The works of Dr. Franklin have been often partially collected, never before brought together in one uniform publication.

The first collection was made by Mr. Peter Collinson in the year 1751. It consisted of letters, communicated by the author to the editor, on one subject, electricity, and formed a pamphlet only, of which the price was half-a-crown. It was enlarged in 1752, by a second communication on the same subject, and in 1754, by a third, till, in 1766, by the addition of letters and papers on other philosophical subjects, it amounted to a quarto volume of 500 pages.

Ten years after, in 1779, another collection was made, by a different editor, in one volume, printed both in quarto and octavo, of papers not contained in the preceding collection, under the title of Political, Miscellaneous, and Philosophical Pieces.

In 1787, a third collection appeared in a thin octavo volume, entitled Philosophical and Miscellaneous Papers.

And lastly, in 1793, a fourth was published, in two volumes, crown octavo, consisting of Memoirs of Dr. Franklin's Life, and Essays humourous, moral and literary, chiefly in the Manner of the Spectator.

In the present volumes will be found all the different collections we have enumerated, together with the various papers of the same author, that have been published in separate pamphlets, or inserted in foreign collections of his works, or in the Transactions of our own or of foreign philosophical societies, or in our own or foreign newspapers and magazines, as far as discoverable by the editor, who has been assisted in the research by a gentleman in America. Among these papers some, we conceive, will be new to the English reader on this side of the Atlantic; particularly a series of essays entitled The Busy-Body, written, as Dr. Franklin tells us in his Life, when he was an assiduous imitator of Addison; and a pamphlet, entitled Plain Truth, with which he is said to have commenced his political career as a writer. We hoped to have been enabled to add, what would have been equally new, and still more acceptable, a genuine copy of the Life of our author, as written by himself; but in this hope we are disappointed, and we are in consequence obliged to content ourselves with a translation, which has been already before the public, from a copy in the French language, coming no farther down than the year 1731; and a continuation of his history from that period, by the late Dr. Stuber of Philadelphia.

The character of Dr. Franklin, as a philosopher, a politician, and a moralist, is too well known to require illustration, and his writings, from their interesting nature, and the fascinating simplicity of their style, are too highly esteemed, for any apology to be necessary for so large a collection of them, unless it should be deemed necessary by the individual to whom Dr. Franklin in his will consigned his manuscripts: and to him our apology will consist in a reference to his own extraordinary conduct.

In bequeathing his papers, it was no doubt the intention of the testator, that the world should have the chance of being benefited by their publication. It was so understood by the person in question, his grandson, who, accordingly, shortly after the death of his great relative, hastened to London, the best mart for literary property, employed an amanuensis for many months in copying, ransacked our public libraries that nothing might escape, and at length had so far prepared the works of Dr. Franklin for the press, that proposals were made by him to several of our principal booksellers for the sale of them. They were to form three quarto volumes, and were to contain all the writings, published and unpublished, of Franklin, with Memoirs of his Life, brought down by himself to the year 1757, and continued to his death by the legatee. They were to be published in three different languages, and the countries corresponding to those languages, France, Germany, and England, on the same day. The terms asked for the copyright of the English edition were high, amounting to several thousand pounds, which occasioned a little demur; but eventually they would no doubt have been obtained. Nothing more however was heard of the proposals or the work, in this its fair market. The proprietor, it seems, had found a bidder of a different description in some emissary of government, whose object was to withhold the manuscripts from the world, not to benefit it by their publication; and they thus either passed into other hands, or the person to whom they were bequeathed received a remuneration for suppressing them. This at least has been asserted, by a variety of persons, both in this country and America, of whom some were at the time intimate with the grandson, and not wholly unacquainted with the machinations of the ministry; and the silence, which has been observed for so many years respecting the publication, gives additional credibility to the report.

What the manuscripts contained, that should have excited the jealousy of government, we are unable, as we have never seen them, positively to affirm; but, from the conspicuous part acted by the author in the American revolution and the wars connected with it, it is by no means difficult to guess; and of this we are sure, from his character, that no disposition of his writings could have been more contrary to his intentions or wishes.

We have only to add, that in the present collection, which is probably all that will ever be published of the works of this extraordinary man, the papers are methodically arranged, the moral and philosophical ones according to their subjects, the political ones, as nearly as may be, according to their dates; that we have given, in notes, the authorities for ascribing the different pieces to Franklin; that where no title existed, to indicate the nature of a letter or paper, we have prefixed a title; and lastly, that we have compiled an index to the whole, which is placed at the beginning, instead of, as is usual, at the end of the work, to render the volumes more equal.

April 7, 1806.