succeeds, as projected, without interruption for one hundred years, the sum will be then one hundred and thirty-one thousand pounds; of which I would have the managers of the donation to the town of Boston then lay out, at their discretion, one hundred thousand pounds in public works which may be judged of most general utility to the inhabitants: such as fortifications, bridges, aqueducts, public buildings, baths, pavements, or whatever may make living in the town more convenient to its people, and render it more agreeable to strangers resorting thither for health, or a temporary residence. The remaining thirty-one thousand pounds I would have continued to be let out to interest, in the manner above directed, for one hundred years; as I hope it will have been found, that the institution has had a good effect on the conduct of youth, and been of service to many worthy characters and useful citizens. At the end of this second term, if no unfortunate accident has prevented the operation, the sum will be four millions and sixty-one thousand pounds sterling, of which I leave one million and sixty-one thousand pounds to the disposition and management of the inhabitants of the town of Boston, and the three millions to the disposition of the government of the state; not presuming to carry my views farther.

"All the directions herein given respecting the disposition and management of the donation to the inhabitants of Boston, I would have observed respecting that to the inhabitants of Philadelphia, only as Philadelphia is incorporated, I request the corporation of that city to undertake the management, agreeable to the said directions; and I do hereby vest them with full and ample powers for that purpose. And having considered that the covering its ground-plot with buildings and pavements, which carry off most rain, and prevent its soaking into the earth, and renewing and purifying the springs, whence the water of the wells most gradually grow worse, and in time be unfit for use, as I find has happened in all old cities; I re

commend, that, at the end of the first hundred years,> if not done before, the corporation of the city employ, a part of the hundred thousand pounds in bringing by pipes the water of Wiffahickon-creek into the town, so as to supply the inhabitants, which I apprehend may be done without great difficulty, the level of that creek being much above that of the city, and may be made higher by a dam. I also recommend making: the Schuylkil completely navigable. At the end of the second hundred years, I would have the disposition of the four millions and sixty-one thousand, pounds divided between the inhabitants of the city: of Philadelphia and the government of Pennsylvania in the same manner as herein-directed with respect to that of the inhabitants of Boston and the govern ment of Massachusetts. It is my desire that this institution should take place, and begin to operate within one year after my decease; for which purpose due notice should be publicly given, previous to the expiration of that year, that those for whose benefit this establishment is intended may make their respective applications: and I hereby direct my executors, the survivors and survivor of them, within six months after my decease, to pay over the said sum of two thousand pounds sterling to such persons as shall be duly appointed by the select men of Boston, and the corporation of Philadelphia, and to receive and take charge of their respective sums of one thousand pounds each for the purposes aforesaid. Considering the accidents to which all human affairs and projects are subject in such a length of time, I have perhaps too much flattered myself with a vain fancy, that these dispositions, if carried into execution, will be continued without interruption, and have the effects proposed; I hope, however, that if the inhabi-, tants of the two cities should not think fit to undertake the execution, they will at least accept the offer of these donations, as a mark of my good will, token of my gratitude, and testimony of my desire to be useful to them even after my departure. I wish, in

deed, that they may both undertake to endeavour the execution of my project, because I think, that, though unforeseen difficulties may arise, expedients will be found to remove them, and the scheme be found prac ticable. If one of them accepts the money with the conditions, and the other refuses, my will then is, that both sums be given to the inhabitants of the city accepting; the whole to be applied to the same purposes, and under the same regulations directed for the separate parts; and if both refuse, the money remains of course in the mass of my estate, and it is to be disposed of therewith, according to my will made the seventeenth day of July, 1788.

My fine crab-tree walking-stick, with a gold head curiously wrought in the form of the Cap of Liberty, I-give to my friend, and the friend of mankind, General Washington. If it were a sceptre, he has merited it, and would become it.

Dr Priestley in 1802, felt himself called upon to vindidicate the character of his deceased friend, and contributes an interesting anecdote or two of his life, in the following letters :

Sir,

I have just read in the Monthly Review, vol. xxxvi. p. 357, that the late Mr Pennant said of Dr Franklin, that, living under the protection of our mild government, he was secretly playing the incendiary, and too successfully inflaming the minds of our fellowsubjects in America, till that great explosion hap➡ pened, which for ever disunited us from our once happy colonies. As it is in my power, as far as my testimony will be regarded to refute this charge, I think it due to our friendship to do it. It is probable that no pers son now living was better acquainted with Dr Franklin and his sentiments, on all subjects of importance, than myself, for several years before the American war. I think I knew him as well as any one man can gene

rally know another; I spent the winters in London in the family of the marquis of Lansdowne, and few days passed without my seeing more or less of Dr Franklin; and the last day that he passed in England, having given out that he should depart, the day before we spent together without any interruption from morning till night.

Now he was so far from wishing for a rupture with the colonies, that he did more than most men would have done, to prevent it. His constant advice to his countrymen he always said, was, "to bear every thing from England, however unjust;" saying, that it could not last long, as they would soon outgrow all their hardships. On this account Dr Price, who then corresponded with some of the principal persons in America, said, he began to be very unpopular there. He always said, if there must be a war, it will last ten years, and I shall not live to see the end of it. This I have heard him say many times.

It was at his request, enforced by that of Dr Fothergil, that I wrote an anonymous pamphlet, calculated to show the injustice and impolicy of a war with the colonies, previous to the meeting of a new parliament. As I then lived at Leeds, he corrected the press himself, and to a passage, in which I lamented the attempt to establish an arbitrary power, in so large a part of the British empire, he added the following clause; "to the imminent danger of our most valuable commerce, and of that national strength, liberty, security, and felicity, which depend on union and liberty."

The unity of the British empire in all its parts, was a favourite idea of his. He used to compare it to a beautiful China vase, which, if once broken, could never be put together again; and so great an admirer was he at the time of the British constitution, that he said he saw no inconvenience from its being extended over a great part of the globe. With these senti ments he left England, but when, on his arrival in America, he found the war begun, and that there was no receding, no man entered more warmly into the

cause of his country in opposition to that of Great Britain. Three of his letters to me, one written immedi- ; ately after his landing, and published in the collection of his miscellaneous works, p. 365, 552, and 555, will prove this.

By many persons, Dr Franklin is considered as having been a cold-hearted man; so callous to every feeling of humanity, that the prospect of all the horrors of a civil war could not affect him. This was far

from being the case. A great part of the day above- · mentioned, that we spent together, he was looking over a number of American newspapers, directing me what to extract from them for the English ones; and in reading them, he was frequently not able to proceed, for the tears literally running down his cheeks. To strangers he was cold and reserved; but, where he was intimate, no man indulged more pleasantry and good humour: by this, he was the delight of a club to which he alludes in one of his letters above referred to, called the Whig Club, that met at the London Coffee House, of which Dr Price, Dr Kippis, Mr John Lee, and others of the stamp, were members.

Hoping that this vindication of Dr Franklin will give pleasure to many of your readers, I shall proceed. to relate some particulars relating to his behaviour, when lord Loughborough, then Mr Wedderburne, pronounced his violent invective against him at the privy council, on his presenting the complaints of Massachusetts. (I think it was against their governor.) Some of the particulars may be thought amusing.

On the morning of the day on which the cause was to be heard, I met Mr Burke in Parliament Street, with Mr Douglas, afterwards bishop of Carlisle; and after introducing us to each other, as men of letters, he asked me, whither I was going? I said, I could tell im where I wished to go. He then asked me where that was: I said, to the Privy Council, but that I was afraid I could get no admission; he then desired me to go along with him. Accordingly I did; but when we got into the ante-room, we found it quite filled