you will, by proper clauses in the law you may think it necessary on this occasion to propose, leave me at li berty to send supplies to such of the king's ships and forces as may be employed in any ¦part of America, and to put the trade of this place, while the embargo laste, upon the same footmg it is in the other bread colonies." And the very next day the merchante, own ers, and masters of vessels then lying in the port, presented a petition to the house, " set ting forth the damages and losses they had sustained for want of being allowed proper clearances ; as also the disadvantages, discou ragements, and losses which the whole pro vince would * specially and unavoidably be liable to, in case the embargo was to be con tinued for a longer time, than by the late law was provided ; recommending bonds with suf ficient penalties, to be discharged only by the certificates ofthe British consuls residing at such foreign ports as the several vessels and cargoes were entered for, and consigned to, as the only proper expedient to answer the ends proposed by such laws, without destroy ing, their trade, on which the well being of the province depended ; and requesting such relief and assistance in the premises as they, in their wisdom, should judge most expedient ; as no wise doubting their ready and hearty disposition towards the general good and ser vice oftheir country." Fruitlessly dismissed, and impertinently re convened, as the assembly had been, within so short a time, a warm expostulation was the least that could be expected upon it ; and yet the warmth they showed was by no means equal to the provocation they received ; but on the contrary, was at once so moderated and justified, that their worst enemies could not derive the least pretence of reproach from it. Facts were in their favour; and a mere recapitulation of thera was all that was ne cessary to show how unworthily they were treated ; which will account for the insertion of their answer to the governor in this place at large. " May it please the Governor, " On the 4th of May, 1756, the legislature of New York passed an act to revive an act more effectually to restrain the exportation of provisions and warlike stores, from that colo ny, to be in force for twenty-one days ; and after that time, to such time as the legislature of New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, should pass acte for like purposes ; provided those acte did not exceed three months from the passing of * Boston having little of provision to export besides fish, which wasexcepted by their act ; New York hav ing a tolerable market, because the forces took otf a great part of their product ; and Virginia and Maryland having had their ports open all this time. that act, which was from the 4th of May to the 4th of August next ensuing. " Sir Charles Hardy having recommended to our governor, that he should lay before the assembly of this province, the necessity of enacting a law of the same tenor within this government ; and the house being convinced that such an act would be totally useless, un less the three lower counties of Newcastle, Kent, and Sussex, (not subject to our laws) were included, passed an act on the 13th of May, of the same tenor, and nearly in the same words, with the act of New York, to be in force tUl the 7th of June, and from thence for so long time as the legislature of the co lony of New Jersey, and the counties of New castle, Kent, and Sussex, upon Delaware, should respectively pass laws for the like pur poses ; provided they exceed not the time li mited by the law of New York government " On the 29th of May, the legislature of New Jersey passed an act to be in force from the first day of June to the first of August and from thence for so long time as the legisla tures of the colonies of New York and Penn sylvania should respectively pass laws for the like purposes, provided they did not exceed three months from the said first day of Au gust " This being the state of the laws laying an embargo on the exportation of provisions and warlike stores ; first, by the colony ofNew York on the 4th, then by this government on the 13th, and by New Jersey the 29th of May last; it is most unkind, and give us leave to say, in our opinion, unbecoming the dignity of government, that in the governor's last mes sage he should not take the least notice of any law being ever passed by us for laying any embargo within this port, but only men tions his having pressed the assembly of the lower coimties ' to continue the prohibition of provisions and warlike stores, to the time li mited by the laws of New York and Jersey,' as if no such law had ever been passed by himself within this province ! what purpose such a conduct towards us is to answer, the governor best knows. But when he proceeds in his said message to propose to us ' to have the embargo continued for the same time that it is in the provinces of New York and Jer sey,' we must confess we are entirely at a loss to know what the governor would mean ; our present act coming precisely within the governor's recommendation ; being made in compliance with the law of New York. If the lower counties have not complied with those terms, it is not to be imputed to the as sembly of this province, who have fully dis charged their part to make the embargo ef fectual. " We entreat the governor to consider and reflect on the share he bos had in the laws of the lower counties, passed by himself, which PENNSYLVANIA 121 seem calculated to give this house unneces sary trouble to no good purpose whatever ; for now when he has thought fit to call us to gether in the heighth of ourharveste, our ser vants generally taken from us, and the coun try in want of labourers, what has the go vernor been pleased to propose, but to pass an act to continue the embargo ' for the same time that it is in the provinces of New York and Jersey,' which is the tenor and limita tion of our present act it being to have con tinued (had the lower counties passed their acts in conformity with the laws of New York, as this province and New Jersey had al ready done) to the 4th day of August And as New York has not extended their act that we know of (which will probably become un necessary on the proclamation of a war with France, now daUy expected) any new act we could make would only be to continue the act of this province to the time it was to continue ; which is such an absurdity as we presume on reflection the governor will not insist upon. "But that no time might intervene whereby the French might be supplied with provisions, or warlike stores from this province, we, at our last sitting, put into the governor's hands ' a biU to continue the act for preventing the ex portation of provisions, naval or warlike stores, from this province to Cape Breton, or to any other, the dominions of the French king', or places at present in possession of any of his subjects,' to prevent, as much as lay in our power, any deficiencies which might arise from the conduct of the assembly ofthe three lower counties, if they should think fit to in validate the acts of the other colonies for lay ing a general embargo. " At the same same time we also sent up a bUl, intitled, a supplementary act to a law of this province, intitled, an act for the more effectual obstructing the exportation of pro visions and warlike stores from the province of Pennsylvania ; which bill, if the governor had passed it at the time it was sent to him by the house, or if he should hereafter be pleased to give his assent thereto, would prevent all doubte, and give full liberty to send supplies ' to such of the king's ships and forces as may be employed in any part of America ;' and we have never endeavoured to put the trade of this place, where the interest or dignity of the crown is concerned, on any other footing than it is in the other colonies." The two members appointed to wait upon the governor with this paper, were also charg ed with the bill for striking four thousand pounds in bills of credit on the proprietaries' account ; and to acquaint him thereon. That the house think it highly necessary that there should be some preamble to the said bUl, otherwise those who are not particularly acquainted with our afiairs, may imagine that the proprietaries have thereby given four thou- VoL. II. ... Q 11 sand pounds over and above the five thousand pounds specified in the act for granting §ixty thousand pounds to the king's use ; the house therefore propose, that since the governor is averse to having it mentioned in the preamble, that the said five thousand pounds was given by the proprietaries in consideration of their being exempted from the payment of their taxes towards raising the aforesaid sum of sixty thousand pounds, although the same is expressly declared in that act, without any ob jection having been made thereto by the go vernor, at the time it was passed, they will leave out the first clause of the preamble, and instead thereof insert the following clause, viz. " Whereas the honourable proprietaries of this province have been pleased to make a free gift of the sum of five thousand pounds, for the purposes and in the manner particu larly set forth by an act of general assembly of this province, passed in the twenty-ninth year ofhis majesty's reign, intitled, an act for gTanting the sum of sixty thousand pounds to the king's use," &c. The governor after reading the message was pleased to answer, " That he believed the house had misun derstood his message ; that he had no inten tions of disobliging them, and that he was sorry to see they had taken any offence ; how ever, as he was about leaving the goyernment he should not return any answer to it ; and that as to the bill for striking four thousand pounds, to be replaced by the proprietaries' receiver-general, he thought the house gave a good reason why there should be some pre amble to the said bUl, and that he would take the one proposed into consideration." The result of which consideration was, the sending down another preamble in liey of the first, specifying the free gift, but dropping the consideration of exemption, without tak ing any notice at all of the last ; which other preamble was unanimously rejected on the first reading. That they were still willing to pass the bill with their own second preamble, they, never theless, informed the governor ; and, in the same message, they also desired to be inform ed, " whether he had come to any resolution concerning the excise-bUl, and the forty thou sand pounds bill for the king's use ?" and here the affair stuck ; the governor remained mute ; or at least only answered the two latter parts of the message, without taking any notice of the former. " The excise-bill, he said, he nei ther could or would pass ;" and as to the forty thousand pounds bill, he sent it down so amended, by leaving out the clause for taxing the proprietary estate, as again rendered the session abortive ; the house resolving to ad here to then- bill as sent up, without admitting his said amendments. So that after all the parade which had been 122 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. made both there and here of this prodigious gift, the province was either to receive it in so peddling a way, as rendered it in a man ner useless ; or else, though they took it up on their own credit, to release the donors in effect of all future claim, by consenting to drop the terms on which alone it could be con sistently accepted. What is farther remarkable, during the course of this interchange of messages, one from the governor, concerning Indian affairs, was sent to the assembly, which was altoge ther irreconcilable with that which he had sent them sixteen days before. It wUl be re collected, that on the 5th of the current month July, the western Indians, in contradiction to the advices received from sir Charles Hardy and sir WUliam Johnson, were to fall on the province in time of harvest ; and now, on the 21st, in conformity to those advices, such ofthe said western Indians as had attended the con ferences between the Six Nations and the said sir William Johnson, had not only laid down the hatchet but also engaged to follow the example of the said Nations, in assisting us against the French. Nor was this all : a number of the Susquehanna Indians, and Teedyuscung a king of the Delawares, had discovered so good a disposition to return to their alliance and former friendship with us, that nothing was wanting but an interview between him (the governor) and them ; and a proper provision for the expenses hereof, and the fulfilling such engagemente as the present exigencies might require. Such were the tidings now imparted, with an assurance, that he should therein have a particular regard to the honour and safety of the province. To the province nothing could be more agreeable than such tidings ; nor could any service be named in which they would have laid out their money more willingly ; but their public stock was exhausted ; and by the se veral negatives put upon their bills, they were disabled from raising more; conse quently were as much distressed now for the means of making friends, as before for the means of defending themselves against their enemies. What sum would be sufficient? was the first question; the governor being consulted on that head, answered, " That he had made no calculation; but it seemed to him, that about four or five hundred pounds might serve ; though the expense would be the greater, as he should be obliged to have a body of sol diers for his guard ;" the commissioners ofthe sixty thousand pounds act were next advised with ; and upon the issue of all, they made use of this incident to lay a brief state oftheir case before the governor in the usual way of message; in which having expressed their satisfaction in the news imparted, they pro ceeded as follows, viz. " And in this critical juncture, when a hap py issue of a treaty with the Indians must be so of great advantage to the proprietary inte rest, as we apprehend the present treaty must be, we cannot suffer ourselves to doubt their willingness to contribute towards the heavy expenses the province groans under for In dian affairs ; especially considering the go vernor has just now refused to pass our bUl for granting forty thousand pounds to the kmg's use, because the proprietary estate was there in taxed, in common with all the other es tates in this province, for their mutual de fence ; and has also refused to continue our excise act, some time since expired ; so that the province is greatly indebted, and our only remaining fund reduced to the lowest extre mity. " Under these circumstances, we made ap plication to the commissioners, appointed by the act for granting sixty thousand pounds to the king's use, to know whether any money remained in their hands, which might be ap plied to the present emergency ; but we find, that the fifty-five thousand pounds, to be sunk by the provincial tax, is expended ; that near four thousand (partof the five thousand) pounds, given by the proprietaries, in consideration of their being exempted from their share of that tax, is not paid into the commissioners' hands ; and if the whole sum was paid, the debts al ready contracted for the defence of the pro vince, are nearly equal thereto. Neverthe less, as we apprehend the treaty proposed to be held with the Susquehanna Indians, and the Delaware king Teedyuscung, may be at tended with lasting good consequences, we have resolved, that the sum of three hundred pounds, be allowed by this house for that pur pose." The members sent herewith, were also to apprize him, that if it was pleasing to him, they should adjourn to the 16th of August; and his answer was, " That he should not engage for the proprie taries' contributing any tiling towards the ex penses that may attend the proposed confer ence ; that as the house had voted three hun dred pounds for that purpose, he should wait at Easton or Bethlehem till the whole was expended, then take his horse and ride away to New York to meet lord Loudon ; and that as to the time of adjournment, he should not say whether he was pleased or displeased with it, but leave it entirely with the house to do as they pleased." A compliment from general Shirley to the province on his being recalled, acknowledging the " repeated instances of their contributing towards the defence ofhis majesty's just riglite and dominions, and to assure them of his PENNSYLVANIA. 123 hearty wishes for their welfare," without one civU thing to his brother governor, though the letter is directed to him, is the only thing re markable of the session hitherto omitted ; and injuriously, wickedly, and impudentiy, as the province has been aspersed, no voucher of that authentic nature can, or ought to be dispensed with. On the 16tb, according to their adjourn ment, they met again ; and the next day they were honoured with the governor's message ; which told them, in the first place, what they had long told each other before, namely, " that their treasury was exhausted ; that the troops wanted their pay ; that a supply was neces sary," &c. The taking and burning of an out-fort on the Juniata, called fort Granville, made a good terrifying ingredient in it; the rest was the stuff that he had talked over and over, till the ear was weary of hearing it ; except that major Rutherford, the command ing officer in that province, of the New Ame rican regiment then raising, wanted barracks for one thousand men ; and that his recruits being chiefly indentured servante, it would be necessary for the house to make provision for the payment oftheir masters, for the residue of the time each had to serve, in conformity to his majesty's instructions." The next day the house sent up their reply, which was as follows : " May it please the Governor, "The house have repeatedly offered the governor bUls for granting considerable sums to the king's use, to which he has refused his assent, being restrained by the proprietaries, as he says, from passing any biUs in which their estate is to be taxed towards its defence. We know of no equitable way of raising such large sums as are now necessary, but by a general tax on all estates real and personal. We have voted another sum of forty thousand pounds, to be raised in that manner, and are preparing a new bill to lay before the go vernor for that purpose. But as we are, and must be stUl, of opinion, that the proprietary estates ought to be taxed in common with those of their fellow-subjects in all the rest ofthe king's dominions, for their common de fence, we cannot omit a clause of that kind in our bill, without injustice to the king's other subjecte, ourselves, our constituente, and posterity ; and we believe, that an equal num ber of men, of any sect, nation, name, or party, among us, will never be chosen to represent the province, who would beof a different sen timent in this particular. " In the mean time, we earnestly request the governor would use his influence with the proprietaries' receiver-general, to induce him to pay the remaining sum of near three thousand pounds, yet behind of their contri bution of five thousand pounds, which by law was to have been immediately advanced, but is still withheld from the commissioners, to the injury of the poor soldiers, whose pay is in arrear for want of that money, the fifty- five thousand pounds we granted by the said bill for the king's use being expended. " We are sensibly affected with the distress ed state of our frontier inhabitants; though we apprehend they are in a much better situ ation than those ofthe neighbouring provinces, who are equally near the enemy: and we hope they may be rendered stiU more secure, by a vigorous exertion of the force now on foot for their protection, and the annoyance of the enemy. " The other matters recommended to u? by the governor, we will take into consideration, and hope we may be able to do therein what ever ought to be expected of us." This was the last parley between the as- serably of Pennsylvania and Mr. Morris, who makes so notable a figure on their list of governors. Captain Denny his successor was at hand ; and therefore he did not think it worth his while to compose a reply, which he might reasonably suppose no body would think worth reading. Change, of DevUs, according to the Scots proverb is blithsome ! Welcome ever smiles. And fareweU goes out sighing says Shakspeare. The whole province seemed to feel itself relieved by the alteration of one name for another. Hope, the universal cozener, per suaded them to believe, that the good quali ties of the man would qualify the governor. He was received like a deliverer. The offi cious proprietary mayor and corporation, more than once already mentioned, made a feast for his entertainment ; and having in vited the assembly to partake of it, they also were pleased to become forgetful enough to be of the party. That the said assembly, should congratulate him on his arrival and accession (though the term is a royal one) was, perhaps, no more than a decent and respectful compliraent ; and that they should augurate from the excellence of his character, that his administration would be excellent, a fair and candid inference. But that they should find six hundred pounds at that time in their treasury to present hun with, as an initiation-fee, may be matter of surprise to all readers of their votes alike. Tired they might beof opposition ; pleased to find some pretence for relenting; but how they should find money where no money was, would be beyond conjecture. The order, therefore, on their treasurer, for that sum, could only be considered as a present mark of their good will, and an obligation on the house to provide, in some future money-bUl, for the discharge of that order. Complimente over, government began. — 124 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. And in the new governor's very first speech, the province vvas given to understand, " that the French encroachments on the Ohio, which his majesty in his declaration of war had as signed as the principal cause of his enterino- into a just and necessary yvar, were within the limits of it, [which the province could ne ver yet be convinced of;] and that therefore it was particularly incumbent on them* to exert themselves in the support of such mea sures as had been, or should be, concerted for carrying on the same with vigor ; the state of the frontiers too, the devastations, cruel ties, and murders committed there, and the horror they excited in him, made as good a topic in his hands, as the back counties, and the back inhabitants had done in his prede cessor's ; nay, those very back inhabitante are brought forward in the next paragraph ; and, what is more, left naked and defenceless to a savage and merciless enemy by an immediate disbanding of the provincial troops, which, as before, was represented as unavoidable, un less fresh supplies were quickly raised for their support" In short, if Mr. Morris had made the speech himself, he could not have carried on the thread of government with more consistency ; for, as to the douceur at parting contained in these words, "let unanimity and despatch pre vail in your councUs ; and be assured I wUl deny you nothing that I can grant, consistent with my duty to his majesty, and the rights of the proprietaries," it amounted to no more than this, do as my masters the proprietaries would have you, and I will say nothing to the contrary ! It is not to be conceived, that men of such long experience in the affairs of the province (so the members of assembly were character ized by their new governor) could be one mo ment at a loss for the meaning of his speech, or what was to be apprehended in conse quence of it They had voted a supply of forty thousand pounds before Mr. Morris was superseded. They did not sit, as usual, in the afternoon of the day the speech was delivered ; and though in the next day's deliberation they dropt the former bill, and ordered in another with a blank for the sum, they adjourned the day following, without doing any business at all ; nay, though quickened the next following with a message accompanied with an extract of a letter from * Had the French fort really been within the bounds of the grant to the proprietor, that would not have made the support of the war more particularly incum- boTit on the assembly of Pennsylvania, than on an.v other neighbouring government, eqii.-iily afferted an'd incommoded by its situation. For the country was ns yet uninhabited ; the property of the soil was in the proprietors; who, if it could be recovered from the French, would demand and receive exorbitant prices for it ofthe people. They might as justly be told, that the expense of his law suit with the proprietary of Mary land, for recovering his right to lands nn that frontier, was particularly incumbent on them to defray. lord Loudon, as also several other letters and papers (among the latter, one containing a letter from colonel Armstrong, concerning some secret which was to be kept a secret still) they demurred both that and three days more, before they came to any farther resolu tion ; and then they agreed upon an address by way of answer to his speech, in which, after a paragraph or two of compliment they dryly gave him to understand, 1st, " that from the very nature of their frontier which was so extended that it in a manner covered the three lower counties, Maryland, and New Jersey, and consisted of dispersed settlements, the horrors he talked of could not be prevented ; 2dly, that as it was in a better state of defence than that of any of the neighbouring colonies equally near the enemy, they could not but hope the inhabitants would be equally safe ; and 3dly, that as great unanimity did prevaU in their councils, they should , as far as lay in their power, consistent with their just righte, enable the governor to afford the people the continuance of that protection they so much stood in need of," &c. They also accompanied the said address with the following message ; which was ob viously of the nature of a postecript, calculat ed to contain the business purposely omitted in the letter it belonged to. " May it please the Governor, " As soon as we heard and considered the governor's speech, and before we received his message with the letter from lord Loudon, we resolved to give a sum of money for his majesty's service ; demonstrating, by that rea diness, that we are not insensible of our duty to the best of kings, nor of the necessity of enabling the governor at this critical con junction to protect the people committed to his care. " As former grante of this kind have been long delayed, or rendered ineffectual, by means of latent proprietary instructions, not communicated to us till we had spent much time in vain in forming our bills, we would now humbly request the governor to lay before us full copies of such of his instructions as relate to money-bills of any kind, with the preambles or other parts that contain tiie reasons of such instructions ; that we may, if possible, avoid all occasions of delay in affeirs so important, and that our judgmente may be informed of the equity or necessity of rules to which a conformity is required. " From the governor's candour, and sincere desire to facUitate and expedite, by every means in his power, what is necessary to the public welfare, as well as from the reasona bleness of the thing in iteelf, we have no doubt that he wUl favour us in granting this re quest." The assembly was civil ; the governor was artful. As he would not grant all that was PENNSYLVANIA. 125 asked, he resolved to be as forward as possi ble hi performing as much as he designed. Thus, on the very day their request was made, he laid the instructions in question be fore thera ; being the eleventh, twelfth, and twenty-first articles ofthe proprietary instruc tions. Of these, the first regards the interest money arising from the provincial bUls of credit, and the money to be raised by excise ; and having by advance asserted a joint inten tion in the said proprietaries, and the house of representatives, to have it applied for the pub lic service, proceeds to ground upon that joint intention a title to an equal power over it ; then forbids the governor to give his assent to any bill or act of assembly for emitting, re- emitting, or continuing any paper-currency, unless the whole ofthe interest money arising therefrom should be disposed of only to the very purposes to be specified in such act, or where that could not he convenientiy done, by the joint concurrence of governor and assembly for the time being. And the same prohibition IS also extended to all excise laws, except the disposition of the money to be raised by them is also appropriated in the same manner. The second, having admitted that a reason able and moderate quantity of paper-money tended greatly to the benefit of the province, as well as to the trade of Great Britain, and that the dangers of depreciation arose only from an over great quantity, authorizes and impowers the governor discretionally, on proper inquiry made, and proper assurance ob tained ofthe real utUity of such a measure, to make an addition to the present currency of forty thousand pounds more ; provided strict regard was had to all the limitations specified in the instruction foregoing ; and also, that effectual care was taken that all rents and quit-rente, due to the said proprietaries, should be always paid accordmg to the rate of ex change at the times of payment between the cities of Philadelphia and London, by some sufficient provision in the very act itself, or some separate act, as was done in the 12th of the present king, when the ferther sum of eleven thousand one hundred and ten pounds five shUlings was issued. And the third related to the proprietary estate; concerning which it asserted and maintained, 1st, that the said estate never had been taxed ; 2dly, that, over and above such exemption, several acte were passed, giving to the said proprietary a support by duties and other impositions ; 3dly, that since the expi ration of those laws, no aid had been given to the proprietaries as such; notwithstanding which, they had, on several occasions, shown their regard to the public service, by volun- tarUy and cheerfully expending several consi derable sums of their own money for the ad vancement thereof, although no provincial tax 11* had been laid upon the people within their time, till the last year ; so that not having any reason to suspect, the assembly would de viate so much from the ancient usage, as to pretend, by any act of theirs, to charge their estate with the burden of any taxes, they had therefore given the preceding governor no par ticular instructions on that head ; 4thly, that the assembly, taking occasion of the troubles of America, had represented them in a very untrue light, as unwilling to assist the public by contributing to the defence of the country, though no application had been made to either of them for that purpose ; 5thly, that the bill they had prepared and sent up for raising fifty thousand pounds for the king's use, by a tax of twelve cente per pound, and twenty shillings per head, was a bill of a most unjust and ex traordinary nature; in as ranch as the estates of the proprietaries were not excepted, but, on the contrary, the assessors were to acquaint theraselves with, and procure the amount of their estate in quit-rente, and in the same manner as other estates were assessed and taxed in the respective counties, by virtue of the said bill ; as the said twelve cents was laid on the whole value or fee-simple of every estate, which, supposing the same computed at twenty-five years' purchase only, was a quarter part more than the whole gross rent, without allowing for any charges or repairs ; as it was contrary to the royal charter, which required land-tax bills, as well as other bUls, to he consonant to reason, the laws, statutes, and rights of the kingdom, &c. not repugnant to them ; as so heavy a tax was not necessary to be laid for the raising such a sura, which might have been raised many other ways ; as calculated for the purpose of putting it in the power of persons wholly chosen by the people to tax their estates up to their full value, and to ease other persons, by taxing thera so lightly, as only to make up what might after wards be wanting to complete the said sum ; as the taxing of unimproved lands, yielding no rent or profit to the owner, was highly un reasonable, and contrary both to the practice of Great Britain, and the laws and statutes thereof; as, according to the best inquiries they could make, neither the quit-rents re served to the crown, or the proprietaries of any other colonies, had ever been taxed to wards the raising any supplies granted in those colonies ; quit-rents in general being indeed so small, that little or no land-tax would be payable out of them, even in Great Britain, where land-taxes are annual ; and as the grantees and owners of such farms and plantations, out of which such very small ac- knowledgmente were reserved to them, did in case of a land-tax, pay for the value of such their said farms ; 6thly, that though their deputy governor did refuse his assent to the bUI, on the assembly's refusing to exempt 126 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. their estates, they were so far from desiring not to contribute to the defence and support ofhis majesty's righte and dominions, that im mediately on the first notice sent them of Braddock's defeat, they sent over an order to their receiver-general to pay out of the ar rears of their quit-rents the sum of five thou sand pounds, as a free gift towards the defence of the province, desiring all disputes might cease, and that the governor and assembly would join together in measures to oppose the common enemy ; 7thly, that the said sum of five thousand pounds, so by them given, was, according to their belief, twenty times more than the tax upon all their estates there, if truly and proportionably rated, according to the value of all other estates, would have amounted to, for raising a sum of fifty thou sand pounds ; Stbly, that another bill of the same unjust nature, for raising fifty-five thou sand pounds, by a tax of six pence in the pound on the clear value of all estates (theirs excepted in consideration of the said free-gift) their then lieutenant-governor not being pro vided with particular instructions with respect to such bill, and because the money was then requisite forthe defence ofthe province, gave his assent to ; 9thly, that they, tendering as they ought to do, the then exigency of affairs, and the necessity of a supply, did not make any application to his majesty for his royal disallowance of the said act, as at any other time they should have done ; lOthly, that the assessors appointed by the assembly in both the said bUls were few in number, chosen by the people only, and not one by them ; and though incapable of knowing the true value of the several estates, so to be rated and taxed, were made final and absolute judges without appeal ; llthly, that by laying so great a tax to raise so small a sum, the said assessors had it in their power to commit great irregulari ties, in taxing some estates to their utraost value, and easing others, which would be un equal and unjust, and was so rauch the more to be feared, because they, the proprietaries, had been informed, that in assessing the ordi nary county levies on the like plan, many persons, instead of being rated at their full worth, had not been rated at a fiftieth part of it All these several articles (here stated in their fuU force) are introduced with a Where as at the head of each, and all implicated in one embarrassed immeasurable period ; to which is tacked the instruction iteelf, with the following preamble: " And whereas the said assembly appear to us to have been inclined not only to load and burden our estates with taxes by their autho rity, directiy contrary to former usage, but even to charge the same disproportionably, and in an unequal manner, in order to ease the es tates of others, wliich is a measure we are by no means willing to consent to ; and as the present invasion of his majesty's American do minions, may make itnecessary to raise further supplies for his service in our said province, the assembly may hereafter propose and offer bills or acte of assembly, to lay additional taxes on real estates there ; you are, therefore, here by required and directed, not to give your as sent to any bill or act of assembly of that sort unless the act be made to continue for one single year only, and no longer," &o. Here follows a variety of prescriptions and prohibitions ; some plausible ; some artificial ; and all serving as a shoeing-horn to the great one of all, the exemption of the proprietary quit-rente, which was to be rendered as ex press as possible. That however, they may not appear alto gether intractable, one concession is made to wards the conclusion, which is worth more perhaps than they supposed ; as it contains a tacit acknowledgment that in equity, they ought to be taxed like the rest of their fellow- subjects, and yet less than them they would have it understood; such estates of theirs, as come witliin that description, not being like to produce such a sum as deserved to be made a provincial object ; and the introductory part ofthe paragraph, as may be collected from the famous contest between them and the assem bly concernmg Indian expenses, justly draw ing the whole into suspicion. This is the paragraph. Yaleat quantum valere potest. " And whereas we are, and always have been, most ready and willing to bear a just proportion along with our tenante in any ne cessary tjtx for the defence of the said pro vince, which shall be equally laid upon the lands of the inhabitante, and also upon any of our manors or lands which are actuaUy let out on leases, either for lives or years, as be ing estates in some degree like to those of which the inhabitante are possessed ; therefore you are at liberty to give your consent to any reasonable bUl or act for that purpose, provid ed the tax to be paid for such our last men tioned estates, shall be payable by the tenants and occupiers, who shall deduct the same out of the rents payable by them to us." It is remarkable, that through the whole, tiie language is such as could indeed become none but an absolute proprietaiy ;' all dicta torial ; all in chief, as lord paramount ; as if there was no king in Israel, nor any interest worthy consideration, but the proprietary in terest ; as if there was no occasion for royal instructions, or as if it was impossible any such should interfere with theirs ; and as if the provincial legislature was a nose of wax to be twisted into what shape they pleased. Such were these instructions: and as to tiieir effect in the house, it was such as was naturally to be expected ; they saw a contrp- PENNSYLVANIA. 127 versy without end before tiiem, productive in ite way of all manner of calamities public and private, and to be prevented or shortened only by a submission equally ruinous. They saw this; and it threw them into agonies, though not into despair. The first expedient they made use of was the following message to the governor : " May it please the Governor, " The house have taken into their most serious consideration the proprietary instruc tions relating to the passing of money-bUls, which the governor has been pleased to lay be fore us ; and as we are fully convinced the pre sent unhappy circumstances of this province require very large and iraraediate supplies, we have likewise considered the funds where by such sums as we judge absolutely neces sary for the security of tbe province may be sunk ; but every thing we have hitherto been able to propose, must be rendered in great degree fruitless by those instructions, if ad hered to. " We therefore request the governor would be pleased to inform us, whether he does not apprehend himself at liberty, notwithstanding the said proprietary instructions, to pass such equitable bills as we may offer hira, if con sistent with his own judgraent and agreeable to such laws as have been enacted by his pre decessors, and received the royal assent." To this the governor answered, " Gentlemen, " I ara very glad to hear the house have taken the money-bills into their serious consi deration, and the proprietary instructions on that subject. "It would be with great reluctance, espe cially at this time, if I should differ in senti ments with the house of representatives. You will be pleased to observe how I am cir cumstanced, and that I cannot recede from my instructions without risking both ray ho nour and fortune, which, I am persuaded, you, gentlemen, are too equitable to desire." A bill for striking the sura of sixty thousand pounds, in bills of credit and giving tbe same to the king's use, and for providing a fund to sink the same, by laying an excise on wine, rurti, brandy, and other spirite, was the result; ten thousand pounds of which was appropriat ed as the quota of theprovince to the general fund for the common service and defence of the colonies, and rendered subject to the or ders of the earl of Loudon; ten thousand pounds to discharge the debt contracted by the province for the provisions fiirnished for the expedition against Crown-point; which debt had been unavoidably incurred, and could no otherwise be discharged ; no part of the hundred and fifteen thousand pounds, granted by parliament for the colonies, having been allotted to Pennsylvania ; and the residue, af ter paying such debts as had been contracted since the expenditure of the fifty-five thousand pounds, was destined for the current service, as the managers appointed by the said act with the consent and approbation of the go vernor, and not otherwise, should direct. When the said bill was presented to the governor, he made use ofthe answer of course, that he would give it all the despatch in his power ; but afterwards he gave thera notice by raessage, that difficultes had arisen ; and that he desired a conference with a commit tee of the house, in order to a discussion of them. A committee was ordered accordingly ; at which (Sept. 13) the governor was pleased to express himself to tbe following purport, viz. " That although, at the request ofthe house, he had laid the proprietary instructions before them with the utmost candour, yet he was surprised to find there was a clause in the bill now before him, whereby the surplus-money (if any) was to be in the disposition ofthe as sembly, contrary to the said proprietary in structions ; that the term for sinking the sum granted to the king's use was too long, and would depreciate tbe value of the currency ; that so long a time was contrary to the sense of the ministry, and the spirit of the act of parliament, which restrains the eastern colo nies from striking bUls of credit for any long er term, even upon the most pressing emer gencies, than five years only ; that in the re port of the board of trade on the act passed by this assembly for granting sixty thousand pounds to the king's use, the chief reason their lordships urged for not advising his ma jesty to disallow that act, was the shortness of the time for sinking the same ; and that there were many ways to sink the sum grant ed to the king's use, by the present bUl, with out extending the excise for so long a time." At the request of the committee he also gave them the heads of his objections in writ ing; namely, 1. To the length of the term of twenty years for sinking the said sum, as it might en danger the entire loss of the currency ; and as the lords of trade had assigned the short ness of the time prescribed in the sixty thou sand pounds act, as their reason for advising his, majesty to give his assent to it 2. To the disposition of the surplus-money bythe as sembly alone. 3. To the subjecting the ten thousand pounds given as a contribution to the general fund, to the order of lord Loudon only, and not of the commander-in-chief for the time being. 4. To the application of any part ofthe money to the discharge ofthe ten thousand pounds given for the use of the Crown-point expedition, as the said sum was issued upon a fund already established. His other objections, being of a less general nature, need not to be specified. And in the close of all, that he might be thoroughly un- 128 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. derstood, he farther chose to express himself as follows ; to wit, " that he had had several applications made to him from the frontier, re questing the aid of the legislature in their pre sent distressed circumstances ; that the eyes of the neighbouring colonies were upon thera ; and above all, that the nation of England were in expectation of their granting the neces sary supplies for the king's service ; that he was sorry to find the first bill offered to him should be such as he could not pass ; and that he hoped they would so conduct themselves, as that he might make a favourable represent ation of their conduct to his majesty." The house, on the other hand, having taken these objections into consideration, appointed a committee to collect the sense ofthe house in answer to them, which upon the report was approved, and sent up to the governor by the committee of conference. And this answer, so far as regards the ob jections above stated, can be given in no terms so apposite as their own, viz. " 1. The house chose, at this time, an ex cise bUl rather than a land-tax bUl, to avoid any dispute about taxing the proprietary es tate, and because, as it was a mode of raising money they were used to and understood, the bUl might more speedily be formed and brought to effect, so as to answer the present pressing emergency ; and being in the same form with a number of preceding excise bills, that had been passed hy former govern ors, gone through the offices at home, and re ceived the royal assent ; they well hoped it might meet with no objections. " The last time it passed, the term was ten years. No inconvenience arose from the length of that terra. Could we have sunk the sum we wanted by the excise in that term, we should not desire to extend it. But we expect it wUl not yield more m twenty years than the sixty thousand pounds granted. The act of parliament made for the eastern colonies, is not in force here. Had tiie par liament thought it fit that this province should be governed by that act, they would not have excluded Pennsylvania out ofthe biU, as they actually did. Governor Hamilton had form erly offered to extend the excise to any term, during which we would load it with three thousand pounds per annum, granted to the crown. From whence we concluded the term of twenty years would not be objected to, sixty thousand pounds being granted. " Other taxes or excises on other consump tions might possibly be laid, but we have no experience of them; they will require a time of more leisure to be well considered, and laws for collecting them properly formed, so as to be effectual, and not injurious to our trade. If this war continues, we may soon want them all ; and the succeeding assembly may take those matters in hand immediately after their meeting, so as to have such new excises ready before the money now granted is expended; though we stUl think a well proportioned tax on property, the most equal and just way of raising money. " If every man who received our bills of credit in payment, was obliged to keep them in his hands till the end of twenty years, to be sure the length of the term would occasion a proportionable depreciation. But they being a legal tender in all paymente, and the pos sessor able to exchange them immediately for their value, it is not length of term, but excess of quantity, that must occasion their depreciation ; and that quantity is by this bill yearly to diminish. Besides, the eighty thou sand pounds we have out on loan, is not to sink in the next six years, which wUl great ly lessen our currency, and consequently lessen the danger of the depreciation. "If the quantity should prove too great which we believe it will not, a subsequent act, laying excise or duty on other commodi ties, increasing the duty per gallon, raising it also from private consumption, or obtaining money by any other means for the public ser vice, may be made, and the money applied to the more speedy sinking this sixty thousand pounds. " 2. There will probably be littie or no sur plus left to the disposition of the assembly. People now leave the province fiister than they come into it The importation of Ger mans is pretty much over. Many go from us to settle where land is cheaper. The danger attending frontier settiemente will probably be long remembered, even after a peace may be restored. And if our inhabit ante duninish, the excise wUl be lessened in stead of being increased. At ite best it pro duces, communibus annis, not more than three thousand poimds per annum. " In former excise laws the assembly have had the disposition ofthe whole. They pre served the public credit ; paid all public debts punctually every year ; and have not abused the trust reposed in them. " The instruction is not a royal but proprie tary instruction, calculated to estabhsh arbi trary government among us, to distress the asserahly and people, and put it out of their power to support their complaints at home. It would, moreover, deprive us of a just right and privilege, enjoyed from the first settle ment of tiie country. " 3. Lord Loudon is a nobleman distinguish ed by the great trust the crown hath placed in him. We have likewise received a high character of his integrity and uprightness, which induces us to confide in him. The chance of war (which heaven prevent) may, after several removes, give him a successor unknown to us. If it should be found neces sary and convenient before the money is ex- PENNSYLVANIA. 129 pended, the governor and assembly can at any time, by a little act, subject the remain der to the order of his successor, the com mander-in-chief for tiie time being. " 4 It is true, there was a fund appropriated to sink the notes issued for the grant to the Crown-point expedition. That fund in a great measure fails by the loss of one whole county to the enemy, and the abandoning consider able parts of other counties, where lands mort gaged to the loan-office are situated. The whole sum was appropriated to the king's service. And if those notes had not been issued, that assistance could not have been given, as our affairs were then circumstanced. They cannot be redeemed in due time by that fund, without adding to the distresses of the people, already too great; and the public •credit ought to be kept up, as it may be want ed on some future emergency. Besides, those notes bear interest and at this time the pro vince is less able than ever to pay interest We should now save money by all means in our power." " 10. The fund appropriated for sinking the five thousand pounds, given for the Canada expedition, was broke in upon by the late ex traordinary demands for public money. Five thousand pounds was given in provisions to general Braddock, and near four thousand pounds more to cut a road for the king's ser vice at the instance of that general ; besides large sums for the maintenance of Indians, extraordinary and expensive treaties, &c. not expected or foreseen when the fund was laid. It may therefore fall short, and the outstand ing debts not pay the whole ; but however, the public credit ought to be supported ; and the new laid excise is the most proper fund to supply deficiencies in the old. " The house cannot be supposed insensible ofthe distresses oftheir fellow-subjecte on the frontiers. Several of the members reside there. They hoped they had in this bUl pro vided for those people the means of speedy assistance, and avoided all objections. They see none now of importance enough, in their opinion, to prevent the passage of the bill. — They grant the money freely to the king's use, and cannot admit of amendmente to a money-bill; they therefore persuade them selves, that the governor will consider the present circumstances of the province, and the consequences of dispiriting the inhabit ante, by depriving them at this time of their privileges, without which they would think the country scarce worth defending ; and that he will not suffer a proprietary instruction, new, unjust and unseasonable, to deprive his majesty of a grant so large, so freely given, and so necessary for his service ; and for the preservation of the proprietary estate, as well as the securing the lives and fortunes of the inhabitants, who promised themselves great Vol. II. . » happiness, in being placed immediately under his care and protection." The kings of Great Britain have a negative on laws as well as the deputy-governors of Pennsylvania ; but then they use it as rarely as possible ; and when they do, they rather demur than refuse; but the deputy-governor of Pennsylvania, having no such manage ments to observe, thought the peremptory style the best ; and so sent down the secreta ry with a verhal message, which is entered in the minutes ofthe province in these words: " Sir, the governor returns the bill, enti tled, ' an act for striking tiie sura of sixty thousand pounds, in bills of credit, and giving the same to the king's use, and for providing a fund to sink the bUls so to be emitted, by laying an excise upon wine, rum, brandy, and other spirite.' And his honour commands me to acquaint the house, that he will not give his assent to it ; and, there being no per son to judge between the governor and the house in these parts, he wUl immediately transmit to his majesty his reasons for so do ing." The remainder of that day (the 15th) as it may be surmised, was wasted in a vain discus sion of the difficulties they were involved in ; for the house broke up without coming to any resolution. The next was a blank likewise ; no business was done ; but, on the third, hav ing resumed the consideration of the go vernor's objections to tiieir bill, the commits tees report thereupon, the governor's verbal message refusing his assent to the said bill, and the proprietaries' instructions, prescribing to the representatives of the freemen of the province, the modes of their raising money for the king's service, they came to the fol lowing resolutions, to wit : " That the said proprietary instructions are arbitrary and unjust, an infraction of our char ter, a total subversion of our constitution, and a manifest violation of our righte, as freeborn subjects of England. " That the bill for granting sixty thousand pounds to the king's use, to which the go-, vernor has been pleased to refuse his assent contains nothing ' inconsistent with our duty to the crown, or the proprietary rights,' and is agreeable to laws which have been hither to enacted within this province, and received the royal approbation. " That the right of granting supplies to the crown is in the assembly alone, as an essen tial part of our constitution, and the limitation of all such grants as to the matter, manner, measure, and time, is only in them. " That it is the opinion of this house, that the many frivolous objections, which our go vernors have been advised from time to time, to make to our money-bills, were calculated with a view to embarrass and perplex the repre sentatives of the people, to prevent their doing 130 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. any thing effectual for the defence of their country, and thereby render them odious to their gracious sovereign, and to then- fellow- subjecte, both at home and abroad. "That the proprietaries mcreasing their restrictions upon the governor, beyond what they had ever done before, at a tune when the province is invaded by the king's enemies, and barbarous tribes of Indians are ravaging the frontier settiemente; and their forbidding the passing of any bUls whereby money may be raised for the defence of the inhabitante, unless those instructions are strictiy complied with, is tyrannical, cruel, and oppressive, with regard to the people, and extremely injurious to the kmg's service; shice, if the assembly should adhere to their righta, as they justly might, the whole province would be thrown into confusion, abandoned to the enemy, and lost to the crown. "The house, reserving their righte in their full extent on all future occasions, and pro testing against the proprietary instructions and prohibitions, do, nevertheless, in duty to the king and compassion for the suffering in habitante of their distressed country, and in humble but full confidence of the justice of his majesty and a British parliament, wave their rights on this present occasion only ; and do further resolve, that a new bill be brought in for granting a sum of money to the king's use, and that the same be made conformable to the said instructions." By this new bUI, both the sum and the time was reduced one half; that is to say, the sum to thirty thousand pounds, and the time for raising it, by excise, to ten years. The bill was immediately prepared and read, and the next day was sent up to the governor, who, on the 20th, condescended to signffy, that he was ready to pass the same into a law, pro vided, a clause therein relating to the fines and forfeitures, being paid into the treasury, was first struck out ; which, on account of the present exigency of affairs, having been also agreed to by the house, the said bUl was, on tbe 21st of September, passed accordingly into a law. Under these circumstances, in this man ner, and for these considerations, had go vernor Denny the honour to extort this pro prietary sacrifice from these honest consider ate, able, spirited men, who had stood in the gap for so many years, and who had never been driven out of it, if it had been possible for them to have saved their country and ite constitution too. To the cruelty of the conjuncture alone they gave way ; not to any superiority of rea son in their adversaries, nor through any fail ure of integrity or fortitude in themselves. Of this a sufficient testimonial remains stUl to be given out of their minutes ; whereui are to be found (and it is to be hoped will for ever remain) the remarks of the committee by or der ofthe house, on the proprietaries' instruc tions, already before the reader, which con tain as full a vindication of themselves and their conduct, as is in the power of thoughts and words to express ; and consequently as fuU an exposition of the claims and demands brought against them. Too long, however, is this performance to be given in the entire; more especially in the close of so long a narration ; and too signifi cant is it to admit of any abridgment ; to the appendix, therefore, the reader must be refer red, ff he has a curiosity to see it ; where it is lodged, as a requisite without which nei ther his entertainment nor his information could be complete. It wUl suffice to say in this place, that it was unanimously approved of and agreed to by* the house ; and that the house was unanimous also in resolving " that it was highly neces sary, a remonstrance should be drawn up and sent home, setting forth the true state of Pennsylvania, and representing the pernicious consequences to the British interest and to the inhabitante of that province, ff contrary to their charters and laws, they were to be governed by proprietary instructions." The true state of Pennsylvania is now before us. It is apparent the assemblies of that province have acted from the beginnmg on the defensive only ; the defensive is what every man, by the right and law of nature is entitled to. Jealousy is the first principle of defence ; if men were not to suspect, they would rarely, if ever, be upon their guard.— Magna Charta is apparently founded upon this principle ; nay, provides, that opposition should be always at hand to confront and ob viate danger. Penn, the founder ofthe colo ny, founded it upon Magna Charta ; and, as we have seen, the birthrighte of his followers were rather enlarged than diminished by his institutions. That the latter part of his ac tive Itfe, therefore, was employed in under mining his own foundations, only serves to excite our concern, that so few should beof a piece with themselves ; and to make him an swerable in part for the trespasses of hisheiis. Fatally verified, however, we see, both there and every where else, the feble of the axe, which having been gratified with as much wood only as would serve it for a han dle, became immediately the instrument to hew down the forest, root and branch, from whence it was taken. It is as apparent, on the other hand, that these proprietaries have acted an offensive part; have set up unwarrantable claims; have adhered to thera by instructions yet more unwarrantable; have avaUed them selves of the dangers and distresses of tlie province, and made it their business (at least their deputies have) to increase the terrors of PENNSYLVANIA. 131 the times, purposely to unhinge the present system; and, by the dint of assumptions, snares, menaces, aspersions, tumulte, and every other unfair practice whatsoever, would have either bullied or wheedled the inhabit ante out of the privileges they were born to ; nay, they have actually avowed this perfidious purpose, by avowuig and dispersing those pamphlets in which the said privileges are insolently, wickedly, and foolishly pronounc ed repugnant to government, the sources of confusion ; and such as, havuig answered the great end of causing an expeditious settle ment, for which alone they were granted, might be resumed at pleasure, as incompati ble with the dictatorial power they now chal lenge, and would fain exercise. And this being the truth, the plain truth, and nothing but the truth, there is no need to direct the censures ofthe public ; which, on proper information, are always sure to fell in the right place. The parties before them are the two pro prietaries of a province and the province it self And who or what are these proprieta ries? in the province, unsizeable subjecte and unsufficient lords. At home, gentiemen, 'tis true, but gentlemen so very private, that in the herd of gentry they are hardly to be found ; not in court ; not in office ; not in parliament And which is of most consequence to the community; — whether their private estate shall be taxed, or the province shall be saved ? Whether these two private gentlemen, in virtue oftheir absolute proprietary ship, shall convert so many fellow-subjecte, born as free as themselves, into vassals? or, whether so noble and usefiil a province, shall for ever re main an asylum for all that wish to remain as free as the inhabitants of it have hitherto made a shift to preserve themselves ? Sub judice lis est. What part the offices here at home have taken in this controversy, it will be time enough to specify when 'tis over ; and appeals respectfully made argue a presumption, that right wUl be done. But one circumstance more, therefore, re mains to be added in behalf of this persecut ed province, which is the testimonial of com modore Spry, contained in the following ex tracte from two ofhis letters to one Mr. Level, a gentleman of PhUadelphia, and by him com- raunicated to the speaker ofthe assembly, to wit: " August 5, 1756. " 'Tis impossible to conceive how much I am obliged to the gentlemen of Pennsylvania for their ready concurrence in supplymg his majesty's ships in North America with such a number of seamen, at their government's expense; and I must entreat you to make my most grateful acknowledgmente to your speaker, and the rest of the gentlemen con cerned in it" " August 7, 1756. " I have joined Mr. Holmes, and we are now under sail, with a fair wind, for Louis burg. Last night a ship luckily arrived with twenty-nine seamen more from the people of your good province ; God bless them ! I shall ever greatiully remember and acknowledge it I have the seamen all on board my own ship, except four that are sick at the hospital." APPENDIX; CONTAINING SUNDRY ORIGINAL PAPERS, RELATIVE TO THE SEVERAL POINTS OF CONTROVERSY BETWEEN THE GOVERNORS AND ASSEMBLIES OP PENNSYLVANIA. To the Honourable Thomas Penn and Ri chard Penn proprietaries of the province of Pennsylvania, <^c. The representation of the General Assembly of the said Province, met at PhUadelphia, the 23d day ofthe sixth month, 1751. May it please the Proprietaries : — The first settlers of this province unanimously concur red with your worthy father, to lay the foundation of their settlements, in doing justice to the native Indians, by coming among them as friends, upon an equitable purchase only : this soon appeared to be the best and safest way to begin the infant settlement, by the veneration and love it procured from those people, who kindly supplied the wants of many, then destitute of the necessaries of life ; and, as the settlements increased, retired to make room for their new guests, still preserving that es teem and veneration which had been so strongly impressed upon their minds. By this voluntary retreat, all were satisfied, for there was room enough for all ; and the good faith so carefully kept with those who were nearest, gave the more distant Indian nations that favourable opi nion of us, which our continuing to act on the same principles of justice hath supported to this day ; they entered freely into our alliance ; they became the guards of our frontiers against the French, and French Indians, by obliging them to observe a neutrality towards us, as we experienc ed during the course of the last war ; and we have reason to think we now share largely in their af fections. But this beneficial friendship hath nei ther been procured nor continued without a very great expense to the people of this province, espe cially for some years past, wherein we find the assemblies opened their hands liberally to all the purposes of peace, among those who could best, under God, preserve our distant settlements against the depredations of an active and power ful enemy ; without strictly inquiring at that time, how far the people alone ought to bear the burden of those expenses. But as that burden became yearly more and more heavy, the asemblies were naturally led to request the assistance of the pro prietaries, and we hoped an application so appa rently reasonable might have their approbation. We are therefore much concerned to receive an answer so different from our expectations, in which the proprietaries are pleased to ""^ " that they do not conceive themselves under any obli gation to contribute to Indian or any other public expenses, even though ta^es were laid on the peo ple for the charges of government ; but as there is not one shilling levied on the people for that ser vice, there is the less reason for asking any thing of them. Notwithstanding which, they nave charged themselves with paying to the interpreter, much more than could be due to him on any treaties for land, and are at this time at the expense of main taining his son, with a tutor, in the Indian coim- try, to learn their language and customs for the service ofthe province, as well as of simdry other charges on Indian affairs. That they have been at considerable expense for the service of the pro vince, both in England and here ; that they pur chase the land from tbe Indians, and pay them for it ; and that they are under no greater obliga tion to contribute to the public charges than any other chief governor of any of the other colonies." Upon which we beg leave respectfully to repre sent to our proprietaries, that the preserving a good understanding with the Indians, more par ticularly advances the interest and value of the proprietary estate than that of any other estate in the province, as it gives the proprietaries an op portunity of purchasing at a low price, and selling at high rates, great tracts of land on the frontiers, which would otherwise be impracticable. That therefore, though they may conceive themselves under no obligation by law, they are under the much stronger obligations of natural equity and justice, to contribute to the expense of those In dian treaties and presents, by which that good un derstanding, so beneficial to them, is maintained. That although formal taxes have not been laid in this province during some years past, for the sup port ofthe proprietaries' lieutenant-governor, and defraying the charges of Indian treaties, yet the interest of our paper-money is a virtual tax on the people, as it arises out of, and is paid by, their la bour, and our excise is a real tax, yielding about three thousand pounds per annum, which is prin cipally expended in those services, besides the tax of licenses of various kinds, amounting to consider able sums yearly, which have been appropriated wholly to the support ofthe governor. That the assemblies of this province have always paid the accounts of our Indian interpreter for his public services to his full satisfaction ; and we believe fu ture assemblies will not fail to do, in that respect, whnt mav leasonably be expected from tnem. PENNSYLVANIA— APPENDIX. 133 when his son shall be thought qualified to succeed him. Nor do we doubt their dischavging all just debts, for expenses properly chargeable to the pro vince, whether made here or in England, when ever the accounts are exhibited. We are never theless thankful to our proprietaries for their care in our affairs, and their endeavours to provide a well quabfied successor to our present interpreter, as such a one may be of service to the public, as well as to the private interests of their family. AVe would farther entreat our proprietaries to consider, that their great estate not lying in Bri tain, is happily exempt from the burdens borne by their fellow-subjects there, and cannot, by any law of ours, now in being, be taxed here. That therefore, as they are not obliged, on account of that estate, to bear any part of the charge of any war the British nation may be involved m, they may with us more freely contribute to the expense of preserving peace, especially on the borders of their own lands, as the value of those lands so much depends upon it. We beg leave further to observe to our proprie taries, that the act forbidding all others to pur chase lands ofthe natives, establishes a monopoly solely in their favour ; that therefore they ought to bear the whole charge of treaties with the In dians for land only, as they reap the whole bene fit. And that their paying for land (bought, as we conceive, much the cheaper for the provin cial presents accompanying those treaties) which land they sell again to vast advantage, is not a sa tisfactory reason why they should not bear a part of the charge of such other treaties, as tend to the common welfare and peace ofthe province. Upon the whole, since the proprietaries' interests are so constantly intermixed, more or less, with those of the province, in all treaties with our In dian allies ; and since it appears that the proprie taries think they already pay more than their share, and the people (who have disbursed near five thousand pounds within these four years, on those occasions) think they pay abundantly too much ; we apprehend that the surest way to pre vent dissatisfaction on all sides, will be, to fix a certain proportion of the charge of all future pro vincial treaties with the Indians, to be paid by the proprietaries and province respectively ; and this, we hope, they will on further consideration agree to, not only as it is in itself an equitable proposal, but as it may tend to preserve that union and har mony between the proprietaries and people, so evidently advantageous to both. — Signed, by order of the house, ISAAC NORRIS, Speaker. The Proprietaries' answer to the foregoing representation ofthe House of Represent atives. Laid before the house. May 23, 1753. Gentlemen, 1. The true and real interest of the people whom you represent is, as it ought to be, the prin cipal object of our concern ; we shall on all occa sions, snow them that we have it constantly in view ; we will use our utmost endeavours to pro cure it, at the expense of our own private fortunes, whenever it appears to us necessary; and, in con sidering the matter of your representation, shall endeavour to act such a part as would be thought 12 just, by persons wholly disinterested, both with regard to us and them. 2. That tbe representatives of the people are not so disinterested, seems most certain ; where fore, supposing tbey saw this matter in a light very different from that in which it appears to us, and that they were not actuated by any inclina tion on the one hand to oppose our interest, or on the other to influence the weaker part ofthe electors by appearing zealous for theirs (which we would trust and hope is the case) yet we may continue to differ in sentiments from them on the necessi ty of the desired assistance, without being liable to any imputation of neglecting the interest of the province in the opinion of the world. 3. After we had ordered our governor to give you the answer, which he did, to your former ap plication, we had no reason to expect a repetition of the application directly to ourselves; as you might well suppose, we had considered the mat ter before we had returned our first answer, and the repeating the request could only produce the repeating the answer ; the occasion for which does not appear to us. It is possible, that one purpose may be, in order to show, more publicly, this difference in opinion between us and your selves ; and if that was ever intended, it will be convenient that we should set this matter in a clear light (although it may make our answer longer than we could wish) that the true state of the matter may appear. 4. We did not speak our own sentiments only when we before said, we were under no greater obligation to contribute to the public charges than any chief governor of another colony; that was the opinion of the lords of trade, when, upon an application made to the king, by many considera ble inhabitants of the province, that he would be pleased to give some orders for their defence ; the counsel, employed by the agent of the house of re presentatives, insisted, that, if any such prepara tions were necessary, the proprietaries ought to be at the expense of them ; but their lordships de clared it their opinion, that we were not obliged to be at any expense of that nature, more than any other govemor-in-cbief of the king's colonies. 5. We are sensible that our honoured father, in tbe first settlement of the province, and at all times after, was strictly careful to do justice to the Indians, and purchased land from them before it was settled ; but, we believe, always at his own charge ; at least we do not find a single instance of a purchase having been made at the expense of tbe people. So that what share they had in such purchases, we are at a loss to know, other than the benefits and conveniences which arose from the mutual exchange of friendly offices with the na tives. 6. Had the necessary public charges amounted to more than the revenue of the province, and a general tax been laid on the people to defray the same, there might then have been some colour to desire that we should contribute ; but as no such tax has, for very many years, been or need to be laid, and the charge of government amounts to lit tle more than the one half of the common and or dinary revenue, the pressing thus unseasonably for our contribution, appears, we conceive, as an attempt to induce the weakest of the people to ima gine yourselves to have an uncommon regard to their interests, and to be therefore the most proper persons to be continued as their representatives ; 134 FRANKLIN'S WORKS- and the matters which might the rather induce us so to think, are the solemn repetition of this re quest, and treating it as if it was a matter of great value and consequence; the time of making your last representation, just before an election ; and the printing the report, and most extraordina ry resolutions, which were tbe foundation of such your representation, in your votes, long before your address could, by any possibility, come to our hands ; which are such matters as could not escape our observation, and which would almost persuade us, that it was intended as an address to the people, rather than to us. 7. Wherefore, on this occasion, it is necessary that we should inform the people, through your selves, their representatives, that as, by tbe consti tution, our consent is necessary to their laws, at the same time that they have an undoubted right to such as are necessary for the defence and real service of the country ; so it will tend the better to facilitate the several matters which must be trans acted with us, for their representatives to show a regard to us and our interest ; for, considering the rank which the crown has been pleased to give us in Pennsylvania, we shall expect from the peo ple's representatives, on all occasions, a treatment suitable thereto ; and that, whilst we desire to go vern the prorince according to law only, they should be as careful to support our interests, as we shall always be to support theirs. 8. We are truly concerned, that you lay us un der tbe necessity of acquainting the public with tbe state of tbe revenue of the province ; you have in part, done it already, by acknowledging the amount ofthe excise to be three thousand pounds a year. The interest ofthe paper money, as we conceive, is more than that sum, which makes the common revenue of the province above six thou sand pounds a year ; the annual expense of govern ment for a series of years (including Indian charges) amounts to little more than half that sum ; the interest is paid by people who, no doubt find greater advantage in the use of tbe money than the interest they pay for it, otherwise they would not be so solicitous to be admitted to borrow as they always have been. That interest money therefore cannot, with any propriety, be called a tax laid on the province, or a burden on tbe inhabitants. The excise itself is not a gene ral tax, to which all tbe inhabitants must contri bute, as it is paid by such only who buy wine and spirituous Hquors, under certain quantities ; so that many people pay nothing of that tax. Of all this revenue, Shout four hundred pounds a year has, on an average, for twenty years past, (and great part of that time during war) been expended in presents to the Indians, and charges on their ac count ; which we cannot conceive to be a large sum, in proportion to the revenue of the prorince, for so great and important a service as that of keeping the united nations of Indians in the inte rest of Great Britain ; we believe every disinte rested person will think tbe sum very small, and, from the manner of its being raised, not at all burdensome to the people ; besides which, had not half that money been expended on these accounts, it is most certain all the same excise would have been paid. 9. The whole sum paid, in twenty years, for Indian serrices, is not more than, on a common computation, our family has paid, in the same time, for duties and excises here, for tbe support ofhis majesty's government ; and which we choose to mention, in answer to that part of your repre sentation, wherein you, unadrisedly, publish lo the world, that our estate in America is exempted from the burdens borne by our fellow-subjects in Great Britain ; such matter might much more properly have been avoided ; and at the same time that we show you, that we do pay all other taxes here, that on land only excepted, we must adrise you to he very careful, not to put people here in mind of that single exemption. Several proposals have been made for laying taxes on North A merica, and it is most easy to foresee that tbe self-same act of parliament that shall lay them on our, will also lay tbem on your estates, and on those of your con stituents. 10 We cannot allow that you have always paid your interpreter to his satisfaction, because we know we have charged ourselves with gratifi cations to him, when the assembly has refused to pay him what he thought his serrices deserved ; and we make no doubt he can remember such in stances ; however, with respect to any expenses of that sort, and many others here, we entered in to them without any expectation of being repaid, and should think it far beneath us to send the ac counts of them to the house of representatives, as your agent, employed by yourselves, might do for the expenses incurred by him. What we might reasonably expect, is, a thankful acceptance of our endeavours to serve tbe public ; and if you do not think proper to make even that return, we shall, nevertheless, be fully satisfied with the con sciousness of having rendered the province all the services in our power. 11. We do not conceive that any act of assem bly does, or can establish, what you call a mono poly in us for the purchase of lands ; we derive no right or property from any such law. It is un der tne king's royal charter that we have tbe sole right to make such purchases ; and it is under that same charter, that every settler has a right, through us, to tbe estate he possesses in the pro vince. The act itself, which you seem to allude to, acknowledges this right to be so granted to us by tbe charter, and is only declaratory thereof to the people, advertising them of a certain truth, that they are liable according to the laws of Great Britain, to penalties for contravening such right, 12. Your assertion, that treaties for land are made at a less expense to us, on account of pro vincial presents being given at tbe same time, does not appear to us to be founded on fact ; the last purchase was made on no other account, but pure ly to save the province the expense of making an other present to some Indians who came down after tbe time that the principal deputation had re ceived the presents intended for the whole, and were on tlieir return back ; and the land was bought very dear on that account. Other treaties for land have been made when provincial presents have not been given ; and we do not, or ever did, desire, that the inhabitants should bear any part of tbe expense of Indians who came down solely at our request to consent to tbe sale of lands, un less they stay on other public business also ; and whenever they have come down on both accounts we are sensible the expense has been dirided in a manner very favourable to the pubUc. 13. We are far from desiring to avoid contribu ting to any public expense, which it is reasonable we should bear a part of, although our estate is not, by law, liable to be taxed. As we already PENNSYLVANIA— APPENDIX. 135 have been, so we doubt not we always shall be, at a far greater expense in attending tbe affairs of the province, than our estate could be taxed at, if all the estates in the province were rated to the pubUc charges, which would be the only fair way of establishing a proportion. If we were willing to consent to any such matter, the value of our es tate, and of the estates of all the inhabitants, ought to be considered, and tbe whole expense propor tionably laid upon the whole value ; in which case you would find, that tbe expense which we volun tarily submit to, out of affection to the inhabitants, is much more than such our proportion so laid would amount to ; besides these general expenses, tbe first of us sent cannon at his own charge, to the amount of above four hundred pounds sterling, for the defence of our city of Philadelphia, neg lected by a late house of representatives ; which alone, is such a sum as the proportion of a tax on our estate would not in many years amount to. And as this is the case, we are not disposed to en ter into any agreement with the house of represent atives for payment of any particular proportion of Indian, or other public expenses, but shall leave it to them (to whom it of right belongs) to proride for such expenses, as they shall judge ne cessary for the public service. 14. As you desire to appear willing, on your parts, to ease your constituents of a small part of the Indian expense, by throwing it upon us, we shall, on our part, and hereby do recommend it to you, to give them a real and far greater relief, by taking off a large share of that only tax which is borne by them. As the general expense amounts to little more than three thousand pounds a year, we conceive it may very well be provided for out of the interest of the paper-money, and one half of tbe present excise ; especially if we shall be in duced, from the state of your trade (which we ex pect soon to receive) to consent to an increase of your paper-currency, this would ease the inhabi tants of about fifteen hundred pounds a year, wliich would be felt by many of them, when they would not be sensible of the trifle you propose we should contribute to the public expenses. We have di rected tbe governor to consent to such a law when you shall think fit to present it to him, 15, As we shall ever in the first place endeavour to promote the real interests of the good people of Pennsylvania, we make no doubt of preserving an union and harmony between us and them, unless men of warm or uneasy spirits should unhappily procure themselves to be elected for representa tives, and should for the supporting their own pri vate views, or interests, influence their brethren, otherwise honest and well designing, to espouse their cause ; in such case, indeed, disputes may arise, wherein we shall engage with the utmost reluctance ; but even then, as we shall make the general good tbe rule of our actions, we shall, on all such occasions, if ever tbey should happen, steadily, and without wavering, pursue measures the most likely to conduce to that good end. 16, The representatives being annually chosen, we are aware that we are not writing now to the same persons who sent the representation to us ; the persons most forward to push on a measure wliich, from the answer, we directed our govern or to give to the former application he was desired to make to us, must be supposed disagreeable) may not now be in the house, but may be suc ceeded by more prudent persons, returned for their places, who would be careful not to press a matter too far, in which tbe rights of tbe people are not really concerned ; however, the answer we give must be to tbe representation sent us. And we desire, in any matter of tbe like nature, that the house will be satisfied with such an answer as the governor may have orders to give on our behalf THOMAS PENN, RICHARD PENN. Report on the Proprietaries' answer, <^c. In obedience to the order of tbe house, your com mittee have considered the representation made by a' former assembly to the proprietaries, con cerning Indian affairs, with their answer deli vered to this house ; and since all further ap plication to the proprietaries on the subject of that representation is now forbidden, and they seem to require that their answer should be put on tbe minutes of assembly, we are of opinion that the representation not hitherto made pub lic, should accompany it, with such of the fol lowing remarks made on each paragraph of the said answer as tbe bouse shall think proper. 1, On tbe first paragraph of tbe answer, we shall just observe, that the declaration it contains is a noble one, and worthy of the rank our proprie taries hold among us ; we only vrish that in the present case tbey had thought fit to give a proof of the sincerity with which it is made, such' as would have been satisfactory to others, since our assemblies are esteemed interested judges. 2. The insinuation in the second paragraph, as if the assembly were actuated by an inclination to oppose the proprietary interests, we look upon to be injurious ; and as groundless as the other sup position, that the members might have^ in view their future election, of which we shall take far ther notice when we come to the sixth paragraph, where it is again repeated. No instance can be given of that assembly's opposing, or attempting to oppose, tbe proprietary interest. It rather ap pears that they thought tbey were consulting those interests In the very point in question, if it be consistent vrith the proprietary interest to have a good understanding with the people ; since the representation expressly proposed a method of preventing misunderstandings for tbe future. 3, In the third paragraph, tbe representation is treated as a mere repetition of a former application, and therefore improper, as " repeating the request could only produce the repeating the answer ;" but the representation appears to your committee to contain, not only a repetition of the request, but new reasons in support of it, and answers to such as had been given for refusing it. And such a repetition of an application we think justifiable in all cases ; except where we can be sure that the first thoughts of tbe persons applied to, are infalli-- bly right ; or if wrong, that they are incapable of hearing reason. 4. With regard to the opinion said to be declared by the lords oftrade, " that our proprietaries were no more obliged to contribute to public charges than any other governor-in-chief of tbe king's colo nies;" your committee presume to suppose their lordships could only mean, that as governpr-in- chief the proprietaries were not obliged by" law ; and not, that as proprietaries tbey were not obliged in equity. The latter is the point at present in dispute between the proprietaries and people of Pennsylvania, though in this paragraph evaded. 136 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. The assembly mention no other obligation but such as in their opinion arises from reason and justice; they humbly submit their reasons to the proprietaries' consideration, and from their equi ty only, they hope a compliance with the request. The position understood as the proprietaries would understand it, must as well hold good among the governed as the governors of the colonies ; for should the wealthiest inhabitant say, he ought to pay no more towards public charges than any other inhabitant, he would be right, considering him merely as an inhabitant ; but as a possessor of property, he would be wrong ; and therefore laws are made, obliging such as would not other wise be just, to pay in proportion to their sub stance, 5. The fifth paragraTih seems intended to com bat an assertion, that the purchases from the In dians were made with the people's money. As we find no such assertion in the representation, we do not think it necessary at present to inquire how far, or in what instances, the people have had a share directly or indirectly in any such pur chases. The representation only intimates, that the house conceived, treaties for the purchase of land were made on more reasonable terms to the proprietaries for tbe provincial presents accompa nying such treaties : and that this was an addi tional reason why the proprietaries should bear a proportionable part, at least, of the expense of such presents ; since, besides their share of "the common benefits and conveniences, which arise from the mutual exchange of friendly offices with the Indians," they reap a particular advantage to theraselves, and that a very considerable one. This reason we apprehend is not answered in the present paragraph ; it is only evaded, by changing the state of tbe question, A subtlety, in our opinion, unworthy the dignity of the pro prietaries and chief governors of a province, 6, On the sixth paragraph we would observe, that the request to the proprietaries, that they would be pleased to bear a part of Indian ex penses, was founded on the supposed equity of the case ; and that they would consent to settle the proportion to be paid by them, was proposed as a means of preventing dissatisfactions between them and the people. 'To these points, this para graph only answers, that the people are able enough to pay these expenses without tbe assist ance of the proprietaries. This likewise seems to be starting a new question, and one that is beside the present purpose ; for though it were true that the people are able to pay, it does not follow that they should therefore payunjustly, nor is it likely that they will be pleased and satisfied with so do ing, for such a reason. The proprietaries are likewise able to pay, they have revenue enough, but they do not think this a sufficient reason even to pay a part; why then should it be thought sufficient to induce us to pay the whole 1 the charge contained in this paragraph, " that the ap plication was only an attempt to induce the weak est of the people to imagine the house bad an un common regard to their interests, and were there fore the most proper persons to be continued their representatives at the ensuing election ;" your committee think an absolute mistake, and unsup ported by the least degree of probability. For there had not been for some years, nor was there expected to be, nor has there since been, any con test at elections between the proprietary and po pular interests ; nor if there had, would it have been necessary to take such measures, the proprie taries having, of late years, no formidable share of the people's love and esteem. Nor was tbe sup posed address in fact made to tbe people ; for the representation has never yet been published ; nor were the votes containing those resolutions pub lished till after the election was over. Nor is the situation of an assembly-man here so advantage ous, as to make it worth his while to use artifice for procuring a re-election ; for when the small- ness ofthe allowance, the expense of bring, the time he is absent from his own affairs, and other inconveniences are considered, none will suppose he can be a gainer by serving the public in that station. 7. But whether assembly-men may or may not expect any gainful advantages from that station, we find our chief governors informing us in pret ty plain terms, in the seventh paragraph, that they themselves are not without such expectations from theirs ; they tell us, " their consent is neces sary to our laws, and that it will tend the better to facilitate the matters which must be transacted with them, for the representatives to show a re gard to their interest," That is, as we under stand it, though tbe proprietaries have a deputy here supported by the province, whp is or ought to be fully impowered to pass all laws necessary for the service of the country, yet, before we can obtain such laws, we must facilitate their passage, by paying money for the proprietaries, which they ought to pay, or in some other shape make it their particular interest to pass them. We hope, how ever, that if this practice has ever been begun, it will never be continued in this prorince ; and that, since, as this very paragraph allows, we have an undoubted right to such laws, we shall be alwa)'s able to obtain them from the goodness of our so vereign, without going to market for them to a subject. Yet, however easy it may be to understand that partof this paragraph which relates to the propri etaries' interest, your committee are at a loss to con ceive why, in the other part of it, the people are to be acquainted, " that the crown has been pleased to give the proprietaries a rank, and that they ex pect from the representatives a treatment suitable thereto." We cannot find on perusing the repre sentation in question, that it contains any treat ment unsuitable to their rank. The resolve of the bouse was, that to prevent dissatisfaction on all sides, they should be requested, in the most reasonable and most respectful manner, to agree upon a proportion of Indian charges to be paid by them and the prorince according to justice; and it may be submitted to the judgment of all impar tial persons, whether the representation drawn in pursuance of the resolve, was not both reasonable in itself, and respectful in the manner. It was not, as tbe proprietaries represent it, an address to the public. It is not to this day made public. It was a private application to themselves, transmit ted to them through tbe hands of their governor. Their true interest (which they wUl always find to consist in just, equitable, and generous mea sures, and in securing the affections oftheir peo ple) was consulted in it ; and one suitable means proposed to obtain that end. As to rank, tbe pro prietaries may remember, that the crown has like wise been pleased to give the assemblies of this province a rank ; a rank which tbey hold, not by hereditary descent, but as they are the voluntary choice of a free people, unbribed, and even unsoli- PENNSYLVANIA-APPENDIX. 137 cited. But they are sensible that true respect is not necessarily connected with rank, and that it is only from a course of action suitable to that rank they can hope to obtain it. 8. Your committee are quite surprised at the concern the proprietaries are pleased to express in their eighth pariigraph, on their being, as tbey say, laid under a necessity of acquainting tbe public vrith the state of tbe revenue of the prorince ; as if the state of that revenue had ever been a secret; when it is well known, and the proprietaries themselves know, that the public accounts are yearly settled, stated, printed, and published by the assembly, and have been so for these thirty years past. Whatever private reasons the propri etaries may have to make a secret of their revenue, we know of none to make one of the revenue of the prorince, nor has it ever been attempted. Their following observations, concerning tbe na ture of our taxes, and tbe distinction between ge neral and particular taxes, seem to your commit tee not so just and accurate as might be expect ed ; for we cannot conceive that the wilUngness of people to subject themselves to the payment of interest or excise, by taking money on loan, or consuming spirituous liquors, makes either the one or tbe other less a tax. The manner of laying a tax, the easy method of levying it, and the bene fits arising from the disposition of it, may all tend to induce people to pay it willingly ; yet it is still a tax. And indeed all taxes ought, upon the whole, to produce greater good to a people, than the money kept in tneir pockets could do ; in such case, taxes are no burdens ; but otherwise they are. Taxes,, seemingly particular, are also more general than they are often supposed to be : tbe labouring man must live : excise the materials of his subsistence, and he generally finds means to get more for his labour. After estimating our whole present revenue, as if it had been the same for twenty years past, and would certainly continue, though the proprieta ries know it depends on temporary acts near ex piring, the renewal of which is at best dubious, they conclude that four hundred pounds a year for Indian expenses is a small sum, and that we are under no necessity of being frugal, on this account, of the public money. Tms four hundred a year is the sum that they find bos been paid on an average for twenty years past, and they take no notice of its being a growing charge, and that for the four last years before the representation, it amounted to near twelve hundred a year, which we conceive disinterested persons will think a very large sum ; and although the same excise might have been raised, if not naif that money had been expended, it does not seem to us to follow, that the proprietaries ought not to have paid their just pro portion of it. If the sum be small, their propor tion of it must have been smaller ; and the money so saved might have been applied to some other use, beneficial to the public; or have remained ready in the treasury for any emergency. 9. On the ninth paragraph your committee will only observe, that the people of Pennsylvania do likewise pay duties and excise for the support of his majesty's government; and other taxes, which, considering their ability, are perhaps pro portionably equal to those paid by the proprietary family, or any other subjects in England. We pay indeed as much as an infant colony can well bear, and we hope and believe the justice of a Bri- voL. n. . . . s 12* tish parliament will never burden us with more. Tbe proprietaries' exemption was not published till now at their own instance. It was made use of as a private motive to themselves only, in the representation. 10. On inquiry, we have reason to believe that the interpreter's bills of charge against the pro vince, have always been allowed and paid ; and where his accounts have contained blank articles for his serrices, he has been asked what would satisfy him, and the same has been allowed. We suppose tbe instances alluded to, wherein the as sembly did not fully satisfy him, must have been such as the proprietaries were concerned in by the purchase of lands, and a part might according ly be left for them to pay. We believe our as semblies always have been, and we hope always vrill be, ready to acknowledge gratefully any ser vices rendered to the public by the proprietaries ; and not merely to acknowledge them, but to make adequate returns. 11. Whether tbe monopoly of lands, in favour ¦ of tbe proprietary, was estabUshed by the royal grant, or by acts of assembly, or by both, your committee do not think it material at this time to dispute, since the reasoning in the representation remains the same, viz. that those in whose favour such monopoly was erected, ought at least to bear a part of tbe expense necessary to secure them tbe full benefit of it. 13, In the twelfth paragraph, three things ap pear somewhat extraordinary to your committee. 1. That the proprietaries should deny that trea ties for land are made at less expense on account of provincial presents accompanying them, which we think any disinterested judge would at least allow to be probable. 3. That they should say the last purchase was made on no other account, but purely to save the province the expense of a pre sent ; as if they had no occasion to purchase more land of tbe Indians, or found no advantage in it. 3. That to prove such purchases were not the cheaper on account of provincial presents accom panying them, tbey should give an instance in which, they themselves say, the purchase was the dearer for want of such presents. If purchases are dearer to the proprietaries when no provin cial presents accompany them, does not this clearly confirm the assertion ofthe assembly, that they are the cheaper when there are such presents 1 and does it not prove what tbe proprietaries deny ? 13. It appears by their thirteenth paragraph, that the proprietaries think the part they voluntarily submit to bear, and expect always to bear, of pub lic expenses, is greater than their proportion, equitably laid, would amount to. If this be so, and tbey are, as they say, " far from desiring to avoid contributing to any public expense, wEich it is reasonable they should bear a part of, al though their estate is not by law liable to be tax ed ;" your committee are at a loss to conceive, why they should refuse, " to enter into any agree ment for the payment of any particular proportion of Indian or other public expenses," when such agreement might save them money, and is pro posed to prevent dissatisfactions, and to preserve union and harmony between them and the people ; unless it be to show their utter contempt of such union and harmony, and how much they are above valuing the people's regard. The charge on former assembbes, that tbey neglected the defence of the proprietaries' city ; 138 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. your committee cannot but think unkind, when it is known to the world, that they gave many thousand pounds during the war to the king's use, besides paying near three thousand pounds at one time, to make good tbe damages done to tbe mas ters of servants, by the irregular and oppressive proceedings of tbo proprietaries' lieutenant; and that their not proriding cannon to defend the city, was not from neglect, but other considerations set forth at large in tbe printed proceedings of those times, needfess now to be repeated. At the same time it may be remembered, that though the de fence ofthe proprietaries' city, as they are pleased to term it, by batteries of cannon, was more their interest (we will not say duty) than any other person's whatsoever, and they now repre sent it as a thing so necessary, yet they them selves really neglected, and even discouraged it ; while some private gentlemen gave sums nearly equal to that they mention, and many contributed vastly more, considering their circumstances, by which means those batteries were not only com pleted in season, but tbe defence of both town and country in that way prorided for ; whereas this boasted assistance of four hundred pounds worth of cannon, was sent, like Venetian succours, af ter the wars were over. Yet we doubt not, but the proprietary who sent them has long since had the thanks of those who received them, though we cannot learn that they ever were favoured with any from him, for what they did and ex pended in defence of his share of the province property. 14. The fourteenth paragraph ofthe proprieta ries' answer seems calculated merely for the same design vrith which they charge tbe representation, viz. to amuse the weaker part of the people. If tbey are really disposed to favour the drinkers of spirituous liquors, they may do it without a law, by instructing their lieutenants to abate half tbe license fees, which would enable the retailers to sell proportionably cheaper ; or to refuse licenses to more than half tbe present number of public houses, which might prevent the ruin of many fa milies, and the great increase of idleness, drunken ness, and other immoralities among us. 15. In return to tbe good resolutions expressed by tbe proprietaries in their fifteenth section, your committee hope that future, as well as past assem blies, will likewise endeavour to make the public good the rule of their actions, and upon all oc casions consult the true interest and honour of the proprietary family, whatever may be the senti ments or conduct of any of its particular branches. To this end, we think tbe honest and free re marks contained in this report, may be more con ducive than a thousand flattering addresses. And we hope, that when the proprietaries shall think fit to reconsider this matter, they will be persuad ed, that agreeing to an equitable proportion of ex pense wilFbe a good means of taking away one handle of dissension from " men of warm uneasy spirits, if such should ever unhappily procure themselves to be elected." 16. Yet if tbe proprietaries are really desirous of preserving an union and harmony between themselves and this people, we cannot but be sur prised at their last paragraph, whereby they en deavour to cut off tne assembly's access to them, in cases where the answers received from their deputies, may not bo thought agreeable to the pub lic good. No king of England, as wo can remem ber, has ever taken on himself such state, as to refu.se personal applications from the meanest of bis subjects, where the redress of a grievance could not be obtained of his officers. Even sul tans , sopbys, and other eastern absolute monarchs, will, it IS said, sometimes sit whofe days to hear the complaints and petitions of their very slaves ; and are the proprietaries of Pennsylvania become too great to be addressed by the representatives of the freemen of their province 1 if tbey must not be reasoned with, because they have given in structions, nor their deputy because he has re ceived them ; our meetings and deliberations are henceforth useless ; we have oiUy to know their will, and to obey. To conclude, if this province must be at more than two thousand pounds a year expense, to sup port a proprietary's deputy, who shall not be at liberty to use bis own judgment in passing laws [as is intimated to us in tbe fourteenth section of tbe answer we have been considering] but tbe as sent must be obtained from chief governors, at three thousand miles distance, often ignorant or misinformed in our affairs, and who will not be applied to or reasoned with when they have given instructions,-we cannot but esteem those colonies that are under tbe immediate care ofthe cro"wn in a much more eligible situation : and our sincere regard for the memory of our first proprietary, must make us apprehend for bis children, tha: if they follow the adrice of Rehoboam's counsellors, they vrill, like him, absolutely lose — at least the affections of their people. A loss, which however they affect to despise, will be found of more conse quence to them than tbey seem at present to be aware of All which is humbly submitted to the correc tion of the house, by, &c. September n, 1153. A message from governor Morris to the as sembly, Augiist 12, 1755. Gentleme.v, — When I amended and sent down to you the bill for reusing fifty thousand pounds for the king's use, I expected you would have returned it to me with the amendments, and informed me which of them you agreed to, this being the common and ordinary method in such cases ; but you departed from thus, and desired to know whether I was restrained by tbe proprieta ries from taxing their estate, and the reasons for my opinion, as to that measure ; and though this application was unparliamentary, and I believe unprecedented, yet upon this occasion I indulged you therein, and gave my reasons in the mildest terms, on which. However, you have been pleased to treat both tbe proprietaries and myself in a very unbecoming manner. As you Have returned me the bills without tlie amendments, and in your message that accompa nied it, offer no reasons against any of them but such as relato to taxing the proprietary estate, I conclude you have agreed to the others; I shall therefore consider tbe several parts of your mes- s.Tge, and make such observations upon, and an swer to it, as I think it merits. Having told you that 1 had no power by my commission to hurt or incumber the proprietary estate, you take occasion in your answer to play with the words hurt and incumber, and having. PENNSYLVANIA— APPENDIX. 139 viewed them in different lights, tell me, "that your bill is intended to free the proprietary estate from hurt and incumbrance, by remoring the French, and that you are as much bound not to hurt or incumber the estates of your constituents, as I am vrith respect to the proprietary estate ;" and having shown, as you think, that the proriso in my commission does not prohibit me in the pre sent case ; you then proceed to reason upon the clause itself, and after producing a very good opi nion of a former councd, judge, and secretary, as to a particular saring in the late proprietary com mission, you very roundly pronounce that proriso to be a nullity, and not at all binding on me. You must give me leave to differ from you in opinion, as to tbe force of the words in that clause, which, notwithstanding what you have said, have still the same plain and determinate meaning they had before ; every tax, in my mind, being an in cumbrance upon an estate, from which it cannot be cleared but by the payment of a certain sum of money ; and I being expressly restrained by my commission from consenting to any act that may incumber the proprietary estate, every unpreju diced person will see clearly, that ray powers do not extend to the present case, and that if I ac ceded to your opinion, I should be guilty of a ma nifest breach of trust. As to the validity of prohibitory clauses in tbe proprietary commissions, I am not fortunate enough to comprehend the force of your reasonings upon this head, which are drawn from the fourth section of the royal charter ; for though by that charter power is given to the proprietaries, their deputies, and lieutenants, to make laws, yet it does not alter the relation which by law subsists between a prin cipal and his deputy, the intention of the charter in that particular, being no other than to impower Mr. Penn, and his heirs, to administer the govern ment by his and their lieutenant or deputy, which being a judicial office, he could not otherwise have done; and so far is the charter, by its general tenor, from making the deputy equal to, or inde pendent of, the principal, that it makes the pro prietaries alone cirilly answerable for what is done in the province, whether by themselves or their lieutenants, which would be unjust if the lieute nant by the charter was equal in power, independ ent of, and uncontrolable by, tbe person that appoints, and is answerable for his behariour. ¦Though I allow tbe opinion produced to be good, as to tne point then under consideration, yet it is not applicable to all cases, which your arguments, without any foundation, suppose ; and in the pre sent one there is a wide difference, obrious to every one who considers them both with the least degree of attention; because that saring was even reserv ing a power to the proprietary in bis own person, to repeal a law which he by his lieutenant had consented to ; whereas, in the present case, the restriction amounts to nothing more than a reason able prohibition upon their governprs, as such, from passing laws to injure their estates. I cannot help observing, that you formerly used these same arguments against tbe validity of royal instructions, and using tbem now to destroy the force of proprietary prohibitions, you would, it should seem, be willing that the lieutenant-go vernor should be independent of every body but yourselves. You say, that the same proriso restrains me from letting or selling the proprietary lands ; and yet I propose to give away six or seven hundred thou sand acres upon the present occasion ; and seem vastly surprised, that I should think myself re strained from incumbering tbe proprietary lands by act of assembly, and yet at liberty to give them away ; for if, say you, the grant of lands, contra ry to such prohibition, would be valid, why not the passing the bill for a tax t And this you call a question you cannot solve. It is something very extraordinary, that the representative body of Pennsylvania should know so little of the affairs of the prorince, as never to have been informed, that tbe governor grants the proprietary lands un der a certain power of attorney, regularly proved and recorded, called a commission of property. That this power was formerly vested in private persons ; but for some years past, has been given to the governors; and being the foundation of property, cannot be unknown to any the least ac quainted with the circumstances of the prorince. And to ask a question or two in my turn, how could you think that the lands in the province were granted under the powers of a commission that expressly prohibits the granting of any 1 or that the people would be so weak as to give money for lands, and take titles under such a defective pow er 1 as to tbe proposal itself, it was made vrith a good intention ; and as I am accountable to tbe proprietaries for my conduct under that commis sion of property, you may be assured I did not make it without proper power to carry it into ex ecution ; and bad you raised money for an expe dition to the westward, and for encouraging set tlers, I should then have made an offer of the lands by proclamation, letting tbe adventurers know, that they were to have the choice of the lands in preference to all others, vrith every thing else that could reduce tbe offer to a certainty; which there was no necessity of doing in a mes sage to you, barely mentioning the thing, and re commending to you to grant an aid to those that should become settlers after tbe French were re moved. But whatever comes from the proprietaries, however just, however favourable, must be wrong, and accordingly you are determined to represent in that light a proposal generous in itself, and in tended to promote tbe public serrice and safety ; which may serve to show the temper of mind you are in, but can answer no good purpose. Yovl say, lands equally good may be had in Virginia for two shillings sterling quit-rent, and none to be paid in fifteen years ; it may be so, but how does it appear that they are equally good 1 It is plain they are not equally convenient, because of a greater distance from a market. 'The quit-rent in Virginia, I suppose, was the same formerly that it is now, and yet very great numbers have chosen to purchase lands in this prorince of the proprie taries, at the rate of fifteen pounds ten shillings per cent, and of private men at a much higher price, and in both cases under the quit-rent of four shillings and two pence sterling, when they might have had them in Virginia for much less; and the proposal ought not to be considered by comparing iti with other provinces, but with the rate that lands have, for a number of years past, been sold at in this prorince ; some of them lately in the new purchase, within a few miles ofthe Allegha ny mountains, and others very remote, yritbout any road of communication vrith this city, which is not the case as to the lands proposed to begiven, there being a very good wagon road thither ; and, notwithstanding what you have said upon this 140 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. head, I am conrinced, that if you bad enabled me, in conjunction with the neighbouring govern ments, to nave sent a body of troops mto that country, an offer of lands, upon the terms above- mentioned, would have bad very good effects, and would have induced many to have gone and be come settlers there, that would not otherwise thought of doing either, and by that means have formed a barrier for the protection and security of the province ; and therefore I cannot but be astonished, that you should have taken so much pains to depreciate it. And now haring effectually removed in your judgment my greatest objection to passing your bill, you proceed to consider my reasons in then order. And to the first, that governors, from the nature of their offices, are exempt from the pay ment of taxes. You take a very nice distinction between the proprietary as owner of land, and the proprietary as chief governor, and say, " you do not tax him as governor, but as a land-holder, and fellow-subject ;' though this is a distinction that has no existence in law or reason, yet I shall for the present admit it, and consider it accordingly. Have tbe proprietaries a right to vote in the elec tion of representatives as land-holders 1 surely not, being hereditary governors of the prorince, and haring a voice in the legislature by their own par ticular representative, tne governor. How then came you by a right to tax tbem as fellow-subjects and land-holders, seeing they had no voice in choosing you, nor were entitled to any, though owners of land in every county ¦? From the very principles therefore of the EngUsh constitution, you have no right to tax them as freeholders or fellow-subjects, as you call tbem; if, therefore, you tax them at all, it must be as proprietaries, and chief governors, which is the only capacity by which they are connected with, or related to, the inhabitants of this province ; and under them in that capacity, you derive the power of acting as an assembly. You cannot, therefore, without in verting the order of things, have a power over those from whom you and every one else in the prorince derive all tbe power they have. They hold tbe government and soil of this province un der the same grant, and the title to both is center ed in their persons, and cannot be separated or di vided without destroying their authority. It may be very true, as you say, "that the proprietaries do not govern you ;" but that is not owing to any want of legal authority in them, but from another cause that I need not mention here. The support, as you call it, that is paid by the prorince to a lieutenant-governor, is no other than the fees of office, and as such are due to any one that administers the government, and are not, what you would insinuate, given to the lieutenant for doing the duty ofthe prmcipal ; tbe chief of them are public-house licenses, which were originally granted by charter, not by any concession of the people (though you from time to time have taken it for granted to be so) and in favour to them, as former governors took much larger sums for this service moderate fees have been consented to be fixed by law, as considerations for the business done not as sufficient for the support of govern ment ¦ all the fees and perquisites whereof do not amount, communibus annis, to more than a thou sand pounds, „ ,. . r As to the land-tax acts of pariiament you refer to they may be as you say with respect to the crown's fee-farm rents. But I do not conceive they amount to a proof that tbe king pays taxes, all taxes whatever being paid to him; and there seems to me an inconsistency in supposing he can both pay and receive, I take the clause you men tion to nave no other meaning than to appropriate part of the revenues of the crown to one public use, which were before appropriated to another ; for I must observe to you, tnat the king can have no private estate, but from the dignity of his of fice holds his lands in right of the crown. And another reason why a poundage is collected upon the crown's fee-farm rents, may be, that the land- tax should not fall hearier upon the other lands in the same hundreds or distncts, as the quotas of each were long ago settled as they now stand in tbe king's books, and cannot, without confusion, be altered upon the crown's acquiring lands in any of them. And upon this you break out into a lofty excla mation, that " this is not the first instance by many in which proprietaries and governors of petty co lonies have assumed to themselves greater powers, pririleges, immunities, and prerogatives, than were ever claimed by their royal master on tbe imperial throne of all his extensive dominions." I must acknowlege, gentlemen, that these are sounding words ; but what instances among the many can you give, of that assuming behaviour in your pre sent proprietaries 1 have they ever claimed any rights or prerogatives not granted to them by the royal charter, or reserved by that of their father, under which you sit ? can you lay to their charge, during tbe course of a long adrninistration over you, one act of injustice or severity 1 have they even exercised all those powers which by tbe roy al charter they might legally do, and to which that charter requires the people to be obedient 1 on the contrary, have they not given up to the people many things tbey had a right to insist on, and m- dulged tbem in every thing that they judged for their benefit 1 how just is it therefore, gentlemen, to accuse them of assuming powers and prero gatives greater than their royal master 1 would you turn your eyes towards your own conduct, and apply some of these significant words to your selves, you would find them much more applicable than they are to the proprietaries. The charter under which you act, gives you the powers and pririleges of an assembly, according to tbe rights of the free-born subjects of England, and as is usual in any ofthe lung's plantations in America, This, gentlemen, is tbe foundation of your powers, which, by the royal charter, were to be consonant to the laws and constitution of England. But in stead of confining yourselves to that which your wise ancestors thought fully sufficient to answer tbe ends of good government, and secure the liber ties ofthe people, you have taken upon you great and mighty powers, dispensed with positivelaws by tbe strength of your own orders, claim a right to dispose of sdl public money, and of keeping your proceedings a secret from the crown, with many others unknown to an English constitution, and never heard of in the other plantations in Ameri ca. Who therefore can be so justly accused as yourselves of assuming unwarrantable powers, greater than ever were claimed by a Britisn bouse of parUament, or, to use your own words, "by your royal master on the imperial throne of all nis extensive dominions," who pretends to no powers but what the constitution gives him, and disclaims a right of dispensing with laws. To these encroachments on the constitution PENNSYLVANIA— APPENDIX. 141 you give the sacred name of pririlege, and under tbe mask of zeal for the public, conceal your own schemes, pretending they are all for the benefit of the people, when tbey can answer no purpose but to increase your own power, and endanger the just rights that the people enjoy under the royal and proprietary charters, by making it necessary for his majesty and a British parUament to inter pose their authority to save the province. The people have no way so effectually to secure them selves in the enjoyment oftheir liberty, as strict ly adhering to the constitution estabUshed by char ter, making that the foundation and standard of their proceedings, and discountenancing every de viation from it. The second andthird reasons given by me, and your answers to tbem being deduced from tbe law for raising county rates and levies, I shall consider them together. I do not see why the proprietary estate in each cocmty is not benefited in common with other es tates, and by tbe same means, Tbe proviso there fore relating to their estates, was not inserted be cause he had no benefit by tbe money raised, but was properly a condition, upon which his govern or consented to vest tbe whole power of choosing the tax -officers in the people, and is declarative of the rights of bis situation, of which the people in general might be ignorant. I think, with you, that tbe proprietary tax would not be more than an hundredth part of the whole, but cannot therefore admit, that if he is taxed, he should be excluded from any voice in the choice of those impowered to tax him, or that the votes ofhis officers, in their own right, can make the as sessors his representatives; nor can I easily con ceive, that a negative upon a choice is haJf the choice, or indeed any part of it ; but as what you say upon this head has very little argumentative force, I shall not dwell upon it, but say something as to the law itself From the tenor of the act it appears to me to be intended, not only for laying and raising taxes to defray the necessary charges in every county, but to settle the mode of raising money upon all oc casions ; it directs the manner of choosing com missioners, assessors, collectors, and treasurers, gives them particular powers, and regulates the conduct of those intrusted with the laying and re ceiving taxes. It is a positive and perpetual law, and by a special proviso expressly declares the pro prietary estate not liable to taxes. You your selves apply it to a provincial purpose by the bill under consideration, and the apparent reason why it was never applied to that purpose before is, that no provincial tax has ever been laid since the enact ing of that law. You are certainly impowered, by some tempo rary laws to dispose of particular monies raised by those laws, when they come into the public offices, and I do not know that this power has been disputed ; the legislature that gave those laws a being, had a right to pass them in that shape, and a future legislature may do the same, if they think fit ; but I do not conceive that you have from those laws a right to dispose of all mo ney that shall be raised, that being no part of the charter, but must depend upon the legislature that raises it, who may reserve the disposition to them selves, give it to you, or any body else they think fit. And here I cannot help taking notice of an ex pression in your message, that you have aUowed me a share in tbe disposition ofthe fifty thousand pounds. Is it from you, gentlemen, that I derive the right of governing this prorince, or from your allowance that I have a voice in the legislature 1 are you the sovereign disposers of power 1 have you a right to give and take away at pleasure 1 if not, whence that lofty claim of allowing your governor a share in the disposition of public mo ney 1 is not the whole property of tbe people sub ject to the power of the legislature ; and have I not a voice in that legislature, not derived from, or dependent upon, you ; and how came you therefore by a right to allow me a share in tbe disposition of money, which cannot be raised with out my consent ? such language may possibly be agreeable to your notions of your own superlative powers, but is not justified by tbe constitution es tabUshed by charter, or any rights properly be longing to an assembly ; and your claiming such a power, shows the extensiveness of your plan, which is no less in that respect, than to render yourselves independent, and assume a superiority over your proprietaries and governors ; a plan you would not fail to carry into execution, were your power equal to your inclinations, Tbe proprietaries do not shrink, as you call it, at the payment of a small sum of money, nor is that tbe motive for insisting on their right, they having by me offered much more than their pro portion of this tax can possibly amount to ; but to preserve the rights of their station, which if they give up, whenever they are demanded, as claims will never be wanting, they wUl very soon be strip ped of every thing they have a right to enjoy, both power and property. Your answer to my fourth reason admits, that taxing the estates of proprietaries is contrary to the usage and practice in this and other govern ments, by saying, that custom and usage, against reason and justice, ought to have but little weight. But I do not admit that reason and justice are on your side of the question ; on the contrary, I think I have shown that they are with me, and look up on the usage and custom as a strong evidence, that the legislatures of this and other proprietary governments were of my opinion ; and I am very much concerned, gentlemen, that you shall choose this time of imminent danger, when your country is invaded, to introduce a new and extraordinary claim, to tbe prejudice of persons that are absent ; when you know, that however right you may think it, I have it not in my power to consent to it, consistent with duty and honour. As to myself, I think it necessary to say, that for the despatch of the public business at this criti cal conjuncture, when every honest heart should be concerned for tbe pubUc service, I studiously avoided every thing that could renew the disputes that subsisted between us, and earnestly recom mended the same temper of mind to you ; and can not therefore but be exceedingly surprised in re turn to be thus injuriously treated, and represent ed as the hateful instrument, of reducing a free people to the abject state of vassalage. What grounds have you, gentlemen, for this heavy charge 1 what laws of imposition, abhorrent to common justice and common reason, have I at tempted to force down your throats 1 have I pro posed any thing to you, during the course of my short administration, but to grant suppUes to tbe crown adequate to the exigency of the times ; to assist the king's forces sent for our protection ; and to put the prorince into a posture of defence, 142 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. by establishing a militia, which is putting the sword into tbe hands of the people for their own security 1 and where can it be trusted with more safety than to themselves f are these impositions, or are they abhorrent to common justice and rea son ¦? I have, it is true, refused to give my assent to some bills proposed by you, because they were contrary to the king's instructions ; and amended others, to make them agreeable to the charter, and consistent with the safety of the people, by lodg ing the disposition of the public money in the hands of tbe legislature ; and for this, which is no more than a due obedience to the lawful com mands of the crown, and tbe free exercise of my reason and judgment in matters of legislation, am 1 branded with infamy and reproach, and set up as the object of a people's resentment. 1 am not, gentlemen, conscious to myself of having done, or intended to do, any the least in jury to the people committed to my charge ; and the man that has been oppressed or injured by me, let him stand forth and complain. Who is it in your province that does not enjoy the freedom of his own religious worship ? whose liberty have I taken away 1 or whose property have I invaded 1 surely if 1 have taken advantage of tbe people's distress, and of your regard for your country, to force down your throats laws of imposition, ab horrent to justice and reason ; if T have done or at tempted any thing to deprive the people of their liberties, and reduce them to the abject state of vassalage, you vrill be able to point out some in stances of these things ; and I call upon you to do it, if you can, and make good your charge. It is not to the people I am hateful, gentlemen, but to yourselves ; and that for no other reason, but douig the duty of my station, exercising my own judgment, as a branch of the legislature, with freedom and independency, and keeping you, as far as it was in my power, to the duty of yours. Had you really any tenderness for your bleed ing country, would you have acted the part you have done "? would you have looked tamely on, and see the French seat themselves within your borders 1 would you have suffered them to increase their numbers, and fortify themselves in a place from whence, in few days, they may marcb an army among the inhabitants'! would you have been deaf to all the affectionate warnings and calls ofhis majesty, the faithful guardian of his people's safety ¦? and would you have refused the proper, necessary, and timely assistance to an army, sent to protect these colonies'! or would you now, when that army is defeated, waste your time in disputing about new and extraordinary claims of your own raising, when every head and band should be employed for the public safety 1 However, gentlemen, to conclude, let me entreat you to lay aside all heat and animosity, to consi der the naked and defenceless state of the inhabi tants, with a temper of mind becoming the import ant 'occasion ; to look upon the French, and their Indians, as your only enemies, and the persons that intend to enslave you ; and be assured, that your proprietaries, or governor, have no designs to the prejudice of the people of Pennsylvania, but will continue to protect them in the enjoyment of all their just rights and privileges. The assembly's answer to the foregoing mes sage, August 19, 1755. May it please the Governor, — How dis agreeable soever the task may be, to wade through all tbe misrepresentations in the governor's long message ofthe thirteenth instant, a regard to truth and to truths of importance to the welfare of our country, will oblige us to submit to it. The governor is pleased to tell us, that " when he sent down our bill for raisins fifty thousand pounds, with the amendments, he expected we should have returned it with the amendments, and informed him which of tbem we agreed to, this being the common and ordinary method in such cases." The governor allows in this message, that we have by charter, " the powers and privi leges of an assembly, according to the rights ofthe freeborn subjects of England, and as is usual in any of the king's plantations in America." Now, we take it to be one of those privileges and powers of an assembly, to have their money-bUls, grant ing supplies to the crown, accepted as they are tendered, if at all accepted, and that without any proposal of amendments. We think this is a pri vilege claimed and used by the house of commons, and as far as we know by all the assemblies in America ; so that it is far from being the common and ordinary method to receive and debate on amendments proposed by the governor to such bUls, It is therefore without foundation, that the governor supposes we agreed to all the other amendments, merely Ijecause we offered no rea sons against any of tbem, but that which related to taxing tbe proprietary estate. For we even made that step of deviaUon from the common and ordinary method, entirely in consideration that the occasion for the supply was uncommon and extraordinary, hoping thereby to come more speedily to a happy conclusion in the busmess of the session, and without the least intention that it should ever be drawn into precedent. The governor stiU insists, that taxing the pro prietary estate, though it be to free it from French encroachments, will be an incumbrance on that estate. Be it so then, since tbe governor will have it so, for our differences are less about words than things : does this however prove the vaUdity of the prohibitory clause in his commission 1 or that it is equitable and just the proprietary estate alone should be exempt from a tax, which all the es tates in Britain and her colonies now bear, or must bear, to free that very estate from encroach ments and incumbrance 1 The governor is " not fortunate enough, he is pleased to say, to comprehend the force of our reasonings on this head that are drawn from the fourth section of the royal charter;" which, though it gives power to the "proprietaries and their deputies and lieutenants to make laws, does not alter tbe relation between a principal and his deputy, or make the deputy equal to, or indepen dent of, the principal, &c," We wUl therefore, for the governor's satisfaction, endeavour to ex press our sentiments yet plainer, if possible, and enforce them farther. The royal charter grants " full, free, and absolute power (not only to the proprietary and his heirs) but lo bis and their de puties and lieutenants, to enact any laws what soever, for raising money for the safety of the country, according to their best discretion, with the assent of the freemen, &c," But the go vernor objects, notwithstanding this full and free power, granted by the royal charter to me as the proprietaries' deputy, I cannot use my best dis cretion in this case, nor enact the proposed law, because there is in my commission a prohibitory PENNSYLVANIA— APPENDIX. 143 clause or saring which restrains me ; and if I should pass it, such prohibition notwithstanding, the law would not be vaUd, To this we answer ed, that no prohibition of the proprietaries can lessen or take away from the lieutenant-governor any power be is vested with by the royal charter ; and, in support of this, as an argument, at least, to tbe governor, produced to him an opinion of the proprietary and governor's former council, on the case of a proriso or saving in the lieutenant's commission, that restrained, in favour of the pro prietary, the power of making laws which is grant ed to the lieutenant in the royal charter. This opinion (which the governor allows to be a good one) declares that saring to be void in itself, and that any laws passed by the lieutenant shall be valid, the saving notwithstanding. But the go vernor would distinguish it away, by alleging, " that though the opinion was good in that case, it is not applicable to all cases," If it is applicable to the present case, it is all that is necessary for our purpose, which was to show, that a proviso in his commission, restricting tbe powers granted him by charter, was void in itself; and that if he passed a law contrary to the proviso, the law would be valid. The " relation between tbe principal and his deputy" stUl remains entire ; the deputy is dependant on the principal, and may be removed by him at pleasure. But as the principal cannot give powers to the deputy which he has not him self, so neither can he lessen tbe powers given to the deputy by the charter. If the proprietary can, by prohibitory clauses in his commission, restrain the deputy from passing any one law, which otherwise he had power by the charter to pass, he may by the same rule restrain him from passing every law, and so the deputy would be no deputy. That the charter makes the proprietary "civilly answerable for what is done m the prorince by their lieutenants," we conceive to be a mistake. The proprietary is hy the charter, made answer able for any misdemeanour that he himself shall commit, or by any wilful default or neglect per mit, against the laws of trade and navigation. But if the deputy commits a misdemeanour, which the proprietary does not permit, through bis own wilful default or neglect, we presume he is not answerable for such misdemeanour by tbe charter ; and less, in reason, now, than when the charter was given ; as by an act of parliament of later date, every deputy appointed by the proprietary, must before be can act as such, receive the royal approbation. The very nature and reason of the things, moreover, seem to us to show, that a depu ty to do a thing, should have aU the powers of the principal necessary for doing that thing: and every lieutenant or deputy governor, is, by the na ture of his office, and the reason of his appoint ment, to supply or hold the place of a governor. But tbe royal charter being so express and plain in the point, leaves us under no necessity of in vestigating this truth by reason. Should our con stituents, when tbey choose us to represent them in assembly, not only instruct us, but even take bonds of us, that we should assent to no law for the better and more effectual recovery of the pro prietary quit-rents, if such a law were required of us, or thought necessary by the governor; would he think such prohibitions or bonds valid ? would he not say they were void in themselves, as forbidding what he thinks a just and reasonable thing, depriving us of tbe right of using our best discretion, and restraining the powers granted to us by charter. The case we conceive to be the same with respect to the proprietaries' lieutenant (who is their representative) if he is so restrained as the governor thinks himself to be, " The govern ment, and the exercise of the government, are in separable," says chief justice PoUexfen, a famous lawyer, " and wherever the government is grant ed, the exercise of that government is meant and included. If the king grant to any one the go vernment of Jamaica, or tbe like," continues be, " sure no one will say, that that is not a grant of the exercise of tbe government there !" and we suppose this is as good law, with regard to the grant of the government of Pennsylvania. The governor is pleased to say, that he cannot help observing, that we formerly used the same arguments against tbe validity of royal instruc tions. We have all due respect and deference for royal instructions ; the king has not any whdre a more dutiful and loyal people ; but what does the governor intend by the validity of instructions'! does he mean that they are laws in the colonies ; and if the royal instructions were such, does it follow that proprietary.instructions have the same validity 1 we apprehend there may be some dif ference, but at present it is not necessary to dis cuss it. For our doubting in the least the governor's power to make the offered grants of land (free of purchase money and quit-rent for fifteen years) in the behalf of tbe proprietary, he is pleased to treat us with great contempt on account of our igno rance, observing, that " it is something very ex- traordinary, that the representative body of Penn sylvania should know so little ofthe affairs ofthe province, as never to have been informed, that the governor grants the proprietary lands under a certain power of attorney, regularly proved and recorded, called a commission of property ; that this power was fonnerly vested in private persons, but for some years past has been given to tbe go vernors ; and being the foundation of property, can not be unknown to any the least acquainted with the circumstances of the prorince," And now, continues the governor, to ask a question or two in my turn, bow could you think that the lands in the province were granted under the powers of a commission [meaning his commission as lieu tenant-governor] which expressly prohibits the granting of any 1 really we should be very igno- remt indeed if we thought so; but it happens, may it please the governor, that we are perfectly well acquainted with aU these matters, and have even now lying before us an authentic copy of that certain power of attorney, called a commis sion of property, which we suppose most, who have read the governor's message, are persuaded gives him full powers to make the grants of land, which in his message ofthe twenty-eighth past, he proposed " to maketo such persons as shall now engage to go upon an expedition to remove the French from their encroachments on the river Ohio, without any purchase money, and free of quit-rent for fifteen years." Our copy of this commission is taken from the records, and certifi ed to be a true one, under the band and office seal of the master of the rolls. We have examined it thoroughly to find the powers by which those grants were to be made, and unfortunately (we are sorry we are obliged to say it to the governor) there is no such thing; not even a syllable ofthe 144 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. kind ; but on the contrary, after a power given to the governor to grant lands claimed by virtue of formerpurchaSes, there is thisclause, "andalso,by warrants to be issued as aforesaid, to grant to any person or persons who shaU apply for the same, and to their heirs and assigns for ever, any vacant lands within the said prorince and counties, or any of them, upon, by, and under the same terms, methods, rents, and reservations, as have of late been used and practised in the said land office, but for no less price, condition, rent, or reserva tion in any vrise." That is, for' fifteen pounds ten shillings, per hundred acres, purchase money, and four shiUings and two pence sterling quit- rent. And noiy wUl the governor give us leave to ask a question or two in our turn 1 " how could he think that lands might be granted away, without any purchase money" and free of quit-rent for fifteen years, under the powers of a commission which expressly forbids bis granting any" under less price, condition, rent, or reservation whatso ever, than has of late been used and practised in the land office 1 how could he think of referring us to such a commission for his power to make those grants, when he knew it was never there 1 how could be slight his reputation so much, as to ha zard such an imposition on the assembly and whole province I one so easily detected ! we make no further remarks on this, lest we should again incur the censure of treating our governor in an " unbecoming manner," " The proposal, however, the governor is pleas ed to say, was made with a good intention ; and bad we raised money for an expedition to the westward, and for encouraging settlers, he should then have made an offer of tne lands by procla mation, letting the adventurers know, that they were to have the choice ofthe lands, in preference to all others, with every thing else that could re duce tbe offer to a certainty, which there was no necessity of doing in a message to us, barely men tioning tbe thing, and recommending to us to grant an aid to those that should become settlers," It is remarkable how slowly and gradually this generous offer is squeezed out. We never heard a word of it during all tbe time of general Brad dock's expedition, for which recruits were raised both in this and the neighbouring colonies, though the governor brought over with him, and had in his pocket all the while, that " certain power of at torney, called a commission of property," to which we are referred for his powers of making the of fer. But as soon as the house had voted to raise fifty thousand pounds by a tax on all the estates in the province, real and personal, down comes a message, containing a proposal to grant lands to the soldiers who should engage in the expedition ; a proposal made with a good intention, as the go vernor says ; that is, with an intention to get the proprietary estate exempted from the tax, by seem ing to offer an equivalent in another manner ; but worded in the most cautious terms, as became an offer made without authority ; and so as in deed to offer nothing that could affect tbe proprie tary ; for the quit-rent to be reserved, not being ascertained, but left in the proprietary's breast, he might, when the patents were to issue, demand a quit-rent greater than the worth of the land. This being observed, and talked of, we had ano ther message, intimating that the quit-rent to be reserved should be only the common quit-rent of four shillings and two pence sterling, per hundred acres. But still the land was no otherwise de scribed than as west ofthe Alleghany mountains ; leaving the proprietary at liberty, after the con quest should be made, to pick out, according to the modern practice, all the best lands for himself and bis friends, and offer the adventurers such as they would be sure not to accept of under that rent. And this being pointed out, we are now told, " that a future proclamation is to give them the choice of the best lands ; but it was not ne cessary to mention this to us in a message recom mending to us the granting an aid to those set tlers," If we were to grant aids to the settlers on proprietary lands, was it not proper for us, as guardians of the people, to know tbe terms on which tbey were to hazard their fives, and see that those terms were good in themselves, and the offer duly ascertained 1 we conceive, may it please the governor, that whenever we grant an aid for the encouragement of such settlers, it will be proper to have the terms ascertained by the same law, and not left to the precarious effect of aproclamation thereafter to be made by a govern or, in the proprietary's behalf, without any appa rent power for so doing. If the offer is well meant, a law to ascertain it cannot hurt the pro prietaries ; the recovery of the country, and the settlement of the lands, are two distinct things. Let us first join equitably in tbe tax for tbe reco very ; and whenever the governor shall be wiUing to pass such a law, we are not averse to givingthe proposal of granting lands a fiiU and mature con sideration ; and affording such equivalent encou ragement to settlers, in provisions, &c. as we men tioned in our former message. But if be can pass such a law to grant the proprietary's lands, con trary to the prohibition in bis commission, may he not full as weU pass the bill for taxing the pro prietary's estate '? We cannot leave this point, without a word or two in justification of ourselves, against the hea vy charge of depreciating, from a bad temper of mind, this generous offtr, that would have, had such good effects in promoting the pubUc service and safety. We would not be misunderstood; we look upon it that lands may be made a valua ble encouragement, but we do not see any gene rosity in offering tbem to tbe recoverers at double tbe market price. The encouragement to adven turers is not diminished, but rather increased, by our telUng them where tbey may, for their serrice in the same expedition, have lands equally good and more convenient, on better terms. For the Virginia vacant lands are many of them nearer to navigable water than the good western lands of this province, and equally well accommodated by the wagon road made by the late army. It is true, the proprietaries' price is fifteen pounds ten shilbngs per hundred acres, with a quit-rent of four shUlings and two pence sterling. Numbers who im prudently made improvements before they obtain ed a title, were obliged to give that price ; and the great assistance our loan office afibrded by furnish ing money to poor people on low interest, and tak ing it again in small payments, thereby enabling tbem to purchase lands, an advantage they could not have elsewhere, might encourage many to stay in the country, and take up lands on those terms. But that is now over : for the act is near expiring, and it seems we are to have no more of the kind ; and when that encouragement had its full force, was it ever known that any people PENNSYLVANIA— APPENDIX. 145 eame from Virginia to purchase here, on account of the superior goodness or convenience of our lands Ion the contrary, have not many thousands of families gone from hence thither, and within these few years settled fifteen or twenty new counties in that colony? have not thousands likewise left us to settle in Carolina"! had not the exorbitant price at which the proprietaries held their lands, and their neglect of Indian purchas ing in order to keep up that price, driven these people from among us, this province would at this day have been in a much more flourishing con dition. Our number of inhabitants and our trade would, in all probability, have been double ; we should have been more able to defend the proprie tary's estate, and pay bis tax for him, and possi bly more wiUing ; but they are gone, and gone for ever, and numbers are going after tbem ! and if the new poUtics prevail, and our distinguishing privileges are one by one to be taken from us, we may, without the gift of prophecy, venture to foretell, that the province will soon empty itself much faster than it ever filled. In fine, this offer was in fact a mere illusion in tended first to impose on the assembly, and then on the people ; it was likewise to figure with at home in the eyes of the ministry. "We discovered the deception, and the governor is offended that we did not keep the secret. He is " astonished that we should depreciate an offer which would have had very good effects, and induced many to have gone on the expedition and become settlers, that would not otherwise have thought of doing either." May it please the governor, as bad an opinion as be is pleased to entertain of us, we have some conscience ; and would not choose, by our silence, to have any share in the disappoint ment and other iU consequences which might en sue to those who should have gone on that vague, empty, unwarranted offer, and not otherwise have thought of it. And we, in our turn, may be as tonished that the governor should expect it of us. We are in the next place told by the governor, " that we take a very nice distinction between the proprietary as owner of land, and the proprietary as chief governor, and say, we do not tax him as governor, but as a land-holder and fellow-subject." Our words are, " We do not propose to tax him as governor, &c." — ^but the governor by carefuUy omitting the word propose, in his quotation, gives himself an opportunity of expatiating on tbe ab surdity and insolence of our inverting the order of things, and assuming a power to tax the pro prietaries, " under whom, [he is pleased to say] we derive the power of acting as an assembly. ' Had tbe word propose been honestly left in its place, there would have been no room for all this declamation ; and the demand, " How came you by a right to tax them 1" might have weU been spared ; since, though we as an assembly have no right to tax the proprietary estate, yet the pro prietary and assembly together have surely such a right ; and as he is present " by his own parti cular representative the governor, we may have a right to propose such a thing to him, if we think it reasonable. Especially since we do not, as the governor imagines we do, derive our power of act ing as an assembly from the proprietary, but from the same royal charter, that impowers him to act as governor. We had been told in a former message, that the proprietary ought to be exempt from taxes, Vol. n. . . . T 13 for he was a governor, and governors were exempt by the nature of their office. We replied, that be did not govern us, but the province supported his lieutenant to do that duty for him. On this the governor now makes the foUowing observation; "It may be very true, as you say, that the proprie taries do not govern you ; but that is not owing to any want of a legal authority in them, but from another cause, that I need not mention here." We were reproached in the beginning of this message, as playing with words j and the governor, it seems, has now caught the infection. The reason we gave why the proprietary could not he said to govern us, was a plain one ; but the governor insinuates some other cause without explaining it, that there may be room for the rea der's imagination to make it any thing or every thing that is bad. We dislike tnese dark inuen- does, and shall speak our minds openly. It may be thought rude and unpolite, perhaps, but it is at least fair and honest, and may prevent misunder standings. If, therefore, the present proprietaries do not govern us it is because they never assum ed the government in their own persons, but, as we said before, employ a deputy ; and if the deputy does not govern us, it is not because we are un governable or rebeUious, as he would insinuate, nor for want of sufficient power in his bands by the constitution ; but because he has not that spi rit of government, that skUl, and those abUities, that should qualify him for his station. The governor is pleased to tell us, " that our distinction between tbe proprietary as owner of land, and the proprietary as chief governor, has no existence in law or reason." We shall en deavour to show him, that it exists in both with regard to the king, and therefore presume it may with regard, to the proprietary. The governor tells us Ukevrise, as a matter of law, " that the king can have no private estate, but from tbe dig nity of bis office holds his lands in right of the crown." We are not any of us lawyers by pro fession, and would not venture to dispute the go vernor's opinion, if we did not imagine we had good authority for it ; we find in Viner's abridg ment, an allowed book, title descent of lands, these observations, which we hope may be satis factory to the governor in both pomts. It is there said, "that the king has two capacities, for he has two bodies, of which the one is a body natu ral, consisting of natural members, as every other man is ; the other is a body politiCj and his mem bers thereof are his subjects. He may take in his body natural, lands or tenements, as heir to any of nis ancestors ; and also in this capacity may purchase to him and his heirs, and his heirs shall retain it, notwithstanding that he is remov ed from the royal estate. And be may also take or purchase lands or tenements in fee in his body politic, that is to say, to him and to his heirs kings of England, or to him and his successors kings of England; and so his double capacity re mains, as it does in other persons who have a double capacity, as bishop or dean," &c. We presume that our proprietaries hold the manors they have laid out to themselves, and the other lands they may have purchased in their province, in their private capacities, as Thomas Penn, or Richard Penn, and not in their capacity of chief governor. The governor is pleased to allow, " that one reason why the kings fee-farm rents are taxed in England, may be, that the land-tax 146 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. should not fall hearier upon other lands in the same district." It seems to us a good reason, and to hold as well in our case. For should the propri etaries go on increasing their already enormous estate, sue and recover all their mortgages, add Held to field, and make purchase after purchase, tUI the number of freeholders in the province is reduced to a handful ; can it be thought reasona ble that every estate as it comes into their hands shall be exempt from taxes, and the burden of supporting the government, and defending the province, thrown all upon the remainder 1 and yet this must be the case if our distinction has, as the governor says, no existence in law or reason, Tne governor denies that the fees and perqui sites he enjoys are paid for support of govern ment; they are, he says, "only moderate fees consented to be fixed by law, as considerations for the business done ; and the public-house U- censes, which are the chief of them, were origi- ginally granted by charter," This latter asser tion is quite unintelligible to us. We can find no such grant in the royal charter, nor can we conceive how the proprietary can grant a fee to himself by his own charter. The governor is a stranger here, and may be unacquainted with the rise and establishment of what is called the sup port of government among us. He wUl therefore permit us to relate it to him, as wc have received it from our ancestors, and find traces of it on our records. When the first settlers purchased lands from the proprietary, he demanded, besides tbe consideration money, that a quit-rent should be reserved and paid to him and his heirs yearly for ever. They objected against this as a disagree able and unreasonable incumbrance; but were told, that the proprietary being also governor, though he took the purchase money for- the land as proprietary, he reserved tbe quit-rents to be paid for bis support as governor ; for that govern ment must be supported ,andthese quit-rents would be the most equal and easy tax, and prevent the necessity of other taxes for that purpose here, as they did in tbe king's government of Virginia, These reasons induced them to acquiesce m it. But the proprietary's affairs calling him to reside in England, and the quit-rents, then but few, be- in "¦ all wanted to support him there, a lieutenant- governor became necessary, and also a support for that lieutenant, as the proprietary, through the ne cessity ofhis affairs, was unable to support him. The public-bouse licenses and other licenses and fees were pitched upon for this second support, and by perpetual laws were given to the governor for the time being. But governors, a sort of of ficers not easily satisfied with salary, complaining that these were insufficient to maintain suitably the dignity of their station, occasional presents were added from time to time ; and those at length came to be expected as of right, which, if conced ed to, and estabUshed by the people, would have made a third support. Our situation at this time is, that the present proprietaries claim, and enjoy the quit-rents (which were the first support^ as part of their private estate, and draw them to Eng land where they reside, remote from their govern ment, supplying their place here by a lieutenant. The lieutenant takes and enjoys the license mo ney, and other perquisites, which were the second support, and though he has from thirty shillings to three pounds for writing his name only (the secre tary boinir paid six shUlings besides for the license and seal) says, they are only moderate fees in con sideration for business done. And now if we do not regularly give those additional presents, which were only the marks of our good will, and tokens of the satisfaction we had in a governor's administration ; every thing else that a governor enjoys is forgot, and we are charged both at home and abroad with the heinous crime of presuming to withhold the support of government. Thus we see how soon custom may become a law, how thirsty a thing power is, and bow bard to be satis fied, " Claims, as tbe governor says, wUl never be wanting," and if the people will give " when ever they are required" to give, tbey may soon be " stripped of every thing they have a right to en joy" The governor is pleased to acquaint us, that all the fees and perquisites of this government do not amount, communibus annis, to more than a thou sand pounds, meaning, as we suppose, sterling money. This tbe governor enjoys fuUy and freely, and we never interfere in his disposition of it, any more than in the proprietaries' disposition of the quit-rents. We think this a handsome support for a governor ; and though he calls it only mo derate fees for business done ; yet if he can earn One thousand pounds sterUng a year in such fees, the business must certainly be a good one. On our saying that some proprietaries and go vernors of petty colonies assume more preroga tives and immunities than ever were claimed by their royal master, the governor grows warm in behalf of the proprietaries, and demands, with all the air of a person conscious of being in the right, what instances can you give oftbat assuming behaviour in your proprietaries ; we answer, the present instance ; for the king does not* claim an exemption from taxes for his private estate, as our proprietaries do. Have they ever claimed any right or prerogatives not granted them by the roy al charter, or reserved by that of their father "! yes, the right of being exempt from taxes for their estate in Pennsylvania, when aU their fel low-subjects (for the proprietaries are subjects, though the governor seems to disdain the term) both in England and America, not excepting even the lords and commons of parliament, are now obUged to undergo a tax for the recovery of part, and defence of the rest of that very estate, 'This right is not granted tbem by the royal charter, nor could it be reserved by their father's charter. Can you lay to their charge one instance of injustice or severity? This is an act of injustice ancl seve rity, to insist that the people shall not be aUowed to raise money for their own defence, unless they wUl agree to defend tbe proprietary estates gratis. If this be complied with, and the war continues, what shall hinder them another year, when the fifty thousand pounds is expended, to require, that before we are allowed to raise another sum for the same purpose, we shall agree not only to defend their lands, but to plough them : for this their lieutenant may aUege the " usage and cus tom" in Germany, and put us in mind, that we are chiefly Gennans, Who can assure us, that their appropriated lands, so long kept untenanted and idle, are not reserved in expectation of some such fortunate opportunity 1 can other instances,. in answer to the governor's questions be necessa ry ? if he thinks it discreet to insist on more, they may soon be at his service. We are then desired to turn our eyes on our own conduct, and charged in high terms with " taking upon ourselves great and mighty powers ; PENNSYLVANIA— APPENDIX. 147 dispensing with positive laws, and claiming a right of disposing of all public money, a right of keep ing our proceedings a secret from the crown, with, as the governor is pleased to say, many others, un known to an EngUsh constitution, and never beard of in the other plantations," A round charge, but not more easily made than answered. The governor allows, " that we have all the pow ers and privileges of an assembly, according to the rights of the free-born subjects of England, and as is usual in any of the king's plantations in America;" and we neither claim nor practise any but what is usual in some or other of them. We ¦claim no right of dispensing with laws, Tbe right of disposing of our own money, we think is a natural right, and we have enjoyed it ever since the settlement of the province, and constantly been in tbe exercise of it in every instance, except perhaps in a few, where, on extraordinary occa sions, we have chosen to make special appropri ation by a particular law. It is also possessed and practised by several other assemblies. We have moreover the right of disposing of the pre sent revenue by positive laws, which nave receiv ed the royal assent. This natural and legal right, as we contend it is, was never denied us, or call ed in question, as we know of, but by our present proprietaries. Their ever hearty friend, tbe late governor's father, who had lived many years among us, and was skilled in our laws, in a so lemn speech, recorded in our minutes, mentions this as one of our civil rights, among the other happinesses of our constitution, with which he was thoroughly acquainted. Our inserting there fore in the bill a clause, that the governor should Slave a voice in tbe disposition of the money in tended to be raised, was partly in consideration that the propriet.iry was, by the bill, to contribute in proportion to his estate, and to avoid unseason able disputes ; but since we are daily more and more convinced that the governor is no friend to our country, and takes a pleasure in contriring aU possible methods of expense, to exhaust our ftmds, and distress our affairs (of which the pre sent exorbitant demand of five thousand pounds, besides what we have already paid, for cutting a load, an undertaking be engaged us in on a com putation of its costing eight hundred pounds, and whichif this be due must cost us about an hun dred pounds per mUe) it wiU become us to be more particularly careful how our public money shall be expended, when the greatest sums which can be raised upon this young colony must fall so far short of what may become absolutely necessary for our common security. That we claim a right of keeping our proceed ings a secret from the crown, another ofthe go vernor's groundless accusations, has been twice refuted, and is yet a third time courageously re peated ; though all the prorince knows that our votes and proceedings are every year printed and pubUsbed, and have been so for these thirty years past and more. Equally groundless are the [many lOthers] which the governor forbears to particu larize. Could he have thought of one that had the least apparent foundation, he would not have spar ed to mention it. Plans and schemes of aggrandizing ourselves the governor has often charged us with, and now repeats tbe charge. He affects to consider us as a permanent body, or some particular order of peo- 1 pie in the state, capable of planning and scheming for their own particular advantage, distinct from that of the province in general. How groundless this must be, is easily conceived, when it is consi dered, that we are picked out from among the peo ple by their sufl'rages, to represent them for one year only ; which ended, we return again among the people, and others may be, and often are chosen in our places. No one of us knows a day before the election that he shall be chosen, and we nei ther bribe nor solicit the voters, but every one votes as he pleases, and as privately as he pleases, the election being by written tickets folded up and put into a box, vVbat interest can such a body have, separate from that of the public? What schemes can a set of men, continually changing, have, or what plans can they form to aggrandize themselves, or to what purpose should they have or form them ? If the little power allowed us by the constitution was fixed in bur particular families, and to descend to our heirs, as the proprietary power does in their family, we might then be suspected of these ag grandizing plans and schemes, with more appear ance of probability. But if any of us bad such schemes, the want of a single vote in any election might totally disconcert tbem, there being no te nure more precarious than that by popular esteem or favour. The governor next considers what we have said relating to the act for raising county rates and levies, and is pleased to say, that " he does not see why the proprietary estate in each county is not benefited in common with other estates, and by the same means," That the proprietaries' estate should be excused in a county rate, at least so far as that rate is levied for the payment of assembly men's wages, appears to us equitable ; for it would seem unreasonable to tax an estate to defray their expenses, if the possessor had no vote in choosing a representative m that house. But we conceive it is widely different in a provincial tax, where the common interest and security of all are concerned ; and yet if the proprietaries should purchase estates which have usually been taxed by the county rate and levy act for that purpose, we presume those estates ought to continue to pay their assessments . It was the opinion ofthe solicitor-general in king WUliam's time, that the lords had no right to vote in the elections of a commoner, because they were not contributors to the expenses of a knight of tbe shire or burgess; and they were not contri butors to that expense, because they were of an - other house. But if they purchased lands which were, before such purchase, chargeable with those expenses, those lands should, notwithstanding thai purchase, continue chargeable therewith by law; although before the act, the lands the lords were seised of, or purchased, were excused from that charge. But though such lands were excused from these rates, will any one from thence allege, that the lords are exempted from paying the na tional taxes ? as for the rest of the expenses pro vided for by that act, we thought, as tne proprie tary cultivated no lands in any of the counties, but let them lie for a market, he had probably no sbeej) that might suffer hy wolves, poultry by foxes, or corn by crows and blackbirds, &c, and therefore might reesonably be excused from those taxes that were to raise money to destroy such vermin. But on farther consideration, we are willing to give up that point to tbe governor, and agree that their es tates may on other considerations be equally bene fited ; concluding withal, that they ought there fore equally to pay. For as to tbe conditions of consent the governor mentions, they are merely 148 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. imaginary, though the governor speaks of them with the same apparent assurance as if he had the contract between the then governor and assembly under band and seal in his possession. The ex empting proviso in that act, the governor says, is "declarative ofthe rights of the proprietaries' sta tion, of which the people in general might be igno rant." Be it so then, and let us see what are the words : " Provided also, that the proprietary and governxtr^s estate shall not be liable to be rated and assessed, by virtue of this act." We submit. Their estate must not be taxed by vir tue of that act, for the purposes intended by that act : 'tis the right of their station, it seems. But is this a reason why they should not be taxed by any other act, for any other purposes, or by ano ther act for the same purposes, when it shall be come reasonable and necessary ? There is in the same act, an exemption from the same tax, of all " unsettled tracts or parcels of land, belonging to any person whatsoever. Is this too, declarative of the right of such landhold er's station, and does it expressly declare, that those gentlemen are " not Uable to taxes ?" if so, why did not the governor object to that part of our bill Ukewise, which proposes to tax aU located lands, on this occasion, whether settled or unset tled. Those plain words, the proprietary estate shall not be liable to be rated by rirtue of this act, must be stretched on the rack before they can be extended, as the governor extends them, to a ge neral declaration, " that the proprietary estate is not liable to taxes," But he is a dextrous dis- puter, and can at pleasure change the meanings ofthe plainest words, and make tnem signify more or less, as it suits his purpose. As, for another instance; we had asked this question, "whether, supposing the proprietary estate to be taxed, it would be equitable that he should have a negative in the choice of tbe assessors, since that would give him half tbe choice, though he were to pay perhaps not a hundredth part of tbe tax ?" the go vernor eagerly lays hold of these very loose and imcertain words ["though he were to pay per haps not a hundredth part"] which are introduc ed merely for the argument sake, and construes them into a determination of what would be the proprietaries' proportion, which he is pleased to agree to, by telling us, " I think with you that the proprietary tax would not be more than a hun dredth part of the whole," when 'tis plain we had no thought at all of fixing any proportion to be paid by the proprietary estate, or any other estate, being destitute of the proper informations, and having by the biU left that matter to tbe commis sioners and assessors, who were to have before them the constable's returns, and to be sworn, or solemnly affirmed, to do equal justice, after inform ing themselves ofthe value of estates in tbe best manner they could, by all the means in their power. But had we mentioned thousandth or ten thousandth part, we make no doubt the go vernor would have been complaisant enough to think with us in that particular, though we should differ in every thing else. The governor " cannot casUy conceive," he is pleased to say, " that a negative upon a choice is half that choice, or indeed any part of it." We think a negative may be in effect more than half the choice, and even amount to the whole, if it be repeated till there is no choice left but that which the possessor ofthe negativing power chooses. The peers of Great Britain have no vote, norcan thev intermeddle in the election of a commoner ; and yet tbe commons claim it as a fundamental right to subject their estates to taxes by a bill, the whole of which the lords must either refuse or pass. And that august body, who contribute so largely to the pubUc stock, acquiesce in it as a sufficient security for their estates. But our proprietaries are unhap pily of different sentiments, and cannot think themselves safe, unless their whole estate here be entirely exempted, and the burden of defending it become an additional weight to the taxes on our mother country, and on the freemen of this and the neighbouring colonies. The governor is grievously offended at an ex pression in our message, that we have in our bill allowed him a share in the disposition ofthe fifty thousand pounds ; and thunders over us in a storm of angry questions, " Is it from you, gentlemen, that I derive the right of governing this prorince, or from your allowance that I have a voice in the legislature ? are you the sovereign disposers of power ? have you the right to give and take away at pleasure ? if not, whence that lofty claim of al lowing the governor a share in the disposition of the public money ?" if the governor wiU but have a little patience, we shall endeavour, by a few cool sober questions, to explain this matter to him as well as we are able. Are not all money bills to take their rise in the house ? can he possibly have any share in the disposition of pubUc money if it is not raised ? and can it be raised without our al lowance ? has tbe governor a right to make any amendments to a money bUl ? if, therefore, a clause is put into such biU, giving him a voice in the dis position of our money, must not such clause be first allowed by us to be inserted ? to what purpose then were all those haughty questions ? we shaU answer them in a few words. We are not " the sovereign disposers of power;" nor does the go vernor " derive from us the right of governing this prorince ;" it were a vain thing in us to say it, since his being our governor would alone be .¦, sufficient proof to the contrary. The governor is pleased to say, that he studi ously avoided every thing that could renew the disputes subsisting between us ; and earnestly re commended the same temper of mind to us, 'I'his may be right, so far as relates to his first speech at tbe opening of the session ; but in his amend ments to our biU, it appeared to us, that he studi ously proposed every thing that he thought could disgust us, in hopes of engaging us in some other dispute than that on taxing tbe proprietaries' es tate, and of making the biU with the session in effectual and aUortive. Why else, among other things, did he strike out that harmless part ofthe preamble, wliich gave, as a reason for the bUl, the exhausting of our treasury by our late expensive grants of provisions, &c. to tbe king's use. He did not choose the biU should mention any thing we had done, lest by that means it should reacR the royal ear, and refute his repeated accusations that we " had done nothing, nor would do any thing, for defence ofthe country ;" when he knows in his conscience we have given aU in our power ; and it was well we had it in our power to give something, otherwise neither the British nor New England troops would have had the provisions we furnished ; for could the governor possibly have done it, we have reason to believe he would have defeated our grant ; he can no more bear to let ns PENNSYLVANIA— APPENDIX. 149 do any thing commendable, than he can bear to hear what we have done mentioned. It is true the governor recommended a good temper of mind to us ; be can make plausible speeches, that will read weU in other places where Ms conduct is not known. Indeed they appear not so much to be made for us as for others ; to show the ministry at home bis great zeal for his majes ty's service and concern for the welfare of this people ! and to recommend himself, as it should seem, to some better post hereafter, rather than to obtain tbe present points that seem to be persuad ed. For of what avail are the best speeches, not accompanied with suitable actions ? he has recom mended despatch in very good words, and imme diately hatched some dispute to occasion delay. He can recommend peace and unanimity in fine and moving language, and immediately contrive something to provoke and excite discord ; the set tled scheme being, not to let us do any thing that may recommend us to those with whom he would irain us. He would appear to be in great earnest to have something done, and spurs violently with "both heels, but takes care at tbe same time to rein in strongly with both hands, lest the public busi ness before us should go forward, "When we of fered him to raise money on the excise, a method long in use, and found easy to tbe people, he quar relled with us about the time of extending the act, complained it would raise too little^ and yet was for shortening the term. Obsolete instructions were mustered up against it, though acts of the same kind had been since passed by the crown. Acts of parliament made for other colonies were to be enforced here, and the Uke. Then he called out for a tax, which the proprietaries themselves (in their answer to our representation) allowed to be the most equitable way of raising money ; think ing, it is like, that we should never agree to a tax. But now when we offer an equitable tax on'aU es tates real and personal, be refuses that, because the proprietaries are to be taxed ! The governor thinks himself injuriously treated by our request, " that he would not make himself tbe hateful instrument of reducing a free people to the abject state of vassalage," and asks, "what grounds have you, gentlemen, for this heavy charge? what laws of imposition abhorrent to com mon justice and common reason have I attempted to force down your throats ?" &c. A law to tax the people of Pennsylvania to defend the proprie tary estate, and to exempt tbe proprietary estate from bearing any part of the tax, is, may it please the governor, a law abhorrent to common justice, common reason, and common sense. This is a law of imposition that the governor would force down our throats, by taking advantage of the dis tress of our country, the defence of which he wiU not suffer us to provide for, unless we will comply with it. Our souls rise against it. We cannot swallow it. What other instance would the go vernor desire us to give of his endeavouring to re duce us to a state of vassalage ? he calls upon us for an Instance. We give him the very law in question, as the strongest of instances. Vassals must follow their lords to the wars in defence of their lands ; our lord proprietary, though a sub ject like ourselves, would send us out to fight for him, while he keeps himself a thousand leagues remote from danger ! vassals fight at their lords' expense, but our lord would have us defend his es tate at our own expense I this is not merely vas salage, it is worse than any vassalage we have 13'^ heard of; it is something we have no adequate name for ; it is even more slarish than slavery it self And if the governor can accomplish it, he will be deemed the hatefulinstrument (how much soever be is disgusted with tbe epithet) as long as history can preserve the memory of his adminis tration. Does tbe governor think to exculpate himself, by calling upon us to prove him guilty of crimes we have never, charged him with ; whose liberty have I taken away f whose property have 1 invaded ? if he can force us into this law, the liberty and property, not only of one man, but of all men in the province, will be invaded and taken away ; and this to aggrandize our intended lord, increase and secure bis estate at our cost, and give him tbe glorious privilege that no British nobleman enjoys, of having his lands free from taxes, and defended gratis. But what is tbe loss of even liberty and property, compared with the loss of our good name and fame, which the go vernor has, by every artifice, endeavoureij, to de prive us of, and to ruin us in the estimation of all mankind. Accusations secretly dispersed in the neighbouring provinces and our motner country ; nameless libels put into tbe hands of every mem ber of parUament, lords and commons ! but these were modest attacks compared with his public messages, filled with tbe most severe and heavy charges against us, without the least foundation ; such as those in his message of the sixteenth of May last ; some of which, though then fully re futed, he now ventures to renew, by exclaiming in these terms, had you any regard for your bleed ing country, would you have been deaf to all the affectionate warnings and calls of his majesty ? and would you have refused the proper, necessa ry, and timely assistance to an army sent to pro tect these colonies ?" for it is not weU known that we have essayed every method, consistent with our rights and liberties, to comply with the call.-; of the crown, which have frequently been defeated either by proprietary instructions or the perverse ness of our governor ? did we not supply that army plentifully with all they asked of us, and even more than aU ? in testimony of which, have we not letters from the late general, and other princi pal officers acknowledging our care, and thanking us cordially for our service ? these things are well known here ; but there is no charge that tbe go vernor cannot allow himself to throw out against us, so it may have the least chance of gaining some small credit somewhere, though of the short est continuance. In fine, we are sincerely grieved at the present unhappy state of our affairs ; but must endeavour patiently to wait for that relief which Proridence may, in due time, think fit to favour us with, hav ing, if this bUI is still refused, very little farther hopes of any good from our present governor. Tlie governor's reply, September 24, 1755. Gentlemen, — In the course of my short admi nistration among you, I have often regretted, that at a time when it becomes every one of us to be consulting and acting for tbe public good, you should still delight to introduce new and unneces sary disputes, and turn the attention of tbe people from things of the last importance to their future safety. Your very tedious message of the nineteenth of August, is a sufficient proof of your temper of 150 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. mind ; it is indeed of such an inflammatory na ture, that did not the duties of my station and jus tice to the people require me to take some notice of it, I should think it beneath me as a gentle man to make any reply to a paper of that kind, filled with the grossest calumny and abuse, as weU as tbe most glaring misrepresentations of facts ; and what I shaU now say in answer to it would have been said in your last sitting, had you not adjourned yourselves so soon afler thedeUvery of it, that I had not time. You set out with claiming it as a pririlege to have your bills granting supplies passed as they are tendered, vrithout amendments, and say, " it is far from being an ordinary method to receive or debate upon amendments offered by tbe governor," This claim is not warranted by tbe words of the charter, nor by the usage of former assembUes, and you yourselves must know, that from the first settlement ofthe province to the latter end ofthe admin^tration of Mr. HamUton, my immediate predecessor, the governors have occasionally amended biUs for raising money, and their rifbt of doing so was never till then contested. Notvrithstanding all you have said as to my of fer of lands to the westward, I am persuaded un prejudiced men vriU see it in its true light, and be convinced it was made with a good intention, and under a proper authority ; I mentioned my com mission of property in contradistinction to the commission of government, as that under which I granted lands upon the common and ordinary oc casions, which you seem to think was done un der the otber. But as to the offer in ijuestion, I had such directions from the proprietanes as were sufficient to justify me in making it, and would have been obUgatory on them to confirm the same to the adventurers ; and this I did then, and stUl do, think a good authority. As you do not profess to understand law, I am not surprised at your quoting an abridgment in stead ofthe case abridged. Viner, who is no au thority, may have the words you mention for aught I know, and may be of opinion that tbe king can purchase and hold lands in his private capacity, but in that he has the misfortune to dif fer from my lord Coke, and other writers of note and authority in the law. Your answers to what you call my round charge, and to what you afterwards caU my haughty questions, are, by no means, conclusive ; I grant that no public money can be raised, nor any clause enacted for the disposition of it, with out your consent, but is not mine equally neces sary ? whence is it then that I should be thought more obliged to you for a voice in the disposition of public money, than you are to me, seeing the obligation (if any) is reciprocal ; tbe money re maining in the people's pockets cannot be taken from thence, till I think a law necessary for that purpose, and shall I have less power over it after it is raised, and in the public treasury, than I had before 1 the common security of the people requires that they should not be taxed but by the voice ofthe whole legislature, and is it not equal ly for their security that the money when raised should not be disposed of by any less authority ? Your claim therefore of a natural exclusive right to the disposition of pubUc money, because it is the people's, is against reason, the nature of an Knglisli government, and the usage of this pro vince, and you may as weU claim the exclusive right to all the powers of government, and set up a democracy at once, because all power is derived from the people ; and this indeed may be tbe true design. As to what you insinuate concerning the enor mous growth of the proprietary estate, I shall oppose plain facts to your presumptions. By the original concessions and agreement between the late Mr. William Penn and the first settlers, nine tenths of the land were to be granted to the ad venturers, and the remaining tenth to be laid out to the proprietary ; but instead of this, the late proprietary, out of the lands purchased of the In dians in ms time, contented himself with taking up but a very smaU part of what he might have done under that agreement ; and out ofthe three Indian purchases made by bis sons since his death, in the two first, consisting of four miUion acres of land, they did not survey upwards of twenty-five thousand acres, and those neither of the richest nor best situated; and in the last, which is by far the largest of all, no surveys have been made for their use, but they gave early di rections, that the settlers should, as they applied, take their choice ofthe best lands, and according ly great numbers of people are seated on these lands, to their entire satisfaction. As to their manors and appropriated tracts, it is well known that they are mostly settled by persons without leave or title, and that these pay their share of all taxes ; in short, gentlemen, if instead of set ting the proprietaries forth as increasing their estates, and using theii tenants like vassals, you had represented them as forbearing with them, and using no compulsory methods for the obtain- ment even of their just debts, and that for these and many other instances of their kind usage of them, the proprietaries are entitled to the charac ter of good, nay of the best landlords, you had done them no more than justice, and said only what is notorious to all that know their treatment of the people in this province. I can by no means allow you to argue justly in saying that the proprietaries ought to submit their estate to be taxed by assessors (mosen by the peo ple, because they are sworn or solemnly affirmed to do equal justice. When you are taxed by these assessors, it is by persons who may be con sidered as your equals, and who are interested to do you justice, as you in your turns may become their assessors. But the proprietary estate and interest being considered as separate from yours, becf(use the proprietaries are a separate branch of the legislature, they can never in that riew be taxed by any persons, unless those whose interest it is to save their own estates by throwing an un equal burden upon the proprietaries; and you must know that this is the very consideration up on which the law in certain cases excepts against both the judgment and eridence of interested per sons, lest they should be influenced therein, even against the solemnity and obligations of an oath. You say, that " all estates in Britain, and her colonics, now bear, or must bear, a tax to free the proprietary estate from encroachments and in cumbrance." Inridious and ungrateful inrinua- tion I is there nothing but this at stake ! is it for a tract of unsettled country, belonging to the pro prietaries of this province, that the eyes of all Europe are turned upon this continent, and such mighty preparations making both by sea and land ; or, gentlemen, can you think that if the enemy are suffered to keep up fortifications in any private estate whatsoever within the limits of this prorince, PENNSYLVANIA— APPENDIX, 151 you could preserve your estates, or tbe EnsUsh na tion preserve its dominions ? what end then can such insinuations serve, but to cool the ardour ofhis majesty's good subjects in recovering the country unjustly taken from them, as ifthey were contend ing for a thing of no consequence, which is but too much the opinion of many amongst us, raised and confirmed, no doubt, by your strange conduct. You charge me with contriring all possible methods of expense to exhaust your funds, and distress your affairs, and give an instance of an exorbitant demand of five thousand pounds for cutting the road for the use ofthe army, an under taking you say, I engaged you in on a computa tion of its costing only eight hundred pounds. How could you stumble on a matter which, on a very slight examination, must appear to be vrith out the least foundation ? your own minutes wiU show that you resolved to bear the charge of cut ting two roads, one to WiU's creek, ana the other to the Monongahela, and in one of your messages to me, wherein you enumerate your meritorious acts, you set this load to the Ohio particularly forth in such a manner as to have it beUeved, that it would prove a heavy expense, which, never theless, you would not decline to bear, as the king's serrice required it ; and now you insinuate, that had you known it would have cost more than eight hundred pounds, you would not have undertaken it, and this for no other reason than to lay to my cbarge a pretended estimate, of which I am totally ignorant, having never seen or heard of one. Tbe sum of eight hundred pounds might have been mentioned as what it would cost in some men's pri vate opinion, but not upon an estimate of the com missioners, nor as such sent to me. To be plain, gentlemen, it was the resentment and menaces of the officers in the army, entrusted with that part of the king's service, because the work was not begun in time (and it could not have been begun sooner by me, as you would not sooner comply with my re- (juest) it was I say your dread of baring proper representations made of your conduct at home, and of an armed force being used to oblige the inhabit ants to do this necessary work, and nothing else, that induced you to engage to bear the expense; and had the two roads been cut, they would have cost a very great sum indeed.butby a representation I caused to be made to the general, he consented to drop the road to WUl's creek, and instead of ex tending the other to the Ohio, to order it to be opened no farther than to the Crow-foot of Ohio- goiny, which last saved the clearing of many mUes. He likewise consented, that the road should not be made so wide by one third as the quarter-mas ter general had given directions for. These were great sarings to the province, which, added to the regulations that were made in the price of provi sions and liquor, and in the hire of the wagons, would at any other time have induced you to speak in commendation of my care and frugal use of the public money, and not to charge me with a demand that I never made, nor indeed could it have been then made by any one, because the accounts were not come in, and now that they are delivered to you, it does not appear that they wiU amount to Ihe sum of three thousand pounds, which is not extravagant, when you consider the distance and expedition required in the work. The commis sioners, instead of being reproached with extrava gance, have a right to the amplest acknowledg ments for their exposing their persons to such imminent danger, and carrying on tlie work vrith so much spirit, and so becoming a zeal ; and though my recommendations may not have much weight with you, yet as they were engaged in this hazard ous work by my entreaties, justice requires they should be handsomely rewarded for their indefa tigable attendance and generous advance of their own private fortunes. You have, in the message now before me, and in several others, taken great pains to infuse into the minds of the people, particularly the Germans, that the government have designs to abridge them of their privileges, and to reduce them to a state of slavery. This may, and will, alienate their af fections from his majesty's government, destroy that confidence in the crown and its delegates, which, at this time, is particularly necessary, and render aU the foreigners among us very indifferent as to the success of the French attempts upon this continent, as they cannot be in worse circum stances under them, than you have taught them to expect from the king's government. This you may, with your usual confidence, call duty, loyalty, and affection to his majesty, but 1 am conrinced it will not be esteemed such by his majesty and his ministers, before whom all these matters must be laid. — And how the innocent peo ple of this province may be affected thereby, time will show. You are pleased to tell me, that I am destitute of skill and abilities for my station, and have not the spirit of government in me. Gentlemen, 1 have never made any boast of my abilities, nor do I pretend to know what you mean by the spirit of government. Butthislknow, that if I had enough of the spirit of submission, I was early given to understand, by some of your messages, that you would have then pronounced me well qualified for the administration of this province, even without the assistance of instructions, or the advice of my council. To your spirit of government, however, or ui other words, your inclinations, to increase and render permanent your own powers, is to be at tributed all your late extraordinary proceedings, and the defenceless state of the province ; for the sake of gratifying this, you scruple not to stir up his majesty's subjects against his government, for getting all duty to your sovereign, and all decency to those in authority under him. Your answers do not exculpate you from my charges against you for taking on yourselves great and mighty powers, and since you caU upon me to particularize them, I shall gratify you. You have created a paper currency of your own, and ordered the collectors of excise, and the trustee.^ of tbe loan-office to receive it against law ; you pay your own wages out of the provincial money, when the law requires and provides for their be ing paid in another manner. Notwithstanding it IS declared by law, that no persons indebted on mortgages to the loan-office shaU be delinquent in their payment above a year, and your commit tees are enjoined, in the settlement of theu* ac counts, to reckon all such outstanding, as cash in the trustees' hands, yet this you have dispensed vrith in the settlement of the trustees' accounts year after year, and suffered the borrowers to con tinue in arrear for years, many of them for not less than ten, A practice tending to depreciate the value of the money, and greatly injurious to the borrowers. And lastly, instead of the oaths 152 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. required by law to be taken to his majesty by all men in public office, you have taken upon you to administer the affirmation to your clerk, and se veral of your own members, though not of the people called quakers, not at all scrupulous against taking an oath, which deprives his majesty ofthe secunty provided by law to be given by such as hold offices, or act in public trusts. You have often mentioned what you have done to promote the success of his majesty's arms un der general Braddock, and for the defence of the province, and say, you have letters from tbe late general, thanking you for your service ; the truth of this I must beg leave to question, as the late general was too honest to say one thing to you, and another to the king's ministers. He might ac knowledge the services of particular men, hut bow you can take those to yourselves as an assembly, when you had no hand in what was done, I am at a loss to know. I think it will not be doubted, but that had you in time opened the proper roads, rais ed men, and prorided carriages, and necessary pro visions for the troops, as this was the only province able, in the general's situation, to furnish him with them, we might now have been in peaceable pos session of fort Duquesne. In fine, gentlemen, I must remind you, that in a former message you said you were a plain peo ple that had no joy in disputation. But let your minutes be examined for fifteen years past, not to go higher, and in tbem will be found more arti fice, more time and money spent in frivolous con troversies, more unparalleled abuses of your go vernors, and more undutifulness to tbe crown, than in all the rest of his majesty's colonies put together. And while you continue in such a tem per of mind, 1 have very little hopes of good, ei ther for his majesty's service, or for the defence and protection of this unfortunate country. The assembly's rejoinder, Sept. 29, 1755. May it please the Governor, — The sin cerity ofthe governor's regret at the "unnecessa ry disputes" which subsist between us, the very first paragraph of his message gives us some room to question ; since it begins with a new charge, that those disputes are of our introducing, and that we delight to introduce them to turn tbe at tention ofthe people from " things ofthe last im portance to their future safety. This charge itself seems designed to introduce another un necessary dispute, since all that are acquainted with our disputes know by whom they were intro duced, and who it is that delights in disputing. That our message of the nineteenth of August was " a very tedious" one to the governor we make no doubt. It must have been so in the matter, and micht probably be so in the manner. There was too much truth in it, and too Uttle flattery. We suppose too, that the task of answering it mi it upon him during his majesty's life, the king tells them, "that the revenues ofthe crown had been so anticipated by his consent for public uses, that he was whoUy destitute of means to support the civil list:" Nevertheless, by an act of the twelfth and thirteenth WilUam III,, three thousand seven hundred pounds a week (as the necessity of the pubUc aflairs required it) was taken out of that revenue " to be applied and dis posed of to and for the public uses during his ma jesty's life." By an act granting an aid to her majesty by a land-tax, passed in the first year of the reign of queen Anne, for carrying on the war against France, the receivers of the chief rents of her majesty, and of the queen dowager, and the receivers of any persons claiming under the crown were enjoined under severe penalties to deduct their taxes four shillings in the pound out of the said rents, and in like manner the fee-farm rents of the crown, the palaces of St. James's, White- haU, Windsor-castle, and Somerset-house, &c. are subjected to the land-tax through all the suc ceeding acts of parliament. By an act of the first of king George, entitled, An act to enable his majesty to grant the regalities of North-Wales, South- Wales, and county of Chester, to his roy al highness the prince of Wales, &c, it is enact ed, " that it shall and may be lawful for the king's most excellent majesty, by letters patent, &c, to give and grant unto his said royal highness all the said honours, castles, &e, within the counties of Flint, Denby, Montgomery, Carnarvon, &c, and the county palatine of Chester, and every or any of them, which do not belong to his majesty, his heirs and successors, &c, so nevertheless that the same do not extend to any taxes, aids, or revenues whatsoever granted or to be granted to the crown by parliament, to or for any public use or uses whatsoever ; to have and to hold the said honours, castles, lordships, manors, messuages, lands, tythes, tenements, rents, hereditaments, posses sions, and premises, so to be granted as aforesaid unto him the said prince, and his heirs, kings of Great Britain ; subject, nevertheless, to such an nual and other payments and incumbrances as are legally charged thereupon, or usually satisfied out ofthe revenues ofthe same," And upon a com putation of the revenues of tbe late prince of Wales, in the year 1736, when the land-tax was at two shiUings in the pound, the deductions were five thousand pounds a year for tbe land tax upon fifty thousand pounds, the six-penny duty to the civil list, and the fees payable at the exchequer, about two thousand pounds more ; so that bis nett revenue on tbe fifty thousand pounds a year, allowed him by the king, would not amount to more than forty-three thousand pounds yearly, besides his dutchy of Cornwall, By this estimate we see the royal family, for what they received out ofthe ciril list, were subject to parliamentary taxes, until it was otherwise prorided by particu lar acts ; and indeed by the seventh and eighth of William III., chap. 17. sect. 12, it is enacted, " That no letters patents, granted by the king's majesty, or any of his royal predecessors, &c, shall be construed or taken to exempt any person, city, borough, &<:.or any of the inhabitants ofthe same, from the burden and charge of any sum or sums of money granted by the act ; and all non obstantes, in such letter patent made, or to be made, in bar of any act of parliament for the sup ply or assistance of his majesty, are declared to be void, and of none effect." If upon these, and many other authorities which might be adduced to the same purpose, it should appear, that the revenues of the crown, and of tbe royal famUy, are, and have been, subjected to the national taxes of Great Britain, as weU as the estates of all the peers and commoners of our mother-country, from whence we derive ourselves and our consti tution, it wUl be difficult to conceive any good rea sons why our proprietaries, and their great estate in this province, should alone, of all bis majesty's subjects, be exempted from the payment of taxes for the defence and security of their own estates. But our governor is pleased to inform us, that if we tax tnem at all, it must be as proprietaries 160 FRANKLIN'S WORKS- and chief governors, which is the only capacity by which they are connected with, or related to, the inhabitants ; that they hold the government and soil under the same grant, and tneir title to both is entered in their persons, and cannot be separated, without destroying their authority. Now we certainly have otber connexions with Thomas Penn, and with Richard Penn, besides their being chief governors : and I suppose they may separately eject or commence actions at law for rent, or other actions, in his majesty's courts within this province, in their private capacity, in the same manner that other inhabitants and free holders could do in Uke cases ; and the powers of government might have descended through the eld est branches ofthe family, or either of our proprie taries, vrithout injuring their property in tne soil ; and in this case, the governor would have been sufficiently authorized by commission under him, in whom the powers of government were vested. But the commission of property (which our go vernors have not been concerned with till very lately) would have been insufficient, unless exe cuted by all who bad a property in the lands, and is now executed by the governor by virtue oftbat commission in opposition to his commission as lieutenant-governor, which expressly enjoins him not to grant lands, or otherwise interfere with tbe proprietaries' affairs of property. But to return, as it is evident that the peers of Great Britain do not vote in the election of mem bers to serve in parUament, yet their estates are taxed by bills of aids, and supplies to the crown, which arise out of the house of commons ; I am of opinion, that the conclusion the governor draws from his reasoning in tbe message of the thirteenth of August last, is in direct opposition to the rights and usage of the house of commons ; and consequently our offering a bUl, vvhereby the pro prietary estate was to be taxed with all other es tates within this prorince, -Was not against the very principles of the British constitution, as he would imagine. Have the proprietaries, says the governor, a right to vote in the election of representatives as landholders ? surely not. Being hereditary go vernors ofthe province, and having a vote in the legislature by their own particular representative the governor. How then came you by a right to tax them as fellow-subjects and landholders, seeing they had no voice in chooising you, nor were entitled to any, tbough owners of land in every country. To which it may be answered : Have the peers of Groat Britain a right to vote in the election of representatives as landholders? surely not. Being hereditary peers of Great Bri tain, and having a vote in the legislature by their own particular representation in the house of lords. How then came the house of commons by a rio-ht to tax the peers as fellow-subjects and landholders, seeing they had no voice in choosing them, nor were entitied to any, tbough owners of land in every country. . , , ^ , From tbe very principles therefore (says the governor) ofthe British constitution, you have no right to tax them as freeholders, or fellow-subjects. But all this kind of reasoning serves only to ease us from tbe whole force of it, and leaves the go vernor to dispute the principles of the British constitution with a British house of commons, be fore whom he will undoubtedly think it his duty to produce stronger arguments than these. The faUacy of this manner of reasoning is very obn- ous. Tbe knights, citizens, and burgesses, represent the whole commons of England ; but tbe peers are present in parliament for themselves only ; as it would be unjust to tax the peers if they 'had no representation in the legislature, by which they might give their consent ; so it would be equally unjust to tax the proprietary estate here, without bis assent by his representative tbe governor. The peers and our proprietaries have their ne gatives upon all biUs ; but the equity of taxing themselves, as well as all others, for their common safety and defence, induces the lords to give their assent to bills offered to tbem for that purpose ; and no doubt the same equity ought to be equal ly binding on our proprietaries ; and it may be hoped, that all restrictions, by wbich their deputy is disabled from discharging his duty, wiU, in due time, be considered by our superiors. Our pro prietaries, I presume, have no right to vote for our representatives, though tbey are certainly land holders in this prorince ; and under this considera tion they are exempted from paying assembly men's wages by our country rate and levy act. The peers of Great Britain are as certainly land- ' holders, and many of them burgesses and mem bers of corporations ; yet they neither vote for the knights ofthe shire or burgesses ; and under tbe same consideration are exempted from contribut ing to their expenses. The commons petitioned in parUament, first of Richard II,, that all persons having lay fee might contribute to tbe cbarge of the knights. The king answered, that the lords ofthe realm would not lose their old liberties: yet in the same reign, by the twelfth of Richard II,, chap. 2, it is enacted, that if any lord, or any other man, spiritual or temporal, hath purchased any lands or tenements, or other possessions, that were wont to be contributory to such expenses before the time ofthe said purchase, that the said lands, tenements, and possessions, and the tenants of the same, be contributory to the said expenses, as the said lands, tenements, and possessions were wont to be before the time of the same pur chase. This law, which had continued through so many ages, appears to be founded in justice and equity, and will necessarUy become the rule of our conduct ; for as our paper money acts are near expiring, and it may be hoped that no fu ture assembly wiU give up their just rights for the obtaining of new emissions, whatever inconveni encies they may labour under for want of them, the pa5'ment of assemblymen's wages must be come verv burdensome if they are to be kept sit ting, though to little or no purpose (as of late) through a great part of the year ; and especially if our proprietaries, against our expectations, should have as much power as they have inclination to get their increasing estates exempted from bear ing any share of our taxes ; for in this case we have reason to apprehend they may judge it their private interest to impoverish the people by exor bitant impositions, or a profusion of the public money ; and as under these circumstances pre tences will never be wanting, new and grievous burdens will be repeatedly called for, till by de grees the freeholds and possessions of this young colony must insensibly fall into the proprietaries hands ; and thus by the continual proprietary ex emptions, and the weight becoming still heavier upon the decreasing number who may be able, for a while, to bear up, and continue among the cala- PENNSYLVANIA— APPENDIX. 161 mities of their country ; these too must at length submit and leave the colony their predecessors Had cultivated and settled with honour under a milder administration. Note. — The editor takes the liberty of adding in this note the following authorities. The commons in 1700 having tacked or conso- Udated the land-tax and Irish-forfeiture biUs, and the lords haring returned the same with certain amendments, the commons rejected the said amendments for the following reasons, riz. " for that all aids and supplies granted to his majesty in parUament, are the sole and entire gift of the commons ; and as all biUs for the granting such aids and suppUes begin vrith the commons, so it is the undoubted and sole right ofthe commons to direct, limit, and appoint in such bills, the ends and purposes, considerations, limitations, and qualifications of such grants ; which ought not to be changed or altered by your lordships. This is well known to be such a fundamental right of the commons, that to give reasons for it has been es teemed by our ancestors to be a weakening of that right," &c,, and though the lords at a farther con ference strenuously contended for their said amendments, in opposition to these reasons ; the commons adhered, and left the bill with their lordships, to adopt in tbe gross, or reject as they t'nought fit. After which the reader need not be told what was the issue. Extract from the report of a free conference be tween the two houses, Feb. 13. 1702-3. " That tbe ancient manner of giving aids was by indenture, to wbich conditions were sometimes annexed ; tbe lords only gave their consent, with out making any alteration ; and this was the con tinued practice, until the latter end of Henry tbe fifth, and, in some instances, until Henry the se venth. That in tbe famous record, called the indemnity ofthe lords and commons settled by the king, lords, and commons, on a most solemn debate in 9 Henry IV., it is declared, that all grants and aids are made by the commons, and only assented to by the lords. That the modern practice is, to omit the lords out of the granting, and name them parties only to the enacting clause of aids granted to the crown ; to which their lord ships have always concurred, and on conferences departed from their attempts of petty alterations in acts relating thereunto. That if then all aids be by the grant of the commons, it follows that the limitation, disposition, and manner of account, must Ukewise belong only to them." Report of a committee of the assembly, Sep tember 23. In obedience to the order of the house, we have considered tbe proprietaries' eleventh, twelfth, and twenty-first inslructions, relating to money bUls, and now offer such remarks thereon as occur to us. The preamble to the eleventh instruction sets forth, " That the interestmoney arising from the loan of Mils of credit in this prorince, was intend ed by the proprietaries, and the house of represent atives, to be applied for the public serrice of the prorince, and of the inhabitants thereof, and should therefore, under the direction ofthe same power that raises it, be most carefully applied to those purposes, as a greater security to tbe people against misapplications, than if it was intrusted Vol. n. ... X 14* only to one branch of tbe legislature ; and such was the ancient practice in their said province." That the interest money was intended to be ap- pUed for the public serrice ofthe province, and of the inhabitants thereof, is undoubtedly right ; but that it was ever the " practice," orthat there was ever even a single instance of the proprietaries or their deputies haring a vote in the application of the interest money, we must absolutely deny. Their consent to the disposition is not required in any of our loan acts from the beginning to this day, the constant tenor of those laws bemg, that tbe " interest money shaU be disposed of as the assembly of this prorince shall from time to time order and direct." Their consent was never ask ed, unless in the acceptance of presents made them out of that interest, which could not be forced on them without their consent; and that kind of application they have indeed been graciously pleased to consent to from time to time, to tbe amount of above thirty thousand pounds given to themselves out of that fund and the excise. If this Was a misapplication, and we know of no other, the power they contend for would not have prevented it ; for it is scarce probable they should ever disapprove or refuse to sign acts, votes, or resolves, which they thought so just and reason able. And indeed, had these presents been always as regular as the seasons ; and never intermitted, be the conduct of the governor ever so inconsistent with the public good, your committee have reason to believe, this new instruction had never been formed or thought of But since the representa tives of the people have dared to signify their dis approbation of a governor's measures, by with holding those tokens of their esteem, affection, and gratitude, which were constantly given when they found themselves well governed; this in struction is thought necessary to be enforced. Not for the greater security of the people against misapplication ; for they never complained of any ; but to compel your continuance of those presents ; to compel an addition to them, for they are thought too smaU ; and to compel the payment of what they are pleased to call the arrears of such presents to any governors from whom they have at any time been withheld. For if the people's money cannot be disposed offer their own benefit, with out the proprietary or his deputy's consent, the passage of the biU, or tbe approbation of tbe re solve, must be faciUtated, as the proprietaries were pleased to tell us on a former occasion, by a regard to their interest, that is by putting at the same time into their private pockets whatever share of the puWic money they shaU be pleased to insist on, under the specious name of salary or support ; though by the quit-rents, and even by their other fees and perquisites, established bylaw or taken by custom, they have already a support much more than sufficient. The money arising by tbe interest of the bills of credit, as weU as that arising by tbe excise, is paid wholly by the people. To dispose of their own money, by themselves or their representatives, is, in our opinion, a natural right, inherent in every man or body of men, antecedent to all laws. The proprietaries pay no part of this mo ney, and therefore can have no right to a share in the power of disposing of it. They might as reasonably claim a right to a negative in the dis position of every man's private fortune, and for the same reasons, to wit, the man's greater secu- 162 FRANKLIN'S WORIfS. rity, and to prevent misapplication ; nay, the rea sons would be stronger, bodies of men not being generally so apt to misapply their money, as sin gle prodigals. The people have never complain ed that any such misappUcation has been made by their representatives ; on the contrary, they have shown their approbation of the conduct of the assembly in this tender point, by long repeat ed annual elections of the same men to the same trust in the same office. They have always seen their money disposed of, from time to time, for the advantage and honour ofthe public, or for the king's immediate serrice, and they had reason to be contented with the disposition. The public credit has been constantly preserved, and every man who served the government, has been always duly and readily paid ; but if this new-claimed negative in tbe proprietaries takes place, the peo ple will not have it in their power to reward the man that serves them, or even to pay the hire of the labourer that works for them, without the governor's leave first purchased ; much less wUl they be allowed to support an agent in England to defend their rights, or be able to pay the ex pense of prosecuting their complaints when op pressed. And to prevent their doing this, we conceive, another main view of this instruction. In short, it does not appear to your committee that this extraordinary instance of the proprieta ry's care ofthe people's money, to prevent its be ing wasted by their own representatives, was for the people at aU necessary. Those representatives themselves are a part of the people, and must bear a share oftheir burdens. For their own sakes, therefore, as weU as to recommend themselves to the esteem and regard of their constituents, it is highly probable they vriU execute that trust, as they always have done, with justice, iprudence, ami frugality ; with freedom to the king s service, and grateful generosity to governors that sincere ly seek their welfare, and do not join with the pro prietaries to oppress them. But this instruction might perhaps be necessary to extort those grants to governors which they had been pleased to style salary, and render that certain, which before de pended on the good-will of the people ; for how else can the proprietaries be sure of that share of those grants, which, by their private contracts sometimes made with their governors, is (if report says true) to be paid to themselves ? The proprietaries are, however, wUling to per mit the renewal of tbe eighty thousand pounds, which is now to sink in a few years, and even tbe adding forty thousand pounds more, tbe whole to be emitted on loan, provided, that the eleventh in struction be complied with, " and half the power of applying the interest reserved to them ; and provided, mat aU rents and quit-rents due, or to be due or payable to them, be always paid accord ing to the rate of exchange at the times of pay ment between Philadelphia and London, or some other sufficient provision enacted in Ueu thereof, as was done by a former act." Your committee cannot help observing here, that the proprietaries' tenderness for their own interest appears in this instruction much stronger than their care for that of the people. Very great emoluments arise to them by emissions of paper-money on loan, and tho interest money is a tax tbey arc clear of They arc therefore wiUing the quantity should be increased; bijt whatever advantages they receive from it, they are resolved to suffer no disadvan tage from any occasional depreciation; for they will always be paid their rents and quit-rents, ac cording to the rate of exchange between Philadel phia and London, By the original agreements, those rents and quit-rents were to be paid in ster ling money (or the value in coin current) to the proprietary receivers in the prorince. A biU of excbange' besides tbe sterling sum conveyed, in cludes aUthe freight, risk, and expense of convey ing that sum in specie to London. Now we con- ceTve the people are not, nor can in justice or rea son be, obliged to transmit their rents to London,' and pay them there to tbe proprietaries. If the proprietaries should think fit to remove to China, they might as justly add to their demand the rate of exchange between London and Canton ; this therefore is extortion, and ought never to be allow ed in any future act, nor any equivalent made for it. For had that equivalent been really given as a matter of justice, and not extorted as purchase mo ney for the law, it would have been extended to the rents of private landlords, as weU as those of the proprietaries. Besides, the great sums to be yearly remitted to them in London, for which no returns come back to tbe country, naturaUy tend to raise the exchange ; and even put it in the power of their agents to raise it occasionally, just before tbe periodical times of payment (to the great inju ry ofthe people) and to lower it again at their plea sure ; a dangerous power this, if no inconvenience can arise to themselves by the rise of exchange ! the depreciation of money in every coimtry where it happens, is a common calamiity. The proprie tary estate ought not to be exempt from it, at the expense of all other estates. There are many fix ed ground rents, and other rents arising in the province belonging to tbe people, and due topri- vate estates. These rents have as much right to be considered, and their deficiency, in case of de preciation, provided for out of tbe public funds, as those of the proprietaries. But of these they take no care, so their own are secured. It appears however to your committee, that all rents in the country ought to be on the same footing, with re gard to any loss bythe depredation of its curren cy, since that is less likely ever to happen wbich it is the interest of all to prevent. Your committee now come to the twenty-first" instruction, by the preamble of wbich it is insi nuated, as if acts for prorincial taxes had been common in this province, and that the proprieta ry's estate had been always exempted in such acts ; whereas the truth is that there never were but two or three, and those in the early times of the prorince, when the proprietary's circumstances were low, his affairs incumbered, and the quit- rents so smaU, as to be insufficient for his support, and therefore they were not only exempted from any part of such tax, but duties and Ucense fees were granted to help them out. For more than forty years, as the excise and interest money have been sufficient for support of government, no pro vincial taxes have been levied (in this very in struction, a littie lower, they themselves acknow ledge none have been raised in their time) and the proprietary estate has vastly increased ; those li cense fees are also vastly increased, and yet they StUl received them. But that their estate should now be exempt from prorincial taxes, raised for the defence of that very estate, appears to us ex tremely unreasonable. During the distress of the family, there was likewise a voluntary subsctip- PENNSYLVANLV-APPENDIX. 163 tion among the people to pay the proprietary's passage to England ; tbey may from thence as justly claim a right of having their expenses borne by the public whenever they cross the seas. But when those aids were granted to the old propri etary, he had a much better claim to them than his sons ; for he undertook to act as an agent and advocate for bis people, in England ; to defend and secure their rights and privileges ; not like lus successors, to aboUsh and destroy them,* The instruction farther says, that " since tbe expiration of those former laws, no aid hath ever been granted by the assembly to them as proprie taries. As proprietaries, what right have they to aids ? are they not hereditary governors of tbe province? and while they have indulged them selves with an almost constant residence in Eng land, remote from their country, and greatly to its inconvenience and prejudice, have not the assem blies constantly supported tbeir deputy, sent by the proprietaries to do what tbey ought themselves to have done in person ; though he was often an imperfect deputy, restrained in those powers which should always subsist and be present in every go vernment for the common welfare 1 but tbey are pleased to say, " they have voluntarily and clieer- fuUy expended several considerable sums oftheir own money for tbe advancement of tbe province." This they said likewise to a former assembly, and the answer was, " We are unacquainted with these expenses ; let the accounts be laid before ns, and whatever expense appears to have been made for the serrice of the province shaU be allowed, and repaid with thanks." Those accounts have never yet appeared ; and tiU they do, we think they ought not to be made the foundation of any claim vvhatever. They say farther, " that tbey had no reason to suspect that tbe assembly would deviate so much from the former usage, as to pretend, by any act of theirs, to charge the proprietary estate in the prorince with the burden of any taxes." Amaz ing! if the assembly deviated from the former usage, by taxing their own estates, and those of their constituents (their usual funds failing) why should tbey not deviate in tbe same manner in tax ing tbe proprietary estate ? and what are tbe parti cular merits of this family, that when the whole British nation, when every estate in the kingdom, as well as in this province, is taxed, towards the recovery and defence of their estate in Pennsyl vania, that very estate alone should be exempted, and they so confident of its right to an exemption. as to have no reason to suspect the assembly would attempt to tax it ? But it seems " the assembly have represented them in an untrue fight, as if unwilling to assist the public, by contributing towards the defence of tbe country, though no application had ever once been made to them for that purpose," How far they are placed in an untrue light on this account, will, we presume, appear before we finish this re port. It appears too, by a report of a former com mittee. They likewise say, " no application was ever once made to them for their assistance to wards the defence of the country." Heretofore * Ttiis he e.xecuted in several instances, and particu- larly in hia answer to the lords of trade's objections to the act of privileges to a freeman, in the year 1705; in which he informed their lordships, that the act was agreeable to the great charier which all Englishmen were entitled to ; and that " we went not so far (i. e. from England to America) to lose a tittle of it." it was thought that the country was best defend ed by maintaining peace and a good understanding with the Indians. This was done from year to year by expensive and repeated presents. The proprietary reaped great advantages from this good understanding and these presents, in bis bargains with the Indians for lands. The ex penses grew yearly more and more heavy, and repeated humble applications were made to the proprietaries, that they would be pleased to bear a part, but without success. They vouchsafe in deed an answer to the last application, but it lyas to reject it vrith the utmost pnde and scorn, claim ing an inherent right of exemption oftheir estates from all public charges whatsoever, in virtue of their being governors as weU as proprietaries. And the sixty thousand pounds bUl is called an attempt ofthe assembly by " an act of theirs," to charge tbe proprietary estate, as if they had pre sumed to do it alone by their own authority, The assembly could not possibly think of taxing the proprietary estate, without the consent of the pro prietaries by their deputy ; the bill was therefore another humble application to the proprietaries for tbeir consent to a thing so reasonable ; and tbe very style of it was, " we pray that it may be enacted." But that prayer could not be granted, though the province was on the brink of ruin. And yet it seems the proprietaries were not " un willing ;" though their deputy declared they had expressly restrained him even by the words ofhis commission ! the bill however is stigmatized with the characters of " most unjust and extraordina ry." Thus it is, when men judge in their own cases. These gentlemen think it unjust to tax their estates, though aU the world thinks otherwise. As provincial taxes had not been usual, it might be so far extraordinary, but the mode of taxation was by no means extraordinary, being the same with that of raising our county rates and levies, long used and approved by tbe province. And tbe taxing of proprietary lands is used both in New Jersey and Maryland ; and located unim proved lands have formerly been taxed in this province. Had such been taxed every where from tbe first settlement of America, we conceive it would have tended to the increase of tbe inha bitants, and the greater strength of the colonies ; for then such immense quantities of land would not have been monopolized and lain dormant, but people would more easUy have obtained settle ments, and been seated closer together. But tbe proprietaries would have it understood, that it is not for their own sake only, that they ob ject to tbe fifty thousand pounds bUl which was refused, or the sixty thousand pounds act that passed, Tbey are tenderly concerned for the es tates of others. No part of the lands of a delin quent, who refuses or neglects to pay his tax ought in their opinion, to be sold for payment ; though lands in America are by act of parliament made liable to be sold for discharge of debts, and were almost always so here by tbe law of this prorince. If lands, or parts of land may be sold to satisfy private, why not public debts? and tbough it be unusual in England, it has long been the practice, as we are informed, in several ofthe colonies, particularly in New England. But tbey say, " a tax of one shUling in the pound, on the whole value, is what never was laid, nor can pos sibly be paid, in any country." Strange I may not a country in imminent danger give a twenti eth part of their estates to save the other nuie- 164 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. teen ? is it impossible even to give a half or three fourths, to save the other half or quarter ? may they not even give nineteen parts to save the twentieth ? the proprietary's gift of five thousand pounds, they afterwards say, is twenty times more than their tax, if fairly and equally assessed, could by that biU have amounted to. If so, it is possible to give tbe whole twenty parts; but it has always been understood, that estates are not to be taxed to the full value they might smgly sell for. In the same biU it was provided, thatlo- cated unimproved lands should not be valued in tbe rates at more that fifteen pounds per hundred acres ; when it is well known, that the proprie tary's lowest price for wild lands on the frontiers is fifteen pounds ten shilUngs per hundred ; and that the located unimproved lands in their manors, are, some of them, valued at three or four hun dred pounds per hundred; they may therefore well say, that "if that tax had been fully assess ed, it must have amounted to many times the sum;" but then their next assertion is somewhat inconsistent, viz. that the bill laying this tax was " most unjustly calculated for the purpose of put ting it in the power of the assessors to tax the proprietary estates up to the full value, and to ease other persons, by taxing them so lightly as only to make up tbe residue of the fifty thousand pounds, in which case, much the greatest part of the bur den might have been laid on the proprietary es tates alone." The value ofthe proprietary estate has long, for prudential reasons, been kept a pro found secret; and the proprietaries have lately given five thousand pounds rather than submit it to the inquiry of the assessors. But your com mittee co'nceive some light may be obtained on that head, from this part of the instruction com pared with the fifty thousand pounds bill. By that bill their wUd, unsurveyed, or unlocated lands, which are' many mUUons of acres, were not to be taxed at all, though they never sell any of tbem for less than fifteen pounds ten shiUings per hun dred acres. Their taxable estate consists chiefly in located (though uncultivated) tracts and ma nors, and in the reserved quit-rents arising from the lands tbey have sold. These manors and tracts are generally choice, being of tbe best lands, picked out ofevery new purchase from the Indians by their surveyors, before the office is opened, and laid by for a market, not to be dis posed of till all the surrounding lands are sold and settled. This has increased their value prodi giously, so that tbey are now, one with another, valued at more than three hundred pounds per hundred ; yet by the bUI, tbey were not to be tax ed as worth more than fifteen pounds per hun dred. And they own, that by the same bill, " their quit rents were to be taxed in the same manner as other estates," consequently as great an abatement to be made in the valuation. And yet by this same bill, under this very moderate va luation of their estate, they say, it would have been in the power of the assessors to have laid rauch the greatest part of the burden on their es tates alone. Now much the greatest part of fifty thousand pounds may be forty thousand pounds, but we will say (for moderation's sake) it is only thirty thousand pounds, and that sum might have been raised by that bill, on tbe proprietary estates, in two years, by a tax of ono shilUng in the pound, i, e, fifteen thousand pounds per annum. The shillings in fifteen thousand pounds are three hun dred thousand, consequently their estates at that low valuation are worth three hundred thousand pounds. But if you multiply that valuation by 20, to bring it nearer tbe truth, those estates must amount to six milUons ; exclusive of their wild lands as aforesaid. If this computation be too high, they may be able hereafter to show its mis takes. At present we conceive the consequences fairly drawn from facts and their own premises. And yet this their enormous estate is, by their in structions to be exempted, whUe all their feUow- subjects groan under the weight of taxes for its defence I it being the first attacked in the present war, and part of it on the Ohio, the prize contend ed for by tbe enemy. For tbough they, towards the end of this instruction, pretend to be "most ready and wUUng to bear a just proportion along with their tenants in any necessary tax for the de fence of tbe province," yet this appears clearly to be a mere pretence, since they absolutely except their quit-rents, and their located unimproved lands, their fines, and tbe purchase monies they have at interest ; that is, in a manner, their whole estate, as your committee know of Uttle they have left to be taxed, but a ferry-house or two, a kitchen and a dog-kennel. But unimproved lands should not, in our pro prietaries' opinion, pay any taxes, because " they yield no annual profit." This may deceive peo ple in England (where tbe value of land is much at a stay) as they are unacquainted with the nature of landed estates in growing plantations. Here new lands, vrithout cultivation, without fencing, or so much as cutting down a tree, being reserved and laid by for a market tUl tbe surround ing lands are settled, improve much more in yearly value even than money at interest upon interest. Thirty years ago, the best and richest lands near the proprietary's Conestogo manor were worth and sold for about forty pounds per hundred acres. That manor was then laid out and reserved, con taining near seventeen thousand acres ; and now the lands of that very manor, which, though so long located, have never yet been cultivated, wiU sell for three hundred and fifty pounds per hun dred acres ; which is near nine for one, or eight hundred per cent. Advance ! can a state thus producing twenty-five per cent per annum on the prime cost, be, with any propriety, called " an es tate yielding no annual profit ?" is it not a well known practice in the colonies, to lay out great sums of ready money for lands, without tbe least intent of cultivation, but merely to seU them again hereafter ? would people follow this practice ifthey could not make more profit oftheir money in that way than by employing it in improvement of land, in trade, or in putting it to interest, tbough inte rest in the plantations is from six to ten per cent um. Does not such land, tbough otherwise un improved, improve continually in its value ? how mean and unjust is it then, in these gentiemen to attempt to conceal the advantages of this kind of estate, and screen it from taxes, by lurking under the ambiguous and deceitful terms of unimproved lands, and lands yielding no annual profit ! Meanly unjust, indeed, in this instance, do they appear to your committee ; who cannot but ob serve, that the proprietaries, knowing their own inclinations to screen their own estates, and load those of the people, from thence suspected the people might be equaUy unjust, and intend, by tbe fifty thousand pounds bUi, to ease their estates and load those of the proprietaries, " The biU, say tbey, appears to us to be most unjustly cal- PENNSYLVANIA— APPENDIX. 165 culated, for the purpose of putting it in the power of persons, wholly chosen by the people, to tax our estates up to the full value therein mentioned, and to ease other persons by taxing them so light ly, as only to make up the residue that might be wanted to complete the fifty thousand pounds. In which case the persons chosen by the pepple might have laid by much the greatest part of the burden upon our estates alone," Had tbey in tended to raise much the greatest part ofthe tax of fifty thousand pounds on the proprietaries' es tate, would tbe bouse so readily nave accepted of five thousand pounds in lieu oftheir share of that tax ? but why this suspicion of the assembly ? What instance of injustice can tbe proprietaries charge them with, that could give ground for such a supposition ? if they were capable of such an intention, and an endeavour to get iniquity es tablished by a law, must they not be the most un just and dishonest of men ? the assessors, it is true, are chosen by the people ; they always were so by our laws ; and let a man's estate be ever so great, be has but one vote in the choice of tbem ; but have tbe proprietaries no friends in their pro vince? what is become of all their dependants and expectants ; those in place, or hoping for places ; the thousands in tneir debt ; the mort gagers at their mercy? will none of these, out of love, or hope, or fear, vote for honest assessors, that may take care the proprietary is not oppress ed by the weight of an unjust tax? could the assembly be certain, that the whole people were so wicked, as to join in choosing and trusting sets of dishonest assessors, merely to wrong the proprietary ? are there no laws in the province against perjury ; are not the assessors by law to be sworn or affirmed to assess themselves and all others impartially ; and have they not always been chosen as men of note for probity and justice? what a dark prospect must a man's own heart af ford him, when he can from thence form such ideas of the hearts of a whole people ! a people famous throutrhout the world, for the justice and equity oftheir laws, the purity of tbeir manners, tbeir hu manity and hospitality to strangers, their affection to their late honoured proprietary, tbeir faithfulness in their manufactures and produce, and upright ness in aU their deaUngs ! and to whose virtue and industry these very gentlemen owe aU their present greatness ! The proprietaries are pleased farther to say, " that the laying taxes on the real value of the fee-simple, and the sale of land for the payment of taxes, are contrary to the laws and statutes of Great Britain." Your committee cannot find that any laws or statutes were ever made in Great Britain to regulate the mode of laying taxes in the plantations ; and if there are none such, our bill could not be contrary to what never existed. In Virginia tbe taxes are laid on slaves, and paid in tobacco ; and every colony has ite own mode of taxation, suited to its own circumstances, almost all different from each other as well as from that used in England. But different from, and con trary to, we conceive to be distinct and different things; otherwise many of our laws, even those which have been approved at home, and received the royal assent, are contrary to the laws of Eng land. But as we said before, the laws of England themselves, make lands Uable to pay debts in the colonies ; and therefore to sell them, or a part of them, to pay public debts, is not contrary to, but conformable with, the laws of England, But the proprietaries "cannot find that the quit-rents reserved to the crown, in any of the other American colonies, have ever been taxed to wards tbe raising any supplies granted in those colonies ; and indeed those juit-rents are gene rally so small (meaning the king's quite-rents, we suppose, for their own surely are large enough) that littie or no land tax, would be due or payable on tbem, if arising in Great Britain, &c," If your committee are rightly informed, the king's quit- rents in the other colonies, are appUed to public purposes, generally for the service of the colony that raises them. When our proprietaries shall think fit to apply those arising here in the same manner, we beUeve no assembly vrill attempt to tax them. The smaUness of the parts, we can not conceive to be a good reason for not taxing the whole. Where every man worth less than twenty shiUings a year is exempt from taxes, he who enjoys a thousand a year might, as well as our proprietaries, plead to be excused, for that his income is only twenty thousand shillings, each of which shUUngs is far within the sum exempted by law. In tne whole, though what arises from each estate be no great sum, their quit-rents must amount to a very great revenue ; and their speak ing of them in the diminutive terms of very smaU quit-rents or acknowledgments, is only to amuse and deceive. They are property ; and proper ty should pay for its own preservation. They ought therefore to be taxed to the defence of the country. The proprietaries indeed say, a land- tax was unnecessary, as there are many other ways of raising money. They would doubUess choose any way in which their estate could not be included. But what are those many other ways ? Britain, an independent state, can lay infinite du ties, on all foreign wares, and imported luxuries. We are suffered little foreign trade, and almost all our superfluities are sent us from Britain itself Will she premit us to discourage their importation by heavy imposts ? or to raise funds by taxing her manufactures? avariety of excises and duties serve only to multiply offices and officers, and to make a part of the people pay for another part who do not choose to pay. No excise or duty, was ever a fair and equal tax on property. The fairest, as the proprietaries themselves have ac knowledged, is a poundage on all real and personal estate, according to its value. We are now to hear of the generosity of the proprietaries, who, as they say, " were so far from (desiring not to contribute to the defence and sup port of his majesty's rights and dominions, that immediately on the first notice ofthe defeat of ge neral Braddock, they had sent over an order upon their receiver-general, to pay five thousand pounds as a free gift towards the defence of the said pro vince." We may presume to ask, why, when they knew tbe assemblies were continually wor ried to give money, and tbe biUs in which it was offered as constantly rejected ; why did they not unmanacle their governor, and at tbe same time set an example of zeal for the common cause by a generous gift on their part, before tbey heard of that defeat ? why not as soon as tbey knew he was sent to America ? why not on Washington's defeat, or before his first expedition, as soon as ever this province was attacked, and they learnt that the enemy had built a fort in it? but the truth is, the order was sent, not immediately on the news of Braddock's defeat ; the date of the order wiU show that it was a month after that 166 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. news arrived in England. But it was immediate ly after they had advice, that the governor had refused a grant of fifty thousand pounds to the crown for the defence ofthe proprietaries' pro vince, because their estate was taxed in the bill, alleging restrictions from them on that head; agamst wbich all the world exclaimed an univer sal odium was falling on their heads, and tbe king's wrath justly dreaded ; then it was, that the boasted order issued. And yet as soon as their fears subsided, it was sincerely reputed, and every underhand step taken to get the act, in which their gift was fixed, disapproved at home ; though if they had succeeded, when the bUls emitted were abroad, and in the bands of the pubUc, many of the poor soldiers, who had received them in pay for their services, would have been ruined, and multitudes of others greatly injured. And after all, this free gift, to be immediately paid, is not yet paid, though more than a year is elapsed since the order was given ; and contracts, entered into by the commissioners in confidence of receiv ing that money, are yet unsatisfied, to the loss and disappointment of many, and great detriment to the service. However, if we will have a land tax, they are pleased to form a biU for us, or at least to direct what clauses shall be in, and what shall not be in it, thus violating the most essential right of the commons in a British constitution I and with this particular injunction, that the tax shall be laid for no more than one year ; and shaU notexceed four shiUings in tbe pound on the income ; which, es timating estates at twenty years'purchase, is about a fifth of a twentieth, or in plainer words, a hun dredth part of the value. Perhaps this may be weU enough in times of tranquillity ; but when a prorince is invaded, must it be given up to the enemy, if a tax of tbe hundredth penny is not suf ficient to save it? Yes, that is our present situ ation ; for the proprietaries' instructions are, it seems, unalterable. Their governor is bound to observe and enforce tbem, and must see the king's prorince perish before his eyes, rather than deri- ate from them a single tittle. This we have ex perienced within a few days, when advantage be ing crueUy taken of our present unhappy situa tion, the prostrate condition of our bleeding coun try, tbe knife of the savages at her throat, our soldiers ready to mutiny for want of pay and ne cessaries, our people flying in despair from the frontier for want of protection, the assembly was compelled (like Solomon's true mother) to wave her right, to alter our money bills, abridge our free grant to the crown by one half, and, in short, to receive and enact a law not agreeable to our judgments, but such as was made for us by the proprietary instructions, and the wUl and pleasure of the governor's council ; whereby our constitu tion and the liberties of our country are wounded in the most essential part, and even violated and destroyed. We have reason to confide, however, in the justice of our sovereign and a British par liament, that this tyranny shall not Ions subsist ; and we hope no time will be lost in making the proper application. In fine, we must say, in justice to the bouse, that the proprietary's charge against the assem bly, as "being inclined by their authority to tax the proprietary estate disproportionately, &c," is, to our knowledge, groundless and unjust, Tbey had as little inclination as authority to wrong him. They have not, it seems, authority enough to oblige him to do justice. As to tbeir incUnation, they bear, every one of them, and maintain, the character of honest men. When the proprietaries shall be truly wiUing to bear an eqmtable part of the public burden ; when they shall renounce their exorbitant demand of rent as tbe exchange shaU then be ; make restitution of the money which tbey have exacted from the as semblies of this province, and sincerely repent of their extortion, they may then, and not till then, have some claim to the same noble title. The proprietaries have for a long series of years made a great secret of the value of their estate and revenue. By accident the following au thentic paper is fallen into our hands, andwiU serve as a groundwork on which the reader may be enabled to form some idea of tlie value of that estate in Pennsylvania. It is a copy of an original paper drawn by Mr. Thomas Penn himself m.any years ago, and endorsed " My estimate ofthe province, T, Penn," ESTIMATE. Pennsylva. Cur. 1. Lands granted since my arri val are very near ^0,000 acres, of which not 10,000 have been paid for; more than of old grants are remaining unpaid ; IS • - £ 41,850 0 0 2. The rent on the said grants is 550i. sterling a year, which at 20 years' purchase, and 165 per cent, exchange, is IS, 150 0 0 3, The old rent, 420;. a year ster- ing, at ditto, is - 15,246 0 0 4. Lands granted between roll and the first article are 570;. a year sterling, which at 20 years' pur chase, and 165 per cent, is - 18,810 0 0 5. To the difference between 420;, and 570;, for arrearages of rents which may be computed at half the time of the other ar rearages, that is 1 1 years at 165 per cent, - - 2,722 10 0 6, Ferries let out on short leases, the rents being 40;, a year, arc worth - - - - 1,000 0 0 7, Lands settled in the province, for which no grants are yet passed, except a few since the above account was taken, not less than 400,000 acres, which at 15;, 10s, amounts to 63,000 0 0 8 The rent at an halfpenny an acre is 833(, 6s. Sc;, a year ster ling, reckoned as above, is 27,500 0 0 £ 188,278 10 0 MANORS. I Conestogoe, 65 mUes from the city, 13,400 acres at 40;. per hundred acres 5,360 0 0 Carried over £ 193,638 10 0 PENNSYLVANIA— APPENDIX. 167 Pennsylva. Cur, £ 193,638 10 0 Brought over 2 GUbert's, 25 miles from the ci ty, 3200 acres at 70;. per hun dred acres - 2,240 0 0 3 Springfield, 12 miles from the city, 1600 acres at 75;. per hun dred acres - 1,200 0 0 4 Highlands, 35 miles from the city, 2500 acres at 30;. per hun dred acres - - 750 0 0 5 Spring-town, 37 miles from the city, 10,000 acres at 35;. per hundred acres - 3,500 0 0 6 Vincent's, 40 miles from tbe city, 20,000 acres at 35;. per hundred acres - 7,000 0 0 7 Richland's, 35 miles from the city, 10,000 acres at 15;. per hundred acres - 1,500 0 0 9 About 20 tracts in the several counties, mostly 500 acres each; reckoned 10,000 at 40;. - 4,000 0 0 Springet's-bury,207acr. at5;. 1,035 0 0 8 On the north side of the town, 50acresat30;. - - 1,500 0 0 Back ofthe said land 15 acres at lO;, - - - 150 0 0 9 Lot in the bank at the north endofthetown,200feetat3;, 600 0 0 10 A front and bank lot between Vine and Sassafras street, 102 feet at 6;. - - 612 0 0 11 Bank lot between Cedar and Pine street, 204 feet at 3;. 612 0 0 12 Front lot on the side of Cedar, 102 feet at 3/. - - 306 0 0 13 Ditto between Cedar and Pine street, 160 feet at 2;. 320 0 0 14 Bank lot between the same streets, 40 feet at 2;. - 80 0 0 15 Marsh land near the town, 600 acres at 3;. - - - 1,800 0 0 16 Ditto 20O acres at Is. sterling rent, and 165 per cent, is - 330 0 0 Lands within the draft ofthe town, at least 500 acres, 250 nearest Delaware at 15;. per acre - - - 3,750 0 0 250 nearest SchuylkiU, at lO;. per acre - - ¦ 2,500 0 0 17 Omitted. Streiper's tract in Bucks county, 35 miles, 5000 acres, at 25;, 1,250 0 0 18 The rents of the above ma nors and lands being 77,072 acres, at a halfpenny per acre. 20 years purchase, and 165 per cent, exchange, is 5,398 12 0 The government to be calculated at no less than was to have been paid for it, riz. 11,000;. at 165 per cent, is :£ 233,972 2 0 18,150 0 0 Carried over j6 252,122 2 0 In this calculation no notice is taken of the thirds reserved on the bank lots (a copy of the pa tents J. Penn has by him to Pennsylva. Cur. Brought over X 252,122 2 0 show the nature of them*) and nine tenths of tbe province re mains undisposed of Three fifths of aU royal mines is reserved in the grants, and in aU grants since the year 1732. One fifth of all other mines, de livered at the pit's mouth with out charge, is also reserved No value is put on the proprie tor's right to escheated lands ; and, besides these advantages, several offices are in the pro prietor's gift of considerable value. Register General, about £ 200 Naval officer, 300 Clerk of Philadelphia, 400 Chester, 300 • Bucks, 200 Lancaster, 200 Besides several other offices of less value. These are only guessed at. The above paper has no date, but by sundry circumstances in it, particularly there being no va lue put on the thirds of the bank lots, because they were not then fallen in ; and by the valua tion put on the lands (which is very different from their present value) it must have been drawn while Mr. Thomas Penn resided in Pennsylvania, and probably more than twenty years ago : since which time a vast addition has been made to the value of the reserved lands, and a great quantity of land has been disposed of, perhaps equal to all pre ceding. We must therefore add to the above sum of 252,122;, 2s, the following articles, viz. 1 . For the increased value of the lands of the Conestogoe manor now valued at 400;. per hun dred acres, and in the above es timate valued only at 40!. per hundred, the said increased va lue being 300;. per hundred on 13,400 acres, - - - 48,240 0 0 2 For the increased value of Gil bert's manor, now worth 400;. per hundred acres, 10,560 0 0 3 For ditto on Springfield manor, now worth 500;. per hundred acres, - - 6,800 0 0 4 For ditto on Highland's manor, now worth 350;. per hundred acres, - - 8,000 0 0 5 For ditto on Springtown, now worth 400;. per hundred acres, 36,500 0 0 6 For ditto on Vincent's manor, now worth 300;. per hundred acres, - - 53,000 0 0 7 For ditto on Richland's, now worth 450;. per hundred acres, 43,500 0 0 9 For ditto on the 20 tracts, now worth 300/. per hundred acres, 26,000 0 0 Carried over jE 480,722 2 0 *By these patents, at the end of fifty years, the pro prietor was to have one third of the value ofthe lots and the buildings, and otlier improvements erected on them. 168 FRANIiLIN'S WORKS. Pennsylva. Cur. Brought forward £484,722 2 0 8 For ditto on Springetsbury, &c. at least, - - 2,685 0 0 9 For ditto on aU the articles of lots from No, 9 to 14, being trebled in value, - - 5,060 0 0 15 For dUto on Marsh land, now worth 20;, per acre, - 10,200 0 0 16 For ditto on the value of lands within the draft of the town, now worth one vrith ano ther, 50;. per acre,'* - 18,750 0 0 17 For ditto on Streiper's tract, now worth ,325;. per hundred 15,000 0 0 [On the next articles for the re served rent, and the value of tbe government, we add no ad vance.] For the thirds of the bank lots and improvements on them, as they fell in after this estimate was made ; reckoning every 20 feet of ground with its improve ments, one with another, worth 480;., the thirds being 160;. for each 20 feet, 37,280 0 0 573,697 2 0 Thus far for the present value of what was then estimated, but since that time, very great quantities of land have heen sold, and several new manors laid out and reserved ; one of which, viz. that of Conedogui net, is said to contain 30,000 acres ; the quantity sold since the estimate, must be at least equal to what was sold before, as the people are doubled, and the manors probably equal in quantity : we may therefore suppose that a fair estimate of • the lands sold, rents and ma nors reserved, and new towns laid out into lots, since the above estimate, would be at least equal to it, that is another tenth, and amount also to 573,697 2 0 Carried over il,147,894 4 0 * The lots of land within the plan ofthe town were originally promised to be given to the purchasers of land in file country. But that hag been longsince discontinu ed ; and formany years past the proprietor has shut the office and forbid his agents even to sell any more of them; intending to keep them all, till he can let them out on high ground rents, or on building leases. Five hundred acres divided into house lots, and disposed of in this manner, will alone make n vast estate. The old pro prietor likewise in his plan of the city, laid out five large squares, one in each quarter, and one in the cen tre ofthe plan, and gave the same to the inhabitants for public uses. This he published in all his accounts of the country, and his papers of invitation and encou ragement to settlers ; but as no formal deed or convey ance of those squares is now to be found, the present proprietor has resumed thera, turned them again into private property, thai the number of his lots mny be in creased ; and his surveyor-general in his lately publish- ed plan ofthe city, has concealed all those squares by running intended streets over them. A proceeding (equally odious to the people, and dishonourable to the family ! Pennsylva. Cur. Brought over f 1,147,894 4 0 For eight of these nine tenths of the province which were not disposed of at the time of mak ing the estimate ; note, the pro rince grant to William Penn is of three degrees of latitude, and five of longitude ; each de gree of latitude contains 69J statute mUes, and each degree of longitude about lat. 40, con tains 53 statute miles ; so tbe dimensions of the prorince are 265 nailes by 208 J, which gives for its contents 55,252J square miles, or thirty five mUUons three hundred and sixty one thousand six hundred acres; eight tenths of this quantity, is 28,289,280 acres, which at 15;, 10s, per 100 acres (tbe present seUing price) is - 4,384,838 8 0 For the yearly quit rent on 28,- 289,280 acres at a halfpenny SterUng per acre, is 58,936;. per annum, whicb at 165 per cent, and 20 years purchase, is, - 1,856,484 0 0 For the additional value on one tenth part, at least, of those eiffht-tenths, which being pick ed out of the best of tbe lands after every purchase from tbe Indians, before any private per son is allowed to take up any, and kept for 20 or 30 years, is to be sold at a medium for 300;. per 100 acres advance ; this on 2,828,928 acres, is - - 8,486,784 0 0 For the three fifths of all royal mines, and one fifth of aU other mines reserved to these lords proprietors, we can as yet esti mate no sum, and must leave it a blank as we find it, but since in the ridgesof mountains not yet settled, some very va luable specimens of ores have been found by travellers, it is not unUkely this article may in time become considerable be yond computation. For the offices we shaU like\rise make no estimation tbough they are greatly increased in number and value, with the increase of people ; as we believe the proprietaries do not raise imme diate money from the grants of those offices at present, they being chiefly disposed of to bribe or reward their partizans and favourites ; in which how ever they may find their ac count. For tbe escheats we likewise add nothing; for though it is thought a valuable article, we have no information on which Carried over £15,875,500 12 0 PENNSYLVANIA— APPENDIX. 169 Pennsylva, Cur, Brought over £15,875,593 12 0 we can form any judgment concerning its value, it must however oe continually in creasing. There is another article, we are greatly at a loss about, which is tbe interest of money aris ing to tbe proprietors from se curities on lands possessed by persons unable to make present payment. These pay not on ly quit-rent for the land but interest for the purchase mo ney. This interest* is thought to be a very considerable in come, but we cannot estimate it, Tbe three lower counties on De laware, which are a distinct ter ritory and government from the province of Pennsylvania, and held by a different title, are also a very valuable part of the proprietary estate ; though what value should be put on the same is at present difficult to say. Total in Pennsylvania curren- rency, - - £ 15,875,500 12 0 In sterling, about ten mUlions ! But on tbe whole, it appears pretty clearly, that deducting aU the articles containing the valuation of lands yet unsold, and unappropriated within their patent, and the manors and rents to be here after reserved, and allowing for any small over-va luations in tbeir present reserved lands and in comes [though it is thought if any be it will not be found to exceed the under-valuation in other instances] there cannot remain less than a million of property which they now at this time have in Pennsylvania. And in that province there are about twenty thousand famUies, to each of which, one with ano ther, there does not belong more than three hun dred pounds of property, if so much ; which mul- tipUed by twenty thousand gives six miUion pounds for the whole property ofthe people there. The proprietaries then have in present pos session a property there at least equal to one sixth of that of the people. They ought therefore to pay the same proportion of the taxes. That the reader may form some judgment of tbe profits made by this monopoly of land in Ame rica, in favour ofthe house of Penn, we shall just mention, that the land is first purchased ofthe In dians within the Umits of their grant : the Indians of late years have somewhat raised their price ; and for the last great purchase in 1754, which was of about seven mUUons of acres, they demand ed (how much do you think 1) no less than two thousand dollars, amounting, at seven and six pence currency each, to seven hundred and fifty pounds. The land so bought the proprie tor has the moderation to seU (except the best of it reserv ed in manors for hunself) at so low a price as 15;. 10s. • See Fisher's account hereafter. Vol. II. ... Y 15 Pennsylva, Cur ' per hundred acres, which vrill produce - £ 1,085,000 0 0 Deduct the purchase money 750 0 0 Remains profit 1,084,250 0 0 Besides tbe profit of a tenth of tbe seven millions of acres, re served in manors to be sold hereafter at an advance of at least three hundred pounds per hundred acres, - - 2,100,000 0 0 And also the quit-rent to be re served on seven miUions of acres, at a halfpenny sterling per acre, 14,583;, 6s. Sd. whicB at 165 per cent, and 20 years purchase, is worth 481,250 0 0 Profit, in all, £ 3,665,500 0 0 But the Indian council at Onondago not being satisfied with the sale of so much land at once, the proprietors have since been obliged to dis gorge a part of the bunting country tbey bad not paid for, and re-convey tbe same to the Indians, who, when they are disposed to sell it, may pos sibly demand two thousand dollars more, for which the above account must then have credit. One would think, that where snch good bar gains are bought of the poor natives, there should be no occasion for fraudulent art to over-reach them, in order to take more than is granted ; and that if a war occasioned by such injuries, should be drawn upon the innocent inhabitants, those who were the cause ofthe war, if they did not, as injustice they ought, bear tbe whole expense of it. at least they would not refuse to bear a reason able part. W'hether this has ever been the case is now a subject of public inquiry. But let us see how the land bought in such lumping pennyworths of the natives by the mo nopolist, is huckstered out again to the king's sub jects. To give tbe reader some idea of this, after remarking that fifteen pounds ten shillings per hundred acres for wUd land, is three times dearer than the proprietor of Maryland's price, and ten times dearer than his majesty's lands in Virginia and Carolina, both as good if not better countries, we shaU present him with a genuine account, stated under the hand of the proprietor's re ceiver-general, obtained with great difficulty by the purchaser of two tracts of land, some time after he had paid his money ; when on more par ticular consideration of the sum paid compared with the quantity bought, he imagined he had paid too much. The account is as follows, viz. John Fisher in right of Jacob Job. Dr. To land, 423 acres 53 perches, in Pex- tang township, Lancaster county, granted to said Job, by warrant of March 19, 1742, - - £65 12 1 Interest from 1st March, 1732, to 19th Marcb, 1742, is 10 years 18 days, 39 11 2 19th March, 1742, paid 105 15 3 3 0 0 Carried over 90 3 3 170 FRANKLIN'S WORKS- Pennsylva. Cur, Brought over £ 90 3 3 Interest from 19th March, 1742, to 20th February, 1747, is 4 years, 11 months, 1 day, - - 26 11 11 Cluit-rent to next month is 15 years, 13;. 4s. Id. steriing, at 85 per cent. 24 9 6 141 4 8 John FHsher in right of TTiomas Cooper, Dr. To land, 268 acres in Pextang town ship, Lancaster county, granted by warrant of 8th January, 1743, to said Cooper, 41 10 9 Interest from 1st March, 1737, to 8th January, 1743, is 5 years, 10 months, 9 days, 19th January, 1743, paid 48 12 6 Interest from 9th January, 1743, to 20th February, 1747, is 4 years, 1 month, 11 days, - - 11 19 10 Cluit-rent to next month is 10 years, 5;. lis. 8d. sterling, at 85 per cent. 10 6 7 14 11 9 56 2 7 10 6 0 20th February, 1747- £141 4 8 70 18 11 70 18 11 212 3 7 10 0 Transfer, &c. 212 13 7 PhUadelphia, 23c; February, 1747. Received of John Fisher, two hundred and twelve pounds, three shilUngs and seven pence, in full for 423 acres in Pextang township, granted by warrant of 19tb March, 1742, to Jacob Job, and for 268 acres in the same township, by war rant of 9th January, 1743, to Thomas Cooper, both in the county of Lancaster. £212 3 7 10 OfeeS 212 13 7 N. B. The quit-rent m full to 1st March, 1747. For the honourableproprietaries, LYNFORD LARDNER, Receiver Gen. The purchaser not being skilled in accounts, but amazed at the sum, applied to a friend to exa mine this account, who stated it over as follows, viz. John Fisher in the right of Jacob Job, Dr. 1742. To 423 acres, 50 per. of 19thiviarch. land, in Poxtan county, Lancaster, granted to said Job by warrant dat ed this day - - £65 12 1 By cash paid that day 15 0 0 Carried forward £ 50 12 To interest on 50;. 13s. 14 18 9 Brought over £ 50 12 Id. from the 19th March 1742, to 20th February, 1'747, being four years eleven months and one day To five years quit-rent for said land at one halfpen ny sterl, per acre per arm. VIZ, from March, 1742, the time the land was surveyed (for quit-rent ought not to be paid be fore) to March, 1748, amounting in the whole to 4;, 8s. 4d. sterl. at eigh ty five per cent, the ex- charged in the account deUvered 8 5 9 20th February, 1747. Sum due on Job's right £ 73 16 7 John FHsher in right of Thomas Cooper, Dr. 1743, To 268 acres of land in 9th Jan. Pextan aforesaid, grant ed said Cooper by war rant this day - £41 10 9 By cash paid that day 7 10 0 9th January, 1743, balance due £ 34 0 9 To interest ou 34;. Os. 9d. from 9th January, 1743, to 20th February, 1747, being four years one month and eleven days. 8 7 8 To four years and two months quit rent for said lands, viz. from January, 1743, to the 1st March, 1747, amounting in the whole to 2;. 6s. 6d. ster Ung, at eighty-five per cent. - - 4 7 2J 20th Feb. 1747, Sum due on Cooper's right £ 46 15 7} In Feb. 1747, John Fisher obtained a proprie tary patent for tbe lands above-mentioned. But by the accompts then exhibited to him, and which he paid, he was charged on Job's right one him- drea and forty-one pounds four shilUngs and eight pence, wliich is sixty-seven pounds eight shilUngs and a penny more than the above ac count, and also was charged on Cooper's right, se venty pounds eighteen shillings and eleven pence, whicb is twenty-four pounds three shilUngs and three pence three farthings more than the above accompt of Cooper's. So that by the two ac compts it is supposed he has paid ninety-one pounds eleven shillings and four pence three far things more than could legally be received from him. The reason of such great difference in the ac compts are as foUow, viz. 1st. That interest has been charged on the con sideration money for Job's land for ten years and eighteen days, before the land was surveyed. 2d. That quit-rent has also been charged for that time at 85 per cent. PENNSYLVANIA— APPENDIX. 171 3d. That the principal and interest to the time of warrant and survey were added together, and that interest was charged for that total to the time the patent was granted. 4tn. That interest has been charged on the con sideration money for Cooper's land, for five years ten months and eight days, before the land was surveyed. 5th. That quit-rent has also been charged for that time at 85 per cent. 6th. That tbe principal and interest to the time of warrant and survey were added, and interest charged for that total to the time the patent was granted, which is compound interest. To these remarks of the accountant we shaU only add, ibat the price of exchange between Philadelphia and London is not fixed, but rises and faUs according to tbe demand for bills ; that eighty-five per cent, charged for tbe exchange in this account is tbe highest exchange that per haps was ever given in Pennsylvania, occasioned by some particular scarcity of bills at a particular time ; that the proprietor himself in his estimate reckons the exchange but at 65, which is indeed near the medium, and this charge is twenty per cent, above it. That the valuing the currency of tbe country according to the casual rate of ex change with London, is in itself a false valuation, the currency not being reaUy depreciated in pro portion to an occasional rise of exchange ; since every necessary of life is to be purchased in the country, and every article of expense defrayed by that currency (English goods only excepted) at as low rates after as before such rise of exchange ; that therefore the proprietor's obliging those who purchase of him to pay their rents according to the rate of exobange, is unjust, the rate of ex change including vrithal the risk and freight on Remitting money to England; and is besides a dangerous practice, as the great sums to be yearly remitted to him, put it in the power of his own agents to play tricks with the exchange at plea sure, raise it at the time of year when tbey are to receive the rents, by buying a few bills at a high price, and afterwards lower it by refraining to buy tiU tbey are sold more reasonably. By this account of the receiver-general's, it ap pears we have omitted two other articles in the es timation ofthe proprietary estate, viz. For the qiut-rents of lands many years before they are granted ! For the interest of tbe purchase-money many years before the purchases are made ! On what pretence these articles of cbarge are founded, how far they may be extended, and what they may amount to, is beyond our know ledge ; we are therefore obliged to leave them blank tiU we can obtain more particular informa tion. Although IPC have not in this, work taken parti cular notice of the numerous falsehoods and calumnies which were continually thrown out against the assembly and people of Pennsyl vania, to keep alive the prejudices raised by the arts ofthe proprietary and his agents ; yet as we think it will not be deemed improper to give the readers some specimen of them, we sliaUon that account, and as it affords additional light concerning the conduct and state of that pro vince, subjoin a paper printed and published here in September, 1757, by a gentleman who had the best opportunities of being acquainted with the truth of the facts he relates. Any other proof, indeed, oftheir authenticity can scarce be thought requisite, when 'tis known that since that time no one has ever offered to publish the least thing in contradiction ; although before, scarce a week elapsed without the newspapers furnishing us with some anonymous abuse of that colony. To the printer of the Citizen, or, General Ad vertiser, Sir, — In your paper ofthe ninth instant, I ob serve the following paragraph, viz. " The last letters from PhUadelphia bring accounts of the scalping the inhabitants ofthe back provinces by the Indians ; at the same time tbe disputes be tween tbe governor and the assembly are carried on to as great a heighth as ever, and tbe messages sent from the assembly to the governor, and from the governor to the assembly, are expressed in terms which give very Uttie hopes of a reconcUia- tion. The bill to raise money is clogged, so as to prevent the governor from giving bis consent to it ; and the obstinacy of tbe quakers in tbe as sembly is such, that they wiU in no shape alter it ; so that while the enemy is in the heart of the country, cavUs prevent any thing being done for its reUef. Mr. Denny is the third governor with whom tbe assembly has had these disputes with in a few years." As this paragraph, like many others heretofore published in the papers, is not founded in truth, but calculated to prejudice tbe public against the quakers and people of Pennsylvania, you are de sired to do that injured province some justice in pubUshing the following remarks ; which would have been sent you sooner had the paper come sooner to my hands. 1. That the scalping ofthe frontier inhabitants by the Indians is not pecuUar to Pennsylvania, but common to aU the colonies in proportion as tbeir frontiers are more or less extended and ex posed to the enemy. That the colony of Virgi nia, in which there are very few, if any, quakers, and none in the assembly, has lost more inhabi tants and territory by tbe war than Pennsylvania, That even tbe colony of New York, with all its own forces, a great body of New-England troops encamped on its frontier, and tbe regular army under lord Loudon posted in different places, has not been able to secure its inhabitants from scalp ing by the Indians ; who coming secretly in very small parties skulking in the woods, must some times have it in their power to surprise and de stroy travellers, or single famUies settled in scat tered plantations, notwithstanding all the care that can possibly be taken by any government for their protection : centinels posted round an army, while standing on their guard, with arms in their hands, are often kiUed and scalped by Indians, How much easier must it be for such an enemy to destroy a ploughman at work in his field 1 2. That the inhabitants ofthe frontiers of Penn sylvania are not quakers, were in the beginning of the war supplied with arms and ammunition by the assembly, and have frequently defended them selves and repelled the enemy, being withheld by no principle from fighting ; and the losses they have suffered were owing entirely to their situa tion, and the loose scattered manner in which 172 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. they had settled their plantations and families in the woods, remote from each other, in confidence of lasting peace, 3. That the disputes between tbe late and pre sent governors and the assembly of Pennsylvania were occasioned and are continued chiefly by new instructions from the proprietors to those govern ors, forbidding them to pass any laws to raise mo ney for the defence ofthe country unless the pro prietary estate, or much tbe greatest part of it, was exempted from the tax to be raised by virtue of such laws, and other clauses inserted in them by wbich the privileges long enjoyed by the peo ple, and which they think they have a right to, not only as Pennsylvanians but as Englishmen' were to be extorted from them, under their pre sent distresses. The quakers, who, though the first settlers, are now but a smaU part ofthe peo ple of Pennsylvania, were concerned in these dis putes only as inhabitants of the province, and not as quakers ; and all the other inhabitants join in opposing those instructions, and contending for their rights, the proprietary officers and depend ants only excepted, with a few of such as they can influence, 4. That though some quakers have scruples against bearing arms, they have, when most nu merous in the assembly, granted large sums for the kmg's use, (as they express it) which have been applied to tbe defence of the prorince ; for instance, in 1755 and 1756, tbey granted tbe sum of fifty -five thousand pounds to be raised by a tax on estates real and personal ; and 30,000 pounds to be raised by excise on spirituous liquors ; be sides near ten thousand pounds in flour, &c, to general Braddock, and for cutting his roads, and ten thousand pounds to general Shirley in provi sions for the New England and New York forces, then on the frontiers of New York ; at the eame time that the contingent expenses of government, to be otherwise provided for, were greatly and ne cessarUy enhanced. That, however, to remove all pretence for reflection on their sect, as obstruct ing military measures in time of war, a number of them voluntarily quUted tbeir seats in assembly in 1756; others requested their friends not to choose them in tbe ensuing election, nor did any of that profession stand as candidates or request a vote for themselves at that election, many quakers refusing even to vote at aU, and others voting for such men as would and did make a considerable majority in tbe house who were not quakers ; and yet four of the quakers, who were nevertheless chosen, refused to serve, and writs were issued for new elections, when four others not quakei-s were chosen in tbeir places; so that of 36 members, the number of which the house consists, there are not at the most above 12 of that denomination, and those such as are well known to be for supporting tbe government in defence of the country, but are too few, if tbey were against such a measure, to prevent it, 5. That the bill to raise money, said in the above article of news, to be " so clogged as to pre vent the Governor from giving his assent," was drawn in the same form, and with the same free dom from all clogs, as that for granting sixty thousand pounds wbich had been passed by the governor in 1755, and received tbe royal approba tion ; that the real clogs or obstructions to its pass ing were not in the biU, but in the above-mention ed proprietary instructions; that the governor haring long refused his assent to tbe bill, did, in excuse of his conduct, on lord Loudon's arrival at Philadelphia in March last, lay his reasons before bis lordship, who was pleased to communicate them to one of the members of the house, and pa tiently to hear what that member had to say in answer, the governor himself being present ; and that his lordship did finally declare himself fuUy satisfied with the answers made to those reasons, and give it as bis opuiion to the governor that he ought immediately to pass thebiU, any instructions he might have to the contrary from the proprietors notwithstanding ; whicb the governor according ly complied with, passed the bill on the 22d of March, and the money, being 100,000;, for the service of tbe current year, has been ever since actuaUy expending in tbe defence of the province. So that tbe whole story of tbe bill's not passing, the clogging of tbe bUl by the assembly, and tne obstinacy of the quakers preventing its passage. is absolutely a maUcious and notorious falsehood, 6, The assertion ofthe news- writer, " that whUc the enemy is in the heart of the country, cavils prevent any thing being done for its relief," is so far from being true, that, 1st The enemy is not nor ever was in tbe heart of the country, baring only molested the frontier settlements by their parties, 2dly. More is done for tbe reUef and de fence of the country, without any assistance from tbe crown, than is done perhaps by any otber co lony in America ; there haring been, soon after tbe war broke out, tbe foUowing forts erected at tbe prorince expense, in a line lo cover tbe fron tier, viz. Henshaw's fort on Delaware, fort Ha mUton, fort Norris, fort Allen, fort Franklin, fort Lebanon, fort WilUam Henry, fort Augusta, fort HaUfax, fort Granrille, fort Shirley, fort Little ton, and Shippensburg fort, berides several smaller stockades and places of defence, garrisoned by troops in the pay of the province ; under whose protection the inhabitants, who at first abandoned their frontier settlements, returned generaUy to their habitations, and many yet continue, though not without some danger, to cultivate their lands; by these Pennsylvania troops, under col. Arm strong, the greatest blow was given to the enemy lost year on the Ohio, that they have received during the war in burning and destroying the In dian town of Kittannmg, and kUling thebr great captain Jacobs, with many other Indians, and re covering a number of captives of their own and the neighbouring provinces ; besides the garri sons in the forts, eleven hundred soldiers are maintained on the frontier in pay, being armed and accoutred, by the prorince, as ranging com panies. And at PhUadelphia fifteen iron cannon, eighteen pounders, were last year purchased in England and added to the fifty they had before, either mounted on their batteries, or ready to be mounted, besides a train of artiUery, being new brass field-pieces, twelve and six pounders, with all their appurtenances in extreme good order, and a magazine stored with ammunition, a quan tity of large bomb-shells, and above two thousand new small arms lately procured, exclusive of those in the hands of the people. They have Ukewise this summer fitted out a twenty gun province ship of war, to scour the coast of pnvateers, and pro tect the trade of that and the neighbouring pro vinces, whicb is more than any otber colony to tbe southward of New England has done. Penn sylvania also by its situation covers the greatest PENNSYLVANIA— APPENDIX 173 part of New Jersey, all the government of the Delaware counties, and great part of Maryland, from the incursions of the Indians, without re- ceiring any contribution from those colonies, or the mother-country towards the expense. The above are facts, consistent with the know ledge of the subscriber, who but lately left PhUa delphia, is now in London, is not nor never was a quaker, nor writes this at the request of any qua- ker ; but purely to do justice to a province and people of late frequently abused in nameless pa pers and pamphlets published in England. And he hereby calls upon the writer of that article of news to produce the letters out of which he says, he has drawn those calumnies and falsehoods, or to take the shame to himself WILLIAM FRANKLIN. Pennsylvania Cqffee-House, London, Sept. 16, 1757. To what is said in the foregoing letter, con cerning col. Armstrong's expedition to Kittan- ning, it may not be amiss to add, for the informa tion of the reader, that it was with no smaU diffi culty the commissioners, who were joined with tbe governor in the disposition of the money granted for the war, obtained the employing a part of the prorincial forces as rangers. They repeatedly remonstrated to the governor, that the only effectual manner of carrying on a war with Indians waste tight tbem in their own way, i. e. to send parties frequently into the Indian country, to surprise them in their hunting and fishing, destroy their com fields, burn their habi tations, and, by thus continually harassing them, obUge them either to sue for peace, or retire far ther into tbe country. The experience of many years Indian war in New England was in favour of this measure. The governor himself could not but acknowledge its expediency. There were motives, however, which, with him, outweighed aU other considerations ; and induced him though pub licly, to approve, yet secretly to decline carrying it into execution, A militia law was tbe grand object he had in view, in which he aimed to have the sole nomination of all the officers. These were of course to be proprietary minions and dependants, who, by means of their power, were to awe and influence the elections, and make a change in the assembly ; for draughts of such as were most like ly to give opposition might easily be made and sent to garrison the frontier. Should therefore the commissioners' scheme of carrying the war into the enemy's country, be attended vrith success, and a stop be thereby put to their future incur sions, the governor's main pretext for a militia (which was the enabling him to defend the fron tier) would of consequence have no longer any appearance of weight. The commissioners, not withstanding, obstinately persevered in urging that parties should be sent out in the manner tbey re commended. The governor was at length oblig ed to consent and give orders to colonel Armstrong for that purpose. Under-hand measures seem however to have been taken to render this project fruitless. Such delays were given from time to time to the march of the forces, after the inten tion ofthe undertaking was publicly known (which by the bye was to have been kept a secret) that the enemy might easily have received intelligence of our designs ; aud moreover, such a considera ble number of men were added to the party as rendered it highly improbable they should reach 15* the place of their destination undiscovered, upon whicb depended the whole of their success. By great good luck, tbey nevertheless unexpectedly arrived at Kittanning, and succeeded as above. Encouraged by this fortunate event of their first attempt, the commissioners earnestly pressed that this blow might be foUowed by another ofthe same kind, so that the enemy might be kept in conti nual apprehensions of danger. But these encou ragements to the commissioners, to persist in their plan of operations, were inducements with tbe new governor, as they had been with his prede cessor, to evade a compliance. The darling project of a miUtia law was of more consequence than the preservation of the blood and treasure of people with whom he had no natural connexion. And the result is, that notwithstanding the commissioners have over and over strenuously endeavoured to have parties of rangers sent again into the enemy's country, they have never since been able to prevaU with the governor to send them. On the contrary, though they could furnish ten parties for one of the Indians, the forces have been confined within the forts, taught regular mUitary discipUne (which is in fact undiscipUning them for Indian war) and allowed to do scarce any thing but garrison duty. In the mean time the Indians have been suffered to come down between the forts, murder and scalp the inhabitants, and burn and destroy their settlements, with impunity. That a militia, had tbe governor such a one as he wishes, coiUd not prevent these outrages, is obrious to every man of common understanding. Frequent trials of this have been made in Virginia, and other go vernments where mUitias have been long in use. The consequence of which was, that after the go vernors had, upon the news of any incursions of the enemy, taken the inhabitants from their seve ral businesses and occupations (ofl;entimes farmers in the midst of harvest) furnished prorisions and otber necessaries, and marched them, at a great expense, to the place attacked, it was found that the enemy were fled, and perhaps doing mischief in another part of the frontier, at fifty or a hun dred mUes distance. The people therefore say with truth, that it would be far less expensive and inconvenient to them, to raise and pay a num ber of rangers to be continuaUy employed in that service. And it is certain, that were but a few rangers properly employed, they would be more effectual in subduing such an enemy, than aU the mUitia or regular forces on the continent of Ame rica. The sending of these against scouting par ties of Indians, being, as tbe proverb has it, setting a cow to catch a hare. Account of sundry sums of money paid by the province of Pennsylvania for his ma jesty's service since the commencement of hostilities by the French in North Ameri ca, exclusive of the general contingent expenses of the government, which have from that time increased very considerably. EXTRACTED FROM THE JODRNALS OP THE AS SEMBLY. 1754, For provisions supplied and the king's forces un- 1755. der the command of Pennsylva. Cur. 174 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. 1756. - £8,195 14 8 10,000 0 0 514 10 1 2,023 5 0 Pennsylva. Cur. general Braddock ; for opening and clear ing a road towards the Ohio ; and for es tablishing a post be tween Winchester in Virginia and PhUa delphia, for the use of the army, at the re quest of the said ge neral For provisions supplied the New England, and New York forces, under general John son For clothing sent the forces under general Shirley For presents to the Six nations and other In dians in aUiance with the crown of Great Britain, and the ex pense attending two treaties held with them for securing them to the British interest For maintenance of Ohio and other Western Indians, who had taken re fuge in Pennsylvania; French deserters ; sol diers' wives belonging to Braddock's army ; arms and ammunition delivered to such of the frontier inhabit ants as were not able to purchase any for their defence; relief and support of sundry of said inhabitants who were driven from their plantations by the enemy; and for expresses and other purposes for his ma jesty's serrice ['The above sums were paid out of the trea sury and loan office, and by money bor rowed on the credit ofthe house of assem bly before the govern or could be prevailed on to pass any bills for granting an aid to his majesty.] For raising, paying, and maintaining forces ; building forts ; main taining and treating 1757. 1758. 5,653 13 2 Carried over £26,387 2 11 90,000 0 0 100,000 0 0 Pennsylva, Cur, Brought over £ 26,387 2 11 with the king's Indi an aUies ; support of French neutrals sent from Nova Scotia; bUleting and supply ing with necessaries the king's regular forces ; and other purposes for his ma jesty's serrice, as re commended by his ministers. [By two acts of assembly, 60,000;. and 30,000;.] For ditto by another act of assembly For ditto by ditto. [Note 2700 men were rais ed and employed this year in his majesty's service, by the pro rince of Pennsylva nia, in pursuance of Mr. secretary Pitt's letter.] For support of a ship of war for protection of trade, (by a duty on tonnage, &c,) for a six months' cruise For interest paid by the province for money borrowed for his ma jesty's service on the credit of the assem bly; tbe charges at tending tbe pnnting and signing the pa per-money, and col lecting, and paying the several taxes granted his majesty to the prorincial trea surer and trustees of the loan office, with their and the provin cial commissioners' aUowances for their trouble, may at least be estimated at For sundry Indian ex penses, omitted in the above 100,000 0 0 6,425 15 0 5,000 0 0 38 13 0 £327,851 10 11 From which deduct one third to reduce the sum to sterling value; an English shilling passing for Is. 6d. in Pennsylvania 109,283 16 U SterUng, £ 218,567 14 0 As the reader may possibly be curious to know, whether any similar disputes arose betweenthe proprietaries and the several assemblies ofthe PENNSYLVANIA— APPENDIX. 175 territory, or three separate counties, it may be proper to inform him, that the forbearances of tliese gentlemen in that district, were altoge ther as remarkable as their assumptions in the province ; and to refer him to the following ex tract of a genuine letter of Mr. secretary Lo gan's to one Henry Goldney, an intimate friend of tlie first proprietary WUliam Penn far a solution of all doubts concerning the dif ference. " Henry Goldney. " PmLiDELPmA, 3d month the 12th, 1709. "EsTEEMEn Friend, — I was favoured last fall mtb thine and other friends answer to mine of 3d month last ; tbe contents of which were extreme ly satisfactory, and on my part I shall not be wanting to discharge my duty to the utmost of my power ; but in my opinion, since the proprie tor has several times mentioned that he had pro posals made to him for tbe purchase of a large tract of land on Susquehannah, for which he had an offer of 5000;. sterling, it would be most advis able for him to accept of any such terms, that so he may speedUy have the management of his country to himself, by paying the debt there whicb he has contracted upon it; to which I wish thee and his other good friends would ear nestly press bim, for in himself I know he is in such cases somewhat too doubtful and backward, " I now design, through the greatest confidence in thy friendship both to him and me, to be very free with thee in an affair that nearly concerns him and this country in general, in which I shall request thee to exercise thy best thoughts, and, according to the result of these heartily to employ tbe necessary endeavours : the case is briefly as foUows : " This government has consisted of two parts ; theprorinceof Pennsylvania, and tbe three lower counties on Delaware. To tbe first the proprie tor has a most clear and undoubted right, both for soU and government, by tbe king's letters patent or royal ckarter ; for the latter he has much less to show ; for the soil he has deeds of feofment from the duke of York, but for the government not so much as is necessary. After his first ar rival, however, in these parts, he prevaUed vrith the people both of the prorince and those counties to join in one government under him, according to the powers of the king's charter, wbich never theless extended to the province only, and so tbey continued, not without many fractions, tUI after the time of his last departure, when some disaf fected persons took advantage of a clause, which he had unhappily inserted in a charter he gave the people, and broke off entirely from those lower counties ; since which time we have had two as semblies, that of theprovince acting by a safe and indisputed power, but that of the other counties vrithout sufficient(Idoubt)to justify them. Last fall the assembly of those counties took occasion to inquire into their own powers, upon a design to set new measures on foot, and have sent home an address by one of their members, Thomas Coutts' brother, who is to negotiate the matter with the lords oftrade and the ministry, to obtain powers to some person or other, who the queen may think fit (though Coutts designs it for him self) to discharge aU the necessary duties of go vernment over them. This I doubt will give the proprietary great trouble, for when the councU of trade is fuUy apprized, as by this means they wiU be, that those counties are entirely disjoined from the prorince, it is probable they may more strictly inquire into the proprietor's right of government and legislation with the people there : and it is much to be feared that they may advise the queen to dispose of the government of those parts some other way, which would be exceedingly destruc tive to the interest ofthe province in general. * * " Upon the whole, what I have to propose is this, whether it would not be most advisable for the proprietor to consider in time what measures are most fit for him to take for his own and the country's interest, before tbe blow falls so heavy that it may prove difficult, if at all practicable, for him to ward it off ; whether, therefore, it may not be most prudent to part with the government of both prorince and lower counties together, upon the best terms that can be obtained, before it proves too late for him to procure any. If he should hold the government of tne province, nay even of tbe whole, during his life, he wUl never gain any thing by it ; and, after his decease, it wiU be lost, or at least be put out of the hands of friends, and perhaps without any prerious terms at aU, when now he may be capable himself to negotiate asur- render, both to his own particular interest, and greatly to the advantage of the profession ; but whenever this is done, he should remember our present lieutenant-governor, who vriU be a sufferer (I fear at best) by undertaking the charge ; and if any thing faU of course in the way, I vrish he would not quite forget an old trusty servant ofhis, who has been drudging for him these ten years (but that is not the business.) This I thought necessary to advise thee of, considering thee as one of his best and heartiest friends, and desire thee to communicate the matter to such others as may be most serriceable, but by no means expose this letter, for I would have that kept very private. I have wrote to the same purpose to the proprieta ry himself very fully, but finding, by long experi ence, how little it avails to write to himself alone of matters relating to his own interest, I now choose this method, and give this early notice be fore the addresses from hence shaU come to hand, whicb, with the addresses already gone from the lower counties, wiU certainly do our buriness whe ther the proprietor wUl agree to it or not, and therefore best take time while it offers. I shall commit this to thy prudence and discretion, and conclude, thy real bring friend, " JAMES LOGAN." HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL, BEFORE THE REVOLUTION. ALBANY PAPERS. Containing, I. Reasons and Motives on which the Plan of Union for the Colonies was form ed ; II. Reasons against partial Unions ; III, And the Plan of Union drawn by Benjamin Franjclin, and unanimously agreed to by the Commissioners from New Hampshire, Massa- chusett's Bay, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Ma ryland, and Pennsylvania,* met in Congress at Albany, in July 1754, to consider ofthe best Means of defending the King's Dominions in America, tf-c, a War beingthen apprehended ; with the Reason.s or Motives for each Article of the Plan. Benjamin Franklin, was one of the four commissioners from Pennsylvania.! I. Reasons and Motives on which the Plan of Union was formed. The commissioners from a number of the northern colonies being met at Albany, and considering the difficulties that have always attended the most necessary general measures for the common defence, or for the annoyance of the enemy, when they were to be carried through the several particular assemblies of all the colonies ; some assemblies being be fore at variance with their governors or coun cils, and the several branches of the govern ment not on terms of doing business with each other; others taking the opportunity, when their concurrence is wanted, to push for fa- • This plan was intended for all the colonies. Some ofthe commissioners not attending, their consent to it was not universally expressed. Governor Pownall says, "He had an opportunity of conversing with, and knowing the sentiments ofthe commissioners appoint ed by their respective provinces, to attend this congress, to which they were called by the crown ; of learning from their experience and judgment, the actual state of the American business and interest; and of hearing amongst them, the grounds and reasons of that Ameri can union, which they theu had under deliberation, and transmitted the plan of to England ;" and he adds, in another place, " that the sentiments of our colonies were collected in an authentic manner on this subject in the plan proposed by Dr. Franklin, and unanimously agreed lo in congress." See governor Pownnll's Ad ministration of the British Colonies. Vol. i. p, 13, Edit, 4. 1774, and vol. ii, 80. t " Mr, [since governor] Hutchinson was one of the commissioners for Massachusetts' Bay," "Thomas Pownall, Esq, brother to John Pownall, Esq. one ofthe secretaries to the board oftrade, and afterwards govern- or of Massachusetts, was upon the spot," History of the British Empire in North America, p, 25. vourite laws, powers, or points, that they think could not at other times be obtained, and so creating disputes and quarrels; one asserahly waiting to see what another will do, being afraid of doing more than its share, or desirous of doing less, or refusing to do any thing, because its country is not at present so much exposed as others, or because another will reap more immediate advantage ; from one or other of which causes, the assemblies of six (out of seven) colonies applied to, had granted no assistance to Virginia, when lately invaded by the French, though purposely con vened, and the importance ofthe occasion ear nestly urged upon them ; considering more over, that one principal encouragement to the French, in invading and insulting the British American dominions, was their knowledge of our disunited state, and of our weakness aris ing from such want of union ; and that from hence different colonies were, at different times, extremely harassed, and put to great expense both of blood and treasure, who would have remained in peace, if the enemy had had cause to fear the drawing on them selves the resentment and power ofthe whole ; the said commissioners, considering also the present encroachments of the French, and the mischievous consequences that may be ex pected from them, if not opposed with our force, came to an unanimous resolution, — That an union of the colonies is absolutely necessary for their preservation. The manner of forming and establishing this union was the next point. When it was considered, that the colonies were seldom all in equal danger at the same time, or equally near the danger, or equally sensible of it ; that some of them had particular interests to manage, with wbich an union might inter fere ; and that they were extremely jealous of each other; it was thought impracticable to obtain a joint agreement of all the colonies to an union, in which the expense and burden of defending any of them should be divided among them all ; and if ever acts of assembly in all the colonies could be obtained for that purpose, yet as any colony, on the least dis satisfaction, might repeal its own act and thereby withdraw itself from the union, it T7« HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL 177 would not be a stable one, or such as could be | depended on : for if only one colony should, on any disgust withdraw itself, others might think it unjust and unequal that they, by continuing in the union, should be at the expense of de fending a colony, which refused to bear its pro portionable part, and would therefore one afler another, withdraw, till the whole crumbled into its original parts. Therefore the commis sioners came to another previous resolution, viz. That it was necessary the union should he established by act of parliament. They then proceeded to sketch out a plan of union, which they did in a plain and con cise manner, just sufficient to show their sen timents of the kind of union that would best suit the circumstances of the colonies, be most agreeable to the people, and most ef fectually promote his majesty's service, and the general interest of the British empire. This was respectfully sent to the assemblies of the several colonies for their consideration, and to receive such alterations and improve ments as they should think fit and necessary ; after which it was proposed to be transmitted to England to be perfected, and the establish ment of it there humbly solicited. This was as much as the commissioners could do.'*' II. Reasons against partial Unions. It was proposed by some of the commis sioners, to form the colonies into two or three distinct unions ; but for these reanona that proposal was dropped even by those that made it: viz. 1. In all cases where the strength of the whole was necessary to be used against the enemy, there would be the same difficulty in degree, to bring the several unions to unite together, as now the several colonies; and consequently the same delays on our part and advantage to the enemy. 2. Each union would separately be weaker than when joined by the whole, obliged to exert more force, be oppressed by the ex pense, and the enemy less deterred from at tacking it. 3. Where particular colonies have selfish views, as New York with regard to Indian trade and lands ; or are less exposed, being covered by others, as New Jersey, Rhode Is land, Connecticut, Maryland ; or have parti cular whims and prejudices against warlike measures in general, as Pennsylvania, where the quakers predominate; such colonies would have more weight in a partial union, and be better able to oppose and obstruct the measures necessary for the general good, than where they are swallowed up in the general union. * Dr, Davenant was so well convinced of the expedi ency of an union ofthe colonies, that he recites, at full length, a plan contrived, as he says, with good judg ment for the purpose, Davenant, 'Vol, I. p. 40, 41 of sir C. VVhit""'"''" «'"•!"" Vol. 1 4. The Indian trade would be better regu lated by the union of the whole than by the partial unions. And as Canada is chiefly sup ported by that trade, if it could be drawn into the hands of the English (as it might be if the Indians were supplied on moderate terms, and by honest traders appointed by and acting for the public) that alone would contribute greatly to the weakening of our enemies. 5. 'The establishing of new colonies west ward on the Ohio and the lakes (a matter of considerable importance to the increase of British trade and power, to the breaking that ofthe French, and to the protection and secu rity of our present colonies,) would best be carried on by a joint union. 6. It was also thought, that by the frequent meetings together of commissioners or repre sentatives from all the colonies, the circum stances of the whole would be better known, and the good of the whole better provided for ; and that the colonies would by this connexion learn to consider themselves, not as so many independent states, but as members of the same body ; and thence be more ready to af ford assistance and support to each other, and to make diversions in favour even of tbe most distant, and to join cordially in any expedition for the benefit of all against the common enemy. These were the principal reasons and mo tives for forming the plan of union as it stands. To which may be added this, that as the uniois ofthe -- The remainder of this article was lost III. Plan of a proposed Union of the several Colonies of Massachusett's Bay, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania^ Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina, for their mutual Defence and Security, and for extending the Bri tish Settlements in North America, with the Reasons and Motives for each Article ofthe Plan [as far as could be remem bered.^ It is proposed — That humble application be made for an act of parliament of Great Britain, by virtue of which one general government may be formed in America, including all the said colonies, within and under which govern ment each colony may retain its present con stitution, except in the particulars wherein a change may be directed by the said act, as hereafter follows.'*' PRESIDENT-GENERAL, AND GRAND COUNCIL. That the said general government be ad ministered by a president-general, to be ap pointed and supported by the crown; and * The reader may perceive, by the dilTerence of the Ralic and Roman type, which is the text of the plan. and which the reasons and motives mentioned in tl» title. They are thus printed for perspicuity and for con- 178 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. a grand council, to be chosen by the repre sentatives of the people ofthe several colonies met in their respective assemblies. It was thought that it would be best the pre sident-general should be supported as well as appointed by the crown ; that so all disputes between hira and the grand council concern ing his salary might be prevented ; as such disputes have been frequently of mischievous consequence in particular colonies, especially in time of public danger. The quit-rents of crown-lands in America might in a short time be sufficient for this purpose. — The choice of members for the grand council is placed in the house of representatives of each government, in order to give the people a share in this new general government, as the crown has its share by the appointment of the president-ge neral. But it being proposed by the gentlemen of the council of New York, and some other counsellors among the commissioners, to alter the plan in this particular, and to give the governors and council of the several provinces a share in the choice of the grand council, or at least a power of approving and confirming, or of disallowing the choice made by the house of representatives, it was said : " That the government or constitution pro posed to be formed by the plan, consists of two branches ; a president-general appointed by the crown, and a council chosen by the people, or by the people's representatives, which is the same thing. " That by a subsequent article, the council chosen by the people can eifect nothing with out the consent of the president-general ap- pouited by the crown ; the crown possesses therefore full one half of the power of this constitution. " That in the British constitution, the crown is supposed to possess but one third, the lords having their share. " That this constitution seemed rather more favourable for the crown. "That it is essential to English liberty, that the subject should not be taxed but by his own consent, or the consent of his elected re presentatives. " That taxes to be laid and levied by this proposed constitution will be proposed and agreed to by the representatives of the peo ple, if the plan in this particular be preserved : "But if the proposed alteration should take place, it seemed as if matters may be so ma naged, as that the crown shall finally have the appointment not only ofthe president-general, but of a majority of the grand council ; for seven out of eleven governors and councils are appointed by the crown : " And so the people in all the colonies would in effect be taxed by their governors. " It was therefore apprehended, that such alterations of the plan would give great dis satisfaction, and that the colonies could not be easy under such a power in governors, and such an infringement of what they take to be English liberty. " Besides, the giving a share in the choice of the grand council would not be equal with respect to all the colonies as their constitu tions differ. In some, both governor and council are appointed by the crown. In others, they are both appointed by the pro prietors. In some, the people have a share in the choice ofthe council; in others, both go vernment and council are wholly chosen by the people. But the house of representatives is every where chosen by the people; and therefore, placing the right of choosing the grand council in the representatives is equal with respect to all. " That the grand council is intended to re present all the several houses of representa tives of the colonies, as a house of represent atives doth the several towns or counties of a colony. Could all the people of a colony be consulted and unite in public measures, a house of representatives would be needless, and could all the assemblies conveniently con sult and unite in general measures, the grand council would be unnecessary. " That a house of commons or the house of representatives, and the grand council, are thus alike in their nature and intention. And as it would seem improper that the king or house of lords should have a power of disal lowing or appointing members of the house of commons; — so likewise, that a governor and council appointed by the crovvn should have a power of disallowing or appointing members ofthe grand council (who, in this constitu tion, are to be the representatives of the peo- pie.) " If the governors and councils therefore were to have' a share in the choice of any that are to conduct this general government, it should seem more proper that they choose the president-general. But this being an office of great trust and importance to the nation, it was thought better to be filled by tlie imme diate appointment of the crown. " The power proposed to be given by the plan to the grand council is only a concentra tion of the powers of the several assemblies ia certain points for the general welfare ; as the power of the president-general, is of the pow ers of the several governors in the same points. " And as the choice therefore of the grand council, by the representatives of the people, neither gives the people any new powers, nor diminishes the power of the crown, it was thought and hoped the crown would not dis approve of it." Upon the whole, the commissioners were of opinion, that the choice was most properly placed in the representatives of the people. fflSTORICAL AND POLITICAL. 179 ELECTION OF MEMBERS. That within months after the passing such act, the house of representatives, that happen to be sitting within that time, or that shall be especially for that purpose convened, may and shall choose members for the grand council, in the following proportion, that is to say, Massachusett's Bay, - - 7 New Hampshire, - - 2 Connecticut, - - - - 5 Rhode Island, - - - 2 New York, - . . 4 New Jersey, - - . . 3 Pennsylvania, - - 6 Maryland, - ... 4 Virginia, .... 7 North Carolina, ... 4 South Carolina, ... 4 48 It was thought, tnat if the least colony was allowed two, and the others in proportion, the number would be very great, and the expense heavy ; and that less than two would not be con venient, as a single person, being by any ac cident prevented appearing at the meeting, the colony he ought to appear for would not be represented. That as the choice was not immediately popular, they would be generally men of good abilities for business, and men of reputation for integrity ; and that forty-eight such raen might be a nuraber sufficient. But, though it was thought reasonable, that each colony should have a share in the represent ative body in some degree, according to the proportion it contributed to the genereil trea sury : yet the proportion of wealth or power of the colonies is not to be judged by the pro portion here fixed; because it was at first agreed, that the greatest colony should not have more than seven members, nor the least less than two : and the setting these propor tions between these two extremes was not nicely attended to, as it wouldfind itself, after the first election frora the suras brought into the treasury, as by a subsequent article. PLACE OF FIRST MEETING. — who shall meet for the first time at the city of Philadelphia in Pennsylvania, being called by the president-general as soon as conveniently may be after his appointment. Philadelphia was named as being the nearer the centre of the colonies, where the commis sioners would be well and cheaply accommo dated. The high-roads, through the whole extent, are for the most part very good, in which forty or fifty miles a day may very well be and frequently are travelled. Great part of the way may likewise be gone by water. In summer time, the passages are frequently performed in a week from Charles ton to Philadelphia and New York ; and from Rhode Island to New York through the sound, in two or three days ; and from New York to Philadelphia, by water and land, in two days, by stage boats and wheel carriages that set out every other day. The journey from Charleston to Philadelphia may likewise be facilitated by boats running up Chesapeake bay three hundred miles. But if the whole jour ney be performed on horseback, the most dis tant members (viz. the two from New Hamp shire and firom South Carolina) may probably render themselves at Philadelphia in fifteen or twenty days ; the majority may be there in much less time. NEW ELECTION. That there shall be a new election ofthe members of the grand council every three years ; and on the death or resignation of any member, his place should be supplied by a new choice at the next sitting of the as sembly of the colony he represented. Some colonies have annual assemblies, some continue during a governor's pleasure ; three years was thought a reasonable medium, as affording a new member time to improve him- self in the business, and to act after such im provement; and yet giving opportunities, fre quently enough, to change him, if he has rais- behaved. PROPORTION OF MEMBERS AFTER THE FIRST THREE YEARS. That after the first three years, when the proportion of money arising out of each colo ny to the general treasury can be known, the number)of members to be chosen for each co lony shall from time to time, in all ensuing elections, be regulated by that proportion {yet so as that the number to be chosen by any one province be not more than seven, nor less than two.) By a subsequent article it is proposed, that the general council shall lay and levy such general duties, as to them may appear most equal and least burdensome, &c. Suppose, for instance, they lay a small duty or excise on some commodity imported into or made in the colonies, and pretty generally and equally used in all of them ; as rum perhaps, or wine : the yearly produce of this duty or excise, if fairly collected, would be in some colonies greater, in others less, as the colonies are greater or smaller. When the collector's ac counts are brought in, the proportions will appear ; and frora them its proposed to regu. late the proportion of representatives to be chosen at the next general election, within the limits however of seven and two. These numbers may therefore vary in courfee of years, as the colonies may in the growth and 180 FRANKLIN'S WORKS- increase ofpeople. And thus the quota of tax from each colony would naturally vary with its circumstances; thereby preventing all disputes and dissatisfaction about the just pro portions due from each ; which might other wise produce pernicious consequences, and destroy the harmony and good agreement that ought to subsist between the several parts of the union. MEETINGS op THE GRAND COUNCIL, AND CALL. That the grand council shall meet once in every year, and oftener if occasion require, at such time and place as they shall adjourn to at the last preceding meeting, or as they shall be called to meet at by the president-general on any emergency; he having first obtain ed in writing the consent of seven of the members to such call, and sent due and time ly notice to the whole. It was thought, in establishing and govern ing new colonies or settlements, regulating Indian trade, Indian treaties, &c. there would be every year sufficient business arise to re quire at least one meeting, and at such meet ing many things might he suggested for the benefit of all the colonies. This annual meet ing may either be at a time or place certain, to be fixed by the president-general and grand council at their first meeting ; or left at liber ty, to be at such time and place as they shall adjourn to, or be called to meet at by the pre sident-general. In time of war it seems convenient, that the meeting should be in that colony which is nearest the seat of action. The power of calling them on any emer- "gency seemed necessary to be vested in the president-general ; but that such power might not be wantonly used to harass the members, and oblige thera to make frequent long journies to little purpose, the consent of seven at least to such call was supposed a conve nient guard. CONTINUANCE. That the grand council have power to choose their speaker ; and shall neither be dissolved, prorogued, nor continued sitting longer than six weeks at one time, viitliout their own consent or the special command of the crown. The speaker should be presented for appro bation ; it being convenient, to prevent mis understandings and disgusts, that the mouth of the council should be a person agreeable, if possible, both to the council and president- general. Governors have sometimes wantonly exer cised the power of proroguing or continuing the sessions of assemblies, merely to harass the members and compel a compliance ; and sometimes dissolve thera on slight disgusts. This it was feared might be done by the presi dent-general, if not provided against : and the inconvenience and hardship would be greater in the general government than in particular colonies, in proportion to the distance the members must be frora home, during sittings, and the long journies some of thera must ne cessarily take. members' ALLOWANCE That the members of the grand council shall be aUowed for their service ten shil lings sterling per diem, during their session and journey to and from the place of meet ing ; twenty miles to be reckoned a day's journey. It was thought proper to allow some wages, lest the expense might deter some suitable persons from the service ; — and not to allow too great wages, lest unsuitable persons should be tempted to cabal for the employment, for the sake of gain. Twenty miles was set down as a day's journey, to allow for acci dental hindrances on the road, and the great er expenses of travellmg than residing at the place of meeting. ASSENT OF PRESIDENT-GENERAL .VND HIS DUTY. That the assent of the president-general be requisite to all acts of the grand council ; and that it be his office and duty to cause them to be carried into execution. The assent of the president-general to all acts of the grand council was made neces sary, in order to give the crown its due share of influence in this government, and connect it with that of Great Britain. The president- general, besides one half of the legislative power, hath in his hands the whole executive power. POWER OF PRESIDENT-GENERAL AND GRAND COUNCIL : TREATIES OF PEACE AND WAR. That the president-general, with the ad vice of the grand council, hold or direct aU Indian treaties, in which the general interest of the colonies 7nay be concerned ; and make peace or declare war with Indian nations. The power of making peace or war with Indian nations is at present supposed to be in every colony, and is expressly granted to some by charter, so that no new power is here by intended to be granted to the colonies. But as, in consequence of this power, one co lony might make peace with a nation that another was justly engaged in war with ; or mttke war on slight occasions witliout the concurrence or approbation of neighbouring colonies, greatly endangered by it ; or make particular treaties of neutrality in case of a general war, to their own private advantage in trade, by supplying the common enemy; of all which there have been instances— it was thought better, to have all treaties of a HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL. 161 general nature under a general direction ; that so the good of the whole may be consult ed and provided for. INDIAN TRADE. TTiat they make such laws as they judge necessary for regulating all Indian trade. Many quarrels and wars have arisen be tweenthe colonies and Indian nations, through the bad conduct of traders who cheat the In dians after making thera drunk, &c. to the great expense of the colonies, both in blood and treasure. Particular colonies are so in terested in the trade, as not to be willing to admit such a regulation as might be best for the whole ; and therefore it was thought best under a general direction. INDIAN PURCHASES. That they make all purchases, from In dians for the crown, of lands not now with in the bounds of particular colonies, or that shall not be within their bounds when some of them are reduced to more convenient di mensions. Purchases from the Indians, made by pri vate persons, have been attended with many inconveniences. They have frequently in terfered, and occasioned uncertainty of titles, many disputes and expensive law-suits, and hindered the settlement of the land so dis puted. Then the Indians have been cheated by such private purchases, and discontent and wars have been the consequence. These would be prevented by public fair purchases. Several of the colony charters in America extend their bounds to the South Sea, which may be perhaps three or four thousand miles in length to one or two hundred miles in breadth. It is supposed they must in time be reduced to dimensions more convenient for the common purposes of government.'* * Baron Meseares, in his account ofthe Proceedings at duebec, for obtaining an Assembly, says, " The vast enlargement ofthe province of Quebec, by adding to it a new territory that contains, according to lord Hills. borough's estimation of it, five hundred and eleven millions of acres (that is, more land than Spain, Italy, France, and Germany put together, and most of it good land) is a measure that would require an ample dis cussion," — The motives assigned by the act regulating the government of (iuebec, are here quoted — "Bythe arrangements made by the royal proclamation, a very large extent of [outlying] country, within which there are several colonies and settlements of the subjects of France, who claimed to remain therein under the faith of tbe said treaty, was left without any provision be ing made ibr the administration of civil government therein : i, e. a few Indian traders were a pretext for this appropriation of a tract of country, which, accord ing to the minister's estimate, was more than thirteen times larger than England and Wales united, nearly one hundred and twenty-eight times larger than Ja maica, almost one eighth part of Europe, and consider ably more than one thirty-eighth part ofthe whole ha bitable earth. " Now all the inhabitants ofthe province of duebec," says this act, " amounted at the conquest to above sixty-five thousand [only,] professing the re ligion of the church of Rome, and enjoying an esla- blisbed form of constitution and system of laws." Very little of the land in those grants is yet purchased of the Indians. It is much cheaper to purchase of them, than to take and maintain the possession by force : for they are generally very reasonable in their demands for land ;* and the expense of guard ing a large frontier against their incursions is vastly great ; because all must be guarded, and always guarded, as we know not where or when to expect them.^ NEW SETTLEMENTS. That they make new settlements on such purchases, by granting lands in the king's name, reserving a quit-rent to the crown for the use ofthe general treasury. It is supposed better that there should be one purchaser than many ; and that the crown should be that purchaser, or the imion in the name of the crown. By this means the bar gains may be more easily made, the price not enhanced by numerous bidders, future dis putes about private Indian purchases, and mo nopolies of vast tracts to particular persons (which are prejudicial to the settlement and peopling of the country) prevented ; and the land being again granted in small tracts to the settlers, the quit-rents reserved may in time become a fund for support of government, for defence of the country, ease of taxes, &c. Strong forts on the lakes, the Ohio, &c. may, at the same time they secure our present fron tiers, serve to defend new colonies settled un der their protection ; and such colonies would also mutually defend and support such forts, and better secure the friendship ofthe far In dians. A particular colony has scarce strength enough to extend itself by new settlements, at so great a distance from the old : but the joint force of the union might suddenly esta- * " Dr, Franklin (says Mr, Kalm Ihe Swede,) and several other gentlemen, frequently told me, that a powerful Indian, who possessed Rhode Island, had sold it 10 the English for a pair of spectacles ; it is large enough for a prince's domain, and makes a peculiar go vernment at present," See Kalm's Travels into North America, Vol, I, p, 336, 387. " At the time when the Swedes first arrived, they bought land at a very incon siderable price. For a piece of baize, or a pot full of brandy, or the like, they could get a piece of ground which at present would be worth more than WQL ster ling," Ib, vol, II, p 118,— The truth is, that the In dians considered their lands as mere hunting manors, and not as farms, t To guard against the incursions of the Indians, a plan was sent over to America, it was said by autho rity, suggesting the expediency of clearing away the woods and bushes from a tract of land, a mile in hreadtti, and extending along the back of the colonies. Unfor tunately, besides the large expense of the undertaking (which, if one acre cost "21. sterling, and six hundred and forty acres make a square mile, is \W,IXMt. first cost for every hundred miles) it was forgotten, that the Indians, like other people, knew the dilference between day and night, and that a mile of advance and another of retreat were nothing to the celerity of such an enemy,— This plan, was the work of Tucker, dean of Gloucester, a con spicuous writer on American affairs, before and during the revolution. 182 FRANKUN'S WORKS. hlish a new colony or two in those parts, or ex tend an old colony to particular passes, greatly to the security of our present frontiers, increase of trade and people, breaking off the French communication between Canada and Louisi ana, and speedy settlement ofthe intermediate lands. The power of settling new colonies is there fore thought a valuable part of the plan, and what cannot so well be executed by two unions as by one. LAWS TO GOVERN THEM. That they make laws for regulating and governing such new settlements, till the crown shall think fit to form them into particular governments. The making of laws suitable for the new colonies, it was thought, would be properly vested in the president-general and grand council ; under whose protection they must at first necessarily be, and who would be well acquainted with their circumstances, as hav ing settled them. " When they are become sufficiently populous, they may by the crown be formed into complete and distinct govern ments. The appointment of a sub-president by the crown, to take place in case of the death or absence of the president-general, would per haps be an improvement of the plan ; and if all the governors of particular provinces were to be formed into a standing council of state, for the advice and assistance of the president- general, it might be another considerable im provement. RAISE SOLDIERS, AND E(JUIP VESSELS, &C. That they raise and pay soldiers and build forts for the defence of any of the colonies, and equip vessels of force to guard the coasts and protect the trade on the ocean, lakes,'*' or great rivers ; but they shall not impress men in any colony without the con sent ofthe legislature. It was thought, that quotas of men, to be raised and paid by the several colonies, and joined for any public service, could not always be got together with the necessary expedition. For instance, suppose one thousand men should be wanted in New Hampshire on any emergency ; to fetch them by fifties and hun dreds out of every colony, as far as South Carolina, would be inconvenient, the trans portation chargeable, and the occasion perhaps passed before they could be assembled ; and therefore that it would be best to raise them (by offering bounty-money and pay) near the place where they would be wanted, to be dis- charo'ed again when the service should be over. * " According to a plan which had been proposed by governor Pownall, and approved of by congress."— Ad ministration ofthe Colonies, vol. u. p, 148. Particulur colonies are at present backward to build forts at their own expense, which they say will be equally useful to their neighbour ing colonies ; who refuse to join, on a pre sumption that such torts will he built and kept up, though they contribute nothing. This un just conduct weakens the whole ; but the forts being for the good of the whole, it was thought best they should be built and maintained by the whole, out of the common treasury. In the time of war, small vessels of force are sometimes necessary in the colonies to scour the coast of small privateers. These being provided by the union will be an ad vantage in turn to the colonies which are situated on the sea, and whose frontiers on the land-side, being covered by other colonies, reap but little immediate benefit from the ad vanced forts. POWER TO MAKE LAWS, LAY DUTIES, &C. That for these purposes they have power to make laws, and lay and levy such general duties, imports, or taxes, as to them shall ap pear most equal and just {considering the ability and other circumstances of the inha bitants in the several colonies,) and such as may be collected with the least inconvenience to the people ; rather discouraging luxury, than loading industry with unnecessary bur dens. The laws which the president-general and grand council are impowered to make are such only as shall be necessary for the govern ment of the settlements ; the raisuig, regu. lating, and paying soldiers for the general service ; the regulating of Indian trade ; and laying and collecting the general duties and taxes. (They should also have a power to restraui the exportation of provisions to the enemy from any of the colonies, on particular occasions, in time of war.) But is it not in tended that they may interfere with the con stitution and government of the particular colonies ; who are to be left to their own laws, and to lay, levy, and apply their own taxes as before. GENERAL TREASURER AND PARTICULAR TREA SURER. TTiat they may appoint a general treasur er and particular treasurer in each govern ment, when necessary ; and from lime to time may order the sums in the treasuries of each government into the general treasury; or draw on them for special payments, as they find most convenient. The treasurers here meant are pnly for the general funds, and not for the particular funds of each colony, which remain in the hands of their own treasurers at their own disposal. MONEY HOW TO ISSUE. Yet no money to issue but by joint orders HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL. 183 of the president-general and grand council ; except where sums have been appropriated to particular purposes, and the president-gene ral is previously impowered by an act to draw such sums. To prevent misapplication of the money, or even application that might be dissatisfactory to the crown or the people, it was thought necessary, to join the president-general and grand council in all issues of money. That the general accounts shall be yearly settled and reported to the several assemblies. By communicating the accounts yearly to each assembly, they will be satisfied of the prudent and honest conduct of their represent atives in the grand council. QUORUM. That a quorum of the grand council, im powered lo act with the president-general, do consist of twenty-five members ; among whom there shall be one or more from a majority of the colonies. The quorum seems large, but it was thought it would not be satisfactory to the co lonies in general, to have matters of import ance to the whole transacted by a smaller num^ her, or even by this nhmber of twenty-five, unless there were among them one at least from a majority ofthe colonies ; because other wise, the whole quorum being made up of members from three or four colonies at one end of the union, something might be done that would not be equal with respect to the rest, and thence dissatisfaction and discords might rise to the prejudice of the whole. LAWS TO BE TRANSMITTED. Tliat the laws made by them for the pur poses aforesaid shall not be repugnant, but, as near as may be, agreeable to the laws of England, and shall be transmitted to the king in council for approbation, as soon as may be after their passing ; and if not dis approved within three years after present ation, to remain inforce. This was thought necessary for the satis faction of the crown, to preserve the connex ion of the parts of the British empire with the whole, ofthe members with the head, and to induce greater care and circumspection in making of the laws, that they be good in themselves and for the general benefit. DEATH OF THE PRESIDENT-GENERAL. niat in case ofthe death ofthe president- general, the speaker of the grand council for the time being shall succeed, and be vested with the same powers and authorities, to con tinue till the king's pleasure be known. It might be better, perhaps, as was said be fore, if the crown appointed a vice-president. to take place on the death or absence of the president-general : for so we should be more sure of a suitable person at the head of the colonies. On the death or absence of both, the speaker to take place (or rather the eldest king's-governor) till his majesty's pleasure be known. OFFICERS HOW APPOINTED. That all military commission officers, whe ther for land or sea service, to act under this general constitution, shall be nominated by the president-general ; but the approbation of the grand council is to be obtained before they receive their commissions. And all civil officers are to be nominated by the grand council, and to receive the president-gene ral's approbation before they officiate. It was thought it might be very prejudicial to the service, to have officers appointed un known to the people, or unacceptable, the ge nerality of Americans serving willingly under officers they know : and not caring to engage in the service under strangers, or such as are often appointed by governors through favour or interest. The service here meant, is not the stated settled service in standing troops ; but any sudden and short service, either for defence of our colonies, or invading the ene my's country ; (such as, the expedition to Cape Breton in the last war ; in which many substantial farmers and tradesmen engaged as common soldiers, under officers of their own country, for whom they had an esteem and ai- fection; who would not have engaged in a standing army, or under officers from Eng land.) It was therefore thought best, to give the council the power of approving the of ficers, which the people will look upon as a great security of their being good men. And without some such provision as this, it was thought the expense of engaging men in the service on any emergency would be much greater, and the number who could be in duced to engage rauch less ; and that therefore it would be most for the king's service and general benefit of the nation, that the prero gative should relax a little in this particular throughout all the colonies in America ; as it had already done much more in the charters of some particular colonies, viz. Connecticut and Rhode Island. The civil officers will be chiefly treasurers and collectors oftaxes ; and the suitable per sons are most likely to be known by the council. VACANCIES HOW SUPPLIED. But in case of vacancy by death, or remov al of any officer civil or military under this constitution, the governor of the province in which such vacancy happens may appoint. 184 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. till the pleasure ofthe president-general and grand council can be known. The vacancies were thought best supplied by the governor in each province, till a new appointment can be regularly made ; other wise the service might suffer before the meet ing of the president-general and grand coun cil. EACH COLONY MAY DEFEND ITSELF ON EMER GENCY, &C, That the particular military as well as civil establishments in each colony remain in their present stale, the general constitution notwithstanding ; and that on sudden emer gencies any colony may defend itself, and lay the accounts of expense thence arising be fore the president-general and general coun cil, who may allow and order payment of the same, as far as they judge such accounts just and reasonable. Otherwise the union of the whole would weaken the parts, contrary to the design of the unign. The accounts are to be judged of by the president-general and grand council, and allowed if found reasonable : this was thought necessary to encourage colonies to defend themselves, as the expense would be light when borne by the whole ; and also to check imprudent and lavish expense in such defences."'- ALBANY PAVURS— continued. I. Letter to governor Shirley, concerning the Imposition of direct Taxes upon the Colo nies, without their consent.] Tuesday morning. Sir, — I return you the loose sheets of the * This plan of union was rejected, and another pro posed by tbe English minister, which had for its object, taking power from the pcop/c in the colonies, in order to give it to the crown. ] These letters to governor Shirley first appeared in the London Chronicle for Feb, 0— S,']7li0, with an in troduction signed A Lover of Britain. In the beginning ofthe year 1776, they were republished in .-Mmon"? Re membrancer, with an additional prefatory piece, under the signature of .4 JlfoKj-ncr oucr our Calamities. — The subject of them in the ^vords of one of these writers is as foUows : " The Albany Plan of Union was sent to the government liere for opprobation : had it been ap proved and established by authority from hence, En;- lish America thought itself sufficiently able to cope with the French, without other assistance ; several of the colonies having alone, in formi'r wars, withstood their whole power, unassisted not only by the motber- countiy, but by any of the neighbouring provinces— 'i'lic plan, however, vvas not approved hero ; a JV*cw one was formed instead of it i whicb proposed, that " the go- vernnrs of all the colonies, attended by one or two mem- hers of their respective councils, should assemble, and rnnccrt measures for the defence ofthe whole, erect forts where they judged proper, and raise what troops they thought necessary, with power to draw on the treosiiry here for the sums thiit should be wanted, and the trea sury to he reimbursed by a tax laid on the colonics btj act of partiamcvt" — This JVcw Plan being communicated by governor Shirley to Dr. Franklin then in Boston, and produced this correspondence. plan, with thanks to your excellency for com municating them. I apprehend, that excluding the people of the colonies from all share in the choice ofthe grand council will give extreme dissatisfac tion ; as well as the taxing them by act of parliament, where they have no representa tion. It is very possible, that this genera! government might be as well and faithfully adrainistered without the people, as with them ; but where heavy burdens are to be laid upon them, it has been found useful, to make it as much as possible their own act ; for they bear better, when they have, or think they have, some share in the direction ; and when any public measures are generally grievous, or even distasteful, to the people, the wheels of government move more heavily. II. Letter to the satne ; concerning direct Taxes in the Colonies imposed without con sent, indirect Taxes, and the Albany Plan of Union. Wednesday morning. Sir, — I mentioned it yesterday to your excellency as my opinion, that excluding the people of the colonies from all share in the choice of the grand council would probably give extreme dissatisfaction, as well as the taxing them by act of parliament, where they have no representation. In matters of gene ral concern to the people, and especially where burdens are to be laid upon them ; it is of use to consider, as well what they will be apt to think and say, as what they ought to think : I shall therefore, as your excellency requires it of me, briefly mention what of either kind occurs to me on this occasion. First, they will say, and perhaps with jus tice, that the body ofthe people in the colonies are as loyal, and as firmly attached to the present constitution, and reigning family, as any subjects in the king's dominions. That there is no reason to doubt the readi ness and willingness of the representatives they may choose, to grant from time to time such supplies for the defence of the country, as shall be judged necessary, so far as their abilities will allow. That tlie people in the colonies, who are to feel the immediate mischiefs of invasion and conquest by an enemy, in the loss of their estates, lives, and liberties, are likely to be better judges of the quantity of forces neces sary to be raised and maintained, forts to be built and supported, and oftheir own abilities to bear the expense than the puLunn ut of England, at so great a distance. That governors often come to the colonies merely to make fortunes, with which tliey intend to return to Britain ; are not always men of the best abilities or integrity ; have many of them no estates here, nor any natural HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL. 185 connexions with us, that should make them heartily concerned for our welfare ; and might possibly be fond of raising and keeping up more forces than necessary, from the profits accruing to themselves, and to make provision for tlieir friends and dependents. That the counsellors in most of the colonies, being appointed by the crown, on the recom mendation of governors, are often persons of sma.ll estates, frequently dependent on the governors for offices, and therefore too much under influence. That there is therefore great reason to be jealous of a power, in such governors and councils, to raise such sums as they shall judge necessary, by drafts on the lords ofthe treasury, to be afterwards laid on the colo nies by act of parliament, and paid by the people here ; since they might abuse it, by projecting useless expeditions, harassing the people, and taking them from their labour to execute such projects, merely to create offices and employments, and gratify their depend ents, and divide profits. That the parliament of England is at a great distance, subject to he misinformed and misled by such governors and councils, whose united interests might probably secure them against the effect of any complaint from hence. That it is supposed an undoubted right of Englishmen, not to be taxed but by their own consent, given through their representatives. That the colonies have no representatives in parliament. 'That to propose taxing them by parliament, and refuse thera the liberty of choosing a re presentative council, to meet the colonies, and consider and judge of the necessity of any general tax, and the quantum, shows a suspicion of their loyalty to the crown, or of their regard for their country, or of their com mon sense and understanding; which they have not deserved. That compelling the colonies to pay money without their consent, would be rather like raising contributions in an enemy's country, than taxing of Englishmen for their own pub lic benefit. That it would be treating them as a con quered people, and not as true British subjects. That a tax laid by the representatives of the colonies might be easily lessened as the occasion should lessen ; but being once laid by parliament under the influence of the re presentations made by governors, would pro bably be kept up, and continued for the bene fit of governors ; to the grievous burden and discontentraent ofthe colonies, and prevention oftheir growth and increase. That a power in governors, to march the inhabitants from one end of the British and French colonies to the other, being a country of at least one thousand five hundred miles long, without the approbation or the consent oftheir renresentatives first obtained to such expeditions, might be grievous and ruinous to the people, and would put them upon a footing with the subjects of France in Canada, that now groan under such oppression from their governor, who for two years past has harassed them with long and destructive marches to Ohio. That if the colonies in a body may be well governed by governors and councils appointed by the crown, without representatives ; par ticular colonies may as well, or better be so governed ; a tax may be laid upon them all by act of parliament for support of govern ment ; and their assemblies may be dismissed as an useless part of the constitution. That the powers proposed by the Albany plan of union, to he vested in a grand coun cil representative of the people, even with re gard to military matters, are not so great, as those which the colonies of Rhode Island and Connecticut are entrusted with by their char ters, and have never abused ; for by this plan, the president-general is appointed by the crown, and controls all by his negative ; hut in those governments, the people choose the governor, and yet allow him no negative. That the British colonies bordering on the French are properly frontiers of the British empire ; and the frontiers of an empire are properly defended at the joint expense of the body of the people in such empire : — it would now be thought hard by act of parliament to oblige the Cinque Ports or sea coasts of Bri tain, to maintain the whole navy, because they are more immediately defended by it, not allowing them at the same time a vote in choosing members of the parliament ; and, as the frontiers of America bear the expense of their own defence, it seems hard to allow them no share in voting the money, judging of the necessity and sum, or advising the measures. That besides the taxes necessary for the de fence of the frontiers, the colonies pay yearly great sums to the mother country unnoticed : — ^for 1. Taxes paid in Britain by the land holder or artificer must enter into and increase the price of the produce of land and manufac tures made of it ; and great part of this is paid by consumers in the colonies, who thereby pay a considerable part of the British taxes. 2. We are restrained in our trade with foreign nations ; and where we could be sup plied with any manufacture cheaper from them, but must buy the same dearer from Britain, the difference of price is a clear tax to Britain. 3. We are obliged to carry a great part of our produce directly to Britain ; and where the duties laid upon it lessen its price to the planter, or it sells for less than it would in foreign markets, the difference is a tax paid to Britain. 4. Some manufactures we could make, but are forbidden, and must take them of British 186 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. merchants : the whole price is a tax paid to Britain. 5. By our greatly increasing the demand and consumption of British manufactures, their price is considerably raised of late years ; the advantage is clear profit to Britain, and enables its people better to pay great taxes ; and rauch of it being paid by us, is clear tax to Britain. 6. In short, as we are not suffered to re gulate our trade, and restrain the importation and consuraption of British superfluities (as Britain can the consumption of foreign su perfluities) our whole wealth centres finally amongst the merchants and inhabitants of Britain; and if we make them richer, and enable them better to pay their taxes, it is nearly the same as being taxed ourselves, and equally beneficial to the crown. These kind of secondary taxes, however, we do not complain of, though we have no share hi the laying or disposing of them: but to pay iraraediate heavy taxes, in the lay ing, appropriation, and disposition of which, we have no part, and which perhaps we may know to be as unnecessary as grievous, must seem hard measures to Englishmen, who can not conceive, that by hazarding their lives and fortunes in subduing and settling new countries, extending the dorainion, and in creasing the commerce ofthe mother nation, they have forfeited the native rights of Bri tons; which they thmk ought rather to be given to them, as due to such merit, if they had been before in a state of slavery These, and such kinds of things as these, I apprehend, will be thought and said by the people, if the proposed alteration of the Al bany plan should take place. Then the ad ministration of the board of governors' and council so appointed, not having the repre sentative body of the people to approve and unite in its measures, and conciliate the minds of the people to them, will probably be come suspected and odious ; dangerous ani mosities and feuds will arise between the go vernors and governed; and every thing go into confusion. Perhaps I am too apprehensive in this mat ter ; but having freely given my opinion and reasons, your excellency can judge better than I, whether there be any weight in them, and the shortness of the time aUowed me will I hope in some degree e,xcuse the imperfec tions of this scrawl. With the greatest respect and fidelity, I have the honour to be B. FRANKLIN. III. Letter o» the subject of uniting the Co lonies more intimately with Great Britain, by Representatives in Parliament. Boston, Dec. 25, 17S4. Sir,— Since the conversation your excel lency was pleased to honour me with, on the subject of uniting the colonies more intimate ly with Great Britain, by allowing them re presentatives in parliament, I have something further considered tliat matter, and am of opinion, that such an union would be very ac ceptable to the colonies, provided they had a reasonable number of representatives allowed them ; and that all the old acts of parliament restraining the trade or cramping the manu factures of the colonies be at the same time repealed, and the British subjects ore this side the water put, in those respects, on the same footing with those in Great Britain, till the new parliament, representing the whole, shall think it for the interest of the whole to re- enact some or all of them : it is not that 1 imagine so many representatives will be al lowed the colonies, as to have any great weight by their numbers ; but I think there might be sufficient to occasion those laws to be better and more impartially considered, and perhaps to overcome the interest of a petty cor poration, or of any particular set of artificers or traders in England, who heretofore seem, in some instances, to have been more regard ed than all the colonies, or than was consistent with the general interest, or best natural good. I think too, that tbe government of the colonies by a parliament, in which they are fairly represented, would be vastly more agreeable to the people, than the method late ly attempted to be introduced by royal in struction ; as well as more agreeable to the nature of an English constitution, and to English liberty ; and that such laws, as now seem to bear hard on the colonies, would (when judged by such a parliament for the best interest of the whole) be more cheerfiillj submitted to, and more easily executed. I should hope too, that by such an union, the people of Great Britain, and the people of the colonies would learn to consider them selves, as not belonging to different commu nities with different interests, but to one com munity with one interest ; which I imagine would contribute to strengthen the whole, and greatly lessen the danger of fiiture sepa rations. It is, I suppose, agreed to be the general in terest of any state, that its people be numer ous and rich ; men enow to fight in its de fence, and enow to pay sufficient taxes to de fray thp charge ; for these circumstances tend to the security of tlie state, and its protection from foreign power. But it seems not of so much importance, whether the fighting be done by John or 'Thomas, or the tax paid by William or Charles. The iron manufacture eraploys and enriches British subjects, but is it of any importance to the state, whether the manufacturer lives at Birmingham or Shef field, or botli ; since they are still withm its bounds, and their wealth and persons still at HISTORICAL AND POUTICAL. 187 its command 1 Could the Goodwui Sands be laid dry by banks, and land equal to a large county thereby gained to England, and pre sently filled with English inhabitants, would it be right to deprive such inhabitants of the common privileges enjoyed by other English men, the right of vending their produce in the same ports, or of making their own shoes ; be cause a merchant or a shoemaker, living on the old land, might fancy it more for his ad vantage to trade or make shoes for them? Would this be right even if the land were gained at the expense of the state 1 And would it not seem less right, if the charge and labour of gaining the additional territory to Britain had heen borne by the settlers themselves] And would not the hardships appear yet greater, if the people of the new county should be allowed no representatives in the parliaraent enacting such impositions 1 Now I look on the colonies as so many coun ties gained to Great Britain, and more advan tageous to it, than if they had been gained out of the seas around its coasts, and joined to its lands ; for being in different climates, they afford greater variety of produce, and materi als for more manufactures ; and being separat ed by the ocean, they increase much more its shipping and seamen : and, since they are all included in the British empire, which has only extended itself by their means ; and the strength and wealth of the parts is the strength and wealth of the whole ; what im ports it to the general state, whether a mer chant, a smith, or a hatter, grows rich in Old or New England? and if, through in crease of the people, two smiths are wanted for one employed before, why may not the new smith be allowed to live and thrive in the new country, as well as the old one in the old ? In fine, why should the countenance of a state be partially afforded to its people, un less it be most in favour of those who have most merit 1 And if there be any difference, those who have most contributed to enlarge Britain's erapire and commerce, increase her strength, her wealth, and the numbers of her people, at the risk of their own lives and pri vate fortunes in new and strange countries, raethinks ought rather to expect some prefer ence. With the greatest respect and esteem, I have the honour to be, your excellency's most obedient and humble servant, B. FRANKLIN. Plan for settling two Western Colonies in North America, with Reasons for the Plan, 1754.* The great country back of the Apalachian * This plan was given to governor Pownall, 1754, for the purpose of being inserted in his memorial. " Extract of a Memorial drawn up by order of, and pre sented to, his royal highness the duke of Cumberliind, 1756, by T. Pmonall. " In other parts of our frontier, that are not the im mediate resids'""^ 'n^ ..o..T,t,„ „f tnfli,i\i<(i. ?"mo „>i.„- mountains, on both sides the Ohio, and be tween that river and the lakes is now well known, both to the English and French, to be one of the finest in North America, for the extreme richness and fertility of the land ; the healthy teraperature of the air, and mild ness of the climate; the plenty of hunting, fishing, and fowling; the facility of trade with the Indians ; and the vast convenience of inland navigation or water-carriage by the lakes and great rivers, many hundred of leagues, around. From these natural advantages it must un doubtedly (perhaps in less than another cen tury) becomp a populous and powerful dorai nion ; and a great accession of power either to England or France. The French are now making open en croachments on these territories, in defiance of our known rights ; and, if we longer delay to settle that country, and suffer them to pos sess it, — these inconveniences and mischiefs will probably follow : 1. Our people, being confined to the coun- species of barrier should be thought of for which no thing can be more effectual than a barrier colony : but even this cannot be carried into execution and effect, without the previous measure oi entrepots in the country between us and the enemy -All mankind must know, that no body of men , whether as an army, or as an emigration of colonists, can march from one country to another, through an inhospitable wilderness, without magazines ; nor with any safety, without posts communicating among each otber byprac- ticable roads, to which to retire in case of accidents, re- pulse, or delay. 'It is a fact, which experience evinces the truth of, that we have always been able to outsettle the French ; and have driven the Indians out ofthe country more by settling than fighting; and that whenever our settle ments have been wisely and completely made, the French, neither by themselves nor their dogs of war, the Indians, have been able to remove us. It is upon this fact l found the propriety of the measure ofsetlling a barrier colony in those parts of our frontiers, wAic/t arc not the immediate residence or hunting grounds of our In dians. This is a measure that will be effectual ; and wil! not only in time pay ils expense, but make as great returns as any of our present colonies do; will give strength and unity to our dominions in North America ; and give us possession of our country, as well as settle ment in it. But above all this, the state and circum stances of our settlements render such a measure not only proper and eligible, but absolutely necessary. The English settlements, as they are at present circum stanced, are absolutely at a stand ; they are settled up to the mountains; and in the mountains there is no where together land sufficient for a settlement large enough to subsist by itself, and to defend itself, and preserve a communication with the present settle ments. "If the English would advance one step further, or cover themselves where they are, it must be at once, by one large atepoverthe mountains, with a numerous and military colony. Where such should be settled, I do not take upon me to say ; at present I shall only point out the measure and the nature of it, by insert ing two schemes, one of Dr, Franklin's, tbe other of your memorialist ; and if I might indulge myself with scheming, I should imagine that two such were suffi cient, and only requisite and proper: one at the back of Virginia, filling up the vacant space between the five nations and southern confederacy, and connecting into our system, our barrier ; the other somewhere in the Cobass or Connecticut river, or wherever best adapted to cover the New England colonies. These, with the little settlements mentioned above in tbe Indian countries, complete my idea of this branch."— See Go vernor Pownall's Administration of the Colonies. ¦"•s-i TT J- o.9A_231, 5th edition. 188 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. try between the sea and the mountains, can not much more increase in number ; people increasing in proportion to their room and means of subsistence. (See the Observations on the Increase of Mankind, &c. Vol. II.) 2. The French will increase much more, by that acquired room and plenty of subsist ence, and become a great people behind us. 3. Many of our debtors, and loose English people, our German servants, and slaves, will probably desert to them, and increase their numbers and strength, to the lessening and weakening of ours. 4. They will cut us off' frora all coramerce and alliance with the western Indians, to the great prejudice of Britain, by preventing the sale and consumption of its manufactures. 5. They will both in time of peace and war (as they have always done agauist New England) set the Indians on to harass our frontiers, kill and scalp our people, and drive in the advanced settlers ; and so, in prevent ing our obtaining more subsistence by culti vating of new lands, they discourage our mar riages, and to keep our people from increas ing; thus (if the expression may be allowed) killing thousands of our children before they are born • If two strong colonies of English were set tled between the Ohio and lake Erie, in the places hereafter to be mentioned, — these ad vantages might be expected : 1. They would be a great security to the frontiers of our other colonies; by preventing the incursions of the French and French In dians of Canada, on the back parts of Penn sylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and the Caroli- nas ; and the frontiers of such new colonies would be much more easily defended, than those ofthe colonies last mentioned now can be, as will appear hereafter. 2. The dreaded junction of the French set tlements in Canada with those of Louisiana would be prevented. 3. In case of a war, it would be easy, from those new colonies, to annoy Louisiana, by going down the Ohio and Mississippi; and the southern part of Canada, by sailing over the lakes ; and thereby confine the French within narrow limits. 4. We should secure the friendship and trade ofthe Miamis or Twigtwees (a numer ous people consisting of many tribes, inhabit ing the country between the west end of lake Erie, and the south end of lake Huron, and the Ohio) who are at present dissatisfied with the French, and fond of the English, and would gladly encourage and protect an in fant English settlement in or near their coun try, as some of their chiefs have declared to the writer of this memoir. Further, by means ofthe lakes, the Ohio, and the Mississippi, our trade might be extended through a vast country, among many numerous and distant nations, greatly to the benefit of Britain. 5. The settlement ofaUthe intermediate lands, between the present frontiers of our co lonies on one side, and the lakes and Mississip pi on the other, would be facilitated and speed ily executed, to the great increase of English men, English trade, and English power. The grants to most of the colonies are of long narrow slips of land, extending west from the Atlantic to the South Sea. They are much too long for their breadth ; the extremes at too great a distance ; and therefore unfit to be continued under their present dimensions. Several of the old colonies may conve niently be limited westward by the Alleghany or Apalachian mountains ; and new colonies formed west of those mountains. A single old colony does not seem strong enough to extend itself otherwise than inch by inch : it cannot venture a settlement far distant from the main body, being unable to support it: but if the colonies were united under one governor-general and grand council, agreeable to the Albany plan, they might easily, by their joint force, establish one or more new colonies, whenever they should judge it necessary or advantageous to the in terest of the whole. But if such union should not take place, it is proposed that two charters be granted, each for some considerable part of the lands west of Pennsylvania and the Virginian mountains, to a number of the nobility and gentry of Britain ; with such Americans as shall join them in contributing to the settlement of those lands, either by paying a proportion of the expense of making such settlements, or by actually going thither in person, and settling themselves and families. That by such charters it be granted, that every actual settler be entitled to a tract of acres for himself, and acres for every poll in the family he carries with him ; and that every contributor of guineas be entitled to a quantity of acres, equal to the share of a single settler, for every such sum of guineas contributed and paid to the colony treasurer ; a contributor for shares to have an additional share gratis ; that settlers may likewise be contributors, and have right of land in both capacities. That as many and as great privileges and powers of government be granted to the con tributors and settlers, as his majesty in his wisdom shall think most fit for their benefit and encouragement, consistent with the ge neral good ofthe British empire; for extraor dinary privileges and liberties, with lands on easy terms, are strong inducements to people to hazard their persons and fortunes in settling new countries: and such powers of govern ment as (tliough suitable to the circumstances, HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL. and fit to be trusted with an infant colony) might be judged unfit, when it becomes po pulous and powerful ; these might be granted for a term only ; as the choice of their own governor for ninety-nine years ; the support of government in the colonies of Connecticut and Rhode Island (which now enjoy that and other like privileges) being much less ex pensive, than in the colonies under the im mediate government of the crown, and the constitution more inviting. That the first contributors to the amount of guineas be impowered to choose a treasurer to receive the contribution. That no contributions be paid till the sum of thousand guuieas be subscribed. That the money thus raised be applied to the purchase of the lands frora the Six Na tions and other Indians, and of provisions, stores, arras, ammunition, carriages, &c. for the settlers ; who, after having entered their names with the treasurer, or person hy him ap pointed to receive and enter them, are, upon public notice given for that purpose, to ren dezvous at a place to be appointed, and march in a body to the place destined for their settle ment, under the charge ofthe government to be established over thera. Such rendezvous and march however not to be directed, till the number of names of settlers entered, capable of bearing arms, amount at least to thousand It is apprehended, that a great sum of mo ney might be raised in America on such a scheme as this; for there are many who would be glad of any opportunity, by advanc ing a small sum at present, to secure land for their children, which might in a few years be come very valuable ; and a great number it is thought of actual settlers might likewise be engaged (some frora each of our present colo- nies)°sufficient to carry it into full execution by their strength and numbers ; provided only, that the crown would be at the expense of re moving the little forts the French have erected in their encroachments on his majesty's terri tories, and supportuig a strong one near the falls of Niagara, with a few small armed vessels, or hEdf-galleys to cruize on the lakes. For the security of this colony in its infancy, a small fort might be erected and for some time maintauied at Buffalo-creek on the Ohio, above the settlement; and another at the mouth of the Tioga, on the south side of lake Erie, where a port should be formed, and a town erected, for the trade of the lakes. — The colonists for this settlement might march by land through Pennsylvania The river Sciota, which runs into the Ohio about two hundred miles below Logs Town, is supposed the fittest seat for the other colony ; there beingfor forty mUeson each side ofit, and quite up to its heads, a body of all rich land ; the finest spot of its bigness in all North Ame rica, and has the particular advantage of sea- coal in plenty (even above ground in two places) for fuel, when the woods shall be de stroyed. This colony would have the trade of the Miamis or Twigtwees ; and should, at first, have a small fort near Hockockin, at the head ofthe river ; and another near the mouth of Wabash. Sanduski, a French fort near the lake Erie, should also be taken ; and all the little French forts south and west of the lakes, quite to the Mississippi, be removed, or taken and garrisoned by the English. — The colonists for this settlement might assemble near the heads of the rivers in Virginia, and march over land to the navigable branches of the Kanhawa, where they might embark with all their baggage and provisions, and fall into the Ohio, not far above the mouth of Sciota. Or they might rendezvous at Will's Creek, and go down the Monongahela to the Ohio. The fort and armed vessels at the strait of Niagara would be a vast security to the fron tiers of these new colonies against any attempts ofthe French from Canada. The fort at the mouth of the Wabash would guard that river, the Ohio, and Outawa river, in case any at tempt from the French of Mississippi. (Every fort should have a small settlement round it ; as the fort would protect the settlers, and the settlers defend the fort and supply it with provisions.) The difficulty of settling the first English colonies in America, at so great a distance frora England, raust have been vastly greater than the settling these proposed new colonies : for it would be the interest and advantage of all the present colonies to support these new ones ; as they would cover their frontiers, and prevent the growth of the French power behind or near their present settlements ; and the new country is nearly at equal distance from all the old colonies, and could easily be assisted from all of them. And as there are already in all the old co lonies many thousands of families that are ready to swarm, wanting more land; the richness and natural advantage ofthe Ohio country would draw most of them thither, were there but a tolerable prospect of a safe settlement. So that the new colonies would soon be full of people ; and from the advan tage of their situation, become rauch raore terrible to the French settlements, than those are now to us. The gaining of the back In dian trade frora the French, by the navigation ofthe lakes, &c. would of itself greatly weaken our eneraies : — it being now their principal support, it seems highly probable, that in time they must be subjected to the British crown, or driven out ofthe country. Such settlements may better be made now, than fifty years hence, because it is easier to settle ourselves, and thereby prevent the French settluig there, as they seem now to 190 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. intend, than to remove them when strongly settled. If these settlements are postponed, then more forts and stronger, and more numerous and expensive garrisons raust be established, to secure the country, prevent their settling, and secure our present frontiers; the charge of which may probably exceed the charge of the proposed settlements, and the advan tage nothing near so great. The fort at Oswego should likewise be strengthened, and some armed half-gallies, or other small vessels, kept there to cruise on lake Ontario, as proposed by Mr. Pownall in his paper laid before the commissioners at the Albany treaty. If a fort was also built at Tirondequat on lake Ontario, and a settlement made there near the lake side, where the lands are said to be good, (much better than at Oswego ;) the people of such settlements would help to defend both forts on any emergency. THE CANADA PAMPHLET. The Interest of Great Britain considered, with regard to her Colonies, and the Ac quisitions of Canada and Guadeloupe.* I HAVE perused with no small pleasure the « Letter addressed to Two Great men," and the Remarks on that letter. It is not merely from the beauty, the force, and perspicuity of expression, or the general elegance of manner conspicuous in both pamphlets, that my plea sure chiefly arises ; it is rather from this, that I have lived to see subjects of the greatest im portance to this nation publicly discussed with out party views, or party heat, with decency and politeness, and with no other warmth, than what a zeal for the honour and happiness of our king and country may inspire ; and this by writers, whose understanding (however they may diff'er from each other) appears not un equal to their candour and the uprightness of their intentions. But, as great abflities have not always the * In the year 1760, upon the prospect of a peace with France, the Earl of Bath addressed a Letter to Two Great Men {Mr. Pitt and tbe Duke of J^emcastle) on the terms necessary to be insisted upon in the negotiation. He preferred the acquisition of Canada, to acquisitions in the West Indies, In the same year there appeared Remarks on the letter addressed to twogreatmen, con taining opposite opinions on this and other subjects. At this moment a philosopher stepped into the contro versy and wrote a pamphlet entitled, " Tbe Interest of Great Britain considered, with Regard to her Colonies," &c The arguments he used, appear to have carried weight with them, for Oanoda was kept by the peace. The above piece first appeared in the shape of a pamphlet, printed for Becket, 1761. In the original, the author had added his observations concerning the Increase of Mankind, Peopling of Coun tries, &c. [printeii '" another part of this edition) in troduced by the following note, " In confirmation of the writer's opinion concerning population, manufac tures, &c, he has thougbl it not amiss to add an extract from a piece written some yeors since m America, where the facts must be well known, on which the rea sonings are founded. It is entiUed, Obaervations, &c. best information, there are, I apprehend, in the Remarks, some opinions not well founded, and some mistakes of so important a nature, as to render a few observations on them necessary for the better information of the public. The author ofthe Letter, who must be every way best able to support his own sentiments, will, I hope, excuse me, if I seem officiously to interfere ; when he considers, that the spirit of patriotism, like other qualities good and bad, is catching ; and that his long silence since the Remarks appeared, has made us despair of seeing the subject farther discussed by his masterly hand. The ingenious and candid re- marker, too, who must have been misled him self before he employed his skill and address to mislead others, will certainly, since he de clares he aims at no seduction, he disposed to excuse even the weakest effort to prevent it. And surely, if the general opmions that possess the minds ofthe people may possibly be of consequence in public affairs, it must be fit to set those opinions right. If there is danger, as the remarker supposes, that " ex travagant expectations" may embarrass "a virtuous and able ministry," and " render the negotiation for peace a work of infinite diffi- cufty ;" there is no less danger that expecta- tations too low, through want of proper in formation, may have a contrary effect, may make even a virtuous and able mmistry less anxious, and less attentive to the obtaining points, in which the honour and interest of the nation are essentially concerned ; and the people less hearty in supporting such a minis try and its measures. The people of this nation are indeed re spectable, not for their numbers only, but for their understanding and their public spirit : they manifest the first, by their universal ap probation of the late prudent and vigorous measures, and the confidence they so justly repose in a wise and good prince, and an ho nest and able administration ; the latter tliey have demonstrated by the immense supplies granted in parliament unanimously, and paid through the whole kingdom with cheerfiilness. And since to this spirit and these suppUes our " victories and successes" have in great mea sure been owing ; is it quite right, is it gene rous to say, with the remarker, that the peo ple " had no share in acquiring them l" The mere mob he cannot mean, even where he speaks of the madness of tlie people ; for the madness of the mob must be too feeble and impotent, armed as the government of this country at present is, to "overrule," even in the slightest instances, the virtue " and mo deration" of a firm and steady ministry. While the war continues, its final event is quite uncertain. The victorious of this year may be tbe vanquished of the next. It may therefore be too early to say, what advantages we ought absolutely to insist on, and make HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL 191 the sine quibus non of a peace. If the ne cessity of our affiiirs should oblige us to accept of terms less advantageous than our present successes seem to proraise us ; an mtelligent people, as ours is, raust see that necessity, and will acquiesce. But as a peace, when it is made, may be made hastily ; and as the un happy continuance of the war affords us tirae to consider, among several advantages gained or to be gained, which of them may be most for our interest to retain, if some and not all may possibly be retained ; I do not blarae the public disquisition of these points, as preraa- ture or useless. Light often arises from a collision of opinions, as fire from flint and steel ; and if we can obtain the benefit of the light, without danger frora the heat soraetunes pro duced by controversy, why should we discou rage it ? Supposing then, that heaven may still con tinue to bless his majesty's arras, and that the event of this just war raay put it in our power to retain some of our conquests at the making of a peace ; let us consider, 1. The security of a dominion, a justifiable and prudent ground upon which to demand cessions from an enemy. Whether we are to confine ourselves to those possessions only that were " the objects for which we began the war." This tbe remark er seems to think right, when the question relates to " Canada, properly so called ; it having never been mentioned as one of those objects, in any of our memorials or declara tions, or in any national or public act whatso ever." But the gentleman himself will pro bably agree, that if the cession of Canada would be a real advantage to us ; we may de mand it under his second head, as an " indem nification for the charges incurred" in reco vering our just rights ; otherwise, according to his own principles, the demand of Guada loupe can have no foundation. — That "our claims before the waj were large enough for value of Canada to the French ; the right we have to ask, and the power we may have to insist on an indemnification for our expenses ; the difficulty the French themselves will be under of restraining their restless subjects in America frora encroaching on our limits and disturbing our trade ; and the difficulty on our parts of preventing encroachments, that may possibly exist many years without coming to our knowledge. But the remarker " does not see why the arguments, employed concerning a security for a peaceable behaviour in Canada, would not be equally cogent for calling for the same security in Europe." On a little farther re flection, he must I think be sensible, that the circumstances of the two cases are widely different. — Here we are separated bythe best and clearest of boundaries, the ocean, and we have people in or near every part of our terri tory. Any attempt to encroach upon us, by building a fort even in the obscurest corner of these islands, must therefore be known and prevented immediately. The aggressors also must be known, and the nation they belong '.0 would be accountable for their aggression. In America it is quite otherwise. A vast wilderness, thinly or scarce at all peopled, conceals with ease the march of troops and workmen. Important passes may be seized within our limits, and forts built in a month, at a small expense, that may cost us an age, and a million, to remove. Dear experience has taught this. But what is still worse, the wide extended forests between our settle ments and theirs, are inhabited by barbarous tribes of savages, that delight in war, and take pride in murder ; subjects properly neither of the French nor English, but strongly attached to the former by the art and indefatigable industry of priests, similarity of superstitions, and frequent family alliances. These are easily, and have been continually, instigated to fall upon and massacre our planters, even in times of full peace between the two crowns ; possession and for security too," though it to the certain diminution of our people and the seems a clear point with the ingenious remark er, is, I own, not so with me. I am rather of the contrary opinion, and shall presently give my reasons. But first let me observe, that we did not make those claims because they were large enough for security, but because we could rightfully claim no more. Advantages gained in the course of this war may increase the extent of our rights. Our clairas before the war contained some security ; but that is no reason why we should neglect acquiring more, when the demand of more is become reason able. It may be reasonable in the case of America, to ask for the security recommend ed by the author ofthe Letter, though it would be preposterous to do it in many cases. His proposed demand is founded on the little contraction of our settlements. And though it is known they are supplied by the French, and carry their prisoners to thera, we can, by complaining, obtain no redress ; as the govern ors of Canada have a ready excuse, that the Indians are an independent people, over whom they have no power, and fbr whose actions they are therefore not accountable. Surely circumstances so widely different may reason ably authorize different demands of security in America, from such as are usual or neces sary in Europe. The remarker however thinks, that our real dependence for keeping " France or any other nation true to her engagements, must not be in demanding securities which no na tion whilst independent can give ; but on our own strength and our own viligance. No 193 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. nation that has carried on a war with disad vantage, and is unable to continue it, can be said, under such circumstances, to he indepen dent; and while either side thinks itself in a condition to demand an indemnification, there is no man in his senses, but will, cceteris par ribus, prefer an indemnification, that is a cheaper and more effectual security than any other he can think of Nations in this situ ation deraand and cede countries by almost every treaty of peace that is made. The French part of the island of St. Christophers was added to Great Britain in circumstances altogether similar to those in which a few raonths may probably place the country of Canada. Farther security has always been deemed a motive with a conqueror to be less moderate ; and even the vanquished insist upon security as a reason for demanding what they acknowledge they could not otherwise properly ask. The security of the frontier of France on the side of the Netherlands was always considered in the negotiation, that be gan at Gertrudenburg, and ended with that war. For the same reason they deraanded and had Cape Breton. But a war, concluded to the advantage of France, has always added soraething to the power, either of France, or the house of Bourbon. Even that of 1733, which she coramenced with declarations of her having no ambitious views, and which finished by a treaty, at which the ministers of France repeatedly declared, that she desired nothing for herself, in effect gained for her Lorrain, an indemnification ten times the value 9f all her North American possessions. In short, security and quiet of princes and states have ever been deemed sufficient reasons, when supported by power, for disposing of rights ; and such dispositions have never been looked on as want of moderation. It has al ways been the foundation of the most general treaties. The security of Germany was the argument for yielding considerable posses sions there to the Swedes : and the security of Europe divided the Spanish monarchy by the partition treaty, made between powers who had no other right to dispose of any part of it There can be no cession that is not supposed at least, to increase the power ofthe party to whom it is made. It is enough that he has a rio-ht to ask it, and that he does it not merely to^erve the purposes of a dangerous arabition. Canada, in the hands of Britain, will en danger the kingdom of France as little as any other cession ; and from its situation and cir cumstances cannot be hurtful to any other state. Rather, if peace be an advantage, this cession may be such to all Europe. The present war teaches us, that disputes arising in America, may be an occasion of embroiling nations who have no concerns there. If the French remain in Canada and Louisiana, fix the boundaries as you will between us and them, we must border on each other for more than fifteen hundred mUes. The people that inhabit the frontiers are generally the refuse of both nations, often of the worst morals and the least discretion ; remote from the eye, the prudence, and the restraint of government. injuries are therefore frequently, in some part or other of so long a frontier, committed on both sides, resentment provoked, the colonies are first engaged, and then the mother coun tries. And two great nations can scarce be at war in Europe, but some other prince or state thinks it a convenient opportunity to revive some ancient claim, seize some advan tage, obtain some territory, or enlarge some power at the expense of a neighbour. The flames of war, once kindled, often spread far and wide, and the mischief is infinite. Happy it proved to both nations, that the Dutch were prevailed on finally to cede the New Nether lands (now the province of New York) to us at the peace of 1674 ; a peace that has ever since continued between us, hut must have been frequently disturbed, ifthey had retained the possession of that country, bordering seve ral hundred miles on our colonies of Pennsyl vania westward, Connecticut and the Massa chusetts eastward. Nor is it to be wondered at, that people of different language, religion, and manners, should in those remote parts engage in frequent quarrels ; when we find, that even tbe people of our own colonies have frequently been so exasperated against each other, in their disputes about boimdaries, as to proceed to open violence and bloodshed. 2. Erecting forts in the back settlements, almost in no instance a sufficient security against the Indians and the French ; but the possession of Canada implies every security, and ought to be had, while in our power. But the remarker thinks we shall be suffi ciently secure in America, if we " raise Eng lish forts at such passes as may at once make us respectable to the French and to the In dian nations." The security desirable in America may be considered as of three kinds. 1. A security of possession that the French shall not drive us out of the country. 2. A security of our planters from the inroads of savages, and the murders committed by them. 3. A security that the British nation shall not be obliged, on every new war, to repeat the immense expense occasioned by this, to defend its possessions in America. Forts, in the most important passes, may, I acknow ledge, be of use to obtain the first kind of se curity : but as those situations are far advanc ed beyond the inhabitants, the ejtpense of maintaining and supplying the garrisons will be very great, even in time of full peace, and immense on every interruption ofit; as it is easy for skulking-parties of the enemy, in such long roads through the woods, to inter- HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL. 193 cept and cut off our convoys, unless guarded continually by' great bodies of men. — The second kind of security will not be obtained by such forts, unless they were connected by a wall like that of China, from one end of our settlements to the other. If the Indians, when at war, marched like the Europeans, with great armies, heavy cannon, baggage, and carriages; the passes through which alone such armies could penetrate our country, or receive their supplies, being secured, all might be sufficiently secure ; but the case is widely different. 'They go to war, as they call it, in small parties; from fifty men down to five. Their hunting life has made them acquainted with the whole country, and scarce any part of it is impracticable to such a party. They can travel through the woods even by night, and know how to conceal their tracks. They pass easily between your forts undiscovered ; and privately approach the settlements of your frontier inhabitants. They need no convoys of provisions to follow thera ; for whether they are shifting from place to place in the woods, or lying in wait for an opportunity to strike a blow, every thicket and pvery stream furnishes so small a number with sufficient subsistence. When they have sur prised separately, and murdered and scalped a dozen families, they are gone with incon ceivable expedition through unknown ways : and it is very rare that pursuers have any chance of coming up with them. In short, long experience has taught our planters, that they cannot rely upon forts as a security against Indians ; the inhabitants of Hackney might as well rely upon the tower of London, to secure them against highwaymen and housebreakers. — As to the third kind of se curity, that we shall not, in a few years, have all we have done to do over again in America, and be obliged to employ the same number of troops, and ships, at the same immense ex pense, to defend our possessions there, while we are in proportion weakened here : such forts I think, cannot prevent this. During a peace, it is not to be doubted the French, who are adroit at fortifying, will likewise erect forts in the most advantageous places ofthe country we leave them ; which will make it more difficult than ever to be reduced in case of another war. We know by experience of this war, how extremely difficult it is to march an army through the American woods, with its necessary cannon and stores, sufficient to reduce a very slight fort. The accounts at the treasury wiU tell you, what amazing sums we have necessarily spent in the expe ditions against two very trifling forts, Du quesne and Crown Point. While the French retain their influence over the Indians, they can easily keep our long extended frontier in continual alarm, by a very few of those peo ple ; and with a small niunber of regulars and Vol. II. ... 2 B 17 militia, in such a country, we find they can keep an army of ours in full employ for seve ral years. We therefore shall not need to be told by our colonies, that if we leave Canada, however circumscribed, to the French, " we have done nothing ;" we shall soon be made sensible oto-seiues of this truth, and to our cost. I would not be understood to deny, that even if we subdue and retain Canada, some few forts may be of use to secure the goods of the traders, and protect th\3 commerce, in case of any sudden misunderstanding with any tribe of Indians : but these forts will be best under the care of the colonies inter ested in the Indian trade, and garrisoned by their provincial forces, and at their own ex pense. Their own interest will then induce the American governments to take care of such forts in proportion to their importance, and see that the officers keep their corps full, and mind their duty. But any troops of ours placed there, and accountable here, would, in such remote and obscure places, and at so great a distance from the eye and inspection of superiors, soon become of little consequence, even though the French were left in posses sion of Canada. If the four independent com panies, maintained by the crown in New York more than forty years, at a great expense, consisted, for most part of the tirae, of fag gots chiefly ; if their officers enjoyed their places as sinecures, and were only, as a writ er of that country styles them, a kind of mili tary monks ; if this was the state of troops posted in a populous country, where the im position could not be so well concealed ; what may we expect will be the case of those, that shall be posted two, three, or four hundred miles from the inhabitants, in such obscure and remote places as Crown Point, Oswego. Duquesne, or Niagara? they would scarce be even faggots ; they would dwindle to mere names upon paper, and appear no where but on the muster-rolls. Now all the kinds of security we have men tioned are obtainOii by subduing and retaining Canada. Our present possessions in America are secured ; our planters will no longer be massacred by the Indians, who, depending ab solutely on us for what are now become the necessaries of life to them (guns, powder, hatchets, knives, and clothing) and having no other Europeans near, that can either sup ply them, or instigate them against us ; there is no doubt oftheir being always disposed, if we treat thera with comraon justice, to live in perpetual peace with us. And with regard to France, she cannot, in case of another war, put us to the imraense expense of defending that long extended frontier ; we shall then, as it were, have our backs against a wall in America ; the sea coast will be easily protect ed by our superior naval power : and here "our own watchfulness and our own strength 194 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. will be properly, and cannot but be success fully employed. In this situation, the force now employed in that part of the world, may be spared for any other service here or else where ; so that both the offensive and defen sive strength of the British empire, on the whole, will be greatly increased. But to leave the French in possession of Canada, when it is in our power to remove them, and depend (as the reraarker proposes) ore our own " strength and watchfulness" to prevent the mischiefs that may attend it, seems neither safe nor prudent. Happy as we now are, under the best of kings, and in the prospect of a succession proraismg every felicity a nation was ever blessed with ; hap py too in the wisdom and vigour of every part of the administration ; we cannot, we ought not to promise ourselves the uninter rupted continuance of those blessings. The safety of a considerable part ofthe state, and the interest ofthe whole, are not to be trust ed to the wisdom and vigour oi future admi nistrations; when a security is to be had more effectual, more constant, and much less expensive. They, who can be moved by the apprehension of dangers so remote, as that of the future independence of our colonies (a point I shall hereafter consider) seem scarcely consistent with themselves, when they sup pose we may rely on the wisdom and vigour of an administration for their safety. — I should indeed think it less material whether Canada were ceded to us or not, if I had in view only the security of possession in our colonies. 1 entirely agree with the reraarker, that we are in North America " a far greater conti nental as well as naval power ;" and that on ly cowardice or ignorance can subject our co lonies there to a French conquest. But for the same reason I disagree with him widely upon another point. 3. The blood and treasure spent in the American wars, not spent in the cause ofthe colonies alone. I do not think, that our "blood and trea sure has been expended," as he intimates, " in the cause of the colonies," and that we are " making conquests for them ;" yet I be lieve this is too comraon an error. I do not say they are altogether unconcerned in the event The inhabitants of them are, in com mon with the other subjects of Great Britain, anxious for the glory of her crown, the extent of her power and commerce, the welfiire and future repose of the whole British people. Thev could not therefore but take a large share in the aff-ronU offered to Britain; and have been animated with a truly British spi rit to exert themselves beyond their strength, and against their evident mterest Yet so unfortunate have they been, that their virtue has made against them; for upon no better foundation than this have they been supposed the authors of a war, carried on for their ad vantage only. It is a great mistake to ima gine that the American country in question between Great Britain and France is claimed as the property of any individuals or public body in America ; or that the possession ofit by Great Britain is likely, in any lucrative view, to redound at all to the advantage of any person there. On the other hand, the the bulk ofthe inhabitants ofNorth America are land-owners, whose lands are inferior in value to those of Britain, only by the want of an equal number of people. It is true, the accession of the large territory claimed before the war began (especially if that be secured by the possession of Canada) will tend to the increase of the British subjects faster, than if they had been confined within the mountains : yet the increase within the mountains only would evidently make the comparative popu lation equal to that of Great Britain much sooner than it can be expected, when our people are spread over a country six times as large. I think this is the only point of light in which this account is to be viewed, and is the only one in which any of the colonies are concerned. — No colony, no possessor of lands in any colony, therefore, wishes for conquests, or can be benefited by them, otherwise than as they may be a means of securing peace on their borders. No considerable advantage has resulted to the colonies by the conquests of this war, or can result from confirming them by the peace, but what they must enjoy in coraraon with the rest of the British peo ple ; with this evident drawback from their share of these advantages, that they wUl ne cessarily lessen, or at least prevent the in crease of the value of what makes the princi pal part of their private property their land. A people, spread though the whole tract of country, on this side the Mississippi, and secured by Canada in our hands, would probably for some centuries find employment in agriculture, and thereby free us at home eflfectually from our fears of American manu factures. Unprejudiced men well know, that all the penal and prohibitory laws that were ever thought on will not be sufficient to pre vent manufactures in a country, whose inha bitants surpass the number that can subsist by the husbandry of it. That this will be the ca.se in America soon, if our people remain confined within the mountains, and almost as soon should it he unsafe for them to live be yond, though the country be ceded to us, no man acquainted with political and commer cial history can doubt. Manufactures are founded in poverty: it is the multitude of poor without land in a country, and who must work for others at low wages or starve, that enables undertakers to carry on a manufiic- ture, and afford it cheap enough to prevent HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL. 195 the importation of the same kind frora abroad, and to bear the expense of its own exportation. — ^Buf no man, who can have a piece of land of his own, sufficient by his labour to subsist his family in plenty, is poor enough to be a manufacturer, and work for a master. Hence, while there is land enough in America for our people, there can never be manufactures to any amount or value. It is a striking ob servation of a very able pen,* that the natu ral livelihood of the thin inhabitants of a forest country is hunting ; that of a greater number, pasturage : that of a middling popu lation, agriculture ; and that of the greatest, manufactures; which last must subsist the bulk of the people in a full country, or they must be subsisted by charity, or perish. The extended population, therefore, that is most advantageous to Great Britain, will be best effected, because only effectually secured, by the possession of Canada. So far as the being of our present colonies in North America is concerned, I think indeed with the remarker, that the French there are not "an enemy to be apprehended;" — but the expression is too VEigue to be applicable to the present, or indeed to any other case. Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli, unequal as they are to this nation in power and numbers of people, are enemies to be still apprehended : and the highlanders of Scotland have been so for many ages, by the greatest princes of Scotland and Britain. The wild Irish were able to give a great deal of disturbance even to queen Elizabeth, and cost her more blood and treasure than her war with Spain. Canada, in the hands of France, has always stinted the growth of our colonies, in the course of this war, and indeed before it, has disturbed and vexed even the best and strongest of them ; has found means to murder thousands oftheir people, and unsettle a great part of their country. Much more able will it be to starve the growth of an infant settlement. Canada has also found means to make this nation spend two or three millions a year in America ; and a people, how small soever, that in their present situation, can do this as often as we have a war with them, is, raethinks, " an ene my to be apprehended." Our North Araerican colonies are to be considered as the frontier of the British em pire on that side. The frontier of any do minion being attacked, it becoraes not mere ly " the cause" of the people immediately attacked (the inhabitants of that frontier) but properly " the cause" of the whole body. Where the frontier people owe and pay obe dience, there they have a right to look for protection : no political proposition is better established than this. It is therefore invidi ous, to represent the " blood and treasure" * Dr, Adam Smith, who had not at this time printed his Political Economy. spent in this war, as spent in " the cause of the colonies" only ; and that they are " absurd and ungrateful," ifthey think we have done nothing, unless we " make conquests for them," and reduce Canada to gratify their " vain ambition," &c. It will not be a con quest for them, nor gratify any vain ambition of theirs. It will be a conquest for the whole ; and all our people wiU, in the increase of trade, and the case of taxes, find the advan tage of it. Should we be obliged at any time, to make a war for the protection of our commerce, and to secure the exportation of our manufactures, would it be fair to repre sent such a war, merely as blood and trea sure spent in the caiise of the weavers of Yorkshire, Norwich, or the West ; the cut lers of Sheffield, or the buttonraakers of Bir mingham ? I hope it will appear before I end these sheets, that if ever there was a national war, this is truly such a one : a war in which the interest of the whole nation is directly and fundamentally concerned. Those, who would be thought deeply skilled in human nature, affect to discover self-interested views every where, at the bottom of the fairest the most generous conduct. Suspicions and charges of this kind meet with ready reception and belief in the minds even of the multitude, and therefore less acuteness and address, than the reraarker is possessed of, would be suffi cient to persuade the nation general] v. that all the zeal and spirit, manifested and exerted by the colonies in this war, was only in " their own cause," to " make conquest for themselves," to engage us to make more for them, to gratify their own " vain ambition." But should they now humbly address the mother-country in the terms and the senti ments of the remarker ; return her their grateful acknowledgments for the blood and treasure she had spent in " their cause ;" confess that enough had not been done " for thera ;" allow that " English forts, raised in proper passes, will, with the wisdom and vigour of her administration," be a sufficient future protection ; express their desires that their people may be confined within the moun tains, lest, if they be suflfered to spread and extend themselves in the fertile and pleasant country on the other side, they should " in crease infinitely from all causes," " live wholly on their own labour" and become in dependent; beg therefore that the French may be suffered to remain in possession of Canada, as their neighbourhood may be use ful to prevent our increase, and the removing them may " in its consequences be even dan gerous :" — I say, should such an address from the colonies make its appearance here (though, according to the remarker, it would be a most just and reasonable one) would it not, might it not with more justice be answered : — We understand you, gentlemen, perfectly well : 196 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. you have only your interest in view : you want to have the people confined within your present limits, that in a few years the lands you are possessed of raay increase tenfold in value ! you want to reduce the price of labour, by increasing numbers on the same territory, that you may be able to set up manufactures and vie with your mother-country I you would have your people kept in a body, that you may be raore able to dispute the commands of the crown, and obtain an independency. You would have the French left in Canada, to exercise your military virtue, and make you a warlike people, that you may have more confidence to embark in schemes of disobedi ence, and greater ability to support them ! You have tasted too, the sweets of two or THREE millions Sterling per annum spent among you by our fleets and forces, and you are unwilling to be without a pretence for kindling up another war, and thereby occasion ing a repetition of the same delightful doses ! But, gentlemen, allow us to understand our interest a little likewise : we shall remove the French from Canada, that you may live in peace, and we be no more drained by your quarrels. You shall have land enough to cul tivate, that you may have neither necessity nor inclination to go into manufacture for you, and govern you. A reader of the Remarks may be apt to say, if this writer would have us restore Ca nada, on pruiciples of moderation, how can we, consistent with those principles, retain Gaudaloupe, which he represents of so much greater value ! — I will endeavour to explain this, because by doing it, I shall have an op portunity of showing the truth and good sense ofthe answer to the interested applica tion I have just supposed : the author then is only apparently and not really inconsistent with himself. If we can obtain the credit of moderation by restoring Canada, it is well : but we should, however, restore it at all events ; because it would not only be of no use to us ; but " the possession oil' it (in his opinion) may in its consequences be dange rous." As how ? Why, plainly, (at length it comes out) if the French are not left there to check the growth of our colonies, " they will extend themselves almost without bounds into the inland parts, and increase infinitely, from all causes; becoming a numerous, hardy, independent people ; possessed of a strong country, communicating little or not at aU with England, living wholly on their own la bour, and in process of time knowing little and inquiring little about the mother-country." In short, according to this writer, our present colonies are large enough and numerous enough ; and the French ought to be left in North America to prevent their increase, lest they become not only useless, but dangerous to Britain. I agree with the gentleman, that with Canada in our possession, our people in America will increase amazingly. I know, that their common rate of increase, where they are not molested by the enemy, is dou bling their numbers every twenty-five years, by natural generation only ; exclusive ofthe accession of foreigners.'*' I think this increase continuing would probably, in a century more, make the number of British subjects on that side the water raore nuraerous than they now are on this ; But, 4. Not necessary that the American colo nies should cease being useful to the mother- country. Their preference over the West- Indian colonies stated. I am far from entertaining on that ac count, any fears of their becoming either use less err dangerous to us ; and I look ore tjiose fears to be merely imaginary, and without any probable foundation. — The remarker is reserved in giving his reasons ; as in his opi nion this " is not a fit subject for discussion." — I shall give mine, because I conceive it a subject necessary to be discussed; and the rather, as those fears, how groundless and chi merical soever, may by possessing the multi tude, possibly induce the ablest ministry to conform to them against their own judgment; and thereby prevent the assuring to the Bri tish name and nation a stability and perma- nancy, thai iiu man acquainted with history durst have hoped for, till our American pos sessions opened the pleasmg prospect The remarker thinks, that our people in America, " finding no check from Canada, would extend themselves almost without bounds into the inland parts, and increase infinitely from all causes." The very reasons he assigns for their so extending, and which is indeed the true one (their being " invited to it by the pleasantness, fertility, and plenty of the coun try,") may satisfy us, that this extension will continue to proceed, as long as there remains any pleasant fertile country within their reach. And if we even suppose them confin ed by the waters of the Mississippi westward, and by those of St Laurence and the lakes to the northward ; yet still we shall leave them room enough to increase, even in the manner of settling now practised there, till they amount to perhaps a hundred millions of souls. This must take some centuries to ful- * The reason of this greater increase in America than in Europe is, that in old settled countries, all trades, farms, offices, and employments are full ; and many people refrain from marriage till they see an opening, in which they can settle themselves, with a reasonable prospect oi^ maintaining a family; but in America, it being easv to obtain land, which, with moderate labour will afford subsistence and something to spare, people marry more readily and earlier in life, whence arises a numerous offspring and the swift po pulation of those countries. It is a common error, that we cannot fill our provinces or increase the number of them, without draining this nation of ils people. The increase alone of our present colonies is sufficient for both those purposes. [Written in 1760,J HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL. 197 fil : and in the mean time, this nation must necessarily supply them with the manufac tures they consume ; because the new settlers will be employed in agriculture ; and the new settlements will so continually draw off the spare hands from the old, that our present co lonies will not, during the period we have mentioned, find theraselves in a condition to manufacture, even for their own inhabitants, to any considerable degree, much less for those who are settling behind them. Thus our trade must, till that country be comes as fully peopled as England (that is for centuries to corae) be continually in creasing, and with it our naval power ; be cause the ocean is between us and them, and our ships and seamen raust increase as that trade increases. — The human body and the political differ in this ; that the first is limit ed by nature to a certain stature, which, when attained, it cannot ordinarily exceed : the other, by better government and more prudent policy, as well as by the change of manners and other circumstances, often takes fresh starts of growth, after being long at a stand ; and may add tenfold to the dimensions it had for ages been confined to. The mo ther, being of fuU stature, is in a few years equalled by a growing daughter : but in the case of a mother-country and her colonies, it is quite different The growth of the chil dren tends to increase the growth of the mo ther, and so the difference and superiority is longer preserved. Were the inhabitants of this island limited to their present number by any thing in nature, or hy unchangeable cir cumstances, the equality of population between the two countries might indeed sooner corae to pass : but sure experience, in those parts of the island where manufactures have been introduced, teaches us — that people increase and multiply in proportion as the means and facility of gaining a livelihood increase : and that this'island, ifthey could be employed, is capable of supporting ten times its present number of people. In proportion, therefore, as the demand increases for the manufactures of Britain, by the increase of people in her co lonies, the nuraber of her people at home will increase; and with thera, the strength as well as the wealth ofthe nation. For satisfaction in this point, let the reader compare in his mind the number and force of our present fleets, with our fleet in queen Elizabeth's time,''' before we had colonies. Let hira com pare the ancient, with the present state of our towns on or near our western coast (Manchester, Liverpool, Kendal, Lancaster, Glasgow, and t'ne countries round them) that trade with any manufactures for our colonies (not to mention Leeds, Halifax, Sheffield, and Burmingham,) and consider what a difference * Viz. forty sail, none of more than forty guns. there is in the numbers of people, buildings, rents, and the value of land and of the pro duce of land ; even if he goes back no farther than is within man's memory. Let him com pare those countries with others on the same island, where manufactures have not yet ex tended themselves : observe the present dif ference, and reflect how much greater our strength may he (if numbers give strength) when our manufactures shall occupy every part ofthe island where they can possibly be subsisted. But, say the objectors, " there is a certain distance from the sea, in America, beyond which the expense of carriage will put a stop to the sale and consumption of your manu factures; and this, with the difficulty of making returns for them, will oblige the in habitants to manufacture for themselves ; of course, if you suffer your people to extend their settlements beyond that distance, your people become useless to you :" and this dis tance is limited by some to two hundred miles, by others to the Apalachian moun tains. — Not to insist on a plain truth, that no part of a dorainion, from whence a govern ment may on occasion draw supplies and aids both of raen and money (though at too great a distance to be supplied with manu factures from some other part) is therefore to be deemed useless to the whole ; I shall en deavour to show, that these imaginary limits of utility, even in point of commerce, are much too narrow. The inland parts of the continent of Europe are farther from the sea, than the limits of settlement proposed for America. Germany is full of tradesmen and artificers of all kinds, and the governments there are not all of them always favourable to the commerce of Britain ; yet it is a well- known fact, that our manufactures find their way even into the heart of Germany. Ask the great manufacturers and merchants of the Leeds, Sheffield, Birmingham, Manchester, and Norwich goods ; and they will tell you, that some of them send their riders frequent ly through France or Spain, and Italy, up to Vienna, and back through the middle and northern parts of Germany, to show samples oftheir wares, and collect orders, which they receive by almost every mail, to a vast amount. Whatever charges arise on the carriage of goods are added to the value, and all paid by the consumer. If these nations, over whom we can have no government, over whose con sumption we can have no influence, but what arises from the cheapness and goodness of our wares, whose trade, manufactures, or com mercial connexions are not subject to the control of our laws, as those of our colonies certainly are in some degree ; I say, if these nations purchase and consume such quantities of our goods, notwithstanding the remoteness of their situation from the sea ; how much less FRANKLIN'S WORKS. likely is it that the settlers in Araerica, who must for ages be employed in agriculture chiefly, should raake cheaper for themselves the goods our manufactures at present supply them with ; even if we suppose the carriage five, six, or seven hundred miles from the sea as difficult and expensive, as the like distance into Germany : whereas in the latter, the na tural distances are frequently doubled by po litical obstructions ; I mean the intermixed territories and clashing interests of princes.* But when we consider, that the inland parts of America are penetrated by great navigable rivers : and there are a number of great lakes, comraunicating with each other, with those rivers, and with the sea, very small portages here and there excepted ; f that the seacoasts (if one may be allowed tbe expression) of those lakes only, amount at least to two thou sand seven hundred miles, exclusive ofthe ri vers running into them (many of which are navigable to a great extent for boats and ca noes, through vast tracts of country;) how little likely is it, that the expense on the car riage of our goods into those countries should prevent the use of them. If the poor Indians in those remote parts are now able to pay for the linen, woollen, and iron wares they are at present furnished with by the French and English traders (though Indians have nothing but what they get by hunting, and the goods are loaded with all the impositions fraud and knavery can contrive to enhance their value) will not industrious English farmers, hereafter settled in those countries, be much better able to pay for what shall be brought thera in the way of fair commerce. If it is asked, Wliat can such farmers raise, wherewith to pay for the manufactures they may want from us ? I answer, that the uiland parts of America in question are well known to be fitted for the production of hemp, flax, potash, and above all, silk ; the southern parts may produce olive oil, raisins, currants, indigo, and cochineal. Not to mention horses and black cattle, which may easily be driven to the maritime markets, and at the same time assist in conveying other commodities. That the commodities first mentioned may easily, by water and land carriage, be brought to the * Sir C. Whitworth has the following assertion : " Each state in Germany is jealous of its neighbours; and hence, rather than facilitate the export or trans mit of its neighbour's products or manufactures, tbey have all recourse to strangers," Slate of Trade, p, xxiv. t Prom New York into lake Ontario, the land-car. riage of the several portages altogether, amounts to but about twenty-seven miles. From lake Ontario into lake Erie, the land-carriage at Niagara Is but nbout twelve miles, .\ll the lakes above Niagara com- nmnicate jiy navigable straits, so that no land-carri.ige 1^ necessary to go out of one into another. Prom I'resqu'iste on lake Erie, there are but fifteen miles land.oarriage, and that a good wagon road, to Beef Itiver, n branch of the Ohio ; which brings you into a navigation of many thousand milesinland, if you take together the Ohio, the Mississippi, and all tho great ri vers and branches that run into them. sea-ports frora interior Araerica, will not seem incredible, when we reflect, that hemp for merly came from the Ukraine and most south ern parts of Russia to Wologda,and down the Dwina to Archangel ; and thence, by a peril ous navigation, round the North Cape to Eng land, and other parts of Europe. It now comes from the same country up the Dnieper, and down the Duna,* with much land-carriage. Great part of the Russia iron, no high priced commodity, is brought three hundred miles by land and water frora the heart of Siberia. Furs [the produce too of America] are brought to Amsterdam from all parts of Siberia, even the most remote, Kamstchatka. The same country furnishes me with another instance of extended inland commerce. It is found worth while to keep up a mercantile commu nication between Pekin in China, and Peters- burgh. And none of these instances of in land commerce exceed those of the courses by which, at several periods, the whole of the trade ofthe East was carried on. Before the prosperity of the Mameluke dominion in Egypt, fixed the staple for the riches of the East at Cairo and Alexandria (whither they were brought from the Red Sea) great part of those commodities were carried to the cities of Cashgar and Balk. (This gave birth to many towns, that still subsist upon the remains of their ancient opulence, amidst a people and country equally wild.) From thence those goods were carried down the Araii (the ancient Oxus) to the Caspian Sea, and up the Wolga to Astrachan ; from whence they were carried over to, and down the Don, to the mouth of that river; and thence again the Venetians directly, and the Genoese and Venetians indirectly (Tiy way of Kaffa and Trebisonde) dispersed them through the Me diterranean and some other parts of Europe. Another part of those goods was carried over land from the Wolga to the river Duna and Neva ; from both they were carried to the city of Wisbuy in the Baltic (so eminent for its sea-laws ;) and from the city of Ladoga on the Neva, we are told they were even carried by the Dwina to Archangel ; and from thence round the North Cape. — If iron and hemp will bear the charge of carriage from this in land country, other metals will, as well as iron; and certainly silk, smce Zd. per lb. is not above 1 per cent on the value, and amounts to 23Z. per ton. If the growths of a country find their way out of it; the manu factures of the country where they go will infallibly find their way into it They, who understood the economy and * The reader will not confound tbe river Duna with the river Dwina.— The fork of the Ohio is about four hundred miles distant from Uie sea, and the fork of Mie Mississippi about nine hundred : it is four hundred miles from Petersburgh to Moscow, and very consi derably more than four thousand from Petersburgh to Pekin. HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL. 199 principles of manufactures, know, that it is impossible to establish them in places not populous : and even in those that are populous, hardly possible to establish thera to the preju dices of the places already in possession of them. Several atterapts have been made in France and Spain, countenanced by govern ment, to draw from us, and establish in those countries, our hardware and woollen manu factures ; but without success. The reasons are various. A manufacture is part of a great system of commerce, which takes in conve niences of various kinds; methods of provid ing materials of all sorts, machines for expe diting and facihtating labour, all the channels of correspondence for vending the wares, the credit and confidence necessary to found and support this correspondence, the mutual aid of different artizans, and a thousand other particulars, which tirae and long experience have gradually established. A part of such a system cannot support itself without the whole : and before the whole can be obtained the part perishes. Manufactures, where they are in perfection, are carried on by a multi plicity of hands, each of which is expert only in his own part ; no one of them a master of the whole ; and, if by any means spirited away to a foreign country, he is lost without his fellows. Then it is a matter ofthe extremest difficulty to persuade a complete set of work men, skilled in all parts of a manufactory, to leave their country together, and settle in a foreign land. Some of the idle and drunken may be enticed away ; but these only disap point their employers, and serve to discourage the undertaking. If by royal munificence, and an expense that the profits of the trade alone would not bear, a complete set of good and skilful hands are collected and carried over, they find so much of the system imper fect, many things wanting to carry on the trade to advantage, so raany difficulties to overcome, and the knot of hands so easily broken by death, dissatisfaction, and desertion ; that they and their employers are discouraged together, and the project vanishes into smoke. Hence it happens, that established manufac tures are hardly ever lost, but by foreign con quest, or by some erainent interior fault in manners or government ; a bad police oppress ing and discouraging the workmen, or religious persecutions driving the sober and industrious out of the country. There is, in short, scarce a single instance in history of the contrary, where manufactures have once taken firm root. They sometiraes start up in a new place ; but are generally supported, like exotic plants, at more expense than they are worth for any thing but curiosity ; until these new seats beoorae the refuge ofthe manufactures driven from the old ones. The conquest of Constantinople, and final reduction of the Greek empire, dispersed many curious manu facturers into different parts of Christendom. The former conquests of its provinces, had before done the same. The loss of liberty in Verona, Milan, Florence, Pisa, Pistoia, and other great cities of Italy, drove the manu facturers of woollen clothes into Spain and Flanders. The latter first lost their trade and manufactures to Antwerp and the cities of Brabant; from whence, by persecution for religion, they were sent into Holland and England : while the civil wars, during the minority of Charles the First of Spain, which ended in the loss of the liberty of their great towns, ended too in the loss of the manufac tures of Toledo, Segovia, Salamanca, Medina del Campo, &c. The revocation of the edict of Nantes coraraunicated, to all the protestant part of Europe, the paper, silk, and other va luable manufactures of France ; almost pecu liar at that time to that country, and till then in vain attempted elsewhere. To be con vinced, that it is not soil and climate, nor even freedom from taxes, that determines the resi dence of manufacturers, we need only turn our eyes on Holland ; where a multitude of manufacturers are still carried on (perhaps more than on the same extentof territory any where in Europe) and sold on terms upon which they cannot be had in any other part ofthe world. And this too is true of those growths, which, by their nature and the labour required to raise them, come the nearest to manufactures. As to the common-place objection to the North American settlements, that they are ire the same climate, and their produce the same as that of England ; — in the first place it is not true ; it is particularly not so of the countries now likely to be added to our set tlements ; and of our present colonies, the pro ducts, lumber, tobacco, rice, and indigo, great articles of comraerce, do not interfere with the products of England : in thp ne.xt place, a raan must know very little of the trade of the world, who does not know, that the great er part of it is carried on between countries whose climates differ very little. Even the trade between the different parts of these Bri tish islands is greatly superior to that between England and all the West India Islands put to gether. If I have been successful in proving that a considerable commerce may and will subsist between us and our future most inland settle ments in North Araerica, notwithstanding tlieir distance ; I have raore than half proved no other inconveniency will arise frora their distance. Many raen in such a country must "know," must "think," and must "care" about the country they chiefly trade with. The juridical and other connexions of govern ment are yet a faster hold than even com mercial ties, and spread, directly and indi rectly, far and wide. Business to be solicited 200 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. and causes depending create a great inter course, even where private property is not divided in different countries ; — yet this divi sion will always subsist, where different coun tries are ruled by the same government. Where a man has landed property both in the mother-country and the province, he will al most always live in the mother-country ; this, though there were no trade, is singly a suffi cient gain. It is said, that Ireland pays near a million sterling annually to its absentees in England : the balance of trade from Spain, or even Portugal, is scarcely equal to this. Let it not be said we have no absentees frora North America. There are many, to the writer's knowledge ; and if there are at present but few of them, that distuiguish them selves here by great expense, it is owing to the mediocrity of fortune among the inhabit ants of the Northern colonies, and a raore equal division of landed property, than in the West India islands, so that there are as yet but few large estates. But if those, who have such estates, reside upon and take care of thera themselves, are they worse subjects than they would be if they lived idly in Eng land? — Great merit is assumed forthe gentle men of the West Indies, on the score oftheir residmg and spending their money in Eng land. I would not depreciate that merit ; it is considerable ; for they might, if they pleas ed, spend their money in France : but the difference between their spending it here and at home is not so great What do they spend it in when they are here, but the produce and manufactures of this country— and would they not do the same if they were at home ? Is it of any great importance to the English farm er, whether the West Indian gentleman comes to London and eats his beef, pork, and tongues, fresh ; or has thera brought to him in the West Indies salted ? Whether he eats his English cheese and butter, or drinks his Enirlish ale, at London or in Barbadoes ? Is the°clothier's, or the mercer's, or the cutler's, or the toyman's profit less, for their goods be ing worn and consumed by the same persons residrag on the other side of the ocean? Would not the profits of the raerchant and mariner be rather greater, and some addition made to our navigation, ships, and seamen ? If the North American gentleman stays in his own country, and lives there in that degree of luxury and expense with regard to the use of British manufactures, that his fortune ena bles him to do ; may not his example (from the imitation of superiors, so natural to man kind) spread the use of those manufactures araono- hundreds of families around hira, and occasfon a much greater demand for them, than it would do if he should remove and live in London ? However this may be, if in our views of immediate advantage, it seems pre ferable, that the gentlemen of large fortunes in North America shouldreside much in Eng land ; it is what may surely be expected, as fast as such fortunes are acquired there. Their having " colleges of their own for the education of their youth," will not prevent it; a little knowledge and learning acquired in creases the appetite for more, and will make the conversation of the learned on this side the water raore strongly desired. Ireland has its university likewise; yet this does not prevent the immense pecuniary benefit we receive from that kingdom. And there will always be, in the conveniencies of life, the politeness, the pleasures, the magnificence of the reignmg country, many other attrac tions besides those of learning, to draw men of substance there, where they can (apparent ly at least) have the best bargain of happiness for their money. Our trade to the West India islands, is undoubtedly a valuable one ; but whatever is the amount ofit, it has long been at a stand. Limited as our sugar planters are by the scantraess of territory, they cannot increase much beyond their present number ; and this is an evil, as I shall show hereafter, that will be little helped by our keeping Guadaloupe. — The trade to our Northern colonies is not only greater, but yearly increasing with the increase ofpeople : and even in a greater pro portion as the people increase m wealth and the ability of spending, as well as in numbers.'* * The author afterwards obtained accounts of the ex ports ofNorth America, and the West India islands ; by which it appeared that there bad been some increase oftrade to those islands, as well as to North America, though in a much less degree, Tbe following extract from these accounts will show the amount ofthe ex ports to each, in two different terms of five years ; Ihe terms taken at ten years distance, to show the increase, viz. First term, from 17-14 to 1748, inclusive. Mrthem Colonies. West India Islands. 1744.... £640,114 12 4 £796,112 17 9 1745 534,316 3 5 503,669 19 9 1746 754,945 4 3 472,994 16 7 1747 726,648 5 5 856,463 18 6 1748 830,243 16 9 734,095 15 3 Total, £ 3,486,261 1 2 Total, £3,353,337 10 10 Difference, 122,930 10 4 £3,486,268 I 2 Second term, from 1754 to 1758, inclusive. Northern Colonies. West India Islands. 1754 1,246,615 III 685,675 3 0 1755 1,177,848 6 10 694,667 13 3 1756 l,4a8,TJ0 18 10 733,458 16 3 1757 1,727,(l-:4 2 10 776,488 0 6 1758 1,832,948 13 10 877,571 19 U Total, £ 7,414 057 4 3 Total £ 3,767,841 12 11 Difference, 3,646,215 11 4 £7,414,057 4 3 In Uie first term, total of West In- j 3 3(;3_337 10 10 dia islands, ) In the second term, ditto 3,767,841 12 11 Increase, only £404,504 2 1 il for North- j 3 ^gg 268 I 2 In the second term, ditto 7,4l4,05i 4 i In the first term, total for North- j 3 ^gg ggg j 2 em Colonies, I Increase, £3,927,789 3 1 HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL. 201 I have already said, that our people in the northern colonies double in about 25 years, exclusive ofthe accession of strangers. That I speak within bounds, I appeal to the authen tic accounts frequently required by the board of trade, and transmitted to that board by the respective governors; of which accountslshall select one as a sample, being that from the colony of Rhode Island'* a colony that of all the others receives the least addition from strangers. For the increase of our trade to those colonies, I refer to the accounts fre quently laid before parliament, by the officers ofthe customs, and to the custom-house books: from which I have also selected one account,'* that of the trade from England exclusive of By these accounts it appears, that the exports to the West India Islands, and to the northern colonies, were in the first term nearly equal (the difference being only 122,936;, lOo.', 4rf ,) and in the second term, the exports to those islands had only increased 404,5U4Z, ils. Id. —Whereas the increase to the northern colonies is 3,937,7,?1'/ 3s, id., almost/oar millions. Some partof this increased demand for English goods may be ascribed to Ihe armies and fleets we have had both in North America and Ihe West Indies; and so much for what is consumed by the soldiery: their cloth ing, stores, ammunition, &;c,, sent from hence on ac count of tbe government, being (as is supposed) not in cluding in these accounts of merchandise exported ; but as tbe war has occasioned a great plenty of money in America, many ofthe inhabitants have increased their expense. N, B, These accounts do not include any exports from Scotland to America, which are doubtless propor tionably considerable ; nor the exports from Ireland, This is calculation carried on from where Dr, Frank lin left it. For four years, from 1770 to 1773 inclusively, the same average annual exports to the same ports of the West Indies is 994,463^., and to the same ports of the North American plantations 2,919,669/. But the an nual averages of the first and second terms ofthe for mer were 672,668;, and 753,568;. of the latter, 697,254;. and 1,482,811;. In ten years therefore (taking the middle years ofthe terms) the North American trade is found to have doubled the West Indian ; in the next sixteen years it becomes greater by threefold. — With respect to itself, the North American trade in :r2 years (taking the ex tremes of the terms) had quadrupled: while the West Indian trade increased only one half; of which increase Jamaica alone gave something more than one third, chiefly in consequence of the quiet produced by the peace with the Ularoon negroes. Had the West Indian trade continued stationary, the North American trade would have quadrupled with respect to it, in 26 years ; and this, notwithstanding the checks given to the latter. by their non -importation agreements and Ihe encourage ment of their own manufactures. There had been an accession to both these trades, produced by tbe cessions at the treaty of Paris, not touched upon by Dr, Franklin, The average annua; ex port trade, from 1770 to 1773 inclusively, to the ceded V/est India Islands, amounted to 258,299;, to the ceded North American territory it had been 280,423/, See Sir Charles Whitworth's State of Trade, * Copy of lite report of governor Hopkins to the board of trade, on the numbers ofpeople in Rhode-Island. In obedience to your lordship's commands, I have caused the within account to be taken by officers under oath. By it there appears to be in this colony at this time 35,939 white persons, and 4697 blacks, chieffy ne groes. In tlie year 1730, by order ofthe then lords commis sioners oftrade and plantations, an account was taken of the number of people in this colony, and then there appeared to be 15,302 white persons, and 2633 blacks. Again in the year 1748, by like order, an account was taken of the nu mber of people in this colony, by which it aonears there were at that time 29,755 white persons and 4373 blacks, STEPHEN HOPKINS, Colony of Rhode-Island, Dec, 24, 1735. Vol. II. ... 2 C Scotland) to Pennsylvania ;* a colony most re markable for the plain frugal manner of liv ing of its inhabitants, and the most suspected of carrying on manufactures, on account of the number of German artizans, who are known to have transplanted themselves into that country ; though even these, in truth, when they come there, generally apply them selves to agriculture, as the surest support and most advantageous employment By this account it appears, that the exports to that province have in 28 years, increased nearly in the proportion of 17 to 1; whereas the people themselves, who by other authentic accounts appear to double their numbers (the strangers who settle there included) in about 16 years, cannot in the 28 years have in creased in a greater proportion than as 4 to 1. The additional deraand then, and con suraption of goods from England, of 13 parts in 17 more than the additional number would require, must be owing to this ; that the peo ple having by their industry mended their circumstances, are enabled to indulge thera selves in finer clothes, better furniture, and a more general use of all our manufactures than heretofore. In fact, the occasion for English goods in North America, and the inclination to have and use them, is, and must be for ages to come, much greater than the ability of the people to pay for them ; they must therefore, as they now do, deny themselves many things they would otherwise choose to have, or in crease their industry to obtain them. And thus, ifthey should at any tirae manufacture some coarse article, which on account of its bulk or some other circumstance, cannot so well be brought to them from Britain ; it only enables thera the better to pay for finer goods, that otherwise they could not indulge them selves in : so that the exports thither are not diminished by such manufacture, but rather increased. The single article of manufacture in these colonies, mentioned by the remarker, is hats made in New England. It is true, there have been, ever since the first settle ment of that country, a few hatters there ; drawn thither probably at first by the facility of getting beaver, while the woods were but * .^n account ofthe value ofthe exportsfrom England io Pennsylvania, in one year, taken at different periods, viz. In 1723 they amounted only to £15,992 19 4 1730theywere 48,592 7 5 1737 56,690 6 7 1743 75,295 3 4 1747 82,404 17 7 1752 201,666 19 11 1757 268,426 6 6 N, B, The accounts for 1758 and 1759, were not then completed ; but those acquainted with the North Arae rican trade, know that tbe increase in those tiw years had been in still greater proportion ; thelast year being supposed to exceed any former year by a third ; and this owing to the increased ability of the people to spend, from thegreater quantities of money circulating among them by the war. 202 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. little cleared, and there was plenty of those animals. The case is greatly altered now. The beaver skins are not now to be had in New England, but from very remote places and at great prices. The trade is accordingly declining there ; so that, far from being able to make hats in any quantity for exportation, they cannot supply their home demand ; and it is well known, that some thousand dozens are sent thither yearly from London, Bristol, and Liverpool, and sold cheaper than the in habitants can make them of equal goodness. In fact, the colonies are so little suited for es tablishing of manufactures, that they are con tinually losing the few branches they acci dentally gain. The working brasiers, cutlers, and pewterers, as well as hatters, who have happened lo go over from time to time and settle in the colonies, gradually drop the working part of their business, and import their respective goods from England, whence they can have thera cheaper and better than they can make thera. They continue their shops indeed, in the same way of dealing ; but become sellers of brasiery, cutlery, pewter, hats, &c. brought from England, instead of being makers of those goods. .5. The American colonies not dangerous in their nature to Great Britain. Thus much as to the apprehension of our colonies becoming useless to us. I shall next consider the other supposition, that their growth may render them dangerous. — Of this, I own, I have not the least conception, when I consider that we have already four teen separate governments on the maritime coast of the continent ; and, if we extend our settleraents, shall probably have as many more behmd them on the inland side. Those we now have are not only under different go vernors, but have different forms of govern ment, different laws, different interests, and some of thera different religious persuasions, and different manners.— Their jealousy of each other is so great, that however necessa ry an union ofthe colonies has long been, for their common defence and security against their enemies, and how sensible soever each colony has been that of necessity ; yet they have never been able to effect such an union among themselves ; nor even to agree in re questing the mother-country to establish it for them. Nothing but the immediate com mand of the crown has been able to produce even the imperfect union, but lately seen there of the forces of some colonies. Ifthey could not agree to unite for their defence ao-ainst the French and Indians, who were perpetually harassing their settlements, burn ing their villages, and murdering their peo ple ; can it reasonably be supposed there is any danger of their uniting against their own nation, which protects and encourages them, with which they have so many con nexions and ties of blood, interest, and affec tion, and which, it is well known, they all love much more than they love one another? In short, there are so many causes that must operate to prevent it, that I will venture to say, an union amongst them for such a pur pose is not merely improbable, it is impossi ble. And if the union of the whole is impos sible, the attempt of a part must be madness; as those colonies that did not join the rebellion would join the mother-country in suppressing it. When I say such an union is impossible, I mean, without the most grievous tyranny and oppression. People who have property in a country which they may lose, and privi leges which they may endanger, are gene rally disposed to be quiet, and even to bear rauch, rather than hazard all. While the governraent is mild and just, while important civil and religious rights are secure, such sub jects will be dutiful and obedient The waves do not rise but when the winds blow. What such an administration as the duke of Alva's in the Netherlands might produce, I know not; but this I think I have a right to deem impossible. And yet there were two very manifest differences between that case, and ours ; and both are in our favour. The first, that Spain, had already united the seventeen provinces under one visible govern ment, though tbe states continued independ ent : the second, that the inhabitants of those provinces were of a nation not only different from, but utterly unlike the Spaniards. Had the Netherlands been peopled from Spain, the worst of oppression had probably not provoked them to wish a separation of government It might, and probably would, have ruined the country ; but would never have produced an independent sovereignty. In fiict, neither the very worst of governments, the worst of poli tics in the last century, nor the total abolition of their remaining liberty, in the provinces of Spain itself, in the present, have produced any independency in Spain, that could be supported. The same raay be observed of France. And let it not be said, that the neighbour hood of these to the seat of government has prevented a separation. While our strength at sea continues, the banks of the Ohio (in point of easy and expeditious conveyance of troops) are nearer to London, than tlie remote parts of France and Spain to their respective capitals ; and rauch nearer than Connaught and Ulster were in the days of queen Eliza beth. Nobody foretels the dissolution of the Russian monarchy frora its extent; yet I will venture to say, the eastern parts of it are al ready much more inaccessible from Peters burgh, than the country on the Mississippi is from London; I mean, more men, in less time, might be conveyed to the latter than HISTORICAL AND POUTICAL. 203 the former distance. The rivers Oby, Jene- sea, and Lena, do not facilitate the communi cation half so well by their course, nor are they half so practicable as the American rivers. To this I shall only add the observation of Ma- chiaval, in his Prince ; that a government sel- dora long preserves its dominion over those who are foreigners to it ; who, on the other hand, fall with great ease, and continue inse parably annexed to the government of their own nation : which he proves by the fate of the English conquests in France. Yet with all these disadvantages, so difficult is it to overturn an established governraent, that it was not without the assistance of France and England, that the United Provhices supported themselves : which teaches us, that 6. The French remaining in Canada, an encouragament to disaffections in the British Colonies. — If they prove a check, that check of the most barbarous nature. If the visionary danger of independence in our colonies is to be feared ; nothing is more likely to render it substantial than the neighbovrhood of foreigners, at enmity with the sovereign governments, capable of giv ing either aid,'* or an asylum, as the event shall require. Yet against even these disad vantages, did Spain preserve alraost ten pro vinces, raerely through their want of union ; which indeed could never have taken place among the others, but for causes, some of which are in our case impossible, and others it is irapious to suppose possible. The Roraans well understood that policy, which teaches the security arising to the chief government frora separate states among the governed ; when they restored the liber ties of states of Greece (oppressed but united under Macedon) by an edict, that every state should live under its own laws. They did not even name a governor. Independence of each other, and separate interests (though among a people united by common manners, language, and I raay say religion ; inferior neither in wisdom, bravery, nor their love of liberty, to the Roraans themselves ;) was all the security the sovereigns wished for their sovereignty. It is true, they did not call them selves sovereigns ; they set no value on the title ; they were contented with possessing the thing. And possess it they did, even without a standing army : (what can be a stronger proof of the security oftheir posses sion ?) And yet by a policy, similar to this throughout, was the Roraan world subdued *An idea was current during the war of independence, that the revolt would not have taken place if the French had been left possessed of Canada at the peace of 1763. On the other hand, those who since 1754 looked to fu. ture independence considered the surrender by the French as promoting it, Canada, during the war of 1812—15 was so heavy a weight on the United States, that in case of a future war it must be looked to. and held : a world coraposed of above an hun dred languages, and sets of manners, different frora those oftheir raasters. Yet this dorai nion was unshakeable, till the loss of liberty and corruption of manners in the sovereign • state overturned it But what is the prudent policy inculcated by the remarker to obtain this end, security of dominion over our colonies 1 It is, to leave the French in Canada, to "check" their growth ; for otherwise, our people may increase infinitely from all causes." We have already seen in what manner the French and their Indians check the growth of our colonies. It is a modest word, this check, for massacreing men, women, and children I The writer would, if he could, hide from himself as well as from the public, the horror arising from such a proposal, by couching it in ge neral terms : it is no wonder he thought it a " subject not fit for discussion" in his letter ; he recommends it as " a point that should be the constant object of the minister's at tention !" But if Canada is restored on this principle, will not Britain be guilty of all the blood to be shed, all the murders to be com mitted, in order to check this dreaded growth of our own people ? Will not this be telling the French in plain terms, that the horrid bar barities they perpetrate with Indians on our colonists are agreeable to us ; and that they need not apprehend the resentment of a go vernment, with whose views they so happily concur ? Will not the colonies view it in this light? Will they have reason to consider themselves any longer as subjects and chil dren, when they find their cruel enemies hal looed upon thera by the country from whence they sprung ; the government that owes them protection, as it requires their obedience ? Is not this the most likely means of driving them into the arms of the French, who can invite them by an offer of security, their own go vernment chooses not to afford thera ? I would not be thought to insinuate, that the remarker wants humanity. I know how little many good-natured persons are affected by the dis tresses of people at a distance, and whom they do not know. There are even those, who, being present, can sympathize sincerely with the grief of a lady on the sudden death of a favourite bird ; and yet can read of tho sinking of a city in Syria with very little con cern. If it be, after all, thought necessary to check the growth of our colonies, give me leave to propose a method less cruel. It is a method of which we have an example in Scripture. The murder of husbands, of wives, of brothers, sisters and children, whose pleas ing society has been for some tirae enjoyed, affects deeply the respective surviving rela tions; but grief for the death of a child just born is short, and easily supported. The me thod I mean is that which was dictated by 204 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. the Egyptian policy, when the " infinite in crease" of the children of Israel was appre hended as dangerous to the state.'* Let an act of parliament then be made, enjoining the colony midwives to stifle in the birth every third or fourth child. By this means you may keep the colonies to their present size. And if they were under the hard alternative of submitting to one or the other of these schemes for checking their growth, I dare answer for them, they would prefer the latter. But all this debate about the propriety or impropriety of keeping or restoring Cana da is possibly too early. We have taken the capital indeed, but the country is yet far from being in our possession ; and perhaps never will be : for if our ministers are persuad ed by such counsellors as the remarker, that the French there are " not the worst of neigh bours," and that if we had conquered Canada, we ought, for our own sakes, to restore it, as a check to the growth of our colonies ; I am then afraid we shall never take it For there are many ways of avoiding the completion of the conquest, that will be less exceptionable and less odious than the giving it up. 7. Canada easily peopled, without draining Great Britain of any of its inhabitants. The objection I have often heard, that if we had Canada we could not people it, with out draining Britain of its inhabitants, is founded on ignorance of the nature of popu lation in new countries. When we first be gan to colonize in America, it was necessary ¦ to send people, and to send seed-corn ; but it is not now necessary that we should furnish, for a new colony, either one or the other. The annual increment alone of our present colo nies, without diminishing their numbers, or requiring a man from hence, is sufficient in ten years to fill Canada with double the num ber of English that it now has of French in habitants. Those who are protestants among the French will probably choose to remain under the English government; many will choose to reraove, if they can be allowed to sell their lands, improvements, and effects: the rest in that thin-settled country will in less than half a century, from the crowds of English settling round and among them, be blended and incorporated with our people both in language and raanners. 8. The merits of Guadaloupe to Great Britain over-valued yet likely to be paid much dearer for, than Canada. In Guadaloupe the case is somewhat differ- - And Pharaoh said unto his people, behold the peo. pie ofthe children of Israel ore more and mightier than we ¦ come on, let us deal wisely with them, lest they multiply, and it come to pass, that when there fallcth out any war, they join also unto our enemies and fight against us, and so get thera up out of the land. And the king spake to the Hebrew midwives, &c.— Exodus, chap. 1. ent ; and though I am far frora thinking we have sugar-land enough, I cannot think Gua daloupe is so desirable an increase of it, as other objects the enemy would probably be infinitely more ready to part with. A coun try, fully inhabited by any nation, is no proper possession for another of different languages, raanners, and religion. It is hardly ever tenable at less expense than it is worth. But the isle of Cayenne, and its appendix, Equinoctial-France, having but very few m- habitants, and these therefore easily removed, would indeed be an acquisition every way suitable to our situation and desires. This would hold all that migrate from Barbadoes, the Leeward Islands, or Jamaica. It would cer tainly recall into an English government (in which there would be room for millions) all who have before settled or purchased in Mar- tinico, Guadaloupe, Santa Cruz, or St John's; except such as know not the value of an Eng lish government, and such I am sure are not worth recalling. But should we keep Guadaloupe, we are told it would enable us to export 300,000tm sugars. Admit it to be true, though perhaps the amazing increase of English consumption might stop most of it here, — to whose profit is this to redound ? To the profit of the French inhabitants of the island : except a small part, that should fall to the share of the English purchasers, but whose whole purchase money must first be added to the wealth and cir culation of France. I grant however, much of this 300,000Z. would be expended in British manufactures. Perhaps too, a few ofthe land owners of Guadaloupe might dwell and spend their fortunes in Britain (though probably much fewer than of the inhabitants ofNorth America.) I admit the advantage arising to us from these circumstances (as far as they go) in the case of Guadaloupe, as well as in that of our other West India settlements. Yet even this consumption is little better than that of an allied nation would be, who should take our manufactures and supply us with sugar, and put us to no great expense in defending the place of growth. But though our own colonies expend among us almost the whole produce of our sugar, can we, or ought we to proraise ourselves this will be the case of Gua daloupe ? One 100,000^. will supply Uiem with British manufactures ; and supposing we can effectually prevent the introduction of those of France (which is morally impossible in a country used to tliem) the other 200,0002. will still be spent m France, in the education oftheir children and support of themselves; or else be laid up tliere, where they will al ways think their home to be. Besides this consumption of British manu factures, much is said of the benefit we shall have from the situation of Guadaloupe ; and we are told of a trade to the Caraccas and HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL. 206 Spanish Main. In what respect Guadaloupe is better situated for this trade than Jamaica, or even of our other islands, I am at a loss to guess. I believe it to be not so well situated for thatof the windward coast, as Tobago and St Lucia ; which in this, as well as other re spects, would be more valuable possessions, and which, I doubt not, the peace will secure to us. Nor is it nearly so well situated for that ofthe rest of the Spanish Main as Jamaica. As to the greater safety of our trade by the possession of Guadaloupe, experience has con- \ inced us, that in reducing a single island, or even raore, we stop the privateering business but little. Privateers still subsist, in equal if not greater numbers, and carry the vessels into Martinico, which before it was raore con venient to carry into Guadaloupe. Had we all the Caribbees, it is true, they would in those parts be without shelter. Yet, upon the whole, I suppose it to be a doubtful point, and well worth consideration, whether our obtaining possession of all the Caribbees would be more than a teraporary benefit; as it would necessarily soon fill the French part of Hispaniola with French inha bitants, and thereby render it five times raore valuable in tirae of peace, and little less than impregnable ui time of war, and would pro bably end in a few years in the uniting the whole of that great and fertile island under a French governraent. It is agreed on all hands, that our conquest of St. Christophers, and driving the French from thence, first fur nished Hispaniola with skilful and substantial planters, and was consequently the first oc casion of its present opulence. On the other hand, I will hazard an opinion, that valuable as the French possessions in the West Indies are, and undeniable as the advantages they derive from them, there is somewhat to be weighed in the opposite scale. They cannot at present raake war with England, without exposing those advantages, while divided araong the nuraerous islands they now have, much more than they would, were they pos sessed of St Domingo only ; their own share of which would, if well cultivated, grow raore sugar than is now grown in all their West- India islands. / have before said, I do not deny the utili ty of the conquest, or even of our future pos session of Guadaloupe, if not bought too dear. The trade of the West Indies is one of our most valuable trades. Our possessions there deserve our greatest care and attention. So do those of North Araerica. I shall not enter into the invidious task of coraparing their due estimation. It would be a very long, and a very disagreeable one, to run through every thmg material on this head. It is enough to our present point, if I have shown, that the valueof North America is capable of an im mense increase, by an acquisition and mea- 18 sures, that must necessarily have an effect the direct contrary of what we have been in dustriously taught to fear ; and that Guada loupe is, in point of advantage, but a very small addition to our West-India possessions ; rendered many ways less valuable to us, than it is to the French, who will probably set more value upon it, than upon a country [Ca nada] that is much more valuable to us than to them. There is a great deal more to be said on all the parts of these subjects ; but as it would carry me into a detail, that I fear would tire the patience of my readers, and which I ara not without apprehensions I have done already, I shall reserve what remains till I dare venture again on the indulgence of ' the public. PLAIN TRUTH ; Or, Serious Considerations on the present state of the city of Philadelphia, and pro vince of Pennsylvania. By a Tradesman of Philadelphia. Capta urbe, nihil fit reliqui victis. Sed, per deos im- mortales, vos ego apello. qui semper domos, villas, sig- na, tabutas vestras, tantie seslimationis fecistis ; si ista, cujuscumque modi sint, qus amplexamini, retinere, si voluptatibus vestris otium prffibere vullis ; expergis- mini aliquando, el capessite rempublicam. Non agitur nunc de sociorum injuriis; libertas et anima nostra in dubib est. Dux hostium cum e.xercitu supra caputest, Vos cunctamini etiam nunc, et dubitatis quid facialis ? Scilicet, res ipsa aspera est, sed vos non timetis earn, Imo vero maxime ; sed inertia et moUitia animi, alius ahum expectantes, cunctamini; videlicit, diis iinmor talibus confisi, qui banc rempublicam in maximis peri- culis servavere non votis, ne^jie suppliciis mulieribus, auxilia deorum parantur : vigilando, agendo, bene con- sulendo, prospere omnia cedunt. Ubi socordite tete at- que ignavite tradideris, nequicquam deos implores ; irati, infestique sunt, m. por. cat. in salust. It is said, the wise Italians make this pro verbial remark on our nation, viz. The Eng lish /eci!, but they do not see. That is, they are sensible of inconveniences when they are present, but do not take sufficient care to pre vent thera: 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 keep ing 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 com mon with us, as to occasion the vulgar, though very significant saying. When the steed is stolen, you shut the stable door. But the more insensible wo generally are of public danger, and indifferent when warned of it, so much the raore freely, openly, and earnestly, ought such as apprehend it to speak their sentiments ; that, if possible, those who seera to sleep may be awakened, to think of 206 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. 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 follow ing paper. War, at this time, rages over a great part of the known world ; our newspapers areweekly filled with fresh accounts of the destruction it every where occasions. Pennsylvania, in deed, 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 expense 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 de fence ; many of them have therefore nev,3r been attempted by an enemy ; and others, that were attacked, have generally defended them selves with success. The length and diffi culty of our bay and river have been thought so effectual a security to us, that hitherto no means have been entered into, that might dis courage 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, whe ther we can any longer safely depend upon it Our wealth, of late years much increased, is one strong temptation, our defenceless state another, to induce an enemy to attack us ; while the acquaintance they have lately gain ed 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 araong ourselves; with the facility of getting pilots to conduct them ; and the known ab sence of ships of war, during the greatest part of the year, from both Virginia and New York, ever since the war began, render the appear ance of success to the" enemy far more pro mising, and therefore highly increase our danger. That our enemies raay have spies abroad, and sorae even in these colonies, will not be made rauch 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, Clmp. xviii. 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 Dan- ites it seems were at this time not very or thodox in their religion, and their spies met with a certain idolatrous priest of their own persuasion, ver. 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 hun, ver. 5. — A-ik 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 sime 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 dis turbed, vainly imagined they never should. It is not unlikely, that some might see tbe danger tbey were exposed to by living in that careless manner ; but that, if these publicly expressed their apprehensions, the rest re proached thera 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 J Aiid 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 io a large land, and a place where there is no want of anything. What could they desire more? Accordingly we find, in the following verses, that six hundred men only, appointed with weaponsofwar, undertook the conquest of this large land; knowing that 600 men, armed and disciplined, would be an over-match per haps for 60,000, unarmed, undisciplined, and offtheir guard. And when they went against it the idolatrous priest, verse 17, with his graven image, and his ephod, and his sera phim, and his moltenimage, [plenty of super stitious trinkets] joined with tliem, and, no doubt, gave them all the intelligence and as sistance in his power ; his heart, as the text assures us, being glad, perhaps for reasons more than one. And now, what was the fate ofthe poor Laish I The 600 men being ar rived, found, as the spies had reported, a peo ple 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 Zi- don. — Not BO far from Zidon, however, asi HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL. 207 Pennsylvania 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 ci ty, 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 expense to gain them to their interest. By their priests they have converted many to their religion, and these have openly espous ed their cause. The rest appear irresolute what part to take ; no persuasions, though en forced with costly presents, having yet been able to engage them generally on our side, though we had numerous forces on their bor ders, ready to second and support them. What then raay 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 thera) ei ther of strength or courage ; when they see, that the French and their Indians, boldly, and with irapunity, 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 pro tection than in ours, they raayhe wholly gain ed 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 mayjwe expect to be the consequence, but desertion cf plantations, ruin, bloodshed, and confusion ! Perhaps some in the city, towns, and plan tations near the river, may say to themselves, " An Indian war on the frontiers will not af- f 3Ct us ; the enemy will never corae 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 frora attempts by sea, may say, " What is that to us ? The enemy will be sa tisfied with the plunder ofthe town, and ne ver think it worth his while to visit our plan tations: let the town take care of itself" These are not the mere suppositions, for I have heard some talk in this strange manner. But are these the sentiments of true Pennsyl vanians, offellow-countrymen, or even of raen, 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 fbr their re lief And at another time, remembering that Great Britain, still more distant, groaned un der 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 ene mies, in two different cruizes this last sumraer in our bay, must give them the greatest en couragement to repeat more frequently their visits, the profit being almost certain, and the risk next to nothing. Will not the first ef fect of this be, an enhancing of the price of all foreign goods to the tradesman and farmer, who use or consume thera ? 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 in crease. 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 Iqwer 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 ont, 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 ofthe vessels that used to come from other places to purchase our produce, and thereby a turning of the trade to ports that can bo entered with less danger, and capable of fumishin,? them with the same commodities, as New York, &c. a lessening of business to every shopkeeper, to gether with multitudes of bad debts, the high rate of goods discouraging the buyers, and the low rates of their labour and produce render- 208 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. ing them unable to pay for what they had bought ; loss of employment to the tradesman, and bad pay for what little he does ; and last ly, loss of many inhabitants, who will r.etire to other provinces not subject to the like in conveniences ; whence a lowering of the va lue of lands, lots, and houses. The eneray, no doubt, have been told, that the people of Pennsylvania are quakers, and against all defence, from a principle of con science ; this, though true of a part, and that a small part only of the inhabitants, is com monly 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 peo ple towards their defence. But to refuse de fending one's self, or one's country, is so unu sual a thing araong raankind, 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 plun der our plantations and villages, and retire with their booty unmolested. Will not this confirm the report, and give thera 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 expense of a vessel, to guard our trade, would be very heavy, greater than perhaps all the eneray can be supposed to take frora us at sea would amount to ; and that it would be cheaper for the governraent to open an insurance office, and pay all losses. But is this right reason ing ? I think not ; for what the enemy takes is clear loss to us, and gain to him ; increas ing his riches and strength, as rauch as it di minishes ours, so making the difference dou ble ; whereas the money, paid our own trades men for building and fitting out a vessel of de fence, remains in the country, and circulates araong us ; what is paid to the officers and searaen, that navigate her, is also spent ashore, and soon gets into other hands ; the farraer receives the money for her provisions, and on the whole nothing is clearly lost to the coun try 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 advan tages ! and should the eneray, through our supineness and neglect to provide fbr the de fence both of our trade and country, be en couraged to attempt this city, and after plun dering us of our goods, either bum it,or put it to ransora, how great would that loss be 1 be sides 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 expa- tiatmg somewhat raore upon it. You have, my dear countrymen, and fellow-citizens. riches to terapt a considerable fiirce to unite and attack you, but are under no ties or en gagements, to unite for your defence. Hence, on the first alarm, (error will spread over all ; and as no raan can with certainty depend that another will stand by hira, 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 pro tect thera in that tirae of general desolation and ruin. All will run into confusion, amidst cries and lamentations, and the hurry and dis order of departers, carry mg away their effects. The few that remain will be unable to resist. Sacking the city will be the first, and burn ing it, in all probability, the last act of the enemy. This, I believe, wiU be the case, if you have timely notice. But what must be your condition, if suddenly surprised, without previousalarm, 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 command ers of king's ships, able to control the mari ners ; and not into the hands of licentious pri vateers. Who can, without the utmost hor ror, 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 vHest and most abandoned of^ mankind.'* 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 thera, and to spare. But most unhappily circumstanced indeed are we, tlie middling people, the tradesmen, shopkeepers, and farm ers ofthe province and city ! We cannot all fly with our families ; and if we could, how shall we subsist ? No ; we and tliey, and what little we have gained by hard labour and in dustry, 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 * By accounts, the ragged crew of the Spanish priva teer that plundered Mr. Liston's, and another planta tion, a little below Newcastle, was composed of such as these. The honour and humanity oftheir oflicers 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. HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL. 209 stand at present ; for though we are nume rous, we are quite defenceless, having neither forts, arras, union, nor discipline. And though it were true, that our trade might be protected at no great expense, and our country and our city easily defended, if proper measures were but taken ; yet, who shall take these mea sures ? Who shall pay that expense ! On whom raay we fix our eyes with the least ex pectation, 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 entreat thera to consider, if not as friends, at least as legislators, that protection is as truly due from the government to the people, as obedience frora the people to the government ; and that i(, on account of their religious scruples, tbey themselves could do no act for our defence, yet they might retire, relinquish their power fbr a season, quit the helm to freer hands during the present tem pest, to hands, chosen by their own interest too, whose prudence and moderation, with re gard to them, they might safely confide in ; secure, frora their own native strength, of re suming again their present station, whenever it shall please thera : should we reraind them, that the public money, raised from all, belongs to all ; that since they have, fbr their own ease, and to secure theraselves in the quiet enjoyment of their religious principles (and raay they long enjoy them) expended such large sums to oppose petitions, and engage favourable representations oftheir conduct, if they theraselves could by no raeans be free to appropriate any part of the public raoney 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 ap propriation to others, who would faithfully ap ply it as we desired: should we tell them, that though the treasury be at present empty, it may soon be filled by the outstanding pub lic debts collected, or at least credit might be had for such a sum, on a single vote of the as sembly : that though they themselves maybe resigned and easy under this naked, defence less state of the country, it is far otlierwise .vith a very great part of the people ; with us, who can have no confidence that GoJ will protect those, that neglect the use of rational means for their security ; nor have any rea son to hope, that our losses, if we should suf fer any, raay be raade by collections in our favour at horae. Should we conjure thera by all the ties of neighbourhood, friendship, jus tice, and humanity, to consider these things; and what distraction, misery, and confusion, what desolation and distress, may possibly be the effect oftheir unseasonable predominan cy and perseverance; yet all would be in Vol. II. ... 2 D 18* vain : for th^y have already been, by great numbers of the people, petitioned in vain. Our late governor did for years sohcit, re quest, and even threaten them in vain. The cquncil have since twice remonstrated to them in vain. Their religious prepossessions are unchangeable, their obstinacy invincible. Is there then the least hope remaming, 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 them selves for the public safety. They have so much wealth and influence, if they would use it, that they might easily, by their endeavours and exaraple, raise a military spirit among us, make us fond, studious of* and expert in, martial discipline, and effect 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 de stroyed every generous, noble, public spirit ed 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 indig nation. " 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 pre vent 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 duly on 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 con sciences, 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 cue on board, whom he hated, would be saved by it as well as him self But such, it seems, is the unhappiness of human nature, that our passions, when vio lent, often are too hard for the united force of reason, duty, and religion. Thus unfortunately are we circumstanced at this time, ray dear countrymen and fellow- citizens; we, I mean, the middling people; the farmers, shopkeepers, and tradesmen of this city and country. Through the dissen- tions of our leaders, through mistaken princi ples of religion, joined with a love of worldly 210 FRANKLIN'S Vv^ORKS. power, on the one hand; through pride, envy, and implacable resentment on the other ; our lives, our farailies, 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-inform ed, and by success encouraged, enemy. It seems as if Heaven, justly displeased at our growing wickedness, and determined to pu nish'* this once-favoured land, had suffered our chiefs to engage in these foolish and mis chievous contentions, for little posts and pal try distinctions, that our hands might be bound up, our understandings darkened and misled, and every means of our security ne glected. It seems as if our greatest men, our cives nobilissimi f of both parties, had sworn the ruin ofthe country, and invited the French, our most inveterate eneray, to destroy it. Where then shall we seek for succour and protection? The governraent we are imrae- diately under denies it to us ; and if the ene my comes, we are far from Zidon, and there is no deliverer near. Our case is danger ously 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 im proving colony is destroyed and ruined, it will not be for want of numbers of inhabitants able to bear arms in its defence. It is com puted, that we have at least (exclusive ofthe quakers) sixty thousand fighting men, ac quainted withffre arms, many of them hunters and marksmen, hardy and bold. All we want is orde'r, discipline, and a few cannon. At present we are like the separate filaraents of flax before the thread is formed, without strength, because without connexion ; but UNION would make us strong, and even form idable, though the great should neither help nor join us ; though they should even oppose our uniting, frora sorae mean views of their own, yet, if we resolve upon it, and it pleases God to inspire us with the necessary prudence and vigour, it may he effected. Great numbers of our'people are of British race, and though the fierce fighting aniraals of those happy islands are said to abate their native fire and intrepidity, when reraoved to a foreign clirae, yet with the people it is not so ; our neigh bours of New England afford the world a con vincing proof, that Britons, though a hun dred years transplanted, and to the remotest part of the earth, may yet retain, even to the * When God determined to punish his chosen peo ple the inhabitants of Jerusalem. whothough breakers of hia other laws, were scrupulous observers of that ONE, which required keeping holy the Sabbath-day : he sulTi-r-.l even the strict observation of that command lo br. ih'-ir 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.-.JosEPHOs. TConjuravero cives nobilissimi patriam incendere ; OALLORUM oESTiiM, i nfestissimlam nomini Komano, ad belluin arcessuiit.— Cat, in. Saiost. third and fourth descent, that zeal for the public good, that military prowess, and that undaunted spirit, which has in every age dis tinguished their nation. What numbers have we likewise of those brave people, whose fathers in the last age raade so glorious a stand for our religion and liberties, when in vaded by a powerful French army, joined by Irish Catholics, under a bigoted popish king? Let the memorable siege of Londonderry, and the signal actions of the Iniskillinners, by which the heart oftbat prince's schemes was broken, be perpetual testimonies ofthe 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 Cssar maintained the character he gave their fathers, of joining the most ob stinate courage to all the other military vir tues : I mean the brave and steady Germans. Numbers of whom have actually born arms in the service of their respective princes ; and if they fought well for their tyrants and op pressors, 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, thorough ly armed and disciplined, was every thing in our power done for our security, as far as hu man 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 discouragmg 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 re ceive their adversaries, are in much less dan ger of being attacked, than the supine, se cure, and negligent We have yet a winter before us, which may afford a good and al most sufficient opportunity for this, if we seize and improve it with a becoming vigour. And ff the hints contained in this paper are so happy as to meet with a suitable disposition of mind in his countrymen, and feUow-citizens, the writer of it will in a few days lay before them a form of associ.4,tion for the purposes herein mentioned, together with a practica ble scheme for raising the money necessary for the defence of our trade, city, and coun try, without laying a burden on any man. May the God of wisdom, strength, and power, the Lord of the armies of Israel, in spire us with prudence in this time of dan ger, take away from, us all the seeds of con tention and division, and unite the hearts and counsels of all of us, of whatever sector 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 HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL. 211 is displeasing to him ; afford us his most gracious protection, confound the designs of our enemies, aud give peace in all our bor ders, is the sincere prayer of A TRADESMAN OF PHILADELPHIA. A comparison of the conduct of the Ancient Jews, and of the Anti-federalists in the United States of America. A ZEALOUS advocate for the proposed fede ral constitution in a public assembly said, that " the repugnance of a great part of mankind to good government was such, that he believ ed, that if an angel from heaven was to bring down a constitution, formed there for our use, it would nevertheless meet with violent op position." He was reproved for the supposed extravagance of the sentiment, and he did not justify it Probably it might not have irame- diately occurred to him, that the experiment had been tried, and that the event was record ed in the most faithful of all histories, the Holy Bible ; otherwise he might, as it seems to me, have supported his opinion by that un exceptionable authority. The Supreme Being had been pleased to ' and they, moved by his insinuations, began to though the natural and unavoidable effect of their change of situation, exclaimed against their leaders as the authors of their trouble : and were not only for returning into Egypt, but stoning their deliverers.'*' Those inclined to idolatry were displeased that their golden calf was destroyed. Many of the chiefs thought the new constitution might be in jurious to their particular interests, that the profitable places would be engrossed by the families and friends of Moses and Aaron, and others, equally well born, excluded.f — In Ji - sephus, and the Talmud, we learn some parti culars, not so fully narrated in the Scripture. We are there told, " that Corah was ambi tious of the priesthood, and offended that it was conferred on Aaron ; and this, as he said, by the authority of Moses only, without the consent of the people. He accused Moses of having, by various artifices, fraudulently ob tained the government, and deprived the peo ple of their liberties, and of conspiring with Aaron to perpetuate the tyranny in their fa mily. Thus, though Korah's real motive was the supplanting of Aaron, he persuaded the people, that he meant only the public good ; nourish up a single family, by continued acts of his attentive providence, till it became a great people : and having rescued thera from bondage by many miracles, performed by his servant Moses, he personally delivered to that chosen servant, in presence ofthe whole nation, a constitution and code of laws for their observance, accompanied and sanctioned with promises of great rewards, and threats of severe punishments, as the consequence of their obedience or disobedience. This constitution, though the Deity himself was to be at its head (and it is therefore call ed by political writers a theocracy) could not be carried into execution but by the means of his ministers ; Aaron and his sons were therefore commissioned to be, with Moses, the first established ministry of the new go vernment One would have thought, that the appoint ment of men, who had distinguished them selves in procuring the liberty of their nation, and had hazarded their lives in openly oppos ing the will of a powerful monarch, who would have retained that nation in slavery, might have been an appointment acceptable to a grateful people ; and that a constitution, framed for them by the Deity himself, might on that account have been secure of an uni versal welcome reception. Yet there were, in every one of the thirteen tribes, some dis contented, restless spirits, who were continu ally exciting them to reject the proposed new government, and this from various motives. Many still retained an afiection for Egypt, the land of their nativity, and these, when ever they felt any inconvenience or hardship, cry out, " Let us maintain the common li berty of our respective tribes , we have freed ourselves from all the slavery imposed upon us by the Egyptians, and shall we suffer our selves to be made slaves by Moses? If we must have a master, it were better to return to Pharaoh, who at least fed us with bread and onions, than to serve this new tyrant, who, by his operations, has brought us into danger of famine." Then they called in ques tion the reality of his conference with God, and objected to the privacy of the meetings, and the preventing any of the people from be ing present at the coloquies, or even approach ing the place, as grounds of great suspicion. They accused Moses also of peculation, as embezzling part ofthe golden spoons and the silver chargers, that the princes had offered at the dedication of the aUar,| and the offer ings of gold by the common people, 5 as well as most ofthe poll tax ;|| and Aaron they ac cused of pocketing much ofthe gold of which he pretended to have made a molten calf Besides peculation, they charged Moses with ambition ; to gratify which passion, he had, they said, deceived the people, by promising to bring thera to a land flowing with railk and honey ; instead of doing which, he had brought them from such a land ; and that he thought * Numbers, chap, xiv. I Numbers, chap, xvi, ver, 3. " And they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron. and said unto them, ye take too much upon you, seeing all the congregations are holy, every one of them, — wherefore then lift ye up yourselves above the congre gation." 1 Numbers, chap. vii. 5 Exodus, chap. xxxv. ver, 22. I Numbers, chap, iii ; and Exodus, chap. xxx. 212 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. light of aU this mischief, provided he could make himself an o6so/M(ejprJrece.''' That, to support the new dignity with splendour in his family, the partial poll tax, already levied and given, to Aaron,| was to be followed by a ge neral one,| which would probably be aug mented from time to time, if he were suffer ed to go on promulgating new laws, on pre tence of new occasional revelations of the di vine will, till their whole fortunes were de voured by that aristocracy. Moses denied the charge of peculation, and his accusers were destitute of proofs to support it ; though fads, if real, are in their nature capable of proof. "I have not," said he (with holy confidence in the presence of God,) " I have not taken from this people the value of an ass, nor done them any other in jury." But his enemies had made the charge, and with some success among the populace ; fbr no kind of accusation is so readily made, or easily believed, by knaves, as the accusa tion of knavery. In fine, no less than two hundred and fifty of the principal men " famous in the congre gation, men of renown,"^ heading and excit- iiig the mob, worked them up to such a pitch fcf phrenzy, that they called out, stone hira, atone him, and thereby secure our liberties ; and let us choose other captains, that raay lead us back into Egypt, in case wc do not succeed hi reducing the Canaanites. On the whole, it appears, that the Israelites were a people jealous of their newly acquired liberty, which jealousy was in itself no fault ; but that, when they suffered it to be worked upon by artful raen, pretending public good, with nothing really in view but private in terest, they were led to oppose the establish ment ofthe new constitution, whereby they brought upon themselves much inconvenience and misfortune. It farther appears, from the s;ime inestimable history, that when, after many ages, the constitution had become old a nd much abused, and an amendment of it was proposed, the populace, as they had accused Moses of the ambition of making himself a prince, and cried out stone him, stone hira ; 80, exciting by their high-priests and scribes, they exclaimed against the Messiah, that he aimed at becoming king of the Jews, and cried, crucify him, crucify him. From all which we may gather, that popular opposition to a public measure is no proof of its impro priety, even though the opposition be ex cited and headed by raen of distinction. To conclude, I beg I may not be under- * Numbers, chap xvi, ver, 13, " Is it'a small thing that thcMi hast brought us up mil of a land flowing with milk and honey, lo kill us in this wilderness, except thou make thyself oltogelher a prince over us. " t Numbers, chap. iii. 1 Exodus, chap. xxx. § Numbers, chap. xvi. stood to infer, that our general convention was divinely inspired, when it formed the new federal constitution, merely because that constitution has been unreasonably and vehemently opposed ; yet, I must own, 1 have so much faith in the general government of the world by Providence, that I can hardly conceive a transaction of such momentous im portance to the welfare of millions now ex isting, and to exist in the posterity of a great nation, should be suffered to pass without be ing in some degree influenced, guided, and governed by that omnipotent, omnipresent, and beneficent ruler, in whom all inferior spirits live, and move, and have their being. THE INTERNAL STATE OF AME RICA; Being a true description of the Interest and Policy of that vast Continent. There is a tradition, that, in the planting of New England, the first settlers met witli many difficulties and hardships; as is gene rally the case when a civilized people attempt establishing themselves in a wilderness coun try. Being piously disposed, they sought re lief from Heaven, by laying their wants and distresses before the Lord, in frequent set days of fasting and prayer. Constant meditation and discourse on these subjects kept then minds gloomy and discontented ; and, like the children of Israel, there were many dis posed to return to that Egypt, which perse cution had induced them to abandon. At length, when it was proposed in the assembly to proclaim another fast, a farmer of plain sense rose and remarked, that the inconveni ences they suffered, aud concerning which they had so often wearied Heaven with their complaints, were not so great as they might have expected, and were diminishing every day as the colony strengthened; that the earth began to rewm-d tbeir labour, and to furnish liberally for their subsistence ; that the seas and rivers were found full of fish, the air sweet, the climate healthy ; and, above all, that they were there in the full enjoy ment of liberty, civil and religious: he there fore thought, that reflecting and conversing on these subjects would be more comfortable, as tending more to make them contented with their situation; and that it would be more becoming the gratitude they owed to the Divine Being, if, instead of a fast, they should proclaim a thanksgiving. His adv;-se was taken ; and from that day to tiiis they have, in every year, observed circumstances of public felicity sufficient to furnish employ ment for a thanksgiving day ; which is there fore constantly ordered and religiously ob served. HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL 213 I see in the public newspapers of different states frequent cora plaints of Aardiimes, dead- ness oftrade, scarcity of money, <^c. It is not my intention to assert or maintain, that these coraplaints are entirely without foun dation. There can be no country or nation existing, in which there will not be some people so circumstanced, as to find it hard to gain a livelihood ; people who are not in the way of any profitable trade, and with whora raoney is scarce, because they have no thing to give in exchange for it ; and it is al ways in Sie power of a sraall number to make a great claraour. But let us take a cool view ofthe general state of our affairs, and perhaps the prospect will appear less gloomy than has been imagined. The great business of the continent is agriculture. For one artisan, or merchant, I suppose, we have at least one hundred farm ers, by far the greatest part cultivators of their own fertile lands, frora whence many of them draw not only the food necessary for their subsistence, but the materials oftheir clothing, so as to need very few foreign sup plies ; while they have a surplus of produc- tioiis to dispose of, whereby wealth is gradu ally accuraulated. Such has been the good ness of Divine Providence to these regions, and so favourable the climate, that, since the three or four years of hardship in the first set tlement of our fathers here, a famine or scar city has never been heard of amongst us ; on the contrary, though some years may have been more, and others less plentiful, there has always been provision enough for ourselves, and a quantity to spare for exportation. And although the crops of last year were general ly good, never was the farmer better paid for the part he can spare comraerce, as the pub lished price currents abundantly testify. The lands he possesses are also continually rising in value with the increase of population ; and, on the whole, he is enabled to give such good wages to those who work for him, that all who are acquainted with the old world must agree, that in no part of it are the labouring poor so generally well fed, well clothed, well lodged, and well paid, as in the United States of America. If we enter the cities, we find, that, since the revolution, the owners of houses and lots of ground have had their interest vastly aug- raented in value ; rents have risen to an as tonishing height, and thence encouragement to increase building, which gives employment to an abundance of workmen, as does also the increased luxury and splendour of living of the inhabitants, thus made richer. These workmen all demand and obtain much higher wages than any other part of the world would afford them, and are paid in ready money.— This class ofpeople therefore do not, or ought not, to complain of hard times; and they make a very considerable part of the city in habitants. At the distance I live from our American fisheries, I cannot speak of them with any degree of certainty ; but I have not heard, that the labour of the valuable race of men era- ployed in thera is worse paid, or that they meet with less success, than before the revo lution. The whale-men indeed have been deprived of one market for their oil ; but ano ther, I hear, is opening for them, which it is hoped may be equally advantageous ; and the deraand is constantly increasing for their spermaceti candels, which therefore bear a much higher price than formerly. There remain the merchants and shop keepers. Of these, though they make but a small part of the whole nation, the number is considerable, too great indeed for the busi ness they are employed in ; for the consump tion of goods in every country has its limits; the faculties ofthe people, that is, their ability to buy and pay, being equal only to a certain quantity of merchandise. If merchants cal culate amiss on this proportion, and import too much, they will of course find the sale dull for the overplus, and some of them will say, that trade languishes. They should, and doubtless will grow, wiser by experience, and import less. If too many artificers in town, and farmers from the country, flattering them selves with the idea of leading easier lives, turn shopkeepers, the whole natural quantity of that business divided among them all may afford too small a share for each, and occasion complaints, that trade is dead ; these may also suppose, that it is owing to scarcity of money, while, in fact, it is not so much from the few ness of buyers, as from the excessive number of sellers, that the mischief arises ; and, if every shopkeeping farraer and mechanic would re turn to the use of his plough and working tools, there would remain of widows, and other women, shopkeepers sufficient for the business, which might then afford thera a comfortable maintenance. Whoever has travelled through the various parts of Europe, and observed how small is the proportion of people in affluence or easy circumstances there, compared with those in poverty and misery ; the few rich and haughty landlords, the multitude of poor, abject, rack- rented, tythe-paying tenants, and half paid and half-starved ragged labourers ; and views here the happy mediocrity, that so generally prevails throughout these states, where the cultivator works for himself, and supports his family in decent plenty, will, methinks, see abundant reason to bless Divine Providence for the evident and great difference in our favour, and be convinced, that no nation known to us enjoys a greater share of human felicity. It is true, that in some of the states there 214 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. are parties and discords ; but let us look back, and ask if we were ever without them? Such will exist wherever there is liberty ; and per haps they help to preserve it By the colli sion of different sentiments, sparks of truth are struck out, and political light is obtained. The different factions, which at present divide us, aim all at the public good : the differences are only about the various modes of promot ing it Things, actions, measures, and ob jects of all kinds, present themselves to the minds of raen in such a variety of lights, that it is not possible we should all thmk alike at the same time on every subject, when hardly the same man retains at all times the same ideas of it Parties are therefore the common lot of humanity ; and ours are by no means more mischievous or less beneficial than those of other countries, nations, and ages, enjoying in the sarae degree the great blessing of poli tical liberty. Some indeed among us are not so much grieved for the present state of our affairs, as apprehensive for the future. The growth of luxury alarms them, and they think we are from that alone in the high road to ruin. They observe, that no revenue is sufficient without economy, and that the most plentiful incorae of a whole people frora the natural productions oftheir country may be dissipated in vain and needless expenses, and poverty be introduced in the place of affluence. This may be possible. It however rarely happens : for there seems to be in every nation a greater proportion of industry and frugality, which tend to enrich, than of idleness and prodigali ty, which occasion poverty ; so that upon the whole there is a continual accumulation. Reflect what Spain, Gaul, Germany, and Bri tain were in the time of the Romans, inhabit ed by people little richer than our savages, and consider the wealth they at present pos sess, in numerous well-built cities, improved farms, rich moveables, magazines stocked with valuable manufactures, to say nothing of plate, jewels, and coined money ; aud all this, notwithstanding their bad, wasteful, plunder ing governments, and their raad destructive wars; and yet luxury and extravagant living has never suffered much restraint in those countries. Then consider the great propor tion of industrious frugal farmers inhabiting the interior parts of these Araerican states, and of whom the body of our nation consists, and judge whether it is possible, that tlie luxury of our sea-ports can be sufficient to ruin such a country. — If the importation of foreign luxuries could ruin a people, we should pro bably have been ruined long ago ; for tlie Bri tish nation claimed a right, and practised it, of importing among us not only the superflui ties oftheir own production, but those of every nation under heaven ; we bought and consum ed them, and yet we flourished and grew rich. At present our independent govern ments may do what we could not then do, dis courage by heavy duties, or prevent by heavy prohibitions, such importations, and thereby grow richer ; if, indeed, which raay admit of dispute, the desire of adorning ourselves with fine clothes, possessing fine furniture, with elegant houses, &c. is not, by strongly incit ing to labour and industry, the occasion of producing a greater value, than is consumed in the gratification of that desire. The agriculture and fisheries of the United States are the great sources of our increasing wealth. He that puts a seed into the earth is recompensed, perhaps, by receiving forty out ofit; and he who draws a fish out of our wa ter, draws up a piece of silver. Let us (and there is no doubt but we shall) be attentive to these, and then the power of rivals, witli all their restraining and prohibit ing acts, cannot much hurt us. We are sons of the earth and seas, and, like Anta;us in the fable, if, in wrestling with a Hercules, we now and then receive a fall, the touch of our pa rents will communicate to us fresh strength and vigour to renew the contest SETTLEMENT ON OHIO. When lord Halifax presided over the British Board ofTrade, 1760, a plan was suggested by Dr. Franklin for establishing a colony or settlement on the river Ohio; considerations of policy aod utility were com bined in this design ; among others that of serving as a protection to the interior frontier of the adjoining colonies against the Indians, which was highly approv ed by the Board of Trade- It had not been proceeded in at that period, but in 1770 it was renewed, and Tho mas Walpole.an eminent banker of London, was asso ciated with Dr. Franklin, John Sargent, and Samuel Wharton, and many others of great property in the de sign. A petition praying for a tract of land on the Ohio for this purpose was presented to the king in council by the above-named persons, on behalf of them selves and others. After the petition had been for some time before the privy council, it was referred, as usual. to the Board of Trade, to consider and report. Tbe re-^ port made appears to have been drawn up by lord Hills borough, who then presided al that Board. The an swer which follows was written by Dr. Franklin. Those papers excited great attention at that period, and it is believed lord Hillsborough never forgave Dr. Franklin the humiliation he felt from this answer. Report of the Lord Commissioners for Trade and Plantations, on the Petition of the Honourable Thomas Widpole and his Associates, for a Grant of Lands on the river Ohio, in North America. My Lords, — Pursuant to your lordships order ofthe 25th May, 1770, we have taken into our consideration the humhle memorial ofthe honourable Thomas Walpole, Benjamiu Franklin, John Sarfl^ent, and Samuel Whar ton, esquires, in behalf of themselves and their associates, setting forth among" other thin^, " That they presented a petition to his ma jesty in council, for a grant of lands in Ame rica (pared of the lands purchased by govern ment of the Indians) in consideration of a HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL. 21.5 price to be paid in purchase of the same ; that in pursuance of a suggestion which arose when the said petition was under considera tion ofthe lords commissioners for trade and plantations, the memorialists presented a pe tition to the lords commissioners of the trea sury, proposing to purchase a larger tract of land on the river Ohio in America, sufficient for a separate government ; whereupon their lordships were pleased to acquaint the memo rialists, they had no objection to accepting the proposals raade by them, with respect to the purchase-money and quit-rent to be paid for the said tract of land, if it should be thought adviseable by those departments of govern raent, to whom it belonged to judge of the proprietary of the grant, both in point of po licy and justice, that the grant should be made ; in consequence whereof the memorialists humbly renew their application, that a grant of said lands may be made to them, reserving therein to all persons their just and legal rights to any parts or parcels of said lands which may be comprehended luithin the tract prayed for by the memorialists ;" whereupon we beg leave to report to your lordships, I. That according to the description ofthe tract of land prayed for by the memorialists, which description is annexed to their memo rial, it appears to us to contain partof the do minion of Virginia, to the south of the river Ohio, and to extend several degrees of longi tude westward from the western ridge of the Appalachian mountains, as will more fully ap pear to your lordships frora the annexed sketch of the said tract, which we have since caused to be delineated with as much exact ness as possible, and herewith submit to your lordships, to the end that your lordships may- judge, with the greater precision, of the si tuation of the lands prayed for in the memo rial. II. From this sketch your lordships will ob serve, that a very considerable part of the lands prayed for lies beyond the line, which has, in consequence of his majesty's orders for that purpose, been settled by treaty, as well with the tribes of the Six Nations and their confederates, as with the Cherokee In dians, as the boundary line between his ma jesty's territories and their hunting grounds ; and as the faith of the crown is pledged in the most solemn manner both to the Six Nations and to the Cherokees, that notwithstanding the former of these nations had ceded the pro perty in the lands to his majesty, yet no set- tleraent shall be made beyond that line, it is our duty to report to your lordships our opi nion, that it would on that account he highly iraproper to coraply with the request of the memorial, so far as it includes any lands be yond the said line. It remains therefore, that we report to your lordships our opinion, how far it may consist with good policy and justice that his ma jesty should comply with that partof the me morial which relates to those lands, which are situated to the east of that line, and are part ofthe dorainion of Virginia. III. And first with regard to the policy, we take leave to remind your lordships of that principle which was adopted by this board, and approved and confirmed by his majesty, immediately after the treaty of Paris, viz. the confining the western extent of settlements, to such a distance from the sea-coast, as that those settlements should lie within the reach of the trade and commerce of this kingdom, upon which the strength and riches of it de pend, and also ofthe exercise of that authority and jurisdiction, which was conceived to be necessary for the preservation of the colonies, in a due subordination to, and dependence up on, the mother-country ; and these we appre hend to have been two capital objecLs of his majesty's proclamation of the 7th of October, 1763, by which his majesty declares it to be his royal will and pleasure.ito reserve under his sovereignty, protection, and dominion, for the use of the Indians, all the lands not in cluded within the three new governments, the limits of which are described therein, as also al! the lands and territories lying to the westward ofthe sources of the rivers which fall into the sea from the west and north-vvost, and by which, all persons are forbid to mske any purchases or settlements whatever, or to take possession of any of the lands above re served, without special license for that pur pose. IV. It is true indeed, that partly from wajii of precision in describing the line intended to be marked out by the proclamation of 1763, and partly frora a consideration of justice in regard to legal titles to lands, which bad been settled beyond that line, it has been since thought fit to enter into engagement.s with the Indians, for fixing a more precise and determined boundary between his majes ty's territories and their hunting grounds. V. By this boundary, so far as regard." tlie case now in question, your lordships will ob serve, that the hunting grounds of the Indiana are reduced within narrower limits than were specified by the proclamation of 1763 ; we beg leave, however, to submit to your lordships, that the same principles of policy, in refer ence to settlements at so great a distance from the seacost as to he out of the reach nf all advantageous intercourse with, this king dom, continue to exist in their full force and spirit, and though various propositions tor erecting new colonies in the interior parts of America have been, in consequence of this extension of the boundary line, submitted to the consideration of government (particularly in that part of the country wherein are situ ated the lands now prayed for, with a view 216 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. to that object) yet the dangers and disadvan tages of complying with such proposals have been so obvious, as to defeat every attempt made for carrying thera into execution. " VI. Many objections, besides those which we have already stated, occur to us to pro positions of this kind ; but as every argument on this subject is collected together with great force and precision, in a representation made to his majesty by the comraissioners for trade and plantations in March, 1768, we beg leave to state them to your lordships in their words. In that representation they deliver their opinion upon a proposition for settling new colonies in the interior country as follows, viz. " The proposition of forming inland colo nies in America, is, we humbly conceive, en tirely new : it adopts principles in respect to American settleraents diflerent frora what has hitherto been the policy of this kingdom, and leads to a system which if pursued through all its consequences, is, in the present state of that country, of the greatest importance. " The great object of colonizing upon the continent of North America, has been to im prove and extend the coramerce, navigation, and manufactures of this kingdom, upon which its strength and security depend. " 1. By promoting the advantageous fishe ry carried on upon the northern coast. " 2. By encouraging the growth and cul ture of naval stores, and of raw materials, to be transported hither in exchange for perfect manufactures and other merchandise. " 3. By securing a supply of lumber, pro visions, and other necessaries, for the sup port of our establishments in the American islands. " In order to answer these salutary pur poses it has been tbe policy of this kingdom to confine her settlements as much as possi ble to the sea-coast, and not to extend them to places inaccessible to shipping, and conse quently more out of the reach of coramerce ; a plan, which, at the same time that it se cured the attainment of these commercial ob jects, had the further political advantage of guarding against all interfering of foreign powers, and of enabling this kingdom to keep up a superior naval force in those seas, by the actual possession of such rivers and harbours as were proper stations for fleets in tirae of war. " Such, may it please your majesty, have been the considerations inducing that plan of policy hitherto pursued in the settlement of your raajesty's American colonies, with which the private interest and sagacity of the set tlers co-operated from the first establishments formed upon that continent: it was upon tliese principles, and with these views, that government undertook the settling of Nova Scotia in 1749 ; and it was from a view of the advantages represented to arise from it in these different articles, that it was so libe rally supported by the aid of parliament. " The same motives, though operating in a less degree, and applying to fewer objects, did, as we humbly conceive, induce the form ing the colonies of Georgia, East Florida, and West Florida, to the south, and the making those provincial arrangements in the procla mation of 1763, by which the interior country was left to the possession of the Indians. " Having thus briefly stated what has been the policy of this kingdom in respect to colo nizing in America, it may be necessary to take a cursory view of what has been the effect of it in those colonies, where there has been sufficient tirae for that effect to discover itself; because, if it shall appear from the present state of these settlements, and the progress they have made, that they are likely to produce tbe advantages above stated, it will, we humbly apprehend, be a very strong argument against forraing settlements in the interior country ; more especially, when every advantage, derived from an established go vernment, would naturally tend to draw the stream of population ; fertility of soil and tem perature of climate offering superior incite ments to settlers, who, exposed to few hard ships, and struggling with few difficulties, could, with little labour, earn an abundance for their own wants, but without a possibility of supplying ours with any considerable quan tities. Nor would these inducements be con fined in their operation to foreign emigrants, determining their choice where to settle, but would act most powerfully upon the inhabi tants of the northern and southern latitudes of your majesty's Araerican dominions; who, ever suffering under the opposite extremes of heat and cold, would be equally tempted by a moderate climate to abandon latitudes peculiarly adapted to the production of those things, which are by nature denied to us; and for the whole of which we should, without their assistance, stand indebted to, and de pendant upon other countries. " It is well known, tliat antecedent to the year 1749, all that part of the sea-coast ofthe British empire in America, which extends north-east from the province of Main to Can- ceau in Nova Scotia, and from thence north to the mouth of St. Laurence river, lay waste and neglected; though naturally afiording, or capable by art of producing, every species of naval stores ; tho seas bounding with whale, cod, and otlier valuable fish, tuid having many great rivers, bays, and harbours, fit for the re ception of ships of war. Thus circumstanced, a consideration ofthe great commercial advan tages which would follow from securing the possession of this country, combined with the evidence of tlie value set upon it by our ene mies, who, during the war which terminated HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL. 217 at that period, had, at an imraense expense, at tempted to wrest it from us, induced that plan, for the settlement of Nova Scotia, to which we have before referred ; and which, being prosecuted with vigour, though at a very large expense to this kingdom, secured the posses sion of that province, and formed those esta blishments which contributed so greatly to facilitate and promote the success of your majesty's arms in the late war. " The establishraent of governraent in this part of America, having opened to the view and information of your majesty's subjects in other colonies the great commercial advan tages to be derived from it, induced a zeal for migration ; and associations were formed for taking up lands, and making settlements, in this province, by principal persons residing in these colonies. " In consequence of these associations, up wards of ten thousand souls have passed frora tbose colonies into Nova Scotia ; who have either engaged in the fisheries, or become exporters of lumber and provisions to the West Indies. And further settlements, to the extent of twenty-one townships, of one hundred thousand acres each, have been en gaged to be raade there, by many of the prin cipal persons in Pennsylvania, whose names and association for that purpose now lie be fore your majesty in council. " The government of Massachusetts Bay, as well as the proprietors of large tracts to the eastward of the province of Maine, ex cited by the success of these settlements, are giving every encouragement to the like set tleraents in that valuable country, lying be tween thera and Nova Scotia ; and the pro prietors of the twelve townships lately laid out there, by the Massachusetts governraent, now solicit your majesty for a confirraation of their title. " Such, raay it please your majesty, is the present state ofthe progress making in the settlement of the northern parts of the sea- coasts of North America, in consequence of what appears to have heen the policy adopted by this kingdom : and raany persons of rank and substance here are proceeding to carry into execution the plan which your majesty (pursuing the same principles of comraercial policy) has approved, for the settleraent ofthe islands of St. John and Cape Breton, and of the new-established colonies to the south : and, therefore, as we are fully convinced, that the encouraging settleraents upon the sea- coast of North America is founded in the true principles of comraercial policy ; and as we find, upon examination, that the happy effects of that policy are now beginnmg to open them selves, hi the establishraent of these branches of commerce, culture, and navigation, upon which the strength, wealth, and security of this kingdom depend ; we cannot be of opinion, Vol. II. ... 2 E 19 that it would in any view be adviseable, to divest your majesty's subjects in America, from the pursuit of those important objects, by adopting measures of a new policy, at an expense to this kingdom, which in its present slate it is unable to bear. " This, may it please your majesty, being the light in which we view the proposition of colonizing in the interior country, consider ed as a general principleof policy : we shall in the next place, proceed to examine the se veral arguments urged in support of the par ticular establishments now recommended. '• These arguments appear to us reducible to the following general propositions, viz. " First, That such colonies will promote population, and increase the demands for and consumption of British manufactures. " Secondly, That they will secure the fur trade, and prevent an illicit trade, or interfer ing of French or Spaniards with the Indians. " Thirdly, That they will be a defence and protection to the old colonies against the In dians. " Fourthly, That they will contribute to lessen the present heavy expense of supplying provisions to the distant forts and garrisons. " Lastly, That they are necessary in respect to the inhabitants already residing in those places where they are proposed to be esta blished, who require sorae form of civil govern ment. " After what we have already stated with respect to the policy of encouraging colonies in the interior country as a general princi ple, we trust it will not be necessary to enter into an ample discussion of the arguments brought to support the foregoing propositions. " We admit as an undeniable principle of true policy, that with a view to prevent manu factures, it is necessary and proper to open an extent of territory for colonization ppportion- ed to the increase ofpeople, as a large num ber of inhabitants cooped up in narrow limits, without a sufficiency of land for produce, would be compelled to convert their attention and industry to manufactures; but we sub mit whether the encourageraent given to the settlement of the colonies upon the sea-coast, and the effect which such encouragement has had, have not already effectually provided for this object, as well as for increasing the demand for, and consumption of British manufactures, an advantage which, in our humble opinion, would not be promoted by these new colonies, which being proposed to be established at the distance of above fifteen hundred miles from the sea, and in places which, upon the fullest evidence, are found to be utterly inaccessible to shipping, will, from their inability to find returns wherewith to pay for the manufac tures of Great Britain, be probably led to manu facture for themselves ; a consequence which experience shows has constantly attended in 21 S FRANKLIN'S WORKS. a greater or lesser degree every inland settle ment, and therefore ought, in our humble opi nion, to be carefully guarded against, by en couraging the settlement of that extensive tract of sea-coast, hitherto unoccupied; which, together with the liberty that the inhabitants ofthe middle colonies will have (in conse quence of the proposed boundary line with the Indians) of gradually extending them selves backwards, will more eft'ectually and beneficially answer the object of encouraging population and consumption, than the erection of new governments ; such gradual extension might, through the raedium of a continued population, upon even the same extent of ter ritory, preserve a comraunication of mutual commercial benefits between its extremest parts and Great Britain, impossible to exist in colonies .separated by immense tracts of un peopled desert. — As to the effect which it is supposed the colonies may have to increase and promote the fur trade, and to prevent all contraband trade or intercourse between the Indians under your majesty's protection, and the French or Spaniards ; it does appear to us, that the extension ofthe fur trade depends entirely upon the Indians being undisturbed in the possession of their hunting grounds ; that all colonizing does in its nature, and must in its consequences, operate to the pre judice of that branch of commerce, and that the French and Spaniards would be left in possession of a great part of what remained; as New Orleans would still continue the best and surest market. " As to the protection which it is supposed these new colonies raay be capable of afford ing to the old ones, it will, in our opinion, ap pear upon the slightest view of their situation, that so far from affording protection to the old colonies, they will stand most in need of it themselves. "It cannot be denied, that new colonies would be of advantage in raising provisions for the supply of such forts and garrisons as may be kept up in the neighbourhood of them ; but as the degree of utility will be proportion ed to the nuraber and situation of these forts and garrisons, which upon the result of the present inquiry it may be thought adviseable to continue, so the force ofthe argument will depend upon that event. " The present French inhabitants in the neighbourhood ofthe lakes will, in our hum ble 'opinion, be sufficient to furnish with pro visions whatever posts may be necessary to be continued there ; and as there are also French inhabitants settled in some parts of the country lying upon the Mississippi, be tween the rivers Illinois and the Ohio, it is to be hoped that a sufficient number of these may be induced to fix their abode, where the same convenience and advantage may be de rived from them ; but if no such circumstance were to exist, and no such assistance to be expected frora it, the objections stated to the plan now under our consideration are superior to this, or any other advantage it can produce ; and although civil establishraents have fre quently rendered the expense of an armed force necessary fbr their protection, one of the many objections to these now proposed, yet we humbly presume there never has been an instance of a government instituted merely with a view to supply a body of troops with suitable provisions; nor is it necessary in these instances for these settleraents, already existing as above described, which being form ed under railitary establishments, and ever subjected to military authority, do not, in our humble opinion, require any other superin tendence than that of the military officers commanding at these posts." " In addition to this opinion of the board of trade, expressed in the foregouig recital, we further beg leave to refer your lordships to the opinion of the commander-in-chief of his ma jesty's forces in North America, who, in a letter laid before us by the earl of Hillsbo rough, delivers his sentunents with regard to settlements in the interior parts of America in the following words, viz. " VII. As to increasing the settlements to respectable provinces, and to colonization in general terms in the remote countries, I con ceive it altogether inconsistent with sound policy ; for there is little appearance that the advantages will arise from it, which nations expect when they send out colonies into fo reign countries ; they can give no encourage ment to the fishery, and though the country might afford some kind of naval stores, the distance would be too far to transport them ; and for the same reason they could not supply the sugar islands with lumber and provisions. As for the raising wine, silk, and other com modities, the same may be said ofthe present colonies without planting others for the pur pose at so vast a distance ; but on the suppo sition that they would be raised, their very long transportation must probably make them too dear for any market I do not apprehend the inhabitants could have any commodities to barter for manufactures, except skins and furs, which will naturally decrease, as the country increases m people, and the deserts are cultivated ; so that in the course of a few years necessity would force thera to provide manufactures of some kind for themselves; and when all connexion upheld by commerce with the motlier-country shall cease, it may be expected, that an independency on her go vernment will soon follow ; the pretence of forming barriers will have no end; where- ever we settle, however remote, there must be a frontier ; and there is room enough for the colonists to spread within our present li mits, for a century to come. If we reflect how HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL. 219 the people of themselves have gradually re tired from the coast, we shall be convinced they want no encouragement to desert the sea- coast, and go into the back countries, where the lands are better, and got upon easier terms ; they are already almost out of the reach of the law and government ; neither the endea vours of government, or fear of Indians, has kept them properly within bounds; and it is apparently most for the interest of Great Bri tain to confine the colonies on the side of the back country, and to direct their settlements along the sea-coast, where millions of acres are yet uncultivated. The lower provinces are still thinly inhabited, and brought to the point of perfection that has been aimed at for the mutual benefit of Great Britain and thera selves. Although Araerica may supply the mother-country with many articles, few of them are yet supplied in quantities equal to her consumption, the quantity of iron trans ported is not great, of hemp very small, and there are raany other comraodities not neces sary to enumerate, which Araerica has not yet been able to raise, notwithstanding the en couragement given her by bounties and pre- miuras. The laying open new tracts offer- tile territory in moderate climates might les sen her present produce; for it is the passion ofevery man to be a landholder, and the peo ple have a natural disposition to rove in search of good lands, however distant. It may be a question likewise, v.hether colonization of the kind could be effected vjithout an Indian war and fighting for every inch of ground. The Indians have long been jealous of our power, and have no patience in seeing us approach their towns, and settle upon their hunting grounds; atonements raay be raade tor a fraud discovered in a trader, and even the raurder of some of their tribes, but encroachments up on their lands have often produced serious consequences. The springs ofthe last gene ral war are to be discovered near the Alle ghany mountains, and upon the banks of the Ohio. " It is so obvious, that settlers might raise provisions to feed the troops, cheaper than it can be transported frora the country below, that it is not necessary to explain it ; but I must own I know no other use in settlements, or can give any other reason fbr supporting forts, than to protect the settlements, and keep the settlers in subjection to governraent. " I conceive, that to procure all the com merce it will afford, and at as little expense to ourselves as we can, is the only object we should have in view in the interior coun try, for a century to come ; .and I imagine it might be effected, by proper manasement, without either forts or settleraents. Our ma nufactures are as much desired by the Indians, as their peltry is sought for by us ; what was originally deemed a superfluity, or a luxury by the natives, is now become a necessary ; they are disused to the bow, and can neither hunt or make war without fire-arras, powder, and lead. The British provinces can only supply them with their necessaries, which they know, and for their own sakes would protect the trader, which they actually do at present. It would remain with us to prevent the traders being guilty of fraudsand iraposi- tions, and to pursue the sarae methods to that end, as are talien in the southern district; and I must confess, though the plan pursued in that district might be improved by proper laws to support it, that I do not know a better, or raore economical plan fbr the management oftrade; there are neither fort.s nor settle ments, in the southern department, and there are both in the northern department ; and your lordships will be the best judge, which of them has given you the least trouble; in which we have had the fewest quarrels with, or coraplaints frora the Indians. " I know of nothing so liable to bring on a serious quarrel with Indians as an invasion of their property. Let the savages enjoy their deserts in quiet ; little bickerings that raay unavoidably sometimes happen, may soon be accommodated ; and I am of opinion, independent of the motives of common justice and humanity, that the principles of interest and policy, should induce us rather to protect tlian molest them : were they driven from their forests, the peltry trade would decrease ; and it is not impossible that worse savages would take refuge in them, for they might then become the asylum of fugitive negroes, and idle vagabonds, escaped frora justice, who in time might become formidable, and sub sist by rapine, and plundering the lower countries." VIII. The opinions delivered in the fore going recitals are so accurate and precise, as to raake it almost unnecessary to add any thing more : but we beg leave to lay before your lordships the sentiments of his majesty's go vernor of Georgia, upon the subject of large grants in the interior parts of America, whose knowledge and experience in the affairs of the colonies give great weight to his opinion. In a letter to us, on the subject of the mis chiefs attending such grants, he expresses himself in the following manner, viz. " And now, my lords, I beg your patience a moment, while I consider this matter in a more extensive point of view, and go a little further in declaring my sentiments and opi nion, with respect to the granting of large bodies of land in the back parts of the pro vince of Georgia, or in any other of his majes ty's northern colonies, at a distance frora the sea-coast, or from such parts of any province as is already settled and inhabited. " And this matter, ray lords, appears to me in a very serious and alarming light ; and I 220 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. humbly conceive may be attended with the greatest and worst of consequences ; for, my lords, if a vast territory be granted to any set of gentlemen, who really mean to people it, and actually do so, it must draw and carry out a great number of people from Great Bri tain; and I apprehend they will soon become a kind of separate and independent people, and who will set up for theraselves ; that they will soon have manufactures of their own ; that they will neither take supplies from the mother-country, or frora the provinces, at the back of which they are settled ; that being at a distance frora the seat of government, courts, magistrates, &c. &c., they will be out ofthe reach and control and law of government ; that it will become a receptacle and kind of asylum for offenders, who will fly from justice to such new country or colony ; and therefore crimes and offences will be coraraitted, not only by the inhabitants of such new settle raents, but elsewhere, and pass with impuni ty ; and that in process of time (and perhaps at no great distance) they will become formi dable enough to oppose his majesty's authori ty, disturb government, and even give law to the other or first settled part of the country, and throw every thing into confusion. "My lords, 1 hope I shall not be thought impertinent, when I give my opinion freely, in a matter of so great consequence, as I con ceive this to be ; and, my lords, I apprehend, that in all the Araerican colonies, great care should be taken, that the lands on the sea- coast should be thick settled with inhabitants, and well cultii ated and improved ; and that the settlements should be gradually extended back into tbe province, and as much connect ed as possible, to keep the people together in as narrow a compass, as the nature of the lands, and state of things will admit of; and by which raeans there would probably be come only one general view and interest amongst thera and the power of government, and law would of course naturally and easily go with them, and matters thereby properly regulated, and kept in due order and obe dience ; and they would have no idea of re sisting or transgressing either, without being amenable to justice, and subject to punish ment for offences tbey may commit. " But, my lords, to suffer a kind of province within a prorvince, and one that may, indeed must, in process of time, become superior, and too big for the head, or original settleraent or seat of government, to me conveys with it many ideas of consequences, of such a nature, as 1 apprehend are extremely dangerous and improper, and it would be the policy of go vernment to avoid and prevent, whilst in their power to do so. " My ideas, my lords, are not chimerical ; I know something ofthe situation and state of things in America ; and from sorae little occur rences or instances that have already really happened, I can very easily figure to myself what may, and, in short, what will certainly happen, if not prevented in time." IX. At the same time that we submit the foregoing reasoniilg against colonization in the interior country to your lordship's con sideration, it is proper we should take notice of one argument, which has been invariably held forth in support of every proposition of this nature, and upon which the present pro ponents appear to lay great stress. It is urged, that such is the state of the country now proposed to be granted, and erected into a separate government, that no endeavours on the part of the crown can avail, to prevent its being settled by those who, by the increase of population in the middle colonies, are con tinually emigrating to the westward, and forming themselves into colonies in that coun try, without the intervention or control of go vernment, and who, if suffered to continue in that lawless state of anarchy and confusion, will commit such abuses as cannot fail of in volving us in quarrel and dispute with the In dians, and thereby endangering the security of his majesty's colonies. " We admit, that this is an argument that deserves attention ; and we rather take no tice of it in this place, because some of the ob jections stated by governor Wright lose their force, upon ihe supposition that Ihe grants against which he argues are to be erected into separate governments. But we are clearly of opinion, that his arguments do, in the general view of them, as applied to the question of granting lands in the interior parts of America, stand unanswerable ; and admitting that the settlers in the country in question are as numerous as report stales them to be, yet we submit to your lordships, that this is a fact which does, in the nature of it, operate strongly in point of argument against what is proposed ; for, if the fore going reasoning has any weight, it certainly ought to induce your lordships to advise his majesty to take every method to check the pro gress of these settlements, and not to make such grants of the land as will have an im mediate tendency to encourage them ; a mea sure which we conceive is altogether as un necessary as it is impolitic, as we see nothing to hinder the governmentof Virginia from ex tending the laws and constitution of that co lony to such persons as may have already settled there under legal titles. X. And there is one objection suggested by governor Wright to the extension of settle ments in the interior country, which, we submit, deserves your lordship's particular attention, viz. the encouragement tliat is thereby held out to the emigration of his ma- HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL. 221 jesty's European subjects; an argument which, in the present situation of this king dom, demands very serious consideration, and has for some time past had so great weight with this board, that it has induced us to deny our concurrence to many proposals for grants of land, even in those parts of the continent of America where, in all other respects, we are of opinion, that it consists with the true po licy of this kingdom to encourage settlements; and this consideration of the certain bad con sequences which must result frora a conti nuance of such emigrations as have lately taken place frora various parts of his majesty's European dominions, added to the constant drains to Africa, to the East Indies, and to the new ceded islands, will, we trust, with what has been before stated, be a sufficient answer to every argument that can be urged in sup port of the present memorial, so far as regards the consideration ofit in point of policy. XI. With regard to the propriety in point of justice, of raaking the grant desired, we presume this consideration can have refer ence only to the case of such persons who have already possession of lands in that part ofthe country, under legal titles derived from grants made by the governor and council of Virginia ; upon which case we have only to observe, that it does appear to us, that there are some such possessions held by persons who are not parties to the present memorial ; and therefore, if your lordships shall be of opi nion, that the making the grant desired would, notwithstanding the reservation proposed, in respect to such titles, have the effect to dis turb those possessions, or to expose the propri etors to suit and litigation, we do conceive that, in that case, the grant would be objec tionable in point of justice. XII. Upon the whole, therefore, we can not recomraend to your lordships to advise his majesty to comply with the prayer of this memorial, either as to the erection of any parts of the lands into a separate governraent, or the raaking a grant of them to the memo rialists; but, on the contrary, we are of opi nion, that settlements in that distant part of the country should be as much discouraged as possible ; and that, in order thereto, it will be expedient, not only that the orders which have been given to the governor of Virginia, not to raake any further grants beyond the line pre scribed by the proclamation of 1763, should be continued -and enforced, but that another proclaraation should be issued, declaratory of his majesty's resolution not to allow for the present, any new settlements beyond that line, and to forbid all persons from taking up or settling any lands in that part ofthe coun try. — We are, my lords, your lordships most obedient and most humble servants. Whitehall, April 15, 1772. 19* Observations on, and answers to the forego ing Report. [Drawn up by Dr. Benjamin Franklin.] I. "The first paragraph of the report, we apprehend, was intended to establish two pro positions as facts ; viz. First, That the tract of land agreed for with the lords commissioners of the treasury, con tains part ofthe dominion of Virginia. Second, That it extends several degrees oi longitude westward from the western ridge ol the Alleghany moantains. On the first proposition we shall only re mark, that no part ofthe above tract is to the eastward of the Alleghany mountains ; — and that these mountains must be considered as the true western boundary of Virginia ; for the king was not seised and possessed of a right to the country westward of the moun tains, until his majesty purchased it, in the year 1768, from the Six Nations: and since that time, there has not been any annexation of such purchase, or of any part thereof, to the colony of Virginia. On the second proposition, — we shall just observe, that the lords commissioners for trade and plantations appear to us to be as erroneous in this as in the former proposition ; for their lordships say, that the tract of land under con sideration extends several degrees of longi tude westward. The truth is, that it is not raore, on a mediura, that one degree and a half of longitude frora the western ridge of the Alleghany mountains to the river Ohio. II. It appears by the second paragraph, as if the lords coraraissioners for trade and plant ations apprehended, — that the lands south westerly of the boundary line, marked on a map annexed to their lordships' report, — were either claimed by the Cherokees, or were their hunting grounds, or were the hunting- grounds of the Six Nations and their confe derates. As to any claim of the Cherokees to the above country, it is altogether new and inde fensible ; and never was heard of, until the appointment of Mr. Stewart to the superin- tendency of the southern colonies, about the year 1764; and this, we flatter ourselves, will not only be obvious frora the following state of facts, but that the right to all the coun try on the southerly side of the river Ohio, quite to the Cherokee river, is now undoubt edly vested in the king, by the grant which the Six Nations made to his majesty at Fort Stanwix, in November, 1768. — In short, the lands from the Great Kenhawa to the Che rokee river never were either the dwelling or hunting grounds of the Cherokees ; — but formerly belonged to, and were inhabited by the Shawanese, until such time as they were conquered by the Six Nations. Mr. Colden, the present lieutenant-govern- 223 FRANKLIN'S WORKS or of New York, in his history of the Five i Nations, observes, that about the year 1664, " the Five Nations being amply supplied by the English with fire-arras and ammunition, gave a full swing to their warlike genius. They carried their arras as far south as Ca rolina, to the northward of New England, and as far west as the river Mississippi, over a vast country, which extended twelve hundred miles in length from north to south, and about six hundred miles in breadth, — where they entirely destroyed whole nations, of whora there are no accounts reraaining amons the English." In 1701, the Five Nations put, all their hunting lands under the protection ofthe Eng lish, as appears by the records, and by the re cital and confirmation thereof, in their deed to the king of the 4th September, 1726 ; — and governor Pownall, who many years ago dili gently searched into the rights of the natives, and in particular into those of the northern confederacy, says, in his book intituled, the Administration of the Colonies, " The right ofthe Five Nation confederacy to the hunting lands of Ohio, Ticucksouchrondite and Sca- niaderiada, by the conquest they made, in sub duing the Shaoanoes, Delawares (as we call them,) Twictwees, and Oilinois, may be fairly proved, as they stood possessed thereof at the peace of Ryswick, 1697." — And con firmatory hereof, Mr. Lewis Evans, a gentle man of great Araerican knowledge, in his map of the middle colonies, published in Ame rica in the year 1755, has laid down the country on the south-easterly side of tbe river Ohio, as the hunting lands of the Six Na tions ; and in his analysis to this map, he ex pressly says, — " The Shawanese, who were formerly one of the most considerable na tions of those parts of America, whose seat extended from Kentucke south-westward to the Mississippi, have been subdued by the confederates (or Six Nations) and the coun try since became their property. No nation," Mr. Evans adds, " held out with greater reso lution and bravery, and although they have been scattered in all parts for a while, they are again collected on Ohio, under the dorai nion of the confederates." At a congress held in the year 1744, by the provinces of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, with the Six Nations, — the com missioners of Virginia, in a speech to the sa chems and warriors of that confederacy, say, " tell us what nations of Indians you conquer ed any lands from in Virginia, how long it is since, and what possession you have had; and if it does appear that there is any land on the borders, of Virginia that the Six Nations have a right to, we are willing to make you satis faction." To this speech, the Six Nations gave the following animated and decisive answer :— " All the world knows we conquered the se veral nations living on Susquehanna, Cohon- goranto [i. e. Powtomack] and on the back of the great mountains in Virginia ; — the Conoy-uck-suck-roona, Cocknow-was-roonan, Tohoa-irough-roonan, and Connntskinough- roonaw feel the effects of our conquests ; be ing no w a part of our nations, and their lands at our disposal. We know very well, it hatb often been said by the Virginians, that tbe king of England and the people of that co lony conquered the people who lived there ; but it is not true. VC'e will allow, they con quered the Sachdagughronaw, and drove back the Tuskaroras [the first resided near the branches of James's river in Virginia, and the latter on these branches] and that they have, on that account, a right to sorae parts of Virginia ; but as to what lies beyond the mountains, we conquered the nations residing there, and that land, if the Virginians ever get a good right to it, it must be by us." In the year 1750, the French seized four English traders, who were trading with tbe Six Nations, Shawanese, and Delaweu-es, on the waters of the Ohio, and sent thera pri soners to Quebec, and frora thence to France. In 1754, the French took a formal posses sion of the river Ohio, and built forts at Ve nango, — at the confluence of the Ohio and Monongahela, and at the mouth of the Che rokee river. In 1755, general Baddock was sent to Ame rica with an army, to remove tbe French from their possessions over the Alleghany mountains, and on the river Ohio ; and on his arrival at Alexandria, he held a council of war with the governors of Virginia, Mary land, Pennsylvania, New York, and the Massachusetts Bay ; — and as these gentlemen well knew, that the country claimed by the French, over the Alleghany mountains, and south-westerly to the river Mississippi, was the unquestionable property of the Six Nations, and not of the Cherokees, or any other tribe of Indians, — the general gave instructions to sir William Johnson to call together the In dians of tbe Six Nations, and lay before them theu* before-mentioned grant to the king in 1726, — wherein they had put all their bunt ing lands under his majesty's protection ; to be guaranteed to them, and to their use : — And as general Braddock's instructions are clearly declaratory of the right ofthe Six Na- tiotis to the lands under consideration, we shall here transcribe the conclusive words of them, — And it appearing that the French have, from time to tirae, by fi-aud and violence, built strong forts within the limits ofthe said lands, contrary to the covenant chain of the said deed and treaties, you are, in my name, to assure the said nations, that I am come by his majesty's order, to destroy all the said forts, and to build such others, as shall protect HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL. 223 and secure the said lands to them, their heirs and successors for ever, according to the intent and spirit of the said treaty; and I do therefore call upon them to take up the hatchet, and come and take possession of their own lands." That general Braddock and the American governors, were not singular in their opi nion, as to the right of the Six Nations to the land over the Alleghany mountains, and on both sides of the river Ohio, quite to the Mis sissippi, is evident, from the meraorials which passed between the British and French courts in 1755. In a memorial delivered by the king's mi nisters on the 7th June, 1755, to the duke Mirepoix, relative to the pretensions of France to the above-mentioned lands, they very just ly observed — " As to the exposition, which is made in the French memorial ofthe 15th ar ticle of treaty of Utrecht, the court of Great Britain does not think it can have any founda tion, either by the words or the intention of this treaty. " 1st, The court of Great Britain cannot allow of this article relating only to the per sons of the savages, and not their country : the words of this treaty are clear and precise. That is to say. The Five Nations, or Cantons, are subject to the dominion of Great Britain, — which, by the received exposition of all treaties, must relate to the country, as well as to the persons ofthe inhabitants; — it is what France has acknowledged, in the most so lemn manner : — She had well weighed the importance of this acknowledgment at the tirae of signing this treaty, and Great Britain can never give it up. The countries possess ed by these Indians are very well known, and are not at all so undetermined, as it is pre tended in the memorial; they possess and make them over as other proprietors do, in all other places." "5th, Whatever pretext might be alleged by France, in considering these countries as the appurtenances of Canada ; it is a certain truth that they have belonged, and (as they have not been given up, or raade over to the Eng lish) belong still to the same Indian nations ; which, bythe fifteenth article ofthe treaty of Utrecht, France agreed not to molest, — NuUo in posterura impediraento, aut molestia afficiant." " Notwithstanding all that has been advanc ed in this article, the court of Great Britain cannot agree to France having tbe least title to the river Ohio, and the territory in ques tion. [N. B. This was all the country, from the Alleghany mountains to the Ohio, and down the same, and on both sides theueof to the river Mississippi.]* * The French claimed it in 1783. At the peace of 1815, the BritiBh negociators at Ghent set up the like claim wbich they had refused to the French, and made it a sine qua non: but tbey retraced tbeir steps. " Even that of possession is not, nor can it be alleged on this occasion ; since France cannot pretend to have had any such before the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, nor since, un less it be that of certain /orJs, unjustly erect ed lately on the lands which evidently belong to the Five Nations, or which these have made over to the crown of Great Britain or its subjects, as may be proved by treaties and acts of the greatest authority. — What the court of Great Britain maintained, and what it insists upon, is. That the Five Nations tf the Iroquois, acknowledged by France to be the subjects of Great Britain, are, by origin, or by right of conquest, the lawful proprie tors of the river Ohio, and the territory in question : And as to the territory, which has been yielded and made over by these peo ple to Great Britain (which cannot but be owned raust be the most just and lawful manner of making an acquisition of this sort) she reclaims it, as belonging to her, having continued cultivating it for above twenty years past, and having made settlements in several parts of it, from the sources even of the Ohio to Pichawillanes, in the centre of the territory between the Ohio and the Wa bash." In 1755, the lords commissioners for trade and plantations were so solicitous to ascertain the territory of the Six Nations, that Dr. Mitchel, by their desire, published a large map of North America ; and Mr. Pownall, the present secretary of the board of trade, then certified, as appears on the map, — That the doctor was furnished with documents for the purpose frora that board. In this map. Dr. Mitchel observes, "that the Six Nations have extended their territories, ever since the year 1672, when they subdued and were incorpo rated with the ancient Shawanese, the native proprietors of these countries, and the river Ohio : besides which, they likewise claim a right of conquest over the Illinois, and all the Mississippi, as far as they extend. This," he adds, " is confirmed by their own claims and possessions in 1742, which include all the bounds here laid down, and none have ever thought fit to dispute them." And, in con firmation of this right of the Six Nations to the country on the Ohio, as mentioned by the king's ministers, in their memorial to the 'duke of Mirepoix, in 1755, we would just re mark, that the Six Nations, Shawanese, and Delawares, were in the actual occupation of the lands southward of the great Kenhawa for some time after the French had encroach ed upon the river Ohio ; and that in the year 1752, these tribes had a large town on Ken tucky river, two hundred and thirty eight miles below the Scioto : That in the year 1753 they resided and hunted on the southerly side ofthe river Ohio, in the low country, at about three hundred and twenty miles below the Great Kenhawa; and in the year 1755, they 224 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. had also a large town opposite to the mouth of the Scioto; at the very place, which is the southern boundary line of the tract of land applied for by Mr. Walpole and his asso ciates. But it is a certain fact, that the Che rokees never had any towns or settlements in the country southward of the great Kenhawa ; that they do not hunt there, and that neither the Six Nations, Shawanese, nor Delawares, do now reside or hunt on the southerly side of the river Ohio, nor did not fbr several years before they sold the country to the king. These are facts which can be easily and ful ly proved. In October, 1768, at a congress held with the Six Nations at Fort Stanwix, they observ ed to sir William Johnson: — " Now, brother, you who know all our affairs, must be sensi ble that our rights go rauch farther to the southward than the Kenhawa, — and that we have a very good and clear title as far south as the Cherokee river, which we cannot al low to be the right of any other Indians, with out doing wrong to our posterity, and acting unworthy those warriors who fought and con quered it ; — we therefore expect thisour right will be considered." In Noveraber, 1769, the Six Nations sold to the king all the country on the southerly side ofthe river Ohio, as far as the Cherokee river ; but notwithstanding that sale, as soon as it was understood in Virginia, that govern ment /auouretZ the pretensions of the Chero kees, and that Dr. Walker and colonel Lewis (the coraraissioners sent from that colony to the congress at Fort Stanwix) had returned from thence, the late lord Bottetourt sent these gentlemen to Charleston, South Caroli na, to endeavour to convince Mr. Stuart, the southern superintendent of Indian affairs, of the necessity of enlarging the boundary line which he had settled with the Cherokees;— aii.l to run it from the Great Kenhawa to Hol- Bton's river. These gentlemen were appoint ed commissioners by his lordship, as they had been long conversant in Indian affairs, and were well acquainted with the actual extent ofthe Cherokee country.— Whilst these cora raissioners were in South Carolina, they wrote a letter to Mr. Stuart, as he had been but a very few years in the Indian service, (and could not, frora the nature of his former era- ployraent, be supposed to be properly inform- n\ about the Cherokee territory,) respecting tho claims ofthe Cherokees to the lands south ward of the Great Kenhawa, and therein they expressed themselves as follows : " OHiRLESiON, South Carolina, Ftl). a, 171i'.l. " The country southward ofthe Big Ken hawa was never claimed by the Cherokees, and now is the property of the crown, as sir William Johnson purchased it ofthe Six Na tions at a very considerable expense, and took a deed of cession from them at Fort Stanwix." In 1769, the house of burgesses of the colo ny of Virginia represented to lord Bottetourt, " That they have the greatest reason to fear the said line (meaning the boundary line, which the lords comraissioners for trade and planta tions have referred to, in the map annexed to their lordships' report) if confirmed, would con stantly open to the Indians, and others enemies to his majesty, a free and easy ingress to the heart of the country on the Ohio, Holston's river, and the Great Kenhawa ; whereby the settleraents which raay be attempted in these quarters will, in all probability, be utterly de stroyed, and that great extent of country [at least eight hundred raUes in length] fiom the mouth of the Kenhawa to the mouth of the Cherokee river, extending eastward as far as the Laurel Hill, so lately ceded to his majes ty, to which no tribe of Indians at present set up any pretensions, will be entirely abandon ed to the Cherokees; in consequence of which, claims totally destructive of the true interest of his majesty, may at some future time arise, and acquisitions justly ranked among the most valuable of the late war be altogether lost." From the foregoing detail of facts, it is ob vious, 1st. That the country southward of the Great Kenhawa, at least as far as the Che rokee river, originally belonged to the Shaw anese. 2d. That the Six Nations, in virtue of theu- conquest ofthe Shawanese, became the law ful proprietors of that country. 3d. That the king, in consequence of the grant frora the Six Nations, mode to his ma jesty at Fort Stanwix in ITfi;?, is now vested with the undoubted right aud property thereof 4th. That the Cherokees never resided, nor hunted in that country, and have not any kind of right to it. 5th. That the house of burgesses of the colony of Virginia have, upon good grounds, asserted, [such as properly arise from the na ture of their stations, and proximity to the Cherokee country,] that tlie Cherokees had not any just pretensions to the territory south ward of the Great Kenhawa. And lastly. That neitlier the Six Nations, the Shawanese, nor Delawares, do noic re side or hunt in tliat country. From these considerations, it is evident no possible injury can arise to his majesty's ser vice, — to the Six Nations and their confe deracy, or to the Cherokees by permitting us to settle the whole of the lands comprehended within our contract with the lords commis sioners of the treasury. If, however, there has been any treaty held with the Six Na« tions, since the cession raade to his majesty at Fort Stanwix, whereby the faith of the crown is pledged, both to the Six Nations and the Cherokees, that no settlements should HISTORICAL AND POUTICAL. 225 be made beyond the line marked on their lordships' report ; we say, if such agreement has been made by the orders of government with these tribes, (notwithstanding, as the lords commissioners have acknowledged, "the Six Nations had ceded the property in the lands, to his majesty") — we flatter ourselves, that the objection of their lordships in the second paragraph of tlieir report, will be en tirely obviated, by a specific clause being in serted in the king's grant to us, expressly prohibiting us from settling any part of the same, until such tirae as we shall have first obtained his raajesty's allowance, and full con sent of the Cherokees, and the Six Nations and their confederates, for that purpose. III. In regard to the third paragraph of their lordships' report. That it was the prin ciple ofthe board oftrade, after the treaty of Paris, "to confine the western extent of settlements to such a distance frora the sea- coast, as that these settleraents should lie within the reach ofthe trade and commerce of this kingdom," &c., we shall not presume to controvert ; — but it raay he observed, that the settlement of the country over the Alle ghany mountains, and on the Ohio, was not understood, either before the treaty of Paris, nor intended to be so considered by his ma jesty's proclamation of October, 1763, " as without the reach of the trade and commerce of this kingdom," &c. ; — for, in the year 1748, Mr. John Hanbury, and a number of other gentlemen, petitioned the king for a grant of five hundred thousand acres of land over the Alleghany mountauis, and on the river Ohio and its branches ; and the lords comraissioners for trade and plantations were then pleased to report to the lords coraraittee of his majesty's most honourable privy council, "That the settlement ofthe country, lying to the west ward of the great mountains, as it was the centre of the British dominions, would be for his majesty's interest, and the advantage and security of Virginia and the neighbouring co lonies." And on the 23d of February, 1748-9, the lords commissioners for trade and plantations again reported to the lords of the committee of the privy council, that they had " fully set forth the great utility and advantage of ex tending our settlements beyond the great mountains (' which report has been approved of by your lordships'). — And as, by these new proposals, there is a great probability of hav ing a rauch larger tract of the said country settled than under the forraer, we are of opi nion, that it will be greatly for his raajesty's service, and the welfare and security of Vir ginia, to coraply with the prayer of the peti tion." And on the 16th of March, 1748-9, a,n in struction was' sent to the governor of Virginia to grant five hundred thousand acres of land Vol. II. ...2F over the Alleghany mountains to the aforesaid Mr. Hanbury and hia partners (who are now part of the company of Mr. Walpole and his associates); and that instruction sets forth, that " such settlements will be for our inte rest, and the advantage and security of our said colony, as well as the advantage of the neighbouring ones ; in as much as our loving subjects will be thereby enabled to cultivate a friendship, and carry on a more extensive commerce with the nations of Indians inhabit ing those parts ; and such examples may like wise uiduce the neighbouring colonies to turn their thoughts towards designs of the same nature." Hence we apprehend, it is evident, that a former board of trade, at which the late lord Halifax presided, was of opinion, that settleraents over the Alleghany mountains were not against the king s interest, nor at such a distance from the sea-coast, as to be without " the reach of the trade and com merce of this kingdom," nor where its au thority or jurisdiction could not be exercised. But the report under consideration suggests, that two capital objects of the proclamation of 1763, were, to confine future settlements to the " sources of the rivers which fall into the sea frora the west and north-west," (or, in other words, to the eastern side of the Alle ghany mountains) and to the three new go vernments of Canada, East Florida, and West Florida ; — and to establish this fact, the lords commissioners for trade and plantations recite a part of that proclamation. But if the whole of this proclamation is con^ sidered, it will be found to contain the nine following heads ; viz.* 1st. To declare to his majesty's subjects, that he had erected four distinct and separate go vernments in Araerica; viz. Quebec, East Florida, West Florida, and Grenada. 2d. To ascertain the respective boundaries of these four new governments. 3d. To testify the royal sense and approba tion of the conduct and bravery, both of the officers and soldiers of the king's army, and of the reduced officers ofthe navy, who had served in North America, and to reward them, by grants of lands in Quebec, and in East and West Florida, without fee or reward. 4th. Tp hinder the governors of Quebec, East Florida, and West Florida, from grant ing warrants of survey, or passing patents for lands, beyond the bounds of their respective governments. 5th. To forbid the governors of any other colonies or plantations in America, from granting warrants or passing patents for lands, beyond the heads or sources of any of the ri vers, which fall into the Atlantic ocean from the west or north-west, or upon any lands whatever, " which, not having been ceded to * Vide the Proclamation in the Appendii, at the end of these papers, No. I. 226 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. or purchased by the king, are reserved to the said Indians, or any of them." 6th, To reserve, " for the present," under the king's sovereignty, protection, and domi nion, " for the use of the said Indians," all the lands not included within the limits of the ¦said three new governments, or within the limits of the Hudson's Bay company ; as also, all the lands lying to the westward of the sources of the rivers, which fall into the sea from the west and north-west, and forbidding the king's subjects from raaking any pur chases or settlements whatever, or taking possession of the lands so reserved, without his majesty's leave and license first obtained. 7th. To require all persons, who had made settlements on lands, not purchased by the king from the Indians, to remove from such settlements. 8th. To regulate the future purchases of lands from the Indians, within such parts as his raajesty, by that proclamation, permitted settleraents to be made upon. 9th. To declare, that the trade with the In dians should be free and open to all his raa jesty's subjects, and to prescribe the manner how it shall be carried on. And lastly. To require all military officers, and the superintendents of Indian affairs, to seize and apprehend all persons who stood charged with treasons, murders, &c. and who had fled from justice, and taken refuge in the reserved lands of the Indians, to send such persons to the colony, where they stood ac cused. From this proclamation, therefore, it is ob vious, that the sole design of it, independent of the establishraent of the three new go vernments, ascertaining their respective boundaries, rewarding the officers and sol diers, regulating the Indian trade, and ap prehending felons, was to convince the In dians" ofhis majesty's justice and determined resolution to remove all reasonable cause of discontent," by interdicting all settlements on Hand not ceded to or purchased by his majes ty ; and declaring it to be, as we have alrea dy mentioned, his royal will and pleasure, " for tbe present, to reserve, under his sovereignty, protection, and dominion, for the use of the Indians, all the land and territories lying to the westward of the sources of the rivers which fall into the sea from the west and north-west." — Can any words express more decisively the royal intention ! — do tbey not explicitly mention. That the territory is, at present, reserved, under his raajesty's pro tection, for the use of the Indians ? — And as the Indians had no use for those lands which arc bounded westerly by the south-east side of the river Ohio, either for residence or hunt ing, they were willing to sell thera ; and ac cordingly did sell them to the king in No vember, 1768, (the occasion of which sale. will be fully explained in our observations on the succeeding paragraphs of the report.) — Of course, the proclaraation, so far as it re garded the settleraent of the lands included within that purchase, has absolutely and un doubtedly ceased. — The late Mr. Grenville, who was, at the time of issuing this procla mation, the minister of this kingdom, always admitted, that the design ofit was totally ac complished, so soon as the country was pur chased from the natives. IV. In this paragraph, the lords commis sioners for trade and plantations mentions two reasons, for his raajesty's entering into en- gageraents with the Indians, fbr fixing a more precise and determinate boundary line, than was settled by the proclamation of October, 1763, viz. 1st. Partly fbr want of precision in the one intended to be marked by the proclamation of 1763. 2d. And partly from a consideration of jus tice in regard to legal titles to lands. We have, we presume, fully proved, in our observations on the third paragraph, — That the design of the proclamation, so far as re lated to lands westward of the Alleghany mountains, was for no other purpose than to reserve them, under his raajesty's protection, for the present, for the use of the Indians ; to which we shall only add, that the line es tablished by tbe proclamation, so far as it con cerned the lands in question, could not pos sibly be fixed and described with more pre cision, than the proclamation itself describes it; for it declares. That "all the lands and territories lying to the westward of the sources ofthe rivers, which /aH into the sea from the west and north-west," should be re served under his majesty's protection. Neither, in our opinion, was his majesty induced to enter into engagements with the Indians, for fixing a more precise and deter- rainate boundary, " partly frora a consider ation of justice, in regard to legal titles to lands," for there were none such (as we shall prove) comprehended within tlie tract now under consideration. But for a full comprehension of all the rea sons for his raajesty's " entering into engage ments with the Indians, for fixing a raore pre cise and determinate boundary line." than was settled by tlie royal proclamation of Oc tober, 1763, we shall take tbe liberty of stat ing the following facts : — In the year 1764, the king's ministers had it then in coiitem ' tion, to obtain an act of parliament for the proper regulation of the Indian commerce and providing a fund, (by laying a duty on the trade) for the support of superintendents, commissaries, interpreters, &c., at particular forts in the Indian country, where the trade was to be carried on : and as a part of this system it was thought proper, in order to HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL. 227 avoid future complaints from the Indians, on account of encroachments on their hunting grounds, to purchase a large tract of territory frora them, and establish, with their consent, a respectable boundary line, beyond which his majesty's subjects should not be perraitted to settle. In consequence of this system, orders were transmitted to sir William Johnson in the year 1764, to call together the Six Nations, — lay this proposition of the boundary before them, and take their opinion upon it. — This, we apprehend, will appear evident from the following speech made by sir Williara to the Six Nations, at a conference which he held with them, at Johnson-hall, May the 2d, 1765. " Brethren, — The last but the most im portant affair I have at this time to mention, is with regard to the settling a boundary be tween you and the English. I sent a mes sage to some of your nations sorae time ago, to acquaint you, that I should confer with you at this meeting upon it. The king, whose generosity and forgiveness you have already experienced, being very desirous to put a final end to disputes between his people and yoxi, concerning lands, and to do you strict j ustice, has fallen upon the plan of a bounda ry between our provinces and the Indians (which no white man shall dare to invade) as the best and surest method of ending such like disputes, and securing your property to you, beyond a possibility of disturbance. This will, I hope, appear to you so reasonable, so just on the part of the king, and so advantage ous to you and your posterity, that I can have no doubt of your cheerfully joining with rae in settlmg such a division line, as will be best for the advantage of both white men and Indians, and as shall best agree with the ex tent and increase of each province, and the governors, whora I shall consult upon that oc casion, as soon as I am fully impowered ; but in the mean time I am desirous to know in what raanner you would choose to extend it, and what you will heartily agree to and abide by, in general terms. At the same time I am to acquaint you, that whenever the whole is settled, and that it shall appear you have so far consulted the increasing state of our people, as to make any convenient cessions of ground where it is most wanted, that then you will receive a considerable present in return for your friendship." To this speech the sachems and warjiors ofthe Six Nations, after conferring some time among themselves, gave an answer to sir William Johnson, and agreed to the proposi tion of the boundary line ; — which answer, and the other transactions of this conference, sir Williara transraitted to the office of the lords coraraissioners for trade and plantations. Frora a change of the administration, which forraed the above system of obtaining an act of parliament for regulating the Indian trade, and establishing the boundary line, or from some other public cause unknown to us, no measures were adopted, until the latter end of the year 1767, for completing the negotia tion about this boundary line. — But in the mean time, viz. between the years 1765 and 1768, the king's subjects removed in great numbers frora Virginia, Maryland, and Penn sylvania, and settled over the raountains ; upon which account the Six Nations became so irritated that in the year 1766 they killed se veral persons, and denounced a general war against the middle colonies ; and to appease thera, and to avoid such a public calamity, a detachment from the 42d regiment of foot was that year sent from the garrison of Fort Pitt, to remove such settlers as were seated at Red Stone Creek, &c., but the endeavours and threats of this detachment proved ineffec tual, and they returned to the garrison with out being able to execute their orders. The complaints ofthe Six Nations however conti nuing and increasing, on account oftheir set tling oftheir lands over the mountains, gene ral Gage wrote to the governor of Pennsylva nia on the 7th of December, 1767, and after mentioning these complaints, he observed, " You are a witness how little attention has been paid to the several proclamations that have been published ; and that even the re moving those people from the lands in ques tion, which was attempted this summer by the garrison at Fort Pitt, has been only a temporary expedient. We learn they are re turned again to the same encroachments on Red Stone Creek and Cheat River, in great er numbers than ever."* On the 5th of January, 1768, the governor of Pennsylvania sent a message to the gene ral assembly of the province, with the fore going letter from general Gage, — and on tho 13th the assembly, in the conclusion of a mes sage to the governor on the subject of Indian complaints, observed, "To obviate which cause of their discontent, and effectually lo establish between them and his majesty's subjects a durable peace, we are of opinion, that a speedy confirmation of the boundary, and a just satisfaction raade to them for their lands on this side of it, are absolutely neces sary. By this means all their present com plaints of encroachments will be removed, and the people on our frontiers will have a suffi cient country to settle or hunt in without in terfering with thera." On the 19th of January, 1768, Mr. Gallo way, the speaker ofthe assembly of Pennsyl vania, and the coramittee of correspondence, wrote on the subject of tbe Indians' disquie tude, by order of the house, to their agents Richard Jackson and Benjamin Franklin, es- * See the sequel of this paper. 228 FRANKLIN'S WORKS, quires, in London, and therein they said, " That the delay of the confirraation of the boundary, the natives have warmly complain ed of, and that although they have received no consideration for the lands agreed to be ceded to the crown on our side ofthe bounda ry, yet that its subjects are daily settling and occupying tbose very lands." In April, 1768, the legislature of Pennsyl vania finding that the expectations of an In dian war were hourly increasing, occasioned by the settlement of the land over the moun tains, not sold by the natives ; and flattering theraselves, that orders would soon arrive frora England for the perfection ofthe boun dary line, they voted the sura of one thousand pounds, to be given as a present, in blankets, strouds, &c., to the Indians upon the Ohio, with a view of moderating their resentment, untiUhese orders should arrive : and the go vernor of Pennsylvania being informed, that a treaty was soon to be held at Fort Pitt by George Crogan, Esq., deputy agent of Indian affairs, by order of general Gage and sir Wil liam Johnson, he sent his secretary and ano ther gentleman, as commissioners from the province, to deliver the above present to the Indians at Fort Pitt. On the 2d of May, 1768, the Six Nations raade the following speech at that conference : "Brother, — It is not without grief that we see our country settled by you, without our knowledge or consent ; and it is a long time since we complained to you of this grievance, which we find has not as yet been redressed ; but settlements are still extend ing /artAer into our country: some of them are made directly on our war-path, leading into our enemy's country, and we do not like it. Brother, you have laws araong you to govern your people by ; and it will be the strongest proof of the sincerity of your friend ship, to let us see that you reraove the people from our lands ; as we look upon it, they will have tirae enough to settle thera, when you have purchased thera, and the country be comes yours." The Pennsylvania coraraissioners, in answer to this speech, informed the Six Nations, that tho governor of that province had sent four gentlemen with his proclamation and the act of assembly (making it felony of death with out benefit of clergy, to continue on Indian lands) to such settlers over the raountains as were seated, within the liraits of Pennsylva nia, requiring them to vacate their settlements, but all to no avail : That the governor of Vir ginia had likewise, to as little purpose, issued his proclamations and orders, and that general Gage had twice ineffectually sent parties of soldiers to remove the settlers frora Red Stone Creek and Monongahela. As soon as Mr. Jackson and Dr. Franklin received the foregoing instructions from the general assembly of Pennsylvania, they wait ed upon the American minister, and urged the expediency and necessity of the boundary line being speedily concluded ; and in conse quence thereof; additional orders were imme diately transmitted to sir William Johnson for that purpose. It is plain therefore, that the proclamation of October, 1763, was not designed, as the lords commissioners for trade and plantations have suggested, to signify the policy of this kingdom, against settlements over the Alle ghany mountains, after the king had actual ly purchased the territory ; and that the true reasons for purchasing the lands eoraprised within that boundary were to avoid an In dian rupture, and give an opportunity to the king's subjects, quietly and lawfully to settle thereon. V. Whether the lords commissioners for trade and plantations are well founded in their declarations, that the lands under considera tion " are out of all advantageous intercourse with this kingdom," shall be fully considered in our observations on the sixth paragraph ; and as to " the various propositions for erect ing new colonics in the interior parts, which their lordships say, have been, in consequence of the extension of the boundary line, submit ted to the consideration of government, parti cularly in that part of the country, wherein are situated the lands now prayed for, and the danger of complying witli such proposals have been so obvious as to defeat every attempt for carrying them into execution," — vve shall only observe on this paragraph, that as we do not know what these propositions were, or upon what principle the proposers have been defeated, it is impossible for us to judge, whe ther they are any ways applicable to our case. — Consistent, however, with our know ledge, no more than one proposition, for tlie settlement of a part of the lands in question, has been presented to governraent, and that was from Dr. Lee, thirty-two other Ameri cans, and two Londoners, in the year 1768, praying that his majesty would grant to them, without any purchase-money, two millions five hundred thousand acres of land, inoneor more surveys, to be located between tlie thir ty-eighth and forty-second degrees of latitude, over the Alleghany mountains, and on condi tion of their possessing tliese lands twelve years without the payment of any quit-rent, (the sarae not to begin until the whole two millions five hundred thousand acres were surveyed) and that they should be obliged to settle on two hundred fiimilies in twelve years : — surely, the lords commissioners did not mean this proposition as one that was si milar, and would apply to the case now report ed upon ; — and especially as Dr. Lee and his associates did not pi'opose, as we do, either to purchase the lands, or pay the quit-rents to HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL. 229 his majesty, neat and clear of all deductions, or be at the whole expense of establishing and maintaining the civil government of the country. VI. In the sixth paragraph the lords com missioners observe. That " every argument on tbe subject, respecting the settlement of the lands in that part of the country now prayed for, is collected together with great force and precision in a representation made to his majesty by the lords comraissioners fbr trade and plantations, in March, 1768." That it may be clearly understood, what was the occasion of this representation, we shall take the liberty of mentioning, that on the first of October, 1767, and during the time that the earl of Shelburne was secretary of state for the southern department, an idea was entertained of forming, "at the expense of the crown," three new governments in North Araerica, viz. one at Detroit (on the waters betv^een lake Huron and lake Erie ;) one in tbe Illinois country, and one on the lower part of the river Ohio ; and in conse quence of such idea, a reference was made by his lordship to the lords coraraissioners for trade and plantations, for their opinion upon these proposed new governments. Having explained the cause of the repre sentation, which is so very strongly and ear nestly insisted upon by the lords commission ers for trade and plantations, as containing " every argument on the subject of the lands which is at present before your lordships ;" we shall now give our reasons fbr apprehend ing, that it is so far frora applying against our case, that it actually declares a perraission would be given to settle the very lands in question. Three principal reasons are assigned in the representation, as conducive to the great ob ject of colonizing upon the continent ofNorth Araerica, viz. " 1st, Promoting the advantageous fishery carried on upon the northern coast. " 2dly, Encouraging the growth and culture of naval stores, and of raw materials, to be transported hither, in exchange for perfect manufactures and other merchandise. " 3dly, Securing a supply of lumber, provi sions, and other necessaries forthe support of our establishments in the American islands." On the first of these reasons, we apprehend, it is not necessary for us to make raany ob servations ; as the provinces of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, and the colonies southward of them, have not, and frora the nature of their situation and cora- raerce will not, promote t^e fishery, raore, it is conceived, than the proposed Ohio colony. These provinces are, however, beneficial to this kingdora, in culture and exportation of different articles;— as it is humbly presumed the Ohio colony will likewise be, if the pro- 20 d uction of stapZ« commodities is allowed to be within that description. On the second and third general reasons of the representation we shall observe, that no part of his majesty's dorainions in North Araerica will require less encouragement " for the growth and culture of naval stores and raw materials ; and for the supplying the islands with lumber, provisions," &c., than the solicited colony on the Ohio ; — and for the following reasons : First, The lands in question are excellent, the climate temperate, the native grapes, silk worms, and mulberry trees are every where ; hemp grows spontaneously in the valleys and low lands ; iron-ore is plenty in the hills ; and no soil is better adapted for the culture of to bacco, flax, and cotton, than that ofthe Ohio. Second, The country is well watered by several navigable rivers, comraunicating with each other ; and by which, and a short land- carriage of only forty miles, the produce ofthe lands of the Ohio can, even now, be sent cheaper to the sea-port town of Alexandria, on the river Potomac (where general Brad dock's transports landed his troops) than any kind of merchandise is at this time sent from Northampton to Iiondon. Third, The river Ohio is, at all seasons of the year, navigable for large boats, like the West country barges, rowed only by four or five men ; and from January to the month of April, large ships may be built on the Ohio, and sent laden with hemp, iron, flax, silk, &c., to this kingdom. Fourth, Flour, corn, beef, ship-plank, and other necessaries, can be sent down the stream of Ohio to West Florida, and from thence to the islands, much cheaper and in better order, than from New York or Philadelphia. Fifth, Herap, tobacco, iron, and such bulky articles, can also be sent down the streara of the Ohio to the sea, at least fifty per Centura cheaper than these articles were ever carried by a land-carriage, of only sixty miles, in Pennsylvania; where wagonage is cheaper than in any other part ofNorth Araerica. Sixth, The expense of transporting British manufactures from the sea to the Ohio colo ny, will not be so much, as is now paid and raust ever be paid, to a great part of the counties of Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Maryland. Frora this state of facts we apprehend, it is clear, that the lands in question are altoge ther capable, and will advantageously adrait, from their fertility, situation, and the small expense attending the exporting the produce of thera to this kingdom, " of conducing to the great object of colonizing upon the con tinent of North America :" but that we may more particularly elucidate this iraportant point, we shall take the freedora of observing, — That it is not disputed, but even acknow- 230 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. lodged, by the very report now under consi- deration,— that the climate and soil of the Ohio are as favourable as we have described them ; — and as to the native silk-worms, it is a truth, that above ten thousand weight of cocoons was, in August, 1771, sold at the pub lic filature in Philadelphia ; and that the silk produced from the native worm is of a good quality, and has been rauch approved of in this city. As to hemp, we are ready to make it appear, that it grows, as we have repre sented, spontaneously, and of a good texture, on the Ohio. When, therefore, the increas ing dependence of this kingdom upon Rus sia, for this very article, is considered, and that none has been exported from the sea- coast American colonies, as their soil will not easily produce it,^this dependence must surely be admitted as a subject of great na tional consequence, and worthy of the serious attention of governraent. — Nature has point ed out to us, where any quantity of hemp can be soon and easily raised, and by that raeans, not only a large amount of specie raay be re tained yearly in this kingdom, but our own subjects can be employed most advantageous ly, and paid in the manufactures of this king dom. — The state of the Russian trade is briefly thus : Frora the year 1722 to 1731, two hundred and fifty ships were, on a medium, sent each year to St. Petersburg-, Nar va, Riga, and Archangel, for hemp, - . - 250 ships. And frora the year 1762 to 1771, five hundred ships were also sent for that purpose, - 500 Increase in ten years, 2.50 ships. Here then, it is obvious, that in the last ten years there was, on a medium, an increase of two hundred and fifty ships in the Russian trade. Can it be consistent with the wisdora and policy of the greatest naval and com mercial nation in the world, to depend wholly on foreigners for the supply of an article, in which is included the very existence of her navy and comraerce ! Surely not ; and es pecially wlten God has blessed us with a country yielding naturally the very commo dity, which draws our raoney from us, and renders us dependant on Russia for it.* * " It is in settlements on the iviississippi and Ohio that we must look for hemp ami tia.\, which may, in those fi.-rtile tracts, be ctiltivated in snch nbumlance, as 10 enable us to undersell all the world, as well as sup ply onrown consumplion. Il is nn those his;h, dry, and healthy lands, that vinej'ards would be cultivated to the best advantage, as many ol' those hills contain quarries of stone, and not in the low, unhealthy sea- coasts of our present colonies. Of such infinite conse quence to Britain is the production of staples in her co lonies, that were all the people of the northern settle ments, and all ofthe tobacco ones (except those actually employed in raising tobaoco)now spreadover tllose parts ofour territories to the southward and westward, and As we have only hitherto generally stated the sraall expense of carriage between the waters of Potoraac and those of the Ohio, we shall now endeavour to show how very ill- founded the lords of trade and plantations are in the fifth paragraph of their report, viz. That the lands in question " are out of all ad vantageous intercourse with this kingdom." In order, however, that a proper opinion may be formed on this important article, v,e shall take the liberty of stating the particular ex pense of carriage, even during the last French -war, (when there was no back carriage from Ohio to Alexandria) as it will be found, it was even then only about a halfpenny per pound, as will appear from the following ac count, the truth of which we shall fully as certain, viz. From Alexandria to Fort Cumberland, by water, Is. 7d. per cwt. Frora Fort Cumberland to Red Stone Creek, at fourteen dollars per wa gon load ; each wagon carrying fifteen hundred weight, 4 2 5 9 Note. The distance was then seventy miles, but by a new wagon road, lately made, it is now but forty miles — a saving, of course, of above one half the 5s. 9A is at present experienced. If it is considered that this rate of carriage was in time of war, and when there were no inhabitants on the Ohio, we cannot doubt but every intelligent mind will be satisfied, that it is now much less than is daily paid in London for the carriage of coarse woollens, cutlery, iron ware, &c., from several counties m Eng land. The following is the cost of carriage from Birmingham, &c. viz. Frora Birmingham to Lon don, is, - - 4s. per cwl. From Walfall in Stafford shire, - 5 Frora Sheflield, -s Frora Warrington, 7 If the lands which are at present under consideration are as the lords commissioners for trade and plantations say, " out of all ad vantageous intercourse with this kingdom," we are at a loss to conceive by what standard that board calculates tlie rule of " advantage ous intercourse." — If the king's subjects, set tled over the Alleghany mountains, and on consequently employed in the same manner as the few are who do reside therein, Britain, in such a case, would export to the amount of above nine millions more in manufactures, &c., than shedoes at present, without reckoning the infinite increase in public revenue, freight, and seamen, which would accrue. To enlarge upon all the advantages of such a change, would be impertinence itself" — Politieat Essays conceminff the British Empire. HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL. 231 the Ohio, within the netti-erected county of Bedford, in the province of Pennsylvania, are altogether clothed with British manufactures, as is the case, is that country " out of all ad-' vantageous intercourse with this kingdora I" — If merchants in London are now actually shippi.ng British manufactures for the use of the very settlers on the lands in question, does that exportation come within the lords comraissioners description of what is " out of all advantageous intercourse with this king dom '!" In short, the lords commissioners ad rait, upon their own principles, that it is apo litical and advantageous intercourse with this kingdora, when the settlements and settlers are confined to the eastern side of the Alle ghany mountains. Shall then the expense of carriage, even of the very coarsest and hea viest clothes, or other articles, from the moun tains to the Ohio, only about seventy miles, and which will not, at most increase the price of carriage above a halfpenny a yard, convert the trade and connexion with the settlers on the Ohio, into a predicament " that shall be, as the lords commissioners have said, out of all advantageous intercourse with this king dom V — On the whole, " if the poor Indians in the remote parts of North America are now able to pay for the linens, woollens, and iron ware they are furnished with by English tra ders, though Indians have nothing but what they get by hunting, and the goods are load ed with all the impositions fraud and knavery can contrive, to enhance their value; will not industrious English farmers," employed in the culture of hemp, flax, silk, &c., " be able to pay for what shall be brought to thera in the fair way of commerce ;" and especially when it is remembered, that there is no other allowable market for the sale of these articles, than in this kingdom 1 — And if " the growths of the country find their viay out of it, will not the manufactures of this kingdom, where :he hemp, &c. must be sent to, find their way into if!" Whether Nova Scotia, and East and West Florida have yielded advantages and returns equal to the enormous sums expended in founding and supporting thera, or even advan tages, such as the lords commissioners for trade and plantations, in their representation of 1768, seemed to expect, it is not our business to investigate ; — it is, we presume, sufficient for us to mention, that those " many principal persons in Pennsylvania," as is observed in the representation, whose names and associa tion lie before your majesty in council, for the purpose of making settlements in Nova Sco tia," have, several years since, been convinc ed of the impracticability of exciting settlers to move frora the middle colonies, and settle in that province ; and even of those who were prevailed on to go to Nova Scotia, the great er part of thera returned with great com plaints against the severity and length of the winters;. As to East and West Florida, it is, we are persuaded, morally impossible to force the peo ple of the middle provinces, between thir ty-seven and forty degrees north latitude (where there is plenty of vacant land in their own temperate climate) to remove to the scorching, unwholesome heats of these pro vinces.* The inhabitants of IMontpelier might as soon and easily be persuaded to re move to the northern parts of Russia, or to Senegal. — In short, it is contending with na ture, and the experience of all ages, to at tempt to compel a people, born and living in a temperate climate, and in the neighbour hood of a rich, healthful, and uncultivated country, to travel several hundred miles to a sea-port in order to make a voyage to sea ; and settle either in extreme hot or cold lati tudes. If the county of York was vacant and uncultivated, and the more southern inhabi tants of this island were in want of land, would they suffer themselves to be driven to the North of Scotland .' — Would they not, in spite of all opposition, first possess themselves of that fertile country I — Thus much we have thought necessary to remark, in respect to the general principles laid down in the re presentation of 1768 ; and we hope we have shown, that the arguments therein made use of, do not in any degree militate against the subject in question ; but that they were in tended, and do solely apply to " new colonies proposed to be established," as the repre sentation says, " at an expense, to this king dom, at the distance of above fifteen hundred miles from the sea, which from their inabi lity to find returns wherewith to pay for tho manufactures of Great Britain, will probably lead to manufacture for themselves, as tbey would," continues the representation, " be separated from the old colonies by immense tracts of unpeopled desert." It now only remains for us to inquire, whether it was the intention of the lords com missioners for trade and plantations in 1768, that the territory, which would be included within the boundary line, then negotiating with the Indians (and which was the one, that was that year perfected) should continue a useless wilderness, or be settled and occu pied by his majesty's subject. — The very re presentation itself whicli the present lords commissioners for trade and plantations say, * " We think of nothing but extending' our settle ments still further nn these 7Jcsf;/c7-ou^ sea-coasts, even to the sunken iaguncs of East Florida, and the barren sands of Mobile and Pensacola. The only use of new settlements in North America, is for the people in the northern and other colonies, who want lands to make staple commodities for liritain, to remove to them : but none will ever go to Florida, or thrive in it. more than they have done in Carolina and Georgia. The climate of Florida is more intemperate, the lands more barren, and the situation much icorsein every respect."— Stale 0/ Oreat Britain and America, by Dr. Mitchell. 232 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. contains "every argument on the subject," furnishes us an ample and satisfactory solu tion to this important question. The lords commissioners in 1768, after pronouncing their opinion against the proposed three new governments, as above stated, declare, " They ought to be carefully guarded against, by en couraging the settleraent of that extensive tract of sea-coast hitherto unoccupied ; which, say their lordships, together with the liberty the inhabitants of the middle colonies unll have (in consequence of the proposed boun dary line with the Indians) of gradually ex tending themselves backwards, will more ef fectually and beneficially answer the object of encouraging population and consumption, than the erection of new governments; such gradual extension might, through thp medium of a continual population, upon even the same extent of territory, preserve a coraraunication of mutual coramercial benefits between its ex- treraest parts and Great Britain, impossible to exist in colonies separated by immense tracts of unpeopled desert." — Can any opinion be raore cleor and conclusive, in favour of the proposition which we have hurably submitted to his majesty ? — for their lordships positively say, that the inhabitants of the middle colo nies will have liberty of gradually extending themselves backwards ; but is it not very ex traordinary, that after near two years deli beration, the present lords coraraissioners for trade and plantations should raake a report to the lords of the committee of the privy coun cil, and therein expressly refer to that opi nion of 1768, in which they say, " every ar gument on the subject is collected together with great force and precision," and yet that, almost in the same breath, their lordships should contravene that very opinion, and ad vise his majesty " to check the progress of these settlements V — And that " settleraents in that distant part of the country ought to be discouraged as rauch as possible, and an other proclamation should be issued declara tory of his raajesty's resolution, not to allow, for the present, any new settleraent beyond the line;" — to wit, beyond the Alleghany mountains 1 — How strange and contradictory is this conduct 1 — But we forbear any stric tures upon it ; — and shall conclude our re marks on this head, by stating the opinion, at different times, ofthe lords commissioners for trade and plantations, on this subject. In 1748, their lordships expressed the strongest desire to promote settleraents over the raountains and on the Ohio. In 1768, the then lords commissioners for trade and plantations declared, (in conse quence of the boundary line at that time ne gotiating)— that the inhabitants ofthe middle colonies would have liberty of gradually ex tending themselves backwards. In 1770, the earl of Hillsborough actually recommended the purchase of a tract of land over the mountains, sufficient for a new co lony, and then went down to the lords com missioners of the treasury, to know whether their lordships would treat with Mr. Walpole and his associates, for such purchase. In 1772, the earl of Hillsborough, and the other lords commissioners for trade and plan tations, made a report on the petition of Mr. Walpole and his associates, and referred to the representation of the board of trade in 1768, " as containing every argument on tbe subject, collected together with force and pre cision ;" — which representation declared, as we have shown, " That the inhabitants of the middle colonies will have liberty to ex tend backwards" on the identical lands in question ; and yet, notwithstanding such re ference, so strongly made from the present board of trade to the opinion of that board,— the earl of Hillsborough, and the other lords commissioners for trade and plantations, have now, in direct terms, reported against the ab solute engagement and opinion of the board in 1768. It may be asked, what was intended by the expressions in the representation of 1768, of gradually extending themselves backwards? It is answered, they were only in contra distinction to the proposal of erecting at that time three new governments at Detroit, &c.; and thereby exciting, as the representa tion says, the stream of population to various distant places. In short, it was, we think, be yond all doubt, the " precise" opinion of the lords commissioners in 1768, that the territo ry, within the boundary line, then negotiating, and since completed, would be sufficient at that time — to answer the object of population and consuraption : and that, until that territo ry was fully occupied, it was not necessary to erect tbe proposed three new governments " at an expense to tliis kingdom," in places, as their lordships observed, " separated by im raense " tracts of unpeopled desert," To conclude our observations on the sixth paragraph, we would just remark, — That we presume we have demonstrated, that the in habitants of the middle colonies cannot be compelled to exchange the soil and climate of these colonies, either for the severe colds of Nova Scotia and Canada, or the unwhole some heats of East and West Florida. Let us next inquire, what would be the effect of confining these inhabitants (if it was practi cable) within narrow bounds, and thereby pre venting them from exercising their natural inclination of cultivating lands'! — and whe ther such restriction would not force them into manufactures, to rival the mother-coun try ? — To these questions, the lords commis sioners have, with much candour, replied, in their representation of 1768,— "We admit," said their lordships, " as an undeniable pruici- HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL. 233 pie of true policy, that, with a view to pre vent manufactures, it is necessary and proper to open an extent of territory for colonization, proportioned to an increase of people, as a large nuraber of inhabitants, cooped up in narrow liraits, without a sufficiency of land for produce, would be compelled to convert their attention and industry to manufac tures." — But their lordships at the same time, observe, — " that the encouragement given to the settleraent of the colonies upon the sea- coast, and the effect which such encourage ment has had, has already effectually provid ed for this object 1" — In what parts of North America this encourageraent has thus provid ed for population, their lordships have not mentioned. If the establishraent of the go vernments of Quebec, Nova Scotia, and the Is land of St. John's, or East and West Florida, was intended by their lordships as that effec tual provision, — we shall presume to deny the proposition, by asserting, as an undoubted truth, — that although there is at least a mil lion of subjects in the middle colonies, none have emigrated from thence, and settled in these new provinces; — and for that reason, and frora the very nature of colonization it self, we affirm, that none will ever be in duced to exchange the healthy, temperate climate of Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsyl vania, for the extreme colds or heats of Ca nada and Nova Scotia, or East and West Florida : — In short, it is not in the power of government to give any encouragement, that can compensate for a desertion of friends and neighbours, — dissolution of family connexions, and abandoning a soil and climate hifinitely superior to those of Canada, Nova Scotia, or the Floridasl — Will not therefore the inha bitants of the middle provinces, whose popu lation is great beyond example,* and who have already made some advances in manu factures, " by confining them to their present narrow limits," be necessarily compelled to convert their whole attention to that object 1 How then shall this, in the nature of things, be prevented, except, as the lords corarais sioners have justly reraarked, " by opening an extent of territory proportioned to their in crease I" — But where shall a territory be found proper for " the colonization of the in habitants of the middle colonies'!" We an swer, — in the very country, which the lords comraissioners have said that the inhabitants of these colonies would have liberty to settle in ; — a country which his raajesty has purchas- * " Besides staple commodities, there is another more material point to be considered in tile colonies, which is their great and daily increase; and for which, unless we make provision in time, they can never subsist by a dependence on Britain. There are at preBent(in the year 1770) nigh three millions ofpeople in them, who may, in twenty or thirty years, increase to six millions, as raany as there are in England." — Wynne^s History ofthe Bri tish Empire in Jlmerica, vol. ii. p. 398. Vol. IL . . . 2 G 20* ed frora the Six Nations ; one, where several thousands of his subjects are already settled ; and one, where the lords commissioners have acknowledged, "a gradual extension might, through the medium of a continued population, upon even the same extent of territory, pre serve a communication of mutual commercial benefits between its extremest parts and Great Britain."* VII. This paragraph is introduced, by re ferring to the extract of a letter frora the coraraander-in-chief of his majesty's forces in North America, laid by the earl of Hills borough before the lords comraissioners for trade and plantations ; — but as their lordships have not raentioned either the general's name, or the time when the letter was written, or what occasioned his delivering his opinion up on the subject of colonization in general, in the " remote countries" — we can only conjecture, that general Gage was the writer of the let ter, and that it was wrote about the year 1768, — when the plan of the three new go vernments was under the consideration ofthe then lords commissioners for trade and plan tations, and before the lands on the Ohio were bought from, and the boundary line es tablished with the Six Nations. — Indeed, we think it clear, that the general had no other lands, at that time, under his consideration, than what he calls " reraote countries," such as the Detroit, Illinois, and the lower parts of the Ohio ; — for he speaks of " foreign coun tries," frora which it " would be too far to transport sorae kind of naval stores," and for the same reason could not, he says, sup ply the sugar islands " with lumber and pro visions." He mentions also, " planting co lonies at so vast a distance, that tlie very long transportation (of silk, wine, &c.) must probably make them too dear for any market," and where " the inhabitants could not have any commodities to barter for manufactures, except skins and furs." And what, in our opinion, fully evinces that the general was giving his sentiments upon settlements atDe- troit,'&c., and not on the territory in question, is, that he says " it will be a question like wise, whether colonization of this kind could be effected without an Indian war, and fight ing for every inch of the ground." Why the lords comraissioners for trade and plantations should incumber their report with the opinion * Thus the use the nation has for new settlements and acquisitions in North America is for lliG great increase of the people who are already there, and to enable them to subsist by a dependence upon her; which they can never do, unless they extend their settlements. — Wynne's History, vol. ii. p. .399. "Unprejudiced men well know, that all the penal and prohibitory laws that ever were thought of, will not be sufficient to prevent manufactures in a country whose inhabitants surpass the number that can subsist the husbandry ofit; and this will be the case soon, if our people remain confined within the mountains, &c." — The Interest of Qreat Britain considered with regard to the Colonies, p. 17. Published in 17C1. 234 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. of general Gage, on what he calls the settle ment of a " foreign country," that could' not be effected without " fighting for every inch of ground" and how their lordships could ap ply that case, to the settlement of a territory, purchased by his majesty near four years ago, and now inhabited by several thousand British subjects, whom the Indians themselves, living on the northern side of the Ohio (as shall be fully shown in the course of these observations) have earnestly requested raay be immediately governed, we confess we are wholly at a loss to comprehend. VIII. The eighth paragraph highly extols, not only the accuracy and precision ofthe fore going representation of the lords of trade in 1768, (which, as has been before observed, expressed, that the inhabitants of the middle colonies would have liberty to settle over the mountains, and on the Ohio,) but also the aboveraentioned letter frora the coramander- In-chief in America ; and at the sarae time introduces the sentiments of Mr. Wright, governor of Georgia, " on the subject of large grants in the interior parts of America." When this letter was written, what was the occasion of the governor's writing it, — whether he was then, frora his own know ledge, acquainted with the situation of the country over the mountains, — with the dis position ofthe inhabitants ofthe middle colo nies, — with the capability of the Ohio coun try, from its soil, climate, or comraunication with the river Potomac, &c., to supply this kingdom with silk, flax, hemp, &c. — and whether the principal part of Mr. Wright's estate is on the sea-coast in Georgia, — are facts which we wish had been stated, that it might be known whether governor Wright's " knowledge and experience in the affairs of the colonies ought, as the lords oftrade men tion, to give great weight to his opinion" on the present occasion. The doctrine insisted upon by governor Wright appears to us reducible to the follow ing propositions : 1st, 'That if a vast territory be granted to any set of gentlemen, who really raean to people it, — and actually do so, it must draw and carry out a great number ofpeople from Great Britain. 2d, That they will soon become a kind of separate and independent people; who will set up for theraselves, — will soon have raanu- factures of their own, — will neither take sup plies from the mother-country, nor the pro vinces at the back of which they are settled : — That being at such a distance from the seat of government, from courts, raagistrates, &c., and'out of the control of law and govern ment, they will beoorae a receptacle for of fenders, &,c. 3d, That the sea-coast should be thick set tled with inhabitants, and be well cultivated and improved, &c. 4th, That his ideas are not chimerical; that he knows something of the situation and state of things in America ; and, from some little occurrences that have happened, he can very easily figure to himself what may, and, in short, what will certainly happen, if not prevented in time. On these propositions we shall take the li berty of making a few observations. To the first, we answer, — We shall, we are persuaded, satisfactorily prove, that in the middle colonies, viz. New Jersey, Pennsylva nia, Maryland, and Virginia, there is hardly any vacant land, except such as is monopo lized by great landholders, for the purpose of selling at high prices ; that the poor people of these colonies, with large families of chil dren, cannot pay these prices ; and that seve ral thousand farailies, for that reason, have al ready settled upon the Ohio ; — that we do not wish for, and shall not encourage one single family of his raajesty's European subjects to settle there [and this we have no objection to be prevented frora doing,] but shall wholly rely on the voluntary superflux of the inha bitants of the middle provinces for settling and cultivating the lands in question. On the second, — It is not, we presume, ne cessary for us to say more, than that all the conjectures and suppositions " of being a kind of separate and independent people," &c. en tirely lose their force, on the proposition of a government being established on the grant applied for, as the lords of trade themselves acknowledged. On the third, — We would only briefly re mark, that we have fully answered this objec tion in the latter part of our answer to the sixth paragraph. And as the /oMrtA proposition is merely the governor's declaration of his knowledge of something of the situation and state of things in America, and what, from some little occur rences, that have tilready really happened, he can very easily figure to himself what may and will certainly happen, if not prevented in time : — We say, That as the governor has not raentioned what these little occurrences are, — we cannot pretend to judge, whether what he figures to hiraself, is any ways rela tive to tlie object under consideration, or, in deed, what else it is relative to? But as the lords coraraissioners for trade and plantations have thought proper to insert in their report the aboveraentioned letters frora general Gage and governor Wright, it raay not be improper for us to give our opi nion of his majesty's house of burgesses of the dominion of Virginia, on the very point in question, as conveyed to his majesty in their address of the 4th August, 1767, and HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL. 235 delivered the latter end of that year, to the lords commissioners for trade and plantations, by Mr. Montague, agent for the colony. — The house of burgesses say, — " We humbly hope, that we shall obtain your royal indulgence, when we give it as our opinions, that it will be for your majesty's service, and the interest of your American dominions in general, to continue the encouragements" (which were a total exemption from any consideration- money whatsoever, and a remission of quit- rent for ten years, and of all kinds of taxes for fifteen years) " for settling those frontier lands." By this means, the house observed, " New settle.ments will be made by people of property, obedient subjects to government; but if the present restriction should continue, we have the strongest reason to believe, that country will become the resort of fugitives and vagabonds, defiers oflaw and order, and who in time may form a body dangerous to the peace and civil government of this co lony." We come now to the consideration of the 9th, 10th, and 11th paragraphs. In the 9th, the lords commissioners for trade and plantations observe, " That admitting the settlers over the raountains, and on the Ohio, to be as numerous as report states them to be," [and which we shall, frora undoubted tes timony, prove to be not less than five thousand farailies, of at least six persons to a family, in dependent of some thousand families, which are also settled over the mountains, within the limits of the province of Pennsylvania] yet their lordships say, " It operates strongly in point of argument against what is propos ed." And their lordships add, "if the fore going reasoning has any weight, it ought cer tainly to induce the lords of the committee of the privy council, to advise his majesty to take every method to check the progress of these settlements ; and not to make such grants of the land, as will have an immediate tendency to encourage thera." Having, we presume, clearly shown, that the country southward ofthe Great Kenhawa, quite to the Cherokee river, belonged to the Six Nations, and not to the Cherokees ; that now it belongs to the king, in virtue of his majesty's purchase frora the Six Nations ; that neither these tribes, nor the Cherokees, do hunt between the great Kenhawa and the land opposite to the Scioto river ; that, by the present boundary-lme, the lords commission ers for trade and plantations would sacrifice to the Cherokees an extent of country of at least eight hundred miles in length, which his majesty has bought and paid for ; that the real liraits of Virginia do reoi extend westward, be yond the Alleghany mountains; that since the purchase of the country from the Six Na tions, his majesty has not annexed it, nor any part of it, to the colony of Virginia ; that there are no settlements made under legal titles, on any part of the lands we have agreed for with the lords commmissioners of the treasury; that in, the year 1746, the strongest marks of royal encouragement were given to settle the country over the moun tains ; that the suspension of this encourage ment, by the proclamation of October, 1763, was raerely teraporary, until the lands were purchased frora the natives ; — that the avidi ty to settle these lands was so great, that large settleraents were raade thereon befin-, they were purchased ; — that although tlio settlers were daily exposed to the cruelties of the savages, neither a military force, nor re peated proclamations could induce them to vacate these lands ; that the soU of the coun try over the mountains is excellent, and capa ble of easily producing hemp, flax, silk, to bacco, iron, wine, &c. ; — that these articles can be cheaply conveyed to a seaport for ex portation ; — that the charge of carriage is so very small, it cannot possibly operate to the prevention of the use of British manufactures ; that the king's purchasing the lands from the Indians, and fixing a boundary-line with them, was for the very purpose of his subjects set tling thera ; and that the commissioners for trade and plantations in 1768, — declared, that the inhabitants of the middle colonies would have liberty for that purpose. And to this train of facts, let us add, that at the congress, held with the Six Nations at Fort Stanwix in 1768, when his majesty pur chased the territory on the Ohio, Messrs. Penn also bought from these nations a very exten sive tract of country over the Alleghany mountains, and on that river joining to the very lands in question. That in the spring 1769, Messrs. Penn opened their land-office in Pennsylvania, for the settling the country which they had so bought at Fort Stanwix : and all such settlers as had seated themselves over the mountains, within the limits of Pennsylvania, beforethe lands were purchas ed from the natives, have since obtained ti tles for their plantations : That in 1771, a pe tition was presented to the assembly of the province of Pennsylvania, praying that a new county may be made over these mountains : — That the legislature of that province, in consideration ofthe great number of families settled there, within the limits of that pro vince, did that year enact a law, for the erec tion of the lands over the mountains into a new county, by the name of Bedford county : That in consequence of such law, Williara Thompson, esq., was chosen to represent it in the general assembly : That a sheriff, co roner, justices of the peace, constables, and other civil officers are appointed and do re side over the mountains : That all the king's subjects, who are not less than five thousand families, who have made locations and settle- 236 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. ments on the lands, southward of, and adjoin ing to the southern line of Pennsylvania, live there, without any degree of order, law, or government : That being in this lawless situ ation, continual quarrels prevail among them; That they have already infringed the bounda ry-line, killed several Indians, and encroach ed on tbe lands, on the opposite side of the Ohio ; and that disorders of the most danger ous nature, with respect to the Indians, the boundary-line, and the old colonies, will soon take place among these settlers, if law and subordination are not immediately established among them. — Can these facts be possibly perverted so as to operate, either in point of argument or policy, against the proposition of governing the king's subjects on the lands in question. It ought to be considered also, that we have agreed to pay as rauch for a small part of the cession made at Fort Stanwix, as the whole cession cost the crown, and at the same tirae to be at the entire expense of establishing and supporting the proposed new colony.* The truth is, the inhabitants already set tled on this tract of country are in so ungo- verned and lawless a situation, that the very Indians themselves complain of it ; so that, if they are not soon governed, an Indian war will be the inevitable consequence. This, we presume, is evident both from the correspon dence of general Gage with the earl of Hills borough, — and a speech of the chiefs of the Delawares, Munsies, and Mohickons, living on the Ohio, to the governors of Pennsylva nia, Maryland, and Virginia, lately transmit ted by the general to his lordship. In this speech these nations observe, that since the sale ofthe lands to the king on the Ohio, — " Great numbers more of your people have come over the great mountains and set tled throughout this country, and we are sor ry to tell you, that several quarrels have hap pened between your people and ours, in which people have been killed on both sides, and that we now see the nations round us and * The parliamentary grants for the civil establish ment of the provinces of Nova Scotia, Georgia, and East and West Florida, amnunt to one miUion trcdvc ttionsand eight hundred and thirtij-onc pounds two shil- limr^ and eight pence halfpenny, as the following ac count shows ;— and notwith-^taudiiig this vast expense, the kin;.' has not received any quit-rents from these pro vinces. How diflerent is the present proposition, for the establishment of the Ohio colony ?— [n this case, the crnwii ia to be paid for the lands, (and which is the first instance nf any being sold in North Annrrica ) Go vernment IS to be exempted from the expense of support ing the colony, and the kin{^ will receive his quit-rents, neat and clear of all deductions, (which ileductions in the old colonies are at least twenty per centum) as will more particularly appear by a state of the king's quit- rents annexed hereto. The parliamentary grants abovcmentioned are as follow : To Nova Scotia X-07,320 19 73rf. ToGeorgia 2)4,610 3 H To East Florida 45,400 To West Florida 45,400 your people ready to imbroil in a quarrel, which gives our nations great concern, as we, on our parts, want to live in friendship with you. As you have always told us, you have laws to govern your people by, — but we do not see that you have ; therefore, brethren, unless you can fall upon some method of go verning your people, who live between the great mountains and the Ohio river, and v/ho are very nuraerous, it will be out of the In dian's power to govern their young men ; for we assure you, the black clouds begin to ga ther fast in this country, and if something is not soon done, these clouds will deprive us of seeing the sun. We desire you to give the greatest attention to what we now tell you ; as it comes from our hearts, and a desire we have to live in peace and friendship with our brethren the English, and therefore it grieves us to see some of the nations about us and your people ready to strike each other. We find your people are very fond of our rich land ; — We see them quarrelling with each other every day about land, and burning one another's houses, so that we do not know how soon they raay come over the river Ohio, and drive us from our villages ; nor do we see you, brothers, take any care to stop them." This speech, from tribes of such great in fluence and weight upon the Ohio, conveys rauch useful information. — It establishes the fact, of the settlers over the mountains being very numerous ; — it shows the entire appro bation of the Indians, in respect to a colony being established on the Ohio ; — it patheti cally complains of the king's subjects not being governed ; — and it confirms the asser tion mentioned by the lords commissioners for trade and plantations in the eighth paragraph oftheir report, "that if the settlers are suffer ed to continue in the lawless state of anarchy and confusion, they will commit such .abuses as cannot fail of involving us in quarrels and disputes with the Indians, and thereby en danger the security ofhis majesty's colonies." The lords commissioners for trade and plan tations, however, pay no regard to all these circumstances, but content themselves with observing, " We see nothing to hinder the government of Virginia from extending the laws and constitution of that colony to such persons as may haye already settled there under legal titles." To this wc repeat, that there are no such person?, as have settled under legal titles, and even admitting there were, as their lordships say in the tentli pa ragraph, " it appears to them, there are some possessions derived from n-rants made by the governor and council of Virginia," and allow ing that the laws and constitution of Virginia did, as they unquestionably do not, — extend to this territory, have the lords commissioners proposed any expedient for governing those many thousand families, who have not settled HISTORICAL AND POUTICAL. 237 under legal titles, but only agreeably to the ancient usage of location? Certainly not. But, on the contrary, their lordships have recomraended, that his majesty should be ad vised to take every method to check the pro gress oftheir settleraents ; — and thereby leave them in their present lawless situation, at the risk of involving the middle colonies in a war with the natives, pregnant with a loss of sub jects, loss of commerce, and depopulation of their frontier counties. Having made these observations, it may next be proper to consider how the laws und constitution of Virginia can possibly be ex tended, so as effectually to operate on the territory in question? Is not WiUiarasburg, the capital of Virginia, at least four hundred miles from the settleraents on the Ohiol Do not the laws of Virginia require, that all per sons guilty of capital crimes shall be tried only in Williamsburg ? Is not the general as sembly held there 1 Is not the court of king's bench, or the superior court of the dominion, kept there ! Has Virginia provided any fund for the support ofthe officers of these distant settlements, or for the transporting offenders, aaid paying the expense of witnesses travelling eight hundred miles (viz. going and return ing,) and during their stay at VVilliamsburg 1 And will not these settlers be exactly (for the reasons assigned) in the situation described by governor Wright, in the very letter which the commissioners for trade and plantations have so warmly recomraended, viz. "such persons as are settled at the back of the pro vinces, being at a distance from the seat of governraent, courts, magistrates, &c., they will be out of the reach and control of law and governraent, and their settlement will becorae a receptacle, and a kind of asylura for offen ders?" On the llth paragraph we apprehend it is not necessary to say rauch. The reservatory clause proposed in our memorial is what is usual in royal grants ; and in the present case, the lords ofthe committee of the privy council, we hope, will be of opinion, it is quite sufficient, more especially as we are able to prove to their lordships, that there are no " possessions," within the boundaries of the lands under consideration, which are held " under legal titles." To conclude : as it has been demonstrated, that neither royal nor provincial proclama tions, nor the dread and horrors of a savage war, were sufficient (even before the country was purchased from the Indians) to prevent the settlement of the lands over the mountains, can it be conceived, that, now the country is purchased, and the people have seen the pro prietors of Pennsylvania, who are the here ditary supporters of British policy in their own province, give every degree of encou ragement to settle the lands westward of the mountains, the legislature of the province, at the same time, effectually corroborate the measure, and several thousand farailies, in consequence thereof, settle in the new coun ty of Bedford, — that the inhabitants of the middle colonies will be restrained from culti vating the luxuriant country of the Ohio, joining to the southern line of Pennsylvania % But, even admitting that it might formerly have been a question of some propriety, whe ther the country should be permitted to be settled, — that cannot surely become a subject of inquiry now, when it is an obvious and certain truth, that at least thirty thousand British subjects are already settled there. Is it fit to leave such a body of people lawless and ungoverned 1 will sound policy recom mend this manner of colonizing and increas ing the wealth, strength, and coramerce ofthe erapire 1 or will it point out, that it is the in dispensable duty of government to render bad subjects useful subjects ; and for that purpose immediately to establish law and subordina tion among them, and thereby early confirm their native attachment to the laws, traffic, and customs of this kingdom ? On the whole, we presume that we have both by facts and sound argument, shown, that the opinion of the lords commissioners for trade and plantations on the object in question, is not well-founded, and that, if their lordships' opinion should be adopted, it would be attended with the most raischievous and dangerous consequences to the commerce, peace, and safety ofhis majesty's colonies in America : We therefore hope, the expediency and utility of erecting the lands agreed for into a separate colony, without delay, will be consi dered as a measure of the soundest policy, highly conducive to the peace and security of the old colonies, to the preservation of the boundary-line, and to the commercial in terests of the mother-country. APPENDIX, No. I. BY THE KING. A PROCLAMATION. GEORGE R. Whereas we have taken into our royal consi deration, the extensive and valuable acquisitions in America, secured to our crown by the late de finitive treaty of peace, concluded at Paris the tenth of February last ; and being desirous, that all our laving subjects, as well of our kingdoms as of our colonies in America, may avail them selves, with all convenient speed, ofthe great bene fits and advantages which must accrue tberefrom to their commerce, manufactures, and navigation ; we have thought fit, with the advice of our privy council, to issue this our royal proclamation, here by to publish and declare to all our loving sub jects, that we have, with the advice ofour said pri vy council, granted our letters patent under our great seal of Great Britain, to erect within tbe countries and islands, ceded and confirmed to us by tbe said treaty, four distinct and separate go vernments, styled and called by the names of (Que bec, East Florida, West Florida, and Grenada, and limited and bounded as follows, viz. First, Tbe government of Q.uebec, bounded on tbe Labrador coast by tbe river St. John, and from tbence by a line drawn from tbe bead of that ri ver, through tbe lake St. John, to tbe south end of the lake Nipissim ; from whence tbe said line, crossing tbe river St. Lawrence and tbe lake Champlain in forty-five degrees of north latitude passes along the high lands, wbich divide tbe ri vers that empty themselves into tbe said river St. Lawrence, from those which fall into tbe sea ; and also along the north coast of the Baye des Cha- ieurs, and the coast of tbe gulf of St. Lawrence to cape Rosieres, and from tbence crossing tbe mouth of tbe river St. Lawrence by tbe west end of tbe island of Anticosti, terminates at tbe afore said river St. John. Secondly, The government of East Florida, bounded to tbe westward by the gulf of Mexico and tbe Appalachicola river ; to tbe northward, by a line drawn from that part of the said river where tbe Catahouchee and Ffint rivers meet, to the source of St. Mary's river, and by the course of tbe said river to the Atlantic Ocean ; and to tbe east and south by tbe Atlantic Ocean, and the gulf of Florida, including all islands within six leagues of the sea-coast. Thirdly, The government of West Florida, bounded to tbe southward by tbe gulf of Mexico, including all islands within six leagues of tbe coast from tbe river Appalachicola to lake Pontcbar- train ; to the westward by the said lake, the lake Maurcpas, and the river Mississippi ; to the northward, by a line drawn due east from tb.tt part ofthe Mississippi whicb lies in thirty-one degrees north latitude, to tbe river Appabicbicola, or C.^tahouchee; and to tbe eastward by tbe said river. Fourthly, Tbe government of Grenada, oom- prebending tbo islaiad oftbat name, together with the Grenadines, and tbe islands- of Dominico, St. Vincent, and Tobago. And to the end that tbe open and free fishery of our subjects may be extended to, and carried on upon the coast of Labrador and the adjacent islands, we have thought fit, -nilh the advice of our said privy council, to j.ut all that coast, from tbe river St. John's to biudson's Streigbts, toge ther with the islands of Anticosti and Sladelaine, and all other smafier islands laying upon tbe said coast, under the care and inspection of our govern or of Newfoundland. We have also, with the advice of our privy council, thought fit to annex the islands of St. John and Cape Breton, or Isle Royale, with the lesser islands adjacent thereto, to our government of Nova Scotia, We have also, with tbe advice of our fmj council aforesaid, annexed to our province of Georgia, all the lands lying between tbe rivers Altamaba and St. Mary's. And whereas it will greatly contribute to the speedy setthng our said new governments, that our loving subjects should be informed ofour pa ternal care for the security of the liberties and properties of tbose who are, and shall become in habitants thereof ; we have thought fit to publish and declare, by this our proclamation, that we have, in the letters patent under our great seal of Great Britain, by wbich tbe governments are constituted, given express power and direction to our governors of our said colonies respectively, that so soon as tbe state and circumstances ofthe said colonies will admit thereof, they shall, with tbe advice and consent of tbe members of our council, summon and call general assemblies within the said governments respectively, in such manner and form as is used, and directed in those colonies and provinces in America, wbich are un der our immediate government ; and we have also given power to tbe said governors, with the con sent of our said councils, and tbe representatives of tbe people, so to be summoned as aforesaid, to make, constitute, and ordain laws, statutes, and ordinances for the public peace, welfare, and good government of our said colonies, and of the people and inhabitants thereof, as near as may be, agree ably to tbe laws of England, and under such regu lations and restrictions as are used in other colo nies ; and in the mean time, and until such assem blies can be called as aforesaid, all persons inhabit ing in, or resorting to our said colonies, may con fide in our royal protection for tbe enjoyment ofthe benefit of the laws of our realm of England : for whicb purpose we have given power under our great seal to the governors ofour said colonies re spectively, to erect and constitute, with the ad vice of our said councils respectively, courts of judicature and public justice within our said colo nies, for the hearing and determining all causes, as well criminal as civil, according to law ami equity, and as near as may be, agreeably to the Itiws of England ; with liberty to all persons who may think themselves aggrieved by the sentence of such courts, in all civil coses, to appeal, under the usual limitations and restrictions, to us, in our privy council. We have also thought fit, with the advice of our privy council as aforesaid, to give unto the governors and councils of our said three new colo nies upon tbe continent, full power and authority to settle and agree with the inhabitants of our HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL. 239 said new colonies, or to any otber person who , And do we further declare it to be our royal shall resort thereto, for such lands, tenements, | will and pleasure,,/'or thought proper to allow settlement; but that if at any time any of the said Indians should be in- cHned to dispose ofthe said lands, the same shall be purchased only for us, in our name, at some public meeting or assembly ofthe said Indians, to be held for that purpose by tbe governor or com mander-in-chief of our colony respectively within which they shall lie : and in case they shall lie. within tbe limits of any proprietaries, conformable to sucb directions and instructions as we or they shall think proper to give for that purpose : and we do, by tbe advice ofour privy council, declare and enjoin, that the trade with the said Indians shall be free and open to all our subjects what ever, provided that every person who may incliiic to trade with the said Indians, do take out a li cense for carrying on such trade, from the govern or or commander-in-chief of any of our colonies respectively, where such person shall reside, and also tbe security to observe such regulations as we shall at any time think fit, by ourselves or commissaries, to be appointed for this purpose, to direct and appoint for the benefit of the said trade : and we do hereby authorize, enjoin, and require the governors and commanders-in-cbief of all our colonies respectively, as well those under our immediate government, as those under the government and direction of proprietaries, to grant such licenses without fee or reward, taking espe cial care to insert therein a condition that such license shall be void, and tbe security forfeited, in case the person to whom tbe same is granted, shall refuse or, neglect to observe such regulations as we shall think proper to prescribe as afore said. And we do further expressly enjoin and require all officers whatever, as well mUitary as those em- 240 FRANKLIN'S WORKS ployed in the management and direction of Indian affairs within the territories reserved, as aforesaid, for the use of tbe said Indians, to seize and ap prehend aU persons whatever, who standing charg ed with treasons, misprisions of treasons, murders, or other felonies or misdemeanours, shall fly from justice and take refuge in the said territory, and to send them under a proper guard to the colony where tbeir crime was committed of which they shall stand accused, in order to take their trial for the same. Given at our court at St. James's, the 7th day of October, 1763, in tbe third year of our reign. God save the king. APPENDIX No. II. STATE OF THE KING'S QUIT-RENTS IN NORTH AJVIERICA. Consideration money paid to tbe king for the lande. The time the lands are ex empted from quit-rent. l^uit-rents re ceived. Eipenfie to this country for the sup port of the civil go vernment ofthe colo nies Island of St. John Nova Scotia Canada Massachusetts ) Connecticut > Rhode Island ) New Hampshire New York New Jersey PennsylvaniaMaryland VirginiaN. & S. Carolina GeorgiaE. & W. Florida f^ But it is proposed to pay _ for the colony OB the Ohio None None None NoneNone None None 20 years. 10 years. Wholly exempt from quit-rents and all pay ments to the crown "i None NoneNone None 10,460/ 7s 3d; whicb is all tbe money tbe whole country (of which this is only a small part) cost go vernment forthe cession from the Six Nations This colony was re-^ stored to tbe crown in the year 1693-4, and yet from that time very Ht- tle quit-rents have been received. Wholly exempt from quit-rents and all pay ments to tbe crown. This colony was reas-' sumed by the crown in tbe year 1636 ; and yet for a great number of years, the quit-rents were not paid at all : — never with any regularity till within a very few years ; and now from what is paid there is a deduc tion of at least 20 per cent. This colony was settled ~| in the year 1735, and yet | no quit-rents have been re- | ceived. J 10 years. Tbe quit-rents to com mence in twenty years from the time of the sur vey of each lot or planta tion, and to be paid into the hands of such person as his majesty shall ap point to receive the 8.ame, nett and clear of all de ductions whatsoever, for collection or otherwise. None And yet no quit-rents have been received, though tbe co lony was esta blished twenty- two years ago. ^ None None None None None None 707,320; 19s lid NoneNone None None 314,610; 3s lid 90,9001 0 0 All the expenses of the civil govern ment of this colo ny, to be borne and paid by the proprie tors. HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL 241 Note on the Report. The preceding proposition, report, and an swer are very intimately connected with the history of the revolution of America. The answer to the report, as coming from the pen of Dr. Franklin, is entitled to great attention. He bestowed great pains to render it clear, close, and conclusive in its reasonings ; it is indeed a triumphant argument. The variety, extent, and exactness of the information which it contains ; and the foresight which discerned at so early a period the settlement, cultivation, and riches of that country ; and even the building and sailing of ships on the Ohio, and thence to the ocean, render these tracts highly interesting. When the answer was called up in the privy council on the 1st of July, 1772, it was heard with attention mixed with surprise ; it seemed to reveal a new world ; and such was the irapression which it raade, that the prayer of the peti tioners was approved. But the first effect of its approval was very single. The report of the board of trade was drawn up by the president lord Hillsborough, who immediately upon the decision of the privy council, resigned his place. This mi nister had formed a plan of liraitation for the colonies, resembling that of the French when they possessed Canada, which was to circum scribe all settlements by a line to coincide with some northern position and the Mississip pi. The answer of Dr. Franklin must have rendered his lordship's want ofknowledge of the geographical, physical, and historical cir cumstances of the American interior, very striking ; and his conduct on former occasions, compared with the present, so irreconcilable with an honest or a sound judgment, that his pride appears to have rendered it necessary that he should retire. Dr. Franklin's answer had been put to press, with a view to iraraediate publication, but on hearing that lord Hillsborough had resign ed, the publication was stopt, when only five copies had been issued. The copy here pub lished frora is that which Dr. Franklin him self retained. Comparison of Great Britain and America as to Credit,* in 1777. In borrowing money a man's credit depends on some or all of the following particulars. First, His known conduct respecting forraer loans, and his punctuality in discharging them. Secondly, His industry. Thirdly, His frugality. Fourthly, The amount and the certainty of his income, and the freedom of his estate frora the incurabrances of prior debts. * This paper was written, translated, printed, and circulated, while Dr. Franklin was at the court of Prance, for the purpose of inducing foreigners to lend money to America in preference to Great Britain. Vol. II. ... 2 H 21 Fifthly, His well founded prospects of great er future ability, by the iraprovement of his estate in value, and by aids from others. Sixthly, His known prudence in managing his general aflairs, and the advantage they will probabljl- receive from the loan which he desires. Seventhly, His known probity and honest character, manifested by his \oluntary dis charge of debts, which he could not have been legally compelled to pay. The circumstances which give credit to an individual ought to have, and will have, their weight upon the lenders of money to public bodies or nations. If then we consider and corapare Britain and America, in these several particulars, upon the question, " To which is it safest to lend money 1" We shall find, 1. Respecting /ormer /cans, that Araerica, which borrowed ten millions during the last war, for the maintenance of her army of 25,000 men and other charges, had faithfully discharged and paid that debt, and all her other debts, in 1772. Whereas Britain, during those ten years of peace and profitable com merce, had made little or no reduction of her debt ; but on the contrary, frora time to time, diminished the hopes of her creditors, by a wanton diversion and misapplication of the sinking fund destined for discharging it. 2. Respecting industry; every man in America is employed ; the greater part in cultivating their own lands, the rest in handi crafts, navigation, and commerce. An idle man there is a rarity, idleness and inutility are disgraceful. In England the number of that character is imraense, fashion has spread it far and wide ; hence the embarrassments of private fortunes, and the daily bankruptcies arising frora an universal fondness for appear ance and expensive pleasures ; and hence, in some degree, the mismanagement of public business; for habits of business, and ability in it, are acquired only by practice ; and where universal dissipation, and the perpetual pur suit of amusement are the mode, the youth, educated in it, can rarely afterwards acquire that patient attention and close application to affairs, which are so necessary to a statesman charged with the care of national welfare. Hence their frequent errors in policy, and hence the weariness at public councils, and backwardness in going to thera, the constant unwillingness to engage in any measures that require thought and consideration, and the readiness for postponing every new proposi tion ; which postponing is therefore the only part of business they come to be expert in, an expertness produced necessarily by so much daily practice. Whereas in America, men bred to close employment in their private af fairs, attend with ease to those of the public, when engaged in thera, and nothing fells through negligence. 242 FRANKLLN'S WORKS. 3. Respecting frugality ; the manner of living in America is more simple and less ex pensive than that in England : plain tables. plain clothing, and plain fiirniture in houses prevail, with few carriages of pleasure; there, an expensive appearance hurts credit, and is avoided : in England, it is often assumed to gam credit, and continued to ruin. Respect ing public affairs, the difference is still great er. In England, the salaries of officers, and emoluraents of office are enormous. The king has a million sterling per annum, and yet cannot maintain his family free of debt: se cretaries of state, lords of treasury, admiralty, &c. have vast appointments: an auditor of the exchequer has sixpence in the pound, or a fortieth part of all the public money expend ed by the nation ; so that when a war costs forty millions, one million is paid to him : an inspector of the mint, in thelast new coinage, received as his fee 65,000Z. sterling per an- nura ; to all which rewards no service these gentleraen can render the public is by any raeans equivalent. All this is paid by the peo ple, who are oppressed by taxes so occasion ed, and thereby rendered less able to contri bute to the payment of necessary national debts. In America, salaries, where indispensa ble, are extremely low ; but much ofthe public business is done gratis. The honour of serving the public ably and faithfully is deemed suffi cient. Public spirit really exists there, and has great effects. In England it is universally deemed a nonentity, and whoever pretends to it is laughed at as a fool, or suspected as a knave. The comraittees of congress which forra the board of war, the board of treasury, the board of foreign affairs, the naval board, that for accounts, &c. all attend the business of their respective functions, without any sa lary or eraolument whatever, though they spend in it much more of their time than any lord of treasury or admiralty in England can spare from his amusements. A British mi nister lately computed, that the whole ex pense of the Americans, in their civil govern raent over three millions ofpeople amounted to but 7O,O00Z. sterling, and drew frora thence a conclusion, thatthey ought to be taxed, until their expense was equal in proportion to that which it costs Britain to govern eight mil lions. He had no idea of a contrary conclu sion, that if three millions may be well go verned for 70,000/. eight millions may be as well governed for three times that sum, and that therefore the expense of his own govern ment should be diminished. In that corrupt ed nation no man is ashamed of being concern ed in lucrative government jobs, in which the public money is egregiously misapplied and squandered, the treasury pillaged, and raore numerous and heavy taxes accuraulated, to the great oppression of the people. But the prospect of a greater number of such jobs by a war is an inducement with many, to cry out for war upon all occasions, and to oppose eve ry proposition of peace. Hence the constant increase of the national debt, and the absolute improbability of its ever being discharged. 4. Respecting the amount and certainty of income, and solidity of security ; the whole thirteen states of Araerica are engaged for the payment of every debt contracted by the congress, and the debt to be contracted by the present war is the only debt they will have to pay ; all, or nearly all, the former debts of particular colonies being already discharged. Whereas England will have to pay not only the enorraous debt this war must occasion, but all their vast preceding debt, or the inte rest of it, — and while America is enriching itself by prizes made upon the British com raerce, more than ever it did by any commerce of its own, under the restraints of a Britsh mo nopoly, and the diminution of its revenues, and of course less able to discharge the pre sent indiscreet increase of its expenses. 5. Respecting prospects of greater future ability, Britain has none such. Her islands are circumscribed by the ocean ; and except ing a few parks or forests, she has no new land to cultivate, and cannot therefore extend improvements. Her numbers too, instead of increasing from increased subsistence, are continually diminishing from growing luxury, and the increasing difficulties of maintaining families, which of course discourage early marriages. Thus she will have fewer people to assist in paying her debts, and that dimi nishing number will be poorer. America, on the contrary, has, besides her lands already cul tivated, a vast territory yet to be cultivated ; which, being cultivated continually increases in value with the increase of people ; and the people, who double themselves by a natural propagation every twenty-five years, will double yet faster, by the accession of s(ra?i- gers, as long as lands are to be had for new families; so that every twenty years there will be a double number of inhabitants obliged to discharge the pubhc debts ; and those in habitants, being more opulent, may pay their shares with greater ease. 6. Respecting prudence in general afiairs, and the advantages to be expected from the loan desired ; the Americans are cultivators of land ; those engaged in fishery and com merce are few, compared with the others. They have ever conducted their several go vernments with wisdom, avoiding wars, and vain expensive projects, delighting only in their peaceable occupations, which must, considering the extent of tiieir uncultivated territory, find thera employment still for ages. Whereas England, ever unquiet, ambitious, avaricious, imprudent, and quarrelsome, is half ofthe time engaged in war, always at an ex pense infinitely greater than the advantages HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL 243 to be obtained by it, if successful. Thus they made war against Spain in 1T39, for a claim of about 95,000Z. (scarce a groat for each in dividual of the nation) and spent forty millions sterling in the war, and the lives of fifty thou sand men; and finally made peace without obtaining satisfaction for the sum claimed. Indeed, there is scarce a nation in Europe, against which she has not made war on some frivolous pretext or other, and thereby impru dently accuraulated a debt, that has brought her on the verge of bankruptcy. But the most indiscreet of all her wars, is the present against Araerica, with whom she might, for ages, have preserved her profitable connex ion only by a just and equitable conduct. She is now acting like a raad shop-keeper, who, by beating those that pass his doors, at terapts to make them corae in and be his customers. Araerica cannot subrait to such treatment, without being first ruined, and, being ruined, her custora will be worth no thing. England, to effect this, is increasing her debt, and irretrievably ruining herself America, on the other hand, aims only to es tablish her liberty, and that freedom of com merce which will be advantageous to all Eu rope ; and by abolishing that monopoly which she laboured under she will profit infinitely more than enough to repay nny debt which she may contract to accomplish it. 7. Respecting cAarof/'fr in the honest pay ment of debts ; the punctuality with which Araerica has discharged her public debts was shown under the first head. And the gene ral good disposition of the people to such punctuality has been raanifested in their faith ful pay raent of private debts to England, since the commenceraent of this war. There were not wanting some politicians [in Araerica,] who proposed stopping that payment, until peace should be restored, alleging, that in the usual course of coraraerce, and of the credit given, there was always a debt existing equal to the trade of eighteen raonths : that the trade amounting to five millions sterling per annum, the debt must be seven millions and a half; that this sum paid to the Bri tish merchants would operate to prevent that distress, intended to be brought upon Britain, by our stoppage of commerce with her ; for the merchants receiving this money, and no orders with it for farther supplies, would ei ther lay it out in public funds, or in employ ing manufacturers to accumulate goods for a future hungry raarket in Araerica upon an expected accoramodation, by which means the funds would be kept up and the manufacturers prevented from murmuring. But against this it was alleged, that injuries from rainisters should not be revenged on raerchants ; that the credit was in consequence of private con tracts, made in confidence of good faith ; that these ought to be held sacred, and faith fully complied with ; for that, whatever pub lic utility might be supposed to arise from a breach of private faith, it was unjust, and would in the end be found unwise— honesty being in truth the best policy. On this prin ciple the proposition was universally rejected; and though the English prosecuted the war with unexampled barbarity, burning our de fenceless towns in the midst of winter, and arming savages against us; the debt was punctually paid ; and the merchants of Lon don have testified to the parliament, and will testify to all the world, that from their expe rience in dealmg with us they had, before the war, no apprehension of our unfairness ; and that since the war they have been convinced, that their good opinion of us was well founded. England, on the contrary, an old, corrupt go vernment, extravagant, and profligate nation, sees herself deep in debt, which she is in no condition to pay ; and yet is raadly, and dis honestly running deeper, without any possi bility of discharging her debt, but by a public bankruptcy. It appears, therefore, from the general in dustry, frugality, ability, prudence, and virtue of America, that she is a much safer debtor than Britain ; — to say nothing of the satisfac tion generous muids must have in reflecting, that by loans to America they are opposing tyranny, and aiding the cause of liberty, which is the cause of all mankind. PHILOSOPHICAL. ESSAYS AND CORRESPONDENCE. ELECTRICITY. To Peter Collinson, Esq. F. R. 8. London. Philadelphia, March 28, 1747. Your kind present of an electric tube, with directions for using it, has put several of us* on making electrical experiments, in which we have observed some particular phenomena that we look upon to be new. I shall therefore communicate thera to you in ray next, though possibly they may not be new to you, as among the numbers daily em ployed in those experiments on your side the water, it is probable some one or other has hit on the same observations. For my own part, I never was before engaged in any study that so totally engrossed my attention and ray tirae as this has lately done ; for what with making experiments when I can be alone, and repeatmg them to my friends and acquaintance, who, from the novelty of the thing, come continually in crowds to see them, I have, during some months past, had little leisure for any thing else. — ^I am, &c. B. FRANKLIN. To the same. Wonderful effect of points. — Positive and nega tive Electricity. — Electrical Kiss. — Counter feit Spider. — Simple and commodious electri cal Machine. FHiLADBLPaiA, July 11, 1747. In my last I informed you that, in pursuing our electrical inquiries, we had observed sorae particular phenomena, which we looked upon to be new, and of which I proraised to give you some account, though I apprehended they might not possibly be new to you, as so many hands are daily employed in electrical expe riments on your side the water, some or other of which would probably hit on the same ob servations. The first is the wonderful effect of pointed bodies, both in drawing ojf and throwing off the electrical fire. For example. * The LibraryCompany, an institution of tho author's, founded in 1730. To which company the present was made. Place an iron shot of three or four inches diameter on the mouth of a clean dry glass bottle. By a fine silken thread from the ceil ing, right over the mouth of the bottle, sus pend a sraall cork-ball, about the bigness of a marble ; tbe thread of such a length, as that the cork-ball may rest against the side of the shot. Electrify the shot, and the ball will be repelled to the distance of four or five inches, more or less, according to the quantity of electricity. — When in this state, if you present to the shot the point of a long, slender, sharp bodkin, at six or eight inches distance, the repellency is instantly de stroyed, and the cork flies to the shot A blunt body must be brought within an inch, and draw a spark to produce the same effect. To prove that the electrical fire is drawn off by the point, if you take the blade ofthe bod kin out ofthe wooden handle, and fix it in a stick of sealing-wax, and then present it at the distance aforesaid, or if you bring it very near, no such effect follows ; but sliding one finger along the wax till you touch the blade, and the ball flies to the shot immediately.— If you present the point in the dark, you will see, sometimes at a foot distance and more, a light gather upon it, like that of a fire-fly, or glow worm; the less sharp the point, the nearer you must bring it to observe the light ; and at whatever distance you see the light, you may draw off the electrical fire, and de stroy the repellency. — If a cork ball so sus pended be repelled by the tube, and a point be presented quick to it, though at a conside rable distance, it is surprising to see how sud denly it flies back to the tube. Points of wood will do near as well as those of iron, provided the wood is not dry ; for perfectly dry wood will no more conduct electricity than sealing wax. To show that points will throw off* as well * This power of points to throw off the electrical fire, was drst communicated to me by my ingenious friend Mr. Thomas Hopkinson, since deceased, whose virtues and integrity, in every situation of life, public and pri vate, wilt ever make his memory dear to those who knew him, and knew how to value him. 04 /I PHILOSOPHICAL 245 as draw off the electrical fire ; lay a long sharp needle upon the shot, and you cannot electrise the shot so as to make it repel the cork-ball. — Or fix a needle to the end of a suspended gun-barrej, or iron-rod, so as to point beyond it like a little bayonet ;* and while it remains there, the gun-barrel, or rod, cannot by applying the tube to the other end be electrised so as to give a spark, the fire continually rimning out silently at the point. In the dark you raay see it make the same appearence as it does in the case before-raen- tioned. The repellency between the cork-ball and the shot is likewise destroyed. 1. By sifting fine sand on it ; this does it gradually. 2. By breathing on it. 3. By making a sraoke about it from burning wood.f 4. By candle-light, even though the candle is at a foot distance : these do it suddenly. — The light of a bright coal from a wood fire, and the light of a red hot iron do it likewise ; but not at so great a distance. Sraoke from dry rosin dropt on hot iron, does not destroy the repellency ; but is attracted by both shot and cork ball, forming proportionable atmospheres round them, mak ing them look beautifully, somewhat like some of the figures in Burnet's or Whiston's The ory ofthe Earth. N. B. This experiment should be made in a closet, where the air is very still, or it will be apt to fail. The light of the sun thrown strongly on both cork and shot by a looking-glass for a long tirae together, does not impair the re pellency in the least. This difference between fire-light and sun-light is another thing that seems new and extraordinary to us.| We had for some time been of opinion, that the electrical fire was not created by friction, but collected, being really an element diffus ed araong, and attracted by other raatter, par ticularly by water and metals. We had even discovered and deraonstrated its afflux to the electrical sphere, as well as its efflux, by means of little light windraill wheels raade of stiff paper vanes, fixed obliquely, and turning * This was Mr. Hopkinson's experiment, made with an expectation of drawing a more sharp and powerful spark from the point, as from a kind of focus, and he was surprised to find little or none. fWe suppose every particle of sand, moisture, or smoke, being first attracted and then repelled, carries off with it a portion of the electrical fire; but that the same still subsists in those particles, till they communi cate it to something else, and that it is never really de- stroyed. So when water is thrown on common fire, we do not imagine that the element is thereby de stroyed or annihilated, but only dispersed, each particle of water carrying off in vapour its portion of the fire, which it had attracted and attached to itself. I This different effect probably did not arise from any difference in the light, but rather from the parti cles separated from the candle, being first Attracted and then repelled, carrying off the electric matter with them ; ind from the rarefying ofthe air, between the glowing coal or red hot iron, and the electrised shot, through which rarefied air the electric fluid could mote readily 21* freely on fine wire axles. Also by little wheels of the same matter, but formed like water-wheels. Ofthe disposition and appli cation of which wheels, and the various phe nomena resulting, I could, if I had time, fill you a sheet* The impossibility of electrising one's self (though standing on wax) by rub bing the tube, and drawing the fire from it ; and the manner of doing it, by passing the tube near a person or thing standing on the floor, &c. had also occurred to us some months before Mr. Watson's ingenious Sequel came to hand, and these were some of the new things I intended to have communicated to you. — But now I need only mention some particulars not hinted in that piece, with our reasonings thereupon : though perhaps the lat ter might well enough be spared. 1. A person standing on wax, and rubbing the tube, and another person on wax drawing the fire, they will both of them (provided they do not stand so as to touch one another) appear to be electrised, to a person standing on the floor ; that is, he will perceive a spark on ap proaching each of them with his knuckle. 2. But if the persons on wax touch one another during the exciting of the tube, nei ther of thera will appear to be electrised. 3. If they touch one another after exciting the tube, and drawing the fire as aforesaid, there will be a stronger spark between them than was between either of them and the per son on the floor. 4. After such strong spark, neither of them discover any electricity. These appearances we attempt to account for thus : we suppose, as aforesaid, that elec trical fire is a common element, of which every one of the three persons aboveraen tioned has his equal share, before any opera tion is begun with the tube. A, who stands on wax, and rubs the tube, collects the elec trical fire from himself into the glass ; and his comraunication with the common stock being cut off by the wax, his body is not again immediately supplied. B, (who stands on wax likewise) passing his knuckle along near the tube, receives the fire which was collect ed by the glass from A ; and his communica tion with the common stock being likewise cut off, he retains the additional quantity re ceived. — To C, standing on the floor, both ap pear to be electrised : for he having only the middle quantity of electrical fire, receives a spark upon approaching B, who has an over quantity ; but gives one to A, who has an un der quantity. If A and B approach to touch each other, the spark is stronger, because the difference between them is greater; after * These experiments with the wheels, were made and communicated to me by my worthy and ingenious friend Mr Philip Syng; but we afterwards discovered that the motion of those wheels was not owing to any afflux or efflux ofthe electric fluid, but to various circum stances of attraction and repulsion. 1750. 246 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. such touch there is no spark between either of thera and C, because the electrical fire in all is reduced to the original equality. Ifthey touch while electrising, the equality is never destroyed, the fire only circulating. Hence have arisen sorae new terms araong us ; we say B, (and bodies like circumstanced) is electrised positively ; A, negatively. Or ra.- ther, B is electrised plus ; A, minus. And we daily in our experunents electrise bodies plus or minus, as we think proper. — To elec trise plus or minus, no more needs to be known than this, that the parts of the tube or sphere that are rubbed, do, in the instant of the friction, attract the electrical fire, and therefore take it from the thing rubbing : the same parts iraraediately, as the friction upon them ceases, are disposed to give the fire they have received, to any body that has less. 'Thus you may circulate it, as Mr. Wat son has shown ; you may also accumulate or subtract it, upon, or from any body, as you connect that body with the rubber or with the receiver, the comraunication with the coraraon stock being cut off. We think that ingenious gentleman was deceived when he imagined (in his Sequel) that the electrical fire came down the wire frora the ceiling to the gun- barrel, thence to the sphere, and so electrised the machine and the man turning the wheel, &c. We suppose it was driven off, and not brought on through that wire ; a,nd that the machine and raan, &c. were electrised minus ; i e. had less electrical fire in thera than things in comraon. As the vessel is just upon sailing, I cannot give you so large an account of American electricity as I intended : I shall only men tion a few particulars more.— We find granu lated lead better to fill the phial with, than water, being easily warmed, and keeping warm and dry m damp air.— We fire spirits with the wire of the phial.— We light can dles just blown out, by drawing a spark among the smoke betweenthe wfre and snuf fers.— We represent lightning, by passing the wire in the dark, over a china plate that has gilt flowers, or applying it to gilt frames of looking glasses, &c.— We electrise a per son twenty or more times running, with a touch of the finger on the wire, thus : he stands on wax ; give him the electrised bottle in his hand ; touch the wire with your finger, and then touch his hand or face ; there are sparks every time.*— We increase the force of the electrical kiss vastly, thus : let A and B stand on wax ; or A on wax, and B on the floor ; give one of them the electrised phial in hand ; let the other take hold of the wire ; • By taking a spark from the wire, the electricity within the bottle is diminished ; the outside of the bot tle then draws some llrom the person holding it, and leaves hira in the negative stale. Then when his hand or face is touched, on equal quantity is restored to him from the person touching. there will be a small spark ; but when their lips approach, they wUl be struck and shock ed ; the same if another gentleman and lady, C and D, standing also on wax, and joining hands with A and B, sqlute or shake hands. We suspend by find silk thread a counterfeit spider, made of a sraall piece of burnt cork, with legs of Ihien thread, and a grain or two of lead stuck in him, to give hira more weight ; upon the table, over which he hangs, we stick a wire upright, as high as the phial and wire, four or five inches frora the spider ; then we animate him, by settmg the electri fied phial at the same distance on the otber side of him ; he will iraraediately fly to tbe wire of the phial, bend his legs in touching it, then spring off, and fly to the wire on the ta ble, thence again to the wire of the phial, playing with his legs against both, in a very entertauiing manner, appearing perfectly alive to persons unacquainted : he will con tinue this motion an hour or more in dry wea ther. We electrify, upon wax in the dark, a book that has a double line of gold round upon tbe covers, and then apply a knuckle to the gilding ; the fire appears every where upon the gold like a flash of lightning ; not upon the leather, nor, if you touch tbe leather instead of the gold. We rub our tubes with buckskin, and observe always to keep tbe same side to the tube, and never to suUy the tube by handling; thus they work readily and easQy, without the least fatigue, especi ally if kept in tight pasteboard cases, lined with flannel, and sitting close to the tube.* This I mention, because the European papers on electricity frequently speak of rubbing the tube as a fatigumg exercise. Our spheres are fixed on iron axles, which pass through tbem. At one end of the axis there is a small handle, with which you turn the sphere like a comraon grindstone. This we find very com modious, as the machine takes up but little room, is portable, and may be inclosed in a tight box, when not in use. It is true, the sphere does not turn so swift as when the great wheel is used : but swiftness we think of little importance, since a few turns will charge the phial, &c. sufficiently.* B. FRANKLIN. To Peter Collinson, London. Observations on the Leyden Bottle, with Ei-pe- riments proving the different electrical State of its different Surfaces. Philadelphia, Sept. 1, 1747. The necessary trouble of copying long let ters, which perhaps, when they come to your * Our tubes are raade here of green glass, 27 or 30 inches long, as big as can be grasped. f This simple easily. mode machine was a contri vance of Mr. Syng's. PHILOSOPHICAL. 247 bands, may contain nothing new, or worth your reading, (so quick is the progress raade with you in electricity) half discourages me from writing any raore on that subject. Yet I cannot forbear adding a few observations on M. Muschenbroek's wonderful bottle. 1. The non-electric contained in the bottle differs, when electrised, frora a non-electric electrised out of the bottle, in this ; that the electrical fire of the latter is accumulated on its surface, and forms an electrical atmosphere round it of considerable extent ; but the elec trical fire is crowded into the substance of the forraer, the glass confining it.* 2. At the sarae tirae that the wire and the top ofthe bottle, &c. is electiisei positively or plus, the bottora of the bottle is electrised negatively or minus, in exact proportion ; i. e. whatever quantity of electricEtl fire is thrown in at the top, an equal quantity goes out of the boltom.f To understand this, suppose the comraon quantity of electricity in each partof the bottle, before the operation begins, is equal to 20 ; and at every stroke of the tube, sup pose a quantity equal to 1 is thrown in ; then, after the first stroke the quantity contained in the wire and upper part of the bottle will be 21, in the bottora 19. After the second, the upper part will have 22, the lower 18, and so on, till, after 20 strokes, the upper part will have a quantity of electrical fire equal to 40, the lower part none : and then the operation ends: for no raore can be thrown into the upper part, when no more can be driven out of the lower part. If you atterapt to throw more in, it is spewed back through the wire, or flies out in loud cracks through the sides of the bottle. 3. The equilibrium cannot be restored in the 'oottle by inward communication or contact of the parts ; but it raust be done by a corarau nication fijrmed without the bottle, between the top and bottora, by some non-electric, touching or approaching both at the sarae time ; in which case it is restored with a vio lence and quickness inexpressible ; or, touch ing each alternately, in which case the equi librium is restored by degrees. 4. As no raore electrical fire can be thrown into the top of the bottle, when all is driven out of the bottom, so in a bottle not yet elec trised, none can be thrown into the top, when none can get out at the bottom ; which hap pens either when the bottora is too thick or when the bottle is placed on an electric per se. Again, when the bottle is electrised, but little of the electrical fire can be drawn out • See this opinion rectified in sect. 16 and 17 of the next letter. The fire in the bottle was found by sub sequent experiments not to be contained in the non electric, but in the glass. 1748. t What is said here, and after, of the top and bot tom of the bottle, is true of the inside and ovxside sur- faces, and should have been so expressed. from the top, by touching the wire, unless an equal quantity can at the same time get in at the bottom.* Thus, place an electrised bottle on clean glass or dry wax, and you will not, by touching the wire, get out the fire frora the top, Place it on a non-electric, and touch the wire, you will get it out in a short tune ; but soonest when you form a direct comraunication as above. So wonderfully are these two states of elec tricity, the plus and minus, combined and ba lanced in this miraculous bottle ! situated and related to each other in a manner that I can by no means comprehend ! If it were possible that a bottle should in one part contain a quan tity of air strongly comprest, and in another part a perfect vacuum, we know the equili brium would be instantly restored within. But here we have a bottle containing at the same tirae a plenum of electrical fire, and a vacuum of the sarae fire ; and yet the equi- libriura cannot be restored between thera but by a coraraunication without ! though the ple num presses violently to expand, and the hun gry vacuum seems to attract as violently in order to be filled. 5. The shock to the nerves (or convulsion rather) is occasioned by the sudden passing of the fire through the body in its way frora the top to the bottom ofthe bottle. The fire takes the shortest! course, as Mr. Watson justly ob serves : but it does not appear from experi ment, that in order for a person to be shock ed, a communication with the floor is neces sary : for he that holds the bottle with one hand, and touches the wire with the other, will be shocked as much, though his shoes be dry, or even standing on wax, as other wise. And on the touch of the wire, (or of the gun-barrel, which is the same thmg) tlie fire does not proceed from the touching finger to the wire, as is supposed, but frora the wire to the finger, and passes through the body to the other hand, and so into the bottora ofthe bottle. Experiments confirming the above. EXPERIMENT I. Place an electrised phial on wax ; a sraall cork-ball suspended by a dry silk thread held in your hand, and brought near to this wire will first be attracted, and then repelled: when in the state of repellency, sink your hand, that the ball raay be brought towards the bottora ofthe bottle ; it will be there in stantly and strongly attracted, till it has part ed with its fire. If the bottle had a positive electrical at mosphere, as well as the wire, an electrified cork would be repelled from one as well as from the other. * See the preceding note, relatingto tep and bottom. t Other circumstances being equal. 248 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. EXPERIMENT II. Fio. 1. From a bent wire (a) sticking in the table, let a small linen thread {b) hang down Within half an inch of the electrised phial (c). Touch the wire or the phial re peatedly with your finger, and at every touch you will see the thread instantly attracted by the bottle. (This is best done by a vine gar cruet, or some such bellied-bottle.) As soon as ypu draw any fire oUt of the upper part, by touching the wire, the lower part of the bottle draws an equal quantity in by the thread. EXPERIMENT III. Pig. 2. Fix a wire in the lead, with which the bottom of the bottle is armed {d) so as that bending upwards, its ring-end may be level with the top or ring-end of the wire in the cork (e) and at three or four inches dis tance. Then electrise the bottle, and place it on wax. If a cork suspended by a silk thread (/) hang between these two wires, it will play incessantly from one to the other, till the bottle is no longer electrised ; that is, it fetches and carries fire from the top to the bottom* of the bottle, till the equilibrium is restored. EXPERIMENT IV. FiG. 3. Place an electrised phial on wax ; take a wire {g) ra form of a C, the ends at such a distance when bent, as that the up per may touch the wire of the bottle, when the lower touches the bottom : stick the outer part on a stick of sealing-wax (ft,) which will serve as a handle ; then apply the lower end to the bottom of the bottle, and gradually bring the upper end near the wire in the cork. The" consequence is, spark follows spark till the equilibrium is restored. Touch the top first, and on approaching the bottom with the other end, you have a constant stream of fire from the wire entering the bottle. Touch the top and bottom together, and the equilibrium will instantly be restored, the crooked wire forming the communication. EXPERIMENT V. FiG. 4. Let a ring of thin lead, or paper, surround a bottle (i) even at some distance from or above the bottom. From that ring let a wire proceed up, till it touch the wire ofthe cork {k). A bottle so fixed cannot by any moans be electrised : the equilibrium is never destroyed : for while the coraraunica tion betweenthe upper and lower parts ofthe bottle is continued by the outside wire, the fire only circulates: what is driven out at bottom, is constantly supplied from the top.f Hence a bottle cannot be electrised that is foul or moist on the outside, if; such moisture con tinue up to the cork or wire. « i c Prom tho inside to the outside. t See the preceding note, relating to top and hettom. EXPERIMENT VI. Place a man on a cake of wax, and present him the wire ofthe electrified phial to touch, you standing on the floor, and holding it in your hand. As often as he touches it, he will be electrified plus ; and any one stand ing on the floor may draw a spark from him. The fire in this experiment passes out of the wire into him ; and at the same time out of your hand into the bottora of the bottle. EXPERIMENT VII. Give hira the electrical phial to hold ; and do you touch the wire ; as often as you touch it he will be electrified minus, and raay draw a spark from any one standing on the floor. The fire now passes from the wire to you, and frora him into the bottom ofthe bottle. EXPERIMENT VIII. Lay two books on two glasses, back to wards back, two or three inches distant. Set the electrified phial on one, and then touch the wire ; that book will be electrified minus ; the electrical fire being drawn out of it by the bottom of the bottle. Take off the bottle, and holding it in your hand, touch the other with the wire ; that book will be electrified plus ; the fire passing into it frora the wire, and the bottle is at the same tirae supplied from your hand. A suspended small cork-ball will play between these books till the equilibrium is restored. EXPERIMENT IX. When a body is electrified plus, it will re pel a positively electrified feather or small cork-ball. When minus (or when in the common state) it will attract them, but stronger when minus than when in the com mon state, the difference being greater. EXPERIMENT X. Though, as in Experiment VI, a man stand ing on wax may be electrised a number of times by repeatedly touching the wire of an electrised bottle (held in the hand of one standing on the floor) he receiving tlie fire from the wire each time ; yet holding it in his own hand, and touching the wire, though he draws a strong spark, and is violently shocked, no electricity remains in him; tbe fire only passing throusb hira, from the up per to the lower part of the bottle. Observe, before the shock, to let some one on tbe floor touch him to restore the equilibrium in his body ; for in taking hold ofthe bottom ofthe bottle, he sometimes becomes a little elec trised minus, which will continue after the shock, as would also any plus electricity, which he might have given him before tbe shock. For restoring the equilibrium in the bottle, does not at all affect the electricity in the man through whom the fire passes; PHILOSOPHICAL. 249 that electricity is neither increased nor dimi nished. EXPERIMENT XI. The passing of the electrical fire from the upper to the lower part* of the bottle, to re store the equilibriura, is rendered strongly visible by the following pretty experiraent. Take a book whose covering is filletted with gold ; bend a wire of eight or ten inches long, in the form of (m) Fig. 5 ; slip it on the end of the cover of the book, over the gold line, so as that the shoulder of it may press upon one end ofthe gold line, the ring up, but lean ing towards the other end of the book. Lay the book on a glass or wax,t and on the other end ofthe gold lines set the bottle electrised : then bend the springing wire, by pressing it with a stick of wax till its ring approaches the ring of the bottle wire, instantly there is a strong spark and stroke, and the whole line of gold, which completes the coraraunication, between the top and bottom of the bottle, will appear a vivid flame, like the sharpest light ning. The closer the contact between the shoulder of the wire, and the gold at one end of the line, and between the bottora of the bot tle and the gold at the other end, the better the experiment succeeds. The room should be darkened. If you would have the whole filletting round the cover appear in fire at once, let the -bottle and wire touch the gold in the diagonally opposite corners. B. FRANKLIN. To Peter Collinson, London. Farther Experiments, confirming the preceding Observations. — LeydenBottle analysed. — Elec trical Battery. — Magical Picture. — Electrical Wheel or Jack. — Electrical Feast. Philadelphia, 1748. 1. There will be the sarae explosion and shock if the electrified phial is held in one hand by the hook, and the coating touched with the other, as when held by the coating, and touched at the hook. 2. To take the charged phial safely by the hook, and not at the .same time diminish its force, it must first be set down on an electric per se. 3. The phial will be electrified as strongly, if held by the hook, and the coating applied to the globe or tube ; as when held by the coat ing, and the hook appliedf. 4. But the direction of the electrical fire being different in the charging, will also be different in the explosion. The bottle charg- * i. e. From the inside to the outside. t Placing the book on glass or wax is not necessary to produce the appearance ; it is only to show that the vi. Bible electricity is not brought up from the common stock in the earth. t This was a discovery of the very ingenious Mr. Kinnersley, and by him communicated to me. Vol. II. ... 2 1 ed through the hook, will be discharged through the hook ; the bottle charged through the coating, will be discharged through the coating, and not otherways ; for the fire must come out the same way it went in. 5, To prove this, take two bottles that were equally charged through the hooks, one in each hand ; bring their hooks near each other, and no spark or shock will follow ; be cause each hook is disposed to give fire, and neither to receive it Set one of the bottles down on glass, take it up by the hook, and apply its coating to the hook of the other ; then there will be an explosion and shock, and both bottles will be discharged. 6. Vary the experiment, by charging two phials equally, one through the hook, the other through the coating : hold that by the coating which was charged through the hook, and that by the hook which was charged through the coating : apply tho hook of the first to the coating of the other, and there will be no shock or spark. Set that down on glass which you held by the hook, take it up by the coating, and bring the two hooks toge ther : a spark and shock will follow, and both phials be discharged. In this experiment the bottles are totally discharged, or the equilibriura within them restored. The abounding of fire in one ofthe hooks (or rather in the internal surface of one bottle) being exactly equal to the wanting of the other ; and therefore as each bottle has in itself the abounding as well as the wanting, the wanting and abounding must be equal in each bottle. See \ 8, 9, 10, 11. But if a man holds in his hands two bottles, one fully elec trified, the other not at all, and brings their hooks together, he has but half a shock, and the bottles will both remain half electrified, the one being half discharged, and the other half charged. 7. Place two phials equally charged on a table at five or six inches distance. Let a. cork-ball, suspended by a silk thread, hang between them. If the phials were both charg ed through their hooks, the cork, when it has been attracted and repelled by the one, will not be attracted, but equally repelled by the other. But if the phials were charged, the one through the hook, and the other* through the coating, the ball, when it is repelled from one hook, will be as strongly attracted by the other, and play vigorously between them, fetching the electric fluid from the one, and delivering it to the other, till both phials are nearly discharged. 6. When we use the terms of charging * To charge a bottle commodiously through the coat ing, place it on a glass stand ; form a communication from the prime conductor to the coating, and another from the hook to the wall or floor. When it is charged, remove the latter communication before you take hold ofthe bottle, otherwise great part of the fire will es cape by it. •2.50 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. and discharging the phial, it is in compliance with custom, and for want of others more suit able. Since we are of opinion that there is really no more electrical fire in the phial af ter what is called its charging, than before, nor less after its discharging ; excepting on ly the sraall spark that might be given to, and taken from the non-electric matter, if sepa rated from the bottle, which spark may not be equal to a five hundredth part of what is called the explosion. For, if on the explosion, the electrical fire came out of the bottle by one part, and did not enter in again by another, then, if a man, standing on wax, and holding the bottle in one hand, takes the spark by touching the wire hook with the other, the bottle being thereby discharged, the man would be charg ed ; or whatever fire was lost by one, would be found in the other, since there was no way for its escape : but the contrary is true. 9. Besides, the phial will not suffer what is called a charging, unless as much fire can go out ofit one way, as is thrown in by another. A phial cannot be charged standing on wax or glass, or hanging on the prime conductor, unless a comraunication be formed between its coating and the floor. 10. But suspend two or raore phials on the prime conductor, one hanging on the tail of the other ; and a wire frora the last to the floor, an equal nuraber of turns ofthe wheel shall charge thera all equally, and every one as much as one alone would have been. What is driven out at the tail of the first, serving to charge the second ; what is driven out of the second, charging the third ; and so on. By this means a great number of bottles might be charged with the same labour, and equally high, with one alone; were it not that every bottle, receives new fire, and loses its old with sorae reluctance, or rather gives some sraall resistance to the charging, which in a nuraber of bottles becomes more equal to the charging power, and so repels the fire back again on the globe, sooner in proportion than a single bottle would do. 11. When a bottle is charged in the com mon v^ay, its inside and outside surfaces stand ready, the one to give fire by the hook, the otherto receive it bythe coating; the one is full, and ready to throw out, the other empty and extremely hungry ; yet as the first will not give out, unless the other can at the same instant receive in ; so neither will the latter receive in, unless the first can at the same insunt give out. When both can be done at once, it is done with inconceivable quick ness and violence. 12. So a straight spring (though the cora- pnrison does not agree in every particular) when forcibly bent, must, to restore itself, contract that side which in the bending was extended, and extend that which was con tracted ; if either of these two operations be hindered, the other cannot be done. But the spring is not said to be charged with elasticity when bent, and discharged when unbent; its quantity of elasticity is always the same. 13. Glass in like manner, has, within its substance, always the same quantity of elec trical fire, and that a very great quantity in proportion to the mass of glass, as shall be shown hereafter. 14. This quantity, proportioned to the glass, it strongly and obstinately retains, and will have neither more nor less, though it will suffer a change to be made in its parts and situation ; i. e. we may take away part of it from one of tbe sides, provided we throw an equal quantity into the other. 15. Yet when the situation of the electri cal fire is thus altered in the glass ; when sorae has been taken from side, and some ad ded to the other, it will not be at rest or in its natural state, till it is restored to its origi nal equality. And this restitution cannot be made through the substance ofthe glass, but must be done by non-electric communication formed without, from surface to surface. 16. Thus, the whole force of the bottle, and power of giving a shock, is in the glass it self ; the non-electrics in contact with the two surfaces, serving only to give and receive to and from the several parts of the glass ; that is, to give on one side, and take away from the other. 17. This was discovered here in the follow ing manner : purposing to analyse the elec trified bottle, in order to find wherein its strength lay, we placed it on glass, and drew out the cork and wire which fbr that purpose had been loosely put in. Then taking the -bottle in one hand, and bringing a finger of the other near its mouth, a strong spark came frora the water, and the shock was as violent as if the wire had remained in it, which show ed that the force did not lie in the wire. Then to find if it resided in the water, being crowd ed into and condensed in it, as confined by the glass, which had been our former opinion, we electrified the bottle again, and placing it on glass, drew out the wire and cork as before ; then taking up the bottle, we decanted all its water into an empty bottle, which like wise stood on glass ; and taking up that other bottle, we expected, if the force resided in the water, to find a shock from it ; but there was none. We judged then that it must either be lost in decanting, or remain in the first bottle. The latter we found to be true ; for that bottle on trial gave the shock, though filled up as it stood with fresh unelectrified water from a tea-pot To find, then, whether glass had this property merely as glass, or whether the forra contributed any thing to it; we took a pane of sash-glass, and laying it on the hand, placed a plate of lead on its upper surface ; PHILOSOPHICAL 251 then electrified that plate, and bringing a finger to it, there was a spark and shock. We then took two plates of lead of equal diraen- sions, but less than the glass by two inches every way, and electrified the glass between them, by electrifying the uppermost lead; then separated the glass from the lead, in do ing which, what little fire might be in the lead was taken out, and the glass being touched in the electrified parts with a finger, afforded only very sraall pricking sparks, but a great nuraber of thera might be taken from different places. Then dextrously placing it again between the leaden plates, and cora- pleting a circle between the two surfaces, a violent shock ensued; which demonstrated the power to reside in glass as glass, and that the non-electrics in contact served only, like the arraature of a loadstone, to unite the force ofthe several parts, and bring them at once to any point desired : it being the pro perty of a non-electric, that the whole body instantly receives or gives what electrical fire is given to or taken frora any one of its parts. 18. Upon this we raade what we called an electrical battery, consisting of eleven panes of large sash-glass, arraed with thin leaden plates, pasted on each side, placed vertically, and supported at two inches distance on silk cords, with thick hooks of leaden wire, one from each side, standing upright, distant frora each other, and convenient coraraunications of wire and chain, frora the giving side of one pane, to the receiving side of the other ; that so the whole might be charged together, and with the same labour as one single pane ; and another contrivance to bring the giving sides, after charging, in contact with one long wire, and the receivers with another, which two long wires would give the force of all the plates of glass at once through the body of any animal forming the circle with thera. The plate's raay also be discharged separately, or any nuraber together that is required. But this machine is not much used, as not per fectly answering our intention with regard to the ease of charging, for the reason given sec. 10. We raade also of large glass panes, raa- gioal pictures, and self-raoving aniraated wheels, presently to be described. 19. I perceive by the ingenious Mr. Wat son's last book, lately received, that Dr. Bevis had used, before we had, panes of glass to give a shock ;* though, till that book came to hand, I thought to have communicated it to you as a novelty. The excuse for mentioning it here is, that we tried the experiraent differ ently, drew different consequences frora it (for Mr. Watson still seeras to think the fire accumulated on the non-electric, that is in con tact with the glass, p. 72) and, as far as we hitherto know, have carried it farther. • I have since heard that Mr. Smeaton was the first who made use of panes of glass for that purpose. 20. The magical picture* is made thus ; Having a large mezzotinto with a frarae and glass, suppose of the King, take out the print, and cut a pannel out of it near two inches distant from the frame all around. If the cut is through the picture it is not the worse. With thin paste, or gum water, fix the border that is cut off on the inside the glass, pressing- it smooth and close ; then fill up the vacancy by gilding the glass well with leaf-gold, or brass. Gild likewise the inner edge of the back of the frame all round, except the top part, and form a comraunication between that gilding and the gilding behind the glass: then put in the board, and that side is finished. Turn up the glass, and gild the foreside ex actly over the back gilding, and when it is dry, cover it by pasting on the pannel ofthe picture that hath been cut out, observing to bring the correspondent parts of the border and picture together, by which the picture will appear of a piece, as at first, only part is behind the glass, and part before. Hold the picture horizontally by the top, and place a lit tle moveable gilt crown on the king's head. If now the picture be moderately electrified, and another person take hold ofthe frame with one hand, so that his fingers touch its inside gild ing, and with the other hand endeavour to take off the crown, he will receive a terrible blow, and fail in the attempt If the picture were highly chi-rged, the consequences might perhaps be as fatalf as that of high treason, for when the spark is taken through a quire of paper laid on the picture by means of a wire communication, it makes a fair hole through every sheet, that is, through forty- eight leaves, though a quire of paper is thought good armour against the push of a sword, or even against a pistol bullet, and the crack is exceeding loud. The operator, who holds the picture by the upper end, where the inside of the frarae is not gdt, to prevent its falling;, feels nothing of the shock, and raay touch the face of the picture without danger, which he pretends is a test ofhis loyalty. — If a ring of persons take the shock araong them, the ex periraent is called The Conspirators. 21. On the principle, in sec. 7, that hooks of bottles, differently charged, will attract and repel differently, is raade an electrical wheel, that turns with considerable strength. A sraall upright shaft of wood passes at right an gles through a thin round board, of about twelve inches diaraeter, and turns on a sharp point of iron, fixed in the lower end, while a strong wire in the upper end, passing through a sraall hole in a thin brass plate, keeps the shaft truly vertical. About thurty radii of equal length, raade of sash-glass, cut in nar row strips, issue horizontally from the cir- * Contrived by Mr. Kinnersly. t We have since found it fatal to small animals, though not to large ones. The biggest we have yet killed is a hen. 17S0. 252 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. cumference of the board, the ends most dis tant from the centre being about four inches apart On the end of every one a brass thimble is fixed. If now the wire of a bot tle electrified in the coraraon way, be brought near the circumference of this wheel, it will attract the nearest thimble, and so put the wheel in motion ; that thimble, in passing by, receives a spark, and thereby being electrified is repelled, and so driven forwards; while a second being attracted, approaches the wire, receives a spark, and is driven after the first, and so on till the wheel has gone once round, when thimbles before electrified approaching the wire, instead of being attracted as tbey were at first, are repelled, and the raotion pre sently ceases. — But if another bottle, which had been charged through the coating, be placed near the same wheel, its wire will at tract the thirable repelled by the first, and thereby double the force that carries the wheel round ; and not only taking out the fire that had been communicated to the thimbles by the first bottle, but even robbing thera of their natural quantity, instead of being repelled when they corae again towards the first bot tle, they are raore strongly attracted, so that the wheel mends its pace, till it goes with great rapidity twelve or fifteen rounds in a minute, and with such strength, as that the weight of one hundred Spanish dollars with which we once loaded it not seera in the least to retard its motion — This is called an electrical jack ; and if a large fowl were spit ted on the upright shaft, it would be carried round before a fire with a motion fit for roasting. 22. But this wheel, like tbose driven by wind, water, or weights, moves by a foreign force, to wit, that of the bottles. The self- moving wheel, though constructed on the same principles, appears raore surprising. It is made of a thin round plate of window glass, seventeen inches diaraeter, well gilt on both sides, all but two inches next the edge. Two small heraispheres of wood are then fixed with cement to the middle of the upper and under sides, centrally opposite, and in each of them a thick strong wire eight or ten inches long, which together raake the axis of the wheel. It turns horizontally on a point at the lower end of its axis, which rests on a bit of brass cemented within a glass salt-cellar. The up per end of its axis passes through a hole in a thin brass plate cemented to a long strong piece of glass, which keeps it six or eight inch es distant from any non-electric, and has a small ball of wax or metal on its top, to keep in the fire. Inacircloon the table which supports the wheel, are fixed twelve small pillars of glass, at about four inches distance, with a thimble on the top of each. On the edge of the wheel is a small leaden bullet, comrauni cating by a wire with the gilding ofthe upper \ surface of the wheel ; and about six inches frora it is another bullet, communicating in like manner with the under surface. When the wheel is to be charged by the upper sur face, a communication must be made from the under surface to the table. Wljen it is well charged it begins to move ; the bullet nearest to a pillar raoves towards the thimble on that pillar, and passing by electrifies it and then pushes itself from it ; the succeeding bullet, which communicates with the other surface of the glass, more strongly attracts that thim ble, on account of its being before electri fied by the other bullet ; and thus the wheel increases its motion till it comes to such a height as that the resistance of the air regu lates it It will go half an hour, and make one minute with another twenty turns in a mi nute, v.'hich is six hundred turns in the whole ; the bullet of the upper surface giving in each turn twelve sparks to the thimbles, which makes seven thousand two hundred sparks ; and the bullet of the under surface receiving as raany from the thimbles; those bullets movrag ill the time near two thousand five hundred feet. — The thimbles are well fixed, and in so exact a circle, that the bullets may pass within a very small distance of each of them. — If instead of two bullets you put eight, four communicating with the upper surface, and four with the under surface, placed alter nately, with eight, at about six inches dis tance, completes the circumference, the force and swiftness will be greatly increased, the wheel making fifty turns in a minute ; but then it will not continue moving so long. — These wheels may be applied, perhaps, to the ringing of chimes,* and moving of light-made orreries. 23. A small wire bent circularly, with a loop at each end ; let one end rest agamst the under surface of the wheel, and bring the other end near the upper surface, it will give a terrible crack, and the force will be dis charged. 24. Every spark in that maraier drawn frora the surface ofthe wheel, makes a round hole in the gilding, tearing offa part ofit in coming out ; which shows that tlie fire is not accuraulated on the gilding, but is in the glass itself 2.5. The gilding being varnished over with turpentine varnisli, the varnish though dry and hard, is burnt by the spark drawn through it, and gives a strong smell and visible smoke. And when the sparlj is drawn through paper, all round the hole made by it tlie paper will be blacked by the smoke, which sometimes penetrates several ofthe leaves. Part ofthe gilding torn off is also found forcibly driven into the hole made in the paper by the stroke. 26. It is amazing to observe in how small • This was afterwards done wilh success by Mr. Kin nersley. PHILOSOPHICAL. 253 a portion of glass a great electral force may lie. A thin glass bubble, about an inch di ameter, weighing only si.x grains, being half filled with water, partly gilt-on the outside, and furnished with a wire hook, gives, when electrified, as great a shock as a man can v/ell bear. As the glass is thickest near th.2 orifice, I suppose the lower half, which being gilt was electrified and gave the shock, did not exceed two grains ; for it appear ed when broken, much thinner than the up per half— If one of these thin bottles be electrified by the coating, and the spark taken out through the gilding, it will break the glass inwards, at the sam.e time that it breaks the gilding outv.'ards. 27. And allowing (for the reasons before given, 5 8, 9, 10,) that there is no more elec tral fire in a bottle after charging, than be fore, how great must be the quantity in this small portion of glass ! It seems as if it were of its very substince and essence. Perhaps if that due quantity of electral fire so obsti nately retained by glass, could be separated from it, it would no longer be glass ; it might lose its transparency, or its brittleness, or its elasticity. — Experiments may possibly be in vented hereafter, to discover this. 28. We were surprised at the account given in Mr. Watson's book, of a shock com municated through a great space of dry ground, and suspect there must be some me talline quality in the gravel of that ground ; having found that simple dry earth, rararaed in a glass tube, open at both ends, and a wire hook inserted in the earth at each end, the earth and wires making part of a circuit, would not conduct the least perceptible shock, and indeed when one wire was electrified, the other hardly showed any signs of its being in connexion with it* Even a thoroughly wet packthread sometimes fails of conducting a shock, though it otherwise conducts electri city very well. A dry cake of ice, or an icicle held between two in a circle, likewise pre vents the shock, which one would not expect, as water conducts it so perfectly well. — Gild ing on a new book, though at first it conducts the shock extremely well, yet fails after ten or a dozen experiments, though it appears otherwise in all respects the same, which we cannot account for.f 29. There is one experiment more which surprises us, and is not hitherto satisfactorily accounted for ; it is this : place an iron shot on a glass stand, and let a ball of damp cork, * Probably the ground is never so dry. t We afterwards found that it failed after one stroke with a large bottle ; and the continuity of the gold ap pearing broken, and many of its parts dissipated, the electricity could not pass the remaining parts without leaping from part to part through the air, which always resists the motion of this fluid, and. was probably the cause ofthe gold's not conducting so well as before; the number of interruptions in the line of gold, making, when added together a space larger, perhaps, than the striking distance. 22 suspended by a silk thread, hang in contact with the shot Take a bottle in each hand, one that is electrified through the hook, the other through the coating : apply the giving wire to the shot, which will electrify it po sitively, and the cork shall be repelled : then apply the requiring wire, which will take out the spark given by the other ; when the cork will return to the shot : apply the same again, and take out another spark, so will the shot be electrified negatively, and the cork in that case shall be repelled equally as before. Then apply the giving wire to the shot and give the spark it wanted, so will the cork return : give it another, which will be an addition to its natural quantity, so will the cork be re pelled again : and so may the experiment be repeated as long as there is any charge in the bottles. Which shows that bodies, having less than the common quantity of electricity, repel each other, as well as those that have more. Chagrined a little that we have been hither to able to produce nothing in this way of use to mankind ; and the hot weather coming on, when electrical experiments are not so agree able, it is proposed to put an end to , thera for this season, soraewhat huraourously, in a party of pleasure, on the banks of Schuylkill." Spirits at the same time, are to be fired by a spark sent from side to side through the river, without any other conductor than the water ; an experiraent which we some tirae since per formed, to the amazeraent of many.f A tur key is to be killed for our dinner by the elec trical shock, and roasted by the electrical jack, before a fire kindled by the electrified bottle : when the healths of all the famous elec tricians in England, Holland, France, and Germany are to be drank in electrified bum pers, J under the discharge of guns frora the electrical battery. * The river that washes the west side of Philadelphia, as the Delaware does the east side. t As the possibility of this experiment has not been easily conceived, I shall here describe it. — Two iron rods, about three feet long, were planted just within the margin of the river on the opposite sides. A thick piece of wire, with a small round knob at its end, was fixed on the top of one ofthe rods, bending downwards, so as to deliver commodiously the spark upon the sur face ofthe spirit. A small wire fastened by one end to the handle of the spoon, containing the spirit, was carried across the river, and supported in the air by the rope commonly used to hold by, in drawing the ferry boats over. The other end of this wire was tied round the coating of the bottle; which being charged, the spark was delivered from the hook to the topof the rod standing in the water on that side. At the same in stant the rod on the other side delivered a spark into the spoon, and fired the spirit ; the electric tire returning to the coating of the bottle through the handle of the spoon and the supported wire connected with them. That the electric fire thus actually passes through the water, has since been satisfactorily demonstrated to many by an experiment of Mr. Kinnersley's, performed ill a trough of water about ten feet long. The hand being placed under water in the direction of the spark (which always takes the strait or shortest couise, if sufficient, and other circumstances are equal) is struck and penetrated by it as it passes. X An Electrified bumper is a small thin glass tumbler, 254 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. To Peter Collinson, London. Observations and suppositions, towards forming a new Hypothesis for explaining the several Phenomena of Tiiunder-gusts.* 1. NoN-BLECTEic bodics, that have elec tric fire thrown into thera, will retain it till other electrics, that have less, approach ; and then it is communicated by a snap, and be comes equally divided. 2. Electrical fire loves water, is strongly at tracted by it, and they can subsist together. 3. Air is an electric per se, and when dry will not conduct the electrical fire ; it will neither receive it, nor give it to other bodies ; otherwise no body surrounded by air, could be electrified positively and negatively : for should it be attempted positively, the air would immediately take away the overplus; or negatively, the air would supply what was wanting. 4. Water being electrified, the vapours arising frora it will be equally electrified; and floating in the air, in the forra of clouds, or otherwise, will retain that quantity of electrical fire, till they raeet with other clouds or bodies not so rauch electrified, and then will communicate as before-raentioned. 5. Every particle of matter electrified is repelled by every other particle equally elec trified. Thus the stream of a fountain, natu rally dense and continual, when electrified, will separate and spread in the form of a brush, every drop endeavouring to recede from every other drop. But on taking out tbe electrical fire they close again. 6. Water being strongly electrified (as well as when heated by common fire) rises in va pours more copiously ; the attraction of cohe sion among its particles being greatly weak ened, by the opposite power of repulsion in troduced with the electrical fire ; and when any particle is by any moans disengaged, it is iraraediately repelled, and so flies into the air. 7. Particles happening to be situated as A and B, (Fig. VI. representing the profile of a vessel of water) are more easily disengaged than C and D, as each is held by contact with three only, whereas C and D are each in contact with nine. When the surface of the water has the least raotion, particles are continually pushed into the situation repre sented by A and B. S. Friction between a non-electric and an electric per se will produce electrical fire ; not by creating but collecting it ; for it is equally diffused in our walls, floors, earth, and the whole raass of common raatter. Thus the nearly filled with winti and electrified as the bottle. This when brought to the lips gives a shock, if the par ty bo close shaved, nnrl does not breath on the liquor. April 29, 1749. * Thunder-gusts are sudden storms of thunder and lightning, which ni-e frequently of short duration, but sometimes produce mischievous eflects. whirling glass globe, during its friction against the cushion, draws fire from the cush ion, the cushion is supplied from the frame of the machine, that from the floor on which it stands. Cut off the communication by thick glass or wax, placed under the cushion, and no fire can be produced, because it cannot be collected. 9. The ocean is a compound of water, a non-electric, and salt an electric per se. 10. When there is a friction araong the parts near its surface, the electrical fire is collected frora the parts below. It is then plainly visible in the night ; it appears in the stern and in the wake of every sailing vessel ; every dash of an oar shows it and every surf and spray : in storms the whole sea seems on fire. — The detached particles of water then repelled from the electrified surface, continually carry off the fire as it is collected ; they rise and form clouds, and those clouds are highly electrified, and retain the fire till they have an opportunity of communicating it. 11. The particles of water, rising in va pours, attach themselves to particles of air. 12. The particles of air are said to be hard, round, separate and distant from each other ; every particle strongly repelling every other particle, whereby they recede from each other, as far as coraraon gravity will permit. 13. The space between any three particles, equally repelling each other, will be an equi lateral triangle. 14. In air compressed, these triangles are smaller ; in ratified air tbey are larger. 15. Comraon fire, joined with air, increases the repulsion, enlarges the triangles, and thereby makes the air specifically lighter. Such air, among denser air, will rise. 16. Common fire, as well as electrical fire, gives repulsion to the particles of water, and destroys theu- attraction of cohesion ; hence common fire, as well as electrical fire, assists in raising vapours. 17. Particles of water, having no fire in them, rautually attract each other. These particles of water then, being attached to the three particles of a triangle of air, would, by their rautual attraction operating against the air's repulsion, shorten the sides and lessen the triangle, whereby that portion of air made denser, would sink to the earth with its wa>- ter, and not rise to the formation of a cloud. 18. But if every particle of water attaching itself to air brings with it a particle of com mon fire, the repulsion of tlie air being assist ed and strengtliened by the fire, more than obstructed by the mutual attraction of the par ticles of water, the triangle dilates, and that portion of air, becoming rarer and specifically lighter, rises. 19. If the particles of water bring electri cal fire when they attach theraselves to air, the repulsion between the particles of water PHILOSOPHICAL. 255 electrified, joins with the natural repulsion of the air, to force its particles to a greater dis tance, whereby the triangles are dilated, and the air rises, carrying up with it the water. 20. If the particles of water bring with thera portions of both sorts of fire, the repul sion of tlie particles of air is still raore strength ened and increased, and the triangles farther enlarged. 21. One particle of air may be surrounded by twelve particles of water of equal size with itself, all in contact with it ; and by more ad ded to those. 22. Particles of air, thus loaded would be drawn nearer together by the mutual attrac tion of the particles of water, did not the fire, common or electrical, assist their repulsion. 23. If air, thus loaded, be compressed by adverse winds, or by being driven against mountains, &.C., or condensed by taking away the fire that assisted it in expanding ; the tri angles contract the air with its water will de scend as a dew; or, if the water surrounding one particle of air comes in contact with the water surrounding another, they coalesce and forra a drop, and we have rain. 24. The sun supplies (or seems to supply) common fire to vapours, whether raised from earth or sea. 25. Those vapours, which have both coraraon and electrical fire in thera, are better support ed than those which have only common fire in thera ; for when vapours rise into the coldest region above the earth, the cold will not di minish the electrical fire, if it doth the com raon. 26. Hence clouds, formed by vapours raised from fresh waters within land, frora growing vegetables, moist earth, &c. more speedily and easily deposite their water, having but little electrical fire to repel and keep the par ticles separate. So that the greatest part of the water raised from the land, is let fall on the land again ; and winds blowing from the land to the sea are dry ; there being little use for rain on the sea, and to rob the land of its moisture, in order to rain on the sea, would not appear reasonable. 27. But clouds, forraed by vapours raised from the sea, having both fires, and particu larly a great quantity of the electrical, support their water strongly, raise it high, and being moved by winds, may bring it over the mid dle of the broadest continent from the middle ofthe widest ocean. 28. How these ocean clouds, so strongly supporting their water are raade to deposite it on the land where it is wanted is next to be considered. 29. If they are driven by winds against raountains, those raountains being less elec trified attract them, and on contact take away their electrical fire (and being cold, the com mon fire also;) hence the particles close to wards the mountains and towards each other. If the air was not much loaded, it only falls in dews on the mountain tops and sides, forms springs, and descends to the vales in rivulets, which, united, make larger streams and rivers. If much loaded, the electrical fire is at once taken frora the whole cloud ; and, in leaving it, flashes brightly and cracks loudly ; the parti cles instantly coalescing for want of that fire, and falling in a heavy shower. 30. When a ridge of mountains thus dams the clouds, and draws the electrical fire from the cloud first approaching it ; that which next follows, when it comes near the first cloud, now deprived of its fire, flashes into it, and begins to deposite its own water; the first cloud ag'ain flashing into the mountains ; the third approaching cloud, and all succeed ing ones, acting in the same manner as far back as they extend, which may be over many hundred miles of country. 31. Hence the continual storms of rain, thunder, and lightning on the east side of the Andes, which running north and south, and being vastly high, intercept all the clouds brought against them frora the Atlantic ocean by the trade winds, and oblige thera to depo site their waters, by which the vast rivers Araazons, La Plata, and Oroonoko are form ed, which return the water into the same sea after having fertilized a country of very great extent. 32. If a country be plain, having no moun tains to intercept the electrified clouds, yet it is not without means to make them deposite their water. For if an electrified cloud, com ing from the sea, meets in the air a cloud rais ed frora the land, and therefore not electrified, the first will flash its fire into the latter, and thereby both clouds shall be raade suddenly to deposite water. 33. The electrified particles of the first cloud close when they lose their fire ; the par ticles ofthe other clouds close in receiving it: in both, they have thereby an opportunity of coalescing into drops. — Tho concussion, or jerk given to the air, contributes also to shake down the water, not only from those two clouds, but from others near them. Hence the sudden fall of rain immediately after flash es of lightning. 34. To show this by an easy experiment : take two round pieces of pasteboard two inch es diaraeter; frora the centre circumference of each of them suspend by fine silk threads eighteen inches long, seven small balls of wood, or seven peas equal in goodness : so will the balls appending to each pasteboard, form equal equilateral triangles, one ball being in the centre, and six at equal distances from that, and from each other ; and thus they re present particles of air. Dip both sets in wa ter, and some adhering to each ball, they will represent air loaded. Dexterously electrify one 256 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. set, and its balls will repel each other to a greater distance, enlarging the triangles. Could the water supported by seven balls come into contact it would form a drop or drops so heavy as to break the cohesion it had with the balls, and so fall. Let the two sets then represent two clouds, the one a sea cloud electrified, the other a land cloud. Bring them within the sphere of attraction, and they will draw towards each other, and you will see the separated balls close thus; the first electrified ball that comes near an unelectri fied ball by attraction joins it, and gives it fire ; instantly they separate, and each flies to another ball of its own party, one to give, the other to receive fire; and so it proceeds through both sets, but so quick as to be in a manner instantaneous. In the cohesion they shake off and drop their water which repre sents rain. 35. Thus when sea and land clouds would pass at two great a distance forthe flash, they are attracted towards each other till within that distance ; for the sphere of electrical at traction is far beyond the distance of flashing. 36. When a great number of clouds from the sea meet a number of clouds raised from the land, the electrical flashes appear to strike in different parts; and as the clouds are jostled and mixed by the winds, or brought near by the electrical attraction, they conti nue to give and receive flash after flash, till the electrical fire is equally dissolved. 37. When tbe gun-barrel, (in electrical experiments) has but little electrical fire in it, you must approach it very near with your knuckle before you can draw a spark. Give it raore fire, and it will give a spark at a greater distance. Two gun-barrels united, and as highly electrified, will give a spark at a still greater distance. But if two gun-bar rels electrified will strike at two inches dis tance, and make a loud snap, to what a great distance may 10,000 acres of electrified cloud strike and give its fire, and how loud must be that crackl 38. It is a common thing to see clouds at different heights passing different ways, which shows different currents of air one un der the other. As the air between the tropics is rarified by the sun, it rises, the denser north ern and southern air pressing into its place. The air so rarified and forced up, passes north ward and southward, and must descend in the polar regions, if it has no opportunity before, that the circulation may be carried on. 39. As currents of air, with the clouds therein, pass different ways, it is easy to con ceive how the clouds, passing over each other, may attract each other, and so come near enough for the electrical stroke. And also how electrical clouds may be carried within land very far from the sea, before they have an opportunity to strike. When the air, with its vapours raised from the ocean between the tropics, comes to de scend in the polar regions and to be in contact with the vapours arising there, the electrical fire they brought begins to be communicated, and is seen in clear nights, being first visible where it is first in motion, that is, where the contact begins, or in the most northern part; from thence the streams of light seem to shoot southerly, even up to the zenith of north ern countries. But though the light seems to shoot from the north southerly, the pro gress of the fire is really from the south north erly, its raotion beginning in the north, being the reason that it is there seen first For the electrical fire is never visible but when in motion, and leaping frora body to body, or from particle to particle through the air. When it passes through dense bodies it is unseen. When a wire makes part of the circle, in tbe explosion of the electrical phial, the fire, though in great quantity, passes in the wire invisibly; but in passing along a chain, it becomes visible as it leaps from link to link. In passing along leaf gilding it is visible : for the leaf-gold is full of pores ; hold a leaf to the light and it appears like a net, and the fire is seen in it leaping over the va cancies. — And as when a long canal filled with still water is opened atone end, in order to be discharged, the motion ofthe water be gins first near the opened end, and proceeds towards the close end, though ihe water it self moves frora the close towards the opened end : so the electrical fire discharged into tbe polar regions, perhaps from a thousand leagues length of vapourised air, appears first where it is first in motion, i. e. in the most northern part, and the appearance proceeds southward, though the fire really moves north ward. This is supposed to account for the au rora borealis. 41. When there is great heat on the land, in a particular region (the sun having shone on it perhaps several days, while tlie surround ing countries have been screened by clouds) the lower air is rarified and rises, the cooler denser air above descends ; the clouds in that air meet from all sides, and join over the heat ed place ; and if some are electrified, others not, lightning and thunder succeed, and show ers fall. Hence thunder-gusts after heats, and cool air after gusts ; the water and the clouds that bring it, coming from a higher and there fore a cooler region. 42. An electrical spark, drawn from on ir regular body at some distance is scarcely ever strait, but shows crooked and waving in the air. So do the flashes of lightning ; the clouds being very irregular bodies. 43. As electrified clouds pass over a coun try, high hills and high trees, lofty towers, spires, masts of ships, chimneys, &c., as so many prominences and points, draw the elec- PHILOSOPHICAL. 257 trical fire, and the whole cloud discharges there. 44. Dangerous, therefore, is it to take shel ter under a tree, during a thunder-gust. It has been fatal to many, both men and beasts. 4.5. It is safer to be in the open field for another reason. When the clothes are wet, if a flash in its way to the ground should strike your head, it may run in the water over the surface of your body ; whereas, if your clothes were dry, it would go through the body, because the blood and other humours, con taining so rauch water, are more ready con ductors. Hence a wet ratcannotbe killed by the ex ploding electrical bottle, when a dry rat may.* 46. Coraraon fire is in all bodies, more or less, as well as electrical fire. Perhaps they may be different modifications of the same eleraent ; or they raay be different eleraents. The latter is by some suspected. 47. If they are different things, yet they may and do subsist together in the same body. 48. When electrical fire strikes through a body, it acts upon the common fire contain ed in it, and puts that fire in motion ; and if there be a sufficient quantity of each kind of fire, the body will be inflamed. 49. When the quantity of common fire in the body is small, the quantity of the electri cal fire (or the electrical stroke) should be greater : if the quantity of common fire be great less electrical fire suffices to produce the effect 50. Thus spirits must be heated before we can fire thera by the electrical spark.f If they are rauch heated, a sraall spark will do ; if not, the spark must be greater. 51. Till lately we could only fire warm va pours : but now we can burn hard dry rosin. And when we can procure greater electrical sparks, we may be able to fire not only un- warmed spirits, as lightning does, but even wood, by giving sufficient agitation to the common fire contained in it, as friction we know will do. .52. Sulphureous and inflammable vapours, arising from the earth, are easily kindled by lightning. Besides what arise from the earth, such vapours are sent out by stacks of moist hay, corn, or other vegetables, which heat and reek. Wood, rotting in old trees or buildings, does the same. Such are therefore easily and often fired. 53. Metals are often melted by lightning, though perhaps not from heat in the lightning. * This was tried with a bottle, containing about a quart. It is since thought that one of the large glass jars, mentioned in these papers, might have killed him, though wet. t We have since fired spirits without heating them, when the weather is warm. A little, poured into the palm of the hand, will be warmed sufficiently by the hand, if the spirit be well rectified. Ether takes fire most readily. Vol. n. . . . 2 K 22* nor altogether from agitated fire in the me tals. — For as whatever body can insinuate itself between the particles of metal, and over come the attraction by which they cohere (as sundry menstrua can) will make the solid be corae a fluid, as well as fire, yet without heat ing it : so the electrical fire, or lightning, creating a violent repulsion between the par ticles of the metal it passes through, the metal is fused.54. If you would, by a violent fire, melt off' the end of a nail, which is half driven into a door, the heat given the whole nail, before a. part would melt must burn the board it sticks in ; and the melted part would burn the floor it dropped on. But if a sword can be melted in the scabbard, and money in a man's pocket by lightning, without burning either, it must be a cold fusion.* 55. Lightning rends some bodies. The electrical spark will strike a hole through a quire of strong paper. 56. If the source of lightning, assigned in this paper be the true one, there should be little thunder heard at sea from land. And accordingly, some old sea-captains, of whora inquiry has been raade, do affirm, that the fact agrees perfectly with the hypothesis ; fbr that in crossing the great ocean, they seldom meet with thunder till they corae into sound ings ; and that the islands far frora the con tinent have very little of it And a curious observer, who lived thirteen years at Bermu das, says, there was less thunder there in that whole time than he has sometiraes heard in a raonth at Carolina. To Peter Collinson, London. Introductory Letter to some additional Papers. Philadelphia, July 29, 1750. As you first put us on electrical experiments, by sending, to our Library Corapany a tube, with directions how to use it; and as our ho nourable proprietary enabled us to carry those experiments to a greater height by his gene rous present of a complete electrical appara tus; it is fit that both should know,irora tirae to time, what progress we make. It was in this view I wrote and sent you my forraer papers on this subject, desiring, that as I had not the honour of a direct correspondence with that bountiful benefactor to our library, they raight be communicated to him through your hands. In the same view I write arid send you this additional paper. If it happens to bring you nothing new, (which may well be, considering the nuraber of ingenious men in * These facts, though related in several accouiUs, are now doubted ; since it has been observed that tho parts of a bell-wire which fell on the floor, being broken and partly melted by lightning, did actually burn into the boards. (See Philosophical Transactions, vol. Ii. part i.) And Mr. Kinnersley has found that a fine iron wire melted by electricity, has had the same effect. 258 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. -Kurope, continually engaged in the same re searches) at least it will show, that the in struments put into our hands are not neglected ; and that if no valuable discoveries are made by us, whatever the cause may be, it is not want of industry and application. — I am, sir, your much obliged humble servant B. FRANKLIN. Opinions and conjectures, concerning the Properties and Effects of the electrical Matter, and the Means of preserving Buildings, Ships, (SfC. from Lightning, arising from Experiments and Observa tions made at Philadelphia, 1749 — Golden Fish. — Extraction ofeffiuvial Virtues by Electricity impracticable. \ 1. The electrical matter consists of par ticles extremely subtile, since it can permeate common matter, even the densest metals, with such ease and freedom as not to receive any perceptible resistance. 2. If any one should doubt whether the electrical matter passes through the substance of bodies, or only over and along their sur faces, a shock from an electrified large glass jar, taken through his own body, will proba- * -feiy convince him. 3. Electrical matter differs from coraraon matter in this, that the parts of the latter mu tually attract those of the former mutually repel each , other. Hence the appearmg di- vero-ency in a streara of electrified effluvia. 4? But though the particles of electrical matter do repel each other, they are strongly attracted by all other raatter.* 5. From these three things, the extreme subtilty of the electrical matter, the mutual repulsion of its parts, and the strong attraction between them and other matter, arise this ef fect that when a quantity of electrical mat ter is applied to a mass of comraon raatter, of any bigness or length, within our observation (which hath not already got its quantity) it is immediately and^equally diffused through the whole. 6. Thus, common matter is a kind of spunge to the ele«trical fluid. And as a spunge would receive no water, if the parts of water were not smaller than the pores ofthe spunge ; and even then but slowly, if there were not a mu tual attraction between tbose parts and the parts of the spunge ; and would still imbibe it faster, if the mutual attraction among the parts of the'water did not impede, some force being required to separate thera ; and fastest, if, in stead of attraction, there were a mutual repul sion araong those parts, which would act in con junction with the attraction of the spunge: so is the case between the electrical and cora raon matter. * See the ingenious Essays on Electricity, in the Transactions, by Mr. Ellicot. 7. But in coraraon matter there is (gener ally) as much ofthe electrical as it will con tain within its substance. If more is added, it lies without upon the surface, and forms what we call an electrical atmosphere ; and then the body is said to be electrified. 8. It is supposed, that all kinds of common matter do not attract and retain the electrical, with equal strength and force, for reasons to be given hereafter: and that those called electrics per se, as glass, &c. attract and re tain it strongest, and contain the greatest quantity. 9. We know that the electrical fluid is in comraon matter, because we can pump it out by the globe or tube. We know that common matter has near as much as it can contain, because, when we add a little more to any portion of it, the additional quantity does not enter, but forms an electrical atmosphere. — And we know that common matter has not (generally) raore than it can contain, other wise, all loose portions of it would repel each other, as they constantly do when they have electric atmospheres. 10. The beneficial uses of this electric fluid in the creation we are not yet well ac quainted with, though doubtless such there are, and those very considerable ; but we may see some pernicious consequences that would attend a much greater proportion of it. For, had this globe we live on, as much of it in proportion as we can give to a globe of iron, wood or the like, the particles of dust and other light matters that get loose from it, would by virtue of their separate electrical atmospheres, not only repel each other, but be repelled from the earth, and not easily be brought to unite with it again ; whence our air would continually be more and more clog ged with foreign matter, and grow unfit for respiration. 'This affords another occasion for adoring that wisdom which has made all things by weight and measure ! 11. If a piece of comraon matter be sus pended entirely free from electrical matter, and a single particle of the latter be brought nigh, it will be attracted and enter the body and take place in the centre, or where the at traction is every way equal. If more parti cles enter, they take their places where the balance is equal between the attraction ofthe comraon matter, and their own rautual repul sion. It is supposed they form triangles, whose sides shorten as their nuraber increas es ; till the common matter has drawn in so raany, that its whole power of compressing those triangles by attraction, is equal to their whole power of expanding themselves by re pulsion ; and then will such piece of matter receive no more. 12. When part of this natural proportion of electrical fluid is taken out of a piece of common matter, the triangles formed by the PHILOSOPHICAL. 259 remainder, are supposed to widen by the mu tual repulsion ofthe parts, until they occupy the whole piece. 13. When the quantity of electrical fluid, taken from a piece of comraon matter, is re stored again, it enters the expanded triangles, beuag again compressed till there is room for the whole. 14. To explain this: take two apples, or two balls of wood or other matter, each hav ing its own natural quantity of the electrical fluid. Suspend them by silk lines from the ceiling. Apply the wire of a well-charged phial, held in your hand, to one of thera (A Fig. 7,) and it will receive frora the wire a quantity of the electrical fluid ; but will not imbibe it being already full. The fluid there fore will flow round its surface, and forra an electrical atraosphere. Bring A into contact with B, and half the electrical fluid is com municated, so that each has now an electrical atmosphere, and therefore they repel each other. Take away these atmospheres, by touch ing the halls, and leave them in their natural state ; then having flxed a stick of sealing-wax to the middle ofthe phial to hold it by, apply the wire to A, at the sarae tirae the coating touches B. Thus will a quantity of the elec trical fluid be drawn out of B, and thrown on A. So that A will have a redundance of this fluid, which forras an atraosphere round, and B an exactly equal deficiency. Now, bring these balls again into contact, and the elec trical atraosphere will not be divided between A and B, into two smaller atmospheres as be fore ; for B will drink up the whole atraos phere of A, and both will be found again in their natural state. 15. The form of the electrical atmosphere is that of the body it surrounds. This shape may be rendered visible in a stiU air, by rais ing a smoke from dry rosin dropt into a hot tea-spoon under the electrified body, which will be attracted, and spread itself equally on all sides, covering and concealing the body.* And this form it takes, because it is attracted by all parts ofthe surface of the body, though it cannot enter the substance already replete. Without this attraction, it would not remain round the body, but dissipate in the air. 16. The atmosphere of electrical particles surrounding an electrified sphere, is not more disposed to leave it or more easily drawn off from anyone partof the sphere than another, because it is equally attracted by every part. But that is not the case with bodies of any other figure. From a cube it is more easily drawn at the corners than at the plain sides, and so from the angles of a body of any other form, and still most easily from the angle that is most acute. Thus, if a body shaped as A, B, C, D, E, in Fig. 8, be electrified, or have » See the second letter of date July 11, 1747. an electrical atraosphere communicated to it, and we consider every side as a base on which the particles rest, and by which they are at tracted, one raay see, by iraagining a line frora A to F, and another from E to G, that the portion of the atraosphere included in F, A, E, G, has4;he line A, E, for its basis. Ho the portion of atmosphere included in H, A, B, I, has the line A, B for its basis. And like wise the portion included in K, B, C, L, has B, C, to rest on ; and so on the other side of the figure. Now if you would draw off' tins atmosphere with any blunt, sraooth body, and approach the raiddle of the side A, _B, you must corae very near, before the force of your attractor exceeds the force or power with which that side holds its atmosphere. But there is a sraall portion between 1, B, K, that has less of the surface to rest on, and to be attracted by, than the neighbouring portions, while at the same time there is a mutual re pulsion between its particles, and the particles of those portions; therefore here you can get it with more ease, or at a greater distance. Between F, A, H, there is a larger portion that ho-s yet a less surface to rest on, and to attract it; here, therefore, you can get it away still more easily. But easiest of all between L, C, M, where the quantity is lar gest, and the surfkce to attract and keep it back the least When you have drawn away one of these angular portions of the fluid, another succeeds in its place, from the nature of fluidity, and the mutual repulsion before- mentioned ; and so the atmosphere continues flowing off at such angle, like a stream, till no more is reraaining. The extremities of the portions of atmosphere over these angu lar parts, are likewise at a greater distance from the electrified body, as may be seen by the inspection of the above figure ; the point of the atmosphere of the angle C, being much farther from C than any other part of the at raosphere over the lines C, B, or B, A : and, besides the distance arising from the nature of the figure, where tbe attraction is less, the particles will naturally expand to a greater distance by their rautual repulsion. On these accounts we suppose electrified bodies dis charge, their atmospheres upon unelectrified bodies more easily, and at a greater distance from their angles and points than from their sraooth sides.— Those points will also d ischarge into the air, when the body has too great an electrical atraosphere, without bringing any non-electrie near, to receive what is thrown off: for the air, though an electric per se, yet has always more or less water and other non electric raatters mixed with it : and these at tract and receive what is so discharged. 17. But points have a property, by which they draw on, as well as throw off the elec trical fluid, at greater distances than blunt bodies can. That is, as the pointed part of an 260 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. electrified body will discharge the atmosphere of that body or communicate it farthest to an other body, so the point of an unelectrified body will draw oft' the electrical atmosphere from an electrified body, farther than a blunter part of the same unelectrified body will do. Thus, presented to an electrified body, will draw off its atmosphere at a foot distance ; where, if the head were presented instead of the point, no such effect would follow. To understand this, we may consider, that if a person stand ing on the floor would draw off the electrical atmosphere from an electrified body, an iron crow and a blunt knitting-needle held alter nately in his hand, and presented for that pur pose, do not draw with different forces in pro portion to their different masses. For the man, and what he holds in his hand, be it large or small, are connected with the common mass of unelectrified raatter ; and the force with which he draws is the same in both cases, it consisting in the different proportion of elec tricity in the electrified body, and that com mon mass. But the force with which the electrified body retains its atraosphere by at tracting it, is proportioned to the surface over which the particles are placed ; i. e. four square inches of that surface retain their at mosphere with four tiraes the force that one square inch retains its atmosphere. And as in plucking the hairs from the horse's tail, a degree of strength not sufficient to pull away a handful at once, could yet easily strip it hair by hair : so a blunt body presented cannot draw offa number of particles at once, but a pointed one, with no greater force, takes them away easily, particle by particle. IS. These explanations of the power and operation of points, when they first occurred to me, and while they first floated in my mind, appeared perfectly satisfactory ; but now I have writtenthem, and considered them more closely, I must own I have some doubts about the:;m ; yet, as I have at present nothing better to offer in their stead, I do not cross them out : for, even a bad solution read, and its faults discovered, has often given rise to a good one, in the mind of an ingenious reader. 19. Nor is it of much importance to us to know the manner in which nature e.xecutes her laws; it is enough if we know the laws themselve.s. It is of real use to know that china left in the air unsupported will fall and break ; but how it comes to fall, and why it breaks, are raatters of speculation. It is a pleasure indeed to know thera, but we can preserve our china without it 20. Thus in the present case, to know this power of points raay possibly be of some use to mankind, though we should never be able to explain it. The following experiments, as well as those in my first paper, show this power. I have a large prime conductor, made of several thin sheets of clothier's paste board, formed into a tube, near ten feet long and a foot diamater. It is covered with Dutch embossed paper, almost totally gilt This large metallic surface supports a much greater electrical atmosphere than a rod of iron of 50 times the weight would do. It is suspended by silk lines, and when charged will strike, at near two inches distance, a pretty hard stroke, so as to make ones knuckle ache. Let a person standing on the floor present the point of a needle at 12 or more inches dis tance from it, and while the needle is so pre sented, the conductor cannot be charged, the point drawing off the fire as fast as it is thrown on by the electrical globe. Let it be charg ed, and then present the point at the same distance, and it will suddenly be discharged. In the dark you may see the light on the point, when the experiment is made. And if the person holding the point stands upon wa.x, he will be electrified by receiving the fire at that distance. Attempt to draw off the elec tricity with a blunt body, as a bolt of iron round at the end, and smooth (a silversmith's iron punch, inch thick is what I use) and you must bring it within the distance of three inches before you can do it, and then it is done with a stroke and crack. As the pasteboard tube hangs loose on silk lines, when you ap proach it with the punch-iron, it likewise will move towards the punch, being attracted while it is charged ; but if, at the same in stant, a point be presented as before, it re tires again, for the point discharges it Take a pair of large brass scales, of two or more feet beam, the cords of the scales being silk. Suspend the beam by a packthread from the ceiling, so that the bottom of the scales may be about a foot from the floor ; the scales will move round in a circle by the untwisting of the packthread. Set the iron punch on the end upon the floor, in such a place as that the scales may pass over it in making their circle ; then electrify one scale, by applying the wire of a charged phial to it. As they move round, you see that scale dravf nigher to the floor, and dip more when it comes over the punch; and if that be placed at a proper distance, the scale will snap and discbarg-e its fire into it But if a needle be stuck on the end of the punch, its point upwards, the scale, instead of drawing nigh to the punch, and snapping, discharges its fire silently through the point and rises higher from the punch. Nay, even if the needle be placed upon the floor near tlie punch, its point upwards, the end of the punch,, though so much higher than the needle, will not attract the sc-jle and receive its fire, for the needle will get it and convey it away. before it comes nigh enough for the punch to act And this is constantly observable in these experiments, that the greater quantity of electricity on the pasteboard tube, the far- PHILOSOPHICAL. 261 ther it strikes or discharges its fire, and the point likewise will draw it off at a still great er distance. Now if the fire of electricity and that of lightning be the same, as I have endeavour ed to show at large, in a former paper, this pasteboard tube and these scales may repre sent electrified clouds. If a tube of only ten feet long will strike and discharge its fire on the punch at two or three inches distance, an electrified cloud of perhaps 10,000 acres may strike and discharge on the earth at a proportionably greater distance. The hori zontal raotion ofthe scales over the floor, may represent the motion of the clouds over the earth ; and the erect iron punch, a hill or high building ; and then we see how electrified clouds passing over hills or high buildings at too great a height to strike, may be attracted lower till within their striking distance. And lastly, if a needle fixed on the punch with its point upright, or even on the floor below the punch, will draw the fire from the scale si lently at a much greater than the striking dis tance, and so prevent its descending towards the punch ; or if in its course it would have come nigh enough to strike, yet being first deprived of its fire it cannot, and the punch is thereby secured from the stroke; I say, if these things are so, may not the knowledge of this power of points be of use to raankind, in preserving houses, churches, ships, &c. from the stroke of lightning, by directing us to fix on the highest parts of those edifices, upright rods of iron made sharp as a needle, and gilt to prevent rusting, and frora the foot of those rods a wire down the outside of the building into the ground, or down round one of the shrouds of a ship, and down her side till it reaches the water f Would not these pointed rods probably draw the electral fire silently out of a cloud before it came nigh enough to strike, and thereby secure us from that most sudden and terrible mischief! 21. To deterraine the question, whether the clouds that contain lightning are electrified or not I would propose an experiment to be tried where it may be done conveniently. On the topof sorae high tower or steeple, place a kind of centry-box (as in Fig. 9) big enough to contain a man and an electrical stand. Prom the middle ofthe stand let an iron rod rise and pass bending out of the door, and then upright 20 or 30 feet, pointed very sharp at the end. If the electrical stand be kept clean and dry, a man standing on it when such clouds are passing low, might be elec trified and afford sparks, the rod drawing fire to him from a cloud. If any danger to the man should be apprehended (though I think there would be none) let him stand on the floor of his box, and npw and then bring near to the rod the loop of a wire, that has one end fastened to the leads, he holding it by a wax handle ; so the sparks, if the rod is electrified, will strike from the rod to the wire, and not affect hira. 22. Before I leave this subject of light ning, I may mention some other sirailanties between the effects of that, and those of elec tricity. Lightning has often been known to strike people blind. A pigeon that we struck dead to appearance by the electrical shock, recovering life, drooped about the yard seve ral days, eat nothing, though crumbs were thrown to it, but declined and died. We did not think of its being deprived of sight ; but afterwards a pullet struck dead in like man ner, being recovered by repeatedly blowing into its lungs, when set down on the floor, ran headlong against the wall, and on ex amination appeared perfectly blind. Hence we concluded that the pigeon also had been absolutely blinded by the shock. The big gest animal we have yet killed, or tried to kill, with the electrical stroke, was a well grown pullet. 23. Beading in the ingenious Dr. Miles's account of the thunder-storm at Streatham, the effect of the lightning in stripping off all the paint that had covered a gilt moulding of a pannel of wainscot without hurting the rest of the paint, I had a mind to lay a coat of paint over the filleting of gold on the cover of a book, and try the effects of a strong electrical flash sent through that gold from a charged sheet of glass. But having no paint at hand, I pasted a narrow strip of paper over it ; and when dry, sent the flash through the gilding, by which the paper was torn off from end to end, with such force, that it was broke in se veral places, and in others brought away part of the grain of the Turkey-leather in which it was bound ; and convinced me, that had it been painted, the paint would have been stripped off in the same manner with that on the wainscot at Streatham. 24. Lightning melts metals, and I hinted in my paper on that subject, that I suspected it to be a cold fusion ; I do not mean a fusion by force of cold, but a fusion without heat* We have also melted gold, silver, and copper, in small quantities, by the electrical flash. The manner is this : take leaf-gold, leaf-sil ver, or leaf-gilt copper, commonly called leaf- brass, or Dutch gold ; cut off from the leaf long narrow strips, the breadth of a straw. Place one of these strips between two strips of smooth glass that are about the width of your finger. , If one strip of gold, the length of the leaf, be not long enough for the glass, add another to the end of it, so that you may have a little part hanging out loose at each end ofthe glass. Bind the pieces of glass to gether frora end to end with strong silk thread ; then place it so as to be part of an electrical circuit, (the ends of gold hanging out being • See the note in page 257. 262 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. of use to join with the other parts of the cir cuit) and send the flash through it, from a large electrified jar or sheet of glass. Then if your strips of glass remain whole, you will see that the gold is raissing in several places, and instead of a metallic stain on both the glasses ; the stains on the upper and under glass exactly similar in the minutest stroke, as raay be seen by holding them to the light ; the metal appeared to h^ve been not only melted, but even vitrified, or otherwise so driven into the pores of the glass, as to be protected by it from the action of the strong est aqua fortis, or aqua regia. I send you en closed two little pieces of glass with these me tallic stains upon them, which cannot be re raoved without takmg part of the glass with thera. Sometimes the stain sprees a little wider than the breadth of the leaf, and looks brighter at the edge, as by inspecting closely you may observe in these. Sometimes the glass breaks to pieces ; once the upper glass broke into a thousand pieces, looking like coarse salt The pieces I send you were stained with Dutch gold. True gold makes a darker stain, soraewhat reddish ; silver, a greenish stain. We once took two pieces of thick looking-glass, as broad as a Gunter's scale, and six inches long; and placing leaf- gold between them, put thera between two smoothly-plained pieces of wood, and fixed them tight in a bookbuider's small press ; yet though they were so closely confined, the force of the electrical shock shivered the glass into raany pieces. The gold was rack ed and stained into the glass, as usual. The circurastances ofthe breaking ofthe glass dif fer rauch in making the experiment, and sometiraes it does not break at all : but this is constant that the stains in the upper and under pieces are exact counterparts of each other. And though I have taken up the pieces of glass between ray fingers immedi ately after this melting, 1 never could perceive the least warmth in thera. 25. In one of ray former papers, I raention ed, that gilding on a book, though at first it communicated the shock perfectly well, yet failed after a few experiments, which we could not account for. We have since found that one strong shock breaks the continuity ofthe gold in the filletting, and makes it look rather like dust of gold, abundance of its parts being broken and driven off; and it will sel- dora conduct above one strong shock. Per haps this may be tbe reason : when there is not a perfect continuity in the circuit, the fire raust leap over the vacancies ; there is a certain distance which it is able to leap over according to its strength ; if a number of small vacancies, though each be very minute, taken together exceed that distance, it cannot leap over thera, and so the shock is prevented. 26. Frora the before-mentioned law of elec tricity, that points as they are more or less acute, draw on and throw off the electrical fluid with more or less power, and at greater or less distances, and in larger or smaller quantities in the same time we may see how to account for the situation of the leaf of gold suspended between two plates, the upper one continually electrified, the under one in a person's hand standing on tbe floor. When the upper plate is electrified, the leaf is at tracted, and raised towards it and would fly to that plate, were it not for its own points. The corner that happens to be uppermost when the leaf is rising, being a sharp point from the extreme thinness ofthe gold, draws and receives at a distance a sufficient quantity of the electric fluid to give itself an electric atraosphere, by wbich its progress to the up per plate is stopped, and it begins to be repel led from that plate, and would be driven back to the under plate, but that its lowest corner is likewise a point, and throws off or dis charges the overplus of the leafs atmosphere, as fast as the upper comer draws it on. Were those two points perfectly equal in acuteness, the leaf would take place exactly in the middle space, for its weight is a trifle compared to the power acting on it : but it is generaUy nearest the unelectrified plate, because, when the leaf is offered to the electrified plate, at a distance, the sharpest point is commonly first affected and raised towards it ; so that pomt, from its greater acuteness, receivmg the flu id faster than its opposite can discharge it at equal distances, it retires from the electrified plate, and draws nearer to the unelectrified plate, till it comes to a distance where the discharge can be exactly equal to the receipt the latter being lessened, and the former m- creased ; and there it remains as long as tbe globe continues to supply fresh electrical matter. This will appear plain, when the difference of acuteness in tbe corners is made very great Cut a piece of Dutch gold, (which is fittest for these experiments on ac count of its great strength) into the form of Fig. 10, the upper corner a right angle, the two next obtuse angles, and tbe lowest a very acute one ; and bring this on your plate un der the electrified plate, in such a manner as that the right-angled part may be first raised (which is done by covering the acute part with the hollow of your hand) and you will see this leaf take place much nearer to the upper than the under plate ; because without being nearer, it cannot receive so fast at its right-angled point as it can discharge at its acute one. Turn this leaf with the acute part uppermost and then it takes place near est the unelectrified plate ; because, otherwise, it receives faster at its acute point than it can discharge at its right-angled one. Thus the difference of distance is always proportioned to tlie difference of acuteness. Take care in PHILOSOPHICAL. 263 cutting your leaf, to leave no little ragged particles on the edges, which sometiraes forra points where you would not have them. You may make this figure so acute below, and blunt above, as to need no under plate, it dis charging fast enough into the air. When it is made narrower, as the figure between the pricked lines, we call it the golden fish, from its raanner of acting. For if you take it by the tail, and hold it at a foot or greater hori zontal distance frora the prime conductor, it will, when let go, fly to it with a brisk but wavering raotion, like that of an eel through the water ; it will then take place under the prime conductor, at perhaps a quarter or half an inch distance, and keep a continual shak ing of its tail like a fish, so that it seeras ani mated. Turn its tail towards the prime con ductor, and then it flies to your finger, and seems to nibble it. And if you hold a plate under it at six or eight inches distance, and cease turning the globe when the electrical atmosphere of the conductor grows small, it will descend to the plate and swira back again several tiraes with the same fish-like motion, greatly to the entertainraent of spec tators. By a little practice in blunting or sharpening the heads or tails of these figures, you may make them take place as desired, nearer or farther from the electrified plate. 27. It is said in section 8, of this paper, that all kinds of common matter are supposed not to attract the electrical fluid with equal strength ; and that those called electrics per se, as glass, &o. attract and retain it strongest, and contain the greatest quantity. This lat ter position may seem a paradox to sorae, be ing contrary to the hitherto received opinion ; and therefore I shall now endeavour to ex plain it 2S. In order to this, let it first be consider ed, that we cannot by any means we are yet acquainted with, force the electrical fluid through glass. I know it is commonly thought that it easily pervades glass ; and the experiraent of a feather suspended by a thread in a bottle hermetically sealed, yet moved by bringing a rubbed tube near the outside ofthe bottle is alleged to prove it. But, if the elec trical fluid so easily pervades glass, how does the phial become charged (as we term it) when we hold it in our hands! Would not the fire, thrown in by the wire, pass through to our hands, and so escape into the floor 1 Would not the bottle in that case be left just as we found it, uncharged, as we know a metal bottle so attempted to be charged would be 1 Indeed, if there be the least crack, the mi nutest solution of continuity in the glass, though it reraains so tight that nothing else we know of will pass, yet the extreraely sub tile electric fluid flies through such a crack with the greatest freedora, and such a bottle we know can never be charged : what then raakes the difference between such a bottle and one that is sound, but this, that the fluid can pass through the one, and not through the other I* 29. It is true, there is an experiraent that at first sight would be apt to satisfy a light observer, that the fire, thrown into the bottle by the wire, does really pass through the glass. It is this : place the bottle on a glass stand, under the prirae conductor, suspend a bullet by a chain from the prime conductor, till it comes within a quarter of an inch right over the wire ofthe bottle ; place your knuckle qn the glass stand, at just the same distance from the coating of the bottle, as the bullet is from its wire. Now let the globe be turned, and you see a spark strike from the bullet to the wire of the bottle, and the sarae instant you see and feel an exactly equal spark strik ing from the coating on your knuckle, and so on, spark for spark. This looks as tf the whole received by the bottle was agaui discharged frora it. And yet the bottle by this raeans is charged ! f And therefore the fire that thus leaves the bottle, though the same in quantity, cannot be the very same fire that entered at the wire, for if it were, the bottle would re main uncharged. 30. If the fire that so leaves the bottle be not the same that is thrown in through the wire, it raust be fire that subsisted in the bot tle (that is, in the glass ofthe bottle) before the operation began. 31. If so, there must be a great quantity in glass, because a great quantity is thus dis charged, even from very thin glass. 32. That this electrical fluid or fire is strongly attracted by glass, we know frora the quickness and violence with which it is resum ed by the part that had been deprived of it, when there is an opportunity. And by this, that we cannot from a mass of glass draw a quan tity of electric fire, or electrify the whole mass minus, as we can a raass of metal. We can not lessen or increase its whole quantity, for the quantity it has it holds; and it has as rauch as it can hold. Its pores are filled with it as full as the rautual repellency ofthe parti cles will admit; and what is already in, re fuses, or strongly repels any additional quantity. Nor have we any way of moving the electri cal fluid in glass, but one; that is, by covering part of the two surfaces of thin glass with non- electrics, and then throwing an additional quantity of this fluid on one surface, which spreading in the non-electric, and being bound by it to that surface, acts by its repelling force on the particles ofthe electrical fluid contained in the other surface, and drives thera out of the glass into the non-electrio on that side frora whence they are discharged, and then * See the first sixteen sections of the former paper, called Farther Experiments, Sec. t See sect. 10, of Farther Erperiments, &c. 264 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. I^ose added on the charged side can enter. But when this is done, there is no more in the glass, nor less than before, just as much hav ing left it on one side as it received on the other. 33. I feel a want of terms here, and doubt rauch whether I shall be able to make this part intelligible. By the word surface, in this case, I do not mean mere length and breadth without thickness; but when 1 speak of the upper or under surface of apiece of glass, the outer or inner surface of the phial, I mean length, breadth, and half thd thickness, and beg the favour of being so understood. Now I suppose, that glass in its first principles, and in the furijiace, has no more of this electri cal fluid than other common matter: that when it is blown, as it cools, and the particles of comraon fire leave it its pores become a vacuum: that the component parts of glass are extremely small and fine, I guess from its nev^r showing a rough face when it breaks, but always a polish ; and frora the sraallness of its particles I suppose the pores between them raust be exceedingly small, which is the reason that aquafortis, nor any other menstruum we have, can enter to separate them and dissolve the substance ; nor is any fluid we know of, fine enough to enter, except common fire, and the electric fluid. Now the departing fire, leavinga vacuum, as aforesaid, between these pores, which air nor water are fine enough to enter and fill, the electric fluid (which is every where ready in what we call the non-electrics, and in the non-electric raix- tures that are in the air) is attracted in ; yet does not become fixed with the substance ofthe glass, but subsists there as water in a porous stone, retained only by the attraction of the fixed parts, itself still loose and a fluid. But I suppose farther, that in the cooling of the glass, its texture becomes closest in the mid dle, and forms a kind of partition, in which the pores are so narrow, that the particles of the electrical fluid, which enter both surfeces at the same time, cannot go through, or pass and repass from one surface to the other, and so mix together; yet though the particles of electric fluid, imbibed by each surface, cannot themselves pass through to those of the other, their repellency can, and by this means they act on one another. The particles of the electric fluid have a mutual repellency, but by the power of attraction in the glass they are condensed or forced nearer to each otlier. When the glass has received, and, by its at traction, forced closer together so much of this electric fluid, as that the power of attracting and condensing in the one, is equal to the power of expansion in the other, it can im bibe no more, and that remains its constant whole quantity ; but each surfiice would re- cfivR more, if the repellency of what is in tho opposite surface did not resist its entrance. The quantities of this fluid in each surface being equal, their repelling action on each other is equal ; and therefore those of one surface cannot drive out those of the other; but, if a greater quantity is forced into one surface than the glass would naturally draw in, this increases the repelling power on that side, and overpowering the attraction on the other, drives out part of the fluid that had been imbibed by that surface, if there be any non electric ready to receive it : such there is in all cases where glass is electrified to give a shock. The surface that has been thus emp tied, by having its electrical fluid driven out resumes again an equal quantity with vio lence, as soon as the glass has an opportuni ty to discharge that ovSr quantity more than it could retain by attraction in its other sur face, by the additional repellency of which tho vacuum had been occasioned. For experi ments favouring (if I may not say confirming) this hypothesis, I must, to avoid repetition, beg leave to refer you back to what is said of the electrical phial in my former pages. 33. Let us now see how it will account for several other appearances. — Glass, a body ex tremely elastic, (and perhaps its elasticity may be owing in some decree to the subsisting of so great a quantity of this repelling fluid in its pores) must, when rubbed, have its rubbed surface somewhat stretched, or its solid parts drawn a little farther asunder, so that the vacancies in which the electrical fluid resides, become larger, affording room for more of that fluid, which is immediately attracted into it from the cushion or hand rubbing, (hey being supplied frora the common stock. But the instant the parts of the glass so opened and filled, have passed the friction, they close again, and force the additional quantity out upon the surface, where it must rest till that part comes round to the cushion again, unless some non-electric (as the prime conductor,) first presents to receive it.* But if the inside of the globe be lined with a non-electric, the additional repellency of the electrical fluid, thus collected by friction on the rubbed part ofthe globe's outer surface, drives an equal quantity out of the inner surface into that non electric lining, which receiving it, and carry ing it away from the rubbed part into the common mass, tlirough the axis of the globe, and frame of the machine, the new collected electrical fluid can enter and remain in tho outer surface, and none ofit (or a very little) will be received by the prime conductor. As this charged part of the globe comes round to * In the dark the electric fluid may be seen on the cushion in two semi-circles or half-moons, one on the fore part, the o'her on the back part of the cushions just where the globe and cushion separate. In the fore cresceut tho fire is passing out of tho cushion into the glass; in the other it is leaving the glass, and returning into the back partof the cushion. When the prime conductor is applied to lake it oflf the glass, the back crescent disappears. PHILOSOPHICAL. 265 the cushion again, the outer surface delivers its overplus fire into the cushion, the opposite inner surface receiving at the same tirae an equal quantity frora the floor. Every electri cian knows that a globe wet within will afford little or no fire, but the reason has not before been attempted to be given, that I know of 34. So if a tube lined with a non-electric be rubbed* little or no fire is obtained from it ; what is collected from the hand, in the downward rubbing stroke, entering the pores of the glass, and driving an equal quantity out of the inner surface into the non-electric lin ing : and the hand in passing up to take a second stroke, takes out again what had been thrown into the outer surface, and then the inner surface receives back again what it had given to the non-electric lining. Thus the particles of electral fluid belonging to the in side surface go in and out of their pores every stroke given to the tube. Put a wire into the tube, the inward end in contact with the non electric lining, so it will represent the Ley den bottle. Let a second person touch the wire, while you rub, and the fire driven out of the inward surface when you give the stroke, will pass through him into the common mass, and return through hira when the inner surface resumes its quantity, and therefore this new kind of Leyden bottle cannot be so charged. But thus it may : after every stroke, before you pass your hand up to make another, let a second person apply his finger to the wire, take the spark, and then withdraw his finger ; and so on till he has drawn a number of sparks ; thus will the inner surface be ex hausted, and the outer surface charged; then wrap a sheet of gilt paper close round the outer surface, and grasping it in your hand you may receive a shock by applying the finger of the other hand to the wire : for now the vacant pores in the inner surface resume their quantity, and the overcharged pores in the outer surface discharge that overplus ; the equilibrium being restored through your body, which could not be restored through the glass.f If the tube be exhausted of air, a non-electric lining, in contact with the wire, is not neces sary, for in vacuo the electrical fire will fly freely from the inner surface, without a non electric conductor ; but air resists in motion ; for bemg itself an electric per se, it does not attract it having already its quantity. So the air never draws off an electric atmosphere frora any body, but in proportion to the non- electrics mixed with it : it rather keeps such an atmosphere eonflned, which, frora the mu tual repulsion of its particles, tends to dissipa tion, and would iraraediately dissipate in va cuo. — And thus the experiment of the feather enclosed in a glass vessel hermetically sealed, * Gilt paper, with the gilt face next the glass, does well. t See Farther Experiments, sect. i5. Vol. II. ... 2 L 23 but moving on the approach ofthe rubbed tube, is explained. When an additional quantity of the electrical fluid is applied to the side of the vessel by the atmosphere of the tube, a quantity is repelled and driven out of the in ner surface of that side into the vessel, and there affects the feather, returning again into its pores, when the tube with its atmosphere is withdrawn ; not that the particles of that atmosphere did themselves pass through the glass to the feather. And every other ap pearance I have yet seen, in which glass and electricity are concerned, are, I think, ex plained with equal ease by the sarae hypothe sis. Yet, perhaps, it may not be a true one, and I shall be obliged to hira that affords rae a better. 35. Thus I take the d ifference between non- electvics, and glass, an electric per se, to con sist in these two particulars. 1st, That a non electric easily suffers a change in the quan tity of the electric fluid it contains. You may lessen its whole quantity, by drawing out a spark, which the whole body will again resume : but of glass you can only lessen the quantity contained in one of its surfaces ; and not that, but by supplying an equal quantity at the same time to the other surface : so that the whole glass may always have the same quantity in the two surfaces, their two dif ferent quantities being added together. And this can only be done in glass that is thin ; be yond a certain thickness we have yet no power that can make this change. And," 2dly, that the electric fire freely removes from place to place, in and through the sub stance of a non-electric, but not so through the substance of glass. If you offer a quantity to one end of a long rod of metal, it receives it and when it enters, every particle that was before in the rod pushes its neighbour quite to the further end, where the overplus is dis charged ; and this instantaneously where the rod is part of the circle in the experiment of the shock. But glass, from the sraallness of its pores, or stronger attraction of what it con tains, refuses to adrait so free a motion: a glass rod will not conduct a shock, nor will the thinnest glass suffer any particle entering one of its surfaces to pass through to the other. 36. Hence we see the impossibility of suc cess in the experiments proposed, to draw out the eflluvial virtues of a non-electric, as cin namon, for instance, and mixing them with the electric fluid, to convey them with that in to the body, by including it in the globe, and then applying friction, &c. For though the effluvia of cinnamon, and the electric fluid should mix within the globe, they would neve^r come out together through the pores of the glass, and so go to the prime conductor ; for the electric fluid itself cannot come through ; and the prirae conductor is always 266 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. supplied from the cushion, imd that from the floor. And besides, when the globe is filled with cinnamon, or other non-electric, non- electrio fluid can be obtained frora its outer surface, for the reason before-mentioned. I have tried another way, which I thought more likely to obtain a mixture of the electric and other effluvia together, if such a mixture had been possible. I placed a glass plate under my cushion, to cut off the communication be tween the cushion and floor ; then brought a sraall chain from the cushion into a glass of oil of turpentine, and carried another chain from the oil of turpentine to the floor, taking care that the chain from the cushion to the glass, touched no part ofthe frame ofthe machine. Another chain was fixed to the prirae conductor, and held in the hand of a person to be electrified. The ends of the two chains in the glass were near an inch distant frora each other, the oil of turpentine be tween. — Now tbe globe being turned could draw no fire frora the floor through the raa- chine, coraraunication that way being cut off by the thick glass plate under the cushion : it raust then draw it through the chains whose ends were dipped in the oil of turpen tine. And as the oil of turpentine, being an electric per se, would not conduct, what came up frora the floor was obliged to jurap frora the end of one chain to the end of the other, through the substance oftbat oil, which we could see in large sparks, and so it had a fair opportunity of seizing some of the finest particles of the oil in its passage, and carry ing them off with it : but no such effect fol lowed, nor could I perceive the least differ ence in the sraell ofthe electric effluvia thus collected, from what it has when collected otherwise, nor does it otherwise affect the body of a person electrised. I likewise put into a phial, instead of water, a strong purgative li quid, and then charged the phial, and took re peated shocks from it, in which case every particle of the electrical fluid must before it went through ray body, have flrstgone through the liquid when the phial is charging, and re turned through it when discharging, yet no other effect followed than if it had been charg ed with water. I have also smelt the elec tric fire when drawn through gold, silver, cop per, lead, iron, wood, and the human body, and could perceive no difterence : the odour is always the same, where the spark does not burn what it strikes; and therofore I imagine it does not take that smell from any quality of the bodies it passes through. And indeed, as that sraell so readily loaves the electric matter, and adheres to the knuckle receiving the sparks, and to other things; I suspect that it never was connected with it but arises in stantaneously from something in the air acted upon by it For if it was fine enough to come with the electric fluid through the body of one person, why should it stop on the skin of another 1 But I shall never have done, if I tell you all my conjectures, thoughts, and imaginations on the nature and operations of this electric fluid, and relate the variety of little experi ments we have tried. I have already made this paper too long, for which I must crave pardon, not having now time to abridge it I shall only add, that as it has been observed here that spirits will fire by the electric spark in the suramer time, without heating them, when Fahrenheit's thermoraeter is above 70 ; so when colder, if the operator puts a sraall flat bottle of spirits in his bosom, or a close pocket with the spoon, some little time be fore he uses them, the heat of his body will communicate warmth more than sufficient for the purpose. Additional Experiments : Proving tliat the Leyden Bottle has no more electrical fire in it when charged, than before: nor less when discharged : th at, in discharging, tlie Fire does not issue from the Wire and the Coating at the same time, as some hare thought, but that the Coating always rcccircs what is discharged by the Wire, or an equal quantity; the other Surface being always in a negative state of Electricity, when the inner Surface is in a positive state. Pl-4.ce a thick plate of ^lass under the rub bing cushion, to cut off the communication of electrical flre frora the floor to the cushion , then if there be no fine points or hairy threads sticking out frora the cushion, (of which you must be careful) you can get but a few sparks frora the prime conductor, which are all the cushion wUl part with. Hang a phial then on the prime conductor, and it will not charge though you hold it by the coating. — But Form a communication by a chain from the coating to the cushion, and the phial will charge. For the globe then draws the electric fire out of the outside surface of the phial, and forces it through the prirae conductor and wire ofthe phial into the inside surfece. Thus the bottle is charged with its own fire, no other being to be had while the glass plate is under the cushion. Hang two cork balls by flaxen threads to the prime conductor ; then touch the coating of the bottle, and they will be electrified and recede from each other. For just as much fire as you give the coat ing, so much is discharged through the wire upon the prime conductor, whence the cork balls receive an electrical atraosphere. — But, Take a wire bent in the forra of a C, with a stick of wax fixed to the outside of the curve, to hold it by ; and apply one end of PHILOSOPHICAL. 267 this wire to the coating, and the other at the same time to the prirae conductor, the phial will be discharged ; and if the balls are not electrified before the discharge, neither will they appear to be so after the discharge, for they will not repel each other. If the phial really exploded at both ends, and discharged fire from both coating and wire, the balls would be more electrified, and recede farther ; for none of the fire can es cape, the wax handle preventing. But if the fire with which the inside sur face is surcharged be so much precisely as is wanted by the outside surface, it will pass round through the wire fixed to the wax handle, restore the equilibrium in the glass, and make no alteration in the state of the prirae conductor. Accordingly we find, that if the prirae con ductor be electrified, and the cork balls in a state of repellency before the bottle is dis charged, they continue so afterwards. If not, they are not electrified by that discharge. To Peter Collinson, London. Accumulation of the electrical Fire proved to be in the electrified Glass. — Effect of Lightning on the Needle of Com.passcs, explained.— Gun powder fired by the electric Flame. Philadelphia, July 27, 1750. Mr. Watson, I believe, wrote his Obser vations on ray last paper in haste, without having first well considered the experiments related 5 17,* which still appear to me de cisive in the question, — Whether the accumu lation ofthe electrical fire be in the electri cal glass, or in the non-electric matter con nected with the glass 1 and to demonstrate that it is really in the glass. As to the experiment that ingenious gen tleman mentions, and which he thinks con clusive on the other side, I persuade myself he will change his opinion of it when he con siders, that as one person applying the wire of the charged bottle to warra spirits, in a spoon held by another person, both standing on the floor, will fire tbe spirits, and yet such firing will not determine whether the accu mulation was in the glass or the non-elec tric ; so the placing another person between thera, standing on wax, with a bason in his hand, into which the water frora the phial is poured, while he at the instant of pouring presents a finger ofhis other hand to the spirits, does not at all alter the case; the stream from the phial, the side of the bason, with the arms and body of the person on the wax, being all together but as one long wire, reaching from the internal surface of the phial to the spirits. June 29, 1751. In capt. Waddell's account of the effects of lightning on his ship, I could * See the paper entitled, Farther Experiments, Sfc. not but take notice of the large comazants (as he calls them) that settled on the spmtles at the top-mast heads, and burnt like very large torches (before the stroke.) According to ray opinion, the electrical fire was then drawing off, as by points, frora the cloud ; the large ness of the flame betokening the great quan tity of electricity in the cloud : and had there been a good wire communication from the spin- tie heads to the sea, that could have conducted more freely than tarred ropes, or mats of tur pentine wood, I imagine there would either have been no stroke, or, if a stroke, the wire would have conducted it all into the sea with out damage to the ship. His compasses lost the virtue of the load stone, or the poles were reversed ; the north point turning to the south. — By elec tricity we have {here at Philadelphia) fre quently given polarity to needles, and re versed it at pleasure.' Mr. Wilson, at Lon don, tried it on too large masses, and with too small force. A shock frora four large glass jars, sent through a fine sewing-needle, gives it polar ity, and it will traverse when laid on water. — If the needle, when struck, lies east and west, the end entered by the electric blast points north. — If it lies north and south, the end that lay towards the north will continue to pointnorth when placed on water, whether the fire entered at that end, or at the contrary end. The polarity given is strongest when the needle is struck lying north and south, weak est when lying east and west; perhaps if the force was still greater, the south end, en tered by the fire (when the needle lies north and south) might become the north, other wise it puzzles us to account forthe inverting of compasses by lightning ; since their needles raust always be found in that situation, and by our little experiments, whether the blast entered the north and went out at the south end of the needle, or the contrary, still the end that lay to the north should continue to point north. In these experiments the ends of the nee dles are sometimes finely blued like a watch- spring by the electric flame. — This colour given by the flash from two jars only, will wipe off; but four jars fix it, and frequent ly melt the needles. I send you some that have had their heads and points melted off by our miraic lightning ; and a pin that had its point melted off, and some part of its head and neck run. Sometimes the surface on the body of the needle is also run, and appears blistered when exarained by a magnifying glass : the jars I make use of hold seven or eight gallons, and are coated and lined with tin-foil ; each of thera takes a thousand turns* of a globe nine inches diaraeter to charge it * The cushion being afterwards covered with a long flap of buckskin, which might cling to the globe ; apd 268 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. I send you two specimens of tin-foil melted between glass, hy the force of two jars only. I have not heard that any of your European electricians have ever been able to fire gun powder by the electric flame. We do it here in this manner : — A small cartridge is filled with dry powder, hard rammed, so as to bruise some of the grains ; two pointed wires are then thrust in, one at each end, the points approaching each other in the middle of the cartridge, till within the distance of half an inch ; then, the cartridge being placed in circuit, when the four jars are discharged, the electric flame leaping from the point of one wire to the point ofthe other, within the cartridge amongst the powder, fires it, and the explosion ofthe powder is at the same in stant with the crack of the discharge. B. FRANKLIN. To Cadwallader Colden,* at New York, com municated to Mr. Collinson. Unlimited Nature of the Electric Force. Philadelphia, 1751. I ENCLOSE you answers, such as my present hurry of business will permit me to make, to the principal queries contained in yours of the 28th instant, and bog leave to refer you to the latter piece in the printed collection of my papers, for farther explanation of the dif ference between what is called electrics per se, and non-electrics. When you have had tirae to read and consider these papers, I will endeavour to make any new experiments you shall propose, that you think may afford far ther light or satisfaction to either of us ; and shall be rauch obliged to you for such remarks, objections, &c. ^s may occur to you.— I for get whether I wrote to you that I have melted brass pins and steel needles, inverted the poles ofthe magnetic needle, given a magne tism and polarity to needles that had none, and fired dry gunpowder by the electric spark. I have five bottles that, contain eight or nine gallons each, two of which charged are suf ficient for those purposes ; but I can charge and discharge them altogether. There are no bounds (but what expense and labour give) to the force man may raise and use in the electrical way ; for bottle may be added to bottle in infinitum., and all united and dis charged together as one, the force and effect proportioned to theirnumber and size. The greatest known effects of common lightning may, I think, without much difiiculty, be ex ceeded in this way, which a few years since could not have been believed, and even now care being taken to keep that flapof a due temperature, between too dry and too moist, we found so much more of the electric fluid was obtained, as Ihnt 150 turns were pudicinnt. — 17.53. * This gonllnrnnn was aftorwards lieutenant-go vernor of Now York. may seem to many a little extravagant to suppose. — So we are not got beyond the skill of Rabelais's devils of two years old, who, he humourously says, had only learnt to thunder and lighten a little round the head of a cab- B. FRANKLIN. Queries and Answers referred to in the fore going Letter. The terms, electric per se, and non-electric, im proper. — New relation between Metals and Water. — Effects of Air in electrical Experi ments. — Experiments for discorering -more oj the Qualities of the electric Fluid. Query. Whekein consists the difference be tween an electric and a non-electric body t Answer. The terms electric^er se, and non electric, were first used to distinguish bodies, on a mistaken supposition that those called elec trics per se, alone contained electric matter in their substance, which was capable of being excited by friction, and of being produced or drawn from tbem, and communicated to those called non-electrics, supposed to be destitute of it : for the glass, &c. being rubbed, disco vered signs of having it, by snapping to the finger, attracting, repelling, &c. and could communicate those signs to metals and water. — Afterwards it was found, that rubbing of glass would not produce the electric matter, unless a communication was preserved be tween the rubber and tbe floor ; and subse quent experiments proved that the electric matter was really drawn from those bodies that at first were thought to have none in them. Then it was doubted whether glass, and other bodies cedled electrics per se, had really any electric matter in them, since they apparently afforded none but what they 'first extracted from those which had been called non-electrics. But some of my experiments show, that glass contains it in great quantity, and I now suspect it to be pretty equally dif fused in all the matter of this terraqueous globe. If so, the terms electric per se, and non-electric, should be laid aside as improper : and (the only difference being this, that some bodies will conduct electric matter, and others will not) the terms conductor and non conductor may supply their place. If any portion of electric matter is applied to a piece of conducting matter, it penetrates and flows through it, or spreads equally on its surface ; if applied to a piece of non-conducting matter, it will do neither. Perfect conductors of electric matter are only metals and water. Other bodies conducting only as they contain a mixture of those ; without more or less of which they will not conduct at all.* This * This proposition is since found to be too general ; Mr. Wilson having discovered that melted wax and rosin will also conduct. PHILOSOPHICAL. 269 (by the way) shows a new relation between metals and water heretofore unknown. To illustrate this by a comparison, which, however, can only give a faint reserablance. Electric matter passes through conductors as water passes through a porous stone, or spreads on their surfeces as water spreads on a wet stone ; but when applied to non-con ductors, it is like water dropt on a greasy stone, itneither penetrates, passes through, nor spreads on the surface, but reraains in drops where it falls. See farther on this head, in my last printed piece, entitled, Opinions and Conjectures, M there performed, and said tho same was practised on other parts ofthe Spanish coast. waves in a storra by pouring oil into the sea ; which he raentions, as well as the use made of oil by the divers ; but the stilling a terapest by throwing vinegar into the air had escaped rae. I think with your friend, that it has been of late too much the mode to slight the learn ing of the ancients. The learned, too, are -apt to slight too much the knowledge of the vul gar. The cooling by evaporation was long an instance of the latter. This art of smooth ing the waves by oil is an instance of both. Perhaps you may not dislike to have an ac count of all I have heard, and learnt and done in this way. Take it if you please as follows : In 1757, being at sea in a fleet of 96 sail bound against Louisburg, I observed the wakes of two of the ships to be remarkably smooth, while all the others were ruffled by the wind, which blew fresh. Being puzzled with the differing appearance, I at last pointed it out to our captain, and asked him the raeaning ofit " The cooks," says he, " have, I suppose, been just eraptying their greasy water through the scuppers, which has greased the sides of those ships a little ;" and this answer he gave me with an air of some little contempt as to a person ignorant of what every body else knew. In my own mind I at first slighted his solu tion, though I was not able to think of another, but recollecting what I had formerly read in Pliny, I resolved to raake sorae experiment of the effect of oil on water, when I should have opportunity. Afterwards being again at sea in 1762, I first observed the wonderful quietness of oil on agitated water, in the swinging glass lamp I made to hang up in the cabin, as described in my printed paper.* This I was continu ally looking at and considering, as an appear ance to me inexplicable. An old sea captain, then a passenger with me, thought little of it supposing it an effect of the same kind with tliat of oil put on water to sraooth it which he said was a practice of the Berinu- dians when they would strike fish, which tliey could not see if the surface of the water was ruflled by the wind. This practice I had never before heard of, and was obliged to him for the information ; though I thought hira mistaken as to the sameness of the experi ment, ttie operations being different as well as the effects. In one case, the water is smooth till the oil is put on, and then becomes agitated. In the other it is agitated before the oil is applied, and then becomes smooth. The same gentleman told rae, he had heard it was a practice with the fisherraen of Lis bon when about to return into the river (if they saw before them too great a surf upon the bar, which they apprehended might fill their boats in passuig) to erapty a bottle or two of oil, into the sea, which would suppress the breakers, and allow them to pass safely. A * See the preceding paper. PHILOSOPHICAL. 281 confirmation of this I have not since had an op^portunity of obtaining : but discoursing ofit with another person, who had often been in the Mediterranean, I was informed, that the divers there, who, when under water in their business, need light, which the curling ofthe surface interrupts by the refractions ofso many little waves, let a sraall quantity of oil now and then out of their raouths, which rising to the surface sraooths it, and permits the light to come down to them. All these informa tions I at tiraes revolved in my mind, and won dered to find no mention of them in our books of experimental philosophy. At length being at Clapham, where there is, on the coraraon, a large pond, which I ob served one day to be very rough with the wind, I fetched out a cruet of oil, and dropt a little ofit on the water. I saw it spread itself with surprising swiftness upon the surface; but the effect of smoothing the waves was not produced : for I had applied it first on the leeward side of the pond, where the waves were largest, and the wind drove my oil back upon the shore. I then went to the windward side where they began to form ; and there the oil, though not raore than a tea-spoonful, pro duced an instant calm over a space several yards square, which spread amazingly, and e.xtended itself gradually till it reached the lee side, making all that quarter of the pond, perhaps half an acre, as smooth as a looking- glass. After this I contrived to take with me, whenever I went into the country, a little oil in the upper hollow joint of my bamboo cane, with which I might repeat the experiment as opportunity should offer, and I found it con stantly to succeed. In these experiments, one circurastance struck rae with particular surprise. This was the sudden, wide, and forcible spreading of a drop of oil on the face of the water, which I do not know that any body has hitherto con sidered. If a drop of oil is put on a highly po lished raarble table, or on a looking-glass that lies horizontally, the drop remains in its place, spreading very little. But when put on wa ter, it spreads instantly many feet round, be coming so thin as to produce the prismatic colours, for a considerable space, and beyond thera so much thinner as to be invisible, ex cept in its effect of smoothing the waves at a rauch greater distance. It seems as if a rau tual repulsion between its particles took place as soon as it touched the water, and a repul sion so strong as to act on other bodies swim ming on the surface, as straw, leaves, chips, &c. forcing thera to' recede every way frora the drop, as from a centre, leaving a large clear space. The quantity of this force, and the distance to which it will operate, I have not yet ascertained ; |iut I think it is a curi- VoL. II. ... 2 N 24* ous inquiry, and I wish to understand whence it arises. In our journey to the north, when we had the pleasure of seeing you at Ormathwaite, we visited the celebrated Mr. Smeaton, near Leeds. Being about to show him the smooth ing experiment on a little pond near his house, an ingenious pupil ofhis, Mr. Jessop, then pre sent, told us of an odd appearance on that pond, which had lately occurred to him. He was about to clean a little cup in which he kept oil, and he threw upon the water sorae flies that had been drowned in the oil. These flies present ly began to move, and turn round on the wa ter very rapidly, as if they were vigorously alive, though on examination he found they were not so. T immediately concluded that the motion was occasioned by the power of the repulsion above mentioned, and that the oil issuing gradually from the spungy body of the fly continued the motion. He found sorae more flies drowned in oil, with which the experiment was repeated before us. To show that it was not any effect of life recover ed by the flies, I imitated it by little bits of oil ed chips and paper cut in the form of a comma, of the size of a comraon fly ; when the stream of repelling particles issuing from the point made the comma turn round the contrary way. This is not a chamber experiment ; for it cannot be well repeated in a bowl or dish of water on a table. A considerable surface of water is necessary to give room for the ex pansion of a small quantity of oil. In a dish of water, if the smallest drop of oil be let fall in the middle, the whole surface is presently covered with a thin greasy filra proceeding frora the drop ; but as soon as that filra has reached the sides of the dish, no more will is sue from the drop, but it reraains in the forra of oil, the side of the dish putting a stop to its dissipation by prohibiting the farther expan sion of the filra. Our friend, sir John Pringle, being soon after in Scotland, learned there, that those employed in the herring fishery could at a distance see where the shoals of herrings were, by the smoothness of the water over them, which raight possibly be occasioned, he thought, by sorae oiliness proceeding from their bodies. A gentleman frora Rhode Island told me, it had been remarked, that the harbour of New port was ever smooth while any whaling ves sels were in it : which probably arose from hence, that the blubber which they sometimes bring loose in th6 hold, or the leakage oftheir barrels, might afford some oil, to mix with that water, which from time to time they pump out to keep their vessel free, and that sorae oil might spread over the surface ofthe water in the harbour, and prevent the fonn^ ing of any waves. 282 FRANKLIN'S WORKS- This prevention I would thus endeavour to explain. There seems to be no natural repulsion be tween water and air, such as to keep them from coming into contact with each other. — Hence we find a quantity of air in water ; and if we extract it by means'of the au--pump the same water, again exposed to the air, will soon irabibe an equal quantity. Therefore air in raotion, which is wind, in passing over the smooth surface of water, may rub, as it were, upon that surface, and raise it into wrinkles, which if the wind continues, are the elements of future waves. The smallest wave once raised does not iraraediately subside, and leave the neigh bouring water quiet : but in subsiding raises nearly as rauch of the water next to it, the friction of the parts raaking little difference. Thus a stone dropped in a pool raises first a single wave round itself; and leaves it by sinking to the bottora ; but that first wave subsiding raises a second, the second a third, and so on in circles to a great extent. A sraall power continually operating will produce a great action. A finger applied to a weighty suspended bell can at first raove it but little ; if repeatedly applied, though with no greater strength, the motion increases till the bell swings to its utraost height, and with a force that cannot be resisted by the whole strength of the arra and body. Thus the sraall first raised waves, being continually acted upon by the wind, are, though the wind does not increase in strength, continually in creased in raagnitude, rising highly and ex tending their bases, so as to include a vast mass of water in each wave, which in its mo tion acts with great violence. But if there be a mutual repulsion between the particles of oil, and no attraction between oil and water, oil dropped on water will not be held together by adhesion to the spot whereon it falls; it will not be imbibed by the water ; it will be at liberty to expand it self; and it will spread on a surface that, be sides being smooth to the most perfect degree of polish, prevents, perhaps by repelling the oil, all iraraediate contact, keeping it at a minute distance from itself: and the expansion will continue till the rautual repulsion between the particles of the oil is weakened and re duced to nothing by their distance. Now I imagine that the wind, blowing over water thus covered with a film of oil, cannot easily catch upon it, so as to raise the first wrinkles, but slides over it, and leaves it smooth as it finds it. It raoves a little the oil indeed, which being between it and the water, serves it to slide with, and prevents friction, as oil does between those parts of a machine, that would otherwise rub hard toge ther. Hence tlie oil dropped on the wind ward side of a pond proceeds gradually to lee ward, as may be seen by the smoothness it carries with it quite to the opposite side. For the wind being thus prevented from rais ing the flrst wrmkles, that I call the eleraents of waves, cannot produce waves, which are to be made by continually acting upon, and enlarging those eleraents, and thus the whole pond is calraed. Totally therefore we might suppress the waves in any required place, if we could come at the windward place where they take their rise. This in the ocean can seldom if ever be done. But perhaps something may be done on particular occasions, to moderate the violence ofthe waves when we are in the raidst of them, and prevent their breaking where that would be inconvenient For when the wind blows fresh, there are continually rising on the back ofevery great wave a number of sraall ones, which roughen its surface, and give the wind hold, as it were, to push it with greater force. This hold is diminished, by preventing the genera tion of those small ones. And possibly too, when a wave's surface is oiled, the wind in passing over it, may rather in some degree press it down, and contribute to prevent it rising again, instead of promoting it. This as mere conjecture would have little weight if the apparent effects of pouring oil into the midst of waves were not considerable, and as yet not otherwise accounted for. When the wind blows so fresh, as that the waves are not sufficiently quick in obeying its impulse, their tops being thinner and lighter are pushed forward, broken, and turned over in a white foam. Comraon waves lift a vessel without entering it ; but these when large soraetimes break above and pour over it doing great damage. That this effect might in any degree be prevented, or the height and violence of waves in the sea moderated, we had no certain ac count ; Pliny's authority for the practice of seamen in his time being slighted. But dis coursing lately on this subject with his excel lency count Bentinck, of Holland, his son the honourable captain Bentinck, and the learned professor Allemand (to all whom I showed the experiment of smoothing in a windy day the large piece of water at the head of the Green Park) a letter was mentioned, which had been received by the count from Batavia, relative to tlie saving of a Dutch ship in a storra by pouring oil into the sea. I much desired to see thatletter, and a copy ofit was promised me, which I afterward received. Mr. Tengnagel to Count Bentinck. ' Batavia, January 5, 1770. Near the islands Paul and Arasterdam, we met with a storm, which had nothing par ticular in it worthy of being communicated PHILOSOPHICAL. 283 to you, except that the captain found himself obliged for greater safety in wearing the ship, to pour oil into the sea, to prevent the waves breaking over her, which had an excel lent effect, and succeeded in preservmg us. As he poured out but a little at a time, the East India Corapany owes perhaps its ship to only six demi-ames of olive-oil. I was present up on deck when this was done ; and I should not have mentioned this circumstanceto you, but that we have found people here so preju diced against the experiraent, as to raake it necessary for the officers on board and myself to give a certificate of the truth on this head, of which we made no difiiculty. On this occasion, I mentioned to captain Bentinck, a thought which had occurred to me in reading the voyages of our late circumnavi gators, particularly where accounts are given of pleasant and fertile islands which they rauch desired to land upon, when sickness made it more necessary, but could not effect a landing through a violent surf breaking on the shore, which rendered it irapracticable. My idea was, that possibly by sailing to and fro at sorae distance frora such lee-shore, con tinually pouring oil into the sea, the waves might be so much depressed, and lessened be fore they reached the shore, as to abate the height and violence of the surf, and permit a landing ; which, in such circurastances, was a point of sufficient iraportance to justify the expense of the oil that might be requisite for the purpose. That gentleraan, who is ever ready to proraote what may be of public utili ty, though his own ingenious inventions have not always met with the countenance they merited, was so obliging as to invite me to Portsmouth, where an opportunity would pro bably offer, in the course of a few days, of raaking the experiment on some of the shores about Spithead, in which he kindly proposed to accompany me, and to give assistance with such boats as might be necessary. Accord ingly, about the middle of October last, I went with sorae friends to Portsraouth ; and a day of wind happening, which made a lee- shore between Hasler-hospital and the point near Jillkecker, we went frora the Centaur with the long-boat and barge towards that shore. Our disposition was this : the long boat was anchored about a quarter of a mile from the shore ; part of the company were landed behind the point (a place more shelter ed from the sea) who came round and placed themselves opposite to the long boat, where they might observe the surf, and note if any change occurred in it upon using the oil. Another party, in the barge, plied to wind ward ofthe long boat, as far from her as she was from the shore, making trips of about half a mile each, pouring oil continually out of a large stone bottle, through a hole in the cork, somewhat bigger than a goose-quill. The ex periment had not, in the main point, the suc cess we wished, for no material difference was observed in the height or force of the surf upon the shore ; but those who were in the long-boat could observe a tract of smooth water, the whole of the distance in which the barge poured the oil, and gradually spreading in breadth towards the long-boat I call it smoothed, not that it was laid level ; but be cause, though the swell continued, its surface was not roughened by the wrinkles, or smaller waves, before-mentioned ; and none or very few white caps (or waves whose tops turn over in foam) appeared in that whole space, though to windward and leeward of it there were plenty ; and a wherry, that came round the point under sail, in her way to Ports mouth, seemed to turn into that tract of choice, and to use frora end to end, as a piece of turnpike-road. It may be of use to relate the circumstances of an experiraent that does not succeed, since they may give hints of amendment in future trials : it is therefore I have been thus parti cular. I shall only add what I apprehend may have been the reason of our disappoint ment I conceive, that the operation of oil on wa ter is, first to prevent the raising of new waves by the wind ; and, secondly, to pre vent its pushing those before raised with such force, and consequently their continuance of the same repeated height, as they would have done, if their surface were not oiled. But oil will not prevent waves being raised by another power, by a stone, for instance, fall ing into a still pool ; for they then rise by the raechanical impulse of the stone, which the greasiness on the surrounding water cannot lessen or prevent, as it can prevent the winds catching the surface and raising it into waves. Now waves once raised, whether by the wind or any other power, have the same me chanical operation, by which they continue to rise and fall, as a pendulum will continue to swing, a long time after the force ceases to act by which the motion was first produced : that motion will, however, cease in time ; but time is necessary. Therefore, though oil spread on an agitated sea may weaken the push of the wind on those waves whose sur faces are covered by it and so, by receiving fresh irapulse,, they may gradually subside ; yet a considerable time, or a distance through which they will take time to move, may be necessary to make the effect sensible on any shore in a diminution of the surf: for we know, that when wind ceases suddenly, the waves it has raised do not as suddenly sub side, but settle gradually, and are not quite down till after the wind has ceased. So though we should, by oiling them, take off the effect of wind on waves already raised, it is not to be expected that those waves should be 284 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. instantly levelled. The motion they have received, will for some tirae continue ; and if the shore is not far distant, they arrive there so soon, that their effect upon it will not be visibly dirainished. Possibly, therefore, if we had begun our operations at a greater distance, the effect might have been more sensible. And perhaps we did not pour oil in sufficient quantity. Future experiments may determine this. I was, however, greatly obliged to captain Bentinck, for the cheerful and ready aids he fave me : and I ought not to omit mentioning Ir. Banks, Dr. Solander, general Carnac, and Dr. Blagden, who all assisted at the experi ment during that blustering unpleasant day, with a patience and activity that could only be inspired by a zeal for the improvement of knowledge, such especially as might possibly be of use to men in situations of distress. I would wish you to comraunicate this to your ingenious friend, Mr. Farish, with my respects ; and believe me to be, with sincere esteem, B. FRANKLIN. To Peter Collinson, London. Electrical Kite. Philadelphia, Oct. 16, 1753. As frequent mention is made in public pa pers from Europe of the success of the Phila delphia experiment for drawing the electric fire frora clouds by raeans of pointed rods of iron erected on high buildings, &c. it raay be agreeable to the curious to be inforraed that the sarae experiment has succeeded in Phila delphia, though made in a different and raore easy manner, which is as follows : Make a small cross of two light strips of cedar, the arms so long as to reach to the four corners of a large thin silk handkerchief when extended ; tie the corners ofthe handkerchief to the extremities of the cross, so you have the body of a kite ; which being properly ac- coraraodated with a tail, loop, and string, will rise in the air, like those raade of paper ; but this being of silk is fitter to bear the wet and wind of a thunder gust without tearing. To the top of the upright stick ofthe cross is to be fixed a very sharp pointed wire, rising a foot or more above the wood. To the end of the twine, next the hand, is to be tied a silk ribbon, and where the silk and twine join, a key may be fastened. This kite is to be raised when a thunder-gust appears to be coming on, and the person who holds the string must stand within a door or window, or under some cover, so that the silk ribbon may not be wet ; and care must be taken that the twine does not touch the frame of the door or window. As soon as any of the thunder clouds come over the kite, the pointed wire will draw the electric fire from them, and the kite, witli all the twine, will be electrified, and the loose filaments of the twine will stand out every way, and be attracted by an approaching fin ger. And when the rain has wetted the kite and twine, so that it can conduct the electric fire freely, you will find it stream out plenti fully frora the key on the approach of your knuckle. At this key the phial may be charged ; and from electric fire thus obtained, spirits may be kindled, and all the other elec tric experiments be performed, which are usually done by the help of a rubbed glass globe or tube, and thereby the sameness of the electric raatter with that of lightning com pletely demonstrated. B. FRANKLIN. To the same. Hypothesis, of the Sea being the grand source qf Lightning, retracted. Positive, and some times negative. Electricity ofthe Churls disco vered. — New Experiments and Conjectures in support of this Discovery. — Observations re- commendedfor ascertaining the Direction of the electric Fluid. — Size of Rods for Con ductors lo Buildings. — Appearanceofa Thun der-cloud described. Philadelphia, September, 1753. In my former paper on this subject written first in 1747, enlarged and sent to England in 1749, I considered the sea as the grand source of lightning, imagining its luminous appear ance to be owing to electric fire produced by friction between the particles of water and those of salt Living far from the sea, I had then no opportunity of making experiments on the sea water, and so embraced this opi nion too hastily. For in 1750, and 1751, being occasionally on the sea-coast I found by experiments, tliat sea- water in a bottle, though at first it would by agitation appear luminous, yet in a few hours it lost that virtue : hence and from this, that I could not by agitating a, solution of sea- salt in water produce any light I firet began to doubt of my former hypothesis, and to sus pect that the luminous appearance in sea-wa ter must be owing to some other principles. I then considered whetlier it were not pos sible, that the particles of air, being electrics per se, might, in hard gales of w ind, by tbeir friction against trees, hills, buildings, &c. as so many minute electric globes, rubbing against non-electric cushions, draw the elec tric fire from the earth, and that the rising vapoui-s might receive the fire from the air, and by such means the clouds become elec trified. If this were so, I imagined that by forcing a constant violent streara of air against my prime conductor, by bellows, I should electri fy it negatively ; the rubbing particles of air, drawing from it part of its natural quantity of the electric fluid. I accordingly made the experiment, but it did not succeed. PHILOSOPHICAL. 285 In September 1752, 1 erected an iron rod to draw the lightning down uito my house, in order to make some experiments on it with two bells to give notice when the rod should be electrified ; a contrivance obvious to every electrician. I found the bells rang sometimes when there was no lightning or thunder, but only a dark cloud over the rod ; that sometiraes af ter a flash of lightning they would suddenly stop ; and at other tiraes, when they had not rang before, they would, after a flash, sudden ly begin to ring; that the electricity was sometiraes very faint so that when a sraall spark was obtained, another could not be got for sorae tirae after; at other tiraes the sparks would follow extreraely quick, and once I had a continual streara from bell to bell, the size of a crow quill: even during the same gust there were considerable variations. In the winter following I conceived an ex periraent, to try whether the clouds were electrified positively or negatively ; but my pointed rod, with its apparatus, becoraing out of order, I did not refit it till towards the spring, when I expected the warra weather would bring on more frequent thunder-clouds. The experiment was this : to take two phi als ; charge one of them with lightning frora the iron rod, and give the other an equal charge by the electric glass globe, through the prime conductor : when charged, to place them on a table within three or four inches of each otber, a small cork ball being suspend ed by a fine silk thread from the ceiling, so as it might play between the wires. If both bottles then were electrified positively, the ball being attracted and repelled by one, must be also repelled by the other. If the one positively, and the other negatively ; then the ball would be attracted and repelled al ternately by each, and continue to play be tween them as long as any considerable charge remained. Being very intent on raaking this experi ment it was no small mortification to me, that I happened to be abroad during two of the greatest thunder-storms we had early in the spring, and though I had given orders in my family, that if the bells rang when I was frora home, they should catch some ofthe lightning for rae in electrical phials, and they did so, yet it was mostly dissipated before my return, and in some of the other gusts, the quantity of lightning I was able to obtain was so sraall, and the charge so weak, that I could not sa tisfy myself: yet I sometimes saw what heightened my suspicions, and inflamed my curiosity. At last, on the 12th of April, 1753, there being a sraart gust of some continuance, I charged one phial pretty well with lightning, and the other equally, as near as I could judge, with electricity from my glass globe ; and, having placed them properly, I beheld, with gTeat surprise and pleasure, the cork ball play briskly between them ; and was convinc ed that one bottle was electrised negatively. I repeated this experiment several tiraes during the gust, and in eight succeeding gusts, always with the same success ; and be ing of opinion (for reasons I formerly gave in my letter to Mr. Kinnersley, since printed in London) that the glass globe electrises posi tively, I concluded that the clouds are always electrised negatively, or have always in them less than their natural quantity ofthe electric fluid. Yet notwithstanding so many experiments, it seems I concluded too soon ; for at last, June the 6tb, in a gust which continued from five o'clock, P. M. to seven, I met with one cloud that was electrised positively, though several that passed over my rod before, during the same gust, were in the negative state. This was thus discovered. I had another concurring experiraent, which I often repeated, to prove the negative state of the clouds, viz. while the bells were ring ing, I took the phial charged frora the glass globe, and applied its wire to the erected rod, considering, that if the clouds were electris ed positively, the rod which received its elec tricity frora them must be so too; and then the additional positive electricity of the phial would make the bells ring faster : — but, if the clouds were in a negative state, they must exhaust the electric fluid from my rod, and bring that into the same negative state with themselves, and then the wire of a positively charged phial, supplying the rod with what it wanted (which it was obliged otherwise to draw from the earth by raeans of the pendu lous brass ball playing between the two bells) the ringing would cease tiU the bottle was discharged. In this manner I quite discharged into the rod several phials, that were charged from the glass globe, the electric fluid streaming frora the wire to the rod, till the wire would receive no spark from the finger ; and, dur ing this supply, to the rod frora the phial, the bells stopped ringing; but by continuing the application of the phial wire to the rod, I ex hausted the natural quantity from the inside surface of the sarae phials, or, as I call it, charged thera negatively. At length, while I was charging a phial by my glass globe, to repeat this experiment, my bells, of theraselves, stopped ringing, and af ter some pause, began to ring again. — But now, when I approached the wire of the charged phial to the rod, instead of the usual stream that I expected from the wire to the rod, there was no spark ; not even when I brought the wire and the rod to touch; yet the bells continued ringing vigorously, which proved to me, that the rod was then positively 286 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. electrified, as well as the wire of the phial, and equally so ; and consequently, that the particular cloud then over the rod was in the sarae positive state. This was near the end of the gust But this was a single experiment, which, however, destroys my first too general con clusion, and reduces me to this: That the clouds of a thunder-gust are most Cbmmonly in a negative state of electricity, but some times in a positive state. The latter I believe is rare ; for though I soon after the last experiment set out on a journey to Boston, and was frora horae most part of the suraraer, which prevented my making farther trials and observations; yet Mr. Kinnersley returning from the islands just as I left horae, pursued the experiraents during my absence, and informs rae that he always found the clouds in the negative state. So that, for the most part, in thunder strokes, it is the earth that strikes into the clouds, and not the clouds that strike into the earth. Those who are versed in electric experi ments, will easily conceive, that the effects and appearances must be nearly the same in either case ; the same explosion, and the sarae flash between one cloud and another, and be tween the clouds and raountains, &c. the same rending of trees, walls, &c. which the electric fluid meets with in its passage, and the same fatal shock to animal bodies ; and that pointed rods fixed on buildings, or masts of ships, and communicating with the earth or sea, must be ofthe same service in restor ing the equilibriura silently between the earth and clouds, or in conducting a flash or stroke, if one should be, so as to save harmless the house or vessel : for points have equal power to throw off, as to draw on the electric fire, and rods will conduct up as well as down. But though the light gained from these ex periraents makes no alteration in the practice, it makes a considerable one in the theory. And now we as much need an hypothesis to explain by what means the clouds become negatively, as before to show how they be came positively electrified. I cannot forbear venturing sorae few con jectures on this occasion ; they are what oc cur to me at present, and though future dis coveries should prove them not wholly right, yet they raay in the raean tirae be of some use, by stirring up the curious to make raore experiments, and occasion raore exact disqui sitions. I conceive then, that this globe of earth and water, with its plants, animals, and buildings, have diffused tnroughout their substance, a (juantity ofthe electric fluid, just as much as they can contain, which I call the natural quantity. That this natural quantity is not the same in all kinds of common matter under the same dimensions, nor in the same kind of comraon raatter in all circurastances ; but a solid foot, for instance, of one kind of common raatter, raay contain more of the electric flu id than a solid foot of some other kind of common matter; and a pound weight of the sarae kind of coraraon matter may, when in a rarer state, contain more of the electric fluid than when in a denser state. For the electric fluid, being attracted by any portion of common matter, the parts of that fluid, (which have among themselves a mutual repulsion) are brought so near to each other by the attraction of the common matter that absorbs them, as that their repulsion is equal to the condensing power of attraction in comraon matter ; and then such portion of comraon matter will absorb no more. Bodies of different kinds having thus at tracted and absorbed what I call ther natural quantity, i. e. just as much ofthe electric flu id as is suited to their circumstances of den sity, rarity, and power of attracting, do not then show any signs of electricity among each other. And if more electric fluid he added to one of these bodies, it does not enter, but spreads on the surface, forming an atmosphere ; and then such body shows signs of electricity. I have in a former paper compared common matter to a sponge, and the electric fluid to water : I beg leave once more to make use of the same comparison, to illustrate ferther my meaning in this particular. When a sponge is somewhat condensed by being squeezed between the fingers, it will not receive and retain so much water as when in its more loose and open state. If more squeezed and condensed, sorae of the water wiU come out of its inner parts, and flow on the surface. If the pressure of the fingers be entirely reraoved, the sponge will not only resume what was lately forced out, but attract an ad ditional quantity. As the sponge in its rarer state will natu rally attract and absorb more water, and in its denser state wiU naturally attract and absorb less water ; we may call the quantity it at tracts and absorbs m either state, its natural quantity, the state being considered. Now what the sponge is to water, the same is water to the electric fluid. When a portion of water is in its comraon dense state, it can hold no more electric fluid than it has: if any be added, it spreads on the surface. When the sarae portion of water is rarified into vapour, and forms a cloud, it is then ca pable of receiving and absorbing a much greater quantity ; there is room for each par ticle to have on electric atraosphere. PHILOSOPHICAL. 287 Thus water, in its rarified state, or in the form of a cloud, will be in a negative state of electricity ; it will have less than its natural quantity ; that is, less than it is naturally ca pable of attracting and absorbing in that state. Such a cloud then, coming so near the earth as to be within the striking distance, will receive from the earth a flash ofthe elec tric fluid ; which flash, to supply a great ex tent of cloud, must sometimes contain a very great quantity of that fluid. Or such a cloud, passing over woods of tall trees, raay frora the points and sharp edges of their moist top leaves, receive silently some supply. A cloud being by any means supplied from the earth, may strike into other clouds that have not been supplied, or not so much sup plied ; and those to others, till an equilibrium is produced among all the clouds that are within striking distance of each other. The cloud thus supplied having parted with much of what it first received, may require and receive a fresh supply from the earth, or from some other cloud, which by the wind is brought into such a situation as to receive it more readily from the earth. Hence repeated and continual strokes and flashes till the clouds have all got nearly their natural quantity as clouds, or till they have descended in showers, and are united again with this terraqueous globe, their original. Thus, thunder-clouds are generally in a negative state of electricity compared with the earth, agreeable to most of our experi raents ; yet as by one experiraent we found a cloud electrised positively, I conjecture that in that case, such cloud, after having received what was, in its rare state, only its natural quantity, became compressed by the driving winds, or some other means, so that part of what it had absorbed was forced out and form ed an electric atmosphere around it in its den ser state. Hence it was capable of coramu- nicating positive electricity to ray rod. To show that a body in different circura stances of dilatation and contraction is capable of receiving and retaining more or less of the electric fluid on its surface, I would relate the following experiment : I placed a clean wine glass on the floor, and on it a sraall silver can. In the can I put about three yards of brass chain ; to one end of which I fastened a silk thread, which went right up to the ceiling, where it passed over a pulley, and came down again to ray hand, that I might at pleasure draw the chain up out of the can, extending it till within a foot of the ceiling, and let it gradually sink into the can again. — Frora the ceiling, by another thread of fine raw silk, I suspended a sraall light lock of cotton, so as that when it hung perpendicularly, it came in contact with the side of the can. Then ap proaching the wire of a charged phial to the can, I gave it a spark, which flowed round in an electric atmosphere ; and the lock of cotton was repelled from the side of the can to the distance of about nine or ten inches. The can would not then receive another spark from the wire of the phial: but as I gradually drew up the chain, the atmosphere of the can diminished by flowing over the rising chain, and the lock of cotton accordingly drew nearer and nearer to the can ; and then, if I again brought the phial wire near the can, it would receive another spark, and the cotton fly off again to its first distance ; and thus, as the chain was drawn higher, the can would re ceive more sparks ; because the can and ex tended chain were capable of supporting a greater atmosphere than the can with the chain gathered up into its belly. — And that the atmosphere round the can was diminished by raising the chain, and increased again by lowering it, is not only agreeable to reason, since the atraosphere of the chain raust be drawn from that ofthe can, when it rose, and returned to it again when it fell ; but was also evident to the eye, the lock of cotton al ways approaching the can when the chain was drawn up, and receding when it was letdown again. Thus we see that increase of surface makes a body capable of receiving a greater electric atmosphere : but this experiment does not, I own, fully demonstrate my new hypothesis ; for the brass and silver still continue in their solid state, and are not rarified into vapour, as the water is in clouds. Perhaps sorae future experiments on vapourised water may set this matter in a clearer light One seeraingly raaterial objection arises to the new hypothesis, and it is this : if water, in its rarified state, as a cloud, requires, and will absorb more of the electric fluid than when in its dense state as water, why does it not acquire frora the earth all it wants at the instant of its leaving the surface, while it is yet near, and but just rising in vapour 1 To this diflSculty I own I cannot at present give a solution satisfactory to rayself : I thought, however, that I ought to state it in its full force, as I have done, and subrait the whole to examination. And I would beg leave to recomraend it to the curious in this branch of natural philoso phy, to repeat with care and accurate obser vation the experiments I have reported in this and former papers relating to positive and negative electricity, with such other relative ones as shall occur to them, that it may be certainly known whether the electricity cora raunicated by a glass globe, be really positive. And also I would request all who may have an opportunity of observing the recent effects of lightning on buildings, trees, &c. that they would consider them particularly with a view to discover the direction. But in these ex- 288 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. aminations, this one thing is always to be un derstood, viz. that a stream of the electric fluid passing through wood, brick, metal, &c. while such fluid passes in small quantity, the mu tually repulsive power of its parts is confined and overcome by the cohesion of the parts of the body it passes through, so as to prevent an explosion ; but when the fluid comes in a quantity too great to be eonflned by such co hesion, it explodes, and rends or fuses the body that endeavoured to confine it If it be wood, brick, stone, or the like, the splinters will fiy off on that side where there is least resistance. And thus, when a hole is struck through paste board by the electrified jar, if the surfaces of the pasteboard ate not confined or compressed, there will be a bur raised all round the hole on both sides the pasteboard ; but if one side be confined, so that the bur cannot be raised on that side, it will be all raised on the other, which way soever the fluid was directed. For the bur round the outside of the hole, is the effect of the explosion every way frora the centre of the streara, and not an effect of the direction. In every stroke of lightning, I ara of opi nion that the stream of the electric fluid, moving to restore the equilibrium between the cloud and the earth, does always previously find its passage, and raark out, as I may say, its own course, taking in its way all the con ductors it can find, such as metals, damp walls, moist wood, &c. and will go considerably out of a direct course, for the sake of the assist ance of good conductors ; and that, in this course, it is actually moving, though silently and iraperceptibly, before the explosion, in and araong the conductors : which explosion' happens only when the conductors cannot dis charge it as fast as they receive it, by reason of tbeir being incomplete, disunited, too small, or not of the best materials for conducting. Metalline rods, therefore, of sufficient thick ness, and extending from the highest part of an edifice to the ground, being of the best materials and complete conductors, will, I think, secure the building from damage, either by restoring the equilibrium so fast as to pre vent a stroke, or by conducting it in the sub stance of the rod as far as the rod goes, so that there shall be no explosion but what is above its point, between that and the clouds. If it be asked, what thickness of a metalline rod raay be supposed suflScient 1 In answer, I would remark, that five large glass jars, such as I have described in my firmer papers, dis charge a very great quantity of electricity, which nevertheless will be all conducted round the corner of a book, by the fine fillet ing of gold on the cover, it following the gold the farthest way about, rather than take tbe shorter course through the cover, that not be ing so good a conductor. Now in this line of gold, the metal is so extremely thin as to be little more than the colour of gold, and on an octavo book is not in the whole an mch square, and therefore not the thirty-sixth part of a grain, according to M. Reaumur; yet it is sufficient to conduct the charge of five large jars, and how many more I know not Now, I suppose a wire of a quarter of an inch dia meter to contain about five thousand times as rauch raetal as there is in that gold line, and if so, it win conduct the charge of twenty-five thousand such glass jars, which is a quantity, I iraagine, far beyond what was ever contained in any one stroke of natural lightning. But a rod of half an inch diaraeter would conduct four times as much as one of a quarter. And with regard to conducting, though a certain thickness of raetal be required to con duct a great quantity of electricity, and, at the same time, keep its own substance firm and unseparated ; and a less quantity, as a very sraall wire for instance, will be destroyed by the explosion ; yet such sraall wire will have answered the end of conducting that stroke, though it becoraes incapable of conducting another. And considering the extrerae rapi dity with which the electric fluid moves with out exploding, when it has a free passage, or complete raetal communication, I should think a vast quantity would be conducted in a short time, either to or from a cloud, to restore its equilibriura with the earth, by raeans of a very small wire : and therefore thick rods should seem not so necessary. — However, as the quantity of lightning discharged in one stroke, cannot well be measured, and, in different strokes, is certainly very various, in sorae much greater than others ; and as iron (the best raetal for the purpose, being least apt to fuse) is cheap, it raay be well enough to pro vide a larger canal to guide that irapetuous blast than we may imagine necessary : for, though one middling wire may be sufficient, two or three can do no harm. And time, with careful observations well compared, will at length point out the proper size to greater ' certainty. Pointed rods erected on edifices may like wise often prevent a stroke, in the following manner : an eye so situated as to view hori zontally the under side of a thunder-cloud, will see it very ragged, with a number of se parate fragments, or petty clouds, one under another, the lowest sometiraes not far frora the earth. These, as so raany stepping stones, as sist in conducting a stroke between the cloud and a building. To represent these by an ex periment, take two or three locks of fine loose cotton, connect one of them with the prime conductor by a fine thread of two inches (which may be spun out of the same lock by the fingers) another to that and the third to the second, by like threads. — Turn the globe and you will see these locks extend themselves towards the table (as the lower small clouds PHILOSOPHICAL. 289 do towards the earth) being attracted by it : but on presenting a sharp point erect under the lowest, it will shrink up to the second, the second to the first, and all together to the prirae conductor, where they wUl continue as long as the point continues under thera. May not, inlikeraanner, the small electrised clouds, whose equilibriura with the earth is soon re stored by the point rise up to the main body, and by that raeans occasion so large a vacan cy, as that the grand cloud cannot strike in that place 1 These thoughts, ray dear friend, are many of thera crude and hasty ; and if I were mere ly ambitious of acquiring sorae reputation in philosophy, I ought to keep them by me, till corrected and improved by tirae, and farther experience. But since even short hints and imperfect experiments in any new branch of science, being communicated, have oftentimes a good effect in exciting the attention of the ingenious to the subject, and so become the occasion of more exact disquisition, and raore complete discoveries, you are at liberty to communicate this paper to whom you please ; it being of more iraportance that knowledge should increase, than that your friend should he thought an accurate philosopher. B. FRANKLIN. To Peter Collinson. Additional proofs of ihe positive and negative state of Electricity in the Clouds. — New method of ascertaining it. Philadelphia, April 18, 1754. Since September last, having been abroad on two long journies, and otherwise much en gaged, I have raade but few observations on flie positive and negative state of electricity in the clouds. But Mr. Kinnersley kept his rod and bells in good order, and has raade many. Once this winter the bells rang a long tirae during a fall of snow, though no thunder was heard, nor lightning seen. Sometimes the flashes and cracks of the electric matter be tween bell and bell were so large and loud as to be heard all over the house : but by all his observations, the clouds were constant ly in a negative state, till about six weeks ago, when he found them once to change in a few minutes frora the negative to the positive. About a fortnight after that, he made another observation of the sarae kind ; and last Mon day afternoon, the wind blowing hard at S. E. and veering round to N. E. with raany thick driving clouds, there were five or six succes sive changes ftom negative to positive, and frora positive to negative, the bells stopping a minute or two between every change. Be sides the methods mentioned in my paper of Septeraber last, of discovering the electri cal state of the clouds, the following may be Vol. II. ... 2 O 25 used. When your bells are ringing, pass a rubbed tube by the edge of the bell, connect ed with your pointed rod : if the cloud is then in a negative state, the ringing will stop ; if in a positive state, it will continue, and perhaps be quicker. Or, suspend a very small cork- ball by a fine silk thread, so that it may hang close to the edge ofthe rod-bell: then when ever the bell is electrified, whether posi tively or negatively, the little ball will be re pelled, and continue at some distance from the bell. Have ready a round-headed glass stopper of a decanter, rub it on your side till it is electrified, then present it to the cork- ball. If the electricity in the ball is positive, it will be repelled from the glass stopper as well as from the bell. If negative it will fly to the stopper. B. FRANKLIN. ¦ Electrical Experiments. With an attempt to account for their severalphe- Twmena. Together with some observations on thunder-clouds, in further confirmation of Dr, Franklin's observations on the positive and negative electrical state qf the clouds, by John Canton, M. A. and F. R. S. Dec. 6, 1753. experiment I. From the ceiling, or any convenient part of a room, let two cork-balls, each about the bigness of a small pea, be suspended by linen threads of eight or nine inches in length, so as to be in contact with each other. Bring the excited glass tube under the balls, and they will be separated by it, when held at the dis tance of three or four feet; let it be brought nearer, and they will stand farther apart ; en tirely withdraw it, and they will iraraediately corae together. This experiraent may be raade with very small brass balls hung by sil ver wire ; and will succeed as well with seal ing wax made electrical, as with glass. EXPERIMENT II. If two cork-balls be suspended by dry silk threads, the excited tube must be brought within eighteen inches before they will repel each other ; which they will continue to do, for some time, after the tube is taken away. As the balls in the first experiment are not insulated, they cannot properly be said to be electrified : but when they hang within the atmosphere ofthe excited tube, they may at tract and condense the electrical fluid round about them, and be separated by the repul sion of its particles. It is conjectured also, that the balls at this tirae contain less than their coraraon share of the electrical fluid, on account ofthe repelling power of that which surrounds thera ; though some, perhaps, is continually entering and passing through the threads. And if that be the case, the reason is plain why the balls hung by silk, in the 290 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. second experiment, must be in a much more dense part ofthe atmosphere of the tube, be fore they will repel each other. At the ap proach of an excited stick of wax to the balls, in the first experiment, the electrical fire is supposed to corae through the threads into the balls, and be condensed there, in its passage towards the wax ; for, according to Mr. Franklin, excited glass emits the electrical fluid, but excited wax receives it EXPERIMENT HI. Let a tin tube, of four or five feet in length, and about two inches in diameter, be insulat ed by silk ; and frora one end of it let the cork-balls be suspended by linen threads. Electrify it, by bringing the excited glass tube near the other end, so as that the balls may stand an inch and a half, or two inches apart : then, at the approach of the excited tube, they wUl by degrees, lose their repelling power, and corae into contact ; and as the tube is brought still nearer, they will separate again to as great a distance as before : in the return of the tube they will approach each other till they touch, and then repel as at first If the tin tube be electrified by wax, or the wire of a charged phial, the balls wUl be affected in the same raanner at the ap proach of excited wax, or tjie wire of the phial. EXPERIMENT IV. Electrify the cork-balls as in the last ex periment by glass, and at the approach of an excited stick of wax their repulsion wUl be increased. The effect wUl be the same, if the excited glass be brought towards them, when they have been electrified by wax. The bringing the excited glass to the end, or edge of the tin tube, in the third experi ment, is supposed to electrify it positively, or to add to the electrical fire it before contained ; and therefore some wUl be running offthrough the balls, and they will repel each other. But at the approach of excited glass, which like wise emits the electrical fluid, the discharge of it from the balls will be dirainished ; or part wUl be driven back, by a force acting in a contrary direction: and they will come nearer together. If the tube be held at such a distance frora the baUs, that the excess of the density of the fluid round about them, above the common quantity in air, be equal to the excess of the density oftbat within thera, above the comraon quantity contained in cork ; their repulsion will be quite destroyed. But if the tube be brought nearer ; the fluid with out being raore dense than within the balls, it will be attracted by them, and they will re cede from each other again. When the apparatus has lost part of its na tural share of this fluid, by the approach of excited wax to one end of it, or is electrified negatively ; the electrical flre is attracted and imbibed by the balls to supply the defi ciency ; and that more plentifiilly at the ap proach of excited glass ; or a body positively electrified, than before ; whence the distance between the balls will be increased, as the fluid surrounding them is augmented. And in general, whether bythe approach or recess of any body ; if the difference between the density of the internal and external fluid be increased or diminished ; the repulsion of the balls wUl be increased or dirainished accord ingly- EXPERIMENT V. When the insulated tin tube is not electri- fled, bring the excited glass lube towards the raiddle of it so as to be nearly at right angles with it, and the balls at the end will repel each other ; and the more so, as the excited tube is brought nearer. When it has been held a few seconds, at the distctnce of about six inches, withdraw it and the balls will ap proach each other till they touch ; and then separating again, as the tube is moved farther off, wUl continue to repel when it is taken quite away. And this repulsion between the balls will be increased by the approach of ex cited glass, but diminished by excited wax ; just as if the apparatus had been electrified by wax, after the manner described in the third experiment EXPEKIMENT VI. Insulate two tin tubes, distinguished by A and B, so as to be in a line with each other, and about half an inch apart ; and at the re mote end of each, let q pair of cork balls be suspended. Towards the middle of A, bring the excited glass tube, and holding it a short time, at the distance of a few inches, each pair of balls will be observed to separate : with draw the tube, and the balls of A wUl come together, and then repel each other again ; but those of B will hardly be afl'ected. By the approach ofthe excited glass tube, held under the balls of A, their repulsion wUl be increas ed: but if the tube be brought, in the same manner, towards the halls of B, their repul sion will be diminished. In the fifth experiment, the comraon stock of electrical matter in the tin tube is suppos ed to be attenuated about the middle, and to be condensed at the ends, by the repelling power of the atraosphere of the excited glass tube, when held near it. And perhaps the tin tube raay lose some of its natural quantity of tbe electrical fluid, before it receives any from the glass; as that fluid will more readily run off frora the ends and edges of it, than enter at the raiddle : and accordingly, when the glass tube is withdrawn, and the fluid is again equal ly diffused through the apparatus, it is found to be electrified negatively : for excited glass brought under the balls wUl increase their re- i pulsion. PHILOSOPHICAL. 291 In the sixth experiment, part of the fluid driven out of one tin tube enters the other ; which is found to be electrified positively, by the decreasing of the repulsion of its balls, at the approach of excited glass. EXPERIMENT VII. Let the tin tube, with a pair of balls at one end, be placed three feet at least from any part of the room, and the air rendered very dry by raeans of a fire : electrify the ap paratus to a considerable degree ; then touch the tin tube with a finger, or any other con ductor, and the balls wUl, notwithstanding, continue to repel each other ; though not at so great a distance as before. The air surrrounding the apparatus to the distance of two or three feet, is supposed to contain more or less of the electrical fire, than its comraon share, as the tin tube is electrified positively, or negatively : and when very dry, may not part with its overplus, or have its deficiency supplied so suddenly, as the tin ; but may continue to be electrified, af ter that has been touched for a considerable tirae. EXPERIMENT VIII. Having raade the Torricellian vacuura about five feet long, after the raanner described in the Philosophical Transactions, vol. xlvii. p. 370, if the excited tube be brought within a small distance ofit, a light will be seen through more than half its length ; which soon vanish es, if the tube be not brought nearer ; but will appear again, as that is moved farther off. — This may be repeated several tiraes, without exciting the tube afresh. This experiraent raay be considered as a kind of ocular deraonstration of the truth of Mr. Franklin's hypothesis; that when the electrical fluid is condensed on one side of thin glass, it will be repelled frora the other, if it meets with no resistance. According to which, at the approach of the excited tube, the fire is supposed to be repelled frora the inside ofthe glass surrounding the vacuura, and to be carried through the columns of mercury ; but as the tube is withdrawn, the fire is supposed to return. EXPERIMENT IX. Let an excited stick of wax, of two feet and a half in length, and about an inch in diamater, be held near its raiddle. Excite the glass tube, and draw it over one half of it ; then, turning a little about its axis, let the tube be excited again, and drawn over the sarae half; and let this operation be repeated seve ral times ; then will that half destroy the re- pellmg power of balls electrified by glass, and the other half will increase it By this experiment it appears, that wax also may be electrified positively and nega tively. And it is probable, that all bodies whatsoever raay have the quantity they con tain of the electrical fluid increased or dimi nished. The clouds, I have observed, by a great number of experiments, to be some in a positive, and others in a negative state of electricity. For the cork balls, electrified by thera, will sometimes close at the approach of excited glass ; and at other times be sepa rated to a greater distance. And this change I have known to happen five or six tithes in less than half an hour ; the balls coming toge ther each tirae, and reraaining in contact a few seconds, before they repel each other again. It raay likewise easUy be discovered, by a charged phial, whether the electrical fire, be drawn out of the apparatus by the negative cloud, or forced into it by a positive one : and by which soever it be electrified, should that cloud either part with its overplus, or have its deficiency supplied suddenly, the apparatus will lose its electricity : which is frequently observed to be the case, iraraediately after a flash of lightning. Yet when the air is very dry, the apparatus will continue to be electri fied for ten rainutes, or a quarter of an hour, after the clouds have passed the zenith ; and soraetimes till they appear more than half-way towards the horizon. Rain, especially when the drops are large, generally brings down the electrical fire ; and hail, in summer, I be lieve never faUs. When the apparatus was last electrified, it was by the fall of thawing snow, which happened so lately, as on the 12th of November ; that being the twenty- sixth day, and sixty-first time it has been electrified, since it was first set up ; which was about the middle of May. And as Fah renheit's thermometer was but seven degrees above freezing, it is supposed the winter wUl not entirely put a stop to observations of this sort ¦ At London no more than two thunder storms have happened during the whole sum mer ; and the apparatus was sometiraes so strongly electrified in one of them, that the bells, which have been frequently rung by the clouds, so loud as to be heard in every roora of the house (the doors being open) were silenced by the alraost constant stream of dense electrical fire, between each bell and the brass ball, which would not suffer it to strike. I shall conclude this paper, already too long, with the following queries : , 1. May not air, suddenly rarified, give elec trical fire to, and air suddenly condensed, re ceive electrical fire from, clouds and vapours passing through it 1 2. Is not the aurora borealis, the flashing of electrical fire frora positive, towards nega tive clouds at a great distance, through the upper part of the atmosphere, where the re sistance is least 1 292 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. Experiments made in pursuance of those made by Mr. Canton, dated December 6, 1753; with explanations, by Benjamin Franklin. — Read at the Royal Society, Dec 18, 1755. Philadelphia, March 14, 1755. PRINCIPLES. I. Electric atmospheres, that flow roimd non-electric bodies, being brought near each other, do not readily mix and unite into one atraosphere, but reraain separate, and repel each other. This is plainly seen in suspended cork-balls, and other bodies electrified. II. An electric atmosphere not only repels another electric atmosphere, but will also re pel the electric matter contained in tbe sub stance of a body approaching it; and without joining or mixing with it force it to other parts of the body that contained it. This is shown by some of the following ex periraents. III. Bodies electrified negatively, or de prived of their natural quantity of electricity, repel each other, (or at least appear to do so, by a mutual receding) as well as those elec trified positively, or which have electric at mospheres. This is shown by applying the negatively charged wire of a phial to two cork-balls, sus pended by silk threads, and raany other expe riments. preparation. Fix a tassel of fifteen or twenty threads, three inches long, at one end of a tin prirae conductor (raine is about five feet long, and four inches diameter) supported by silk lines. Let the threads be a little damp, butnot wet. experiment I. Pass an excited glass tube near the other end of the prime conductor, so as to give it some sparks, and the threads will diverge. Because each thread, as well as the prirae conductor, has acquired an electric atrao sphere, which repels and is repelled by the at mospheres of the other threads : if those seve ral atmospheres would readily mix, the threads might unite and hang in the middle of one at mosphere, coraraon to thera all. Rub the tube afresh, and approach the prime conductor therewith, crossways, near that end, but not nigh enough to give sparks ; and the threads will diverge a little more. Because the atraosphere of the prime con ductor is pressed by the atmosphere ofthe ex cited tube, and driven towards the end where the threads are, by which each thread ac quires more atraosphere. Withdraw the tube, and they will close as much. They close as rauch, and no more ; because the atraosphere of the glass tube not having mixed with the atmosphere of the prime con ductor, is withdrawn entire, having made no addition to, or diminution from it Bring the excited tube under the tuft of threads, and they will close a little. They close, because the atmosphere ofthe glass tube repels their atmosphere, and drives part of thera back on the prirae conductor. Withdraw it, and they will diverge as much. For the portion of atmosphere which they had lost returns to them again. EXPERIMENT O. Excite the glass tube, and approach the prime conductor with it, holding it across, near the end opposite to that on which the threads hang, at the distance of five or six inches. Keep it there a few seconds, and the threads of the tassels unll diverge. Withdraw it, and they will close. They diverge, because they have received electric atraospheres from the electric matter before contained in the substance of the prime conductor ; but which is now repelled and driven away, by the atmosphere of the glass tube, from the parts of the prime conductor opposite and nearest to that atmosphere, and forced out upon the surface of the prime con ductor at its other end, and upon the threads hanging thereto. Were it any part ofthe at mosphere ofthe glass tube that flowed over and along the prime conductor to the threads, and gave thera atraospheres (as is the case when a spark is given to tbe prirae conductor from the glass tube) such part of the tube's atrao sphere would have remained, and the threads continue to diverge ; but tliey close on with drawing the tube, because the tube takes with it all its own atmosphere, and the elec tric matter, which had been driven out of the substance of the prime conductor, and formed atmospheres round the threads, is thereby perraitted to return to its place. Take a spark from the prime conductor near the threads when they are diverged as be fore, and they will close. For by so doing you take away their at mospheres, composed of the electric matter driven out ofthe substance of tlie prime con ductor, as aforesaid, by the repellency of tlie atmosphere of the glass tube. By taking this spark you rob the prime conductor of part of its natural quantity of the electric raatter , which part so taken is not supplied by the glass tube, for when that is aferwards withdrawn, it takes witli it its whole atmo sphere, and leaves the prirae conductor elec trised negatively, as appears by the next ope ration. PHILOSOPHICAL Then withdraw the tube, and they will open again. For now the electric raatter in the prirae conductor, returning to its equUibrium, or equal diffusion, in all parts of its substance, and the prime conductor having lost sorae of its natural quantity, the threads connected with it lose part of theirs, and so are elec trised negatively, and therefore repel each other, by Pr. III. Approach the prime conductor with the tube near the same place as at first, and they will close again. Because the part oftheir natural quantity of electric fluid, which they had lost, is now re stored to them again, by the repulsion of the glass tube forcing that fluid to them frora other parts of the prirae conductor ; so they are now again in their natural state. Withdraw it, and they will open again. For what had been restored to them, is now taken frora them again, flowing back in to the prime conductor and leaving them once more electrised negatively. Bring the excited tube under the threads, and they will diverge more. Because raore of their natural quantity is driven from them into the prirae conductor, and thereby their negative electricity in creased. EXPERIMENT III. The prime conductor not being electrified, bring the excited tube under the tassel, and the threads will diverge. Part of their natural quantity is thereby driven out of thera into the prime conductor, and they becorae negatively electrised, and therefore repel each other. Keeping the tube in the same place with one hand, attempt io touch the threads with the finger of the other hand, and they will re cede from the finger. Because the flnger being plunged into the atmosphere of the glass tube, as well as the threads, part of its natural quantity is driven back through the hand and body, by that at mosphere, and the finger becomes, as well as the threads, negatively electrised, and so re pels, and is repelled by them. To confirm this, hold a slender light lock of cotton, two or three inches long, near a prime conductor, that is electrified by a glass globe, or tube. You will see the cotton stretch itself out to wards the prime conductor. Atterapt to touch it with the finger of the other hand, and it will be repelled by the finger. Approach it with a positively charged wire of a bottle, and it wUl fly to the wire. Bring it near a nega tively charged wire of a bottle, it will recede from that wire in the same manner that it 2.5* did from the finger ; which demonstrates the finger to be negatively electrised, as well as the lock of cotton so situated. Turkey killed by Electricity. — Effect of a shock on the Operator in making the Ex periment. As Mr. Franklin, in a former letter to Mr. Collinson, raentioned his intending to try the power of a very strong electrical shock upon a turkey, that gentleman accordmgly has been so very obliging as to send an account of it, which is to the following purpose. He made first several experiments on fowls, and found, that two large thin glass jars gUt, holding each about six gallons, were sufficient, when fully charged, to kUl common hens outright; but the turkeys, though thrown into violent convulsions, and then lying as dead for sorae minutes, would recover in less than a quarter of an hour. However, having added three other such to the former two, though not fully charged, he killed a turkey of about ten pounds weight, and believes that they would have killed a much larger. He conceited, as himself says, that the birds kUled in this manner eat unoomraonly tender. In raaking these experiments, he found, that a raan could, without great detriraent, bear a rauch greater shock than he had imagined : for he inadvertently received the stroke of two of these jars through his arms and body, when they were very near fully charged. It seemed to him an universal blow throughout the body, from head to foot, and was followed by a violent quick trembling in the trunk, which went off gradually, in a few seconds. It was some minutes before he could recollect his thoughts, so as to knpw what was the matter ; for he did not see the flash, though his eye was on the spotof the prime conductor, from whence it struck the back of his hand ; nor did he hear the crack, though the by standers said it was a loud one ; nor did he particularly feel the stroke on his hand, though he afterwards found it had raised a swelling there, of the bigness of half a pistol-bullet. His arras and the back ofthe neck felt sorae what nurabed the remainder of the evening, and his breast was sore for a week after, as if it had been bruised. Frora this experi ment raay be seen the danger, even under the greatest caution, to the operator, when raaking these experiraents with large jars ; for it is not to be doubted, but several of these fully charged would as certainly, by increas ing thera, in proportion to the size, kUl a man, as they before did a turkey. N. B. The original of this letter, which was read at the Royal Society, has been mis laid. 294 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. Dr. Lining al Charleston. Differences in the Qualities of the Glass. — Ac count of Domien, an Electrician and Travel ler. — Conjectures respecting the pores of Glass. — Origin of the author's idea of draw ing down Lightning. — No satisfactory Hypo thesis respecting the manner in which Clouds become electrified. — Six men knocked down at OTU^e by an electrical shock. — Reflections on the spirit of invention. Philadelphia, March 18, 1755. I SEND you enclosed a paper containing some new experiraents I have raade, in pur suance of those by Mr. Canton that are prints ed with ray last letters. I hope these, with my explanation of them, will afford you sorae entertainment* In answer to your several inquiries. The tubes and globes we use here, are chiefly made here. The glass has a greenish cast, but is clear and hard, and, I think, better for electrical experiments than the white glass of London, which is not so hard. There are certainly great differences in glass. A white globe I had made here some years since, would never, by any means, be excited. Two of my friends tried it, as well as myself, with out success. At length, putting it on an electric stand, a chain from the prime con ductor being in contact with it I found it had the properties of a non-electric ; for I could draw sparks from any part of it, tbough it was very clean and dry. All I know of Domien, is, that by his own account he was a native of Transylvania, of Tartar descent, but a priest of the Greek church : he spoke and wrote Latin very rea dUy and correctly. He set out from his own country with an intention of going round the world, as much as possible by land. He tra velled through Germany, France, and Holland, to England. Resided some time at Oxford. From England he came to Maryland ; thence went to New England ; returned by land to PhUadelphia; and from hence travelled through Maryland, Virginia, and North Caro lina to you. He thought it raight be of ser vice to him in his travels to know something of electricity, t taught hira the use of the tube ; how to charge the Leyden phial, and some other experiments. He wrote to me frora Charleston, that he had lived eight hun dred miles upon electricity, it had been meat drink, and clothing to him. His last letter to rae was, I think, frora Jaraaica, desiring me to send the tubes you mention, to raeet hira at the Havanna, from whence he expected to get a passage to La Vera Cruz ; designed travelling over land through Mexico to Aca- pulco ; thence to get a passage to Manilla, and so through China, India, Persia, and Turkey, home to his own country ; proposing • See the preceding article, page 293, for the paper here referred to. to support himself chiefly by electricity. A strange project ! But he was, as you observe, a very singular character. I was sorry the tubes did not get to the Havanna in time for him. If they are stiU in being, please to send for them, and accept of them. What became of hira afterwards I have never heard. He promised to write to me as often as he could on his journey, and as soon as he should get horae after finishing his tour. It is now seven years since he was here. If he is still in New Spain, as you iraagine from that loose report, I suppose it must be that they confine him there, and prevent his writ ing : but I think it raore likely that he may be dead. The questions you ask about the pores of glass, I cannot answer otherwise, than that I know nothing of their nature ; and supposi tions, however ingenious, are often mere mis takes. My hypothesis, thatthey were smaller near the raiddle of the glass, too small to ad mit the passage of electricity, wbich could pass through the surface till it came near the middle, was certainly wrong ; for soon after I had written that letter, I did, in orderto con firm the hypothesis (which indeed I ought to have done before I wrote it) make an experi ment I ground away five sixths of the thick ness of the glass, from the side of one of my phials, expecting that the supposed denser part being so reraoved, the electric fluid raight corae through the remainder of the glass, which I had imagined more open ; but I found myself mistaken. The bottle charg ed as well after the grinding as before. I am now, as much as ever, at a loss to know how or where the quantity of electric fluid, on the positive side of the glass, is disposed of. As to the difference of conductors, there is not only this, that some will conduct elec tricity in small quantities, and yet do not con duct it fast enough to produce the shock ; but even among those that will conduct a shock, there are some that do it better than others. Mr. Kinnersley has found, by a very good ex periment that when the charge of a bottle hath an opportunity of passing two ways, i. e. straight through a trough of water ten feet long, and six inches square ; or round about through twenty feet of wire, it passes tlirough the wire, and not through the water, though that is the shortest course; the wire being the better conductor. ^^Tien the wire is taken away, it passes through the water, as may be felt by a hand plunged in the water; but it cannot be felt in the water when the wire is used at the same time. Thus, though a small phial containing water will give a sraart shock, one containing the same quantity of mercury will give one much stronger, the mercury being the better conductor ; whUe one containing oil only, wUl scarce give any sliock at all. PHILOSOPHICAL. Your question, how I came first to think of proposing the experiment of drawing down the lightning, in order to ascertain its same ness with the electric fluid, I cannot answer better than by giving you an extract frora the rainutes I used to keep of the experiraents I made, with memorandums of such as I pur posed to make, the reasons for making them, and the observations that arose upon them, from which minutes my letters were after wards drawn. By this extract you will see that the thought was not so much " an out-of- the-way one," hut that it might have occur red to an electrician. "Nov. 7, 1749. Electrical fluid agrees with lightning m these particulars ; 1. Giv ing light 2. Colour of the light 3. Crooked direction. 4 Swift motion. 5. Being con ducted by metals. 6. Crack or noise in ex ploding. 7. Subsisting in water or ice. 8. Rending bodies it passes through. 9. De stroying animals. 10. Melting metals. 11. Firing inflararaable substances. 12. Sulphur eous sraell. — The electric fluid is attracted by points. — We do not know whether this property is in lightning. — But since they agree in all the particulars wherein we can already compare thera, is it not probable they agree likewise in this ? Let the experiment be made." I wish I could give you any satisfaction in the article of clouds. I ara still at a loss about the manner in which they become charged with electricity ; no hypothesis I have yet formed perfectly satisfying me. Some time since, I heated very hot, a brass plate two feet square, and placed it on an electric stand. From the plate a wire extended ho- rizontaUy four or flve feet, and, at the end of it hung, by linen threads, a pair of cork balls. I then repeatedly sprinkled water over the plate, that it raight be raised frora it in vapour, hoping that if the vapour either carried off the electricity of the plate, or left behind it that ofthe water, (one of which I supposed it must do, if, like the clouds, it became elec trised itself, either positively or negatively) I should perceive and determine it by the sepa ration ofthe balls, and by finding whether they were positive or negative ; but no alteration was raade at all, nor could I perceive that the steam was itself electrised, though I have still sorae suspicion that the steam was not fully examined, and I think the experiraent should be repeated. Whether the first state of electrised clouds is positive or negative, if I could find the cause of that, I should be at no loss about the other, for either is easily de duced frora the other, as one state is easily produced by the other. A strongly positive cloud raay drive out of a neighbouring cloud rauch of its natural quantity of the electric fluid, and, passing by it, leave it in a negative state. In the same way, a strongly negative cloud may occasion a neighbouring cloud to draw into itself from others, an additional quantity, and, passing by it, leave it in a posi tive state. How these effects may be pro duced, you will easily conceive, on perusing and considering the experiments in the en closed paper : and frora them too it appears probable, that every change from positive to negative, and from negative to positive, that, during a thunder-gust, we see in the cork- balls annexed to the apparatus, is not owing to the presence of clouds in the same state, but often to the absence of positive or nega tive clouds, that, having just passed, leave the rod in the opposite state. The knocking down of the six men was performed with two of my large jars not fully charged. I laid one end of my discharging rod upon the head of the first ; he laid his hand upon the head of the second ; the second his hand on the head of the third, and so to the last, who held, in his hand, the chain that was connected with the outside of the jars. When they were thus placed, I applied the other end of my rod to the prime conductor, and they all dropped together. When they got up, they all declared they had not felt any stroke, and wondered how they came to fall; nor did any of them either hear the crack, or see the light of it. You suppose it a dangerous experiment ; but I had once suf fered the sarae rayself, receiving, by accident, an equal stroke through my head, that struck me down, without hurting me : and I had seen a young woman who was about to be electrified through the feet (for some indispo sition) receive a greater charge through the head, by inadvertently stooping forward to look at the placing of her feet, till her fore head (as she was very tall) came too near my prime conductor : she dropped, but instantly got up again, complaining of nothing. A person so struck, sinks down doubled, or fold ed together as it were, the joints losing their strength and stiffness at once, so that he drops on the spot where he stood, instantly, fnd there is no previous staggering, nor does he ever fall lengthwise. Too great a. charge raight, indeed, kill a raan, but I have not yet seen any hurt done by it It would certain ly, as you observe, be the easiest of all deaths. The experiment you have heard so imper fect h.n account, of, is merely this : I electri- fled a silver pint can, on an electric stand, and then lowered into it a cork ball, of about an inch diameter, hanging by a silk string, till the cork touched the bottora of the can. The cork was not attracted to the inside ofthe can as it would have been to the outside, and though it touched the bottom, yet when drawn out it was not found to be electrified by that touch, as it would have been hy touching the outside. The fact is singular. You require the reason ; I do not know it Perhaps you 296 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. may discover it, and then you wUl be so good as to comraunicate it to me.* I find a frank acknowledgment of one's ignorance is not only the easiest way to get rid of a difficulty, but the likeliest way to obtain information, and therefore I practise it: I think it an honest policy. Those who affect to be thought to know every thing, and so undertake to explam every thing, often reraain long ignorant of many things that others could and would in struct them in, ifthey appeared less conceited. The treatment your friend has met with is so common, that no raan who knows what the world is, and ever has been, should expect to escape it. There are every where a number ofpeople, who being totally destitute of any inventive faciUty themselves, do not readily conceive that others raay possess it: they think of inventions as of miracles; there might be such formerly, but they are ceased. With these, every one who offers a new invention is deemed a pretender : he had it frora sorae other country, or from some book : a man of their own acquaintance ; one who has no more sense than themselves, could not possi bly, in their opinion, have been the inventor of any thing. They are conflrraed too, in these sentiraents, by frequent instances of pre tensions to invention, which vanity is daily producing. That vanity too, though an in- citeraent to invention, is, at the same time, the pest of inventors. Jealousy and envy de ny the merit or the novelty of your invention ; but vanity, when the novelty and merit ore established, claims it for its own. The smaller your invention is, the raore raortification you receive in having the credit of it disputed with you by a rival, whom the jealousy and envy of others are ready to support against you, at least so far as to make the point doubtful. It is not in itself of importance enough for a dispute ; no one would think your proofs and reasons worth their atten tion : and yet, if you do not dispute the point, and demonstrate your right you not only lose the credit of being in that instance in genious, but you suffer the disgrace of not be ing ingenuous ; not only of being a plagiary, but of being a plagiary for trifles. Had the in vention been greater it would have disgraced you less; for raen have not so conterapti- ble an idea of hira that robs for gold on the highway, as of him that can pick pockets for half-pence and farthings. Thus, through envy, jealousy, and the vanity of competitors for fiime, the origin of many of the raost extra ordinary inventions, though produced within but a few centuries past, is involved in doubt and uncertainty. VVe scarce know to whom ? Dr, F. afterwards thought, that, possibly, the mu tual repulsion ofthe inner opposite sides of the electris ed miRht prevent tho accumulating of an electric at mosphere upon them, and occasion it to stand chiefly on the outside. But recommended it to tbe farther ex. amiuatiou of thecurious, we are indebted for the compass, and for spec- tacles, nor have even paper and printing, that record every thing else, been able to pre serve with certainty the narae and reputation oftheir inventors. One would not therefore, of all faculties, or qualities of the mind, wish, for a friend, or a chUd, that he should have that of invention. For his attempts to bene fit mankind in that way, however well ima gined, if they do not succeed, expose him, though very unjustly, to general ridicule and contempt ; and, if they do succeed, to envy, robbery, and abuse. B. FRANKLIN. Mons. Dalibard, Paris. Beccaria's work on Electricity. — Sentiments qf Franklin on pointed Rods, not fully under stood in Europe. — Effect of Lightning on tiie Church of Newbury, in New England. — Re marks on the subject. — Read at tbe Royal So ciety, Dec. 18, 1775. Philadelphia, Judo 29, 1755. You desire my opinion of Pere Beccaria's Italian book.* I have read it with much plea sure, and think it one of the best pieces on the subject that I have seen in any language. Yet as to the article of water-spouts, I am not at present of his sentiments ; though I must own with you, that he has handled it very in geniously. Mr. Collinson has my opinion of whirlwinds and water-spouts at large, written some time since. I know not whether they wUl be published ; if not I wUl get them tran scribed for your perusal.f It does not appear to rae that Pere Beccaria doubts of the abso lute impermeability of glass in the sense 1 raeant it ; for the instances he gives of boles made tlirough glass by the electric stroke are such as we have all experienced, and only show that the electric fluid could not pass without making a hole. In the same manner we say, glass is impermeable to water, and yet a stream from a fire-engine wUl force through the strongest panes of a window. As to the effect of points in drawing the electric matter from clouds, and thereby securmg buUdings, &c. which, you say, he seems to doubt I must own I think he only speaks mo destly and judiciously. I find 1 have been but partly understood in that raatter. I have mentioned it in several of my letters, and ex cept once, always in the alternative, viz. that pointed rods erected on buildings, and com municating with the moist earth, would either prevent a stroke, or, if not prevented, would conduct it, so as tliat tlie building should suf fer no damage. Yet whenever my opinion is examined in Europe, nothing is considered but * This work is written conformable to Dr. Franklin's theory, upon artilicial and natural electricity, which compose the two parts of it. It was printed in Italian, at Turin, in 4to. 1753; betweenthe two parts is a letter to the Abbe Nollet, in defence of Dr. Franklin's system. t These papers will be found in a subsequent part of this volume. PHILOSOPHICAL 297 the probabUity of those rods preventing a stroke or explosion, which is only a part of the use I proposed for them ; and the other part, their conducting a stroke, which they may happen not to prevent, seems to be totally forgotten, though of equal importance and ad vantage. I thank you for coraraunicating M. de Buf- fon's relation ofthe effect of lightning at Di jon, on the 7th of June last In return, give me leave to relate an instance I lately saw of the same kind. Being in the town of New bury, in New England, in November last I was shown the effect of lightning on their church, which had been struck a few raonths before. The steeple was a square tower of wood reaching seventy feet up from the ground to the place where the bell hung, over which rose a taper spire, of wood likewise, reaching seventy feet higher, to the vane ofthe weather cock. Near the bell was fixed an iron ham mer to strike the hours : and from the tail of the hamraer a wire went down through a small gimlet-hole in the floor that the bell stood upon, and through a second floor in like raan ner ; then horizontally under and near the plastered ceilmg of that second floor, tUl it came near a plastered wall ; then down by the side of that wall to a clock, which stood about twenty feet below the bell. Tbe wire was not bigger than a common knitting-nee dle. The spire was split all to pieces by the lightning, and the parts flung in all directions over the square in which the church stood, so that nothing remained above the bell. The lightning passed between the hamraer and the clock in the above raentioned wire, without hurting either ofthe floors, or having any effect upon them (except making the giralet-holes, through which the wire passed, a little bigger,) and without hurting the plas tered wall, or any part of the building, so far as the aforesaid wire and the pendulum wire ofthe clock extended; which latter wire was about tbe thickness of a goose-quUl. Frora the end of the pendulura, down quite to the ground, the building was exceedingly rent and daraaged, and some stones in the founda tion-wall torn out, and thrown to the distance of twenty or thirty feet No part of the afore mentioned long sraall wire, between the clock and the hararaer, could be found, except about two inches that hung to the tail of the hara- mer, and about as rauch that was fastened to tbe clock ; the rest being exploded, and its particles dissipated in sraoke and air, as gun powder is by comraon fire, and had only left a black srautty track on the plastering, three or four inches broad, darkest in the middle, and fainter towards the edges, all along the ceUing, under which it passed, and down the waU. These were the effects and appear ances ; on which I would only make the few following reraarks, viz. Vol, 1I....2P 1. That lightning, in its passage through a buUding, wUl leave wood to pass as fer as it can in metal, and not enter the wood again tUl the conductor of metal ceases. And the same I have observed in other in stances, as to walla of brick or stone. 2. The quantity of lightning that passed through this steeple must have heen very great, by its effects on the lofty spire above the bell, and on the square tower all below the end of the clock pendulum. 3. Great as this quantity was, it was con ducted by a small wire and a clock pendulum, without the least damage to the building so far as they extended. 4. The pendulum rod being of a sufficient thickness, conducted the lightning without damage to itself; but the small wire was ut terly destroyed. 5. Though the small wire was itself de stroyed, yet it had conducted the lightning with safety to the building. 6. And from the whole it seems probable, that if even such a small wire had been ex tended frora the spindle of the vane to the earth, before the storm, no damage would have been done to the steeple by that stroke of lightning, though the wire itself had been destroyed. To Peter Collinson. Philadelphia, Nov. 23, 1753. Dear Friend,— In my last, via Virginia, I proraised to send you per next ship, a small phUosophical packet : but now having got the materials (old letters and rough drafts) before me, I fear you will find it a great one. Ne vertheless, as I am like to have a few days' leisure before this ship saUs, which I raay not have again in a long time, I shall transcribe the whole, and send it ; for you will be under no necessity of reading it all at once, but may take it a little at a time, now and then of a winter evening. When you happen to have nothing else to do (if that ever happens) it may afford you some amusement* B. FRANKLIN. * These letters and papers are a philosophical corres pondence betwepn Dr. Franklin and acme ofhis Ameri can friends. f Mr. Collinson communicated them to the Royal Society, where they were read at different meet ings during the year 1756. But Dr. Franklin having particularly requested that they might not be printed, none of them were inserted in the transactions. He had at that time an intention of revising them, and pursu ing some of the inquiries farther; but finding that he was not likely to have sufficient leisure, he was at length induced, imperfect as they were, to permit their publication, as some of the hints they contain might possibly be useful to others in their philosophical re searches. Note ill Mr. Collinson's edition. t As some of these papers are upon subjects not imme diately connected with electricity, we have taken such papers from the order in which they were placed by Mr. Collinson, and transferred them to other parts of this edition. 398 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. Extract of a letter from Mr. Bowdoin of Boston to Benjamin Franklin, concerning the crooked direction and the source of lightning, and the swiftness of the electric fire. Boston, Dec. 21, 1751. The experiments Mr. K. has exhibited here, have been greatly pleasing to all sorts of people that have seen them ; and I hope, by the tirae he returns to Philadelphia, his tour this way will turn to good accoimt His experiments are very curious, and I think prove raost effectually your doctrine of elec tricity ; that it is a real element, annexed to, and diffused among all bodies we are acquaint ed with ; that it differs in nothing from light ning, the effects of both being similar, and their properties, so far as they are known, the sarae, &c The remarkable effect of lightning on iron, lately discovered, in giving it the mag netic virtue, and the same effect produced on small needles by the electrical fire, is a further and convincing proof that they are both the same eleraent ; but, which is very unaccounta ble, Mr. K tells me, it is necessary to pro duce this effect that the direction of the needle and the electric fire should be north and south; from either to the other, and that just so far as they deviate therefrom, the mag netic power in the needle is less, tiU their di rection being at right angles with the north and south, the effect entirely ceases. We made at Faneuil Hall, where was Mr. K.'s ap paratus, several experiments, to give sorae small needles the magnetic vfrtue ; previously examining, by putting them in water, on which they wUl be supported, whether or not they had any of that virtue ; and I think we found all of them to have some sraall degree of it their points turning to the north ; we had nothing to do then but to invert the poles, which accordingly was done, by sending through them the charge of two large glass jars; the eye of the needle turning to the north, as the point before had done : that end of the needle which the fire is thrown upon, Mr. K. tells me always points to the north. The electrical fire passing through air has the same crooked direction as lightning.* This appearance I endeavour to account for thus : air is an electric per se, therefore there must be a mutual repulsion betwixt air and the electrical fire. A column or cylinder of air, having the diameter of its base equal to the diameter of the electrical spark, inter venes that part of the body which the spark is taken from, and of the body it aims at The spark acts upon this column, and is acted upon by it, more strongly than any other neighbouring portion of air. » Thia is most eaaily observed in large strong sparks taken at some incbes distance. The column, being thus acted upon, be comes more dense, and, being more dense re pels the spark more strongly ; its repeUency being in proportion to its density : having ac quired, by being condensed, a degree of re pellency greater than its natural, it turns the spark out of its straight course ; the neigh bouring air, which must be less dense, and therefore has a smaller degree of repellency, giving it a more ready passage. The spark, having taken a new direction, must now act on, or most strongly repel the column of air which lies in that direction, and consequently must condense that column in the same maimer as the forraer, when the spark must again change its course, which course wUl be thus repeatedly changed, tUl the spark reaches the body that attracted it To this account one objection occurs ; that as air is very fluid and elastic, and so en deavours to diffuse itself equally, the supposed accuraulated air within the coluran aforesaid, would be immediately diffused among the con tiguous air, and circulate to fill the space it was driven from : and consequently that the said column, on the greater density of which the phenomenon is supposed to depend, would not repel the spark more strongly than the neighbouring air. "This might be an objection, if the electrical fire was as sluggish and inactive as air. Air takes a sensible time to diffuse itself equally, as is manifest from winds which often blow for a considerable time together from the same point and with a velocity even in the greatest storms, not exceeding, as it is said, sixty raUes anhour: buttheelectric fire seems propagated instantaneously, taking up no perceptible time in going very great distamces. It must then be an inconceivable short time in its progress from an electrified to an unelectrified body, which, in the present case, can be but a few inches apart : but this small portion of time is not sufficient for elasticity of the air to exert itself, and therefore the colunm aforesaid must be in a denser state than its neighbouring air. About the velocity of the electric fire more is said below, which perhaps may more fidly obviate this objection. But let us have re course to experiments. Experiments wUl ob viate all objections, or confound the hypothe sis. The electric spark, if the foregoing be true, wUl pass through a vacuum in a right line. To try this, let a wire be fixed per pendicularly on the plate of an air pump, having a leaden ball on its upper end ; let another wire, passing through the top of a re ceiver, have on each end a leaden ball ; let the leaden balls within the receiver, when put on the air pump, be within two or three inches of each other ; the receiver being ex hausted, the spark given from a charged phial to the upper wire will pass through rarified air, nearly approaching to a vacuum, to the PHILOSOPHICAL. 299 lower wire, and I suppose in a right line, or nearly so; the small portion of air remaining in the receiver, which cannot be entirely ex hausted, may possibly cause it to deviate a little, but perhaps not sensibly from a right line. The spark also might be made to pass through air greatly condensed, which per haps would give a still more crooked direc tion. I have not had opportunity to raake any experiraents of this sort, not knowing of an air-pump nearer than Cambridge, but you can easily make them. If these experiments an swer, I think the crooked direction of light ning wUl be also accounted for. With respect to your letters on electricity ; your hypothesis in particular for explaining the phenoraena of lightning is very ingenious. That sorae clouds are highly charged with electrical fire, and that their comraunicating it to those that have less, to raountains and other emuiences, makes it visible and audible, when it is denominated lightning and thunder, is highly probable ; but that the sea, which you suppose the grand source of it, can collect it, I think admits of a doubt ; for though the sea be coraposed of salt and water, an elec tric per se and non-electric, and though the friction of electrics per se and non-electrics, will collect that fire, yet it is only under cer tain circurastances which water will not ad mit For it seeras necessary, that the elec trics ^>er se and non-electrics rubbing one ano ther, should be of such substances as will not adhere to, or incorporate with each other. Thus a glass or sulphur sphere turned in wa ter, and so a friction between thera, wUl not collect any fire; nor, I suppose, would a sphere of salt revolving in water: the water adhering to, or incorporating with those elec trics per se. But granting that the friction between salt and water would collect the electrical fire ; that fire, being so extremely subtle and active, would be iraraediately com municated, either to those lower parts of the sea from which it was drawn, and so only per-. forra quick revolutions ; or be coraraunicated to the adjacent islands or continent, and so be diffused instantaneously through the general mass of the earth. I say instantaneously, for the greatest distances we can conceive within the limits ofour globe, even that of the two most opposite points, it will take no sensible time in passing through; and therefore it seeras a little difficult to conceive how there can be any accumulation of the electrical fire upon the surface of the sea, or how the va pours arising from the sea should have a greater share of that fire than other vapours. That the progress of the electrical fire is so amazingly swift, seems evident from an experiraent you yourself (not out of choice) made, when two or three large glass jars were discharged through your body. You neither heard the crack, was sensible of the stroke, nor, which is more extraordinary, saw the light ; which gave you just reason to con clude, that it was swifter than sound, than animal sensation, and even light itself Now light (as astronoraers have demonstrated) is about six minutes passing from the sun to the earth ; a distance, they say, of more than eighty miUions of miles. The greatest rec- tUinear distance within the compass of the earth is about eight thousand miles, equal to its diameter. Supposing then, that the velocity of the electric fire be the sarae as that of light, it will go through a space equal to the earth's diameter in about two sixtieths ofthe second of a rainute. It seeras inconceivable then, that it should be accuraulated upon the sea, in its present state, which, as it is a non-electric, must give the fire an instantaneous passage to the neighbouring shores, and they convey it to the general raass ofthe earth. But such accumulation seeras stUl raore inconceivable when the electrical fire has but few feet depth of water to penetrate, to return to the place from whence it is supposed to he collected. Your thoughts upon these remarks I shall receive with a great deal of pleasure. I take notice that in the printed copies of your letters, several things are wanting which are in the raanuscript you sent me. I understand by your son, that you had writ, or was writing, a paper on the effect of the electrical fire on loadstones, needles, &c. which I would ask the favour of a copy of, as well as of any other papers on electricity, written since I had the manuscript, for which I repeat my obligations to you. J. BOWDOIN. J. Bowdoin, Boston- Observationson the subjects of the preceding letter. — Reasonsfor supposing the sea to be the grand source of Lightning.— Reasons for doubting this hypothesis. — Improvement in a globe for raising the Electric Fire. — Read at the Royal Society, May 27, 1756. Philadelphia, Jan. 24, 1752. I AM glad tolearn, by your favour ofthe 21st past, that Mr. Kinnersley's lectures have been acceptable to the gentlemen of Boston, and are like to prove serviceable to hiraself I thank you for the countenance and encou rageraent you have so kindly afforded my fel low-citizen. I send you enclosed an extract of a letter containing the substance of what I observed concerning the communication of magnetisrn to needles by electricity. The rainutes I took at the time of the experiments are mislaid. I ara very little acquainted with the nature of magnetism. Dr. Gawin Knight, inventor of the steel magnets, has wrote largely on that subject, but I have not yet had leisure to pe ruse his writings with the attention necessa ry to become master of his doctrine. soo FRANKUN'S WORKS. Your explication of the crooked direction of lightning appears to me both ingenious and solid. When we can account as satisfactori ly for the electrification of clouds, I think that branch of natural phUosophy will be nearly complete. The air, undoubtedly, obstructs the raotion of the electric fluid. Dry air prevents the dissipation of an electric atraosphere, the den ser the raore, as in cold weather. I question whether such an atmosphere can be retained by a body in vacuo. A common electrical phial requires a non-electric communication from the wire to every part of the charged glass ; otherwise, being dry and clean, and filled with air only, it charges slowly, and discharges gradually, by sparks, without a shock : but exhausted of air, the communica tion is so open and free between the inserted wire and surface ofthe glass, that it charges as readily, and shocks as sraartly as if filled with water : and I doubt not but that in the experiment you propose, the sparks would not only be near strait in vacuo, but strike at a greater distance than in the open air, though perhaps there would not be a loud explosion. As soon as I have a little leisure, I will make the experiment, and send you the result. My supposition, that the sea might possibly be the grand source of lightning, arose frora the coraraon observation of its lurainous ap pearance in the night, on the least motion ; an appearance never observed in fresh water. Then I knew that the electric fluid may be pumped up out of the earth, by the friction of a glass globe, on a non-electric cushion ; and that notwithstanding the surprising acti vity and swiftness of that fluid, and the non electric comraunication between all the parts of the cushion and the earth, yet quantities would be snatched up by the revolving sur face of the globe, thrown on the prime con ductor, and dissipated in air. How this was done, and why that subtle active spirit did not immediately return again frora the globe, into sorae part or other ofthe cushion, and so into the earth, was difficult to conceive ; but whe ther from its being opposed by a current set ting upwards to the cushion, or from what ever other cause, that it did not so return was an evident fact Then I considered the separate particles of water as so raany hard spherules, capable of touching the salt only in points, and imagined a particle of salt could therefore no more be wet by a particle of wa ter, than a globe by a cushion ; that there might therefore be such a. friction between these originally constituent particles of salt and water, as in a sea of globes and cushions ; that each particle of water on the surface raight obtain frora the coraraon raass, sorae particles of the universally diffused rauch finer, and raore subtle electric fluid, and form ing to itself an atmosphere of those particles, be repelled from the then generally electri- fled surface of the sea, and fly away with thera into the air. I thought too, that possi bly the great raixtnre of particles electric per se, in the ocean water, raight in some degree, impede the swift motion and dissipa tion of the electric fluid through it to the shores, &.C. — But having since found, thatsalt in the water of an electric phial does not lessen the shock; and having endeavoured in vain to produce that luminous appearance from a mixture of salt and water agitated ; and observed, that even the sea-water wUl not produce it after some hours standing in a bottle; I suspect it to proceed from some principle yet unknown to us (which I would gladly raake some experiments to discover, if I lived near the sea) and I grow more doubt ful of my former supposition, and more ready to allow weight to that objection (drawn from the activity ofthe electric fluid, and the rea diness of water to conduct) which you have indeed stated with great strength and clear ness. In the mean tirae, before we part with this hypothesis, let us think what to substitute in its place. I have sometimes queried whe ther tbe friction of the air, an electric per se, in violent winds, araong trees, and against the surface of the earth, might not pump up, as so many glass globes, quantities of the electric fluid, which the rising vapours raight receive frora the air, and retaua in the clouds they forra 1 on which I should be glad to have your sentiments. An ingenious friend of mine supposes the land-clouds more likely to be electrified than the sea-clouds. I send his let ter for your perusal, which please to return me. I have wrote nothing lately on electricity, nor observed any thing new that is material, my tirae being much taken up with other af^ fairs. Yesterday I discharged four jars through a fine wire, tied up between two strips of glass : the wire was in part melted, and the rest broke into small pieces from half an inch long, to half a quarter of an inch. My globe raises the electric fire with greater ease, in rauch greater quantities, by the means of a wire extended from the cushion, to the iron pin of a purap handle behind my house, which communicates by tlie purap spear with the water in the well. By this post I send to ****, who is curious in that way, sorae meteorological observations and conjectures, and desire him to communi cate them to you, as they may afford you some arauseraent and I know you will look over thera witli a candid eye. By throwing our occasional thoughts on paper, we more readily discover the defects of our opinions, or we digest them better and find new arguments to support thera. This I soraetimes practise : but such pieces are fit only to be seen by friends. B. FRANKLIN. PHILOSOPHICAL. 301 J. Bowdoin lo Benjamin Franklin. Effect of Lightning on Captain WaddeVs Com pass, and the Dutch Church at New York.- — Read at tbe Royal Society, June 3, 1753. Boston, March 2, 1752. I HAVE received your favour of the 24th of January past enclosing an extract frora your letter to Mr. CoUinson, and ****'s letter to yourself, which I have read with a great deal of pleasure, and am much obliged to you for. Your extract confirms a correction Mr. Kin nersley made a few days ago, of a mistake I was under respecting the polarity given to needles by electrical fire, " that the end which receives the fire always points north ;" and " that the needle being situated east and west wUl not have a polar direction." You find, however, the polarity strongest when the needle is shocked lying north and south; weakest when lying east and west ; which makes it probable that the communicated magnetism is less, as the needle varies frora a north and south situation. As to the needle of captain Waddel's compass, if its polarity was reversed by the lightning, the effect of lightning and electricity, in regard of that, seeras dissimilar ; for a magnetic needle in a north and south situation (as the compass nee dle was) instead of having its power revers ed, or even diminished, would have it confirm ed or increased by the electric fire. But per haps the lightning coraraunicated to some naUs in the binnacle (where the compass is placed) the magnetic virtue, which might dis turb the compass. This I have heard was the case ; if so, the seeming dissirailarity vanishes : but this re- raarkable circumstance (if it took place) I should think would not be omitted in captain Waddel's account. I am very rauch pleased that the explica tion I sent you, of the crooked direction of lightning, raeets with your approbation. As to your supposition about the source of lightning, the lurainous appearance of the sea in the night and the similitude between the friction of the particles of salt and water, as you considered them in their original sepa rate state, and the friction of the globe and cushion, very naturally led you to the ocean, as the grand source of lightning: but the ac tivity of lightning, or the electric element, and the fitness of water to conduct it, toge ther with the experiraents you raention of salt and water, seem to raake against it, and to prepare the way for some other hypothesis. Accordingly you propose a new one, which is very curious, and not so liable, I think, to objections as the forraer. But there is not, as yet, I believe, a sufficient variety of experi ments to establish any theory, though this seems the most hopeful of any I have heard of. The effect which the discharge of your 26 four glass jars had upon a fine wire, tied be tween two strips of glass, puts me in mind of a very similar one of lightning, that I observed at New York, October, 1750, a few days af ter I left Philadelphia. In company with a number of gentlemen, I went to take a view of the city from the Dutch church steeple, in which is a clock about twenty or twenty-five feet below the bell. Frora the clock went a wire through two floors, to the clock-hammer near the bell, the holes in the floor for the wire being perhaps about a quarter of an inch diameter. We were told, that in the spring of 1750, the lightning struck the clock hammer, and descended along the wire to the clock, melting in its way several spots of the wire, from three to nine inches long, through one third of its substance, till coraing within a few feet ofthe lower end, it raelted the wire quite through, in several places, so that it fell down in several pieces; which spots and pieces we saw. When it got to the end of the wire, it flew off to the hinge of a door, shattered the door, and dissipated. In its passage through the holes of the floors it did not do the least daraage, which evidences that wire is a good conductor of lightning (as it is of electricity) provided it be substantial enough, and might, in this case, had it been continued to the earth, have conducted it without damaging the building.* Your information about your globe's raising the electric flre in greater quantities, by means of a wire extended from the cushion to the earth, wUl enable me, I hope, to remedy a great inconvenience I have been under, to col lect the fire with the electrifying glass I use, which is fixed in a very dry roora, three stories frora the ground. When you send your me teorological observations to ****, I hope I shall have the pleasure of seeing thera. J. BOWDOIN. Proposal of an experiment to measure the time taken up by an Electric Spark in moving through any given space. By James Alexander, of New York. — Road at the Royal Society, Dec. 26, 1756. If I remember right, the Royal Society raade one experiment to discover the velocity * The wire mentioned in this account was replaced byasmaU brass chain. In the summer of 1763. Ihe lightning again struck that steeple, and from the clock- hammer near the bell, it pursued the chain as it had be fore done the wire, went off to the same hinge, and again shattered the same door. In its passage through the same holes of the same floors, it did no damage to the floors, nor to the building during the whole extent of the chain. But the chain itself was destroyed, being partly scattered about in fragments of two or three links melted and stuck together, and partly blown up or re duced to smoke, and dissipated. [See an account of the same effect of lightning on a wire at Newbury, p. 206.] The steeple, when rejiaired, was guarded by an iron conductor, or rod, extending from the foot of tbe vane. spindle down the outside of the building, into the earth. 302 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. of the electric fire, by a wire of about four mUes in length, supported by sUk, and by turn ing it forwards and backwards in a field, so that the beginning and end of the wire were at only the distance of two people, the one holding the Leyden bottle and the beginning of the wire, and the other holding the end of the wire and touching the ring of the bottle ; but by this experiment no discovery was made, except that the velocity was extremely quick. As water is a conductor as well as metals, it is to be considered whether the velocity of the electric fire raight not be discovered by means of water ; whether a river, or lake, or sea, may not be made part of the circuit through which the electric fire passes? in stead of the circuit all of wire, as in the above experiraent Whether in a river, lake, or sea, the elec tric fire will not dissipate and not return to the bottle I or, wUl it proceed in strait lines through the water the shortest courses possi ble back to the bottle 1 If the last then suppose one brook that fells into Delaware doth head very near to a brook that falls into SchuylkUl, and let a wire be stretched and supported as before, frora the head of the one brook to the head of the other, and let the one end coraraunicate with the water, and let one person stand in the other brook, holding the Leyden bottle, and let an other person hold that end of the wire not in the water, and touch the ring ofthe bottle. — If the electric fire wUl go as in the last ques tion, then will it go down the one brook to Delaware or SchuylkUl, and down one of thera to their meeting, and up the other brook ; the time of its doing this may possibly be observ able, and the further upwards the brooks are chosen, the raore observable it would be. Should this be not observable, then suppose the two brooks falling into Susquehanna and Delaware, and proceeding as before, the elec tric fire raay, by that raeans, make a circuit round the North Cape of Virginia, and go many hundred raUes, and in doing that, it would seem it must take sorae observable tirae. If still no observable tirae is found in that experiraent, then suppose the brooks falling the one into the Ohio, and the other into Sus quehanna, or Potowmac, in that the electric fire would have a circuit of some thousands of miles to go down the Ohio to Mississippi, to the Bay of Mexico, round Florida, and round the South Cape of Virginia; which, I think, would give some observable tirae, and discover exactly the velocity. But if the electric fire dissipates, or weak ens in the water, as I fear it does, these ex periments will not answer. The newspapers have mentioned, that in 1765, the lightning fell a third time on the same steeple, and was safely conducted by the rod, but the particulars are not vome to band. Answer to the foregoing. — Read at tlie Royal Society, Dec. 25, 1756. Suppose a tube of any length open at both ends, and containing a moveable wire of just the same length, that fills its bore. If I at> tempt to introduce the end of another wire into the same tube, it must be done by push ing forward the wire it already contains ; and the instant I press and move one end of that wire, the other end is also moved, and intro ducing one inch ofthe same wire, I extrude, at the sarae tirae, an inch of the first, from the other end of the tube. If the tube be filled with water, and I in ject an additional inch of water at one end, I force out an equal quantity at the other in the very same instant And the water forced out at one end of the tube is not the very sarae water that was forced in at the otber end at the same time, it was only in motion at the same time. The long wire, made use of in the experi ment to discover the velocity of the electric fluid, is itself filled with what we call its na tural quantity oftbat fluid, before tbe hook of the Leyden bottle is applied to one end ofit. The outside of the bottle being at the time of such application in contact with the other end of the wire, the whole quantity of electric fluid contained in the wire is, probably, put in motion at once. For at the instant the hook, connected with the inside of the bottle, gives out ; the coat ing or outside of the bottle, draws in a portion of that fluid. If such long wire contains precisely the quantity that the outside of the bottle de mands, tbe whole will move out of the wire to the outside of the bottle, and the over quan tity which the inside of the bottle contained, being exactly equal, will flow into the wire, and remain there, in the place of the quantity the wire had just parted with to the outside of the bottle. But if the wire be so long as that one tenth (suppose) of its natural quantity is sufficient to supply what tlie outside of the bottle de mands, m such a case the outside will only re ceive what is contained in one tenth of the wire's length, frora the end next to it ; though the whole will move so as to make room at the other end for an equal quantity issuing, at the same tirae, frora the inside of the bottle. So that this experiraent only shows the ex treme facUity with which the electric fluid moves in metal ; it can never determine the velocity. And, therefore, the proposed experiment (though well imagined, and very ingenious) of sending the spark round through a vast lengthof space, hy the woters of Susquehanna, or PoloWmac, and Ohio, would not afford the satisfection desired, though we could be sure that the motion ofthe electric fluid would be PHILOSOPHICAL. 303 in that tract, and not under ground in the wet earth by the shortest way. B. FRANKLIN. Mr. Kinnersley to B. Franklin. Experiments on boiling Water, and glass heated by boiling water. — Doctrine of repulsion in elec trised bodies doubted. — Electricity ofthe atmo sphere at diferent heights. — Electrical Horse race. — Electrical thermometer. — In what cases ihe electricalfire produces heat. — Wire length ened by Electricity. — Good effect of a rod on the house of Mr. West, of Philadelphia. Philadelphia, March 12, 1761. Having lately made the following experi ments, I very cheerfully communicate them, in hopes of giving you some degree of plea sure, and exciting you to further explore your favourite, but not quite exhausted subject, eZec- tricity. I placed myself on an electric stand, and, being well electrised, threw my hat to an unelectrised person, at a considerable dis tance, on another stand, and found that the hat carried some ofthe electricity with it; for, upon going iraraediately to the person who re ceived it, and holding a flaxen thread near hira, I perceived he was electrised sufiiciently to attract the thread. I then suspended, by silk, a broad plate of raetal, and electrised some boiling water under it at about four feet distance, expect ing that the vapour, which ascended plenti fully to the plate, would, upon the principle of the foregoing experiment, carry up some of the electricity with it ; but was at length fully convinced, by several repeated trials, that it left all its share thereof behind. This I know not how to account for ; but does it not seem to corroborate your hypothesis, that the vapours of which the clouds are forraed, leave their share of electricity behind, in the common stock, and ascend in the negative state? I put boiling water into a coated Florence flask, and found that the heat so enlarged the pores ofthe glass, that it could not be charged. The electricity passed through as readily, to all appearance, as through metal ; the charge of a three-pint bottle went freely through, without injuring the flask in the least. When it becarae alraost cold, I could charge it as usual. Would not this experiraent convince the Abbe Nollet of his egregious mistake? For while the electricity went fairly through the glass, as he contends it always does, the glass could not be charged at all. I took a slender piece of cedar, about eigh teen inches long, fixed a brass cap in the mid dle, thrust a pin horizontally and at right an gles, through each end (the points in contrary directions) and hung it, nicely balanced, like the needle of a corapass, on a pin, about six inches long, fixed in the centre of an electric stand. Then electrising the stand, I had the pleasure of seeing what I expected ; the wooden needle turned round, carrying the pins with their heads foremost. I then elec trised the stand negatively, expecting the needle to turn the contrary woy, but was ex tremely disappointed, for it went still the same way as before. When the stand was electrised positively, I suppose that the na tural quantity of electricity in the air being increased on one side, by what issued from the points, the needle was attracted by the lesser quantity on the other side. When electrised negatively, I suppose that the na tural quantity of electricity in the air was di minished near the points; in consequence whereof, the equilibriura being destroyed, the needle was attracted by the greater quantity on the opposite side. The doctrine of lepulsion, in electrised bo dies, I begin to be somewhat doubtful of I think all the phenomena on which it is found ed, may be well enough accounted for with out it Will not cork balls, electrised nega tively, separate as far as when electrised posi tively 1 And may not their separation in both cases be accounted for upon the same princi ple, namely, the mutual attraction of the na tural quantity in the air, and that which is denser or rarer in the cork balls ? it being one ofthe established laws of this fluid, that quantities of different densities shall mutually attract each other, in order to restore the equilibrium. I can see no reason to conclude that the air has not its share of the common stock of electricity, as well as glass, and perhaps, all other electrics per se. For though the air will admit bodies to be electrised in it either positively or negatively, and will not readily carry oft' the redundancy in the one case, nor supply the deficiency in the other, yet let a person in the negative state, out of doors in the dark, when the air is dry, hold, u ith his arm extended, a long sharp needle, pointing upwards, and he will soon be convinced that electricity may be drawn out of the air ; not very plentifully, for, being a bad conductor, it seems loth to part with it but yet some wUl evidently be collected. The air near the person's body having less than its natural quantity, wUl have none to spare ; but, his arm being extended, as above, sorae will be collected from the remoter air, and will ap pear luminous, as it converges to the point of the needle. Let a person electrised negatively present the point of a needle, horizontally, to a cork ball, suspended by silk, and the ball will be attracted towards the point till it has parted with so much of its natural quantity of^ elec tricity as to be in the negative state, in the same degree with the person who holds the needle ; then it will recede from the point, be- 304 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. ing, as I suppose, attracted the contrary way by the electricity of greater density in the air behind it But, as this opinion seems to de viate from electrical orthodoxy, i should be glad to see these phenomena better accounted for by your superior and more penetrating ge nius. Whether the electricity in the air, in clear dry weather, be of the same density at the height of two or three hundred yards, as near the surface ofthe earth, may be satisfactorily determined by your old experiment of the kite. The twine should have throughout a very small wire in it, and the ends of the wire, where the several lengths are united, ought to be tied down with a waxed thread, to pre vent their acting in the manner of points. I have tried the experiment twice, when the air was as dry as we ever have it and so clear that not a cloud could be seen, and found the twine each tirae in a small degree electrised positively. The kite had three metalline points fixed to it : one on the top, and one on each side. That the twine was electrised, appeared by the separating of two small cork balls, suspended on the twine by fine flaxen threads, just above where the silk was tied to it, and sheltered from the wind. That the twine was electrised positively, was proved, by applying it to the wire of a charged bottle, which caused the balls to se parate further, without first coming nearer together. This experiment showed, that the electricity in the air, at those times, was denser above than below. But that cannot be always the case; for you know we have frequentlyfound the thunder-clouds in the ne gative state, attracting electricity from the earth : which state, it is probable, they are always in when first forraed, and till they have received a sufficient supply. How they corae afterwards, towards the latter end of the gust, to be in the positive state, which is sorae- tiraes the case, is a subject for further in quiry. After the above experiraents with the wooden needle, I formed a cross, of two pieces of wood, of equal length, intersecting each other at right angles in the raiddle, hung it horizontally upon a central pin, and set a light horse with his rider, upon each extre mity ; whereupon, the whole being nicely balanced, and each courser urged on by an electrised point of a pair of spurs, I was enter tained with an electrical horse-race. T have contrived an electrical air therrao- meter, and raade several experiraents with it, that have afforded me much satisfaction and pleasure. It is extremely sensible of any al teration in the state of the included air, and fully determines that controverted point Whether there be any heat in the electric fire ? By the enclosed draught, and the fol lowing description, you wUl readUy apprehend the construction of it (See the Plate.) A B is a glass tube, about eleven inches long, and one inch diameter in the bore. It has a brass ferrule cemented on each end, with a top and bottom part, C and D, to be screwed on, air-tight, and taken off at plea sure. In the centre of the bottom part D, is a male screw, which goes into a brass nut in the raahogany pedestal E. The wires F and G are for the electric fire to pass through, dart ing from one to the other. The wire G ex tends through the pedestal to H, and may be raised and lowered by means of a male screw on it The wire F raay be taken out, and the hook I be screwed into its place. K is a glass tube, with a small bore, open at both ends, ce mented in the brass tube L, which screws into the top part C. The lower end of the tube K is immersed in water, coloured with cochineal, at the bottom of the tube A B. (I used, at first coloured spirits of wine, but in one experiraent I made, it took fire.) On the top of the tube K is cemented, for ornaraent a brass ferrule, with a head screwed on it, which has a sraall air-hole through its side, at a. The wire b, is a sraall round spring, that erabraces the tube K, so as to stay wher ever it is placed. The weight M is to keep strait whatever may be suspended in the tube A B, on the hook I. Air must be blown through the tube K, into the tube A B, tUl enough is intruded to raise, by its elastic force, a column ofthe coloured water in the tube K, up to c, or thereabouts ; and then, the gage-wire b, being slipt down to the top of the coluran, the therraometer is ready for use. I set the thermometer on an electric stand, with the chain N fixed to the prime conduct or, and kept it well electrised a considerable time ; but this produced no sensible effect ; which shows, that the electric fire, when in a state of rest, has no more heat tlian the air, and other matter wherein it resides. When the wires F and G are in contact, a large charge of electricity sent through them, even that of ray case of five and thirty bottles containing above thirty square feet of coated glass, will produce no rarification of tbe air included in the tube A B ; which shows that the wires are not heated by the fire's passing through them. When the wires are about two inches apart, the charge of a tliree pint bottle, darting from one to the other, rarifies tlie air very evident ly ; which shows, I think, that the electric fire raust produce heat in itself, as well as in the air, by its rapid raotion. The charge of one of my glass jars (which will contain about five gallons and a half, wine measure) darting frora wire to wire, wUl, by the disturbance it gives the air, re- PHILOSOPHICAL. 305 pelluig it in all directions, raise the coluran in the tube K, up to d, or thereabouts ; and the charge of the above-mentioned case of bottles wUl raise it to the top of the tube. — Upon the air's coalescing, the column, by its gravity, instantly subsides, till it is in equili- brio with the rarefied air; it then gradually descends as the air cools, and settles where it stood before. By carefully observing at what height above the gage-wire b, the de scending coluran first stops, the degree of rarefaction is discovered, which, in great ex plosions, is very considerable. I hung in the thermometer, successively, a strip of wet writing paper, a wet flaxen and woollen thread, a blade of green grass, a fila ment of green wood, a fine silver thread, a very sraall brass wire, and a strip of gUt pa per ; and found that the charge of the above- mentioned glass jar, passing through each of these, especially the last produced heat enough to rarefy the air very perceptibly. I then suspended, out of the thermometer, apiece of small harpsichord wire, about twen ty-four inches long, with a pound weight at the lower end, and sent the charge of the case of five and thirty bottles through it, whereby I discovered a new method of wire drawing. The wire was red hot the whole length, well annealed, and above an inch longer than before. A second charge melted it ; it parted near the middle, and measured, when the ends were put together, four inches longer than at first. This experiment, I re- meraber, you proposed to me before you left Philadelphia ; but I never tried it till now. — That I might have no doubt of the wire's be ing hot as well as red, I repeated the experi ment on another piece of the same wire en compassed with a goose-quUl, filled with loose grains of gunpowder; which took fire as rea dily as if it had been touched with a red hot poker. Also tinder, tied to another piece of the wire, kindled by it I tried a wire about three tiraes as big, but could produce no such effects with that Hence it appears that the electric fire, though it has no sensible heat when in a state of rest, wUl, by its violent motion, and the re sistance it meets with, produce heat in other bodies when passing through thera, provided they be sraall enough. A large quantity wUl pass through a large wire, without producing any sensible heat ; when the same quantity passing through a very small one, being there confined to a narrower passage, the particles crowding closer together, and meeting with greater resistance, will make it red hot, and even melt it. Hence lightning does not melt metal by a cold fusion, as we formerly supposed ; but, when it passes through the blade of a sword, if the quantity be not very great, it raay heat the point so as to melt it, while the broadest Vol.. II. ... 2 Q 26* and thickest part may not be sensibly warmer than before. And when trees or'houses are set on fire by the dreadful quantity which a cloud, or the earth, soraetimes discharges, must not the heat, by which the wood is first kindled, be gene rated by the lightning's violent motion, through the resisting combustible matter ? If lightning, by its rapid motion, produces heat in itself; as well as in other bodies (and that it does I think is evident frora sorae of the foregoing experiraents made with the thermometer) then its sometimes singeing the hair of aniraals kUled by it may easily be ac counted for. And the reasons of its not al ways doing so, may, perhaps, be this: the quantity, though sufficient to kill a large ani mal, may soraetimes not be great enough, or not have met with resistance enough, to be come, by its motion, burning hot We find that dwelling-houses, struck with lightning, are seldora set on fire by it ; but when it passes through barns, with hay or straw in thera, or store-houses, containing large quantities of hemp, or such like raatter, they seldora, if ever, escape a conflagration ; which may, perhaps, be owing to such com bustibles being apt to kindle with a less de gree of heat than is necessary to kindle wood. We had four houses in this city, and a ves sel at one of the wharfs, struck and daraaged by lightning last summer. One of the houses was struck twice in the same storm. But I have the pleasure to inform you, that your method of preventing such terrible disasters, has, by a fact which had like to have escaped our knowledge, given a very convincing proof of its great utUity, and is now in higher rer pute with us than ever. Hearing, a few days ago, that Mr .William West, merchant in this city, suspected that the lightning in one of the thunder-storms last suraraer had passed through the iron con ductor, which he had provided for the securi ty of his house; I waited on hira, to inquire what ground he raight have for such suspi cion. Mr. West inforraed me, that his fami ly and neighbours were all stunned with a very terrible explosion, and that the flash and crack were seen and heard at the same in stant. Whence he concluded, that the light ning must have been very near, and, as no house in tbe neighbourhood had suffered by it, that it must have passed through his conduct or. Mr. White, his clerk, told me that he was sitting at the time, by a window about two feet distant from the conductor, leaning against the brick wall with which it was in contact ; and that he felt a smart sensation like an electric shock, in that part of the bo dy which touched the wall. Mr. West fur ther informed me, that a person of undoubted veracity assured him, that, being in the door of an opposite house, on the other side of Wa- 306 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. ter-street (which you know is but narrow) he saw the lightning diffused over the pavement which was then very wet with rain, to the distance of two or three yards frora the foot ofthe conductor; and that another person of very good credit told hira, that he being a few doors off on the other side ofthe street, saw the lightning above, darting in such di rection that it appeared to him to be directly over that pointed rod. Upon receiving this information, and being desirous of further satisfaction, there being no traces ofthe lightning to be discovered in the conductor, as far as we could exaraine it be low, I proposed to Mr. West our going to the top of the house, to exaraine the pointed rod, assuring hira, that if the lightning had passed through it, the point must have been melted ; and to our great satisfaction, we found it so. This iron rod extended in height about nine feet and a half above a stack of chimnies to which it was fixed (though I suppose three or four feet would have been sufficient) It was somewhat more than half an inch diaraeter in the thickest part and tapering to the upper end. The conductor, frora the lower end of it to the earth, consisted of square iron naU rods, not rauch above a quarter of an inch thick, connected together by interlinking joints. It extended down the cedar roof to the eaves, and frora thence down the wall of the house, four story and a half, to the pavement in Water-street, being fastened to the wall in several places by small iron hooks. The lower end was fixed to a ring in the top of an iron stake that was drove about four or five feet into the ground. The above-mentioned iron rod had a hole in the top of it, about two inches deep, where in was inserted a brass wire, about two lines thick, and when first put there, about ten inches long, terrainating in a very acute point ; but now its whole length was no more than seven inches and a half, and the top very blunt. Some of the metal appears to be mis sing, the slenderest part ofthe wire being, as I suspect, consumed into smoke. But sorae of it where the wire was a little thicker, be ing only melted by the lightning, sunk down, while in a fluid state, and formed a rough irre gular cap, lower on one side than the otlier, round the upper end of what reraained, and became intimately united therewith. This was all the damage that Mr. West sustained by a terrible stroke of lightning ; a most convincing proof of the great utility of thia method of preventinff its dreadful effects. Surely it will now be tliought as expedient to provide conductors for the lightning, as for tho rain. Mr. West was so good as to make me a present of tho melted wire, which I keep as a great curiosity, and long for the pleasure of showing it to you. In tlie mean time, I beg your acceptance of the best representation I can give of it, which you will find by the side of the thermometer, drawn in its full dimen sions as it now appears. The dotted lines above are intended to show the form of the wire before the lightning melted it And now, sir, I most heartUy congratulate you on the pleasure you must have in finding your great and well grounded expectations so far fulfilled. May this method of security frora the destructive violence of one of the most awful powers of nature meet with such further success, as to induce every good and greatful heart to bless God for the important discovery ! May the benefit thereof he dif fused over the whole globe ! May it extend to the latest posterity of mankind, and make the name of FRANKLIN, Yike that of NEW TON, immortal. EBEN. KINNERSLEY. To Mr. Kinnersley. Answer to some of the foregoing subjects. — How long the Leyden bottle may be kept charged. — Heated glass rendered permeable bythe electric fluid. — Electrical attraction and repulsion. — Reply io other subjects in the preceding paper. — Numerous ways of kindling fire. — Explo sion of water. — Knobs and points. London, February 20, 1762. I RECEIVED your ingenious letter of the 12th of March last, and thank you cordially for the account you give me of the new ex periments you have lately made in electri city. — It is a subject that still affords me plea sure, though of late I have not rauch attend ed to it Your second experiment, in which you at tempted, without success, to communicate positive electricity by vapour ascending from the electrised water, reminds me of one 1 formerly raade, to try if negative electricity raight be produced by evaporation only. I placed a large heated brass plate, containing four or five square feet on an electric stand : a rod of metal, about four feet long, with a bullet at its end, extended from the plate ho rizontally. A light lock of cotton, suspended by a fine thread from the ceUing, hung oppo site to, and within an inch of the bullet I then sprinkled the heated plate with water, which arose fast fhim it in vapour. If vapour should be disposed to carry off the electrical, as it does the comraon fire frora bodies, I ex pected the plate would, by losing some of its natural quantity, become negatively electris ed. But I could not perceive, by any motion in the cotton, that it was at all Eifl'ected : nor by any separation of small cork balls suspend ed frora the plate, could it be observed that the plate was in any manner electrified. Mr. Canton here has also found, that two tea cups, set on electric stands, and filled one with boiling, the other witli cold water, and PHILOSOPHICAL 307 equally electrified, continued equally so, not withstanding the plentiful evaporation from the hot water. Your experiment and his agreeing, shows another remarkable differ ence between electric and common fire. For the latter quits most readily the body that contains it, where water, or any other fluid, is evaporating from the surface of that body, and eseapes with the vapour. Hence the method, long in use in the east, of cooling li quors, by wrapping the bottles round with a wet cloth, and exposing them to the wind. Dr. Cullen, of Edinburgh, has given sorae ex periments of cooling by evaporation ; and I was present at one made by Dr. Hadley, then professor of chemistry at Cambridge, when, by repeatedly wetting the ball of a therrao meter with spirit, and quickening the evapo ration by the blast of a bellows, the mercury fell from 65, the state of warmth in the com mon air to 7, which is 22 degrees below freezing ; and, accordingly, from some water mixed with the spirit, or from the breath of the assistants, or both, ice gathered in sraall spicula round the ball, to the thickness of near a quarter of an inch. To such a degree did the raercury lose the fire it before contained, which, as I iraagine, took the opportunity of escaping, in company with the evaporating particles of the spirit, by adhering to those particles. Your experiraents of the Florence flask, and boiling water, is very curious. I have repeated it and found it to succeed as you describe it in two flasks out of three. The third would not charge when fllled with either hot or cold water. I repeated it, because I remembered I had once attempted to raake an electric bottle of a Florence flask, fiUed with cold water, but could not charge it at all ; which I then iraputed to some imperceptible cracks in the sraall, extremely thin bubbles, of which that glass is full, and I concluded none oftbat kind would do. But you have shown me my raistake. — Mr. WUson had formerly acquainted us, that red hot glass would con duct electricity ; but that so small a degree of heat, as that coraraunicated by boiling wa ter, would so open the pores of extreraely thin glass, as to suffer the electric fluid freely to pass, was not before known. Some experi ments similar to yours, have, however, been made here, before the receipt of your letter, of which I shall now give you an account I formerly had an opinion that a Leyden bottle, charged and then sealed hermetically, might retain its electricity for ever ; but hav ing afterwards some suspicion that possibly that subtle fluid might, by slow imperceptible degrees, soak through the glass, and in time escape, I requested some of my friends, who had conveniences for doing it, to raake trial, whether after some raonths, the charge of a bottle so sealed would be sensibly dimi- 1 nished. Being at Birmingham, in September, 1760, Mr. Bolton of that place opened a bottle that had been charged, and its long tube neck hermetically sealed in January preceding. On breaking off the end of the neck, and in troducing a wire into it, we found it possess ed of a considerable quantity of electricity, which was discharged by a snap and spark. This bottle had lain near seven months on a shelf, in a closet, in contact with bodies that would undoubtedly have carried off all its electricity, if it could have come readily through the glass. Yet as the quantity ma nifested by the discharge was not apparently so great as might have been expected from a bottle of that size well charged, some doubt remained whether part had escaped while the neck was sealing, or had since, by degrees, soaked through the glass. But an experiraent of Mr. Canton's, in which such a bottle was kept under water a week, without having its electricity in the least irapaired, seems to show, that when the glass is cold, though extremely thin, the electric fluid is well retained by it. As that ingenious and accurate experimenter raade a discovery, like yours, of the effect of heat in rendering thin glass permeable by that fluid, it is but doing hira justice to give you his account of it, in his own words, extracted frora his letter to me, in which he communi cated it, dated October 31, 1760, viz. " Having procured some thin glass balls, of about an inch and a half in diameter, with stems, or tubes, of eight or nine inches in length, I electrified them, some positively on the inside, and others negatively, after the manner of charging the Leyden bottle, and sealed thera hermetically. Soon after I ap plied the naked balls to ray electrometer, and could not discover the least sign of their be ing electrical, but holding them before the fire, at the distance of six or eight inches, they be-- came strongly electrical in a very short time, and more so when they were cooling. These balls will, every time they are heated, give the electrical fluid to, or take it from other bodies, according to the plus or minus state of it within them. Heating them frequently, I find will sensibly dirainish their power ; but keeping one of them under water a week did not appear in the least degree to impair it That which I kept under water, was charged on the 22d of Septeraber last, was.several times heated before it was kept in water, and has been heated frequently since, and yet it still retains its virtue to a very considerable de gree. The breaking two of my balls acci dentally gave me an opportunity of measuring their thickness, which I found to be between seven and eight parts in a thousand of an inch. " A down feather, in a thin glass ball, her. raetically sealed, wUl not be affected by the application of an excited tube, or the wire of a charged phial, unless the ball be consider- 308 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. ably heated ; and if a glass pane be heated till it begins to grow so^ and in that state be held between the wire of a charged phial, and the discharging wire, the course of the elec trical fluid will not be through the glass, but on the surface, round by the edge ofit" By this last experiment of Mr. Canton's, it appears, that though by a moderate heat, thin glass becomes, in some degree, a conductor of electricity, yet, when ofthe thickness of a coraraon pane, it is not, though in a state near melting, so good a conductor as to pass the shock of a discharged bottle. There are other conductors which suffer the electric fluid to pass through them gradually, and yet wUl not conduct a shock. For instance, a quire of paper wUl conduct through its whole length, so as to electrify a person, who, standing on wax, presents the paper to an electrified prirae conductor; but it will not conduct a shock even through its thickness only ; hence the shock either fails, or passes by rendering a hole in the paper. Thus a sieve will pass water gradually, but a streara frora a fire en gine would either be stopped by it, or tear a hole through it It should seera, that to raake glass perrae- able to the electric fluid, the heat should be proportioned to the thickness. You found the heat of boiling water, which is but 210, sufficient to render the extreme thin glass in a Florence flask permeable even to a shock. — Lord Charles Cavendish, by a very ingenious experiraent has found the heat of 400 requi site to render thicker glass permeable to the comraon current " A glass tube, (See the Plate) of which the part C B was solid, had wire thrust in each end, reaching to B and C. " A sraall wire was tied on at D, reaching to the floor, in order to carry off any electri city that might run along upon the tube. " The bent part was placed in an iron pot ; filled with iron filings ; a thermometer was also put into the filings : a lamp was placed under the pot ; and the whole was supported upon glass. " The wire A being electrified by a ma chine, before the heat was applied, the corks at E separated, at first upon the principle of the Leyden phial. " But after the part C B of the tube was heated to 600, the corks continued to sepa rate, though you discharged the electricity by touching the wire at E, the electrical ma chine continuing in raotion. " Upon letting the whole cool, the effect remained till the therraometer was sunk to 400." It were to be wished, that this noble philo sopher would coraraunicate more of his expe riments to the world, as he makes raany, and with great accuracy. You know I have always looked upon and mentioned the equal repulsion in cases of po sitive and of negative electricity, as a pheno menon difficult to be explained. I have some times, too, been inclined, with you, to resolve all into attraction ; but besides that attraction seems in itself as unintelligible as repulsion, there are some appearances of repulsion that I cannot so easUy explain by attraction ; this for one instance. When the pair of cork balls are suspended by flaxen threads, frora the end of the prime conductor, if you bring a rubbed glass tube near the conductor, but without totrching it, you see the balls separate, as be ing electrified positively ; and yet you have communicated no electricity to the conductor, for, if you had, it would have remained there, after withdrawing the tube ; but the closing of the balls immediately thereupon, shows tliat the conductor has no more left in it than its. natural quantity. Then again approach ing the conductor with the rubbed tube, if, whUe the balls are separated, you touch with a finger that end of the conductor to which they hang, they will come together again, as being, with that part ofthe conductor, brought to the sarae state with your finger, i. e. the natural state. But the other end of the con ductor, near which the tube is held, is not in that state, but in the negative state, as appears on removing the tube ; for then part ofthe na tural quantity left at the end near tbe baUs, leaving that end to supply what is wanting at the other, the whole conductor is found to be equally in the negative state. Does not this indicate that the electricity of the rubbed tube had repelled the electric fluid, which was diffused in the conductor whUe in its na tural state, and forced it to quit the end to which the balls were suspended 1 I own I find it difficult to account for its quitting that end on the approach of the rubbed tube, but on the supposition of repulsion ; for, while the conductor was in the same state with the air, i. e. the natural state, it does not seera to me easy to suppose, that an attraction sliould sud denly take place between the air and the na tural quantity of the electric fluid in the con ductor, so as to draw it to, and accumulate it on the end opposite to that approached bv tbe tube ; since bodies, possessing only tlieir na tural quantity of that fluid, are not usually seen to attract each other, or to affect mutu ally the quantities of electricity each contains. There are likewise appearances of repulsion in other part? of nature. Not to mention the violent force with which the particles of wa ter, heated to a certain degree, separate from each other, or those of gunpowder, when touched with the smallest spark of fire, there is the seeming repulsion between the same poles ofthe magnet, a body containing a sub tle raoveable fluid in many respects analogous to the electric fluid. If two magnets are so suspended by strings, as that their poles of PHILOSOPHICAL. 309 the same denomination are opposite to each other, they will separate, and continue so ; or if you lay a magnetic steel bar on a sraooth table, and approach it with another parallel to it, the poles of both in the sarae position, the first will recede from the second so as to avoid the contact, and may thus be pushed (or at least appear to be pushed) off the table. Can this be ascribed to the attrac tion of any surrounding body or matter draw ing them asunder, or drawing the one away from the other 1 If not, and repulsion exists in nature, and in magnetisra, why may it not exist in electricity l We should not, indeed, multiply causes in philosophy without neces sity ; and tbe greater simplicity of your hypo thesis would recommend it to rae, if I could see that all appearances would be solved by it But I find, or think I find, the two causes more convenient than one of thera alone. — Thus I raight solve the circular motion of your horizontal stick, supported on a pivot, with two pins at their ends, pointing contra ry ways, and moving in the sarae direction when electrified, whether positively or ne gatively: when positively, the air opposite to the points being electrised positively, re pels the points ; when negatively, the air oppo site to the points being also, by their means, electrised negatively, attraction takes place between the electricity in the air behind the heads ofthe pins, and the negative pins, and so they are, in this case, drawn in the same direction that in the otber they were driven. — You see I am willing to raeet you halfway, a complaisance I have not raet with in our brother Nollet, or any other hypothesis-maker, and therefore may value rayself a little upon it, especially as they say I have some ability in defending even the wrong side of a ques tion, when I think fit to take it in hand. What you give as an established law ofthe electric fluid, " That quantities of different densities rautually attract each other, in order to restore the equUibrium," is, I think, not well founded, or else not well expressed. T wo large cork balls, suspended by sUk strings, and both well and equally electrified, separate to a great distance. By bringmg into contact with one of thera another ball ofthe same size, suspended likewise by silk, you will take from it half its electricity. It will then, in deed, hang at a less distance frora the other, but the full and the half quantities wUl not appear to attract each other, that is, the balls will not come together. Indeed, I do not know any proof we have, that one quantity of electric fluid is attracted by another quan tity of that fluid, whatever difference there may be in their densities. And, supposing in nature, a mutual attraction between two parcels of any kind of matter, it would be strange if this attraction should subsist strong ly whUe those parcels were unequal, and cease when raore matter of the same kuid was ad ded to the smaUest parcel, so as to make it equal to the biggest By all the laws of at traction in matter, that we are acquainted with, the attraction is stronger in proportion to the increase of the masses, and never in proportion to the difference of the masses. I should rather think the law would be, " That the electric fluid is attracted strongly by all other matter that we know of, while the parts of that fluid mutually repel each other." Hence its being equally diffused (except in particular circumstances) throughout all other matter. But this you jokingly call " electri cal orthodoxy." It is so with some at present, but not with all; and, perhaps, it raay not al ways be orthodoxy with any body. Opinions are continually varymg, where we cannot have mathematical evidence of the nature of things: and they must vary. Nor is that va riation without its use, since it occasions a more thorough discussion, whereby error is often dissipated, true knowledge is increased, and its principles become better understood and raore firraly established. Air should have, as you observe, "its share ofthe coraraon stock of electricity, as well as glass, and, perhaps, all other electricsper se." But I suppose, that, like thera, it does not easily part with what it has, or receive more, unless when mixed with some non-electric, as raoisture for instance, of which there is some in our driest air. This, however, i^ only a supposition ; and your experiment of restor ing electricity to a negatively electrised per son, by extending his arm upwards into the air with a needle between his fingers, on the point of which light may be seen in the night, is, indeed, a curious one. In this town the air is generally moister than with us, and here I have seen Mr. Canton electrify the air in one roora positively, and in another, which coraraunicated by a door, he has electrised the air negatively. The difference was easUy discovered by his cork balls, as he passed out of one roora into another. — Pere Beccaria, too, has a pretty experiraent, which shows that air may be electrised. Suspending a pair of sraall light balls, by flaxen threads, to the end ofhis prirae conductor, he turns his globe sorae time, electrising positively, tbe balls diverging and continuing separate all the tirae. Then he presents the point of a needle to his conductor, which gradually drawing off the electric fluid, the balls ap proach each other and touch, before all is drawn from the conductor ; opening again as more is drawn off, and separating nearly as wide as at flrst, when the conductor is reduced to the natural state. By this it appears, that when the balls came together, the air sur rounding the balls was just as rauch electrised as the conductor at that time ; and more than the conductor, when that was reduced to its 810 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. natural state. For the balls, though in the natural state, will diverge, when the air that surrounds them is electrised plus or minus, as well as when that is in its natural state and they are electrised plus or minus themselves. I foresee that you will apply this experiment to the support of your hypothesis, and I think you may make a good deal of it. It was a curious inquiry of yours. Whether the electricity of the air, in clear dry weather, be of the same density at the height of two or three hundred yards, as near the surface of the earth ? — and I ara glad you made the experiment. Upon reflection, it should seera probable, that whether the general state of atraosphere at any time be positive or nega tive, that part ofit which is next the earth will be nearer the natural state, by having given to the earth in one case, or having received from it in the other. In electrising the afr of a roora, that which is nearest the walls, or floor, is least altered. There is only one small ambiguity in the experiment, which may be cleared by more trials ; it arises from the supposition that bodies may be electrised positively by the friction of air blowing strong ly on them, as it does on the kite and its string. If at some times the electricity ap pears to be negative, as that friction is the same, the effect must be as from a negative state of the upper air. I am rauch pleased with your electrical therraometer, and the experiraents you have made with it I forraerly satisfied myself by an experiment with my phial and syphon, tliat the elasticity of the air was not increased by the mere existence of an electric atmo sphere within the phial ; but I did not know, till you now inforra me, that heat may be given to it by an electric explosion. The con tinuance of its rarefaction, for sorae tirae after the discharge of your glass jar and of your case of bottles, seera to raake this clear. The other experiments on wet paper, wet thread, green grass, and green wood, are not so satis factory ; as possibly the reducing part of the moisture to vapour, by the electric fiuid pass ing through it, might occasion some expan sion which would be gradually reduced by the condensation of such vapour. The fine sUver thread, the very sraall brass wire, and the strip of gilt paper, are also subject to a sirai- lar objection, as even metals, in such circum stances, are often partly reduced to smoke, particularly the gilding on paper. But your subsequent beautiful experiment on the wire, which you made hot by the elec tric explosion, and in that state fired gunpow der with it, puts it out of all question, that heat if produced by our artificial electricity, and that the melting of metals in that way, is not by what I forraerly called a cold fusion. A late instance here, of the raelting a bell- wire, in a house struck by lightning, and parts of the wire burning holes in the floor on which they fell, has proved the same with regard to the electricity of nature. I was too easily led into that error by'accounts given, even in philosophical books, and frora remote ages downwards, of melting money in purses, swords in scabbards, &c. without burning the inflammable matters that were so near those melted raetals. But men are, in general, such careless observers, that a phUosopher cannot be too rauch on his guard in crediting their relations of things extraordinary, and should never build an hypothesis on any thing but clear facts and experiraents, or it will be in danger of soon falling, as this does, like a house of cards. How raany ways there are of kindling fire, or producing heat in bodies ! By the sun's rays, by collision, by friction, by hammering, by putrefaction, by fermentation, by mixtures of fluids, by mixtures of solids with fluids, and by electricity. And yet the fire when pro duced, though in different bodies it may differ in circurastances, as in colour, vehemence, &c. yet in the sarae bodies it is generally the same. Does not this seem to indicate that the fire existed in the body, though in a quiescent state, before it was by any of these raeans ex cited, disengaged, and brought forth to action and to view ? May it not constitute a part, and even a principle part of the solid substance of bodies 1 If this should be the case, kindling fire in a body would be nothing more than de veloping this inflammable principle, and set ting it at liberty to act in separating the parts of that body, which then exhibits the appear ances of scorching, melting, burning, &c. When a man lights a hundred candles from the flame of one, without dirainishing that flarae, can it be properly said to have commu nicated all that fire ? When a single spark frora a flint, applied to a raagazine of gunpow der, is iraraediately attended with this conse quence, that the whole is in flame, exploding with imraense violence, could all this fire ex ist first in the spark 1 We cannot conceive it And thus we seem led to this supposition, that there is fire enough in all bodies to singe, melt, or burn them, whenever it is, by any means, set at liberty, so that it raay exert itself upon thera, or be disengaged from them. This liberty seeras to be afforded it by t; e passage of electricity through them, which we know can and does, of itself, separate the parts even of water ; and perhaps the imme diate appearances of fire are only the effects of such separations 1 If so, there would be no need of supposing that the electric fluid heats itself by the swiftness of its motion, or heats bodies by the resistance it meets with in passing tiirough them. They would, only be heated in proportion as such separation could be raore easUy made. Thus a melting heat cannot be given to a large wire in the flame PHILOSOPHICAL 311 of a candle, though it may to a small one; and this not because the large wire resists less that action of the flame which tends to separate its parts, but because it resists it more than the sraaller wire ; or because the force being divided among more parts acts weaker on each. This reminds me, however, of a little ex periment I have frequently made, that shows, at one operation, the different effects of the same quantity of electric fluid passing through different quantities of metal. A strip of tin- foU, three inches long, a quarter of an inch wide at one end, and tapering all the way to a sharp point at the other, fixed between two pieces of glass, and having the electricity of a large glass jar sent through it, wUl not be discomposed in the broadest part ; towards the middle will appear melted in spots; where narrower, it will be quite melted ; and about half an inch of it next the point will be reduced to smoke. You were not mistaken in supposing that your account of the effect of the pointed rod, in securing Mr. West's house frora damage by a stroke of lightning, would give me great pleasure. I thank you for it most heartily, and for the pains you have taken in giving me so complete a description of its si tuation, form, and substance, with the draft of the raelted point. There is one circurastance, viz. that the lightning was seen to diffuse it self from the foot of the rod over the wet pave ment which seeras, I think, to indicate that the earth under the paveraent was very dry, and that the rod should have been sunk deep er, till it carae to earth moister, and therefore apter to receive and dissipate the electric flu id. And although, in this instance, a conduct or formed of nail rods, not much above a quar ter of an inch thick, served well to convey the lightning, yet some accounts I have seen from Carolina, give reason to think that larger may be sometimes necessary, at least for the security ofthe conductor itself, which when too smaU, may be destroyed in executing its office, though it does, at the same tirae, pre serve the house. Indeed, in the construction of an instruraent so new, and of which we could have so little experience, it is rather lucky that we should at first be so near the truth as we seem to be, and commit so few errors. There is another reason for sinking deeper the lower end of the rod, and also for turning it outwards under ground to some distance from the foundation; it is this, that water dripping from the eaves falls near the founda tion, and soraetimes soaks down there in greater quantities, so as to corae near the end ofthe rod, though the ground about it be dri er. In such case, this water raay be exploded, that is, blown into vapour, whereby a force is generated, that may damage the foundation. Water reduced to vapour, is said to occupy 14,000 times its forraer space. I have sent a charge through a small glass tube, that has borne it well whUe empty, but when filled first with water, was shattered to pieces and driven all about the roora : — finding no part of the water on the table, I suspected it to have been reduced to vapour ; and was con firmed in that suspicion afterwards, when I had fiUed a like piece of tube with ink, and laid it on a sheet of clean paper, whereon, after the explosion, I could find neither any mois ture nor any sully frora the ink. This expe riment of the explosion of water, which I be lieve was first raade by that most ingenious electrician, father Beccaria, may account for what we sometimes see in a tree struck by lightning, when part of it is reduced to fine splinters like a broom ; the sap vessels being so many tubes containing a watery fluid, which, when reduced to vapour, rends every tube lengthways. And perhaps it is this ra refaction of the fluids in animal bodies killed by lightning or electricity, that, by separating its fibres, renders the flesh so tender, and apt so much sooner to putrefy. I think too, that much of the damage done by lightning to stone and brick walls raay soraetimes be owing to the explosion of water, found, during showers, running or lodging in the joints of small cavities or cracks that happen to be in the walls. Here are some electricians that recomraend knobs instead of points on the upper end of the rods, from a supposition that the points in vite tbe stroke. It is true that points draw electricity at greater distances in the gradual silent way ; but knobs will draw at the great est distance a stroke. There is an experi ment that will settle this. Take a crooked wire of the thickness of a quill, and of such a length as that one end of it being applied to the lower part of a charged bottle, the upper raay be brought near the ball on the top of the wire that is in the bottle. Let one end of this wire be furnished with a knob, and the other may be gradually tapered to a fine point When the point is presented to discharge the bottle, it must be brought much nearer before it will receive the stroke, than the knob re quires to be. Points besides tend to repel the fragments of an electrised cloud, knobs draw thera nearer. An experiment, which I be lieve I have shown you, of cotton fleece hanging from an electrised body, shows this clearly when a point or a knob is presented under it You seera to think highly ofthe iraportance of this discovery, as do raany others on our side of the water. Here it is very little re garded ; so little, that though it is now seven or eight years since it was made public, I have not heard of a single house as yet at tempted to be secured by it It is true the 312 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. mischiefs done by lightning are not so fre quent here as with us, and those who calcu late chances may perhaps find that not one death (or the destruction of one house) in a hundred thousand happens from that cause, and that therefore it is scarce worth while to be at any expense to guard against it — But in all countries there are particular situations of buildings more exposed than others to such accidents, and there are minds so strongly ira- pressed with the apprehension of them, as to be very unhappy every time a little thunder is within their hearing ; it may therefore be well to render this little piece of new know ledge as general and as well understood as possible, since to make us safe is not all its advantage, it is some to make us easy. And as the stroke it secures us from might have chanced perhaps but once in our lives, while it may relieve us a hundred times from those painful apprehensions, the latter may possibly on the whole contribute raore to the happiness of mankind than the former. Your kind wishes and congratulations are very obliging. I return them cordially ; — be ing, with great regard and esteem, B. FRANKLIN." Effects of Lightning in Carolina, Referred to in the preceding Letter — of the ef fects of Lightning on two ofthe rods commonly affixed to houses there, for securing them against Lightning. " Charleston, Nov 1, 1760. ¦ It is sorae years since Mr. Ra ven's rod was struck by lightning. I hear an account of it was published at the time, but I cannot find it According to the best information I can now get he had fi.xed to the outside ofhis chimney a large iron rod, seve ral feet in length, reaching above the chim ney ; and to the top of this rod the points were fixed. Frora the lower end of this rod, a small brass wire was continued down to the top of another iron rod driven into the earth. On the ground-floor in the chimney stood a gun, leaning against the hack wall, nearly opposite to where the brass wire carae down on the outside. The lightning fell upon the points, did no damage to the rod they were fixed to ; but the brass wire, all down till it came opposite to the top of the gun-barrel, was destroyed.* There the lightning made a hole through the wall or back of the chim ney, to get to the gun-barrel,t down which it seeras to have passed, as, although it did not hurt the barrel, it damaged the butt of the stock, and blew up sorae bricks of the hearth. The brass wire below the hole in the wall * -\ proof that it was not of suflicient substance to conduct with safety to itself (though with safety sofar to the wall) so large a quantity ofthe electric fluid. t A more substantial conductor remained good. No other damage, as I can learn, was done to the house. I am told the sarae house had forraerly been struck by light ning, and rauch daraaged, before these rods were invented." Mr. WUliam Maine's Account of the Effects of the lAghtning on his Rod, dated at In dian Land, in South Carolina, August 28, 1760. " I HAD a set of electrical points, consist ing of three prongs, of large brass wire tipt with sUver, and perfectly sharp, each about seven inches long; these were rivetted at equal distances into an iron nut about three quarters of an inch square, and opened at top equally to the distance of six or seven inches from point to point in a regular triangle. This nut was screwed very tight on the top of an iron rod of above half an inch diameter, or the thickness of a coraraon curtain-rod, composed of several joints, annexed by hooks turned at the ends of each joint, and the whole fixed to the chimney of my house by iron sta ples. The points were elevated {a) six or seven inches above the top of the chimney ; and the lower joint sunk three feet in the earth, in a perpendicular direction. Thus stood the points on Tuesday last about five in the evening, when the lightning broke with a violent explosion on the chimney, cut the rod square off just under the nut and I am persuaded, melted the points, nut and top of the rod, entirely up ; as after the most diligent search, nothing of either was found (b,) and tlie top of the remaining rod was cased over wilh a congealed solder. The lightning ran down the rod, starting almost all tlie staples (c,) and unhooking the joints without affecting the rod {d,) except on the inside of each hook where the joints were coupled, the surface of v.'hich was melted (e,) and left as cased over with solder. — No part ofthe chimney was damaged (/,) only at the foundation {g.) where it was shattered alraost quite round, and several bricks were torn out (A.) Considerable cavities were made in the earth quite round the foun dation, but most within eight or nine inches of the rod. It also shattered the bottom wea ther-board (?",) at one corner of the house, and raade a large hole in the earth by the corner post On the other side of the chiraney, it ploughed up several furrows in the earth, some yards in length. It ran down the inside of the chiraney (A.) carrying only soot with it ; and filled the whole house with its flash, {I,) sraoke, and dust It tore up the hearth in several places {m,) and broke sorae pieces of china in the boeufet()i,) A copper tea kettle standing in the chimney was beat to gether, as if some great weight had fallen upon it (o ;) and three holes, each about half an inch diameter, melted through the bottom PHILOSOPHICAL. 313 (j).) What seems to me the most surprising is, that the hearth under the kettle was not hurt yet the bottom of the kettle was drove inward, as if the lightning proceeded from under it upwards {q,) and the cover was thrown to the middle of the floor (r.) The fire dogs, an iron loggerhead, an Indian pot, an earthen cup, and a cat, were all in the chim ney at the time unhurt, though a great part of the hearth was torn up (s.) My wife's sister, two children, and a negro wench, were all who happened to be in the house at the time : the first, and one child sat within five feet of the chiraney ; and were, so stunned, thatthey never saw the lightning nor heard the explo sion ; the wench, with the other chUd in her arms, sitting at a greater distance, was sensi ble of both; though everyone was so stunned that they did not recover for sorae tirae ; how ever it pleased God that no farther raischief ensued. The kitchen, at 90 feet distance, was full of negroes, who were all sensible of the shock ; and sorae of them tell me, that they felt the rod about a minute after, when it was so hot that they could not bear it in hand. Remarks by Dr. Franklin. The foregoing very sensible and distinct account raay afford a good deal of instruction relating to the nature and effects of lightning, and to the construction and use of this instru ment for averting the mischiefs of it Like other new instruments, this appears to have been at first in sorae respects imperfect ; and we find that we are, in this as in others, to expect improvement from experience chiefly : but there seems to be nothing in the account, that should discourage us in the use of it ; since at the same time that its imperfections are discovered, the means of removing them are pretty easily to be learnt from the circum stances of the account itself; and its utility upon the whole is manifest One intention of the pointed rod, is, to pre vent a stroke of lightning. {See pages 289, 296.) But to have a better chance of obtain ing this end, the points should not be too near to the top of the chimney or highest parts of the building to which they are affixed, but should be extended five or six feet above it ; otherwise their operation in silently drawing off the fire (from such fragraents of cloud as float in the air between the great body of cloud and tbe earth) will be prevented. For the experiment with the lock of cotton hanging below the electrified prirae conductor shows, that a finger under it, being a blunt body, ex tends the cotton, drawing its lower part down wards ; when a needle, with its point present ed to the cotton, makes it fly up again to the prirae conductor ; and that this effect is strong est when as much of the needle as possible appears above the end of the finger ; grows Vol. II. ... 2 R 27 weaker as the needle is shortened between the finger and thumb; and is reduced to nothing when only a short part below the point ap pears above the finger. Now it seeras the points of Mr. Maine's rod were elevated only {a) six or seven inches above the top of the chimney ; which, considering the bulk of the chiraney and the house, was too sraall an ele vation. For the great body of the matter near thera would hinder their being easUy brought into a negative state by the repulsive power ofthe electrised cloud, in which negative state it is that they attract most strongly and copi ously the electric fluid from other bodies, and convey it into the earth. {b) Nothing of the points, (^c. could be found. This is a common effect {Seepage 297.) Where the quantity of the electric fluid passing is too great for the conductor through which it passes, the metal is either raelted, or reduced to smoke and dissipated ; but where the conductor is sufficiently large, the fluid passes in it without hurting it. Thus these three wires were destroyed, while the rod to which they were fixed, being of greater substance, reraained unhurt ; its end only, to which they were joined, being a little melted, sorae of the melted part of the lower ends of those wires uniting with it, and appearing on it like solder. (c) {d) (e) As the several parts of the rod were connected only by the ends being bent round into hooks, tbe contact between hook and hook was much smaller than the rod ; therefore the current through the metal being confined in those narrow passages, melted part of the metal, as appeared on examining the inside of each hook. Where metal is melted by lightning, some part of it is generally ex ploded ; and these explosions in the joints ap pear to have been the cause of unhooking thera ; and, hy that violent action, of starting also most of the staples. We learn from hence, that a rod in one continued piece is preferable to one composed of links or parts hooked together. {f) No part ofthe chimney was damaged ; because the lightning passed in the rod. And this instance agrees with others in showing, that the second and principal intention of the rods is obtainable, viz. thai of conducting the lightning. In all the instances yet known of the lightning's falling on any house guarded by rods, it has pitched down upon the point of the rod, and has not fallen upon any other part ofthe house. Had the lightning fallen on this chiraney, unfurnished with a rod, it would probably have rent it from top to bot tom, as we see, by tho effects ofthe lightning on the points and rod, that its quantity was very great ; and we know that many chim neys have been so demolished. But no pa' of this was damaged, only (/) {g) {h) at the foundation, where it was shattered and se- 314 FRANICLIN'S WORKS. veral bricks torn out. Here we learn the principal defect in fixing this rod. The lower joint being sunk but three feet into the earth, did not it seems go low enough to corae at water, or a large body of earth so moist as to receive readily from its end the quantity it conducted. The electric fluid, therefore, thus accumulated near the lower end of the rod, quitted it at the surface of the earth, di viding in search of other passages. Part of it tore up the surface in furrows, and made holes in it : part entered the bricks of the foundation, which being near the earth are generally moist, and, in exploding that moist ure, shattered thera. (See page 311.) Part went through or under the foundation, and got under the hearth, blowing up great part ofthe bricks (m) (s), and producing the other effects (o) {p) {q) if). The iron dogs, log gerhead, and iron pot were not hurt being of sufficient substance, and they probably pro tected the cat. The copper tea-kettle being thin suffered some damage. Perhaps, though found on a sound part of the hearth, it might at the time of the stroke have stood on the part blown up, which will account both for the bruising and melting. Thatit ran down the inside ofthe chimney (Ji) I apprehend raust be a raistake. Had it done so, I imagine it would have brought something more than soot with it; it would probably have ripped off the pargetting, and brought down fragments of plaster and bricks. The shake, from tbe explosion on the rod, was sufficient to shake down a good deal of loose soot Lightning does not usually enter houses by the doors, windows, or chimneys, as open passages, in the manner that air enters them : its nature is, to be attracted by sub stances, that are conductors of electricity ; it penetrates and passes in them, and, if they are not good conductors as are neither wood, brick, stone nor plaster, it is apt to rend thera in its passage. It would not easily pass through the air from a cloud to a building were it not for tlie aid afforded it in its pas sage by intervening fragments of clouds be low the main body, or by the falling rain. It is said that the house was filled wilh its flash {l). Expressions like this are common in accounts of the effects of lightning, from which we are apt to understand that the light ning filled the house. Our language indeed seems to want a word to express the light of lightning as distinct from the lightning itself When a tree on a hill is struck by it the lightning of that stroke exists only in a nar row vein between the cloud and tree, but its light fills a vast space raany railes round ; and people at the greatest dist.ince from it are apt to say, " The lightning came into our rooms through our windows." As it is in it self extremely bright it cannot, when so near as to strike a house, fail illurainating highly every roora in it through the windows ; and this I suppose to have been the case at Mr. Maine's; and Ihat, except in and near the hearth, from the causes above-mentioned, it was not in any other part of the house ; the flash meaning no raore than the light of the lightning. It is for want of considering this difference, that people suppose there is a kind of lightning not attended with thunder. In fact there is probably a loud explosion ac companying every flash of lightning, and at the same instant ; — but as sound travels slower than light we often hear the sound some se conds of time after having seen the light; and as sound does not travel so far as light, we sometiraes see the light at a distance too great to hear the sound. (n) The breaking some pieces of china in the bcBufet, raay nevertheless seem to indicate that the lightning was there : but as there is no raention of its having hurt any part of the boeufet or of the walls of the house, I should rather ascribe that effect to the con cussion of tlie air, or shake of the house by the explosion. Thus, to rae it appears, thai the house and its inhabitants were saved by the rod, though the rod itself was unjointed by the stroke ; and that if it had been made of one piece, and sunk deeper in the earth, or had entered the earth at a greater distance from the foun dation, the mentioned small damages (except the melting of the points) would not have happened. Dr. Heberden, London. On the Electricity of the Tourmalin. Craven-street, June 7. 1759. I NOW return the smallest of your tourma lins, with hearty thanks for the kind present ofthe other, which though I value highly for its rare and wonderful properties, I shall ever esteera it raore for the friendship I am honour ed with by the giver. I hear that the negative electricity of one side of the tourmalin, when heated, is abso lutely denied (and all tliat has been related of it ascribed to prejudice in favour of a system) by some ingenious gentleraen abroad, who profess to have made the experiraents on the stone with care and exactness. The experi raents have succeeded differently with me ; yet I would not call the accuracy of these gentleraen in question. Possibly the tour malins they have tried were not properly cut; so that the positive and negative powers were obliquely placed, or in some manner vvhereby their effects were confused, or the negative parts more easily supplied by the positive. — Perhaps the lapidaries who have hitherto cut these stones, had no regard to the situation of the two powers, but chose to make the faces of the stone where they could obtain the gi'eat- PHILOSOPHICAL. 315 est breadth, or some other advantage in the form. If any of these stones, in their natural state, can be procured here, I think it would be right to endeavour finding, before they are cut the two sides that contain the opposite powers, and raake the faces there. Possibly in that case, the effects might be stronger, and raore distinct; for though both these stones that I have examined have evidently the two properties, yet without the fuU heat given by boiling water, they are soraewhat confused; the virtue seeras strongest towards one end of the face ; and in the middle, or near the other end, scarce discernible ; and the negative, I think, always weaker than the positive. I have had the large one new cut, so as to make both sides alike, and find the change of form has made no change of power, but the properties of each side remain the same as I found thera before. — It is now set in a ring in such a manner as to turn on an axis, that I raay conveniently, in making experiments, come at both sides ofthe stone. The little rira of gold it is set in, has raade no alteration in its effects. The warmth of my finger, when I wear it, is sufficient to give it some degree of electricity, so that it is always ready to at tract light bodies. The following experiments have satisfied me that M. ^pinus's account of the positive and negative states of the opposite sides of the heated tourmalin is vt'ell founded. I heated the large stone in boiling water. As soon as it was dry, I brought it near a very small cork ball, that was suspended by a sUk thread. The ball was attracted by one face of the stone, which I call A, and then repelled. The ball in that state was also repelled by the positively charged wire of a phial, and at tracted by the other side of the stone, B. The stone being heated afresh, and the side B brought near the ball, it was first attracted and presently after repelled by that side. In this second state it was repelled by the negatively charged wire of a phial. Therefore, if the principles now general ly received, relating to positive and negative electricity, are true, the side A of the large stone, when the stone is heated in water, is in a positive state of electricity ; and the side B, in a negative state. The same experiments being made with the small stone stuck by one edge on the end of a sm!ill glass tube, with sealing-wax, the same effects are produced. The flat side of the small stone gives the signs of positive electricity ; the high side gives the signs of negative electricity. Again : I suspended thesmall stone by a sUk thread. j I heated it as it hung, in boiling water. | I I heated the large one in boiling water. Then I brought the large stone near to the suspended small one. Which immediately turned its flat side to the side B of the large stone, and would cling to it I turned the ring, so as to present the side A of the large stone, to the flat side of the small one. The flat side was repelled, and the small stone, turning quick, applied its high side to the side A ofthe large one. This was precisely what ought to happen, on the supposition that the flat side of the small stone, when heated in water, is positive, and the high side negative ; the side A of the large stone positive, and the side B nega tive. The effect was apparently the sameas would have been produced, if one magnet had been suspended by a thread, and the different poles of another brought alternately near it I find that the face A, of the large stone, being coated with leaf-gold (attached by the white of an egg, which will bear dipping in hot water) becomes quicker and stronger in its effect on the cork ball, repelling it the in stant it comes in contact; which I suppose to be occasioned by the united force of the differ ent parts ofthe face, collected and acting to gether through the metal. B. FRANKLIN. Professor Winthrop to B. Franklin. New Observation relating to Electricity in the Atmospliere. Cambridge, {Massachusetts,) Sept. 29, 1762. There is an observation relating to elec tricity in the atmosphere, which seemed new to me, though perhaps it will not to you : how ever, I wUl venture to mention it I have sorae points on the top of my house, and the wire where it passes within-side the house is furnished with bells, according to your me thod, to give notice of the passage of the elec tric fluid. In summer, these bells, generally ring at the approach of a thunder-cloud ; but cease soon after it begins to rain. In winter, they sometimes, though not very often, ring while it is snowing ; but never, that I remem ber, when it rains. But what was unexpect ed to me was, that, though the bells had not rung whUe it was snowing, yet, the next day, after it had done snowing, and the weather was cleared up, while the snow was driven about by a high wind at W. or N. W. the bells rung for several hours (though with little in termissions) as briskly as ever I knew them, and I drew considerable sparks frora the wire. The phenomenon I never observed but twice, viz. on the 31st of January, 1760, and the 3d of March, 1762.— I am, sir, &c. 316 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. A. Small, of London, to Dr. Franklin. Flash of Lightning that struck St. Bride's Steeple. I HAVE just recollected that in one of our great storras of lightning, I saw an appear ance, which I never observed before, nor ever heard described. I ara persuaded that I saw the flash which struck St. Bride's steeple. Sitting at ray window, and looking to the north, I saw what appeared to me a solid strait rod of tire, moving at a very sharp angle with the horizon. It appeared to my eye as about two inches diameter, and had nothing of the zig-zag lightning motion. I instantly told a person sitting with me, that some place must be struck at that instant. I was so much sur prised at the vivid distinct appearance of the fire, that I did not hear the clap of thunder, which stunned every one besides. Consider ing how low it moved, I could not have thought it had gone so far, having St Mar tin's, the New Church, and St Clement's stee ples in its way. It struck the steeple a good way from the top, and the first impression it made in the side is in the same direction 1 saw it move in. It was succeeded by two flashes, almost united, moving in a pointed direction. There were two distinct houses struck in Essex-street I should have thought the rod would have fallen in Covent-Garden, it was so low. Perhaps the appearance is frequent, though never before seen by your's, ALEXANDER SMALL. To Peter Franklin, Newport. Best Method of securing a Powder Magazine from Lightning. You may acquaint tbe gentleman that desired you to inquire my opinion of the best method of securing a powder magazine frora lightning, that I think they cannot do better than to erect a raast not far frora it which may reach fifteen or twenty feet above the top of it, with a thick iron rod in one piece fastened to it, pointed at the highest end, and reaching down through the earth till it comes to water. Iron is a cheap metal ; but if it were dearer, as this is a public thing, the ex pense is insignificant ; therefore I would have the rod at least an inch thick, to allow for its gradually wasting by rust ; it will last as long as the raast and raay be renewed with it. The sharp point for five or six inches should be gilt But there is another circumstance of im portance to the strength, goodness, and use fulness of the powder, which does not seem to have been enough attended to : I mean the keeping it perfectly dry. For want of a me thod of doing this, rauch is spoiled in darap ma gazines, and much so damaged as to becorae of little value.— If, instead of barrels it were kept in cases of bottles well corked : or in largo tin canisters, with small covers shutting close by raeans of oiled paper between, or covering the joining on the canister ; or if in barrels, then the barrels lined with thin sheet lead ; no moisture in either of these methods could possibly enter the powder, since glass and raetals are both impervious to water. By the latter of these means you see tea is brought dry and crisp from China to Europe, and thence to America, though it comes all the way by sea in the damp hold of a ship And by this method, grain, meal, &c. if well dried before it is put up, may be kept for ages sound and good. There is another thing very proper to line small barrels with ; it is what they call tin foil, or leaf-tin, being tin milled between rol lers till it becomes as thin as paper, and raore pliant at the same time that its texture is ex tremely close. It may be applied to wood with common paste, raade with boiling-water thickened with fiour ; and, so laid on ; will lie very close and stick well : but I should prefer a hard sickly varnish for that purpose, made of linseed oil much boUed. The heads might be lined separately, the tin wrapping a little round their edges. The barrel, while the lining is laid on, should have the end hoops slack, so that the staves standing at a little distance from each other, may admit the head into its groove. The tin-foil should be plyed into tbe groove. Then, one head being put in, and that end hooped tight, the barrel would be fit to receive the powder, and when the other head is put in and the hoops drove up, the powder would be safe from moisture even if the barrel were kept under water. This tin-foU is but about eighteen pence sterling a pound, and is so extremely thin, that I imagine a pound of it would line three or four powder-barrels. — I am, &c. B. FRANKLIN. Of Lightning ; and the Methods now used in America for securing Buildings and Persons from its mischievous Effects. Experiments made in electricity first gave philosophers a suspicion, that tlie matter of lightning was the same with the electric mat ter. Experiments afterwards made on light ning obtained from the clouds by pointed rods, received into bottles, and subjected to every trial, have since proved this suspicion to be perfectly well founded ; and that whatever properties we rind in electricity, are also the properties of lightning. 'This matter of lightning, or of electricity, is an extreme subtle fluid, penetrating other bodies, and subsisting in them, equally dif fused. When by any operation of art or nature, there happens to be a greater proportion of this fluid in one body than in another, the body which has most will coraraunicate to that which has least, till the proportion be- PHILOSOPHICAL. 317 comes equal ; provided the distance between them be not too great ; or, if it is too great, tUl there be proper conductors to convey it from one to tbe other. If the communication be through the air without any conductor, a bright light is seen between the bodies, and a sound is heard. In our smaU experiments, we caU this light and sound the electric spark and snap ; but in the great operations of nature, the light is what we call lightning, and the sound (produced at the same, time, though generally arriving later at our ears than the light does to our eyes) is, with its echoes, called thunder. If the comraunication of this fluid is by a conductor, it raay be without either light or sound, the subtle fluid passing in the substance of the conductor. If the conductor be good and of sufficient bigness, the fluid passes through it without hurting it If otherwise, it is damaged or des troyed. All raetals, and water, are good conduc tors. — Other bodies may becorae conductors by having some quantity of water in them, as wood, and other materials used in building, but not having much water in them, they are not good conductors, and therefore are often damaged in the operation. Glass, wax, silk, wool, hair, feathers, and even wood, perfectly dry, are non-conductors : that is, they resist instead of facilitating the passage of this subtle fluid. When this fluid has an opportunity of passing through two conductors, one good and sufficient, as of metal, the other not so good, it passes in the best, and will foUow it in any direction. The distance at which a body charged with this fluid will discharge itself suddenly, strik ing through the air into another body that is not charged, or not so highly charged, is dif ferent according to the quantity of the fluid, the diraensions and form of the bodies them selves, and the state of the air between them. — This distance, whatever it happens to be, between any two bodies, is called their strik ing distance, as, till they come within that distance of each other, no stroke will be raade. The clouds have often raore of this fluid in proportion than the earth ; in which case, as soon as they come near enough (that is, with in the striking distance) or raeet with a con ductor, the fluid quits them and strikes into the earth. A cloud fully charged with this fluid, if so high as to be beyond the striking distance from the earth, passes quietly without making noise or giving light ; unless it meets with other clouds that have less. Tall trees and lofty bqildings, as the towers and spires of churches, become sometimes conductors between the clouds and the earth ; but not being good ones, that is, not convey ing the flijid freely, they are often danjoged. 27* Buildings thathave their roofs covered with lead, or other metal, the spouts of metal con tinued frora the roof into the ground to carry off the water, are never hurt by lightning, as, whenever it falls on such a buUding, it passes in the metals and not in the walls. When other buildings happen to be within the striking distance from such clouds, the fluid passes in the walls, whether of wood, brick, or stone, quitting the" walls only when it can find better conductors near thera, as metal rods, bolts, and hmges of windows or doors, gilding on wainscot or frames of pic tures, the silvering on the backs of looking glasses, the wires for bells, and the bodies of animals, as containing watery fluids. And in passing through the house, it follows the di rection of these conductors, taking as many in its way as can assist it in its passage, whether in a strait or crooked line, leaping from one to the other, if not far distant frora each other, only rending the wall in the spaces where these partial good conductors are too distant frora each other. An iron rod being placed on the outside of a building, from the highest part continued down into the moist earth, in any direction strait or crooked, following the form of the roof or parts ofthe buUding, will receive the lightning at its upper end, attracting it so as to prevent its striking any other part ; and af fording it a good conveyance into the earth, will prevent its damaging any part of the buUding. A small quantity of metal is found able to conduct a great quantity of this fluid. A wire no bigger than a goose-quUl has been known to conduct (with safety to the building as far as the wire was continued) a quantity of lightning that did prodigious damage both above and below it ; and probably larger rods are not necessary, though it is common iq America, to raake them of half an inch, some of three quarters, or an inch diameter. The rod may be fastened to the wall, chim ney, &c. with staples of iron. — The lightning will not leave the rod (a good conductor) to pass into the wall (a bad conductor) through those staples. — It would rather, if any were in the walls, pass out of it into the rod to get more readUy by that conductor into the earth. If the buUding be very large and exten sive, two or more rods raay be placed at dif ferent parts, for greater security. Small ragged parts of clouds, suspended in the air between the great body of clouds and the earth (like leaf gold in electrical expe riments) often serve as partial conductors for the lightning, which proceeds frora one of them to another, and by their help comes within the striking distance to the earth or a building. It therefore strikes through those conductors a buUding that would otherwise be oat of |he gtril^jng distance. 318 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. Long sharp points communicating with the earth, and presented to such parts of clouds, drawing sUently from them the fluid they are charged with, they are then attracted to the cloud, and may leave the distance so great as to be beyond the reach of striking. It is therefore that we elevate the upper end of the rod six or eight feet above the highest part of the buUding, tapering it gra dually to a fine sharp point, which is gilt to prevent its rusting. Thus the pointed rod either prevents a stroke from the cloud, or, if a stroke is made, conducts it to the earth with safety to the buUding. The lower end ofthe rod should enter the earth so dfeep as to come at the moist part per haps two or three feet ; and if bent when under the surface so as to go in a horizontal line six or eight feet from the wall, and then bent again downwards three or four feet it wUl prevent damage to any of the stones of the founda tion. A person apprehensive of danger from lightning, happening during the time of thun der to be in a house not so secured, will do well to avoid sitting near the chiraney, near a looking-glass, or any gilt pictures or wains cot ; the safest place is the raiddle of the room (so it be not under a raetal lustre sus pended by a chain) sitting in one chair and laying the feet up in another. It is still safer to bring two or three raattrasses or beds into the middle ofthe room, and, folding them up double, place the chair upon them ; for they not being so good conductors as the walls, the lightning will not choose an interrupted course through the air of the room and the bedding, when it can go through a continued better conductor, the wall. But where it can be had, a hammoo or swinging bed, suspend ed by silk cords equally distant from the walls on every side, and frora the ceiling and floor above and belov,', affords the safest situation a person can have in any room whatever ; and what indeed may be deemed quite free frora danger of any stroke by lightning. B. FRANKLIN. Pans, Sept. 1767. in an age ofso rauch knowledge and free in quiry !" Professor Winthrop to Dr. Franklin. SI. Bride's Steeple. — Utility of Electrical con ductors to Steeples. — Singular kind of Glass Tube. January Clli, 1768. ¦' 1 HAVE read in the Philosophical Transactions the account of the effects of lightning on St. Bride's steeple. It is amaz ing to me, that after the full demonstration ycHi have given, of the identity of lightning and of electricity, and the power of metalline conductors, they should ever think of repair ing that steeple without such conductors.— How astonishing is the force of prejudice, even Answer to the above. It is perhaps not so extraordinary that unlearned men, such as commonly compose our church vesfries, should not yet be acquaint ed with, and sensible ofthe benefits of metal conductors in averting the stroke of lightning, and preserving our houses from its violent ef fects, or that they should be stUl prejudiced against the use of such conductors, when we see how long even phUosophers, men of ex tensive science and great ingenuity, can hold out against the evidence of new knowledge, that does not square with their preconcep tions; and how long men can retain a prac tice that is conforraable to tlieir prejudices, and expect a benefit frora such practice, though constant experience shows its inutility. A late piece ofthe Abbe Nollet, printed last year in the memoirs of the French Academy of Sciences, affords strong instances of this : for though the very relations he gives ofthe effects of lightning in several churches and other buUdings, show clearly, that it was con ducted frora one part to another by wires, gildings, and other pieces of metal that were within, or connected with the building, yet in the sarae paper he objects to the providing rae- talline conductors without the building, as useless or dangerous.* He cautions people not to ring the church bells during a tliunder storm, lest the lightning, in its way to the earth, should be conducted down to them by the bell ropes,! which are but bad conductors ; and yet is against fi.xing metal rods on the outside of the steeple, which are known to be much bet ter conductors, and which it would certainly choose to pass in rather than dry hemp. And * Notre curiosite pourroit peut.etre s'applaudir dps recherches qu'elle nous a fait faire sur la nature du ton- nerre. et sur la inecanisme do ses principaux elTets, mais ce n'est point ce qu'il y a de plus important ; il vaudroit bien mieux que nous puissions trouver quel. que moyen de nous en garantir ; on y a penso ; on s'est meme liatte d'avoir fait cette grande lU couvcne ; mais malheureuseinent douze annees d'epreuves et un peu de rt^fle.xion, nous apprennent qu'il ne faut pas compter sur les proinesses qu'on nous a faites. Je I'ai dit, il y a long temps, et avec regret, toutes ces pointes defer qu'on dresse en I'air, soil comme electroscopes, soit comme preservalifs, sont plus' propre a nous attirer le feu du tonnerre qu' a nous en preserver ; et je per- siste il dire que le projet d'epuiser une nue^e orageuse du feu dont elle est chargee, n'osi pas celui d'un phy- sicien. — Memoire sur les Effcts du Ti'iiiterre. t Les cloches, en virtu de leur betuiiictinn, dnivcnt Ocarler les orages et nous preserver des coups de foudre; mais I'eglise permet ;i la prudence huinaine le choixdes momens oii il convient d'user de ce preservatif Je ne sais si le son, considere physiqiieinenl. est capable ou non de faire crever une nuee ot de causer I'epanche- inent de son feu vers les objets terrestres, mais il est cer- taiiietprouve par I'experience, que la tonnerre pent toiii- ber sur nn clocher, soit que Ton y soune point ; et si cela nrrive dans le premier caa, les sonneiirs sont en grand danger, parcequ'ils tiennent des conies par lesquelles la commotion de la foudre pent se communiquer jnsq'a eux: il est done plus sage de laisser les cloches en re- pos quand I'ornge est arrivii au-dessus de I'eglise. — Ibid. PHILOSOPHICAL. 319 though for a thousand years past bells have been solemnly consecrated by the Romish church,* in expectation that the sound of such blessed bells would drive away those storms and secure our buildings from the stroke of lightning ; and during so long a period, it has not been found by experience, that plates with in the reach of such blessed sound, are safer than others where it is never heard ; but that on the contrary, the lightning seems to strike steeples of choice, and that at the very time the bells are ringing ; f yet stUl they conti nue to bless the new bells, and jangle the old ones whenever it thunders. — One would think it was now time to try sorae other trick ; — and ours is recoramended (whatever this able philosopher may have been told to the contra ry) by more than twelve years experience, wherein, araong the great number of houses furnished with iron rods in North America, not one so guarded has been materially hurt with lightning, and several have been evi dently preserved by their means ; while a nuraber of houses, churches, barns, ships, &c. in different places, unprovided with rods, have been struck and greatly daraaged, deraolished or burnt Probably the vestries of our Eng lish churches are not generally well acquaint ed with these facts ; otherwise, since as good protestants they have no faith in the blessing of bells, they would be less excusable in not providing this other security for their respect ive churches, and for the good people that raay happen to be asserabled in them during a terapest, especially as those buildings, from their greater height, are more exposed to the stroke of lightning than our comraon dwell ings. I have nothing new in the philosophical way to comraunicate to you, except what fol lows. When I was last year in Gerraany, I met with a singular kind of glass, being a tube about eight inches long, half an inch in diameter, with "a hollow ball of near an inch in diameter at one end, and one of an inch and half at the other, hermetically sealed, and half filled with water. — If one end is held in the * Suivant le rituel de Paris, lorsqu'on benit des cloches, on recite les oraisons suivantes : Benedic, Domine qitotiescumque sonuerit, procul recedat virtus insidianiiujn, umbra phantasmatis, in- cursio turbinum, percussio fulminum, Uesio tonitruum, calarnitas tempestatum, omnisque spiritus procellarmn.SfC. Deus, qui per beatum Moisen, S^c procul pel- lentur insidiiB inimici, fragor grandinum, procella tur binum, impetus tempestatum, temperentur infesta toni- trua, S;c. Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, SfC ut ante soni- turn ejus cffugentur ignita jacula inimici, percussio ful- minum, impetus lapidum, Itesic tempestatum, 8^c. t En 1718. M. Deslandes fit savoir ii I'Academie Royale des sciences, que la nuit du 14 on 15 d'Avril de la meme ann(';e, le tonnerre6toit tombe sur vingtquatre eglises, dequis Landernau jusqu'a Saint Pol-de-Leon en Bretagne ; que ces tglises etoient prtcisement celles oil I'on sonnoit, et que la foudre avoit 6pargne celles ou Ton ne sonnoit pas; que dans celle de Gouisnon, qui fut entierement ruinee, le tonnerre tau deux per sonnes de quatre oui sonnoient, &c.— flist. de PAc. R. des.Sci. 1719. / hand, and the other a little elevated above the level, a constant succession of large bubbles proceeds frora the end in the hand to the other end, making an appearance that puzzled me much, tUl I found that the space not filled with water was also free from air, and either filled with a subtle invisible vapour continu ally rising frora the water, and extreraely rarefiable by the least heat at one end, and condensable again by the least coolness at the other; or it is the very fluid of fire itself, which parting from the hand pervades the glass, and by its expansive force depresses the water till it can pass between it and the glass, and escape to the other end, where it gets through the glass again into the air. I am rather inclined to the first opinion, but doubtful between the two. An ingenious art ist here, Mr. Nairne, mathematical instru ment-maker, has made a nuraber of thera from mine, and improved them, for his are much raore sensible than those I brought frora Gerraany. — I bored a very small hole through the wainscot in the seat of my window, through which a little cold air constantly entered, while the air in the roora was kept warmer by fires daily made in it being winter time. I placed one of his glasses, with the elevated end against this hole ; and the bubbles from the other end, which was in a warmer situation, were continually passing day and night, to the no small surprise of even philosophical specta tors. Each bubble discharged is larger than that from which it proceeds, and yet that is not dimi nished ; and by adding itselfto the bubble at the other end, that bubble is not increased, which seems very paradoxical. When the balls at each end are made large, and the connecting tube very small and bent at right angles, so that the balls, instead of being at the ends, are brought on the side ofthe tube, and the tube is held so as that the balls are above it the water will be depressed in that which is held in the hand, and rise in the other as a jet or fountain ; when it is all in the other, it be gins to boU, as it were, by the vapour passing up through it ; and the instant it begins to boil, a sudden coldness is felt in the ball held ; a curious experiment, this, first observed and shown me by Mr. Nairne. There is some thing in it siraUar to the old observation, I think raentioned by Aristotle, that the bottom of a boUing pot is not warm ; and perhaps it may help to explain that fact ; — if indeed it be a fact. — When the water stands at an equal height in both these balls, and all at rest; if you wet one ofthe balls by means of a feather dipt in spirit, though that spirit is of the sarae tem perament as to heat and cold with the water in the glasses, yet the cold occasioned by the evaporation ofthe spirit from the wetted ball will so condense the vapour over the water contained in that ball, as that the water ofthe other ball wUl be pressed up into it, followed 320 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. by a succession of bubbles, tUl the spirit is all dried away. Perhaps the observations on these little instruments may suggest and be applied to some beneficial uses. It has been thought, that water reduced to vapour by heat was rarefied only fourteen thousand tiraes, and on this principle our engines for raising water by fire are said to be construct ed : but if the vapour so rauch rarefied from water, is capable of being itself still farther rarefied to a boundless degree by the applica tion of heat to the vessels or parts of vessels containing the vapour (as at first it is applied to those containing the water) perhaps a rauch greater power may be obtained, with little additional expense. Possibly too, the power of easily moving water from one end to the other of a moveable beam (suspended in the raiddle like a scale-beam) by a smaU degree of heat, may be applied advantE^eously to some other mechanical purposes. B. FRANKLIN. Experiments, Observations, and Facts, tend ing to support the Opinion of the utility of long pointed Rods, for securing Build ings from Damage by Strokes of Light ning.— ^ai at the committee appointed to consider the erection of conductors to secure the magazines at Purfleet, Aug. 27, 1772. EXPERIMENT I. The prime conductor of an electric ma chine, A, B (See the plate) being supported about 10 inches and a half above the table by a wa.x-stand, and under it erected a pointed wire 7 inches and a half high, and one fifth of an inch thick, and tapering to a sharp point, and communicating with the table; when the point (being uppermost) is covered by the end of a finger, the conductor raay be full chai'ged, and the electrometer, c, (Mr. Henley's) will rise to the height indicating a full charge: but the moment the point is un covered, the ball of the electrometer drops, showing the prime conductor to be instantly discharffed and nearly emptied of its electri city. Turn the wire its blunt end upwards (which represents an unpointed bar) and no such effect follows, the electrometer remain ing at its usual height when the prime con ductor is charged, OBSBRV.iVTION. Wliat quantity of lightning, a high pointed rod well communicating with the earth mny be expected to discharge frora the clouds si lently in a short time, is yet unknown ; but I have reason frora a particular fact to think it may at some times be very great In Phila delphia I had such a rod fixed to the top of my chimney, and extending about nine feet above it Frora the foot of this rod, a wire (the thickness of a goose-quUl) came through a covered glass tube in the roof, and down through the well of the staircase ; the lower end connected with the iron spear of a pump. On the staircase opposite to my chamber door, the wire was divided; the ends separat ed about six inches, a little bell on each end ; and between the bells a little brass ball sus pended by a silk thread, to play between and strike the bells when clouds passed with elec tricity in thera. After having frequently drawn sparks and charged bottles from the bell of the upper wire, I was one night awaked by loud cracks on the staircase. Starting up and opening the door, I perceiv ed that the brass ball instead of vibrating as usual between the bells, was repelled and kept at a distance from both ; whUe the fire passed sometiraes in very large quick cracks frora bell to bell ; and sometimes in a conti nued dense white stream, seemingly as large as my finger, whereby the whole staircase was enlighted as with sunshine, so that one might see to pick up a pin.* And from the apparent quantity thus discharged, I cannot but conceive that a numbeHf of such conduc tors must considerably lessen that of any ap proaching cloud, before it comes so near as to deliver its contents in a general stroke: — an effect not to be expected frora bars unpoint ed ; if the above experiment with the blunt end ofthe wire is deemed pertinent to the case. EXPERIMENT II. The pointed wire under the prime conduc tor continuing of the same height pinch it between the thumb and finger near tbe top, so as just to conceal the point; then turning the globe, the electrometer will rise and mark the full charge. Slip the fingers down so as to discover about half an inch of the wire, then another half inch, and then .another ; at every one of these motions discovering more and more of the pointed wire; you will see the electrometer fall quick and proportionably, stopping when you stop. If you slip dow"n the whole distance at once, the baD falls in stantly down to the stem. OBSERVATION. From this experiraent it seems that a greater effect m drawing off the lightaing * Mr. de Romnssaw still greater quantities of light ning brnnght down bythe wire of his kile. He had " explosions from it, the noise of which greatly resem bled tliat of thunder, and were heard (from wiihout) inlo the heart ofthe city, notwithstanding the various noises there, Thefireseeu at the instant of theexplosicm had the shape of a spindle eight inches long ond flve lines in diameter. Vei from the time of explosion to the end of tln> experiment, nolightning was seen above, nor any thniiiler heard At another time the streams of firo issuing fioin it were observed to be an inch thick and ten feet long."— See Z)r. Priestlei/s History of FJectricity. pnges 134— 13ri, first edition. t Twelve were proposed OP and near the magazines at Purfleet. PHILOSOPHICAL 321 from the clouds may be expected from long pointed rods, than from short ones ; I mean from such as show the greatest length, above the building they are fi.xed on. EXPERIMENT HI. Instead of pinching the point between the thumb and finger, as in the last experiraent keep the thumb and finger each at near an inch distance from it, but at the same height, the point between thera. In this situation, though the point is fairly exposed to the prirae conductor, it has little or no effect ; the elec- troraeter rises to the height of a full charge. But the raoraent the fingers are taken away, the ball falls quick to the stem. OBSERVATION. To explain this, it is supposed, that one reason of the sudden effect produced by a long naked pointed wire is, that (by the re pulsive power of the positive charge in the prime conductor) the natural quantity of elec tricity contained in the pointed wire is driven down into the earth, and the point ofthe wire made strongly negative ; whence it attracts the electricity of the prime conductor more strongly than bodies in their natural state would do; the small quantity nf common matter in the point not being able by its at tractive force tn retain its natural quantity of the electric fluid, against the force of that repulsion. — But the finger and thumb being substantial and blunt bodies, though as near the prime conductor, hold up better their own natural quantity against the force of that re pulsion ; and so, continuing nearly in their natural state, they jointly operate on the elec tric fluid in the point, opposing its descent and aiding the point to retain it ; contrary to the repelling power of the prime conductor, which would drive it down. — And this may also serve to explain the different powers of the point in the preceding experiment, on the slipping down the finger and thumb to different dis tances. Hence is collected, that a pointed rod erect ed between two tall chimnies, and very little higher (an instance of which I have seen) can not have so good an effect, as if it had been erected on one of the chimnies, its whole length above it. EXPERIMENT IV If, instead of a long pointed wire, a large solid body (to represent a building without a point) be brought under and as near the prime conductor, when charged ; the ball of the electrometer will fall a little ; and on taking away the large body, wUl rise again. OBSERVATION. Its rising again shows that the prirae con ductor lost little or none of its electric charge, as it had done through the point : the falling of the ball while the large body was under the Vox- TT a s conductor therefore shows, that a quantity of its atmosphere was drawn frora the end where the electroraeter is placed to the part irarae diately over the large body, and there accu mulated ready to strike into it with its whole undiminished force, as soon as within the striking distance ; and, were the prime con ductor moveable like a cloud, it would ap proach the body by attraction tUl within that distance. The swift raotion of clouds, as driven by the winds, probably prevents this happening so often as otherwise it raight do : for, though parts of the cloud may stoop to wards a building as they pass, in consequence of such attraction, yet they are carried for ward beyond the striking distance, before they could by their descending come within it EXPERIMENT V. Attach a small light lock of cotton to the underside of the prirae conductor, so that it may hang down towards the pointed wire mentioned in the first experiment. Cover the point with your finger, and the globe being turned, tbe cotton will extend itself, stretch ing down towards the finger, as at a; but on uncovering the point, it instantly flies up to the prime conductor, as at b, and continues there as long as the point is uncovered. The moment you cover it again, the cotton flies down again, extending itself towards the finger ; and the sarae happens in degree, if (instead of the finger) you use, uncovered, the blunt end of the wire upperraost. OBSERVATION. To explain this, it is supposed that the cotr ton, by its connexion with the prime conduct or, receives frora it a quantity of its electri city ; which occasions its being attracted by the_^ra,g'er that reraains still in nearly its na tural state. But when a point is opposed to the cotton, its electricity is thereby taken frora it, faster than it can at a distance be supplied with a fresh quantity from the con ductor. Therefore being reduced nearer to the natural state, it is attracted up to the electrified prirae conductor; rather than down, as before, to the finger. Supposing farther that the prime conductor represents a cloud charged with the electric fluid ; the cotton, a ragged fragraent of cloud (of which the underside of great thunder clouds are seen to have raany) the finger, a chimney or highest part of a building. — We then may conceive that when such a cloud passes over a building, sorae one of its ragged under-hanging fragments may be drawn down by the chimney or other high part of the edi fice ; creating thereby a more easy commu nication between it and the great cloud. — But a long pointed rod being presented to this fragraent, raay occasion its receding, like the cotton, up to the great cloud ; and thereby increase, instead of lessening the distance, so 322 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. as often to make it greater than the striking distance. Turning the blunt end of a wire upperraost (which represents the unpointed bar) it appears that the sarae good effect is not from that to be expected. A long pointed rod, it is therefore iraagined, may prevent some strokes ; as well as conduct others that fall upon it when a great body of cloud coraes on so heavUy that the above repelling operation on fragraents cannot take place. EXPERIMENT VI. Opposite the side of the prime conductor, place separately isolated by wax stems, Mr. Canton's two boxes with pith baUs suspended by fine linen threads. On each box, lay a wire six inches long and one fiflJi of an inch thick, tapering to a sharp point ; but so laid as that four inches of the pointed end of one wire, and an equal length of the blunt end of the other, may project beyond the ends of the boxes ; and both at eighteen inches distance from the prime conductor. Then charging the prime conductor by a turn or two of tbe globe, tbe balls of each pair will separate ; those of the box, whence the point projects most, considerably ; the others less. Touch the prirae conductor, and those of the box with the blunt point will collapse, and join. Those connected with the point vvUl at the sarae tirae approach each other, till within about an inch, and there remain. OBSERVATION. This seems a proof, that though the small sharpened part of the wire raust have had a less natural quantity in it before the opera tion, than the thick blunt part ; yet a greater quantity was driven down from it to the balls. Thence it is again inferred, that the pointed rod is rendered more negative : and farther, that if a stroke must fall from the cloud over a building, furnished with such a rod, it is more likely to be drawn to that pointed rod, than to a blunt one ; as being more strongly negative, and of course its attraction stronger. And it seems more eligible, that the lightning should fall on the point of the conductor (pro vided to convey it into the earth) than on any other part of the building, thence to proceed to such conductor : which end is also more likely to be obtained by tbe length and lofti ness of the rod ; as protecting more exten sively the buUding under it It has been objected, that erecting pointed rods upon edifices, is to invite and draw the lightning into them ; and therefore dangerous. Were such rods to be erected on buUdings, witliout continuing the communication quite down into the moist earth, this objection might then have weight; but when such complete conductors are made, the lightning is invited not into the building, but into the earth, the situation it aims at, and which it always seizes every help to obtain, even from broken partial metalline conductors. It has also been suggested, that from such electric experiments nothing certain can be concluded as to the great operations of na ture ; since it is often seen, that experiments which have succeeded in small, in large have failed. It is true that in mechanics this has sometiraes happened. But when it is consi dered that we owe our first knowledge ofthe nature and operations of lightning, to observa tions on such small experiments ; and that on carefully comparing the most accurate ac counts of former facts, and the exactest rela tions of those that have occurred since, the effects have surprisingly agreed with the theo ry ; it is humbly conceived that in natural philosophy, in this branch of it at leatl, the suggestion has not so much weight ; and that the farther new experiments now adduced in recommendation of long sharp-pointed rods, may have sorae claim to credit and considera tion. It has been urged too, that though points may have considerable effects on a small prime conductor at small distances ; yet on great clouds and at great distances, nothing is to be expected from thera. To this it is answered, that in those smaU experiments it is evident the points act at a greater than the striking distance ; and in the large way, their service is only expected where there is such nearness of the cloud, as to endanger a stroke ; and there, it cannot be doubted the points must have some effect. And if the quantity dis charged by a single pointed rod may be so considerable as I have shown it ; the quantity discharged by a number wUl be proportionably greater. But this part of the theory does not depend alone on small experiments. Since the prac tice of erecting pointed rods in Araerica i^now near twenty years) five of thera have been struck by lightning, viz. Mr. Raven's and Mr. Maine's, in South Carolina ; Mr. Tuck er's, in Virginia ; Mr. West's and Mr. Moul der's, in PhUadelphia. Possibly there may have been more that have not come to my knowledge. But in every one of these, tho lightning did not fall upon the body of the house, but precisely on the several points of the rods; and, though the conductors were sometimes not sufficiently large and com plete, was conveyed into the earth, without any material daraage to the buildings. Facts then in great, as far as we have thera au thenticated, justify the opinion that is drawn from the experiments in small as above related. It has also been objected, that unless we knew the quantity that might possibly be dis charged at one stroke frora the clouds, we cannot be sure we have provided sufficient conductors ; and therefore cannot depend on PHILOSOPHICAL. 323 their conveying away all that may fall on their points. Indeed we have nothing to forra a judgment by in this but past facts ; and we know of no instance where a complete con ductor to the moist earth has been insuffi cient if half an inch diameter. It is probable that many strokes of lightning have been con veyed through the common leaden pipes af- To Professor Landriani, Italy. fixed to houses to carry down the water frqid-' Onlke Utility of Electrical Conductors. the roof to the ground : and there is no ac count of such pipes heing melted and destroy ed, as must soraetimes have happened ifthey had been insufficient We can then only judge ofthe diraensions proper for a conductor of lightning, as we do of those proper for a conductor of rain, by past observation. And as we think a pipe of three inches bore suf ficient to carry off the rain that falls on a square of 20 feet, because we never saw such a pipe glutted by any shower; so we raay judge a conductor of an inch diameter, more than sufficient for any stroke of lightning that will fall on its point It is true, that if an other deluge should happen wherein the win dows of heaven are to be opened, such pipes may be unequal to the falling quantity ; and if God for our sins should think fit to rain fire upon us, as upon some cities of old, it is not expected that our conductors of whatever size, should secure our houses agamst a mi racle. Probably as water drawn up into the air and there forming clouds, is disposed to fall again in rain by its natural gravity, as soon as a number of particles sufficient to make a drop can get together ; so when the clouds are (by whatever means) over or un dercharged with the electric fiuid, to a degree sufficient to attract them towards the earth, the equilibrium is restored, before the differ ence becoraes great beyond that degree. Mr. Lane's electrometer, for limiting precise ly the quantity of a shock that is to be ad ministered in a medical view, may serve to make this raore easily intelligible. The dis charging knob does by a screw approach the conductor to the distance intended, but there remains fixed. Whatever power there may be in the glass globe to collect the fulminat ing fluid, and whatever capacity of receiving and accumulating it there may be in the bottle or glass jar; yet neither the accumulation nor the discharge ever exceeds the destined quantity. Thus, were the clouds always at a certain fixed distance from the earth, all discharges would be made when the quantity accumulated was equal to the distance: but there is a circumstance which by occasionally lessening the distance, lessens the discharge ; to wit, the raoveableness of the clouds, and their being drawn nearer to the earth by at traction when electrified ; so that discharges are thereby rendered more frequent and of course loss violent Hence whatever the quantity raayhe in nature, and whatever the power in the clouds of collecting it ; yet an accumulation and force beyond what mankind has hitherto been acquainted with is scarce to be expected.* B. F. August 27, 1772. Philadelphia, Oct. 14, 1787. I HAVE received the excellent work upon the Utility of Electrical Conductors, which you had the goodness to send me. I read it with great pleasure, and beg you to accept my sincere thanks for it. Upon ray return to this country, I found the nuraber of conductors rauch increased, many proofs of their efficacy in preserving buildings frora lightning having demonstrated their utility. Among other instances, my own house was one day attacked by lightning, which occasioned the neighbours to run in to give assistance, in case of its being on fire. But no daraage was done, and my family was only found a good deal frightened with the vio lence ofthe explosion. Last year, ray house being enlarged, the conductor was obliged to be taken down. I found, upon examination, that the pointed termination of copper, which, was originally nine inches long, and about one third of an inch in diaraeter in its thickest part, had been almost entirely melted; and that its connexion with the rod of iron below was very slight. Thus, in the course of time, this invention has proved of use to the au thor of it, and has added this personal ad vantage to the pleasure he before received, from having been useful to others. Mr. Rittenhouse, our astronomer, has in forraed rae, that having observed with his excellent telescope, many conductors that are within the field of his view, he has remark ed in various instances, that the points were melted in like raanner. There is no example of a house, provided with a perfect conduct- * The immediate occasion of the dispute concerning the preference between pointed and biunt cuiiduclois of lightning, arose as follows: — A powder-mill having blown up at Brescia, in consequence of ils being struck with lightning, the Ilnglish board of ordinance applied to their painter, Mr. Wilson, then of some note as an electrician, for amethod to prevent the like accident to their magazines at Purfleet. Mr. Wilson having ad vised a blunt cunductor. and it being understood that Dr. Franklin's opinion formed upon the spot, was for a pointed one; the matter was referred in 177y, to the Royal Society, and by them as usual, to a committee, who, after consultation, prescribed a nnHhod confonn- ableto Dr. Franklin's theory. But a harmless stroke of lightning, having under particular circumstances, fallen upon one of the buildings and its apparatus in May 1777; the subject came again into violent agitation, and vvas again referred to Ihe society, and by the society again referred to a new committee, whicii committee confirmed the decision of the flrst committee; it pro duced an acrimonious cimtroversy in the Royal Society, and a series of pampniots ; which, Iiowever, ended in the triumph ofthe Frankimian theory. 324 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. or, which has suffered any considerable da mage; and even those which are without them have suffered little, since conductors have becorae coraraon in this city. B. FRANKLIN. John Pringle, M. D. On the Effects of Electricity in Paralytic Cases. Craven-street, Dec. 21, 1757. In corapliance with your request, I send you the following account of what I can at present recollect relating to the effects of elec tricity in paralytic cases, which have fallen under ray observation. Some years since, when the newspapers made raention of great cures performed in Ita ly and Gerraany, by means of electricity, a number of paralytics were brought to rae frora different parts ofPennsylvania, and the neigh bouring provinces, to be electrised, which I did for them at their request My method was, to place the patient first in a chair, on an electric stool, and draw a number of large strong sparks from all parts of the affected limb or side. Then I fully charged two six- gallon glass jars, each of which had about three square feet of surface coated; and sent the united shock of these through the affect ed limb or limbs, repeating the stroke com monly three times each day. The first thing observed, was an iraraediate greater sensible warratb in the lame limbs that had received the stroke, than in the others ; and the next morning the patients usually related, that they had in the night felt a pricking sensa tion in the flesh of the paralytic lirabs ; and would sometiraes show a nuraber of sraall red spots, which they supposed were occasion ed by those prickings. The limbs, too, were found raore capable of voluntary motion, and seemed to receive strength. A man, for in stance, who could not the first day lift the lame hand from off his knee, would the next day raise it four or five inches, the thirdday higher; and on the fifth day was able, but with a fee ble languid raotion, to take off his hat. These appearances gave great spirits to the patients, and made them hope a perfect cure ; but I do not remember that t ever saw any araendraent after the fifth day ; which the patients per ceiving, and finding the shocks pretty severe, they became discouraged, went horae, and in a short tirae relapsed ; so that I never knew any advantage from electricity in palsies that was permanent. And how far the apparent teraporary advantage raight arise frora the ex ercise in the patients' journey, and coming daily to my house, or frora the spirits given by the hope of success, enabling thera to ex ert raore strength in moving their limbs, I wUl not pretend to say. Perhaps some permanent advantage might have been obtained, if the electric shocks had been accompanied with proper medicine and regimen, under the direction of a skilful phy sician. It raay be, too, that a few great strokes, as given in ray raethod, raay not be so proper as raany small ones; since by the account from Scotland of a case, in which two hun dred shocks from a phial were given daily, it seeras, that a perfect cure has been made. As to any uncoraraon strength supposed to be in the raachine used in that case, I imagine it could have no share in the effect produced; since the strength of the shock from charged glass, is in proportion to the quantity of sur face of the glass coated: so that my shock from those large jars, must have been much greater than any that could be received from a phial held in the hand. B. FRANKLIN. Electrical Experiments on Amber. Saturday, July 3. 1762. To try, at the request of a friend, whether amber finely powdered might be melted and run together again by means of the electric fiuid, 1 took a piece of small glass tube, about two inches and a half long, the bore about one twelfth of an inch diameter, the glass itself about the sarae thickness ; I introduced into this tube some powder of amber, and with two pieces of wire nearly fitting the bore, one in serted at one end, tlie other at the other, I rammed the powder hard between them in the middle of the tube, where it stuck fast and was in length about half an inch. Then leaving the wires in the tube, I made them part of the electric circuit, and discharged through them three rows of my case of bot tles. The event was, that the glass was broke into very sraall pieces, and tliose dis persed with violence in all directions. As I did not expect this, I had not, as in other ex periraents, laid tliick paper over the glass to save my eyes, so several of the pieces struck my face smartly, and one of them cut my lip a little so as to make it bleed. I could find no part of the amber ; but the table where the tube lay was stained very black in spots, such as might be made by a thick smoke forced on it by a blast, and the air was filled with a strong smell, soraewhat like that from burnt gunpowder. Whence I imagined, that the amber was burnt, and had exploded as gunpowder would have done in tlie same cir cumstances. That I might better see the effect on the amber, I made the next experiment in a tube formed of a card rolled up and bound strongly with packthread. Its bore vvas about one eighth of an inch diaraeter. I rammed pow der of amber into this as I had done in tho other, and as the quantity of amber was greater, I increased the quantity of electric fluid by discharging through it at once five rows of my bottles. On opening the tube, I PHILOSOPHICAL. 325 found that sorae of the powder had exploded, an impression was raade on the tube, though it was not hurt, and raost of the powder re maining was turned black, which I suppose might be by the sraoke forced through it from the burned part : some of it was hard ; but as it powdered again when pressed by the fingers, I suppose that hardness not to arise from melt ing any parts in it but raerely frora ray ram ming the powder when I charged the tube. ii. FRANKLIN. To Thomas Ronayne, Esq. Cork, Ireland. On the Electricity of the Fogs in Ireland. London, April 20. 17ti6. I HAVE received your very obliging and very ingenious letter by captain Kearney. Your observations upon the electricity of fogs, and the air in Ireland, and upon diflerent circum stances of storms, appear to rae very curious, and I thank you for thein. There is not in my opinion, any part of the earth whatever, which is, or can be, naturally in a state ofne- gative electricity : and though different cir cumstances may occasion an inequality in the distribution of the fluid, the equUibrium is ira mediately restored by means of its extreme subtlety, and ofthe excellent conductors with which the humid earth is amply provided. I am of opinion, however, that when a cloud, well charged positively, passes near the earth, it repels and forces down into the earth, that natural portion of electricity, which exists near its surface, and in buildings, trees, &c. so as actually to reduce thera to a negative state before it strikes thera. I am of opinion too, that the negative state in which you have frequently found the balls, which are suspend ed from your apparatus, is not always occa sioned by clouds in a negative state; but more commonly by clouds positively electri fied, which have passed over them, and which in their passage have repelled and driven offa part ofthe electrical raatter, which naturally existed in the apparatus ; so that what reraain ed after the passing of the clouds, diffusing itself uniforraly through the apparatus, the whole becarae reduced to a negative state. If you have read ray experiraents raade in continuation of those of Mr. Canton, you wUl readily understand this ; but you may easily make a few experiraents, which will clearly deraonstrate it Let a coraraon glass be warm ed before the fire that it may continue very dry for sorae time ; set it upon a table, and place upon it the small box made use of by Mr. Canton, so that the balls raay hang a lit tle beyond the edge of the table. Rub ano ther glass, which has previously been warra- ed in a simUar manner, with a piece of black sUk or sUk handkerchief, in order to electrify it Hold then the glass above the little box, 28 at about the distance of three or four inches from that part which is most distant frora the balls, and you will see the balls separate from each other, being positively electrified by the natural portion of electricity, which was in the box, and which is driven to the further part ofit by the repulsive power ofthe atmosphere in the excited glass. Touch the box near the little balls (the excited glass continuing in the sarae state) and the balls will again unite; the quantity of electricity which had been driven to this part being drawn off by your finger. Withdraw then both your finger and the glass at the same instant, and the quantity of electricity which remained in the box, uniformly diffusing itself, the balls will again be separated ; being now in a negative state. While things are in this situation, begin once more to excite your glass, and hold it above the box, but not too near, and you will find, that when brought within a certain distance, the balls wiU at first approach each other, be ing then in a natural state. In proportion as the glass is brought nearer, they will again separate, being positive. When the glass is moved beyond them, and at some lit tle further distance, they will unite again, be ing in a natural state. When it is entirely reraoved, they will separate again, being then made negative. The excited glass in this experiment may represent a cloud positively charged, which you see is capable of produc ing in this manner all the different changes in the apparatus, without the least necessity for supposing any negative cloud. I am nevertheless fully convinced, that there are negative clouds ; because they sorae times absorb, through the medium of the ap paratus, the positive electricity of a large jar, the hundredth part of which the apparatus itself would have not been able to receive or contain at once. In fact, it is not difficult to conceive, that a large cloud, highly charged positively, may reduce smaller clouds to a negative state, when it passes above or near them, by forcing a part of their natural por tion ofthe fluid either to their inferior sur faces, whence it may strike into the earth, or to the opposite side, whence it raay strike in to the adjacent clouds ; so that when the large cloud has passed off to a distance, the sraall clouds shall remain in a negative state, ex actly like the apparatus ; the former (like the latter) being frequently insulated bodies, hav ing communication neither with the earth nor with other clouds. Upon the same principle it may easily be conceived, in what raanner a large negative cloud raay render others po sitive. The experiment which you mention, of filling your glass, is analogous to one which I raade in 1751 or 1752. I had supposed in ray preceding letters, that the pores of glass were smaller in the interior parts than near 326 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. thesurfece, and that on this account they prevented the passage ofthe electrical fluid. To prove whether this was actually the case or not I ground one of my phials in a part where it was extremely thin, grinding it con siderably beyond the raiddle, and very near to the opposite superfices, as I found, upon breaking it after the experiment It was charged nevertheless after being ground, equally well as before, which convinced me, that my hypothesis on this subject was erro neous. It is difficult to conceive where the imraense superfluous quantity of electricity on the charged side of a glass is deposited. I send you my paper concerning meteors, which was lately published here in the Phi losophical Transactions, immediately after a paper by Mr. HamUton on the same subject B. FRANKLIN. Mode of ascertaining, whether the Power, giving a Shock to those who touch either the Surinam Eel, or the Torpedo, be elec trical. 1. Touch the fish with a stick of dry seal ing-wax, or a glass rod, and observe if the shock be communicated by means of those bodies. Touch the same fish with an iron, or other metalline rod. If the shock be communicated by the latter body, and not by the others, it is probably not the raechanical effect, as has been supposed, of some muscular action in tbe fish, but of a sub- tie fluid, in this respect analogous at least to the electric fluid. 2. Observe ferther, whether tbe shock can be conveyed without the metal being actually in contact with the fish, and if it can, whe ther, in the space between, any light appear, and a slight noise or crackling be heard. If so, these also are properties common to the electric fluid. 3. Lastly, touch the flsh with the wire of a small Leyden bottle, and if the shock can be received across, observe whether the wire will attract and repel light bodies, and you feel a shock, whUe holding the bottle m one hand, and touching the wire with the other. If so, the fluid, capable of producing such effects, seems to have all the known properties of the electric fluid. Addition, 13th of August, 177'.2, In consequence of the Experiments and Disco veries made in France by Mr. Walsh, and communicated by him to Dr. Franklin. Let several persons, standing on the floor, hold hands, and let one of them touch the fish, so as to receive a shock. If the shock be felt by all, place the fish flat on a plate of metal, and let one of the persons holding hands touch 'ids plate, wtUe the person farthest from the plate touches the upper part ofthe fish, with a metal rod : then observe, if the force of the shock be the sarae as to all the persons form ing the circle, or is stronger than before. Repeat this experiment with this differ ence : let two or three of the persons forming the circle, instead of holding by the hand, hold each an uncharged electrical bottle, so that the little balls at the end of the wires may touch, and observe, after tbe shock, if these wires wUl attract and repel light bodies, and if a hall of cork, suspended by a long sUk string between the wires, a little distance from the bottles, wUl be alternately attracted and repelled by them. To M. Dubourg, On the Analogy between Magnetism and Elec- iricUy. LoKDOS, March 10, 1773. As to the magnetism, which seeras pro duced by electricity, my real opinion is, that these two powers of nature have no affinity with each other, and that the apparent pro duction of magnetism is purely accidentaL The matter may be explained thus : 1st The eartii is a great magnet 2dly, There is a subtle fluid, called the magnetic fluid, which exists in all ferrugi nous bodies, equally attracted by all their parts, and equally diffused through their whole sub stance ; at least where the equUibrium is not disturbed by a power superior to the attrac tion of the iroa 3dly, This natural quantity of the magnetic fluid, which is contained in a given piece of iron, may be put in motion so as to be more rarefied in one part and more condensed in another ; but it cannot be withdrawn by any force that we are yet made acquainted with, so as to leave the whole in a negative state, at least relatively to its natural quantity ; neither can it be introduced so as to put the iron into a positive state, or render it plus. In this respect therefore, magnetisra differs frora electricity. 4thly, A piece of soft iron allows the mag netic fluid which it contains to be put in mo tion by a moderate force, so that being placed in a Ime with the magnetic pole ofthe earth, it immediately acquires the properties of a magnet ; its magnetic fluid being drawn or forced from one extremity to the other; and this effect continues as long as it remains in the sarae position, one of its extremities be coraing positively magnetised, and the other negatively. This temporary magnetism ceases as soon as the iron is turned east and west the fluid immediately difliising itself equally through the whole iron, as in its na tural state. 5thly, The magnetic fluid in hard iron, or steel, is put in motion with more difficulty, PHILOSOPHICAL. 327 requiring a force greater than the earth to excite it; and when once it has been forced from one extremity of the steel to the other, it is not easy for it to return ; and thus a bar of steel is converted into a permanent magnet. 6thly, A great heat, by expanding the sub stance of this steel, and increasing the dis tance between its particles, affords a passage to the electric fluid, which is thus again re stored to its proper equilibriura ; the bar ap pearing no longer to possess raagnetic virtue. 7thly, A bar of steel which is not magnetic, being placed in the same position, relatively to the pole of the earth, which the magnetic needle assuraes, and in this position being heated and suddenly cooled, becomes a perma nent magnet. The reason is, that while the bar was hot the magnetic fluid which it na turally contained was easily forced frora one extremity to the other by the raagnetic virtue of the earth ; and that the hardness and con densation, produced by the sudden cooling of the bar, retained it in this state without per mitting it to resurae its original situation. 8thly, The violent vibrations of the parti cles of a steel bar, when forcibly struck in the same position, separate the particles in such a manner during their tibration, that they perrait a portion of tbe magnetic fluid to pass, influenced by the natural magnetisra of the earth ; and it is afterwards so forcibly retain ed by the re-approach of the particles when the vibration ceases, that the bar becoraes a perraanent raagnet 9thly, An electric shock passing through a needle in a like position, and dilating it for an instant renders it, for the sarae reason, a permanent raagnet; that is, not hy iraparting magnetisra to it but by allowing its proper magnetic fluid to put itself in motion. lOtbly, Thus, there is not in reality more magnetisra in a given piece of steel after it is become magnetic, than existed in it before. The natural quantity is only displaced or re pelled. Hence it follows, that a strong ap paratus of magnets may charge millions of bars of steel, without coraraunicating to thera any part of its proper magnetisra ; only put ting in motion the magnetisra which already existed in these bars. I am chiefly indebted to that excellent phi losopher of Petersburgh, Mr. jEpinus, for this hypothesis, which appears to me equally in genious and solid. I say, chiefly, because, as it is many years since I read his book, which I have left in Araerica, it raay happen, that 1 may have added to or altered it in some re spect ; and if I have misrepresented any thing, the error ought to be charged to my account If this hypothesis appears admissible, it will serve as an answer to the greater partof your questions. I have only one reraark to add, which is, that however great the force is of magnetisra employed, you can only convert a given portion of steel into a magnet of a force proportioned to its capacity of retaining its raagnetic fluid in the new position in which it is placed, without letting it return. Now this power is different in different kinds of steel, but limited in all kinds whatever. B. FRANKLIN. To Messrs. Dubourg and d'Alibard.''' Concerning ihe Mode of rendering Meat tender by Electricity. My answer to your questions concerning the mode of rendering meat tender by electri city, can only be founded upon conjecture ; for I have not experiments enough to warrant the facts. All that I can say at present is, that I think electricity might be employed for this purpose, and I shall state what follows as the observations or reasons, which make me presume so. It has been observed, that lightning, by rarefying and reducing into vapour the moist ure contained in solid wood, in an oak, for in stance, has forcibly separated its fibres, and broken it into small splinters ; that by pene trating intimately the hardest metals, as iron, it has separated the parts in an instant so as to convert a perfect solid into a state of fluid ity : it is not then improbable, that the same subtle matter, passing through the bodies of aniraals with rapidity, should possess sufficient force to produce an effect nearly sirailar. Tbe flesh of animals, fresh killed in the usual manner, is firra, hard, and not in a very eatable state, because the particles adhere too forcibly to each other. At a certain period, the cohesion is weakened and in its progress towards putrefaction, which tends to produce a total separation, the fiesh becomes what we call tender, or is in that state most proper to be used as our food. It has frequently been reraarked, that ani mals killed by lightning putrefy immediately. This cannot be invariably the case, since a quantity of lightning sufficient to kUl, may not be sufficient to tear and divide the fibres and particles of flesh, and reduce thera to that tender state, which is the prelude to putrefac tion. Hence it is, that some animals killed in this manner will keep longer than others. But the putrefaction soraetimes proceeds with surprising celerity. A respectable person as sured me, that he once knew a remarkable instance of this : a whole flock of sheep in Scotland, being closely assembled under a tree, were killed by a flash of lightning ; and it being rather late in the evening, the proprie tor, desirous of savrag something, sent per sons early the next morning to flay them : but the putrefaction was such, and the stench so * This letter has no date, but the one lo whicb it is an answer is dated May 1, 1773. 328 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. abominable, that they had not the courage to execute their orders, and the bodies were ac cordingly buried in their skins. It is not un reasonable to presume, that bet'.veen the pe riod oftheir death and that of their putrefac tion, a tirae intervened in which the flesh might be only tender, and only sufficiently so to be served at table. Ad^l to this, that per- : sons, who have eaten of fowls killed by our feeble imitation of lightning (electricity) and dressed immediately, have asserted, that the flesh was remarkably tender. The little utility of this practice has per- i haps prevented its being much adopted. For though it sometiraes happens, that a company unexpectedly arriving at a country-house, or an unusual conflux of travellers to an inn, may render it necessary, to kUl a number of aniraals for iraraediate use ; yet as traveUers have coraraonly a good appetite, little atten tion has been paid to the trifling inconveni ence of having their meat a little tough. As this kind of death is nevertheless more sud den, and con3.?quently less severe, than any other, if this should operate as a motive with compassionate persons to employ it for ani mals sacrificed for their use, they may con duct the process thus: Having prepared a battery of six large glass jars (each frora 20 to 24 pints) as for the Leyden experiraent and having establish ed a communication, as usual, from the inte rior surface of each with tbe prime conduct or, and having given them a full charge (which with a good machine may be executed in a few minutes, and may be estimated by an electrometer) a chain which communicates with the exterior of the jars must be wrapped round the thighs of the fowl ; after which the operator, holding it by the wings, turned back and made to touch behind, must raise it so high that the head may receive the first shock frora tbe prime conductor. The ani mal dies instantly. Let the head he imme diately cut off to make it bleed, when it may be plucked and dressed immediately. This quantity of electricity is supposed sufficient for a turkey of ten pounds' weight, and per haps for a lamb. Experience alone wUl in form us of the requisite proportions for ani mals of different forras and ages. Probably not less wUl be required to render a small bird, which is very old, tender, than for a larger one, which is young. It is easy to fur nish the requisite quantity of electricity, by employing a greater or less nuraber of jars. As .^ix jars, however, discharged at once, are capable of giving a very violent shock, the operator raust be very circuraspect lest he should happen to make the experiraent on his own flesh, instead of that ofthe fowl. B. FRANKLIN. To M. Dubourg, In Answer to some Queries concerning the choice of Glass for the Leyden experiment. London, June 1, 1773. Sm, — I wish, with you, that some chemist (who should, if possible, be at the same tune an electrician) would, in pursuance of the ex cellent hints contained in your letter, under take to work upon glass with the view you have recomraended. By means of a perfect knowledge of this substance, with respect to its electrical queJities, we might proceed with more certainty, as well in making our own experiments, as in repeating those which have been made by other:- in different coun tries, which I believe have frequently been attended with different success on account of differences in the glass employed, thence oc casioning frequentmisunderstandingsand con trariety of opinions. There is anotJier circumstance much to be desired with respect to glass, and that is, that it should not be subject to break when highly charged in the Leyden experiment I have known eight jars broken out of twenty, and at another time, twelve out of thirty-five. A similar loss would greatly discourage elec tricians desirous of accumulating a great power for certain experiments. — We have never been able hitherto to account for the cause of such misfortunes. The first idea which occurs is, that the positive electricity, being accumulated on one side of the glass, rushes violently through it, in order to sup ply tbe deficiency on the other side, and to re store the equUibrium. This however, I cannot conceive to be the true reason, when 1 con sider, that a great number of jars being united, so as to be charged and discharged at the same tirae, the breaking of a single jar wUl discharge the whole ; for, if the accident proceeded from the weakness of the glass, it is not probable, that eight of them should be precisely of the same degree of weakness, as to break every one at the same instant it be ing raore likely that the weakest should break first and, by breaking, secure the rest ; and again, when it is necessary to produce a certain effect, by means of the whole cbarge passing through a determined circle (as, for instance, to melt a small wire) if the charge, instead of passing in tbiscircle, rushed through the sides of the jars, the intended effect would not be produced ; which, however, is contrary to feet For these reasons, I sus pect that there is, in tbe substance of the glass, either some little globules of air, or sorae portions of unvitrified sand or salt into which a quantity ofthe electric fluid may be forced during the charge, and there retained tin the general discharge : and that the force PHILOSOPHICAL. 329 leing suddenly withdrawn, the elasticity of the fluid acts upon the glass in which it is enclosed, not being able to escape hastUy without breaking the glass. I offer this only as a conjecture, which I leave to others to examine. The globe which I had that could not be excited, though it was frora the sarae gleiss- house which furnished the other excellent globes in my possession, was not of the same frit Tbe glass which was usually manu- fectured there, was rather of the green kind, and chiefly intended for drinking-glasses and bottles ; but the proprietors being desirous of attempting a triEil of white gla^ the globe in question was of this frit The glass not being of a perfect white, the proprietors were dissatisfied with it and abandoned their project I suspected that too great a quantity of salt was admitted into the composition ; but I am no judge of these raatters. B. FRANKLIN. Miss Stephenson. Concerning the Leyden Bottle. London, March 22, 1762. I MUST retract the charge of idleness in your studies, when I find you have gone through the doubly difficult task of reading so big a book, on an abstruse subject, and in a foreign language. In answer to your question concerning the Leyden phial. — The hand that holds the bottle receives and conducts away the electric fluid that is driven out ofthe outside by the repul sive power of that which is forced into the in side of the bottle. As long as that power re mains in tbe same situation, it must prevent the return of what it had expelled ; though the hand would readily supply the quantity if it could be received. B. FRANKLIN. Physical and Meteorological Observations, Conjectures, and Suppositions. — Read at the Royal Society, June 3, 1756. The particles of air are kept at a distance from each other by their mutual repulsion. Every three particles, mutually and equal ly repelling each other, raust form an equilate ral triangle. All the particles of air gravitate towards the earth, which gravitation compresses thera, and shortens the sides of the triangles, otherwise their rautual repellency would force them to greater distances from each other. Whatever particles of other matter (not en dued with that repellenpy) are supported in air, must adhere to the particles of air, and be Vol. IL . . . 2 T 28* supported by them ; for in the vacancies there is nothing they can rest on. Air and water mutually attract each other. Hence water wUl dissolve in air, as salt in water. The specific gravity of raatter is not alter ed by dividing the matter, though the super fices be increased. Sixteen leaden bullets, of an ounce each, weigh as rauch in water as one of a pound, whose superfices is less. Therefore the supporting of salt in water is not owing to its superfices being increased. A lump of salt, though laid at rest at the bottora of a vessel of water, will dissolve therein, and its parts raove every way, tUl equaUy diffused in the water, therefore there is a rautual attraction between water and salt Every particle of water assumes as many of salt as can adhere to it ; when more is ad ded, it precipitates, and wUl not remain sus pended. Water, in the same manner, wUl dissolve in air, every particle of air as.suming one or more particles of water. When too much is ad ded, it precipitates in rain. But there not being the same contiguity between the particles of air as of water, the solution of water in air is not carried on without a motion of the air, so as to cause a fresh accession of dry particles. Part of a fluid, having raore of what it dis solves, wUl coraraunicate to other parts that have less. Thus very salt water, coraing in contact with fresh, communicates its saltness till all is equal, and the sooner if there is a little raotion of the water. Even earth will dissolve, or mix with air. A stroke of a horse's hoof on the ground, in a hot dusty road, wUl raise a cloud of dust, that shaU, if there be a light breeze, expand every way, till perhaps near as big as a com.. raon house. It is not by raechanical raotion communicated to the particles of dust by the hoof, that they fly so far, not by the wind, that they spread so wide ; but the air near the ground, more heated by the hot duststruck into it, is rarefled and rises, and in rising mixes with the cooler air, and communicates of its dust to it, and it is at length so diffused as to become invisible. Quantities of dust are thus carried up in dry seasons : showers WEish it from the air, and bring it down again. For water attracting it stronger, it quits the air, and adheres to the water. Air, suffering continual changes in the de grees of its heat, from various causes and cir cumstances, and consequently, changes in its specific gravity, raust therefore be in conti nual motion. A small quantity of fire mixed with water (or degree of heat therein) so weakens the cohesion of its particles, that those on the sur face easily quit it, ^nd adhere to the particles of air. 330 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. Air moderately heated will support a great er quantity of water invisibly than cold air ; for its particles being by heat repelled to a greater distance from each other, thereby more easily keep the particles of water that are annexed to them from running into cohe sions that would obstruct, refract or reflect the light Hence when we breathe in warra air, though the sarae quantity of moisture may be taken up frora the lungs, as when we breathe ' in cold air, yet that raoisture is not so visible. Water being extremely heated, i. e. to the degree of boiling, its particles in quitting it so repel each other, as to take up vastly more space than before, and by that repellency sup port theraselves, expelling the air from the space they occupy. That degree of heat be ing lessened, they again mutually attract, and having no air particles mixed to adhere to, by which they raight be supported and kept at a distance, they instantly fall, coalesce, and becorae water again. The water commonly diffused in our at mosphere never receives such a degree of heat from the sun, or other cause, as water has when boiling ; it is not, therefore, supported by such heat, but by adhering to air. Water being dissolved in, and adhering to air, that air will not readUy take up oil, be cause of the rautual repellency between wa ter and oU. Hence cold oils evaporate but slowly, the air having generally a quantity of dissolved water. OU being heated extreraely, the air that approaches its surface will be also heated ex treraely ; the water then quitting it, it will attract and carry off the oil, which can now adhere to it. Hence the quick evaporation of oil heated to a great degree. Oil being dissolved in air, the particles to which it adheres wiU not take up water. Hence the suffocating nature of air impreg nated with burnt grease, as frora snuffs of candles and tbe like. A certain quantity of raoisture should be every raoment discharged and taken away from the lungs; air that has been frequently breathed, is already over loaded, and, for that reason, can take no more, so wUl not answer the end. Greasy air re fuses to touch it In both cases suffocation for want of the discharge. Air will attract and support many other substances. A particle of air loaded with adhering wa ter, or any other matter, is heavier than be fore, and would descend. Tho atmosphere supposed at rest, a loaded descending particle raust act with a force on the particles it passes between, or meets with, sufficient to overcome, in some degree, their rautual repellency, and push them nearer to each other. 0 A 0 0 p 0 B 0 c 0 0 0 0 0 0 D 0 E Thus, supposing the particles a b c o, and G the other near them O to be at the distance caused by their mutual repellency (eonflned by their common gravity) O if a would descend to ' B, it must pass between B and c; when it comes between b and c, it will be nearer to thera than before, and must either have pushed them nearer to e and G, contrary to their mutual repellency, or pass through by a force exceeding its re pellency with them. It then approaches n, and, to move it out of the way, must act on it with a force sufficient to overcome its re pellency with the two next lower particles, by which il is kept in its present situation. Every particle of air, therefore, will bear any load inferior to the force of these repul sions. Hence the support of fogs, mists, clouds. Very warm air, clear, though supporting a very great quantity of moisture, will grow turbid and cloudy on the mixture of colder air, as foggy turbid air wUl grow clear by warming. Thus the sun shining on a morning fog, dissipates it ; clouds are seen to waste in a sun-shiny day. But cold condenses and renders visible the vapour : a tankard or decanter filled with cold water wUl condense the moisture of warm clear air on its outside, where it be coraes visible as dew, coalesces into drops, descends in little streams. The sun heats the air of our atmosphere raost near the surfece of the earth ; for there, besides the direct rays, there are many re flections. Moreover, the earth itself being heated, comraunicates of its heat to the neighbouring air. The higher regions, having only the direct rays of the sun passing through thera, are comparatively very cold. Hence the cold air on the tops of mountains, and snow on some of them all tbe year, even in tlie torrid zone. Hence hail in summer. If the atmosphere were, all of it (both above and below) always of the sarae temper as to cold or heat, then the upper air would always be rarer than the lower, because the pressure on it is less ; consequently lighter, and therefore would keep its place. But the upper air raay be more condensed by cold, than the lower air by pressure ; the lower more expanded by heat than the up per for want of pressure. In such case the upper air wiU becorae the heavier, the lower the lighter. The lower region of air being heated and expanded heaves up, and supports for some tirae the colder heavier air above, and will conti- PHILOSOPHICAL. 331 nue to support it whUe the equilibrium is kept. Thus water is supported in an inverted open glass, whUe the equUibrium is raaintained by the equal pressure upwards ofthe air below ; but the equilibrium by any means breaking, the water descends on the heavier side, and the air rises into its place. The lifted heavy cold air over a heated country, becoming by any means unequally supported, or unequal in its weight, the hea viest part descends first, and the rest foUows impetuously. Hence gusts after heats, and hurricanes in hot climates. Hence the ^ir of gusts and hurricanes is cold, though in hot climates and seasons ; it coraing frora above. The cold air descending frora above, as it penetrates our warra region full of watery par ticles, condenses them, renders thera visible, forms a cloud thick and dark, overcasting sometiraes, at once, large and extensive ; soraetiraes, when seen at a distance, small at first, gradually increasing; the cold edge, or surface of the cloud, condensing the vapours next it, which forra smaller clouds that join it increase its bulk, it descends with the wind and its acquired weight, draws nearer the earth, grows denser with continual additions of water, and discharges heavy showers. Small black clouds thus appearing in a clear sky, in hot climates, portend storms, and warn seamen to hand their sails. The earth, turning on its axis in about twenty-four hours, the equatorial parts must move about fifteen miles in each minute; in northern and southern latitudes this mo tion is gradually less to the poles, and there nothing. If there was a general calm over the face of the globe, it raust be by the air's moving in every part as fast as the earth or sea it covers. He that sails, or rides, has insensibly the same degree of raotion as the ship or coach with which he is connected. If the ship strikes the shore, or the coach stops suddenly, the motion continuing in the raan, he is thrown forward. If a man were to jurap frora the land into a swift saUing ship, he would be thrown backward (or towards the stern) not having at flrst the raotion of the ship. He that travels by sea or land, towards the equinoctial, gradually acquires motion ; frora it, loses. But if a man were taken up from latitude 40 (where suppose the earth's surface to move twelve mUes per minute) and iraraediately set down at the equinoctial, without chang ing the raotion he had, his heels would be struck up, he would fell westward. If taken up frora the equinoctial, and set down in lati tude 40, he would fall eastward. The air under the equator, and between the tropics, being constantly heated and rare fied by the sun, rises. Its place is supplied by air frora northern and southern latitudes, which coming frora parts wherein the earth and air had less raotion, and not suddenly ac quiring the quicker raotion of the equatorial earth, appears an east wind blowing westward ; the earth raoving from west to east, and slip ping under the air.'" Thus, when we ride in a calm, it seems a wind against us : if we ride with the wind, and faster, even that will seem a small wind agauist us. The air rarefied between the tropicsj and rising, must flow in the higher region north and south. Before it rose, it had acquired the greatest motion the earth's rotation could give it It retains some degree of this rao tion, and descending in higher latitudes, where the earth's motion is less, will appear a westerly wind, yet tending towards the equatorial parts, to supply the vacancy occa sioned by the air of the lower regions flowing thitherwards. Hence our general cold winds are about north west, our summer cold gusts the sarae. The air in sultry weather, though not cloudy, has a kind of haziness in it, which makes objects at a distance appear dull and indistinct. This haziness is occasioned by the great quantity of raoisture equally diffused in that air. When, by the cold wind blowing down araong it, it is condensed into clouds, and falls in rain, the air becoraes purer and clearer. Hence, after gusts, distant objects appear distinct, their figures sharply termi nated. Extreme cold winds congeal the surface of the earth, by carrying off its fire. Warm winds afterwards blowing over that frozen surface will be chilled by it Could that frozen surface be turned under, and warmer turned up from beneath it, those warra winds would not be chilled so rauch. The surface of the earth is also sometimes much heated by the sun : and such heated sur face not being changed heats the air that moves over it. Seas, lakes, aud great bodies of water, agi tated by the winds, continually change sur faces; the cold surface in winter is turned under by the rolling of the waves, and a warraer turned up ; in summer, the warm is turned under, and colder turned up. Hence the raore equal teraper of sea-water, and the air over it. Hence, in winter, winds frora the sea seera warra, winds frora the land cold. In suramer the contrary. Therefore the lakes north-west of us,f as they are not so much frozen, nor so apt to * See a paper on this subject, by the late ingenious Mr. Hadley, in the Pliilosophical Transactions, where in this hypothesis for explaining the trade-winds first appeared. f In Pennsylvania. 332 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. freeze as the earth, rather moderate than in crease the coldness ofour winter winds. The air over the sea being warmer, and therefore lighter in winter than the air over the frozen land, may be another cause ofour ^general N. W. winds, which blow off to sea at right angles frora our North-Araerican •coast The warm light sea air rising, the heavy cold land air pressing into its place. Heavy fluids descending, frequently forra eddies, or whirlpools, as is seen in a funnel, where the water acquires a circular raotion, receding every way from a centre, and leav ing a vacancy in the raiddle, greatest above, and lessening downwards, like a speaking trurapet, its big end upwards. Air descendrag, or ascending, may forra the sarae kind of eddies, or whirlings, the parts of air acquiring a circular raotion, and receding frora the raiddle of the circle by a centrifu gal force, and leaving there a vacancy ; if de scending, greatest above, and lessening down wards ; if ascending, greatest below, and les sening upwards; like a speaking trumpet, standing its big end on the ground. When the air descends with a violence in some places, it may rise with equal violence in others, and form both kinds of whirlwinds. The air in its whirling motion receding every way frora the centre or axis of the trurapet leaves there a vacuum, which can not be fllled through the sides, the whirling air, as an arch, preventing ; it raust then press in at the open ends. The greatest pressure inwards raust be at the lower end, the greatest weight of the sur rounding atmosphere being there. The air entering rises within, and carries up dust leaves, and even heavier bodies that happen in its way, as the eddy, or whirl, passes over land. If it passes over water, the weight of the surrounding atraosphere forces up the water into the vacuity, part of which, by degrees, joins with the whirling air, and adding weight and receiving accelerated raotion, recedes StUl farther from the centre or axis of the trurap, as the pressure lessens; and at last, as the trump widens, is broken into small par- tides, and so united with air as to be support ed by it, and become black clouds at the top of the trump. Thus these eddies may be whirlwinds at land, water-spouts at sea. A body of water so raised, may be suddenly let fell, when the motion, &c. has not strength to support it or the whirling arch is broken so as to admit the air : falling in the sea, it is harmless, unless ships happen under it ; but if in the progres sive motion of the whirl it has raoved from the sea, over the land, and then breaks, sadden, violent, and mischievous torrents are the con sequences. Perkins of Boston to Dr. Franklin. On Water-Spouts. — Read at tbe Royal Society, J une 3, 1756. Boston, October 16, 1752. I FIND by a word or two in your last,* that you are willing to be found fault with ; which authorizes me to let you know what I ara at a loss about in your papers, which is only in the article of the water-spout I am in doubt whether water in bulk, or even broken into drops, ever ascends into the region of the clouds per vorticem ; i. e. whether there be, in reality, what I call a direct water-spout I make no doubt of directand inverted whirl winds ; your description of them, and the rea son of the thing, are sufficient I ara sensible too, that they are very strong, and often raove considerable weights. But I have not met with any historical accounts that seem exact enough to remove my scruples concerning the ascent above said. Descending spouts (as I take tbem to be) are many tiraes seen, as I take it in the calms, between the sea and land trade-winds on the coast of Africa. These contrary winds, or diverging, I can conceive raay occasion them, as it were by suction, making a breach in a large cloud. But I iraagine they have, at the sarae time, a tendency to hinder any di rect or rising spout by carrying off tbe lower part of the atmosphere as fast as it begins to rarefy ; and yet spouts are frequent here, which strengthens my opinion, that all of them de scend. But however this be, I cannot conceive a force producible by the rarefication and con densation of our atmosphere, in the circura stances of our globe, capable of carrying wa ter, in large portions, into the region of tbe clouds. Supposing it to be raised, it would be too heavy to continue the ascent beyond a considerable height, unless parted into sraall drops ; and even then, by its centrifugal force, from tbe manner of conveyance, it would be flung out of the circle, and fall scattered, like rain. But I need not expatiate on these matters to you. I have mentioned my objections, and, as truth is ray pursuit shall be glad to be informed. I have seen few accounts of these whirl or eddy winds, and as little ofthe spouts ; and these, especially, lame and poor things to obtain any certainty by. If you know any thing determinate that has been observed, I shall hope to hear frora you ; as also of any raistake in my thoughts. I have nothing to object to any other part of your * A Letter on Inoculation, which is transferred to a subsequent part of this volume, that the papers on tne- teorologicol subjects may not be interrupted, PHILOSOPHICAL. 333 suppositions: and as to that of the trade- wmds, I believe nobody can. P. S. The figures in the Philosophical Transactions show, by several circumstances, that they all descended, though the relators seemed to think they took up water.* Dr. Perkins to Dr. Franklin. — Read at-the Royal Society, June 24, 1756. Boston, October 23, 1752. In the enclosed, you have all I have to say oftbat raatter. It proved longer than I ex pected, so that I was forced to add a cover to it I confess it looks like a dispute ; but that is quite contrary to ray intentions. The sin cerity of friendship and esteem were my motives ; nor do I doubt your scrupling the goodness of the intention. However, I must confess, I cannot tell exactly how far I was ac tuated by hopes of better information, in dis covering the whole foundation of my opinion, which, indeed, is but an opinion, as I am very rauch at a loss about the validity ofthe reasons. I have not been able to differ from you in sentiment concerning any thing el.-e in your Suppositions. In the present case I lie open to conviction, and shall be the gainer when informed. If I ara right, you will know that, without my adding any more. Too much said on a merely speculative matter, is but a robbery committed on practical knowledge. — Perhaps I am too much pleased with these dry notions : however, by this you will see that I think it unreasonable to give you more trouble about them, than your leisure and in clination may prorapt you to. — I am, &c. Since ray last I considered, that, as I had begun with reason of ray dissatisfaction about the ascent of water in spouts, you would not be unwUling to hear the whole I have to say, and then you will know what I rely upon. What occasioned ray thinking all spouts descend, is that I found sorae did certainly do so. A difficulty appeared concerning the as cent ofso heavy a body as water, by any force I was apprized of as probably sufficient. And, above all, a view of Mr. Stuart's portraits of spouts, in the Philosophical Transactions. Some observations on these last will in clude the chief part of my difficulties. Mr. Stuart has given us the figures of a number observed by hiin in the Mediterra nean ; all with some particulars which make for ray opinion, if well drawn. The great spattering, which relators raen tion in the water where the spout descends, and which appears in all his draughts, I con ceive to be occasioned by drops descending very thick and large into the place. * Two engraved representations of water.spouts, from the Philosophical Transactions, are given in this edi tion, the better to illustrate tbe plate on tbe eame sub- ject, by Dr. Franklin. On the place of this spattering, arises the appearance of a hush, into the centre of which the spout comes down. This bush I take to be formed by a spray, made by the force of these drops, which being uncommonly large and descending with unusual force by a stream of wind descending from the cloud with thera, increases the height ofthe spray : which wind being repulsed by the surface of the waters rebounds and spreads ; by the first rising the spray higher than it otherwise would go ; and by the last raaking the top of the bush appear to bend outwards (i. e.) the cloud of spray is forced off from the trunk of the spout, and falls backward. The bush does the same where there is no appearance of a spout reaching it ; and is de pressed in the middle, where the spout is ex pected. This, I imagine, to be from nuraer ous drops of the spout falling into it together with the wind I raentioned, by their descent, which beat back the rising spray in the centre. This circumstance, of the bush bending outwards at the top, seems not to agree with what I call a direct whirlwind, but consistent with the reversed; for a direct one would sweep the bush inwards ; if, in that case, any ' thing of a bush would appear. The pillar of water, as they call it, from its likeness, I suppose to be only the end cf the spout imraersed in the bush, a little black ened by the additional cloud, and perhaps, ap pears to the eye beyond its real bigness, by a refraction in the bush, and which refraction may be the cause of the appearance of se paration, betwixt the part in the bush, and that above it The part in the bush is cy lindrical, as it is above {i. e.) the bigness the sarae frora the top of the bush to the wa ter. Instead of this shape, in case of a whirl wind, it must have been pyraraidical. Another thing remarkable, is, the curve in some of them : this is easy to conceive, in case of descending parcels of drops through various winds, at least till the cloud condenses so fast as to come down, as it were, uno rivo. But it is harder to me to conceive it in the ascent of water, that it should be conveyed along, secure of not leaking or often dropping through the under side, in the prone part : and, should the water be conveyed so swiftly, and with such force, up into the cloud, as to prevent this, it would, by a natural disposition to raove on in a present direction, presently straiten the curve, raising the shoulder very swiftly, tUl lost in the cloud. Over every one of Stuart's figures, I see a cloud : I suppose his clouds were first, and then the spout ; I do not know whether it be so with all spouts, but suppose it is. Now, if whirlwinds carried up the water, I should ex pect them in fair weather, but not under a cloud ; as is observable of whirlwinds ; they come in fair weather, not under the shade of 334 FRANKUN'S WORKS. a dloud, nor in the night : since shade cools the air: but, on the contrary, violent winds often' descend from the clouds ; strong gusts which occupy small spaces: and from the higher regions, extensive hurricanes, &c. Another thing is the appearance of the spout coming fromthe cloud. This I cannot account for on the notion of a direct spout, but in the real descending one, it is easy. I take it, that the cloud begins flrst of all to pour out drops at that particular spot or ybro- men ; and, when that current of drops lu cre ISPS, so as to force down wind and vapour, the spout becomes so far as that goes opaque. I take it, that no clouds drop spouts, but such as make very fast, and happen to condense in apnrticular spot, which perhaps is coldest, anil gives a determination downwards, so as to make a passage through the subjacent at mosphere. If spouts ascend, it is to carry up the warra rarefied air below, to let down all and any that is colder above ; and, if so, they must carry it through the cloud they go into (for that is cold and dense, I imagine) perhaps far into the higher region, making a wonderful appeariince at a convenient distance to observe it by the swift rise of a body of vapour, above the region of the clouds. But as this has never been observed in any age, if it be supposable that is all. I cannot learn by mariners, that any wind blows towards a spout raore than any other way ; but it blows towards a whirlwind, for a large distance round. I suppose there has been no instance of the water of a spout being salt when coraing across any vessel at sea. I suppose too, that there have been no salt rains; these would make the case clear. I suppose it is from sorae unhappy effects of these dangerous creatures of nature, that saUnrs have an universal dread on them, of breaking in their deck, should they come across tbera. I imagine spouts, in cold seasons, as Gor- i> united in itself) and with a power equal to its swiftness and density. It is this whirling body of air between a a a a and b b b b that rises spiraUy ; by its force it tears buildings to pieces, twists up great trees by the roots, &c. and, by its spiral raotion, raises the fragments so high, till the pressure of the surrounding and approaching currents dirainishing, can no longer confine them to the circle, or their own centrifugal force increasing, grows too strong for such pressure, when they fly off in tangent lines, as stones out of a sling, and fall on all sides, and at great distances. If it happens at sea, tho water under and between a aa a and bbb b will be violently agitated and driven about, and parts of it raised with the spiral current, and thrown about so as to form a bush-like appearance. This circle is of various diameters, sorae tiraes very lage. If the vacuum passes over water, the water raay rise in it in a body, or column, to near the height of thirty-two feet. If it passes over houses, it raay burst their windows or walls outwards, pluck off the roofs, and pluck up the floors, by the sudden rarefaction of the air contained within such buildings; the outward pressure ofthe at mosphere being suddenly taken off; so the stopped bottle of air bursts under the exhausted receiver ofthe air pump. Fig. II. is to represent the elevation of a water-spout, wherein I suppose P P P to be tbe cone, at first a vacuum, tUl W W, the rising column of water, has filled so much of it S S S S, the spiral whirl of air, surround ing the vacuura, and continued higher in a close coluran after the vacuum ends in the point P, till it reaches the cool region of the air. B B, the bush described by Stuart, sur rounding the foot ofthe column of water. Now, I suppose this whirl of air will, at first be as invisible as the air itself, though reaching, in reality, frora the water, to the region of cool air, in which our low suramer thunder-clouds coraraonly float: but presently it wUl become visible at its extremities. At its lower end, by the agitation of the water, under the whirling part of the circle, between P and S forming Stuart's bush, and by the swelling and rising of the water, in the be ginning vacuum, which is, at first, a sraall. Vol. II. ... 2 U 29 low, broad cone, whose top gradually rises and sharpens, as the force of the whirl in creases. At its upper end it becomes visible, by the warra air brought up to the cooler re gion, where its moisture begins to be con densed into thick vaJpour, by the cold, and is seen first at A, the highest part, which being now cooled, condenses what rises next at B, which condenses that at C, and that con denses what is rising at D, the cold operating by the contact of the vapours faster in a right line downwards than the vapours can climb in a spiral line upwards; they climb, however, and as by continual addition they grow denser, and, consequently, their centrifugal force greater, and being risen above the concen trating currents that compose the whirl, fly off, spread, and form a cloud. It seems easy to conceive, how, by this suc cessive condensation from above, the spout ap pears to drop or descend from the cloud, though the materials of which it is coraposed are all the whUe ascending. The condensation of the moisture, contain ed in so great a quantity of warm air as may be supposed to rise in a short time in this pro digiously rapid whirl, is perhaps, sufficient to form a great extent of cloud, though the spout should be over land, as those at Hatfield ; and if the land happens not to be very dusty, per haps the lower part of the spout will scarce becorae visible at all ; though the upper, or what is coraraonly called the descending part be very distinctly seen. The same may happen at sea, in case the whirl is not violent enough to raake a high vacuum, and raise the column, &c. In such case, the upper part A, B, C, D only will be visible, and the bush, perhaps, below. But if the whirl be strong, and there be rauch dust on the land, and the column W W be raised frora the water, then the lower part becoraes visible, and sometimes even united to the upper part For the dust may be car ried up in the spiral whirl, tUl it reach the re gion where the vapour is condensed, and rise with that even to the clouds : and the friction of the whirling air, on the sides of the column W W, may detach great quantities of its water, break it into drops, and carry them up in the spiral whirl mixed with the air ; the heavier drops raay, indeed, fly off, and fall, in a shower, round the spout ; but much of it will be broken into vapour, yet visible ; and thus, in both cases, by dust at land, and by water at sea, the whole tube raay be darkened and rendered visible. As the whirl weakens, the tube may (in appearance) separate in the middle ; the co lumn of water subsiding, and the superior condensed part drawing up to the cloud. Yet still the tube, or whirl of air, may remain en tire, the middle only becoming invisible, as not containing visible matter. 338 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. Dr. Stuart says, "It was observable of all the spouts he saw, but more perceptible of the great one ; that, towards the end, it began to appear like a hollow canal, only black in the borders, but white in the raiddle ; and though at first it was altogether black and opaque, yet, now, one could very distinctly perceive the sea water to fly up along the raiddle of this canal, as sraoke up a chiraney." And Dr. Mather, describing a whirlwind, says, " a thick dark small cloud arose, with a pUlar of light in it, of about eight or ten feet diaraeter, and passed along the ground in a tract not wider than a street, horribly tearing up trees bythe roots, blowing thera up in the air like feathers, and throwing up stones of great weight to a considerable height in the air, &c." These accounts, the one of water-spouts, the other of a whirlwind, seem, in this par ticular, to agree; what one gentleman de scribes as a tube, black in the borders, and white in the raiddle, the other calls a black cloud, with a pillar of light in it ; the latter expression has only a little raore of the mar vellous, but the tiling is the same ; and it seeras not very difficult to understand. When Dr. Stuart's spouts were fuU charged, that is when the whirling pipe of air was filled be tween a a a a and b bbb, Fig. I. with quan tities of drops, and vapour torn off frora the co lumn W W Fig. II, the whole was rendered so dark, as that it could not be seen through, nor the spiral ascending raotion discovered ; but when the quantity ascending lessened, the pipe became more transparent, and the ascend ing motion visible. For by inspection of the figure given in this page, representing a sec tion ofour spout with the vacuum in the mid dle, it is plain that if we look at such a hollow pipe in the direction of the arrows, and sup pose opaque particles to be equaUy mixed in the space between the two circular lines, both the part between the arrows o and b, and that between the arrows c and d, will appear much darker than that between b and c, as there must be many more of those opaque par ticles in tho line of vision across the sides, than act-OSS the middle. It is thus that a hair in a microscope evidently appears to be a pipe. the sides showing darker than the middle. Dr. Mather's whirl was probably filled with dust, the sides were very dark, but the vacuum within rendering the raiddle more transpa rent, he calls it a pUlar of light It was in this more transparent part, be tween b and c, that Stuart could see the spi ral motion of the vapours, whose lines on the nearest and farthest side of the transparent part crossing each other, represented sraoke ascending in a chiraney ; for the quantity be ing StiU too great in the line of sight through the sides of the tube, the motion could not be discovered there, and so they represented the solid sides ofthe chiraney. When the vapours reach in the pipe from the clouds near to the earth, it is no wonder now to those who understand electricity, that flash es of lightning should descend by the spout, as in that of Rome. But you object if water may be thus carried into the clouds, why have we not salt rains? The objection is strong and reasonable, and I know not whether I can answer it to your sa tisfaction. I never heard but of one salt rain, and that was where a spout passed pretty near a ship, so I suppose it to he only the drops thrown off from ^ spout by the centrifugal force (as the birds were at Hatfield) when they had been carried so high as to be above, or to be too strongly centrifugal, for the pres sure ofthe concurring winds surrounding it: and, indeed, I believe there can be no other kind of salt rain ; for it has pleased tbe good ness of God so to order it that the particles of air will not attract the particles of salt, though they strongly attract water. Hence, though all metals, even gold, may be united with air, and rendered volatile, salt remains fixt in the fire, and no heat can force it up to any considerable height or oblige the air to hold it Hence, when salt rises, as it will a little way, into air with water, there is instantly a separation made ; the particles of water adhere to the air, and the particles of salt fell down again, as if repelled and forced off from the water by some power in the air ; or, as some metals, dissolved in a proper men struum, will quit tlie solvent when other mat ter approaches, and adhere to that, so the wa ter quits the salt and embraces the air ; but air will not embrace the salt and quit the water, otherwise our rains would indeed be salt, and every tree and plant on the face of the earth be destroyed, with all the tmimals that depend on thera for subsistence He who hath proportioned and given proper qua lities to all things, was not unmindful of this. Let us adore Him with praise and thanksgiv ing. By sorae accounts of searaen, it seems the column of water W W, soraetimes falls sud denly ; and if it be, as some say, fifteen or 1 twenty yards diameter, it must fall with great PHILOSOPHICAL. 339 force, and they may well fear for their ships. By one account, in the Transactions, of a spout that fell at Colne, in Lancashire, one would think the coluran is sometiraes lifted off from the water, and carried over land, and there let fall in a body ; but this, I suppose, happens rarely. Stuart describes his spouts as appearing no bigger than a mast and soraetiraes less ; but they were seen at a league and a half dis tance. I think I forraerly read in Dampier, or sorae other voyager, that a spout, in its progressive motion, went over a ship becalmed, on the coast of Guinea, and first threw her down on one side, carrying away her foremast, then suddenly whipped her up, and threw her down on the other side, carrying away her mizen-raast and the whole was over in an in stant I suppose the first mischief was done by the fore-side of the whirl, the latter by the hinder-side, their motion being contrary. I suppose a whirlwind, or spout, may be stationary, when the concurring winds are equal ; but if unequal, the whirl acquires a ¦progressive raotion, in the direction of the strongest pressure. When the wind that gives the progressive motion becomes stronger below than above, or above than below, the spout will be bent and, the cause ceasing, straiten again. Your queries, towards the end of your pa per, appear judicious, and worth considering. At present I am not furnished with facts suffi cient to make any pertinent answer to them; and this paper has already a sufficient quan tity of conjecture. Your manner of accoraraodating the ac counts to your hypothesis of descending spouts is, I own, ingenious, and perhaps that hypo thesis raay be true. I will consider it farther, but as yet, I ara not satisfied with it, though hereafl^er I raay be. Here you have ray raethod of accounting for tbe principal phenomena, which I submit to your candid examination. And as I now seem to have almost written a book, instead of a letter, you will think it high time I should conclude ; which I beg leave to do, with assuring you that I am, &c. B. FRANKLIN. Dr. Mercer to Dr. Franklin. Description of a Water-spout at Antigua. — Read at the Royal Society, June 24, 1756. New-Brdnswick, November 11, 1732. I AM favoured with your letter ofthe 2d in stant, and shall, with pleasure, comply with your request in describing (as well as my memory serves rae) the water-spout I saw at Antigua ; and shall think this, or any other service I can do, well repaid, if it contributes to your satisfaction in so curious a disquisition. I had often seen water-spouts at a distance, and heard raany strange stories of them, but never knew any thing satisfactory of their na ture or cause, untU that which I saw at An tigua; which convinced me that a water spout is a whirlwind, which becomes visible in all its dimensions by the water it carries up with it There appeared not far frora the mouth ofthe harbour of St John's, two or three water-spouts, one of which took its course up the harbour. Its progressive motion was slow and unequal, not in a strait line, but, as it were, by jerks or starts. When just by the wharf, I stood about one hundred yards frora it. There appeared in the water a circle of about twenty yards diameter, which, to rae, had a dreadful, though pleasing appearance. The water in this cir cle was violently agitated, being whisked about, and carried up into the air with great rapidity and noise, and reflected a lustre, as if the sun shined bright on that spot, which was more conspicuous, as there appeared a dark circle around it. When it made the shore, it carried up with the same violence shingles, staves,* large pieces ofthe roofs of houses, &c. and one small wooden house it lifted entire from the foundation on which it stood, and carried it to the distance of four teen feet, where it settled without breaking or oversetting; and, what is remarkable, tbough the whirlwind moved frora west to east, the house raoved from east to west. — Two or three negroes and a white woraan, were killed by the fall of tiraber, which it car ried up into the air and dropped again. After passing through the town, I believe it was soon dissipated ; fbr, except tearing a large limb from a tree, and part ofthe cover of a sugar work near the town, I do not remember any further damage done by it. I conclude, wishing you success in your inquiry. W. MERCER. Dr. Perkins to Dr. Franklin. Shooting Stars. — Read at the Royal Sociely, July 8, 175G. Boston, May 14, 1753. I RECEIVED your letter of April last, and thank you for it. Several things in it raake raake me at a loss which side the truth lies on, and deterraine rae lo wait for farther evi dence. As to shooting-stars, as they are called, I know very little, and hardly know what to say. I imagine them to be passes of electric flre from place to place in the atraosphere, perhaps occasioned by accidental pressures of a non-electric circuraarabient fluid, and so by * I suppose shingles, staves, timber, and other lumber might be lying in quantities on the wharf, for sale, as brought frora the northern colonies. — B. F. 340 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. propulsion, or elicited by the circurastance of a distant quantity minus electrified, which it shoots to supply, and becomes apparent by its contracted passage through anon-electric me dium. Electric fire in our globe is always in action, soraetimes ascending, descending, or passing frora region to region. I suppose it avoids too dry air, and therefore we never see these shoots ascend. It always has free dora enough to pass down unobserved, but I iraagine, not always so, to pass to distant climes and meridians less stored with it. The shoots are sometimes all one way, which, in the last case, they should be. Possibly there may be collections of parti cles in our atmosphere, which gradually form, by attraction, either similar ones perse, or dissimilar particles, by the intervention of others. But then, whether they shoot or ex plode of theraselves, or by the approach of some suitable foreign collection, accidentally brought near by the usual commotions and interchanges of our atraosphere, especially when the higher and lower regions intermix, before change of winds and weather, I leave. I believe I have now said enough of what I know nothing about If it should serve for your arauseraent. or any way oblige you, it is all I aim at, and shall, at your desire, be al ways ready to say what I think, as I am sure of your candour. Dr. Perkins to Dr. Franklin. Water-spouts and Whirlwinds. — Read at tbe Royal Society, July 8, 1756. Spouts have been generally believed as cents of water frora below, to the region of the clouds, and wfnrlwinds, the raeans of con veyance. The world has been very well sa tisfied with these opinions, and prejudiced with respect to any observations about thera. Men of learning and capacity have had many opportunities in passing those regions where these phenomena were most frequent, but seem industriously to have declined any no tice of them, unless to escape danger, as a raatter of mere impertinence in a case so clear and certain as their nature and manner of ope ration are taken to bo. Hence it is has been very difficult to get any tolerable accounts of them. None but those they fell near can in form us any thing to be depended on ; three or four such instances follow, where the ves sels were so near, that their crews could not avoid knowing something remarkable with respect to the raatters in question. Captain John Wakefield, junior, passing the Straits of Gibraltar, had one fall by the side of his ship ; it carae down of a sudden, as they think, and all agree the descent was certain. Captain Langstaff, on a voyage to the West Indies, had one corae across the stem of his vessel, and passed away frora him. The wa ter came down in such quantity that the pre sent capt. Melling, who was then a common sailor at the helm, says it almost drowned him, running into his mouth, nose, ears, &c. and adds, that it tasted perfectly fresh. One passed by the side of captain How- land's ship, so near that it appeared pretty plain that the water descended from first to last. Mr. Robert Spring was so near one in the Straits of Malacca, that he could perceive it to be a small very thick rain. All these assure me, that there was no wind drawing towards them, nor have I found any others that have observed sucb a wind. It seems plain, by these few instances, that whirlwinds do not ahvays attend spouts ; and that the water really descends in some ot them. But the following consideration, in confirmation of this opinion, may, perhaps, render it probable that all the spouts are de scents. It seems unlikely that there should be two sorts of spouts, one ascending and the other descending. It has not yet been proved that any one spout ever ascended. A specious appearance is all that can be produced in favour of this ; and those who have been most positive about it, were at more than a league's distance when they observed, as Stuart and others, if I am not mistaken. However, I believe it impossible to be certain whether water as cends or descend at half the distance. It may not be amiss to consider the places where they happen most. These are such as are liable to calms from departing winds on both sides, as on the borders of the equinoctial trade winds, calras on the coast of Guinea, in the Straits of Malacca, &c. places where tbe under region of the atraosphere is drawn off horizontally. I think they do not come where the calras are without departing winds ; and 1 take the reason to be, that sucb place and places where winds blow towards one another, are liable to whirlwinds, or other as cents of the lower region, which I suppose contrary to spouts. But the forraer are liable to descents, which I take to be necessary to their production. Agreeable to this, it seems reasonable to believe, that any Mediterranean sea should be more subject to spouts than others. The sea usually so called is so. The Straits of Malacca is. Some large gulphs may probably be so, in suitable latitudes ; so the Red Sea, &c. and all for this reason, that the heated lands on each side draw off tbe under region ofthe air, and make the upper descend, whence sudden and wonderful con densations may take place, and make these descents. It seems to me, that the manner oftheir ap- PHILOSOPHICAL. 341 pearance and procedure, favour the notion of a descent. More or less of a cloud, as I am iraforraed, always appears over the place first ; then a spattering on the surface ofthe water below; and when this is advanced to a considerable degree, the spout emerges from the cloud, and descends, and that if the causes are sufficient, down to the places of spattering, with a roar ing tn proportion to the quantity of the dis charge ; then it abates, or stops, soraetimes more gradually, sometimes raore suddenly. I raust observe a few things on these par ticulars, to show how I think they agree with my hypothesis. The preceding cloud over the place shows condensation, and, consequently, tendency downwards, which therefore must naturally prevent any ascent. Besides that, so far as 1 can learn, a whirlwind never coraes under a cloud, but in a clear sky. The spattering may be easUy conceived to be caused by a streara of drops, falling with great force on the place, imagining the spout to begin so, when a sudden and great condensation happens in a contracted space, as the Ox-Eye on the coast of Guinea. The spout appearing to descend from the cloud seeras to be, by the streara of nearly contiguous drops bringing the air into consent so as to carry down a quantity of the vapour of the cloud ; and the pointed appearance it makes raay be frora the descending course be ing swiftest in the raiddle, or centre of the spout: this naturally drawing the outer parts inward, and the centre to a point ; and that will appear foremost that raoves swiftest The phenomenon of retiring and advancing, I think may be accounted for, by supposing the progressive raotion to exceed or not equal the consuraption of the vapour by condensation. Or more plainly thus: the descending vapour which forms the apparent spout if it be slow in its progress downwards, is condensed as fast as it advances, and so appears at a stand ; when it is condensed faster than it advances, it appears to retire ; and vice versa. Its duration, and raanner of ending, are as the causes, and raay vary by several accidents. The cloud itself raay be so circurastanced as to stop it ; as when, extending wide, it weighs down at a distance round about, while a sraall circle at the spout being exonerated by the discharge, ascends and shuts up the passage. A new determination of wind may, perhaps, stop it too. Places liable to these appearances are very liable to frequent and sudden alterations ofit Such accidents as a clap of thunder, firing cannon, &c. may stop thera, and the reason may be, that any shock of this kind raay oc casion the particles that are near cohering, immediately to do so ; and then the whole, thus condensed falls at once (which is what I suppose is vulgarly called thebreakmgof the spout) and in the interval, between this pe riod and that of the next set of particles being ready to unite, the spout shuts up. So that if this reasoning is just, these phenoraena agree with ray hypothesis. The usual temper ofthe air, at the time of their appearance, if I have a right information, is for me too ; it being then pretty cool for the season and climate ; and this is worth re raark, because cool air is weighty, and wUl not ascend ; besides, when the air grows cool, it shows that the upper region descends, and conveys this temper down ; and when the tempers are equal, no whirlwind can take place. But spouts have been known, when the lower region has been really cold. Gor don's spout in the Downs is an instance of this — {vide Philosophical Transactions) — where the upper region was probably not at all cooler, if so cold as the lower : it was a cold day in the raonth of March, haU followed, but not snow, and it is observable, that not so rauch as hail follows or accompanies them in moderate seasons or climes, when and where they are most frequent However, it is not improbable, that just about the place of de scent may be cooler than the neighbouring parts, and so favour the wonderful celerity of condensation. But, after all, should we allow the under region to be ever so rauch the hot test, and a whirlwind to take place in it : sup pose then the sea-water to ascend, it would certainly cool the spout, and then, query, whe ther it would not very much, if not wholly, obstruct its progress. It coraraonly rains when spouts disappear, if it did not before, which it frequently does not, by the best accounts I have had ; but the cloud increases much faster after they disap pear, and it soon rains. The first shows the spout to be a contracted rain, instead of the diffused one that follows; and the latter that the cloud v^asnot forraed by ascending water, for then it would have ceased growing when the spout vanished. However, it seems that spouts have some times appeared after it began to rain ; but this is one way a proof of my hypothesis, viz. as whirlwinds do not come under a cloud. I forgot to mention, that the increase of cloud, while the spout subsists, is no arguraent of an ascent of water, by the spout Since thunder-clouds sometiraes increase grea.tly while it rains very hard. Divers effects of spouts seera not so well accounted for any other way as by descent. The bush round the feet of them seems to be a great spray of water made by the violence of descent, like that in great faUs of water from high precipices. The great roar, like some vast inland falls, is so different from the roar of whirlwinds, by all accounts, as tq be no ways compatible. 342 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. Tho throwing things from it with great force, instead of carrying them up into the air, is another difference. There seems some probabilty that the sail ors' traditionary belief, that spouts may break in their decks, and so destroy vessels, might originate from some facts of that sort in for mer times. This danger is apparent on my hypothesis, but it seems not so on the other : and my reason for it is, that the whole column of a spout frora the sea to the clouds cannot, in a natural way, even upon the largest sup position, support raore than about three feet water, and from truly supposable causes, not above one foot, as may appear raore plainly by and bye. Supposing now the largest of these quantities to rise, it must be disseminated into drops, from the surface of the sea to tbe region of the clouds, or higher ; for this rea son it is quite unlikely to be collected into masses, or a body, upon its falling ; but would descend in progression according to the seve ral degrees of altitude the different portions had arrived at when it received this new de termination. Now that there cannot raore rise upon the comraon hypothesis than I have raentioned, may appear probable, if we attend to the only efficient cause in supposetl ascending spouts, viz. whirlwinds. We know, that the rarefaction of the lower, and the condensation of the upper region of air, are the only natural causes of whirlwinds. Let us then suppose the former as hot as their greatest summer heat in England, and the latter as cold as the extent of their winter. These extremes have been found there to alter the weight ofthe air one tenth, which is equal to a little more than three feet water. Were this case possible, and a whirlwind take place in it, it raight act with a force equal to the mentioned difference. But as this is the whole strength, so rauch water could not rise ; therefore to allow it due raotion upwards, we raust abate, at least one fourth part, perhaps raore, to give it such a swift ascension as some think usual. But here several difficul ties occur, at least they are so to me. As, whether this quantity would render the spout opaque 1 since it is plain that in drops it could not do so. How, or by what means it may be reduced small enough I or, if the water be not reduced into vapour, what will suspend it in the region of the clouds when exonerated there ; and, if vapourized while ascending, how can it be dangerous by what they call the breaking 1 For it is difficult to conceive how a conrtensatize power should instantaneously take place of a rarefying and disseminating one. The sudden fall of the spout, or rather, the sudden ceasing of it, I accounted for, in ray way, before. But it seems necessary to mention something I then forgot Should it be said to do so {i. e.) to feU, because all the lower rarefied air is ascended, whence the whirlwind must cease, and its burden drop; I cannot agree to this, unless the air be ob served on a sudden to have grown much colder, which I cannot learn has been the case. Or should it be supposed that the spout was, on a sudden, obstructed at the top, and this the cause of the fall, however plausible this might appear, yet no raore water would fall than what was at the same time contained in the column, which is often, by many and satis- fiiotory accounts to me, again far frora being the case. We are, I think, sufficiently assured, that not only tons, but scores or hundreds of tons descend in one spout Scores of tons more than can be contained in the trunk ofit, should we suppose water to ascend. But after all, it does not appear that the above-mentioned different degrees of heat and cold concur in any region where spouts usu ally happen, nor, indeed, in any other. Observations on the Meteorological Paper ; by a Gentleman in Connecticut. — Read at the Royal Society, Nov. 4, 1756. " AiK and water mutually attract each other, (saith Mr. F.) hence water wiU dissolve in air, as salt in water." I think that he hath demonstrated, that the supporting of salt in water is not owing to its superfices being in creased, because " the specific gravity of salt is not altered by dividing of it any more than that of lead, sixteen bullets of which, of an ounce each, weigh as much in water as one of a pound." But yet, when this came to be applied to the supporting of water in air, I found an objection rising in my mind. In the first place, I have always been loth to seek for any new hypothesis, or particular law of nature, to account for any thing that may be accounted for from the known gene ral, and universal law of nature ; it being an arguraent of the infinite wisdora of the Author of the world, to effect so raany things by one general law. Now I had thought that the rising and support of water, in air, might be accounted for from tbe general law of gravita tion, by only supposing the spaces occupied by the same quantity of water increased. And, with respect to the lead, I queried thus in my own mind : whether if the super fices of a bullet of lead should be increased four or five fold by an internal vacuity, it would weigh the same in water as before. I mean, if a pound of lead should be formed in to a hollow globe, empty within, whose super fices should be fijur or five times as big as that of the same load when a solid lump, it would weigh as rauch in water as before. I supposed it would not If this concavity was filled with water, perhaps it might ; if PHILOSOPHICAL. 343 with air, it would weigh at least as much less, as this difference between the weight of that included air, and that of water. Now although this would do nothing to ac count for the dissolution of salt in water, the smallest lumps of salt being no more hollow spheres, or any thrag of the like na ture, than the greatest ; yet, perhaps, it might account for water's rising and being support ed in air. For you know that such hollow globules, or bubbles, abound upon the surface ofthe water, which even by the breath ofour raouths, we can cause to quit the water, and rise in the air. These bubbles I used to suppose to be the coats of water, containing within thera air rarefied and expanded with fire, and that therefore, the raore friction and dashing there is upon the surface of the waters, and the raore heat and fire, the raore they abound. And I used to think, that although water be specifically heavier than air, yet such a bubble, filled only with fire and very rarefied air, raay be lighter than a quantity of cora raon air, of the same cubical diraensions, and, therefore, ascend ; for the rarefied air enclos ed, raay more fall short of the same bulk of (wmmon air, in weight, than the watery coat exceeds a like bulk of coraraon air in gravity. This was the objection in ray mind, though, I must confess, I know not how to account for the watery coat's encompassing the air, as above-mentioned, without allowing the at traction between air and water, which the gentleman supposes : so that I do not know but that this objection, examined by that sa gacious genius, will be an additional confirm ation ofthe hypothesis. The gentleman observes, " that a certain quantity of raoisture should be every moraent discharged and taken away frora the lungs ; and hence accounts for the suffocating nature of snuffs of candles, as irapregnating the air with grease, between which and water there is a natural repellency ; and of air that hath been frequently breathed in, which is over loaded with water, and, for that reason, can take no raore air. Perhaps the same obser vation will account for the suffocating nature of damps in wells. But then if the air can support and take off but such a proportion of water, and it is ne cessary that water be so taken off from the lungs, I queried with rayself how it is we can breathe in an air full of vapours, so full as that they conti nually precipitated. Do not we see the air overloaded, and casting forth wa ter plentifully, when there is no suffocation 1 The gentleraan again observes, " That the air under the equator, and between the tro pics, being constantly heated and rarefied by the sun, rises ; its place is supplied by air frora northern and southern latitudes, which, com ing from parts where the air and earth had less motion, and not suddenly acquiring the quicker motion of the equatorial earth, ap pears an east wind blowing westward ; the earth moving from west to east, and slipping under the air." In reading this, two objections occurred to my mind : — First, that it is said, the trade- wind doth not blow in the forenoon, but only in the afternoon. Secondly, that either the motion of the northern and southern air towards the equa tor is so slow, as to acquire almost the sarae motion as the equatorial air when it arrives there, so that there will bene sensible differ ence ; or else the motion of the northern and southern air towards the equator, is quicker, and raust be sensible; and then the trade- wind must appear either as a south-east or north-east wind : south ofthe equator, a south east wind ; north of the equator, a north-east For the apparent wind must be compounded of this motion from north to south, or vice versa ; and ofthe difference between its mo tion frora west to east, and that of the equa torial air. Observations in answer to the foregoing. — Read at the Royal Society, Nov. 4, 1756. 1st. The supposing a mutual attraction be tween the particles of water and air, is not introducing a new law of nature ; such at tractions taking place in many other known instances. 2dly. Water is specifically 850 times hea vier than air. To render a bubble of water, then, specifically lighter than air, it seems to me that it must take up more than 850 times the space it did before it formed the bubble ; and within the bubble should be either a va cuum or air rarefied raore than 850 times. If a vacuum, would not the bubble be immediate ly crushed by the weight of the atmosphere 1 And no heat, we know of, wUl rarefy air any thing near so much ; rauch less the common heat of the sun, or that of friction by the dash ing on the surface of the water : besides, wa ter agitated ever so violently produces noheat, as has been found by accurate experiraents. 3dly. A hollow sphere of lead has a firm ness and consistency in it, that a hollow sphere or bubble of fluid unfrozen water can not be supposed to have. The lead may sup port the pressure ofthe water it is immerged in, but the bubble could not support the pres sure of the air, if erapty within. 4thly. Was ever a visible bubble seen to rise in air 1 I have raade raany, when a boy, with soap-suds and a tobacco-pipe ; but they all descended when loose from the pipe, though slowly, the air impeding their motion : they may, indeed, be forced up by a wind frora be low, but do not rise, of themselves, though fllled with warra breath. 344 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. 5thly. The objection relating to our breath ing racist air seems weighty, and must be farthei- considered. The air that has been breathed has, doubtless, acquired an addition ofthe perspirable matter which nature intends to free the body from, and which would be pernicious if retained and returned into the blood : such air then raay become unfit for respiration, as well for that reason, as on ac count of its moisture. Yet I should be glad to learn, by some accurate experiment whe ther a draft of air, two or three tiraes inspir ed, and expired, perhaps in a bladder, has, or has not, acquired raore raoisture than our comraon air in the dampest weather. As to the precipitation of water in the air we breathe, perhaps it is not always a mark of that air's being overloaded. In the region ofthe clouds, indeed, the air must be overloaded if it lets fall its water in drops, which we call rain ; but those drops may fall through a drier air near the earth ; and accordingly we find that the hygroscope soraetiraes shows a less degree of moisture, during a shower, than at other tiraes when it does not rain at all. The dewy darapness, that settles on the insides of our walls and wainscots, seeras raore certainly to denote an air overloaded with raoisture ; and yet this is no sure sign : for, after a long continued cold season, if the air grows sud denly warm, the walls, &c. continuing longer their coldness, will, for sorae time, condense the moisture of such air, till they grow equally warra, and then they condense no more though the air is not becorae drier. And, on the other hand, after a warra season, if the air grows cold, though raoister than be fore, the dew is not so apt to gather on the walls. A tankard of cold water will, in a hot and dry suramer's day, collect a dew on its outside ; a tankard of hot water will col lect none in the moistest weather. 6thly. It is, I think, a raistake that the trade-winds blow only in the afternoon. They blow all day and all night and all the year round, except in some particular places. The southerly sea-breezes on your coasts, indeed, blow chiefly in the afternoon. In the very long run frora the west side of Araerica to Guam, among the Philippine Islands, ships seldom have occasion to hand their sails, so equal and steady is the gale, and yet they make it in about 60 days, which could not be if the wind blew only in the afternoon. 7tbly. That really is, which the gentleman justly supposes ought to be, on ray hypothesis. In sailing southward, when you first enter tbe trade-wind, you find it north-east, or there abouts, and it gradually grows more east as you approach the line. The .same observa tion is made of its changing from south-east to east gradually, as you come frora the south ern latitudes to the equator. Observations on the Meteorological Paper; sent by Cadwallader Colden, of New York, to B. Franklin. — Read at the Royal Society, Nov. 4, 1756. That power by which the air expands it self, you attribute to a mutual repelling pow er in the particles which compose the air, by which they are separated from each other with sorae degree of force ; now this force, on this supposition, must not only act when the particles are in rautual contact, but like wise when they are at some distance from each other. How can two bodies, whether they be great or sraall, act at any distance, whether that distance be sraall or great, with out something intermediate on which they act! For if any body act on another, at any distance frora it however sraall that distance be, without sorae raedium, to continue the ac tion, it must act where it is not which to me seems absurd. It seems to me, for the sime reason, equal ly absurd to give a mutual attractive power between any other particles supposed to be at a distance frora each other, without any thing intermediate to continue their rautual action. I can neither attract nor repel any thing at a distance, without something between my hand and that thing, like a string, or a stick ; nor can I conceive any rautual action without sorae middle thing, when the action is continu ed to some distance. The increase of the surface of any body lessens its weight both in air, and water, or any other fluid, as appears by the slow descent of leaf gold in the air. The observation ofthe different density of the upper and lower air, from heat and cold, is good, and I do not reraeraber it is taken no tice of by others; the consequences also are well drawn ; but as to winds, they seera prin cipally to arise frora sorae other cause. Winds generally blow frora some large tracts of land, and from mountams. Where I live, on the north side of the mountains, we fre quently have a strong soutlierly wind, when they have as strong a northerly wind, or calm, on the other side of these mountains. The continual passing of vessels on Hudson's River, through these mountains, give frequent opportunities of observing this. In the spring ofthe year the sea-wind (by a piercing cold) is always more uneasy to me, accustomed to winds which pass over a tract of land, than the north-west wind. You have received the common notion of water-spouts, which, from ray own ocular observation, I am persuaded is a false concepn tion. In a voyage to the West Indies, I had an opportunity of observing raany waters spouts. One of them passed nearer than thirty or forty yards to the vessql I was ia., PHILOSOPHICAL. 345 which I viewed with a good deal of attention; I tion, is very observable in the cloud from and though it be now forty years since I saw | whence the spout issues. No salt-water, I it, it made so strong an irapression on me, that I very distinctly remember it. These water spouts were in the calm latitudes, that is, be tween the trade and the variable winds, in the month of July. That spout which passed so near us was an inverted cone, with the tip or apex towards the sea, and reached within about eight feet of the surface of the sea, its basis in a large black cloud. We were en tirely becalraed. It passed slowly by the vessel. I could plainly observe, that a violent stream of wind issued frora the spout, which made a hollow of about six feet diameter in the surface ofthe water, and raised the water in a circular uneven ring round the hollow, in the same raanner that a strong blast frora a pair of bellows would do when the pipe is placed perpendicular to the surface of the water ; and we plainly heard tbe same hissing noise which such a blast of wind raust produce on tbe water. I ara very sure there was no thing like the sucking of water from the sea into the spout, unless the spray, which was raised in a ring to a sraall height, could be mistaken for a raising of water. I could plainly distinguish a distance of about eight feet between the sea and the tip of the cone, in which nothing interrupted the sight which must have been, had the water been raised frora the sea. In the same voyage I saw several other spouts at a greater distance, but none of thera whose tip of the cone carae so near the surface of the water. In sorae of thera the axis of the cone was considerably inclined frora the perpendicular, but in none of them was there the least appearance of sucking up of water. Others of them were bent or arched. I be lieve that a stream of wind issued frora all of them, and it is frora this stream of wind that vessels are often overset, or founder at sea suddenly. I have heard of vessels being over set when it was perfectly calm, the instant before the streara of wind struck them, and immediately after they were overset ; which could not otherwise be but by such a stream of wind from a cloud. That wind is generated in clouds wUl not admit of a dispute. Now if such wind be ge nerated within the body of the cloud, and issue in one particular place, while it finds no passage in the other parts ofthe cloud, I think it may not be difficult to account for all the appearances in water-spouts : and from hence the reason of breaking those spouts, by firing a cannon-ball through them, as thereby a ho rizontal vent is given to the wind. When the wind is spent, which dilated the cloud, or the fermentation ceases, which generates the air and wind, the clouds may descend in a prodigious fell of water or rain. A remarka ble intestine motion, like a violent fermenta- VoL. II. ... 2 X am persuaded, was ever observed to fall from the clouds, which raust certainly have hap pened if sea-water had been raised by a spout Answer to the foregoing Observations, by B. Franklin. — Read at the Royal Society, Nov. 4, 17.56. I agree with you, that it seems absurd to suppose that a body can act where it is not. I have no idea of bodies at a distance attract ing or repelling one another without the as sistance of some raediura, though I know not what that raedium is, or how it operates. When I speak of attraction or repulsion, I raake use of those words for want of others more proper, and intend only to express ef fects which I see, and not causes of which I ara ignorant When I press a blown bladder between ray knees, and find I cannot bring its sides together, but my knees feel a springy raatter, pushing them back to a greater dis tance, or repelling thera, I conclude that the air it contains is the cause. And when I operate on the air, and find I cannot by pres sure force its particles into contact, but they still spring back against the pressure, I con ceive there must be some medium between its particles that prevents their closing, though I cannot tell what it is. And if I were ac quainted with that mediura, and found its par ticles to approach and recede from each other, according to the pressure they suffered, I should imagine there must be some finer me diura between than, by which these opera tions were performed. I allow that increase of the surface of a body raay occasion it to descend slower in air, water, or any other fluid : but do not conceive, therefore, that it lessens its weight Where the increased surface is so disposed as that in its falling a greater quantity of the fluid it sinks in raust be raoved out of its way, a greater time is required for such removal. Four square feet of sheet lead sinking in water broadways, cannot descend near so fast as it would edgeways, yet its weight in the hydro static balance would, I imagine, be the same, whether suspended by the middle or by the corner. I raake no doubt but that ridges of high mountains do often interrupt, stop, reverber ate, or turn the winds that blow against them, according to the different degrees of strength ofthe winds, and angles of incidence. I sup pose too, that the cold upper parts of moun tains may condense the warmer air that cOmes near them, and so by making it speciflcally heavier, cause it to descend on one or both sides of the ridge into the warmer valleys, which wUl seem a wind blowing from the mountains. 346 FRANKUN'S WORKS. Damp winds, though not colder by the ther moraeter, give a raore easy sensation of cold than dry ones, because (to speak like an elec trician) they conduct better ; that is, are bet ter fitted to convey away the heat frora our bodies. The body cannot feel without itself; our sensation of cold is not in the air without the body, but in those parts of the body which have been deprived of their heat by the air. My desk, and its lock, are, I suppose, of the sarae teraperament when they have been long exposed to the sarae air; but now if I lay my hand on the wood, it does not seem as cold to me as the lock ; because (as I iraagine) wood is not so good a conductor, to receive and con vey away the heat frora ray skin, and the ad jacent flesh, as metal is. Take a piece of wood, of the size and shape of a dollar, be tween the thumb and finger of one hand, and a dollar, in like manner, with the other hand : place the edges of both, at the same time, in the flame of a candle : and though the edge of the wooden piece takes flame, and the metal piece does not yet you wUl be obliged to drop the latter before the former, it conducting the heat more suddenly to your fingers. Thus we can, without pain, handle glass and china cups filled with hot liquors, as tea, &c. but not sUver ones. A sUver tea-pot must have a wooden handle. Perhaps it is for the same reason that woollen garraents keeping the body warraer than linen ones equally thick ; woollen keeping the natural heat in, or, in other words, not conducting it out to air. In regard to water-spouts, having, in a long letter to a gentleraan of the sarae sentiment with you as to their direction, said all that I have to say in support of my opinion ; I need not repeat the arguments therein contained, as I intend to send you a copy of it by sorae other opportunity, for your perusal. I iraa gine you will find all the appearances you saw, accounted for by ray hypothesis. I thank you for communicating the account of them. At present I would only say, that the opinion of winds being generated in clouds by fer mentation, is new to rae, and I am unac quainted with the facts on which it is founded. I likewise find itdifficultto conceive of winds confined in tbe body of clouds, which I ima gine have little raore solidity than the fogs on the earth's surface. The objection frora tbe freshness of rain-water is a strong one, but I think I have answered it in the letter above mentioned, to which I raust beg leave, at pre sent, to refer you. Extracts from Dampier's Voyages. — Read at the Royal Society, Deceraber 16, 17.56. A SPOUT is a small ragged piece, or part of a cloud, banging down about a yard seemingly, from the blackest part thereof Coraraonly it hangs down sloping from thence, or some times appearing with a small bending, or el bow, in the middle. I never saw any hang perpendicularly down. It is small at the lower end, seeraing no bigger than one's arm, but stUl fuller towards the cloud frora whence it proceeds. When the surface of the sea begins to work, you shall see the water for about one hundred paces in circumference foam and move gently round, till the whirling motion increases; and then it ffies upwards in a pillar, about one hundred paces in compass at the bottora, but gradually lessening upwards, to the sraallness of the spout itself, through which the rising sea-water seems to be con veyed into the clouds. This vissibly appears by the clouds increasing in bulk and black ness. Then you shall presently see the cloud drive along, though before it seemed to be without any raotion. The spout also keeping the same course with the cloud, and still sucking up the water as it goes along, and they make a wind as they go. Thus it continues for half an hour, more or less, untU the sucking is spent, and then breaking off, all the water which was below the spout or pendulous piece of cloud, falls down again into the sea, making a great noise with its falling and clashing motion in the sea. It is very dangerous for a ship to be under a spout when it breaks ; therefore we always endeavour to shun it, by keeping at a dis tance, if possibly we can. But for want of wind to carry us away, we are often in great fear and danger, for it is usually calm when spouts are at work, except only just where they are. Therefore men at sea, when they see a spout coraing, and know not how to avoid it do sometiraes fire shot out of their great guns into it, to give it air or vent that so it may break ; but I did never hear that it proved to be of any benefit And now we are on this subject I think it not amiss to give you an account of an ac cident that happened to a ship once on the coast of Guinea, some time in or about the year 1674. One capt Records of London, bound for tbe coast of Guinea, in a ship of three hundred tons, and sixteen guns, called the Blessing, when he came into latitude seven or eight degrees north, he saw several spouts, one of which came directly towards the ship, and he having no wind to get out of tlie way of the spout, made ready to receive it by furling the sails. It came on very swifi^ and broke a little before it reached the ship, raaking a great noise, and raising the sea round it, as if a great house, or sorae such thing, had been cast into the sea. The fiiry ofthe wind still lasted, and took tlie ship on the starboard-bow with such violence, that it snapt off the boltsprit and foremast both at once, and blew the ship all along, ready to overset it ; but the ship did presently right PHILOSOPHICAL. 347 again, and the wind whirling round, took the ship a second tirae with the like fury as be fore, but on the contrary side, and was again like to overset her the other way : the mizen- raast felt the fury of this second blast, and was snapt short off, as the foremast and boltsprit had been before. The mainmast and main- top-raast received no damage, for the fury of the wind (which was presently over) did not reach them. Three men were in the foretop when the foremast broke, and one on the bolt sprit and fell with them into the sea, but all of thera were saved. I had this relation from Mr. John Canby, who was thenquarter-raaster and steward of her; one Abrahara Wise was chief-raate, and Leonard Jefferies second- mate. We are usually much afraid of them, yet this was the only daraage that I ever heard done by thera. They seem terrible enough, the rather because they come upon you while you lie becalmed, like a log in the sea, and cannot get out of their way. But though I have seen and been beset by thera often, yet the fright wtis always the greatest of the harm. — Dampier, vol. i. page 451. ceived much wind in it as it passed by." — VoL iii. page 223. Account of a Spout on the coast of New Guinea— from the same. " Wb had fair clear weather, and a fine moderate gale from south-east to east by north ; but at day-break tbe clouds began to fly, and it lightened very much in the east north-east At sun rising the sky looked very red in the east near the horizon ; and there were many black clouds both to the south and north of it About a quarter of an hour after the sun was up, there was a squall to the windward of us, when, on a sudden, one of our men on the fore castle, called out that he saw soraething astern, but could not tell what I looked out for it, and iraraediately saw a spout beginning to work within a quarter of a raUe of us, ex actly in the wind ; we presently put right be fore it. It came very swiftly, whirling the water up in a pUlar, about six or seven yards high. As yet I could not see any pendulous cloud from whence it might come ; and was in hopes it would soon lose its force. In four or five rainutes time it came within a cable's length of us, and passed away to leeward ; and then I saw a long pale streara coraing down to the whirling water. This streara was about the bigness of a rainbow. The up per end seemed vastly high, not descending from any dark cloud, and, therefore, the more strange to me, I never having seen the like before. It past about a mile to the leewaid of us, and then broke. This was but a sraall spout, and not strong nor* lasting ; yet I per- * Probably if it had been lasting, a cloud would have been formed above it. These extracts from Dampier, seem, in different instances, to favour both opinions, 27* Account of another Spout— from the same. " We saw a spout but a sraall distance from us ; it fell down out of a black cloud that yielded great store of rain, thunder, and light ning. This cloud hovered to the southward of us for the space of three hours, and then drew to the westward a great pace, at which tirae it was that we saw the spout, which hung fast to the cloud tiU it broke, and then the cloud whirled about to the south-east, then to the north-east, where meeting with an island, it spent itself, and so dispersed ; and immediately we had a little of the tail ofit, having had none before." — Vol. iu. page 182. C. Colden to Dr. Franklin. — Read at the Royal Society, December 6, 1756. April 2, 1754. Anv knowledge I have of the winds, and other changes which happen in the atmo sphere, is so very defective, that it does not deserve the name ; neither have I received any satisfaction from the attempts of others on this subject It deserves then your thoughts, as a subject in which you may dis tinguish yourself, and be useful. Your notion of sorae things conducting heat or cold better than others, pleases me, and I wish you may pursue the scent. If I remem ber right. Dr. Boerhaave, in his chemistry, thinks that heat is propagated by the vibration of a subtle elastic fluid, dispersed through the atmosphere and through all bodies. Sir Isaac Newton says, there are raany phenoraena to prove the existence of such a fluid : and this opinion has ray assent to it. I shall only observe that it is essentially different from that which I call ether ; for ether, properly speaking, is neither a fluid nor elastic ; its power consists in re-acting any action com municated to it vvith the same force it re ceives the action. I long to see your explication of water spouts, but I raust tell you before hand, thatit will not be easy for you to convince rae that the principal phenoraena were not occasioned by a stream of wind issuing with great force, my eyes and ears both concurring to give rae this sentiment, I could have no more evi dence than to feel the effects, which I had no inclination to do. It surprises me a little, that wind, generat ed by fermentation is new to you, since it raay be every day observed in ferraenting li quor. You know with what force ferraenting liquors will burst the vessels which contain them, if the generated wind have not vent ; and with what force it issues on giving it a and, therefore, are inserted entire, for the reader's con sideration. 348 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. small vent, or by drawing the cork of a bottle. Dr. Boerhaave says, that the steam issuing from fermenting liquors received through a very small vent-hole, into the nose, will kill as suddenly and certainly as lightning That air is generated by fermentation, I think you will find fully proved in Dr. Hales's Analysis of the Air, in his Vegetable Statics. If you have not read the book, you have a new plea sure to come. The solution you give to the objection I raade from the contrary winds blowing from the opposite sides ofthe raountains, from there being eddies, does not please rae, because the extent of these winds is by far too large to be occasioned by any eddy. It is forty railes from New York to our mountains, through which Hudson's River passes. The river runs twelve railes in the raountains, and from the north side of the mountains it is about ninety mUes to Albany. I have myself been on hoard a vessel raore than once, when we have had a strong northerly wind against us, all the way from New York, for two or three days. We have met vessels frora Albany, who assured us, that on the other side of the mountains, they had, at the same tirae, a strong continued southerly wind against thera; and this frequently happens. I have frequently seen, both on the river, in places where there could be no eddy-winds and on the open sea, two vessels saUing with contrary winds, within half a mUe of each other ; but this happens only in easy winds, and generaUy calm in other places near these winds. You have, no doubt, frequently observed a single cloud pass, from which a violent gust of wind issues, but of no great extent I have observed such a gust make a lane through the woods, of sorae railes in length, by laying the trees flat to the ground, and not above eight or ten chains in breadth. Though the violence of the wind be in the same direction in which the cloud moves and precedes it, yet wind issues from all sides of it ; so that sup posing the cloud moves south-easterly, those on the north-east side of it feel a south-west wind, and others on the south-west side, a north-east. And where the cloud passes over we frequently have a south-east wind from the hinder part of it, but none violent except the wind, in the direction in which the cloud raoves. To show what it is which prevents the wind from issuing out equally on all sides is not an easy problera to rae, and I shall not attempt to solve it ; but when you shall show what it is which restrains the electrical fluid from spreading itself in the air surrounding it, when it rushes with great violence through the air along, or in the conductor, for a great extent in length, then I raay hope to explain the other problera, and reraove the difficulty we have in conceiving it To Peter Collinson. Account of a Whirlwind in Maryland. Philadelphia Aug. 25, 1755. As you have my former papers on whirl winds, &c. I now send you an account of one which I had lately an opportunity of seeing and examining myself. Being in Maryland, riding with colonel Tasker, and sorae other gentleraen, to his country seat, where I and my son were en tertained by that amiable and worthy man with great hospitality and kindness, we saw, in the vale below us, a small whirlwind begin ning in the road, and showing itself by the dust it raised and contained. It appeared in the form of a sugar-loaf, spinning on its point, moving up the hill towards us, and enlarging as it came forward. When it passed by us, its smaller part near the ground appeared no bigger than a coraraon barrel, widening up wards, it seeraed, at forty or fifty feet high, to be twenty or thirty feet in diaraeter. The rest of the company stood looking after it, but my curiosity being stronger, I followed it, riding close by its side, and observed its lick ing up, in its progress, all the dust tliat was under its smaller part As it is a common opi nion that a shot, fired through a water-spout will break it, I tried to break this little whirl wind, by striking my whip frequently through it, but without any effect Soon after, it quit ted the road and took into the woods, growino' every moment larger and stronger, raising, instead of dust the old dry leaves with which the ground was thick covered, and making a great noise with them and the branches of the trees, bending some tall trees round in a circle swiftly and very surprisingly, though the pro gressive motion ofthe whirl was not so swift but that a man on foot might have kept pace with it but the circular motion was amazingly rapid. By the leaves it was now ffiled with, I could plainly perceive that the current of air they were driven by moved upwards in a spiral line ; and when I saw the passing whirl continue entire, after leaving the trunks and bodies of large trees which it had enveloped, 1 no longer wondered that my whip had no effect on it in its sraaller state. I accompanied it about three quarters of a mile, till some limbs of dead trees, broken off by the whirl, flying about, and falling near me, made me more apprehensive of danger : and then I stop ped, looking at the top of it as it went on, whicb was visible, by raeans of the leaves con tained in it for a very great height above the trees. Many ofthe leaves, as they got loose frora the upper and widest part were scattered in the wind ; but so great was their height in the air, that they appeared no bigger than flies. My son, who was, by this time, come up with me, followed the whirlwind till it left the woods, and crossed an old tobacco-field, where, PHILOSOPHICAL. 349 finding neither dust nor leaves to take up, it gradually became invisible below, eis it went away over that field. The course of the ge neral wind then blowing was along with us as we travelled, and the progressive motion of the whirlwind was in a direction nearly oppo site, though it did not keep a strait line, nor was its progressive motion uniforra, it raaking little sallies on either hand as it went pro ceeding soraetiraes faster, and sometiraes slower, and seeraing sometiraes for a few seconds almost stationary, then starting for wards pretty fast again. When we rejoined the corapany, they were adrairing the vast height of the leaves now brought by the com mon wind, over our heads. These leaves ac companied us as we travelled, some falling now and then round about us, and some not reaching the ground tUl we bad gone near three miles from the place where we first saw the whirlwind begin. Upon my asking co lonel Tasker if such whirlwinds were com mon in Maryland, he answered pleasantly, No, not at all coraraon, but we got this on purpose to treat Mr. Franklin. — And a very high treat it was too. B. FRANKLIN. Alexander Small, London. On the North-east Storms in North America. May 12, 1700. Agreeable to your request I send you my reasons for thinking that our north-east storras in North Araerica begin first in point of tirae, in tbe south-west parts: that is to say, the air in Georgia, the farthest ofour colonies to the south-west, begins to raove south-westerly before the air of Carolina, which is tbe next colony north-eastward ; the air of Carolina, has the sarae raotion before the air of Vir ginia, which lies stiU more north east-ward ; and so on north-easterly through Pennsylva nia, New York, New England, &c. quite to Newfoundland. These north-east storras are generally very violent continue sometiraes two or three days, and often do considerable damage in the har bours along the coast They are attended with thick clouds and rain. What first gave me this idea, was the fol lowing circumstance. About twenty years ago, a few more or less, I cannot from my me mory be certain, we were to have an eclipse of the moon at PhUadelphia, on a Friday evening, about nine o'clock. I intended to observe it but was prevented by a north-east storm, which came on about seven, with thick clouds as usual, that quite obscured the whole hemis phere. Yet when the post brought us the Boston newspaper, giving an account of the effects of the same storm in those parts, I found the beginning of the eclipse had been well observed there, though Boston lies N. 30 E. of Philadelphia about four hundred miles. This puzzled me, because the storm began with us so soon os to prevent any observation, and being a north-east storra, I imagined it must have begun rather sooner in places far ther to the north-eastward than it did at Phi ladelphia. I therefore mentioned it in a letter to my brother, who lived at Boston; and he informed me the storm did not begin with thera till near eleven o'clock, so that they had a good observation of the eclipse ; and upon comparing all the other accounts I received from the several colonies, of the tirae of be ginning of the sarae slorra, and since that of other storras of the sarae kind, I found the be ginning to be always later the farther north eastward. I have not ray notes with me here in England, and cannot, frora raemory, say the proportion of time to distance, but I think it is about an hour to every hundred miles. Frora thence I formed an idea ofthe cause of these storms, which I would explain by a farailiar instance or two. — Suppose a long canal of water stopped at the end by a gate. The water is quite at rest till the gate is open, then it begins to move out through the gate ; the water next the gate is first in raotion, and moves towards the gate ; the water next to that first water moves next and so on suc cessively, till the water at the head of the ca nal is in motion, which is last of all. In this case all the water moves indeed towards the gate, but the successive tiraes of beginning raotion are the contrary way, viz. from the gate backwards to the head of the canal. Again, suppose the air in a chamber at rest, no current through the room till you raake a fire in the chimney. Immediately the air in the chimney being rarefied by the fire rises ; the air next the chimney flows in to supply its place, moving towards the chimney ; and, in consequence, the rest of -the air succes sively, quite back to tbe door. Thus to pro duce our north-east storms, I suppose some great heat and rarefaction of the air in or about the gulph of Mexico; the air thence rising has its place supplied by the next raore northern, cooler, and therefore denser and heavier, air ; that, being in motion, is followed by the next more northern air, &c. in a suc cessive current, to which current our coast and inland ridge of mountains give the direc tion of north-east as they lie N. E. and S. W. This I offer only as an hypothesis to account for this particular fact ; and perhaps, on fer ther examination, a better and truer raay be found. I do not suppose all storras generated in the same manner. Our north-west thunder gusts in Araerica, I know are not ; but of them I have written my opinion fully in a paper which you have seen. B. FRANKLIN. 350 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. To Dr. Percival, Manchester. Meteorological Imaginations and Conjectures.* There seems to be a region higher, in the air over all countries, where it is always win ter, where frost exists continually, since in the midst of summer, on the surface ofthe earth, ice falls often frora above in the form of hail. HaUstones, of the great weight we some times find them, did not probably acquire their magnitude before they began to descend. The air being eight hundred tiraes rarer than wa ter, is unable to support it but in the shape of vapour, a state in which its particles are sepa rated. As soon as they are condensed by the cold of the upper region, so as to form a drop, that drop begins to fall. If it freezes into a grain of ice, that ice descends. In descend ing, both the drop of water and the grain of ice are augmented by particles ofthe vapour they pass through in falling, and which they condense by coldness, and attach to thera selves. It is possible that, in sumraer, much of what is rain, when it arrives at the surface ofthe earth, might have been snow when it began its descent ; but being thawed, in passing through the warra air near the surface, it is changed from snow into rain. How iraraensely cold must be the original particle of hail, which forms the centre of tbe future hailstone, since it is capable of commu nicating sufficient cold, if I raay so speak, to freeze aU the mass of vapour condensed round it, and form a lump of perhaps six or eight ounces in weight ! When, in summer time, the sun is high, and continues long every day above the ho rizon, his rays strike the earth more directly and with longer continuance, than in the winter ; hence the surface is more heated, and to a greater depth, by the effect of those rays. When rain falls on the heated earth, and soaks down into it, it carries down with it a great part of the heat, which by that means descends 'still deeper. The mass of earth, to tbe depth of perhaps thirty feet, being thus heated to a certain de gree, continues to retain its heat for some tirae. Thus the first snows that fall in the beginning of winter, seldom lie long on the surface, but are soon raelted, and soon absorb ed. After which, the winds that blow over the country on which the snows had fallen, are not rendered so cold as they would have been, by those snows, if tbey had remained, and thus the approach ofthe severity of win ter is retarded ; and the extrerae degree of its cold is not always at the time we might ex pect it, viz. when the sun is at its greatest * This paper was inserted in the Momoiis ofthe Li terary and Philosophical Society of Manchester, Vol. II. page 376. It was communicated by Dr. Percival, and read December 22, 1784. distance, and the day shortest, but sorae time after that period, according to the English proverb, which says, " as the day lengthens, the cold strengthens ;" the causes of refrige ration continuing to operate, whUe the sun returns too slowly, and his force continues too weak to counteract thera. During several ofthe suraraer months ofthe year 1783, when the effects ofthe sun's rays to heat the earth in these northern regions should have been the greatest, there existed a constant fog over all Europe, and great part of North Araerica. This fog was of a per raanent nature : it was dry, and the rays of the sun seemed to have little effect towards dissipating it as they easily do a moist fog, arising frora water. They were indeed ren dered so faint in passing through it that when coUected in the focus of a burning glass, they would scarce kindle brown paper. Of course, their suramer effect in heating the earth was exceedingly diminished. Hence the surface was early frozen. Hence the first snows remained on it un- raelted, and received continual additions. Hence perhaps the winter of 1783-^, was more severe than any that had happened for raany years. The cause of this universal fog is not yet ascertained. Whether it was adventitious to this earth, and merely a sraoke proceeding from the consuraption by fire of sorae of those great burning balls or globes which we hap pen to raeet with in our rapid course round the sun, and which are soraetimes seen to kindle and be destroyed in passing our atmo sphere, and whose smoke might be attracted and retained by our earth ; or whether it was the vast quantity of smoke, long continuing to issue during the sumraer from Hecla, in Iceland, and that other volcano which arose out ofthe sea near that island, wbich sraoke raight be spread by various winds over the northern part of the world, is yet uncertain. It seeras however worth the inquiry, whe ther other hard winters, recorded in history, were preceded by siraUar perraanent and widely extended summer fogs. Because, if found to be so, men might from such fogs con jecture the probabUity of a succeeding hard winter, and of the damage to be expected by the breaking up of frozen rivers i n the spring ; and take such measures as are possible and practicable, to secure themselves and effects from the mischiefs that attended the last Passy, May, 1784 To Dr. Lining, at Charleston. On Cold produced by Evaporation. New York, April 14, 1757. It is a long tirae since I had the pleasure of a line frora you ; and, uideed, the troubles PHILOSOPHICAL. 361 of our country, with the hurry of business I have been engaged in on that account, have made me so bad a correspondent, that I ought not to expect punctuality in others. But being about to erabark for England, I could not quit the continent without paying my respects to you, and, at the same tirae, taking leave to introduce to your acquaint ance a gentleraan of learning and merit, colo nel Henry Bouquet who does me the favour to present you this letter, and with whora I am sure you will be rauch pleased. Professor Sirapson, of Glasgow, lately cora raunicated to rae sorae curious experiraents of a physician of his acquaintance, by which it appea.red, that an extraordinary degree of cold, even to freezing, raight be produced by evaporation, I have not had leisure to repeat and exaraine more than the first and easiest of them, viz. Wet the ball of a thermome ter by a feather dipt in spirit of wine, which has been kept in the same room, and has, of course, the same degree of heat or cold. The mercury sinks presently three or four degrees, and the quicker, if during the evaporation you blow on the ball with bellows ; a second wetting and blowing, when the raercury is down, carries it yet lower. I think 1 did not get it lower than five or six degrees frora where it naturally stood, which was at that tirae sixty. But it is said, that a vessel of water being placed in another somewhat larger, containing spirit i" such a manner that the vessel of water is surrounded with the spirit, and both placed under the receiver of an air pump ; on exhausting the air, the spirit evaporating, leaves such a degree of cold as to freeze the water, though the ther raometer, in the open air, stands raany degrees above the freezing point. I know not how this phenomena is to be accounted for, but it gives rae occasion to mention some loose notions relating to heat and cold, which I have fbr sorae time enter tained, but not yet reduced into any form. Allowing common fire, as well as electrical, to be a fluid capable of permeating other bo dies, and seeking an equUibriura, I imagine some bodies are better fitted by nature to be conductors oftbat fluid than others ; and, that, generally, those which are the best conduct ors ofthe electric fluid, are also the best con ductors of this ; and e contra. Thus a body which is a good conductor of fire readily receives it into its substance, and conducts it through the whole to all the parts, as metals and water do; and if two bodies, both good conductors, one heated, the other in its common state, are brought into contact with each other, the body which has most fire readily comraunicates ofit to that which had least, and that which had least readily re ceives it, till an equilibrium is produced. Thus, if you take a dollar between your fin gers with one hand, and a piece of wood, of the sarae diraensions, with the other, and bring both at the same time to the flarae of a candle, you wUl find yourself obliged to drop the dol lar before you drop the wood, because it con ducts the heat of the candle sooner to your flesh. Thus, if a silver tea-pot had a handle of the sarae raetal, it would conduct the heat frora the water to the hand, and become too hot to be used ; we therefore give to a metal tea-pot a handle of wood, which is not so good a conductor as metal. But a china or stone tea-pot being in some degree of the nature of glass, which is not a good conductor of heat, may have a handle of the same stuff Thus, also, a damp moist air shall make a raan more sensible of cold, or chill him more, than a dry air that is colder, because a moist air is fltter to receive and conduct away the heat of his body. This fluid, entering bodies in great quantity, first expands them, by separating their parts a little, afterwards, by farther se parating their parts, it renders solids fluid, and at length dissipates their parts in air. Take this fluid frora raelted lead, or from wa ter, the parts cohere again, the first grows solid, the latter becomes ice : and this is sooner done by the means of good conductors. Thus, if you take, as I have done, a square bar of lead, four inches long, and one inch thick, together with three pieces of wood planed to the same dimensions, and lay them on a smooth board, fixt so as not to be easily sepa rated or moved, and pour into the cavity they forra, as much melted lead as wUl fill it, you will see the raelted lead chill, and become firra, on the side next the leaden bar, sorae tirae before it chills on the otber three sides in contact with the wooden bars, though be» fore the lead was poured in, they raight all be supposed to have the sarae degree of heat or coldness, as they liad been exposed in the sarae roora to the same air. You will like wise observe, that the leaden bar, as it has cooled the melted lead more than the wooden bars have done, so it is itself raore heated by the raelted lead. There is a certain quanti ty of this fluid called fire, in every living hu raan body, which fluid, being in due propor tion, keeps the parts of the flesh and blood at such a ju.st distance from each other, as that the flesh and nerves are supple, and the blood fit for circulation. If part of this due propor tion of fire be conducted away, by means of a contact with other bodies, as air, water, or metals, the parts of our skin and flesh that come into such contact first, draw raore near together than is agreeable, and give that sen sation which we call cold ; and if too much be conveyed away, the body stiflens, the blood ceases to flow, and death ensues. On the other hand, if too much of this fluid be cora raunicated to the flesh, the parts are separat ed too far, and pain ensues, as when they are 352 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. separated by a pin or lancet The sensation that the separation by fire occasions, we caU heat or burning. My desk on which I now write, and the lock of ray desk, are both ex posed to the same temperature of the air, and have therefore the sarae degree of heat or cold : yet if I lay my hand successively on the wood and on the metal, the latter feels much the coldest not that it is really so, but being a better conductor, it more readUy than the wood takes away and draws into itself the fire that was in ray skin. Accordingly if I lay one hand, part on the lock, and part on the wood, and after it had laid on some time, I feel both parts with ray other hand, I find the part that has been in contact with the lock, very sensibly colder to the touch than the part that lay on the wood. How a living animal obtains its quantity of this fluid called fire, is a curious question. I have shown, that some bodies (as metals) have a power of attracting it stronger than others ; and I have sometimes suspected, that a living body had some power of attracting out of the air, or other bodies, the heat it wanted. Thus me tals hammered, or repeatedly bent grow hot in the beat or hammered part. But when I consider that air, in contact with the body, cools it ; that the surrounding air is rather heated by its contact with the body; that every breath of cooler air drawn in, carries off part ofthe body's heat when it passes out again ; that therefore there must be in the body a fund for producing it, or otherwise the animal would soon grow cold : I have been rather inclined to think, that the Quid fire, as well as the fluid air, is attracted by plants in their growth, and becomes consolidated with the other materials of which they are formed, and makes a great part of their substance : that when they come to be digested, and to suffer in the vessels a kind of fermentation, part of the fire, as well as part of the air, re covers its fluid active state again, and diffuses itself in the body digesting and separating it: that the flre so reproduced, by digestion and separation continually leaving the body, its place is supplied by fresh quantities, arising from the continual separation. That what ever quickens the motion of the fluids in an animal quickens the separation, and repro duces raore ofthe fire ; as exercise. Thatall the fire eraifted by wood, and other combusti bles, when burning existed in them before, in a solid state, being only discovered when se parating. 'That some fossUs, as sulphur, sea coal, &c. contain a great deal of solid fire ; and that, in short, what escapes and is dissi pated in the burning of bodies, besides water and earth, is generally the air and fire that before raade parts of the solid. Thus I ima gine that animal heot arises by or from a kind of fermentation in tbe juices of the body, in the same manner as heat arises in the liquors preparing for distUlation, wherein there is a separation of the spirituous, from the watery and earthy parts. And it is remarkable, that the liquor in a distUler's vat, when in its highest and best state of fermentation, as I have been informed, has the same degree of heat with the huraan body : that is, about 94 or 96. Thus, as by a constant supply of fuel in a chimney, you keep a warm room, so, by a constant supply of food in the stomach, you keep a warm body; only where little exercise is used, the heat may possibly be conducted away too fast ; in which case such materials are to be used for cloathing and bedding, against the effects of an iraraediate contact of the air, as are, in themselves, bad conductors of heat and consequently, prevent its being communicated through their substance to the air. Hence, what is called warmth in wool, and its preference on that account, to linen; wool not being so good a conductor : and hence all the natural coverings of animals, to keep them warra, are such as retain and con fine the natural heat in the body, by being bad conductors, such as wool, hair, feathers, and the silk by which the silkworm, in its tender embryo state, is first cloathed. Cloath ing, thus considered, does not make a man warm by giving warmth, but by preventing the too quick dissipation ofthe heat produced in his body, and so occasioning an accumu lation. There is another curious question I will just venture to touch upon, viz. Whence arises the sudden extraordinary degree of cold, perceptible on mixing sorae chemical liquors, and even on mixing salt and snow, where tbe composition appears colder than the coldest of the ingredients I I have never seen the chemical mixtures raade, but salt and snow I have often mixed myself, and am fully satis fied that the composition feels much colder to tbe touch, and lowers the mercury in the therraometer more than either ingredient would do separately. I suppose, with others, that cold is nothing raore than the absence of heat or fire. Now if the quantity of fire be fore contained or diffused in the snow and salt was expeUed in the uniting of the two matters, it must be driven away either through the air or the vessel containing them. If it is driven off through the air, it must warm tlie air, and a thermoraeter held over the raixture, without touching it would discover the heat, by the rising of the mercury, as it must, and always does in warm air. This, indeed, I have not tried, but I should guess it would rather be driven off through the vessel, especially if the vessel be metal, as being a better conductor than air ; and so one should find the bason warmer after such mixture. But, on the contrary, the vessel grows cold, and even water, in which the PHILOSOPHICAL. 353 vessel is sometimes placed for the experiraent, freezes into hard ice on the bason. Now I know not how to account for this, otherwise than by supposing, that the composition is a better conductor of fire than the ingredients separately, and, like the lock corapared with the wood, has a stronger power of attracting fire, and does accordingly attract it suddenly frora the fingers, or a thermoraeter put into it, frora the bason that contains it, and frora the water in contact with the outside of the bason ; so that the fingers have the sensation of extrerae cold, by being deprived of rauch of their natural fire; the therraoraeter sinks, by having part of its fire drawn out of the mercury ; the bason grows colder to the touch, as, by having its fire drawn into the raixture, it is becorae more capable of drawing and receiving it frora the hand ; and through the bason, the water loses its fire that kept its fluid ; §0 it becomes ice. One would expect, that frora all this attracted acquisition of fire to the coraposition, it should become warmer; and, in fact, the snow and salt dissolve at the same time into water, without freezing. B. FRANKLIN. To Dr. Lining, at Charleston. On the production of Cold by Evaporation. London, June 17, 1758. In a former letter I raentioned the experi ment for cooling bodies by evaporation, and that I had, by repeatedly wetting the therrao meter with common spirits, brought the raer cury down flve or six degrees. Being lately at Cambridge, and mentioning this in con versation with Dr. Hadley, professor of che mistry there, he proposed repeating the ex periments with ether, instead of common spirits, as the ether is much quicker in evapo ration. We accordingly went to his chamber, where he had both ether and a thermoraeter. By dipping first the ball of the thermoraeter into the ether, it appeared that the ether was precisely of the sarae teraperament with the thermometer, which stood then at 65 ; for it made no alteration in the height of the little column of mercury. But when the thermo meter was taken out of the ether, and the ether, with which the ball was wet, began to evaporate, the raercury sunk several degrees. The wetting was then repeated by a feather that had been dipped into the ether, when the mercury sunk still lower. We continued this operation, one of us wetting the ball, and an other ofthe corapany blowing on it with the bellows, to quicken the evaporation, the raer cury sinking all the time, till it came down to 7, which is 25 degrees below the freezing point, when we left off Soon after it passed the freezing point a thin coat of ice began to cover the ball. Whether this was water col- VoL. II. . , , 2 Y 30* lected and condensed by the coldness of the ball, frora the moisture in the air, or from our breath ; or whether the feather, when dipped into the ether, might not sometimes go through it, and bring up sorae of the water that was under it, I ara not certain; perhaps all might contribute. The ice continued increasing till we ended the experiment, when it appeared near a quarter of an inch thick all over the ball, with a number of small spicula, pointing outwards. From this experiment one may see the possibility of freezing a man to death on a warra suraraer's day, if he were to stand in a passage through which the wind blew briskly, and to be wet frequently with ether, a spirit that is raore inflammable than brandy or comraon spirits of wine. It is but within these few years, that the European philosophers seera to have known this power in nature, of cooling bodies by evaporation. But in the east they have long been acquainted with it A friend tells rae, there is a passage in Bernier's Travels through Hindostan, written near one hundred years ago, that mentions it as a practice (in travel ling over dry deserts in that hot climate) to carry water in flasks wrapt in wet woollen cloths, and hung on the shady side of the ca mel, or carriage, but in the free air ; whereby, as the cloths gradually grow drier, the water contained in the flasks is made cool. They have likewise a kind of earthen pots, unglaz- ed, which let the water gradually and slowly ooze through their pores, so as to keep the outside a little wet, notwithstanding the con^ tinual evaporation, which gives great cold ness to the vessel, and the water contained in it Even our comraon sailors seera to have had sorae notion of this property; for I re member, that being at sea, when I was a youth, I observed one of the saUors, during a calm in tbe night, often wetting his finger in his raouth, and then holding it up in the air, to discover, as he said, if the air had any mo tion, and from which side it came ; and this he expected to do, by finding one side of his finger grow suddenly cold, and from that side he should look for the next wind ; which I then laughed at as a fancy. May not several phenomena, hitherto un considered, or unaccounted for, be explained by this property ] During the hot Sunday at PhUadelphia, in June, 1750, when the ther raometer was up at 100 in the shade, I sat in ray chamber without exercise, only reading or writing, with no other clothes on than a shirt, and a pair of long linen drawers, the windows all open, and a brisk wind blowing through the house, the sweat ran off the backs of my hands, and ray shirt was often so wet as to induce me to call for dry ones to put on ; in this situation, one might have expected, that the natural heat of the body 96, added to the heat of the air IQO, should jointly have 354 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. created or produced a much greater degree of heat in the body ; but the fact was, that my body never grew so hot as the air that sur rounded it, or the inanimate bodies immersed in the sarae air. For I remember well, that the desk, when I laid my arra upon it ; a chair, when I sat down in it ; and a dry shirt out of the drawer, when I put it on, all felt exceed ing warra to me, as if they had been warmed before a fire. And I suppose a dead body would have acquired the teraperature of the air, though a living one, by continual sweat ing, and by the evaporation of that sweat, was kept cold. May not this be a reason why our reapers in Pennsylvania, working in the open field, in the clear hot sun-shine common in our harvest-time, find theraselves well able to go through that labour, without being rauch in- coraraoded by the heat whUe they continue to sweat, and while they supply raatter for keeping up that sweat, by drinking frequently of a thin evaporable liquor, water mixed with rum ; but if the sweat stops, they drop, and soraetiraes die suddenly, if a sweating is not again brought on by drinking that liquor, or, as sorae rather choose in that case, a kind of hot punch, made with water, mixed with honey, and a considerable proportion of vine gar 1 May there not be in negroes a quicker evaporation of the perspirable matter from their skins and lungs, which, by cooling thera more, enables thera to bear the sun's heat better than whites do 1 (if that is a fact, as it is said to be ; for the alleged necessity of hav ing negroes rather than whites, to work in the West-India fields, is founded upon it) though the colour of their skins would other wise raake them more sensible of the sun's heat, since black cloth heats rauch sooner, and more, in the sun, than white cloth. I am per suaded, from several instances happening within my knowledge, that they do not bear cold weather so well as the whites ; tbey will perish when exposed to a less degree of it, and are more apt to have their limbs frost bitten ; and may not this be frora the sarae cause ! Would not the earth grow much hot ter under the sumraer-sun, if a constant eva poration from its surface, greater as the sun shines stronger, did not, by tending to cool it balance, in some degree, the warmer effects of the sun's rays '! Is it not owing to the con stant evaporation from the surface of every leaf, that trees, though shone on by the sun, are always, even the leaves themselves, cool to our sense I at least much cooler than they would otherwise be l May it not be owing to this, that fanning ourselves when warm, does really cool ufe, though the air is itself warm that we drive with the fan upon our faces; for the atraosphere round, and next to our bodies, having irabibed as much of the perspired vapour as it can well contain, re ceives no raore, and the evaporation is there fore checked and retarded, till we drive away that atraosphere, and bring drier air in its place, that will receive the vapour, and there by facilitate and increase the evaporatioli? Certain it is, that mere blowing of air on a dry body does not cool it, as any one may sa tisfy himself, by blowing with a bellows on the dry ball of a thermometer ; the mercury will not faU; if it raoves at aU, it rather rises, as being warraed by the friction of the air on its surface 1 To these queries of imagination, I will only add one practical observation ; that wherever it is thought proper to give ease, in cases of painful inflaramation in the flesh (as frora burnings, or the like) by cooling the part ; linen cloths, wet with spirit and applied to the part inflamed, will produce the coolness required, better than if wet with water, and will continue it longer. For water, though cold when first applied, wUl soon acquire warmth from the flesh, as it does not evapo rate fast enough; but the cloths wet with spirit vvUl continue cold as long as any spirit is left to keep up the evaporation, the parts warmed escaping as soon as they are warm ed, and carrying off the heat with them. B. FRANKLIN. J. Bowdoin, in Boston, to Dr. Franklin. Concerning the Light in Sea- Water. — Read at the Royal Society, December 6, 1756. November 12, 1753. When 1 was at the eastward, I had an opportunity of observing the luminous appear ance of the sea when disturbed : at the head and stern of the vessel, when under way, it appeared very bright The best opportunity I had to observe it was in a boat, in company with several gentlemen going from Ports mouth, about three raUes, to our vessel lying at the raouth of Piscataqua river. Soon after we set off (it being in the evening) we observed a luminous appearance, where the oars dashed the water. Soraetiraes it was very bright and afterwards, as we rowed along, gradually lessened, till alraost imperceptible, and then reillurained. This we took notice of several tiraes in the passage. When I got on board the vessel, I ordered a pail to be dipped up, full of sea-water, in which, on the water's being raoved a sparkling light appeared. I took a linen cloth, and strained some of the water through it, and there was a like appear ance on the cloth, which soon went off; but on rubbing the cloth with ray finger, it was renewed. I then carried the cloth to the light, but could not perceive any thing upon it which should cause that appearance. Several gentleraen were of opinion, that the separated particles of putrid, animal, and other bodies, floating on the surface of the sea, might cause that appearance ; for putrid fish, &c. they said, wUl cause it : and the sea-animala PHILOSOPHICAL. 355 which have died, and other bodies putrified therein since the creation, might afford a suf ficient quantity of these particles to cover a considerable portion of the surface of the sea ; which particles being differently dispersed, raight account for the different degrees of light in the appearance above-raentioned. But this account seems liable to this obvious objection, that as putrid fish, &c. raake a luminous ap pearance without being raoved or disturbed, it might be expected that the supposed putrid particles on the surface of the sea, should always appear luminous, where there is not a greater light ; and, consequently, that the whole surface of the sea, covered with those particles, should always, in dark nights, appear luminous, without being disturbed. But this is not the fact Araong the rest, I threw out my conjec ture, that the said appearance might be caused by a great nuraber of little aniraals, fioating on the surface of the sea, which, on being dis turbed, raight by expanding their fins, or otherwise raoving themselves, expose such a part of their bodies as exhibits a lurainous ap pearance, somewhat in the raanner of a glow- worra, or fire-fly : that these aniraals raay be more numerous in sorae places than others ; and, therefore, that the appearance above- mentioned being fainter and stronger in dif ferent places, raight be owing to that: that certain circumstances of weather, &c. might invite them to the surface, on which, in a calm, they raight sport theraselves and glow ; or in storras, being forced up, raake the sarae appearance. There is no difficulty in conceiving that the sea raay be stocked with aniraalcula for this purpose, as we find all nature crowded with life. But it seems difficult to conceive that such small portions of matter, even if they were wholly luminous, should affect our sight ; much raore so, when it is supposed that only a partof thera is luminous. But if we consider some other appearances, we may find the same difficulty to conceive of them ; and yet we know tbey take place. For in stance, the flame of a candle, which, it is said, may be seen four miles round. The light which fills this circle of eight mUes dia meter, was contained, when it first left the candle, within a circle of half an inch diame ter. If the density of light, in these circum stances, be as those circles to each other, that is, as the squares oftheir diaraeters, the can dle-light, when corae to the eye, will be 1,027,709,337,600 times rarer than when it quitted the half inch circle. Now the aper ture of the eye, through which the light passes, does not exceed one tenth of an inch diaraeter, and the portion ofthe lesser circle, which corresponds to this sraall portion ofthe greater circle, must be proportionably, that is, 1,027,709,337,600 times less than one tenth of an inch ; and yet this infinitely smaU point (if you will allow the expression) affords light enough to make it visible four mUes ; or, rather, affords light sufficient to effect the sight at that distance. The sraallness of the animalcula is no ob jection then to this conjecture; for supposing them to be ten thousand times less than the minimum visible, they may, notwithstanding, emit light enough to affect the eyes, and so to cause the luminous appearance aforesaid. This conjecture I send you for want of some thing better. Peter Franklin, Newport, R. Island. On the Soilness of Sea- Water. London, May 7, 1760. It has, indeed, as you observe, been the opinion of some very great naturalists, that the sea is salt only from the dissolution of mineral or rock-salt, which its waters hap pen to raeet with. But this opinion takes it for granted thatall water was originally fresh, of which we can have no proof 1 own I am inclined to a different opinion, and rather think all the water on this globe was origin ally salt, and that the fresh water we find in springs and rivers, is the produce of distilla tion. The sun raises the vapours from the sea, which form clouds, and fall in rain upon the land, and springs and rivers are formed of that rain. As to the rock-salt found in mines, I conceive that, instead of communicating its saltness to the sea, it is itself drawn from the sea, and that of course the sea is now fresher than it was originally. This is only another effect of nature's distillery, and raight beper- forraed various ways. It is evident frora the quantities of sea-shells, and the bones and teeth of fishes found in high lands, that the sea has formerly covered them. Then, either the sea has been higher than it now is, and has fallen away from those high lands, or they have been lower than they are, and were lifted up out of the water to their present height, by some internal mighty force, such as we still feel sorae reraains of, when whole continents are moved by earth quakes. In either case it may be supposed that large hollows, or valleys among hills, raight be left filled with sea-water, which evaporating, and the fluid part drying away in a course of years, would leave the salt covering the bottora ; and that salt coming afterwards to be covered with earth, from the neighbouring hiUs, could only be found by digging through that earth. Or, as we know frora their effects, that there are deep fiery cat erns under the earth, and even under the sea, if atany time the sea leaks into any of them, the fluid parts of the water must eva porate frora that heat, and pass off through some volcano, whUe the salt remains, and by 356 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. degrees, and continual accretion, becomes a great mass. Thus the cavern may at length be filled, and the volcano connected with it cease burning, as many it is said have done ; and future miners, penetrating such cavern, find what we call a salt-mine. This is a fancy I had on visiting the salt-mines at Northwich, with my son. I send you a piece ofthe rock-salt which he brought up with him out of the mme. B. FRANKLIN. Miss Stephenson. On the Bristol Waters, and the Tide in Rivers. London, Sept. 13, 1760. I HAVE your agreeable letter frora Bristol, which I take this first leisure hour to answer, having for sorae tirae been much engaged in business. Your first question. What is the reason the water at this place, though cold at the spring, becomes warm by pumping ? It will be most prudent in rae to forbear attempting to an swer, till, by a more circumstantial account you assure me of the fact I own I should ex pect that operation to warm, not so much the water pumped, as the person puraping. — The rubbing of dry solids together has been long observed to produce heat; but tbe like effect has never yet that I have heard, been produc ed by the mere agitation of fluids, or friction of fluids with solids. Water in a bottle shook for hours by a mUl-hopper, it is said, discover ed no sensible addition of heat The produc tion of aniraal heat by exercise is therefore to be accounted for in another raanner, which I may hereafter endeavour to make you acquaint ed with. This prudence of not attempting to give reasons before one is sure of facts, 1 learnt frora one of your sex, who, as Selden tells us, being in company with some gentleraen that were viewing, and considering something which they called a Chinese shoe, and dis puting earnestly about the raanner of wearing it and how it could possibly be put on ; put in her word, and said raodestly, Gentlemen, are you sure it is a shoe? — Should not that be setlled first ? But I shall now endeavour to explain what I said to you about the tide in rivers, and to that end shall raake a figure, which though not very like a river, may serve to convey ray meaning. — Suppose a canal one hundred and forty raUes long, coraraunicating at one end wilh the sea, and filled therefore with sea-wa ter. 1 choose a canal at first, rather than a river, to throw outof consideration the effects produced by the streams of fresh water from the land, the inequality in breadth, and the crookedness of courses. Let A, C, be the head ofthe canal; C, D, the bottom ofit ; D, F, the open mouth of it next the sea. Let the strait pricked line, B, G, represent low water mark the whole length of the canal. A, F, high water mark. Now if a person standing at E, and observing at the time of high water there, that the ca nal is quite full at that place up to the line E, should conclude that the canal is equally fuU to the same height from end to end, and there fore there was as rauch more water come into the canal since it was down at low water mark, as would be included in the oblong space A, B, G, F, he would be greatly mis taken. For the tide is a wave, and the top ofthe wave, which makes high water, as well as every other lower part is progressive ; and it is high water successively, but not at the same time, in aU the several points between G, F, and A, B. — And in such a length as I have mentioned it is low water at F, G, and also at A, B, at or near the same time with its being high water at E; so that the surfece of the water in the canal, during that situation, is properly represented by the curve pricked line, B, E, G. And on the other hand, when it is low water at E, H, it is high water both at F, G, and at A, B, at or near the same time : and the surface would then be described by the inverted curve line. A, H, F. In this view of the case, you will easily see, that there must be very little more wa ter in the canal at what we call high water, than there is at low water, those terras not relating to the whole canal at the same tirae, but successively to its parts. And if you sup pose tho canal six times as long, the case would not vary as to the quantity of water at different times of the tide ; there would only be six waves in the canal at tlie sarae time, instead of one, and the hollows in the water would be equal to the hUls. That this is not mere theory, but conform able to fact we know by our long rivers in America. The Delaware, on which Phila delphia stands, is in this particular similar to the canal I have supposed of one wave : for when it is high water at the Capes or mouth of the river, it is also high water at PhUadel phia, which stands about one hundred and for ty railes from the sea ; and there is at the sarae time a low water in the raiddle between the two high waters ; where, when it comes to be high water, it is at the same time low PHILOSOPHICAL. 357 water at the Capes and at PhUadelphia. And the longer rivers have some a wave and half, some two, three, or four waves, according to their length. In the shorter rivers of this is land, one may see the sarae thing in part ; for instance, it is high water at Gravesendan hour before it is high water at London Bridge ; and twenty miles below Gravesend an hour before it is high water at Gravesend. There fore at the time of high water at Gravesend the top of tlie wave is there, and the water is then not so high by sorae feet where the top ofthe wave was an hour before, or where it will be an hour after, as it is just then at Gravesend. Now we are not to suppose, that because the swell or top of the wave runs at the rate of twenty railes an hour, that therefore the current, or water itself of which the wave is composed, runs at that rate. Far from it. To conceive this motion of a wave, make a small experiraent or two. Fasten one end of a cord in a window near the top of a house, and let the other end corae down to the ground ; take this end in your hand, and you raay, by a sudden motion, occasion a wave in the cord that wiU run quite up to the \yindow ; but tbough the wave is pro gressive from your hand to the window, the parts of the rope do not proceed with the wave, but remain where they were, except only that kind of motion that produces the wave. So if you throw a stone into a pond of water when the surface is stUl and smooth, you will see a circular wave proceed from the stone at its centre, quite to the sides of the pond; but the water does not proceed with the wave, it only rises and falls to forra it in the different parts of its course ; and the waves that follow the first, all make use of the sarae water with their predecessors. But a wave in water is not indeed in all circumstances exactly like that in a cord ; for water being a fluid, and gravitating to the earth, it naturally runs frora a higher place to a lower ; therefore the parts of the wave in water do actually run a little both ways from its top towards its lower sides, which the parts of the wave in the cord cannot do. Thus, when it is high and standing water at Gravesend, the water twenty railes below has been running ebb, or towards the sea for an hour, or ever since it was high water there ; but the water at London Bridge will run flood, or from the sea yet another hour, till it is high water, or the top ofthe wave arrives at that bridcre, and then it will have run ebb an hour at Gravesend, &c. Now this motion of the water, occasioned only by its gravity, or tendency to run frora a higher place to a lower, is by no raeans so swift as the motion ofthe wave. It scarce exceeds perhaps two mUes in an hour. If it went, as the wave does, twenty miles an hour, no ships could ride at anchor in such a streara, nor boats row against it In comraon speech, indeed, this current of the water both ways from the top ofthe wave is called the tide ; thus we say, the tide runs strong, the tide runs al the rate of one, two, or three miles an hour, posing flood-tide ; by being turned back twice in twenty-four hours, and by finding broader beds in the low flat countries to dilate thera selves in ; hence the evaporation ofthe fresh water is proportionably increased ; so that in some rivers it may equal the springsof supply. In such cases, the salt water coraes up the ri ver, and raeets the fresh in that part where if there were a wall or bank of earth across, from side to side, the river would form a lake, fuller indeed at sometiraes than at others, ac cording to the seasons, but whose evapora tion would, one tirae with another, be equal to its supply. When the communication between the two kinds of water is open, this supposed wall of separation may be conceived as a moveable one, which is not only pushed some miles higher up the river by every flood tide from the sea, and carried down again as far by every tide of ebb, but which has even this space of vibration reraoved nearer to the sea in wet seasons, when the springs and brooks in the upper country are augraented by the falling rains, so as to swell the river, and far ther from the sea in dry seasons. Within a few mUes above and below this raoveable line of separation, the different wa ters mix a little, partly by their motion to and fro, and partly frora the greater specific gra vity ofthe salt water, which inclines it to run u»der the fresh, while the fresh water, being lighter, runs over the salt Cast your eye on the map ofNorth Ameri ca, and observe the bay of Chesapeake in Vir ginia, mentioned above ; you will see, commu nicating with it by their mouths, the great ri vers Susquehanna, Potowmac, Rappaliannoc, York, and James, besides a number of smaller streams, each as big as the Thames. It has been proposed by phUosophical writers, that to corapute how much water any river discharges into the sea in a given time, we should mea sure its depth and swiftness at any part above the tide ; as for the Thames, at Kingston or Windsor. But can one imagine, that if all the water of those vast rivers went to the sea, it would not first have pushed the salt water out of that narrow mouthed bay, and filled it with fresh t — The Susquehanna alone would seem to be sufficient for this, if it were not for the loss by evaporation. And yet that bay is salt quite up to Annapolis. As to our other subject the different de grees of heat irabibed from the sun's rays by cloths of different colours, since 1 cannot find the notes of my experiment to send you, I must give it as well as I can frora meraory. But first let me mention an experiment you may easily make yourself Walk but a quar ter of an hour in your garden when the sun 360 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. shines, with a part of your dress white, and a part black ; then apply your hand to them al ternately, and you will find a very great dif ference in their warmth. The black will be quite hot to the touch, the white still cool. Another. Try to fire the paper with a burning glass. If it is white, you will not easily burn it; — but if you bring the focus to a black spot or upon letters, written or print ed, the paper will immediately be on fire un der the letters. 1 bus fullers and dyers find black cloths, of equal thickness with white ones, and hung out equally wet dry in the sun rauch sooner than the white, being raore readily heated by the sun's rays. It is the sarae before a fire ; the heat of which sooner penetrates black stockings than white ones, and so is apt soon er to burn a man's shins. Also beer rauch sooner warms in a black raug set before the fire, than in a white one, or in a bright sUver tankard. My experiment was this. I took a number of little square pieces of broad cloth from a taylnr's pattern-card, of various colours. — There were black, deep blue, lighter blue, green, purple, red, yellow, white, and other colours, or shades of colours. I laid thera all out upon the snow in a bright sun-shiney morning. In a few hours (1 cannot now be exact as to the time) the black being warmed most by the sun, was sunk so low as to be be low the stroke of the sun's rays ; the dark blue alraost as low, the lighter blue not quite so much as the dark, the other colours less as they were lighter ; and the quite white re raained on the surface of the snow, not having entered it at all. What signifies philosophy that does not ap ply to some use ^ — May we not learn from hence, that black clothes are not so fit to wear in a hot sunny climate or season, as white ones; because in such clothes the body is more heated by the sun when we walk abroad, and are at the same time heated by the exercise, which double heat is apt to bring on putrid dangerous fevers? That sol diers and seamen, who must march and labour in the sun, should in the East or West Indies have an uniforra of white I That suraraer hats, for raen or women, should be white, as repelling that heat which gives head-aches to raany, and to sorae the fetal stroke that tbe French call the coup de soleil ? That the la dies' suraraer hats, nowever, should be lined with black, as not reverberating on their faces those rays which are reflected upwards from the earth or waterl That the putting a white cap of paper or linen within the crown of a black hat, as some do, will not keep out the heat, though it would if placed wilhoul. That fruit-walls being blacked may receive so much heat frora the sun in the day-time, as to continue warm in some degree through the night, and thereby preserve the fruit frcm frosts, or forward its growth 1 — with sundry other particulars of less or greater iraport ance, that wUl occur frora time to time to at tentive minds 1 B. FRANKLIN. To the same. On the Effect of Air on the Barometer, and thi Benefits derived from the Study of Insects. Craven-street, June 11, 1760. 'Tis a very sensible question you ask, how the air can affect the barometer, when its opening appears covered with wood] If in deed it was so closely covered as to admit of no comraunication of the outward air to the surface of the raercury, the change of weight in the air could not possibly affect it But the least crevice is suflicient for the purpose; a pin-hole will do the business. And if you could look behind the frarae to which your barometer is fixed, you would certainly find some small opening. There are indeed some barometers in which the body of mercury at the lower end is con tained in a close leather bag, and so the air cannot corae into iraraediate contact with the mercury ; yet tbe sarae effect is produced. For the leather being flexible, when the bag is pressed by any additional weight of air it contracts, and the raercury is forced up into the tube ; when tbe air becomes lighter, and its pressure less, the weight of the mercury prevails, and it descends again into tbe bag. Your observation on what you have lately read concerning insects is very just and solid. Superficial minds are apt to despise those who make that part of the creation their stu dy, as mere triflers ; but certainly the world has been much obliged to them. Under the care and management of man, the labours of the little silkworm afford employment and subsistence to thousands of ferailies, and be come an immense article of comraerce. The bee, too, yields us its delicious honey, and its wax useful to a multitude of purposes. An other insect, it is said, produces the cochineal, frora whence we have our rich scarlet dye. The usefulness ofthe cantharitles or Spanish flies, in medicine, is known to all, and thou sands owe their lives to that knowledge. By human industry and observation, otber pro perties of other insects may possibly be here after discovered, and of equal utility. A thorough acquaintance with the nature of these little creatures may also enable man kind to prevent the increase of such as ate noxious, or secure us against tlie mischiefs they occasion. These things doubtless your books make mention of: I can only add a particular late instance which I had from a Swedish gentleman of good credit tn the green timber, intended for ship-building at PHILOSOPHICAL 36i the king's yard in that country, a kind of worms were found, which every year became more numerous and more pernicious, so that the ships were greatly daraaged before they came into use. The king sent Linnaeus, the great naturalist from Stockholm, to inquire into the affair, and see if the raischief was capable of any remedy. He found, on exarai- nation, that the worra was produced frora a small egg, deposited in the little roughnesses on the surface of the wood, by a particular kind of fly or beetle ; frora whence the worm, as soon as it was hatched, began to eat into the substance of the wood, and after sorae time carae out again a fly of the parent kind, and so the species increased. The season in which the fly laid its eggs, Linnseus knew to be about a fortnight (I think) in the month of May, and at no other time in the year. He therefore advised, that some days before that season, all the green tiraber should be thrown into the water, and kept under water till the season was over. Which being done by the king's order, the flies raissing the usual nests, could not increase ; and the species was either destroyed or went elsewhere : and the wood was effectually preserved, for after the first year, it becarae too dry and hard for their purpose. There is, however, a prudent raoderation to be used in studies of this kind. The knowledge of nature may be ornamental, and it may be useful, but if to attain an eminence in that we neglect the knowledge and prac tice of essential duties, we deserve reprehen sion. For there is no rank in natural know ledge of equal dignity and importance with that of being a good parent a good child, a good husband or wife, a good neighbour or friend, a good subject or citizen, that is, in short, a good Christian. Nicholas Gimcrack, therefore, who neglected the care of his family, to pursue butterflies, was a just object of ridicule, and we must give hira up as fair game to the satyrist. B. FRANKLIN. To Dr. Joseph Priestley. Effect of Vegetation on Noxious Air, That the vegetable creation should restore the air which is spoUed by the aniraal part of it, looks like a rational system, and seems to be of a piece with the rest. "Thus fire purifies water all the world over. It purifies it by distUlation, when it raises it in vapours, and lets it fall in rain ; and farther still by filtration, when, keeping it fluid, it suffers that rain to percolate the earth. We knew before, that putrid animal substances were converted into sweet vegetables, when mixed with the earth, and applied as manure ; and now, it seeras, that the same putrid sub- VoL. II. ... 2 Z 31 stances, mixed with the air, have a similar effect The strong thriving state of your mint, in putrid air, seeras to show, that the air is mended by taking something from it, and not by adding to it I hope this wUl give some check to the rage of destroying trees that grow near houses, which has accompa nied our late improvements in gardening, from an opinion of their being unwholesome. I am certain, from long observation, that there is nothing unhealthy in the air of woods ; for we Americans have every where our coun try habitations in the midst of woods, and no people on earth enjoy better health, or are more prolific. B. FRANKLIN. To the same. On the Inflammability ofthe Surface of certain Rivers in America. Craven-street, April 10, 1774. In compliance with your request, I have endeavoured to recollect the circumstances of the Araerican experiraents I formerly men tioned to you, of raising a flame on the sur face of some waters there. When I passed through New Jersey in 1 764, I heard it several tiraes raentioned, that by applying a lighted candle near the surface of sorae of their rivers, a sudden flame would catch and spread on the water, continuing to burn for near half a rainute. But the ac counts I received were so imperfect, that I could form no guess at the cause of such an effect, and rather doubted the truth of it. I had no opportunity of seeing the experiment ; but calling to see a friend who happened to be just returning home frora making it him self, I learned frora him the manner of it ; which was to choose a shallow place, where the bottora could be reached by a walking- stick, and was rauddy ; the mud was first to be stirred with the stick, and when a number of small bubbles began to arise frora it, the candle was applied. The flame was so sud den and so strong, that it catched his ruffle and spoiled it, as I saw. New Jersey having raany pine-trees in raany parts of it, I then iraagined that something like a volatUe oil of turpentine raight be raixed with the waters frora a pine-swarap, but this supposition did not quite satisfy me. I mentioned the fact to sorae philosophical friends on my return to England, but it was not much attended to. I suppose I was thotrght a little too credulous. In 1765, the Reverend Dr. Chandler re ceived a letter from Dr. Finley, President of the CoUege in that province, relating the same experiment It was read at the Royal Soci ety, November 21, of that year, but not printed in the Transactions ; perhaps because it was thought too strange to be true, and some ridicule might be apprehended, if any member should attempt to repeat it, in order 362 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. to ascertain, or refute it The following is a copy of that account " A worthy gentleman, who lives at a few miles distance, informed rae, that in a certain sraall cove of a mill-pond, near his house, he was surprised to see the surface ofthe water blaze like inflamed spirits. I soon after went to the place, and raade the experiment with the same success. The bottom of the creek was rauddy, and when stirred up, so as to cause a considerable curl on the surface, and a lighted candle held within two or three inches ofit, the whole surface was in a blaze, as instantly as the vapour of warra inflararaa ble spirits, and continued when strongly agi tated, for the space of several seconds. It was at first iraagined to be peculiar to that place ; but upon trial it was soon found, that such a bottom in other places exhibited the same phe noraenon. The discovery was accidentally made by one belonging to tbe mill." I have tried the experiraent twice here in England, but without success. The first was in a slow running water with a rauddy bot tora. The second in a stagnant water at the bottom of a deep ditch. Being some tirae employed in stirring this water, I ascribed an intermitting fever, which seized me a few days after, to ray breathing too rauch of that foul air, which I stirred up frora the bottora, and which I could not avoid whUe I stooped, endeavouring to kindle it. The discoveries you have lately made, of tbe manner in which inflararaable air is in sorae cases produced, may throw light on this experiraent, and ex plain its succeeding in some cases, and not in others. With the highest esteera and re spect, B. FRANKLIN. To Dr. Percival. On the different quantities of Rain which fall at different heights over the same ground. — Read in the Philosopbical Society of Manches ter, January 31, 1784. On ray return to London I found your fe vour of the 16th of May (1771.) I wish I could, as you desire, give you a better expla nation of the phenomenon in question, since you seem not quite satisfied with your own ; but I think we want more and a greater va riety of experiments in different circu rastances, to enable us to form a thoroughly satisfactory hypothesis. Not that I make the least doubt or the facts already related, as I know both lord Charies Cavendish and Dr. Heberden to he very accurate experiraenters : but I wish to know the event of the trials proposed in your six queries; and also, whether in the sarae place where the lower vessel receives nearly tviice the quantity of water that is re ceived by the upper, a third vessel placed at half the height wUl receive a quantity pro portionable. I will however endeavour to explain to you what occurred to rae, when I flrst heard of the fact I suppose it wUl be generally allowed, on a little consideration of the subject that scarce any drop of water was, when it began to fall from the clouds, of a raagnitude equal to that it has acquired, when it arrives at the earth ; the sarae ofthe several pieces ofhaU; because they are often so large and so weighty, that we cannot conceive a possibUity oftheir being suspended in the air, and reraaining at rest, there for any tirae, how sraall soever ; nor do we conceive any means of forming thera so large, before they set out to faU. It seems then, that each beginning drop, and particle of haU, receives continual addition in its progress downwards. This may be seve ral ways : by the union of numbers in their course, so that what was at first only descend ing mist, becoraes a shower ; or by each par ticle, in its descent through air that contains a great quantity of dissolved water, striking against, attaching to itself, and carrying down with it such particles of that dissolved water, as happen to be in its way ; or attracting to itself such as do not lie directly in its course by its different state, with regard either to coramon or electric fire ; or by aU these causes united. In the first case, by the uniting of numbers, larger drops might be made, but the quantity falling in the same place would be the same at all heights ; unless, as you mention, the whole should be contracted in felling, the lines described by all the drops converging, so that what set out to fall from a cloud of many thousand acres, should reach the earth in per haps a third of that extent, of which I some what doubt In the other cases we have two experiments. 1. A dry glass bottle filled witli very cold water, in a warra day, will presently collect frora the seeraingly dry air IJiat surrounds it a quantity of water, that shall cover its sur face and run down its sides, which perhaps is done by the power wherewith the cold water attracts the fluid, common fire that haibeen united with the dissolved water in the air, and drawing the fire through the glass into itself, leaves the water on tlie outside. 2. Au electrified body left in a roora for sorae tirae, will be more covered with dust than other bodies in the same roora not elec trified, which dust seeras to be attracted frora the circumambient air. Now we know that the rain, even in our hottest days, comes frora a very cold region. Its felling sometiraes in the form of ice, shows this clearly ; and perhaps even the rain is snow or ice, when it first moves downwards, though thawed in felling : and we know that the drops of rain are often electrified : but those causes of addition to each drop of water or PHILOSOPHICAL. piece of haU, one would think could not long continue to produce the sarae effect ; since the air, through which the drops fall, must soon be stripped of its previously dissolved water, so as to be no longer capable of augmenting thera. Indeed very heavy showers, of either, are never of long continuance ; but raoderate rains often continue so long as to puzzle this hypothesis : so that upon the whole 1 think, as I intiraated before, that we are yet hardly ripe fbr raaking one. B. FRANKLIN. Mr. Nairne, London. On the properties of an Hygrometer. — Read in the Transactions of the American Philosopbi cal Society, January 26, 1780. Passy, near Paris, Nov. 13. 1780. The qualities hitherto sought in a hygro meter, or instruraent to discover the degrees of raoisture and dryness in the air, seera to have been, an aptitude to receive huraidity readily from a moist air, and to part with it as readily to a dry air. Different substances have been found to possess more or less of this quality ; but when we shall have found the substance that has it in the greatest per fection, there wUl still remain some uncer tainty in the conclusions to be drawn frora the degree shown by the instrument, arising from the actual state of the instrument itself as to heat and cold. Thus, if two bottles or vessels of glass or metal being filled, the one with cold and the other with hot water, are brought into a roora, the moisture of the air in the room will attach itself in quantities to the sur face of the cold vessel, while if you actually wet the surface of the hot vessel, the raoist ure wiU iraraediately quit it and be absorbed by the sarae air. And thus, in a sudden change of the air from cold to warra, the instrument remaining longer cold, raay condense and ab sorb more raoisture, and raark the air as having become raore huraid than it is in reality, and the contrary in a change frora warra to cold. But if such a suddenly changing instrument could be freed from these imperfections, yet when the design is to discover the different degrees of humidity in the air of different coun tries, 1 apprehend the quick sensibility ofthe instrument to be rather a disadvantage ; since to draw the desired conclusions from it, a con stant and frequent observation day and night in each country will be necessary for a year or years, and the mean of each different set of observatipns is to be found and determined. After all which some uncertainty will remain respecting the different degrees of exactitude with which different persons may have made and taken notes oftheir observations. For these reasons, I apprehend that a sub stance which, though capable of being distend ed by moisture and contracted by dryness, is j so slow in receiving and parting with its hu midity, that the frequent changes in the atmo sphere have not time to affect it sensibly, and which therefore should gradually take nearly the medium of all those changes and preserve it constantly, would be the most proper sub stance of which to make such an hygrometer. Such an instruraent, you, ray dear sir, though without intending it, have raade for me ; and I, without desiring or expecting it, have re ceived from you. It is therefore with pro priety that I address to you the foUowing ac count ofit; and the more, as you have both a head to contrive and a hand to execute the means of perfecting it. And 1 do this with greater pleasure, as it affords rae the opportu nity of renewing that ancient correspondence and acquaintance with you, which to me was always so pleasing and so instructive. You may possibly remember, that in or about the year 1758, you made for me a set of arti ficial magnets, six in nuraber, each five and a half inches long, half an inch broad, and one eighth of an inch thick. These, with two pieces of soft iron, which together equalled one of the magnets, were enclosed in a little box of mahogany wood, the grain of which ran with, and not across, the length of the box : and the box was closed by a little shutter of the same wood, the grain of which ran across the box ; and the ends of this shutting piece were be velled so as to fit and slide in a kind of dove tail groove when the box was to be shut or opened. I had been of opinion, that good mahogany wood was not affected by moisture so as to change its diraensions, and that it was always to be found as the tools of the workraan left it Indeed the difference at different tiraes in the sarae country is so small as to be scarcely in a comraon way observable. Hence the box, which was made so as to allow sufficient room for the magnets to slide out and in freely, and, when in, afforded thera so rauch play that by shaking the box one could make thera strike the opposite sides alternately, continued in the sarae state all the tirae I remained in England, which was four years, without any apparent alteration. I left England in August 1762, and arrived at Philadelphia in October the sarae year. In a few weeks after my arrival, being desirous of showing your magnets to a phUosophical friend, I found them so tight in the box, that it was with difficulty I got them out; and constantly during the two years I remained there, viz. till November 1764, this difficulty of getting them out and in continued. This little shutter too, as wood does not shrink lengthways of the grain, was found too long to enter its grooves, and, not being used, was mislaid and lost ; and afterwards I had another made that fitted. In December, 1764, 1 returned to England, 364 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. and after sorae time I observed that ray box was becorae full big enough for my magnets, and too wide for my new shutter ; which was so much too short for its grooves, that it was apt to fall out ; and to raake it keep in I length ened it by adding to each end a little coat of sealing-wax. I continued in England more than ten years, and during all that time, after the first change, I perceived no alteration. The magnets had the same freedora in their box, and the little shutter continued with the added sealing-wax to fit its grooves, till sorae weeks after ray second return to Araerica. As I could not iraagine any other cause for this change of dimensions in the box, when in the different countries, I concluded, first ge nerally that the air of England was raoister than that of America. And this I supposed an effect of its being an island, where every wind that blew raust necessarily pass over some sea before it arrived, and of course lick up some vapour. I afterwards indeed doubt ed whether it raight be just only so fer as re lated to the city of London, where I resided ; because there are raany causes of raoisture in the city air, which do not exist to the same degree in the country ; such as the brewers and dyers boiling caldrons, and the great nuraber of pots and tea-kettles continually on the fire, sending forth abundance of vapour ; and also the nuraber of animals who by their Ireath continually increase it ; to which may be added, that even the vast quantity of sea coals burnt there, do in khidling, discharge a great deal of moisture. When I was in England the last time, you also made for me a little achromatic pocket telescope, the body was brass, and it had a round case, (I think of thin wood) covered with shagreen. AU the whUe I remained in England, though possibly there might be some small changes in the dimensions of this case, I neither perceived nor suspected any. There was always comfortable roora for the tele scope to slip in and out But soon after I ar rived in Araerica, which was in May 1775, the case becarae too sraall for the instrument it was with much difficulty and various con trivances that I got it out, and I could never after get it in again, during my stay there, which was eighteen months. I brought it with rae to Europe, but left the case as useless, iraagining I should find the continental air of France as dry as that ofPennsylvania, where ray magnet box had also returned a second time to its narrowness, and pinched the pieces, as heretofore, obliging rae too, to scrape the sealing-wax off the ends ofthe shutter. I had not been long in France, before I was surprised to find, that my box was be come as large as it had always been in Eng land, the magnets entered and came out with the same freedom, and when in, I could rat tle them against its sides ; this has continued to be the case withou.t sensible variation. My habitation is out of Paris distant almost a league, so that the moist air of the city can not be supposed to have much effect upon the box. I am on a high dry hill, in a free air, as likely to be dry as any air in France. — Whence it seeras probable that the air of England in genercJ raay, as well as that of London, be moister than the air of America, since that of France is so, and in a part so dis tant frora the sea. The greater dryness ofthe air in America appears frora sorae other observations. The cabinet work formerly sent us from London, which consisted in thin plates of fine wood glued upon fir, never would stand with us; the veneering,as those platesare called, would get loose and come off: both woods shrinking, and their grains often crossing, they were for ever cracking and flying. And in my elec trical experiments there, it was remarkable, that a mahogany table, on which ray jars stood under the prime conductor to be charged, would often be so dry, particularly when the wind had been some time at north-west which with us is a very drying wind, as to isolate the jars, and prevent their being charged tUl I had forraed a communication between their coatings and the earth. I had a like table in London, which I used for the same purpose all the while I resided there ; but it was ne ver so dry as to refiise conducting the elec tricity. Now what I would beg leave to recommend to you, is, that you would recollect ff you can, the species of mahogany of which you made my box, for you know there is a good deal of difference in woods that go under that name ; or if that cannot be, that you would take a number of pieces of the closest and finest grained mahogany that you can meet with, plane them to the thinness of about a line, and tbe width of about two inches across the grain, and fix each of the pieces in some in struraent that you can contrive, which wUl perrait them to contract and dUate, and wUl show, in sensible degrees, by a moveable hand upon a marked scale, the otherwise less sen sible quantities of such contraction and dila tion. If these instruments are all kept in the same place whUe makuig, and are graduated together while subject to tlie same degrees of raoisture or dryness, I apprehend you wUl have so many comparablehygrometei's, which, being sent into different countries, and con tinued there for some time, will find and show there the mean of the different dryness and moisture of the air of those countries, and that with rauch less trouble than by any hygro meter hitherto in use, f B. FRANKLIN. PHILOSOPHICAL. 365 To Dr. John Pringle. On the Difference of Navigation in shoal and deep Water. Craven-street, May 10, 1768. Yor raay reraeraber, that when we were travelling together in Holland, you reraark ed, that the trackschuyt in one of the stages went slower than usual, and inquired of the boatraan, what raight be the reason ; who answered, that it had been a dry season, and the water in the canal was low. On being ask ed if it was so low as that the boat touch ed the muddy bottora ; he said, no, not so low as that, but so low as to raake it harder for the horse to draw the boat We neither of us at first could conceive that if there was water enough for the boat to swira clear of the bottora, its being deeper would make any difference ; but as the raan affirmed it seri ously, as a thing well known among thera ; and as the punctuality required in their stages was likely to raake such difference, if any there were, more readily observed by them than by other watermen who did not pass so regularly and constantly backwards and for wards in the sarae track; I began to appre hend there raight be soraething in it, and at tempted to account for it from this considera tion, that the boat in proceeding along the cana.l, must in every boat's length of her course, move out of her way a body of water, equal in bulk to the roora her bottora took up in tbe water; that the water so raoved must pass on each side of her and under her bot tom to get behind her ; that if the passage under her bottom was straitened by the shal lows, more of that water must pass by her sides, and with a swifter motion, which would retard her, as moving the contrary way ; or that the water becoraing lovi'er behind the boat than before, she was pressed back by the weight of its difference in height, and her mo tion retarded by having that weight constantly to overcome. But as it is often lost time to attempt accounting for uncertain facts, I de- terrained to raake an experiraent of this when I should have convenient tirae and oppor tunity. After our return to England, as often as I happened to be on the Thames, I inquired of our watermen whether they were sensible of any difference in rowing over shallow or deep water. I found thera all agreeing in the fact, that there was a very great difference, but they differed widely in expressing the quan tity of the difference ; sorae supposing it was equal to a raile in six,~others to a mile in three, &c. As I did not recollect to have raet with any mention of this raatter in our philo sophical books, and conceiving that if the dif ference should really be great, it raight be an object of consideration in the many projects now on foot fiir digging new navigable canals 31* in this island, I lately put my design of mak ing the experiment in execution, in the fol lowing raanner. I provided a trough of plained boards four teen feet long, six inches wide and six inches deep, in the clear, filled witS water within half an inch ofthe edge, to represent a canal. I had a loose board of nearly the same length and breadth, that, being put into the water, might be sunk to any depth, and fixed by lit tle wedges where I would choose to have it stay, in order to make different depths of wa ter, leaving the surface at the same height with regard to the sides of the trough. I had a little boat in form of a lighter or boat of bur den, six inches long, two inches and a quar ter wide, and one inch and a quarter deep. When swiraraing, it drew one inch water. 'To give motion to the boat I fixed one end of a long sUk thread to its bow, just even with the water's edge, the other end passed over a well made brass pully, of about an inch diameter, turning freely on a small axis; and a shUling was the weight Then placing the boat at one end of the trough, the weight would draw it through the water to the othei'. Not having a watch that shows seconds, in order to measure the time taken up by the boat in passing from end to end, I counted as fast as I could count to ten repeatedly, keep ing an account of the number of tens on my fingers. And as much as possible to correct any little inequalities in my counting, I re peated the experiment a number of tiraes at each depth of water, that I might take the rae diura. Ana the following are the results. Water 1^ inches deep. 2 inches. 4^ inches. Istexp.. . ...100 94 - 3 ...104 91 4 ...106 87 ...100 6 7 ... 99 ...100 ...100 86 90 8 88 Medium 101 Medium 89 Medium 79 I made many other experiments, but the above are those in which I was most exact ; and they serve sufficiently to show that the differ ence is considerable. Between the deepest and shallowest it appears to be somewhat more than one fifth. So that supposing large canals and boats and depths of water to bear the same proportions, and that four men or horses would draw a boat in deep water four leagues in four hours, it would require five to draw the same boat in the same time as fer in shaUow water ; or four would require five hours. Whether this difference is of consequence enough to justify a greater expense in deepen ing canals, is a matter of calculation, which our ingenious engineers in that way will rea dily determine, B. FRANKLIN. 366 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. Alphonsus Le Roy, Paris. Improvements in Navigation.— Read in the Ame rican Philosophical Society, December 2, 17S5. At sea, on board the London Packet, Capt. Truxton. August 1785. Your learned writings on the navigation ofthe ancients, which contain a great deal of curious information, and your very ingenious contrivances for improving the modern sails {voilure) of which I saw with great pleasure a successful trial on the river Seine, have in duced me to subrait to your consideration and judgraent some thoughts I have had on the latter subject Those mathematicians, who have endea voured to improve the swiftness of vessels, by calculating to find the forra of least resist ance, seem to have considered a ship as a body raoving through one fluid only, the water ; and to have given little attention to the circurastances of her moving through another fluid, the air. It is true that when a vessel saUs right before the wind, this cir cumstance is of no iraportance, because the wind goes with her ; hut in everydeviation from that course, the resistance of the air is soraething, and becoraes greater in proportion as that deviation increases. I wave at pre sent the consideration of those different de grees of resistance given by the air to that part of the hull which is above water, and confine rayself to that given to the sails ; for their motion through the air is resisted by the air, as the motion of the hull through the water is resisted by the water, though with less force, as the air is a lighter fluid. And to simplify the discussion as much as possible, I would state one situation only, to wit that ofthe wind upon the beam, the ship's course being directly across the wind : and I would suppose the sail set in an angle of 45 degrees with the keel, as in the following figure ; in the Plate, Fig 1. A B represents the body of the vessel, C D the position of the sail, EEE the direction of the wind, MM the line of raotion. In observing this figure it will appear, that so much ofthe body of the vessel as is imraersed in the water must, to go forward, reraove out of its way what water it meets with between the prick ed lines FF. And the sail, to go forward, raust raove out of its way all the air its whole diraension meets with between the pricked lines CG and DG. Thus both the fluids give resistance to the motion, each in proportion to the quantity of matter contained in the di mensions to be reraoved. And though the air is vastly lighter than the water, and there fore more easily removed, yet the dimension being much greater its effect is very con siderable. It is true that in the case stated, the re sistance given by the air between those lines to the motion ofthe sail is not apparent to the eye, because the greater force of the wind, which strikes it in the direction EEE, over powers its effect and keeps the saU full in the curve a, a, a, a, a. But suppose the wind to cease, and the vessel in a calm to be impel led with the sarae swiftness by oars, the sail would then appear filled in the contrary curve b, b, b, b, b, when prudent raen would imme diately perceive, that the air resisted its mo tion, and would order it to be taken in. Is there any possible means of diminishing this resistance, while the same quantity of sail is exposed to the action of the wind, and therefore tbe same force obtained from it 1 I think there is, and that it raay be done by di viding the saU into a number of parts, and placing those parts in a line one behind the other ; thus instead of one sail extending from C to D, figure 2, if four saUs containing to gether the same quantity of canvass, were placed as in figure 3, each having one quarter ofthe dimensions of the great saU, and expos ing a quarter of its surface to the wind, would give a quarter of its force ; so that the whole force obtained from the wind would be tbe same, while the resistance from the air would be nearly reduced to the space between the pricked lines a b and c d, before the foremost sail. It may perhaps be doubted whether the re sistance frora the air would be so diminished ; since possibly each of tbe following small sails having also air before it, which must be reraoved, the resistance on the whole would be the same. This is then a matter to be determined by experiment I wiU mention one that I many years since made with success for another purpose ; and I will propose another smaU one easily made. If that too succeeds, I should think it worth while to make a larger, tbough at some expense, on a river boat; and perhaps time, and the improvements experi ence will afford, may raake it applicable with advantage to larger vessels. Having near ray kitchen chimney a round hole of eight inches diameter, through which was a constant steady current of air, increas ing or diminishing only as tlie fire increased or diminished, I contrived to place my jack so as to receive the current ; and taking oft' the flyers, I fixed in their stead on the same pivot a round tin plate of nearly the same diameter with the whole; and having cut it in radial lines almost to the centre, so as to have si.K equal vanes, I gave to each of them the obliquity of forty-five degrees. They moved round, without the weight, by the im pression only of the current of air, but too slowly for the purpose of roasting. I suspect ed that the air struck by the back of each vaiie raight possibly by its resistance retard the raotion ; and to try this, I cut each of them PHILOSOPHICAL 367 into two, and I placed the twelve, each having the same obliquity, in a line behind each other, when I perceived a great augmentation in its velocity, which encouraged me to divide them once raore, and continuing the sarae obliquity, I placed the twenty-four behind each other in a line, when the force of the wind being the same, and the surface of vane the same, they moved round with rauch greater rapidity, and perfectly answered my purpose. The second experiment that I propose, is to take two playing cards of the same diraen sions, and cut one of thera transversely into eight equal pieces ; then with a needle string them upon two threads one near each end, and place them so upon the threads that when hung up, they raay be one exactly over the other, at a distance equal to their breadth, each in a horizontal position ; and let a sraall weight, such as a birdrshot, be hung under them, to make thera fall in a straight line when let loose. Suspend also the whole card by threads from its four corners, and hang to it an equal weight, so as to draw it down wards when let fall, its whole breadth press ing against the air. Let those two bodies be attached, one of thera to one end of a thread a yard long, the other to the other end. Ex tend a twine under the cieling of a roora, and put through it at thirty inches distance two pins bent in the forra of fish-hooks. On these two hooks hang the two bodies, the thread that connects thera extending parallel to the twine, which thread being cut, they must be gin to fall at the same instant. If they take equal time in felling to the floor, it is a proof that the resistance ofthe air is in both cases equal. If the whole card requires a longer time, it shows that the sura of the resistances to the pieces of the cut card is not equal to the resistance ofthe whole one.* This principle so far conflrraed, I would proceed to raake a larger experiment, with a shallop, which I would rig in this manner. Same plate, Fig. 4. A B is a long boom, frora which are hoisted seven jibs, a, b, c, d, e, f, g, each a seventh part of the whole dimensions, and as much more as will fill the whole space when set in an angle of forty-five degrees, so that they may lap when going before the wind, and hold raore when going large. Thus rigged, when going right before the wind, the boom should be brought at right angles with the keel, by means of the sheet ropes C D, and all the sails hauled flat to the boom. These positions of boom and sails to be va ried as the wind quarters. But when the wind is on the beam, or when you would turn to windward, the boom is to be hauled right * The mntion ofthe vessel made it inconvenient to try this simple experiment at sea, when the proposal of it was written. But it has been tried since we came on shore, and succeeded as the other. fore and afl;, and the saUs trimmed according as the wind is raore or less against your course. It seeras to me that the management of a shallop so rigged would be very easy, the saUs being run up and down separately, so that more. or less sail raay be made at plea sure ; and I iraagine, that there being full as much sail exposed to the force of the wind which impels the vessel in its course, as if the whole were in one piece, and the resistance of the dead air against the foreside of the sail being diminished, the advantage of swiftness would be very considerable ; besides that the vessel would lie nearer the wind. Since we are on the subject of improve ments in navigation, permit me to detain you a little longer with a small relative observa tion. Being, in one ofmy voyages, with ten merchant-ships under convoy of a frigate at anchor in Torbay, waiting for a wind to go to the westward ; it came fair, but brought in with it a considerable swell. A signal was given for weighing, and we put to sea altoge ther; but three of the ships left their anchors, their cables parting just as their anchors came a-peak. Our cable held, and we got up our anchor ; but the shocks the ship felt before the anchor got loose frora the ground, made me reflect on what raight possibly have caus ed the breaking of the other cables ; and I iraagined it raight be the short bending ofthe cable just without the hause-hole, frora a ho rizontal loan almost verticle position, and the sudden violent jerk it receives by the rising ofthe head ofthe ship on the sw-ell of a wave whUe in that position. For example, suppose a vessel hove up so as to have her head nearly over her anchor, which still keeps its hold per haps in a tough bottom ; if it were calm, the ca ble still out would form nearly a. perpendicu lar line, measuring the distance between the hause-hole and the anchor; but if there is a sweU, her head in the trough ofthe sea will fall below the level, and when lifted on the wave will be much above it In the first case the cable will hang loose, and bend perhaps as in figure 5. In the second case, figure 6, the cable will be drawn straight with a jerk, raust sustain the whole force ofthe rising ship, and must either loosen theanchor, resist the rising force of the ship, or break. But why does it break at the hause-hole ? Lotus suppose it a cable of three inches diameter, and represented by figure 7. If this cable is to be bent round the corner A, it is evident that either the part of the triangle contained between the letters a, b, c, inust stretch considerably, and those most that are nearest the surface ; or that the parts between d, e, f, raust be compressed ; or both, which most probably happens. In this case the low er half of the thickness affords no strength against the jerk, it not being strained, the upper half bears tlie whole, and the yams FRANKLIN'S WORKS. near the upper surface being first and most strained, break first, and the next yams fol low ; for ni this bent situation they cannot bear the strain altogether, and each contri butes its strength to the whole, as they do when the cable is strained in a straight line. To remedy this, methinks it would be well to have a kind of large pulley wheel, fixed in the hause-hole, suppose of two feet diaraeter, over which the cable raight pass ; and being there bent gradually to the round ofthe wheel, would thereby be raore equally strained, and better able to bear the jerk, which may save the anchor, and by that means in the course of the voyage to save the ship. One maritime observation more shall finish this letter. I have been a reader of news papers now near seventy years, and I think few years pass without an account of sorae vessel met with at sea, with no living soul on board, and so raany feet of water in her hold, wbich vessel has nevertheless been sav ed and brought into port: and when not met with at sea, such forsaken vessels have often corae ashore on some coast. The crews, who have taken to their boats and thus abandoned such vessels, are soraetiraes met with and taken up at sea by otber ships, soraetiraes reach a coast, and are sometimes never heard of Those that give an account of quitting their vessels generally say, that she sprung a leak, that tbey pumped for sorae tirae, that the water continued to rise upon thera, and that despairing to save her, they had quitted her lest they should go down with her. It seeras by the event that this fear was not al ways well founded, and I have endeavoured to guess at the reason of the people's too hasty discourageraent When a vessel springs a leak near her bot tom, the water enters with all the force given by the weight ofthe column of water, without, which force is in proportion to the difference of level between the water without and that within. It enters therefore with more force at first and in greater quantity, than it can af terwards when the water within is higher. — The bottom of the vessel too is narrower, so that the same quantity of water coming into that narrow part, rises faster than when the space for it to flow is larger. This helps to terrify. But as the quantity entering is less and less as the surfaces without and within be come more nearly equal in height the pumps that could not keep the water from rising at first, might afterwards be able to prevent its rising higher, and the people might have re mained on board in safety, without hazarding themselves in an open boat on the wide ocean. (Pig. 8.) Besides the greater equality in the height of the two surfaces, there may sometimes be other causee that retard the farther sinking of a leaky vessel. The rising water within may arrive at quantities of light wooden work, erapty chests, and particularly erapty water- casks, which if fixed so as not to float them selves may help to sustain her. Many bodies which compose a ship's cargo may be speci- flcaUy lighter than water, aU these when out of water are an additional weight to that of the ship, and she is in proportion pressed deeper into the water ; but as soon as these bodies are immersed, they weigh no longer on the ship, but on the contrary, if fixed, they help to support her, in proportion as they are specifically lighter than the water. And it should be reraerabered, that the largest body of a ship raay be so balanced in the water, that an ounce less or more of weight may leave her at the surface or sink her to the bottom. There are also certain heavy car goes, that when the water gets at them, are continually dissolving, and thereby lightning the vessel, such as salt and sugar. And as to water-casks mentioned above, since the quantity of them must be great in ships of war where the nuraber of raen consume a great deal of water every day, if it had been raade a constant rule to bung thera up as fast as they were emptied, and to dispose the empty casks in proper situations, I am per suaded that many ships which have been sunk in engagements, or have gone down after wards, might with the unhappy people have been saved; as well as many of those which in the last war foundered, and were never heard of While on this topic of sinking, one cannot help recollecting tbe well known practice ofthe Chinese, to divide the hold of a great ship into a number of separate cham bers by partitions tight caulked (of which you gave a model in your boat upon the Seine) so that if a leak should spring in one of them the others are not effected by it; and though that chamber should ffil to a level with the sea, it would not be sufficient to sink the vessel. — We have not imitated tliis practice. Some little disadvantage it raight occasion in the stowage is perhaps one reason, though that I think raight be raore than compensated by an abatement in tlie insurance that would be reasonable, and by a higher price taken of passengers, who would rather prefer going in such a vessel. But our sea-faring people are brave, despise danger, and reject such precautions of safety, being cowards only ra one sense, that of fearing to be thought afraid. I promised to finish my letter with the last observation, but the garrulity of the old man has got hold of rae, and as I may never have another occasion of writing on this subject I tliink I may as well now, once for all, empty my nauticle budget and give you all the thoughts that have in my various long voy ages occurred to me relating to navigation. I ara sure that in you they wUl meet a can- PHILOSOPHICAL. 369 did judge, who wUl excuse my mistakes on account ofmy good intention. There are six accidents that may occasion the loss of ships at sea. We have considered one of them, that of foundering by a leak. — The other five are, 1. Oversetting by sudden flaws of wind, or by carrying sail beyond the bearing. 2. Fire by accident or carelessness. 3. A heavy stroke of lightning, making a breach in the ship, or firing the powder. 4. Meeting and shocking with other ships m the night 5. Meeting in the night with islands of ice. To that of oversetting, privateers in their first cruize have, as far as has fallen within my knowledge or information, been raore sub ject than any other kind of vessels. The dou ble desire of being able to overtake a weaker flying enemy, or to escape when pursued by a stronger, has induced the owners to overroast then: cruizers, and to spread too much canvas ; and the great nuraber of men, raany of them not searaen, who being upon deck when a ship heels suddenly are huddled down to lee ward, and increase by their weight the effect of the wind. This therefore should be more attended to and guarded against, especially as the advantage of lofty masts is probleraatical. For the upper sails have greater power to lay a vessel more on her side, which is not the most advantageous position for going swiftly through the water. And hence it is that ves sels, which have lost their lofty masts, and been able to make little more sail afterwards than perraitted the ship to sail upon an even keel, have made so much way, even under jury masts, as to surprise the mariners them selves. But there is besides, soraething in the raodern forra ofour ships that seems as if calculated expressly to allow their overset ting more easily. The sides of a ship, in stead of spreading out as they forraerly did in the upper works, are of late years turned in, so as to make the body nearly round, and more resembling a cask. I do not know what the advantages of this construction are, ex cept that such ships are not easily boarded. To me it seems a contrivance to have less room in a ship at nearly the same expense. For it is evident that the sarae tiraber and plank consumed in raising the sides frora a to b, and from d to c, would have raised them frora a to e, and frora d to f, fig. 9. In this forra all the spaces between e, a, b, and c, d, f, would have been gained, the deck would have been larger, the raen would have had more room to act, and not have stood so thick in the way of the enemy's shot ; and the ves sel, the more she was laid down on her side, the raore bearing she would raeet with, and more effectual to support her, as being farther frora the centre. Whereas in the present forra, her ballsist makgs the chief part of her bearing, without which she would turn in the Vol. n....3A sea almost as easily as a barrel. More bal last by this means becomes necessary, and that sinking a vessel deeper in the water oc casions more resistance to her going through it The Bermudian sloops stUl keep with advan tage to the old spreading forra. The island ers in the great Pacific ocean, though they have no large ships, are the raost expert boat- sailors in the world, navigating that sea safe ly with their proas, which they prevent over setting by various raeans. Their sailing proas for this purpose have outriggers, generally to windward, above the water, on which, one or more men are placed, to move occasionaUy further frora or nearer to the vessel as the wind freshens or slackens. But sorae have their outriggers to leeward, which, resting on the water, support the boat so as to keep her upright when pressed down by the wind. Their boats raoved by oars or rather paddles, are for long voyages, fixed two together by cross bars of wood that keep thera at some distance from each other, and so render their oversetting next to impossible. How far this may be practicable in larger vessels, we have not yet sufficient experience. 1 know of but one trial made in Europe, which was about one hundred years since, by Sir Wm. Petty. He built a double vessel, to serve as a packet boat between England and Ireland. Her raodel still exists in the rauseum ofthe Royal Society, where I have seen it By the accounts we have of her, she answered well the purpose of her construction, making se veral voyages ; and though wrecked at last by a storm, the misfortune did not appear ow ing to her particular construction, since many other vessels of the common form wrecked at the sarae tirae. The advantage of such a vessel is, that she needs no ballast, therefore swims either lighter or wUl carry more goods ; and that passengers are not so rauch incom moded by her rolling : to which may be added that if she is to defend herself by her cannon, they will probably have more effect, being kept more generally in a horizontal position, than those in comraon vessels. I think, how ever, that it would be an improvement of that model, to make the sides which are opposed to each other perfectly parallel, though the other sides are formed as in common, thus, figure 10. The building of a double ship would indeed be more expensive in proportion to her bur den ; and that perhaps is sufficient to discou rage the method. The accident of fire is generally well guarded against by the prudent captain's strict orders against smoking between decks, or carrying a candle there out of a lantern. But there is one dangerous practice which fre quent terrible accidents have not yet been sufficient to abolish ; that of carrying store- spirits to sea in casks. Two large ships, the 870 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. Serapis and the Duke of Athol, one an East- Indiaman, the other a frigate, have been burnt within these two last years, and raany lives miserably destroyed, by drawing spirits out of a cask near a candle. It is high time to raake it a general rule, that all the ship's store of spirits should be carried in bottles. The raisfortune by a stroke of lightning I have in my former writings endeavoured to show a method of guarding against, by a chain and pointed rod, extending, when run up, frora above the top of the raast to the sea. These instruraents are now raade and sold at a reasonable price by Nairne & Co. in London, and there are several instances of success at tending the use of thera. They are kept in a box, and may be ran up and fixed in about five minutes, on the apparent approach of a thunder gust Of the meeting and shocking with other ships in the night I have known two instances in voyages between London and Araerica. In one both ships arrived though much daraaged, each reporting their belief that the other raust have gone to the bottom. In the other, only one got to port ; the other was never after wards heard of These instances happened many years ago, when the coraraerce between Europe and America was not a tenth part of what it is at present, ships of course thinner scattered, and the chance of meeting propor tionably less. It has long been the practice to keep a look-out before in the channel, but at sea it has been neglected. If it is not at present thought worth whUe to take that pre caution, it will in time becorae of more con sequence ; since the nuraber of ships at sea is continually augraenting. A drum frequently beat, or a bell rung in a dark night, raight help to prevent such accidents. Islands of ice are frequently seen off the banks of Newfoundland, by ships going be tween North Araerica and Europe. In the day tirae they are easUy avoided, unless in a very thick fog. I remember two instances of shi ps running against them in the night The flrst lost her bowspirit but received little other daraage. The other struck where the warmth ofthe sea had wasted the ice next to it, and a part hung over above. This perhaps saved her, for she was under great way ; but the upper part of the cliff taking her fore- topmast broke the shock, though it carried away the raast. She disengaged herself with some difficulty, and got safe into port ; but the accident shows the possibility of other ships being wrecked and sunk by striking those vast masses of ice, of which I have seen one that we judged to be seventy feet high above the water, consequently eight times as rauch un der water ; and it is another reason for keep ing a good look-out before, though far from any coast that raay threaten danger, ; is reraarkable, that the people we consi der as savages have iraproved the art of saU ing and rowing boats in several points beyond what we can pretend to. We have no saUmg- boats equal to the flying proas of the South Seas, no rowing or paddling-boat equal to that ofthe Greenlanders for swiftness and safety. The birch canoes ofthe North-Araerican In dians have also some advantageous properties. They are so light that two men may carry one of thera over land, which is capable of carry ing a dozen upon the water ; and in heeling they are not so subject to take in water as our boats, the sides of which are lowest in the raiddle where it is most likely to enter, this being highest in that part as in figure 11. The Chinese are an enlightened people, the most anciently civilized of any existing, and their arts are ancient a presumption in their fe vour : their raethod of rowing their boats dif fers from us, the oars being worked either two a-stern as we scuU, or on the sides with the sarae kind of motion, being hung parallel to the keel on a raU, and always acting in the water, not perpendicular to tbe side as ours are, nor lifted out at every stroke, which is a loss of tirae, and the boat in the interval loses motion. They see our manner, and we theirs, but neither are disposed to learn of or copy the other. To the several raeans of moving boats men tioned above, may be added the singular one lately exhibited at Javelle, on the Seine below Paris, where a clumsy boat was raoved across that river in three minutes by rowing, not in the water, but m the air, that is, by whirling round a set of windraill vanes fixed to a hori zontal axis, parallel to the keel, and placed at the head of the boat The axis was bent into an elbow at tbe end, by the help of which it was turned by one man at a tirae. I saw the operation at a distance. The four vanes appeared to be about five feet long, and per haps two and a half wide. The weather was calra. The labour appeared to be great tor one raan, as tbe two several times reliev ed each other. But the action upon the air by the oblique surfeces of the vanes must have been considerable, as the motion of the boat appeared tolerably quick going and re turning; and she returned to the same place from whence she first set out notwithstand ing the current This raachine is since ap plied to the raoving of air-balloons : an in strument simUar may be contrived to move a boat by turning under water. Several mechanical projectors have at dff- ferent times proposed to give m'btion to boats, and even to ships, by means of circular row ing, or paddles placed on the circuraference of wheels to be turned constantly on each side of the vessel ; but this method, though fre quently tried, has never been found so effec tual as to encourage a continuance of the practice. I do not know that the reason has PHILOSOPHICAL 371 hitherto been given. Perhaps it may be this, that great part of the force eraployed contri butes little to the raotion. For instance, (fig. 12) of the four paddles a, b, c, d, all under water, and turning to move a boat from X to Y, c has the raost power, b nearly though not quite as rauch, their motion being nearly horizontal ; but the force eraployed in raoving a, is consuraed in pressing almost downright upon the water tUl it comes to the place of b; and the force employed in moving d is consuraed in lifting the water tUl d arrives at the surface ; by which means much of the la bour is lost It is true, that by placing the wheels higher out ofthe water, this waste la bour will be dirainished in a calm, but where a sea runs, the wheels must unavoidably be often dipt deep in the waves, and the turn ing of thera thereby rendered very laborious to little purpose. Among the various raeans of giving raotion to a boat, that of M. Bernoulli appears one of the most singular, which was to have fixed in the boat a tube in the forra of an L, the up right part to have a funnel-kind of opening at top, convenient for filling the tube with wa ter ; which, descending and passing through the lower horizontal part, and issuing in the raiddle of the stern, but under the surface of the river, should push the boat forward. There is no doubt that the force of the de scending water would have a considerable ef fect greater in proportion to the height from which it descended ; but then it is to be con sidered, that every bucket full puraped or dipped up into the boat, frora its side or through its bottom, raust have its viz inertice over- corae so as to receive the raotion of the boat, before it can corae to give motion by its de scent ; and that will be a deduction frora tbe moving power. To reraedy this, I would propose the addition of another such L pipe, and that they should stand back to back in the boat thus, figure 13, tbe forward one be ing worked as a purap, and sucking in the water at the head of the boat, would draw it forward while pushed in the sarae direction by the force at the stern. And after all it should be calculated whether the labour of puraping would be less than that of rowing. A fire-engine raight possibly in some cases be applied in this operation with advantage. Perhaps this labour of raising water raight be spared, and tbe whole force of a raan applied to the raoving of a boat by the use of air in stead of water; suppose the boat construct ed in this form, figure 14. A, a tube round or square, of two feet diameter, in which a piston raay raove up and down. The piston to have valves in it opening inwards, to admit air when the piston rises ; and shutting, when it is forced down by raeans ofthe lever B turn ing on the centre C. The tube to have a valve D, to open when the piston is forced down, and let the air pass out at E, which striking forcibly against the water abaft raust push the boat forward. If there is added an air vessel F properly valved and placed, the force would continue to act whUe a fresh stroke ia taken with the lever. The boatraan raight stand with his back to the stern, and putting his hands behind hira, work the motion by taking hold of the cross bar at B, whUe ano ther should steer; or if he had two such pumps, one on each side of the stern, with a lever for each hand, he might steer himself by working occasionaUy more or harder with either hand, as watermen now do with a pair of sculls. There is no position in which the body of a raan can exert more strength than in pullingright upwards. To obtain more swift ness, greasing the bottom of a vessel is some times used, and with good effect I do not know that any writer has hitherto attempted to explain this. At first sight one would ima gine, that though the friction of a hard body, sliding on another hard body, and the resist ance occasioned by that friction, raight be di minished by putting grease between thera, yet that a body sliding on a fluid, such as water, should have no need of, nor receive any ad vantage frora such greasing. But the fact is not disputed. And the reason perhaps raay be this — TThe particles of water have a mutual attraction, called the attraction of adhesion. Water also adheres to wood, and to raany other substances, but not to grease : on the contrary they have a mutual repulsion, so that it is a question whether when oil is poured on wa ter, they ever actually touch each other ; for a drop of oil upon water, instead of sticking to the spot where it falls, as it would if it fell on a looking-glass, spreads instantly to an im mense distance in a filra extremely thin, which it could not easily do if it touched and rubbed or adhered even in a small degree to the sur face of the water. Now the adhesive force of water to itself, and to other substances, may be estimated from the weight ofit neces sary to separate a drop, which adheres, while growing, tUl it has weight enough to force the separation and break the drop off. Let us suppose the drop to be tbe size of a pea, then there will be as many of these adhesions as there are drops of that size touching the bot tom of a vessel, and these must be broken by the moving power, every step of her raotion that amounts to a drop's breadth : and there being no such adhesions to break between the water and a greased bottom, raay occasion the difference. So much respecting the motion of vessels. But we have sometimes occasion to stop their raotion ; and if a bottora is near enough we can cast anchor : where there are no sound ings, we have as yet no raeans to prevent driving in a storm, but by lying-to, which still permits driving at the rate of about two miles 372 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. an hour ; so that in a storm continuing fifty hours, which is not an uncommon case, the ship raay drive one hundred railes out of her course ; and should she in that distance meet with a lee shore, she raay be lost To prevent this driving to leeward in deep water, a swimming anchor is wanting, which ought to have these properties. 1. It should have a surface so large as, be ing at the end of a hauser in the water, and placed perpendicularly, should hold so much of it, as to bring the ship's head to the wind, in which situation the wind has least power to drive her. 2. It should be able by its resistance to pre vent the ship's receiving way. 3. It should be capable of being situated below the heave of the sea, but not below the undertow. 4. It should not take up much roora in the ship. 5. It should be easUy thrown out, and put into its proper situation. 6. It should be easy to take in again, and stow away. An ingenious old mariner, whom I former ly knew, proposed, as a swiraraing anchor for a large ship, to have a stera of wood twenty- five feet long and four inches square, with four boards of 18, 16, 14 and 12 feet long, and one foot wide, the boards to have their substance thickened several inches in the middle by additional wood, and to have each a four inch square hole through its raiddle, to perrait its being slipt on occasionally upon the stera, and at right angles with it ; where all being placed and fixed at four feet distance from each other, it would have the appearance ofthe old raathematical instruraent called a forestaffi This thrown into the sea, and held by a hauser veered out at sorae length, he conceived would bring a vessel up, and pre vent her driving, and when taken in might be stowed away by separating the boards from the stera. (Figure 15.) Probably such a swimming anchor would have sorae good effect, but it is subject to this objection, that laying on the surface ofthe sea, it is liable to be hove forward by every wave, and thereby give so rauch leave for the ship to drive. Two raachines for this purpose have oc curred to rae, which, though not so siraple as the above, I iraagine would be more ef fectual, and raore easUy manageable. I will endeavour to describe them, that they may be submitted to your judgment whether either would be serviceable; and if they would, to which we should give the preference. The first is to be formed, and to be used in the water on almost the same principles with those of a paper kite used in the air. Only as the paper kite rises in the air, this is to descend in the water. Its dimensions will be different for ships of different size. To make one of suppose fifteen feet high ; take a sraall spar of that length for the back bone, A B, figure 16, a sraaller of half that length C D, for the cross piece. Let these be united by a bolt at E, yet so as that by turning on the bolt they raay be laid parallel to each other. Then raeike asail of strong canvas, in the shape of figure 17. To forra this, with out waste of sail-cloth, sew together pieces of the proper length, and for half the breadth, as in figure 18, then cut the whole in the dia gonal lines a, b, c, and turn the piece F so as to place its broad part opposite to that of the piece G, and the piece H in like raanner op posite to I, which when all sewed together will appear as in fig. 17. This sail is to be extended on the cross of fig. 16, the top and bottom points well secured to the ends ofthe long spar ; the two side points d, e, fastened to the ends of two cords, which coming from the angle of the loop (which raust be siraUar to the loop of a kite) pass through two rings at tbe ends of the short spar, so as that on pulling upon the loop the sail wUl be drawn to its extent The whole may, when aboard, be furled up, as in figure 19, having a rope from its broad end, to which is tied a bag of ballast for keeping that end downwards when in the water, and at the other end another rope with an erapty keg at its end to float on the surface ; this rope long enough to permit the kite's descending int,o the undertow, or if you please lower into stiU water. It should be held by a hauser. To get it horae easily, a small loose rope may be veered out with it, flxed to the keg. Hauling on that rope wUl bring the kite home with small force, the re sistance being small, as it wUl then corae end ways. It seeras probable that such kite at the end of a long hauser would keep a ship with her head to the wind, and, resisting every tug, would prevent her driving so fast as when her side is exposed to it and nothing to hold her back. If only half the driving is prevented, so as that she raoves but fifty raUes instead of the hundred during a storra, it raay be some advantage, both in holding so much distance as is saved, and in keeping from a lee-shore. If single canvas should not be found strong enough to bear tlie tug without splitting, it raay be doubled, or strengthened by a netting behind it represented by figure 20. The otber raachine for the same purpose, is to be made raore in the form of an umbrella, as represented, figure 21. The stem of the umbrella, a square spar of proper length, with four moveable arms, of which two are repre sented C, C, figure 22. These arms lo be fixed in four joint cleats, as D, D, &c. one on each side ofthe spar, but so as that the four arms raay open by turning on a pin in the joint When open they form a cross, on which a four-square canvas sail is to be extended, PHILOSOPHICAL. 373 its corners festened to the ends of the four arras. Those ends are also to be stayed by ropes fastened to the stera or spar, so as to keep them short of being at right angles with it : and to the end of one of the arms should be hung the sraall bag of baUast, and to the end of the opposite arra the empty keg. This, on being thrown into the sea, would iraraediately open ; and when it had performed its function, and the storra over, a small rope from its other end being pulled on, would turn it close it, and draw it easily horae to the ship. This machine seems more simple in its opera tion, and more easily manageable than the first and perhaps may be as effectual.* Vessels are sometimes retarded, and sorae times forwarded in their voyages, by currents at sea, which are often not perceived. About the year 1769, or 70, there was an application made by the board of customs at Boston, to the lords ofthe treasury in London, complain ing that the packets between Falmouth and New York, were generally a fortnight longer in their passages, than merchant-ships from London to Rhode-Island, and proposing that for the future they should be ordered to Rhode- Island instead of New York. Being then concerned in the management of the Ameri can post-office, I happened to be consulted on the occasion ; and it appearing strange to me that there should be such a difference between two places, scarce a day's run asunder, espe cially when the merchant-ships are generally deeper laden, and more weakly manned than the packets, and had from London the whole length of the river and channel to run before they left tbe land of England, while the packets had only to go from Falmouth, I could not but think the fact misunderstood or mis- 1 represented. There happened then to be in London a Nantucket sea-captain of my ac quaintance, to whora I coraraunicated the affair. He told me he believed the fact might be true ; but the difference was owing to this, that the Rhode-Island captains were acquaint ed with the gulf streara, which those of the English packets were not We are well ac quainted with that streara, says he, because in our pursuit of whales, which keep near the sides of it, but are not to be raet with in it, we run down along the sides, and frequently cross it to change our side : and in crossing it have sometimes met and spoke with those packets, who were in the raiddle of it, and steraming it We have informed them that they were stemming a current, that was against thera to the value of three raUes an hour ; and advis ed thera to cross it and get outof it ; but they were too wise to be counselled by siraple Ame- can fishermen. When the winds are but light, * Captain Truxton, on board whose ship this was written, has executed this proposed machine; he has given six arms to the umbrella, they are joined to the stem by iron hinges, and the canvas is double. He has taken it with him to China. February, 1786. I 32 he added, they are carried back by the cur rent more than they are forwarded by the wind: and if the wind be good, the subtrac tion of 70 miles a day from their course is of some importance. I then observed it was a pity no notice was taken of this current upon the charts, and requested hira to raark it out for rae, which he readily coraplied with, add ing directions for avoiding it in saUing from Europe to North America. I procured it to be engraved by order from the general post-office, on the old chart ofthe Atlantic, at Mount and Page's Tower-hill ; and copies were sent down to Falmouth for the captains of the pac kets, who slighted it however ; but it is since printed in France, of which edition I hereto annex a copy.* This stream is probably generated by the great accumulation of water on the eastern coast of Araerica between the tropics, by the trade-winds which constantly blow there. It is known that a large piece of water ten miles broad and generally only three feet deep, has by a strong wind had its waters driven to one side and sustained so as to become six feet deep, whUe the windward side was laid dry. This may give some idea of the quantity heaped up on the American coast and the reason of its running down in a strong current through the islands into the bay of Mexico, and frora thence issuing through the gulf of Florida, and proceeding along the coast to the banks of Newfoundland, where it turns off to wards and runs down through the Western Islands. Having since crossed this stream several tiraes in passing between America and Europe, I have been attentive to sundry cir cumstances relating to it, by which to know when one is in it; and besides the gulph weed with which it is interspersed, I find that it is al ways warraer than the sea on each side ofit, and that it does not sparkle in the night : I annex hereto the observations made with the therraometer in two voyages, and possibly may add a third. It will appear from them, that the thermoraeter may be an useful in struraent to a navigator, since currents com ing from the northward into southern seas, will probably be found colder than the water of those seas, as the currents from southern seas into northern are found warraer. And it is not to be wondered that so vast a body of deep warra water, several leagues wide, com ing frora between the tropics and issuing out ofthe gulph into the northern seas, should re tain its warmth longer than the twenty or thirty days required to its passing the banks of Newfoundland. The quantity is too great, and it is too deep to be suddenly cooled by passing under a cooler air. The air iramedi- * The map in this edi tion has beeen constructed so as to embrace in one view, the theory of the Gulf Strealn and the theory of the migration of fish ; some atten. liQn has been paid also to Volney's suggestions on the subject of the Gulf Streera. See the plate. 374 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. ately over it, however, may receive so much warmth frora it as to be rarefied and rise, be ing rendered lighter than the air on each side of the stream ; hence those airs must flow in to supply the place of the rising warra air, and, meeting with each other, forra those tor nadoes and water-spouts frequently raet with, and seen near and over the streara ; and as the vapour frora a cup of tea in a warra roora and the breath of an animal in the same room, are hardly visible, but becorae sensible irarae diately when out in the cold air, so the va pour frora the gulph streara, in warm latitudes is scarcely visible, but when it comes into the cool air from Newfoundland, it is condensed into the fogs, for which those parts are so re raarkable. The power of wind to raise water above its coraraon level in the sea is known to us in America, by the high tides occasioned in all our sea-ports when a strong north-easter blows against the gulph stream. The conclusion frora these reraarks is, that a vessel from Europe to North Araerica may shorten her passage by avoiding to stem the stream, in which the therraometer will be very useful ; and a vessel from Araerica to Europe may do the same by the same raeans of keeping in it It may have often happened accidentally, that voyages have been short ened by these circumstances. It is well to have the comraand of them. But may there not be another cause, in dependent of winds and currents, why pas sages are generally shorter from America to Europe than from Europe to Araerica? This question I forraerly considered in the follow ing short paper. On board the Pennsylvania Packet, Captain Osborne. At Sea, April 5, 1775. " Suppose a ship to raake a voyage east ward frora a place in lat 40° north, to a place in lat 50° north, distance in longitude 75 de grees. " In sailing from 40 to 50, she goes frora a place where a degree of longitude is about eight miles greater than in the place she is going to. A degree is equal to four rainutes of time; consequently the ship in the harbour she leaves, partaking of the diurnal raotion of the earth, moves two miles in a minute faster than when in the port she is going to; which is 120 railes in an hour. " This raotion in a ship and cargo is of great force ; and if she could be lifted up suddenly frora the harbour in which she lay quiet, and set down instantly in the latitude of the port she was bound to, though in a calra, that force contained in her would make her run a great way at a prodigious rate. This force raust be lost gradually m her voyage, by gradual ira pulse against the water, and probably thence shorten the voyage. Query, In returning does the contrary happen, and is her voyage thereby retarded and lengthened ]"* Would it not be a more secure raethod of planking ships, if, instead of thick single planks laid horizontally, we were to use planks of half the thickness, and lay thera double and across each other as in figure 231 To me it seems that the difference of expense would not be considerable, and that the ship would be both tighter and stronger. The securing of the ship is not the only neces.sary thing ; securing the health of the sailors, a brave and valuable order of men, is likewise of great importance. With this view the methods so successfully practised by cap tain Cook in his long voyages cannot be too closely studied or carefully imitated. A full account of those methods is found in sir John Pringle's speech, when the medal ofthe Royal Society was given to that illustrious navi gator. I am glad to see in his last voyage that he found the means effectual which I had proposed for preserving flour, bread, &c. from moisture and damage. They were found dry and good after being at sea four years. Tbe raethod is described in ray printed works, page 45"2, fifth edition. In the same, page 469, 470,t is proposed a raeans of allaying thirst in case of want of fresh water. This has since been practised in two instances with success. Hap py if their hunger, when the other provisions are consumed, could be relieved as commo diously ; and perhaps in time this may be found not impossible. An addition might be raade to their present vegetable provision, by drying various roots in slices by the raeans of an oven. The sweet potatoe of America and Spain is excellent for this purpose. Other potatoes, with carrots, parsnips, and turnips, might be prepared and preserved in the same manner. With regard to raake-shifts in cases of ne cessity, searaen are generally very ingenious theraselves. They wUl excuse, however, tbe mention of two or three. If they happen in any circumstance, such as after shipwreck, taking to their boat, or the like, to want a compass, a fine sewing-needle laid on clear watpr in a cup will gener.illy point to the north, most of them being a little magnetical, or may be raade so by being strongly rubbed or hammered, lying in a north and south direc tion. If their needle is too heavy to float by itself, it may be supported by little pieces of cork or wood. A man who can swim, may be aided in a long traverse by his handkerchief forraed into a kite, by two cross sticks extend ing to the four corners; which, being raised in the air when the wind is fair and fresh, * Since this paper was rend at the Society, an ingeni ous member, Mr. Patterson, has convinced the writer that the returning voyage would not, from this cause, be retarded. T See the Paper referred to in this volume, page 358. PHILOSOPHICAL. 375 wiU tow him along while lying on his back. Where force is wanted to raove a heavy body, and there are but few hands and no raachines, a long and strong rope raay raake a powerful instrument Suppose a boat is to be drawn up on a beach, that she raay be out of the surf; a stake drove into the beach where you would have the boat drawn, and another to fasten the end ofthe rope to, which comes from the boat, and then applying what force you have to pull upon the middle of the rope at right angles with it, the power will be augmented in proportion to the length of rope between the posts. The rope being fasted to the stake A, and drawn upon in the direction C D, will slide over the stake B ; and when the rope is bent to the angle A D B, represented by the pricked line in figure 24, the boat will be atB. Some sailors may think the writer has given himself unnecessary trouble in pretend ing to advise thorn ; fiir they have a little re pugnance to the advice of landmen, whom they esteem ignorant and incapable of giving any worth notice ; though it is certain that most of their instruments were the invention of landmen. At least the first vessel ever made to go on the water was certainly such. I will therefore add only a few words more, and they shall be addressed to passengers. When you intend a long voyage, you may do well to keep your intention as much as pos sible a secret or at least the time of your de parture ; otherwise you wUl be continuaUy in terrupted in your preparations by the visits of friends and acquaintance, who will not only rob you of the tirae you want, but put things out of your raind, so that when you come to sea, you have the mortification to recollect points of business that ought to have been done, accounts you intended to settle, and con veniences you had proposed to bring with you, &c. all which have been oraitted through the effect of these officious friendly visits. Would it not be well if this custom could be changed ; if the voyager after having, with out interruption, made all his preparations, should use some of the tirae he has left, in going hiraself, to take leave of his friends at their own houses, and let them corae to con gratulate him on his happy return. It is not always in your power to make a choice in your captain, though much of your comfort in the passage may depend on his per sonal character, as you must for so long a time be confined to his corapany, and under his di rection; if he is a sensible, sociable, good natured, obliging man, you wUl be so much the happier. Such there are ; but if he hap pens to be otherwise, and is only skilful, care ful, watchful, and active in the conduct ofhis ship, excuse the rest, for these are the essen tials. Whatever right you may have by agree ment in the mass of stores laid in by hira for the passengers, it is good to have some par ticular things in your own possession, so as to be always at your own comraand. 1. Good water, that of the ship being often bad. You can be sure of having it good only by bottling it from a clear spring or well and in clean bottles. 2. Good tea. 3. Coffee ground. 4. Chocolate. 5. Wine ofthe sort you particularly like, and cyder. 6. Raisins. 7. Almonds. 8. Sugar. 9. Capillaire. 10. Lemons. 11. Jamaica spirits. 12. Eggs greased. 13. Diet bread. 14. Portable soup. 15. Rusks. As to fowls, it is not worth while to have any called yours, unless you could have the feeding and managing of them ac cording to your own judgment under your own eye. As they are generally treated at present in ships, they are for the most part sick, and their flesh tough and hard as whit- leather. All searaen have an opinion, broached I supposed at first prudently, for saving of water when short, that fowls do not know when they have drank enough, and will kill themselves if you give them too much, so they are served with a little only once in two days. This poured into troughs that lie sloping, and therefore immediately runs down to the lower end. There the fowls ride upon one another's backs to get at it and sorae are not happy enough to reach and once dip their bills in it Thus tantalized, and tormented with thirst they cannot digest their dry food, they fret, pine, sicken, and die, Some are found dead, and thrown overboard every morn ing, and those killed for the table are not eat able. Their troughs should be in little di visions, like cups, to hold the water separate ly, figure 2.5. But this is never done. The sheep and hogs are therefore your best de pendence for fresh meat at sea, the mutton being generally tolerable, and the pork ex cellent' It is possible your captain may have provi ded so well in the general stores, as to render some of the particulars above recommended of little or no use to you. But there are frequent ly in the ship poorer passengers, who are taken at a lower price, lodge in the steerage, and have no claim to any ofthe cabin provisions, or to any but those kinds that are allowed the sailors. These people are sometimes deject ed, sometimes sick, there raay be women and children among them. In a situation where there is no going to raarket, to purchase such necessaries, a few of these your superfluities distributed occasionally may be of great ser vice, restore health, save life, raake the rai- serable happy, and thereby afford you infinite pleasure. The worst thing in ordinary merchant ships is the cookery. They have no profess ed cook, and the worst hand as a seaman is ap pointed to that office, in which he is not only 376 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. very ignorant but very dirty. The sailors have therefore for a saying, that God sends ¦meat and the devil cooks. Passengers more piously disposed, and willing to believe Hea ven orders all things for the best, may sup pose, that, knowing the sea-air and constant exercise by the motion of tbe vessel would give us extraordinany appetites, bad cooks were kindly sent to prevent our eating too much; or that, foreseeing we should have bad cooks, good appetites were furnished to prevent our starving. If you cannot trust to these circumstances, a spirit-larap, with a blaze-pan, raay enable you to cook sorae little things for yourself ; such as a hash, a soup, &c. And it might be well also to have among your stores some potted meats, which if well put up will keep long good. A small tin oven, to place with the open side before the fire, raay be another good utensil in which your own servant may roast for you a bit of pork or mutton. You will sometimes be in duced to eat of the ship's salt beef, as it is often good. You will find cider the best quencher oftbat thirst which salt meat or fish occasions. The ship biscuit is too hard for some sets of teeth. It may be softened by toasting. But rusk is better ; for being made of good fermented bread, sliced and baked a second time, the pieces imbibe the water ea sily, soften immediately, digest more kindly, and are therefore more wholesome than the unfermented biscuit By the way, rusk is the true original biscuit so prepared to keep for sea, biscuit in French signifying twice baked. If your dry peas boU hard, a two-pound iron shot put with thera into the pot, will by the motion of the ship grind thera as fine as mus tard. The accidents I have seen at sea with large dishes of soup upon a table, frora the raotion of the ship, have made rae wish, that our pot ters or pewterers would raake soup dishes in divisions, like a set of sraall bowls united to gether, each containing about sufficient for one person, in some such forra as fig. 26 ; for then when the ship should make a sudden heel, the soup would not in a body flow over one side, and fall into people's laps and scald them, as is sometiraes the case, but would be retained in the separate divisions, as in figure 27. After these trifles, permit the addition of a few general reflections. Navigation, when employed in supplying necessary provisions to a country in want, and thereby preventing famines, which were more frequent and de structive before the invention of that art, is Undoubtedly a blessing to raankind. When employed merely in transporting superfluities, it is aquestion whether the advantage of the employment it affords is equal to the raischief of hazarding so many lives on the ocean. But when employed in pUlaging merchants and transporting slaves, it is clearly the means of augmenting the mass of human misery. It is amazing to think of the ships and lives risked in fetching tea frora China, coffee from Arabia, sugar and tobacco frora America, all which our ancestors did well without Sugar employs near one thousand ships, tobacco al most as many. For the utility of tobacco there is little to be said ; and for that of su gar, how much more commendable would it be if we could give up the few minutes grati fication afforded once or twice a day by the taste of sugar in our tea, rather than encou rage the cruelties exercised in producing it An erainent French raoralist says, that when he considers the wars we excite in Africa to obtain slaves, the numbers necessarily slain in those wars, the many prisoners who perish at sea by sickness, bad provisions, foul air, &c in the transportation, and how many after wards die from the hardships of slavery, he cannot look on a piece of sugar without con ceiving it stained with spots of human blood ! had he added the consideration of the wars we make to take and retake the sugar islands frora one another, and the fleets and armies that perish in those expeditions, he might have seen his sugar not merely spotted, but thoroughly dyed scarlet in grain. It is these wars that make the maritime powers of Eu rope, the inhabitants of London and Paris, pay dearer for sugar than those of Vienna, a thou sand railes from tbe sea ; because their sugar costs not only tbe price they pay for it by the pound, but ail they pay in taxes to maintain the fleets and arraies that fight for it — With great esteem, I ara, sir, your raost obedient humble servant, B. FRANKLIN. On the Gulph Stream. Remarks upon the Navigation from Newfound land to New York, in order to avoid the Gulph Stream on one hand, and on the other the Shoals that lie to the .Southward qf Nantucket and of St. George's Banks. After you have passed the banks of New foundland in about the 44th degree of latitude, you will meet with nothing, till you draw near the Isle of Sables, which we coraraonly pass in latitude 43. Southward of this isle, the current is found to extend itself as far north as 41° 20' or 30', then it turns towards the E. S. E. or S. E. J E. Having passed the Isle of Sables, shape your course for the St. George's Banks, so as to pass them in about latitude 40°, because the current southward of those banks reaches as far north as 39°. The shoals of those banks lie in 41° 35.' After having passed St George's Banks, you must to clear Nantucket form your course so as to pass between the latitudes SQ* 30' and 40° 45'. PHILOSOPHICAL 377 The most southern partof the shoalsof Nan tucket lie in about 40° 45'. The northern part of the current, directly to the south of Nantucket, is felt in about latitude 38° 30' By observing these directions, and keeping between the streara and the shoals, the pas sage from the Banks of Newfoundland to New York, Delaware, or Virginia, raay be consi derably shortened ; for so you will have the advantage of the eddy current, which moves contrary to the Gulph Streara. Whereas if to avoid the shoals you keep too fer to the southward, and get into that stream, you will be retarded by it at the rate of 60 or 70 railes a day. The Nantucket whale-raen being extreraely well acquainted with the Gulph Streara, its course, strength, and extent, by their constant practice of whaling on the edges of it, from their island quite down to the Baharaas, this draft of that streara was obtained frora one of thera, captain Folger, and caused to be en graved on the old chart in London, for the be nefit of navigators, by B. FRANKLIN. Note. The Nantucket captains who are ac quainted with this streara, make their voyages from England to Boston in as short a time ge nerally as others take in going frora Boston to England, viz. frora twenty to thirty days. A stranger raay know when he is in the Gulph Streara, by the warrath of the water, which is much greater than that of the water ou each side of it If then he is bound to the westward, he should cross the stream to get out of it as soon as possible. B. F. Observations of the Warmth of the Sea-water, &c., by Fahrenheit's Thermometer, in crossing the Gulph Stream; with other remarks made on board the Pennsylvania Packet, captain Osborne, bound from London to PhUadelphia, in April and May, 1775. Date. 3o 32, B 9 1 1 B Remarks. -1 ?5' ^f- a. ¦ ? CD AprU 10 62 11 61 12 64 13 65 14 65 26 60 70 37 3d 60 36 Much gulph weed ; saw a whale. 27 60 70 SSE WbS 37 13 62 29 Colour of water changed. 28 8 A.M. 70 64 sw WNW 37 48 64 35 No gulph weed. __ 6 PM. 67 60 34 Sounded, no bottom 29 8 A.M. 63 71 N W 44 37 26 66 0 Much light in the water last night 5 P.M. 65 72 NE WbS 57 ) Water again of the usual deep sea — 11 dit 66 66 NWbN c colour, httle or no light in it at 30 8 A.M. 64 70 NE WbN 69 N night. — 12 62 70 EbS 24 37 20 68 53] Frequent gulph weed, water con — 6 P.M. 64 72 ESE WbN 43 ( tinues of sea colour, Uttle light — 10 dit. 6.5 65 S 25 Much light May 1 7 A.M. 68 63 60 Much light all last night 12 65 56 SSW WNW 44 38 13 72 23 Colour of water changed. — 4 P.M. 64 56 WbN 2] ' — 10 dit 64 57 SW WNW 31 Much light 2 8 A.M. 62 53 18 38 43 74 3 Much hght Thunder-gust 12 60 53 WSW NW 18 _ 6 P.M. 64 55 NW WSW 15 10 65 55 NbW WbN 10 3 7 A.M. 62 54 30 38 30 75 0 1 Vol. n. ... 3 B 32* 378 FRANICLIN'S WORKS. Observations of the warmth of the Sea- Water, &c., by Fahrenheit's Thermometer ; with other reraarks made on board the Reprisal, captain Wycks, bound from PhUadelphia to France, in October |jid November, 1776. Date. I 1 i ^ 2, Wind. Temp,ofW 9Pi 06 1 31 Remarks. ^ P 3" ) 76 135 38"T2 Oct 31 11 70 SSE EbS 70 30 Left the capes Thursday night 4 71 October 29, 1T76. Nov. 1 1( ) 4 71 78 WSW 81 EJN 109 Noob. 68 12 ~2 f 5 71 75 N — 1 I 78 141 ditto. 65 23 — 4 67 76 Some sparks in the water these two 3 i 76 NW ESEJE last nights. — 1 I 76 EbS 160 37 0 62 7 — 4 70 76 4 J 68 76 Nb£ Ditto. — 1 4 68 7676 194 36 26 58 8 8 78 5 3 68 76 NE Ditto. — 1 2 70 75 163 35 21 55 3 — 48 7575 6 3 76EbN S50E — 1 2 77 75 35 33 53 52 7 3 78 S E b E N30W — 1 2 77 108 36 6 52 46 4 77 8 9 75 TTSbE N49E — 1 2 77 175 38 2 50 1 4 77 9 9 75 77 — 1 2 75 70 SW N33E 176 39 39 46 55 4 71 10 8 70 68 — 1 2 64 E N17E 64 40 39 46 27 11 8 63 — 1 2 61 SE N8E 41 41 19 46 19 12 8 4 56 59 . 69 N N W N80E 120 41 39 43 42 13 a Uday 68 E S82E 69 41 29 42 10 14 8 70 70 N74E 111 42 0 39 57 Noon 72 ESE 4 7) 15 8 61 69 1 Noon 68 W S W N 70 E 186 43 3 35 51 4 67 16 Noon 65 67 SW N67W 48 43 22 34 50 4 63 17 8 63 ESE N19E 56 44 15 34 25 18 ( ill day 65 SbW N75E 210 45 6 29 43 Some gulph weed. 19 Noon 65 64 SW N80E 238 45 4C 24 2 20 8 4 62 N 60 S 80E 155 l45 Ii 1 20 30 21 9 62 S N88E 94 45 25 18 17 22 10 6C 62 SSW S89E 133 45 It 15 la 23 Noon 61 WSW S86E 19'! 45 ( 10 35 24 do. 60 NNE N78E 191 45 4( 6 IC 25 do. 60 NE S76E ]2£ 45 i t 3 2C 26 do. 5( ) 60 E N73E 3] 45 1 i 2 20 27 do. 58 Soundings off BelMsle. 28 do. 5 156 1 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 879 B. 1 1 ' tDCO»j^uw^-S8iSgS8S£SBE2SSS!5SKEwSt;S 4915 4828 470 450 435 41 3 38 45 3642 3540 350 3351 3330 3317 3322 33 45 3414 3537 367 36 38 37 38 3615 35 40 3535 35 12 35 40 3530 35 14 34 23 34 13 345 34 20 34 20 34 55 35 30 35 50 35 55 36 20 31 50 31 45 35 43 3720 z 4 15 8 58 12 13 15 43 17 25 1944 2134 23 10 2540 27 0 28 42 31 30 33 33 34 31 35 0 35 30 36 4 37 16 38 0 38 6 38 26 38 44 40 52 41 31 42 33 42 44 43 23 44 0 45 52 48 31 51 4 52 47 55 12 57 24 59 1 61 0 62 30 63 10 64 40 66 42 68 40 :iaassg2gS£22SS:33333Sl3:l3Ss3S833S3ls5S=;S3SSSg§£SSSg > P> 333SE28SSSSaSSS:lSg3:lS:Sa:3S333S3a;Sa3S3SggS£gSS3 :|:3aS3gS2SiffiaaSSS3aSS3|3i8£aSSgS:333S;Jag-i2ggS > 1 5 ft a .-mthe great est part ofthe heat from the fire is lost ; for as fire naturally darts heat every way, the back, the two jambs, and the hearth, drink Up al most all that is given them, very little being reflected frora bodies so dark, porous, and un polished ; and the upright heat, which is by far the greatest, flies directly up the chimney. Thus five sixths at least of the heat (and con sequently of the fuel) is wasted, and contri butes nothing towards warming the room. 3. To remedy this, the sieur Ganger gives, in his book entitled. La Mechanique de Feu, published in 1709, seven different construc tions of the third sort of chimneys mentioned above, in which there are hollow cavities made by iron plates in the back, jambs, and hearths, through which plates the heat pass- first case, the shock the body endures, is general, uni. form, and therefore less fierce; in the other, a single part, a neck, or ear perchance, is attacked, and that with the greater violence probably, as il is done by a successive stream of cold air. And the cannon of a battery, pointed against a single part of a bastion, will easier make a breach than were they directed to play singly upon the whole face, and will admit an enemy much sooner into the town." That warm rooms, and keeping the body warm in winter, are means nf preventing such diseases, take the opinion oftbat learned Italian physician Antnnino Parcio, in the preface to his tract de Militis Sanitate tn- enda, where speaking of a particular wet and cold win. ter, remarkable at Venice for its sickliness, he says, " Popularis autem pleuritis qute Venetiis steviit mensi- bus bee. Jan. Feb. ex cteli, aiirisque inclemenlia facta est, quod non habeant hypocausta [stove-roojns'] et quod non soliciti sunt Itali oinnes de auribus, temponbus, collo, totoque corpore defendendis ah injuriis aeris; el ' iegmina domorum Veneti disponant parum inclinata, ut nives diutius permaneant super legmina. E contra. Germani, qui experiuntur cieli inclementiam, perdirli. cere sese defendere ob acris injuria. Tecta construunt multum inclinata, ut decidant nives. Germani abun dant lignis, domusque hypocaiistis ; foris autem ince- dunt pannis pellibus, gossipio, bene niehercule loricati atqiie muniti In Bavaria interrogabam (curiositate motUG videudi Germaniain) quot nam elapsis mensibus pleuritide vel peripneumonia fuissent absumti : dice- bant vix unus aut alter illis temporibus pleuritide fiiit corrpptus. The great Dr. Boerhaave, whose authority alone might be sufficient, in his Aphorisms, mentions, ns one antecedent cause of pleurisies, " A cold air, driven vio lently through some narrow passage upon the body, overheated by labour or fire." The eastern physicians agree wilh the Europeans in this point: witness the Chinese treatise entitled, Tsclian^ seng ; i.e. The Art of procuring Health and long Life, as translated in Pere Du Halde's account of China, which has this passage. " As, of all the passions which ruffle us, anger does the most mischief,so of all ma- lignant alTeclions of theair, a wind that comes through any narrow passage, which is cold and piercing, is ino.^t dangerous; and coming upon us unawares insinuates itself into the body, often causing grievous diseases. It should therefore be avoided, according to the advice of the ancient proverb, as cnrofiilly as the point of an arrow." These mischief^ are avoided by the use of the new-invented fire-places, as will be shown hereafter. ing warms the air in those cavities which is continually coming into the room fresh and warm. The invention was very ingenious, and had many inconveniences : the room was warmed in all parts, by the air flowing into it through tbe heated cavities : cold air was prevented rushing through the crevices, the funnel being sufficiently supplied by those ca vities : much less fuel would serve, &c. But the first expense, which was very great, tbe intricacy of the design, and the difficulty of the execution, especially in old chimneys, dis couraged the propagation ofthe invention ; so that there are, I suppose, very few such chim neys now in use. The upright heat, too, was almost all lost in these, as in the common chimneys. 4. The Holland iron stove, which has a flue proceeding from the top, and a small iron door opening into the room, comes next to be considered. Its conveniences are, that it makes a room all over warm ; fbr the chim ney being wholly closed, except the flue of the stove, very little air is required to supply that, and therefore not much rushes in at crevices, or at the door when it is opened. Little fuel serves, the heat being almost all saved ; for it rays oat almost equally from the four sides, the bottom and the top, into the room, and presently warms the air around it, wbich, being rarefied, rises to the ceiling, and its place is supplied by the lower air of the room, which flows gradually towards the stove, and is there warmed, and rises in its turn, so that there is a continual circulation till all the air in the room is warmed. The air, too, is gradually changed, by the stove- door's being in the room, through which part of it is continually passing, and that makes these stoves wholesoir^er, or at least pleasanter than the German stoves, next to be spoken of But they have these inconveniences. There is no sight of the fire, which is in itself a pleasant thing. One cannot conveniently make any other use of the fire but that of warming the room. When the roora is warm, people, not seeing the fire, are apt to forget supplying it with fuel till it is almost out, then growing cold, a great deal of wood is put in, which soon makes it too hot The change of air is not carried on quite quick enough, so that if any smoke or ill smell happens in the room, it is a long time before it is discharged. For these reasons the Holland stove has not obtained much among the English (who love the sight ofthe fire) unless in some workshops, where people are obliged to sit near windows for the light, and in such places they have been found of good use. 5. The Gerraan stove is like a box, one side wanting. It is coraposed of five iron plates screweti together, and fixed so as that you may put the fuel into it from another room, or from the outside of the house. It is a kind PHILOSOPHICAL. 395 of oven reversed, its mouth being without, and body within the room that is to be warm ed by it This invention certainly warms a room very speedily and thoroughly with little fuel : no quantity of cold air comes in at any crevice, because there is no discharge of air which it might supply, there being no passage into the stove frora the roora. These are its conveniences. Its inconveniences are, that people have not even so much sight or use of the fire as in the Holland stoves, and are, moreover, obliged to breathe the same un changed air continuffly, raixed with the breath and perspiration from one another's bodies, which is very disagreeable to those who have not been accustomed to it 6. Charcoal fires in pots are used chiefly in the shops of handicraftsmen. They warm a room (that is kept close, and has no chim ney to carry off the warraed air) very speedi ly and uniformly ; but there being no draught tp change the air, the sulphurous fumes from the coals, [be they ever so well kindled before they are brought in, there will be some,] mix with it, render it disagreeable, hurtful to some constitutions, and sometiraes, when the door is long kept shut, produce fatal consequences. To avoid the several inconveniences, and at the sarae tirae retain all the advantages of other fire-places, was contrived the Pennsyl vanian fire place, now to be described. This machine consists of A bottom plate, (i) {See the plate annex ed.) A back plate, (ii) Two side plates, (iii iii) Two middle plates, (iv iv) which, joined together, form a tight box, with winding pas sages in it for warming the air. A front plate, (v) A top plate, (vi.) These are all cast of iron, with mouldings or ledges where the plates come together, to hold them fast, and retain the mortar used for pointing to make tight joints. When the platesare all in their places, a pair of slender rods, with screws, are sufficient to bind the whole very firmly together, as it appears in Fig. 2. There are, moreover, two thin plates of wrought iron, viz. the shutter, (vii) and the register, (viii ;) besides the screw-rods O P, all which we shall explain in their order. (i.) The bottom plate, or hearth-piece, is round before, with a rising moulding, that serves as a fender to keep coals and ashes from coming to the floor, &c. It has two ears, F G, perforated to receive the screw rods O P ; a long air-hole, a a, through which the fresh outward air passes up into the air box ; and three smoke holes B C, through which the amoke descends and passes away ; all repre sented by dark squares. It has also double ledges to receive between them the bottom edges ofthe back plate, the two side plates, and the two middle plates. These ledges are about an inch asunder, and about half an inch high ; a profile of two of them, joined to a fragment of plate, appears in Fig. 3. (ii.) The back plate is without holes, hav ing only a pair of ledges on each side, to re ceive the back edges of the two. (iii iii.) Side plates : these have each a pair of ledges to receive the side edges of the front plate, and a little shoulder for it to rest on ; also two pair of ledges to receive the side edges of the two middle plates which form the air box ; and an oblong air-hole near the top, through which is discharged into the room the air warmed in the air-box. Each has also a wing or bracket, H and I, to keep in falling brands, coals, &c. and a small hole, Q and R, for the axis of the register to turn in. (iv iv.) The air-box is composed of the two raiddle plates, D E and F G. The first has five thin ledges or partitions cast on it, two inches deep, the edges of which are received in so raany pair of ledges cast in the other. — - The tops of all the cavities formed by these thin deep ledges, are also covered by a ledge of the same form and depth, cast with them ; so that when the plates are put together, and the joints luted, there is no communication be tween the air-box and the smoke. In the winding passages of this box, fresh air is warmed as it passes into the roora. (v.) The front plate is arched on the under side, and ornamented with foliages, &c. it has no ledges. (vi.) The top plate has a pair of ears, MN, . answerable to those in the bottom plate, and perforated for the same purpose : it has also a pair of ledges running round the under side to receive the top edges of the front, back, and side plates. The air-box does not reach up to the top plate by two inches and a half (vii.) The shutter is of thin wrought iron and light, of such a length and breadth as to close well the opening ofthe fire-place. It is used to blow up the fire, and to shut up and secure it at nights. It has two brass knobs for handles, d d, and commonly slides up and and down in a groove, left, in putting up the fire-place, between the foremost ledge of the side plates, and the face of the front plate ; but some choose to set it aside when it is not in use, and apply it on occasion. (viii.) The register is also of thin wrought iron. It is placed between the back plate and air-bo.x, and can, by raeans of the key S, be turned on its axis so as to lie in any position between level and upright The screw-rods O P are of wrought iron, about a third of an inch thick, with a button at bottom, and a screw and nut at top, and may be ornamented with two small brasses screwed on above the nuts. To put this machine to work. 398 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. 1. A false back of four inch (or, in shallow small chimneys, two inch) brick work is to be made in the chimney, four inches or more from the true back: from the top of this false back a closing is to be raade over to the breast of the chimney, that no air may pass into the chimney, but what goes under the false back, and up behind it 2. Some bricks of the hearth are to be taken up, to form a hollow under the bottom plate ; across which hollow runs a thin tight partition, to keep apart the air entering the hollow and the smoke ; and is therefore placed between the air-hole and smoke-holes. 3. A passage is raade, communicating with the outward air, to introduce that air into the forepart of the hollow under the bottom plate, whence it may rise through the air-hole into the air-box. 4. A passage is raade frora the back part of the hollow, communicating with the flue behind the false back : through this passage the smoke is to pass. The fire-place is to be erected upon these hollows, by putting all the plates in their places, and screwing them together. Its operation may be conceived by observing the plate entitled, Profile ofthe Chimney and Fire-place. M The mantle-piece, or breast of the chim ney. C The funnel. B The false back and closing. £ True back of the chimney. T Top of the fire-place. f The front of it A The place where the fire is made. D The air-box. fi'The hole in the side-plate, through which the warmed air is discharged out of the air- bo.x into the room. H The hollow filled with fresh air, entering at the passage 7, and ascending into the air- box through the air-hole in the bottom plate near. G The partition in the hollow to keep the air and smoke apart P The passage under the false back and part of the hearth for the sraoke. The arrows show the course ofthe smoke. The fire being made at A, the flame and smoke will ascend and strike the top T, which will thereby receive a considerable heat The smoke, finding no passage upwards, turns over the top of the air-box, and descends between it and the back plate to the holes in the bot tom plate, heating, as it passes, both plates of the air-bnx, and the said back plate ; the front plate, bottom and side plates are also all heated at the same time. 'The smoke proceeds in the passage that leads it under and behind the false back, and so rises into the chimney. The air ofthe room, warraed behind the back plate, and by the sides, front, and top plates, becom- i ing specifically lighter than the other air in the room, is obliged to rise ; but the closure over the fire-place hindering it from going up the chimney, it is forced out into the room, rises by the raantle-piece to the ceiling, and spreads all over the top of the room, whence being crowded down gradually by the stream of newly-warraed air that follows and rises above it, the whole room becomes in a short time equally warmed. At the same time the air, warmed under the bottom plate, and in the air-box, rises and comes out of the holes in the side-plates, very swiftly, if the door ofthe room be shut, and joins its current with the stream before-men tioned, rising from the side, back, and top plates. The air that enters the room through the air-box is fresh, though warm ; and, comput ing the swiftness of its motion with the areas ofthe holes, it is found that near ten barrels of fresh air are hourly introduced by the air- box ; and by this means tbe air in the room is continually changed, and kept at the sarae time, sweet and warm. It is to be observed, that the entering air will not be warra at first lighting the flre, but heats gradually as the fire increases. A square opening for a trap-door should be left in the closing of the chimney, for the sweeper to go up : the door may be made of slate or tin, and commonly kept close shut, but so placed as that, turning up against the back of the chimney when open, it closes the vacancy behind the false back, and shoots the soot, that falls in sweeping, out upon the hearth. This trap-door is a very convenient thing. In rooms where much smoking of tobacco is used, it is also convenient to have a small hole, about five or six inches square, cut near the ceiling through into the funnel: this hole must have a shutter, by which it may be closed or opened at pleasure. When open, there will be a strong draught of air through it in to the chimney, whicli will presently carry offa cloud of smoke, and keep the room clear ; if the room be too hot likewise, it will carry off as much of tlie warm air as you please, and then you may stop it entirely, or in part, as you think fit By this means it is, that the tobacco smoke does not descend among the beads of the corapany near the fire, as it must do before it can get mto coraraon chimneys. The manner of using this Fire-place. Your cord-wood must be cut into three lengths; or else a short piece, fit for the fire place, cut off, and the longer left for the kitch en or other fires. Dry hickory, or ash, orany woods that burn with a clear flame are rather to be chosen, because such are less apt to foul the smoke-passages with soot : and flame com municates witli its light, as well as by contact, PHILOSOPHICAL. 397 greater heat to the plates and room. But ¦where more ordinary wood is used, half a dry faggot of brush-wood, burnt at the first mak ing the fire ra the morning, is very advan tageous, as it immediately, by its sudden blaze, heats the plates, and warms the room (which with bad wood slowly kindling would not be done so soon) and at the sarae time by the length of its flame, turning in the passages, consumes and cleanses away the soot that such bad smoky wood had produced therein the preceding day, and so keeps thera always free and clean. When you have laid a little back log, and placed your billets on small dogs, as in coramon chimneys, and put some fire to them, then slide down your shutter as low as the dogs, and the opening being by that means contracted, the air rushes in briskly, and pre sently blows up the flames. When the fire is sufficiently kindled, slide it up again.* In some of these fire-places there is a little si.x- inch square trap-door of thin wrought iron or brass, covering a hole of like dimensions near the fore-part ofthe bottora plate, which being by a ring lifted up towards the fire, about an inch, where it will be retained by two spring ing sides fixed to it perpendicularly {See the plate. Fig. 4.) the air rushes in frora the hol low under the bottom plate, and blows the fire, Where this is used, the shutter serves only to close the flre at nights. The raore forward you can make your fire on the hearth-plate, not to be incommoded by the smoke, the sooner and more will the room be warmed. At night, when you go to bed, cover the coals or brands with ashes as usual ; then take away the dogs, and slide down the shutter close to the bottom- plate, sweeping a little ashes against it, that no air may pass under it ; then turn the re gister, so as very near to stop the flue be hind. If no sraoke then comes out at cre vices into the room, it is right : if any smoke is perceived to corae out move the register, so as to give a little draft, and it will go the right way. Thus the room will be kept warm all night; for the chiraney being almost en tirely stopt, very little cold air, if any, will enter the room at any crevice. When you come to rekindle the flre in the morning, turn open the register before you lift up the slider, otherwise, if there be any smoke in the fire-place, it will corae out into the room. By the sarae use of the shutter and register, a blazing fire may be presently stifled, as well as secured, when you have occasion to leave it for any time ; and at your return you will * The shutter is slid up and down in this manner, only in those tire-places which are so made as that the dis tance between the top of the arched opening, and the bottom plate, is the same as the distance between it and the top plate. Where the arch is higher, as it is in the draught annexed (which is 'agreeable to late im provements) the shutter is set by, and applied occa sionally ; because if it were made deep enough to, close the whole opening when slid down, it would hide pan of it when up. 34 find the brands warm, and ready for a speedy rekindling. The shutter alone will not stifle a fire, for it cannot well be made to fit so ex actly but that air will enter, and that in a vio lent stream, so as to blow up and keep alive the flames, and consume the wood, if the draught be not checked by turning the regis ter to shut the flue behind. The register has also two other uses. If you observe the draught of air into your fire-place to be strong er than is necessary (as in extrerae cold wea ther it often is) so that the wood is consumed faster than usual ; in that case, a quarter, half, or two thirds, turn of the register, will check the violence of the draught, and let your fire burn with the moderation you desire ; and at the same tirae both the fire-place and the room will be the warmer, because less cold air will enter and pass through them. And if the chim ney should happen to take fire (which indeed there is very little danger of, if the preced ing direction be observed in raaking fires, and it be well swept once a year ; for, much less wood being burnt, less soot is proportionably made ; and the fuel being soon blown into flarae by the shutter, or the trap-door bellows, there is consequently less smoke from the fuel to raake soot ; then, though the funnel should be foul, yet the sparks have such a crooked up and down round about way to go, that they are out before they get at it) I say, if ever it should be on fire, a turn ofthe register shuts all close, and prevents any air going into the chimney, and so the fire may easily be stifled and mastered. The advantages of this Fire-place. Its advantages above the coramon fire-places are, 1. That your whole roora is equally warra ed, so that people need not crowd so close round the fire, but raay sit near the window, and have the benefit of the light for reading, writing, needle-work, &c. They may sit with comfort in any part of the room, which is a very considerable advantage in a large family, where there must often be two fires kept, because all cannot conveniently come at one. 2. If you sit near the fire, you have not that cold draught of uncomfortable air nip ping your back and heels, as when before common fires, by which raany catch cold, being scorched before, and, as it were, froze behind. 3. If you sit against a crevice, there is not that sharp draught of cold air playing on you, as in rooras where there are fires in the com raon way ; by which raany catch cold, whence proceed coughs,* catarrhs, tooth-aches, fevers, pleurisies, and raany other diseases. *Lord Molesworth, in his account of Denmark, says, " That few or none of the people there are troubled with coughs, catarrhs, consumptions, or such like diseases of the lungs ; so that in the midst of winter in the churches, which are very much frequented, there is no FRANKLIN'S WORKS. 4. In case of sickness, they make most ex cellent nursing rooras; as they constantly supply a sufficiency of fresh air, so warmed at the same time as to be no way inconveni ent or dangerous. A small one does well in a chamber; and, the chimneys being fltted for it, it may be reraoved from one room to another, as occasion requires, and fixed in half an hour. The equal temper too, and warmth ofthe air ofthe room, is thought to be parti cularly advantageous in some distempers ; for it was observed in the winters of 1730 and 1736, when the small-pox spread in Pennsyl vania, that very few children of the Germans died of that distemper in proportion to those of the English ; which was ascribed, by some, to the warmth and equal temper of air in their stove-rooms, which made the disease as favourable as it coramonly is in the West In dies. But this conjecture we submit to the judgraent of physicians. 5. In common chimneys, the strongest heat from the fire, which is upwards, goes directly up the chimney, and is lost ; and there is such a strong draught into the chimney that not only the upright heat, but also the back, sides, and downward heats are carried up the chim ney by that draught of au- ; and the warmth given before the fire, by the rays that strike out towards the room is continually driven back, crowded into the chimney, and carried up by the same draught of air. But here the upright heat strikes and heats the top plate, which warms the air above it, and that comes into the room. The heat likewise, which the fire communicates to the sides, back, bottom and air-box, is all brought into the room ; for you will find a constant current of warm air coming out of the chimney-corner into the room. Hold a candle just under the mantel piece, or breast of your chimney, and you will see the flame bent outwards ; by laying a piece of smoking paper on the hearth, on either side, you may see how the current of air raoves, and where it tends, for it will turn and carry the smoke with it 6. Thus, as very little of the heat is lost, when this fire-place is used, much less wood" will serve you, which is a considerable advan tage where wood is dear. 7. When you burn candles near this fire- noise to interrupt the attention due to the preacher. I am persuaded (says he) their warm stoves contribute to their freedom from these kinds of malodie.^," page 91. * People who have used these fire-places, ditfer much in their accounts ofthe wood saved by them. Some say five sixths, others three fourths, and others much less. This is owing to the great dilTerence there was in their former fires; some (according to the different circuni. stances oftheir rooms and chimneys) having been used to make very large, others middling, and others, of a more sparing temper, very small ones: while in these fire-places, their size and drought being nearly llu> same, tho consumption is more equal. I suppose, taking a number of families together, that two thirds, or half the wood, at least. Is saved. My common room, I know, is made twice as warm as it used to be, With a quarter of the wood I formerly consumed there. place, you will find that the flame burns quite upright, and does not blare and run the tallow down, by drawing towards the chimney, as against comraon fires. 8. This fire-place cures most smoky chim neys, and thereby preserves both the eyes and furniture. 9. It prevents the fouling of chimneys; much of the lint and dust that contributes to foul a chimney, being, by the low arch, obliged to pass through the flarae, where it is consumed. Then, less wood being burnt, there is less sraoke raade. Again, the shutter, or trap-bellows, soon blowing the wood into a flarae, the same wood does not yield so much smoke as if burnt in a common chimney ; for as soon as flame begins, smoke in proportion ceases. 10. And if a chimney should be foul, it is much less likely to take fire. If it should take fire, it is easily stifled and extinguished. 11. A fire may be very speedily made in this fire-place by the help ofthe shutter or trap- bellows, as aforesaid. 12. A fire may be soon e.xtinguished, by closing it with the shutter before, and turn ing the register behind, which will stifie it, and the brands will remain ready to rekindle. 13. The room being once warm, the warmth may be retained in it all night 14. And lastly, the fire is so secured at night that not one spark can fly out into the room to do damage. With all these conveniences, you do not lose the pleasing sight nor use of the fire, as in the Dutch stoves, but may boil the tea-ket tle, warm the flat-irons, heat heaters, keep warm a dish of victuals by setting it on the top, &c. Objections answered. There are some objections commonly made by people that are unacquainted with these fire-places, which it raay not be araiss to en deavour to remove, as they arise from preju dices which might otherwise obstruct, in sorae degree, the general use of this benefi cial machine. We frequently hear it said, They are of the nature of Dutch stoves ; stoves have an unpleasant smell ; stoves are unwholesome ; and, warm rooms make peo ple tender, and apt to catch cold. — As to the first, that they are of the nature of Dutch stoves, the description of those stoves, in the beginning of this paper, compared with that of these raachines, shows, that there is a most material difference, and that these have vastly the advantage, if it were only in the single article ofthe admission and circulation ofthe fresh air. But it raust be allowed there may have been some cause to complain of the of fensive smell of iron stoves. This smell, however, never proceeded from the iron itself, which, in its nature, whether hot or cold, is one of the sweetest of raetals, but from the PHILOSOPHICAL. general uncleanly manner of using those stoves. If they are kept clean, they are as sweet as an ironing-box, which, though ever so hot, never offends the sraell of the nicest lady : but it is common to let them be greas ed, by setting candlesticks on them, or other wise ; to rub greasy hands on them ; and, above all to spit upon them, to try how hot they are, which is an inconsiderate, filthy, un-- mannerly custom ; for the slimy matter of spit tle drying on, burns and fumes when the stove is hot, as well as the grease, and smells most nauseously ; which makes such close stove- rooms, where there is no draught to carry off those filthy vapours, alraost intolerable to those that are not from their infancy accus tomed to them. At the same tirae nothing is more easy than to keep them clean ; for when by any accident they happen to be fouled, a lee made of ashes and water, with a brush, will scour them perfectly : as will also a lit tle strong soft soap and water. That hot iron of itself gives no offensive smell, those know very well who have (as the writer of this has) been present at a furnace when the workmen were pouring out the flowing metal to cast large plates, and not the least smell of it to be perceived. That hot iron does not, like lead, brass, and some other metals, give out unwholesome vapours, is plain from the general health and strength of those who constantly work in iron, as furnace-men, forge-men, and smiths ; that it is in its nature a metal perfectly wholesome to the body of raan, is known frora the beneficial use of chalybeate or iron-mine-waters ; frora the good done by taking steel filings in several disorders ; and that even the smithy water in which hot irons are quenched, is found advan tageous to the human constitution. — The in genious and learned Dr. Desaguliers, to whose instructive writings the contriver of this machine acknowledges hiraself much in debted, relates an experiment he made, to try whether heated iron would yield unwhole some vapours ; he took a cube of iron, and having given it a very great heat, he fixed it so to a receiver, exhausted by the air-pump, that all the air rushing in to fill the receiver, should first pass through a hole in the hot iron. He then put a sraall bird into the re ceiver, who breathed that air without any mconvenience, or suffering the least disor der. But the same experiment being made with a cube of hot brass, a bird put into that air died in a few rainutes. Brass, indeed, stinks, even when cold, and much raore when hot ; lead, too, when hot, yields a very unwholesorae steara ; but iron is always sweet, and every way taken is wholesorae and friend ly to the human body — except in weapons. That warmed rooms make people tender, and apt to catch cold, is a mistake as great as it is (among the English) general We have seen in the preceding pages how the common rooras are apt to give colds ; but the writer of this paper raay affirm from his own expe rience, and that of his family and friends who have used warm rooras for these four winters past, that by the use of such rooms, people are rendered less liable to take cold, and, indeed, actually hardened. If sitting warra in a room raade one subject to take cold on going out, lying warm in bed should, by a parity of reason, produce the same effect when we rise. Yet we find we can leap out of the warmest bed naked, in the coldest morning, without any such danger ; and in the same raanner out of warm clothes into a cold bed. The reason is, that in these cases the pores all close at once, the cold is shut out, and the heat within augraented, as we soon after feel by the glowing of the flesh and skin. Thus no one was ever known to catch cold by the use of the cold bath ; and are not cold baths allowed to harden the bodies of those that use them ? Are they not therefore frequently prescribed to the tenderest constitutions?— Now every time you go out of a warra room into the cold freezing air, you do as it were plunge into a cold bath, and the effect is in proportion the same ; for though perhaps you raay feel somewhat chilly at first, you find in a little time your bodies hardened and strength ened, your blood is driven round with a brisker circulation, and a comfortable, steady, uniform inward warmth succeeds that equal outward warmth you first received in the room. Far ther to confirm this assertion, we instance the Swedes, the Danes, and the Russians : these nations are said to live in rooms, compared to ours, as hot as ovens ;* yet where are the hardy soldiers, though bred in their boasted cool houses, that can, like these people, bear the fatigues of a winter campaign in so se vere a climate, march whole days to the neck in snow, and at night intrench in ice as they do? The mentioning of those northern nations, puts rae in raind of a considerable public ad vantage that raay arise frora the general use of these fire-places. It is observable, that though those countries have been well inha bited for raany ages, wood is still their fuel, * Mr. Boyle, in his experiments and observations upon cold, Shaw's Abridgment, Vol. I. p (384, says, " It is re markable, that while the cold has strange and tragical effects at Moscow and elsewhere, the RussianS-and Li- vonians should be exempt from them, who accustom themselves to pass immediately from a great degree of heat, to as great a one of cold, without receiving any visible prejudice thereby. I remember being inld by a person of unquestionable credit, that il was a common practice among them, to go from a hot stove into cold water; the same was also affirmed to me hy another who resided at Moscow. This tradition is likewise abundanUy confirmed by Olearius."— " It is a surpris ing thing," says he. " to see how far the Russians can endure heat; and how, when it makes them ready to faint, they can go out of their stoves, stark naked, both men and women, and throw themselves into cold wa ter ; and even in winter wallow if) the snow." 400 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. and yet at no very great price ; which could not have been, if they had not universally used stoves, but consumed it as we do, in great quantities, by open fires. By the help of this saving invention our wood raay grow as fast as we consume it, and our posterity raay warm themselves at a raoderate rate, without being obliged to fetch their fuel over the Atlantic ; as, if pit-coal should not be here discovered (which is an uncertainty) they raust necessa rily do.* We leave it to the political arithmetician to corapute how much raoney will be saved to a country, by its spending two thirds le.ss of fuel ; how much labour saved in cutting and carriage of it ; how much more land raay be cleared by cultivation ; how great the pro fit by tbe additional quantity of work done, in those trades particularly that do not exercise the body so much, but that the workfolks are obliged to run frequently to the fire to warm themselves : and to physicians to say, how much healthier thick-built towns and cities wUl be, now half suffocated with sulphury smoke, when so much less of that smoke shaU be made, and the air breathed by the inhabi tants be consequently so much purer. These things it will suffice just to have mentioned ; let us proceed to give some necessary direc tions to the workman who is to fix or set up these fire-places. Directions to the Bricklayer. The chimney being first well swept and cleansed from soot, &c. lay the bottom plate down on the hearth, in the place where the fire-place is to stand, which may be as for ward as the hearth will allow. Chalk a line fi'om one of its back corners round the plate to the other comer, that you may afterwards knows its place when you corae to fLx it ; and from those corners, two parallel lines to the back of the chimney : make marks also on each side, that you may know where the par tition is to stand, which is to prevent any communication between the air and smoke. Then, removing the plate, make a hollow un der it and beyond it by taking up as many of the bricks or tiles as you can, within your chalked lines, quite to the chimney-back. Dig out six or eight inches deep ofthe earth or rubbish, all the breadth and length of your hollow ; then make a passage of four inches square (if the place will allow so much) lead ing from the hollow to some place communi cating with the outer air ; by outer air we mean air without the roora you intend to warm. This passage raay be raade to enter your hollow on either side, or in the fore part just as you find raost convenient the * Pitcoal has been discovered since in great abundance in various pari? ofthe United States The mountains of Pennntsylvania contain vast trea'=urps, which only require canals and roads lo convey them in quantities sufficient for tho supply ofthe whole couiiueni. circurastances of your chimney considered. — If the fire-place is to be put up in a chamber, you may have this communication of outer air from the staircase ; or sometimes raore easi ly from between the chamber floor, and the ceiling of the lower room, making only a small hole in the wall of the house entering the space betwixt those two joists with which your air-passage in the hearth communicates. If this air-passage be so situated as that mice may enter it, and nestle in the hollow, a lit tle grate of wire wUl keep them out This passage being made, and, if it runs under any part of the hearth, tiled over securely, you may proceed to raise your false bacL This may be of four inches or two inches thick ness, as you have room, but let it stand at least four inches from the true chimney-back. In narrow chimneys this false back runs from jamb to jamb, but in large old-fashioned chim neys, you need not raake it wider than the back of the fire-place. To begin it you may forra an arch nearly flat, of three bricks end to end, over the hollow, to leave a passage the breadth of the iron fire-place, and five or six incbes deep, rounding at bottom, for the smoke to turn and pass under the false back, and so behind it up the chimney. The false back is to rise till it is as high as the breast of the chimney, and then to close over the breast;* always observing, ffthere is a wooden mantel-tree, to close above it If there is no wood in the breast, you may arch over and close even with the lower part of the breast By this closing the chimney is made tight, that no air or smoke can pass up it without going under the felse back. Then from side to side of your hoUow, against the marks you made with chalk, raise a tight partition, brick- on-edge, to separate the air from the smoke, bevelling away to half an inch the brick that comes just under the air-hole, that the air may have a free passage up into the air-box : lastly, close the hearth over that part of the hollow that is between the false back and the place of the bottora plate, coming about half an inch under the plate, which piece of hol low hearth raay be supported by a bit or two of old iron-hoop; then is your chimney fitted to receive tbe fire-place. To set it lay first a little bed of mortar all round the edges of the hoUow, and over the top ofthe partition: then lay down your bot tom plate in its place (with the rods in it) and tread it till it lies firm. Then put a little fine mortar (raade of loam and lime, with a little coarse bair) into its joints, and set iu your back plate, leaning it for the present against the false back : then set in your air-box, with a little mortar in its joints ; then put in the two sides, closing them up against the air-box, with mortar in their grooves, and fixing at the same * Sep page .?%. where the trap-door is described that ought to be in this clositig. PHILOSOPHICAL. 401 time your register : then bring up your back to its place, with mortar in its grooves, and that will bind the sides together. Then put in your front plate, placing it as far back in the groove as you can, to leave room for the slid ing plate : then lay on your top plate, with mortar in its grooves also, screwing the whole firmly together by raeans of the rods. The capital letters A B D E, &c. in the annexed cut, show the corresponding parts of the se veral plates. Lastly, the joints being pointed all-around on the outside, the fire-place is fit for use. When you raake your first fire in it, per haps if the chiraney be thoroughly cold, it may not draw, the work too being all cold and damp. In such case, put first a few shovels of hot coals in the fire-place, then lift up the chimney-sweeper's trap-ijoor, and putting in a sheet or two of flaming paper, shut it again, which will set the chimney a drawing imme diately, and when once it is fllled with a co lumn of warm air, it will draw strongly and continuaUy. The drying of the mortar and work by the first fire may smell unpleasantly, but that wUl soon be over. In some shallow chimneys, to make more roora for the false back and its flue, four inches or raore of the chiraney back raay be picked away. Let the roora be raade as tight as conve niently it may be, so will the outer air, that must corae in to supply the roora and draught of the fire, be all obliged to enter through the passage under the bottom plate, and up through the air-box, by which means it will not come cold to your backs, but be warmed as it comes in, and raixed with the warra air round the fire-place, before it spreads in the room. But as a great quantity of cold air, in ex treme cold weather especially, wUl present ly enter a room if the door be carelessly left open, it is good to have some contrivance to shut it, either by means of screw hinges, a spring, or a pulley. When the pointing in the joints is all dry and hard, get sorae powder of black lead (broken bits of black lead crucibles from the silversmiths, pounded fine, will do) and mix ing it with a little rum and water, lay it on, when the plates are warra, with a hard brush, over the top and front plates, part of the side and bottora plates, and over all the pointing ; and, as it dries, rub it to a gloss with the same brush, so the joints will not be discerned, but it wiU look aU of a piece, and shine like new iron. And the false back being plaster ed and white-washed, and the hearth redden ed, the whole wiU make a pretty appearance. Before the black lead is laid on, it would not be amiss to wash the plates with strong lee and a brush, or soap and water, to cleanse Vol. II. ... 3 E 34* thera frora any spots of grease or filth that raay be on thera. If any grease should afterwards come on thera, a little wet ashes wUl get it out If it be well set up, and in a tolerable good chiraney, sraoke will draw in frora as far as the fore part of the bottora plate, as you raay try by a bit of burning paper. People are at first apt to make their rooms too warm, not imagining how little a fire will be sufficient. When the plates are no hotter than that one raay just bear the hand on thera, the room wUl generally be as warm as you de sire it Soon after the foregoing piece was pub lished, some persons in England, in imi tation of Dr. Franklin's invention, made what they call Pennsylvanian Fire-Places, with iraprovements ; the principal of which pretended improvements is, a contraction of the passages in the air-box, originally de signed for admitting a quantity of fresh air, and warming it as it entered the room. The contracting these passages gains indeed more room for the grate, but in a great measure defeats their intention. For if the passages in the air-box do not greatly exceed in di mensions the amount of all the crevices by which cold air can enter the room, they will not considerably prevent, as they were intend ed to do, the entry of cold air through these To Dr. Ingenhausz, Physician to the Empe ror, at Vienna.* On the Causes and Cure qf Smoky Chimneys. — Read in the American Philosophical Society, Oct 21, 1785. At Sea, Aug. 28, 1785. Deaji Friend, — In one of your letters, a little before I left France, you desired rae to give you in writing my thoughts upon the construction and use of chiraneys, a subject you had sometimes heard me touch upon in conversation. I embrace willingly this lei sure afforded by ray present situation to cora ply with your request, as it will not only show ray regard to the desires of a friend, but may at the sarae time be of sorae utUity to others; the doctrine of chiraneys appearing not to be as yet generaUy well understood, and rais- takes respecting them being attended with constant inconvenience, if not not reraedied, and with fruitless expense, if the true reme dies are mistaken. Those who would be acquainted with this subject should begin by considering on what principle smoke ascends in any chiraney. At first many are apt to think that smoke is in * This letter has been published in a separate pamphlet, in Germany, England, and America; it has also appeared in the "Transactions of the American Phi- Josophical Society, 402 FRANICLIN'S WORKS. its nature and of itself specifically lighter than air, and rises in it for the same reason that cork rises in water. These see no case why smoke should not rise in the chimney, though the room be ever so close. Others think there is a power in chimneys to draw up the smoke, and that there are different forms of chimnevs which afford more or less of this power. These amuse themselves with searching for the best form. The equal dimensions of a fiinnel in its whole length is not thought arti ficial enough, and it is made, for fancied rea sons, sometimes tapering and narrowing from below upwards, and sometimes the contrary, &c. A simple experiraent or two may serve to give more correct ideas. Having lit a pipe of tobacco, plunge the stem to the bottom of a decanter half filled with cold w,ater ; then putting a rag over the bowl, blow through it and raake the sraoke descend in the stem of the pipe, from the end of wbich it wdl rise in bubbles through the water; and being thus cooled, wUl not afterwards rise to go out through the neck of the decanter, but remain spreading itself and resting on the surface of the water. This shows that sraoke is really heavier than air, and that it is carried up wards only when attached to, or acted upon, by air that is heated, and thereby rarefied and rendered specifically lighter than the air in its neighbourhood. Smoke being rarely seen but in company with heated air, and its upward motion being visible, though that of the rarefied air that drives it is not so, has naturally given rise to the error. I need not explain to you, my learned friend, what is meant by rarefied air ; but if you make the public use you propose of this letter, it may fall into the hands of some who are un acquainted with the term and with the thing. These then may be told, that air is a fiuid which has weight as well as others, though about eight hundred times lighter than water. That heat raakes the particles of air recede frora each other and take up raore space, so that the same weight of air heated will have raore bulk, than equal weights of cold air which may surround it and in that case must rise, being forced upwards by such colder and heavier air, which presses to get under it and take its place. That air is so rarefied or ex panded by heat may be proved to their com prehension, by a lank blown bladder, whicb, laid before a fire, wiU soon swell, grow tight and burst Another experiment may be to take a glass tube about an inch in diaraeter, and twelve inches long, open at both ends and fixed up right on lecfs, so that it need not be handled, for the hands might warm it At the end of a quill fasten five or six inches of the finest light filament of silk, so that it may be held either above the upper end ofthe tube or un der tbe lower end, your warm hand being at a distance by the length of the quUl. (See the plate, fig. 1.) If there were any motion of air through the tube, it would manifest itself ' by its eflect on the silk ; but if the tube and the air in it are of tbe same temperature with the surrounding air, there will be no such mo tion, whatever may be the form of the tube, whether crooked or strait, narrow below and widening upwards, or the contrary ; the air in it will be quiescent Warm the tube, and I you will find, as long as it continues warm, a constant current of air entering below and : passing up through it till discharged at the ¦ top ; because tbe warmth of the tube being communicated to the air it contains, rarefies that air and makes it lighter than the air J without, which therefore presses in below, forces it upwards, and follows and takes its place, and is rarefied in its turn. And, with out warming tbe tube, if you hold under it a knob of hot iron, the air thereby heated wUl rise and fUl the tube, going out at its top, and this motion in the tube wUl continue as long as the knob remains hot, because tbe air entering the tube below is heated and rarefied by passing near and over that knob. That this motion is produced merely by tbe difference of specific gravity between the fluid witliin and that without the tube, and not by any fancied form of the tube itself, raay ap pear by plunging it into water contained in a glass jar a foot deep, through which such mo tion might be seen. The water within and without the tube being of the same specific gravity, balance each other, and both reraain at rest But lake out the tube, stop its bottom with a finger and fill it with olive oU, which is lighter than water, then stopping the top, place it as before, its lower end under water, its top a very little above. As long as you keep the bottom stopt, the fluids remain at rest, but the moment it is unstopt, the heavier enters below, forces up the lighter, and takes its place. And the raotion then ceases, merely because the new fluid cannot be successively made lighter, as air raay be by a warm tube. In fact, no form of the funnel of a chimney has any share in its operation or effect respect ing smoke, except its height The longer the funnel, if erect, the greater its force when filled with heated and rarefied air, to draw in below and drive up tlie smoke, if one may, in compliance with custom, use the expression draw, when in fact it is the superior weight of the surrounding atmosphere that prtsscs to enter the funnel below, and so drives up be fore it the sraoke and warm air it meets with in its passage. I have been tlie more particular in explain ing these first principles, because, for want of clear ideas respecting them, much fruitless ex pense has been occasioned ; not only single chimneys, but in some instances, within my PHILOSOPHICAL 403 knowledge, whole stacks having been pulled down and rebuilt with funnels of different forms, imagined more powerful in drawing smoke ; but having still the sarae height and the same opening below, have perforraed no better than their predecessors. What is it then which makes a smoky chim ney, that is, a chimney which, instead of con veying up all the smoke, discharges a part of it into the room, offending the eyes and da maging the furniture ? The causes of this effect, which have fallen under my observation, amount to nine, differ ing from each other, and therefore requiring different reraedies. 1. Smoky chimnies in a new house, are such, frequently from mere want of air. The workmanship ofthe rooras being all good, and just out ofthe workraan's hand, the joints of the boards of the flooring, and ofthe pannels of wainscoting are all true and tight, the raore so as the walls, perhaps not yet thoroughly dry, preserve a darapness in the air of the roora which keeps the wood-work swelled and close. The doors and the sashes too, being worked with truth, shut with exactness, so that the room is as tight as a snuffbox, no passage be ing left open for air to enter, except the key hole, and even that is sometimes covered by a little dropping shutter. Now if smoke cannot rise but as connected with rarefied air, and a column of such air, suppose it filling the fun nel, cannot rise, unless other air be admitted to supply its place ; and if, therefore, no cur rent of air enter the opening ofthe chimney, there is nothing to prevent the smoke coming out into the room. If the motion upwards of the air in a chimney that is freely supplied, be observed by the raising of the smoke or a feather in it, and it be considered that in the time such feather takes in rising frora the fire to the top of the chimney, a column of air equal to the content ofthe funnel must be discharged, and an equal quantity supplied from the room below, it will appear absolutely impossible that this operation should go on if the tight room is kept shut ; for were there any force capable of drawing constantly so rauch air out ofit, it must soon be exhausted like the receiver of an air-pump, and no animal could live in it Those therefore who stop every crevice in a room to prevent the admission of fresh air, and yet would have their chimney carry up the smoke, require inconsistencies, and expect im possibilities. Yet under this situation, I have seen the owner of a new house, in despair, and ready to sell it for much less than it cost, conceiving it uninhabitable, because not a chimney in any one of its rooms would carry off the smoke, unless a door or window were left open. Much expense has also been raade, to alter and amend new chiraneys which had really no fault ; in one house particularly that , I knew, of a nobleman in Westminster, that | expense araounted to no less than three hun dred pounds, after his house had been, as he thought, finished, and all charges paid. And after all, several ofthe alterations were inef fectual, for want of understanding the true principles. Remedies. When you find on trial, that opening the door or a window, enables the chimney to carry up all the smoke, you raay he sure that want of air from without, was the cause of its smoking. I say from without, to guard you against a common mistake of those who raay tell you, the roora is large, contains abundance of air, sufficient to supply any chiraney, and therefore it cannot be that the chiraney wants air. These reasoners are ig norant, that the largeness of a room, if tight, , is in this case of small importance, since it cannot part with a chiraney full of air with out occasioning so rauch vacuura ; which it requires a great force to effect, and could not be borne if effected. It appearing plainly, then, that sorae ofthe outward air must be admitted, the question will be, how rauch is absolutely necessary ; for you would avoid adraitting raore, as being contrary to one of your intentions in having a fire, viz. that of warming your room. To dis cover this quantity, shut the door gradually while a middling fire is burning, till you find that, before it is quite shut, the smoke begins to come out into the room, then open it a little till you perceive the sraoke comes out no longer. There hold the door, and observe the width of the open crevice between the edge ofthe door and the rabbit it should shut into. Suppose the distance to be half an inch, and the door eight feet high, you find thence that your roora requires an entrance for air equal in area to ninety-six half inches, or forty-eight square inches, or a passage of six inches by eight This, however, is a large supposition, there being few chimneys, that having a mo derate openingand atolerable height of funnel, will not be satisfied with such a crevice of a quarter of an inch ; and I have found a square of six by six, or thirty-six square inches, to be a pretty good mediura that will serve for raost chiraneys. High funnels, with small and low openings, may indeed be supplied through a less space, because for reasons that wUl appear hereafter, the force of levity, if one raay so speak, being greater in such funnels, the cool air enters the room with greater velocity, and consequently raore enters in the sarae time. — This however has its limits, for experience shows, that no increased velocity, so occasioned, has made the admission of air through the key hole equal in quantity to that through an open door ; though through the door the cur rent moves slowly, and through the keyhole with great rapidity. It reraains then to be considered how and where this necessary quantity of air from with- 404 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. out is to be admitted so as to be least incon venient For if at the door, left so much open, the air thence proceeds directly to the chim ney, and in its way comes cold to your back and heels as you sit before your fire. If you keep the door shut, and raise a little the sash of your window, you feel the same inconveni ence. Various have been the contrivances to avoid this, such as bringing in fresh air through pipes in the jambs of the chimney, which, pointing upwards, should blow the smoke up the funnel ; opening passages into the funnel above, to let in air for the same pur pose. But these produce an effect contrary to that intended ; for as it is the constant current of air passing from the roora through the open ing ofthe chimney into the funnel which pre vents the sraoke coming out into the roora, ifyou supply the funnel hy other raeans or in other ways with the air it wants, and especially if that air be cold, you diminish the force oftbat current, and the smoke in its effort to enter the roora finds less resistance. The wanted air must then indispensably be admitted into the roora, to supply what goes offthrough the opening ofthe chimney. M. Ganger, a very ingenious and intelligent French writer on the subject, proposes with judgment to adrait it above the opening ofthe chiraney ; and to prevent inconvenience from its coldness, he directs its being made to pass in its entrance through winding cavities made behind the iron back and sides of the fire place, and under the iron hearth-plate; in which cavities it will be warmed, and even heated, so as to contribute much, instead of cooling, to the warming of the roora. This invention is excellent in itself, and raay be used with advantage in buUding new houses ; because the chimney may then be so disposed as to adrait conveniently the cold air to enter such passages : but in houses built without such views, the chiraneys are often so situated as not to afford that convenience, without great and expensive alterations. Easy and cheap methods, though not quite so perfect in themselves, are of more general utility ; and such are the foUowing. In all rooms where there is a fire, the body of air warmed and rarefied before the chim ney is continually changing place, and mak ing room for other air that is to be warmed in its turn. Part of it enters and goes up the chiraney, and the rest rises and takes place near the ceiling. If the room be lofty, that warm air remains above our heads as long as it continues warra, and we are little benefit ed by it, because it does not descend till it is cooler. Few can iraagine the difference of cliraate between the upper and lower parts of such a roora, who have not tried it by the thermometer, or by going up a ladder till their heads are near the ceUing. It is then among this warm air that the wanted quantity of outward air is best admitted, with which be ing raixed, its coldness is abated, and its in convenience diminished so as to become scarce observable. This may be easily done, by drawing down about an inch the upper sash of a window ; or, if not raoveable, by cutting such a crevice through its frarae ; in both which cases, it wiU be well to place a thin shelf of the length, to conceal the open ing, and sloping upwards to direct the enter ing air horizontally along and under the ceU ing. In some houses the air raay be admitted by such a crevice raade in the wainscot, cor- nish, or plastering, near the ceiling and over the opening of the chiraney. This, if practi cable, is to be chosen, because the entering cold air will there meet with the warmest rising air from before the fire, emd be soonest tempered by the raixture. The sarae kind of shelf should also be placed here. Another way, and not a very difficult one, is to take out an upper pane of glass in one of your sashes, set in a tin frarae, (Plate, Fig. 2.) giv ing it two springing angular sides, and then replacing it, with hinges below on which it may be turned to open more or less above. It will then have the appearance of an internal skylight By drawing this pane in, more or less, you may adrait what air you find neces sary. Its position will naturally throw that air up and along the ceiling. This is what is called in France a Was ist das ? As this is a Gerraan question, the invention is probably of that nation, and takes its narae from the fre quent asking of that question when it first appeared. In England, some have of late years cut a round hole about five inches dia meter in a pane ofthe sash and placed against it a circular plate of tin hung on an axis, and cut into vanes, which, being separately bent a little obliquely, are acted upon by the en tering air, so as to force the plate continually round like the vanes of a windmiU. This ad- raits the outward air, and by the continual whirling of the vanes, does in some degree disperse it. The noise only, is a little incon venient 2. A second cause ofthe smoking of chim neys is, their openings in the room being too large; that is, too wide, too high, or both. Architects in general have no other ideas of proportion in the opening of a chiraney, than what relate to syrametry and beauty, respect ing the diraensions ofthe room :* whUe its true proportion, respecting its function and utility, depends on quite other principles ; and they might as properly proportion the step in a stair-case to the height of the story, instead of the natural elevation of men's legs in mounting. The proportion then to be regard ed, is what relates to the height of the funnel. For as tlfe funnels in the different stories of * See Notes at the end of this paper, No. I. PHILOSOPHICAL 405 a house are necessarily of different heigiits or lengths, that from the lowest floor bei?ig the highest or longest, and those of tho other floors shorter and shorter, tiU we come to those in the garrets, which are of course the shortest : and the force of draft being, as al ready said, in proportion to the height of fun nel filled with rarefied air ; and a current of air from the room into the chimney, sufficient to fill the opening, being necessary to oppose and prevent the smoke coming out mto the room ; it follows, that the openings of the longest funnels may be larger, and that those ofthe shorter funnels should be smaller. For if there be a large opening to a chimney that does not draw strongly, the funnel may hap pen to be furnished with the air it demands by a partial current entering on one side of the opening, and, leaving the other side free of any opposing current, may permit the smoke to issue there into the room. Much too of the force of draft in a funnel depends on the degree of rarefaction in the air it contains, and that depends on the nearness to the fire of its passage in entering the funnel. If it can enter far from the fire on each side, or fer above the fire, in a wide or high opening, it receives little heat in passing by the fire, and the contents ofthe funnel is by that raeans less different in levity from the surrounding atmosphere, and its force in drawing conse quently weaker. Hence if too large an open ing be given to chimneys in upper rooras, those rooms will be sraoky: on the other hand, if too small openings begiven to chira neys in the lower rooms, the entering air, operating too directly and violently on the fire, and afterwards strengthening the draft as it ascends the funnel, will consume the fuel too rapidly. Remedy. As different circumstances fre quently mix themselves in these matters, it is difficult to give precise diraensions fbr the openings of all chimneys. Our fathers made thera generally much too large ; we have lessened them; but they are often still of greater dimension than they should be, the human eye not being easUy reconciled to sudden and great changes. If you suspect that your chimney sraokes from the too great dimension of its opening, contract it by plac ing moveable boards so as to lower and nar row it gradually, tUl you find the sraoke no longer issues into the room. The proportion so found will be that which is proper fbr that chimney, and you may employ the bricklayer or mason to reduce it accordingly. However, as, in building new houses, something must be sometimes hazarded, I would make the openings in my lower rooms about thirty inches square and eighteen deep, and those in the upper, only eighteen inches square and not quite so deep ; the intermediate ones di minishing in proportion as the height of fun nel diminisliod. In tlio larger opening, bil lots of two ftvi long, or half the common longtii of oonhvixxl, may be burnt convenient ly ; aiiil tor ilio sniiiUer, such wood raay be sawoil into tliinls. Where coals are the fuel, the grates will bo proportioned to the open ings. The same depth is nearly necessary to all, thefuuuols being all made of a size proper to admit a chimney-sweeper. If in large and elegant rooms custom orfiincy should re quire tlie appearance of a large chiraney, it may be formed of extensive marginal decora tions, in marble, &c. In tirae, perhaps, that which is fittest in the nature of things raay come to be thought handsomest But at pre sent, when men and women in different coun tries show themselves dissatisfied with the forms God has given to their heads, waists, and feet, and pretend to shape thera raore perfectly, it is hardly to be expected that they will be content always with the best form of a chimney. And there are some, I know, so bigoted to the fancy of a large noble opening, that rather than change it, they would subrait to have damaged furniture, sore eyes, and skins almost smoked to bacon. 3. Another cause of smoky chiraneys is, too short a funnel. This happens necessarily in sorae cases, as where a chimney is required in a low building ; for if the funnel be raised high above the roof, in order to strengthen its draft, it is then in danger of being blown down, and crushing the roof in its fall. Remedies. Contract the opening of the chimney, so as to oblige aU the entering air to pass through or very near the fire ; where by it will be raore heated and rarefied, the funnel itself be more warmed, and its contents have raore of what may be called the force of levity, so as to rise strongly and maintain a good draft at the opening. Or you may in some cases, to advantage, build additional stories over the low building which will support a high funnel. If the low building be used as a kitchen, and a contraction ofthe opening therefore in convenient, a large one being necessary, at least when there are great dinners, for the free manageraent of so many cooking uten- sUs; in such case I would advise the building of two more funnels joining to the first, and having three raoderate openings, one to each funnel, instead of one large one. When there is occasion to use but one, the other two may be kept shut by sliding plates, hereafter to be described ;* and two or all of thera may be used together when wanted. This will in deed be an expense, but not an useless one, since your cooks will work with more com fort, see better than in a sraoky kitchen what they are about, your victuals wUl be cleaner dressed, and not taste of smoke, as is often * See Notes at the end of this paper, No. II. 406 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. the case ; and to render the effect more cer tain, a stack of three funnels raay be safely built higher above the roof than a single funnel. The case of two short a funnel is more ge neral than would be imagined, and often found where one would not expect it For it is not uncommon, in ill-contrived buildings, instead of having a fiinnel for each room or fire-place, to bend and turn tbe funnel of an upper room so as to make it enter the side of another funnel that comes from below. By this raeans the upper room funnel is made short of course, since its length can only be reckoned frora the place where it enters the lower room funnel; and that funnel is also shortened by all the distance between the en trance of the second funnel and the top of the stack ; for aU thatpart being readily supplied with air through the second funnel, adds no strength to the draught especially as that air is cold where there is no fire in the second chimney. The only easy remedy here is, to keep the opening shut of that funnel in which there is no fire. 4 Another very comraon cause of the smoking of chimneys, is, their overpowering one another. For instance, if there be two chimneys in one large room, and you make fires in both of them, the doors and windows close shut, you wUl find that the greater and stronger fire shall overpower the weaker, and draw air down its funnel to supply its own de mand ; which air descending in the weaker fimnel will drive down its smoke, and force it into the room. If, instead of being in one room, the two chimneys are in two different rooms, communicating by a door, the case is the same whenever that door is open. In a very tight house, I have known a kitchen chimney on the lowest floor, when it had a great fire in it, overpower any other chimney in the house, and draw air and smoke into its room, as often as the door was opened com municating with the staircase. Remedy. Take care that every room has the means of supplying itself from without with the aur its chiraney raay require, so that no one of them may be obliged to borrow from another, nor under the necessity of lending. A variety of these means have been already described. 5. .\nother cause of smoking is, when the tops of chimneys are commanded by higher buildings, or by a hill, so that the wind blow ing over such eminences falls like water over a dam, sometimes almost perpendicularly on the tops of the chimneys that lie in its way, ! and beats down the smoke contained in thera. Remedy. That commonly applied to this case, is a turncap made of tin or plate iron, co vering the chimney above and on three sides, open on one side, turning on a spindle, and which, being guided or governed by a vane. always presents it back to the current Thif I believe may be generaUy effectual, though not certain, as there may be cases in which it wUl not succeed. Raising your funnels, if practicable, so as their tops may be higher, or at least equal with the commanding eminence, is more to be depended on. But the turning cap, being easier and cheaper, should first be tried. If obliged to buUd in such a situation, I would choose to place ray doors on the side next the hill, and the backs ofmy chimneys on the furthest side ; for then the column of air falling over the eminence, and of course pressing on that below, and forcing it to enter the doore, or Was^t-dases on that side, would tend to balance the pressure down the chim neys, and leave the funnels more free in the exercise oftheir fiinctiona 6. There is another case of command, the reverse of that last mentioned. It is where the commanding eminence is farther from the wind than the chimney commanded. To ex plain this a figure may be necessary. Sup pose then a buUdmg whose side A happens to be exposed to the wind, and forms a kind of dam against its progress. (Plate, figure 3.) The air obstructed by this dam wUl, like water, press and search for passages through it ; and finding the top of the chim ney B, below the topof the dam, it wUl force itself down that fiinnel in orderto get through by sorae door or window open on the side of the buUding. And if there be a fire in such chimney, its smoke is of course beat down, and fUls the room. Remedy. I know of but one, which is to raise such fimnel higher than the roof, sup porting it if necessary, by iron bars. For a turn-cap in this case has no effect the dam med up air pressing down through it in what ever position the wind may have placed its opening. I know a city in which many houses are rendered smoky by this operation. For their kitchens being buUt behind, and connected by a passage with the houses, and the tops of the kitchen chimneys lower than the top of the houses, the whole side of a street when the wind blows against its back, forms such a dam as above described ; and the wind, so ob structed, forces down those kitchen chimneys (especially when they have but weak fires in thera) to pass through the passage and house into the street Kitchen chimneys, so form ed and situated, have another inconvenience. In suramer, if you open your upper room windows for air, a light breeze blowing over your kitchen chimney towards the house, though not strong enough to force down its smoke as aforesaid, is sufficient to waft it into your windows, and fill the rooras with it; which, besides the disagreeableness, damages your furniture. 7. Chimneys, otherwise drawing well, are PHILOSOPHICAL. 407 sometimes made to smoke by the improper and inconvenient situation of a door. When the door and chiraney are on the sarae side of the room as in the figure, if the door A, be ing in the corner, is made to open against the wall (Plate, figure 4) which is coramon, as being there, when open, more out of the way, it follows, that when the door is only opened in part, a current of air rushing in passes along the wall into and across the opening of the chimney B, and flirts sorae of the sraoke out into the room. This happens raore cer tainly when the door is shutting, for then the force of the current is augraented, and becomes very inconvenient to those who, warming themselves by the fire, happen to sit in its way. The remedies are obvious and easy. Either put an intervening skreen from the wall round great part ofthe fire-place; or, which is perhaps preferable, shift the hinges of your door, so as it may open the other way, and when open throw the air along the other wall. 8. A roora, that has no fire in its chiraney, is sometiraes filled with smoke which is re ceived at the top of its funnel and descends into the room. In a former paper* I have al ready explained the descending currents of air in cold funnels ; it raay not be amiss how ever to repeat here, that funnels without fires have an effect, according to their degree of coldness or warmth, on the air that happens to be contained in them. The surrounding atmosphere is frequently changing its tera perature; but stacks of funnels, covered from winds and sun by the house that contains them, retain a raore equal teraperature. If, after a warm season, the outward air sudden ly grows cold, the empty warra funnels begin to draw strongly upward ; that is, they rarefy the air contained in thera, which of course rises, cooler air enters below to supply its place, is rarefied in its turn and rises ; and this operation continues till the funnel grows cooler, or the outward air warraer, or both, when the raotion ceases. On the other hand, if after a cold season, the outward air sudden ly grows warm and of course lighter, the air contained in the cool funnels, being heavier, descends into the room ; and the warmer air which enters their tops being cooled in its turn, and made heavier, continues to descend ; and this operation goes on tUl the funnels are warmed by the passing of warm air through them, or the air itself grows cooler. When the temperature of the air and of the funnels is nearly equal, the difference of warmth in 1he air between day and night is sufficient to produce these currents, the air will begin to ascend the funnels as the cool of the evening comes on, and this current will continue till perhaps nine or ten o'clock the next morning. when it begins to hesitate ; and as the heat of tHe day approaches, it sets downwards, and continues so till towards evening, when it again hesitates for some tirae, and then goes upwards constantly during the night, as be fore raentioned. Now when smoke issuing from the tops of neighbouring funnels passes over the tops of funnels which are at the tirae drawing downwards, as they often are in the middle part of the day, such sraoke is of ne cessity drawn into these funnels, and descends with the air into the chamber. The remedy is to have a sliding plate, here after described,* that wiU shut perfectly the offending funnel. 9. Chiraneys which generally draw well, do nevertheless sometimes give smoke into the rooms, it being driven down by strong winds passing over the tops of their funnels, though not descending frora any commanding erainence. This case is raost frequent where the funnel is short, and the opening turned from the wind. It is the raore grievous, when it happens to be a cold wind that produces the effect, because when you most want your fire, you are soraetiraes obliged to extinguish it To understand this, it may be considered, that the rising light air, to obtain a free issue from the funnel, must push out of its way or oblige the air that is over it to rise. In a time of calra or of little wind this is done visibly, for we see the sraoke that is brought up by that air rise in a column above the chimney. But when a violent current of air, that is, a strong wind, passes over the top of a chimney, its particles have received so much force, which keeps them in a horizontal direction and follow each other so rapidly, that the rising light air has not strength sufficient to oblige them to quit that direction and move upwards to per mit its issue. Add to this, that some of the current passing over that side of the funnel which it first meets with, viz. at A, (Plate, figure 5.) having been compressed by the re sistance ofthe funnel, may expand itself over the flue, and strike the interior opposite side at B, from whence it may be reflected down wards and from side to side in the direction of the pricked lines c c c. Remedies. In some places, particularly in Venice, where they have not stacks of chim neys but single flues, the custora is, to open or widen the top of the flue rounding in the true forra of a funnel ; (Plate, figure 6) which some think may prevent the effect just men tioned, for that the wind blowing over one of the edges into the funnel raay be slanted out again on the other side by its forra. I have had no experience of this ; but I have lived in a windy country, where the contrary ispractised, the tops ofthe flues heingnarrowed inwards, so as to forra a slit for the issue of the smoke. * See Notes at the end of this paper. No. II. * See Notes at the end of this paper. No, II. 408 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. long as the breadth ofthe funnel, and only four inches wide. This seems to have been contriv ed on a supposition, that the entry of the wind would thereby be obstructed, and perhaps it might have been imagined, that the whole force of the rising warm air being condensed, as it were, in the narrow opening, would thereby be strengthened, so as to overcorae the resistance of the wind. This however did not always succeed ; for when the wind was at north-east and blew fresh, the sraoke was forced down by fits into the room I cora monly sat in, so as to oblige me to shift the fire into another. The position of the slit of this funnel was indeed north-east and south west. Perhaps if it had lain across the wind, the effect might have been different But on this I can give no certainty. It seeras a raat ter proper to be referred toexperipient Pos sibly a turn-cap might have been serviceable, but it was not tried. Chiraneys have not been long in use in England. I formerly saw a book printed in the tirae of queen Elizabeth, which reraarked the then modern iraproveraents of living, and mentioned araong others the convenience of chiraneys. " Our forefathers," said the au thor, " had no chimneys. There was in each dwelling house only one place for a fire, and the smoke went out through a hole in the roof; but now there is scarce a gentleman's house in England that has not at least one chiraney in it" — When there was but one chiraney, itstop raight then be opened asafun- nel, and perhaps, borrowing the forra frora the Venetians, it was then the flue of a chiraney got that narae. Such is now the growth of luxury, that in both England and France we must have a chimney for every room, and in some houses every possessor of a chamber, and almost every servant, will have a fire ; so that the flues being necessarily built in stacks, the opening of each as a funnel is im practicable. This change of raanners soon consuraed the firewood of England, and wUl soon render fuel extreraely scarce and dear in France, if the use of coals be not introduced in the latter kingdora, as it has been in the former, where it at first met with opposition ; for there is extant in the records of one of queen Elizabeth's parliaments, a motion made by a member, reciting, " That raany dyers, brewers, smiths, and. other artificers of Lon don, had of late taken to the use of pitcoal for their fires, instead of wood, which filled the air with noxious vapours and smoke, very prejudicial to the health, particularly of per sons coraing outof the country ; and therefore raoving that a law might pass to prohibit the use of such fiiel (at least during the session of parliament) by those artificers." — It seems it was not then coramonly used in private houses. Its supposed unwholesomeness was an objection. Luckily the inhabitants of Lon don have got over that objection, and now think it rather contributes to render their air salubrious, as they have had no general pesti lential disorder since the general use of coals, when, before it, such were frequent Paris still burns wood at an enorraous expense, con tinually augraenting, the inhabitants having StUl that prejudice to overcorae. In Germany you are happy in the use of stoves, which save fuel wonderfully : your people are very in genious in the manageraent of fire ; but they may still learn something in that art frora the Chinese,* whose country being greatly popu lous and fully cultivated, has little roora left for the growth of wood, and having not rauch other fuel that is good, have been forced upon raany inventions during a course of ages, for making a little fire go as far as possible. I have thus gone through all the common causes ofthe smoking of chiraneys that I can at present recollect as having fallen under my observation; communicating the remedies that I have known successfully used for the different cases, together with the principles on which both the disease and the remedy de pend, and confessing my ignorance wherever I have been sensible of it You wUl do weU, if you publish, as you propose, this letter, to add in notes, or as you please, such observations as may have occurred to your attentive mind ; and if other phUosophers wUl do the same, this part of science, though humble, yet of great utility, raay in tirae be perfected. For raany years past, I have rarely met with a case of a smoky chimney, which has not been solvable on these principles, and cured by these remedies, where people have been wiU ing to apply them ; which is indeed not al ways the case; for many have prejudices in favour ofthe nostrums of pretending chimney doctors and fumists, and some have conceits and fancies of their own, which they rather choose to try, than to lengthen a funnel, alter the size of an opening, or admit air into a room, however necessary; for some are as much afraid of fresh air as persons in the hy drophobia are of fresh water. I myself had formerly this prejudice, this aerophobia, as I now account it and dreading the supposed dangerous effects of cool air, I considered it as an eneray, and closed with extreme care every crevice in the rooms I inhabited. Ex perience has convinced me of my error. I now look upon fresh air as a friend : I even sleep with an open window. I ara persuaded that no comraon air from without is so un wholesorae as the air within a close room that has been often breathed and not changed. Moist air too, which forraerly I thought per nicious, gives rae now no apprehensions: for considering that no dampness of air applied to the outside of ray skin can be equal to what * See Notes al the end of this paper. No. III. PHILOSOPHICAL. 409 is applied to and touches it within, my whole body being full of raoisture, and finding that I can lie two hours in a bath twice a week, covered with water, which certainly is much damper than any air can be, and this for years together, without catching cold, or be ing in any other raanner disordered by it, I no longer dread mere raoisture, either in air or in sheets or shirts : and I find it of impor tance to the happiness of life, the being freed frora vain terrors, especiaUy of objects that we are every day exposed inevitably to raeet with. You physicians have of late happily discovered, after a contrary opinion had pre vaUed sorae ages, that fresh and cool air does good to persons in the small pox and other fevers. It is to be hoped, that in another century or two we may all find out, that it is not bad even for people in health. And as to moist air, here I ara at this present writing in a ship with above forty persons, who have had no other but moist air to breathe for six weeks past ; every thing we touch is darap, and nothing dries, yet we are aU as healthy as we should be on the raountains of Switz erland, whose inhabitants are not raore so than those of Berrauda or St Helena, islands on whose rocks the waves are dashed into rail- lions of particles, which fill the air with darap, but produce no diseases, the raoisture being pure, unraixed with the poisonous vapours arising from putrid marshes and stagnant pools, in which raany insects die and corrupt the water. These places only, in ray opinion (which however I subrait to yours) afford unwholesorae air ; and that it is not the raere water contained in damp air, but the volatile particles of corrupted aniraal raatter mixed with that water, which renders such air per nicious to those who breathe it. And I iraa gine it a cause ofthe same kind that renders the air in close rooms, where the perspirable matter is breathed over and over again by a number of assembled people, so hurtful to health. After being in such a situation, ma ny find theraselves affected by that febricula, which the English alone call a cold, and per haps frora the name, imagine that they caught the malady by going out of the roora, when it was in fact by being in it. You begin to think that I wander from my subject, and go out ofmy depth. So I return again to my chimneys. We have of late many lectures in experi mental philosophy. I have wished that some of them would study this branch of that sci ence, and give experiments in it as a part of their lectures. The addition to their present apparatus need not be very expensive. A num ber of little representations of rooms composed each of five panes of sash glass, framed in wood at the corners, with proportionable doors, and moveable glass chimneys, with openings of dif ferent sizes, and different lengths of funnel, and Vol. il . . . 3 F 35 sorae of the rooms so contrived as to corarauni cate on occasion with others, so as to form dif ferent corabinations, and exemplify different cases ; with quantities of green wax taper cut into pieces of an inch and half, sixteen of which stuck together in a square, and lit, would make a strong fire for a little glass chiraney, and blown out would continue to burn and give sraoke as long as desired. With such an apparatus all the operations of sraoke and rarefied air in rooras and chiraneys raight be seen through their transparent sides; and the effect of wind on chiraneys, cqramanded or otherwise, might be shown by letting the entering air blow upon thera through an opened window of the lecturer's charaber, where it would be constant while he kept a good fire in his chiraney. By the help of such lectures our furaists would be come better instructed. At present they have generally but one remedy, which per haps they have known effectual in some one case of sraoky chiraneys, and they apply that indiscriminately to all the other causes, with out success, — but not without expense to their employers. With all the science, however, that a raan shall suppose himself possessed of in this ar ticle, he raay soraetiraes raeet with cases that may puzzle hira. I once lodged in a house at London, which, in a little room, had a sin gle chimney and funnel. The opening was very small, yet it did not keep in the sraoke, and all attempts to have a fire in this roora were fruitless. I could not imagine the rea son, till at length observing that the chamber over it, which had no fire-place in it, was al ways filled with sraoke when a fire was kin dled below, and that the sraoke carae through the cracks and crevices ofthe wainscot ; I had the wainscot taken down, and discovered that the funnel which went up behind it, had a crack many feet in length, and wide enough to admit ray arm, a breach very dangerous with regard to fire, and occasioned probably by an apparent irregular settling of one side of the house. The air entering this breach freely, destroyed the drawing force of the funnel. The reraedy would have been, filling up the breach or rather rebuilding the funnel : but the landlord rather chose to stop up the chimney. Another puzzling case I met with at a friend's country house near London. His best roora had a chimney in which, he told me, he never could have a fire, for all the sraoke came out into the roora. I flattered myself I could easily find the cause, and pre scribe the cure. I had a fire made there, and found it as he said. I opened the door, and perceived it was not want of air. I made a temporary contraction ofthe opening of the chimney, and found that it was not its being too large that caused the smoke to 410 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. issue. I went out and looked up at the top of the chimney : its funnel was joined in the same stack with others, sorae of thera short er, that drew very well, and I saw nothing to prevent its doing the sarae. In fine, after every other exaraination I could think of, I was obliged to own the insufficiency of my skUl. But ray friend, who raade no preten sions to such kind of knowledge, afterwards discovered the cause hiraself He got to the top of the funnel by a ladder, and looking down, found it filled with twigs and straw ce mented by earth, and lined with feathers. It seeras the house, after being buUt, had stood empty some years before he occupied it; and he concluded that sorae large birds had taken advantage of its retired situation to raake their nest there. The rubbish, considerable in quantity, being reraoved, and the funnel cleared, the chiraney drew well and gave satisfaction. In general, smoke is a very tractable thing, easily governed and directed when one knows the principles, and is well informed of the circumstances. You know I made it descend in my Pennsylvania stove. I formerly had a raore simple construction, in which the sarae effect was produced, but visible to the eye (Plate, figure 7.) It was composed of two plates A B and C D, placed as in the figure. The lower plate A B rested with its edge in the angle raade by the hearth with the back of the chimney. The upper plate was fixed to the breast, and lapped over tbe lower about six inches wide and the length of the plates (near two feet) between thera. Every other passage of air into the funnel was well stopped. When therefore a flre was made at E, for the first time with charcoal, till the air in tbe funnel was a little heated through the plates, and then wood laid on, the smoke would rise to A, turn over the edge of that plate, de scend to D, then turn under the edge of the upper plate, and go up the chimney. It was pretty to see, but of no great use. Placing therefore the under plate in a higher situa tion, I removed the upper plate C D, and placed it perpendicularly (Plate, figure 8) BO that the upper edge of the lower plate A B carae within about three inches of it, and might be pushed farther from it, or suffered to corae nearer to it, by a moveable wedge be tween them. The flame then ascending from the fire at E, was carried to strike the upper plate, raade it very hot, and its heat rose and spread with the rarefied air into the room. I believe you have seen in use with me, the contrivance of a sliding-plate over the fire, seemingly placed to oppose the rising of the smoke, leaving but a smaU passage for it, be tween the edge of the plate and the back of the chimney. It is particularly described, and its uses explained, in ray former printed letter, and I mention it here only as another instance of the tractability of smoke.* What is called the Staffordshire chiraney (See the Plate, facing page 396) affords an example of the same kind. The opening of the chimney is bricked up, even with the fore- edge of its jambs, leaving open only a passage over the grate of the same width, and per haps eight inches high. The grate consists of semicircular bars, their upper bar of the greatest diaraeter, the others under it smaller and smaller, so that it has the appearance of half a round basket. It is, with the coals it con tains, whoUy without the wall that shuts up the chimney, yet the smoke bends and enters the passage above it, the draft being strong, because no air can enter that is not obliged to pass near or through the fire, so that all that the funnel is filled with is much heated, and of course rauch rarefied. Much more of the prosperity of a winter country depends on the plenty and cheapness of fuel, than is generally imagined. In travel ling I have observed, that in those parts where the inhabitants can have neither wood, nor coal, nor turf, but at excessive prices, the working people live in miserable hovels, are ragged, and have nothing comfortable about them. But when fuel is cheap (or where they have the art of managing it to advan tage) they are well furnished with necessa ries, and have decent habitations. The obvi ous reason is, that the working hours of such people are the profitable hours, and they who cannot afford sufficient fuel have fewer such hours in the twenty-four, than those who have it cheap and plenty : for much of the domestic work of poor women, such as spinning, sew ing, knitting; and of the men in those ma nufactures that require little bodily exercise, cannot well be perforraed where the fingers are numbed with cold; tliose people therefore, in cold weather, are induced to go to bed soon er, and lie longer in a morning than they would do if they could have good fires or warm stoves to sit by ; and their hours of work are not sufficient to produce the means of comfortable subsistence. Those public works, therefore, such as roads, canals, (fee. by which fuel may be brought cheap into such countries from distant places, are of great utility ; and those who promote them may be reckoned araong tlie benefactors of raankind. I have great pleasure in having thus com plied with your request, and in the reflection, that the friendship you honour me with, and in which I have ever been so happy, has con tinued so raany years without the smallest in terruption. Our distance from each other is now augmented, and nature raust soon put an end to the possibUity of my contmuing our * See Notes al the end of this paper. No. II . PHILOSOPHICAL. 411 correspondence: but if consciousness and memory remain in a future state, my esteem and respect for you, my dear friend, will be everlasting. B. FRANKLIN. Notes for the Letter upon Chimneys. No. I. The latest work on architecture that I have seen, is that entitled Nutshells, which appears to be written by a very ingenious raan, and contains atable ofthe proportions ofthe open ings of chiraneys ; but they relate solely to the proportions he gives his rooras, without the smallest regard to the funnels. And he re marks, respecting these proportions, that they are simUar to the harmonic divisions of arao- noehord.* He does not indeed lay much stress on this ; but it shows that we like the appear ance of principles ; and where we have not true ones, we have some satisfaction in pro ducing such as are imaginary. No. II. The description of the sliding plates here promised, and which hath been since brought into use under various names, with sorae ira- raaterial changes, is contained in a forraer let ter to Jaraes Bowdoin, Esq. as follows : To James Bowdoin, Boston. London, December 2, 1758. I HAVE executed here an easy simple con trivance, that I have long since had in specu lation, for keeping rooms warmer, in cold wea ther than they generally are, and with less fire. It is this : the opening ofthe chiraney is con tracted, by brick-work faced with marble slabs, to about two feet between the jambs, and the breast brought down to within about three feet ofthe hearth. An iron frame is placed just un der the breasts, and extending quite to the back of the chimney, so that a plate of the sarae metal raay slide horizontally backwards and forwards in the grooves on each side ofthe frame. This plate is just so large as to fill the whole Bpace,and shut the chiraney entirely when thrust quite in, which is convenient when there is no fire. Drawing it out, so as to leave a space between its further edge and the back, of about two inches ; this space is sufficient for the sraoke to pass ; and so large a part of the funnel being stopt by the rest of the plate, the passage of warra air out ofthe room, up the chiraney, is obstructed and re tarded, and by that raeans much cold air is prevented frora coraing in through crevices, to supply its place. "This effect is raade nia- * Upon comparing these proportions with those aris ing from the common divisions of the monochord, it happens that the first answers to unisons, and although the second is a discord, the third answers to the third Minor, the fourth to the third major, the filth to the fourth, the sixth to the fifth, and the seventh to the oc tave." — NoTSHELLs, page 85. nifest three ways. First, when the fire burns briskly in cold weather, the howling or whist ling noise made by the wind, as it enters the room through the crevices, when the chimney is open as usual, ceases as soon as the plate is slid in to its proper distance. Secondly, opening the door ofthe room about half an inch, and holding your hand against the open ing, near the top of the door, you feel the cold air coming in against your hand, but weakly, if the plate be in. Let another person sud denly draw it out, so as to let the air of the roora go up the chimney, with its usual free dom where chiraneys are open, and you imme diately feel the cold air rushing in strongly. Thirdly, if soraething be set against the door, just sufficient, when the plate is in, to keep the door nearly shut, by resisting the pressure of the air that would force it open ; then, when the plate is drawn out, the door will be forced open by the increased pressure of the outward cold air endeavouring to get in to supply the place of the warra air, that now passes out of the roora to go up the chimney. In our coraraon open chimneys, half the fuel is wasted, and its effect lost ; the air it has warmed being immediately drawn off. Se veral of ray acquaintance, having seen this simple machine in my room, have imitated it at their own houses, and it seems likely to be come pretty coraraon. I describe it thus par ticularly to you, because I think it would be useful in Boston, where firing is often dear. Mentioning chiraneys puts rae in raind of a property I forraerly had occasion to observe in them, which I have not found taken notice of by others ; it is, that in the sumraer time, when no fire is made in the chimneys, there is, nevertheless, a regular draft of air through them, continually passing upwards, from about five or six o'clock in the afternoon, till eight or nine o'clock the next morning, when the current begins to slacken and hesitate a little, for about half an hour, and then sets as strongly down again, which it continues to do till towards five in the afleriioon, then slack ens and hesitates as before, going sometimes a little up, then a little down, till, in about half an hour, it gets into a steady upward cur rent for the night, which continues tUl eight or nine the next day ; the hours varying a little as the days lengthen and shorten, and soraetimes varying frora sudden changes in the weather; as if, after being long warm, it should begin to grow cool about noon, while the air was coming down the chimney, the cur rent will then change earlier than the usual hour, &c. ' This property in chimneys I iraagine we might turn to some account, and render ira proper, for the fiiture, the old saying, as use less as a chimney in summer. If the opening of the chimney, from the breast down to the hearth, be closed by a slight moveable frame 412 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. or two, in the raanner of doors, covered with canvass, that will let the air through, but keep out the flies ; and another little frarae set with in upon the hearth, with hooks on which to hang joints of raeat, fowls, &c. wrapt well in wet linen cloths, three or four fold, I ara con fident, that if the linen is kept wet, by sprink ling it once a day, the meat would be so cooled by the evaporation, carried on continually by raeans of the passing air, that it would keep a week or raore in the hottest weather. Butter and milk raight likewise be kept cool, in ves sels or bottles covered with wet cloths. A shaUow tray, or keeler, should be under the frame to receive any water that raight drip from the wetted cloths. I think, too, that this property of chiraneys raight, by means of smoke-jack vanes, be applied to sorae raechani cal purposes, where a small but pretty constant power only is wanted. If vou would have ray opinion of the cause of this changing current of air in chiraneys, it is, in short, as follows. In suramer time there is generally a great difference in tbe war.mth of the air at raid-day and raid-night, and, of course, a difference of specific gravity in the air, as the raore it is warmed the raore it is rarefied. The funnel of a chimney, being for the raost part surrounded by the house, is protected, in a great raeasure, frora the direct action ofthe sun's rays, and also from the cold ness of the night air. It thence preserves a middle temperature between the heat of the day and the coldness of the night. This mid dle temperature it communicates to the air contained in it If the state of the outward air be cooler than that in the funnel of the chimney, it wUl, by being heavier, force it to rise, and go out at the top. What supplies its place frora below, being warmed, in its turn, by the warraer funnel, is likewise forced up by the colder and weightier air below, and so the current is continued tUl the next day, when the sun gradually changes the state of the outward air, raakes it first as warra as the funnel of the chimney can make it (when the current begins to hesitate) and afterwards warmer. The funnel, being cooler than the air that comes into it, cools that air, makes it heavier than the outward air, of course it de scends ; and what succeeds it frora above be ing cooled in its turn, the descending current continues till towards evening, when it again hesitates and changes its course, from the change of warmth in the outward air, and the nearly remaining same middle temperature in the funnel. Upon this principle, if a house were built behind Beacon-hill, an adit carried from one of the doors into the hill horizontally, till it meet with a perpendicular shaft sunk from its top, it seems probable to me, that those who lived in tho house would constantly, in the heat even of the calmest day, have as much cool air pass ing through the house, as they should choose; and the same, though reversed in its current, during the stillest night I think, too, this property might be made of use to miners; as, where several shafts or pits are sunk perpendicularly into the earth, com municating at bottom by horizontal passages, which is a coramon case, if a chimney of thirty or forty feet high were built over one of the shafts, or so near the shaft, that the chimney might comraunicate with the top ofthe shaft, all air being excluded but what should pass up or down by the shaft, a constant change of air would, by this raeans, be produced in the passages below, tending to secure the work men frora those damps which so frequently incommode them. For the fresh air would be alraost always going down the open shaft, to go up the chimney, or down the chimney, to go up the shaft. Let rae add one observation more, which is, that if that partof the funnel of a chimney, which appears above the roof of a house, be pretty long, and have three of its sides exposed to the heat of the sun succes sively, viz. when he is in the east, in the south, and in the west, while the north side is sheltered by the building from the cool northerly winds ; such a chimney wiU often be so heated by the sun, as to continue the draft strongly upward, through the whole twenty-four hours, and often for many days together. If the outside of such a chimney be painted black, the effect wUlbe stUl greater and the current stronger. No. III. It is said the northern Chinese have a me thod of warming their ground floors, which is ingenious. Those floors are made of tUes, a foot square and two inches thick, their corners being supported by bricks set on end, that are a foot long and four inches square ; the tiles, too, join into each other, by ridges and hollows along their sides. This forms a hollow under the whole floor, which on one side of the house has an opening into the air, where a fire is made, and it has a funnel ris ing from the other side to carry off the smoke. The fuel is a sulphurous pitcoal, the smell of which in the roora is thus avoided, while the floor, and of course the room, is well warmed. But as the underside of the floor must grow foul with soot, and a thick coat of soot pre vents much of the direct application of the hot air to the tiles, I conceive that burning the smoke, by obliging it to descend through red coals, would in this construction be very advantageous, as more heat would be given by the flame than by tlie smoke, and the floor being thereby kept free from soot would be more heated with less fire. For this purpose I would propose erecting the funnel close to the grate, so as to have only an iron plate be tween the fire and the funnel, through which PHILOSOPHICAL. 413 plate, theair in the funnel being heated, it wUl be sure to draw well, and force the smoke to descend, as in the figure (Plate, figure 9.) where A is the funnel or chimney, B the grate on which the fire is placed, C one ofthe aper tures through which the descending smoke is drawn into the channel D of figure 10, along which channel it is conveyed by a circuitous route, as designated by the arrows, until it arrives at the small aperture E, figure 10, through which it enters the funnel F. G in both figures is the iron plate against whicli the fire is made, which being heated thereby, wUl rarefy the air in that part of the funnel, and cause the smoke to ascend rapidly. The flame thus dividing frora the grate to the right and left, and turning in passages, disposed, as in figure 13, so as that every part ofthe floor may be visited by it before it enters the fun nel F, by the two passages E E, very little of the heat wiU be lost, and a winter room thus rendered very comfortable. No. rv. Paoe 404. Few can imagine, &c. It is said the Icelanders have very little fuel, chiefly drift wood that coraes upon their coast To receive raore advantage from its heat, they make their doors low, and have a stage round the roora above the door, like a gallery, wherein the women can sit and work, the men read or write, &c. The roof being tight, the warm air is confined by it and kept from rising higher and escaping ; and the cold air, which enters the house when the door is opened, cannot rise above the level of the top of the door, because it is heavier than the warm air above the door, and so those in the gallery are not incommoded by it Some of eur too lofty rooms raight have a stage so con structed as to make a teraporay gallery above, for the winter, to be taken away in summer. Sedentary people would find much comfort there in cold weather. No. V. Page 410. Where they have the art of managing it, &c. In some houses ofthe low er people, araong the northern nations of Eu rope, and among the poorer sort of Gerraans in Pennsylvania, I have observed this con struction, which appears very advantageous. (Plate, figure 11.) A is the kitchen with its chimney ; B an iron stove in the stove-room. In a corner of the chimney is a hole through the back into the stove, to put in fuel, and .another hole above it to let the sraoke of the stove come back into the chimney. As soon as the cooking is over, the brands in the kitchen chimney are put through the hole to supply the stove, so that there is seldom raore than one fire burning at a time. In the floor over the stove-room, is a small trap-door, to let the warm air rise occasionally into the chamber. Thus the whole house is warmed at little ex pense of wood, and the stove-room kept con stantly warm ; so that in the coldest winter nights, they can work late, and find the room still comfortable when tliey rise to work early. An English farmer m Araerica, who makes great fires in large open chimneys, needs the constant employraent of one man to cut and haul wood for supplying thera ; and the draft of cold air to them is so strong, that the heels of his faraily are frozen while they are scorching their faces, and the room is never warra, so that little sedentary work can be done by thera in whiter. The difference in this article alone of economy shall, in a course of years, enable the Gerraan to buy out the Englishman, and take possession of his plantation. Miscellaneous Observations. Chimneys, whose funnels go up in the north wall of a house, and are exposed to the north winds, are not so apt to draw well as those in a south wall ; because, when rendered cold by those winds, they draw downwards. Chiraneys, enclosed in the body of a house, are better than those whose funnels are ex posed in cold walls. Chimneys in stacks are apt to draw better than separate funnels, because the funnels, that have constant fires in them warm the others, in some degree, that have none. One of the funnels, in a bouse I once oc cupied, had a particular funnel joined to the south side of the stack, so that three of its sides were exposed to the sun in the course of the day, viz. (Plate, figure 12.) the east side E during the morning, the south side S in the raiddle part of the day, and the west side W during the afternoon, while its north side was sheltered by the stack frora the cold winds. This funnel which carae from the ground-floor, and had a considerable height above the roof, was constantly in a strong drawing state day and night, winter and summer. Blacking of funnels, exposed to the sun, would probably make them draw still stronger. In Paris I saw a fire-place so ingeniously contrived as to serve conveniently two rooras, a bedcharaber and a study. The funnel over the fire was round. The fire-place was of cast iron (Plate, figure 13.) having an up right back A, and two horizontal seraicircular plates B C, the whole so ordered as to turn on the pivots D E. The plate B always stopped that part ofthe round funnel that was next to the room without fire, while the other half of the funnel over the fire was always open. By this means a servant in the morning could make a fire on the hearth C, then in the stu dy, without disturbing the master by going into his chamber ; and the master, when he rose, could, vvith a touch ofhis foot, turn the chimney on its pivots, and bring the fire into his chamber, keep It there as long as he want- 414 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. ed it, and turn it again, when he went out in to his study. The room which had no fire in it was also warraed by the heat coming through the back plate, and spreading in the room, as it could not go up the chimney. Description of a new Stove for burning of Pitcoal, and consuming all its Smoke. — Read in the American Philosophical So ciety, January 28, 1786. Towards the end of the last century an. in genious French phUosopher, whose name I am sorry I cannot recollect, exhibited an ex periment to show, that very offensive things might be burnt in the middle of a chamber such as woollen rags, feathers, &c. without creating the least sraoke or smell. The raa chine in which it was made, if I reraeraber right, was of this forra (see Plate, figure 1.) raade of plate iron. Some clear burning charcoals were put into the opening of the short tube A, and supported there by the grate B. The air, as soon as the tubes grew warm, would ascend in the longer leg C and go out at D, consequently air must enter at A de scending to B. In this course it must be heat ed by the burning coals through which it passed, and rise more forcibly in the longer tube, in proportion to its degree of heat or ra refaction, and length of that tube. For such a machine is a kind of inverted syphon ; and as the greater weight of water in the longer leg of a common syphon in descending is ac companied by an ascent of the same fluid in the shorter ; so, in this inverted syphon, the greater quantity of levity of air in the longer leg, in rising, is accompanied by the descent of air in the shorter. The things to be burn ed being laid on the hot coals at A, the smoke must descend through those coals, be convert ed into flarae, which, after destroying the of fensive smell, came out at the end ofthe longer tube as raere heated air. Whoever would repeat this experiraentwith success raust take care that the part A, B, of the short tube, be quite full of burning coals, so that no part ofthe smoke may descend and pass by them without going through tbem, and being converted into flame ; and that the longer tube be so heated as that the current of ascending hot air is established in it before the things to be burnt are laid on the coals; otherwise there wiU be a disappointment It does not appear either in the Memoirs ofthe Acaderay of Sciences, or Philosophical Transactions of the English Royal Society, that any improvement was ever made of this ingenious experiraent, by applying it to useful purposes. But there is a German book, en titled Vulcanus Famulans, by John George Leutraann, P. D. printed at Wirteraberg in 1723, which describes, among a great variety of other .stoves for warming rooras, one, which seeras to have been formed on the same prin ciple, and probably frora the hint thereby given, though the French experiment is not mentioned. This book being scarce, I have translated the chapter describing the stove, viz. " Vulcanus Famulans, by John George Leulmann, P. D. Wirtemberg, 1723. " CHAP. VIL " On a Stove, which draws downwards. " Herb follows the description of a sort of stove, whicb can easily be removed and again replaced at pleasure. This drives the fire down under itself, and gives no smoke, but however a very unwholesorae vapour. " In the figure, A is an iron vessel like a funnel, (Plate, figure 20.) in diameter at the top about twelve inches, at the bottora near the grate about five inches; its height twelve inches. This is set on the barrel C, which is ten inches diameter and two feet long, closed at each end E E. Frora one end rises a pipe or flue about four inches diameter, on which other pieces of pipe are set, which are gra dually contracted to D, where the opening is but about two inches. Those pipes must to gether be at least four feet high. B is an iron grate. F F are iron handles guarded vvith wood, by which the stove is to be lifted and moved. It stands on three legs. Care must be taken to stop well all the joints, that no smoke may leak through. "When this stove is to be used, it must first be carried into the kitchen and placed in the chimney near the fire. There burning wood raust be laid and left upon its grate till the barrel C is warm, and the smoke no longer rises at A, but descends towards C. Then it is to be carried into the room which it is to warm. When once the barrel C is warm, fresh wood may be thrown into the vessel A as often as one pleases, the flarae descends and without sraoke, which is so consumed that only a vapour passes out at D. "As this vapour is unwholesome, and af fects the head, one may be freed frora it by fixing in the wall of the room an inverted fun nel, such as people use to hang over lamps, through which their smoke goes out as through a chimney. This funnel carries out all the vapour cleverly, so that one finds no inconvenience frora it, even though the open ing D be placed a span below the mouth of the said funnel G. The neck ofthe funnel is better when made gradually bending, than if turned in a right angle. "The cause ofthe draft downwards in tlie stove is the pressure of the outward air, which, fiiUing into the vessel A in a column of twelve inches diaraeter, finds only a resist ing passage at the grate B, of five mches, and one at D, of two inches, which are much too weak to drive it back again ; besides, A stands PHILOSOPHICAL. 415 much higher than B, and so the pressure on it is greater and more forcible, and beats down the frame to that part where it finds the least resistance. Carrying the machine first to the kitchen fire for preparation, is on this account, that in the beginning the fire and sraoke na turally ascend, till the air in the close barrel C is raade thinner by the warmth. When that vessel is heated, the air in it is rarefied, and then all the smoke and fire descends un der it. " The wood should be thoroughly dry, and cut into pieces five or six inches long, to fit it for being thrown into the funnel A." Thus far the Gerraan book. It appears to rae, by Mr. Leutmann's ex planation of the operation of this raachine, that he did not understand the principles of it whence I conclude he was not the inventor of it ; and by the description of it, wherein the opening at A is raade so large, and the pipe E, D, so short, I ara persuaded he never raade nor saw the experiment, for the first ought to be much smaller and the last much higher, or it hardly wUl succeed. The car rying it in the kitchen, too, every time the fire should happen to be out, raust be so trou blesome, that it is not likely ever to have been in practice, and probably has never been shown but as a philosophical experiraent The funnel for conveying the vapour out of the roora would besides have been uncertain in its operation, as a wind blowing against its mouth would drive the vapour back. The stove I am about to describe was also forraed on the idea given by the French ex periment, and completely carried into execu tion before I had any knowledge of the Ger man invention ; which I wonder should re main so many years in a country, where men are so ingenious in the management of fire, without receiving long since the improve ments I have given it Description of the Parts. A, the bottom plate which lies flat upon the hearth, -with its partitions, 1, 2,3, 4, 5, 6, (Plate, figure 2.) that are cast with it, and a groove Z Z, in which are to slide, the bot tom edges of the small plates Y, Y, figure 12 ; which plates meeting at X close the front. B 1, figure 3, is the cover plate showing its under side, with the grooves 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, to receive the top edges of the partitions that are fixed to the bottom plate. It shows also the grate VV W, the bars of which are cast in the plate, and a groove V V, which comes right over the groove Z Z, figure 2, receivino' the upper edges of the small sliding plates Y'Y, figure 12. B 2, figure 4, shows the upper side of the eame plate, with a square impression or groove for receiving the bottom mouldings T T T T of the three-sided box C, figure 5, which is cast in one piece. D, figure 6, its cover, showing its under side with grooves to receive the upper edges S S S of the sides of C, figure 5, also a groove R, R, which when the cover is put on comes right over another Q Q in C, figure 5, be tween which it is to slide. E, figure 7, the front plate of the box. P, a hole three inches diameter through the cover D, figure 6, over which hole stands the vase F, figure 8, which has a correspond ing hole two inches diameter through its bottora. The top ofthe vase opens at O, O, O, figure 8, and turns back upon a hinge behind when coals are to be put in ; the vase has a grate within at N N of cast iron H, figure 9, and a hole in the top, one and a half inches dia meter, to admit air, and to receive the orna mental brass gUt flarae M, figure 10, which stands in that hole, and, being itself hollow and open, suffers air to pass through it into the fire. G, figure 11, is a drawer of plate iron, that slips in between the partitions 2 and 3, figure 2, to receive the falling ashes. It is concealed when the small sliding plates Y Y, figure 12, are shut together. I, I, I, I, figure 8, is a niche built of brick in the chimney and plastered. It closes the chimney over the vase, but leaves two fun nels, one in each corner, communicating with the bottom box K K, figure 2. Dimensions of the Parts. Feet Front ofthe bottom box, 2 Height of its partitions 0 Length of No. 1. 2, 3, and 4, each 1 Length of No. 5 and 6. each, 0 Breadth of the passage between No. 2 and 3 0 Breadth of the other passages each, 0 Breadth of the grate 0 Length of ditto, 0 Bottom moulding of box, C, square, 1 Height of the sides of ditto, 0 Length ofthe back side 0 Length of the right and lefl sides, each, 0 Length of the front plate E, where longest, 0 The cover D, square 1 Hole in ditto, diameter, 0 Sliding plates Y Y, their length, each, 1 their breadth, each, 0 Drawer G, its length, 0 breadth, 0 depth 0 depth of its further end only,.. — 0 Grate H in the vase, its diameter to the extremity of its knobs 0 Thickness ofthe bars at top 0 at bottom less, 0 Depth of the bars at the top 0 Heightof the vase 1 Diameter of the opening O, O, in the clear 0 Diameter ofthe air-hole at top. 0 oflhe flame hole at bottom, 0 fn. 0 ¦4J- 3634H 804 10 9i 11 0 3 0 1 5i To fix this machine. Spread raortar on the hearth to bed the bottom plate A, then lay that plate level, equally distant from each jamb, and project- 416 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. ing out as far as you think proper. Then put ting some Windsor loara in the grooves of the cover B, lay that on : trying the sliding plates Y Y, to see ifthey move freely in the grooves Z Z, V V, designed for them. Then begin to build the niche, observing to leave the square corners of the chimney unfilled ; for they are to be funnels. And ob serve also to leave a free open communication between the passages at K K, and the bottom of those funnels, and mind to close the chim ney above the top of the niche, that no air may pass up that way. The concave back of the niche will rest on the circular iron parti tion 1 A 4, figure 2, then with a little loam put on the box C over the grate, the open side of the box in front Then, with loam in three of its grooves, the grooves R R being left clean, and brought directly over the groove Q Q, in the box, put on the cover D, trying the front plate E, to see if it slides freely in those grooves. Lastly, set on the vase, which has small holes in the moulding of its bottora to receive two iron pins that rise out of the plate D at I I, for the better keeping it steady. Then putting in the grate H, which rests on its three knobs h h h against the inside of the vase, and slipping the drawer into its place ; the toachine is fit for use. To use it. Let the first fire be made after eight in the evening or before eight in the morning, for at those tiraes and between those hours all night, there is usually a draft up a chimney, though it has long been without fire ; but be tween those hours in the day there is often, in a cold chimney, a draft downwards, when, ifyou attempt to kindle a fire, the smoke will come into the room. But to be certain of your proper time, hold a flame over the air-hole at the top. If the flame is drawn strongly down for a continu ance, without whiffling, you may begin to kindle a fire. First put in a few charcoals on the grate H. Lay some small sticks on the charcoals. Lay sorae pieces of paper on the sticks. Kindle the paper with a candle. Then shut down the top, and the air will pass down through the air-hole, blow the flarae of the paper down through the sticks, kindle thera, and their flame passing lower kindles the charcoal. When the charcoal is well kindled, lay on it the seacoals, observing not to choak the fire by putting on too much at first The flame descending through the hole in the bottora of the vase, and that in plate D into the box C, passes down farther through the grate W W in plate B 1, then passes horizon tally towards the back ofthe chimney ; there dividing, and turning to the right and left, one part ofit passes round the far end of the partition 2, then coming forward it turns round the near end of partition 1, then movmg back ward it arrives at the opening into the bottom of one of the upright corner funnels behind the niche, through which it ascends into the chimney, thus heating that half of the box and that side of the niche. The other part of the divided flarae passes round the far end of par tition 3, round the near end of partition 4, and so into and up the other corner funnel, thus heating the other half of the box, and the other side ofthe niche. The vase itself, and the box C wUl also be very hot, and the air surrounding them being heated, and rising as it cannot get into the chimney, it spreads into the room, colder air succeeding is warraed in its turn, rises and spreads, till by the con tinual circulation the whole is warraed. If you should have occasion to raake your first fire at hours not so convenient as those above mentioned, and when the chimney does not draw, do not begin it in the vase, but in one or more ofthe passages ofthe lower plate, first covering the mouth of the vase. After the chiraney has drawn a while vvith the fire thus low, and begins to be a little warra, you may close tbose passages and kindle another fire in the box C, leaving its sliding shutter a little open ; and when you find after some time that the chiraney being warmed draws forcibly, you raay shut that passage, open your vase, , and kindle your fire there, as above directed. The chiraney well warraed by the first day's fire will continue to draw constantly all win ter, if fires are made daily. You will, in the management of your fire, have need of the following implements : A pair of small light tongs, twelve or fifteen inches long, plate, figure 13. A light poker about the same length with a flat broad point, figure 14. A rake to draw ashes out of the passages of the lower plate, where the lighter kind escaping the ash-box wUl gather by degrees, and perhaps once more in a week or ten days require being removed, figure 15. And a fork with its prongs wide enough to slip on the neck of the vase cover, in order to raise and open it when hot, to put in fresh coals figure 16. In the management of this stove there are certain precautions to be observed, at first with attention, till they become habitual, To avoid the inconvenience of smoke, see that the grate H be clear before you begin to light a fresh fire. If you find it clogged with cinders and ashes, turn it up with your tongs and let them fall upon the grate below ; the ashes will go through it, and the cinders may be raked off and returned into the vase when you would burn them. Then see that all the sliding plates are in their places and close shut, that no air may enter the stove but PHILOSOPHICAL. 417 through the round opening at the top of the vase. And to avoid the inconvenience of dust from the ashes, let the ash drawer be taken out of the room to be emptied : and when you rake the passages, do it when the draft of the air is strong inwards, and put the ashes care fully into the ash-box, that remaining in its place. If, being about to go abroad, you would prevent your fire burning in your absence, you may do it by taking the brass flame frora the top of the vase, and covering the passage with a round tin plate, which will prevent the entry of raore air than barely sufficient to keep a few of the coals alive. When you return, though sorae hours absent, by taking off the tin plate and adraitting the air, your fire will soon be recovered. The effect of this machine, well raanaged, is to burn not only the coals, but all the smoke of the coals, so that while the flre is burning, ifyou go out and observe the top of your chim ney, you will see no sraoke issuing, nor any thing but clear warra air, which as usual makes the bodies seen through it appear waving. But let none imagine from this, that it may be a cure for bad or smoky chiraneys, rauch less, that as it bums the sraoke it may he used in a roora that has no chimney. It is by the help of a good chiraney, the higher, the better, that it produces its effect ; and though a flue of plate iron sufficiently high might be raised in a very lofty room, the management to pre vent all disagreeable vapour would be too nice for common practice, and small errors would have unpleasing consequences. It is certain that clean iron yields no offen sive smell when heated. Whatever of that kind you perceive where there are iron stoves, proceeds therefore frora sorae foulness burning or fuming on their surface. They should therefore never be spit upon, or greased, nor should any dust be suffered to lie upon thera. But as the greatest care will not always pre vent these things, it is well once a week to wash the stove with soap lees and a brush, rins ing it with clean water. The Advantages of this Stove. 1. The chimney does not grow foul, nor ever need sweeping ; for as no smoke enters it, no soot can form in it 2. The air heated over common fires in stantly quits the room and goes up the chim ney with the smoke ; but in the stove, it is obliged to descend in flame and pass through the long winding horizontal passages, corarau nicating its heat to a body of iron plate, which, having thus tirae to receive the heat, corarau- nicates the sarae to the air of the roora, and thereby warms it to a greater degree. 3. The whole of the fuel is consuraed by be ing turned into flame, and you have the bene- VoL. IL...3G fit of its heat, whereas in coramon chiraneys a great part goes away in smoke which you see as it rises, but it affords you no rays of warrath. One may obtain some notion of the quantity of fuel thus wasted in smoke, by reflecting on the quantity of soot that a few weeks firing will lodge against the sides of the chimney, and yet this is forraed only of those particles of the coluran of smoke that happen to touch the sides in its ascent How rauch raore must have passed off in the air 1 And we know that this soot is stUl fuel : for it will burn and flame as such, and when hard caked together is in deed very like and alraost as solid as the coal it proceeds from. The destruction of your fuel goes on nearly in the sarae quantity whe ther in sraoke or in flame : but there is no com parison in the difference of heat given. Ob serve when fresh coals are first put on your fire, what a body of smoke arises. This smoke is for along time too cold to take flarae. Ifyou then plunge a burning candle into it, the can dle instead of inflaraing the sraoke will in stantly be itself extinguished. Sraoke raust have a certain degree of heat to be inflamraa- ble. As soon as it has acquired that degree, the approach of a candle will inflame the whole body, and you will be very sensible of the dif ference of the heat it gives. A stUl easier experiment may be made with the candle itself. Hold your hand near the side of its flame, and observe the heat it gives ; then blow it out, the hand remaining in the same place, and observe what heat raay be given by the sraoke that rises from the still burning snuff. You will find it very little. And yet that smoke has in it the substance ofso much flarae, and wUl instantly produce it, if you hold another candle above it so as to kindle it Now the sraoke frora the fresh coals laid on this stove, instead of ascending and leaving the fire while too cold to burn, being obliged to de scend through the burning coals, receives among them that degree of heat which con verts it into flame, and the heat of that flame is communicated to the air of the roora, as above explained, 4. The flarae from the fresh coals laid on in this stove, descending through the coals al ready ignited, preserves them long from con suming, and continues thera in the state of red coals as long as the flarae continues that surrounds thera, by which means the flres made in this stove are of much longer dura tion than in any other, and fewer coals are therefore necessary for a day. This is a very material advantage indeed. That flame should be a kind of pickle, to preserve burning coals frora consuming, may seem a paradox to many, and very unlikely to be true, as it appeared to rae the first tirae I observed the fact 1 must therefore relate the circumstances, and shall raention an easy experiment, by which ray reader raay be in possession of every thing 418 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. necessary to the understanding ofit In the first trial I raade of this kind of stove, which was constructed of thin plate iron, I had in stead of the vase a kind of inverted pyramid like a mill-hopper ; and fearing at first that the small grate contained in it raight be clog ged by cinders, and the passage ofthe flarae sometimes obstructed, I ordered a little door near the grate, by raeans of which I might on occasion clear it : though after the stove was made, and before I tried it, I began to think this precaution superfluous, from an imagina tion, that the flame being contracted in the narrow part where the grate was placed, would be more powerful in consuming what it should there raeet with, and that any cinders between or near the bars would be presently destroyed and the passage opened. After the stove was fixed and in action, I had a pleasure now and then in opening that door a little, to see through the crevice how the flarae de scended among the red coals, and observing once a single coal lodged on the bars in the middle of the focus, a fancy took me to ob serve with my watch in how short a time it would be consumed. I looked at it long without perceiving it to be at all diminished, which surprised me greatly. At length it oc curred to me, that I and raany others had seen the s;ime thing thousands of times, in the con servation of the red coal formed in the snuff of a burning candle, which while enveloped in flame, and thereby prevented from the con tact of passing air, is long continued, and aug ments instead of dirainishing, so that we are often obliged to remove it by the snuffers, or bend it out of the flame into the air, where it consumes presently to ashes. Hhen supposed, that to consume a body by fire, passing air was necessary to receive and carry off the se parated particles of the body : and that the air passing in the flame of my stove, and in the flame of a candle, being already saturated with such particles, could not receive more, and therefore left the coal undiminished as long as the outward air was prevented from coming to it by the surrounding flame, which kept it in a situation soraewhat like that of charcoal in a well luted crucible, which, though long kept in a strong fire, coraes out unconsuraed. An easy experiraent will satisfy any one of this conserving power of flarae enveloping red coal. Take a small stick of deal or other wood the size of a goose-quill, and hold it horizontaUy and steadily in the flame of the candle above the wick, without touching it, but in the body ofthe flame. The wood will first be inflamed, and burn beyond the edge of the flame of the candle, perhaps a quarter of an inch. When the florae of the wood goes out, it will leave a red coal at the end of the stick, part of which wUl be in the flarae of the candle, and part out in the air. In a minute or two you will perceive the coal in the air diminish gradually, so as to form a neck ; whUe the part in the flame continues of its first size, and at the neck being quite consumed it drops off: and by rolling it be tween your fingers when extinguished you wUl find it still a solid coal. However, as one cannot be always putting on fresh fuel in this stove to furnish a continu al flarae as is done in a candle, the air in the intervals of tirae gets at the red coals and consuraes thera. Yet the conservation while it lasted, so much delayed the consuraption of the coals, that two fires, one raade in the raorning, and the other in the afternoon, each raade hy only a hatful of coals, were sufficient to keep ray writing room about sixteen feet square and ten high, warm a whole day. The fire kindled at seven in the raorning would burn till noon ; and all the iron of the ma chine with the waUs of the niche being there by heated, the room kept warra till evening, when another smaller fire kindled, kept it warm till midnight Instead ofthe sliding plate E, which shuts the front of the box C, I sometimes used an other which had a pane of glass, or, which is better, of Muscovy talc, that the flame might be seen descending from the bottora of the vase and passing in a column through the box C, into the cavities of the bottom plate, like water felling from a funnel, admirable to such as are not acquainted with the nature of the machine, and in itself a pleasing spectacle. Every utensil, however properly contrived to serve its purpose, requires some practice before it can be used adroitly. Put into the hands of a man for the first time a girablet or a hararaer (very siraple instruments) and teU him the use of them, he shall neither bore a hole nor drive a nail with the dexterity and success of another who has been accustomed to handle them. The beginner therefore in the use of this raachine, wUl do well not to be discouraged with little accidents that may arise at first from his want of experience. Being somewhat complex, it requires, as al ready said, a variety of attentions ; habit wUl render them unnecessary. And the studious raan who is much in his chamber, and has a pleasure in managing his own fire, will soon find this a machine most comfortable and de lightful. To others who leave their fires to the care of ignorant servants, I do not recom mend it They wUl with difficulty acquire the knowledge necessary, and will make fre quent blunders that wUl fill your room with smoke. It is therefore by no raeans fit for coraraon use in families. It may be advisea ble to begin with the flaming kind of stone coal, which is large, and, not caking together, is not so apt to clog the grate. After sorae experience, any kind of coal may be used, and with this advantage, that no sraeU, even from PHILOSOPHICAL. 419 the most sulphurous kind can corae into your room, the current of air being constantly into the vase, where too that smell is all consumed. The vase forra was chosen as being elegant in itself, and very proper for burning of coals: where wood is the usual fuel, and raust be burned in pieces of sorae length, a long square chest raay be substituted, in which A is the cover opening by a hinge behind, B the grate, C the hearth-box with its divisions as in the other, D the plan of the chest, E the long narrow grate. (Plate, figure 17.) This I have not tried, but the vase raachiije was completed in 1771, and used by me in London three winters, and one afterwards in America, rauch to my satisfaction ; and I have not yet thought of any iraproveraent it raay be capable of, though such may occur to others. For com- jnon use, while in France, I have contrived another grate for coals, which has in part the sarae property of burning the sraoke and pre serving the red coals longer by the flarae, though not so completely as in the vase, yet sufficiently to be very useful, which I shall now describe as foUows. A, is a round grate, one foot (French) in diameter, and eight inches deep between the bars and the back ; (Plate, figure 18. ) the sides and back of the plate iron ; the sides having holes of half an inch diaraeter distant three or four inches from each other, to let in air for enlivening the fire. The back with out holes. The sides do not meet at top nor at bottora by eight inches : that square is fill ed by grates of small bars crossing front to back to let in air below, and let out the smoke or flame above. The three raiddle bars of the front grate are fixed, the upper and lower may be taken out and put in at pleasure, when hot, with a pair of pincers. This round grate turns upon an axis, supported by the crochet B, the stem of which is an inverted conical tube five inches deep, which coraes on as ma ny inches upon a pin that fits it, and which is fixed upright in a cast iron plate D, that lies upon the hearth : in the raiddle of the top and bottom grates are fixed small upright pieces E E about an inch high, which, as the whole is turned on its axis, stop it when the grate is perpendicular. Figure 19 is another view ofthe same raachine. In making the first flre in a morning with this grate, there is nothing particular to be observed. It is raade as in other grates, the coals being put in above, after taking out the upper bar, and replacing it when they are in. The round figure ofthe fire when thoroughly kindled is agreeable, it represents the great giver of warmth to our systera. As it burns down and leaves a vacancy above, which you would fill with fresh coals, the upper bar is to be taken out, and afterwards replaced. The fresh coals, while the grate continues in the sarae position, wUl throw up as usual a body of thick smoke. But every one accus tomed to coal fires in comraon grates must have observed, that pieces of fresh coal stuck in below among the red coals have their smoke so heated as that it becomes flarae as fast as it is produced, which flame rises among the coals and enlivens the appearance of the fire. Here then is the use of this swivel grate. By a push with your tongs or poker, you turn it it on its pin till it faces the back ofthe chira ney, then turn it over on its axis gently till it again faces the room, whereby all the fresh coals will be found under the live coals, and the greater part of the sraoke arising frora the fresh coals will in its passage through the live ones be heated so as to be converted into flarae : whence you have rauch more heat frora thera, and your red coals are longer pre served frora consuraing. I conceive this con struction, though not so complete a consumer of all the smoke as the vase, yet to be fitter for comraon use, and very advantageous. It gives too a full sight of the fire, always a pleasing object, which we have not in the other. It may with a touch be turned more or less frora any one ofthe corapany that de sires to have less of its heat, or presented full to one just corae out of the cold. And sup ported in a horizontal position, a tea-kettle may be boiled on it. "The author's description ofhis Pennsylva nia fire-place, first published in 1744, hav ing fallen into the hands of workmen in Eu rope, who did not, it seems, well comprehend the principles oftbat machine, it was much dis figured in their imitations ofit ; and one of its main intentions, that of admitting a sufficient quantity of fresh air warraed in entering through the air-box, nearly defeated, by a pre tended improvement, in lessening its passages to make more room for coals in a grate. On pretence of such iraproveraents, they obtained patents for the invention, and for a while raade great profits by the sale, tiU the public be carae sensible oftbat defect in the expected operation. If the same thing should be at tempted with this vase stove, it will be well forthe buyer to examine thoroughly such pre tended iraproveraents, lest, being the raere productions of ignorance, they diminish or de feat the advantages of the raachine, and pro duce inconvenience and disappointment. The method of burning sraoke, by obliging it to descend through hot coals, may be of great use in heating the walls of a hot-house. In the common way, the horizontal passages or flues that are raade to go and return in those walls, lose a great deal of their effect when they come to be foul with soot ; for a thick blanket-like lining of soot prevents much ofthe hot air frora touching and heating the brick work in its passage, so that more fire raust be made as the flue grows fouler : but by burning the sraoke they are kept always 420 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. clean. The sarae method may also be of great advantage to those businesses in which large coppers or caldrons are to be heated. Written at Sea, 1785. To Miss Stephenson. Method of Contracting Chimneys. Modesty in Disputation. Craven-street, Saturday evening, past 10, The question you ask rae is a very sensible one, and I shall be glad if I can give you a sa tisfactory answer. There are two ways of contracting a chimney ; one by contracting the opening before the fire; the other, by contracting the funnel above the fire, if the funnel above the fire is left open in its full diraensions, and the opening before the fire is contracted ; then the coals, I imagine, will burn faster, because raore air is directed through the fire, and in a stronger stream ; that air which before passed over it, and on each side of it, now passing through it. This is seen in narrow stove chimneys, when a sacheverell or blower is used, which still more contracts the narrow opening. — But if the funnel only above the fire is contracted, then, as a less streara of air is passing up the chim ney, less must pass through the fire, and con sequently it should seera that the consuming ofthe coals would rather be checked than aug mented by such contraction. And this will also be the case, when both the opening be fore the fire, and the funnel above the fire are contracted, provided the funnel above the fire is more contracted in proportion than the opening before the fire. — So you see I think you had the best of the arguraent ; and as you notwithstanding gave it up in complais ance to the company, I think you had also the best of the dispute. There are few, though convinced, that know how to give up, even an error they have been once engaged in maintaining ; there is therefore the more merit in dropping a contest where one thinks one's self right; it is at least respectful to those we converse with. And indeed all our knowledge is so imperfect and we are frora a thousand causes so perpetually subject to mistake and error, that positiveness can scarce ever becorae even the raost knowing ; and modesty in advancing any opinion, how ever plain and true we may suppose it, is al ways decent, and generally more likely to procure assent Pope's rule To speak, though sure, with seeming ditfidence, is therefore a good one ; and if I had ever seen in your conversation the least deviation frora it, I should earnestly recoraraend it to your observation. — I am, &c. B. FRANKLIN. POLITICAL ECONOMY. ESSAYS. Ore Population. Concerning ihe Increase of Mankind, peopling of Countries, i^c. — Written in Pennsylvania, 1751. 1. Tables ofthe proportion of raarriages to births, of deaths to births, of marriages to the nuraber of inhabitants, &c. formed on obser vations made upon the bills of mortality, christenings, &c. of populous cities, will not suit countries ; nor will tables, formed on ob servations made on full settled old countries, as Europe, suit new countries, as Araerica. 2. For people increase in proportion to the nuraber of marriages, and that is greater, in proportion to the ease and convenience of supporting a family. When farailies can be easily supported, more persons raarry, and earlier in life. 3. In cities, where all trades, occupations, and offices, are full, many delay raarrying, tUl they can see how to bear the charges of a family ; which charges are greater in cities, as luxury is more common ; raany live single during life, and contuiue servants to farailies, journeymen to trade, &c. Hence cities do not by natural generation, supply theraselves with inhabitants ; the deaths are raore than the births. 4 In countries full settled, the case raust be nearly the sarae, all lands being occupied and improved to the height ; those who can not get land, raust labour for others thathave it; when labourers are plenty, their wages will be low ; by low wages a family is support ed with difficulty ; this difficulty deters many from marriage, who therefore long continue servants and single. Only as the cities take supplies ofpeople frora the country, and there by make a little more roora in the country, marriage is a little raore encouraged there, and the births exceed the deaths. 5. Great partof Europe is fully settled with husbandmen, manufacturers, &c. and there fore cannot notv much increase in people. America is chiefly occupied by Indians, who subsist mostly by hunting. But as the hun ter, of all men, requires the greatest quantity 36 of land from whence to draw his subsistence, (the husbandman subsisting on much less, the gardener on still less, and the manufacturer requiring least of all) the Europeans found America as fully settled, as it well could be by hunters ; yet these, having large tracts, were easUy prevailed on to part with portions of territory to the new-comers, who did not much interfere with the natives in hunting, and furnished them with many things they wanted. 6. Land being thus plenty in America, and so cheap, as that a labouring raan, who un derstands husbandry, can, in a short time, save money enough to purchase a piece of new land, sufficient for a plantation, whereon he raay subsist a faraily ; such are not afraid to marry ; for if they even look far enough for ward to consider how their chUdren, when grown up, are to be provided for, they see, that more land is to be had at rates equally easy, all circumstances considered. 7. Hence raarriages in America are raore general, and raore generally early, than in Eu rope. And if it is reckoned here, that there is but one marriage per annum araong one hun dred persons, perhaps we raay here reckon two; and if in Europe, they have but four births to a marriage, (many of their marriages being late,) we may here reckon eight, of which, if one half grow up, and our raarriages are raade, reckoning one with another, at twenty years of age, our people must at least be doubled every twenty years. 8. But notwithstanding this increase, so vast is the territory of North America, that it will require many ages to settle it fully, and tiU it is fuUy settled, labour will never be cheap here, where no man continues long a labourer for others, but gets a plantation of his own ; no raan continues long a journeyman to a trade, but goes among those new settlers, and sets up for himself, &c. Hence labour is no cheaper nOw, in Pennsylvania, than it was thirty years ago, though so many thousand la bouring people have been imported from Ger many and Ireland. 9. The danger, therefore, of these colonies 421 422 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. interfering with their mother conutry in trades, that depend on labour, manufactures, &c. is too remote to require the attention of Great Britain. 10. But, in proportion to the increase of the colonies, a vast demand is growing for British manufactures; a glorious market, wholly in the power of Britain, in which fo reigners cannot interfere, which will increase, in a short time, even beyond her power of supplying, though her whole trade should be to her colonies 12. It is an UI grounded opinion, that by the labour of slaves, America may possibly vie in cheapness of manufactures with Britain. The labour of slaves can never be so cheap here, as the labour of working men is in Bri taui. An^ one may compute it Interest of money is in the colonies from 6 to 10 per cent Slaves, one with another, cost 301. sterling per head. Reckon then the mterest ofthe first purchase of a slave, the insurance or risk on his life, his clothing and diet, ex penses in his sickness, and loss of time, loss by his neglect of business, (neglect is natural to the raan, who is not to be benefited by his own care or dUigence) expense of a driver to keep hira at work, and his pilfering from time to time, almost every slave being, from the nature of slavery, a thief, and compare the whole amount with the wages of a manufac turer of iron or wool in England, you will see, that labour is much cheaper there than it ever can be by negroes here. Why then wUl Americans purchase slaves 1 Because slaves may be kept as long as a man pleases, or has occasion for their labour, while hired raen are continually leaving their raaster (of ten in the midst of his business) and setting up for themselves. !j 8. 13. As the increase of people depends on the encouragement of raarriages, the follow ing things raust diminish a nation, viz. 1. The being conquered ; for the conquerors will en gross as many offices, and exact as much tri bute or profit on the labour ofthe conquered, as will maintain them in their new establish ment ; and this diminishing the substance of the natives discourages their marriages, and so gradually diminishes them, while the fo reigners increase. 2. Loss of territory : thus the Britons, being driven into Wales, and crowded together in a barren country, insuffi cient to support such great numbers, diminish ed, till the people bore a proportion to the produce ; while the Saxons increased on tbeir abandoned lands, till the island became full of English. And, were the English now driven into Wales by some foreign nation, there would, in a few years, be no more Eng lishmen in Britain, than there are now peo ple in Wales. 3. Loss oftrade : manufactures, exported, draw subsistence frora foreign coun tries fbr nunibefs, who are thereby enabled to marry and raise families. If the nation be deprived 'of any branch oftrade, and no new employraent is found for the people occupied in that branch, it wUl soon be deprived of so many people. 4. Loss of food : suppose a na tion has a fishery, which not only employs great numbers, but raakes the food and sub sistence of the people cheaper : if another na tion becoraes raaster ofthe seas, and prevents the fishery, the people will dirainish in pro portion as the loss of eraploy and dearness of provision makes it more difficult to subsist a family. 5. Bad government and insecure property : people not only leave such a coun try, and, settling abroad, incorporate with other nations, lose their native language, and become foreigners ; but the industry of those that remain being discouraged, tbe quantity of subsistence in the country is lessened, and the support of a family becomes more diffi cult. So heavy taxes tend to diminish a peo ple. 6. The introduction of slaves : the ne groes brought into the English sugar islands have greatly diminished the whites there; the poor are by this means deprived of em ployraent, while a few families acquire vast estates, which they spend on foreign luxuries ; and educating their children in the habit of those luxuries, the same incorae is needed for the support of one, that raight have main tained one hundred. The whites, who have slaves, not labouring, are enfeebled, and there fore not so generally prolific ; the slaves be ing worked too hard, and ill fed, tbeir consti tutions are broken, and the deaths among them are raore than the births; so that a con tinual supply is needed frora Africa. The northern colonies, having few slaves, increase in whites. Slaves also pejorate the famUies that use thera ; the white children becorae proud, disgusted with labour, and, being edu cated in idleness, are rendered unfit to get a living by industry. 14. Hence the prince, that acquires new territory, if he finds it vacant, or removes tbe natives to give his own people roora ; — the legislator, that makes effectual laws for pro moting oftrade, increasing employment, im proving land by more or better tillage, pro viding raore food by fisheries, securing pro perty, &c., and the man that invents new trades, arts or manufactures, or new iraprove raents in husbandry, may be properly called fathers of their nation, as they are the cause of the generation of multitudes, by the encou ragement they afford to marriage. 15. As to privileges granted to the married, (such as the jus trium liberorum among the Romans) they may hasten the filling of a country, that has been thinned by war or pes tilence, or that has otherwise vacant territo ry, but cannot increase a people beyond the means provided for their subsistence. 16. Foreign luxuries, and needless manu- POLITICAL ECONOMY. 423 fkctures, imported and used in a nation, do, by the same reasoning, increase the people of the nation, that furnishes thera, and dirai nish the people of the nation, that uses thera. Laws, therefore, that prevent such importa tions, and on the contrary, proraote the ex portation of raanufactures to be consuraed in foreign countries, may be called (with respect to the people that raake thera) generative laws, as, by increasing subsistence, they en courage raarriage. Such laws, likewise, strengthen a country doubly, by increasing its own people, and dirainishing its neighbours. 17. Some European nations prudently re fuse to consume the manufactures of East In dia : — they should likewise forbid them to their colonies ; for the gain to the merchant is not to be compared with the loss, by this means, ofpeople to the nation. 18. Home luxury in the great, increases the nation's raanufactures eraployed by it, who are raany, and only tends to diminish the fa railies that indulge in it, who are few. The greater the comraon fashionable expense of any rank of people, the more cautious they are of marriage. "Therefore luxury should never be suffered to become common. 19. The great increase of offspring in par ticular families is not always owing to greater fecundity of nature, but sometimes to examples of industry in the heads, and industrious edu cation, by which the children are enabled to provide better for themselves, and their marry ing early is encouraged frora the prospect of good subsistence, 20. If there be a sect, therefore, in our na tion, that regards frugality and industry as religious duties, and educate their children therein, raore than others coraraonly do, such sect must consequently increase raore by na tural generation than any other sect in Britain. 21. The importation of foreigners into a country, that has as many inhabitants as the present employments and provisions for sub sistence will bear, will be in the end no in crease ofpeople, unless the new-comers have more industry and frugality than the natives, and then they wUl provide more subsistence, and increase in the country ; but they will graduaUy eat the natives out — Nor is it ne cessary to bring in foreigners to fill up any occasional vacancy in a country ; for such va cancy (if the laws are good, { 14, 16) will soon be filled by natural generation. Who can now find the vacancy made in Sweden, France, or other warlike nations, by the plague of he roism 40 years ago ; in France, by the expul sion of the Protestants ; in England, by the settlement of her colonies ; or in Guinea, by a hundred years exportation of slaves, that has blackened half Araerica 1 The thinness of the inhabitants in Spain is owing to national pride, and idleness, and other causes, rather than to the expulsion of the Moors, or to the makmg of new settleraents. 22. There is, in short, no bound to the pro lific nature of plants or animals, but what is made by their crowding and interfering with each other's raeans of subsistence. Was the face of the earth vacant of other plants, it might be gradually sowed and overspread with one kind only, as for instance, with fennel ; and were it erapty of other inhabitants, it raight, in a few ages, be replenished frora one nation only, as for instance, with Englishmen. Thus there are supposed to be now upwards of one raUlion of English souls in North Araerica (though it is thought scarce 80,000 have been brought over sea) and yet perhaps there is not one the fewer in Britain, but rather raany raore, on account of the eraployment the colonies afford to raanufactures at horae. This mUlion doubling, suppose but once in twenty-five years, will, in another century, be more than the people of England, and the greatest num ber of Englishmen will be on this side the water. What an accession of power to the British erapire by sea as well as land I What increase of trade and navigation ! What num bers of ships and seamen ! We have been here but little raore than a hundred years, and yet the force of our privateers in the late war, united, was greater, both in raen and guns, than that of the whole British navy in queen Elizabeth's time. How important an affair then to Britain is the present treaty* for set tling the bounds between her colonies and the French ! and how careful should she be to secure room enough, since on the roora de pends so much the increase of her people ! 23. In fine, a nation well regulated is like a polypus,f take away a limb, its place is soon supplied ; cut it in two, and each deficient part shall speedily grow out of the part re raaining. 'Thus, if you have room and sub sistence enough, as you may say, by dividing, raake ten polypuses out of one, you raay, of one, raake ten nations, equally populous and powerful ; or, rather, increase a nation ten fold in numbers and strength. R. Jackson, of London, to Dr. Franklin, Remarks on some of the foregoing Observations. Dear Sir, — It is now near three years since I received your excellent Observations on the Increase of Mankind, t^c. in which you have with so rauch sagacity and accuracy shown in what raanner, and by what causes, that principal means of political grandeur is best promoted ; and have so well supported those just inferences you have occasionally * The treaty of Utrecht, in 1751. t A water insect, well known to naturalists, 424 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. drawn, concerning the general state of our American colonies, and the views and con duct of some ofthe inhabitants of Great Bri tain. You have abundantly proved, that natural fecundity is hardly to be considered, because the vis generandi, as far as we know, is un limited, and because experience shows, that the numbers of nations is altogether governed by collateral causes, and among these none of so rauch force as the quantity of subsistence, whether arising from climate, soil, improve ment of tillage, trade, fisheries, secure pro perty, conquest of new countries, or other favourable circumstances. As I perfectly concurred with you in your sentiments on these heads, I have been very desirous of building somewhat on the foundation you have there laid ; and was in duced, by your hints in the twenty-first sec tion, to trouble you with sorae thoughts on the influence raanners have always had, and are always likely to have, on the nurabers of a people, and their political prosperity in ge neral. The end of every individual is its own pri vate good. The rules it observes in the pur suit of this good area system of propositions, almost every one founded in authority, that is, derive their weight from the credit given to one or raore persons, and not frora de monstration. And this, in the raost important as well as the other affairs of life, is the case even of the wisest and phUosophical part of the hu man species ; and that it should be so is the less strange, when we consider, that it is per haps impossible to prove, that being, or life itself, has any other value than what is set on it by authority. A confirmation of this may be derived from the observation, that, in every country in the universe, happiness is sought upon a different plan ; and, even in the same country, we see it placed by different ages, professions, and ranks of raen, in the attainment of enjoy ments utterly unlike. These propositions, as well as others fraraed upon thera, becorae habitual by de grees, and, as they govern the determination ofthe will, I call thera moral habits. There are another set of habits, that have the direction ofthe raembers of thebody, that I call therefore mechanical habits. These compose what we commonly call the arts, which are raore or less liberal or raechani cal, as they more or less partake of assist ance frora the operations ofthe mind. The cumulus of the moral habits of each individual is the manners of that individual : the cumulus of the raanners of individuals makes up the manners of a nation. The happiness of individuals is evidently the ultimate end of political society ; and po- litical welfare, or the strength, splendour, and opulence of the state, have been always ad mitted, both by political writers, and the va luable part of raankind in general, to conduce to this end, and are therefore desirable. The causes, that advance or obstruct any one of these three objects, are external or in ternal. The latter raay be divided into phy sical, civU, and personal, under which last head I comprehend the moral and raechanical habits of mankind! The physical causes are principally cliraate, soil, and nuraber of per sons ; the civil, are government and laws ; and political welfare is always in a ratio com posed of the force of these particular causes ; a multitude of external causes, and all these internal ones, not only control and qualify, but are constantly acting on, and thereby in sensibly, as well as sensibly, altering one an other, both for the better and the worse, and this not excepting tbe climate itself The powerful efficacy of raanners in in creasing a people is raanifest frora the instance you raention, tbe quakers; araong them in dustry and frugality multiply and extend the use of the necessaries of life ; to raanners of a like kind are owing the populousness of Holland, Swisserland, China, Japan, and most parts ofHindustan, &c. in every one of which, the force of extent of territory and fertility of soil is multiplied, or their want compensated by industry and frugality. Neither nature nor art have contributed much to the production of subsistence in Swisserland, yet we see frugality preserves and even increases famUies, that live on their fortunes, and which, in England, we call the gentry ; and the observation we cannot but raake in the southern part of this kingdora, that those farailies, including all superior ones, are gradually becoraing extinct, affords the clearest proof, that luxury (that is, a greater expense of subsistence than in prudence a man ought to consume) is as destructive as a dis- proportionable want of it; but in Scotland, as in Swisserland, the gentry, though one with another they have not one fourth of the income, increase in nuraber. And here I cannot help remarking, by the bye, how well founded your distinction is be tween the increase of raankind in old and new settled countries in general, and more par ticularly in the case of families of condition. In America, where the expenses are more confined to necessaries, and those necessaries are cheap, it is common to see above one hun dred persons descended from one living old raan. In England, it frequently happens, where a raan has seven, eight, or more chil dren, there has not heen a descendant in the next generation, occasioned by the difficulties the number of children has broBght on the POLITICAL ECONOMY. 425 family, in a luxurious dear country, and which have prevented their raarrying. That this is raore owing to luxury than mere want, appears frora what I have said of Scotland, and raore plainly from parts of England remote from Ijondon, in most of which the necessaries of life are nearly as dear, in sorae dearer than London, yet the people of all ranks marry and breed up chil dren. Again ; araong the lower ranks of life, none produce so few children as servants. This is, in sorae measure, to be attributed to their situation, which hinders raarriage, but is also to be attributed to their luxury and corruption of raanners, which are greater than among any other set of people in England, and is the consequence of a nearer view of the lives and persons of a superior rank, than any inferior rank, without a proper education, ought to have. The quantity of subsistence in England has unquestionably become greater for several ages ; and yet if the inhabitants are more nuraerous, they certainly are not so in pro portion to our improvement of the means of support. I ara apt to think there are few parts' of this kingdom, that have not been at some forraer tirae more populous than at pre sent I have several cogent reasons for think ing so of a, great part of the counties I ara most intimately acquainted with ; but as they were probably not all raost populous at the sarae time, and as some of our towns are visi bly and vastly grown in bulk, I dare not sup pose, as judicious men have done, that Eng land is less peopled than heretofore. The growth of our towns is the effect of a change of manners, and improvement of arts, coramon to all Europe ; and though it is not imagined, that it has lessened the country growth of necessaries, it has evidently, by in troducing a greater consuraption of thera, (an infallible consequence of a nation's dwelling in towns) counteracted the effects of our pro digious advances in the arts. But however frugality raay supply the place, or prodigality counteract the effects, of the natural or acquired subsistence of a coun try, industry is, beyond doubt, a. raore effica cious cause of plenty than any natural advan tage of extent or fertility. I have mentioned instances of frugality and industry united with extent and fertility. In Spain and Asia Mi nor, we see frugality joined to extent and fer tility, without industry ; in Ireland, we once saw the same ; Scotland had then none of thera but frugality. The change in these two countries is obvious to every one, and it is owing to industry not yet very widely diffus ed in either. The effects of industry and fru gality in England are surprising ; both the rent and the value of the inheritance of land depend on them greatly more than on nature, Vol. n. . . . 3 H 36* and this, though there is no considerable dif ference in the prices of our markets. Land of equal goodness lets for double the rent of other land lying in the same country, and there are raany years purchase difference be tween different counties, where rents are equally well paid and secure. Thus raanners operate upon the number of inhabitants, but of their silent effects upon a civU constitution, history, and even our own experience, yields us abundance of proofs, though they are not uncommonly attributed to external causes : their support of a govern raent against external force is so great, that it is a common maxim araong the advocates of liberty, that no free governraent was ever dissolved, or overcorae, before the raanners of its subjects were corrupted. The superiority of Greece over Persia was singly owing to their difference of raanners ; and that, though aU natural advantages were on the side of the latter, to which I raight add the civU ones ; for though the greatest of all civU advantages, liberty, was on the side of Greece, yet that added no political strength to her, other than as it operated on her man ners, and, when they were corrupted, the re storation oftheir liberty by the Roraans, over turned the remains of their power. Whether the manners of ancient Rorae were at any period calculated to promote the happiness of individuals, it is not my design to exaraine ; but that their raanners, and the effects of those raanners on their government and public conduct, founded, enlarged, and supported, and afterwards overthrew their em pire, is beyond all doubt. One of the effects of their conquest furnishes us with a strong proof, how prevalent manners are even be yond the quantity of subsistence ; for, when the custora of bestowing on the citizens of Rorae corn enough to support themselves and families, was becorae established, and Egypt and Sicily produced the grain that fed the inhabitants of Italy, this became less populous every day, and the jus trium liberorum was but an expedient, that could not balance the want of industry and frugality. But corruption of raanners did not only thin the inhabitants of the Roman empire, but it rendered the remainder incapable of defence, long before its fall, perhaps before the dissolution of the republic; so that with out standing disciplined armies, coraposed of men, whose moral habits principally, and me chanical habits secondarily, made them dif ferent from the body of the people, the Roraan empire had been a prey to the barbarians many ages before it was. By the mechanical habits ofthe soldiery, I mean their discipline, and the art of war ; and that this is but a secondary quality, appears from the inequality that has in all ages been between raw, though well disciplined arraies, 426 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. and veterans, and more from the irresistible force a single moral habit, religion, has con ferred on troops, frequently neither disciplined nor experienced. The military manners of the noblesse in France, compose the chief force of that king dom, and the enterprising raanners and rest less dispositions of the inhabitants of Canada, have enabled a handful of men to harass our populous, and generally less martial colonies ; yet neither are ofthe value they seera at first sight because overbalanced by the defect they occasion of other habits, that would produce more eligible political good : and mUitary raanners in a people are not necessary in an age and country where such raanners raay be occasionally formed and preserved araong men enough to defend the state ; and such a country is Great Britain, where, though the lower class of people are by no raeans of a railitary cast, yet they make better soldiers than even the noblesse of France. The inhabitants of this country, a few ages back, were to the populous and rich provinces of France, what Canada is now to the British colonies. It is true, there was less dispro portion between their natural strength ; but I mean, that the riches of France were a real weakness, opposed to the railitary manners founded upon poverty and a rugged disposi tion, than the character of the English ; but it must be reraerabered, that at this time the manners of a people were not distinct frora that oftheir soldiery, for the use of standing armies has deprived a railitary people ofthe advantages they before had over others ; and though it has been often said, that civil wars give power, because they render all raen sol diers, I believe this has only been found true in internal wars following civil wars, and not in external ones ; for now, in foreign wars, a small army, with ample raeans to support it, is of greater force than one more numerous, with less. This last fact has often happened between France and Gerraany. The means of supporting armies, and con sequently the power of exerting external strength, are best found in the industry and frugality ofthe body of a people living under a government and laws, that encourage com merce : for commerce is at this day almost the only stimulus, .that forces every one to contribute a share of labour for the public benefit But such is the human frarae, and the world is so constituted, that it is a hard matter to possess one's self of a benefit, without lay ing one's self open to a loss on some other side ; the improvements of raanners of one sort often deprave those of another : thus we see industry and frugality under the influence of commerce, which I call a commercial spirit, tend to destroy, as well as support, the go vernment it flourishes under. Commerce perfects the arts, but more the raechanical than the liberal, and this for an obvious reason ; it softens and enervates the manners. Steady virtue and unbending in tegrity are seldom to be found where a spirit of coramerce pervades every thing; yet the perfection of coraraerce is, that every thing should have its price. We every day see its progress, both to our benefit and detriraent here. Things, that boni mores forbid to be set to sale, are becorae its objects, and there are few things indeed extra commercium. The legislative power itself has been in com- mercio, and church livings are seldora given without consideration, even by sincere Chris tians, and, for consideration, not seldom to very unworthy persons. The rudeness of ancient railitary times, and the fury of raore modern enthusiastic ones are worn off; even the spirit of forensic contention is astonishing ly diminished, all marks of manners softening ; but luxury and corruption have taken their places, and seem the inseparable companions of commerce and the arts. I cannot help observing, however, that this is rauch more the case in extensive countries, especially at their metropolis, than in other places. It is an old observation of politicians, and frequently raade by historians, that small states always best preserve their manners. — Whether this happens from the greater room there is for attention in the legislature, or frora the less room there is for arabition and avarice, it is a strong argument, among others, against an incorporating union of the colonies in America, or even a federal one, that may tend to the future reducing them under one government Their power, while disunited, is less, but their liberty, as well as manners, is more se cure ; and, considering the little danger of any conquest to be made upon them, I had rather they should suffer something through disunion, than see them under a general ad ministration less equitable than that concert ed at Albany. I take it, the inhabitants of Pennsylvania are both frugal and industrious beyond thqpe of any province in America. If luxury should spread, it cannot be extirpated by laws. We are told by Plutarch, that Plato used to say, It was a hard thing to make laws for the Ci/rrnians, a people abounding inplenty and opulence. But from what I set out with, it is evident, if I be not mistaken, that education only can stera the torrent, and, without checking either true industry or frugality, prevent the sordid frugality and laziness of the old Irish, and many of the raodern Scotch, (I mean the in habitants of that country, those who leave it for another being generally industrious) or the industry, mixed with luxury, of this capital, from getting ground, and, by rendering an- POLITICAL ECONOMY. 427 cient manners famUiar, produce a reconcUia- tion between disinterestedness and coraraerce ; a thing we often see, but almost always in men of a liberal education. To conclude : when we would forra a peo ple, soil and cliraate raay be found at least sufficiently good ; inhabitants raay be encou raged to settle, and even supported for a whUe ; a good government and laws may be framed, and even arts may be established, or their produce imported : but many necessary moral habits are hardly ever found araong those who voluntary offer theraselves in tiraes of quiet at home, to people new colonies ; be sides, that the moral, as well as mechanical habits, adapted to a mother country, are fre quentiy not so to the new settled one, and to external events, raany of which are always unforeseen. Hence it is we have seen such fruitless attempts to settle colonies, at an im mense public and private expense, by several of the powers of Europe : and it is particular ly observable, that none of the English colo nies becarae any way considerable, till the ne cessary raanners were born and grew up in the country, excepting those to which singu lar circurastances at horae forced raanners fit for the forming a new state. — I am, sir, &c. R. J. Plan, by Messieurs Franklin and Dalrym ple, for benefiting distant unprovided Countries.* Aug. 29, 1771 The country called in the maps New Zea land, has been discovered by the Endeavour, to be two islands, together as large as Great Britain : these islands, naraed Acpy-noraawee, and Tovy-poennamraoo, are inhabited by a brave and generous race, who are destitute of corn, fowls, and all quadrupeds, except dogs. These circurastances being raentioned lately in a corapany of raen of liberal senti ments, it was observed, that it seemed incum bent on such a country as this, to corarauni cate to all others the conveniences of life, which we enjoy. Dr. Franklin, whose life has ever been di rected to proraote the true interest of society, said, " he would vvith all his heart subscribe to a voyage intended to coraraunicate in ge neral those benefits which we enjoy, to coun tries destitute of thera in the reraote parts of the globe." This proposition being warmly adopted by the rest ofthe corapany, Mr. Dal- ryraple, then present, was induced to offer to undertake the coraraand on such an expedi tion. On mature reflection, this scheme appears the more honourable to the national character * These proposals were printed upon a sheet of pa. per, and distributed. The parts written by Dr. Frank. lin and Mr. Dalrymple are easily distinguished. of any which can be conceived, as it is ground ed on the noblest principle of benevolence. Good intentions are often frustrated by let ting them remain indigested ; on this consider ation Mr. Dalrymple was induced to put the outlines on paper, which are now published, that by an early coraraunication there may be a better opportunity of collecting all the hints, which can conduce to execute effectually the benevolent purpose of the expedition, in case it should raeet with general approbation. On this scheme being shown to Dr. Frank lin, he coraraunicated his sentiments, by way of introduction, to the following effect: "Britain is said to have produced originally nothing but sloes. What vast advantages have been communicated to her by the fruits, seeds, roots, herbage, aniraals, and arts of other countries ! We are by their means be corae a wealthy and a raighty nation, abound ing in all good things. Does not sorae duty hence arise frora us towards other countries, still remaining in our former state 1 " Britain is now the first maritime power in the world. Her ships are innumerable, capable by their forra, size, and strength, of sailing on all seas. Our seamen are equally bold, skilful, and hardy ; dextrous in explor ing the remotest regions, and ready to en gage in voyages to unknown countries, though attended with the greatest dangers. The inhabitants of those countries, our fel low men, have canoes only ; not knowing iron, they cannot build ships ; they have little astronomy, and no knowlege of the corapass to guide thera ; they cannot therefore come to us, or obtain any of our advantages. From these circurastances, does not some duty seem to arise from us to thera 1 Does not Provi dence, by these distinguishing favours, seem to call on us, to do soraething ourselves for the coraraon interest of huraanity I "Those who think it their duty, to ask bread and other blessings daily from heaven, would they not think it equally a duty, to communicate of those blessings when they have received thera, and show their gratitude to their great Benefactor by the only means in their power, promoting the happiness of his other children] " Ceres is said to have raade a journey through raany countries to teach the use of corn, and the art of raising it — For this sin gle benefit the grateful nations deified her. How much more raay Englishmen deserve such honour, by communicating the knowledge and use not of corn only, but of all the other enjoyments the earth can produce, and which they are now in possession of Communiter bona profundere, Deum est. "Many voyages have been undertaken with views of profit or of plunder, or to gratify re sentment ; to procure some advantage to our selves, or do sorae mischief to others: but a 428 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. voyage is now proposed, to visit a distant peo ple on the other side the globe ; not to cheat them, not to rob thera, not to seize their lands, or enslave their persons ; but raerely to do them good, and raake them, as far as in our power lies, to live as comfortably as our selves. " It seems a laudable wish, that all the na tions of the earth were connected by a know ledge of each other ; and a mutual exchange of benefits : but a coraraercial nation particu larly should wish for a general civilization of mankind, since trade is always carried on to much greater extent with people who have the arts and conveniences of life, than it can be with naked savages. We may therefore hope, in this undertaking, to be of some ser vice to our country as well as to those poor people, who, however distant frora us, are in truth related to us, and whose interest do, in sorae degree, concern every one who can say. Homo sum, <^c." Scheme of a voyage, by subscription, to convey the conveniences of life, as fowls, hogs, goats, cattle, corn, iron, &c., to those re mote regions, which are destitute of thera, and to bring from thence such productions, as can be cultivated in this kingdom to the ad vantage of society, in a ship under the cora raand of Alexander Dalrymple. Catt or bark, from the the coal trade, of 350 tons, estimated at about £ 2000 Extra expenses, stores, boats, &c. - 3000 To be manned with 60 raen at 4Z. per raan, per raonth. - 240 12 per ann. 2880 Wages and provisions for 3 years - 8640 13640 Cargo included, supposed £ 15000 The expenses of this expedition are calcu lated for three years : but the greatest part of the amount of wages will not be wanted till the ship returns, and a great part of the ex pense of provisions will be saved by what is obtained in the course of the voyage, by bar ter, or otherwise, though it is proper to raake provision for contingencies. To Dr. Percival. Concerning the provision madein China against Farnine. I HAVE somewhere read, that in China an account' is yearly taken of the nuraber of peo ple, and the quantities of provision produced. This account is transmitted to the emperor, whose ministers can thence foresee a scarci ty, likely to happen in any province, and from what province it can best be supplied in good time. To facilitate the collecting of this account and prevent the necessity of en tering houses and spending time in asking and answering questions, each house is fur nished with a little board, to be hung without the door during a certain time each year ; on which board are marked certain words, against which the inhabitant is to mark the nuraber and quantity, somewhat in this raan ner: Men, Women, Children, Rice, or Wheat, Flesh, &c. All under sixteen are accounted chUdren, and all above, men and women. Any other particulars, which tbe government desires information of, are occasionally marked on the same boards. Thus the officers, appointed to collect the accounts in each district, have only to pass before the doors, and enter into their book what they find marked on the board, without giving the least trouble to the fami ly. There is a penalty on marking falsely, and as neighbours must know nearly the truth of each other's account, they dare not expose theraselves, by a false one, to each other's accu sation. Perhaps such a regulation is scarcely practicable with us. Positions to be examined, concerning national Wealth. 1. All food or subsistence for mankind arise frora the earth or v\-aters. 2. Necessaries of life, that are not food, and all other conveniences, have their value esti- raated by the proportion of food consumed while we are eraployed in procuring them. 3. A small people, with a large territory, may subsist on the productions of nature, with no other labour that of gathering the vegeta bles and catching the aniraals. 4. A large people, with a small territory, finds these insufficient, and, to subsist, must labour the earth, to make it produce greater quantities of vegetable food, suitable for the nourishment of men, and of the animals they intend to eat 5. From this labour arises a great increase of vegetable and animal food, and of materi als for clothing, as flax, wool, sUk, &c. The superfluity of these is wealth. With this wealth we pay for the labour employed in building our houses, cities, &c. which are therefore only subsistence thus metamor phosed, POLITICAL ECONOMY. 429 6. Manufactures are only another shape into which so rauch provisions and subsistence are turned, as were equal in value to the raanu factures produced. This appears frora hence, that the manufacturer does not, in fact, obtain from the employer, for his labour, more than a mere subsistence, including rairaent, fuel, and shelter : all which derive their value frora the provisions consuraed in procuring thera. 7. The produce of the earth, thus convert ed into raanufactures, raay be more easily car ried to distant raarkets than before such conver sion. * 8. Fair commerce is, where equal values are exchanged for equal, the expense of trans port included. Thus, if it costs A in England as much labour and charge to raise a bushel of wheat, as it costs B in France to produce four gallons of wine, then are four gaUons of wine the fair exchange for a bushel of wheat, A and B meeting at half distance with their commodities to make the exchange. The ad vantage of this fair commerce is, that each party increases the number of his enjoyraents, having, instead of wheat alone, or wine alone, the use of both wheat and wine. 9. Where the labour and expense of pro ducing both commodities are known to both parties, bargains wUl generally be fair and equal. Where they are known to one party only, bargains will often be unequal, know ledge taking its advantage of ignorance. 10. Thus he, that carries one thousand bushels of wheat abroad to sell, may not pro bably obtain so great a profit thereon, as if he had first turned the wheat into manufactures, by subsisting therewith the workmen while producing tliose manufactures : since there are raany expediting and facUitating methods of working, not generally known ; and stran gers to the manufactures, though they know pretty well the expense of raising wheat, are unacquainted with those short methods of working, and thence, being apt to suppose more labour employed in the manufactures than there really is, are more easily imposed on in their value, and induced to allow more for thera than they are honestly worth. 11. Thus the advantage of having raanu- fectures in a country does not consist, as is commonly supposed, in their highly advancing the value of rough raaterials, of which they are formed ; since, though sixpennyworth of flax may be worth twenty shillings when work ed into lace, yet the very cause of its being worth twenty shillings, is, that, besides the flax, it has cost nineteen shillings and sixpence in subsistence to the manufacturer. But the advantage of manufactures is, that under their shape provisions may be more easily carried to a foreign market; and by their means our traders may more easily cheat strangers. Few, where it is not made, are judges ofthe value of lace. The importer may deraand forty, and perhaps get thirty shiUings for that, which cost him but twenty. 12. FinaUy, there seem to be but three ways for a nation to acquire wealth. The first is by war, as the Roraans did, by plunder ing their conquered neighbours. This is rob bery. — The second by commerce, which is generaUy cheating. — The third by agricul ture, the only honest way, wherein man re ceives a real increase ofthe seed thrown into the ground, in a kind of continual miracle wrought by the hand of God in his favour, as a reward for his innocent life, and his virtuous industry. B. FRANKLIN. April 4, 1769. The following extracts of a letter signed Columella, and addressed to the editors of the British Repository for select Papers on Agriculture, Arts, and Manufac tures (see Vol. I.) will prepare those who read it, for the next paper "Gentlemen, — There is now publishing in France a periodical work, called Ephemeridis du Citoyen, in which several points, interesting to those concerned inr agriculture, are from time lo lime discussed by some able hands. In looking over one of the volumes of this work a few days ago, I found a little piece wiilten by one of our countrymen, and which our vigilant neigh bours had taken from the London Chronicle in 1766. The author is a gentleman well known to every man of letters in Europe, and perhaps there is none, in this age, to whom mankind in general are more indebted. " That this piece may not be lost to our own country, I beg you will give it a place in your Repository; it was written in favour oflhe farmers, when they suffered so much abuse in our public papers, and were also piun dered by the mob in many places," To Messieurs the PubUc. On the Price of Corn, and the Management of the Poor. I AM one of that class of people, that feeds you all, and at present abused by you all ; — in short, I am a farmer. By your newspapers we are told, that God had sent a very short harvest to sorae other countries of Europe. I thought this might be in favour of Old England ; and that now we should get a good price for our grain, which would bring mUlions araong us, and make us flow in money : that to be sure is scarce enough. But the wisdora of governraent forbade the exportation. Well, says I, then we must be content with the market price at home. No ; say my lords the mob, you sha'nthave that. Bring your corn to market if you dare ; — we'U sell it for you, for less raoney, or take it for nothing. Being thus attacked by both ends of the constitution, the head and tail of government, what ara I to do 1 Must I keep my corn in the barn, to feed and increase the breed of rats ? — be it so ; they cannot be less thankful than those I have been used to feed. 430 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. Are we farraers the only people to be grudged the profits of our honest labour 1 — And why 1 One ofthe late scribblers against ns gives a bUl of fare of the provisions at my daughter's wedding, and proclaims to all the world, that we had the insolence to eat beef and pudding ! — Has he not read the precept in the good book, thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn ; or does he think us less worthy of good living than our oxen? O, but the manufacturers I the manufac turers! they are to be favoured, and they must have bread at a cheap rate ! Hark ye, Mr. Oaf: — The farraers live splendidly, you say. And pray, would you have them hoard the raoney they get! Their fine clothes and furniture, do they make them theraselves, or for one another, and so keep the money araong thera 1 Or, do they employ these your darling manufacturers, and so scatter it again all over the nation 1 The wool would produce me a better price, if it were suffered to go to foreign markets ; but that, Messieurs the Public, your laws will not permit It must be kept all at home, that our dear manufacturers may have it the cheaper. And then, having yourselves thus lessened our encourageraent for raising sheep, you curse us for the scarcity of mutton ! I have heard my grandfather say, that the farmers submitted to the prohibition on the exportation of wool, being made to expect and believe, that when the manufacturer bought his wool cheaper, they should also have their cloth cheaper. But the deuce a bit It has been growing dearer and dearer from that day to this. How so ? Why, truly, the cloth is exported : and that keeps up the price. Now if it be a good principle, that the ex portation of a comraodity is to be restrained, that so our people at home raay have it the cheaper ; stick to that principle, and go thorough stitch vvith it Prohibit the export ation of your cloth, your leather, and shoes, your iron-ware, and your raanufactures of all sorts, to make them all cheaper at home. And cheap enough they will be, I will warrant you — till people leave off making thera. Some folks seem to think they ought never to be easy tiU England becomes another Lub- berland, where it is fancied the streets are paved with penny-rolls, the houses tiled with pancakes, and chickens, ready roasted, cry, come eat rae. I say, when you are sure you have got a good principle, stick to it and carry it through. —I hear it is said, that though it was necessa ry and right for the rainistry to advise a pro hibition of the exportation of corn, yet it was contrary to law ; and also, that though it was contrary to law for the mob to obstruct wa gons, yet it was necessary and right. Just the same thing to a tittle. Now they teU me, an act of indemnity ought to pass in favour of the ministry, to secure them frora the conse quences of having acted Ulegally. — If so, pass another in favour of the raob. Others say, sorae ofthe raob ought to be hanged, by way of exaraple If so, — but I say no more than I have said before, when you are sure that you have a good principle, go through with it. You say, poor labourers cannot afford to buy bread at a high price, unless they had higher wages. — Possibly. — But how shall we farraers be able to afford our labourers higher wages, ifyou wUl not allow us to get, when we might have it, a higher price for our corn 1 By all that I can learn, we should at least have had a guinea a quarter more if the ex portation had been allowed- And this raoney England would have got frora foreigners. But, it seems, we farmers must take so much less, that the poor may have it so much cheaper. This operates then as a tax for the main tenance of the poor. A very good thing, you wUl say. But I ask, why a partial tax ! why laid on us farraers only t If it be a good thing, pray, raessieurs the Public, take your share of it, by indemnifying us a little out of your public treasury. In doing a good thing, there is both honour and pleasure — ^youare welcome to your share of both. For ray own part, I ara not so well satis^ fled ofthe goodness of this thing. I ara fordo ing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion about the means. I think the best way of do ing good to the poor, is, not raaking them ea sy in poverty, but leading or driving tbem out of it. In my youth I travelled much, and I observed in different countries, that the raore public provisions were made for the poor the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer. There is no country in the world where so many pro visions are established for them ; so many hospitals to receive thera when they are sick or lame, founded and maintained by volun tary charities ; so many almshouses for the aged of both sexes, together with a solemn general law raade by the rich to subject their estates to a heavy tax for the support of the poor. Under all these obligations, are our poor modest, humble, and thankful? And do they use their best endeavours to maintain themselves, and lighten our shoulders of this burden t On the contrary, I affirm, that there is no country in the world in which tbe poor are more idle, dissolute, drunken, and insolent. The day you passed' that act you took away from before their eyes the greatest of all in ducements to industry, frugaUty, and sobriety, by giving them a dependence on somewhat else than a careful accumulation during youth and health, for support in age or sickness. In POLITICAL ECONOMY. 431 short, you offered a premium for the encou ragement of idleness, and you should not now wonder, that it has had its effect in the in crease of poverty. Repeal that law, and you will soon see a change in their raanners ; Saint Monday and Saint Tuesday, will soon cease to be holidays. Six days shalt thoula- bour, though one of the old coraraand raents long treated as out of date, wUl again be look ed upon as a respectable precept; industry wUl increase, and with it plenty among the lower people ; their circurastances wUl mend, and more will be done for their happiness by inuring them to provide for themselves, than could be done by dividing all your estates among them. Excuse rae, messieurs the Public, if upon this interesting subject, I put you to the trou ble of reading a little of my nonsense ; I am sure I have lately read a great deal of yours, and therefore from you (at least from those of you who are writers) I deserve a little indul gence. — I ara yours, &c. ARATOR.* On Freedom of Speech and the Press. — Published in the Pennsylvania Gazette, of Noveraber, 1737. Freedom of speech is a principal pillar of a free government: when this support is taken away, the constitution of a free society is dissolved, and tyranny is erected on its ruins. Republics and limited monarchies de rive their strength and vigour frora a popular examination into the actions of the magis trates ; this privilege in all ages has been, and always will be abused. The best of men could not escape the censure and envy of the tiraes they lived in. Yet this evU is not so great as it raay appear at first sight A raa- gistrate who sincerely airas at the good of so ciety, wUl always have the inclinations of a great majority on his side, and an impartial posterity will not fail to render him justice. Those abuses of the freedora of speech, are the exercises of liberty. They ought to be repressed ; but to whom dare we commit the care of doing it AnevU magistrate intrusted with power to punish for words, would be armed with a weapon the most destructi^ and terrible. Under pretence of pruning off the exuberant branches he would be apt to destroy the tree. It is certain, that he who robs another of his moral reputation, more richly merits a gibbet that if he had plundered hira of his purse on the highway. Augustus Cmsar, under the specious pretext of preserving the • Mr. Owen Ruffhead, being employed in preparing a digest, of the British poor laws, communicated a copy of it to Dr. Franklin for his advice. Dr. Franklin recom- mended, that provision should he made therein for the printing on a sheet of paper, and dispersing, in each pa rish, annual accounts of every disbursement and re. ceipt of its officers. In some of the American states this measure ispursued with success. | character of the Romans from defamation, in troduced the law whereby libelling was in volved in the penalties of treason against the state. This law established his tyranny, and for one mischief which it prevented, ten tlion- sand evils, horrible and affiicting, sprung up in its place. Thenceforward every person's life and fortune depended on the vile breath of informers. The construction of words being arbitrary, and left to the decision of the judges, no raan could write or open his mouth without being in danger of forfeiting his head. One was put to death for inserting in his history, the praises of Brutus. Another for styling Cassius the last of the Romans. Ca ligula valued hiraself for being a notable dancer ; and to deny, that he excelled in that manly accomplishraent, was high treason. This emperor raised his horse, the name of which was Incitatus, to the dignity of consul ; and though history is sUent, I do not question but it was a capital crime, to show the least contempt for that high officer of state I Suppose then any one had called the prime minister a stupid animal, the emperor's council might argue, that the malice of the libel was the raore aggravated by its being true ; and con sequently raore likely to excite the family of this illustrious magistrate to a breach of the peace, or to acts of revenge. Such a prose cution would to us appear ridiculous ; yet, if we may rely upon tradition, there have been formerly, proconsuls in America, though of more malicious dispositions, hardly superior in understanding to the consul Incitatus, and who would have thought themselves libelled to be called by their proper names. Nero piqued himself on his fine voice and skill in music : no doubt a laudable ambition I He performed in public, and carried the prize of excellence : it was afterwards resolved by all the judges as good law, that whosoever would insinuate the least doubt of Nero's pre- erainence in the noble art of fiddling, ought to be deemed a traitor to the state. By the help of inferences, and innuendoes, treasons multiplied in a prodigious raanner. Grief was treason : — a lady of noble birth was put to death for bewailing the death of her murdered son ; — silence was declared an overt act, to prove the treasonable purposes of the heart: looks were construed into trea son : — a serene open Eispect was an evidence, that the person was pleased with the calami ties that befel the emperor: — a severe thoughtful countenance was urged against the raan that wore it, as a proof of his plotting against the state : — dreams were often raade capital offences. A new species of inforraers went about Rorae, insinuating theraselves into all companies to fish out their drearas, which the holy priests, (O nefarious wickedness I) interpreted into high treason. The Romans were so terrified by this strange method of 432 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. juridical and penal process, that far from dis covering their drearas, they durst not own that they slept In this terrible situation, when every one had so much cause to fear, even /ear itself was made acrirae. Caligula, when he put his brother to death, gave it as a reason to the senate, that the youth was afraid of being raurdered. To be erainent in any virtue, either civU or railitary, was the great est crime a man could be guilty of — 0 vir- tutes certissemum exitium. These were some of the effects ofthe Ro man law against libelling : — those of the Bri tish kings that aimed at despotic power, or the oppression of the subject, continually en couraged prosecutions for words. Henry VII. a prince raighty in politics, procured that act to be passed, whereby the jurisdiction ofthe star-charaber, was confirm ed and extended. Afterwards Empson and Dudley, two voracious dogs of prey, under the protection of this high court, exercised the raost mercUess acts of oppression. The sub jects were terrifled frora uttering their griefs, whUe they saw the thunder ofthe star-cham ber pointed at their heads. This caution, however, could not prevent several danger ous tumults and insurrections : for when the tongues ofthe people are restrained, they com monly discharge their resentments by a raore dangerous organ, and break out into open acts of violence. During the reign of Henry VIII. a high- spirited monarch I every light expression, which happened to displease him, was constru ed by his supple judges, intoa libel, and some times extended to high treason. When queen Mary of cruel raemory ascended the throne, the parliaraent, in order to raise a fence against the violent prosecutions for words, which had rendered the lives, liberties, and properties of all men precarious, and, perhaps dreading the furious persecuting spirit of this princess, passed an act whereby it was de clared, " That if a libeller doth go so high, as to libel against king or queen, by denuncia tion, the judges shall lay no greater fine on hira than one hundred pounds, with two months imprisonment, and no corporeal pu nishment: neither was this sentence to be passed on him, except the accusation was fully proved by two witnesses, who were to produce a certificate oftheir good demeanour for the credit of their report" This act was confirmed by another, in the seventh year ofthe reign of queen Elizabeth ; only the penalties were heightened to two hundred pounds and three months imprison- raent Notwithstanding she rarely punished invectives, though the malice of the papists was indefatigable in blackening the brightest characters, with the most impudent falsehoods, she was often heard to applaud that rescript of Tkeodosius.* If any person spoke iU of this emperor, through a foolish rashness, ond in advertency, it is to be despised ; if out of mad ness, it deserves pity ; if from malice and aversion, it calls for mercy. Her successor king James I. was a prince of a quite different genius and disposition ; he used to say, that while he had the power of making judges and bishops, he could have what law and gospel he pleased. Accord ingly he fUled those places with such as pros tituted their professions to his notions of pre rogative. Araong this nuraber, and I hope it is no discredit to the profession of the law, its great oracle, sir Edward Coke, appears. The star-charaber, which in the time of Eli zabeth, had gained a good repute, becarae an intolerable grievance, in the reign of this learned monarch. But it did not arrive at its meridian altitude, tiU Charles I. began to wield the sceptre. As he had formed a design to lay aside parlia ments, and subvert the popular part ofthe con stitution, he very well knew, that the form of government could not be altered, without lay ing a restraint on freedom of speech, and the liberty of the press : therefore he issued his royal mandate, under the great seal of Eng land, whereby he comraanded his subjects, un der pain ofhis displeasure, not to prescribe to him any time for parliaments. Lord Claren don, upon this occasion, is pleased to write " that all men took themselves to be prohibit ed under the penalty of censure (the censure ofthe star-chamber,) which few men cared to incure so much as to speak of parliaments ; or so much as to raention, that parliaments were again to be called." The king's rainisters, to let the nation see they were absolutely determined to suppress all freedora of speech, caused a prosecution to be carried on by the attorney-general against three members of the house of commons, for words spoken in that house. Anno. 1628. The member pleaded to the information, that ex pressions in parliaraent ought only to be ex arained and punished there. This notwith standing, they were all three condemned as di^urbers of the state ; one of these gentle men, sir John Elliot, was fined two thousand pounds, and sentenced to lie in prison till it was paid. His lady was denied admittance '* Si quis imperatori malediceret non statim injuria censetur et eo nomine punitur; sed distinguitur, an ex levitate processerit, et sic contemnitur, an ex insa. nia etiniseratinne digna cijnselur, an ex injuria etsic lemittendn declaratur. j^Tote.—A Rescript v;hsnn answer delivered by the em- ' peror, when consulted in some difficult question or point in law : the judges were wholly lo be directed by it, whenever such a case came before thera. For the Ihe loitl of the king gives vigour to the law, {Volmitos re gis habet viforem tegis) is a fundamental principle inthe civil law. Tbe rescript mentioned above, was not only delivered by Theodosius, but by two emperors, Honoritu and Arcadius, POLITICAL ECONOMY. 433 to hira, even during his sickness ; consequent ly his punishment comprehended an additional sentence of divorce. This patriot having en dured many years iraprisonraent, sunk under the oppression, and died in prison : this was such a wound to the authority and rights of parliament, that even after the restoration, the judgment was revered by parliament. That Englishmen of all ranks raight be ef fectually intimidated frora publishing their thoughts on any subject, except on the side ofthe court, his majesty's rainisters caused an information, for several libels, to be exhibited in the star-charaber, against Messrs. Prynn, Burton, and Bastwick. They were each of them fined five thousand pounds, and adjudged to lose their ears on the pillory, to be brand ed on the cheeks with hot irons, and to suffer perpetual iraprisonraent I Thus these three gentlemen, each of worth and quality in their several professions, viz. divinity, law, and physic, were, for no other offence, than writ ing on controverted points of church-govern ment, exposed on public scaffolds, and stigma tized and mutUated, as coramon signal rogues, or the most ordinary malefactors. Such corporeal punishments, inflicted with all the circurastances of cruelty and infamy, bound down all other gentleraen, under a ser vile fear ofthe like treatment; so that for se veral years no one durst publicly speak or write in defence ofthe liberties of the people ; which the king's rainisters, his privy council, and his judges, had trampled under their feet. The spirit of the administration looked hide ous and dreadful: the hate and resentment which the people conceived against it for a long tirae lay sraothered in their breasts, where those passions festered and grew veno mous, and at last discharged theraselves by an armed and vindictive hand. King Charles II. aimed at the subversion ofthe government ; but concealed his designs under a deep hypocrisy : a method which his predecessor, in the beginning of his reign, scorned to make use of The father, who affected a high and rigid gravity, discounte nanced all barefaced immorality. The son, of a gay, luxuriousdis posi tion, openly encouraged it: thus their inclinations being different, the restraint laid on sorae authors, and the encou ragement given to others, were raanaged af ter a different manner. In this reign a licenser was appointed for the stage and the press ; no plays were en couraged but what had a tendency to debase the minds ofthe people. The orignal design of comedy was perverted ; it appeared in all the shocking circumstances of immodest dou ble entendre, obscure description, and lewd representation. Religion was sneered out of countenance, and public spirit ridiculed as an awkward old-fashioned virtue ; the fine gen tleman of the comedy, though embroidered Vol. il ...31 37 all over with wit, was a consummate debau chee ; and a fine lady, though set off with a brilliant imagination, was an impudent co quette. Satire, which in the hands Horace, Juvenal, and Bdileau, was pointed with a ge nerous resentment against vice, now becarae the declared foe of virtue and innocence. As the city of London, in all ages, as well as the tirae we are speaking of, was reraarkable for its opposition to arbitrary power, the poets levelled all their artiUery against the metro polis, in order to bring the citizens into con tempt : an alderraan was never introduced on the theatre, but under the coraplicated character of a sneaking, canting hypocrite ; a raiser and a cuckold ; while the court-wits, with impunity, libelled the most valuable part of the nation. Other writers, of a different stamp, with great learning and gravity, en deavoured to prove to the English people, that slavery was jure divino. Thus the stage and the press under the direction of a licenser, became battering engines against religion, virtue, and liberty. Those who had courage enough to write in their defence, were stig matised as schismatics, and punished as dis turbers of the government. But when the embargo on wit was taken ofl^ sir Richard Steele and Mr. Addison soon rescued the stage from the load of impurity it laboured under; with an inimitable address, they strongly recomraended to our imitation the most amiable, rational, raanly characters ; and this with so much success, that I cannot suppose there is any reader to day conversant in the writings of those gentlemen, that can taste with any tolerable relish the comedies of the once admired Shadwell. Vice was obliged to retire and give place to virtue : this will always be the consequence when truth has fair play : falsehood only dreads the attack, and cries out forauxUiaries: truth never fears the encounter : she scorns the aid of the secu lar arm, and triumphs by her natural strength. But to resume the description of the reign of Charles II. the doctrine of servitude was chiefly raanaged by sir Roger Lestrange. — He had great advantages in the arguraent, being licenser for the press, and might have carried all before him, without contradiction, if writings on the other side of the question had not been printed by stealth. The authors, whenever found, were prosecuted as seditious libellers ; on all these occasions, the kmg's counsel, particularly Sawyer and Finch, ap peared most abjectly obsequious to accomplish the ends ofthe court During this blessed manageraent, the king had entered into a secret league with France, to render himself absolute, and enslave his subjecta This fact was discovered to the world by doctor Jonathan Swift, to whom sir William Temple had intrusted the publica tion ofhis works. 434 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. Sidney, the sworn foe of tyranny, was a gentleman of noble famUy, of sublime under standing, and exalted courage. The minis try were resolved to remove so great an ob stacle out of the way of their designs. He was prosecuted for high treason. The overt act charged in the indictment, was a libel found in his private study. Mr. Finch, the king's own solicitor-general, urged,with great veheraency, to this effect, " that the imagining the death ofthe king is treason, even while that imagmation reraains concealed in the raind; though the law cannot punish such se cret treasonable thoughts, tUl it arrives at the knowledge of them by some overt act That the raatter of the libel composed by Sidney was an imagining how to compass the death of king Charles II.; and the writing of it was an overt act of the treason ; for that to write was to act. {Scribere est agere.") It seems that the king's counsel in this reign had not received the same direction as queen Elizabeth had given her's ; she told thera they were to look upon themselves as retained not so much — {pro domina regina, as pro domi- na veritate) — for the power of the queen as for the power of truth. Mr. Sidney made a strong and legal de fence. He insisted that all the words in the book, contained no more than general specu lations on the principles of governraent, free for any man to write down ; especiaUy since the sarae are written in the parliament rolls and in the statute laws. He argued on the injustice of applying by in nuendoes, general assertions concerning prin ciples of governraent, as overt acts, to prove the writer was compassing the death of the king; for then no raan could write of things done evenby our ancestors, in defence ofthe constitution and freedom of England, without exposing himself to capital danger. He denied that scribere est agere, but al lowed that writing and publishing is to act, {Scribere et publicare est agere) and therefore he urged, that as his book had never been pub lished nor imparted to any person, it could not be an overt act, within the statutes of treasons, even admitting that it contained treasonable positions ; that on the contrary it WBS a covert fact, locked up in his private stu dy, as rauch concealed from the knowledge of any raan, as if it where locked up in the au thor's mind. This was the substance of Mr. Sidney's defence : but neither law, nor rea son, nor eloquence, nor innocence ever avail ed, where Jefferies sat as judge. Without troubling himself with any part ofthe defence, he declared in a rage, that Sidney' s known principles were a sufficient proof of his inten tion to compass the death of the king. A packed jury therefore found him guilty of high treason : great applications were raade for his pardon. He was executed as a traitor. This case is a pregnant instance ofthe dan ger that attends a law for punishing words, and of the little security the most valuable raen have for their lives, in that society where a judge by remote inferences and distant in nuendoes raay construe the most innocent ex pressions into capital crimes. Sidney, the British Brutus ; the warm, the steady friend of liberty ; who from adift'usive love to man kind left them that invaluable legacy, his im mortal discourses on government, was for . these very discourses, murdered by the hands of lawless power. After the revolution of 1688, when law and justice were again restored, the attainder of this great raan was reversed by parliament. " Being in Holland, (says bishop Burnet,) the princess of Orange, afterwards queen Mary, asked rae what had sharpened the king her father so rauch against Mr. Jurieu 1 I told her he had writ with great indecency of Mary queen of Scots, which cast reflections on them that were descended frora her. The princess said, Jurieu was to support the cause he de fended, and to expose those that persecuted it, in the best way he could ; and if what he said of Mary queen of Scots was true, he was not to be blamed who raade that use of it: and she added, that if princes would do ill things, they must expect that the world will take re venge on their memories, since they cannot reach their persons. That was but a small suffering, far short of what otliers suffered at their hands." In the forraer part of this paper it was en deavoured to prove by historical facts, the fa tal dangers that necessarily attend a restraint of freedora of speech and the liberty of the press: upon which the following reflection na turally occurs, viz. that whoever attempts to suppress either rf these our natural rights, ought to be regarded as an enemy to liberty and the constilution. An inconveniency isal- ways to be suffered when it cannot be remov ed without introducing a worse. I proceed in the next place to inquire into the nature of the English laws, in relation of libelling. To acquire a just idea of tbem. tbe knowledge of history is necessary, and the ge nius and disposition ofthe prince is to be con sidered in whose tirae they are introduced and put in practice. To infuse into the minds of the people an UI opinion of a just administration, is a crime that deserves no indulgence; but to expose the evil designs or weak management of a magistrate is tlie duty of every member of so ciety. Yet king Jaraes I. thought it an un pardonable presumption in the subject to pry into the {arcana imperii,) the secrets of kings. He imagined that the people ought to believe the authority of the government infallible, and that their submission should be implicit It raay therefore be reasonably presuraed, that POLITICAL ECONOMY. 435 the judgment of the star-chamber, concern ing libels, was influenced by this monarch's notions of government No law could be bet ter framed to prevent people from publishing their thoughts on the administration, than that which raakes no distinction, whether a libel be true or false. It is not pretended that any such decision is to be found in our books, be fore this reign. That is not at all to be won dered at; king James was the first of the British raonarchs, that laid claira to a divine It was a refined piece of policy in Augus tus Cassar, when he proposed a law to the se nate, whereby invectives against private raen were to be punished as treason. The pill was finely gilded and easily swallowed ; but the Romans soon found that the preservation oftheir characters was only a pretext: — to preserve inviolable the sacred narae of Csesar was the real design of the law. They quickly discovered the intended consequence — if it be treason to libel a private person, it cannot be less than blasphemy to speak ill of the em peror. Perhaps it raay not appear a too refined conjecture, that the star-chamber acted on the same views with Augustus, when they gave that decision which made it criminal to pub lish truth of a private person as well as a ma gistrate. I am the more inclined to this con jecture from a passage in lord chief justice Richardson's speech, which I find in the trial in the star-chamber, against Mr. Prynn, who was prosecuted there for a libel. "If sub jects have an ill prince," says the judge, " marry, what is the remedy ? they must pray to God to forgive him : Mr. Prynn saith there were three worthy Romans that con spired to murder Nero. This is most hor rible." Tremendous wickedness indeed, my lord chief justice I Where slept the thunder when these three detestable Roraans, unawed by the sacred raajesty ofthe diadem, with hands sacri legious and accursed, took away the precious life of that imperial wolf, that true epitome of the Lord's anointed; — who had raurdered his own mother ; who had puttodeath Seneca and Burrhus, his two best friends and benefac tors ; — who was drenched in the blood of raan kind, and wished and endeavoured to extir pate the huraan race ! I think ray lord chief justice has clearly explained the true intent and raeaning of the star-chamber doctrine; it centres in the most abjectively passive obe dience. The punishment for writing truth, is pUlo- ry, loss of ears, branding the face with hot irons, fine, and imprisonment, at the discre tion of the court. Nay, the punishment is to be heightened in proportion to the truth of the facts contained in the libel. But if this monstrous doctrine could have been swallow ed dowm by that worthy jury, who were on the trial of the seven bishops, prosecuted for a libel, in the reign of Jaraes II., the liberties of Britain, in all human probability, had been lost, and slavery established in the three kingdoms. This was a cause of the greatest expecta tion and importance that ever carae before the judges in Westrainster-haU. The bishops had petitioned the king, that he would be graciously pleased not to insist upon their reading in the church his majesty's declaration for liberty of conscience, because it was founded on a dispensing power, declar ed illegal in parliament; and they said, that they could not in prudence, honour, or con science, so far make themselves parties to it In the information exhibited by the attorney- general, the bishops were charged with writ ing and publishing a false, malicious, and se ditious libel, (under pretence of a petition) in diminution of the king's prerogative, and con tempt of his government Sawyer and Finch were among the bi shops' counsel, the former had been attorney, the latter solicitor-general. In these stations they had served the court only too well. They were turned out because they refused to sup port the dispensing power. Powis and Wil liams, who stood in their places, had great advantages over them, by reflecting on the precedents and proceedings, while those were of the king's counsel. " What was good law for Sidney and others, ought to be law for the bishops ; God forbid that in a court of justice any such distinction should be made." Williams took very indecent liberties with the prelates, who were obliged to appear in court: he reproached them with acting re pugnant to their doctrine of passive obe dience : he reminded them of their preaching against himself, and stirring up their clergy to libel him in their sermons. For Williams had been for many years a bold pleader in all causes against the court He had been speaker in two successive parliaments, and a zealous promoter of the bill of exclusion. Jefferies had fined him ten thousand pounds for having licensed, in the preceding reign, by virtue of an order of the house of commons, the printing of Dangerfield's Narrative, which charged the duke of York with conspiracies of a black complexion. This gentleman had no principles, was guided by his own inter ests, and so wheeled about to the court. The king's counsel having produced their evi dences as to the publication of the petition, the question then to be debated was, whether it contained libellous matter or not It was argued in substance for the bishops, that the matter could not be libellous because it was true ; sir Robert Sawyer makes use of the v/ovis false and libellous, as synonymous 436 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. terms, through the whole course of his argu ment; ana so does Mr. Finch: accordingly they proceeded to show by the votes and jour nals of the parliaraent, which were brought from the tower to the court, that the kings of England, in no age, had any power to dis pense with or set aside the laws ofthe land : and consequently, the bishops' petition, which denied that his majesty had any dispensing power, could not be false, nor libellous, nor in conterapt or diminution of the king's preroga tive, as no such power was ever annexed to it This was the foundation laid down through the whole course of the debate, and which guided and governed the verdict It was strongly urged in behalf of the king, that the only point to be looked into was, whether the libel be reflecting or scan dalous, and not whether it be true or false. That the bishops had injured and affronted the king by presuming to prescribe to him their opinions in matters of government ; that under pretence of delivering a petition, they corae and tell his majesty, he has commanded an illegal thing ; that by such a proceedmg, they threw dirt in the king's face, and so were li bellers with a witness. Previous to the opinions of the judges, it will be necessary to give the reader a short sketch of their characters ; Wright was be fore on the bench, and made chief justice, as a proper tool to support the dispensing power. Rapin, mentioning this trial, calls Hollo- way a creature of the court ; but that excel lent historian was mistaken in this particular ; Powell was a judge of obstinate integrity. His obstinacy gained him imraortal honour. Al- libone was a professed papist, and had not taken the tests, consequently he was no judge, and his opinion of no authority. Wright in his charge, called the petition a libel, and de clared that any thing which disturbs the go vernment is within the case de libellisfamosis (the star-chamber doctrine.) HoUowaytold the jury, that the end and intention of every action, is to be considered ; and that as the bishops had no ill intention, in delivering their petition, it could not be deemed malicious or libeUous. Powell declared, that falsehood and malice were two essential qualities of a libel, which the prosecutor is obliged to prove, Al- libone replied upon Powell, that we are not to raeasure things from any truth they have in themselves, but frora the aspect they have on the governraent ; for that every tittle of a libel may be true, and yet be a libel stiU. The compass of this paper would not admit nie to quote the opinion ofthe judges at length; but I have endeavoured, with the strictest re gard to truth, to give the substance and effect of them as I read them. It has been generally said, that the judges, on this trial, were equally divided in their opinions ; but we shaU find a majority on the bench in favour of the bishops, when we con sider, that the cause, as to AUibone, was be yond the jurisdiction of the court {coram non judice.) Here then is a late authority, which sets aside, destroys, and annuls the doctrine ofthe star-chamber, reported by sir Edward Coke, in his case de libellisfamosis. Agreeable to this late impartial decision, is the civil law, concerning libels. It is there said, that calumny is crirainal only when it is false, {calumniaria est falsa crimina dicere ;) and not criminal when it is true, {vera crimina dicere,) and therefore a writing, that insinu ates a falsehood, and does not directly assert it, cannot come under tbe denomination of a libql, {Non libellusfamosus quoad accusatione quia non constat directis assertionibus, in quibus venit verum aut falsum quod omnino requirit libellus famosus.) In those cases where the design to injure does not evidently appear from the nature of the words, the intention is not to be presumed, it is incumbent on the plain tiff to prove the raalice, {animus injuriandi non prcesumitur et incumbit injuriatio cum probare.) These resolutions of the Roman lawyers bear so great a conformity with the sentiments of Powell and HoIloway,that it seeras they had thera in view, when they gave their opinions. Sir Robert Sawyer raakes several glances at them, in his argument; but throwing that supposition out of the question, natural equity, on which the civil law is founded, (the princi ple of passive obedience always excepted) would have directed any impartial man of comraon understanding to the sarae decision. In civil actions an advocate should never appear but when he is persuaded the merits ofthe cause lie on the side of his client In criminal actions it often happens, that the de fendant in strict justice deserves punishment ; yet a counsel may oppose it when a magis trate cannot come at the offender, without making a breach in the barriers of liberty, and opening a flood-gate to arbitrary power. But when the defendant is innocent, and unjustly prosecuted, his counsel raay, nay ought to take all advantages, and use every stratagem that skill, art, and learning can furnish him with. This last was the case of Zenger, at New York, as appears by the printed trial, and the verdict of the jury. It was a popular cause. The liberty of tlie press in that province de pended on it On such occasions the dry rules of strict pleading are never observed. The counsel for the defendant sometimes argues from the known principles oflaw ; then raises doubts and difficulties, to confound his antago nist ; now applies himself to the affections ; and chiefly endeavours to raise the passions. Zenger's defence is not to be considered in all those different lights ; yet a gentleman of Barbadoes assures us, that it was published as POLITICAL ECONOMY. 437 a solemn argument in the laws, and therefore writes a very elaborate confutation of it. I propose to consider some of his objections, as far as they interfere with the freedora of speech and the liberty ofthe press, contended for in this paper. This author begun his reraarks, by giving us a speciraen of Mr. Hamilton's method of reasoning. It seems the attorney-general on the first objected, that a negative could not be proved ; to which the counsel for Zenger re plied, that there are raany exceptions to that general rule ; and instanced when a raan is charged with killing another ; if he be inno cent, he may prove the raan said to be killed, to be StUl alive. The reraarker will not aUow this to be a good proof of the negative, for, says he, " this is no raore than one instance of one affirraative, being destroyed by another that infers a negative of the first." It cost me some tirae to find out the raeaning of this superlative nonsense ; and I think I have at last discovered it What he understands by the first affirraative, is the instance ofthe raan's being charged with kUling another ; the se cond affirmative, is the man's being alive ; which certainly infers, that the man was not killed : which is undoubtedly a negative of the first But the reraarker of Barbadoes, blunders strangely. Mr. HaraUton's words are clear. He says, the party accused is on the negative, viz. that he did not kill ; which he raay prove by an affirraative, viz. that the man said to be kUled, is still alive. Again, " at which rate," continues our Barba does author, " raost negatives raay be proved." There indeed the gentleraan happened to stura- ble right ; for every negative, capable of proof, can only be proved after the same raanner, naraely by an affirraative. " But then," he adds, " that a man will be put upon proving, he did not kUl, because such proof may be had sometimes, and so the old rule will be discard ed." This is clearly a non sequitur, (not an arguraent ;) for though a raan raay prove a negative, if he finds it for his advantage, it does by no means follow that he shall be obliged to do it, and so that old rule will be preserved. After such notable instances of a blunder ing unlogical head, we are not to be surprised at the many absurdities and contradictions of this author, which occur in the sequel of his No-argument. But I shall only cite those passages where there is a probability of guessing at his mean ing, for he has so preposterously jumbled toge ther this little stock of ideas, that even after the greatest efforts, I could find but very little sense or coherence in thera. I should not however, have discontinued ray labour, had I not been apprehensiveof the fate of poor jDon QMixotte, who ran distracted by endeavour- 37* ing to unbowel the sense of the following pas. sage — " The reason of your unreasonableness, which against ray reason is wrought, doth so weaken ray reason, as with all reason I do justly coraplain." There are several profound passages, in the reraarks, not a whit inferior to this. The dissertation on the negative and affirmative, I once thought to be an exact counterpart of it. Our author labours to prove that a libel, whether true or false, is punishable. The first authority for this purpose, is the case of John de Northarapton, adjudged in the reign of Edward III. Northarapton had wrote a libellous letter to one of the king's council, purporting that the judges would do no great thing, at the comraandraent ofthe king, cSic, the said John was called, and the court pro nounced judgraent against hira on those grounds, that the letter contained no truth in it, and raight incense the king against his judges. Mr. Hamilton says, that by this judgment it appears, the libellous words were utterly false, and that the falsehood was the crime, and is the ground of the judgraent. The remarker rejects this explanation, and gives us an ingenious comraent of his own, First, he says, there is neither truth nor false hood ui the words, at the tirae they were wrote. Secondly, that they were tho sarae as if John had said the roof of Westminster-hall would fall on the judges. Thirdly, that the words taken by themselves have no ill mean ing. Fourthly, that the judges ought to do their duty, without any respect to the king's commandment (they are sworn so to do.) Fifthly, he asks where then was the offence? he answers, sixthly, the record shows it Seventhly, he says that the author of the letter was an attorney of the court, and by the con tents thereof, (meaning the contents of the letter not the contents of the court) he pre sumes to undertake for the behaviour of the judges. Eighthly, that the letter was address ed to a person of the king's council. Ninthly, that he might possibly communicate it to the king. Tenthly, that it raight naturally in cense the king against the court. Eleventhly, that great things were done in those days by the king's coramandment, for the judges held their post at wUl and pleasure. Twelfthly, that it was therefore proper for the judges to assert, that the letter contained no truth, in order to acquit themselves to the king. Thir- teenthly, that thejudges asserted a falsehood, only to acquit theraselves to his majesty, be cause what they asserted was no grounds of their judgraent. Fourteenthly and lastly, the ooramentator avers {with much modesty) that all this senseless stuff, is a plain and natural construction of the case ; but he would not have us take it wholly on his own word, and undertakes to show that the case was so un- 438 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. derstood by Noy, in whose raouth our author puts just such becoming nonsense as he en tertained us with from himself It requires no great penetration to make this discussion in question appear reasonable and inteUigible. But it ought first to be observed that Edward III. was one of the best and wisest, as well as the bravest ofour kings, and that the law had never a freer course than under his reign. Where the letter mentions that the judges would do no great things {i. e. iUegal things) by the king's comraandraent, it was plainly insinuated, that the judges sus pected that the king raight command thera to do Ulegal things. Now by the means of that letter the king being led to imagine that thejudges harboured a suspicion so unworthy of him, raight be justly incensed against thera : therefore the record truly says, that the let ter was utterly false, and that there was couched under it, an msinuation (certainly malicious) that might raise an indignation in this king against the court, &c., since it evi dently appears, that not only the falsehood, but also the malice was the ground of the judgment I agree with the reraarker, that Noy, citing this case, says that the letter contained no ill, yet the writer was punished ; but these words are absolutely as they stand in the remarks attached frora the context. Noy adduces Northampton's case, to prove that a raan is punishable for conteraplating without a cause, though the words of the coraplaint (simply considered) should contain no ill in them, it is not natural to inquire whether the application be just : it is only an expression of a counsel at the bar. The case was adjourned, and we hear no more of it Yet these words of Noy, the remarker, would pass on the reader as a good authority. " This book, therefore," quoth he, referring to Godbolt's reports, " fol lows the record of Northampton's case, and says, that because it raight incense the king against the judges he was punished ;" which is almost a translation of Preetextu cujus, &c. I could readUy pardon our author's gib berish, and want of apprehension, but cannot so easily digest his insincerity. The remarker in the ne.xt place proceeds to the trial of the seven bishops ; I shall quote his own words, though I know they are so senseless and insipid, that I run the risk of trespassing on the reader's patience ; however here they be, " Mr. Justice Powell also does say, that to make it a libel, it raust he false, it raust be malicious, and it raust tend to sedi tion." Upon which words of this learned and worthy judge, I would not presume to offer any comment, except that which other words of his own afford, that plainly show in what sense he then spoke. His subsequent words are these : " the bishops tell his majesty, it is not out of averaeness," &o. So that the judge put the whole upon that single point, whether it be true that the king had a dispensing pow er or not; which is a question of law, and not of fact, and accordingly the judge appeals to his own reading in the law, not to witnesses or other testimonies for a decision of it." Now the bishops had asserted in the libel they were charged with, that the dispensing power, claimed by the king in his declaration, was illegal. The remarker, by granting that the prelates might prove part of their asser tion, viz. that the dispensing power was Ule gal, which is a question oflaw, necessarily al lows them to prove the other part of their as sertion, viz. That his raajesty had claimed such a power, which is a question of fact ; for the forraer could not be decided without prov ing or admitting the latter, and so in all other cases, where a man publishes of a magistrate, that he has acted, or commanded an illegal thing, if the defendant shall be admitted to prove the mode or iUegality of the thing, it is evidently implied that he may prove the thing itself; so that on the gentleman's own pre- raises, it is a clear consequence that a man prosecuted for a libel, shall be admitted to give the truth in evidence. The remarker has a method of reasoning peculiar to himself; he frequently advances arguments, which di rectly prove the very point he is labouring to confute. But in truth, judge PowelVs words would not have given the least colour to such a ri diculous distinction, if they had been fairly quoted. He affirms with the strongest empha sis, that to make it a libel, it must be false, it must be malicious, and it must tend to sedi tion. (Let it be observed that these three qualities of a libel against the governraent are in the conjunctive) his subsequent words are these, " as to tbe falsehood, I see nothing that is offered by the king's counsel ; nor any thing as to the raalice." Here the judge puts the proof both of the falsehood and raalice on the persecutor ; and though the falsehood in this case was a question oflaw, it wUl not be denied, but that the raalice was a question of fact Now shall we attribute this omission to the inadvertency ofthe reraarker? No, that cannot be supposed ; for the sentence irarae diately foUowed. But they were nailing de cisive words, which if they were fairly quoted, had put an end to the dispute, and left tbe re marker without the least room for evasion; and therefore he very honestly dropped them. Our author says it is necessary to consult Bracton, in order to fix our idea of a libel. Now Bracton, throughout his five books de legibus, et consuetudinibits anglice, only once happens to mention libels, very perfunctorily. He says, no more than, that a man may re ceive an injury by a lampoon and things of that nature. Pit injuria cum de eo factum carmen famosum et heujusmodi. Pray how POLITICAL ECONOMY. 439 is any person's idea of a libel the better fixt hy this description of it? Our author very sa gaciously observes, on these words of Brac ton, that the falsity of a libel is neither ex pressed nor implied by them. That it is not expressed is self-evident ; but that it is not implied, we have only the remarker's ipse dixit for it But it was reaUy idle and impertinent to draw this ancient lawyer into the dispute, as nothing could be learned from hira, only that a libel is an injury, which every body wUl readily grant I have good ground to suspect, that our author did not consult Brac ton on this occasion ; the passage cited in the remarks, is literally transcribed from Coke's ninth report, folio 60 ; by which an unlearned reader might be easily led to believe, that our author was well skilled in ancient learning : ridiculous affectation and pedantry this. To follow the remarker through all his in- coherencies and absurdities, would be irk some ; and indeed nothing is more vexatious than to be obliged to refiite lies and nonsense. Besides, a writer who is convicted of imposing wUful falsehoods on the reader, ought to be regarded with abhorrence and contempt. It is for this reason I have treated hira with an acri mony of style, which nothing but his raalice and want of sincerity, and not his ignorance, his dullness, or vanity, could have justified : however, as to the precedents and proceed ings against libelling, before the case of the seven bishops, he ought to be left undisturbed in the full enjoyment of the honour he has justly acquired by transcribing them from common-place books, and publishing them in gazettes. Pretty speculations these to be in serted in newspapers, especially when they come clothed and loaded under the jargon and tackle ofthe law. I ara sure that by this time the reader raust be heartily tired with the little I have offered on the subject, though I have endeavoured to speak so as to be understood ; yet it in some measure appeared necessary to expose the fol ly and ignorance of this author, inasmuch as he seeraed to be cherished by sorae pernicious insects ofthe profession, who neglecting the noblest parts feed on the rotten branches of the law. Besides, the liberty of the press would be wholly abolished, if the remarker could have propagated the doctrine of punishing truth. — Yet he declares he would not be thought to derogate from that noble privUege of a free peo ple. How does he reconcUe those contradic tions? why truly thus: he says, that the li berty ofthe press is a bulwark and two-edged weapon, capable of cutting two ways, and is only to be trusted in the hands of raen of wit and address, and not with such fools as rail without art. I pass over the blunder of his calling a bulwark a two-edged weapon, for a lawyer is not supposed to be acquainted with mUitary terms ; but is it not highly ridiculous, that the gentleraan wUl not allow a squib to be fired frora the bulwark of liberty, yet free ly gives perraission to erect on it a liattery of cannon. Upon the whole, to suppress inquiries into the adrainistration is good policy in an arbi trary governraent ; but a free constitution and freedom of speech, have such a reciprocal de pendence on each other, that they cannot sub sist without consisting together. On Government. — Frora the Pennsylvania Gazette, AprU 1,1736. Government is aptly corapared to archi tecture; if the superstructure is too heavy for the foundation, the building totters, though as sisted by outward props of art. But leaving it to every body to mould the similitude accord ing to his particular fancy, I shall only ob serve, that the people have made the most con siderable part of the legislature in every free state ; which has been more or less so, in propor tion to the share they have had in the adminis tration of affairs. The English constitution is fixt on the strongest basis, we choose whom soever we please for our representatives, and thus we have all the advantages of a democra cy, without any of its inconveniences. Popular governments have not been frara ed without the wisest reasons. It seemed highly fitting, that the conduct of magistrates created by and for the good of the whole should be made liable to the inspection and animadversion of the whole. Besides, there could not be a raore potent counterpoise to the designs of arabitious men, than a multitude that hated and feared ambition. Moreover the power they possessed though great col lectively, yet being distributed among a vast number, the share of each individual was too inconsiderable to lay him under any tempta tions of turning it to a wrong use. Again, a body of people thus circurastanced, cannot be supposed to judge araiss on any essential points ; for if they decide in favour of theraselves, which is extreraely natural, their decision is just, inasmuch as whatever contributes to their benefit is a general benefit, and ad vances the real public good. Hence we have an easy solution ofthe sophism, so often pro posed by the abettors of tyranny, who tell us, that when differences arise between a prince and his subjects, the latter are incapable of being judges of the controversy, for that would be setting up judge and party in the same person. Some foreigners, have had a truer idea of our constitution. We read in the meraoirs of the late archbishop of Cambray, Fenelon, the celebrated author of Teleraachus, a con versation which he had with the pretender, 440 FRANIfLIN'S WORKS. (son of James JI. of England.) " If ever you corae to the crown of England," says the bi shop, " you will be a happy prince ; with an unliraited power to do good, and only restrain ed from doing evU." A blunt Briton, per haps, would have said in plain English, " You'll be at liberty to do as rauch good as you please, but by G — you shall do us no hurt." The bishop sweetened the pill ; for such it would appear in its siraple form, to a mind fraught with notions of arbitrary power, and educated among a people, who, with the utmost simplicity, boast of their slavery. What can be more ridiculous than to hear thera frequently object to the English gentle raen that travel in their country.* What is your king ? Coraraend rae to our grand mo narch, who can do whatever he pleases. But begging pardon of these facetious gentlemen, whom it is not my intention to disturb in their many notions of government, I shall go on to examine what were the sentiments of the an cient Romans on this head. We find that their dictator, a magistrate never created but in cases of great extremity, vested with power as absolute during his office (which never exceeded six months) as the greatest kings were never possessed of; this great ruler was liable to be caUed to an accountf by any of the tribunes of the people, whose persons were at the same time render ed sacred, by the raost soleran laws. This is evident proof, that the Romans were of opinion, that the people could not in any sense divest themselves of the supreme autho rity, by conferring the most e.xtensive power they possibly could iraagine, on one or raore persons acting as raagistrates. This appears StiU raore evident, in remark ing! '¦''at the people sat as umpire of the differ ences which had arisen between the dictator and senate, in the case of young Fabius. The great deference which Cicero paid to the judgment of the Roman people, appears by those inimitable orations, of which they were the sole judges and auditors. That great orator had a just opinion of their under standing. Nothing gave him a more sensible pleasure than their approbation. But the Ro man populace was more learned than ours — more virtuous perhaps; but their sense of discernment was not better than ours. How ever, the judgment of a whole people, espe cially of a free people, is looked upon to be in fallible, so that it is become a common proverb, that the voice of God is the voice qf the peo ple— Vox Dei est populi vox. And this is universally true, while they remain in their * au'cst ce qui voire roi ? paries moi de notre grand monarque, morblieul qui pent faire lout ce qu'il vent. t Si antiqiais duiinus plebi RomnniB esaet, (snya one ofthe tribunes.) Se audacter laturum de abrogando, a. Fabii, Dictatoris Imperio, T. Liv. lib. 22. chap. 25. J Tribunes plebis appello, (says an illustrious senator to the dictator) provoco nd populum, oumque tibi fugi- enti senatua Judicium, judicem fero. lib 8. chap. 33. proper sphere, unbiassed by faction, undeluded by the tricks of designing raen. Thank God I we are in the fuU enjoyment of all these privUeges. But can we be taught to prize them too much ? or how can we prize them equal to their value, if we do not know their intrinsic worth, and that they are not a gift bestowed upon us by other raen, but a right that belongs to us by the laws of God and nature ? Since they are our right, let us be vigilant to preserve them uninfringed, and free frora encroachraents ; if aniraosities arise, and that we should be obliged to resort to party ; let each of us range hiraself on the side which unfurls the ensigns of puilic good. Faction wiU then vanish, which if not timely sup pressed, may overturn the balance, the palla- diura of liberty, and crush us under its ruins. The design of this paper, is to assert the common rights of mankind, by endeavouring to illustrate eternal truths, that cannot be shak en even with the foundations of the world. I may take another opportunity to show, how a government founded on these principles rises into the raost beautfful structure, with all the gracesof symmetry and proportion, as much different from that raised on arbitrary power, as Roman architecture from a gothic building. Ore Government. — From the Pennsylvania Gazette, AprU 8, 1736. An ancient sage of the law,* says, — the king can do no wrong; for if he doeth wrong he is not the king.f And in another place, — when the king doth justice be is God's vicar, but when he doth unjustly he is the agent of the devil.]: The politeness ofthe latter times, has given a softer turn to the expression. It is now said, the king can do no wrong, but his ministers may. In allusion to this the parliament of 1741, declared they made war against the king for the king's service. But his raajesty affirmed that such a distinction was absurd, though by the way his own creed contained a greater absurdity, for he believed he had an authority from God to oppress the subjects, whom by the sarae authority he vvas obliged to cherish and defend. Aristotle calls all princes tyrants, from the moment they set up an interest diflerent frora that oftheir sub jects ; and this is the only definition he gives us of tyranny. Our own countryman, before cited, and the sagacious Greek, both agree on this point, that a governor who acts con trary to the ends of government, loses the title bestowed on him at his institution. It would * Bracton de leg. Angl. An author of great weight, contemporary with Henry III. t Rex non facit injuriam, qui si facit injuriam, non est rex. t Dum facit justitiamvicarius est regis seterni minis, ter autere diabolj dum decUnet ad injuriam. POLITICAL ECONOMY. 441 he highly improper to give the sarae narae to things of different qualities, or that produce different effects ; matter, while it coramuni- cates heat, is generally called jSre, but when the flames are extinguished, the appellation is changed. Soraetimes indeed the sarae sound serves to express things of a contrary nature; but that only denotes a defect, or poverty in the language. A wicked prince iraagines that the crown receives a new lustre frora absolute power, whereas every step he takes to obtain it, is a forfeiture of the crown. His conduct is as foolish as it is detestable ; he aims at glory and power, and treads the path that leads to dishonour and contempt ; he is a plague to his country, and deceives him self During the inglorious reigns of the Stuarts (except a part of queen Anne's) it vvas a per petual struggle between them and the people ; those endeavouring to subvert and these brave ly opposing the subverters of liberty. What were the consequences? One lost his life on a scaffold, another was banished. The memory of all of them stinks in the nostrils of every true lover of his country ; and their history stains with indelible blots the English annals. The reign of queen Elizabeth furnishes a beautiful contrast All her views centred in one object, which was the public good. She made it her study to gain the love of her sub jects, not by flattery or little soothing arts, but by rendering them substantial favours. It was far frora her policy to encroach on their privileges ; she augraented and secured them. And it is remarked to her eternal honour, that the acts presented to her for her royal approbation (forty or flfty of a session of par liament) were signed without any examining farther than the titles. This wise and good queen only reigned for her people, and knew that it was absurd to imagine they would pro mote any thing contrary to their own inter ests, which she so studiously endeavoured to advance. On the other hand, when this queen asked raoney of the parliaraent, they frequently gave her raore than she deraanded, and never inquired how it was disposed of, ex cept for form sake, being fully convinced she would not employ it but for the general wel fare. Happy princess, happy people I what harmony, what mutual confidence ! Seconded by the hearts and purses of her subjects, she crushed the exorbitant power of Spain, which threatened destruction to England, and chains to all Europe. That monarchy has ever since pined under the stroke, so that now when we send a man of war or two to the West Indies, it puts her into such a panic fright, that if the galleons can steal home, she sings Te Deum as for a victory. This is a true picture of government, its reverse is tyranny. Vol. IL...3K On Paper Money. Remarks and Facts relative to the American Pa per money.* In the Report of the' board of trade, dated February 9, 1764, the following reasons are given for restraining the emission of paper- bills of credit in America, as a leg al tender. 1. " That it carries the gold and silver out of the province, and so ruins the country ; as experience has shown, in every colony where it has been practised in any great degree. 2. " That the merchants trading to Ameri ca have suffered and lost by it 3. " That the restriction of it has had a beneficial effect in New England. 4. " That every medium of trade should have an intrinsic value, which paper-raoney has not. Gold and silver are therefore the fittest for this medium, as they are an equiva lent ; which paper never can be. 5. " That debtors in tfie assemblies make paper-raoney v/ith fraudulent views. 6. " That in the raiddle colonies, where the credit of the paper-raoney has been best sup ported, the bills have never kept to their no minal value in circulation ; but have con stantly depreciated to a certain degree, when ever the quantity has been increased." To consider these reasons in their order ; the first is, 1. " That paper-money carries the gold and silver out of the province, and so ruins the country ; as experience has shown, in every colony where it has been practised in any great degree." — The opinion, of its ruining the country, seeras to be merely speculative, or not otherwise founded than upon misinfor mation in the matter of fact. "The truth is, that the balance of their trade with Britain being greatly against them, the gold and sil ver are drawn out to pay that balance ; and then the necessity of some raediura of trade has induced the raaking of paper-raoney, which could not be carried away. Thus, if carry ing out all the gold and silver ruins a country, every colony was ruined before it made paper- raoney. — But, far from being ruined by it, the * The occasion ofthe Report, to which this paper is a reply, was as follows. During the war there had been a considerable and an unusal trade to America, in con. sequence ofthe great fleets and armies on foot there, and the clandestine dealings with the enemy, who were cut off from their own supplies. This made great debts. The briskness of the trade ceasing with the war, the merchants were anxious for payment, which occasion ed some confusion in the colonies, and stirred up a cla mour in England against paper-money. The board of trade, of which lord Hillsborough was the chief, joined in this opposition to paper-money, as appears by ihere- port. Dr. Franklin being asked to draw up an answer to the report, wrote the paper given here; adapted to the then condition ofthe colonies ; in relation to which the principles are sound ; but in relation to Great Bri tain no more is said than what is accordant wilh uni- versal experience. When paper was over.issued in lieu of money, bankruptcies followed, and tbe British credi tors suffered accordingly ; as they have since suffered through sirailar causes, 442 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. colonies that have made use of paper-raoney have been, and are all in a thriving condition. The debt indeed to Britain has increased, be cause their nurabers, and of course their trade, have increased ; for all trade having always a proportion of debt outstanding, which is paid in its turn, whUe fresh debt is contracted, the proportion of debt naturally increases as the trade increases; but the iraprovement and in crease of estates in the colonies have been hi a greater proportion than their debt New England, particularly in 1696 (about the time they began the use of paper-money) had in all its four provinces but 130 churches or con gregations; in 1760 they were 530. The nuraber of farras and buildings there is in creased in proportion to the numbers of peo ple; and the goods exported to them from England in 1750, before the restraint took place, were near five tiraes as much as before they had paper-money. Pennsylvania, before it made any paper-money, was totally stript of its gold and silver ; though they had frora time to time, like the neighbouring colonies, agreed to take gold and sUver coins at higher nominal values, in hopes of drawing raoney in to, and retaining it, for the internal uses ofthe province. During that weak practice, sUver got up by degrees to 8s. 9d. per ounce, and Eng lish crowns were caUed six, seven, and eight shUling pieces, long before paper-money was made. But this practice of increasing the denoraination was found not to answer the end. The balance of trade carried out the gold and silver as fast as they were brought in ; the raerchants raising the price of their goods in proportion to the increased denorai nation of the raoney. The difficulties for want of cash were accordingly very great, the chief part of the trade being carried on bythe extremely inconvenient raethod of bar ter ; when in 1723 paper-raoney was first made there, which gave new life to business, proraoted greatly the settlement of new lands (by lending sraall sums to beginners on easy interest, to be repaid by instalments) where by the province has so greatly increased in inhabitants, that the export frora hence thither is now raore than tenfold what it then was ; and by their trade with foreign colo nies, they have been able to obtain great quan tities of gold and silver to rerait hither in re turn for the manufactures of this country. New York and New Jersey have also increas ed greatly during the same period, with the use of paper-money ; so that it does not ap pear to be of the ruinous nature ascribed to it. And if the inhabitants of those countries are glad to have the use of paper among themselves, that they may thereby be enabled to spare, for remittances hither, the gold and silver they obtain by their commerce with fo reigners ; one would expect, that no objection against their parting with it could arise here, in the country that receives it The 2d reason is, " That the merchants trading to America have suffered and lost by the paper-money." — This raay have been the case in particular instances, at particular tiraes and places : as in South Carolina, about 58 years since ; when the colony was thought in danger of being destroyed by the Indians and Spaniards ; and the British raerchants, in fear of losing their whole effects there, called precipitately for reraittances ; and the inha bitants, to get soraething lodged in safe coun tries, gave any price in paper-money for bUls of exchange; whereby the paper, as corapared with bills, or with produce, or other effects fit for exportation, was suddenly and greatly de preciated. The unsettled state of government for a long tirae in that province had also its share in depreciating its bills. But since that danger blew over, and the colony has been in the hands of the crown ; their currency be came fixed, and has so remained to this day. Also in New England, when ratich greater quantities were issued than were necessary for a raedium of trade, to defray the expedi tion against Louisbourg ; and, during the last war in Virginia and North Carolina, when great sums were issued to pay the colony troops, and the war made tobacco a poorer re mittance, from the higher price of freight and insurance : in these cases, the raerchants trading to those colonies raay soraetimes have suffered by the sudden and unforeseen rise of exchange. By slow and gradual rises, they seldora suffer ; the goods being sold at propor tionable prices. But war is a common cala mity in all countries, and the raerchants that deal with thera cannot expect to avoid a share of the losses it soraetimes occasions, by affect ing public credit It is hoped, however, that the profits of their subsequent commerce with those colonies may have raade them some re paration. And the raerchants trading to the middle colonies (New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania) have never suffered by any rise of exchange ; it having ever been a constant rule there, to consider British debts as pay able in Britain, and not to be discharged but by as much paper (whatever might be Ihe rate of exchange) as would purchase a bill for the full sterling sum. On the contrary, the mer chants have been great gainers by the use of paper-raoney in those colonies ; as it enabled them to send rauch greater quantities of goods, and the purchasers to pay more punc tually for thera. And the people there make no complaint of any injury done thera by pa per-raoney with a legal tender; they are sensible of its benefits; and petition to have it so allowed. The 3d reason is, " That the restriction has had a beneficial effect in New England.'^ POLITICAL ECONOMY. 443 Particular circurastances in the New Eng- 1 land colonic^ raade paper-money less neces sary aiid less convenient to thera. They have great and valuable fisheries of whale and cod, by which large reraittances can be made. They are four distinct governments; but having much rautual intercourse of dealings, the money of each used to pass current in all : but the whole of this coramon currency not being under one coraraon direction, was not so easily kept within due bounds : the prudent reserve of one colony in its eraissions being rendered useless by excess in another. The Massachusetts, therefore, were not dissatisfied with the restraint, as it restrained their neigh bours as well as theraselves ; and perhaps they do not desire to have the act repealed. They have not yet felt much inconvenience frora it ; as they were enabled to abolish their paper- currency, by a large sura in silver from Bri tain to reimburse their expenses in taking Louisbourg, which, with the gold brought frora Portugal, by raeans of their fish, kept them supplied with a currency ; tUl the late war furnished them and aU Araerica with bills of exchange; so that little cash was needed for reraittance. Their fisheries too furnish them with remittance through Spain and Por tugal to England ; which enables them the more easily to retain gold and silver in their country. The middle colonies have not this advantage; nor have they tobacco ; which in Virginia and Maryland answers the sarae purpose. When colonies are so different in their circumstances, a. regulation, that is not inconvenient to one or a few, raay be very rauch so to the rest But the pay is now be come so indifferent in New England, at least in some of its provinces, through the want of currency, that the trade thither is at present under great discouragement. The 4th reason is, " That every mediura oftrade should havean intrinsic value ; which paper-money has not. Gold and silver are therefore the fittest for this medium, as they arean equivalent; which paper never care Je." However fit a particular thing may be for a particular purpose ; wherever that thing is not to be had, or not to be had in sufficient quantity ; it becomes necessary to use sorae thing else, the fittest that can be got, in lieu ofit Gold and silver are not the produce of North Araerica, which has no raines; and that which is brought thither cannot be kept there in sufficient quantity for a currency. Britain, an independent great state, when its inhabitants grow too fond of the expensive luxuries of foreign countries, that draw away itsmoney, can, and frequently does, raake laws to discourage or prohibit such importations ; and by that means can retain its cash. The colonies are dependent governments; and their people having naturally great respect for the sovereign country, and being thence iramoderately fond of its modes, manufactures, and superfluities, cannot be restrained from purchasing thera by any province law ; be cause such law, if made, would immediately be repealed here, as prejudicial to the trade and interest of Britain. It seems hard there fore, to draw all their real money frora thera, and then refuse thera the poor privilege of using paper instead of it. Bank bills and bankers' notes are daily used here as a raedium of trade, and in large dealings perhaps the greater part is transacted by their means; and yet they have no intrinsic value, but rest on the credit of those that issue them ; as paper-bills in the colonies do on the credit of the respective governments there. Their be ing payable in cash upon sight by the draw er is indeed a circumstance that cannot attend the colony bills, for the reason just above- mentioned ; their cash being drawn from them by the British trade: but the legal tender being substituted in its place, is rather a greater advantage to the possessor ; since he need not be at the trouble of going to a par ticular bank or banker to demand the money, finding (wherever he has occasion to lay out raoney in the province) a person that is oblig ed to take the bills. So that even out of the province, the knowledge, that every man within that province is obliged to take its raoney, gives the bills credit among its neigh bours, nearly equal to what they have at horae. And were it not for the laws here, that re strain or prohibit as rauch as possible all los ing trades, the cash of this country would soon be exported : every merchant, who had oc casion to remit it, would run to the bank with all its bills, that carae into his hands, and take out his part of its treasure for that purpose ; so that in a short tirae, it would be no more able to pay bills in money upon sight, than it is now in the power of a colony treasury so to do. And if governraent afterwards should have occasion for the credit of the bank, it raust of necessity make its bills a legal ten der ; funding thera however on taxes which they raay in time be paid off; as has been the general practice in the colonies. — At this very time, even the silver-money in England is obliged to the legal tender for part of its value ; that part which is the difference be tween its real weight and its denoraination. Great part of the shiUings and sixpences now current are, by wearing become five, ten, twenty, and some of the sixpences even fifty per cent too light. For this difference be tween the real and the nominal, you have no intrinsic value ; you have not so much as pa per, you have nothing. It is the legal tender, with the knowledge that it can easily be re passed for the same value, that raakes three- pennyworth of silver pass for sixpence. Gold and silver have undoubtedly some properties that give them a fitness above paper, as a 444 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. medium of exchange : particularly their uni versal estimation; especially in cases where a country has occasion to carry its money abroad, either as a stock to trade with, or to purchase allies andforeign succours. Other wise, that very universal estimation is an in convenience, which paper-money is free from; since it tends to deprive a country of even the quantity of currency that should be retained as a necessary instruraent of its internal com merce, and obliges it to be continually on its guard in making and executing, at a great ex pense, the laws that are to prevent the trade which exports it— Paper-money weU funded has another great advantage over gold and sUver ; its lightness of carriage, and the little roora that is occupied by a great sum ; where by it is capable of being more easily, and more safely, because raore privately, conveyed from place to place. Gold and silver are not in trinsically of equal value with iron, a metal in itself capable of many more beneficial uses to mankind. Their value rests chiefly in the estimation they happen to be in among the generality of nations, and the credit given to the opinion, that that estimation will continue. Otherwise a pound of gold would not he a real equivalent for even a bushel of wheat Anjr other well-founded credit, is as much an equivalent as gold and silver; and in some cases raore so, or it would not be preferred by commercial people in different countries. Not to mention again our own bank bills; Holland, which understands the value of cash as well as any people in the world, would never part with gold and silver for credit (as they do when they put it into their bank, from whence little of it is ever afterwards drawn out) if they did not think and find the credit a full equivalent The fifth reason is, " That debtors ire the assemblies make paper-money with fraudulent views." This is often said by the adversaries of paper-money, and if it has been tbe case in any particular colony, that colony should, on proof of the fact, be duly punished. This, however, would be no reason for punishing other colonies, who have not so abused their legislative powers. To deprive all the colo nies of the convenience of paper-raoney, be cause it has been charged on sorae of them, that they have raade it an instrument of fraud, as if all the India, bank, and other stocks and trading companies were to be abolished, be cause there have been, once in an age, Mis sissippi and South-sea schemes and bubbles. The sixth and last reason is, " That in the middle colonies, where the paper-money has been best supported, the bills have never kept to their norainal value in circulation; but have constantly depreciated to a certain de gree, whenever the quantity has been increas ed." If the rising of the value of any parti cular comraodity wanted for exportation, is to be considered as a depreciation of the values of whatever remains in the country ; then the rising of silver above paper to that height of additional value, which its capability of export ation only gave it, may be called a deprecia tion of the paper. Even here, as bullion has been wanted or not wanted for exportation, its price has varied frora 5s. 2d. to 5s. 8d. per ounce. This is near 10 per cent. But was it ever said or thought on such an occasion, that all the bank bills, and all the coined sil ver, and all the gold in the kingdom, were de preciated 10 per cent? Coined silver is now wanted here for change, and 1 per cent is given for it by sorae bankers : are gold and bank notes therefore depreciated 1 per cent ? The fact in the raiddle colonies is really this : on the emission of the first paper-money, a difference soon arose between that and silver ; the latter having a property the forraer had not, a property always in demand in the colo nies; to wit, its being fit for a remittance. This property having soon found its value, by the raerchants bidding on one another for it, and a dollar thereby coming to be rated at 8s. in paper-money of New York, and 7s. Qd. in paper of Pennsylvania, it has continued uni forraly at those rates in both provinces now near forty years, without any variation upon new eraissions ; tbough, in Pennsylvania, the paper-currency has at tiraes increased from 15,000?. the flrst sum, to 6OO,O0OZ. or near it Nor has any alteration been occasioned by tbe paper-raoney, in the price of the necessaries of life, when corapared with sUver : they have been for the greatest part of the time no higher than before it was emitted ; varying only by plenty and scarcity, or by a less or greater foreign demand. It has indeed been usual with the adversaries of a paper-currency, to call every rise of exchange with London, a de preciation ofthe paper : but this notion appears to be by no means just : for if the paper pur chases every thing but bills of exchange, at the forraer rate, and these bUls are not above one tenth of what is employed in purchases; then it may be more properly and truly said, that tbe exchange has risen, than that the pa per has depreciated. And as a proof of this, it is a certain fact, that whenever in those co lonies bills of exchange have been dearer, tbe purchaser has been constantly obliged to give more in sUver, as well as in paper, for them ; the silver having gone hand in hand with the paper at the rate above-mentioned ; and there fore it might as well have been said, that the silver vvas depreciated. There have been several different schemes for furnishing the colonies vvith paper-money, that should not be a legal tender, viz. 1. To form a bank, in imitation of the bank of England, with a sufficient slock of cash to pay the bills on sight This has been often proposed, but appears POLITICAL ECONOMY. 445 impracticable, under the present circum stances ofthe colony-trade ; which, as is said above, draws all the cash to Britain, and would soon strip the bank. 2. To raise a fund by some yearly tax, se curely lodged in the bank of England as it arises, which should (during the terra of years for which the paper-bills are to be current) accumulate to a sum sufficient to discharge them all at their original value. This has been tried in Maryland : and the bills so funded were issued without being made a general legal tender. The event was, that as notes payable in time are naturally sub ject to a discount proportioned to the tirae ; so these bUls fell at the beginning of the term so low, as that twenty pounds of them became worth no more than twelve pounds in Penn sylvania, the next neighbouring province ; though both had been struck near the sarae time at the same nominal value, but the lat ter was supported by the general legal tender. The Maryland bUls, however, began to rise as the term shortened, and towards the end re covered their full value. But, as a -depre ciating currency injures creditors, this injur ed debtors ; and by its continually changing value, appears unflt for the purpose of money, which should be as fixed as possible in its own value ; because it is to be the measure ofthe value of other things. 3. To make the bills carry an interest suf ficient to support their value. This too has been tried in some ofthe New England colonies; but great inconveniences were found to attend it The bills, to fit them for a currency, are raade of various denomi nations, and some very low, for the sake of change ; there are of thera from lOZ. down to '6d, When they first come abroad, they pass easily, and answer the purpose well enough for a few raonths ; but as soon as the interest becomes worth computing, the calculation of it on every little bill in a sum between the dealer and his custoraers, in shops, ware houses, and raarkets, takes up much time, to the great hinderance of business. This evil, however, soon gave place to a worse ; for the bills were in a short tirae gathered up and hoarded ; it being a very tempting advantage to have money bearing interest, and the prin ciple all the whUe in a man's power, ready for bargains that may offer ; which money out on mortgage is not By this means nurabers of people became usurers with small sums, who could not have found persons to take such suras of them upon interest, giving good se curity ; and would therefore not have thought ofit; but would rather have eraployed the money in some business, if it had been money ofthe common kind. Thus trade, instead of being increased by such bUls, is dirainished ; and by their being shut up in chests, the very end of making them (viz. to furnish a medium 38 of commerce) is in a great measure, if not to tally defeated. On the whole, no method has hitherto been formed to establish a medium of trade, in lieu of raoney, equal in all its advantages, to bills of credit — funded on sufficient taxes for dis charging it, or on land-security ofdouble the value, for repaying it at the end of the terra ; and in the raean tirae, raade a general lb- OAL TENDER. On Coin. The clamour made of the great inconveni ences, suffered by the community in regard to the coin of this kingdora, prompted me in the beginning of his raajesty's reign to give the public sorae reflections on coin in gene ral ; on gold and silver as merchandise : and I added my thoughts on paper passing as raoney. As I trust the principles then laid down are founded in truth, and will serve now as well as then, though raade fourteen years ago, to change any calculation, would be of little use. Some sections, in the foregoing essay of principles oftrade, raight in this appendix, ap pear like a repetition, have been oraitted. I always resolved not to enter into any par ticular deduction from laws relating to coin ; or into any minutia, as to accurate nicety, in weights. My intention was, and stUl is, no raore than to endeavour to show, as briefly as possible; that what relates to coin, is not of such a complex, abstruse nature as it is gene rally raade : and that no raore than comraon justice with common sense are required, in all regulations concerning it. Perhaps raore weighty concerns raay have prevented governraent doing raore in regard to coin, than ordering quarter guineas to be raade ; which tUl this reign had not been done. But as I now judge by the late acts relating to gold coin, that the legislature is roused : possibly they raay consider still more oftbat, as weU as of silver coin. Should these reflections prove of any public utility, my end wiU be answered. 1. Coins are pieces of raetal, on which an impression is struck ; which irapression is un derstood by the legislature to ascertain the weight, and the intrinsic value, or worth of each piece. 2. The real value of coins depends not on a piece being called a guinea, a crown, or a shiUing; but the true worth of any particu lar piece of gold, or silver, is what such piece contains of fine or pure gold or silver. 3. Silver and copper being raixed with gold, and copper with sUver, are general ly understood, to render those metals more 446 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. durable when circulating in coins: yet air and raoisture evidently affect copper, whe ther by itself or mixed with other metal; whereas pure gold or silver are rauch less af fected or corroded thereby. 4 The quantity of sUver and copper so mixed by way of alloy, is fixed by the legisla ture. When melted with pure raetal, or ad ded, or extracted to raake a lawful proportion, both gold and sUver are brought to what is called standard. This alloy of silver and copper is never reckoned of any value. The standard once fixed, should ever be invariable ; since any alteration would be followed by great confusion, and detriment to the state. 5. It is for public convenience, and for fa cilitating the bartering between mankind for their respective wants, that coins were in vented and made ; for were there no coins, gold and sUver might be made, or left pure ; and what we now call a guinea's worth of any thing, might be cut offfrpm gold, and a crown's worth from silver, and raight serve, though not so commodiously as coin. 6. Hence it is evident that in whatever shape, form, or quality, these metals are, they are brought to be the raost comraon raeasure between raan and man, as serving to barter against, or exchange for, all kinds of comrao dities ; and consequently are no more than an universal accepted merchandise : for gold and sUver in bullion, that is to say in an uncoined mass, and gold or silver in coin, being of equal weight, purity, and fineness, raust be of equal value, the one to the other : for the stamp on either of these metals, duly proportioned, nei ther adds to, nor takes frora their intrinsic value ? 7. The prices of gold and silver as raerchan- dise, raust in all countries, like other corarao- dities, fluctuate and vary according to the de mand ; and no detriraent can arise therefrom, raore than frora the rise and fall of any other merchandise. But if when coined, a due pro portion of these raetals, the one to the other, be not established, the disproportion wUl be felt and proved ; and that metal wherein the excess in the proportion is allowed, will pre ferably be made use of, either in exportation, or in manufacture ; as is the case now, in this kingdora, in regard to silver coin, and which, in some raeasure, is the occasion of its scarcity. For so long as 15 ounces and about one fifth of pure silver in Great Britain, are ordained, and deemed, to be equal to 1 ounce of pure gold, whilst in neighbouring states, as France and Holland, the proportion is fixed only 14 and a halfouncesof pure silver, to one ounce of pure gold ; it is very evident, that our sil ver when coined, will always be the most ac ceptable merchandise, by near five in the hun dred, and consequently more liable to be taken away, or raelted down, than before it received the impression at the mint 8. 62shillingsonly,areordained bylawtobe coined from 12 ounces of standard sUver : now following the proportion above mentioned of 15 one fifth to 14 one half, no regard being necessary as to alloy, 65 shillings should be the quantity cut out of those 12 ounces. 9. No everlasting invariable fixation for coining, can be made from a medium of the market price of gold and sUver, though that mediura might with ease be ascertained so as to hinder, either coined gold or sUver frora be- coramg a merchandise : for whenever the price shall rise above that medium, so as to give a profit; whatever is coined will be made a merchandise. This in the nature of things, must corae frora the general exchang- ings, circulation, and fluctuation in trade, and cannot be hindered ; but assuredly the false proportions may be amended by the legisla ture, and settled as the proportion between gold and silver is in other nations ; so as not to raake, as now is the case, our coined sUver a raerchandise, so much to be preferred to the same silver uncoined. 10. What has been said seems to be self- evident ; but the following calculations made on the present current price of silver and gold, may serve to prove beyond all doubt, that the proportion now fixed between gold and silver should be altered and fixed as in other coun tries. By law, 62 shillings are to be coined out of one pound, or 12 ounces of standard silver. This is 62 pence an ounce. Melt these 62 shUlings, and in a bar, this jiound weight at market vvUl fetch 68 pence an ounce, or 68 shillings the pound. The difference therefore between coined and uncoined silver in Great Britain is now nine and two tliirds per cent. Out of a pound or 12 ounces of standard gold, 44 guineas and ^ are ordained to be coined. This is 31. 17s. lOid. an ounce. Now the current raarket price of standard gold is 31. 19s. an ounce, which makes not quite 1^ per cent difference between the coined and uncoined gold. The state, out of duties imposed, pays for the charge of coining, as indeed it ought: for it is for public convenience, as already said, that coins are made. It is the current raarket price of gold and silver, that must govern tlie carrying it to the mint It is absurd to think any one should send gold to be coined that should cost raore than 31. 17s. W^d. an ounce, or silver raore than 62 pence the ounce : and, as absurd would it be, to pretend, that those prices only shall be tlie constant invariable prices. It is contended that there is not a proper proportion fixed in the value of one raetal to another, and this requires alteration. 11. It may be urged, that should the legis lature fix the proportion of silver to gold as in other countries, by ordering 65 shillings in stead of 62 to be cut out of a pound of stand- POLITICAL ECONOMY. 447 ard silver ; yet still there would be 4J per cent, difference between coined and uncoin ed silver ; whereas there is but about 1| per cent difference in gold. On this we shall observe that the course of trade, not to raention extraordinary accidents, will make one metal more in request at one time than another ; and the legislature in no one particular country, can bias, or prescribe rules or laws to influence, such demand ; which ever must depend on the great chain of things, in which all the operations of this world are linked. Freedora and security only are wanted in trade : nor does coin require raore, if a just proportion in the raetals be settled. l'2r To return to gold: it is raatter of sur prise, that the division of the piece called a guinea, has not been raade smaller than just one half, as it now is ; that is into quarters, thirds, and two thirds. Hereby the want of silver coin might be greatly provided for ; and those pieces, together with the light sUver coin, which can only now remain with us, would sufficiently serve the uses in circulation. In Portugal, where almost all their coin is gold, there are divisions of the moedas, or 27 shilling pieces, into tenths, sixths, quarters, thirds, halves, and two thirds. Ofthe moeda and one third, or 36 shilling piece, into eights, quarters, and halves. 13. That to the lightness of the silver coin now remaining in Great Britain, we owe all the silver coin we now have, any person with weights and scales, may prove ; as upwards of 70 shillings coined in the reign of king WUliam, or dexterously counterfeited by false coiners, will scarce weigh 12 ounces, or a pound troy. 14. All the art of man can never hinder a constant exportation and importation of gold and silver, to raake up for the different calls and balances that raay happen in trade : for were silver to be coined as above, 65 shillings out of a pound troy weight of standard silver ; if those 65 shillings would sell at a price that makes it worth whUe to melt or export thera, they raust and wUl be considered and used as merchandise : and the same wUl hold as to gold. Though the proportion of about 14J of pure silver, to one of pure gold, in neighbouring states be now fixed, in regard to their coin, and it is submitted such proportion should be attended to in this kingdora, yet that propor tion may be subject to alteration : for this. plain reason, that should the silver mines pro duce a quantity of that metal so as to make it greatly abound raore in proportion than it now does, and the gold mines produce no more than now they do, more silver must be requisite to purchase gold. 15. That the welfare of any state depends »n its keeping all its gold and silver, either in bullion or in coin, is a very narrow prin ciple ; all the republics we know of, wisely think otherwise. It is an utter impossibility ; nor should it ever be airaed at ; for gold and silver are as clearly a merchandise, as lead and tin ; and consequently should have a perfect freedom and liberty,* coined and uncoined, to go and to come, pass and repass, frora one country to another, in the general circulation and fluctuation of commerce, which will ever carry a general balance with it : for we should as soon give our lead, our tin, or any other product of our land or industry to those who want them, without an equivalent in sorae shape or other, as we should gold or silver ; which it would be absurd to iraagine can ever be done by our nation, or by any na tion upon earth. 16. From Spain and Portugal come the greatest part of gold and sUver : and the Spa nish court very wisely permits the exportation of it on paying a duty, as in great Britain lead and tin do, when exported ; whereas hereto fore, and as it still continues in Portugal, pe nal laws were enacted against the sending it outof the country. Surely princes by enact ing such laws, could not think they had it in their power to decree and establish that their subjects, or theraselves, should not give an equivalent for what was furnished to them I 17. It is not our intention to descend into, or to discuss rainutely, particular notions or systems, such as " That silver, and not gold should be the standard money or coin." " That copper is an unfit material for mo.- ney." And " That paper circulating as, and call-. ed artificial money is detrimental." Yet as these doctrines seera to proceed from considering bullion, and raoney, or coin, in a different light from what we apprehend and have laid down, we will observe, 18. That it raatters not whether silver or gold be called standard money ; but it seems most rational, that the most scarce, and pre cious metal, should be the unit or standard. 19. That as to copper, it is as fit for raoney or a counter, as gold and silver ; provided it be coined of a proper weight and fineness : and just so rauch will be useful, as will serve to raake up small parts in exchanges between man and raan. 20. That as to paper money, it is far from be ing detriraental ; on the contrary, it is highly profitable, as its quick passing between raan- * As a general principle this is unquestionably true ; but it must be general, or every nation with whom commerce is extensively carried on, must alike adopt it, or the principle immediately assumes an exceptionable character ; and nations liable to be effected by it must provide means to counteract the elTecls of a sudden drain of the usual circulating medium, because the absence of a great quantity of the medium alters the price of ex change, of labour, goods, wages, rents, and the relative exchange of current money, subsistence ; and depreci. ales all other property. 448 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. kind, instead of teUing over, or weighing me tal in coin, or bullion, is a gain of what is most precious in life, which is tirae. And there is nothing clearer than that those who raust be concerned in counting and weighing, being at liberty to eraploy theraselves on other pur poses, are an addition of hands in the cora- munity. The idea of the too great extension of cre dit, by the circulation of paper for money, is evidently as erroneous, as the doctrine of th^ non-exportation of gold and silver in bul lion or coin: for were it not certain, that pa per could command the equivalent of its agreed-for value ; or that gold and sUver in bullion or coin exported, would be returned in the course oftrade in some other merchandise ; neither paper would be used, or the raetals ex ported. It is by raeans of the produce of the land, and the happy situation of this island, joined to the industry of its inhabitants, that those much adored raetals, gold and sUver, have been procured : and so long as the sea does not overflow the land, and industry conti nues, so long will those metals not be wanting. And paper in the general chain of credit and coramerce, is as useful as they are : since the issuers or coiners of that paper are understood to have some equivalent to answer for what the paper is valued at : and no raetal or coin can do more than find its value. Moreover, as incontestable advantages of paper, we raust add, that the charge of coin ing or raaking it, is by no means proportion ate to that of coining of raetals: nor is subject to waste by long use, or impaired by adulte ration, sweating, or flling, as coins may. Rules of Health. — From Poor Richard's Al manac, 1742. Eat and drink such an exact quantity as the constitution of thy body allows of, in re ference to tbe services of the mind. They that study rauch, ought not to eat so much as those that work hard, their digestion being not so good. The exact quantity and quality being found out, is to be kept to constantly. Excess in all other things whatever, as well as in raeat and drink, is also to be avoided. Youth, age, and sick, require a different quantity. And so do those of contrary coraplexions ; for that which is too rauch for a phlegraatic man, is not sufficient for a choleric. The measure of food ought to be (as rauch as possibly may be) exactly proportionable to the quality and condition of the stomach, be cause the stomach digests it That quantity that is sufficient, the stomach can perfectly concoct and digest, and it suf- ficeth the duo nourishtient ofthe body. A greater quantity of some things raay be eaten than of others, some being of lighter di gestion than others. The difficulty lies, in finding out an exact raeasure ; but eat for necessity, not pleasure ; for lust knows not where necessity ends. Wouldst thou enjoy a long life, a healthy body, and a vigorous mind, and be acquaint ed also with the wonderful works of God, la bour in the first place to bring thy appetite to reason. Rules for a Club formerly established in Phi ladelphia.* Previous question, to be answered at every meet ing. Have you read over these queries this raorning, in order to consider what you raight have to offer the Junto touching any one of them? viz. 1. Have you met with any thing, in the author you last read, remarkable, or suitable to be communicated to the Junto ? particular ly in history, morality, poetry, physic, tra vels, mechanic arts, or other parts of know ledge ? 2. What new story have you lately heard agreeable for telling in conversation ? 3. Hath any citizen in your knowledge fail ed in his business lately, and what have you heard of the cause ? 4. Have you lately heard of any citizen's thriving well, and by what means ? 5. Have you lately heard how any present rich man, here or elsewhere, got his estate ? 6. Do you know of a fellow-citizen, who has lately done a worthy action, deserving praise and imitation : or who has lately cora- mitted an error, proper for us to be warned against and avoid ? 7. What unhappy effects of intemperance have you lately observed or beard ? of impru dence ? of passion ! or of any other vice or foUy ? 8. What happy effects of temperance ? of prudence? of raoderation? or of any other virtue ? 9. Have you or any of your acquaintance been lately sick or wounded ? If so, what remedies were used, and what were their ef fects ? 10. Who do you know that are shortly go ing voyages or journies, if one should have occasion to send by them ? 11. Do you think of any thing at present, in which the Junto may be serviceable to mankind ? to their country, to their friends, or to theraselves ? '* This was an early performance. The club held in Philadelphia, was composed of men considerable for their influence and discretion, the chief measures of Pennsylvania usually received Iheir first formation m this club, il existed thirty years without the nature of its institution being publicly known. This club gave origin lo the American Philosophical Society now en isling. POLITICAL ECONOMY. 449 12. Hath any deserving stranger arrived in town since last meeting, that you heard of? and what have you heard or observed of his character or merits ? and whether think you, it lies in the power ofthe Junto to oblige hira, or encourage him as he deserves ? 13. Do you know of any deserving young beginner lately set up, whom it lies in the power ofthe Junto any way to encourage ? 14. Have you lately observed any defect in the laws of your country, of which it would he proper to move the legislature for an amendment? or do you know of any bene ficial law that is wanting ? 15. Have you lately observed any encroach ment on the just liberties of the people ? 16. Hath any body attacked your reputation lately ? and what can the Junto do towards securing it? 17. Is there any man whose friendship you want, and which the Junto, or any of thera, can procure for you ? 18. Have you lately heard any raember's character attacked, and how have you defend ed it? 19. Hath any raan injured you, from whora it is in the power ofthe Junto to procure re dress ? 20. In what manner can the Junto or any of them, assist you in any of your honourable designs ? 21. Have you any weighty affair in hand, in which you think the advice of the Junto may be of service ? 22. What benefits have you lately receiv ed from any man not present ? 23. Is there any difficulty in raatters of opinion, of justice, and injustice, which you would gladly have discussed at this tirae ? 24. Do you see any thing amiss in the pre sent customs or proceedings of the Junto, which raight be amended ? Any person to be qualified, to stand up, and lay his hand on his breast, and be asked these questions, viz. 1. Have you any particular disrespect to any present merabers ? — Answer. I have not. 2. Do you sincerely declare, that you love mankind in general ; of what profession or re- . ligion soever ? — Answer. I do. 3. Do you think any person ought to be harmed in his body, narae, or goods, for raere speculative opinions, or his external way of worship ? — Answer. No. 4. Do you love truth for truth's sake, and wiU you endeavour irapartially to find and re ceive it yourself and comraunicate it to Others ? — Answer. Yes. Is self-interest the rudder that steers man kind, the universal monarch to whom all are tributaries? Which is the best form of government, and what was that form which first prevaUed araong raankind? Can any one particular form of governraent suit all raankind ? What is the reason that the tides rise higher in the Bay of Fundy, than the Bay of Dela ware? Is the emission of paper-money" safe? What is the reason that men of the greatest knowledge are not the most happy ? How raay the possessions of the Lakes be improved to our advantage ? Why are tumultuous, uneasy sensations, united with our desires ? Whether it ought to be the aim of philoso phy to eradicate the passions ? How may smoky chiraneys be best cured ? Why does the flarae of a candle tend up wards in a spire ? Which is least crirainal, a bad action join ed with agood intention, or a good action with a bad intention ? Is it inconsistent with the principles of li berty in a free government, to punish a raan as a libeller, when he speaks the truth ? Questions discussed by the Club. Is sound an entity or body ? How may the phenomena of vapours be explained ? Vol. '^ " ^ ""^ Sketch of an English School, for the consi deration of the Trustees of the Philadel phia Academy. It is expected that every scholar, to be ad mitted into this school, be at least able to pro nounce and divide the syllables in reading, and to write a legible hand. None to be re ceived that are under — years of age. First, or lowest Class. Let the first class learn the English gram- raar rules, and at the sarae time let particular care be taken to iraprove thera in orthography. Perhaps the latter is best done by pairing the scholars : two of those nearest equal in their spelling to be put together. Let these strive for victory ; each propounding ten words every day to the other to be spelled. He that speUs truly most of the other's words is victor for that day ; he that is victor most days in a month, to obtain a prize, a pretty neat book of some kind, useful in their future studies. This method fixes the attention of chUdren extremely to the orthography of words, and makes thera good spellers very early. It is a shame for a man to be so ignorant of this lit tle art, in his own language, as to be perpetu ally confounding words of like sound and dif ferent significations ; the consciousness of which defect makes some men, otherwise of good learning and understanding, averse to writing even a coraraon letter. Let the pieces read by the scholars in thia class be short ; such as Croxall's fables, and 450 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. little stories. In giving the lesson, let it be read to thera; let the raeaning ofthe difficult words in it be explained to them : and let them con over by theraselves before they are called to read to the master or usher, who is to take particular care, that they do not read too fast, and that they duly observe the stops and pauses. A vocabulary of the most usual difficult words raight be forraed for their use, with explanations; and they raight daily get a few of those words and explanations by heart, which would a little exercise their memories; or at least they might write a nuraber of thera in a sraall book for the pur pose, which would help to fix the meaning of those words in their minds, and at the same tirae furnish every one with a little dictionary for his future use. The Second Class To be taught reading with attention, and with proper raodulations ofthe voice, accord ing to the sentiraent and the subject Some short pieces, not exceeding the length of a Spectator, to be given this class for lessons (and some of the easier Spectators would be suitable for the purpose). These lessons raight be given every night as tasks; the scholars to study thera against the morn ing. Let it then be required of them to give an account, first of the parts of speech, and construction of one or two sentences. This will oblige thera to recur frequently to their graramar, and fix its principal rules in their memory. Next, ofthe intention of the wri ter, or the scope of the piece, the meaning of each sentence, and ofevery uncommon word. This would early acquaint them with the meaning and force of words, and give them that raost necessary habit, of reading with at tention. The master then to read the piece with the proper modulations of voice, due emphasis, and suitable action, where action is required : and put the youth on imitating his manner. Where the author has used an expression not the best, let it be pointed out ; and let his beauties be particularly remarked to the youth. Let the lessons for reading be varied, that the youth may be made acquainted with good styles of all kinds, in prose and verse, and the proper manner of reading each kind — soraetiraes a well told story, a piece of a sermon, a general's speech to his soldiers, a speech in a tragedy, some part of a comedy, an ode, a satire, a letter, blank verse, Hudi- brastic, heroic, &c. But let such lessons be chosen for reading, as contain some useful in struction, whereby the understanding or mo rals of the youth may at the same tirae be im proved. It is required that they should first study and understand the lessons, before they are put upon reading them properly ; to which end each boy should have an English diction ary, to help hira over difficulties. When our boys read English to us, we are apt to ima gine they understand what they read, because we do, and because it is their mother tongue. But they often read, as parrots speak, know ing little or nothing ofthe raeaning. And it is irapossible a reader should give the due modulation to his voice, and pronounce pro perly, unless his understanding goes before his tongue, and makes him master of the sen timent. Accustoming boys to read aloud what they do not first understand, is the cause of those even set tones so common araong rea ders, which, when they have once got a ha bit of using, they find so difficult to correct : by which raeans, among fifty readers we scarcely find a good one. For want of good reading, pieces published with a view to in fiuence the minds of men, for their own or the public benefit, lose half their force. Were there but one good reader in a neighbourhood, a public orator might be heard throughout a nation with the same advantages, and have the same effect upon his audience, as ifthey stood within the reach of his voice. The Third Class To be taught speaking proper and grace fully ; which is near akin to good reading, and naturally follows it in the studies of youth. Let the scholars of this class begin with learn ing the elements of rhetoric from some short system, so as to be able to give an accountof the most useful tropes and figures. Let all their bad habits of speaking, all offences against good graramar, all corrupt or foreign accents, and all improper phrases, be pointed out to him. Short speeches from tbe Roraan, or other history, or from the legislative de bates, raight be got by heart, and delivered with the proper action, &c. Speeches and scenes in our best tragedies and comedies (avoiding every thing that could injure the morals of youth) mightlikewisebegot by rote, and the boys exercised in delivering or acting thera ; great care being taken to forra their manner after the truest models. For their farther improvement, and a little, to vary their studies, let them now begin to read history, after having got by heart a short table of the principal epochas in chronology. They may begin with RoUin's Ancient and Roman histories, and proceed at proper hours, as they go through the subsequent classes, vvith the best histories ofour own nation and colonies. Let emulation be excited among the boys, by giving, weekly, little prizes, or other small encouragements to those, who are able to give the best account of what they have read, as to time, places, names of persons, &c. This will make tliera read with atten tion, and imprint the history well on their raeraories. In remarking on the history, the master wiU have fine opportunities of instil- POLITICAL ECONOMY. 451 ling instruction of various kinds, and iraprov ing the morals, as well as the understandings, of youth. The natural and mechanic history, con tained in the Spectacle de la Nature, raight also be begun in this class, and continued through the subsequent classes, by other books ofthe same kind ; for, next to the knowledge of duty, this kind ofknowledge is certainly the most useful, as well as the most entertaining. The merchant may thereby be enabled better to understand many coraraodities in trade ; the handicraftsraan, to improve his business by new instruraents, raixtures and raaterials ; and frequently hints are given for new manu factures, or new methods of improving land, that may be set on foot greatly to the advan tage of a country. The Fourth Class To be taught composition. Writing one's own language well, is the next necessary ac complishment after good speaking. It is the writing-master's business, to take care that the boys make fair characters, and place thera straight and even in the lines : but to form their style, and even to take care that the stops and capitals are properly disposed, is the part of the English master. The boys should be taught to write letters to each other on any comraon occurrences, and on various subjects, imaginary business, &c. containing little stories, accounts of their late reading, what parts of authors please them, and why ; letters of congratulation, of compliraent, of re quest, of than ks, of recom mendation, of adrao- nition, of consolation, of expostulation, excuse, &c. In these, they should be taught to ex press theraselves clearly, concisely, and na turaUy, without affected words or high-flown phrases. All their letters to pass through the master's hand, who is to porat out the faults, advise the corrections, and coraraend what he finds right Sorae of the best letters pub lished in our own language, as sir WilUara Temple's, those of Pope and his friends, and some others, raight be set before , the youth as models, their beauties pointed out and ex plained by the raaster, the letters themselves transcribed by the scholar. Dr. Johnson's Ethices Eleraenta, or First Principles of Morality, may now be read by the scholar, and explained by the master, to lay a solid foundation of virtue and piety in their minds. And as this class continues the reading of history, let them now, at proper hours, receive some farther instruction in chro nology, and in that part of geography (from the mathematical master) which is necessary to understand the maps and globes. They should also be acquainted with the raodern names of the places they find mentioned in ancient writers. The exercises of good read ing, and proper speaking, stUl continued at suitable times. The Fifth Class. To improve the youth in coraposition, they may now, besides continuing to write letters, begin to write little essays in prose, and some times in verse ; not to raake thera poets, but for this reason, that nothing acquaints a lad so speedily with variety of expression, as the necessity of finding such words and phrases as will suit the measure, sound and rhyme of verse, and at the same time well express the sentiraent. These essays should all pass under the master's eye, who will point out their faults, and put the writer on correcting them. Where the judgment is not ripe enough for forming new essays, let the sentiraents of a Spectator be given, and required to be clothed in the scholar's own words ; or the circum stances of some good story, the scholar to find expression. Let thera be put sometiraes on abridging a paragraph of a diffuse author : soraetiraes on dUating or amplifying what is wrote raore closely. And now let Dr. John son's Noetica, or First Principles of Huraan Knowledge, containing a logic, or art of rea soning, &c. be read by the youth, and the dif ficulties, that raay occur to them, be explained by the raaster. The reading of history, and the exercises of good reading and just speak ing still continued. The Sixth Class. In this class, besides continuing the studies of the preceding in history, rhetoric, logic, raoral and natural philosophy, the best English authors may be read and explained ; as Tillot- son, Milton, Locke, Addison, Pope, Swift, the higher papers in the Spectator and Guardian, the best translations of Homer, Virgil, and Horace, of Teleraachus, Travels of Cyrus, &c. Once a year, let there be public exercises in the hall; the trustees and citizens present. Then let fine bound books be given as prizes to such boys, as distinguish themselves, and excel the others in any branch of learning, raaking three degrees of coraparison : giving the best prize to him, that performs best ; a less valuable one to hira, that comes up next to the best, and another to the third. Cora- raendations, encourageraent, and advice to the rest ; keeping up their hopes, that, by indus try, they may excel another time. The names of those, that obtain the prize, to be yearly printed in a list. The hours of each day are to be divided and disposed in such a manner, as that some classes raay be with the writing-raaster, ira proving their hands ; others with the mathe matical raaster, learning arithraetic, accounts, geography, use of the globes, drawing, me chanics, &.C. while the rest are in the Eng lish school, under the English master's care. Thus instructed, youth will come out of this school fitted for learning any business, calling, or profession, except such wherein languages are required ; and, though unac- 452 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. quainted with any ancient or foreign tongue, they will be raasters of their own, which is of more immediate and general use, and withal wUl have attained many other valuable accom plishments : the time usually spent in acquir ing those languages, often without success, being here eraployed in laying such a founda tion of knowledge and ability, as, properly iraproved, raay qualify them to pass through and execute the several offices of civil life, with advantage and reputation to themselves and country. Ore Discoveries. — From the Pennsylvania Gazette, No. 409, Oct 14, 1736. The world but a few ages since, was in a very poor condition, as to trade and navigation, nor indeed, were they rauch better in other raatters of useful knowledge. It was a green headed tirae, every useful iraprovement was hid frora them, they had neither looked into heaven, nor earth, into the sea, nor land, as has been done since. They had philosophy without experiments, mathematics without 1 instruments, georaetry without scale, astro- noray without deraonstration. They made war without powder, shot, can non, or mortars ; nay, the mob made their bonfires without squibs, or crackers. They went to sea without compass, and sailed without the needle. They viewed the stars, without telescopes, and measured latitudes without observation. Learning had no print ing-press, writing no paper, and paper no ink ; the lover was forced to send his mistress a deal board for a love-letter, and a bUlet doux raight be the size of an ordinary trencher. — They were clothed without manufacture, and their richest robes were the skins of the raost formidable raonsters; they carried on trade without books, and correspondence with out posts ; their merchants kept no accounts, their shop-keepers no cash-books, they had surgery without anatomy, and physicians with out the materia medica, they gave emetics without ipecacuanha, drew blisters without cantharides, and cured agues without the bark. As for geographical discoveries, they had neither seen the North Cape, nor the Cape of Good Hope south. All the discovered inhabited world, which they knew and con versed with, was circumscribed within very narrow liraits, viz. France, Britain, Spain, Italy, Germany, and Greece ; the Lesser Asia, the west part of Persia, Arabia, the north parts of Africa, and the islands ofthe Medi terranean sea, and this was the whole world to them ; not that even these countries were fully known neither, and several parts of them not inquired into at all. Germany was known little farther than the banks of the Elbe ; Po land as little beyond the Vistula, or Hungary a litt.e beyond the Danube ; Muscovy or Rus sia, perfectly unknown as much as China, be yond it, and India only by a little comraerce upontheooast, about Sural and Malabar; Afri ca had been raore unknown, but by the ruin of the Carthaginians, aU the western coaSt ofit was sunk out of knowledge again, and forgot ten ; the northern coast of Africa, in the Me diterranean, reraained known, and that was all, for the Saracens overrunning the nations which were planted there, ruined commerce, as well as religion ; the Baltic Sea was not discovered, nor even the navigation of it known ; for the Teutonic knights came not thither till the 13th century. America was not heard of, nor so much as a suggestion in the minds of men, that any part of the world lay that way. 'The coasts of Greenland, or Spitsbergen, and the whale fishing, not known ; the best navigators in the world, at that tirae, would have fled from a whale, with much raore fright and horror, than frora the devil, in the most terrible shapes they had been told he appeared in. The coasts of Angola, Congo, the Gold and the Grain coasts, on the west side of Africa, frora whence, since that tirae, such imraense wealth has been drawn, not discovered, nor the least inquiry made after them. All the East India and China trade, not only undisco vered, but out of the reach of expectation ! Coffee and tea, (those raodern blessings ofman- kind]J bad never been heard of: all the un bounded ocean, we now call the South Sea, was hid, and unknown : all the Atlantic Ocean, beyond the raouth of the Streigbts, was frightful and terrible in the distant pros pect, nor durst any one peep into it, other wise than as they raight creep along the coast of Africa, towards Sallee, or Santa Cruz. The North Seas was hid in a veil of irapene- trable darkness ; the White Sea, or Arch An gel, was a very modern discovery ; not found out tUl sir Hugh Willoughby doubled the North Cape, and paid dear for the adventure, being frozen to death with all his crew on the coast of Lapland ; whUe his companion's ship, with the famous Mr. Chancellor, went on to the Gulph of Russia, called the White Sea, where no Christian strangers had ever been before hira. In these narrow circurastances stood the world's knowledge at the beginning of the 15th century, when men of genius began to look abroad and about thera. Now, as it was wonderful to see a world so full of people, and people so capable of iraproving, yet so stupid, and so blind, so ignorant, and so perfectly un- iraproved ; it was wonderful to see, with what a general alacrity they took the alarm, almost all together ; preparing theraselves as it were on a sudden, by a general inspiration, to spread knowledge through the earth, and to search into every thing, that it was impossible to uncover. POLITICAL ECONOMY. 453 How surprising is it to look hack, so little a way behind us, and see, that even in less than two hundred years, all this (now so self- wise) part of the world did not so much as know, whether there was any such place, as a Russia, a China, a Guinea, a Greenland, or a North Cape ? That as to, AmericEi, it was ne ver supposed, there was any such place, nei ther had the world, though they stood upon the shoulders of four thousand years' experi ence, the least thought, so rauch as that there was any land that way I As they were ignorant of places, so of things also ; so vast are the iraproveraents of science, that all our knowledge of raathenia- tics, of nature, ofthe brightest part of huraan wisdom, had their admission among us with in these two last centuries. What was the world then, before ? And to what were the heads and hands of mankind applied ? The rich had no comraerce, the poor no employment; war and the sword was the great field of honour, the stage of preferment, and you have scarce a man eminent in the world, for any thing before that tirae, but for a furious outrageous falling upon his fellow- creatures, like Nimrod, and his successors of modern memory. The world is now daily increasing in ex- periraental knowledge ; and let no raan flat ter the age, with pretending we have arrived to a perfection of discoveries. IVhat 's now discovered, only serves to show, That nothing's known, to what is yet to know. On the Usefulness of the Mathematics. — From the Pennsylvania Gazette, No. 360, Oct. 30, 1735. Mathematics originally signifles any kind of discipline or learning, but now it is taken for that science, which teaches or contem plates whatever is capable of being numbered or measured. That part of the mathematics which relates to nurabers only, is called arithmetic; and that which is concerned about raeasure in general, whether length, breadth, motion, force, &c. is called geometry. As to the usefulness of arithmetic, it is well known that no business, coramerce, trade, or employment whatsoever, even from the raer chant to the shopkeeper, &c. can be raanaged and carried on, without the assistance of num bers; for by these the trader computes the value of all sorts of goods that he dealeth in, does his business with ease and certainty, and informs himself how matters stand at any time with respect to men, money, or merchandise, to profit and loss, whether he goes forward or backward, grows richer or poorer. Neither is this science only useful to the merchant, but is reckoned the primum mobile (or first mover) of all mundane affairs in general, and is useful for all sorts and degrees of raen, frora the highest to the lowest As to the usefulness of geometry, it is as certain, that no curious art or mechanic work, can either be invented, improved, or perform ed, without its assisting principles. It is owing to this, that astronoraers are put into a way of making their observations, coraing at the knowledge of the extent of the heavens, the duration of tirae, the motions, magnitudes, and distances of the heavenly bodies, their situations, positions, risings, set tings, aspects, and eclipses ; also the measure of seasons, of years, and of ages. It is by the assistance of this science, that geographers present to our view at once, the magnitude and form of the whole earth, the vast extent of the seas, the divisions of em pires, kingdoms, and provinces. It is by the help of geometry, the ingenious mariner is instructed how to guide a ship through the vast ocean, from one part of the earth to another, the nearest and safest way, and in the shortest tirae. By help of this science the architects take their just raeasiires for the structure of buUd ings, as private houses, churches, palaces, ships, fortifications, &c. By its help engineers conduct all their works, take the situation and plan of towns, forts and castles, measure their distances from one another, and carry their raeasure into places that are only accessible to the eye. From hence also is deduced that adrairable art of drawing sun-dials on any plane how soever situate, and for any part of world, to point out the exact tirae ofthe day, sun's de clination, altitude, amplitude, azimuth, and other astronomical matters. By georaetry, the surveyor is directed how to draw a raap of any country, to divide his lands, and to lay down and plot any piece of ground, and thereby discover the area in acres, rods, and perches. The gauger is in structed how to find the capacities or solid contents of all kinds of vessels, in barrels, gallons, bushels, &c. And the measurer is furnished with rules for finding the areas and contents of superfices and solids, and casting up all raanner of workraanship. All these and many more useful arts, too many to be enumerated here, wholly depend upon the aforesaid sciences, viz. arithraetic and geo metry. This science is descended from the infancy ofthe world, the inventors of which were the first propagators of human kind, as Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and divers others. There has not been any science so much esteemed and honoured as this of the raathe- raatics, nor with so rauch industry and vigi lance becorae the care of great men, and la boured in by the potentates of the world, viz. emperors, kings, princes, &c. 454 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. Mathematical demonstrations, are a logic of as much or more use, than that coraraonly learned at schools, serving to a just formation of the mind, enlarging its capacity, and strengthening it so, as to render the same ca pable of exact reasoning, and discerning truth from falsehood in all occurrences, even sub jects not raatheraatical. For which reason it is said, the Egyptians, Persians, and Lacede monians, seldom elected any new kings, but such as had some knowledge in the mathe matics, imagining those who had not, men of imperfect judgments, and unfit to rule and govern. Though Plato's censure, that those who did not understand the 117th proposition of the 13th book of Euclid's Eleraente, ought not to be ranked araongst rational creatures, was un reasonable and unjust; yet to give a man the character of universal learning, who is des titute of a competent knowlege in the mathe matics, is no less so. The usefulness of some particular parts of the mathematics in the coraraon affairs of hu man life, has rendered sorae knowledge of them very necessary to a great part of mankind, and very convenient to all the rest that are any way conversant beyond the limits of their own particular callings. Those whom necessity has obliged to get their bread by manual industry, where sorae degree of art is required to go along with it, and who have had some insight into these stu dies, have very often found advantages frora thera sufficient to reward the pains they were at in acquiring thera. And whatever raay have been iraputed to sorae other studies, under the notion of insignificancy and loss of time, yet these, I believe, never caused re pentance in any, except it was for their re missness in the prosecution of them. Philosophers do generally affirm, that hu man knowledge to be raost excellent, which is conversant amongst the most excellent things. What science then can there be, more noble, more excellent, more useful for men, raore admirably high and deraonstrative, than this ofthe mathematics. I shall conclude with what Plato says, lib. 7. of his Rebublic, with regard to the excel lence and usefulness of geometry, being to this purpose : " Dear Friend — You see then that mathe matics are necessary, because by the exact ness of the raethod, we get a habit of using our minds to the best advantage : and it is re markable, that all raen being capable by na ture to reason and understand the sciences ; the less acute, by studying this, though use less to them in every other respect, will gain this advantage, that their minds will be im proved in reasoning aright ; for no study em ploys It more, nor raakes it susceptible of at tention so rauch ; and these who we find have a mind worth cultivating, ought to apply themselves to this study." Causes of Earthquakes. — From the Pennsyl vania Gazette, No. 470, Dec. 15, 1737. The late earthquake felt here, and proba bly in all the neighbouring provinces, have raade many people desirous to know what raay be the natural cause of such violent con cussions ; we shall endeavour to gratify their curiosity by giving them the various opinions of the learned on that head. Here naturalists are divided. Sorae ascribe thera to water, others to fire, and others to air : and all of thera with some appearance of reason. To conceive which, it is to be ob served, that the earth every where abounds in huge subterraneous caverns, veins and canals, particularly about the roots of mountains: that of these cavities, veins, &c. sorae are full of water, whence are composed gulphs, abysses, springs, rivulets ; and others full of exhalations; and that some partsof the earth are replete with nitre, sulphur, bitumen, vi triol, &c. This premised, 1. The earth itself may soraetimes be the cause of its own shaking ; when the roots or basis of sorae large raass being dissolved, or worn away by a fluid un derneath, it sinks into the same ; and vvith its weight, occasions a tremor of the adjacent parts ; produces a noise, and fi^quently an in undation of water. 2. The subterraneous waters may occasion earthquakes, by their overflowing, cutting out new courses, &c. Add, that the water being heated and rarefied by the subterraneous fires, may emit fumes, blasts, &c. which by their action, either on the water or iraraediately on the earth itself, raay occasion great succus- sions. 3. The air may be the cause of earth quakes : for the air being a collection of fumes and vapours raised frora the earth and water ; if it be pent up in too narrow viscera of the earth, the subterraneous, or its own native heat, rarefying and expanding it, the force wherewith it endeavours to escape, raay shake the earth : hence there arise divers species of earthquakes, according to the different po sition, quantity, &c. of the iraprisoned aura. Lastly, flre is a principal cause of earth quakes ; both as it produces the aforesaid sub terraneous aura or vapours ; and as this aura, or spirit, from the different raatter and com position whereof arise sulphur, bitumen, and other inflammable matters, takes fire, either from some other fire it raeets withal, or frora its collision against hard bodies, or its inter- raixture with other fluids; by which means, bursting out into a greater compass, the place becoraes too narrow for it ; so that pressing against it on all sides, the adjoining parts are POLITICAL ECONOMY. 455 shaken; tUl having made itself a passage, it spends itself in a volcano, or burning moun tain. But to corae nearer to the point Dr. Lis ter is of opinion, that the raaterial cause of thunder, lightning, and earthquakes, is one and the same, viz. the inflararaable breath of the pyrites, which is a substantial sulphur, and takes fire of itself The difference between these three terri ble phenomena, he takes only to consist in this ; that this sulphur, in the former, is fired in the air ; and in the latter under ground : which is a notion that Pliny had long before hun : Quidenim, says he, aliud est in terra tremor, quam in nube tonitru ? This he thinks abundantly indicated by the same sulphurous smell being found in any thing burnt with lightning ; and in the wa ters, &c. cast up in earthquakes, and even in the air before and after them. Add, that they agree in the manner of the noise ; which is carried on, as in a train, fired ; the one roUing and rattling through the air, takes fire as the vapours chance to drive ; as the other fired under ground, in like raanner, moves with a desultory noise. Thunder, which is the effect of the trera- hling ofthe air, caused by the same vapours dispersed through it has force enough to shake our houses ; and why may not there be thunder and lightning under ground, in some vast repositories there, I see no reason. Es pecially if we reflect, that the matter which composes the noisy vapour above us, is in much larger quantities under ground. That the earth abounds in cavities, every body allows ; and that these subterraneous ca vities, are, at certain tiraes, and in certain seasons, full of inflararaable vapours, the damps in mines sufficiently witness, which flred, do every thing as in an earthquake, save in a lesser degree. Add, that the pyrites alone, of all the known minerals, yields this inflammable vapour, is 'highly probable : for that no mineral or ore, whatsoever, is sulphurous, but as it is wholly, or in part, a pyrites ; and that there is but one species of brimstone, which the pyrites natu rally and only yields. The sulphur vive, or natural brirastone, which is found in and about the burning mountains, is certainly the effects of sublimation ; and those great quan tities of it said to be found about the skirts of volcanoes, is only an argument of the long du ration and vehemence of those fires ; possibly, the pyrites ofthe volcanoes, or burning-raoun- tains, may be more sulphurous than ours : and indeed it is plain, that sorae of ours in England are very lean, and hold but little sulphur; others again very rauch ; which raay be one reason why England is so little troubled with earthquakes ; and Italy, and alraost all round the Mediterranean sea, so very much : though another reason is, the paucity of pyrites in England, Coraparing our earthquakes, thunder and lightning with theirs, it is observed, that there it lightens alraost daUy, especially in suraraer-tirae, here seldora ; there thunder and lightning is of long duration, here it is soon over ; there the earthquakes are frequent, long and terrible, with raany paroxysras in a day, and that for many days; here very short, a few minutes, and scarce perceptible. To this purpose the subterraneous caverns in England are small and few compared to the vast vaults in those partsof the world ; which is evident frora the sudden disappearance of whole raountains and islands. Dr. Woodward gives us another theory of earthquakes. He endeavours to show, that the subterraneous heat, or fire (which is con tinually elevating water out of the abyss, to- furnish the earth with rain, dew, springs and rivers) being stopped in any part of the earth, and so diverted from its ordinary course, by some accidental glut or obstruction in the pores or passages, through which it used to ascend to the surface ; becomes, by such means, preternaturally assembled in a greater quantity than usual into one place, and there fore causeth a great rarefaction and intumes cence of the water of the abyss; putting it into great commotions and disorders, and at the same tirae raaking the like effort on the earth ; which being expanded upon the face of the abyss, occasions that agitation and con cussion we call an earthquake. This effort in sorae earthquakes, he ob serves is so vehement, that it splits and tears the earth, making cracks and chasras in it sorae railes in length, which open at the in stant of the shock, and close again in the in tervals betwixt thera : nay, it is sometimes so violent, that it forces the superincumbent strata, breaks them all throughout, and there by perfectly undermines, and ruins the foun dation of them ; so that these failing, the whole tract, as soon as the shock is over, sinks down into the abyss, and is swallowed up by it ; the water thereof iraraediately ris ing up and forraing a lake in the place, where the said tract before was. That this effort being made in all directions indifferently, the fire dilating and expanding on all hands, and endeavouring to get room, and make its way through all obstacles, falls as foul on the waters of the abyss beneath, as on the earth above, forcing it forth, which way soever it can find vent or passage, as well through its ordinary exits, wells, springs, and the outlets of rivers, as through the chasras then newly opened ; through the camini or spiracles of Mtna, or other neighbouring volcanoes ; and these hiatus's at the bottom ofthe sea, where by the abyss below opens into it and corarau- nicates with it That as the water resident 456 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. in the abyss is, in all parts of it, stored with a considerable quantity of heat, and more es pecially in those where those extraordinary aggregations of this fire happen, so likewise is the water which is thus forced out of it; insomuch that when thrown forth and mixed with the waters of wells or springs of rivers, and the sea, it renders them very sensibly hot He adds, that though the aby.ss be liable to those commotions in all parts ; yet the effects arp no where very reraarkable except in those countries which are mountainous, and conse quently stony or cavernous underneath; and especially where the disposition ofthe strata is such, that those caverns open into the abyss, and so freely adrait and entertain the fire ; which asserabling therein is the cause of the shock : it naturally steering its course that way where it finds the readiest recep tion, which is towards those caverns. Besides, that those parts of the earth which abound with strata of stone or marble, raaking the strongest opposition to this efibrt are the most furiously shattered; and suffer rauch more by it, than those which consist of gravel sand, and the like laxer raatter, which raore easily give way, and make not so great re sistance ; but, above all, those countries which yield great store of sulphur and nitre, are, by far, the raost injured by earthquakes; those minerals constituting in the earth a kind of natural gunpowder, which taking fire upon this assemblage, and approach of it, occasions that murmurring noise, that subterraneous thunder, which is heard rurabling in the bow els of the earth during earthquakes, and by the assistance of its explosive power, renders the shock rauch greater, so as sometimes to make miserable havoc and destruction. And it is for this reason, that Italy, SicUy, Anatolia, and some parts of Greece, have been so long, and often alarmed and harassed by earthquakes ; these countries being all mountainous and cavernous, abounding with stone and raarble, and affording sulphur and nitre in great plenty. Further, that jEtna, Vesuvius, Haecla, and the other volcanoes, are only so raany spira cles, serving for the discharge of this subter raneous fire, when it is thus preternaturally asserabled. That where there happens to be such a structure and conformation of the in terior parts of the earth ; as that the fire raay pass freely, and without impediment, from the caverns wherein it assembles unto those spi racles: it then readily and easily gets out from time to time, without shaking or dis turbing the earth: but where such commu nication is wanting, or passage not sufficient ly large and open, so that it cannot come at the spiracles, it heaves up and shocks the earth with greater or lesser impetuosity, ac cording to the quantity of fire thus asserabled, tUl it has raade its way to the raouth of the volcano. That therefore there are scarce any countries much annoyed by earthquakes, but have one of these fiery vents; which are constantly in flaraes when any earthquake happens ; as disgorging that fire, which whUst underneath was the cause of the disaster. Lastly, that were it not for these diverticula, it would rage in the bowels of the earth much raore furiously, and make greater havoc than it doth. We have seen what fire and water may do, and that either of them are sufficient for all the phenoraena of earthquakes ; if they should both fail, we have a third agent scarce inferior' to either of them : the reader raust not be surprised when we tell hira it is air. Mons. Amontons, in the Memoires de I'Acad. des Sciences, An. 1703, has an express discourse to prove, that on the foot of the new experiraents of the weight and spring of the air, a raoderate degree of heat raay bring the air into a condition capable of causing earth, quakes. It is shown, that at the depth of 43,528 fathoras below the surface of the earth- air is only one fourth less heavy than mercury. Now, this depth of 43,.528 fathoms is only a 74th part of the semi-diameter of the earth. And the vast sphere beyond this depth, in di araeter 6,451,538 fathoms, raay probably be only filled with air ; which wUl be here greatly condensed, and rauch heavier than the heavi est bodies we know in nature. But it is found by experiraent, that the raore air is compressed the more does the sarae degree of heat in crease its spring, and the raore capable does it render it of a violent effect : and that, for instance, the degree of heat of boUing water increases the spring of the air above what it has in its natural state, in our climate, by a quantity equal to a third of the weight where with it is pressed. Whence we raay con clude, that a degree of heat which on the surface of the earth, will only have a mode rate effect, may be capable of a very violent one below. And as we are assured, that there are in nature degrees of heat rauch more considerable than that of boiling water : it is very possible there may be sorae, whose violence, further assisted by the exceeding weight ofthe air, raay be more than sufficient to break and overturn this solid orb of 43,528 fathoms; whose weight compared to that of the included air, would be but a trifle. Chemistry furnishes us a method of mak ing artificial earthquakes, which shall have all the great effects of natural ones : which, as it may illustrate the process of nature in the production of these terrible phenomena under ground, we shall here add. To twenty pounds of iron filings, add as raany of sulphur : mix, work, and temper the whole together with a little water, so as to form a mass, half moist and half dry. This be mg buried three or four feet under ground, in POLITICAL ECONOMY. 457 six or seven hours tirae, will have a prodigious effect : the earth will begin to tremble, crack and smoke, and fire and flarae burst through. Such is the effect even of the two cold bo dies, in cold ground : there only wants a suf ficient quantity of this raixture to produce a true Mtaa. If it were supposed to burst out under the sea, it would produce a spout And if it were in the clouds, the effect would be thunder and lightning. An earthquake is defined to be a vehement shake, or agitation of sorae considerable place, or part of the earth ; from natural causes ; at tended with a huge noise like thunder, and frequently with an eruption of water, or fire, or smoke, or winds, &c. They are the greatest and most formidable phenomena of nature. Aristotle and Pliny distinguish two kinds, with respect to the manner of the shake, viz. a tremor and a pulsation ; the first being horizontal, in alter nate vibrations, compared to the shaking of a person in ague. The second perpendicular, up and down, their motion resembling that of boUing. Agricola increases the number, and raakes four kinds, which Alb. Magnus again reduces to three, viz. inclination, when the earth li- brates alternately from right to left ; by which mountains have been sometimes brought to meet, and clash against each other : pulsation, when it beats up and down like an artery : and trembling, when it shakes and totters every way, like a flarae. The Philosophical Transactions furnish us with abundance of histories of earthquakes ; particularly one at Oxford, in 1685, by Dr. WaU is and Mr. Boyle. Another at the same place in 1683, by Mr. Pigot Another in Si cily, in 1692-3 by Mr. Hartop, Fa. AUessan- dro Burgos, and Vin. Bonajutus, which last is one of the most terrible ones in all history. It shook the whole island ; and not only that, but Naples and Malta shared in the shock. It was ofthe second kind mentioned by Aris totle and Pliny, viz. a perpendicular pulsation, or succession. It was impossible, says the noble Bonajutus, for any body, in this country, to keep on their legs, on the dancing earth ; nay, those that lay on the ground, were toss ed frora side to side, as on a rolling bUlow : high walls leaped from their foundations seve ral paces. The mischief it did is amazing : almost all the buUdings in the countries were thrown down. Fifty-four cities and towns, besides an incredible number of vUlages, were either de stroyed or greatly damaged. We shall only instance the fate of Catanea, one of the most famous, ancient, and flourishing cities in the kirigdom ; the residence of several raonarchs, and an university. This once famous, now unhappy Catanea, to use the words of Fa. Burgos, had the greatest share in the tragedy. Vol. II. ... 3 M 39 Fa. Anthon. Serovita,being on his way thither, and at the distance of a few railes, observed a black cloud, like night, hovering over the city ; and there arose frora the mouth of Mongibel- lo, great spires of flame, which spread all around. The sea all of a sudden began to roar, and rise in billows ; and there was a blow, as if all the artillery in the world had been at once discharged. The birds flew about asto nished, the cattle in the flelds ran crying, &c. His and his companion's horse stopped short, trembling ; so that they were forced to alight. They were no sooner off, but they were lifted from the ground above two palras ; when casting his eyes towards Catanea, he with amazement saw nothing but a thick cloud of dust in the air. This was the scene oftheir calamity : for of the magnificent Catanea, there is not the least footstep to be seen. S. Bonajutus assures us, that of 18,914 inhabi tants, 18,000 perished therein. The sarae au thor, frora a computation of the inhabitants, before and after the earthquake, in the several cities and towns, finds that near 60,000 pe rished out of 254,900. Jamaica is remarkable for earthquakes. The inhabitants. Dr. Sloan informs us, expect one every year. That author gives us the history of one in 1687: another horrible one in 1692, is described by several anonymous authors. In two minutes time it shook down and drowned nine tenths of the town of Port Royal. The houses sunk outright, thirty or forty fathoras deep. The earth opening, swal lowed up people ; and they rose in other streets; sorae in the middle of the harbour, and yet were saved ; though there were 2000 people lost and 1000 acres of land sunk. All the houses were thrown down throughout the island. One Hopkins had his plantation re raoved half a mile from its place. Of all wells, from one fathom to six or seven, the water flew out at the top wilh a vehement motion. While the houses, on the one side of the street were swallowed up, on the other they were thrown on heaps; and the sand in the street rose like waves in the sea, lifting up every body that stood on it, and iraraediately dropping down into pits ; and at the sarae in stant, a flood of waters breaking in, rolled thera over and over ; some catching hold of beams and rafters, &c. Ships and sloops in the harbour were overset and lost; the Swan frigate particularly, by the raotion ofthe sea, and sinking of the wharf, was driven over the tops of many houses. It was attended witli a hollow rumbling noise like that of thunder. In less than a minute three quar ters ofthe houses, and the ground they stood on with the inhabitants, were all sunk quite under water ; and the little part, left behind, was no better than a heap of rubbish. The shake was so violent, that it threw people down on their knees, or their faces, as they 458 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. were running about for shelter. The ground heaved and swelled like a rolling sea, and several houses still standing, were shuffled and moved some yards out oftheir places. A whole street is said to be twice as broad now as before; and in many places the earth would crack, and open, and shut, quick and fast Of which openings, two or three hun dred raight be seen at a tirae : in sorae where of, the people were swallowed up ; others, the closing earth caught by the middle, and press ed to death ; in others, the heads only ap peared. The larger openings swallowed up houses ; and out of sorae would issue whole rivers of waters, spouted up a great height in to the air, and threatening a deluge to that part the earthquake spared. The whole was attended with stenches and offensive smells, the noise of falling raountains at a distance, &c. and the sky in a minute's time, was turn ed dull and reddish, like a glowing oven. — Yet, as great a sufferer as Port Royal was, more houses were left standing therein, than on the whole island beside. Scarce a plant ing house, or sugar work was left standing in aU Jamaica. A great part of thera' were swallowed up, houses, people, trees, and aU at one gap : in lieu of which afterwards, ap peared great pools of water, which when dri ven up, left nothing but sand, without any mark that ever tree or plant had been there on. Above twelve miles from the sea, the earth gaped and spouted out with a prodigi ous force, vast quantities of water into the air : yet the greatest violences were among the raountains and rocks : and it is a general opinion, that the nearer the raountains, the greater the shake ; and that the cause there of lay there. Most of the rivers were stop ped up for twenty-four hours, by the falling of the mountains, tUl swelling up, they found themselves new tracts and channels, tearing up in their passage trees, &c. After the great shake, those people who escaped, got on board ships in the harbour, where raany continued above two months ; the shakes all that time being so violent, and coming so thick, sometiraes two or three in an hour ac companied with frightful noises like a ruffling wind, or a hoUow rumbling thunder, with brirastone blasts, that they durst not come ashore. The consequences of the earthquake was a general sickness, from the noisome va pours belched forth, which swept away above 3000 persons. After the detaU of these horrible convul sions, the reader will have but little curiosity left, for the less considerable phenoraena of the earthquake at Lima, in 1687, described by Fa. Alvarez de Toledo, wherein above .5000 persons were destroyed ; this being of the vibratory kind, so that the bells in the church rung of themselves : or that at Bata via in 1699, by Witzen : that in the north of England in 1703, by Mr. Thoresby : or lastly those in New England in 1663, and 1670, by Dr. Mather. Public Men.— From the Pennsylvania Ga zette, No. 95, Septeraber 3, 1730. The following is a dialogue between Socra tes, tbe great Athenian phUosopher, and one Glaucon a private man of mean abilities, but ambitious of being chosen a senator, and of go verning the republic ; wherein Socrates, in a pleasant manner, convinces him of his inca pacity for public affairs, by making him sen sible of his ignorance ofthe interests of his country, in their several branches, and entire ly dissuades thera from any attempt of that nature. There is also added, at the end, part of another dialogue, the same Socrates had with one Charmidas, a worthy raan, but too modest, wherein he endeavours to persuade hira to put himself forward and undertake public business, as being very capable of it The whole is taken from Xenophon's Memo rable Things of Socrates, lib. 3. A certain raan, whose name was Glaucon, the son of Ariston, had so fixt it in his raind to govern the republic, that he frequently presented himself before tbe people to dis course of the afRiirs of state, though all the world laughed at him for it ; nor was it in the power of his relations or friends to dis suade hiin frora that design. But Socrates had a kindness for hira, on account of Plato his brother, and he only it was who raade him change his resolution ; he met him, and ac costed him in so winning a manner, that he first obliged him to hearlten to his discourse. He began vvith him thus : You have a mind then to govern the republic ? I have so, an swered Glaucon. You cannot, replied Socra tes, have a more noble design ; for ifyou can accomplish it so as to become absolute, you will be able to serve your friends, you will raise your faniUy, you will extend the bounds of your country, you will be known, not only in Athens, but through all Greece, and per haps your renown will fly even to the barba rous nations, as did that of Themistocles. In short, wherever you come, you will have the respect and admiration of all the world. These words soothed Glaucon, and won him to give ear to Socrates, who went on in this manner. But it is certain, that ifyou desire lo be ho noured, you must be useful to the stale. Cer tainly, said Glaucon. And in the name of all the gods, replied Socrates, tell me, what is the first service that you intend lo render the state? Glaucon was considering what to an swer, when Socrates continued. If you design to make the fortune of one of your friends, you would endeavour to make him rich, and thus perhaps you will make it your business to enrich the republic ? I would, an- POLITICAL ECONOMY. 459 swered Glaucon. Socrates replied : would not the way to enrich the republic be to in crease its revenue 1 It is very likely it would, said Glaucon. Tell me then in what consists the revenue of the state, and to how much it may amount ? I presume you have particular ly studied this raatter, lo the end that if any thing should be lost on one hand, you raight know where to make it good on another, and that if a fund should fail on a sudden, you might iraraediately be able to settle another in its place ? I protest, answered Glaucon, I have never thought of this. Tell rae at least the expenses of the republic, for no doubt you intend to retrench the superfluous? I never thought of this neither, said Glaucon. You were best then to put off to another tirae your design of enriching the republic, which you can never be able to do, while you are igno rant both of its expenses and revenue. There IS another way to enrich a slate, said Glau con, of which you take no notice, and that is by the ruin of its eneraies. You are in the right, answered Socrates : but lo this end, it is necessary to be stronger than they, other wise we shall run the hazard of losing what we have : he therefore who talks of under taking a war, ought to know the strength on botli sides, to the end that if his party be the stronger, he raay boldly advise for war, and that if it be the weaker, he may dissuade the people from engaging theraselves in so dan- geirous an enterprise. AU this is true. Tell me then, continued Socrates, how strong our forces are by sea and land, and how strong are our eneraies? Indeed, said Glaucon, I cannot tell you on a sudden. If you have a list of them in writing, pray show it rae, I should be glad to hear it read. I have it not yet I see then, said Socrates, that we shall not engage in war so soon : for the greatness of the undertaking wiU hinder you from mature ly weighing all the consequences of it in the beginning of your government. But, continu ed he, you have thought of the defence ofthe country, you know what garrisons are neces sary, and what are not ; you know what num ber of troops is sufficient in one, and not suf ficient in another : you wUl cause the neces sary garrisons to be reinforced, and will dis band those that are useless ? I should be of opinion said Glaucon, to leave none of thera on foot, because they rum a country, on pre tence of defending it. But, Socrates objected if all the garrisons are taken away, there would be nothing to hinder the first coraer frora carrying off what he pleased : but how corae you to know that the garrisons behave theraselves so ill ? Have you been upon the place, have you seen thera ? Not at all ; but I suspect it to be so. When therefore we are certain ofit, said Socrates, and can speak up on better grounds than simple conjectures, we wUl propose this advice to the senate. It may be well to do so, said Glaucon. It coraes in to my mind, too, continued Socrates, that you have never been at the raines of sUver, to ex araine why they bring not in so rauch now as they did formerly. You say true, I have ne ver been there. Indeed they say the place is very unhealthy, and that may excuse you. — You rally me now, said Glaucon. Socrates added ; but I believe you have at least observ ed how much corn our lands produce, how long it wUl serve to supply our city, and how much more we shall want for the whole year ; to the end you may not be surprised with a scarcity of bread, but may giv e timely orders for the necessary provisions. There is a deal to do, said Glaucon, if we raust take care of all these things. There is so, replied Socra tes, and it is even irapossible to manage our own families well, unless vve know all that is wanting, and take care to provide it. As you see, therefore, that our city is coraposed of above ten thousand famUies, and it being a dif ficult task to watch over thera all at once, why did you not first try to retrieve your uncle's affairs which are running to decay, and after having given that proof of your industry, you raight have taken a greater trust upon you ? But now, when you find yourself incapable of aiding a private raan, how can you think of behaving yourself so as lo be useful to a whole people? ought a man who has not strength enough lo carry a hundred pound weight, undertake to carry a heavier burden ? 1 would have done good service lo my uncle, said Glaucon, if he would have taken my ad vice. How ! replied Socrates, have you not hitherto been able lo govern the mind of your uncle, and do you now believe yourself able to govern the rainds of all the Athenians, and his araong the rest ? Take heed, ray dear Glau con, take heed lest too great a desire of power should render you despised ; consider how dan gerous it is to speak and entertain ourselves concerning things wedonotunderstand: what a figure do those forward and rash people make in the world, who do so; and judge yourself, whether they acquire more esteem than blame, whether they are raore adraired than conteran- ed. Think, on the contrary, with how rauch honour a raan is regarded, who understands perfectly what he says, and what he does, and then you will confess that renown and ap plause have always been the recompence ot true merit, and shame the reward of igno rance and temerity. If therefore you would be honoured, endeavour lo be a man of true raerit; and ifyou enter upon the government ofthe republic, with a mind more sagacious than usual, I shaU not wonder ifyou succeed in all your designs. Thus Socrates put a stop to the disorderly arabition of this man : but on an occasion quite contrary, he in the following manner exhort ed Charmidas to take an employment He 460 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. was a man of sense, and raore deserving than most others in the same post ; but as he vvas of a modest disposition, he constantly declined and made great difficulties of engaging him self in public business. Socrates therefore addressed hiraself lo him in this manner. If you knew any man that could gain the prizes in the public games, and by that means render hiraself iUustrious, and acquire glory to his country, what would you say of him if he re fused lo offer hiraself lo the contest? I would say, answered Charmidas, that he was a mean spirited effeminate fellow. And if a man were capable of governing a republic, of in creasing its power by his advice, and of rais ing himself hy this raeans lo a high degree of honour, would you not brand him likewise with raeanness of soul, if he would not pre sent himself to be employed 1 Perhaps I might, said Charmidas ; but why do you ask me this question ; Socrates replied ; because you are capable of managing the affairs ofthe repub lic, and nevertheless you avoid doing so, though in quality of a citizen you are obliged to lake care of the comraonwealth. Be no longer then thus negligent in this raatter, con sider your abUities and your duly with raore attention, and let not slip the occasions of serving the republic, and of rendering it, if possible, raore flourishing than il is. This wUl be a blessing, whose, influence will de scend not only on the other citizens, but on your best friends and yourself Ore Smuggling, and its various species. — Published in the London Chronicle, No veraber 24, 1767. Sir, — There are raany people that would bethought, and even think theraselves, honest raen, who fail nevertheless in particular points of honesty ; deviating frora that cha racter soraetiraes by the prevalence of mode or custom, and sometiraes through raere in attention ; so that their honesty is partial only, and not general or universal. Thus one, who would scorn to overreach you in a bar gain, shall make no scruple of tricking you a little now and then at cards : another, that plays with the utmost fairness, shall with great freedom cheat you in the sale of a horse. But there is no kind of dishonesty, inlo which otherwise good people more easily and fre quently fall, than that of defrauding govern ment of ils revenues by smuggling when they have an opportunity, orencouragingsmugglers by buying their goods. I fell into these refieclions the other day, on hearing two gentleraen of reputation dis coursing about a sraall estate, which one of them was inclined to sell, and the other to buy ; when the seller, in recommending the place, remarked, that its situation was very advantageous on this account, that, being on the sea-coast in a smuggling country, one had frequent opportunities of buying raany of the expensive articles used in a family (such as tea, coffee, chocolate, brandy, wines, cam brics, Brussels laces, French silks, and all kinds of India goods, 20), 30, and in some ar ticles 50 per cent, cheaper, than they could be had in the raore interior parts, of traders that paid duty. — The other Aoreesi gentleman allowed this to be an advantage, butinsistedj that the seller, in the advanced price he de raanded on that account, rated the advantage rauch above its value. And neither of them seeraed to think dealing wilh smugglers a practice, that an honest man (provided he got his goods cheap) had the least reason to be asharaed of At a time when the load ofour public debt, and the heavy expense of maintaining our fleets and armies to be ready for our defence on occasion, makes it necessary, not only lo continue old taxes, bul often to look out for new ones, perhaps it may not be unuseful to state this matter in a light that few seem to have considered it in. The people of Great Britain, under the happy constitution of this country, have a privilege few other countries enjoy, that of choosing the third branch of the legislature, which branch has alone the power of regulat ing their taxes. Now whenever the govern raent finds it necessary for the common bene fit, advantage, and safety of the nation, for the security ofour liberties, property, religion, and every thing that is dear to us, that cer tain sums shall be yearly raised by taxes, duties, &c. and paid into the public treasury, thence to be dispensed by government for those purposes ; ought not every honest man freely and willingly to pay his just propor tion of this necessary expense? Can he possi bly preserve a right to tliat character, if, by fraud,, stratagem, or contrivance, he avoids that payment in whole or in part What should we think of a companion, who, having supped with his friends at a ta vern, and partaken equally of the joys of the evening wilh the restof us, would nevertheless contrive by some artifice lo shift his share of the reckoning upon others, in order to go off scot-free ? If a man who practised this, would, when detected, be deeraed and called a scoundrel, what ought he to be called, who can enjoy all the inestiraable benefits of pub lic sociely, and yet by smuggling, or dealing with smugglers, contrive to evade paying his just share of tbe expense, as settled by his own representatives in parliament; and wrongfully throw it upon his honester and perhaps much poorer neighbours ? He will perhaps be ready to tell rae, that he does not wrong his neighbours ; he scorns the imputa tion, he only cheats the king a little, who is POLITICAL ECONOMY. 461 Tery able to bear it This, however, is a rais take. The public treasure is the treasure ofthe nation, to be applied to national pur poses And when a duty is laid for a par ticular public and necessary purpose, if, through srauggling, that duly falls short of raising the sum required, and other duties must therefore be laid to raake up the defi ciency, all the additional sura laid by the new duties and paid by other people, though it should amount lo no more than a half-penny or a farthing per head, is so rauch actually picked out of the pockets of those other peo ple by the smugglers and their abettors and encouragers. Are they then any better or other than pickpokets? and what mean, low, rascally pickpockets raust those be, that can pick pockets for halfpence and for farthings ? I would not however be supposed to allow in whati have just said, that cheating the king is a less offence against honesty than cheating the public. The king and the public in this case are different names for the same thing ; but if we consider the king distinctly it will not lessen the crime : it is no justification of a robbery, that the person robbed was rich and able to bear il. The king has as rauch right tojustice astheraeanestof his subjects ; and as he is truly the comraon father of his people, those that rob him fall under the Scripture wo, pronounced against the son that robbeth his father, and saith it is no sin. Mean as this practice is, do vve not daily see people of character and fortune engaged in it for trifling advantages to themselves ? — Is any lady ashamed to request of a gentle raan of her acquaintance, that when he re turns from abroad he would srauggleher horae a piece of silk or lace frora France or Flan ders ? Is any gentleraan ashamed to under take and execute the commission? — Not in the least They will talk of il freely, even before others whose pockets they are thus contriving lo pick by this piece of knavery. Araong other branches ofthe revenue, that of the post-office is, by a late law, appropriated to the discharge of our public debt to defray the expenses of tlie state. None but mera bers of parliaraent, and a few public officers have now a right to avoid, by a frank, the payraent of postage. When any letter, not written by them oron their business, is frank ed by any of them, it is a hurt to the revenue, an injury which they must now take the pains to conceal by writing the whole super scription themselves. And yet such is our insensibUily tojustice in this particular, that nothing is more common than to see, even in a reputable company, a very honest gentle man or lady declare his or her intention to cheat the nation of three pence by a frank, and without blushing apply to one ofthe very le gislators themselves, with a modest request, that he would be pleased to become an ac complice in the crime, and assist ra the per petration. There are those who by these practices take a great deal in a year out of the public purse, and put the money into their own pri vate pockets. If, passing through a room where public treasure is deposited, a raan takes the opportunity of clandestinely pocket ing and carrying off' a guinea, is he not truly and properly a thief? And if another evades paying into the treasury a guinea he ought to pay in, and applies it to his own use, when he knows il belongs lo the public as rauch as that which has been paid in, what difference is there in the nature of the crirae, or the baseness of coramitting it? Some laws make the receiving of stolen goods equally penal with stealing, and upon this principle, that if there were no receivers, there would be few thieves. Our proverb too says truly, that the receiver is as bad as the thief. By the same reasoning, as there would be few smugglers, if there were none who knowingly encouraged them by buying their goods, we may say, that the encouragers of srauggling are as bad as the sraugglers; and that, as sraugglers are a kind of thieves, both equally deserve the punishraents of thievery. In this view of wronging tlie revenue, what must we think of those who can evade pay ing for their wheels* and their plate, in defi ance of law and justice, and yet declaim against corruption and peculation, as if their own hands and hearts were pure and unsul lied ? The Americans offend us grievously, when, contrary to our laws, they smuggle goods into their own country: and yet they had no hand in making those laws. I do not however pretend frora thence to justify them. But I think the offence rauch greater in those who either directly or indirectly have been concerned in making the very laws they break. And when I hear thera exclairaing against the Americans, and for every little in- fringmenl ofthe acts of trade, or obstruction given by a petty raob to an officer ofour cus- loras in that country, calling for vengeance against the whole people as rebels and trai tors, I cannot help thinking there are still those in the world who can see a mote in their brother's eye, while they do not discern a beam in their own ; and that the old saying is as true now as ever it was, one man may better steal a horse, than another look over the hedge. B. F. Plan for improving the Condition ofthe Free Blacks. The business relative to free blacks shall be transacted by a committee of twenty-four * Alluding to the British ta.\es on carriage wheels, and on plate. 462 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. persons, annually elected by baUot, at the meeting of this society, in the month caUed AprU ; and in order to perform the different services wilh expedition, regularity, and energy, this coramittee shall resolve itself in to the following sub-oommillees, viz : I. A coraraittee of inspection shall super intend the raorals, general conduct, and ordi nary situation of the free negroes, and afford thera advice and instruction, protection from wrongs, and other friendly offices. II. A coramittee of guardians, who shall place out children and young people with suitable persons, that they raay (during a m.o- derate time of apprenticeship, or servitude) learn sorae trade or other business of subsis tence. The coraraittee raay effect this partly by a persuasive influence on parents and the persons concerned ; and partly by co-operating with the laws, which are, or raay be enacted for this, and siraUar purposes : in forraing con tracts on these occasions, the coramittee shall secure to the sociely, as far as raay be practi cable, the right of guardianship over the per sons so bound. III. A coramittee of education, who shall superintend the school-instruction of the chil dren and youth of the free blacks ; they may either influence them lo attend regularly the schools already established in this city, or form others with this view; they shaU, in either case, provide, that the pupils may re ceive such learning as is necessary for their future situation in life ; and especially a deep irapression of the raost important, and gene rally acknowledged raoral and religious princi ples. They shall also procure and preserve a regular record of the raarriages, births, and raanuraissions of all free blacks. IV. A committee of employ, who shall en deavour lo procure constant employment for those free negroes who are able to work : as the want of this would occasion poverty, idle ness, and raany vicious habits. This corarait tee wUl, by sedulous inquiry, be enabled lo find coraraon labour for a great number ; they wUl also provide, that such, as indicate proper talents, raay learn various trades, which may be done by prevaUing upon thera to bind them selves for such a terra of years, as shall cora- pensate their raasters for the expense and trouble of instruction and raainlenance. The coraraittee raay attempt the institution of sorae useful and simple raanufactures, which require but little skill, and also raay assist, in com mencing business, such as appear to be quali fied for it. Whenever the coraraittee of inspection shaU find persons of any particular description re quiring attention, they shall iraraediately di rect tliera to the committee, of whose care they are the proper objects. In matters of a mixed nature, the commit tees shall confer, and, if necessary, act in con cert Affairs of great importance shall be re ferred to tbe whole coramittee. The expense 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 coramittee shall make a report of their proceedings, and of the state of their stock, to the society, at their quarterly meetings, in the raonths called April and October. Philadelphia, 26th October, 1789. Remarks concerning the Savages of North America.* Savages we call thera, because their manners differ from ours, which we think the perfection of civility ; they think the same of theirs. Perhaps, if we could examine the manners of different nations with impartiality, we should find no people so rude, as lo be with out any rules of politeness ; nor any so po lite, as not to have some reraains of rudeness. "The Indian men, when young, are hunters and warriors ; when old, counsellors ; for all their governraent is by the council or advice of the sages ; there is no force, there are no prisons, no officers to compel obedience, or inflict punishraent Hence they generally study oratory, the best speaker having the most influence. The Indian women till the ground, dress the food, nurse and bring up the children, and preserve and hand down to posterity the memory of public transactions. These employments of men and women are accounted natural and honourable. Having few artificial wants, they have abundance of leisure for improvement by conversation. Our laborious manner of life, compared with theirs, they esteera slavish and base ; and the learning on which we value ourselves, they regard as frivolous and useless. An in- staiice of this occurred at the treaty of Lan caster, in Pennsylvania, anno 1744, between the government of Virginia and the Six Na tions. After the principal business was set lled, the comraissioners from Virginia ac quainted the Indians by a speech, that there was at WiUiarasburg a coUege, with a fund, for educating Indian youth ; and that if the chiefs of the Six Nations would send down half a dozen of their sons to that coUege, the government would take care that they should be well provided for, and instructed in all the learning of the white people. Il is one of the Indian rules of politeness, not lo answer a public proposition the sarae day that it is raade ; they think il would be treating it as a light matter, and that they show it respect * This paper and the two next in order were publisB- cJ in separate pamphlets in England, in Uie year 1784, and afterwards in 1787. POLITICAL ECONOMY. by taking time to consider it, as of a matter important They therefore deferred their answer till the day following: when their speaker began, by expressing their deep sense of the kindness of the Virginia government, in making thera that offer ; " for we know," says he, " that you highly esteem the kind of learning taught in those colleges, and that the raainlenance of our young raen, while with you, would be very expensive to you. We are convinced therefore, that you raean to do us good by your proposal ; and we thank you heartily. But you, who are wise, raust know, that different nations have different conceptions of things; and you wUl therefore not take it amiss, if our ideas of this kind of education happen not to be the same with yours. We have had some experience of it : several of our young people were formerly brought up at the colleges of the northern provinces; they were rastructed in all your sciences; but when they came back to us, they were bad runners, ignorant of every means of living in the woods, unable to bear either cold or hunger, knew neither how to build a cabin, take a deer, or kill an enemy, spoke our language imperfectly, were there fore neither fit for hunters, warriors, nor counsellors; they were totally good for no thing. We are however not the less obliged by your kind offer, though we decline accept ing it : and to show our grateful sense of it, if the gentleraen of Virginia will send us a dozen oftheir sons, we wUl take great care of their education, instruct thera in all we know, and make men of them. Having frequent occasions lo hold public councUs, they have acquired great order and decency in conducting thera. The old raen sit in the foreraost ranks, the. warriors in the next, and the women and children in the hind most The business of the women is to take exact notice of what passes, imprint it in their memories, for they have no •writing, and com municate it to their children. They are the records of the council, and they preserve the tradition of the stipulations in treaties a hun dred years back ; which, when we corapare with our writings, we always find exact He that would speak, rises. The rest observe a profound silence. When he has finished and sits down, they leave him five or six rainutes to recollect, that, if he has omitted any thing he intended to say, or has any thing to add, he raay rise again and deliver it 'To inter rupt another, even in coraraon conversation, is reckoned highly indecent How different this is from the conduct of a polite British house of comraons, where scarce a day passes without sorae confusion, that raakes the speak er hoarse in calling to order ; and how differ ent from the raode of conversation in many polite companies of Europe, where, if you do not deliver your sentence with great rapidity, you are cut off in the middl * patient loquacity of those yL^ and never suffered to finish it ! The politeness of these savages in con>i._ salion is indeed carried to excess, since it does not permit thera to contradict or deny the truth of what is asserted in their presence. By this raeans they indeed avoid disputes; but then it becomes difficult to know their rainds, or what impression you make upon thera. The raissionaries who have attempt ed to convert thera to Christianity, all com plain of this as one of the great difficulties of their mission. The Indians hear with patience the truths of the gospel explained lo them, and give their usual tokens of assent and ap probation : you would think they were con vinced. No such matter. It is raere civility. A Swedish minister, having assembled the chiefs of the Susquehanna Indians, made a sermon to thera, acquainting them with the principal historical facts on which our reli gion is founded ; such as the fall of our flrst parents by eating an apple, the coming of Christ to repair .the raischief, his rairaclea and suffering, &c. — When he had finished, an Indian orator stood up to thank hira. " What you have told us," says he, " is all very good. It is indeed bad lo eat apples. Il is better to raake thera all into cyder. We are much obliged by your kindness in coming so far, lo tell us those things which you have heard frora your raolhers. In return, I will tell you some of those vve have heard from ours. "In the beginning, our fathers had only the flesh of animals lo subsist on, and if their hunting was unsuccessful, they were starv ing. Two ofour young hunters having kUl ed a deer, raade a fire in the woods to broil some parts of it When they were about to satisfy their hunger, they beheld a beautiful young woman descend from the clouds, and seat herself on that hill which you see yonder araong the Blue Mountains. They said to each other, it is a spirit that perhaps has sraelt our broiling venison, and wishes to eat of it : let us offer some to her. They presented her with the longue : she was pleased wilh the taste of il, and said, your kindness shall be rewarded ; corae lo this place after thirteen raoons, and you shall find something that will be of great benefit in nourishing you and your children to the latest generations. They did so, and lo their surprise found plants they had never seen before : but which, frora that ancient time, have been constantly cultivated araong us, to our great advantage. Where her right hand had touched the ground, they found raaize ; where her left hand had touch ed it they found kidney-beans ; and where her backside had sat on it, they found tobacco."' The good missionary, disgusted vvith this idle tale, said, " What I delivered to you were sacred truths, but what you tell me is mere ¦464 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. fable, fiction, and falsehood." The Indian, offended, replied, " My brother, it seeras your friends have not done you justice in your edu cation ; they have not well instructed you in the rules of coramon civility. You saw that we, who understand and practise those rules, believed all your stories, why do you refuse to believe ours?" When any of them come inlo our towns, our people are apt to crowd round them, gaze upon thera, and incommode thera where they desire lo be private ; this they esteera great rudeness, and the effect of the want of in struction in the rules of civUily and good manners. " We have," say they, " as much curiosity as you, and when you come into our towns, we wish for opportunities of look ing at you ; but for this purpose we hide ourselves behind bushes, where you are to pass, and never intrude ourselves into your corapany." Their manner of entering one another's villages has likewise its rules. It is reckon ed uncivil in travelling strangers, to enter a village abruptly, wilhoul giving notice of their approach. Therefore, as soon as they arrive within hearing, they stop and hollow, reraaining there tUl invited to enter. Two old raen usually come out to them, and lead them in. There is in every village a vacant dwelling called the strangers' house. Here they are placed, while the old men go round frora hut to hut, acquainting the inhabitants, that strangers are arrived, who are probably hungry and weary ; and every one sends them what he can spare of victuals, and skins lo repose on. When the strangers are refresh ed, pipes and tobacco are brought ; and then, but not before, conversation begins, with in quiries who they are, whither bound, what news, &c. and it usually ends with offers of service, if the strangers have occasion for guides, or any necessaries for continuing their journey ; and nothing is exacted for the entertainment The same hospitality, esteemed among them as a principal virtue, is practised by private per sons; of which Conrad Weiser, our interpre ter, gave rae the following instance. He had been naturalised among the Six Nations, and spoke well the Mohock language. In going through the Indian country, lo carry a raes sage from our governor to the councU al Onondaga, he called at the habitation of Ca- nasselego, an old acquaintance, who erabrac- ed him, spread furs for him to sit on. and plac ed before hira sorae boiled beans and venison, and mixed some rum ond water for his drink. When he was well refreshed, and had lit his pipe, Canassetego began to converse wilh hira ; asked how he had fared the raany years since they had seen each other; whence he then came; whatoccasioned the journey, &c. Con rad answered all his questions; and when the discourse began to flag, the Indian to continue it said, "Conrad, you have lived long among the while people, and know something oftheir customs ; I have been sometimes at Albany, and have observed, that once in seven days they shut up their shops, and assemble aU in the great house; tell me what il is for? What do they do there ?"" They meet there," says Conrad, " lo hear and learn ^ood things." " I do not doubt," says the Indian, " that they tell you so ; they have told rae the same : but I doubt the truth of what they say, and I wUl tell you my reasons. I went lately lo Albany to sell my skins and buy blankets, knives, pow der, rum, &c. You know I used generally to deal with Hans Hanson ; bul I was a little in clined this time to try some other merchants. However, I caUed first upon Hans, and asked him what he would give for beaver. He said he could not give any more than four shUlings a pound : bul, says he, I cannot talk on business now ; this is the day when we raeet togethei to learn good things, and I am going lo meet ing. So I thought to myself, since I cannot do any business to-day, I may as well go to the meeting too, and I went with hira. There stood up a man in black, and began to talk to the people very angrily. 1 did not understand what he said ; but perceiving that he looked much at me and al Hanson, I iraagined he was angry al seeing me there ; so I went out, sat down near the house, struck fire, and lit my pipe, waiting tUl the meeting should break up. I thought loo, that the man had raentioned something of beaver, and I suspected it might be the subject of their meeting. So when they came out I accosted ray merchant Well, Hans, says I, I hope you have agreed lo give more than four shillings a pound ? No, says he, I cannot give so much, I cannot give raore than three shillings and sixpence. I then spoke lo several other dealers, but they all sung the same song, three and six pence, — —three and sixpence. This made it clear to me that ray suspicion was right; and that whatever they pretended of meeting lo learn good things, the real purpose was to consult how lo cheat Indians in the price of beaver. Consider but a little, Conrad, and you raust be of ray opinion. If they raet so often to learn good things, they would cer tainly have learned sorae before this time. But they are stUl ignorant You know our practice. " If a while man, in travelling through our country, enters one ofour cabins, we all treat hira as I do you ; we dry hira if he is wet, we warra him if he is cold, and give him meat and drink, that he raay allay his thirst and hunger ; and vve spread soft furs for him to rest and sleep on : we demand nothing in return. But if I go into a white man's house al Albany, and ask for victuals and drink, they say, Where is your money ? and if I have POLITICAL ECONOMY. 465 none, they say. Get out, you Indian dog. You see they have not yet learned those little good things, that we need' no raeelings to be instructed in, because our raothers taught them to us, when we were chUdren ; and therefore it is irapossible their raeelings should be, as they say, for any such purpose, or have any such effect ; they are only to contrive the cheating of Indians in the price of beaver." Memoire de Sir John Dalrymple ou Projet du Lord Rocheford, pour empecher la Guerre. — Anecdote Historique.* AvANT que la France se fut declaree pour I'Amerique, lord Rocheford, autrefois Ambas- sadeur en Espagne et en France, formoit un Projet pour empecher la guerre. Cetoit que I'Anglelerre proposeroit un grand traite de confederation entre la France, I'Espagne, le Portugal et I'Angleterre, qui devoit avoir trois objets. Le premier, une garanlie rau- tueUe entre ces quatre Puissances de leurs possessions dans I'Amerique et dans les deux Indes, avec une provision qu'une guerre dans I'Europe ne seroit jamais une guerre dans ces remotes regions sous quelque pretexte que ce soit, el fixant le norabre des troupes et des vaisseaux que les puissances conlraclanles de- Voient fournir centre la puissance conlreve- nante la paix dans ces regions remotes. Le second objet etoit a donner une participation de comraerce de I'Araerique a la France, I'Es pagne, et le Portugal, aulant qu'une telle par ticipation ne seroit incorapatible avec les inte- rets coramuns el sans rivalite de I'Araerique Angloise et de TAngleterre. Le troisieme objet etoit rajuslement des PrivUeges contestes des Araericains sur des principes justes et honorables pour eux. Lord Rocheford etoit pour lors Secretaire d'Elat P rae disoil que la premiere personne a qui U comrauniquoit ce projet etoit le feu Prince de Mazerano Ambassadeur d'Espagne, et que, quoique vieux et malade, il se leva, I'erabras- sa : et dit, ah ! Milord, quel Dieu vous a in spire? Lord Rocheford le coram uniquoit aussi a un de see amis qui etoit alors et est a present un des rainistresduRoyde la Grande Bretagne, qui I'approuvoit beaucoup: mais bientdt apres. Lord Rocheford quiltoit le rai- nistere, se retiroit k la Campagne, et par cet accident le projet n' etoit pas presente au cabi net du Roy. J'ai donne la relation de cette anecdote, parceque je suis un des quatre ou cinq per sonnes qui seules en connoissent la verite; et parce que je pense qu'U n'est pas encore trop tard pour faire revivre un projet qui sauvera * Not to diminish from the originality of this docu ment, neither the phraseology, grammar, or ortbogra. phy, have been corrected. Vol. IL...3N un million de Chretiens d'etre fails veuves et Orphelins. Quant au preraier objet d'une telle confederation. Lord Rocheford pensoit que la proposition seroit acceptee par toutes les puissances, parceque c'etoit I'interet de toutes de I'accepler. Les pertes de la France daus les deux Indes dans la derniere guerre, et leurs pertes dans les Indes Orientales dans la derniere guerre, et ses pertes dans les Indes Orientales de la guerre d'a present, ou Us ont perdu en six se- raaines tout ce qu'ils y avoient ; les pertes des Espagnols dans la guere derniere dans les deux Indes, et ra^me le coup donne I'autre jour dans la baye de Hunduras par un jeune Capi- taine avec une poignee de sol- dats, la facUite avec la quelle le Portugal per- dil I'isle de Ste. Catherine dans le BrezU ; et le malheur des armes Angloises dans I'Ame rique dupuis trois ans, tout prouve, que la France, I'Espagne, le Portugal et I'Angleterre ont leurs parlies lendres dans I'Amerique et dans les deux Indes, et par consequent qu'ils ont tons un inter^l dans une raiiluelle garanlie de leurs possessions dans ces trois parties du Monde. Quant au second objet de la Confe deration : je suis sensible que l'idee de donner une participation du commerce de I'Amerique aux autres -trois nations sous la liraitation que cela ne soit pas incorapatible avec les inlerets coramuns de I'Amerique Angloise et de I'An gleterre, est une idee un peu vague, et sujette aux disputes, maisheureusementpourl'huraa- nite il y a cinq persbnnes dans ces cinq pays, d'un caractere singulier, et qui les rend pro- pres a faire la-dessus desregleraents precis, et sujets a nuUes disputes, qui enrichiront la France, I'Espagne et le Portugal sans appauv- rir I'Angleterre el ses Colonies. Pour I'Ame rique, il y a le Docleur Franklin, pent etre le premier genie de Vkge present et qui connoit bien les liaisons entre I'Araerique et I'Angle terre. Pour la France, il y a le Controleur- General,* qui a ete eleve des sa jeunesse dans la pratique du coramerce. Pour I'Espagne, il y a Monsieur Camporaanes, qui a employe la raaturite de son ^e en des etudes qui lui don- nent une superiorite en de telles discussions. Pour le Portugal, elle aura I'aide des conseils du Due de Braganza qui a cueilli les connois- sances dans presque tons les Caraps, les Cours les Bibliotheques, et raerae les places des raarchands d'Europe : et pour I'Angleterre, elle a un Ministre qui connoissanl les vrais inlerets du coraraerce au fond ne refusera pas k I'Araerique ce qu'il vient de donner a I'lr- lande. Quant au troisierae objet de la confe deration, I'Anglelerre qui se vante tant de sa propre Magna Ch.4.rta accordera avec faci- lite une Magna Charta aux liberies de I'Araerique. Peul etre, le meUleur moyen d'abrevier cet article seroit de donner carte blanche au Dr, Franklin. Une confianee ge- * M. Necker. 466 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. nereuse est le moyen le plus sur de s'assurer d'un horame genereux. L'Espagne a deux inlerets tres solides dans le succes d'une telle confederation, et centre I'independance de I'Araerique Angloise. Le premier est que, si I'Amerique Angloise devenoit independante, I'Amerique Espagnole et ses isles seroient abi- mees par la contrebande des Araericains inde- pendanls d'Angleterre. 1.. L'Angleterre est liee par les traites avec I'Espagne a ne faire la contrebande. 2. Elle est liee par lapeurque cette contrebande ne lirera une guerre sur elle dans I'Europe, ce qui fut I'effet dans le teras du Chevalier Robert Walpole. 3. La cherte des commodites de I'Angleterre el de I'Europe met des limitations naturelles a laquantitode contrebande. Mais si les Americans etoient Independants, Us diroienl qu'Us n'eloient lies par les traites des Anglois. 2. lis ne seroient lies par la peur, parce qu'ils sont loin de I'Espagne ; et s'etant defendu centre qualre-vingl-dix miUe soldats et marins Anglois, ils se moqueroienl des forces de I'Espagne; et 3. Le has prix des commodites Americaines couvrira les Co lonies Espagnoles de contrebande. II y a meme une cause necessaire pour forcer les Araericains, ou de faire la cqntrebande ou de faire la guerre sur I'Amerique Espagnole et Porlugaise et leurs lies ; Us n'ont ni or, ni ar- ent chez eux, mais ils ne peuvenl cultiver leurs terres, ni faire leur coraraerce sans ces melaux precieux. lis n'auroient que quatre sources dont Us pourroient les tirer. Le pre mier est le coramerce avec I'Europe ; le se cond, pensions de France et d'Espagne ; le troisieme, la contrebande avec les Provinces d'Espagne et de Portugal dans le nouveau Monde ; et le quatrieme, la guerre dans ces provinces. Autant que les Araericains conti- nuenl dans un etat que les Anglois appellent une Rebellion, leur coramerce avec I'Europe sera interrompu par les Corsaires Anglois ; ainsi ils ne tireront que tres peu de melaux precieux de cette preraiere source. Les pensions de la France et de I'Espagne ne seroient qu'une bagatelle pour soutenir I'agriculture et les manufactures d'un sivaste pays. Ils n'auroient done aucune ressource pour les melaux precieux, que dans la contre bande ou les guerres avec les provinces Espag noles et Portugaises. Pour erap^cher cette contrebande, les traites de confederation pour roient faire des provisions centre la contre bande el des Anglois et des Araericains. C'est un point delicat pour un Anglois k suggerer les raoy ens ; raais si les deux nations vouloient sincerement la paix, je pourrois dansun quart- d'heure suggerer des moyens infaillibles. II y a un autre interet que I'Espagne a centre I'in dependance des Araericains et par consequent pour le traite de confederation qui est peut- fetre encore plus grand. Les Araericains ne pourroient voler avec leurs voiles partout, fe- roient des etablissements dans la NouveUe Zelande, les Isles d'Olahiti, ou quelques au tres Isles dans la Mer du Sud ; et meme les Anglois, les Francois, les Portugais, et les Hollandois dans lesmersdes Indes Orientales, etant independants, nul traite ne les emp^- chera de faire de lels etablissements : ils pour roient les faire selon les droits des gens. Le Capitaine Cook dit dans son dernier voyage imprirae, qu'U y a 47,000 gens de mer dans les seules Isles d'Otahiti, el le Capitaine Wallis qui faisoit la decouverte de ces Isles, m'a dit a Lisbonne, il y a quelques jours, que les habi- tans d'Otahiti raontoienlau haut des mSts An glois et couvroient par les morceaux du bois croissant les rate auxquels les voiles sont attachees, aussi bien, en trois jours, que les marins Anglois ; et il rae donnoit deux raisons pour cela. La premiere etoit que, vivant de pobson, tous leshabitans sont gensde mer, et le second, que les peuples qui ne portent que des souliers sont toujours plus propres pour raonter les parlies superieures des vaisseaux. Le Capitaine Cook aussi, dans son voyage imprirae, donne une description dans la Nou veUe Zelande d'une poste pour tine flotte et une vUle qui pouvoit en quelques semaines etre faite imprenable : et on n'a qu'a regarder la forme des Isles de la Mer du Sud dans les estampes qui en ont ete faites, pour se satis- faire que ces Isles sont pleines de posies im- prenables. Je me montre aussi bon ami a I'Espagne, a la France, au Portugal, et a la Hollande qu' a I'Angleterre, quand je deve- loppe l'idee suivante, qui a peut-etre echappe aux autres. Autrefois on ne pouvoit aller avec surete aux Mers du Sud, que dans le mois de Decembre et de Janvier, et par les terribles latitudes autour du Cap Horn : mais les de- couvertes du Capitaine Cook et des autres Anglois ont nouveUeraent demontre qu'on y pent aUer par le Cap-de-Bonne-Esperance, dans tous les mois, par les belles latitudes du Cap-de-Bonne-Esperance et de la NouveUe Zelande, et dans presque le mdme espace de tems, I'un etant un voyage de quatre mois et I'autre de cinq, parce que le meme vent d'ou- est qui souffle presque toute I'anee dans les autres latitudes et qui relarde les vaisseaux en passant par le Cap Horn, les porte avec rapi- dite par le Cap-de-Bonne-Esperance et la Nou veUe Zelande; de-la il suit, que quand les Amfericains querelleront avec les Espagnols pent toe sur le chapitre de contrebande, ils enverront leurs vaisseaux sur les c6tes de Chi li de leurs fetablisseraents et dans les Mers du Sud par les latitudes de la NouveUe Zelande, el par les vents d'ouest qui soufflent toujours dans ces latitudes, ce qui n'est qu'un voyage de cinq Seraaines. Car le Capitaine Cook dans un voyage, et le Capitaine Fourneaux dans un autre, alloient de la NouveUe Zelande au Cap Horn en moins de tems, et le jour nal des vents annexe au voyage du Capitaine POLITICAL ECONOMY. 467 Cook, montre que les vents d'ouest dans ces latitudes sont au vent d'est dans la proportion de dix a un. Quand leurs vaisseaux seront sur les cotes du Chili, ils prendront avantage du vent de terre qui souffle eternellement du Sud, au Nord pour les porter a suivre les c6tes du Chili et du Perou. Le vent le portera dans quatorze jours jusqu'a la Baye de Pa nama, et dans le cours de ce voyage Us ravage- ront les coles et feront prises de Vaisseaux partout La force navale de I'Espagne a Li ma ne pourra pas les empecher, parce que le mtoe ventdu Sud qui poussera les Araeri cains en avant, rendra les flottes d'Espagne incapables d'aller a leur recontre. De la Baye de Panaraa ils retourneront parle grand vent des Tropiques de I'esl a I'ouest, qui ne change jamais, et a leurs etablissements dans les Mers du Sud, ou a vendre leurs prises dans les Mers de la Chine oude I'lnde ; d'ofi ils retourneront encore peut-6tre avec de nouveaux vaisseaux et de nouveaux equipages des horames, faire la repetition de leurs ravages. Leurs retours seront encore par la NouveUe Zelande, venant des Indes ou par la latitude de 40 Nord, venant de la Chine, et dans ce dernier cas ils tombe- ront sur le Mexique et prenant avantage des vents de terre qui soufflent toujours du Nord jusqu'a la Baye de Panaraa, ils ravageront le Mexique comme auparavantils avoient ravage le Chili et Perou. De la Baye de Panaraa, ils retourneront par le grand vent du Tropique, ou chez eux dans les Mers du Sud, ou aux Mers de I'Asie a renouveller une guerre insultante, lournien- tanle et sans reraede. De I'autre cote, quand ils sont en guerre avec I'Angleterre, la France, le Portugal, ou la Hollande, Us tourn- eront en arriere de leurs etablissements dans les Mers du Sud sur les Indes Orientales de I'Angleterre, la France, le Portugal ou la Hol lande. Ils aurontdeux grandes routes a aller et a retourner ; I'une a I'ouest de la NouveUe Hollande et I'autre par les Isles entre la Chine et la NouveUe Hollande : etdans cette derniere route, ils auront aulant de routes qu'il y a d'Isles, d'ovi il suit qu'il sera presqu'- impossible a attrapper leurs vaisseaux, ou en allant, ou en revenant Toutes ces conse quences pourroient etre empechees dans le traite de confederation que Lord Rocheford proposoil ; dans ce traite ou pourroit stipuler que ces Isles appartiendront pour toujours k leurs anciens habitans ; car assureraent la na tion qui la premiere en prendra possession comraandera le commerce des Mers du Sud et des Mers d'Asie. L'Europe voulant faire les Araericains independants, est dans la si tuation d'un homme qui dort sur la glace et n'est pas sensible que la glace se degele, et pour cette raison, pour donner plus de poids a la consideration, on pourroit in viler la Hollande et le Danemark qui ont des inlerets dans tous les deux nouveaux mondes, d'toe parties con- tractantes a ces articles du traite, qui regar- dent la garanlie mutuelle. La raison pour- quoi les traites sont rompus si souvent est qu'ils ne font pas provision pour les inlerets reciproques pour I'avenir des nations conlrac lanles. Les seuls que je connoisse qui font attention A cet objet sont les traites entre le Portugal el I'Angleterre, par lesquels le Por tugal gagne une preference pour la vente de ses vins en Angleterre et I'Angleterre gagne une preference pour la vente de ses draps en Portugal : la consequence est qu'il n'y a ja raais eu, et, en apparence, il n'y aura jaraais une guerre entre le Portugal et I'Angle terre. II ne seroit pas difficile, ou dans la rafeme consideration generale, ou par les traites separes de coraraerce entre I'Angleterre d'un cote, et les trois royauraes, I'Espagne, le Por tugal et la France respectivemenl des autres c6tes,de servir infiniment les inlerets de com merce de tous les trois dans leurs liaisons avec I'Anglelerre. Comme I'Espagne a les vins, riiuile, les fruits, le sel, les laines fines et quelques autres articles que I'Anglelerre n'a pas, et corarae I'Angleterre a le fer et le Charbon dans les m^raes charaps pour ses manufactures de fer, qu'elle a par I'huraidite de son cliraat la laine longue pour les draps d'un prix bas, qu'elle a I'etain, le poisson, et quelques autres articles que I'Espagne n'a pas, la consequence est que, quand I'Angle terre est riche, elle achetera plus des articles de I'Espagne, el quand I'Espagne est riche, elle achetera plus des articles d'Angleterre, el par consequent que c'est impossible pour I'un a s'enrichir sans enrichir I'autre. Le meme raisonneraenls'appliqueaux liaisons na turelles entre I'Angleterre et le Portugal. II y a meme une liaison naturelle entre I'Angle terre et la France sur beaucoup d'articles de commerce, si la jalousie des fo\ix et dens gens mal inslruils ne I'inlerrorapoil perpeluelle- raent Je I'enlendu d'une main sure, que si I'Abbe Terray avoit continue dans le rainis- lere de la France, il y auroit ea un tarif entre la France et I'Angleterre, pour I'enlree, sur des conditions plus favorables, des vins et des articles des modes d'une nation, et les raanu factures de fer et des bleds de I'autre ; et I'Angleterre pourroit avoir procure le consen- teraent du Portugal pour ladiraunilionde son comraerce de vins avec I'Anglelerre, par d'autres dedoramageraens. L'Angleterre, en favour de la France, I'Espagne et le Portugal pouvoit merae perraettre I'exportation de ses laines payanl un droit a 1' exportation, sans se nuire. L'exportation de superfluite de laine feroit du bien aux proprietaires des terres en Angle terre, au Roy en lui donnant une nou velle taxe et a ses trois nations etrangeres en leur don nant un article necessaire pour leurs manufac tures. Malheur pour I'humanite! L'Abbe Ter- 468 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. ray n'est p us : raais bonheur pour I'huraanile, le Docleur Franklin, le Controleur-General de la France, Mr. Caraporaanes, le Due de Braganza, et le Lord North sont tous encore en vie. C'est le Roy d'Espagne et le Comte de Florida Blanca qui peuvenl raetlre tons les cinq en mouvement Pour moi je n'ai nuUe autorite des rainislres Anglois a presenter ce projet, raais vivanl en amitie avec la plupart d'eux et avec les amis des autres, je suis sur qu'il y a des sentiments dans ce memoire qui sont les leurs. J'avoue que je re^u une lettre en Portugal, quatorze jours avant que je partisse pour I'Espagne, de Milord Rocheford, qui n'est pas a cette heure dans le rainistere, mais qui entile d'un projet qui lui fait tant d'honneur, me conseilloit de later le pouxsur la possibilite de le faire reussir : Etque j'ai une lettre sur le raSme sujet, du Due de Braganza qui enlroit dans les vuesde projet de Milord Rocheford, non pas en poli tique, mais en amide I'humanite. Encourage par de lels horames el encore plus par mon propre coeur, j'ecris a un des rainislres du Roy d'Angleterre que si je ne trouvois pas les esprits trop echauffes el si je ne trouvois pas que je ne donnois pas oftense, j'avois intention de faire justice au projet de Milord Rocheford et en Espagne el en France, et jo'le prie de ra'envoyer une.reponse a Pa ris, si le rainistere d'Angleterre approuvoitou desapprouvoit ce que j'allois faire. Je n'ai qu'a ajouler que mes vues etant duniretnon a separer les nations, je n'ai nuUe objection que les rainislres de la France et le Docleur Franklin ayent chacun un exemplaire de ce memoire. A true Copy from the Original. Attest WM. CARMICHAEL, Secretary ofthe American Legation at Madrid. On HumanVanity. — Frora the Pennsylvania Gazette. Dec. 4, 1735. Mr. Franklin, — Meeting with the follow ing curious little piece, the other day, I send it to you to republish, as il is now in very few hands. There is something so elegant in the imagination, conveyed in so delicate a style, and accompanied with a raoral so just and elevated, that it raust yield great pleasure and instruction lo every mind of real laste and virtue. Cicero, in the first of his Tusculan ques tions, finely exposes the vain judgment vve are apt to forra, of the duration of human life compared with eternity. In illustrating this argument, he quotes a passage of natural history from Aristotle, concerning a species of insects on the banks ofthe river Hypani.-^, that never outlive the day in which they are born. To pursue the thought of this elegant writer, let us suppose one of the raost robust of these Hypanians, so famed in history, was in a manner coeval with time itself; that he began to exislat the breakof day, and that from the uncoraraon strength of his constitu tion, behas been able lo show hiraself active in life, through the nuraberless minutes of ten or twelve hours. Through so long a series of seconds, he raust have acquired vast wisdom in his way, from observation and experience. He looks upon his fellow-creatures, who died about noon, to be happily delivered frora the raany inconveniencies of old age ; and can perhaps recount to his great grandson, u, surprising tradition of actions, before any re cords of their nation were extant The young swarra of Hypanians, who may be advanced one hour in life ; approach his person with re spect, and listen to his improving discourse. Every thing he says will seera wonderful to their short-lived generation. The corapass of a day will be esteemed the whole duration of time ; and the first dawn of light will, in their chronology, be styled the great era of their creation. Let us now suppose this venerable insect, this Nestor of Hypania should, a little before his death, and about sun-set send for all his descendants, his friends, and his acquaintances out of the desire he may have to impart his last thoughts to them, and to admonish tbem, wilh his departing breath. They meet, per haps, under the spacious shelter of a mush room ; and the dying sage addresses himself lo thera after the following manner. " Friends and fellow-citizens ! I perceive the longest life must however end : the period of mine is now al hand: neither do I repine al ray fate, since ray great age is become a burden tome; and there is nothing new lo me under the sun : the changes and revolu tions I have seen, in my country; the mani fold private misfortunes to which vve are all liable ; the fatal diseases incident lo our race, have abundantly taught me this lesson : that no happiness can be secure or lasting which is placed in things that are out of our power — Great is the uncertainty of life ! — A whole brood ofour infiints have perished in a mo ment, by a keen blast I — Shoals of our strag gling youth, have been swept into the ocean by an unexpected breeze ! What wasteful desolation have we not suffered from the de luge ofa sudden shower 1 — Our strongest holds are not proof against a storm of hail, and even a dark cloud damps the very stoutest heart " I have lived in the first ages, and convers ed vvith insects ofa larger size and stronger raake, and I must add, of greater virtue than any can boast of in the present generation. I raust conjure you to give yet further credit to ray latest words when I assure you, that yon der sun, which now appears westward, be- POLITICAL ECONOMY. 469 yond the water, and seeras not to be fiir dis tant from the earth, in ray reraerabrance stood in the raiddle ofthe sky, and shot his beams directly down upon us. The world was much more enlightened in those ages, and the air much warraer. Think it not dotage in me, if I affirm, that glorious being raoves : I saw his first setting out in the east, and I began my race of life, near the tirae when he began his immense career. He has for several ages advanced along the sky with vast heat and unparalleled brightness, bul now by his de clination and a sensible decay, raore especially of late, in his vigour, I foresee, that aU nature must fall in a little time, and that the creation will lie buried in darkness, in less than a cen tury of rainutes. " Alas ! ray friends, how did I once flatter myself with the hopes of abiding here for ever ; how magnificent are the cells which I hollowed out for rayself: what confidence did I repose in the firraness and spring of my joints, and in the strength of ray pinions ! But 1 have lived enough to nature, and even to glory. Neither will any of you, whom I leave behind, have equal satisfaction in life, in the dark declining age which I see is already began." Thus far this agreeable unknown writer, too agreeable we raay hope, lo reraain always concealed ; the fine allusion to the character of Julius CcEsar, whose words he has put into the mouth of this illustrious son of Hypa- nis, is perfectly just and beautiful, and aptly points out the raoral of this inimitable piece, the design of which vvould have been quite perverted, had a virtuous character, a Cato or a Cicero, been raade choice of, to have been turned inlo ridicule. Had this life of a day been represented as eraployed in the ex ercise of virtue, il would have had equal dig nity wilh a life of any limited duration ; and according to the exalted sentiments of TuUy, would have been preferable to an immortali ty filled wilh 411 the pleasures of sense, if void of those of a higher kind : bul as the views of this vain-glorious insect were con fined within the narrow circle of his own ex istence, as he only boasts the magnificent cells he had buUt, and the length of happi ness he had enjoyed, he is the proper emblem of all such insects of the huraan race, whose ambition does not extend beyond the like narrow liraits ; and notwithstanding the splendour they appear in at present, they will no more deserve the regard of posterity than the butterflies of the last spring. In vain has history been taken up in describing the nuraerous swarras of this mischievous spe cies which has infested the earth in the suc cessive ages : now it is worth the inquiry of the virtuous, whether the Rhine or the Adige may not perhaps swarra with them at present, as mpch as the banks of Hypanis ; or whether •« - -i. . .*W >...j ,<:l^, ^'140 that silver rivulet the Thames, may not show a specious raole-hill, covered with inhabitants of the like dignity and importance. The busy race of being attached to these fleeting enjoyraents are indeed all of thera engaged in the pursuit of happiness : and il is owing lo their imperfect notions of il, that they slop so far short in their pursuit. The present pros pect of pleasure seems to bound their views, and the raore distant scenes of happiness, when what they now propose shall be attained, do not strike their iraagination. Il is a great stupidity, or thoughtlessness, not to perceive, that the happiness of rational natures is insepa - rably connected with iramortality. Creatures only endowed with sensation, may in a low sense, be reputed happy, so long as their sen sations are pleasing; and if these pleasing sensations are coraraensurate wilh the tirae of their existence, this raeasure of happiness is coraplete. Bul such beings as are endowed wilh thought and refection, cannot be made happy by any limited terra of happiness, how great soever ils duration raay be. The raore exquisite and raore valuable their enjoyments are, the raore painful must be the thought that they are lo have an end ; and this pain of ex pectation raust be continually increasing the nearer the end approaches. And if these be ings are themselves immortal, and yet inse cure of the continuance of their happiness, the case is far worse, since an eternal void of de light, if not to say a stale of misery, must suc ceed. Il would here be of no raoraent, whe ther the time of their happiness were mea sured by days or hours, by months or years, or by^ej-iocZs of the most iraraeasurable length: these swiftly flowing slrearas bear no pro portion to that ocean of infinity, where they must finish their course. The longest dura tion of finite happiness avails nothing, when il is past : nor can the raeraory of il have any other effect than to renew a perpetual pining afler pleasures never to return, and since vir tue is the only pledge and security of a happy immortality, the folly of sacrificing it lo any temporal advantages, how' important soever they raay appear, raust be infinitely great, and cannot bul leave behind il an eternal regret Note —The reader familiar with the happy views of moral good which distinguishes the writings of Dr. Franklin above all the writers ofhis age, cannot fail to perceive in this beautiful production, the first concep tions, which were amplified and digested into the alle gory ofthe Ephemeron, which is to be found in another part of this edition ; addressed lo Madam Brihon.— - Editor. On True Happiness.— From the Pennsylva nia Gazette, Nov: 20, 1735. The desire of happiness is in general so na tural, that all the world are in pursuit ofit; all have this one end solely in view, though they take such different methods to attain it, and are so much divided in their notions of what it consists of 470 FRANKLIN'S WORKS, As evU can never be preferred, and though evil is often the effect ofour own choice, yet we never desire it, but under the appearance of an imaginary good. Many things we indulge ourselves in, may be considered by us as evUs ; and yet be de sirable: bul then, they are only considered as evils in their effects and consequences, not as evils al present, and attended wilh iraraedi ate raisery. Reason represents things to us, not only as they are at present, but as they are in their whole nature and tendency : passion only re gards thera in the former light ; when this go verns us, we are regardless of the future, and are only affected by the present It is impossible for us ever to enjoy our selves rightly, if our conduct be not such as to preserve the harmony and order of our fa culties, and the original frarae and constitu tion of our rainds : all true happiness, as aU that is truly beautiful, can only result from order. WhUst there is a conflict betwixt the two principles of passion and reason, we must be raiserable, in proportion lo the ardour of the struggle, and when the victory is gained, and reason is so far subdued, as seldom to trouble us vvith ils remonstrances, the happiness we have then attained, is not the happiness ofour rational nature, bul the happiness only of the inferior and sensual part of us; and conse quently a very low and imperfect happiness, compared wilh that which the other would have afforded us. If we reflect upon^any one passion and dis position of mind abstracted from virtue, we shall soon see the disconnexion between that and true solid happiness; ills oflhe very es sence, for instance, of envy lo be uneasy and disquieted: pride meets with provocations and disturbances upon almost every occasion : covetousnass is ever attended with solicitude and anxiety : ambition has its disappointments to sour us, but never the good fortune to sa tisfy us ; its appetite grows the keener by in dulgence, and all we can gratify it with al present, serves but the raore lo inflame ils in satiable desires. The passions, by being too rauch convers ant with earthly objects, can never fix in us a proper composure, and acquiescence of raind. Nothing but an indifference lo the things of this world, an entire subraission to the will of Providence here, and a well-grounded expec tation of happiness hereafter, can give us a true satisfactory enjoyment of ourselves. Vir tue is the best guard against the many un avoidable evils incident lo us ; nothing belter alleviates the weight ofthe afflictions, or gives a truer relish of the blessings of human life. What is wiihout us has not the least con nexion wilh happiness, only so far as thepre- on it : health of body, though so &r necessary that we cannot be perfectly happy wiihout it, is not sufficient lo make us happy of itself— Happiness springs iraraediately from the mind : health is but lo be considered as a condition or circurastance, wiihout which this happi ness cannot be lasted pure and unabated. Virtue is the best preservative of health, as it prescribes teraperance, and such a regu lation ofour passions as is raost conducive to the vyell being of the animal economy. So that it is at tbe sarae tirae the only true hap piness ofthe mind, and the best means of pre serving the health of the body. If our desires are for the things of this world, they are never to be satisfied. If our great view is upon those of the next the ex pectation of them is an infinitely higher satis faction than the enjoyment of those ofthe pre sent. There is no true happiness then but in a virtuous and self-approving conduct ; unless our actions wUl bear the test ofour sober judg ments and reflections upon thera, they Eire not the actions, and consequently not the happi ness of a rational being. Ore Self-Denial. — From the Pennsyltania Gazette, Feb. 18, 1734. It is coraraonly asserted, that without self- denial there is no virtue, and that the greater the self-denial is, the greater is the virtue. If il were said, that he who cannot deny hiraself any thing he mclines to, though he knows it will be lo his hurt has not the vir tue of resolution or fortitude, il would be in telligible enough ; but as it stands, the propo sition seeras obscure or erroneous. Let us consider some of the virtues singly. If a man has no inclination to wrong people in his dealings ; if he feels no temptation to it and therefore never does it, can it be said, that he is not a just raan ! if he is a just man, has he not the virtue of justice ? *r If lo a certain man, idle diversions have no thing in thera that is templing, and therefore he never relaxes his application to business for their sake, is he not an industrious man ; or has he not the virtue of industry ? I might in like raanner instance in all the rest of the virtues ; bul to make the thing short as it is certain, that the more we strive against the temptation lo any vice, and prac tise the contrary virtue, tlie\ weaker wUl that temptation be, and tbe stronger wiU be that habit ; till at length the temptation hath no force, or entirely vanishes: does il follow from thence, that in our endeavours lo over come vice, we grow continually less and less virtuous, tUl at length vve have no virtue at all? If self-denial be the essence of vu'tue, then servation ofour lives and health depends up- 1 it follows, that the.man who is naturaUy tern- POLITICAL ECONOMY. 471 peiate, just, &c., is not virtuous, but that in order to be virtuous, he must, in spite of his natural inclinations, wrong his neighbours, and eat and drink, &c., lo excess. But, perhaps it raay be said, that by the word virtue, in the above assertion, is raeant merit, and so it should stand ; thus wiihout self-denial there is no merit; and the greater the self-denial the greater the raerit The self-denial here raeant raust be, when our inclinations are towards vice, or else it would still be nonsense. By raerit is understood desert ; and when we say a raan raerits, we mean that he de serves praise or reward. We do not pretend lo raerit any thing of God, for he is above our services, and the be nefits he confers on us are the effects of his goodness and bounty. All our merit then is wilh regard to one another, and frora one to another. Taking then the proposition as it stands — If a man does me a service, from a natu ral benevolent inclination, does he deserve less of me than another, who does rae the like kindness against his inclination? If I have two journeymen, one naturally industrious, the other idle, but both perform a day's work equally good, ought I to give the latter the most wages? Indeed lazy workraen are coramonly ob served to be more extravagant in their de mands than the industrious ; for ifthey have not niore for their work, they cannot live as well as the industrious. But though it be true lo a proverb, that lazy folks take the most pains, does it follow that they deserve the most money? If you were lo eraploy servants in affairs of trust, would you pay more wages to one you knew was naturally honest, than for one naturaUy roguish, but who had lately acted honestly : for currents whose natural channels are damraed up, tUl a new course is by time worn sufficiently deep, and become natural, are apt to break their banks. If one servant is more valuable than another, has he not raore raerit than the other, and yet this is not on account of supe rior self-denial. Is a patriot not praiseworthy, if public spi rit is natural to him ? Is a pacing horse less valuable for being a natural pacer ? Nor in my opinion has any man less merit for having in general naturally virtuous in clinations. The truth is, that temperance, justice, cha rity, &c., are virtues whether practised with or against our inclinations ; and the man who practises them, merits our love and esteem : and self-denial is neither good nor bad, but as it is appUed. He that denies a vicious in cUnation, is virtuous in proportion to his reso lution ; but the most perfect virtue is above all temptation; such as the virtue ofthe saints in heaven : and he who does any foolish, in decent or wicked thing, raerely because it is contrary lo his inclination, like some mad en thusiasts I have read of, who ran about in pub lic naked, under' the notion of taking up the cross, is not practising the reasonable science of virtue, but is lunatic. Newcastle, Feb. 5. Rivalship in Almanac making. — From Poor Richard's Almanac, 1742. Courteous Reader, — 'This is the ninth year of ray endeavours to serve thee in the ca pacity of a calendar-writer. The encourage ment I have met with must be ascribed, in a great measure, lo your' charily, excited by the open, honest declaration I made ofmy poverty at ray first appearance. This my brother Phi lomaths could, without being conjurers dis cover ; and Poor Richard's success, has pro duced ye a Poor Will, and a Poor Robin; and no doubt. Poor John, Sic. will follow, and we shall all be, in name, what sorae folks say we are already in fact, a parcel of poor almanac makers. During the course of these nine years, what buffetings have I not sustain ed ! The fraternity have been all in arras. Honest Titan, deceased, was raised, and raade to abuse his old friend. Both authors and printers were angry. Hard names, and many, were bestowed on me. They denied me to be the author of my own works ; declared there never was any such person ; asserted that I vvas dead sixty years ago ; prognosti cated ray death to happen within a Iwelve- raonth: with many other malicious inconsis tencies, the effects of blind passion, envy al ray success ; and a vaip hope ot'depriving me, dear reader, of thy wonted countenance and favour. — Who knows him ? they cry : Where does he live ? — But what is that to thera ? If I delight in a private life, have they any right lo drag rae out of ray retirement? I have good rea sons for concealing the place of ray abode. Il is time for an old man, as I am, to think of preparing for his great remove. The perpe tual teasing of both neighbours and strangers, to calculate nativities, give judgraents on scheraes, and erect figures, discover thieves, detect horse-stealers, describe the route of runaways and strayed cattle; the crowd of visiters with a thousand trifling questions ; Will my ship return safe ? Will my mare win the race ? Will her next colt be a pacer ? When will my wife die ? Who shall be my husband ? and HOW LONG first ? When is the best time to cut hair, trim cocks, or sow salad ? These and the like irapertinences I have now neither taste nor leisure for. I have had enough of them. All that these 472 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. angry folks can say, wUl never provoke me to tell them where I live — I would eat my nails first My last adversary is J. J n, philomat who declares and protests (in his preface, 1741) chat the false prophecy put in my al manac, concerning him, the year before, is altogether false and untrue : and that I am one of Baafs false prophets. This false, false prophecy he speaks of, related to his re conciliation with the church of Rome ; which, notwithstanding his declaring and protesting, is, I fear, too true. Two things in his ele giac v-erses confirm me in this suspicion. He calls the first of November All-Hallows day. Reader, does not this sraell of popery ! Does it in the least savour of the pure lan guage of Friends? Bul the plainest thing is, his adoration of saints, which he confesses lo be his practice, in these words, page 4. When any trouble did me befall. To my dear Mary ihen I would call : Did he thuik the whole world were so stupid as not lo lake notice of this ! So ignorant as not to know, that all catholics pay the high est regard to the Virgin Mary? Ah! friend John, vve must allow you to be a poet but you are certainly no protestant I could heartily wish your religion were as good as your verses. RICHARD SAUNDERS. The Waste of Life. Anergus was a gentleman of a good es tate, he was bred to no business, and could not contrive how to waste his hours agreea bly ; he had no relish for any of the proper works of life, nor any taste at all for the ira proveraents of the raind ; he spent generaUy ten hours of the four-and-twenty in his bed ; he dozed away two or three more on his couch, and as many were dissolved in good liquor every evening, if he raet vvith company of his own humour. Five or six of the rest he saunter ed away with much indolence : the chief busi ness of thera was lo contrive his meals, and to feed his fency before-hand, vvith the pro mise ofa dinner and supper ; not that he vvas so very a glutton, or so entirely devoted to appetite ; bul chiefly because he knew not how to eraploy his thoughts better, he let thera rove about the sustenance of his body. Thus he had raade a shift lo vve.ir off ten years since the paternal estate fell into his hands: and yet according to the abuse of words incur day, he vvas called a man of vir tue, because he was source ever known lo be quite drunk, nor was his nature much inclined to lewdness. One evening as he vvas musing along, his tlioughls happened to take a most unusual turn, for they cast a glance backward, and be gan to refli'ct on his manner of life. He be thought himself what a number of living be ings had been made a sacrifice to support ias carcase, and how much corn and wine had been mingled with those offerings. He had not quite lost all the arithraetic Sat he learn ed when he vvas a boy, and he set himself to compute what he had devoured since he came to the age of raan. " About a dozen feathered creatures, smaU and great have one week wilh another (said he) given up their lives to prolong mine, which in ten years amounts to at least six thousand. " Fifty sheep have been sacrificed in a year, with half « hecatomb of black cattle, that I might have the choicest part offered weekly upon my table. Thus a thousand beasts outof the flock and the herd have been slain in ten years time to feed me, besides what the forest has supplied me with. Many hundreds of fishes have in all their varieties, been robbed of life for my repast, and of the smaUer fry as many thousands. " A raeasure of corn would hanUy afford fine flour enough for a month's provision, and this arises to above sLx score bushels; and many hogsheads of ale and wme, and other liquors, have passed through this body of mine, this wretched strainer of meat and drink. "And what have I done all this time for God or man ? 'V\Tiat a vast profiision of good things upon an useless life, and a worthless liver i There is not the meanest creature among all these which I have devoured, but bath answered the end of its creation belter than I. It was raade to support human na ture, and it hath done so. Every crab and oyster I have eat, and every grain of corn I have devoured, hath filled up its place in the rank of beings with raore propriety and honour than I have done : O shameiiJ waste of life and time !" In short he carried on his raoral reflections with so just and severe a force of reason, as constrained him lo change his whole course of life, to break off his foUies at once, and to apply himself to gain some useful knowledge, when he vvas more than thirty years of age ; he lived many following years, with the character of a worthy man. and an excellent Christian ; he perforraed the kind offices of a good neigh bour al home, and made a shining figure as a patriot in the senate-house, he died vvith a peaceful conscience, and the tears of his coun try were dropped upon his tomb. The world, that knew the whole series of his life, stood amazed at the mighty change. They beheld hira as a wonder of reformation, while he hiraself confessed and adored the di vine power and mercy, which had translbrra- ed him from a brute to a man. But this was a single instance; and vve may almost venture lo write miracle upon it .\re there not numbers of both sexes among POLITICAL ECONOMY. 473 our young gentry, in this degenerate age, whose lives thus run to utter waste, without the least tendency to usefulness. When I meet with persons of such a worth less character as this, it brings to my mind some scraps of Horace, Nos Humerus sumus, et fruges consumere nati. — ~ ¦ Alcinoique Juventus Cui pulchrum fait in Medios dormire dies, &c. PARAPHRASE. There are a number of us creep Into this world, to eat and sleep; And know no reason why they're born But merely to consume the corn, Devour the catUe, fowl, and fish, And leave behind an empty dish : Tho' crows and ravens do the same, Unlucky birds of hateful name; Ravens or crows might fill their places, And swallow corn and carcasses. Then, if their tomb-stone when they die, Ben't taught to flatter and to lie. There's nothing better will be said, Than that the've eat up all their bread, Drank up all their drink and gone to bed. There are other fragments of that heathen poet, which occur on such occasions ; one in the first of his satires, the other in the last of his epistles, which seem to represent life only as a season of luxury. Exacto contentus tempore vits Cedat uti conviva satur Lusisti satus, edisti satis atque bihisti ; Tempus abire tibi. Which may be thus put into English. Life's but a feast ; and when we die Horace would say, if he were by, Friend, thou hast eat and drank enough, 'Tis time now to be marching off: Then like a well-fed guest depart. With cheerful looks, and ease at heart. Bid all your friends good night, and say, You've done the business ofthe day. DIALOGUE I. Between Philocles and Horatio meeting ac cidentally in the fields, concerning Virtue and Pleasure. — Frora the Pennsylvania Ga zette, No. 84, June 23, 1730. Philocles. Mv friend Horatio I I ara very glad to see you ; prithee how came such a man as you alone 1 and rausing tool What misfortune in your pleasures has sent you to phUosophy for relief. Horatio. You guess very right, my dear Philocles : we pleasure-hunters are never without them ; and yet, so enchanting is the game, we cannot quit the chace. How calra and undisturbed is your life, how free frora present embarrassments and future cares; I know you love me, and look with compassion upon my conduct: show me then the path which leads up to that constant and invaria ble good, which I have heard you so beauti fully describe, and which you seem so fully to Phil. There are few men in the world I value more than you, Horatio ! for amidst all your foibles, and painful pursuits of pleasure. Vol. II. ... 3 O 40* I have oft observed in you an honest heart, and a raind strongly bent towards virtue. I wish, frora my soul, I could assist you in act ing steadily the part of a reasonable creature : for, if you would not think it a paradox, I should tell you I love you better than you do yourself Hor. A paradox indeed I better than I do myself I when I love my dear self so well, that I love every thing else for my own sake. Phil. He only loves himself weU, who right ly and judiciously loves hiraself Hor. What do you mean by that, Philocles 1 You men of reason and virtue are always deal ing in mysteries, though you laugh al thera when the church makes thera. I think he loves himself very well and very judiciously too ; as you call it, who aUows hiraself lo do whatever he pleases. Phil. What, though it be to the ruin and destruction of that very self which he loves so well ! That raan alone loves hiraself rightly, who procures the greatest possible good to hiraself through the whole ofhis existence; and so pursues pleasure as not to give for il raore than it is worth. Hor. That depends all upon opinion. Who shall judge what the pleasure is worth 1 Sup pose a pleasing form of the fair kind strikes rae so rauch, that I can enjoy nothing without the enjoyraent of that one object. Or, that pleasure in general is so favourite a raistress, that I will take her as raen do their wives, for belter, for worse ; minding no consequences, nor regarding what is to come. Why should I not do il ? Phil. Suppose, Horatio! that a friend of yours entered into the world, about two and twenty, wilh a healthful vigorous body, and a fair plentiful estate of about five hundred pounds a year ; and yet, before he had reach ed thirty, should, by following his pleasures, and not, as you say, duly regarding conse quences, have run out of his estate, and dis abled his body to that degree, that he had nei- iher the means nor capacity of enjoyment left; nor any thing else to do but wisely shoot him self through the head to be at rest: what would you say to this unfortunate man's con duct 1 Is it wrong by opinbn or fancy only? Or is there really a right and wrong in the easel Is not one opinion of life and action juster than another"! Or one sort of conduct preferable to another 1 Or, does that misera ble son of pleasure appear as reasonable and lovely a being in your eyes, as a man, who by prudently and rightly gratifying his natural passions, bad preserved his body in full health and his estate entire, and enjoyed both lo a good old age, and then died with a thankful heart for the good things he had received, and with an entire submission to the will of Him who first called hira into being. Say, Hora tio ! are these men equally wise and happy f 474 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. And is every thing to be raeasured by mere fancy and opinion, wiihout considering whe ther that fancy or opinion be right ? Hor. Hardly so neither, I think ; yet sure the wise and good Author of nature could never raake us lo plague us. He could never give us passions, on purpose to subdue and conquer thera ; nor produce this self of mine, or any other self, only that it may iie denied ; for, that is denying the works of the greal Creator himself. Self denial then, which is what I suppose you raean by prudence, seems to rae not only absurd, but very dishonourable to that suprerae wisdom and goodness which is supposed lo make so ridiculous and contra dictory a creature, that must be always fight ing with hiraself in order to be at rest, and undergo voluntary hardships in order to be happy : are we created sick, only to be cora- manded to be sound 1 Are we born under one law, our passions, and yet bound lo another, that of reason 1 Answer me, Philocles, for I am warmly concerned for the honour of nature, the mother of us all. Phil. I find, Horatio, my two characters have frighted you ; so that you decline ihe trial of what is good, by reason : and had ra ther raake a bold attack upon Providence ; the usual way of you gentlemen of fashion, who, when, by living in defiance of the eter nal rules of reason, you have plunged your selves inlo a thousand difficulties, endeavour to make yourselves easy, by throwing the bur den upon nature ; you are, Horatio, in a very miserable condition indeed ; for you say, you cannot be happy ifyou control your passions; and you feel yourself miserable by an unre strained gratification of thera ; so that here is evil, irremediable evU either way. Hor. That is very true, al least il appears so to me ; pray what have you lo say, Philo cles, in honour of nature or Providence ; me thinks, I am in pain for her ; How do you res cue her ! poor lady ! Phil. This, my dear Horatio, I have to say that what you find fault with and clamour against, as the most terrible evil in the world, self-denial, is really the greatest good, and the highest self-gratification. If indeed you use the word in the sense of sorae weak sour moralists, and rauch weaker divines ; you will have just reason to laugh at il ; bul, if you take it, as understood by philosophers, and raen of sense, you will presently see her charras, and fly to her embraces, notwith standing her demure looks, as absolutely ne cessary to produce even your own darling sole good, pleasure; for, self denial is never a duty, or a reasonable action, but as it is a natu ral means of procuring raore pleasure than you can lasle without il, so that this grave saint-like guide to happiness, as rough and dreadful as she has been made to appear, is in truth, the kindest and most beautiful mistress in the world. Hor. Prithee, Philocles, do not wrap your self in allegory and metaphor : why do you teaze rae thus 1 I long lo be satisfied, what is this philosophical self-denial; the necessity and reason of it; I ara impatient, and all on fire ; explain, therefore, in your beautiful na tural easy way of reasoning, what I am to un derstand by this grave lady of yours, vvith so forbidding downcast looks, and yet, so abso lutely necessary to my pleasures, I stand rea dy to embrace her ; for you know, pleasure I court under all shapes and forras. Phil. Attend then, and you will see the reason of this philosophical self-denial. There can be no absolute perfection in any creature ; because every creature is derived from some thing of a superior existence, and dependant on that source for ils own existence : no cre ated being can be all-wise, all-good, and all- powerful, because his powers and capacities are fmite and limited : consequently whatever is created must, in ils own nature, be subject lo error, irregularity, excess, Euid imperf'ect- ness. All intelligent rational agents find in theraselves a power of judging what kind of beings tbey are : what actions are proper to preserve them ; and what consequences vvill generally attend them ; what pleasures thty are formed for, and to what degree their na tures are capable of receiving tbem. All we have to do then, Horatio, is lo consider, v\ hen we are surprised wilh a new object, and passionately desire lo enjoy it, whether the gratifying that passion be consistent with the gratifying other passion and appetites equal, if not more necessary to us. And whether it consists wilh our happiness to-morrow, next week, or next year ; fbr, as we all vvisli to live, we are obliged, by reason, lo take as much care for our future, as our present hap piness, and not build one upon the ruins of the other : but, if through the strength and power of a present passion, and through want of attending to consequences, we have erred and exceeded the bounds which nature or reason have set us; we are then, for our own sakes, to refrain, or deny ourselves a present momentary pleasure, for a future, constant, and durable one ; so that this philosophical self-denial is only refusing lo do an action, which you strongly desire ; because it is in consistent wilh your health, convenience, or circumstances in the world ; or, in other words, because it vvould cost you raore than it was worth. You would lose by it, as a man of pleasure. Thus you see, Horatio, that self-denial is not only the most reasonable, but the most pleasant thing in tlie world. Hor. We are just coraing into town, so that we cannot pursue this argument any farther al present ; you have said a great deal for na- POLITICAL ECONOMY. 475 ture, Providence and reason : happy are they who can follow such divine guides. Phil. Horatio, good night : I wish you wise in your pleasures. Hor. I wish, Philocles, I could be as wise in my pleasures, as you are pleasantly wise ; your wisdom is agreeable ; your virtue is amiable ; and your philosophy the highest luxury. Adieu I thou enchanting reasoner. DIALOGUE II. Between Philocles and Horatio, concerning Virtue and Pleasure. — From the Pennsyl vania Gazette, No. 86, July 9, 1730. Philocles. — Dear Horatio, where hast thou been these three or four months 1 What new adventures have you fallen upon since I met you in these delightful all-inspiring fields, and wondered how such a pleasure-hunter as you could bear being alone 1 Horatio. O Philocles I thou best of friends, because a friend to reason and virtue ! I am very glad to see you : do not you reraeraber, I told you then, that some misfortunes in my pleasures had sent me to phUosophy for relief; but now I do assure you, I can, wiihout a sigh, leave other pleasures for those of phUo sophy : I can hear the word reason raentioned, and virtue praised, wilhoul laughing. Do not I bid fair for conversion, think you 1 Phil. Very fair, Horatio ; for I reraeraber the tirae when reason, virtue, and pleasure were the sarae thing with you : when you counted nothing good but what pleased ; nor any thing reasonable but what you gained by : when you raade a jest of a mind, and the plea sures of reflection ; and elegantly placed your sole happiness, like the rest ofthe aniraal cre ation, in the gratification of sense. Hor. I did so ; but in our last conversation, when walking upon the brow of this hill, and looking down on that broad rapid river, and yon widely extended, beautifully varied plain, you taught me another doctrine : you showed me, that self-denial, which above all things I abhorred, was really the greatest good, and the highest self-gratification, and absolutely necessary to produce even my own darling sole good, pleasure. Phil. True: Itoldyou, that self-denial was never a duly, bul when it was a natural means of procuring more pleasure, than we could taste without it : that as we all strongly de sire lo live, and lo live only to enjoy, we should take as rauch care about our future as our present happiness ; and not build one upon the ruins of the other: that we should look to the end, and regard consequences : and if, through want of attention, we had erred, and exceeded the bounds which nature had set us, we were then obliged, for our own sakes, lo refi'ain, or deny ourselves a present moraen- tary pleasure, for a future, constant, and du rable good. Hor. You have shown, Philocles, that self- denial, which weak or interestea, raen have rendered the most forbidding, is really the raost delightful and araiable, the raost reason able and pleasant thing in the world. In a word, if I understand you aright, self-denial is, in truth, self-recognizing, self-acknowledg ing, or self-owning. But now, ray friend, you are to perform another proraise ; and, show rae the path which leads up to that con- slant, durable, and invariable good, which I have heard you so beautifully describe, and which you seem so fully to possess. Is not this good of yours a mere chimera 1 Can any thing be constant in a world which is eter nally changing ! and which appears to exist by an everlasting revolution of one thing into another, and where every thing without us, and every thing within us, is in perpetual raotion. What is this constant durable good, then, of yours 1 Prithee satisfy my soul, for I ara all on fire, and irapatient to enjoy her. Produce this eternal blooraing goddess, wilh never fading charms ; and see, whether I vvill not embrace her with as rauch eagerness and rapture as you. Phil. You seem enthusiastically warm, Ho ratio ; 1 will wait till you are cool enough to attend lo the sober dispassionate voice of rea son. Hor. You raistake rae, ray dear Philocles, ray warrath is not so great as to run away with ray reason : it is only just raised enough to open ray faculties, and fit thera lo receive those eternal truths, and that durable good which you so triumphantly boast of Begin then, I am prepared. Phil. I will, I believe ; Horatio, with all your scepticism about you, you will allow that good lo be constant which is never absent from you, and that lo be durable, which never ends bul with your being. Hor. Yes, go on. Phil. That can never be the good of a creature, which when present, the creature may be miserable, and when absent, is cer tainly so. Hor. I think not; but pray explain what you mean : for I am not much used to this abstract way of reasoning. Phil. I mean, all the pleasures of sense. The good of man cannot consist in the mere pleasures of sense ; because, when any one of those objects which you love is absent, or cannot be come at, you are certainly raisera ble : and if the faculty be impaired, though the object be present, you cannot enjoy il. So that this sensual good depends upon a thousand things without and within you, and all out of your power. Can this then be the good of man 1 Say, Horatio, what think you, is not this a chequered, fleeting, fantastical good ? Can that, in any propriety of speech, be call ed the good of raauj which even, while he ia 476 FRANKLEVS WORKS. tasting, he may be miserable ; and which, when he cannot taste, he is necessarUy so ! Can that be our good, which a^ts us a greal deal of p.i;ns to obtain ; which cloys in pos sessing; for which we must wait the return of appetite, before we can enjoy again ! Or, is that our gosd which we can come at without diScalty; which is heightened by possession ; w.iich never ends in weariness and disappoint ment ; and which, the more we enjoy, the bet ter qualiiiei we are to enjoy on ! H:'r. Tne latter, I think ; but why do you torment me thus! PhUocles, show me this good immediately. Phil. I have showed vou what it is not ; it is not sensual, but it is rational and moral good. Il is doing all the gixxl we can to others, by acts of humanity, friendship, gene rosity, and benevolence : this is that constant and durable good, which wUl afibrd content ment and s-itistdction always alike, without variation or diminution. 1 speak lo your ex perience now. Horatio. Did yon ever find yourself weary of relieving the miserable ? Or of raising the dislresed into life or happi ness ! Or rather, do not you find the pleasure grow upon you by repetition ; and thit it is greater in reflection that in the act itself? Is there a pleasure upon earth to be compared with that which arises from the sense of making others happy ! Can this pleasure ever be absent, or ever end but with your being ! Does it not jjways accompany you ? Doth not it lie down and rise with you, live 3s long as you live, give you consolation in the arti cle of death, and remain with you in that gloomy hour, when all other things are going to forsake you, or you them ! Hor. How glowingly you paint, Philocles ; methinks Horatio is amongst the enthusiasts. I feel the passion : I am enchantingly con vinced ; but I do not know why : overborn bv something stronger than reason. Sure. some divinity speaks within me; but prithee. Philocles, give me coolly the cause, why this rational aud moral good 5.-I rafinitely excels the mere natural or sensual. Phil. I think, Horatio, that I have clearly shown you the difference between merely na tural or sensual good, and rational or moral uood. Xilural or sensual pleasure continues no lonofer than the action itself; but this di vine or" moral pleasure continues when the ac tion is over, and swells and grows upon your hand by reflection: the one is inconstant, un satisfying, of short duration, and attended with numberles Uls : the other is constant, yields full satisfiction, is durable, and no evUs pre- celinj, accompanying, or following iL But if vou inquire farther into the cause of this dilference, and would know why the moral pleasures are greater than the sensual ; per- hips t!ie reason is the same, as in all other creatures, that their happiness or chief giKxl consists in acting up to their chief iaxmlty, or that faculty whici distinguishes them from all creatures of a difiFerent species. The chief faculty in man is his reason ; and consequent ly, his chief good ; or, that which may be justly (kUed bis good consists not merely in action, but m reasonable action. By reasonable ac tions, we understand thoee actions, which are preservative of the human kind, and naturaUy te.id to produce real and unmixed happiness ; and these actions, by way of distinction, we call actions moraUy good. Hor. Von speak very clearly, PhUocles; but, that no difficulty may reraain upon y cur mind, pray teU me, what is the real diflerence between natural ffood and evil, and moral jood and evil ; for I know several people who use the terms without ideas. PhiL That may be: the difierence lies only in this, that natural good and evU, are pleasure and pain : moral gtiod and evil, are pleasure or pain produced with intention and design. For. it is the intentirai oniy that makes the agent moraUy good or bad. Hor. But may not a man, with a very good intention, do an evU actioQ ! Phil. Yes: but then h« errs in bis judgment, though his design be ffcod: tfhis error is in vincible, or sucii as, all things considered, he could not help, he is inculpable ; but, if it arose through want of diligence in forraing bis judorment about the nature of human actions. he IS immoral and culpable. Hor. I find, then, that in order to please ourselves rightly, or to do good to others mo rallv. we should take great care of our opi nions. PhiL Xothing concerns you more : for, as the happiness or real good of men consists in risht action ; and right action cannot be pro duced without right opinion ; it behoves us, above aU things in this world, to take care that our ovvti opinions of things be according to the nature of things. The foundation of all virtue and happiness is thinking rightly. He who sees an action is right, that is, natu- rallv tendincr to good, and does it because of that tendency, he only is a moral man ; and he alone is capable oftbat constant, durable, and invariable good, which has been the subject of this conversation. Hor. How, my dear phUosophical guide, shall be able to know, and deterraine certainly, what is risht and wrong in life ! Phil. As easUy as you distinguish a circle from a st^uare, or light firom darkness. Look, Horatio, into the sacred book of nature ; read vour own nature, and view the relation which other men stand in to you, and you to them, and vou « ill immediately see what constitutes human happiness, and amsequently, what is right. Hot. W'e are just coming into tow n, and can say no more at present. You are my good POLITICAL ECONOMY. 477 genius, Philocles, you have showed me what is good; you have redeemed me from the slavery and misery of folly and vice ; and made me a free and happy being. Phil. Then ara I the happiest man in the world ; be you steady, Horatio, never depart firom reason and virtue. Hor. Sooner wUl I lose my existence. Good night, Philocles. Phil. Adieu, dear Horatio. POOR RICHARD'S ALMANAC. The Way to Wealth, as clearly shown in the Preface of an old Pennsylvania Almanac, intitled. Poor Richard Improved.* Courteous Reader, — I have heard, that nothing gives an author so great pleasure, as to find his works respectfully quoted by others. Judge, then, how rauch I raust have been gratified by an incident I ara going to relate to you. I stopped my horse lately, where a great number of people were col lected, at an auction of merchant's goods. The hour of the sale not being come, they were conversing on the badness of the times; and one of the corapany called to a plain clean old man, with white locks, "Pray, Father Abraham, what thinkyou ofthe limes'! WUl not these heavy taxes quite ruin the country ] How shall we ever be able lo pay them 1 What would you advise us to do 1" — Father Abraham stood up, and replied, ' If you would have ray advice, I will give it to you in short, " for a word to the wise is enough," as Poor Richard says.' They joined in desiring hira to speak his mind, and gathering round hira, he proceeded as follows : ' Friends,' says he, ' the taxes are, indeed, very heavy, and, if those laid on by the go vernraent were the only ones we had to pay, we might more easily discharge them ; bul we have raany others, and much more grievous to some of us. We are taxed twice as much by our idleness, three limes as rauch by our pride, and four tiraes as rauch by our folly ; and frora these taxes the commission ers cannot ease or deliver us, by allowing an abatement. However, let us hearken to good advice, and something may be done for us ; "God helps them that help themselves," as poor Richard says. ' 1. It would be thought a hard governraent that should tax its people one tenth part of their tirae, lo be employed in its service : but idleness taxes raany of us much more ; sloth, *Dr. Franltlin for many years published the Penn. eylvania Almanac, called Poor Richard [^Saunders,'] and furnished it with various sentences and proverbs, which had principle relation to the topics of" industry, attention to one's own business, and frugality." These flentences and proverbs he collected and digested in the above preface, which were read with much avidity, and perhaps tended more to the formation of national cha. racter in America, than any other cause. I by bringing on diseases, absolutely shortens life. " Sloth, like rust, consumes faster than labour wears, while the used key is always bright," as poor Richard says. " Bul dost thou love life, then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is raade of," as poor Richard says. How rauch more than is necessary do we spend in sleep ! forgetting, that " the sleeping fox catches no poultry, and that there vvill be sleeping enough in the grave," as poor Richard says. ' " If tirae be of all things the raost precious, wasting tirae raust be," as poor Richard says, " the greatest prodigality ;" since, as he else where tells us, "lost tirae is never found again ; and what we call lime enough always proves little enough :" let us then up and be doing, and doing to the purpose ; so by dili gence shall we do more with less perplexity. " Sloth makes all things difficult, but indus try all easy ; and he thai riseth late, must trot all day, and shaU scarce overtake his business at night ; while laziness travels so slowly, that poverty soon overtakes him. Drive thy business, let not that drive thee ; and early lo bed, and early to rise, raakes a raan healthy, wealthy, and wise," as poor Richard says. ' So what signifies, wishing and hoping for better tiraes 1 We raay make these limes bet ter, if we bestir ourselves. "Industry need not wish, and he that lives upon hope will die fasting. There are no gains wilhoul pains; then help hands, for I have no lands," or, if I have, they are smartly taxed. " He, that hath a trade, hath an estate ; and, he that hath a calling, hath an ofiBce of profit and honour," as poor Richard says; but then the trade raust be worked at, and the calling well fol lowed, or neither the estate nor the ofl5ce will enable us to pay our taxes. If we are industrious, we shall never starve ; for, " at the working raan's house, hunger looks in, but dares not enter." Nor will the bailiff or the constable enter, for " industry pays debts, whUe despair increaselh them." — What though you have found no treasure, nor has any rich relation left you a legacy, "di ligence is the mother of good luck, and God gives all things lo industry. Then plow deep, while sluggards sleep, and you shall have corn lo sell and to keep." Work while il is called to-day, for you know not how much you may be hindered to-morrow. " One to-day is worth two to-morrows," as poor Richard says ; and farther, " never leave that till to-morrow, which you can do to-day." If you were a servant, would you not be ashamed that a good raaster should catch you idle 1 Are you then your own raaster ] Be ashamed to catch yourself idle, when there is so rauch to be done for yourself, your faraily, your country, and your king. Handle your tools without mittens ; reraeraber, that, " the cat in gloves 478 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. catches no mice," as poor Richard says. It is true, there is much to be done, and perhaps you are weak-handed ; but stick to it steadi ly, and you wUl see great eflfects, for " con- slant dropping wears away stones ; and by dUigence and patience the raouse ale in two the cable ; and little strokes fell great oaks." ' Methinks I hear some of you say, " must a man afford hunself no leisure !" I wiU teU thee, my friend, what poor Richard says; " employ thy time weU, if thou meanest to gain leisure ; and since thou art not sure of a minute, throw not away an hour." Leisure is time for doing something usefiU ; this leisure the dUigent man wiU obtain, but the lazy man never ; for "a life of leisure and a life of la ziness are two things. Many, wiihout labour, would live by their wits only, but they break for want of stock ;" whereas industry gives comfort, and plenty, and respect "Fly pleasures, and they wiU follow you. The di ligent spinner has a large shUl; and now I have a sheep and a cow, every one bids me good-morrow." ' II. But with our industry we raust like wise be steady, settled, and careful, and over see our own affairs with our own eyes, and not trust too rauch lo others ; for, as poor Richard says, " I never saw an oft-removed tree, Nor yet an oft-removed family. That throve so well as those that settled be." And again, " three reraoves is as bad as a fire ;" and again " keep thy shop, and thy shop wiU keep thee;" and again, "if you would have your business done, go, if not, send." And again, " He that by the plough would tlirive. Himself must either hold or drive." And again, " the eye of a raaster wUl do more work than both his hands ;" and again, " want of care does us more daraage than want of knowledge ;" and again, " not to oversee workmen, is to leave them your purse open." Trusting too much to other's care is the ruin of raany ; for, " in the affairs of this world, men are saved, not by faith, but by the want of it ;" but a raan's own care is profita ble ; for, " if you would have a faithfiil ser vant, and one that you bke, serve yourself A little neglect may breed great mischief; for want ofa nail the shoe vvas lost, and for want of a shoe the horse was lost, and for want of a horse the rider was lost," being overtaken and slain by the eneray ; aU for want of a little care about a horse-shoe nail. ' 111. So rauch for industry, my friends, and attention to one's own business ; but to these we must add frugality, if we would make our industry more certainly successful. A man may, if he knows not how to save as he gets, " keep his nose all his life lo the grindstone, and die not worth a groat at last. A fat kitch en makes a lean wiU ;" and " Many estates are spent in the getting, Since women for tea forsook spinning and knitting. And men for punch forsook hewing and splilling." "Ifyou would be wealthy, think of saving, as well as of getting. The Indies have not made Spain rich, because her outgoes are greater than her incomes." ' Away then, wilh your expensive foUies, and you wUl not then have so much cause to coraplain of hard tiraes, heavy taxes, and chargeable faraUies ; for " Women and wine, game and deceit, .Make the wealth small, and the want great." And farther, " what maintains one vice, would bring up two children." You may think, per haps, that a little tea, or a Uttle punch now and then, diet a little raore costly, clothes a Uttle finer, and a little entertainment now and then, can be no great raatter ; but remember, " many a Uttle makes a mickle." Beware of Uttle expences ; " a smaU leak wiU sink a great ship," as poor Richard says ; and again, " whodainlies love, shaU beggars prove ;" and moreover, " fools make feasts, and wise men eat thera." " Here you are all got together to this sale of fineries and nick-nacks. You caU thera goods, but if you do not take care, they vviU prove evils to sorae of you. You expect they wUl be sold cheap, and perhaps they may, for less than they cost ; but, if you have no occa sion for them, they raust be dear to you. Re raeraber what poor Richard says, " buy what thou hast no need of and ere long thou shalt seU thy necessaries." And again, "al a great pennyworth pause a vvhUe." He raeans that perhaps the cheapness is apparent only, and not real ; or the bargain, by strait ening thee in thy business, may do thee more harm than good. For in another place he says, "many have been ruined by buying good pennyworths." Again, " it is foolish lo lay out raoney in a purchase of repentance ;" and yet this folly is practised every day at auctions, for want of minding the almanac Many a one, for the sake of finery on the back, have gone with a hungry belly, and half starved their famUies ; " sUks and satins, scarlet erad velvets, put out the kitchen fire," as poor Richard says. These are not the ne cessaries of life, they can scarcely be called the conveniencies ; and yet, only because they look pretty, how many want to have them ! By these and other extravagancies, the gen teel are reduced to poverty, and forced to bor row of those whom they formerly despised, but who, through industry and frugality, have raaintained their standing ; in. which case it appears plainly, that "a ploughman on bis legs is higher than a gentleman on his knees," as poor Richard says. Perhaps they have had a small estate left them, which they knew not the getting of; they think " it is day, and it wUl never benight;" that a little to be spent POLITICAL ECONOMY. 479 out of so much is not worth minding ; but " al ways taking out of the meal-tub, and never putting in soon comes to the bottora," as poor Richard says ; and then, " when the weU is dry, they know the worth of water." But this they raight have known before, if they had taken his advice : " if you would know the value of money go and try lo borrow sorae ; for he that goes a borrowing goes a sorrow ing," as poor Richard says; and Indeed so does he that lends to such people, when he goes to get it again. Poor Dick farther ad vises, and says, " Fond pride of dress is sure a curse. Ere fancy you consult, consult your purse." And again, "pride is as loud a beggar as want, and a great deal more saucy." When you have bought one fine thing, you must buy ten more, that your appearance may be all of a piece ; but poor Dick says, " it is ea sier to suppress the first desire than to satisfy all that follow it :" and it is as truly folly for the poor to ape the rich, as for the frog to swell in order to equal the ox. " Vessels large may venture more, But little boats should keep near shore." It is, however, a folly soon punished ; for, as poor Richard says, " pride that dines on va nity, sups on contempt ; pride breakfasted with plenty, dined with poverty, and supped wilh infaray." And, afler all, of what use is this pride of appearance, for which so rauch is risked, so much is suffered 1 II cannot pro mote health, nor ease pain ; it raakes no in crease of merit in the person ; it creates envy, it hastens raisfortune. ' But what madness raust it be to run in debt for these superfluities ! We are offered by the terms of this sale six raonths credit; and that perhaps has induced sorae of us lo attend it, because we cannot spare the ready money, and hope now lo be fine without it. Bul ah ! think what you do when you run in debt ; you give to another power over your liberty. Ifyou cannot pajr al the time, you wUl be ashamed lo see your creditor, you will be in fear when you speak lo him, when you will make poor, pitiful, sneaking excuses, and by degrees come to loose your veracity, and sink into base, downright lying; for, "the second vice is lying; the ^rst is run- nmg debt," as poor Richard says ; and again to the sarae purpose, "lying rides upon debt's back;" whereas a free-born Englishraan ought not to be ashamed nor afraid to see or speak to any man living. Bul poverty often deprives a raan of all spirit and virtue. " It is hard for an empty bag to stand upright. What would you think of that prince, or of that governraent, who should issue an edict forbidding you to dress like a gentleman or gentle woraan, on pain of iraprisonraent or ser vitude 1 Would you not say, that you were free, have a right to dress as you please, and that such an edict would-be a breach of your privUeges, and such a governraent tyranni cal 1 And yet you are about to put yourself under that tyranny, when you run in debt for such dress! your creditor has authority, at his pleasure, to deprive you of your liberty, by confining you in gaol for life, or by seUing you for a servant, ifyou should not be able to pay hira. When you have got your bargain, you may, perhaps, think little of payment; but, as poor Richard says, " creditors have better memories than debtors; creditors are a su perstitious sect, great observers of set-days and times." The day comes round before you are aware, and the demand is raade before you are prepared to satisfy it ; or, if you bear your debt in raind, the terra, which at first seemed so long, wiU as it lessens, appear ex tremely short ; lime will seera to have added wings to his heels as well as his shoulders. " Those have a short lent, who owe raoney to be paid at Easter." At present, perhaps, you may think yourselves in thriving circum stances, and that you can bear a little extra vagance without injury ; but " For age and want save while you may. No morning sun lasts a whole day." Gain may be temporary and uncertain, but ever, while you live, expense is constant and certain; and, " it is easier lo build two chira neys than to keep one in fuel," as poor Rich ard says : so, " rather go to bed supperless than rise in debt." " Get what you can, and what you get hold, 'Tis the stone that will turn all your lead into gold." And when you have got the philosopher's stone, sure you will no longer complain of bad times, or the difficulty of paying taxes. ' IV. This doctrine, ray friends, is reason and wisdom : but, after all, do not depend too much upon your own industry, and frugality, and prudence, though excellent things; fbr they may all be blasted, without the blessing of Heaven ; and therefore ask that blessing humbly, and be not uncharitable lo those that al present seem lo want it, but comfort and help thera. Reraeraber Job suffered, and vvas afterwards prosperous. ' And now, to conclude, " experience keeps a dear school, but fools will learn in no other," as poor Richard says, and scarce in that ; for, il is true, " we may give advice, bul we can not give conduct :" however, reraeraber this, " they that will not be counselled cannot be helped ;" and farther, that " ifyou will not hear reason she wUl surely rap your knuckles," as poor Richard says.' Thus the old gentleraan ended his harangue. The people heard it, and approved the doc trine ; and iraraediately practised the contra ry, just as if it had been a coramon sermon, for the auction opened, and they began to buy extravagantly. — I found the good raan had thoroughly studied my almanacs, and digested 480 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. all I had dropt on those topics during the course of twenty-five years. The frequent mention he made of me must have tired any one else ; but ray vanity was wonderfully de lighted with it, though I was conscious, that not a tenth part of the wisdom was my own, which he ascribed to rae, but rather the glean ings that I had raade ofthe sense of all ages and nations. However, I resolved lo be the belter for the echo of il ; and, though I had at first deterrainedlo buy stuff for a new coal, I went away, resolved to wear my old one a little longer. Reader, if thou wilt do the same, thy profit will be as great as RICHARD SAUNDERS. To my Friend A. B. Advice to a Young Tradesman. — Written Anno 1748. As you have desired il of rae, I write the following hints, which have been of service to rae, and may, if observed, be so to you. Reraeraber, that time is raoney. He, that can earn ten shiUings a day by his labour, and goes abroad, or sits idle one half that day, though he spends but sixpence during his di version or idleness, ought not to reckon that the only expense ; he has really spent, or ra ther thrown away, five shUlings besides. Remember, that credit is money. If a man lels his money lie in my hands after it is due, he gives me the interest, or so much as I can make ofit, during that time. This amounts to a considerable sura where a man has good and large credit, and makes good use of il. Remember, that money is ofa prolific ge nerating nature. Money can beget money, and ils offspring can beget raore, and so on. Five shUlings turned is six, turned again il is seven and three-pence, and so on till il be- (ioraes a hundred pounds. The more there is of it. the raore it produces every turning, so that the profits rise quicker and quicker. He that kills a breeding sow destroys all her offspring to the thousandth generation. He that raurders a crown destroys all that it might have produced, even scores of pounds. Remember, that six pounds a year is but a groat a day. For this little sum (which may be daily wasted either in tirae or expense un- perceived) a raan of credit raay, on his own security, have the constant possession and use of a hundred pounds. So much in slock, briskly turned by an industrious raan, produces great advantage. Remember this saying, " the good paymas ter is lord of another raan's purse." He that is known to pay punctually and exactly to the lime he promises may al any time, and on any occasion, raise all the raoney his friends can spare. This is sometiraes of great use. After industry and frugality, nothing contributes more to the raising of a young man in the world than punctuality and justice in all his dealings: therefore, never keep borrowed money an hour beyond the time you promised, lest a disappointment shut up your friend's purse for ever. The most trifling actions that affect a man's credit are to be regarded. The sound of your hamraer al five in the morning, or nine at night, heard by a creditor, makes him ea.sy six months longer : but if he sees you at a billiard- table, or hears your voice at a tavern, when you should be at work, he sends for his money the next day ; demands il before he can receive it in a lump. It shows, besides, that you are mindful of what you owe ; it makes you appear a careful as weU as an honest man, and that still in creases your credit Beware of thinking all your own that you possess, and of living accordingly. It is a mis take that many people who have credit fall inlo. To prevent this, keep an exact account for some tirae, both of your expenses and your income. If you take the pains at first lo men tion particulars, it will have this good effect : you will discover how wonderfully small tri fling expenses mount up to large sums, and will discern what might have been, and raay for the future be saved, without occasioning any great inconvenience. In short, the way to wealth, if you desire it, is as plain as the way lo market. Il depends chiefly on two words, industry and frugality ; that is, waste neither time nor money, but make the best use of both. Without indus try and frugality nothing will do, and wilh thera every thing. He, that gets all he can honestly, and saves all he gets (necessary ex penses excepted,) will certainly become rich — if that Being who governs the world, to whora all should look for a blessing on their honest endeavours, doth not, in his wise provi dence, otherwise deterraine. Necessary Hints to those that would be rich. Written Anno 1736. The use of money is all the advantage there is in having money. For six pounds a year you may have the use of one hundred pounds, provided you are a man of known prudence and honesty. He, that spends a groat a day idly, spends idly above six pounds a year, which is the price for the use of one hundred pounds. He, that wastes idly a groat's worth ofhis time per day, one day with another, wastes the privUege of using one hundred pounds each day. He, that idly loses five shillings worth of tirae, loses five shillings, and might as pru dently throw five shillings into the sea He, that loses five shUlings, not only loses that sum, but all the advantage that might be POLITICAL ECONOMY. 481 made by turning it in dealing, which, by the time that a young raan becomes old, will amount to a considerable sura of raoney. Again : he, that sells upon credit, asks a a price for what he sells equivalent lo the principal and interest of his money for the tirae he is to he kept out of it ; therefore, he that buys upon credit, pays interest for what he buys, and he, that pays ready raoney, might let that money out to use : so that he, that pos sesses any thing he bought, pays interest for the use of it. Yet, in buying goods, il is best to pay ready money, because he that sells upon credit, ex pects to lose five per cent, by bad debts ; therefore he charges, on all he sells upon cre dit, an advance, that shall raake up that defi ciency. Those, who pay for what they buy upon credit, pay their share of this advance. He, that pays ready raoney, escapes, or may escape, that charge. A penny sav'd is two-pence clear, A pin a day 's a groat a year. Tlie way to make Money plenty in every Man's Pocket. At this time, when the general coraplaint is, that " money is scarce," it will be an act of kindness to inforra the moneyless how they may reinforce their pockets. I will acquaint thera with the true secret of raoney-calching, the certain way to fill empty purse.s, and how to keep thera always full. Two simple rules, well observed, will do the business. First, let honesty and industry be thy con stant companions ; and Secondly, spend one penny less than thy clear gains. Then shall thy hide-bound pocket soon be gin to thrive, and will never again cry wilh the empty belly-ache : neither will creditors in sult thee, nor want oppress, nor hunger bite, nor nakedness freeze thee. The whole he misphere will shine brighter, and pleasure spring up in every corner of thy heart. Now, therefore, embrace these rules and be happy. Banish the bleak winds of sorrow frora thy mind, and live independent. Then shalt thou be a man, and not hide thy face al the ap proach ofthe rich, nor suffer the pain of feel ing little when the sons of fortune walk at thy right hand : for independency, whether with little or much, is good fortune, and plac- eth thee on even ground wilh the proudest of the golden fleece. Oh, then, be wise, and let industry walk with thee in the raorning, and attend thee until thou reachesl the evening hour for rest. Let honesty be as the breath of thy soul, and never forget to have a penny when all thy expenses are enumerated and paid : then shall thou reach the point of hap piness, and independence shall be thy shield and buckler, thy helmet and crown ; then shall Vol. n....3P 41 thy soul walk upright, nor stoop to the silken wretch because he hath riches, nor pocket an abuse because the hand which offers it wears a ring sel vvith diamonds. The Handsome and Deformed Leg. T^hem; are two sorts of people in the world, who, with equal degrees of health and wealth, and the other comforts of life, become, the one happy, and the other miserable. This arises very rauch frora the different views in which they consider things, persons, and events; and the effect of those different views upon their own minds. In whatever situation raen can be placed, they may find conveniences and inconveni ences ; in whatever company, they may find persons and conversation more or less pleas ing : at whatever table, they may meet wilh meats and drinks of better and worse taste, dishes belter and worse dressed ; in whatever climate, they will find good and bad weather : under whatever government, they may find good and bad laws, and good and bad admi nistration of those laws ; in whatever poem, or work of genius, they riiay see faults and beauties ; in almost every face, and every per son, they may discover fine features and de fects, good and bad qualities. Under these circumstances, the two sorts of people above raentioned fix their attention, those who are disposed lo be happy, on the conveniences of things, the pleasant parts of conversation, the well-dressed dishes, the goodness oflhe wines, the fine weather, &c. and enjoy all with cheerfulness. Those, who are lo be unhappy, think and speak only of the contraries. Hence they are continu ally discontented theraselves, and by their remarks, sour the pleasures of sociely, offend personally many people, and raake themselves every where disagreeable. If this turn of raind was founded in nature, such unhappy persons would be the raore lo be pitied. But as the disposition to criticise, and lo be dis gusted, is, perhaps, taken up originally by imitation, and is, unawares, grown inlo a habit, which, though at present strong, raay never theless be cured, when those who have il are convinced of ils bad effects on their felicity ; I hope this little admonition may be of ser vice to them, and put them on changing a habit, which, though in the exercise il is chiefly an act of imagination, yet has seri ous consequences in life, as it brings on real griefs and misfortunes. For, as raany are of fended by, and nobody loves this sort of peo ple, no one shows thera more than the raost comraon civility and respect, and scarcely that ; and this frequently puts thera out of huraour, and draws thera into disputes and contentions. If they aira at obtaining sorae advantage in rank or fortune, nobody wishes 482 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. thera success, or will stir a step, or speak a word, to favour their pretensions. Ifthey in cur public censure or disgrace, no one will defend or excuse, and many join lo aggravate their misconduct, and render them complete ly odious. If these people will not change this bad habit, and condescend to be pleas ed with what is pleasing, without fretting themselves and others about the contraries, it is good for others to avoid an acquaintance with them ; which is always disagreeable, and sometimes very inconvenient, especially when one finds oneself entangled in their quar rels. An old phUosophical friend of raine was grown frora experience, very cautious in this particular, and carefully avoided any intima cy with such people. He had, like other phUosophers, a therraometer, to show hira the heat ofthe weather, and a barometer, lomark when it was likely to prove good or bad ; but there being no instruraent invented to dis cover, at first sight, this unpleasing disposition in a person, he, for that purpose, made use of his legs ; one of which was reraarkably hand some, the other, by some accident, crooked and deformed. If a stranger, at the first interview, regarded his ugly leg more than his handsome one, he doubted him. If he spoke of it, and took no notice of the handsome leg, that was suflicient to deterraine ray phUosopher to have no further acquaintance with hira. Every body has not this two-legged instrument ; but every one, wilh a little attention, may observe signs of that carping, fault-finding disposition, and take the same resolution of avoiding the acquaintance of those infected wilh it. I therefore advise those critical, querulous, dis contented, unhappy people, that, ifthey wish lo be respected and beloved by others, and happy in theraselves, they should leave off" looking at the ugly leg. BAGATELLES. THE BUSY-BODY. No. L From the American Weekly Mercury, February 4, 1729. Mr. Andrew Bradford, — I design this to acquaint you, that I, who have been one of your courteous readers, have lately entertain ed some thoughts of setting up for an author myself; not out of the least vanity, I assure you, or desire of showing my parts, but purely for the good of my country. I have often observed with concern, that your Mercury is not always equaUy enter taining. The delay of ships expected in, and want of fresh advices from Europe, raake it frequently very dull ; and I find the freezing ofour river has the sarae effect on news as on trade. With more concern I have continual ly observed the growing vices and follies of my country folk : and though reformation is properly the concern of every man, that is, every one ought to mind one ; yet it is true, in this case, that what is everybody's busi ness is nobody's business, and the business is done accordingly. I, therefore, upon mature deliberation, think fit lo take nobody's business wholly inlo my own hands ; and, out of zeal for the public good, design lo erect myself in to a kind of censor morum; purporting wilh your allowance, to make use ofthe Weekly Mercury as a vehicle in which my remon strances shall be conveyed to the world. I ara sensible I have in this particular un dertaken a very unthankful office, and expect little besides ray labour for my pains. Nay, it is probable I may displease a great number of your readers, who will not very well like to pay ten shUlings a year for being told of their faults. But as raost people delight in the censure, when they theraselves are not the objects ofit, if any are offended at ray expos ing their private vices, I promise they shall have the satisfaction, in a very little tirae, of seeing their good friends and neighbours in the same circurastances. However, let the fair sex be assured, that I shall always treat thera and their affairs with the utmost decency and respect. I intend now and then to dedicate a chapter whoUyto their service ; and if ray lectures contribute any way to the embellishment oftheir minds, and brightning oftheir understandings, with out offending their modesty, I doubt not of having their favour and encourageraent. It is certain that no country in tlie world produces naturally finer spirits than ours, men of genius for every kind of science, and capa ble of acquiring to perfection every qualifica tion, that is in esteem among raankind. But as few have the advantage of good books, for want of which good conversation is stUl raore scarce, it would doubtless have been very ac ceptable to your readers, if, instead of an old out-of-date article from Muscovy or Hungary you had entertained thera with some well chosen extract from a good author. This I shall sometimes do, when I happen to have nothing of ray own to say that I think of more consequence. Sometimes I purpose to deli ver lectures of morality or philosophy, and (because I ara naturally inclined to be med dling with things that do not concern me) perhaps I may soraetimes talk politics. And if I can by any raeans furnish out a week's entertainment for the public, that will give a rational diversion, and at the sarae time be in structive to the readers, I shall think ray lei sure hours well employed : and ifyou publish this, I hereby invite all ingenious gentlemen and others (that approve of such an undertak ing) to my assistance and correspondence. Il is like, by this tirae, you have a curiosi ty to be acquainted with my name and cha racter. As I do not aim at public praise, I design lo remain concealed : and there are such nurabers of our faraily and relations al this tirae in the country, that though I have signed ray name al full length, lam not under the least apprehension of being discovered by it. My character, indeed, I would favour you with, but that I ara cautious of praising rayself lest I should be told ray trumpeter's dead; and I cannot find in ray heart at present to say any thing to ray own disadvantage. It is very coramon with authors in their first performances, to talk to their readers thus : — 483 484 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. If this meets with a suitable reception, or, if this should raeet due encouragement, I shall publish hereafter, &c. This only manifests the value they put upon their own writings, since they think to frighten the public into their applause, by threatening, that unless you approve what they have already wrote, they intend never to write again ; when per haps it raay not be a pin raatter whether they ever do or no. As I have not observed the cri tics to be raore favourable on this account, I shall always avoid saying any thing of the iind ; and conclude with telling you, that if you send rae a bottle of ink and a quire of pa per by the bearer, you may depend upon hear ing further frora, sir, your hurable servant, THE BUSY-BODY. No. n. Feb. 11, 1729. All fools have still an itching to deride And fain would be upon the laughing side. — Pope. Monsieur Rochefoucault tells us some where in his memoirs, that the prince of Conde delighted much in ridicule, and used frequently to shut himself up for half a day together in his chamber, wilh a gentleraan that was his favourite, purposely lo divert himself with examining what was the foible, or ridiculous side, ofevery person in the court. That gentleman said afterwards in sorae com pany, that nothing appeared lo hira raore ri diculous in any body than this same humour in the prince ; and I am somewhat inclined to be of this opinion. The general tendency there is among us lo this embellishment, (which I fear has loo often grossly imposed upon ray countryraen, instead of wit,) and the applause il meets with from a rising genera tion, fill me wilh fearfiU apprehensions for the future reputation of my country: ayoungraan of raodesly, (which is the raost certain indi cation of large capacities) is hereby discou raged frora alterapling lo raake a figure in life : his apprehensions of being outlaughed, will force hira to continue in a restless obscu rity, wiihout having an opportunity of know ing his own raerit himself, or discovering il to the world, rather than venture lo expose himself in a place, where a pun or a sneer shall pass for wit, noise for reason, and the strength oflhe argument be judged by that of the lungs. Among these worthy gentlemen, let us take a view of Ridentius : what a con temptible figure does he make with his train of paltry admirers ! this wight shall give hira self an hour's diversion wilh the cock of a man's hat, the heels of his shoes, aii unguard ed expression in his discourse, or even some personal defect ; and the height of his low ambition is to put sorae one of the corapany to the blush, who perhaps raust pay an equal share of the reckoning wilh hiraself If such a fellow raakes laughing the sole end and pur pose of his life, if it is necessary to his constitu tion, or if he has a greal desire of growing sud denly fat, let him eal;lethim give public notice where any dull stupid rogues may get a quart of four-penny for being laughed al; but it is bar barously unhandsome when friends meet for the benefit of conversation, and a proper re laxation frora business, that one should be the bull ofthe company, and four men made merry at the cost of the fifth. How different is this character from that of the good-natured gay Eugenius ; who ne ver spoke yet but with a design to divert and please ; and who was never yet baulked in his intention. Fugenius takes more delight in applying the wit ofhis friends, than in being admired hiraself; and if any one of the com pany is so unfortunate as to he touched a lit tle too nearly, he will make use of some inge nious artifice to turn the edge of ridicule ano ther way, choosing rather lo raake himself a public jest, than to be at the pain of seeing his friend in confusion. Araong the tribe of laughers I reckon the pretty gentleraen that write satires, and carry them about in their pockets, reading them themselves in all companies which they hap pen into ; taking advantage of the ill taste of the town, to make themselves famous for a pack of paltry low nonsense, for which they deserve lo be kicked, rather than adraired, by all who have the least tincture of polite ness. These I lake to be the most incorrigi ble of all my readers ; nay I suspect they wUl be squibbing at the Busy-Body himself How ever, the only favour he begs of them is, that if they cannot control their overbearing itch for scribbling, let him be attacked in down right biting lyrics ; for there is no satire he dreads half so much as an atterapt towards a panegyric. No. HI. Feb. 18, 1739. Non vultus instantis Tyranni Mente quatit sniida. nee auster, Du.t inquieti turbidus Adrias Nee fulminantis magna Jovia manus. — Hor. It is said that the Persians, in their ancient constitution, had public schools, in which vir tue was taught as a liberal art or science : and it is certainly of raore consequence to a man that he has learned to govern his pas sions ; in spite of temptation, to be just in his dealings; to be temperate in his plea sures, to support himself with fortitude under his misfortunes, to behave with prudence in all his affairs, and in every circumstance of life ; I say, it is of much more real advantage lo him to be thus qualified, than to be a mas ter of all the arts and sciences in the world besides. Virtue alone is suflScient to make a great BAGATELLES.- THE BUSY-BODY. 485 man glorious and happy. He that is acquaint ed with Cato, as I am, cannot help thinking as I do now, and will acknowledge he de serves the name, without being honoured by it. Cato is a raan whom fortune has placed in the raost obscure part of the country. His circurastances are such as only put hira above necessity, without affording him many superfluities : yet who is greater than Cato. I happened but the other day to be at a house in town, where, among others, were met men of the most note in this place ; Cato had busi ness wilh some of them, and knocked at the door. The most trifling actions of a man, in my opinion, as well as the smallest lineaments and features of the face, give a nice observer some notion of his mind. Methought he rap ped in such a peculiar manner, as seemed of itself to express, there was one who deserv ed as well as desired admission. He appear ed in the plainest country garb; his greal coal was coarse, and looked old and thread bare ; his linen was horaespun ; his beard perhaps of seven days' growth ; his shoes thick and heavy ; and every part of his dress cor responding. Why was this raan received wilh such concurring respect frora every person in the room, even frora those who had never known him or seen hira before 1 It was not an exquisite form of person or grandeur of dress, that struck us with admiration. I believe long habits of virtue have a sensible effect on the countenance : there was soraething m the air of his face, that raanifested the true greatness of his raind; which likewise appeared in all he said, and in every part of his behaviour, obliging us to regard him with a kind of veneration. His aspect is sweetened with humanity and benevolence, and at the sarae time emboldened with reso lution, equally free from diffident bashfulness and an unbecoming appearance. The con sciousness of his own innate worth and un shaken integrity render him calm and un daunted in the presence of the most greal and powerful, and upon the raost extraordinary occasions. His strict justice and known irapar- tiality make him the arbitrator and decider of aU differences that arise for many mUes around him, wiihout putting his neighbours to the charge, perplexity, and uncertainty of law suits. He always speaks the thing he raeans, which he is never afraid nor ashamed to do, be cause he knows he always raeans well ; and therefore is never obliged to blush and feel the confusion of finding hiraself detected in the meanness of a falsehood. He never contrives JU against his neighbour, and therefore is ne ver seen with a lowering suspicious aspect. A mixture of innocence and wisdom makes him ever seriously cheerful. His generous hos- pitaUty to strangers, according to his ability ; his goodness, his charity, his courage in the cause of the oppressed, his fidelity in friend- 41* ship, his huraUity, his honesty and sincerity, his raoderation and his loyalty, his piety, his temperance, his love to mankind, his magna nimity, his public spiritedness, and in fine his consummate virtue, raake him justly deserve to be esteemed the glory of his country. The brave do never shun the light : Just are their thoughts and open are their tempers. Freely wiihout disguise they love and hate ; Still are they found in the fair face of day. And heaven and men are judges oftheir actions.-iZoMe. Who would not rather choose, if it were in his choice, to raerit the above character, than be the richest, the raost learned, or the raost powerful raan in the province without it 1 Alraost every man has a strong natural de sire of being valued and esteemed bythe rest ofhis species ; but I ara concerned and griev ed to see how few fall inlo the right and on ly infallible method of becoraing so. That laudable arabition is too coramonly misapplied, and often UI applied. Sorae, to make them selves considerable, pursue learning ; others grasp at wealth ; some aim at being thought witty ; and others are only careful to raake the raost of a handsome person : but what is wit, or wealth, or form, or learning, when compared wilh virtue 1 It is true, we love the handsome, we applaud the learned, and vve fear the rich and powerful ; but we even worship and adore the virtuous. Nor is it strange ; since raen of virtue are so rare, so very rare to be found. If we were as industrious to becorae good, as to make ourselves great, we should become really great by being good, and the nuraber of valuable raen would be rauch increased ; but il is a great mistake lo think of being great wiihout goodness ; and I pronounce it as certain, that there never yet was a truly great man, that was not at the same time truly virtuous. O Cretico ! thou sour philosopher I thou cunning statesman I thou art crafty, but far frora being wise. When will thou be es teemed, regarded, and beloved like Cato ? When will thou, araong thy creatures, raeet with that unfeigned respect, and warra good will, that all raen have for him 1 Wilt thou never understand, that the cringing, raean, submissive deportment of thy dependants, is (like the worship paid by Indians to the devil) rather through fear oflhe harm thou raayesl do thera, than out of gratitude for the favours they have received from thee? Thou art not wholly void of virtue ; there are raany good things in thee; and. many good actions re ported of thee. Be advised by thy friend : neglect those rausty authors; let thera he co vered with dust, and raoulder on their proper shelves ; and do thou apply thyself to a study much more profitable, the knowledge of man kind and of thyself This is to give notice, that tbe Busy-Body 486 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. strictly forbids all persons, from this tirae for ward, of what age, sex, rank, quality, degree, or denoraination, soever, on any pretence, lo inquire who is the author of this paper, on pain of his displeasure (his own near and dear relations only excepted.) It is lo be observed, that if any had charac ters happen to be drawn in the course of these papers, they raean no particular person, if they are not particularly applied. Likewise, that the author is no party man, bul a general meddler. N. B. Cretico lives in a neighbouring pro vince. No. IV. Feb. 25, 1729. Nequid nemis. In my first paper, I invited the learned and the ingenious to join with rae in this under taking ; and I now repeat that invitation. I would have such gentlemen, take this oppor tunity (by trying their talent in writing) of diverting themselves and friends, and improv ing the lasle of the town. And because I would encourage all wit of our own growth and produce, I hereby proraise, that whoever shall send rae a little essay on sorae raoral or other subject, that is fit for public view in this manner, (and not basely borrowed from any other author,) I shall receive il with candour, and take care to place il lo the best advan tage. It will be hard if we cannot muster up in the whole country a sufficient slock of sense to supply the Busy-Body at least for a twelvemonth. For my own part, I have al ready professed, that I have the good of my country wholly at heart in this design, with out the least sinister view ; my chief purpose, being to inculcate the noble principles of vir tue, and depreciate vice of every kind. But as I know the raob hate instruction, and the generality would never read beyond the first line of ray lectures, if they were actually fill ed with nothing but wholesome precepts and advice, I raust therefore soraetimes humour them in their own way. There are a set of great names in the province, who are the com mon objects of popular dislike. If I can now and then overcorae my reluctance, and pre vail with myself to satirize a little, one of these gentlemen, the expectation of meeting such a gratification will induce raany to read rae through, who would otherwise proceed iraraediately to the foreign news. As I am very well assured the greatest raen among us have a sincere love for their country, notwith standing its ingratitude, and the insinuations of the envious and malicious to the contrary, so I doubt not bul they will cheerfully tolerate me in the liberty I design to lake for tho end above raentioned. As yet I have but few correspondents, though they begin now to increase, The fol lowing letter left for me at the printer's, ia one of the first I have received, which I re gard the raore that it coraes frora one of the fair sex, and because I have myself often times suffered under the grievance therein com- plainined of To the Busy-Body. Sir, — You having sel yourself up for a censuror morum, (as I think you call it,) which is said to mean a reformer of raanners, I know no person raore proper lo be applied to for redress in aU the grievances we suffer from want of raanners in some people. You must know 1 am a single woraan, and keep a shop in this town for a livelihood. There is a certain neighbour of raine, who is really agreeable corapany enough, and with whom I have had an intimacy of some time standing ; but of late she raakes her visits so exceeding ly often, and stays so long every visit, that I ara tired out of all patience. I have no raan ner of tirae at all to rayself; and you who seem lo be a wise man, must needs be sensi ble, that every person has little secrets and privacies, that are not proper to be exposed even lo the nearest friend. Now I cannot do the least thingin the world, but she must know about it ; and it is a wonder I have found an op portunity to write you this letter. My misfor tune is, that I respect her very well, and know not how lo disoblige her so much as to tell her I should be glad to have less of her company ; for if I should once hint such a thing, I am afraid she would resent it so as never lo darken my door again. — But, alas, sir, I have not yet told you half ray affliction. She has two chUdren that are just big enough to run about and do pretty raischief: these are continually along wilh mainma, either in ray room or shop, if I have ever so many custoraers or people with rae about business. Sometiraes they pull the goods off my low shelves down lo the ground, and perhaps where one of them has just been making water. My friend takes up the stuff and cries — " Oh ! thou little wicked, raischiev ous rogue ! but, however, it has done no great damage; it is only wet a little ;" and so puts il upon the shelf again. Sometimes they get to my cask of nails behind the coun ter, and divert themselves, lo ray great vexa tion, with mixing ray lenpenny and eight- penny and fourpenny together. I endeavour to conceal ray uneasiness as rauch as possible, and, with a grave look, to go on sorting thera out. She cries, — " Don't thee trouble thyself, neighbour ; let them play a lilUe ; I'll put all lo rights before I go." But things are never so put to rights but that I find a greal deal of work to do after they are gone. Thus, sir, I have all the trouble and pesterment of chil dren wiihout the pleasure of calling them ray own ; and they are now so used to being here that they vvill be content no where else. If she would have been so kind as to have mode- BAGATELLES.— THE BUSY-BODY. 487 rated her visits to ten times a day, and staid but half an hour at a time, I should have been con tented, and I believe never have given you this trouble; but this very morning they have so tormented me that I could bear no longer ; for whUe the mother was asking me twenty impertinent questions, the youngest got lo my nails, and, with great delight, rattled thera by handfuUs aU over the floor ; and the other at the same tirae made such a terrible din upon my counter with a hammer, that I grew half distracted. I was just then about to raake myself a new suit of pinners, but in the fret and confusion I cut il quite out of all raanner of shape, and utterly spoiled a piece ofthe first muslin. ¦ Pray, sir, tell me, what shall I do 1 and talk against such unreasonable visil- ings in your next paper ; though I would not have her affronted with me for a great deal, for I sincerely love her and her children, as well I think as a neighbour can, and she buys a great many things in a year al my shop. — But I would beg her lo consider she uses rae unmercifully, though I believe it is only for want of thought. Bul I have twenty things raore to tell you besides all this : there is a handsorae gentleman that has a raind (I don't question) to raake love to me ; but he can't get the opportunity lo — O dear I here she comes again ! — I must conclude. — Yours, &c. PATIENCE. Indeed it is well enough, as il happens, that she is corae lo shorten this complaint, which I think is full long enough already, and pro bably would otherwise have been as long again. However I confess I cannot help pitying my correspondent's case, and in her behalf exhort the visiter to remember and con sider the words of the wise raan, " With draw thy foot frora the house of thy neigh bour, lest he grow weary of thee and so hate thee." Il is, I believe, a nice thing, and very difficult, to regulate pur visits in such a raan ner as never lo give offence by coraing too seldora, or loo often, or departing too abruptly, or staying too long. However, in my opi nion, it is safest for raost people, in a general way, who are unwUling to disoblige, to visit seldom and tarry but a little while in a place ; notwithstanding pressing invitations, which are many tiraes insincere. And though more of your company should be really desired ; yet in this case too much reservedness is a fault raore easily excused than the contrary. Men are subject to various inconveniencies merely through lack of a smaU share of cou rage, which is a quality very necessary in the coramon occurrences of life, as well as in a battle. How many irapertinencies do we daily suffer with great uneasiness, because we have not courage enough to discover our dislikes'! And why raay not a raan use the boldness and freedom of telling his friends, that their long visits sometimes incommode him. On this occasion it may be entertain ing lo sorae of ray readers, if I acquaint thera with the Turkish raanner of entertaining vi siters, which I hav^ frora an author of unques tionable veracity ; who assures us, that even the Turks are not so ignorant of civility and the arts of endearment, bul that they can practise them wilh as much exactness as any other nation, whenever they have a raind to show themselves obliging. " When you visit a person of quality," says he, " and have talked over your business, or the corapliraents, or whatever concern brought you thither, he makes a sign lo have things served in for the entertainraent, which is, ge neraUy, a little sweelraeats, a cup of a sher bet, and another of coffee ; all which are ira raediately brought in by the servants, and tendered to all the guests in order, with the greatest care and awfulness imaginable. At last comes the finishing pari of the entertain ment, which is perfuming the beards of the corapany ; a ceremony which is performed in this manner : they have for the purpose a sraall chaffing dish, covered with a lid full of holes, and fixed upon a handsome plate. In this they put some fresh coals, and upon them a piece of aloes wood, and shutting it up, the smoke immediately ascends with a grateful odour through the holes of the cover. The sraoke is held under every one's chin, and of fered as it were a sacrifice lo his beard. The hrisly idol soon receives the reverence done to it, and so greedily takes in and incorporates the gummy steam, that il retains the savour of it, and may serve for a nosegay a good whUe after. " The ceremony may perhaps seem ridicu lous at first, but it passes among the Turks as a high gratification. And I will say this in vindication, that its design is very wise and useful, for it is understood lo give a civil dis mission lo the visitants, intimating to them, that the master of the house has business to do, or some other avocation, that perraits them to go away as soon as they please ; and the sooner after this cereraony the better. By this raeans you raay at any time, without offence, deliver yourself frora being detained frora your affairs by tedious and unseasonable visits; and frora being constrained louse that piece of hypocrisy, so common in the world, of pressing those to stay longer with you, whora perhaps, in your heart, you wish a great way off for having troubled you so long al ready." Thus far ray author. For my own part, I have taken such a fancy lo this Turkish cus tora, that for the future I shall put soraething like it in practice. I have provided a bottle of right French brandy for the men, and ci tron water for the ladies. After I have treat ed with a drara, and presented a pinch of my best snuff, I expect all corapany wUl retire, 488 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. and leave me to pursue my studies for the good of the public. Advertisement. I give notice, that I am actually now com- pUing, and design to publish in a short tirae, the true history of the rise, growth, and pro gress of the renowned Tiff-Club. All persons who are acquainted with any facts, circura stances, characters, transactions, iSic. which will be requisite to the perfecting and erabel- lishment of the said work, are desired to cora- municate the sarae to the author, and direct their letters to be left with the printer hereof The letter signed Would-be-something, carae to hand. No. V. Vos, O patricius sanguis, quos vivere fas est, Occipiti cffico, posticiie occurrite sannx.—Persius. This paper being designed for a terror to evil doers, as well as a praise to thera that do well, I ara lifted, up with secret joy to find, that my undertaking is approved, and encou raged, by the just and good, and that few are against rae but those who have reason lo fear me. There are little follies in the behaviour of most men, which their best friends are too tender to acquaint thera with ; there are lit tle vices and small crimes, which the la w has no regard to or remedy for : there are like wise great pieces of vUlany sometimes so craftily accomplished, and so circumspectly guarded, that the law can take no hold ofthe actors. All these things, and things of this nature, come within my province as Censor, and I am determined not to be negligent of the trust I have reposed in myself, but resolve to execute ray office diligently and faithfully. All the world may judge without how much humanity as well as justice I shall be have in this ofl^ce ; and that even ray eneraies may be convinced I take no delight lo rake inlo the dunghill lives of vicious raen; and to the end that certain persons raay be a little eased of their fears, and relieved from the terrible palpitations they have lately felt and suffered, and do still suffer ; 1 hereby gracious ly pass a general act of oblivion, for all of fences, crimes, and misdemeanours, of what kind soever, committed frora the beginning ofthe year 1681, until the day ofthe date of my first paper, and promise only to concern myself wilh such as have been since and shall hereafter be committed. I shall take no no tice who has (heretofore) raised a fortune by fraud and oppression, nor who by deceit and hypocrisy ; what woman has been false to her good husband's bed, nor what man has by barbarous usage or neglect, broke the heart ofa faithful wife; and wasted his health and substance in debauchery ; what base wretch has betrayed his friend, and sold his honesty | for gold, nor what baser wretch corrupted him, and then bought the bargam : all this, and rauch raore ofthe same kind, I shall for get, and pass over in sUence ; but then it is to be observed, that I expect and require a sudden and general amendment. These threatenings of mine, I hope, wUl have a good effect, and, if regarded, may pre vent abundance of folly and wickedness in others, and at the same time save me abun dance of trouble : and that people may not flatter themselves with the hopes of conceal ing their loose misdemeanours from my know ledge, and in that view persist in evU doing, I raust acquaint them, that I have lately en tered into an intiraacy wilh the extraordinary person who some time ago wrote me the fol lowing letter; and who, having a wonderful faculty, that enables hira to discover the most secret iniquity, is capable of giving me great assistance in my designed work of reforma tion. No. VL " Mr. Busy-Body, — I rejoice, sir, at the opportunity you have given rae lo be service able lo you, and by your means, to this pro vince ; you must know, that such have been the circumstances of my life, and such were the marvellous occurrences ofmy birth, that I have not only a faculty of discovering the actions of persons that are absent or asleep, but even of the devU himself in many ofhis secret work ings, in the various shapes, habits, and names of men and women ; and having travelled and conversed much, and met wilh bul a very few ofthe same perceptions and qualifications, I can recommend myself to you as the most useful man you can correspond with. My fether's father's father (for we had no grand fathers in our family) was the sarae John Bunyan that writ that raemorable book, The Pilgrim's Progress, who had, in sorae de gree, a natural faculty of second sight. This faculty (how derived to him our faraily me moirs are not very clear) was enjoyed by all his descendants, but not by equal talents. It was very dim in several of my first cousins, and probably had been nearly extinct in oar particular branch, had not my father been a traveller. He lived in his youthful days in New England. There he married, and tliere was born my elder brother, who had so much of this faculty, as to discover witches in some of their occult performances. My parents trans porting themselves to Great Britain, my se cond brother's birth was in that kingdom. He shared but a small portion of this virtue, being only able to discern transactions about the time of and after their happening. My good father, who delighted in the PUgrim's Progress, and mountainous places, took ship. ping with his wiffe for Scotland, and inhabiu BAGATELLES.— THE BUSY-BODY. ed in the Highlands, where myself was born, i fees ; which indulgence the small wits, in and and whether the soil, cliraate, or astral influ ences, of which are preferred divers prognos tics, restored our ancestor's natural faculty of second sight in a greater lustre to rae, than it had shined in through several generations, I will not here discuss. But so it is, that I am possessed largely of it,' and design, if you encourage the proposal, lo take this opportu nity of doing good with it, which I question not will be accepted of in a grateful way by many of your honest readers, though the dis covery of my extraction bodes me no defer ence frora your great scholars and modern philosophers. This my father was long ago aware of, and lest the name alone should hurt the fortunes of his children, he in his shiftings from one country to another, changed it. " Sir, I have only this further to say, how I may be useful to you, and as a reason for my not making myself raore known in the world : by virtue of this great gift of nature, second- sightedness, I do continually see numbers of men, women, and children, of all ranks, and what they are doing, while I am sitting in my closet ; which is too great a burden for the mind, and raakes rae also conceit, even against reason, that all this host of people can see and observe me, which strongly inclines me to solitude, and an obscure living ; and on the other hand, it wUl be an ease to rae lo dis burden ray thoughts and observations in the way proposed to you, by, sir, your friend and servant." I conceal this correspondent's name in my care for his life and safely, and cannot but ap prove his prudence in choosing to live obscure ly. I remember the fate of my poor monkey : he had an ill-natured trick of grinning and chattering al every thing he saw in petticoats : my ignoranj country neighbours got a notion that pug snarled by instinct at every female who had lost her virginity. This was no sooner generally believed, than he was condemned to death ; by whom I could never learn, but he was assassinated in the night, barbarously stabbed and mangled in a thousand places, and left hanging dead on one of ray gate posts, where I found hira the next raorning. The Censor observing that the itch of scrib bling begins to spread exceedingly, and being carefully tender ofthe reputation of hiscounlry in point of wit, and good sense, has determined to take all raanner of writings, in verse or prose, that pretend to either, under his irarae diate cognizance; and accordingly hereby prohibits the publishing any such for the fu ture till they have first passed his exaraina tion, and received his imprimatur : for which he demands as a fee only six pence per sheet. N. B. He nevertheless perraits to be pub lished, all satirical remarks on the Busy-Body, the above prohibition notwithstanding, and without examination or requiring the said Vol. II. ... 3 Q about the city, are advised gratefully to ac cept and acknowledge. The gentleman who calls hiraself Sirronis, is directed, on receipt of this, lo burn his great book of crudities. P. S. In corapassion to that young man on account of the great pains he has taken, in consideration oflhe character I have just re ceived of him, that he is really good natured, and on condition he shows it to no foreigner, or stranger of sense, I have thought fit to re prieve his said great book of crudities from the flaraes till further order. No. VIL Noli me tangere. I HAD resolved when I first coramenced this design, on no account lo enter into a pub lic dispute wilh any man ; for I judged it would be equally unpleasant to me, and ray readers, lo see this paper filled with conten tious wranglings, answers, replies, &c. which is a way of writing that is endless, and althe sarae time seldom contains any thing that is edifying or entertaining. Yet, when such a considerable man as Mr. finds himself so warmly concerned to accuse and condemn me, as he has done in Keiraer's last Instructor, I cannot forbear endeavouring to say something in my own defence, from one ofthe worst cha racters that could be given me by a man of worth. But as I have many things of raore consequence to offer lo the public, I declare that I never will, after this tirae, take notice of any accusations not better supported with truth and reason ; rauch less raay every little scribbler, that shall attack me, expect an an swer frora the Busy-Body. The sura of the charge delivered against me, either directly or indirectly, in the said paper, is this : not lo mention the first mighty sentence concerning vanity and ill nature, and the shrewd intimation that I ara wiihout charity, and therefore can have no pretence lo religion, I ara represented as guilty of de- faraalion and scandal, the odiousness of which is apparent to every good raan ; and the prac tice of il opposite to Christianity, morality, and coraraon justice, and in sorae cases so far below all these, as to be inhuraan ; as a blaster of reputations ; as attempting by a pretence, lo screen rayself frora the imputation of raa lice and prejudice ; as using a weapon which the wise and better part of raankind hold in abhorrence ; and as giving treatment which the wiser and better part of raankind dislike, on the same principles and for the same rea sons, as they do assassination, &c. ; and all this is inferred and concluded frora a character I have wrote in ray No. III. In order to examine the justice and truth of this heavy charge, let us recur to that oha- 490 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. racter. And here we raay be surprised to find what a trifle has raised this raighty cla mour and complaint, this grievous accusation I The worst thing said of the person, in what is called ray gross description, (be he who he will lo whom my accuser has applied the cha racter of Crilico) is, that he is a sour philoso pher, crafty, but not wise. Few huraan cha racters can be drawn that will not fit some body in so large a country as this; but one would think, supposing I meant Crilico a real person, I had sufficiently manifested my im partiality, when I said in that very paragraph, that Crilico is not without virtue ; that there are raany good things in hira, and many good actions reported of him ; which must be al lowed in all reason, rauch to overbalance in his favour those worst words,- sour-lerapered and cunning. Nay, my very enemy and ac cuser must have been sensible of this, when he freely acknowledges, that he has been seri ously considering, and cannot yet determine which he would choose to be, the Cato or Cri- tico of that paper ; since my Cato is one of the best characters. Thus rauch in ray own vindication. As lo the only reason there given why I ought not lo continue drawing charac ters, viz. Why should any raan's picture be published that he never sat for, or his own good name taken from him any raore than his money or possessions, at the arbitrary will of another l&c. I have but this to answer : the money or possessions I presume are nothing to the purpose; since no man can claim a right to either those or a good narae, if he has acted so as lo forfeit them. And are not the public the only judges what share of reputation they may think proper to allow to any man '! Supposing I was capable, and had an inclina tion, to draw all the good and bad characters in America, why should agood man be offend ed with me for drawing good characters'! And if I draw ill ones, can they fit any other hut those that deserve them 1 And ought any but such be incensed that they have their de sert I I have as great an aversion and abhor rence for defamation and scandal as any man, and would with the utmost care avoid being guilty of such base things : besides, I ara very sensible and certain, that if I should make use of this paper lo defame any person, my repu tation would be sooner hurl than his ; and the Busy-Body would quickly become detestable ; because, in such a case, as is justly observed, the pleasure arising frora a tale of wil and no velty soon dies away in generous and honest minds, and is followed with a secret grief, to see their neighbours calumniated. But if I myself was actually the worst man in the province, and any one should draw my true character, would it not be ridiculous in me to say, he had defamed and scandalized me, unless he had added in a matter of truth) If any thing is meantby asking, why any man's picture should be published which he never sat for, it raust be, that we should give no character without the owner's consent If I discern the wolf disguised in harraless wool, and contriving the destruction of my neigh bour's sheep, must I have his permission, be fore I am allowed to discover and prevent him 1 If I know a raan to be a designing knave, must I ask his consent to bid my friends beware of him 1 If so, then by the sarae rule, supposing the Busy-Body had real ly merited all his eneray had charged him wilh, his consent ought likewise to have been obtained, before so terrible an accusation was published against him. I shall conclude with observing, that in the last paragraph save one of the piece now ex amined, much UI nature and sorae good sense are coinhabitanls (as he expresses it.) The ill nature appears in his endeavouring lo dis cover satire where I intended no such thing, but quite the reverse : the good sense is this, that drawing too good a character of any one is a refined raanner of satire that may be as injurious to him as the contrary, by bringing on an examination that undresses the person, and in the haste of doing it, he may happen to be stript of what he really owns and de serves. As I ara Censor, I might punish the first, but I forgive it Yet I wUl not leave the latter unrewarded ; but assure my adver sary, that in consideration oflhe merit of those four lines, I am resolved lo forbear injuring him in that refined manner. I thank my neighbour P W for his kind letter. The lions complained of shall be muzzled. No. vm. March 27, 1790. Quid non mortalia pectora cogia, Auri sacra fames. — Virgil. One of the greatest pleasures an author can have, is certainly the hearing his works applauded. The hiding from the world our naraes, while we publish our thoughts, is so absolutely necessary lo this self gratification, that I take my well wishers will congratulate me on ray escape frora many diligent but fruit less inquiries that of late have been raade af ter rae. Every raan wUl own that an author as such, ought to be hid by the raerit of his productions only ; but pride, party, and preju dice, at this tirae run so very high, that e.x perience shows we form our notions of a piece by the character of the author. Nay there are some very humble politicians in and about the city who will ask on which side the writer is, before they presume to give their opinion of the thing wrote. This ungenerous way of proceeding I was full aware of before I published ray first speculation ; and there fore concealed my name. And I appeal to BAGATELLES.— THE BUSY-BODY. 491 the more generous part of the world, if I have, since I appeared in the character of the Busy- Body, given an instance of ray siding with any party more than another, in the unhappy divisions of my country; and I have above aU this satisfaction in myself, that neither affec tion, aversion, or interest have biassed rae to use any partiality towards any raan, or set of men ; but whatsoever I find nonsensical, ri diculous, or immorally dishonest, I have and shall continue openly to attack wilh the free dora of an honest man and a lover of my country. I profess I can hardly contain myself, or preserve the gravity and dignity that should attend the censorial office, when I hear the odd and unaccountable expositions that are put , upon sorae of ray works, through the raalicious ignorance of sorae, and vain pride of raore than ordinary penetration in others ; one in stance of which many of ray readers are ac quainted wilh. A certain gentleraan has taken a greal deal of pains to write a key to the letter in my No. IV., wherein he has in geniously converted a gentle satire upon te dious and impertinent visitants, inlo a libel on sorae of the Government This I mention only as a speciraen ofthe taste of the gentle man ; I am forsooth bound to please in my speculations, not that I suppose ray iraparti- alily will ever be called in question on that account Injustice of this nature I could coraplain of in many instances ; bul I am at present diverted by the reception of a letter, which though it regards me only in ray pri vate capacity, as an adept, yet I venture to publish il for the entertainraent of ray readers. To Censor Morum, Esq. Busy-Body gene ral of the Province of Pennsylvania, and the counties of Newcastle, Kent, and Sus sex upon Delaware. "Honour.ablb Sir, — I judge by your lucu brations, that you are not only a lover of truth and equity, but a raan of part and leairning, and a master of science ; as such I honour you. Know then, most profound sir, that I have, from my youth up, been a very indefati gable student in, and adrairer of, that divine science, astrology. I have read over Scot, Alberlus Magnus, and Cornelius Agrippa above three hundred tiraes ; and was in hopes, by my knowledge and industry, to gain enough to have recompensed rae for my money ex pended, and tirae lost in the pursuit of this learning. You cannot be ignorant, sir, (for your inliraate second-sighted correspondent knows all things,) that there are large suras of money hidden under ground in divers places about this town, and in raany parts of the country ; but alas, sir, notwithstanding I have used all the means laid down in the imraortal authors before mentioned, and when they fail ed, the ingenious Mr. P — d — 1, with his mercurial wand and magnet, I have still faU- ed in my purpose ; this, therefore, I send, to propose and desire an acquaintance vvith you, and I do not doubt, notwithstanding rny repeat ed ill fortune, bul we raay be exceedingly ser viceable lo each other in our discoveries ; and that if we use our united endeavours, the tirae will corae when the Busy-Body, his second- sighted correspondent, and your very honour able servant, wUl be three of the richest men in the province : and then, sir, what may we not do ! a word lo the wise is sufficient I conclude, wilh all demonstrable respect, yours and Urani's votary, TITAN PLEIADS. In the evening after I received this letter, I raade a visit to ray second-sighted friend, and coraraunicated to hira my proposal. When he had read il, he assured rae that, to his cer tain knowledge, there is not at this time so much as one ounce of gold or silver hid under ground in any part of the province ; for that the late and present scarcity of money had ob liged those who were living, and knew where they had formerly hid any, lo lake il up and use it in their own necessary affairs : and as to all the rest, which was buried by pirates and others in old tiraes, who were never like to come for it, he had hiraself long since dug it all up, and applied il to charitable uses ; and this he desired rae to publish for the general good. For as he acquainted rae, there are araongst us great nurabers of honest artificers and labouring people, who, fed with a vain hope of growing suddenly rich, neglect their busi ness almost to the ruining of themselves and families, and voluntarily endure abundance of iatigue in a fruitless search afler imaginary hidden treasures. They wander through the woods and bushes by day, to discover the marks and signs ; at raidnighl they repair to those hopeful spots with spades and pickaxes ; full of expectation they labour violently, trerabling at the same lime in every joint through fear of certain malicious demons, who are said to haunt and guard the places. Al length a raighty hole is dug, and perhaps seve ral carl loads of earth thrown out ; but alas, no keg or iron pot is found ! no seaman's chest ornamented with Spanish pistoles or weighty pieces of eight ! Then they conclude that, through some raistake in the procedure, sorae rash word spoke, or sorae rule of art neglect ed, the guardian spirit had power lo sink it deeper inlo the earth, and convey it out of his reach. Yet when a man is once thus infatu ated, he is so far from being discouraged by ill success, that he is rather aniraated to dou ble his industry, and will try again and again, in a hundred different places, in hopes al last of raeeting wilh some lucky hit, that shall at once sufficiently reward thera for all their ex pense of time and labour. This odd humour of digging for raoney, 492 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. through a belief that much has been hid by pirates formerly frequenting the river, has for several years been raighty prevalent among us; insomuch that you can hardly walk half a raile out of the town on any side, wilhoul observing several pits dug with that design, and perhaps some lately opened. Men other wise of very good sense have been drawn inlo this practice through on overrunning desire of hidden wealth, and an easy credulity of what they so earnestly wished raight be true. While the rational and almost certain me thods of acquiring riches by industry and fru gality are neglected or forgotten. There seems to be sorae peculiar charm in the con ceit of finding raoney, and if the sands of SchuylkUl were so rauch mined wilh small grains of gold, that a man raight in a day's time, with care and application, get together to the value of half a crown, I raake no ques tion but we should find several people employ ed there, that can with ease earn five shil- lings.a day at their proper trades. Many are the idle stories told ofthe private success of some people, by which others are encouraged to proceed ; and the astrologers, with whom the country swarms al this tirae, are either in the belief of these things them selves, or find their advantage in persuading others to believe them ; for they are often consulted about the critical times for digging, the methods of laying the spirit and the like whimsies, which renders thera very necessa ry to and very rauch caressed by, the poor de luded money hunters. There is certainly something very bewitch ing in the pursuit after raines of gold and sil ver, and other valuable raetals, and raany have been ruined by it A sea captain of my ac quaintance used to blame the English fbr en vying Spain their mines of silver, and too rauch despising and overlooking the advan tages oftheir own industry and raanufactures. " For my part," says he, " I esteeem the Banks of Newfoundland to be a more valua ble possession than the raountains of Potosi ; and when I have been there on the fishing ac count I have looked upon every cod pulled up inlo the vessel as a certain quantity of silver ore, which required only carrying to the next Spanish port lo be coined inlo pieces of eight ; not to raention the national profit of fitting out and eraploying such a nuraber of ships and searaen."Let honest Peter Buckram, who has long wiihout success been a searcher after hidden raoney, reflect on this, and be reclaim ed from this unaccountable folly ; let hira con sider that every stitch he takes when he is on his shop-board is picking up a part ofa grain of gold, that will in a few days time amount to a pistole ; and let Faber think the same of every nail he drives, or every stroke with his plane ; such thoughts raay raake them industri ous, and of consequence in time they may be wealthy. But how absurd is it to neglect a certain profit for such a ridiculous whimsey ; lo spend whole days al the George tavern in company wilh an idle pretender lo astrology, contriving schemes to discover what was ne ver hidden, and forgetting how carelessly bu siness is managed at home in their absence : to leave their wives and a warm bed at mid night (no matter if it rain, hail, snow, or blow a hurricane, provided that be the critical hour) and fatigue themselves with the violent exer cise of digging for what they shall never find, and perhaps getting a cold that may cost their lives, or at least disordering themselves so as lo be fil for no business besides for some days after. Surely this is nothing less than the most egregious folly and madness. I shall conclude wilh the woi-ds of my dis creet friend Agricola, of Chester county, when he gave his son a good plantation : " My son," says he, " I give thee now a valuable parcel of land ; I assure thee I have found a considerable quantity of gold by digging there ; thee mayest do the same : bill thee must care fully observe this, never to dig more than plough deep." No. Df. Nov. 1735. Mr. Busy-Body, — Pray let the prettiest creature in this place know, by publishing this, that if it was not for her affectation, she would be absolutely irresistible. BOB BRIEF. Mr. Brief appears to have coraraunicated his laconic letter to others, at the same time that il was presented here; it has produced no less than six other communications, which follow in the order they were received. Mr. Busy- Body, — I cannot conceive who Mr. Brief means, by the prettiest creature in this place ; but I can assure either him or her, that she who is truly so, has no affecta tion al all. DIANA. Sir, — As a correspondent of yours has thought fll to coraraunicate to rae his note to you ; before it can be published, I have looked in ray glass repeatedly, — a thousand limes, perhaps, in a day — and if il was not for the charge of affectation, 1 raight, wiihout the charge of partiality, believe myself particu larly pointed at. ROSELLA. Mr. Busy-Body, — I must own that several have told me, I ara the prettiest creature in this place, but I believe I should not be taxed with affectation, if I could have thought as well of thera as tliey do of themselves. ELVIRA. Sir, — Your sex caUs me pretty ; ray own, affected: is it from candour in the one, or envy in the other ! ANNABELLA. , BAGATELLES.— THE BUSY-BODY. 493 Mr. Busy-Body, — They that call rae af fected are greatly raistaken, for I don't know that I ever refused lo kiss any body but a fool. — Mr. Brief will understand me. KIT CANDOUR. Friend Busy-Body, — I am not at all dis pleased at being accused of affectation ; thou knovvesl the vain people call decency of be haviour and siraplicity of manners by that name. Thy friend, DORCAS DAISY. No. X. Veritas luce clarior. A FRIEND of raine was the other day cheap ening sorae trifles at a shopkeepers, and af ter a few words they agreed on a price. At the tying up oflhe parcels he had purchased, the mistress ofthe shop told hira that, people were growing very hard, for she actually lost by every thing she sold. How then is it pos sible, said ray friend, that you can keep on your business. Indeed, sir, answered she, I raust of necessity shut ray doors, had I not a very great trade. The reason said my friend (vvith a sneer) is adrairable. There are a great raany relaUers who false ly iraagine, that being historical (the raodern phrase for lying) is much for their advantage ; and some of them have a saying, that it is a pity lying is a sin, it is so useful in trade ; though ifthey would examine inlo the reason why a nuraber of shopkeepers raise consider able estates, while others who have set out wilh better fortunes have become bankrupts, they would find, that the former made up with truth, diligence, and probity, what they were deficient of in slock ; while the latter have been guUly of imposing on such customers as they found had no skill in the quality oftheir goods. The former character raises a credit which supplies the want of fortune, and their fair dealing brings thera customers ; whereas none wUl return to buy of him by whom he has been once iraposed upon. If people in trade would judge rightly, we might buy blindfold ed and they would save both to themselves and custoraers the unpleasantness of hag gling. Though there are nurabers of shopkeepers who scorn the mean vice of lying, and whose word raay very safely be relied on, yet there are too many who wUl endeavour, and back ing their falsities wilh asseverations, pawn their s.alvation to raise their prices. As example works raore than precept, and my sole view being the good and interest of my countrymen, whom I could wish to see without any vice or folly, I shall offer an ex ample of the veneration bestowed on truth and abhorrence of falsehood among the an- pients. Augustus triumphmg over Mark Antony 42 and Cleopatra, araong other captives who ac- corapanied thera, brought to Rorae a priest of about si.xty years old ; the senate being in forraed that this man had never been detected in a falsehood, and was believed never to have told a lie, not only restored him to liberty, but raade him a high priest, and caused a statue to be erected lo his honour. The priest thus honoured was an Egyptian, and an enemy to Rome, but his virtue reraoved all obstacles. PamphUius was a Roman citizen whose bo dy upon his death was forbidden sepulture, his estate was confiscated, his house razed, and his wife and children banished the Ro raan territories wholly for his having been a notorious and inveterate liar. Could there be greater deraonstralions of re spect for truth than these of the Roraans, who elevated an enemy to the greatest honours, and exposed the faraily of a citizen lo the greatest contumely 1 There can be no excuse for lying, neither is there any thing equally despicable and dan gerous as a liar, no man being safe who asso ciates with him ; for he who will lie, will swear to it, says the proverb, and such a one may endanger my life, turn my faraily out of doors, and ruin my reputation, whenever he shall find il his interest ; and if a man will lie and swear to it in his shop to obtain a trifle, why should we doubt his doing so when he may hope to make a fortune by his perjury 'i The crime is in itself so mean, that to call a raan a liar is esteemed every where an affront not to be forgiven. If any have lenity enough lo allow the deal ers an excuse for this bad practice, I believe they will allow none for the gentleraan who is addicted lo this vice; and must look upon hira with conterapt That the world does so is vi sible by the derision vvith which his name is treated whenever it is mentioned. The philosopher Epimenides gave the Rho- dians this description of Truth. — She is the companion of the gods, the joy of heaven, the light oflhe earth, the pedestal of justice, and the basis of good policy. Eschines told the same people, that truth was a virtue, wiihout which force was en feebled, justice corrupted; humUity became dissimulation, patience intolerable, chastity a dissembler, liberty lost, and pity superflu ous. Pharmanesthe philosopher told the Romans that Truth was the centre on which all things rested : a chart to saU by, a remedy for all evils, and a light lo the whole world. Anaxarchus, speaking of Truth, said, it was health incapable of sickness, life not subject lo death, an elixir that healeth all, a sun not to be obscured, a raoon without eclipse, an herb which never withereth, a gale that is never closed, and a path which never fetigues the traveller. 494 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. But if we are blind to the beauties of truth, it is astonishing that we should not open our eyes to the inconvenience of falsity. A man given to romance must be always on his guard for fear of contradicting and exposing himself to derision ; for the raost historical would avoid the odious character, though it is impos sible with the utmost circuraspeclion lo travel long on this route wiihout detection, and sharae and confusion follow. Whereas he who is a votary of truth never hesitates for an answer, has never to rack his invention to make the sequel quadrate wilh the beginning of his story, nor obliged to burden his memory with minute circurastances, since truth speaks ea sUy what it recollects, and repeals openly and frequently wiihout varying facts, which liars cannot always do, even though gifted with a good raeraory. No. XL As the nail sticketh fast between the joinings ofthe stones, so doth sin stick close also between buying and selling. — Apocrypha. We have received the two following letters, the first frora a shopkeeper, and the other frora a merchant. To the Busy-Body. Sir, — I ara a shopkeeper in this city, and suppose I am the person at whom some re flections have been airaed in a late paper. It is an easy matter for gentleraen that can write, to say a great deal ^jpon any subject, and lo censure matters as faults of which they are as guilty as other people. I cannot help thinking that those remarks are written with much partiality, and give a very unfair representation of things. Shopkeepers are accused of lying, as if they were the only persons culpable in that way, and without the least notice being taken of the general prac tice of their customers. "lam sure il is very ordinary at that price,'' says one, " I have bought rauch better at such a one's shop for less money," snys another, and the like dispa raging expressions, are very comraon, so as to be almost worn threadbare ; some have even the confidence to aver, that they have bought cheaper of rae, when I know the price they raention is less than the goods cost rae. In short, they will tell a hundred lies, lo under value our goods, and make our demands ap pear extravagant So that the blame of all the lying, properly belongs lo the customers that come to buy, because if the shopkeepers strain the truth n little now and then, il is be cause they are forced to do it in their own de fence. In hopes you will do us justice in this affair, I reraain, your friend and servant, BETTY DILIGENT. Mr. Busy-Body, — Some notice has been lately taken of a prevailing vice, and very justly censured ; that is the too coraraon prac tice of lying by the shopkeepers in selling their goods; but the charge has been only half made; no notice is taken of their lying when they come lo the stores to buy. 1 believe they think lying full as convenient in buying their goods as in seUing thera; and to my knowledge some of them are most egregious ly guilty in this particular. — Yours, MERCATOR. No. XIL Sib, — Being old and lame in my hands, and thereby incapable of assisting my fellow-citi zens when their houses are on fire, I have thought it my duly to offer in return for the safely and aid I derive in common wilh others, to do what I can in the only way I am able ; and I must beg ray fellow-townsraen to take in good part, the following hints on the subject of tires. In the first place, as an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, as Poor Richard says, I would advise every one to lake care how they suffer living brands, or coals in a full shovel, to be carried outof one room into ano ther, or up or down stairs, unless in a covered warming pan, or some such close incombusti ble vessel ; our houses are al present com posed mostly of wooden materials, and sparks or flakes of fire raay fall into chinks or corners where they may not inflame around them and make no appearance till midnight when your stairs being in flames, you may be forced, as I was, lo leap out of a window and hazard ray neck lo avoid the alternative of being roasted. And now we talk of prevention, where vvould be the damage if lo the act for preventing fires, by the regulation of bake-houses and coopers' shops, a clause were added lo regulate all other houses in the particular of too shallow hearths, and the reprehensible practice of or namenting fire-places with wooden chimney pieces and mouldings, which being coramonly made of heart-pine, abounds wilh turpentine, and always stands ready fbr a blaze, as soon as a live coal or brand raay come in contact with it. Again, if chimneys were more frequently and more carefully cleaned, some fires might thereby be prevented ; for I have known foul chimneys burn most furiously a few days after they had been swept people in confidence of their being cleansed making large fires. Eve ry body among us that pleases may undertake the business of chimney sweeping, but if a chimney takes fire after the owner has care fully caused it lo be swept the owner is oblig ed to pay tlie fine, and the sweeper goes free. This is not right Those who undertake the sweeping of chimneys, and employ assistants for that purpose, ought to be licensed by the mayor, and if any chimney takes fire and BAGATELLES.— THE BUSY-BODY. 495 blazes out within fifteen days after the sweep ing, the fine should be paid by the licensed sweeper for his default, for no chimney will fire if there be not soot left to harbour the sparks. We have at present got engines enough in the town (1734;) but 1 question whether in many parts oflhe town water enough can be had to keep them going for half an hour to gether : it seeras to rae sorae public puraps are wanting ; but that I subrait to better judg ments. As lo our conduct in the affair of extin guishing fires, though we do not want hands or good will, yet we seera lo want order and method, and therefore I believe I cannot do better than lo offer for our imitation the ex ample of a city in a neighbouring province. There is, as I am well informed, a club or so ciely of active raen belonging lo each fire engine, whose business is to attend all fires with the engine, whenever they happen, and to work it once a quarter of an hour, and see it kept in order. Sorae are assigned to handle the fire-hooks ; others the axes, which are al ways kept wilh the engine and in good order ; and for these services they are considered in abatement or exemption oftaxes. In tirae of fire they are commanded by officers appoint ed according to forme prescribed by law, call ed Firewards, who are distinguished by an external raark, or a staff having at the end a brass emblem of flame of about six inches long ; being raen selected for their prudence and invested wilh authority, they alone direct the opening and stripping of roofs by the axe men ; the pulling down burning tirabers by the hook raen; the playing of the engines upon proper points and places ; and the open ing of lanes araong the crowds who usually attend, &c. ; they are irapowered to require assistance for the reraoving of goods out of houses on fire, or in danger of fire, and to ap point guards for securing those goods ; diso bedience to these officers at any such times is punished by a fine of 40 shillings or ten days imprisonment. These officers, wilh the men belonging to the engine, at their quarterly meetings, discourse of fines ; of the faults committed at sorae ; the good manageraent at others; and thus coraraunicating their experi ence they becorae wiser, and know as well to coraraand as to execute in the best raanner upon emergency. Since the establishment of these regulations there does not appear to have occurred any extraordinary fire in that place, and I wish there never may be any here or there. Bul they suffered rauch before they had made such regulations, and so raust we ; for Italians .say. Englishmen feel but cannot see. It has pleased God, however, that in the fires we have had hitherto, all the bad circumstan ces have never happened together, such as a dry season, high winds, narrow streets, and little or low water, which tends perhaps to raake us more secure in our own rainds ; but if a fire with those circurastances should oc cur, which God forbid, we should afterwards learn to he raore careful. One thought more and I have done. I would wish that tiles or slates could be brought inlo use as covering lo buildings ; and that the roofs v/ere not of so sharp a pilch as to prevent walking on thera in safety. Let others communicate their thoughts freely, and perhaps some good raay grow out ofit A. A. No. XIIL Nothing is more like a fool than a drunken man. Poor Richard. Il is an old reraark, that Vice always en deavours lo assume the appearance of Virtue ; thus covetousness calls itself prudence, prodi gality would be thought generous, and so of others. This perhaps arises hence, that man kind naturally and universally approve virtue in their hearts, and detest vice, therefore whenever through temptations they fall into vicious practices, they would if possible conceal il from themselves, as well as frora others, under some narae which does not belong to it. Bul drunkenness is a very unfortunate vice ; in this respect it bears no kind of siraUitude with any sort of virtue, frora which il might possibly borrow a narae; and is therefore re duced to the wretched necessity of being ex pressed by round about phrases, and of per petually varying those phrases as often as they corae to be well understood plainly to signify that a raan is drunk. Though every one may possibly recollect a dozen at least of these expressions, used on such occasions, yet I think no one who has not much frequented taverns could imagine the number of thera lo be so great as it really is. Il raay therefore surprise as well as di vert the sober reader, lo have a sight of a new piece lately communicated to me, entitled, The Drinker's Dictionary. A. He 's addled. He 's in his airs. He 's affected. He 's casting up his accounts. B He 's biggy. He 's bewitched. He 's black and black. He 's bowzed. He 's boozy. He 's been at Barbadoes. He 's been watering the brook. He 's drunk as a wheelbarrow. He 's bother'd. 496 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. He 's burdock'd. , He 's bosky. He 's husky. He 's huzzy. He bas sold a march in the brewer. His head is full of bees. He has been in the bibing plot. He has drunk raore than he has bled. He 's bungy. He has been playing beggar-ray-neighbour. He 's drunk as a beggar. He sees the bearas. He has kissed black Betty. He 's had a thump over the head with Samson's jaw-bone. He has heen at war with his brains. He 's bridgy. C. He has been catching the cat. He 's cogniaid. He 's capable. He 's craraped. He 's cherubimical. He 's cherry merry. He 's wamble croft. He 's crack'd. He 's half way to Concord. He 's canonized. He has taken a chirping glass. He 's got corns in his head. He 's got a cup too rauch. He 's coguay. He 's cupsy. He has heated his copper. He 's in crocus. He 's catch'd. He cuts capers. He has been in the cellar He has been in the sun. He 's in his cups. He 's above the clouds. He 's non compos. He 's cock'd. He 's curved. He 's cut. He 's chippered. He 's chickenny. He has loaded his cart He 's been loo free wilh the creature. Sir Richard has taken off his considering cap. He 's chopfallen. He 's candid. He 's disguised. He 's got a dish. He has killed a dog. He has taken his drops. 'Tis a dark day with him. He 's a dead man. He has dipped his bUl. He sees double. He 's disfigured. He has seen the devU. E. He 's prince Eugene. He 's entered. He has bulled both eyes. He is cock-eyed. He has got the pole evil. He has got a brass eye. He has made an exaraple. He has ate a toad and a half for breakfast He 's in his element. F. He 's fishy. He 's fox'd. He's fuddled. He 's soon fuddled. He 's frozen. He 'U have frogs for supper. He 's well in front He 's getting forward in the world. He owes no man raoney. He fears no man. He 's crump fooled. He has been to France. He 's flushed. He has frozen his mouth. He 's fettered. He has been to a funeral. His flag is out He's fuzzled. He has spoken with his friend. He has been at an Indian feast G. He 's glad. He 's grabable. He 's great-headed. He 's glazed. He 's generous. He has boozed the gage. He 's as dizzy as a goose. He has been before George, He has got the gout He has got a kick in the guts. He has been at Geneva. He is globular. He has got the glanders. He 's on the go. He 's a gone man. He has been to see Robin GoodfeUow. H. He's half and half He 's half seas over. He 's hardy. He 's top heavy. He has got by the head. He makes head way. He 's hiddey. He has got- on his little hat He 's hammerish. He 's loose in the hilt He knows not the way horae. He 's haunted with evil spirits. He has taken Hippocrates' grand Elixir. BAGATELLES.— THE BUSY-BODY. 497 L He 's intoxicated. He 's jolly. He 's jagged. He 's jam bled. He 's jocular. He 's juicy. He 's going to Jericho. He 's an indirect raan. He 's going to Jaraaica. He 's going to Jerusalera. K. He 's a king. He clips the king's English. He has seen the French king. The king is his cousin. He has got kibed heels. He has got knapt His kettle 's hot He 'U be soon keel upward. L. He 's in liqour. He 's lordly. He 's light He 's lappy. He's liraber. He 's lopsided. He makes indentures with his legs. He 's liraber. He 's well lo live. M. He sees two raoons. He's merry. He 's middling He's muddled. He 's raoon-eyed. He 's raaudlin. He 's raountainous. He 's rauddy. He 's mellow. He 's seen a flock of raoons. He 's raised his monuments. N. He has eaten cocao nuts. He 's nimtopsical. He 's non compos. He has got the night mare. He has been nonsuited. He is super nonsensical. He 's in a slate of nature. He 's nonplus'd. O. He 's oUed. He has ate opium. He has smelt an onion. He is an oxycrocum. He is overset. He is overcome. He is out of sorts. He is on the paymaster's books. P. He drank his last halQienny. Vol. II. ... 3 R 42* He 's as good conditioned as a puppy. He 's pigeon eyed. He 's pungy. He 's priddy. He 's pushing on. He has salt in his headban. He has been araong the PhUistines. He 's in prosperity. He 's friends wilh Philip. He 's contending with Pharaoh. He has painted his nose. He has wasted his punch. He has learned politeness. He has eat the pudding-bag. He has eat too rauch pumpkin. He 's full of piety. R. He 's rocky. He 's raddled. He 's rich. He 's religious. He 's ragged. He 's raised. He has lost his rudder. He has been too far with Sir Richard. He 's like a rat in trouble. S. He 's stitch'd. He 's seafaring. He 's in the suds. He 's strong. He 's been in the sun. He's as drunk as David's sow. He 's swarapt His skin is full. He's steady. He 's stiff He has burnt his shoulder. He has got out his top-gallant saUs. He has seen tbe dog-star. He 's stiff as a ringbolt He 's half seas over. The shoe pinches hira. He is slaggerish. It is star light with hira. He carries too rauch saU. He '11 soon out studding sails. He 's stewed. He 's stubbed. He 's soaked. He 's soft. He has made too free wilh Sir John Straw berry. He 's right before the wind, all saUs out. He has pawned his senses. He plays parrot He has made shift ofhis shirt He shines like a blanket. He has been paying for a sign. T. He 's toped. He 's tongue-tied. He 's tanned. 498 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. He 's tipsicum grave. He 's double tongued. He 's topsey turvey. He 's tipsy. He 's thawed. He 's trammull'd. He 's transported. He has swallowed a tavern token. He makes Virginia fame. He has got the Indian vapours. He 's pot valiant. He is in love with varany. W. He 's wise. He 's a wet soul. He has been to the salt water. He has been in search of eye water. He 's in the way to be weaned. He 's out of the way. He 's water soaked. He 's wise or otherwise. He can walk the line. The wind is west with him. He carries his wagon. The phrases of the Dictionary are not, like most of our terms of art, borrowed from foreign or dead languages ; neither are they collected from the writings of the learned ; but gathered frora doraestic sources ; no doubt many more raight be added. I was almost tempted to add a new one under the letter B, to wit, hrutified, but upon consi deration I feared doing injustice to the brute creation, if I represented drunkenness as a beastly vice, since every one knows that the brutes are in general a sober sort of people. This production (The Washing Day) has been generally ascribed to Dr. Franklin ; thougii it has been also claimed for another gentleman. We have thought it fit to notice the circumstance, and its merit will be as good an apology as can be offered, should we be mistaken. Singular custom among the .Americans, en titled White-washing. Dear Sir, My wish is to give you some account of the people of these new stales, but I am far from being qualified forthe purpose, having as yet seen litUe more than the cities of New York and Philadelphia. I have dis covered but few national singularities among them. Theircustoms and manners are nearly the same with those of England, which they have long been used to copy. For, previous to tbe revolution, the Araericans were frora their infancy taught to look up to the Eng lish as patterns of perfection in all things. I have observed, however, one custom, which, for aught I know, is peculiar to this country. An account of it will serve to fill up the remainder of this sheet, and may afford you some amusement. When a young couple are about to enter into the matriraonial state, a never-failing article in the raarriage-treaty is, that the lady shall have and enjoy the free and unmolested exercise ofthe rights of white-washing, with all its ceremonials, privileges, and appurte nances. A young woraan would forego the most advantageous connexion, and even dis appoint the warmest wish of her heart, rather than resign tbe invaluable right. You would wonder what this privilege of white washing is : I will endeavour to give you some idea of the ceremony, as I have seen it performed.There is no season of the year in which the lady may not claim her privilege, if she pleases ; but tbe latter end of May is most generally fixed upon for the purpose. The attentive husband may judge by certain prognostics when the storm is nigh at hand. When the lady is unusually fretful, finds fault with the servants, is discontented with the chUdren, and complains much of the filthiness ofevery thing about her — these are signs which ought not to be neglected ; yet they are not decisive, as tbey sometimes come on and go off again, without producing any farther effect. But if, when the husband rises in the morning, he should observe in the yard a wheelbarrow with a quantity of lime in it, or should see certain buckets with lime dissolved in water, there is then no tirae to be lost ; he immediately locks up the apartment or closet where his papers or his private property is kept, and putting the key in his pocket, betakes hiraself to flight : for a husband, however beloved, becomes a per fect nuisance during the season of female rage ; his authority is superseded, his com mission is suspended, and the very scullion, who cleans the brasses in the kitchen, be comes of raore consideration and iraportance than him. He has nothing for it, but to ab dicate, and run from an evil which he can neither prevent nor mollify. The husband gone, the cereraony begins. The walls are in a few minutes stripped of their furniture : paintings, prints, and look ing-glasses lie in a huddled heap about tbe floors ; the curtains are torn frora the testers, the beds crammed into the windows ; chairs and tables, bedsteads and cradles, crowd the yard ; and the garden fence bends beneath the weight of carpets, blankets, cloth cloaks, old coats, and ragged breeches. Here may be seen tbe lumber of the kitchen, forming a dark and confused mass : for the foreground of the picture, gridirons and fryfng pans, rusty shovels and broken tongs, spits and BAGATE LLE S.— WHITE-WASHING. 499 pots, joint-stools, and the fractured reraains of rush-bottoraed chairs. There, a closet has disgorged its bowels, cracked tumblers, broken wine glasses, phials of forgotten physic, papers of unknown powders, seeds, and dried herbs, handfuls of old corks, tops of teapots, and stoppers of departed decan ters ; — from the rag-hole in the garret to the rat-bole in the cellar, no place escapes un- ruraraaged. It would seem as if the day of general doom was come, and the utensUs of the house were dragged forth to judgment. In this tempest, the words of Lear naturally present themselves, and might, with some alteration, be made strictly applicable : ¦ " Let the great goda, That keep this dreadful pudder o'er our heads. Find out their enemies now. Tremble, tbou wretch, That hast within thee undivulged crimes tJnwhipt of justice ?- ' Close pent-up guilt. Raise your concealing continents, and ask These dreadful summoners grace !" This cereraony corapleted, and the house thoroughly evacuated, the next operation is to smear the walls and ceilings of every roora and closet with brushes dipped in a so lution of lime, called white-wash; to pour buckets of water over every floor, and scratch all the partitions and wainscots with rough brushes wet with soap-suds, and dipped in stone-cutter's sand. The windows by no raeans escape the general deluge. A servant scrambles out upon the pent-house, at the risk of her neck, and with a mug in her hand, and a bucket within reach, she dashes away innumerable gallons of water against the glass panes ; to the great annoyance of the passengers in the street. I have been told that an action at law was once brought against one of these water nymphs, by a person who had a new suit of clothes spoiled by this operation ; but, after long argument, it was determined by the whole court, that the action would not lie, inasmuch as the defendant was in the exer cise of a legal right, and not answerable for the consequences; and so the poor gentle man was doubly nonsuited ; for he lost not only his suit of clothes, but his suit at law. ¦These sraearings and scratchings, wash ings and dashings, being duly performed, the next ceremonial is to cleanse and re place the distracted furniture. You may have seen a house raising, or a ship-launch, when all the hands within reach are collect ed together : recollect, if you can, the hurry, bustle, confusion, and noise of such a scene, and you will have some idea of this clean ing match. The raisfortune is, that the sole object is 10- raake things clean; it matters not hov? many useful, ornamental, or valua ble articles are mutilated, or suffer death under the operation : a mahogany chair and carved frame undergo the same discipline ; they are to be made dean at all events ; but their preservation is not worthy of attention. For instance, a fine large engraving is laid flat on the floor; smaller prints are piled upon it, and the superincumbent weight cracks the glasses of the lower tier : but this is of no consequence. A valuable picture is placed leaning against the sharp corner of a table ; others are made to lean against that, until the pressure of the whole forces the corner of the table through the canvass of the first. The frame and glass of a fine print are to be cleaned i the spirit and oil used on this occasion are suffered to leak through and spoil the engraving ; no matter, if the glass is clean, and the frame shine, it is sufficient ; the rest is not worthy of con sideration. An able arithmetician has made an accurate calculation, founded on long ex perience, and has discovered, that the losses and destruction incident to two white-wash ings are equal to one removal, and three re movals equal to one fire. The cleaning frolic over, matters begin to resurae tbeir pristine appearance. The storm abates, and all would be well again, but it is irapossible that so great a convulsion, in so small a community, should not pro duce some farther effects. For two or three weeks after the operation, the family are usually afflicted with sore throats or sore eyes, occasioned by the caustic quality of the lime, or vvith severe colds from the exha lations of wet floors or darap walls. I know a gentleraan, who was fond of ac counting for every thing in a philosophical way. He considers this, which I have called a custom, as a real periodical dis ease, peculiar to the climate. His train of reasoning is ingenious and whimsical ; but I am not at leisure to give you a detail. The result was, that he found the distemper to be incurable ; but after much study, he conceived he had discovered a method to di vert the evil he could not subdue. For this purpose he caused a small building, about twelve feet square, to be erected in his gar den, and furnished with some ordinary chairs and tables ; and a few prints of the cheapest sort were hung against the walls. Hie hope was, that when the white-wash ing frenzy seized the feraales of his faraUy, they raight repair to this apartraent, and' scrub, and smear, and scour, to their heart's content ; and so spend the violence of the disease in this outpost, whUe he enjoyed himself in quiet at head-quarters. But the experiraent did not answer his expectation ; it was impossible it should, since a princi pal part of the gratification consists in the lady's having an uncontrolled right to tor ment her husband at least once a year, and 500 FRANKLIN'S WORKS. to turn hira out of doors, and take tbe reins of government into her own hands. There is a much belter contrivance than this of the philosopher ; which is, to cover the walls of the house with paper ; this is generally done, and though it cannot abo lish, it at least shortens, the period of female dorainion. The paper is decorated with flowers of various fancies, and raade so or namental, that the women have admitted the fashion without perceiving the design. There is also another alleviation of tbe husband's distress; he generally has the privilege of a small room or closet for his books and papers, the key of which he is allowed to keep. This is considered as a privileged place, and stands like the land of Goshen amid the^ plagues of Egypt But then he must be extremely cautious, and ever on his guard. For should he inadvert ently go abroad and leave the key in his door, the housemaid, who is always on the watch for such an opportunity, immediately enters in triumph with buckets, brooms, and brushes ; takes possession of the premises, and forthwith puts all his books and papers to rights : to his utter confusion, and some times serious detriment. For instance : A gentleraan was sued by the executors of a tradesraan, on a cbarge found against him in the deceased's books, to the amount of £30. The defendant was strongly im pressed with an idea that he had discharged the debt and taken a receipt ; but, as the transaction was of long standing, he knew not where to find the receipt The suit went on in course, and the time approached when judgraent would be obtained against hira. He then sat seriously down to examine a large bundle of old papers, wbich he had un tied and displayed on a table for that pur pose. In the midst of his search, he was suddenly called away on business of import ance ; he forgot to lock the door of his room. The house-maid, who had been long look ing out for such an opportunity, immediately entered with the usual implements, and with great alacrity fell to cleaning the room, and putting things torights. The first object that struck her eye was tbe confused situation of the papers on the table, these were without delay bundled together like so many dirty knives and forks ; but in the action a small piece of paper fell unnoticed on the floor, which happened to be the very receipt in question : as it had no very respectable ap pearance, it was soon after swept out with the coramon dirt ofthe room, and carried in a rubbish pan into the yard. The tradesman had neglected to enter the credit in his book ; the defendant could find nothing to obviate the charge, and so judgment went against him for the debt and costs. A fort night after tbe whole was settled, and the money paid, one of the children found the receipt among the rubbish in tbe yard. There is also another custom peculiar to the city of Philadelphia, and nearly allied to the former. I mean that of washing the pavement before tbe doors every Saturday evening. I at first took this to be a regula tion of the police ; but on a further inquiry find it is a religious rite, preparatory to the Sabbath ; and is, I believe, the only religious rite in which the numerous sectaries of this city perfectly agree. Tbe ceremony begins about sunset, and continues till about ten or eleven at night. It is very difficult for a stranger to walk the streets on those eve nings ; he runs a continual risk of having a bucket of dirty water thrown against his legs : but a Philadelphian born is so much accustomed to the danger, that he avoids it with surprising dexterity. It is from this circumstance that a Philadelphian may be known anywhere by his gait. The streets of New York are paved with rough stones ; these indeed are not washed, but the dirt is so thoroughly swept from before the doors, that the stones stand up sharp and promi nent, to tbe great inconvenience of those who are not accustoraed to so rough a path. But habit reconciles every thing. It is diverting enough to see a Philadelphian at New York ; he walks the streets with as much painful caution, as if his toes were covered with corns, or his feet lamed with the gout : while a New Yorker, as little approving the plain masonry of Philadelphia, shuffles along the pavement like a parrot on a mahogany table. It must be acknowledged, that the ablu tions I have raentioned are attended vvith no small inconvenience ; but the women would not be induced, from any consideration, to resign their privilege. Notwithstanding this, I can give you the strongest assurances, that the women of America make tbe most faith ful wives and the most attentive mothers in the world ; and I am sure you will join rae in opinion, that if a married man is made miserable only one week in a whole year, he will have no great cause lo complain of the matriraonial bond. I ara, &c. MISCELLANEOUS NOTES POLITICAL PUBLICATIONS PRIOR TO THE REVOLUTION, COLLECTED FROM THE AUTOGRAPH NOTES OF DB. FRANKLIN, AS MATERIALS FOR ARGUMENT OR REPLY. Hints for a Reply to the Protests of certain Members of the House of Lords against the Repeal of the Stamp Act. FIRST PROTEST. We have submitted to your laws, — no prosf of our acknowledgment of your power to make them; rather an acknowledgment of their reasonableness, or of our own weak ness. — Post-office eame as a raatter of utility, — was aided by the legislature. Mean to take advantage of our ignorance. Children should not be imposed on ; are not, even by honest shopkeepers. A great and magnani mous nation should disdain to govern by tricks and traps, that would disgrace a pet tifogging attorney. Settlement of the colonies stated. Par liament not consulted ; — not till after the restoration, except by rebel Parliaraent. — Anxious about preserving the sovereignty of this country ? Rather be so about pre serving the liberty. We shall be so about the liberty of America, that your posterity may have a free country to corae to, where they will be received with open arras. King, the sovereign, cannot take in his * In the ATHENiEUM at Philadelphia are raany vo lumes of pamphlets, which formerly belonged to Dr Franklin. Some of these are curious from the manu- script notes they contain in the margin. A few specimens have been selected for publication, both as having an historical interest, and as being peculiarly characteristic oftheir author. It should here also be observed, that the notes con tained in these pamphlets were penned at the very time when he was supposed, by some persons either unfriendly to his character or ignorant of his motives, to be secretly acting a part in England more accord ant to his private aims, than to the high duties of a true lover ofhis country. From the tone, temper, and substance of these notes, let the reader judge with what justice such suspicions have been entertained, and such insinuations hazarded to the public. As mere private records of his thoughts, prompted by the irapulse of the moment, without any design of their ever seeing the light, they must be admitted to reveal his true sentiments, and to exhibit the unbiassed work. ings ofhis mind. I'he above " Hints" are found in the margin of Dr. Franklin's printed copy ofthe Protests, written at the time (176G), from which it would appear that il was his intention to make a formal answer to these Pro. tests. This purpose, it is believed, was never exe cuted. Parliaraent; at least can give no greater power than he had hiraself. Corapliraent the lords. Not a wiser oi better body of raen on earth. The deep re spect irapressed on me by the instance 1 have been witness to of their justice. They have been misled byraisinformation. Proof of my opinion of their goodness, in the free dora wilh which I propose to exaraine their protests. The trust of taxing America was never reposed by the people of America in the le gislature of Great Britain. They had one kind of confidence, indeed, in that legisla ture, — that it would never atterapt to tax thera without their consent. The law was destructive of that confidence araong them. Other advantages of colonies besides com merce. Selfishness of comraercial views. The sovereignty of the crown I under stand . The sovereignty of the British legis lature out of Britain I do not understand. Tbe fear of being thought weak is a timi dity and weakness of the worst sort, as it be trays into a persisting in errors, that raay be rauch raore mischievous, than the appear ance of weakness. A great and powerful state, like this, has no cause for such timi dity. Acknowledging and correcting an error shows great raagnaniraity. Small states and small republics cannot afford to do so. America not in tbe realm of England or Great Britain 1 No raan in Araerica thinks himself exempt from the jurisdiction of the crown, and of the assemblies, or has any such private judgment. The agitation of the question of rights raakes it now necessary to settle a consti tution for the colonies. Restrictions should be only for the general good. Endeavour to convince reasonable creatures by reason. Try your hands with me. Never think of it. They are reason able creatures. Reasonable laws will not require force, 501 502 MEMOIRS OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. I observe two or three Scotch lords pro test. Many more voted against the repeal. Colonies settled before the union. Query; If the Parliament had a jurisdiction over the colonies by the first settlement, had they a right to introduce new legislators 1 Could they sell or commute the right with other na tions I Can they introduce the peers of Ire land and Comraons, and the States of Hol land, and make them legislators of the colo nies 1 How could Scotland acquire a right to legislation over English colonies, but by consent of the colonies theraselves t I am a subject of the crown of Great Bri tain, — have ever been a loyal one, — have partaken of its favours. 1 write here with freedom, relying on the magnanimity of Par liament. 1 say nothing to your lordships, that I have not been indulged to say to the Commons. Your lordships' names are to your Protest, therefore I think I ought to put mine to the answer. — Desire what I have said may not be iraputed to the colonies. I am a private person, and do not write by their direction. I am over here to solicit, in be half of my colony, a closer communication with the crown. SECOND PROTEST. Talk with BoUan on this hfead. Query ; Courts of common law? Particular colo nies drained, — all drained, as it would all come home. Those, that would pay most of the tax, would have least of it spent at horae. Itmust go to the conquered colonies. The view of maps deceives. All breach of the constitution. Juries bet ter be trusted. Have rather an interest in suppressing smugglers. Nature of smug gling. It is picking of pockets. All oppres sions take their rise from some plea of utUity ; often in appearance only. The clamour of multitudes. It is good to attend to it. It is wiser to foresee and avoid it. It is wise, when neither foreseen nor avoided, to correct the measures that give oc casion to it. Glad the majority have that wisdom. Wish your lordships had attended to that other great article of the palladium ; " Taxes shall not be laid but by common consent in Parliament." We Americans were not here to give our consent My duty to the king, and justice to my country, will, I hope, justify me, if I like wise protest, which I now do with all hu mility in behalf of myself and of every American, and ofour posterity, against your Declaratory Bill, that the Parliament of Great Britain has not, never had, and of right never can have, without consent, given either before or after, power to make laws of suffi cient force to bind the subjects in America in any case whatever, and particularly in taxation. I can only judge of others by rayself. I have some little property in -America. 1 will freely spend nineteen shillings in tbe pound to defend my right of giving or refusing the other shilling ; and, after all, if 1 cannot de fend that right, I can retire cheerftiUy with my little family into the boundless woods of America, which are sure to afford freedom and subsistence to any man, who can bait a hook, or pull a trigger. OBSERVATIONS PASSAGES IN A PAMPHLET ENTITLED " GOOD HUMOUR, OR A WAY WITH THE COLONIES.— LONDON 1766.'" " The reply of the Governor of Massachu setts to the assembly's answer is in tbe same consistent style ; and affords still a stronger proof, as weU as of bis own ingenuity, honour, and integrity, as of the furious and enthusiastic spirit (if tbe province." They knew the governor to be, as it after- * Tlic passages included within quotation marks are extracts from the pamphlet, and the sentence fol lowing each contains Dr. Franklin's observations. ward's turned out, their eneray and calum niator in private letters to government here. " It had been more becoming tbe state of the colonics, always dear to Britain, and ever che rished and defended by it, to have remonstrated in terms of filial duty and obedience." How ignorant is this writer of facts ! How many oftheir remonstrances were rejected ! " They must give us leave in our turn to ex- MISCELLANEOUS. 503 cept against their demonstration of legal exemp tion." There never was any occasion of legal exemption frora what they never had been subject to. " But then it is to be further observed, that this same method of arguing is equally favour- •able to governors as governed, and to tbe mother country as tbe colonies." Here is the old raistake of all these wri ters. The people of the mother country are subjects, not governors. The king only is sovereign in both countries. " The colonies will no longer think it equita ble to insist upon immunities which the people of Great Britain do not enjoy." Why not, if they have a right to them 1 "To claim a right of being taxed by their assemblies only, appears to have too much the air of independence ; and though they are not represented here, would give them an immunity beyond tbe inhabitants of this island." It is a right, however ; what signifies what air it has ? The inhabitants being freeholders ought to have the sarae. If they have it not, they are injured. Then rectify what is araiss araong yourselves ; and do not make it a justification of raore wrong. " Or could they hope to procure any advan tages from one hundred representatives 1 Com mon sense answers all this in tbe negative." Why not, as well as Scotland from forty- five, or rather sixty-one? Coramon sense, on the contrary, says, that a body of one hun dred votes in Parliaraent will always be worth the attention of any ministry ; and the fear of offending them will raake every min ister cautious of injuring the rights of their country, lest they join with his opposers in Parliament. " Therefore the interest of Great Britain and that of the colonies is the same." All this argument of the interest of Britain and the colonies being the same is fallacious and unsatisfactory. Partners in trade have a common interest, whicb is the same, the flourishing of tbe partnership business ; but they may, moreover, have each a separate interest, and, in pursuit of that separate in terest, one of them may endeavour to impose on the other, may cheat him in the accounts, may draw to himself more than his share of the profits, may put upon the other more than an equal share of the expense and burden. Their having a common interest is no security against such injustice. The landholders of Great Britain have a common interest, and yet they injure one another in tbe inequality of the land tax. The majority in Parlia ment, being favoured in the proportions, will never consent to do justice to the mi nority by a more equal assessment. " But what reasonable ground of apprehen sion can there be, that the British ParUament should be ignorant of so plain a matter, as that the interests of Britain and the colonies are tbe sameV If the Parliament is so knowing and so just, how comes it to restrain Ireland in its manufactures, America in its trade ? Why may not an Irishman or an American make the same manufactures, and carry them to the same ports as an Englishman ? In many instances Britain shows a selfish regard to her own interest, in prejudice of the colo nies. America therefore has no confidence in her equity. " But I can conceive no earthly security bet ter, none indeed so good, as that which depends upon the wisdom and integrity of a British king and Parliament." Suppose seats in your House of Commons hereditary, as those of the House of Lords ; or suppose the Commons to be nominated by tbe king, or chosen by the lords ; could you then rely upon them ? If your members were to be chosen by the people of Ireland, could you then rely upon thera 1 Could you depend upon their wisdom and integrity, as a security, the best possible, for your rights 1 And wherein is our case different, if tbe peo ple of England choose legislators for the people of America ? " If tbey have a spark of virtue left, tbey wUl blush to be found in a posture of hostility against Great Britain." There was no posture of hostility in Ame rica, but Britain put herself in a posture of hostility against America. Witness tbe landing ofthe troops in Boston, 1768. 504 MEMOIRS OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. OBSERVATIONS PASSAGES IN " A LETTER FROM A MERCHANT IN LONDON TO HIS NEPHEW IN NORTH AMERICA.— LONDON, 1766." " The honest indignation you express against tbose artifices and frauds, those robberies and in sults, which lost us the hearts and affections of the Indians, is particularly to be commended ; for these were the things, as you justly observed, which involved us in tbe most bloody and ex pensive war that ever was known." This is wickedly intended by the author. Dean Tucker, to represent the North Arae ricans as the cause of the war. Whereas, it was in fact begun by the French, who seized the goods and persons ofthe English traders on the Ohio, who encroached on the king's land in Nova Scotia, and took a fort from the Ohio Company by force of arms, which induced England to make reprisals at sea, and to send Braddock to recover the fort on the Ohio, whence came on the war. " By the spirit of Magna Charta all taxes laid on by Parliament are constitutional, legal taxes." There is no doubt but taxes laid by Par liaraent, where the Parliament has jurisdic tion, are legal taxes ; but does it follow, that taxes laid by the Parliament of England on Scotland before the union, on Guernsey, Jersey, Ireland, Hanover, or any other do minions of the crown, not within the realm, are therefore legal 1 These writers against the colonies all bewilder theraselves by sup posing the colonies within the realm, which is not the case, nor ever was. This then is the spirit of the constitution, that taxes shall not be laid without the consent of those to be taxed. The colonies were not then in being, and therefore nothing relating to them could be literally expressed. As the Ameri cans are now without the realm, and not of the jurisdiction of Parliament, the spirit of the British constitution dictates, that they should be taxed only by their own represen tatives, as the English are by theirs. " Now the first emigrants, who settled in America, were certainly English subjects, sub ject to the laws and jurisdiction of Parliament, and consequently to parUamenlary taxes, before the emigration, and therefore subject afterwards, unless some legal constituUonal exemption can be produced." This position supposes, that Englishmen can never be out of the jurisdiction of Parlia ment. It may as well be said, that wher ever an Englishman resides, that country is England. While an Englishman resides in England, he is undoubtedly subject to its laws. If he goes into a foreign country, he is subject to the laws and government he finds there. If he finds no government or laws there, he is subject there to none, till he and his companions, if be has any, make laws for themselves ; and this was the case of the first settlers in America. Otherwise, and if they carried tbe English laws and power of Parliament with them, what advan tage could tbe Puritans propose to them selves by going, since they would have been as subject to bishops, spiritual courts, tythes, and statutes relating to the church, in Ame rica, as in England ? Can the dean, on his principles, tell how it happens that those laws, the game acts, the statutes for labour ers, and an infinity of others, made before and since the emigration, are not in force in force in America, nor ever were ? " Now, upon tbe first settling of an English colony, and before ever you Americans could have chosen any representatives, and therefore before any assembly of such representatives could have possibly met, — to whose laws and to what legislative power were you then subject ? To tbe EngHsh, most undoubtedly ; for you could have been subject to no otber." The author here appears quite ignorant of the fact. The colonies carried no law with thera ; they carried only a power of making laws, or adopting such parts of the Eng lish law or any other law, as they should think suitable to their circumstances. The first settlers of Connecticut, for instance, at their first meeting in that country, finding themselves out of all jurisdiction of other governments, resolved and enacted, that, till a code of laws should be prepared and agreed to, they would be governed by the law of Moses, as contained in the Old Testament. If the first settlers had no right to expect a better constitution than the English, what fools were tbey for going over, to encounter all the hardships and perils of new settle raents in a wilderness ! For these were so raany additions to what they suffered at horae frora tyrannical and oppressive insti tutions in church and state ; with a subtrac- MISCELLANEOUS. 505 tion of all their old enjoyraents of the con veniences and coraforts of an old settled country, friends, neighbours, relations, and homes. "Suppose, therefore, that tbe crown had been so ill advised as to have granted a charter to any city or county here in England, pretend ing to exempt them from the poioer and juris diction of an British ParUament. Is it possi ble for you to believe an absurdity so gross and glaring V The Araerican settlers needed no exemption frora the power of Parliament ; they were ne cessarily exempted, as soon as they landed out of its jurisdiction. Therefore, all this rhetorical paragraph is founded on a mistake of the author, and the absurdity he talks of is of bis own raaking. " Good heavens I what a sudden alteration is this I An American pleading for the exten sion of tbe prerogative of the crown I Yes, if it could make for his cause ; and for extending it, too, beyond all the bounds of the law, of rea son, and of common sense !" What stuff! Why raay not an Araerican plead for the just prerogatives of the crown % And is it not a just prerogative of the crown to give the subjects leave to settle in a for eign country, if they think it necessary to ask such leave ? Was the Parliament at all considered, or consulted, in raaking those first settleraents ? Or did any lawyer then think it necessary ? " Now this clause, wbich is nothing more than the renunciation of absolute prerogative, is quoted in our newspapers, as if it was a renun ciation of tbe rights of Parliament to raise taxes." It was not a renunciation of the rights of Parliaraent. There was no need of such a renunciation, for Parliament had not even pretended to such a right. But, since the royal faith was pledged by the king for himself and his successors, how can any suc ceeding king, without violating that faith, ever give his assent to an act of Parliament for such taxation. " Nay, many of your colony charters assert quite the contrary, by containing the express reservations of parUamentary rights, particularly that great one of levying taxes." A fib, Mr. Dean. In one charter only, and that a late one, is the Parliaraent raentioned ; and the right reserved is only that of laying duties on comraodities imported into Eng land frora the colony or exported to it. " And those charters, which do not make such provisions in express terms, must be supposed virtually to imply them ; because tbe law and constitution wiU not allow, that tbe king can do more either at home or abroad by tbe prero gative royal, than the law and constitution authorizes him to do." Vol. il 3 S 43 Suppositions and implications will not weigh in these important cases. No law or constitution forbade the king's doing what he did in granting those charters. " Confuted, most undoubtedly, you are beyond the possibility of a reply, as far as the law and constitution of tbe realm are concerned in this question." This is hallooing before you are out of the wood. " Strange, that though the British Parliament has been, from tbe beginning, thus unreasonable, thus unjust and cruel towards you, by levying taxes on many commodities outwards and in wards" — False ! Never before the restoration. The Parliament, it is acknowledged, have made many oppressive laws relating to Araerica, which have passed with out opposition, partly through the weakness of the colonies, partly through their inattention to the full extent of their rights, while eraployed in labour to procure the necessaries of life. But that is a wicked guardian, and a shameless one, who first takes advantage of the weakness incident to minority, cheats and imposes on his pupil, and when the pupil comes of age, urges those very impositions as precedents to justify continuing thera and adding others. " But surely you will not dare to say, that we refuse your votes when you come hither to offer them, and choose to poll. You cannot have the face to assert that on an election-day any difference is put between tbe vote of a man bom in America, and of one born here in Eng land." This is all banter and insult, when you know the impossibility of a million of free^ holders coming over sea to vote here. If their freeholds in America are within the realm, why have they not, in virtue of these freeholds, a right to vote in your elections, as well as an English freeholder? Sometimes we are told, that our estates are by our char ters all in the manor of East Greenwich, and therefore all in England ; and yet have we any right to vote araong the voters of East Greenwich? Can we trade to the same ports ? In this very paragraph, you suppose that we cannot vote in England, if we come hither, till we have by purchase acquired a right; therefore neither we nor our estates are represented in England. " The cause of your complaint is this ; that you live at too great a distance from tbe mother country to be present at our English elections ; and that, in consequence of this distance, the freedom of our towns, or the freeholds in our counties, as far as voting is concerned, are not worth attending to. It may be so ; but pray consider, if you yourselves choose to make it inconvenient for you to come and vote, by re- 506 MEMOIRS OP BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. tiring into distant countries, — what is that to usl" This is all beside the mark. The Ame ricans are by their constitutions provided with a representation, and therefore neither need nor desire any in the British Parlia ment. They have never asked any such thing. They only say, Since we have a right to grant our own money to tbe king, since we have assemblies where we are represented for such purposes, why wUl you meddle, out of your sphere, take the money that is ours, and give us yours, without our consent ? " Yes, it is, and you demand it too with a loud voice, full of anger, of defiance, and de nunciation." An absolute falsehood ! We never de manded in any manner, much less in the manner you mention, that the mother coun try should change her constitution. " In the greal metropolis, and in many other cities, landed property itself bath no representa tive in Parliament Copy-holds and lease-holds of various kinds have none Ukewise, though of ever so great a value." Copy-holds and lease-holds are supposed to be represented in the original landlord of whom they are held. Thus all the land in England is in fact represented, notwith standing what he here says. As to those who have no landed property in a county, the allowing them to vote for legislators is an impropriety. They are transient inhabi tants, and not so connected with the welfare of the state, which they raay quit when they please, as to qualify thera properly for such privilege. " And, besides all this, it is well known that the East India Company, which have sucb vast settlements, and which dispose of tbe fate of kings and kingdoms abroad, have not so much as a single member, or even a single vote, quaienus a company, to watch over their inte rests at home. And may not their property, perhaps a little short of one hundred millions sterling, as much deserve to be represented in ParUament, as tbe scattered townships or strag gling houses of some of your provinces in America? " By this argument it raay be proved, that no raan in England has a vote. The clergy have none as clergyraen ; the lawyers, none as lawyers ; the physicians, none as physi cians; and so on. But if they have votes as freeholders, that is sufficient ; and that no freeholder in America has for a repre sentative in the British Parliament. The stockholders are raany of thera foreigners, and all raay be so when they please, as no thing is more easy than the transferring of stock and conveying property beyond sea by biUs of exchange. Such uncertain sub jects are, therefore, not properly vested with rights relating to government. "Yet we raise no commotions; we neither ring the alarm-bell, nor sound tbe trum pet, and submit to be taxed without being repre sented ; and taxed, let me tell you, for your sakes. All was granted when you cried for help." This is wickedly false. While the colo nies were weak and poor, not a penny or a single soldier was ever spared by Britain for their defence. But as soon as the trade with them became an object, and a fear arose that the French would seize that trade and deprive her of it, she sent troops to America unasked. And she now brings this account of the expense against us, which should be rather carried to her own merchants and manufacturers. We joined our troops and treasure with hers to help her in this war. Of this no notice is taken. To refuse to pay a just debt is knavish ; not to return an obligation is ingratitude ; but to demand payment of a debt where none has been contracted, to forge a bond or an obligation in order to deraand what was never due, is vUlany. Every year both king and Parliament, during the war, ac knowledged that we had done more than our part, and made us some return, which is equivalent to a receipt in full, and en tirely sets aside this monstrous claim. By all means redress your own grievances. If you are not just to your own people, how can we trust you ? We ask no representa tion among you ; but if you have any thing wrong among yourselves, rectify it, and do not make one injustice a precedent and plea for doing another. That would be increas ing evil in the world instead of diminish ing it. You need not be concerned about the number to be added from America. We do not desire to come among you; bul you may raake sortie roora for your own addi tional members, by removing those that are sent by tbe rotten boroughs. " I must now tell you, that every member of Parliament represents you, and me, and our interests in all essential points, just as much as if wc had voted for him. For although one place or one set of men may elect and send him up to Parliament, yet when once he becomes a member, he is tlie equal guardian of all." In the sarae raanner, Mr. Dean, are the pope and cardinals representatives of the whole Christian church. Why don't you obey them ? " This, then, being the case, it therefore fol lows, that our Birminghams, Mancbesters, Leeds, Halifaxes, * ,' .% w ^rf iSt^i.!))^ .. ?ii-'%..