Among those whose contributions to physics have immortalized their names in the annals of science, there is none that holds a more prominent position in the history of the world than Benjamin Franklin. At one time a journeyman printer, living in obscure lodgings in London, he became, during the American War of Independence, one of the most conspicuous figures in Europe, and among Americans his reputation was probably second to none, General Washington not excepted.

Professor Laboulaye says of Franklin: "No one ever started from a lower point than the poor apprentice of Boston. No one ever raised himself higher by his own unaided forces than the inventor of the lightning-rod. No one has rendered greater service to his country than the diplomatist who signed the treaty of 1783, and assured the independence of the United States. Better than the biographies of Plutarch, this life, so long and so well filled, is a source of perpetual instruction to all men. Every one can there find counsel and example."

A great part of the history of his life was written by Franklin himself, at first for the edification of the members of his own family, and afterwards at the pressing request of some of his friends in London and Paris. His autobiography does not, however, comprise much more than the first fifty years of his life. The first part was written while he was the guest of the Bishop of St. Asaph, at Twyford; the second portion at Passy, in the house of M. de Chaumont; and the last part in Philadelphia, when he was retiring from public life at the age of eighty-two. The former part of this autobiography was translated into French, and published in Paris, in 1793, though it is not known how the manuscript came into the publisher's hands. The French version was translated into English, and published in England and America, together with such other of Franklin's works as could be collected, before the latter part was given to the world by Franklin's grandson, to whom he had bequeathed his papers, and who first published them in America in 1817.

For a period of three hundred years at least Franklin's family lived on a small freehold of about thirty acres, in the village of Ecton, in Northamptonshire, the eldest son, who inherited the property, being always brought up to the trade of a smith. Franklin himself "was the youngest son of the youngest son for five generations back." His grandfather lived at Ecton till he was too old to follow his business, when he went to live with his second son, John, who was a dyer at Banbury. To this business Franklin's father, Josiah, was apprenticed. The eldest son, Thomas, was brought up a smith, but afterwards became a solicitor; the other son, Benjamin, was a silk-dyer, and followed Josiah to America. He was fond of writing poetry and sermons. The latter he wrote in a shorthand of his own inventing, which he taught to his nephew and namesake, in order that he might utilize the sermons if, as was proposed, he became a Presbyterian minister. Franklin's father, Josiah, took his wife and three children to New England, in 1682, where he practised the trade of a tallow-chandler and soap-boiler. Franklin was born in Boston on January 6 (O.S.), 1706, and was the youngest of seventeen children, of whom thirteen grew up and married.

Benjamin being the youngest of ten sons, his father intended him for the service of the Church, and sent him to the grammar school when eight years of age, where he continued only a year, although he made very rapid progress in the school; for his father concluded that he could not afford the expense of a college education, and at the end of the year removed him to a private commercial school. At the age of ten young Benjamin was taken home to assist in cutting the wicks of candles, and otherwise to make himself useful in his father's business. His enterprising character as a boy is shown by the following story, which is in his own words:—

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

Until twelve years of age Benjamin continued in his father's business, but as he manifested a great dislike for it, and his parents feared that he might one day run away to sea, they set about finding some trade which would be more congenial to his tastes. With this view his father took him to see various artificers at their work, that he might observe the tastes of the boy. This experience was very valuable to him, as it taught him to do many little jobs for himself when workmen could not readily be procured. During this time Benjamin spent most of his pocket-money in purchasing books, some of which he sold when he had read them, in order to buy others. He read through most of the books in his father's very limited library. These mainly consisted of works on theological controversy, which Franklin afterwards considered to have been not very profitable to him.

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

At length Franklin's fondness for books caused his father to decide to make him a printer. His brother James had already entered that business, and had set up in Boston with a new press and types which he had brought from England. He signed his indentures when only twelve years old, thereby apprenticing himself to his brother until he should attain the age of twenty-one. The acquaintance which he formed with booksellers through the printing business enabled him to borrow a better class of books than he had been accustomed to, and he frequently sat up the greater part of the night to read a book which he had to return in the morning.

While working with his brother, the young apprentice wrote two ballads, which he printed and sold in the streets of Boston. His father, however, ridiculed the performance; so he "escaped being a poet." He adopted at this time a somewhat original method to improve his prose writing. Meeting with an odd volume of the Spectator, he purchased it and read it "over and over," and wished to imitate the style. "Making short notes of the sentiment in each sentence," he laid them by, and afterwards tried to write out the papers without looking at the original. Then on comparison he discovered his faults and corrected them. Finding his vocabulary deficient, he turned some of the tales into verse, then retranslated them into prose, believing that the attempt to make verses would necessitate a search for several words of the same meaning. "I also sometimes jumbled my collection of hints into confusion, and after some weeks endeavoured to reduce them into the best order, before I began to form the full sentence and complete the paper. This was to teach me method in the arrangement of my thoughts."

Meeting with a book on vegetarianism, Franklin determined to give the system a trial. This led to some inconvenience in his brother's house-keeping, so Franklin proposed to board himself if his brother would give him half the sum he paid for his board, and out of this he was able to save a considerable amount for the purpose of buying books. Moreover, the time required for meals was so short that the dinner hour afforded considerable leisure for reading. It was on his journey from Boston to Philadelphia that he first violated vegetarian principles; for, a large cod having been caught by the sailors, some small fishes were found in its stomach, whereupon Franklin argued that if fishes ate one another, there could be no reason against eating them, so he dined on cod during the rest of the journey.

After reading Xenophon's "Memorabilia," Franklin took up strongly with the Socratic method of discussion, and became so "artful and expert in drawing people, even of superior knowledge, into concessions, the consequence of which they did not foresee," that some time afterwards one of his employers, before answering the most simple question, would frequently ask what he intended to infer from the answer. This practice he gradually gave up, retaining only the habit of expressing his opinions with "modest diffidence."

In 1720 or 1721 James Franklin began to print a newspaper, the New England Courant. To this paper, which he helped to compose and print, Benjamin became an anonymous contributor. The members of the staff spoke highly of his contributions, but when the authorship became known, James appears to have conceived a jealousy of his younger brother, which ultimately led to their separation. An article in the paper having offended the Assembly, James was imprisoned for a month and forbidden to print the paper. He then freed Benjamin from his indentures, in order that the paper might be published in his name. At length, some disagreement arising, Benjamin took advantage of the cancelling of his indentures to quit his brother's service. As he could get no employment in Boston, he obtained a passage to New York, whence he was recommended to go to Philadelphia, which he reached after a very troublesome journey. His whole stock of cash then consisted of a Dutch dollar and about a shilling's worth of coppers. The coppers he gave to the boatmen with whom he came across from Burlington. His first appearance in Philadelphia, about eight o'clock on a Sunday morning, was certainly striking. A youth between seventeen and eighteen years of age, dressed in his working clothes, which were dirty through his journey, with his pockets stuffed out with stockings and shirts, his aspect was not calculated to command respect.

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

In Philadelphia Franklin obtained an introduction, through a gentleman he had met at New York, to a printer, named Keimer, who had just set up business with an old press which he appeared not to know how to use, and one pair of cases of English type. Here Franklin obtained employment when the business on hand would permit, and he put the press in order and worked it. Keimer obtained lodgings for him at the house of Mr. Read, and, by industry and economical living, Franklin found himself in easy circumstances. Sir William Keith was then Governor of Pennsylvania, and hearing of Franklin, he called upon him at Keimer's printing-office, invited him to take wine at a neighbouring tavern, and promised to obtain for him the Government printing if he would set up for himself. It was then arranged that Franklin should return to Boston by the first ship, in order to see what help his father would give towards setting him up in business. In the mean while he was frequently invited to dine at the governor's house. Notwithstanding Sir William Keith's recommendation, Josiah Franklin thought his son too young to take the responsibility of a business, and would only promise to assist him if, when he was twenty-one, he had himself saved sufficient to purchase most of the requisite plant. On his return to Philadelphia, he delivered his father's letter to Sir William Keith, whereon the governor, stating that he was determined to have a good printer there, promised to find the means of equipping the printing-office himself, and suggested the desirability of Franklin's making a journey to England in order to purchase the plant. He promised letters of introduction to various persons in England, as well as a letter of credit to furnish the money for the purchase of the printing-plant. These letters Franklin was to call for, but there was always some excuse for their not being ready. At last they were to be sent on board the ship, and Franklin, having gone on board, awaited the letters. When the governor's despatches came, they were all put into a bag together, and the captain promised to let Franklin have his letters before landing. On opening the bag off Plymouth, there were no letters of the kind promised, and Franklin was left without introductions and almost without money, to make his own way in the world. In London he learned that Governor Keith was well known as a man in whom no dependence could be placed, and as to his giving a letter of credit, "he had no credit to give."

A friend of Franklin's, named Ralph, accompanied him from America, and the two took lodgings together in Little Britain at three shillings and sixpence per week. Franklin immediately obtained employment at Palmer's printing-office, in Bartholomew Close; but Ralph, who knew no trade, but aimed at literature, was unable to get any work. He could not obtain employment, even among the law stationers as a copying clerk, so for some time the wages which Franklin earned had to support the two. At Palmer's Franklin was employed in composing Wollaston's "Religion of Nature." On this he wrote a short critique, which he printed. it was entitled "A Dissertation on Liberty and Necessity, Pleasure and Pain." The publication of this he afterwards regretted, but it obtained for him introductions to some literary persons in London. Subsequently he left Palmer's and obtained work at Watts's printing-office, where he remained during the rest of his stay in London. The beer-drinking capabilities of some of his fellow-workmen excited his astonishment. He says:—

We had an alehouse boy who attended always in the house to supply the workmen. My companion at the press drank every day a pint before breakfast, a pint at breakfast with his bread and cheese, a pint between breakfast and dinner, a pint at dinner, a pint in the afternoon about six o'clock, and another when he had done his day's work. I thought it a detestable custom, but it was necessary, he suppos'd, to drink strong beer, that he might be strong to labour. I endeavoured to convince him that the bodily strength afforded by beer could only be in proportion to the grain or flour of the barley dissolved in the water of which it was made; that there was more flour in a pennyworth of bread; and therefore, if he would eat that with a pint of water, it would give him more strength than a quart of beer. He drank on, however, and had four or five shillings to pay out of his wages every Saturday night for that muddling liquor; an expense I was free from. And thus these poor devils keep themselves always under.

Afterwards Franklin succeeded in persuading several of the compositors to give up "their muddling breakfast of beer and bread and cheese," for a porringer of hot-water gruel, with pepper, breadcrumbs, and butter, which they obtained from a neighbouring house at a cost of three halfpence.

Among Franklin's fellow-passengers from Philadelphia to England was an American merchant, a Mr. Denham, who had formerly been in business in Bristol, but failed and compounded with his creditors. He then went to America, where he soon acquired a fortune, and returned in Franklin's ship. He invited all his old creditors to dine with him. At the dinner each guest found under his plate a cheque for the balance which had been due to him, with interest to date. This gentleman always remained a firm friend to Franklin, who, during his stay in London, sought his advice when any important questions arose. When Mr. Denham returned to Philadelphia with a quantity of merchandise, he offered Franklin an appointment as clerk, which was afterwards to develop into a commission agency. The offer was accepted, and, after a voyage of nearly three months, Franklin reached Philadelphia on October 11, 1726. Here he found Governor Keith had been superseded by Major Gordon, and, what was of more importance to him, that Miss Read, to whom he had become engaged before leaving for England, and to whom he had written only once during his absence, had married. Shortly after starting in business, Mr. Denham died, and thus left Franklin to commence life again for himself. Keimer had by this time obtained a fairly extensive establishment, and employed a number of hands, but none of them were of much value; and he made overtures to Franklin to take the management of his printing-office, apparently with the intention of getting his men taught their business, so that he might afterwards be able to dispense with the manager. Franklin set the printing-house in order, started type-founding, made the ink, and, when necessary, executed engravings. As the other hands improved under his superintendence, Keimer began to treat his manager less civilly, and apparently desired to curtail his stipend. At length, through an outbreak of temper on the part of Keimer, Franklin left, but was afterwards induced to return in order to prepare copper-plates and a press for printing paper money for New Jersey.

While working for Keimer, Franklin formed a club, which was destined to exert considerable influence on American politics. The club met on Friday evenings, and was called the Junto. It was essentially a debating society, the subject for each evening's discussion being proposed at the preceding meeting. One of the rules was that the existence of the club should remain a secret, and that its members should be limited to twelve. Afterwards other similar clubs were formed by its members; but the existence of the Junto was kept a secret from them. The club lasted for about forty years, and became the nucleus of the American Philosophical Society, of which Franklin was the first president. This, and the fact that many of the great questions that arose previously to the Declaration of Independence were discussed in the Junto in the first instance, give to the club a special importance. The following are specimens of subjects discussed by the club:—

"Is sound an entity or body?"

"How may the phenomena of vapours be explained?"

"Is self-interest the rudder that steers mankind, the universal monarch to whom all are tributaries?"

"Which is the best form of government? and what was that form which first prevailed among mankind?"

"Can any one particular form of government suit all mankind?"

"What is the reason that the tides rise higher in the Bay of Fundy than the Bay of Delaware?"

"Is the emission of paper money safe?"

"What is the reason that men of the greatest knowledge are not the most happy?"

"How may 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 philosophy to eradicate the passions."

"How may smoky chimneys be best cured?"

"Why does the flame of a candle tend upwards in a spire?"

"Which is least criminal—a bad action joined with a good intention, or a good action with a bad intention?"

"Is it consistent with the principles of liberty in a free government to punish a man as a libeller when he speaks the truth?"

On leaving Keimer's, Franklin went into partnership with one of his fellow-workmen, Hugh Meredith, whose father found the necessary capital, and a printing-office was started which soon excelled its two rivals in Philadelphia. Franklin's industry attracted the attention of the townsfolk, and inspired the merchants with confidence in the prospects of the new concern. Keimer started a newspaper, which he had not the ability to carry on; Franklin purchased it from him for a trifle, remodelled it, and continued it in a very spirited manner under the title of the Pennsylvania Gazette. His political articles soon attracted the attention of the principal men of the state; the number of subscribers increased rapidly, and the paper became a source of considerable profit. Soon after, the printing for the House of Representatives came into the hands of the firm. Meredith never took to the business, and was seldom sober, and at length was bought out by his partner, on July 14, 1730. The discussion in the Junto on paper currency induced Franklin to publish a paper entitled "The Nature and Necessity of a Paper Currency." This was a prominent subject before the House, but the introduction of paper money was opposed by the capitalists. They were unable, however, to answer Franklin's arguments; the point was carried in the House, and Franklin was employed to print the money. The amount of paper money in Pennsylvania in 1739 amounted to £80,000; during the war it rose to more than £350,000.

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

On September 1, 1730, Franklin married his former fiancÉe, whose previous husband had left her and was reported to have died in the West Indies. The marriage was a very happy one, and continued over forty years, Mrs. Franklin living until the end of 1774. Industry and frugality reigned in the household of the young printer. Mrs. Franklin not only managed the house, but assisted in the business, folding and stitching pamphlets, and in other ways making herself useful. The first part of Franklin's autobiography concludes with an account of the foundation of the first subscription library. By the co-operation of the members of the Junto, fifty subscribers were obtained, who each paid in the first instance forty shillings, and afterwards ten shillings per annum. "We afterwards obtained a charter, the company being increased to one hundred. This was the mother of all the North American subscription libraries, now so numerous. It is become a great thing itself, and continually increasing. These libraries have improved the general conversation of the Americans, made the common tradesmen and farmers as intelligent as most gentlemen from other countries, and perhaps have contributed in some degree to the stand so generally made throughout the colonies in defence of their privileges."

Ten years ago this library contained between seventy and eighty thousand volumes.

Franklin's success in business was attributed by him largely to his early training. "My circumstances, however, grew daily easier. My original habits of frugality continuing, and my father having, among his instructions to me when a boy, frequently repeated a proverb of Solomon, 'Seest thou a man diligent in his business? he shall stand before kings; he shall not stand before mean men,' I from thence considered industry as a means of obtaining wealth and distinction, which encourag'd me, tho' I did not think that I should ever literally stand before kings, which, however, has since happened; for I have stood before five, and even had the honour of sitting down with one, the King of Denmark, to dinner."

After his marriage, Franklin conceived the idea of obtaining moral perfection. He was not altogether satisfied with the result, but thought his method worthy of imitation. Assuming that he possessed complete knowledge of what was right or wrong, he saw no reason why he should not always act in accordance therewith. His principle was to devote his attention to one virtue only at first for a week, at the end of which time he expected the practice of that virtue to have become a habit. He then added another virtue to his list, and devoted his attention to the same for the next week, and so on, until he had exhausted his list of virtues. He then commenced again at the beginning. As his moral code comprised thirteen virtues, it was possible to go through the complete curriculum four times in a year. Afterwards he occupied a year in going once through the list, and subsequently employed several years in one course. A little book was ruled, with a column for each day and a line for each virtue, and in this a mark was made for every failure which could be remembered on examination at the end of the day. It is easy to believe his statement: "I am surprised to find myself so much fuller of faults than I had imagined; but I had the satisfaction of seeing them diminish."

"This my little book had for its motto these lines from Addison's 'Cato':—

"Another from Cicero:—

"'O vitÆ Philosophia dux! O virtutum indagatrix expultrixque vitiorum! Unus dies ex prÆceptis tuis actus, peccanti immortalitati est anteponendus.'

"Another from the Proverbs of Solomon, speaking of wisdom and virtue:—

"'Length of days is in her right hand; and in her left hand riches and honour. Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.'

"And conceiving God to be the fountain of wisdom, I thought it right and necessary to solicit His assistance for obtaining it; to this end I formed the following little prayer, which was prefixed to my tables of examination, for daily use:—

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

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

The senses in which Franklin's thirteen virtues were to be understood were explained by short precepts which followed them in his list. The list was as follows:—

"Imitate Jesus and Socrates."

The last of these was added to the list at the suggestion of a Quaker friend. Franklin claims to have acquired a good deal of the appearance of it, but concluded that in reality there was no passion so hard to subdue as pride. "For even if I could conceive that I had completely overcome it, I should probably be proud of my humility." The virtue which gave him most trouble, however, was order, and this he never acquired.

In 1732 appeared the first copy of "Poor Richard's Almanack." This was prepared, printed, and published by Franklin for about twenty-five years in succession, and nearly ten thousand copies were sold annually. Besides the usual astronomical information, it contained a collection of entertaining anecdotes, verses, jests, etc., while the "little spaces that occurred between the remarkable events in the calendar" were filled with proverbial sayings, inculcating industry and frugality as helps to virtue. These sayings were collected and prefixed to the almanack of 1757, whence they were copied into the American newspapers, and afterwards reprinted as a broad-sheet in England and in France.

In 1733 Franklin commenced studying modern languages, and acquired sufficient knowledge of French, Italian, and Spanish to be able to read books in those languages. In 1736 he was chosen Clerk to the General Assembly, an office to which he was annually re-elected until he became a member of the Assembly about 1750. There was one member who, on the second occasion of his election, made a long speech against him. Franklin determined to secure the friendship of this member. Accordingly he wrote to him to request the loan of a very scarce and curious book which was in his library. The book was lent and returned in about a week, with a note of thanks. The member ever after manifested a readiness to serve Franklin, and they became great friends—"Another instance of the truth of an old maxim I had learned, which says, 'He that has once done you a kindness will be more ready to do you another than he whom you yourself have obliged.' And it shows how much more profitable it is prudently to remove, than to resent, return, and continue inimical proceedings."

In 1737 Franklin was appointed Deputy-Postmaster-General for Pennsylvania. He was afterwards made Postmaster-General of the Colonies. He read a paper in the Junto on the organization of the City watch, and the propriety of rating the inhabitants on the value of their premises in order to support the same. The subject was also discussed in the other clubs which had sprung from the Junto, and thus the way was prepared for the law which a few years afterwards carried Franklin's proposals into effect. His next scheme was the formation of a fire brigade, in which he met with his usual success, and other clubs followed, until most of the men of property in the city were members of one club or another. The original brigade, known as the Union Fire Company, was formed December 7, 1736. It was in active service in 1791.

Franklin founded the American Philosophical Society in 1743. The head-quarters of the society were fixed in Philadelphia, where it was arranged that there should always be at least seven members, viz. a physician, a botanist, a mathematician, a chemist, a mechanician, a geographer, and a general natural philosopher, besides a president, treasurer, and secretary. The other members might be resident in any part of America. Correspondence was to be kept up with the Royal Society of London and the Dublin Society, and abstracts of the communications were to be sent quarterly to all the members. Franklin became the first secretary.

Spain, having been for some years at war with England, was joined at length by France. This threatened danger to the American colonies, as France then held Canada, and no organization for their defence existed. Franklin published a pamphlet entitled "Plain Truth," setting forth the unarmed condition of the colonies, and recommending the formation of a volunteer force for defensive purposes. The pamphlet excited much attention. A public meeting was held and addressed by Franklin; at this meeting twelve hundred joined the association. At length the number of members enrolled exceeded ten thousand. These all provided themselves with arms, formed regiments and companies, elected their own officers, and attended once a week for military drill. Franklin was elected colonel of the Philadelphia Regiment, but declined the appointment, and served as a private soldier. The provision of war material was a difficulty with the Assembly, which consisted largely of Quakers, who, though they appeared privately to be willing that the country should be put in a state of defence, hesitated to vote in opposition to their peace principles. Hence it was that, when the Government of New England asked a grant of gunpowder from Pennsylvania, the Assembly voted £3000 "for the purchasing of bread, flour, wheat, or other grain." Pebble-powder was not then in use. When it was proposed to devote £60, which was a balance in the hands of the Union Fire Company, as a contribution towards the erection of a battery below the town, Franklin suggested that it should be proposed that a fire-engine be purchased with the money, and that the committee should "buy a great gun, which is certainly a fire-engine."

The "Pennsylvania fireplace" was invented in 1742. A patent was offered to Franklin by the Governor of Pennsylvania, but he declined it on the principle "that, as we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others, we should be glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours; and this we should do freely and generously." An ironmonger in London made slight alterations, which were not improvements, in the design, and took out a patent for the fireplace, whereby he made a "small fortune." Franklin never contested the patent, "having no desire of profiting by patents himself," and "hating disputes." This fireplace was designed to burn wood, but, unlike the German stoves, it was completely open in front, though enclosed at the sides and top. An air-chamber was formed in the middle of the stove, so arranged that, while the burning wood was in contact with the front of the chamber, the flame passed above and behind it on its way to the flue. Through this chamber a constant current of air passed, entering the room heated, but not contaminated, by the products of combustion. In this way the stove furnished a constant supply of fresh warm air to the room, while it possessed all the advantages of an open fireplace. Subsequently Franklin contrived a special fireplace for the combustion of coal. In the scientific thought which he devoted to the requirements of the domestic economist, as in very many other particulars, Franklin strongly reminds us of Count Rumford.

The next important enterprise which Franklin undertook, partly through the medium of the Junto, was to establish an academy which soon developed into the University of Philadelphia. The members of the club having taken up the subject, the next step was to enlist the sympathy of a wider constituency, and this Franklin effected, in his usual way, by the publication of a pamphlet. He then set on foot a subscription, the payments to extend over five years, and thereby obtained about £5000. A house was taken and schools opened in 1749. The classes soon became too large for the house, and the trustees of the academy then took over a large building, or "tabernacle," which had been erected for George Whitefield when he was preaching in Philadelphia. The hall was divided into stories, and at a very small expense adapted to the requirements of the classes. Franklin, having taken a partner in his printing business, took the oversight of the work. Afterwards the funds were increased by English subscriptions, by a grant from the Assembly, and by gifts of land from the proprietaries; and thus was established the University of Philadelphia.

Having practically retired from business, Franklin intended to devote himself to philosophical studies, having commenced his electrical researches some time before in conjunction with the other members of the Library Company. Public business, however, crowded upon him. He was elected a member of the Assembly, a councillor and afterwards an alderman of the city, and by the governor was made a justice of the peace. As a member of the Assembly, he was largely concerned in providing the means for the erection of a hospital, and in arranging for the paving and cleansing of the streets of the city. In 1753 he was appointed, in conjunction with Mr. Hunter, Postmaster-General of America. The post-office of the colonies had previously been conducted at a loss. In a few years, under Franklin's management, it not only paid the stipends of himself and Mr. Hunter, but yielded a considerable revenue to the Crown. But it was not only in the conduct of public business that Franklin's merits were recognized. By this time he had secured his reputation as an electrician, and both Yale College and Cambridge University (New England) conferred on him the honorary degree of Master of Arts. In the same year that he was made Postmaster-General of America he was awarded the Copley Medal and elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London, the usual fees being remitted in his case.

Before his election as member, Franklin had for several years held the appointment of Clerk to the Assembly, and he used to relieve the dulness of the debates by amusing himself in the construction of magic circles and squares, and "acquired such a knack at it" that he could "fill the cells of any magic square of reasonable size with a series of numbers as fast as" he "could write them." Many years afterwards Mr. Logan showed Franklin a French folio volume filled with magic squares, and afterwards a magic "square of 16," which Mr. Logan thought must have been a work of great labour, though it possessed only the common properties of making 2056 in every row, horizontal, vertical, and diagonal. During the evening Franklin made the square shown on the opposite page. "This I sent to our friend the next morning, who, after some days, sent it back in a letter, with these words: 'I return to thee thy astonishing and most stupendous piece of the magical square, in which——;' but the compliment is too extravagant, and therefore, for his sake as well as my own, I ought not to repeat it. Nor is it necessary; for I make no question that you will readily allow this square of 16 to be the most magically magical of any magic square ever made by any magician."

The square has the following properties:—Every straight row of sixteen numbers, whether vertical, horizontal, or diagonal, makes 2056.

Every bent row of sixteen numbers, as shown by the diagonal lines in the figure, makes 2056.

If a square hole be cut in a piece of paper, so as to show through it just sixteen of the little squares, and the paper be laid on the magic square, then, wherever the paper is placed, the sum of the sixteen numbers visible through the hole will be 2056.

"If any one should doubt whether the electrical matter passes through the substance of bodies or only over and along their surfaces, a shock from an electrified large glass jar, taken through his own body, will probably convince him.

"Common matter is a kind of sponge to the electrical fluid.

"We know that the electrical fluid is in common 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."

To illustrate the action of a lightning-conductor on a thunder-cloud, Franklin suspended from the ceiling a pair of scales by a twisted string so that the beam revolved. Upon the floor, in such a position that the scale-pans passed over it, he placed a blunt steel punch. The scale-pans were suspended by silk threads, and one of them electrified. When this passed over the punch it dipped towards it, and sometimes discharged into it by a spark. When a needle was placed with its point uppermost by the side of the punch, no attraction was apparent, for the needle discharged the scale-pan before it came near.

"Now, if the fire of electricity and that of lightning be the same, as I have endeavoured to show at large in a former paper ... these scales may represent electrified clouds.... The horizontal motion of the 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 silently at a much greater than the striking distance, 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 its stroke;—I say, if these things are so, may not the knowledge of this power of points be of use to mankind, in preserving houses, churches, ships, etc., from the stroke of the 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 from 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? Would not these pointed rods probably draw the electrical fire silently out of a cloud before it came nigh enough to strike, and thereby secure us from that most sudden and terrible mischief?"

Franklin goes on to suggest the possibility of obtaining electricity from the clouds by means of a pointed rod fixed on the top of a high building and insulated. Such a rod he afterwards erected in his own house. Another rod connected to the earth he brought within six inches of it, and, attaching a small bell to each rod, he suspended a little ball or clapper by a silk thread, so that it could strike either bell when attracted to it. On the approach of a thunder-cloud, and occasionally when no clouds were near, the bells would ring, indicating that the rod had become strongly electrified. On one occasion Franklin was disturbed by a loud noise, and, coming out of his bedroom, he found an apparently continuous and very luminous discharge taking place between the bells, forming a stream of fire about as large as a pencil.

A very pretty experiment of Franklin's was that of the golden fish. A small piece of gold-leaf is cut into a quadrilateral having one of its angles about 150°, the opposite angle about 30°, and the other two right angles. "If you take it by the tail, and hold it at a foot or greater horizontal distance from the prime conductor, it will, when let go, fly to it with a brisk but wavering motion, 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 shaking of its tail like a fish, so that it seems animated. Turn its tail towards the prime conductor, and then it flies to your finger, and seems to nibble it. And if you hold a [pewter] 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 swim back again several times with the same fish-like motion; greatly to the entertainment of spectators. 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 further from the electrified plate."

By the discharge of the battery, Franklin succeeded in melting and volatilizing gold-leaf, thin strips of tinfoil, etc. His views on the nature of light are best given in his own words.

"I am not satisfied with the doctrine that supposes particles of matter called light, continually driven off from the sun's surface, with a swiftness so prodigious! Must not the smallest particle conceivable have, with such a motion, a force exceeding that of a twenty-four pounder discharged from a cannon?... Yet these particles, with this amazing motion, will not drive before them, or remove, the least and lightest dust they meet with.

"May not all the phenomena of light be more conveniently solved by supposing universal space filled with a subtile elastic fluid, which, when at rest, is not visible, but whose vibrations affect that fine sense in the eye, as those of air do the grosser organs of the ear? We do not, in the case of sound, imagine that any sonorous particles are thrown off from a bell, for instance, and fly in straight lines to the ear; why must we believe that luminous particles leave the sun and proceed to the eye? Some diamonds, if rubbed, shine in the dark without losing any part of their matter. I can make an electrical spark as big as the flame of a candle, much brighter, and therefore visible further; yet this is without fuel; and I am persuaded no part of the electrical fluid flies off in such case to distant places, but all goes directly and is to be found in the place to which I destine it. May not different degrees of the vibration of the abovementioned universal medium occasion the appearances of different colours? I think the electric fluid is always the same; yet I find that weaker and stronger sparks differ in apparent colour, some white, blue, purple, red: the strongest, white; weak ones, red. Thus different degrees of vibration given to the air produce the seven different sounds in music, analogous to the seven colours, yet the medium, air, is the same."

Mr. Kinnersley having called Franklin's attention to the fact that a sulphur globe when rubbed produced electrification of an opposite kind from that produced by a glass globe, Franklin repeated the experiment, and noticed that the discharge from the end of a wire connected with the conductor was different in the two cases, being "long, large, and much diverging when the glass globe is used, and makes a snapping (or rattling) noise; but when the sulphur one is used it is short, small, and makes a hissing noise; and just the reverse of both happens when you hold the same wire in your hand and the globes are worked alternately.... When the brush is long, large, and much diverging, the body to which it is joined seems to be throwing the fire out; and when the contrary appears it seems to be drinking in."

On October 19, 1752, Franklin wrote to Mr. Peter Collinson as follows:—

As frequent mention is made in public papers from Europe of the success of the Philadelphia experiment for drawing the electric fire from clouds by means of pointed rods of iron erected on high buildings, etc., it may be agreeable to the curious to be informed that the same experiment has succeeded in Philadelphia, though made in a different and more 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 of the handkerchief to the extremities of the cross, so you have the body of a kite; which, being properly accommodated with a tail, loop, and string, will rise in the air like those made 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 of the 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, with all the twine, will be electrified, and the loose filaments of the twine will stand out every way, and be attracted by an approaching finger. 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 plentifully from the key on the approach of your knuckle. At this key the phial may be charged, and from electric fire there obtained spirits may be kindled, and all the other electric experiments be performed which are usually done by the help of a rubbed glass globe or tube, and thereby the sameness of the electric matter with that of lightning completely demonstrated.

Having, in September, 1752, erected the iron rod and bells in his own house, as previously mentioned, Franklin succeeded, in April, 1753, in charging a Leyden jar from the rod, and found its charge was negative. On June 6, however, he obtained a positive charge from a cloud. The results of his observations led him to the conclusion "That the clouds of a thunder-gust are most commonly in a negative state of electricity, but sometimes in a positive state."

In order to illustrate a theory respecting the electrification of clouds, Franklin placed a silver can on a wine-glass. Inside the can was placed a considerable length of chain, which could be drawn out by means of a silk thread. He electrified the can from a Leyden jar until it would receive no more electricity. Then raising the silk thread, he gradually drew the chain out of the can, and found that the greater the length of chain drawn out the greater was the charge which the jar would give to the system, and as the chain was raised, spark after spark passed from the jar to the silver can, thus showing that the capacity of the system was increased by increasing the amount of chain exposed.

In 1755 Franklin observed the effects of induction; for, having attached to his prime conductor a tassel made of damp threads and electrified the conductor, he found that the threads repelled each other and stood out. Bringing an excited glass tube near the other end of the conductor, the threads were found to diverge more, "because the atmosphere of the prime conductor is pressed by the atmosphere of the excited tube, and driven towards the end where the threads are, by which each thread acquires more atmosphere." When the excited tube was brought near the threads, they closed a little, "because the atmosphere of the glass tube repels their atmospheres, and drives part of them back on the prime conductor." A number of other experiments illustrating electrical induction were also carried out.

In writing to Dr. Living, of Charlestown, under date March 18, 1755, Franklin gave the following extracts of the minutes of his experiments as explaining the train of thought which led him to attempt to obtain electricity from the clouds:—

"November 7, 1749. Electrical fluid agrees with lightning in these particulars: 1. Giving light. 2. Colour of the light. 3. Crooked direction. 4. Swift motion. 5. Being conducted by metals. 6. Crack or noise in exploding. 7. Subsisting in water or ice. 8. Rending bodies it passes through. 9. Destroying animals. 10. Melting metals. 11. Firing inflammable substances. 12. Sulphureous smell. 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 them, is it not probable they agree likewise in this? Let the experiment be made."

Another experiment very important in its bearing on the theory of electricity was described by Franklin in the same letter to Dr. Living. It was afterwards repeated in a much more complete form by Cavendish, who deduced from it the great law that electrical repulsion varies inversely as the square of the distance between the charges. The same experiment was repeated in other forms by Faraday, who had no means of knowing what Cavendish had done. Franklin writes:—

I electrified a silver fruit-can on an electric stand, and then lowered into it a cork ball of about an inch in diameter, hanging by a silk string, till the cork touched the bottom of the can. The cork was not attracted to the inside of the 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 by touching the outside. The fact is singular. You require the reason? I do not know it. Perhaps you may discover it, and then you will be so good as to communicate 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 is an honest policy.

A note appended to this letter runs as follows:—

Mr. F. has since thought that, possibly, the mutual repulsion of the inner opposite sides of the electrized can may prevent the accumulating an electric atmosphere upon them, and occasion it to stand chiefly on the outside. But recommends it to the further examination of the curious.

The explanation in this note is the correct one, and from the fact that in the case of a completely closed hollow conductor the charge is not only chiefly but wholly on the outside, the law of inverse squares above referred to follows as a mathematical consequence.

On writing to M. Dalibard, of Paris, on June 29, 1755, Franklin complained that, though he always (except once) assigned to lightning-rods the alternative duty of either preventing a stroke or of conducting the lightning with safety to the ground, yet in Europe attention was paid only to the prevention of the stroke, which was only a part of the duty assigned to the conductors. This is followed by the description of the effect of a stroke upon a church-steeple at Newbury, in New England. The spire was split all to pieces, so that nothing remained above the bell. The lightning then passed down a wire to the clock, then down the pendulum, without injury to the building. "From the end of the pendulum, down quite to the ground, the building was exceedingly rent and damaged, and some stones in the foundation-wall torn out and thrown to the distance of twenty or thirty feet." The pendulum-rod was uninjured, but the fine wire leading from the bell to the clock was vaporized except for about two inches at each end.

Mr. James Alexander, of New York, having proposed to Franklin that the velocity of the electric discharge might be measured by discharging a jar through a long circuit of river-water, Franklin, in his reply, explained that such an experiment, if successful, would not determine the actual velocity of electricity in the conductor. He compared the electricity in conductors to an incompressible fluid, so that when a little additional fluid is injected at one end of a conductor, an equal amount must be extruded at the other end—his view apparently being identical with that of Maxwell, who held that all electric displacements must take place in closed circuits.

"Suppose a tube of any length open at both ends.... If the tube be filled with water, and I inject 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 same water that was forced in at the other end at the same time; it was only one motion at the same time.

"The long wire, made use of in the experiment to discover the velocity of the electric fluid, is itself filled with what we call its natural quantity of that fluid, before the hook of the Leyden bottle is applied at one end of it.

"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 coating or outside of the bottle draws in, a portion of that fluid....

"So that this experiment only shows the extreme facility 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 length of space, by the waters of Susquehannah, or Potowmack, and Ohio, would not afford the satisfaction desired, though we could be sure that the motion of the electric fluid would be in that tract, and not underground in the wet earth by the shortest way."

In his investigations of the source of electricity in thunder-clouds, Franklin tried an experiment which has been frequently repeated with various modifications. Having insulated a large brass plate which had been previously heated, he sprinkled water upon it, in order, if possible, to obtain electricity by the evaporation of the water, but no trace of electrification could be detected.

During his visit to England, Franklin wrote many letters to Mr. Kinnersley and others on philosophical questions, but they consisted mainly of accounts of the work done by other experimenters in England, his public business occupying too much of his attention to allow him to conduct investigations for himself. In one of his letters, speaking of Lord Charles Cavendish, he says:—

It were to be wished that this noble philosopher would communicate more of his experiments to the world, as he makes many, and with great accuracy.

When the controversy between the relative merits of points and knobs for the terminals of lightning-conductors arose, Franklin wrote to Mr. Kinnersley:—

Here are some electricians that recommend knobs instead of points on the upper end of the rods, from a supposition that the points invite the stroke. It is true that points draw electricity at greater distances in the gradual silent way; but knobs will draw at the greatest distance a stroke. There is an experiment which 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 may 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 requires to be. Points, besides, tend to repel the fragments of an electrical cloud; knobs draw them nearer. An experiment, which I believe I have shown you, of cotton fleece hanging from an electrized body, shows this clearly when a point or a knob is presented under it.

The following quotation from Franklin's paper on the method of securing buildings and persons from the effects of lightning is worthy of attention, for of late years a good deal of money has been wasted in providing insulators for lightning-rods. A few years ago the vicar and churchwardens of a Lincolnshire parish were strongly urged to go to the expense of insulating the conductor throughout the whole height of the very lofty tower and spire of their parish church. Happily they were wise enough to send the lightning-rod man about his business. But this is not the only case which has come under the writer's notice, showing that there is still a widespread impression that lightning-conductors should be carefully insulated. Franklin says:—

"The rod may be fastened to the wall, chimney, etc., with staples of iron. The lightning will not leave the rod (a good conductor) to pass into the wall (a bad conductor) through these staples. It would rather, if any were in the wall, pass out of it into the rod, to get more readily by that conductor into the earth."[2]

The conditions to be secured in a lightning-conductor are, firstly, a sharp point projecting above the highest part of the building, and gilded to prevent corrosion; secondly, metallic continuity from the point to the lower end of the conductor; and, thirdly, a good earth-contact. The last can frequently be secured by soldering the conductor to iron water-pipes underground. Where these are not available, a copper plate, two or three feet square, imbedded in clay or other damp earth, will serve the purpose. The method of securing a building which is erected on granite or other foundation affording no good earth-connection, will be referred to in a subsequent biographical sketch.

The controversy of points versus knobs was again revived in London when Franklin was in Paris, and the War of Independence had begun. Franklin was consulted on the subject, the question having arisen in connection with the conductor at the palace. His reply was characteristic.

"As to my writing anything on the subject, which you seem to desire, I think it not necessary, especially as I have nothing to add to what I have already said upon it in a paper read to the committee who ordered the conductors at Purfleet, which paper is printed in the last French edition of my writings.

"I have never entered into any controversy in defence of my philosophical opinions. I leave them to take their chance in the world. If they are right, truth and experience will support them; if wrong, they ought to be refuted and rejected. Disputes are apt to sour one's temper and disturb one's quiet. I have no private interest in the reception of my inventions by the world, having never made, nor proposed to make, the least profit by any of them. The king's changing his pointed conductors for blunt ones is, therefore, a matter of small importance to me. If I had a wish about it, it would be that he had rejected them altogether as ineffectual. For it is only since he thought himself and family safe from the thunder of Heaven, that he dared to use his own thunder in destroying his innocent subjects."

The paper referred to was read before "the committee appointed to consider the erecting conductors to secure the magazines at Purfleet," on August 27, 1772. It described a variety of experiments clearly demonstrating the effect of points in discharging a conductor. This was a committee of the Royal Society, to whom the question had been referred on account of Dr. Wilson's recommendation of a blunt conductor. The committee decided in favour of Franklin's view, and when, in 1777, the question was again raised and again referred to a committee of the Royal Society, the decision of the former committee was confirmed, "conceiving that the experiments and reasons made and alleged to the contrary by Mr. Wilson are inconclusive."

Though Franklin's scientific reputation rests mainly on his electrical researches, he did not leave other branches of science untouched. Besides his work on atmospheric electricity, he devoted a great deal of thought to meteorology, especially to the vortical motion of waterspouts. The Gulf-stream received a share of his attention. His improvements in fireplaces have already been noticed; the cure of smoky chimneys was the subject of a long paper addressed to Dr. Ingenhousz, and of some other letters. One of his experiments on the absorption of radiant energy has been deservedly remembered.

"My experiment was this: I took a number of little square pieces of broad-cloth from a tailor'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 them all out upon the snow in a bright, sun-shiny morning. In a few hours (I cannot now be exact as to the time) the black, being warmed most by the sun, was sunk so low as to be below the stroke of the sun's rays; the dark blue almost as low, the lighter blue not quite so much as the dark, the other colours less as they were lighter; and the quite white remained on the surface of the snow, not having entered it at all.

"What signifies philosophy that does not apply 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?"

Franklin knew much about electricity, but his knowledge of human nature was deeper still. This appears in all his transactions. His political economy was, perhaps, not always sound, but his judgment of men was seldom at fault.

"Finally, there seem to be but three ways for a nation to acquire wealth. The first is by war, as the Romans did, in plundering their conquered neighbour: this is robbery. The second by commerce, which is generally cheating. The third by agriculture, the only honest way, wherein man receives a real increase of the 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."

When Franklin reached London in 1757 he took up his abode with Mrs. Margaret Stevenson, in Craven Street, Strand. For Mrs. Stevenson and her daughter Mary, then a young lady of eighteen, he acquired a sincere affection, which continued throughout their lives. Miss Stevenson spent much of her time with an aunt in the country, and some of Franklin's letters to her respecting the conduct of her "higher education" are among the most interesting of his writings. Miss Stevenson treated him as a father, and consulted him on every question of importance in her life. When she was a widow and Franklin eighty years of age, he urged upon her to come to Philadelphia, for the sake of the better prospects which the new country offered her boys. In coming to England, Franklin brought with him his son William, who entered the Middle Temple, but he left behind his only daughter, Sarah, in charge of her mother. To his wife and daughter he frequently sent presents from London, and his letters to Mrs. Franklin give a pretty full account of all his doings while in England. During his visit he received the honorary degrees of D.C.L. from the University of Oxford, and LL.D. from that of Edinburgh. At Cambridge he was sumptuously entertained. In August, 1762, he started again for America, and reached Philadelphia on November 1, after an absence of five years. His son William had shortly before been appointed Governor of New Jersey. From this time William Franklin became very much the servant of the proprietaries and of the English Government, but no offer of patronage produced any effect on the father.

Franklin's stay in America was of short duration, but while there he was mainly instrumental in quelling an insurrection in Pennsylvania. He made a tour of inspection through the northern colonies in the summer of 1763, to regulate the post-offices. The disorder just referred to in the province caused the governor, as well as the Assembly, to determine on the formation of a militia. A committee, of which Franklin was a member, drew up the necessary bill. The governor claimed the sole power of appointing officers, and required that trials should be by court-martial, some offences being punishable with death. The Assembly refused to agree to these considerations. The ill feeling was increased by the governor insisting on taxing all proprietary lands at the same rate as uncultivated land belonging to other persons, whether the proprietary lands were cultivated or not. The Assembly, before adjourning, expressed an opinion that peace and happiness would not be secured until the government was lodged directly in the Crown. When the Assembly again met, petitions to the king came in from more than three thousand inhabitants. In the mean while the British Ministry had proposed the Stamp Act, which was similar in principle to the English Stamp Act, which requires that all agreements, receipts, bills of exchange, marriage and birth certificates, and all other legal documents should be provided with an inland revenue stamp of a particular value, in order that they might be valid. As soon as the Assembly was convened, it determined to send Franklin to England, to take charge of a petition for a change of government. The merchants subscribed £1100 towards his expenses in a few hours, and in twelve days he was on his journey, being accompanied to the ship, a distance of sixteen miles, by a cavalcade of three hundred of his friends, and in thirty days he reached London. Arrived in London, he at once took up his abode in his old lodgings with Mrs. Stevenson. He was a master of satire, equalled only by Swift, and during the quarrels which preceded the War of Independence, as well as during the war, he made good use of his powers in this respect. Articles appeared in some of the English papers tending to raise an alarm respecting the competition of the colonies with English manufacturers. Franklin's contribution to the discussion was a caricature of the English press writers.

"It is objected by superficial readers, who yet pretend to some knowledge of those countries, that such establishments [manufactories for woollen goods, etc.] are not only improbable, but impossible, for that their sheep have but little wool, not in the whole sufficient for a pair of stockings a year to each inhabitant; that, from the universal dearness of labour among them, the working of iron and other materials, except in a few coarse instances, is impracticable to any advantage.

"Dear sir, do not let us suffer ourselves to be amused with such groundless objections. The very tails of the American sheep are so laden with wool that each has a little car or waggon on four little wheels to support and keep it from trailing on the ground. Would they caulk their ships, would they even litter their horses with wool, if it were not both plenty and cheap? And what signifies the dearness of labour, when an English shilling passes for five and twenty? Their engaging three hundred silk throwsters here in one week for New York was treated as a fable, because, forsooth, they have 'no silk there to throw!' Those who make this objection perhaps do not know that, at the same time, the agents for the King of Spain were at Quebec, to contract for one thousand pieces of cannon to be made there for the fortification of Mexico, and at New York engaging the usual supply of woollen floor-carpets for their West India houses. Other agents from the Emperor of China were at Boston, treating about an exchange of raw silk for wool, to be carried in Chinese junks through the Straits of Magellan.

"And yet all this is as certainly true as the account said to be from Quebec in all the papers of last week, that the inhabitants of Canada are making preparations for a cod and whale fishery this summer in the upper Lakes. Ignorant people may object that the upper Lakes are fresh, and that cod and whales are salt-water fish; but let them know, sir, that cod, like other fish when attacked by their enemies, fly into any water where they can be safest; that whales, when they have a mind to eat cod, pursue them wherever they fly; and that the grand leap of the whale in the chase up the Falls of Niagara is esteemed, by all who have seen it, as one of the finest spectacles in nature."

One of Franklin's chief objects in coming to England was to prevent the passing of Mr. Grenville's bill, previously referred to as the Stamp Act. The colonists urged that they had always been liberal in their votes, whenever money was required by the Crown, and that taxation and representation must, in accordance with the British constitution, go hand-in-hand, so that the English Parliament had no right to raise taxes in America, so long as the colonists were unrepresented in Parliament. "Had Mr. Grenville, instead of that act, applied to the king in Council for such requisitional letters [i.e. requests to the Assemblies for voluntary grants], to be circulated by the Secretary of State, I am sure he would have obtained more money from the colonies by their voluntary grants than he himself expected from the sale of stamps. But he chose compulsion rather than persuasion, and would not receive from their good will what he thought he could obtain without it." The Stamp Act was passed, stamps were printed, distributors were appointed, but the colonists would have nothing to do with the stamps. The distributors were compelled to resign their commissions, and the captains of vessels were forbidden to land the stamped paper. The cost of printing and distributing amounted to £12,000; the whole return was about £1500, from Canada and the West Indies.

The passing of the Stamp Act was soon followed by a change of Ministry, when the question again came before Parliament. Franklin submitted to a long examination before a Committee of the whole House. The feeling prevalent in America respecting the Stamp Act may be inferred from some of his answers.

"31. Q. Do you think the people of America would submit to pay the stamp duty if it was moderated?

"A. No, never, unless compelled by force of arms.

"36. Q. What was the temper of America towards Great Britain before the year 1763?[3]

"A. The best in the world. They submitted willingly to the government of the Crown, and paid, in their courts, obedience to the Acts of Parliament. Numerous as the people are in the several old provinces, they cost you nothing in forts, citadels, garrisons, or armies to keep them in subjection. They were governed by this country at the expense only of a little pen, ink, and paper; they were led by a thread. They had not only a respect, but an affection, for Great Britain—for its laws, its customs and manners, and even a fondness for its fashions, that greatly increased the commerce. Natives of Britain were always treated with particular regard; to be an Old-Englandman was, of itself, a character of some respect, and gave a kind of rank among us.

"37. Q. And what is their temper now?

"A. Oh, very much altered.

"50. Q. Was it an opinion in America before 1763 that the Parliament had no right to lay taxes and duties there?

"A. I never heard any objection to the right of laying duties to regulate commerce; but a right to lay internal taxes was never supposed to be in Parliament, as we are not represented there.

"59. Q. You say the colonies have always submitted to external taxes, and object to the right of Parliament only in laying internal taxes; now, can you show that there is any kind of difference between the two taxes to the colony on which they may be laid?

"A. I think the difference is very great. An external tax is a duty laid on commodities imported; that duty is added to the first cost and other charges on the commodity, and, when it is offered to sale, makes a part of the price. If the people do not like it at that price, they refuse it; they are not obliged to pay it. But an internal tax is forced upon the people without their consent, if not laid by their own representatives. The Stamp Act says we shall have no commerce, make no exchange of property with each other, neither purchase, nor grant, nor recover debts; we shall neither marry nor make our wills, unless we pay such and such sums; and thus it is intended to extort our money from us, or ruin us by the consequences of refusing to pay it.

"61. Q. Don't you think cloth from England absolutely necessary to them?

"A. No, by no means absolutely necessary; with industry and good management they may very well supply themselves with all they want.

"62. Q. Will it not take a long time to establish that manufacture among them? and must they not in the mean while suffer greatly?

"A. I think not. They have made a surprising progress already. And I am of opinion that, before their old clothes are worn out, they will have new ones of their own making.

"84. Q. If the Act is not repealed, what do you think will be the consequence?

"A. A total loss of the respect and affection the people of America bear to this country, and of all the commerce that depends on that respect and affection.

"85. Q. How can the commerce be affected?

"A. You will find that, if the Act is not repealed, they will take a very little of your manufactures in a short time.

"86. Q. Is it in their power to do without them?

"A. I think they may very well do without them.

"87. Q. Is it their interest not to take them?

"A. The goods they take from Britain are either necessaries, mere conveniences, or superfluities. The first, as cloth, etc., with a little industry they can make at home; the second they can do without till they are able to provide them among themselves; and the last, which are much the greatest part, they will strike off immediately. They are mere articles of fashion, purchased and consumed because the fashion in a respected country; but will now be detested and rejected. The people have already struck off, by general agreement, the use of all goods fashionable in mournings, and many thousand pounds' worth are sent back as unsaleable.

"173. Q. What used to be the pride of the Americans?

"A. To indulge in the fashions and manufactures of Great Britain.

"174. Q. What is now their pride?

"A. To wear their old clothes over again till they can make new ones."

The month following Franklin's examination, the repeal of the Stamp Act received the royal assent. Thereupon Franklin sent his wife and daughter new dresses, and a number of other little luxuries (or toilet necessaries).

In 1767 Franklin visited Paris. In the same year his daughter married Mr. Richard Bache. Though Parliament had repealed the Stamp Act, it nevertheless insisted on its right to tax the colonies. The Duty Act was scarcely less objectionable than its predecessor. On Franklin's return from the Continent, he heard of the retaliatory measures of the Boston people, who had assembled in town-meetings, formally resolved to encourage home manufactures, to abandon superfluities, and, after a certain time, to give up the use of some articles of foreign manufacture. These associations afterwards became very general in the colonies, so that in one year the importations by the colonists of New York fell from £482,000 to £74,000, and in Pennsylvania from £432,000 to £119,000.

The effect of the Duty Act was to encourage the Dutch and other nations to smuggle tea and probably other India produce into America. The exclusion from the American markets of tea sent from England placed the East India Company in great difficulties; for while they were unable to meet their bills, they had in stock two million pounds' worth of tea and other goods. The balance of the revenue collected under the Duty Act, after paying salaries, etc., amounted to only £85 for the year, and for this a fleet had to be maintained, to guard the fifteen hundred miles of American coast; while the fall in East India Stock deprived the revenue of £400,000 per annum, which the East India Company would otherwise have paid. At length a licence was granted to the East India Company to carry tea into America, duty free. This, of course, excluded all other merchants from the American tea-trade. A quantity of tea sent by the East India Company to Boston was destroyed by the people. The British Government then blockaded the port. This soon led to open hostilities. Franklin worked hard to effect a reconciliation. He drew up a scheme, setting forth the conditions under which he conceived a reconciliation might be brought about, and discussed it fully with Mr. Daniel Barclay and Dr. Fothergill. This scheme was shown to Lord Howe, and afterwards brought before the Ministry, but was rejected. Other plans were considered, and Franklin offered to pay for the tea which had been destroyed at Boston. All his negotiations were, however, fruitless. At last he addressed a memorial to the Earl of Dartmouth, Secretary of State, complaining of the blockade of Boston, which had then continued for nine months, and had "during every week of its continuance done damage to that town, equal to what was suffered there by the India Company;" and claiming reparation for such injury beyond the value of the tea which had been destroyed. The memorial also complained of the exclusion of the colonists from the Newfoundland fisheries, for which reparation would one day be required. This memorial was returned to Franklin by Mr. Walpole, and Franklin shortly afterwards returned to Philadelphia.

During this visit to England he had lost his wife, who died on December 19, 1774; and his friend Miss Stevenson had married and been left a widow.

In April, 1768, Franklin was appointed Agent for Georgia, in the following year for New Jersey, and in 1770 for Massachusetts, so that he was then the representative in England of four colonies, with an income of £1200 per annum.

In 1771 he spent three weeks at Twyford, with the Bishop of St. Asaph, who remained a fast friend of Franklin's until his death. In 1772 he was nominated by the King of France as Foreign Associate of the Academy of Sciences.

During his negotiations with the British Government Franklin wrote two satirical pieces, setting forth the treatment which the American colonists were receiving. The first was entitled "Rules for Reducing a Great Empire to a Small One," the rules being precisely those which, in Franklin's opinion, had been followed by the British Government in its dealings with America. The other was "An Edict by the King of Prussia," in which the king claimed the right of taxing the British nation; of forbidding English manufacture, and compelling Englishmen to purchase Prussian goods; of transporting prisoners to Britain, and generally of exercising all such controls over the English people as had been claimed over America by various Acts of the English Parliament, on the ground that England was originally colonized by emigrants from Prussia.

Before Franklin reached America, the War of Independence, though not formally declared, had fairly begun. He was appointed a member of the second Continental Congress, and one of a committee of three to confer with General Washington respecting the support and regulation of the Continental Army. This latter office necessitated his spending some time in the camp. On October 3, 1775, he wrote to Priestley:—

Tell our dear good friend, Dr. Price, who sometimes has his doubts and despondencies about our firmness, that America is determined and unanimous; a very few Tories and placemen excepted, who will probably soon export themselves. Britain, at the expense of three millions, has killed a hundred and fifty Yankees this campaign, which is £20,000 a head; and at Bunker's Hill she gained a mile of ground, half of which she lost again by our taking the post on Ploughed Hill. During the same time sixty thousand children have been born in America. From these data his mathematical head will easily calculate the time and expense necessary to kill us all and conquer our whole territory.

In 1776 Franklin, then seventy years old, was appointed one of three Commissioners to visit Canada, in order, if possible, to promote a union between it and the States. Finding that only one Canadian in five hundred could read, and that the state of feeling in Canada was fatal to the success of the Commissioners, they returned, and Franklin suggested that the next Commission sent to Canada should consist of schoolmasters. On the 4th of July Franklin took part in the signing of the Declaration of Independence. When the document was about to be signed, Mr. Hancock remarked, "We must be unanimous; there must be no pulling different ways; we must all hang together." Franklin replied, "Yes, we must indeed all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately."

In the autumn of 1776 Franklin was unanimously chosen a Special Commissioner to the French Court. He took with him his two grandsons, William Temple Franklin and Benjamin Franklin Bache, and leaving Marcus Hook on October 28, crossed the Atlantic in a sloop of sixteen guns. In Paris he met with an enthusiastic reception. M. de Chaumont placed at his disposal his house at Passy, then about a mile from Paris, but now within the city. Here he resided for nine years, being a constant visitor at the French Court, and certainly one of the most conspicuous figures in Paris. He was obliged to serve in many capacities, and was very much burdened with work. Not only were there his duties as Commissioner at the French Court, but he was also made Admiralty Judge and Financial Agent, so that all the coupons for the payment of interest on the money borrowed for the prosecution of the war, as well as all financial negotiations, either with the French Government or contractors, had to pass through his hands. Perhaps the most unpleasant part of his work was his continued applications to the French Court for monetary advances. The French Government, as is well known, warmly espoused the cause of the Americans, and to the utmost of its ability assisted them with money, material, and men. Franklin was worried a good deal by applications from French officers for introductions to General Washington, that they might obtain employment in the American Army. At last he framed a model letter of recommendation, which may be useful to many in this country in the present day. It was as follows:—

"Sir,

The bearer of this, who is going to America, presses me to give him a letter of recommendation, though I know nothing of him, not even his name. This may seem extraordinary, but I assure you it is not uncommon here. Sometimes, indeed, one unknown person brings another equally unknown, to recommend him; and sometimes they recommend one another! As to this gentleman, I must refer you to himself for his character and merits, with which he is certainly better acquainted than I can possibly be. I recommend him, however, to those civilities which every stranger, of whom one knows no harm, has a right to; and I request you will do him all the good offices and show him all the favour that, on further acquaintance, you shall find him to deserve.

I have the honour to be, etc.

Captain Wickes, of the Refusal, having taken about a hundred British seamen prisoners, Franklin and Silas Deane, one of the other Commissioners, wrote to Lord Stormont, the British ambassador, respecting an exchange. Receiving no answer, they wrote again, and ventured to complain of the treatment which the American prisoners were receiving in the English prisons, and in being compelled to fight against their own countrymen. To this communication Lord Stormont replied:—

The king's ambassador receives no applications from rebels, unless they come to implore his Majesty's mercy.

To this the Commissioners rejoined:—

In answer to a letter, which concerns some of the most material interests of humanity, and of the two nations, Great Britain and the United States of America, now at war, we received the enclosed indecent paper, as coming from your Lordship, which we return for your Lordship's more mature consideration.

At first the British Government, regarding the Americans as rebels, did not treat their prisoners as prisoners of war, but threatened to try them for high treason. Their sufferings in the English prisons were very great. Mr. David Hartley did much to relieve them, and Franklin transmitted money for the purpose. When a treaty had been formed between France and the States, and France had engaged in the war, and when fortune began to turn in favour of the united armies, the American prisoners received better treatment from the English Government, and exchanges took place freely. In April, 1778, Mr. Hartley visited Franklin at Passy, apparently for the purpose of preventing, if possible, the offensive and defensive alliance between America and France. Very many attempts were made to produce a rupture between the French Government and the American Commissioners, but Franklin insisted that no treaty of peace could be made between England and America in which France was not included. In 1779 the other Commissioners were recalled, and Franklin was made Minister Plenipotentiary to the Court of France.

In a letter to Mr. David Hartley, dated February 2, 1780, Franklin showed something of the feelings of the Americans with respect to the English at that time:—

You may have heard that accounts upon oath have been taken in America, by order of Congress, of the British barbarities committed there. It is expected of me to make a school-book of them, and to have thirty-five prints designed here by good artists, and engraved, each expressing one or more of the horrid facts, in order to impress the minds of children and posterity with a deep sense of your bloody and insatiable malice and wickedness. Every kindness I hear of done by an Englishman to an American prisoner makes me resolve not to proceed in the work.

While at Passy, Franklin addressed to the Journal of Paris a paper on an economical project for diminishing the cost of light. The proposal was to utilize the sunlight instead of candles, and thereby save to the city of Paris the sum of 96,075,000 livres per annum. His reputation in Paris is shown by the following quotation from a contemporary writer:—

I do not often speak of Mr. Franklin, because the gazettes tell you enough of him. However, I will say to you that our Parisians are no more sensible in their attentions to him than they were towards Voltaire, of whom they have not spoken since the day following his death. Mr. Franklin is besieged, followed, admired, adored, wherever he shows himself, with a fury, a fanaticism, capable no doubt of flattering him and of doing him honour, but which at the same time proves that we shall never be reasonable, and that the virtues and better qualities of our nation will always be balanced by a levity, an inconsequence, and an enthusiasm too excessive to be durable.

Franklin always advocated free trade, even in time of war. He was of opinion that the merchant, the agriculturist, and the fisherman were benefactors to mankind. He condemned privateering in every form, and endeavoured to bring about an agreement between all the civilized powers against the fitting out of privateers. He held that no merchantmen should be interfered with unless carrying war material. He greatly lamented the horrors of the war, but preferred anything to a dishonourable peace. To Priestley he wrote:—

Perhaps as you grow older you may ... repent of having murdered in mephitic air so many honest, harmless mice, and wish that, to prevent mischief, you had used boys and girls instead of them. In what light we are viewed by superior beings may be gathered from a piece of late West India news, which possibly has not yet reached you. A young angel of distinction, being sent down to this world on some business for the first time, had an old courier-spirit assigned him as a guide. They arrived over the seas of Martinico, in the middle of the long day of obstinate fight between the fleets of Rodney and De Grasse. When, through the clouds of smoke, he saw the fire of the guns, the decks covered with mangled limbs and bodies dead or dying; the ships sinking, burning, or blown into the air; and the quantity of pain, misery, and destruction the crews yet alive were thus with so much eagerness dealing round to one another,—he turned angrily to his guide, and said, 'You blundering blockhead, you are ignorant of your business; you undertook to conduct me to the earth, and you have brought me into hell!' 'No, sir,' says the guide, 'I have made no mistake; this is really the earth, and these are men. Devils never treat one another in this cruel manner; they have more sense and more of what men (vainly) call humanity.'

Franklin maintained that it would be far cheaper for a nation to extend its possessions by purchase from other nations than to pay the cost of war for the sake of conquest.

Two British armies, under General Burgoyne and Lord Cornwallis, having been wholly taken prisoners during the war, at last, after two years' negotiations, a definitive treaty of peace was signed on September 3, 1782, between Great Britain and the United States, Franklin being one of the Commissioners for the latter, and Mr. Hartley for the former. On the same day a treaty of peace between Great Britain and France was signed at Versailles. The United States Treaty was ratified by the king on April 9, and therewith terminated the seven years' War of Independence. Franklin celebrated the surrender of the armies of Burgoyne and Cornwallis by a medal, on which the infant Hercules appears strangling two serpents.

When peace was at length realized, a scheme was proposed for an hereditary knighthood of the order of Cincinnatus, to be bestowed upon the American officers who had distinguished themselves in the war. Franklin condemned the hereditary principle. He pointed out that, in the ninth generation, the "young noble" would be only "one five hundred and twelfth part of the present knight," 1022 men and women being counted among his ancestors, reckoning only from the foundation of the knighthood. "Posterity will have much reason to boast of the noble blood of the then existing set of Chevaliers of Cincinnatus."

On May 2, 1785, Franklin received from Congress permission to return to America. He was then in his eightieth year. On July 12 he left Passy for Havre, whence he crossed to Southampton, and there saw for the last time his old friend, the Bishop of St. Asaph, and his family. He reached his home in Philadelphia early in September, and the day after his arrival he received a congratulatory address from the Assembly of Pennsylvania. In the following month he was elected President of the State, and was twice re-elected to the same office, it being contrary to the constitution for any president to be elected for more than three years in succession.

The following extract from a letter, written most probably to Tom Paine, is worthy of the attention of some writers:—

I have read your manuscript with some attention. By the argument it contains against a particular Providence, though you allow a general Providence, you strike at the foundations of all religion. For without the belief of a Providence that takes cognizance of, guards, and guides, and may favour particular persons, there is no motive to worship a Deity, to fear His displeasure, or to pray for His protection. I will not enter into any discussion of your principles, though you seem to desire it. At present I shall only give you my opinion, that, though your reasonings are subtle, and may prevail with some readers, you will not succeed so as to change the general sentiments of mankind on that subject, and the consequence of printing this piece will be a great deal of odium drawn upon yourself, mischief to you, and no benefit to others. He that spits against the wind spits in his own face.

But were you to succeed, do you imagine any good would be done by it? You yourself may find it easy to live a virtuous life without the assistance afforded by religion; you having a clear perception of the advantages of virtue and the disadvantages of vice, and possessing strength of resolution sufficient to enable you to resist common temptations. But think how great a portion of mankind consists of weak and ignorant men and women, and of inexperienced, inconsiderate youth of both sexes, who have need of the motives of religion to restrain them from vice, to support their virtue, and retain them in the practice of it till it becomes habitual, which is the great point for its security. And perhaps you are indebted to her originally, that is, to your religious education, for the habits of virtue upon which you now justly value yourself. You might easily display your excellent talents of reasoning upon a less hazardous subject, and thereby obtain a rank with our most distinguished authors. For among us it is not necessary, as among the Hottentots, that a youth, to be raised into the company of men, should prove his manhood by beating his mother.

I would advise you, therefore, not to attempt unchaining the tiger, but to burn this piece before it is seen by any other person; whereby you will save yourself a great deal of mortification by the enemies it may raise against you, and perhaps a good deal of regret and repentance. If men are so wicked with religion, what would they be if without it? I intend this letter itself as a proof of my friendship, and therefore add no professions to it; but subscribe simply yours.

During the last few years of his life Franklin suffered from a painful disease, which confined him to his bed and seriously interfered with his literary work, preventing him from completing his biography. During this time he was cared for by his daughter, Mrs. Bache, who resided in the same house with him. He died on April 17, 1790, the immediate cause of death being an affection of the lungs. He was buried beside his wife in the cemetery of Christ Church, Philadelphia, the marble slab upon the grave bearing no other inscription than the name and date of death. In his early days (1728) he had written the following epitaph for himself:—

The Body

of

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN,

Printer,
(like the cover of an old book,
its contents torn out
and stript of its lettering and gilding,)
lies here, food for worms.
but the work shall not be lost,
for it will (as he believed) appear once more
in a new and more elegant edition,
revised and corrected
by
THE AUTHOR.

When the news of his death reached the National Assembly of France, Mirabeau rose and said:—

"Franklin is dead!

"The genius, which gave freedom to America, and scattered torrents of light upon Europe, is returned to the bosom of the Divinity.

"The sage, whom two worlds claim; the man, disputed by the history of the sciences and the history of empires, holds, most undoubtedly, an elevated rank among the human species.

"Political cabinets have but too long notified the death of those who were never great but in their funeral orations; the etiquette of courts has but too long sanctioned hypocritical grief. Nations ought only to mourn for their benefactors; the representatives of free men ought never to recommend any other than the heroes of humanity to their homage.

"The Congress hath ordered a general mourning for one month throughout the fourteen confederated States on account of the death of Franklin; and America hath thus acquitted her tribute of admiration in behalf of one of the fathers of her constitution.

"Would it not be worthy of you, fellow-legislators, to unite yourselves in this religious act, to participate in this homage rendered in the face of the universe to the rights of man, and to the philosopher who has so eminently propagated the conquest of them throughout the world?

"Antiquity would have elevated altars to that mortal who, for the advantage of the human race, embracing both heaven and earth in his vast and extensive mind, knew how to subdue thunder and tyranny.

"Enlightened and free, Europe at least owes its remembrance and its regret to one of the greatest men who has ever served the cause of philosophy and liberty.

"I propose, therefore, that a decree do now pass, enacting that the National Assembly shall wear mourning during three days for Benjamin Franklin."