ster. Mr. West thought that, in a matter of this kind, he should regulate his behaviour by what he understood to be the practice in the court of London; and, accordingly, to the astonishment of the whole of the courtiers, he kept his hat on during the audience. This, however, instead of offending the Prince, was observed with evident pleasure, and made his reception more particular and distinguished; for His Highness had heard of the peculiar simplicity of the Quakers, and of the singularly Christian conduct and principles of William Penn."

No. VI.

THE PRIVATE CORRESPONDENCE OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, LL. D. F. R.S. MINISTER PLENIPOTENTIARY FROM THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AT THE COURT of France,

AND FOR THE TREATY OF PEACE AND INDEPENDENCE WITH

GREAT BRITAIN, &c. &c.

COMPRISING A SERIES OF LET

TERS ON MISCELLANEOUS, LITERARY, AND POLITICAL SUBJECTS, WRITTEN BETWEEN THE YEARS 1758 and 1790; ILLUSTRATING THE MEMOIR OF HIS PUBLIC AND PRIVATE LIFE, AND DEVELOPING THE SECRET HISTORY OF HIS POLITICAL TRANSACTIONS AND NEGOTIATIONS; NOW FIRST PUBLISHED FROM THE ORIGINALS, BY HIS GRANDSON, WILLIAM TEMPLE FRANKLIN. London. Colbourn. 1817.

THESE letters contain a variety of interesting matter, well calculated for the use both of the historian and biographer. As the original memoirs of "the public and private life" of this celebrated American, written by himself, have not been as yet published, it may not be altogether undesirable here to convey a brief outline by way of introduction to the present work.

Benjamin Franklin was born at Boston in New England, on the 17th of January 1706. His family which had been settled on a small freehold during three centuries, at Ecton in Northamptonshire, was scrupulously attached to the doctrines of the church of England, until the reign of Charles II. when two of them joined the non-conformists. One of these, Josias, his own father, being afraid of persecution in this country, carried his wife and three children to New England, about the year 1682; and there had four more by the same wife, and ten by a a second marriage.

Benjamin, a younger son, by Abias Folger, a native of the county, was intended at first by his father for the church; and he already began to be considered "the chaplain of the family;" while his uncle, by way of encouragement, actually promised to give him "all his collection of sermons, written in his own short hand, provided he would be at the trouble to learn it." But as there were now seventeen children, this was deemed too expensive a plan, and a far different destiny awaited him, as will be seen from his own words:

"At ten years of age*, I was brought home to assist my father in his business, which was that of a candle and soapmaker; trades to which he had not indeed served an apprenticeship, but which he had embraced on his arrival in New England, finding that there was not sufficient employment for a dyer to enable him to support his family. My employments consequently," he very modestly adds, "were to attend the shop, cut the wicks for the candles, run errands, &c."

He however disliked this trade so much, that he wished to have become a sailor; but he was finally placed under his elder brother, who had been bred a printer; and seems to suppose, that the cruelty and injustice experienced during his apprenticeship, first inspired him with that love of liberty, and ardent passion for independence, which characterized his future life.

While working as a journeyman at Philadelphia, he attracted the notice of Sir William Keith, the proprietary governor of Pennsylvania, who duped him in the most cruel and unaccountable manner possible. Immediately after this, he repaired to England, and worked both as a pressman and compositor. He afterwards returned to Philadelphia; married his old sweet-heart; acted both as a printer and bookseller; and finally became, first, Clerk to the Assembly, and then Deputy Post-Master General.

About the same period, he distinguished himself by his electrical experiments, and was the first who attracted lightning

* This and all the subsequent passages are copied from a French edition.

from the clouds. This circumstance, coupled with the suc cessful resistance of America, afterwards produced the following hemistic from the pen of a celebrated Frenchman:

Having now established the identity of the electric fire and lightning, and effected several other discoveries, both curious and useful, he returned to England, where he was created a doctor of civil law at Oxford; and elected a member of the Royal Society, of which he became a distinguished ornament. His pointed conductors were erected in almost every city in Europe, and obtained a distinguished place at Buckingham House in St. James's Park.

After having been elected a member of the assembly, Dr. Franklin was chosen agent for the province of Pennsylvania, in which capacity he was examined at the bar of the House of Commons, relative to the Stamp Act, a measure which he most vigorously opposed. On his return home, he was elected a delegate to the congress; and when Lord North waged a long, impolitic, and expensive war against the American colonies for the purposes of taxation, he took an eminent and active part in behalf of his native country. Soon after this, he was sent as Ambassador Extraordinary to the court of Versailles; and in that capacity at length signed a treaty of peace with France, by means of which the independence of America was finally effected.

Many of the letters now before us were written during that eventful period, when he resided in the immediate vicinity of Paris; and we find among his correspondents several Englishmen of great note, particularly Edmund Burke, Dr. Shipley, Bishop of St. Asaph, Sir Joseph Banks, Dr. Priestley, Lord Viscount Howe, David Hartley, Governor Pownall, Sir William Pulteney, the Earl of Shelburne, first Marquis of Lansdowne, Charles James Fox, Mr. Grenville, Lord Carmarthen, &c. &c.

It appears, from a Letter to Mr. Anthony Benezet, that so early as 1772, Dr. Franklin not only was hostile to the slavetrade, but to the existence of domestic slavery. An able epistle to the celebrated George Whitfield, on faith and good works, conveys some liberal as well as just ideas; and as another to Dr. Priestley, dated London, Sept. 19, 1772, on " Moral Algebra," will not bear to be abbreviated, it shall be here transcribed:

"Dear Sir,

"In the affair of so much importance to you, in which you ask my advice, I cannot for want of sufficient premises counsel you what to determine; but, if you please, I will tell you how. When those difficult cases occur, they are difficult chiefly, because while we have them under consideration, all the reasons pro and con, are not present to the mind as the same time; but sometimes one set present themselves, and at other times, another, the first being out of sight. Hence the various purposes and inclinations that alternately prevail, and the uncertainty that perplexes us.

"To get over this, my way is to divide half a sheet of paper, by a line into two columns, writing over the one pro, and over the other con. Then, during three or four days' consideration, I put down under the different heads short hints of the different motives that at different times occur to me, for or against the measure. When I have thus got them altogether in one view, I endeavour to estimate their respective weights, and where I find two (one on each side), that seem equal, I strike them both out. If I find a reason pro, equal to some two reasons con, I strike out the three. If I judge some two reasons con, equal to some three reasons pro, I strike out the five; and thus proceeding, I find at length where the balance lies; and if, after a day or two of farther consideration, nothing new that is of importance occurs on either side, I come to a determination accordingly.

"And though the weight of reasons cannot be taken with the precision of Algebraic quantities; yet, when each is thus con